Smallfry vs Magikarp (Splatoon vs Pokemon) | Grim Gladiators

Intro

Ahhh the sea... Full of beautiful aquatic life, of all shapes and sizes. From the most vicious predators, to the most peaceful plankton, no two creatures are built the exact same way. And in the worlds of Pokemon and Splatoon, this still holds true, with many creatures that are large, powerful and deadly. 

These are not those creatures. 

These are the smallest, weakest fish in the sea, numbering in the hundreds. But yet, these creatures are more than meets the bulbous, blank eye. Mayhaps if you take one under your fins,they could swim to the top of the food chain?

Magikarp, Pokemon’s crappy carp

Smallfry, Splatoon’s sucker salmon

Today, these fish are out for blood, but who will swim away when the battle is finished?

Note

Personally, I think this MU works best when looking at a “Wild” set of Magikarp / Gyarados. While this does somewhat limit what Magikarp / Gyarados can access, that arguably works best when Smallfry / Hugefry don’t have much themselves. So for this blog, that will be the focus. However, I've also got a follow up that focuses on what a “Trained” Magikarp / Gyarados would be like in this battle for fun. On the other fin, while there’s plenty of wild Smallfry, there isn’t really a “wild” Hugefry equivalent, as the only Hugefry we’ve seen belonged to Agent 3, and was transformed via absorbing “Marine Life Energy” from. Somewhere. It’s not fully explained. We have seen evidence that Wild Hugefry likely exist the latest Salmon Run Map features a statue of Hugefry, which could imply that wild ones exist. Even with that, Agent 3's is the only one with feats, that's what will be used here. However, it won’t have any assistance from Agent 3 for the “wild” version of this battle, only working off its own skills.

Magikarp

Background

Magikarp is a pretty simple pokemon. It is a fish. It does fish things, like swimming and getting eaten by birds. And in many contexts, this would be completely normal. Unimportant. But in the world of Pokemon, where lizards can breathe fire, toads grow trees on their backs and turtles turn into tanks, Magikarp has naturally gained a reputation. It is the weakest, slowest Pokemon in the entire world.
It can barely swim against currents, getting washed away and stuck in water pools. It flops and splashes about for no discernable reason, leaving it an easy target for predators. Scientists don’t even know how the spieces manages to survive, beyond their incredible ability to reproduce. Many have questioned how evolution allowed something this pointless to continue existing. But there is more to this pathetic creature than initially meets the eye, perhaps justifying their place in reality…

Most Magikarp that live in the wild end up as bird food, there’s no doubting this. However, the ones that don’t, whether by sheer force of will or pure luck, can get surprisingly strong. They can actually learn new moves beyond Splash, learning to actually hit other creatures at all. Plus, those that live long enough can train their own jumping abilities to ludicrous levels, getting them to be able to leap over entire mountains using Splash, even if it doesn’t make the move do damage. Plus, while any one  Magikarp is an easy target, they exist in such large numbers that wiping them out is basically impossible, especially when they can live in any body of water, no matter how polluted it is. All of this likely stems from their distant ancestors, said to be far stronger than the species has become today. But perhaps the true remnant of this ancestor lies deeper within. Biding its time, waiting for its time, to rise out of the depths, to evolve…

Into a massive, deadly, flying sea snake of destruction: Gyarados, the Atrocious Pokemon. Despite not being a true Dragon, it is one of the most powerful Pokemon around, covered in scales as hard as steel, sporting horns, spines and a maw wide enough to swallow just about anything whole. Which is extra scary when paired with its immense, seemingly unending anger and bloodlust. Gyarados are nigh unstoppable, all natural rampaging death machines. When they get angry, which is very easy given the transformation literally rewrites their biology to make them more violent, they will burn everything to ash. Tales from all over the world of Gyarados wiping out villages, towns and even cities in a single rampage, in a single night. It’s fortunate that the creatures are so rare, or the world of Pokemon would be very different to that we see now. Despite the slow start required, the mere existence of Gyarados makes Magikarp a popular Pokemon to raise and train, because when you’re taking on turtle tanks, tree toads and fucking dragons, it really doesn’t hurt to have the power of a 21 foot long sea god of rage on your side.

Equipment

Magikarp

Berry/Oran Berry

Wild Magikarps are sometimes seen with Berries. When their health drops below 50%, they consume the berry and regain 10 HP

Wacan Berry

Sometimes Magikarp are found with Wacan berries, which will halve the damage of the first Electric type attack that hits it, very useful when you are weak to electric-based attacks.

Gyarados

Bitter Berry / Persim Berry

Wild Gyarados are often seen carrying Bitter Berries. If they get inflicted with Confusion, they eat this Berry, and its extreme flavour brings them back into focus, curing the effect. This is useful, given that being inflicted with Confusion can make a Pokemon attack itself mid battle.

Abilities

Magikarp

Pokemon Type

As a Water-Type Pokemon, Magikarp resists Steel, Fire, Water and Ice based attacks, taking half damage from them, but taking double damage from Electric and Grass type attacks.

Abilities

Magikarp has a pair of potential Abilities, innate talents that activate under certain conditions.

• Swift Swim doubles its speed when it is Raining, making it more likely to attack first.
• Its hidden ability Rattled raises its speed one stage whenever it is hit by a Bug, Ghost or Dark type move, or if it is Intimidated. Essentially, Magikarp with this ability will move faster while panicking.

Pokemon Moves

Magikarp can learn three Moves to use in battle naturally. A “peak” wild Magikarp would have all of the following:

• Splash. Magikarp’s signature move, learned at level 1 by every Magikarp in the world. Unfortunately, this move also does nothing. This move single-handedly made Magikarp as difficult to train as it was for many years, requiring it to be swapped out at the beginning of every battle to gain any XP at all. 
• At level 15, they learn Tackle. This move has the Magikarp slam into its target with its full body weight. Has a power of 40 and Accuracy of 100. 
• At level 30, Magikarp can learn Flail. This move is special, as it increases in power as the user loses HP.

Pollution Resistance

(Magikarp is Captain Planet?)

Magikarp’s Pokedex entry in Pokemon Sapphire describes it as “Hardy” and able to “Survive in any body of water no matter how polluted it is”. This is pretty impressive, given that Pokemon also features some pretty powerful pollution, oftentimes forming into Pokemon like Muk. Muk, and it’s Alolan Variant, are essentially piles of polluted sludge, capable of causing fevers and poisonings simply by touch, smelling so bad the stench can cause fainting, instantly killing plants on touch and leaving poison wherever it walks that can make an area barren for years. Being able to survive that level of poison is very impressive, although Magikarp isn’t immune to Poison type attacks. This hardiness is also backed up by their Ultra Moon entry, as well as Legends Arceus.

“Extreme Fertility”

It’s not brought up as often as their hardiness, but the other main cause of the extreme proliferation of Magikarp the world over is that they are “incredibly fertile” according to their Pokedex entry in Pokemon Sun. This likely means that individual Magikarp will produce tens, maybe dozens of offspring at once, a true definition of safety in numbers. No predator can take out all of your spawn if there's literally too many babies for them to eat. Naturally, this isn’t useful for a battle but god damn is it funny.

Evolution

When a Magikarp hits Level 20, they undergo a rapid series of changes, metamorphising into something bigger, better, angrier. This is Pokemon Evolution, and it turns Magikarp from a silly little fish into a monstrously powerful beast, Gyarados

Gyarados

Pokemon Type

Gyarados is a Water Flying type Pokemon, so it takes half damage from Fire, Water, Fighting, Bug and Steel type attacks, is completely immune to Ground type attacks, but takes double damage from Rock type attacks, and Quadruple damage from Electric type attacks.

Flight

 Most easily seen in Pokemon Legends Arceus, and true to it's typing, Gyarados are capably of flight... somehow, allowing them to gracefully travel through the skies. This also likely explains it's ability to hover during battles.

Stat Changes

Quite a few moves in this section have stat-affecting abilities, and refer to them as “Stages”. Pokemon’s mechanics allow for stat changes to be stacked, up to 6 times in either direction, with each stack being known as a “stage”. For positive changes, this adds 0.5 to the stat modifier for each stage, starting at 1 for no changes, the Stage 1 is 1.5x, Stage 2 is 2x, and so on, up to Stage 6 at 4x. Negative changes are a bit more complicated, although there’s still 6 stages. Stage 1 is 2/3, Stage 2 is 2/4 (1/2), Stage 3 is 2/5, Stage 4 is 2/6, Stage 5 is 2/7, and Stage 6 is 2/8 (1/4).

Status Effects

Quite a few of these moves also apply Status Effects that I will go over briefly. In part to give more detail on them, but also because some of these are slightly game-mechanic dependent, and I want to give my thoughts on how they would work outside of a turn-based system. These include:

• Flinch: When a move makes a target Flinch, they are unable to act for the rest of that “turn”. In Pokemon itself, this generally means it’s most useful when the attacker has a higher speed stat, as they will strike first and potentially nullify any potential moves their opponent would use. Outside of a turn based system, it gets a bit fuzzier, but moves with Flinch should realistically be able to interrupt enemy attacks if they connect at least. 
• Whirlpool / Escape Prevention. A bit of a separate condition, but Gyarados can prevent an opponent from escaping using Whirlpool, which also does damage over time. In game, this prevents the targeted Pokemon from being switched out with another, but does not prevent them from attacking. In a battle like this, it would most likely simply trap the target in place, unable to move outside of it, but could also likely be broken free of with enough power. 
• Freeze is the simplest. It freezes things, preventing them from moving or attacking. Not too much to note on that one.

Abilities

Gyarados can have one of two Abilities:

• Intimidate lowers their opponent’s attack one stage when they enter the battle. Essentially, Gyarados’ sheer size and power make its opponents fear it to the point where they become a worse fighter. However, this ability can be resisted, both by having immunity to stat reductions, or by ability such as Oblivious, which makes a Pokemon unaware of scary, taunting or flirtatious moves or abilities. Additionally, having an active Pokemon with this ability will make it less likely for weak wild Pokemon to attack a trainer. 
• Their hidden ability, Moxie, increases their attack when they take out an enemy Pokemon. Essentially, this ability means the Gyarados will get more powerful the deadlier it’s rampage is

Pokemon Moves

Unlike their floppy predecessors, Gyarados can learn quite a few moves, with a variety of elemental types, special effects and a mix of physical and special damage. Then their moveset consists of any of their moves learned as Magikarp, alongside:

• Bite. This Dark-Type move has Gyarados bite its target, dealing a bit of damage and having a 30% chance to cause the opponent to Flinch, making them miss their turn. 
• Dragon Rage always deals exactly 40 HP. And that's it. 
• Leer has Gyarados glare at its opponents, lowering their Defence by one stage, making them more vulnerable to physical attacks. 
• Twister has Gyarados summon a swirl of magical energy, dealing Dragon-Type damage to multiple targets. Not only does this have a 20% chance to make opponents Flinch, it can hit foes that are using Fly or Bounce, which typically puts them far away enough to avoid all attacks. If it does so, the power of the moveis doubled. 
• Whirlpool has Gyrados summon a pool of water around its foe, and spins it, forming a whirlpool around the foe that prevents them from escaping and dealing damage over time. This does not prevent the foe from continuing to fight. In addition, this move deals double damage to Pokemon using Dive. 
• Ice Fang has Gyarados charge its fangs with Ice magic, then chomp down on its foes, dealing Ice Type damage, and potentially Freezing them. And, even if it fails, it can still make them Flinch. 
• Brine blasts a foe with salty water, dealing decent damage. If said opponent is below 50% health, this move doubles in power, hitting twice as hard.
• Scary Face has Gyarados make a face so horrifying it reduces the target’s Speed by 2 stages. 
• Waterfall has Gyrados charge into an opponent, shrouded in water, at “awesome speeds”. This can make the target Flinch, as well as letting Gyrados travel up Waterfalls (funny that) 
• Crunch has Gyarados bite a target. While similar to Bite, Crunch has Gyarados bite down with intent to break, as it can lower the victim’s Special Defence, making them more vulnerable to Special attacks. 
• Rain Dance has Gyarados put on a performance, performing a magic dance to summon Rain. While it is raining, the power of all Water Type moves have increased power, and Fire Type moves have reduced power. Additionally, the cloud cover makes moves that harvest energy from the Sun or Moon, such as Synthesis, restore less health. 
• Aqua Tail has Gyrados infuse their tail with water and slam it into a foe like a vicious wave. This move is a simple damage dealer, with high power and good accuracy. 
• Dragon Dance has Gyarados perform a mystical dance, infused with the powerful magic of dragons, increasing it’s Attack and Speed stats by one stage each 
• Hydro Pump is the signature hard hitting Water Type attack, and has Gyrados blast a terrific hose of water at it’s target, dealing lots of damage 
• Hurricane has Gyrados summon powerful spinning winds around its opponent, dealing a lot of damage and having a 30% chance to Confuse them. Additionally, it can hit Pokemon who are using Fly or Bounce type moves. However, it has low Accuracy, making it difficult to land. 
• Thrash has Gyarados go into a rampaging state, attacking viciously for 2 to 3 turns straight, hitting extremely hard. However, after the rampage ends Gyarados will end up Confused 
• Hyper Beam is Gyarados’ most iconic move, and has it gather its power into a single, devastating, destructive beam of pure energy, dealing MASSIVE damage to a single target. This move has the most base power of all of Gyarados’ attacks, but after it is used Gyarados must take a second turn to recharge, unable to take any other actions.

Smallfry

Background

After humanity wiped themselves out, the creatures of the ocean began to rapidly advance forwards, but not all in the same direction or speed. While Inklings and Octolings quickly took the place of humans on land, the Salmonids end up in an interesting middle ground between being Fish, and being Sentient. They spawn in large numbers, and makemass trips to their spawning grounds to mature. Those that do so grow into massive and powerful creatures, some through sheer size and power, others by operating complicated weapons. This is seemingly done via their Eggs,which contain so much power that not only can they power these weapons and beasts, they’re worth so much money Mr. Grizz can hire entire work parties of Inklings and Octolings to venture to these spawning grounds to harvest them for cash. Even when these Salmon Runs are extremely dangerous, and they must remain on their toes at all times, lest they fall victim to a fish the size of a bus turning them into a puddle on the floor. But amongst these titans, there’s always exceptions. Before a Salmonid can become massive and powerful, they must start young and small. These tiny Salmonids are known as Smallfry. They appear in large groups, and will swarm Inklings in an attempt to remove them, but their attacks are weak and they get splatted in a single hit from most weapons. They’re entirely reliant on their larger brethren to distract enemies, allowing them to sneak up and finish them off. Even outside of battle, Smallfry that end up separated from their people tend to get lost, and will likely simply die alone. But, not all of them are lost forever…

One such lost creature was a Smallfry known simply as Smallfry, and they’re the New Agent 3’s Lil’ Buddy. After getting lost, they encountered Agent 3 as they were scavenging for scrap, and decided to join them because they love eating metal, I guess. This partnership ended up being beneficial for both parties, especially once Agent 3 was recruited into the Squid Beak Platoon, and went on a campaign through a mysterious underground research facility. This was Alterna, seemingly built by humans long ago. There, they help by breaking things, distracting opponents, and using their cartoonishly big appetite (paired with some Power Eggs) to eat the Fuzzy Ooze that’s threatening Agent 3 as they uncover what’s going down in the underground. And uncover them they did. After facing down the bandit trio Deep Cut, they discovered that Mr. Grizz was using the Golden Eggs farmed in Salmon Runs to forge the Fuzzy Ooze coating Alterna, and was planning to forcibly turn every living thing into a Mammal, with it. In his mind, a land ruled by sea creatures was abhorrent, and he was returning the world to its “natural order”. And, with a spaceship full of toxic ooze, he took off into space, ready to deliver the finishing blow. Naturally, Agent 3 would not stand for this, and Smallfry was right behind them. With some help from their new friends in Deep Cut, they took off after the capitalist. The battle was hardfought. Grizz’s experiments had made him into a far more powerful being, but with some  Golden Eggs, Smallfry was strong enough to sap this power out of him. Grizz was far from finished however, and after a few blows, he detonated the rocket they fought upon, absorbing his Ooze into himself to deliver it personally. With no Eggs on hand, Agent 3 was out of options, and all hope seemed lost... 

Until Smallfry began to glow.

All at once, life energy flew into Smallfry, like streams of light. A long untold prophecy, of all life coming together to defeat the ultimate darkness, all came to a head as this energy imbued Smallfry with great power and transformed it into HUGEFRY. Now a chum salmon the size of a god damn spaceship, Hugefry was ready to save the world, and faced down Mr. Grizz in a 1v1 fight to the death, fighting the CEO on equal footing and buying time for Agent 3to work the DJ Octavio to syphon the mad bear’s power, and turn it against him. The day was saved, and life could go on as normal. Hugefry reverted to its natural form, and to Agent 3. But, should the world be threatened once more, you’re sure to be able to count on this plucky fish to rise above its station, and fight off any disaster that would come its way.

Equipment

Spoon

Wild Smallfry are typically seen holding a spoon, similar to how Chums and Cohocks are often seen weidling Pans as weapons. These spoons and other weapons are actually passed down from generation to generation of Salmonid, and they take great pride in maintaining them. They typically use them for wacking Inklings or Octolings in Salmon Runs.

Power Eggs

Salmonids create special eggs called Power Eggs, which are a very valuable resource. Not only are they useful sources of energy, so much so that Salmonids trade them for Octarian weapons and tech, they can also be used to enhance the power of Salmonids. Wild Smallfry don’t tend to carry very many, however, usually only dropping a few on death.

Golden Eggs

A far more rare and powerful form of Power Eggs, the Golden Eggs are precious resources of great power. Even a few of them can match and surpass the power up provided by thousands of regular Power Eggs, and Boss Salmonids usually carry multiple on them. Smallfry don’t usually carry any of these on hand, however.

Abilities

Smallfry

Ink Trail

When moving along the ground, Smallfry leaves behind a trail of toxic green Ink. They don’t make much, but it is still dangerous to stand on, and will slow and slowly damage enemies who stand in it.

Ooze Consumption and Resistance

One of the most notable abilities Smallfry posseses, it can eat basically anything. Neo Agent 3's Smallfry has even been said to have initially joined up due to it wanting to eat scraps they'd be salvaging. And in the Return of the Mammalians campaign, this is taken to it's extreme. When fed Power Eggs (or Golden Eggs if they're on hand), Smallfry can consume large amounts of Fuzzy Ooze all at once, stretching cartoonishly to fit all of it in at once. This is notably impressive as Fuzzy Ooze typically transmutes any creature, including Agent 3, into a mammal on contact.

Super Jump

Agent 3’s Smallfry is shown to be able to Super Jump, which allowed it to follow them into space. Super Jumps typically allow Inklings and Octolings to leap massive distances in a single bound. In gameplay, they can typically only jump to their allies, but in story modes (especially showcased by enemy Octolings) they can seemingly jump anywhere. Lil’ Buddy tends to jump directly to Agent 3, and can do so after being attacked or anytime they fall (read: are thrown) off the stages.

Musical Talent

Smallfry is capable of humming the world famous tune, Calamari Inkantation, as well as Happy Little Workers. What a lovely little guy.

Enhanced Sense of Smell

Smallfry are surprisingly perceptive little things. Salmonids as a whole have great senses of smell, allowing them to track down enemies, even when they cannot see them. Such as when an Inkling or Octoling is hiding in their own Ink, which makes them practically invisible to the naked eye. Even  other Inklings or Octolings find it hard to spot each other hidden in this way. Additionally, in Splatoon 3’s story mode Smallfry is able to detect and find otherwise invisible Anchors that house collectible items that Agent 3 is unable to detect without special gear. This is likely also tied to this sense of smell, although this does imply it knows the smell of Tableturf cards, and knows they’re valuable.

Space Breathing

Despite being a tiny fish, Smallfry was able to survive far into space with no additional gear, as well as surviving flying out there in the first place. How exactly this is is unclear and unexplained. Like seriously they give Agent 3 a bubble helment but nothing for lil buddy? is this just something Salmonids can do? And are known to do?

Transformation

At the right time, a Smallfry can call on the marine life of the world, pulling massive amounts of life energy into themselves as streams of light. In doing so, they absorb massive amounts of power, become much larger, and transform into HUGEFRY. Hugefry is a giant Salmon the size of a spaceship, and is much more powerful than it was prior.

Hugefry

Fighting Ability

Hugefry may look like they have zero thoughts in their head, but they are a surprisingly competent brawler. In their 1v1 with Mr. Grizz, they showcase the ability to ram into foes, use their gaping maw for bite attacks, and they even wrap themselves around Mr. Grizz’s head with a chokehold technique, holding onto their own tail to prevent themselves from getting dislodged. This shows that Hugefry is at least capable of improvising attacks based on its sheer power, size and shape when in battle.

Light Water Manipulation

Upon their entrance as Hugefry, they seem to summon splashes of water around themselves, although they don’t use this to attack at any point… or at all really.

Space Breathing…. Again

After turning into Hugefry, they continue being inexplicably okay breathing in space without any equipment, showing no signs of trouble even when fighting Mr. Grizz directly (Who is also somehow fine breathing in space like this…). This is somewhat unexplainable.

Flight

Despite being a giant fish, Hugefry is somehow able to fly, moving around as if it were simply swimming through water. While it is in space at the time, it’s clearly propelling itself somehow, even if that isn’t explained directly. Additionally, other powerful Salmonids can fly, such as the Horroboros. Speaking of…

Potential Ink Abilities

Hugefry itself doesn’t showcase many abilities outside of ramming into enemies, but they could be compared to other powerful Salmonids and the abilities they have, namely the Boss Salmonids and the King Salmonids. This does not include abilites that would be soley due to technology, such as the flight packs/missile launchers of the Flyfish bosses.

Ink Swimming

Both Maws and the Flipper-Flopper Boss Salmonids show the ability to sink completely into Ink, defying logic and mass. This allows them to swim through basically anything as if it was water, without slowing down, and even hide in their own ink.

Ink Storms

The Drizzler enemies can create Ink Storms, raining Ink down from an Ink cloud. This deals minor damage to all enemies in the area over time, as well as coating the ground in Ink. Essentially, this makes said area more dangerous to be in for a while.

Ink Rings

Flipper Floppers are able to fire Rings of Ink that coat an entire circular area at once in Ink. Pretty simple.

Ink Beams

The Stinger enemies are capable of firing a concentrated beam of Ink that can pierce through walls to damage enemies, even on the other side of the map.

Ink Bombs

The Steelhead Boss Salmonid and the Horrorborus King Salmonids are capable of creating explosive Ink projectiles, summoning a large orb of Ink and lobbing it, where it explodes for big damage in an area. The Steelhead variation is similar to a Splat Bomb, whereas the Horrorborus’ variation
resembles the Booyah Bomb in area of effect and power. Both variations can be hit with enemy Ink, and if they get hit enough they explode in that enemy’s Ink and deals massive damage to the wielder

Ink Slam

Both the Flipper-Flopper Boss Salmonid and the Cohozuna King Salmonid utilise slamming attacks to deal damage and spread Ink. These have the user simply slam into a surface, splattering Ink around themselves with massive power, able to take out Inklings or Octolings in a single blast.

Stats

Magikarp

Power:

 

• As Magikarp:
• Wild Magikarp are generally considered to be absolutely worthless, and have many, many pokedex entries showing their lack of power, likely being the weakest Pokemon species outright. 
• Magikarp's Pokemon Platinum Pokedex entry stats that Magikarp can leap over Mountains (370 - 867 Kilojoules) Wall level
• Wild Magikarp can survive Team Galactic blowing up Lake Valor (1.32 Kilotons) Small Town Level

• As Gyarados:
• Gyarados are very powerful, often being feared for their temper, ferocity and power, with numerous Pokedex entries refering to it being able to destroy entire cities when enraged. Pokemon Stadium specifically states a “Major City”. Other entries refer to the idea that Gyarados can level towns, villages and even mountains.
• Other entries refer to its use of Hyper Beam to “Totally incinerate” targets.
• A group of Gyarados destroyed Team Rocket’s Gyarados-Themed Submarine when they happened upon the group during mating season.
• This same group of Gyarados created a large wave, as they seem to do every year given it has a name: The Humungadunga.
• Given Gyarados' reputation, it should reasonly scale to most major feats from Wild Pokemon, including:
• Swampert, which can swim while towing large ships, drag boulders that weigh more than a ton, and shatter them with just as much ease
• Haxorus, who’s Pokedex entries state it can slice through Steel Beams and Metal Transmission Towers in a single strike.
• Blaziken can leap over 30 story buildings in a single leap (46-65 Kilojoules) Wall Level
• Walrein, who can shatter 10 Ton Blocks of Ice (5.73 - 8.97 MegaJoules) Wall Level. It’s also described as being able to crush Icebergs.
• Darmanitan, who’s fire burns at 2500 degrees Fahrenheit, and can “obliterate” a dump truck with a single punch
• Rhyhorn has a dex entry that says “When it butts heads with a mountain, it is the mountain that shatters”.
• Rhyhorn is also described as being able to destroy a Skyscraper (373.8 Tons to 1.57 Kilotons) Multi-City Block to Small Town Level
• Vanilluxe, which is said to be able to make blizzards when it gets mad. In the anime, a wild Vanilluxe covered the entirety of
• Coumarine City in one such snowstorm (5.44 Megatons of TNT) Small City Level
• Electivire, which can provide enough electricity for all the buildings in a big cityfor a year (44 Megatons of TNT) City Level
• Kingdra, which lives in ocean depths otherwise inhabitable, can create whirlpools by yawning and leaving tornadoes and whirlpools as it moves.
• They’re also rivals to Dragonites. Dragonair, Dragonite’s pre-evolution, can create large explosions (45.88 Megatons) City Level.
• Volcarona is said to have “replaced” the sun while the atmosphere was clogged with Volcanic Ash (81.73 Megatons) City Level
• Charizard, which has flames that can melt boulders with ease, and even entire 10 thousand ton glaciers.
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon states that Charizard can melt entire Mountains (790.31 Megatons) Mountain Level
• In the Pokemon Adventures manga, a Delibird manages to freeze the Lake of Rage (6.79 Megatons to 2.2 Gigatons) City to Large Mountain Level
• Tyranitar is stated to be able to make mountains crumble with “just one of its mighty hands”, and be able to “change the landscape” in Pokedex entries. In the Black and White 2 Pokedex it’s specifically stated to make “Great Mountains crumble” when it walks (566 Megatons to 3.2 Gigatons) of TNT, Mountain to Large Mountain level.
• Dugtrio are capable of causing “Huge Earthquakes” (2.39 Megatons - 4.17 Gigatons) Small City - Large Mountain Level
• A group of wild Gyarados created the lake of rage, collectively outputting between 11 and 34 Gigatons of TNT. Exactly how many Gyarados were involved is unknown, however
• The linked Calc here does attempt to gauge an estimate, but I personally disagree with the number.
• Gyarados' Pokedex entry in Diamond states it will not settle its rage “until it has razed the fields and mountains around it”. “Raze” specifically means “to destroy to the ground”, and often implies burning. Taking this to mnea vaporistation and comparing Gyarados to various mountains within Pokemon, this can get between 142.5 Gigatons to 256.7 Teratons, Large Island to Country Level (Debatable)
• As an addendum, the above calc doesn’t use real life mountains such as Mount Everest. Doing so can potentially get up to 1.83 Petatons of TNT or Continent Level (Debatable)
• Sawk that have “Trained themselves to the limit” can split an ocean (50 Teratons of TNT) Country Level (Debatable)
• Should be comparable or superior to Gardevoir , who’re described in the Pokedex as being able to make “Small Black Holes”. In one instance, a Gardevoir showcases this ability for Professor Oak (2.66 Exatons) Multi-Continental (Debatable)

Speed:

• As Magikarp: 
• Wild Magikarp are described as being pretty useless in terms of speed, some Pokedex entries even stating they struggle to swim against currents
• Elder Magikarps are capable of leaping over whole mountains with Splash, ridiculously high in the air. Assuming this to have the same time-frame as in the game animation for Splash, Magikarp could be hitting speeds of Mach 21 - 31 (Hypersonic + - High Hypersonic)
• This is also supported by Goh's Magikarp hitting escape velocity, which is around Mach 33
  
• This can potentially get up to Mach 74 at a very high end, using the tallest mountain in the Solar System Olympus Mons. This is likely not usable.

• As Gyarados:
• Has a base speed stat of 81, can get up to 287 at max level.
• While Gyarados isn't known for speed, they're pretty fast, and can likely be compared to other Pokemon such as:
• Charizard, which can fly up to altitudes nearing 1400 metres
• Blaziken, which can clear 30-story buildings in a single leap
• Decidueye, which can nock and fire an arrow in a 10th of a Second (16.4 m/s, possibly higher) Superhuman
• Feraligator, which can move at “blinding” and “incredible” speeds, even out of the water
• Swampert, which can swim as fast as a Jet Ski, which can hit 67 mph (30 m/s) Superhuman
• Empoleon, who can swim as fast as a Jet Boat. The fastest jet boat ever hit a top speed of 317 mph (511 km/h) (142 m/s) Subsonic
• Arcanine can run 10,000 km in a single day and night (115.74 m/s) Subsonic
• Noivern, which can unleash ultrasonic waves, sound waves above 20k Hertz, Transonic
• Pidgeot is described as being able to fly at Mach 2, Supersonic
• Dragonites, which can fly around the whole planet in 16 hours (695.75 m/s or Mach 2.03) Supersonic
• Inteleon can fire jets of water from its fingertips at Mach 3, Supersonic
• Rhyperior is said to launch rocks (and sometimes Geodudes) out of its hands like missiles. Most likely this refers to Cruise Missiles, which can get up to Mach 10 Hypersonic +
• A higher end could assume this refers to the launch speed of Ballistic Missiles, which tend to be Mach 20-24, but can get up to Mach 27. These speeds are Hypersonic + and High Hypersonic respectively.
• Likely comparable to the ZERO-ONE, the ship used in Pokemon Snap. This beast could fly to the “Rainbow Cloud” in just 1 second (Mach 291.55) Massively Hypersonic
• Gyarados can combat Pokemon with attacks that move at Light Speed, such as Flash Cannon or Signal Beam.(0.38-1.17c) Relativistic to FTL
• To be specific, Signal Beam is described as “attack[ing] with a sinister beam of light”, and Flash Cannon is described as "The user gathers all its light energy and releases it at once”.
• It’s also worth noting that Diglett of all Pokemon has a Light Speed statement from the Anime, which is really funny but also likely supports LS - FTL Gyarados / Wild Pokemon in general

Durability:

 

• As Magikarp:
• Like usual, described as pretty weak when wild, able to be taken out by pretty much any Pokemon around
• Elder Magikarp can survive leaping over mountains, which would be around Wall level as previously stated.
• Wild Magikarp can survive Team Galactic blowing up Lake Valor (1.32 Kilotons) Small Town Level
  

 

• As Gyarados:Gyarados are ferocious and angry, likely fighting each other on a regular basis, so they should be comparable to their own AP.
• Should again be comparable to most other Pokemon, such as:
• Electivire, who’s previous evolution Electabuzz can withstand and absorb Lightning bolts
• Swampert, who’s arms are as hard as Rock
• Chesnaught, who’s armour allows it to withstand bombs
• Golisopod, whose Shell is described as being as hard as diamonds
• Rhyperior, who’ carapace can withstand Volcanic Eruptions (24 Megatons of TNT) City Level

Versatility: Magikarps aren’t particularly versatile, but elder Magikarps should be capable combatants with moves like Tackle behind them. On the other hand, Gyarados has a much wider movepool with various elemental attacks and techniques, with close ranged and long ranged attacks aplenty.

Hacks: Magikarp doesn’t really have any notable hacks, although it does have a notable resistance to pollution. Additionally, Magikarp is resistant to Steel, Fire, Water and Ice type attacks. Gyarados has numerous moves that inflict status effects such as Flinching and Freezing. It also has moves and abilities that alter stats, both its own and opponents. This includes Speed, Power and Durability stats. Gyarados is resistant to Fighting, Bug, Steel Fire and Water type attacks and flat out immune to Ground type attacks.

Weaknesses: Magikarp aren’t often portrayed as fighters, and usually rely on safety in numbers to survive in the wild. Additionally, they have weaknesses to Electric and Grass type attacks. Gyarados are true powerhouses, but they also have a tendency to lose themselves to their rage and go on rampages. Additionally, Gyarados is double weak to Electric type attacks, and weak to Rock type as well.

Smallfry

Power:

As Smallfry:

• Smallfry is capable of smashing wooden crates in the story mode of Splatoon 3. Given the size of these crates relative to Inklings and Octolings, they’re fairly sizable, although Inklings have no canon heights. VsWiki has a series of calcs for generic crates like this, and these should be in the range of 91 cm to 1.5 metres, more or less (272 - 695 KiloJoules) Wall Level
• It’s implied that Smallfry can eat just about anything, including scrap metal, which is why it joined up with Agent 3 in the first place.
• Smallfry are the weakest Salmonids, but have been shown capable of damaging Inklings & Octolongs, typically able to take them out in 4 hits in gameplay. Additionally, Agent 3’s Smallfry can damage Octarians and level obstacles in Splatoon 3. This is impressive because:
• All kinds of Inkling Weaponry can also break the same crates mentioned above. Inklings, Octolings and Octarians can take hits from these weapons.
• Inklings can fight DJ Octavio, and his Octobot King mech’s fists. Their weapons can reflect these attacks, and they can even endure a couple hits from him before getting splatted. (960 Kilojoules to 14.3 Megajoules) Wall Level 
• Likely (massively) downscales from The Octobot Weapons through Agent Inklings/Octolings. While Smallfry doesn't directly scale to Inklings, even wild Smallfry can battle Inklings in Salmons run, who at least downscale from them. The Great Octoweapons made large craters in the land during the turf wars of old (12 Megatons of TNT) City Level (See notes for more details)
• This was done by Octoweapons powered by basic Zapfish, so bosses powered by stronger sources should be higher as well. Since Hugefry > Agent Inklings, Hugefry would upscale this feat.

 

As Hugefry:

• When in Hugefry form, they can fight Mr. Grizz after he had absorbed all of the Fuzzy Ooze he was delivering to the planet, even able to restrain him. With it, Mr. Grizz was able to ruin a large surface of the planet, as seen in the Bad End cutscene that plays if you fail the final battle. One of these blobs grows to a diameter of over 7000 Km. (5.26-8.05 Exatons of TNT) Multi-Continental
• This was just one blob of Ooze, and we see at least two more hit the planet and potentially more may have landed on the parts we cannot see.

Speed:

As Smallfry:

• Wild Smallfry are capable of getting the drop on Inklings, many of whom can react to Inkling weaponry, which gets to 239 m/s at its fastest, or Mach 0.7 Subsonic +
• Agent 3’s Smallfry was able to fly into space alongside them, meaning it can reach at least Escape Velocity (11,186 m/s or Mach 32.61, Hypersonic)

As Hugefry:

• Should be comparable to DJ Octavio’s Mech, the Octobot L.3.G.S. Not only does Agent 3 keep up with this same mech earlier in the game, and Mr. Grizz can keep up with the mech as well, to whom Hugefry scales. Octavio’s Mech flew into space at rapid speed (Mach 2576.843) Massively Hypersonic+
• Mr. Grizz’ Ooze expanded across the surface of the planet at Mach 4555, or 0.52% c (Massively Hypersonic+ (Debatable)

Durability:

As Smallfry:

• Basic Small Fry are fairly frail, able to be taken out by most weapons types in a single strike, although weaker weapons may take a few hits.
• Agent 3’s Smallfry can take some hits from Octarian weaponry in Return of the Mammalians, and is technically never truly “Splatted”, although it does retreat if it takes too much damage.
• Additionally, it can be upgraded to be more durable
• Smallfry is capable of clogging up the Octobot L3GS Mech’s suction, which is normally able to suction large quantities of Ink quickly, without harm
• Smallfry can also withstand being eaten by Master Mega, a Megalodon that Shiver trained. It could even force Master Mega to cough it back up.

As Hugefry:

• Hugefry was taking hits from the souped-up Mr. Grizz, who had everything to lose and no reason to hold back, so he would likely be striking at Multi-Continental levels.
  

 

Versatility: Smallfry has access to some basic melee attacks, both with its own two fins and its Spoon, as well as the ability to leave Ink trails in its wake. Hugefry focuses hard on those melee abilities, with more prominent natural weapons with its large jaw. Additionally, it also uses its long and flexible body for grappling moves, wrapping around enemies to constrain them.
 

Hacks: While it’s not particularly potent, the Ink Trail Smallfry can create is capable of slowing and damaging enemies that touch it, meaning it’s likely somewhat poisonous.
 

Weaknesses: Smallfry are typically group fighters, and even Agent 3’s is used to fighting alongside 3. They’re also big glass cannons, not able to take much punishment. Hugefry lacks these weaknesses, and doesn’t really have anything notable itself.

Final Notes

City Level Splatoon?

I touch on this briefly, but I ended up scaling Agent Inklings/Octolings to the Great Octoweapons, which get to 12 Megatons, or City Level. This is pretty direct scaling, as Agents  3, 4 and 8 can take on the Great Octoweapons solo and win, and they should scale durability wise too since they can take hits from them. Additionally, they can even do the same for enemies like the Octobot King mechs, which are powered by the Great Zapfish, a much stronger source than the Zapfish that powers the Great Octoweapons. So naturally, Agents > Octoweapons = 12 Megatons means Agents > 12 Megatons. This also means that regular Inklings and Octolings likely scale to this as well. While Agents are "specific" characters, they have no fundamental advantage over other citizens that would make them any stronger. They can go into and out of regular battles and Salmon Runs as normal. But, even beyond that, because Agents can take on even stronger foes, i.e they upscale from City, even if you argue that "regular" Inklings/Octolings downscale from Agents they would still end up around City. Then from there, Wild Smallfry can fight and defeat Inklings in Salmon Run, although they are clearly overall much weaker given how easily they're taken down.

Fuzzy Ooze Speed

In Hugefry's speed section, I have noted the biggest feat as Debatable, being the speed at which Mr. Grizz's Ooze spreads across the surface of the planet. This gets a respectable Mach 4k, around 0.52% the speed of light. The biggest issue is actually scaling people to it. In the scene, we aren't shown anyone reacting to this expansion, and there isn't evidence that Mr. Grizz is guiding this Ooze in any direct manner once it lands. If anything, it's more like he tossed an explosive at the planet and let it do it's thing, so it can't really be scale to him either. However, Agent 3 can avoid some of Mr. Grizz's other Ooze attacks, and Octavio can pilot around Mr. Grizz's defensive Ooze Balls in the Octobot King, which could provide a scaling chain as Hugefry > both of them. However, both of these are flawed. Not only does Agent 3 not fight Mr. Grizz directly in his super-oozed up state, there isn't really evidence that all of Mr. Grizz's Ooze attacks move at this speed. Especially since the Fuzzy Ooze is a physical substance, which has varying speeds when used, even from Mr. Grizz's attacks. And the Ooze that Octavio pilots around isn't even moving for the most part, so it's hard to justify scaling through that either. So for now, it's unlikely Hugefry scales.

Pokedex Entry scaling and Outliers

So a lot of the scaling for Gyarados came from Pokedex entries, taken at pretty much face value. This is pretty much the only real way to get any kind of diverse scalings for power and speed. For the most part, I think this is generally the way to approach wild Pokemon scaling, and it’s fairly consistent with itself, with quite a few Mountain level calcs for 3rd tier Pokemon that support scaling to Tyranitar and the Lake of Rage creation feat. However, there are some notable calcs I’ve seen that I don’t think are usable, that I will note here.

Sawk’s Ocean Cleave

A very recent addition: Sawk’s dex entry in Pokemon Shield states that “The karate chops of a Sawk that’s trained itself to the limit can cleave the ocean itself." While the dex entry specifies “Trained” this is seemingly still referring to wild Sawk, since it’s specifically “Trained itself”, implying that a peak wild Sawk could do this. This can get pretty crazy results, potentially up to 50 Teratons of TNT which is Country Level. However, this has a couple issues. Mainly, there isn’t a number that can be attributed to this feat without a lot of assumptions. While this is true for a few calcs out there, this one in particular relies almost entirely on assumptions around how big the ocean split is and how long it takes, both of which can change the results a lot. This makes it unfortunately quite questionable, especially when it’s so much higher than other dex calcs, and over 1000 times stronger than the Lake of Rage creation. It is also worth noting the low end of the above calc only gets to 40 Gigatons, which is more in line with other dex feats.

Gyarados’ Mountain Raze

Surprisingly, Gyarados has one of these too. Specifically, Gyarados’ dex entry in Diamond states that it can “raze” Mountains. When combined with it’s other entries around “annihilating” and specifically “incinerating” and “burning” it could imply that it’s literally capable of vaporising whole mountains. As noted, this can get anywhere from 142.5 Gigatons to 256.7 Teratons using mountains within Pokemon, and up to 1.83 Petatons when calced with Mount Everest. This is insanely impressive, even the low end being multiple times greater than the Lake of Rage creation feat. However, there is one core flaw I have with this calc. The calc assumes this is all achieved at once. This may not seem like an issue, but unless Gyarados could completely vaporise an entire mountain with a single hyper beam attack, it would not get the full value of this calc. Especially when looking at the low end, it’s quite possible that a few big hits could get to that level. To be specific, using the values used in the original calc, Gyarados could vaporise around 5.54 Quadrillion cubic centimetres of mountain per shot and still be striking with 34 Gigatons of TNT. This would let it take out Mount Silver, the largest mountain in Johto where Diamond takes place in around 21 Shots. Plus, like the rest of these debatable calcs, the high ends are sizable outliers. 257 Teratons is over 1000 times greater than the Lake of Rage creation feat, and 1.93 Petatons is over 50,000 times greater.

Gardevoir’s Black Hole

One notable Dex entry feat is Gardevoir and their Black Holes. Gardevoir making Black Holes is pretty consistent across the series, from its first appearance in Gen III all the way up to Gen IX each gen has at least one entry referring to this ability. And in one instance, we see it in use, and this calc puts it at 2.66 Exatons of TNT. Seems fairly clear cut, right? Well, there’s still some issues I have with it. For starters, looking at the full clip, while it pulls Oak in it seems to act more like a wormhole than a true Black Hole, sucking him into nothingness as opposed to crushing him. This is also consistent with other depictions, such as Pokken Tournament. This likely implies that, despite the gravitational pull, these aren’t true Black Holes. Beyond that, this calc is actually massively deflated. Specifically, it uses Potential Energy from lifting that much mass off the ground. This would be fine if Gardevoir was just moving an existing black hole, but they clearly make it themself. The creation of Black Holes on this level is generally calculated with this formula: ((c2 / 2 x G)) / (mE x U) x r, where c is the Speed of Light, G is the Gravitational Constant, mE is the mass of Earth, U is the Gravitational Binding Energy of Earth and r is the radius of the Black Hole. Using the diameter in the calc, this gives up the beautiful equation of:

((2997924582 / (2 x 6.674e-11)) / ((5.972e+24) x (2.487e+32)) * 1.575 = 4.42e+34 Joules.

That's 10.5 Yottatons of TNT, Large Planet Level. Naturally, this is a tremendous outlier, especially for a wild Pokemon. This is 10.5 Quadrillion Gigatons compared to the consistent single-digit Gigaton calcs from other Dex Calcs. Even beyond that, this feat is well beyond the power of many Legendary Pokemon feats, including; Lugia's Storm which gets 11.46 Teratons of TNT, Country Level, Kyogre’s flood which gets to 4.35 Petatons of TNT, Continent Level and Groudon is responsible for raising the continents themselves, a calc that gets 295 Petatons of TNT. All of these are far weaker than even the Multi-Continental calc. The planet end is even superior to the Grand Meteor Delta, which gets to 897 Zettatons of TNT or Planet Level. Gardevoir is a pretty powerful Pokemon, but it being on par or even greater than the power of Legendaries, and billions of times the power of other mon, alongside their black holes being questionable in the first place, makes me unwilling to use this calc.

Lanturn’s Light

Last up is Lanturn, with an outlier somehow even more absurd. Basically if you take its dex entry of “Illuminating the sea’s surface from a depth of over three miles” at face value, it would be producing multiversal levels of energy. Naturally, this is an absurd outlier, and Lanturn’s light is most likely magical in some fashion that allows it to bypass some of the typical laws of physics.

Fight Script

Script here 

Conclusion

Stats

Starting small, Smallfry and Magikarp are actually not too far apart. For starters, they’re almost dead even in Speed, Magikarp hitting Mach 31 and Smallfry hitting Mach 33. Power isn’t too wild either, with Magikarps hitting 867 Kilojoules, with Smallfrys hitting 695 Kilojoules. Both of these are very small gaps, with Smallfry being  about 1.1 times faster, and Magikarp 1.2 times stronger. However, despite their weak reputations, both fish have much stronger feats and scaling. Magikarp can hit Small Town, whereas Smallfry can downscale from City. Specifically, Magikarp hitting 1.3 Kilotons and Smallfry downscaling from 12 Megatons. This sounds like it would heavily leans towards Smallfry, but they clearly don't scale fully to the Octoweapons. At best, they're downscaling heavily. And, as noted in the linked calc, the 1.3 Kiloton result is a relative lowball, and Magikarp could get a higher result if they're closer to the initial blast. So, the safest bet is that both sides are more or less equal here.

But, moving on to the important part: the big fish. Starting with Speed again, Gyarados takes a big edge. Hugefry hitting mach 2567 is pretty impressive, even wild Gyarados are light timers, able to avoid attacks that are blatantly Light Speed. Gyarados would likely speedblitz Hugefry, even including the likely unusable Ooze speed, which would boost Hugefry to 0.52% c. On the AP side, Hugefry is vastly stronger than the general Mountain level feats that Gyarados scales to. Tyranitar's Mountain Shaking calc at 3.2 Gigatons vs Mr. Grizz's Ooze Blast at 5.6 Exatons is a difference of 1.6 Billion times, and that's the low end of that calc. Even the full might of the 34 Gigaton Lake of Rage calc wouldn’t save Gyarados here, and would only decrease this gap to 155 Million times. While there are potential higher end scalings for Wild Pokemon, as discussed in the Notes, these are generally unusable for various reasons. This basically means that Hugefry is basically undamageable in a straight contest of physical power. On the flip side, Gyarados is extremely difficult to land a hit on, likely hundreds of times faster. But, there is always more to look at that just raw numbers.

Abilities

Starting with the little guys again, neither is too crazy in this department. With Tackle and Flail, Magikarp does have some actual damaging moves, and even Splash can be used to jump really dang high. On the other hand, Smallfry is capable of melee attacks with both it's own fins and with it's Spoon, and can coincidentally also jump damn high with it's Super Jump. Smallfry's Ink Trail would give it ways to mess with Magikarp's movement on land, but Magikarp's Hardiness would likely allow it to survive any damaging effects of it. And between them, Magikarp is the only one with a healing item, even if it's a single-use berry. So they're largely even, with some very minor edges on either side.

But when they supersize, that changes a bit. As you may expect from a battle between a character with about 5 minutes of screen time and a Pokemon, the Pokemon has a bit more to work with. Elemental attacks, status effects, stat changes and in general much more ranged abilities to work with as well. Even giving Hugefry the abilities of other boss Salmonids wouldn’t close this gap, even if it would have some unique powers. And again, the Hardiness of Gyarados would likely limit the potency of these abilities outside of dealing direct damage. However, this is before getting into Gyarados’ biggest edge, their stat affecting abilities. Not only can Gyarados make itself faster and stronger, it can also make Hugefry weaker as well. With these abilities, Gyarados can drastically alter the gaps in power and speed. For speed, Gyarados can both increase its own speed and decrease Hugefry’s in turn, Scary Face decreases the opponents Speed, and Dragon Dance increases Gyarados’ own, and at max it can increase and decrease these levels by 4 times. This can make an already large speed gap even larger, giving Gyarados even more chances to use its abilities advantages over Hugefry, Such as trapping it in place with Whirlpool, freeze it with Ice Fang, or Confusing it with Hurricane. The same applies for AP and Durability. Gyarados' ability Intimidate automatically lowers the Attack stat of opponents at the start of battles, Gyarados can lower Defence and Special Defence with Leer and Crunch, and raise its own power with Dragon Dance. To add on further, Gyarados can stack this further with Rain Dance to make its water powers twice as powerful.

Tertiary Factors

With such simple characters, you’d think there wouldn’t be too much to discuss here, but there’s some interesting factors. Once again starting with the little guys, Smallfry likely takes an edge in experience, at least somewhat. The typical Smallfry likely gets some battle training from it’s brethren to prepare it for Salmon Run events, although it’s worth mentioning many will likely die before getting much in-field experience. Magikarps on the other hand… are pretty worthless, with no real defence against predators, relying almost entirely on pure numbers to survive. The ones that do don’t even get that good, they mostly just learn how to jump even higher.

But, when they supersize, that’s a bit different. In the specific context of a Gyarados freshly evolved from a Magikarp, Gyarados wouldn’t have too much, but wild Gyarados likely has plenty of battle experience against other Gyarados, other nearby Pokemon, some low-level trainers who couldn’t quite handle their power yet. Many will even have some experience from rampaging through a local town or village. This gives them a fair amount of experience to draw from. In contrast, Hugefry on the other hand has a single battle to their name. Not exactly a great start, however they do display a fair amount of competence during it, and said battle is against a similarly giant and powerful creature. Additionally, Hugefry itself has spent a good chunk of time fighting as Smallfry, both as a standard Salmonid fighter and against the Octarian forces present in Return of the Mammalians. This does mean that experience leans towards Gyarados for this fight. Naturally, neither has real formal training, so they’re going off basically pure instinct, but Gyarados has fought many more giant fish than Hugefry has. However, there is a very important factor to consider: Gyarados’ primal rage. One of the defining traits of the species is the anger constantly boiling just below the surface. This is consistently referenced in its Pokedex entries, Gyarados are violent, vicious and destructive by nature. If you so much as stumble into their territory at the wrong time, it will go out of its way to annihilate you before you can blink. Which is ultimately a big factor against it in this battle. While its raw rage combined with its destructive potential is useful in many fights, especially a war of pure attrition, in a battle against a being much stronger than itself, Gyarados isgoing to be getting very angry, very quickly. And the angrier it gets, the more it will push itself to burn, to destroy, to rampage. Basically, Gyarados is likely to lose its cool in battle, and will likely throw away strategy while doing so. This means a lot of its ability advantages basically vanish, as it will likely throw away strategy in favour of spamming powerful attacks. In comparison, while Hugefry doesn’t have nearly the same battle experience as even a wild Gyarados likely does, it's one fight has it showcasing a surprising amount of strategy to keep Grizz at bay. And, since it doesn’t really have much strategy required other than “hit hard” it ultimately just needs to keep up the fight to keep ahead. 

Summary

Smallfry / Hugefry

• Advantages

• Hugefry is much stronger and tougher than Gyarados, even after stat alterations
• More level-headed in battle
• Can breath in space, and could realistically take the fight there
  

• Equals

• Smallfry and Magikarp are pretty comparable

• Disadvantages

• Hugefry is slower than Gyarados
• Inferior abilities, with no direct answer to Gyarados’ hax

Magikarp / Gyarados

• Advantages

• Gyarados is faster than Hugefry
• Much wider arsenal of abilities & hax
• Can resist Ink abilities through sheer hardiness

• Equals

• Magikarp and Smallfry are pretty comparable

• Disadvantages

• Gyarados is immensely weaker, basically unable to harm Hugefry all things considered
• A rampaging monster at heart, will likely throw strategy out for anger
• Gyarados' abilities don't give it a solid way to bypass the AP gap
  

Overall, this is a pretty close one. Smallfry and Magikarp themselves are pretty dead even, meaning the battle is almost entirely riding on Hugefry and Gyarados. And when put head to head, Hugefry essentially triumphs over Gyarados via sheer power. Gyarados’ far superior speed and abilities give it some options, most notably Stat Boosts and Confusion with Hurricane, but the former cannot close the massive gap in AP, and the latter is a low-accuracy move, with a random chance to inflict a status that isn't even a guaranteed win. When in a battle with a foe on this scale, Gyarados is likely to lose its head and make mistakes in blind rage in a prolonged fight. If it ever gets to that point before getting one shot by a space-ship sized salmon. It’s like the saying goes… there’s always a bigger fish.

The Winner is Smallfry/Hugefry