Terapagos
Normal Form
In its Normal Form, Terapagos is a small indigo tortoise-like Pokémon with a cyan hexagonal shell bearing the Terastal symbol—a white hexagon with triangular extensions. Its neck and legs are marked with cyan four-pointed stars and rings, while its feet have three toes each. The tail ends in another cyan star. Its face is distinctive: light blue eyes with reddish rims and star-shaped pupils, a diamond pattern on its forehead, and diamond-shaped earrings on both sides of its head. A "ponytail" made of three diamond-like segments hangs from the back of its head, gradually shrinking and taking on a purplish hue as they extend away.
Terapagos is said to have a splendid aura despite being particularly small and weak. When threatened or needing to hibernate, it retreats fully into its shell and shrinks down to resemble an ordinary jewel—its dormant state. Even in this state, it can crystallize its own energy into a green protective shield. Over millions of years, the hard crystals that naturally form around its slumbering body helped shape Area Zero's distinctive appearance. Like other turtles, it's unable to right itself if flipped upside down and needs outside help to stand up again. One known individual lived for millions of years while hibernating in its shell, suggesting an incredibly long natural lifespan.
Terapagos is the source of the entire Terastal phenomenon. It originally inhabited Paldea ages ago, but was believed extinct after seismic shifts roughly 2,000,000 years ago wiped out the species. One specimen survived by crystallizing its body and entering hibernation deep in Area Zero's underdepths, remaining hidden until modern times. According to Briar, Terapagos's body is made of pure Terastal energy. Heath discovered the Pokémon and gave it its name. In battle, Terapagos can bombard opponents with countless star-shaped crystal projectiles.
Beyond its role in creating the Terastal phenomenon, Terapagos has demonstrated the ability to manipulate timelines. It can pull humans, certain Pokémon, and objects forward from other points in time or alternate timelines, with a mist marking the affected area before whatever was brought is sent back. The Pokémon can also emit specific energy signals to call out to other Pokémon, and it can project visions of its own memories to show the past. Because its body produces Terastal energy, Terapagos enabled advanced human technology to exist—Tera Orbs, the professor's AI duplicate, and even the "time machine"—that would normally exceed human capability. Tera Orbs directly exposed to Terapagos's energy gain the ability to Terastallize Pokémon without needing to recharge. Terapagos maintains a strong connection to the Stellar type.
Terastal Form
When threatened or entering battle, Normal Form Terapagos absorbs surrounding energy, crystallizes it, and encases itself in a larger, sturdier shell. The rings on its legs transform into fur that forms a mane and three separate tails.
Terastal Form Terapagos resembles an indigo sea turtle. Two patches of voluminous, shiny fur now dominate its appearance—one near its head forming a mane, the other where its tail used to be forming three distinct tails. The fur ranges from greenish-yellow to sky blue, glowing a bright blueish-white in dark places like caves. Its hind legs are fully covered by fur while only the front leg toes poke out from the mane. The eyes remain unchanged but gleam with the fur's color. The diamond earrings and ponytail have merged with its head.
The shell itself is composed of eighteen irregular pentagons, each decorated with symbols resembling the eighteen type icons that morph between abstract shapes. A cyan hexagonal gem sits at the center, decorated with the Terastal symbol just like Normal Form's small crystal shell. Three solid light blue obtuse pentagons line each side of the shell's rim. Since it lacks legs in this form, Terapagos floats to move.
The Terastal Form's crystallized shell holds the power of all types, distorting type matchups and rendering damage-dealing moves completely ineffective. The shell absorbs attacking moves' energy and bounces it back to the attacker. When using beam attacks, Terapagos retracts its limbs and head, reshapes its mane to resemble its three tails, floats upward, and fires from the central hexagonal gem. Known as "the Indigo Disk" for its indigo color and disk-shaped shell, this form turns Terapagos into an nearly impenetrable defense.
Stellar Form
When exposed to a Tera Orb, Terapagos Terastallizes into Stellar-type and enters its Stellar Form.
Stellar Form Terapagos glows with a rainbow-colored aura and radiates power. All the type icons on its shell turn cyan, but the body itself is identical to Terastal Form and floats above a massive indigo crystal dome covered in overlapping hexagonal layers. Beneath the dome sit four crystals positioned like turtle legs. The central hexagonal gem has expanded into a crown-like structure bejeweled with multicolored rhombuses, topped with a miniature Normal Form Terapagos and the Terastal symbol above it. Eighteen hexagonal gems orbit the dome, each bearing one of the eighteen type icons and corresponding colors. Like the Terastal Form, it must float to move.
The form's appearance supposedly resembles the ancient world, though Heath described it differently in the Scarlet and Violet books—uncertain whether it's even truly a Pokémon or alive at all, yet noting that viewed as a whole it resembles a mysterious, brilliant disk or a planet floating in space.
Stellar Form's Terastal energy becomes so abnormally amplified that it appears to lose control and lash out uncontrollably. The sheer power risks cracking the surrounding area and destabilizing Paldea's ecosystem. Even Master Balls can't contain it—the form simply destroys them.
In battle, Stellar Form Terapagos can absorb Terastal energy from other Terastallized Pokémon, cutting their crystallized state short. It creates multiple Tera Shields and can switch its type mid-battle, though limited to three type changes per battle. Its hidden powers nullify all weather and terrain effects entirely. It shoots massive beams of pure Terastal energy and uses its orbiting hexagonal gems in specific formations to fire these attacks. Notably, it can enter Stellar Form without needing a Tera Orb, and it has shared its power with other Pokémon to create giant protective shields—though doing so completely drains its energy, forcing it into dormancy for 100 years afterward. Also called "a Disk Pokémon" and "the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero," Stellar Form represents the ultimate expression of Terapagos's power.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
