Rayquaza

Rayquaza (レックウザ, Rekkūza) is a creature in the Pokémon media franchise.

Creature description
Rayquaza is a Legendary Pokémon that first appeared in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and, most prominently, Emerald, where it was featured as the cover Pokémon. Its type is Dragon/Flying. It is fairly high leveled in the games, appearing at level 70. However, he also shares this title with Mewtwo, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Regigigas, Heatran, Giratina, Groudon, Kyogre, Dialga, and Palkia. (last four are referring to Emerald and Platinum appearences)

Rayquaza inhabits the ozone layer and, due to living at such a height, it cannot be spotted from the ground. It feeds on water particles, like those that compose clouds, thus it does not need to descend if not to rest (because it is constantly circling the world). However, should Kyogre and Groudon enter a feud, Rayquaza must come down to put things in their rightful places.

Out of all Legendary Pokémon, Rayquaza is the longest, measuring 23' (7 m). It is, however, only the fourth longest Pokémon, losing to Onix, Steelix and Wailord. It weighs 455.2 lbs (206.5 kg), and its National Pokédex Number is #384.

Role In The Subspace Emissary
Rayquaza is the second boss in adventure mode of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the Subspace Emissary, Rayquaza first appears in the jungle after Diddy Kong goes to investigate a crashed Arwing. It bursts out of the water and destroys the Arwing with a ball of electricity, then grabs Diddy. Before it can retreat into the water, Fox McCloud leaps from the burning Arwing and attacks Rayquaza using Fox Illusion, causing it to lose its grip on Diddy Kong. The beast attacks Fox with the lightning orb again, but Fox reflects the attack back at Rayquaza using his Reflector, sending it tumbling back into the water. Both Diddy and Fox face off against the dangerous Legendary Pokémon. It can also be battled at any given time in Boss Battles. It has not been proven to have any connection with the Subspace Army and could just be angry at Diddy and Fox for intruding on its territory. However, at the last level, Tabuu resurrects Rayquaza to slow down the heroes in the maze he creates out of previous worlds. Also, when Rayquaza is defeated, he twitches at the last second, which probably means he was only knocked out (a possible throwback to the Pokemon series, where a Pokemon who is defeated in battle is said to have fainted).

First Move

 * Rayquaza sweeps its tail around violently, using a move known as Iron Tail. It actually hits twice, so it can break your shield quite easily at higher difficulties.


 * Rayquaza ducks down and rushes to the other side of the stage.

Second Move

 * Rayquaza sends a ball of electricity in front of itself diagonally, or lowers its head and sends the lightning orb in front of itself, which travels across the stage unless it hits the ground, when it will explode (This can be reflected by various reflecting attacks but not absorbed by PSI Magnet or Oil Panic).


 * Rayquaza burrows underground, then bursts out of the ground where the player was standing. At lower HP, Rayquaza does this three times. When its HP is low enough that it can be captured, it will perform this attack four times. A suicidal move if used against Marth and Ike since they can easily Counter it to massive damage without taking any damage.

Third move

 * Rayquaza's eyes glow, and then it creates an explosion at the location where your character was at that time . While Rayquaza's eyes glow, fighters in contact with its head will be spiked to the ground, often a perfect setup for the explosion.


 * Rayquaza flies up in a tight circle and hits you with a multi-hit lightning bolt (it does not have knockback, however). It breaks shields down quickly. During the time Rayquaza rises touching it will deal Electric damage. It's one of the few attacks that are easier to dodge on higher difficulties due to its much shorter duration. Rayquaza only uses at lower HP.


 * Rayquaza flies up slowly, then crashes into the character while burrowing into the ground, then appears on the other side. The above lightning bolt attack is the substitute for this at lower HP.


 * Rayquaza flies up, and then dashes back and forth near the ground. At lower HP, Rayquaza does this two or three times. Small characters can evade this attack by ducking if they can fit between the "waves" of Rayquaza's wavy shape and the ground, but the move also produces a wind that can push characters around (making crawling an asset) into a spot where they can be hit.

Random

 * Rayquaza roars. During the first part of the roar, you are pushed away from Rayquaza if you are close to it. This attack deals no damage. (This does not affect Rayquaza's attack cycle.)

As a trophy

 * A Sky High Pokemon. It normally resides high up in the ozone layer where it flies endlessly, so it is rarely seen. However, when Groudon and Kyogre began to fight, it appeared to calm them down. It has the ability Air Lock, which blocks all weather-condition effects. It has exceedingly strong abilities, and its attack power is especially remarkable.

Statistics
Rayquaza has a lot of Health which can make fighting it rather difficult to destroy effectively. It also may resist many different kinds of attacks. Strangely enough it's not particularly weak to Freezing attacks (in the Pokémon RPGs, Rayquaza is especially vulnerable to Ice). Ganondorf's Darkness attacks are not resisted by it, in fact Rayquaza may be weak against them. Using Kirby's Hammer in midair is also a good tactic.

General Strategy
Like many Bosses Rayquaza's attacks can generally be easily dodged and avoided with sidesteps and air dodges. Since most of its attacks are only on the ground, characters that can stay in the air for long periods can easily dodge some of its faster attacks. Overall Rayquaza is pretty easy if you pay attention to it's movements and learn to air dodge efficiently.

Capture
To quicken the fight you may want to use a heavy hitter (Ganondorf is excellent) to deal loads of damage quickly to get it weak, then use a character loaded with defensive Stickers who can easily dodge its attacks and wait for a Trophy Stand to drop. It is easier if the level difficulty is harder and there are the stickers that make trophy stands appear more frequently.

Trivia

 * Despite being the "Sky High" Pokémon who lives high in the ozone layer, Rayquaza in Brawl seems to be able to live underwater. This may be because, in the Pokémon games, Rayquaza can learn the HM moves "Surf" and "Dive". This may also allude to the mythical animal Rayquaza may have been based on- a Chinese dragon who was said to command the rain and waters.
 * When Rayquaza grabs Diddy it looks like it intends to eat him, but in the Pokémon games, Rayquaza is not carnivorous. According to the game's Pokédex, since Rayquaza usually resides in the ozone layer, it eats water particles.
 * Rayquaza's types in the Pokémon universe (Dragon and Flying) are not accurately reflected in Brawl: it should resist water and be extremely weak to ice, yet it does neither.
 * Rayquaza is the only Boss not to come in contact with any character from its own series.
 * A glitch can happen when facing off Rayquaza. It is unknown how this happens, but it can leave a line straight across your screen, as well as taking you offscreen, but not KO'ed. This glitch lasts until you quit the battle. Also, any homing attack Rayquaza performs go offscreen; they will not hit you, however. Here's a video to show it.
 * Like the playable Pokémon, it can use over 4 moves, as it seems to be able to do Fly, Iron Tail, Dive, Dragon Pulse, and Thunder.