"Quite a handful," Gamino said.
In fact, Metagross could determine the best way to turn the situation around under extreme circumstances every time thanks to its extraordinarily developed brains.
Many people did not understand how Metagross evolved, mistakenly assuming that it evolved on its own upon reaching the required level, just like in the games. But that was not how it actually worked.
If you wanted a Metagross as your mainstay pseudo-legendary Pokémon, the first step was to raise a Beldum.
Once your first Beldum reached the appropriate level, congratulations! You could move on to step two-raising a second Beldum. Then, once you brought them both to the same level, they would attract each other and evolve into Metang.
After completing the second step, you could begin the third! That meant repeating the second step to raise another Metang of the same level, then letting the two attract each other to complete their final evolution. Once the evolutionary light slowly faded, you would have the legendary pseudo-legendary Pokémon, Metagross.
The cost of raising such a pseudo-legendary Pokémon was far beyond what an ordinary person could imagine, because each Beldum cost as much as an ordinary pseudo-legendary Pokémon. In other words, raising one Metagross meant spending enough money to raise four pseudo-legendary Pokémon.
And that was not all. To ensure their strength underwent a qualitative leap after evolving, you had to work hard to make them as strong as possible before evolution. The resources consumed in that process were another astronomical sum.
Many people would not raise pseudo-legendary Pokémon, partly because they were rare and partly because they could not afford to. Behind their terrifying combat power once fully developed lay an even more terrifying astronomical figure, which made many people shrink back. This was also why China's Pokémon League did