Ingo: the Unova Subway Boss stranded in Hisui

Ingo runs a subway, then wakes up in a world that has never seen railroad tracks. Subway Boss of Nimbasa City alongside his twin brother Emmet, he reappears centuries earlier in Hisui with amnesia, taken in by the Pearl Clan. In between, he's an opponent hidden behind forty-eight straight wins, and he holds a record for species sent out that no other non-player Trainer comes close to.

Contents

• The Battle Subway and the 48-win wall
• A railwayman thrown into a world without trains
• The Coronet Highlands escort
• The Jubilife Village Training Grounds and the 169-species record
• The phantom train of Nimbasa City
• Manga, cards and name origin
• Ingo at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Battle Subway and the 48-win wall

Ingo co-runs Nimbasa City's Battle Subway with his twin brother Emmet. The facility opens its doors as soon as the player sets foot in town, in Pokémon Black and White, with only the Super lines held back until the postgame.

The two bosses don't show themselves to just anyone: you first have to string together 20 straight wins on a single line, then 48, which means at least three battle sessions, then seven, on the Single lines as well as the Multi lines. You can then challenge him on your own or take him on as a duo alongside his brother, with Excadrill as his signature Pokémon.

In Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the twins first wait in Nimbasa City's station, Gear Station, where they size up Nate and then Rosa before boarding. There, unlocking their battle takes a win alongside the protagonist the player isn't controlling; the Super lines, for their part, require the National Pokédex in both installments.

A railwayman thrown into a world without trains

Centuries earlier, in Hisui, we find the same man. The space-time rift dropped him there just as it dropped the protagonist of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and he comes out of it with amnesia: of his entire existence, only his name remains. The game never explains how he made the journey.

His tattered uniform tells the rest of the trip: Hisui's wild Pokémon did not spare him before the Pearl Clan took him in. His skill as a Trainer does the rest — he is given the tunic bearing the mauve circle, and becomes warden of Sneasler, one of the ten creatures blessed by Arceus.

The disconnect is dizzying. The word "Trainer" isn't part of the vocabulary of this almost medieval Hisui, where people fear Pokémon like the plague, and yet the railwayman keeps peppering his sentences with railway jargon. Unfailingly formal in the way he addresses everyone, he is mostly on the lookout for what he could reform in this world.

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The Coronet Highlands escort

With the chapter of the island without a lord behind him, Ingo heads to Jubilife Village, where Lord Electrode is causing trouble. He first points the player toward Kamado, then goes to wait at the Training Grounds until the mission gets underway; it's his leader Irida who assigns him as escort for the expedition into the Coronet Highlands.

Melli steps in twice, refusing to let the Galaxy Team near his monarch. In the darkness of Wayward Cave, Ingo reels off scraps of memories: a Fire-type companion that apparently lit his way, a man who looked just like him and once battled alongside him, an Electrode unlike the ones in the caves.

Once the torches are relit and the alpha Crobat has been slipped past, he forces a battle on the player just below the critical zone, hoping a duel will jog his memory. He then calls Sneasler and lets it hear the Celestica Flute, allowing the player to climb the cliff up to Electrode's royal domain, Moonview Arena.

The Jubilife Village Training Grounds and the 169-species record

Once the monarch has been calmed, Ingo reports to Kamado, then settles in at the Jubilife Village Training Grounds. He reorganizes the place to put Pokémon battles within everyone's reach: in front of Melli and Adaman, he had already laid down the principle that, in his era, true strength is built through the bonds battle forges between people and Pokémon.

You talk to him to take on the Path of Tenacity or the Path of Solitude, or to choose a specific training partner. A game update earned him a record: no other non-player Trainer has sent out as many species, 169 in all, 161 of them on the Path of Solitude alone.

Two more quirks come on top of that. He alone, among non-player Trainers, sends out alpha Pokémon — they come in under the Wild Might status, with all stats raised and indirect damage reduced — and no other member of Hisui's clans keeps their Pokémon in Poké Balls. The Path of Solitude earns him a third distinction: he sends out Unown there, something no one else has done outside of battle facilities and spin-off games.

The phantom train of Nimbasa City

The anime makes Ingo the elder of the two brothers and kicks off their storyline with a technical glitch: someone has broken into Nimbasa City's network to tamper with the switches. All they have time to glimpse are the faces of Jessie and James before a train that doesn't belong to the local network vanishes into the dark.

When the Pokémon Center is robbed and all traffic grinds to a halt after a hack, the two bosses set up an ambush at the D3 junction and guide the group from the control room, without ever managing to single out the phantom train on screens flooded with decoys. They end up commandeering a utility car: Ingo's Chandelure uses Psychic to set the young Trainers down on the enemy locomotive, which a Will-O-Wisp then blows up.

Later, a battle against one of the twins serves as the prize for a stamp rally covering the city's sixty stations. The two bosses turn a train car into a battlefield at the push of a button and win the two-on-two, better coordinated than their young opponents; that evening, Ingo announces the reopening of the Driftveil Drawbridge, three episodes after wishing Ash good luck in his challenge against Elesa.

Manga, cards and name origin

The manga gives him a minor role, always flanked by Emmet. Nimbasa City's mayor, impressed by their skills as Trainers, makes them the conductors of the Battle Subway: they test White against virtual opponents during the ride, with the elder brother repeatedly having to haul his far more impatient sibling back into the cab.

At the Anville Town terminus, he challenges the passenger himself and the duel ends in a draw. As for the trading card game, the character arrived in early February 2019 with the Team Up expansion, in the Sun & Moon series, with an effect that has the player discard their hand and then draw five cards. The mobile game Pokémon Masters EX added him in June 2021, with three outfits and four successive partners.

As for etymology, his French name, Chammal, is shared with the shamal, a Middle Eastern wind that blows from the northwest. His Japanese name, meanwhile, literally means "to board a vehicle," and it slips into the word for mountain climbing: a coincidence that suits Sneasler, whose species category is the Free Climb Pokémon.

Ingo at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do you battle Ingo in the Battle Subway?
  You first need to line up 20 wins on the same line, then 48 — at least three battle sessions, then seven, on the Single lines as well as the Multi lines. You then face him alone or as a duo with Emmet; the Super lines, for their part, require the National Pokédex.
• What does Ingo do in Pokémon Legends: Arceus?
  Thrown into Hisui by the space-time rift and struck with amnesia, he is taken in by the Pearl Clan and becomes Sneasler's warden. He then escorts the protagonist to the Coronet Highlands, before settling at the Jubilife Village Training Grounds to spread the practice of Pokémon battles.
• Are Ingo and Emmet twins?
  Yes, and they run the Battle Subway together. Ingo is the elder of the two: you can recognize him by his black clothes and his permanent frown, while his brother wears white.
• Why does Ingo hold a record among non-player Trainers?
  Since an update to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, he has sent out 169 species in battle, 161 of them on the Path of Solitude alone. He is also the only non-player Trainer to send out alpha Pokémon, and the only member of a Hisuian clan to keep his Pokémon in Poké Balls.
• What becomes of Ingo after his time in Hisui?
  The Lumiose Museum's exhibit on Hisui credits him as the one who introduced the people of Jubilife Village to Pokémon battles. Some sources report that he vanished after announcing it was time to go home, which suggests he returned to his own era.

In short

Ingo's whole character rests on a disconnect: a railwayman dropped into a world that hasn't invented the train, who responds by setting up a dojo. The game never says why the space-time rift snatched him, of all people, or how he leaves, and Poképédia likens his path to that of Anabel, who also leaves a battle facility for a region from a later generation. What remains is an opponent who has fielded more species than any other non-player Trainer.