Beni: The Jubilife Village Cook Hiding a Ninja Outfit

You'd take him for a grumpy old man behind his stove. Beni runs The Wallflower, Jubilife Village's eatery, serves potato mochi to the Galaxy Team and shuts his door on strangers. He's also the inventor of the Smoke Bomb, the right-hand man of Kamado and the last practitioner of a ninja art he watches fading away. Pokémon Legends: Arceus only reveals the other half of the character the moment he attacks.

Contents

• The Wallflower, the Galaxy Team's Canteen
• Potato Mochi, Sootfoot Roots and What Else They Make
• The Ambush at the Stone Portal
• Training Grounds Rematches and the Path of Tenacity
• A Name from a Vine, and a Family Resemblance to Wally
• Beni at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Wallflower, the Galaxy Team's Canteen

On paper, Beni is just the village cook: he runs The Wallflower and feeds the Galaxy Team members based in Jubilife Village. Yet his profile gives him a second, far weightier title — right-hand man to Kamado, the organization's leader. His restaurant effectively serves as an unofficial headquarters.

He's not a welcoming character. An older man with permanently half-closed eyelids, he speaks in clipped phrases and shares the rest of Jubilife Village's open distrust of strangers, all the more so of those who, like the protagonist, have literally dropped out of the sky.

The first meeting makes it plain: the cook shuts his door in the newcomer's face, on the grounds that the newcomer is neither from the village nor part of the Galaxy Team. Even when Professor Laventon and Rei or Akari firmly sit the newcomer down at his table, he still slips in a jab. He softens later on, but it takes getting past that first.

Potato Mochi, Sootfoot Roots and What Else They Make

The house has one specialty and one only: potato mochi. It relies on a single ingredient, the Sootfoot Root, and Beni never has enough. So he buys every one the protagonist gathers in the wild, at 100 Poké Dollars apiece. The player is free to refuse; the cook then simply points out that the dinner service still has to go on.

The recipe has a real-world model. The Wallflower's potato mochi is modeled on regular mochi, the Japanese treat made from glutinous rice: the tuber takes the place of the rice, but the idea of a dense dough served in bite-size pieces stays the same. It's also the dish that just about every one of his lines revolves around.

The same tuber has another use, and that's where the character turns. Beni is the inventor of the Smoke Bomb, which he developed from Sootfoot Roots. A mundane catching aid for the player, a repurposed cooking ingredient for its creator, and, when the time comes, a weapon.

The Ambush at the Stone Portal

Everything changes when Kamado mounts his expedition against the Pokémon of the Temple of Sinnoh. Beni is handed two missions: supplying the troops and keeping unwanted people out of the way. The first comes naturally to a cook; the second, much less so.

So he lies in wait for the protagonist at the Stone Portal, at the tunnel exit, once the main mission "Atop Mount Coronet" is underway. He announces his double role himself, throws a Smoke Bomb and steps out of the cloud in ninja garb, apron cast aside. Four Pokémon at levels 59 to 60 follow: Mismagius, Sneasler, Gardevoir and Gallade.

Defeat doesn't leave him bitter. He admits he admires the way his opponent battles alongside their Pokémon, then finally lets his story out: a home village attacked and destroyed by a frenzied Pokémon, of which he and Kamado are the only two known survivors. He then leaves it to the newcomer to bring his leader to his senses, which, coming from a man tasked with getting rid of troublemakers, amounts to passing the torch.

Training Grounds Rematches and the Path of Tenacity

The cook becomes an opponent again once Dialga and Palkia have been caught. He then waits at the Jubilife Village training grounds, both for one-off battles and as part of the Path of Tenacity. The rematch can be replayed once a day, and you have to request it from Ingo: you don't challenge the leader's right-hand man directly.

Further rounds have to wait for the side request "Daybreak." Beni always holds second place there, just after Zisu, captain of the Security Corps. The order isn't random: you get past the training grounds instructor before you reach the ninja.

The lineup grows from one round to the next. Roserade and Magnezone join the ranks, the team reaches five Pokémon at levels 76 and 77 in the final wave, and the effort level of every stat rises from 3 to 5. Same Trainer, same kit, one more step up each time.

🍢 Everything you need to rebuild the chef's team: check out the Pokémon figures.

A Name from a Vine, and a Family Resemblance to Wally

His name comes from a climbing plant, the Lardizabala biternata, and the botanical family it named, the Lardizabalaceae, at least in French, where he's called Lardi; the Spanish Ardizo follows exactly the same trail. The Japanese ムベ (Mube) refers to the stauntonia vine, which belongs to that same family, and the English Beni partly derives from it, with a possible nod to beni-imo, the purple sweet potato. For a cook, the etymology fits nicely.

Then there's an uncanny family resemblance to Wally, the rival in Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes. The physical resemblance comes with four shared Pokémon — both of Ralts's final evolutions, plus Magnezone and Roserade — and with French names that work as opposites: "hardi" (bold) on one side, in his restaurant Le Hardi Gourmand, and "timide" (shy) on the other, in Timmy, Wally's French name. In English, the restaurant is called The Wallflower, a nod to Wally's name.

The parallel goes even further: Beni considers moving somewhere with a milder climate, which points to Verdanturf Town, the Hoenn town where Wally went to recover his health. Yet no link between the two characters has ever been officially confirmed. In animation, he only gets a background cameo near the Jubilife Village gate, in the Pokémon: Hisuian Snow episode "Two Hues."

Beni at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Beni in Pokémon Legends: Arceus?
  The Galaxy Team's cook and the right-hand man of its leader, Kamado. He runs The Wallflower, Jubilife Village's eatery, where he serves potato mochi made from Sootfoot Roots.
• Why does Beni attack the player at the Stone Portal?
  During Kamado's expedition to the Temple of Sinnoh, he's in charge of supplying the troops and getting rid of anyone in the way. So he ambushes the protagonist, swaps his apron for ninja garb and starts the battle.
• How do you battle Beni again after the ambush?
  Once Dialga and Palkia have been caught, he can be battled again at the Jubilife Village training grounds, once a day, by going through Ingo. Further Path of Tenacity rounds unlock with the side request "Daybreak."
• What Pokémon does Beni use?
  Mismagius, Sneasler, Gardevoir and Gallade in the Stone Portal ambush. Roserade and Magnezone join over the Path of Tenacity rounds, up to a team of five Pokémon.
• Where does Beni's name come from?
  From climbing plants. His Japanese name, Mube, refers to the stauntonia vine, and the English Beni partly derives from it. His French name, Lardi, comes from the Lardizabala biternata and the Lardizabalaceae, the botanical family the stauntonia vine belongs to.

In short

Beni runs Jubilife Village's only eatery and plays the one Galaxy Team role nobody sees coming: an old man who slams his door on outsiders and steps out of a cloud of smoke as a ninja. His mochi, his Sootfoot Roots and his Smoke Bombs form a single chain, and the destroyed village he shares with Kamado explains on its own how far the leader is willing to go. Few supporting figures in Hisui carry this much story.