Professor Hastings: inventor of the Capture Styler

He has never made a Poké Ball. Professor Hastings is the researcher of the Pokémon Ranger games, and his invention rests on the opposite principle from the Poké Ball's: you don't lock the creature away, you convince it to lend a hand. Born in Fall City, in Fiore, he leads the Ranger Union's scientific work and is regarded as its highest-ranking member.

Contents

• The Capture Styler, a Capture That Calms
• Three Friends, Three Institutions
• Fiore: The Prototype Slips Away
• Almia: The Fine Styler and a Promotion Invented for the Occasion
• Oblivia: A Mission, and a Brother
• In the Manga: Deoxys, an Egg and a Rescue
• Professor Hastings at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Capture Styler, a Capture That Calms

The Capture Styler is his work, and every version of it comes out of his lab. The device doesn't just replace the Poké Ball, it reverses its logic: where the ball holds a Pokémon in, the Capture Styler calms it and secures its help for a moment.

The journal he kept in his youth preserves the first name he came up with for his device: the "Capture Loopy-Looper". He had spent the whole night drawing up its blueprints, and the name the Union eventually settled on would be more restrained.

His guiding principle fits in one sentence he likes to repeat: his research must serve society, people and Pokémon, in that order and without exception. It is this philosophy, more than any technical feat, that earned him the leadership of the Ranger Union's science division.

Three Friends, Three Institutions

A brilliant but hurried student, he wrote so badly and so fast that he would sometimes misspell his own name — a "Hatsting" preserved in the records, which Erma teases him about in writing and which he himself jokes about a few pages later.

His life's project grew out of a three-part idea, recorded in that same journal. He would build the capture tool, Lamont would open a school to teach how to use it, and Erma would found an institution devoted to protecting people and Pokémon through peaceful captures. Three dreams which, as he wrote at the time, might be just one dream seen from three angles.

The trio swears an oath, and the game replays the same scene in its opening with Rhythmi, Keith and the hero — Kellyn or Kate: the next generation repeats the founders' gesture. His doctoral thesis, titled "Établir un lien: analyse quantitative de l'“esprit” des Pokémon" in the French version, can be read at the Ranger School, while the Styler's Glossary credits him with founding the Ranger Union together with three other people.

Fiore: The Prototype Slips Away

Pokémon Ranger, the first game in the series, sets him up in a lab northwest of Fall City, his hometown, with a single assistant for company. He rarely leaves it, and when he does, he tends to get lost along the way.

The existence of the Super Styler, his prototype, is supposed to be known only to the four Ranger Leaders, one per Ranger Base. He says so himself, a little too loudly, before confiding that he already knows how to improve its performance.

Events prove him wrong about keeping it secret: the Go-Rock Squad gets its hands on the prototype to take control of powerful Pokémon, Legendaries included. The organization mentions a Power Styler, and the theft of the fruit of his research seems to have served that exact purpose.

Almia: The Fine Styler and a Promotion Invented for the Occasion

In Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, he occupies the rooms on the second floor of the Ranger Union. His assistant finally gets a first name, Denise, and two new researchers join the team: the brothers Vatona and Nage.

Up against Team Dim Sun, the Union is short on Top Rangers. Promoting two beginners to that rank is an idea Erma and Hastings came up with together, and they take sole responsibility for it while giving the two newcomers free rein. The symbol of the rank is a device: the Fine Styler.

Its new feature has a name, the Power Charge, and it changes the pace of the action. The device builds up power before starting the capture instead of launching it right away, and that reserve amplifies the surge of friendship aimed at the target. Later, a special program developed by Vatona and Nage, calibrated to the three Tears of Princes already set into the device, turns this Fine Styler into the world's only Vatonage Styler, capable of capturing Pokémon under enemy control.

Oblivia: A Mission, and a Brother

In Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs, he is the one who summons the player and their partner — Ben or Summer, depending on the hero chosen — for a special mission. An organization is seizing Pokémon that cannot defend themselves and selling them to wealthy clients; long scattered, the Pokémon Pinchers are banding together, and Oblivia, a region known for being peaceful, has only a single Area Ranger.

Above all, the story gives him an older brother, Booker, a shipwright. Twenty years earlier, Booker had gathered young craftsmen to build a ship, the Union; Hastings wanted to bring him into the Ranger Union as its captain, Booker refused to leave his homeland, and the quarrel froze their relationship for twenty years. Yet when the ship was bound for the scrapyard, it was Hastings who sent it to serve in Oblivia. The quest "The Precious Red Berry" finally reconciles the two stubborn brothers.

Once the case is closed, he is again the one who explains what happened: the Golden Armor tried to corrupt the three legendary birds to secure their protection, and met with a flat refusal. Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres held firm, and the professor comes back to greet the player at the very top of the Wireless Tower once all the quests are completed.

🔥 The legendary birds have their own section: see the Legendary Pokémon.

In the Manga: Deoxys, an Egg and a Rescue

The Pokémon Ranger manga casts him as the one giving the orders. He has Lunick called in by Solana for a mission: Deoxys has been spotted, and Spenser, Joel and Elita have failed to capture it, even with the three of them together. He also asks for someone to get hold of Cameron, who has been unreachable even though he wanted to report a find.

That find is the Egg of a Manaphy. With Deoxys saved and the Egg safe, no one in Fiore is able to care for it until it hatches: the professor decides to send it to another region, and picks Sinnoh because his new assistant, Iyori, has just come from there. The girl had landed the job after giving his office a thorough tidy-up.

In the Shadows of Almia manga, he turns up dangling in midair at the top of the Altru Tower: a Togekiss and a Starly save him from falling. The final pages of the story show him seeing Darkrai off.

Professor Hastings at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Professor Hastings?
  He is the Pokémon Professor of the Pokémon Ranger games. A researcher born in Fall City, in Fiore, he leads the Ranger Union's scientific work and is regarded as the organization's highest-ranking Ranger.
• What did Professor Hastings invent?
  The Capture Styler and all its variants. Instead of locking the Pokémon away like a Poké Ball, the device performs a capture that calms it and secures its help. In the journal he kept as a young man, he still called it the Capture Loopy-Looper.
• What is the Fine Styler?
  It is the symbol of the Top Ranger rank, handed over by Hastings himself. It adds the Power Charge, which builds up power before the capture and amplifies the surge of friendship aimed at the target.
• Which games does Professor Hastings appear in?
  All three Ranger games: Pokémon Ranger, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs. He also appears in the manga adaptations of Pokémon Ranger and Shadows of Almia.
• What is the connection between Professor Hastings and Booker?
  Booker is his older brother. Hastings wanted to bring him into the Ranger Union as captain of the ship he had built; Booker's refusal led to a twenty-year falling-out, finally ended by the Precious Red Berry quest.

In short

Professor Hastings is the only Pokémon Professor whose invention competes head-on with the Poké Ball, and he designed it as an instrument of peace before turning it into a field tool. Three games later, his device has gained a charge, a program and a rank, but never a lock. For him, capturing has never meant owning.