Vivosaurs

Vivosaurs are creatures that are revived from the fossils of prehistoric animals. Because the fossils are influenced over time by their environments, many vivosaurs have powers and physical features that their animal counterparts did not originally have. Once revived, vivosaurs can take the form of Dino Medals, small, portable objects that can easily be carried and stored. Vivosaurs are primarily used by people who battle using Dino Medals, known as Fossil Fighters, to compete in Fossil Battles, although some act as companions or even as modes of transportation.

For lists of all known vivosaurs by title, see List of Vivosaurs, List of Vivosaurs (Champions), and List of Vivosaurs (Frontier).

Elemental Types
Main article: Elemental Type 

Vivosaurs can be one of six Elements (also referred to as "types"): Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Neutral, and the rare Legendary Element. A vivosaur's Element gives it special elemental powers and affects how much damage it deals to and receives from vivosaurs of different Elements. With the exception of the Neutral and Legendary Elements, each Element is strong against one Element and weak to another. In Fossil Fighters: Frontier, the strengths and weakness of Earth and Air are switched.

List of Strengths and Weaknesses:

Fossils
Fossils are taken to the Cleaning Room in Fighter Stations throughout the game to be cleaned and integrated into vivosaurs, or to be stored until the head of the vivosaur in question is found. Fossils rocks typically contain parts of a vivosaur: the Head, Body, Arms, or the Legs, however complete skeleton fossils can be found in Fossil Fighters: Champions within Giant Fossil Rocks. A vivosaur only needs a Head fossil to be revived and usable in battle, but it will not have all of its skills until it ranks up, typically between ranks 5 and 7, however, in Fossil Fighters: Champions, vivosaurs learn skills at ranks 1, 3, 5, and 7. Cleaning and integrating the other fossil parts of a vivosaur such as the Body, Arms, or Legs will increase its point score and allow it to rank up and become stronger, though points may also be earned through battle. It is advised to take caution while cleaning a fossil, particularly when using the hammer, as it may get damaged and lose points.

On occasion, it is possible to dig up rare red-boned fossils. These fossils will add a bonus of 25 points when they are successfully cleaned, allowing for a maximum point score of 125 for one fossil. A vivosaur may earn a total of 500 points from fossil integrations alone, if all fossils are cleaned perfectly and are red-boned. In Fossil Fighters: Champions, red-boned fossil rocks may show up on the sonar with a yellow circle, though it is worth noting that this symbol may indicate a Wondrous or Miraculous fossil rock instead. Bones found in Dark Fossil Rocks are always red-boned, however, these may on occasion contain jewels or Coprolites (dropping fossils) instead. Coprolites may be given to Nick Nack in Fossil Fighters, and to John Guano at the Hare Club in Fossil Fighters: Champions.

In addition to regular Fossil rocks, it is also possible to excavate Jewel Rocks, which can be cleaned for various jewels. Jewels found in Jewel Rocks may be sold at the shop for a decent price, especially for 100-point specimens. Selling a dropping fossil to the Fossil Guild will only give you 1G, so it is not particularly worthwhile to try. The sandal fossil found in Greenhorn plains is a one-time special occasion as part of the storyline, to be traded to Nick Nack alongside the molted bug shell and the Denture Shark Dentures for Captain Woolbeard's Beard Ribbon.

Super Revival
In Fossil Fighters: Champions, Fighters may augment their vivosaurs with Wondrous and Miraculous fossils to make them stronger in a process called Super Revival. Super Revival may cause a vivosaur to change color or even evolve into a different vivosaur. The point score of Wondrous and Miraculous fossils determines the stat boost given to the vivosaur it is integrated into, and is not added to its rank score total.

Donation Point Vivosaurs
These vivosaurs are unable to be found within Dig Sites throughout the game and must be purchased using Donation Points earned by donating fossils. Fossils are donated when they are not cleaned well enough to replace an already integrated fossil part.

Fossil Fighters
 * Stego (50 DP)
 * F-Raptor (75 DP)
 * Ptera (100 DP)
 * Compso (200 DP)

Fossil Fighters: Champions
 * Lambeo (10-30 DP)
 * Spinax (30-50 DP)
 * Daspleto (50-75 DP)
 * Spino (125-150 DP)

Special Vivosaurs
There are a handful of vivosaurs that are obtained through methods besides fossil excavation and purchases. Depending on the vivosaur in question, you may have to battle for them, or meet a certain requirement. They are only available in the post-game, so attempting to fulfill these requirements before finishing the game is a fruitless effort. They have their maximum battle points when received, rendering any cleaning or integration unnecessary.


 * Dinomaton (revive all 100 original vivosaurs)
 * Duna (revive all 100 original vivosaurs)


 * Raptin (revive all 100 original vivosaurs)


 * Dynal (defeat Dynal, Duna, and Raptin in a battle at the starport)


 * Frigi (defeat the BB bandit trio)


 * Igno (defeat Saurhead the 3rd time in 3 matches)

In Fossil Fighters: Champions, all of these aforementioned vivosaurs, with exception of Guhlith, Guhvorn and Guhweep, were available via the Bonus Data option in Multiplayer when connected to Nintendo Wi-Fi. As of May 20, 2014, these vivosaurs are no longer obtainable legitimately with the closure of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Fossil Fighters: Champions also contains a slate of additional special post-game vivosaurs, with more unique vivosaurs available to unlock than its predecessor. In addition, there are 5 special vivosaurs commonly known as the Chickens, one for each element. In Fossil Fighters, they may be obtained via Nintendo Channel, through which their eggs may be downloaded once per game, however, it is also possible to get all of them with maximum battle points by having every vivosaur at rank 12. However, in Fossil Fighters: Champions, they are acquired through various sidequests instead.
 * Guhlith (defeat Guhnash in time warp post-game)
 * Guhvorn (defeat Guhnash in time warp post-game)
 * Guhweep (defeat Guhnash in time warp post-game)
 * Salada (Bonus Data)
 * Tonzilla (defeat Robinson in a challenge battle)
 * B-Rex (defeat Lola in a challenge battle)
 * B-Brachio (defeat Lola in a challenge battle)
 * B-Jara (defeat Lola in a challenge battle)
 * B-Lambeo (defeat Cole in a challenge battle)
 * B-Plesio (defeat Cole in a challenge battle)
 * B-Ptera (defeat Lester in a challenge battle)
 * B-Tricera (defeat Lester in a challenge battle)
 * Z-Rex (defeat Zongazonga a second time)
 * Z-Tricera (defeat Zongazonga a second time)
 * Z-Ptera (defeat Zongazonga a second time)
 * Z-Elasmo (defeat Zongazonga a second time)
 * Zongazonga (defeat Zongazonga a second time)
 * Squik (Mysterious Present, raise all vivosaurs to rank 12/Egg-xact Timing)
 * Squirk (Mysterious Present, raise all vivosaurs to rank 12/A Close Shave)
 * Squirth (Mysterious Present, raise all vivosaurs to rank 12/Curious Cleaning)
 * Squilk (Mysterious Present, raise all vivosaurs to rank 12/Hot Spring in Your Step)
 * Squiro (Mysterious Present, raise all vivosaurs to rank 12/Concentrate!)

Fossil Battles
Once revived, vivosaurs may be used in Fossil Battles. Each vivosaur has stats that determine its qualities in battle, and are useful as a predictor for its strengths or weaknesses, and to some extent the stats of a vivosaur may be predicted by what kind of vivosaur, e.g. theropods, sauropods, pterosaurs, etc. These stats are as follows:


 * Life Points (LP): determines the amount of damage a vivosaur can take before being defeated.


 * Attack: determines the damage dealt to other vivosaurs.


 * Defense: determines the damage taken by the vivosaur.


 * Accuracy: determines the chance of hitting the target vivosaur and the critical hit rate of the vivosaur.

Each stat except for Life Points can be increased or decreased by another vivosaur's Support Effects in battle.
 * Evasion/Speed: determines whether the vivosaur can evade an attack, and in Fossil Fighters: Champions, whether its team will attack first.

The Attack Zone (AZ) and Support Zone (SZ) describe a vivosaur's placement in battle. Support effects from a vivosaur in the SZ may be applied to either vivosaurs in their own team's AZ, or to those in the enemy's AZ. Support effects can be positive or negative, regardless of which team's AZ they are applied to. Additionally, it is worth noting that not all vivosaurs have support effects. Attack effectiveness from any placement against a vivosaur in any other placement on the field is determined by their range class, though in Fossil Fighters there are damage penalties concerning vivosaurs placed in the SZ that were obsoleted in Fossil Fighters: Champions.

Fossil Points (FP) are necessary to execute skills in battle, and are recharged at the beginning of every turn. If a fighter has no FP remaining, they can make no further actions and must end their turn. Skills are varied and can have many different effects, from applying debuffs to stealing FP. Most skills are attacking moves used to decrease the Life Points of enemy vivosaurs, and once a vivosaur has no LP remaining, it is eliminated from battle. In addition to regular skills, vivosaurs also have Team Skills that are usable when the vivosaurs on a team all have a particular factor in common, such as elemental type, location, or time period. Team skills effect both the AZ and SZ of the opposing team, though typically have a high FP cost.

Names in other languages

 * Japanese : リバイバー Reviver
 * French: Vivosaures
 * German: Vivosaurier
 * Spanish: Vivosaurios
 * Italian: Vivosauri
 * Korean: 리바이버 Ribaibeo

Trivia

 * Vivosaur may be a portmanteau of "vivo," meaning 'living' in Latin, and "saur," meaning reptile/lizard. Thus, "vivosaur" literally means 'living reptile.'
 * Despite the etymology of the term, some vivosaurs are synapsids, mammals, or robotic in nature, and some are dubiously alive at best, such as the Zombiesaurs.
 * It should be noted that, despite the addition of two new Japanese vivosaurs in Champions, Toba and Gaudry, neither one can use their team skills with any of the original three Japanese vivosaurs, F-Raptor, Futabi and Mihu. Thus, using either of the new Japanese vivosaurs with any the original three renders the original three's team skill unusable.
 * In Fossil Fighters, the player's starter will always be a Spinax. However, in Fossil Fighters: Champions, the player can choose one of four unique vivosaurs for their starter: Tsintao (earth), Toba (water), Dimetro (fire), or Aeros (air).
 * The Spinax in Fossil Fighters must be cleaned and revived. However, in Fossil Fighters: Champions, the player's starter is already revived, but it is still at rank 1.
 * All of the DS starters have a super evolved form. Fossil Fighters: Spinax (Giga Spinax) Fossil Fighters: Champions: Tsintao (Bulgon), Toba (Equinas), Dimetro (Lugmos), Aeros (Teffla).