User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Nightshade Paolumu/@comment-25119729-20200126201029

Visually, Nightshade Paolumu has the vanilla one easily beat. The black fur with the red and blue patterns on it is much more interesting to look at than the white and pink of normal Paolumu. Unfortunately, visuals are all Nightshade Pao has going for it.

The fight in itself is a nice design in concept. Unlike normal Pao, Nightshade spends almost the entire fight exclusively in the air, making it harder to hit but exposing its weak ballon neck the entire time. But then comes the sleep gas. Depending on what area you are in, you can either kite Nightshade out of it or it becomes your worst nightmare. The fact that it lingers for a really long amount of time and the fact that Nightshade can move them around however it pleases adds up to a fight where you either try to stunlock it to be spared of this experience or you get sleep negate and don't have to give a damn.

At the end of this, you get equipment that is rarely used, even in the beginnig of Master Rank. The armor seems to have random skills just thrown into it and even sleep weapons can be better achieveed from other monsters.

In the end it will only be remembered for being a better looking Pao.