How to unlock Rowlet
Rowlet is one of the free starters: pick it from the starter selector at the start of a run and it costs no tickets. Later copies come from the Alola banner, where it sits in the 2★ pool. The 2★ band takes 30% of all pulls and holds 171 partners, so one specific Rowlet works out to about 0.1754% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Rowlet has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Rowlet refunds 30 coins at the 2★ rate.
Rowlet stats and rank
Rowlet carries 101 HP, 96 speed, a ×1 attack multiplier, ×1 physical, ×0.97 special, 55 defense and 50 special defense, 320 in total. On the three-stat percentile this is 28.2 out of 100, which puts Rowlet at rank 717 of 966 and in tier C. What separates it from its neighbours is shape, not size: its strongest slot is HP (51st percentile) and its weakest is attack multiplier (13th percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Rowlet's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Petal Blizzard at 33.6 damage per 0.26s (125.5 effective DPS, ×0.97 multiplier), then Gust at 31.2 damage per 0.26s (116.5 effective DPS, ×0.97 multiplier), then Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (106.1 effective DPS, ×1 multiplier). 10 of its 19 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 9 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its physical multiplier is the higher of the two (×1 against ×0.97), so physical moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 9.0 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call.
Evolution cards for Rowlet
Its starting move, Razor Leaf, evolves into Leaf Storm once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Reflexes card, which boosts cooldown for that run. If Reflexes never appears in that run's level-up offers, the move stays at level 5 and unevolved. 19 of its 23 moves carry an evolution card, across 6 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes, Armor and Synthesis). The strongest of them is Petal Blizzard at 125.5 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Rowlet compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Gulpin (+1 HP, -1 speed, -0.06 attack, -18 total) and Inkay (-7 HP, +1 speed, same attack multiplier, -32 total). Against Gulpin, Rowlet is 1 speed faster and Rowlet hits harder by ×0.06, and the rank gap is 42 places. Those differences are what you actually trade when swapping partners, not a straight upgrade path, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.