Emboar is a bulky, bipedal Pokémon with pig-like features. It has a red nose, large bushy black eyebrows, and two tusks protruding from its lower jaw. Constantly burning flames cover the front of its neck and shoulders. It has short legs and thick arms. Its arms have orange upper portions while the legs have red upper portions. All of its limbs have black lower portions with thin yellow lines where the upper and lower colors meet. These lines are straight on the arms and spiked on the legs. The arms have red lines around the wrists and tufts of fur on the elbows. The hands are tipped with three claws, while the feet have two claws. A large, dark horizontal stripe on the chest of Emboar has swirled yellow markings. Its small tail ends in a tuft of hair.
Using the wreath of flames on its neck and shoulders, Emboar will set its hands on fire. It uses its power and speed to master fighting moves. Though very tough and relentless when fighting, it shows deep affection for those it considers friends. It can also unleash powerful blasts of fire using only its nose and cloak its body in a fire to use Heat Crash.
Emboar is based on a boar. Additionally, Ken Sugimori has said that Tepig, Pignite, and Emboar were designed in a Chinese style, specifically mentioning the character of Zhang Fei from Romance of the Three Kingdoms as Emboar's inspiration. Zhang Fei was assassinated by his own subordinates, and had his head severed and presented for the opposing faction, which may be alluded to in Emboar's design, as its head is "separated" from its body by a wreath of fire. The wreath of fire also resembles a cape or a scarf. Emboar may also be based on Zhu Bajie, a pig demon from the Chinese tale Journey to the West. Serperior, Emboar, and Samurott's evolutionary lines are collectively based on Western, Chinese, and Japanese culture respectively, to represent the diversity of the Unova region.
Appearance-wise, Emboar looks much like a wild boar with elements of a British Saddleback in a wrestling singlet. The swirl pattern around its abdomen resembles the patterns on a ding or ancient Greek pottery.
Emboar's Typing might be a reference to war pigs, more specifically incendiary pigs, a form of ancient welfare reported by a couple Greek military writers.
