ITT I Rate Pokemon Platinum

[Smiley Jim]

Machop/Machoke/Machamp

Type: Fighting

Ability(s): Guts/No Guard

Machop is always a fighting type worth considering integrating into your party, so how useful is he in the context of this game? For starters, Machop joins right beofre a rock gym, where he can get relatively easy exp off the Geodudes and Onixes in both the Oreburgh mine and the gym itself. He is also self sufficient at base, starting with Low Kick (which utterly decimates the Onixes due to their girth) and gaining Karate Chop at Lv10, meaning that he doesn't really need excessive grinding to get good moves early on, which is sweet.

Like most fighting types, Machop is far from being short on muscle, with 130 base attack in his final stage, which is the highest we've seen yet. In fact, the only Pokemon in the Sinnoh Dex who beat this are Rhyperior and Rampardos, so Machamp certainly is something to take note of. 55 speed, on the other hand, is quite painful to look at, and while he does have 90/80/85 defenses to take hits with, he does wish he were a bit faster.

One of Machamp's biggest advantages over his competition is No Guard, an excellent ability that makes any move used by or against the wielder swift accurate (screwing over DT users) and also allows them to hit through Dig, Fly, Dive, and Bounce. The upside to this is that you can use moves like DynamicPunch and Stone Edge with no drawbacks whatsoever, though he can no longer fish for misses since everything hits him too.

Machamp has no shortage of good moves. Karate Chop is already enough to punch through most of the early and midgame, but he gets access to better fighting moves FAST, with Vital Throw being learned at Lv25(!), Cross Chop being learned at Lv40(!!), and even DynamicPunch learned at Lv51(!!!), the last one being viable because of No Guard. He's also not killing for good coverage anymore with the elemental punches available(Ice Punch being the most important one), and having access to stronger Rock moves than Rock Tomb in the lategame. Payback is yet another option if you want to try your hand at fighting Psychic types (good luck with that, though).

Let's take a look at his gym performance: he's already one of THE best Pokemon to face Roark with, having a resistance to his STAB while hitting them super effectively, and does more or less the same to Byron and Candice's parties, minus the resistances. He can also help take down Maylene's Lucario due to its dual Steel typing, which is a pretty nice bonus. In fact, he does well in just about any gym except for Fantina's. Machamp's elite performance is a little worse, with the first and last elites resisting his STAB, with Lucian actually being an offensive threat to him, but he can still mop up Aaron's bugs with Stone Edge or Fire Punch while resisting HIS STAB, and can take out Bertha's Rhyperior and Golem by virtue of them being weak to Fighting.

Now, most of this rating was assuming you had the ability to trade, so what if you don't? You will find that the loss in attack power is very noticeable in the later stages of the game, as while Machoke's 100 Atk is still decent in its own right, he's not hitting as hard as someone like Staraptor or Gyarados. Furthermore, the drop in special bulk is quite significant as with only 80HP/60SpD, Machoke will find himself being 2HKO'd by special moves that wouldn't necessarily 2HKO Machamp. Machoke still gets (mostly) the same coverage as Machamp, which is kind of cool.

8 (6.5 without trade option)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[RJWalker]

You can find lvl 10 wild Golbat in the Oreburgh Gate lower floors which requires Rock Smash to get to. Though since they only have 1% appearance rate. Still, might be worth a mention since you get Crobat a lot earlier than usual.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Ranger Jack Walker

[a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes]

Considering A) that hardly helps his earlygame what with not existing for the worst part B) Pre-Bite offense still sucks and post Bite is pretty good anyway with all the bugs and grass types at that point.

Not worth it

[Ronman5]

....... Crobat is strong a early Crobat can kick the crap out of non Rocks or Electrics

[Smiley Jim]

Ponyta/Rapidash

Type: Fire

Ability(s): Run Away/Flash Fire

Another new Pokemon found on Route 207, Ponyta can be a promising Pokemon to train. His start isn't exactly great though, being stuck with Tackle until Lv10's Ember, and even once he learns it, he's not helping out in the Oreburgh gym in any conceivable way. However, he starts to pick up once he learns Flame Wheel at Lv16 and we enter the Lost Woods, where he roasts all the grass and bug types there, plus the Eterna gym, where he reigns supreme.

Ponyta's unevolved stats are quite impressive, with 85Atk/90Spe being values that a lot of unevolved Pokes wouldn't mind having. And it helps that he has strong unevolved bases, because he evolves at the high level of 40, which is quite late. However, once he does, you will find yourself with a fairly potent attacker with 100Atk/80SpA/105Spe, with a slight boost to his bulk, which at 65/70/80, isn't knocking anyone's heads off.

One thing that is kind of disappointing is that outside of Fire and Normal type moves, Rapidash's movepool is shallower than a poodle's piss pool. While SolarBeam (which almost every fire type gets now) would've been theoretically nice to have against water types, it is incredibly unwieldy without Sunny Day support. However, one interesting move that he gets is Megahorn. At the cost of a single heart scale (which can be found relatively easily in the underground), he can combat psychic types a lot better, which can come into play against Lucian.

Pretty much everything I said about Chimchar's boss performance is applicable to Ponyta, minus the utility against Roark and performing a little worse against Byron due to a lack of fighting moves for Bastiodon. I suppose he does have a better Lucian performance due to marginally higher special bulk, a lack of a psychic weakness, and Megahorn access, but considering the magnitude of Lucian's attacks, Rapidash is still facing 2HKO's from pretty much everyone in his party. Still, he is one of the few Pokes that can really tackle Bronzong due to its bulk and general lack of weaknesses outside of Fire.

Also, before I end this, it should be dully noted that back in D/P, Pontya was the ONLY fire type family outside of Chimchar. In this game, he does face some stiff competition from Houndour and Magmar, but he joins earlier than them and, most importantly, is available for the Gardenia fight, so he gets MAJOR points for that.

7

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Grace]

You can find lvl 10 wild Golbat in the Oreburgh Gate lower floors which requires Rock Smash to get to. Though since they only have 1% appearance rate. Still, might be worth a mention since you get Crobat a lot earlier than usual.

not really because unless you're getting crobat the level just after zubat evolves to golbat (hint: not the most likely thing in the world), having early golbat only mildly helps with mooks.

unless golbat starts with a higher base happiness (cbf looking it up right now), it doesn't change much at all.

Edited May 2, 2013 by Manix

[Smiley Jim]

You can find lvl 10 wild Golbat in the Oreburgh Gate lower floors which requires Rock Smash to get to. Though since they only have 1% appearance rate. Still, might be worth a mention since you get Crobat a lot earlier than usual.

Yeah, I kind of forgot about that. But I feel like it's not worth listing due to the following reasons:

1: Like you said, it's rare. Golbat can only be found with a 1% chance in that cave(though Serebii insists it's 5%), which no sane player would even bother searching for.

2: Like Sho said, Golbat's start still sucks until he gets Bite. Having Screech access is cute, but all it does is turn Leech Life and Astonish from papercuts into slightly bigger papercuts.

3: Golbat has 70 base happiness(same as its base form). While the first soothe bell is gotten relatively early, it doesn't come early enough for a pre-evolved Golbat to evolve earlier than if you trained a Zubat from the Ravaged Path/Oreburgh caves(I may need to test this.)

[a.f.k.a. Howard Hughes]

In all fairness you can use repel and have lv 10 lead to make it so you only encounter golbats and Psyducks. Psyduck still has 35 times higher spawn rate thou

[Smiley Jim]

Onix/Steelix

Type: Rock/Ground, Steel/Ground(Steelix)
Ability(s): Sturdy/Rock Head

Onix is like Geodude if he traded attack for overkill defense and became steel typed upon evolution.

First caught in the Oreburgh mine at around Lv8, Onix is THE definition of a stone wall. Sporting a massive 160 base defense, he is already taking hits better than Geodude, and that's where his positives end. For a big-ass rock snake, Onix's attack is very puny at 45; even with STAB EdgeQuake, he's hard pressed to deal any real damage without Screeching the enemy a few times beforehand. Granted, getting Rock Throw at only Lv9 helps, but let's face it: it fucking hurts. And that's not even getting to his awful 35/45 special bulk, which practically guarantees that he's 2HKO'd even by things that he resists, and any super effective special hit is practically a OHKO.

Onix's typing before evolution make pretty much everything that applied to Geodude's line also apply to him. While he resists quite a few attack types present in the earlygame, almost all the gyms in Sinnoh are REALLY unkind to him in terms of type compatibility (Fantina has Magic Leaf on Migmagius, so he's bad there too), and unlike Geodude, he has neither a good attack stat nor natural Selfdestruct/Explosion to make up for it.

In order to evolve Onix, one must trade him with a metal coat held. This would be all fine and dandy if the only easily obtainable metal coat wasn't found at the end of Iron Island. The same fucking cave where you can find high leveled wild Steelix, which pretty much defeats the purpose of the metal coat since why train an Onix when you can just catch a Steelix almost free of charge. If you want to get a Steelix earlier than this, you can get metal coats off wild Bronzors, which have a 20% encounter rate and a 5% chance of actually holding a metal coat, which translates to a cumulative 1% chance of success.

So you either evolve your Onix or catch a wild Steelix, what are the changes? His speed drops from 70 to 30, no longer being able to outspeed much of anything, but he gains a substantial amount of bulk, going from 35HP/160Def/45SpD to a meaty 75HP/200Def/65SpD, and most importantly, his attack rises to a more respectable 85. The other big change is that Steelix sheds his rock typing and gains steel typing in its place, which drastically cuts the weaknesses he had from 6 to 4, and gives him 9 resistances and 2 immunities. The downside is that he loses STAB on Rock moves, but he still gets STAB on Earthquake, so it's not much to shed tears over. He also gets access to the elemental fangs through relearner, which can be helpful.

With the new steel typing, how does Steelix fare against the remaining gym leaders? Well, outside of his own Steelix's EQ, there's honestly not a lot Byron can do to you and you are hitting his party hard with EQ in return, and Lv38 Curse allows him to set up on Byron and pretty much any gym leader in general. Against Candice, he rapes face with Iron Tail while not caring about any of her physical hits (only Aboma's Focus Blast and Froslass's Blizzard pose any significant threat to him), and he laughs at Volkner, only fearing Raichu's Focus Blast.

The elites are not as kind to him with Bertha and Flint hitting him super effectively with their STABs (though you can set up on the former due to her mostly using physical attacks), though he is awesome against Aaron due to his resistance to bug, monstrous physical bulk, and access to Stone Edge. He can also stand up to Lucian to some extent thanks to his steel typing, though he does need to be wary of Alakazam's Focus Blast. The Cynthia fight in particular isn't kind to him as a large chunk of her team uses strong super effective special attacks, making a Curse strategy mostly useless. It is also dully worth noting that Steelix can actually survive Garchomp's Earthquake at +0 despite the ground weakness, allowing him to take a hit and remove a large chunk out of its HP with Ice Fang, though you aren't 2HKOing unless it's boosted. You aren't setting up on it due to Flamethrower 2HKOing you regardless.

What about those who can't trade and can't be assed to catch a wild Steelix? Let's just say that the gap between Onix's offense and enemy bulk continues to grow as you play, and even if by some sheer luck you find a good matchup, you will need to set up multiple Curses just to deal reasonable damage, but who am I kidding? Onix has like no good matchups outside of electric, poison, normal, and flying type users.

Overall, Steelix can serve the niche of a powerful boss killer, but has the flaw of being obtained very late and, if obtained early on as Onix, royally sucking for most of his existence. Still, 200 base defense combined with steel typing is not something to take lightly. While you can catch wild Steelix ingame, which negates the need for a tradeless rating, I'll post it anyway, just to show how awful unevolved Onix is.

5 (1.5 without trade option)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Combee/Vespiquen

Type: Bug/Flying

Ability(s): Honey Gather(Combee), Pressure(Vespiquen)

And now for the Honey Tree Pokemon! God, this is going to be sooooo fun...

Before I get to rating these clowns, I need to talk about how honey trees work. Essentially, honey trees in this game work much like the headbutt trees in HeartGold and SoulSilver, in that you can get some pretty rare Pokemon from them. However, there is one major difference; in order to get a Pokemon from a honey tree, you need to first slather honey on a tree, then wait six hours, which is very time consuming and overall inefficient. The Pokemon you get is determined when you slather the tree, but you can reset for genders, levels, or abilities, which is helpful.

Combee is the first such Pokemon you get, and like other earlygame bugs, he sucks. While his speed is actually quite good at 70, his offenses are on par with Steelix's speed, at 30 each. Getting STAB Gust right off the bat, with Bug Bite coming 3 levels after capture helps, with a grass gym helping his case even more, but by this point, you will have access to Pokemon with better offense/bulk (30/42/42 defenses do not a tank make).

Combee evolves at Lv21, a bit later than when Kricketot evolves, but still early enough to not be a complete detriment. However, whether your Combee can evolve or not depends on its gender. Only female Combees can evolve into Vespiquen, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if Combee didn't have a gender ratio of 7 males to 1 female. As you can likely guess, you may need to reset a few times in order to get a female, since male Combees are essentially bait and fodder after the Lost Woods.

So we get a female Combee and evolve her, then what? The first thing you'll notice is that while her speed takes a noticeable dip, her bulk is significantly higher than most other bugs; 70/102/102 defenses are quite meaty for a bug type, and she can get Defend Order through the relearner to boost her durability even further (quite helpful against gym leaders) as well as Heal Order 4 levels after evolution to keep herself healthy. Most importantly, Vespiquen's offense becomes respectable, with 80Atk/80SpA being around what Monferno has, and gets Power Gem immediately after evolving, giving her a fairly powerful coverage option that conveniently covers three of her five weaknesses. She also gets access to Attack order at Lv37, around when you reach Canalave, thus negating the need for the X-Scissor or U-Turn TMs.

Speaking of TMs, Vespiquen actually gets shafted here, not getting anything of value through TM or tutor, other than Ominous Wind, which is only really useful for hitting ghosts, and is otherwise not worth jack shit about. Of course, her level up movepool is actually good enough to offset the lack of good TM/tutor coverage, with Power Gem being pretty good coverage as it is (gets Fire, Flying, and Ice types, what more could you ask for?)

Vespiquen's boss performance is, like most bug types, very sad. As one can expect, she's awesome against Gardenia and, to an extent, Maylene. Power Gem access gives her a shot at Candice and Cyrus despite the weaknesses to Ice and Flying (and both have a Pokemon who you can easily spam Defend Order against), respectively (it also helps against Aaron's fellow bugs), and Bug typing helps against Lucian. She is still not helping against Byron, Volkner, or Flint ever.

To summarize, while Vespiquen certainly has potential to be a good staller with respectable offense on the side, her defensive typing really does not do her justice, and the difficulty of getting a female Combee to begin with pretty much dooms her.

3.5 (1.5 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Ronman5]

Don't trust Da Combs

[Smiley Jim]

Aipom/Ambipom

Type: Normal

Ability(s): Pickup/Run Away(Aipom), Pickup/Technician(Ambipom)

Another Pokemon that the player can obtain from honey trees, Aipom looks promising enough, being caught at ~Lv10 with Scratch already learned. Unfortunately, this and Lv18 Fury Swipes is pretty much the only physical STAB he gets until Lv32's Double Hit, and there's no early Strength HM to make this a non issue. The Sandgem Return TM exists, but you will need at least 100 happiness for it to match Scratch's damage. Due to this, Aipom isn't really contributing in any of the gyms until he gets Double Hit and evolves (even if he got stronger STAB, he's not helping against Fantina ever, and Maylene destroys him)

After evolving, you will quickly find that Ambipom is a MAJOR improvement over his first form, sporting 100Atk/115Spe on offense with STAB Technician boosted Double Hit. To give an idea on how hard this move hits, after factoring in Technician and the fact it hits twice, Double Hit has an effective base power of 105 before factoring in STAB. This is awesome when you consider that most other Normals require a maxed out Return to get a similar level of offense. However, he is still somewhat frail with only 75 HP and 66/66 defenses to his name.

As a normal type, Ambipom isn't short on coverage, getting access to all three of the elemental punches through the Route 212 tutor, as well as getting Tech-boosted Payback (Payback when going first has a slightly higher damage output than Shadow Claw after factoring in Technician) for psychics/ghosts and Brick Break for rocks/steels. Tech boosted Aerial Ace can also give him something to use against fighting types.

Nasty Plot access at Lv39 combined with Technician can also open up a special sweeping set despite the low 60 SpA, when you consider that Swift is boosted by Technician, giving him a potent STAB move that also has the benefit of ignoring evasion boosts. Shock Wave and Water Pulse are also special moves that are boosted by Technician, so you might want to look into those moves as well. These two moves also have the benefit of being low competition TMs, as by the time you can get Water Pulse, Surf is available, so no water type wants it, and Shock Wave will likely get replaced by T-bolt.

Overall, Ambipom is quite capable (a lot better than half the cast that I rated so far), and if he weren't a honey tree 'mon, I wouldn't shake two shits over him. However, as it is, I have to dock a point for being a honey tree 'mon, because no one wants to wait 6 hours just for something to show up.

7 (5 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Ronman5]

...............

(guesses Garchomp will be a 10 almost like Lucario) Speakin of which My lucario Hatched around the time of the Ice gym all I did was bait switch on wild pokemon THEN when he evolved I just put him out on the front and watch him kill every thing but Machokes

Sorry got off topic anyway Ambipom I expected a little better

[Smiley Jim]

Burmy/Wormadam/Mothim

Type: Bug, Bug/Grass(Wormadam-P), Bug/Ground(Wormadam-S), Bug/Steel(Wormadam-T), Bug/Flying(Mothim)
Ability(s): Shed Skin(Burmy), Anticipation(Wormadam), Swarm(Mothim)

K, this is gonna get long, so hold on to your hats.

Yet another Pokemon found by slathering honey on trees, Burmy is one of those Pokemon that has an underrated gimmick, but is still a generally bad Pokemon. Like Kricketot and Wurmple, his start is fucking disgusting with only Tackle and Protect at base and 29 in either attack stat. Bug Bite at Lv15 and evolution at Lv20 help his case, but face it: it HURTS. Not to mention that he's slow and not necessarily bulky...

Burmy's gimmick, if you can even call it that, is that his appearance changes after battle depending on where you battled. Fighting in a grassy or wooded environment like the Lost Woods will yield a plant cloak, fighting in sandy or rocky areas like caves will yield a sandy cloak, and fighting in buildings will yield a trash cloak. As you can probably guess, this pretty much does nothing for Burmy's combat, but it DOES influence what Wormadam's typing and stats will become (assuming your Burmy is female).

Like Combee, Burmy's evolution is gender dependent. Unlike Combee, both genders can evolve. Female Burmies evolve into Wormadam while males evolve into Mothim.

Wormadam:

Upon evolution from Burmy, Wormadam's typing and stat distribution will differ depending on the cloak that Burmy had on before she evolved. A plant cloak gives her grass typing and a special bias in stats, a sandy cloak grants ground typing and a physical bias in stats, while a trash cloak offers steel typing and is balanced statwise. It should be noted that all three forms are quite bulky and have the same crappy 36 speed.

Plant!Wormadam is grass typed, so most of the things that were applicable to Budew are applicable to her as well. One undesirable trait that she has the lack of a good special STAB through level up until Lv47's Leaf Storm, as while Razor Leaf is a potent attack during the midgame, it's being run off a crappy 59 base attack. Because of this, a good TM to teach her early on is Grass Knot, which runs off her more respectable 79 SpA. Lv23 Confusion combined with her bug typing (all three forms get this) lets her take on Maylene with relative comfort. Speaking of matchups, bug/grass is considered to be one of the worst defensive typings in the game, with a 4x weakness to fire and flying, as well as weaknesses to ice, poison, rock, and bug. This makes it hard for Wormadam to be useful in any boss battles that she doesn't resist, despite the good 60/85/105 bulk. Not helping is Wormadam-P's inability to hit steels types, making her useless against Byron.

Sand!Wormadam's ground typing, on the other hand, is more offensively beneficial as ground hits the fire, poison, and steel types that resist bug super effectively, and she is in no shortage of good STAB with the EQ TM being available early. Also helping her case is Lv26 Rock Blast, giving her good neutral coverage against most targets. She is also more physically oriented than Wormadam-P, sorting 79Atk/105Def with still decent 60/85 special bulk, and I'm pretty sure that no one will cry over the 59 SpA. The addition of the ground typing makes Wormadam-S's boss compatibility a ton better than Wormadam-P's, losing out on Wake, but getting Byron and Volkner, which is probably a better trade.

Trash!Wormadam packs steel typing, which is the most defensively beneficial as combined with bug, gives 9 resistances and a single (4x) weakness to fire, which combined with 60/95/95 bulk, makes her fairly hard to kill in most given scenarios. This makes her the only form that's particularly great against Candice due to the other two forms having typing that renders them weak to ice. However, what it has in defensive prowess, steel is the worst of the three types offensively, only getting ice and rock types (remember that fairy didn't exist yet), and being resisted by 4 types. It does not help that she only has 69 in either attack stat and Mirror Shot is kind of inaccurate despite its paltry 65 BP. Iron Head, which would fix the accuracy issue while offering more power, isn't learned until Lv47. Like her plant form, Wormadam-T lacks good coverage, only getting Psychic and Shadow Ball, which while good coverage by itself, isn't overly helpful in the later fights as a whole.

Wormadam-P: 4.5 (2.5 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Wormadam-S: 5 (3 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Wormadam-T: 4 (2 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Mothim:

Male Burmies, instead of fusing with their cloak, shed their cloak upon evolution and grow wings instead (maybe they drank some Red Bull?) Mothim can be best described as a slightly superior Beautifly clone, as their stats and movepools are quite similar. As one can probably expect, he's quite awesome against Gardenia thanks to STAB Bug Bite and a 4x resistance to grass, and despite the prevalence of Rock Tomb, he can be put to work against Maylene due to STAB Gust and access to psychic moves.

Unlike Wormadam, who was notably bulky, Mothim specializes in killing things, and for an earlygame bug type, 94/94 attacking stats are quite good. 66 speed is also considerably higher than Wormadam, though the stat in and out of itself is mediocre. Still, he's fast enough to outpace most things during the earlygame and much of the midgame. However, while he is certainly better at killing things than Wormadam, he pays for it with 70/50/50 bulk being barely higher than Beautifly's. Bug/Flying typing is also horrendous defensively, sporting weakness to fire, ice, and electric, as well as a crippling 4x weakness to rock.

Mothim's learnset is pretty much identical to Beautifly's in overall coverage, getting Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Giga Drain, as well as natural Bug Buzz. Unlike Beautifly, he gets proper special flying STAB with Air Slash learned at Lv41 and Air Cutter gotten by tutor before then (though Beautifly gets the latter too. Kind of forgot about it in his rating.)

The best way to summarize Mothim is this: he's basically a slightly better version of Beautifly, which really isn't saying much as that's like saying Rebecca is a better version of Wil.

6 (4 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Cherubi/Cherrim

Type: Grass

Ability(s): Chlorophyll(Cherubi), Flower Gift(Cherrim)

Another honey tree Pokemon, this time a grass type. And we all know how useful grass is. Anyway, Cherubi has one of the most unforgivable beginnings, only starting with Tackle and not getting STAB until Lv19 when she gets Magic Leaf. And considering that Cherubi's attack isn't impressing anyone, this is quite a wait indeed. However, once she DOES get Magic Leaf, her combat improves considerably. Evolution also comes at Lv25, which is quite good by the standards of this game in general.

One notable problem that Cherrim has is her movepool. While 87SpA/85Spe bases are decent, her movepool can be best summarized as grass, grass, and more fucking grass. And perhaps a normal move for the stuff that resists grass, because let's face it: Grass is one of the worst fucking offensive typings in the game, being resisted by 7 types including fire, bug, and steel. It does not help either that Grass is also a bad defensive typing and 70/70/78 bulk only makes this worse.

Cherrim's gimmick, if you can even call it that, is that she gets Flower Gift, an ability that increases attack and special defense under the effects of harsh sun. While the ability looks good in theory, the problem is that offensively, it's somewhat wasted on Cherrim as her attack is quite bad at 60 base, though it does increase the damage of her normal moves to ok levels. Defensively, the SpD boost actually turns her into an ok tank against special attackers.

Does Flower Gift magically make Cherrim worth using? Hell no. I do not think that an Atk/SpD boost is worth the 9 levels of no STAB, then getting nothing but STAB throughout her lifetime. If Flower Gift actually boosted SpA under sun, then she might have been interesting.

3.5 (1.5 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Heracross

Type: Bug/Fighting
Ability(s): Swarm/Guts

HeraBulba FTW! PokeShipping has nothing on this!

WOW SOMETHING ACTUALLY GOOD FOR ONCE!

Heracross is yet another honey tree Pokemon, this time a rarity with only a 5% encounter rate. And in this case, the rarity probably justifies the swag, as Heracross has notably better parameters than pretty much everything else one can find on those trees. However, being a honey tree Pokemon, Hera's availability is certainly better here than back in Hoenn.

Starting at ~Lv10, Heracross is already tearing shit up with the 65 BP Horn Attack, and even gets Aerial Ace 3 levels later, allowing him to level up easily on the grass and bug types commonly found in the Lost Woods. With a start like this, you almost don't miss the lack of STAB, though Hera gets Brick Break at the low level of 19. Ridiculous. Just to give an idea on how sweet of a deal this is, most Pokemon don't learn moves of comparable power until around Lv30. Speaking of 30s, Hera also upgrades to Close Combat at Lv37, around when Infernape gets it.

Hera's stats are very impressive, notably that 125 base attack, which is very high for a bug type (and in general, really). This combined with fighting typing, 85 base speed, and Guts access, Hera is a very potent sweeper that should probably be respected. Another thing in his favor is his good special bulk. 80HP/95SpD certainly goes a long way to standing up to powerful special attackers like Gardenia's Roserade or even things like Cynthia's Milotic.

Hera's gym performance is damn good. Resists Gardenia and Maylene's attacks and owns them with Aerial Ace (STAB Brick Break in the case of Lucario), isn't really scared of anything Wake throws at him, and hits Byron and Candice's parties HARD with his fighting STAB. The only boss battles prior to the elite four where he's truly disadvantaged are against Fantina (can't hit with STAB) and Cyrus (has multiple flying types). Speaking of the elite four, he doesn't shine as much here due to the fact that the majority of the elites resist his primary STAB or hit him super effectively. Still, he can get Golem, Rhyperior, and Houndoom with CC, and if he reached Lv55 and learns Megahorn, can fight against Lucian. Just make sure to use an X Speed against Mr. Mime (you'll survive at least one psychic from him) because Zam and Espeon have the potential for OHKOs (Gallade also has this potential with Psycho Cut, which notably hits Hera's inferior 75 Def.)

Hera's overall coverage hasn't really changed, outside of the inclusion of Shadow Claw and Night Slash into his movepool, finally giving him a move in which to smite ghost types with. Too bad neither option is available for Fantina, as Shadow Claw is gotten from defeating her and Night Slash must be relearned (and you can't reach Pastoria until after you plow through Fantina and Maylene.) As well, he gets access to stronger rock moves, notably Rock Slide and Stone Edge. This is a pretty big improvement once you consider that he was stuck with the weak Rock Tomb in RSE.

Overall, Hera is a pretty sweet Pokemon, and would be almost perfect if he wasn't a rare encounter on an extremely convoluted capture method. He really wishes trees were able to be bashed instead of being slathered with fucking honey. However, he is extremely good if you can get him.

8.5 (6.5 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Edited December 11, 2013 by General James

[Emeraldfox]

Yeah no. See, why would anything want to be shaken out of a tree as opposed to being lured out by honey? Why would a Heracross want to be disturbed when it's possibly sleeping? With the honey you get a free meal at least.

I'm eagerly awaiting Leafeon's rating.

[Smiley Jim]

Munchlax/Snorlax

Type: Normal

Ability(s): Pickup/Thick Fat(Munchlax), Immunity/Thick Fat(Snorlax)

The last of the honey tree Pokemon I have to rate, and unfortunately, this one is the rarest of them all. Munchlax, like the rest of his kin, can only be found on fucking honey trees. Unlike the rest of them, he can only be found on certain trees, which is dependent on the player's SID number, and only has a 1% encounter rate ON those trees. This, my friends, is likely the rarest Pokemon ever conceived, and he certainly gives Feebas a run for his money.

Due to the randomness of these values, Munchlax could be found on the trees close to Floarama Town or only in the trees on Routes 218 and 221 as well as Fuego Ironworks (those three require Surf, giving him availability on par with Riolu). Because of this, this rating assumes that the tree in the Floaroma Meadow is one of the four trees that has Munchlax in it.

So once you catch Munchlax, you will find that he is surprisingly good, so I suppose the ends justify the means. Unevolved, he has 135 HP, which is completely insane for something that is unevolved, and this combined with 40/85 defenses keeps him durable. Offensively, he has 85 attack, which is also quite good for an NFE, and despite the lack of particularly strong STAB until Lv33's Body Slam (or you give him the Return TM, whichever comes first), he hits hard. However, Munchlax is VERY slow. Only 5 speed unevolved means that he isn't outspeeding anyone ever.

Like a lot of baby Pokemon, Munchlax evolves through happiness, and while he shows up before the soothe bell, that item shows up early enough that he can enjoy a relatively early evolution. And what if he is? Enter Snorlax, the result of overeating and not exercising in Pokemon form. Right off the bat, Snorlax's stats are quite hard to ignore, with 160 HP alone being among the highest in the game (only being beaten out by Wailord, Wobb, Chansey, and Blissey, as of the time of this game's making). 110 Atk/SpD is also quite amazing, making Snorlax a good special killer on top of good damage, though he is still very slow.

Snorlax has a very wide movepool, courtesy of being normal typed. One notable move in his natural learnset is Crunch, learned at Lv49. While this obviously comes FAR too late to be of any use in the Fantina fight, it does have use in the Lucian fight. He also has access to the Earthquake TM (highly useful against Byron) or the elemental punches (Fire Punch is of especial note as it hits almost everything in Byron and Aaron's parties super effective as well as everything in Candice's.)

It is also worth noting that Munchlax always holds the Leftovers item when caught. This is the ONLY way to get Leftovers during the main story (unless I'm missing something.)

Overall, Snorlax is a really, REALLY strong Pokemon, and if it weren't for the fact that his baby form is only found in honey trees (and only on CERTAIN honey trees with a 1% encounter rate on top of that), I wouldn't shake two shits over him. As it is right now, giving him a bottom score. I think this is irrefutable proof that honey trees should go fuck themselves.

7 (0 if factoring in difficulty of acquisition)

Edited December 11, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Shellos/Gastrodon

Type: Water, Water/Ground(Gastrodon)

Ability(s): Storm Drain/Sticky Hold

Caught at ~Lv11 in the Valley Works, Shellos can be a promising Pokemon to train. For starters, he gets good moves EARLY, coming with Water Pulse already learned (he gets it at Lv7), and on average will have Mud Bomb learned as well. Ridiculous. Just to give an idea on how early this is, Psyduck doesn't get Water Pulse until Lv22, so this is definitely something to take note off. Unfortunately, Shellos comes right before a grass gym, so his contributions there and in the Lost Woods are limited.

Once the player leaves Eterna, Shellos starts to improve. The areas near Mt. Coronet are full of hikers that he can get easy exp off of, and the route leading up to Veilstone has perpetual rain, providing some good damage potential. To top this all off, evolution comes at Lv30, around when the player fights Maylene. Evolution grants Gatrodon ground typing, which not only gives him STAB on Mud Bomb, but it also gives him a newfound immunity to lightning (which makes him good in the Volkner fight). The only downside is the 4x weakness to grass, but grass types are somewhat rare after Eterna.

Gastrodon's stats are ok, not great, with 111 HP being his main selling point. Unlike the other water/ground types created before him, Gastro is specially biased with 92SpA/82SpD, which is quite helpful as not only is he doing solid special damage, he can take a few special hits on the side (though 83 Atk is still decent in its own right). Unfortunately, Gastro is kind of slow and isn't especially durable physically.

Gastro isn't exactly killing for good moves, not only getting access to Surf and Ice Beam like all other water types, but also getting access to the Earthquake and Stone Edge TMs like most ground types(though he doesn't need the EQ TM to be quite honest, as Mud Bomb can actually carry him throughout the whole game if need be.) Beyond this, he learns Recover, which can help save potions for stuff that doesn't get recovery, but he learns this at Lv54, so don't expect it until the E4 fights.

While he can't really hold a candle to Floatzel, he's still quite good.

6.5

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Ema Skye]

inb4 Garchomp gets a 10.

Looking at your Munchlax rating, I doubt it'll be the only one to get a zero (Feebas and Spiritomb come to mind in terms of really stupid methods to obtain).

[Smiley Jim]

Buizel/Floatzel

Type: Water

Ability(s): Swift Swim

Buizel is like Carvanha if he was faster and somewhat bulkier, but had worse attack, wasn't dark typed, and didn't get good STAB through level.

Buizel is the other water type the player can catch in the grass outside the Valley Windworks. While he can pull his weight early on due to a decent starting level of 10, his starting combat is a bit worse than Shellos due to having Water Gun instead of the superior Water Pulse. While this is still pretty useful to take down stuff like Geodudes and whatnot, you will find that Buizel's combat is just a teeny bit worse than his counterpart despite having a higher speed stat.

Unlike Shellos, who seems to specialize in taking hits, Buizel goes for speed, with a staggering 115 speed once evolved, which happens at Lv26, earlier than either Shellos or Psyduck. He's not bad on offense either, with 105Atk/85SpA combined with water typing being around average by this game's standards. Of course, like almost every other fast Pokemon in this game, Floatzel isn't what I'd call bulky. 85 HP is good, 55/50 defenses aren't.

One issue that Buizel has that the other earlygame water types (sans Gyarados) don't is the lack of strong STAB during the midgame. Water Gun at base is cute, but it and Lv21 Aqua Jet are literally the only water type moves he gets until the Surf HM is obtained. What this equates to is that Buizel goes through a midgame rut in which he's not dealing as much damage as you would like due to a lack of said STAB, and Water Gun's 40 BP doesn't cut it past the first couple gyms. Beyond this, Floatzel's movepool is serviceable, getting Crunch at Lv26 and getting access to Ice Punch through the tutor. He is also compatible with Brick Break and Dig if you are interested.

Overall, solid choice, but the wait for a stronger STAB than Water Gun does hurt.

7

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Pachirisu

Type: Electric

Ability(s): Run Away/Pickup

OH LOOK, ANOTHER MOTHERFUCKING PIKACHU CLONE!

Pachirisu is another electric type that you can collect on your quest, and unfortunately, he's pretty bad. Like Shinx, he doesn't start out with Spark, learning it at Lv13. The good news is that Pachi starts at Lv10, so the wait until he gets STAB isn't very long. Until then, you're not doing very good damage due to a subpar attacking stat and your only means of offense being unSTAB Quick Attack and Bide.

Speaking of attack, I don't know what the fuck Game Freak was thinking when they thought of Pachi's stats. Sure, he's fast and has acceptable bulk(no really. 60/70/90 bulk is actually quite good for his type), but his attacking stats are simply deplorable at 45 apiece, which equates to very poor damage. In fact, it's so bad that he can't even 2HKO most stuff after a Super Fang use. That's sad, really.

Pachi's movepool isn't anything special. It's nice that he gets Discharge at only Lv29, but all that does is delay the inevitable, and doesn't magically make his damage issues disappear. As for the rest of his learnset, it pretty much consists of electric and normal type moves(he gets Dig, but no way in hell am I wasting a good TM like that on something with Onix level offenses). One good move that he does get is Super Fang, gotten at Lv33. This move, which halves the target's current HP on impact, is pretty much Pachi's ONLY niche, and it's not a desirable one as I'd rather use something with a high attack stat to kill everything in one hit.

Basically, this thing sucks and we all know it. Hopefully, he'll gain an evolution in Gen VI(bonus points if the evolution is FAIRY-typed.)

1.5

[Emeraldfox]

I think Pachirisu should get a 4.5 because of how cute it is.

[Sublime Manic]

Shellos/Gastrodon

While he can't really hold a candle to Floatzel, he's still quite good.

7

If it can't hold a candle to Floatzel, why do they have the same score?

Also, you praise the Shinx line for having access to Bite against Fantina, but claim she has too much offensive presence against the Zubat line to be of any use, despite the Zubat line being substantially bulkier and faster (and if you have a Crobat by then, it's also hitting harder). How does Luxio have "a solid standing" against Fantina when Golbat is "not enough to stand up to Fantina's party"?

Don't want to come off as overly critical: I enjoy reading your posts in this thread. I just wanted to point out those minor nitpicks

Edited May 20, 2013 by Sublime Manic

[Smiley Jim]

If it can't hold a candle to Floatzel, why do they have the same score?

Also, you praise the Shinx line for having access to Bite against Fantina, but claim she has too much offensive presence against the Zubat line to be of any use, despite the Zubat line being substantially bulkier and faster (and if you have a Crobat by then, it's also hitting harder). How does Luxio have "a solid standing" against Fantina when Golbat is "not enough to stand up to Fantina's party"?

Don't want to come off as overly critical: I enjoy reading your posts in this thread. I just wanted to point out those minor nitpicks

I gave both the same score because Buizel's earlygame is worse than Shellos's. Once Surf arrives, Floatzel is superior due to a more expansive movepool. I'll probably drop Shellos by half a point to not sound like a hypocrite.

Here's the thing about that: Golbat is weak to Mismagius's Psybeam. However, I may have underestimated Golbat's bulk a little bit. I'll mention that in the ratings.

Thanks for pointing that out.

I think Pachirisu should get a 4.5 because of how cute it is.

Yeah no. I don't rate things for 'cuteness'.

Edited May 20, 2013 by General James