ITT I Rate Pokemon Emerald

[Smiley Jim]

Ok, this ratings thread was inspired by Espinosa's Crystal thread (which was in itself inspired by Venu's Yellow thread). I am making this thread because a ratings thread on the third generation could potentially spark a lot of discussion, and therefore, I am going to try my best at my own ratings thread for Emerald, because no one else was doing it.

Anyway, the basic objective of these ratings are to rate each Pokemon's efficiency in a run done in a relatively quick timeframe (not a speedrun, but not lolly-bagging like an asshole), and the Pokes will be rated based on such things as performance in or out of battle (with the former being given more weight), availability (difficulty of acquisition is given some weight, but only in extreme cases will something be heavily penalized for it), type matchups against gyms/elites/bosses, resource requirement, stats, movepools, and overall coverage.

This rating assumes that the player doesn't exploit any bugs in the game, trains a team of 3-4 Pokemon, and does not do any unnecessary grinding (I'll put up ideal levels to be at.) For the purposes of this rating, the game ends after your first induction in the Hall of Fame, which basically means that stuff that isn't in the Hoenn dex will not be rated.

Also note that trade evolutions will be weighted, since this is meant to be a fair rating to each Pokemon, and denying trade evos their evolution would be blasphemy (though I will be giving a separate rating based on no trades)

Have a nice day.

[spoiler=EL RATINGZ]
Treecko - 7
Torchic - 9
Mudkip - 10
Poochyena - 3.5
Zigzagoon - 6
Beautifly - 3.5
Dustox - 2.5
Wingull - 6.5
Lotad - 3.5
Seedot - 5.5
Ralts - 7.5
Taillow - 8.5
Marill - 6.5
Shroomish - 9
Slakoth - 6.5
Skitty - 2
Abra - 7.5(7)
Ninjask - 3.5
Shedinja - 4
Whismur - 6.5
Magikarp - 7
Tentacool - 7
Goldeen - 3.5
Zubat - 5
Geodude - 6.5(5.5)
Makuhita - 8
Aron - 6.5
Sableye - 6
Nosepass - 0.5
Electrike - 7
Plusle - 4
Minun - 3.5
Oddish - 4.5
Gulpin - 5.5
Volbeat - 4
Illumise - 2.5
Numel - 4
Slugma - 1.5
Torkoal - 6
Machop - 7.5(6)
Koffing - 5
Grimer - 4.5
Spinda - 1
Skarmory - 6.5
Swablu - 3
Seviper - 4
Solrock - 5
Spoink - 5.5
Wynaut - 4
Sandshrew - 3.5
Trapinch - 3.5
Baltoy - 2.5
Cacnea - 6.5
Lileep - 3
Anorith - 5.5
Jigglypuff - 4
Magnemite - 7
Voltorb - 5
Carvanha - 7.5
Corphish - 6.5
Wailmer - 6
Barboach - 7
Feebas - 0
Tropius - 6
Castform - 5
Kecleon - 4.5
Absol - 6
Shuppet - 4.5
Duskull - 2.5
Vulpix - 5
Chimecho - 1.5
Doduo - 5.5
Natu - 2.5
Girafarig - 5
Pikachu - 6
Psyduck - 5.5
Rhyhorn - 1.5
Phanpy - 2
Heracross - 6
Pinsir - 5
Staryu - 4
Spheal - 4.5
Snorunt - 2.5
Clamperl - 3
Huntail - 4
Gorebyss - 4.5
Chinchou - 5.5
Relicanth - 3.5

Luvdisc - 1
Corsola - 2
Horsea - 2(1.5)
Bagon - 1.5
Mawile - 1
Regirock - 3.5
Regice - 4
Registeel - 3
Rayquaza - 5

- James

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Treecko/Grovyle/Sceptile

Type: Grass
Ability(s): Overgrow

Treecko is a grass starter, which is certainly a lot better than in Johto, but is still pretty unimpressive in Hoenn until later on. While Treecko does have effectiveness in the first gym and learns his first STAB earlier than the other two do, Absorb is pretty fucking awful damage wise (only 20 damage, are you for real?), and he doesn't get a stronger STAB until Lv29 (which is not happening until after Lavaridge), unlike Torchic and Mudkip, who get some great STAB upon their first evolution. Until then, I suppose you could use Bullet Seed, which will usually dole out more damage than Absorb on average, but you would need at least 4 hits in order to match or beat Ember/Water Gun's power, but that happens only 25% of the time.

As far as the rest of his learnset, he's shit out of luck until Lv29, when he learns Leaf Blade. Thankfully, Leaf Blade is a pretty good move, sporting 3.5 times as much muscle as Absorb and has a nifty crit bonus. As for his non-STAB, he's fucked. The best moves he has until lategame is Pursuit, perhaps Rock Tomb or Dig (but those last two have too much competition, but they are options) Sceptile can pick up EQ and Brick Break later on, which is somewhat wasted on an 85 attack, but can work since he needs the coverage, and he can also use Dragon Claw on Drake's dragons if he wants to (and he practically has dibs on it, unless you are using Trapinch or god forbid Bagon), but gl taking hits from him.

Treecko, in a surprising change of pace from the last two grass starters, isn't very defensive oriented, instead sporting good offenses and great speed, but at the cost of being a total glass cannon (70 HP/65 Def/85 SpD with the amount of weaknesses Grass has is not exactly what you want.) Treecko doesn't get any status moves, but overall sports better offenses and coverage, which I say is a far better trade off.

As far as gym/elite compatibility goes, Treecko does ok in the first gym, about average in the second, then has to go through a long march full of gyms that are tailor made to kill Grass types (he's resistant to Watson, but gl killing his Pokemon before he kills Grovyle, and Norman is a little too much for him). He also does great against Team Aqua, but rather poorly against Team Magma. Thankfully for Sceptile (and unlike Meganium), every route after Lilycove is basically a water route full of water types for him to mop up, and each of the last two gym leaders he can mop up with relative ease(Juan uses water types and three of the twins' Pokes have typing that renders them weak to grass.) Out of the elite's Pokemon, he gets Sid's Crawdaunt, 3/5 of Glacia's team (watch out for stray Ice Beams; those tend to be lethal), and most of Wallace's team (again, Wallace has Ice moves on 3 of his mons, and he should avoid Tentacruel.)

Availability? Treecko has pretty much the entire game to be useful, and while he is worse than the other two starters, he is still better than most things you'll find on your journey, and at least he is better than pretty much any grass type native to Hoenn (the only one that comes close to being as good as Treecko is Shroomish.)

7

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Torchic/Combusken/Blaziken

Type: Fire, Fire/Fighting (Combusken/Blaziken)
Ability(s): Blaze

The game's fire starter, and like most of them, Torchic is a fast, offensive Pokemon (though he isn't as fast as Charmander or Chimchar) who is sorely lacking in durability. Unlike Treecko, who gets his first STAB at the low, low level of 6, Torchic has to wait until Lv10 to pick up Ember. While this does mirror Chikorita vs Cyndaquil to some extent, remember that Treecko is stuck with the pathetic Absorb, so the wait is worth it. Being fire-typed is significantly worse than it was back in Johto, since none of the gyms use types that are weak to fire, and in fact, three gyms specialize in types that resist fire, though there are still things fire can mop up, like Winona's Tropius and Skarmory. Thankfully, he gets Fighting typing upon evolution, along with a good STAB in Double Kick, which allows him to reliably deal with the first gym, and makes his Norman performance significantly better. The trade off is that he doesn't want anything to do with the twins. He's also good against Aqua despite having being fire typed due to the stupid little piranhas being part Dark (Magma has a bunch of Magnitude toting Numels that he detests.)

His elite four performance is certainly a lot better than Charizard's, and arguably Typhlosion's as well. Blaziken pretty much fucks Sid's Pokemon in the ass with his Fighting STAB, and Glacia's Pokemon do not want to see either of Blaziken's STABs either, especially considering none of her Pokes except Walrein pack any water moves. While Blaziken can kind of deal with Phoebe with his Fire type moves, he doesn't want anything to do with Drake (loldragons) or Wallace (lolwater).

While this does make Torchic very interesting, he does have his shortcomings. The first is a lack of stronger STAB during mid and lategame. While Ember can be replaced with Blaze Kick at the relatively low level of 36 (around the time you face Winona) and TM35 can be bought for 80K at the casino or even TM38 from the Lilycove shoppe, Blaziken doesn't learn Sky Uppercut until... Lv59. This is far too late, since 50 is around the limit you want to get your Pokemon to be battle ready to face the E4. There is the TM for Brick Break to consider, which offers around the same power as Sky Uppercut after factoring in accuracy, but even that shows up in Sootopolis. As for the rest of Torchic's level up movepool, he's about as fucked as Cyndaquil. While Bulk Up is useful, he gets most of his damaging moves too late for an efficient player's liking. As far as his TM game goes, I already mentioned BB, but Rock Tomb is another plausible option if you are willing to deal with the poor accuracy and the fact that a fuckton of other things want it. Later on, he doesn't get any noteworthy coverage other than EQ, which does not blend well with Fighting.

Another strike against him is that after Lilycove, everything and their mother starts packing water types, which is bad news tidings to Blaziken if he's unable to OHKO them, as they hit him fairly hard. As a result, it's almost as if Blaziken is Sceptile's opposite there... either that or I'm thinking way too deep.

Anyway, mostly good gym/elite performance+good offense=excellent in my books.

9

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Mudkip/Marshtomp/Swampert

Type: Water, Water/Ground (Marshtomp/Swampert)
Ability(s): Torrent

I could go on and on about how the Mudkipz meme is overrated, but this isn't the time or the place. Keep that shit in FFtF.

Like any starter in any game, Mudkip has unparalleled availability, not to mention mostly balanced stats. While he has more of a physical bias than Blaziken, he does not have as much atk as him. Unlike Totodile, who had a similar physical bias but no physical STAB, Mudkip gets access to Ground STAB, which helps out majorly against Watson, among other things. It helps that he gets Mud Shot instantly after his first evolution (and Mud Slap ten levels before), and gets access to Earthquake via level up later on. While his SpA pales in comparison to his attack, it's still high enough to badly hurt things with Surf. Also, unlike the other two starters, he has good durability, which is further compounded by having only one weakness, and that one weakness isn't very common in Hoenn (only the areas leading into and out of Fortree are grass heavy.) He does pay for it with pretty bad speed, though.

Early on, Mudkip isn't so mighty, considering he needs until Lv10 to get Water Gun, but that's still an improvement over Totodile, and before that, can deal some good damage with Tackle. Don't worry about it, you'll definitely have Water Gun by the time you reach Rustboro, with Geodudes being rampant in the gym. While he does have a bit of a wait until he gets a stronger STAB through level up, chances are good that you'll get Surf before he hits Lv39, and Surf is superior to Muddy Water. His ground STAB, on the other hand... he has to wait until Lv52 for Earthquake, which is not happening until you reach the Elite Four.

As far as gym compatibility goes, Mudkip is extremely self sufficient, being effective against everybody except Brawly, Norman, and Juan gym wise (he gibs Winona's Pokes with Ice Beam and has moves that hit everybody on the twins' team super effective), and while Swampert doesn't hit anyone in the Elite Four except Drake (again, Ice Beam) and Wallace's Tentacruel, he isn't really threatened by anyone except Cacturne and Ludicolo.

I already mentioned that he benefits from Ice Beam, thanks to the presence of dragon types later on as well as the ability to smack around Grass types, but I might also like to mention that he benefits from the Rock Tomb TM early on when your options are still limited, and if you really wanted to, he can function as an HM slave, considering he learns all the water based HMs plus Strength and Rock Smash, though why would you waste a really good Pokemon for that?

While there are plenty of water types that could potentially fill Mudkip's shoes should you not choose him, generally speaking the ones you can get earlygame are pretty bad in comparison (Magikarp needs around 15 levels worth of grinding, Tentacool's offense sucks until Lv25, and Wingull is quite bad as well, and let's not get started on Marill and Goldeen), and pretty much all the GOOD water types are gotten after the fifth gym.

So what can I say? Great typing and offense+good bulk+great matchups+pretty much nothing of its type better than it=god. His only issue is his 60 speed as Swampert, but that's still enough for a perfect score, since he is the best thing you can get in this game.

10

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Espinosa]

Looking good so far. Not sure if I'd give Mudkip the perfect score when its final form has a base speed of 60 but I do agree that it is the best of the three starters in Hoenn.

[Smiley Jim]

Poochyena/Mightyena

Type: Dark
Ability(s): Run Away (Poochyena), Intimidate (Mightyena)

Poochyena is one of those Pokemon that you get early on and is commonplace, of course it sucks!

Ok, you only need to take one look at Poochyena's stats and you know he sucks. 30-35 in every stat except attack (which is a decent 55), which quite frankly doesn't improve much when he evolves (well, +30/35 is good by his standards, but 60-70's in most of his stats only really holds up during early midgame) and Dark isn't a particularly useful type until Mossdeep (by then, you would've ditched your Mightyena a long time ago), considering that Brawly isn't kind to him, and quite frankly, no one else is either other than the twins.

As far as his movepool goes, he's way past fucked. He gets Bite relatively early at Lv13, which will likely happen after Roxanne, so he's not doing much there, but Mightyena has to wait until Lv47 to get Crunch, which by that point, you really should consider finding a replacement party member. As for any coverage he may have, it's basically a joke and a half. Most of his level up movepool is wasted on shit like Swagger, Odor Sleuth, and Roar, with his only other damaging attacks (Take Down and Thief) coming at Lv37 (too late for such a shitty Pokemon) and Lv52 (you're kidding, right?) As for any TM moves, his only noteworthy moves are Dig and Shadow Ball, which supply him with a way of killing Steels and a physical replacement for his STAB (since Dark runs off his 60 SpA in Gen III), respectively.

The only real good thing about Mightyena, really, is his Intimidate ability, which can extend his physical durability a bit, but I would rather switch him out to something that didn't suck after he intims something. However, he's not getting many points for that. He's not even a particularly good HM mule either, only learning Strength and Rock Smash (stuff Linoone can learn as well, but the latter gets Surf and Cut as well.)

Also, Poochyena's line are not dogs, they're hyenas.

3.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Zigzagoon/Linoone

Type: Normal
Ability(s): Pickup

In tradition that has carried over from generation to generation, Zigzagoon is likely the first normal type you'll come across. These things have almost paralleled availability, can be found in every route up to Petalburg, and are as easy to catch as it gets. You can find these things all over the place on Routes 101, 102, and 103.

Like Ratatta before him, Zigzagoon has respectable combat early on, with Lv9 Headbutt being roughly the equivalent of Ratatta's Hyper Fang, though 30 base attack sucks. And being normal means that he doesn't get to super effective stuff to death until TM's are burned on it. Evolution (at Lv20, thank god he evolves early) brings his attack to a heart stopping total of 70, which while good for midgame, really doesn't cut it lategame. At least he's pretty fast with 100 base speed as Linoone.

While Zigzagoon isn't exactly lacking in movepool, it's just that his stats are too poor for it to be useful. Level up wise, he doesn't get anything really noteworthy until Lv41, when he gets Slash, and he does get Belly Drum at Lv53 which can turn him into a nuke. Too bad even a slight breeze will knock a half health Linoone down. As for the TMs he can make use of, all he really has going for him is Dig and Shadow Ball on the physical side. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam access is cute and all, but he's not doing significant damage with them thanks to his even shittier 50 SpA.

Now that I'm done ranting about his combat, let's get to Ziggy's main uses: HM slavery and being a Pickup bot. Now, it is a well known fact that Zigzagoon is a good HM slave because he can mega man 3 HMs at base and gains Strength access as Linoone. Basically, if you have an HM move that you don't want on someone, catch a Zigzagoon. He'll handle most of your HM needs for the first half of the game. As for Pickup, I am going to warn you that this is not an R/S rating or else he'd get a lot of points for this. In Emerald, Pickup works a lot differently; by that, I mean that you only start to get good items as you become higher leveled. So to get the most out of it, you'd have to get your stupid little badger up to around Lv50 (Can't find a Pickup chart on Serebii. Sorry.)

I think I am done here.

6

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Komeiji Koishi]

Not quite sure about Gen 3, but I think another pokémon learns pickup. It's probably more useful.

<s> is it a bad thing that I thought about Touhoumon's Marisa line while writing this? </s>

[Ema Skye]

I think Phanpy is the only other one to get Pickup in Emerald, and it loses it when it evolves and joins right before Water land.

So no, Linoone's probably still better.

[MacLovin]

Linoone can hold its own later on too.

[Smiley Jim]

Wurmple/Silcoon(Cascoon)/Beautifly(Dustox)

Type: Bug, Bug/Flying (Beautifly), Bug/Poison (Dustox)
Ability(s): Shield Dust (Wurmple/Dustox), Shed Skin (Silcoon/Cascoon), Swarm (Beautifly)

Wurmple is what you basically get if you were to merge Caterpie's line with Weedle's line. Unfortunately, it's not a pretty sight.

Wurmple's stats are just disastrous, and he has severe issues killing anything on his own, besides those Magikarps the two fishermen outside of Petalburg have. He gets a little bit of durability when he evolves at Lv7 to either Silcoon or Cascoon (fuck if I know what determines the evolution, it has something to do with his personality value), then only becomes marginally decent once he evolves into either Beautifly or Dustox.

Beautifly:

Beautifly is marginally useful in the first gym despite the huge achilles heel to rock moves by way of Absorb. Now, I'm not going to lie, an non-STAB Absorb has even worse output than a STAB-boosted one, but 90 SpA is more than sufficient to make the hits hurt. Of course, you probably only want to attack Geodudes with it thanks to the 4x weak (Nosepass is a no-go.) Lv13 STAB Gust also makes him super clutch against Brawly, thanks to the 4x resist to fighting on top of hitting super effective.

So, how does Beautifly fare against the competition later on? Poorly. He has a worse base stat total than Mightyena and Linoone, which equates to him being crap as soon as you get off Dewford. On top of that, Bug/Flying happens to be one of the worst typings defensively in this game, being weak to the next four gyms after Brawly (Norman doesn't actually hit anything SE but he's so powerful that he may as well hit Beautifly SE) He might have some marginal usefulness against the twins with STAB Silver Wind, but by then, who cares?

Beautifly's movepool is terrible. He doesn't get an upgrade to his grass move until Lv24, which while that would be reasonable by most standards, is obviously too late for something this bad. And that's just Mega Drain. Giga Drain doesn't show up until Lv38, well past Beautifly's expiration date. He also gets Stun Spore early on and Attract later, which can help stall stuff, but why you are stalling in an efficient run is beyond me. His TM game is also blegh. He does get a few noteworthy moves like Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Aerial Ace, but otherwise, his movepool is beyond redemption.

Basically, useful for one or two fights, then he hits the bench for good.

3


Dustox:

Remember how I said that Beautifly was an earlygame nuke capable of killing Geodudes? Unfortunately, Dustox doesn't even have that. His offenses just suck. 50/50 offenses on a fully evolved Pokemon is just sad, really, and unlike Beautifly, he doesn't even get a STAB move until Lv34. His defenses are surprisingly good for an earlygame bug, especially his special defense, but considering that bug is plagued with weaknesses, yeah no. Still great against Brawly, though.

Dustox fares even worse than Beautifly for the long term. Sharing the same BST, but much worse distribution means that this little bastard is doomed to hit the bench after Brawly. Well, ok, he can Protect+Toxic stall Slaking, but who wants to waste a perfectly good TM06 on something this pathetic (Lv38 is far too unreasonable for Norman), and he does ok against Sidney offensively, but a lot of Pokemon are better for that.

Dustox's movepool is just as bad as Beautifly's. Instant Confusion is cute and all, but Psybeam shows up a little too late to help him and he doesn't even get Psychic through level up. And like I said, Silver Wind shows up too late. Pretty much anything I said about Beautifly's TM game can be applied to Dustox, except replace Aerial Ace with Sludge Bomb.

Only has slight usefulness against Brawly due to 4x resist.

2.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Wingull/Pelipper

Type: Water/Flying
Ability(s): Keen Eye

Every generation of Pokemon has introduced a new earlygame bird Pokemon, as per tradition. In the case of this generation, two bird families were introduced, and like with Pidgey and Spearow, there is the issue of which one is the superior one. And it's pretty obvious that Wingull is, for the most part, inferior. But he is still decent.

Take one look at his stats, and you'll see that he is pretty fast for something that is unevolved. Most things don't reach 85 speed until they've evolved once. Too bad he loses this speed upon evolution, but he does gain some good physical bulk as Pelipper, which can be useful at times. As far as offense goes, just like with Hoothoot, he has higher SpA than Atk, but unlike him, Wingull actually gets proper special STAB. Yes, unlike other earlygame birds, Wingull has Water typing, which as I've discussed with Mudkip, is a useful typing to have in Hoenn.

Wingull can serve as a clutch against Roxanne if you chose Torchic, thanks to Water Gun nuking her Geodudes (Nosepass is an ass with its high SpD and lack of ground type though, so watch it), as well as being a solid pick against Brawly; even though his attack is pretty much rock bottom, Wing Attack should still dole out serviceable damage. Flannery also does not like Pelipper very much, and he can also troll Norman's Slaking with Protect.

His movepool is pretty dreadful to say the least. Level up wise, he doesn't get any flying moves besides Wing Attack, and has to wait until Lv61 to get Hydro Pump. As for the rest of it, he gets Stockpile and Spit Up/Swallow, which is useless, and a slew of support moves that no one cares about. Thankfully, he gets access to the Surf HM when Water Gun really begins to lose its muscle and Ice Beam isn't too far off. For added coverage, he gets Shock Wave for some reason, which can be useful against fellow Wingulls. He also gets Fly and Steel Wing if you want to go that route, but gl hurting things with 50 Atk lategame.

I will admit though that despite his pros (availability, fighting resistance, Slaking trolling), he does suffer from a case of outclassed. While he practically is the best non-Mudkip water type early on, in the mid and lategame, he starts to get outshone by Carvanha and later on Staryu, who have better speed and offenses, as well as wider movepools.

Great early on, outclassed later on.

6.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Lotad/Lombre/Ludicolo

Type: Water/Grass
Ability(s): Swift Swim/Rain Dish

The first new Pokemon you can find on Route 102, Lotad is a fairly common sight in this area. One thing to note about him is his unique Water/Grass typing, which would open up a cocktail of possibilities involving gym compatibility, if it weren't for a few flaws. Obviously, he's great against Roxanne with dat 20 BP Absorb, and has the same issues as Treecko with midgame, though lategame is a lot nicer for him.

One thing I need to get out of the way, however, is that Lotad's start is fucking atrocious. He's stuck with Astonish until Lv7, where he gets the just as pitiful Absorb. While this lets him deal with Roxanne, it does not excuse the rest of his offense, as it sucks. He does get to upgrade to Mega Drain, but that only shows up if he stays as a Lotad until Lv43. As for water moves, he's screwed; the only damaging water move he gets through level up is Hydro Pump, which he gets at... Lv49. The rest of his level up movepool sucks; Fury Swipes, Uproar, Thief, the general useless stuff. Thank god for the Surf HM, but that doesn't appear until after you beat Norman. He also appreciates Giga Drain and Ice Beam.

Another issue that Lombre has is that the item that he needs to evolve comes late. There is a water stone in the second part of the sunken ship, but you need Dive in order to get it. Likewise, you can get infinite stones by trading in blue shards, which can be found on Clamperls, but again, you need Dive and blue shards only have a 1 in 20 chance of being held. But once you do, it's pretty hard not to appreciate his stats. STAB Surf hits hard coming from 90 SpA, and 70/70/100 defenses means that he is reasonably bulky on the special side. His only real flaw is speed, but 70 base is still enough to outspeed most things of note, thanks to EVs.

Basically, has a really bad start, doesn't really shine until lategame, but turns out alright in the end.

3.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Seedot/Nuzleaf/Shiftry

Type: Grass, Grass/Dark (Nuzleaf/Shiftry)
Ability(s): Chlorophyll/Early Bird

The second new Pokemon you can find here, Seedot is better than Lotad, though he's still not the best Pokemon in the world.

The first concern is that Seedot only has a whopping 1% chance of being encountered on Route 102. That is laughably rare, and this amounts to spending hours upon hours of searching. Now, there is an easier way to get a Seedot, the process being that you need to trade the NPC who has the Seedot a Ralts, another Pokemon that is really rare. But is Seedot worth the aggravation?

First off, Seedot is yet another grass type, which is to say he's basically stuck in the hole of 'decent earlygame, bad midgame, great endgame', and it doesn't help that his start is worse than Lotad's. Essentially, he's stuck with Bide until Lv13, when he gets Nature Power, which basically gives him early Swift. And what makes this worse is that he doesn't get any grass moves through level up, and doesn't learn Faint Attack until Lv31. Like with Lotad, his level up movepool is pretty sad; other than Faint Attack, he gets Torment, Swagger, and Razor Wind, as well as Extrasensory, which might have helped him against Fighting types... were it not for the fact that he gets it at Lv49.

What this amounts to is that Seedot is reliant on TM's for a good moveset. Bullet Seed is pretty much required early on for his STAB, even though the damage is not at all consistent. And he's unfortunately stuck with it until the Giga Drain TM arrives. As for his coverage, it basically consists of Dig, Shadow Ball, Brick Break, and Aerial Ace. While these are good moves, they all have massive competition, so he isn't exactly guaranteed to get these moves. It should be noted, though, that Brick Break and Dig give him a way of killing steels, and Aerial Ace can help against Fighting types somewhat. Thanks to Chlorophyll, he can make excellent use of Sunny Day, which patches up his average speed and also opens up Solarbeam, which is more potent than Giga Drain. There is also the Explosion tutor in Pacifidlog which can turn Shiftry into a literal nuke. Perfect for taking out annoying chumps in the Elite Four, like Glacia's Walrein or Wallace's Milotic.

His gym/elite compatibility is similar to Lotad's, except that he's even better at taking down Tate and Liza thanks to his dark typing, and he wants nothing to do with Brawly. Phoebe also fears him since he's dark and she uses ghosts.

Like Lombre, Nuzleaf has to wait a while before he can evolve, though his item shows up right when he's ready to do so. There is a hidden leaf stone somewhere in Route 119 that you can collect using the Dowsing Machine. And if you miss that one, you can trade a green shard for one. Too bad they only have a 1 in 20 chance of showing up on something that has a 1 in 20 chance of showing up(resulting in a 1 in 400 chance of getting a green shard.). And you need Dive. After quite a bit of pain (but not nearly as much as with Lotad), you finally have something that has quite good offense (100/90/80), even though his STABs only have 60 power apiece when other mons have moves that have 80 BP or more. Yeah, Grass sucks in this generation.

Like Lotad, starts off extremely shitty, but gets better sooner than him. Also, Nuzleaf sounds a lot like Nuzlocke. Just pointing that out.

5.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Komeiji Koishi]

The original Nuzlocke comic had a Nuzleaf in the MC's team. It got killed off not too long after joining, hence, the name.

[Smiley Jim]

Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir

Type: Psychic
Ability(s): Synchronize/Trace

Wally must be the luckiest bastard who ever lived. He managed to find one on his first try. It took me about 30 minutes to find Ralts once.

Ralts is the first psychic type that you can encounter in the game, and is a pretty good alternative to the Abra line, which appears later on. But like Abra, she has a slew of relatively minor issues before becoming the goddess that is Gardevoir. The first issue that needs to be addressed is her obscurity; Ralts has a heart pounding 4% chance of spawning, which, to be frank, is barely better than what Seedot has for an encounter rate. Thankfully, unlike Seedot, Ralts is worth searching for.

Ok, disregarding the whole elusiveness issue, how does Ralts fare once caught? Not too great. She comes at Lv4, and her first damaging attack is learned at Lv6, which means that you will need to do the whole bait and switch thing for two levels, and it does not help that she's in the slow experience group. Have fun. Once we get around this, we then find out that Ralts's stats are among the worst in the game; she has worse base stats than Mudkip in every category, except for speed which she ties. And she evolves 4 levels later. Granted, base stats don't really take any real effect until Lv20, but you should get the idea here. Unfortunately, Kirlia isn't much of an improvement over Ralts, getting only +10 to most of her bases, except SpA/SpD, which get +20. Thankfully, she gets Calm Mind one level after evolution, which generally proves useful and allows her to be a decent threat. Thankfully, evolution is only at Lv30, which is pretty tame.

And what if she is fully evolved? Your reward for 26 levels of pain is a monster with monstrous offenses and great special durability. To give out an idea of how high Gardevoir's special attack is, the only non-legendary Pokemon in the Hoenn dex who has higher is Alakazam. While her speed is comparatively low next to his, 80 speed is still more than enough to outspeed most things of note, and she does it with better overall durability (68/65/115 vs 55/45/85).

Let's get to movepool. While she does require TM use for coverage, the only TM she really requires (Thunderbolt) is one that can be bought at the casino (or just use the one that Watson gives you.) Before then, you could always use the Shock Wave TM. As for level up moves, I had already addressed that she gets Calm Mind far earlier than most others get it, and as another treat, she gets Psychic five levels later. For reference, Kadabra has to wait 10 more levels for the same move. As for anything else, she does get Hypnosis, but she learns that at Lv51, which is around the time you reach the Elite Four, and that's not getting to the 60% accuracy.

Psychics as a whole are pretty neutral in Hoenn, being only effective against Brawly, though Gardevoir can deal with Winona, Juan, Glacia, and Wallace if she packs Thunderbolt (which I hope for your sake she does; mono psychic isn't what it was in RBY) However, it should be known that Psychics don't fare so well against the elites due to the first two elites specializing in types that kill psychics, and both Glacia and Drake having Dark moves on 2 of their Pokemon.

In a nutshell, somewhat poor start, but becomes good once the midgame starts to wane and remains competent throughout the rest of the lategame.

Also, despite the feminine appearance, Ralts has a 50/50 chance of being male.

7.5 Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[MacLovin]

Leaf Stone comes juuuuuust before Winona.

But, that's about the time your starter hits 3rd form and etc., so it should be OK.

And Nuzleaf has a better early-midgame than Lombre, due to better offense, faint attack, the 'power moves, and whatnot.

Lotad waits until just barely before Wallace to be good at combat.

[Smiley Jim]

Taillow/Swellow

Type: Normal/Flying
Ability(s): Guts

In a nod to Pidgey, Spearow, and Hoothoot of the older generations, Taillow is Hoenn's token Normal/Flying type. What sets this swallow apart from that stupid pigeon and owl, but makes him similar to the sparrow is that Taillow is actually good. Actually, Taillow takes everything that made Spearow good in FRLG and takes it up a few notches.

Everything that applies to most other flying types in terms of movepools and ability to combat the various gym leaders in Hoenn applies to Taillow as well. Well, besides Wingull's ability to kill rock types, but that's beside the point. Taillow only takes until Lv22 to evolve, which is quite good for something that is quite competent, and unlike Hoothoot before him, Taillow actually has bite (or peck. Whatever.)

Taillow is the more physically biased of the two starting birds, sporting Peck at base and gaining Wing Attack at the low, low level of 13, basically turning him into an earlygame nuke. This allows him to not only act as a living can of Raid, but also allows him to pulverize the fighting types in the Dewford Gym. And since he evolves at Lv22, Swellow is very potent at that point in the game. Another great attribute of his is that 125 base speed, which basically allows him to get the first hit against virtually anything. As far as damage goes, 85 base attack is only decent, but it is augmented by Guts, which gives him an attack raise when paralyzed, burnt, or poisoned (though you still don't want to get paralyzed since that lowers speed.) While it does raise attack when sleeping or frozen, it won't do you any good, hence why I mentioned the PAR, PSN, or BRN statuses only.

The strongest move that he gets through level up is 60 base power (Wing Attack and Aerial Ace), so he does appreciate TM support. Thanks to Guts boosting his attack to very good levels if statused, Facade is a VERY strong attack on Swellow, essentially giving him a lategame nuke if he gets poisoned or something, and like most flying types, Swellow can use Fly to make use of a more powerful flying type attack (doesn't get Drill Peck.) For coverage, the best he really has is Steel Wing, which does allow him to beat rocks (you still aren't doing "that" much to them), but still doesn't help him beat steels. But overall, I don't see any significant movepool issues.

In a nutshell: Comes earlygame, little issues outside of relatively poor coverage, great offense with Facade.

8.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Marill/Azumarill

Type: Water
Ability(s): Thick Fat/Huge Power

The second new Pokemon you can find on Route 104, Marill is a somewhat common sight, and a water type that you can catch in preparation for Roxanne. Whether he is good or not, I know not, but let's get started on his review. The first thing of note is his unique ability Huge Power. What this ability does is that it literally doubles the user's attack. Now, considering that Marill's offenses are pretty much rock bottom and don't get much better as Azumarill, this ability is really, really helpful to him. If you catch one with Thick Fat, I recommend releasing it since Marill pretty much needs Huge Power to function.

Now that we have that out of the way, Marill has overall poor stats. Now, I know that bases don't really take effect until after he evolves, but 20 in either attacking stat is quite painful to look at, which upgrades to a still saddening 50, though Huge Power mitigates his physical attack by a significant amount. Despite this, he should be able to kill Geodudes with Water Gun, and later on, Bubble Beam. 50 speed as Azumarill is also pretty terrible, but his bulk isn't all that bad to be perfectly honest, with 100 HP and 80 in both defenses.

While his physical movepool is rather good, most of the moves which he wants show up during midgame or lategame, so he has movepool issues early on, being stuck with Tackle and Rollout for the first three gyms. I'm mostly pertaining to Dig, Brick Break, and Double-Edge (he gets the last one through level, but he doesn't learn it until Lv34), but you can try Subpunching if you're really gutsy. By the way, while he can learn Ice Beam, gl killing dragons in one hit with it. Still, it's not a bad option, but there's much better users out there. And even though his SpA is pretty bad, he can still nuke Gravelers and other water weak things with STAB Surf.

Huge Power is awesome, but he does have his issues.

6.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Shroomish/Breloom

Type: Grass, Grass/Fighting (Breloom)
Ability(s): Effect Spore

The first new Pokemon you can encounter in the Lost Woods Petalburg Forest is the mushroom capped Toad Shroomish, and he is a good alternative to the Treecko line, especially if you started with Torchic.

Shroomish starts out fairly unimpressive outside of killing Geodudes and the like, boasting mediocre speed and generally weak attacks until Lv16, when he learns Mega Drain. It does not help that most of the trainers on the way here use Bug types and other types that resist grass, so you will want to use bait-and-switch tactics. However, he is a boon in Roxanne's gym, where he can get easy exp from all those big, scary Geodudes that he kills in 1-2 hits and takes lol damage from thanks to his 60/60/60 defenses. Nosepass will give him some issues though, due to its high SpD and Absorb's low-ass might.

This trend pretty much continues until he evolves even once he gets Mega Drain, due in part to his 40's in both attacking stats and Grass sucking monkey dick offensively. And what if he is evolved? Breloom is a major improvement over Shroomish thanks to his fighting typing, and overall better stats. Gaining Mach Punch upon evolution also helps; sure it only has 40 base power, but considering that it bypasses his 70 speed base (and not too many things outrun him at this point in the game), and Breloom has 130 base attack to work with, it ends up being your bread and butter even after stronger fighting attacks show up.

The combination of grass and fighting allows Breloom to take on not just Juan and Wallace, but Norman and Sidney as well. And he's even better equipped to take on Glacia, even if he dies in one hit to everything there. He still doesn't want anything to do with Flannery or Winona, and he doesn't like the twins or Drake very much.

Besides hitting hard and being good against multiple gyms, Breloom gets access to status moves, but he only gets access to most of them if he stays unevolved, only getting Stun Spore if he immediately evolves, but he can learn Spore if he stays unevolved until... Lv54. So if you wanted to try Sporepunching, forget it. That totally does not justify keeping Shroomish unevolved 31 levels, at least not ingame anyway.

Breloom kind of got shafted as far as coverage goes. While he does learn a good arsenal of Fighting moves (Sky Uppercut is gotten at Lv36 and he can utilize Brick Break), his coverage is limited to Sludge Bomb, Iron Tail, and assorted Normal type moves, none of which really help him against his greatest enemies: bulky fliers and ghosts. As far as grass STAB goes, he can pick up Giga Drain or perhaps Sunny Day+Solarbeam, but with only 60 SpA, they aren't going to do as much as you would like, unless you target a Graveler or something.

To summarize, Shroomish is a rock killer and status inducer early on, but becomes a killing machine later once that fighting type and 130 attack kick in.

9

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Slakoth/Vigoroth/Slaking

Type: Normal
Ability(s): Truant (Slakoth/Slaking), Vital Spirit (Vigoroth)

Slakoth would be amazing broken if it weren't for Truant.

Appearing in the Petalburg Woods, Slakoth is a major rarity there, with only a 5% encounter rate, so finding him can take a while. Once you do, you've got yourself a strong earlygame attacker with 60 base attack and STAB Scratch. He is also quite bulky as well, with 60/60/35 defenses and Slack Off access at Lv13, so he isn't short of durable. He does, however, have rather poor speed, so he may get outsped early on.

This would've been amazing were it not for one thing: Truant. What this god awful ability does is force Slakoth to skip every second turn, which as we all know, is an absolute detriment to efficiency. Because, let's face it, every skipped turn is basically asking the AI to either kill your ass or do the nasty to you (set up.) This obviously makes it a pain in the ass to get Slakoth to Lv18, when he starts showing some improvement.

The first thing to know about Vigoroth is that unlike his other two forms, he doesn't have the god-awful Truant to slow him down. Speaking of slow, his base speed triples and his attack and defense go up to a respectable 80, which makes him quite strong for this point in the game. Not exactly good for taking on gym leaders, but he can mop up mooks for relatively easy exp, and any might issues he had with Scratch can be fixed with the Strength HM or Secret Power TM.

Of course, all good things don't last (or do they?), and Vigoroth evolves into the lazy-as-fuck Slaking. Disregarding Truant, a giant walks among you. When Vigoroth evolves into Slaking, he will gain an exponential boost in HP and attack (150/160), as well as a sizable defense boost (100), essentially turning him into a tempered steel wrecking ball, and 100 speed doesn't hurt either. Slaking also has one of the most vast movepools, giving him many versatile options. Of course, Truant prevents him from being truly amazing, but having the same base stat total as Groudon and Kyogre totally justifies it, since he would be broken otherwise.

Being a normal type, Slaking never has a shortage of good STAB moves; Secret Power TM on Route 111, Strength HM in Rusturf Tunnel, Return in Fallarbor (you will need to hand the scientist the meteorite for this one), Double Edge from the Sootopolis tutor, and even Hyper Beam from the Lilycove Mall (Slaking makes better use of Hyper Beam than most considering that his ability forces him to skip his next turn anyway, so the recharge turn is inconsequential outside of the inability to switch.) He can also take Brick Break, Shadow Ball, and Earthquake for coverage, and can even use special attacks like Flamethrower and Thunderbolt thanks to his decent 95 SpA.

Basically, Slaking is a killing machine that only wishes that he wasn't stuck with a horrendously shitty ability like Truant, which is a big let down for an otherwise godly Pokemon.

6.5

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Smiley Jim]

Skitty/Delcatty

Type: Normal
Ability(s): Cute Charm

Oh boy, another bad one coming, and this one is a real piece of shit. First off, Skitty is one of the rarest Pokemon in the game, only having a 2% chance of spawning on Route 116 (for the record, she ties with Chimecho, Plusle, and Grimer, while only the Seedot line, Volbeat, surfing Goldeen, and Kecleon are rarer, though most of those 1 percenters have easier means of acquisition), which basically equates to having to go through 50 random encounters on average just to find one. And you will find out that all your hours of searching were not worth it. What kind of contribution can Skitty provide after all the pains of finding and catching her?

Absolutely fucking nothing. Skitty's stats look ok at first glance when you first catch her, but the first two gyms aren't exactly kind to normal types, and Skitty absolutely sucks at delivering good damage despite a decent 45 base attack, though 50 speed is relatively good for this stage. What makes this worse is that she doesn't learn any good damaging STAB moves until Lv39, when she learns Double-Edge. The Secret Power TM can alleviate this slightly, but even then, her offense is shaky at best. It unfortunately doesn't get much better with evolution, giving Delcatty 65/55/70 offenses, which while it will be satisfactory during the midgame, really starts to lose any shine it had once lategame hits. In fact, Delcatty has one of the worst base stat totals out of evolved Pokemon, with only a 380 BST, which is actually worse than Beautifly and Dustox, believe it or not. And those two have pretty fucking bad BST's.

Her level up movepool is a joke. Assist is cute and all, but the move it chooses is random (out of a possible 20 moves in your party's movesets), and you could very well end up using an attack that benefits the enemy. She also gets some support moves like Charm, Attract, and Sing, so you could go the annoyer route, but why do that when you could just OHKO or 2HKO everything you come across? While she can supposedly benefit from TMs, they are all pretty much wasted on her thanks to her terrible offenses.

Oh, and another gripe is her evolution. Skitty is one of those Pokemon that are blessed with a Moon Stone evolution, but the first Moon Stone is found in Meteor Falls, which is pretty much where any usefulness that she had ends. And even with the evolution, Delcatty isn't getting any rewards.

Also, HOT SKITTY ON WAILORD ACTION!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VB7EF-yfJI

2 Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander

[Espinosa]

lol I think 1 out of 10 is being too harsh on it, knowing the options it gets. Sure, it's not the top candidate for any of the following moves, but it can get Calm Mind, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, essentially granting setup capabilities (and horrid leads are typical to this game, with mons like Luvdisc making setup easy) against some of the more problematic gyms/elites, though with that speed it's not beating any of the speed demons to that first attack once it's set up. Plus it gets STAB on normal-type moves, which is valuable, and it has nearly Clefable-level physical offence (and people like calling Clefable the normal-type Nidoqueen apparently).

Also I want to argue Gardevoir > Azumarill, what do you think? Gardevoir's sweeping trainers once it gets Calm Mind while Azumarill struggles to go first in most cases and isn't terribly helpful lategame. Both have similar issues earlygame.

[Smiley Jim]

lol I think 1 out of 10 is being too harsh on it, knowing the options it gets. Sure, it's not the top candidate for any of the following moves, but it can get Calm Mind, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, essentially granting setup capabilities (and horrid leads are typical to this game, with mons like Luvdisc making setup easy) against some of the more problematic gyms/elites, though with that speed it's not beating any of the speed demons to that first attack once it's set up. Plus it gets STAB on normal-type moves, which is valuable, and it has nearly Clefable-level physical offence (and people like calling Clefable the normal-type Nidoqueen apparently).

Also I want to argue Gardevoir > Azumarill, what do you think? Gardevoir's sweeping trainers once it gets Calm Mind while Azumarill struggles to go first in most cases and isn't terribly helpful lategame. Both have similar issues earlygame.

I decided to give Skitty a point for being able to do 'something' lategame(CM sweeping), but it still doesn't change the fact that she's a shitty Pokemon. Maybe a 2.5, but that's pushing it. I also totally overestimated Marill's lategame. Yeah, he's dropping half a point. Ralts was also raised half a point to establish an efficiency lead.

Have a nice day.

- James

Edited September 18, 2012 by James the Hero

[Smiley Jim]

Abra/Kadabra/Alakazam

Type: Psychic
Ability(s): Synchronize/Inner Focus

First showing up in Route 116, Abra can be yours early on in your quest, proud of his massive special attack and speed, as well as his ability to smite all those fighting types in Brawly's gym.

Like Ralts, Abra has a steep hill to climb before he becomes good. The good news is that Abra improves as soon as he evolves into Kadabra, which happens 4 levels earlier than Ralts's evo. The bad news is that Abra is helpless for longer than Ralts (that is, he has 9 levels of helplessness as opposed to Ralts's 2.) Also, Abra is difficult to catch; while he is 2.5 times more common than Ralts, he has a tendency to Teleport on sight, which means that that first ball better work (alternately, if by some freak accident you have a sleep move, you can use that against Abra.) Thankfully, his catch rate is fairly high, so lobbing balls has a decent rate of success.

Unfortunately, there are no TMs that can aid Abra during these 9 levels that I call helpnessness, so you will have to use the bait-and-switch method to level your Abra to Lv16, which should happen by the time you get out of Granite Cave. Once this happens, he's all set; Kadabra immediately learns Confusion upon evolving, and is proficient with it as well, with 120 SpA to abuse it with, as well as a 105 speed stat. What makes this even better is that Kadabra gets Psybeam at only Lv21, 5 levels after evolution. However, all this power comes at a cost; Kadabra is pretty much the definition of a glass cannon. Sporting 40/30/70 defenses, he does not take hits well at all. Even with Recover access at Lv25, he is hard pressed to take any neutral STAB'd physical hit, much less a super effective hit.

If you have access to trading, you can evolve your Kadabra into Alakazam, who is a complete beast in and out of himself. For starters, he can learn Calm Mind through level up at Lv33 (Kadabra gets the not-so-useful Role Play), and has an astronomical 135 base SpA. To give an idea on how high this is, the only Pokemon in the entire National Dex prior to Gen V who beat this are all uber level legendaries. He also has 120 base speed, which is enough to outspeed virtually everything that you will face ingame even if you are slightly underleveled. Durability improves a little, but it still doesn't change the fact that Alakazam is a glass cannon.

If there is one thing that this line is sorely lacking, it's good coverage. The only move of note that he gets is Shock Wave, which while it is a strong attack for midgame purposes, it does make Alakazam wish that the elemental punching tutors showed up earlier than postgame (and cost less than 48 BP.) It also does not help that Shadow Ball is considered physical in Gen III.

All in all, a solid pick even if you don't have trading access.

7.5 (7 without trade option)

Edited October 30, 2014 by James the Salamander