ITT I Rate Pokemon Platinum

[Smiley Jim]

Hello chaps. Following in the wake of my nearly completed Emerald ratings thread, I have decided to take charge of a Pokemon Platinum ratings thread, which will follow the same basics as the previous one: Rate each Pokemon's performance in an efficient playthrough.

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 Sinnoh 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)

For the sake of comparison, all player controlled Pokemon are assumed to have 20 IVs across the board, with EV values being determined at a later date.

[spoiler=Color-Coded Types]

It should also be noted that I am now color coding types for the convenience of others.

Black=Normal

Red=Fire

Blue=Water

Green=Grass

Gold=Electric

Cyan=Ice

Fire Brick=Fighting

Purple=Poison

Saddle Brown=Ground

Lavender=Flying

Magenta=Psychic

Lime=Bug

Dim Gray=Rock

Indigo=Ghost

Teal=Dragon

Dark Gary=Dark

Light Gray=Steel

[spoiler=EL RATINGZ]
Turtwig: 9
Chimchar: 10
Piplup: 8
Starly: 9.5
Bidoof: 7

Kricketot: 2

Shinx: 8
Magikarp: 8
Budew: 5.5
Beautifly: 4
Dustox: 2
Zubat: 6.5
Psyduck: 8.5
Abra: 7.5(7)
Geodude: 5.5(4)
Machop: 8(6.5)
Ponyta: 7
Onix: 5(1.5)
Combee: 2.5

Aipom: 5.5
Wormadam: 3.5
Mothim: 4.5
Cherubi: 2.5
Heracross: 6.5
Munchlax: 0

Shellos: 6.5
Buizel: 7
Pachirisu: 1.5
Drifloon: 6.5
Buneary: 6.5
Hoothoot: 3.5
Gastly: 7.5(6)
Meditite:
Chingling:
Bronzor:
Cleffa:
Nosepass:
Rotom:
Togepi:
Gligar:
Gible:
Cranidos:
Shieldon:
Gardevoir:
Gallade:
Vaporeon:
Jolteon:
Flareon:
Espeon:
Umbreon:
Leafeon:
Glaceon:
Chansey:
Duskull:
Goldeen:
Barboach:
Finneon:
Spiritomb:
Unown:
Scyther:
Marill:
Lickitung:
Porygon:
Rhyhorn:
Houndour:
Hippopotas:
Girafarig:
Wingull:
Chatot:
Remoraid:
Wooper:
Tropius:
Tangela:
Yanma:
Skorupi:
Croagunk:
Carnivine:
Pichu:
Tentacool:
Magmar:
Magnemite:
Sudowoodo:
Mr. Mime:
Riolu:
Feebas:
Snover:
Sneasel:
Glalie:
Froslass:
Swinub:
Absol:
Electabuzz:
Mantyke:
Uxie:
Azelf:
Mesprit:
Giratina:

Note that there may be a +/- .5 margin of error in the ratings. I apologize.

Have a nice day.

- C. James Williams(DA125)

Edited June 2, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Turtwig/Grotle/Torterra

Type: Grass, Grass/Ground(Torterra)
Ability(s): Overgrow

Turtwig is like Bulbasaur if he had better physical stats, but worse special stats and speed.

One thing that Turtwig has in common with Bulba is that his earlygame is quite awesome, having a type advantage in Roark's gym and neither Gardenia nor Fantina posing a significant threat to him. Also helping his cause is getting Razor Leaf at Lv13, giving him a strong STAB that will carry him throughout the early and midgame. It is a small advantage he has on Chimchar and Piplup, whose evolved forms respectively don't get Flame Wheel and BubbleBeam until Lv19.

Later on, he gets ground typing, which is a mixed curse on a grass type, as while it helps Torterra offensively(no longer getting walled by steels), the typing is pretty bad defensively, with only 2 resistances, an electric immunity, and 4 weaknesses including a 4x weakness to Ice. STAB Earthquake is obviously beneficial to anyone who gets it, and Torterra gets it at Lv32, which is very generous considering most Pokes who get EQ naturally learn it at Lv40 or later.

Turtwig's boss performance can be best described as good. I already mentioned that he's taking names in Roark's gym and against Gardenia and Fantina, while he's not exactly at an advantage against them, he's not bad there either(though Bite access pulls the Fantina fight in his favor). His Maylene performance is hit or miss depending on if he's fully evolved or not, but if he is, he handily destroys Luke with Earthquake, and neither Wake, Byron, nor Volkner want anything to do with him(though one dude in each of their teams has Ice Fang, so you will want to raise your defense before engaging said Pokes). He is avoiding Candice(as well as the rest of northern Sinnoh) at all costs. Torterra's elite performance is admittedly a lot more sad with only Bertha being a good matchup for him, while Aaron and Flint inflict rape and Lucian's Pokes sodomize him because lol special psychic. Taking a look at Cynthia's party, Torterra's only really safe matchups are Lucario and Spiritomb, since everything else either has a strong super effective move(Milotic, Togekiss) or is strong enough to 2HKO with neutral moves(Garchomp, Roserade).

Torterra's stats are quite solid, with 109 attack combined with STAB Earthquake ensuring that he hits hard and 95HP/105Def/85SpD giving him excellent overall durability. The downside is that he is quite slow, though this isn't insurmountable due to Rock Polish access. Speaking of which, once you look past that Lv13 Razor Leaf and Lv32 EQ, Torterra has some pretty interesting moves in his arsenal, one of the more important ones being Lv17 Curse, which sacrifices speed for more attack and durability, allowing him to set up on physically oriented bosses like Byron and Bertha with relative impunity. This, combined with Bite access at Lv22 makes his Gardenia and Fantina performances quite good as a whole. He can also learn Crunch at Lv45 or use the Stone Edge TM, providing diverse options coverage wise. Furthermore, at the cost of a single heart scale, Torterra can learn Wood Hammer, which has more than twice Razor Leaf's might but has recoil.

Overall, a solid pick for a starter and one that won't disappoint outside of Routes 216 and 217. But fuck those routes.

9

Edited July 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape

Type: Fire, Fire/Fighting(Monferno/Infernape)

Ability(s): Blaze

The fire starter, and like in tradition, is something that is fast and hits hard. Chimchar, like Turtwig, has a crazy good start, getting Ember at only Lv7, allowing him to 1-2HKO most opponents in the earlygame stages. Helping his cause is that Fire is a beneficial typing to have throughout most of the game, hitting almost everything in Eterna Forest and Routes 216 and 217 super effectively and being effective in 3 gyms. Not only that, but in some sort of sick tradition that carried over to Gen V, he gains fighting typing on his first evolution along with Mach Punch, giving him an offensive advantage in Roark's gym and also giving him a strong priority move.

Chimchar's line is very strong offensively, sporting 108 speed and 104/104 attacking stats in the final form, making him a very proficient mixed attacker. With attacking stats this good, his lackluster 76/71/71 bulk is relatively negligible. Also helping is his movepool, which is the most vast out of the three starters. Strong STAB is pretty easy to come by midgame, with Flame Wheel learned at Lv19 and the Brick Break TM being available before crossing Mt. Coronet, and Lv36 Close Combat and either the Fire Punch tutor or the Flamethrower TM round out his lategame STAB. His coverage is quite diverse too, with access to the Grass Knot, Stone Edge, and Shadow Claw TMs or the ThunderPunch tutor.

It should come as no surprise that Chimchar performs admirably against the gyms and bosses in general, with advantages over Roark, Gardenia, Byron, and Candice and being roughly neutral against Maylene and Volkner, with only Wake and Fantina being his only real sour matchups. It should be noted that he can take out Maylene's Lucario assuming he's sufficiently leveled and avoids Bone Rush, and can take on 2/5 of Cyrus's party with no difficulty. He does start to slow down in the Elite Four fights(though this is due to a level disadvantage), as Bertha's Pokes easily OHKO him if Grass Knot doesn't OHKO, and Lucian destroys him. However, he pretty much trashes Aaron's Pokes due to lolfire, and Flint's team is hit or miss(do not fight his own 'nape). In the Cynthia fight, he can only really take down Lucario and Roserade with relative safety, as everything else has a strong super effective move and is too bulky for him to take out.

Basically, Chimchar is pretty boss the whole game, only really slowing down in the final fights, but even then, he can still take out stuff that's generally fire or fighting weak. That's worth a perfect score in my opinion.

10

Edited April 23, 2013 by Garchomp

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

good job

[Smiley Jim]

Piplup/Prinplup/Empoleon

Type: Water, Water/Steel(Empoleon)

Ability(s): Torrent

Piplup is this game's water starter, and while he can't live up to Mudkip's hype, he's still pretty good. Unlike Mudkip, his start isn't especially kind, being stuck with the pathetically weak Bubble until Lv19 when he gets BubbleBeam, which mirrors RSE!Treecko's performance to some extent, but at least he doesn't have to wait until like Lv30 to get a stronger STAB. While he still has the same offensive advantage in Roark's gym as the other two(despite being stuck with Bubble...), he's put at a major disadvantage in the forest and Gardenia's gym, both of which pack strong Grass types that he can't really hurt. Lv15 Peck helps, but it's not going to help you against that Roserade.

Piplup can be considered Turtwig's opposite in the sense that while Turtwig focuses on physical prowess, Piplup's line has an overwhelming special bias, with 111 SpA as Empoleon, and 84HP/88Def/101SpD combined with Steel typing keeps him durable. 60 Speed, on the other hand, sucks, and he doesn't get any speed boosting moves through level or TM that can make this negligible. His movepool really can't hold a candle to Chimchar, but he does get access to Surf, and Ice Beam shows up much later on in Route 216(you could also buy it, but fuck spending 200K on TMs. Yes, they actually raised the cost of elemental beam TMs from 4000 coins to 10000.). Also worth noting is Grass Knot, which lets him hit the water types that would otherwise resist both Surf and Ice Beam super effectively, but otherwise gives redundant coverage.

The Water type doesn't shine as much in Sinnoh as it did back in Hoenn, but even so, Piplup's line has advantages in Roark, Byron, and Candice's gyms, the latter courtesy of his steel typing, and is only really disadvantaged in Gardenia and Volkner's gyms. His elite four performance is mostly the same, but he does have offensive advantages on Bertha and Flint's teams, for what it's worth(you suck against them defensively, as Water/Steel is weak to ground and neutral against fire), and his steel typing lets him tank Aaron and Lucian's Pokes. His Cynthia showing is a bit worse than the other two, but he can still reliably fight Spiritomb and Milotic, as those two have movesets that are completely resisted by Empoleon's steel typing(you will need either a non-resisted physical attack or Grass Knot for Milotic). Roserade is another generally ok matchup, assuming you heal liberally and have access to either Ice Beam or Drill Peck.

In retrospect, Piplup, while still quite useful, has some noticeable flaws that make him less than desirable compared to the other two starters, but they generally don't hold him back TOO much.

8

[Ronman5]

I agree to Chimchar and Turtwig (an Infernapes is what all Blazikens wish to be) and I thought Piplup was Pretty good and could learn moves making him powerfull

[Smiley Jim]

Starly/Staravia/Staraptor

Type: Normal/Flying

Ability(s): Keen Eye(Starly), Intimidate(Staravia/Staraptor)

Starly is your typical early joining bird, but unlike Pidgey and Hoothoot, he is actually worth using in the long term. In fact, just to give out an idea of how good he is, he makes Spearow and Taillow look bad, and that's saying something.

Starly's earlygame is quite awesome despite joining before a rock gym, learning Wing Attack at only Lv9 and evolving five levels after that, gaining Intimidate and a respectable 75Atk/80Spe offense. It also helps that the areas after Oreburgh are full of grass and bug types that Staravia can tear apart, including Gardenia's gym, which more than makes up for the crappy performance in Roark's gym. The next two gyms are also won by type advantages, with ghost moves not being able to hit Staravia and flying being super effective against fighting. And this is when he's not even fully evolved yet.

And what if he is? Upon reaching Lv34, Staravia evolves into Staraptor, gaining a massive attack stat only 5 points lower than that of Gyarados in addition to a solid 100 base speed, and learns Close Combat on top of this. To give out an idea on how game changing this is, Close Combat grants Staraptor the ability to hit the rock and steel types that previously walled his STAB, making him a good pick against Byron in spite of his dudes carrying super effective moves, and Candice likewise has stuff that do not want to see either CC or his flying STAB(do not fight Froslass). And he is not fighting Volkner.

Like Infernape, Staraptor does start to slow down slightly in the final matches, but again, this is only due to a level disadvantage. He is still quite boss against Aaron, especially considering he now has Brave Bird, and he can kill Lucian's Gallade and Flint's Infernape, though Bertha's party is generally too physically bulky for him to deal with on his own. In the definitive final fight, his best matchups are against Roserade and Spiritomb, with everything else threatening either a super effective attack or simply brute forces you to death and are too bulky to take out before he gets killed.

Like Infernape, starts out quite good and never really slows down until the endgame when level disparity catches up to the party.

9.5

[Shadow Mir]

I agree to Chimchar and Turtwig (an Infernapes is what all Blazikens wish to be) and I thought Piplup was Pretty good and could learn moves making him powerfull

Bold: I can't help but think that comment was inspired thanks to Infernape outclassing Blaziken (at least in 4th gen).

[Smiley Jim]

Bidoof/Bibarel

Type: Normal, Normal/Water(Bibarel)

Ability(s): Unaware/Simple

EPIC BIDOOF SWEEP! ...Sorry. I just had to.

Superfluous rodent #4, and Bidoof is pretty much no different from the others in that he can make an effective crutch Pokemon early on when no other good options are available. Early on, he's Tackling things, which is fine since at least he gets STAB on it, though he does get strong moves a little later than the other rodents do, notably getting Headbutt at Lv18 when RSE!Zigzagoon got the same move at Lv9, which is a letdown.

Like the other early joining rodents, one of the things Bidoof lacks is solid stats. With a stat total of only 410 after evolution, which is attained at the low, low level of 15, Bibarel is quite strong for the early stages, especially after factoring in his 85 base attack and easy access to Normal STAB, but will find himself outclassed once you obtain stronger Pokemon. Another thing in his favor is the water typing he gets upon evolution, allowing him to kill Geodudes and other normal resistant Pokes early on(something the other rodents would kill to have). He also gets Yawn ay Lv27, which can be helpful for catching legends, as well as Super Fang at Lv43, which can help with killing bulky boss Pokemon or wearing down legends.

One of Bibarel's finer points is his ability to become an effective HM slave, being able to use every HM outside of Fly and Defog. If you need to teach an HM move to something and you'd rather not have one of your main party members be burdened with a shitty move, Bibarel's your go-to 'mon for that sort of thing.

Another thing I want to get out of the way is Simple. What this ability does is that it essentially doubles the wielder's stat mods, which can be applied to lategame strategies involving setting up Curse and Amnesia. To give an idea on how powerful this can be, Bibarel only needs to use Curse three times to max out his effective atk/def and a single Amnesia boost gives him tripled SpD, which I have to say is kick-fucking-ass. As an example, an average Lv53 Bibarel with just one Curse boost(after factoring in Simple) is never 2HKO'd by Cynthia's Garchomp while doing around 45% back with Return and 37% with Waterfall. Think of it as a way of breathing new life into an otherwise outclassed Pokemon.

For something regarded as a utility Pokemon, Bibarel does have a few tricks up his figurative sleeve. So I'll cut him a little slack.

7

Edited July 21, 2013 by General James

[Emeraldfox]

So how'er ya gunna rate Leafeon? Tha same way ya did wit te uthers?(as in rate the family as a whole) Or seperatly for each o' tha Eeveelutions? I ask since Leafeon is mah favorite Pokecritter. Love 'em.

[Ronman5]

Bold: I can't help but think that comment was inspired thanks to Infernape outclassing Blaziken (at least in 4th gen).

It kinda was Blaziken was ok-good, Infernape was great-excellent (wow my platinum team was Garchomp,Lucario,Giratina,Staraptor,and Infernape so I wonder what scores Garchomp and Lucario will get (probally pretty high)

[Smiley Jim]

So how'er ya gunna rate Leafeon? Tha same way ya did wit te uthers?(as in rate the family as a whole) Or seperatly for each o' tha Eeveelutions? I ask since Leafeon is mah favorite Pokecritter. Love 'em.

I'm going to do it in the same style as before. If a Pokemon with split evolutionary paths is being rated, I rate ALL of them in the same post. This is to save me the trouble of creating multiple posts for the sake of several different cases, and your case is no exception.

[Smiley Jim]

Kricketot/Kricketune

Type: Bug

Ability(s): Shed Skin(Kricketot), Swarm(Kricketune)

Kricketot is one of the two bug types that can be found in Sinnoh's earlygame, and is undoubtedly the worse of the two.

Let's get something perfectly straight here, and I think we can all agree on this one: Kricketot's earlygame SUCKS. The only thing Kricketot can do before evolution is Growl and Bide. Are you fucking shitting me? At least Wurmple can attack if his life depended on it(to be fair, even if Kricketot could attack, his attacking stats are rock bottom). Who wants to go around using a move that forces you to wait for two turns while the enemy could easily set up on you? Do yourself a damn favor and switch grind Kricketot to evolution.

Ok, so we get this failure of a pillbug to evolution, and we can finally see an improvement, as Kricketune actually has good stats for this point in the game and can actually damage things without resorting to Bide. The only problem with is that he doesn't get any good damaging moves until Lv26 when he gets Slash and Lv30 when he gets X-Scissor, being stuck with Fury Cutter and Leech Life which does absolutely fucking pathetic damage(well, Fury Cutter at first. In order to get it to anything resembling a high BP, you have to use it multiple times), even off 85 base attack. In fact, it may actually be a good idea to wait until Lv16 so that Kricketot gets Bug Bite.

Just like in Hoenn, the bug type got fucked hard when it came to gym performance, being resisted by the third, fourth, and sixth gym's types, not being terribly helpful in the fifth, seventh, and eighth gyms, and only really being effective against Gardenia's gym(though if you evolved your Kricketot before Lv16, you may as well be giving them papercuts unless you can get Fury Cutter going.), and isn't terribly helpful against Team Galactic. This pretty much extends to the elites, where pretty much everything in Aaron's party has secondary typing that resists Bug, Bertha's party is way too bulky for Kricketune, and against Flint, sending Kricketune there is like having a kindergartener fight Hulk Hogan. However, he does get a day in the limelight when he finally gets to hit Lucian's party super effectively, but with a shitty 77/51/51 bulk, the only dude he can engage safely is Mr. Mime(Espeon, Alakazam, and Gallade threaten with OHKOs and Bronzong is way too physically bulky).

In a nutshell, the horrendously shitty start and the subsequent wait until Lv26 to get good moves pretty much doom Kricketune.

2

Edited June 9, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Shinx/Luxio/Luxray

Type: Electric
Ability(s): Rivalry/Intimidate

The first electric type you can come across in this game, Shinx can be best described as a physical version of Mareep. Like Mareep, he's rather slow for an electric type, but makes up for it by having above average bulk for his type, especially after factoring in Intimidate.

He starts out average, being stuck with Tackle until Lv13 when he gets Spark, which sort of mirrors Electrike's performance in RSE, the only difference being that Shinx has something resembling an attack stat. After that point, Shinx's offense becomes good, and early evolutions at Lv15 and Lv30 only serve to rectify this point. It also helps that the physical/special split works in Shinx's favor as Spark is a physical attack in this game as opposed to special like in RSE. Bite access at Lv18 is also quite sweet, and gives Luxio a solid standing in Fantina's gym.

In a stark contrast to most electric types, Luxray's forte is physical attack, sporting a meaty 120 base attack, which is the second highest out of the electric types gotten in this generation and is only exceeded by Electivire(albeit by only 3 points). Another desirable trait that Luxray has is his 80/79/79 bulk, which is above average for his type and coupled with Intimidate, actually makes him durable enough to survive most STAB Earthquakes(not that you would want to pit Luxray against a ground type, but just saying that it is possible.) However, this does come at the cost of his speed, which is at a rather sad 70 base.

The electric type isn't as useful in this game as it was back in Hoenn due to the relative scarcity of water routes, but Luxray still holds crucial advantages against Crasher Wake and Cyrus, the latter due to his team being mostly composed of types weak to electric. He also has some usefulness against Fantina's party and Candice's Froslass due to having access to Bite and later Crunch at Lv43, but his performances in the first two gyms isn't exactly spectacular due to Roark having multiple ground types and Gardenia specializing in grass types(and even against Fantina, he may be biting off more than he can chew due to his bulk not being fully developed yet.). His elite performance is also quite sad(especially against Bertha), though he can take out Aaron's Yanmega and Vespiquen, as well as Cynthia's Milotic and Togekiss. Crunch access also gives him a crack at Lucian.

Like Manectric in Emerald, Luxray's movepool is rather lacking, being only really composed of Electric and Dark moves, which while not bad, does make you wish you didn't have to breed to get Fire and Ice Fang. Also, Luxray wishes he got Volt Tackle, as Spark's 65 BP is somewhat weak endgame.

Overall, this thing really doesn't disappoint. His only real flaws are mediocre speed and a relatively shallow natural and TM movepool

8

Edited May 20, 2013 by General James

[Ronman5]

Well Kricketune sucks but I thought it was a bug flying? Oh well anyway next up should be uh zubat and Geodude and ther evos right?

[Smiley Jim]

Magikarp/Gyarados

Type: Water, Water/Flying(Gyarados)
Ability(s): Swift Swim(Magikarp), Intimidate(Gyarados)

The usual tale about something being a burden to your team until the painstakingly fucking slow evolution at Lv20 or so once again applies to Magikarp, and that is one thing that has never changed over the years. Being caught pretty much anywhere with an old rod at Lv3-15, Magikarp is once again stuck with Splash, meaning that you are basically forced to switch grind him in order to level him up, and considering that Magikarp is in the Slow exp group, this is not fun. And even once you reach Lv15 and learn Tackle, you are still better off switch grinding because Magikarp's attack is among the worst in the game. In fact, now that I mention it, all of Magikarp's stats are fucking atrocious apart from speed and defense.

After what seems like eternity, your crappy fish finally evolves, and at that point, a giant walks among you. While the lack of STAB until Lv35 is a bit of a pain, Gyara doesn't really give a shit as Bite is still going to hurt off that monster 125 base attack. This makes him a prime candidate to go up against Fantina's Pokes, as not only will Bite kill everything she has in 2 hits, but his good 95/79/100 bulk prevents even Mismagius's Shadow Ball from 2HKOing him. 81 base speed is also quite good, as early on, Gyara will naturally outspeed most Pokes, and later on he can mitigate any speed issues using Dragon Dance.

One thing that you will find different about Gyara's performance compared to earlier generations is that he now has an actual physical movepool. Aside from the aforementioned Bite, Gyara gets Ice Fang at Lv32 as a way of combating dragons and most importantly, he now has actual physical STAB in the form of Lv35 Aqua Tail and the Waterfall HM(shame the Bounce tutor is postgame). He is also compatible with the TMs for Earthquake and Stone Edge, giving him many options for overall coverage.

Outside of Volkner, Gyara has overall solid matchups against crucial boss characters. Notably, nothing in Fantina's party can 2HKO him with any move while he 2HKOs with Bite, and he resists the STABs of both Maylene and Wake, so he can be put to work there too(though you WILL want something other than Bite against Maylene.) He's also quite helpful against Byron provided you don't fight Magneton(and even that is killed if Gyara has EQ), since both Steelix and Bastiodon are weak to water. Against the elites, you can pretty much expect the same story when it comes to matchups, considering that neither Bertha nor Flint's parties want to see his water STAB and Aaron's STAB is resisted by Gyara, leaving Lucian as the only E4 member who actually has ways of stopping a Gyara sweep before it's set up, though if you set up on Bronzong, even he's fucked. And against Cynthia, you can pretty much use Spiritomb as setup fodder(it like 4HKO's you with Shadow Ball) and go to town on the rest of her party.

Overall, Gyara is a MAJOR improvement over his RSE self, now that he has access to a broader physical movepool, but the 11 levels of suck on average does hold him back a bit.

8

Edited July 21, 2013 by General James

[Ronman5]

WOW EVERY POKEMON (minus kriketune/kricketot) HAVE HIGH SCORES ITS A MIRICLE

[Emeraldfox]

Hey, you didn't like, update the original post with the scores of the rated Pokemon.

Also I'm predincting a 100/10 for Leafeon.

[Smiley Jim]

Budew/Roselia/Roserade

Type: Grass/Poison

Ability(s): Natural Cure/Poison Point

The first of the new stuff you can catch in the Route 204 area, Budew has a fairly bad start, though it isn't as bad as that of RSE Oddish. She starts with Absorb, which I've discussed many times before is pathetically weak against anything that doesn't have a double weakness to Grass, and has only 50 SpA to work with. Lv13 Mega Drain and a rock gym down the corner help her case considerably, but getting there is a pain in the ass as a large portion of the enemy Pokemon outside of the Oreburgh Mine and Roark's gym use stuff that's resistant to Grass.

One of Budew's biggest issues, besides her terrible base stats and lack of good moves, is evolution, which is happiness based. I'm just going to say this right now, the earliest you're likely to evolve your Budew is after the Gardenia fight, as pretty much everything in the Lost Woods either resists grass or has enough special bulk to not care about you. In fact, considering that all Budew has been doing is sucking, it may actually be a good idea to just catch a Roselia on Route 208. Either way, Roselia is a major improvement, sporting actual base stats and a strong STAB move in Magic Leaf. While she's not particularly helpful against Fantina, she can kind of do something against Maylene, and Wake's party is decimated by Roselia(or it would, if it weren't for the fact that Gyara is neutral to Grass and Floatzel kills you with Ice Fang.)

A Shiny Stone is available at the very end of Iron Island's cave system, which grants Roselia her long-awaited evolution into Roserade. The evolution gives her a monstrously good offense by Grass type standards(125SpA/90Spe), as well as a good 105 special bulk, though her physical bulk, at 60HP/55Def, is kind of lacking. She also has access to Petal Dance and Sludge Bomb by this stage, giving her solid STAB options. However, the lategame gyms aren't exactly kind to her, with Byron's party resisting either of her STABs, and both Candice and Volkner carrying strong super effective moves against grass. And the elites aren't any kinder, since Aaron and Flint's teams resist grass, not to mention that Flint and Lucian both tear Roserade apart. However, Roserade does tear Bertha's party apart, so she has that and Cynthia's Milotic, I suppose.

In a nutshell, Roserade is a pretty strong Pokemon, but the crappy start as Budew(though you can catch a wild Roselia to circumvent this; the only drawback is that she misses out on Roark) and the fact that Grass isn't as wanted in Sinnoh as it was in Hoenn pretty much dooms her in the end.

5.5

[Ronman5]

I never want Grass so all Grass types but Torterra,Sceptile,and Leavanny are dead to me.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Grimaslayer

[Smiley Jim]

Wurmple/Silcoon(Cascoon)/Beautifly(Dustox)

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

Wurmple is what you get when you splice Caterpie DNA with Weedle DNA. And the result is just as bad.

Caught in the same general area as Budew, Wurmple's stats are basically a complete joke, and has some issues taking shit down on his own, besides Tyler's Magikarp and Kaitlin's Abra. He gets somewhat good physical durability upon first evolving into either Silcoon or Cascoon (fuck if I know what determines the evolution, but what I CAN tell you is that neither the time of day nor gender determine the evolution.), and becomes marginally decent upon evolving into either Beautifly or Dustox.

Beautifly:

Beautifly is marginally useful in Roark's gym despite the huge Achilles heel to rock moves by way of Absorb. Now, I'm not going to lie, an unSTAB'd Absorb has even worse output than a STAB'd 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 (Cranidos is a no-go due to it only being 2x weak). Lv13 STAB Gust also makes him pretty awesome against Gardenia and the Lost Woods in general, thanks to the 4x resist to grass on top of hitting super effective.

Beautifly is one of the many RSE Pokes that benefited from the physical/special split, in that he now has actual special STAB (notably, he gets Lv34 Silver Wind and Lv41 Bug Buzz), which is a MAJOR improvement from his RSE self. He also gets Giga Drain at Lv38 (not in time for Wake) and can utilize the Psychic and Shadow Ball TMs for more coverage.

Despite the improvements on his movepool, Beautifly's stats are still awful aside from SpA, and let's be honest here: 65 Spe and 60/50/50 bulk are not enough to stay afloat in the lategame stages. Not only that, but his gym compatibility is awful. The last three gyms all have some sort of type advantage over him, he's not doing enough to Fantina and Wake's Pokes to circumvent the damage he's taking, and even Maylene has Rock moves on two of her Pokemon (ruining an otherwise great matchup). I suppose he's good against Lucian, but with crappy speed and bulk, yeah good luck with that.

Beautifly has noticeably improved since RSE, but he is still quite bad.

4

Dustox:

Remember how I said that Beautifly was an earlygame nuke capable of killing Rocks and grass types? Unfortunately, Dustox doesn't have that. His offenses just suck. 50Atk/50SpA on a fully evolved Pokemon is just sad, really, and unlike Beautifly, he doesn't even get learn his first STAB until Lv34. He does, however, have decent bulk for an earlygame bug type, with 60HP/70Def/90SpD, so he can be used to sponge hits early on.

Pretty much everything I said about Beautifly's gym performance is applicable to Dustox, but with one key difference: it's much, much worse. While he is still good against Gardenia and is better against Maylene due to better bulk and lacking a 4x Rock weakness, he performs poorly against Roark due to a lack of grass moves, and has overall worse showing elsewhere because his offenses just suck. He doesn't even have a good Lucian performance due to his Poison typing.

Dustox really didn't get many changes in his movepool, aside from getting Bug Buzz at Lv41. That being said, some TMs that he appreciates include Psychic, Shadow Ball, Giga Drain, and Sludge Bomb.

In a nutshell, a worse version of Beautifly, and honestly should be benched after Maylene (if not sooner).

2

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Zubat/Golbat/Crobat

Type: Poison/Flying
Ability(s): Inner Focus

Everyone hates encountering Zubat in the wild. They are known to show up all the fucking time and are lurking in every cave to ruin your chances of getting something good in Nuzlockes, but... this rating will not be based on that. This rating is based upon how good Zubat is at fighting, which to be frank... isn't good at first.

Zubat can be caught in the Ravaged Cave at around Lv5, and you will find that while he has the standard crappy start that he's always had, it's not as bad here due to getting crucial moves at lower levels, notably Bite at Lv13 and Wing Attack at Lv17. This is a HUGE improvement in performance, though the eight levels of Leech Life/Astonish still hurt. Wing Attack in particular gives him an excellent Gardenia game, as he also 4x resists grass (don't pit him against Roark).

By the time you reach Hearthome City, your Zubat should have evolved into Golbat, where we see a noticeable improvement in stats, though not enough to stand up to Fantina's party, though he pretty much owns the majority of Maylene's party due to flying type. Around this point, your Golbat has probably accumulated enough happiness to evolve into Crobat, at which point you get a fairly solid attacker with 90Atk/70SpA/130Spe bases and usable 85/80/80 bulk as well as access to Cross Poison through the relearner.

Crobat's movepool is somewhat shallow, but workable. Thanks to the high amount of happiness required to evolve him, he is an excellent candidate for one of the Return TMs, and he also has access to Giga Drain, Shadow Ball, and X-Scissor. However, the one coverage move he truly wants, Heat Wave, is gotten off a postgame tutor, so he's not helping against Byron ever.

Zubat's gym compatibility is mostly blegh, being only really effective against Gardenia, Fantina, and Maylene, and everyone else either having a type advantage over him (Roark, Byron, Candice, Volkner), or being roughly neutral but making him bite more than he can chew due to enemy offense (Wake). The elites are more or less the same, with Aaron being Crobat's only really good matchup, though he can try his luck with Infernape and Gallade due to their fighting types. It should also be dully noted that Crobat is also one of the VERY few Pokemon capable of outspeeding Cynthia's Garchomp, though he isn't doing much there besides getting Dragon Rushed to death.

To summarize, Zubat is a lot better than his previous incarnations, though even saying that, he does have a few noticeable flaws including his bad start and a mediocre gym game.

6.5

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Psyduck/Golduck

Type: Water
Ability(s): Cloud Nine/Damp

The other resident of the Ravaged Cave is a water type, and one that shows up at a time where Rock Pokemon are still relatively difficult to take down. Psyduck's start is somewhat sour, being stuck with Scratch until he gets Water Gun at Lv9, giving him a solid earlygame STAB that hits the Rock types found in Roark's gym HARD. Confusion is gotten 9 levels later, giving Psyduck some pretty good coverage during the middle stages of the game, and it also makes him somewhat helpful against Maylene.

Psyduck's stats can be best summarized as good, but not great. As a Golduck, most of his stats hover around 80, with a slight emphasis on special attack, which is at a fairly high 95. Golduck may not be the fastest duck on the block, but 85 speed is respectable and allows him to outspeed most things of note. And while he's more of an offensive Pokemon, 80/78/80 bulk ensures that he won't have any major durability problems, outside of Gardenia and Volkner's gyms.

One thing that you will be glad to know is that Psyduck's special movepool is no longer as restricted as it once was. For starters, he now gets STAB prior to getting the Surf HM; besides the aforementioned Water Gun, he also gets Water Pulse at Lv22, giving him an excellent all around move that can also confuse. Coverage wise, besides Ice Beam, Psyduck can finally use the Psychic TM that he was denied access to before, and he can use either the Brick Break or Focus Blast TMs to round out his coverage. Even Shadow Claw is an option if you want to hit Lucian's party a bit harder. Unfortunately, Calm Mind is unavailable due to it being in a postgame area and costing 48 BP even if it wasn't.

Everything that I said about Piplup's boss compatibility can be applied to Psyduck, though Psyduck has quite a few advantages including having a psychic attack for Maylene (and probably be close to evolution by this point), and his pure water typing makes him less susceptible to Bertha and Flint's STABs, though he does comparatively worse against Lucian as a result. Not being ground weak also allows him to take part in a collective effort to kill Cynthia's Garchomp, as neither Dragon Rush nor Earthquake will 2HKO an average ~Lv52 Golduck and Ice Beam will kill Chomp if its at 40% HP or less.

Golduck is a fairly solid water type, backed up by his peerless availability. Not many other water types can brag about being both readily available early on AND not being helpless until Lv20.

8.5

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Abra/Kadabra/Alakazam

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

First showing up in Route 203, Abra can be yours early on in your quest, proud of his massive special attack and speed, as well as his ability to smite fighting and poison types early on.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and daisies, as Abra once again proves difficult to catch. For starters, he's not exactly a common sight, having only a 15% encounter rate, and what makes this all worse is that the first thing he will do is Teleport away. And considering the lack of sleep inducing moves at this point in the game, the only thing you can do is keep lobbing balls at him until one of them works. Once caught, Abra is stuck in the unfortunate situation of having Teleport as his only move before evolution and unfortunately, there's no early Hidden Power TM to help him out, which equates to 11 levels of switch grinding.

Once he does evolve, which will likely be around when you enter the Lost Woods, he's pretty much set for life. Gaining Confusion upon evolution, Kadabra is already hitting hard and fast with 120SpA/105Spe, which is freakishly high for something that isn't fully evolved. Psybeam at Lv24 is simply icing on the cake, really. However, Kadabra has one flaw preventing him from being perfect: his crappy durability. With only 40HP/30Def/70SpD, Kadabra is hard pressed to take any sort of physical hit, even with Reflect and Recover access.

One of the problems that the Abra line had back in Gen III was the lack of good special coverage, but Gen IV was quite kind to him in what he can utilize. While the punches are no longer a great option due to them being physical, getting Focus Blast and Shadow Ball more than makes up for it, giving Kadabra some pretty pwnly coverage, and he can also use Grass Knot to hurt ground and water types even more.

The psychic type has more or less the same performance in this game as it did in Hoenn, being only effective against one gym (Maylene's) and royally sucking in one (Fantina's). Despite this, Kadabra can employ Focus Blast against Byron and Candice while using Grass Knot for Wake's Quagsire (going up against either Gyara or Floatzel is tantamount to suicide.) as well as pretty much everything in Bertha's party. Shadow Ball helps with fighting Lucian.

The trade evolution doesn't make as huge of a difference for Abra as it does, say, Machop, but Alakazam appreciates the boost in stats, including an astronomical 135SpA/120Spe offensive base, which can certainly mean the difference between outspeeding and killing something and not being able to. Furthermore, Alakazam gets Calm Mind through level (whereas Kadabra gets the inferior Role Play), making him one of the few psychics that doesn't suffer from the lack of a readily available TM04 in the maingame (the only other psychics that get CM naturally are Ralts and Meditite).

In short, Abra is still pretty awesome at what he does, though due to the power creep, the lack of physical bulk hurts him more. Keep this in mind when using him.

7.5 (7 without trade option)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James

[Smiley Jim]

Geodude/Graveler/Golem

Type: Rock/Ground
Ability(s): Sturdy/Rock Head

The first rock type available to the player in Sinnoh, Geodude is not the demigod he is in HGSS, but can still manage to be decent if used correctly.

Geodude has a rather unimpressive start, boasting a sluglike speed stat and lacking STAB until Lv11, which equates to around 5 levels of babying, because in spite of his ability to tank, he really can't damage stuff with just Tackle. Granted, it's not going to help him very much against Roark, but that's what other teammates are for.

Like most rock types, Geodude's forte is tanking, and while the gym setup in Sinnoh is not nice to him in any conceivable way, he still boasts 80HP/130Def bases when fully evolved, which is quite nice as a whole. 110 attack is also quite good, and Rock/Ground is still as awesome as ever offensively. However, the lack of special defense and speed still hurt, though the lack of speed isn't insurmountable as Geodude gets Rock Polish at Lv8.

Geodude's level up movepool is good. Damn good. Earlygame, he's maining Rock Throw and Magnitude, and he gets access to Rock Blast and Earthquake at levels 25 and 33, respectively. Ridiculous. To give out an idea of how early Golem gets EQ, most others don't learn it until Lv40 or higher. He also happens to get Stone Edge through level, but it is learned at Lv49, right when you get to Victory Road. Lv18 Selfdestruct (and later Lv38 Explosion) is probably Golem's main selling point as it allows him to take out almost any problematic Pokemon at the cost of his own life. This can be handy when facing down really dangerous Pokemon like Cynthia's Garchomp, though in that particular case, you will want to bait it into using Giga Impact or paralyze it.

The boss setup in Sinnoh is not kind to Geodude, being severely disadvantaged in 5 of the 8 gyms. Gardenia and Wake in particular are really bad matchups for him since they specialize in his 4x weaknesses, and Candice and Maylene also destroy him by virtue of their types. While Ghost is neutral against Rock/Ground, Fantina still destroys him by virtue of having Magic Leaf on her Mismagius. His only good matchups are against Byron, Cyrus, and Volkner, though Byron is hit-or-miss since Magneton almost one shots him with Flash Cannon and he's not OHKOing Steelix ever, and even Volkner and Cyrus have stuff in their parties that can really fuck him up. Against the elites, Golem is only really helpful against Aaron and Flint, and even then, Flint has SolarBeam on two of his Pokemon and two of Aaron's Pokemon have typings that render them neutral to Rock (not to mention that Hera has CC and Scizor has Iron Head.)

If you aren't able to trade, you will find that Graveler's stats simply won't cut it past the midgame, and while Golem can take special hits on occasion, Graveler is hard pressed to take even resisted special hits. Also, 90 attack really starts to lose its bite after the fifth gym. He still gets the same coverage though.

Geodude used to be quite awesome back in Kanto and Johto, and was actually decent in Hoenn (well, outside of the fucking ocean). Here, he's nothing more than a glorified punching bag. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

5.5 (4 without trade option)

Edited December 21, 2013 by General James