----------------------------------------------- Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green - Pokemon Guide ----------------------------------------------- -------------- Author - Volke -------------- ------------ Introduction ------------ Building a good Pokemon team is the key to success in the Pokemon series. This guide will help you in building up a good team in Fire Red or Leaf Green. It will contain all 151 pokemon that appear on the PokeDex and I will personally review each one. I am very experienced in this field and my opinions are completely reliable. In regards to pokemon that evolve, I will go into detail with their final evolution rather than basic forms, as you obviously want to evolve pokemon. Befire any elitists start complaining, the movesets I am providing are intended for in-game use only. ------------------------------------------------ Bulbasaur > Ivysaur > Venusaur (001 > 002 > 003) ------------------------------------------------ Type - Grass/Poison (all stages) Important note - Bulbasaur is a starter pokemon Venusaur is the best Grass-type pokemon you can obtain in the game. It has better stats and a larger movepool than its only competitor, Vileplume. Venusaur has access to status inflicting moves such as Sleep Powder (but sadly not Spore) and a decent amount of offensive moves, although most are of types that would use Attack, rather than Special Attack, to determine damage. Ideally, you want to be aiming for a moveset like this: Sleep Powder Razor Leaf Sludge Bomb Earthquake Razor Leaf is listed because there aren't a great deal of 'good' offensive Grass moves. Solarbeam does have 100 % accuracy and 120 base power, as well as STAB bonus, but it takes two turns to use once without sunlight support, and giving up Earthquake for Sunny Day isn't really worth it. Sleep Powder is there because putting opposing pokemon to sleep makes things a lot easier, especially if they're tough. Sludge Bomb because of STAB, and Earthquake because it delivers a hard hit to most things that have type advantages over Grass and Poison-type moves. Verdict - Whilst Venusaur can only be obtained as a starter pokemon, you can't go wrong with choosing him. Out of the two starter pokemon that are useful against the first gym, he's the better pick. He's also very useful in the long run, and you won't want to replace him. ----------------------------------------------------- Charmander > Charmeleon > Charizard (004 > 005 > 006) ----------------------------------------------------- Type - Fire (Charmander, Charmeleon), Fire/Flying (Charizard) Important note - Charmander is a starter pokemon Charizard is the best Fire-type you can obtain in the game. He has great overall stats and a very diverse physical movepool (although sadly a rather shallow special movepool, considering his Special Attack is the higher of his attacking stats). Whilst his dual Fire/Flying typing results in him taking quadruple damage from Rock Attacks, it's rather unlikely that you would use him against Rock-type pokemon anyway. Try a moveset like this: Flamethrower Wing Attack/Aerial Ace Earthquake/Rock Slide/Dragon Claw Earthquake/Rock Slide/Dragon Claw Choose two of the three listed for the third and fourth moves. Earthquake and Rock Slide provide the best type coverage, but Dragon Claw is stronger than Rock Slide and will probably cause the same amount of neutral damage as Earthquake due to Charizard's higher Special Attack than Attack. Wing Attack is better than Aerial Ace as it has the same base power but more PP. However, if you hate trainers that use moves like Double Team and Sand Attack (who doesn't hate the cheating bastards?), then Aerial Ace is probably the better option. You might want to give the TM to another pokemon, though. Verdict - Like Venusaur, you can only get one unless you trade. Whilst quite rubbish against the first two gyms, Charizard will really shine later on in the game. In my opinion, he's the best of the three starter pokemon, and definately the best Fire-type pokemon in the game (seeing as he has better stats than most and he actually has a decent movepool). -------------------------------------------------- Squirtle > Wartortle > Blastoise (007 > 008 > 009) -------------------------------------------------- Type - Water Important note - Squirtle is a starter pokemon Unfortunately, Blastoise (and I hate to say it) is definately not the best pokemon of its type that is available in this game. It's quite good, but is outclassed by other Water types such as Vaporeon and Poliwrath. It has a shallow movepool and was built for defensive battling rather than offensive, and you probably won't use much defensive battling in-game outside of moves like Sleep Powder and Thunder Wave. The best moveset you'll get out of Blastoise is: Surf Ice Beam Earthquake Return Surf and Ice Beam because they're good moves, and it seems to be some kind of poke-land law that ALL Water types MUST learn these two moves (I dare you to find one that doesn't). Earthquake hits Electric pokemon hard, which is good since Blastoise is weak to Electric attacks. Return because it doesn't really learn anything better. It does learn Light Screen and Reflect, but they're moves best left to competitive battling only. Verdict - Like I said, outclassed by better Water type pokemon. The least useful of the three starters, I don't recommend you choose Blastoise unless you either love it or dislike the other two. It's not a bad pokemon by any means, but there are better options. Blastoise can take hits very well, but can't hit back hard enough. ------------------------------------------------- Caterpie > Metapod > Butterfree (010 > 011 > 012) ------------------------------------------------- Type - Bug (Caterpie, Metapod), Bug/Flying (Butterfree) In the word of pokemon, you will ALWAYS be bombarded by a bunch of rubbish Bug pokemon you find at the start of the game. It's the same in all of the games. Of all those rubbish Bug pokemon, Butterfree is probably the best of the bunch (sadly, nothing to brag about). A very bad combination of types (4x weakness to Rock!) and a lackluster movepool leaves a lot to be desired. Use this moveset, because it ain't getting any better: Sleep Powder Psychic Wing Attack/Aerial Ace Silver Wind/Giga Drain/Solarbeam It's easy: put something to sleep, then keep hitting it with Psychic. Wing Attack/Aerial Ace is your STAB backup. Silver Wind is also STAB, but Giga Drain is there because they both have 5 PP and Butterfree's higher Special Attack than Attack means Giga Drain will probably do a larger amount of damage and can heal the fragile butterfly. Solarbeam is powerful, and Butterfree welcomes more power. However, the two turn waiting is no fun. Verdict - If you want to use a Bug/Flying type, try Venomoth, who's a bit better than Butterfree. You could also ignore both and use Pinsir, who, unlike most other Bug types, is actually good. Butterfree won't be doing much to help your team. Depsite its pretty good Special Attack, the only special move you'll be using often is Psychic. He also has average Speed and terrible defences, so he won't be killing anything that's faster than him and can attack. Just use something else. -------------------------------------------- Weedle > Kakuna > Beedrill (013 > 014 > 015) -------------------------------------------- Type - Bug/Poison Like Butterfree, another rubbish Bug pokemon you find at the start of the game. Although it's different with Beedrill, because he's even worse! Again, he has rubbish stats (bar Attack, which is quite good, Speed which is slightly above average, and good Special Defence which is screwed over by its crap HP) and a very poor movepool. This is about the only moveset he can use: Swords Dance Sludge Bomb Brick Break Return Swords Dance to raise his Attack to a high level. Sludge Bomb because it's STAB. Break Break because it provides decent coverage when paired with Sludge Bomb, and because it's another good mveo he learns. Return because, well, what else is Beedrill going to use? Poison Sting? Verdict - I might even go as far as to call Beedrill the worst fully evolved pokemon out of Kanto's grand 151. The moveset I provided does look good at first glance, but Beedrill probably won't live to actually set it up due to his crap defences and HP. With Butterfree, I said use something else. With Beedrill, I'm saying use ANYTHING else, except Farfetch'd, of course. ---------------------------------------------- Pidgey > Pidgeotto > Pidgeot (016 > 017 > 018) ---------------------------------------------- Type - Normal/Flying The first of the Normal/Flying types encountered in the pokemon series, and you typically find Pidgey at the start of the game. Pidgeot's stats are quite balanced, ranging from good (Speed) to mediocre (Special Defence). His movepool is typical of Normal/Flying types: it sucks, but it just about learns what it needs to. Or not, considering that Pidgeot doesn't learn Drill Peck. Here is Pidgeot's best possible moveset: Aerial Ace/Wing Attack Return Steel Wing Mirror Move Aerial Ace and Wing Attack are the most poweful Flying-type moves that Pidgeot learns. Return is great, especially due to Pidgeot's STAB bonus on the move. Steel Wing to hurt Rock types. Mirror Move because it's fun and Pidgeot doesn't learn anything better anyway. Verdict - Pidgeot sucks. Out of the three Normal/Flying types, it's definately the worst. The main things that set it apart from the others is that it's less powerful, slower and doesn't learn Drill Peck. Don't be fooled by the fact that it evolves twice and is conveniently found at the very beginning of the game. Use Dodrio or Fearow instead. ------------------------------ Rattata > Raticate (019 > 020) ------------------------------ Type - Normal Your typical rodent-based rubbish Normal type found at the start of the game. Movepool is limited. Only decent stats are Attack and Speed. Best moveset: Return Iron Tail Shadow Ball Super Fang Return for STAB. Iron Tail and Shadow Ball because it learns them. Super Fang because it's fun and can be useful when Raticate won't be dealing more than 50% damage to an opponent (likely to be quite often late in the game). Things like Toxic and Thunder Wave are wasted on Raticate because he needs to use a kill or be killed strategy in order to be of any use. Verdict - Don't bother with it, unless you want the game to be more challenging. ---------------------------- Spearow > Fearow (021 > 022) ---------------------------- Type - Normal/Flying The first good Normal/Flying type you encounter. You can get a Spearow just after the first gym, so you really have no excuse to be using Pidgey. Again, like Pidgeot, Fearow's movepool is limited, but at least it gets Drill Peck. Best moveset: Drill Peck Return Steel Wing Mirror Move/Aerial Ace Looks similar to Pidgeot's best moveset, but with Drill Peck as the prominent Flying-type move. Drill Peck and Return are both very powerful, especially since Fearow gets STAB on both. Steel Wing hurts Rock-types, should he ever find himself facing off against them. Mirror Move is there if you want some fun, but Aerial Ace is also listed as it always hits pokemon using retarded moves like Double Team or Sand Attack. Verdict - Fearow and Dodrio are very similar as both rely on Attack and Speed, which are their only good stats. Dodrio's Attack and Speed are slightly higher than Fearow's, so Dodrio is better in the long run. However, Spearow is found much earlier in the game than Doduo, so if you don't want to wait, Fearow is for you. It's not a bad pokemon by any means, and is much better than Pidgeot. ------------------------- Ekans > Arbok (023 > 024) ------------------------- Type - Poison Interesting note - Try saying the words Ekans and Arbok backwards Typical or pokemon commonly found early on, Arbok has mediocre stats barring Attack and Speed (Special Defence is also okay, but low HP kills it). However, Arbok's movepool is actually quite good, so it is actually quite usable. Try this set: Sludge Bomb Earthquake Rock Slide Return/Toxic Sludge Bomb is STAB. Earthquake and Rock Slide provide excellent type coverage when put together, and surprisingly Arbok learns both. Return is there if you want another attack, Toxic is you want to wear down things. It's highly unlikely you'll be using either very often, anyway. Verdict - Despite the fact that its defences don't exactly shine in a rainbow of appeal, Arbok is actually quite good. Poison typing resists a lot, and it learns some great moves. It is outclassed by other pokemon, but it's still usable. Plus, it looks cool. ---------------------------- Pikachu > Raichu (025 > 026) ---------------------------- Type - Electric Important note - A Thunderstone is required to evolve Pikachu It's an absolute pain using Pikachu until you can get a Thunderstone, but Raichu is a great pokemon. Probably the best Electric-type you can obtain in the game (bar Zapdos, of course). Despite crap Defence, Raich can take hits quite well and dish out some great damage in return, although rather high Speed means he'll probably attack first most of the time too. A very good moveset would be: Thunderbolt Brick Break/Iron Tail/Return Attract Thunder Wave Thunderbolt is obvious: Raichu gets STAB on it and it's powerful anyway. Any of the three physical moves listed are there to hurt things that Thunderbolt doesn't fare well against. Attract works best if you have a female Raichu as most pokemon that trainers have tend to be male. Thunder Wave works brilliantly with Attract, giving the opponent about a one in five chance of actually being able to use a move. If you don't want to use Attract and Thunder Wave, you can use all three of the attacks listsed in the second moveslot, although you'll probably just be attacking with Thunderbolt more often than not. Verdict - Great pokemon. You can find it early in the game, and it learns some cool moves. The only Electric pokemon that's better than it is Zapdos, which is found a lot later in the game and grows slowly. Raichu works well in a team if you choose Charmander as your starter, as it helps a lot against Misty. Recommended if you want to use an Elecric type. --------------------------------- Sandshrew > Sandslash (027 > 028) --------------------------------- Type - Ground Sandslash has an advantage over things like Golem and Rhydon: it isn't 4x weak to Water and Grass attacks. However, it won't be taking attacks from those types very well due to its crap Special Defence. It has great Attack and Defence though, and has a good movepool to compliment them. I recommend this set: Swords Dance Earthquake Rock Slide Brick Break/Iron Tail/Aerial Ace Swords Dance to boost Attack to sky-high levels. Then attack using your STAB Earthquake, with Rock Slide to hit Flying-types or things with Levitate. For the last move, Aerial Ace is probably the best option as it hurts Grass types, but since most of them are Grass/Poison, Earthquake will hit them harder anyway. To be honest, it's unlikely you'll ever need to use the fourth move. Verdict - Great pokemon, but outclassed by Thick Club wielding Marowak, which is more powerful and a bit better defensively. However, if you don't want to spend forever looking for a Cubone holding a Thick Club, then go for Sandslash, as it's better on the whole than Marowak otherwise. ---------------------------------------------------- Nidoran (F) > Nidorina > Nidoqueen (029 > 030 > 031) ---------------------------------------------------- Type - Poison (Nidoran, Nidorina), Poison/Ground (Nidoqueen) Important note - A Moon Stone is required to evolve Nidorina Nidoqueen has slightly better defenses and slightly weaker offenses than Nidoking. It's up to you which of the two you'd prefer to use. Both are relatively good. Not on the same team, though. This is the best moveset I could come up with: Sludge Bomb Earthquake Brick Break Shadow Ball Sludge Bomb and Earthquake are STAB attacks. Brick Break and Shadow Ball provide perfect type coverage. Verdict - Nidoqueen is good. Not brilliant, but good. She's definately worth using in-game. --------------------------------------------------- Nidoran (M) > Nidorino > Nidoking (032 > 033 > 034) --------------------------------------------------- Type - Poison (Nidoran, Nidorino), Poison/Ground (Nidoqueen) Important note - A Moon Stone is required to evolve Nidorino Nidoking has slightly better offenses and slightly weaker defenses than Nidoqueen. You can use either, as both are relatively good. Not on the same team, though. Best moveset: Sludge Bomb Earthquake Brick Break Shadow Ball Sludge Bomb and Earthquake are STAB attacks. Brick Break and Shadow Ball provide perfect type coverage. Another possible option is Megahorn, the only good Bug-type move in the game. Nidoking learns it by level up, but either has to forego a STAB attack or perfect type coverage. If you want to use Megahorn, use it instead of Sludge Bomb as Sludge Bomb offers poor type coverage. Very few pokemon learn Megahorn, and even fewer, one of which is Nidoking, are actually good. Verdict - Nidoking is good. Not brilliant, but good. He's definately worth using in-game, and is one of the few good pokemon that learns Megahorn. ------------------------------- Clefairy > Clefable (035 > 036) ------------------------------- Type - Normal Important note - A Moon Stone is required to evolve Clefairy Clefable is more of a defensive pokemon than an offensive pokemon. Still, it has good Special Attack, and can make use of it. Clefable can be surprisingly effective, as it can take both physical and special hits whilst dishing out some decent damage with special attacks. Try this set: Calm Mind Thunderbolt Ice Beam Flamethrower The only pokemon which all three of these moves combined are not very effective on are Chinchou and Lanturn, and only one trainer in the entire game has these pokemon. Calm Mind boosts Special Attack and Special Defence. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt provide excellent type coverage, and Flamethrower is the best move to use after that. Verdict - In-game, it's the best out of the 'pink, cute and cuddly' Normal-types. Not my first choice to add into a team, but it's still good. ------------------------------ Vulpix > Ninetales (037 > 038) ------------------------------ Type - Fire Important note - A Fire Stone is required to evolve Vulpix Pure Fire types are weak to Water, Rock and Ground attacks, which isn't all that great, and also have crap movepools, and Ninetales is no exception. Okay, so you didn't choose Charmander as your starter and you want a Fire type. Ninetales isn't a bad bet, considering the others really aren't any better. About the best moveset you'll get out of it is: Flamethrower Return Confuse Ray Will'o'Wisp Flamethrower for STAB. Return because it's about the only good attacking move except for other Fire moves (and Body Slam, which shouldn't go with Return) that Ninetales actually learns. Confuse Ray and Will'o'Wisp can be fun to use, and sometimes useful too. Verdict - I'm not keen on Ninetales. I don't like pure Fire types and I hate things with rubbish movepools. Still, it's either this or Arcanine, and Ninetales grows faster. ----------------------------------- Jigglypuff > Wigglytuff (039 > 040) ----------------------------------- Type - Normal Important note - A Moon Stone is required to evolve Jigglypuff I don't know what Wigglytuff intends to do with those mediocre stats (barring its excellent HP), but you won't want anything to do with them. It's a shame, really, since Wigglytuff's movepool is brilliant. You can try out this moveset: Return Thunderbolt Ice Beam Shadow Ball That covers just about everything for at least neutral damage. Return is for STAB, obviously. Thunderbolt and Ice Beam cover a lot of things. Shadow Ball adds even more coverage. Wiggly's Special Attack and Attack stats are very very average, but it can still hurt things. You can try some more defensive sets if you like, but attacking sets are better in-game, and Wiggly's defenses are something that only a mother could love. Verdict - It's a shame that that fantastic HP stat goes to waste with those rubbish defenses. Wiggly's attacking stats are acceptable, but will be hit hard and will usually attack last due to rubbish Speed, only being able to deal moderate damage in return. Just use Clefable. -------------------------- Zubat > Golbat (041 > 042) -------------------------- Type - Poison/Flying Despite your initial opinion that Golbat probably sucks just because a bunch of Team Rocket Grunts love to use it, Golbat really isn't all that bad. Not to mention if you use this throughout the game you can eventually evolve it into Crobat after beating the Elite Four the first time and obtaining the National Dex (which is about 2/3 of the way through the game). Look at his stats: respectable base 90 Speed and base 80 Attack, with decent-ish base 75/70/75 defenses. He also has a good enough movepool to be used effectively. This set is easily his best: Sludge Bomb Aerial Ace/Wing Attack Shadow Ball Return/Steel Wing Sludge Bomb and Wing Attack/Aerial Ace are his STAB attacks. Shadow Ball is a great move, and he learns it. Steel Wing and Return are the only other two options he really has. Return is definately better, as it's more powerful and has more coverage, as Steel type moves have rather poor coverage. However, Steel Wing can hit Rock-types harder than Shadow Ball. Either way, you won't find yourself using the last move too much anyway, so pick your favourite. Verdict - One of the most underestimated pokemon there is. Those stats are quite good, and about 2/3 of the way through the game you can evolve it again into Crobat, which is a great pokemon. Golbat is quite, quite worth it. -------------------------------------------- Oddish > Gloom > Vileplume (043 > 044 > 045) -------------------------------------------- Type - Grass/Poison Your best bet if you want a Grass-type and didn't pick Bulbasaur as your starter. Vileplume has good stats (barring Speed), including a great base 100 Special Attack. His movepool is rather lacking, though. This is the best set I can come up with: Sleep Powder Sludge Bomb Petal Dance Return Sleep Powder to put things to sleep if they're giving you problems. Sludge Bomb is STAB, and is one of the few good attacking moves that Vileplume learns. Petal Dance is your best bet for an attacking STAB Grass move, but be careful using it. It beats Sunny Day + Solarbeam, which is usually a waste of time setting up. Return is a filler as Vileplume doesn't learn anything better. Verdict - Overall a good pokemon. Superior to Victreebel, Tangela and friends, and your best bet for a Grass type if you didn't pick Bulbasaur as your starter. Very limited movepool, but learns just about enough to be useful. ---------------------------- Paras > Parasect (046 > 047) ---------------------------- Type - Bug/Grass Parasect is one of the worst pokemon in his game. His problem is his awful typing. Bug/Grass typing leaves poor Parasect 4x weak to Flying and Fire moves, and 2x weak to a bunch of other types too. His decent defenses are let down by this. Also, his physical movepool is very limited, and Attack is his only good attacking stat. Use this set: Spore Aerial Ace Sludge Bomb/Solarbeam/Giga Drain Return/Solarbeam/Giga Drain Spore to put something to sleep so it can't take advantage of Parasect's huge amount of weaknesses. Sludge Bomb, Aerial Ace and Return are the three good physical moves that Parasect learns. Solarbeam is an alternative as, although his Special Attack is poor, it's powerful and he gets STAB with it, although the two turn waiting is no fun. Giga Drain is an alternative that I don't recommend, but it's not too bad. I would just use the physical moves though. Verdict - Crap typing, crap movepool and stats that don't make up for anything leaves you one of the worst pokemon in the game. Avoid. ------------------------------ Venonat > Venomoth (048 > 049) ------------------------------ Type - Bug/Flying Calling Venomoth a "better Butterfree" is probably the best way to describe it. It has better overall stats that its butterfly cousin, and can actually take a hit. It isn't a good pokemon, but it's one of the better Bug-types in the game. It has great Special Attack and Speed, and average to mediocre stats everywhere else. Its movepool sucks. The best set you'll get is: Sleep Powder Psychic Silver Wind/Signal Beam Aerial Ace/Return Looks very similar to Butterfree, but is actually usable on Venomoth. Sleep Powder so you don't get countered. Psychic is Venomoth's best Special Attack option, and you'll be using it the most. Silver Wind is STAB. Signal Beam is much better than Silver Wind, but the only way you can get it is by breeding. Aerial Ace is STAB. Venomoth also learns Solarbeam and Sunny Day, but you're better off just using Psychic as it hits most things for at least neutral damage. Return is more powerful than Aerial Ace even with the STAB bonus AA gets. Verdict - If you REALLY want to use a Bug-type and don't want to wait around forever to get Scyther or Pinsir, Venomoth is the one to use. Still, it's not that great, and I wouldn't recommend it over the large choice of better pokemon you can obtain. ----------------------------- Diglett > Dugtrio (050 > 051) ----------------------------- Type - Ground The ever-popular Ground type in competitive play, Dugtrio isn't as great as you would think in-game. Base 120 Speed is fantastic, but base 80 Attack is merely good. Considering the fact that Dugtrio really can't take hits unless they are very weak (or Electric attacks), his Attack could have been higher. It's basically a very fast and very frail Marowak without a Thick Club. Still, STAB Earthquake should not be ignored, and the Speed is definately a plus. Use this set: Earthquake Rock Slide Aerial Ace/Return/Sludge Bomb Aerial Ace/Return/Sludge Bomb Earthquake is an absolute must: if you're using a Dugtrio without Earthquake, you're an idiot. Rock Slide hits Flying-types and all Gastly evolutions. The last two moves are just fillers that you probably won't use much. Aerial Ace is super effective on all Grass-type pokemon, but since most are Grass/Poison neutral STAB Earthquake will still do much more. Return hits most things in the game for neutral damage and it's good if you're running low on PP for Earthquake and Rock Slide. Sludge Bomb is the only other good physical move Dugtrio learns, and is more powerful against pure Grass types than STAB Earthquake, but won't be used much otherwise. Pure Grass types are rare, anyway. Verdict - Just use Marowak holding a Thick Club, or Sandslash. Dugtrio simply cannot take hits. If you want to use him, make sure he has an Attack boosting nature (other than Brave, which will lower his Speed). Most of Dugtrio's benefits are only useful in competitive play. In-game, most of them are wasted. Still a pretty good pokemon, but there are better Ground-types. ---------------------------- Meowth > Persian (052 > 053) ---------------------------- Type - Normal Persian's Speed is an excellent base 115, so it's faster than most pookemon you'll come across. His other stats are all average at very best (his highest stat after Speed is Attack, which is only base 70), so he'll be attacking first but not dealing a great amount of damage, and taking quite a lot in return. His movepool is good, though. Try using this set: Return Shadow Ball Iron Tail Thunderbolt/Faint Attack/Bite Return gets STAB, so it will be Persian's best move against most pokemon. Shadow Ball and Iron Tail will provide good coverage when combined with Return. Shadow Ball hits Ghost types. Iron Tail, although it has only 75% accuracy, is powerful (and Persian could do with some power) and hits anything that's part Rock quite hard, and it has a decent amount of PP the make up for the poor accuracy. Thunderbolt is the best bet for the last move, since it's the most powerful of the three and Dark moves are rather pointless when you have Shadow Ball (which has more base power than Bite and Faint Attack, and also runs of Persian's slightly higher Attack stat), which covers everything that Dark moves cover. Verdict - I used Persian in my team once before when I played through the game. I found him good enough to keep in my team throughout the entire game, but there are better choices. Clefable is probably better, but Persian is still good. ----------------------------- Psyduck > Golduck (054 > 055) ----------------------------- Type - Water Interesting note - Golduck learns Confusion by level, but can't learn Psychic even by TM, which is strange Golduck is quite a good Water type. Its stats range from average to good, save for its great Special Attack (base 95). It also has quite a good movepool. This is the best set he can use: Surf Ice Beam Brick Break Return Surf is STAB. Ice Beam also works off his great Special Attack. Brick Break is a decent move with good coverage, as is Return. Other moves he can use are Aerial Ace, Iron Tail and Psychic. Aerial is is rather pointless when you have the more powerful Ice Beam coming off Golduck's more poewrful attackin stat. Iron Tail has poor accuracy and you'll never use it as it's only really good against Rock-types, which Surf and Ice Beam both handle. Psychic is a better option than Brick Break and Return because it runs off Golduck's Special Attack, but Golduck only learns it through breeding (which is odd, since it learns Confusion by level), which is something that nobody can ever be bothered to do. Verdict - Golduck is a good pokemon, and is on of the better Water-types in the game. He's probably even preferable to Blastoise, but I still wouldn't consider him a first choice Water-type when pokemon like Starmie are around. Worth using though. ----------------------------- Mankey > Primeape (056 > 057) ----------------------------- Type - Fighting I never thought Fighting types were among the most useful in the Kanto games. They always shone the most in the Johto games. Nevertheless, if you want one, Primeape is a good choice. He has an ideal movepool, and great Attack and Speed. He's quite frail, but not a 'one-shot down' pokemon. Seriously underrated due to Machamp's overshadowing presence. This set is the one to go with: Brick Break Rock Slide Earthquake Return/Aerial Ace/Iron Tail Brick Break is STAB, and the most reliable Fighting move in the game. Pity it's not a little more powerful, but it's still good. Rock Slide hits Flying types hard. Earthquake hits hard and is great when combined with a Fight move and a Rock move. The last move is filler: whichever you choose from you probably won't use much if at all. Return is the best option, in my opinion. Verdict - Good pokemon. People make the mistake of comparing it to Machamp, who has higher Attack. However, Primeape is different to Machamp, as Primeape is a fast attacker. If you want a Fighting type, you can't go wrong with Primeape. -------------------------------- Growlithe > Arcanine (058 > 059) -------------------------------- Type - Fire Uh-oh. Pure Fire type alert. Great stats, but no movepool to make good use of them? You bet. That sums up Arcanine. This is the only set you can actually use with him: Flamethrower Return Iron Tail Aerial Ace Those are about the only good moves he learns, with other Normal-type moves on the side. Flamethrower = STAB and good move. Return = powerful with good coverage. Iron Tail = good damage on Rock types. Aerial Ace is the only other good mvoe he learns of a different type to the above three. You'll probably never use it, except against Fighting types. He also learns Crunch, which is more fun to use on Ghosts and Psychics than anything else, but can only obtain the move through breeding. Verdict - Another potentially great pokemon wasted by a crap movepool and being a pure Fire type (which would be acceptable if it wasn't for the movepool) makes things worse. If you didn't choose Charmander as your starter, then it's either Arcanine or Ninetales. Arcanine grows slowly, so go with Ninetales, unless you love Arcanine. ------------------------------------------------- Poliwag > Poliwhirl > Poliwrath (060 > 061 > 062) ------------------------------------------------- Type - Water/Fighting Poliwrath has a unique typing, which is cool. His defensive stats are great, and he has good Attack too. His Speed and Special Attack are slightly sub-par, but it doesn't really matter in-game. His movepool is pretty good, too. Try this set: Brick Break Earthquake Surf Ice Beam Brick Break is his best STAB move. Earthquake is a great physical move. Surf is secondary STAB, which compensates for his Special Attack. Ice Beam hurts Flying types and Grass types hard, but you probably won't use it if it's not super effective on the opposing pokemon. He also learns Return, but the above moveset covers everything, so it isn't needed. Strangely, he doesn't learn Rock Slide despite being able to learn Rock Tomb. Verdict - One of my favourite choices for a Water type. He a great all-arounder, and will serve you well. Highly recommended. ------------------------------------------- Abra > Kadabra > Alakazam (063 > 064 > 065) ------------------------------------------- Type - Psychic Important note - You have to trade Kadabra for him to evolve Alakazam is a very popular pokemon for reasons I simply cannot grasp. Take a look at him: his special movepool sucks! He can only get the elemental punches either really late in Emerald (a game which this guide doesn't cover) via move tutor, or by breeding. You probably won't want to do either. After that, Alakzam's movepool is very limited. Don't even CONSIDER giving him physical attacks: his Attack stat is a crap base 50. This is the only moveset he can utilise: Calm Mind Psychic Shock Wave Thunder Wave/Toxic Calm Mind to boost his Special stats, although his inability to take hits can make this difficult at time. Psychic because it's STAB and the best move he learns. Shock Wave, Thunder Wave and Toxic are the only other good moves he learns. If you're really willing to breed, replace the last two moves with Thunder Punch and Ice Punch, and if you don't like Calm Mind, Fire Punch is also your friend. Verdict - Alakazam was great in first gen and second gen, and will redeem himself in fourth gen. However, third gen is really Alakazam's 'bad day'. Great pokemon, but accessing all the great moves he learns is a nightmare. -------------------------------------------- Machop > Machoke > Machamp (066 > 067 > 068) -------------------------------------------- Type - Fighting Important note - You have to trade Machoke for him to evolve Behold the best Fighting type in the game. Machamp is awesome. He's slow, but his defenses are good and he can take hits well. His brilliant base 130 Attack will mean that nobody will laugh after he delivers a hit, except Machamp and his trainer. Use this set, as it's his best: Brick Break Rock Slide Earthquake Body Slam/Return Brick Break is STAB, Rock Slide hits Flying-types harder, Earthquake is powerful. Body Slam is listed because it has a chance to paralyse, meaning Machamp will attack first if it does. That and I'm bored of listing Return, but Return is also listed because it is more powerful than Body Slam. Machamp learns Flamethrower, but it should be avoided as his Special Attack isn't very good. Verdict - The best Fighting-type in the game. You can't go wrong with Machamp. Pity you have to trade to evolve Machoke. ------------------------------------------------------ Bellsprout > Weepinbell > Victreebel (069 > 070 > 071) ------------------------------------------------------ Type - Grass/Poison Victreebel is a decent Grass/Poison type. His attacking stats are good, but his defensive stats and Speed could have been better. His movepool is decent, but inaccessible throughout the majority of the game. Try this set: Swords Dance Sludge Bomb Body Slam/Return/Sunny Day Razor Leaf/Solarbeam Despite sub-par defenses, Victreebel can get in a Swords Dance or two. Then start hitting everything with boosted STAB Sludge Bombs. Body Slam/Return (man, am I sick of listing Return) and Razor Leaf cover the majority of things that resist Sludge Bomb. Body Slam has the paralysis chance, so I listed that too. Razor Leaf has poor base 55 power, but Victreebel gets STAB on it and has great Special Attack, so it's fine. Sleep Powder replace anything except Sludge Bomb, which is definately Victreebel's best move. You can run Sunny Day and Solarbeam in the last two slots if you wish, which is good this time around because Victreebel's Speed doubles to a great base 140 in the sunlight. Verdict - I personally prefer Venusaur and Vileplume, but Victreebel looks cooler than both, and is still usable. Not a bad pokemon, by any means, and will serve you well if you use it. ---------------------------------- Tentacool > Tentacruel (072 > 073) ---------------------------------- Type - Water/Poison Tentacruel grows slowly, but he's still a great Water type. He also has unique typing. His Special Defence is a brilliant 120, and his attacking stats are quite decent. Works well as more of a defensive sort. He has a good movepool. Try this set: Surf Ice Beam Sludge Bomb Swords Dance This set covers a lot of things. Surf for STAB, Ice Beam is useful on things that Surf is not very effective on. Sludge Bomb is STAB, and you can boost its power with Swords Dance. That about covers it, actually. There's not much else he can replace those moves with. Verdict - I'd place Tentacruel on the same level as Blastoise. Tentacruel has two STAB attacks, but has more weaknesses and grows slowly. There are better choices, but if you want to use Tentacruel, there's nothing stopping you, as it's still a good pokemon. The Special Defence cannot be overlooked. --------------------------------------------- Geodude > Graveller > Golem (074 > 075 > 076) --------------------------------------------- Type - Rock/Ground Important note - Graveller must be traded to evolve Golem is a good pokemon. Whilst Rock/Ground typing means that he takes 4x damage from Water and Grass attacks (and won't survive them with his mediocre Special Defence), he is very poewrful and can take physical hits like a demon. Geodude is easily found, too. Try this set: Earthquake Rock Slide Double Edge/Return Brick Break/Substitute Earthquake and Rock Slide are both STAB moves, and we love Ground-Rock combos. Use Double Edge only if Golem has the Rock Head ability (which is preferable to Sturdy). Otherwise, use Return. Brick Break is filler and you probably won't ever use it, in which case you could throw Substitute in instead, as Substitute is fun to play with. Verdict - Great pokemon, but so is Rhydon. Golem grows at a medium pace though, so he might be preferable, if you can trade. Overall, a very useful and underrated pokemon. Steer clear of Grass and Water moves, though. ----------------------------- Ponyta > Rapidash (077 > 078) ----------------------------- Type - Fire Pure Fire type no. 3. If you've read my information on Ninetales and Arcanine, you probably know what to expect. Rapidash is another pokemon with good stats but a crap movepool. He's even worse than Arcanine and Ninetales because his Special Attack is even lower, meaning he takes less advntage of his STAB attacks. Wow, Rapidash has a moveset: Sunny Day Flamethrower Solarbeam Return Sunny Day powers up Flamethrower and turns Solarbeam into a one-turn attack, which is great against Water types, especially considering the fact that Rapidash is faster tham most of them. Return because, like every other pokemon in the game, Rapidash learns it, and it's the only move he learns, other than Iron Tail, that takes advantage is his high Attack stat, which is 20 base points higher than his Special Attack stat. He doesn't learn anything better anyway. What else can he use? Stomp? Ember? Fire Spin? Verdict - Pure Fire type with crap movepool. That should say it all. Ponyta evolves at a ridiculously late level 40, and you won't want to train it up for that long. The result isn't worth it, anyway. Arcanine and Ninetales are better. Poor Rapidash. If only you had a good movepool, eh? ------------------------------ Slowpoke > Slowbro (079 > 080) ------------------------------ Type - Water/Psychic Important note - Slowpoke will evolve into Slowking if you trade him to a game with the National Dex while he's holding a King's Rock, although Slowking is no better than Slowbro, to be honest Interesting note - Slowbro learns Flamethrower, Fire Blast and Thunder Wave, which is strange Slowbro is actually a good pokemon. It grows slowly, but it has great stats (bar Speed) and a great movepool. Try this set: Calm Mind Surf Psychic Ice Beam That set covers most things in the game. Calm Mind boosts his already high Special Attack and boosts his Special Defence, which is merely good (in comparison to his great Defence). Surf and Psychic are STAB whilst Ice Beam is a great move anyway. You can also use a Curse set instead of Calm Mind, and use all physical moves instead (since Slowbro learns plenty of physical moves). However, his Attack stat is quite a bit lower than his Special Attack, and he won't get any STAB moves that way either. Verdict - Great pokemon. He's slow, but he can take hits. He grows slowly, but he's worth it. Trade him over so he can get boosted growth (which will make up for it) and you will have a great pokemon at your disposal with none of the downsides. -------------------------------- Magnemite > Magneton (081 > 082) -------------------------------- Type - Electric/Steel Magneton has wasted potential, just like so many others. Just look at that beautiful base 120 Special Attack, which is almost wasted as he can use naught but Electric moves to take advantage of it. He learns very few attacking moves whatsoever, actually, and all are either Electric or Normal. His Steel typing gives him loads of resistances, though. This is his only set: Metal Sound Thunderbolt Thunder Wave Return Metal Sounds weakens things so his Thunderbolts can do even more damage. Thunder Wave paralyses things, which is quite good on Magneton as his Speed is average. Return because, even though it runs off his poor base 60 Attack, he doesn't learn anything else at all, bar weaker Normal and Electric moves. Verdict - Use Raichu. ---------------- Farfetch'd (083) ---------------- Type - Normal/Flying Ah, Farfetch'd. The Normal/Flying type that is often forgotten, and with good reason. Farfetch'd's stats are absolutely terrible: his base 65 Attack stat is his best! His movepool is typical of Normal/Flying types, too. His Stick item does double his Attack to a base 130, though, which would be excellent if he was fast. Farfetch'd tries to take things down with it: Swords Dance Return Aerial Ace Steel Wing Expect Farfetch'd to die very very quickly. Use his really high Attack to kill as much as you can before he does. Return and Aerial Ace are STAB, and Steel Wing hurts Rock-types. Swords Dance can boost his Attack even higher, and he has the luxury of learning it by level. However, only use it when your opponent uses something pointless like Sweet Scent, or a really weak attacking move. Chance are he'll always kill something, but never two things unless at least one is slower than him. Verdict - Poor Farfetch'd spilled the Game Freak director's coffee when Game Freak were making the game. The director never forgave him, and year after year he told his staff to make Farfetch'd crap in every game he appeared in. They gave him a Stick which double his mediocre Attack, but made him slow and ridiculously frail in return. Farfetch'd is one of the worst pokemon in the game. -------------------------- Doduo > Dodrio (084 > 085) -------------------------- Type - Normal/Flying Dodrio is the last and best of the Normal/Flying types encountered in the game. He, like his brethren Pidgeot, Fearow and Farfetch'd, has a poor movepool but learns just enough moves to get a set going. His stats are perfectly suited to what he does best: pure speedy offence. Use this moveset: Drill Peck Return Steel Wing Aerial Ace Drill Peck is the best Flying type move in the game and Dodrio's gets STAB. Return is also STAB. Steel Wing hurts Rock types. Aerial Ace is complete filler, as he doesn't learn anything else that would be useful, except things like Toxic. Use Aerial Ace on Double Team users, or just as a finishing move to save wasting PP elsewhere. It's STAB with Dodrio, so it's pretty powerful. Verdict - Dodrio is basically Fearow with a little more Attack and Speed, which makes all the difference. He's better than Fearow, but is found later in the game and learns Drill Peck at a higher level. Even so, if you want a Normal/Flying type, Dodrio is your best bet. -------------------------- Seel > Dewgong (086 > 087) -------------------------- Type - Water/Ice Dewgong has very good HP and Special Defence, with good Defence, but the rest of his stats are average. He can take hits well, but won't be delivering any particularly powerful ones in return. His movepool is also quite shallow, although he does gain access to Signal Beam, a Bug type move that is actually good but often forgotten because almost nothing learns it. Try this set: Surf Ice Beam Signal Beam Toxic/Return Surf and Ice Beam are his STAB attacks. Signal Beam is the best move he learns after those two. The last move is your choice. You can use Toxic for some fun, or Return as a powerful attacking move that you probably don't need because the first three moves cover just about everything in the game. It's your choice. Verdict - Dewgong hasn't been spilling coffee on the director like Farfect'd, but tha doesn't make him a good pokemon. He's simply okay, and outclassed by many other Water types. STAB Ice Beam doesn't help him much. ------------------------ Grimer > Muk (088 > 089) ------------------------ Type - Poison Muk is slow, but he can take hits fairly well with his high HP and Special Defence. His Attack is also high, so he's good on the offensive. Like Weezing, he grows slowly, but Poison types are quite handy despite offensive Poison moves having crap coverage. He has a huge special movepool, but his Special Attack is a mediocre base 65, so special mvoes aren't recommended. Try out the set: Sludge Bomb Toxic Brick Break Return Sludge Bomb is his STAB attack. Toxic is fun to use, and it's signature on Poison types. Brick Break and Return are two of the best physical moves he learns after Focus Punch, but Sub-Punching isn't great in-game. I'm sick of putting Return on everything, though. Verdict - Muk's major difference from Weezing is that he takes hits better on the special side, but doesn't have the Levitate ability which means he's also weak to Ground-type moves. I'd say Weezing's probably slightly better, but Muk is still a good pokemon. ------------------------------- Shellder > Cloyster (090 > 091) ------------------------------- Type - Water/Ice Another bad Water pokemon, Cloyster has a huge 180 base Defence, but base 50 HP ruins it and base 45 Special Defence means that he'll even take huge amounts of special damage from not very effective special attacks. His attacking stats are good, but as for his movepool to make use of them......what movepool? Set?: Surf Ice Beam Return Toxic/Spikes Your typical rubbish Water type set: Surf, Ice Beam and Return. Surf and Ice Beam are STAB, Return is the best of the moves he gets that make use of his higher Attack stat (all of the others are also Normal-type). Toxic is about the only other decent move he learns, which isn't surprising because EVERYTHING in the game learns it bar Magikarp. Spikes can be fun when fighting tougher opponents with lots of pokemon (gym leaders, Elite Four, your rival etc). Verdict - The worst Water-type in the game? I'm inclined to say it, but we haven't got to the likes of Seaking and Seadra yet. Still, don't use this thing. ------------------------------------------- Gastly > Haunter > Gengar (092 > 093 > 094) ------------------------------------------- Type - Ghost/Poison Important note - Haunter needs to be traded to evolve Gengar is the best of the trade evolution pokemon, and one of the best pokemon in the game. He has a huge movepool, brilliant Special Attack and Speed, and a great ability. Use this moveset: Psychic Thunderbolt Shadow Ball Sludge Bomb/Toxic/Confuse Ray Two slight problems with Gengar are that he has no special STAB and the majority of his great movepool consist of physical attacks that have to work off a mediocre base 65 Attack. Even so, Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb are STAB, so they are fairly powerful on Gengar even if they are physical moves. Psychic and Thunderbolt are the best special moves he learns. You can use Toxic or Confuse Ray instead of Sludge Bomb as Sludge Bomb has crap type coverage and status-inflicting mvoes are fun to use in tougher battles. If you want to quickly trade to Emerald for him to learn Ice Punch from the move tutor, then put it in the fourth moveslot. It also learns Fire Punch in the same manner, so you can replace Shadow Ball with it if you really want to. Even with STAB, Gengar's Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb won't be as neutrally powerful has any of his special attacks. Verdict - Brilliant pokemon that you should try using at least once. Wreaks absolute havoc with the right set. He can't take hits very well, but delivers them faster and painfully, so the opponent will need to survive a hit to hit Gengar. Also, for the record, Gengar is my favourite out of all 487 pokemon currently in existance. ---------- Onix (095) ---------- Type - Rock/Ground Onix is a poor excuse for a pokemon. Despite his decent base 70 Speed, and excellent base 160 Defence, Onix's base Attack is a pathetic 45: the same as Butterfree's! You'd think a giant snake made of rock would be able to hit physically harder than a butterfly, right? Well, apparently not. Onix's physical movepool is great, but he's not hurting very much, even with his STAB Earthquake. You can evolve into Steelix at a very late point in the game, but Steelix isn't particularly brilliant, and definately not worth it. Here's the set you use if you're stupid enough to use him, or like the game to be challenging: Rock Slide Earthquake Iron Tail Double Edge Rock Slide is STAB, but he won't hurt much with it. Earthquake is STAB and he might manage to do some damage to something with low defence. Iron Tail is powerful and if you evolve it into Steelix it becomes STAB. Double Edge should always be used even if he doesn't have the Rock Head ability because he absolutely NEEDS the extra power, not that he'll hurt anything much more with it anyway. Verdict - Crap. Use Golem or Rhydon. --------------------------- Drowzee > Hypno (096 > 097) --------------------------- Type - Psychic Ah, Hypno. Always ignored in favourite of Alakazam. What should be noted is that Hypno is actually BETTER in Fire Red and Leaf Green. Hypno is actually a great pokemon. His attacking stats are both equal, and are slightly above average. His Defence is quite good, especially for a Psychic type. His Special Defence is brilliant, and his HP is good, which compliments it. Try this set: Calm Mind/Meditate Psychic Shadow Ball Brick Break Calm Mind to boost Hypno's Special Defence to sky-high levels, whilst making his Psychics more powerful. Shadow Ball and Brick Break give us the Ghost/Fight dual typing which hits every pokemon in the game for neutral damage. You can use Meditate instead of Calm Mind as it will boost the power of Brick Break and Shadow Ball, and his Psychic gets STAB anyway. He learns the three elemental punches, but it's either trade to Emerald at a really late point int he game or start breeding, and you probably want to do neither. Use the set above. Verdict - The best pure-Psychic type in the game. He outclasses Alakazam in this generation, for sure. Hypno is awesome, and one of my personal recommendations to any team/ ---------------------------- Krabby > Kingler (098 > 099) ---------------------------- Type - Water Poor, poor Kingler with that base 130 Attack and no good moves (bar boring ol' Return) to make good use of it. Like Cloyster, he has high Defence, but terrible HP and Special Defence. Add to that terrible Special Attack and only decent Speed and you have a problem on your hands. Set?: Swords Dance Return Mud Shot Rock Tomb Doesn't that look crap? Well, even without Swords Dance boosts, his Mud Shots and Rock Tombs do more damage than his STAB Surf, which is completely understandable when you compare his base 130 Attack to his base 50 Special Attack. And why the hell can't he learn Rock Slide when he can learn Rock Tomb? Swords Dance to boost that Attack, although he can only learn it from a move tutor later in the game. Return will be your primary move, with the other two offering perfect coverage combined with it. Verdict - When Farfecth'd spilled coffee over the director's shirt during the making of Red and Blue, Kingler was cheering from the sideline. Thus, Game Freak's director then decided to give him a base 130 Attack with virtually nothing to make use of it. Unlike with Farfetch'd, the Game Freak director forgave Kingler in Diamond and Pearl and gave him some new physical moves, but in these games Kingler is a pretty poor choice to add to your team. ------------------------------- Voltorb > Electrode (100 > 101) ------------------------------- Type - Electric Electrode is the worst of the Electric types in the game, and one of the worst pokemon in the game. Think a very fast Magneton with weaker attacking stats. Seriously, Game Freak is just trolling us with Electrode. In several pokemon games, you're forced to encounter and defeat a few Electrode (thankfully not in these games), in which case they do it for you themselves by using Explosion, usually fainting your pokemon too despite Electrode's crap base 50 Attack. And he does all that whilst wearing that cheesy grin. Electrode has no possible good set, so take a look and laugh: Thunderbolt Thunder Wave/Toxic Return Explosion Use Thunderbolt to try and hurt things. Electrode paralysing stuff is pointless since he's faster than just about everything in the game anyway, which is why Toxic is also listed despite not being 'Electric signature'. Return because Electrode learns it (because like Magneton, all Electrode learns will either be an Electric or Normal type move, unless you count things like Thief). Explosion may seem like a waste of a move, but seriously, what else is going to go there? Sonicboom? Explosion is Electrode's signature move, and his best chance at killing anything. Make sure that, if it's going to be Exploding, another pokemon in your party was previously battling the pokemon you'll be taking out, so someone will be getting experience. Verdict - If you even consider using this piece of crap, you deserve to be blown up with it. --------------------------------- Exeggcute > Exeggutor (102 > 103) --------------------------------- Type - Grass/Psychic Back in the good ol' days of Red, Blue and Yellow, Exeggutor was the best Grass type in the game. Unfortunately, he seems to keep on taking heavy blows every time a new generation is released. Gen II introduced Dark type moves, and Gen III added a hell of a lot more moves into the system, many of which hit Exeguttor hard. For the record, he gets hit hard once more in Gen IV where powerful Bug type moves that more than three pokemon can learn are introduced. His stats, however, are good, and his movepool is decent. Pity his typing gives him so many weaknesses. Try this set: Sunny Day Solarbeam Psychic Return/Toxic Sunny Day will double Exeguttor's crappy base 55 Speed to a brilliant 110, and will also make his STAB Solarbeam a one tunr attack. Psychic is secondary STAB, and the last move is filler you won't use much. Return for reasons I have explained a thousand times, Toxic for longer battles. Verdict - A mere shadow of its' former self, but still good. It grows slowly, but is one of the better choices for a Grass type pokemon if you didn't choose Bulbasaur as your starter. ---------------------------- Cubone > Marowak (104 > 105) ---------------------------- Type - Ground Marowak is a hit or miss pokemon. Wild Cubone have a 5% chance of carrying the Thick Club item, which will double the Attack of both Cubone and Marowak. However, with only a 5% chance that you'll find a Cubone with one, it'll take a while to find the item unless you're lucky. Marowak's base Attack goes from an only good 80 to an absolutely fantastic 160, making him the most physically powerful pokemon in the entire game. He has a great base 110 Defence, but his low HP brings it down a little. He's slow, but has the attacking power of a nuke. USE this set: Earthquake Rock Slide Double Edge/Return Swords Dance Whilst Bonemerang is Marowak's signature move, it's literally Earthquake with a 10% chance of missing, so use Earthquake. Rock Slide covers most things when combined with Earthquake. Double Edge covers things that it doesn't, and has the benefit of hitting really hard, although you should use Return if your Marowak has the Lightning Rod ability rather than the Rock Head ability. Swords Dance boosts that Attack, but unless the opposing pokemon is either several levels higher or takes not very effective damage from all of his attacks (of which there are none that do so), they'll be killed in one hit without any Swords Dances anyway, although it's good to have it against the Elite Four. Verdict - The best Ground type in the game, and physically the most powerful pokemon in the game. He's brilliant, but if only if he's holding the Thick Club item. If you don't want to go through the trouble of obtaining one, use Sandslash instead. --------------- Hitmonlee (106) --------------- Type - Fighting Hitmonlee is by far the better of the Hitmon twins. You can only choose one, so go for Hitmonlee unless you need Hitmonchan for the PokeDex. Hitmonlee's Attack is monstrous, and he's somewhat faster than Machamp, albeit more fragile. Think of him as similar to Primeape. His movepool is a little limited, but he can just about pull off a moveset. Use this set: Bulk Up Hi-Jump Kick/Brick Break Rock Slide Earthquake Bulk Up will increase that already sky-high Attack and also boost that useless base 53 Defence of his. Hi-Jump Kick is his best STAB move, but the damage taken if it misses (10% chance) is a bit off-putting, so you can alternatively use the weaker but more reliable Brick Break. Rock Slide and Earthquake are his best two physical moves after the Fighting moves, and the Fight/Rock/Ground combo hits just about everything in the game for at least neutral damage. Verdict - Great pokemon. His HP sucks, so even with that great Special Defence he won't be taking hits very well, but his Speed is decent and his Attack is excellent, although Primeape is probably a little better as it has enough Speed to make up for its fragility, with the expense of slightly lower Attack and no Hi-Jump Kick. Hitmonlee is still worth using, though. ---------------- Hitmonchan (107) ---------------- Type - Fighting Hitmonchan is a poor man's Hitmonlee. His Defence is 26 base points higher than Hitmonlee's, but the drop in Speed and Attack is certainly not worth it. His Attack is great, but lower than Machamp's and Hitmonlee's, and equal to Primeape's, who is a faster pokemon You're using him? Oh well...: Bulk Up Sky Uppercut/Brick Break Rock Slide Earthquake Bulk up to boost Attack and Defence to better levels. His Attack is already great, but his Defence boosts won't be complimented by that crap base 50 HP. Sky Uppercut is his best STAB move, which is weaker than Hitmonlee's Hi-Jump Kick, with the same accuracy, but it doesn't hurt the user if it misses. Brick Break is weaker, but more reliable as it always hits. Rock Slide and Earthquake both kick ass and cover everything in the game for at least neutral damage when combined with a Fighting move. Hitmonchan learns the elemental punches, but his Special Attack is so horribly bad that you must only ever use them as a joke in a battle with a friend or something. Verdict - The worst fully evolved Fighting type in the game. Even Machoke gives him a good run for his money. Use Machamp, Primeape or Hitmonlee, as they are all better than Hitmonchan. --------------- Lickitung (108) --------------- Type - Normal There's only one way to sum up Lickitung: brilliant movepool, useless stats. His 90/75/75 defences are good at best, and his attacking stats are base 55 Attack and base 60 Special Attack. Top off a base 30 Speed and you've got one rubbish pokemon at your disposal. Lickitung tries to deal some damage: Swords Dance Return Brick Break Shadow Ball Swords Dance to boost that shit Attack. Return is your STAB move. Nothing in the game takes reduced damage from both Brick Break and Shadow Ball, so they provide excellent coverage together. Return will be used the most though, as it's far more powerful than either thanks to higher base power and STAB. Verdict - Some sort of bad Clefable. Swords Dancing works quite well, and Lickitung will probably live to get in a few (and you can use Potions and the like to heal him anyway) and then take out plenty of things, but other pokemon do this much better, such as Marowak. Overall, there's no good reason to use Lickitung except for fun or something new. ----------------------------- Koffing > Weezing (109 > 110) ----------------------------- Type - Poison The second of the pure Poisons, Weezing is probably the better option over Muk. Weezing excels in Defence, whilst Muk excels in Special Defence. Weezing's Special Attack is good, so he can use the large amount of special moves he can learn quite well. I would go for: Sludge Bomb Toxic Flamethrower Thunderbolt Sludge Bomb is STAB, whilst Toxic is his best option for status damage. Flamethrower and Thunderbolt are the two best special moves he learns. Althoguh his Attack is slightly higher than his Special Attack, his physical movepool is very poor outside of the usual STAB move and Return. Verdict - Like Muk, it grows slowly. However, Weezing is a fun pokemon to use, and thanks to his Levitate ability he's not weak to Ground type moves, which puts him a cut above Muk. Overall, I'd say Weezing gains the edge out of the two, but Muk's still worth using if you prefer piles of sludgy turds over floating fart gas emmitting balls. ---------------------------- Rhyhorn > Rhydon (111 > 112) ---------------------------- Type - Ground/Rock 4x weakness to Grass and Water attacks and crap Speed and Special Defence means he should stay the hell away from anything with a Grass or Water move. However, that monster base 130 Attack and great base 120 Defence coupled with great HP means he can take physical hits exceptionally well, even Fighting type ones. You'll want this set: Earthquake Rock Slide Megahorn Swords Dance Those three moves will cover most everything. Earthquake and Rock Slide are STAB whilst Megahorn is a very powerful and handy move, although you probably won't be using it as much as the other two. Swords Dance to boost that Attack if necessary. One thing I've always wondered, though, is why the hell Rhydon learns moves like Thunderbolt and friends with that god-awful Special Attack. Why do Game Freak even bother? Verdict - Personally, I prefer Golem. He can take special hits a bit better and he doesn't have a slow growth rate. Rhydon is still worth using, though, and he's stronger than Golem offensively. ------------- Chansey (113) ------------- Type - Normal Important note - When you obtain the National Dex, Chansey can evolve into Blissey Umm, where to begin. Huge base 250 HP, great base 105 Special Defence, but words simply cannot describe how bad the base 5 Attack and base 5 Defence are. The HP helps to nullify the damage given by physical attacks a little, but on the whole it's unlikely Chansey will survive a physical hit. Speed is a poor base 50, whilst Special Attack is a crap base 35. Hmmm...: Calm Mind Seismic Toss Ice Beam Thunderbolt Calm Mind will boost that great Special Defence even higher, and that awful Special Attack to decent levels. Even so, Seismic Toss is your best way of hurting things with those useless attacking capabilities. Don't expect Ice Beam and Thunderbolt to be doing much damage until you've got in a few Calm Minds. Verdict - Chansey, and its evolution Blissey, are two pokemon that exist solely for competitive play. In-game, they suck, and you should not use them. ------------- Tangela (114) ------------- Type - Grass Tangela is the worst Grass type in the game. That awful base 40 Special Defence is the first proof. Great Defence and Special Attack won't be saving it, as it has a really horrid movepool. Uhhh...: Sunny Day Sleep Powder Solarbeam Return Sunny Day to make your Solarbeams one-turn and also double Tangela's base 60 Speed to a brilliant base 120, outspeeding pretty much everything expect pieces of shit like Electrode who can't kill Tangela anyway. Return is the best option for the last move, despite running off Tangela's mediocre base 55 Attack, as it is the best non-Grass type move he learns. He can Swords Dance to boost the power of Return and Sludge Bomb, the other good non-Grass attack he learns, but you're better off making the most of Chlorophyll and STAB one-turn Solarbeams. Put any special attackers to sleep with Sleep Powder, s they won't completely destroy you. Verdict - The best user of Chlorophyll + Sunny Day + Solarbeam support, but unlike the others, it really can't do anything else. If you like Chloro SunnyBeaming, use Exeggutor or Victreebel, as both have something to use otherwise. ---------------- Kangaskhan (115) ---------------- Type - Normal Interesting note - All Kangaskhan are female, so how on earth do they reproduce? Nice movepool. The crap Special Attack stops it from ever being good with special moves, but it has a great physical movepool too, with good all around stats outside of Special Attack, which you thankfully don't need. It also grows at a medium rate, too, which is quite a nice surprise considering you'd initially think it's a slow grower. I'd go for this set: Return Brick Break Shadow Ball Rock Slide/Earthquake Return is very powerful with STAB. Brick Break and Shadow Ball provide that Ghost/Fight combo that we all love. Either of the last moves are good choices. Rock Slide is probably more useful than Earthquake as Earthquake doesn't really hit much for super effective damage that Brick Break doesn't, except Electric types which all tend to have useless Defence anyway. Verdict - Good pokemon. Pain in the ass to get, but if you do catch one, it's worth training. --------------------------- Horsea - Seadra (116 > 117) --------------------------- Type - Water Important note - When you obtain the National Dex, Seadra will evolve into Kingdra if it's holding a Dragon Scale Terrible movepool. If this didn't evolve into Kingdra, it would be the worst Water type in the game. Even so, you ahve to wait until you get the National Dex to evolve it, and Kingdra really isn't worth training up this piece of crap. Terrible Special Defence means it won't be taking many special hits. Kingdra is also a very overrated pokemon who doesn't really get good until Diamond and Pearl. Set?: Surf Ice Beam Return Toxic Surf for STAB, Ice Beam because it's good, Return because it's the only other decent attack Seadra actually learns, and Toxic is a good filler. Pretty straightforward... Verdict - Rubbish. There are so many Water types in the game, most of which are better options. Avoid. ----------------------------- Goldeen > Seaking (118 > 119) ----------------------------- Type - Water You thought I gave Seadra a bad review? Well, Seaking's will be even worse. Seaking is the worst Water type in the game without doubt, even surpassing Seadra and Cloyster. It has useless (and rather odd) stats, and a rubbish movepool, with Megahorn being the only move that seperates it from other Water types. Seaking's set: Surf Ice Beam Return Megahorn Surf = STAB, Ice Beam is good despite Seaking's sub-average Special Attack. Return is filler and runs off Seaking's best stat, Attack. Megahorn is Seaking's most powerful move, but he learns it at level 69, by which point you will probably have finished the entire storyline. Verdict - Awful, useless and a complete waste of a Poke Ball. Use ANY other Water type, because they are all better than Seaking. Seaking learns Megahorn, though. ---------------------------- Staryu > Starmie (120 > 121) ---------------------------- Type - Water/Psychic Starmie is a brilliant pokemon, and the best of all the Water types in the game. It grows slowly, but it has a brilliant movepool with great Special Attack and even better Speed. Its good defenses means it can also take non- super effective hits well too. Try out this set: Surf Psychic Thunderbolt Ice Beam Surf is STAB and Starmie's most powerful reliable move. Psychic is also STAB, but you won't be using it too much. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt provide BoltBeam coverage, and yes Starmie does learn Thunderbolt, making Starmie even more unique. Starmie learns a variety of other moves too, but in-game this set is the best. Verdict - Water/Psychic typing leaves Starmie with quite a few weaknesses, but its brilliant special movepool and great stats more than make up for it. The slow growth rate is seriously worth it (and if you can trade it over, then problem solved). -------------- Mr. Mime (122) -------------- Type - Psychic Mr. Mime is often quite underrated because of his creepy Michael Jackson-like appearance. Don't let this bother you, because in Fire Red and Leaf Green he's better than Alakazam. His HP is worse, but his Defence is a little better and Special Defence magnificent (although it's let down by his HP). His Speed and Special Attack are good, but lower than Alakazam's. However, his movepool doesn't suck, and he has access to a few good moves. Try out this set: Calm Mind Psychic Thunderbolt Magical Leaf Calm Mind to boost those great Special stats, then fire away with STAB Psychic, Thunderbolt and Magical Leaf. If you get the chance to teach him Ice Punch by trading him to Emerald, then do so and replace Magical Leaf with it as Electric/Ice has better coverage than Electric/Grass, and Ice Punch is additionally stronger than Magical Leaf. Verdict - Good pokemon, and is better than Alakazam unless you can get the elemental punches on Alakazam, in which case he's the better choice. However, you can't do that until late in the game as you need the ability to trade with Emerald. Don't let his appearance put you off: he's a good pokemon, and worth using. ------------- Scyther (123) ------------- Type - Bug/Flying Important note - Scyther will evolve into Scizor if traded whilst holding a Metal Coat after obtaining the National Dex Great Attack and Speed, good defences, but rubbish typing and poor movepool let it down. Scyther is decent but overrated, as is Scizor (until Diamond and Pearl, anyway). Bug/Flying typing gives Scyther no powerful STAB attacks and a myriad of weaknesses. Use this set: Swords Dance Wing Attack/Aerial Ace Steel Wing Return That's as good as it gets. Wing Attack/Aerial Ace will be your only STAB move as Scyther learns no good Bug moves outside of breeding (and even then, it's only Silver Wind). Steel Wing is a physical move that Scyther learns, and has the bonus of being a STAB move if you evolve it into Scizor. Return is Scyther's most powerful move, even including STAB moves. Swords Dance to boost the power of moves, and Scyther has the benefit of learning it by level, so you can save the Swords Dance tutor for something scary like Marowak. Verdict - Scyther's good points and bad points completely balance it out. It looks badass, but its movepool doesn't compliment its stats, sadly. As we find out in Diamond and Pearl, Scyther and Scizor can be brilliant pokemon when they have good movepools, but when Return is the most powerful move that a physical non-Normal type gets, then we're going to have problems. Usable, but there are better choices. ---------- Jynx (124) ---------- Type - Ice/Psychic Not brilliant typing at all, and a movepool that doesn't move past STAB attacks and *yawn* Return. Base 35 Defence combine with base 65 HP means that physical attackers are going to have a blast. Still, great Special Attack and good Speed and Special Defence means that Jynx is usable. This is as good as it gets: Calm Mind Ice Beam Psychic Water Pulse/Toxic Only ever use Calm Mind when you're facing off against special attackers, as physical attackers will always kill Jynx. Ice Beam and Psychic are your STAB moves of choice, and Water Pulse is a decent move that adds more coverage to your arsenal, and is also about the only other special move Jynx learns outside of STAB moves. Jynx learns some great moves like Brick Break, Shadow Ball and Return, but that rubbish Attack means it won't be hurting much with them. Verdict - Use it if you want, but there are much better choices. Its typing means it only takes not very effective damage from Ice moves (which are rare on opposing pokemon), and it doesn't have what I'd call a brilliant movepool. Usable, but there are betetr choices. And what the fuck is Jynx actually supposed to be anyway? ---------------- Electabuzz (125) ---------------- Type - Electric Your typical Electric type that's fast, rather strong, but has poor Defence. Electabuzz is probably about as good as Raichu, if not a little better, but you can obtain Piakchu much earlier in the game. Electabuzz overall has quite similar stats to Raichu, albeit slightly lower Attack, and slightly higher Speed. Use this set: Thunderbolt Psychic Brick Break Thunder Wave/Return Electabuzz has a slightly better movepool than Raichu so you can do a little more. Thunderbolt is your STAB of choice, Psychic is a good special move that he learns, Brick Break is a good move and Thunder Wave/Return is just what you'd prefer to use. Pity he doesn't learn Shadow Ball. As usual, he can only get the elemental punches (except Thunder Punch) by Emerald tutor. Verdict - Alongside Raichu, the only Electric type in the game worth using (bar Zapdos, of course). Electabuzz is slightly better, but Pikachu is found a lot earlier, so just choose who you'd prefer to use. ------------ Magmar (126) ------------ Type - Fire Another pure Fire type. His stats are actually all very good, with the exception of that mediocre base 57 Defence, a stat in which all Fire types could do with an improvement. Even so, his movepool exceeds that of all other pure Fire types. Even though it's not that great, he has great attacking stats - 95/100, and can thus use moves from both sides of the spectrum. The downside? You find him a little too late in the game. Try out this set: Flamethrower Psychic Brick Break Return/Iron Tail About as good as it gets, but it certainly looks better than the movesets of Ninetales, Rapidash and Arcanine. Flamethrower is your STAB move, and he conveniently learns it by level. Psychic, Brick Break and Return are the best three moves to use after that, although Iron Tail is listed incase you've used up your Return TM. He also learns Thunder Punch, but only by breeding or the Emerald Move Tutor. Even so, if you want to breed it into his moveset, replace the fourth move with it. Verdict - The best of the pure Fire types, but the fact that he can't be found until late in the game to obtain him is a pain in the ass. Still, he's quite worth the wait. ------------ Pinsir (127) ------------ Type - Bug Pinsir is the best Bug type in the game, because (a) he doesn't have crap stats, (b) his movepool is slightly more powerful than Scyther's, and (c) his single-typing doesn't give him a plethora of weaknesses, unlike Scyther's. Still, his movepool is very limited, and it doesn't help that he gets no Bug type moves outside of Fury Cutter. This is the set to use: Swords Dance Brick Break Earthquake Rock Slide Thankfully, this is a good set, especially considering the fact that Pinsir can learn little else outside of the usual Return. Swords Dance is learned by level, and will boost his huge base 125 Attack to sky-high levels. Brick Break, Earthquake and Rock Slide provide perfect coverage and they're also the best moves that he learns. Pity he doesn't learn any good Bug moves, but then again, there are only two good Bug moves (Megahorn and Signal Beam), and very few pokemon learn them. Verdict - Slightly inferior to Heracross, but since Heracross isn't appearing until nearly the end of the game we can forget about that comparison. Pinsir doesn't learn any good Bug moves, but he's the best Bug type in the game, so he's the one to go with if you want one. Overall, a great pokemon. He grows slowly, though. ------------ Tauros (128) ------------ Type - Normal Tauros is quite similar to Kangaskhan, except that it has higher Speed and lower Special Defence. He learns very few decent moves via level up, but can be a great pokemon if you have the right TMs. Like Kangaskhan, he has an excellent movepool, but has useless Special Attack and can thus only make use of the small amount of physical moves he has in his arsenal. Use this set: Return/Body Slam Earthquake Iron Tail Toxic That's about it for his physical movepool, with the exception of a vast range of crappy Normal type moves like Take Down and Horn Attack. Return/Body Slam is your STAB move. Earthquake is a great move, and he learns it. Iron Tail is another physical move that he learns, not that it's great or anything. Toxic is fun to use, and he doesn't learn anything better, anyway. He learns the likes of Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam and such, but like I said, his Special Attack is a horrible base 40, and using them would be like using the Elemental Punches on Hitmonchan - a pure joke. Verdict - Great special movepool, useless Special Attack. Poor physical movepool, great base 100 Attack. He's a good pokemon, but rather boring as there are very few options as to what moveset he'll be utilising. Also grows slowly. ------------------------------- Magikarp - Gyarados (129 > 130) ------------------------------- Type - Water (Magikarp), Water/Flying (Gyarados) After evolving Magikarp, you finally obtain the monster that is Gyarados, and find out that he learns very little in the way of physical moves that he can abuse that monstrous base 125 Attack with. And, like Tauros, he has a huge amount of special moves that just don't agree with his paltry (but just about usable for STAB) base 60 Special Attack. Take a loom at his best moveset and see what I mean: Dragon Dance Return/Body Slam Earthquake Surf Giving him any special moves other than Water moves is a bad idea as they won't hurt much. Dragon Dance to make his Return and Earthquake so powerful that everything barring Gengar will get killed by him. Surf for STAB, and because Return, Body Slam and Earthquake are the only good physical moves he learns. Despite being part Flying type, he can't even learn Aerial Ace when things like Heracross can learn it. Verdict - He grows slowly, and doesn't learn much in the physical department at all. Personally, I've always thought that Gyarados was never much good until Diamond and Pearl. Dragon Dancing to destroy things with Return and Earthquake is still nothing to pass over, though. Decent, but his time has yet to come. ------------ Lapras (131) ------------ Type - Water/Ice Water/Ice typing leaves loads of weaknesses, but Lapras has the defences to do it. His offensive stats are also good, 85/85, so he can make the most of his great movepool. Keep in mind that he does grow slowly, though, and if you want to use him you may want to consider trading him over so he grows faster. Try this set out: Surf Ice Beam Thunderbolt Body Slam/Return/Psychic First two are obvious - great STAB moves. Thunderbolt is also a great move that Lapras somehow learns. The last move is your choice, but I like to use Body Slam as it's Lapras' signature move...I think. Having a 30% chance to paralyse the opponent is quite good for something slow like Lapras. Verdict - Great pokemon, but trade him over so he grows as fast as your other pokemon, if you can. I still prefer Starmie, though. ----------- Ditto (132) ----------- Type - Normal Ditto can Transform into any pokemon and copy their movesets (although each move only has 5 PP), but his crap base 48 stats in EVERYTHING prevent him from being any good. Use this magnificent moveset, which has been crafted through the ages through the most powerful of trainers: Transform ------- ------- ------- Let's go over what this moveset does. You use the ultra-powerful move Transform to turn into anything you want, and fire off moves with those oh-so-Godly base 48 attacking stats. Verdict - Hahaha. ---------------------------- Eevee (133) > Vaporeon (134) ---------------------------- Type - Normal (Eevee), Water (Vaporeon) Vaporeon, despite having the piss-poor movepool that all of the Eeveelutions are equipped with, is probably the best of the bunch. it has excellent HP (base 130) and great Special Attack (base 110). Special Defence is also good, but Defence, Attack and Speed are low. Try this set: Surf Ice Beam Bite Acid Armour Surf is STAB, and Ice Beam is another great move he learns (oh come on, you know the drill with Water types by now). Bite is a decent Special move. Acid Armour improves his Defence so he can be a great tank. Verdict - The best of the Eeveelutions and a good choice for a Water type. --------------------------- Eevee (133) > Jolteon (135) --------------------------- Type - Normal (Eevee), Electric (Jolteon) Jolteon's movepool is poorer than his fellow pure Electric types, Raichu and Electabuzz. However, he packs brilliant Speed, great Special Attack and good Special Defence, whilst his other stats are lacking. Jolteon's best set: Thunderbolt Thunder Wave Attract Shadow Ball Look similar to Raichu's set? Well, that's pretty much what Jolteon is - a faster Raichu with poor Attack. Thunderbolt is STAB, Thunder Wave and Attract are a great combo (but make sure Jolteon is female) and Shadow Ball is the best move he learns otherwise, not that it'll be doing much damage. Verdict - Use Raichu or Electabuzz. --------------------------- Eevee (133) > Flareon (136) --------------------------- Type - Normal (Eevee), Fire (Flareon) Flareon is a bit of a cliche, but he is actually quite. He's similar to Arcanine in that he has higher Attack than Special Attack. In fact, his base 130 Attack cannot be ignored. His Defence is poor and he's quite slow, but he's one of the better pure Fire types, on the whole. Try this set: Shadow Ball Return/Body Slam Flamethrower Toxic/Iron Tail Flareon is unique in that it learns Shadow Ball, and you should definately equip him with it. Return/Body Slam for obvious reasons - his movepool doesn't get much better. Flamethrower for STAB. Toxic is fun, but you can also use Iron Tail, a move that offers little extra coverage over what is already available in the moveset. Pity he doesn't learn a Fight type move. Verdict - Probably the best choice for a Fire type if you haven't chosen Charizard as your starter. Flareon is limited in terms of possible movesets, but is better than Arcanine on the whole, as Flareon learns Shadow Ball, has higher Attack and grows at a medium rate. Not a bad pokemon at all. ------------- Porygon (137) ------------- Type - Normal Note - Porygon can evolve into Porygon2 if you trade it holding an Upgrade after you have obtained the National Dex Porygon, like Electrode, is a prime example of Game Freak trying to troll us. Give a pokemon an awesome movepool but mediocre stats, with only the base 85 Special Attack falling into the 'good' range, all whilst having only one in the game that you have to pay a ridiculous amount of Game Coins for. This is your best bet for a moveset: Ice Beam Thunderbolt Return Conversion/Conversion 2 Return might suck coming from Porygon's piss-poor Attack, but at least he gets STAB. Ice Beam and Thunderbolt come off his good Special Attack and are a great combo. Conversion and Conversaion 2 can be fun to mess around with. If you don't want to use them, go for Psychic or something. Opinion - Don't bother using him as there are too many better pokemon out there. ----------------------------- Omanyte > Omastar (138 > 139) ----------------------------- Type - Rock/Water Note - Omanyte is obtained once you revive the Helix Fossil Despite a bad typing duo that leaves many weaknesses, Omastar is a good pokemon. I slightly prefer Kabutops, but they each have different pros and cons. Both have rather poor movepools, but Kabutops has a little more to work with. Omastar has killer Defence and Special Attack, though, and shouldn't be passed up. Try this set: Surf Ice Beam Bite Rock Slide/Toxic Surf and Ice Beam are two great Special moves learned by Omastar. Bite is decent as Omastar doesn't really get anything better. Rock Slide is STAB, but won't be much good coming from 60 base Attack. You could use Toxic as an alternative. Opinion - There are better Water types out there, but Omastar is still worth using. If you feel up for it, give him a go. Kabutops is probably the better fossil option, though. ----------------------------- Kabuto > Kabutops (140 > 141) ----------------------------- Type - Rock/Water Note - Kabuto is obtained once you revive the Dome Fossil Like Omastar, the typing leaves Kabutops with several weaknesses. However, Kabutops is still a great pokemon. Like Omastar, his movepool is pretty limited, but he has Swords Dance to play with. Kabutops has awesome Attack and great Defence. Try this set: Swords Dance Rock Slide Brick Break Return/Body Slam/Aerial Ace/Surf Swords Dance is self-explanitory. Rock Slide is your STAB of choice, Brick Break is a great move. The last move is your choice. Depends on whether you want a powerful Normal type move, a decent Flying type move, or a STAB Water move coming off a mediocre base 65 Special Attack. Opinion - A great pokemon that's worth using. It has a limited movepool, but it can work well with what it gets. ---------------- Aerodactyl (142) ---------------- Type - Rock/Flying Note - Revive the Old Amber to obtain Aerodactyl Aerodactyl is very fast and has great Attack, but low stats elsewhere bar average Special Defence. His movepool is good, but he grows slowly. HP is also decent, but he's not one for taking too many hits. Try this set: Rock Slide Aerial Ace/Wing Attack Earthquake Return/Double Edge/Steel Wing Rock Slide and the Flying move are both STAB moves, and Earthquake is a powerful move that's useful on Aerodactyl. The last move is up to you, but you probably won't use it much. If you want to use Double Edge, only do so if your Aerodactyl has the Rock Head trait. Opinion - Even if it grows slowly and is obtained late, it's a great pokemon. You might want to consider trading it over from another game earlier on if you want to use him, though. ------------- Snorlax (143) ------------- Type - Normal Note - You can only ever encounter Snorlax twice in the entire game. A slow moving, slow growing beast of a pokemon. You might want to trade him over due to his slow growth, but he can certainly kick some ass. He can take hits very well on both sides of the spectrum, as his enormous base 160 HP helps his poor base 65 Defence, and his base 110 Special Defence is brilliant anyway. His Attack certainly isn't lagging, either, with it being base 110. His Speed is a very poor base 30, so he's going to be attacking last most of the time, and his Special Attack is only a mere base 65, so he can't really use Special moves too well. Try this set: Body Slam/Return Shadow Ball Brick Break Earthquake/Rock Slide Body Slam is Snorlax's signature move, but you might prefer Return's higher power over Body Slam's chance of paralysis. Snorelax learns Shadow Ball and Brick Break, and he should use both so that he gets the Ghost-Fight dual. The last move is filler, as despite the fact that both are great moves, you'll be using the first three more often than not. Verdict - Excellent pokemon. Pity it grows slowly, but that shouldn't put you off, and you can trade one over to boost its growth rate anyway. The best pure Normal type in the game. He's certainly worth using, and definately should be a consideration. -------------- Articuno (144) -------------- Type - Ice/Flying Note - Only one Articuno can be found in the entire game. Articuno has great Defences which are left redundant by the large amount of weaknesses he has due to his bad typing. His movepool is also crap. Use this set: Ice Beam Return Aerial Ace Steel Wing Articuno's Special Attack is slightly better than his Attack, but his Special movepool consists of nothing but Ice moves. The other three moves displayed are the only good offensive moves he learns, pretty much. He learns a coulple of decent defensive moves, but using them in-game is boring. Verdict - Good stats, but bad typing, shit movepool, typical sluggish legendary growth rate. The stat total is high overall, but there's little reason to use him unless you love teams of legendaries. A good pokemon, but you can't obtain it until a late point in the game, and numerous other reasons mean you probably won't want to replace anyone for Articuno. ------------ Zapdos (145) ------------ Type - Electric/Flying Note - Only one Zapdos can be found in the entire game. Zapdos' movepool isn't much better than Articuno's, but with better typing and great overall stats (especially that base 125 Special Attack), he's the only Legendary Bird worth using. Use this set: Thunderbolt Drill Peck Return Steel Wing It's not too impressive, but you'll be taking advantage of the STAB moves for the most part. The last two are mostly fillers for use against things that Thunderbolt and Drill Peck won't take care of (although such pokemon are the ones that Zapdos shouldn't really be staying in against). Verdict - Zapdos is the best Electric-type in the game. He grows slowly and can't be obtained until late-ish, but unlike the other two Legendary Birds, he's worth adding to your team. If you're using Raichu or Electbuzz, though, you probably won't want to replace them. ------------- Moltres (146) ------------- Type - Fire/Flying Note - Only one Moltres can be found in the entire game. Like the other two Legendary Birds, Moltres has a poor movepool. Despite having superior attacking stats to Charizard, Moltres isn't as good overall, as Charizard has (slightly) better defenses and Speed, and a better movepool. Use this set: Flamethrower Wing Attack/Aerial Ace Return Steel Wing Despite excellent base 125 Special Attack and great base 100 Attack, this set proves to be rather uninteresting. Two STAB moves that don't provide the best of type coverage, and your basic two 'filler' moves for the birdies. Not a bad set, but outclassed by Charizard's superior movepool. Verdict - If you want a Fire/Flying type, pick Charizard as your starter. Moltres' slightly superior attacking stats don't make up for the fact that it isn't really as good. A good pokemon, but outclassed. That, and you can't obtain him for ages. ------------------------------------------------- Dratini > Dragonair > Dragonite (147 > 148 > 149) ------------------------------------------------- Type - Dragon (Dratini, Dragonair), Dragon/Flying (Dragonite) This set of evolutions are the only Dragon-types in the Kanto PokeDex. As you might have guessed, Dragonite has excellent stats and an excellent movepool, with lots of resistances and little in the way of weaknesses (although the quadruple weakness to Ice moves makes short work of him). He grows slowly, and you'll probably have finished nearly all of the main quest by the time you evolve Dragonair into Dragonite, so you might not think he's worth it. But even so, he's an awesome pokemon. Try this set: Dragon Claw Earthquake Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Rock Slide Brick Break/Wing Attack/Rock Slide Dragon Claw is an excellent STAB move. Earthquake is an excellent move. The last two moves are your choice. I recommend you at least have one of Brick Break or Rock Slide, so Ice types are taken care of quickly. Dragonite has plenty of moves to choose from, but I find the ones listed above are the best options. You don't necessarily have to use Earthquake, either. Verdict - If you don't mind the fact that it takes forever to actually GET Dragonite, then you have an awesome pokemon in your hands. ------------ Mewtwo (150) ------------ Type - Psychic All hail the best of the original 151 pokemon! Excellent stats, excellent movepool. Has the typical slow growth of legendaries, and you can't obtain him until ridiculously late in the game, but he's well worth the trouble. 154 base Special Attack and 130 base Speed simply cannot be overlooked. Try this set: Calm Mind Thunderbolt Ice Beam Psychic/Recover Calm Mind + BoltBeam = chaos. Psychic is Mewtwo's only STAB move that's overall classified as 'good', but Psychic certainly isn't the best attacking type and Recover helps Mewtwo stay alive longer in competitive play. Mewtwo's base 110 Attack allows him to use Physical moves to a powerful extent, but his 154 Special Attack makes it seem rather redundant, despite how great moves like Shadow Ball are. Verdict - The best pokemon in the game. Pity you get him so late, though. --------- Mew (151) --------- Type - Psychic Poor Mew's never had it easy, only being available for download in Nintendo Events which are held quite rarely and only in major cities. A such a pity that hacked in Mews from cheating devices won't obey you. Mew is a great pokemon, though. All of his stats are base 100, which is both a pro and a con, and his movepool is the best in the game - he learns every single move that can be taught to him via a TM, HM or move tutor. So if you can get one that'll work properly, do so! He's only available to catch (after Nintendo Event download) in Emerald, though. Mew can be used differently to Mewtwo, so instead of making him similar, try this: Swords Dance/Bulk Up Shadow Ball Brick Break Psychic/Earthquake/Rock Slide I like making Mew Physical, so he isn't a worse Mewtwo. Otherwise, there's little point in using him. Basically, boost your Attack and attack with the unresisted Ghost/Fight combo. The last move is filler. You can use another Physical move to benefit from the Attack boosts, or you can use STAB Psychic. Whatever the fourth move you choose, you probably won't use it much. Verdict - Yeah, if you're going to use a Special set, use Mewtwo, as it has better stats. On the whole, Mew is a damn fun pokemon to use, so if you can get one LEGALLY, it'll function fine and you can and should use him. Thank heavens, I'm finally done with this thing. ---------------------- Legal + Copyright info ---------------------- This guide is owned by Volke Fredrik Lindstrom and cannot be used or published without the author's permission. Any violators can be reported to the law and immediate action will ensue. The only site that is currently permitted to host this walkthrough is www.supercheats.com. Hosting this walkthrough on any other than the above mentioned site is illegal. This walkthrough can be printed out for personal use, but selling it off as your own for profit is strictly prohibited. ------ Thanks ------ This will be short: Myself, for kindly writing this guide, just for you. Thank me in the forums if you see me, but I am not giving out my e-mail address as I do not like having any online contacts, only offline friends. Supercheats.com, for hosting this guide. Sweden, for being a damn awesome country. I am very proud of my homeland, and of my Finnish heritage also. (Want your name here? Then tell me something important that I have not included. If it is worthy, then I will add it to the guide and gladly add your name to the thanks list, although I hope I never have to come back to this guide, as it just became so boring and reptitive after I got about halfway).
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