Strongest & Weakest In-Game Pokémon Ever



While it's the cover legendary... what do you guys think about Emerald Rayquaza? Being at Level 70, and catchable shortly before taking on the 8th gym, it's the highest-leveled pre-E4 Pokemon you can catch in any game (12 levels above the highest-leveled Pokemon you can find before the post-game)... while having all the benefits of a cover Dragon-type legendary with base 150 attacking stats.

Its starting moveset is... really bad, to be fair, but at the point in the game you are in, and given Rayquaza's movepool and brutal attacking stats (thanks to its level), it's nothing you cannot patch up. Switch Outrage (it sucks here) with Dragon Claw (either by giving the Move Relearner a Heart Scale -there's one in one rock in Lilycove- or waiting until after getting the 8th badge to get the TM03 from Meteor Falls) and Rest and Fly with the coverage moves of your liking - preferably Thunder(bolt) to deal with Wallace and Juan, and Flamethrower/Fire Blast for Glacia, and you are ready to destroy everything. Just make sure you don't get a SpA-reducing nature because you won't want to miss OHKOs with Dragon Claw. Its Speed is not very important - there are no particularly fast Pokemon in the road to the Hall of Fame, and the level difference means those Pokemon with higher base Speed are slower anyways.

Granted, Ice must be the most common type among the whole Elite Four's moves, but not many things are able to take a hit and tell the tale. And sometimes, Rayquaza can survive one non-STAB Ice-type attack, especially if you also use it to steamroll Sootopolis Gym and the Victory Road, so it's getting EV'd in the way, either to KO things better or to avoid those extremely rare potential OHKOes.
 
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Volcarona in B2/W2.

When you get it, it's at Level 35. With 135 base Special Attack, it will absolutely nuke the PWT if you get it beforehand because it's 10 levels higher than everything else there. I replaced String Shot with Struggle Bug and beat Colress' PWT team in three hits untouched. Give it Fiery Dance with a Heart Scale and it's all over.
 
Volcarona in B2/W2.

When you get it, it's at Level 35. With 135 base Special Attack, it will absolutely nuke the PWT if you get it beforehand because it's 10 levels higher than everything else there. I replaced String Shot with Struggle Bug and beat Colress' PWT team in three hits untouched. Give it Fiery Dance with a Heart Scale and it's all over.
?????

I thought Volcarona is only available after the Plasma incident at PWT? Furthermore, you are vastly overestimating Volcarona. It had a garbage movepool and forces you to cough up money and shards for Fire Blast and Signal Beam to even be usable. Even then, it's horrible against Skyla, Drayden and Marlon. The performance against the Elite Four is nothing to shout about (unless you grind like crazy to get Quiver Dance). No way are you getting Fiery Dance from Heart Scales since its a Lv100 move lol
 
?????

I thought Volcarona is only available after the Plasma incident at PWT? Furthermore, you are vastly overestimating Volcarona. It had a garbage movepool and forces you to cough up money and shards for Fire Blast and Signal Beam to even be usable. Even then, it's horrible against Skyla, Drayden and Marlon. The performance against the Elite Four is nothing to shout about (unless you grind like crazy to get Quiver Dance). No way are you getting Fiery Dance from Heart Scales since its a Lv100 move lol
No, you can go down into the Relic Passage and get it beforehand.
 
I played through Black 2 with my event Crown Suicune on my team that I had EV trained in Black and that thing was AWESOME. I was exploring Undella Town and had no forewarning whatsoever when Cynthia the FREAKING CHAMPION OF SINNOH dropped in and before I knew what was happening my level 49-58 team was being absolutely mauled by her lvl 76-78 team. One after another my team dropped like flies, but not Suicune. It was bulky as shet and after a few Calm Minds and Max Potion enemas it swept. I generally see stat-up moves as useless in in-game play since it's typically best just to line up super-effective matchups against the AI and swing, so I had been considering taking Calm Mind off of Suicune, but I'm so glad I didn't because it was so satisfying to watch her team melt after pressing me into the tightest corner I've been in since Lance of the E4 in Gold version.

As an event Pokemon Crown Suicune doesn't quite qualify as an "in-game" Pokemon precisely, but it's possibly the best Pokemon I've ever played with through the main story of any game, having defeated a handful of notably strong species that were exactly 20-22 levels above it. (Suicune was lvl 56 at the time)
 
For Red/Blue, I'd say the top 5 are Nidoran-M, Nidoran-F, Squirtle, Abra and Zapdos.
The Nidoran have great availability, can evolve into their final stages very early in the game and don't require many high demand TMs.
Squirtle takes longer to evolve and really likes to have the Dig and Ice Beam TMs, but other than that it has the same advantages.
Kadabra is extremely strong and can hold the entire together on his own. Even if you don't evolve him into Alakazam he is one of the strongest Pokemon in the game. The only disadvantages here are the difficulty to catch Abra and the effort it takes to baby him up to level 16. There are no Elemental Punch TMs in this game to help with that.
Zapdos can carry you through the rest of the game once you catch it, its only problem is that you can't catch it before Koga. By this time most of the game is already done and there are very few difficult fights left.

Honorable mentions to Articuno, Jynx and Farfetch'd.
Articuno is mostly just a slightly worse Zapdos. If you think the difficulty and catching and raising an Abra is too much to put him in the list, Articuno should probably replace him.
Jynx is one of the best Pokemon I used in this game. Ice and Psychic are by far the best two STAB moves to have at this point, being Super Effective against 5 of the remaining 8 Gym Leaders/E4 members, and having a massive advantage against Sabrina as well. Jynx also gets Lovely Kiss for the few Pokemon she can't OHKO and the experience bonus from being a traded Pokemon. Jynx requires the Psychic TM, though there really isn't much else to give it to, and likes the Ice Beam or Blizzard TMs, though Ice Punch is strong enough to last the game. Jynx's one disadvantage is how late you get her. You get her at almost the same point as Zapdos and Articuno, who are both clearly better than Jynx though still more difficult to catch.
Farfetch'd is the best utility Pokemon in the game. Only Pokemon to learn Fly and a second HM (Cut) in the game and you get him just in time to use Cut. Even in battles Farfetch'd is a contender for the best Normal/Flying Pokemon, thanks to its trade experience bonus, Sand Attack, Swords Dance and Slash. Still not top 5, but definitely the most underrated Pokemon in the game.

Worst five I'm not too sure on. I haven't used most of the crapmons yet, so I can't give a solid opinion.
Ditto is definitely one of them though. He is actually not as bad as people make him out to be. The AI is garbage in this game and the movesets are even worse. Most Gym Pokemon only have one move that actually does good damage against themselves and they usually don't pick it. Ditto can nearly always beat one or two Gym Leader Pokemon by itself. Still, it is really difficult to train and you will still always have better options available against the Gyms.
 
I nominate Trapinch as a terrible ingame Pokemon for Gen 3 teams. It's slow as hell which makes training a pain and you're stuck with it until the 30s. I think Flygon makes the tedium worth it though.

As for best, I'd nominate Nidoking/Queen for the Gen 1 and 2 games. It can learn a wide range of TMs, has pretty good stats and is pretty bulky I think. Just give it Fire Blast/Thunder/Blizzard/Earthquake and you're good to go. (from my experience anyway)
 
Trapinch doesn't require going through hoops to catch, it has at least some sort of offense and Vibrava already offers a fairly decent defensive typing, making up for its frailty somewhat. It's quite weak for sure, but there's far worse in RSE (Jigglypuff, Bagon and Luvdisc for instance)
 
So I'm reflecting on my playthrough of Moon and I think two really good decisions in particular were the traded Machop right before the first trial and then getting Wishiwashi after the second. Wishiwashi needs the exp share to get to level 20 but his school form is amazing statwise :)
 

Xen

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So I'm reflecting on my playthrough of Moon and I think two really good decisions in particular were the traded Machop right before the first trial and then getting Wishiwashi after the second. Wishiwashi needs the exp share to get to level 20 but his school form is amazing statwise :)
It doesn't even need the Exp Share babying; you should have a couple of Rare Candies by the time you catch it. Catch the lv 18 Wishiwashi that you battle during the 2nd part of the water trial, slap two Rare Candies to it, and teach it Scald and you are golden.

On a similar note, I also want to throw my vote to Dewpider/Araquanid. It's pretty similar to Wishiwashi in terms of availability and how it plays. Its typing is great and Water Bubble is such a busted ability (burn immunity, fire resistance, super-powered Scalds/Liquidations). It may not be as immediately powerful as Wishiwashi, but it still evolves very early and it isn't crippled in cases where its HP can't hold up.
 
Really? I (attempted) to use dewpider/ araquanid in my playthrouh. It was dead weight the whole time. Usually OHKO'D or 2HKO'D, weak attacks, and a horrible presence in general. I tried to keep it levelled evenly with the rest of my team, but it was so useless it eventually fell behind. Its only use past Aether Paradise was last mon fodder, usually buying a turn for me to revive something better.
 
Trapinch doesn't require going through hoops to catch, it has at least some sort of offense and Vibrava already offers a fairly decent defensive typing, making up for its frailty somewhat. It's quite weak for sure, but there's far worse in RSE (Jigglypuff, Bagon and Luvdisc for instance)
When it evolves to Vibrava it's more manageable but by god, grinding with Trapinch was tedium given form. So glad I caught Vibrava in Colosseum because currently Flygon is one of my star players.
 
If you're playing without challenge rules, I don't think there's a huge difference between Wishiwashi or Gyarados. They appear pretty much at exactly the same point in the game, and have the same primary STAB in water. You'll use rare candies or XP share to promote them to 20 so it's a non-issue raising them. Wishiwashi is a bit better immediately due to having good SpA so it can make use of Scald, whereas Gyarados has to wait until level 30 for Aqua Tail to get a good STAB move. Past level 30, Gyarados' higher speed and better ability make it the better of the two. With X-items Wishiwashi is capable of boosting and sweeping so Gyarados has only a small advantage with Dragon Dance. I don't think it matters much which you prefer.

Now, if you're playing with standard challenge rules (which I define as set battle style, XP share off, no affection bonuses, and no items in trainer battles) then I think Gyarados vastly outclasses Wishiwashi. Wishiwashi's slow speed and lack of reliable recovery and setup options become huge problems in a challenge run. It's easily worn down and often needs to be sacked due to set battle style rules. Gyarados, on the other hand, can turn any advantageous matchup into a Dragon Dance setup opportunity to win battles. That's makes it far more valuable in challenge runs.
 
Confirming that Totodile and Abra are godly in GSC.

Speaking of RBY I saw no mention of Chansey and Dratini.

Chansey is horribly hard to catch in the Safari Zone and its attacks suck balls unless you feed it highly contested TMs (Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, etc). You can catch it in Mewtwo's cave at high level more easily but that's post Elite Four and it still need TMs.

Dratini is kinda the same, hard to catch, horrendous to level, bad level-up movepool, needs TMs. Dragonite is a powerhouse and has Wrap but in-game that's super time-wasting.

Back to GSC, Larvitar is also a pain. It comes at level 15-20 in Red's cave, so you have to baby him all the way and it's impossible to use in a playthrough. Early levels movepool also sucks.
 
Psyduck in RBY it has nothing but scratch until level 28, what's it's second move? tail whip
To be fair situations like these are rather common in RBY movepools; several Pokémon start learning moves only at late levels because they actually cannot be (legitimately) found in the wild at lower levels and breeding is not an option (see the Legendary Birds which learn their first move at level 51).
This only partly applies to Psyduck, though: it is found in the Seafoam Islands at level 28+, but also by fishing with the Super Rod in some earlier locations at just level 15. At least it has Surf.
 
To be fair situations like these are rather common in RBY movepools; several Pokémon start learning moves only at late levels because they actually cannot be (legitimately) found in the wild at lower levels and breeding is not an option (see the Legendary Birds which learn their first move at level 51).
This only partly applies to Psyduck, though: it is found in the Seafoam Islands at level 28+, but also by fishing with the Super Rod in some earlier locations at just level 15. At least it has Surf.
There's also the matter on the amount of moves that were in Gen I - they kind of had to space them out so that they don't learn everything before Level 20 (which, given their then level up moves and how quickly Pokemon learn moves now, they could have).

A good way to show that is Blue's Pokemon, such as his Rhydon, who had Leer, Tail Whip (yup, two moves that do literally the same thing), Fury Attack and Horn Drill, which are (bar Horn Drill) now low-level moves on almost everything that learn those moves (although the Rhyhorn line lost Leer after Gen I).
 
I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that Aggron is kind of terrible for an in-game RSE team.

You'd think it would get some decent attacks to go with its typing, but let's see...

For steel it has Metal Claw and Iron Fai-... I mean Tail. Metal Claw is... okay, not much damage but it has a chance to raise your attack every time you use it, so it can be useful I guess. Iron Tail has good damage but it will miss. It will miss every single time. I think honestly you'd be better off going with Metal Claw if you really want a Steel move. It's a shame Iron Head wasn't a thing at the time.

For Rock, it has... uhhh.. Well it doesn't learn any by levelling up. You can teach it Rock Tomb, or wait until you've finished the game to teach it Rock Throw via Tutor in the Battle Frontier. Thanks a lot, Gamefreak.

It sucks because Aggron has always been one of my favorites and it only just hit me that it kind of sucks in the gen it was introduced in. Still, I taught my Lairon Rock Smash and it was my star player against Wattson and Norman...
 
A good way to show that is Blue's Pokemon, such as his Rhydon, who had Leer, Tail Whip (yup, two moves that do literally the same thing), Fury Attack and Horn Drill, which are (bar Horn Drill) now low-level moves on almost everything that learn those moves (although the Rhyhorn line lost Leer after Gen I).
1st gen blue was, in retrospect, pretty bad for a final boss. His Exeggutor didn't even have a full moveset, since all NPC Pokemon only knew the last 4 level up moves they could have at their level, and disregards things like pre-evolution moves, hence Exeggutor, and stone evolutions in general bar the Eeveelutions, being pretty bad as AI opponents.
 
One Pokémon I would like to mention being great is Ralts in ORAS. Thanks to its new Fairy type it is able to wipe the floor with the evil teams of both versions since they are know to use a lot of Dark and Poison types. Plus it comes in handy against Brawly, Tate and Liza (with Shadow Ball TM), and the Mega Stone you can get before the Elite Four can destroy Sidney and Drake. A strong moveset of Psychic, Moonblast (Move Relearner), Shadow Ball (TM), and Charge Beam/Thunderbolt (TM) it can take on a large portion of what the game with throw at you. It does struggle a bit as a Ralts but when it evolves it becomes one of the best Pokémon through the main story and doesn't do well against Steven.
 

DHR-107

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One Pokémon I would like to mention being great is Ralts in ORAS. Thanks to its new Fairy type it is able to wipe the floor with the evil teams of both versions since they are know to use a lot of Dark and Poison types. Plus it comes in handy against Brawly, Tate and Liza (with Shadow Ball TM), and the Mega Stone you can get before the Elite Four can destroy Sidney and Drake. A strong moveset of Psychic, Moonblast (Move Relearner), Shadow Ball (TM), and Charge Beam/Thunderbolt (TM) it can take on a large portion of what the game with throw at you. It does struggle a bit as a Ralts but when it evolves it becomes one of the best Pokémon through the main story and doesn't do well against Steven.
Except there is a huge issue with the amount of babying you have to do to get anything reasonable out of Ralts. Kirlia at Level 20 STILL isn't that much of an upgrade. We debated Ralts a lot in the ORAS tiering threads, where ultimately it sits no where near the S Tier ranking. http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/oras-tier-list-v2-0.3532211/
 
Hello all, long time lurker of the ingame tier lists. Something that I have found as a solid choice since gen 4 is Azumarill. Fairly decent bulk and a really good attack stat ever since huge power (ignore gen 3). Then in gen 6 it gained the fairy type to give it a ton of resistances and good stabs to abuse. I think it performed best in X and Y, getting an early evo with 3 perfect IVs and early aqua tail. Combine that with play rough and it is a deadly combo to sweep the game. ORAS and Sun/Moon played into Azumarills favor as well. The only letdown on the poke is speed. This was somewhat remedied in Sun/Moon by getting aqua jet when captured via island scan. I’m not arguing that it is the best poke in any specific game, merely that throughout recent history Azumarill has been a great in game poke to use.
 

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Don’t forget the daycare, it can ease the slow process of raising Pokémon, especially during the parts of the game where obtaining a Pokémon isn’t too far away from it in game progress or location. Magicarp Salesman in RBY is just before Mt. Moon, which is just before access to the Daycare in Cerulean. The deposit of Magicarp until a few Gyms later is well worth the price because you get to save yourself from using your experience share/having to switch out a worthless Pokémon for something else (it also helps in growing your Abra from Cerulean City). Kadabra is great in game, but Abra only has Teleport!
 
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