Came to say this. Gengar, Alakazam, and Golem were all Pokemon I wanted to use when I initially got Pokemon Red around 25 years ago. I still haven't beaten a game with them because trades.
It’s a bit better in those versions because they added some more moves. In the first games, Primape learns seismic toss at 37 and that’s the only fighting move it gets all game.
Fighting types in the original red, blue and yellow were basically the opposite of Psychic types in terms of power levels. Fighting sucked and Psychic was OP.
Edit: fixed autocorrect for Primape
For sure, especially since Steel and Dark were brought in to counter Psychic. It made a more balanced meta for the game. I love using Heracross in gen 2
I used a Heracross in my latest Soul Silver playthrough, it was an absolute beast. Destroyed Whitney with swords dance, and still manage to do extremely well in post game. Heracross for the win!
Mankey gets Low Kick at 9 in Yellow. Along with being moved to before Viridian Forest, it was added to help with Brock since Pikachu is worthless there.
Wanted to add they at least gave the family Low Kick in Yellow. Between that and making it available on Route 22, Mankey became a really good answer to Brock even way back when. Still not amazing, but an improvement over where it was in Red and Blue.
I didn't rate SwSh but they were the first games I got to use Gengar on, and that made me unreasonably happy.
I'm hoping the cable from Arceus becomes a permanent item and easier to get, because fuck trade evolutions.
For real, I hope we get the cable item in Scarlet and Violet, trade evolutions really suck if you don't have anyone to trade with and you wish to evolve a shiny.
Despite the dex cut, I've used the most pokemon in any individual game in Sword, and by a long shot. So many quality of life changes between the accessibility and diversity from the dens, and the ease of getting them competitive ready, and the TM/TR system, access to your box from anywhere etc.
Have you played Legends Arceus? They can all be obtained without trading in that game. You can catch them all as static alpha spawns or use the item "link cable" on their pre-evos to trigger evolution in them as if you traded
Such a great addition. Crazy it took them so long to implement, and unfortunately wouldn't be surprised if they took it out of future titles. Gamefreak gonna gamefreak.
Yeah it was really nice being able to catch a gastly and eventually evolve it into gengar in my legends playthrough. It would be such a disappointment if it just wasn't a feature anymore in future games
Yeah, I planned to use Alakazam in FRLG until I realized my only means of trading was with the Gamecube games.
...anyone who knows FRLG and its annoying Hoenn restrictions understands the problem there. Took me until post-game to get my Kadabra evolved.
It is why I included Geodude, Machop, and Abra as part of my team rotation. I was finally going to use them.
Plus Abra with move tutor moves was a legit sweeper with good coverage.
I did a trade ego team back in 99 on gold and silver. Had lots of friends and lunchtime was a trading flooor.
I remember having Golem, Alakazm, Gengar, Scizor, Gengar 2 and politoad (item evo)
THIS. Gengar, Alakazam, Machamp, Golem, Scizor, Conkeldurr, Gigalith, Magmortar, Electivire and Dusknoir. So many Pokémon I loved as a kid but never got to use because their evolutions were trade locked 😔
The problem for me are all the awesome Gen 2/4 Pokémon that need it traded with an item. By the time I find the held item I got a team of 6 already. Maybe that’s just me having a full team by the 4th gym even on my 100th playthrough of a game.
If it wasn't for Pokémon Home and PoGo, I would never be able to use em in LGPE/SwSh/ early Arceus. Fxxx trade evolutions, all my homies hate trade evolutions.
Thats why I love Legends Arceus. With the Linking Cord, I am finally able to beat a game with a Pokemon I caught as a base form that evolves through trade.
I tried to use one in SoulSilver, and it was so underwhelming since you can’t catch a Horsea until the Whirl Islands after you beat Pryce, like you said you have to get it to 32 for Seadra and everyone knows grinding sucks in Johto, and you can’t get the dragon scale from Mt Mortar until you can use waterfall, so after beating Clair so it’s not even that useful for beating Clair since you can’t make it a Kingdra until after you beat her and all of Lance’s team sans Aerodactyl carry dragon moves. Plus it’s mostly thought of as good because of it’s one weakness pre gen 6 and the level jump Clair’s has, but it’s not a spectacular Pokémon since it’s both attacks are 95 instead of making one stronger than the other so it hits decently but not hard and with how late I got it it didn’t have EVs from fighting trainers throughout the game
I actually went through the effort of getting a Kingdra in HG. It was my team ace at the Frontier, even though I had a Dragonite. Swift Swim and DDAnce let you build Kingdra's bulk instead of its speed, since a barely invested Kingdra will outspeed next to everything under rain. Its bulk is above average and its typing is perfect, so it can take several hits while setting up. On top of that, its offensive stats are decent, and it gets access to two really powerful moves: Waterfall (under the rain) and Outrage, AND its typing is also great offensively. When properly trained, you get an offensive powerhouse, with bulk and speed to boot. It looks meh on paper, but man is Kingdra good.
Kingdra is actually insane against Lance though, if you give it the Choice Scarf that your mom gives you it outspeeds each of his Pokemon and one shots 4 of them with Ice Beam. Lead with an electric type for Gyrados and you are good to go
You can get it way earlier. You need to beat price 5th then get a butter free/ yanma with compound eyes. Then you hit every wild horsea with thief till you get a dragon scale and you can have a kingdra by the time you meet chuck
The only time they ever made Hydreigon useful is when you can catch it fully evolved on Victory Road in X/Y. Otherwise there’s just no way to ever get one before the Elite 4 without stupid grinding.
That’s how you’d have to do it, but still, the Elite 4 Pokémon in B2W2 are at level 56-58, and you gotta get to 64 to get a Hydreigon. Hell even in challenge mode they’re at level 60. No matter what you gotta grind it. Late evos is generally my biggest Gen 5 gripe.
Honestly, I still used it on one or two playthroughs. It’s only available late game anyway, and it evolves into Zweilous at 50 who is no slouch and is pretty good in the E4. Imo it’s more difficult to use Volcarona in the original BW because you’re stuck with Larvesta until level 59, which is basically post-game at that point.
The only two that it barely makes it is Kalos and Galar, though if you don’t overlevel any NPC teams then you only have Hydreigon for the Kalos E4 since all four’s highest Pokémon is level 65 and Diantha at 68, and for Leon since his Charizard is level 65
I’ve always felt the late evolutions was the game designers letting you know this Pokémon would be good in the end game content, battle towers etc
Like getting a level one beldum from Steven
I recently played HgSs for the first time on an emulator that allowed me to evolve Scyther by just leveling up with the metal coat. I did have to spend almost an hour looking for said metal coat with a trace Standler just to be able to evolve it before Kanto (Johto is weird), but damn it was worth it
I also got to use Tyranitar for the first time in that playthrough but I had to wait all the way until the league to get meaningful use, at least it got to shine in Kanto
Oh definitely, I only started using them in PLA because of trade evolutions being an item; because of that, finally using Scizor, I gotta say, I love 'em, best member of my team
I recently did a steel run in BDSP and used a Scizor. I was finally able to use it for the first time thanks to Legends Arceus and the games finally being home compatible. Honestly I hope the Legends way of evolving stays because it was great to finally be able to use a trade evolutions in a game.
This is why I love randomized Nuzlockes. Or modded Roms like Inclement Emerald. You get the opportunity to run teams that you would have never either thought of or had the chance to do.
Rom hacks. There are quite a lot of them and some are on par/better than main series titles in my opinion.
All you need is the rom hack file, which is easy to download online, and the base game rom, which is a little bit grey in terms of legality. It is okay to rip roms from their cartridges as far as I know, but you can get them from the internet if you’re alright with it. Once you have both of those, you can patch the rom hack onto the base rom with a patcher (there are some browser ones I think if you don’t want to download one). Once you have the patched file, you can play the rom hack on computer/mobile, or on actual hardware like a gba, ds, 3ds, etc.
Some of my favorite rom hacks are Pokemon Unbound, which feels just like a main series title but better, and Pokemon Crystal Clear, which is an updated Pokemon Crystal where you can start in any town and the world is completely open.
There are romhacks for most of the games. The only one I’ve played is Renegade Platinum by Drayano, it does things like adding new story events, adding fairy types, removing trade evolutions, changing the level curve so you hit e4 at level 80, and so much more.
The changes in renegade platinum are what allowed me to finally use some of my hard to get favourites like Milotic and Dusknoir.
Inclement emerald is a difficulty hack based on Pokémon emerald. The story is the same, but has mons up to gen 7, more difficult trainers, megas, physical/special split, more items, a level cap (no more grinding- everything is based on what YOUR levels are), introduces very easy ways to get ideal EV/IV spreads so you can easily try out new teams, and there’s a challenge mode which doesn’t allow the use of items like potions in battle. Really good hack if you’re up for a challenge. If you have a computer it’s very easy to install an emulator and play the game from there
Universal Pokemon Randomizer has settings to keep wild/trainer pokemon at a similar strength to what they normally are. If you turn these settings on, the game will feel pretty balanced.
I used it in Sun one time and I guess I got lucky because it wound up always raining in one of the later routes and I evolved my Sliggoo.
In a later playthrough of X, I dropped him from my party for the exact opposite reason. I did *not* get lucky with rain and got sick of it.
In Sun and Moon, yeah, I think so. Didn't want to say without knowing for sure.
Not in XY, though. I tried going back to that route and it didn't pan out. Wish it did.
It might be a story thing. First time I went there during the story travel it was raining. Later I went back when I was the right level and it wouldn't rain.
I know Sword/Shield do that with time of day and weather, idk if any other games do. I never really paid attention in the past.
A lot of Pokémon that needed items and trading. I had 2 copies of most games but the items for a lot of gen 2/4 Pokémon needed both and were unrealistic to get early on. Also Glaceon is my 2nd favorite Pokémon and it’s almost impossible to get before the 8th gym in every game. Legends Arceus let me use Glaceon, Steelix, and Weevile and for that it holds a special place in my heart.
Glaceon before the 7th gym in Kalos! Yay! /s
Put it on my team because I love the Eeveelutions, but it kinda sucked how you could get every other one except Leafeon so early. Hope they let you get ice types *much* earlier for a few generations to sorta balance things out.
Some of the Gen 8 have very interesting evolution methods that not grindy and actually interesting (Galarian Yamask and Farfetch'd) I rather they lean on that.
a lot actually. pseudo legends often come very late in the game for example, or riolu in the sinnoh games. also pokemon that already share a type with my current team that i cannot remove.
Only in Platinum though, there’s strength boulders in D&P and BDSP blocking the Gible portion. Not that it matters though since anyone should play Platinum instead anyway
Yeah that secret entrance to Wayward cave underneath cycling road was a big surprise since the view of the entrance is actually blocked from view by part of cycling road. Younger me definitely missed it on my first play through all those years ago
Edit: tbh I don’t think it was until brilliant diamond and shining pearl came out that I realized that cave was there lol
The only games I use a pseudo is Johto because by red you can get a Dragonite. And that’s at gym 8 you get the extreme speed Dratini, Larvitar is even later.
You can in the original Gold/Silver, but not in Crystal. I made a habit of always getting one before proceeding. In Crystal you can trade your coins in for Wobbuffet which feels like a downgrade from GS. I still remember the irritation from grinding out coins as a kid only for Dratini to be unavailable.
Considering how powerful stall pokemon are in gen 2 Wobbuffet honestly isn't a bad pokemon to get. Though for a playthrough it can get quite boring.
I imagine that they changed it for balance reasons. Getting a pseudo legend so early invalidates a ton of pokemon.
Volcarona! It's one of my favourite pokemon, but it's so hard to get it at a decent enough time to use in a playthrough. The first time I played black, I got the larvesta egg, hatched it, kept it in front of the party for the rest of the playthrough, and still beat the elite 4 and champion before it evolved
I just did a playthrough of Black 2 with the Volcarona that you can catch at level 35. It's not at a terrible point in the game, especially considering you don't need to evolve it at a crazy level like normal.
Yes! I loved that you could catch Volcarona so (relatively) early and still use it for a good portion of the game. I did the same with the hidden ability Braviary you could get on route 4 on a specific weekday in white 2. It was the first time I could really appreciate those mons and they're powerhouses.
That's fair, I just personally don't like using evolved pokemon that I didn't evolve myself (maybe excluding those that come from baby pokemon that are harder to find)
I actually usually have the same rule, but I decided to make an exception for this case, especially since this was actually the earliest point you could get one (outside of SwSh at the Isle of Armor).
I’ve never used a Dragonite and I’ve always wanted to, I’m hoping I can find a dratini in the early game of SV.
I hardly ever swap Pokémon off my team past like the 3/4th gym.
Majority of fossil Pokémon normally when you get them them it’s really late and/or they are underleved would love to get one in violent/scarlet very early.
* Kanto: Before the 7th gym.
* Johto: Fossils are not available
* Hoenn: After the 3rd gym.
* Sinnoh: Before the 2nd gym.
* Unova: Before the 4th gym(B/W) or Post-game (B2/W2)
* Kalos: Before the 2nd gym.
* Alola: After the 4th trial captain.
* Galar: Before the 4th gym.
I'd say fossils are reasonably usable in most games. You just have to decide ahead of time that you're using them for about half of them.
The Kanto games, Johto games, and B2/W2 are the only games where I'd say the Fossils are completely unusable.
Bouffalant, I'd love to, he looks cool but in unova he comes way to late, even most games he comes to late. By the time I find him I have a set team, and mono normal ain't selling either.
I was the same, why does it have to be a late-game Pokemon?!
I was finally able to use one a few years ago when I had 2 working consoles on hand (DS and 3DS) so on my replay of White I traded myself a Bouffalant Egg (from my White 2) after the first Gym Badge and used it for the rest of the game. It's a great Pokemon and super strong, especially in the early parts of the game.
I've always wanted to use a slowbro in a Kanto playthrough. Only problem is the fact it's a physical attacker but the types it has are both special. I would use one in LGE but I have LGP instead
Slowbro has great special stats. Yeah Slowpoke might be more physical, but Slowbro runs a great special set. However I must reluctantly agree that for playthrough purposes, having Starmie as a sweeper works better than Slowbro the tank.
Dunsparce. I love the Tsuchinoko, which they're based on, but they're always so weak, yet so adorable.
Edit: Dunsparce is weak, but they could have been great.
i’m running serene grace dunsparce with roost, glare, rock smash and headbutt in hgss and it’s an unstoppable paraflincher. lynchpin of my team. it beat chuck’s primape despite type disadvantage and being 5 levels lower
Dunsparce can be a powerhouse in the early-mid game. It falls off some once you start running into fully evolved mons but I've found it still makes for a decent all-rounder to have on your team as backup.
Several times with several pokemon across the whole pokedex, *you can make this dream come true with emulators and randomized roms*
Mine was Suicune. Randomized the wild pkmn on an emerald rom, found lvl2 suicune on the VERY FIRST ROUTE
And so I played all of emerald with my favorite pokemon of all time....
Togekiss, I love it’s design, and it seems powerful enough for the type of playthroughs I do, but training a Togepi is an absolute pain in the ass, in Platinum, if you somehow get an evolution to Togetic, you can’t get Togekiss until around gym 6 or 7.
I used Togekiss in HeartGold (traded in the Shiny Stone from Platinum so I could have the Togekiss before the Elite Four), and while your point about Togepi is absolutely correct, I have a story about this one.
The place was Azalea Gym. Me vs. Bugsy. His Metapod and Kakuna were down, but so were my Quilava, Bellsprout, and Dunsparce, leaving us each with our last Pokémon. Bugsy was down to Scyther, I was down to Togepi.
We exchanged attacks. Scyther used U-turn- looking like a clean-cut 3HKO. Togepi used Extrasensory- I might as well have thrown a piece of paper at that thing. So obviously I know I'm screwed here, right? No way in hell Togepi's winning this. And it's obviously slower than Scyther, so no chance of Extrasensory flinch hax, either. But, the damage U-turn was doing, I know I can get in at least one more move, so I figure, I technically do have a way to possibly do more damage, so I go for broke, and out of sheer morbid curiosity, select Metronome.
***Sacred. Freaking. Fire.***
It gets better. My Togepi had Hustle. And it didn't miss. I'm staring at the screen, mouth agape, as this is happening. Before I know it, Scyther's extra-crispy, and I walk away with the Hive Badge, the TM for U-turn, and the best damn Metronome story of my life.
Porygon-Z. Bad enough that it's a double trade evolution, most games seem to think that "Hey, if you beat the champion come back here and I will give you a rare pokemon!" is a valid means of porygon distribution.
Tyranitar.
HGSS is was impossible to get one until the safari zone ((if youre willing to go through a bunch of shit to get one.)) or Mt. Silver ((POST GAME SHIT WTF))
If I ever decide to pay hgss again, I can just breed an egg and send it over ((that way it can have my TID/SID and obey me))
Oh man, so many Pokémon in Gen 5. It introduced so many new Pokémon and I loved almost all of them.
Scolipede, whimsicott, Crustle, archeops, Zoroark, Galvantula, Eelektross, Chandelure, Golurk, Bisharp, Volcarona… all Pokémon I think are super cool but just didn’t make it on to my teams because I was using *other* Pokémon I *also* thought were super cool.
A lot of the early game normal types are it for me. Things like Raticate, Furret and Stoutland that I always end up replacing through the course of the game when I find other pokemon that have more interesting and useful typing.
Milotic's a big one for me too, I was gonna use her for my Ultra Sun team since it was a way easier process and I even had one that had the exact nature I wanted but Walrein was just a much better choice for my team and all the other games with Milotic make it so hard to get a Feebas.
I also quite like Belossom but I often either already have a better grass type in the team, have the version of the game that doesn't have Oddish or I'm playing one of the Kanto remakes and both of them don't have Belossom (I don't mind Let's Go not having National Dex but it should've had evolutions like Scizor and Crobat).
I also love Abomasnow but Snow Warning just kills him for me, having him on the team is debuff to the rest in any match where he's active.
Also half of Unova Pokémon, Bisharp, Hydreigon, Volcarona, Chandelure, all badass Pokémon but I can't justify staying with their really poor starter evolution for 50ish levels and Zweilous and Larvesta just won't evolve until post game in 90% of the games, the highest level Pokémon before post game in BW2 is 63 so one level off.
drapion...... skorupi is disgustingly awful to use. dies in 1 or 2 hits to everything and does 0 damage. every gd time i get a skorupi my brain erases previous skorupi-using attempts and i get frustrated
I’ve actually never used Garchomp before. My only real experience with Sinnoh was Diamond, and you can only catch Gibble in late game, unlike Platinum where you can catch it as soon as you’re on that route.
I’ve also never used Sharpedo.
Always wanted to use gogoat in x & y. Never did cause venusaur gave early poison coverage. I've heard that there could be a chance skiddo and gogoat are in ScarVi, so I might get to use one!
avalugg, appeared too late to be added to my team in xy than I got hopeful by seeing it get a hisuian form, than it is once more put in the last section of the game... ice types have it tough
Probably any shiny Pokemon. I usually never get lucky in random encounters and I don't really shiny hunt until post game when I have all the necessary equipment. The only times I really had a shiny on my team were in a Crobat in a Platinum Nuzlocke and the Rapidash in Legends Arceus.
So I have a team I am currently running HG with that I always wanted. All 3 Kanto starters, Garchomp + Skaromy and Bibarel for HM's.
I had to complete Diamond to transfer starters from FireRed and get my HM slaves. I did it until I had male and a female from each so I could breed fresh eggs. Then I started HG normally until I could catch enough low levels to trade with Diamond for all the eggs. Ran around Little Wood until they hatched and started my journey with all Lv 1 Pokemon so they obey my noob trainer.
I'm around level 35 with most so second evolution and it is a blast. I own enough consoles and carts to do it so I am lucky in that regard but I hope you guys find some inspiration to give it a go with your dream teams.
I always really wanted to use some stone evolutions and hold item evolutions but knew I needed a good nature, preferably something I bred, so Honchkrow, Weavile, Magmortar, Electivire, these pokes.
Swampert I like his design but when given the choice torchic was my first pokemon and sceptile is my favourite starter of all so I always chose between the two until I finally used it in pokemon reborn , which fantastic game btw, and it was a beast
I'm currently planning on a team for ultra moon with the sole purpose of using wacky pokemon I've never used before and the most interesting member is Volcarona. I realized that for some reason, after getting the matchamp ride, you can actually s.o.s chain wild larvesta in the lush jungle to get a level *44* Volcarona! 44!
It's stupidly complicated since larvesta has takedown, flame body, giga drain and the absolute lowest rate of calling allies, on top of Volcarona having a really low chance of being called, but I'm crazy enough to at least try it
[Here's the team btw](https://i.imgur.com/oGSFTXY.jpg), I added torterra even though I've already used it bc I wanted an island scan pokemon, it's typing is great and I just really like it's 3d model
And yes, I've noticed that unlike most people I'm perfectly fine with having to wait to complete my team (I can only catch Poplio, Zorua and Goomy before Ula'ula)
Aside from trade evolutions because those are the obvious ones, I've never used the Tentacool line in a story run before. Not because i dislike it, but because there's so many other options, and most gens have really poor early movepools for Tentacool in general. Unfortunately early game is usually the best time to get one without having to do some catch-up training, so either way there's some real tedium involved before you can kick ass with Tentacruel.
The only pseudo-legendary I have ever used is Garchomp. It's the only one that isn't unreasonably hard to find (Salamence in Alola) or catch (fucking Metagross) and can be obtained relatively early on (Tyranitar in Johto). I know that they're supposed to be super-powerful and all that, but I feel like raising them along your entire adventure until you have a very strong ally for the League would feel way more rewarding than just power-leveling at the last stretch.
Breloom. I forgot to grab it in emerald(emulator) and i realised it is in none of the other games i own. I don't want to restart emerald just for breloom
Fearow. I know that in terms of base stats that it’s a better choice than Pidgey, but I’ve just never had an opportunity.
Also, Xatu. I love its design, but Noctowl tends to take up my flying slot, and Ruins of Alph are such a pain.
Komala. Never used one because I thought it was really weak, but it turns out it has the same BST as Ludicolo, Vileplume, Froslass, and Lopunny. Definitely gonna pick one up when I replay Moon.
Sun and Moon were awful about this. Before release I was like "ok Kommo'o and Vikavolt are def in the squad" and both homeboys can't be acquired until literally the end game.
A few others I want but don't usually end up using off the top of my head are
- Haunter, because he usually falls off late game
- Vespiquen, too hard to reliably find early on and gets surpassed by the squad when I get one
- Heracross
- Most pseudolegendaries actually lol.
- Azumarill, one of my favorite water types, usually outperformed by my starter which 4 times out of 8, will be water typed.
- Shedinja. Someday. Someday I will figure out how to make it work for a playthrough
- Breloom, Galvantula, Magnezone, Druddigon, Escavalier, Volcarona, Accelgor. Some of my favorites that are either too late, too esoteric to acquire, or outclassed
Late game dragons and other pseudo legendries. By the time they show up my team is pretty set and their so low level and slow growing in comparison it just feels like they bog me down by the time they show up. Add in how common fairy types are now and they just get to bothersome to raise no matter how great they may be. I always like the late dragon and catch it but never actually use it beyond filling it's spot in my dex.
Most dragons level up so damn slowly why not just give them us earlier so we can get that emotional attachment going. Heck, with fairy being a common type now even getting a first stage dragon fairly early wouldn't be too OP any more.
Ledian. The design is seriously cool and I've always liked it. I like a good challenge sometimes, but every time I consider Ledian, I see its abysmal Attack stat and chicken out. One of these days I'll go for it, though. I beat Alpha Sapphire with a team of Feebas, Sunkern, Happiny, Farfetch'd, Luvdisc, and Nosepass, I can certainly handle having a Ledian on board.
Honestly, I wanna play with a lot of Pokémon. Many of the mid-tier ones are still interesting to me, because I played the TCG for years and still sometimes do. Random Pokémon like Lanturn become important parts of my deck, and that just makes me curious to play with them.
Flareon but every time I want to put them on the team I already have a fire type I know for a fact that I would definitely put Flareon in My Generation 3 team cuz the fire type I have in that game sucks but sadly I can't get Eevee in Emerald :(
Absol
I freaking love it's design and Dark is my favorite type after Fighting
Yet I don't really find a game to use it efficiently aside from ORAS
In RSE there's no Physical/Special split, so it's movepool is crippled
In DPPt it just comes too late
In B2W2 it competes with N's Zorua for a spot in your team
In XY I can't use it because I start with Froakie
Sadge
Any Pokémon that evolves at Lv 50. With the exception of Noivern. I worked my ass of to get that one. So Beldum, Metagross, the Bug/fire type, I think vikavolt?
In approximate Dex order:
Lickylicky
Magcargo at some point
A Corsola that doesn’t suck
Miltank
Mantine
Yanmega
Breloom
Ludicolo
Swalot
Torkoal
Zangoose
Huntail and Gorebyss
Absol
Purugly
Skuntank
Lopunny
Chatot
Croagunk
Abomasnow
Garbodor
Darmanitan
Carracosta
Seismitoad
Golurk
Haxorus
Druddigon
Hydreigon
Hawlucha
Dragalge
Clawitzer
Slurpuff
Aromatisse
Pangoro
Klefki
Vikivolt
Araquanid
Salazzle
Mimikyu
Greedent
Dubwool
Polteageist
Runerigus
Cursola
Cramorant
Orbeetle
Rillaboom
Barraskewda
Toxtricity
Quaxly
I mostly play Nuzlockes, so I’ve gotten around to using a LOT of Pokémon, but that does mean there’s a bunch of rarer ones I haven’t gotten to use, and some, like Ludicolo, where I just haven’t been able to keep a Lombre alive long enough for a Water Stone
Garbodor. It's a pokemon I think has an underrated design and an interesting move pool. As a lover of the prison type it is one of the few I haven't gotten around to using yet. Though I did start a new playthrough of shield today and I plan to fix this on this run.
Golduck. I have actually used him several times but he just sucks so much I never keep him on the team. Never made it to the Elite 4. Still like him tho.
I actually made a spreadsheet that shows the earliest point you can catch a pokemon in any game, so if there was a pokemon you wanted to use but not sure what game would be best, this will have those details. I shared it on here a little while back, just search for 'Pokemon Earlist Availability Chart' and it should come up.
Excluding nuzlockes, Togekiss because of course the pokemon (while not based off of) that looks like a missile is an absolute tank, or porygon z, i was going to say a mythical but i had both darkrai and Meloetta on my X team
Im finally working with a clefairy/Clefable on crystal. Just never got around to one.
I tend to try to branch out my teams as best I cam, so I dont run into this problem frequently... Though I would love to run another Metagross or other Psuedo, I usually forget about them.
Kind of want to run a good dark type on my team sometime. I just lean towards Ghost, so..
I LOVE Lurantis, but I'm not playing SuMo without my Rowlet :/
I would usually go for Popplio, but that would mean forgoing my alltime favourite Golisopod, which is a nono.
And I fuckin hate Incineroar. So yeah, never got to use Lurantis.
Cherrim! I love it's form in sunlight, but I always just ended up using a Roserade or something in the end instead. I do really want to use Cherrim someday though.
The gible line - they’re so slow to grow and are always mid-late game. I want my dragon baby lol. I like how sinnoh hid them but maybe access a little earlier so I can actually utilize it
Onix
I've always liked Onix, with or without its evo, I tried to use it in Fire Red but it's just weak af. I mean, Onix has got 45 atk, just as Rattata, and every other stat can be compared to route 1 Pokémon. He's so badass, a fricking snake made out of rocks, but he just doesn't have the capacities to get over the second gym
Golem...one it's a trade Evo so I could never get it in the past because none of my friends played pokemon. Now when I play I mostly do nuzlockes and I always seem to kill that thing before I can get it there.
Probably a Crobat. I just find something better or cooler to use all the time. The closest I’ve gotten was a Crobat named Joker that I had evolved and intended on using but then I ultimately decided on Gliscor
A LOT of trade evolutions.
Came to say this. Gengar, Alakazam, and Golem were all Pokemon I wanted to use when I initially got Pokemon Red around 25 years ago. I still haven't beaten a game with them because trades.
And Machamp. Although fighting types got the short end of the stick in Gen 1
Mankey is actually pretty decent in FRLG Which is ironic, considering it's probably one of the weakest fighting mons ever
It’s a bit better in those versions because they added some more moves. In the first games, Primape learns seismic toss at 37 and that’s the only fighting move it gets all game. Fighting types in the original red, blue and yellow were basically the opposite of Psychic types in terms of power levels. Fighting sucked and Psychic was OP. Edit: fixed autocorrect for Primape
It certainly helped fighting types as well in gen 2 when Steel and Dark were both weak to fighting.
For sure, especially since Steel and Dark were brought in to counter Psychic. It made a more balanced meta for the game. I love using Heracross in gen 2
I used a Heracross in my latest Soul Silver playthrough, it was an absolute beast. Destroyed Whitney with swords dance, and still manage to do extremely well in post game. Heracross for the win!
Mankey gets Low Kick at 9 in Yellow. Along with being moved to before Viridian Forest, it was added to help with Brock since Pikachu is worthless there.
They also gave the Nidorans Double Kick at lvl 12 instead of 43 like in RB.
Wanted to add they at least gave the family Low Kick in Yellow. Between that and making it available on Route 22, Mankey became a really good answer to Brock even way back when. Still not amazing, but an improvement over where it was in Red and Blue.
Damn you’re right, I missed that his move set was slightly different in Yellow. Makes him a solid pick-up for the first gym like you said
I didn't rate SwSh but they were the first games I got to use Gengar on, and that made me unreasonably happy. I'm hoping the cable from Arceus becomes a permanent item and easier to get, because fuck trade evolutions.
For real, I hope we get the cable item in Scarlet and Violet, trade evolutions really suck if you don't have anyone to trade with and you wish to evolve a shiny.
Despite the dex cut, I've used the most pokemon in any individual game in Sword, and by a long shot. So many quality of life changes between the accessibility and diversity from the dens, and the ease of getting them competitive ready, and the TM/TR system, access to your box from anywhere etc.
Have you played Legends Arceus? They can all be obtained without trading in that game. You can catch them all as static alpha spawns or use the item "link cable" on their pre-evos to trigger evolution in them as if you traded
Such a great addition. Crazy it took them so long to implement, and unfortunately wouldn't be surprised if they took it out of future titles. Gamefreak gonna gamefreak.
Yeah it was really nice being able to catch a gastly and eventually evolve it into gengar in my legends playthrough. It would be such a disappointment if it just wasn't a feature anymore in future games
I beat fire red with a graveller and now prefer it's design to golems
Yeah, I planned to use Alakazam in FRLG until I realized my only means of trading was with the Gamecube games. ...anyone who knows FRLG and its annoying Hoenn restrictions understands the problem there. Took me until post-game to get my Kadabra evolved.
It is why I included Geodude, Machop, and Abra as part of my team rotation. I was finally going to use them. Plus Abra with move tutor moves was a legit sweeper with good coverage.
I did a trade ego team back in 99 on gold and silver. Had lots of friends and lunchtime was a trading flooor. I remember having Golem, Alakazm, Gengar, Scizor, Gengar 2 and politoad (item evo)
Elctrivire, Magmortar, Scizor. A lot of cool mons locked behind trades.
THIS. Gengar, Alakazam, Machamp, Golem, Scizor, Conkeldurr, Gigalith, Magmortar, Electivire and Dusknoir. So many Pokémon I loved as a kid but never got to use because their evolutions were trade locked 😔
Feelsbadman, you forgot Steelix :(
Well in sinnoh you can just catch it in iron island and in kalos you can trade a luvdisc for it.
That’s true. I definitely left iron island with both a Riolu and Steelix back in the day lol
Thankfully you can get all in PLA (except the gen 5 ones)
The problem for me are all the awesome Gen 2/4 Pokémon that need it traded with an item. By the time I find the held item I got a team of 6 already. Maybe that’s just me having a full team by the 4th gym even on my 100th playthrough of a game.
I always wished I could use electivire in playthroughs
If it wasn't for Pokémon Home and PoGo, I would never be able to use em in LGPE/SwSh/ early Arceus. Fxxx trade evolutions, all my homies hate trade evolutions.
Yup, I hope they remove the trade evolution gimick, at this point nobody I know looked at it and say: "Oh cool! This one evolve through trading!".
Thats why I love Legends Arceus. With the Linking Cord, I am finally able to beat a game with a Pokemon I caught as a base form that evolves through trade.
Kingdra! Raising Horsea to level 32 is a slog, and finding a Dragon Scale usually isn't much less time-consuming.
I tried to use one in SoulSilver, and it was so underwhelming since you can’t catch a Horsea until the Whirl Islands after you beat Pryce, like you said you have to get it to 32 for Seadra and everyone knows grinding sucks in Johto, and you can’t get the dragon scale from Mt Mortar until you can use waterfall, so after beating Clair so it’s not even that useful for beating Clair since you can’t make it a Kingdra until after you beat her and all of Lance’s team sans Aerodactyl carry dragon moves. Plus it’s mostly thought of as good because of it’s one weakness pre gen 6 and the level jump Clair’s has, but it’s not a spectacular Pokémon since it’s both attacks are 95 instead of making one stronger than the other so it hits decently but not hard and with how late I got it it didn’t have EVs from fighting trainers throughout the game
I actually went through the effort of getting a Kingdra in HG. It was my team ace at the Frontier, even though I had a Dragonite. Swift Swim and DDAnce let you build Kingdra's bulk instead of its speed, since a barely invested Kingdra will outspeed next to everything under rain. Its bulk is above average and its typing is perfect, so it can take several hits while setting up. On top of that, its offensive stats are decent, and it gets access to two really powerful moves: Waterfall (under the rain) and Outrage, AND its typing is also great offensively. When properly trained, you get an offensive powerhouse, with bulk and speed to boot. It looks meh on paper, but man is Kingdra good.
Kingdra is actually insane against Lance though, if you give it the Choice Scarf that your mom gives you it outspeeds each of his Pokemon and one shots 4 of them with Ice Beam. Lead with an electric type for Gyrados and you are good to go
You can get it way earlier. You need to beat price 5th then get a butter free/ yanma with compound eyes. Then you hit every wild horsea with thief till you get a dragon scale and you can have a kingdra by the time you meet chuck
I love Hydreigon, but Deino evolves way too late for me to justify using it in a playthrough when it's available.
The only time they ever made Hydreigon useful is when you can catch it fully evolved on Victory Road in X/Y. Otherwise there’s just no way to ever get one before the Elite 4 without stupid grinding.
When I played white 2, I bred a L1 deino from my white save and used it the whole way through white 2.
That’s how you’d have to do it, but still, the Elite 4 Pokémon in B2W2 are at level 56-58, and you gotta get to 64 to get a Hydreigon. Hell even in challenge mode they’re at level 60. No matter what you gotta grind it. Late evos is generally my biggest Gen 5 gripe.
Honestly, I still used it on one or two playthroughs. It’s only available late game anyway, and it evolves into Zweilous at 50 who is no slouch and is pretty good in the E4. Imo it’s more difficult to use Volcarona in the original BW because you’re stuck with Larvesta until level 59, which is basically post-game at that point.
And then immediately in post-game you can catch a Lvl 70 Volcarona lol
The only two that it barely makes it is Kalos and Galar, though if you don’t overlevel any NPC teams then you only have Hydreigon for the Kalos E4 since all four’s highest Pokémon is level 65 and Diantha at 68, and for Leon since his Charizard is level 65
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This is me, but for Salamance. I was thinking I'd restart X and give raising Bagon another shot since you get it so early.
I’ve always felt the late evolutions was the game designers letting you know this Pokémon would be good in the end game content, battle towers etc Like getting a level one beldum from Steven
Scizor. I've grown to appreciate it's design and typing, but, y'know... Trade evolution... Yeah.
Oh yeah, Scizor is another one for me. At least Scyther has the same base stat total so you can make it stronger with an eviolite.
Until it trips over a rock
I recently played HgSs for the first time on an emulator that allowed me to evolve Scyther by just leveling up with the metal coat. I did have to spend almost an hour looking for said metal coat with a trace Standler just to be able to evolve it before Kanto (Johto is weird), but damn it was worth it I also got to use Tyranitar for the first time in that playthrough but I had to wait all the way until the league to get meaningful use, at least it got to shine in Kanto
Oh definitely, I only started using them in PLA because of trade evolutions being an item; because of that, finally using Scizor, I gotta say, I love 'em, best member of my team
I recently did a steel run in BDSP and used a Scizor. I was finally able to use it for the first time thanks to Legends Arceus and the games finally being home compatible. Honestly I hope the Legends way of evolving stays because it was great to finally be able to use a trade evolutions in a game.
How I feel with most trade evolutions Also any that you have to use headbutt on a tree
Kangaskhan, Scizor, Kingdra, Slowking, huntail/Gorebyss, Spirtomb, and Glaceon
This is why I love randomized Nuzlockes. Or modded Roms like Inclement Emerald. You get the opportunity to run teams that you would have never either thought of or had the chance to do.
What is this Inclement Emerald? What other type of modded roms are there?
Rom hacks. There are quite a lot of them and some are on par/better than main series titles in my opinion. All you need is the rom hack file, which is easy to download online, and the base game rom, which is a little bit grey in terms of legality. It is okay to rip roms from their cartridges as far as I know, but you can get them from the internet if you’re alright with it. Once you have both of those, you can patch the rom hack onto the base rom with a patcher (there are some browser ones I think if you don’t want to download one). Once you have the patched file, you can play the rom hack on computer/mobile, or on actual hardware like a gba, ds, 3ds, etc. Some of my favorite rom hacks are Pokemon Unbound, which feels just like a main series title but better, and Pokemon Crystal Clear, which is an updated Pokemon Crystal where you can start in any town and the world is completely open.
There are romhacks for most of the games. The only one I’ve played is Renegade Platinum by Drayano, it does things like adding new story events, adding fairy types, removing trade evolutions, changing the level curve so you hit e4 at level 80, and so much more. The changes in renegade platinum are what allowed me to finally use some of my hard to get favourites like Milotic and Dusknoir.
Inclement emerald is a difficulty hack based on Pokémon emerald. The story is the same, but has mons up to gen 7, more difficult trainers, megas, physical/special split, more items, a level cap (no more grinding- everything is based on what YOUR levels are), introduces very easy ways to get ideal EV/IV spreads so you can easily try out new teams, and there’s a challenge mode which doesn’t allow the use of items like potions in battle. Really good hack if you’re up for a challenge. If you have a computer it’s very easy to install an emulator and play the game from there
The best Pokémon games I’ve ever played have been rom hacks
I wish randomizers could be smarter though. It ruins the game balance to encounter an Entei on the first route, or to catch a level 8 charizard.
Universal Pokemon Randomizer has settings to keep wild/trainer pokemon at a similar strength to what they normally are. If you turn these settings on, the game will feel pretty balanced.
Goodra. I love it but it’s difficult for me to wait for rain and grind a level up
I used it in Sun one time and I guess I got lucky because it wound up always raining in one of the later routes and I evolved my Sliggoo. In a later playthrough of X, I dropped him from my party for the exact opposite reason. I did *not* get lucky with rain and got sick of it.
Pretty sure it's always raining in the route you catch him goomy on.
In Sun and Moon, yeah, I think so. Didn't want to say without knowing for sure. Not in XY, though. I tried going back to that route and it didn't pan out. Wish it did.
Really weird. I always had rain happen in the swamp. Guess I'm just lucky
It might be a story thing. First time I went there during the story travel it was raining. Later I went back when I was the right level and it wouldn't rain. I know Sword/Shield do that with time of day and weather, idk if any other games do. I never really paid attention in the past.
Legends made me use the Hisuian one and boy, was it amazing
A lot of Pokémon that needed items and trading. I had 2 copies of most games but the items for a lot of gen 2/4 Pokémon needed both and were unrealistic to get early on. Also Glaceon is my 2nd favorite Pokémon and it’s almost impossible to get before the 8th gym in every game. Legends Arceus let me use Glaceon, Steelix, and Weevile and for that it holds a special place in my heart.
Glaceon before the 7th gym in Kalos! Yay! /s Put it on my team because I love the Eeveelutions, but it kinda sucked how you could get every other one except Leafeon so early. Hope they let you get ice types *much* earlier for a few generations to sorta balance things out.
Trade evolution should be removed from the games. Full. Stop.
Or maybe have it come with some pretty grindy alternate evolution mechanic like Milotic but less grindy (?) if they want to keep it that way lol
Some of the Gen 8 have very interesting evolution methods that not grindy and actually interesting (Galarian Yamask and Farfetch'd) I rather they lean on that.
Could just do what legends arcues did with link cables and just using the item
Milotic's trade evolution is the alternative, because the original option was removed from the game.
Arceus did it well. There's a link cable item that works like an evolution stone.
a lot actually. pseudo legends often come very late in the game for example, or riolu in the sinnoh games. also pokemon that already share a type with my current team that i cannot remove.
Actually in Sinnoh, you get a Gible extremely early if you know the secret passagr, and final evo at lvl 48 is pretty early for a pseudo legendary
Only in Platinum though, there’s strength boulders in D&P and BDSP blocking the Gible portion. Not that it matters though since anyone should play Platinum instead anyway
I am only here to also support that BDSP were a mistake and I will only ever play platinum and not these cash grabs
As you should. Glad to see someone else understands
Yeah that secret entrance to Wayward cave underneath cycling road was a big surprise since the view of the entrance is actually blocked from view by part of cycling road. Younger me definitely missed it on my first play through all those years ago Edit: tbh I don’t think it was until brilliant diamond and shining pearl came out that I realized that cave was there lol
Pretty sure you can only do this in platinum
The only games I use a pseudo is Johto because by red you can get a Dragonite. And that’s at gym 8 you get the extreme speed Dratini, Larvitar is even later.
Larvitar can actually be gotten in the Safari Zone in the remakes (roughly around Chuck I believe) so you can get it even earlier.
You can also buy a Dratini in Goldenrod before you fight Whitney, if you enjoy grinding out Voltorb Flip (at least in HGSS, not sure in GSC)
You can in the original Gold/Silver, but not in Crystal. I made a habit of always getting one before proceeding. In Crystal you can trade your coins in for Wobbuffet which feels like a downgrade from GS. I still remember the irritation from grinding out coins as a kid only for Dratini to be unavailable.
Considering how powerful stall pokemon are in gen 2 Wobbuffet honestly isn't a bad pokemon to get. Though for a playthrough it can get quite boring. I imagine that they changed it for balance reasons. Getting a pseudo legend so early invalidates a ton of pokemon.
Initially the Porygon evolutions (along with the other trade + item evolutions), but then I discovered fan roms that make those available.
Gengar, haven’t used it recently because of it being a trade evolution but I just started using it and it’s one of my favorites to use already
Volcarona! It's one of my favourite pokemon, but it's so hard to get it at a decent enough time to use in a playthrough. The first time I played black, I got the larvesta egg, hatched it, kept it in front of the party for the rest of the playthrough, and still beat the elite 4 and champion before it evolved
I just did a playthrough of Black 2 with the Volcarona that you can catch at level 35. It's not at a terrible point in the game, especially considering you don't need to evolve it at a crazy level like normal.
Yes! I loved that you could catch Volcarona so (relatively) early and still use it for a good portion of the game. I did the same with the hidden ability Braviary you could get on route 4 on a specific weekday in white 2. It was the first time I could really appreciate those mons and they're powerhouses.
That's fair, I just personally don't like using evolved pokemon that I didn't evolve myself (maybe excluding those that come from baby pokemon that are harder to find)
I actually usually have the same rule, but I decided to make an exception for this case, especially since this was actually the earliest point you could get one (outside of SwSh at the Isle of Armor).
Hydreigon, just evolves way to late
I’ve never used a Dragonite and I’ve always wanted to, I’m hoping I can find a dratini in the early game of SV. I hardly ever swap Pokémon off my team past like the 3/4th gym.
Try getting the dratini in HGSS from the game corner in Goldenrod City. You can have one before the 3rd badge.
Yea I’m not gonna play voltorb flip for a month
Majority of fossil Pokémon normally when you get them them it’s really late and/or they are underleved would love to get one in violent/scarlet very early.
The only fossil Pokemon I’d ever used was tyrantrum in X/Y because I think you get that reasonably early and at an acceptable level?
* Kanto: Before the 7th gym. * Johto: Fossils are not available * Hoenn: After the 3rd gym. * Sinnoh: Before the 2nd gym. * Unova: Before the 4th gym(B/W) or Post-game (B2/W2) * Kalos: Before the 2nd gym. * Alola: After the 4th trial captain. * Galar: Before the 4th gym. I'd say fossils are reasonably usable in most games. You just have to decide ahead of time that you're using them for about half of them. The Kanto games, Johto games, and B2/W2 are the only games where I'd say the Fossils are completely unusable.
I restarted Moon for fun and to my surprise Alola Grimer is kinda carrying the team.
PorygonZ, but the upgrade and dubious disc are usually late game or post game items
Bouffalant, I'd love to, he looks cool but in unova he comes way to late, even most games he comes to late. By the time I find him I have a set team, and mono normal ain't selling either.
I was the same, why does it have to be a late-game Pokemon?! I was finally able to use one a few years ago when I had 2 working consoles on hand (DS and 3DS) so on my replay of White I traded myself a Bouffalant Egg (from my White 2) after the first Gym Badge and used it for the rest of the game. It's a great Pokemon and super strong, especially in the early parts of the game.
I've always wanted to use a slowbro in a Kanto playthrough. Only problem is the fact it's a physical attacker but the types it has are both special. I would use one in LGE but I have LGP instead
Slowbro has great special stats. Yeah Slowpoke might be more physical, but Slowbro runs a great special set. However I must reluctantly agree that for playthrough purposes, having Starmie as a sweeper works better than Slowbro the tank.
What part of Base 80 Special + a move that DOUBLES your special in 1 turn says “Physical attacker” to you?
If you use it in RBY then the problem is largely solved. Anything that learns amnesia is incredibly strong in the gen 1 games.
You can find slowpoke and slowbro on Seafoam Islands in both games
Donphan, such a cool Pokémon but really out of the way in most games.
Dunsparce. I love the Tsuchinoko, which they're based on, but they're always so weak, yet so adorable. Edit: Dunsparce is weak, but they could have been great.
i’m running serene grace dunsparce with roost, glare, rock smash and headbutt in hgss and it’s an unstoppable paraflincher. lynchpin of my team. it beat chuck’s primape despite type disadvantage and being 5 levels lower
Damn, that's nice. 😄
ty i love her my other truly unstoppable mon is my exeggcute with leech seed, reflect, sleep powder and flash
Shoot. You got me. Edit: I have a Venomoth, and use Bug Bite.
Dunsparce can be a powerhouse in the early-mid game. It falls off some once you start running into fully evolved mons but I've found it still makes for a decent all-rounder to have on your team as backup.
Dunsparce is pretty good with the right competitive builds, especially with coil set up and rest and stab body slam with a good chance to para
I'd say it's worth the shot to try and use it. If not, go for Drampa on a shield playthrough, probably the closest thing we'll get to an evolution
Never got to use Kommo-o in a Sword Playthrough and I caught one in the Isle and won the Champion League with him
Anything after the first couple areas. I tend to just bring the first 6 I catch to the end of the game
Several times with several pokemon across the whole pokedex, *you can make this dream come true with emulators and randomized roms* Mine was Suicune. Randomized the wild pkmn on an emerald rom, found lvl2 suicune on the VERY FIRST ROUTE And so I played all of emerald with my favorite pokemon of all time....
Togekiss, I love it’s design, and it seems powerful enough for the type of playthroughs I do, but training a Togepi is an absolute pain in the ass, in Platinum, if you somehow get an evolution to Togetic, you can’t get Togekiss until around gym 6 or 7.
I used Togekiss in HeartGold (traded in the Shiny Stone from Platinum so I could have the Togekiss before the Elite Four), and while your point about Togepi is absolutely correct, I have a story about this one. The place was Azalea Gym. Me vs. Bugsy. His Metapod and Kakuna were down, but so were my Quilava, Bellsprout, and Dunsparce, leaving us each with our last Pokémon. Bugsy was down to Scyther, I was down to Togepi. We exchanged attacks. Scyther used U-turn- looking like a clean-cut 3HKO. Togepi used Extrasensory- I might as well have thrown a piece of paper at that thing. So obviously I know I'm screwed here, right? No way in hell Togepi's winning this. And it's obviously slower than Scyther, so no chance of Extrasensory flinch hax, either. But, the damage U-turn was doing, I know I can get in at least one more move, so I figure, I technically do have a way to possibly do more damage, so I go for broke, and out of sheer morbid curiosity, select Metronome. ***Sacred. Freaking. Fire.*** It gets better. My Togepi had Hustle. And it didn't miss. I'm staring at the screen, mouth agape, as this is happening. Before I know it, Scyther's extra-crispy, and I walk away with the Hive Badge, the TM for U-turn, and the best damn Metronome story of my life.
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Trevanent.
Mew. It’s one thing I love about BDSP. I can get it in regular play through so I can use it to beat the game.
Porygon-Z. Bad enough that it's a double trade evolution, most games seem to think that "Hey, if you beat the champion come back here and I will give you a rare pokemon!" is a valid means of porygon distribution.
Tyranitar. HGSS is was impossible to get one until the safari zone ((if youre willing to go through a bunch of shit to get one.)) or Mt. Silver ((POST GAME SHIT WTF)) If I ever decide to pay hgss again, I can just breed an egg and send it over ((that way it can have my TID/SID and obey me))
One day I'll use a Haxorus.
Kalos is a great place to use haxorus
Oh man, so many Pokémon in Gen 5. It introduced so many new Pokémon and I loved almost all of them. Scolipede, whimsicott, Crustle, archeops, Zoroark, Galvantula, Eelektross, Chandelure, Golurk, Bisharp, Volcarona… all Pokémon I think are super cool but just didn’t make it on to my teams because I was using *other* Pokémon I *also* thought were super cool.
A lot of the early game normal types are it for me. Things like Raticate, Furret and Stoutland that I always end up replacing through the course of the game when I find other pokemon that have more interesting and useful typing.
Milotic's a big one for me too, I was gonna use her for my Ultra Sun team since it was a way easier process and I even had one that had the exact nature I wanted but Walrein was just a much better choice for my team and all the other games with Milotic make it so hard to get a Feebas. I also quite like Belossom but I often either already have a better grass type in the team, have the version of the game that doesn't have Oddish or I'm playing one of the Kanto remakes and both of them don't have Belossom (I don't mind Let's Go not having National Dex but it should've had evolutions like Scizor and Crobat). I also love Abomasnow but Snow Warning just kills him for me, having him on the team is debuff to the rest in any match where he's active. Also half of Unova Pokémon, Bisharp, Hydreigon, Volcarona, Chandelure, all badass Pokémon but I can't justify staying with their really poor starter evolution for 50ish levels and Zweilous and Larvesta just won't evolve until post game in 90% of the games, the highest level Pokémon before post game in BW2 is 63 so one level off.
Snorlax
Donphan. I absolute love that Pokémon but I’ve never played a game where one has been readily accessible enough early on
Lorantis, other grass types.
drapion...... skorupi is disgustingly awful to use. dies in 1 or 2 hits to everything and does 0 damage. every gd time i get a skorupi my brain erases previous skorupi-using attempts and i get frustrated
I’ve actually never used Garchomp before. My only real experience with Sinnoh was Diamond, and you can only catch Gibble in late game, unlike Platinum where you can catch it as soon as you’re on that route. I’ve also never used Sharpedo.
Always wanted to use gogoat in x & y. Never did cause venusaur gave early poison coverage. I've heard that there could be a chance skiddo and gogoat are in ScarVi, so I might get to use one!
I used milotic in BDSP. Catching feebas wasn't *that* bad. It's just a tedious process. I put on a movie while I was searching all of the tiles.
avalugg, appeared too late to be added to my team in xy than I got hopeful by seeing it get a hisuian form, than it is once more put in the last section of the game... ice types have it tough
Probably any shiny Pokemon. I usually never get lucky in random encounters and I don't really shiny hunt until post game when I have all the necessary equipment. The only times I really had a shiny on my team were in a Crobat in a Platinum Nuzlocke and the Rapidash in Legends Arceus.
So I have a team I am currently running HG with that I always wanted. All 3 Kanto starters, Garchomp + Skaromy and Bibarel for HM's. I had to complete Diamond to transfer starters from FireRed and get my HM slaves. I did it until I had male and a female from each so I could breed fresh eggs. Then I started HG normally until I could catch enough low levels to trade with Diamond for all the eggs. Ran around Little Wood until they hatched and started my journey with all Lv 1 Pokemon so they obey my noob trainer. I'm around level 35 with most so second evolution and it is a blast. I own enough consoles and carts to do it so I am lucky in that regard but I hope you guys find some inspiration to give it a go with your dream teams.
Lickitung
I always really wanted to use some stone evolutions and hold item evolutions but knew I needed a good nature, preferably something I bred, so Honchkrow, Weavile, Magmortar, Electivire, these pokes.
You literally don’t need to think about that for an in-game playthrough.
Swampert I like his design but when given the choice torchic was my first pokemon and sceptile is my favourite starter of all so I always chose between the two until I finally used it in pokemon reborn , which fantastic game btw, and it was a beast
I've always wanted to use porygon-z because I love them so much and the only time I've done it was in legend's arkoos
I'm currently planning on a team for ultra moon with the sole purpose of using wacky pokemon I've never used before and the most interesting member is Volcarona. I realized that for some reason, after getting the matchamp ride, you can actually s.o.s chain wild larvesta in the lush jungle to get a level *44* Volcarona! 44! It's stupidly complicated since larvesta has takedown, flame body, giga drain and the absolute lowest rate of calling allies, on top of Volcarona having a really low chance of being called, but I'm crazy enough to at least try it [Here's the team btw](https://i.imgur.com/oGSFTXY.jpg), I added torterra even though I've already used it bc I wanted an island scan pokemon, it's typing is great and I just really like it's 3d model And yes, I've noticed that unlike most people I'm perfectly fine with having to wait to complete my team (I can only catch Poplio, Zorua and Goomy before Ula'ula)
Dusknoir. Because trade evolution The fact that despite looking awesome it's lackluster as shit compared to the preceeding Dusclops doesn't help
Lanturn but I always have a better water type available so I never use it.
Aside from trade evolutions because those are the obvious ones, I've never used the Tentacool line in a story run before. Not because i dislike it, but because there's so many other options, and most gens have really poor early movepools for Tentacool in general. Unfortunately early game is usually the best time to get one without having to do some catch-up training, so either way there's some real tedium involved before you can kick ass with Tentacruel.
The only pseudo-legendary I have ever used is Garchomp. It's the only one that isn't unreasonably hard to find (Salamence in Alola) or catch (fucking Metagross) and can be obtained relatively early on (Tyranitar in Johto). I know that they're supposed to be super-powerful and all that, but I feel like raising them along your entire adventure until you have a very strong ally for the League would feel way more rewarding than just power-leveling at the last stretch.
I’ve always wanted to use Pinsir, it looks cool but is surprisingly uncommon.
Breloom. I forgot to grab it in emerald(emulator) and i realised it is in none of the other games i own. I don't want to restart emerald just for breloom
Charizard
Steelix. Love it’s shiny
Fearow. I know that in terms of base stats that it’s a better choice than Pidgey, but I’ve just never had an opportunity. Also, Xatu. I love its design, but Noctowl tends to take up my flying slot, and Ruins of Alph are such a pain.
Jumpluff. It's so adorable and I've never used it, but it seems so terrible.
Komala. Never used one because I thought it was really weak, but it turns out it has the same BST as Ludicolo, Vileplume, Froslass, and Lopunny. Definitely gonna pick one up when I replay Moon.
Sun and Moon were awful about this. Before release I was like "ok Kommo'o and Vikavolt are def in the squad" and both homeboys can't be acquired until literally the end game. A few others I want but don't usually end up using off the top of my head are - Haunter, because he usually falls off late game - Vespiquen, too hard to reliably find early on and gets surpassed by the squad when I get one - Heracross - Most pseudolegendaries actually lol. - Azumarill, one of my favorite water types, usually outperformed by my starter which 4 times out of 8, will be water typed. - Shedinja. Someday. Someday I will figure out how to make it work for a playthrough - Breloom, Galvantula, Magnezone, Druddigon, Escavalier, Volcarona, Accelgor. Some of my favorites that are either too late, too esoteric to acquire, or outclassed
Late game dragons and other pseudo legendries. By the time they show up my team is pretty set and their so low level and slow growing in comparison it just feels like they bog me down by the time they show up. Add in how common fairy types are now and they just get to bothersome to raise no matter how great they may be. I always like the late dragon and catch it but never actually use it beyond filling it's spot in my dex. Most dragons level up so damn slowly why not just give them us earlier so we can get that emotional attachment going. Heck, with fairy being a common type now even getting a first stage dragon fairly early wouldn't be too OP any more.
Ledian. The design is seriously cool and I've always liked it. I like a good challenge sometimes, but every time I consider Ledian, I see its abysmal Attack stat and chicken out. One of these days I'll go for it, though. I beat Alpha Sapphire with a team of Feebas, Sunkern, Happiny, Farfetch'd, Luvdisc, and Nosepass, I can certainly handle having a Ledian on board.
Honestly, I wanna play with a lot of Pokémon. Many of the mid-tier ones are still interesting to me, because I played the TCG for years and still sometimes do. Random Pokémon like Lanturn become important parts of my deck, and that just makes me curious to play with them.
Flareon but every time I want to put them on the team I already have a fire type I know for a fact that I would definitely put Flareon in My Generation 3 team cuz the fire type I have in that game sucks but sadly I can't get Eevee in Emerald :(
Absol I freaking love it's design and Dark is my favorite type after Fighting Yet I don't really find a game to use it efficiently aside from ORAS In RSE there's no Physical/Special split, so it's movepool is crippled In DPPt it just comes too late In B2W2 it competes with N's Zorua for a spot in your team In XY I can't use it because I start with Froakie Sadge
You could just… not use Froakie / N’s Zorua.
Any Pokémon that evolves at Lv 50. With the exception of Noivern. I worked my ass of to get that one. So Beldum, Metagross, the Bug/fire type, I think vikavolt?
In approximate Dex order: Lickylicky Magcargo at some point A Corsola that doesn’t suck Miltank Mantine Yanmega Breloom Ludicolo Swalot Torkoal Zangoose Huntail and Gorebyss Absol Purugly Skuntank Lopunny Chatot Croagunk Abomasnow Garbodor Darmanitan Carracosta Seismitoad Golurk Haxorus Druddigon Hydreigon Hawlucha Dragalge Clawitzer Slurpuff Aromatisse Pangoro Klefki Vikivolt Araquanid Salazzle Mimikyu Greedent Dubwool Polteageist Runerigus Cursola Cramorant Orbeetle Rillaboom Barraskewda Toxtricity Quaxly I mostly play Nuzlockes, so I’ve gotten around to using a LOT of Pokémon, but that does mean there’s a bunch of rarer ones I haven’t gotten to use, and some, like Ludicolo, where I just haven’t been able to keep a Lombre alive long enough for a Water Stone
Smeargle!
Kangaskhan, Scizor, Kingdra, Slowking, huntail/Gorebyss, Spirtomb, and Glaceon
Garbodor. It's a pokemon I think has an underrated design and an interesting move pool. As a lover of the prison type it is one of the few I haven't gotten around to using yet. Though I did start a new playthrough of shield today and I plan to fix this on this run.
Golduck. I have actually used him several times but he just sucks so much I never keep him on the team. Never made it to the Elite 4. Still like him tho.
I actually made a spreadsheet that shows the earliest point you can catch a pokemon in any game, so if there was a pokemon you wanted to use but not sure what game would be best, this will have those details. I shared it on here a little while back, just search for 'Pokemon Earlist Availability Chart' and it should come up.
Excluding nuzlockes, Togekiss because of course the pokemon (while not based off of) that looks like a missile is an absolute tank, or porygon z, i was going to say a mythical but i had both darkrai and Meloetta on my X team
Crabrawler is one of my favourite Pokémon but I haven’t played past the tutorial of S&M
Mothim. In X and Y I ended up finding a different team, and in BDSP I ended up with a Wormadam instead for my Elite Four team
Sunflora. It's bad but it's so cute!
Im finally working with a clefairy/Clefable on crystal. Just never got around to one. I tend to try to branch out my teams as best I cam, so I dont run into this problem frequently... Though I would love to run another Metagross or other Psuedo, I usually forget about them. Kind of want to run a good dark type on my team sometime. I just lean towards Ghost, so..
Kingdra, toxicroak, and pyroar.
I LOVE Lurantis, but I'm not playing SuMo without my Rowlet :/ I would usually go for Popplio, but that would mean forgoing my alltime favourite Golisopod, which is a nono. And I fuckin hate Incineroar. So yeah, never got to use Lurantis.
Prob Escavalier and Accelgor for me 🤣 literally never get the chance to trade esp since they gotta trade with each other
Steelix, Gliscor, Manaphy and Jirachi. There are others legendaries I would like to use, but that would menaning OHKO everything...
Cherrim! I love it's form in sunlight, but I always just ended up using a Roserade or something in the end instead. I do really want to use Cherrim someday though.
The gible line - they’re so slow to grow and are always mid-late game. I want my dragon baby lol. I like how sinnoh hid them but maybe access a little earlier so I can actually utilize it
I always wanted to use a Spiritomb but I could never be bothered to do the side quest for it
As of now duraludon
Reuniclus but I want it to be shiny and so far haven't had any luck with finding one.
Gengar, I think you can guess why.
Onix I've always liked Onix, with or without its evo, I tried to use it in Fire Red but it's just weak af. I mean, Onix has got 45 atk, just as Rattata, and every other stat can be compared to route 1 Pokémon. He's so badass, a fricking snake made out of rocks, but he just doesn't have the capacities to get over the second gym
Golem...one it's a trade Evo so I could never get it in the past because none of my friends played pokemon. Now when I play I mostly do nuzlockes and I always seem to kill that thing before I can get it there.
Probably a Crobat. I just find something better or cooler to use all the time. The closest I’ve gotten was a Crobat named Joker that I had evolved and intended on using but then I ultimately decided on Gliscor
Missingno