Oceans... oceans... oceans as far as the eye can see... However, unlike the Great Sea of Wind Waker fame, these seas yield lots of new Pokemon.
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Staryu/Starmie
Type: Water, Water/Psychic (Starmie)
Ability(s): Natural Cure/Illuminate
Found in the waters just off the coast of Lilycove, Staryu is one of
those Pokemon that forces the player to backtrack, as he is a super rod
Pokemon and the super rod is gotten in Mossdeep, necessitating the need
to fly back to Lilycove to make your catch. Once you make your catch,
you will be the proud owner of a proficient special attacker with 70
SpA/85 Spe offenses (which are quite good for an unevolved Pokemon in
general) and access to STAB Surf right off the bat. The downside to this
is his rather crappy 30/55/55 bulk, which isn't so hot considering that
most things are evolved and hit hard at this point in the game. Recover
access helps, but face it: it hurts.
Staryu's special movepool can be best described as fantastic. STAB Surf
is pretty much a given on any water type, as is Ice Beam, so no surprise
he would get those moves, but he also gets access to Thunderbolt and
Psychic, the latter getting STAB on evolution. He can also make great
use of screens thanks to his high speed stat, and even has Recover
access, reducing the need for healing items.
However, Staryu has quite a few hurdles that prevent him from being a
desirable Pokemon, the first being evolution. I already mentioned how
water stones can only be gotten after you get the Dive HM, and
unfortunately for Staryu, the earliest he can evolve is after you rout
the Mossdeep Space Center (since you need Dive in order to get the water
stone found in the deepest part of the SS Cactus). While Staryu
radically improves after evolution (gets +30 to every stat and gains
psychic typing), he has to go through two boss fights with his unevolved
bases, which in the context of fighting evolved dudes isn't very
impressive. Furthermore, Staryu faces massive competition from most
other water types in the game obtainable at this point, all of whom join
earlier and have more desirable traits (Sharpedo in particular has dark
typing and STAB Crunch and Whiscash has early EQ going for him) while
Starmie's psychic typing is not very useful defensively, taking super effective
damage from every single E4 member due to all of them packing dark or
ghost moves.
In a nutshell, while Staryu has quite a bit going for him, most of his cons outweigh his pros in this game.
4/10
Spheal/Sealeo/Walrein
Type: Ice/Water
Ability(s): Thick Fat
Another late game water type that you can get in case you don't already
have one, Spheal is one of two new Pokemon you can find in the Shoal
Cave. Spheal's start is quite piddily, with an average starting level of
29 (which is around 10 levels below the standards of what your party
should be at for this point in the game) and craptastic unevolved stats.
Thankfully, he only needs 3 levels on average to evolve into Sealeo, at
which point you see a noticeable improvement in stats. However, out of
all the water types we've encountered thus far, what does Spheal have
over his primary competition?
For starters, he has water/ice typing, which is unique to him in the
context of the Hoenn Dex (and if we're counting things in the National
Dex, only Dewgong, Cloyster, and Lapras share this typing). This typing
is fairly good offensively, giving Spheal's line STAB on ice moves,
something the other waters can't boast. It is worth noting that a STAB
Aurora Beam has 2.5 higher BP than an unSTAB'd Ice Beam. This allows
Walrein to kill Drake's dragons even more easily than other waters, and
actually enables him to significantly wound Juan's Kingdra (assuming
he's fully evolved, that is). Defensively, the typing is weak against rock, which is somewhat of a problem as all the elites minus Glacia have
Rock Slide on their strongest Mons, though with Walrein's bulk, this
isn't a huge deal. The double ice resistance (quadruple thanks to Thick
Fat), however, is quite significant, as it enables him to fight on
relatively even footing with Glacia's mons.
Evolution is also a major pain in the ass, as while Spheal evolves at
the relatively low level of 32, his final evolution is at Lv44, which is
later than anything else except pseudo legends and Vibrava. However,
upon evolving, Walrein is quite strong defensively with 110/90/90 bulk,
and 80/95 attacking stats ensures he hits at least decently hard, though he
isn't outspeeding anything with 65 speed. However, don't expect to see
it until you get to Victory Road.
Spheal's special movepool is very barren outside of Surf and Ice Beam, but his physical movepool is slightly less
sad thanks to natural Body Slam and Earthquake access. He does get Rock
Slide through breeding, but breeding takes forever, and the stuff that
you can hit with rock moves can be covered with normal type moves or his
STABs regardless, so it is generally superfluous.
To summarize, Spheal would've been quite awesome if it weren't for the
fact that he joins late with a very steep evolutionary level. Still,
he's quite bulky and has STAB Ice Beam going for him.
4.5/10
Snorunt/Glalie
Type: Ice
Ability(s): Inner Focus
Another denizen of the Shoal cave, this one being a relative rarity in
the deepest recesses of the Shoal Cave (which is only accessible between
the hours of 300h-900h and 1500h-2100h, when the tide is low), Snorunt
is quite interesting because he's the only non-legendary pure ice type
in the game. Like anything that shows up this late, Snocunt's start is a
complete joke, with only 50 in each stat and a low starting level of
28, with evolution being quite far away at Lv42. Natural Ice Beam access
at Lv34 helps, but face it: it hurts.
I suppose one thing in Snocunt's favor is his movepool. For starters, he gets
Crunch through level-up (on average starting with it), which is somewhat
helpful against the twins if you're actually retarded enough to use
something that has mostly equivalent stats to a fucking Mudkip in a gym
this late in the game (it also lets him perform well against Phoebe).
And as I've mentioned, he gets Ice Beam naturally at Lv34, so he does
save you $80K by not needing the TM. It is also worth noting that
Snorunt's line is the only line obtainable in Emerald that learns Ice
Beam naturally (Kyogre also learns it naturally, but he's not available
in the main game). He can also use Earthquake post evo to round off his
coverage (not factoring in the fact that the EQ TM is more contested
than the Flare-Flare Fruit.)
I've already mentioned how fucking awful ice typing is defensively in
Spheal's rating, but Snocunt's relatively worse stats just make the
situation a whole hell of a lot worse. Ice only resists itself and has 4
weaknesses, the most notable being rock, which is common in the elite
four fights due to all of them minus Glacia having Rock Slide on their
strongest Pokemon. And unlike Walrein, who is very bulky and likely
won't give a damn as a result, Glalie has 80's across the board, so he's
far worse off in that regard. Making things worse for Glalie is the
fact that Drake has Flamethrower on two of his guys, making his Drake
performance surprisingly sad.
Basically, Snocunt has remarkably few advantages over anything else you
can get at this point in the game, and should be left to rot in the
deepest recesses of the Shoal Cave. Because he fucking sucks.
2.5/10
Clamperl/Huntail/Gorebyss
Type: Water
Ability(s): Shell Armor(Clamperl), Swift Swim(Huntail/Gorebyss)
Another fucking water type you can get in the lategame, Clamperl is the
first denizen of the underwater portions of Routes 124 and 126, of which
you need access to the Dive HM to get. Clamperl also happens to have a
split evolutionary path, as both of which require a trade evolution with
either a deep sea tooth (Huntail) or a deep sea scale (Gorebyss) Due to the
complex nature of the evolutions, I will be discussing all three
Pokemon here, as it is somewhat difficult to acquire Clamperl's evolved
forms considering that you need two copies of the game and a link cable.
No evo:
Without a potential evolution, Clamperl's combat, while overall quite
shitty due to durability issues, is actually very, very good for
something that's unevolved thanks to the deep sea tooth. With that item
equipped, he has somewhere around 100 SpA at Lv28 (his average base
level), which is freakishly high for an unevolved Pokemon in general.
This, combined with instant access to Surf and Ice Beam, can actually
make Clamperl one of the hardest hitting Pokemon in the game, surpassing
even monsters like Kyogre at equal levels. While this sounds quite
impressive (and it is), remember that Clamperl's durability is quite bad,
which in retrospect makes him a glass cannon. What I mean by this is
that while 85 physical defense is ok (especially when combined with Iron
Defense), 35 HP and 55 special defense are not, and 32 speed just fucking sucks.
In a nutshell, Clamperl hits like a freight train, but is about as
specially durable as a wet piece of tissue paper and is as slow as a
three toed sloth.
3/10
Huntail/Gorebyss:
Trading your Clamperl while armed with the deep sea tooth will grant you
Huntail, while arming him with the deep sea scale gets you Gorebyss. Both
evolutions have mostly the same stats, with each one having 55/105/75
bulk, giving both paths good physical durability and passable special
durability, and while their speed improves from the Clamperl stage, 52
speed isn't exactly outspeeding things unless Swift Swim is active.
Their attacking stats tell a different story, however, with Gorebyss
having a significant special bias at 84 Atk/114 SpA and Huntail having a
slight physical bias with 104 Atk/94 SpA.
As far as movepool is concerned, Huntail has access to Crunch at Lv36,
which as I've already mentioned, allows him to inflict super effective
damage on Phoebe's mons (misses out on the twins due to needing Dive in
order to get Clamperl in the first place) as well as Wally's Gardevior,
which is quite helpful. Meanwhile, Gorebyss gets Psychic in his arsenal,
which while still a good attack, is inferior to Crunch due to the
relative lack of opponents that Psychic would hit super effectively, as
well as the fact that the first elite's Pokemon are immune to psychic
attacks (they resist dark, but why use either attack when Surf does more
anyway?) It should be noted that other than the moves listed, they
don't get much from TMs aside from Secret Power/Return and in the case
of Huntail, Rock Tomb (Gorebyss gets Shadow Ball).
Another move of interest in their movepool is Baton Pass, which I have
already mentioned in several other ratings, notably Ninjask's rating.
This is where Gorebyss has an edge, as he learns Agility and Amnesia in
addition to Iron Defense (Huntail gets Screech and Scary Face instead),
allowing him to pass off defensive boosts as well as speed boots,
increasing a Pokemon's survivability and ability to sweep. Not bad in
all honesty.
While neither are bad options, Gorebyss ultimately wins out due to
hitting harder and being able to pass off defensive boosts on the side.
Huntail: 4/10
Gorebyss: 4.5/10
Chinchou/Lanturn
Type: Water/Electric
Ability(s): Illuminate/Volt Absorb
Another fish found in the underwater portions of Routes 124 and 126,
Chinchou appears to be an interesting Pokemon to train. Coming at an
average level of 25, he is a mere 2 levels away from evolution, thus
allowing him to mostly bypass his crappy unevolved stage, and isn't
hurting for strong STAB anytime soon with both the Surf HM and
Thunderbolt TM available.
One of Lanturn's pros is his unique water/electric typing, which in
the context of lategame is quite handy as it allows him to inflict super
effective damage on opposing water types (which, the lategame being
composed entirely of ocean, there's a lot of), making his level deficit
almost negligible. It also helps against the water kings and Glacia
(Glacia's party, despite being ice, is water heavy).
Lanturn has one of the strangest stat spreads I've seen on an
electric type, with 125 HP being noteworthy as it is the highest HP
value of any electric type in the National Dex as of Gen VI. This,
combined with 58/76 defenses and the relative scarcity of grass and
ground moves (out of the 26 Pokemon faced in the elite four battles,
only 4 have EQ), makes him durable. Lanturn's offensive game can be best
described as 'acceptable' with 76 SpA/67 Spe being quite a bit lower
than the other electric types we've been able to obtain at this point.
Lanturn isn't really killing for a better movepool, seeing as he
already gets access to two awesome STABs and has Ice Beam access for
Drake's dragons and Thunder Wave and/or Confuse Ray for some hax.
Overall, a pretty good lategame electric type with the added benefit
of water typing. His only real gripe is that he joins very late, and is
kind of outclassed as both a water type and as an electric type as a
result.
5.5/10
Relicanth
Type: Water/Rock
Ability(s): Swift Swim/Rock Head
Relicanth is like Golem if he joined far later in the game and was water/rock instead of ground/rock.
The third entry to the underwater portions of the game, Relicanth is
essentially the water typed version of Golem and Rhydon. Once again, his
contributions are limited due to requiring Dive to access the areas
where you can catch him, but the fucker is as elusive as Skarm was with a
5% encounter rate. Adding to the difficulty of acquisition is his 25
catch rate, though unlike Skarm where good quality balls were limited in
quantity, the player can buy net and dive balls in Mossdeep to make the
snag easier, making the low catch rate more or less negligible.
Coming at around Lv33, Relicanth already comes at a reasonably
competent level, and is a beast defensively with 100 HP/130 Def being
able to ward off most physical attacks even at this late point in the
game, and 65 SpD allows him to take a few special attacks on the side.
However, I can't say the same for Relicanth's offense, as while he has a
decent 90 base attack, he is stuck with the pitifully weak Rock Tomb
until Lv43, where he upgrades to AncientPower (Rock Slide is only gotten
by breeding), though thankfully, he does get no recoil Take Down
through level and Earthquake through TM, so it isn't completely
hopeless. As for his special offense, it is a complete joke with only 45
base in that area, and 55 speed is quite laughable, to say the least.
It should be noted that Relicanth is one of the two Pokemon needed to
unlock the Regis, the other being Wailord, though this has absolutely
no bearing on his rating. Don't know why I pulled it up, but I did.
Anyway, Relicanth is one of those things that wishes that he joined
about 4 gyms earlier, because he would've been amazing to have in
Flannery, Norman, and Winona's gyms. But as it is right now, he joins
super-de-duper late, so he's not scoring really high.
3.5/10
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Have a nice day.
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