On to Route 16...
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Skitty/Delcatty
Type: Normal
Ability(s): Cute Charm
Oh boy, another bad one coming, and this one is a real piece of shit.
First off, Skitty is one of the rarest Pokemon in the game, only having a
2% chance of spawning on Route 116 (for the record, she ties with
Chimecho, Plusle, and Grimer, while only the Seedot line, Volbeat,
surfing Goldeen, and Kecleon are rarer, though most of those 1
percenters have easier means of acquisition), which basically equates to
having to go through 50 random encounters on average just to find one.
And you will find out that all your hours of searching were not worth
it. What kind of contribution can Skitty provide after all the pains of
finding and catching her?
Absolutely fucking nothing. Skitty's stats look ok at first glance when
you first catch her, but the first two gyms aren't exactly kind to
normal types, and Skitty absolutely sucks at delivering good damage
despite a decent 45 base attack, though 50 speed is relatively good for
this stage. What makes this worse is that she doesn't learn any good
damaging STAB moves until Lv39, when she learns Double-Edge. The Secret
Power TM can alleviate this slightly, but even then, her offense is
shaky at best. It unfortunately doesn't get much better with evolution,
giving Delcatty 65/55/70 offenses, which while it will be satisfactory
during the midgame, really starts to lose any shine it had once lategame
hits. In fact, Delcatty has one of the worst base stat totals out of
evolved Pokemon, with only a 380 BST, which is actually worse than Beautifly and Dustox, believe it or not. And those two have pretty fucking bad BST's.
Her level up movepool is a joke. Assist is cute and all, but the move it
chooses is random (out of a possible 20 moves in your party's
movesets), and you could very well end up using an attack that benefits
the enemy. She also gets some support moves like Charm, Attract, and
Sing, so you could go the annoyer route, but why do that when you could
just OHKO or 2HKO everything you come across? While she can supposedly
benefit from TMs, they are all pretty much wasted on her thanks to her
terrible offenses.
Oh, and another gripe is her evolution. Skitty is one of those Pokemon
that are blessed with a Moon Stone evolution, but the first Moon Stone
is found in Meteor Falls, which is pretty much where any usefulness that
she had ends. And even with the evolution, Delcatty isn't getting any
rewards.
Also, if it means anything, Skitty can somehow breed with Wailord. Though, I can't fathom how a 47 foot whale can stick its whale sized cock into the cunt of a 1 foot cat without that cat bursting into tiny pieces...
2/10
Abra/Kadabra/Alakazam
Type: Psychic
Ability(s): Synchronize/Inner Focus
First showing up in Route 116, Abra can be yours early on in your quest,
proud of his massive special attack and speed, as well as his ability
to smite all those fighting types in Brawly's gym.
Like Ralts, Abra has a steep hill to climb before he becomes good. The
good news is that Abra improves as soon as he evolves into Kadabra,
which happens 4 levels earlier than Ralts's evo. The bad news is that
Abra is helpless for longer than Ralts (that is, he has 9 levels of
helplessness as opposed to Ralts's 2). Also, Abra is difficult to catch;
while he is 2.5 times more common than Ralts, he has a tendency to
Teleport on sight, which means that that first ball better work
(alternately, if by some freak accident you have a sleep move, you can
use that against Abra). Thankfully, his catch rate is fairly high, so
lobbing balls has a decent rate of success.
Unfortunately, there are no TMs that can aid Abra during these 9 levels
that I call helpnessness, so you will have to use the bait-and-switch
method to level your Abra to Lv16, which should happen by the time you
get out of Granite Cave. Once this happens, he's all set; Kadabra
immediately learns Confusion upon evolving, and is proficient with it as
well, with 120 SpA to abuse it with, as well as a 105 speed stat. What
makes this even better is that Kadabra gets Psybeam at only Lv21, 5
levels after evolution. However, all this power comes at a cost; Kadabra
is pretty much the definition of a glass cannon. Sporting 40/30/70
defenses, he does not take hits well at all. Even with Recover access at
Lv25, he is hard pressed to take any neutral STAB'd physical hit, much
less a super effective hit.
If you have access to trading, you can evolve your Kadabra into
Alakazam, who is a complete beast in and out of himself. For starters,
he can learn Calm Mind through level up at Lv33 (Kadabra gets the
not-so-useful Role Play), and has an astronomical 135 base SpA. To give
an idea on how high this is, the only Pokemon in the entire National Dex
prior to Gen V who beat this are all uber level legendaries. He also
has 120 base speed, which is enough to outspeed virtually everything
that you will face ingame even if you are slightly underleveled.
Durability improves a little, but it still doesn't change the fact that
Alakazam is a glass cannon.
If there is one thing that this line is sorely lacking, it's good
coverage. The only move of note that he gets is Shock Wave, which while
it is a strong attack for midgame purposes, it does make Alakazam wish
that the elemental punching tutors showed up earlier than postgame (and
cost less than 48 BP). It also does not help that Shadow Ball is
considered physical in Gen III.
All in all, a solid pick even if you don't have trading access.
7.5/10 (7/10 without trade option)
Nincada/Ninjask/Shedinja
Type: Bug/Ground, Bug/Flying (Ninjask), Bug/Ghost (Shedinja)
Ability(s): Compound Eyes (Nincada), Speed Boost (Ninjask), Wonder Guard (Shedinja)
Since GameFreak thought Wurmple wasn't enough, they decided to toss in
another shitty earlygame bug, and that earlygame bug is Nincada.
Nincada has a unique bug/ground typing, but he will never create heart
stopping Earthquakes like the big boys Golem and Swampert can, and
learns no ground moves until Lv31 when he learns the pretty pathetic
Mud-Slap, and he doesn't get Dig until Lv45. Not that it honestly
matters in the first place since Nincada's attack is piss poor at 45,
and while it does get better upon evolution, he loses his Ground STAB
anyway.
The one stat that Nincada is gifted in is... defense. With 31 HP/90 Def
bases, you can kind of count on him to take physical hits, though I
can't say the same for his really sad special defense of 30. And with
his ground typing, he's not weak to rock type attacks, so he could
theoretically be used to tank Roxanne's hits, but what am I kidding.
Nincada isn't doing much to Roxanne anyway with an offensive moveset
consisting of Scratch and Leech Life. And he's not doing much to Brawly
either despite the fighting resistance.
So you baby the fuck out of this thing until Lv20, then he evolves. And
while Ninjask is an improvement offensively, it isn't saying much
considering his best move at that point (say after Watson), is an
unSTAB'd Scratch. It also does not help that Ninjask absolutely blows
defensively, with only 61/45/50 defenses and bug/flying typing. However,
movepool and durability aside, 90 attack is quite strong for something
that evolves around the third gym, but the most intriguing aspect about
this Pokemon is his 160 speed. Even at low levels, Ninjask outspeeds
everything he comes across, and what he can't outspeed (for some
reason), he can easily close the gap thanks to Speed Boost. Oh, and he
learns Baton Pass, so you could potentially use him to set up someone
else, but that doesn't happen until around the time you face Juan.
If you had a spare slot in your party and have a spare Pokeball, you
will acquire another Pokemon in addition to your Ninjask. Unlike him,
who is nothing special aside from Baton Passing Speed Boosts, Shedinja
is a lot more... interesting. His stats are more or less a carbon copy
of Nincada's, save attack and defense, which are identical to Ninjask's,
and HP, which is always 1. Yes, that's right. Shedinja has literally
the lowest HP in the game, and having only 1 HP presents a huge
handicap. Thankfully, to make up for this, he gets a very good ability
called Wonder Guard, which blocks any attack that isn't super effective (READ: fire, flying, rock, ghost, and dark).
While the ability will protect against any direct damage from those
attack types, it will not protect him from residual damage like poison,
burn, sand, entry hazards, and recoil. This obviously limits what
Shedinja can safely engage since things like Graveler and Swellow pretty
much kill you, and even things like Gloom have moves that can kill him.
Neither evolution has all that great a movepool. The only moves of note
they get are Aerial Ace, Shadow Ball, and Dig, as well as assorted
Normal type moves. The strongest bug move they get naturally is Fury
Cutter, which needs to be used multiple times in succession before it
can be useful. Too bad Silver Wind is an egg move... Another thing of
note is that Shedinja will have the exact same moveset as the Ninjask
that evolved, which is the only way he can get moves like Swords Dance
and Agility. Speaking of which, it may be a good idea to hold off
evolution until Lv25 so that Shedinja learns Swords Dance.
While Ninjask's gym and elite performance is terrible for the most part,
Shedinja can kind of do something against Juan due to the fact that
basically nothing on his team has a way of harming him. He's also
good-ish against the twins, but unlike Juan, they have moves which can
hit him (Claydol's Ancient Power and Solrock's Flamethrower). As for
elite performance, forget it. Shedinja does poorly against the
elites due to all of them having multiple Pokemon packing moves that can
damage Shedinja (Glacia actually has relatively few Mons that can directly
damage him, but she spams Hail, so there is no point in using him
there). However, Shedinja can troll Drake's Kingdra as well as Wallace's
Wailord, Whiscash, and Gyarados, which can constitute as useful, but
none of those Pokemon are too big a threat, so w/e.
Basically, other than a few utility roles, neither have anything to contribute.
Ninjask: 3.5/10
Shedinja: 4/10
Whismur/Loudred/Exploud
Type: Normal
Ability(s): Soundproof
Whismur can be best described as Hoenn's Clefairy: He has a massive TM movepool, but has mediocre stats in places.
Whismur is the last Pokemon you can find on Route 116, and if you can't
find one there, you can find them in Rusturf Tunnel with a 100%
encounter rate. His offense starts off decent enough with 51 attack and
STAB Uproar, which has 10 more BP than Pound and hits 2-5 times in
succession. Unfortunately, he has the misfortune of being caught right
before a rock gym, so his offense is downplayed here, but against people
who aren't hikers, he hits decently hard, especially since he
eventually gets 91 in either attack stat. There is some worry about his
speed; at only 28 base and upgrading to 68 upon becoming Exploud, he
tends to get outsped by dangerous opponents. This can be worrisome since
his durability isn't that great (good HP, but it's wasted by 63 in
either defense as Exploud).
While his level up movepool is decent at best (doesn't gain a stronger
STAB until Lv29, and has to wait until Lv63 for Hyper Voice), his TM
movepool is massive. Unfortunately, the ones he wants in order to
counter his greatest enemies (Shadow Ball, Brick Break, and Earthquake)
come late, not to mention the competition these moves have. Thankfully,
he is compatible with Ice Beam and Flamethrower, as well as their
stronger versions, so he can pick those up without taking them from
anyone else, if you can shell out 80K per TM (if you want to use the
more consistent option). He can also pick up Water Pulse from Juan, if
you need a second string water user (doesn't get Surf, unfortunately),
which also allows him to deal with rocks.
Whismur's biggest issue ingame, other than his speed and durability, is
his high evolutionary levels. Lv20 evolution to Loudred is quite early
and will definitely happen either before the third gym, during it, or
soon after. However, the Lv40 evolution to Exploud is quite painful to
say the least. Chances are it won't happen until you storm Magma's base
or Aqua's base, which I will admit is a little late. What this amounts
to is that Loudred is stuck with his quite bad 48 speed and below
average 71 offenses until then. Why couldn't he be like Clefairy and
evolve through stone? I dunno.
Overall, a decent pick, even if it is on the mediocre side.
6.5/10
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Have a nice day.
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