I think it's high time we enter Granite Cave to deliver that letter to Steven, but first...
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Zubat/Golbat/Crobat
Type: Poison/Flying
Ability(s): Inner Focus
Everyone hates encountering Zubat in the wild. They are known to show up
all the fucking time and are lurking in every cave to ruin your chances
of getting something good in Nuzlockes, but... this rating will not be
based on that. This rating is based upon how good Zubat is at fighting,
which to be frank... isn't good at first.
Zubat, like Tentacool, is lacking in quality moves early on, since a
moveset of Leech Life and later on Astonish completely blow supreme
amounts of ass. You'll probably be forced to switch grind him until
Lv16, when he learns Bite, which is a bit earlier than when Tentacool
gets Acid, so he improves somewhat fast. Bite allows Zubat to target the
soft special defense of most earlygame mons, though you'll find that a
lot things with low SpD tend to resist dark. However, it is a last ditch
method of killing Geodudes. However, Zubat still has a 5 level wait
after that to get Wing Attack, one level
before he evolves. And while the Secret Power TM could theoretically
help Zubat forget that he has no STAB until Lv21, he doesn't get that
until after Watson, by which point he'll have Wing Attack.
Zubat evolves at Lv22, which is quite generous considering the amount of
ass he sucked before then, but Golbat isn't too spectacular.
Offensively, 80 Atk/90 Spe is okay for midgame, and 75/70/75 defenses
are decent enough, but still can't hold a candle to Skarm. Of course,
with all the potion feeding you will have given him prior to that point,
it is entirely possible to get a Crobat by this point, since the
evolution is triggered by happiness. When that happens, you get a 90
Atk/130 Spe juggernaut that can wreck most everything you come across,
and this ability is backed up by his TM movepool... which wasn't that
good to start with. Crobat really appreciates the Sludge Bomb TM since
he does get STAB on it, and Return is a good overall option on him.
While he does face stiff competition for them, Giga Drain can help
Crobat kill rock types, and Shadow Ball rapes ghosts.
Zubat doesn't do jack shit against fighting types without his flying
STAB, so he's not helping against Brawly, and he's not particularly
helpful in any of the gyms afterwards. He can help kill Winona's
Tropius, Sidney's Cacturne and Shiftry, and Wallace's Ludicolo, but
otherwise, that's where his usefulness ends.
Crobat is awesome, but the effort needed to get there isn't worth it.
5/10
Geodude/Graveler/Golem
Type: Rock/Ground
Ability(s): Sturdy/Rock Head
Another Pokemon available in Granite Cave is Geodude, and while he isn't
as useful as he is in Crystal, he is still good here. Up to a certain
point.
Once again, Geodude has a rather unimpressive start, boasting a sluglike
speed stat and lacking STAB until Lv11. Thankfully, he can be caught at
the relatively high level of 9, so he only needs 2 levels for Rock
Throw. Granted, it's not going to help him very much against Brawly, but
that's what other teammates are for. However, it is possible to end up
with like a Lv6 Geodude, so you may have to baby him a little, because
in spite of his ability to tank, Geodude really can't damage stuff with
just Tackle.
Speaking of tanking, that happens to be the line's forte. Geodude is a
great midgame tank thanks to his high defense and his rock/ground typing
allowing him to absorb attacks since midgame enemies tend to run a lot
of normal type attacks. This also extends to the gyms where Geodude (and
later Graveler/Golem) dominates Watson with STAB Magnitude, and is good
against the next three gyms (do take note that Graveler isn't taking
Overheats very well due to a poor 55/45 special durability. Golem can
take them just fine with 80/65, but even he will buckle after a few
hits.) Thankfully, his 115 (130 as Golem) defense is adequate for
taking on the likes of Norman and Winona, despite the latter's Altaria
carrying Earthquake.
Later on, Golem starts losing a significant amount of steam seeing as
after Lilycove, the majority of enemy Pokemon are water typed, which hit
Golem very hard thanks to that 4x weakness and his pitiful special
defense. Also, bosses start relying on special attacks, and without
resistances to things like psychic and dragon, as well as a weakness to ice (among other things, rock/ground has a cocktail of weaknesses
including 4x weaknesses to water and grass), Golem gets left in the
dust. Juan in particular rapes his ass seven ways 'til Sunday.
His movepool is standard rock and ground type fare. Rock Throw and
Magnitude provide great coverage throughout the midgame and most of the
lategame, with Rock Blast and Earthquake replacing them later on (Rock
Slide tutor isn't available until postgame). Geodude is also well known for being a
heart stopping bomb. If you see something that is too powerful for any
single Pokemon on your team to handle on its own, you can set up a
situation where Golem can just blow up in its face. Juan's Kingdra is
one such Pokemon. While you do not want to do this right away since
Water Pulse will kill Golem in one hit, if you can paralyze it and sac something, you
can easily get Golem in and blow up on it.
While you can't exactly solo the game with Geodude, he does serve a good
midgame niche, especially if you're the poor sap who started with
Treecko, but he doesn't pair well with Torchic or Mudkip due to them
sharing a weakness with one of Geodude's 4x's.
Not as good as Johto Geodude.
6.5/10 (5.5/10 w/o trade evo)
Makuhita/Hariyama
Type: Fighting
Ability(s): Thick Fat/Guts
If you did not choose Torchic, Makuhita is the first fighting type that
you come across in the wild. Fighting as a whole is a good type to have
in Hoenn, but how does Makuhita fare against his competition (a.k.a
Machop and Breloom)? Offensively, he has 60 attack, which while weak
compared to Machop, is still really good, especially with all the normal
and dark types that litter the earlygame. It also helps that he gets
Vital Throw at Lv13, very soon after he's caught, which means that he
has a strong attack early on. This later upgrades to a monstrous 120
base attack, matching Blaziken's and only being surpassed by Heracross,
Machamp, and Breloom in the fighting type department.
Due to his morbid obesity, he is very slow, limiting his outspeeding
ability to stuff like Geodudes, and it unfortunately doesn't get a whole
lot better when he evolves, and what little he can outspeed
automatically outspeeds him when Vital Throw is used. However, what he
lacks in speed, he makes up for in durability. While 30 in both defenses isn't that great, 72 HP allows this Pokemon to take a fair bit
of punishment from most anything (stay away from psychics, that goes
without saying), and having fire and ice resistances thanks to Thick Fat
helps (if he has it). Once he evolves (which happens at Lv24, 4 levels
lower than Machop's evo trigger), he has a mammoth 144 HP to soak up
hits with, though 60's in either defense aren't anything special.
As a fighting type, Makuhita has a generally good gym performance (only
particularly hates two gyms, and both of those are lategame gyms). He's
one of your best choices against Norman, a solid pick against Watson,
and if he has Thick Fat, can set up on Flannery. His performance against
the elites is twinfold; while he sucks against Phoebe and doesn't
particularly enjoy Drake (and even then, he can use Shelgon as set up
fodder), he pretty much stops Sidney and Glacia cold with his powerful
Fighting moves and resistance to their attacks (again, Thick Fat if he
has it. He tears Glacia apart either way.)
Makuhita doesn't get very good moves through level up past Vital Throw
and maybe Fake Out, so TM support is highly recommended, and thankfully,
he gets access to good TMs. While I will note Rock Tomb's heavy
competition and low base power, it is nonetheless his best option
against flying types and it also lowers speed, which is helpful on
someone as slow as he. As well, he really appreciates the Earthquake TM
to round off any coverage induced holes he may have, as well as Bulk Up
to set up against the aforementioned gym leaders/elites.
In a nutshell, Makuhita is a bulky fighter that generally won't disappoint.
8/10
Aron/Lairon/Aggron
Type: Steel/Rock
Ability(s): Sturdy/Rock Head
In many ways, Aron is like Geodude, but with steel typing instead of
ground typing and a far worse level up movepool. But does the steel
typing give Aron any crucial edges?
Coming in at Lv10 in the first basement of the Dewford Cave, Aron is
already a somewhat proficient fighter with Headbutt, getting his first
STAB 3 levels later, and a 70 base attack, though he isn't exactly
knocking anyone's heads off offensively as it isn't as good as, say,
Makuhita's, though it's better than what Geodude has at base. It also
does not help that Aron moves as slow as an army tank, with only 30
speed and eventually getting 50 as Aggron. The quick claw can alleviate
this to an extent, but face it: it hurts.
Like with Geodude, Aron's forte is tanking. Sporting 50 HP/100 def at
base and eventually gaining a titanic 70/180 physical bulk, Aron's
family already has better durability parameters than a lot of other
Pokemon, and the added steel typing reinforces that fact, giving him
useful resistances to things like psychic and dark (making him a good
option against T+L provided you remove Claydol, despite a mediocre 60
SpD as Aggron), as well as further bolstering his resistances to normal
and flying, which makes him a prime option against Norman and Winona
(watch out for Altaria). However, the hybrid does have quite nasty 4x
weaknesses to fighting and ground moves, the former of which the gym
leader that he is first available for specializes in. On top of that,
the age old water weakness that plague rock types is still existent, so
take caution when using Lairon/Aggron past Lilycove, and he really
doesn't like Juan. Despite being a rock type, the steel typing makes
him... undesirable against either Watson or Flannery. But he trolls
Sidney and Glacia (both bosses only have one Pokemon in their party that
can really hurt him), can stand up to Phoebe (again, only the Lv51
Dusclops is a direct threat, but there's still the threat of WoW and
Curse), but doesn't like Drake or Wallace very much.
Aron has issues getting good quality moves. He doesn't get any rock
moves through level up, and the only rock type move he can get prior to
the postgame is Rock Tomb, which has accuracy issues as well as power
issues past midgame (fuck Rollout). As for his other STAB, while he does
get Iron Tail through level up, it is an inaccurate piece of crap that
can't be relied on, though the 100 power is sweet, especially since
Aggron has 110 attack to abuse it with. As for good physical coverage,
you can't get any better than Earthquake, but that shows up rather late,
so Dig may be used as an alternative until then. As well, there's
Return, Aerial Ace, Brick Break, stuff that a lot of other dudes want.
It should be noted that while Aggron has a vast special movepool
(including getting things like Solar Beam), his special attack won't cut
it for special sweeping.
Aron also wishes he evolved sooner. Lv32 evolution on a first form is
already pretty late, since Aron could use that power/speed boost for
some of the midgame gyms. And Lairon has an even longer wait for
evolution, since the evolution is triggered at Lv42, which isn't
happening until around the time you reach Mossdeep. But at least it's
better than having to trade, since that is pretty convoluted without
access to GTS (btw, trading can be done on VBA).
Has a worse start and midgame than Geodude, but makes up for it with a better lategame.
6.5/10
Sableye
Type: Dark/Ghost
Ability(s): Keen Eye
With some relatively early availability, Sableye can be caught in the
basement of the Granite Cave, ready to take advantage of his immunities
to normal, fighting, and psychic. You're tempted to catch one, am I
right?
The first thing that you notice with Sableye is his dark/ghost typing.
This unique typing has the distinction of having zero weaknesses
whatsoever (ok, it is weak to fighting, but only after you use
Foresight/Odor Sleuth. It is also weak to fairy as of Gen VI.), which effectively means that Sableye has no real
disadvantages in any gym defensively type wise. In fact, he is immune
to everything that Brawly throws at him (though you will still want to
be at ~Lv14 before you enter since Lv10 Night Shade does like nothing),
as well as being a solid pick against Norman and the twins due to his
immunities. Hell, while he's far from the best option there, he does hit
Phoebe's Pokemon super effective with either STAB.
Now that the typing's out of the way, how does Sableye fare statwise?
Quite poorly. 75/65/50 offenses are only decent during midgame, and they
are quite bad by lategame, though Sableye does learn Calm Mind to
bolster his Special Attack (there are totally better mons to abuse this,
though.) 50 speed in particular is quite crippling, as it means that
even midgame, quite a few things outspeed him, and he's not taking hits
well with his 50/75/65 defenses. Again, immunities help, but the typing
has no real resistances to speak of, except for poison, but lol poison.
Sableye has a surprisingly good movepool, though his stats aren't the
best to make use of it. Physically, he learns Shadow Ball at the rather
high level of 41, and can make moderate use of the Dig, Rock Tomb, Brick
Break, or Aerial Ace TMs. His special movepool is a bit more stale, but
he does get Calm Mind access, and with it, Feint Attack, Shock Wave,
Water Pulse, and Psychic. He also gets Detect at Lv25, which allows him
to troll Norman's Slaking, which can come in handy (even though Slaking
only has Faint Attack to hit you with).
Super clutch against Brawly, ok against Norman and the twins, but after that, he's had his days.
6/10
Nosepass
Type: Rock
Ability(s): Sturdy/Magnet Pull
The only pure rock type in the game (other than the legendary Regirock),
Nosepass can be obtained by going back to the basement of the Granite
Cave after you've beaten Watson and use Rock Smash, but would you really
want to do that?
Nosepass's typing makes most things applicable to Geodude and Aron
applicable to him. He resists a lot of attack types present in the
midgame, including the next three gyms after you get him, and does the
job better than either of them due to his massive 135/90 defenses,
though 30 HP is god fucking awful. However, his offenses are severely
lacking at 45 apiece, and Rock Slide, which would resolve the problem
somewhat during midgame, is learned at Lv28 (though probably just in
time for the Lavaridge gym). However, unlike Onix, Nosepass doesn't even
get Screech to help out his offense, so more often than not, you'll end
up switching him out because the fucker can't do any reasonable damage
unless it's super effective.
A decent option to put on Nosepass is Shock Wave, which allows him to
hurt water types to an extent. Granted, off 45 base special attack, it
isn't doing a whole lot, and you aren't fast enough to get two shots off
before your water-type quarry kills you (30 speed is even slower than
either Lairon or Graveler, and most waters are going to have above what they have). If you are still satisfied with using Nosepass past Norman,
you can give him Thunderbolt. By the way, this thing learns a lot of
electric attacks (he's based off a magnet, need another reason?)
As you progress on, you will find that the gap between Nosepass's
offense and the enemy's (special) defense widens as you progress through the
lategame, and to make things worse, everything after Lilycove is water,
water, water, which is bad, bad, bad for Nosepass. Thunderbolt can help
to some extent, but like I said in the last paragraph, they'll
generally kill you before you kill them due to your shitty offenses. And
that's not even mentioning the fact that rock is a terrible defensive
typing (right up there with grass, the only difference being that grass
is good in lategame, but rock isn't. And Nosepass cannot get away with it
like Regirock can.)
Fun fact: A Modest Nosepass with 252 SpA EVs fails to OHKO a 0/0 neutral
nature Gyarados with Thunderbolt from full health and only has a 46%
chance of doing so with Thunder (he needs a magnet to secure the OHKO). What a piece of shit.
Basically, don't waste your time with this triceratops turd. All he does is slow your ass down.
0.5/10
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Have a nice day.
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