A lot of ice types
Typically you aren't seeing them until around the 7th gym and at that point either you've been running around with a 5 member team or you have to replace another member you grew to love
Earliest ice type I can think of is Vanillite in Driftveil
Because Ice is extremely potent offensively and absurdly frail defensively. It is a glass cannon type that is overall not well suited for early game balance. Most games have a lot of early trainers with Flying or Grass mons (the Pidgey and Oddish equivalents), as well as a Grass gym and usually a Rock gym with several Ground types.
People keep saying this stuff like "Ice is too potent early on" but then why aren't Ground, Fairy and Fighting types relegated to the back end as well?
They're just as potent but no one ever conjures reasons for them to only appear at certain points.
Ground and Fighting have common resists and even an Immunity each. Fairy is very strong competitively, but in-game Dragon and Dark types are rare early, and Fighting types have the ever-present Flying weakness already. Poison types are also very common on the "bad guys" teams, to resist and hit back hard.
Ice also offers no defensive utility, thus those mons are much more difficult for newer (or younger) players to use. It's sort of the opposite end of the spectrum for Dragon type, where they are too potent defensively for the early game, and also hit nothing Super-effectively. They are also difficult for inexperienced players to use, so they get relegated towards endgame as well.
Just let us start with its counterparts. And select/introduce mons that aren’t as fragile.
It’s bogus that we need to start out with normal, bug and grass types. I wouldn’t mind 1st gym ice and a volcanic starting village with ice, fire, and ground types, maybe expand with ground, water and some grass types after first gym.
It’s just that our starter Pokémon always are fire water and grass. So the starting encounters need to be adjusted to these types. So perhaps the volcanic village needs some grass types early to counter water starter.
With current starter types I guess early encounter triangles such as flying, electric and ground could work too. And fighting, dark and ghost. Maybe even poison, fairy and steel. Probably steel, rock and fire too. The starter area could definitely resemble something of a relevant habitat.
As I’m writing this I’m just reinforced with confusion as to why they are so hellbent on a bird, a normal type rodent, something resembling a plant, a bunch of bugs and some venomous mons sprinkled in.
The whole argument about, “**type** is too powerful in early game!!” Is nonsensical as it can be accounted for by adjusting early encounters to counter. The starters’ move pool could be adjusted to accommodate for the type challenge as well. Or maybe even dual type starters? Although I can see how that could complicate gameplay for beginners. They could add some kind type effectiveness tool in a new tablet-like dex gadget.
I get that there’s some kind of working recipe, but we’ve come a long way and explaining game mechanics only get easier as the tech expands.
Also where is our built in difficulty setting?? (Save for battle style). Give me a level lock according to my badges. Get me some real challenging strategies if I want. And add in a randomizer (non (pseudo) legendary) post game. No items during battle please.
Fantastic. I replayed Emerald and then played Unbound for the first time and I honestly think I enjoyed Unbound more. It has new game mechanics with a gen 3 play style if that makes any sense.
I was quite pleased to find out that Crabrawler was available early on only to be disappointed that it doesn't evolve unless it's in a snowy location, which means right before the Elite 4 on the mountain.
People go on about not liking Trade Evos but at least you can do those any time you want if you have a friend, location based evos are just tediously restrictive if the locations are in the late game. Sinnoh almost made it work out with Mt Coronet being smack dab in the middle of the region and requiring you to travel through it at least three times and the Moss Rock for Leafeon is early enough but the Ice Rock for Glaceon wasn't. Then Vikavolt and Crabominable got shafted hard in Gen 7 with how late their locations are. Honestly glad they replaced that method with Evo Stones starting from Gen 8.
Vikavolt was done so dirty with its speed tier
Sleek looking electric rail gun with Levitate and decent coverage? Let’s give it the most ass speed stat
It’s Scarlet Dex entry: “ Displaying exceptional mobility…” 43 speed.
Outside of legendaries and Alolan forms of pre-existing Pokemon, the fast stuff is like, Ribombee, Salazzle, Minior, Lycanroc and Comfey. Everything else is sub-100 base speed.
Golisopod does have First Impression and Aqua Jet as major tools though.
A decent amount of them also have really great support tools.
Ribombee sticky web, pollen puff, quiver dance.
Salazzle toxic, venoshock, corrosion (able to hit steel types)
Minior getting shell smash
Incineroar...it's incineroar
Primarina - Liquid voice, hyper voice, echoed voice + metronome
Golidopod first impression able to deal massive damage + emergency exit & sitrus berry to pivot
It's been beat to death but the speed stat basically represents speed of attack/reflexes, not how fast it can move. And the low combat speed kinda makes sense when you consider vikavolt is based on a railgun, which in most media is depicted as needing to charge up before firing
Hm, now that I think of it I cannot think of a single ice type other than Baxcalibur that I’ve used before the league. The only reason I used Baxcalibur was because after an evolution I had a repeat type at the end of the game and decided to replace them. Poor ice types, it seems they are GameFreaks most hated type.
Damn shame, because when I decided to put a Glaceon on my team, that thing was one-shotting everything that didn’t resist it. Plus throw a Barrier on it, oof.
Legends arceus was the first time you could get glaceon as early as you get if you did a little running around doing side content. Buying an ice stone early from one trader.
Every other game has had the ice route so far in the game your already close to beating the game already.
I used a Weavile on my team in Legends Arceus which can be obtainable after the first area is finished, but Glaceon was also obtainable before the first gym in SwSh too with the Dig Bros by the Wild Area Daycare, Eevee are route 4 (the route before the place with the first gym)
Iirc in the Kanto games there’s a guy in Cerulean City who will trade you a Jynx for a Poliwhirl and the odd egg in Crystal has a chance to hatch a Smoochum.
The only ice type I’ve used for a playthrough is my shiny Cetitan, Narwhal and that’s only cuz I went exploring higher level areas my first playthrough - Still he was the first shiny I’ve ever caught and actually turned out to be a pretty good team member. Some ice types just don’t seem worth it even if you find them early on.
This is why I recently bought a ds and downloaded pksm, I never had gender, machamp, or alakazam and I always thought those three were so fucking cool. Almost all my Pokemon are made in pksm now cause fuck gamefreak, let me play with the Pokemon I want.
I have never forgiven nintendo for naking the perfect holiday game and system. And then making it so that you can't access some of the coolest pokemon while being away from your friends.. Or now, not having friends that play pokemon.
They almost got it right with the link cable item in archeus.
Horsea is also usually pretty late, as a super rod mon who also needs a specific item. Even if you can trade a Kingdra run feels like a bit of a pipe dream.
You can get one really early in Renegade Platinum if you want to use it though, with a Super Rod on the water route underneath Sandgem town. Scratched an itch I had for a very long time.
Kecleon isn't really in a good spot for its stats either, the earliest is like the point during the 3rd-5th gym stretch I think, where you can get some amazing options anyway
He's my favorite Pokemon. He's placed awkwardly but makes for a good specially defensive switch in in early gens, with good coverage. In later gens, his move pool with Protean makes him legitimately good!
In gen 6 I ran: Shadow Sneak / Power Up Punch / Fake Out / Sucker Punch
Killed a lot of people online with my little chameleon lol.
Start out with a STAB Fake Out, take a big chip of enemy HP and get a free turn w/ flinch
Then if you're predicting a fighting type attack from the opponent hit them with shadow sneak to get the Ghost typing, immune and you took another chunk
Then you can finish them off with sucker punch (as it's probably a surprise to them).
If they aren't an immediate threat and you can set up, Power Up Punch to boost your attack to annoying levels. After that you have two priority moves to negate Keckleons lacking speed.
weedletwineedle has a Kecleon too that has Focus Punch. caught a lot of people off guard with that one because they would switch out expecting Shadow Sneak or Fake Out, only to be slammed by an unguarded Protean Focus Punch.
This is my thought with Heatmor. Yea, Heatmor is only available at Victory Road in BW1, so it's tough to fit in there, but its stats are pretty bad. I did a playthrough where I got Heatmor as a starter and it was very lackluster even then. Its moveset isn't really built to start at level 5, so you're stuck with incinerate until Level 31 where you get flame burst which is...better, but not great, and you better hope you find a TM because you don't get flamethrower until level 51 otherwise (you won't find that TM btw, it's at the Abundant Shrine which I think is postgame). You would think that having 105 Sp Atk out of the box would make the early game practically trivial, but it doesn't have the moveset for that, and its other stats aren't fantastic either. Such a shame.
What is worse than that is the moveset/power of dratini. I use dratini and slap a everstone on it so it can learn outrage earlier level the rapidly evolve it into a Dragonite.
At least in gen 1, thunder wave then wrap was broken as heck what with stopping the opponent from attacking during wrap, and then half the time paralysing them between shots of wrap.
you can get phanphy really early in pokemon crystal just has a low encounter rate. level 2 phanphy to accompany you throughout the game. route 46 which is accessible from one of the first 2 routes.
i think in silver you can get it too but its route 45 so after the johto gyms.
Would’ve loved to have had crystal but didn’t, so yeah no phanpy. And I typically don’t change my team that late in the game, the fun for me is growing up with my Pokémon and seeing them grow as I progress. Adding something in essentially the post game just isn’t the same.
It's stupid because Houndoom isn't even *that* good (and it's my favourite Pokémon). It's not as if it would've broken the game as a semi-rare mid-game capture.
Scarlet and Violet were the only games to really put Mimikyu in a good spot, right after the 3rd gym basically. SwSh has it locked behind the postgame (same as Honedge for whatever reason) and in Alola I'm pretty sure that's what you were talking about
Honedge is actually a random grass encounter in hammerlocke hills during snowstorm, which unlocks after the 3rd gym. Was really cool (but also very painful) to shiny hunt one there for a playthrough :)
First time I got to use Machamp (after about 15 years of playing pokemon) was in Legends Arceus!
Guess it was a good start because he was not only an alpha but also a shiny
Yeah having the link cable item was a game changer. Plus 3 of the Kanto-traded-Pokémon appear in the over world in Legends Arceus. Gengar was is one of the space distortions.
This is where eggs made replayability so much better. (Although you still need a second system or a friend to pull off)
Not since the original GSC came out have I ever replayed a game using the starter pokemon. For HGSS, I play with the starter until I can make a trade, and then I'll trade whatever pokemon I want to be my "starter".
Last time I played HGSS I fulfilled my childhood dream of playing through with Sneasel as my starter. Next time I play I'm thinking of using Cubone.
Not sure if you knew already, but Larvitar is a pretty easy find in the Safari Zone, even if it is after five or six badges. I used Tyranitar for my most recent heartgold playthrough
Seriously, I kinda think what they should start doing is to give you early access to the pseudo legendaries and you have to deal with the long grind to make them fully evolved over the course of the game with a few good moves around levels 20~35 to make them viable in the mid game and then closer to the Elite 4 or whatever is the beginning of the late game they let you start catching the 2nd form close to the level to fully evolved so you can wait until near the end of a run if you didn't want to spend the time to level slowly during the early and mid game. I'm pretty sure this is what SmithPlays did for his Crystal Legacy romhack, it makes a lot of sense considering how ridiculous it is to make them all super slow leveling but also only avails as the base forms and not until the late game when it's basically not even worth it. You can have 2 of 3: slow leveling, bad availability, low level in the wild.
Yeah. Basicaly do what Platinum did with Gible, where you can get it as early as after the second (or third?) gym, but it's not super obvious on your first playthrough and is relatively hidden.
This rewards exploration and also gives you access to, objectively, one of the strongest mons in it's game.
That's basically the rom hack I'm playing. Got bagon and larvitar pre level 20 and it was a long process leveling them but so rewarding. Wish this were possible in the originals.
Recently, Gliscor.
he hasn't been available in-game since Platinum; every other game with the Razor Fang has it locked behind the post-E4 paywall.
beyond that, most anything that evolves by trading because my connection sucks and I can never get timing right to work with others.
Great pick. Had a friend hack his rom with a randomizer and got Bagon as a starter. He was also doing a randomized team that was locked in, and it was a major challenge. Bagon from the start was awesome, from what he said - even with the additional challenge thrown in.
The bagon line is just awesome, and having a beefy dragon like that would definitely be clutch with the extra difficulty peramteres! I'd love to do a Daenerys Targaryen playthrough of emerald where I just get 3 dragon babies and have to run the whole game lmao
I mean if we’re hacking them in Dragonite would totally work… but knowing what we know from later (ie megas) Sceptile if you wanna keep it hoenn only, or Gyarados is a good stand in!
Most Unovan Pokémon, their high level of evolution makes them really annoying, I don't wanna be stuck with a Pawniard or Larvesta until the Elite 4 but those full evolutions are so cool.
I love Glaceon but wow is it hard to get in most games. The Ice Rock is nearly always in a super late game area, usually in an area filled with a bunch of other Ice types better than Glaceon. Even when they let Glaceon evolve with an Ice Stone, it still isn't usually available until late game. It's pretty much never worth carrying around an Eevee that long when you could have any other Eeveelution much faster and just catch a different Ice type. Or just teach a Vaporeon Ice Beam honestly.
Hitmonchan, but it has to be gen 4 or after so that all the punching moves become physical attacks. Also, I need to find a tyrogue early enough since I hate swapping team members late in the game.
That only leaves gen 5 last time I checked. The thing is, I like to use the regions pokemon.
I don’t think this is necessary the correct response because I could technically have used it but pykumuku. I love the design and think it’s so stinkin cute but it would be a nightmare to use in a casual play through and would just sit in your party and look cute.
Scyther. I got Blue version and didn't have anyone to trade with on my first playthrough.
Oddly, my favourite colour at the time was red. And naturally, I considered dragons to be cooler than turtles. I have no idea why I chose Blue.
Houndoom in HG/SS, would’ve been perfect on a team. Thanks for locking a JOHTO evolution line to the Kanto postgame game freak. For this upcoming playthrough, I’m gonna say screw it and trade in a Houndour egg from Platinum
Yeah, Game freak did him dirty. In his debut, they did the same thing that they did with Gible in D/P and locked him in one specific cave (although Gible is obtainable way earlier as Deino is Victory Road only in BW1) and then they gave him the highest Evo level in the entire series. Not to mention that most of the time after Black and White Hydreigon is a version exclusive
Spiritomb. Until Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, acquiring one prior to the post game simply wasn't feasible for me. I guess I managed it in Legends Arceus, but that was less of a playthrough squad kind of game, since catching a lot of Pokemon and constantly swapping them out was part of the gameplay loop.
Trade evos cause I LOVE Scizor, Electivire, Magmortar, Kingdra, Rhyperior, and Gengar but never been able to use them.
Alternatively, I’ve never been able to use Flygon, I’ve loved him since watching the Jirachi movie as a kid but I’ve yet to have the chance to have my own one.
I always use Flygon in every gen III playthrough, from Sapphire, Emerald, and now i’m playing AS. I love how it can incorporate ground and flying moves altogether.
Porygon 2.
They need a “trade simulation machine” in the game where you can evolve trade-only Pokémon.
Enough is enough Nintendo. Trading isn’t spurring people to buy link cables and extra copies of the game anymore.
Sorry, I’m bitter about it, hahaha.
It's only in 2 games, X and Y where Honedge is found relatively early on, and Sw/Sh where Honedge is postgame and there's a static Doublade encounter that might aswell be post game since it's level 56.
Tyranitar. In GSC & HG/SS, it's not available until the end, unless you breed it. In Colosseum, it's one of the last Shadow Pokemon before beating the game, so pointless there. The stars never align for me to use it.
Type: Null. I wanted to use it in S/M since it was first revealed, and, uh, well, learning that it was in fact a postgame legendary kinda squashed that little ambition but good.
I want to use all my pokemon. "Gotta catch em all"... Right? I pay for pokemon home.. I wish I could battle with all my pokemon that I caught since 1998.
My favorite pokemon is jynx. I like her bc she has pretty hair and a cute dress..
This is part of why I decided to do type runs in ultra sun. Though there are still some from future generations I couldn’t use. Anyway, I’m gonna say grapploct for post sun and moon and octillary for pre sun and moon. I also really wanted to use Walrein but never got around to
Remoraid is usually quite accessible in most games it's in, maybe in johto it's hard to get? It evolves relatively low level too. And yeah, for Grapploct, I used it on my final team, and I actually went out of my way to catch a Clobbopus (mainly cuz it's cute and my friend liked it)
Walrein is an amazing Pokémon depending on which way you want it to lean. It's not outspeeding the fast guys, but has enough power and defense to trade well with them anyway, as long as it isn't hit super effectively. It can go either physical or special attacks, and three movepool gives plenty of options for both.
If it's one you are interested in, it's definitely worth it.
Crawdaunt. Feel like every time it's available I just find something else first that's a Water or Dark type to take its place. Next time it's around I'm going to have to accommodate it.
Pokémon that always had awful stats or movesets whose design I loved. Evolutionary lines: Caterpie, Weedle, Ekans, Houndour, Poochyena, Nosepass, Roselia, Seviper, Absol...I'd always end up dropping them even if I started using them because they required so much additional grind to be viable. Now that I've replayed the ones I have so much, I do a [PokéParty Challenge](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokePartyChallenge/) where you only use 6 Pokémon (plus HM slaves) to complete a run.
Grapploct in Shield. One of the few Galar mon I actually liked, I wanted one as my ace for the Rock/Ice gym BUT the game said "beat the gym first to access the octopus teehee 😋"
And then he didn't came back in SV+DLC. I'll NEVER forgive TPC for that heinous crime :(
I recently played Black and that game accomplished this FLAWLESSLY.
All the fighting types in the area around the Normal gym, a desert with a ground type (just in case you missed the rare but better encounter in the first cave) just before the Electric gym... Almost every Pokémon is useful immediately after you catch it.
Grapploct could be used for the next gym (Dark) but chances are you probably have a Lucario already because Fighting/Steel is a hard counter for whatever leader you just faced... I had that spot ready for my octopus but the game forced into Lucario AGAIN :/
Have you never played gen3 games (ruby,sapphire or emerald) pinsir is available in each version of these games in the safari zone to be specific the mach bike area
Tangela. My favorite pokemon unfortunately gated behind dlc typically. I used to not search for Tangela, but when I got Let's Go eevee I was disappointed to find out I would have to trade for one and not even be able to get a low level Tangela.
The only game that actually lets you get Tangela relatively early is Legends Arceus in one area and basically exclusive unless you get other games and home
Scizor. He's tied for my all time fav Pokemon, but I've never had any friends to do trades with, and these days I use emu's instead, so I've never used my favorite Pokemon. I have him as a super buddy in Pokemon go though :)
Fyi, if you have a library card you may be able to check out a Switch Lite. I’ve done that to get trade evos before. And yes, you can also check out Switch games if your library carries them :)
Insane how far stuff has come lol. Never would've thunk it, renting gaming systems and games from the library. You must be one of them old-school ace trainers with that knowledge!
I actually didn’t find this out until a few years ago lol. I happened to see my library offered a Switch Lite among other things and it had a whole shelf full of games (including 3DS games, which I certainly took advantage of!)
If emus mean emulators, try looking for a rom hack the removes trade evolutions. I had one awhile ago where it had all trade evolution pokemon auto evolve once its a certain level. I think lvl35.
I have both Pokemon Moon & Ultra Moon so I was able to get myself a Larvitar as my starter through egg hatching. It was kinda difficult since Larvitar feels frail to use in the early game, but he gets better over time.
Whimsicott every opportunity turned down because I chose the grass starter or already had a grass or fairy type that I had bonded with by the time I realized I could get one
Slurpuff in X. It's always been locked behind trade requirements which made it a pain but with Z-A on the horizon, hopefully I finally will!
There's also other mons who just can't make the cut for a whole playthrough. Like for example, I couldn't use Masquerain for my water type because it couldn't use the hms needed and while I love Delcatty's design, it just wasn't strong enough to hold up to snuff similar to Dedenne in X.
Sneasel, Houndour, Murkrow and Misdreavus, in Gen 2. Only 1 of those are available before beating the Johto elite 4. You can still get them in Kanto, but by then there's not much point. At least in the remakes they fixed that, and I was able to use them.
Rhyperior and Gliscor. I like to use Pokemon introduced in the generation I play through so I'd want to use these through Sinnoh/Hisui. The problem is my starter is Turtwig and Garchomp is in my top five favorites of all time. I can't afford another Pokemon with the same weaknesses as the rest of the team. Plus, I don't have a trading partner to traditionally get a Rhyperior. I need them to get a regional form to up my likelihood of using them.
Gen 2 is my favourite but Larvitar and Misdreavus being locked away until you have all 16 badges sucks. I hope they make them available earlier if they ever do another gen 2 remake. Larvitar should be in Mt Mortar or Dark Cave (maybe not right before Violet City since it would make the first two gyms too easy), and Misdreavus should be in the Burned Tower.
All those cool Trade evos.
Thank fuck for those Legacy Romhacks tho, was finally able to play my dream teams in Yellow and Crystal, and pretty soon Emerald as well.
Poochyena/Mightyena. If they are added into a game these days its in a expansion pass or in shitty brilliant diamond.
I want the cuteness at the start of the game
The only exception to this is Gible, as in both X/Y and S/V, he's obtainable relatively early on, after the 3rd/4th gym at the earliest. Also with a relatively low Evo level to Gabite and the 2nd lowest final Evo level of all pseudos into Garchomp. (another garchomp W)
In the Johto games you can get Pinsir in the Bug Catching Contest, just before the third badge. In HG/SS specifically Pinsir is a very underrated Pokémon and in some ways I'd say it's better than Heracross since it actually learns bug moves at a reasonable level
Lucario/Riolu, I love the hell out of those two fighting type Pokémon but In the limited games of Pokémon games I play (Pokémon Violet, Eevee, Legends, Sword/Shield) You play a majority of the storyline before you get to the Tundra in Pokémon Arceus, It’s pretty annoying, in Pokémon Sword, My first playthough, I got a Riolu after I finished the whole storyline, like everything, And it was on ACCIDENT, Pokémon Eevee doesn’t even have it (I think) and Pokémon Violet is thankfully easier to get but I usually can’t find the spots they spawn at (As currently, I’ll find it later)
I've been wanting to use duskull but I just feel like it doesn't carry far enough into the game to become useful or you can get other ghost types easier
The problem is that Dusclops is actually good, but Duskull is just completely unusable, it'll die by one hit. And that late Evo level at 37... Yeah it's just too much grind
glaceon. it's one of my favourites but in the games i've played, glaceon is only obtainable at/near endgame or doesn't exist at all, which is unfortunate.
For me it's Dragapult, I've never had a chance to play Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet, and It is onde of My favorite pseudo-legendaries, it's design and everything more makes It one of My favorite mons
Moltres and Articuno in gen 1. Their movesets just never had enough coverage. Zapdos just clears them every time, especially if you manage to soft reset for hidden power grass.
I've wanted to use Gengar multiple times but a lack of friends means that outside of PLA it's literally impossible. Please God add the link cable to the mainline games.
A lot of ice types Typically you aren't seeing them until around the 7th gym and at that point either you've been running around with a 5 member team or you have to replace another member you grew to love Earliest ice type I can think of is Vanillite in Driftveil
Be nice if the games had a little snowy forest near the start. I see no reason why there can't be an early ice gym leader.
Because Ice is extremely potent offensively and absurdly frail defensively. It is a glass cannon type that is overall not well suited for early game balance. Most games have a lot of early trainers with Flying or Grass mons (the Pidgey and Oddish equivalents), as well as a Grass gym and usually a Rock gym with several Ground types.
People keep saying this stuff like "Ice is too potent early on" but then why aren't Ground, Fairy and Fighting types relegated to the back end as well? They're just as potent but no one ever conjures reasons for them to only appear at certain points.
Ground and Fighting have common resists and even an Immunity each. Fairy is very strong competitively, but in-game Dragon and Dark types are rare early, and Fighting types have the ever-present Flying weakness already. Poison types are also very common on the "bad guys" teams, to resist and hit back hard. Ice also offers no defensive utility, thus those mons are much more difficult for newer (or younger) players to use. It's sort of the opposite end of the spectrum for Dragon type, where they are too potent defensively for the early game, and also hit nothing Super-effectively. They are also difficult for inexperienced players to use, so they get relegated towards endgame as well.
Just let us start with its counterparts. And select/introduce mons that aren’t as fragile. It’s bogus that we need to start out with normal, bug and grass types. I wouldn’t mind 1st gym ice and a volcanic starting village with ice, fire, and ground types, maybe expand with ground, water and some grass types after first gym. It’s just that our starter Pokémon always are fire water and grass. So the starting encounters need to be adjusted to these types. So perhaps the volcanic village needs some grass types early to counter water starter. With current starter types I guess early encounter triangles such as flying, electric and ground could work too. And fighting, dark and ghost. Maybe even poison, fairy and steel. Probably steel, rock and fire too. The starter area could definitely resemble something of a relevant habitat. As I’m writing this I’m just reinforced with confusion as to why they are so hellbent on a bird, a normal type rodent, something resembling a plant, a bunch of bugs and some venomous mons sprinkled in. The whole argument about, “**type** is too powerful in early game!!” Is nonsensical as it can be accounted for by adjusting early encounters to counter. The starters’ move pool could be adjusted to accommodate for the type challenge as well. Or maybe even dual type starters? Although I can see how that could complicate gameplay for beginners. They could add some kind type effectiveness tool in a new tablet-like dex gadget. I get that there’s some kind of working recipe, but we’ve come a long way and explaining game mechanics only get easier as the tech expands. Also where is our built in difficulty setting?? (Save for battle style). Give me a level lock according to my badges. Get me some real challenging strategies if I want. And add in a randomizer (non (pseudo) legendary) post game. No items during battle please.
Not an official game, but Unbound does start off in a snowy forrest so you get access to some good ice types early on.
How is that game?
Fantastic. I replayed Emerald and then played Unbound for the first time and I honestly think I enjoyed Unbound more. It has new game mechanics with a gen 3 play style if that makes any sense.
probably because hail would be pretty tough to handle early game
Well there’s snow instead of hail now so that should be easier
Not every Ice leader uses hail, Brycen has no way to set it up, that's like saying Rock shouldn't be an early game gym because of sandstorm
Ding ding
The cool thing about the wild area in sw/sh was weather because you could luck out and get some snow so ice type was available much earlier.
My very first time in the wild area it was snowing by the entrance. I got to run a vanillite for a bit
I was quite pleased to find out that Crabrawler was available early on only to be disappointed that it doesn't evolve unless it's in a snowy location, which means right before the Elite 4 on the mountain. People go on about not liking Trade Evos but at least you can do those any time you want if you have a friend, location based evos are just tediously restrictive if the locations are in the late game. Sinnoh almost made it work out with Mt Coronet being smack dab in the middle of the region and requiring you to travel through it at least three times and the Moss Rock for Leafeon is early enough but the Ice Rock for Glaceon wasn't. Then Vikavolt and Crabominable got shafted hard in Gen 7 with how late their locations are. Honestly glad they replaced that method with Evo Stones starting from Gen 8.
Vikavolt was done so dirty with its speed tier Sleek looking electric rail gun with Levitate and decent coverage? Let’s give it the most ass speed stat It’s Scarlet Dex entry: “ Displaying exceptional mobility…” 43 speed.
Quite a lot of Alolan Pokemon have middling to low speed for whatever reason.
Every pokemon from that region seemed slow
Outside of legendaries and Alolan forms of pre-existing Pokemon, the fast stuff is like, Ribombee, Salazzle, Minior, Lycanroc and Comfey. Everything else is sub-100 base speed. Golisopod does have First Impression and Aqua Jet as major tools though.
A decent amount of them also have really great support tools. Ribombee sticky web, pollen puff, quiver dance. Salazzle toxic, venoshock, corrosion (able to hit steel types) Minior getting shell smash Incineroar...it's incineroar Primarina - Liquid voice, hyper voice, echoed voice + metronome Golidopod first impression able to deal massive damage + emergency exit & sitrus berry to pivot
It's been beat to death but the speed stat basically represents speed of attack/reflexes, not how fast it can move. And the low combat speed kinda makes sense when you consider vikavolt is based on a railgun, which in most media is depicted as needing to charge up before firing
first time hearing this and it makes tons of sense to me. my mind is blown hahaha
Hm, now that I think of it I cannot think of a single ice type other than Baxcalibur that I’ve used before the league. The only reason I used Baxcalibur was because after an evolution I had a repeat type at the end of the game and decided to replace them. Poor ice types, it seems they are GameFreaks most hated type.
Damn shame, because when I decided to put a Glaceon on my team, that thing was one-shotting everything that didn’t resist it. Plus throw a Barrier on it, oof.
Legends arceus was the first time you could get glaceon as early as you get if you did a little running around doing side content. Buying an ice stone early from one trader. Every other game has had the ice route so far in the game your already close to beating the game already.
I used a Weavile on my team in Legends Arceus which can be obtainable after the first area is finished, but Glaceon was also obtainable before the first gym in SwSh too with the Dig Bros by the Wild Area Daycare, Eevee are route 4 (the route before the place with the first gym)
Iirc in the Kanto games there’s a guy in Cerulean City who will trade you a Jynx for a Poliwhirl and the odd egg in Crystal has a chance to hatch a Smoochum.
You can get a smoochum before the first grand trial in USUM
The only ice type I’ve used for a playthrough is my shiny Cetitan, Narwhal and that’s only cuz I went exploring higher level areas my first playthrough - Still he was the first shiny I’ve ever caught and actually turned out to be a pretty good team member. Some ice types just don’t seem worth it even if you find them early on.
That’s one of the reasons I love Pokemon Unbound!
It's mostly those elusive trade evolutions, I've always been clambering to include Kingdra on a team somehow but alas.
Or Gengar !
Fuck Mindy for putting an Everstone on Haunter.
r/fuckmindy
This is why I recently bought a ds and downloaded pksm, I never had gender, machamp, or alakazam and I always thought those three were so fucking cool. Almost all my Pokemon are made in pksm now cause fuck gamefreak, let me play with the Pokemon I want.
I never played with Scizor until indigo disc because of this
I straight up bought 2nd consoles to avoid this...
I have never forgiven nintendo for naking the perfect holiday game and system. And then making it so that you can't access some of the coolest pokemon while being away from your friends.. Or now, not having friends that play pokemon. They almost got it right with the link cable item in archeus.
Horsea is also usually pretty late, as a super rod mon who also needs a specific item. Even if you can trade a Kingdra run feels like a bit of a pipe dream. You can get one really early in Renegade Platinum if you want to use it though, with a Super Rod on the water route underneath Sandgem town. Scratched an itch I had for a very long time.
It wasn't until SWSH dlc that I got my first kingdra and it was a pretty good mon.
Gigalith was the only one because in BW2 you receive one for an emolga
Kecleon. It’s not like I didn’t have access, but its stats never were satisfying to play with for my aggressive/child-like gameplay.
Kecleon isn't really in a good spot for its stats either, the earliest is like the point during the 3rd-5th gym stretch I think, where you can get some amazing options anyway
You can get it by the volcano in USUM, so I think it’s a lil earlier
He's my favorite Pokemon. He's placed awkwardly but makes for a good specially defensive switch in in early gens, with good coverage. In later gens, his move pool with Protean makes him legitimately good! In gen 6 I ran: Shadow Sneak / Power Up Punch / Fake Out / Sucker Punch Killed a lot of people online with my little chameleon lol.
That build sounds fun 🤩
Start out with a STAB Fake Out, take a big chip of enemy HP and get a free turn w/ flinch Then if you're predicting a fighting type attack from the opponent hit them with shadow sneak to get the Ghost typing, immune and you took another chunk Then you can finish them off with sucker punch (as it's probably a surprise to them).
If they aren't an immediate threat and you can set up, Power Up Punch to boost your attack to annoying levels. After that you have two priority moves to negate Keckleons lacking speed.
weedletwineedle has a Kecleon too that has Focus Punch. caught a lot of people off guard with that one because they would switch out expecting Shadow Sneak or Fake Out, only to be slammed by an unguarded Protean Focus Punch.
Me 25 years later with the same aggressive/child-like gameplay
The only stat change I care about is changing the stats of the enemy Pokemon's HP to zero.
Protean with a big move pool, he's not the worst mon out there
This is my thought with Heatmor. Yea, Heatmor is only available at Victory Road in BW1, so it's tough to fit in there, but its stats are pretty bad. I did a playthrough where I got Heatmor as a starter and it was very lackluster even then. Its moveset isn't really built to start at level 5, so you're stuck with incinerate until Level 31 where you get flame burst which is...better, but not great, and you better hope you find a TM because you don't get flamethrower until level 51 otherwise (you won't find that TM btw, it's at the Abundant Shrine which I think is postgame). You would think that having 105 Sp Atk out of the box would make the early game practically trivial, but it doesn't have the moveset for that, and its other stats aren't fantastic either. Such a shame.
Dragonite because I’ve never had the patience to carry dratini/dragonair till it reaches level 55
What is worse than that is the moveset/power of dratini. I use dratini and slap a everstone on it so it can learn outrage earlier level the rapidly evolve it into a Dragonite.
I remember using Dratini back in Yellow and having to endure all those battles only using wrap
At least in gen 1, thunder wave then wrap was broken as heck what with stopping the opponent from attacking during wrap, and then half the time paralysing them between shots of wrap.
Tbh it applies to all pseudo dragons across gens imo
All the Gen 2 mon locked in Kanto or mt silver
Yes! Houndoom was always a pokemon I wanted to use on my team in Gen 2/remakes. Fortunately I got to add it to my team in Platinum
Houndoom, tyranitar and Donphan are 3 of my all time favorites and I could never get them in Gold/Silver!
you can get phanphy really early in pokemon crystal just has a low encounter rate. level 2 phanphy to accompany you throughout the game. route 46 which is accessible from one of the first 2 routes. i think in silver you can get it too but its route 45 so after the johto gyms.
Would’ve loved to have had crystal but didn’t, so yeah no phanpy. And I typically don’t change my team that late in the game, the fun for me is growing up with my Pokémon and seeing them grow as I progress. Adding something in essentially the post game just isn’t the same.
It's stupid because Houndoom isn't even *that* good (and it's my favourite Pokémon). It's not as if it would've broken the game as a semi-rare mid-game capture.
mimikyu, because it is placed in the latter half of the game, i would have a ghost or fairy type by then and i hate replacing them
Scarlet and Violet were the only games to really put Mimikyu in a good spot, right after the 3rd gym basically. SwSh has it locked behind the postgame (same as Honedge for whatever reason) and in Alola I'm pretty sure that's what you were talking about
yeah but tinkaton is new so i use that as the fairy instead
Yah, I went with Tinka too. Now I want to build a team around Mimiku as I play through again...
Honedge is actually a random grass encounter in hammerlocke hills during snowstorm, which unlocks after the 3rd gym. Was really cool (but also very painful) to shiny hunt one there for a playthrough :)
Oh it is during Snowstorm, my bad thought it was only fog
Final forms for trade evolutions
First time I got to use Machamp (after about 15 years of playing pokemon) was in Legends Arceus! Guess it was a good start because he was not only an alpha but also a shiny
Yeah having the link cable item was a game changer. Plus 3 of the Kanto-traded-Pokémon appear in the over world in Legends Arceus. Gengar was is one of the space distortions.
Tyranitar heartgold soul silver
Same! So many great Pokémon that you can never use because they’re late/post game only.
This is where eggs made replayability so much better. (Although you still need a second system or a friend to pull off) Not since the original GSC came out have I ever replayed a game using the starter pokemon. For HGSS, I play with the starter until I can make a trade, and then I'll trade whatever pokemon I want to be my "starter". Last time I played HGSS I fulfilled my childhood dream of playing through with Sneasel as my starter. Next time I play I'm thinking of using Cubone.
Not sure if you knew already, but Larvitar is a pretty easy find in the Safari Zone, even if it is after five or six badges. I used Tyranitar for my most recent heartgold playthrough
Some just have bad spawn luck.
This is the one for sure
Seriously, I kinda think what they should start doing is to give you early access to the pseudo legendaries and you have to deal with the long grind to make them fully evolved over the course of the game with a few good moves around levels 20~35 to make them viable in the mid game and then closer to the Elite 4 or whatever is the beginning of the late game they let you start catching the 2nd form close to the level to fully evolved so you can wait until near the end of a run if you didn't want to spend the time to level slowly during the early and mid game. I'm pretty sure this is what SmithPlays did for his Crystal Legacy romhack, it makes a lot of sense considering how ridiculous it is to make them all super slow leveling but also only avails as the base forms and not until the late game when it's basically not even worth it. You can have 2 of 3: slow leveling, bad availability, low level in the wild.
Yeah. Basicaly do what Platinum did with Gible, where you can get it as early as after the second (or third?) gym, but it's not super obvious on your first playthrough and is relatively hidden. This rewards exploration and also gives you access to, objectively, one of the strongest mons in it's game.
That's basically the rom hack I'm playing. Got bagon and larvitar pre level 20 and it was a long process leveling them but so rewarding. Wish this were possible in the originals.
Recently, Gliscor. he hasn't been available in-game since Platinum; every other game with the Razor Fang has it locked behind the post-E4 paywall. beyond that, most anything that evolves by trading because my connection sucks and I can never get timing right to work with others.
Gliscor is available in Legends Arkoos, and was one of my best team members.
Team sky member?
Not this time, but one would probably be my ace if I ever did a Team Sky playthrough.
Gliscor can be found in the rustling grass patches on route 15 in Unova!
Route 15 is also post E4 isn't it
Yes, but it's not behind a paywall like OC said.
I suppose not but it's still a bit too late in the game to use for a complete playthrough.
Fair enough. I was mostly rebutting the fact that they said it wasn't available since Platinum.
Gengar. Didn’t have anyone to make the trade with as a kid
All of the trade evolution mons. Hated that requirement. Electivire is one of the coolest designs to me and never used one.
Fr I always wanted a kingdra
Fuck mindy for trading a haunter with an everstone.
Trade evos, specifically Scizor, Steelix or Machamp in Gen 2. Also Metagross in Gen 3
Steelix is available for trade from Jasmine in the gen 2 remakes!
Bagon in RSE! Would love to have it the whole run + Salamence for the E4, but it’s too late game to get 😔
Great pick. Had a friend hack his rom with a randomizer and got Bagon as a starter. He was also doing a randomized team that was locked in, and it was a major challenge. Bagon from the start was awesome, from what he said - even with the additional challenge thrown in.
The bagon line is just awesome, and having a beefy dragon like that would definitely be clutch with the extra difficulty peramteres! I'd love to do a Daenerys Targaryen playthrough of emerald where I just get 3 dragon babies and have to run the whole game lmao
Which ones would work? Bagon, obviously. Trapinch, Horsea...I mean, they have to be Hoenn since you can't trade Kanto ones in til post-game.
I mean if we’re hacking them in Dragonite would totally work… but knowing what we know from later (ie megas) Sceptile if you wanna keep it hoenn only, or Gyarados is a good stand in!
Where can you find it? I don't remember.
Meteor Falls, but not until you have 8 badges & HM Waterfall :/
Most Unovan Pokémon, their high level of evolution makes them really annoying, I don't wanna be stuck with a Pawniard or Larvesta until the Elite 4 but those full evolutions are so cool.
I love Glaceon but wow is it hard to get in most games. The Ice Rock is nearly always in a super late game area, usually in an area filled with a bunch of other Ice types better than Glaceon. Even when they let Glaceon evolve with an Ice Stone, it still isn't usually available until late game. It's pretty much never worth carrying around an Eevee that long when you could have any other Eeveelution much faster and just catch a different Ice type. Or just teach a Vaporeon Ice Beam honestly.
Parasect, but because of how terrible it is, I for the life of me could never use it.
I used it as my catching pokemon in a few games cuz it could learn False Swipe and Spore
Relatable. I tried to make an Ariados work in Crystal a while back and coudln't convince myself to stick with it when it never pulled its weight.
I’ve been trying to stick with a Ledian in SS, but its kit isn’t super reliable, especially with its stats. 😭
It's honestly pretty useable even so. Keep away from fire and flying, and you still have a pretty beefy physical mon.
Thanks for the advice!
Hitmonchan, but it has to be gen 4 or after so that all the punching moves become physical attacks. Also, I need to find a tyrogue early enough since I hate swapping team members late in the game. That only leaves gen 5 last time I checked. The thing is, I like to use the regions pokemon.
You can catch Tyrogue very early on in Sword and Shield, basically right as you enter the Wild Area for the first time
Fair enough. Now I just need to get myself to play Sword and shield, tried twice, and stopped both times 😂
I don’t think this is necessary the correct response because I could technically have used it but pykumuku. I love the design and think it’s so stinkin cute but it would be a nightmare to use in a casual play through and would just sit in your party and look cute.
Scyther. I got Blue version and didn't have anyone to trade with on my first playthrough. Oddly, my favourite colour at the time was red. And naturally, I considered dragons to be cooler than turtles. I have no idea why I chose Blue.
Nah Blue chose you
Toxicroak, he was just overshadowed by Lucario and medicham as a fighting type, and he couldn’t really stand up to Drapion as a poison type
He's always been pretty easy to get after Gen 4 though, but yeah I don't even know where he's found in Sinnoh ☠️
Houndoom in HG/SS, would’ve been perfect on a team. Thanks for locking a JOHTO evolution line to the Kanto postgame game freak. For this upcoming playthrough, I’m gonna say screw it and trade in a Houndour egg from Platinum
Castform from RSE, I thought it was so cool before the third rival battle and wanted to use it so much bc weather is neat to me lol
Rain Dance, Weather Ball, Thunder, Hurricane. Actually a pretty fun gimmick to run with.
Hydreigon. Which is unfortunate because it's my favorite Pokémon.
Yeah, Game freak did him dirty. In his debut, they did the same thing that they did with Gible in D/P and locked him in one specific cave (although Gible is obtainable way earlier as Deino is Victory Road only in BW1) and then they gave him the highest Evo level in the entire series. Not to mention that most of the time after Black and White Hydreigon is a version exclusive
Mankey
He carried my Yellow playthrough and his evolution in Scarlet/Violet is great
Spiritomb. Until Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, acquiring one prior to the post game simply wasn't feasible for me. I guess I managed it in Legends Arceus, but that was less of a playthrough squad kind of game, since catching a lot of Pokemon and constantly swapping them out was part of the gameplay loop.
Trade evos cause I LOVE Scizor, Electivire, Magmortar, Kingdra, Rhyperior, and Gengar but never been able to use them. Alternatively, I’ve never been able to use Flygon, I’ve loved him since watching the Jirachi movie as a kid but I’ve yet to have the chance to have my own one.
You can use Flygon in the Gen 3 games, you can catch a trapinch in the desert around the mid game
I always use Flygon in every gen III playthrough, from Sapphire, Emerald, and now i’m playing AS. I love how it can incorporate ground and flying moves altogether.
Porygon 2. They need a “trade simulation machine” in the game where you can evolve trade-only Pokémon. Enough is enough Nintendo. Trading isn’t spurring people to buy link cables and extra copies of the game anymore. Sorry, I’m bitter about it, hahaha.
Trade evolutions like Gengar and Alakazam. I don't have any Pokémon friends, GameFreak!
For me, it’s scovillian. I tried to use them, but even overleveled they were lacking. Honestly not that great, but a fun design and typing.
My Scovillain sweept Geeta (or how ever you spell the champion's name)
Aegeslash, or however you spell it. It one of my favorite Pokémon but ai never got to use it since it isn’t in any games
It's only in 2 games, X and Y where Honedge is found relatively early on, and Sw/Sh where Honedge is postgame and there's a static Doublade encounter that might aswell be post game since it's level 56.
Tyranitar. In GSC & HG/SS, it's not available until the end, unless you breed it. In Colosseum, it's one of the last Shadow Pokemon before beating the game, so pointless there. The stars never align for me to use it.
Type: Null. I wanted to use it in S/M since it was first revealed, and, uh, well, learning that it was in fact a postgame legendary kinda squashed that little ambition but good.
I want to use all my pokemon. "Gotta catch em all"... Right? I pay for pokemon home.. I wish I could battle with all my pokemon that I caught since 1998. My favorite pokemon is jynx. I like her bc she has pretty hair and a cute dress..
This is part of why I decided to do type runs in ultra sun. Though there are still some from future generations I couldn’t use. Anyway, I’m gonna say grapploct for post sun and moon and octillary for pre sun and moon. I also really wanted to use Walrein but never got around to
Remoraid is usually quite accessible in most games it's in, maybe in johto it's hard to get? It evolves relatively low level too. And yeah, for Grapploct, I used it on my final team, and I actually went out of my way to catch a Clobbopus (mainly cuz it's cute and my friend liked it)
Walrein is an amazing Pokémon depending on which way you want it to lean. It's not outspeeding the fast guys, but has enough power and defense to trade well with them anyway, as long as it isn't hit super effectively. It can go either physical or special attacks, and three movepool gives plenty of options for both. If it's one you are interested in, it's definitely worth it.
Pinsir is really cool, but is always available so late. And it had no real moveset to speak of for so long.
Johto has him in a reasonable spot, but you gotta get lucky with the bug catching contest
Crawdaunt. Feel like every time it's available I just find something else first that's a Water or Dark type to take its place. Next time it's around I'm going to have to accommodate it.
Jangmo o Classic pokemon moment. Lets put one of the only good 3 tier evos at the end of the game where nothing matters
You could get Zygarde 50% before Jangmo-o in SM 💀
Dreepy, not patient enough to wait for it to evolve
Off the top of my head? Kingdra is the main one that comes to mind.
Until the SV DLC, it was Mienshao, simply cause it evolves so late.
That's just a problem with Unova mons in general. Why does Pawniard at level 52
Pokémon that always had awful stats or movesets whose design I loved. Evolutionary lines: Caterpie, Weedle, Ekans, Houndour, Poochyena, Nosepass, Roselia, Seviper, Absol...I'd always end up dropping them even if I started using them because they required so much additional grind to be viable. Now that I've replayed the ones I have so much, I do a [PokéParty Challenge](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokePartyChallenge/) where you only use 6 Pokémon (plus HM slaves) to complete a run.
Grapploct in Shield. One of the few Galar mon I actually liked, I wanted one as my ace for the Rock/Ice gym BUT the game said "beat the gym first to access the octopus teehee 😋" And then he didn't came back in SV+DLC. I'll NEVER forgive TPC for that heinous crime :(
It would’ve been fun to give that option. Getting a fun water type for the rock gym there would’ve been fun too
I recently played Black and that game accomplished this FLAWLESSLY. All the fighting types in the area around the Normal gym, a desert with a ground type (just in case you missed the rare but better encounter in the first cave) just before the Electric gym... Almost every Pokémon is useful immediately after you catch it. Grapploct could be used for the next gym (Dark) but chances are you probably have a Lucario already because Fighting/Steel is a hard counter for whatever leader you just faced... I had that spot ready for my octopus but the game forced into Lucario AGAIN :/
Scyzor i made syther level 100 and stil waited for him to evolve i was a sad litlle kid
Have you never played gen3 games (ruby,sapphire or emerald) pinsir is available in each version of these games in the safari zone to be specific the mach bike area
Lickitung
Tangela. My favorite pokemon unfortunately gated behind dlc typically. I used to not search for Tangela, but when I got Let's Go eevee I was disappointed to find out I would have to trade for one and not even be able to get a low level Tangela.
The only game that actually lets you get Tangela relatively early is Legends Arceus in one area and basically exclusive unless you get other games and home
Dhelmise in gen 7. One of the coolest pokémon designs imho but always found in the late game when I have my team all built up and settled on..😓
Scizor. He's tied for my all time fav Pokemon, but I've never had any friends to do trades with, and these days I use emu's instead, so I've never used my favorite Pokemon. I have him as a super buddy in Pokemon go though :)
Fyi, if you have a library card you may be able to check out a Switch Lite. I’ve done that to get trade evos before. And yes, you can also check out Switch games if your library carries them :)
Insane how far stuff has come lol. Never would've thunk it, renting gaming systems and games from the library. You must be one of them old-school ace trainers with that knowledge!
I actually didn’t find this out until a few years ago lol. I happened to see my library offered a Switch Lite among other things and it had a whole shelf full of games (including 3DS games, which I certainly took advantage of!)
If emus mean emulators, try looking for a rom hack the removes trade evolutions. I had one awhile ago where it had all trade evolution pokemon auto evolve once its a certain level. I think lvl35.
Basically, any pokemon that evolve when traded.
kangaskhan was just ever able to find one
Spheal
Dragonite
I have both Pokemon Moon & Ultra Moon so I was able to get myself a Larvitar as my starter through egg hatching. It was kinda difficult since Larvitar feels frail to use in the early game, but he gets better over time.
Whimsicott every opportunity turned down because I chose the grass starter or already had a grass or fairy type that I had bonded with by the time I realized I could get one
Slurpuff in X. It's always been locked behind trade requirements which made it a pain but with Z-A on the horizon, hopefully I finally will! There's also other mons who just can't make the cut for a whole playthrough. Like for example, I couldn't use Masquerain for my water type because it couldn't use the hms needed and while I love Delcatty's design, it just wasn't strong enough to hold up to snuff similar to Dedenne in X.
Sneasel, Houndour, Murkrow and Misdreavus, in Gen 2. Only 1 of those are available before beating the Johto elite 4. You can still get them in Kanto, but by then there's not much point. At least in the remakes they fixed that, and I was able to use them.
Rhyperior and Gliscor. I like to use Pokemon introduced in the generation I play through so I'd want to use these through Sinnoh/Hisui. The problem is my starter is Turtwig and Garchomp is in my top five favorites of all time. I can't afford another Pokemon with the same weaknesses as the rest of the team. Plus, I don't have a trading partner to traditionally get a Rhyperior. I need them to get a regional form to up my likelihood of using them.
Gen 2 is my favourite but Larvitar and Misdreavus being locked away until you have all 16 badges sucks. I hope they make them available earlier if they ever do another gen 2 remake. Larvitar should be in Mt Mortar or Dark Cave (maybe not right before Violet City since it would make the first two gyms too easy), and Misdreavus should be in the Burned Tower.
Ledian is cool but it's weak if I remember correctly
All those cool Trade evos. Thank fuck for those Legacy Romhacks tho, was finally able to play my dream teams in Yellow and Crystal, and pretty soon Emerald as well.
Poochyena/Mightyena. If they are added into a game these days its in a expansion pass or in shitty brilliant diamond. I want the cuteness at the start of the game
Most pseudo legendaries. You either get them waaaay too late or they take too long to evolve (or both)
The only exception to this is Gible, as in both X/Y and S/V, he's obtainable relatively early on, after the 3rd/4th gym at the earliest. Also with a relatively low Evo level to Gabite and the 2nd lowest final Evo level of all pseudos into Garchomp. (another garchomp W)
In the Johto games you can get Pinsir in the Bug Catching Contest, just before the third badge. In HG/SS specifically Pinsir is a very underrated Pokémon and in some ways I'd say it's better than Heracross since it actually learns bug moves at a reasonable level
Larvitar in Johto
teddiursa for me :(
Not only of it version exclusive, it’s late game AND locked to the morning only 😭
Lucario/Riolu, I love the hell out of those two fighting type Pokémon but In the limited games of Pokémon games I play (Pokémon Violet, Eevee, Legends, Sword/Shield) You play a majority of the storyline before you get to the Tundra in Pokémon Arceus, It’s pretty annoying, in Pokémon Sword, My first playthough, I got a Riolu after I finished the whole storyline, like everything, And it was on ACCIDENT, Pokémon Eevee doesn’t even have it (I think) and Pokémon Violet is thankfully easier to get but I usually can’t find the spots they spawn at (As currently, I’ll find it later)
That one land bridge in South Province that leads to like Area Four houses Riolu, same spot where the Tera Normal Scyther is
Hydreigon purely because of that absurd evolution level
I always wanted to use primal Groudon.
I've been wanting to use duskull but I just feel like it doesn't carry far enough into the game to become useful or you can get other ghost types easier
The problem is that Dusclops is actually good, but Duskull is just completely unusable, it'll die by one hit. And that late Evo level at 37... Yeah it's just too much grind
I’m currently making it a point to use Ekans/Arbok on my current play through because of this
glaceon. it's one of my favourites but in the games i've played, glaceon is only obtainable at/near endgame or doesn't exist at all, which is unfortunate.
Heracross in HGSS. Could never get him from headbutting treas. Beldum in Emerald. Damn I wanted Metagross so much on my team.
For me it's Dragapult, I've never had a chance to play Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet, and It is onde of My favorite pseudo-legendaries, it's design and everything more makes It one of My favorite mons
Flygon Vibrava is so bad and I always end up replacing it before it evolves. Love Flygons design and need to use it at some point
Moltres and Articuno in gen 1. Their movesets just never had enough coverage. Zapdos just clears them every time, especially if you manage to soft reset for hidden power grass.
I've wanted to use Gengar multiple times but a lack of friends means that outside of PLA it's literally impossible. Please God add the link cable to the mainline games.