Strongest & Weakest In-Game Pokémon Ever

The Psychics lost none of their OPness in the Generation 2 in-game simply because none of the countermeasures took hold - among every single in-game trainer in the game, there's 2 of Umbreon, Murkrow and Houndoom and 3 of Sneasel to defeat, meaning there's nine Pokémon in the entire in-game portion that are immune to Psychic. Furthermore, Ghost moves are physical and thus weaker on the ghosts, which are also nearly nonexistent outside of Ecruteak City. Bugs are still shafted on STABs, with only Heracross getting a notable one (and it matches up very poorly against Psychic-Types due to being part Fighting). It's probably the reason why everyone and their mother has a Poochyena/Mightyena in Gen 3. Abra is easily the top in Gen 2 because it can topple the few random Steel-Types with Fire Punch and just STAB through anything else.

Also, Shuckle is a cut above the likes of Unown and Tyrogue simply because it comes at a decent level as a free gift and Defense Curl + STAB Rollout hurts even if your attack stat is garbage. Shuckle also has the bulk to pull that manuever off from time to time. It -is- trash for sure, but still even remotely usable.

In RSE, I'd argue Aron to be somewhat more useful than Skarmory - although its typing is not that good on the defense, it learns much better attacks like Earthquake and Double-Edge. It even has Thunderbolt to deal with some of the Water-Types if you really want to. Treecko is also one that looks strong and fast on paper, but it's too frail to take on most Pokémon it doesn't have a type advantage over, many Water- and Ground-Types have a type that cancels their grass weakness in Hoenn, it doesn't have any good moves outside of Leaf Blade and -maybe- Dragon Claw if you backtrack for it and Shroomish, Roselia and Gloom are at various points in the game as a better Grass-Type option with not only more attacking options, but also status moves to support your team with in case they don't have type advantage. It even struggles to defeat the early game Wurmples + evos and Taillows. But if you really want to forgo any utility moves offered by the other Grass-Types and two starters leagues ahead of it just to bop Wallace's Whiscash, go for it.
 

DHR-107

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Might as well do Top 5's for each game:
G/S/C: Totodile / Geodude / Gastly / Mareep / [Tauros/Miltank]

Abra isn't as strong here because Dark and Steel types exist, so it has to deal with its frailty more often. In any case, unlike RBY where Starters are intechangable, Chiorita has exactly 1 Gym leader it doesn't hate (Chuck), and Quilava is just a huge timesink, especially when you can catch a Magmar midgame. Totodile stands head and shoulders above the other two for in-game movepool and usability. Geodude is back for not having to use TMs. Gastly can be caught insanely early (Sprout Tower at Night) and its high speed, special attack, and immunities carry it through the game. Mareep is slow, but its great offensive prowess and the fact Fire Punch is special in GSC makes Ampharos a great power player. Last slot goes to Tauros/Miltank, which you can catch after Sudowoodo. They hit hard, they are fast, and they have decent bulk too. Miltank is tankier and can heal the team with Milk Drink, Tauros is a straight powerhouse.
OK This is just flat out wrong. Dark and Steel do exist yes. But the only dark types that appear are incredibly rare (a few rocket mons and Karen) and Steel types are pretty much rarer still (Jasmine is the only trainer which pops to mind). They don't even appear in the wild until Kanto. Everything else is obliterated by Kadabra/Alakazam after the point it gets Psybeam. If you throw an Elemental Punch on it, you can even get past most Darks because of its pretty decent special defence. It's also incredibly fast so... Nothing is ever going to hit it back.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/gsc-in-game-tier-list.3525167/

While Mareep is decent, it's certainly not a top mon in GSC. Both Nidorans, Kenya (or another Spearow) or Wooper would be better choices. Mareep has problems with Pryce and Claire, and does kinda OK in the E4. It's nothing special though.

When considering the strongest ingame Pokemon, are we considering availability and the time it takes to train or capture it? I mean this because if we are then its probably somewhere along the lines of RBY Nidoran-m vs DPPt Chimchar / Starly vs RSE Mudkip because you get them so early, they are all in really good EXP groups. This is the problem with Gyarados and Gible who sponge a ton of EXP, and they are pretty easy to find, capture and train. When I think what is the Strongest Ingame Pokemon, I think of whatever is the easiest to use and has the best matchups throughout the game. That is RS Mudkip imo, largely because most of the Grass-type moves in Gen III are terrible so you virtually have no weaknesses aside from Grovyle and the odd Mega Drain, you get it immediately, and it is so consistently strong throughout the game.
We do take into account the time it takes to get and its usefulness throughout the game. In this instance, we're trying to compare different generations and changes to typings, XP gain, items etc. Its even more involved. RS Mudkip is definitely a good shout, it's got incredibly matchups throughout the whole game and isn't really scared of anything apart from Cacturne and your rivals Sceptile (both of which get annihilated by Ice Beam/Ice Punch).

Looking at the other games, RB Squirtle/Zapdos/Nidoking are amazing, Abra as everyone else has said in GSC, Mudkip in RSE, Starly/Chimchar in DPPt (although I think Infernape does struggle at points), Archen in BW1 and Darumakka in BW2, Honedge + Early Megas in XY... Most of them are pretty easy to discern.

I used Wobbuffet in XY recently and it wasn't terrible, in fact it became pretty much my most important Pokemon. However, I had to look up almost every principle trainers moveset to utilize it well. GSC Unown is also pretty horrible due to the aforementioned problems with Hidden Power... You get it early but it's still not really going to help you out. I'd like to put forward BW2 Vulpix as another contender for worst Pokemon ever. It comes incredibly late (literally right before you can fight the E4), has no decent moves, evolves into a fairly OK Ninetales... But then has problems with almost every Pokemon left in the game and gets barely any SE coverage on anything left. I traded and used a Drought Ninetales in a BW2 game and it was still fucking terrible.

Generally most of the really bad ingame mons are going to be very late and NFE (or have awful movepools).
 

Brambane

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I would tentatively say all my contenders for the Top 10 Strongest Ingame Pokemon as:
RBY Nidoran-m
RBY Squirtle
RBY Zapdos
GSC Abra
RSE Mudkip
FRLG Nidoran-m
DPPt Chimchar
DPPt Starly
DPPt Abra
HGSS Totodile
HGSS Geodude
HGSS Red Gyarados
HGSS Scyther
BW Archen
B2W2 Magnemite
B2W2 Darumaka
XY Riolu/Lucario
XY Honedge
XY Charmander
ORAS Mudkip
ORAS Torchic (maybe)
ORAS Latios/Latias


Narrowing it down for me will take a bit more thought, but those are my contenders.

Some of the ones here have been less discussed. HGSS Red Gyarados kind of went over my head because you get it so much later than the rest of the Pokemon, but you can actually get before battling Chuck and it is much easier to forgive because it can pretty much solo the rest of the game. Being an XP sponge is much less of an issue when you are the only Pokemon you need, except maybe something for those pesky Electric-types.

HGSS Scyther is kind of a stretch. Its a bit of a pain to catch but it does pay off once you capture one, even more because you need one with Technician, but it is really good if you get it. And if you can evolve it into Scizor oh MAN

ORAS Mudkip is worse than RSE Mudkip but its still probably the strongest overall starter, although Torchic did get much better in ORAS so you could potentially make a case for them. ORAS Latis I kind of count as one Pokemon since they are basically the same. Sure they a little underleveled and they are in the Slow EXP group and they come a little late, but a Mega Lati@s is not going to be a deadweight when you get it. A really solid Pokemon for the rest of the game, as to be expected.
 
HGSS Red Gyarados
Having recently done a Heartgold playthrough with two Gyarados on my team (one red, one blue), I'd like to point out that you can throw a Magikarp into daycare and have it be level 19 before you can even reach Lake of Rage. In fact, if you spend any time at all in the Park doing stuff like bug catching contests your Blue Gyarados will be ready in time to destroy Morty with its Bite. While Red Gyarados is great thanks to the high level it's caught at, an old-fashioned Blue Gyarados becomes available in a more timely manner. So both approaches definitely have their merits, and are hardly incompatible with each other.
 
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I'm gonna agree with the people saying GSC Totodile. While it might not be the numerically strongest Pokémon in GSC it is still very powerful, has a good movepool (mostly via easily replaceable TMs and HMs) and has access to quite a few HMs if you're inclined to use it for that reason. It might be the most useful starter in the entire series.
 

Take Azelfie

More flags more fun
Could I second Sawk in bw? The things a monster with just its STAB and the only time I could really say it's lack in lacking would probably be some of the e4. You can also dedicate 2HM slots to it since you really only need fighting move and a rock move.


Edit: not first but probably 3rd or 4th
 
Things that jump out to me:

RBY: Squirtle, Nidoran-M (especially Yellow)
GSC: Abra, Totodile
RSE: Mudkip, Zangoose (in Ruby)
FRLG: nothing really stands out, Nidoran-M I guess
DPP: Chimchar, Gible (in Platinum), Starly
HGSS: Totodile, Scyther, Kangaskhan (Pokewalker)
BW: Darumaka, Archen, Drilbur
BW2: Magnemite
XY: Riolu, Charmander
ORAS: Mudkip

If I had to rank a top 10, this is VERY open to interpretation but:

1. RBY Nidoran-M
2. GSC Abra
3. XY Charmander
4. RSE Mudkip
5. BW2 Magnemite
6. XY Riolu
7. BW Archen
8. DPP Chimchar
9. ORAS Mudkip
10. RBY Squirtle
 
Blaziken will fuck its way through everything in any run you use it in.
Fire/Fighting in general just tears through anything in its path

Worst in-game Pokemon?
Wobbuffet? Chansey? All of these things.
 
I don't think Abra holds a candle to Totodile in GSC. Both of them can OHKO most of their weak opposition, but there's some things that neither can OHKO (or only Feraligatr can, such as Houndoom), and in those cases Feraligatr wins because it can take a hit. It's also available much earlier, and does not require any luck to encounter or catch. What exactly is Abra's higher raw offense, which is usually overkill, help it against that's so important that it overcomes these advantages?

The same goes for BW Archen to a lesser extent - it's strong, sure, but it requires backtracking and it has to fight itemless to be at its strongest. It doesn't belong in a list of absolute best mons at the time because its competition is Pokémon that win all game long rather than for about half of it.

I would say Nidoran M (RBY), Totodile (GSC), Mudkip (RSE), Chimchar (DPP), Starly (DPP) and Cyndaquil (HGSS) belong near the top of this list.
 
Worst pokemon in-game in RSE ?
Feebas for sure. Difficult to catch and comes very late in the game, you have to raise its beauty to evolve it into the majestic Milotic but...
(1) Water types are very common;
(2) It is so difficult to catch a Feebas it isn't even funny.
All these traits make this pokemon easily forgettable: there are too many replacements with less pain.

Regarding the best pokemon in every generation I say:
(RBY and FRLG) Nidoran M: a little better than its female counterpart thanks to the better attacking stats despite the Psychic weakness...
(GSE and HGSS) Mareep (I disagree with the ranks): between Electric moves and Thunder Wave support (useful in battles and for catching) the sheep has plenty uses. In HGSS it comes even earlier in order to help you in the first Gym and Static is always appreciated when the 30% chance arrives. It is very difficult to forget to run it during the playtrough.
(RSE and ORAS) Mudkip is the best monster for two reasons. Reason 1: the base stats of the starters are already high if we consider the in-game and has a good match-up towards all the 8 Gym thanks to its typing alone. Reason 2: it can run Surf/Waterfall without much effort because STAB rectifies their base power even before the physical-special split. Swampertite is an additional bonus added in ORAS.
(DPP) Starly: it comes very early in the game and is quite simple to raise it upon the final stage. Don't forget that in-game its base Spe is good enough to run Adamant nature while still outspeed a huuuuuuuge number of opponents. The game spams at you the MT Return, so you are able to have a good STAB really early in the game.
(BW2) Magnemite: you can catch it really early and can help from there with its nice typing. Eviolite remembers you how to love fat, but powerful tanks even if you aren't already a Magneton.
 
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cityscapes

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I would say Nidoran M (RBY), Totodile (GSC), Mudkip (RSE), Chimchar (DPP), Starly (DPP) and Cyndaquil (HGSS) belong near the top of this list.
As a long time player of Platinum, I'd argue that Starly's viability in-game is heavily overrated. It puts in absolutely no work against the first gym, has an advantage against the second (but struggles with Reflect Turtwig), does almost nothing against the third, and has to deal with Rock-type moves in the fourth... and even then, it still has to put up with three more bad Gym matchups (Steel, Ice, and Electric, despite Close Combat, all give it trouble). In addition, Staraptor may be amazing, but Starly and Staravia are simply underwhelming due to low stats, bad coverage, and no STABs besides Return and Aerial Ace until very late.

TL;DR I feel that people are describing DPPt Starly to be better than it is.
 
TL;DR I feel that people are describing DPPt Starly to be better than it is.
Starly has hard times towards many Gyms, but:
(1) Has an early STAB Return provided by a MT and happiness starts at 70, but being an early pokemon means you can easily raise it only by walking normally without wasting time. Level 9 Wing Attack is really good (it has the same base power of Aerial Ace) and so is level 13 Double Team. This bird is not a pain to be trained because having already a good Spe tier allows us run an Adamant nature, which is very good when Staraptor arrives with its 120 base Atk stat;
(2) Level 14 brings us Staravia with Intimidate support even for the Rock/Steel types before CC arrives. For that time your starter has ways to defeat them or you can always catch Budew for Rock-type pokemons;
(3) Plenty opportunities to level up towards many trainers and wild pokemons. Staraptor has a barren movepool, but Close Combat is really what is needed to fix its coverage problems towards Rock/Steel/Ice pokemons plus Magnemite family.

The real "problem" with Starly is the lack of bulk (Intimidate helps), but this doesn't really matter except if you are talking about a Nuzlocke.
 
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Xen

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About the worst Pokemon in DPPt, Male Combee definitely is a contender. Terrible typing + poor movepool + horrible stats bar an average Speed? Yeah...
For what it's worth, while the Pokemon specie that appears on the honey tree is set when you smear the honey, the gender isn't set until you encounter it, meaning you can easily soft-reset for a female Combee if you really want one. But Vespiquen isn't exactly the greatest Pokemon either so...

While we're on the subject, Munchlax is a good contender for the worst Pokemon in DPPt. Snorlax is not a bad battler, but having to wait approximately 6 hours for a 1% chance to encounter it, provided you even placed honey on one of the 4 randomized Munchlax trees out of the 21 or so trees in the game, you would need some incredible luck to encounter and catch it in a reasonable manner. Even if you're lady luck incarnate, Munchlax suffers from terrible speed issues, meaning it'll get bullied quite a bit for not much return until it evolves (through an annoying happiness evolution).
 
Feebas in RSE (and probably Gen 4 games, don't remember) is also crazy. Nigh impossible to find, you need to force-feed it good Pokeblocks to even get it to evolve.
 
In DPPt the worst pokemon is Burmy. I love the concept behind it, but...why the AI has to spam that Protect every possible turn? Its low stats even after evolution makes Mothim and Wormadam little appealing.
 
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cityscapes

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In DPPt the worst pokemon is Burmy. I love the concept behind it, but...why the AI has to spam that Protect every possible turn? Its low stats even after evolution makes Mothim and Wormadam little appealing.
Burmy has only Protect as a starting move, learning its first attack, Tackle, at Level 5 iirc. I like to think that it's made to teach kids how to play VGC since Protect is so prevalent there :P

I've played through DPPt with Burmy before in a Nuzlocke and I have to say, it wasn't too bad. It was dead weight until evolution, but it brings cool things to the table after it evolves. Wormadam can be customized to suit your team with types it needs, gets a good STAB early on (Razor Leaf/Mud Shot/Mirror Shot) and possibly a good coverage move (Hidden Power) while Mothim has its own Hidden Power, has good Speed and SpA, and gets cool moves like Air Cutter (later Air Slash) and Psybeam. My Mothim almost made it to Celestic Town before it met its cruel fate.
 
Okay, I didn't know Starly's gym matchups were that bad, nvm then.

Don't really like Mareep. I mean, it's decent for a casual stroll through the game but it's slow, so it'll get outsped and statused or disrupted a decent amount. That's not exactly top10 material.
 
Okay, I didn't know Starly's gym matchups were that bad, nvm then.
Don't really like Mareep. I mean, it's decent for a casual stroll through the game but it's slow, so it'll get outsped and statused or disrupted a decent amount. That's not exactly top10 material.
Thunder Wave support (or even Static) is really useful to put this sheep's Spe in work even in difficult match-ups, except towards Grounds that are immune to Electric moves. I want to underline that in GSC and in HG/SS you can still paralyze Electrics if needed and Ampharos is bulky enough to tank an hit and paralize the opponent. What makes Ampharos so good in my opinion is the possibility to use STAB Electric moves since early routes with a pokemon with quite high numerical stats (500 is nice in-game).

In my opinion, a B rank for Ampharos is really harsh; A rank seems much better (top 10 for sure).
 
Top10 in GSC/HGSS maybe, cause there's just not many mons that come as early while still being good long term prospects. But no way it's top 10 mons of all time. Can't you see that not having to Thunder Wave to be faster > having to Thunder Wave? There's just too many mons throughout the series that can OHKO while faster.
 
Top10 in GSC/HGSS maybe, cause there's just not many mons that come as early while still being good long term prospects. But no way it's top 10 mons of all time. Can't you see that not having to Thunder Wave to be faster > having to Thunder Wave? There's just too many mons throughout the series that can OHKO while faster.
I meant top 10 in GSC/HGSS.

The strongest monster of all time is -maybe- Abra if you are able to catch it before it teleports away. Small tip: in DPPt lev 9 Chimchar learns Taunt to do this with ease. You can even run a Modest nature (if you really want to nuke the game) because you already outspeed everything with your base Spe. The only problem I see with this is the fact you have to take care of it until level 16.
 

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