Gen VII: Pokémon Sun and Moon (New info Post #5834)

[Cainchin]

So we can conclude that Vikavolt has at least base 75 HP, possibly more if its HP IV is less than 31.

For comparison, here's the base HP for all fully-evolved, early-game Bugs in earlier generations. Total BST (disregarding Gen VI changes) in brackets:

Butterfree: 60 (385)
Beedrill: 65 (385)
Ledian: 55 (390)
Ariados: 70 (390)
Beautifly: 60 (385)
Dustox: 60 (385)
Kricketune: 77 (384)
Leavanny: 75 (490)
Scolipede: 60 (475)
Vivillon: 80 (411)

The "early evolvers" all seem to have fairly low HP, which fits well with their low overall stats and BST. The exceptions are Vivillon, whose stats appear to be "tailored" for better perfomance (comparatively high HP, Sp. Atk and Speed, crap everything else, and a BST much higher than other early bloomers, to boot), and Kricketune, which just seems to focus on HP and Attack overall, the rest of its stats being thoroughly crummy.

Leavanny and Scolipede are both "late bloomers", reaching their final form after high Friendship (no earlier than level 21) and level 30, respectively. They also have a much higher BST than the other early-game bugs. Vikavolt was seen evolving at level 28 in a trailer, comfortably following the former two in their tracks.

The conclusion seems to be that Vikavolt is either tuned for a fairly defensive build (which is unlikely with that design, and Electric types don't tend to have high HP), or that it will follow its "late bloomer" cousins and have a fairly high BST for an early-game Bug. The high HP stat just follows the rest of the BST, and it's possible that Vikavolt will excel in other stats as well. Scolipede and Leavanny both have offensive stats above 100, and decent Speed too: 92 for Leavanny, 112 for Scolipede.

From experience we can then expect Vikavolt to have a BST around 480-500, with at least two stats at or around the 100 mark, the rest being around 70, give or take 20. Not a game breaker by BST alone, but given the right moves it should be a solid choice for an in-game team.

I was gonna post something commenting that so I got ninja'd in a way. Most starting bugs have low bst and most of them also bad distribution at that with the exception of Scolipede and Leavanny and also watched those of Galvantula he got like 472 bst.

I'm really hype for Vikavolt but fear for him possibly having low bst and bad distributed.
Official website describes Vikavolt as being really fast and firing electric beams and also using his jaws for shooting even stronger beams. This should translate as having similar bst as Galvantula but more fast as Galvantula description doesn't mention speed and similar Sp.atk and less atk and more frail.

Edit: btw Bug/Electric is really nice only 2 weakness fire and rock and it has 4 resists to grass, electric, steel and fighting + Levitate inmunity to ground (and also Sticky web, Spikes, Tspikes, and Arena trap.) I don't know why some people complain it got Levitate.

So with it's evolutions revealed and a little speculations on it's stats, Grubbin has gone from "eh, it's a nice early-game mon design I guess" to "oh my god give me this right now"
Litten and Grubbin's my planned team rn. Anyone else got any team plans from what they've seen so far?


Considering the MASSIVE PINCER JAWS on all stages of evolution, I think I can happily assume it to be physically-orientated rather than specially-orientated like Galvantula.

My plan is if pokebank is ready for when Sun/moon is out I will use 3 starters Pikipek and Vikavolt line last place is still to be decided.

 

[DHR-107]

So with it's evolutions revealed and a little speculations on it's stats, Grubbin has gone from "eh, it's a nice early-game mon design I guess" to "oh my god give me this right now"
Litten and Grubbin's my planned team rn. Anyone else got any team plans from what they've seen so far?


Considering the MASSIVE PINCER JAWS on all stages of evolution, I think I can happily assume it to be physically-orientated rather than specially-orientated like Galvantula.

We've only seen it use Spark, Zap Cannon and Bug Buzz... It implies special with the moveset (two of those being very powerful), but yeah... Unless they give it some new Electric Moves and a decent attack stats I'd be worried it'll be similar to Galvantula as well (but better). I mean, they did give Excavalier Bug Buzz so... Anything is possible.

 

[Flare Blitzle]

So we can conclude that Vikavolt has at least base 75 HP, possibly more if its HP IV is less than 31.

For comparison, here's the base HP for all fully-evolved, early-game Bugs in earlier generations. Total BST (disregarding Gen VI changes) in brackets:

Butterfree: 60 (385)
Beedrill: 65 (385)
Ledian: 55 (390)
Ariados: 70 (390)
Beautifly: 60 (385)
Dustox: 60 (385)
Kricketune: 77 (384)
Leavanny: 75 (490)
Scolipede: 60 (475)
Vivillon: 80 (411)

The "early evolvers" all seem to have fairly low HP, which fits well with their low overall stats and BST. The exceptions are Vivillon, whose stats appear to be "tailored" for better perfomance (comparatively high HP, Sp. Atk and Speed, crap everything else, and a BST much higher than other early bloomers, to boot), and Kricketune, which just seems to focus on HP and Attack overall, the rest of its stats being thoroughly crummy.

Leavanny and Scolipede are both "late bloomers", reaching their final form after high Friendship (no earlier than level 21) and level 30, respectively. They also have a much higher BST than the other early-game bugs. Vikavolt was seen evolving at level 28 in a trailer, comfortably following the former two in their tracks.

The conclusion seems to be that Vikavolt is either tuned for a fairly defensive build (which is unlikely with that design, and Electric types don't tend to have high HP), or that it will follow its "late bloomer" cousins and have a fairly high BST for an early-game Bug. The high HP stat just follows the rest of the BST, and it's possible that Vikavolt will excel in other stats as well. Scolipede and Leavanny both have offensive stats above 100, and decent Speed too: 92 for Leavanny, 112 for Scolipede.

From experience we can then expect Vikavolt to have a BST around 480-500, with at least two stats at or around the 100 mark, the rest being around 70, give or take 20. Not a game breaker by BST alone, but given the right moves it should be a solid choice for an in-game team.

I think another reason to potentially support the higher BST for the line is that Charjabug has its own special ability in Battery, which they are probably wanting people to use otherwise its creation is a little pointless. So combined with what you are saying I can see Charjabug having base stats similar to Whirlipede and Swadloon (380) rather than the other cocoon stages Spewpa (213), Metapod, Kakuna and Cas/Silcoon (205).

But I'm going to stay cautious, Game Freak has hurt me too many times and Vikavolt is so fantastic that I don't want to go through it again when it ends up with Kricketune tier stats :(

 

[MrTharne]

We've only seen it use Spark, Zap Cannon and Bug Buzz... It implies special with the moveset (two of those being very powerful), but yeah... Unless they give it some new Electric Moves and a decent attack stats I'd be worried it'll be similar to Galvantula as well (but better). I mean, they did give Excavalier Big Buzz so... Anything is possible.

In French its name is Lucanon and its Japanese's name also contain the word : Cannon. The cannon part really gives a Special oriented vibe to me. If you think of his jaws has a railgun, then there is no doubt it will be Special.
Also, it's a beetle, we already have two beetles who are Physically oriented, going Special makes sense.

We can only hope it will have more Def or SpeDef than Galvantula to be different.

 

[Chaos11011]

In French its name is Lucanon and its Japanese's name also contain the word : Cannon. The cannon part really gives a Special oriented vibe to me. If you think of his jaws has a railgun, then there is no doubt it will be Special.
Also, it's a beetle, we already have two beetles who are Physically oriented, going Special makes sense.

We can only hope it will have more Def or SpeDef than Galvantula to be different.

It already is different. It trades accurate Thunders for a Ground immunity. That's already a great start and I wouldn't be upset if that's the only thing that's really unique about it. There are a lot of mons with similar typing + BST but they have different niches due to movepool and abilities.

 

[blasphemy1]

Considering the MASSIVE PINCER JAWS on all stages of evolution, I think I can happily assume it to be physically-orientated rather than specially-orientated like Galvantula.

Definitely. His design reminds me of jumper cables, especially since he can pick up Charjabug for power. That makes me think it requires a lot of physical contact moves. I can see the argument that it might be a special attacker, but based on previous Bug-type designs I find that highly unlikely. Pretty much everything with menacing claws, pincers, or mandibles has been a physical attacker.

 

[D_what]

It's description on the site includes the phrase "flying fortress"; so honestly it's a contender for decent stats in anything bar maybe sp.def. Maybe it'll have balanced offenses for running a niche U-turn AND Volt switch set.
*mumble* *grumble* lousy Forretress only learning Volt Switch... *mumble*

 

[Absolclaw]

I'm not the only one that hopes Vikavolt gets Mega Launcher to go with it's rail gun face, am I?

 

[Darth Manaphy]

Only problem is that it would literally have no stab whatsoever to abuse Mega Launcher with (assuming no new moves)

 

[Kurona]

Only problem is that it would literally have no stab whatsoever to abuse Mega Launcher with (assuming no new moves)

Didn't stop Mega Blastoise who usually carries Hydro Pump over Water Pulse from using it very well.

 

[MrTharne]

I'm not the only one that hopes Vikavolt gets Mega Launcher to go with it's rail gun face, am I?

One problem I see here is : Levitate.
The only 'mons that have other abilities are Bronzor&Bronzong, and I think they did it to give a "what weakness do you want to mitigate" type of thinking when using him.
There is very low chance of him getting a HA.

 

[Morsel]

SOME DAMAGE CALCULATIONS: POTENTIAL STATS FOR VIKAVOLT AND DRAMPA.

Hello folks, I was really curious on what could be the special attack of both drampa and vikavolt, as they both are really cool Pokemon in my view, and it would be even better if their stats were great as well! Looking at the Japanese trailer, Drampa was able to OHKO Flygon with a +1 Dragon Breath. Vikavolt was able to do ~70% to a Milotic with Zap Cannon. With that said, before calculating, there are some assumptions that had to be made:

ASSUMPTIONS:

I) All Pokemon in question (Flygon, Drampa, Vikavolt and Milotic) have 0 IVs and 0 EVs for each respective base stat.
II) Each attacking Pokemon achieved an average damage roll.
III) Every Pokemon in the calculation had no held item.
IV) All Pokemon involved are at neutral stats unless otherwise stated.
TO NOTE: These estimates are just that -- estimates. There are many uncontrollable variables -- IVs, EVS, items on each Pokemon -- that are unanswered; thus, take these calculations with a pinch of salt. Also, I used the levels of the Pokemon, and the exact Pokemon, that were in the trailer for more accurate results.

ALSO: I adjusted the base stats of Garchomp and Pikachu to fit the criteria, as well as the BP of Thunder and Dragon Pulse (you can do this on the damage calculator).

CALCULATION 1: LEVEL 41 VIKAVOLT ATTACKING LEVEL 39 MILOTIC.

Super effective 120 BP STAB attack coming off base 90 special attack (against Milotic)
0 SpA Pikachu Thunder vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Milotic: 90-108 (66.6 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO.

CALCULATION 2: LEVEL 44 DRAMPA ATTACKING LEVEL 45 FLYGON.

+1 60 BP super effective STAB attack coming off base 130 special attack (against Flygon)
+1 0 SpA Garchomp Dragon Pulse vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Flygon: 132-156 (94.2 - 111.4%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO.

Disregard the moves and attacking Pokemon; they are merely placeholders.

CONCLUSION

Vikavolt is likely to have ~90 special attack, whereas Drampa is looking to have close to 130 special attack!

Personally, I'm a little disappointed with Vikavolt, but it's fairly understandable considering that it is an early game bug type Pokemon. Perhaps it'll get a good hidden ability? The trailer hints at unburden: "When in intense aerial combat, it releases the battery on its back." However, we cannot know for sure. All I know is that I can't wait to use Drampa in sun and moon :)

 

[Prof. Almeida]

Someone was stupid enough to post his Magearna Ga-Olé disk and QR Code. I say stupid, because the code is unique, so if someone uses it before him, he won't have his Magearna. Still, I think it's pretty.

 

[Flare Blitzle]

The problem with trying to work out Vikavolt's Sp.Atk is that we don't actually see whether Milotic's health stops falling because the video cuts off. So it could be a OHKO for all we know.

e: Looking over the video the same cutting off also happens with Charjabug using Spark and Cutiefly using Fairy Wind. But people aren't as fussed for their stats :U

 

[Pikachu315111]

Only problem is that it would literally have no stab whatsoever to abuse Mega Launcher with (assuming no new moves)

Well they could introduce a new Electric-type wave/pulse move. Heck, they have a perfect concept to base one on: a move that's an EMP!

Someone was stupid enough to post his Magearna Ga-Olé disk and QR Code. I say stupid, because the code is unique, so if someone uses it before him, he won't have his Magearna. Still, I think it's pretty.

Oops. Though it's also a bit of the fault on whoever decided not have the QR code hidden until you open the package. Also to fix that mistake they can probably just go to see the movie again and get another one.

 

[deluge]

Tapu Koko is likely to be pretty good. I'm expecting 580 BST in line with Moltres, Azelf, Suicune, Terrakion etc.
Electric/Fairy is a nice typing being weak to only Ground and Poison while having decent offensive coverage.
Electric Surge will give free sleep immunity and a x1.5 boost to Electric attacks on top of STAB and any boosting item.

Togedemaru is a really interesting Pikaclone too, at first glance.
I don't want to get too excited though since Dedenne has a great typing also but has terrible stats and a horrible movepool.
It'll certainly be limited by Pikaclones' low BST but Electric/Steel with Lighting Rod is still quite nice.
Since it resists Stealth Rock and can't be paralyzed or poisoned the roly poly pokemon might be a viable spinner in a basement tier if it gets rapid spin.

 

[Morsel]

The problem with trying to work out Vikavolt's Sp.Atk is that we don't actually see whether Milotic's health stops falling because the video cuts off. So it could be a OHKO for all we know.

e: Looking over the video the same cutting off also happens with Charjabug using Spark and Cutiefly using Fairy Wind. But people aren't as fussed for their stats :U

Actually if you look closely, it stops falling right before the video cuts off :)

 

[The_Emperor]

So with it's evolutions revealed and a little speculations on it's stats, Grubbin has gone from "eh, it's a nice early-game mon design I guess" to "oh my god give me this right now"
Litten and Grubbin's my planned team rn. Anyone else got any team plans from what they've seen so far?


Considering the MASSIVE PINCER JAWS on all stages of evolution, I think I can happily assume it to be physically-orientated rather than specially-orientated like Galvantula.

I don't think Vikavolt will be a Galvantula 2.0. I reckon speed will also be more of a priority.

 

[Flare Blitzle]

Actually if you look closely, it stops falling right before the video cuts off :)

No?

The top bar is when it's still on screen, bottom is it if you pause quickly as the screen is sliding off. It's still falling and we can't know at what point it stops, same with Cutiefly and the other thing

 

[Darvin]

I really don't see the Vikavolt/Galvantula comparison. Sure, they have the same type combo, and will likely have access to the same STAB moves... but beyond that they have some pretty stark differences. In story-mode, Vikavolt is almost certainly a pokemon you can acquire very early. It wouldn't be surprised if Grubbin were catchable in the very first patch of grass, and able to be fully-evolved before the first gym. This is a pokemon you can start training early, and then either replace later or just keep going with all the levels and EV's you've already acquired. Galvantula, on the other hand, was caught in the middle of the game, after your fifth badge. It's a relative latecomer, appearing so late that you could have already raised, enjoyed, and perma-boxed a Vikavolt by that point in the game.

In competitive play, Galvantula is defined as being the only noteworthy offensive Sticky Web setter in the game. It's UU virtually by this merit alone, as its stats are extremely mediocre by UU standards and it's mostly outclassed by other electric-types like Heliolisk. Galvantula's Thunder is only slightly stronger than Heliolisk's Thunderbolt, and its coverage options aren't nearly as diverse or powerful. If Vikavolt is going to compete with Galvantula for a team slot it will need either considerably better stats or movepool or both, and as a result will have a different niche and fulfill a very different role on the team. So, either Vikavolt will have its own completely different niche, or it won't be viable in the first place in whatever tier Galvantula ends up occupying in gen 7.

So at this point, I see no reason to fear Vikavolt being a Galvantula clone. Unless it inexplicably has Sticky Web they'll have different roles competitively and probably won't even be viable in the same tiers, and it appears at a completely different place in the story-mode so you'll encounter it and use it very differently.

 

[Lady Vader]

To me, Vikavolt looks like a special attacker (I mean, it keeps reminding me of the Gauss Cannon from Doom).

I really don't see the Vikavolt/Galvantula comparison. Sure, they have the same type combo, and will likely have access to the same STAB moves... but beyond that they have some pretty stark differences. In story-mode, Vikavolt is almost certainly a pokemon you can acquire very early. It wouldn't be surprised if Grubbin were catchable in the very first patch of grass, and able to be fully-evolved before the first gym. This is a pokemon you can start training early, and then either replace later or just keep going with all the levels and EV's you've already acquired. Galvantula, on the other hand, was caught in the middle of the game, after your fifth badge. It's a relative latecomer, appearing so late that you could have already raised, enjoyed, and perma-boxed a Vikavolt by that point in the game.

In competitive play, Galvantula is defined as being the only noteworthy offensive Sticky Web setter in the game. It's UU virtually by this merit alone, as its stats are extremely mediocre by UU standards and it's mostly outclassed by other electric-types like Heliolisk. Galvantula's Thunder is only slightly stronger than Heliolisk's Thunderbolt, and its coverage options aren't nearly as diverse or powerful. If Vikavolt is going to compete with Galvantula for a team slot it will need either considerably better stats or movepool or both, and as a result will have a different niche and fulfill a very different role on the team. So, either Vikavolt will have its own completely different niche, or it won't be viable in the first place in whatever tier Galvantula ends up occupying in gen 7.

So at this point, I see no reason to fear Vikavolt being a Galvantula clone. Unless it inexplicably has Sticky Web they'll have different roles competitively and probably won't even be viable in the same tiers, and it appears at a completely different place in the story-mode so you'll encounter it and use it very differently.

I find many fans (including me from time to time) have a subconscious tendency to assume that Pokémon of the same dual typing will have similar stats.

So with it's evolutions revealed and a little speculations on it's stats, Grubbin has gone from "eh, it's a nice early-game mon design I guess" to "oh my god give me this right now"
Litten and Grubbin's my planned team rn. Anyone else got any team plans from what they've seen so far?

Rowlet, Rockruff, and Vikavolt, with Komala or Yungoos being a possible addition.

 

[Beck]

Right now I'm torn between Litten and Popplio. My choice between the two will be determined when I know what other Fire and Water-type Pokemon are available. Otherwise Pikipek is a definite and Komala is likely a definite.

I'm holding out for a Steel/Flying-type for Pikipek and a Normal/Psychic-type for Komala.

 

[Siggu]

So far I'd pick Rowlet, Pikipek and maybe Grubbin's lines.

 

[Fawfulmk-II]

Someone was stupid enough to post his Magearna Ga-Olé disk and QR Code. I say stupid, because the code is unique, so if someone uses it before him, he won't have his Magearna. Still, I think it's pretty.

Are those Magearna's BSTs? because if so...I think they combined Special Attack and Special Defense....and this does have crossover compatability with RGBY.

is the sole SPECIAL stat returning?

 

[Lady Vader]

Are those Magearna's BSTs? because if so...I think they combined Special Attack and Special Defense....and this does have crossover compatability with RGBY.

is the sole SPECIAL stat returning?

This is for the game it also functions with and has nothing to do with Magearna's Sun and Moon stats any more than the TCG does.