Pokemon RBY In-game Tiers - Mark II

[atsync]

What guy? I have no idea what you're talking about!

The only thing I can think of is the stupid Whirlwind TM...

[TM13IceBeam]

Originally Posted by Fat Chou Toshio

What does the guy outside Mt. Moon give you? (the guy you can only access if you talk to him before jumping into the grass west of cerulean city)

I could have sworn he gives you mega kick but my memory could be messing with me.

Whirlwind

mega punch is located somewhere in the mountain itself while mega kick is in victory road. not that it matters since you are supposed to buy it anyway >.>

[Zowayix]

You might have mixed it up with the Mega Punch and Mega Kick move tutors, who are on Route 4 in FR/LG only. In RBY, the Mega Punch TM is in Mt. Moon and the Mega Kick TM is first found in the Celadon Dept. Store.

[Chou Toshio]

well crap.

Ok, but Mega Punch is definitely a decent option for Pikachu, being powerful and expendable. Your Charmeleon / Wartortle can do fine without it too, getting away with Scratch / Bite, and they also will probably get Dig.

[atsync]

If I had to be honest I'd rather teach Pikachu Body Slam because it is more accurate, and Pikachu can't afford to miss with those shitty defences.

I slashed it with Body Slam though. I guess you can teach it Mega Punch "in the meantime" and then replace it with Body Slam later.

[NoUserName]

I think it should be stand out the fact that boths Nidorans and Mankey are the easiest way of defeating Brock in Yellow without overleveling or messing around with gimmicks(with Butterfree is also possible but Butterfree sucks in a long-term and training Caterpie isn't the funniest thing of the world, Mankey also could, but at least Mankey learns Low Kick at lv 9(power 50 in RBY))

Sincerely, this is the most difficult leader ever to defeat ever, in addition, not beating Brock does not allow the player to continue the main story(except of using a glitch, but...)(with Misty is the same, but at least the game allows to grind in more zones, such as SS. Anne and reaching Bill's house.

Which of us when we played Yellow and we know almost nothing of the game, "suffered" from not defeating Brock?
At least against Misty there are more intuitive tools in RBY for defeating her(grasses at route 24)

I am thinking that, true we are not going to tier glitch mons, but what if we do an exception with Mew?

[Zowayix]

The Brock skip glitch was fixed in Yellow. I have tested this numerous times.

[Afti]

Originally Posted by Fat NoUserName

I am thinking that, true we are not going to tier glitch mons, but what if we do an exception with Mew?

The way that glitch works, you can easily Growl the opponent that sets the species (traditionally, Slowpoke) six times to get your Pokémon at level 1, which lets you get a Pokémon with negative experience and, consequently, jump to 100 on leveling.

Ignoring any concerns founded on principle - every Pokémon obtained by that glitch has equal potential to be gamebreaking. A level 100 Beedrill at Misty is a gamebreaker. There's not meaningful tiering to do there.

[Hemp Man]

I still think Seismic Toss Pikachu is underrated

Originally Posted by Fat Chou Toshio

I know that you all seem to hate on Gyarados's babying needs, but seriously... it seeing the same tier as Pikachu and Ninetales seems kind of dumb.

ORIGINAL:
Magikarp
Availability: You can buy it almost for free (500 Poke, to be precise), but at level 5. It evolves at level 20.
Stats: As a Magikarp, it's got nothing going for it, except for okay Speed. Once it evolves, all of its stats (minus Speed) grow from pathetic to great.
Movepool: As a Magikarp, it starts out with the useless Splash, and can't properly defend itself until it grows to level 15 and learns Tackle. Once it's a Gyarados, however, it gets the more powerful Bite, and you can teach it Water Gun via the normally useless TM12. It can also learn Thunderbolt and Ice Beam by TM, and Dragon Rage at level 25.
Power: For the first 15 levels, it won't be able to beat even a Caterpie 1-on-1. After it evolves, it can occasionally take on entire Routes by itself.
Type: Water's great when you get it, but it can't use any Water-type moves when you get it. When it evolves, its weakness to Electric becomes more amplified, but it now resists Grass and gains an immunity to Ground. Its newfound weaknesses to Ice and Rock aren't too bad, because Ice is rare in-game and Rock-types are washed away by Water Gun/Surf.
Match-ups: Because of how pathetic it is as a Magikarp, all of the following are assuming it's a Gyarados.
Misty: High Attack and resistance to Water mean that Misty's Pokemon are reliably beaten; however, it's quite unlikely that you'll have evolved Magikarp by the time you fight her.
Lt. Surge: Don't bother.
Erika: Gyarados resists Grass, but don't use it against her unless you're willing to teach it Ice Beam.
Koga: Surf hits his Pokemon's weaker Special, often KOing in 2 hits.
Sabrina: Bite/Body Slam/other Normal attack squishes her fragile Psychic-types.
Blaine: Gyarados's type advantage gives it the win.
Giovanni: See Blaine.
Lorelei: Gyara's needs Thunderbolt to harm her Pokemon, but her Lapras will usually survive a hit and send a Blizzard right back at it.
Bruno: His 2 Onix are turned to rubble by (insert Water-type attack here), and Hi Jump Kick/Submission is resisted by Gyarados's Flying secondary typing.
Agatha: Gyarados can't learn any moves that are SE against any of her Pokemon, except for Golbat. Don't use it against her unless you like seeing your sea serpent get statused.
Lance: 4 of his Pokemon resist Water, but all of them (minus Gyarados) are weak to Ice. Keep in mind that all of his Pokemon know Hyper Beam, which preys on Gyarados's mediocre Defense. In Yellow, his 2 Dragonair and Dragonite know Thunderbolt/Ice Beam and Thunder+Blizzard, respectively.
Additional Comments: As shown above, Gyarados is awesome, but if you want to use it, you'll have to bear with the completely useless Magikarp for 15 long levels, due to its experience curve (Slow). Once it evolves, however, it becomes incredibly powerful and self-sufficient.

UPDATED TO BE MORE ACCURATE:
Magikarp -
Availability: You can buy it almost for free (500 Poke, to be precise), but at level 5. It evolves at level 20.
Stats: As a Magikarp, it's got nothing going for it, except for okay Speed. Once it evolves, all of its stats (minus Speed) grow from pathetic to great.
Movepool: As a Magikarp, it starts out with the useless Splash, and can't properly defend itself until it grows to level 15 and learns Tackle. Once it's a Gyarados, however, it gets the more powerful Bite, and you can teach it Water Gun via the normally useless TM12. It can also learn Thunderbolt, Fire Blast, Body Slam, and Ice Beam by TM, and also Dragon Rage and Hyper Beam through level-up.
Power: For the first 15 levels, it won't be able to beat even a Caterpie 1-on-1. After it evolves, it can occasionally take on entire Routes by itself.
Type: Water has always been a fantastic Offensive type, being only resisted by Dragon, Grass, and opposing Water types. The resistances are no problem as Gyarados can hit Dragons and Grass types with Ice Beam, and opposing Water types with Thunderbolt. His Flying type gives him an immunity to ground and makes him neutral to Grass, but a Weakness to Rock and a bigger one to Electric. However, Gyarados can beat Rock types with Water moves and Electric moves are not so common in the game.
Match-ups: Because of how pathetic it is as a Magikarp, all of the following are assuming it's a Gyarados.
Misty: High Attack and resistance to Water mean that Misty's Pokemon are reliably beaten; however, it's quite unlikely that you'll have evolved Magikarp by the time you fight her.
Lt. Surge: Gyarados can beat Voltorb and Pikachu due to their lack of a strong Electric Move, but Raichu's Thunderbolt always beats Gyarados. In Yellow, LT Surge only has Raichu, so don't bother.
Erika: At this point of the game you can get the Ice Beam TM, which if given to Gyarados can easily help him take out the gym.
Koga: Surf hits his Pokemon's weaker Special, often KOing in 2 hits.
Sabrina: Bite/Body Slam/other Normal attack squishes her fragile Psychic-types.
Blaine: Gyarados's type advantage gives it the win.
Giovanni: See Blaine.
Lorelei: If Gyarados has Thunderbolt he can hit the majority of her Pokemon for Super Effective Damage.
Bruno: His 2 Onix are turned to rubble by (insert Water-type attack here), and Hi Jump Kick/Submission is resisted by Gyarados's Flying secondary typing.
Agatha: Gyarados can easily beat Golbat with either Thunderbolt or Ice Beam, but the others will be harder to take down due to the Ghosts having good Special and an immunity to Normal moves. While Gyarados can wear down her Ghosts, he must watch out for Confuse Ray hax or status.
Lance: Surf takes out Aerodactyl, while Ice Beam hits the Dragons and Thunderbolt takes out Lance's own Dragonite. In Yellow, one of his Dragonair's know Thunderbolt and his Dragonite knows Thunder.
Gary (RB): Surf takes out Rhydon, Charizard, and Arcanine. Ice Beam takes out Exeggutor, Venusaur, and Pidgeot. Thunderbolt takes out Blastoise and opposing Gyarados. While Alakazam goes down to a strong Physical Attack. Also, it is better to use Ice Beam against Pidgeot instead of Thunderbolt, as if Pidgeot survives the Thunderbolt he can Mirror Move it back to you.
Gary (Y): Surf takes out Sandslash, Ninetails, and Flareon. Ice Beam hits Exggutor while Thunderbolt hits Cloyster and Vaperon. Alazakam once again goes down to Physical Attacks, but Gyarados must watch out for Magenton and Jolteon.
Additional Comments: As shown above, Gyarados is awesome, but if you want to use it, you'll have to bear with the completely useless Magikarp for 15 long levels, due to its experience curve (Slow). Once it evolves, however, it becomes incredibly powerful and self-sufficient if you allow it to have the right TMs.

[NoUserName]

Originally Posted by Fat Afti

The way that glitch works, you can easily Growl the opponent that sets the species (traditionally, Slowpoke) six times to get your Pokémon at level 1, which lets you get a Pokémon with negative experience and, consequently, jump to 100 on leveling.

Ignoring any concerns founded on principle - every Pokémon obtained by that glitch has equal potential to be gamebreaking. A level 100 Beedrill at Misty is a gamebreaker. There's not meaningful tiering to do there.

Of course at level 100 is game-breaking, but I haven't said that, just don't Growl it.

I mentioned Mew because it's impossible to get it without the glitch and because I used Mew with the glitch several times.

[Golden Gyarados]

I'm going to throw this out there again because I think my original post got lost in a shuffle earlier, but everyone often takes points off of particular Pokemon because of their "babying" needs, like Magikarp or the gift Squirtle, but when you get those Pokemon you're RIGHT NEXT to the Daycare, where you could leave them while you go do other things, and when you pick them up, you're one level away from a Gyarados without any babying, for example. Are we not considering the Daycare as a viable alternative to babying these guys?

[Mekkah**]

The daycare is not a viable alternative, no. It is way too slow compared to normal grinding. I have serious doubts about anyone implying you can leave your freshly bought Magikarp at the Day Care right after you get the Dig TM, and pick it up at L19 when you come back after beating Lt Surge, unless you walk back and forth a lot. Which would defeat the point of saving time.

- UPDATED up to here, but I probably missed some entries somewhere along the way. This thread is really big. Big thanks again to everyone who writes up, especially atsync since his stuff is high quality.

The only entry I ended up rejecting for now was the Vulpix one, because I am really sceptical on using an unevolved Pokemon with Ember all the way until L35. I think this is a suboptimal route choice, and I also think too much emphasis was put on Vulpix's ability to learn Flamethrower at that level at all (constant comparisons to other Fire-types, etc). Other people's thoughts on this are welcome, as well as people who have tried using it as Ninetales (insta-evolve).

And yes, we're close to "done"! Only Psyduck and Koffing remain on the to be done list, and I'm sure someone wrote up something on them somewhere...but don't ask me where. After this, I'll probably be shoving this the way of C&C and they can try to tackle this beast.

[Dre89]

I couldn't see krabby on the list anywhere, and I'm happy to do krabby and koffing, and maybe even psyduck if no one else wants to.

[Mekkah**]

I think Krabby was done but I can't be bothered looking for it atm.

[Golden Gyarados]

Originally Posted by Fat Mekkah

The daycare is not a viable alternative, no. It is way too slow compared to normal grinding. I have serious doubts about anyone implying you can leave your freshly bought Magikarp at the Day Care right after you get the Dig TM, and pick it up at L19 when you come back after beating Lt Surge, unless you walk back and forth a lot. Which would defeat the point of saving time.

Hmm I think I may have worded this poorly. You'll be near the Daycare a lot - it's right by Saffron - so you can pick up your guy whenever you want. Doesn't have to be after you beat Surge, could be when you first enter Saffron, could be later. And it's not like the role Gyarados would play differs if you wait (what other water types would take its place?). So, if you say Gyarados's availability is as soon as you get to Saffron, say, then that's better than babying either way.

But, further to the point, I wasn't just hypothesizing. I've done this before and it does work, and so I think it's worth talking about - is it worth waiting til Saffron to get a free Gyarados, for instance, or is it worth throwing Abra in there until Saffron to get your free Kadabra? I think these merit discussion, especially for cases like the free Magikarp to Gyarados.

I'm going to try this tonight on my cartridge and see exactly how far, doing a normal playthrough, you'd have to get through the map before you could return to Daycare to grab your Gyarados. I do think there's something here.

[Chou Toshio]

don't bother. It's as mekkah says...

If you want Gyarados (or anything really) to be a worthwhile member of the team, the daycare is worthless. It's way too slow and pointless.

By the time you get the level 19 magikarp, you'll be taking Koga with level 35+ Pokemon. At that point, you'd be better off with Seel or even Staryu.

Gyarados's only valuable if you take the time to grind it in Mt. Moon, taking it to crush Misty (and every other trainer not named Surge).

Maybe it would be worthy of consideration if the day center was in Pewter and you could double back to get your magikarp when you go to get flash (through dig cave), but getting the day center after misty makes it totally worthless for Gyarados (and pretty much everything else).



Mekkah's concern with Vulpix is pretty critical. I also think that Vulpix is very close to, if not in the low category.

[atsync]

Yeah I think Mekkah covered my concerns about Vulpix, altough I don't feel particularly passionate about it.

On an unrelated note, can anyone explain the point of listing Haunter instead of Gastly? It's a trivial thing but Gastly evolves at level 25 and you'll likely be going above that level to get it to match your team, so what's the point of looking for Haunter? You might as well catch the first ghost you see. The final product is the same!

[thunderstone]

The problem with my run through is I did it specifically to test Vulpix, so I was structuring my whole play through to give it as much opportunity as possible. If after all that effort, I came back as the low-end of Mid, then I can understand with hindsight that in a normal playthrough it could be Low.

[Mekkah**]

Entries should not be written around playthroughs catering entirely to just Vulpix. If that's what your entry was like, then it needs to be rewritten.

I changed Haunter to Gastly/Haunter, they are practically the same, there's much less of a gap between them compared to for example Diglett/Dugtrio.

[NoUserName]

Is really Bellsprout worth of being Top?

It has to wait until lv 38(as a Weepinbell) to learn Razor Leaf and while it has only Status Powers, Wrap, Growth and Vine Whip.

Wrap is decent but depending on it isn't the funniest thing ever.

Mega Drain is decent for healing as it has the same power and PP than Vine Whip, but, even again, weak.

Even worse, due to Razor Leaf CH ratio, it ignores the boosts of Growth when it has it.

[Mekkah**]

Is really Bellsprout worth of being Top?

No, it is not.

[Hemp Man]

The Jolteon page needs a rewrite, its missing too much on the match up sections.

I'll use Vulpix as well (evolving it into Ninetails straight away), seeing as the Vulpix entry got rejected.

Anything else you guys want me to use? I guess Koffing and Psyduck?

[Mekkah**]

If you feel like it. Basically all that needs doing is:
- Someone needs to find the write-ups that were done that I somehow missed
- Fix existing write-ups that aren't good
- Write the last few mons

[atsync]

I found the Krabby entry! It was in the original thread.


Krabby - Low Tier (Bottom Tier in Red)
Availability: Can be caught as a Kingler in Seafoam Islands (Lv. 39 in Blue, Lv. 30 in Yellow). In Red, you'll have to make due with a Lv. 15 Krabby caught with a Super Rod in most Cities that have bodies of water in them.
Stats: Titanic Attack and Defense, but pathetic Special. Its Speed is barely high enough to be useful.
Movepool: Crabhammer, which is better than Surf thanks to its massive crit rate, would be game-breaking if it didn't have forgettable Special. At least it learns Stomp.
Power: Stomp coming off a base 130 is going to hurt, so long as you aren't a Rock- or Ghost-type, both of which aren't exactly common late-game. Unimpressive HP and disappointing Special mean that it has trouble taking even resisted special hits, however.
Type: Because of its awful Special, it can't use Water-type moves effectively, and it doesn't have a physical secondary typing to take advantage of its gigantic Attack.
Match-ups:
Sabrina: Her Pokemon have massive Special, in contrast to Kingler's pitiful Special.
Blaine: Low HP and Special mean that Fire Blast will leave quite a dent in your crab's exoskeleton. Crabhammer still hurts, though.
Giovanni: His Rhyhorn/don and Dugtrio have just low enough Special for Crabhammer to KO, but the Nidos can occasionally survive one. In Yellow, those Nidos now know Thunder, meaning that having Kingler fight them is inadvisable. Kingler generally has the bulk to take a Slash, even factoring in criticals.
Lorelei: All of her Pokemon are mainly special attackers, and 3 of them have respectable physical bulk.
Bruno: Crabhammer takes care of his 2 Onix, and gives his Hitmons respectable bruises. Kingler also has enough bulk to take a Hi Jump Kick and/or a Submission.
Agatha: 3 of her Pokemon are immune to Stomp, and have high Special, allowing them to take repeated Crabhammers, not to mention their easily higher Speed and access to status moves.
Lance: Kingler can take a Hyper Beam, but can't do much back, due to how weak his Ice Beam is.
Additional Comments: Kingler has good stats, but they're poorly distributed, giving it only average Speed and forcing it to use non-STAB attacks for an acceptable damage output. Water's also an overdone type by the time you get it, and it has nothing to offer aside from massive Attack and Defense. At least it comes at a great level 39/30 in Blue/Yellow, respectively.

EDIT: Also apparently this was missed:


-Vaporeon - High Tier
-Availability: Given to you in Celadon City at level 25. You need a Water Stone to evolve Eevee into this.
-Stats: Vaporeon has one of the best stat spreads for in-game use. While its Speed might seem mediocre, it's actually just enough for it to outspeed most of the in-game threats and OHKO them, thanks to its more than adequate Special. If it gets outsped, or if the opponent survives a hit, it won't be taking much damage thanks to its massive HP.
-Movepool: BubbleBeam and Ice Beam (via TMs 11 and 13, respectively) are all it gets in terms of moves when you get it, but that's really all it needs. When you get to Fuchsia, you can teach it Surf as well, but keep Bubblebeam. It also learns Ice Beam by TM and Aurora Beam by level-up (note: it only learns Aurora Beam in Yellow), allowing you to deal with the Bird Keepers without wasting Bubblebeam's or Surf's PP. Keep in mind that BubbleBeam and Ice Beam are both exclusive TMs, and as such Vaporeon might have competition with your other team members. Another thing of note is it's bulky enough to utilize the Rest/Poke Flute combination for (somewhat) reliable recovery.
-Power: From the moment you get it and teach it Bubblebeam, Vaporeon performs excellently against most of its adversaries. In fact, it can take out the Celadon Grunts by itself if you're willing to teach it Ice Beam and use a few Super Potions. After that, Vappy should be caught up with the rest of your team. Unfortunately, the Ghost-types of Lavender Tower are faster than Vaporeon, but it can still do adequately, provided you don't get confused and paralyzed at the same time. From then on, Vappy does quite well against most of the remaining trainers, save for the abundant Swimmers late-game.
-Type: Unlike most other Water-types, Vaporeon doesn't have a second type or a move that hurts fellow Water-types effectively, meaning it can't really do much between Fuchsia and Cinnabar.
-Match-ups: Generally, Vaporeon's high HP and Special allow it to perform adequately against the Gym Leaders and Elite Four.
Lt. Surge: If you choose to fight him right after obtaining Vaporeon, don't expect a victory from it, as his Raichu does around half with Thunderbolt, and you have to defeat his Voltorb (which knows Sonicboom) and Pikachu before fighting it. In Yellow, Raichu is his only Pokemon, but its "possible 2HKO" gets bumped up to a "solid 2HKO". In other words, don't use Vaporeon against him, at least not without prior training.
Erika: Her Victreebel/Weepinbell happens to know Razor Leaf, which is almost guaranteed to KO in one hit. However, it is also OHKOed by Ice Beam, so whether Vaporeon or Victreebel comes out alive depends on who's faster. Tangela is more easily beaten, regardless of which game you're playing. Vileplume/Gloom knows Petal Dance, and Vileplume in particular can stomach an Ice Beam. Did I forget to mention Tangela is the only Pokemon of hers that doesn't know Sleep Powder?
Koga: Much more managable than above, thanks to the neutral type match-up, and the fact that his Pokemon have shabby Special. In Yellow, he has 3 Venonats and a Venomoth, all of which are at least level 44 and know status-inducing moves.
Sabrina: Her Pokemon, for the most part, are faster than Vaporeon, but Vappy's great special bulk will allow it to take a few Psychics, along with high HP allowing it to take (seemingly) minimal damage from Psywave. Unfortunately, it can't do too much back, thanks to their high Special. It can still beat at least one of her Pokemon by itself.
Blaine: Literally, the only thing on his team that's actually threatening is Rapidash, and that's only if it spams Fire Spin for about 25 turns.
Giovanni: Provided Dugtrio doesn't spam Sand Attack, you're good to go. In Yellow, his Persian can leave a mark with Slash, and his Nidos know Thunder, but he's still not too threatening.
Lorelei: Don't expect much to come from this fight, as they resist each other's STABs.
Bruno: His Onix are merely speed bumps, and the Hitmons have seemingly no Special. Vaporeon also has enough bulk to take a Hi Jump Kick or Submission if need be, and if it does get hit by Submission, Machamp will lose a chunk of its HP on recoil alone.
Agatha: About her Ghost-types: think of them similarly to Sabrina's Kadabra and Alakazam, except with the threat of status instead of STAB Psychic. Also, the first Gengar knows Mega Drain in Yellow. Aside from that, she's pretty mild.
Lance: All of his Pokemon, barring Gyarados, are OHKOed by Ice Beam, and his Aerodactyl can even be dealt with by Bubblebeam. Vappy also has the bulk to take a non-crit Hyper Beam, but it can't do much to Gyara, and Dragonite knows Thunder (Yellow only) and outspeeds it. Another thing to watch out for is his second Dragonair, as it knows Thunderbolt.
Blue: In Red and Blue, the only ones on his team Vappy shouldn't take on by itself would be Alakazam, Venusaur, and possibly Gyarados. In Yellow, it has a bit more trouble, as Ninetales and Cloyster can continuously trap it with Fire Spin and Clamp, respectively. Also, it is recommended not to have Vaporeon fight Magneton or Jolteon, for obvious reasons.
-Additional comments: From the moment you get it, Vaporeon is a great Pokemon, thanks to its barely-high-enough Speed, high Special, and great endurance. It doesn't even need grinding, thanks to Team Rocket, and it only has 2 problems: While it's effective when fighting most of the Pokemon in the game, it can't really do much to other Water-types not named Gyarados. It's also greatly dependent on BubbleBeam in order to be useful before Fuschia

[Naix]

I'll fix the Weedle entry, as I recently used it.

Weedle revamp

---

-Weedle (Red and Blue only) - Low Tier
-Availability: Weedle are easy to obtain, just search for them in Viridian Forest. They can also be found at Route 2 in Red, but it's better just to go into the forest and look for them there, as you have a higher chance of finding them there. They also evolve quite early, at level 7 and then level 10.
-Stats: This here is the main reason why Weedle's bad. Its stats are unimpressive all across the board, even after it fully evolves, with its highest base stat being 80 Attack.
-Movepool: Its only attacking moves are the weak Poison Sting and the unreliable Fury Attack until it learns Twineedle at level 20. Twineedle, and later Pin Missile, are Bug-type moves, which, back in the day, hit Poison-types super-effectively, essentially meaning Beedrill hits a decent chunk of the later mid-game super-effectively. It also learns Agility and Swords Dance (although you'll need TM03 for the latter), which are absolutely essential for its performance against most of the later bosses. Also, it can learn Mega Drain, which allows it to deal with Rock/Ground-types, but has little use otherwise, as most of the Water-types in the game are hit just as hard, if not harder, by Twineedle or Pin Missile. Unfortunately, Pin Missile and Twineedle don't exactly have the best base powers in the game, with Twineedle being 75 after STAB is factored in.
-Power: With only Poison Sting and Fury Attack for the first two badges, Beedrill's not doing very well. Then, when it learns Twineedle, it actually does adequately, easily defeating the majority of things weak to it. It also does well in Pokemon Tower, outspeeding and OHKOing the Ghost-types that haunt the tower. Soon after that, however, Beedrill hits the wall known as Koffing, and realizes that the only way for it to KO them in one turn is to hope for the 25% chance of Pin Missile hitting at least 4 times. Soon afterwards, it runs into Weezing, whom it can't OHKO at all without the aid of a critical hit. Another thing: don't use the terms "Bird Keeper" and "Beedrill" in the same sentence, for Beedrill's sake.
-Type: Bug is, as mentioned above, one of the best STABs to have in RBY. Beedrill also has a secondary Poison typing, giving it a neutrality to Poison-type attacks, but also giving it a Psychic weakness, meaning Beedrill can't effectively take them on.
-Match-ups:
--Brock: Considering the fact that his Pokemon resist every move Kakuna (or Beedrill, depending on whether you grinded it or not) has, and that they have high Defense, breaking through them just won't work. And before you say something like "But Poison Sting poisons them!" keep in mind that Brock has Full Heals at his disposal.
--Misty: While her Starmie is indeed weak to Twineedle, it is faster than Beedrill and its BubbleBeam is fully capable of OHKOing it.
--Lt. Surge: Beedrill can beat his Voltorb and Pikachu with little to no problem, but Raichu can fry it with a Thunderbolt.
--Erika: This is the part of the game where Beedrill is at its best. It literally OHKOes everything in this Gym (except for Erika's Tangela, but what would it honestly do in retaliation?) with Twineedle. Ahhh, 4x weaknesses...
--Koga: You'll need to set up 3 Swords Dances to stand a chance against him, and keep in mind that his Pokemon can use Smokescreen repeatedly while you're setting up.
--Sabrina: Her Kadabra outspeeds and OHKOes you. However, if Beedrill sets up an Agility on her Mr. Mime, it can take out her Alakazam as well as Mr. Mime if it didn't use Barrier. Also, since she has a Venomoth, which can survive a Pin Missile most of the time, you'll probably want to use Swords Dance, at least if it wasn't for the fact that Mr. Mime's Confusion 2HKOes.
--Blaine: While you might be able to set up on him, keep in mind that Rapidash can weather a +6 5-hit Pin Missile and proceed to trap Beedrill, beating it in only 3 turns. If you made it past Rapidash, his Arcanine is much bulkier than it looks, having the ability to survive at least 10 +6 Pin Missile impacts.
--Giovanni: First of all, you need Mega Drain to beat his Rhyhorn (and Rhydon), which is the only Pokemon he has that Beedrill can properly set up on. Once that is done, feel free to 2HKO Rhyhorn with Mega Drain, and after that, you can Pin Missile his Dugtrio and Nidos. Remember that Dugtrio is faster than an unboosted Beedrill, and Nidoqueen has the bulk to take a +6 5-hit Pin Missile, meaning they both have an opportunity to fire attacks back at Beedrill.
--Lorelei: Because Rest is a Psychic-type move, Dewgong will repeatedly use it against Beedrill, allowing it to set up as much as it wants. Unfortunately, Slowbro, Cloyster, and Lapras have enough bulk to easily take a +6 Pin Missile.
--Bruno: As with Giovanni, his first Pokemon is a non-threatening Rock/Ground-type that can be set up on and 2HKOed by Mega Drain. While his entire team resists Bug-type attacks, +6 Pin Missile is still strong enough to take out his Hitmonlee in approximately 4 hits. The only things you need to watch out for are Mega Punch, Mega Kick, and Karate Chop.
--Agatha: Unlike the previous two, Beedrill can't set up on any of her Pokemon, as they all know status moves of some sort that can (and will) disrupt any setup attempts.
--Lance: While it can't beat his Gyarados, it can set up on his Dragonair, both of which know Agility. Keep in mind that unless Beedrill knows Agility as well, it won't defeat Aerodactyl, who is faster and can survive a +6 Pin Missile. Also, Dragonite will do nothing against it, as it knows Barrier and Agility, and will use them against Poison-types (like Beedrill!)
--Blue: Just like with Agatha, Beedrill has no setup opportunities, and as such is of no use to you for this battle.
-Additional Comments: Weedle comes (and evolves) early and its primary STAB is very useful in-game, but when it comes down to it, it just doesn't hit hard enough against its intended targets to be a great help. The added Psychic weakness, lack of Bug-type attacks until level 20, and the low base power of the STAB moves themselves don't exactly help its cause either.