Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "wow ingame everything rules" Let me explain.
I was doing this for GS and was about to post it on Mt Silver when I realized nobody cares about that forum anymore, plus people might want to discuss this idea for DP and ADV as well. I haven't played the game DP itself for longer than 30 minutes though, so I wouldn't exactly know what is good and what isn't. So I'm leaving it up to you. Again, just for kicks, nothing serious.
I'm playing Gold right now for kicks, and got a random ridiculous idea. You'll usually be using a team from somewhere between 1 and 6 Pokemon, collected throughout the game. The Pokemon you can find early on will be, along with your starter, the easiest to use, because they get to train for longer. You'll never have to do something like switching in your starter, then switching it out again for a stronger Pokemon to train it, because it will always be able to hold its own. Something like Dratini may have better end results than, say, Chikorita, but at least Chikorita wasn't unavailable until you are about to challenge the 8th gym. And Chikorita comes at L5 when wild Pokemon are between L2 and L4 and trainers won't have much higher, while Dratini comes at 10-15 when opponents have in the late 30s already.
So, assuming you want to get through Gold/Silver without (too much) babying and endless training, what would be the best Pokemon? Take into account the level at which you catch them compared to the levels of your party and those of the opponents, the neary possible training locations, how easy it is for them to get up to par (less time needed = good) and how good the moves are they get in early levels to kill things with, if they have some kind of STAB, if they have access to cool resources like earlygame TMs you won't be needing much, whether they can and can afford to use HMs for you, etc. You'll find that base stats won't matter as much in-game as they do in competitive battling.
Answers that stick out to me are:
"OU" (awesome)
- Cyndaquil
- Totodile
- Chikorita
- Rattata
- Ho-oh (Gold)
- Lugia (Silver)
- Spearow
- Red Gyarados
- Paras
- Pidgey
- Hoothoot
- Sudowoodo
- Zubat
These are in order of effectiveness imo.
Your starter will obviously be your best Pokemon if you give your Pokemon equal attention. I put Cyndaquil at the top because it evolves into first stage very quickly, has the best position against gym leaders overall and it gets Flame Wheel. Totodile is still awesome against most gyms and also gets Surf long before Cyndaquil learns Flamethrower (and Chikorita's STAB always kind of sucks).
Rattata gets Hyper Fang (quite possibly one of the best earlygame moves) at a quick level and evolves at L20. With TM28 Dig from the National Park, he can solo all of the Ghost gym. Spearow can be caught very early and gets through Bugs really quickly. Pidgey is obviously worse than Spearow but comes even earlier (though Peck > Tackle!). Hoothoot is a nighttime worse version of Pidgey as far as I'm concerned.
Sudowoodo comes at a very decent level and you're guaranteed to encounter him. His endgame stats are obviously not very awesome, but at least he doesn't require much extra training at all.
Zubat can be caught in Dark Cave which is decently quick. Leech Life obviously blows but he's good enough to beat Bellsprouts at least, and gets Bite soon enough, and he's the #1 candidate to get haircuts and such on whenever possible, so he can kill things as a Crobat.
The legendary birds are good when you get them and will remain so, always. With the right TMs there's no stopping them, the only gay thing about them is that you need to complete a massive sidequest for them and they grow kind of slowly.
Paras is obviously not the best Pokemon out there type-wise, but he is an awesome HM whore and joins early enough.
Red Gyarados comes at a massive L30 and can be used off the bat without failing you. Also provides you with a lot of HM options as a filler without getting OHKOed by everything.
"BL" (okay)
- Geodude
- Magikarp
- Caterpie
- Weedle
- Spinarak
- Ledyba
- Abra
- Bellsprout
- Onix
- Wooper
- Mareep
- Machop
These are not in any order.
Geodude comes as early as Spearow, but getting OHKOed by anything with Water Gun or Vine Whip fails, and if you don't have anyone to trade with it can only evolve once. Magikarp is a PAIN to train, but you only have to do it for 15 levels before you have a pack of awesome in your team.
Caterpie and Weedle I'm not sure about. They obviously suck, but then they evolve to their final stages as early as L10, and Butterfree in particular owns stuff with Sleep Powder. These two to OU would be cool. The last two Bugs are just early joiners without too much going for them, but perhaps they are as good as Hoothoot.
Abra is hard to find and catch, but with the elemental punch TMs from the game corner he's really awesome. We all know that once Kadabra rolls around and learns Confusion and then Psybeam, it's over. Decimates Morty as well. Drowzee is easier to catch, but less powerful. Awesome against Bruno and Koga in the E4 for obvious reasons.
Wooper has that awesome typing going for him and is available pretty quickly. Mareep evolves twice, neither very late, and can learn Thunderpunch in Goldenrod (or later naturally), and also Fire Punch.
Bellsprout can be caught early and actually has STAB, though it's NVE on about everything around its catching situation (Bellsprouts in the tower, Falkner's Flying gym, random Bug trainers, Nidoran trainers), but it does okay on the fishing spot and in the Union Cave. Not being able to evolve to Victreebel until you get a Leaf Stone from Bill is argh though.
Onix can be traded in for a Bellsprout in Violet City and grows quite fast (go Rocky!). Same issues as Geodude - can get OHKOed, and can't evolve without a link cable. Its ending stats also blow...
Machop can be traded in for Drowzee in Goldenrod, and it probably doesn't hurt to use him in the Normal gym that comes up. No evolution to Machamp without Link Cable though.
"UU" (awful)
- Gligar
- Dratini
- Swinub
- Sneasel
- Phanpy
- Teddiursa
- Jynx
- Girafarig
- Lickitung
- Bulbasaur
- Charmander
- Squirtle
- Suicune
- Raikou
- Entei
Just a few Pokemon from the top of my head whose availability point downright sucks, either from not being able to be caught until very late or from being unavailable without a Link Cable and a RBY game.
Suicune, Raikou and Entei likely won't be encountered when you're ready for them, you need to do an Ecruteak sidequest for them and their movepools are...not that awesome.
So, what do you guys think?
I was doing this for GS and was about to post it on Mt Silver when I realized nobody cares about that forum anymore, plus people might want to discuss this idea for DP and ADV as well. I haven't played the game DP itself for longer than 30 minutes though, so I wouldn't exactly know what is good and what isn't. So I'm leaving it up to you. Again, just for kicks, nothing serious.
I'm playing Gold right now for kicks, and got a random ridiculous idea. You'll usually be using a team from somewhere between 1 and 6 Pokemon, collected throughout the game. The Pokemon you can find early on will be, along with your starter, the easiest to use, because they get to train for longer. You'll never have to do something like switching in your starter, then switching it out again for a stronger Pokemon to train it, because it will always be able to hold its own. Something like Dratini may have better end results than, say, Chikorita, but at least Chikorita wasn't unavailable until you are about to challenge the 8th gym. And Chikorita comes at L5 when wild Pokemon are between L2 and L4 and trainers won't have much higher, while Dratini comes at 10-15 when opponents have in the late 30s already.
So, assuming you want to get through Gold/Silver without (too much) babying and endless training, what would be the best Pokemon? Take into account the level at which you catch them compared to the levels of your party and those of the opponents, the neary possible training locations, how easy it is for them to get up to par (less time needed = good) and how good the moves are they get in early levels to kill things with, if they have some kind of STAB, if they have access to cool resources like earlygame TMs you won't be needing much, whether they can and can afford to use HMs for you, etc. You'll find that base stats won't matter as much in-game as they do in competitive battling.
Answers that stick out to me are:
"OU" (awesome)
- Cyndaquil
- Totodile
- Chikorita
- Rattata
- Ho-oh (Gold)
- Lugia (Silver)
- Spearow
- Red Gyarados
- Paras
- Pidgey
- Hoothoot
- Sudowoodo
- Zubat
These are in order of effectiveness imo.
Your starter will obviously be your best Pokemon if you give your Pokemon equal attention. I put Cyndaquil at the top because it evolves into first stage very quickly, has the best position against gym leaders overall and it gets Flame Wheel. Totodile is still awesome against most gyms and also gets Surf long before Cyndaquil learns Flamethrower (and Chikorita's STAB always kind of sucks).
Rattata gets Hyper Fang (quite possibly one of the best earlygame moves) at a quick level and evolves at L20. With TM28 Dig from the National Park, he can solo all of the Ghost gym. Spearow can be caught very early and gets through Bugs really quickly. Pidgey is obviously worse than Spearow but comes even earlier (though Peck > Tackle!). Hoothoot is a nighttime worse version of Pidgey as far as I'm concerned.
Sudowoodo comes at a very decent level and you're guaranteed to encounter him. His endgame stats are obviously not very awesome, but at least he doesn't require much extra training at all.
Zubat can be caught in Dark Cave which is decently quick. Leech Life obviously blows but he's good enough to beat Bellsprouts at least, and gets Bite soon enough, and he's the #1 candidate to get haircuts and such on whenever possible, so he can kill things as a Crobat.
The legendary birds are good when you get them and will remain so, always. With the right TMs there's no stopping them, the only gay thing about them is that you need to complete a massive sidequest for them and they grow kind of slowly.
Paras is obviously not the best Pokemon out there type-wise, but he is an awesome HM whore and joins early enough.
Red Gyarados comes at a massive L30 and can be used off the bat without failing you. Also provides you with a lot of HM options as a filler without getting OHKOed by everything.
"BL" (okay)
- Geodude
- Magikarp
- Caterpie
- Weedle
- Spinarak
- Ledyba
- Abra
- Bellsprout
- Onix
- Wooper
- Mareep
- Machop
These are not in any order.
Geodude comes as early as Spearow, but getting OHKOed by anything with Water Gun or Vine Whip fails, and if you don't have anyone to trade with it can only evolve once. Magikarp is a PAIN to train, but you only have to do it for 15 levels before you have a pack of awesome in your team.
Caterpie and Weedle I'm not sure about. They obviously suck, but then they evolve to their final stages as early as L10, and Butterfree in particular owns stuff with Sleep Powder. These two to OU would be cool. The last two Bugs are just early joiners without too much going for them, but perhaps they are as good as Hoothoot.
Abra is hard to find and catch, but with the elemental punch TMs from the game corner he's really awesome. We all know that once Kadabra rolls around and learns Confusion and then Psybeam, it's over. Decimates Morty as well. Drowzee is easier to catch, but less powerful. Awesome against Bruno and Koga in the E4 for obvious reasons.
Wooper has that awesome typing going for him and is available pretty quickly. Mareep evolves twice, neither very late, and can learn Thunderpunch in Goldenrod (or later naturally), and also Fire Punch.
Bellsprout can be caught early and actually has STAB, though it's NVE on about everything around its catching situation (Bellsprouts in the tower, Falkner's Flying gym, random Bug trainers, Nidoran trainers), but it does okay on the fishing spot and in the Union Cave. Not being able to evolve to Victreebel until you get a Leaf Stone from Bill is argh though.
Onix can be traded in for a Bellsprout in Violet City and grows quite fast (go Rocky!). Same issues as Geodude - can get OHKOed, and can't evolve without a link cable. Its ending stats also blow...
Machop can be traded in for Drowzee in Goldenrod, and it probably doesn't hurt to use him in the Normal gym that comes up. No evolution to Machamp without Link Cable though.
"UU" (awful)
- Gligar
- Dratini
- Swinub
- Sneasel
- Phanpy
- Teddiursa
- Jynx
- Girafarig
- Lickitung
- Bulbasaur
- Charmander
- Squirtle
- Suicune
- Raikou
- Entei
Just a few Pokemon from the top of my head whose availability point downright sucks, either from not being able to be caught until very late or from being unavailable without a Link Cable and a RBY game.
Suicune, Raikou and Entei likely won't be encountered when you're ready for them, you need to do an Ecruteak sidequest for them and their movepools are...not that awesome.
So, what do you guys think?