Pokémon that exceeded your expectations in-game despite looking bad initially?

[mertyville]

In my latest run of Pokemon Diamond, I traded some Pokemon again for viarity. These are the Pokemon that impressed me.

I traded over a male Ralts with the male evolution stone. After it became Kirlia, I evolved it immediately to Gallade and taught it the 50 base power rock move I forgot the name off. Just with Slash + the rock move, it did wonders. It special defense was so insane early game, attacks bounced off on it. Once it learned Sword Dance at lv25, I am pretty sure I swept every thing until the 6th gym. At some point I kinda neglegted it from gaining experience because I had way to many team members to try out that it didn't live up to its full potential. It learned Psychocut at lv28 which is insane. I didn't even really need it to sweep the fighting gym since I could set up on any Fighting Type trainer and Sword Dance to +4 or 6 and sweep with just slash. Psychocut made things just faster. Then I just taught it the TM Drain Punch to give it the needed fighting coverage.
Hard to say how good it would be if I let it catch up with the battle for Team Galactic in Spiral Tower. With Close Combat I think it would do fine for the rest of the game but not so sure about the Elite 4.

I traded over a Ralts with Synchronize Timid Nature just for softresetting Dialga, Heatran and through Void Glitch Darkrai and Shaymin. I ended up grinding it to a point that only with Psychic, Calm Mind and Magical Leaf swept in many fights especially the elite 4.
It seems to be usually the case when I trade Synchronize Pokemon and use them Abra and Rals are good candidates. Natu fell off quickly. Maybe I use Espeon or Umbreon next tho I don't have hopes for Umbreon because its a defensive Pokemon and its offense are laughable.

For HM purposes I traded a Teddiursa lv20. I let if gain EXP through Exp Share so it can learn Rock Climb. This thing had already 80 base attack and did as well as it did in XD Gale of Darkness with just Strenght and Rock Smash. It fell off quickly due to me not grinding to much and limited coverage but as an HM slave it allowed me to swap with a lot of team members and focus exp on Pokemon that matter. In that way it did what it needed to.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

In my latest run of Pokemon Diamond, I traded some Pokemon again for viarity. These are the Pokemon that impressed me.

I traded over a male Ralts with the male evolution stone. After it became Kirlia, I evolved it immediately to Gallade and taught it the 50 base power rock move I forgot the name off. Just with Slash + the rock move, it did wonders. It special defense was so insane early game, attacks bounced off on it. Once it learned Sword Dance at lv25, I am pretty sure I swept every thing until the 6th gym. At some point I kinda neglegted it from gaining experience because I had way to many team members to try out that it didn't live up to its full potential. It learned Psychocut at lv28 which is insane. I didn't even really need it to sweep the fighting gym since I could set up on any Fighting Type trainer and Sword Dance to +4 or 6 and sweep with just slash. Psychocut made things just faster. Then I just taught it the TM Drain Punch to give it the needed fighting coverage.
Hard to say how good it would be if I let it catch up with the battle for Team Galactic in Spiral Tower. With Close Combat I think it would do fine for the rest of the game but not so sure about the Elite 4.

Gallade is a BLAST to use in Sinnoh. Especially if you get to evolve it early.

Psycho Cut/Night Slash/Fighting STAB off that attack means that more often than not, you don't even need Swords Dance. Crit fishing is also viable and it's just a really cool mon.

Y'all can't imagine how happy I was when I heard that it gained Sharpness in SV.

I strongly recommend using it whenever possible, it's a really fun mon.

 

[mertyville]

Gallade is a BLAST to use in Sinnoh. Especially if you get to evolve it early.

Psycho Cut/Night Slash/Fighting STAB off that attack means that more often than not, you don't even need Swords Dance. Crit fishing is also viable and it's just a really cool mon.

Y'all can't imagine how happy I was when I heard that it gained Sharpness in SV.

I strongly recommend using it whenever possible, it's a really fun mon.

I feel generally these around 125 base attack around 80 base speed fighting types are fantastic for ingame when you get them early.
Be it Sawk, Heracross, Passimian, Flamigo or in this case Gallade.

 

[mertyville]

I made another quick run of Pokemon Diamond. This time not that many pokemon used and most my team was just the Ralts line again. I had breed like a bunch of Ralts and ev trained them to see which has a good hidden power or the most ideal stats for competitve Gen 4. No need to explain how good Gardevoir is because every moveset I used was pretty good.

Nidoran male line I used again as HM slaves. It got rivalty again which is annoying since certain match ups would lower its attack. But it did notably better than Nidoqueen. Even with opponents 10 levels higher it did decently well. Cut, Strength, Thunder -> Rock Climb and Rock Smash were the final moves.

Quadsire I used a few times as Waterfall and Surf user. I did not teach it any notable moves that could improve its performance, yet, it soaked up hits well and allowed defeating a lot of problematic Pokemon easily

A Pokemon I was looking forward to use this run was Shaymin but at the end I could not find a spot for it on the team. The only offensive means to attack was Magical Leaf anyways so I doubt it would have done much.

 

[Hugin]

Dottler. Orbeetle too, but Dottler was the real standout. An early-game bug that only has 4 moves and doesn't evolve until level 30 seems like a nightmare, but dual screens at level 10 combined with a SAtk-lowering move is incredible against the Dynamax bosses in SwSh. It's surprisingly bulky as well. Upon evolution, it's moveset becomes incredible and Orbeetle is FAST. Too bad it has only been available in one game so far, I want to try it against everyone.

 

[Punchshroom]

Venomoth has all the makings of a terrible in-game Pokemon. Its base form is really weak and doesn't have an early evolution level to make up for it, its level-up movepool is unremarkable, and it's usually outclassed by earlier available options. This was the sentiment I held for Venomoth for a loooong time, and it largely holds true still: there isn't really much reason to pick up Venomoth in the Kanto games when it's strictly available on the post-Snorlax routes, and in Johto, the dearth of experience means that you'd be stuck with Venonat for a not insignificant amount of time, not to mention Butterfree is right there from the start and actually impactful.

However, a couple of things changed between GS and HGSS when concerning Johto Venomoth. HGSS's improved level-up movepool means that Venonat is more able to actually keep pace with the route trainers it's fighting, such as being able to learn Psybeam earlier to combat Rocket Grunts better instead of being stuck with Confusion even long after evolving into Venomoth. HGSS Venomoth is also able to learn actual STAB moves by level, a trait shared by virtually every single Johto Bug-type in the transition from GS to HGSS (even Pineco benefitted), and of course Venomoth greatly appreciates the physical/special split meaning it's not hitting like a wet noodle like GS Venomoth.

GS Venomoth primarily suffers from having virtually no good prospects outside of just spamming unSTAB Psychic-type moves and powders, a niche already occupied by Butterfree but more efficiently. However, turns out Choice Specs + Tinted Lens + STAB Sludge Bomb/Signal Beam accompanied by Psychic coverage actually gives HGSS Venomoth some late-game value not achievable by any other powder user in the entire region. Of course, Venomoth is nowhere near the best user of Choice Specs or even the Sludge Bomb TM in Johto, but this is the first and likely only time where in-game Venomoth had not only not disappointed me, but actually felt almost alright to use. The Venonat phase is still pretty cheeks though, but I have experienced far worse with the other iterations of Venomoth.

 

[Just A Seaking]

This was the sentiment I held for Venomoth for a loooong time, and it largely holds true still: there isn't really much reason to pick up Venomoth in the Kanto games when it's strictly available on the post-Snorlax routes,

I've never actually used Venomoth in any of the Johto games before, but I have had a good experience using it in Yellow, where it's much earlier than in any other iteration of Kanto: a 10% chance on Route 24/25.

It's not a terribly exciting Pokemon in Yellow, but it is functional. It's basically just Butterfree that joins a bit later and starts weaker than a Butterfree you've trained by that point, but with a notably higher endgame ceiling: sure, you're waiting until level 43 for Sleep Powder and level 50 for Psychic, but Butterfree doesn't get Psychic by level-up at all, and the BST advantage is notable. Of course there's variance from IVs to account for, but generally I find that Venomoth, with 10 more Sp. Atk and 20 more Spd, gets 1HKO and 2HKOs that Butterfree accomplishes as 2HKOs and 3HKOs. They're super similar otherwise - like they literally have the exact same TM learnset, and only Mega Drain is a charming novelty at best - but Venomoth being stronger means it fares much better going into mid-late game segments like Koga, Silph Co. and Agatha. You also don't have to deal with the Caterpie/Metapod part of its lifecycle, which I always find very tedious. Not as much fun to talk about as HGSS Venomoth, perhaps, but it's a nice little novelty of Yellow all the same.

Yellow Venomoth doesn't exactly fit the criteria of this thread: my expectations were that it'd be "Butterfree, but better" and it was, well, Butterfree but better - but hey, we're on the subject anyways.

 

[leafsaber47]

I honestly wasn't even thinking of Magnezone when playing Sun. Yet it was a major player in my team. Honestly it's been almost a decade since I played that game so I don't know how the Magnemite line did there but I wasn't really wanting to use it at first.

 

[Castersvarog]

Dottler. Orbeetle too, but Dottler was the real standout. An early-game bug that only has 4 moves and doesn't evolve until level 30 seems like a nightmare, but dual screens at level 10 combined with a SAtk-lowering move is incredible against the Dynamax bosses in SwSh. It's surprisingly bulky as well. Upon evolution, it's moveset becomes incredible and Orbeetle is FAST. Too bad it has only been available in one game so far, I want to try it against everyone.

Dottler and Orbettle were my mvps in SWSH, it's surprisingly great ingame despite the rocky start. Even claiming a place on my final team

 

[mertyville]

In my run of Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness, I used Grimer. To my surprise, this thing is doing surprisingly well even up to the late game with the moveset of Sludge Bomb, Fire Blast, Helping Hand and Shadow Punch. Mono Poison I associate with bad things but it does surprisingly well by taking out some really problematic Pokemon, even roasting Foretress and Skarmory. With Helping Hand it does a good assist on boosting another Pokemon when it cannot attack fast enough before it is about to be knocked out.

I would not say it is a must own or totally worth the grind but if you invest, you do get a useful ally to your party.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

In my run of Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness, I used Grimer. To my surprise, this thing is doing surprisingly well even up to the late game with the moveset of Sludge Bomb, Fire Blast, Helping Hand and Shadow Punch. Mono Poison I associate with bad things but it does surprisingly well by taking out some really problematic Pokemon, even roasting Foretress and Skarmory. With Helping Hand it does a good assist on boosting another Pokemon when it cannot attack fast enough before it is about to be knocked out.

I would not say it is a must own or totally worth the grind but if you invest, you do get a useful ally to your party.

One of the things I like most about replaying XD is that it makes a lot of Pokemon I'm not that crazy about tons more fun to use because of the additional moves it gives them. Whether it's just because they get a really good STAB earlier than otherwise (Heat Wave for Vulpix, Giga Drain for Seedot, Brick Break for Makuhita) or because they get a neat coverage move that makes them a bit more effective (Metal Claw for Teddiursa, Shock Wave for Gulpin, Ancientpower for Swinub), pretty much everything becomes a semi-decent option. Hell, even Poochyena is somewhat-exciting to use because it gets Poison Fang and Dig right off the bat.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Hell, even Poochyena is somewhat-exciting to use because it gets Poison Fang and Dig right off the bat.

Mightyena was putting in some serious work when I played that game. Intimidate is so useful in doubles. Poison Fang is underrated too, it could poison a bunch of stuff.

 

[mertyville]

One of the things I like most about replaying XD is that it makes a lot of Pokemon I'm not that crazy about tons more fun to use because of the additional moves it gives them. Whether it's just because they get a really good STAB earlier than otherwise (Heat Wave for Vulpix, Giga Drain for Seedot, Brick Break for Makuhita) or because they get a neat coverage move that makes them a bit more effective (Metal Claw for Teddiursa, Shock Wave for Gulpin, Ancientpower for Swinub), pretty much everything becomes a semi-decent option. Hell, even Poochyena is somewhat-exciting to use because it gets Poison Fang and Dig right off the bat.

yeah, with Seedots its more that you get Leafstone about the same time as you are able to purify it meaning you have access to a pretty high BST Pokemon early game. Regarding moves, I felt joy in using Ariados due to Signal Beam which is a very high power stab move for early game.
Or how about Flareon where you get Fire Blast midgame allowing you to use it as a formidible mixed attacker (tho Houndoom is still better).

Tho Gulpin and Poochyena were very underwhelming to me. My Jolly overleveled Mighthyena could not 1HKO a Shadow Magcargo which I used Dig against by accident.

 

[Karxrida]

In my run of Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness, I used Grimer. To my surprise, this thing is doing surprisingly well even up to the late game with the moveset of Sludge Bomb, Fire Blast, Helping Hand and Shadow Punch. Mono Poison I associate with bad things but it does surprisingly well by taking out some really problematic Pokemon, even roasting Foretress and Skarmory. With Helping Hand it does a good assist on boosting another Pokemon when it cannot attack fast enough before it is about to be knocked out.

I would not say it is a must own or totally worth the grind but if you invest, you do get a useful ally to your party.

It's easy to forgot because Kanto is very hostile to players using Poison-types (too many enemy Poisons you can't muscle past, mostly), but Muk actually has a decent stat spread, especially after it got buffed by the Special split in Gen 2. Muk is physically strong and quite bulky, with its Special bulk in particular being fairly high. It's typically able to tank at least one STAB Psychic move from full. (As an aside, it's very ironic how the slime enemy is more vulnerable to physical damage than magic damage when it's often the opposite lol.)

I suggest you try Alolan Grimer next time you play Gen 7. There's a bit of a dead period in midgame right before the Muk evolution, but it's otherwise an extremely solid Pokémon thanks to the added Dark typing.

yeah, with Seedots its more that you get Leafstone about the same time as you are able to purify it meaning you have access to a pretty high BST Pokemon early game.

When I did my very first playthrough of XD I held out on evovling Nuzleaf until it learned Faint Attack for Dark STAB. It's probably not necessary since you can get by on Grass STABs + Fake Out + Secret Power, waiting until level 31 to evolve is a bit of a hard ask, and you have access to the much stronger Houndoom for Dark damage, but I remember it still contributed quite nicely to the team.

 

[mertyville]

I played Pokemon Sapphire recently. While I did not beat the game because I wasted so much resources to make one particular Pokemon worth using and am not capable to beat the Pokemon League with repeated retries or grinding, I stopped. These are still a few Pokemon that still surprised me despite looking bad innitially.


Because I got the EXP share earlier than I normally do as I play to waste little time and the opportunity offered to catch a Plusle, I just did. And I am glad I did because just before the 3rd Gym it reached lv19 and learned the 65 base power Spark. I wanted to teach it Shockwave but all Electric Type moves were special.
Being a Pikaclone with a useless ability and a shallow movepool, my expectations weren't really high.
There are a few things that are however notable that changed my perspective about Plusle.
1. Plusle is pretty fast and strong at that point in the game. You are outspeeding quiet a lot of things and 85 base special attack and me happening to have caught a Rash one is nothing to laugh at. Generally, it hit pretty hard. Also there is a mission where you can obtain Thunderbolt midgame, just as if Plusle didn't hit hard enough.
2. Its Hoenn and you are playing Pokemon Sapphire. While Ground Types and Grass Types stop you, you are most often confronted by Water and Flying Types like Wingull, Zubat, Pelipper, Golbat, Crobat, Tentacool, all the annoying too much water trainers, Team Aqua... most of these lose to Spark or Thunderbolt.
3. Utility. Since I went hoops to train multiple Pokemon, certain gyms became a lot harder. Lunatone in particulate dragged the team down. So Plusle had to do some heavy lifting. Paralysing with Thunderwave. Growl to weaken Slaking so I can later set up with Loudred for a sweep. Using Fake Tears on Tate and Liza to break through with special moves.
Things that made Plusle useless late game to me is the neglect. While Plusle grows fast, I chose to grind other Pokemon due to my desire to make one useful and the other needing to Friendship Evolve so I can teach it Fly (I will go over that one later). By the time I got to the Pokemon League, Plusle remained lv35 thus I cannot say anything about how it would have performed there if it were on the same level as the Pokemon it would fight.

Slow "bulky" mixed attacker is the Hoenn special. Whismur did not appear very appealing at first but I was interested in using its 'vast' movepool through TMs. Turned out I caught a Jolly one so I had to work with only physical moves, at least I thought. The level up moves are pretty sad. You get Hypervoice at lv63 where you probably don't even get to (I didn't). You were stuck with Pound. Until you got the 3rd Badge and obtained HM04 Strength which changed pretty much everything. You had a early-mid game 80 base power stab move which later comes from 71 base attack Loudred and it hits much harder than one would anticipate. I can't count how many Pokemon I flat out OHKOed.
I mentioned I was 'it could only work with physical moves'. Well, 71 base special attack with Overheat and Shock Wave did decent work to OHKO certain problematic threats that wear you down like Carvana or certain steel types that happen to appear once in a while.
I used Howl to set up sometimes to then do a sweep by spamming strength such as against Norman. I generally think, if I had a neutral nature one, I could profit move from its mixed attacks. I did not regret wasting Proteins I found on it.
After becoming Exploud, it kept going with its role for a while but due me switch training a lot, it could not keep up with the Pokemon League. I taught it Shadow Ball (which I never got to use), Earthquake and Brick Break.

Lv6 modest Zigzagoon. I did not grind it once. Yet, it still contributed a lot. The paralyzed Slaking of Norman was weakened with growl. I used it as HM slave for surfing and rock smashing. But the thing most probably know it for is Pick Up. And RS pick-up is broken. I got during the run of my game 5 or more Nuggets to buy coins and 2 proteins that I spend on Loudred. Now I am not surprised why people run 5 of these during their In-game adventure of RS.

I don't know if I am annoyed or happy using Zubat. Originally intended to be my Fly Pokemon of choice before I had to realize, pre-gen 4 Zubat and Golbat cannot learn fly until they become Crobat. So I grinded for friendship and often it meant to use them in battle. Golbat and Crobat are pretty good from my experience in Gen 3. Flying STAB is pretty underrated even if it is just 60 base power. I taught it Steelwing but never used it. Bite was clutch in the Tate and Liza fight of all things wearing down the paralized Pokemon through flinching and 2HKOing them once they were hit by Fake Tears. Even tho I did not beat the Elite 4, Crobat performed probably the best despite being like 3 to 5 levels weaker. Often I would be hit by Swagger and this would give Crobat the opportunity to sweep Sydney.
Generally my memory of using Crobat in Gen 4 were always positive. You get Wing Attack at lv21. Bite does decent despite coming from your special attack. If you didn't waste your Shadow Ball, it can do quiet a lot of damage. However, I expected to fall off a lot earlier due to the lack of high base power moves I would teach it.
My favorite moment was when I faced Kyogre with Crobat. I wanted to see if I can solve the nation threatening disaster by just running away from it. It worked.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

HGSS Hoothoot takes off when it gets Uproar, it's crazy.

It's always useful because it gets Hypnosis very early, Reflect in time for Whitney, Confusion for all the Poison-types you gotta run through, Air Slash comes at just the right time to give it some real consistent power, Hyper Beam is a nuke/hail mary option that you also get extremely early, and it uses Shadow Ball adequately because it's immune to Ghost. This just takes an enormous dump on Morty, Gengar can't do anything to it but Sucker Punch.

Uproar is also super cost-efficient when it comes to PP, which helps a lot in route-clearing. I had expected to have a tough time running it, but it stole the show. It was useful in the E4 too, but unfortunately, its stats caught up to it against Lance, but then again, what doesn't? The level spike is crazy.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

HGSS Hoothoot takes off when it gets Uproar, it's crazy.

It's always useful because it gets Hypnosis very early, Reflect in time for Whitney, Confusion for all the Poison-types you gotta run through, Air Slash comes at just the right time to give it some real consistent power, Hyper Beam is a nuke/hail mary option that you also get extremely early, and it uses Shadow Ball adequately because it's immune to Ghost. This just takes an enormous dump on Morty, Gengar can't do anything to it but Sucker Punch.

Uproar is also super cost-efficient when it comes to PP, which helps a lot in route-clearing. I had expected to have a tough time running it, but it stole the show. It was useful in the E4 too, but unfortunately, its stats caught up to it against Lance, but then again, what doesn't? The level spike is crazy.

Hoothoot is great in HGSS; I also used mine in my first playthrough in White 2 courtesy of the Dream Radar. Talk about an average Pokemon made into a veritable superstar, Tinted Lens is phenomenal on it thanks to the abundance of Rocks/Steels in the midgame. Slowpoke is wonderful too, but Hoothoot was the undisputed wunderkind of my squad.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

Tinted Lens is phenomenal on it thanks to the abundance of Rocks/Steels in the midgame.

It's even more impressive in HGSS because Noctowl doesn't have Tinted Lens.

Talk about a pleasant surprise, if it had Hyper Voice and Extrasensory was earlier so you could use it on the Radio Tower, it'd be straight up amazing.