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Are Dark-types the Dark Horse of in-game?

mertyville

mertyville

Dark-type Pokemon, introduced as the Psychic-type killer, really suffered due to low distribution for in-game plays or suffering due to game mechanics not really favoring them. Gen 2 has the only someone realistic to use for in-game Umbreon and the Silver-exclusive Sneasel. Gen 3 has the Dark-type dog with awful Special Attack which cannot take advantage of its Dark STAB and other slow mixed Attacking Dark-types that are really starving for good Dark STAB except Sharpedo.
By the time really good Dark-types came, Psychic-types became less appealing until the Gen 6 which might have given Dark-Types the buff they need.
Competitively Dark-types became almost a must due to resisting Knock-Off and Ghost moves as well as the utility and power of Knock Off.

As a Psychic killer, I don't think the Dark-type succeeded in-game. But over the years it became a Type that has become very spamable and good coverage for many common offensive types like Ice, Fighting, Ground and Fire.

Now regarding the rareness of Dark-types and Steel-types in Gen 2, if we look as Gen 2 as the final games and new Pokemon being discovered as well as the types themselves, it makes sense why Pokemon of these types are so difficult to get.

What are your experiences with Dark-types in-game? What were you expecting and what do you believe you got? To me the biggest things that upsets me is there is no Dark-type Horse Pokemon.
 
The big thing with Dark is really just that you need to be in Gen 4 or later. Pre P/S split, the type is miserable. After then, though, it takes off.

It's reasonably common for the games to include an early-route derp that's a Dark type, because they want something weak for the evil team to use. Which isn't great, but means that you can have access to the type extremely early. Mid-to-late, there's often a few good-to-decent options to choose between. The type isn't mindblowing in terms of power/stats, as a rule, but certainly there's plenty of mons with a decent spread to choose from.
A lot of their moves are more complicated than would be ideal for an in-game run(Sucker Punch/Foul Play/Knock Off might dominate competitive, but they're miserable in-game), but in general everything is going to have an 80 BP STAB off of it's preferred offensive stat, and surprising coverage. There's no Close Combat/Fire Blast equivalent, but it's reliable.
The real problem for Dark types IME is random coverage on the opponent can screw up an otherwise perfect wall situation. Alola is the worst region for this, EVERYTHING has bug coverage for some reason, but plenty of others will pull out Dazzling Gleam at the worst possible moments.
 
Dark was initially kind of a failure. A bunch of bizarre game design decisions coalesced into a weird situation where the type's presence in Gen 2 is borderline nonexistent outside of the move Bite on some Pokémon, and the fact that Dark was Special and not Physical for some reason means not a lot of those Pokémon make great use of it. The fact that Gen 2 is arguably the strongest showing of the Abra line in spite of the new type meant to counter it should say a lot.

As time went on Dark slowly got better and more usable, but it took a bit to become good. More common in Hoenn but none of the options are fantastic and obviously nonexistent in FRLG. (Gale of Darkness Houndour is awesome at least.) Better overall in Gen 4 due to the Physical/Special split, but your options are back to being kind of limited and HGSS doesn't fix Johto's original sin with the distribution problem.

Gen 5 is when we get our first real standout Dark-types in Scraggy and Sandile. Both are available around the same time at a reasonable spot in the game (before the fourth Gym), come with good abilities and secondary typings on top of well-realized stat spreads. Dark is also useful for two of the Elite Four fights. BW2 later gifts us the free Zoura with good IVs, which is a solid team member and also great against random fights with Illusion cheese. From my understanding it would go on to have a successful career as a godsend when doing Nuzlockes in all games where it's available.

From then on Dark settles in as a very usable type for PvE thanks to strong neutral STAB and the Psychic immunity being a nice perk.
 
Sometimes I do some take time to invest or trade Dark-types into other games to see how they would perform. Obviously FRLG are out of the equation as well as Gen 1.

In Crystal runs I used Umbreon which did ok. In the region where you cannot OHKO everything and most options are difficult, having something that can weaken your opponents' means to fight back is valuable. In this case the standout was Charm against Red.
I bothered grinding a Lavitar to a Ttar and while that's not something I would suggest for an ingame run, if accessability for Ttar were better, it would be a fantastic choice for a boss fight.

Gen 3 is sadly just Sharpedo for me if you were able to get it. Crawdaunt, Shiftry, Cacturn and Absol lack good STAB to take advantage of the type offensively. Generally Crawdaunt lacks good moves to learn compared to other Water-Types. It and Cacturne are another slow, 'bulky' mixed attacker. Shiftry is an agony to get and learns no moves. Faint Attack is your best Dark option and Gen 3 Grass moves are awful. Poochiena line doesn't even cut as an HM slave.
Colosseum put all the Gen 2 Dark-types to late game where they power level can't keep up anymore except Umbreon. Umbreon would be good if it had better support moveset. At this point I suspect they purposely made it worse.
XD Gale of Darkness has Houndour as the perfect savior of Dark-types for the gen and showing what potential the type has. Shiftry is also there as an early game powerhouse but it is more a Grass-type than a Dark-type. Poochiena line is a disappointment regardless, I still remember how fully evolved with Adamant nature and level advantage it could not OHKO a Magcargo with Dig.
I did not have the displeasure yet of using Umbreon in XD Gale of Darkness.
Lastly is the trade Lavitar which made the game an agony to play. I blame mainly Sandstorm once it became Ttar.

Gen 4 I only played Diamond and the Pokemon I used where Skuntank which pretty much only spammed Dark moves and Flamethrower. I was mildly satistied. Absol I traded over and until the Pokemon league it did do well with its insane ATK stat. Unfortunately its being a Hoenn Pokemon got it only this far. Even Sucker Punch couldn't save it.
Trade Cacnea surprised me and I wrote about it here
mertyville

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

Spr 4d 331.pngMale
To finish the game in a quicker way, I traded some Pokemon from SS to Diamond. One of them was Cacnea from Pokemon Emerald lv5 Timid Nature with Cut. Eventually I realized that Cacnea still hits hard despite the -atk nature. It came with its 60 base power grass signature move which was impressive early game and eventually learned Faint Attack. Once it evolved, pretty much anything got 2hkoed and I decided to teach it Focus Blast to...
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But generally I think the generation has stuff going for it for Dark-types as you have access to Houndour, Mukrow which can evolve to Hounchcrow and if you can get it probably Drapion.

Gen 5 has some of the best in-game Pokemon as Dark-types in Scraggy and Sandile which have the secondary types Fighting and Ground as well as Moxie.
In BW2 my experience with Zoroa can be read here
mertyville

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

Zoroark

So I decided to use N's Zorua. At first my expectation were kinda high because it is a gift pokemon treated as a trade Pokemon, so you get more EXP. 30 ivs in every stat, Hidden Power Fighting with 70 Base Power? Sounds great. Hasty Nature guarantied? Sign me in.
But then you use it and it doesn't do much most of the game until it evolves where Night Slash starts to deal some damage. At that point I started to lose hope in Zoroark. But then there is a shining light at the end of the tunnel: Nasty Plot and TM30 Shadow Ball...
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With later gens I am not too experienced sadly but Starters carrying Dark-types too now and there being 3 of them really boosts the accessability of the type. The really good users are sadly late game like the paradox Pokemon or hard to get like Hydreigon. Gen 6 has early Hydreigon but I never tried getting that. I almost forgot Yveltal which makes the entire game a cake walk once you get it.
Similary with ORAS, the Dark-types of Gen 3 are improved through mechanical changes and Mega Evolution. However, I don't know how many Megas were accessable of those before the Pokemon league.
 
I’d say out of all the types Dark is probably one of the best ones that has only gotten better every generation.

Like every game since Gen 3 has had a very Early but reliable Dark type native to the region in some form or another. Poochyena might be one of the worst by virtue of Dark still kind of sucking in Gen 3 but it getting early intimidate is excellent. Gen 4s options are more mixed but Drapion and Honchkrow are both excellent
Choices.
Gen 5 doesn’t need explaining, Krookodile and Scrafty are amazing.
Gen 8 has Galarian Zigzagoon who evolves into the incredible Obstagoon who has so many options to build around in a playthrough.

And as a type Dark is always a reliable option because Ghost and Psychic types are always present in a major battle in some way every single game, be it a Legendary, late game Gym Leader or Elite 4, and having an easy counter to both is never bad.

(I’d also mention just how Common it is as a coverage move via Bute/Crunch, but this is getting bloated and I don’t know where to put it)
 
Castersvarog said:
I’d say out of all the types Dark is probably one of the best ones that has only gotten better every generation.

Like every game since Gen 3 has had a very Early but reliable Dark type native to the region in some form or another. Poochyena might be one of the worst by virtue of Dark still kind of sucking in Gen 3 but it getting early intimidate is excellent. Gen 4s options are more mixed but Drapion and Honchkrow are both excellent
Choices.
Gen 5 doesn’t need explaining, Krookodile and Scrafty are amazing.
Gen 8 has Galarian Zigzagoon who evolves into the incredible Obstagoon who has so many options to build around in a playthrough.

And as a type Dark is always a reliable option because Ghost and Psychic types are always present in a major battle in some way every single game, be it a Legendary, late game Gym Leader or Elite 4, and having an easy counter to both is never bad.

(I’d also mention just how Common it is as a coverage move via Bute/Crunch, but this is getting bloated and I don’t know where to put it)
Click to expand...
Throwback to Unova where Game Freak decided to give either Bite or Pursuit to everything.
 
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