Is the Ghost-type too spooky for an in-game run?

[mertyville]

Ghost-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 (deja vu?). Due to a programming error (Gen 1 moment), instead of being a good offensive answer to Psychic-types, it turned out to be probably one of the worst answers especially since the only Ghost-type line was also Poison-type in Gen 1.
Speaking of which, the Gastly-line pretty much carried the Ghost-type even after this type was demoted from being rare due to the lines impressive offensive stat distribution (even as a first state Pokemon) as well has the defensive properties that got better with the introduction of the Levitate Ability.
Despite the lack of Ghost moves, not to mention them being physical, Gastly and its evolutions were still fantastic even in Gen 1 were Normal was most trainers only option of offense.
When Dark-types were introduced, offensively both types were almost redundant with Dark being a special offensive counterpart to Ghost for a while but defensively, until Fairy-types came, they removed each others weakness (thus Sableye is impossible to defeat and is obviously in everyone's Gen 3 in-game team imma right?).

In my playthroughts through many Pokemon games, I have never seen a type that was completely dominated by 1 evolutionary line for the most part. Even if you could not evolve into Gengar, in a game where you could get both Gastly and any other Ghost-type, I still think Gastly is the superior pick. But whenever I do pick a Ghost-type, I still don’t pick Gastly when I am not able to evolve due to my desire to have a fully evolved team in my playthrough.

In Gen 1 and 2 there were no other options (Misdreavus is a Gen 4 Pokemon and you cannot convince me otherwise), Gen 3 the Ghosts were late game, suffered greatly from stat distribution or being late game (Sableye is good for Brawly tho and unbeatable), Gen 4 even Rotom seems kinda inferior to Haunter and Mismagius probably being the closest thing to keeping up with it and I would say even Giratina is worse than Haunter (Giratina has higher staying power but if you used Giratina in Platinum you know its not only agony. Giratina needs lots of investment to benefit of its defensive stats and haven't find a way to get the Gracious Orb before post-game thus never used Origin Form in-game). In Colosseum Misdreavus benefitted due to circumstances similar to Gen 1 Gastly (and Spell Tag physical Shadow Ball obviously turns the playthrough trivial).

Gen 5 I don't remember much about Ghost-types besides them being pretty late and for the amount of investment not very worth it.

This leaves Gen 6 onwards where I think the first really good competition is Aegislash giving you a lot of flexibility on your playstyle or how you want to play through the game. Like Dark moves, Ghost move became more potent too, however, like Dark types where aren't many good options with base powers over 80. Physical Ghost moves are especially hard to get by with the best hard hitting option being Shadow Claw (70 base power). So even the 'blessed' Mega Banette would still not win a spot in my in-game team.

In a general sense, I think despite on paper Ghost-types getting better (mostly offensively), defensively speaking they might have gotten worse and I think in the earlier paragraphs I kinda hinted on it.
While Gen 1 you are weak to the broken Psychic-type, you are immun to Normal and the fact very few Pokemon even carried STAB moves until even Gen 3, gave the type long staying power, like Colosseum Misdreavus. As such even in Gen 2 where you might think Ghost-type is at its worst, because getting good special moves on Haunter is a nightmare, you still get a lot of utility like Meanlook + Hypnosis against the legendary beasts or generally wearing down problematic Pokemon. More such advantages and probably why the Gastly-line is taking advantage of every strength of the Ghost-typing in every generation (I have played so far) I listed in this post

Post in thread '"Best Pokémon Ever"'

Mar 18, 2026

I think especially for in-game the Gastly-line literally carries the whole Ghost-Type and for good reason. Every generation they abuse another mechanic.
While in Gen 1 there were no good Ghost-type moves (not to mention they were physical and didn't work on Psychic-types anyways), they high special stat, good speed even as Gastly as well as being immun to one of the best types in...

• mertyville

• 

What are your thoughts about the Ghost-type? Am I overhyping it or give too much credit on Gastly?

 

[CynicalGiant]

Gen 3 the Ghosts were late game, suffered greatly from stat distribution or being late game (Sableye is good for Brawly tho and unbeatable), Gen 4 even Rotom seems kinda inferior to Haunter and Mismagius probably being the closest thing to keeping up with it and I would say even Giratina is worse than Haunter (Giratina has higher staying power but if you used Giratina in Platinum you know its not only agony.

the gen 3 ghosts really aren't that bad. Duskull and Dusclops are defensive pokemon and have pretty good stats for that purpose. They aren't meant to be like your main damage dealers, they exist to stall. I've never used them because I don't like that playstyle but a friend of mine only uses stall pokemon and loves Dusclops.

For ingame standards back then, Shuppet/Banette also have pretty decent attack stats, only real unfortunate part is how frail they are. Also, after gym 6 in gen 3 isn't that late really. There's still a considerable amount of game and trainers left. I've played the games over and over and have watched people play them just as often, and very rarely have I ever seen someone have a full team of pokemon at the point you get them. I don't think either of them are bad options to be your like 5th or 6th slot anyway.

Gen 5 I don't remember much about Ghost-types besides them being pretty late and for the amount of investment not very worth it.

Yamask is after the 4th gym leader which I think would be rather odd to label as "late game", and it evolves at a reasonable level as far as Unova goes lol. Cofagrigus is also pretty good as its Dusclops if it could actually hurt you with attacks.

Chandelure and Golurk are absolutely worth the investment. You can also get Chandelure before you face Brycen if you really want to. They are both very good pokemon and them arriving late really doesn't matter.

This leaves Gen 6 onwards where I think the first really good competition is Aegislash giving you a lot of flexibility on your playstyle or how you want to play through the game.

downside of Aegislash is that you had to grind a monotonous and not really at all fun minigame for hours to obtain the evolution stone, thankfully Doublade is pretty decent so you don't have to care if you don't want to lol.

 

[Ironmage]

I generally find the Gastly line pretty clunky for ingame use due to Gengar being a trade evolution. Haunter isn't terrible admittedly, but it's not exactly statted for using Eviolite. Despite this, I noticed I've ended up using a lot of other Ghost-types over the years.

Within gen 3, in addition to the defensive utility of Sableye and Dusclops, I recall enjoying running Shedinja. I used the fact that it gets Ninjask's moveset at tie of evoution to grab Swords Dance at 25. Definitely not a mon for a blind playthrough, but a really satisfying wincon. Funnily enough, I completely missed Misdreavus on my Colo playthrough for whatever reason.

I'd say Alola also has some good performance out of its Ghosts. Mimikyu and Marowak are probably the only outright good ones, but I've also insisted on running Palossand and Dhelmise repeatedly for aesthetic reasons and I at least wouldn't call them useless. Never actually used decidueye though.

It really bothers me that Iron Head is at a late enough level the Honedge line probably won't have it for the Fairy gym.

 

[Hugin]

The thing about this discussion is that Ghost is so rare that, for many games, we're going to be discussing individual lines rather than the type as a whole.

So, the first 3 gens, ghost moves suck. Physical attacks on a Specially-biased type, there's nothing between Lick and Shadow Ball to fill the movesets, and most of their gimmicks(Hypnosis, Curse) are miserable to use. But the gimmicks do exist, and Ghosts, like Psychics, tend to get good coverage at the very least. That said, defensively the type is extremely good. Weak only to Dark and itself, with some very clutch resistances, it's one of the few types which probably prefers NOT having a secondary typing, all things considered.

Gastly in Gen 1 is broken defensively and has access to Psychic. It's not the MewTwo killer it was billed as, but it's certainly good in-game and available reasonably early. The problem is that if something CAN hit it with a physical move or Psychic, it's going down.
Gen 2, Gastly shows up earlier than any other ghost in the franchise, available before the first gym. This is balanced by it having an absolutely miserable movepool until you get the Shadow Ball TM(which is physical). That said, the Roaming Legendaries alone probably justify keeping something with Mean Look, Hypnosis, and Night Shade in your pocket.
Gen 3 is interesting. Sableye and Shedinja are fun gimmicks available before gym 2, but both are actually miserable to use. Shuppet and Duskull are better, though they still have ROUGH BSTs, but are only available after Gym 5.

Gen 4 is when they type took off. Drifloon, Gastly, and Misdreveus(debut generation) are available early and all decent mons. Phys/Special split happened, so Shadow Ball is useable, and they added several decent ghost moves to the pool. It's not perfect, but finally the type feels more like a viable option than a gimmick. There's also various Ghosts available later, giving the type some competitive power, but too late for most in-game runs.
Never played BW
Gen 6, Honedge is available early. That's all you need. Seriously, I'd advise not using the Dusk Stone, Eviolite Doublade with early Shadow Claw is capable of CRUSHING much of the game, and it's coverage fixes many of the reasons people would ask "why not just run a dark type?" Golett and Drifloon are also available reasonably early, and Phantump/Pumpkaboo/Litwick/Rotom later, all of which have reasonable stats, good coverage, and interesting types. If you have a way of handling Houndour, you could viably run mono-ghost this Gen and not hate yourself, which is a first.
Gen 7, ghost-type starter! Well, starter final evo, but still, never seen that before and really pushes the player to use the type. And Decidueye is a perfectly decent in-game mon, if not as pushed as Inceneroar and Primarina. Beyond that, there's Totem Marowak and Mimikyu as ghost-types they clearly wanted to see succeed, and numerous other reasonably available options. Genuinely a good, varied, type.

By Gen 7, it feels like the type has stopped being a weird gimmick and is a legit option with pros and cons that you can reasonably add to your team at any point. It's a far cry from Gastly-line only of Gen 1. Defensively, the type has no tools against Darks still, but otherwise it's extremely good as a wall and can be an answer to otherwise unbeatable opponents. Offensively, the type has solid neutral coverage with just STAB that tends to come online early, and while Ghost/Fighting perfect coverage is rare outside of Hidden Power, plenty of ghosts have secondary types or coverage moves to make them nearly impossible to wall by the midgame. There's definitely BST and stat distribution issues with many of the mons, but that just makes them interesting(and that's before we get into the weird gimmicks the type has access to).

 

[mertyville]

the gen 3 ghosts really aren't that bad. Duskull and Dusclops are defensive pokemon and have pretty good stats for that purpose. They aren't meant to be like your main damage dealers, they exist to stall. I've never used them because I don't like that playstyle but a friend of mine only uses stall pokemon and loves Dusclops.

From my experience, while Dusclops is good (even if it is not the type of playstyle I enjoy due to it being passive), Duskull kinda evolves too late generally late in the game. I feel the same about it in XD Gale of Darkness where you get it earlier.
Shuppet I just cannot see being worth to invest in it since it evolves just as late and you aren't getting much out of it.

Regarding Gen 5 Ghosts, I know that Litwick needs to be grinded to lv41 which you need the EXP-Share to get something out of it. Maybe I am kinda blinded by the amout of very strong easy access options Gen 5 already provides you with like Darmanitan, Sandile, Scraggy and Drillbur/Excadrill. Even Axew is very appealing since from my playthroughs it can do stuff on its own at the point you get it not making it just drain EXP of other members and Flaxure can solo the Dragon gym by itself.

Ironically despite picking Rowlet in Gen 7, I don't really remember how well its final evo performed. I know Lunala is absolutely busted in Moon.

The countless Ghost/Grass Pokemon gamefreak is coming out with lately I don't have anything to say.

 

[Hugin]

The countless Ghost/Grass Pokemon gamefreak is coming out with lately I don't have anything to say.

It's so weird. Gen 6, Phantump/Treavanant and Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist. Odd that they'd do what are essentially counterparts with the same typing, that's a little uncreative, but whatever, they match the location well. Gen 7, Decidueye and Dhelmise. Again, I can't criticize any specific elements of the design, but there were multiple type options for each and it's odd that we got Grass/Ghost again when that was not a common typing before this point. No Grass/Ghost in 8, which is as expected. Gen 9, we get Poltchageist/Sinistcha and Bramblin/Brambleghast. WHY. Why are there always 2 lines with this typing per generation? Why only now? Does someone at GF just really love Grass/Ghost? Fun fact, Grass/Ghost, by number of mons, is the most common ghost type combo, and ties with Ghost/Fire for most lines with a typing. What is happening to cause this?

 

[Karxrida]

Gen 7, ghost-type starter! Well, starter final evo, but still, never seen that before and really pushes the player to use the type. And Decidueye is a perfectly decent in-game mon, if not as pushed as Inceneroar and Primarina.

I picked Rowlet on my first (and only) playthrough of Moon and it was kind of miserable to use ngl. Stuck with Razor Leaf as its physical Grass STAB for too long and Grass/Ghost isn't a super amazing defensive typing.

 

[Bog Monster]

It's so weird. Gen 6, Phantump/Treavanant and Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist. Odd that they'd do what are essentially counterparts with the same typing, that's a little uncreative, but whatever, they match the location well. Gen 7, Decidueye and Dhelmise. Again, I can't criticize any specific elements of the design, but there were multiple type options for each and it's odd that we got Grass/Ghost again when that was not a common typing before this point. No Grass/Ghost in 8, which is as expected. Gen 9, we get Poltchageist/Sinistcha and Bramblin/Brambleghast. WHY. Why are there always 2 lines with this typing per generation? Why only now? Does someone at GF just really love Grass/Ghost? Fun fact, Grass/Ghost, by number of mons, is the most common ghost type combo, and ties with Ghost/Fire for most lines with a typing. What is happening to cause this?

My theory is that someone at gamefreak can't keep their houseplants alive and is memorializing them in the game.

 

[Blue glass]

Graveyards, forests and houses are common enough places to be haunted in media. It's jarring because it was non-existant in the begging of the franchise but it's a really prevalent trend in recent times.

 

[Hugin]

Graveyards, forests and houses are common enough places to be haunted in media. It's jarring because it was non-existant in the begging of the franchise but it's a really prevalent trend in recent times.

I don't think any of the Grass/Ghosts are specifically a bad fit, but it's just very odd to have that as the most common type combo compared to everything else you might associate with Ghosts. And it's very weird that 3 out of the last 4 gens have added specifically 2 lines with that type combo.