I spent a few days with friends looking over the pokedex and grouping each Pokemon based on their canonical stated power levels in the Pokedex. We completely ignored stuff like base stats and abilities, and just looked at what they literally are stated to be able to do. They're not in order with each tiering, just grouped by dex # in each one.
The way this worked was that I did not include Dynamax, because then every Pokemon could just get to groupkiller level instantly, but I did include Gigantimax, because thats a unique quality. Also included Megas, different forms, and a small amount of power scaling, though only when the Pokemon has canonically gone into conflict with other Pokemon, or if in rare instances there's a directly stated growth in power.
Also, this tier list only went up to DLC 1 + Calyrex, so no new regi forms/galarian birds/etc.
If a Pokemon isn't here its in the 'trash' tier.
Explanations for some of the odd ones:
edit: Lanturn: this post (or more accurately this post) (thank you Legitimate Username)
Vaporeon: The Pokedex states that Vaporeon can "freely control water". No other Pokemon, including Kyogre and other Water legendaries, has that distinction of 'freely control water' (although they usually say they can control water). Taken literally, this means Vaporeon has literally no limits to its water control, and so could instantly kill all life on earth by making their insides freeze or boil, and then flood all the oceans, etc etc. Vaporeon is stronger than Kyogre and its not even a contest.
Keldeo: It can "slice through anything" in its Resolute form. The barriers of spacetime are meaningless to the power of Keldeo. Keldeo can destroy the entire universe because it can slice through anything. Reality warper. Not even Zacian-C can do this
Hydreigon: "The heads on their arms do not have brains. They use all three heads to consume and destroy everything." As we've stated above, saying 'anything' here instead of everything would have been good enough, but everything? Hydreigon can delete reality at any moment. It's probably only not done so because it's a dumbass.
Sawk: Sawk is dummy broken for a fighter. There was no mention of its immense power until SS, where Shield says "The karate chops of a Sawk that's trained itself to the limit can cleave the ocean itself." Max potential Sawk can go full Moses with a single karate chop, which are usually larger than any one continent. Its strikes would easily be able to rip apart continents.
Carbink & Diancie: Probably the one I'm most surprised about, Carbink is actually an insanely powerful monster. It obviously is made of diamond, making it already tough, but the dex also states that "When beset by attackers, Carbink wipes them all out by firing high-energy beams from the gems embedded in its body." Wipes them all out - Carbink does not care for numbers, nor does it care about your individual power, it is completely irrelevant. If you are attacking Carbink, it doesn't matter the strength or number of your armies, a single Carbink will completely annihilate you. You have no chance, I'm sorry. And since Diancie is canonically just an upgraded Carbink, it has to go at least a rank above Carbink - though the dex is unfortunately absent of direct feats from Diancie. Honestly, I probably ranked Carbink and Diancie a bit too low, considering Carbink can canonically beat Pokemon like Arceus and Ultra Necrozma, but I'm not sure if that immense power actually translates to the ability to destroy continents/planets. May just be a death ray or something. SCP 2935, watch out.
Hawlucha: Hawlucha is actually a rare instance where it is explicitly scaled in the Pokedex to another Pokemon. "Although its body is small, its proficient fighting skills enable it to keep up with big bruisers like Machamp and Hariyama." With Machamp easily being at Lion level, we can say that at minimum it is a city destroyer, much like Hariyama. I'm glad the Dex is consistent with their power scaling, as well, putting Hariyama and Machamp at around the same ballpark, really goes to show that they put intent into all their entries.
Tapu Fini: Its above the other Tapus because it can control water. The other Tapus are kinda weaksauce compared to this. While its not as powerful as Vaporeon, since it can't freely do this, its a league above anything Koko/Lele/Bulu can do.
I'm going to rapidfire the less interesting ones: Pokemon like Regice, Golisopod, and Armaldo can beat 1 billion lions, whereas their counterparts cannot, because they both carry stated offensive and defensive powers. Regice freeze anything that comes close to them ("Regice instantly freezes any creature that approaches it"), whereas Golisopod and Armaldo both have impenetrable armor ("Armaldo's tough armor makes all attacks bounce off.", "The shell covering its body is as hard as diamond") and similarly impressive offensive power ("Its enormous, retractable claws can cut through most anything.", "With a flashing slash of its giant sharp claws, it cleaves seawater—or even air—right in two."). With their bodies being completely covered in their strongest features, no number of lions could win against a single one of each, as even if each Pokemon got tired (may not happen in Regice's case), they will be completely unbothered by the billion lions as they eat food and sleep. Glalie is actually similar to Vaporeon, where it can "freely control ice". The dex says this lets this freeze any foe, and this means it literally could effortlessly freeze all 1 billion lions with just a thought. However, freely controlling ice is much more restrictive than water, meaning it probably is less powerful than Vaporeon (although in retrospect, given Glalie's Mega Evolution, it may have been better to put it at Continent or Planet level, if it got enough of a power boost). Malamar has the strongest hypnotic powers in-universe ("It wields the most compelling hypnotic powers of any Pokémon"), eclipsing Mewtwo and Mega Alakazam, but this only gives it power over lifeforms. Its easiest to say it could be put at Lion level with this, due to its actual physical frailty, but maybe someone could argue that it could hypnotize humans to nuke the planet to put it at planet level, or hypnotize god Pokemon to do its bidding - though that seems like a stretch, when it comes to ranking its own, individual power.
For mons that have Gigantimax forms, if they're super high you can assume their dex entry has some dumb shit. Like Toxtricity mentions "it tears across the land in a rampage, contaminating the earth with toxic sweat." A shame it didn't have a capital E, could have been planet level, but this clearly says it could destroy an entire continent (the land). Other examples are around, probably won't talk about all Gigantimax formes
Also Zamazenta has no real stated offensive power and can only really get as high as it gets through generous scaling with its fight against Eternatus. If I ignored that and took his dex literally, Zamazenta goes in the trash tier.
Anyway, I think thats everything I wanted to say. This has been an extensively researched project, but I don't want to say I have perfect knowledge of all power feats of every Pokemon, so if you think I'm missing something, just let me know.
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