In Game Tiers, Platinum Edition!!

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If you're leveling up Chimchar to obtain Nasty Plot for so long, you're already at another disadvantage compared to Turtwig. You won't be receiving STAB on your Fighting attacks for the first few gyms, and you'll be horribly weak. Definintely not the fastest way.
Chimchar doesn't learn Fighting-type moves until he evolves...
 
Chimchar can learn Focus Punch, Brick Break, Rock Smash, Bulk Up, from TM's/HM. But that's despite the point, as delaying evolution is not an option in an efficient run of platinum. Calm Mind would be the superior option over Nasty Plot in this instance.
 
Magikarp should definately be lower.

Magikarp as a pokemon is ofcourse available really early in the game. But it just withers away until you've found a good way to get it some solid HP. But my main reason for magikarp to be lower is that it is not a solid surfer. If there's one HM that is needed except for Fly it's surf, a great move with a lot of use in-game. And when having a great HM move you need to teach it to a pokemon that can actually utilize it. And Gyarados doesn't do that. It has an abysmal Spatt and has a ton of better moves to use in its place. Therefor someone that wants to have an optimal walthrough of the game will likely have to catch a second water type just to utilize surf to it's fullest. It's also the reason why I haven't used a gyarados since I was 9/10 and had pokemon silver.


S rank:

Ralts- In platinum ralts is available really early. And ralts, unlike some other psycic types (cough abra cough) is able to do good damage right from the start. Being near a location full of zubats (both the caves to Oreburg and Floarama) it is relatively easy to train. It gets his strongest STAB at a relatively low level (level 33) When you evolve it to a gardevoir and a solid stab atlevel 31 when evolved into a gallade. Which brings me to another point, Ralts can be evolved into either a pokemon that hits hard at the physical or at the special spectrum. Either way it'll have a great movepool and a low need for TM's , Gallade getting night slash psycho cut close combat and leafblade topped off with swords dance, and gardevoir getting psychic, magical leaf and hypnosis and even thunderbolt, focus blast and shadow ball through TM. This makes for an awesome teammate for a whole playthrough, evolved for your team needs and a hard hitting and special bulk having pokemon.

B rank:

Psyduck - psyduck is available before the first gym in Platinum, and can be good if well used. He can be a free ticket for Roark if you take 15 minutes to level in in Oreburg cave and gets his first stab at only level 9. He gets a nifty weapon in confusion with which he can be good against the plethora of zubats in the nearby caves and used by the galatic grunts. But his movepool just about ends there. He gets Psychic and surf and that's about it. Golduck can be a mixed sweeper with brick break, shadow claw and aerial ace gotten through TM, and can even be used for the elite four, but by that time there are better fish in the sea, and you might just pick one of them up. Overall solid in early/mid game.
 
If you're leveling up Chimchar to obtain Nasty Plot for so long, you're already at another disadvantage compared to Turtwig. You won't be receiving STAB on your Fighting attacks for the first few gyms, and you'll be horribly weak. Definintely not the fastest way.
This is actually quite inaccurate. You aren't actually slowed down that much by not evolving Chimchar.

You don't need fighting attacks except against Roark. By the time you get to Byron, this will be a non-issue. After Roark is Gardenia, who Chimchar doesn't have a problem against even non-evolved, and Grotle is struggling significantly more to efficiently kill her off.

Fantina is no easier for Chimchar to take on evolved, in fact, Monferno does worse due to weakness to Psybeam. Similarly against Maylyn, you're at a disadvantage to evolve to Monferno against Meditite, and her other fighting types take about equal damage from Fire moves.

So anyhow by the time you get to Wake, you should have gotten Nasty Plot and then it will be a non-issue to evolve to Infernape.

Another point for Thunderpunch.. farming for Shards is definitely not a quick way through the game. Although you might get lucky, and find the required shards in half an hour.. you might be stuck digging for a few hours looking for the exact ones.
I'm pretty certain that you can get quite a few shards from just playing normally and finding items on the overworld.
 
Why do people say surf gyarados suck? this isnt competitive a stab surf from even gyaradosses spatk can hoko most of the things its weak to. so gyarados should be a s and magikarp a c.
 
Why do people say surf gyarados suck? this isnt competitive a stab surf from even gyaradosses spatk can hoko most of the things its weak to. so gyarados should be a s and magikarp a c.
I think we made it clear that evolutions are grouped together. i.e., Biddof and Bibarel, Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape. And imo Manaphy should be an A. While some casual players may not have acess Pokemon Ranger, those who do have a pwerful water-type off the bat. Added to the fact after a Tail Glow he could practically 1HKO or at worst 2HKO most of the game.
 
Why do people say surf gyarados suck? this isnt competitive a stab surf from even gyaradosses spatk can hoko most of the things its weak to. so gyarados should be a s and magikarp a c.
Fortunately, you don't actually need to run Surf on Gyarados...

I mean seriously, with Bibarel around, you already got a guy who will gladly do the Surfing (and other stuff) for you.

Then you can run Waterfall on Gyarados to kill two birds with one stone. Use an HM, and get an awesome attack for battling purposes.
 
Magnemite - B or C. You can only get it late in the game (only after getting Surf or right before the last gym), but when you finally do so you can quickly turn it into a Magnezone (possibly stopping by the Tutor before it to get Tri-Attack for a neutral attack) and destroy everything with its awesome SAtk. The only problem is that it can't really use that SAtk until you use a TM or until it reaches level 38/40, but its cry makes up for it. Also has a nice crippling tool known as Thunder Wave, awesome Def and it can wreck even more stuff by learning Flash Cannon. Being slow isn't very good, though.

Nosepass - N. It is an awesome nose. You can walk around with a nose and make the nose become even bigger rather easily. Most trainers won't even scratch it. It's a pity that it only gets its best attacks after level 49, and by then you'll probably have a lot of better options... but none of them feel as great as beating the E4 with a giant nose. Probably D...
 
This is actually quite inaccurate. You aren't actually slowed down that much by not evolving Chimchar.

You don't need fighting attacks except against Roark. By the time you get to Byron, this will be a non-issue. After Roark is Gardenia, who Chimchar doesn't have a problem against even non-evolved, and Grotle is struggling significantly more to efficiently kill her off.

Fantina is no easier for Chimchar to take on evolved, in fact, Monferno does worse due to weakness to Psybeam. Similarly against Maylyn, you're at a disadvantage to evolve to Monferno against Meditite, and her other fighting types take about equal damage from Fire moves.

So anyhow by the time you get to Wake, you should have gotten Nasty Plot and then it will be a non-issue to evolve to Infernape.

I'm pretty certain that you can get quite a few shards from just playing normally and finding items on the overworld.
Point one; you are slowed by signifcantly by not obtaining Mach Punch early on for Monferno and burning through the first gym. You'll have a tougher time handling any caves you come across, and Chimchar is more likely to die in a single blow.. forcing you to reset, heal, etc. Grinding to level 17 to learn Flame Wheel. Sounds like fun to me.

You should have Nasty Plot by the time you reach Fantina regardless. Not evolving Chimchar by that point is not a great idea, or you'll be forced to use Flame Wheel as your main attack off a pathetic base 58 attack. You'll be better off having him evolved by that time, and at least having a chance to KO Pokemon. Because with 44/44/44 defenses, Chimchar is not exactly standing up to Haunter, or Missy's neutral STABs.

And don't joke about not evolving him up to Maylyn. Machoke and Lucario will both handle an unevolved Chimchar a few levels above themselves.
 

Deck Knight

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Not everyone has access to a Cranidos in game, though. As far as my current Platinum game is concerned, Cranidos doesn't exist; since my trainer ID is even, I can't get Skull Fossils in the Underground in the first place.
Platinum decides which Fossils you can get based on Trainer ID?

That's rather lame. Then again if you wanted to Speedtun you could always rest for an odd trainer ID at the outset.
 
I never knew that. but then i would rate cranidos a B for his humongus attack fast growth and coolness. The b is because of his defenses and speed.
 
Ok, I keep seeing people say the Gabite is available when you first get Cut. IIRC you can't actually get him until you get strength, which is after teh 6th badge. This def. makes him an A instead of an S, because you have to wait till you're more than halfway done to obtain him.
 
Ok, I keep seeing people say the Gabite is available when you first get Cut. IIRC you can't actually get him until you get strength, which is after teh 6th badge. This def. makes him an A instead of an S, because you have to wait till you're more than halfway done to obtain him.
They changed it in Platinum so you can get him after you get Cut, without Strength.

Also, if there are any disputes with what has been tiered so far (since more than half have been put on the list), feel free to speak up, we want to get this as accurate as possible
 
I think the low tiering of onix and geodude is unfair (especially early game) as their normal, rock and flying resists are brilliant when the most common move is tackle. They are both found fairly early on aswell and have decents attack stats and their movepools arent too bad.
 
A few that aren't on OP's list, or shifting of tiers.

Eevee - Tier B. Yes, you get 7 evolutions, but none of them get any decent moves without TM's. Vaporeon is probably the best in game due to surf and aurora beam at 36. The rest are all outclassed by others/not worth it ingame.

Gligar - Tier B.
No natural ground/flying attacks. Decent when he evolves into Gliscor because you can Move relearn the elemental fangs, and you get your first Razor fang at route 214. (Gym 4) Very useful vs Fantina w/ Faint attack, and gets Swords Dance to let you sweep teams.

Snover - Tier B. Even though you get it late in the game, it's extremely useful once you get it. Hail, Wood Hammer, and Ice Shard are all extremely useful ingame. (especially elite 4) You don't even need to train it due to Abomasnows being avaliable for capture as a high level.

Houndour - Tier C. You get it mid game (gym 4) but it levels slowly. Good fire type, but not very useful due to poor natural movepool.

Scyther - Tier C.
Useful for false swipe to catch things. Outclassed by Heracross in terms of usefulness and movepool. Scizor isn't too useful ingame.

Togepi - Tier C. Levels up quickly, but extremely bad movepool while it's Togepi/Togetic. Very useful if it evolves to Togekiss due to Aura Sphere/Air Slash with Move relearner. Also learns some very useful TM's. (including Fly) Good replacement for Staraptor - if you can bear with the terrible early game.

Budew - Tier C. Only good vs first gym, trash everywhere else. Takes too long to level, and terrible movepool. Even the wild roselias that you find aren't worth it.

Drifloon - Tier D. Only good vs 2nd and 3rd gym. Eats up a ton of EXP during mid~late game (takes longer to level up than Gible/Giratina during mid~late game)



If the position of the mon in each tier reflect their ranks, I would order tier A like this:
Magikarp > Gible > Rotom > the rest

Turtwig isn't really too useful actually. His main problem is his speed, and coupled with wood hammer, means you take more hits than you should, and forcing you to use more potions. Still, better than Piplup because his move pool is still great.

Onix needs a note about how you can catch steelixes in game. Steelix is useful against the elite 4, because it lets you use your revives/pots while it tanks hits. (and since you can catch steelix in game, you dont need that metal coat comment) I do agree that it's useless pretty much the entire game except for that.

Gabites can be captured at Victory road (at around mid 40's) meaning that you only need to train it a couple more levels to get your garchomp. However, Gible is a major asset during the whole game, and it should always be gotten imo.
 

Legacy Raider

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I would be tempted to tier Heracross and Mesprit a bit lower down than they currently are. Heracross is an excellent Pokemon, but its miniscule 5% encounter rate from Honey Trees means that if you're planning on completing the game quickly it is very very unlikely that you will just 'pick it up' along the way. It requires a good amount of time and a lot of going back and forth between Honey Trees to finally get one, and by all extents and purposes Scyther can do most of the things Heracross can almost as well (apart from STAB Fighting, but then again it has STAB Technician Aerial Ace to make up for it).

Mesprit is similar in that it is mostly outclassed by Azelf, and also requires a lot of time chasing around Sinnoh in order to obtain it. It's not even like you have to go battle it in order to add it to your Pokedex. As soon as you release it from Verity Cavern you get its data in your Pokedex, so there's no obligation to spend time hunting it down and catching it. Mesprit is a decent Pokemon, but it is too difficult to get for the purposes of these in-game tiers.

I would put all of Munchlax, Feebas, Heracross, and Mesprt in either C or D because of the difficulty involved in obtaining them.
 

Havak

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I'd definitely agree on Heracross. You have to go out of your way to find it, and generally I'd argue that it isn't even worth it in the end. I believe, for in-game purposes, it's outclassed by Infernape, Medicham, and maybe even Machamp (even though you have to trade to evolve it).

Heracross should probably be a C.
 

bugmaniacbob

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Scyther should be in A, I believe. It isn't really that hard to obtain early on, and it gets Technician Wing Attack almost immediately, in time to take on Maylene's gym; and unlike Starly it actually 4x resists Fighting attacks. Admittedly, only learning X-Scissor at lv. 41 is unfortunate, and it's not much good against most of the other gyms, but then neither are most Flying-types, and it is very useful against Aaron and Lucian, as well as being fast enough to take out one or more weakened Pokemon before falling. Also, I think you get the Metal Coat before Candice's gym, so you can evolve it into Scizor, and get Bullet Punch by move relearner immediately.
 
Scyther should be in A, I believe. It isn't really that hard to obtain early on, and it gets Technician Wing Attack almost immediately, in time to take on Maylene's gym; and unlike Starly it actually 4x resists Fighting attacks. Admittedly, only learning X-Scissor at lv. 41 is unfortunate, and it's not much good against most of the other gyms, but then neither are most Flying-types, and it is very useful against Aaron and Lucian, as well as being fast enough to take out one or more weakened Pokemon before falling. Also, I think you get the Metal Coat before Candice's gym, so you can evolve it into Scizor, and get Bullet Punch by move relearner immediately.
Agreed. I swept through the entire elite four with SD Scizor. With a recovery move in Roost, natural bulk, and priority, it is excellent in game.
 
FINALLY somebody made another In-game tiers thread. I absolutely loved the thread Mekkah made.

Anyway, I'd like to put some defense into Magnemite's tier placement. You can get him after you beet the fifth gym (which is tragically a water type gym), he's reasonably common in his location (30% encounter rate is nice!) and he comes at level 28-30. That means you need to level him up a mere two levels before he evolves into Magneton and you only need to use a Rare Candy in Mt. Cornet for him to involve into Magnezone. That's a 130 Special Attack Pokemon you can get within 5 minutes after catching his first form.

Sure, he's not going to be much help at all during the 6th Gym, but after that, Magnezone shines. Right after that gym there's an Ice gym and a billion team Galactic encounters. Magnezone will destroy every Ice Type in the gym with Flash Cannon. Afterwords, oh my, Magnezone will make your life a dream. Magnezone can take anything team galactic tosses at him and shake it off like it was nothing, and then proceed to Thunderbolt the poor Skunky, Zubat or Glameow. To top that off, the team galactic area between the Seventh and Eigth gym is HUGE so he is going to be a great asset to the team.

The bad news about the Magnemite family is their dependence on TMs. All of it's level up moves beyond Thunder wave (and I suppose Spark) are completely useless. However, the TMs it needs are available as soon as you catch the thing. TM24 is right next to where you get Magnemite and Flash Cannon can be obtained soon afterwords. Electric type Pokemon are going to be a problem for Magnemite, but that's better left for your Torterra or Grachomp (If you want to though, you can teach Mageton Tri-Attack before you evolve him. This actually makes Magnezone great for fighting electric types since they only use Electric and Normal type moves).

I really think the Magnemite family should be pretty high up on the list. I want to say A or B.
 
and get Bullet Punch by move relearner immediately.
Completely forgot about Bullet punch in game. (thought it was a level up move) Still, Scyther gets outclassed by Staraptor in terms of overall usefulness as a flying type. (Fly, Close Combat, and Initimidate)

I still don't think it's suitable for Tier A thou. Perhaps High-B. This is mainly because it doesn't get any decent moves early~mid game. (especially since you'll be stuck to using Wing Attack/Slash against all the Rock/Steel types that are in the game, where as Staraptor has Close Combat at least. Of course, during the Elite 4, Scizor > Staraptor, for imo the elite 4 is all about bulk+stat boosts.

Agree on moving Heracross down a tier or two. If you moved Munchlax down because of his unavaliabity, i don't see why you shouldn't do the same with heracross

I would also move Feebas down to tier D for the same reason. You'll never be able to find one for a speed run. And even if you CAN find one, it'll be a pain to evolve. Stick to Gyarados/Vaporeon for your water needs. (especially cuz milotic doesn't get a natural ice move)
 
Being outclassed by ________ doesn't really say anything about a Pokemon. If there was a Pokemon that had 10 worse than Staraptor line in every stat, but had everything else the same, it would still be in S tier. It just wouldn't be as good as Staraptor, but that'd be represented by putting him below Staraptor to begin with (but Pokemon within a tier shouldn't be ordered because that is too messy to agree on).

Magikarp should be A, not S, like he is now. People who say "after this level he can solo all by himself" need to keep in mind that solo'ing makes it easy for almost any Pokemon to sweep efficiently. Except Magikarp still has that down syndrome period until it hits 20 (if you catch it later at around evo level, then it loses availability to the S tiers by a significant amount).

S tier should be reserved for those pretty much perfect Pokemon, or really close to it. Magikarp has too large of a flaw to make it there.
 
Hoothoot - C- It's completely outclassed by Staraptor, even in bulk after factoring in Inimidate. And Close Combat > Psychic.
Spirtomb - D - You have to do a rather long sidequest underground to battle it, and even then, it's offensive ability isn't much better than Bronzong.
Wooper - C- It's roughly equal to Gastrodon, same type, not much difference in movepools.
Wingull - D - Wingull is fast and weak, Pelliper is slow, bulky, and weak. For Surf, use Gyarados, for Fly, use Starly.
Girafarig - C - It's stats aren't bad, and it's avaliable after the 4th Gym. However, other Psychic and Normal types outclass it, and it's past the gym where it would have been most useful (Fatina).
Hippopotas - C - Tanks are generally poor in-game, and Hippowodon, while packing a punch, is SLOW, and weak on the special side of things. Not to mention to Unown side-quest to get it.
Azurill - C - Azurill is useless, Marill is useless, and Azumarril is of moderate use, but still outclassed.
Skorupi - C - One weakness is nice, but it's hard to find in the Safari Zone, and leveling such as weak pre-evo to 40 is overkill. Although, if you catch it as a Drapion, it's B rank.
Croagunk - B - Decent typing, good stats, and is amoung the faster Fighting-types in the game. Toxicroak is decent in general, especially with STAB Toxic Jab and 'Insert Fighting Move of Choice here', along with a somewhat decent movepool. However, in terms of sheer power, go for other fighting-types.
Carnivine - D - If you WANT a grass type at the 5th Gym, go with Tangla, or Budew.
Remoraid - C - God of movepools concerning beam-type moves, and Octillery boasts of Base 105 attack stats. However, such a low speed is nothing to be proud of. Remoraid may have the speed, but not the power.
Finneon - D- - Luvdisk of the 4th Gen. Enough said.
Tentacool -B- Thankfully, they can be caught at around lv 30, when you have surf. Tentacruel is about the best specialy based water type in-game bar Emploeon. Late avaliabilty is what's keeping it at B.
Mantyke - D - I'm not waiting for the 8th badge to catch a weak baby pokemon, that needs a Remoraid to evolve into something outclassed by my Gyarados.
Snover - C - Avaliable far too late in the game, as with all the Ice-types... in EVERY GAME. Sure, you can catch Abomasnow, but if you must have an Ice type, use a Mamoswine.
Manaphy - E - Not avaliable in the main game.
Gligar - C - Gligar is bad unless you get TM Earthquake, but in that case, you'd have a Gible. Gliscor is decent in-game, but it's still outclassed by Gible.
Nosepass - D - Early catch, high defences early evolve, due to you being in Mt Coronet when you catch it, dreadful speed, dreadful attack power. Outclassed by other Rock types, and Steelix outclasses Probopass.
Ralts - B - Avaliable somewhat early. Ralts and Kirlia are lacking somewhat, but both Gardevoir, who is a fast evolution, and could be gotten before the 4th Gym, and Gallade, who comes a little late without a lucky pickup, are good pokemon to use, with wide movepools, some bulk, and high power. Late Gallade, and the weak start is what's keeping this as a B.
Lickitung - C - Nothing special statwise, and a bad level-up movepool. Although, if you can get Lickylicky to learn Power Whip, it becomes somewhat useful.
Eevee - A - Get it, and get Vaporeon, as in-game, Vaporeon is the best Eveelution, hands down. Although, keep as Eevee before you get Surf, as Vaporeon will be making do with Quick Attack and Bite until then, and Eevee hits harder with Quick Attack, which is Base 80 for it, due to it's ability.
Swablu - C - Only other dragon bar Gible, but it's the weakest final-stage dragon in the whole game (Only one in UU). Somewhat late catch. Outclassed by Starly and Gible.
Togepi - D - Togepi and Togetic are not worth it.
Houndour - B - Evolves somewhat quickly. Houndoom's movepool isn't godly, but it'll do, with Flamethrower by level, Dark Pulse, high sp.attack, and high speed, as well as Thunder Fang at the move tutor.
Magnemite - A - Evolves almost instantly after getting it. Magnezone is somewhat sub-par, unless you use TM's, such as Shock Wave, Flash Cannon, and Thunderbolt on it. You may want Discharge, due to it hitting everything in double battles, in which case, save TM Thunderbolt, and use Shock Wave, which will do until you learn Discharge.
Tangela - B - Tangrowth has high stats, barring special defence and speed. It's movepool isn't bad either.
Yanma - C - Bad movepool, anything decent is at a late level.
Tropius - B - The 2nd HM Slave, as with Bidoof, they can use all of them. Poor for everything else though.
Rhyhorn - C - 2nd slowest evolution in the game, at a mind-bending lv 42. Ryhdon, and Rhyperior aren't anything special, or worth the grind.
Duskull - C - Poor offence, cannot evolve into Dusknoir until post-game, due to lack of Reaper's Cloth.
Porygon - B - Avaliable quickly, decent sp.attack, both Porygon 2, who you can get instantly, and Porygon Z are great in their own rights.
Scyther - A - Scyther is useful in it's own right, until the 6th Gym, when you'll get Scizor. Scizor is still useless there, but it's great almost everywhere else.
Elekid - D - Comes too late. Great movepool, but just not worth it.
Magby - C - Inferior to Houndoom, and caught later, but a wider movepool.
Swinub - C - Alongside Froslass, possibly the best Ice Type in the game. Swinub is a pain, but Mamoswine is worth it, and might give even Gible some contention for it's spot, due to STAB Ice Shards from Base 130 Attack. It comes FAR too late in the game, however, like all of the Ice-types... in every game.
 
Vapereon gets surf which makes it the best eevee movewise, but the problem is it's not very bulky without any hp recover moves and it's low defense. If you're willing to dump some tms into espeon/jolteon they become very powerful with psycic/thunderbolt and shadow ball. I couldn't give them an A just because they require expensive tms to be useful, so B. Gibble should probably be S. People putting it lower are undervaluing gabite's effectiveness with dragon rage+claw and earthquake. Dragon rage that early on pretty much makes it so your team has no typing it can't 2HKO. Getting garchomp for victory road/elite 4 is just icing on the cake.
 
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