Pokémon Colosseum In-game Tier List

Oh man, it finally occurred to me that Delibird was the Pokemon that was escaping my mind when it came to these analysis and that no one else noticed just shows how awful of a Pokemon it is. I still love that Santa penguin tho.

Availability: Realgam Tower via Cipher Peon Arton. found late game at level 45. Can also be found postgame at Snagem Hide Out
Overview: A pitiful stat distribution, the worst level up movepool in the entire game (and it still manages to have a bad TM distribution), an awful ice/flying defensive typing, a late game encounter; Delibird is bad, bad, BAD. The Hustle ability is typically a high risk, high reward ability, but considering Delibird's base 55 attack, its more like an extremely high risk, low reward payout. It'll be a Christmas miracle if it even manages to live beyond one turn or even contribute to the KO of even one non grass type Pokemon
Additional Notes: No TM40 in Colosseum so Delibird can't even use Aerial Ace. Why does this Pokemon even exist in this game?


That is the point of speedruns, but we're not tiering for speedruns here. We're tiering for roughly a general, 6-poke team (you can read more about it here). Yes, generally we factor in stuff like efficiency for a pokemon's tier placement, but we are not assuming a 2 or 3 pokemon team to race through the game, as Pika Pal, Kurona, and Karxrida all said
I understand, but I'm just saying that typically speedruns would use the most efficient Pokemon, and wouldn't their usage in a speedrun further enforce their efficiency in a 6 Mon team? If one looks at the Pokemon used in speedruns such as Squirtle/Nidoran-Male, Totodile, Mudkip/Weather legendary, Piplup, Tepig/Drilbur and so on and they're all rated highly in our ingame tier lists. The only exceptions being Tentacruel for Platinum, and Raikou for HGSS due to the RNG manipulation used for said Pokemon. I mean for example I'm sure I could complete RBY faster with just a Butterfree than an average person would with Nidoking, Blastoise, Alakazam, Articuno, Dugtrio and Nidoqueen, but I would still struggle a lot more than they would. But you know that's just my two cents.
 
I suppose there's correlation and I do understand where you're coming from, but at the end of the day it's not really relevant. Feraligatr being good is a point that can be made with or without that.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
*casts Thread Necromancy*

I've been dealing with some irl shit for the past few months, but things are better now and I refuse to let this project rot when it's so close to being done.

I'm going to update the OP within the next coupe days with all the writeups and start going over them.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
All of the writeups are now in the OP, albeit some are edited to various degrees. I noticed that we have nothing for the Pokémon obtained in the final gauntlet despite them all being ranked, so I'll get to that later.
 
Hello once again.

A while back when typing up the writeups, I kept mentioning the Heart Gauge for the various Shadow Pokemon, and I linked to a Bulbapedia article temporary so people could understand what I was talking about.

I have since made an a Google Sheets making it easier to understand as well as streamlining it. Also for the website to have it on its servers

Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD - List of Shadow Pokemon and Purification Methods

I have also made a PDF file so people can download it and have it at their own leisure.

Question: I was thinking of making a post in the In-Game Articles section going over the Colosseum and XD mechanics and go into detail of them since people are expressing increased interest of these games. Is this a good idea?
 

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Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Oh wow, MellowBusiness, you've put in a lot of work there. Nice. I think an in-depth article would also be a great idea.

Okay, new idea for our purposes: Heart Gauge stuff will get its own bullet in write-ups so I can just throw in the number values and prevent bloated entries. Thoughts?
 
Oh wow, MellowBusiness, you've put in a lot of work there. Nice. I think an in-depth article would also be a great idea.

Okay, new idea for our purposes: Heart Gauge stuff will get its own bullet in write-ups so I can just throw in the number values and prevent bloated entries. Thoughts?
I'm in favor of it. Considering some may not be aware of Heart Gauge values and the such, I think it would be really useful for our purposes here. MellowBusiness's article sounds like a really good idea and we've seen he knows his stuff about Colosseum - it would also prevent us from having to get bogged down in the complexities of heart gauge stuff and just leave it at the numbers.
 
Sounds great, I will commence working on it.

Also, Karxrida, I made a error in Umbreon's write up. I accidently wrote "65 base speed may not seem like much, but its quicker than you'd think due to a lot of Pokemon in the game being slower, as well as the random speed EV's one will get throughout the game. " twice, so when you get around to it, just delete one of them.
 
I made the thread!

As of this post, it's a work in progress. I got through most of the important aspects of the games. Will go through it from time to time to clean up sections, add stuff/suggestions, and all that goodness.
 
I'm bored so I'll do a write up on Miltank, Absol, Houndoom, and Tropius

Availability: Realgam Tower via Bodybuilder Jomas. Found late game at level 48.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Miltank is one of the six Pokemon encountered during the final stretch before the credits. Miltank has a normal typing, but with Thick Fat, gives it resistances to Ice and Fire, which actually do appear, primarily against Nascour and Nella. Because of it's low level, and meh typing, she can only make a contribution during the final battles if it's (close to being) purified, but is not worth the time investment to simply try your luck with Body Slam hax.


Availability: Realgam Tower via Rider Delan. Found late game at level 48.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Absol is one of the six Pokemon encountered during the final stretch before the credits. It's dark typing doesn't give do many favors for it, as it's STAB is on it's much weaker offensive stat. Absol's only fantastic stat is its attack, while the rest are average or below average at best. In most cases, it won't partake in the four remaining battles, but it does have one of the most powerful Shadow Rush (tied in third with Ursaring) and it's first move relearned is Swords Dance, so it can hit insanely hard giving it a rather small niche, but it just takes too much effort to even get around to it as one would either need to get very lucky with Hyper Modes or white out (losing half your total money in the process) and use a lot of scents. Absol, unless with a beneficial nature is simply too frail to make a meaningful difference without good amounts of luck.
Additional Notes: If for some reason you want to use Absol for the final battles, you'll have to skip out on capturing Miltank, go into the final battles with 4 Pokemon, or purposely white out so you can swap around your team.


Availability: Realgam Tower via Cipher Peon Nella. Found late game at level 48.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Houndoom is one of the six Pokemon encountered during the final stretch before the credits. Houndoom comes with a great dual offensive typing and rather good offenses and speed, but Dark/Fire makes a poor defensive typing, making it weak to a lot of common moves. Overall, Houndoom isn't worth pursuing due to Shadow Rush running off it's weaker offensive stat, Flamethrower being the last move relearned, and many Pokemon in the final battles hitting it for super effective damage and/or on it's weaker defensive stat. It's ability in Flash Fire will see seldom use, but will not be able to take advantage of the Fire boost as it will most likely get KO'd in the following turn.
Additional Notes: If Purified, Houndoom has a good showing against Nascour, being able to hit most of his Pokemon for super effective damage, but is nowhere near worth the time investment just for one battle..


Availability: Realgam Tower via Cipher Peon Ston. Found late game at level 49.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Tropius is one of the six Pokemon encountered Tropius's rather impressive bulk is offset by its terrible Grass/Flying typing, giving it many weaknesses. The typing doesn't do any favors for its below average attacking stats either. Chlorophyll doubles its speed in the sun, but will still most likely get outpaced in the final battles due to the large level gap. Even if purified, it still won't contribute any valuable use.


That makes all of non postgame Pokemon that have a write up.

In terms of fixes in write ups:
Croconaw: Theres an "O" at "Lab."
Espeon: There's a dash after "Dark."
Flaaffy: Capitalize the "F" at "found."
Umbreon: The last sentence in the Overview section can be removed.
Granbull/Noctowl/Swablu: I'd add the following sentence in Additional Notes "Even though HMs cannot be accessed, Strength/Fly is still counted as an HM move, so it would need to be deleted by the Move Deleter at Mt. Battle."
Metagross: "stroy" is spelled incorrectly






I'm aware that we are probably far past the point of placements, but if a good amount of people want to entertain the idea of Entei being S tier, I'd all for supporting that notion. Even though EQ is a rather common move in Colosseum, it does have the bulk (and the speed to throw down a Reflect) to survive a non-STAB one except from the most powerful of users, and is arguably the best user of Return, which is a rather small detour for a useful TM.
 

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I recall Shadow Miltank being quite useful in my run years ago, being beefy enough to take a hit and fast enough to hit twice on enemies even several levels higher. Despite the level disadvantage it was a valuable contributor.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
The problem is that Miltank comes during the final gauntlet. It's at least in the first fight so you can theoretically throw the next match and go grab Miltank from the PC (a fresh one won't be healthy), but that's kind of a time waster.

The only "good" Pokémon from the gauntlet is Metagross since you can just chuck the Master Ball at (that abysmal catch rate tho) and abuse its better typing and Attack. And even then it's still F for a reason.
 
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The problem is that Miltank comes during the final gauntlet. It's at least in the first fight so you can theoretically throw the next match and go grab Miltank from the PC (a fresh one won't be healthy), but that's kind of a time waster.

The only "good" Pokémon from the gauntlet is Metagross since you can just chuck the Master Ball at (that abysmal catch rate tho) and abuse its better typing and Attack. And even then it's still F for a reason.
I'm not sure if you were aware of this, because I sure wasn't, but I noticed in one of the sections in Bulbapedia pertaining Shadow Pokemon, it said that Shadow Pokemon in Colosseum do not gain any experience at all until two bars out of the five in the Heart Gauge are depleted (basically the same time when the natures are revealed). I found this so absurd that I had to test it out myself, and it's true. Funny enough, XD does not have this issue and Shadow Pokemon can gain experience the moment they are captured. Do you think this will/shoud have an effect on the placement of tiers?
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I'm not sure if you were aware of this, because I sure wasn't, but I noticed in one of the sections in Bulbapedia pertaining Shadow Pokemon, it said that Shadow Pokemon in Colosseum do not gain any experience at all until two bars out of the five in the Heart Gauge are depleted (basically the same time when the natures are revealed). I found this so absurd that I had to test it out myself, and it's true. Funny enough, XD does not have this issue and Shadow Pokemon can gain experience the moment they are captured. Do you think this will/shoud have an effect on the placement of tiers?
Not really. It affects just about every Pokémon so it ends up not changing anything.
 
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We're almost hitting a year since this thread has been posted, lets get this done before October rolls around at least.

Making adjustments to the overview and additional notes to streamline and make the analysis more consistent with each other, as well as general QC.

8/18: made more edits, some Pokemon have a sentence or two added to their overview about their moments as a Shadow, and got rid of most bias to present it in a more professional format

8/26: made more adjustments, specifically around Miltank's analysis and small edits to Stantler's and Meditite's analysis.

Croconaw
Availability:
Phenac City via Cipher Peon Bluno. Potentially found early game at level 30. Can also be found at Realgam Tower, or can be found postgame in the Shadow Pokemon Lab or Snagem Hideout if Bayleef/Quilava are chosen instead.
Heart Gauge: 3000
Overview: Croconaw is one of the three Johto starters obtainable in Colosseum and is the best of the three. What makes Croconaw so great is its versatility in offensive coverage, good utility moves and well rounded stats. When it's a Shadow Pokemon, it has a hard hitting Shadow Rush as well good defenses which lets it take a lot of punishment as well as deal it too. It struggles in some matchups such as against Miror B, but can hit Miror B's Ludicolo's on their weaker defense for significant damage. Croconaw also evolves the earliest out of all the Johto starts at level 30 (technically it's suppose to be evolved already) and its well rounded stats become even better, making it have a use in all major battles. Feraligatr may only have base 79 special attack, but combined with its ability Torrent as well as the Rain Dance it gets when purified lets it utilize Surf very well.
Additional Notes: Feraligatr makes a great user of Earthquake TM due to its high Attack. Surf is considered an HM within the game data, so that one needs to use the Move Deleter if one wants another move to replace it.

Espeon
Availability:
Starter (Level 25)
Heart Gauge: N/A
Overview: Espeon sports a massive base 130 Special Attack and quick base 110 Speed, so it has no issues outspeeding and dealing major damage to a lot of the standard mooks seen throughout the game. This is supported by it being a Psychic-type, which is a fairly strong offensive typing due to Dark and Steel-types being uncommon. On top of its offensive prowess, Espeon also has a strong support movepool, coming with Reflect and Helping Hand to help out its teammates during the very few moments that it struggles. While Espeon is frail on the physical side, and its offensive movepool is extremely lacking, these negative qualities do not detract from its overall performance.
Additional Notes: While Espeon has decent enough Special Defense to tank the occasional Dark move, it has no reliable way to deal with Dark types themselves. Make sure to carry a teammate that can take care of them.


Entei
Availability
: Mt. Battle via Admin Dakim at Level 40, or Realgam Tower or even Under Colosseum in the postgame. A point directly after you get to purify your Pokemon.
Heart Gauge: 13,000
Overview: Of the four Fire-types in the entire game, Entei stands out from the others due to being a Legendary. With a high BST, great offenses, very solid defenses, and one of the fastest Pokemon you can catch, it holds up well, even against Earthquake spam. With a base 115 attack stat, Entei has one of the hardest hitting Shadow Rush in the game. It gets Sunny Day when its purified so its Fire Blast becomes one of the hardest hitting moves in the entire game even though it only comes off of a base 90 sp. attack. Entei is held back by its awkward movepool having to rely on its weaker offensive stat in most situations. Even with the oddities in its movepool, it still can power through most encounters fairly easily due to its overwhelming stats. Fire in general is a great offensive typing to have for the major battles.
Additional Notes: Entei makes for a top Time Flute candidate due to its large Heart Gauge, but it also makes for a great Shadow Pokemon as Hyper Mode Shadow Rushes hit extremely hard. Entei can also make great use of the TM Return, from which you can obtain from Justy. Interestingly enough, the Beasts have a somewhat higher capture rate due to the fact that the Pokeball always shakes at least once. As Entei is a Legendary, it is also part of the Slow experience group.

Flaaffy
Availability:
Pyrite Town via St. Performer Diogo. Found early game at level 30. Optional battle.
Heart Gauge: 3000
Overview: Flaaffy has a weird time as a Shadow Pokemon. It has to mostly rely on Shadow Rush, running off of a base 55 attack but as it comes further along, it relearns moves like Thunder Wave and Cotton Spore, which give it great utility in crippling Pokemon as well as capturing other Shadow Pokemon. Once it's purified, it gets the much more powerful Thunderbolt to use and when it evolves into Ampharos, it gets a big boost in power and defenses. Its offensive movepool, like most Electric types, lacks on the special side but can mostly get the job done with Thunderbolt due to its high base 115 special attack. Flaaffy/Ampharos tends to struggle in the early due to a slow base 55 speed, the huge amount of ground types seen as well as the lack of power needed, but starts to excel after that as ground types become increasingly rare and gains further utility moves such as Light Screen.
Additional Notes: Ampharos does have a decent physical movepool if one really needs to rely on it, but those moves are better off taught to physically stronger Pokemon. Ampharos is best paired with a Pokemon that can handle ground types, like Feraligatr or Suicune for example.

Makuhita
Availability
: Phenac City via Miror B. Peon Trudley at level 30, or postgame in the same area.
Heart Gauge: 3000
Overview: Makuhita has some pretty rubbish stats with its only base stat being above 70 is its HP and struggles in the early game, where it will spend a lot of its time getting OHKO'd, but once you're able to purify it, if you raise it at least one level, it will evolve into Hariyama it gets a massive increase in all of its stats, except for speed. A beefy base 144 HP stat allows it to take hits, and a great base 120 attack lets it dish them out. A great Fighting STAB and two great abilities in Guts or Thick Fat lets Makuhita/Hariyama become a solid and sturdy tank. Hariyama is a bit reliant on TMs if it wants coverage, but hits hard enough that it's not necessary to have.
Additional Comments: Since Makuhita is the tutorial Mon, it also has a 100% capture rate so you can just simply chuck a Pokeball at it. You can opt to beat the Pyrite Colosseum a few times to nab the TMs for Focus Punch and Brick Break if you don't want to deal with Cross Chops low PP and funky accuracy. Vital Throw does have situational use, as it has perfect accuracy and there are many Pokemon that like to abuse moves such as Double Team and Sand Attack.

Quagsire
Availability:
Pyrite Town via Bandana Guy Divel. Found early game at level 30. Optional battle.
Heart Gauge: 4000
Overview: Quagsire makes its mark by being one of the few fully evolved Pokemon one will have for the first quarter of the game. With a base 85 attack, it has a strong Shadow Rush when its obtained and also has a good 95/85/65 bulk. Water/Ground is also a good offensive and defensive typing having only one weakness and hitting 6 types super effectively. Quagsire also has the choice of either Water Absorb or Damp. Damp does have its occasional usage such as stopping a few Explosion using Pokemon, but Water Absorb is the more useful ability due to having way more chances to proc. Quagsire also has a great offensive movepool with Fighting, Steel, and Ice, a good support movepool such as Yawn, and Amnesia, and also naturally learns Earthquake. Even though Surf is missing as an HM, Quagsire is one of the few users of the move. It has a lowish base 65 base special attack and combined with Surf's double battle properties, Quagsire misses out on quite a few OHKO's it would normally get in the mainline games. Quagsire does have some issues in the early game with the common usage of grass types and being slow, and especially has a pretty awful performance against Miror B, but after that has a good showing in all other major battles.
Additional Notes: Yawn during certain major battles can force the AI to switch as they don't want the Yawn to proc the Sleep status. One can abuse this AI oversight to completely immobilize one side of the opponent if used correctly. Since Surf is considered an HM in the game, it has to be removed by the Move Deleter.

Quilava
Availability:
Phenac City via Cipher Peon Rosso. Potentially found early game at level 30. Can also be found at Realgam Tower, or in the postgame at Snagem Hideout/Shadow Pokemon Lab if Bayleef/Croconaw are chosen.
Heart Gauge: 3000
Overview: Quilava is potentially the second shadow Pokemon you can obtain. The moves it comes with are Smokescreen, Dig and Flame Wheel, while obtaining Sunny Day when its completely purified. Quilava struggles during the early game because it has unfavorable matchups against the early game bosses but it does get a well rounded movepool consisting of fighting, ground, as well as its STAB. When it evolves into Typhlosion, its best quailty is its base 100 speed, tied for fourth place for the fastest Pokemon you can obtain. In the end it being fast, having good coverage, even though its fairly TM reliant, and a high base 104 sp. attack makes it a solid overall choice
Additional notes: Since Quilava does take the longest to evolve, being level 36, there is a good chance Quilava might still be a Quilava when the Dakim fight appears its head. It's in Typhlosion's best interest to be taught Fire Blast, as Flame Wheel is fairly weak, and it doesn't naturally learn Flamethrower until level 60.

Raikou
Availability:
Shadow Pokemon Lab via Cipher Admin Ein. Found late game at level 40. Can also be found at Realgam Tower or postgame in the Deep Colosseum.
Heart Gauge: 13,000
Overview: Raikou, like its brethern, have some great stats. It hits hard on the special side, and its very fast too. It also has impressive 90/100 special bulk, but is a bit weaker on the physical defense. Like most Electric types, its special movepool tends to lack, but it has a respectable 85 base attack if you really need to use physical attacks on it. In Colosseum, Raikou is one of the three only Electric types in the game and even though Raikou and Ampharos have the same base special attack, Raikou trades paralysis utility for more bulk and a much higher speed stat. Raikou's role in most battles will be to set up Rain Dance and proceed to spam hard hitting Thunders. In the battles that Raikou can take part in, there are quite a few EQ users so one must be wary when using Raikou, but Raikou can learn Reflect to mitigate some of that damage. It's late encounter and low caught level are what mostly hurt Raikou, but if taken the time, Raikou can prove to be a valuable asset for the remaining battles.
Additional Notes: Arguably, Raikou makes the best candidate for the Time Flute due to how late it is caught compared to Entei and Suicune, and the Rain Dance+Thunder combo is hard to pass up compared to its decent Shadow Rush considering the attack power and level difference at that point in the game. Interestingly enough, the Beasts have a somewhat higher capture rate due to the fact that the Pokeball always shakes at least once. As Raikou is a Legendary, it is also part of the Slow experience group.

Suicune
Availability:
The Under via Cipher Admin Venus. Found mid game at level 40. Can also be caught at Realgam Tower or postgame at Deep Colosseum.
Heart Gauge: 13,000
Overview: Suicune is the epitome of a tank. It is extremely bulky with 100/115/115 defenses, while also sporting a decent 90 Special Attack to deal back decent damage. It comes with the highly coveted Surf for strong STAB and also learns Aurora Beam one level after purification. Even though Suicune is very bulky, its support movepool lacks in some areas; it doesn't learn much moves that can hinder the opposing side, rather having moves that can support its partner such as Rain Dance, Reflect, and Mist. It does also struggle in some parts, like the Shadow Pokemon Lab where there are a ton of Electric-types to run into. Even with its faults, Suicune makes for a fine member and still ends up being one of the strongest Pokemon obtainable.
Additional Notes: Suicune is a high priority Time Flute user, with a second Time Flute being found within the area it's caught, though it does take a bit of exploring in the Subway to get since one needs the U-Disk to even get to the area. Because of its bulk, Suicune makes one of the best users of the Toxic TM. Suicune pairs best with other water types or Pokemon that can learn Thunder. Interestingly enough, the Beasts have a somewhat higher capture rate due to the fact that the Pokeball always shakes at least once. As Suicune is a Legendary, it is also part of the Slow experience group.

Umbreon
Availability
: Starter (Level 26)
Heart Gauge: N/A
Overview: With 95/110/130 defenses, Umbreon is one of the bulkiest Pokémon in the game, being able to shrug off any neutral hit, and able to tank even the most powerful of super effective hits. The bulk comes in handy when trying to capture the Shadows and the low offenses also are very useful for that too, but the lack in power is very noticeable in major battles where Pokemon are beefier and hit harder and can lead to KO's on your side of the field. Umbreon makes a great support Pokemon due to a variety of utility moves such as Confuse Ray, Screech, Snatch, Taunt, and the only Pokemon in the game with Secret Power, which mostly acts like Body Slam in Colosseum due to Colosseum's terrain. Confuse Ray and Taunt are especially notable as many major battles tend to rely on status moves to utilize their strategies. Just like Espeon, it comes with Synchronize, but Umbreon takes on status conditions generally better.
Additional Notes: Opposite to Espeon, the AI tends to avoid double targeting Umbreon unless they can get multiple super effective hits on it. This does let Umbreon last even longer on the field and spread around status debuffs or stack on the damage, but one must take this into consideration when it is on the field as it can lead to an untimely demise of the other teammate.


Vibrava
Availability:
Shadow Pokemon Lab via Cipher Peon Remil. Found late game at level 43. Can also be found in the same area in postgame.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Frankly, Vibrava sucks. Being frail, weak, and the moves it comes with leave much to be desired, but Vibrava is commonly held in a positive light in Colosseum. A Ground/Dragon typing with Levitate gives it a nice selection of resists and immunities, and the reason why its praised is for what it becomes, not it starts out as. When Vibrava becomes a Flygon, which is only two levels from when it is caught, it gets a big boost in all of its stats. That 50/50/50 "bulk" becomes 80/80/80 which lets it take quite a few hits with it's valuable dual typing. It now has a good base 100 attack and speed letting it hit hard, and fast consisting of coverage that includes its dual STAB, Fire, Steel, Dark, and Grass. Even with Flygon has great offensive pressure, but is very TM reliant for offensive presence, and has a nasty x4 weakness to Ice, which is fairly common to come across in the later major battles.
Additional notes: Because of how useful Flygon is, and how trashy Vibrava is, Vibrava makes one of the best candidates for the Time Flute. If one happened to save those Rare Candies from The Under, Vibrava also makes a good choice to use two of them if one immediately decides to purify it with the Time Flute. The TM for Earthquake also comes right after Ein, and Flygon is arguably the best user of Earthquake due to its speed, power and gaining STAB for it.
Vibrava oddly enough has a very long confusion animation so if one does use it for battles, try to avoid opponents with confuse ray/supersonic.


Bayleef
Availability:
Phenac City via Cipher Peon Verde. Found early game at level 30. Can also be caught at Realgam Tower. Can be found either in the Shadow Pokemon Lab/Snagem Hideout during the postgame if Croconaw/Quilava are chosen instead.
Heart Gauge: 3000
Overview: Bayleef is probably the worst Johto starter to choose, but still manages to be the best offensive based grass type in the game. Its offenses are below average while its defenses are above average and does have a pretty good mixture of offensive moves and supportive moves. When it evolves into a Meganium, its below average offenses become 82/83 and its bulk becomes a commendable 80/100/100. It can have reliable recovery in Synthesis, good utility in moves like Body Slam and can potentially be taught good coverage in Earthquake if need be. Overall, Meganium doesn't really shine anywhere in the major battles but its well rounded usage makes it quite usable in all of them, even if Typhlosion and Feraligatr are better choices in the story.
Additional Notes: Solarbeam can be found in the Phenac Colosseum, which isn't a long or time consuming detour due to the low levels of said Colosseum, and makes a great user of it since it synergies with Sunny Day and Synthesis. Phenac Colosseum does not allow the usage of Shadow Pokemon so to obtain the TM early (Pre Mt. Battle), one will have to beat it with only Espeon and Umbreon in their party. It does learn Solarbeam naturally, but its typically far too late into any standard playthough.


Furret
Availability:
Pyrite Town via Rogue Cail. Found early game encounter at level 33.
Heart Gauge: 5000
Overview: Furret has solid stats from the moment is is captured. A sweet 90 base speed lets it outspeed nearly every encounter before Shadows can be purified and a base 76 attack lets it fire off powerful Shadow Rushes. It also happens to be one of the three users of Helping Hand and the only user of both Quick Attack and Follow Me. Follow Me is a very useful move as depending on the partner Pokemon, you can bait out SE from the AI while Furret takes them. It especially comes in handy if the partner Pokemon is weak to Ghost. Furret in the early game is a nice offensive Pokemon, but as the game continues, Furret will switch to mostly a support role as it's stats start to become subpar.
Additional Notes: Furret can have up to 3 forms of priority (excluding Protect), so try to keep that in mind to utilize Furret to its fullest potential. Furret can come with either Run Away or Keen Eye, and Keen Eye is the better ability to have as Run Away is worthless.

Meditite
Availability:
Pyrite Cave via Rider Twan. Found early game at level 33.
Overview: Meditite's stats may look average, or even below average to some, with base 40 offenses, but thanks to Pure Power which doubles the physical attacking stat (not the base stat, Meditite actually has the equivalent of base 102 attack. This makes Meditite have the hardest hitting Shadow Rush at that point in the game, making it an absolute powerhouse able to break through even the sturdiest of walls. When it evolves into a Medicham at 37, it becomes even stronger with a pseudo-base 140 which grants Medicham the award of the hardest hitter in the game.
Medicham is a high risk, high reward Pokemon with moves like High Jump Kick and Reversal, so it can be fairly unreliable at some moments. It can reliably set up Dual Screens, or even opt to use Calm Mind to hit Poison-types harder. Medicham will bring out great results in nearly any battle, that is if its moves actually make their mark.
Additional Notes: The TMs for Focus Punch and Brick Break can be obtained in the Pyrite Colosseum, but do take a bit of a detour and some time to obtain. If Focus Punch is taught, it's best to pair Medicham with Pokemon that can prevent turns or redirect damage such as Jumpluff and Furret. Brick Break is a much safer alternative to HJK or Reversal due to HJK only being base 85 power in Gen 3, and Reversal leaving it susceptible to faster Pokemon. The TM for Shadow Ball can be obtained in the Under Colosseum which gives Medicham unresisted coverage.


Misdreavus
Availability:
Pyrite Square via Rider Vant. Early Game at level 30. Optional battle.
Heart Gauge: 4000
Overview: Misdreavus is the only Ghost-type that can be obtained in the game, which really sets it apart from the rest of your options. With 3 immunities in Normal, Fighting and Ground thanks to Levitate, and all of them being pretty common moves used by the AI, Misdreavus has many opportunities to switch in for no damage or support the team with Confuse Ray. Misdreavus does have a so-so time as a Shadow Pokemon, but it gets better when it's able to utilize Shadow Ball, which thanks to STAB, does respectable damage even off of a base 60 attack. It gains some useful and unique level up moves, being Pain Split, Perish Song, and Grudge. They all have their usefulness here and there.
Additional Notes: The Psychic and Thunderbolt TM one would typically want to teach Misdreavus for offensive coverage are sadly stuck in the Mt. Battle exchange shop, which do take a large amount of time and effort to accumulate Poke Coupons for. Thunder is a good other option, but rather unreliable. With a nice base 85 speed, one could make use of Sunny Day/Rain Dance which are easily obtained in the Phenac Colosseum battles.


Skiploom
Availability:
Skiploom is available very early in the game, being encountered in Pyrite Town at level 30. You can snag it from an optional fight against Rider Leba, who can be found in Pyrite Square.
Heart Gauge: 3000
Overview: While Skiploom's offenses are subpar, it has high Speed, good Special Defense, and a good defensive typing of Grass/Flying that makes it resistant to Surf and immune to Earthquake. Chlorophyll also doubles its Speed under Sunny Day, though Skiploom is generally fast enough to make this boost unnecessary. Access to Sleep Powder (which is the first move unlocked via Heart Gauge depletion) also gives Skiploom immense utility for helping snag Shadow Pokémon or shutting down your opponent before they can act, making up for its poor offensive prowess. It also starts with Synthesis for healing, which has situational use.
Additional Comments: Consider doing the Phenac Coliseum to earn the Giga Drain and/or SolarBeam TMs and teach them to Skiploom. Skiploom's only naturally-learned damaging move is Mega Drain, which has very low BP.


Granbull
Availability:
Shadow Pokemon Lab via Cipher Peon Tanie. Found mid-late at level 43.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Granbull is a strong Pokemon with a high base 120 attack, which lets it easily abuse Shadow Rush. It comes with the ever useful Intimidate letting it be pretty physically tanky and helps out with capturing other Shadow Pokemon. It is a bit reliant on TMs, but can use them well as they give Granbull wide coverage both physically and specially. Unfortinately, Granbull is slow and has a below average special defense which can lead to it being beaten upon fairly quickly. Granbull is also encountered pretty late into the story so it doesn't have many major battles it can contribute to, but with the right amount of support from its teammates, Granbull can punch holes through many opponents, as well as push out good utility for its team.
Additional Notes: Prior to Gen 6, Granbull was a Normal-type so it also makes a great user of the Return TM, which can be gotten from beating Justy in Phenac City. Happiness can be brought up quickly with the usage of Vivid Scents, but Shadow Pokemon do not gain happiness until two out of the five bars of the Heart Gauge are depleted. Quick Claw makes for a great held item due to Granbull being naturally slow.

Hitmontop
Availability
: Agate Village via Cipher Peon Skrub. Found early-mid at level 38. Can also be caught at the Shadow Pokemon Lab or postgame at Snagem Hideout
Heart Gauge:
Overview: Hitmontop comes at a high level as well as the ever useful Intimidate making him pretty handy for the battles when he is a Shadow until the Lab. He also has a respectable 50/95/110 bulk as well as a good 95 base attack firing off powerful Shadow Rushes. Hitmontop is arguably a better Shadow Pokemon than it is a standard Pokemon because his level up movepool is atrocious , which makes him heavily reliant on TMs for offensive presence. If one does use TMs on 'Top, he can use them pretty well. Fighting is still an amazing STAB to have and Intimidate is still an amazing ability.
Additional Notes: It's typically worth going through Pyrite Colosseum to teach Hitmontop Brick Break or Focus Punch because Triple Kick is a generally an awful move due to its weak base power as well as the unreliability of all three hits connecting. Hitmontop also makes a good user of Return or Earthquake.

Stantler
Availability:
The Under Subway via Chaser Liaks. Found mid-late game at level 43. Can also be encountered at Snagem Hideout in the postgame
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Stantler has an interesting stat distribution. A 95/85/85 offensive distribution lets it hit pretty hard on both sides, and a colorful movepool lets it hit quite a good number of Pokemon with super effective damage. It also has Intimidate which is good for softening Shadows as well as good general use for the primarily physical based AI. It can learn a good amount of supportive moves like Dual Screens and Hypnosis which further helps it with its capture ability. A clever usage of Intimdate and Reflect can make Stantler deceptively bulky, but Stantler norally is pretty frail with only 73/62/65 defenses. It also is one of the only two Calm Mind users you can use in the game, and is the better user of it by far (keep in mind that Stantler learns no special moves via level up so it has to be taught TMs to utilize Calm Mind). Stantler is far from the best Pokemon, but it has a good amount of variety in both power and utility in Hypnosis, carving itself a nice niche.
Additional Notes: Due to being Normal typing, Stantler makes a good consumer for Vivid Scents, as well as the TM Return, but keep in mind that Shadow Pokemon do not gain happiness until two out of the five bars are depleted. Stantler makes a good partner for physically frail Pokemon, and can do some things with Espeon due to Espeon being able to learn Psych Up. Since Colosseum runs on the RS level up movepool, Stantler does miss out on Role Play.

Swablu
Availability
: Pyrite Cave via Hunter Zalo at level 33. Early Game. Zalo be rematched if you leave Pyrite Town entirely and come back.
Heart Gauge: 5000
Overview: Swablu does have a tough time as a Shadow Pokemon due to its low offenses, but only takes two levels after purification to evolve. Altaria's biggest strength is its movepool and versatility. Being able to learn a wide variety in Fire, Grass, Ground, Ice, and Steel lets it hit many Pokemon pretty hard even with average offensive stats. Having a good TM support movepool consisting of Sunny Day/Rain Dance, and Safeguard can also come in handy. Dragonbreath has good utility with its high paralysis rate, but Dragon Dance is especially notable due to Altaria being one of the very few Pokemon in the game that can boost its stats. Altaria also has the unique Dragon-typing, which is also only shared with Flygon in this game. The combination of stats, movepool, and typing, has a good showing for all of the major battles in the game being able to avoid EQ spam, mitigate status spam with Safeguard (or even by switching due to Natural Cure) and can soak up many powerful moves. It being able to use DD multiple times in a match due to its defenses can lead to an easy sweep too.
Additional Notes: Swablu has an Erratic leveling curve (meaning the higher the level, the lower amount of exp required to level up), a near effortless catch rate, a huge amount of variety, and evolving only 2 levels after its capture, Swablu/Altaria can fit on almost any team with almost any role. It can be fairly TM hungry, but works just fine without them. If you teach Altaria DD, you can pair it with a Psych Up Medicham to create some very deadly results.


Forretress
Availability:
Shadow Pokemon Lab via Cipher Peon Vana. Found mid-late at level 43.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Forretress has a Bug/Steel typing, granting it one weakness, and a massive base 140 defense. Theoretically this makes Forretress the most physically bulky Pokemon in the game. Forretress has a bad offensive movepool, unable to use STAB and has to rely on Grass, Ground and Normal moves to do damage. It also has weird utility moves such as Bide, Rapid Spin, and Spikes which are nearly useless in most battles. Forretress does have a unique niche in being the only Pokemon in the game that can learn Explosion, which nukes pretty much every Pokemon that doesn't resist or is immune to the move. It also can learn Dual Screens, and even though its slow, its great defensive typing lets it reliably set up both. Forretress' role mostly amounts to setting up screens, spamming a move such as Toxic, Hyper Beam, Protect or whatever, and then exploding on problematic Pokemon.
Additional notes: Forretress can learn Earthquake by TM, but that is typically suited for Pokemon that can better utilize the move. One can abuse Explosion by the usage of revives/revival herbs, but this is a very costly strategy and makes Forretress miss out on a lot of EXP.

Noctowl
Availability:
Pyrite Town via Rider Nover. found early game at Level 30. Optional battle.
Heart Gauge: 3000
Overview: Noctowl will mostly be reserved for a support role due to it learning Reflect and Hypnosis, as well as its good bulk which lets it take on Shadow Pokemon relatively well. Flying type is also a good type to have due to the usage of Earthquake in the game. It's offensive movepool is bad, as well as its coverage but will serve its time during the moment you utilize it and has good showings in major battles up until Venus. Noctowl can either have Keen Eye or Insomina. They're both not great or even ideal, but can come in handy for some rather annoying battles.
Additional notes: Noctowl does also make a good user of Toxic due to the TM being given to you for free for the forced Pyrite Colosseum round. Noctowl also comes with Fly, so one needs to use the Move Deleter to get rid of it.

Piloswine
Availability:
The Under Subway via Bodybuilder Lonia. Found Mid Game at level 43 or post-game in Snagem Hideout.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Ice/Ground is a fantastic offensive typing, hitting 9 types super effectively, but pretty bad defensively, being hit by 5 types, 3 of them being fairly common to see. Piloswine has a beefy base 100 HP as well as 80/60 defenses so it can take quite a number of its, and its base 100 attack attack lets it hit quite hard physically while 60 base sp. attack is just good enough to take advantage of its Ice STAB. Its biggest issue is its unreliability. It can learn Dual Screens, but its slow speed and common weaknesses means it won't always get them off. Blizzard has shoddy accuracy and reduced power due to it being a multi hitting move, which is very apparent coming off of 60 base sp. attack. Dig is not advisable due to all the EQ spam in the game and Odor Sleuth/Endure are pretty much pointless.
Additional Notes: Pilo's EQ hits hard, but you're better off teaching that move to someone like Flygon, who has a vastly better movepool, typing, and stats. Piloswine comes with the slow leveling curve, which can lead to it falling behind in levels in some cases.

Qwifish
Availability:
Pyrite Building via Hunter Doken. Found early game at level 33.
Heart Gauge: 5000
Overview: Qwilfish makes for a good Shadow Pokemon due to a hard hitting Shadow Rush running off base 95 attack and at a higher level than most other Pokemon obtainable at that point. It can either have Poison Point or Swift Swim as abilities, both are pretty useful, tho Swift Swim comes in handy in more major battles than Poison Point does. With a good typing and stats, it has great use from the moment of capture up until the end of Agate Village. Unfortunately, Qwilfish is one of those Pokemon that get worse once it's purified. For one, Qwilfish has a pretty awful level up movepool, making it heavily reliant on TMs. Qwilfish does get Surf, but with it only having base 55 special attack, its a weak move, even under the influence of rain. Most of what Qwilfish will do after purification is spam minimize and slowly whittle away at the HP of opponents, which is something notable as it happens to be the only minimize user obtainable so it at least has that going for it.
Additional Notes: Due to Colosseum running on the RSE level up movepool, Qwilfish also misses out on moves such as Revenge and Destiny Bond, as well as an early Hydro Pump. Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball can only be gotten through completing Under Colosseum, which can only be challenged after one can get to the Shadow Pokemon Lab. The Under Colosseum also hosts Pokemon within the mid 50's. It's only recommended to try it out when your Pokemon are in the mid to late 40's or higher. Qwilfish comes with Surf, so it has to be removed by the Move Deleter.

Sudowoodo
Availability:
Pyrite Cave via Cipher Admin Miror B. Found early game at level 35. Can also be caught at Realgam Tower or postgame at Deep Colosseum
Heart Gauge: 10,000
Overview: Sudowoodo is one of the two Rock-types obtainable in the game before the postgame. It has a strong Shadow Rush running off of a base 100 attack as well as a hefty base 115 defense to let it tank other Shadow Rushes. It has nice coverage in Fighting, Ground and Rock moves. Even with its advantages, the Rock-type is more of a curse than a blessing due to its numerous weaknesses and all of them being common to come across in the major battles. Sudowoodo also takes a long time to purify and its level really starts to show if not purified quickly. The two abilities are Sturdy and Rock Head, both which are seldom used due to Double-Edge only being learned at level 57 and OHKO moves being a rarity. Sudowoodo is also very slow, which doesn't help with its weaknesses being so common. The wide coverage is useful as it can hit many Pokemon super effectively but generally will get seldom opportunities to do so.
Additional notes: Because of its low speed, Sudowoodo makes a good candidate for the Quick Claw. Due to being Gen 3, Sturdy does not act like a Focus Sash.


Ariados
Availability
: Shadow Pokemon Lab via Cipher Peon Lesar. Found mid-late at level 43
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Ariados's only saving grace is that it comes with Sludge Bomb, and barely at that. STAB Sludge Bomb does hit pretty fairly hard from a base 90 attack, and it can learn Grass and Psychic coverage to hit Pokemon that are resistant to Poison, but is generally too slow and frail to be of use in most battles.
Additional Notes: Leech Life pre Gen 7 is a whopping 20 base power, so its pretty much useless at the point you have it. Even Giga Drain is better used on Ariados than Leech Life.

Heracross
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Cipher Peon Dioge. Found late game at level 45. Can also be found postgame in Snagem Hideout.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Heracross has some very nice stats. A hard hitting 125 base attack with a good 80/75/95 bulk. A nice speed of 85 and a good offensive typing of part Fighting. Two abilities, Swarm and Guts, with the latter acting like a Choice Band if poisoned, paralysed, or burned (which also negates Burn's attack drop effect). Heracross's biggest flaw is that its the second to last Shadow Pokemon obtained before the Realgam Colosseum, which is also the final stretch of the game so Heracross has very little time and opportunity to flex. In most cases, it will be a Shadow Pokemon during those final battles and the levels will show during the final two battles, but even if it is a shadow at that point, it still has a hard hitting Shadow Rush and can potentially hit like a freight train if it gets status'd when having Guts as an ability. If one does take the time to purifiy it and level it up, it actually has a great showing in the final battles, but is generally a heavy time investment.
Additional notes: Heracross can make a good recipient of the Time Flute if one planned their team around the inclusion of Heracross, which lets it gain a few levels to help it out even more during the final battles.

Mantine
Availability:
Pyrite Building via Miror B. Peon Ferma. Early game encounter at level 33. Also can be caught postgame in Pyrite Cave.
Heart Gauge: 5000
Overview: Mantine has some pretty solid stats from when it is caught. 70 base speed is "good enough" and 80 base special attack is pretty nice. It has 65/70 physical bulk which is average, but Mantine's best feature is it's massive 140 base special defense, making it the special equlivant of Skarmory (interestingly enough, most of Mantine's stats are a mirror of Skarmory's). Mantine also has two good abilities in Swift Swim and Water Absorb. Even with good abilities and a good stat spread, Mantines movepool, and weak base 40 attack is it's biggest downfall, giving it a weak Shadow Rush, even with Hyper Mode abuse. Mantine misses out on Surf and even Waterfall due to them being HMs, and the complete reliance on Bubblebeam for STAB really starts to show later in the game. Mantine falls off hard after Dakim, even though it has the best matchup against Dakim by far of any Pokemon in the game, due to being Water-type and also being immune to his Earthquake spam.
Additional Notes: Shadow Rush takes up what would be Wing Attack so it manages to struggle against Miror B besides letting it tank moves to heal up your other Pokemon. Mantine's trainer also battles you immediately after Remoraid's (Reath) so theres a good chance you may not have Pokeballs to catch it. It's best to grab some extra before you scale up the building.

Remoraid
Availability:
Pyrite Building via Miror B. Peon Reath. Found early game at level 20. Can also be found postgame in the Pyrite Cave
Heart Gauge: 4000
Overview: Remoraid is tied with Togetic for being the lowest leveled Shadow Pokemon obtainable, and unlike Plusle, it doesn't get the EXP boost since it doesn't have a different trainer ID when obtained. It's low level and paper thin defenses make Remoraid a very tough Pokemon to raise, and it will stay at level 20 until one completes Agate Village. When it's able to evolve into Octillery, it trades some speed for a big boost in offenses and bulk. Octillery has wide coverage, able to learn Fire, Grass, Ice, Poison and Psychic moves so it can hit a lot of Pokemon super effectively. Even though Octillery's coverage is large and has a good level up movepool, it also requires the most investment of all Pokemon in the entire game, and only puts out an average showing for it.
Additional notes: Since HMs are absent in Colosseum, its strongest STAB move only ends up being Bubblebeam/Octazooka. Sniper is a Gen 4 ability so it can't really abuse Focus Energy in this case.

Skarmory
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Snagem Leader Gonzap at level 47. Late Game.
Heart Gauge: 13,000
Overview: Skarmory is the very last Shadow Pokemon one will catch before the final gauntlet. With a hefty 140 base Defense, it can take any physical move the AI throws at it. While the extremely late encounter greatly hurts Skarmory's viability, its Steel/Flying typing and high Defense make it worth considering as a wall to take into the final battles.
Additional notes: The AI in Colosseum has a tendency to gang up on your lower level Pokémon if there's a notable discrepancy between the two you have active. Use this to your advantage to maximize Skarmory's walling capabilities and capitalize on its inability to gain experience.

Slugma
Availability:
Pyrite Town via Roller Boy Lon. Early game at level 30. Optional battle.
Heart Gauge: 4000
Overview: Slugma is an odd Pokemon with a late evolution considering its low base stats. Being slow, frail, and not very powerful is a whole lot of trouble. It does have a good Fire STAB as it comes with Flamethrower and Sunny Day during purification letting it hit a lot of types super effectively and a good amount of those types are pretty common to see throughout the game but Slugma during its pre-evolve stage requires a lot of babysitting due to a weak Shadow Rush. Slugma can be caught with either Magma Armor or Flame Body to choose from, and Flame Body in 99% of situations is the superior ability. When it does evolve into a Magcargo, it gains some power and much needed bulk, but still manages to struggle due to Fire/Rock being an awful defensive typing, with its weaknesses being nearly everywhere. Due to common weaknesses, Magcargo sees problems during most major battles but because of its Fire typing, can take out some of the more problematic members on most major battles.
Additional Notes: Slugma/Magcargo, like Quagsire, can utilize the Yawn strategy to potentially immobilize one part of the opponents team.

Plusle
Availability:
Pyrite Town via Duking. Gifted after saving it from Miror B. Found at level 13.
Heart Gauge: N/A
Overview: Many people tend to ignore Plusle due to coming at the very low level of 13 (even lower than the Shadow Remoraid) while most of your Pokemon at that point are around the early to mid 30's and pass it over, well, every other Pokemon in the game. Plusle's biggest weakness is the investment it takes to level it up due to being obtained at such a low level and that Plus is a useless ability without Minus, but this doesn't mean that Plusle is a terrible Pokemon. Plusle has the unique attribute of having a different ID than all other obtainable Pokemon (with the exception of Ho-oh) and combined with the Medium-Fast exp growth, it levels up surprisingly fast. With a wide support move, consisting of moves such as Thunder Wave, Helping Hand, Encore, Fake Tears, TMs such as Rain Dance, and Light Screen, and powerful, yet inaccurate STAB in Thunder, Plusle will fill the role of support whether its softening up or crippling the opposing team or even assisting in capturing Shadow Pokemon.
Additional Notes: The EXP Share can be found directly after obtaining Plusle, in Agate Village and makes a good recipient for the item to bring it within level of the team very quickly. It is highly recommended to teach Plusle Thunder over Spark, and synergies well with rain setters.


Absol
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Rider Delan. Found late game at level 48.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Absol is one of the six Pokemon encountered during the final stretch before the credits. Its Dark typing doesn't give do many favors for it, as it's STAB is on it's much weaker offensive stat. Absol's only fantastic stat is its attack, while the rest are average or below average at best. In most cases, it won't partake in the four remaining battles, but it does have one of the most powerful Shadow Rush (tied in third with Ursaring) and it's first move relearned is Swords Dance, so it can hit insanely hard giving it a rather small niche, but it just takes too much effort to even get around to it as one would either need to get very lucky with Hyper Modes or white out (losing half your total money in the process) and use a lot of scents. Absol, unless with a beneficial nature is simply too frail to make a meaningful difference without good amounts of luck.
Additional Notes: If for some reason you want to use Absol for the final battles, you'll have to skip out on capturing Miltank, go into the final battles with 4 Pokemon, or purposely white out so you can swap around your team.

Aipom
Availability
: Shadow Pokémon Lab via Cipher Peon Cole. Found mid-late game at level 43.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Aipom is a sad state of affairs. An early game Pokémon shoved into the mid-late game and it really shows. Aipom's stats are all pretty low except for its speed with a base 85 in it. Aipom's wide movepool can barely be taken advantaged of due to its low offensive stats. Aipom is also the only Pokemon in the game you can catch in the game that know Tickle so it at least has that going for it, even if it may not survive very long due to being extremely frail. It is also the only other user along with Ledian of Baton Pass so it can pass stats, but the only notable stat it can pass is speed.
Additional notes: One of Aipom's Ability is Pickup, which is notable if only because it has a 1% chance to give you a King's Rock, and a 10% chance to pick up a rare candy. Run Away is useless as Colosseum consists of only trainer battles.

Delibird
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Cipher Peon Arton. Found late game at level 45, or postgame at Snagem Hideout.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Delibird has a pitiful stat distribution, the worst level up movepool in the entire game, a bad TM pool due to Colosseums limitations and an awful Ice/Flying defensive typing, a late game encounter; Delibird just has nothing going for it. Hustle can't even be used well due to the reasons stated. It'll be a Christmas miracle if it can manage to survive for more than one turn. At least it has STAB Blizzard going for it I guess.
Additional Notes: No TM40 in Colosseum so Delibird can't even use Aerial Ace. Why does this Pokemon even exist in this game?

Dunsparce
Availability:
Pyrite Cave via Rider Sosh. Found early game at level 33.
Heart Gauge: 5000
Overview: Dunsparce in many ways gets screwed over due to Colosseum's limitations and restrictions. Serene Grace is a fantastic potential ability and Dunsparce is bulky enough to abuse it, but it just misses out on a lot of moves it would love to have. Due to Colosseum's limited TMs and no HMs, it can't have moves such as Water Pulse, Secret Power and Rock Smash, moves like AncientPower and Headbutt/Bite from breeding, or moves like Body Slam and Rock Slide from tutors. This really only leaves it with moves like Thunder, Fire Blast, Blizzard and Iron Tail to abuse. Thunder does have a high 60% paralysis rate w/Serene Grace and Fire Blast/Blizzard are now a 20% chance to proc. The problem with these moves is that they are pretty inaccurate and thus unreliable. Overall, if Dunsparce is caught with Serene Grace, it makes for a decent support Pokemon, able to spread around major status conditions with the above moves as well as Glare and Yawn and makes for capturing Shadow Pokemon a pretty simple task.
Additional Notes: If one wants to opt for the more accurate and reliable Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt, they can only be obtained at Mt. Battle, which takes investment to get, especially if all three are to be gotten. Dunsparce also has Run Away as an ability, which is useless in Colosseum, so it's best to reset if Dunsparce is caught with it.

Gligar
Availability:
The Under via Hunter Frena. Found mid game at level 43. Can also be found postgame at Snagem Hideout
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Ground/Flying is a good type combination having 2 common immunities, but Gligar has arguably the second worst level up movepool in the entire game, where its level up moves are completely missing in STAB. Gligar manages to be at the complete mercy of TMs, which are in all cases better suited for the other Pokemon that can learn them. Its stats are also oddly distributed, as it has a high base 105 defense, and above average base 85 speed, but only an average base 75 attack, and 65 sp. defense, Without STAB, its 75 base attack is fairly weak. Gligar has two abilities in Hyper Cutter and Sand Veil, but both aren't all that useful for Gligar in the main game.
Additional Notes: The TM for Sandstorm can be obtained through the first round of Under Colosseum so it's ability could be utilized.

Houndoom
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Cipher Peon Nella. Found late game at level 48.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Houndoom is one of the six Pokemon encountered during the final stretch before the credits. Houndoom comes with a great dual offensive typing and rather good offenses and speed, but Dark/Fire makes a poor defensive typing, making it weak to a lot of common moves. Overall, Houndoom isn't worth pursuing due to Shadow Rush running off it's weaker offensive stat, Flamethrower being the last move relearned, and many Pokemon in the final battles hitting it for super effective damage and/or on it's weaker defensive stat. It's ability in Flash Fire will see seldom use, but will not be able to take advantage of the Fire boost as it will most likely get KO'd in the following turn.
Additional Notes: If Purified, Houndoom has a good showing against Nascour, being able to hit most of his Pokemon for super effective damage, but is nowhere near worth the time investment just for one battle.

Ledian
Availability:
The Under via Cipher Peon Kloak. Found mid game at level 40. Can also be found postgame in Snagem Hideout.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Ledian is infamous for being terrible, and it's no different in Colosseum with it being as restricting of a game it already is. It does have a good support movepool in Dual Screen and Safeguard, its speed is also good and has a pretty beefy special defense stat, but with non-existent offenses and a terrible type combo makes Ledian's only use being a support Pokemon, which many other Pokemon in the game can do better while on top of having offensive presence.
Additional Notes: It's best to stick Ledian in the Day Care.

Metagross
Availability:
Realgam Colosseum via Nascour. Caught late game at Level 50.
Heart Gauge: 15,000
Overview: Metagross has a very strong stat spread, with very high Attack and Defense and every other stat being at least above-average. Its typing, Steel/Psychic, also provides it with numerous resistances. However, it can only be caught at the very end of the game just before the final boss, limiting its use to one story fight.
Additional Notes: You should only bother using Metagross if you need a strong tank for the final boss that can also hit back.

Miltank
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Bodybuilder Jomas. Found late game at level 48.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Miltank is one of the six Pokemon encountered during the final stretch before the credits. Miltank has a Normal typing, but with Thick Fat, gives her resistances to Ice and Fire, which actually do appear, primarily against Nascour and Nella. Miltank has rather high base 100 speed, so even with her low levels compared to Nascour and Evice, she can outspeed the majority of their Pokemon giving it a small niche. Miltank could optionally have the Heart Gauge lowered to relearn Body Slam, but is not worth the time investment to simply try your luck with parahax.

Murkrow
Availability:
Shadow Pokemon Lab via Cipher Peon Lare at level 43. Mid-Late Game with a 30 Capture Rate.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: Murkrow isn't good. It comes around a point where you're facing a lot of enemies with electric and ice coverage so it's very difficult to use in the immediate area. Murkrow does have some positives as it is fast and has good offensive stats as well as a good offensive typing, but it's movepool lacks in both power and status/support. Murkrow ends up being a liability in most, if not all matchups.
Additional Notes: Murkrow is one of the seven Pokemon that can learn TM49 Snatch, but to use Snatch reliably one needs to know the AI's moveset extensively It's ability also does more harm than good since it's Insomnia, coupled with a low 30 capture rate.

Sneasel
Availability
: Under Subway via Rider Nelis. Found Mid Game at level 43.
Heart Gauge: 6000
Overview: While Sneasel has decent Attack and high Speed which makes it a surprisingly good Shadow Pokemon, that's all it has going for it, and it's all downhill from the moment it gets purified. A Ice/Dark typing means its STAB attacks are both special and thus do pitiful damage off of a terrible Special Attack stat. Its typing also doesn't do it any favors defensively, as Fighting, Fire and Rock moves are commonly used by the AI and its defensive stats are terrible on top of that.
Additional Notes: It should be noted that Sneasel is the fastest Pokémon with Icy Wind, which is marginally useful in some situations. However, it's not enough to justify using it after purification.

Sunflora
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Cipher Admin Baila. Found late game at level 45. Can also be found at Snagem Hideout in the postgame.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Sunflora smiles all the time to hide the pain inside, cause Sunflora has never been a good Pokemon. A weak base 55 defense, and very slow 30 base speed makes it struggle in the remaining matchups. It does have a good 105 base special attack, but can barely take advantage of it since unless you get a good hidden power, Solarbeam and Giga Drain are the only special moves it can use. Typical of Grass-types, its movepool is pretty garbage. Its way too reliant on the sun since its entire kit revolves around it, but at least with the sun up, its speed stat actually becomes respectable. Sunflora's biggest flaw is that is requires too much set up to become usable, and then when it does, it's most likely dead at that point.
Additional Notes: If's best to pair Sunflora, with a fast Sunny Day user like Entei, Typhlosion, or simply anyone else that can learn the TM.

Tropius
Availability:
Realgam Tower via Cipher Peon Ston. Found late game at level 49.
Heart Gauge: 7000
Overview: Tropius is one of the six Pokemon encountered Tropius's rather impressive bulk is offset by its terrible Grass/Flying typing, giving it many weaknesses. The typing doesn't do any favors for its below average attacking stats either. Chlorophyll doubles its speed in the sun, but will still most likely get outpaced in the final battles due to the large level gap. Even if purified, it still won't contribute any valuable use.

Yanma
Availability:
Pyrite Building via Cipher Peon Nore. Found early game at level 33. Also found postgame in Snagem Hideout.
Heart Gauge: 5000
Overview: Yanma has two fantastic abilities in both Speed Boost and Compoundeyes. These abilities on a good Pokemon would prove to be great or in some cases downright broken as shown in later gens. Unfortunately, Yanma has nearly nothing to take advantage of it's abilities. Bug/Flying is a terrible defensive typing boasting many common weaknesses. Yanma is also very frail, boasting a pitiful 65/45/45 bulk, leading to many OHKO's even from neutral hits. Yanma's level up movepool is downright offensive to the mind where the only STAB it gets is Wing Attack at level 43. This leaves Yanma to require extensive TM usage to become slightly less trash. Using Yanma is an exercise in masochism and is strongly advisable to not put it on a team, even as a joke. It will not bring good fortune to you in any battle.
Additional Notes: Yanma is also is a very frequent victim of double targeting due to its doughy defenses and typing, and can't typically retaliate in any meaningful way back. Though one can play this to their advantage with Detect/Protect as one will know it will get singled out in a battle, leaving a teammate with a free turn. Only use Supersonic if your Yanma comes with Conpoundeyes.
 
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Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I actually have time to do stuff this week since I don't need to work, so I can get on this.
 

Minority

Numquam Vincar
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Hi, long time Pokemon Colosseum player here and author behind the guide for Pokemon's hardest in-game challenge. It's been awhile since the last post but I wanted to drop a few quick thoughts.

Seeing Heracross in the same tier as Plusle (a mon given at 20+ levels behind the curve and entirely outclassed by Flaffy and Raikou) can't be taken seriously. Heracross is miles above the best physical attacker in the game (that isn't snagged from Nascour or Evice). This is due to a combination of its raw Attack stat, Speed just fast enough to consistently out-speed its in-game opponents, being a Fighting-type with STAB Megahorn, and offensive (endure + reversal) and defensive (resisted) dichotomy with one of the most broken moves in the game, Earthquake. I would go as far to say that Heracross is a top six Pokemon for running the game and can hard carry mediocre squads through the toughest final battles (Gonzap, Nascour, Evice) and through postgame as well. The only downside to this Pokemon, other than having to occasionally click a move with 85% accuracy (several Pokemon currently listed in A Tier have this problem much worse), is that it's obtained after the Ein rematch. While its merit would be completely inarguable if Heracross came before first Ein, in practice the late snag is nowhere near the problem it's made out to be. Exp tends to feel scarce in Pokemon Colosseum, turning swaths of early mediocre squad pickups into a liability, especially as the game hits Realgam. Planning your squad for Heracross basically allows you to focus on 4 or 5 good Pokemon that end up higher leveled, and makes your squad that much stronger when you pick it up right before moving into Realgam proper.

Quagsire is not efficient for running the game. Its strength should be as an evolved Pokemon prior to purification access, but it's stuck using Shadow Rush (bad) and Surf (more bad, 65 SpA at 50% power lel) until it's purified. In the major bottleneck (Mirror B) it has no use. Quagsire's best moment comes at Dakim, but it has to get all the way to level 42 to get Earthquake (basically impossible without extensive grinding, therefore even less efficient) to be fully effective here. After that its weak offenses only become more and more apparent, and it's reliance solely on Earthquake to deal decent damage is annoying, especially for teams that aren't explicitly structured to accommodate it (which is hard to do in Colosseum). I've run the game with this Pokemon on two occasions and being even close to the likes of the dogs, let alone in the same tier, is heinous.

I also think it's destructive for this project to ignore postgame because it's a huge amount of the game's content. The only time postgame doesn't matter is if you're speedrunning any %, and if you're doing that you're not using these tiers because Espeon and Typhlosion are S, Plusle is A (AI manipulation) and everything else is F.
 

Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
Post-game should absolutely be considered here; I'd argue that the real endgame would be the road to getting MATTLE Ho-Oh. Hell, the post-game access is even noted on the Pokemon's entries on the tier list, despite it being centred around getting to the credits efficiently. Purifying every Pokemon, doing the Mt. Battle Challenge, and getting that final bird feels more like a 100% run than just bopping Evice. Then again, bopping Evice is what gives you the credits, so you could go off that definition. Oh well.
 
Post-game should absolutely be considered here; I'd argue that the real endgame would be the road to getting MATTLE Ho-Oh. Hell, the post-game access is even noted on the Pokemon's entries on the tier list, despite it being centred around getting to the credits efficiently. Purifying every Pokemon, doing the Mt. Battle Challenge, and getting that final bird feels more like a 100% run than just bopping Evice. Then again, bopping Evice is what gives you the credits, so you could go off that definition. Oh well.
I’d argue that the safest place to consider as the game’s end point would be the Fein boss fight, as that’s when you truly stop getting main story content. Purification, Mt. Battle, and Ho-Oh are more of a completion bonus thing. That send, Fein also requires snagging all 47 previous Shadow Pokémon first, so he sort of is too? Hard call to make.
 
I am surprised that Vibrava is put as a Time Flute candidate. Honestly, besides backtracking to purify it, you still have to grind it 2 levels to evolve and just putting a Exp Share should be faster in the long run, right? And it's not like it learns anything after evolving that could come in handy, in case you grind it up 3 or 5 levels by accident.
 

Minority

Numquam Vincar
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Agree that Shady Guy / Chipher Peon Fein should be considered as the end of the game when it comes to in-game tiers.

Also the OP has it right that Vibrava is a great Time Flute candidate, and the only other mons I would consider (that aren't the dogs) are Heracross, Metagross, and Tyranitar. Vibrava is a great choice because it's snagged shortly after the second flute becomes available and it's annoying to use as a Shadow Pokemon (weak and easily KOed). You don't have to grind it two levels because you get three Rare Candies prior to Venus, so Time Flute + Rare Candies gives you instant Flygon, which is one of the best Pokemon in the entire game.
 
Keep in mind that a lot of what I'm about to say is a mix of theorycrafting and prior playthroughs of the postgame (that I don't fully remember).

So if people want to count the battles up to Fein (the guy with the Shadow Togetic), I've been looking at many of the Postgame battles (namely the ones against bosses and Deep Colosseum). My first two subjects are Tyranitar and Metagross.

This might be a hot take, but if you're trying to be efficient, Tyranitar and Metagross only put up an average showing. A lot of the Postgame battles have Earthquake spam, which Tyranitar and Metagross are both weak to. They're both bulky boiz, but when Pokemon are firing off weather-boosted fire/water moves and spamming EQ every chance they get, they're gonna be hurting a lot after a battle is over if they didn't faint that is. They're also pretty slow and the fact that you're not going to have a lot of Speed EVs in them given how late you obtain both of them, they're gonna get outsped quite often.

So for Tyranitar:
Cipher Lab revisit and Snagem Hideout: Pretty good showing for Tyranitar overall. There are Pokemon that can hit it super effectively, but it can do the same against the fodder. Only Pokemon it has to look out for is colored Peon's Sharpedo/Breloom/Camerupt respectively.

Gonzap: Bad time for T-tar. Every Pokemon of his has fighting/ground coverage and T-tar isn't going to live very long in this encounter.

Deep Colosseum
Miror B: Pretty bad matchup since Miror B will constantly change the water and fire off weather-boosted Hydro Pumps. A strategy of having a Pokemon with Light Screen and using T-tar as fodder to change the weather can potentially work, but you're better off simply using a Pokemon resistant to water such as Altaria, or a fairly fast Pokemon that can set up Light Screen quick, such as Espeon

Dakim: EQ spam = no bueno. Although it does bop Dakim's Houndoom most of the time so you could use if for clean up.

Venus: Pretty dependant on what gender T-tar is. One of T-tar's more positive matchups if Lady Luck is on your side. Be careful of her Milotic.

Ein: A bit half and half. Destroy's his Mantine, Manetric and Crobat, but hates going against the Rhydon and Gyarados.

Deep King Agnol: Positive matchup overall. Doesn't really like the Skarmory, but can hit it with Thunder/Fire Blast. Can't fight the Kingdra, but everything else is easy picking.

Fein: Bad matchup overall. Everything on his team can hit T-tar for super effective damage while T-tar will have trouble outspeeding them



And for Metagross
Cipher Lab and Snagem. Generally the same as T-tar. Beats up fodder easily. Has to watch out for the colored Peon's Sharpedo/Camerupt. Bops the Breloom.

Gonzap: Metagross can generally handle them, especially when piling up Iron Defense boosts. Gyarados can be problematic if you let it stack up too many Dragon Dances

Deep Colosseum
Miror B: They hit Metagross on its weaker defensive stat, and Metagross' physical STAB generally isn't good for this. So-so match up but leans more into bad.

Dakim: EQ spam = no bueno. Fire spam = no bueno dos.

Venus. Actually a decent matchup because of Metagross' immunity to attraction. Her Blissey can hit it with flamethrower, but it shouldn't OHKO unless you get very unlucky. but Metagross can hit all of them hard with Meteor Mash, even if they resist it.

Ein: Similar to T-tar. Bops Crobat and Mantine. Doesn't like Gyarados. Can potentially OHKO Rhydon but is a risky matchup, gets hit hard by Manetric's thunder.

Agnol: Can't really do much to Skarmory or Kingdra, but can dispatch the rest of them easily. Shedinja depending on Metagross' movepool.

Fein: Better than Tyranitar. So so overall. Can survive an EQ from Armaldo and OHKO back. Has some trouble against Milotic and Manetric. Wants to stay as far away as possible from Hounddom (but can be offset by a fast Pokemon using a Ground/Fighting/Rock move) and can't do a whole lot against Gyarados.


This isn't even mentioning that if you don't use the Time Flute on them, you will spend a long time purifying them whether it's the Agate cliff explot or normal battling. If I remember correctly, both of them take at minimum 3 hours of purely battling, and that's if everything goes right. Unless you got a lot of time on your hands, they're not really worth the investment and will most likely reside in E tier, maybe D tier at their highest.

As for the Shadow Pokemon caught in the postgame, a brief ranking.

Smeargle: F tier. Way way WAY too much investment to get rolling. It's not worth the effort raising, finding specific Pokemon for sleep moves, or some crackpot baton pass set.
Ursaring: Also F-tier. Ursaring is a strong Pokemon, as it's S/A tier in the XD in-game rankings, but this one is found way to late to consider investing in, especially since you only have about 21 battles left after it is captured and all of them are about 20-25 levels above its capture level.
Shuckle: F-tier. It's a Shuckle. Plus it literally only has one battle to its name. One that it won't do anything in.
Togetic: Unranked. It's the very last Shadow Pokemon you get. The only thing you can use it for is Mt. Battle (both story and battle mode) and the colosseum battles in the Battle Mode.

I do have a lot of backup files to experiment on so maybe I'll do some testing down the road for the postgame. Probably set all of the Pokemon caught at level 55 with around 150 to 200 EVs scattered in random places, as that's typically the level I fight Evice at.
 
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Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I have returned to finish the job. Among other things.

I've read through the posts made the past couple years and will do some placement overhauls due to moving the "end" to Fein.

Tentative changes:
  1. Tyranitar, Smeargle, Ursaring, and Shuckle will be tiered
  2. Heracross and Metagross will move up, possibly to C
  3. Bayleef and Quagsire will move down
  4. Might condense some tiers since I don't think we need 7 with so few good Pokémon
 
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