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SPOILERS! Sword and Shield in-game team discussion thread
- Thread starter Codraroll
- Start date
That's a big oof. Gamefreak, why did you create these four really cool looking fossil Pokemon and then make them THAT hard to use casually?
Just do a few psychic or water type raids and you’ll be good to go tbh, psychic fangs makes it very usable. I used both Dracovish and Arctovish in my run and it went fine
Oh okay! Water raids for I'm guessing Surf or Waterfall, Psychic Raids for Psychic Fangs... and are there any viable dragon raids for dragon pulse? (also I didn't know that raids drop a TR of the type of the mon you beat, good to know!)
Yeah, you want Liquidation/Waterfall from water raids. As for dragon raids, I just taught mine Draco Meteor from the tutor in the snow city (6th gym, you’ll have Dragon Breath to tide you over). Moveset for most of the game was Psychic Fangs/Liquidation/Crunch/Draco. Bite in the level up movepool is also fine enough before he learns bite, just make sure to get strong jaw!
Got myself an Arcanine and didn't realize how crazy Gamefreak buffed it this generation. You can catch Growlithe in the Wild Area after the second gym at level 28 or so and immediately evolve it to Arcanine with a fire stone from the digging duo (providing you have some luck and watts handy).
But where it gets crazy is you can take it to a pokemon center and have it remember it's moveset. It's ENTIRE moveset. Meaning you get stuff like Play Rough, Crunch, Extreme Speed, Burn Up, Flare Blitz, and Flamethrower all for free as soon as you catch Growlithe! Which is great since my only reason I've avoided him in the past is that it takes forever for Growlithe to get his best moves, so it's either babysit a puppy or feed your Arcanine nothing but TMs (and miss out on some good stuff, like Flare Blitz).
Granted it's probably like this for all stone evolutions now (Ninetales can do it too for example, she just doesn't have the super-wide moveset Arcanine has) and since even 1 star raids give out great technical records like candy it's not that hard to get powerful pokemon. But I'm still so stoked to try out my new fluffy boi!
But where it gets crazy is you can take it to a pokemon center and have it remember it's moveset. It's ENTIRE moveset. Meaning you get stuff like Play Rough, Crunch, Extreme Speed, Burn Up, Flare Blitz, and Flamethrower all for free as soon as you catch Growlithe! Which is great since my only reason I've avoided him in the past is that it takes forever for Growlithe to get his best moves, so it's either babysit a puppy or feed your Arcanine nothing but TMs (and miss out on some good stuff, like Flare Blitz).
Granted it's probably like this for all stone evolutions now (Ninetales can do it too for example, she just doesn't have the super-wide moveset Arcanine has) and since even 1 star raids give out great technical records like candy it's not that hard to get powerful pokemon. But I'm still so stoked to try out my new fluffy boi!
All stone evo movesets got expanded as far as I've noticed.
Even Ninetales...
In similar fashion of Arcanine, you can pick up both 110 and 90 BP stab, 80 BP secondary, nasty plot (who needs X items?) and random quick attack as soon as you stone evo.
Raichu as well if you're curious
I don't mind it, one of the biggest issues of stone evos previously was the complete loss of moveset once using the stone, forcing you to not use the stone evo early.
Of course this is abusable in theory but... I mean, why am I caring of balance in a game aimed at 10 year old players who don't even know move relearned is a thing? :P
I'm currently in Ballonlea and would want some team mate suggestions because I've currently been using only three.
I'm fully aware that some team members' moves aren't great, but I'm waiting to get some TRs to replace the moves. As for team mates that I was thinking of, I was considering Polteageist, Galarian Rapidash, and/or Dusknoir, but I'm not sure what would work. I'm considering switching out Boltund, but at the same time, she's been considerably helpful in my playthrough and I'm a weenie to think of replacing her.
Randall the Inteleon
Timid Nature
- Tearful Look
- Snipe Shot
- Ice Beam
- Sucker Punch
Winnie the Boltund
Jolly Nature
- Spark
- Bite
- Crunch
- Charge
Dolly the Dubwool
Impish Nature
- Defense Curl
- Headbutt
- Take Down
- Double Kick
Timid Nature
- Tearful Look
- Snipe Shot
- Ice Beam
- Sucker Punch
Winnie the Boltund
Jolly Nature
- Spark
- Bite
- Crunch
- Charge
Dolly the Dubwool
Impish Nature
- Defense Curl
- Headbutt
- Take Down
- Double Kick
Digging Duo isn't available after 3rd badge ?
You can go to where they're at even before the first gym... it's just the game warns you not to go up there until you get three badges due to the high level mons. If you run around and grab enough watts, you can easily get a dig or two from them, and have a chance at those stones... nevermind the fire stone is immediately open even without the digging bros.
Just beat Bea, but might pause and grind a bit as my team is a bit under-leveled due to me catching and training so many Pokemon (Highest is 37). Will probably cut down on them after narrowing down my options. I made it that I use majorly new Pokemon with 1-2 oldies if I've never used them/just really like them. I also got lucky/unlucky and have most/all my catches to be neutral natures lol.
Definite Mainstays:
Spyral the Inteleon - Just evolved it last night, sadly save for Snipe Shot everything else is underwhelming. Fun fact: I actually restarted my game after initially choosing Scorbunny for a change of pace (as I always go Water starters), but my conscious wouldn't allow it. Thankfully I wasn't that far in my previous save and I never looked back lol.
Ingrid the Corvisquire - 1-2 levels away to Corviknight which I'm excited for since I was hyped for Corviknight pre-release. Both she and Spyral are basiclaly my "team leaders" as I've used them since the beginning. Power Trip + Hone Claws is fun as heck to pull, and I look forward to having a Flying/Steel member on me.
Minerva the Gardevoir - My sister traded one to me as a leftover from when she was breeding for Pokedex completion, and she's probably my strongest Pokemon in terms of movepool.
Daimon the Toxtricity - Not much to say about him, save for realizing only now that he had better moves at the backlog that need reminding lol.
Still Debating:
Brienne the Sirfetch'd - She hits hard, but is a bit on the slow side (which is a problem almost everyone but Spyral has) and sometimes I feel like she too feels frail. Will either keep it, or wait till I get Fallinks.
Baku the Flapple - Feels too frail/slow. Still at Lv 31 so it lacks even a Grass move.
Coaltney the Coalossal - Just evolved. May/may not bench depending if I plan on running Rhyperior or not (as I only want one "earth-based" Pokemon). Also feel iffy on running 2 Pokemon with the same quad-weakness (referring to Toxtricity). If I drop her, I may need to train a new Fire type.
Most likely on the benching block:
Kaixa the Pawniard - Won't evolved until 52, I already have a Steel Type on me, and another sluggish member
Zazzy the Linoone - Nothing worth mentioning.
Swinely the Swinub - Ice really IS such a bad defensive typing. Combined with it still being in base form, it makes me feel like Mamoswine may not be worth it.
Yet to catch/train:
Rhinox the Rhyperior - I already have a Rhyhorn but it has Lightningrod over Rock Head. Assuming Eviolite is in this main story: I'm considering keeping it a Rhydon to make use of Eviolite and to have a niche in Double Battles even if I feel there ain't many main story) or just catching a new one with Rock Head and go from there. Then there's also the clash with Coaltney above, granted Rhyperior does have a better level-up movepool (Earthquake, Stone Edge, Megahorn) without needing to use up precious TRs.
Snorlax - Alternative to Rhyperior as a tanky mon. Doesn't have quad weaknesses and has good coverage with Heavy Slam and High Horsepower in its level-up moveset.
Dragapult (Nickname still in the works) - I always like running a pseudo-legendary in the main story (as a "climax" new recruit).
Definite Mainstays:
Spyral the Inteleon - Just evolved it last night, sadly save for Snipe Shot everything else is underwhelming. Fun fact: I actually restarted my game after initially choosing Scorbunny for a change of pace (as I always go Water starters), but my conscious wouldn't allow it. Thankfully I wasn't that far in my previous save and I never looked back lol.
Ingrid the Corvisquire - 1-2 levels away to Corviknight which I'm excited for since I was hyped for Corviknight pre-release. Both she and Spyral are basiclaly my "team leaders" as I've used them since the beginning. Power Trip + Hone Claws is fun as heck to pull, and I look forward to having a Flying/Steel member on me.
Minerva the Gardevoir - My sister traded one to me as a leftover from when she was breeding for Pokedex completion, and she's probably my strongest Pokemon in terms of movepool.
Daimon the Toxtricity - Not much to say about him, save for realizing only now that he had better moves at the backlog that need reminding lol.
Still Debating:
Brienne the Sirfetch'd - She hits hard, but is a bit on the slow side (which is a problem almost everyone but Spyral has) and sometimes I feel like she too feels frail. Will either keep it, or wait till I get Fallinks.
Baku the Flapple - Feels too frail/slow. Still at Lv 31 so it lacks even a Grass move.
Coaltney the Coalossal - Just evolved. May/may not bench depending if I plan on running Rhyperior or not (as I only want one "earth-based" Pokemon). Also feel iffy on running 2 Pokemon with the same quad-weakness (referring to Toxtricity). If I drop her, I may need to train a new Fire type.
Most likely on the benching block:
Kaixa the Pawniard - Won't evolved until 52, I already have a Steel Type on me, and another sluggish member
Zazzy the Linoone - Nothing worth mentioning.
Swinely the Swinub - Ice really IS such a bad defensive typing. Combined with it still being in base form, it makes me feel like Mamoswine may not be worth it.
Yet to catch/train:
Rhinox the Rhyperior - I already have a Rhyhorn but it has Lightningrod over Rock Head. Assuming Eviolite is in this main story: I'm considering keeping it a Rhydon to make use of Eviolite and to have a niche in Double Battles even if I feel there ain't many main story) or just catching a new one with Rock Head and go from there. Then there's also the clash with Coaltney above, granted Rhyperior does have a better level-up movepool (Earthquake, Stone Edge, Megahorn) without needing to use up precious TRs.
Snorlax - Alternative to Rhyperior as a tanky mon. Doesn't have quad weaknesses and has good coverage with Heavy Slam and High Horsepower in its level-up moveset.
Dragapult (Nickname still in the works) - I always like running a pseudo-legendary in the main story (as a "climax" new recruit).
This is a pretty interesting change but ngl i kind of liked the stone truncation of movesets. In theory, I mean.
Like that was always the point of them, it's a trade off. You can either get your immediate boost to power (unlike normal evolution which has set wait times or trades which require another person) at the cost of learning the rest of your moves OR you can hold on to them, use these weaker pokemon for longer to get the moves.
There's exceptions of course, Eevee is designed in reverse and Gallade/Froslass had normal movepools because they're meant as counterparts to Gardevoir/Glalie, but on the whole I think it's interesting from a game design stand point
Too bad gamefreak just keeps tripping over themselves in how these stones are given to the player. SO I guess it's a long term better change until they decide hey maybe we should just haev a shop with all the stones at the game's midpoint again.
Was really happy with this game's selection of wild Pokemon, felt like I could really make any kind of team I wanted. In fact, I will probably replay and try and do some kind of Monotype team, or a new Pokemon only team.
Inteleon some have mentioned it being underwhelming, but I thought that once it evolved to the final stage, it really started putting in work. It can't take hits, but that doesn't matter when you OHKO most things. I had to use a TR to boost its movepool a bit, though. I hadn't been sold on its design, but its animations changed that for me, it's a new favourite.
Corviknight an early addition to the team, and actually quite good. Used it as a catcher for a while because Power Trip with no boosts can chip down weaker Pokemon. Eventually swapped it out for G-Rapidash's Fairy coverage, but I'm not sure that was a good decision. Corvi was much better at killing stuff, and _much_ better at surviving. The Flying typing is surprisingly useful, and I think that Corvi would have been really useful in the Champion fight.
Boltund I dropped this after the Water gym. It was pretty good while I used it.
Excadrill Unfortunately, I did not end up with an all-new-Pokemon team: this mon was in my very first Max Raid. So yeah, that's about as lucky as you can get, and I wasn't going to pass that up. This mole is a monster mole. Wrecks faries, Ice, wrecks Electric, Poison, Rock Slide means it's pretty good vs fliers if you need it to be. Rapid Spin boosts speed this gen! Sand Force + Dynamax Rock Slide is something I only found out in the endless Gigantamax Butterfree raids after beating the game, but it gives a lot of power.
Toxicitry The replacement for Boltund. Really great typing, and a pretty decent moveset too. This mon was extremely useful.
Bewear You can find loads of Stufful around at the start of the game. It was really, really strong for quite a lot of the game. Actually, it was my go-to for fighting Ghosts: it learns Dark type moves early on and is also totally immune to Ghost moves. So it destoyed poor Alastair's gym. However, it's real slow, and towards the end of the game it began to be outshone by every other member of the team. However, with Fluffy, it was still the bulkiest on my team when it came to the final fight, what with being 3hko'd rather than 1 or 2hkod. So it sat there and ate powerful hits while I healed up my team. I probably could have done with swapping it out.
G-Rapidash was the eventual replacement for Corviknight. I didn't get it when it was first available, so I had to candy it up to speed. It was no doubt missing the EVs the rest of my team had: perhaps that's why it was so underwhelming. I didn't want to have my team being complete really early in the game, though, and I thought it might help VS Dragons. It was not great: frail and underpowered. Its Sp Atk is too low to make good use of its most powerful moves.
Incidentally, you can access Glimwood Tangle before the Stow-on-Side Gym and other events. A tiny patch of grass is just before where Team Yell is, hidden by the darkness. And Impidimps will attack you if you poke the pink mushroom next to the grass.
Inteleon some have mentioned it being underwhelming, but I thought that once it evolved to the final stage, it really started putting in work. It can't take hits, but that doesn't matter when you OHKO most things. I had to use a TR to boost its movepool a bit, though. I hadn't been sold on its design, but its animations changed that for me, it's a new favourite.
Corviknight an early addition to the team, and actually quite good. Used it as a catcher for a while because Power Trip with no boosts can chip down weaker Pokemon. Eventually swapped it out for G-Rapidash's Fairy coverage, but I'm not sure that was a good decision. Corvi was much better at killing stuff, and _much_ better at surviving. The Flying typing is surprisingly useful, and I think that Corvi would have been really useful in the Champion fight.
Boltund I dropped this after the Water gym. It was pretty good while I used it.
Excadrill Unfortunately, I did not end up with an all-new-Pokemon team: this mon was in my very first Max Raid. So yeah, that's about as lucky as you can get, and I wasn't going to pass that up. This mole is a monster mole. Wrecks faries, Ice, wrecks Electric, Poison, Rock Slide means it's pretty good vs fliers if you need it to be. Rapid Spin boosts speed this gen! Sand Force + Dynamax Rock Slide is something I only found out in the endless Gigantamax Butterfree raids after beating the game, but it gives a lot of power.
Toxicitry The replacement for Boltund. Really great typing, and a pretty decent moveset too. This mon was extremely useful.
Bewear You can find loads of Stufful around at the start of the game. It was really, really strong for quite a lot of the game. Actually, it was my go-to for fighting Ghosts: it learns Dark type moves early on and is also totally immune to Ghost moves. So it destoyed poor Alastair's gym. However, it's real slow, and towards the end of the game it began to be outshone by every other member of the team. However, with Fluffy, it was still the bulkiest on my team when it came to the final fight, what with being 3hko'd rather than 1 or 2hkod. So it sat there and ate powerful hits while I healed up my team. I probably could have done with swapping it out.
G-Rapidash was the eventual replacement for Corviknight. I didn't get it when it was first available, so I had to candy it up to speed. It was no doubt missing the EVs the rest of my team had: perhaps that's why it was so underwhelming. I didn't want to have my team being complete really early in the game, though, and I thought it might help VS Dragons. It was not great: frail and underpowered. Its Sp Atk is too low to make good use of its most powerful moves.
Incidentally, you can access Glimwood Tangle before the Stow-on-Side Gym and other events. A tiny patch of grass is just before where Team Yell is, hidden by the darkness. And Impidimps will attack you if you poke the pink mushroom next to the grass.
My first run was Scorbunny, Mudbray, Snorunt (Froslass; really like that there's easy access to an early dawn stone for once), Helioptile, Dewpider, and Corviknight.
Mudbray and Dewpider are still OP for in-game with a lot of physical mons for Mudbray to slaughter, and it isn't that hard to get early raid TMs from first visit one-star raids. And Corviknight was a beast. Since we actually got to use her for once, Froslass was passable when i really needed her, too.
Second run - Decided to use a team from Max Raids (first pass through Wild Area).Wasn't really coming together though, so I decided to try to add Shellder and Arcanine to get good coverage. Slightly regretting it now, because I'm only occasionally using Croagunk and just those two otherwise. Cloyster might be more OP than Arcanine. 20% fishing chance so not hard to get and water stone is only a slightly more out of the way detour than the fire stone. Then it's very quick access to Rock Blast and look, we have a competitive Cloyster before the first Gym.
Mudbray and Dewpider are still OP for in-game with a lot of physical mons for Mudbray to slaughter, and it isn't that hard to get early raid TMs from first visit one-star raids. And Corviknight was a beast. Since we actually got to use her for once, Froslass was passable when i really needed her, too.
Second run - Decided to use a team from Max Raids (first pass through Wild Area).Wasn't really coming together though, so I decided to try to add Shellder and Arcanine to get good coverage. Slightly regretting it now, because I'm only occasionally using Croagunk and just those two otherwise. Cloyster might be more OP than Arcanine. 20% fishing chance so not hard to get and water stone is only a slightly more out of the way detour than the fire stone. Then it's very quick access to Rock Blast and look, we have a competitive Cloyster before the first Gym.
Okay so since I don’t have anywhere else to post it (an in-game tier list hasn’t been created yet) I’d like to inform everyone how amazing Bewear was for me.
Granted, I got mine late at level 42 shortly before the sixth gym, when it comes pre-loaded with Hammer Arm and Thrash, but this thing put in nothing but work for me.
While I don’t know how Stufful itself performs even though you can get it in the Wild Area early (a quick glance at the movepool shows it gets Payback and Strength by level 20, but no Fighting moves until post-evolution or TM, so kinda meh), Bewear was phenomenal. 120/80/60 bulk combined with Fluffy means Bewear tanks everything, and Thrash/Hammer Arm carries it to endgame town easily, where it gets even more broken with Drain Punch and the elemental punch TMs (which you should easily be able to purchase as this game gives you money for almost nothing combined with liberal Amulet Coin use). Seriously, I pretty much soloed Hop’s final rival battle with this thing, it’s stellar!
Also Mudsdale is back and almost as broken as ever. While a little tricky to find early with Stamina (it’s not visible in the overworld on the way to the first Galar Mine) some genius thought to give Mudbray Iron Defense at only level 4 which is as cool as you think it is (though I don’t remember using it a lot barring some scenarios). It doesn’t roll over the game entirely, but is extremely reliable when foes are mostly physical, and I’d give it a solid recommendation for a Ground type.
Granted, I got mine late at level 42 shortly before the sixth gym, when it comes pre-loaded with Hammer Arm and Thrash, but this thing put in nothing but work for me.
While I don’t know how Stufful itself performs even though you can get it in the Wild Area early (a quick glance at the movepool shows it gets Payback and Strength by level 20, but no Fighting moves until post-evolution or TM, so kinda meh), Bewear was phenomenal. 120/80/60 bulk combined with Fluffy means Bewear tanks everything, and Thrash/Hammer Arm carries it to endgame town easily, where it gets even more broken with Drain Punch and the elemental punch TMs (which you should easily be able to purchase as this game gives you money for almost nothing combined with liberal Amulet Coin use). Seriously, I pretty much soloed Hop’s final rival battle with this thing, it’s stellar!
Also Mudsdale is back and almost as broken as ever. While a little tricky to find early with Stamina (it’s not visible in the overworld on the way to the first Galar Mine) some genius thought to give Mudbray Iron Defense at only level 4 which is as cool as you think it is (though I don’t remember using it a lot barring some scenarios). It doesn’t roll over the game entirely, but is extremely reliable when foes are mostly physical, and I’d give it a solid recommendation for a Ground type.
The agonizing wait until Christmas is both my favorite and least favorite time to be a Pokemon fan, because I'm spending this time making constant tweaks to my eventual in-game team. For instance, I realized that with the max raid exploit, you can get a Dewpider as early as the first wild area, which I am 100% going to do because Araquanid is one of my all-time favorite designs and for some dumb reason I never used one in a playthrough before
Just finished the main story and post-game story. Now it's on to IV breeding/EV training my favorites.
This was my final team:
Spyral the Inteleon (Snipe Shot/Hydro Pump, Air Slash, Icicle Spear, U-Turn)
Ingrid the Corviknight (Brave Bird, Steel Wing, Revenge, Hone Claws)
Dragard the Dragapult (Dragon Darts, Phantom Force, Steel Wing, Dragon Dance)
Daimon the Toxtricity (Overdrive, Venoshock, Boomburst, Fire Punch)
Minerva the Gardevoir (Psychic, Moonblast, Magical Leaf, Hypnosis)
Rhinox the Rhydon (Earthquake, Stone Edge, Fire Punch, Ice Punch)
Special mentions go to:
Brienne the Sirfetch'd (Brick Break, First Impression/Brave Bird, Leaf Blade, Knock Off)
Nymeria the Zacian (Iron Head/Behemoth Blade, Sacred Sword, Crunch, Swords Dance) - Literally just used it for the final post-game fight because I felt like I had to do it right lol.
This was my final team:
Spyral the Inteleon (Snipe Shot/Hydro Pump, Air Slash, Icicle Spear, U-Turn)
Ingrid the Corviknight (Brave Bird, Steel Wing, Revenge, Hone Claws)
Dragard the Dragapult (Dragon Darts, Phantom Force, Steel Wing, Dragon Dance)
Daimon the Toxtricity (Overdrive, Venoshock, Boomburst, Fire Punch)
Minerva the Gardevoir (Psychic, Moonblast, Magical Leaf, Hypnosis)
Rhinox the Rhydon (Earthquake, Stone Edge, Fire Punch, Ice Punch)
Special mentions go to:
Brienne the Sirfetch'd (Brick Break, First Impression/Brave Bird, Leaf Blade, Knock Off)
Nymeria the Zacian (Iron Head/Behemoth Blade, Sacred Sword, Crunch, Swords Dance) - Literally just used it for the final post-game fight because I felt like I had to do it right lol.
It's actually not just stone mons, ALL pokemon that loses certain level up moves upon evolution can get them via relearner. This basically means you no longer have to baby some mons just to get moves at certain levels. Seedot for example gets Explosion via level up at level 36, but Nuzleaf doesnt learn it naturally normally. The game now adds Explosion to the relearner pool once you evolve Seedot at level 14, meaning when combined with the totally-balanced move relearner Nuzleaf now gets Explosion at level 14 effectively.
Since stone mons lose all their level up moves (with the exception of like Darm-G for whatever reason), you get to relearn ALL of them the moment you can evolve them. Using the same nuzleaf example, it usually gets Extrasensory at level 43, Sucker Punch at level 50 and Leaf Blade at level 57, but if you evolve it into shiftry immediately upon getting the leaf stone at the first gym's town you can run back to the pokemon center and get ALL of these moves at level 14.
this alone opens up quite a lot of worms for in-game viability which could likely made tiering mons pretty nasty (for example, you can catch skill link shellder early, get water stone, 'relearn' shell smash and get it over 30 levels early, then teach the rock blast and pin missile TMs that come piss early to win the game)
My In-Game team was popping NGL and I've had a lot of fun with it using it in VS. matches and topping battle tower with it. I've made them all competitively viable since the postgame and my whole team was over-leveled as fuck during the story so I breezed through the game.
In order of obtained:
Inteleon (Jet): Inteleon is the GOAT. With Life Orb, Inteleon is able to steamroll people using its fantastic coverage options and Hydro Pump. It out-speeds and OHKOs Leon's Giga Zard easily in the battle tower and the only mon it really has to worry about is Rillaboom and Rotom-Wash which both prove to be nuisances. I had a lot of fun with this Pokemon throughout the game and I stand by my little Sobble.
Drapion (Delta): I knew that once I had the badges I was going to catch a Scorupi and train it. The one I caught had a modest nature but I stuck with him together he took a huge shit on a majority of the game with Poison Jab and Throat Chop. Once I made him competitively viable I had him hold a Choice Band and he continued to rock the game with Rockslide, EQ, P Jab, And Crunch. I had a lot of fun using Drapion for the first time ever.
Togekiss (Snips): I really hated the idea of using Corviknight because the game shoves the mon down your throat. I wanted my team to be unique and at this point, I knew I wanted a ground resist so instead of grinding to find Togekepi I simple did the NPC Trade. From that, I got this beast of a pokemon. Togekiss is able to really snowball once it gets a Nasty Plot going and D-max into Speed Boosts. I was actually very content with the nickname as well and the mon definitely grew on me.
Appletun (Fritter): At first I absolutely hated the pokemon Applin because I thought it was a super lazy design but I wanted Flapple because that shit looked really dope. I ended up finding out that I could only get Appletun on shield version so without knowing what it looked like I just evolved it. Long story short I fell in love with this big hunk of apple pie. It's my team's thick boy which is able to eat a multitude of attacks for the team and has no problems with recovery. I love its typing and to be honest, I don't really care that it doesn't have Thick Fat.
Togedemaru (Maru): I wanted a pokemon that could pivot in and out and at this point, I wanted something that could help me deal with opposing Corviknight. I chose Togedemaru but I wanted one with wish so I bread one with using my Togekiss and thus my Spiky Shield fat hedgehog made its way onto my team. Togedemaru and Appletun form a really fun defensive core to use and I really enjoy pivoting in and out with them through battles.
Cofagrigius (Masky): I had played around with using Cofag earlier in the game but I hated the nickname that was given to it by its NPC. I wanted something fat that could set hazards and originally I was going to use Hippo for that. I, however, didn't want another Ice-type weakness on my team so I decided to just use the Cofagrigus. The nickname soon grew on me and I ended up loving my T-spikes Cofagrigus. It also compliments Togedemaru nicely as it eats Fighting-type attacks that threaten Maru.
In order of obtained:
Inteleon (Jet): Inteleon is the GOAT. With Life Orb, Inteleon is able to steamroll people using its fantastic coverage options and Hydro Pump. It out-speeds and OHKOs Leon's Giga Zard easily in the battle tower and the only mon it really has to worry about is Rillaboom and Rotom-Wash which both prove to be nuisances. I had a lot of fun with this Pokemon throughout the game and I stand by my little Sobble.
Drapion (Delta): I knew that once I had the badges I was going to catch a Scorupi and train it. The one I caught had a modest nature but I stuck with him together he took a huge shit on a majority of the game with Poison Jab and Throat Chop. Once I made him competitively viable I had him hold a Choice Band and he continued to rock the game with Rockslide, EQ, P Jab, And Crunch. I had a lot of fun using Drapion for the first time ever.
Togekiss (Snips): I really hated the idea of using Corviknight because the game shoves the mon down your throat. I wanted my team to be unique and at this point, I knew I wanted a ground resist so instead of grinding to find Togekepi I simple did the NPC Trade. From that, I got this beast of a pokemon. Togekiss is able to really snowball once it gets a Nasty Plot going and D-max into Speed Boosts. I was actually very content with the nickname as well and the mon definitely grew on me.
Appletun (Fritter): At first I absolutely hated the pokemon Applin because I thought it was a super lazy design but I wanted Flapple because that shit looked really dope. I ended up finding out that I could only get Appletun on shield version so without knowing what it looked like I just evolved it. Long story short I fell in love with this big hunk of apple pie. It's my team's thick boy which is able to eat a multitude of attacks for the team and has no problems with recovery. I love its typing and to be honest, I don't really care that it doesn't have Thick Fat.
Togedemaru (Maru): I wanted a pokemon that could pivot in and out and at this point, I wanted something that could help me deal with opposing Corviknight. I chose Togedemaru but I wanted one with wish so I bread one with using my Togekiss and thus my Spiky Shield fat hedgehog made its way onto my team. Togedemaru and Appletun form a really fun defensive core to use and I really enjoy pivoting in and out with them through battles.
Cofagrigius (Masky): I had played around with using Cofag earlier in the game but I hated the nickname that was given to it by its NPC. I wanted something fat that could set hazards and originally I was going to use Hippo for that. I, however, didn't want another Ice-type weakness on my team so I decided to just use the Cofagrigus. The nickname soon grew on me and I ended up loving my T-spikes Cofagrigus. It also compliments Togedemaru nicely as it eats Fighting-type attacks that threaten Maru.
Games been out for a bit over a month now so I'm wondering if we'll be doing an official IGT tier-list thread. They're genuinely some of my favorite threads surrounding in-game and I'm happy to help out if we just lack the resources. Looks like lots of folks are using this thread as a substitute so I'm wondering if it's just a timing thing or if there was some policy decision on the matter.
I don't think we'll be seeing one made anytime soon, for the simple reason that the Wild Area destabilizes any such attempt to do a normal IGT thing. Over a hundred species of mon available right out the gate, all the evolution stones and numerous items open if you know where you are looking, and heavily RNG reliant means trying to get a proper tier list of what's efficient and what isn't is just near impossible with a huge core of the game being the Wild Area and what's in there being not just raid dependent, but also weather depenant, yet certain items ONLY being available in the Wild Area, or requiring the Wild Area for said evolution (hi, Galarian Yamask)
I don't think it's quite as destabilising and centralising as you're describing; especially as pretty much everything you just said also applies to USUM's Ultra Wormhole. Obviously it's a bit disingenuous to say they're completely comparable given that one is endgame and one is before the first gym badge; but both provide access to a massive array of powerful Pokémon that an in-game tier list will happily see fit to just ignore.
It doesn't exactly have any effect on any other catchable Pokémon in the game, so I think it's very reasonable to say that a tier list would ignore raids and general Wild Area RNG (ie it would still tier Pokémon that always appear no matter the weather, as well as taking into account things like Runerigus, items like evolution trinkets and leftovers etc). We've done the same in the past for the Ultra Wormhole, Island Scan and Dexnav, so there's no reason not to do so here.
I agree that in-game tiers can and should safely ignore raids, but I'm not sure mons should be discarded entirely simply because they're weather-dependent. It's so trivial in this game to get the exact weather in any area you want that weather specific encounters are not a problem. (Aside from Sandstorm and Fog which have to be unlocked.)
I'm not entirely familiar with the in-depth of how in-game tiering works, but I don't see why we would treat weather-specific mons like they're too hard to get when all that's required is a simple clock change. I suppose there's argument that it's not "normal gameplay," but unless the easy date switches are fixed then this just ignores the realities of how people who are consulting a tier list in the first place will play the game.
I'm not entirely familiar with the in-depth of how in-game tiering works, but I don't see why we would treat weather-specific mons like they're too hard to get when all that's required is a simple clock change. I suppose there's argument that it's not "normal gameplay," but unless the easy date switches are fixed then this just ignores the realities of how people who are consulting a tier list in the first place will play the game.
Discarding the entire wild area (rather than just raids) would be an insane choice. You have to go through it at least twice and it's even got some exclusive pokemon to it. This isn't just chucking about, what, a couple dozen end game pokemon that you can only get one at a time every ~2+ minute dive into a wormhole with little you can do to influence it into the trash, this would be actively ignoring an area that throws out a ton of pokemon at you without even searching.
One is super simple to ignore, you don't even have to really interact with the system. Just go to ultra megalopolis and never go back in. Wild Area is throwing itself at you just by walking through it.
It'd probably be smarter to judge on a case by case basis, like you would any other pokemon. Like Electrikes show up all the dang time and you have like 7 areas where a thunderstorm can happen, you are probably goign to run into one without even active grinding. Meanwhile something like Riolu which only shows up in one area in one specific weather would probably be rated very low just because it's so rare. Maybe give a general tier bump down like you would if a Pokemo nwas exceptoinally rare.
Also wouldn't be surprised if certain weathers were more common than others.
One is super simple to ignore, you don't even have to really interact with the system. Just go to ultra megalopolis and never go back in. Wild Area is throwing itself at you just by walking through it.
It'd probably be smarter to judge on a case by case basis, like you would any other pokemon. Like Electrikes show up all the dang time and you have like 7 areas where a thunderstorm can happen, you are probably goign to run into one without even active grinding. Meanwhile something like Riolu which only shows up in one area in one specific weather would probably be rated very low just because it's so rare. Maybe give a general tier bump down like you would if a Pokemo nwas exceptoinally rare.
Also wouldn't be surprised if certain weathers were more common than others.
Tecnically, the only question'd be if include date manipulation or not.
I don't know if similar stuff was possible/factored in previous tierlist, but since changing the switch date can allow to obtain any weather combo possible, tecnically any pokemon that's available pre-postgame would be available easily.