The Pokémon BST Power Hierarchy

[bdt2002]

Recently, I found myself further examining Zygarde during my research on Pokémon Legends Z-A’s development history, and I couldn’t help but notice how Zygarde’s a pretty good representation of a certain trend I’ve started noticing with Legendary Pokémon. By this point it’s no secret that there are levels to Pokémon as far as power scaling is concerned, and while it’s hard to compare regions to others without using hypotheticals, what we do know is that Zygarde its Complete Forme is supposed to be stronger than Xerneas and Yveltal in-universe, and that for the sake of multiplayer competition it has around the base stat total as Black & White Kyurem (700 and 708 respectively) from a generation and a half prior. For comparison, Xerneas and Yveltal still aren’t far behind that at 680 with identical stat distribution, something unique among mascot Legendary pairings.

But now, in 2025 with

Legends Z-A Spoilers

Mega Zygarde

existing, we have an even more clear picture of a sort of hierarchy of power between these Pokémon. Admittedly I don’t know where Zygarde 10% would fit into this just yet, but the 50% and 100% Formes could be seen as entries into different tiers of the hierarchy. This division of power is what I wanted to discuss in this thread- which Pokémon are where, how many tiers actually exist to this whole thing, and if any non-Legendary Pokémon, such as Mega Evolutions, could be added to this totem pole.

So far, I can identify at least three different tiers to this hierarchy; you’ve got the “Sub-Legendary” tier which may or may not also contain the 600 Club, the main Legendary tier for mascot Legendaries and other things around base 700 like Mega Diancie, and what I’ll call the “Mega Rayquaza Tier” for stuff like it, the Primals, and Ultra Necrozma who is very clearly supposed to be Alola’s answer to Mega Rayquaza. I suppose you could also add in the Mega Mewtwos for good measure, even if they’re noticeably less broken than those other examples in competitive play (Mega Mewtwo Y in particular might be worse than the base form). Thanks to the existence of Zygarde 10% I want to say there is a fourth tier below those top three, but I don’t know where the cutoff line would be for this kind of thing.

This was just some fun idea for a thread I threw together last night, nothing that needs to be taken too, too seriously. A part of me does wonder if a certain something we know is coming for Pokémon Legends Z-A might help explain some of what I was saying about Mewtwo, but I digress. This is just one of those threads where I’m interested in people’s thoughts on the subject. I will not be discussing hypotheticals here, by the way. As interesting as the idea of a tier above the Mega Rayquaza Tier could be in the future, not only do I highly doubt Game Freak would do this for game balance but that would be heavily diving into wishlisting territory anyway so I won’t be discussing that. Mr. Spoilers Tag in the second paragraph is enough to keep me satisfied for now.

If you guys are interested I can design a more concise “tier list” of who I think could be placed where in this hierarchy, but for now I’ll leave all to your posting and wish you a good rest of your day.

…oh, and one more thing. Where would you guys place Gen 1 Mewtwo? Due to the Special stat and Mewtwo just being as overpowered as it was back then, this thing would have had a base 744 BST with modern mechanics before the nerfs, which is higher than the 680-700 crowd (and Arceus’s 720) but still lower than the tier above it.

 

[Ironmage]

There's definitely some level of rebalancing that can occur for differences in Ability strength. Zacian's nerf and Zamazenta's collateral damage is evidence enough for that. In particular, I get the impression that Groudon and Kyogre (both 670) are not meaningfully behind the average title legend at 680 when it comes to world-shaking impact. Rather, setting weather is a big deal (or at least it was in gen 3). This argument does lead to some interesting places:

• Koraidon and Miraidon are potentially pushing 700 BST+ tier. While at 670, they have both Groudon/Kyogre's field setting and Zacian/Zamazenta's stat boost.
• It's possible that UBs and most Paradox mons (570) are set up to be directly equivalent to the 580-BST grouped minor legendaries rather than being slightly weaker. Beast Boost and Quark Drive/Protosynthesis are definitely a cut above Pressure.
• The same extension probably doesn't apply to the 590 Paradox mons, since the likes of Soul-Heart Magearna, Download Genesect, and Sand Stream Tyranitar are firmly at 600.
• Base Rayquaza is "only" 680 in comparison to other mons that are dominant over major legendary groups, like Eternatus' 690, fused Kyurem's 700, and Zygarde-Complete's 708. Either Air Lock is supposed to be way more impressive or Rayquaza doesn't actually out-muscle Groudon and Kyogre (but still manages because it counters their Abilities).

 

[R_N]

570 was pretty common in Gen 7 in general. The UBs 570...as were Silvally & the Tapu. Kind of feels less of a "balance" thing and more of they wanted them all to be equal for like...lore purposes, or something. Since they were meant to fight each other and all.
The treasures of ruin are also at 570, though that's a bit of an awkwards pot since before the day 1 update they were 580.

Urshifu & Ogerpon are both 550 and both also meant to be picked up relatively early on in your adventure. I wonder if maybe Naganadel was meant to be something you could get earlier at some point in development, rather than at the end (you get Poipole when all you have left is Lanakila + the league, and you get to evolve it at the league); the 540 BST always stood out to people as did one of its stats not being a prime number.
(The Loyal 3 are all post game but are at 555 which feels like they wanted to keep the allusion to the repitition of 8s found throughout the line and they sure aren't going to be knocked down to 444 or raised up to 888 (or 666 lol).)

• Base Rayquaza is "only" 680 in comparison to other mons that are dominant over major legendary groups, like Eternatus' 690, fused Kyurem's 700, and Zygarde-Complete's 708. Either Air Lock is supposed to be way more impressive or Rayquaza doesn't actually out-muscle Groudon and Kyogre (but still manages because it counters their Abilities).

Also for this it feels off to compare base rayquaza to super form Kyurem & Zygarde (& Necrozma).
base ray wasn't designed with another form in mind so having 680 from the jump does feel like it's meant to be shorthand for being the better to the other 2. Meanwhile Kyurem is 660 to represent being decript, empty and honestly proabbly should've been 600 but they didn't think of that until the following generation; it only becomes better when it absorbs the others and gets closer to its true form. Zygarde is 600 until it achieves its full power letting its BST soar. (& Necrozma needs two buffs to get going to its supreme). The better comparison to all these is probably Mega Rayquaza

 

[Ironmage]

Also for this it feels off to compare base rayquaza to super form Kyurem & Zygarde (& Necrozma).
base ray wasn't designed with another form in mind so having 680 from the jump does feel like it's meant to be shorthand for being the better to the other 2. Meanwhile Kyurem is 660 to represent being decript, empty and honestly proabbly should've been 600 but they didn't think of that until the following generation; it only becomes better when it absorbs the others and gets closer to its true form. Zygarde is 600 until it achieves its full power letting its BST soar. (& Necrozma needs two buffs to get going to its supreme). The better comparison to all these is probably Mega Rayquaza

I went with those examples in comparison to base Rayquaza because they are noted as a cut above the 580-legends in their own games without using an item slot and/or limited super mechanic. Role-wise, I feel that base Rayquaza leans closer to Aura Break Zygarde than Zygarde-complete. In contrast, Delta Stream (and a free item slot) is major enough for Rayquaza-Mega to overwhelm the Primals.

 

[bdt2002]

Alright, let’s try that again. My phone’s touch screen bugged out and sent something before I was done typing. Sorry about that.

There's definitely some level of rebalancing that can occur for differences in Ability strength. Zacian's nerf and Zamazenta's collateral damage is evidence enough for that. In particular, I get the impression that Groudon and Kyogre (both 670) are not meaningfully behind the average title legend at 680 when it comes to world-shaking impact. Rather, setting weather is a big deal (or at least it was in gen 3). This argument does lead to some interesting places:

• Koraidon and Miraidon are potentially pushing 700 BST+ tier. While at 670, they have both Groudon/Kyogre's field setting and Zacian/Zamazenta's stat boost.
• It's possible that UBs and most Paradox mons (570) are set up to be directly equivalent to the 580-BST grouped minor legendaries rather than being slightly weaker. Beast Boost and Quark Drive/Protosynthesis are definitely a cut above Pressure.
• The same extension probably doesn't apply to the 590 Paradox mons, since the likes of Soul-Heart Magearna, Download Genesect, and Sand Stream Tyranitar are firmly at 600.
• Base Rayquaza is "only" 680 in comparison to other mons that are dominant over major legendary groups, like Eternatus' 690, fused Kyurem's 700, and Zygarde-Complete's 708. Either Air Lock is supposed to be way more impressive or Rayquaza doesn't actually out-muscle Groudon and Kyogre (but still manages because it counters their Abilities).

There are a few things I want to note here. As it stands, Regigigas (and Slaking) are also 670, the same as Kyogre and Groudon, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Truant and Slow Start are much, much worse than the weather Abilities. With Regigigas having a higher BST than other non-restricted Legendaries but having the bad Ability to balance it out, Game Freak can have this visual image of “I’m stronger than the Gen 3 Regis in the lore but in battle I’m still weaker than the box art legends”, if all of that makes sense. Regigigas’s base 670 looks a lot different than Koraidon and Miraidon’s, too, that’s for sure.

I also wanted to point out the similarities between base Rayquaza and Aura Break Zygarde specifically. The base stats don’t line up due to the different number of forms and all that, but the idea that they’re both green serpentine dragon creatures with Abilities (Air Lock and Aura Break) that are meant to cancel out the Abilities of the Pokémon “below” them suggests that base Rayquaza might be on the same level as 100% Zygarde. The thing about Zygarde-Complete is that once it does transform, it doesn’t really have an Ability, whereas base Rayquaza has 28 BST less than it but gets to keep Air Lock unless it decides to Mega Evolve, at which point it would jump up a tier.

Finally, I want to suggest the idea that base stat totals ranging from, let’s say 550 to 600, for Legendaries and Mythicals (and some Mega Evolutions) all seem somewhat interchangeable with one another. Heck, fairly recently Cresselia actually got a 20 BST nerf (I would imagine because of her success in VGC) which seemingly proves my point at least lore-wise. Most Mythicals retain a 600 BST unless you’re literally God (Arceus) or a stronger form of something like Diancie or Hoopa, but the psuedo-Legendaries and the base forms of a few other Pokémon such as Terapagos are also around that same level, as are all of the Paradox Pokémon not named Koraidon or Miraidon.

570 was pretty common in Gen 7 in general. The UBs 570...as were Silvally & the Tapu. Kind of feels less of a "balance" thing and more of they wanted them all to be equal for like...lore purposes, or something. Since they were meant to fight each other and all.
The treasures of ruin are also at 570, though that's a bit of an awkwards pot since before the day 1 update they were 580.

Urshifu & Ogerpon are both 550 and both also meant to be picked up relatively early on in your adventure. I wonder if maybe Naganadel was meant to be something you could get earlier at some point in development, rather than at the end (you get Poipole when all you have left is Lanakila + the league, and you get to evolve it at the league); the 540 BST always stood out to people as did one of its stats not being a prime number.
(The Loyal 3 are all post game but are at 555 which feels like they wanted to keep the allusion to the repitition of 8s found throughout the line and they sure aren't going to be knocked down to 444 or raised up to 888 (or 666 lol).)


Also for this it feels off to compare base rayquaza to super form Kyurem & Zygarde (& Necrozma).
base ray wasn't designed with another form in mind so having 680 from the jump does feel like it's meant to be shorthand for being the better to the other 2. Meanwhile Kyurem is 660 to represent being decript, empty and honestly proabbly should've been 600 but they didn't think of that until the following generation; it only becomes better when it absorbs the others and gets closer to its true form. Zygarde is 600 until it achieves its full power letting its BST soar. (& Necrozma needs two buffs to get going to its supreme). The better comparison to all these is probably Mega Rayquaza

Kyurem’s 660 is just barely low enough to where it matches base forms Zacian and Zamazenta post-nerf for what that’s worth, and while opening Ultra Wormholes is impressive I would still take base Kyurem’s brute strength over that of 50% Zygarde or base Necrozma. In-universe, it should also be noted that successfully latching onto Nebby in the Ultra games isn’t as impressive for Necrozma as it would be otherwise considering Nebby had literally just evolved into Solgaleo/Lunala and would thus be weaker than a Solgaleo or Lunala that was stronger and had been around for longer. That’s not to say Nebby is weak, of course; all I’m saying is that Nebby is pretty young and inexperienced as far as physical strength goes.

Nonetheless, as the frozen husk of the Original Dragon of Unova and with Iris (future Dragon-Type Champion by the way) in the movie specifically claiming Kyurem was the strongest Dragon-Type in the world (that we knew of at the time), and with some of base Kyurem’s feats I do think it’s stronger than 50% Zygarde and base Necrozma, but would place it below base Rayquaza, the Creation Trio, Eternatus, and Stellar Terapagos post-transformation. The BSTs actually match this perfectly, though I don’t know how much stronger the Kyurem fusions are compared to the base form relative to the other mascot Legendaries. For a 700 BST form, Black and White Kyurem really aren’t as impressive as Iris foreshadowed…

 

[Samtendo09]

Most Mythicals retain a 600 BST unless you’re literally God (Arceus) or a stronger form of something like Diancie or Hoopa, but the psuedo-Legendaries and the base forms of a few other Pokémon such as Terapagos are also around that same level, as are all of the Paradox Pokémon not named Koraidon or Miraidon.

Don’t forget the first of it’s kind regarding 600 BST!

For those that don’t get it…

It’s the first and so far only Pokémon that is neither a Legendary, a Mythical or a pseudo-legend to have 600 BST without requiring a form change such as a Mega Evolution, in case of Scizor and others with 500 BST. It’s a cross-generational evolution at that, so I don’t doubt that eventually we will see another 600 BST cross-gen evo coming up, sooner or later.