I’m playing SS, just finished getting the medicine for the light house and feeling a little bummed about my team options. So curious what Pokémon do people consider underrated in the game?
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I just finished the E4 and honestly Stantler was my MVP. I am relatively new to Johto as a long time Red/Blue player so I’m not sure how popular Stantler is for HGSS, but dude was an absolute monster for me. Return, Zen Headbutt, Confuse Ray, and Earthquake.
I’ll second this! Had a similar moveset for my Stantler too! Plus it looks so so cool!!
Hes a beast. Honestly you take any normal type with decent attack stats, slap return on them, and they are going to pump out damage
Girafarig is definitely a sleeper. Normal Psychic and learns Psybeam early on. I caught one early at path to Lake of Rage and he swept the ghost gym. He's surprisingly average in a great way and tankier than he looks.
Hell yeah!! I’ve been having heaps of fun lately with my girafarigs agility and baton pass! Plus I think it can learn both light screen and reflect too which gives it options to become a very cool setup mon.
Isn't it only available after the ghost gym?
Nope, you don't have to finish that gym to head right, go through the tunnel and head to Mahogany Town. You can also just head straight to Olivine City and do the lighthouse there to level up your mons to get a headstart on 4.
You can catch Natu in the grass of the Ruins of Alpha by travelling through the Union Cave.
The Safari Zone also gives you access to Kangaskhan in the Swamp area.
Natu is super frustrating though it doesnt get a good psychic stab move until like 40s/50s. Such a cool mon and design screwed over by a sucky movepool. Literally caught one the other day to grind it up for the elite 4.
Poliwrath!!!
Giraffirig is a stompy beast. Great moveset even from gen 2 as well.
Psybeam, Stomp, Agility, Barton pass.
Misdreavus
Sudowoodo, Marowak, Slowbro/Slowking. A level 30 slowbro can be caught as soon as you defeat morty
Just playing through with a team of Pokemon I wouldn’t usually use (apart from Growlithe/ Arcanine and Feraligatr, who I use every single time).
Ampheros is great defensively, but offense sucks until you get Discharge around level 34.
Weepingbell’s movepool sucks, and it sucks waiting for Gina to call with a leafstone out of random chance, although, you can just do the Pokeathlon a few times and wait till a saturday to buy it there.
Sudowoodo is pretty tough, especially against all the normal types there are at this stage, however, I am still waiting for him to get some good moves
Pigeotto is a bit weak, and doesn’t have the best defensive type coverage, but it can learn some interesting moves for coverage (U-Turn via TM is a personal favourite)
Ampheros with Charge Beam goes brrrr. He's the mvp of my team
Not super underrated or anything, but I feel like tangrowth is a little overlooked. It’s a complete beast
Octillery, Lanturn, Girafarig, Gligar, and Donphan are pretty decent and still ahead of you or recent.
Idk if these count as underrated, more underused... But the trade evolutions bang. Golem is a personal favorite of mine
I kept Victreebell around and had a good fun using it. That guy is pretty underrated.
Shout-out one of my favorite pokemon, Octillery. His speed is bad, but you give him quick claw to offset some of that. The biggest thing he has going for him is his insanely diverse move pool. Can learn Signal Beam, Flamethrower, Ice beam and Psybeam. Also worth mentioning that even though it isn't the best move, Octillery has a move that unique to just himself in this game, Octazooka! He is the only pokemon that learns it
Octillery is a top-3 all time fav for me, too!
Before I learned anything about Pokémon stats, I would play for years just relying on Octillery to be the patriarch of my whole operation.
Lower level lil’ ones would get trained up cuz that old wise Octopus would get switched into battle & blast everything in its path to give them exp.
Years later I found out his IVs actually sucked, so I guess he just had a great moveset & a lot of heart 👍
I always love using Pidgeot, a lot consider it weak with poor movepool but I always got it working right. Its design is peak too.
Pidgeot is a classic. I used it (mega pidgeot. No guard stab hurricane/hyper beam goes brrrr) as my ace in my recent ORAS playthrough. The stats arent all there if you look at modern games, but compared to the early gen mons, it has actually fairly solid stats. Pidgeot is a top 10 evo line in my heart of hearts, even when my brain screams weak.
Quagsire with water absorb is such a beast. He was so clutch against Lance’s aerodactyl. I ran waterfall, surf, earthquake, yawn and holding soft sand. Had amnesia on it until waterfall.
I’m not sure if it’s fully underrated but dugtrio is great
Tauros, Marowak, and Slowbro are absolute MenTM
Also, my not-overleveled Bellossom soloed Bruno with sunny day, moonlight, solar beam, and leaf blade. Do with that what you will.
Damp Quagsire, Mold Breaker Pinsir 🔥
I tried rapidash for e4. Absolutely carried against koga and decent against karen.
Idk if steelix is underrated but he’s one of my favorites and you can actually catch a wild one in hg and ss which is awesome
What moveset for him?
I used iron tail,rock slide, earth quake and double edge cause I had hard head or whatever ability that is to make you not tak recoil dmg
Gligar comes late in the game (and only in HG), but it’s one of my favorite mons and it can really pack a punch if you build it right
Steelix with a curse set absolutely ruins gym leaders and the E4, but isn't the most fun for route battling because it's slow and Iron Tail's accuracy is meh.
Sunflora is never played because it's slow and squishy, but it's Sp. Atk is pretty good as well as it's movepool.
It's pretty late, but using Tyrogue isn't often done, so you could try that. I decided to evolve mine into Hitmonchan and run through Kanto with it. The 3 elemental punches make it fun to use.
Dunsparce with Serene Grace, glare and headbutt let you stun lock nearly everyone
Kingler
Sunflora!! Currently using one in my heartgold palythrough and its actually pretty good! I feel like it gets slumped cause sunkern has poor stats but Sunflora has actually good special attack and running petal dance mega drain and grass whistle ive actually gotten a lot of use out of it!
If you're playing without trades and all legit, the Machop you can get in a trade at Goldenrod dept store for the boosted xp is awesome, helps with that gym, steel gym and ice gym plus Elite 4. Scyther i feel is a bit of a sleeper, when it gets x-scissor it one shots in loads of battles. If you grind Eevee to get Espeon that's an top pick imo.
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