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Choosing a water-type Pokemon
Pokémon isn't all about battling. A big part of it is navigating the overworld that connects the many cities and landmarks in the Pokémon games. That also includes using HMs like Surf to cross oceans and lakes.
Who did you teach surf? Did you have Mudkip as a starter? Maybe you're like me and spent hours deciding on which water Pokémon to put on your team. Or perhaps you just got a Zigzagooon an HM slave to do the job for you. What was your solution? |
I usually put HM Surf to Lotad or Zigzagoon, then i will release them after. :D
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I use it on Gyarados, Tentacruel or any other water Pokémon who goes on my main team. Surf is a good move and I use it in battling. :P
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I was a Blaziken user, so that eliminates that. My main water types were always Azumarill, Whischash or Lanturn. So it was always one of those few.
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Azumarill is terrible, so is Lanturn, and Whiscash is too. Swapert is not good, and Tentacruel is okay. So if I need surf, I will teach it to a water type in my party like Lotad or its evos or Spheal.
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Mudkip was usually my starter of choice, but when running through the game with Torchic, I'd catch a Goldeen at Petalburg to be a temporary HM slave. After getting the Good Rod, it would be replaced with a Carvanha, who would be useful against Liza and Tate. It becomes much easier to take control of the double battle with Surf, since it hits both opponents.
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I did wind up choosing Mudkip in one of my runs, just to see how it would go. Wasn't all too bad, haha. Most of the time, I'd just pick Torchic. As for who I thought Surf, I don't actually remember, honestly… maybe it was Gyarados? d:
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I had two water types on my team for some reason: Azumarill and Pelipper. They weren't HM slaves. I think I taught Surf (and all the other water HM's + Rock Smash) to Azumarill, so he was my semi-HM slave, since I used him and he even had the highest level in my team.
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I usually just get a Zigzagoon to do the job for me.
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I usually choose Treeko as my starter and for HM Surf, i get a gyarados or a Lotad!
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I chose torchic mostly and ended up with teaching an wingull surf.
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Zigzagoon was an excellent HM slave, so I taught that Surf. :p
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If I didn't have a water user that is capable of learning Surf (Because Surf is like the best HM ever), then I'd teach it to Zigzagoon. Easy to catch, encountered on the first few routes and no need to level it up or anything. Plus it comes equipped with Pickup which is simply fabulous for the rest of your game :P
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I always pick water starters and teach it HMs. I don't bother having a slave, I just spread out HMs evenly.
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Once I finally manage to get one, I always find myself teaching Wailmer/Wailord Surf, along with the other two Water-type HMs. If I don't have one though, I'll usually just end up using a stopgap like Lotad or Zigzagoon until I get one.
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I always pick Mudkip as my Hoenn starter, so Swampert would always end up learning Surf.
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My approach to this is actually pretty unique. I catch a Whiscash, a Walrein, and a Lanturn - all to be used as team members AND use HMs. It's a clever idea because each one has a different secondary type that makes it useful in battle situations. I did use a Swampert in my let's play, however.
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Surf's never been a problem, since I always have a water type (or dual water at least) somewhere on my team, and since water attacks are always special in Gen III and before, that water type always gets Surf anyway. Among others, I've used the Mudkip line, the Lotad line, Staryu/Starmie, Carvanha/Sharpedo, Tentacool/Tentacruel, and my absolute favorite, Milotic.
The problem is Waterfall and Dive, since they're just inferior to Surf. I usually ended up putting them (along with Surf) on a Wailord, since you need one to unlock the Regis anyway. |
Surf on a Swampert is pretty good with STAB so I usually used that, either that or Lotad or something I could fish easily that wasn't a freaking Magikarp
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Nabokov the Sharpedo was my surf user. Loved that pokemon, usually let him lead off when I battled.
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I choose Torchic then... my water type pokemon was Ludicolo or Sharpedo.
Finally, I used Kyogre xD |
When I was traveling the region, I counted on my switch in/switch out Pelipper to Surf me across. Otherwise, I had my Swampert or my Kingdra ferry me across the waves.
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Azumarill and Lanturn were my choices. i love those Pokemon <3
I still found it strange how Zigzagoon could learn surf O_O |
Well most of the time I used Wailmer or my starter Swampert.
But this time in my latest playthrough I chose Starmie it has great movesets really high Speciall Attack and Speed. :3 |
I almost always picked Treecko as my starter. My Water type would either be Whiscash or, later on when I could catch it, Walrein.
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I tend to go with water starters (especially in Hoenn), so I stuck Surf on my Swampert. If a starter isn't available, I generally find some other water-type that can take several water HMs at once (so that I don't have to carry around too many Pokémon).
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When I don't pick Mudkip (but Torchic instead because I don't like Treecko that much) I always use Walrein as my Water-type Pokemon :) I think Walrein is a great addition sonce it's part Ice-type too. Eventhough you can catch Spheal quite late in the game, you get a great Pokemon in return. Ofcourse I would teach Surf to my Walrein or Swampert :3
I would love to have Milotic as my all-time water Pokemon, but since Feebas are extremely hard to find, I go with the Walrein solution ;) |
My latest playthrough was a water monotype adventure and 3 of the 5 Pokémon on my team knew the move Surf. Surf was a convenient move that you could give out as many times as you wanted so I utilized it. Furthermore in Generation 3, STAB Surf is not a weak attack. I ended up teaching the move to Wingull, Ludicolo and Lantern.
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Choosing a water Pokemon is always one of the hardest decisions to make for me, because it's one of my favorite types. There are so many beautiful concepts, especially in RSE. After playing through multiple times with Swampert was my sole water-type, I chose Torchic as my starter and tried out Crawdaunt and then in another run of Emerald, Ludicolo. I've used others, but those are the main two that I remember using besides the Mudkip line.
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I always make sure I have Surf (and other needed HMs/moves) for exploring on my team. I do love the exploring aspect of the games. Especially Hoenn, I could spend plenty of time just looking around the map but try to resist xD
I once had to switch a team Pokemon out for a HM carrier, resulting in said team member with no HMs becoming under leveled. Shame more Pokemon can't learn surf, I try to put my personal favorite Pokes in my Teams. Sometimes this works nicely though, as this problem resulted in me having a soft spot for Wailmer, who I named Sailmer <3 |
If I started with Mudkip, then it'd get Surf. Otherwise my only option until I was actually out in the water was to use an HM Slave (namely Zigzagoon/Linoone) because none of the Water types I wanted were available pre-Surf. Even though I generally don't like having five team members + one HM Slave for long periods of time in unexplored areas, I think I've actually used an HM Slave--Wailmer/Wailord in particular--to traverse Hoenn's watery areas.
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If I'm playing Sapphire, there's three good Surfers available pretty much immediately in Mudkip, Wingull and Lotad. Sometimes I use all three at the same time, because none of them share any common weaknesses.
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I mostly choosed Mudkip as starter. Cause it was very strong. And i knew that when it will evolve to swampert it will be soo strong. Also cause Mudkip looks cute.
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Mudkip can definitely work. Its nice and powerful once it evolves and is only weak to grass as a swampert.
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I think in Hoenn I would put surf on Pelipper, Swampert, or Milotic. In fire red it would be Blastoise or Lapras (Maybe Nidoking)
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for a "utility" point of view, i always ended up designating an HM Slave. with RSE, i keep making Linoone my B***h with HMs. cut, rock smash, strength, surf. no matter how hard i try, i cant find a desirable water type that i actually like. it is a very difficult area for me to pick a water type. they are either too ugly, suck too much, too slow, or generally unappealing. so i go with a runner up, a normal type that can handle nearly anything.
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I almost exclusively chose the fire starter for pretty much every pokemon game on the first run through, so I generally had to find a water pokemon for surf. I usually tried to find a Gyarados, until I'd got far enough in the game (in Emerald) to get Kyogre and then taught that surf. I can't remember who I taught dive and waterfall to, but whoever it was they just stayed in the PC until I had need of them.
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Surf's a pretty good move. I definitely know it's got more accuracy then Muddy Water, so there's a positive thing about it. There were times where I didn't have a water type and I would end up using a Zigzagoon as a slave but still its such an amazing move <3
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My team has a lotad and lapras(traded from a firered) who both have surf
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My Whishcash knows Surf and uses it to take me all over Hoenn and destroy sandcastles on Slateports beach.
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I've done a few teams in which I have had the same problem.
The last few have been: Tentacruel Gyarados Wailord Walrein Wailord had surprised me, but there are no really great options. Shell Bell Wailord is really good for ingame. |
Oh, in Sapphire,
Swampert On Ruby, Didn't played XD Emerald, Wailord, killer :) |
I played Emerald and always choose Treeko, so preSurf i usually used zigzagoon/Tentacruel until I could get Milotic, my favorite pokemon ever <3
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Since I started out with Mudkip, normally people would think I would put Surf on a Swampert, but nope I did put Waterfall on it, however, I put Surf on Linoone (the somewhat HM slave)
:t354:TG |
Can't remember my very first run but I did have a Blaziken.
On a more recent run I used Sharpedo, so he got surf. |
Milotic is my favorite pokemon across all generations.
Though, I also have used Ludicolo, Walrein, and Gorebyss, but usually in addition to Milotic. |
My first Hoenn game was Emerald, in which I picked Mudkip. Having surf on my starter was wonderull for Hoenn. For Ruby and Sapphire I made sure to have Surf (and the other HMs needed for the entire game, but I always do this for my teams)
Exploration was very enjoyable in the Hoenn games, I always thought 'Kip was the best choice for all of the water traveling. Unless you pick Pelliper (wise choice, but I don't like him >_0 ) |
And have electric weakness? Hmmmmmmmm.
And have electric weakness? Hmmmmmm. |
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