5th Gen The Elemental Monkeys

The elemental monkeys. Received from a NPC in the Dreamyard, one of these monkeys joins your starter Pokemon in the fight against the Gym Leader in Striaton City.

Just how helpful are these Pokemon? Which one did you first use? Did you use all three of them in various play throughs?

I'm sure throughout my endless amount of plays of Black and White I used all three. Even used Pansage/Simisage in my first play of X.

Well, my favourite was Pansage, the others didn't appeal to me. especially Panpour.
But hey were useful for the first gym, but that was it for me, honestly

I absolutely and completely dislike them. Ugliest monkeys of all time. I get the designs. I get the purpose. I just don't get THEM. They're honestly one of the worst designs in the game. I love the rest of Unova, I've just never liked the monkeys, nor their evolutions. I didn't really like Cilan, Cress and Chili for that matter, either...

...but I did use Pansage. For like five minutes, then I boxed it. Didn't really provide much use to me, seemed more gimmicky if anything. They're six wastes of space - they could've filled the dex with so many more cooler Pokemon (let's steal a few from XY - Pumpkaboo's line, Talonflame's, etc - any of them would've been perfect).

tbh I grew to dislike them the more I was involved in the games. Compared to the rest of the mons they're pretty forgettable.

I get their purpose, but also don't, they're just completely unnecessary. GF dropping them for the most part in BW2 make me think they realize how forced they were. Having to go through Unova to fight these monkeys over and over again (doesn't help both your rivals had their own) didn't help much to win people over on them. They were everywhere. All they were useful for was a glorified type matchup tutorial, which...really isn't a concept that needed a whole gym battle for. Your rival picking the starter that has an advantage over yours is already a way more efficient way of get players to know the importance of type matchup.

But...I can't hate on Simisage. Not one bit. That pompadour man! I love it. Guy's a japanese high school delinquent and I can't hate on that. I've always wanted to use one and name him Takamura or Dandy.

They're "helpful" in the sense that if you haven't used much else besides your starter you kinda need them to beat the first gym. Afterwards though they lose their usefulness since there's better choices for their types later in the game, and not a crazy long time afterwards either. Black2/White2 they don't even matter since on top of the Gen 5 'mons there's all the other older 'mons that got added to the dex so you have even more choices to pick from.

I never really cared for them the first time I played White, and coming back to it 5 years later on my recent playthrough, I still don't care for them. I was never terribly fond of monkeys really.

The only time I used one was in Black. I got Pansear and used him to beat the first gym. I tried to keep him on my team but there were so many other fire types in Unova that were both cooler and stronger. Plus the monkeys designs are kind of funky.

The monkeys were just lame. Other than Simisage, their designs were mediocre, and they were greatly outclassed by so many other Pokemon of their types. They were basically useful for maybe the first gym and then got boxed for the rest of the game. Plus it was annoying having them popping up every-freaking-where throughout Unova. So many random trainers and even major trainers having them got old fast.

I don't find these monkeys entirely useless, since they are your main weapon for the Striaton Gym plus they get some useful moves via TMs later on. I can understand if they get outclassed by other Pokemon like Darmanitan, Chandelure, Jellicent, Lilligant and Whimsicott, they still have something to make them stand out.

The outclassing is more evident in B2/W2, but that's because you now get more options with the extended Pokedex.

Personally I find that the monkeys when evolved are pretty good for in game due to thier movepool and speed. The main issue in BW1 is that they are effectively dead weight untill lv31(at least you can reset for a +speed nature for dig/acro/ele move/filler)

In B2W2 they are much better placed outside nimbasa city. The only issue is that the 3 monkeys combined has the same encounter rate as emolga I think which means you can't really farm for a good nature unless you are willing to farm for days.

I chose oshawott and so, i received a a pansear at the dreamyard. It is now a lvl. 69 simisear and knows fire blast, crunch, flame burst and acrobatics and has helped a lot in my journey. But there is a problem with crunch. Even when i use it against much weaker (level 48) ghost type, it is super effective but is unable to reduce much of the opponent's hp. Does anyone know why is this happening ?

nishthelegendarytrainer said:

I chose oshawott and so, i received a a pansear at the dreamyard. It is now a lvl. 69 simisear and knows fire blast, crunch, flame burst and acrobatics and has helped a lot in my journey. But there is a problem with crunch. Even when i use it against much weaker (level 48) ghost type, it is super effective but is unable to reduce much of the opponent's hp. Does anyone know why is this happening ?

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Hard to determine that one. I would've assumed you had a nature that reduces physical attacks but you don't seem to have any problems with acrobatics. It might have been an especially bulky (in defence) ghost type? Or you've only faced defensively week grass types, therefore do have a nature that reduces attack power. It's a tough one.

Scratch that. You've never really had a use for acrobatics except against Fighting-types. Given that a lot of Fighting types are early on in the game you never really get a chance to try out Acrobatics because the fire moves are always going to be better (vs grass/bug). Therefore you most likely have a nature that reduces your attack stat, so Acrobatics would also be considerably weaker, much like Crunch is. You also most likely have low attack IVs as well (as high IVs would average out your attack power).

Still cool that you're using it til the end, most people tend to box it by then so good job!

Since I had Snivy in Pokemon White, I got Panpour. And I did use it. However, I never evolved it because I found Simipour too ugly back then (and I still do), and I ditched it immediately after getting my hands on a male Frillish.

That said, I only really like the Pansage line. The other two are insignificant, in my opinion.

Hmm, I did not think about that since, I started Pokemon White.

However I caught all 3 of them from the wild.

classiccartoonsftw said:

Since I had Snivy in Pokemon White, I got Panpour. And I did use it. However, I never evolved it because I found Simipour too ugly back then (and I still do), and I ditched it immediately after getting my hands on a male Frillish.

That said, I only really like the Pansage line. The other two are insignificant, in my opinion.

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Good idea to get rid of it. Frillish is much cooler anyway. You don't need to waste a Water Stone on it which you can keep for something better. :')

I actually hate that if you want to carry on with your monkey... you have to use a stone. Kinda sucks when they're so rare early on.

I didn't liked them at all, and I still don't really like them. In fact, I forget them.
I think I'm gonna play with one on Showdown, trying to change my idea about them, but they doesn't seem really good either. Gen 5 is probably my favorite and I did played the game so many times, and I never used one.
IF I have to choose one, I'l go with Pansear.

I love the elemental monkeys! I love all the base forms equally and while Simisear is one of my lesser favorites in Unova (still like it), I still like how they're somewhat inspired by three famous music stars.

I actually used Panpour on my first playthrough of Black and it did not disappoint me one bit. Panpour getting Scald at level 22 is amazing and my Simipour did some great things throughout my run on Black. Before I restarted the game, it's at level 92 I believe which shows how much I liked using it!

I do want to use Pansage in the future though since it's the only elemental monkey I have not used. Overall I love their designs and I personally do think their somewhat useful. Not the best Pokemon but they're tolerable (usefulness wise) in my opinion.

Not helpful at all IMO. I like Pansage and Simisage for their designs, but that's it. They were weak when I used them and tbh you can still beat Chili/Cilan/Cress using your starter.

I like them all. They were my favorite pokemon in the series. Panpour's evolution brought me good luck in the games. I read the pokemon horoscopes, and I liked Panpour's evolution more than the other monkeys. :) so cool. I love all these pokemon. They're the best in the series. I can't wait to play more.

Ci said:

I like them all. They were my favorite pokemon in the series. Panpour's evolution brought me good luck in the games. I read the pokemon horoscopes, and I liked Panpour's evolution more than the other monkeys. :) so cool. I love all these pokemon. They're the best in the series. I can't wait to play more.

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What about Simipour brought you good luck?

Mawa said:

I didn't liked them at all, and I still don't really like them. In fact, I forget them.
I think I'm gonna play with one on Showdown, trying to change my idea about them, but they doesn't seem really good either. Gen 5 is probably my favorite and I did played the game so many times, and I never used one.
IF I have to choose one, I'l go with Pansear.

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Honestly even back in the day only Simipour was used competitively iirc. Not sure about the others but they certainly weren't one of the best Pokémon competitively. So showdown probably won't help.