1st Gen Lapras used Surf!

"A Pokémon that has been overhunted almost to extinction. It can ferry people across the water."​

During your trek in Silph.Co, you save an employee from Team Rocket. After victory, you obtain the one and only Lapras! It's a pretty good tank, with solid defences and an amazing HP base stat. Unfortunately, it's given to you at level 15, so it may have to play catch up before it can truly assist your team. What did you think of Lapras? Do you think it's a good Pokémon? Did you ever end up using it on your team? Discuss!

I actually sorta prefer the Gen1!Lapras, as you said it looks more intimidating and actually like well...a monster XD I plan to use one in Red or Blue, haven't decided which one yet.

I've never used Lapras for a few reasons being
- I usually choose squirtle in the beginning
- It's late in the game to finally get a water type
- If I don't choose blastoise, I always end up wanting to use vaporeon
- It's always lower leveled than the rest of my team

Blastoise for role play...

zeostar said:

I've never used Lapras for a few reasons being
- I usually choose squirtle in the beginning
- It's late in the game to finally get a water type
- If I don't choose blastoise, I always end up wanting to use vaporeon
- It's always lower leveled than the rest of my team

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That's essentially what happens with me. Most of my runs are done with Squirtle or Charmander, so whenever I didn't use Squirtle, I'd end up getting another good water type such as Gyarados or Vaporeon earlier on in the game. It's a shame you obtain it at such a low level, as it's actually a really solid Water type. (I have used one in a Red run which was transferred from Blue.)

Radiating said:

That's essentially what happens with me. Most of my runs are done with Squirtle or Charmander, so whenever I didn't use Squirtle, I'd end up getting another good water type such as Gyarados or Vaporeon earlier on in the game. It's a shame you obtain it at such a low level, as it's actually a really solid Water type. (I have used one in a Red run which was transferred from Blue.)

Click to expand...

It's fixed a little in FireRed/LeafGreen, the added post game makes up for the fact is comes so late.

I also never liked how late in the game we got it. I already had an attachment to whatever 'mons I had on my team at the time. :c

I'm fortunate enough to where I have Pokemon Yellow and get all 3 Kanto Starters as opposed to having to pick one and only one to use for the entire game. However, despite Squirtle or Blastioise's versatility and power later in the game, Lapras has an edge over Blastoise in the following respect: Its part Ice Type. As such it learns Ice moves naturally, something that Blastoise does not and it learns Ice Beam relatively early too(level 38). Cloyster doesn't learn it until level 50 as a Shellder(same deal with Seel and Dewgong) and Vaporeon learns Aurora Beam at level 36 but not the stronger Ice Beam or Blizzard for that matter.

If you exclude the Legendary Bird Articuno, Lapras is without a doubt, the strongest Water/Ice Type in the game and rivals Blastoise in terms of power. The only knock on it, if it has one, is that its Speed could be better. However, if you want a balanced Pokemon with a Healthy Life stat, look no further than Lapras.

When I do a typical playthrough on Yellow, I honestly make the time to grind and level up Lapras to use for my team. It pays off later on in the game against Blaine, Giovanni and more importantly the Elite 4 where Lapras can essentially solo Lance's Dragons. The only problem with Lapras is that its a real grind to say the least thanks to it being in the Slow XP group.

My final Yellow Team typically is the following:

Pikachu: Electric
Charizard: Fire/Flying with Fly!! Yellow exclusive!
Venusaur: Grass/Poison
Lapras: Water/Ice
Sandslash: Ground
Flex Pokemon: Typically Butterfree due to early game and the fact it learns Psychic moves. Also been known to go with Snorlax since its a glutton for punishment or Dragonite because... why not?

I'm pretty sure I've used Lapras a few times, yeah! It's really strong and reliable!

I do agree that level 15 is a bit unnecessarily-low for when you obtain it... something like even level 30 would've been better to make it more immediately-usable, but I'm also not super bothered by party members coming kinda underleveled if it makes sense for them to in-universe.

Oooh boy... Lapras. One of my favourites from Gen 1!
Of course I ended up using it on my team, I think it's a strong water type Pokemon!
I obtained it at lvl 25 because I played LeafGreen so training was made a bit faster and easier.

I remember noticing that it was an Ice-type, getting really excited, and really treasuring it on my team because of how rare and cool Ice-types were.

I've never really used Lapras, tbh. I always had another water type by the time I got to Silph Co, and any time I have used it, I wasn't very impressed with it. I think I liked using it better in Pokemon Stadium than RBY.

Agree with above

Lapras might just be my favorite Pokemon. In playing Silver and now Red on the 3ds, I've used Lapras on both of my teams and I love this Pokemon. Besides defense and speed Lapras beats Blastoise in everything. You could say it gets a fighting weakness but it also gets STAB from Ice Beam and can learn Thunderbolt and Psychic. A Lapras/Venusaur/Snorlax combo Gen 1 can be scary.