1st Gen best/ worst gen moves

[VisionofMilotic]

What are some moves from gen 1 that were really good back in the day, and may be good even still be good.

Some classics that come to my mind that i think most of us love and use are psychic, earthquake, thunderbolt, flamethrower, recover, surf, sword's dance, toxic and ice beam. At least I'm grateful that these moves exist to teach my mons!!

I remember blizzard being awesome in it's debut gen, when it was a whopping 90% accurate, instead of 70% now, so definitely worth going for that 110 base power move with the chance to freeze Pokemon permanently. It's still great in hail though, and valuable on specific mons that can change weather conditions like Alolan Ninetales.

Amnesia was OP in gen 1, it's still pretty alright now as a defensive move, but with special being 1 stat it was amazing back then to have a drastic rise to both the sp attack and sp defense at once.

This is all part of the good legacy gen 1 left behind. What about the really bad moves that gen 1 gave us? Gotta take the bitter with the sweet.

Leech life was very weak for several generations until gen 7 when it's base power was bumped. Focus energy was not useable because it did the opposite of what it was supposed to do, dramatically lowering your crit hit ratio, instead of raising it. Splash for obvious reasons was bad. Whirlwind also did nothing in trainer battles in gen 1, though you can phase with it now. Cut was bad then like it is now, low base power normal move, but worse in gen 1 because it couldn't be deleted, like all hm moves.

What are the moves that are the most memorable to you for better or for worse?

I am thinking of making this topic a series for all previous generations i.e best and worst of gen 2, 3 and so-on. Should we?

 

[SerperiorSlash]

Waterfall is a fairly strong move, but it's useful on Gyarados and that's about it.

High Jump Kick still sees plenty of competitive use, and I would be lying if I said I didn't keep Smokescreen/Sand Attack throughout entire playthroughs.

I cannot, however, conclude this post without a few of generation 1's most honorable mentions:
- Blizzard
- Fire Blast
- Thunder

These moves have seen nerfs with following generations for the sake of balancing, which are frankly fairly self-explanatory. However, with the addition of weather affects in generation 2, these moves have, again, been sufficiently buffed.

Blizzard now bypasses accuracy checks during hail, which is also true for Thunder in rain. Fire Blast... has 85% accuracy to compensate?

Bit of a tangent here, but I would be lying if I said I haven't totally swept 6 Pokemon with a Primal Kyogre running Thunder.

 

[Sheep]

Dig was really good in gen 1 - 100 base power was no joke. It's still good now, but doesn't have the same base power anymore of course. I didn't use it much once I got Earthquake, but it was so helpful on Diglett in wrecking the Electric gym if I ever got stuck. 👍 Meanwhile Rage was absolutely terrible. Awfully weak and you were locked into using it. Ugh. :x

I am thinking of making this topic a series for all previous generations i.e best and worst of gen 2, 3 and so-on. Should we?

I definitely don't see why not! Though I feel like gen 1 had the most glaring problems with moves and it might be easier to find responses for this generation than others?

 

[ReKoil]

I've honestly never cared much for stat raising moves like Swords Dance.
Also never really use status moves... outside of yawn if that counts as a status move.

When I play through a Pokemon game I'm perfectly fine with 4 attacking moves or 3 attacking moves and a healing move.
Blizzard is a no-brainer on mons that have an ability that summon hail when entering. My Abomasnow in BDSP loved to spam it =3

Anyway, Psychic, Earthquake & Ice Beam are the ones that came to mind first and are already mentioned.

As for worst moves.... multi hit moves. Without Skill link they are just too unreliable and I never teach them to my mons xD
So like... Fury Swipes for example. Hard pass without Skill Link. And since gen 1 didn't have abilities yet.... yeah.

 

[Megan]

Twineedle was a good move due to Bug being strong against Poison types. Gen 1 has a lot of Poison types, and a lot of them are Grass Types, as well.
Unfortunately, that move is exclusive to Beedrill. That move alone makes Beedrill a lot better than you'd think.

In general Bug Type moves are pretty good in gen 1. It's just the lack of variety/distribution that really hurts them.

Waterfall is a fairly strong move, but it's useful on Gyarados and that's about it.

The main issue with Waterfall in Gen 1 is that unless you trade something from Gen 2 the only Pokemon who get the move are Goldeen and Golking. But by the time you get access to the move Surf should also be available. So you have even less of a reason to run it.