2nd Gen Considering a straightforward way to go through the whole series. Need advice.

[Superrpgman]

Ok, so it's like this. With the exception to the HeartGold and SoulSilver, and Black and White, I have access to every main series(As in the non card game/roguelikes/Pinball etc games) pokemon handheld title.

Unfortunately, I've only beaten Blue and Yellow. The reason is simple.

I'm not actually all that big on the whole meta gaming thing. I could care less about trying to get every pokemon. PVP also doesn't interest me in the slightest. I keep trying to get into them, and I burn out about several hours into each game.

What I simply want to do is go through each game(And I mean every game. Both Red and Blue, as well as Yellow; Gold and Silver, as well as Crystal. ANd even Leaf Green and Fire Red and etc.)where I focus on 6 (or less) specific pokemon, which will carry me through the whole game. The pokemon need to be ones where I can get at say...around 1/3 or so into the game. I still want to go through every area in each game(this is absolutely NOT a speed run. I plan to fight every pokemon trainer and etc, but I have no desire to grind that much, if at all.) but only have to worry about 6 (or less) specific pokemon.

I'll probably use Garydos in every game most likely, as well as Kadabra in at least Blue Red and Yellow, but it's very important to me that if I'm going to be using a pokemon that will become spectacular like Abra and Magikarp, I don't want to use them if I don't get access to them until way late into the game(So for example, no Safari Zone only pokemon in Red, Green, and Blue, and no Legendary Birds etc.)

Anyways, here's what I want. I'd like suggestions for which pokemon you think I should use. Please list them, and perhaps a sentence or 2 explaining why you think I should choose them.

I imagine most people will want to list pokemon from this board's game alone, and that's fine and, but feel free to list those from other games as well.

Anyways, I think that covers everything, but if you have more questions. Looking forward to seeing replies.

Oh, and let me make this very clear. I am not doing any transferring of pokemon from other games. Again, meta gaming doesn't interest me. I just want to actually go through each of these games. I've had them for years, and I want to actually finish them all.

Thank you for your time.

 

[gvgisdi]

In FR/LG Charmander learns Metal Claw at 13th level and it's much easier to battle Brock when you've got it.

 

[Superrpgman]

Way to go Oddity! That's EXACTLY what I'm looking for. Thanks!

If you come up with more, please share.

 

[mondays suck]

RB:
Charmander - Oaks Lab - Can hold its own against pretty much everything
All of the starters will do. I personally prefer Bulbasaur because of my Leech Seed addiction.
Pidgey - North of Pallet Town - A reliable and strong flying type
Spearow. West of Viridian. Better than Pidgey in almost every situation.
Clefairy - Mt Moon - Teach it Mega Punch, Bubble Beam, Thunder Wave and Thunderbolt and nothing will be able to stop you. Use Moon Stone on it ASAP; you won't need any of its "Clefairy moves" IMO
Mega Punch is no long term solution, it's too inaccurate. How about Ice Beam instead? Or Strength, if you want to give Ice Beam to Gyara instead? Also, Bubble Beam is good early on, but as soon as possible, Surf>it.
Alternatively, Nidoking or Queen (also west of Virid.) would do as well. They can learn Earthquake, too, which is probably the best attack in the game.
Abra - North of Cerulean City - Tough to get but well worth it; you'll need to piggyback it until Lv. 16 though. You'll need to grind a lot.
Psychic types are unfairly overpowered in this game and you should feel terrible for wanting to use one

Magikarp - From the Pokémon Center salesman at the foot of Mt. Moon - Warning for grinding until Lv. 20-ish, and it grows slowly.
... or just wait until you get a better rod south of Lavender or in Fuschia and catch a higher level one.
Paras - Mt. Moon - believe it or not. Spore and a huge Attack stat and add bulkiness to it. It's awesome.
I don't value Paras that highly, since it's slow and vulnerable to many types. But it has its uses, yes.

You'll go through hell with Brock though, but it's worth it.
Growl+Ember usually do the job. If you pick Charmander, level 13 and a Potion or two should suffice.
That's the one I've got for the moment.

EDIT: BTW, Nidoking is great too.
Didn't see that before now. But I can only agree.

Gold/Silver:

Cyndaquil - Oak's Lab - Versatile and can learn Thunderpunch and Earthquake. Can hold it's own against just about anything.
Problem is, it doesn't learn a lot beyond Fire, Normal and that one Electric moves. When going for the easiest way, I'd pick Totodile since it does better the usually pretty hard third and fourth gyms.
Mareep - South of Violet City - Learns a lot of elemental punches which you can get at the Goldenrod market for a ridiculously cheap price - later on you can also buy the stronger Elemental Beams from some guy near the same city's casino who only is there on sundays. They are expensive as hell though, usually hardly worth getting. Sadly. and has high Speed and Special.
Mareep is pretty good, yes
Wooper - South of Violet City (night only) - Strong and with great defences and an unique typing. You can't go wrong with it. Earthquake, Surf, Blizzard and Haze are good moves for it.
Good choice if you pick and keep the Fire or Grass starter. Why no Ice moves though, Ice Punch/Beam>Haze. Haze most likely isn't going to see a lot of use.
As a Ground type, you also could use Geodude who comes with two great offensive types and, if you know whom to avoid, nice durability. It even learns Earthquake by itself!
Abra - Route 5, 6, 8, 24, 25, 34, 35 - Can also learn elemental Punches, Psychic and Recover. A must have.
Even more overpowered than in RBY

Aside from that, Recover doesn't make a lot of sense for Abra, it's too frail.
Heracross - Headbutt special trees in early routes - Strong and a must have against Dark types. Only Bug/Fighting there is. Megahorn, fighting moves etc.
The exception to the rule that bug types look awesome, but pretty strong, yes.
Pidgey - Daytime west of New Bark Town - Strong and reliable, with a stronger Wing Attack than in RBY, even more useful now.
True. In this generation, Spearow only is better until level 9 and after level ~40, where it gets Drill Peck, the best Flying move in the game which Pidgey lacks access to.
In Crystal you can't get Mareep, so you'll have to do with...:
Bellsprout - Around Violet City - Sleep Powder, Razor Leaf etc. makes it very useful. Higher Speed and Sp. Attack but lower Defences.
If you reeeeally want an electric type you can go two ways:
Agreed. I love these things. Only problem is that they won't get a decent grass move, until level 42 and have to stick with the weak and low-PP Vine Whip until then. A good alternative would be Oddish from the Forest west of Azalea. Slower and slightly worse offensively, but sturdier. Or just pick my personal favorite Hoppip->Jumpluff (south of Violet during morning and or day in GS, first or second route, same time in C). It's kind of Magikarp-ish for a while, but eventually will become an annoyance god. All it needs are Leech Seed, Sleep Powder, some fillers, I usually pick Mega Drain and Return (which you can get as a gift in Goldenrod market on Sundays if one of your Pokemon has high happiness) or Headbutt
Nidoran (M) - North of Goldenrod City - Teach it Thunderpunch, Earthquake, Ice Punch and Sludge Bomb. It's fast and offensively strong, and can take a beating. He can substitute an electric type and other types as well. VEEEERY useful. Even more than Wooper. Can only learn punches when it has evolved to Nidoking, so you'll have to wait for your mom to buy you a Moon Stone, so let her save money for you!
Always an excellent choice. Never let that mother safe money and mostly waste it for dolls and trash though. You can get a Moonstone in the Tohjo Falls east of New Bark Town, which are accessible as soon as you get Surf.
Magnemite - West of Ecruteak City - It's a little later into the game but if you really want both a Steel and Electric type he's the way to go.
Problem here: You're stuck with the relatively weak Thundershock unless you feel like spending 200.000 (?) money learning Thunderbolt. A better option for an Electric type would be Chinchou->Lanturn (fish with good rod on the docks in Olivine). Not only is El./Water an excellent type combination both offensively and defensively (here it's worse than Magnemite though), it also simply gets better moves. Spark and Surf alone make it a beast.

Just cut the chase short and choose Nidoran (M)... that's what I did. Nidoran F isn't too bad either. The only real differences are slightly more defense-orientated stats and access to Body Slam if evolved early. While N'queen won't be using Body Slam as much as, say, Meganium who has a pretty limited movepool, it's still pretty good especially until you get the strong Sludge Bomb and EQ TMs.

I know this is the RBYGSC forum, but since you're going to play one of RSE as well, here are my suggestions:

As a starter, Mudkip. It's basically an all-around better Wooper/Quagsire. It has everything. Except the abilility to take hits from Grass moves, but you aren't going to see a whole lot of them anyway. Like in GSC, the third and fourth gym are usually pretty problematic, but much less so with Mudkip. Give it Water, Ground and Ice moves and something else. Torchic is less trustworthy all-around, but has a good offensive typing which can also be helpful. Especially in RS, less so in E.
Don't pick Treecko, it's trash compared to the other two. Maybe only below-average compared to other Pokemon, but still.

I know you like Abra, but here, I suggest picking Ralts instead (rare on Oldale-Petalburg route). While Abra used to be overpowered, here it's a shadow of its former self while the Ralts line simply has access to a wider array of moves.

If you want a bird, it's not as easy as it used to be this time. Taillow (east of Rustboro, rarely also south of it) is offensively strong, but only offensively. Zubat (cave near Dewford) is better than it ever was, it gets the strong Wing Attack pretty early in this generation. Also can learn Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb now. Or you could wait for Skarmory (Spinda route quite a bit north of Mauville, rare), who has an excellent typing and good all-around stats, especially physical defense. Zubat is probably the best pick here though.

Good allrounders are rare in this game, but there is Whismur (east of Rustboro). It's no Nidoking, but it's the closest thing you can get relatively early. Can learn almost anything. Unfortunately, it reaches its final form extremely late. You can buy the Elemental Beams this thing is going to want to learn in Mauville.
Also, this thing's signature move, Hyper Voice, is very strong, unfortunately I'm pretty sure it comes extremely late.

Every team in RSE should have a Zigzagoon, while it's weak it will regularly generate free items and can learn trashy HMs like Cut or Rock Smash. Including Nuggets, which help financing Elemental Beams. If possible, leave more slots open for extra Zigzagoons. And even if you don't, as long as your team isn't fully assembled yet, fill your party with Zigzagoons. Regularly check them for new items. It's worth it.

If I've been counting correctly, there is still one open slot, good options here could be something like Machop (inside or near the volcano south of Mauville, I'm not too sure) which is a kinda boring pick, but Fighting moves are something you'll want to have on your team in RSE. Unfortunately it doesn't get a lot of other things. Lotad (same route as Ralts, not available in S) is has an unique and interesting typing, Grass/Water. If you pick Torchic, use it, even if you don't consider it. Leech Seed, Surf and a few fillers like, say, Stun Spore or Mega Drain. Aron has 4x weaknesses to both Ground and Fighting, but if you can avoid these and maybe Water, it's almost never going to die. If you don't pick Zubat as your Flyer, the poison types Grimer, Koffing (both are in the volcano north of Mauville) or Gulpin (north of Slateport) are worth considering. All three are sturdy and learn almost as many things as Whismur. Of course, this means, they could take its place instead of this sixth one, too.


FRLG are obviously pretty similar to RBY, a notable difference is that Butterfree is way stronger than it used to be. With its new special ability, Compoundeyes, it gets a 97% accurate Sleep Powder. The other moves could be something like Psychic, Giga Drain and Dream Eater. Meanwhile, the Nidos and Clefable are weaker because most good TMs are far harder too access than in RBY. Zubat is closer to old Zubat than to the strong RSE Zubat. Spearow and Pidgey are not a lot different from how they were in GSC. Brock is harder because he now actually has Rock moves and Misty now has Water Pulse instead of Bubble Beam which inflicts Confusion while being only slightly weaker. So, picking Charmander is not what I'd advise here, while Charizard is probably more useful than the other two final starter forms, the lots and lots of early trouble and extra grinding are hardly worth it.

And the last one, DPPt...

Always using your starter is pretty boring, but in this generations, the starters are pretty damn good. After two generations of weak grass starters, we have Turtwig, who becomes Grass/Ground and gets Earthquake early on. As a Grass move, Razor Leaf or Wood Hammer are pretty good. Leech Seed has always been awesome. Crunch is great for coverage. Curse can improve its impressive physical stats even more. Rock Slide should be another offensive option, but you'll probably want it on something that needs it more. Chimchar, while a pretty obvious Torchic clone gameplay-wise, is a pretty damn strong Torchic clone. Works similarly: A Fire move, a Fighting move and some fillers. Only Piplup, while it becomes Water/Steel later on, I wouldn't advise on using, if only because you can have...

Magikarp-> Gyarados. (you get the Old Rod somewhere in Jubilife, which is pretty early in the game) After having been relatively trashy for two generations, the secret god of all Pokemon is back! Finally it can make use of its wonderful Attack stat again and ignore its pathetic SpAttack. Waterfall (and before you can get it, the slightly worse Aqua Tail), Crunch, Ice Fang, Dragon Dance, wonderful. Optionally Earthquake, it's always difficult to decide whom to teach it. Maybe it can learn Rock Slide as well, I'm not too sure here.

Since you're probably going to want a bird again, the common Starly is excellent, probably the best. Early Wing Attack, high attack stat, and a lot of high-damage moves with some kind of penalty, like Double Edge, Brave Bird and Close Combat (a Fighting move, this means you won't need a Machop). Dies quickly, but does a lot of damage. Zubat is not too shabby either, although probably not quite as good as in RSE. Neither of which are particularly difficult to find.
An interesting option is Chatot (trade for Buizel in Eterna city), who is weaker long-term but a special, not a physical attacker. Hoothoot still sucks, but you could use one for the trashy Defog HM. Or just use moves like Aerial Ace in foggy areas, which will give you a huge edge in battles.

And then there is Gastly (Eterna Forest at night or the Haunted Mansion). Better than Abra both in FRLG and here. Gets lots of good moves such as Shadow Ball (doesn't even need a TM), Psychic and Thunderbolt (money is easily farmable in these games!). Sludge Bomb, too. Hypnosis and Dream Eater are possibilities, but this thing is more of a pure attacker. Excellent stats. Worth it. Despite the face you won't be able to get the good Grass-type move Energy Ball for this thing because it comes too late in the game, after the Elite 4..

Because the game is notorious for an extremely nasty Dragon type the champion uses, we are going to want Ice. Gyara can get Ice Fang, but I'm not sure if that'll suffice. Sneasel comes late in the game, but is fast and powerful. It gets Ice Shard, an Ice-typed Quick Attack (pretty late though). Another option would be Bronzor (under the cycling road). Not Ice, but extremely hard to kill and learns a lot of annoying moves. Make sure it gets the Levitate ability. Since it's slow, Gyro Ball which becomes more powerful when used by slow Pokemon is a good option. With Toxic or Hypnosis (whichever you prefer, I personally would pick Toxic) and maybe even Confuse Ray it can help the team by inflicting status conditions. Lowering the enemy's accuracy is always both fun and helpful in tough battles, so we should consider Flash. Psychic, Extrasensory, Earthquake, Rock Slide - lots of other possibilities, too. No Ice, unfortunately.

On the last slot, use a Bibarel (extremely common). There are more crappy HMs in this game than there ever have been. Bibarel can learn almost all of them. It doesn't have Zigzagoon's Pickup ability (which exists in DPPt, but is significantly weaker - it now depends on levels), but it still has its uses.


The RBYGSC nitpicks are probably nonsense, but suggestions for the rest can't be bad, right?

Edit: HOLY CRAP, HOW DID THIS BECOME SO HUGE? Everyone who reads all of it gets a virtual box of cookies :p

 

[Sydian]

Use a Q&A thread in the appropriate sections for the games you need help with, and the in-game team help forum for when you've gathered a team. Thanks.

Locked.