Worst Pokémon to use for playthroughs

[Sweet Serenity]

While I am aware of the Pokémon that can make playthroughs easier, in your experience, what Pokémon do you think are bad for a playthrough?

 

[Devalue]

Depends somewhat on the game. Will try to be general with a few specific examples.

• Pokemon with poor offensive stats. Consists of either very weak Pokemon (Luvdisc, Farfetch'd, Ledian, Unown) or those reliant on certain strategies that you may not get for most of the game (Smeargle). May not be entirely worthless (Ledian's early dual screens, as one). Does not make them good, though.
• Pokemon you cannot evolve / have very late evolutions. Examples: Clamperl, Karrablast + Shelmet, Vullaby, Rufflet, Swirlix, male Salandit, male Combee, and so on. Includes many psuedo-legendaries in this group. Finishes the game (or nearly) before their power spike. Varies by game sometimes too, such as no Leaf Stone until after the Elite Four in Gold/Silver and Crabrawler in normal Sun/Moon.
• Pokemon with terrible move pools. Afflicts earlier generations moreso. See: Hitmontop in Generation 2. Assuming no egg moves, enjoy Rock Smash and Triple Kick (level 49) for your Fighting moves. (Managed okay-ish with Headbutt. Could have done that with others, though.)
• Pokemon reliant on certain abilities that you cannot get. Looks at Diggersby with Huge Power as its hidden ability. Sticks several (but not all) Contrary Pokemon in this category. Balanced them around that (not to mention accessing those good Contrary moves in a timely manner).
• Pokemon bringing nothing new/good to the team. Pops up more in monotypes. Applies to normal playthroughs too. Imagine having a team of Breloom, Poliwrath, and Lucario. What value does Primeape add to the team? Does not help with the teamwide weakness. Covered Fighting moves already.

 

[ReKoil]

Shedinja is just painful to use. I tried it once, but so many trainers / wild Pokemon have coverage moves in Hoenn that it just kept dying over and over.
Slaking is too hindered by Truant and usually doesn't get more than 1 attack off.

Delibird is stuck with Present until level 25 at which point it learns it's only other move via level up: Drill Peck.
Delibird actually has slightly better Special Attack, though neither of it's attack stats are great.
If you wanna use one you'd need to either use TM's or get egg moves onto it, when there are usually better Ice and Flying types available in the games.

 

[Sheep]

I had massive struggles with Jumpluff, Ledian, and Delcatty in the gen 2 and 3 games. Base 65 Attack and 55 Special Attack for Delcatty was especially upsetting because it's a cute cat and I just...really wanted to be able to make it work. :X

 

[TwilightBlade]

I had massive struggles with Jumpluff, Ledian, and Delcatty in the gen 2 and 3 games. Base 65 Attack and 55 Special Attack for Delcatty was especially upsetting because it's a cute cat and I just...really wanted to be able to make it work. :X

Agreed that Delcatty is super cute, yet difficult to make work. Mine was useless in generation 3. In generation 4, I chained for a shiny Skitty, but in the post-game, it was severely outclassed.

I've used all kinds of Pokemon in various playthroughs, some better than others, but the worst that comes to mind is Zebstrika in generation 5. Its movepool is basically limited to Spark (underpowered), Flame Charge (underpowered and non STAB) and Wild Charge (does recoil damage).

 

[Palamon]

Any Pokemon with low base stats are pretty difficult to use, which would make them the worst, in my opinion, but really, any Pokemon can work if you train them.

 

[Corveone]

Those with awful stats for a final stage + lack of great move pool/Abilities to make up for it. They can be helpful in the early-game but eventually become dead weight and easily overshadowed. Some are worth it or not depending on which of its Abilities they have. Some might work great but only if you have access to specific egg moves or TMs.

Extremely defensive Pokémon that are amazing at tanking hits, but take forever to defeat anything on their own. The games allways encouraged a more direct and aggressive approach, so Pokémon that just make battles drag for longer for no good reason are usually not worth it for a regular playthrough.

Those that are very strong but are too hard to find and raise, take long to learn the good stuff, and evolve at too high levels, remaining in an underwhelming early stage for most of the adventure. All that extra power that awakens at the very end with their final stage isn't really necessary for the in-game, as many other far more accessible and reliable Pokémon can perform much more consistently and keep up the pace through an entire playthrough.

 

[Adam Levine]

I've always held the belief that it's hard to make "support Pokémon" work in a regular playthrough. If you're going for strategies that rely mainly on status moves, it makes it much more difficult to train them by virtue of them not being able to land the killing blow often, forcing them to share experience and making them underleveled, and thus less bulky and/or slower and less able to make use of their support. That said, moves like Substitute and Encore can really mess with trainer AI, so they're not complete deadweight.

FlygonHG's HeartGold nuzlocke where he uses only Smeargle has also proven to me that the poor dog requires a PhD to use effectively.

 

[Drayton]

* Going with a pokemon with a lack of coverage or too many weaknesses I tend to avoid that all the time
* Rat/Mouse pokemon where based on the region too, either that be your ratta but differs to the region not really worth a team slot (Pikachu clones are fine, mostly)
* Pokemon that goes to stage 1, but stage 2 requires trading when there's no friend or you can't go online even finding online to trust people returning pokemon back
* Any pokemon evolve thru friendship bit of hindrance
* Psuedo, really slow to evolve them and it takes lot of time, not going to bother

 

[tiagosilva11]

Rattata's line is actually quite useful. Raticate with Hyper Fang and Guts destroys a lot of pokemons.

 

[GuilhermeAlb]

The Hoppip line sucks a lot in Gen 2, and I bet it does in HGSS too. Those guys just don't get enough damaging moves that are actually useful.
Altaria in Gen 3 is kinda hard to use because of it's evolution level, and horrible pre-evo.
Onix sucks. No, that's it, Onix sucks on every conceivable instance.
Farfetch'd is underwhelming, specially compared to the other flying types in Kanto.
Early game bugs suck as well, but that's more so by design. Still, I don't think Beedrill has ever been a good Pokémon to use before Gen 6.

 

[mothman]

lopunny in gen 4 wasn't really fun to use in-game. poor attack stats is already bad enough, but klutz is also one of the worst abilities ever. still an adorable mon though

 

[Hashimi]

Shedinja's the best answer to this question. Any other Pokémon, if picked with good nature and selected movepool can actually be useful somehow.
However I did try Pachirisu once and admit it was kind of bad because of its awful stats, but nowhere near as bad as Shedinja.

 

[Janp]

As someone, who loves to take "bad" Pokémon and do a solo Nuzlocke with them, I have to say that the worst Pokémon are the ones that you don't enjoy using.

 

[Adamabbafan]

These are some of the Pokemon teams I have used in the games on later playthroughs

Ruby

Sceptile
Pelipper
Minun
Camerupt
Dusclops
Dustox

Sapphire

Blaziken
Tropius
Plusle
Whiscash
Banette
Beautifly

Emerald (Not done a worse team playthrough)

FireRed

Venusaur
Dodrio
Electrode
Seaking
Flareon
Beedrill

LeafGreen

Charizard
Magneton
Victreebel
Starmie
Mr. Mime
Butterfree

Colosseum

Espeon
Skarmory
Piloswine
Heracross
Octillery
Granbull

XD: Gale of Darkness

Flareon
Xatu
Electabuzz
Mightyena
Cloyster
Tangela

Diamond

Torterra
Chatot
Pachirisu
Lumineon
Rampardos
Skuntank

Pearl

Infernape
Crobat
Bibarel
Carnivine
Bastidon
Purugly

Platinum (Not done a worst team playthrough)

 

[Adamabbafan]

These are some of the Pokemon teams I have used in the games on later playthroughs

Ruby

Sceptile
Pelipper
Minun
Camerupt
Dusclops
Dustox

Sapphire

Blaziken
Tropius
Plusle
Whiscash
Banette
Beautifly

Emerald (Not done a worse team playthrough)

FireRed

Venusaur
Dodrio
Electrode
Seaking
Flareon
Beedrill

LeafGreen

Charizard
Magneton
Victreebel
Starmie
Mr. Mime
Butterfree

Colosseum

Espeon
Skarmory
Piloswine
Heracross
Octillery
Granbull

XD: Gale of Darkness

Flareon
Xatu
Electabuzz
Mightyena
Cloyster
Tangela

Diamond

Torterra
Chatot
Pachirisu
Lumineon
Rampardos
Skuntank

Pearl

Infernape
Crobat
Bibarel
Carnivine
Bastidon
Purugly

Platinum (Not done a worst team playthrough)

HeartGold

Typhlosion
Xatu
Lanturn
Ledian
Sunflora
Dunsparce

SoulSilver

Meganium
Crobat
Ursaring
Forretress
Corsola
Wobbuffet

Black, White, Black 2 & White 2 (Not done a worst team playthrough)
X, Y, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire (Not done a worst team playthrough)
Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon (Not done a worst team playthrough)
Let's Go Pikachu & Let's Go Eevee (Not done a worst team playthrough)

Sword

Rillaboom
Cramorant
Arctozolt
Grapploct
Copperajah
Centiskorch

Shield

Cinderace
Unfezant (Female)
Boltund
Greedent
Indeedee
Drednaw

Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl (Not done a worst team playthrough)

Legends Arceus

Decidueye (Hisuian)
Overqwil (Alpha)
Electrode (Hisuian)
Lopunny (Alpha)
Drifblim (Alpha)
Mamoswine (Alpha)

Scarlet & Violet (Not done a worst team playthrough)