Magikarp Ownd
Do you know who ate all the donuts?
Okay, so as some may have noticed, some may have not, I have decreased in activity lately. Mainly because a lot of things going on lately like school, sports, and actually playing video games. My activity will pick up soon, but right now I have a lot to do, especially with soccer starting and Black and White being released. So if anybody was wondering if I inter-died, there is your answer. But this is not what I wanted to talk about.
So, lately I have done a few things, the first being that I played in a few release tournaments, started on the actual story mode, and experimented with a few Pokes.
I wanted to post a little guide to some of the Pokemon that will be useful in game. From my experience and other player's experiences, I have made a list of Pokemon that are found within Unova that will be worth looking at to add to your team. Some people might already be half way through the game, so hopefully there are some people who can get use from this.
--
The Starters
Snivy
The reason I started with Snivy , is to stress the difficulty it will bring to use compared to other starters. Snivy has an interesting stat distribution that doesn't really make it bad in a particular aspect, but not extraordinary in one either. It is built like a wall with a solid speed stat, but honestly, it's attack stats are mediocre, which really makes it's usability suffer. In game battles are more fast paced than wifi battles, so walls are usually not very practical, especially when the Pokemon you are trying to wall is sometimes a lot higher level. But, what about it's movepool? The answer to that question would be: Extremely horrid. Snivy and it's evolutions learn only Normal and Grass type attacking moves. It's sad to see the brilliant boosting moves it can learn go to waste on a moveset that won't go deeper than Leaf Storm / Leaf Blade and [Normal Type move]. If you do happen to choose Snivy, you will have to play him with team psnergy. Bad match ups could be trouble, and without team support, Snivy and evolutions are walled / counter walled easily. In the correct environment though, Snivy could play as a great Pokemon.
Tepig
Tepig, on the other hand, is a much easier play through. It gets great move diversity early, and if you get Grass Knot, it can cover most of it's weaknesses as early as level 17. The only downfall to it's movepool, however, is that the quality of it's fighting type moves aren't that of, say, Chimchar. It will have no access to the all powerful Close Combat. It's stats are fairly respectable, which is expected of a starter Pokemon. Unlike Snivy, Tepig is perfectly capable of performing on it's own because of it's solid stat spread that compliments it's diverse movepool. This means that you can create your team more loosely without need of support. And hey, you get to have a Pokemon nicknamed Pork Chop, lol.
Oshawott
In my opinion, Oshawott is the most relaible in game out of the three starters. It has the same diversity of movepool as Tepig, and access to very strong STAB moves early in the game. In particular, Razor Shell (learned at level 17) is a great move relative to how early it can learn it. As early as the first or second gym, Razor Shell offers power and accuracy similar to Waterfall, which most water types only have access to late game. Not only that, but Oshawott can learn a plethora of useful moves - Grass Knot, Dig, Retalliate, Surf, Waterfall, Strength, Revenge - and it has the stat distribution to complete the picture of a mixed sweeper. Overall, Oshawott and evolutions are going to be a useful part of your team in early game and onward if you choose them.
Gift Pokemon
Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour
The elemental monkeys can be a good edition to your team, depending on which one you get. Pansage got the Snivy treatment, so if you chose Tepig, it might be of little use after the early game. The other two are useful to about mid game, whenever better Options for your team open up and more powerful trainers start appearing. All can learn Grass Knot, Thief, Cheer Up, Rock Smash, and Dig, which are early game TMs. They also have decent stats for what they are meant to do, with decent defenses and above average attack stats and speed. If you are having trouble with your rival's starter Pokemon, you can pick one of these up to make things a bit easier whenever other options are limited. Note that, you will have the option to evolve them via evolutionary stone received in the town that contains the third gym leader, but after they evolve, they won't learn any more moves, so keep that in mind. After early game, they start to struggle when bigger and better Pokemon start appearing in battles.
Tirtouga and Carracosta
Tirtouga is obtained by talking to a man in Relic Castle and asking for the Cover Fossil. Tirtouga is a decent wall if you are needing one, having base 103 Defense. It has equally decent moves once recovered from the fossil; It has Crunch, Aqua Jet, Wide Guard and Ancient Power. It learns Brine just a few levels later, but know that it's Special Attack is not as good as it's regular Attack, so Brine might only be doing as much damage as Aqua Jet already does, without priority. The two abilities it can have are excellent, one protecting it from OHKO's, and the other protecting it from Super Effective attacks. Once it evolves at Level 37, it will have it's base Defense boosted from 103 to 133 as Carracosta. Around this time, Carracosta is learning two very valuable stat boosting moves. One being Curse, which trades off a Speed reduction for a boost in Attack and Defense. Carracosta's base Speed is 32, so it isn't looking to go first anyway. Plus, it boosts both of Carracosta's more used stats. Then, it learns the all mighty Shell Smash. Shell Smash is -1 for Defense and Special Defense, and +2 for Attack, Special Attack, and Speed. But, to be practical: Out of the stats boosted, Tirtouga only uses Attack (Usually), and uses both Defense and Special Defense. So, maybe this great stat boosting move is outclassed by Curse in this situation. Whenever you get Tirtouga, it is right before the Electric Gym, which is bad timing. But after that, all the other gyms are a breeze for Carracosta, having STAB moves that are super effective to most of the remaining gym's Pokemon. Just watch out for the Fighting Type Elite Four member later.
Archen and Archeops
Archen and it's evolution are tough cases. On one end, their stats are excellent, but on the other, their ability lowers their stats once they hit half health. You might think, "Hey, if they have good Speed and Attack, it probably won't even matter!" Well, they do have very good Attack and Speed stats. But, their Defensive stats are lacking, so it might only take one hit to be blown past the halfway mark. If you are still determined to have them on your team, just know this: The following gyms are going to be rather tough for Archeops and Archen. With the Electric Gym right after you obtain them, and an Ice gym coming up, there will only be one gym that the two will get slack at, and that is the Ground Gym. But, if you can manage to play these two to their strengths, you will be in for a pleasant surprise. They have a decent movepool, getting Rock and Ground moves (Through TM), which provides near perfect coverage. (Known as the EdgeQuake coverage, for Stone Edge which is rock type and Earthquake which is Ground type.) Not to mention, Their Special Attack is great as well, so they can go mixed with some of the Special Attacking moves they learn like DragonBreath, Focus Blast, and STAB AncientPower.
Larvesta and Volcanora
You receive a Larvesta from a man on Route 18. There are some really odd traits about Pokemon this Generation. One is that a lot of the Pokemon in the later Pokedex don't evolve from their BASIC form until the 40's or 50's! Larvesta doesn't evolve from basic until level 59! You would likely have a Basic Pokemon until you faced the Elite Four for the second time if you had one! So, if you are wondering if you should add it to your team: If you are still going through the story with Pokemon needing levels, don't do it. It will take a lot of training to get it to evolve, so doing it in game when your Pokemon need levels to keep you stable is a bad idea. But... what are it's positives? Well, it's BST (Base stat total) is only 360, so none of it's stats are phenomonal. It only learns moves every 10 levels. In fact, the moves it learns via level up are pretty mediocre until around the time it should be evolving (Level 59 mind you), so you would be relying a lot on TMs. With all this in mind, why would ANYBODY use this Pokemon? Well, whenever it evolves, it becomes a complete Bad Ass. It learns the excellent boosting move Quiver Dance, which raises its already phenomenal Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed stats by one stage each. It learns many great Special moves like Heat Wave, Bug Buzz, Hurricane, Fiery Dance and Psychic, Solar Beam, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, and Overheat by TM, along with it's astounding access to support moves as well. Just remember, don't try to get one in the middle of the game! This is not a Pokemon you ask your friend to trade to you to help you beat the Elite Four! (Unless it is evolved of course, then go wreck shop wherever you want.)
Magikarp
Who doesn't want a Magikarp?
If you do want one (like everybody else), go to Marvelous Bridge and buy this "marvelously rare" Pokemon for 500 bucks from some guy.
All of the Rest
Darumaka and Darmanitan
If you don't have a fire type on your team or are needing one, this is a good evolutionary chain to look into. Both are extremely powerful, with Darumaka at 90 base attack and Darmanitan at 140 base attack. To compare, Rayquaza has base 150 attack. Not only that, but they learn powerful moves, and early too. Around the first place you are able to catch a Darumaka, it is usually at the level to already know Fire Fang, and is close to the level it learn Fire Punch. Darmanitan also has access to Flare Blitz, which is mouth watering when put alongside with it's gigantic attack stat. If you skip out on capturing the early Darumaka, you can capture a Zen Mode Darmanitan later. Zen Mode is an ability that transforms Darmanitan into a Beast Mode Pokemon once it reaches half of it's health. It's attack stats reach insane levels whenever this happens. This Pokemon will no doubt be useful from whenever you catch it throughout the whole game.
However, apparently it will be difficult to use against the Elite Four, as stated by Porkman:
Joltik and Galvantula
These two Pokemon (particularly Galvantula) will turn out to be very useful if you catch them. Their typing is very helpful because, not only is it suited to help out in the Flying Gym that comes up after the first route it appears, but it is also a good type match up to 2 out of 4 of the Elite Four Members. Heck, if you think about it, it's not even weak to any of the other Gym Leaders or Elite Four Members after you obtain it. One of the best combinations for this Pokemon is it's ability, Compoundeyes, and it's access to Thunder. The two make a good combination, especially when you throw in another STAB move in Signal Beam or Bug Buzz. It can also learn many moves in the line of support and offense. It has a great stat distribution for what it's doing.
Druddigon
Druddigon doesn't really appear early in the game, as it appears around the levels of 33-35 (ish). If you haven't gotten your hands on a sixth Pokemon, this one will curb your enthusiasm until it's time to catch Reshiram / Zekrom. When we look at it's stat distribution, there are two very apparent things: 1) It has a great base 120 Attack, 2) It has absymal speed (base 48). These two stats combine to make a general example of a tank. If we look a little closer, we can see that it has 77/90/90 defenses, which are comparitively low for a tank. With this in mind, it seems Druddigon is more of a slow sweeper with solid defenses. (Compared to other tanks, those defenses are low, but to other sweepers, those are something to kill for.) Druddigon has a plethora of powerful moves at its disposal. It can learn Crunch, Dragon Claw, Revenge, Night Slash, Dragon Tail, Superpower, Outrage, and even Earthquake, Shadow Claw, and Rock Slide by TM. Even thought it can learn plenty of "acceptable" special attacking moves, don't even bother. It's Special Attack is only twenty points more than its speed. Honestly, there are better Dragon types, but this particular one can serve in game very well, where as others accel in competative battling environments.
Training
Audino
Exp. Share
In Black and White, there are two Exp. Shares to be found. If you are unfamiliar with what one of these does, it lets a Pokemon that wasn't in battle recieve half of the experience gained, and if that Pokemon already was in battle, it gets more than it normally would without the Exp. Share. The first one is found in Castelia City, inside the building a block to the left of the Pokemon Center, called the 'Battle Building'. If you defeat the Janitor on the upper right corner on 55F, he'll give you one. The other Exp. Share can be obtained Icirrus City at the Pokemon Fan Club which is South of the Gym and Northwest of the Pokemon Center. If you show the man there a Pokemon of yours that is between levels 25 and 49, he will give you the Exp. Share. These items are extremely useful for training wild Pokemon you just caught to catch up in level to the rest of your team, and if they are too weak to battle, you don't even have to send them out!
Lucky Egg
You receive the Lucky Egg from The Professor in Chargestone Cave. It is more useful in training a single Pokemon than the Exp. Share, so it is worth using. Otherwise, it's only difference from the Exp. Share is that it doesn't work if the Pokemon wasn't in the battle.
Macho Brace
A Macho Brace is an item that doubles the EV's your Pokemon gains when battling other Pokemon, but lowers the Pokemon's speed while holding it. EV's are hidden stats that are similar to Exp: every Pokemon you battle will give you a certain EV every time you defeat it. These EV's will go to one of the seven stats each Pokemon has. For every 4 EV's you get battling, your stat goes up by 1 point next time you level up. So, doubling the EV's you gain can help make your Pokemon mature in stats very fast. To find one, go to the gate to Route 16 from Nimbasa City and speak to the Infielder (Baseball Player), and he will give you one. If you have no other item to put on your Pokemon and don't care about the speed reduction, I would recommend letting them hold this, so their stats increase more over time.
Vitamins
Vitamins are items that give 10 EV's to one of your Pokemon's stats. That would be great! If only they weren't so expensive... but, if you ever have money that you can afford to spend on these things, you can find them, and many other useful items at Shopping Mall Nine. Shopping Mall Nine, as it's name explains, is on Route 9. Just know, these tiny boosts to your Pokemon cost 9800 Poke, so you might need to do some battling.
Amulet Coin
The Amulet Coin is useful because it adds to your reward in Poke every time you defeat a Trainer. This is helpful when training so you can buy more Vitamins, Poke Balls, and even Potions. In Unova, you get this by battling all three dancers in Castelia City and speaking with them at the fountain in the middle of the city afterwards. There is one by the fountain, one on Narrow Street, and one on Unity Pier.
EV Training
Ok, since EV training is difficult enought to learn, I figured it needed it's own section. First of all, every Pokemon gives out an EV, or "Effort Value" for a certain stat every time it is defeated. If your Pokemon defeats 4 of another Pokemon that give 1 Attack EV when it is defeated, you will have gained 4 EV's for it's Attack stat, and the Attack stat will be raised 1 point. That means 4 EV's = 1 Stat Point. So, basically, if you defeat 4 of the same Pokemon, it's likely your stats are going up. Now, what is different this generation than an other generations is that whenever you get 4 EV's, your stat goes up without having to level up. Before, your stats would stay the same and you would get the boosts from your EV's when you level up.
Now, a Pokemon can recieve a maximum of 510 EV's. That means, that 510 / 4 = 127.5, so 2 EV's will be useless. And, on top of that, a single stat may only have 255 EV's put into it. So 252 / 4 = 63.75, so 3 of those EV's are useless. That means if you had 2 different stats with 252 EV's in them, you have 4 EV's left to put into anohter stat. Now this is where the term "EV Trained" comes in. An EV trained Pokemon has at least 508 EV's put into it distributed in a certain configuration to help it in battle. So, if you haven't guessed already, there are a number of different ways to distribute EV's, so how do I know which way is best? Well...
There are some rules that competative battlers use when EV'ing, so if you really want to know those, you can search them somewhere else. Right now, we are going to talk about simple EV spreads that are easy for the common player to achieve.
So obviously, there are two things you do in a Pokemon battle, Attack and Defend. Some Pokemon are better at Attacking, some Pokemon are better at Defending. We break these into two different groups: Sweepers (Attackers) and Walls (Defenders). When EV'ing Sweepers, the EV spreads usually end up something like this: 252 EV's in the Attacking stat they are using, 252 in the Speed stat, and 4 in the HP stat (Just because it could possibly be useless in a specific defensive stat). Now, some Sweepers are extremely slow (but most are quite the opposite), so investing 252 Speed EV's into a Rhyperior isn't going to change it's terrifying Speed stat. So where else do you put those EV's? It's up to you! Do you want it to be able to take hits better? Put them into HP. Do you want it to be able to take hits, but from a specific spectrum, special or physical? Put them in Special or Physical Defense. (But, usually it is just better to put them into HP, so they aren't wasted if your opponent attacks with an opposite spectrum move.)
So, bottomline: For sweepers, invest EV's into their favored Attacking stat and Speed, unless they are slow (or a mixed Attacker, but we'll cover that later).
Now, Walls are a little more tricky. Most walls don't care about being able to attack first, because they probably won't be OHKO'ing anyway, so they will usually invest in Defenses and HP. Now, here is the thing: Sometimes, your team only has one wall, or maybe two, but what if one gets KO'd? You would have to rely on one to take hits from likely both attacking spectrums. This means that most walls have two options: 1) Run EV's that boost both Defense and Special Defense, or 2) Have two walls, one Special and one Physical, that rely on eachother heavily. So, if you only have one Wall, you might want to invest in both Special and Physical Defense. The stat spread may look something like 252 HP (to help take hits from both spectrums), 124 Defense, 128 Special Defense. That would provide good cover for both defenses. If you have two Walls though, you could just do 252 HP / 252 Defense for one, and 252 HP / 252 Special Defense for another one.
The same thing for Mixed Sweepers, who use Special and Physical Attacks. Now, for this one, you are more open to personal preference. If your sweeper is mixed, you can choose to invest more EV's in one Attacking stat than the other to fit your teams strategy, or to just have more power overall, albeit sacrifing on the other end.
The last thing to consider (mostly for Walls) is what your nature is. For Walls, if they have a nature that boosts Defense, they can choose to put more EV's into Special Defense to round out coverage. But, EV'ing Defensive Pokemon is a whole different deal in itself , so if you are wanting to get complicated, search it on Google, or maybe even Smogon.com. But, this guide is trying to stay simplistic, so we'll drop it off there.
Now, how do you go about training your Pokemon to get these EV's? Well, here are a few steps:
1. Vitamins take a lot of work out of the process. If you can go to the store and buy 10 proteins, you already have 100 EV's (25 Stat points) you don't have to worry about battling for. They might be expensive though, so be aware of that. (Also, Note: You can only use Vitamins until that stat has reached the 100 EV mark, after that, Vitamins will not work any longer for that stat.)
2. Find a Pokemon with Pokerus. This makes the whole ordeal go twice as fast. It might be hard to find, but Pokerus is the greatest help in this whole thing. It doubles the number of EV's you get from a battle. So when you would normally get 1 EV, you get 2. If you don't know what Pokerus is or how to get Pokerus, search it on Google or Bulbapedia.
3. Get the Macho Brace or Power Items. These items are the bread and butter to EV training. If you hold the power items that promote certain stats, you will gain 4 EV's for that stat after every battle. So, if you were to hold the power bracer and battle a Machop, you would get 5 EV's in Attack, and if you have Pokerus, that multiplies it to make it 10! A Macho Brace is similar, but in the long run, will yield less results. It multiplies the number of EV's you get by 2, so if you battled a Machop and held a Macho Brace while infected with Pokerus, you would end up with 4 EV's for Attack instead of 10.
By doing the math, if we hold a power item, and we already had 100 points because of our Vitamins, and b is the number of battles and E is the number of EV's we have in that stat...
100 + b((1 + 4) * 2) = E
so...
100 + 15((1 + 4) * 2) = 250
That means that you only have to battle 15 times to get to 250 EV's, take your item off (while still having Pokerus) and battle one more time to get 252 EV's into that stat! Lather, Rinse, and Repeat for the other stats, and Viola!
If you take all these steps, training should only last 16 battles to fully EV a certain stat, and 35 battles to fully EV a whole stat spread, as opposed to the 508 battles you would otherwise have to have.
So, where do we actually battle? This is where our buddy Porkman comes in:
So, lately I have done a few things, the first being that I played in a few release tournaments, started on the actual story mode, and experimented with a few Pokes.
I wanted to post a little guide to some of the Pokemon that will be useful in game. From my experience and other player's experiences, I have made a list of Pokemon that are found within Unova that will be worth looking at to add to your team. Some people might already be half way through the game, so hopefully there are some people who can get use from this.
--
The Starters
Snivy
The reason I started with Snivy , is to stress the difficulty it will bring to use compared to other starters. Snivy has an interesting stat distribution that doesn't really make it bad in a particular aspect, but not extraordinary in one either. It is built like a wall with a solid speed stat, but honestly, it's attack stats are mediocre, which really makes it's usability suffer. In game battles are more fast paced than wifi battles, so walls are usually not very practical, especially when the Pokemon you are trying to wall is sometimes a lot higher level. But, what about it's movepool? The answer to that question would be: Extremely horrid. Snivy and it's evolutions learn only Normal and Grass type attacking moves. It's sad to see the brilliant boosting moves it can learn go to waste on a moveset that won't go deeper than Leaf Storm / Leaf Blade and [Normal Type move]. If you do happen to choose Snivy, you will have to play him with team psnergy. Bad match ups could be trouble, and without team support, Snivy and evolutions are walled / counter walled easily. In the correct environment though, Snivy could play as a great Pokemon.
Tepig
Tepig, on the other hand, is a much easier play through. It gets great move diversity early, and if you get Grass Knot, it can cover most of it's weaknesses as early as level 17. The only downfall to it's movepool, however, is that the quality of it's fighting type moves aren't that of, say, Chimchar. It will have no access to the all powerful Close Combat. It's stats are fairly respectable, which is expected of a starter Pokemon. Unlike Snivy, Tepig is perfectly capable of performing on it's own because of it's solid stat spread that compliments it's diverse movepool. This means that you can create your team more loosely without need of support. And hey, you get to have a Pokemon nicknamed Pork Chop, lol.
Oshawott
In my opinion, Oshawott is the most relaible in game out of the three starters. It has the same diversity of movepool as Tepig, and access to very strong STAB moves early in the game. In particular, Razor Shell (learned at level 17) is a great move relative to how early it can learn it. As early as the first or second gym, Razor Shell offers power and accuracy similar to Waterfall, which most water types only have access to late game. Not only that, but Oshawott can learn a plethora of useful moves - Grass Knot, Dig, Retalliate, Surf, Waterfall, Strength, Revenge - and it has the stat distribution to complete the picture of a mixed sweeper. Overall, Oshawott and evolutions are going to be a useful part of your team in early game and onward if you choose them.
Gift Pokemon
Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour
The elemental monkeys can be a good edition to your team, depending on which one you get. Pansage got the Snivy treatment, so if you chose Tepig, it might be of little use after the early game. The other two are useful to about mid game, whenever better Options for your team open up and more powerful trainers start appearing. All can learn Grass Knot, Thief, Cheer Up, Rock Smash, and Dig, which are early game TMs. They also have decent stats for what they are meant to do, with decent defenses and above average attack stats and speed. If you are having trouble with your rival's starter Pokemon, you can pick one of these up to make things a bit easier whenever other options are limited. Note that, you will have the option to evolve them via evolutionary stone received in the town that contains the third gym leader, but after they evolve, they won't learn any more moves, so keep that in mind. After early game, they start to struggle when bigger and better Pokemon start appearing in battles.
Tirtouga and Carracosta
Tirtouga is obtained by talking to a man in Relic Castle and asking for the Cover Fossil. Tirtouga is a decent wall if you are needing one, having base 103 Defense. It has equally decent moves once recovered from the fossil; It has Crunch, Aqua Jet, Wide Guard and Ancient Power. It learns Brine just a few levels later, but know that it's Special Attack is not as good as it's regular Attack, so Brine might only be doing as much damage as Aqua Jet already does, without priority. The two abilities it can have are excellent, one protecting it from OHKO's, and the other protecting it from Super Effective attacks. Once it evolves at Level 37, it will have it's base Defense boosted from 103 to 133 as Carracosta. Around this time, Carracosta is learning two very valuable stat boosting moves. One being Curse, which trades off a Speed reduction for a boost in Attack and Defense. Carracosta's base Speed is 32, so it isn't looking to go first anyway. Plus, it boosts both of Carracosta's more used stats. Then, it learns the all mighty Shell Smash. Shell Smash is -1 for Defense and Special Defense, and +2 for Attack, Special Attack, and Speed. But, to be practical: Out of the stats boosted, Tirtouga only uses Attack (Usually), and uses both Defense and Special Defense. So, maybe this great stat boosting move is outclassed by Curse in this situation. Whenever you get Tirtouga, it is right before the Electric Gym, which is bad timing. But after that, all the other gyms are a breeze for Carracosta, having STAB moves that are super effective to most of the remaining gym's Pokemon. Just watch out for the Fighting Type Elite Four member later.
Archen and Archeops
Archen and it's evolution are tough cases. On one end, their stats are excellent, but on the other, their ability lowers their stats once they hit half health. You might think, "Hey, if they have good Speed and Attack, it probably won't even matter!" Well, they do have very good Attack and Speed stats. But, their Defensive stats are lacking, so it might only take one hit to be blown past the halfway mark. If you are still determined to have them on your team, just know this: The following gyms are going to be rather tough for Archeops and Archen. With the Electric Gym right after you obtain them, and an Ice gym coming up, there will only be one gym that the two will get slack at, and that is the Ground Gym. But, if you can manage to play these two to their strengths, you will be in for a pleasant surprise. They have a decent movepool, getting Rock and Ground moves (Through TM), which provides near perfect coverage. (Known as the EdgeQuake coverage, for Stone Edge which is rock type and Earthquake which is Ground type.) Not to mention, Their Special Attack is great as well, so they can go mixed with some of the Special Attacking moves they learn like DragonBreath, Focus Blast, and STAB AncientPower.
Larvesta and Volcanora
You receive a Larvesta from a man on Route 18. There are some really odd traits about Pokemon this Generation. One is that a lot of the Pokemon in the later Pokedex don't evolve from their BASIC form until the 40's or 50's! Larvesta doesn't evolve from basic until level 59! You would likely have a Basic Pokemon until you faced the Elite Four for the second time if you had one! So, if you are wondering if you should add it to your team: If you are still going through the story with Pokemon needing levels, don't do it. It will take a lot of training to get it to evolve, so doing it in game when your Pokemon need levels to keep you stable is a bad idea. But... what are it's positives? Well, it's BST (Base stat total) is only 360, so none of it's stats are phenomonal. It only learns moves every 10 levels. In fact, the moves it learns via level up are pretty mediocre until around the time it should be evolving (Level 59 mind you), so you would be relying a lot on TMs. With all this in mind, why would ANYBODY use this Pokemon? Well, whenever it evolves, it becomes a complete Bad Ass. It learns the excellent boosting move Quiver Dance, which raises its already phenomenal Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed stats by one stage each. It learns many great Special moves like Heat Wave, Bug Buzz, Hurricane, Fiery Dance and Psychic, Solar Beam, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, and Overheat by TM, along with it's astounding access to support moves as well. Just remember, don't try to get one in the middle of the game! This is not a Pokemon you ask your friend to trade to you to help you beat the Elite Four! (Unless it is evolved of course, then go wreck shop wherever you want.)
Magikarp
Who doesn't want a Magikarp?
All of the Rest
Darumaka and Darmanitan
If you don't have a fire type on your team or are needing one, this is a good evolutionary chain to look into. Both are extremely powerful, with Darumaka at 90 base attack and Darmanitan at 140 base attack. To compare, Rayquaza has base 150 attack. Not only that, but they learn powerful moves, and early too. Around the first place you are able to catch a Darumaka, it is usually at the level to already know Fire Fang, and is close to the level it learn Fire Punch. Darmanitan also has access to Flare Blitz, which is mouth watering when put alongside with it's gigantic attack stat. If you skip out on capturing the early Darumaka, you can capture a Zen Mode Darmanitan later. Zen Mode is an ability that transforms Darmanitan into a Beast Mode Pokemon once it reaches half of it's health. It's attack stats reach insane levels whenever this happens. This Pokemon will no doubt be useful from whenever you catch it throughout the whole game.
However, apparently it will be difficult to use against the Elite Four, as stated by Porkman:
Joltik and Galvantula
These two Pokemon (particularly Galvantula) will turn out to be very useful if you catch them. Their typing is very helpful because, not only is it suited to help out in the Flying Gym that comes up after the first route it appears, but it is also a good type match up to 2 out of 4 of the Elite Four Members. Heck, if you think about it, it's not even weak to any of the other Gym Leaders or Elite Four Members after you obtain it. One of the best combinations for this Pokemon is it's ability, Compoundeyes, and it's access to Thunder. The two make a good combination, especially when you throw in another STAB move in Signal Beam or Bug Buzz. It can also learn many moves in the line of support and offense. It has a great stat distribution for what it's doing.
Druddigon
Druddigon doesn't really appear early in the game, as it appears around the levels of 33-35 (ish). If you haven't gotten your hands on a sixth Pokemon, this one will curb your enthusiasm until it's time to catch Reshiram / Zekrom. When we look at it's stat distribution, there are two very apparent things: 1) It has a great base 120 Attack, 2) It has absymal speed (base 48). These two stats combine to make a general example of a tank. If we look a little closer, we can see that it has 77/90/90 defenses, which are comparitively low for a tank. With this in mind, it seems Druddigon is more of a slow sweeper with solid defenses. (Compared to other tanks, those defenses are low, but to other sweepers, those are something to kill for.) Druddigon has a plethora of powerful moves at its disposal. It can learn Crunch, Dragon Claw, Revenge, Night Slash, Dragon Tail, Superpower, Outrage, and even Earthquake, Shadow Claw, and Rock Slide by TM. Even thought it can learn plenty of "acceptable" special attacking moves, don't even bother. It's Special Attack is only twenty points more than its speed. Honestly, there are better Dragon types, but this particular one can serve in game very well, where as others accel in competative battling environments.
Training
Audino
When traveling from town to town, pay close attention to the grass around you. On occasions you will see a patch of grass begin to shake. Move over it immediately. A battle with Audino will start. The pokemon is essentially the chancey of this generation but with more balanced stats. I would't recommend catching Audino for the fact that it gives you an incredibly high amount of XP. This is a fantastic way to level up your weakest pokemon on your team.
Exp. Share
In Black and White, there are two Exp. Shares to be found. If you are unfamiliar with what one of these does, it lets a Pokemon that wasn't in battle recieve half of the experience gained, and if that Pokemon already was in battle, it gets more than it normally would without the Exp. Share. The first one is found in Castelia City, inside the building a block to the left of the Pokemon Center, called the 'Battle Building'. If you defeat the Janitor on the upper right corner on 55F, he'll give you one. The other Exp. Share can be obtained Icirrus City at the Pokemon Fan Club which is South of the Gym and Northwest of the Pokemon Center. If you show the man there a Pokemon of yours that is between levels 25 and 49, he will give you the Exp. Share. These items are extremely useful for training wild Pokemon you just caught to catch up in level to the rest of your team, and if they are too weak to battle, you don't even have to send them out!
Lucky Egg
You receive the Lucky Egg from The Professor in Chargestone Cave. It is more useful in training a single Pokemon than the Exp. Share, so it is worth using. Otherwise, it's only difference from the Exp. Share is that it doesn't work if the Pokemon wasn't in the battle.
Macho Brace
A Macho Brace is an item that doubles the EV's your Pokemon gains when battling other Pokemon, but lowers the Pokemon's speed while holding it. EV's are hidden stats that are similar to Exp: every Pokemon you battle will give you a certain EV every time you defeat it. These EV's will go to one of the seven stats each Pokemon has. For every 4 EV's you get battling, your stat goes up by 1 point next time you level up. So, doubling the EV's you gain can help make your Pokemon mature in stats very fast. To find one, go to the gate to Route 16 from Nimbasa City and speak to the Infielder (Baseball Player), and he will give you one. If you have no other item to put on your Pokemon and don't care about the speed reduction, I would recommend letting them hold this, so their stats increase more over time.
Vitamins
Vitamins are items that give 10 EV's to one of your Pokemon's stats. That would be great! If only they weren't so expensive... but, if you ever have money that you can afford to spend on these things, you can find them, and many other useful items at Shopping Mall Nine. Shopping Mall Nine, as it's name explains, is on Route 9. Just know, these tiny boosts to your Pokemon cost 9800 Poke, so you might need to do some battling.
Amulet Coin
The Amulet Coin is useful because it adds to your reward in Poke every time you defeat a Trainer. This is helpful when training so you can buy more Vitamins, Poke Balls, and even Potions. In Unova, you get this by battling all three dancers in Castelia City and speaking with them at the fountain in the middle of the city afterwards. There is one by the fountain, one on Narrow Street, and one on Unity Pier.
EV Training
Ok, since EV training is difficult enought to learn, I figured it needed it's own section. First of all, every Pokemon gives out an EV, or "Effort Value" for a certain stat every time it is defeated. If your Pokemon defeats 4 of another Pokemon that give 1 Attack EV when it is defeated, you will have gained 4 EV's for it's Attack stat, and the Attack stat will be raised 1 point. That means 4 EV's = 1 Stat Point. So, basically, if you defeat 4 of the same Pokemon, it's likely your stats are going up. Now, what is different this generation than an other generations is that whenever you get 4 EV's, your stat goes up without having to level up. Before, your stats would stay the same and you would get the boosts from your EV's when you level up.
Now, a Pokemon can recieve a maximum of 510 EV's. That means, that 510 / 4 = 127.5, so 2 EV's will be useless. And, on top of that, a single stat may only have 255 EV's put into it. So 252 / 4 = 63.75, so 3 of those EV's are useless. That means if you had 2 different stats with 252 EV's in them, you have 4 EV's left to put into anohter stat. Now this is where the term "EV Trained" comes in. An EV trained Pokemon has at least 508 EV's put into it distributed in a certain configuration to help it in battle. So, if you haven't guessed already, there are a number of different ways to distribute EV's, so how do I know which way is best? Well...
There are some rules that competative battlers use when EV'ing, so if you really want to know those, you can search them somewhere else. Right now, we are going to talk about simple EV spreads that are easy for the common player to achieve.
So obviously, there are two things you do in a Pokemon battle, Attack and Defend. Some Pokemon are better at Attacking, some Pokemon are better at Defending. We break these into two different groups: Sweepers (Attackers) and Walls (Defenders). When EV'ing Sweepers, the EV spreads usually end up something like this: 252 EV's in the Attacking stat they are using, 252 in the Speed stat, and 4 in the HP stat (Just because it could possibly be useless in a specific defensive stat). Now, some Sweepers are extremely slow (but most are quite the opposite), so investing 252 Speed EV's into a Rhyperior isn't going to change it's terrifying Speed stat. So where else do you put those EV's? It's up to you! Do you want it to be able to take hits better? Put them into HP. Do you want it to be able to take hits, but from a specific spectrum, special or physical? Put them in Special or Physical Defense. (But, usually it is just better to put them into HP, so they aren't wasted if your opponent attacks with an opposite spectrum move.)
So, bottomline: For sweepers, invest EV's into their favored Attacking stat and Speed, unless they are slow (or a mixed Attacker, but we'll cover that later).
Now, Walls are a little more tricky. Most walls don't care about being able to attack first, because they probably won't be OHKO'ing anyway, so they will usually invest in Defenses and HP. Now, here is the thing: Sometimes, your team only has one wall, or maybe two, but what if one gets KO'd? You would have to rely on one to take hits from likely both attacking spectrums. This means that most walls have two options: 1) Run EV's that boost both Defense and Special Defense, or 2) Have two walls, one Special and one Physical, that rely on eachother heavily. So, if you only have one Wall, you might want to invest in both Special and Physical Defense. The stat spread may look something like 252 HP (to help take hits from both spectrums), 124 Defense, 128 Special Defense. That would provide good cover for both defenses. If you have two Walls though, you could just do 252 HP / 252 Defense for one, and 252 HP / 252 Special Defense for another one.
The same thing for Mixed Sweepers, who use Special and Physical Attacks. Now, for this one, you are more open to personal preference. If your sweeper is mixed, you can choose to invest more EV's in one Attacking stat than the other to fit your teams strategy, or to just have more power overall, albeit sacrifing on the other end.
The last thing to consider (mostly for Walls) is what your nature is. For Walls, if they have a nature that boosts Defense, they can choose to put more EV's into Special Defense to round out coverage. But, EV'ing Defensive Pokemon is a whole different deal in itself , so if you are wanting to get complicated, search it on Google, or maybe even Smogon.com. But, this guide is trying to stay simplistic, so we'll drop it off there.
Now, how do you go about training your Pokemon to get these EV's? Well, here are a few steps:
1. Vitamins take a lot of work out of the process. If you can go to the store and buy 10 proteins, you already have 100 EV's (25 Stat points) you don't have to worry about battling for. They might be expensive though, so be aware of that. (Also, Note: You can only use Vitamins until that stat has reached the 100 EV mark, after that, Vitamins will not work any longer for that stat.)
2. Find a Pokemon with Pokerus. This makes the whole ordeal go twice as fast. It might be hard to find, but Pokerus is the greatest help in this whole thing. It doubles the number of EV's you get from a battle. So when you would normally get 1 EV, you get 2. If you don't know what Pokerus is or how to get Pokerus, search it on Google or Bulbapedia.
3. Get the Macho Brace or Power Items. These items are the bread and butter to EV training. If you hold the power items that promote certain stats, you will gain 4 EV's for that stat after every battle. So, if you were to hold the power bracer and battle a Machop, you would get 5 EV's in Attack, and if you have Pokerus, that multiplies it to make it 10! A Macho Brace is similar, but in the long run, will yield less results. It multiplies the number of EV's you get by 2, so if you battled a Machop and held a Macho Brace while infected with Pokerus, you would end up with 4 EV's for Attack instead of 10.
By doing the math, if we hold a power item, and we already had 100 points because of our Vitamins, and b is the number of battles and E is the number of EV's we have in that stat...
100 + b((1 + 4) * 2) = E
so...
100 + 15((1 + 4) * 2) = 250
That means that you only have to battle 15 times to get to 250 EV's, take your item off (while still having Pokerus) and battle one more time to get 252 EV's into that stat! Lather, Rinse, and Repeat for the other stats, and Viola!
If you take all these steps, training should only last 16 battles to fully EV a certain stat, and 35 battles to fully EV a whole stat spread, as opposed to the 508 battles you would otherwise have to have.
So, where do we actually battle? This is where our buddy Porkman comes in:
Last edited by a moderator:
