Paperblade

imo it's probably best for pokemon like starters/mystery egg where you can only get 1 but it requires not getting another pokemon for an extended period of time to have a split ranking, one where if you get it at the earlier point and another for where it's more freely given (for example, Delphox could be S rank as starter but like C rank if you wait to get the one from the Water Treatment Center) I know that for the maingame ingame tier lists, they will split pokemon based on if you have a trade or not for trade evos like abra/machop/gastly/etc. so this would be the same concept

imo Blaziken should be in a tier of its own above everything else. I was originally going to argue Magnezone down to A and say Blaziken should be alone in S, but upon reconsidering that's more because Blaziken is just so much better than everything and not because other pokemon don't fit the OP's criteria of S tier. Some of my rankings might be a bit off because of that but eh First, I'd argue Swampert up to S rank. Rock Slide and Earthquake are good moves, Muddy Water can accuracy hax some annoying fights like Mewtwo or Steelix. Water/Rock/Ground is only resisted by Breloom, Chesnaught, and Virizion, pokemon that Swampert doesn't want to be fighting anyway due to its Grass weakness. It also gets Protect, which is great in doubles because the AI will frequently throw 2 attacks at one pokemon, effectively getting you in a free attack. It is bad against Florinia and Fern, yes, but even Blaziken is bad against Ciel Most pokemon that join late and have a B/C ranking are because they're barely around Blaziken: S+ +Starter, tying it for the best availability in the game +Hits like a truck, with STAB moves like Blaze Kick and High Jump Kick and 120 base attack +Speed Boost allows it to outspeed everything if it survives 1-2 rounds +Bulk Up allows it to setup, combined with Speed Boost it can sweep several fights with little to no support +Compact move list allows it to run HMs like Rock Smash and Strength in its 4th move list, or flex a TM move like Shadow Claw or Substitute -Bad against Ciel and sort of Radomus (but still easily outspeeds Radomus's team, since they all have -speed natures, and can get KOs on things like Gallade and Metagross with its Fire STAB) -Most of its moves either have a miss chance or recoil, although running Wide Lens mostly mitigates this Starmie: A +Available from Mystery Egg, early in the game +Typing makes it good vs. non-Gym specialists like Cain, Kiki, and Victoria +Fast with decent Special Attack +Access to utility moves like Confuse Ray and Light Screen allow it to be useful even in fights where it has a poor type matchup -However, if not gotten in Mystery Egg, can't be gotten until post-Ciel -60/85/85 bulk isn't the best -Needs to wait til Level 42 to evolve to get Psychic Porygon-Z: B +Obtainable after the Orphanage +Two powerful choices for damage boosting abilities in Download and Analytic, and gains a third with Adaptability in its final form +Multiple coverage options in moves like Signal Beam, Dark Pulse and Discharge +Porygon2 is bulky and has Recover, but is fairly slow +PorygonZ has access to double dances and a spectacular 135 special attack, giving it sweeping potential -Upgrade isn't obtainable until after giant Steelix, and the Dubious Disc isn't obtainable until Glitch City -Porygon is pretty weak and requires some amount of babysitting -Struggles against the multiple Fighting specialists in the game Nidoqueen: C +Obtainable in the Byxbysion Wasteland +Bulky Poison type allows it take advantage of Black Sludge +Powerful ability Sheer Force and access to moves like Sludge Wave, Earth Power, and Flamethrower give it good coverage -However, fairly poor offensive stats at 75 Special Attack and 76 Speed -Bad against Serra, Radomus, and Terra while not really standing out in any particular fight Galvantula: B +Obtainable in Route 1 +Many options for speed control utility such as Sticky Web, Thunder Wave, and Electroweb -Electric/Bug typing makes it good vs. bosses like Radomus, Luna, and Ciel +Can also run Gastro Acid to remove the ability of some annoying PULSE pokemon, such as Swalot -Learns its high power moves somewhat late--Discharge at 54 and Bug Buzz at 60 -Lacking in coverage moves -Very frail, and can struggle to outspeed and OHKO enemies Torterra: B +Obtainable as a starter +Bulky +Access to multiple recovery options like Leech Seed, Synthesis, and Giga Drain +Gets STAB Earthquake upon evolution +Extra coverage in the form of Crunch allows it to hit Psychic and Ghost types -Grass is a poor typing: Doing poorly against Shelly, Cal, Cain, Aya, Fern, Serra, Blake, Charlotte, Ciel, Corey -Its typing gives it a double weakness to Ice, a relatively common coverage type -Frequent double battles in the mid and late game make Earthquake something of a nuisance, especially alongside Ground weak partners like Cal, Aya, and Cain Chandelure: A +Insane 145 special attack +Fire/Ghost STAB is nearly completely unresisted +Useful status moves like Confuse Ray and Will-o-Wisp +Good against Bennett, Fern and Blake, and Flash Fire allows it to ignore Charlotte's Heat Waves -Obtainable after Radomus -Poor against Luna and Terra Dragalge: B +Obtainable after getting the Good Rod +Adaptability Sludge Wave and Dragon Pulse +Can get Surf, Waterfall, and Dive +Naturally learns Toxic -STAB combination isn't super effective against much -Very slow -Ice and Ground weakness Mienshao: C +Great attack and decent Speed with access to High Jump Kick +Damage further boosted by Reckless +Fake Out and Detect for double battles -First available in Route 2 -Coverage moves aren't high power until Acrobatics, relying on U-Turn and Bounce -Extremely frail Slowbro: C +Great moves with Surf and Psychic +Bulky, with recovery in Slack Off +Coverage choices in Flamethrower and Grass Knot -Not obtainable until post-Ciel, giving it almost no opportunities to do anything Delphox: S +Starter +Fire/Psychic STAB is insane, being SE vs. all 3 rivals as well as several other fights throughout the game +Even against Gyms super effective against it, frequently its STAB combo allows it to get in a KO or two (Shade's Trevenant and Doublade, Terra's Nidoking, Luna's Bisharp) +114 SpAtk and 104 Speed +Utility moves like Will-o-Wisp and Light Screen +Coverage from Grass Knot or Shadow Ball -Abilities are meh, Magician requires you to not use a held item to benefit -Rock, Dark, and Ground weaknesses means it frequently gets hit by coverage moves Mamoswine: S +Obtainable before 4th gym +130 Attack +Tons of attack with STAB Earthquake +Priority in Ice Shard +Amazing STAB combination +Weaknesses compensated for by Thick Fat -Lacks resistances and isn't the fastest, so gets worn down -Earthquake is iffy in double battles -Needs to breed to get a stronger Ice move than Ice Fang Toxicroak: B +Many coverage options, like Sucker Punch +Boosted Experience from being a "Traded" pokemon +Multiple resistances, with potential Water immunity from Dry Skin +Drain Punch from event gives it some recovery -Strongest Fighting STAB option is Brick Break -Frail and not too fast Crawdaunt: C -Obtainable on Apophyll Island +120 Attack and Adaptability +Powerful moves like Crabhammer and Knock Off, can KO many pokemon even on a neutral hit +Learns Swords Dance -Frail and slow, with weaknesses to common types like Fighting and Electric, meaning it often struggles to find enemies it can fight Jolteon: C +Obtainable in the Mysidia Railcave +130 Speed allows it to outspeed almost everything, with good 110 Special Attack +Utility moves like Yawn and Thunder Wave +Boosted experience from being "Traded" -Lacks coverage moves outside Hidden Power -Electric options consist of Discharge (poor in Double battles) and Thunder (unreliable) Cradily: C +Obtainable in Spinel Town from Fossil revival +Erratic EXP curve means it requires little EXP to keep up after level 60 or so +Bulky -Poor movepool--strongest Rock move is Ancientpower -Combined with meh 81 Special Attack, has trouble finding KOs -Lacking in recovery without late game tutors or breeding, struggles to outlast enemies -Being a fossil, is somewhat unreliable to get -Slow Chesnaught: C +Starter +Great physical bulk +Good utility moves such as Leech Seed and Spiky Shield +Decent midgame coverage options -6 common weaknesses -Very slow, gets easily worn down Granbull: C +Obtainable after second gym +Can come with Close Combat +Intimidate makes its average physical bulk good +Powerful coverage options -Learns moves slowly--no STAB until Level 43 -Very slow -Horrible special bulk -Struggles with many fights after its joining, such as Corey and PULSE Tangrowth Diggersby: A +Obtainable in Rhodochrine Jungle +Huge Power makes its poor 56 Attack amazing +Earthquake at Level 57 +Swords Dance + STAB Quick Attack -Average bulk and speed -Fighting and Ice weakness means it often faces threat of OHKO Houndoom: B +Obtainable from Magma Gang questline after Shelly +Good Special Attack +Powerful STABs in Flamethrower and Dark Pulse +Nasty Plot +Okay Speed -Horrible physical bulk, can't take even neutral hits -Weakness to Fighting/Ground/Rock Clawitzer: B +Obtainable at Chrysolia Springs with Good Rod +Mega Launcher significantly boosts the power of its moves, combined with 120 Special Attack +Decent bulk +Good against Blake, Charlotte, Terra -Very slow, often struggles to take care of multiple enemies in a single battle -Even with Water/Fighting/Dark coverage, still struggles to get super effective damage on lots of enemies Metagross: A +135 Physical Attack +Great Physical bulk, 80/130 +Meteor Mash and Zen Headbutt +Priority in Bullet Punch +Steel typing is excellent vs. Blake and Adrienn -Only obtainable after Luna and before going to Agate -Moves are both 90 accuracy -Ground and Fire weakness vs. Charlotte, Terra are difficult -Slow exp curve Greninja: A +Extremely fast +Good 103 Special Attack in tandem with Protean allow it to hit hard +Protean allows it to avoid the early game weaknesses of Water types vs. Julia and Florinia -Frail and struggles to take neutral hits -Stuck with 60BP moves until Extrasensory at Level 49 Arcanine: B +Obtainable from Police station between second and third gyms +Traded pokemon +Access to a variety of good Fire attacks +Can come with Close Combat or Morning Sun, which are both useful pending on its role +Intimidate +Good all around stats -Doesn't really excel at anything -Lacks strong coverage options outside of Close Combat and Crunch -Both of its powerful moves have longevity drawbacks, meaning it struggles to fight multiple Pokemon in one encounter Mandibuzz: D +Mystery egg +Bulky +Tailwind allows even medium speed allies to outspeed enemies -Horrible offensive stats means not even Nasty Plot + Weak Armor activations makes it effective at killing things -Poor typing for fights such as Blake and Ciel -Mystery egg means if you have it, you don't have a better Mystery Egg option Gallade: C +Obtainable after Aya +Close Combat off 125 Attack +Can get Destiny Bond, allowing the cheesing of fights like Swalot +Various coverage options like Leaf Blade and Night Slash +Swords Dance -Horrible physical durability -Meh speed -Above factors make it difficult for it to fight multiple enemies in fights or sweep Durant: A +Obtainable in Tanzan Depths, after Serra +Steel typing is great vs. Blake and Adrienn +Bug types great vs. Radomus and Luna +Hustle off 109 Attack means it hits like a truck +Good 109 Speed -Horrible special bulk, 58/48 -OHKO'd by anything Charlotte has, and both STABs are resisted -Hustle makes its accuracy unreliable Clefable: B +Cosmic Power and Moonlight lets it outlast most enemies +Stored Power gives it an insanely powerful Psychic move after setting up Cosmic Power (260BP at +6/+6), allowing it to sweep entire teams +Moonblast exists as a strong STAB option +Magic Guard lets it ignore all sorts of residual damage -First obtainable at Agate Circus, over halfway through the game -Mediocre stats in general, struggles against high offense enemies that can overwhelm it -Crit hax pierce Cosmic Power Serperior: B +Starter +Bulky and very fast +Can setup with Coil and sustain via Leech Seed +Late in game, can sweep with Contrary + Leaf Storm -Lacks coverage, weak against anything that can resist Grass -Many fights in the game are unkind to Grass, exacerbating the above issue Heliolisk: C +Obtainable in the Beryl Ward, right before Corey +Good special attack and speed +Volt Switch and Thunderbolt +Grass Knot -Lacks lots of coverage -Doesn't get a Normal STAB until Hyper Voice tutor -Horrible physical bulk Togekiss: S +Mystery Egg +Serene Grace Ancientpower means it can randomly gain a huge boost, even one boost is often enough to do huge damage to enemy teams, two is gg +60% flinch Air Slash +Bulky, with great 120 Special Attack -Meh Speed means it likely won't outspeed many things without a speed boost -Not super useful until it becomes Togekiss, which requires a stone from Azurine Island Zoroark: B +Obtainable after Shelly +Double Dance +Taunt +120 spatk and 105 speed allows it to hit hard and fast -60/60/60 bulk -Only coverage moves are from later TMs -AI isn't tricked by Illusion Medicham: B +Obtainable at Apophyll Academy +60 Attack boosted by Pure Power allows it to hit very hard +High Jump Kick and Zen Headbutt great STAB combination -Lacks coverage moves until elemental punch tutor -60/75/75 bulk -80 Speed in tandem with that means it struggles vs. fast enemies -90 acc moves Seismitoad: C +Obtainable at Azurine Island +Solid bulk +Drain Punch -Primarily learns special moves, despite having higher physical attack -Mediocre attacking stats -Best ground move is Mud Shot, then Bulldoze from TM Feraligatr: A +Starter +Sheer Force and 105 Attack boosts Ice Fang and Crunch +Agility allows it to boost its 78 base Speed +85/100/83 bulk +Benefits hugely from Life Orb -No Physical Water STAB until Aqua Tail, which isn't Sheer Force boosted; needs to wait for Waterfall Roserade: A +Can be obtained before first gym +Amazing 125 Special Attack +Technician boosted Hidden Power gives it coverage +Utility in Toxic and Leech Seed +Traded Mon gives boosted EXP -No Poison STAB option -60/65 physical bulk Electivire: C +Mystery Egg +123 Attack as Electivire +Very fast as Electabuzz +Light Screen and Thunder Wave +Good Electric options and Low Kick-Lacks other coverage options -65/57/85 bulk as Electabuzz -Electivire is slow and not obtainable until after Charlotte -Electabuzz's stats begin to lag behind Florges: B +Obtainable in Route 1 +78/154 special bulk +112 Special Attack with STAB Moonblast +Petal Dance +Various utility moves such as Wish and terrains -Somewhat slow -78/68 physical bulk -Lacks coverage options Gliscor: B +75/125/75 bulk, with access to Poison Heal Toxic Orb +Variety of coverage such as Knock Off and U-Turn +Swords Dance -Not catchable until Route 3, giving it very little usetime -Best STAB moves require either giving up held item (Acrobatics) or are 60BP -Can't evolve until after Ciel, although Gligar still has good stats -Double weakness to Blake Lucario: C +Great movepool +110/115 offenses makes it flexible in what set it runs +Access to Powerup Punch, Swords Dance, Calm Mind, and Nasty Plot gives a variety of setup options +Movepool of Close Combat, Aura Sphere, Iron Tail, Extreme Speed, Dark Pulse, Crunch, etc. give good coverage -Not obtainable until after Ametrine City events, and even then is an egg, making it only usable for a handful of fights -70/70/70 bulk Swoobat: C +Obtainable before first gym +Simple + Calm Mind gives powerful setup options, allowing it to smash through fights weak to its dual STAB, such as Corey, Shelly, Kiki, Victoria, and Aya +114 speed -77 special attack makes it often reliant on its setup to do things -Struggles later in the game, as its 67/55/55 bulk means it struggles to take even one hit -Ice and Dark weakness Weavile: B +Mystery Egg +95 attack and 115 speed as Sneasel is solid, improves greatly to 120 and 125 as Weavile +Great STAB combination +Priority move in Ice Shard +Brick Break is a solid coverage option -Can't evolve until post-Ciel -55/55/75 bulk until it evolves -Without breeding with Beartic, doesn't get an Ice move stronger than Ice Shard Amoonguss: A +Catchable on Azurine Island +Poison typing lets it use Black Sludge +114/70/80 bulk and Synthesis make it hard to kill +Tons of utility moves like Toxic, Spore, and Leech Seed +Clear Smog can shutdown things that boost +Regenerator -Mostly beats things by whittling them down and outlasting, so frequently struggles against offensively oriented pokemon -One of the worst cases of 4MSS in Reborn, its levelup list is so good that you want to have 5-6 of its available moves -30 speed means it's always going to be outsped, and thus struggles heavily in fights like Charlotte and Blake where it is at a type disadvantage Aggron: A +Catchable in the deeper unground railnet, post-Aya +STABs are great vs. Serra, Bennett, Blake, Charlotte, Ciel, and Adrienn +180 Defense +Sturdy allows it to always get at least one hit in -Awful against Samson and Terra due to double weakness -70/60 special bulk -50 Speed Cinccino: C +Catchable in Chrysolia Forest +Skill Link effectively gives it 125BP Rock, Grass, and Normal moves +115 Speed -95 Attack means even with the power of its moves, it can frequently fail to get KOs -75/60/60 bulk

oh god I wrote so much more than I intended to Ignoring starters since otherwise they eat up a lot of spots. Good starters: Blaziken, Delphox, Infernape, Greninja, Swampert, Feraligatr. Blaziken is broken, it can sweep a ton of fights with little to no assistance from the rest of the team. Delphox has amazing STABs for the game and good stats to take advantage of it, plus some utility like will-o-wisp and light screen if you want that. Infernape gets relatively early Close Combat, and then later Acrobatics and Flare Blitz, giving it multiple high power moves to take advantage of its offensive statline. Greninja is one of the better Waters early against the shitty Electric->Grass gym combo, but "struggles" a bit midgame since it's stuck with 60BP or less moves (it's still pretty good, just not wtfamazing like a lot of mons in this post), which somewhat hinders the power of Protean until Extrasensory/Dark Pulse/Surf roll in. After that it's amazing though. Swampert line laughs at first gym, has good bulk, although suffers a bit since it mostly uses special moves (off a weak spatk) until it starts getting Rock Slide and Earthquake and Waterfall where its great attack and bulk take over. Feraligatr isn't as bulky as Swampert, but with Agility and Sheer Force is a solid sweeper. Only downside is it's stuck with Water Gun as its STAB until Aqua Tail/Waterfall fairly late in the game. Crunch and Ice Fang make up for this though, giving it good coverage and its high Attack+Sheer Force(+Life Orb) help make up for the lack of STAB. Grass is bad imo since the type layout of the game is really unfriendly to it, there's 8 non-badge giving type specialists that you fight , many of which you fight multiple times, and 6 of them have types that you really don't wanna face with Grass. But if you really wanna use it, Torterra, Serperior, and Chesnaught are probably the best--Torterra gets good levelup moves (STAB Earthquake), Serperior can stall stuff out and can do Coil+Physical and later switch to Contrary Leaf Storm, but has no coverage outside Grass. Chesnaught is bulky and has strong STABs with good utility. T Grass: Roserade--you can get it early, it gets good moves like Giga Drain and Toxic naturally, Technician Hidden Power helps its coverage. Budew is obtainable before the first gym. Amoonguss--Gets powerful status moves in Toxic/Spore, recovery in Giga Drain, and a Poison STAB/hazing move in Clear Smog. Poison typing lets it use Black Sludge, which is gotten 9 gyms before Leftovers and is much appreciated by a bulky wall. Gotten before the 5th gym. Whimsicott--Mystery egg mon (pre-3rd gym). Prankster + cool utility moves like Stun Spore and Tailwind. Gets Giga Drain/Energy Ball and Moonblast STABs on level up. Fire: Volcarona--Insane stats, insane level up moves, Quiver Dance. Rock coverage isn't super common. Main thing is that its level up list is super slow and it evolves really late, so it requires a lot of babying til then. Mystery egg mon Chandelure--Powerful STABs on level up, highest spatk of anything you'll find in game. Also gets some utility stuff like Will-O-Wisp on level up. Obtainable pre-9th gym Houndoom?--Flamethrower/Dark Pulse on level up, good availability, respectable spatk/speed. I didn't expect this mon to be so good when I used it. Obtainable pre-4th gym Water: Simipour--Obtainable pre-first gym, is the only pokemon in the game that can legitimately obtain Scald, and its stats are decent. Scald gets a 50% buff on the fire fields which means it absolutely murders the Fire gym. Also gets Acrobatics/Crunch as solid coverage moves, or Yawn as utility. Starmie--Mystery Egg mon. Surf/Psychic owns, can also get utility like Confuse Ray and Light Screen Crawdaunt?--STAB Waterfall/Aqua Jet/Crunch and Swords Dance naturally is pretty good. It's really slow and frail though so hard to use. Not sure what else I'd put third though, most other good Waters have shit availability. Obtainable pre-5th gym Electric: Magnezone--Flash Cannon/Discharge STABs, Sturdy+TWave can cheese a ton of stuff, high stats, good typing, bulky. Only flaw is evolving to Magnezone is super late now. Magnemite gotten pretty early though Galvantula--Obtainable pre-8th gym. Fast, decently strong, pretty bad bulk. Bug Buzz+Discharge is good moves, can run Sticky Web/TWave as utility Electivire?--Mystery egg. This thing is bad I just can't think of another electric type. I was underwhelmed when I used Jolteon but fast Yawn might legitimately be better than this thing. Poison: Nidoking/queen--basically the same line honestly. Male version can be gotten pre 2nd gym though whereas female isn't til post-4th. Sheer Force+Life Orb is good, or you can run Black Sludge. Gets good moves like Sludge Wave and Earth Power Toxicroak--Pre-4th gym. Decent stats, good movepool, is an event mon so it gets free Ice Punch to makes its coverage even better. Venomoth?--Haven't gotten a chance to use Crobat so idk how it stacks up, but Sleep Powder + Quiver Dance is dumb. Pre-second gym Flying: Staraptor--Mystery egg. Gets high power moves like Brave Bird/Close Combat with the stats to make them good. Pretty meh bulk so can't take hits + deal with recoil very well Archeops--Great level up list giving it stuff like Acrobatics, Rock Slide, U-Turn, Crunch. High stats and bad ability means it needs to kill stuff in one hit though. Pre-7th gym iirc Togekiss--Mystery egg. Serene Grace Ancientpower and Air Slash are dumb. I don't even remember what else it does since when I used it I p much only used those 2 moves Rock: Aggron--Pre-6th gym. Rock Slide plus your pick of all the good physical Steel moves. Insane physical bulk. Not much else to say Archeops--see above Rhyperior--Mystery egg. Great physical bulk, Earthquake/Stone Edge as STAB with stuff like Poison Jab and Megahorn as coverage. Protector is got at a reasonable time Ice: Mamoswine--Pre-4th gym. Amazing Attack, good bulk/okay speed. Earthquake owns, gets Ice Shard from its first form and Ice Fang if you don't wanna breed icicle Crash. Thick Fat makes up for Ice being bad Weavile--Mystery egg. Need to breed Icicle Crash if you want something better than Ice Shard/Feint Attack as STABs. Doesn't evolve until after the 13th gym but Sneasel's stats are still fine. Fast and strong, very frail Cloyster--I guess? It comes super late though. Shell Smash + Skill Link + Icicle Spear ahoy Psychic: Metagross--Post-9th, you have to go get it before advancing the story past a pseudo-PoNR (You get locked out of a bunch of stuff for like 4 badges). It's a pseudolegendary, gets Zen Headbutt and Meteor Mash on levelup, plus Agility. Typing is excellent Gardevoir--Pre-6th gym. Gets Moonblast, Psychic, and Calm Mind. Can get Destiny Bond, which is always great for cheese. Terrible physical bulk though Gallade--Physical version of Gardevoir, gets Swords Dance instead of Calm Mind. Probably worse than Gardevoir since Fairy is a better typing Fighting: Toxicroak--See above Gallade--See above Medicham--Pre-fifth gym. A bit fragile but hits like a truck and has powerful STAB+coverage moves. This is an event mon and I think it comes with an egg move but I can't be assed to check what it was. Bug: Volcarona, Galvantula, Venomoth--see above for each Fairy: Gardevoir--see above Togekiss- see above Clefable--post-9th gym. Cosmic Power+Stored Power+recovery from Wish/Moonlight is silly. Amazing abilities make up for poor stats Dark: Zoroark--post-3rd gym. Fast and powerful but frail. Gets Nasty Plot which will let it dominate if it can survive a round. AI seems to be able to see through Illusion Bisharp--mystery egg. Defiant owns, decent physical bulk, high attack. Gets Swords Dance and 2 powerful STAB, but its speed is a bit low Weavile--see above Dragon: Dragalge--Pre-6th gym. Adaptability Dragon Pulse/Sludge Wave and insane special bulk. Fairly slow and vulnerable to physical attacks or the high amounts of Ice coverage Noivern--Available pre-first gym, but Noibat sucks so just catch a high level one later. Boomburst, Dragon Pulse, Air Slash/Hurricane. Also gets recovery like Roost and utility like Tailwind or Super Fang. Very fast, okay bulk, but 4x damage from Ice sucks Flygon--Available pre-6th gym. Dragon Dance, Earthquake, Dragon Claw. Decent bulk and good offensive stats. Only problem is, again, 4x Ice weakness. Ghost: Chandelure--See above Mismagius--Pre-6th gym. Good offensive stats, bad physical bulk. Gets Shadow Ball and coverage options like Power Gem/Mystical Fire. Gets some funny cheese stuff like Perish Song, as well as utility like Confuse Ray Spiritomb?--Pre-fifth gym. Odd Keystone is a pain to get. Solid bulk with only one weakness and 3 immunities, but very slow. Gets some nice utility like Confuse Ray and Hypnosis, Dark Pulse is decent STAB, and can get Destiny Bond since it's an event mon. Ground: Diggersby--Pre-third gym. Huge Power. Earthquake. Quick Attack. Swords Dance. Will break through anything if it can survive a round or two. Flygon--see above Nidoking--see above Steel: Metagross--see above Aggron--see above Excadrill--Insane attack, decent bulk and okay speed. Gets Earthquake, Rock Slide, and SD, but Steel STAB is lacking until late. Mold Breaker is a great ability, or Sand Rush if you have a setter for that. Normal: Porygon-Z--Evolution comes late (I think pre-9th gym for 2 and pre-12th for Z, when base form is obtainable pre-4th) but it hits like a truck, has decent bulk, fairly good speed. Can run your pick of Agility, Nasty Plot, Recover and coverage like Discharge. Diggersby--see above Staraptor--see above

Fair point on Silvally, although I think it's likely that this plot would be a sidequest just due to recency of gen7, and could be put in/started earlier in the game I don't think Gengar is/was too powerful--without access to all the TMs its coverage is pretty bad, you're basically relying on Shadow Ball and sometimes Venoshock (also gets Dark Pulse but Dark/Ghost is basically the same coverage), and being frail it really needs to get OHKOs to stay around. This probably sounds really harsh, since Gengar still has great offensive stats. It's a really popular pokemon and is still OU. tbh the last mon could also just come down to Ame not being able to come up with an appropriate sidequest/location for it

tbh the current AI is really bad against sweeping in general. It doesn't switch out enough so if you can -stage something enough or sleep it or whatever anything with setup moves can sweep (or just use x-items) Anyway I disagree on Silvally, and I don't think comparisons to Arceus and Genesect are relevant to them being obtainable or not, since Silvally's not a legendary and they are. The memories could be added into the game or even gotten as part of the sidequest to get it I think Kommo-o is in simply because we already have two pseudos available, and Hydreigon likely on the way. Hydreigon and Metagross are better than Kommo-o imo, and Goodra is about as good. Gengar, Mimikyu, Ferrothorn, Alola-Marowak, Toxapex are sort of the short list of stuff I see taking the 6th slot, and I'm leaning one of the two walls. Or maybe it's Hydreigon and we don't get that last Dark Material? I sort of think coolness of pseudos almost makes more sense than a powerlevel thing, since A. we've got almost every good tutor move and soon will have B. Rock Climb, which will probably give access to a lot of TMs--there's a lot of rock climbable areas in past areas and at least one has a TM, and C. the Mega Ring. It's hard to justify much based on power level except for maybe something stupid like Aegislash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-s-bMHZxsU the greatest sweep of all time

I've swept Noel with +6 beautifly, although that's a softball since ever since Wigglytuff became his lead he's really easy Quiver Dance is *really* good and half the lines that get it are available before the first gym

You can get Torchic as your first pokemon, walk into the tall grass right outside after that and catch mons with Moody in less than 5 minutes of playtime, then pay off a homeless drunk to get access to a pokemon with Prankster dual screens, which enables just about any other setup sweeper you can think of if for some reason you didn't like the fire bird or silly beaver Gyarados after 14 badges and 30+ hours of playtime is not breaking the game

Nah you're right, the AI just doesn't factor in immunities from abilities (or from field effects)

I got a chatot

Fennekin is one of the best starters, fire/psychic stabs is amazing coverage and its stats/move list are both great. Rain sucks but that only effects a few fights Worst starter is probably piplup, it has a terrible level up list, is water so it suffers vs first 2 gyms and fern while getting out shined by panpour nearly everywhere else, and you don't even get tms to fix its movepool. Chikorita at least gets tons of support and can drop petal dance on people

I'm pretty sure you can't get the mystery egg until after Corey

I figured it was a Reborn issue since idk what, if anything, you've done to the AI, I was just bringing it to your attention since a trivial fight seems counter to a hard mode mod

Alright, finally got some time to actually play. First thing I've noticed is that the double battle AI doesn't seem to account for Lightningrod, meaning that Goldeen totally trivializes Julia's alternate fight (I think mine had max special attack stages by the end of it, and I only lost one pokemon, which easily could have been 0 had I actually bothered to try after realizing how badly the AI was screwing itself). Her starting Electrike must've used Spark 3 times before switching to Ice Fang, and by then I had KO'd half her team. Electrode similarly fell over because the only move it tried to use was Charge Beam

I haven't had a chance to play much of the new CoM due to life stuff, but the level limiter is a huge improvement over the system Reborn uses. Especially in hardcore where every random trainer early has 3 mons at 7+, making it easy for your starter to hit 20+ just doing that To that end, I'm finding the removal of that super early exp share annoying--playing switching games to level up my filler mons resulting in running to a center every other fight is not compelling. I got the impression we still get it after Julia or something, but I'd rather just have the share asap

I wouldn't put more weight on early game power than I would any other point in the game. The pokemon you get early game tend to suck, yeah, but enemy teams are just as unoptimized. They're not EV trained, they tend to not have items, and their movelists are much weaker in terms of power and coverage. They've been heavily nerfed from how they were a few years ago. I'm pretty sure as long as you aren't trying to lose by bringing like 5 water types, you can handle the early game. For example, Florinia is almost entirely walled by any random bug/flying type you pick up--her only pokemon with an attack that's not resisted by that typing is Cradily. Another point is that early game is when you are most in danger of going over the level cap, since there's tons of random trainers around and you are least likely to be using a full team of 6 due to how bad most of the mons are. This makes a starter that's insanely strong early then falls off less desirable, since you'll probably end up using other pokemon anyway.

Torchic is clear best starter. It's good against every early boss fight and evolves into a disgusting sweeper. On top of that it doesn't really need anything special, just its level up moves + a relearned HJK. No TMs, no egg moves. None of that shit. The first boss fight where it can't just crush everything in its path is probably Radomus, and by then it's easy to have a team to cover its weaknesses Froakie is much different. It offers nothing special until you're at a point in the game where you actually get good non-starter pokemon. Without good TMs (such as the case with Reborn), Greninja is basically Simipour with more speed and ability to use a proper held item, but comes on line much later (Simipour gets full coverage at 31 when Panpour gets Acrobatics). Except Panpour doesn't require me to give up my starter, I can still pick Torchic or whatever my heart desires.

My only real problem with the El fight is the player has no way of knowing that the fight is optional from just the game short of trial and error. I probably would have never known if I didn't read forums. If the choice of Radomus vs. El didn't influence the fight being optional or it was implied at all in the dialogue it would be okay, but as it stands it just dicks over people who picked Radomus and don't know better Fight itself is okay I guess, even though it usually just involves me breeding geodudes and walking in with 50 potions or something

Well, I beat the ZEL/Taka double battle which was one of the most challenging fights for me on regular Hardcore thanks to using Emolga to Baton Pass a +6 Evasion stack to Combusken, so I feel like it's definitely going to be doable if I continue cheesing fights with this I'd be interested in seeing the trainer stats for planning purposes tho

I have a feeling Insanity is going to involve lots of breeding and grinding to get optimal IV/natures/movelists on top of EV grinding, or creating a team based around setting up some supersweeper (Blaziken or perhaps some Shell Smasher)

The argument that something is too good to make available to the player always struck me as silly because 2 minutes into the game I can get a Speed Boost Torchic, then a minute later walk outside and get a Moody Bidoof.