GSC In-Game Tier List

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First thing's first... Furret has literally only 10% worse attack than Fearow. Furret also learns swift. Its stab return is not much worse. The instant Furret evolves it surpasses Spearow. And has access to a much stronger ground move in dig (thus notably better at both Morty and Jasmine). Shadow ball.

I've been basically ignoring Rattata. Rattata/Radicate has marginally better stats (rattata being much better than sentret), a better early move pool, and most of the same realistic advantages that Furret has, just with the same 5 level slower evolution. As far as assuming they don't kill their target... Furret and Radicate both have much better typing than Fearow does, not fearing the bolt/beam combo. Of the three Furret has the the best bulk (more due to it's strong health pool than its defenses), but none of them are particularly great in that.



Funny enough... depending on DV Fearow at level is still a 2hit KO range from Kingdra's surf (albeit a very low chance).


No, I would distinctly say that covering water-types isn't very useful, when thunderpunch is a learned move for Typhlosion. Particularily as mareep is primarily useful after 2nd evolution (well that isn't really true, but Flaffy doesn't have many if any signature slowbro's or bulky waters to contend with on-route), and then loses the vast majority of usefulness once Typhlosion comes into play (para strats? light screen?).

Clair's Kingdra is equivalently covered by the free Gyarados with strength/return (lol) as it is by Ampharos's TP (outside of Crystal for Thunderbolt tutor). Better really since Gyarados is much faster, has higher defenses, and has resistance to surf. Ignoring how trivial the gym is with Crystal's free Suicune.

That's what I mean compared to the issue with Jasmine. Because tot+fearow both have serious issues with the gym if they aren't over-leveled or relying on accuracy cheese. Even backtracking to pick up the gyarados doesn't help much there. Sure, technically speaking you can save Jasmine until much later, and blast through it over leveled. Or you could just use Furret/Radicate and easily dig your way to victory. Or any ember/flamewheel ofc.



Why would I ever stop for a krabby when polywag and psyduck are both even more easily available and more useful as HM slaves, and as pokemon in general?


But the real issue is that once you get to Stage 3 Toto or Cynda, almost all the good justification for any other non-event (in-game) pokemon disappears. Fer's return isn't that much weaker than Fearow's (and Gyarados's is within the same range). No discussion needs to be taken about his move-set, stab surf and ice punch being always great.

Pretty much the same discussion for Typhlosion with only Clair's Kingdra and Misty's Quagsire being "counters" (thankfully, none of Pryce's pokemon, nor Will's slowbro know any water moves). Maybe I'm missing a few, but I don't think I remember anyone else that poses a serious threat to a Typhlosion run at that point. EDIT: Hmm forgot about Blue's Rhydon.

Even at quilava. Maybe one of Silver's Crocs? One of the Route 41 trainers has a Tentacruel, but I think it's really low level iirc. Chuck's Poliwrath if you walk in underleveled and eat a hypnosis?

Thus with the justification for those pokemon dropping off so rapidly, eventually I'd rather just have pokemon that can transition into useful slaves when the real fighters get up to snuff. While not needed for anything, flash is nice to have, dig is convenient (I have a probably irrational dislike for escape ropes in gen 2. Something about taking up one slot in that bag), headbutt and rocksmash are both useful when cleaning up some post game (or while moving through if you want something specific, like heracross). Also flinch strats are fantastic fun.

I generally end up with a poliwhirl that knows surf, whirlpool, waterfall, and rocksmash. Furret with strength, cut, dig, headbutt. Noctowl with flash and fly. All of which is obtainable with a 5:50pm start before you leave route 30. Leaving two non-starter slots for whatever later stuff I want. Generally Gyarados and Suicune (I almost always play Crystal over GS).


I think I prefer early poliwag to early wooper. Like yes. Bubble sucks. But so does wooper's special attack and speed (and everything tbh). And I think I'll take hypnosis over slam. Too bad it evolves at 25.
 

Punchshroom

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First thing's first... Furret has literally only 10% worse attack than Fearow. Furret also learns swift. Its stab return is not much worse. The instant Furret evolves it surpasses Spearow. And has access to a much stronger ground move in dig (thus notably better at both Morty and Jasmine). Shadow ball.
That's what I mean compared to the issue with Jasmine. Because tot+fearow both have serious issues with the gym if they aren't over-leveled or relying on accuracy cheese. Even backtracking to pick up the gyarados doesn't help much there. Sure, technically speaking you can save Jasmine until much later, and blast through it over leveled. Or you could just use Furret/Raticate and easily dig your way to victory. Or any ember/flamewheel ofc.
- I know Furret gets Swift as well; I already took that into account, and my point still stands that Furret only outshines Spearow's damage (in terms of Normal STAB) for a mere 5 levels before Fearow takes over. Oh, and during that period, Spearow still keeps up thanks to super effective Peck in Azalea Gym.
- Ngl, forgot about the Dig TM, which is fine enough for picking off Gastlys, Jasmine's Magnemites, and weaker Haunters, but Furret doesn't OHKO Morty's Gengar, meaning that it's not faring much better than Fearow's Mud-Slap in the long run, which can at least help deny Dream Eaters.
- Shadow Ball is a pointless advantage; STAB Return hits Psychics just about as hard, if not harder coming from Fearow, whereas the only Ghosts you fight in the game are the Gastly line, which Fearow has little issue dispatching (Karen's Gengar especially is a joke).

I've been basically ignoring Rattata. Rattata/Radicate has marginally better stats (rattata being much better than sentret), a better early move pool, and most of the same realistic advantages that Furret has, just with the same 5 level slower evolution. As far as assuming they don't kill their target... Furret and Radicate both have much better typing than Fearow does, not fearing the bolt/beam combo. Of the three Furret has the the best bulk (more due to it's strong health pool than its defenses), but none of them are particularly great in that.
You say that as BoltBeam is something to constantly watch out for in the game; Fearow can defeat more than half of the Electric-types you'd encounter (though a good number of those belong to Silver's Magnemite/Magneton, so... :/ ). Ice-type moves don't even show up until the later half of the game, mainly from Pryce's Gym and Clair/Lance's Dragons, though pretty much all of those Pokemon are either weak enough for Fearow to beat or are too strong for Furret to handle anyway (I'd say Pryce's Dewgong would be the exception here). Even if Fearow's matchup against Lance is less than stellar, it more than makes up for it in the E4 contribution, using its Flying attacks to beat down Will's Exeggutor, Koga's Bugs (bar Forretress, but hey it still fares better against it than nearly every other Normal-type), Bruno's Fighting-types, and Karen's Poison-types. What does Furret / Raticate offer there?

No, I would distinctly say that covering water-types isn't very useful, when thunderpunch is a learned move for Typhlosion. Particularily as mareep is primarily useful after 2nd evolution (well that isn't really true, but Flaffy doesn't have many if any signature slowbro's or bulky waters to contend with on-route), and then loses the vast majority of usefulness once Typhlosion comes into play (para strats? light screen?).
You're not looking at the bigger picture here. The part where Water-types become relevant are the sea routes between Olivine and Cianwood, as well as Chuck's Poliwrath, and you're not going to have a Typhlosion at this point in the game bar extreme overleveling.

Clair's Kingdra is equivalently covered by the free Gyarados with strength/return (lol) as it is by Ampharos's TP (outside of Crystal for Thunderbolt tutor). Better really since Gyarados is much faster, has higher defenses, and has resistance to surf. Ignoring how trivial the gym is with Crystal's free Suicune.
Gyarados is a fine choice to tackle Clair's Kingdra with, but Ampharos's greater power (even with just TP) and access to Thunder Wave keep it up there as one of the best Kingdra responses. Both may still get screwed by Smokescreen (and in Gyarados's case, its resistance to Surf can lead to Dragonbreath usage, aka paralysis cheese), but if Ampharos manages to get a TWave in there, it'd at least make it much easier for teammates to deal with.

Why would I ever stop for a krabby when polywag and psyduck are both even more easily available and more useful as HM slaves, and as pokemon in general?
Technically Krabby is the most easily obtainable since it's the closest to where you obtain the Good Rod, but I can agree that Psyduck is the better HM slave overall. Poliwag, on the other hand, cannot learn Strength, and either training it at least 5 levels to evolve it or catch it to Surf in order to catch a Poliwhirl are plain inefficient. The point is that as a HM slave, Furret is pretty much only good for Cut before it can be replaced by a dozen Water-types which get its remaining essential HMs and more.

But the real issue is that once you get to Stage 3 Toto or Cynda, almost all the good justification for any other non-event (in-game) pokemon disappears. Fer's return isn't that much weaker than Fearow's (and Gyarados's is within the same range). No discussion needs to be taken about his move-set, stab surf and ice punch being always great.
First off, Cyndaquil is not even close to good enough to eclipse such a vast majority of other Pokemon in the game (Magmar is about greater / on par for a good portion of the game, and in the long run learns Flamethrower earlier & saves up on the Fire Blast TM), much less say Abra which I'm appalled you didn't even bring up. More importantly, this tier list assesses the Pokemon's overall individual performance. Theoretically you could throw away Raticate the instant you get access to Tauros since the latter would outperform it from there, but the tiering list still places it in a respectable B Rank as it takes Raticate's own merits (insane early-game damage that doesn't really wane from there) and flaws (no super effective STAB hits + poor bulk really rears its ugly head later) into account, as opposed to competition with other Pokemon. I know I harped on Furret facing competition from Water-types as HM slaves, but even in terms of battle capability, its only true standout is that it's a Normal-type that can Dig through Gym Ghosts & Magnemites while Surfing Jasmine's Steelix, which is admittedly a bit better than I give it credit for, but most of the other Normal-types can get past or at least disrupt these Pokemon in their own way.

Pretty much the same discussion for Typhlosion with only Clair's Kingdra and Misty's Quagsire being "counters" (thankfully, none of Pryce's pokemon, nor Will's slowbro know any water moves). Maybe I'm missing a few, but I don't think I remember anyone else that poses a serious threat to a Typhlosion run at that point. EDIT: Hmm forgot about Blue's Rhydon.

Even at quilava. Maybe one of Silver's Crocs? One of the Route 41 trainers has a Tentacruel, but I think it's really low level iirc. Chuck's Poliwrath if you walk in underleveled and eat a hypnosis?
Lance's Dragonites, as well as Aerodactyl if it outspeeds, can pose a threat as well.

Thus with the justification for those pokemon dropping off so rapidly, eventually I'd rather just have pokemon that can transition into useful slaves when the real fighters get up to snuff. While not needed for anything, flash is nice to have, dig is convenient (I have a probably irrational dislike for escape ropes in gen 2. Something about taking up one slot in that bag), headbutt and rocksmash are both useful when cleaning up some post game (or while moving through if you want something specific, like heracross). Also flinch strats are fantastic fun.
The 'convenient' field moves have little bearing in terms of efficiency, bar maybe Fly. Flash is only 'nice to have' when going after Lugia in Silver version (which by itself is not a necessity), and even then the path is linear enough to not need Flash to navigate. Dig, Headbutt, and Rock Smash should be evaluated more on their battle value than their ability to conserve Escape Ropes or find wild Pokemon, which makes Rock Smash useless. "Cleaning up some post game" is worthless in an in-game tier list, which evaluates how effectively each Pokemon can help you reach and beat Red (literally stated in the OP).

I think I prefer early poliwag to early wooper. Like yes. Bubble sucks. But so does wooper's special attack and speed (and everything tbh). And I think I'll take hypnosis over slam. Too bad it evolves at 25.
In both Crystal and Gold/Silver (where you can't even obtain early Poliwag), Wooper comes at a time where it is more likely to contribute (before Union Cave, also has the Mud-Slap TM if you're willing to spend it but frankly Quagsire won't need it), and from there its typing and great learnpool carry it through, or function as a HM slave at worst. Poliwag comes at a time where its Bubble does jackshit to anything that is not Geodude & it takes a looong time for it to get freaking Water Gun as its upgrade, and its battle capability barely improves from there as it takes a good while to evolve, and both of its evolutions are even more of a pain to access (Poliwrath is only available post-game in Gold & Silver and you have to hope for RNG in Crystal; Politoed needs access to trading), meaning being a HM slave is the best thing it can do.
 
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I get Crystal at I think Midnight tonight since I've pre-downloaded. No promises I'll make a full faithful playthrough, but just in case I do, what are some 'mon that need more testing?
 
I get Crystal at I think Midnight tonight since I've pre-downloaded. No promises I'll make a full faithful playthrough, but just in case I do, what are some 'mon that need more testing?
I think this one's obvious and you might have already planned on doing this, but use the event Celebi and see how it fares in the latter half of the game. Granted, it might need a bit of babysitting since you catch it at level 30, but I think it should be able to take on most of the trainers in the SS Aqua to help it catch up.

Edit: Just realized that a big issue is that its only attacks upon capture are Ancientpower and Future Sight, and the Psychic and Giga Drain TMs aren't until after SS Aqua. It also doesn't help that the next two moves it learns via level up are Baton Pass and Perish Song, so it could be a bit tricky to raise at the beginning unless you use the Solar Beam and Shadow Ball TMs on it.
 
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Few things I noticed in the OP while going over it to try and decide what Pokémon to use:
-I'm not entirely sure why the Pokémon in untiered are mentioned at all. Usually that 'tier' in these lists is reserved for Pokémon who are aftergame or event exclusive, but there is literally no possible way to obtain Kabuto or Charmander or Mewtwo in this game so I'm not sure why they're there.
-There's a bit of an inconsistency in the way some split evolutions are labeled; Poliwag's are tagged as "Poliwag (Poliwrath)" and "Poliwag (Trade)", but then Slowpoke's are marked as "Slowpoke (Slowbro)" and "Slowbro (Slowking)" despite Slowking also being a trade evo. I personally prefer the former method of tagging Slowking as a trade evolution but the main point is consistency.

Talking of Pokémon to use; should I assume that the S, A and E ranks are generally sorted and I should be looking more to B, C and D for specific Pokémon to test? I'm sorry for asking so much on this, I'm simply not as familiar with these games as I am others outside of actually following this list. I've completed a grand total of one Crystal playthrough.
 
Few things I noticed in the OP while going over it to try and decide what Pokémon to use:
-I'm not entirely sure why the Pokémon in untiered are mentioned at all. Usually that 'tier' in these lists is reserved for Pokémon who are aftergame or event exclusive, but there is literally no possible way to obtain Kabuto or Charmander or Mewtwo in this game so I'm not sure why they're there.
-There's a bit of an inconsistency in the way some split evolutions are labeled; Poliwag's are tagged as "Poliwag (Poliwrath)" and "Poliwag (Trade)", but then Slowpoke's are marked as "Slowpoke (Slowbro)" and "Slowbro (Slowking)" despite Slowking also being a trade evo. I personally prefer the former method of tagging Slowking as a trade evolution but the main point is consistency.

Talking of Pokémon to use; should I assume that the S, A and E ranks are generally sorted and I should be looking more to B, C and D for specific Pokémon to test? I'm sorry for asking so much on this, I'm simply not as familiar with these games as I am others outside of actually following this list. I've completed a grand total of one Crystal playthrough.
Since you're playing Crystal, this could be a good opportunity to try Pokemon out based on their Crystal rankings, such as Growlithe, which appears immediately west of Violet City, one of the baby Pokemon from the Egg received from the Daycare, and even something as bad as Sneasel which appears in the Ice Path.
 

atsync

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Below is another batch of analyses/write-ups for stuff I've tested in Silver. This will be the last batch I test for a little while since I'll be fooling around with Crystal and doing other things for now. I intend to come back to this eventually though.

Since Crystal is out now and some people will probably be looking to test stuff, I might try to find time and make a comprehensive list of differences between GS and C (mostly location, evolution and move pool differences) since I think it would be helpful to know where differences exist and whether they might justify tier differences by version for some Pokemon.

Eevee (Espeon)

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When testing Eevee, my main interest was how quickly an Eevee could get enough friendship to evolve. I wasn’t specifically trying to test Espeon, but it just so happened to be daytime when it evolved. At some point I’d like to try Umbreon too just to see what that could do in-game.

The first thing I did for this particular run was look up what methods could be used to increase friendship. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be an exploit like in Yellow where you could spam Potions on a full health Pikachu to increase it (attempting to use items on it increases friendship even if it doesn’t do anything otherwise). So aside from haircuts and just playing through the game and increasing it through leveling up and challenging important trainers (challenging gym leaders increases friendship of every party member), the other options are using vitamins, which increase friendship to a similar degree as leveling up would, and using x-items (raises friendship by 1 until your Pokemon reaches 200, at which point it has no effect).

Leaving X-items alone for now, it occurred to me that I could attempt to do a similar experiment to the one I did with Game Corner coins: save money as much as possible and buy vitamins as they become affordable, and then use those on Eevee to increase its stats and friendship. So that’s exactly what I did for this run. In doing this, and with no faints and thorough exploration of optional areas to increase step count and increase friendship even more, my Eevee evolved to Espeon at level 34/just before Pryce, which actually suits Espeon because it’s early enough for Psybeam but late enough so that Eevee learns Bite for coverage. That sounds good and it kind of is, but the drawback is that it requires a lot of money investment which may make things difficult if you want to by lots of TMs from the Game Corner or even the Dept. Store.

This will still force Eevee to stay unevolved for quite a while. Whilst I don’t think that Eevee is completely awful, it does have limited usefulness in match-ups especially since you’ll probably be playing carefully with it lest it be unexpectedly KOed by a random crit and have its friendship dropped. So that’s a drawback to Eevee/Espeon, although it gets points for being given to you at a high level. It should go without saying that Espeon itself is great, hitting hard and fast with Psybeam and later Psychic, and having some use in important match-ups, not to mention trivialising much of Team Rocket. But I think leaving it in C-tier is probably fine as is because it takes too long to get going and doesn’t get very long to utilise its true potential in playthrough.

Now as far as X-items go, I would be curious to see how useful those might be for raising friendship. X-items aren’t as effective as friendship boosters but they are much cheaper than vitamins and it wouldn’t be extremely difficult to by a ton of them in Goldenrod City and send Eevee in against some underleveled wild Pokemon like Magikarp to spam them. Assuming the X-item has to have an effect on stats to increase friendship, you could potential increase friendship by 24 from when Eevee starts with 0 boosts (6 for each of the 4 stat increasing items; X Accuracy/Dire Hit/Guard Spec don’t increase friendship in this gen apparently). After hitting the maximum, you could switch out and back in again to wipe the boosts and then start boosting again. It sounds tedious but at least the lack of level grind required offsets it.

It would cost 10500 Pokedollars to get 6 of each of the 4 battle items – since X Speed and X Special are slightly cheaper, it would be more cost effective to only use those instead of X Defend and X Attack. I don’t think you’d be able to get enough to evolve it right away (and that might not be ideal anyway because of move pool issues) but it would certainly get Eevee on its way and would be a good supplement for friendship boosts from levelling up, vitamins found in the field, and haircuts. Maybe if I try Umbreon I can look into how viable it is.

Gastly (with trade)

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Gastly has serious move pool issues initially. It only has Lick to do damage - it doesn’t hit very hard and its PP will be drained quickly. Night Shade and Shadow Ball are decent upgrades but it would be until to becomes Gengar that it will take off.

Among Gastly best attributes early-game is its defensive typing. Gastly often beats things automatically simply because it resists/is immune to the opponents moves. Gastly can beat things, but it can’t beat things very quickly early on and that is its main problem.

Of its move options early-game, I actually found Curse to be one of its most useful options. It isn’t suited for routes but it’s a terrific win condition in some match-ups and I used it on Bugsy’s Scyther and Morty’s Gengar successfully (Gengar in particular is susceptible to Curse with switch stalling because it likes to Hypnosis things that aren’t sleeping and Dream Eater things that are). It also kind of worked on Miltank, but this is riskier because Miltank can out-speed Gastly and start using Rollout (Curse doesn’t inflict damage if the Pokemon KOes you so Miltank can potential skip Curse damage during Rollout’s most damaging turns).

Once you get Gengar you can teach it the elemental punches and start destroying things. It isn’t quite as good as Alakazam but it’s still very strong in its own right, reliably KOing stuff on routes and having many targets in important match-ups across the entire game. It just takes some time to get there. I think A tier is too high and would like to see that drop down to at least B tier.

Obviously Gastly is much worse if it can’t trade, since Haunter inexplicably lacks the elemental punches. I’ll probably test it eventually – most likely it’ll end up as a Rain Dance + Thunder attacker with Shadow Ball and eventually Psychic since that seems to be the best way to use it after the initially Gastly slog.

Jynx

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Of all of the post-7 badges Pokemon found east of Mahogany Town, Jynx is probably the pick of the bunch. It has great power and speed, good STAB options right away, and it is not especially difficult to grind up because the Tangela and Weepinbel on Route 44 are easily OHKOed by Jynx and provide around 500 exp each – with animations on, expect about 20-25 minutes of grinding at most.

Jynx is a bit one-dimensional at first. The problem is that while it has Ice Punch for Ice STAB, it doesn’t have anything else it can use well until the Psychic TM is obtained. Otherwise, all it gets is Hidden Power and some physical moves. Despite this, Jynx has a lot to contribute: mono-Ice coverage is still very good on its own, covering Clair and Lance’s Dragons and hitting several Elite 4 Pokemon for super-effective damage, and it is an excellent route sweeper.

Slowpoke

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I tested this a bit like Goldeen: I used an early-route Slowpoke initially but replaced it with an evolved form later.

The biggest issue I had with Slowpoke early on is the initial grind since it was difficult to find a good grinding spot for it and it starts off a bit under-levelled. It does have access to Swift as a more power alternative to Tackle though which helps a bit. Slowpoke is also not a strong Pokemon by any means, it’s very slow, and it doesn’t evolve until the late 30s assuming trading isn’t possible (otherwise it can evolve to Slowking after Morty is defeated – don’t forget to grab Strength from Olivine too).

Slowpoke at least has a wide move pool, and Water Gun at level 15 and Confusion at level 20 provides it with good STABs earlier on. I also found some use for Curse in some match-ups since it’s pretty easy to set up on, say, Bugsy’s Metapod to being a sweep. Otherwise I found it to be a bit too weak to bother with.

The better alternative is to wait until Strength and Surf can be obtained. That is when the evolved forms of Slowpoke become available at the bottom of Slowpoke Well. Wild Slowbro can be found by Surfing and if trading is possible, you can just catch a wild Slowpoke (far more common than Slowbro), grab the King’s Rock from the Scientist in the same area, and do the trade. The differences between Slowbro and Slowking are minor and either way, the Pokemon you catch should be around the same level as your current team (i.e. little grinding needed) and you can give it strong moves like Surf, Ice Punch, Shadow Ball and Strength immediately. Earthquake, Psychic and even Fire Blast are options later on. Both Slowthings hit reasonably hard and have overall good match-ups throughout the game. Low Speed is really the only flaw.

I consider the Slowpoke line to be yet another viable mid-game Water-type and would probably lump it in with Lapras and co.

Snubbull

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This thing is awesome. I actually can’t believe how little attention it has received in this thread. I guess people, including myself, care more about Tauros and Rattata and so this slipped under the radar.

In GS, Snubbull arrives at the same time as Tauros and Miltank. Using the DST trick, it is easy to obtain, and it comes at level 16 and is in the fast exp. group, which is far better than the level 13/slow exp. group combo that Tauros and Miltank have and allows it to grind much more quickly. It also evolves at level 23 into a Pokemon with more Attack and Special Attack than Tauros/Miltank, along with a wide move pool that includes Normal STAB, Bite for initial coverage against Ghosts in Ecruteak (another perk over the bull and the cow), elemental punches, Shadow Ball and even Sludge Bomb, although it sadly misses out on Earthquake and Surf.

Granbull is mostly let down by terrible Speed, but otherwise it is a terrific Normal type. I wouldn’t mind seeing this go up to at least B tier to be honest. And I can only imagine how much better it is in Crystal, where it arrives earlier and is no longer a swarm Pokemon.

Swinub

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Another late-game Ice-type, but this one isn’t too good. Move pool is a problem for it, since it initially has only Normal moves available for powerful physical options (it can’t even learn Dig), and with no Ice Punch either, it only has the shaky Blizzard as a general-purpose KO move. Its damage output is otherwise mediocre. It also grinds slower when compared to something like Jynx because it can’t KO Tangela/Weepinbel as reliably.

Swinub’s initial role is similar to Jynx’s: Spam Ice moves against the many Ice-weak oponnents that appear late-Johto. It isn’t very good at performing this role though – even Delibird has more Special Attack and Speed than Piloswine and especially Swinub. Piloswine has to risk Blizzard to OHKO Clair’s Dragonair for instance (and those will like have the Speed advantage too).

It improves once it gets Earthquake, but that’s very late. Ultimately, I consider Swinub to be a subpar choice in a playthrough because it arrives rather late in Johto, and unlike Jynx or Lugia/Ho-oh, its Johto performance during the brief time it’s available is underwhelming.

Tentacool

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A good alternative to Lapras and other Mid-game Waters that has STAB Sludge Bomb to distinguish itself from the rest of the pack. As I’ve alluded to previously, you should NEVER attempt to use a Tentacool fished up early-game with the Old Rod and should instead wait until you can Surf in the field. By then evolved Tentacruel can be added to a team with little to no grinding and can be given Surf right away. STAB Sludge Bomb makes it similar in function to Qwilfish – I prefer Tentacruel just because I prefer a more powerful Surf to a more powerful Sludge Bomb, but both are good.

Vulpix

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Vulpix is basically Silver’s equivalent to Growlithe in terms of function: it’s an early/mid-Johto Fire-type with some physical moves for coverage. Unfortunately, Vulpix really got the short end of the stick when it comes to stat distribution. Vulpix’s offensive stats are pretty bad and being a stone evolution Pokemon in GS with stats like those can never be good.

Vulpix does have one neat tool in its arsenal that distinguishes it from other Fire-types: STAB Flamethrower at level 31! Vulpix’s Flamethrower is actually stronger than a Flame Wheel from Quilava, and that would give Vulpix temporary status has the holder of the second strongest STAB Fire-type move in GS, at least until Quilava evolves and gets Fire Punch (there’s no getting past Magmar either way). Suddenly, Vulpix becomes a better counter to Jasmine than Quilava and Growlithe. Early access to Flamethrower also makes things much simpler when it comes time to evolve it in Kanto. Whereas Growlithe might need to wait even longer to evolve (assuming it hasn’t reached level 50 for Flamethrower by the time the Fire Stone is obtained), there is absolutely no reason to not evolve Vulpix in the same scenario.

As neat as early Flamethrower sounds, it’s important to keep in mind that even level 31 is quite far away from Vulpix’s starting level. Until then, Vulpix is extremely underwhelming, doing only modest damage with Ember, Headbutt and Dig. So no, Vulpix is not a good Pokemon in GS by any means. In terms of ranking, I think placing it alongside Growlithe, wherever that ends up, is reasonable. Growlithe clearly has the edge initially, but early Flamethrower arguably gives Vulpix the advantage later on given that Fire coverage is the main reason why these Pokemon might be used on a team in the first place.

Weedle

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Meh. It’s not the worst Pokemon in the world. Its stats aren’t high but they are at least well distributed, and it gets some useful moves, like early Swift and STAB Sludge Bomb. It also has one of the better Bug-type moves in Twineedle at level 20. At the very least, it is a half-decent partner for Totodile because it easily dispatches of Grass-type (although this can also be said for a lot of early-route Bug- and Flying-types).

But in the end, it isn’t really that powerful overall, especially later in Johto. It has overall poor match-ups and it is especially bad at dealing with opposing Poison-types which is never a great thing in GS. As usual, getting a Weedle up to Beedrill is a nuisance, although there is always the option of catching one in the Bug-catching contest.

I don't really agree with dropping Abra (No Trade). Yeah Alakazam is objectively better than Kadabra, but the end result of using either is effectively the same -- they both dominate the game. Alakazam just has some marginally better performance in neutral match-ups.
Almost a month late, but I just wanted to say that I agree with this. I don't necessarily care if traded and untraded Abra has separate entries as long as that rule is applied to all trade evo Pokemon, but even untraded Kadabra is superior to everything in A-tier and deserves to rank above them.
 
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I'm gonna be trying Gengar out myself, as well as the event Celebi, once the NA version of VC Crystal goes live, and I have a question.

Is Shadow Ball practically a requirement on Gengar? I ask because I'm actually considering holding on to it to give Celebi Shadow Ball. Upon capture, all Celebi has access to for attacking moves are Future Sight, which isn't STAB in Gen 2, and Ancientpower. To give Celebi more offensive prowess for SS Aqua, my plan is to give it Shadow Ball as well as Solar Beam, and then check to see what Hidden Power type I get with it as well. I think Gengar will do just fine with the Elemental Punches imo, but training it up to become Gengar (I'm able to trade evolve it) will be tough without Shadow Ball.
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
I'm gonna be trying Gengar out myself, as well as the event Celebi, once the NA version of VC Crystal goes live, and I have a question.

Is Shadow Ball practically a requirement on Gengar? I ask because I'm actually considering holding on to it to give Celebi Shadow Ball. Upon capture, all Celebi has access to for attacking moves are Future Sight, which isn't STAB in Gen 2, and Ancientpower. To give Celebi more offensive prowess for SS Aqua, my plan is to give it Shadow Ball as well as Solar Beam, and then check to see what Hidden Power type I get with it as well. I think Gengar will do just fine with the Elemental Punches imo, but training it up to become Gengar (I'm able to trade evolve it) will be tough without Shadow Ball.
For Gengar, not really. It's useful for occasional Psychics and Ghosts but mostly it'll be using elemental punches. For unevolved Haunter it's a different story, but otherwise you should be fine to save it for Celebi.

As far as training Gastly up to become Gengar is concerned, Shadow Ball isn't even an option because it isn't given to you until you beat Morty, by which time Gastly will be at or close to level 25 anyway assuming it got it at the start of the game. Unfortunately, that's a problem with using Gengar that can't really be avoided since Gastly's options for damage are so limited.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Kurona, you should test out Snubbull since atsync brought it up. It's super easy to get in Crystal due to a 30% encounter rate outside of the Daycare.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Gastly (Trade) drop since that dead period is way too long. (Outside of a Tin Tower one in Gold, but then it comes much later and requires some grinding.)
 
I also agree with a Gasty (Trade) drop. I just started my Crystal run earlier today and I'm finding it annoying that I almost expend 1/3 of Lick's PP in a single one on one battle.

I might try giving it Nightmare for some more damage output, though. We'll see how it goes.
 
It's looking like a lot of Celebi's early training will rely heavily on reserving the Shadow Ball TM. The only offensive move it starts out with is Ancientpower, it doesn't learn any more offensive moves by Level-up, both of its STAB TMs are in Kanto - albeit fairly easy to obtain once you get there - and it doesn't even learn Headbutt or any Elemental Punch TMs.
This means that your only options for giving it an offensive move right away assuming you went to it immediately after the Elite 4 are the TMs for Swift, Hyper Beam, Solarbeam, Return and Shadow Ball. Given Swift's relatively low power, the charge limitations of the beams and Return starting out at Base 40 power with Celebi's base 100 Happiness, if your plan is to grind Celebi on SS Aqua, keep that Shadow Ball TM safe.
 
It's looking like a lot of Celebi's early training will rely heavily on reserving the Shadow Ball TM. The only offensive move it starts out with is Ancientpower, it doesn't learn any more offensive moves by Level-up, both of its STAB TMs are in Kanto - albeit fairly easy to obtain once you get there - and it doesn't even learn Headbutt or any Elemental Punch TMs.
This means that your only options for giving it an offensive move right away assuming you went to it immediately after the Elite 4 are the TMs for Swift, Hyper Beam, Solarbeam, Return and Shadow Ball. Given Swift's relatively low power, the charge limitations of the beams and Return starting out at Base 40 power with Celebi's base 100 Happiness, if your plan is to grind Celebi on SS Aqua, keep that Shadow Ball TM safe.
There's also Hidden Power, but that'll require luck to get a beneficial typing out of it. Luckily, Celebi's Attack and Special Attack are the same, so hopefully you'd get one with either STAB or just good neutral coverage.

Edit; an update on my Gengar in the VC Crystal version. This is a pretty situational...err..situation, but I planned to evolve my Haunter immediately after evolving from Gastly, and the only way I could do that with the set up I had was via the Time Capsule. The 3DS I currently used had Crystal while my other had Red.

So why do I bring this up? Well, throughout Gastly’s initial level up movepool up to level 25, the only Kanto-era moves it gets are Hypnosis, Lick (both of which are obtained immediately upon capture) and finally Night Shade at level 21. The other moves in between, which are Spite, Curse, and Mean Look, are Gen 2 moves, which meant that I had to wait 6 extra levels with my Haunter until it learned Confuse Ray at level 31 if I wanted to trade it with the Time Capsule method. Kind of lame, but by this point, Night Shade was starting to doing a fair amount of damage to everything it could hit it with, and it practically swept through the sea route connecting Olivine to Cianwood.
 
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Now as far as X-items go, I would be curious to see how useful those might be for raising friendship. X-items aren’t as effective as friendship boosters but they are much cheaper than vitamins and it wouldn’t be extremely difficult to by a ton of them in Goldenrod City and send Eevee in against some underleveled wild Pokemon like Magikarp to spam them. Assuming the X-item has to have an effect on stats to increase friendship, you could potential increase friendship by 24 from when Eevee starts with 0 boosts (6 for each of the 4 stat increasing items; X Accuracy/Dire Hit/Guard Spec don’t increase friendship in this gen apparently). After hitting the maximum, you could switch out and back in again to wipe the boosts and then start boosting again. It sounds tedious but at least the lack of level grind required offsets it.
I'm playing through Crystal right now and I hatched a shiny Cleffa from the odd egg (without resetting, thankfully), so I decided to test this out. Granted, Cleffa, unlike Eevee, starts with 120 happiness, since it's hatched from an egg, but I think this is probably the most efficient way to raise happiness in a playthrough of G/S/C. I bought enough x-items to get Cleffa to around 185 happiness, and then I took advantage of Crystal's mechanic that leveling up a pokemon in the location where you met it yields double the happiness than you get when leveling normally. My Cleffa evolved at level 14 after about an hour of grinding.

I'm curious about the possibility of separating the rankings of Phanpy in Silver and Phanpy in Crystal. I think Phanpy in Crystal is potentially worthy of being raised to C. It's one of the first mons you can catch in the game, and although it's rare, you can easily change the in-game clock to catch it any time of day. It definitely has movepool issues, but you can teach it headbutt and rollout early on, plus it evolves pretty early. I was able to easily sweep both Whitney and Morty after setting up defense curl and using rollout. I would compare it to Heracross. It has a barren movepool early on, but its high attack and defense stats make it pretty usable.
 

Celebi (VCC) for B tier.
I just finished my Virtual Console Crystal play through with the event Celebi on my team, and I have a lot to say about it.

I was originally going in to this with relatively low expectations. Its starting moveset sucks with Ancientpower and Future Sight, which doesn't even get STAB this generation, being its only attacks upon capture, its level up movepool, and movepool in general concerning TMs, is limited and it forces the player to hold on to certain TMs such as Shadow Ball and Hidden Power throughout the run, it appears pretty late in the game (post E4) and requires you to wait a day for Kurt to mess with the GS ball (but I just reset the time to bypass the 24 hour wait), and starts at level 30 when the rest of your team is most likely at or around the mid 40s, so I thought that the initial grind to get Celebi to the same level as the rest of my team was going to be a lot more challenging than it actually turned out to be.

Turns out that Celebi is pretty damn busted during the second half of the game. Despite all of the negatives that I said in the previous paragraph, Celebi makes Kanto its bitch, and I'll explain why.

Immediately after capture, I decided on giving my Celebi the TMs for Shadow Ball, Sunny Day and Solar Beam. I also decided to calculate Celebi's Hidden Power to add as a potential filler move so Celebi could have access to another attack that has more PP than Ancientpower. Turned out I had a base 60 HP Electric. Granted, getting a good Hidden Power is very luck-based, so if your HP type and power sucks, stick with Ancientpower. In the end, that slot was just a filler move that I had put there until I could get the Psychic TM.

I wanted to roll with Solar Beam > Giga Drain since it's twice as strong and has twice the amount of PP, and when used with Sunny Day, I could use it consecutively without needing to charge it up. Sunny Day is also appreciated by any Fire-type Pokemon, or mons with Fire-type moves, that are in your party. With the Miracle Seed equipped, Celebi's Solar Beam hit like a truck.

Celebi makes for an excellent Shadow Ball user. Out of all the available Psychic-types in the game, Celebi has the highest Attack stat of 100, which means that this Psychic-type has the ability to do serious damage to other Psychics in the game by hitting their typically-weaker Defense stats with super effective damage. It's also among the fastest viable users of the move. Shadow Ball made Celebi quite a good mixed attacker for me, and it could also drop SpDef in clutch situations such as a Gym Leader using a potion. It was also nice that Shadow Ball has a decent amount of PP, which made the initial grind in the SS Aqua much more tolerable.


When using Solar Beam and Shadow Ball, Celebi has a pretty good matchup against most of the trainers in the first voyage of the SS Aqua, with only having issues with Firebreather Lyle who had a Flareon and two Koffings that could Selfdestruct, and against Juggler Fritz's Magmar, but his Mr. Mime and Machoke fell over easily anyways. Outside of that, the SS Aqua wasn't too difficult for my Celebi. Upon exiting the boat, you can make a beeline for the Psychic TM and replace whatever filler move you had, and I stuck with the movepool of Psychic, Shadow Ball, Sunny Day, and Solar Beam for the rest of the game.

Celebi's matchup against the Kanto Region, as well as the Kanto Gym Leaders, is absolutely fantastic. Many trainers use Pokemon that are weak to Celebi's attacks, which means it powered through just about everyone and it grew in level really fast for me.

Regarding the Gyms and Red:

- Surge: Resists Electric-type attacks and sweeps with Solar Beam/Psychic. Since my Celebi was a bit underleveled by this point, I had to use an X Special and X Speed, but that was because I was impatient. There's plenty of trainers around to help boost Celebi's level before entering the gym. Watch for the Electrodes' Selfdestruct, though.

- Sabrina: Resists Psychic-type attacks and sweeps with Shadow Ball.

- Erika: Click the Psychic button

- Janine: Click the Psychic button.

- Misty: SunnyBeam sweeps.

- Brock: SunnyBeam sweeps. I was even picking up OHKOs with Psychic at this point.

- Blaine: This is really Celebi's only questionable matchup depending on its level, but since my Celebi was slightly over level 60 by this point, Psychic OHKOd Magcargo and Magmar, and Rapidash's Fire Blast failed to OHKO. Those balanced 100 defensive stats really do come in handy.

- Blue: Only "fears" Pidgeot and Arcanine. However, I was able to comfortably set up an X Special against Pidgeot since Wing Attack didn't do a ton of damage, and Arcanine failed to finish me off with Flamethrower. Everyone else falls.

- Red: Charizard is the only Pokemon Celebi has to be wary of. My Celebi was at level 68 going in to this fight, so I used Pikachu as easy set up fodder and used two X Specials. Psychic failed to OHKO Charizard, but Flamethrower didn't OHKO me either. Everyone else perished.


To give a quick summary, Celebi was a braindead mon for me to use, and with the exception of a few battles on SS Aqua, I solo'd all of Kanto with it. I feel B rank is a pretty good start for this mon. While it's fantastic, the things holding it back are its late availability, relatively low level upon capture, bad starting movepool which requires the player to hold on to some TMs for a considerable amount of time, and the fact it requires a modicum of babysitting in the beginning. However, as I kept using Celebi after SS Aqua and watched it grow and become stronger, I realized I didn't even need the rest of my team anymore. Celebi took over and became my team.

It would suck if this ends up remaining unranked and I just wasted all my time ;_;
 
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So I've only just beaten Lance and not the game, but I figured I might as well give my thoughts on some Pokémon I've used because
1. I've mostly used them to judge their early-game Crystal performance anyway,
2. I'm planning on copying Vengeance's Celebi Kanto Solo so they likely won't be used much again,
3. I accidentally got Kurt working on some Fast Balls I'll never use so I have to wait until Wednesday to catch Celebi and hence continue the game

So! Without further ado...

Growlithe (Crystal)
I can't speak enough praises of this thing's early game. It can be a bit frustrating to catch thanks to Roar, but as soon as you get it you can throw it at the Sprout Tower which it'll solo and get up enough levels to learn Ember and pitch in against Falkner as well -- though actually, due to how power calculations work Bite is the same base power and it's the move it'll end up using most of the time at this point in the game. Which is pretty great since it's fairly powerful and hits a lot of trainers for neutral damage, with said trainers usually having low special defence. This means Union Cave's Geodudes aren't a problem, and it can then go on to tear apart Bugsy after a little jaunt with Team Rocket. After that is Goldenrod around which you can catch Growlithe in GS anyway and its performance at that point in the game has been better documented by other more experienced players than myself; but obviously joining the team earlier and being about Level 20 by this point helps a lot. It decimated Morty with Bite, burnt Jasmine's Magnemite to a crisp, took down most of Koga's team with ease and was generally a very solid team member aside from the Whirl Islands routes and Blackthorn Gym. I was very lucky to get a Fire Stone from Alan - though it's not terribly unlikely if like me he's the only person you have registered; I got three fire stones out of him before it came time to evolve - and used it on my Growlithe at Level 34 (when it learns Flame Wheel). Growlithe's performance had started to wane from like Level 27 onwards but evolution brought it right back up to par.

tl;dr -- very solid team member, and its being available in Crystal makes that first section of the game before Goldenrod much much easier especially if it's complimenting a Totodile. I'd put in either B or low A.

Snubbull (Crystal)
atsync said it better than I ever could: this thing is awesome and - while I usually loathe to use these terms nowadays - it is severely underrated. You're mostly looking at my post if at all over atsync's to see how it does early-game in Crystal, and yeah; it does amazingly. I found Growlithe's performance mirrored in that I didn't really need to do any wild Pokémon grinding, I could just immediately give it a Headbutt TM, throw it at trainers and watch it tear through things while levelling up very fast thanks to that exp group it's in. Miltank still proved a bit too much for it just before evolution, but it still put in a lot of work against Goldenrod Gym and after evolution it proved a great asset with Bite against Ecruteak gym as well; while Thunderpunch turned out to be a fantastic move to fall back on for a team that otherwise didn't have any other super effective moves against Water-types. It's eventually let down by its low speed, though that's the only huge negative I could find aside from Bite and Thunderpunch being held back by low special attack at times; this is still a fairly bulky very powerful normal-type attacker that I found very reliable -- and it certainly didn't stop it from teaching Will, Karen and Team Rocket's bosses a lesson or two either.

Due to those flaws holding it back I wouldn't put it anywhere above B-Rank, but due to how solid it was I couldn't see it anywhere lower either.
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
This is my attempt to identify changes between GS and Crystal. I've mostly focused on move pool changes (the new move tutor and tweaks to level-up learn sets, but NOT egg moves aside from Dizzy Punch for the Odd Egg Pokemon), location changes and tweaks to wild encounter levels. I probably missed something so feel free to suggest other stuff that can be added here. Note that this is not an endorsement for giving all of these Pokemon separate entries on the list - obviously some of this stuff is irrelevant for tiering.

Caterpie
  • Slight catch level tweaks (max prior to Violet City is 4 instead of 5)
Weedle
  • Rarer than in Silver, 5% encounter rate, lower max catch level
Pidgey
  • Slight catch level tweaks on various routes (lower max on Route 29, guaranteed level 4 on route 30 in the morning, etc.)
Rattata
  • Slight catch level tweaks on various routes (dropped by 1 on most early routes, no longer encountered on routes 30/31)
  • Ice Beam and Thunderbolt from move tutors
Spearow
  • Lower max catch level on Route 46 (3 down to 2)
Ekans
  • Game Corner option not available, not found at night on Route 32/33
  • Much rarer on Route 33 than in GS (5%), where the catch level is more forgiving (7 on Route 33, 4 on Route 32)
  • Now found in some Headbutt trees (e.g. Azalea Town)
  • Arbok now available earlier on Route 42
Pichu/Pikachu
  • Available in Johto as an Odd Egg Pokemon with Dizzy Punch
  • Also available at Celadon Game Corner (2222 coins, level 25)
  • Thunderstone available in Johto
Sandshrew
  • Game Corner option not available, not found at night in Union Cave
  • No longer available on B1F in Union Cave, max catch level dropped from 8 to 6 as a result
Nidoran-F
  • Moved to National Park, no impact on availability
  • All move tutor moves available to Nidoqueen
  • Moon Stone available in Ruins of Alph, not earlier than Tohjo Falls Stone but slightly less backtracking involved
Nidoran-M
  • Moved to National Park, no impact on availability
  • All move tutor moves available to Nidoking
  • Moon Stone available in Ruins of Alph, not earlier than Tohjo Falls Stone but slightly less backtracking involved
Clefairy
  • Available in Johto as an Odd Egg Pokemon with Dizzy Punch
  • All move tutor moves available
  • Moon Stone available in Ruins of Alph, not earlier than Tohjo Falls Stone but slightly less backtracking involved
Jigglypuff
  • Moves to Route 34, available later but with far better initial move set options (Headbutt, elemental punches)
  • Access to all move tutor moves
  • Moon Stone available in Ruins of Alph, not earlier than Tohjo Falls Stone but slightly less backtracking involved
  • Also available as an Odd Egg Pokemon with Dizzy Punch, no improvement on availability though and would just require more grinding
Zubat
  • Found on more early routes, no impact on catch level aside from being guaranteed level 4 on Route 32
  • Golbat now available in Mt Mortar, earlier than in GS but irrelevant if using the Friend Ball strategy since Friend Ball requires Surf and there are better options to catch Golbat at that point (e.g. Union Cave basement)
Oddish
  • Higher max catch level in Ilex Forest (6 up to 7)
  • Leaf Stone now available in Johto
Paras
  • Rarer, now 5% encounter rate at all times (was 15% during morning/night in GS)
Venonat
  • Available in Ilex Forest at night
  • Wild Venomoth available in Johto on Route 43
Diglett
  • Level tweaks, can now be as high as level 32 if found at night
Meowth
  • Only found at night, same catch level
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Psyduck
  • Available in Ilex Forest
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Growlithe
  • Now available before the first gym in the new patch of Grass on Route 36
  • Fire Stone available in Johto
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Poliwag
  • Available slightly earlier at night on Route 31/32
  • Water Stone now available on Johto
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Abra
  • Abra bought from the Game Corner are now obtained at level 5 instead of level 10, making it less appealing as an alternative to catching a wild one
Machop
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
  • Now requires Abra instead of Drowzee to trade for, Game Corner Abra being lower levelled than in GS and wild Abra being at a lower level than wild Drowzee may also affect Machop
Bellsprout
  • Slightly increased catch levels on early routes (e.g. 3 up to 5 on Route 31)
  • Leaf Stone now available in Johto
Tentacool
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Geodude
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Ponyta
  • No longer found at night on Route 27, otherwise unchanged availability
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Slowpoke
  • Gets Flamethrower and Ice Beam from the move tutor
Magnemite
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
  • Magneton (not Magnemite) gets Tri Attack instead of Swift at level 35
  • Available as an in-game trade in the Power Plant for Dugtrio
Farfetch’d
  • Moved from Route 38 to Route 43, technically available at the same time but less convenient
  • Same catch level but a bit more common (20% up from 10%)
Doduo
  • Dodrio available as an in-game trade at Blackthorn City for female Dragonair (replaces Rhydon in GS), Dratini not being available at the Game Corner makes this less practical though
Seel
  • Slight catch level tweaks in Whirl Islands, max is 27 in Lugia’s room (up from 26)
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor but should already have it by then
Grimer
  • Slight level tweaks for Grimer and Muk
  • Gets Flamethrower and Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Shellder
  • Water Stone now available in Johto
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor (previously only had it as a Shellder at level 49)
  • Cloyster gets Spikes at level 33
Gastly
  • Higher catch level (compared to Sprout Tower Gastly) available on Route 32 (Level 7)
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Onix
  • Changes to Bellsprout’s catch levels also impact Onix potentially
Drowzee
  • Catch level tweaks, now guaranteed at level 12 (previous min/max in GS was 10-14 depending on Route)
Krabby
  • Slight level tweaks in some locations
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Voltorb
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Exeggcute
  • Location changes, no longer found in Ilex Forest, closest location appears to be Route 32
  • Leaf Stone available in Johto
Cubone
  • Now available in Johto as a Goldenrod Game Corner prize (level 15, 800 coins)
  • Gets Flamethrower and Ice Beam from the move tutors
Tyrogue/Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan/Hitmontop
  • Available as an Odd Egg Pokemon with Dizzy Punch
Lickitung
  • No longer found at night, lower minimum catch level, max is unchanged
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Koffing
  • Evolved Weezing can be caught in Burned Tower, 1% encounter rate that should be improvable with the Repel trick by using a level 16 Pokemon as a lead
  • Wild Koffing got minor catch level tweaks, max is still 16
  • Gets Thunderbolt and Flamethrower from the move tutor
Rhyhorn
  • Rhydon no longer available as an in-game trade
  • Rhyhorn’s catch level lower to 32 (from 35), Rhydon now obtainable in the wild at 35 to compensate
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Chansey
  • Changes to Pokemon levels on Routes where Chansey is found makes the Repel Trick slightly less effective in drawing it out
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Kangaskhan
  • Minor changes to catch level and time availability
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Horsea
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Goldeen
  • Slight level tweaks in some places
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Staryu
  • Water Stone now available in Johto
  • Gets Ice Beam and Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Mr. Mime
  • No longer available at Celadon Game Corner
  • Minor changes at catch levels/times
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Smoochum/Jynx
  • Smoochum available as an Odd Egg Pokemon with Dizzy Punch, Smoochum also gets Confusion and Psychic as level up moves and provides the only way for Jynx to get Psychic moves in Johto
  • Wild Jynx’s max catch level increased to 26 (from 24)
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Elekid/Electabuzz
  • Elekid available as an Odd Egg Pokemon with Dizzy Punch
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
  • Slight level increase for wild Electabuzz at Power Plant
Magby/Magmar
  • Wild Magmar no longer found in Burned Tower, moved to Mt. Silver
  • Magby available as an Odd Egg Pokemon with Dizzy Punch
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Tauros
  • No longer found at night, availability otherwise unchanged
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Magikarp
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Lapras
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor (and Ice Beam but should already have it by then)
Eevee
  • Gets Baton Pass instead of Focus Energy at level 36
  • Water/Fire/Thunderstones are available in Johto
  • Vaporeon gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
  • Jolteon gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
  • Flareon gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
  • No longer obtainable at Celadon Game Corner
Porygon
  • Porygon is cheaper (5555 coins instead of 9999) but is lower levelled (15 instead of 20)
  • Gets Thunderbolt and Ice Beam from move tutors
Aerodactyl
  • Chansey being slightly harder to draw out with the Repel trick also impacts Aerodactyl's availability
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Snorlax
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Dratini
  • No longer available at Goldenrod Game Corner, only options are underleveled Dragon’s Den Dratini or possibly Super Rod Dragonair post-Elite 4
  • Gets all move tutor moves
Cyndaquil
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Totodile
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Sentret
  • Evolved Furret available on Route 43
Hoothoot
  • Slight changes to catch levels and locations, Hoothoot/Noctowl available through Headbutt
Ledyba
  • Very minor level/location changes, no change on early routes
Spinarak
  • Very minor level/location changes, no change on early routes
Chinchou
  • Gets Thunderbolt and Ice Beam from the move tutor (note that it can’t learn Blizzard or Icy Wind in this generation, so Ice Beam is its only Ice move)
Togepi
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Marill
  • No longer a swarming Pokemon, more options for acquisition and has a higher max level if obtained by Surfing in Mt Mortar
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Hoppip
  • Found a bit earlier
  • Minor but irrelevant change to level up move pool, doesn’t have Tail Whip by default anymore, learned at level 5 with Synthesis
Aipom
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Sunkern
  • Higher catch level, guaranteed to be level 14
Yanma
  • Now learns Wing Attack instead of Swift at level 37
Wooper
  • Minor route changes, level 8 Wooper guaranteed at night in basement of Union Cave (previously 6-8 at night on Route 32 in GS was the best option if going for Wooper early)
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Murkrow
  • Catch level increased by 1 (to 29) on Routes 16/18
Misdreavus
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Wobbuffet
  • Now available from the Goldenrod Game Corner (1500 coins, level 15), available for use against Whitney as a win condition (Destiny Bond anyone?)
Dunsparce
  • There is a Repel on Route 32 now, allowing players to utilise the Repel Trick earlier as a potential alternative to obtain Dunsparce sooner than it normally would be obtained using the DST trick
  • Gets Thunderbolt and Flamethrower from the move tutor
Snubbull
  • No longer a swarm Pokemon, available earlier on Route 34/35, wild Granbull is available but only in Kanto
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Qwilfish
  • Gets Spikes as a starting move
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Sneasel
  • Obtainable much earlier in the Ice Path
  • Gets Metal Claw at level 65
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Teddiursa
  • Obtainable much earlier in Dark Cave, Ursaring can also be caught in the eastern section as soon as Surf is available (later but easier to catch due to lack of fleeing and higher encounter rate)
Slugma
  • Only found during the day, improved catch level on Route 17 (32 max, up from 29)
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Swinub
  • Slight catch level tweaks, highest is now 26 (up from 25)
  • Gets Amnesia as a level up move (level 70 as a Piloswine)
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Corsola
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor (note that it can’t learn Blizzard or Icy Wind in this generation, so Ice Beam is its only Ice move)
Delibird
  • Slight catch level tweaks, highest is now 26 (up from 24)
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Mantine
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Houndour
  • Catch level increased from 15 to 18
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Phanpy
  • Obtainable much earlier on Route 46
Stantler
  • Obtained slightly later, can no longer be obtained before Whitney due to changes to Route 36’s encounter list (to account for the addition of grass to the right of Sudowoodo that gives access to early Growlithe), earliest is route 37 (same time as Tauros/Miltank so one of Stantler’s niches over those two is lost)
  • Only found at night, higher max level of 16 (up from 15)
Smeargle
  • No longer found at night, otherwise the same
Miltank
  • No longer found at night, encounters are otherwise unchanged
  • Gets Thunderbolt and Ice Beam from the move tutor
Raikou
  • Gets Thunderbolt from the move tutor
Entei
  • Gets Flamethrower from the move tutor
Suicune
  • No longer a roaming Pokemon, technically available later than in GS but not as badly reliant on RNG
  • Gets Rain Dance at level 21 (i.e. default) instead of Roar
  • Gets Aurora Beam instead of BubbleBeam at level 41
  • Gets BubbleBeam instead of Water Gun at level 11
  • Gets Ice Beam from the move tutor
Larvitar
  • Now available at Celadon Game Corner (8888 coins, level 40)
  • Tyranitar gets all move tutor moves
Lugia
  • Found in similar circumstances to Gold but down to level 60
  • Gets Thunderbolt and Ice Beam from the move tutor
Ho-oh
  • Now requires all Raikou, Entei and Suicune to have been captured first, then becomes available after first visit to Celadon (need to talk to Eusine), found at level 60
  • Gets Flamethrower and Thunderbolt from the move tutor
--------------------------------------------

A couple of things I forgot to mention in my last set of write-ups:

Slowpoke has a chance of holding King's Rock so this would allow players to evolve to Slowking immediately. However, the chances of catching a Slowpoke with King's Rock are even lower than Magnemite with Metal Coat so I don't think it should be given any weight in tiering. Also, Slowking has an advantage over Slowbro in that it learns Psychic at a lower level (48 vs. 54), presumably because of the different evolution methods (trade evos normally learn their moves at the same level as their previous form). This probably won't matter in a playthrough though because the TM should become available around that time (unless you want to use it on something else).

Bulbapedia and Serebii both state that wild Tentacruel can be found at level 40 in Cherrygrove City. This would give it an insane level advantage, but based on my own experiences trying to hunt it down with the repel trick, I think this is most likely a mistake, if not extremely rare.

I'm playing through Crystal right now and I hatched a shiny Cleffa from the odd egg (without resetting, thankfully), so I decided to test this out. Granted, Cleffa, unlike Eevee, starts with 120 happiness, since it's hatched from an egg, but I think this is probably the most efficient way to raise happiness in a playthrough of G/S/C. I bought enough x-items to get Cleffa to around 185 happiness, and then I took advantage of Crystal's mechanic that leveling up a pokemon in the location where you met it yields double the happiness than you get when leveling normally. My Cleffa evolved at level 14 after about an hour of grinding.
Interestingly, Bulbapedia states that the Odd Egg hatchling specifically starts with 20 happiness rather than 120 so the fact that it evolved at level 14 is curious. Thanks for trying it out regardless.
 
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Interestingly, Bulbapedia states that the Odd Egg hatchling specifically starts with 20 happiness rather than 120 so the fact that it evolved at level 14 is curious. Thanks for trying it out regardless.
This is interesting. I counted each happiness gain, and it definitely only took 100 happiness for Cleffa to evolve. I think Bulbapedia may be wrong here, but obviously I can't say for sure without more testing
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
This is interesting. I counted each happiness gain, and it definitely only took 100 happiness for Cleffa to evolve. I think Bulbapedia may be wrong here, but obviously I can't say for sure without more testing
Should be easy enough to check with the happiness rater in Goldenrod, since the message given should be different for 120 ("It's quite cute") and 20 ("It doesn't seem to like you at all. It looks mean").
 

WaterBomb

Two kids no brane
is a Forum Moderatoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
I was urged to share my thoughts on growlithe here since they seem to differ from above posters. I'll try to organize my thoughts in a reasonably coherent way, so here goes...

I tried using Growlithe on this current playthrough of vc Crystal, and I was honestly very disappointed. Due to early availability and type advantage against Sprout Tower and Bugsy, Growlithe starts out as a big help. However, after Azalea his usefulness quickly declines. As strong as Bite is early game, it's horribly weak through the mid and late game outside of helping with Morty. Same goes for Ember, which is your best Fire stab until level 34 when you get Flame Wheel.

Speaking of Flame Wheel, I notice a ton of people rating this move very positively in their analyses. I find this interesting, because it's still only 60 base power and is obtained at a point in the game where you are probably on your way through the events at Mahogany. By now most of your fire weak adversaries are gone, and you're about to face a gauntlet of Water (Clair, Will), Dragon (Clair, Lance), and Rock (Bruno) types that resist it. Additionally, the only moves you're carrying above 60 base power are Normal type (Headbutt, Strongth, Return), so, despite Fire Doge's respectable Attack stat, you're just not hitting things that hard.

By the time you get Flamethrower you're at or past the E4, so Growlithe basically spends the bulk of your main game as more of a handicap than a help. His offensive presence picks up again once you get Flamethrower and a Fire stone to evolve him with, but you're still left with only one gym (Erika) where Fire dominates. And your best coverage moves are STILL Bite, Dig, and Return. Not exactly inspiring.

In conclusion, I believe Growlithe should remain in C tier, and could possibly even be dropped to D tier. His early availability, early game usefulness, and strong stats once he's evolved I think are just enough to keep him from dropping to D, but he absolutely should not be moving up anytime soon.
 
Should be easy enough to check with the happiness rater in Goldenrod, since the message given should be different for 120 ("It's quite cute") and 20 ("It doesn't seem to like you at all. It looks mean").
Oh yeah. I checked the happiness rater as soon as I hatched Cleffa because I wanted to make sure eggs actually hatched at 120 happiness before I started grinding. I got "it's quite cute," so I'm pretty sure Bulbapedia is mistaken.

As far as Growlithe goes, I'm raising one and I agree with Kurona re: its usefulness. Granted, I've only just got to Blackthorn, so I won't make any conclusions as to what rank it should be in, but I don't think it should drop below C, and I can see it rising to B. I've found some success with teaching Iron Tail to Growlithe. It's not an amazing move, but I don't think there's a lot of competition for the TM and it does reasonable damage coming from Arcanine's attack stat.
 

Karxrida

Death to the Undying Savage
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Bulbapedia and Serebii both state that wild Tentacruel can be found at level 40 in Cherrygrove City. This would give it an insane level advantage, but based on my own experiences trying to hunt it down with the repel trick, I think this is most likely a mistake, if not extremely rare.
The seed for a Level 40 one might just be really rare. I think we need to look into to this at least.
 
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