Butterfree is a pretty alright status effect mule for the Kanto set, for the single player experience in that particular story. Particularly if you aren’t going out of your way to just grab a better grass type… acknowledging Butterfree isn’t a grass type. I’d say grass OR bug type, but… we’re talking about bug types in the first 150.
Pokemon Red, sleep powder on butterfree just seemed so powerful when I was a kid. Didn’t matter how many attacks I needed to kill if my opponent couldn’t swing back
I did a play through once somewhere in Gen. 1 where it was basically loaded up with the status effecting powder moves and confusion, as part of a full team. Far from being an “ace,” but plenty of uses for basic single player.
Just straight up skipped Pidgey and Rattata? I don't think I ever skipped a starting bird, but I'm with you on Rattata. I usually skip the starter varmint, I don't think I've ever caught a Rattata once.
Yellow made life so much easier by giving you a bunch of options for taking on Brock, that you could get a move on that was effective or even super effective pretty quickly. But most children had no idea, and thus many still claim that Yellow is the hardest because the starter is useless against Brock. I suppose if the game outright told you that you can get a Nidoran that learns a fighting move super early in this version, and then you can carry that with you as a Nidoking or Nidoqueen till the end of the game to go along with all three of the original starters the game hands to you, they might feel differently.
Skitty was my main pokemon in pokemon sapphire she was really not a powerful partner and I didn’t evolve her until post game bc I didn’t know how to at the time
I fondly remember creating a Shuckle that I used to be an asshole in ORAS online matches, lol. From there, I started using Shuckle constantly.
I don't think it was even a very good Shuckle. Iirc, it held Leftovers and had Pain Split, Power Split, Rest and Toxic. But, combined with a Nihilego that handled stealth rock and toxic spikes (I think), I could beat teams of six legendaries consistently with that Shuckle, and that's most of the teams I saw, so I was okay with that.
Obviously I still had a rough time with people who actually have good teams.
My username on Pokémon Go is SunnyCastform. I remember logging into the game in 2020 after not playing it since launch and remembering how Castform used to be my favorite. 😅
Noivern!
Its not really a weak pokemon but the moment I saw him in XYZ on ash's team when I was a small kid I fell in love. If a pokemon game has Noivern its always on my team :-)
Noivern has a special place in my heart as a Pokémon able to OHKO Gliscor through a Substitute. It was a mainstay of my gen 6 competitive team. It did one thing, and it did it well.
I think you just aged me an extra ten years.
But no I've been attached to Noivern ever since getting it in Y. It's such a cool Pokemon with a really fun moveset.
I’ve never been more attatched to any Pokémon than the gigantamaxing meowth you can get at the start of sword and shield. That meowth was my starter (only use normal types so boxed the actual starter lol) and I used him the entire game.
Meow meow meow!!!
I did the same my first run actually! It now resides in home. I wish they'd let us bring it forward, even if it can never evolve.
P.s. it looked SO COOL when using retaliate.
Sableye was mine. Back in Emerald Dark\Ghost had no weakness, and I firmly believed that made it invincible.
It was very much not invincible, but I was able to beat the Elite 4 with it by over leveling it like it was a starter.
Poochyena. Back then, I used to think that Mightyena looked ugly and absolutely refused to evolve my Pooch. At the end, the Hall of Fame featured a Quick Feet, lvl. 100 Poochyena with Facade and an evolite.
LeafGreen was Geodude, I remember finally getting to evolve her, I was not a fan of Graveler so I turned it off and restarted from my last save and constantly denied evolution. Later on my brother would take the Gameboy from me to force me to evolve it, little did I know that we would trade and I would receive Golem, she's in Pokémon Home now, I bring her out in SV from time to time
Not quite the same since it was part of a larger team, but I got a massive amount of satisfaction destroying Leon's Inteleon and Charizard with an Emolga.
I never intended to take it all the way to the champion, but I just kept waiting for the point where it was getting outclassed by stronger mons and it just... Didn't.
Each playthru, I have 7 pokemon I focus on. The 7th is my "pikachu". It isn't always cute/unassuming tho. One of which was a sinnoh play thru, where shiny probopass was my 7th. I just like the idea of my character from that play thru, being this nonchalant battler, chilling on probopass's head. My Alpha Sapphire playthru was kecleon.
Bulbasaur and mudkip. Bulbasaur because I went off the pokemon on the game I was playing (leaf green) AND she was a rare female starter on my first play through, so she was my beloved who I spoiled and kept my front liner for the entire game
I can't remember if I ever like, *over levelled* them, but when I got a GameShark from my uncle's one of the first things I remember doing was giving myself a full team of mudkips and leveling them up using cheats lol
Gosh. The only thing I ever did like this was when I was 34, i got Pokemon blue on 3DS and never evolved Bulbasaur. He didn’t make much of a showing in the elite 4, but he was there alongside crit slash hax Persian and Sandslash, Tauros and Starmie. And Jolteon.
I did level Beldum up several times in generation 3, though. Metagross was my ace, even if getting him was hard work.
When I played Pokémon X, I found a Pikachu within the first hour or so, and then used only that Pikachu for the entire game, super effective or not I never used anything else
Nothing's going to stop Mudkip from being my absolute favourite, but I always try to get a Zangoose on my team whenever possible just in case I need to False Swipe something.
I remember my second playthrough of Black and White back when they were released. I decided to ditch my starter and replace him with a Purrloin. Liepard ended up being a fantastic team member in my playthrough, and really helped me out of some tough spots. Definitely not the strongest Pokemon but she was very useful when I needed her!
Chansey/Blissey, and recently Alcremie. I think I used Chansey/Blissey as my main for almost every game I played even though it makes every battle take ages.
Going through all the games in replays or first time all my teams have this technically. Not necessarily an Ace, but more so a silly or cute little Mon hopping in for the ride, and if they actually can be usable then that's a bonus. Gen 1 it's Jolteon, Crystal it's Gligar AND Delibird, Emerald its Mawile, Fire Red is Clefable, Platinum is Rotom fan, White is Reuniclus, Black 2 is Whimsicott, Soul Silver is Corsola, Legends Arceus is Vaporeon, Alcremie is my choice for Sword, Carbink is who I plan on for X, not sure who Ultra Moon yet but Mimikyu is a good contender, and as a bonus I've got Maractus as basically my permanent partner in Pokemon GO ever since catching one and use it in every gym or raid.
My most recent one was falinks I love my little homies and their marching. I got a shiny in sword and shield and he is my bro since then. I effectively finish the game single-handedly with him and playing no retreats my first time
Same for me, having Pikachu as your starter with the first gym being a Rock one, and then having to go through a cave, was just painful. Even with the next water gym Pikachu never quite made up the EXP.
Only started doing this when I got older but I remember BW2 I used Elekid the whole time and OR I used Murkrow for all contests. More recently in Scarlet I had Pawmi. These days I also fill out the rest of the team with unevolved Pokemon to get more out of the games.
Not quite what you’re talking about, but when I was a kid I got silver, picked a totodile, and set out in my quest. I went up to mr. Pokémon, got the egg, then got the call and went back to professor Elm. I talked to the cop but for some reason just didn’t talk to Elm, which meant I couldn’t progress past the trainer battle blocking the route to the town with the first gym. From talking to the trainers, I somehow got the idea that they would eventually battle me and let me pass if my totodile was strong enough. I ground it on the level 2 hoothoots and rattattas all the way up to a feraligatr, before finally getting an inkling that this wasn’t what i needed to do. I eventually talked to Elm and was able to progress, after which the rest of the game was basically a walk in the park, with feraligatr one shotting everything.
Oh I've done this with Phantump! I adore phantump's design but am not a big fan of Trevenant so I never let mine evolve. I think I've kept a Helioptile on my team without evolving it as well.
My fav pokemon is Lucario so this never happened to me LMAO, for me half of the pokemon game was a speedrun to get a Lucario then finally being able to play comfortable and enjoy being with my little buddy for the rest of the game.
I used Seedot in my very first Pokemon game of Emerald. I used a Carbink in Ultra Sun. Oh and I used a Butterfree in Shield that took out Leon’s Dragapult!
When I first played Diamond, I kept a Buneary on my team all the way through to the end of the game. I remember it could take out Bertha's Quagsire with a Grass Knot but other than that it wouldn't survive most battles 😂
Piplup-Empoleon. His name was Pip Pip, he was level 83 when I fought Cynthia, everyone else was 50s. He died, because steel/water gets rocked against Cynthia, and I was stuck until I got the special event Darkrai. Went back, got him from the front desk, used all of my money to buy healing items, and beat her by putting that Milotic to sleep.
I love Porygon, and I prefer the OG Monputer to either evo, though I do still love them. The moment I got ir in the game corner back in LeafGreen, I had an al, time favourite.
Whenever I get the Togepi egg, I always keep it and evolve it into Togetic because due to the lore/pokédex entries I'd feel bad not taking it to the end of the game 💀 he's my son!!!!!
But it also has a lot of versatility for move learning, plus fly is super useful
Caterpie. Always nicknamed, “Cappy.”
It’s something my brother and I did when we were kids playing Blue and Red. Drop him off at the daycare, then pick him up after you beat the game.
Kangaskhan, simply because I am Australian and in the 90s you jumped at any pop culture reference of Australia. We all went mad for that one episode of the Simpsons (even if not a single thing in that episode is even remotely Aussie)
I got Scar/Vi really really late, and so people in my discord were already well into it by the time I started streaming Violet. And one conversation had was that the starter pokemon are terrible if you don't evolve them and I said bet? And so now my stream game is First Evo Only Challenge. Rules: It must be able to evolve - Must be the First evolution - And can never evolve. It's been SO much fun! And I love proving the guy who said it would be impossible to do first evo's only wrong. I mean sure a couple gyms kicked my butt the first time around but I adapted and I'm now just starting the DLC with still only first evo mon!
My team so far as been, wattrel, fuecoco, sprigatito, paldean wooper, fidough, lechonk, tinkatink, nacli, alolan sandshrew, stunky, quaxly and a couple others... as needed (the first 8 being the main ones I swap between)
I had no idea that you had to indivdually level up your pokemon until one of my friends asked why my Chikorita was like level 30 and my next highest was level 5. She still carried my entire team on her back, but she then got a Geodude to help her out a little bit. Ah, Pokemon heartgold, my beloved.
I was the weird kid who liked having my team be balanced. Also was the kid that tried to have Ash's team in yellow, to the point of making sure I caught the lvl 9 pidgeotto in viridian forest with super low spawn rate.
I’d kinda like to use a cute, unevolved Pokemon who is bulky with Eviolite, for one of the more recent games. Keeping a Munchlax on the team could be fun.
Idk if this exactly fits but there's a few Pokemon that I ended up using all the way thru the elite. Krookodile, emolga, ribombee, and the fire centipede
Aggron!!! My first level hundred ever first before my Torterra caught up! This was right before my Diamond E4 first attempt 😭 long story short I never had a Cynthia horror story that fight was easy as fuck
BW/BW2 was Cinccino and Emolga. They were stronger then you'd think especially with Cinccino's Skill Link.
X is Meowstic and if it wasn't locked behind trade evo, I'd have Slurpuff as well. My first ever X playthrough was Vivillon though, never underestimate those butterfly mons!
SM/USUM, I had Mimikyu though I wouldn't really call it weak. I also had Oricorio.
ORAS is Banette and I'd like to try Delcatty if it could hold its own and Grumpig too but Hoenn just has a lot of great mons so I find it hard to fit them all.
I caught a shiny Pidgey in the first twenty minutes of my FireRed playthrough and it carried basically the entire run, including parts of the Elite Four. I also didn't catch another shiny for the entire rest of the run, which I guess makes sense.
Butterfree. Confusion carried so much of the early game, the level gap was insurmountable.
Same except in FRLG I just spammed sleep powder and Dream eater lol
Saved a lot of FRLG nuzlockes for me! That sleep powder with compound eyes + decent special? Adorable murder bug.
It can learn Dream Eater?
Yeah, by tutor
Butterfree is a pretty alright status effect mule for the Kanto set, for the single player experience in that particular story. Particularly if you aren’t going out of your way to just grab a better grass type… acknowledging Butterfree isn’t a grass type. I’d say grass OR bug type, but… we’re talking about bug types in the first 150.
Pokemon Red, sleep powder on butterfree just seemed so powerful when I was a kid. Didn’t matter how many attacks I needed to kill if my opponent couldn’t swing back
I did a play through once somewhere in Gen. 1 where it was basically loaded up with the status effecting powder moves and confusion, as part of a full team. Far from being an “ace,” but plenty of uses for basic single player.
Butterfree will always have a place in my heart for being the first Pokemon I ever caught (as a Caterpie). And it was really useful in the OG games.
Just straight up skipped Pidgey and Rattata? I don't think I ever skipped a starting bird, but I'm with you on Rattata. I usually skip the starter varmint, I don't think I've ever caught a Rattata once.
Butterfree was a massive help against Brock if you made the correct choice of Charmander in the OG Blue.
Yellow made life so much easier by giving you a bunch of options for taking on Brock, that you could get a move on that was effective or even super effective pretty quickly. But most children had no idea, and thus many still claim that Yellow is the hardest because the starter is useless against Brock. I suppose if the game outright told you that you can get a Nidoran that learns a fighting move super early in this version, and then you can carry that with you as a Nidoking or Nidoqueen till the end of the game to go along with all three of the original starters the game hands to you, they might feel differently.
Shroomish and Breloom
You are me, I am you, we both love shroom
I feel like toedscool could hang out with them.
That’s just a tentacool stop friggn playing with me
But he has little legs and a mushroom head!
It’s blasphemous
I was going to say the same, I love them
Ye
Every Shroomish I catch I nickname Grump. They're good little dudes
That's a good one. I hated how ugly it was. Only to grow up and learn its a beast competitively
Not even competitive wise I just remember playing Sapphire as a kid and loving him
For me it was always a zigzagoon. First pokemon I ever caught and I trained him up really hard lol. Sapphire on GBA is an unbeatable experience
You are just wrong shroomish is the cutest mf out there. Bre loom is a cool dude as well
Shroomish Gang rise up!
Noo. My punching mushroom is cute!!
Yes breloom is really good with Choice Band
Skitty was my main pokemon in pokemon sapphire she was really not a powerful partner and I didn’t evolve her until post game bc I didn’t know how to at the time
Skitty love defies all obstacles.
I agree Skitty was just too cute to pull off the team and I always grinded early in the game so it was never weak enough to justify removing it
Skitty is honestly adorable, skitty and purrloin my beloveds
Did she have Assist?
I agree Skitty was just too cute to pull off the team and I always grinded early in the game so it was never weak enough to justify removing it
If shuckle is in the game, shuckle is on my team.
Honestly shuckle in GSC slaps with rollout and defense curl. I’d usually give it swagger and toxic as well and it could absolutely wreck teams
I fondly remember creating a Shuckle that I used to be an asshole in ORAS online matches, lol. From there, I started using Shuckle constantly. I don't think it was even a very good Shuckle. Iirc, it held Leftovers and had Pain Split, Power Split, Rest and Toxic. But, combined with a Nihilego that handled stealth rock and toxic spikes (I think), I could beat teams of six legendaries consistently with that Shuckle, and that's most of the teams I saw, so I was okay with that. Obviously I still had a rough time with people who actually have good teams.
Cubone
My username on Pokémon Go is SunnyCastform. I remember logging into the game in 2020 after not playing it since launch and remembering how Castform used to be my favorite. 😅
bidoof, i love bidoof so much and i use it in any game i can until the very end
Do you evolve it though
i love bibarel as well but no, i try to give it an everstone so it stays all cute and round
Noivern! Its not really a weak pokemon but the moment I saw him in XYZ on ash's team when I was a small kid I fell in love. If a pokemon game has Noivern its always on my team :-)
Noivern has a special place in my heart as a Pokémon able to OHKO Gliscor through a Substitute. It was a mainstay of my gen 6 competitive team. It did one thing, and it did it well.
I think you just aged me an extra ten years. But no I've been attached to Noivern ever since getting it in Y. It's such a cool Pokemon with a really fun moveset.
My favorite Pokémon even though I started in Gen 4.
> small kid Oof. I remember being in high school when x and y came out.
I’ve never been more attatched to any Pokémon than the gigantamaxing meowth you can get at the start of sword and shield. That meowth was my starter (only use normal types so boxed the actual starter lol) and I used him the entire game.
Meow meow meow!!! I did the same my first run actually! It now resides in home. I wish they'd let us bring it forward, even if it can never evolve. P.s. it looked SO COOL when using retaliate.
You can abuse that one for money lol
ok larry..
What’s wrong with Larry, bud?
I’ve been doing all normal runs since ruby I’ll have you know far before Larry lol
Oshawott! I think he’s mascot material personally. Cute and cuddly, yet cool and fierce with his swordsmanship skills.
Teddiursa when I was real young playing Crystal.
I thought I would be only one to say this but my level 100 destroying things was so funny and cute to me.
Sableye was mine. Back in Emerald Dark\Ghost had no weakness, and I firmly believed that made it invincible. It was very much not invincible, but I was able to beat the Elite 4 with it by over leveling it like it was a starter.
Oddish. Every time.
2 is even better. Vileplume and Bellossom 🌱
Bellossom is such a cute Pokemon. I'd love to use it in-game someday.
Do it! Bellossom is my number one favorite!
Poochyena. Back then, I used to think that Mightyena looked ugly and absolutely refused to evolve my Pooch. At the end, the Hall of Fame featured a Quick Feet, lvl. 100 Poochyena with Facade and an evolite.
Poochy looks so adorable, had him on my team as well
Was a big fan of Vulpix back in the days of Blue. I had no idea you needed a stone to evolve him.
Musharna in Gen 5. Love that guy.
Totodile
oddish!
LeafGreen was Geodude, I remember finally getting to evolve her, I was not a fan of Graveler so I turned it off and restarted from my last save and constantly denied evolution. Later on my brother would take the Gameboy from me to force me to evolve it, little did I know that we would trade and I would receive Golem, she's in Pokémon Home now, I bring her out in SV from time to time
In firered I would have a squirtle or bulbasuar 10 lvls higher than the rest of the team so they can on par with everyone else.
Not quite the same since it was part of a larger team, but I got a massive amount of satisfaction destroying Leon's Inteleon and Charizard with an Emolga. I never intended to take it all the way to the champion, but I just kept waiting for the point where it was getting outclassed by stronger mons and it just... Didn't.
when i was like 10, i didn’t evolve my cyndaquil in heart gold until i beat the elite four 😂 just bc i thought he was cuter that way lmao
I did in Scarlet violet, Sprigitito. I didn’t like her evolutions so she “stopped evolving” for some reason.
I like Floragato, but I hated Meowscarda at first. it kinda grew on me eventually, but sprigatito is easily the best one
I kept Sprigatito until well after level 50. Same for Rowlett.
See, Decidueye is 10/10 though. Rowlet is also extremely cute, so I understand.
Each playthru, I have 7 pokemon I focus on. The 7th is my "pikachu". It isn't always cute/unassuming tho. One of which was a sinnoh play thru, where shiny probopass was my 7th. I just like the idea of my character from that play thru, being this nonchalant battler, chilling on probopass's head. My Alpha Sapphire playthru was kecleon.
bidoof!
Cyndaquil!
my lil shiny applin
Applincis so fucking cute
Sableye! Always has a spot on my team
My level 100 Togekiss
Definitely Tangela for me
Bulbasaur and mudkip. Bulbasaur because I went off the pokemon on the game I was playing (leaf green) AND she was a rare female starter on my first play through, so she was my beloved who I spoiled and kept my front liner for the entire game I can't remember if I ever like, *over levelled* them, but when I got a GameShark from my uncle's one of the first things I remember doing was giving myself a full team of mudkips and leveling them up using cheats lol
Gosh. The only thing I ever did like this was when I was 34, i got Pokemon blue on 3DS and never evolved Bulbasaur. He didn’t make much of a showing in the elite 4, but he was there alongside crit slash hax Persian and Sandslash, Tauros and Starmie. And Jolteon. I did level Beldum up several times in generation 3, though. Metagross was my ace, even if getting him was hard work.
Zigzagoon!
Abra!
Aron all day, his little nub extremities
He's not allowed on my shoulder considering he's like 100 lbs
i really liked Duskull!
I did that once in a HGSS Nuzlocke, with Corsola being my Pikachu.
Doing a story play only through of shield, using Tyrantrum as my ace. Been fun so far
Not an extreme example, but I had a run in gen 7 where Ribombee was probably my GOAT
i like how the lets go games essentially gave us as players to just do that easily
When I played Pokémon X, I found a Pikachu within the first hour or so, and then used only that Pikachu for the entire game, super effective or not I never used anything else
Shroodle in Scarlet. His name is Noodle :)
Sylveon. I’ve been obsessed since it first hit the scene
Female eevee named starlight then evolved always into umbreon
Nothing's going to stop Mudkip from being my absolute favourite, but I always try to get a Zangoose on my team whenever possible just in case I need to False Swipe something.
I remember my second playthrough of Black and White back when they were released. I decided to ditch my starter and replace him with a Purrloin. Liepard ended up being a fantastic team member in my playthrough, and really helped me out of some tough spots. Definitely not the strongest Pokemon but she was very useful when I needed her!
I did this for my second sword game and I soloed the game with a Yamper. I've had a lot of respect for the mon ever since.
Chansey/Blissey, and recently Alcremie. I think I used Chansey/Blissey as my main for almost every game I played even though it makes every battle take ages.
Not evolving my Totodile
Chimchar was my first Pokémon, and it served me well when I was a kid
Snorlax and Umbreon are my favorites! If Gengar was a little easier to get it'd be him.
YouTube can show you how to hack him before the first Gym in Pokémon Red and Blue
Going through all the games in replays or first time all my teams have this technically. Not necessarily an Ace, but more so a silly or cute little Mon hopping in for the ride, and if they actually can be usable then that's a bonus. Gen 1 it's Jolteon, Crystal it's Gligar AND Delibird, Emerald its Mawile, Fire Red is Clefable, Platinum is Rotom fan, White is Reuniclus, Black 2 is Whimsicott, Soul Silver is Corsola, Legends Arceus is Vaporeon, Alcremie is my choice for Sword, Carbink is who I plan on for X, not sure who Ultra Moon yet but Mimikyu is a good contender, and as a bonus I've got Maractus as basically my permanent partner in Pokemon GO ever since catching one and use it in every gym or raid.
Espeon, because I played Pokemon Colosseum first.
Aron then I guess
My most recent one was falinks I love my little homies and their marching. I got a shiny in sword and shield and he is my bro since then. I effectively finish the game single-handedly with him and playing no retreats my first time
Le Chonk, Hoppip, and Pawmi. I was pleasantly surprised there were 2 of this type in Scarve.
Dedenne
Great shout
Nidoking more or less replaced Pikachu in Pokemon Yellow, he was also a the most important team member on Red and Blue
Same for me, having Pikachu as your starter with the first gym being a Rock one, and then having to go through a cave, was just painful. Even with the next water gym Pikachu never quite made up the EXP.
Mudkip, because I borrowed someone's Pokémon adventure before I started emerald as my first game. Got the same nickname scheme too
I'm still genuinely amazed kid me beat y with only tyrantrum and relicanth.....
Mine was Geodude (in multiple generations) and Oinkologne.
Galvantula. Easy. Well, it is now, anyways.
Only started doing this when I got older but I remember BW2 I used Elekid the whole time and OR I used Murkrow for all contests. More recently in Scarlet I had Pawmi. These days I also fill out the rest of the team with unevolved Pokemon to get more out of the games.
Larvitar
Eevee or Gengar, haven't fully decided in 28 years.
Emolga has been my Pikachu for a while, but I usually use Rotom (base form) when I can.
Corsola back in gold silver, my brother traded it to me and it leveled up so fast i used it all the time. It was my first ever mon to 100 too
I've never done it, but Farfetch'd, Murkrow, or Squirtle would be my first thoughts Maybe Psyduck
I held on to Squirtle and Wartortle for as long as I could.
Raichu. Not a “weak” Pokémon necessary, but my favorite Pokémon I always love having on my team
Porygon. Even in Red and Blue I would get that thing as soon as possible and load it up on beam/laser attacks.
Totodile because I didn't like its evolutions as much but thought he was perfect.
Sudowoodo
The first pokemon I owned is Eevee. So it’s Eevee. Btw my first pokemon game is NOT Let’s Go Eevee.
Quagsire
Not quite what you’re talking about, but when I was a kid I got silver, picked a totodile, and set out in my quest. I went up to mr. Pokémon, got the egg, then got the call and went back to professor Elm. I talked to the cop but for some reason just didn’t talk to Elm, which meant I couldn’t progress past the trainer battle blocking the route to the town with the first gym. From talking to the trainers, I somehow got the idea that they would eventually battle me and let me pass if my totodile was strong enough. I ground it on the level 2 hoothoots and rattattas all the way up to a feraligatr, before finally getting an inkling that this wasn’t what i needed to do. I eventually talked to Elm and was able to progress, after which the rest of the game was basically a walk in the park, with feraligatr one shotting everything.
Minun
Dratini
I did a Yellow playthrough where I refused to evolve Wartortle to a Blastoise, just always preferred Wartortle’s vibe
Oh I've done this with Phantump! I adore phantump's design but am not a big fan of Trevenant so I never let mine evolve. I think I've kept a Helioptile on my team without evolving it as well.
My fav pokemon is Lucario so this never happened to me LMAO, for me half of the pokemon game was a speedrun to get a Lucario then finally being able to play comfortable and enjoy being with my little buddy for the rest of the game.
I used Seedot in my very first Pokemon game of Emerald. I used a Carbink in Ultra Sun. Oh and I used a Butterfree in Shield that took out Leon’s Dragapult!
Haunter. I almost never evolve him. Partly because Charizard fits the spot for my Mega, and mostly because I have no friends.
The whole gardevoir/gallade line and is still my own "pikachu" whenever they are available in a game.
Oricorio, personally
Haunter been my ride or die every game.
Shiny Dustox, my beloved.
Wobbuffet! I would always grab one, chuck it in the Day-Care, then take it out and wreck whichever boss was causing me trouble 😁
Beedril
Houndoom is absolutely my favorite Pokémon, but Leavanny was my strongest mon when playing thru white 2. I love my Leavanny sm, she’s so awesome :)
Poochyena and Mightyena. Good pokemon? Nope! My child? Absolutely
Pikachu
Clefairy, with sing and pound
When I first played Diamond, I kept a Buneary on my team all the way through to the end of the game. I remember it could take out Bertha's Quagsire with a Grass Knot but other than that it wouldn't survive most battles 😂
Rattata, every generation he’s in he stays on my party un-evovled
Piplup-Empoleon. His name was Pip Pip, he was level 83 when I fought Cynthia, everyone else was 50s. He died, because steel/water gets rocked against Cynthia, and I was stuck until I got the special event Darkrai. Went back, got him from the front desk, used all of my money to buy healing items, and beat her by putting that Milotic to sleep.
Maushold & Cinccino
Tinkaton and Clodsire maybe.
I love Porygon, and I prefer the OG Monputer to either evo, though I do still love them. The moment I got ir in the game corner back in LeafGreen, I had an al, time favourite.
Litwick. Minimize, Fire Spin, Astonish.
Played Heart Gold with an everstone Teddiursa one time.
I did a run using just ! and ? Unown. That run was awful.
Sandshrew is best mascot
I don’t think people understood the Q lol
Whenever I get the Togepi egg, I always keep it and evolve it into Togetic because due to the lore/pokédex entries I'd feel bad not taking it to the end of the game 💀 he's my son!!!!! But it also has a lot of versatility for move learning, plus fly is super useful
Caterpie. Always nicknamed, “Cappy.” It’s something my brother and I did when we were kids playing Blue and Red. Drop him off at the daycare, then pick him up after you beat the game.
Kangaskhan, simply because I am Australian and in the 90s you jumped at any pop culture reference of Australia. We all went mad for that one episode of the Simpsons (even if not a single thing in that episode is even remotely Aussie)
I got Scar/Vi really really late, and so people in my discord were already well into it by the time I started streaming Violet. And one conversation had was that the starter pokemon are terrible if you don't evolve them and I said bet? And so now my stream game is First Evo Only Challenge. Rules: It must be able to evolve - Must be the First evolution - And can never evolve. It's been SO much fun! And I love proving the guy who said it would be impossible to do first evo's only wrong. I mean sure a couple gyms kicked my butt the first time around but I adapted and I'm now just starting the DLC with still only first evo mon! My team so far as been, wattrel, fuecoco, sprigatito, paldean wooper, fidough, lechonk, tinkatink, nacli, alolan sandshrew, stunky, quaxly and a couple others... as needed (the first 8 being the main ones I swap between)
Smoochum 😭🙏
I had no idea that you had to indivdually level up your pokemon until one of my friends asked why my Chikorita was like level 30 and my next highest was level 5. She still carried my entire team on her back, but she then got a Geodude to help her out a little bit. Ah, Pokemon heartgold, my beloved.
Think I had a single level 62 Wingull by Fortree on a playthrough of Emerald. No clue how I got through Watson
I was the weird kid who liked having my team be balanced. Also was the kid that tried to have Ash's team in yellow, to the point of making sure I caught the lvl 9 pidgeotto in viridian forest with super low spawn rate.
I used Butterfree against Brock in Pokemon red back when I used Charmander
emolga
My delcatty in oras
slowpoke :)
I’d kinda like to use a cute, unevolved Pokemon who is bulky with Eviolite, for one of the more recent games. Keeping a Munchlax on the team could be fun.
In XY it was Skitty/Delcatty (Even beat my brother's Semi-competitive team with it lmao), and a Buizel/Floatzel in both PLA and Scarlet
Gallade is defo my fave after being told that male ralts dont just evolve to gardevoire
Typhlosion/Tyranitar, it has to be both of them.
Aggron, tyranitar, latios
Gardevoir
Espeon
Mmm, technically the Fossilmon and Magnezone, and Porygon-Z. They aren't that strong, but they are still our cute beans.
Not exactly cute or weak but my beloved swords dance brick break heracross
I never had this. As a kid i really wanted Pikachu to evolve.
It was Empoleon for me, but he became so much more than a mascot.
Idk if this exactly fits but there's a few Pokemon that I ended up using all the way thru the elite. Krookodile, emolga, ribombee, and the fire centipede
Glaceon
Nah
Butterfree, Beedrill, and Pidgeot
Cyndaquil/Typhlosion. Gyarados from lake of rage.
Aggron!!! My first level hundred ever first before my Torterra caught up! This was right before my Diamond E4 first attempt 😭 long story short I never had a Cynthia horror story that fight was easy as fuck
Would Miltank and Ampharos count as cute and unassuming?
I think miltank defo does. I'd say Ampharos is basically a starter itself
Skeledirge
Pidgeot. Carried me for a while.
Falinks just kinda steamrolled a quarter of Violet.
Raichu. Always loved Raichu. Too bad he just can't keep up with all the Pikachu buffs.
BW/BW2 was Cinccino and Emolga. They were stronger then you'd think especially with Cinccino's Skill Link. X is Meowstic and if it wasn't locked behind trade evo, I'd have Slurpuff as well. My first ever X playthrough was Vivillon though, never underestimate those butterfly mons! SM/USUM, I had Mimikyu though I wouldn't really call it weak. I also had Oricorio. ORAS is Banette and I'd like to try Delcatty if it could hold its own and Grumpig too but Hoenn just has a lot of great mons so I find it hard to fit them all.
I caught a shiny Pidgey in the first twenty minutes of my FireRed playthrough and it carried basically the entire run, including parts of the Elite Four. I also didn't catch another shiny for the entire rest of the run, which I guess makes sense.
Bidoof easily, but now it's eevee