Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow – Part 2

My cold and allergies made the first couple minutes somewhat hard to hear, but it all works itself out by the end. Again, I need a better headset.

Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow – Part 1

It takes me a minute or so to get into it, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, so I might as well conjoin this with my blog.

Catching ’em all for all three. Pokemon stuff hurrah!

Ten EASY Ways To Become a Better Pokemon Trainer!

People have gotten into some bad habits when it comes to playing the Pokemon games we all know and love. For one reason or another, the community likes to agree upon things within the franchise that have no basis and are just accepted as truths for the longest time. If one doesn’t see what I mean, may I suggest ‘Mew is under the truck’ or ‘Hold down Up and B to catch Pokemon easier’. There are several examples like this that expand from simple rumors, to the ones covered here, horrible game strategies.

So I’m here to tell you how to make your Pokemon experience incredibly simpler, in ‘ Ten EASY Ways To Become a Better Pokemon Trainer!”.

#1 Use the Best Pokemon Available

Some will shrug this off as obvious, but to many trainers, their favorites are the ones they use, as some say it makes the game more fun to use those Pokemon that they like, even if outclassed by better Pokemon. I’m for having fun, as I believe we all are, but using one Pokemon over another because ‘it looks cooler’ is not only detrimental from a gameplay perspective, but the concept makes little sense when thought about. It is as if you are playing chess, and like the way the bishop looks, so you decide to use a third one instead of your queen.

This rule is also not followed when people set the imaginary line of ‘NO USE LEGENDARIES’. Legendaries are in the game for a reason, to be the best at fighting. This makes them apt additions for any team, but people refuse, as they say they’re cheap. Well this is not PED’s in baseball, nor having Harrison, Lennon and McCartney in the same band. These are Pokemon given away as prizes to be used to destroy the game. If you don’t use them for different reasons such as Experience Growth or similar reasons, that’s fine. Otherwise, they should not only be tolerated by players, but used. A lot.

#2 Well Balanced Teams of Six and Have Good Type Coverage

Having a wide variety of types, attacks and resistances exploit one of the games’ major flaws. Nearly all bosses in Pokemon history have had mono type teams, and duplicates of certain varieties of Pokemon. Rejoice however, because with this trick, you can surpass most of these bosses with ease!

Having teams of less than six Pokemon may seem like a cool idea, as you get to keep your HM slaves (covered later) on your team, and your Pokemon are of higher levels, but this is also bad strategy. Two main problems arise, as one, it is better to have six level 50 Pokemon than four level 53 Pokemon, which is about as many levels as your can expect to have different due to the experience growth formulas. If it was a bigger difference, it may not be a big deal, or maybe even recommended.

Except for the fact this also sacrifices your type coverage for super effective hits, which are your best friend in game. To be able to hit 12 types for super effective damage instead of 8 is incredibly useful and makes the game so much easier. By having two extra Pokemon be able to hit those types, you can do more damage than those few levels ever could of hoped to help with.

This also entails you don’t use four fire moves on your Charizard, or 3 Psychic moves on your Alakazam. This limits your coverage as well, not to mention, why would you ever use Ember if you have Flamethrower and Fire Blast (just for sake of example). Earthquake and Fly are much better options for all the utility it gives you. This is to say, use multiple types of moves, not just STAB moves.

#3 Use HM Slaves and Use Good Moves

HM’s are an annoying part of every Pokemon game, due to their necessity and their usual weakness, to the notable exception of Surf. Another popular strategy people use that falls under really bad strategy is putting those worthless HM’s on your party members.

As mentioned before, Surf (and for some early generation cases, Fly) remains the only move that could be good on one of your said party members. Otherwise, they’re outclassed, weak or just plain useless moves that shouldn’t be stapled on something you use all the time.

A quick recap on some of these:

Flash – Just lowers Accuracy. Not worth a moveslot, especially when it can’t be forgotten easily.
Strength – 80 power. Outclassed by several other Normal moves such as Return and Body Slam.
Cut – Outclassed by Strength and 2/3rds of the game’s moves.
Rock Smash – Use to be 20 power, still at a pathetic 40.

In other words, use those type coverage moves I was talking about to fill your movepools. Keep low level fodder Pokemon to learn HM’s like Krabby, Tropius, Tentacool or Furret. Put them in your party when you need them, and rotate your 6 party members for equal growth as necessary. If you’re unsure which you need, that’s what Bulbapedia is for.

#4 No Part – Time Team Members

Miltank. You know the one. It was owned by the crybaby in the metropolis of Johto.

You couldn’t beat it, no matter how you tried, and no matter how many times your Quilava got criticals, it would always eventually go down to the wicked livestock.

However, as you go shopping, you meet a foolish boy. One who will trade away his Machop, a Pokemon to slay the beefy opponent, for just a Drowzee, common on the prior route.

You use it, and you finally win…wasting all that experience on a Pokemon you soon forget about. This is the situation that seems really tempting, but is a big no-no.

Part time party members are a bad strategy. It sucks up the experience as mentioned before, which means you waste big experience pots, like trainers, on Pokemon that won’t help you with the final bosses of the game, making said bosses harder. It makes things harder in the long run, either by forcing you to grind (how to avoid that later) or just flat out be underleveled, another big no no.

So how to beat those big bosses?

#5 Fight Every Pokemon Trainer In the Game ASAP

There are some people who dodge trainer’s lines of sight. A lot. This is not recommended for a few reasons, but mostly for these two.

One, the obvious, your Solid Snake skills pass up valuable experience, which is essential for grindless runs and makes the Pokemon experience a hell of a lot easier.

The other negative is the skipping on a very useful feature exclusive to these games, currency. Currency allows incredible things like being able to buy items without bartering your Poliwhirl. When skipping trainers to get on with the story (such as skipping Gym trainers or avoiding Surfing dudes), you lose out on this bountiful bounty, as well as doing nothing but avoiding 50 seconds of mild annoyance. Well, that’s if Pokemon battling can even be considered that, because if that’s the case, you may be playing the wrong game.

This is to say, the trade is well worth the bonuses, to be sure.

#6 Fight Every Wild Pokemon

Oh that’s right. This is THE biggest one on the list that people are guilty of. Running away from Pokemon is the thing to do, as it saves you time. Except it doesn’t. You know those grinding sessions that seem to be necessary? They are not.

By running away from Pokemon, you are avoiding that icky experience just so you can do it later instead, wasting more time than if you just battled those Pokemon in the first place!

If everyone followed this tip alone, people would realize they’ve been wasting a lot of their time and money. How is this wasting money? You know those repels? Well come closer, because guess what’s next on the list my boy.

#7 Limited Item Usage

Repels, Potions, and every other type of temporary items are money wasters.

Did I just blow your mind? Well I shouldn’t have to be honest.

The fact is that repels are fundamentally flawed, as shown by my last tip, as its costing you money for you to throw away experience. Not a winning trade.

Using a Potion or Antidote when you could just go heal is another beginner’s trap. If on the borderline of losing, then of course use it. Until then however, don’t throw away free money at items that save you ten seconds of time.

What’s the exception to this temporary item rule? Well its recommended to sell all those useless items to get healing items and Revives for the Elite Four and Champion. These bosses are how you win the game, and its impossible to lose if you save your money then binge on Revives and Hyper Potions.

Also, not using up your resources on one and done items gives one the ability to buy much bigger quantities of Poke Balls of your choosing, which is far better use than saving time so you can go back to scratching your derriere.

Any other items to watch out for?

# 8 Save Rare Candies and Vitamins

These are the big money items that are warranted using…eventually.

Why save Rare Candies?

For sake of example, Wartortle takes a few hundred Exp. to grow into level 20, and you find a rare candy in Mt. Moon. If you were to use that then and there, you aren’t gaining much experience at all. However, if you wait until right before the Elite 4, then all of a sudden that Rare Candy is worth thousands upon thousands of experience.

A similar concept exists for Vitamins (such as Iron, Zinc, etc.). The rule is the player can use up to 10 of every vitamin on a Pokemon, resulting in up to 100 EV’s in each stat this way (or a few stats in newer games). However in order to not waste money, wait until the Elite Four. No longer do you have to use 9 Proteins, because Venusaur already had 200 Ev’s in attack. This saves 5 Proteins and a ton of money, not to mention they can be used on other Pokemon now.

If you’re fuzzy on what Ev’s are or how they work, Bulbapedia has a great article on the subject, just use that Google bar of yours.

#9 Horde, Horde, Horde

Explore each dungeon thoroughly. Make sure you collect everything. Collect phone numbers and make sure you get those items you don’t need. Do everything in your power to 100% everything.

Doing all this gets the player a ton of money, a ton of experience, a ton of extra stat points, a ton of extra useful items and a ton of new knowledge on a game they’ve been playing since childhood.

It’s a good strategy in any non-timed game, and it is especially useful in the second biggest video game franchise.

#10 Play Smart, Not Quick

I leave you with the summation of everything I’ve just written.

Take your time. It’s not a speed run (usually) so the time it takes isn’t an issue. You’re playing a really fun game, why not play it properly? Why not play it thorough and make it fun? Why not play the game without self implemented rules of Legendaries and grinding more than the average stripper?

This is what I leave you with. Play the game fun, but play it well.

I hope I have been of some use at both of those sentiments.

Also, I don’t own the photo.

Ditto – The Worst Red and Blue Pokemon

NORMAL
– Transform
– N/A
– N/A
– N/A

Here we are, the worst Pokemon in the game. There is not one thing Ditto can do right. Its signature move isn’t exclusive to it, not to mention its a poorly designed move, all of its stats are below worthless, and it comes later than most good Pokemon.

First off, Mew gets Transform. And is Psychic type. And has better stats. And can learn other moves besides transform. Why would you choose to use a Ditto, when you get a better typing, 52 extra base stat points to every move, and can also hit with Earthquake and Swords Dance and Psychic and dozens of other, better moves?

This raises another point, is Transform a good move? No. In order to transform, you must first take a hit first, which is often a problem for the frail Ditto. Then you must retain your (often) worse Health. Which is followed by getting only 5 pp of moves that most likely are of the same type as the Pokemon you transformed into (or Normal moves), resulting in not very effective damage swapping in game.

Ditto has 48 for base stats across the board. This means it has less health than a Metapod, less attack than an Oddish, less defense than a Voltorb, less Special than a Pidgeotto and less Speed than a Weedle. This also means once you do transform (after being hit usually with your crappy defenses because of your crappy speed) you retain your horrible health, making an inferior copy usually.

Ditto is hands down the worst Pokemon in the game, and if you really need a Transform user for some reason, use Mew through the Mew glitch. Its not worth the pain, suffering, and (albeit amusing) glitches. Use anything else.

It’s been fun!

I do not own the photo.

Worst Red and Blue Pokemon – #2 – Farfetch’d

NORMAL / FLYING
– HM Fly
– TM Body Slam / 39 Slash
– TM Swords Dance
– TM Toxic

I can just picture the board meeting about Farfetch’d Satoshi Tajeri must of had with the other designers. Describing how they needed to make a Pokemon so wonderful, that every person would use it, and not use any other Normal/ Flying type, even in the most drunken induced state. They needed to create something that offered so much new material for Pokemon, (by its movepool and its stats) that it would shine as the brightest star. This would be, in short, the best Pokemon they could come up with…

Farfetch’d has been blessed with an incredible stat spread, only slightly below the total of the mighty Koffing. The crushing 65 attack is its most lethal weapon, being able to hit those doomed opponents for incredibly decent damage! Stand back, as it is also a wall, perhaps that akin to Jericho, as 52/55/58 the defenses stand.

You may be wetting your pants in despair, hoping the movepool can stand up to such behemoth highs as its base stats. Calm down now, no need to worry, Farfetch’d brings Fly and Body Slam as huge options that make Drill Peck and physical type coverage moves weep in the corner, asking for their blankie! Swords Dance is its weapon to make those moves into even bloodier options, as if you will even need those boosts.

Overall, this Pokemon is among the…VERY WORST POKEMON IN HISTORY. What pipe dream were those guys on? Why was this okay? Why do I have to trade for it? Why is there only one in the game? Would the game break if it were more common than Snorlax? Why are the stats so pitiful? Why did they never evolve it? Why does it look so stupid? Why, why, why, why, WHY?

I do not own the photo.

Worst Red and Blue Pokemon – #3 – Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill

BUG / POISON
– TM Double Edge
– TM Hyper Beam
– 20 Twinneedle
– TM Swords Dance

How do you make Butterfree even worse? Take away its Sleep Move and any consistently strong attack to use! What a relief, I thought a Bee with 3 huge stingers would actually be a threat. Luckily however, it is not in the slightest. The base stats are similar to Butterfree, the typing has the same enormous amount of weaknesses, and both come really early.

Beedrill has 80 Attack and 75 Speed, similar to Butterfree’s 80 Special and 75 Speed, however Special also gave Butterfree one decent defense. Beedrill does not have this luxury as a defensive spread of 65/40/45 with those weaknesses ensures it as one of the frailest Pokemon in the game, if not the most so. To go back to the 80 attack, its decent, but not enough to pull a lot of offense out of the hat, and 75 speed is also just that, decent.

Well since Beedrill has the useful buffer Swords Dance, it could patch up that mediocre attack (if it could take hits to use it successfully) however the move set is just awful. 50 power on its STAB move is already low, but it has no recoil-less Normal move strong enough to matter. Double Edge means that you have to take damage on a very frail Pokemon, and Hyper Beam means you have to be bludgeoned over the head the next turn.

Beedrill is so very, very awful. There’s a dropoff from Butterfree, and Butterfree is already a mid-end “D” Pokemon. Never use it, and never be worried when faced with one. Hit it with any attack, that should do the trick.

I do not own the photo.

Worst Red and Blue Pokemon – #4 – Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree

BUG / FLYING
– 17 Sleep Powder
– TM Psychic
– TM Mega Drain
– 21 Supersonic

If Butterfree was given 20 more points in each base stat, it would be, by a large margin, the best Bug Pokemon in RBY, and perhaps actually made the type sort of decent. Why? Butterfree has an appropriate stat spread and good movepool, while being able to be obtained early. Unfortunately, Butterfree was made as a gimmick Pokemon (along with its ugly cousin Beedrill) for being able to evolve really early, and fool all the kiddies to using them. This costs it dearly, as one of my favorite Pokemon (the only guy in existence to say this perhaps) is cut out of the pantheon of good / okay Pokemon, and sent all the way down to ‘joke’ status.

As mentioned, Butterfree has an appropriate stat spread. What do I mean by this? Well, as a ‘Special Sweeping’ Pokemon (if that’s what you want to qualify it as) the stats that are the most important are the highest: namely Special and Speed. However 80 Special and 70 Speed are pretty unspectacular, and the rest are just worse. 60/50/80 would be pretty average defensively, but its the typing that turns it into a weak pane of glass. Weak to six types, Rock being 4x strong against it, makes it frail to 40% of the game. A big problem.

As stated before, Butterfree has a pretty good movepool by Red, Blue and Yellow’s standards. Psychic will hurt foes, but with its average Special, Mega Drain wont hurt enough. Sleep Powder is great, and the last move is filler.

Oh I wish this thing was useable, but around Vermilion, the thing is a legitimately negative Pokemon to have on a team. Avoid using because of those base stats.

I do not own the photo.

Worst Red and Blue Pokemon – #5 – Cubone, Marowak

GROUND
– TM Earthquake
– TM Body Slam
– TM Submission
– TM Blizzard / TM Fire Blast

What do you like in your Ground type? Well Marowak is one of the only…I mean one of the every single Ground types in the game that is a Physical attacker. What does it add? Well back off you silly Pokemon like Golem, Rhydon, Sandslash and Dugtrio because Marowak is taking the worst traits of all of you!

Golem and Rhydon’s crappy speed will be matched by the unimpressive mopey Pokemon, at a great low score of 45. And it also lacks the survivability that those two have with the frailness of Dugtrio! 60 Health and 50 Special is weak, though not the bottom rung, although its stronger physically (though still not that much because of that below average health) at 110.

And how about its movepool? Well although it has Earthquake, there are no other great options besides the decent Normal type move of Body Slam. Which isn’t good because the average 80 Physical Attack isn’t going to decimate. So off of that 50 Special, get ready to sweep through the toughest of wet toilet paper, with either Blizzard of Fire Blast.

Marowak is very unimpressive. Just stick with…Anything else. Besides the four Pokemon below it, that is.

I do not own the photo.

Worst Red and Blue Pokemon – #6 – Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff

NORMAL
– TM / 34 (Jigglypuff) Body Slam
– TM Hyper Beam
– TM Seismic Toss / TM Fire Blast / TM Blizzard / TM Psychic
– TM Mimic / TM Fire Blast / TM Blizzard / TM Psychic

So many options and so little stats! That’s the saying right? It is when Sir useless Wigglytuff is on the case! Well I should say on the Special side it has so many options, because if you were to go off its better attack stat there’s the plethora of Normal, Normal, or Normal moves.

Wigglytuff is perhaps one of the ‘Worst Pokemon’ on the list that people may not understand why its so bad, because unlike Golbat and the level 10 bugs, it’s not common knowledge. But its bad, really bad. Defensively? 140 HP is among the best in the game, but you guessed it. The defenses are just too lousy to take full advantage, or should I say, any advantage, of the health. 45 and 50 defenses are frail as hell, making the one thing Wigglytuff looks like it can do well, be done not well at all. Offensively? 70 physical attack is decent, but still a bit below average. Also, the 50 Special makes those wide array of Special moves shown earlier also pretty useless. 45 Speed makes you also take hits before you can dish them, most of the time.

What moves should be picked? Well one move I recommend is to keep this puffball Kirby wannabe off your team. Although if you really like the thing (I happen to have a friend who does) use Physical normal moves and filler special moves. If you feel like wasting your only Blizzard / Fire Blast / Thunder TM on it, that is.

I do not own the photo.

Worst Red and Blue Pokemon – #7 – Onix

ROCK / GROUND
– TM Earthquake
– TM Rock Slide
– TM Body Slam
– Screech

I don’t know if during development the developers at Game Freak just really didn’t understand giving a metric crapton of Defense to a Pokemon doesn’t make a wall automatically. I also don’t understand what they were thinking when designing Onix as a whole. What was it supposed to excel at? To do? Was it supposed to be an early game joke Pokemon? That can’t be right though, cause Bruno of the Elite 4 has not one, but two of these.

Well the movepool ain’t bad. Outclassed by Golem and Rhydon? Sure, because Explosion and Substitute are both better than screech. But before you raise your hand awkwardly, yes, I’m aware Onix learns Substitute. 1 problem. It has 35 base Health. Substitutes broken by weak hits are not only possible, but likely because of this.

The other base stats? Well as mentioned before, a mammoth 160 Defense is nice, until you realize with that HP, Onix can’t do much with it. Like anything. Special? 30. On par with the Special Sweeping wonder Hitmonchan. Any Grass or Water hit you’re taking, you’re dieing from. Period. It is so frail, even with that defense, its just really sad. 45 base attack makes it’s Earthquake more of a tickle, and it’s Rock slide more of a pat on the head. On the plus side, its Speed is only slightly below average. Hallelujah!

Why you would use this ever is beyond me. Maybe if you want to use a mono type team, and you can’t use multiples, and you are only using Pokemon starting with the letter O, and can’t have Pokemon that can hurt things…In other words, never use it.

I do not own the photo.