Expert: Chamale - 2/29/2008

Question
QUESTION: what are the best pokemon to have in your party?

ANSWER: This depends on a lot of factors, but generally you should have a party that can beat any type of pokemon.

Your starter is strong, so it should be in your party. Having a water, fire, and grass type is a good idea, so have one of each of those (including the starter). Other good types include ground, flying, electric, dark, and psychic. I recommend choosing pokemon with attacks from more than one type. Also, Legendary pokemon are very good if you can catch them, so Groudon should be your token Ground and maybe Fire type (unless you started with Torchic).

As well as the attacks of their main type, your starter should have some attacks for pokemon resistant to their main type. Swampert should be taught a strong Ground move like Earthquake, Blaziken should be taught Fighting and Flying moves, and Grovyle should learn Fighting moves, and Screech to lower enemy defense.

Normal-types can be useful because they are only weak to fighting-types, and their attacks are decent against all but rock, steel, and ghost-types. My favourite normal-type is Linoone (evolves from Zigzagoon). Here's a great combo: Give Linoone a Chesto Berry. Use Belly Drum (learned at level 53), then Rest (learned at level 47). Belly Drum is like Sharpen or Swords Dance because it raises attack, but it raises it to 8 TIMES higher. However, Belly Drum removes half his health. Rest recovers his HP, and the Chesto Berry wakes him up from Rest.

If you have questions about a specific gym or Elite Four member, feel free to ask.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for the help :)  right now in my party i have a grovyle, swellow and a torkoal. i was wondering if i should replace the swellow with a swablu/alteria? also, i'm going to try and catch a feebas so i could evolve it into a milotic. is this a good idea?

ANSWER: Altaria are much stronger than Swellow, and they can learn attacks of many types. Be sure your Altaria knows Dragon Dance - it raises Attack and Speed.

However, as for Milotic, let me tell you this: Feebas are very, very, hard to catch, and also hard to evolve. They appear in route 119, but they only appear in 6 water tiles out of the hundreds there. Fortunately, they appear in the same tiles each time. Fish in each spot about 5 times, and eventually you'll find a Feebas. Catch all the ones you see, and check their natures until one has Modest, Mild, Rash or Quiet. Then, maximize the Beauty stat (with Pokéblocks made from Dry berries) and level it up. This will evolve it into Milotic. Milotic is a good fighter, but unless you're willing to spend hours evolving it, just get another Water-type.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: somehow, out of pure luck, i caught a feebas! it was very hard but i also evolved it into a milotic! so ritght now in my party i have a grovyle, altaria, torkoal and a milotic. i'm thinking of adding a dusclops. is this a good idea? any other ideas?

Answer
Dusclops is a good pokemon, and it's very hard to kill. Earthquake is a good move for Dusclops to learn, as it helps with killing Rock and Steel types.

For the last pokemon in your team, I recommend getting a Linoone. My last answer has some information about what moves to teach Linoone, and why it's so powerful. Since Zigzagoon are so common, you should catch a few of them and compare their stats to see which is best.