Sun / Moon In-Game Tier List

[Menshay]

Some quick opinions from my run:

Cutiefly -> Ribombee works really well for several reasons:
- It is very fast and has nice special attack, though it's kind of frail.
- It starts with Struggle Bug. Having a spread move that early in the game is nice for SOS encounters, plus it can be found right before the first trial which in Moon has Dark-type Rattata/Raticate. Plus a guaranteed special attack drop is always welcome.
- It starts with Stun Spore, which while inaccurate is always nice for speed control, as well as catching wild Pokémon.
- It starts (again) with Draning Kiss, which gives it some kind of semi-reliable recovery.
- It quickly learns stronger moves such as Silver Wind at level 13, Pollen Puff after evolving (which can also help in the rare double battles) and Dazzling Gleam at level 31/35 (possibly even earlier thanks to the TM, I can't remember which comes first).
- Shield Dust prevents unfortunate cases of bad luck, plus it even blocks flinching from Fake Out
- With Quiver Dance / Dazzling Gleam (/Draining Kiss) it utterly wrecks Hala since it can just set up against his Hariyama (which has no useful moves against it) and sweep the rest of his team.

Marowak is unfortunately very slow. However:
- It really appreciates Thick Club, if available, though this locks it out of Z-moves.
- Its only physical Fire move up to level 53 is Flame Charge, though it works well enough.
- It gets Rock Tomb and Brick Break for coverage early on.
- I'm not sure whether missing out Shadow Bone is a real problem, since faster Ghosts beat it and Psychics tend to hit its frailer special side. (Note however that I also used Grimer/Muk for my run which takes care of both.)
- With Lightningrod it makes the Electric trial a non-issue since it resist or is immune to pretty much every move; one of the Charjabugs has Bite but its physical bulk prevents it from being a huge problem.
- Does the AI even realize it can have Lightningrod?

Miltank fared interestingly mid-game, though I later swapped it with other Pokémon. Some notes:
- It has nice stats for the point of the game it's found in, both defensive and offensive.
- It is nicely bulky and gets reliable recovery in Milk Drink.
- It gets Rock Tomb and Brick Break for coverage early on.
- It gets Body Slam for solid damage and speed control.
- All of its abilities are interesting.
- Scrappy combined with its Ghost immunity gives it an interesting niche for the Ghost trial since it can Body Slam everything while completely ignoring most attacks, though Hypnosis is still very annoying. Also be careful since Mimikyu can Mimic Mink Drink.

 

[Karxrida]

I had decent success with Grimer-A (kept it the entire game and it pulled its weight) but my difficulty curve was fucked up because EXP Share was on but I avoided as many wild encounters and non-mandatory trainers as possible (though imo this is the most efficient way to play for a quickish casual run). Also mine was holding Black Sludge when I caught it so I lucked out there.

It definitely falls off in usefulness in the 20s or so before picking up again when it evolves. Nice earlygame though thanks to STAB Bite being pretty powerful at that stage and Poison Gas helps cheese a couple Totems.

 

[MZ]

I just finished a blind nuzlocke on set battle which is probably the best way to find out if something is decent at all p fast. Haven't read through most of the comments but this seems like a cool thread so here goes:
Cubone should just be low tier, the problem with Marowak is that you have shit all for a damaging move pool which basically means that you're running with bonemerang/brick break/rock slide at level 40 and crying about how late the move tutor is. I seriously do not get how giving it shadow bone the level before it evolves was an idea that somebody thought was ok. Typing is mediocre, nice for totem salazzle but that's pretty much it and plenty of things have random coverage or can wear you down with slow speed, like it's not even too useful against guzma who has nothing but bugs. Also for it to be useful you have to go out of your way to pick up a thick club, which is really lame.
Passimian should easily be high tier alongside Mankey and Poliwrath. It's easy to pick up in lush forest, which is definitely later than mankey but also right around when it evolves and actually becomes useful. After that, it's a stronger, bulkier primeape that only has worse speed which is still easily workable and a useless ability, because vital spirit is that integral or something. Don't really see any reason this isn't in the same tier, or even better.
Phantump without trading isn't bottom tier? Why would you ever want to use a regular phantump
I like oricorio up, if it was easier to get more nectar than hoping it spawns then the ability to consistently change typing for stuff would be really amazing
Ninetales was one of the more disappointing things I used and upper mid is slightly overselling it. The lack of coverage is kinda disgusting, it's not particularly strong, and the typing is really best suited for happening to take on random things rather than actually beating much of anything. Maybe people had better experiences, but it really didn't feel that great at all.
Bruxish isn't quite on finneon level, it's got some decent attack and coverage. I'd go into it further, but probably the worst thing about it is that it's not any one of the way better water types you have access to. Low tier goldeen level just isn't fair.

 

[R_N]

how does drizzle (i assume) push pelipper up to top tier?

are rain teams a thing for in-game now? or is it on hurricane/water move + rain alone?

I had decent success with Grimer-A (kept it the entire game and it pulled its weight) but my difficulty curve was fucked up because EXP Share was on but I avoided as many wild encounters and non-mandatory trainers as possible (though imo this is the most efficient way to play for a quickish casual run). Also mine was holding Black Sludge when I caught it so I lucked out there.

It definitely falls off in usefulness in the 20s or so before picking up again when it evolves. Nice early game though thanks to STAB Bite being pretty powerful at that stage and Poison Gas helps cheese a couple Totems.

I had EXP share off and agree. Really good early game, a midgame dead period that picks back up around the end of the Aether segment (which was when mine evolved) and then pretty reliable for the rest of the game. It has solid stabs at mostly solid times and once it evolves it gets access to more coverage via regularly available TMs.

It's oddly bulky? Or at least mine was, it (as grimer) was able to stand up to Totem Mimikyu for an odd amount of time and I'm still not sure how.

 

[Afti]

Grimer-A was my big surprise; dittoing the "rad mon" thing.

It has lots of immediate power and way more bulk than you expect it to have, and Poison/Dark is a really nice typing, to boot. It has a fairly short dead period, as these things go, but it just about keeps up by acquiring Crunch and Poison Jab during the dead period, and once it evolves it's solid for the remainder of the game.

It's not "exciting," in the sense that eg. Magnemite's typing or Wishiwashi's stat spread or Pelipper's ability make them "exciting" mons to build with. But it's a really solid, effective workhorse sort of mon. No frills; Muk's just a durable, hard-hitting vanilla sludge monster. Which isn't bad by any measure!

 

[Darvin]

I ran a challenge playthrough in which Butterfree was my star player. I've run Butterfree in other challenge playthroughs before, and I'd have to say this is probably the most favorable game in the entire series for Butterfree due to the large number of favorable matchups. While it has a lot of unfavorable matchups due to its poor stats, I'd say the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and it should be ranked upper mid tier.

Key advantages:
1) Caught early, evolves early: Caterpie is found immediately on Route 1 and is fully evolved by level 10. It's hard to conceive of anything getting better availability than this.
2) Accurate Sleep Powder: Butterfree has access to a plethora of status options, but Sleep Powder is by far the best pick. With Compound Eyes to boost the accuracy to 97.5% this gives Butterfree virtually guaranteed ability to put slower pokemon to sleep and buy free turns. This can trivialize many otherwise dangerous battles, and is a huge boon for catching on the side.
3) Many Advantageous Battles: Butterfree is advantaged in many NPC trainer and totem battles, as many simply cannot handle being put to sleep by a faster threat. The most notable is the Lurantis totem, which Butterfree completely walls as it puts the ally pokemon to sleep.
4) Quiver Dance: This move completely cancels out Butterfree's bad stats other than its physical bulk, and allows its Sleep Dance shenanigans to sweep entire teams when given a setup opportunity. Quiver Dance appears quite late, but Butterfree's ability to reliably provoke setup opportunities against slower foes makes it surprisingly relevant in the late-game. It can also sweep with much less power, as Sleep Powder allows it a reasonably good chance of being able to 2HKO before the opponent can act.
5) Movepool: Butterfree has an amazing movepool to go with the obligatory Sleep Powder and Quiver Dance. Shadow Ball and Psychic are incredible TM's, with Air Slash and Bug Buzz making great late game STAB's. Gust, Confusion, and Psybeam are good moves along the way.
6) Item Hunting: Compound Eyes also increases the chances of wild pokemon holding useful items, allowing you to pick up a large number of useful items with no effort just by keeping Butterfree in the lead position when catching (which it's already really good at thanks to Sleep Powder)

Key downside:
Bad Stats: Any other downside, including its Rock-weakness (which honestly didn't come up much in SuMo) is a quibble compared to its stats. Butterfree's stats are atrocious for a fully-evolved pokemon. Butterfree's stats only become acceptable after a Quiver Dance, and its physical bulk remains problematic.

Overall, I believe Caterpie belongs upper-mid tier due to these advantages, and can easily find its way onto a team for the combination of early-game prowess, mid-game utility, and late-game sweeping options it provides. It puts in substantially more work than its low BST would have you believe, but that severe flaw does keep it from moving higher.

 

[DoesntKnowHowToPlay]

so uh, i used gumshoos and metagross on my first blind run

they absolutely do not deserve the same tier

yungoos:
-has a very rough start as its only real STAB is tackle, forcing it to rely on breakneck blitz to kill or do...anything until you get rock tomb and facade. unlike most derps it lacks quick attack so the only utility it really provides is lolsand-attack
-has profoundly garbage stats when evolved. poor bulk and poor speed both hinder it significantly. its attack is alright but offset by the lack of a good STAB until hyper fang, which it won't learn until vast poni canyon
-is still useless once it learns hyper fang. lucy II has basically nothing for it to hit other than mismagius (who does not attack most mons anyway), as milotic will outspeed and OHKO while clefable sets up on it.
-it is useless against 3 elite four members due to typing, and the fourth is the birdlord against which it's not doing much other than getting one hyper fang off. mandibuzz 2HKOs it and outspeeds effortlessly.
-is basically useless against the champion outside of getting chip damage off on snorlax

beldum:
-has a rough start as you have to catch it against bad odds, but this is not as hard as people make it out to be. stuff like 50% zygarde is higher than it...
-has mediocre stats when evolved but can compensate for them with eviolite. is both bulkier than and faster than gumshoos as metang even when itemless
-has acceptable STABs in psychic and flash cannon. they're weak but gumshoos is using facade until 43, which is around when metang gets meteor mash and evolves...
-becomes profoundly useful upon evolving. extremely bulky, smashes through clefable and provides a grass resist for lucy II
-is only dead-weight vs one elite four member, and it can still grass knot palossand or tank one ghost hit vs acerole. smashes through olivia, beats down kahili (mandibuzz's ai does not know how to use punishment), and tanks hits+uses psychic for hala
-threatens the champion's entire team. lycanroc loses to it, ninetales gets shot, braviary gets walled and beaten down. snorlax and zone can win 1v1 but metagross outspeeds and can drop them with chip, or heavily chip them itself. starter match-up varies but it can outspeed and OHKO primarina with z-meteor mash.
-was basically the saving grace for my team of shitmons

i would put yungoos in low or bottom tier personally (it's *that* bad) and push beldum up a bit; it's definitely not comparable to shellder, which is a 1% encounter that (apparently it's nicer in bubble spots) has an evolution distinctly less useful than goddamn metagross.

edit: you also have rattata in yungoos's tier which seems insane to me as alolan rattata is blatantly better than it???

 

[featherwick]

Here are my opinions on my team.

Litten: Pretty useful. Having bite was good enough early game, and he learns acrobatics early game which is fucking amazing. Ironically Rowlet is the only one who can't learn it in his base form. He was fast and powerful enough to get a lot of kills early, and then when he evolved he became bulky enough that the enemy needed 3-4 hits to kill him, and he usually killed with a z move. He was kind of meh during the elite four though, he can't fight the fighting or rock ones, but he can solo the ghost one and is just meh against the flying one. Overall I'd say high since he was as useful as my stufful.

Pikipek: He was good at first, but really fell off late game. DO NOT USE BEAK BLAST, I honestly regret it, it seems cool, but Toucannon's bulk is no where near good enough for it and he just dies too much. Honestly he's really good before that, and the fact that he can learn brick break makes him so useful for the first totem. Sadly he also doesn't get rock blast till a super late level, he would have been much better if he got it earlier. Upper Mid

Stufful: I love this little guy. Fluffy is just so good. He can just come in on physical attackers and take like zero damage. His special defense is kind of bad, and having a lot of flying, fighting, psychic and fairies later on doesn't really help him, but the fact that he could take a close combat from a crabominable is just amazing. High

Morelull: Eh, not too great. Somewhat tanky, but there are a lot of poison types, and he just couldn't tank that much. Spore was nice but I didn't feel like I needed it. Eventually switched him out to try Kommo-o, didn't really miss having him. Also he just couldn't do much damage, but that may have to do with my negative special attack natured one. Overall I'd say Lower Mid

Mareanie: Annoying to chain, that's for sure. But overall not super useful in game. It could tank things really well, but there's so many psychic pokemon in this game. Honestly it never really did anything too great, mostly it just sat there, sometimes getting scaled burns, but any other water type could have done that. Low.

Mimikyu: Mimikyu comes pretty late, but I love this little guy. There's still a good amount of the game left, but he basically wrecks Kommo-o, does super well against Hala, can be good against Acelora, and is really helpful against a lot of team aether. Upper Mid since he comes kind of late, and is pretty rare.

I think I undersold Litten. Incineroar is super tanky, and a great switch in to most things. He also was really helpful for the nightmare that is Hau's Raichu.

 

[Giratina93]

edit: you also have rattata in yungoos's tier which seems insane to me as alolan rattata is blatantly better than it???

NO. I used Alolan Raticate this run... and it is complete garbage to make use of. All it has going for it is early Hyper Fang and Crunch... and nothing else. It hits like a limp noodle (Yay base 70 attack), it's still frail as hell and struggles against EVERY OTHER BOSS IN THE GAME, and is just... no. Absolutely no. Totam Raticate is a no go for obvious reasons, Hala beats you senseless, Wishiwashi totem eats you alive, Salazzle can live a hit and cause severe problems with toxic/Venoshock, Lurantis slices you in half, Olivia can take the hits and nuke you back harder... You DO get to cheese Hau's Raichu, which is always a good thing, but that's all Alolan Raticate has going for it. Due to it being even slower and weaker than normal Raticate, it s complete garbage. At least Gumshoos actually hits hard. For reference, at lv. 42, my Raticate's attack was only 70. LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE ON MY 20+ MON TEAM HIT HARDER THAN IT, SOME EVEN NOT FULLY EVOLVED.

 

[DoesntKnowHowToPlay]

NO. I used Alolan Raticate this run... and it is complete garbage to make use of. All it has going for it is early Hyper Fang and Crunch... and nothing else. It hits like a limp noodle (Yay base 70 attack), it's still frail as hell and struggles against EVERY OTHER BOSS IN THE GAME, and is just... no. Absolutely no. Totam Raticate is a no go for obvious reasons, Hala beats you senseless, Wishiwashi totem eats you alive, Salazzle can live a hit and cause severe problems with toxic/Venoshock, Lurantis slices you in half, Olivia can take the hits and nuke you back harder... You DO get to cheese Hau's Raichu, which is always a good thing, but that's all Alolan Raticate has going for it. Due to it being even slower and weaker than normal Raticate, it s complete garbage. At least Gumshoos actually hits hard. For reference, at lv. 42, my Raticate's attack was only 70. LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE ON MY 20+ MON TEAM HIT HARDER THAN IT, SOME EVEN NOT FULLY EVOLVED.

Raticate gets:
-Quick Attack
-STAB Bite at 10
-STAB Hyper Fang at 16
-75/70/80 bulk
-Resistances to Ghost, Dark, Psychic
-77 speed (can feasibly beat some uninvested things)
-Loses to first totem, Hala, Wishiwashi, Salazzle, Lurantis, Olivia
-Can beat Hau's Raichu

Gumshoos gets:
-No priority whatsoever
-Bite at 19 (which may or may not be strong jaw-boosted)
-No Normal STAB to speak of until you buy Facade TM on the third island
-88/60/60 bulk (hint: this is worse)
-Resistance to Ghost
-45 speed (is taking a hit from basically everything)
-Loses to first totem, Hala, Wishiwashi, Salazzle, Lurantis, Olivia
-Cannot beat Hau's Raichu

Raticate also can have Hustle, which jacks its attack up significantly and is a completely free boost on Z-moves (which cannot miss, and have significant power).

 

[Giratina93]

Raticate gets:
-Quick Attack
-STAB Bite at 10
-STAB Hyper Fang at 16
-75/70/80 bulk
-Resistances to Ghost, Dark, Psychic
-77 speed (can feasibly beat some uninvested things)
-Loses to first totem, Hala, Wishiwashi, Salazzle, Lurantis, Olivia
-Can beat Hau's Raichu

Gumshoos gets:
-No priority whatsoever
-Bite at 19 (which may or may not be strong jaw-boosted)
-No Normal STAB to speak of until you buy Facade TM on the third island
-88/60/60 bulk (hint: this is worse)
-Resistance to Ghost
-45 speed (is taking a hit from basically everything)
-Loses to first totem, Hala, Wishiwashi, Salazzle, Lurantis, Olivia
-Cannot beat Hau's Raichu

Raticate also can have Hustle, which jacks its attack up significantly and is a completely free boost on Z-moves (which cannot miss, and have significant power).

Quick attack doesn't mean anything when it gets the hit in, fails to even do half with it, and then dies from a strong hit sent its way. With such low attack, it's going to fail to get the kills it needs even with the Hustle boost, and it's going to be taking heavy damage each turn. and thanks to that dark typing, there's even more lovely types for it to be hit hard by. Late game, those Z-moves are going to fail to secure those OHKO's you desperately want... and Raticate is not going to enjoy the pain coming his way...

And regardless, one's performance over the other doesn't dictate where they are tiered. Both Gumshoos and Raticate are garbage and struggle against almost every single major fight in the game, so they both belong in the trash.

 

[Colonel M]

Actually I will argue his Yungoos case is legitimate. I just scanned over its movepool once more and it doesn't learn a lot early only. Even later this thing is pretty eh.

Yungoos for Low IMO. Will look at other arguments later today.

 

[Ema Skye]

Wishiwashi needs to go to top tier. It breaks the game over its back. I would honestly argue it's the best in the game.

You can get it to Level 20 by the Totem fight, and you have the Scald TM as well at this point. This battle is literally just click Scald to win.

From here on out, you have a Pokemon with 140/140 offenses and 135/130 defenses. Nothing will compare to its bulk. Yes, you're slower than basically everything. No, it doesn't matter when you tank everything. The times you need to heal are rare since you get so many free heals. Even so, healing items get handed out pretty much all the time that it's basically a non-issue. You're going to need to heal in this game and I don't think we should be penalizing Pokemon for needing healing since that's kind of a core mechanic of the game.

So anyways, Wishiwashi absolutely demolishes the Fire trial thanks to its new Z-move. The Grass and Electric trials are obviously bad, but Wishiwashi is bulky enough to survive hits if you need to do any healing (Lurantis Solar Blade 2HKOs for reference). Ghost trial is literally just RNG. It wins if it doesn't get Hypnosis'd, but that's basically the case for every Pokemon in this fight. The Dark kahuna loses to you as all of his things are frail and can't take Scalds. Dragon trial gets Blizzard right before, so it's, again an RNG fight. That said, you do have the bulk that you can afford to miss.

Lusamine battles aren't that bad outside of Liligant. You wreck Mismagius with Feint Attack, and Bewear struggles to break your bulk. Bulldoze lets you beat Milotic as well. Guzma struggles to break the bulk as well, though you are limited in coverage against Golisopod. For the Elite Four, you solo Olivia. Ice Beam TM in Mt. Lanakila lets you beat Kahili very easily. You're decent against Acerola as well, with Scald for Palossand, Ice Beam for Drifblim and Dehlmise and sheer bulk for Sableye and Froslass. Hala is the toughest just because his guys hit so hard. Outside of Magnezone, Decidueye and possibly Primarina, Kukui's team doesn't pose much trouble as you have the bulk and power to smash through Lycanroc, Ninetales, Braviary, Snorlax and Incineroar. It's a lot like Gyarados actually, if Gyarados could go mixed, had a higher attack stat and increased physical bulk, and Gyarados is the highest ranked on the list.

Also I don't see Vulpix on the list so I'll argue it for Lower Mid tier.

Availability: You get it in Tapu Village, right before the ghost trial. It evolves in Po Town, before fighting Guzma.
Stats: It's fast with decent special defense and special attack. Physically it's lacking but it's often enough to take a neutral hit. Ninetales gets a speed increase to base 109 upon evolution.
Typing: Ice/Fairy is solid for when Vulpix joins. It struggles against the Fairy trial but that's really the low point of it's time. It picks up around Po Town and Dazzling Gleam on evolution. You resist Guzma and perform decently well. The Dark kahuna struggles against you because of Dazzling Gleam. Same with the Ground kahuna and Ice Beam. You get Fairium Z right before the Dragon trial and you can OHKO Kommo-o in one turn. Outside of Olivia, its performance in the Elite Four and Champion isn't bad. You beat most of Kahili's team outside of Skarm and Oricorio. You can generally take out two of Hala's guys before dying thanks to Twinkle Tackle. It's also decent against Acerola, as the majority of her team is special. You have Ice Beam for Drifblim, Dehlmise and Palossand. Against Kukui, it's admittedly bad outside of Dedidueye.
Movepool: Narrow, it needs a lot of TMs. That said, it generally gets by fine on just STABs because Ice and Fairy are two solid offensive types. Additional coverage is available from Psyshock, which isn't long after you get Vulpix.
Major Battles: It struggles against the Fairy trial but that's really the low point of it's time. It picks up around Po Town and Dazzling Gleam on evolution. You resist Guzma and perform decently well. The Dark kahuna struggles against you because of Dazzling Gleam. Same with the Ground kahuna and Ice Beam. You get Fairium Z right before the Dragon trial and you can OHKO Kommo-o in one turn. Outside of Olivia, its performance in the Elite Four and Champion isn't bad. You beat most of Kahili's team outside of Skarm and Oricorio. You can generally take out two of Hala's guys before dying thanks to Twinkle Tackle. It's also decent against Acerola, as the majority of her team is special. You have Ice Beam for Drifblim, Dehlmise and Palossand. Against Kukui, it's admittedly bad outside of Dedidueye.
Additional Comments: If you're into cheesing stuff, you can go with Hail for Snow Cloak activation as well as Aurora Veil support. Alternatively, you can SOS chain for Snow Warning, which gives you reliable Blizzard stab and instant Aurora Veil.

 

[Lucchini]

Slowpoke for Slowpoke Tail Stew Tier (Lower Mid)

this thing is a dong sandwich. you get it early but it sucks major ass for most of the game. it doesn't come with water attacks so you have to whittle the trainer w/ bonsly down until bonsly is at red hp and flails you to death. don't try yawning or cursing the bonsly either because that dude will just copypcat your yawn / curse. on the second island you get scald which is good for a hot second until you realize slowpoke still only has 45 base special attack and it moves slower than the notoriously slow alolan pokemon that are 5 levels below slowpoke. it's kind of tanky except it gets squishy quick later on as pokemon start evolving. it also evolves at level 37.

think of it this way: when you have a bewear, you're 10 levels away from getting a slowbro. when you finally get slowbro, you have access to a lot of nice TM's so it's pretty good, although it still has the problem of being slow as fuck so it's nothing exceptional. way too high effort for a pokemon that isn't even particularly strong. it's also garbage for basically every trial / kahuna aside from hala and the last dragon trial (it does like 10% to salazzle), both of which are incredibly easy.

like seriously just use staryu or wingull, they're way better than this thing.

It is possible to catch pre-evolved Slowbro in an SOS battle after getting Lapras Paddle. Superior stats and a nuke in Scald.

It becomes competent far too late in the game. Really only once it gets Leaf Blade...level 44

I was able to get Grass Pledge around the time I got to the 2nd island. With 110 BP Acrobatics before the 2nd island, it has really good offence in the midgame with strong bases and passable speed. When I got Decidueye, I relied on him a lot in matchups that the rest of my team struggled with. It could also be relied on to take super-effective hits, especially on the special side.

My experience was Rowlet was much better than what I've read about in this thread, must be a different team composition or something.

Furthermore, its Speed is often a liability that is hard to fix.

70 base speed is very good for Alola.

 

[MrTharne]

Debatable as hell. Others have already said here that the Rowlet line is pretty meh, and especially cascades into disappointment in the late game, not excelling in any one area and just being mediocre overall. Lurantis Totem slaps you around with neutral X-Scissor (And both Trumbeak and Castform are DIE), Olivia nukes you with rock moves if you fail to kill, Hau and his Raichu of DIE murder you, Vikavolt slaughters you, you do jack to the former steel captain, Mimikyu slaughters you, Guzma bops you hard with First Impression, Lusamine's Mismagius outspeeds and nukes you, Acerola comes back to bite you in the ass... It is NOT better than Popplio in-game.

You 2hkoed Lurantis and it slaughters Popplio, Olivia slaughters Litten, Raichu's Hau slaugthers Popplio (and with the bulk of Dartrix/Decidueye you survive), Vikavolt slaughters Popplio, Guzma bops everyone hard with First Impression. Decidueye survives the Shadow Ball from Mismagius, Ohko back and kill every pokemon except Clefable. Against Steel Captain you can use Shadow Claw that you can buy at Konikoni on 2nd Island.

(talking about this makes me want to try an Eviolite Dartrix until end of third Island since Dartrix should be better than Decidueye for 3rd Island, evolves in Aether and go from there, interesting)

Popplio is better in the end game (I know and by end game I mean E4) but Rowlet is better in the beginning and by the end you have 5 others 'mons.

 

[R_N]

You 2hkoed Lurantis and it slaughters Popplio, Olivia slaughters Litten, Raichu's Hau slaugthers Popplio (and with the bulk of Dartrix/Decidueye you survive), Vikavolt slaughters Popplio, Guzma bops everyone hard with First Impression. Decidueye survives the Shadow Ball from Mismagius, Ohko back and kill every pokemon except Clefable. Against Steel Captain you can use Shadow Claw that you can buy at Konikoni on 2nd Island.

(talking about this makes me want to try an Eviolite Dartrix until end of third Island since Dartrix should be better than Decidueye for 3rd Island, evolves in Aether and go from there, interesting)

My dartix died to Lurantis and barely did anything in return with Pluck because it does not get Acrobatics. Decidueye gets acrobatics. Also now you get to deal with Trumbeak and thats annoying in the best scenario.
Olivia deals SE damage against you and 2/3rds of her pokemon have sturdy.
Several people's decidueyes have not been able to stand to Mismagius' shadow balls and even SE felt like it took forever to kill Milotic (but also, Milotic is totally safe to stay in so eh).

 

[MrTharne]

My dartix died to Lurantis and barely did anything in return with Pluck because it does not get Acrobatics. Decidueye gets acrobatics. Also now you get to deal with Trumbeak and thats annoying in the best scenario.
Olivia deals SE damage against you and 2/3rds of her pokemon have sturdy.
Several people's decidueyes have not been able to stand to Mismagius' shadow balls and even SE felt like it took forever to kill Milotic (but also, Milotic is totally safe to stay in so eh).

...My Decidueye Ohkoed Milotic...(Miracle seed and probably a high roll but still)
Yes Olivia deals SE and they have sturdy...Litten is still worse here.
Pluck x2 killed Lurantis (Sharp Beak) and it called Castform that used Zenith on its first turn so it didn't do any damage, I switched out to kill the little cloud with Mudbray. (And Solar Blade will deal more damage to Torracat than X-Scissor to Dartrix)

Problems probably lies within the number of EV people had, pretty sure I had a buttload of EV at the right places. Mine was Jolly by the way, I never used a single special attack.

 

[Its_A_Random]

It is possible to catch pre-evolved Slowbro in an SOS battle after getting Lapras Paddle. Superior stats and a nuke in Scald.

This brings up a question I want to have resolved that isn't addressed in the OP: How are we going to handle SOS only Pokémon and evos you can catch earlygame via SOS battles? Will we discount them or count them? Will rarity come into account (Hi Salamence, an otherwise very high tier Pokémon stuck behind a 0.01% wall)? Basically I want some concrete stuff on how SOS exclusives and evolutions are going to be handled wrt tiering because this can especially have an impact on some of the entries like Slowpoke and others (ofc factoring in likelihoods).

 

[Lucchini]

This brings up a question I want to have resolved that isn't addressed in the OP: How are we going to handle SOS only Pokémon and evos you can catch earlygame via SOS battles? Will we discount them or count them? Will rarity come into account (Hi Salamence, an otherwise very high tier Pokémon stuck behind a 0.01% wall)? Basically I want some concrete stuff on how SOS exclusives and evolutions are going to be handled wrt tiering because this can especially have an impact on some of the entries like Slowpoke and others (ofc factoring in likelihoods).

Well, to capture Salamence moderately early on (say, 3 trials in), you need to prepare for it in a certain way, and assuming you catch it you need to catch up in levels to the rest of your team. However, finding a Bagon and getting Salamence to spawn are both so luck-reliant that this is similar to such in-game tier instances like RBY Tauros who takes too much time to actually appear.

Other SOS exclusives like Magmar, Electabuzz, Slowbro and Gyarados are a lot easier to find, with their respective callers more easily found in the wild and having a higher chance of being called, and I think they shouldn't punished for the manner in which they can be found. In Salamence's case, it's more like "it's not happening so you might as well not try".

 

[Giratina93]

...My Decidueye Ohkoed Milotic...(Miracle seed and probably a high roll but still)
Yes Olivia deals SE and they have sturdy...Litten is still worse here.
Pluck x2 killed Lurantis (Sharp Beak) and it called Castform that used Zenith on its first turn so it didn't do any damage, I switched out to kill the little cloud with Mudbray. (And Solar Blade will deal more damage to Torracat than X-Scissor to Dartrix)

Problems probably lies within the number of EV people had, pretty sure I had a buttload of EV at the right places. Mine was Jolly by the way, I never used a single special attack.

What level was your Dartrix/Decidueye for the Lurantis fight/ Lusamine battles?

As for the SOS battles, I'm going to agree with Lucchini. most of the exclusives aren't that hard or time consuming to get, but Salamence is far less efficient to try and grab than using PokeAmie for Sylveon, and that thing got dropped tiers because of it. A low catch rate means you're really going to want some ultra balls or dusk balls, and by that point, it'll be underleveled compared to the rest of your team by a large margin, making it even MORE ineffective to use. Not that trying to raise up a Bagon is much better, considering its godawful defenses and how badly it gets chunked by most of the trials until it becomes a Shelgon...

 

[MrTharne]

What level was your Dartrix/Decidueye for the Lurantis fight/ Lusamine battles?

For Lurantis it was 25 or 26 and for Lusamine it was one level behind for the first one and same level for the last. (Edit : Obviously the Milotic Ohko is against the second one when you have Leaf Blade, the first one I just spam Razor Leaf)

 

[Lucchini]

What level was your Dartrix/Decidueye for the Lurantis fight/ Lusamine battles?

As for the SOS battles, I'm going to agree with Lucchini. most of the exclusives aren't that hard or time consuming to get, but Salamence is far less efficient to try and grab than using PokeAmie for Sylveon, and that thing got dropped tiers because of it. A low catch rate means you're really going to want some ultra balls or dusk balls, and by that point, it'll be underleveled compared to the rest of your team by a large margin, making it even MORE ineffective to use. Not that trying to raise up a Bagon is much better, considering its godawful defenses and how badly it gets chunked by most of the trials until it becomes a Shelgon...

I was happy with Decidueye without Exp Share, which speaks volumes I think. It was surprised how helpful he was even in the poorer matchups. Mine was +def -sp. atk.

Speaking of Bagon, you can catch an SOS Shellgon much more reliably after the 2nd trial. Still not great, but Exp Share users will have Salamence by the E4 (those who turn it off may never evolve theirs unless they use up all their Rare Candies just before it).

 

[guanlong]

my first playthrough was quite casual with exp share on etc, so take my opinions with a pinch of salt i guess


i used toucannon, kadabra, wishiwashi, magnezone, incineroar, mudsdale, archeops and kommo-o at various points in my playthrough. i benched toucannon when i got archen and kadabra when i got jangmo-o. i finished the e4 at ~57 for most of my pokemon.

overall here are my opinions:

toucannon: really strong for the early game because of its good atk, even gets brick break for nice fighting/flying coverage. when evolved, a bit slow for my liking. tbh i only stopped using it because i got archen and couldn't resist the potential for acrobatics abuse

kadabra: had to be babied for quite a while thanks to the evolution move glitch. i probably wouldn't have benched it if i had evolved it, but i was too lazy... overall decent although its somewhat worse as compared to previous gens. it only gets shadow ball for coverage for a long time.

wishiwashi: i was an idiot and missed out on scald till quite late but wishiwashi was really good. excellent offenses and its bulk allowed me to use it as a solid switchin for neutral attacks. the only problems are the horrible speed and the annoying schooling animation which plays every time you send it out.

magnezone: i recall magnemite being kind of meh midgame since it didn't get any good electric stab till discharge. relying on charge beam was horrible and volt switch can still be annoying because it switches you out. even so, it bad excellent bulk so it was an good team member. tbh i somewhat regretted evolving it since eviolite magneton is so bulky and only slightly weaker.

incineroar: it was a solid team member. took hits quite well and had good offensive stab. not having really strong physical fire stab outside of flare blitz (which kind of sucks because of the recoil) is a little annoying, and since mine was jolly i couldn't even take advantage of flamethrower. the z-stone allowed me to use it as a nuke in some fights

mudsdale: trying to get a stamina mudbray with a non-shit nature was a good decision. excellent bulk (esp physical) and great movepool with edgequake + powerful heavy slam. really carried me against some annoying enemies like lusamine's clefable and kukui's snorlax, along with the various bewear that can't be broken by other physical contact moves. the only criticism of this thing is that it's quite slow.

archeops: i had to babysit archen since it came at lv15 when the rest of my team was in the later 20s if i remember correctly, but once it caught up it really pulled its weight. acrobatics and bulldoze are excellent moves. i am guessing the mid tier rating is due to the low level at which you obtain it, but imo it deserves a higher rating.

kommo-o: unsurprisingly i wasn't too impressed with this pokemon since it came late and has a pretty poor matchup (i remember that i kept setting up with SD and koing one mon on the e4, only to swap out thanks to type disadvantage) against the endgame. soundproof was funny against the dragon trial though.

 

[Absolclaw]

I don't really know what I'm doing, but whatever. Let me talk about my girl, Bounsweet.

You can get one with an Adamant nature (which is good for her) at level 16 in an easy in-game trade right before Lana's Trial, or right after defeating Totem Lurantis. However you get it, she evolves into Steenee nearly instantly, EXP share or not. Depending on your levels she'll become a Tsareena at the end of Akala Island or early-mid Ula'ula. For me it was around Mount Hakaluni in the very least least, though I quite possibly had one at Olivia, my memory is shoddy ... I didn't use the trade one, but it seems like a decent option.

As a Steenee her stats are pretty bad/mediocre at best, but upon evolution she gains a very nice Attack stat, as well as some decent-ish bulk.

The main problem is, even if she isn't a Bounsweet/Steenee for long (depending on how much you grind/EXP Share, of course), Grass sucks, and there's a ton of Bugs, Steel, Poison and other unpleasant match ups, and many neutral at best When she becomes Tsareena and gains Trop Kick, she becomes much more usable. Even if Grass doesn't get a lot of good match ups and it takes her a long time to get High Jump Kick, Trop Kick and it's attack drop helps out quite a lot, especially during Totem trials and for the many bulky/heavy hitters you'll encounter.

You can buy Low Sweep for an early Fighting-type move to deal with Steel better in Akala Pokemon Centre. If you explored Ten Carat Hill and got Acrobatics, Bugs become much more tolerable for her to deal with. U-turn can be bough at Malie Pokemon Centre straight away which is nice for extra coverage. High Jump Kick is a must have, but also rather late (Poni Island/Elite Four-ish) Regardless of how long it takes for her to evolve and get her moves, I can't understate how helpful Trop Kick was. A good STAB which works with her best stat and makes the Pokemon easier for your team to deal with in general? Yes, please. Unfortunately you need to do some breeding for Play Rough, which is a damn shame but what can you do. if i had known i'd have bred one asap before progressing since comfey is in the same area, honestly

Ultimately, I think her worth comes down to how quickly you can get her to become a Tsareena and acquire Trop Kick. She may not have been the star player at first, but she most certainly wasn't a waste of space. I'd say she's Upper Mid if you can evolve her fast enough/EXP Share ON (didn't feel like very long, to be honest), but Middle tier seems about right otherwise. I'd say Lower Upper-Mid Tier but, uh ...

---

While I'm here, let's talk about Drampa.

Nope. Very powerful and gets an incredibly amount of coverage with TMs ... but you get it on Victory Road. As a rare encounter, no less. It's counterpart Turtonator comes so early in comparison, what's the deal? Even if you traded for one early on, it's levelling up movepool isn't very good at all, TMs are truly where its at. Plus I don't know about anyone else, but finding one with its unique Berserk ability was a royal pain. I found like 15 of them before I actually got one with Berserk. Game, why you do this to me. Sap Sipper is useless, there's next to no Grass-types in the Elite Four or in the UB Storyline/Battle Tree introduction and using its Attack stat is a massive waste. There's a good chance it'll need a lot of levelling to catch up with your team at this point, as well. If you want to use a Drampa, either get it early/mid when you have a decent selection of TMs or raise one post-game.

How does it stack against the Elite Four? Meh. Having a Fighting type weakness is a pain, but on the other hand it can switch in on Acerola fairly easily. It doesn't really have the bulk to come in and do as it pleases, but if you can get Berserk and Roost to work together it becomes extremely powerful. And like most of the Pokemon in this region, it is slow.

Sadly going to have to suggest Low tier, all because of how bloody late in the game you get it. It may have versatility and potentially high fire power with its ability, but by this point its simply not worth switching out a party member for it.

---

I might do some more in the future, but these two seemed like easy/obvious ones so I may as well.

 

[Colonel M]

Truth be told I didn't really want to include SOS mons just because how much scumming you have to do to find some of them.

I'll look at the reliability of calling some of the others today. If Slowbro can be caught with some reliability early on it might be worth keeping in Upper Mid / gravitate to High.

By the way, one thing since it was mentioned - Milotic was probably one of the rare times I greatly appreciated Decidueye. Thankfully in my scenario it was a 3HKO at best while I did, somehow, have Leaf Blade even for the first fight.

Since Bounsweet was mentioned, I didn't raise it much higher due to how pretty dependent it can be on Z-Splash. While Tsareena is pretty good, Bounsweet and Steenee have very abysmal Attack - Slowpoke-worthy (and unless Slowbro can be found reliably early it is sinking to Mid / Lower Mid atm).