Let's Play! - [FINISHED] Pokemon Emerald - Let's use them all! - Playthroughs with each available Pokemon (2024)

Team #20

I already wrote about Treecko here.

Zigzagoon is pretty solid overall, even if its performance is a bit inconsistent. It has some peaks but also some parts where it is a bit mediocre.
The big talking point of Zigzagoon is of course its ability Pickup. After each battle, it has a 10% battle to find a random item, if it isn't carrying one already. In Ruby and Sapphire this was based on a pure probability table. But in Emerald, the level of Zigzagoon now also plays a factor. Zigzagoon can find better items if it is at a higher level. So you can no longer just fill out the rest of your party with level 3 Zigzagoon and get potentially really good items after each battle until you get you entire team together. In general the table is a bit more reasonable in Emerald. But Emerald also added some new items you can get, including Max Revive, Leftovers and even another Earthquake TM. But those are relegated to level 70+, so you are not getting them in your normal playthrough.
For this run, I actually wrote down everything I got with Pickup. In total, Zigzagoon gave me 45 items. About 78% was early game filler stuff like Potions and status healing items, or excess of stuff I didn't need more off, like balls and Escape Ropes. In general, this stuff was not that useful to me directly, so I sold most of this for about 18k $. So even, if Zigzagoon does only find trash you don't need, it still gives you a nice amount of money, which can be helpful in making it easier to buy a Game Corner TM before the fifth gym, if your team would like to have one. But that also means only about 22%, or 10 out of the 45 items, were legit useful to me. Those were 3 Super and Hyper Potions, 1 Revive, 1 Full Restore and 2 Rare Candies. Sadly, I didn't get a Protein or even a King's Rock during my run, which would have been the best items.
So Pickup is definitely a great ability, and at worst is just giving you extra cash, but unless you are getting lucky, it also isn't nearly a broken as some people make it out to be. At least in a normal playthrough. Post-game grinding and challenge runs are something else. And a thing that also not that many people talk about, is that Pickup does actually have a downside. Which is that Zigzagoon is not allowed to carry a boosting item. That is significant because you can get the Silk Scarf and Soothe Bell really early in Hoenn, and Zigzagoon would very much like to use one of them to give its Normal attacks more power or make its future Return stronger. But if you intend to use Pickup, Zigzagoon can't make use of them. So the question arises, are those few good items and the extra cash you get worth more than the stronger damage output? For the most part I think they are, but I can think of teams were it might not be worth it.
Which brings us to Zigzagoon, finally. Because how good is Zigzagoon itself even? As good as the Pickup is, you would like to the Pokemon it is attached to, to be good as well. And that is were Zigzagoon has problems. Zigzagoon is the counterpart to Poochyena, and as such has really bad stats. 60 speed is okay but base 30 attack and 38/41/41 bulk is causing a yikes from me. Thankfully the evolution to Linoone is early at level 20, and Zigzagoon also gets a really good early game STAB move in Headbutt. A 70 base power attack with a 30% flinch chance at level 9 is legit insane but due to Zigzagoon's low attack, it doesn't perform as good as you would first think. Linoone has better stats but it still has worse offenses than even Mightyena. At least STAB makes somewhat up for that. Still, 70 attack and 50 special attack is pretty underwhelming. So despite it having a solid TM movepool, due to being a Normal type, its attack hit like a wet towel for most of the game. Especially because it can't use a boosting item. Strength is going to be its best STAB move for a while without the help of the Soothe Bell. And until Shadow Ball, it will have pretty much have nothing besides Headbutt and Strength. But it is nice that it learns a bunch of early HMs, including Surf, which can also dumpster the Rock types that it otherwise couldn't touch.
Linoone mediocrity continutes all the way into the late game until the Pokemon League. But here it has an unexpected huge peak. Solely because of one late level-up move. Belly Drum. Linoone learns it at level 53, which means it can only use it for the league. But due to how the AI for the Elite Four members works, where they all nearly always use a status move on the first turn like Sand-Attack, Protect or Hail, it is incredibly easy and safe to set up a +6 attack Linoone, that can just sweep each member easily thanks to its good speed. I actually used this Linoone strategy in my run, so that is why I ended up with Linoone so overleveled. It swept the entire league. Normal STAB move, Shadow Ball and Belly Drum is really all you need. Substitute is not required, unless you are a coward because of Sand-Attack Mightyena. Wallace is harder to set up on because his Wailord doesn't always use Rain Dance. You can still do it if you get fancy with the Sunny Day TM and healing items, though.
So that is the performance of Zigzagoon. It is pretty mediocre but has a great ability and randomly sweeps the hardest part of the game. It is fun to at least try the league sweep once, but I personally am not that excited about Zigzagoon, which is why it took me so long to finally use it.

I wrote about Zubat before.

Slugma is absolutely atrocious. This is one of the best examples of Game Freak's design philosophy in earlier gens. With a few expections, they did not care at all how the Pokemon would perform in their game. It was entirely flavor driven. So while I really like the magma slug design, just about everything is awful about Slugma once you but it to the test. Where do you even begin with Slugma? It is painfully slow. I already covered with Torkoal, how slow Fire types don't really have a role in Hoenn. But at least Torkoal didn't fall over if you breath on it. Slugma has awful bulk, and coupled with its pathetic speed and useless typing, it is a challenge to use this thing without dying constantly. And here is the kicker, you will have to use this first stage garbage for 23 levels! For some ungodly reason, the Magcargo evolution is only at level 38! Why? And despite Slugma's best stat being its okay special attack, Magcargo only gains +10 special attack and suddenly attempts to be a physical tank?! A tank with 50 HP and one of the worst typings of the entire series. Yeah, good luck with that. Fire / Rock is such a godawful typing. All the useful resistances that Rock adds are for types that are long past you when you finally get Magcargo, and instead you have two glaring weaknesses to Water and Ground, that are around every corner in the late game. At least its STAB combination would be good offensively, but despite being a mixed typing, Magcargo has only base 50 attack. So its Rock STAB moves tickle, and its special attacks of base 80 special attack aren't much better. And it is still dirt slow. Even Slugma and Magcargo's surprisingly good level-up and TM movepool, consisting of natural Flamethrower and Rock Slide, as well as being able to use the Overheat and Earthquake TMs, don't save this evolution line. You remember how Camerupt also had certain problems but was actually pretty good once it got a move in? Magcargo is worse in every single regard. Later evolution level, worse move pool, worse typing, worse offenses. Just awful. Slugma is completely dead weight for the entire game and doesn't even have a single point where it would at least be okay. It is not a exaggeration to say that the best thing Slugma can ever do is dying to burn the opponent with its Flame Body ability.

Kingdra is a substantially better Pokemon than Seadra. Granted, that isn't saying much. But Kingdra is pretty solid in the remaing part of the game where you can use it. That comes with a big qualifier, though. Because Kingdra is a hastle to get. Aside from getting a Horsea in th first place, where you need the Super Rod from Mossdeep and then fly to Slateport City to fish for them on Route 134 to the east, you also need a Dragon Scale to evolve Seadra by trading. And the only way to obtain a scale is from wild Horsea who carry it 5% of the time. 20% with a lead Compound Eyes Nincada. Factoring in Horsea's 15% encounter rate with the Super Rod on Route 134, it is a 3% chance to find a Horsea with a Dragon Scale. And just like with Solrock last weak, you don't actually have to catch extra Horsea, but can just attack them with Thief. So while the chance for the evolution item for Kingdra is similar to Bellossom, it actually takes a lot longer. This is because you don't encounter Horsea the normal way. It is a Super Rod encounter. Which take a long time, and also have a chance to be nothing. So it really took me half an hour to finally get a scale. Then you can quickly go to Kingdra, who is pretty solid. It is kind of funny, that Seadra's offensive stats don't chance at all when it gets to Kingdra. The additional 100 stats all go towards its bulk. And Kingdra's typing gives it only a single weakness, so it is a lot bulkier than Seadra, who was so frail on the special side, which is weird for a Water type. Sadly, Kingdra's movepool doesn't add anything new, so its movepool is still very barren. But for the most part, Kingdra has all the moves it needs, even if it wishes it could learn Dragon Claw, or at least DragonBreath, over the weak Twister. The biggest advantage that Kingdra has over Seadra, aside from its better bulk, is that Kingdra has the Swift Swim ability again, just like Horsea did. Which makes Kingdra a pretty dangerous rain sweeper, as it has the highest speed and bulk out of all available rain sweepers. So you want to get the Rain Dance TM from the Abandoned Ship later. That means Kingdra will be almost fully set up before the 7th gym if you go through the time investment of roughly an hour to get Kingdra ready. It is pretty good against Tate & Liza with STAB Surf and good bulk. Twister can also do a Rock Slide impression here with 30% flinch chances on both targets. Kingdra is not as potent against the Water gym because, just like Seadra, it has no good moves to threaten other Water types. Rain boosted STAB Surfs are still going to hurt and Juan's Pokemon can't really touch it. But the Kingdra ditto is a giant RNG fiesta between Twister flinches and Double Team. Kingdra shines more in Victory Road and the Pokemon League. Kindra easily sweeps Sidney, Phoebe and Drake but can't do all that much against Glacia and Wallace. Among the late game rain sweepers, Kingdra is one of the best, but it also is more of a pain to get in the first place.

Everything regarding availabiltiy I mentioned last week with Regirock, also applies to Registeel. You probably shouldn't go through the effort of getting it, but if you do, then Registeel is okay. I would still rank it lower than Regirock, though. That is because Registeel is the middle child of the Regis. It doesn't spezialize into either physical or special, and is instead a mixed tank. Sadly it also comes with the lowest offenses out of all of them. But it also has the best typing out of them by far. Pure Steel is an amazing typing, and while its defensive stats are a bit lower than those of its brothers, they are still crazy high, and if you account for Steel's broken 12 resistances, it has actually the highest bulk out of any of them. Technically, Registeel has mixed offenses which means it could also use special attacks. But it only learns Thunderbolt, which mostly doesn't do enough for it and without STAB it is also too weak. Registeel kind of needs to set up with Curse to become threatening, and can't go attacking right away. With its great bulk, typing, Curse and Substitute it can set up on nearly every reamaining major trainer and sweep. Its best attacking moves are Metal Claw and Focus Punch. Metal Claw isn't exactly a great STAB move, but with STAB it has 75 power and a small chance to raise its attack, which isn't nothing. More imortantly, though, Metal Claw is able to hit all the Ghost types that Focus Punch can't hit. Registeel has a pretty easy time sweeping the entire Elite Four, but it does take a while because you really need to set up to +6 each time. Wallace is harder to set up on but it is also possible with item support. Basically, Registeel can sweep most of the remaining game but it is very slow at doing it and it sucks that you have to setup at least once or twice for even Victory Road trainers. Regirock is a lot more threatening immediatly, even if it can't sweep as many trainers as Registeel can.

Counter after team #20: