Pokémon Sun And Moon are awesome additions to the 3DS family with scores of new monsters to catch, but, in true series form, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few bad eggs along the way. From our perspective, here are the five worst companions in combat, design and party choice.
1) Bruxish: With its strong IVs, Bruxish isn’t bad if trained correctly, but that design is just hideous and unoriginal. At this point we’ve got so many fish-based Pokémon that it’s clear the folks at Game Freak are running out of ideas. That silly static grin is something almost nobody can love, and there are better water-psychic choices in this game if that’s what your party needs.
Slowpoke takes a bit more work to get in the right place, but at least it’s got beloved Kanto roots and the right skills to be competent in battle when fully evolved. Bruxish is tough in combat but harder to look at.
2) Yungoos: Pokémon games have long offered boring normal-type monsters early on, and Yungoos is no exception. Its base attacks don’t provide anything that can’t be paired with elemental typing in another party member, and its IV stats are among the lowest in the entirety of Sun And Moon.
That’d be fine if Yungoos evolved into something great, but Gumshoos essentially falls into the same weaknesses when matched against more powerful foes. These two are just containers for basic attacks, and that makes them worthy of being the worst. This useless beast is also clearly a parody of a certain divisive U.S. president, but it certainly doesn’t make Pokémon great again.
3) Rattata: Speaking of containers for boring and weak attacks, Rattata is sort of the OG in that department. When it comes to Sun And Moon, its Alola form offers some dark-type flair, but its average-level status wasn’t messed with too much in the redesign process. Even with the changes, its attack stats are just plain low.
With Raticate, you get the same issues but they’re amplified to a higher level. Without some item augmentation, there’s no way for this monster to become anything more than “meh.” You can obviously train anything up to be solid, but, especially with its moveset, why even bother? The dark coloring also looks a bit gross, and what’s up with those puffy cheeks? Rattata was never meant to be good. That’s just how it is.
4) Meowth: Also with an Alola form is the loveable Team Rocket mascot, Meowth. The new Meowth is just slightly stronger in the IV department than Rattata, except its singular dark typing makes it an even more worthless party addition. It’s fairly fast, but with low HP, attack and defense, there just isn’t much benefit even when evolved.
Speaking of evolutions, let’s clear the air and ask what the heck happened to Persian after moving to Alola? It’s like every ounce of coolness and sleekness was stripped from the classic Kanto design. Plus, that unified darker palette swap doesn’t inspire much creativity. Meowth was never fantastic, but the Sun And Moon versions definitely make something good a little bit worse all around.
5) Morelull: The designs for Morelull and Shiinotic aren’t the worst, but their stats don’t ever get strong enough to make either a worthwhile fighter for any trainer. The special stats are solid, but you can only use those attacks so much. At some point your standard attack, speed and defense need to be competent, and they simply aren’t in this case.
At best, the obvious way to take advantage of Morelull and Shiinotic is to pop in quickly for a little DreamEater action than pull back out before your opponent can retaliate too heavily. Even when maxed out, however, you’ll likely come across better Pokémon in your Sun And Moon journey and forget these lower-level ones ever existed. A forgettable Pokémon is a bad Pokémon.
Pokémon Sun And Moon are available now on 3DS. Be sure to check out or list of the best Sun And Moon additions as well.
What do you think of this list? Are these five the worst that Sun And Moon have to offer? Which Pokémon do you hate most? Tell us in the comments section!
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