r/PokemonEmerald

In Gen 1, it's Articuno. In Gen 2, it's Entei. In Gen 3, it's Regirock.

What these Pokemon have in common is that they're widely considered the weakest members of their respective legendary trios, and by a significant margin. To the point where it stands out very clearly.

Was this just a coincidence or was it by design?

Out of the three mentioned articuno might be the least bad, and the least obvious case. But if you've ever played Gen 3 OU you'll notice that moltres is fairly commonly used. Zapdos is pretty much in every single team with thunderbolt, and hidden power ice/grass. There are also thunder wave / rest/toxic sets.

In Gen 2 entei is very obviously the worst. If you didnt know any better and were using this guy and someone told you that entei has an 580 BST youd be shell shocked. He feels so much worse. Raikou and suicine is widely used. Suicine is arguably the best setup sweeper in the first 3 gens (excluding box legendaries).

Regirock also feels way worse than what the BST would suggest, but not because of bad stat distribution (like entei has), but because of the rock typing. Being a slow and defensive rock type has to be the worst combination in the game? The only truly strong rock types in the first three generations appeared in gen1, and gen2, which is aerodactyl from gen1, and tyrannitar from gen2. Who succeed because they are massively offensive. Aggron suffer in a similar way (defensive + rock typing). Steelix is literally thanos compared aggron, immune to thunder wave and toxic), although most pokemon with several quad weakness is just generally not gonna be very good.

As someone who is a fan of regirock (think he looks cool etc), ill explain why this guy suck. His strongest move is 112.5 power rock slide with 90% accuracy (accounting for stab). He also got moves like earthquake, superpower and explosion (the latter two has higher power, but with very significant drawbacks). So his best move, just isnt that strong. Regirock also gets completely ruined by status effects. Will-o-wisp, toxic, and thunder wave completely ruin this guy. Donphan, a 500 BST pokemon is literally better than regirock in almost every single scenario. Donphan has a 150 power move (Stab eq). Can switch in on thunder wave/eletric moves. Shitstomps salamance (with hidden power rock), metagross and tyranitar (regirock also beats salamance/tyranitar but loses to metagross). Learns rapid spin. Can actually status and disrupt more efficiently. Has an easier time using Rest and switching in /out due to feeling more defensive due to typing. The only benefit regirock has over donphan is that he has an easier time surviving non-stab super effective special moves. So he can survive a special coverage move. Both of these fall over to stab super effective special moves. Ill admit that donphan definitely punches above its 500 BST weight. Its a very well optimized guy. But man if regirock had ground typing instead of rock, this guy would feel like a true legendary pokemon, and it would unironically be one of the strongest in gen3.

As for registeel and regice. If you've ever done the battle factory in emerald you know how increadible regice is. If you've ever played Gen3 OU you know how powerful regice and registeel can be. Registeel is probably the best regi, and without a proper check he can single handedly disrupt the entire enemy team. He's a bit worse ingame in a playthrough of emerald tho, since you wont really be using seismic toss and most likely wont be statusing as much either, but he can be made unstoppable with curse.

Playing Pokémon emerald for the first time and just beat the normal type gym leader. Saw I had to go back somewhere using that old guys boat but he was just gone. I got hm surf but don’t have and Pokémon that can learn it. Another problem I never got the old rod from the guy in dewford so… am I just soft locked?

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Every now and again I boot up emerald and it gives me that sense of adventure. It's the first one I played and to me it's just - it never gets old. Maybe one day I'll be 70 and boot it up in the retirement home for good old times sake.