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RTTP: The Pokemon...Moves. All 720, and counting.

Mr-Joker

Banned
Ah Ember, the only decent fire move that Charmander will learn throughout the entire game in the original gen 1 as Fire Blast was given as a prize in the 7th gym and Charizard learns Flamethrower at level 46, though they fixed it in gen 2 before bumping it up to level 42 in gen 4 and as of gen 7 he now learns it at level 47, though it isn't a problem for me as I always hatch a Charmander egg who know flamethrower plus the Charmander line does learn other fire type moves before learning Flamethrower.

Speaking of Flamethrower I don't like how it went from 95 to 90, bring back the 5 damn it.

Surf is a good move and I prefer it over other water moves as it goes great when paired with ice beam.

Flamethrower

94b0df2f0942c4bce3df6956c12fc67d-gif-of-the-day-the-evolution-of-charmanders-flamethrower.gif

Heck yeah!


Man Volcanion was a cool Pokémon, shame that X and Y did nothing with him.

Ash's Squirtle had the coolest Hydro Pump.

I remember the episode when he learnt it...it was interesting as I was like wait if Squirtle hadn't learn Hydro Pump then he would have died as he hit jagged rocks. o_O;

It...it was a dark time.

Nah it was an amazing time, now X and Y however that was a dark time.
 
The distribution of moves and the TM learning lists seem to have so many flaws from an in universe type consistency/logic standpoint.

But I don't think GF will ever "reboot" this aspect and fix this while locking out transfers that are the old way.

A few aspects of the series seem to have "baggage" like this that they won't change for the sake of transferring up generations and competitive expectations.
 
They've since gone back and given Generation I Water-type Pokemon the move, and now it's fairly popular as a move for Water-type Pokemon.

HMs and Gym Leader TMs (Bide / Bubblebeam/ Thunderbolt / Psywave / Toxic / Mega Drain / Fire Blast / Fissure) were unique to their Machine in Generation I. No Pokemon knew them naturally and there was no breeding. They started adding the Gen I Gym Leader TMs to Pokemon movesets after the TMs were removed in later gens.

(Goldeen/Seaking did learn Waterfall but it doesn't become a HM until Gen II (which had the weird effect of Goldeen/ Seaking being able to learn the move without the HM and then be unable to forget it without the Move Tutor in those Generations. )

This is generally true in later generations too (Gym Leader TMs are unique) but it's less iron clad.
 

DrArchon

Member
Surf always confused me. So many of the HM moves are crap in terms of what they do in battle, and then Gamefreak was like "Actually, let's make this one really super good."

Like, what?
 
Can't see this without immediately hearing "RIDE THAT SURF"

Jesus, I must have had like 500 hours between Stadium and Stadium 2. I was obsessed with those games as a kid. And I always used rentals, since the one time I used the transfer pack, it erased all my Blue data. Challenge Cup was great too, for some variety.

I... may have dropped the controller and the pack popped out.
 
god to this day i still hate the fact that every water type can learn a ice type move

like it makes is so that one of the few good things about the grass type is completely useless considering every water can counter then easily

at least they got shit right with Volcanion ice the only ice type moves he learns are Mist and Haze
 

Xux

Member
Man, first Gen BubbleBeam is a top tier animation. I'll always think of Surf as being summoning rain and then two geysers.
 
I was gonna mention gen1 bubble beam animation myself, as a charmander guy you better believe I have horrid flashbacks to that animation at Misty's Gym.

Best ember in the anime is still the one in the Koga fight where Charmander wags his tail to release embers into air, way cooler than the advanced generation's penchant for recolouring bullet seed/bubble/ember.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
I was gonna mention gen1 bubble beam animation myself, as a charmander guy you better believe I have horrid flashbacks to that animation at Misty's Gym.

That's where my dislike of Misty stem from, she was a pain to defeat especially with her Starmie.

Granted I shouldn't really be using a fire type against a water type but even when I had the type advantage she would still cream me.

Fuck Misty.
 
It took until Gen IV for Krabby to naturally learn Bubble Beam

Krabby is a crab. They are known for making bubbles
when they're running out of oxygen in the gills
. Bubble had been a starting move on Krabby since Gen I.

Gamefreak in action
 

Toxi

Banned
god to this day i still hate the fact that every water type can learn a ice type move

like it makes is so that one of the few good things about the grass type is completely useless considering every water can counter then easily

at least they got shit right with Volcanion ice the only ice type moves he learns are Mist and Haze
The hilarity of Water types simultaneously burning more than Fire types and freezing more than Ice types.

Rock has often suffered a similar problem in recent years. Everyone and their mother can learn Rock Slide and Stone Edge, especially Ground and Fighting types that really like the coverage. Being a good offensive type and a bad defensive type doesn't work out when everyone can use your offense for coverage. The omnipresence of Tyranitar thanks to its amazing stats and ability has just made it harder for people to take notice.
 

Boogiepop

Member
The hilarity of Water types simultaneously burning more than Fire types and freezing more than Ice types.

Rock has often suffered a similar problem in recent years. Everyone and their mother can learn Rock Slide and Stone Edge, especially Ground and Fighting types that really like the coverage. Being a good offensive type and a bad defensive type doesn't work out when everyone can use your offense for coverage. The omnipresence of Tyranitar thanks to its amazing stats and ability has just made it harder for people to take notice.

It also doesn't help that they seem to think that Rock is primarily a defensive type despite being atrocious at that, because man, we keep getting "tank" Rock types, with so few of them getting any actual speed, so the type just kind of generally sucks pretty bad. Ice type probably still "wins" that fight, but Rock is definitely at the bottom of the pile down there with it.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
The hilarity of Water types simultaneously burning more than Fire types and freezing more than Ice types.

Yep, water is super useful and is why I always make sure that I have a water type on the team as they are good both offensively and defensively.

It also doesn't help that they seem to think that Rock is primarily a defensive type despite being atrocious at that, because man, we keep getting "tank" Rock types, with so few of them getting any actual speed, so the type just kind of generally sucks pretty bad. Ice type probably still "wins" that fight, but Rock is definitely at the bottom of the pile down there with it.

Other than Aggron, whom I treated more as a steel type than a rock type and she eventually got removed from my team, I had never used a rock type as I felt that Steel and Ground type did a better job than rock type.

So when I decided to use Gigalith on my Black 2 team I was nervous as I was worried that I would have to baby him but he actually surprised me with his strength and decent attack.

But then I look other rock type and yeah I still opt to use steel and ground type over them as rock type are slow, have too many weakness, five to be exact whereas Ground and Steel have three, and their moves can be learnt on so many other Pokémon which includes Steel and Ground.

Plus the fact that both Steel and Ground are immune to one type so in my eyes Rock is kinda seen as the lesser mon of the two.
 
I actually always use Rock types in the main games lol. Onix, Sudowoodo, Golem, Tyrantrum, Rampardos, Bastiodon, Barbaracle, Gigalith and def a few more. They just tend to be some of my favourite designs heh.

Same for Ice types, actually. ;_;
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I don't really remember what I went with in Gen I and Gen II, but I remember all my in-game teams up from Emerald...so for Rock-type Pokemon...

I used Nosepass in Platinum, Rhyhorn in Heart Gold (the only team that was erased), Roggenrola in Black, and Binacle in Y. So, I've used a fair bit of them. All of them did pretty well in-game. Oh, and I have a competitive raised Carracosta.

If Alola Geodude pops up earlier in USUM I might use him too.
 
Rock is clearly a defensive type by design. Just really badly thought out. Steel is close to Rock but better defensively (it's worse against Fire). And most Pokemon have adequate move pools such that Normal moves are almost never used for coverage ( and ghosts tend to do it better especially since later gens have given us bulky ghosts who don't need to worry about mkspredicting a switch as much as the Ghastly line). Also Rock types tended to have abysmal Spec / Spec Def which meant that even resisted special attacks really hurt and their special weaknesses tended to 1 shot them.

Grass is a similarly questionable type design wise saved mainly by it having excellent synergy with certain dual typings.

You can see what they were trying to do, but also why it falls.
 

Tiamant

Member
Rock/Grass has to be top3 worst defensive combos. I love Cradily so much but you really have to make an effort to bypass such terrible synergy.

Edit: Rock/Ice and Grass/Ice being top 1 and top 2 respectively. Poor Aurorus and Abomasnow :(
 
Rock/Grass has to be top3 worst defensive combos. I love Cradily so much but you really have to make an effort to bypass such terrible synergy.

Don't forget Rock / Ice , which has 2 4x Weaknesses , both of which can be exploited on both the special and physical side.

Edit - Ninjaed.

Yeah, Abamasnow basically disappeared totally from competitive once better possessors of Snow Warning came along.
 
A bit late but there are a good amount of moves introduced in Gen I that you hardly ever see now lol. Like Barrage, Rolling Kick, and Comet Punch.

You forgot the best
and strangest
version of Surf.
8kYfMMH.gif


I'm late to this thread, but is there a reason why special moves were lowered in bp?

I think Game Freak just decided that high power physical moves usually had more drastic negative side-effects like recoil and stat drops. Not to mention that burn essentially cripples physical attackers.

It's weird that Moonblast was still given 95 base power in the same generation the others were nerfed. Have to destroy those dragons I guess.
 

webrunner

Member
Surf is a strange move, conceptually.
In the field it's the ability to travel on the surface of the water, but it SUMMONS water in battle.

What actually *is* surf? Is it a large wave that pushes you along or damages your opponent?
 

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
Rev up those Simpson's gifs!

Aurora Beam - Ice [Special]
65/20PP/100%
The target is hit with a rainbow-colored beam. This may also lower the target's Attack stat.

A move that summons a miniature Aurora Borealis localized right where you happen to be battling regardless of the time of year and wherever you are in the Region. So, jokes aside, Aurora Beam is one of those moves I tend to forget about. It's honestly not that bad by any means, it has a respectable attack and with the bonus of lowering the opponent's Attack (which is useful for the normally Physically-frail Ice-type), and there's a decent amount of Pokemon who learn it, but, I dunno, it just never seems to pop up. Is that because Ice Beam is so prominent in my mind as THE Ice-type attack that I just blank out whenever this attack is used? Speaking of Ice Beam, I kind of think that Ice Beam should be the weaker of the two because "Aurora Beam" just sounds more powerful and impressive while Ice Beam sounds a bit pedestrian. But that's just my opinion.

The Aurora Borealis, from a quick Wikipedia read, actually doesn't have anything to do with ice or cold---it's associated with the Ice-type simply due to the fact that auroras occur around the poles of the Earth which just happen to be extremely cold. If anything, technically it's more of an Electric-type attack, and while I'm okay with it being the Ice-type for game purposes I do think it would've been cool had Game Freak had a bit of fun with its distribution and gave it to a couple of Electric-type Pokemon representing this, or those associated with magnets such as Magnemite and Probopass. There's a few non-Ice/Water Pokemon who get it like Cresselia and Xerneas which play up the light theme, but none as far as I know which play up the fact that auroras occur because of ionization.

So, quick little trivia bit---what's my favorite Pokemon film? It's the Deoxys film. It has a rather unique plot for Pokemon, basically a G-rated existential horror film at times with an entire city under siege and unable to really do anything about it, and the setting, La Rousse City based on Vancouver, is a really neat locale. In the film Deoxys is shown to be given the power of summoning an aurora with its funky space powers or something, and I'm disappointed we've yet to have a Deoxys to learn Aurora Beam to represent this. It's a minor issue I know, it's not like it'd help Deoxys or anything, but damn Game Freak I don't ask for much---well, except for Quiver Dance Lumineon---can't you do a throwback to this sometime with an Event Deoxys with the move? That'd be my szechuan sauce.

Hyper Beam - Normal [Special]
150/5PP/90%
The target is attacked with a powerful beam. The user can't move on the next turn.

1st turn: Attack.
2nd turn: Rest

If you've played even a single Pokemon game, you're familiar with Hyper Beam. Often positioned as the "strongest" move in the series more or less, not technically of course but it's played off as such, Hyper Beam does amazing damage. But, after using it, you're forced to recharge the next turn leaving you a sitting duck.

Except in Generation I. There were various little tricks one could use to get around Hyper Beam's recharge, but the easiest trick of them all wasn't even a trick---simply fainting a Pokemon with Hyper Beam canceled the recharge. Needless to say you could tear through almost an entire team with this move on a powerful Pokemon, one-by-one taking them out, and it was a useful move in the competitive scene because of this. Pokemon Stadium removed this trick as well as the others, either Game Freak fixing a glitch or realizing the brokenness of the move, and as of Generation II now the move always needs to recharge unless you miss. Which doesn't make much sense, because the Pokemon is still expending the energy to use the move, right? Well, needless to say Hyper Beam's use quickly saw a decline and it hasn't been buffed since. Now it seems the best user is Mega Pidgeot, and that's partially because they forgot to give it any other high-powered Normal-type attacks.

Also note Hyper Beam is now Special, where in Generation I it was Physical as a Normal-type attack. As we'll see they introduced a Physical-variant of it in Generation IV when the split occurred, but this was another hit against it since most Pokemon who used to use the move effectively were Physical-based Pokemon like Gen 1's most famous user, Tauros. Anyway, despite this, Hyper Beam remains a classic move and has stayed a TM since its inception, with virtually every fully-evolved Pokemon being capable of learning it. Even those who were once fully-evolved such as Piloswine and Porygon. The only evolved Pokemon who don't get it are those who don't have access to TMs, or non-evolving Pokemon that are considered "gimmicky" Pokemon and typically portrayed as weaklings.

This move pops up all the time in the show, and whenever it appears usually shit is going down. It used to be represented as a powerful beam of orangish-energy, but has since turned a more evil looking color to reflect how it looks in the games. Oh, and then in Pokemon Origins Snorlax launched it out of his eyes for some reason. The old-school sound effect proved pretty memorable, so Generation VI brought it back to the games.

Peck - Flying [Physical]
35/35PP/100%
The target is jabbed with a sharply pointed beak or horn.

Back in Generation I when Gust was a Flying-type move, this was the most basic Flying-type attack alongside Wing Attack---they were actually tied at first, yet while Wing Attack was learned by most of its Pokemon in their 30s, everyone who could learn Peck got it at Level 1. Wait, what!? So Peck was "technically" the better move considering you had it early on when it was actually viable, while Wing Attack came far too late in the adventure. This is why despite what the anime wanted you to think, Spearow who got Peck was superior to Wing Attack Pidgey.

Peck in Generation I was kind of the "heel move" of Flying-type attacks, with the Fearow and Dodrio lines learning it who were also usually portrayed as more antagonistic compared to the Wing Attack users. Oh, and Goldeen and Seaking got it too, using their horn as the pecking mechanism. Both Flying-type Pokemon and those with notable horns have continued to learn the move as the years have gone on, usually at early levels, including all three of the bird-based Starter Pokemon. Of the three, Torchic, Piplup, and Rowlet (it's neat we can make a trio with the bird Starters now), the latter is the only one who is actually a Flying-type, at least up until it reaches its final form. The Starters also learn Peck later than the majority of Pokemon do for some reason, learning more powerful moves before that that they get STAB from. I feel like they should give Peck a slight boost now to like 40BP or so.

Drill Peck - Flying [Physical]
80/20PP/100%
A corkscrewing attack with a sharp beak acting as a drill.

Drill Peck was the best Flying-type move in Generation I, having more power than Fly originally and lacking the recharge element of Sky Attack. And it remained that way for quite a while, as not a lot of good Flying-type attacks were introduced---even today, it's still one of the stronger Physical Flying-type attacks. It doesn't see a lot of play in the competitive scene outside of Generation I, though, since not a lot of Pokemon learn it and those who do have more important moves to use instead.

In Generation I only three Pokemon learned it---Fearow, Dodrio, and Zapdos. Though seen as the advanced version of Peck, Zapdos is the only Legendary Bird who got Drill Peck but the only one who didn't get Peck. Weird. Dodrio was its fiercest user in Generation I, as I learned when I used it in a recent playthrough of Pokemon Blue, and could do serious damage thanks to its high Attack and Speed. It remained more or less its signature move till Generation IV with the introduction of Brave Bird. Fearow though has yet to get Brave Bird, so it still has Drill Peck as its most powerful move. Only the birds learn this move, probably as its Japanese name specifies it as "Drill Beak".

Till the introduction of the Pikipek line in Generation VII the Piplup line was the only Pokemon who learned it naturally post-Generation I, plus a couple others as Egg Moves. Game Freak also gave it to Delibird in Sun and Moon at Level 25, the only attack it can naturally learn other than Present. This has increased Delibird's spot in the metagame tremendously, raising it up to the same tier as M-Rayquaza.

Submission - Fighting [Physical]
80/20PP/80%
The user grabs the target and recklessly dives for the ground. This also damages the user a little.

The last couple of moves we've covered have had pretty minor localization changes, but here's one of the first localization changes which is likely due to the controversial element of religion in Nintendo games. You've ever wondered why Submission's newest animation is a strange wheel-like effect, and while an attack that seemingly references a fighting concept where you make the opponent completely submit hurts the user as well? The Japanese name explains it all as its name is "Jigoku Guruma", or "Hell Wheel", which according to Bulbapedia is a real-life lucha libre-style attack where you take the opponent down to the floor with you like a wheel and toss them off. Though I can't find anything when googling "Hell Wheel" other than the Bulbapedia article, using the original Japanese name does turn up results---it's one of Ken's moves in Street Fighter Alpha. The anime has always gone with this wheel-like effect, though when Ash's Charizard debuted it he spun around horizontally in the air.

Submission is the strongest Generation I attack next to Hi Jump Kick, though it comes with recoil damage. It's actually the weakest recoil move in the series to this day excluding Struggle, though that means less damage you'll take. I don't think anyone uses this move nowadays since, well, there are plenty of moves that match it without the recoil. In Generation I only Poliwrath, the Machop line, and Pinsir got it, the latter probably referencing the "Bug Wrestling" sport popular in Japan. They're still the only Pokemon to this day to have it naturally. It was a TM in Generation I and a ton more Pokemon can learn it, but past that it's been limited to the natural users and three Pokemon through Egg Move---Cyndaquil (probably because it can roll up like a wheel), Chimchar, and Drillbur, once more because it can "spin". Disappointed Donphan doesn't learn it since, y'know, it is a wheel. So, between Generation III and the release of Gen I VC, this move basically disappeared from modern games but now you can get a decent amount of Gen I Pokemon with it again. Why? Um...

The localized name combined with the image of the Pokemon slamming the foe to the ground and rolling around with them---uh, let's just say Hell Wheel perhaps would've ended up a better name in the long run.
 
Aurora Beam doesn't see much use since Ice Beam is so widely distributed and clearly superior (especially since Infinite TMs / Move Tutors have been a thing). I remember it mainly because a lot of the Water/Ice types in Gen I learnt Aurora Beam before Ice Beam and I raised every Pokemon until it learnt its final attack in Gen I , so I used it a lot.
 
Hyper Beam being made Special made it not really as cool of a move since it was always famous coming from huge attacking Pokemon like Gyarados.

Nobody cares about Giga Impact.

It being Special in RBY would have probably been obscene, had that been a thing that could happen.


( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
I don't think I've ever used Submission before, but Pokemon has a ton of attacks that I never use. I think my Dewgong always had Aurora Beam. I be forgetting that move too. Hardly shows up outside of Gen 1. Ice Beam is that shit. I don't like Peck and Drilll Peck, but I'll use them if I have to and I never knew that exploit about Hyper Beam in Gen 1. I just never bothered to use it much because of the recharge. I never thought about using it today or see anyone use it on Showdown. I feel like I should use Hyper Beam one more time for nostalgia purposes. What's a good Pokemon for it?
 

WPS

Member
Hyper beam's original sound effect was the best. I'm glad they brought it back, though it's a little quiet now.

I think they should purposely reintroduce the hyper beam glitch. It might need a little tweaking for balance, but it and it's clones are pretty much garbage right now.
 

Firemind

Member
I don't think I've ever used Submission before, but Pokemon has a ton of attacks that I never use. I think my Dewgong always had Aurora Beam. I be forgetting that move too. Hardly shows up outside of Gen 1. Ice Beam is that shit. I don't like Peck and Drilll Peck, but I'll use them if I have to and I never knew that exploit about Hyper Beam in Gen 1. I just never bothered to use it much because of the recharge. I never thought about using it today or see anyone use it on Showdown. I feel like I should use Hyper Beam one more time for nostalgia purposes. What's a good Pokemon for it?
Hyper Beam doesn't require a recharge if you fainted the Pokemon with it in Gen 1.

Edit: oh seems like it's already been covered.

Now it seems the best user is Mega Pidgeot, and that's partially because they forgot to give it any other high-powered Normal-type attacks.
GODDAMMIT
 

Clefargle

Member
Can't see this without immediately hearing "RIDE THAT SURF"

Jesus, I must have had like 500 hours between Stadium and Stadium 2. I was obsessed with those games as a kid. And I always used rentals, since the one time I used the transfer pack, it erased all my Blue data. Challenge Cup was great too, for some variety.

I... may have dropped the controller and the pack popped out.

Was coliseum the most recent game to feature surfing Pikachu with full modeled board or sprite?
 
it was always weird to me how so many moves (even physical ones) are depicted as laser beams like something out of dragonball

but its probably better like this than how they depicted bite in Origins :)
 
it was always weird to me how so many moves (even physical ones) are depicted as laser beams like something out of dragonball

but its probably better like this than how they depicted bite in Origins :)

RB had no animation of the Pokemon, so they resorted to tricks to make physical contact moves look different (the hit effect, screen flashes , etc) but there's only so may things you can do, hence things like shooting spikes / horns / beams for physical attacks.
 
RB had no animation of the Pokemon, so they resorted to tricks to make physical contact moves look different (the hit effect, screen flashes , etc) but there's only so may things you can do, hence things like shooting spikes / horns / beams for physical attacks.

oh i mean in the anime rather than the games
even shooting spikes seemed to be something turned into energy when animated

theres a battle in the last part of XY league thingy where 20 big ass boulders are thrown onto Pikachu though (rock slide?), which was funny because he just pushes out of the rock pile like theyre made of styrofoam :p
 
Ugh, missed the talk on Ice Beam, I'll mirror the complaints earlier mentioned on giving it to just about every Water Type under the sun. Not only did it make the actual Ice Types redundant due to Water having way less weaknesses (and most of the Dragon's it's really good on being quad-weak to it). But it also breaks the Grass/Fire/Water triangle because the Water Type generally can just slap on an Ice Type move to overcome one of their two (Yes seriously, still only 2 for some reason) weaknesses. At least Electric has remained to this day as a good counter to the types. It's still ridiculous though, enough to make Water among the top 3 types in in the game in my opinion.

Anyway, on this set. I always like Hyper Beam on Porygon Z just because Adaptability Hyper Beams are hilarious. It's even better now that it's half-viable now because of Z-Move Conversion as a viable nuke option when you just really need to get rid of whatever your opponent has.
 
Water is just straight up a contender for best type lol.

Only two weaknesses. Four resistances. Scald. A huge amount of Pokemon. (most common!) Scald. Access to Ice type moves. Rain. Scald. Only resisted by three types, two in which are weak to Ice anyway. Hits three types effectively. Scald.

Only Fairy actually competes tbh. But it doesn't have Scald.
 

Dryk

Member
It's a very versatile type too. You need to go out of your way to give an Ice type or Rock type the tools to be viable but you can design a Water type to fill a role with comparatively little effort.
 
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