Pokémon Emerald Hardcore Nuzlocke Tier List

My complete Pokémon Emerald Tier List for hardcore nuzlockes! Feel free to use the timestamps below to skip to specific Pokémon :)
SUPPORT (if you want): / @grumpygengar22
DISCORD: / discord
Criteria for Tier List: 0:00
Tier Descriptions: 1:05
Sceptile: 1:48
Blaziken: 3:27
Swampert: 4:05
Mightyena: 4:54
Linoone: 5:34
Beautifly: 6:01
Dustox: 6:13
Ludicolo: 6:51
Shiftry: 7:19
Swellow: 7:50
Pelipper: 8:14
Gardevoir: 8:52
Masquerain: 9:27
Azumarill: 9:56
Breloom: 10:36
Slaking: 11:15
Ninjask: 12:12
Shedinja: 12:38
Kadabra/Alakazam: 12:47
Exploud: 13:23
Gyarados: 13:51
Tentacruel: 15:13
Graveler/Golem: 15:41
Crobat: 16:03
Hariyama: 16:30
Nosepass: 17:00
Delcatty: 17:20
Sableye: 17:39
Mawile: 17:58
Aggron: 18:15
Medicham: 19:04
Manectric: 19:32
Plusle/Minun: 19:58
Volbeat/Illumise: 20:26
Vileplume/Bellossom: 20:51
Roselia: 21:23
Swalot: 21:42
Sharpedo: 22:08
Seaking: 22:40
Wailord: 23:00
Muk: 23:16
Wheezing: 23:35
Machoke/Machamp: 23:54
Magcargo: 24:28
Camerupt: 24:52
Torkoal: 25:12
Grumpig: 25:30
Wobbuffet: 25:47
Spinda: 25:59
Skarmory: 26:11
Sandslash: 26.28
Flygon: 26:53
Cacturne: 27:24
Altaria: 27:48
Zangoose: 28:17
Seviper: 28:40
Lunatone/Solrock: 29:01
Whiscash: 29:34
Crawdaunt: 29:56
Magneton: 30:09
Electrode: 30:49
Safari Zone Disclaimer: 31:14
Golduck: 31:47
Raichu: 32:05
Dodrio: 32:16
Heracross: 32:23
Claydol: 32:47
Cradily: 33:06
Armaldo: 33:35
Milotic: 33:54
Castform: 34:02
Kecleon: 34:16
Banette: 34:30
Dusclops: 34:52
Ninetales: 35:08
Tropius: 35:25
Chimecho: 35:52
Absol: 36:04
Starmie: 36:27
Glalie: 36:54
Lanturn: 37:12
Walrein: 37:33
Corsola: 38:12
Kingdra: 38:24
Huntail/Gorebyss: 38:50
Relicanth: 39:10
Salamence/Metagross: 39:36
Ruleset for my hardcore nuzlockes - Pokémon Challenges
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Bliitzit:
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[@faletepower694]

I must say that I totally disagree on the Hariyama placement. It's AMAZING in almost any situation. It's humongous HP stat makes it a "fake Snorlax but fighting type", and it can help you with some mons that either are weak to fighting, have bad physical bulk or anything that doesn't have super effective coverage to hit it (so, avoid the 6th and 7th gym). Almost always when it comes out, it will kill something, or at least it will damage it by a lot. It carried me through my Emerald HC Nuzlocke run. For me, it's A tier, and probably the best Granite cave encounter alongside Zubat.

[@grumpygengar22]

You have a point, and I have not played with him as much so it's good to know. I think fighting types in general are pretty great in Emerald, and they are harder to come by. So I suppose that also adds to Hariyama's value too.

[@gillriet773]

And with a guts boost it's wild

[@jrlaps521]

I was underleveled at the E4 in my last Emerald playthrough, and belly drum Hariyama swept through the whole E4 and Wallace minus Phoebe

[@ShubhamSingh-xc9dq]

Yeah i also don't agree with the placement that sableye was given. It makes browly fight a complete joke and it's pretty good in mid game with it's typing. You can switch it in on multiple moves because of his immunities and use it to cripple the enemy with fake out, toxic, confuse ray etc. It does fall off late game but by then, you should have other options anyway. Also the same reason why i think gravler should be at least one tier above (makes electric gym free, good in fire, normal, flying gym and later on, you can use it to go out with a bang on a difficult boss fight).

[@chefgrizz6284]

Adamant Guts boosted +252 ATK fake out go crazy

[@Neo_Bones]

Masquerain, Roselia, Medicham, Zangoose, and Lunatone are all actually unobatainable in Emerald

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I forgot to mention that those were only in the two base games.

[@InsertFunnyThingHere]

Not sure about the rest but I'm almost absolutely certain that Sirskit and Meditite are perfectly obtainable and just rare encounters

[@Neo_Bones]

@@InsertFunnyThingHere by mixing records with RS

[@ReindeerDan]

If you randomize wild Pokémon only by base stats it’s possible to have them and bot have an over stacked team

[@Hobo-jo]

@@InsertFunnyThingHerenope

[@DylanBlott]

i did a playthrough where i unfortunately got a spoink. but my grumpig had hidden power dragon which was great for the elite four. some training and moves selection made it one of my fav psychic types now

[@grumpygengar22]

I love when little stuff like that happens and just makes the playthrough so much more fun

[@DylanBlott]

@@grumpygengar22 that’s also why pachirisu is one of my favorites, nuzelocking changes your outlook on so many Pokémon, can’t wait to see you do future generations!

[@WetBoy]

Spoink sucks

[@DylanBlott]

@@WetBoy L take

[@WetBoy]

@@DylanBlott w take + ratio

[@owenaspinall2046]

Ninjask can spam substitute on the elite 4 and usually be able to get in a swords dance, but the big thing here is the ability to baton pass speed boosts. It can allow any slow, strong physical attacker to shine.

[@grumpygengar22]

I forget about substitute a lot, that's a cool idea!

[@NightHawkXFG]

Gotta say that while Ludicolo is a really strong pokemon, he's pretty mid before you get the water stone which isn't until gym 7 and at that point you're already in the late game and won't be using him very long. I think that's relevant given your thoughts on Sceptile's line.

[@TheDubbedCasual]

I've been binging your content the last couple days and love it! I have definitely thrown some battles by using a wack pokemon I just love the sprite art of...

[@JonJon-pj9ly]

Illumise is always a little underrated. The thing don't just have Charm, its also got Encore, Wish/moonlight, and can learn Thunderbolt (and Water pulse and Giga Drain). This can be PRETTY helpful in Winona and Watson. Its better than Volbeat, and its not a bad option between it, and Oddish, for sure. Needs a little EV train, but I would put it in low B tier or high C tier no Joke. Its almost as fast and way bulkier than Plusle and Minun, and the stat distribution is not bad.

[@robertlupa8273]

"Illumise is always a little underrated." "Its better than Illumise," ?????? (did you mean "It's better than Volbeat"?)

[@JonJon-pj9ly]

@@robertlupa8273 Lol, thats what you get for rush typing in tour Cellphone, yes, It was Volbeat

[@metagira3268]

As far as I am aware, as long as you already have a Magikarp and a Tentacool by route 119 (which you probably do), Feebas is actually a guaranteed encounter, if you spend the time to find a Feebas tile that is. Regarding Milotic, yeah, pretty OP, best toxic staller in the game imo.

[@xxstexx7450]

Yeah and you don't even need the berry from after beating the elite 4. You can use the kelpsy berry's found hidden to the left of meteor falls.

[@robertlupa8273]

*GrumpyGengar then:* _"Sableye is D-tier. It gets Fake Out and Confuse Ray I guess, his moveset is just awful outside of these two moves. Everything besides the typing sucks."_ *GrumpyGengar now:* _"Sableye is a solid B. He's the kind of pivoting. It has wonderfully balanced utility options. Still a bit hard to use though with those awful stats."_ *Top 10 Anime Redemption Arcs*

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I've come a long way with quite a few of these guys honestly haha

[@robertlupa8273]

i mispelt king as kind q_q

[@darianclark3980]

Sableye is a Solid C right beside Mawile! Its great against Norman and pretty decent against Tate & Liza bc of its fabulous type combination!

[@grumpygengar22]

I did him so dirty in this tier list.. he should be much higher.

[@mattishidayeo]

and Sableye is an instant win button against Brawly since it cannot be touched

[@ThibsyCube]

This is a great video! I thought Medicham would get a little bit higher with him having Pure power and then can have shadow ball, brick break, …

[@Firescizor]

Hey there! First of all, good tier list! This is one of the most level-headed and thoughtful lists for ranking hardcore nuzlocke encounters in Pokemon Emerald that I've seen for a while and that's great. Major problem that I find with the list as a whole is that you didn't specify how you are ranking the Pokemon that aren't available in vanilla Emerald (by which I mean are you genning them in at the beginning of the game or are you pretending to catch them in the same spot you would find them in Ruby and Sapphire). Besides that clarification, this was a great list and continue on doing a great job on these videos champ!

[@Firescizor]

Now to the specifics! There aren't that many Pokémon that I disagree with you on, and the ones I do aren't usually a great disagreement. Graveler and Golem: despite having horrible typing for the late game of Pokemon Emerald, Graveler and Golem get the upper hand on the whole midsection of Pokemon Emerald by virtue of trashing Watson, Flannery, Norman and Winona's gyms. If you don't choose Mudkip, this is the ONLY ground type available before Watson that isn't freaking Nincada, and it utterly destroys that gym, which definitely one of the hardest in these games. It is basically the inverse Grovyle, absolutely amazing on that mid-game and falling of a cliff right before the water routes late game. Should be in B tier in my opinion. Hariyama: this is arguably the best fighting type in the game that isn't Breloom. Amazing HP stat coupled with good attack and early strong moves like Vital Throw and a respectable movepool with some fun options like Fake Out and Belly Drum make it already a good Pokémon. Then add to this a very early evolution (Lvl 24!!!) making it potentially the second best non-Ground type option against Watson and two amazing abilities (Guts boost or the ever reliable Thick Fat for Flannery and/or Glacial)! I personally don't see how this Pokémon can make it lower than B, and if someone tried to argue A tier with me, I could see myself being swayed. Sharpedo: I'd honestly argue that it belongs in the A tier. Despite it's frailty, Sharpedo's matchup against the late game of Emerald is insane. Evolve Carvanha before Winona, destroy Winona with Ice Beam. Afterwards you destroy Maxie/Archie fights and TateLiza with Crunch boosted by Blackglasses and/or Surf boosted by Mystic Water. A random physical move in the last slot to capitalize on the greater physical attack (marginally so, compared to the also great Sp. Attack) and you're set. Destroy Phoebe, destroy Drake, and do big damage whilst outspeeding everything. Amazing, amazing Pokémon! Cacturne: C'mon... it's not a D. That's way to harsh. I don't want to waste too much breath on a Pokémon like Cacturne lmao, but good matchups against the last portion of the game and very strong Sp. Attack to hit TateLiza, Juan, Phoebe and Wallace has to account for something. Spam your STAB's Needle Arm (or Giga Drain if you have it) and Faint Attack and you'll get KO's despite the low base power of those moves, and even some lucky outspeeds with some decent EV management. Definitely a C tier. Solrock and Lunatone: definitely C (even high C at that) because they are honestly good Pokémon for the mid portion of the game, and then some random fights later on (like Maxie, for example). Being a rock type with Levitate is inherintly a good combination that gets the upper hand on Flannery, Norman and Winona. They don't falter against TateLiza and they also do some work on Drake if need be. They are not sweepers nor big fight enders, but they're good defensively and can help you against some key threats of boss fights. Underrated Pokémon for sure. Milotic: some people already explained in the comments that it is indeed usuable in Emerald. Not gonna waste more time on this entry. Glalie: a C tier Pokémon. Ice Beam and Crunch are great against Phoebe and Drake and that's it. 80 base speed is more than enough to get the jump on Drake's dragons. Lanturn: Comparing it to Whiscash is kind of insulting. Whiscash isn't hot garbage but they're like night and day in the differences that set one apart from the other, and Lanturn should be solidly in the A tier. The offensive power of Electric paired with the defensive utility of Water just destroys Juan and Wallace. Amazing HP to withstand long drawn out fights, which compensates for the lackluster offenses. Also an Ice Beam user. Arnaldo: wow, buddy. Easy there on the A tier. A slow rock type with bad Sp. Def that evolves really late in the region filled with water to the neck? I would be surprised if you could justify a B tier to me to be honest, but A tier is just a big disagree for me Salamence: overrated as hell in Emerald. Can only be used against the league and there it doesn't do great. Bad against Glacia, bad against Wallace, good on Drake if you outspeeds and KO everything, and that's it really. A tier AT BEST if we aknowledge it's amazing stats alone. As you said, end game is far heavier on special attackers, so Intimidate benefits you less too. Would rarely recommend anyone to save the Meteor Falls encounter to this over one of the Levitate Rocks or Zubat. There can be some honorable mentions like Dusclops being a bit to spicy there in the A tier (and even Banette in B). But overall I can still agree with your reasonings, so, an amazing rest of list!

[@grumpygengar22]

Loved reading this, thank you for the details!

[@Locarroseverywere]

U can have a milotic before winona, just use the old rod on the weathers building route and evolve it increasing its beauty, its hard af to get it but possible

[@zivi_art]

i agree with what you said about grovyle, i did an emerald nuzlocke once and using grovyle was kind of painful

[@gkaskavelis]

Magnemite just helped me win against Morty in HGSS almost single-handily with a Thunderwave-Thunder combo (one-shotted his Gengar), so I love that Magneton is S tier

[@BookofConke]

I finished a 1 death = reset HC Nuzlocke of Emerald recently, and got to use Slaking for the first time. My opinion of it has changed. Slaking when controlled by a human player is a busted Pokemon. You never usually need to stay in more than 1 turn because you're fast and you nuke something with 160 base Attack Return and then either eat a physical attack like its nothing next turn or you switch out and come back in later to do it again at some point. It gets Slack Off and Yawn as well which are also great moves. Great mon for Elite 4, and is also useful throughout an entire run. I gave it Shadow Ball for Phoebe's Ghosts and Aerial Ace just to be able to switch in and have an option against Double Team spammers like her Sableye and Wallace's Ludicolo. You can also use Hyper Beam since it doesn't care about the charge drawback anyway, but I prefer not to only because it removes the option to switch and you delete anything with STAB Return anyway. I also used Milotic (guarenteed encounter) and it's definitely underrated by a lot of players, obscene bulk, great offense, and access to Recover is everything you could ever want in a good Nuzlocke Pokemon. My E4 team was Pert, Milo, Slaking, Star, Ludi, and finally Manectric which I brought specifically because it always baits Gyarados out into it after Wailord which can be outran and immediately removed in order to not need to play around switching into a Dragon Dance on something later.

[@christianpickhardt4105]

I wasn't nuzlocking, but one time on an Emerald run I SWEAR I got a Feebas on the first tile I fished on, the first time I entered the area. So if I had been nuzlocking I legitimately could have used a Milotic once lol

[@joaovictor3312]

Doesnt it need to have a specific nature to evolve?

[@christianpickhardt4105]

@@joaovictor3312 Technically, you need to force feed it PokeBlocks to make it Beautiful lmfao

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

@joaovictor3312 To clarify a bit better: you don't need any particular nature to have your Feebas evolve into a Milotic, but it does help. You just have to pay attention to how the nature affects your specific attack stat: if it raises it's special attack, it will like dry food and be easier to increase it's beauty stat, while the reverse holds true if it's a special attack lowering nature. That said, having one of the four special attack boosting natures is preferable since Milotic has that as a good stat and is a water type anyways

[@darcash1738]

Getting a good secret base is insanely difficult. the sheer amount of steps to run through in the ash is absurd, and besides that the battle tower is crazy. Thank god for emulation, or itd be insane... Tho i must say, flygon is the only good stab earthquake user if you don't want to keep using the best marshy boi on every playthru. I'd actually played Omega Ruby before getting Retroarch to play Emerald, so I chose Sceptile for the nice 4x effective hits he can get on the occasional pesky quagsire. As for battle tower, flygon and walrein synergize phenomenally. Most free switch in ever for those annoying psychics or waters that you know have ice coverage. and for water and ice, walrein carries w/leftovers, practically guaranteeing a free sheer cold because of his tankiness. Battle tower npcs can have some really pesky strategies, so something like sheer cold really shuts em down, especially with the npcs boosted proc rates. My full team is this: - Flygon(Earthquake, Iron Tail, Fly[convenience + alright for earthquake resisting grass & bug], Dragon breath[mostly useless unless lucky paralysis proc on dragon v dragon lmao]) ~ Soft Sand - Walrein(Surf, Ice beam, Blizzard, Sheer cold[8 pp]) ~ Leftovers - Metagross(Dynamic punch, Meteor Mash, Explosion[mostly to shut down shenanigans with stall builds like snorlax], Return[good thing battle tower doesnt impact affection]) ~ Choice band[had Machamp in his place before this w/blackbelt to farm enough bp for this]

[@grumpygengar22]

Cool team!

[@quembek6448]

I think that you went a little too harsh on the Golem line. It's true that it becomes useless in the late game but from my personal experience, it carried me through gyms 3-6. Also, you can use explosion/self destruct to cheese the 7th gym too.

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I was for sure. Those gyms are pretty rough in most runs as well.

[@markmonroe7783]

Late to the party but great discussion here!! In a run atm, and I'm so sad that i got electrode instead of Magnemite 😭

[@orestis9977]

I almost cried when Plusle and Minum made it a tier above Aggron..😢 (Also yeah Milotic you’ll probably never encounter ina nuzlocke but you certainly can get to before the postgame)

[@danielcornwall1585]

Never played much Emerald, I've done one of these for Ruby/Saphire and interesting to see the big differences that can be made when your champion is a water type user

[@Fernando-rr7bx]

Great video love your content & the list but I want to make a point that in my opinion delcatty should be low c tier or high d tier ❤

[@jonasithorisson5159]

I know compared to the other electric types Electrode is pretty mediocre he did still carry for me from the moment I got him to the elite 4. it also had no problem one-shotting pokemon in my run. Definitely an A tier pokemon imo.

[@davisdawson5047]

It would be interesting if you can make another tier list but consider if you can get any pokemon before first gym (randomized encounter). I think a lot of pokemon that is good but not available for many big fight could shine for that case.

[@grumpygengar22]

Cool idea!

[@NathanCotrill]

I'll have to say, I tried to use shedinja, but I swear TPC knew how broken it would be and gave almost every major trainers like 50-70% of their pokemon coverage for shedinja.

[@vedremo9240]

Yeah i tried using it seeing ranked as broken but in reality to me seemed useful only against a couple of pkmn because he can be hit in any moment

[@PepperGaming212]

I used both solrock and tropius in my hardcore nuzlocke and they were both amazing. Solrock is good at setting up screens and tropius gets leech seed, toxic, protect, and giga drain which let me stall out many threats

[@grumpygengar22]

They have both grown on me a lot in recent months.

[@ld12278]

Tropius only gets Leech Seed through Egg move

[@gkaskavelis]

We really need a remastered video after so many walkthroughs 😁

[@grumpygengar22]

One day for sure haha. My opinions have changed a lot

[@Bear-bx7yo]

Pro tip. It is possible to evolve feebas into milotic before the postgame. It's hard but it's doable

[@vossboss220]

Aaaaaaand subbed. Remember me when you take off :)

[@Hobo-jo]

Sableye is one of the best Pokémon in the game. Toxic stall starts for me through the e4. Protect detect shadow ball and fake out just murders anything

[@austini0n177]

As a Milotic lover, it is obtainable as early as before Winona and isn't so amazing that it should be banned. Top of A tier pokemon

[@sweetschmeat7417]

Remember this is from the perspective of a Nuzlocke run & getting a feebas as your first encounter is HIGHLY unlikely.

[@twilightjoltik3151]

Great video, but I noticed Wigglytuff got slipped. Understandable since Jiggly is only in one little area that’s out of the way from everything but hurts since that’s my favorite line 😢 where would you have placed the Tuff, out of curiosity?

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I gotta redo this list at some point, too many errors. I would put puff probably right in the middle of B. Nice special bulk and fantastic coverage. You do have to burn a lot of TMs usually for them but I think it's worth it. It allows them to step up against anything for the most part (outside of fighting types of course).

[@dc_dachi]

I know this is like arguing about trash vs garbage, but having used both, I find Illumise usually performs better than Volbeat. Volbeat does get access to Tail Glow, but coming off of an abysmal base 47 SpA, that isn't too helpful. Double Team + Confuse Ray can be cheesy, but it's unreliable. It does get Protect and Moonlight though, which is nice. On the other hand, Illumise gets some honestly excellent support moves in Charm, Moonlight, Encore, Flatter, and Wish. Thief can be used as a discount Knock Off, for applying chip damage and removing troublesome items. It's higher base SpA and focus on debuffs also gives it more immediate utility, where Volbeat needs to set itself up with buffs before it can get going.

[@grumpygengar22]

Good points!

[@thohillesland]

I have used both as well, while i do think illumise is surprisingly alright because of its great support moves. I still think Volbeat is a lot better, and it is not tail glow that makes it better, it is the fact that Volbeat gets signal beam at level 25. This is a legitimate niche that Volbeat has, it is the only pokemon that learns a good bug type move in the early game. And in a game with a lot of Dark types it is actually quite a good niche to have. Its not even that weak, its a bit stronger then Linoone's Headbutt, which is already considered quite strong by where in the game you get it. Volbeat also has the ability Swarm to boost the power even further.

[@MrRandall171]

Fun fact about Vileplume, I had nearly no answers for Glacia in the E4, Giga Drain Tentacruel and Vileplume w/ petal dance being my only S.E. damage. Problem being I designed my Tentacruel to stall and figured Walrein would potentially get a chance to use 5 Sheer colds and one would probably kill him. I hedged my bets on Plume, even if it would suck to lose for Wallace at Glacia, Tentacruel along with what i had left would be sufficient. Next issue, I was not sure if Plume would out speed and kill everything with Petal Dance. Since they are all bulky and her 2 Glalies aren't weak to Grass. Knowing she led with Sealeo and is scripted to set hail up. I hatched a plan that would enable Plume to clean sweep. Teaching it Solarbeam with a miracle seed for extra power to one hit everything but since recharging was an issue this wouldn't seem viable even with Sunny Day UNLESS you happen to double you speed in sun. Which Vileplume happens to benefit from but I also had to gamble on instantly killing 2 Glalie. Sealeo and the first Glalie went down but the second survived which ended up being a blessing in disguise. Sun ran out after she sent her second Sealeo out which prompted it to go for hail again which I was able to play around and reset up Sun for Walrein. Who i am not sure would have survived a normal Solarbeam as i ended up getting a crit. Ended up winning that run because of this instance. Still, despite my success I agree with the placement

[@grumpygengar22]

I do love when underappreciated mons shine in moments like that. Thanks for sharing your story!

[@emilezola1458]

Graveler and Golem must be at least solid, especially for Golem that is a A-Tier Pokemon. Rock/Ground type are fantastic in the middle game! It helps against Watson, Flannery, Norman, Winona and Team Magma/Aqua. And it can explode, which is really good for reseting the tempo in your favor

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I agree, I was too harsh on those two

[@leonl1559]

Ninjask is at least a Tier because of Swords dance Baton Pass, you can actually sweep every e4 fight with that Combo whennyou Set Upwith substitute

[@grumpygengar22]

Are you able to set up with Substitute against the E4? I could see against Sidney for sure but Wallace's Wailord usually goes for Waterspout right off the bat, which I would imagine would be too much damage for a substitute to handle. I could be wrong though, I'm not very familiar with sub strats

[@ravenstires1747]

Year and a half late to the party but the early game matters just as much as the mid or late game. Beautifly puts in work on one of THE most annoying early game fights: beating up Rival 2's Grovyle on the way to Mauville. Good coverage on the one type your Marshtomp fears. Box it afterwards of you want, use it for Brawly team filler, or even Absorb vs Roxanne. It's at least a B. B for box.

[@teiuq1614]

I feel like cacturne is very underrated. I replaced my salamence for it to get the best possible chance to win at the elite four, as my team struggled with ground, water, and rock types which are pretty common in the elite four. If you know what you’re doing it can be very good. Edit: my team was Blaziken, Swellow, Aggron, pelipper, magneton, and salamence. I then realized that even though salamence is very good, it just brought more weaknesses and losing opportunities in the elite four so I replaced it with a cacturne with the best nature possible and EV training to help it in its weak points. Oh yeah also ingrain can work as a ripoff leftovers if you train your cacturne right.

[@paulnicholas7798]

Vileplum with Sunny Day and Solarbeam , Sludgebomb and Giga Drain won me my first nuzlocke... Along with others wierd pick, i know, bit ot worked. Gen one was my only other game so i was biased

[@NathanCotrill]

LOL I used azumaril to spam defense curl/roll out to spam through some of the E4

[@amandabaranek5161]

Heck yeah Swampert!!! I like Masquerain, but yeah can definitely be difficult :(

[@goodish9765]

I know it’s late but Slaking is easily S, it has the stats of a legendary and the Ai doesn’t know how to abuse truant so your firing off 160 power strengths which just crumple opponents

[@cp3417]

Numel/Camerupt should be higher imo (and in fact in "official" emerald tier lists they usually are ranked quite high) and def shouldn't be in the same tier as Golem/Aggron (the fire type helps a ton) Very useful against Flannery, Winona (esp against both Skarmory and Tropius which can be tricky to deal with on some teams), and while it does fall off towards the late game it surprisingly has its uses in the E4 (including against Drake's Salamence out of all things). Not to mention Explosion as a last minute resort which hits super hard.

[@chaosdromanah8620]

Pelipper and Walrein saved me from some tight situation in pokemon emerald

[@LeafGreen906]

Huge power azumarill solos flannery easily with defense curl + rollout. Makes the fight almost completely free, especially if you set it up with a rawst berry. As long as it builds the rollout up on Slugma and Numel, it will just outspeed and one shot Camerupt and Torkoal

[@DBK415]

Gardevoir should be a bit higher. Psychic+Tbolt is great coverage,plus it gets calm mind. Psychic comes at level 26. If it can set up calm minnds it's gg. It's weaknesses outside of dark aren't that big of a deal.

[@mighark54]

I don't play nuzlockes, so I won't comment on the subjective rankings, but I want to clarify a few things that I might not be aware of since I'm not really familiar with these runs: Milotic is obtainable pre-League in the base game, Feebas is not locked behind any story progress. I don't think it's realistic to find it with how encounters work in a nuzlocke, but I guess there's a one in a million chance of fishing up a Feebas and grinding the berries to evolve it. Feel free to clarify anything regarding the rules that might be relevant here. I noticed you are ranking mons that are ordinarily version exclusive to either Ruby or Sapphire and not available in Emerald. Do you play non-vanilla or is there anything I'm missing that makes them obtainable?

[@iraflopera]

i don’t think its impossible to guarantee feebas actually! the only other encounters on the feebas route are magikarp and carvannha so if you catch them on two other routes and want to put the time into getting feebas, its not that difficult

[@grumpygengar22]

Yes, I did realize that after the fact as far as ranking some of the unobtainable Pokemon in Emerald. Definitely a good catch. And catching Feebas isn't usually a problem (although it's a painful experience). I guess I'm not fully aware of what goes into evolving it. I always assumed you needed Pemtre berries from the post game to even have a chance. But I've never tried doing it before post game before. I thought there was a limit to how many poffins you could actually feed to Feebas no? That's the part that confuses me I think.

[@mighark54]

@@grumpygengar22 I guess it depends on the ruleset. As far as I know the base nuzlocke rules allow only the first encounter in the route even if you found the same mon elsewhere, but I've seen the no duplicates clause mentioned in discussions, so if you use it then sure Milotic becomes a realistic option on a run. Not gonna gatekeep nuzlockes especially since I don't play them. About the evolution, it's for sure possible to evolve Feebas without Pamtre berries or the Blend Master event, I've used a Milotic in a vanilla playthrough before. You are right about the pokeblock limit, so you need to plan a bit to make sure you don't lock yourself out of it. The best way I know is planting a few Kelpsy berries and making pokeblocks with them, they give enough beauty to reach the evolve threshold before the limit.

[@grumpygengar22]

@@mighark54 I'll have to try the kelpsy berries next time, thanks for that tip!

[@lautarozeiter1816]

Medicham is very often an underrated encounter. I didn't think too much about it until I watched FlygonHG's nuzlocke where he used it. Same as Linoone. Now, not considering it should be a banned encounter (because, in Emerald, you can't get it), here's why it's better than you think: -It has 120 attack and 80 speed, just like Blaziken and almost as good as Heracross, but its typing is way better than those two (not to mention Breloom). -Its movepool is no joke. You even said it. Yes, High Jump Kick is a bit unreliable, but it hits like a truck, and that's until you get Brick Break. You get Calm Mind via levelup and the elemental punches. With some speed EVs you can do Reversal strats too. -You can actually get Meditite before Winona, but most importantly, Medicham is one of those encounters that can solo the entire Elite Four. So it doesn't matter at all how late in the game you get it. I'm aware you don't take in mind how difficult is to get an encounter, and I agree with that. But being honest, Medicham is maybe the best fighting-type for you if you didn't get Heracross, which is probably even harder to get than Milotic itself. It's a must-go for E4 considering it can easily sweep Sidney and Glacia (and probably Drake too).

[@abandonedaccounnt]

please stop spreading the myth that medicham has 120 attack. that's not the way huge/pure power works. big pet peeve of mine.

[@lautarozeiter1816]

@@abandonedaccounnt then explain yourself. Because Pure Power literally doubles your attack, and Medicham's base attack is 60.

[@abandonedaccounnt]

@@lautarozeiter1816 ​ it doubles the raw stat, not the base stat. there is a difference because of the algorithm for how base stats are converted into raw stats. this is well-known within competitive spheres so feel free to look into it yourself if i haven't convinced you. but medicham does not effectively have 120 base attack and to say so is misleading.

[@lautarozeiter1816]

@@abandonedaccounnt somehow you're right. I'm testing on the calculator, comparing Close Combat's output from both Medicham and Blaziken, and Medicham's is always higher. Completely blank sets on all selections. Weird.

[@nosfrattirek5690]

@@lautarozeiter1816 It's just how stats are calculated. Base 0 Attack would give you 99 at level 100 with neutral nature (204 for HP). Base 60 gives you 219, which is what Pure Power doubles, so you get effectively 438, which is the equivalent of base 170 Attack. Blaziken and Heracross would get 339 and 349, respectively. For memory, base 170 Attack is what Kyurem Black and Zacian Crowned are packing. And where you get Meditite, you can also find the TM for Shadow Ball which has perfect coverage with a Fighting move. It IS a monster. (And yes, that means Shedinja is specifically coded to only have 1 HP, any other Pokémon hacked to have base 1 HP would have up to 206 at level 100.)

[@johnwilliams9179]

I know pinsir in general is bad but where would it rank in an emerald nuzlocke?

[@grumpygengar22]

I think he's fine. Maybe high end of C? Hyper Cutter is good, he gets brick break and swords dance as well. Only real problem is the majority of the game after you get him is littered with special attackers. He's a solid team member though.

[@AliceDonkor-uy6is]

Cradily should not be this low, sure it's very late but Armaldo is late also and at least Cradily can get bullet seed for a replacement for giga drain,and even though it can't get ancient power before the 7th gym it can to good in the 5th gym and the 6th gym due to stalling moves and can do good in the 7th gym because it just solo's because of it's insane bulk and giga drain can deal with the solrock,lulatone,and claydoll and it can almost solo the 8th gym if not of the kingdra and for the wally fight you can get ancient power which just destroys the altaria and for the elite four it can do well in the glacia fight you have to be careful though and can kill whishcash and wailord in the champion fight so I personally think it's very underrated and should be in high B. Great list though.

[@khaos8055]

Overall a solid list, but how does a pokemon that can solo sweep the entire e4 + champion and is basically a guaranteed encounter end up in B tier? Imo that alone should at the very least put it in A tier if not S or Banned. (talking about Linoone). I usually ban it for myself because to me it's kinda boring to not have to worry about the e4 at all. It's especially weird to me that you bring up good e4 match ups for other pokemon and then just say 'it falls off late game' for a pokemon that can solo sweep them all.

[@grumpygengar22]

Totally true for the E4, but Linoone also won't have Belly Drum until then, making it fairly average against the fights before the Pokemon League. Argument could be made for A tier though.

[@riverkingguppy9223]

For the sake of Nuzlocke, Sableeye needs more credit. It solos the fighting gym and is located 25 tiles from the gym.

[@MrJcalvino]

If your starter is Treecko, Geodude enconter is a MUST because solo Watson , good against Flannery, Norman and Winona. 3rd gym is the hardest for me and imposible if you have bad encounters. Another thing is Sharpedo is A tier because is the best user of Dark moves. Good against Winona(Icem Beam TM), trivialize 7th gym (especially if you invest in some S.Att) and in E4 solo the Ghost girl and Drake too. If you OHKO everything it doesnt matter if you are frail.

[@grumpygengar22]

Good points, I love sharpedo in this gen ❤️

[@jacobhoyle8118]

Good list but Linoone should b s tier for elite 4

[@abandonedaccounnt]

solrock is the biggest disappointment of my life. he contributes nothing to the e4 i thought he'd be at least ok against drake but for some reason 40% of his team has fucking crunch. i swear they did that just to screw solrock over in particular.

[@jbonceu2457]

I'm surprised torkoal was mediocre in emerald I thought it's white smoke ability was really useful plus the way it's an unbreakable wall when you spam curse and protect.

[@grumpygengar22]

He's not bad, it's just Fire types have such bad matchups for a lot of the game, especially after you're able to get a Torkoal.

[@robertlupa8273]

3:23 _"You will have drag and carry Grovyle through the _*_mud_*_ to get there."_ Mud is Water/Ground, which is 4x weak to Grass. I don't see the issue. =)

[@grumpygengar22]

XD

[@mattishidayeo]

Also, iirc Grass resists Electric, so Grovyle isn't bad against Wattson. Magneton is going to be a problem though, but you'd do fine with a good team.

[@tobiasschieber5625]

Can’t believe alakazam is so low. Outspends everything to destroy with neutral psychic damage, and smacks all the water types with shock wave. It was disgustingly good for me

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I'd probably move it up

[@Psycho_Raged]

I disagree with your Sceptile and Blaziken placements. Yes, Swampert is way better than them, but they have good stats. Sceptile is solid late game into Juan and some of Wallace's pokemon. Blaziken has good stats and fire/fighting is a really good offensive typing. I'd put them in A tier.

[@zianitori1565]

is there any merit to just keeping a vigoroth instead of evolving?

[@grumpygengar22]

Not for the late game I would say with that poor Special Defense stat. But against physical threats, especially in the early and mid game, he's pretty great. He gets self healing with Slack Off and pretty great support moves with Encore and Yawn. Definitely useful, just wouldn't recommend for the pokemon league

[@zianitori1565]

@@grumpygengar22 ok that's more or less what i guessed, awesome!

[@yianharwan4058]

Gonna try shedinja in my 2nd run of emerald tho

[@grumpygengar22]

He's really good!

[@creativehandlehere]

funny how zubat went from one of the worst encounters in the first two generations, to a welcome sight in gen 2. What a simple evolution can do. edit: mb, it's not gen 3, i just always thought of it as gen 3 because i never really played the gen 2 games lol

[@fabiangonzalez586]

Crobat was introduced in gen 2 actually

[@Quoise_]

BRELOOOOOOM :3

[@SoggyWafflesXp]

But doesn’t sharpedo get screw over with having BOTH of its stats being special?

[@grumpygengar22]

Its physical stat is definitely better, but its special attack is still really good too. It definitely gets better with the physical/special split don't get me wrong, but crunch, surf and ice beam will still crush a lot of stuff in gen 3.

[@LordLucario12]

I disagree with your assessment of Gardevoir. While there are a ton of Dark types, a lot of them either have bad special attack (which means Gardevoir with Calm Mind, which it gets naturally, can boost past it), are weak to Electric (AKA victimized by Shock Wave/Thunderbolt) or are a combination of the two Also again, good speed, natural CM, and amazing level up moves let it beat so much prior to the E4 that I think it's A on those merits alone

[@Gu_Changgee]

Swampert got solid defense and high DMG skill like swamp attack carry me in Pokémon ruby solo the elite4🗿

[@williamjewell6247]

Sure, rock bug is a good typing most of the time, although I would submit that grass/rock is better. But Armaldo's moveset is absolute trash. The only stab moves you get are fury cutter and ancient power, and both pretty late too. It's TM movepool is also bone dry, as the only TMs above 60 BP you can teach it are Return/Frustration, Earthquake, Iron Tail, Brick Break, Facade and Hyper Beam. Almost all of these are better spent on something else, and Hyper beam sucks. Armaldo super slow and is allergic to water, and Emerald is in Hoenn, a region infamous for its abundance of water. If you bring it to the E4, it's pretty much dead weight against Glacia and Wallace. Sure, it may take a hit with Drake, but what's it going to do back? Click fury cutter or ancient power? Sure, it may get protect at Norman's level cap, but the only moves it can retaliate with is metal claw and water gun, and Anorith's stats are pitiful. Though Armaldo has a really good attack stat and nice bulk, Gamefreak really screwed it over. I would drop it down at least one tier.

[@grumpygengar22]

You're probably right, at least for Emerald

[@Psycho_Raged]

Gardevoir in RSE vs Gardevoir in ORAS is a major difference. Fairy gave it a MASSIVE buff.

[@grumpygengar22]

Totally agree

[@Begeru]

Why is Milotic banned? It doesn’t look that good.

[@Quoise_]

breloom is the goat S tier she is a cute strong pokemon

[@bajablast6732]

Based lets fycking go

[@MrAnarchyleecher]

Great list, except im a noob at nuzlocking so I don’t ban Salamence ;b

[@grumpygengar22]

Hey, nothing wrong with that!

[@annacollier1931]

I used Nuzleaf in a normal playthrough, and YOU ARE WRONG. THANKS TO HOW GOOD IT WAS, I DECIDED TO KEEP HIM AS A NUZLEAF.

[@grumpygengar22]

That's fine, he can still be used somewhere I'm sure.

[@excalibur2772]

Did you just forget Medicham has Pure Power or is that not in gen 3?

[@grumpygengar22]

Pretty sure he still has it in gen 3 too, but really no moves to utilize it well.

[@yeoman1091]

its such a crime that aron evolves 1 level to late for the norman fight that he would completly hard counter. itll quad resist facade noral resist counter and you just dont attack when hes attacks to play around counter

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I thought the same thing, that line really needed its evolutions to come sooner in general.

[@MagicMorton52]

Have to disagree with grumpig placement, it’s a lot bulkier than gardevoir, learns psychic sooner and has early access to confuse ray. MVP of my HC emerald nuzlocke

[@grumpygengar22]

That's fair. I just think Gardevoir getting Thunderbolt puts it in a nice position against all of the water obstacles in the game.

[@MagicMorton52]

@@grumpygengar22 valid, it’s unfortunate that ralts is so difficult to obtain

[@yuumijungle548]

in my opinion slaking is underrated, hyper beam is just too good on him, i would put him in S tier xD well i guess it depends on what you are fighting, in a 1v1 fight slaking is just unbeatable, but if the opponent has like 6 pokemon like the elite four then he kinda sucks and you probably wanna use something like gyarados that has dragon dance, but in the battle frontier where a lot of fights are 1v1 or 3v3, slaking is just a god.

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah I can see that

[@pikminman13]

id bump up solrock a little. lunatone isnt obtainable iirc, but solrock is good for the stretch you get it at. rock helps against flannery, normal, and winona. grass moves basically dont exist as well. just box it between norman and winona and youre good to go. only real issue is the faint attacks from norman, but it still makes for a nice pivot if need be. it might not help much after that, but for the stretch its there, its pretty decent, so id say its deserving of c tier, if sableye is still stuck there despite being a brawly counter (tho yea after that it sucks).

[@grumpygengar22]

Yeah you're probably right about that, maybe a little too harsh. I'm actually doing a dark-type only run through Emerald currently, and I'm appreciating Sableye a lot more. Ghost types in general are just very useful, even if their stats aren't great.

[@benjystrauss2524]

Milotic can be gotten before the league, especially in Emerald.

[@grumpygengar22]

Yes I did eventually figure that out later. You have to craft some pretty perfect blocks though out of kelpsy berries as I think you can only feed your Feebas 10 max.

[@sirgabid]

Delcatty with ev training and learning calm mind, ice beam, thunderbolt, water pulse, etc (for the league) actually is enough to be a C at least (we know about that stats yup) or even for the early-mid game with return, shadow ball, dig and attract works. I mean it's more useful than Butterfly

[@grumpygengar22]

Definitely more useful that Beautifly for sure. I played with one in a recent playthrough and it was a little better than I expected but still an underperformer for me overall. I do need to redo this list someday as my opinions have shifted a lot.

[@michaelbrown7455]

Not a fan of this tier list. Azu is not better than Blaziken, Sceptile, and Gardevoir. Ludi is only A tier because E4, otherwise unusable from Brawly to Tate & Liza. Also Mightyena is C tier. Great for Tate & Liza's Lunatone but otherwise completely outclassed because Phys/Spec split. Linoone is good for utility. Covet, Pick-Up, and being the best HM slave is well worth resetting for the shoddy chance at encountering Zig. Many other misses on this list, but way to not dirty up Swampert and Gyarados in that S tier.

[@grumpygengar22]

I'll be doing an updated list some day. My opinions have changed a lot since this video.

[@locklhan1938]

I disagree with Blankenship placement easily a tier cuz u firgit steven

[@grumpygengar22]

I can see that in Ruby and Sapphire for sure, not Emerald though.