History CrutchCharacter / Pokemon

* Bulbasaur, the Grass-type StarterMon, and its line is a Zig-Zagged case. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two Gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist the many early-game Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak to or resisted by three of the final four Gym Leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and several of the Champion's Pokémon. At least, ''[[FakeBalance on paper]]''. Due to various exploits and {{AI Breaker}}s, opposing Pokémon with Poison-type moves will fruitlessly use them over and over due to its Grass-typing. Meanwhile, opponents with non-damaging Psychic-type moves such as Agility and Barrier will use them over and over trying to take advantage of the line's Poison-typing. And since NPC Pokémon in this generation do not use PP, they will never use anything else, allowing you to whittle their health down. Finally, the line is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Toxic/Leech Seed bug. When using both, Toxic's increasing damage ''also'' gets applied to Leech Seed, allowing you to drain their health in increasingly larger increments while restoring your own. Ultimately, the other weaknesses to actual damaging Psychic-types moves, Fire-types, and the ubiquitous Flying-type leave it a major late-game disadvantage outside of these exploit scenarios.

* Due to Gen I's broken typing and plentiful exploits, Bulbasaur Zig-Zagged this trope, but plays it straight here. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two Gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist many early-game Poison and Grass-type Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak-to or resisted-by three of the final four Gym Leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and ''five out of six'' of the Champion's Pokémon.

* Bulbasaur, the Grass-type StarterMon, and its line is a Zig-Zagged case. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two Gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist the many early-game Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak to or resisted by three of the final four Gym Leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and several of the Champion's Pokémon. At least, ''[[FakeBalance on paper]]''. Due to various exploits and {{AI Breaker}}s, opposing Pokémon with Poison-type moves will fruitlessly use them over and over due to its Grass-typing. Meanwhile, opponents with non-damaging Psychic-type moves such as Agility and Barrier will use them over and over trying to take advantage of the line's Poison-typing. And since NPC Pokémon in this generation do not use PP, they will never use anything else, allowing you to whittle their health down. Finally, the line is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Toxic/Leech Seed bug. When using both, Toxic's increasing damage ''also'' gets applied to Leech Seed, allowing you to drain their health in increasingly larger increments while restoring your own. Ultimately, the other weaknesses to actual damaging Psychic-types moves, Fire-types, and the ubiquitous Flying-type leave it a major late-game disadvantage outside of these exploit scenarios.

* Due to Gen I's broken typing and plentiful exploits, Bulbasaur Zig-Zagged this trope, but plays it straight here. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two Gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist many early-game Poison and Grass-type Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak-to or resisted-by three of the final four Gym Leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and ''five out of six'' of the Champion's Pokémon.

* Bulbasaur, the Grass-type StarterMon, and its line is a Zig-Zagged case. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two Gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist the many early-game Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak to or resisted by three of the final four Gym Leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and several of the Champion's Pokémon. At least, ''[[FakeBalance on paper]]''. Due to various exploits and {{AI Breaker}}s, opposing Pokémon with Poison-type moves will fruitlessly use them over and over due to its Grass-typing. Meanwhile, opponents with non-damaging Psychic-type moves such as Agility and Barrier will use them over and over trying to take advantage of the line's Poison-typing. And since NPC Pokémon in this generation do not use PP, they will never use anything else, allowing you to whittle their health down. Finally, the line is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Toxic/Leech Seed bug. When using both, Toxic's increasing damage ''also'' gets applied to Leech Seed, allowing you to drain their health while restoring your own. Ultimately, the other weaknesses to actual damaging Psychic-types moves, Fire-types, and the ubiquitous Flying-type leave it a major late-game disadvantage outside of these exploit scenarios.

* Bulbasaur, the Grass-type StarterMon, and its line is a Zig-Zagged case. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist the many early-game Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak to or resisted by three of the final four gym leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and several of the Champion's Pokémon. At least, ''[[FakeBalance on paper]]''. Due to various exploits and {{AI Breaker}}s, opposing Pokémon with Poison-type moves will fruitlessly use them over and over due to its Grass-typing. Meanwhile, opponents with non-damaging Psychic-type moves such as Agility and Barrier will use them over and over trying to take advantage of the line's Poison-typing. And since NPC Pokémon in this generation do not use PP, they will never use anything else, allowing you to whittle their health down. Finally, the line is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Toxic/Leech Seed bug. When using both, Toxic's increasing damage ''also'' gets applied to Leech Seed, allowing you to drain their health while restoring your own. Ultimately, the other weaknesses to actual damaging Psychic-types moves, Fire-types, and the ubiquitous Flying-type leave it a major late-game disadvantage outside of these exploit scenarios.

* Rattata, one of the game's resident ComMons, learns Hyper Fang, an ''80 base power move'' (equal to several endgame moves) that gets a STAB boost to boot... at ''level 14''. It can one or two-hit KO anything that doesn't resist it up to around the second gym, but soon declines in usefulness after that.

* Depending on your version, you can catch an Ekans (''Red'') or Sandshrew (''Green'' and ''Blue'') shortly after exiting Mt. Moon. They evolve at the relatively early level 22, and are helpful against the next several gym leaders after Misty. Sandslash, being a Ground type with good Attack and Defense, can still work well for countering a good amount of threats to the end of the game as long as you're willing to expend [=TMs=] on them to make up for the poor natural learnset, overall averting this. But Arbok, being a pure Poison type in Gen 1 with all-around poor to mediocre stats that will learn no STAB moves better than the 40 power Acid, will run out of usefulness fast and should be outclassed by the halfway point.
* Meowth can be caught in ''Blue'' just after the second gym and learns Pay Day early on, allowing you to pile up on currency rather quickly. Pay Day is also a TM that's not too hard to obtain and can be taught to other Pokémon. Add to the fact that rematching wasn't made available outside of the Elite Four, the presence of Pay Day seemed to be a necessity for those who ran out of money too soon.

* Due to Gen I's broken typing and plentiful exploits, Bulbasaur Zig-Zagged this trope, but plays it straight here. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist many early-game Poison and Grass-type Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak-to or resisted-by three of the final four gym leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and ''five out of six'' of the Champion's Pokémon.

* The "Elemental Monkeys" (Pansage, Panpour, and Pansear). You get the one that your starter is super effective against for free as the first Gym leader uses the monkey super effective against your starter. However, they learn very little in the way of decent moves until level 22, and while you get the stones early enough to evolve them, you'll miss out on the good moves, and by that point you'll find Pokémon of the Fire/Water/Grass types that already have good moves and good stats without evolving. If you do commit to evolving them at Level 22 with their best STAB options, they can further be fed TM moves that allow them to remain effective into the mid-game. As the game goes on, however, their MasterOfNone nature in terms of stats and movepools means that they once again fall behind late in the game, and as even better Grass/Fire/Water types with stronger long term potential show up late in the game and reach better potential later, the evolved elemental monkeys will inevitably fall behind and end up ultimately outclassed by better, more powerful options.

** Pikachu in particular is especally crutch-like in this Gen. It'll almost assuredly be the first Electric-type a player will find (thus very useful against early Flying and Water Pokémon), but even after evolving it into Raichu, it'll be very outclassed by mid-game. Can be subverted if Pikachu's holding a rare Light Ball, which lets it [[GlassCannon hit like a nuke, but doesn't make it any harder to knock out]] if the enemy manages to survive. Further, you can find a Thunderstone very early on in the game (on Route 10) and Pikachu learns Thunderbolt at level 29. If you train up Pikachu to the point where it has a good moveset (because, after evolving, Raichu will not be able to learn any new moves naturally), you can have a powerful Raichu before the third gym.
* Farfetch'd, which had this status way back in ''Red and Blue'', regains this status in ''X and Y'', where it's available before the first gym -- which happens to be a Bug-type Gym and thus made easy by a Flying-type. Furthermore, a change to the critical hit formula means that if it has its signature item, it can [[CriticalHitClass guarantee critical hits]] with moves that have increased chances. Even then, however, its stats are still mediocre and quickly outclassed.

* While ultimately a crapshoot, Wonder Trade can become this the moment you're able to catch Pokémon. It's possible to get something in trade that will make the first few gyms a breeze, although the "best" stuff you're most likely to acquire are breeding fails of decent Pokémon with poor [=IVs=] and abilities, meaning they won't hold up as well long term.

* With the expanded Grand Underground, it is possible to find high quality, [[LevelScaling Level Scaled]] (to your number of badges) Pokémon as soon as you reach Eterna City. Further, they can come with Egg Moves and Hidden Abilities, boosting their power. They straddle the line between crutches and [[DiscOneNuke nukes]] depending on exactly what you find, but nearly all can be a huge boon to your team before the second gym. Examples include Houndoom, Gastrodon, Rhyhorn, Scyther, Tauros, and Magnemite (which you can evolve into Magnezone pretty quickly too due to Mt. Coronet being close and coming in high levels to begin with).

* Depending on your version, you can can catch an Ekans (''Red'') or Sandshrew (''Green'' and ''Blue'') shortly after exiting Mt. Moon. They evolve at the relatively early level 22, and are helpful against the next several gym leaders after Misty. Sandslash, being a Ground type with good Attack and Defense, can still work well for countering a good amount of threats to the end of the game as long as you're willing to expend [=TMs=] on them to make up for the poor natural learnset, overall averting this. But Arbok, being a pure Poison type in Gen 1 with all-around poor to mediocre stats that will learn no STAB moves better than the 40 power Acid, will run out of usefulness fast and should be outclassed by the halfway point.

* At Flocessy Ranch, just minutes into the game, one can acquire Azurill, a new addition to the expanded Gen V Dex. It can potentially have Huge Power as an ability, which doubles its Attack from mediocre to actually pretty good. It evolves pretty quickly, requiring high Friendship to evolve into Marill, which then evolves into Azumarill not too long after. What makes it better is that Azumarill learns very strong moves like Aqua Tail and Double-Edge by level 25.

* It's completely possible to turn your StarterMon into a crutch character if you don't balance out your team. They're at least a step above the early route ComMons otherwise available and that most players bypass without a second thought due to their poor stats and movesets, leading a lot of players to rely heavily on their starters. That, and the fact that the starter is the first Pokémon the player obtains, means that the starter is usually ahead in level, leading the player to use it more, so it levels up more, so the player uses it more, and so on.

* Diglett's Cave can be entered after fighting Misty, and it's pretty much impossible to poke around there without encountering at least one of the namesake Pokémon. There's even a small chance to encounter fully-evolved Dugtrio, but even if you don't, Diglett evolves at a pretty low level. It also learns Dig at level 19, meaning you can catch one with a STAB move so powerful that it can one-shot many things weak to it... including basically everything in the Vermillion City gym and the myriad of Poison-types throughout the game. However, Diglett is a FragileSpeedster and GlassCannon, so its lack of ability to take hits leaves it at a major disadvantage late in the game where there are bulkier Ground-type options to replace it.

* Due to Gen I's broken typing and plentiful exploits, Bulbasaur Zig-Zagged this trope, but falls very much into it here. Its Grass-typing gives it an advantage over the first two gyms, it's part-Poison typing allows it to resist the many early-game Pokémon (plus grants immunity to the status effect of the same name), and it comes with a number of [[SupportPartyMember utility moves]] like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, it is weak to or resisted by three of the final four gym leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and several of the Champion's Pokémon.

!! ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''
* In the Obsidian Fieldlands it's possible to catch a Level 24 Gyarados before you're even at a high enough rank to control it. What stops this from being a DiscOneNuke like the Gen I Magikarp Salesman however, is the fact that soon afterward you'll encounter Alpha Pokémon bosses that easily outclass it and [[BeefGate can wipe your party if you're not careful]].
[[/folder]]

* With the expanded Grand Underground, it is possible to find high quality, [[LevelScalig Level Scaled]] (to your number of badges) Pokémon as soon as you reach Eterna City. Further, they can come with Egg Moves and Hidden Abilities, boosting their power. They straddle the line between crutches and [[DiscOneNuke nukes]] depending on exactly what you find, but nearly all can be a huge boon to your team before the second gym. Examples include Houndoom, Gastrodon, Rhyhorn, Scyther, Tauros, and Magnemite (which you can evolve into Magnezone pretty quickly too due to Mt. Coronet being close and coming in high levels to begin with).

* With the expanded Grand Underground, it is possible to find high quality, LevelScaled (to your number of badges) Pokémon as soon as you reach Eterna City. Further, they can come with Egg Moves and Hidden Abilities, boosting their power. They straddle the line between crutches and [[DiscOneNukes nukes]] depending on exactly what you find, but nearly all can be a huge boon to your team before the second gym. Examples include Houndoom, Gastrodon, Rhyhorn, Scyther, Tauros, and Magnemite (which you can evolve into Magnezone pretty quickly too due to Mt. Coronet being close and coming in high levels to begin with).

!! VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon

* Just like in Gen I, you can catch a Pikachu early on in a forest (Santalune). It'll almost assuredly be the first Electric-type a player will find (thus very useful against early Flying and Water Pokémon), but even after evolving it into Raichu, it'll be very outclassed by mid-game. Can be subverted if Pikachu's holding a rare Light Ball, which lets it [[GlassCannon hit like a nuke, but doesn't make it any harder to knock out]] if the enemy manages to survive.

''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and ''Yellow'':

''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' and ''Crystal'':

''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'':

''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Fire Red and Leaf Green]]'':

''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'':

''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'':

''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'':

''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire]]'':

''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'':

''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'':

** Depending on your version, you can can catch an Ekans (''Red'') or Sandshrew (''Green'' and ''Blue'') shortly after exiting Mt. Moon. They evolve at the relatively early level 22, and are helpful against the next several gym leaders after Misty. Sandslash, being a Ground type with good Attack and Defense, can still work well for countering a good amount of threats to the end of the game as long as you're willing to expend [=TMs=] on them to make up for the poor natural learnset, overall averting this. But Arbok, being a pure Poison type in Gen 1 with all-around poor to mediocre stats that will learn no STAB moves better than the 40 power Acid, will run out of usefulness fast and should be outclassed by the halfway point.

''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'':
* Like the Gen III remakes, the early game Bug-types return from the earlier generation Kanto games and still evolve into their final forms at level 10. However, the lack of battling wild Pokémon turns Butterfree into a Downplayed case since it no longer has its Compound Eyes ability and its Status inducing "Powder" moves no longer aid in catching wild Pokémon. Further, it has its Gen. I moveset, which means it does not learn the powerful (for the early game) Confusion move upon evolving anymore.

[[folder:Recurring or Series Wide Examples]]
* Many games in the series have common early route Pokémon, usually Bug-Type Pokémon, that evolve into their final forms at relatively early levels. These Pokémon are useful in the early going, but most of them quickly become obsolete as more and better Pokémon become available (though a select few exceptions remain powerful at least until 1/2 or 2/3 of the way through the game). Furthermore, their stats, while relatively powerful in the early game, are subpar for the later game, and as the power level of the later opponents rises, they simply fail to catch up to the more powerful opponents that show up later on, effectively encouraging players to discard them.

* In ''Fire Red and Leaf Green'', the Bug-types Butterfree and Beedrill still qualify from Gen I. However, Butterfree gets an even bigger boost now thanks to its Compound Eyes ability. This makes the NonDamagingStatusInflictionAttack "[Status] Powder" moves significantly more accurate. It's still too frail to take a hit and its offense will remain exceedingly poor, so it can only hang around in a SupportPartyMember role for aiding in catching other Pokémon.

* The "Elemental Monkeys" in ''Black and White''. You get the one that your starter is super effective against for free as the first Gym leader uses the monkey super effective against your starter. However, they learn very little in the way of decent moves until level 22, and while you get the stones early enough to evolve them, you'll miss out on the good moves, and by that point you'll find Pokémon of the Fire/Water/Grass types that already have good moves and good stats without evolving. If you do commit to evolving them at Level 22 with their best STAB options, they can further be fed TM moves that allow them to remain effective into the mid-game. As the game goes on, however, their MasterOfNone nature in terms of stats and movepools means that they once again fall behind late in the game, and as even better Grass/Fire/Water types with stronger long term potential show up late in the game and reach better potential later, the evolved elemental monkeys will inevitably fall behind and end up ultimately outclassed by better, more powerful options.

* The Cosplay Pikachu in ''Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire''. While she's pretty stupendous in contests, and is given to you at Level 20 (when most of your party will be at level 15-18), she can't evolve. Therefore, Eviolite on her will not work, and the Light Ball is obtained a little too late into the game for it to be useful. (You get it ''after'' the Flying-type Gym, where you'd want a strong Electric type in the first place.)

** Butterfree and Beedrill start the series trend of early game Bug-type crutches. Their pre-evolutions can be caught early (before the first Gym) and they evolve to their final stage at level 10. They pack quite a punch that early and Butterfree's various [[NonDamagingStatusInflictionAttack status powders]] gives it [[SupportPartyMember utility as a status spreader]], as well as being the first Pokémon you can get that learns [[FakeBalance Psychic]] moves (Confusion early and, if you level it up enough, Psybeam). Butterfree in particular is a major crutch in getting through [[MarathonLevel Mt. Moon]] where it's Psychic-type moves will make short work of the part Poison-type Zubat and low Special stat Geodude. (Nearly anything else you can reasonably have at this point will struggle with one or the other.) Their usefulness peters out fast though once you've caught and evolved other Pokémon, as their stats are exceeded by even mid-evolutions and since they're Bugs in Gen 1, they'll never get good STAB moves (and with Beedrill's part Poison typing, if you try using it to counter Psychics with its Bug moves it'll just get destroyed). Then if you want to keep Butterfree around for its status infliction, there are plenty of other Pokémon that can inflict status while being much more durable and being able to deal actual damage to opponents.

* ''Yellow'' makes the Fighting-type Mankey available much earlier, giving players an option to deal with Brock and his Rock-types at the first gym. It's moveset has also been upgraded, allowing it to learn the Fighting-type Low Kick at a mere level 9. However, its usefulness quickly diminishes after that.

* Bullet Seed is another crutch "move". You can get the TM for it right before the Rock-type Gym and can put it on a starter Treecko or easily caught Shroomish to sweep through the Gym and some of the subsequent hikers (who also favor Rock-types) on the next route. However, its low base power means it will quickly be replaced.

[[/folder]]