Crutch Character / Pokémon

Examples of Crutch Characters in the Pokémon franchise.

Back to Crutch Character - RPG.

Note: Due to the nature of the series, many examples straddle the line between "crutches" and Disc One Nukes. Please make sure examples are sufficiently "crutch"-like based on the trope page's description ("available early", "fall behind the power curve", "cannot be relied on indefinitely") before putting them here. Otherwise, they should likely go on the series' Disc One Nuke page.

Many examples from the originals also apply to their remakes. These examples don't need to be listed twice unless something has changed between the two games.

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Recurring and Series Wide Examples

• Many games in the series have common early route Pokémon, usually Bug-Types, 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.
• Butterfree is perhaps most responsible for starting the "early game crutch Bug-types" trend, dating all the way back to Gen I and reprising in each following appearance. To note:
  • In Pokémon Red and Blue, its pre-evolutions can be caught early (before the first Gym) and can evolve to its final stage at level 10. It packs quite a punch that early and Butterfree's various status powders gives it utility as a status spreader, as well as being the first Pokémon you can get that learns Psychic moves (Confusion early and, if you level it up enough, Psybeam, as well as teach it TM Psychic). Butterfree in particular is a major crutch in getting through Mt. Moon, where its 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.) Its usefulness peters out fast though once you've caught and evolved other Pokémon, as its stats are exceeded by even mid-evolutions and since its Gen 1, it'll never any get STAB moves. 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. In Pokemon Yellow, Butterfree gets even more of an early advantage here over Red and Blue in that it learns Confusion upon evolving at lv. 10, rather than having to grind it 2 more levels to 12 with only Tackle as a damaging move. Though not directly weak to its Psychic-typing, Confusion can take advantage of Brock's Pokémon's weak Special stat giving you another means to easily dispatch them, as well as the part Poison-type Zubat and weak-Special stat Geodude in Mt. Moon. Like the originals, its usefulness still fades quickly after that.
  • In Pokémon Gold and Silver, as in Gen I, the Bug-type Caterpie (a version exclusive to Gold outside of the Bug-Catching Contest) reprises its role as this here. It's found just north of Cherrygrove City, and evolves into Butterfree at a mere level 10, at which point it's much stronger than anything else early in the game but fall behind soon after, due to its low stats and lack of STAB options.
  • In Pokemon LeafGreen and FireRed, Butterfree gets an even bigger boost now thanks to its Compound Eyes ability. This makes the Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack "[Status] Powder" moves significantly more accurate. It's still too frail to take many hits and its offense will remain exceedingly poor due to its STAB moves being physical, so it can only hang around in a Support Party Member role, where even then it will get outclassed eventually.
  • In Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Butterfree benefits from the new physical/special split and learns its better moves sooner than previous games. Its Psychic-type moves are very helpful against the Poison-types Team Rocket Grunts use, as well as Morty's Pokemon. However, like before, it'll fall off in usefulness before it learns its strongest attack: Bug Buzz.
• Like the Caterpie family, Beedrill's overall stats are rather low for a fully evolved Pokémon. What's more, Beedrill doesn't have the special status effect moves Butterfree enjoys, relying on pure damage attacks during its usable time-span.
  • In Pokémon Red and Blue, Beedrill starts the series trend of early game Bug-type crutches. Its pre-evolutions can be caught before the first Gym and it evolves into its final stage at only level 10. It can pack quite a punch that early, even with just Fury Attack and Poison Sting for its main attacks. Its usefulness peters out fast though once you've caught and evolved other Pokémon, as its stats are exceeded by even mid-evolutions and since its a Bug-type in Gen 1, it will never get good STAB moves (and with Beedrill's part Poison typing, if you try using it to counter Psychics with its mediocre Twineedle, it'll just get destroyed by them).
  • In Pokémon Gold and Silver, As in Gen I, the Bug-type Weedle (a version exclusive to Silver outside of the Bug-Catching Contest) reprises its role as this here. It's found just north of Cherrygrove City (the 2nd location the player will visit) and evolves into Beedrill at a mere level 10, at which point its much stronger than anything else early in the game but fall behind soon after, even if you teach it its strongest attack, Sludge Bomb.
  • In Pokemon LeafGreen and FireRed, The Bug-type Beedrill still qualify from the last Gen. While can learn some new coverage moves, like Brick Break and Aerial Ace, you're better off replacing it by Celadon City at the latest, due to its mediocre stats and lack of good STAB (Twineedle is a paltry attack and you don't get Sludge Bomb until post-game).
  • In Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Beedrill, actually gets a handful of strong moves: Fury Attack at level 10, and Twineedle (4 levels earlier than the last Gen), Pursuit, the new Poison Jab, and Pin Missile later on. However, Beedrill is hardly the game's best Bug Pokémon, but it will hold you over until you get a Scyther in the Bug-Catching Competition, past Goldenrod City. You could teach it U-Turn from Bugsy but you might as well give it to Scyther instead.
  • This trope gets averted in Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. After you defeat the box legendary, you can find Kakuna in the Safari Zone and evolve after one level. When it reaches its final form at level it gets stuck with an awful 395 base stat total. However, you can get the Beedrillnite in Sea Mauville to gain Mega Beedrill. It has 150 attack, 145 speed, and Adaptability to raise the power of its Bug and Poison moves by an additional 50% on top of STAB. By that point you can teach X-Scissor and Poison Jab via TM and easily raise it up by trainer rematches and the EXP-Share. These changes allow it to easily compete with some of the best Pokémon in the final stretch of the game.
• With a few exceptions noted below, the early game Normal/Flying-type Pokémon fall into this trope. The Pidgey, Spearow, Taillow, Pidove, and Pikipek lines have their uses early against the common early game Bug and Grass-types, but their middling stats and sub-par movesets leave them to fall behind once other, more powerful flyers become available.
• Geodude is particularly useful in early stages of games, especially in GSC and its remakes, in which it is available despite being an infamous Com Mon. It has high Attack and Defense, and learns Rock and Ground-type moves, both of which are useful offensive types. Rock is especially useful early in the game due to the plentiful amount of Flying and Bug-type Pokémon, as well as its resistance to the Normal-Type Tackles and Quick Attacks thrown around at that stage. However, not long into the game, its usefulness begins to wear off. Soon, its low HP, terrible Special Defense and Speed, 4x weakness to several common types (Water and Grass), and the fact that it needs to be traded to reach its final form means it will likely be sitting in the PC for the rest of the game. In fact, the Rock-type in general can be viewed as a "crutch type". While it's tied with Grass for the most weaknesses in the entire game, it has the honor of resisting Normal, a type that's pretty much everywhere in the early game. Most of the type's weaknesses aren't too common around that time, and with Rock's early availability and good type coverage, Rock-type Pokémon are stupendous choices in the beginning. However, the type's menagerie of weaknesses really begins to show as the game progresses, especially since most Rock-types have stat spreads fitting Mighty Glaciers despite their typing being more suited towards a Glass Cannon. As such, many Rock-types end up in the PC by the end of the game.
• The weaker Starter Mons of each generation will always at least be this. They're a big step above the early route Com Mons that most players bypass without a second thought due to their poor stats and movesets; that along with their decent starting level of 5 and quick access to their early game STAB move means that, barring a few inconvenient matchups, they can usually solo the early game with no issue. As the player continues along their journey, however, the Jack of All Stats starter may find themselves outshined and even become a Master of None by the end of the game, facing competition from Pokémon with more specialized stat spreads and better movepools, particularly those of the same type and especially ones with a good dual-type that the starter doesn't have.
• Fixed Damage Attacks are crutch moves. For example, Sonic Boom will always hit for 20 damage while Dragon Rage will always hit for 40. Up through the first few gyms, these will take down any foe in no more than 2-3 hits. However, it takes surprisingly little time for that to become a drop in the bucket as opposing Pokémon become stronger. Some, like Seismic Toss and Night Shade, deal fixed damage equal to the user's level. These remain worthwhile for a bit longer, especially for low-Attack Stone Wall Pokémon as it gives them a consistent means to deal damage.
• Frustration is another crutch move, especially in Black 2 and White 2. If it's learned early on, it can prove to be quite a bit more powerful than the standard Tackles your Pokémon would otherwise be throwing around — its base power increases the less your Pokémon likes you, going from 1 base power at 255 happiness to 102 power at 0, and most Pokémon species have low base happiness when first caught. However, as your Pokémon battles and levels up, it'll inevitably gain happiness, causing Frustration's power to decline sharply. Once your Pokémon reaches 128 happiness or more, Return becomes more powerful, as do other moves learned later in the game. The Pokémon able to benefit the most from this is Buneary, since it's caught with 0 happiness and is Normal-type, letting it throw out max-power Frustrations when enemy Pokémon won't have moves with anything like that power level for a while.
• Any Pokémon in the Fluctuating experience group will exhibit a downplayed version of this trope. Pokémon with this level curve grow quickly in their low levels, and can easily keep pace with or even surpass your starter in levels if caught early. However, the amount of experience they require to level up grows faster than other Pokémon, and around level 30, they'll have as much total as the rest of your team. Stick with them past then, and they'll start taking much more experience than other Pokémon to level up, so they might end up falling behind in levels by the end of the game. How much this applies depends on the Pokémon and game, however — in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, Illumise is too weak and comes too late to carry you through the early-game, while Breloom and Hariyama are powerful enough that they can pull their weight in the late-game even with a level disadvantage.
• In RGBY (and their remakes), X & Y, and Sun & Moon, Pikachu (and Pichu in the latter case) can be found in the wild very early on. It'll likely be the first wild Electric-type a trainer will encounter and can make short work of the ubiquitous early game Flying-types, but it'll likely be outclassed by mid-game and their evolution in Raichu is pretty underwhelming. If holding a Light Ball (a Pikachu-exclusive held-item that boosts stats which vary by game), Pikachu can hold on a little longer in a mixed Fragile Speedster/Glass Cannon role, but with a heavy emphasis on the "fragile" and "glass" parts that will still have it outclassed by the late-game.
  • In Pokémon Red and Blue Pikachu can be caught before the first Gym in the Viridian Forest, its typing and stats make it great early on (since Com Mons like Zubat and Pidgey are weak to Electricity). However, its evolved form Raichu is pretty mediocre by the endgame standards. This is even more drastic in Yellow, where it’s your starter Pokémon. It starts as easily your best Pokémon, can naturally learn Thunderbolt and (possibly) Surf, being a Glass Cannon, hit like a truck for some time. However, the fact that it can't evolve (the game prevents you from giving it a Thunder Stone) means that it falls behind as your other Pokémon evolve and become stronger. If want to use an Electric-type in the long-run, you're better off using Jolteon.
    • In Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, you can find Pikachu again in the Viridian Forest. However, wild Pikachu here have a 5% chance to hold a Light Ball when caught, which doubles their Special Attack in this Gen and effectively gives Pikachu base attacking stats slightly better than its evolution Raichu. While Pikachu is still fairly frail (certainly too fragile to make use of its new Static ability), it's fast enough for it to not be an issue for a while until you can find a replacement for it (e.g. Jolteon or Zapdos).
  • In Pokémon X and Y Pikachu in particular is especially crutch-like in this Gen. Catching it in Santalune Forest, 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 the late-game. Can be subverted if Pikachu's holding a rare Light Ball, which lets it 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, but it'll still plateau by the Elite Four.
  • In Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire you can have the Cosplay Pikachu at Slateport City. While she's pretty stupendous in contests, can learn Icicle Crash as coverage and is given to you at Level 20 (when most of your party will be at level 15-18, if you haven't been training them with EXP-All), she can't evolve. Therefore, putting the 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.)
  • In Pokémon Sun and Moon Pichu learns Nasty Plot at level 18, which boosts Special Attack by two stages and has at least 3 perfect IVs due to being a Baby Pokemon. Pichu evolves into Pikachu via friendship, which can be done soon after, and if you manage to steal a Light Ball from a wild Pikachu, then you'll have a borderline unstoppable setup sweeper by the end of the first island. However, like in previous generations, its Glass Cannon nature means it won't make it to the end game without evolving into Alolan Raichu and even then you can have better options.
  • Early access to Move Tutors in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon expands Pikachu's attack options to include Iron Tail and Signal Beam. You can even get one that comes with Surf after completing Mantine Surf, giving it even more coverage before it evolves into Alolan-Raichu with Psychic STAB. It will still plateau by the time you reach the end game.

Generation I Examples

Pokémon Red and Blue and Yellow:

• Bulbasaur, the Grass-type Starter Mon, 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 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 nearly all of the Champion's Pokémon. At least, on paper. Due to various exploits and AI Breakers, 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. Further, it can use Razor Leaf to take advantage of the game's absurd critical hit rate. 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.
• Rattata, one of the game's resident Com Mons, 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 (which basically any non-rock type) and can evolve at only level 20, but it soon declines in usefulness after that.
• Yellow makes the Fighting-type Mankey available on Route 22, just west of Viridian City, whose Fighting-type Low Kick will help you make short work of Brock. Mankey can also dispatch the Geodude encountered in Mt. Moon with ease. Unfortunately, the Fighting-type isn't particularly helpful after that. Its weaknesses to the broken Psychic-type and ubiquitous Flying-type, as well as the fact that Poison-types resist it (which is the most common type in Gen I), there being a lack of good Fighting-type moves (Mankey/Primeape won't get anything better than the inaccurate and self-damaging 80 power Submission), and Primeape being a weak fully-evolved Pokémon itself, leaves it in the dust.
• The Spearow line is useful early on, since Spearow is stronger than Pidgey, and in Gen 1, actually starts with a Flying type move (since Pidgey's Gust was Normal type in that Gen and needs to reach level 31 to learn Wing Attack is only 35 base-power, the same as Peck), making it useful against all the Bug-types you'll meet in the first few areas of the game. Unlike the Pidgey line (who doesn't evolve into its final stage until level 36), Spearow also evolves into the powerful Fearow fast at only level 20. However, Fearow is still quite weak compared to most fully-evolved Pokémon. While far from unusable later on, Fearow is thoroughly outclassed by Dodrio and the legendary birds, who make much better Flying-type options for the late game.
• In Vermilion City, the traded Farfetch'd, DUX, is surprisingly good early on — its base stats are on par with Pidgeotto, it's a decent HM slave, learning Cut and Fly, and it can learn Swords Dance to make it a harder-hitting combatant. Plus, being traded, it gets a boost to its EXP gain, meaning it will level very quickly and reach that Swords Dance (and eventually, Slash) much faster. By the mid-game, though, DUX's stats quickly decline from usable to middling to awful. In Pokemon Yellow, Farfetch'd is obtained a fair bit later and caught in the wild, making it a straight Joke Character.
• 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 replaced by the halfway point. Its helped by the fact that Arbok is still weak by fully-evolved Pokémon standards, and its pure Poison type does it no favors in a generation dominated by Psychic-types.
• 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 after getting Surf 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 and its TM seemed to be a necessity for those who ran out of money too soon. Outside of that, Meowth isn't really all that useful.
• In Yellow, following the story from the anime, it is possible to find a level 9 Pidgeotto in Viridian Forest (where Ash caught one). While its moveset is unimpressive, its stats as a second-evolution Pokémon are enough to brute-force most enemies up to Misty. After that, though, it'll suffer hard from its all-around middling stats and terrible movepool, even as a Pidgeot (which itself takes too long to fully evolve).

Generation II Examples

Pokémon Gold and Silver and Crystal:

• Hoothoot evolves early at level 20 into Noctowl and is respectably strong for that point, but quickly falls off after the mid-game with its subpar stats and a very shallow movepool, with the weak Peck as its only naturally-learned Flying-type move. (It can get a short extension with HM02 Fly, but it still falls off not longer after. Not only that but its only available after you've beaten the fighting-type gym, when it would've been more useful.) You're better off using another Flying-type, like Spearrow.
• Rattata once again, as the game's resident Com Mon. It learns Hyper Fang at level 13 now. A Raticate with this move can become an absolute beast in the early stages of the game, but after the fourth gym badge, it'll start getting overpowered by enemy Pokémon with stronger stats and moves.
• Ledyba evolves at level 18 and gets useful support moves like Reflect and Light Screen before then. Unfortunately, its low stat total, poor typing, complete lack of STAB moves, and nearly non-existent offenses mean that it will drop off early in a trainer's journey.
• In Violet City, you can trade an easy-to-acquire Bellsprout for an Onix. It will help with the first few Gyms, but by the time you hit Olivine its bad Attack stat becomes extremely detrimental. This can be subverted if you have a friend to trade with, though, as once you reach Route 38, you can attempt to acquire Metal Coats from the Wild Magnemite there, facilitating an evolution into the very solid Steelix.
• Wooper can be encountered early on after the first gym, evolve early at Level 20, naturally learn Earthquake, and can make good use of field moves such as Surf and Strength. But in comparison to other Water-types found in later areas, like Lapras, their stats are a little lackluster.
• The move Headbutt. It's a decently strong Normal-type attack with a Base Power of 70 and can cause opponents to flinch. It's obtained very early from an NPC in Ilex Forest and can be bought from the Goldenrod Department Store nearby, just after the 2nd Gym. However, when approaching the Elite Four, its time to get a stronger normal move and/or STAB attack.
• You can trade an easy-to-acquire Drowzee (a significantly harder to catch Abra in Crystal) for a Machop in Goldenrod City. Machop, a Fighting-type, is strong against the local Normal-type Gym Leader Whitney (though you're going to have to do a bit of Level Grinding with it) and resists its Rollout. As a bonus, it is also female, meaning you won't have to deal with the hindrance of Miltank's Attract. Better options soon become available and it doesn't help that it needs to be traded to reach its final form. As with the Onix example, if you do have a friend to trade with, though, it does become the overall solid Machamp.
• In Silver, you can catch Meowth and train it up to learn Pay Pay. This move allows you to pile up on currency early on, and like trainer earnings, can be doubled or quadrupled through certain stipulations, such as the Amulet Coin item. Especially apparent in early generations where Meowth could be caught and taught Pay Day rather early. Simply put, Meowth is good for your wallet but it and its evolution Persian aren't powerful in the long run.

Generation III Examples

Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire:

• Bullet Seed is another crutch move in Ruby and Sapphire. 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 or Seedot/Lotad 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 and unreliability with its Spam Attack means it will quickly be replaced.
• Wurmple evolves very quickly and the typings of both evolved forms leaves them with a double resistance to Brawly's Fighting-type attacks. Dustox also learns Confusion early, and both evolutions can hit back with Gust. However, their stats are far outshone by other evolved Pokémon, so don't expect to keep them on your team for long. It doesn't help that all their STAB moves are powered by their much weaker Physical Attack.
• Similar to Geodude in Kanto, Aron can be found very early in the Hoehn games and has pretty good physical Defense and Attack to hit hard and take punishment. Unfortunately, its typing and low Sp. Def leave it highly open to its increasingly common weaknesses (Fighting, Ground and Water) later in the game. Not to mention it will take a while to get it next evolution stage, let alone its final form.
• Mawile and Sableye, which are version exclusive counterparts in Ruby and Sapphire respectively, play similar roles (both appear in Emerald, but only Sableye is found this early). When they are obtained in Granite Cave, shortly after the first Gym Badge is obtained, they are notable for their exceptional defensive properties. Mawile is a pure Steel type, making it resistant to eleven of the game's types and immune to the Poison type. Likewise, Sableye's Ghost and Dark typing has three immunities and no weaknesses, allowing it to easily crush the upcoming Dewford Gym. However, both have Base Stat Totals of only 380 despite having no evolutions, making them among the weakest fully evolved Pokemon. This means that they are quickly outpaced in terms of stats, and are sooner overshadowed by other Steel types (Aggron, Magneton, and Skarmory) and Dark types (Sharpedo, Absol, and Cacturne).

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen:

• Rattata, reprising its role from Gen I, learns Hyper Fang, this time a level 13. Not only that but it potentially get the Guts ability, increasing its physical attack power if it gets Burned, Paralyzed or Poisoned. It can one or two-hit KO anything that doesn't resist it up to around the second Gym, but soon declines in usefulness even after it evolves and should be replaced by around Celadon City.
• Like in Gen I, Spearow is stronger than Pidgey, and starts with a Flying type move (since the Pidgey line needs to reach level 9 to learn now and onwards), making it useful against all the Grass and Bug-types early on and can naturally learn Aerial Ace at level 25 if you delay its evolution. However, like before, Fearow isn't the strongest fully-evolved Pokemon, and is still thoroughly outclassed by Dodrio, of which you can capture Doduo by the time you evolve your Spearow.
• Like in Pokemon Yellow, Mankey can be found as soon as you reach Viridian City, where it is immediately useful against Brock and the abundant Normal and Rock types this early. The Primeape line is better this time around with being able to get better moves like Cross Chop and Brick Break for STAB, but Primeape's stats are still lackluster and it still has the problem of abundant Poison types in Kanto and Psychic-types still being overly powerful, while there's no Dark-types and few Steel-types around to counterbalance, so while more usable Primeape still isn't ideal to keep on your team late into the game.
• 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 and allows it to resist the third and fourth, its 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), it gets stronger STAB options like Giga Drain and Sludge Bomb (the latter is post-game only), as well as Earthquake for coverage, and it comes with a number of utility moves like the [Status] Powders and Leech Seed to regain health. Unfortunately, in the second half of the game, it is weak-to or resisted-by three of the final four Gym Leaders, three members of the Elite Four, and two-thirds of the Champion's Pokémon. The critical hit rate Nerf since Gen. I means Razor Leaf isn't as powerful as it was in the original, either. Venusaur can still slog through the rest of the game, but it's forced to rely on a Gradual Grinder playstyle for these opponents, which is less efficient compared to other Pokémon that can simply knock them out in one or two hits.
• Ekans is catchable fairly early in FireRed, and evolves into Arbok at level 22, at which point it'll be much stronger than most enemy Pokémon. However, Arbok is still weak by fully-evolved Pokémon standards, and its Poison type does it no favors in a game dominated by Psychic-types. Not helping matters is that it can't be taught Sludge Bomb, its most powerful attack, until post-game.
• If you haven't raised a Kadabra, you could be relying on your traded Mr. Mime, especially for a lot of the Pokémon Tower to deal with the Ghost-types in it (and that only works because said Ghosts are also Poison-types, too — try this against the Ghosts in any other generation, and you'll soon regret it). After that, Mr. Mime tends not to be that useful and many players will opt to replace it with something else.

Generation IV Examples

Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Platinum:

• Averted by the Starly line, which is far more useful than the previous Gens early game Normal/Flying-types. It has excellent offensively-oriented stats, gains the powerful STAB move Brave Bird, and, somewhat uniquely, the Fighting-type move Close Combat to deal with Rock and Steel-types that would normally resist it's STABs. Its final evolution, Staraptor, is a staple of many in-game teams of this era.
• The Luxray line can be caught very early and learns both Spark and Bite by level 18, which are both fairly strong moves for such early point in the game. However, it eventually falls off due to Spark being its strongest Physical STAB with just 65 BP and its Special Attack isn't very good either. Even Raichu, another Crutch Character itself, proves to be a better Electric-type in the endgame.
• Like the various caterpillars, Kricketot evolves quickly into Kricketune, which has good stats compared to the unevolved Mons you'll be using up to that point but gets outpaced very quickly when those start to evolve. However, it's fairly lacking in utility moves compared to the caterpillars' evolved forms. If you really want to use a Bug-type, Heracross is a much better option.
• Wurmple evolves very quickly and the typings of both evolved forms boasts a double resistance to Gardenia's Grass moves and can hit back with Gust. But as with the last Gen, their stats are far outshone by other evolved Pokémon later down the line, by around the Hearthome Gym.
• Like many other early Bug Pokémon, Burmy evolves relatively early (level 20) while evolutions Wormadam and Mothim have decent stats for how early they're available, but pale in comparison to other, stronger Pokémon available later in the game.
• Rotom works as one in Platinum if the Secret Key isn't available. It has high stats for how early it's obtained, and will quickly learn some fairly powerful moves like Shock Wave and Ominous Wind. Unfortunately, compared to Pokémon available later in the game, its stats are a bit underwhelming in comparison to them.

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver:

• Like in the originals, Hoothoot evolves fairly early into Noctowl at level 20, becomes respectably strong for that point, and gets an enhanced moveset including Air Slash for STAB and learning Confusion much earlier. It still falls off after the fifth gym or so, and there are better Flying-type options, like the Spearow line.
• Like in the originals, Ledyba evolves at a low level and gets useful support moves like Reflect and Light Screen naturally. Unfortunately, its low stat total, poor typing, and nearly non-existent offenses mean that it will drop off early in a trainer's journey. While it can learn STAB moves in this Gen e.g. Bug Buzz and Aerial Ace, they're of low base power or they're learned too late. A better Bug-type would be Scyther or Heracross.
• You can catch a Dunsparce before the first gym (1% encounter rate in Dark Cave), and it can come with the ability Serene Grace, which doubles the chances of a move's secondary effect taking place. It also learns Glare (75% chance of causing paralysis, 100% as of Generation VI) and Headbutt (30% chance of causing the opponent to flinch), which, combined with Serene Grace, will leave an opponent with only a 30% chance of acting between paralysis and flinching. However, it drops off in usefulness about halfway through Johto due to its low stats and will likely have to be replaced.
• Meowth's great Speed stat and manipulation of Technician boosts and Fake Out combos can make it handy for early points of the game (along with Bite and Aerial Ace, making it a viable option against Morty's Ghost Pokemon), with its Pay Day attack and its other ability Pickup also allowing you to nab costly power-up items. Unfortunately, it doesn't really get handed many powerful techniques later on, it loses Pickup when it evolves for the less useful Limber, and its low overall stats cause it to struggle to hold on in later battles.

Generation V Examples

Pokémon Black and White:

• 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 Master of None 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.
• Purrloin is decent early on, with good speed and decent attack for a first-stage Pokémon, and it gets Fake Out to get a cheap shot in on foes at the start of battle. It also evolves into Liepard at just level 20, which is quite early. However, it gets outclassed really quickly, even after it evolves — Liepard's stats are bad by the standards of fully-evolved Pokémon, and you'll doubtless find stronger Dark-types to replace it with later in the game, like Krookodile, Scrafty or Bisharp.
• While this is a possibility for the Starter Mons throughout the series, this generation gets it especially tough. In generations past it was common practice to keep a starter around, not only because of loyalty, but because usually, wild Pokémon of its same type are uncommon or outclassed by the starter. This all changed with the advent of Gen V. With the sheer rise in power and variety of the wild Pokémon in Unova, it makes the Starters look mediocre by comparison. Part of this is a domino effect of TMs no longer being consumable. In order to compensate for the now infinitely reusable skill machines, many of the Unova Pokémon were designed with a severely limited movepool compared to other generations. Most of them will only learn moves from their own typings, plus Normal. This makes dual type Pokémon much more valuable than single types, even when they have historically common typings such as Grass/Poison. Thus the Grass starter is outclassed even by Pokémon that can be acquired very early in the game. The Water starter has decent coverage, but still can fall into this trope later on. The Fire starter, who eventually gains Fighting, is somewhat more useful, but still easily replaced by other Pokémon without any particular difficulty. It is telling that the starters from Gens VI, VII, and IX have a dual-typed final evolution, likely to avoid this issue.^note Gen VIII goes back to mono-typed starter final evolutions.
• While the ability was nerfed from its Disc-One Nuke status in Gen III, the early Com Mon Lillipup comes with Pickup. The items are not as high-end, but you'll still be set for the rest of the game if you grind early on. Even better, Pickup can now steal away a one time use item the opponent uses up or thrown at them with Fling, meaning you can snag several good berries in a short amount of time. Not to mention that it loses Pickup when it evolves and gains the more rather situational Sand Rush ability, compared to its other ability: the much more useful Intimidate.

Generation VI Examples

Pokémon X and Y:

• Mega Evolution, introduced in this Gen, allows some Pokémon to subvert this trope. For instance in the Kalos region: the Kanto starters, Gengar, Aerodactyl, Ampharos, Lucario and Abomasnow become absolute juggernauts in-game.
• Santalune Forest, the game's Noob Cave, is full of crutches from previous generations. Pikachu and the early game bugs from Gen I, the "Elemental Monkeys" from Gen V, and more. You can basically build a "Crutch Team" if you really want.
• Farfetch'd, which had this status way back in Red and Blue, regains it 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 with STAB moves. Furthermore, a change to the critical hit formula means that if it has its signature item, it can guarantee critical hits with moves that have increased chances. Even then, however, its stats are still mediocre and quickly outclassed, and you're better off replacing it with a another Flying-type, like Fletchling.
• To a lesser extent Dunsparce. You can catch one before the first gym, and at the level you can catch it at, it will have the move Rollout on hand; super-effective against Bug-type Pokémon, which just so happens to be the theme of the first gym. Even Fennekin would have trouble when faced with Viola's Surskit, due to its Bug/Water typing; Dunsparce doesn't have this problem. However, its poor stats means it won't hold up in the late game.
• Averted by the Fletchling line, which is far more useful than the other standard early game Normal/Flying-types. It develops good stats and evolves into Fire/Flying types, so it has more coverage than the other common flyers. Its Hidden Ability Gale Wings was also massively overpowered when it was first introduced, though it got Nerfed in the seventh generation because of how absurdly powerful it was.
• Scatterbug, Spewpa, and Vivillon carry on the tradition of being a fairly powerful early-game Bug-type in Generation VI, even potentially getting Compound Eyes (which goes well with its Powder moves), eventually learns the Fairy-type Draining Kiss which is also a Life Drain attack, and finally gets the very powerful Hurricane which normally has lackluster accuracy but the Compound Eyes ability greatly increases it. Like its Bug-type crutch predecessors, it fades out in usefulness over the course of the game as other Pokémon become available, evolve, and catch up.
• Furfrou's Fur Coat ability makes it physically tanky — with the ability factored in, it has an effective base stat total of 532, which is significantly higher than anything that will be available as early as you get it. You can also catch it in a Luxury Ball and teach it Return for a powerful STAB move. As you proceed in the game, though, its offenses fall to below average territory, but it can still fulfill a Support Party Member role with Thunder Wave and U-Turn.
• Gogoat has all around solid, but not spectacular stats and a really large movepool. The fact that it can be caught so early makes it designed for a lot of newer players, but later on, more powerful Pokémon will be able to outshine it, due to being a Master of None. There are better Grass-types you can catch like Rosarade and Vileplume.
• In Y, Seviper is available fairly early in the game on Route 8, and can be taught Venoshock immediately after it's caught, giving it a solid Poison STAB move to use with its base 100 Special Attack. It's able to learn a wide variety of coverage moves through both level-up and TMs, can make use of both physical and special attacks, and its low defenses and speed aren't a big issue in the early-game. However, late-game, Seviper's Glass Cannon nature becomes more exploitable, and it may end up getting one-shotted by neutral STAB attacks. Since it's in the Fluctuating EXP group, it levels up fast early on, but may end up falling behind by the Elite Four.
• 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.

Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:

• Like with X and Y, Mega Evolutions allows some Pokémon to subvert this trope. In the Hoenn region: the Hoenn starters, Beedrill, Pidgeot, Alakazam, Slowbro, Pinsir, Gyarados, Aerodactyl, Steelix, Heracross, Gardevoir, Sabelye, Mawile, Aggron, Medicham, Manectric, Altaria, Banette, Absol, Glalie, Latias, Latios, and Lopunny become juggernauts in game.
• It's possible to find a Surskit with Hydro Pump before you even meet up with your dad for the catching tutorial by abusing the Dev Nav feature. It can easily devastate the early part of the game using the move, especially the first Gym, though it will eventually drop off in usefulness, due to its mediocre stats, underwhelming evolution that loses Speed points and even loses its water-type STAB.

Generation VII Examples

Pokémon Sun and Moon

• Crabrawler can be caught early in the game through berry trees, its stats are high for a first-stage Pokémon, and it can be taught Brick Break via TM, which is a powerful STAB move for how early you can get it. However, it can't evolve until you reach Mount Lanakila, the area where the Pokémon League is, so it'll fall behind once evolved Pokémon start showing up more as enemies. Even once it does evolve into Crabominable, it's a slow Glass Cannon with a dreadful defensive typing that will not fare well against the Elite Four's teams and types. If you want to use a Fighting-type, Mankey or Machop would serve you better in the long-run.
• Alolan-Meowth has a good Speed stat and its Technician boosts and Fake Out combos can make it handy for early points of the game, with its Pay Day attack and other ability Pickup also allowing you to nab costly power-up items. Unfortunately, it doesn't get handed many powerful techniques later on, it loses Pickup when it evolves and is replaced with Fur Coat for Alolan-Persian turning it into a Stone Wall, and its low other stats cause it to struggle to hold on in later battles.
• Dewpider can be caught just before the second trial and evolves shortly thereafter, and Brooklet Hill just so happens to have the TM for Scald in the area, allowing it and its evolution, Araquanid, to hit like a truck. However, like most Bug-types, Araquanid can fall off later in the game in comparison to other Pokémon, but it's a downplayed version compared to other Bug-types due to being a powerful Mighty Glacier thanks to its ability Water Bubble.

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

• You can use Buneary for the Z-Splash strategy, previously a Magikarp exclusive. It can be found on the first route, knowing Splash, and learns Quick Attack fairly soon. It also learns Return and Jump Kick, two of the stronger Normal and Fighting-type moves, respectively. Only Ghost-types can stop you now. Plus, the Rotom Dex now has a chance to grant you two Z-Moves per battle once you've bonded with it, letting you stack Z-Splash to hit maximum attack in two turns, or follow up one Z-Splash with a Breakneck Blitz with Return as its base. Its weak fully-evolved form means it will be outpaced come the mid/late game, however. It doesn't receive its Mega Stone until post-game.
• In this game, you can let Crabrawler evolve earlier than the previous one, when you first visit the base of Mount Lanakila about halfway through the game, but Crabominable is an equally disappointing evolution there as before.
• Both Shock Wave and Water Pulse are available early on, and are on the cheaper end of BP costs. An Alolan-Meowth with Technician can get good coverage for the Trials on Akala this way. However, it'll fall off in efficiency even after it evolves in Alolan-Persian.

Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!:

• 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. Furthermore, it learns Gust on evolution rather than the more useful Confusion, despite getting STAB, lessening its immediate effectiveness.

Generation VIII Examples

Pokémon Sword and Shield:

• Averted by the Rookiedee line, which is far more useful than the other standard early game Normal/Flying-types. Rookiedee's final evolution, Corviknight, is a Flying/Steel type with some nice coverage and a ton of resistances thanks to its Steel typing.
• Much like with Gen 3, some of the earlier Pokémon you can encounter are Lotad and Seedot, Grass-type mons with an early evolution (14) and in Sword/Shield the ability to fully evolve them rather early due to being able to find stones in the Wild Area. Couple with the Move Relearners, which are free, and you can have a very powerful setup by the time you reach the first major city. Depending on which version you're playing, though, both will likely be removed early as their usefulness peters out after the third Gym; both are just too weak to the second set of gyms, and the expanded Wild Area, breeding, and new stone access means you'll likely find something better to replace them with anyways.
• You can catch a Galarian Meowth in Route 4. Its great Speed stat and Tough Claws ability boosts its Fake Out and Metal Claw combos can make it handy for early points of the game, with its Pay Day attack and Pickup ability also allowing you to nab costly power-up items. However, it doesn't really get handed many powerful techniques later on, it loses Pickup when it evolves for the less useable Battle Armor, and its low other stats cause it to struggle to hold its evolution, Perserker, up in later battles.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

• With the expanded Grand Underground, it is possible to find high quality, Level Scaled (to your number of badges) Pokémon as soon as you reach Eterna City. Further, they can come with Egg Moves, boosting their power. They straddle the line between crutches and 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, and Magneton (which you can evolve into Magnezone pretty quickly too, due to Mt. Coronet being close and coming in high levels to begin with).
• Like in the originals, the Luxray line can be caught very early and learns both Spark and Bite by level 18, which are both fairly strong moves for such early point in the game. However, it quickly falls off due to Wild Charge being its strongest Physical STAB learned too late and not worth the recoil. Magnezone and even Raichu would make better Electric-types for your team.
• The Burmy line returns in this role from the originals, with the added boost of learning Quiver Dance immediately upon evolution, letting the Wormadam forms and especially Mothim tear through the early game. However, they'll still eventually fall too far behind to be viable into the late game.
• Like in the previous Gen, Wurmple fully evolves quickly (especially with the automatic EXP-Share) and both forms are excellent against Gardenia's Grass Pokémon and are an option against Maylene's Fighting-types. But as with before, their stats are far outshone later down the road.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

• In the Obsidian Fieldlands, it's possible to catch a Level ~27 Gyarados before you're even at a high enough rank to control it. What stops this from being a Disc-One Nuke like the Gen I Magikarp Salesman, however, is the fact that soon afterward you'll encounter Alpha Pokémon bosses that easily outclass it and can wipe your party if you're not careful.

Generation IX Examples

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:

• Tarountula continues the trend set by early-game Bug-types. It can be caught as early as the first route and evolves at just level 15, and its evolution, Spidops, can carry you through the fights with Giacomo and Brassius. However, Spidops' utterly atrocious stats for a fully-evolved Pokémon and bad matchups against later bosses make it a liability past the early-game. Compared to other early-game bugs, though, it's less effective in this role due to being in the Erratic EXP group; it takes so much EXP to level up early on that, if you do decide to use it for the early-game content, it'll rob the rest of your team of a lot of EXP and leave them underleveled.
• Subverted by the Nacli line. At first glance, it appears to fill a similar role to Geodude, as an easily-obtainable Rock-type which evolves fairly quickly, but is held back by its many weaknesses later on. Despite the weaknesses of its typing, though, its final evolution Garganacl can remain effective in the late-game, with good bulk all around and a useful Damage Over Time attack in Salt Cure. The addition of Terastallization also means that, if you get a Nacli from a Tera Raid, it can change its defensive typing to a better one for major battles, avoiding the main issue Rock-types generally suffer from in the late-game.
• Squawkabilly's decent Attack and great offensive abilities make it easy to slot in early in the game, but once battles start needing more than just that, its low base stats and limited movepool make it just as easy to bench in favor of better Flying-types. Hustle Squawkabilly counts in particular: its ability (extra damage at the cost of accuracy) lets it spam super-powered Aerial Aces (a 100% accurate move) with no drawbacks, but hampers it from hitting anything with its other moves when the damage (Aerial Ace has only a middling base of 60) tapers off later on. Similarly to Tarountula, Squawkabilly also takes a lot of EXP to level up in the early-game, so you'll be underleveled later on if you rely on it.

Spin-Off Games

• Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness: The Shadow Pokémon you snag have moves super-effective against everything but one another, but they can't level up or be taught new moves until they're purified. The Shadow Poochyena in particular comes with Dig for decent coverage, can learn Bite in the next 3 levels for STAB and can evolve earlier on than most at Level 18 into Mightyena, but it will quickly get overshadowed by other Shadow Pokémon you catch. It can also be replaced latter on by better Dark-types you get, like Houndoom and Sharpedo.
• Pokémon Rumble: Toy Pokémon obtained from passwords in past games could be very powerful, but in World, they're reduced to this. All of them have power levels in the ~230 range, except for Meowstic (~300), Kangaskhan (~500), and Hydreigon (~700). Hydreigon in particular will make the early missions go by much more smoothly, but will be benched quickly once you start getting Pokémon with a power level above its own.
• In Pokémon Conquest, Carnivine can be a surprisingly useful Pokémon if obtained early on. Since it's a single-stage Pokémon, it has good stats for the early-game, and its Vine Whip attack hits 3 tiles in front of it, letting it deal damage to several enemy Pokémon at once. It also has the Levitate ability, which is extremely powerful for getting around impassable terrain and general mobility. Later on, however, Carnivine's stats and move power don't hold up in comparison with fully-evolved Pokémon, especially ones that also have Levitate or are Flying-type.

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