Report: ...I'd like to make an aside and say this: Mount Moon has made me hate Zubat with no end. Zubat Zubat Zubat. Endless swarms of damnnable Zubat. I was breathing Zubat with every breath. I couldn't move my arm without hitting a dozen Zubat into about a hundred other Zubat, causing them to all get pissed off and start divebombing me... (it goes on and it continues about 3/4 down this page)
— Chorocojo, Let's Play Pokémon FireRed
Examples of Goddamned Bats in the Pokémon franchise.
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Zubat - The Trope Codifier
- Zubat, and their evolution Golbat, were part of the original 151 Pokémon introduced in the first generation, serve as the Trope Codifier for Goddamned Bats, and recur throughout the series. There are multiple factors as to just why they are so annoying to gamers:
- Sheer Numbers, Distribution, and Encounter Frequency. Random Encounters are a staple of the Pokémon series. There are generally a decent variety of Pokémon in each area, which tend to differ from those in other areas, keeping encounters fresh. The major exception are caves, which are full of Zubat. Unlike outdoor areas, where you can typically avoid random encounters by staying away from the tall grass, every single tile within a cave can generate a random encounter, and most of the time, it will be a Zubat. Caves with puzzles (darkness, rock-smashing, rock-pushing, etc.) add to the frustration, as you'll be traversing the same areas repeatedly, encountering Zubat every step of the way. Every third step you take, the screen flashes and you find yourself fighting yet another Zubat, to the point where you can easily feel Zerg Rushed by them. They also tend to be popular picks among the local "Evil Team", whose trainers sometimes have 2-3 Zubat at a time, meaning you'll be seeing them even more while clearing out those teams' hideouts.
- Typing. A dual Poison/Flying-type, Zubat resist the Grass-type, one of the standard Starter Mons typing, while being neutral to the other two. A good Electric-type (strong against Flying-types) can fry them easily enough, but as they almost always spawn in caves which also include plentiful Ground-types (immune to Electric-types), leading with an Electric-type is risky. Good Psychic-types (strong against Poison-types) can also trounce them, but these are more rare, especially in the early part of the game where Zubat are at their most annoying. Thus, it's rare to find a single Pokémon who can easily deal with Zubat and not have a disadvantage to the other Pokémon who spawn along with Zubat.
- Stats and Moveset. Zubat are inherently Fragile Speedsters, meaning they often attack first at lower levels and are difficult to run away from (the Speed difference between your Pokémon and the opponent being a determining factor in escape success). Zubat learn "Supersonic" early on to confuse your Pokémon, causing it to attack itself about half the time; this probably won't make the player lose the fight, but it wastes time in a very frustrating way, and means that damage from multiple fights piles up faster, sending you reaching for a Potion or running back to the Pokemon Center. Later in the game, they learn "Confuse Ray," which is like Supersonic but 100% accurate, and gain the power to prevent you from running away entirely, or even switching Pokémon, with the move "Mean Look". Beyond their Status Infliction Attacks, they come knowing Leech Life, a Life Drain that while weak, can still be frustrating in the early stages of the game when you lack the power to knock them out quickly. Later, they tend to learn Bite, which can cause Flinching, dragging the fights out even longer.
- Golbat. Zubat's evolution can be even worse, crossing into Demonic Spider territory. They're just as fast, can hit even harder thanks to their increased stats, know the same moves, and learn some even more frustrating moves, including the Poison-inducing Poison Fang and Flinch-causing Air Slash. The only upside to Golbat in comparison to Zubat is that, as an evolved Pokémon, they give out more experience upon defeat.
- Zubat in specific generations:
- Kanto games (and remakes):
- Zubat, along with their evolved form Golbat, appear in every cave in the game (you pass through no fewer than four different caves to complete the game). They're not particularly powerful on their own, but their encounter rate is annoyingly high, they're fast (which makes fleeing from them difficult), and they will gleefully confuse your Pokémon with Supersonic at lower levels and the more-accurate Confuse Ray at higher ones. Come the remakes, they're given the Ghost-type move "Astonish" at low levels, and the Dark-type move Bite at higher levels, meaning Psychics aren't as foolproof against them now, and both moves have a chance to cause flinching. Further, because they tend to share their cave habitats with part Ground-types like the Geodude line, leading with an Electric-type is also risky.
- Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! switch to Pre-existing Encounters, but Zubat and Golbat manage remain Goddamned Bats anyway. Zubat are relatively fast on the overworld and fly erratically, meaning they can suddenly veer into your path and disrupt combos. Golbat also have an issue with Hitbox Dissonance, having large sprites to begin with and even larger hitboxes, meaning you can trigger encounters with them despite visible space between you and them. Finally, both of them tend to move around during catch attempts, making them more frustrating to actually try to capture.
- In Alola, Zubat and Golbat are again found in nearly every cave. Because most of the Pokémon in Alola are fairly slow compared to other regions, running from Zubat is harder, a problem compounded by the new SOS battles, which cause them to call for help and summon another copy of themselves. This is further exacerbated by both Leech Life, one of Zubat's evolutionary family's signature moves, having its power increased from 20 to 80, as well as the Alolan Diglett and Dugtrio (part Steel-types) that appear in most of the same places, causing use of the Electric-types to be risky. It's to the point where, if you don't think that you can knock out a Zubat or a Golbat in one hit, just RUN.
- Just when you thought that "Dexit" cut them for good in Pokémon Sword and Shield, the Zubat line returns in the Crown Tundra Expansion Pack. Here, at least, they appear in Pre-existing Encounters rather than random ones, so they're much more avoidable.
- While Zubat itself isn't too bad in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Golbat can be frustrating to deal with. They're common to find in the Wayward Woods of the Coronet Highlands, are aggressive, and fly around quickly, so they can distract you while you're trying to sneak up on a more valuable wild Pokémon. In battle, they're fast enough to outspeed slower Pokémon, and while they don't have Zubat's usual annoying trick of Supersonic, they instead pack Air Slash to deal surprisingly high damage to less specially bulky Pokémon, so even Rock-types like Graveler aren't a surefire answer to them.
- They're worse in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, where their constant Supersonic attacks confuse you and mess your controls around.
- Pokémon GO eliminates needing to battle anything (there is battling, but all of it is optional), so how bad can Zubat be? Just as awful as any of its previous appearances. For one, when encountered, it's far from the player, making it difficult to aim at properly, particularly with curved throws (which give a bonus to catch rate when they connect), so it's naturally tricky to hit at all, let alone in the target circle to get a bonus to experience/catch rate. Plus, they fly a bit erratically even when not performing their dodge/attack animation, so it's even harder to connect with a throw. Finally, their dodge animation involves them zipping around the screen randomly, making it nigh impossible to connect with a throw if they start it (and woe betide the player if they start spamming their dodge). It's rather telling that, despite having much lower base catch rates, players rather would attempt to catch Golbat and Crobat (its evolutions) because the latter two are much easier to target with throws due to eliminating pretty much all of the things that make Zubat so frustrating. There are other Pokemon in the games with similar behavior (like Yanma), but Zubat is still the game's gold standard for frustrating catches.
- Kanto games (and remakes):
Other Recurring Examples
- The early game Bug-types are usually weak Level Grinding fodder, possessing poor stats and movesets. However, those which can poison your Pokémon qualify due to how irritating that status is early in the games. Weedle (Gen I) and Wurmple (Gen III) are classics, spamming Poison Sting and eventually poisoning you, forcing you to waste an Antidote or rush back to the Pokémon Center. These are also favorite Pokémon of the early game "Bug Catcher" trainers, removing the possibility of simply fleeing from those you encounter.
- Geodude and its evolution, Graveler (often found in the same caves, at that), vary between this trope and Demonic Spiders depending on their levels. While they have high physical Attack and Defense, they aren't too difficult to take down quickly, with poor Special Defense and an easy to take advantage of 4x weakness to the common Grass and Water-types, they have a frustrating tendency to use the insanely powerful "suicide" moves "Self-Destruct" and "Explosion" before you manage to land the final blow on them. This usually screws you out of experience points and a usable Pokémon (especially if you're using the "faint = death" rule of a Nuzlocke Self-Imposed Challenge). They're also quite fond of the move Defense Curl, which increases their already-high Defense stat and powers up Rollout (a STAB snowballing move). Further, they frequently possess the "Sturdy" ability, which ensures they can't be knocked out in one hit, and they'll often use that opportunity to use one of their suicide moves. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, they're found in every map and frequently attack the player while they're mining Tumblestones for Poké Balls. Additionally, they exhibit "aggressive" behavior in the overworld, meaning their species attacks humans on sight which hinders exploration.
- Koffingnote and its evolution, Weezing, are defensive Stone Walls who, like the Geodude line, are fond of spamming "suicide" attacks while being difficult to defeat quickly. In addition, they are Poison-types with numerous moves that can also poison your Pokémon. They're not so difficult to take down and aren't as widespread as some other examples in the series, but it's frustrating to risk a heap of damage and/or getting poisoned in every encounter with them.
- Voltorb and its evolution, Electrode, are also frequent "suicide" attackers with extremely high speed (which makes fleeing difficult and makes them more likely to attack first) and, as Electric-types, are fond of using Paralysis-causing attacks to add to the frustration. Even in the series' Random Encounter days, they typically appear as Chest Monsters disguised as Pokéballs, meaning instead of a useful item, you get a frustrating battle.
- Diglett and its evolution, Dugtrio, are hard-hitting physical sweepers with high Speed and Attack.
- In Gen I, their speed allows them to achieve an insane Critical Hit rate of 20%+, with regular moves. Throw in the "higher critical rate" Slash and they land a critical hit almost 100% of the time, putting them closer to Demonic Spiders. Diglett Cave does, however, have the redeeming feature that it only contains Diglett and Dugtrio, so you can at least rely on a known typing when choosing your leading Pokémon.
- The Gen III Kanto remakes thankfully reduce their critical hit rates, but add in another frustrating factor - they can now have the ability "Arena Trap", which prevents non-Flying-types from running away. Throw in Sand Attack (reducing your accuracy) and Dig (which makes them all-but invulnerable during the turn it is used), and you've got a recipe for pain.
- In Alola, players will find Alolan Diglett and Dugtrio; while easier to run away from due to not having Arena Trap and being slower than their regular forms, they're still a nuisance. Their Tangling Hair ability reduces the speed of any Pokémon that makes contact when attacking, and resist several types of attacks thanks to having the Steel-type. While not quite as fast as the regular form, they're still faster than most of the Pokémon available in the game, and appear in most caves. They also get to start an SOS battle and call for help, which forces the player to fight two of them at once. Alolan Dugtrio also appear in the desert in Alola, where a Sandstorm rages at night and activates their Sand Veil, to make them even more annoying, while also giving them a chance to summon a powerful Gabite to attack the player instead.
- When you enter a "power station" level, you'll see the frustrating tendency of them being home to swarms of Magnemite and/or their evolution, Magneton. While they're merely annoying since they're not fast, finding a mon that reliably deals with them is difficult because of their dual Electric/Steel-types, good Defenses and high Sp. Atk.; the former can prove difficult to tank repeated hits, and they tend to know moves like Sonic Boom (a Fixed Damage Attack that will whittle away at nearly anything), Supersonic (that same Confusion-inducing move the Zubat line knows), and Thunder Wave (a Paralysis-inducing move, with it as a secondary effect of other moves they know). It's significantly easier to deal with them if you lead with a Ground-type, which is immune to their Electric-type attacks and can deal 4x damage to them (starting in Gen II), but finding one is rare to begin with. Leading with a Steel-type is also ill-advised, as the line usually has the ability "Magnet Pull", making Steel-types unable to escape or switch; depending on what Pokémon you're using, this could turn them into Demonic Spiders instead! If you can manage to catch a Magnemite, however, give yourself a pat on the back — their superb defensive type and offenses tend to make them Game-Breakers starting with Gen IV.
- Most games have a "haunted area", in which you can expect to see Gastly and/or their evolution, Haunter. This line comes with the irritating combination of Confuse Ray and Hypnosis, the latter of which always seems to hit you despite its poor accuracy. They're also pretty damn fast, so expect to be locked in a loop of hitting yourself and sleeping before you can land a hit on them or escape. Haunter is even worse, as it hits shockingly hard for a middle-stage Pokémon and has even greater speed. If you can get around these annoyances, they are offset by their poor defenses, so if you do manage to get a hit off of them, chances are they'll go down rather easily.
- Watery areas staring in Gen III are often home to Wingull, pesky and speedy fliers who can learn Supersonic, just like Zubat. Particularly in their introductory generation, you'll spend a lot of time on the water, meaning you'll be swatting these away nonstop. Thankfully, they have a double weakness to Electric-type attacks and, unlike Zubat, don't share their environment with Electric-immune Ground-types, so they're easier to counter. Their evolution, Pelipper, isn't much better, as it has the healing move Roost to restore whatever damage you're able to do to it. In later games, such as Ancient Poni Path from Sun and Moon, wild Pelipper up their game to also spamming Protect (wasting your PP) and often Stockpile. Stockpile is usually paired with Spit Up (for damage) or Swallow (for healing), but wild Pelipper will often just have Stockpile by itself in order to waste your time.
- While Trapinch (introduced in Gen III) only appears in about one area for every game it's in, it will appear every third step you take in that area, and most will have the ability Arena Trap, which prevents your Pokémon from running away. Most likely they will also know Sand Attack, decreasing your accuracy. This is even worse in Emerald, as you have to climb Mirage Tower, which is full of the things.
- Bronzor, introduced in Gen IV, is another bane for players wherever it appears. As a Steel/Psychic type whose only weaknesses are Fire and Ground, each of its potential abilities cancels out one of the two weaknesses, meaning that each time you fight one, you have no idea which it's weak to. They also come with the move Hypnosis which can put your Pokémon to sleep and have some of the greatest defense stats in the game. And there's only two Fire-type Pokémon (not counting their evolutions) in Diamond/Pearl pre-National Dex, giving you fewer options to deal with them. Thankfully, they're extremely slow, which makes escaping easier, and they lose their Ghost and Dark-type resistances from Gev VI onward, removing some of the frustration. In Legends: Arceus, not only do they attack the player on sight as "aggressive", but their cries draw attention from nearby Pokémon, meaning players must be wary lest they be swarmed.
- Any Pokémon with the ability Cute Charm (of which there are mercifully only 12...), which has a 30% chance to make an opposite-sex Pokémon that hits it with a physical attack "infatuated". Conveniently enough, the Pokémon that can have it (with the exception of Milotic) also have skewed gender ratios in favor of females.
Generation I Examples
Pokémon Red and Blue and Yellow:
- Tentacool are the Zubat of the sea, attacking every couple of steps on water routes. They have the confusion-causing Supersonic, the poison-inducing Poison Sting, and, worst of all, Wrap, which the target from attacking or running away. Their weaknesses are easy enough to take advantage of and they aren't too difficult to run from, but dammit if they aren't annoying for how frequently they appear.
Generation II Examples
Pokémon Gold and Silver and Crystal:
- Due to the game's poor leveling curve, wild Pokémon between the fifth and the eighth gym are largely the same level, while trainers (and especially gym leaders) will have Pokémon 10-20 levels higher, turning all wild Pokémon into annoyances as they provide so little experience while disrupting your travel.
Generation III Examples
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire:
- Volbeat and Illumise. While they're not that strong, they specialize in annoying the hell out of you by spamming Confuse Ray and Double Team. Just when you think you can hit them, you miss, and if your confusion expired last turn, you get a faceful of Confuse Ray again. And again. AND AGAIN. This is even worse if there's a Double Battle involving BOTH of them as the enemy, and if there's one, don't expect to get out of there shortly.
- Oddish are very common in R/S/E's Safari Zone despite the fact that they can be encountered in five different routes and are not rare at all. Even worse, Route 120 is right next to the Safari Zone and said route already has a lot of them (Oddish in general learn annoying powder moves that either poison you, paralyze you, or put you to sleep). Why do you have to encounter them in the Safari Zone again, a place where you can catch Pokémon you shouldn't be able to encounter outside of the zone (or at least not as often)?!
Generation IV Examples
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Platinum:
- Fearow in the later areas of Diamond and Pearl is another pain in the rear, because more often than not, you can't get away from them even when you hit the run button and they love to spam the hell out of Roost.
- Staravia can be this if the Pokémon you're trying to level can't OHKO it. If it gets down into the red, it'll use Endeavor and bring you down to the same amount of HP as it. The only thing that keeps it out of Demonic Spider territory is its pathetic defenses to begin with, so thankfully this won't happen too often. A further issue is that Staravia get the ability Intimidate, which lowers your physical Attack, causing you to do less physical damage to them.
- Wild Floatzel are already quite fast and have a moderately high Attack, but then it uses Agility, which raises Speed two levels, and Aqua Jet, where it always attacks first. It wouldn't be so bad if your chances of running away weren't partially determined by the Speed of the opponent... And before you throw out a Grass-Type, bear in mind that there's a chance it knows Ice Fang.
Generation V Examples
Pokémon Black and White, Pokémon Black 2 and White 2:
- The first set of games in this generation introduces an entirely new set of Pokémon and doesn't have any from previous generations until the post-game. This Cast of Expies includes numerous Suspiciously Similar Substitutes of previous gen Pokémon, including several prominent Goddamn Bats. To note:
- Woobat and Swoobat are the new Zubat and Golbat, being annoying Fragile Speedster fliers who swarm you in caves. They're Psychic/Flying-types instead of Zubat's Poison/Flying, but can still hit you hard with a STAB Confusion that they learn at level five and, yes, like their predecessor, can leave your Pokémon confused. Their evolution, Swoobat, thankfully doesn't appear in the wild in the first set of games, but trainers who use them are quick to abuse the Attract/Calm Mind/Air Slash combo to lock up your Pokémon, boost their stats, and then hit hard.
- Roggenrola and Boldore, commonly found in caves, are expies of the Geodude line. A Rock-type with good attack and defense, accuracy-reducing attacks, Self-Destruct, Explosion, and the ability Sturdy. However, Sturdy has been buffed into giving the Pokémon a Last Chance Hit Point if it was hit with lethal damage when its health was full. Yes, means you need at least two turns to defeat one unless you have some form of multi-hitting move or the ability Mold Breaker, and if you're unlucky, it blows up in your face on that first turn. Keep in mind, they are pure Rock-types, unlike the Geodude line's Rock/Ground, meaning they don't have an easily exploitable double weakness to Grass and Water. Further, in the Challenger's Cave, accessible after the Elite Four, you can find Boldore and Graveler together. Both have Sturdy, and Graveler still has its insane tendency to explode at the tiniest provocation. Enjoy your stay.
- Frillish and Jellicent, found in pretty much every water route, are the new Tentacool and Tentacruel, swapping the latter's secondary Poison-type with Ghost-type, meaning you can't hit them with common Normal-type moves. They're also somewhat bulky, with high Special Defense, and learn Recover at level 17, which make defeating them quickly more challenging.
- Patrat are a royal pain early in Unova because they learn Detect at level 11, which allows them to negate any attack; most Pokémon that learn either it or the functionally identical Protect don't get the move until the twenties at the earliest. While the majority of wild Patrat are too weak to know Detect, the sheer number of them used by Trainers (including Team Plasma) ensures you'll be dealing with rats that refuse to take damage for a while while wasting your PP. Its evolution, Watchog, can learn Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, AND Super Fang (slashes your Pokémon's HP down to half). Have fun.
- Liepard. Not only is it (like Watchog) found once the wild Pokémon hit level 20, it's all over the place. They're very fast, and learn a lot of annoying moves like Fake Out (instant flinch, but only if used in first turn), Torment (keeps you from using the same move twice in a row, which can be bad if your move options are limited which is common early in the game), and Night Slash (increased Critical Hit chance on top of being a 70-base power STAB move). Until you've got a faster mon or some Bug or Fighting-type attacks, these cats will irritate you to no end.
- Looking for Pokémon in Unova's lakes, rivers, oceans, etc.? Hope you like Basculin! Trying to get rare/strong Pokémon from the special fishing/surfing spots in the same areas? Hope you like a slightly different Basculin. Oh, and were you planning to simply run away from said Basculin, especially if your lead Pokémon has anything but top-shelf Speed? Hope you like being trapped while that Basculin pounds the crap out of you — the stupid little fish are fast and have surprisingly good Attack and pack a number of strong moves, like Aqua Tail and Double-Edge. And don't forget Final Gambit, if you happen to run into one above Level 51.
- Durant. There's a 40% chance of seeing them in all floors of Victory Road, and you will be seeing a lot of them. The little jerks pack a punch with their 112 base Attack, and have a nice 109 base Speed to strike first with. They have some strong moves in Iron Head and Crunch when you find them, and they hurt. Woe to those who don't bring its one weakness, because the little bugger has nine resistances, and an immunity to Poison. The only saving grace is their low Special Defense and HP, making them more annoying than anything worse.
- Emolga. It's lightning-quick (no pun intended), naturally learns Double Team which raises evasiveness, and thanks to it's secondary Flying-type, is immune to the Electric-types top weakness, Ground-types. Thankfully, they only appear in shaking grass, but can be a real nuisance when you're trying to farm shaking grass for Audino for Level Grinding.
- Zebstrika has high Speed and Attack status, meaning it's likely to go first and hit hard. Second, it just loves to spam the move "Spark" in the wild, which has a chance of paralyzing your Pokémon. And, just to make matters worse, it also loves to spam "Flame Charge", a move that's not only super-effective against Grass-Types (which normally have a resistance against Electric-Type Pokémon), but it also increases Zebstrika's already high Speed stats every time it's used.
- Minccino. While they can be defeated pretty easily, they can be rather annoying to battle. One reason is that one of the Abilities that they have increases the number of times a multi-hit attack strikes the opponent (So moves like Double-Slap and Tail-Slap are more likely to hit 4-5 times in a row instead of just 2-3). Not only that, but it can learn the move "Attract" (or some of them simply have the Ability "Cute Charm"), which causes its opponent to be Infatuated. What would otherwise be an easy battle is rendered annoyingly cheap thanks to your Pokémon being slapped silly while it's unable to fight back due to being in love with its opponent. Then they start learning Encore (forces your Pokémon to keep using the same move) and Sing...
- Mienfoo are somewhat fast and difficult to run away from, and have quite high attack stats for being unevolved. Plus, they have very strong attacks like Jump Kick and Drain Punch, the latter of which heals them. They can also know U-Turn, which is strong against any Psychic-types you'd want to use against them. To make them even more troublesome, they have such poor experience yields that fighting them in the wild isn't worth it.
- Tranquill as of Black 2 and White 2 falls under this. Not only are they relatively common mid-game, but they are also annoyingly hard to fight due to their high speed. And, to make matters worse, they have a nasty habit of spamming moves like Roost (which restores a good portion of their HP), Quick Attack (which allows them to hit first every time), and Detect (which causes your Pokémon to instantly miss whatever attack you selected that turn). This makes battling them (even with using Pokémon that have a type-advantage against it) an utter annoyance.
- The entirety of Chargestone Cave in Black 2 and White 2. The encounter rate there is the definition of ridiculous. It won't be long before you'll hate seeing the Pokémon that swarm here, and in BW the place is swarmed with Team Plasma grunts the first time you enter. B2W2 doesn't, but it trades them for a few Ace Trainers with powerful Pokémon who fight you in Triple or Rotation Battles instead. To quote Marriland: "My best advice for going through the Chargestone Cave in any generation is to just use the stinking Repels!". Please, heed this advice.
Generation VI Examples
Pokémon X and Y:
- Generation VI has some old and new faces for annoyance. Horde Encounters will take the troublesome encounters to new levels of annoyance, and the infamous Zubat, Geodude, and Graveler can appear in such formations, as can a few others. It is not only deceptively dangerous, especially after being repeatedly debuffed and chipped away at by a bunch of lower-leveled Pokémon, but can be very time-consuming without area-of-effect attacks that can hit the whole formation.
- Spinda occur in hordes later in the game, where they like to spam Hypnosis or Teeter Dance to cause sleep and confusion, respectively. Since you're fighting up to five at at time, failing to take them all out in one Herd-Hitting Attack means any remaining will spam these moves against you.
- Weepinbell deserves special mention for having a moveset seemingly tailor-made to cause aggravation: Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Poison Powder, and Acid. This means that it has three Status Effects to throw around — enough to cover just about anything you throw at it — and if you send in a Grass-type to soak up the powder moves, you get hit with a super-effective Acid attack instead. Unless you take out the entire horde in one shot, expect a long, hard fight.
- Route 12 also has Miltank, with great defenses and a really annoying movepool, and Tauros, with its annoying tendency to spam Rest, making it surprisingly hard to knock out. In fact, it's nearly impossible to level grind before facing Korrina, as all nearby locations have more than their fair share of Goddamn Bats/Demonic Spiders.
- Like the Gen V games, Woobat are all over the Coastal portion's caves. They like to swoop down at you if you cross easy-to-overlook shadows on the floor and Repels have no effect on this.
Generation VII Examples
Pokémon Sun and Moon, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
- Sun and Moon presents Trumbeak. Any common Pokémon with both Supersonic and Roost cannot be good for your sanity. To make things worse, these games also introduce the ability for wild Pokémon to call for backup... which may very well include Trumbeak on the routes where they are found. Which in turn leads to situations where a Pokémon you're trying to catch calls in a Trumbeak which then takes forever to take down because your Pokémon is hurting itself half the time, and any damage dealt during the other half is promptly healed off.
- Crabrawler is quite annoying if you're collecting berries, as they often interrupt you, and must be defeated in order to collect the berries. The fact that they're the only Pokémon to be triggered like this adds the annoyance. Granted, this is also the only way to encounter Crabrawler, but once you've caught one there's no reason you'd ever want to see one again unless you're Shiny hunting.
- The Ultra versions turn Sharpedo into this when you're doing the Mantine Surf. While the Tentacool and Wailmer sit still and can be avoided, Sharpedo will chase you even if you pass them by. And if you're trying to get to and from Poni Island, you have to deal with them attacking in groups of three.
- Wailord is another annoying encounter in Mantine Surf, for two reasons. One, they're really freaking huge, making them hard to avoid when the waves are low. Two, unlike every other obstacle which simply slows you down, hitting a Wailord instantly sends you into the drink, costing you a lot of speed and therefore points.
Generation VIII Examples
Pokémon Sword and Shield:
- In Pokémon Sword and Shield, like in the Let's Go games, this game has mons walking around out in the open. Unlike in Let's Go, many of them will actively pursue you, and some of them run incredibly fast, making them hard to escape unless you have a bike boost primed. Sneasel are particularly annoying — small, stealthy, lightning-fast, and aggressive, and their high Speed stat makes them hard to run from once they force you into battle. In non-snowy areas, Tyrogue becomes the biggest pest, with Croagunk not too far behind. Then during thunderstorm conditions there's Electrike as well in addition to the above mentioned Tyrogue, if you're in the Rolling Fields. Slow-moving ones can also be a problem if they're tiny and well-camouflaged, making them almost invisible in tall grass and effectively Random Encounters. Many large Pokémon are also incredibly frustrating because their size makes it difficult to avoid them, especially in narrow passageways; this becomes especially apparent in the Crown Tundra.
- Galarian Zigzagoon and Linoone deserve special mention. Most Pokémon, before spotting you, move at a nearly glacial pace, with them only picking up speed when they spot you. However, Zigzagoon and Linoone go against that, and move as fast as Pokémon that've spotted you without spotting you. If that wasn't bad enough, they move in extremely unpredictable patterns, making dodging them when you're in a patch of grass with them difficult. What makes this worse is that Zigzagoon's encountered in the overworld as early as Route 2. Thankfully, their final evolution, Obstagoon, while fast, only goes at that speed when chasing you, and they have a giant delay when they spot you, so even in the Lake Of Outrage, the only place that they spawn naturally, they're not a problem.
- Skwovet and Greedent that get shaken out of any Berry tree in Galar if you get greedy and try to harvest too much loot from the tree note , and being forced to fight these things is not only a chore in its own right due to their bulkiness but also causes you to lose a bunch of Berries, making Berry harvesting way more tedious than it should be. Greedent becomes even worse in the post-game Wild Area since they come at level 60 with Super Fang and Counter, and they're more than durable enough to survive a turn and take a huge chunk out of your Pokémon's health with either of those moves. And in case you thought you were smart to send out a Ghost-Type, it knows Bullet Seed.
- The Isle of Armor update gives us Sharpedo. They appear in every major body of water on the Isle, and they immediately spawn and start the chase once the player sets foot in it. While they're easy enough to spot, their speed means that, unless the player manages to boost the speed of their Rotom Bike or get to land fast enough, they're always going to catch up and attack. What's worse is that they sometimes come at you in pairs, or in rare occasions, packs! note
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
- Paras, of all Pokémon. They spawn virtually everywhere, at any time of day, during the first third of the game. They are hard to spot, especially in tall grass, and they have a deceptively wide line of sight. Every probability exists they will see you first, and inflict you with poison or paralysis. Not your Pokémon. You. Meaning if you have just escaped a close shave with an alpha, or barely survived a fall, Paras can easily scuttle in and chip you to death. Heaven help your satchel.
- Carnivine. Similarly to Paras, they love to inflict status conditions on the player character, and also spawn in large clusters. While they are larger than Paras and Parasect and are therefore easier to spot, they otherwise share many of the same problems.
- While Starly and Staraptor avoid humans by running away or sticking to the skies, Staravia are actively hostile and attack the player on sight in many areas of the game. Thankfully they're diurnal so they're gone by nightfall, which would be a relief if not for the fact that they're immediately replaced by Drifloon and Drifblim who are just as bad, if not worse since they attack the player in the ocean as well.
- Stunky and Skuntank, especially in the Crimson Bog area. Prepare to be constantly poisoned the entire time you’re there.
- Croagunk and Toxicroak are even worse. They're absurdly common, have a high aggro range, and are fast runners. Toxicroak also now gets Earth Power, an insanely dangerous move that'll send any Steel-types you may have sent out in a feeble attempt to fight it packing. They're at their worst in the Holm of Trials, where they practically infest the place and will interrupt your attempts at catching the powerful Alpha Torterra.
- Drifloon and Drifblim. Contrary to how absurdly rare they were in the modern-era Sinnoh games, Hisui is completely littered with these ghostly balloons at night, spawning in three of the game's five areas. Like many species, they are immediately hostile when they spot the player, and possess a few long-range attacks to hit any players that are trying to keep their distance.
- Murkrow. Like Drifloon, they only spawn at night and have a long-range attack. However, they can see the player from much farther away than other Pokemon, making it difficult to get by them without being seen, and they possess a unique behavior that will make them call for help, rallying any nearby Murkrow or Honchkrow to come help them harass you. They are very common nighttime spawns in the Crimson Mirelands and Cobalt Coastlands, making exploration of these areas a hassle once the sun goes down.
- Shinx and its evolutions, Luxio and Luxray. They're very common and quite aggressive (in fact, Shinx is the example of an aggressive Pokémon in the tutorial to contrast with the cautious Starly and the passive Bidoof), but what makes them particularly annoying is that they always seem to be around in areas with rare and cowardly catches, such as the west end of the Obsidian Fieldlands, where the cautious Abra and Mr. Mime families propagate, and they aggro very easily, making a Stealth-Based Mission twice as difficult.
- Gligar can be extremely annoying when trying to walk around the Coronet Highlands especially if you're trying to scale the mountains on Sneasler. They can spot you from miles away, they are often found in very large groups, and they can spam attacks from a long distance away. Not to mention they often follow the trainer around for a very long time and this doesn't help as they're mainly found around the mountains where there is not too much room to run around to avoid their attacks without risking falling off the mountain.
- Riolu, the pre-evolution of Breakout Character Lucario, during mass outbreaks. Generally, Riolu aren't found in large clusters, but mass outbreaks show how annoying they can get in groups. This is because of how easily they're alerted to you, combined with the potency of their attacks; even when hiding in the grass near them, using Stealth Spray, baiting them with food and using Smoke Bombs, they will often notice you as soon as you catch or defeat one of their brethren (likely due to their aura abilities) and start pelting you with near-unavoidable and extremely damaging homing Aura Spheres. Then, if you pick one off to fight it, the other Riolu will run away and you have to scour the area of the map you're in to find where the others went off to, all while they all continuously aggro you one after the other. Have fun shiny hunting!
- The good news is that wild Dartrix and Hisuian Decidueye can't be found until the post game, and even then they're exclusive to mass outbreaks and space-time distortions. The bad news is that they're insanely aggressive, and will aggro you if you so much as breathe the wrong way. Even if you use Stealth Spray and Smoke Bombs, be prepared to get sliced and diced by flocks of these irritable owls. They're at their worst in mass outbreaks, due to their tendency to spawn on the slopes of the Coronet Highlands, essentially making Smoke Bombs useless thanks to the uneven terrain.
- Even Pikachu isn't immune from this. Though they're usually rare spawns and thus not much of a problem, they can be a massive headache in outbreaks due to great vision, hair-trigger aggro, and fast, difficult to dodge attacks that can induce paralysis, leading to a snowball effect that gets your trainer blacked out. It's so bad that if you aggro one, you will almost inevitably aggro the entire horde, and future Pikachu in the outbreak automatically aggro as soon as they spawn.
Generation IX Examples
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:
- Extremely small Pokémon such as Flittle, Capsakid, or worse, Floettenote are difficult to see on the map and can be encountered by accident. Foongus can even disguise themselves as Poké Balls too!
- Tauros can be found in massive herds early-game, and are extremely annoying due to their aggressiveness and high (for that point in the game) stats. Worse still, their high Speed stats make it hard to run away from them, and they're much faster than even your mount in the overworld.
- Varoom are small, aggressive, and very fast in the overworld, meaning that if you stray into their line of sight they will run you down at breakneck speed. They also pack a bunch of resistances to early attacking types, so they can take a couple of hits to bring down if you don't have one of their two weaknesses handy.
- Veluza (commonly found in Casseroya Lake and other late-game water areas) are extremely annoying in the overworld. Once they acknowledge you, they will swim at a breakneck speed to encounter you, and it's possible to have one ambush you out of nowhere just because of this. This can be annoying if you're trying to focus on other Pokémon for auto battles, especially for shiny hunting. Ironically enough, their speed isn't even their highest stat (in fact, it's their second lowest). Fortunately, they're a Jack of All Stats Pokémon with slightly higher attack and as long as you have something that counters Psychic and/or Water types (most notably Meowscarada, for those that picked Sprigatito as their starter), they're not hard to take down at all.
- Despite having been welcomed by the fandom for their design and endearing backstories, Greavard and Houndstone can be problematic for players not interested in encounters while standing in one place, especially when exiting the pause screen or a Tera Raid menu, as they spawn from underground almost anywhere and have the aggressive overworld personality of chasing the player down and initiating a battle upon contact. It also doesn't help that Greavard's candle flame, while still buried, can be mistaken for a sparkling hidden item, triggering a sudden battle instead of expecting to make a quick pick-up.
- Lokix of any level tend to have priority moves in their arsenal, ranging from the weak Feint to the rather powerful Sucker Punch and First Impression, the latter two of which Lokix gain STAB on. Farming Lokix for their Attack EV can become tedious as they will whittle down your Pokémon's health, forcing you to heal in between farming.
Spin-Off Games
- Trubbish in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, purely because they know Poison Gas. Poison Gas has high accuracy and poisons your target. This is bad because it also disables passive healing, and sapping 4 health every few steps. Unless you can find the stairs, you'll have to risk running into an enemy with lowered health, get by with only healing at low health, or use a precious Heal Seed to save yourself. Trubbish also have a good deal of health, and know Stockpile, which gives a boost to both of their Defense stats.
- Ghost-Type Pokémon in general fall under this in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers Of Time/Darkness/Sky. It's not their attacks that are annoying. No, it's rather the fact that they can travel anywhere. This means, most of the time, they'll pretty much spam their attacks on you (and your partner) while they're floating in a wall, making them impossible to hit.
- Shedinja deserves special mention. Unless you have an item to throw at it, or a team member with a super-effective move, it is notoriously annoying to defeat in battle. Made arguably worse in Rescue Team DX since other enemies will attack and KO Shedinja to gain the Empowered status. Have fun with the newly mega evolved opponent.
- The Finneon and Shellos lines in the games are the bane of Water-type players everywhere. To put it bluntly, these relatively common dungeon enemies have the ability "Storm Drain". Use a Water-type attack, and they'll absorb it and increase their Special Attack. Did we mention this happens every time you use a Water-type attack, even if you're not directly fighting them? That's right, a dungeon floor just needs one Finneon/Lumineon and/or Shellos/Gastrodon to be in the area and it will screw you out of using your Water-Type moves. Now keep in mind that a floor can have several of these Pokémon at once.
- Nidoqueen. While not as common as other foes, she has the lovely habit of spamming the move "Earth Power". Not only does this cause a lot of damage to you (and your partner), she can also do it while she's out of your sight or in an area where you can't fight her back. By the time you even get close to her, she will have already made you waste tons of Reviver Seeds just from the sheer amount of times she uses Earth Power against you. And that's not even getting into times when there are multiple Nidoqueen.
- Lampent, because they just love to hit you with Memento, which gives a huge offensive debuff to everyone in the room, and Flame Burst, which is a long-ranged attack that hits everyone around you for 10 damage. And unlike in the main games, they merely teleport away to use Memento again if they so wish after using it. They also know Night Shade, which deals damage to everyone in the room equivalent to their level. They fortunately lack the hiding-in-walls ability of previous Mystery Dungeon games, but still...
- Porygon2 in Sky Tower in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team and the Temporal Tower Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, They spam Agility, which in the Mystery Dungeon series causes allies to perform actions (such as moving or attacking) twice in 1 turn. Woe be to any team that encounters one in a Monster House.
- In the original Pokémon Ranger, Corphish were incredibly common in the Fall City Waterworks, which by itself would be okay. What brings it into this category is that it is an aggressive Pokémon, so it will run towards you every time it sees you, and there are often two very close together, so it's very likely that to proceed you will have to engage them.
- There are also Arbok in the Sekra Range area, which are also aggressive and will always chase you.
- Jynx and Zubat are both capable of scrambling your controls, which can make it difficult to get around. Have fun navigating through a Zubat swarm without encountering every single one.
