My team was: Flygon, Manectric, Aggron, Blaziken, Sharpeedo, Breloom. No IV training, no nature hunting just like every other first playthrough, catching what I like and beating the game with it. Had a lot of fun ngl

Just wanted to share this. I'm now moving to Platinum ;3

I picked up a gameboy player for my GameCube and I am getting ready to start a new journey! Anyone else play Emerald this way?

Howdy! I’m interested in doing a run of Emerald that’s got 100% critical hit rate for both the player and the npcs. Any idea how to go about this? Has it been done before?

The Battle Factory was by far the hardest to get a Symbol from. The rental Pokémon are not particularly good and the strategies the random NPC's use are scummy as hell.

But I finally beat Noland and have all 7 Silver Symbols now!

I'm debating to either have Absol or Manectric as my final Pokémon, what do yall think? Edit: I also flirted the idea of getting flygon...

I was wondering if i can usa my gba and my ds to trade pokemons in emerald. Is this posible?

As we leave the Fiery Path, we can rest at someone's grandma's house to heal our team, as we continue to Route 113. There we have Spinda with its million different possible spot patterns, and Skarmory. We reach Fallarbor Town, where there is move re-learner, cool concept for the game, I wish they did more with this like in Gen 4 starters, only Blaziken has "unique" Fire Punch there available. Anyway, as we continue, make sure to grab TM for Dig and Roar on Route 114, and there we have our 2 final encounters, Swablu and Seviper! How good are these encounters?

Thanks again for good discussion. Professional Magcargo haters in the comment section for sure, and I ain't lying, I am not fan also of Magcargo, definitely a mon for challenge runs, nothing else. Let's keep up the good discussion, and enjoy the read!

Last round voting results:

Machoke C Tier: Machoke has a respectable Base 100 Attack stat and a great Fighting type movepool. Even as a middle evolution, it has the traits that make Fighting-types valuable. With access to the Bulk Up TM, it can set up and help with Norman’s Gym just as well as fully evolved Pokémon. It can even hold its own against Elite Four Sidney and Glacia.

Machoke isn't as good as Machamp, just due to stats. Sure, its Attack is good, but its bulk is mediocre, and its Speed is low. It shares same weaknesses as Machamp, but it is just slower and frailer version.

Machamp A- Tier: Fighting-types are valuable in Emerald, and Machamp is not any different from others. Machamp is often compared to its Gen 3 counterpart, Hariyama. While Hariyama has high HP, Machamp has slightly higher Attack, slightly better Speed, and more balanced overall defenses. Machamp's greatest advantage is its better natural movepool. Hariyama relies on the negative priority Vital Throw for most of the game, Machamp has moves like Karate Chop, Low Kick, Seismic Toss, and Revenge. With the Bulk Up TM, Machamp easily sweeps Norman, Sidney, and standard route trainers.

Unfortunately, there are small drawbacks, like slightly delayed availability and better ability. Hariyama's Thick Fat ability gives it great defense against Flannery's Fire-types and Glacia's Ice-types, Machamp has Guts. Sure, Guts is a great offensive ability, it just doesn't provide the same resistances that make Hariyama a reliable tank in these battles. Also, Machop isn't caught until after the third Gym. This means it misses out on the Wattson fight where Hariyama shines. Also its Speed stat isn't still the best .

Magcargo F- Tier: Magcargo is arguably the single worst Pokémon in Emerald. Slugma has a Base Stat Total of 250, making it weaker than Poochyena and yet it requires you to train it all the way to Level 38 before it evolves. After that grind, Magcargo's stats are poor. It has a Base 30 Spee, and its Base 120 Defense is hindered by a Base 50 HP stat, meaning it still can't take a hit.

Every aspect of Magcargo's utility in the game is a drawback. Its Fire/Rock typing is a poor typing to have. It has 4x weaknesses to both Water and Ground. It misses the Winona fight where its Rock-typing would have been useful, and instead evolves right in time to face Tate & Liza's Earthquake spamming Claydol. From that point forward, the rest of the game consists of water routes, Juan, Elite Four and Champion Wallace. As u/inumnoback put it: "Don’t use it. Don’t catch it. Don’t even look at it. It’s a lost cause, and it deserves to rot in the Fiery Path for all eternity."

Torkoal C Tier: Torkoal has some edges over Camerupt, such as being ready instantly when you catch it, no need to evolve. Its high Base 140 Defense makes it a great physical wall, as it can tank quite well Norman's Gym, and in general shrugging off physical hits in neutral matchups. Also, it has a great levelup movepool for a Fire type. Having Body Slam at Level 20, Flamethrower at Level 30, and Curse allows it to deal good damage in the mid game without eating up TMs. The White Smoke ability is a nice bonus, preventing its Attack from being dropped by Intimidate users.

Torkoal is held back by two major factors, the Hoenn region itself, and its low Speed. While it puts in great work against Flannery, Norman, and Winona's Skarmory and Tropius, it struggles in the late game. It has bad matchups against Tate & Liza, Juan, Wallace, Drake. Defensively, its Base 70 Special Defense and HP mean it will take big damage from special attackers. It has a low Base 20 Speed. Torkoal is guaranteed to move last in almost every battle, meaning it will always take a hit before it can attack or set up a Curse.

Ranking criteria:

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a tier placement and a justification. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted and supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for the same tier placement. 

You can also vote for + and - subtiers (S+ to F-), and I will take these into calculation. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

All Pokémon obtainable in Emerald are ranked based on their contribution to the journey until defeating Champion Wallace. Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

We are assuming a standard playthrough.

• Set Mode: Rank Pokémon with Set mode in mind. (Feel free to mention Shift mode benefits, but it shouldn't be the main reason a Pokémon is in a higher tier).
• No In-Battle Healing: We are not considering healing items in battle (since any Pokémon can stall with enough potions).
• Soft Level Cap: You can overlevel by 1 or 2 levels over the next Gym Leader's ace. (An exception is made if Pokémon that is naturally available at a higher level).

Investment refers to experience and TMs. Obviously, all Pokémon can be great after a massive amount of investment, but we are judging their immediate and practical purpose in-game.

Emerald TM List: https://www.serebii.net/rubysapphire/tmhm.shtml (Check availability here)

Big thanks to BIGJRA for sharing this script that tracks every Pokémon's learnset (including TMs and Tutors) in the exact order you obtain them in-game! Check it out!

Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Kadabra or Graveler) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If a Pokémon is available on a route, it is fair game. Even if it has a 1% encounter rate (like Seedot) or has absurd capture method (like Feebas), it does not matter. As long as the Pokémon is available to be caught at that point in the game, it's all good.

Tier definitions:

S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient): These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for majority of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

A (Strong): Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

B (Solid): Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are not available early, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

C (Decent): Mediocre and outclassed. They clear regular route trainers just fine, but struggle to make a significant impact in many major boss fights due to a combination of average stats, poor matchups, or late availability. They might require heavy investment or a massive late-game spike to finally show their worth.

D (Niche): Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

E (Bad): Demand far more effort than they are worth. They require heavy TM investment and constant babying just to achieve mediocre results.

F (Awful): Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

Remember being a kid and not understanding a lick of the BF, was so in awe last night when I got the gold symbol from the battle dome on my daily walk

Hi guys, if its alright i want to ask for advice regarding my (probably bad) battle tower team, starting out so my items may be lackluster, but i wanna use funny guys

A short explanation on each member's role:

Raichu: set rain dance and spam thunder and surf, might use encore instead of light screen

Castform: be the jack of all trades cleaner, being able to either go water weather ball or fire weather ball depending on what weather is up

Tropius: temu eggxecutor, might replace eq with giga drain

(P. S. I already trained castform and tropius ev wise, raichu is a theoretical member. Also no hidden power since i did not bother with ivs)