The 10 best new Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have a lot of new Pokémon, with 103 new creatures to catch and train throughout the games. While most of the new Pokémon are great (and some are not so great), we’ve gone through the list and picked out the ten that we think are the best of the generation.
Palafin
When you evolve a Finizen into a Palafin, you might be in for a little shock. On the surface, it looks almost identical to its prior form, and its stats are pretty low-tier too. But you shouldn’t box this adorable dolphin Pokémon just yet, because it hides a dark secret. Once it’s been switched out once in battle, it transforms into a majestic superhero, complete with the stats to match. This Pokémon goes from being one of the worst fully-evolved Pokémon ever at the start of battle into an absolute powerhouse of a creature with stats rivaling most Legendary Pokémon. It certainly helps that it looks cool, too.
Tinkaton
Nintendo
When a Tinkaton starts out its life as a Tinkatink, it’s really nothing special. It has interesting typing, sure, but we’ve had Steel/Fairy-types before and Tinkatink’s design can’t hold much of a candle to Klefki. Once it evolves into a Tinkaton, however, not only is its design significantly improved, but it gains an absurdly powerful signature move that can be turned into a one-hit KO in just about every situation. Gigaton Hammer is a 160 base power Steel-type move that doesn’t require a recharge turn like Hyper Beam does, and its power is doubled if Tinkaton is Terastalized into a Steel Tera type. The only drawback is that it can’t use the move two turns in a row, but you could always sneak in a cheeky Knock Off in-between uses of it. Tinkaton’s attack stat might not be anything special, but with a move like Gigaton Hammer up its sleeve, it doesn’t need high stats to pack a punch.
Ceruledge
Not every Pokémon needs to have amazing stats to be considered among the best of a generation — sometimes a cool design alone is enough to propel it to the top of the list. Thankfully, Ceruledge has both a cool design and amazing stats, along with a fantastic signature move to boot. Ceruledge looks like it came right out of a Mega Man game, where it would probably be called something silly like Slice Man, and that alone is enough to earn it a place in our top ten. The fact that it’s also packing a 90 base power Fire-type drain move is pretty neat too, but it’s mostly just the Mega Man thing.
Dachsbun
There’s something a little magical about the idea of a Pokémon made entirely out of bread. Is Dachsbun strong? Not really. Is it cute though? Absolutely. We’re not going to pretend there’s all that much to redeem Dachsbun beyond its appearance, its stats are very firmly mid-tier and it can’t really do all that much in the way of attacking. But look at it, doesn’t it look tasty? Don’t you just want to take a bite? We imagine it’d taste a little bit like a nice soft brioche, or maybe even a sweet pretzel. Maybe that’s taking it a little too far…
Orthworm
Orthworm is a mediocre Steel-type Pokémon with a huge defense stat and a passable, if not particularly versatile, signature ability. It’s also a big, happy, 8-foot-long metal earthworm with the smile of a champion. When we came across a giant version of this Pokémon in the Titan path, we couldn’t help but laugh along as it tore our teams to shreds. It even has cute little cartoony fists that emerge from its body as it attacks. It might not be anything special, but it’s hard to get mad at a face like that.
Wo-Chien
Wo-Chien is a member of the Legendary quartet known as the Treasures of Ruin, but it’s perhaps most famous for being a big old fuzzy snail covered in leaves, moss, and wood. Its Pokédex entry says that Wo-Chien drains the life-force from surrounding vegetation, which can destroy entire forests in mere moments, but we love it anyway. It’s an incredibly strange Pokémon that looks like it might not even really be a Pokémon, and that’s what makes it so great — sometimes you just need to mix things up a little bit.
Flamigo
Flamigo is a flamingo that’s also a friend. It’s in the name! Silly naming aside, we just love the whole vibe that Flamigo’s giving off. It seems to either be based on a balloon animal or a lawn ornament, nobody’s really quite sure which, but maybe it’s a little bit of both. Either way, it’s a Flying/Fighting-type Pokémon, a typing shared only with Hawlucha and Galarian Zapdos, and its Hidden Ability Costar makes it copy allies’ stat changes when it enters the battle. Coupled with impressive Attack and Speed stats, and you’re looking at a Pokémon that has the potential to do an incredible amount of damage, all while looking and sounding very silly in the process.
Roaring Moon
Everything about Roaring Moon is incredibly cool. It’s an ancient form of Salamence, already a cool Pokémon, and it replaces its modern Flying typing with Dark typing. That means it’s no longer 4x weak to ice, but it is now 4x weak to Fairy, which might present somewhat of a problem at times. That said, just look at it. Do you want to tell it that it’s going to go down to a teensy little fairy? We didn’t think so. Even its name is terrifying and cool. It might be deathly allergic to Jigglypuff, but it makes up for it in the sheer presence it brings to the battlefield.
Iron Thorns
We couldn’t mention one Paradox Pokémon without bringing up one of its counterparts, and Iron Thorns here certainly fits the bill. This futuristic version of Tyranitar gets a special mention because of its connection to Pokémon Black and White 2, as it bears a passing resemblance (as well as a general thematic origin) to the Pokéstar Studio monster MT. Both designs are likely inspired by classic kaiju monster Mechagodzilla, and that alone is worth celebrating. Iron Thorns even has a somewhat unique typing, with Rock/Electric only being found elsewhere on the Alolan Geodude line. It might be 4x weak to Ground-type moves, but we’re 4x weak to its kaiju stylings.
Baxcalibur
Fans of Ice-type Pokémon have long-suffered through Game Freak’s seeming desire to make them as utterly unusable as possible. Baxcalibur must be Game Freak’s apology to Ice-type fans. Not only is it an incredibly powerful Pseudo-Legendary, and not only is it reasonably fast, it also gets a slick new signature move that hits hard and an ability that powers up its attacks when it’s hit by Fire-type moves. It looks a little goofy, but that’s a small price to pay for an Ice-type Pokémon that is finally, after all these years, kinda good.
