Summary
While mostPokemonhave a use, both in competitive or regular play, there are sadly still some that just aren’t worth the time and resources it would take to make them somewhat worthwhile. And while that doesn’t mean that players handle them the same waythey handle creatures in a game likePalworld, it does mean these Pokemon are ignored for the most part. Typically these Pokémon spend their entire lives in the storage system, are dropped off at Day Care, or on rare occasions are used on the team for one very specific purpose.
ThePokemonthat made this list did so due to horrible designs (at leastcompared to some of the best), mediocre stats, their inability to cause real damage, or their lack of utility even in specific competitive builds.
Updated October 31st, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:With the 1000+ different Pokemon that fans of the franchise can choose from across all of the games, there are bound to be some stinkers. To be honest, most Pokemon can do the job in terms of the actual in-game difficulty of the games, but there are quite a handful of Pokemon that absolutely aren’t worth using in any sort of competitive or PvP scenario.
Of course, this isn’t taking aesthetics or personal bias into account, though some of the entries on here do get some shade thrown at their designs. Rather, these are the Pokemon whose stats, move pools, abilities, and more are just entirely too weak or easily outclasses by other similar Pokemon. If a Pokemon you love is on this list, don’t take it too harshly, it just means you’ll look even cooler if you manage to make that Pokemon work in a competitive team comp in spite of our anti-recommendation.
28Cosmog
Number 789 Pure Psychic Type
First up is Cosmog, which might seem like an unusual inclusion given what it evolves into. But, if we’re purely talking about stats and available moves, Cosmog has to be one of the worst Pokemon in existence, this little puffball of space dust can’t seem to do anything right. Its stat total of 200 is uniquely low, with the only other Pokemon having this being Feebas, Magikarp, and Scatterbug.
When it comes to moves, it literally learns nothing at any point, starting out with only Splash and Teleport. Normally that would be fine if it didn’t take long to evolve, but it takes forever. Magikarp, for example, only needs to be carried to level 20 before it evolves into Gyarados but players will need to carry around this useless little pre-evolution until it reaches a whopping level 43 before it’ll evolve into either Solgaleo or Lunala. Yes, it’s very cute and it being useless is sort of the point of the Pokemon, but on a list that talks about useless Pokemon, it just wouldn’t make sense if Cosmog wasn’t on here somewhere.
27Beautifly
Number 267 Bug & Flying Type
Beautifly isn’t necessarily a ‘horrible’ Pokemon, the problem is that it’s sub-par and is beaten out by just about every other butterfly-like Pokemon such as Butterfree, Masquerain, etc. It has pretty poor base stats, and its abilities (AKA Swarm and Rivalry) are so incredibly situational.
Sure, Swarm can make some Bug Moves hit pretty hard if Beautifly is low enough, but with its poor stats, it’s very rare for this Pokemon to get hit and not just get KO’d flat out. Additionally, the Bug/Flying Type combination is just really rough, especially against rock types, so Beautifly has to get a spot here as one of the least useful Pokemon
26Emolga
Number 587 Electric & Flying Type
Emolga is one of the many Pikachu-clone Pokemon, with at least one new one popping up every generation. However, Emolga is less of a mouse and more of a flying squirrel, not that this really does anything for it competitively. Emolga, while being just inarguably adorable, is pretty awful. It has some truly horrendous base stats, with its Sp Attack and regular Attack being pretty split, making it a mixed attacker but without great options as far as actual moves go, and it doesn’t even have many utility builds for it either.
The only decent stat it has, Speed, makes it okay for applying something like Toxic right away or other situational ailment moves, but outside of that Emolga is just not worth using over the vast array of other rodent Pokemon. It’s a shame because Emolga is one of the more memorable Pikachu-like clones, but mechanically Emolga just doesn’t have what it takes.
25Unfezant
Number 521 Normal & Flying Type
Next up is a Pokemon that’s on here due to its poor performance in a competitive sense more than in a standardPokemonplaythrough sense. In anyPokemongame’s mainline story, Unfezant will likely seem alright as it boasts some pretty respectable Attack and Speed, but that’s really about it. In comparison to the other starter bird types from other Generations such as Pidgeot or Talonflame, Unfezant is just nowhere near as strong.
And, as soon as someone tries to take this Pokemon into competitive battles, they’ll quickly see just how bad it is. Unfezant has a pretty poor movepool to choose from, only a couple of decent STAB options, and when battling against other Max EV/IV Pokemon it’ll always fall short. In general, it seems anyone who does use Unfezant usually does with a support-style setup centered around it having Hypnosis. The only problem is Hypnosis is a very unreliable move to have as the ‘core’ of a Pokemon’s moveset due to its poor accuracy. Overall Unfezant is far from the worst Pokemon on this list, but it still absolutely deserves a spot on here.
24Sudowoodo
Number 185 Pure Rock Type
Sudowoodo is one of those Pokemon that seems designed as a ‘trickster’ type who is ‘intended’ to be stronger than what they’re masquerading as but is somehow actually worse.While Sudowoodo is more of a rock than a plant, it likes to disguise itself as a tree, the only problem is that it’s absurdly weak to Water-type damage. Not only that, but it’s also weak to the same Grass-type Pokemon it’s pretending to be a part of, as well as Fighting, Ground, and Steel Pokemon. Even outside of its large amount of type disadvantages, Sudowoodo is relatively weak in just about every other department as well.
All of its abilities are lackluster, its stat total is a mediocre 410, and there aren’t really any ‘builds’ that it excels in over other Pokemon. Sure, using a Grass Tera Orb to make a Terrastallized Sudowoodo can get rid of its normal weaknesses. But, it’s not like Sudowoodo has many ‘amazing’ Grass-type moves to use and pure Grass types also have a lot of type disadvantages as well. This is one of those Pokemon that has desperately needed an evolution for generations now but has never got one while Pokemon with evolutions that seemed like good stopping points, such as Ursaring,are getting more evolutions instead.
23Watchog
Number 505 Pure Normal Type
A Pokemon from theBlack & Whiteera of Pokemon games (as inPokemon Black & White, not games in black and white), Watchog is a Pokemon people often forget about. Filling the role of the most basic-of-all-basic Normal-type quadruped Pokemon of the generation, Watchog is somehow more forgettable than all the other examples of this Pokemon trope from other generations. This is of course in reference to Pokemon like Ratata, Bidoof, Zigzagoon, Sentret, Yungoos, Skwovet, and even Lechonk.
Usually, these rodent-type early Route Pokemon have awful stats but a great movepool so that players use them for a bit and enjoy their moves enough to get attached, but eventually move on to Pokemon with better stats. However, Watchog is a unique example because it somehow manages to have both awful stats and a truly barren movepool. There really aren’t any builds for this Pokemon that people use in competitive settings because most people don’t even remember this little creature exists.
22Wormadam
Number 413 Bug & Grass Type
Who in their right mind looks at Burmy, then sees the two Pokemon it can evolve into between Mothim and Wormadam and still picks Wormadam? Sure, this Pokemon has the whole cloak system thatgives it different ‘Forms’based on the cloak Burmy was in while evolving, but that’s just simply not enough.
Granted, Mothim also doesn’t have a ton going for it outside of the design, but at least it’s comparable to other good Pokemon like Vivillion. To start, Wormadam has Anticipation, an ability to simply let the Pokemon know it’s about to be run over by its opponent. Then despite it having three different type combinations with Bug/Grass, Bug/Steel, and Bug/Ground, all three are relatively weak combinations. And finally, Wormadam just doesn’t have a great movepool outside of maybe Quiver Dance, so in every respect, this Pokemon is just not worth using.
21Lunatone & Solrock
Numbers 337 & 338 Rock and Psychic Types
Lunatone and Solrock, as a duo, are another example of two Pokemon designed to be a ‘pair’ with one representing the sun and the other representing the moon. And, as far as this paired-Pokemon concept goes, Lunatone and Solrock are very well-designed (this is includingtheir Shiny color palettes as well). This is especially when they’re compared to some other duos that were designed as a pair like Plusle/Minun, Volbeat/Illumise, and Passimian/Oranguru.
However, as Pokemon that do well in battle, they’re pretty forgettable. Their stats aren’t horrible but they’re not good enough to be considered ‘great’, their move pool can only be described as odd, and they’re not even great as a pair in Duo Battles. Both Pokemon have Levitate andsome strikingly powerful movesavailable to them such as Acrobatics or Baton Pass, so it’s not all bad. But, in general, these are just two more Pokemon that have been thrown to the wayside by Nintendo and desperately something like a Regional Form or new Evolution in a future game.
20Azurill
Number 298 Normal & Fairy Type
Ah, here’sthe weakest of all the baby Pokemon, Azurill. This list has tried to avoid throwing shade at Pokemon that aren’t at the end of their evolutionary line, but Azurill is one of those ‘special exceptions’. While adorable, this Pokemon (for a while at least) had the lowest base stats out of any Pokemon. It’s a bit different nowadays, but not by much as Azurill has only moved up 2 spots from the bottom, surpassing the Solo Form Wishiwashi, which makes sense, but also surpassing another forgettable Pokemon, Sunkern.
There are quite a few ‘baby’ Pokemon out there such as Elekid, Smoochum, Mime Jr, or Munchlax, and all of them have at least a bit of viability in a team or in the competitive scene. Azurill, however, has none at all, as the only thing it could possibly compete in is a competition to find the cutest Pokemon across all the generations, and in that competition, it would at least have a decent shot of winning as long as the iconic mascot of the franchise wasn’t competing as well.
19Dudunsparce
Number 982 Pure Normal Type
Moving on to one of the only Pokemon on here that actually has some usage in competitive, but is useless because it tends to be ignored anyway. Dunsparce is a Pokemon that was first seen in the second generation and, since then, fans have been asking for Dunsparce to get the same new evolution treatment that Pokemon like Lickitung, Tangela, Electabuzz, Magmar, and Rhydon all got in the fourth generation.
Well, after more than two decades, Game Freak has finally done it,and the result is…Dudunsparce. It’s just such a cheeky move on Game Freak’s part, and the sheer absurdity of Dudunsparce (whether the two or three-segment version) just being a longer Dunsparce is almost worth using it for that reason alone. That said, encountering one is pretty rare, but once players do they’re at least relatively easy to catch, at least compared to some other Pokemon.
And, as far as builds go, Dudunsparce is pretty decent. It has good bulky stats, access to Roost, Serene Grace as a potential ability, and can also learn powerful Normal-type moves like Hyper Drill and Boomburst. But, it’s still on the lower end in terms of powerful Pokemon inScarletandVioletand Dudunsparce is almost equally ignored as its pre-evolution always was.
