3rd Gen Fire Red In-Game Team

[RagingRhyno597]

I chose Blastoise because On a recent playthrough of Leaf Green I used both Charizard and Venusaur plus Blastoise is my second favorite Kanto starter.

Blastoise - Great water type and effective on the first gym.
Blastoise
Ability: Torrent
Quiet Nature
- Ice Beam (TM13)
- Surf (HM03)
- Skull Bash (Lv. 55) / Return(TM)
- Earthquake (TM 26)

Raichu - A decent electric type and effective for the second gym
Raichu
Ability: Static
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt (Lv. 26)
- Slam (Lv. 20)
- Thunder Wave (Lv. 8)
- Brick Break (Move Tutor - Rock Tunnel)

Nidoking - Can't not use my boy. Long live the king!
Nidoking
Ability: Poison Point
Naive Nature
- Earthquake (TM26)
- Sludge Bomb (TM36)
- Megahorn (Lv. 43)
- Flamethrower (TM35)

Arcanine - Among my top favorite Pokémon from the originals and my second favorite fire type second only to Charizard.
Arcanine
Ability: Intimidate
Hasty Nature
- Flamethrower (Lv. 49 - Growlithe or TM35)
- Dig (TM28)
- Extreme Speed (Lv. 49 - Arcanine)
- Iron Tail (TM23)

Exeggutor - Decent Pokémon no real reason for choosing him other than good typing
Exeggutor
Ability: Chlorophyll
Rash Nature
- Giga Drain (TM19)
- Leech Seed (Lv. 13)
- Psychic (TM29)
- Sludge Bomb (TM36)

Dragonite - OG pseudo... enough said
Dragonite
Ability: Inner Focus
Hasty Nature
- Fly (HM02)
- Outrage (Lv. 56 - Dragonair)
- Hyper Beam (Lv 75 or TM15)
- *TBD*

An alternate member of the team would be Persian, Useful for Extra Money

Persian @ Amulet Coin
Ability: Limber
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out (Lv. 59)
- Aerial Ace (TM 40)
- Pay Day (Lv. 28)
- Return (TM) / Slash (Lv. 53)


Any and all suggestions for improvements are more than welcome!

 

[Nah]

You usually only get most TMs once per playthrough, so unless you have some means of getting extras, you have to choose who gets which TM move. For Earthquake and Sludge Bomb it makes more sense to me to let Nidoking have those, give it solid STABs alongside its great coverage options.

Aside from that, moves that either require a charge up turn (Skull Bash) or a cooldown turn (Hyper Beam) usually aren't great options, with certain exceptions. Blastoise might as well stick with Return. Dragonite has a pretty good movepool, with stuff like Dragon Claw, Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Aerial Ace, several HMs, etc.

 

[RagingRhyno597]

You usually only get most TMs once per playthrough, so unless you have some means of getting extras, you have to choose who gets which TM move. For Earthquake and Sludge Bomb it makes more sense to me to let Nidoking have those, give it solid STABs alongside its great coverage options.

Aside from that, moves that either require a charge up turn (Skull Bash) or a cooldown turn (Hyper Beam) usually aren't great options, with certain exceptions. Blastoise might as well stick with Return. Dragonite has a pretty good movepool, with stuff like Dragon Claw, Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Aerial Ace, several HMs, etc.

As far as the TMs go, I do have a few other completed copies of the game I can pull the TMs from. I think you have a good point with skullbash on Blastoise. I'll replace it with Return. And with Dragonite, I have been considering T-bolt and Icebeam.

Thanks for your response!

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

FRLG fan here. I love the selection of mons, so kudos to that.

Aside from what user "Nah" said, the move "Slam" (not to be confused with Body Slam) is fine for early game but isn't very good at all by the late game because of its 75% accuracy. I think you should replace it with HM move Strength if you're going to add a Normal-type move to Raichu. Strength is an HM move required for solving puzzles in certain dungeons, so even if the Normal-type move isn't helpful in battle, it'll still be nice not having to go to the PC to get out an HM Pokémon.

Also, Brick Break is a TM move in Gen III unless I'm missing something. The move tutor in Rock Tunnel teaches "Rockslide" based on a quick Bulbapedia check. I'm not saying Brick Break isn't useful, but I think you're confused.

 

[Corveone]

Yeah, Return and Body Slam outclass Slam in every way.

Other than that, Hidden Power might be worth checking for any of your Pokémon that has decent Special Attack. I mean, if Raichu for instance happens to get a Grass or Water Hidden Power it would be a great coverage move.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I chose Blastoise because On a recent playthrough of Leaf Green I used both Charizard and Venusaur plus Blastoise is my second favorite Kanto starter.

Blastoise - Great water type and effective on the first gym.
Blastoise
Ability: Torrent
Quiet Nature
- Ice Beam (TM13)
- Surf (HM03)
- Skull Bash (Lv. 55) / Return(TM)
- Earthquake (TM 26)

Raichu - A decent electric type and effective for the second gym
Raichu
Ability: Static
Hasty Nature
- Thunderbolt (Lv. 26)
- Slam (Lv. 20)
- Thunder Wave (Lv. 8)
- Brick Break (Move Tutor - Rock Tunnel)

Nidoking - Can't not use my boy. Long live the king!
Nidoking
Ability: Poison Point
Naive Nature
- Earthquake (TM26)
- Sludge Bomb (TM36)
- Megahorn (Lv. 43)
- Flamethrower (TM35)

Arcanine - Among my top favorite Pokémon from the originals and my second favorite fire type second only to Charizard.
Arcanine
Ability: Intimidate
Hasty Nature
- Flamethrower (Lv. 49 - Growlithe or TM35)
- Dig (TM28)
- Extreme Speed (Lv. 49 - Arcanine)
- Iron Tail (TM23)

Exeggutor - Decent Pokémon no real reason for choosing him other than good typing
Exeggutor
Ability: Chlorophyll
Rash Nature
- Giga Drain (TM19)
- Leech Seed (Lv. 13)
- Psychic (TM29)
- Sludge Bomb (TM36)

Dragonite - OG pseudo... enough said
Dragonite
Ability: Inner Focus
Hasty Nature
- Fly (HM02)
- Outrage (Lv. 56 - Dragonair)
- Hyper Beam (Lv 75 or TM15)
- *TBD*

An alternate member of the team would be Persian, Useful for Extra Money

Persian @ Amulet Coin
Ability: Limber
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out (Lv. 59)
- Aerial Ace (TM 40)
- Pay Day (Lv. 28)
- Return (TM) / Slash (Lv. 53)


Any and all suggestions for improvements are more than welcome!

I'm just going to be honest with you: this team is pretty bad. I wouldn't use it personally. Defensively, half your team is weak to Ground-type and Ice-type moves, which isn't good at all, and you have no Dragon or Dark-type resistances. Not only is half your team weak to types that are common coverage, but your team also can't resist some of the strongest types in the earlier generations, which is Dragon and Dark. I would definitely revise your team to make it better defensively. Try replacing some Pokémon with more of your favorites that could remove half your team from being weak to the common coverage of Ground and Ice. Offensively, your team seems to be able to cover everything except Ghost-type Pokémon, which is pretty good. However, you want to cover everything as much as you possibly can. You might also struggle hitting Psychic-type Pokémon with variety, as only Nidoking is capable of doing that with Megahorn. Even then, it is risky because Nidoking is weak to Psychic and Megahorn is very inaccurate. Even though Psychic-types are not broken anymore by Gen 3, they're still powerful. I would recommend getting more Ghost and Psychic coverage. For Nidoking, replace Flamethrower with Shadow Ball. That way, you can get a bit of Ghost-type coverage to handle other Ghosts. For Dragonite, teach it Ice Beam for more coverage. The rest of the Pokémon can't even learn moves that can cover Ghost or Psychic types unless you want to settle for Thief, which is a weak move. I mean, the choice is still yours, but I personally wouldn't use this team at all. I would completely revamp it for fewer weaknesses and more coverage.

Oh, I see that you're new. Welcome to the forums, by the way!

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Do you not know how few dark-type moves there are in Generation III Kanto? I mean, Elite Four Lance can be tough with his dragon-type moves, but there's not much of a reason to get a Fighting-type to resist dark-types in this game (and you can't access any dark-types) until the post game.

I do agree the team could be better since there's little need for an electric-type and a grass-type on the same team, but... I really don't think it's bad for Gen III Kanto.

 

[Corveone]

Gen 3 Kanto is its own thing. It was definitely not balanced around making all the types equally relevant at all.

I mean, it makes you question certain things differently. Like how much a Fire type is actually worth it when Grass and Bug types were virtually no threat (and most weak to Psychic anyway), Steel was just Magneton, and three of the five Ice types were part Water...

Generally: Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Earthquake, Psychic, Surf, and maybe a Fighting move was all you needed, making Pokémon like Starmie and Nidoking total beasts that could take care of half game on their own with a good moveset. Maybe teach Shadow Ball to a Pokémon with good Physical Attack to deal with the typical Alakazam/Hypno, Dark moves were pretty awful because they were Special but given to physical mons (except Houndoom, but it's not even available in FRLG)

There's no need to improve the team much (if at all) for what the ingame has to offer. As for Dragon type moves, only Magneton resisted them, and the only Dragon to worry about is Lance's Dragonite, which Magneton doesn't even have anything super effective against, so it's hardly worth it when Raichu's speed is much more valuable.

 

[Amore]

I'm just going to be honest with you: this team is pretty bad. I wouldn't use it personally. Defensively, half your team is weak to Ground-type and Ice-type moves, which isn't good at all, and you have no Dragon or Dark-type resistances. Not only is half your team weak to types that are common coverage, but your team also can't resist some of the strongest types in the earlier generations, which is Dragon and Dark. I would definitely revise your team to make it better defensively. Try replacing some Pokémon with more of your favorites that could remove half your team from being weak to the common coverage of Ground and Ice. Offensively, your team seems to be able to cover everything except Ghost-type Pokémon, which is pretty good. However, you want to cover everything as much as you possibly can. You might also struggle hitting Psychic-type Pokémon with variety, as only Nidoking is capable of doing that with Megahorn. Even then, it is risky because Nidoking is weak to Psychic and Megahorn is very inaccurate. Even though Psychic-types are not broken anymore by Gen 3, they're still powerful. I would recommend getting more Ghost and Psychic coverage. For Nidoking, replace Flamethrower with Shadow Ball. That way, you can get a bit of Ghost-type coverage to handle other Ghosts. For Dragonite, teach it Ice Beam for more coverage. The rest of the Pokémon can't even learn moves that can cover Ghost or Psychic types unless you want to settle for Thief, which is a weak move. I mean, the choice is still yours, but I personally wouldn't use this team at all. I would completely revamp it for fewer weaknesses and more coverage.

Oh, I see that you're new. Welcome to the forums, by the way!

I think others have already covered how coverage (pun not intended), or shared weaknesses, is less of a thing in these faithful Kanto remakes, but I just want to second your choice of Shadow Ball > Megahorn. There are no Dark-types to hit, and Girafarig is the only Psychic-type immune to Ghost…which is not in these games at all. So that increased accuracy is absolutely worth it.

Ice Beam on Dragonite is a good shout too, although it does require some grinding at Game Corner which I know many (i.e. myself) would find interminable. But if OP is down for it, I'd just say go all-out and get BoltBeam on it. Its so bulky, with 100 SpA being very good in-game, that neutral coverage means it can probably 2HKO just about everything in the game with those 2 and Outrage…in fact only Magnemite / Magneton resists all 3 and Nidoking, Raichu (Brick Break is bought in Celadon, not a tutor move), and Arcanine all beat it (not that its common).

 

[GhostColossus]

nidoking has great move coverage, use TMs