Altaria, Salamence, Dragonite or Flygon? (Gen 3)?

XD: Gale of Darkness playthrough here. I’m stuck with a Hasty Altaria and Brave Salamence (only 1 in the game, same with Dragonite), I still haven’t caught the Dragonite so I don’t know it’s nature yet. Since there are wild Trapinchs, Flygon is easier to work on.

It’s moslty for the Orre Colosseum, which is a lot harder than the rest of the game and often filled with my team’s biggest weakness : Ground/Water/Grass types (aka Swampert, Quagsy, Ludicolo, Sceptile, etc.), so it’d be great if the chosen Pokemon could effectively use moves like Solarbeam, Giga Drain, Sky Attack (etc.) or maybe withstand Ice Beam (even with a 4x weakness. I know it sounds crazy, but I am so it makes sense…right?)

I’m also open to suggestions.

(First time poster, please tell me if I went against any guideline. Have a nice day)

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

Considering your problems are with Ground, Water, and Grass-types, I strongly believe neither of these will be effective at dealing with this issue. I recomend instead using a Grass-Type for this role due to being able to use STAB moves that deal super-effectivr damage to Grounds and Waters. Some recomendations below:

Victreebel: what Vic packs is not only the STAB for the two mentioned types, but also packs a STAB Sludge Bomb that hits Grasses SE. This can cover all three types on the offensive side, although it is a bit on the frail side, which may downgrade the Ground matchup with its neutrality.

Exeggutor: Egg is more bulky, and while it doesn’t pack STAB on Sludge Bomb, it can still hit a few of the Grasses SE with STAB Psychic thanks to some being part Poison. Be carefull with this mon though, as it packs many weaknesses you will need to cover.

Shiftry: Alternatively, here’s an offensive option that still resists Ground. This may be more usefull depending on your team composition.

Note that there are more Grass options in XD, but Tangela and Roselia aren’t the best statlined mons, Jumpluff and Parasect are complete trash, and Breloom is more suited to using Fighting attacks rather than Grass attacks.

Hope this helped.

You need to cover your fellow team members' Grass, Water and Ground Weaknesses.

Grass Weakness - Fire, Flying, Bug, Poison, IceWater Weakness - Grass, ElectricGround Weakness - Grass, Water, Ice

Flygoncan learn Fly and Giga Drain / Solar Beam, thus covering all.

Altariacan learn Sky Attack (till lvl 49, Fly (I’m pretty sure there would be a move deleter)). It has poor Attack, but has access to Dragon Dance to raise its attack, but it is almost useless as you need to use Special attacks to cover the weaknesses.

Salamenceis pretty good in stats, but can’t cover its fellow ‘mons’ weaknesses. (Only Flamethrower)

Dragonitehas very good bulk, awesome Atk, good SpA and decent Speed. It can learn Surf/Waterfall (an extra Surfer for you!), Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Fly, Dragon Claw and many more! So,Dragonite is better among the Pokémons you have mentioned.

Dragonite @ (anything)Nature: Catch it again if you get -SpA nature.Ability: Inner Focus

Note: If your counters are Swampert and Quagsire, then continue with Flygon

Flygon @ (anything)Nature: +SpAAbility: Levitate

You might want some Ethers or Elixirs to rise the PP (if it is there in GoD).

The reason why I mentioned Ground/Water/Grass is simply because most Water-types can learn Ice Beam, and since Grass/Ground would make my Electric moves a lot less effective, those multi-types are the biggest threat.

If that is the case, use Flygon, or any other Grass Type.

My current team w/o Lugia is :JolteonTyranitarClaydolWarein/LaprasNinetales

Giga Drain / Solar Beam knocks Swampert / Quagsire out, as they are your biggest threats.

Your Ninetales should knock out Sceptile.

Use Lapras instead of Walrein, as it learns Ice Beam and Sheer Cold by level up. If you want the ability Thick Fat, then go with Walrein.

Also, If you want to include Lugia, you might want to replace it with Ninetales I suppose, but you would come with 3 Pokémons' weakness to Ice (Claydol, Flygon and Lugia). So you might want to keep Ninetales, but replace Claydol with Flygon.

Till Lugia gets Aeroblast, your Ninetales should handle the grass types. You might have Flamethrower for Ninetales (if you had evolved Vulpix earlier, then Fire Spin is the only move viable, except TMs or Egg moves. Or give Lugia TM - Aerial Ace (Super Effective to Ludicolo also).

So you might want to replace Claydol with Flygon (with the above moveset), and keep Ninetales. Also, Lugia would learn a Psychic type move by Level up, so you might not care about Grass / Poison types.

Hope this helps :)

Well, let’s look at the stats.

We’ve got Salamance, with a total of 600. Best stat is Attack, with pretty good Speed and Special Attack.

Altaria has a total of 490, best stats are defense and special defense

Flygon has a total of 520, best stats are attack and speed.

And finally, Dragonite has a total of 600, just like Salamance. Best stat is Attack.

Overall, pretty decent Pokémon, but stat-wise (and just overall movepool), I think Salamance is probably the best out of all four of them.

Hope I helped! :)