Pokemon HeartGold 6th team member suggestions

[bug_of_war]

Heracross (bug/fighting) - decent stats, not too bad moves and looks like I can get it fairly on

Donphan (ground) - decent states and moves but might be late appearing which some of the other members of the team already are

Tyranitar (ground/dark) - amazing stats and decent moves but, again, possibly a late arrival and I'm not entirely sure I'll get Pupitar to a high enough level so it will it will evolve (55) allowing me to make good use Tyranitar.

Of the 3, go with Donpahn.

Heracross is good, but you already have Houndoom to cover Psychic and Grass types. And though fighting is good against Normal and Dark Types, you have to realise that Heracross is 4x weak to Flying and that Normal and Dark types tend to be very easy to take care of (seeing as how there are relatively few pure dark types).

Tyranitar is an all mighty giant of awesomeness, but until he reaches that point he is fairly slow both in terms of exp growth and battle speed. Again, like Heracross, his duel typing will be a disservice to you as his dark type opens you up to fighting attacks, and again, Houndoom has you covered for Ghosts and Psychics.

Donphan however has good speed, defence and attack, will level up at a decent pace, and covers you for any electric, rock fire AND poison. He can cover Houndoom and Crobat, and Amphorous and Houndoom can cover him.


So yeah, my advice is go for Donphan

 

[PureChaos]

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With what you two have said I agree that it's quite limited on pokemon (hence the struggle for a team) so what I might do is say I'll use a first Ggen pokemon if it wasn't available in Blue/LeafGreen. SO, though Arcanine wasn't available in those he would be a possibiliy but seems like it would be a bit of an arse getting hold of a Fire Stone. In that case, what I was thinking is starting with the fire type (whatever his name is) instead of Houndooom and having Cloyster as a water/ice type (I used Lapras in LeafGreen). So that would make my team...fire starter, Ampharos, Espeon, Crowbat, Cloyster and, most likely Heracross. Sound good?

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With the slight change mentioned above in the team, a new dark type could be good but Heracross is WAY in the lead for votes. The 4X weakness to flying isn't too much of a bother but would be nice to have a dark of form or other. Donphan's ground type is preferable to bug/fighting but, with how much earlier Heracross comes available, that's a HUGE bonus.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Machamp.

Dynamite( dunamic?) punch

Dynamic!

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7 votes for Heracross! Forretress seems interesting...might save it for another run.

Vote up for hera. While it doesn't learn any bug moves 'til megahorn, it's got a good fighting movepool. I used one in my last HG run and it was real useful. Forretress (and defensive mons in general) aren't generally good for single-player as their attacking movepools tend to be pretty bad outside of late game TMs. I tried using a skarmory in my previous run and he didn't have the damage output necessary to stay useful (he did roost stall morty's gengar though, which gives him my eternal gratitude).

EDIT: also, hera gets aerial ace early on, which makes him a good fighting & grass counter (bug typing helps). Plus he gets close combat @ lv37, which is a great "fuck you" move to tough pokemon.

 

[Edl01]

Although it looks like Heracross is winning this vote. I never knew the Escapist where all such massive fans of Heracross. Although he is indeed the best choice.


On a side note I personally would recommend you a Steelix if you didn't have the whole "no trading" thing. The steel/ground typing doesn't clash with any of your other team members. Plus Steelix is an excellent physical wall, and you don't really have any pokemon on your team that can take hits besides maybe Feraligator.

 

[bug_of_war]

With the slight change mentioned above in the team, a new dark type could be good but Heracross is WAY in the lead for votes. The 4X weakness to flying isn't too much of a bother but would be nice to have a dark of form or other. Donphan's ground type is preferable to bug/fighting but, with how much earlier Heracross comes available, that's a HUGE bonus.

Fair enough. Another angle to look at this is how your team will match up against the Johto/Kanto Elite 4 and the Kanto gym leaders.

 

[2xDouble]

That kinda made my brain hurt towards the end, got a bit technical!

It kinda did, didn't it? bleh. All I was saying is: Girafarig owns Ghost gyms.

I didn't say Dragonite sucked, just that his move set let him down. His stats are great but very few dragon moves for STAB and very few pokemon are weak to dragon types (strangely dragon is weak to dragon).

Dragon isn't for super effective damage. Dragon is nearly universal neutral damage; nothing (until Gen 6's Fairy type) is immune to it, and only Steel types resist it. You use dragon-type moves like Outrage when you have a pokemon set up or boosted and let it just KO everything, or Draco Meteor (available in HeartGold, though may be "against the rules") when you need to hit Special hard and get away.

A lot of your alternate suggestions either require trading, are 3rd gen+ pokemon or first gen which I have already covered. Ice would be great but those in the 2nd gen list aren't that good and Feral-what's-his-face had OK special attack to give a decent Ice Beam against any dragon types (I used to use Gyarados in Blue and his special is lower than...thingy's!). Chancey/Blissey may be great healers but their offensive capabilities are far too weak for my play style. Baton Pass is a nice move but not something I would pick a pokemon for purely because it has it mainly because I tend not to rely on stat boosting moves (the only one I would consider using is Calm Mind but that's 3rd gen!)

So far it seems like Heracross is in the lead!

I looked up each of those on Serebii, and they're all obtainable in HeartGold version, though you're right, most of them are pretty difficult to get (Scizor and Kingdra... damn trade evolutions. how dare you force me to be sociable or buy a second game and DS, Nintendo!!). I'd like to suggest Skarmory again, at least as a "side deck" pokemon. It's an absolute brick and can tank both Clair and Lance pretty effectively without having to carry an extra Fly slave... and isn't completely useless offensively, like Chansey or Forretress.

It seems Sneasel isn't as easy to get as I'd originally thought (unless you farm the pokewalker), which sucks because it's most useful against the Elite Four, but Swinub/Piloswine is obtainable in the Ice Path just before the 8th gym, and you can train one up quite easily there (best if you have access to Rock Slide or a male Camerupt for breeding). Piloswine is perfectly useable; you don't need to evolve it if you'd prefer to stay true to 2nd gen pokemon (though Mamoswine is significantly more powerful).

Your Feraligator has a couple of Ice moves, but Ice Fang is his best (or Ice Punch, if you have a female and feel like breeding one). Please don't waste your Ice Beam TM on it, other pokemon use it much more effectively.

I feel like playing fast and loose with the rules, so I would suggest Magneton as well. The addition of Steel type practically reinvented the little magnet cluster robot, effectively making it a new pokemon for the 2nd gen. Magneton is generally superior to Ampharos in my opinion, both offensively and defensively. Plus, it has the really fun Lock-On/Zap Cannon combo (that you should probably ditch for Thunderbolt or Thunder as soon as you get them, but still...).

I don't know how you feel about using legendaries, but if Houndooom isn't an option, why not use Ho-oh when you get it? It's not ridiculously overpowered, and Sacred Fire is pretty.

I'll just assume you're getting Heracross, and it does pretty much everything Houndoom does... except resist Psychic. Another Dark type could serve you well (assuming you still don't want Skarmory and/or Magneton). Tyranitar is the obvious choice, though difficult to obtain early enough, and Murkrow and Sneasel are very late in the game... which leaves Umbreon. A lot of people hate on Umbreon, and statistically it is the weakest of the Evee-lutions, but it's damn cool looking (especially alongside Espeon) and has some serious hosing potential with Mean Look, Snatch, and Confuse Ray... and if you feel like playing around with fun "hax" gimmicks, Baton Pass + Double Team.