Magikarp Power / Pokémon

Generation I

• Named from the Pokémon Magikarp, which has horrible (but not the worst) overall stats and can only learn five moves outside of events^note Splash, Tackle, Flail, Bounce, Hydro Pump — with Flail being introduced in Generation II, Bounce first becoming available to Magikarp beginning in Pokémon Platinum, and Magikarp only gaining Hydro Pump in Pokémon Sword and Shield via TR as a reference to an old event (which was actually a paltry two moves at the time of its original debut appearance in Pokémon Red and Blue), one of which does absolutely nothing, and it cannot learn anything else other than these moves. It eventually evolves into the dreaded Gyarados, which is one of the most powerful and versatile creatures in the game. Interestingly, Magikarp can evolve at level 20, which is actually much earlier than most final evolutions with comparable stats, but doing so is still a pain because the damn thing is so weak, and if you want to get a Gyarados that knows the move Flail, then you have to prevent Magikarp from evolving until level 30, or else breed a Magikarp from two members of the line who know Flail. Later generations would make it drastically easier to level Magikarp due to the shared experience mechanic making it so that you don't actually have to use Magikarp in battle, turning Gyarados into a straight-up Disc-One Nuke.
• In Pokémon GO, Magikarp is the weakest Pokémon in terms of potential CP and requires the most candies to evolve (400, four times the nearest competitor^note Until Meltan was introduced for Pokémon Let's Go), but upon evolving into Gyarados, it becomes 15 times stronger. No other Pokémon in the game gets such a massive power boost.
• Zig-Zigged with the Abra line. While it has massive special attack (105), great speed for a first stage Pokémon and learns many special TM moves like Shadow Ball, Dazziling Gleam and of course Psychic, it doesn't have damaging moves by level up and when you fight it only has one move: Teleport, which allows to flee from the battle, thus can pretty annoying to catch it. In their debut generation, the only damaging moves that it learns before fighting Misty are Bide and Mega Punch via TM, the former is risky since Abra is very fragile while the latter is inaccurate and uses Abra's horrendous physical attack. Once it evolves into Kadabra at level 16, it learns Confusion and Kadabra's incredible special offense makes very good use of it. As icing on the cake, try evolving into Alakazam by trading and it can destroy most opponents that don't resist its Psychic-type moves.
• Eevee starts out as a relatively weak Normal-type, with unremarkable stats even by the standards of unevolved Pokémon and a very shallow movepool. If it has Adaptability to power up its STAB moves, it'll be able to pull its weight better for a little while, but it'll still get outclassed quickly. Getting it to evolve into a specific Eeveelution can be more or less difficult depending on the game and generation. Once it evolves, however, its stats increase greatly and become more specialized, and it'll start learning more powerful moves corresponding to its new type.
• Dratini is the first start of the "pseudo-legendary" trend via the fact that it's a non-legendary with an evolutionary line that ends up giving it roughly the same stat total as any one of them (600, which is equal to the Legendaries which have 100 in every stat like Mew). It starts as a pretty unimpressive Pokémon with low overall power and a shallow level-up movepool. Compounded with an atrociously slow level-up speed and having one of the highest evolution levels of the franchise (like many "pseudo-legendary" evolution lines), it will take a lot of effort to train. Once it finally evolves into a Dragonite, it proves itself to be an impressive powerhouse with a diverse movepool. That being said, in this Generation, Dragonite is a slight case of Power Up Letdown. Its stats are impressive and it has a wide movepool that can cover the basic elements, but it can't fully take advantage of its much-vaunted power, due to having no moves that take advantage of STAB, being rather slow for something of its level of power, and having Slam and Wrap as its only level-up moves that can really take advantage of that high Attack stat. The latter is viable, but 1) it makes Dragonite function more of an annoyance, and 2) most players going through the game would never immediately think of keeping Dratini's Wrap. Later Generations added more powerful Dragon-type moves for Dragonite to take advantage of and gave it other buffs, making it a more straightforward example.

Generation II

• Togepi starts out as a typical baby Pokémon, with bad stats (aside from surprisingly good defenses) and a less-than-inspiring movepool. If you get its happiness high enough, it evolves into Togetic, which is a Stone Wall that happens to be pretty lackluster in the early generations. But, starting in Gen IV, if you use a rare Shiny Stone on Togetic, it evolves into Togekiss, which gets a major boost to its stats and can learn a wide variety of moves. It gains even more utility after Gen VI with the introduction of the Fairy-type, retyping the whole line from Normal to Fairy (making Togetic and Togekiss Fairy/Flying-types).
• Zubat becomes this in Generation II. It starts out as extremely annoying to face in the wild, which makes trainers not want to bother with using one on their team. In the event you choose to do so, you start out with a rather underwhelming Pokémon that becomes slightly better at level 22, when it evolves into Golbat. Raise its Friendship stat high enough and it evolves into Crobat, who has an absurdly high Speed of 130 ^note For context, that's as fast as Mewtwo and access to strong moves like Cross Poison and Air Slash.^note These moves weren't around until the 4th Gen. Before that, Crobat's main use was its speed.
• Larvitar is a teensy greenish mon found at level 20 in Mt. Silver, the final area of Gold and Silver. It's sluggish, relatively weak, and has a very mixed-bag Rock/Ground type, though it learns a small handful of semi-decent moves. Its evolution, Pupitar, is somewhat better. But that's nothing compared to when it evolves into the Godzilla-esque Tyranitar; it gets massively boosted stats via being the second pseudo-legendary (meaning its stat total is roughly around 600), trades its Ground-type off for Dark-type, and gets a better movepool. In some of the later generations, Larvitar can be found quite a bit earlier, making the effort required to raise one into your next team member all the more rewarding. Come Gen III with abilities, and Tyranitar being able to auto-summon sandstorms mean both his offense and defense increase.
• The move Return is this. It starts out rather weak, but since its power is tied to your Pokémon's Happiness stat, which increases with leveling up, winning, and even walking around, you can hit its max power of 102 eventually. And an attack with over 100 power, 20 uses, and no nasty side effects is quite remarkable, plus almost any Pokémon can learn it.

Generation III

• Shroomish, a silly-looking walking mushroom that starts with poor stats in everything but its defenses and HP. It evolves pretty early into a Breloom at Level 23, and gains a gigantic boost for its Attack stats, from 40 as a Shroomish to 130 as a Breloom. In addition, it becomes a Grass/Fighting-type, gaining bonus damage for Fighting-type moves as well as a few type resistances, and plenty of good moves. Bonus points if it delays its evolution, Shroomish will learn a move its evolution cannot have by other means: Spore, which is a move that causes the opponent to fall asleep with 100% accuracy.
• Slakoth has poor stats and its ability is Truant, which only allows it to act on every second turn, but at Level 18, it evolves into a Vigoroth, which no longer has Truant and has decent overall stats... which is nothing compared to when Vigoroth evolves into Slaking, at which point it regains its Truant ability, but Slaking has one of the highest Attack stats in the game. Slaking's stat total actually matches those of the legendary Groudon and Kyogre; and unlike the other pseudo-legendaries mentioned, its stat total is instead a whopping 670, which is the highest of any non-legendary Pokémon in the game.
• Ralts is a Pokémon that can only use Growl, a measly early-game Attack-reducing move, and it has stats that are even worse than Magikarp's. It's a headache to train until it learns Confusion at level 6... but Ralts will be knocked out in one or two hits by anything that survives or out-speeds it. It evolves into Kirlia at Level 20, which isn't much better, packing stats that would be mediocre at best on an unevolved Pokémon. Though it doesn't take too long before Kirlia evolves into a Gardevoir at level 30, a major improvement over Kirlia. Gardevoir's Special Defense is incredible, and access to recovery moves and Calm Mind makes it nearly impossible to kill without physical damage. Calm Mind also boosts its Special Attack, meaning that it will win most fights with one attack after a couple of boosts. Its Spear Counterpart, Gallade, is no slouch either, but with more of an emphasis on his Attack and a sufficient movepool of his own.
• Swablu has an extremely lackluster movepool (it doesn't learn a move with more than 40 power by leveling up until Level 31) and pretty atrocious stats. However, at Level 35 it evolves into Altaria. Altaria gains the Dragon-typing and a pretty impressive bulk (possessing 90 Base DEF and 105 Sp. DEF). It also learns the incredibly powerful buff move "Dragon Dance" which raises both its Speed and ATK by one stage, meaning despite its lackluster base Speed, ATK, and Sp. ATK it can become an offensive powerhouse with the proper set-up.
• Magikarp's third generation equivalent, Feebas, is a similar (if not quite as useless) case; it evolves into the defensive-based and beautiful Milotic. That is, if you know how to find it and evolve it in the Generation III and IV games. Though starting in Generation V, an item named the Prism Scale is introduced, which bypasses the Guide Dang It! and allows Feebas to evolve on a trade if it's holding one.
• Beldum can attest to Level 20's awesomeness as yet another pseudo-legendary, as it goes from a ridiculously hard-to-catch floating leg that can only learn Take Down, a move that deals recoil damage, to Metang, which then becomes the defensive and powerful Metagross at level 45.
• Trapinch has lousy stats all around except for a beastly 100 attack (almost half of its total stat points) and doesn't evolve until Level 35, where it becomes the mediocre Vibrava (which has less Attack than Trapinch, albeit with improvements to the other stats, especially Speed). Stick with it until level 45 and it becomes the awesome Flygon, with good all-around stats (regaining Trapinch's Attack and further improving on Vibrava's Speed, along with being decent at everything else), a good movepool and an (at the time) unique typing in Ground/Dragon.
• Zigzagged with the Bagon line. Bagon and its evolution, Shelgon, have fairly average stats for 1st and 2nd Stage Pokémon, being 300 and 420 respectively. It's the level at which they evolve that makes them qualify for this trope: Bagon evolves into Shelgon at Level 30, when most Pokémon would be nearing their final evolution. Shelgon evolves into the monstrously powerful Salamence at Level 50, which is near the end of the game. Its Pokédex entries establish that a Magikarp-Power evolution is just as joyful In-Universe; Bagon's long-lasting desire of wanting to fly leads to an absolute "Hell, Yes!" Moment when it finally evolves into a Salamence.
• Aron is a Steel/Rock type who has lousy stats in everything except Attack and Defense. It has a 70 in attack and 100 defense, which is further bolstered by the Steel-type's absurd number of resistances. However, these two stats account for over half of its base stat total. At Level 32 it evolves into Lairon, which has the 11th best Defense stat in Gen III at 140 and an attack stat of 90. However, its other stats aren't much better than Aron's and not helping matters is that most Pokémon reach their final evolution around Level 32. At Level 42, which is around the level of the penultimate gym, Lairon evolves into Aggron, which has the absolutely ludicrous defense stat of 180.

Generation IV

• The Gible line is the resident pseudo-legend of the generation, and fits a similar mold to its predecessors. Gible is a weak Pokémon that can only be found in a well-hidden, out-of-the-way cave filled with boulder-pushing puzzles and Bike-reliant obstacle gauntlets at such a low level. At level 24, it evolves into Gabite, which is an improvement, but still nothing special. Then it evolves again at level 48 and becomes Garchomp, a Lightning Bruiser with a dramatically expanded movepool. Similarly to other psuedo legendaries, Garchomp has a 600 base stat total, with heavy features into its attack and speed with above average defenses overall. This puts it as only below Arceus, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina overall and was also banned in Smogon singles alongside them.
• Combee might not bring much to the table, being a Bug/Flying-Type with utterly pathetic stats and only three moves to its name, Gust, Sweet Scent, and Bug Bite. Gen V does give it Bug Buzz, but Gen VIII swaps it out for Struggle Bug. However, if you're lucky enough to catch a female Combee,^note There's a 7:1 gender ratio skewed towards males. then you can evolve her into Vespiquen at level 21, a Pokémon with the best defensive stats among Bug/Flying-Types. Not only that, but her movepool gains a massive boost, including a move that can make her already impressive defensive stats even more impressive.

Generation V

• Tynamo is a cute Electric-type eel with no type weakness thanks to its Levitate ability, and that's it. Its stats are unimpressive and it can only learn four moves until it evolves at level 39. Additionally, it takes more experience per level-up than most Pokémon at the same level as it, making it a great pain to raise to level 39. But as soon as it evolves into an Eelektrik, the player can use a Thunder Stone on it to evolve into Eelektross, a Mighty Glacier with a wide variety of moves to choose from on top of the aforementioned lack of typing weaknesses.
• Litwick, a Ghost/Fire-type from Generation V, has terrible stats and doesn't evolve until level 41. However, as soon as it does, it can be evolved again into Chandelure, which has the second-highest Special Attack of any non-Mega, non-legendary, less than 10 points shy of Mewtwo.
• Larvesta begins with average or poor stats in everything except Attack, which goes to waste when you see that its evolution, Volcarona, has massive Special Attack instead. It doesn't even evolve until Level 59, but if you do, it gets a mountain of Special Attack, Special Defence, Speed, and the move Quiver Dance, which boosts all three of those stats.
• Out of the pseudo-legendaries, Deino is particularly notable because it evolves much later than the rest — it evolves at 50 (you can get Salamence, Metagross, and Garchomp, other pseudo-legendaries, by this level, while Dragonite and Tyranitar are Level 55 instead) and then level 64, the highest evolution level of anything in the entire series. What's more, Deino and its evolved form Zweilous have an ability that lowers accuracy, making them pretty unreliable to use. Once it evolves into a Hydreigon, it trades its Hustle ability for a far more reliable Levitate, and it's a Magic Knight Lightning Bruiser capable of learning tons of moves.
• Axew is a fairly unassuming Dragon Pokémon with a fairly average (for unevolved Pokémon) base stat total of 320. However, it doesn't evolve into Fraxure until level 38, and at that point it probably has lower stats than most other things you can have at that level, since most Pokémon should be fully evolved by then. However, at Level 48 it evolves into Haxorus, which on top of being a Lightning Bruiser, is the only Pokémon in the Unova Dex that can learn both Outrage and Dragon Dance. Mind you, in the previous generation this by itself was enough to get Salamence banned to Ubers.

Generation VI

• Gen VI's pseudo-legendary Goomy's stats are underwhelming at this point of the game, and its movepool is rather shallow. Even the Pokédex says it's the weakest Dragon-type ever.^note Though Noibat is actually weaker. If you stick with it, however, it eventually evolves into Goodra, which is a Magic Knight that has a staggering Special Defense stat and is the most adorable dragon ever.
• Noibat is pretty much a special-attacking version of Zubat. However, while Zubat evolves at level 22 where it becomes less abysmal to use, Noibat won't evolve until level 48, and its natural movepool is nothing to write home about. Once it evolves into Noivern, however, it effectively becomes a slightly slower, slightly harder-hitting special version of Crobat, with the broad movepool you'd expect of a Dragon-type.
• Skrelp's Poison/Water typing is relatively underwhelming, it has balanced but mediocre stats, a shallow movepool, and it evolves at level 48. But when it does, it becomes the fearsome Dragalge and ditches the Water type for a Dragon type (it keeps the Poison type, meaning that it takes neutral damage from Fairy attacks, unlike other Dragons), and it gains much-needed bulk and attack power.
• Honedge has very high ATK and DEF for the time you get it, but it's very slow and has low special defense and HP, meaning it will struggle against most Pokémon with a high special attack. And even its high ATK is off-set by its lackluster movepool, relying on Fury Cutter spam as its main source of damage unless you managed to get the Shadow Claw TM in Glittering Cave. It also doesn't evolve until Level 35, and even then Doublade doesn't do much to remove its vulnerability to special attacks. However, if you manage to get your hands on a Dusk Stone, you can evolve it into Aegislash, which can pivot between being a Glass Cannon and a Stone Wall on a dime.

Generation VII

• Wishiwashi is a Water-type that gains vast improvements at level 20 just like Magikarp, though through an Ability rather than evolution: Starting at level 20, this sad-looking fish schools together into one conglomerate, which vastly improves its stats (except for Speed, which is slightly lowered, and HP, which remains the same). It's a more extreme jump than Magikarp, with its Solo Form being weaker than Magikarp (stats-wise, it has the lowest overall stats) and its School Form being stronger than some Olympus Mons. However, it gets the drawback in which if its HP falls to 1/4 or below, it will revert back to its Solo Form. It can return back to School Form if its HP rises back above that point, though.
• Wimpod has extremely low stats other than its speed, a shallow movepool, and an ability named Wimp Out, which makes it switch out when below half health. Raise it up to level 30, and it evolves into Golisopod, a Mighty Glacier with a wide movepool. While Golisopod has Emergency Exit, which functions exactly like Wimp Out, it can take advantage of its Secret Art, First Impression: a powerful move that has priority, but can only be used on the first turn it's switched in.
• Bounsweet starts out as a pitifully weak Grass-type whose Pokédex entry states that she is often Swallowed Whole by other Pokémon. She evolves into Steenee at level 18, and while Steenee is an improvement over Bounsweet, her overall stats are still terrible. After learning the move Stomp at level 29 though, she can evolve into Tsareena, a Mighty Glacier with a high Attack stat and nice bulk.
• From the defensive side of things, there's the Mareanie line. As a Mareanie, its overall stats are pretty underwhelming, especially for a Pokémon that can only be encountered if a rare Corsola tries to call for help. But once it evolves into Toxapex, it receives a huge boost in both its Defense and Special Defense stats (which become a beastly 152 and 142, respectively), turning it into a formidable Stone Wall with the ability to heal itself.
• Salandit is a somewhat weak Pokémon, a Glass Cannon with more glass than cannon (it can easily be one-shot by neutral effective moves), and, like Combee, only females can evolve, with females somewhat rare (7:1 ratio). Stick with it through its rather rough training period with its low defense, and it evolves into a Salazzle. While her bulk is still terrible, her Special Attack is amazing and she's dangerously fast.
• Cosmog is the case to end all cases. Statistically, it's a Psychic-type Magikarp with even lower speed, and can only learn Splash and Teleport, neither of which damage the enemy or even have any practical use whatsoever. Once you get it to level 43, it evolves into Cosmoem... which, while it has improved defenses, is still weak, and still knows no damaging moves. Until it evolves a second time, pretty much the only way it can win a battle without help from another Pokémon is to make it run out of PP so it can use Struggle. You have to baby it up for 10 more levels, but once it reaches level 53, it evolves into either Solgaleo or Lunala, depending on the version. For a stat-wise comparison, it starts off as Magikarp without any attacking capabilities whatsoever, becomes something akin to Beedrill (but still not able to attack) upon evolving into Cosmoem, and then finally evolves into Mewtwo.
• Meltan, Gen 7's very last Mythical Pokémon, is very weak stat-wise, but is unique because it can evolve... However, it can only evolve in Pokémon GO, and surprise, it needs 400 Meltan candies to evolve. What makes it worse is that they only appear when you've activated a box that summons them for you to catch, and it only works for 30 minutes until it closes and can't be opened again for a whole week. This makes the process of obtaining enough candies to be very arduous. Once you do, you'll be awarded with the pure Steel-type Melmetal, which has immensely high physical stats and is by far the best Pokémon to take out Rocket Leaders.

Generation VIII

• Toxel is a baby lizard that you receive at level 1 in Pokémon Sword and Shield, and it has low stats and a very limited moveset (its strongest move is Belch, which it can only use after eating a held berry during battle, and otherwise it's stuck with the likes of Nuzzle and Acid). Raising it to level 30 lets it evolve into Toxtricity, a much stronger Pokémon with more moves to take advantage of its Electric/Poison typing and eventually the super-powerful Boomburst (further boosted by its Punk Rock ability), and it comes in either the Amped or Low-Key forms depending on its nature. The Wild Area can spawn Toxel that are much closer to level 30, making it easier to evolve them.
• Blipbug is this generation's early-game bug with hideously bad stats (its base stat total is exactly the same as Sunkern's, who held the record for lowest BST until Pokémon Sun and Moon) and a whopping one move. It evolves fairly quickly into its second form Dottler, which has tolerable defenses and three more moves, but still suffers from the typical pupal Bug Pokémon's problem of not learning any more until it evolves again (although the moves it does get are at least better than the usual combination of Harden and String Shot) and still does basically no damage. Lug it around for 20 more levels, and it becomes the considerably more powerful Orbeetle, which can immediately re-learn Bug Buzz and finally start smacking things around and also boasts a fairly expansive support movepool.
• Applin is just as strong as you'd expect a wyrm living inside of an apple to be, and it doesn't evolve by level, leaving it as dead weight in the party for a while. It gets stronger when evolved using one of two rare version-exclusive apples: Sword's Tart Apple turns it into the hard-hitting Flapple and Shield's Sweet Apple turns it into the bulky Appletun. In the DLC for Scarlet and Violet, it can also evolve into Dipplin, which has similar stats to Appletun and can lower the opponent's evasion with its Supersweet Syrup ability... and can eventually evolve again into Hydrapple, a powerful Mighty Glacier with a high special attack stat and access to the Regenerator ability to keep it healthy in battle.
• Snom is a small jewel caterpillar with extremely weak stats overall (third-weakest in the game) and has a very limited moveset, learning only Powder Snow and Struggle Bug naturally. It only evolves with maxed friendship at night, becoming the special-attacking Frosmoth which has far better stats, and can take a good few attacks on the special side if it has the line's unique ability Ice Scales.
• Dreepy is a 2% hidden encounter in foggy weather, has pathetic stats (except for a decent 82 Speed), with none of its defenses going above 45, and only learns Quick Attack, Bite, Infestation, and Astonish. Stick with it until level 50 to evolve it into Drakloak, a solid faster and stronger mon with a much better movepool. But 10 levels later at 60, you get Dragapult, a powerful Glass Cannon who has a diverse mixed attacker moveset with the Speed to use it. It should come as no surprise that the Dreepy Line is Generation VIII's pseudo-legendary.
• Galarian Farfetch'd is pretty much just that: a Farfetch'd. That said, in Gen VII Kantonian Farfetch'd had its attack boosted from a weak 65 to a more respectable 90, and its Galarian form follows this up with 95. However, land 3 critical hits in one battle, and it evolves into the slow and bulky Sirfetch'd, who has a much better movepool and gets a Secret Art of its very own in Meteor Assault. That said, Farfetch'd is something of a subversion — while the normal Farfetch'd is incredibly weak for a fully-evolved Pokémon, as a not fully-evolved Pokémon, Farfetch'd has rather decent stats and a decent movepool — considerably better than the other Pokémon listed here, at least.
• Milcery's stats are pretty much the same across the board, and what you'd probably expect from a sentient blob of cream: pretty freakin' bad, with only her Special Defense being any form of notable, and she only learns two offensive moves whatsoever by level-up, with only a few more by Technical Record. However, if you're lucky enough to get a Sweet from the Battle Café, or if you caught her in a Max Raid Battle, give her the Sweet and a spin and she evolves into Alcremie, a slow Support Party Member who can use Acid Armor and Recover to increase her survivability, has a commendable special TR movepool, and can power up her allies using Decorate. Oh, and if you caught her in a Max Raid Battle at a certain point or if you feed her some Max Soup, she can now Gigantamax.
• Rookidee, being an early-game bird, has the sort of piddling stats you'd expect from one. When it evolves at level 18, it becomes Corvisquire, which does have better stats than Rookidee, but it's still rather limited in terms of which moves it can learn, both by level-up and by TM/TR. When it evolves into Corviknight at level 39, however, it becomes a Flying/Steel-Type airborne tank with better and more balanced stats than Skarmory and a more commendable TM/TR movepool. It can even learn Steel Wing and Iron Defense to further boost its already impressive physical Defense. Learn Body Press for offense (using Defense Stat as the damager) and it can wreak havoc.

Generation IX

• Pawmi might look cute, but its stats are nothing too impressive with Speed and Attack being the only two stand-outs. Not only that, but if you managed to get a Pawmi with its hidden ability Iron Fist, then you won't benefit from it that much, since the only move it can learn that benefits from it is Mach Punch (unless you caught one with a Fighting Tera Type), and it learns it as an Egg Move, meaning you need to do some breeding (or use a Mirror Herb) to get a Pawmi with Mach Punch. Once it evolves into Pawmo, however, it does get a little better, now getting STAB for Mach Punch as an Electric/Fighting-type, but it still has room to grow. If you managed to figure out how to evolve Pawmo by having it walk around with you for 1000 steps with the Let's Go feature, then you have yourself Pawmot, a Pokémon with great flexibility as an offensive and support team member. It can even learn Revival Blessing, which lets players revive one of their fainted Pokémon even in online matches.
• Nymble doesn't seem like much, especially with stats almost as piddling as Magikarp's. But if you manage to be patient enough with it and get it to level 24, then you have Lokix, a speedy Bug/Dark-type Glass Cannon that can learn Agility to make itself even faster. If you managed to catch one with a Fighting Tera Type, then it can wreak havoc with moves like Double Kick and Brick Break.
• As anyone can tell at a glance, Smoliv doesn't have much to offer in terms of stat spread or type coverage, with its only offensive moves being either Grass or Normal-type. Its evolution, Dolliv, is only a little stronger and is unfortunately no better in terms of what moves it can learn. When it evolves into Arboliva, it finally lets loose with its full potential. Not only does its Special Attack stat skyrocket, but its movepool expands exponentially, and its ability Seed Sower applies Grassy Terrain whenever it gets hit by a move, powering up any Grass-type moves it knows. Terastalize one with a Grass Tera Type, and it's harvest time.
• Charcadet is a small Fire type with a lower base stat total than the aforementioned Smoliv, with no single stat higher than 50 - basically, imagine a slightly better Tyrogue. But if you can manage to bring ten Sinistea Chips to a specific NPC in Zapapico, you'll get an item that gives your Charcadet a massive power boost depending on version - Scarlet players get the Fire/Psychic type Armarouge, whose Special Attack stat of 125 allows it to launch devastating Flamethrowers and Psyshocks, at least until it gets access to its signature move Armor Cannon, a special Fire-type variant of Close Combat (meaning it's a 120 base power move with no accuracy penalties, making it superior to Fire Blast); Violet players meanwhile get Ceruledge, a Fire/Ghost type whose 125 Attack stat is befitting of something with freakin' swords for arms, not to mention its signature move Bitter Blade, which, while not as strong as Armor Cannon, instead heals Ceruledge for half the damage dealt.
• Finizen, while cute, is a weak Water-type in battle, with fairly mediocre stats right across the board. Not to mention, it levels up slowly and evolves at Level 38, and requires being in the Union Circle with another player to let it evolve. Doing so gets you Palafin, which, while better stats-wise, is still not great... at least on paper. Palafin gains access to a new ability called Zero to Hero^note  an ability that activates upon switching out and back in, and Flip Turn^note  Essentially just a Water-type U-Turn to take advantage of it. Once it's back in play, it turns into its Hero form, with a gargantuan BST of 650, including a monstrous attack stat of 160, with next to no drawbacks. If you have the patience to get one, the Pelagic Protector will prove to be a hero worthy of the name.
• Gimmighoul doesn't seem like much, being a small ghost gremlin inside a chest of golden coins. Not helping is that it can only naturally learn two moves, Astonish and Tackle. However, if you manage to muster the patience to search all of Paldea for 999 Gimmighoul Coins and level it up, then it will evolve into the Steel/Ghost-type Gholdengo, a beastly special attacker that can net you plenty of cash with its signature move, aptly called Make It Rain. It can even learn Metal Sound and Nasty Plot to make its special attacks hit that much harder. Not only that, but its ability Good as Gold makes it immune to any status moves, so you don't have to worry about anyone trying to debuff it or hit it with a status effect.
• The Legendary you receive from Arven qualifies for this as well from a narrative standpoint. When you first meet it, the Taste of Power it gives you from that taste of your sandwich doesn't last very long. Arven even points out that it can't even battle. After completing the main story, however, it demonstrates its power as a Legendary.