Top 10 Strongest Pokémon in Gen 2! 

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I'll never forget first playing through Silver when it first released and thinking that raising my Machoke to level 100 would make it evolve into Machamp. Aahhh the good old days. I also thought raising my Onix to level 100 would turn it into the Crystal Onix from the show.

When your mom is saving money, she buys you a moon stone around the time you're at Goldenrod. It's not late at all

Your take on a single Pokemon game has been really refreshing because you talk about them within the context of *the game they are in.* I think nowadays, there are so many Pokemon games and so many Pokemon, that when people think of a single Pokemon, they are left with this weird overall impression of what they may have been like in one game or another, creating this inaccurate depiction of said Pokemon. For example, Tauros. It was one of the KINGS of RBY, but as time went on, it fell off. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't talk about its importance during the game that it was in. It says a lot more about RBY than it does about Tauros. I feel people would enjoy Pokemon a lot more if they focused more on the adventure aspect then just "Oh, Pokemon strong, Pokemon good, Pokemon weak, Pokemon bad." But your take makes Crystal feel like it's own experience, not just a footnote in where Pokemon got to today. It makes Pokemon Crystal itself feel like it has its own special place in the Pokemon Saga, which I think is really neat. Thanks for all your work on bringing it back to life with Crystal Legacy.

Yeah, you're right on Geodude, this is a very common Knowledge between nuzlockers. Rock/Ground types are amazing on regular playthroughs, and even Graveler will carry you through Johto. If you can evolve it to golem, it is even better. When I don't have full access, I usually use Graveler until the Victory Road, when I can replace it with a Rhydon for the E4.

Lanturn was a critical Pokemon to acquire as soon as you defeated Whitney in Crystal. It’s incredibly useful in a game where Mareep is absent and can learn most of the HMs. With its bulk, it actually puts Whirlpool to good use in the Battle Tower because it also has access to Confuse Ray. Give it Leftovers and it’s very solid.

The trade evolutions really let you steamroll Gen II even more than usual, I was just lucky enough to have neighbors with a trading cable back when I was a kid.

During the reel with alternatives to feraligatr I gotta say, the gen 2 backsprites are gorgeous

Tediursa with 80 base attack Smith: Yo, this is really good. Flareon with 95 base special attack Smith: *I N T O T H E T R A S H I T G O E S !*

I don't care what everyone thinks. Typhlosion is the best

Not a surprise that Geodude line makes number 1, it's one of the best utility pokemon in basically every game it appears. They almost always appear early, the good defense and advantage against normal moves mean training Geodude is super easy early on. Magnitude acts as a great stand in for Earthquake, regardless of the rng aspect. Since your starter is and elemental type rock/ground basically always acts as some kind of type coverage (fire/flying if you pick grass, electric if you pick water, rock if you pick fire). Even if you can't evolve Graveler it can hold its own even through the Elite 4, especially with STAB earthquake. The ease of training and reliability plus availability makes it an obvious choice for basically any team.

The BOULDER. I’m so happy he is the king of johto. I think magmar deserves an honourable mention. It is literally the only viable fire type in gold and silver that isn’t the starter. It’s got high speed and special attack along with fire punch and flamethrower at respectable levels. Thunder punch and dynamic punch are some good coverage moves that magmar gets.

Those honorable mentions make you realize how solid water types are in the early gens. Lapras and Johto are like PB&J to me.

The Geodude line is great being unable to learn Rock Slide is really unfortunate, not having a reliable STAB attack of one of your types is a huge downside that makes them far worse off than they would have been otherwise.

The trade Machop is available _after_ the 2nd Gym, (once u get to Goldenrod City) not before like u said. Just a slight mistake. And Magmar can be found in the Burned Tower, u don’t need to get a Magby Egg!

The way you integrated that ad read was flawless

My Gen II only team: 1. Typhlosion (replacable by Houndoom) 2. Ampharos 3. Kingdra 4. Bollossom 5. Heracross 6. Ursaring and Espeon Skarmory Donphan Tyranatar as back up

I would put donphan in this. 120 attack and defense and 90 HP. phanpy can also be acquired early. Mono ground is a nice type in gen 2 as well.

flareon's 95 sp attack isn't awful

One honorable mention I'd add is Donphan. It comes late in Silver, but Phanpy can be gotten as soon as Route 46 in Crystal. Anyway, Defense Curl plus Rollout is just an insane combination, plus its got the bulk to take a hit or two. Just wish it got a better Ground Move (Mud-Slap, oof) before EQ at 49 (or via TM).

Ive been singing my praises for Geodude ever since my first run of crystal. It practically soloed the entire gym challenge except for Chuck which I just put out with my Fearow.

Congrats on the 100k. Loving your chanel ❤

One of the most fun I've had playing gen 2 was when I had a team of just weak gen 2 single-stage Pokémon, so Pokémon like Dunsparce, Stantler, Corsola, Gligar, and so on, I highly recommend people to try it out

Can't wait for your rom hack. Watching your videos really makes me want to replay my favourite game - Crystal, but gotta put it of to try your rom hack.

I've JUST done a playthrough, and chose Meganium, Pidgeot, Ursaring, Golduck, Arcanine and Umbreon. They required lots of patience but the payout was immense: Hatched an Eevee with the one Bill gives you on a road ideal to grind his early levels, and fed him stat boosts to get the required happiness to evolve, and after learning Bite. He has the best defenses of the team but his Bite is now STAB. The schoolboy on Route 38 can get you a Fire Stone if you keep his number, so I saved it for Growlithe who had to level up to 50 ( right before Elite 4 and with lots and lots of grind ) to get Flamethrower, then immediately evolve to learn Extreme Speed, and get absolute busted Attack and Sp.Attack to wreck open E4. Gave him Dragon Breath for type coverage. Earthquake and Thunderpunch for Ursaring. Return and Thief for Pidgeot so the team's designated Airship can pack a good punch too. It was the first time I played Johto without choosing to plan for Red Gyarados or any legendary in my active party. Going for a more risky route but enjoying the success of a good strategy. Even if full of flaws, Crystal is an insane game for 2MB...

This was a great video game talking about the 10 best Pokemon to use in Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal. I would like to see Game Freak and the Pokémon Company make a Gen 1 Collection, Gen 2 Collection, Gen 3 Collection in the future! I’m looking forward to all the improvements you make in Crystal Legacy.

I love that you make gen2 videos!!

Been following along with your progress with this romhack for the last few months. Really looking forward to nuzlocking this game!

Probably the most obnoxious ad I've ever seen in a video. Normally ads have their own section... and then there's the Kindra section that basically barely lets you skip the ad.

I am so ready for your rom hack. I have put off a gen 2 play through for months now waiting for it!

I've heard informative ad-reads and I've heard funny ad-reads, but this is the first ad-read I've heard that didn't stop the plot of the video! Amazing stuff!

I loved everything about this video. The editing, content, rankings, and even the sponsor section was done in a way where I found it super interesting and engaging!

As a kid I always though about that, because playing with fire or grass starter, and not liking the fact I had to trade kadabra/haunter to fully evolve, it meant I need to capture a water or ice type for ice-punch to fight Lance. Then I realized rock also was super efective against flying dragons, then after looking in retrospective to the first 3 gymns, I always looked for a geodude at the beggining of the game. Nice video dude.

lanturn is my favorite water type from gen 2 and im so glad it at least almost made the list

I was expecting at least 3 of the trade evolution pokemon to show up on the list, but machamp was a fair surprise.

idk how anyone else feels, But the elemental punches are deadass GREAT moves for stab and coverage options so the fact that at some point the kinda only existed by move tutor and they aren’t tms for a bit is wild to me, so Totadile getting ice punch by LEVEL UP is kinda crazy

Love this series.

not gonna lie, when you said Geodude was number 1 i looked at the upload date to make sure this wasn't put up in April.

Geodude is available absurdly early and due to bad level design it can go against a lot plus potentially fully evolved by the third or fourth gym is very good

My first gen 2 Geodude was named Bomber. That was 20 years ago, but I still remember her as my ace, even though Feraligatr was my favorite Pokemon at the time. She just never stopped winning!

Dragonite was my favorite late Johto Pokemon. It's already 5 levels higher than Lance's once you evolve it, and having access to all three punches and wing attack means it can walk through the entire Elite Four with only a couple of hitches in Gengar and Houndoom.

My Crystal team consisted of quite a few of these. It was Typhlosion, Pidgeot, Kadabra, Machoke, Lanturn, and Red Gyarados which was later switched for Snorlax. I ALWAYS swear by Lanturn. I kinda had to because there’s no Ampharos in that game, but also, the absolutely unfair strategy of Thunder Wave and Confuse Ray has the potential to annihilate the whole game. I was kinda underlevelled for Clair, but Lanturn made it a non-issue by making her Kingdra completely unable to get a move off.

I bred a Vulpix with Hypnosis my last gen2 play through for my in game team, was a lot of fun

congrats for 100k

Typhlosion being higher than feraligatr is a joke

"The Kingdra of VPNs" *ranked Kingdra 7th*

Honestly one of the best Pokémon videos ive seen on youtube. Straight to the point and ended perfecrly 10/10 will watch again

I feel like Lapras is hella underrated in Gen 2 in game lists like these: -it’s your best option against Clair’s Kingdra and Red’s Snorlax because Perish Song is a guaranteed 3 turn KO (which your basically not getting with any other Pokémon you’d realistically have) and not only Lapras is bulky enough to last that long, not only can it use sing to put them to sleep making those three turns basically free, but even if they attack they’ll probably go for a normal attack because it’ll do the most damage, which you can just switch to Haunter/Gengar, and absorb it and watch them perish. -it has high special attack so it can actually use Surf unlike Gyarados whose Special Attack is really weak and since water moves are all special it can’t just kill things with water mfall. -it is probably the most damage you can do to Lance’s illegal Dragonites by just using Ice Beam (barring maybe Suicune and Lugia, but they’re really difficult to get) -it’s one of your best options against Jasmine’s Steelix so long as you can avoid getting hit with Iron Tail or Steelix using Sunny Day which you can do with Sing. -availability’s a complete non issue. Lapras is a static spawn in Union Cave on Fridays so you can just play through the game until you get Surf, trek back to Union Cave on Friday after putting Surf on something, explore a little and you’ll find it in the water. -It’s not even under leveled by the time you get it, it’s level 20 so it’d probably be just under what your team would be if it defeated Morty before taking on the Kimono Girls for the Surf HM. -it’s physical attack isn’t terrible either so Body Slam can actually do damage for you until you get the special moves it wants -this thing can have perfect neutral coverage in Crystal once it learns Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Psychic The only other water type that compares to Lapras in viability is Feraligatr, who is worse than Typhlosion in a lot of ways, so choosing it comes with the opportunity cost of not having Typhlosion. If you could catch this before Whitney it’d probably dominate that fight (especially in Crystal where Ice Beam and Thunderbolt could be tutored) and be one of if not the best Pokémon in the game by having good coverage and utility on a bulky water type with Surf and a good special attack stat to hit back nice and hard.

I did not expect Jamie's theme from sf6 at 3:30. Loved the vid.

That Kingdra/Surf Shark might be the smoothest and most enjoyable ad read I've ever seen

I used ursaring in the post game of crystal and it was a beast.

The Geodude getting such a good spot is so weird and cool

Yeah top three are very op pokemon. Used them in my last playthroughs and stomped through everything.

"You caught a Geodude, right?"

I've used at least 9 (and 11 of the 12 honorable mentions) of the Pokemon featured on this list in either the Gen 2 games or in later generation games with some being used in Gen 1.

Saying Miltank is only on the honorable mentions when it's LEAGUES better than Ursaring and Machamp is baffling to me, as someone who replayed gen 2 a lot over the year with hardcore nuzlocke rules + a few more very restrictive rules, I can say that Miltank is EASILY an elite four pick that is also good throughout the entire game when you get it. It's arguably a top 5 pick you bring vs Lance and this is also considering reduced level cap, meaning mons are weaker than normal and it still performed much better than expected.

5:15 machop before the second gym? i only ever got one for trading in goldenrod which is after the 2nd gym

What I don't understand is why Machamp is eligible due to "the assumption you have perfect access to Pokemon". If using Pokemon obtained via trade is allowed, you could also complete the game with Mewtwo.

In my last Crystal run, i completely disrespected Claire with Ursaring and Fury Swipes, really a good pokemon. Became one of my favorite when i beat Gale of Darkness with only Vaporeon and Ursaring 15 years ago

fun fact, a ghastly, haunter or gengar with curse, can completely counter Red’s killing machine snorlax. regardless of level

Super surprising seeing a Fire Punch (manga) reference; that really made my day LOL

The good thing with for alligator is once you get it you don’t have to worry about getting another water type Pokémon to use surf so you have an extra slot for a different type of Pokémon.

You expertly weaved the sponsorship into the video. It was honestly impressive.

Finally someone giving the gen 2 Geodude line the respect they deserve.

I would say that a honorable mention could definitely be Foretress, as you can get a Drowsy early in Crystal, it learns by lvl UP Headbutt which can open to Pinecone or other evolved pokemon as Noctowl or Ariados early in the game, they won't ger you through al the gyms but it is a great pokemon you can use as a ticking bomb if you need some extra damage in desperate situations

BIG downsides for the Gastly line: ONLY Gengar gets the elemental punches. Haunter and Gastly don’t yet (though they do get Thunderbolt in Crystal via tutor). Meaning if you’re playing a ROM and thus cannot trade, you’re stuck with Haunter, Kadabra, Graveler, and Machoke and of this lot Haunter kinda sucks. They aren’t unusable at all: a fast Hypnosis on top of a normal and fighting immunities are SUPER helpful early game-especially against Whitney’s war crime of a Miltank-but out of all 4 Kanto trade evos Haunter is by far neutered the most if it can’t evolve into Gengar. The worst part is this is basically for next to no reason, Kadabra can learn all 3 without evolving and it’s also a Kanto trade evo special attacker, they could’ve done the same for Haunter and just didn’t. It also doesn’t even have the ability to explode without transferring it from a Gen 1 game, even though Graveler does. Their only gimmicks are their immunities, Hypnosis and using that sleep to either switch out to something like Kadabra or using Dream Eater (you don’t get till 39), or Destiny Bond shenanigans (you don’t get until level 48). I wouldn’t recommend using Haunter for in game late game compared to other better options, but if it’s any consolation prize, Haunter is your absolute BEST option in one particular instance and that’s catching the legendary dogs. It’s your fastest Mean Looker that none of them have a type advantage on so they can’t escape, using Hypnosis so they can’t Roar you out, and by the time you out speed Raikou you have to be at like level 40 so Night Shade actually kinda does decent set damage. If you intend on catching them and using the doggos, definitely catch and raise a Gastly to Haunter, but after that maybe get some priests and lay it to rest-it’s earned it.

geodude line was actually used in one of the TASes for gold/silver! Getting it so early and rng manip for highest magnitude always is OP

really excited to play your romhack :)

Ampharos - or better known as "The Nuke in ur Pocket that u get after the first Gym because Yolo i guess". Love it

Any release date expected?

Golem is actually freakin awesome in gen 2, used it on my last playthrough, defense curl + roll out, defeated red at level 55 XD

Impressive that you were able to weave in talking about your sponsor while still going on about the subject of your video. I actually haven't seen much of, if any content creators do that.

This is the smoothest ad integration I've ever seen on this platform.

Wow I would've never thought the Geodude line would be top 10 let alone #1 but your reasoning is bulletproof. From availability to matchups to move pool he's all around good

Gotta love ARATAKI NUMERO UNO ITTO's theme song playing in the background

I usually taught my Flaaffy Fire Punch, and Thunder Punch if I had the cash, as soon as possible, what a beast

I've always said that a female Geodude is the best counter for Whitney, glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks like this.

It is very unique and nice that you are the only one I know to reference a sponsorship with the video you are making e.g.how you referenced kingdra's defence capabilities with surfshark's ability to protect your computer from danger.

Geodude using STAB Mud-Slap is a great strategy for Whitney's infamous MIltank, First of all it resists Stomp and Rollout and after 3 or 4 Accuracy drops, Rollout gets severely nerfed. Female Geodude nullifying Attract is just icing on the cake

Not useful against Morty *laughs in confusion*

Used nidoking during my vc crystal playthrough. Can confirm it’s goated

adding in that sponorship into the video like that was probably the best "sponsorship add in" i've ever seen . That was really creative.

Hardcore Nuzlockes of the vanilla GSC games are made much easier with Totodile as your starter, it's by far the strongest and fully accessible. You can even solo HC Nuzlocke the game with it.

6:10 i thought you could get a fire stone from the school boy if you have him registered on the pokegear? There are a couple of trainers around Johto that will call you and say they have something for you, and they will give you evolution stones.

I can only agree to get a Geodude in a Gen 2 Nuzlocke (either base games, remakes or roms) is always a good sign.

I like how you immediately go into the topic and not dance around

Even at 5th, Typhlosion is getting slept on. With halfway decent DVs, it rather easily soloes every major fight in the game at level (without potions, etc. because anything can do that). Usually you don't even need to be at level for Red. 70ish works fine. You get the charcoal super early then just use fire move, dig/eq when you get it, thunder punch, whatever you want in last. And that's just solo. If you decide you want to get another team member and grind, it becomes even easier.

When your next video on the postgame improvements coming?

TBH that was the cleanest sponsor ever. You cant skip it or youll miss the entry so you have to watch it. Smart.

Yeah, I used a Golem, Gene, on my first Crystal playthrough. My catchphrase during the early game was, "Gene, carry me!"

That was the most effective ad I've ever seen because skipping it means skipping all of kingdra.

I’d wish he’d post the Gen2 stat distribution instead of the Gen4 stats for the Pokémon…

Great vid but one part confused me...at 8:12 you say Ampharos' 115 special attack lets it take advantage of Fire punch. How does special attack play into this?

bro what you did with the ad was genius

Geodude also has access to rapid spin to get rid of spikes and leech seer

5:20 Machop cannot be encountered before second gym. Only after you get to Goldenrod can you get one via Trade

So I raised an eyebrow at first with Kingdra (and not because of the ad) being in this at all. I had no clue a dragon scale was able to be theived off wild pokemon from the Horse and Dratini line until today (almost a quarter century after the game came out). The only one you can get in the overworld I believe requires Waterfall (which means you are getting it WAAYYYYY too late). So that does make it a little better. Even still, I think it deserves to be dinged because that's a lot of effort to get it (thieving the scale + trade EVO) and it would still need to be around halfway through the game before you get access to it. I'd bump it off, raise Feraligatr up one and move Quagsire to rank 10. The rest of the list is...alright and at least is logically consistent. Golem, Alakazam, Gengar, and Machamp are going to naturally be in the top 5 because their evolution method isn't predicated on in-game effort. You can get a third stage evolution without leveling up the middle one once and you don't get gatekept by not having an item. You can have Alakazam for the Whitney fight and not be overlevelling her gym lol. I think you already mentioned how it might go, but it may be interesting if you put a limit on when those pokemon could be evolved (or just simply don't do any trade evos; but that kills like three other pokemon). So i guess there's no perfect way to handle that lol.

I hope, right before you release the rom-hack, you make a video telling all the changes you made, why, and their evolution. Like giving karen tyranitar and then removing it

I remember beating Pokemon Red or Blue. He solo'd everything in the entire game from the moment his moveset was complete. Hypnosis, Psychic, Ice Punch, Thunderpunch. Maybe it was Gen 2, and not Gen 1?

I will never change typhosion for any gen 2 pokemon. He is a killer machine and is damn cool.