In-game power

[longfellow]

Something I started throwing together out of boredom. It's complicated and not at all rigorous. It's just me playing with numbers more than finding anything useful, but whatever, I think it's interesting.

The idea is to measure how powerful a Pokémon based on a set number of experience points. So suppose you're at the beginning of the game and you've just bought Pokéballs and you can give 1000 exp. (enough for a medium-growth Pokémon to reach level 10) to any Pokémon you catch. Which Pokémon will have the highest damage output?

So I calculated average damage, including chance for crit/miss, that different attacks did against a generic enemy of 10 defense. Here are the results (for after 1000 exp.):

Damage ---- Pokémon, Attack ---- Level

22.3 -- NidoranM, Horn Attack -- 12
20.4 -- Charmander, Ember -- 12
19.2 -- Pidgey, Quick Attack -- 12
17.2 -- Rattata, Quick Attack -- 10
16.6 -- Pikachu, Thundershock -- 10
16.2 -- Spearow, Peck -- 10
14.1 -- Charmander, Scratch -- 12
12.6 -- NidoranF, Scratch -- 12
11.4 -- Squirtle, Bubble -- 12
10.9 -- Bulbasaur, Tackle -- 12
10.8 -- Squirtle, Tackle -- 12
9.6 -- Beedrill, Poison Sting -- 10
9.1 -- Butterfree, Tackle -- 10

This is a decent numerical picture of how good these Pokémon are at/around Brock.

So suppose you're at Mt. Moon and you want to know how Pokémon stack up there. I think it's reasonable (given a game where you mete out exp. conservatively/have a big party) that you're looking to reach level 15 or so by the end of Mt. Moon. On a typical Pokémon that's 3375 experience points, or 2275 additional exp. compared to the last list. How strong are our Pokémon now?

61.8 -- Clefable, Mega Punch -- 16
56.5 -- Nidoking, Mega Punch -- 17
54.1 -- Nidoking, Horn Attack -- 17
51.9 -- Nidoqueen, Mega Punch -- 17
51.6 -- Rattata, Hyper Fang -- 15
48.7 -- Wigglytuff, Mega Punch -- 14
44.5 -- Charmeleon, Mega Punch -- 17
42.8 -- Geodude, Mega Punch -- 16
41.5 -- Wartortle, Mega Punch -- 17
40.1 -- Charmeleon, Ember -- 17
40.0 -- Ivysaur, Vine Whip -- 17
38.9 -- Wartortle, Water Gun -- 17
37.8 -- Clefable, Pound -- 16
34.5 -- Spearow, Fury Attack -- 15
31.3 -- Geodude, Rock Throw -- 16
31.2 -- Pidgey, Quick Attack -- 17
31.1 -- Nidoqueen, Scratch -- 17
30.7 -- Butterfree, Confusion -- 15
30.7 -- Spearow, Peck -- 15
29.7 -- Wigglytuff, Pound -- 14
29.2 -- Nidoking, Water Gun -- 17
29.0 -- Pikachu, Thundershock -- 15
28.8 -- Nidoqueen, Water Gun -- 17
27.9 -- Zubat, Bite -- 16
26.0 -- Beedrill, Fury Attack -- 15
26.0 -- Clefable, Water Gun -- 16
23.7 -- Paras, Scratch -- 16
22.6 -- Geodude, Tackle -- 16
16.0 -- Wigglytuff, Water Gun -- 14
0.0 -- Magikarp, Splash -- 12

The next list is for 8000 exp. (4625 extra from the last list) and includes all the Pokémon that can be found before you get HM01.

355.3 -- Dugtrio, Dig -- 32
201.5 -- Dugtrio, Body Slam -- 32
147.4 -- Geodude, Dig -- 21
133.9 -- Diglett, Dig -- 24
133.7 -- Sandshrew, Dig -- 20
128.7 -- Raticate, Body Slam -- 20
124.5 -- Clefable, Body Slam -- 21
123.4 -- Farfetch'd (DUX), Body Slam -- 22
114.3 -- Nidoqueen (SPOT), Body Slam -- 24
109.9 -- Nidoking, Body Slam -- 22
109.4 -- Raticate, Hyper Fang -- 20
109.0 -- Wigglytuff, Body Slam -- 20
105.5 -- Kadabra, Confusion -- 20
96.8 -- Mr. Mime, Confusion -- 21
96.6 -- Charmeleon, Dig -- 22
95.7 -- Dugtrio, Scratch -- 32
93.7 -- Wartortle, Dig -- 22
86.5 -- Meowth, Body Slam -- 20
84.7 -- Nidoking, Horn Attack -- 22
83.5 -- Geodude, Body Slam -- 21
83.0 -- Paras, Dig -- 20
82.9 -- Mankey, Body Slam -- 20
82.9 -- Nidoqueen (SPOT), Bubblebeam -- 24
82.1 -- Charmeleon, Body Slam -- 22
79.8 -- Ivysaur, Body Slam -- 22
79.6 -- Wartortle, Body Slam -- 22
79.0 -- Mankey, Karate Chop -- 20
78.0 -- Ekans, Dig -- 20
77.6 -- Beedrill, Twineedle -- 20
77.6 -- Drowzee, Confusion -- 20
75.7 -- Fearow, Fury Attack -- 21
75.6 -- Diglett, Body Slam -- 24
73.4 -- Sandshrew, Slash -- 20
73.6 -- Fearow, Peck -- 21
71.5 -- Nidoking, Bubblebeam -- 22
71.0 -- Clefable, Bubblebeam -- 21
70.6 -- Paras, Body Slam -- 20
66.2 -- Ekans, Body Slam -- 20
66.1 -- Weepinbell, Vine Whip -- 21
65.7 -- Pikachu, Body Slam -- 20
62.9 -- Farfetch'd, Fury Attack -- 22
62.2 -- Meowth, Bite -- 20
61.0 -- Ivysaur, Vine Whip -- 22
60.7 -- Charmeleon, Ember -- 22
59.0 -- Farfetch'd, Peck -- 22
58.9 -- Wartortle, Water Gun -- 22
57.5 -- Pidgeotto, Quick Attack -- 22
56.8 -- Clefable, Pound -- 21
56.3 -- Drowzee, Body Slam -- 20
52.3 -- Wigglytuff, Pound -- 20
49.6 -- Butterfree, Confusion -- 20
48.8 -- Geodude, Rock Throw -- 21
48.7 -- Ekans, Bite -- 20
48.2 -- Weepinbell, Wrap -- 21
48.1 -- Raticate, Bubblebeam -- 20
45.1 -- Pikachu, Thundershock -- 20
44.8 -- Wigglytuff, Bubblebeam -- 20
39.0 -- Zubat, Bite -- 20
34.2 -- Paras, Scratch -- 20
33.9 -- Gloom, Absorb -- 21
10.4 -- Magikarp, Tackle -- 17

Anyways, numbers. This is as far as I got but hopefully I'll get around to playing with them some more and seeing who really are the strongest in-game Pokémon (at least by this limited metric).

[David the Chansey]

It was obvious to me that Dugtrio would come out on top. Plus you can find it at levels 29 and 31 in red/blue (not sure about yellow)

[t3h Icy]

Very cool idea!

[magic9mushroom]

What numbers are you using to calculate Wrap average damage? The damage in one turn, the damage in one PP, the damage before the opponent gets a hit in?

[samthedigital]

I see two problems with this list. It firstly assumes that all Pokemon are getting even experience, but Pokemon that are obtained earlier are naturally going to gain more experience. It also doesn't take into account typing, but that would be really difficult to do. I'm not sure how you are going to handle OHKO moves, but they do give a select few Pokemon a huge advantage when combined with X-Accuracy. This is neat though, and it does give a nice general feel for what Pokemon are better even if it can't show the exact picture.