As we continue forward, grab Coin Case (remember to buy one Harbor Mail at Sootopolis City!), and Rock Smash HM, we can go to west, there is Route 117 which has our next set of encounters, Vileplume, Bellossom (yeah these two are also on Route 110, but making join fireflies makes sense to me), Volbeat and Illumise! These are our final encounters before Wattson. How good are our new encounters front of Day Care?

Thanks again for good round. Regarding Plusle, it is easy to catch if you catch electric first since it has Static ability. Static has outside of battle effect from Emerald forward that makes electric types appear more often in the wild, which helps a lot, not that it matters in this tier list, just some free trivia for you. I remember Route 117 very fondly from my childhood, grinding against those trainers since that route had so many rebattles, especially Lydia and Isaac, both Pokemon Breeders. Can't forget about the Day care, I didn't really care about IVs and such my older sister sure did, so that also comes to my mind, anyways, Let's keep up the good discussion.

**Last round voting results:**

**Plusle B Tier**: It turns out that despite having 405 BST, being a solid electric type is all it takes to be good, at least in this game. A great Base 95 Speed, and fine 85 Special Attack. With Thunderbolt, Plusle performs quite well. That's not really only thing Plusle does, it has good support moves as well. Access to moves like Encore, Charm, Agility, and Baton Pass, and Encore allows Plusle to lock opponents into harmless moves (like Flannery's Torkoal into Attract) to get free win.  
  
Despite having a great support kit and typing, 405 BST means Plusle is frail, well physically at least. If it fails to OHKO an opponent with Thunderbolt, it will take massive damage from almost any neutral physical attack. Plusle also lacks any meaningful offensive coverage outside of Electric-type moves, being one trick pony offensively. It really could use Grass Knot from Gen 4 games.

**Minun B Tier**: While Plusle is the offensive twin, Minun is the defensive one (swapping 10 points of Attack/Special Attack for 10 points of Defense/Special Defense). Minun has the same support movepool as Plusle, having moves like Encore, Agility, and Thunder Wave to help with Gym Leaders. The one difference is that Minun naturally learns Charm (instead of Fake Tears), which allows it to cripple physical attackers.  
  
Minun has exact same flaws as Plusle, but with slightly less offensive pressure. The extra bulk really doesn't change anything. It is still a frail Pokémon, and those 10 extra defensive points rarely change how many hits it can take from major bosses. Losing 10 points in Special Attack means it can miss out on certain OHKOs that Plusle might achieve. Like its twin, Minun relies on the Thunderbolt TM to deal meaningful damage and lacks offensive coverage.

**Manectric A- Tier**: Manectric has solid Base 105 Speed and 105 Special Attack. It does one thing, outspeed the opponent and click Electric-type moves. Once you get Thunderbolt TM, Manectric's moveset is ready basically. It has great matchups against Winona, Juan, Wallace, and Glacia. Itss Static ability is good for paralyzing physical attackers, and it can learn another type of special move in form of Bite.  
  
Unfortunately, there are issues that electric types share. Like Plusle and Minun, its offensive movepool is shallow. Outside of Electric moves and Bite, it has zero offensive coverage, and it is also very frail. Simple electric type.

**Swalot C Tier**: Gulpin starts with Yawn, Body Slam when evolves, and learns Toxic at Level 31, so good status moves to start with! It also has wide TM coverage, including Ice Beam, Shock Wave, Shadow Ball, and Giga Drain. Also, Gulpin is in the Fluctuating experience group, so it requires less experience to level up in the early-to-mid game. It is quite nice, since it evolves very quickly into Swalot at Level 26, giving you a bulky Pokémon just in time for the middle Gyms, and routes to be useful.  
  
Unfortunately for Swalot, it is not very offensive pokemon, and for defensive typing, not the best. Poison-type STAB is useless in Hoenn, as there are almost no major boss Pokémon weak to it (mostly notable is Wallace's Ludicolo). Its offensive stats are mediocre (73 Attack / 73 Special Attack), meaning it rarely gets OHKOs and relies hitting super effectively and using status conditions. And since it is standard playthrough, it doesn't help that it is slow. Being outsped constantly makes using Encore awkward and forces it to take a lot of damage. Also its abilities are mostly useless.

**Ranking criteria:**

Final placements are influenced by comment upvotes. Provide both a **tier placement** and a **justification**. Unjustified votes will carry less weight when counting votes. An exception is made if an unjustified vote is heavily upvoted *and* supported by a justified reply/comment from the community for the same tier placement. 

**You can also vote for** **+ and - subtiers (S+ to F-)**, and I will take these into calculation. After the final round, I will break the infographic into subtiers as well.

All Pokémon obtainable in **Emerald** are ranked based on their contribution to the journey until defeating **Champion Wallace**. Leave a comment as well if you think one of the current Pokémons should be in different tier, and why. After final round, we will do one revisit round and see if any rankings should change.

We are assuming a standard playthrough.

* **Set Mode:** Rank Pokémon with Set mode in mind. (Feel free to mention Shift mode benefits, but it shouldn't be the main reason a Pokémon is in a higher tier).
* **No In-Battle Healing:** We are not considering healing items in battle (since any Pokémon can stall with enough potions).
* **Soft Level Cap:** You can overlevel by 1 or 2 levels over the next Gym Leader's ace. (An exception is made if Pokémon that is naturally available at a higher level).

Investment refers to experience and TMs. Obviously, all Pokémon can be great after a massive amount of investment, but we are judging their immediate and practical purpose in-game.

**Emerald TM List:** [https://www.serebii.net/rubysapphire/tmhm.shtml](https://www.serebii.net/rubysapphire/tmhm.shtml) (Check availability here)

Big thanks to BIGJRA for sharing [this script](https://github.com/BIGJRA/emerald-unit-analysis/tree/main/templates) that tracks every Pokémon's learnset (including TMs and Tutors) in the exact order you obtain them in-game! Check it out!

**Trade evolution Pokémon are ranked based** under the assumption that the player has access to trading whether through emulators or other supported methods. If you're playing without access to trades, you may wish to consider their pre-evolutions (like Kadabra or Graveler) instead. These rankings reflect the most common setup among modern players.

If a Pokémon is available on a route, it is fair game. Even if it has a 1% encounter rate (like Seedot) or has absurd capture method (like [Feebas](https://mucksw.github.io/Feebas-Tile-Calculator/)), it does not matter. As long as the Pokémon is available to be caught at that point in the game, it's all good.

**Tier definitions:**

**S (Game-breaking or extremely efficient):** These Pokémon dominate the game. They have excellent stats, movepools, and sweep through most of the game without effort. They are available for **majority** of the game and are "plug and play", just add it to the party and you're good to go.

**A (Strong):** Reliable, easy to use. They lack one major advantage from S tier but still perform consistently great in any playthrough.

**B (Solid):** Strong, but with a drawback or two. They are **not available early**, a limited movepool, or require some extra investment to keep up.

**C (Decent):** Mediocre and outclassed. They clear regular route trainers just fine, but struggle to make a significant impact in many major boss fights due to a combination of average stats, poor matchups, or late availability. They might require heavy investment or a massive late-game spike to finally show their worth.

**D (Niche):** Pokémon that struggle significantly in general battles and are often a liability in standard matchups. However, they possess a unique utility or specific strategy (ex. stalling) that allows them to bypass their drawbacks.

**E (Bad):** Demand far more effort than they are worth. They require heavy TM investment and constant babying just to achieve mediocre results.

**F (Awful):** Useless for in-game runs. Huge investment for almost no return.

Community in-game tier list: Route 117