These 5 Pokemon Are Officially FireRed and LeafGreen's Worst

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen technically include all Pokemon from Gen 1 to Gen 3, but most of them are post-game finds or not even available in the games before Ruby, Sapphire, and potentially Emerald come to Switch and Switch 2. This means that, for the majority of your time playing Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, you’ll be stuck with the Kanto Pokedex, for better or worse. You can’t evolve Golbat into Crobat and Chansey into Blissey before you get the National Dex, and you can’t even get Mewtwo until much later in your adventure. Not all Kanto Pokemon are great, despite their iconic status, but some of them are actually terrible in the Gen 3 remakes.

There are a few reasons why this is the case. For starters, Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen‘s type chart follows the Gen 3 rule of each type dealing either physical or special damage, rather than the split by move that came with later games. This means that some Pokemon are much better or worse in FireRed and LeafGreen than they would normally be. On top of that, some critters have very limited learnsets and stats that don’t pair well with them, ending up as some of the worst Pokemon to use. Five of these are arguably the worst of the bunch, and you shouldn’t use them unless they’re your favorites, or if you’re trying to challenge yourself.

Strongest Pokemon in FireRed & LeafGreen (& Where to Find Them)

Want to find the Strongest Pokemon in FireRed & LeafGreen? Here’s a list of the most powerful Species in the game.

Say Hello to The 5 Worst Pokemon in FireRed and LeafGreen

The worst Pokemon in FireRed and LeafGreen are not necessarily those with the worst stats around. In fact, Gyarados is not great because it doesn’t learn any Flying moves, and Water is a special type, meaning it can’t put its high Attack to good use. However, there are some Pokemon that are simply not good in the Kanto remakes, and they are:

Onix
Lickitung
Seaking
Ditto
Porygon

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

Why You Shouldn’t Use Onix in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen

Onix is a bit of a ridiculous Pokemon, as the anime depicts it as a powerful critter, but the games make it pretty clear that this is not the case. One look at Onix’s BST will make this clear:

HP: 35
Attack: 45
Defense: 160
Sp. Atk: 30
Sp. Def: 45
Speed: 70

The problem is that Onix deals virtually no damage, even if you teach it Earthquake after beating Giovanni in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen‘s Viridian City Gym, as it has a base Attack stat of only 45. It does learn some good moves, like Iron Tail, Double-Edge, and Rock Slide, but it’s ultimately a weak Pokemon that can go down relatively easily if hit with a special attack.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Lickitung in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen

Lickitung is a trade exclusive Pokemon in FireRed and LeafGreen, as you can’t catch it anywhere, even in the post-game. To get it, you need to trade away a Golduck (FireRed) or Slowbro (LeafGreen), which is in and of itself not amazing. To make things worse, Lickitung has a terrible Speed of just 30, meaning it will be outsped most of the time, and its attack stats are also not great (55 Attack and 60 Sp. Atk). It’s vaguely bulky, but it’s hard to vouch for Lickitung when Snorlax exists, and it’s easier to get on top of being better overall.

Lickitung’s best STAB moves are Stomp and Slam, with the former having a base power of 65, and the latter a base power of 80 but an accuracy of 75.
You could teach Mega Kick or Mega Punch to Lickitung to slightly improve its attacks, but neither is excellent.
It learns many good moves via TMs, but they are always best used on other Pokemon.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Seaking in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen

One of the few Kanto Pokemon with no gimmicks, Seaking is arguably one of the worst overall, and not just in FireRed and LeafGreen. Its main problem is that its stats are middling across the board, and its best stat is Attack at 92, but it can’t use it much because Water is a special type in these games. It doesn’t help that all the other Water-type Pokemon in FireRed and LeafGreen are better than Seaking:

Blastoise is tanky and has a better learnset, with higher base Special Attack to make it easier to use Surf or Ice Beam.
Golduck is faster and has much higher Special Attack, also with a good ability.
Poliwrath’s Fighting type makes it better at dealing with Lorelei of Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen‘s Elite Four, and it has better stats too.
Tentacruel has amazing Special Defense and Speed, as well as better moves.
Slowbro is slow, but it’s very tanky, and it has better offensive stats.
Dewgong and Cloyster have Ice STAB moves for more damage with Ice Beam.
Kingler is in a similar position as Seaking, but at least it has a much higher base Attack for physical moves.
Seadra is faster and has more offensive power, and it also evolves in the post-game.
Starmie is one of the best Pokemon in FireRed and LeafGreen and can solo the Elite Four.
Gyarados has Intimidate and better coverage.
Lapras is one of the best Water-type Pokemon in the game with better moves, and it learns Thunderbolt.
Vaporeon has amazing stats and attacks.
Omanyte and Kabutops have similar issues to Seaking, but they have superior stats.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Ditto in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen

Although Ditto in Pokopia is more than a protagonist, but it’s very much a sideline Pokemon in Gen 3 Kanto games. The main reasons are:

Imposter is a Gen 5 ability, meaning you have to manually transform Ditto by “wasting” a turn to use Transform.
Ditto keeps its 48 base HP even when transformed, meaning it’s very likely it won’t survive long.
Ditto’s base Speed of 48 means it will most likely not go first, which means it needs to take damage in its base form before transforming, possibly being OHKOed.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Porygon in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen

Pokemon Anime Porygon Electric Soldier Pokemon

Last but not least, Porygon is sub-par at best in Gen 3 Kanto games. This is because Normal is a physical type and Porygon is a special attacker, but also because Porygon has a very low Speed at 40, with middling stats overall.

Despite learning Recover, the biggest problems for Porygon are:

It can’t evolve into Porygon2 before the post-game.
Its Tri Attack deals physical damage, making Dodrio the best user of this move.
Shadow Ball and Hyper Beam only deal physical damage.
Conversion and Conversion 2 are mediocre moves at best, as they require setup for possibly little to no benefits, depending on the fight.