26 years later, Pokemon trainers are demanding a Raichu buff
Despite being the evolved form of Pokemon’s mascot, Raichu is pretty abysmal stats-wise, and players are demanding a much-needed buff.
Pikachu is arguably the most well-known Pokemon in the entire franchise with Charizard being a close second. But that’s to be expected since the electric rodent has been the mascot for the franchise for 26 years.
Despite being the literal face of Pokemon, Pikachu isn’t all that powerful. Ash Ketchum had Pikachu on his team since the start of the anime and it took him 21 years to become champion.
This is because Pikachu has subpar stats, but they’re still on par with the starter Pokemon. A simple solution would be to evolve Pikachu into Raichu to raise its stats, but even that isn’t enough.
Pokemon fans demand Raichu buff
Pikachu has a stats total of 320, and evolving it into Raichu only raises its stats to 485. Compared to a starter Pokemon’s final evolution stats of 530, Raichu’s aren’t that great.
This was pointed out by Reddit user diegomenagin14 to the r/Pokemon subreddit. He stated, “My man is the evolution of the most famous Pokémon of all time and its stat total is just 485?”
He went on to point out that its importance alone is enough to warrant it a buff and that its moveset should be changed as well. “It should also get more variety in its moves cause its moveset is very predictable in playthroughs.”
While a fair number of comments agreed with Diego, others defended the Pokemon’s viability. They pointed out how it has very useful moves such as Nuzzle and Fake Out, and its Lightning Rod ability helps tremendously with damage negation.
Others noted that Pikachu had received a buff in Gen 8 so it likely wouldn’t receive another buff anytime soon. Regardless, numerous players want to see the franchise’s mascot treated with more respect.