Pokemon players convinced one ‘mon is “most unusable” for playthroughs
The Pokemon CompanyA Pokemon fan broke down why, despite a cool design, Generation 6’s Noivern is nearly impossible to use while playing through the main story.
The Pokemon franchise now boasts over 1,000 creatures for players to catch and train. With so many Pokemon across nine generations of games, it’s a given that not all will be equally suitable for playthroughs
But while every Pokemon – even the most unpopular designs – has its fans, some are simply harder to make use of than others. This is especially true when playing through the main story, as players are more likely to be training Pokemon they plan to use against Gym Leaders and rivals than leveling up ‘mons they don’t plan to bring into battle.
With that in mind, one player is making the case that the least viable Pokemon for the main story in all the games it’s available in is Noivern.
NianticNoibat and Noivern’s evolution level & stats make it hard to use
Reddit user OrangeVictorious explained why Noivern is so “unusable” in a post on the Pokemon subreddit.
As the post discusses, the main issue with Noivern is that its pre-evolution, Noibat, doesn’t evolve until level 48. For context, that’s the same level as the seventh gym in Kalos, and the eighth gyms in Galar and Paldea – by which point most players “will absolutely have a solid team.”
Making it even worse is that Noibat’s stats are pretty lackluster. Its base stat total is just 245, which is lower than the starters (who generally sit in the low 300s) and even weaker than the oft-memed Bidoof.
Because of this, the poster argues “Noibat will be pulling zero weight on your team, exasperated further by its god awful level up moveset.”
On top of all that, Noivern is not nearly as strong as other Pokemon that evolve at higher levels, such as the pseudo-legendaries. Pokemon like Metagross, Garchomp and Baxcalibur also evolve at high levels, but they have a BST of 600 and middle evolutions that bridge the gap between weak unevolved forms and strong final evolutions.
Ultimately, the poster concludes that “I can’t imagine why Noivern got screwed so hard, but it’s absolutely the most unviable playthrough Pokémon across every game.”
Various commenters have pointed out that various Gen 5 Pokemon like Pawniard, Rufflet and Meinfoo don’t evolve until at least level 50. However, these ‘mons have better stats and move pools, allowing them to pull their weight in ways Noibat cannot.
Regardless of its downsides, many players, the poster included, will continue to use Noivern – though hopefully, a future game does the Pokemon justice.
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