The introduction to the Pokemon franchise, for many people, began in Gen 3 with Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. With an exciting new region on new hardware featuring so many new creatures, there was a lot of buzz about these games, and it led to them becoming some of the best-selling games on the Game Boy Advance.
While this generation contained several of the most beloved Pokemon of the series, not all of them were equally useful. Many of these species are still considered the best Gen 3 Pokemon and continued to be the best Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire options, while others have remained pointless in every game they appear in.
Updated April 4, 2021 by Gene Cole: With so much time having passed the original Hoenn games, we’ve seen tons of Gen 3 Pokemon remain just as powerful in Pokemon Sword & Shield, and many differ from the between the best Pokemon in Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald compared to the best Pokemon in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. There are several that can demolish opponents in your Galar adventures, but only a few can crush your opponents especially well in the original and remade Hoenn games.
30 Strong: Breloom
Breloom was a remarkably unique Pokemon compared to other early game Grass-types. It had an excellent move pool and Attack stat to go with its risky Grass and Fighting-type combination, making it an immediate threat on the battlefield. It lacked quite a lot of speed, but it often made up for this by having utility moves like Spore to put foes to sleep with great accuracy.
It’s remained as a powerful option in every Hoenn game, and it’s a sorely missed competitive favorite from Pokemon Sword & Shield since it was one of few Pokemon to learn its highly efficient sleep move. Unless you went with Treeko and already had a Grass-type, Breloom was essentially the perfect Grass-type option early in the game.
29 Strong: Manectric
Manectric is somewhat of an underrated Electric-type among the series, having a somewhat goofy appearance due to its thick lightning-bolt head and an oddly blue body. This has led people to not often be familiar with its stats, which is a shame because it actually has one of the most impressive combinations of Speed and Special Attack in any non-Legendary Pokemon from the Hoenn games.
This made it an absolute all-star if your team needed an Electric-type to deal with the later Water-type experts of the game. Manectric is perhaps also one of the best Pokemon in Emerald because of this, as the final champion is replaced by the Water-type pro Wallace and can be destroyed instantly with some fast Electric-type strikes.
28 Weak: Seviper
Pokemon Sapphire really ended up with the short end of the stick when it came to version exclusives, as many of the worst Pokemon in Sapphire are only obtainable in this edition. This is especially evident with Seviper, a thicker version of the Poison-type Arbok with a far stranger stat spread.
It definitely had some solid all-around Attack and Special Defense stats, but most of the moves it learned were far too weak to make a dent in the original game. It got slightly better in Pokemon Alpha Sapphire thanks to a wider variety of Poison-type moves like Venoshock and Poison Jab, but it still never had the speed or defense to make its offense worthwhile.
27 Strong: Zangoose
Pokemon Ruby had a much better selection of version exclusives, with its parallel to Seviper being easily one of the best Normal-types in the game. Zangoose has all the physical offense of Seviper with a significantly higher speed, making it a quick dasher who could inflict Normal and Dark-type moves on opponents before they could make a move.
This Pokemon only got better in Pokemon Omega Ruby, where it had access to a more diverse set of Fighting-type moves and a wider selection of TMs. It’s hardly competitive compared to the strongest Pokemon in the series, but it’ll do a great job dealing with any opponent who isn’t a Rock or Steel-type.
26 Strong: Swampert
Most people will always think to counter Water-type Pokemon with Electric-type Pokemon. Being a Water and Ground-type, though, Swampert is immune to all Electric attacks, giving it a serious advantage in battle that none of the other Hoenn starters have. Since there’s no Grass-type Gym Leader to give it trouble, this means Swampert will almost never encounter a Super Effective attack in any of your playthroughs.
This dual typing also gives Swampert a range of moves like Surf and Earthquake that can affect multiple Pokemon at a time, which makes it even more useful in the various new Double Battles throughout the Hoenn games. It was arguably the least-used of all the starters, but it still made a splash in the meta.
25 Weak: Delcatty
Fans of cute Pokemon will be disappointed to hear that Ruby and Sapphire aren’t the games for them. There are plenty of cute Pokemon in the Hoenn region, but none of them are particularly useful in battle, and this is especially true of Skitty and its evolution Delcatty.
Despite its Normal typing giving it access to many different moves, Delcatty doesn’t have the stats to support any casual or competitive strategy. Even a Pokemon without a type advantage would be able to get rid of it with a single move, and evolving it requires maximizing its friendship stat, making Delcatty a huge investment with zero payoff.
24 Strong: Sceptile
Where many Grass-type Pokemon were focused on healing and defense in the first few Pokemon games, Sceptile was one of the first ones that prioritized speed and attack. Introducing the Leaf Blade attack to the game, Sceptile became one of the strongest Grass-types in the entire franchise.
Players who went with the other Hoenn starters likely didn’t miss it thanks to other Grass-types like Breloom and Ludicolo, but Sceptile became much more useful when it was given a Mega Evolution that added a Dragon-type. From there, Sceptile’s impressive stats grew absurdly high, and it essentially became the strongest starter Pokemon in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire.
23 Strong: Blaziken
Blaziken is easily the most popular fully-evolved Hoenn starter, and that’s no surprise given just how strong it can be. Having the dual typing of Fire and Fighting-type, along with mixed offensive stats, Blaziken could easily be made into a quick sweeper in both casual and competitive play.
Its popularity likely is why it got the first mega evolution of the three starters in Pokemon X & Y, raising its offensive stats even higher and adding a Speed Boost ability to grant it fifty percent more Speed at the end of each turn. It’s remained just as powerful as when it first debuted, and is another sorely missed competitive staple left out of Pokemon Sword & Shield.
22 Weak: Swalot
Swalot has often been labeled a shameless copy of Muk, and it’s appropriately just as worthless as the original ball of sludge. Poison-type Pokemon don’t have a lot of decent coverage and leave themselves open to many more popular type matchups, particularly since they’re weak to the strongest moves in Gen 3 like Earthquake and Psychic.
Furthermore, Swalot doesn’t have any good moves to damage opponents besides Sludge Bomb, which it learns at the late level of 37 in Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and the even higher level of 48 in Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire. Simply put, it’s better to just leave this one absent from any team.
21 Strong: Metagross
In each generation, there are pseudo-legendary Pokemon introduced that are often the best choices in the mix. Gen 3 had two of them, one being Metagross. This Steel and Psychic-type has excellent stats, being a champion in both offensive and defensive strategies with a Clear Body ability to avoid any troubling stat changes.
Coupled with great coverage through moves like Meteor Mash and Psychic to give it Super Effective moves against nearly every type of Pokemon, Metagross remains one of the best Pokemon in both casual and competitive play to date. It was made an even more viable pick with its overpowered Mega Evolution in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which only gave it higher stats and made up for its concerning number of weaknesses.
20 Strong: Salamence
Alongside Metagross, the other pseudo-legendary Pokemon from Gen 3 is Salamence. This dragon type has all the right stats and moves to make it one of the best picks in the game. It was extremely hard to train, not evolving from a Shelgon until level 55, but extremely worth your time, and it only got stronger with its Mega Evolution in the remakes.
Much like Metagross, though, it had a slight downside in that you couldn’t actually obtain one easily before the Elite 4. This meant Salamance was reserved more for the post-game events like the Battle Frontier instead of your main story, but that hasn’t stopped Salamance from being one of the best competitive Dragon-types in the series.
19 Weak: Luvdisc
Luvdisc is one of the most universally-hated Pokemon to date. On top of its slightly awkward-looking (though romantic) design, Luvdisc isn’t useful in combat on any level. There was almost no reason to have one in a team if players wanted to defeat any impressive trainers, let alone using it in a competitive match.
Without any decent stats or access to any good moves, Luvdisc fell through the tiers, leaving it one of the most useless Pokemon in the entire generation. The only reason it was ever useful was to farm Heart Scale items, which could be sold to the Move Relearner to learn old moves, but those have now become free services in Pokemon Sword & Shield and Luvdisc has returned to obscurity.
18 Strong: Milotic
When Milotic was introduced in Ruby and Sapphire, it left quite an impact on the metagame thanks to a terrifyingly balanced set of stats for a pure Water-type. It was one of the bulkier Pokemon in the mix, having the proper stats and abilities to keep it from taking a lot of damage outside of Super Effective attacks.
Furthermore, moves like Recover and Refresh allowed it to stay in battle longer, making it frustrating to take down if you didn’t have enough damage to kill it in one or two fast hits. That said, Milotic became less viable as the series continued, and while it still shows up in competitive play and is great for your runs of any Gen 3 game, there have been several more Pokemon introduced in recent games that can handle it.
17 Strong: Gardevoir
Gardevoir was a decent Pokemon in Ruby and Sapphire, having a nice move pool and decent stats to allow it an advantage against its opponents. However, things changed when it got an additional Fairy-type trait and Mega Evolution in Pokemon X & Y, as it then became an absolute menace that few Psychic or Fairy-type Pokemon could match.
Some online battling forums ended up banning it due to its utility, having amazing type coverage to deal with the game’s strongest Dragon-type and Dark-type opponents. It seems like just a little change, but it helped this popular Pokemon go from pretty good in the original games to outright overpowered after Gen 6.
16 Weak: Armaldo & Cradily
It’s extremely rare that any Fossil Pokemon is good, but Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire’s pair of fossils may be some of the worst in series history. Armaldo is especially tragic, as this unique Rock and Bug-type had more weaknesses than most other Pokemon and very few worthwhile moves to make up for this vulnerability.
Cradily was only slightly better, but being Rock and Grass-type meant it shared most of the same weaknesses. It managed to be slightly more relevant in competitive play in recent games thanks to interesting hidden abilities and new moves, but both of these similar Pokemon ended up being too slow and unimpactful compared to any other Pokemon of the same type in all of Hoenn.
15 Strong: Altaria
Altaria is a glamorous example of a bird Pokemon, but underneath the surface lies the face of a monster in battle. Much of its power comes in its rare typing, as there are few Dragon-types that are available early in the Hoenn games and it can resist a massive number of common moves among Hoenn’s Gym Leaders.
However, its Mega Evolution gave it a risky Dragon and Fairy dual typing, making it extremely versatile in both moves and coverage. Altaria can function just about any role, but its defensive potential is where it really shines, and maxing its physical defense with Cotton Guard in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire can help you win almost any battle against a physical foe.
14 Strong: Hariyama
Hariyama doesn’t have great defensive stats, but what it lacks in those areas, it more than accommodates with its HP and attack. Hariyama is a mean Pokemon, boasting moves like Fake Out to stall your poisoned or burned opponents and Knock Off to get rid of any pesky berries or items they might be taking advantage of.
Beyond that, it also had a move pool that allowed it to properly counter a lot of Pokemon that would’ve been untouchable otherwise, particularly Fire-types thanks to a good set of Rock and Ground-type options. It’s become irrelevant against more exciting Fighting-types in recent games, but it’s hardly a bad choice in any of the Hoenn games if you don’t have a Blaziken on its way to fill your Fighting-type role.
13 Weak: Masquerain
In a game where better Bug-types exist, there is almost no reason to choose Masquerain. Its typing would be interesting if it had the stats to properly use it, but like most Bug and Flying-type combinations, Masquerain suffers from a shallow movepool and poor stats that result in every attack annihilating it instantly.
Even worse are its offensive stats, which are too low to use anything that would make Masquerain potentially interesting. It has a few surprising rare moves like Hydro Pump at its disposal, but you’re better off using nearly any other Pokemon if you want to make a serious impact on an opponent with stronger Pokemon.
12 Strong: Dusclops
Unlike the past example of a version exclusive, Pokemon Ruby’s Dusclops isn’t that much better than Pokemon Sapphire’s Banette. Both are quite slow and defensive Ghost-type threats that lean more on physical damage stats, which is quite a blessing in the original games since Ghost-type attacks only dealt physical damage.
What puts Dusclops above Banette is its immense defensive stats, which can make it almost impossible to defeat. With moves like Pain Split to restore its health further, it’s remained incredibly dominant in Pokemon Sword & Shield as a competitive tank, and can carry your team in any Hoenn game with just as much ease.
11 Strong: Latios & Latias
While the majority of Gen 3 legendaries have always been restricted to temporary events related to movies or pre-order bonuses, Latios & Latias ended up becoming an automatic inclusion in Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. You gain access to one only mid-way through the game, and as a speedy Dragon and Psychic-type Pokemon they can easily outclass nearly every other Pokemon on your team.
This was an odd choice for the game, as it made things almost unfairly easy by having this effective legendary at no cost to the player. They aren’t necessarily the strongest Pokemon in the game, but it’s clear that these two are the greatest example of Pokemon that can break the game and change how it’s played if you include it in your team.
