With nearly 1,000 Pokemon to choose from out of a modern Pokedex, it can be difficult to whittle down that roster to six for a full party. More often than not, trainers will simply pick the six they believe to be best suited for their team without looking at the hundreds of other available Pokemon. There really is no way around this, though. The series is expanding at a rapid rate with each Generation bringing more and more Pokemon into the fray. The only way to create some semblance of balance is to downsize.
This is exactly what Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee did when they were released. In an attempt to evoke Generation I, both new titles downsized their rosters back down to the original 151 (albeit with one new addition). As a result, it’s actually easy to find a team of six! Only in comparison, however. 151 is still a huge number to wade through. For every bad Pokemon, there are two great ones, and it’s hard to tell who’s who. If you’re looking for the best of the best, look no further.
Updated April 7, 2022 by Gabrielle Huston: This article has been updated with extra details and fresh new images. Good luck creating your team!
14 Cloyster
On paper, Cloyster should be quite awful. With such a low Special Defense state, pretty much any Special Attack can knock out Cloyster in one shot. Its typing - Water/Ice - barely gives it any advantage in itself, only increasing its weaknesses. So why is Cloyster opening the strongest list? One word: defense.
Cloyster has one of the highest, if not the actual highest, defense stats in the entire game. Special Attacks will absolutely throttle it, but everything else? Cloyster will stand loud and proud, tanking hits. Naturally, you’ll need to use Cloyster intelligently, only tossing him out when you know for sure he can survive. When that time comes, though, reap your reward.
13 Blastoise
More often than not, your starters are going to end up strong enough to help you get through the Elite Four, at the very least. Of course, the fact that Pikachu and Eevee aren’t on this list does almost contradict that notion, but do remember that they are starters in the conventional sense. Blastoise, though? He’s the real deal. He’s a turtle with cannons on his shell. What’s not to love?
A pure Water Type doesn’t really give Blastoise all the advantages he may need, but his great moves and all-around higher-than-average stats do make him one of the better starters to take into the post-game. At the very least, he’s a better starter than Venusaur, although the competition is admittedly close.
12 Alolan Exeggutor
Traditionally, Grass Types are not very strong. For whatever reason, they rarely, if ever, get the same focus as their Fire and Water counterparts. At the same time, this does not mean there are no good Grass Types. While Venusaur did not make the list, his spirit lives on through Alolan Exeggutor. The biggest neck in the industry.
Although his Alolan counterpart is acting as the Grass rep, Exeggutor is great in his own right. It’s only that Alolan Exeggutor brings out all of Exeggutor’s latent potential front and center. With solid stats and good move variety, Alolan Exeggutor is the perfect Grass Type for any party in need of one.
11 Charizard
Even if Charizard wasn’t ridiculously strong, he would still be kind of a fan favorite. This is evidenced by the fact that Charizard wasn’t all too great in Generation I, if only because of how long it took to actually get him going. Picking Charmander was basically Gen I’s hard mode, giving you a disadvantage from start to finish.
Nowadays, though, Charizard is bolstered thanks to his incredible stats, incredible moves, and incredible Mega Evolutions. Both Mega Charizard Y and Mega Charizard X are fantastic additions to any party. Even then, though, base Charizard is enough to pack one heck of a punch.
10 Lapras
It’s honestly an oddity that Lapras is as good as it is. Despite some truly baffling typing, Lapras is able to overcome its inherent flaws thanks to some fairly unique moves and balanced stats. A well-trained Lapras can do some serious damage with Ice Beam, for instance.
At the same time, Lapras is not a Pokemon who can just brute force its way to victory. If you want to use Lapras properly, you need to strategize around them. This does mean it’s one of the more high-maintenance “strong” Pokemon on this list, but it is worth using thanks to high CP, balanced stats, and some surprisingly strong moves. Catch your own Lapras in the waterway routes!
9 Snorlax
Snorlax has always been one of Generation I’s better Pokemon. High defense, high offense, and high health, Snorlax is the quintessential JRPG tank given Pocket Monster form. Later Generations have only made Snorlax all the stronger thanks to the inception of held items. Unfortunately, Let’s Go drops said mechanic.
This actually goes to show how powerful Snorlax is. Even without held items to bolster its strength, Snorlax still holds up in a post Gen I world where Pokemon are actually balanced. He may not have his signature Leftovers, but Snorlax can survive and destroy more than enough in its path to warrant a place on any party. A rarity for Normal Types.
8 Gyarados
From a purely stat-concerned perspective, of course, Gyarados is as amazing as he is. With an incredibly unique type, fantastic moves, and high offense and defense, it’s no surprise Gyarados is as powerful as he is. At the same time, what makes Gyarados great is its usability, not its stats or its moves. Be careful who you bully at level 5.
Considering you can buy a Magikarp incredibly early in the game for dirt cheap, you can get Gyarados ridiculously fast should you put in the effort to do so. It absolutely is worth it since Gyarados is one of the few early-game Pokemon (that isn’t a starter) whom you can comfortably bring all the way to the Elite Four.
7 Arcanine
Although Charizard is the fan favorite when it comes to Kanto fire types, it can barely hold a candle to the likes of Arcanine. Easily one of the most underrated Pokemon in all of Gen I, Arcanine hits hard, hits fast, and takes a surprising amount of damage for a Pokemon that so often goes ignored.
An Arcanine with a Lonely nature gets the job done with even more ease. Although being Lonely will decrease Arcanine’s base defense by quite a bit - and it’s a stat it does need - the elevated attack paired with the naturally high speed can ensure some genuine sweeping if trained properly.
6 Moltres
Moltres has always been the weakest of Kanto’s three Legendary birds. Whether it be Gen I, Gen III, or Let’s Go, there’s little Moltres can do to get a leg (wing?) up over its brethren. At the same time, “worst” is by no means synonymous with “bad.” Moltres is still the strongest Fire Type in Let’s Go.
As Water Type Pokémon tend to be so overwhelmingly strong thanks to moves like Surf, it can be hard to build a good team around a strong Fire Type. While Moltres will still take perhaps more damage than it should from Water Type moves, its high stats and versatile move pool make it a strong enough Pokémon to put up a great fight.
5 Zapdos
Zapdos has always been a fantastic Pokémon. Even all the way back in Generation I, Zapdos was worth taking right to the very end. A level-50 Zapdos can realistically dominate most of the Elite Four with careful and strategic play. High stats, a nice Type advantage, and a great set of moves turn Zapdos into more than just an electrocuted oversized pigeon.
The only real downside to Zapdos is that, if you’re playing Let’s Go Pikachu, you probably won’t want another Electric Type on your team. If you’re playing Let’s Go Eevee, however, Zapdos can be an incredibly valuable asset for your late-game team. There’s a bit of a stigma against using Legendaries, but Zapdos is cool enough to toe that line.
4 Articuno
Traditionally, Zapdos tends to be the best of Kanto’s three Legendary birds. In general, Electric Types fare much better in battle than Ice Types do. In fact, Ice Type Pokemon might actually be the weakest in the entire series on a whole. Not that that’s going to stop the actual strongest Legendary bird, Articuno.
Perhaps it’s because of Let’s Go’s slightly reconfigured mechanics, but Articuno is easily the best of the three Legendary birds this time around. It, of course, still suffers from a poor Type and some less than stellar moves, but Articuno makes up for its weaknesses with raw stats and the sheer novelty of being an Ice Type Pokemon worth using.
3 Dragonite
Dragon Types were so overpowered that the modern Generations in the series needed to introduce Fairy Types just to rival them. Naturally, now we have two obscenely overpowered Types, but that’s not always a bad thing - especially if you really like Dragon-Type Pokemon like the appropriately titled Dragonite.
Like any good Dragon-Type, Dragonite has wide access to a host of different typed moves that naturally allow it to fight off its weaknesses near effortlessly. Dragonite himself is particularly useful due to how well varied his stats are. A well-trained Dragonite is an asset to any party, dealing and taking far more damage than he realistically should.
2 Mew
It goes without saying, but Mew is one of the strongest available Pokemon in all of Let’s Go. Mind you, you aren’t going to get your hands on a Mew anytime soon unless you bought the Pokeball controller, but that just makes its appeal all the greater. Not everyone can get a Mew. Cute, but dangerous.
Mew’s biggest claim to fame is its ability to learn every single move in the game. Although a Psychic-Type by nature, you can mould Mew into anything you want it to be. Naturally, as Mew is a Legendary, it has the stats to fill any role. Only one Pokemon triumphs over Mew in terms of sheer usability, but Mew is a very close second.
1 Mewtwo
It really should come as no surprise that Mewtwo is the strongest Pokemon in the game. Even in Generation I, Mewtwo was the end-all, be-all who trainers could only get at the literal end of their games. Naturally, it’s only fitting for Game Freak to reward players with an obscenely strong Pokemon to make use of.
What makes Mewtwo even stronger this time around is the fact he can Mega Evolve. Both Mewtwo X and Mewtwo Y raise Mewtwo’s stats to astronomical levels. As is, he would already be powerful enough to decimate anything in his path, but Mega Evolving a Legendary makes battles a different game entirely.
NEXT: OP Moves In Pokemon Let’s Go
