Nuzlocke Mount Rushmore: The 4 Best Pokémon Across the Entire Series

Every Nuzlocker knows that not all Pokémon are created equal.

Every game and region has Pokémon that excel. Some Pokémon are all-stars in one region, but average or mediocre in others. Some Pokémon are all-around excellent, but are only obtainable in a limited number of generations. These aren’t the Pokémon we’re focusing on today.

Today, we’re focusing on the Pokémon that have stood the tests of time and power creep – that prove their worth time and time again, across many different generations of Pokémon games. And while there were many candidates, only four Pokémon’s faces can be carved into that mountain. We’re looking for Pokémon that fulfill the following criteria:

• They’re available in many or most of the Pokémon games
• They’re common or easy to obtain
• They’re consistently powerful, versatile, and useful in whichever region they show up.

Let’s dive in and see which four Pokémon are the best for Nuzlocking across the entire Pokémon series.

The Four Best Nuzlocke Pokémon

#1: Gyarados

No surprises here – you saw this monster in the thumbnail, and even if you hadn’t, you’d have guessed.

Where to start? We’ve written a whole article about what makes Gyarados so powerful, but let’s recap some of the highlights here.

1. Gyarados has a ridiculous Base Stat Total of 540, higher than a fully evolved starter Pokémon… and evolves at Level 20. At that point, it’s a full tier stronger than any other Pokémon available to you.
2. Its ability, Intimidate, lowers the opponent’s Attack and makes Gyarados (and the rest of your team) even bulkier in battle than its stats would suggest.
3. Its typing makes it a perfect pivot, with a Ground-type immunity and a 4x weakness to Electric that can be used to manipulate opposing Trainer’s AI.
4. Perhaps most importantly for this list, Magikarp is ridiculously easy to obtain, and is available in every mainline region except Unova.

Let’s just get it out of the way – Gyarados is the Nuzlocke King. That said, let’s look at the other three faces on our Mount Rushmore, starting with…

#2: Eevee

Eevee earns this spot by being not just one Pokémon, but eight. While it’s rare for any of the “Eeveelutions” themselves to ascend to S-tier in any particular game, the ability to take your Eevee, identify any weakness in your team, and pick an evolution to fill the gap is invaluable.

• Have a Water or Flying-type Gym coming up? Fast Electric-type Pokémon like Jolteon are hard to come by and always appreciated.

• Need a staller to maneuver around a powerful offensive threat? Umbreon does the job better than anyone.

• Lost a batch of encounters, and need an ol’ reliable bulky Water-type? Vaporeon is among the best.

Like Gyarados, Eevee is available in almost every mainline Pokémon game (the Hoenn games and Black/White being the exceptions) and is often a guaranteed NPC gift encounter. This availability and versatility earns Eevee a spot among the best Nuzlocke Pokémon.

#3: Crobat

When you played Pokémon as a kid, you groaned every time you took a step in a cave and Zubat popped up.

Now, as a Nuzlocker, you’re thrilled when Zubat appears – you’ve found a consistent, versatile Pokémon that can evolve early and utilize blazing speed, a deep pool of utility moves, and deceptively great bulk.

In terms of availability, Zubat gives even Magikarp a run for its money – it’s the poster child of annoyingly common Pokémon that you find absolutely everywhere. While it can’t be obtained until after receiving the National Dex in FireRed and LeafGreen, and didn’t exist in Gen 1, it is otherwise obtainable in almost every Pokémon game.

In addition to Zubat’s meme-worthy availability, it evolves early. Zubat evolves into Golbat at Level 22, and because Crobat is a friendship evolution, you can technically obtain it as soon as Level 23 (if you’re willing to run in circles for a while). Being able to access a Pokémon with a Base Stat Total of 535 this early is often enough to trivialize the early to mid-game.

Let’s not forget Crobat’s typing either, which allows it to bait Electric and Psychic-type attacks to switch its Ground and Dark-type teammates in safely. A Ground-immunity of its own also never hurts, and makes bringing this Pokémon in that much easier.

If Crobat has one weakness, it’s that its offensive output doesn’t scale well into the end-game, especially in earlier generations – Wing Attack and Poison Fang don’t quite keep up with the damage output of other strong Pokémon – but its high speed, bulk, and access to utility moves like Taunt and Haze help it stay useful.

#4: Magneton/Magnezone

Near-universal availability.

Great stats, and a movepool that gets the job done.

Excellent offensive AND defensive Electric/Steel-typing.

What more is there to say about our fourth Pokémon on our list?

Given the abundance of Water and Flying-type Pokémon you’ll face in almost any Nuzlocke, Electric-types are always in demand, and Magneton is among the best and most common of them all. Incredible Special Attack and surprising physical bulk make it useful both offensively and defensively, and this is only more true in games where Magnezone is available – either evolve it for a huge stat boost, or leave it as Magneton and give it Eviolite to boost its defenses even further.

As an added bonus, if your Magneton has the ability Magnet Pull, you can have it lead your party to increase the odds of other Steel-type encounters, depending on which game you’re playing. This can allow you to secure some powerful and rare Pokémon more easily.

While it doesn’t reach its full power as early as the other Pokémon on our list, and , depending on the game, may be a little tougher to encounter than something like Magikarp, it’s available in nearly every mainline game and is virtually always a good pick for your team, earning it the fourth and final spot on Nuzlocke Mount Rushmore.

So those are our picks for the four best Nuzlocke Pokémon across the entire series, but let’s talk about a couple honorable mentions.

Honorable Mention #1: Tentacruel

Another Pokémon that, like Zubat and Magikarp, is almost annoyingly easy to encounter in virtually every Pokémon game, it also packs great stats, typing, and movepool. However, it suffers from being a Water-type in a world where Gyarados, Water-type starters, and many other high-quality Water-type Pokémon are available, and while its secondary Poison-typing allows it to function as a pivot baiting Ground-type attacks, it was difficult to justify including this in the top four.

Honorable Mention #2: Snorlax

A statistical monster – by sheer quality this Pokémon could have earned a top four spot, but it wasn’t quite accessible or common enough to make the cut. While it’s a guaranteed static encounter in a few games, there are simply too many regions in which it’s unavailable or depends on a rare Munchlax encounter to justify bumping any of our other picks down.

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Thanks for reading! For more on which Pokémon are best in specific games, check out our tier list index, and be sure to visit Nuzlocke University for more guides, articles, tips, and Nuzlocke content.

Happy Nuzlocking!