The Pokemon series has always had its debates about what constitutes a strong Pokemon. Many fans will find success with their classic Charizard in Pokemon Red & Blue and a wave of diverse damage attacks, but competitive battlers can use others like Ferrothorn with strange stats and moves to be just as powerful. Either way, it’s clear there’s a huge amount of diversity in terms of what makes a Pokemon strong.

Related
Pokemon: The 23 Most Powerful Mega Evolutions Of All Time, Ranked
From Mega Charizard X to Mega Absol, we're taking a look at some of the strongest Mega Evolutions in Pokemon.

On the other end of things, recognizing the weakest Pokemon ever is astonishingly easier. Many are outclassed by newer Pokemon in each game, making many of the worst Pokemon obsolete in every subsequent game. Some of these poor souls can be quite cute, but they’ll never hold their own against any Pokemon outside of this list.

Updated On January 24, 2024, by Jon Eakin: With over 1,000 Pokemon, and more sure to come, the pool of Pokemon which could be considered the weakest only grows larger. That means more entries for this list, but as you read through, please never forget that even if a Pokemon could be considered weak, that doesn't mean it isn't viable. Pokemon is largely about using your favorites rather than the best, but that said, it's always interesting to see which Pokemon have ended up at the bottom of the barrel.

27 Patrat

The Scout Pokemon

Pokemon Patrat

Patrat is, unfortunately, one of the weakest Pokemon of its generation. With a woefully low base stat total and nothing special to write home about when it comes to typing, there really isn't anything that makes Patrat worth sticking with.

Even when it evolves, the improvement isn't enough to make it a Pokemon viable in the competitive scene. This is true of most of the regional rodents, but Patrat sticks out as a particularly striking example of a Pokemon you'll rotate out of your team at the first opportunity.

26 Blipbug

The Larva Pokemon

Blipbug, one of many regional insects, has a truly awful base stat total. Coupled with a single type, Bug, this makes it a Pokemon you'll be desperate to see evolve in the hopes it's worth the struggle of raising it to level 10. The evolution, Dottler, is something of an improvement, although not dramatically.

It's at level 30 when things pick up and Dottler evolves into Orbeetle. Orbeetle is a great Pokemon, with a strong base stat total and the addition of the Psychic type to Bug. None of that helps poor little Blipbug though, who is still an extremely weak Pokemon no matter what it evolves into.

25 Abra

The Psi Pokemon

Abra in the Isle of Armor of Pokemon Sword & Shield

Now, sure, we all know what an indisputable boss Alakazam is. The original Psychic-Type powerhouse has been crushing souls and shattering dreams into soggy tear-stained pieces for two decades now. You don’t mess with Alakazam and its glorious mustache. Sadly, when you first encounter the species in the wild, it’s usually in the form of the pitiful Abra.

Feeble and defenseless, it knows just one move: Teleport. All this achieves is a real annoyance for the trainers trying to catch it. It has high Special Attack and Speed stats for a first-form, but you can't make much use of them because it won’t learn any attacks until it evolves into Kadabra. What’s worse is that it only becomes Alakazam when traded, so if you don’t have a friend to play with you won’t reach Abra’s full potential.

24 Ditto

The Transform Pokemon

Pokemon Kanto Red and Blue Anime Ditto

Ditto may be powerful when it comes time to breed some Pokemon, but outside of that, you probably aren’t going to be taking one into battle anytime soon. The globulous little creature just isn’t anything special and is one of the weakest Normal-Types around.

The only move a Ditto can pull off is transform, and while you may have some ways to use that to your advantage, it’s never going to be something you want to rely on. If any Pokemon can go first, you better hope it’s a Ghost-Type otherwise Ditto is likely to get one-shotted.

23 Shedinja

The Shed Pokemon

Shedinja as it appears in Pokemon Sword & Shield

Now, lots of fans like Shedinja. If players dig all things a little macabre and out there, a husk of dead skin that can steal your soul will be right up their alley. Seven thumbs up for your horrifying concept, Shedinja. As most Pokemon go, we’re scraping right through the bottom of the barrel into the muddy ground, with its Maximum HP stat of 1 being simply abysmal.

Related
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: The Best Pokemon For Tera Raids
If you're looking to take down Scarlet & Violet's Tera Raids quickly, these Pokemon are a must.

The gimmick with Shedinja, of course, is its Wonder Guard ability, which makes it immune to all non-super-effective attacks. This is cool in theory but is very tough to use consistently and practically in battle since so many types are Super Effective against a Ghost and Bug-Type, making it mostly useless without an absurd amount of planning.

22 Luvdisc

The Rendezvous Pokemon

Luvdisc as it appears in Pokemon Colosseum

The Pokemon world has had its share of strife, but the franchise still tries to stay true to its cutesy, friendly, trade-with-your-buddies beginnings. Hence the existence of Luvdisc, a Water-Type Pokemon whose sole purpose is to bring joy and lifelong happiness to couples who encounter it. You can’t say fairer than that, and it’s certainly appealing to look at

The disappointment comes after you look at its moves and stats, and realize it’s almost impossible to deal damage and learns hardly any moves that aren’t Normal or Water-Type. People thought that Alomomola in Pokemon Black & White would be its much-needed evolution, but was never connected to this new Pokemon and remained utterly pointless, besides farming its signature Heart Scale items for the Move Relearner.

21 Caterpie

The Worm Pokemon

Caterpie from Pokemon anime standing on the grass.

Caterpie probably does get a bit of an unfair wrap for being the base form in its evolutionary line, but that still does make it quite weak. It is barely capable of learning any moves by TMs and what options there are vary heavily based on which game you play.

Outside of that, Caterpie can only learn three moves without evolving. With puny stats and weakness to common types like Rock-Type and Flying-Type make it more of a liability on a team than anything else.

20 Snom

The Worm Pokemon

Snom standing still on a snowy background.

Snom and its evolution Frosmoth are also Sword & Shield newcomers. Prior to the game’s release, there was hope that Frosmoth would prove to be an Ice-Type Volcarona equivalent, a fearsome special attacker and major setup threat. While there’s a little truth to that, it takes a whole lot of work to set up a sweep with Frosmoth.

This isn’t surprising at all if you simply look at Frosmoth. It doesn’t have a base stat above 45 (Special Attack), with its Speed as low as 20. It has only two moves in its learnset, Struggle Bug and Powder Snow. Frosmoth can do some heavy lifting with its Hidden Ability, which halves all special attack damage it takes, but its pre-evolution is sub-par even by baby Pokemon standards.

19 Eevee

The Evolution Pokemon

A Shiny Eevee hatching from an egg in Pokemon Sword & Shield.

There are tons of Pokemon you’ll see later in this list that are only good when they evolve, but Eevee has been one of the most popular Pokemon to never be good despite all the boosts it receives. Everything from a unique Z-Move to a Gigantamax Form have tried to make the original Normal-Type form useful, but nothing has done the trick in a mainline game and it’s always just been better to evolve it into one of its Eeveelutions.

The only exception to this is in Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee, where it was finally given a variety of unique move tutor attacks with overpowered abilities, but even then it’s not usable in most other Pokemon appearances and gets by on some buffed stats in this spin-off, making it feel just as empty as any other attempted boost to the neutral beginnings of Pokemon’s biggest evolution line.

18 Bidoof

The Plump Mouse Pokemon

Bidoof from Bidoof's Big Stand

In the early stages of any Pokemon adventure, players have some pretty simple foes to cut their teeth against. These are the ‘early route trash’ of Pokemon like Pidgeys, Rattatas, and Lilipups that teach you the fundamentals of catching and battling. Of all of these Pokemon, none have seemed as hopeless as Bidoof.

Related
The 14 Best Steel-Types In Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
The Steel type received a lot of love in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.

The derpy expression on its face told you, at a glance, this thing wasn’t Elite Four caliber. If it appeared in a player’s party at all, it was as an HM user, fulfilling the role pretty well thanks to its convenient Normal and Water-Type body. Outside of manual labor, Bidoof has never received any moves, abilities, or stat boosts to make it worth using, and that includes its equally dopey evolution Bibarel.

17 Plusle And Minun

The Cheering Pokemon

A horde of Plusle and Minun against a Gallade in Pokemon X and Y

Of the several Pika-clones to be released in each generation of Pokemon games, Plusle and Minun are surely the weakest by a huge margin. They were introduced to be complimentary tag team partners, with abilities that boosted each other’s stats to give them an edge in Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire’s Double Battle system.

The problem is that this ability is attached to a pair of embarrassingly weak Cheering Pokemon that don’t have many attacks outside of Electric-Type moves, and even then a lot of fairly weak ones like Spark for most of the game. In theory, these should be as strong as they are adorable, but instead, they end up being utterly pointless and have never gotten a sufficient buff to be effective.

16 Sunkern

The Seed Pokemon

Sunkern in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Sunkern really is an unlucky little Pokemon. As a baby Grass-Type, it may be cute but it has a huge amount of type weaknesses. Taking double damage from five separate types really doesn’t make Sunkern a great choice, especially with its feeble stats.

Unlike other weak Pokemon, Sunkern actually can learn some fairly devastating moves as it levels up, but those weaker stats won’t make those attacks amount to much. It’s always going to be a better option to use a stone to evolve it into a more powerful form.

15 Farfetch'd

The Wild Duck Pokemon

Farfetchd as it appears in Pokemon Lets Go

Even the biggest fans of Flying-Type Pokémon, those who consider the in-game Bird Keepers their spirit animals, have their limitations. You can try to find spots in teams for even the most overlooked and underappreciated Flying Pokemon, but Farfetch'd is one of the toughest sells of all thanks to poor stats and no evolutions to pursue.

When base stats, usefulness, charm, and charisma were being handed out to the original 151, Farfetch’d found itself at the back of the line. Its saving grace is that it now has a Galarian form and an evolution, Sirfetch'd, but its base Kanto form is still one of the memes of the Pokemon series due to this inability to battle against even the simplest of foes.

14 Zubat

The Bat Pokemon

Zubat as it appears with Team Rocket in Pokemon Lets Go

This poisonous little bat craves attention, or at least that’s the only explanation most people can think to explain why it shows up nearly every five steps in any given Pokemon cave. It’s useless for grinding experience, its evolution Golbat is hardly an improvement, and maximizing its Friendship stat to evolve it into Crobat takes years off your life.

This Pokemon has essentially become more meme than monster, becoming a symbol of irritation in the Pokemon world rather than a lovable member of the original Pokedex. When most players are asked who is the weakest Pokemon, Zubat is almost always going to pop into their heads while they consider an answer.

13 Wobbufett

The Patient Pokemon

Wobbuffet in Pokemon Sword & Shield waiting to be striked

Remember the Super Smash Bros Sandbag? The poor little guy’s only purpose was to be beaten on. It looked happy enough doing it, granted, and its trophy in the game promised that it actually was, but the Pokemon world’s equivalent doesn’t seem anywhere as capable of taking a punch with a smile.

Related
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Indigo Disk: 6 Most Improved Pokemon
From Serperior to Weavile, here are the most improved Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Indigo Disk!

This sad beast is completely unable to deal any damage at all by itself. Its only joy in life is to absorb attacks, then use Counter or Mirror Coat to hit back for twice the damage it took. If it had great defense stats, this could be pretty impressive, but instead, it lacks much besides a high HP stat, meaning most powerful attacks will still probably kill it in a single shot and not give you the opportunity to counter.

12 Azurill

The Polka Dot Pokemon

An Azurill walking happily near a well.

Don’t let its design fool you, Azurill is a combination of Normal-Type and the awesome Fairy-Type. While the fairy aspect will help Azurill quite a bit, it still has some weak stats. Luckily, it doesn’t have any mostly common type weaknesses, so it’s not a horrendous pick.

It doesn’t learn any particularly amazing attacks, but an Azurill could be built to have some solid options, even if it won’t hit hard. It’s hard to complain because eventually, Azurill will become one of the best and most loved creatures in the game, Azumarill.

11 Unown

The Symbol Pokemon

The W Unown in the Pokemon Go Pokedex

This terrible Psychic-Type is perhaps the hardest of all to make work in battle. It learns a grand total of one move, which is Hidden Power, making it incredibly hard to stand up against nearly any opponent that outmatches its terrible arsenal. It’s not often thought of for its weakness since it’s tied into lots of Pokemon lore, but it’s otherwise been useless in any appearance it’s made.

Since they are living hieroglyphs, after all, and I suppose that’s a party trick worthy of note if you want to spell out funny or inappropriate words. Its signature move Hidden Power doesn't even exist in the later games, so they’ve now become even more irrelevant.

10 Pumpkaboo

The Pumpkin Pokemon

Pokemon Grass Worst Pumpkaboo

Many of the worst Pokemon in the game are also the oldest, but one of the biggest exceptions is Kalos’s own Pumpkaboo, an adorable haunted jack-o-lantern that feats a growingly popular combination of Ghost and Grass-Types. In theory, this Pokemon is quite neat due to each one having a different size, which takes the form of different HP and Speed stats.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t lead to high enough stats to particularly matter, and even when this Grass-Type evolves into Gourgeist there aren’t high enough stats for any size besides the biggest and smallest to be relevant. Even then, they aren’t anything spectacular compared to other Pokemon, making it somewhat of a lost cause.

9 Slakoth

The Slacker Pokemon

Slakoth as it appears in Pokemon Go

Many Pokemon will get better when they evolve, but few of them lag behind the others as much as Slakoth. This two-toed sloth is famous for its lively evolution of Vigoroth and its titanic ape evolution of Slaking, but getting to either of these means somehow getting a Slakoth to Level 18.

This is almost impossible without long and exhausting swaps with other Pokemon, as it learns hardly any moves that deal damage and will rest every other turn due to its semi-unique Truant ability. If you can evolve it to Slaking, its strength, and defense are able to make Truant slightly less useless, but this is a huge ask for such a pitiful creature.

8 Igglybuff

The Balloon Pokemon

Igglybuff after being freshly caught in Pokemon Sword & Shield

There are all kinds of baby Pokemon introduced in Pokemon Gold & Silver, and most of them are surprisingly effective in battle. Elekid and Magby ended up being great version exclusives in Pokemon Black 2 & White 2, while Pichu has a place in many different players’ hearts for its cuteness and Volt Tackle attack.

Related
Pokemon: Every Applin Evolution, Ranked
From Flapple to the formidable new Hydrapple, we've ranked the Pokemon Applin's every evolution.

Igglybuff falls much further behind than most others, having some of the weakest stats among any of these Gen 2 baby Pokemon. Its HP stat is substantially higher, but with one of the lowest Defense and Special Defense stats in the game, it might as well not be there.