Pokemon Diamond and Pearl In-Game Tiers

Introduction
High Tier
Middle Tier
Low Tier
Bottom Tier

Introduction

The best possible Pokémon for an in-game team are the ones that are obtained at the start of the game, can OHKO enemies easily, take little damage from nearly any enemy, can learn many HMs, can heal themselves, can learn useful moves upon level up, don't need excessive TMs, and have a useful ability. Such a Pokémon doesn't exist, of course, but this means that Pokémon closer to this ideal are obviously the best ones to use.

The goal of this in-game tier list is to recommend a select group of Pokémon for an efficient run through the game. The ones that fit most of the above requirements are placed in the high tier. Very inefficient Pokémon will be put in the low tier. Things that are neither efficient nor inefficient, for example Pokémon that have some opportunity costs but don't end up as good as high tiered ones, will be put in the middle tier.

Don't confuse an efficient run with a speed run. Speed runs are often ones that are segmented and recorded with luck manipulation through resets, and aim for the absolute fastest time recorded, but the real time spent on them is usually much more. Just assume you want to play through in a relatively fast time frame. The most efficient team size for these runs is only one member, but if one doesn't assume something more like 3 members, the resulting in-game tier lists become incredibly centralized around Pokémon you get early on in the game rather than anything encountered later on. Also note when reading through this guide that some of the moves and abilities listed for a Pokémon may only be obtained by their evolutions. Some Pokémon may be placed in higher tiers due to their evolutions capabilities as well.

High Tier

Abra

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has very high Special Attack and Speed stats, however, needs to be traded to fully evolve.

Azelf

Availability: Late
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Very wide
Additional Comments: Although it is available very late in the game it is available at a high level of 50 which compensates for this. Also has very high Attack, Special Attack, and Speed stats.

Bidoof

Availability: Very Early
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: Very useful in-game Pokémon because it learns a vast amount of HMs, such as Cut, Rock Climb, Rock Smash, Strength, Surf, and Waterfall.

Buizel

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has high Attack and Speed stats.

Chimchar

Availability: Beginning
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Very wide
Additional Comments: Has great offensive stats, a high Speed stat, and learns a vast amount of TMs and useful moves upon level up.

Cranidos (Diamond Only)

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has an incredibly high Attack stats capable of OHKOing many Pokémon.

Dialga (Diamond Only)

Availability: End
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Is only available once you have completed the game.

Gastly

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: Has a very high Special Attack and Speed stat, however, needs to be traded to fully evolve.

Machop

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Average
Additional Comments: Has a very high Attack stat and good defenses, learns useful STAB attacks upon level up, and has a useful ability in No Guard. However, it needs to be traded to fully evolve.

Palkia (Pearl Only)

Availability: End
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: Is only available once you have completed the game.

Piplup

Availability: Beginning
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has a good typing and has a high Special Attack stat.

Shinx

Availability: Very Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has great offensive stats and a useful ability in Intimidate.

Starly

Availability: Very Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: Has a very high Attack and Speed stat and learns powerful moves upon level up such as Close Combat and Brave Bird.

Turtwig

Availability: Beginning
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has a high Attack stat and learns powerful moves upon level up such as Earthquake and Wood Hammer.

Middle Tier

Bronzor

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has great defensive stats, great typing, learns Hypnosis upon level up, and has useful abilities.

Croagunk

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has a high Attack stat and useful ability in Dry Skin.

Magikarp

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Despite being useless as a Magikarp, once it evolves it is an incredibly useful Pokémon. Gyarados has a very high Attack stat, great defenses, learns Dragon Dance upon level up, and has a useful ability in Intimidate. However, it has a poor level up movepool and relies on HMs and TMs.

Marill

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has an incredibly high Attack stat with the ability Huge Power and has good bulk.

Meditite

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has an extremely high Attack stat with the ability Huge Power capable of OHKOing Pokémon easily. However, it has a poor level up movepool.

Misdreavus (Pearl only)

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has above average Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed stats.

Murkrow (Diamond only)

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has very high Attack and Special Attack stats.

Pikachu

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: Has an above average Attack, Special Attack, and Speed stat, and learns a wide variety of moves through TM.

Ponyta

Availability: Early
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Very shallow
Additional Comments: One of the few Fire-types in the game if you don't choose Chimchar as a starter; however, has a shallow movepool outside of Fire-type attacks.

Shellos

Availability: Early
Stats: Average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has a very high HP stat, above average defenses, and learns Recover upon level up.

Low Tier

Bonsly

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average stats and a shallow movepool.

Budew

Availability: Early
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has poor offensive stats as a pre-evolution and has a shallow movepool outside of Grass-type attacks. However, outside of Turtwig, it is the best Grass-type in-game.

Buneary

Availability: Early
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average offensive stats.

Chatot

Availability: Late
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average offensive stats, a shallow movepool, and is available late in the game.

Clefairy

Availability: Early
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Very wide
Additional Comments: Has decent stats all-round and a very wide movepool, but its movepool relies on TMs.

Drifloon

Availability: Early
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has a shallow movepool and is only available on one day of the week (Friday).

Geodude

Availability: Early
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has a bad typing, low Speed stat, and needs to be traded to be fully evolved.

Gible

Availability: Late
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and evolves at a high level of 48.

Girafarig

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has a shallow movepool and below average offensive stats.

Glameow (Pearl only)

Availability: Late
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Below average offensive stats and a shallow movepool outside of Normal-type attacks.

Hoothoot

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average offensive stats and a shallow movepool.

Mesprit

Availability: Late
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Very wide
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and must be found in the wild randomly to be captured.

Psyduck

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average stats and a shallow movepool.

Stunky (Diamond only)

Availability: Late
Stats: Average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Has high HP and Attack stats and learns useful moves upon level up; however, it is found quite late in the game.

Uxie

Availability: Late
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Despite having excellent defensive stats, its offensive stats are quite poor.

Wingull

Availability: Late
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average offensive stats and a shallow movepool, but learns 3 useful HMs in Fly, Surf, and Defog.

Wooper

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average offensive stats and a shallow movepool, but has good defenses and a useful ability in Water Absorb.

Zubat

Availability: Early
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has poor offensive stats and a shallow movepool.

Bottom Tier

Aipom

Availability: Early
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Only capturable from honey trees (which takes 6 hours for a Pokémon to appear), has a low encounter rate, and you would have to rely on luck to find one.

Barboach

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average offensive stats.

Burmy

Availability: Early
Stats: Poor
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: You can only find it in honey trees (which takes 6 hours for a Pokémon to appear), has poor stats overall, and has a shallow movepool.

Carnivine

Availability: Late
Stats: Decent
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and has a shallow movepool outside of Grass-type attacks.

Chansey

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Very shallow
Additional Comments: Has very poor offensive stats, a very shallow movepool, and very low Defense and offensive stats.

Cherubi

Availability: Early
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Only capturable from honey trees (which takes 6 hours for a Pokémon to appear), has below average offensive stats, and a shallow movepool outside of Grass-type attacks.

Chingling

Availability: Early
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has poor offensive stats and a shallow movepool.

Combee

Availability: Early
Stats: Poor
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Only capturable from honey trees (which takes 6 hours for a Pokémon to appear), has a shallow movepool, and has poor offensive stats.

Feebas

Availability: Late
Stats: Very poor
Movepool: Very shallow
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game, too hard to capture, too hard to evolve, and practically useless until it does evolve.

Finneon

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Poor
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has poor offensive stats and a shallow movepool outside of Water-type attacks.

Goldeen

Availability: Late
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average stats and a shallow movepool.

Heracross

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: You can only find it in honey trees (which takes 6 hours for a Pokémon to appear), has a low encounter rate, and you would have to rely on luck to find one.

Hippopotas

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Poor
Additional Comments: Has a shallow movepool and an ability that hinders the rest of the team.

Kricketot

Availability: Early
Stats: Poor
Movepool: Very shallow
Additional Comments: Has very poor stats besides its Attack stat, has a very shallow movepool, and is useless until it evolves.

Mantyke

Availability: Late
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and has below average offensive stats.

Mime Jr.

Availability: Mid-game
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has a shallow level-up movepool outside of Psychic-type attacks.

Munchlax

Availability: Early
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Wide
Additional Comments: You can only find it in honey trees (which takes 6 hours for a Pokémon to appear), only has a 1% chance of appearing, and is only available on certain trees which depend on your ID/SID combination.

Onix

Availability: Early
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has a shallow movepool and poor Speed and Special Defense stats.

Pachirisu

Availability: Early
Stats: Poor
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has poor stats overall and a shallow movepool.

Remoraid

Availability: Late
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and has below average offensive stats.

Riolu

Availability: Late
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Obtained too late in the game and at too low of a level.

Shieldon

Availability: Early
Stats: Below average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Has below average offensive stats and a terrible typing.

Skorupi

Availability: Late
Stats: Average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and has a shallow movepool.

Sneasel

Availability: Late
Stats: Above average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and has a shallow movepool.

Snover

Availability: Late
Stats: Average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game and has an ability that hinders the rest of the team.

Spiritomb

Availability: Early
Stats: Average
Movepool: Shallow
Additional Comments: Very hard to obtain since it can only be caught once 32 people have been talked to in the underground over Wi-Fi.

Tentacool

Availability: Late
Stats: Average
Movepool: Decent
Additional Comments: Available too late in the game.

Wurmple

Availability: Early
Stats: Poor
Movepool: Very shallow
Additional Comments: Has poor stats overall and has a shallow movepool.