#74 - #76: Geodude, Graveler and Golem

Yay! Another evolve by trade from generation one that didn't get a mega evolution. Geodude and co, you can queue for sympathy with Machop.

Geodude... Hmm... For a first evolution you get really good attack (80) and defence (100) and that about covers it. The speed is dreadful at 20, but this works on a trick room team, so that's that. 40 HP and 30 in both specials means you aren't a tank but a physical wall that could do some physical damage in return. You get the main abilities of rock head (prevents move recoil damage, so not things like life orb, but things like double edge or brave bird), and sturdy (basically a focus sash: you can't die in one hit from full health), as well as the hidden ability of sand veil (evasion of the Pokemon increases by 25% in a sandstorm and decreases wild encounter rate in sandstorm afflicted routes). Take your pick for how you'll play. You're rock/ground-type, by the way, so not great but not terrible.

It looks like rabbit poo with arms...

I'm not going to describe tackle, but you get defence curl AND rollout, which combo ok. Mud sport nulls electricity, which you are immune to, so worthless for singles battles, really. Rock polish boosts your speed, which won't make a difference since even at +6 you're dreadfully slow. Magnitude may be worth taking quite early on as a STAB physical to pair with defence curl/rollout combo. Rock throw is an ok rock move, but so is smackdown, which removes immunity to the ground attacks too. Bulldoze is meh-ish but can slow the foe a little, and you get to choose between self-destruct (200) and explosion (250) that kill you straight away. You also get rock blast (2 to 5 attacks base 25), earthquake and stone edge as physical STAB moves, and you can also take advantage of rock head ability with double edge (120 base). One of the main attractions will be stealth rock, too.

TM-wise you can supplement things with the standard array, as well as dig, brick break, return, facade, giga impact, gyro ball (hits harder if you're slower), strength, power-up punch and secret power as physical moves, and a totally useless array of special moves, some of them fairly decent, like flamethrower. Even as Golem, special attack is 55 and not worth your time.

If you feel like sticking on some Barry White and mood lighting, you can breed for a few moves: autotomize (boosts speed by two stages and dramatically reduces weight), block (prevent switching but not things like U-turn), curse (will reduce your speed for other gains, which is pretty good for a gyroball set), endure (means you'll survive the next hit), flail, focus punch, hammer arm (not a bad shout with base 100 power as a fighting move for coverage), mega punch (base 80 normal physical), rock climb and wide guard.

Earth power and snore are kinda worthless due to the dreadful special attack, but you could take things like fire punch, iron defence, superpower and thunder punch from the tutor, so not awful...

Graveler doesn't change abilities or typing, which means that you're still stuck with some crippling weaknesses to popular types, such as water, steel, ground and fighting. You do gain in the stats department, however: 55 HP, 95 attack, 115 defence, 45 in both specials, and 35 speed. That's +15 in everything, and the boost to speed isn't all that welcome, in my opinion.

It's going for a cannonball dive...

You know what else is disappointing: there's NOTHING new for the movelists...

Let's move on to Golem, which is the coolest, most mythological name for this tree... No new typing or abilities. You do now get heavy slam (like the inverse of grass knot it hits the harder the heavier you are) and steamroller (base 60 bug move (physical like everything else it gets) that ruins people who used minimize). TMs and the tutor give you nothing. You also gain some stats: 80 HP is suddenly acceptable, 120 attack and 130 defence are both nothing to turn your nose up at, 55 special attack is worth just flatly ignoring, and 65 special defence means that a water-type attack will kill you since they are mostly special as well as 4x effective, and the speed is still bad enough to be on a trick room team on 45.

Ah yes, the originality of being a ball with limbs... Like Jigglypuff, Clefairy and the previous evolutions...

This family is basically just a physical wall with some revenge damage unless you're determined on a trick room team. The massive water weakness and mediocre special defence basically leave you in serious hell, so this isn't really all that good.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)