Home

  News

  Staff

  Contact Us

  RBY Guides

  GSC Guides

  Misc. Guides

  Calculators

  RBY Pokédex

  GSC Pokédex

  RBY Movedex

  GSC Movedex

  Articles

  Columns

  Fanfics

  Humor

  Tournaments

  Links

  Forum

  Chat

Ground

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Weaknesses and Resistances

3 Ground Moves

4 Max Stat Rankings

5 Individial Pokémon Ratings

6 Conclusion

Ground Pokémon, in general, have above average HP, high attack and high defense values, however they have poor speed and special. They are a very specialised type, and excel at type matching. In battle they are used often as team members to delivier physical hits and are very useful in being immune to Electric element attacks, particulary Thunder Wave.

Weaknesses and Resistances

The Ground type is like the Grass type: it has many advantages, and many weaknesses. It will either be extremely effective against an opponent, or extremely weak. The actual type is weak to Ice, Water and Grass, all common types. But, three Ground Pokémon, Onix, Golem and Rhydon, have an additional Rock type, making them 4x weak to Water and Grass attacks. Furthermore two of the Ground types, Nidoking and Nidoqueen have a Ground / Poison type, negating their weakness to Grass but giving them extra weaknesses to Ground and Psychic.

Ground [Dugtrio, Marowak, Sandslash]
- Weaknesses: Water, Grass, Ice
- Resistances: Poison, Rock
- Immunities: Electric

Rock / Ground [Golem, Onix, Rhydon]
- 2x Weaknesses: Water, Grass
- Weaknesses: Ice, Fighting, Ground
- 2x Resistances: Poison
- Resistances: Fire, Flying, Rock
- Immunities: Electric

Ground / Poison [Nidoking, Nidoqueen]
- Weaknesses: Water, Ice, Ground, Psychic
- 2x Resistances: Poison
- Resistances: Fighting, Rock
- Immunities: Electric

Ground Attacks

- Effective: Fire, Electric, Poison, Rock
- Weak: Grass
- No Effect: Flying

Ground moves are effective vs Fire, Electric, Poison, and Rock type Pokémon. They are also super effective vs Ghost Pokémon, because all three of them (in RBY) have a secondary Poison type, making them weak to Ground attacks. However, the actual Ghost type is not weak to Ground.

There are 5 Ground moves in RBY. All are based off the attack stat, except for Fissure, which has calulated damage (it faints in one blow if it hits). 2 of the moves, Bone Club and Bonemerang, are only learnt by Marowak. However, they are inferior, and not as good as the 3 main Ground attacks, Earthquake, Dig, and Fissure. These last 3 Ground element attacks can all be taught via TM.

Bone Club - Marowak
- A weak attack of only 65 power, and with a non-perfect accuracy to boot. There is no absolutely no need to use this move. Although it has greater PP than Earthquake and Bonemerang, this is not not needed, and the only Pokémon able to use this move, Marowak, should try to do as much damage in as few turns as possible: i.e. the high PP doesn't matter because Marowak will not live long enough to use it.

Bonemerang
- Does 50dmg, but hits twIce, effectively giving 100dmg a strike, equal to Earthquake. Like Bone Club, this attack is only learned by Marowak and should be used for novelty purposes only - it has the same PP and power as Earthquake, but only 89.5% accuracy. However it can be a worthy attack if one does not want to use their Earthquake TM on Marowak (Due to non-cheating / duping reasons)

Dig
- Essentially the same attack as Earthquake, but takes 2 turns to execute; the first turn, the attack will go underGround, safe from all attacks except Swift; the second turn, he will strike. This effectively gives the opponent a free turn to switch to a Pokémon strong against the attacking Dig type, and then wipe him out easily - Earthquake is far preferable in these situations it offers the same PP, accuracy and power as Dig but attacks directly, allowing the Ground type to be switched away from danger if desired. However, Dig can have its uses, e.g. combined with Substitute could form a 'trap' to entIce enemy flying types to switch in, allowing the Ground type safe behind the sub to attack with a SuperEffective Rock Slide attack, or to waste that last Hydro Pump PP of that Water type.

Earthquake
- The only Ground attack viable, this is the only Ground attack you should choose for direct combat. It has great power (Best apart from Fissure, obviously) and 99.6% accuracy. This should be on all your Ground element Pokémon - and it is taught by TM too.

Fissure
- If this hits, it will kill the opponent in one hit, regardless of their stats. However, it has low accuracy - 29.7% - but this is quite high when you consider that this is in effect a 3 in 10 chance of fainting the opponent, even if they are at full health. However, the Pokémon using it must have a speed greater than the opponent or it will fail. However with paralysis support (not really necessary if using Dugtrio) and forcing the opponent to switch out (e.g. if they have an Electabuzz out vs your Marowak) the Ground type has a free turn at getting a 3/10 chance kill, which is not too bad a deal.

Rankings According to Stats at Lv100

[ Best >> Worse ]

HP

Attack

Defense

Speed

Special

Overall

Individial Pokémon

Poké will be listed by their stat rank, the best going first. Max stats are for levels 50 and 100, as well as all the levels in a particular area, for DV comparing. The levels you catch them at are listed for the Red and blue versions. The moves naturally learnt section prusumes you have caught the Pokémon at the lowest level in the highest levelled set. However, it will list the moves learnt beforehand.

-Rhydon

-Golem

-Nidoking

-Nidoqueen

-Sandslash

-Dugtrio

-Marowak

-Onix

    Rhydon

Max Stats

Moves naturally learnt

Moves Learnable via TM

Rhydon is the best Ground Pokémon, stat wise, having the stats where it matters. It's attack is the 2nd highest in the game: an Earthquake from it has approxmately the same damage as a Hyper Beam from Dragonite. It's speed is poor, but this can be gotten around by PAR. Because of its high power, Rhydon can be devastating when sent in vs a type it is powerful against. They are forced to switch out, and Rhydon will attack on the switch. If the opponent is PAR, Rhydon can down Pokémon Super Effective vs it with relative ease, as he can launch two attacks in a row against the foe. Although it's special is weak, it has lots of HP, a lot more than the other Grounds. This effectively gives him more special defense than the other Rocks. It can survive a Mega Drain from Exeggutor, and a well trained one can survive a Surf from a Raichu (albeit with 4 or so HP remaining). It is also the best Ground at surviving Ice attacks: it can survive Blizzard from Starmie with 70-100HP remaining.

You can't, like the other Grounds, do a lot moves wise with Rhydon. Earthquake and Rock Slide are essential, and both must be learnt by TM. Substitute is very useful, enabling you to make a doll while the opponent switches to a Pokémon that is super effective vs Rhydon, enabling you to get a free hit in while the enemy destroys the sub. limiting the damage you take. The 4th move is filler; Body Slam is useful for paralysis, Horn Drill is useful for on the switch moves and taking down slower tanking Pokémon like Snorlax, and Rest can be useful for regaining HP or stalling battles, e.g. vs mimimizing Chanseys with Seismic Toss as their only move.

    Golem

Max stats

Moves Learnt Naturally

Moves Learnt Via TM

Golem is often compared with Rhydon. Although Golem has slightly inferior stats, they are by no means bad, and he has one of the best defenses in the whole game. Unfortunaley, Golem doesn't have stats where it counts as much as Rhydon does. Although he is powerful, his Earthquake doesn't do as much damage, and that defense isn't as better as you would think, as Rhydon has a lot more HP, and so can stand physical attacks better. Golem has a 10 point speed advantage, and a 20 point special. However, this means he still can't use special attacks well, and again, Rhydon survived special attacks better because of his higher HP.

But Golem has one saving grace: Explosion. Explosion is a very powerful attack, incredibly useful when you're going to die, and is very good at killing things. Despite not having as much attack as Rhydon, Golem can effectively do as much damage in battle, provided he can use this attack. The other Ground Pokémon that learns this is Onix and that has poor attack and cannot use it as effectively. Golem is the most powerful Pokémon in the game to use it, and when a threat comes near, an Explosion will take most things in the game out. If you're not going to use Explosion on Golem, use Rhydon.

Also to note, Golem is by far the best Ground type if you don't dupe TMs, as he learns excellent moves naturally.

    Nidoking

Max Stats

Moves Learnt Naturally

Moves Learnt Via TM

Nidoking has an additional Poison type, added to his Ground type. This means Grass will now do normal damage, and Poison will now do 1/4 damage. However, this gives him extra weaknesses to Psychic and Ground, as well as the weaknesses to Ice and Water: Nidoking is weak to many popular types. On the plus sides, his stats are balanced, which is unusual for a Ground poké. He has a high special for the type (248) enabling him to surivive special attacks a lot better than others. Three Surfs from Raichu are needed to knock him out. He, along with Nidoqueen, have the greatest TM combatibility of any Ground type. being able to learn Thunderbolt, Blizzard and Surf...and many more. This combined with his special make the attacks great vs any types super effective vs Nidoking, and he can be super effective vs a lot of types himself, and be able to deal a lot of damage before dying.

Earthquake and Thunderbolt are musts for Nidoking. Blizzard is the most popular 3rd move as it is more damaging than Rock Slide to (most) fliers, and makes him super effective vs most of the types in the game. The 4th move can vary; in Pokémon Stadium Focus Energy is highly suggested as it can increase his critical hit chance a lot, and with his variety of super effective moves he is very dangerous. However on GB where Focus Energy does not work one could put any attack that would be useful, perhaps Horn Drill, Rock Slide, Reflect or Body Slam.

.

    Nidoqueen

Max Stats

Moves Learnt Naturally

TM Combatibility List

Like her brother, Nidoking, Nidoqueen has excellent TM combatibility, able to learn the same TMs as him. Her natural move selection is isn't too great, as she lacks the ability to learn Focus Energy, which Nidoking can. However, she has higher HP and higher defense than her brother - this can help during the actual game going through the storyline, but in advanced battle, it does not really help, as anything that faints Nidoking in 2 hits will also faint Nidoqueen in 2 hits also.

Overall a worse Pokémon than her brother, Nidoking, as her attack is lower and her lack of Focus Energy stops her from being as much of an offensive force than Nidoking is able to be, and her type does not enable her to do anything that her defensive stats may suggest.

    Sandslash

Max Stats

Moves Learnt Naturally

Moves Learnable Via TM

Sandslash is a very good Ground type, having balanced statistics in the areas he needs them. He also doesn't suffer from extra weaknesses unlike the Nidos and the Rocks, and can take special attacks well compared to the other Ground types. His speed is also pretty high for a Ground type, and is a good Pokémon to take out those common Rhydon and Golem that are around, due to his high defense and their weakness to Ground attacks.

However, his main selling point is his ability to learn Swords Dance via TM, and is the only Ground type to be able to this. One use of it will boost his attack to 596 (assuming he has max attack and is lv100). This will make all of attacks powerful, and makes him deadly if he is given a free turn in which to use it. Another great, unique ability he possesses is learning Swift naturally. Combined with Swords Dance, Sandslash can be a great Double Team user killer. As he is a Ground type, he is the best Pokémon at Countering Double Team using Electrics, which are very common. All in all a great Pokémon. Note you cannot catch him in the red version.

*Note that Swords Dance clashes with Slash, as it possesses a high critical hit rate and thus won't run off the boosted attack. However without Swords Dance it is a powerful attack due to this high criticial hit rate and therefore is useful on the switch.

    Dugtrio

Max Stats

Moves Learnt Naturally

Moves Learnable Via TM

Dugtrio is an oddity. It stats are all the opposite of a typical Ground type: its attack is average, its defense is awful (one of the worst in the game), and it's speed is superb, the joint 3rd highest in the game. It has incredibly low HP, joint lowest in the game, and its special is surprisingly high. InteRestingly, it has the highest speed in the game for a Pokémon able to learn a one hit KO move. Combined with his type, which means the popular slowing down move Thunder wave won't affect him, and you have a very dangerous Pokémon. It is very dangerous if you can force a switch, leaving you a free turn to Fissure them. However, it has very low staying power, although Sand Attack is good for sleeping Pokémon or on the switch, and the evade lowering properties remain after the Dugtrio has died. However despite these advantages he has slow attack power, and is extremely frail, he will die in one hit from anything SuperEffective versus him (Save weak moves such as Mega Drain or low special Pokémon attacking him with non STAB attacks). Because of this he will get most of his kills using Fissure and will have to use his general attacks if they are SuperEffective towards the opponent or for sweeping through weakened enemies towards the end of a game. He can also make an effective starter, due to his Thunder wave immunity and speed.

    Marowak

Max Stats

Moves Learnt Naturally

Moves Learnt Via TM

A lot of people don't know that Marowak is sucky for some reason. Although he learns the trademark moves Bone Club and Bonemerang, they are both inferior to Earthquake, as one has lower power and the other is less accurate. Although Marowak has good TM combatibility, able to learn many elemental TMs, he lacks the special to use them. What makes it worse is that Marowak cannot learn Rock Slide, a stable for any Ground Pokémon. It has bad speed and HP to boot. After this you'd think it would have great other stats, and you'd be wrong. It has average attack, and below average HP. It's one redeeming feature is it's defense. However, you could get the same defense value with Sandslash and have better moves and other stats as well. Not a very useful Pokémon.

    Onix

Max Stats

Moves Learnt Naturally

Moves Learnable Via TM

Onix; quite possibly the worse in the worse fully evolved Pokémon in the game, full stop. It has the joint worst HP in the game. It also has the joint worst special in the game. He has the 2nd worse attack in the game, and the only moves he learns are attack based. And he's one of the only Pokémon in the game not able to learn Hyper Beam, comparing him with other pants Pokémon like Weedle. Saying that though, he does have a great defense, but he has a type that doesn't need it, and he is the quickest Rock Pokémon, but still far too slow to serve any purpose. However, Onix learns Screech, and combined with Explosion and Fissure he can still be quite dangerous, despite his shoddy stats.

Having said that though, he is very useful at the beginning sections of the game, where his extremely high defense and type help versus the common normal attacks and enables him to last a long time through many battles without healing, and his Screech is learnt early allowing him to do great damage and support his team members even after he has died.

Conclusion

The best Ground Pokémon would either be Rhydon or Golem. Although they are perhaps weaker to some special attacks, they can still take Ice (and Psychic) attacks better than their popular relatives Sandslash and Marowak, and besides, Ground types were not made for taking down the types that they are weak to. Rhydon and Golem excel at the type matching game that Ground types are great at, in that they will either take hardly any damage at all, or lots, and this can be exploited with prediction. They also have very high raw attack, allowing them to switch in, get off a powerful, STAB attack then switch out, and their 358 attack / Explosion respectively can help in taking down those nasty Pokémon, like Chansey. Although their Rock type adds extra weaknesses it has one great benefit in resisting normal attacks - combined with their great defense they can be very useful versus those tough physical Pokémon such as Persian who rely on powerful normal attacks. Which one you choose out of Rhydon or Golem will depend on whether you want Explosion or not - Rhydon has better stats but Golem has Explosion which can make him just as good at killing things, and makes him better for general play.

Having said that though, Dugtrio and Sandslash both do have their uses, and are useful if one does not perhaps want a dedicated Ground Pokémon on their team but someone who is good for general use and Thunder Wave resistance. Dugtrio can make a great starter and sweeper, but Sandslash can make a great power member, due to his fair resistance to moves and Swords Dance, and can also make a Swift Dancer if one is so desired for anti-evasion use on a team.