Game:

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (2022)

Duration: 30:41

121 views

0

I will be doing Surprise Trade each week, usually on a weekend, like I did with Sword & Shield, and when I started Surprise Trade in those games, I did the Starter Pokémon introduced in that generation first before going through random Pokémon, I decided to do that in these games. This week, I will be trading Fuecoco, the Fire-type Starter Pokémon of the Paldea region.
I breed for 31 IVs in at least 4 or 5 stats, and Fuecoco's Hidden Ability is Unaware, Blaze isn't really that useful for Fuecoco in Tera Raids or online battles where its final evolution can make use of Unaware. I went with Bold for the Nature, while Modest can work, I prefer Bold because with Unaware, it can make use of its high HP stat and solid defensive stats, and it has a good amount of resistances, despite Fire-type Pokémon being really tricky to use defensively due to being weak to common attacking types like Water or Ground.
The Egg Moves for Fuecoco are Belch, Curse, Encore, and Slack Off, Fuecoco doesn't have to breed with a Pokémon that knows those moves, it can hold a Mirror Herb to have those Pokémon pass down those moves, for example, it can get Slack Off from the Slowpoke and Slakoth lines, as well as Bellibolt, it can get Curse from a variety of Pokémon, like Slowpoke, Numel, and Pineco, Encore from Hawlucha, Tandemaus, or Finizen, and it can get Belch from Grimer, Croagunk, or Toxel.
Next up is evolutions, Fuecoco evolves into Crocalor at Level 16, and it evolves into its final evolution Skeledirge at Level 36. Fuecoco has Ember as a starting move, I would replace Curse or Belch with Ember, and for the rest of its level up moves, it can learn Round, Bite, Incinerate, Yawn, Snarl, Roar, Flamethrower, Hyper Voice, and Fire Blast. Crocalor learns Lick and Will-O-Wisp, and Fuecoco can be evolved right away as it will have already learned Incinerate by then, while Skeledirge can get Torch Song, its signature move, upon evolution, and it learns Scary Face, Shadow Ball, Hex, and Overheat, and another thing, Skeledirge cannot learn Yawn, it has to learn it as a Crocalor in order to have the move, and it can learn Sing through the Move Reminder.
Next are TMs, and I will be going over what Skeledirge can learn, as there are some its pre-evolved forms cannot learn, it can get Mud-Slap, Disarming Voice, Fire Spin, Night Shade, Flame Charge, Zen Headbutt, Shadow Claw, Seed Bomb, Stomping Tantrum, Imprison, Crunch, Heat Wave, Earth Power, Fire Pledge, Earthquake, Blast Burn, Giga Impact, Outrage, Hyper Beam, Flare Blitz, Solar Beam, and Tera Blast, and despite having some Physical moves, Skeledirge doesn't have the Attack stat to utilize them, it doesn't even help that Pokémon like Clodsire or Tinkaton have the same base Attack stat as Skeledirge.
Next is competitive viability, and Skeledirge is a top tier Pokémon in both Single Battles and Double Battles, the main reason is its Ability of Unaware, it is one of three Pokémon with Unaware in the competitive scene, the other two being Dondozo and Clodsire. As a slow Fire/Ghost-type, Skeledirge can utilize many different Tera Types, Grass or Fairy are some good options, Grass to give it a resistance to its weaknesses to Water and Ground, and Fairy to make it identical to Clefable, the different is Skeledirge has higher stats than Clefable.
Skeledirge's most popular set is Torch Song to boost its Special Attack, and it can use a Throat Spray to effectively get a +2 boost to its Special Attack, it can use the Will-O-Wisp and Hex combo, Shadow Ball is a good Special Ghost-type move to use, and Slack Off for healing. Skeledirge can use Earth Power as a way to handle Rock-type Pokémon, and Yawn to put opponents to sleep, Tera Blast with a Grass Tera Type turns the match-ups around.
In Double Battles, Skeledirge has access to moves like Heat Wave, Hyper Voice, and Snarl to hit both targets, Grass and Fairy are once again good Tera Types for a defensive Pokémon like Skeledirge, and it is one of few Pokémon that can stand up to the infamous Dondozo and Tatsugiri combo, despite being weak to Dondozo's Water-type moves, Skeledirge can go into a Grass Tera Type and wear down Dondozo with moves like Will-O-Wisp and Slack Off.
In Tera Raids, Skeledirge can stick to a Fire Tera Type, and it is great against Grass, Bug, and Ice Tera Raids, but that is if the Pokémon's base type is not Water or Rock, its Unaware can help against stat boosts, and it can boost its Special Attack with Torch Song, and Flamethrower or Overheat can be an extra Fire-type move if it has picked up enough Special Attack boosts. It's also a solid Pokémon when going through the game, it does pick up Incinerate quite early, and that is its main move until Flamethrower at Level 32, and then Torch Song when fully evolved.

Other Statistics