- Greetings Pokefans,
Michael here, and in-game trades
have been a staple of the mainline Pokemon games
ever since the beginning. They allow players
to experience trading even if another person
isn't available, and they allow you
to get some Pokemon with traded benefits without
actually having to trade. But not all in-game
trades are created equal. Looking at you Mindy and
your Gaspar the Hunter that's holding an Everstone. Today, I will be going
over what I believe to be the best in-game trade in every single main
series Pokemon game, with best defined as
which one provides you with a Pokemon that
will be most useful to you for a playthrough. Therefore post-game
trades don't matter because they don't help
you in your playthrough, your playthrough is done. Also, it doesn't matter if
a Pokemon is only obtainable through an in-game trade
if the Pokemon is weak. If it's not good to
you for anything other than a dex entry, then
it's not the best. So don't forget to
subscribe to my channel since 60% of my viewers
are not subscribers, which is Darkness, and let's dive
into what I believe to be the best in-game
trade in every Pokemon game. We'll start with Generation
One, Red and Blue. We'll cover Yellow in a
bit, but not right now because it actually has
different in-game trades. Here are all the in-game
trades for Red and Blue. Several of these Pokemon
are only obtained via their in-game trade, but like I mentioned, that
doesn't affect my opinion. The first one I considered
naming is the Abra for the Mr. Mime as the best. The reason I thought
that might be the best is because Alakazam absolutely is a superior Psychic-type
Pokemon compared to Mr. Mime, but for those players
who cannot trade, I thought Mr. Mime might
be superior to Kadabra. Nowadays, it is, but in
the Gen one stat system, Kadabra was the
superior Pokemon due to having better
special and speed. As for the rest of the trades, the Pokemon lab ones
aren't phenomenal and have the drawback
of being pretty late. The Nidoran line
trades are basically trading the same Pokemon
for the same Pokemon, so that's not anything special. And then Lickitung and
Farfetched are just bad Pokemon. That leaves Poliwhirl
for Lola the Jynx, which is actually a
pretty solid trade. Jynx has solid stats with 95
in both special and speed, neither are stellar, but like
I said, both are quite solid. What makes Jynx special
is its ice typing, and the fact that it gets a solid power ice stab
move Ice Punch at level 31. That means you can use
that valuable ice damage against Erica, Giovanni,
and the big one, Lance whose Dragonairs
are only weak to Ice because there's no dragon moves that can deal super
effective damage in Gen One. For more on that, check out my dragon types then
versus now video. So Jynx can give you
stab ice type offense, which is valuable and
very hard to find, but it's also a Psychic type, which is extremely
broken in Generation One. You do have to use a
TM to teach it Psychic, but if you do, you can use it against Koga, Bruno, and Agatha. As for the Poliwhirl
you'll need for the trade, it's not super tough to get. As soon as you
get the Super Rod, accessible on route 12
once you've moved Snorlax, you can catch a Poliwhirl
easily by fishing on Route 10 or Celadon city. So in my opinion,
Lola the Jynx is the best in-game trade
Pokemon in Red and Blue. There are better Psychic type
options, namely Alakazam, but it's the Psychic
type in Gen One, having two of them is
probably beneficial rather than detrimental,
and also the Ice typing, as I said, is super valuable. But now we'll move
on to Yellow version, and the list of in-game trades
is actually very different. In fact, only one of them
gets you the same Pokemon, the Mr. Mime, but you
send a different Pokemon. And yes, you can get
a Dewgong instead of a Seel in Red and Blue, but you send a totally
different Pokemon. But regardless of all the
differences of this new list, there is a clear
winner in my eyes. Ricky the Machoke. Ricky is the best in-game
trade Pokemon in Yellow because yes, you
are sent a Machoke which evolves by
trading and will evolve so you can get a Machamp
from an in-game trade, which is incredible. To do the trade,
you need a Cubone, which is found in
the Pokemon tower. It's got a low
encounter rate in Yellow and only found on a few floors that I'm pretty sure you
can't access properly until you get the Silph Scope, but it's worth it
in my opinion,. It means you could get a Machamp before you even
have four badges, and without having to
worry about trading with any other real people, like we don't need friends. Ricky the Machamp is
a very strong Pokemon that you can obtain very early, so to me, that makes it clearly the best in-game trade
in Yellow version. Now on to Generation Two
Gold, Silver and Crystal. Now Crystal has a different
list of in-game trades than Gold and Silver, but I'm lumping
these all together because my answer is the
same for all three games. Here are the in-game trades
for all three Johto games, and while the later game
trades change for Crystal, the early game ones
are mostly the same. The first is a Bellsprout
for Rocky the Onyx. This is a great trade as
Onyx has the type advantage over the first two gyms,
the Flying gym and Bug gym, and then it resists all of the
attacks of Whitney's Miltank. If you're willing
to put in the work to get a Metal Coat and
then trade to evolve it, it can become a
reliable team member for the long haul as a Steelix. I heavily considered naming
this the best in-game trade, but I think there's one
that's just a bit better. Muscle the Machop. The Pokemon you send is
either a Drowzee or an Abra, depending on the game, but the trade is
effectively the same since Drowzee and Abra
are found similarly easily on the route just
South of Goldenrod, and Goldenrod is where
the trade happens. Muscle the Machop is fantastic because it's super
helpful against Whitney, and Whitney is the toughest
gym leader in Johto according to the
votes that I received for my toughest gym leader
in every game video. Machop is extra helpful because the Miltank is
only weak to fighting, and your Fighting type
options are extremely limited this early in the game
in a Johto playthrough. I'm pretty sure your only
other option is Heracross which is a bit of a
challenge to find, and even if you get one, the only fighting move
it could learn around that level is the
disgustingly weak Rock Smash. As an added bonus,
Muscle is female and therefore cannot be
attracted by Miltank. It makes the toughest battle in the game a lot
more manageable, and then if you're
able to trade, you can keep using it
throughout the game as a fast experience gaining
Machamp which is really strong. Also, the guy who gives you
the Machop's name is Mike. Ha, clearly someone very
benevolent and trustful. Trustworthy, trustworthy. So Muscle the Machop is the
best in-game trade in Gen Two, but Rocky the Onyx
is a close second. And I actually recommend
using both of them. In my first ever play
through of Gen Two, which I did here on my channel, I used both of them on my
team and they were awesome. Now on to Generation Three, starting with the Hoenn
games Ruby and Sapphire, and oh my God, they had nothing. This is the entire in-game trade
list for Ruby and Sapphire. Clearly far shorter than
the previous Generations. Of these three trades, the best is the
Makuhita named Mah-kit. Mah-keet? Make it, I don't know. The Makuhita is only useful
Pokemon you can receive. The Skitty and Corsola come
way too late in the game and are also just not
very good Pokemon. To be fair, these in-game
trades are clearly intended to be used as contest Pokemon. They all come with one of their contests stats
boosted really high. However, that's not
the ranking system I'm using for this video. I care about how good
the Pokemon is on
a playthrough team, and Skitty and
Corsola are not good, and Makuhita was
actually pretty solid. Hariyama is a great team member if you don't pick Blaziken since the Fighting
type is useful for a lot of the big battles, particularly the most
challenging gym leader, Norman. By doing this in-game trade, you can get Makuhita
earlier than otherwise and have one that will
get boosted experience. Slakoth isn't super easy
to find in the forest, but it's certainly is find-able,
and the trade is doable. So the Makuhita is the
best in-game trade Pokemon in Ruby and Sapphire partially because it's the only good one, and partially because
it's a good Pokemon. But then we move on to Emerald
and none of them are good. There are once again only
three trades available before the league, the
Meowth one being postgame. Horsea requires a Bagon, a Pokémon you can't catch
until you have Waterfall and eight badges, so it
might as well be postgame. Plusle is a bad Pokemon,
so all that leaves is Dots the Seedot as
the best by default, but even then, it's not great. Shiftry isn't a stellar Pokemon for a playthrough in
Gen Three due to Nuzleaf having a severely
limited level up moveset, meaning you have to use
TMs for it to be effective, and TMs broke in this game. Also Shiftry's best
attacking stat is it's physical attack, and Grass and Dark moves are all
special in Gen Three. It's not God awful,
but in my opinion, there are better Grass
and/or Dark type options. And also, I don't
know if it's worth trading away a Ralts for. Gardevoir's pretty good, and
Ralts isn't that easy to find. I don't know if I
recommend this trade, but I certainly
recommend it more than all of the other ones. Next up is FireRed
and LeafGreen, whose list of in-game
trades is almost identical to Red and Blue's. So my answer is
the same sort of. This is the list of all of them, and at the top you'll notice is Abra for Mr. Mime once again. If you recall, I considered this as the best trade
in Red and Blue in order to consider
players who cannot trade, since Alakazam is
better than Mr. Mime, but I thought Mr. Mime might
be better than Kadabra. In Gen One, Mr. Mime was
not better than Kadabra, but in Gen Three,
it absolutely is. Due to the stat system change, Mr. Mime now has a much better
base stat total than Kadabra. So if you want a strong,
fast Psychic type and can't get Alakazam, this trade is the way to go. As an added bonus Mimien the
Mr. Mime has a Timid nature, which lowers its not as
useful physical attack stat and boosts its speed stat. That's a great nature
for a Mr. Mime. However, if you can trade
and can get an Alakazam, Alakazam is strictly better
than Mr. Mime in most every way, so in that case, the best trade
is the same one as before. Poliwhirl for Jynx, but this
time the Jynx is named Zynx. This Jynx is the best for
the same reasons as before. The ice type stab is
very helpful and hard
to find in Kanto, and it can be used as
a Psychic type Pokemon if you use the TM, and even after all of the
nerfs the Psychic type got in Gen Two, it's still
really good in Gen Three due to the lack of
strong bug types, the singular ghost type
that is weak to Psychic, and the complete
absence of Dark types. So even if you can get Alakazam again, you might still
consider using Jynx too. So essentially if you
have access to Alakazam, you should use it and then
supplement it with Jynx. However, if you
don't have access to
Alakazam, use Mr. Mime, and then also potentially
supplement it with Jynx. Now on to Generation Four,
starting with the Sinnoh games, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the games with the infamous
Everstone Haunter trade. Obviously, that will
not be the best one. Like with the Hoenn games, there are not very many
trades in these games, and it's actually easy
to eliminate all but one. Gaspar is of course terrible
and Magikarp is postgame. That leaves Charap the
Chatot and Kazza the Abra, and Abra is strictly better. Chatot only has a base
stat total of 411, while the Abra can
become Alakazam which is much
stronger, obviously. Even if you're not able to trade and evolve Kazza
into an Alakazam, the Kadabra form of Kazza
is still useful to you. Yes, it has a lower base
stat total than Chatot, but it's got a 120 special
attack and 100 speed, which is incredible, especially
that early in the game. It's just more useful to you than a middle of
the road Chatot. Also yes, Gaspar the
Haunter does have a similar base stat
total to a Kadabra, but it's obtained
so late in the game, by that time, what's the point? You'd want to Gengar
by that time anyways. As for the Pokemon you
send, which is Machop, it's super easy to find just
North of Oreburgh on Route 207. I'm not saying this
trade is incredible, but it's not bad. And it's certainly better
than the few other options. Next up is HeartGold
and SoulSilver. The in-game trade list
for these games is a mix of the various
trades in all three of the Gen Two games,
plus some extras. However, my answer is the
same as it was for Gen Two, Muscle the Machop. I won't delve into
all the reasoning because it's the same
as it was in Gen Two. It's very useful
against Whitney, the most challenging
gym leader in the game. I should mention though that Heracross now has
good fighting moves, actually getting Brick
Break at level 19, which is incredible. Therefore due to its
much better stats, Heracross is better for the
Whitney fight than Machop. However, up to this
point in the game, you can only find Heracross
at a maximum level of five. So you would have to do
quite a bit of grinding to catch it up to
the rest of your team since you can't find Heracross
until you can headbutt trees. So if you intend to use
Heracross on your team for the rest of the
playthrough, I say, go for it. But otherwise, just
doing an easy trade for the Machop is
probably easier. Now onto Generation Five,
starting with Black and White. In my opinion, none of these trades are
particularly impressive. There are better water
options than Basculin. Rotom and Munchlax are postgame, and so that leaves Emolga
and the two Grass types that the trade depends
on the version. Emolga's Electric typing is
useful for the Flying gym, but that's all it's
got going for it. Its base stat total
is was pretty low for a fully evolved Pokemon, and the trade happens
decently late in the game, around sixth gym,
the Flying gym. Meanwhile, the Petilil
Cottonee trade is very early in the game, and you
send the one found in your game in exchange for
the one not in your game. These two trades are the best because they allow you to get a boosted
experience grass type that can become a
really solid member of your team once it evolves. Lilligant in Black or
Whimsicott in White. Also they have more
Modest natures, which is a fantastic
nature for these Pokemon since they have good
special attack stats. The trade isn't fricking
incredibly broken or anything, but you can get a pretty solid boosted experience, Grass
type for your squad, and that's better than
the other options. Next is Black Two and White Two, which have pretty
different trades. I should mention there's some
long lists of in-game trades you can do with Yancy or
Curtis, but those are postgames, so not going to
consider them here. These are the rest of them, and the same Petilil and
Cottonee trade is available, just in a different location. Tangrowth comes too
late in the game, so it's down to the
Petilil Cottonee trade or sending in
Emolga for Gigalith. If you are capable of trading, than the Petilil Cottonee
trade is still the best. Gigalith is a fantastically
strong Pokemon and really awesome,
I love the thing, but the trade itself
is kind of late, and also getting Emolga
is a bit tedious. You can only find it
in the rustling grass, which is an annoying process. If you can trade and
want to use Gigalith, I recommend just catching a
Boldore earlier in the game and evolving it immediately
with the trading rather than waiting until
around the sixth gym to do this in-game trade. But if you cannot trade, it's
worth it for the Gigalith. It's got an Adamant nature, which boosts its physical
attack, which is awesome, and it can be used right
before the Flying gym, and it's just a huge
base stat total Pokemon you wouldn't be able
to get otherwise because it's a trade evolution. So in short, if you can trade,
the Petilil Cottonee trades. If you cannot, then
grab the Gigalith. Now onto Generation Six,
starting with X and Y. This is the list
of all the trades, and one stands out far
more than the others and is the clear, best. Luvdisc for Steelix. Luvdisc for Steelix. In the second gym
town, Cyllage City, you can easily find a Luvdisc
with a 100% encounter rate using the Old Rod. Then you can
immediately trade it for a huge base
stat total Steelix, and it already comes evolved, so you don't need to worry
about trade evolutions or a Metal Coat. Then you can immediately
use the Steelix for the Rock type gym since Steel and Ground are
both good against Rock. You'll probably want
to teach it Bulldozed, doesn't really learn a whole lot of ground moves by level up, but the bulldoze
TM is in Lumiose, you can buy it as soon
as you're like there. Then Steelix
continues to be useful against the Electric,
Fairy, AND Ice gyms, half of the gyms total,
including the Rock one. It blows my mind
that you can send over an almost
completely useless and very easy to find a Luvdisc
in exchange for a Steelix that is very powerful and
you get it at level 20 very early in the game. This is crazy. This might be the most
one sided in-game trade in the entire main series. Shout out to Thumper the Steelix for just being basically
a gift Pokemon. Next up is Omega Ruby
and Alpha Sapphire. The trade list is effectively
the same as Ruby and Sapphire, so my answer is the same
Slakoth for Makuhita, whose name I'm still not
sure how to pronounce. I think it's Mah-keet,
'cause Makuhita, but like, it looks like
just make it, I don't know. Now on to Generation Seven,
starting with Sun and Moon. This is the list of
trades in Sun and Moon, and for me, the
trickiest call is between Machop and Bounsweet, since both are
immediately useful for their immediately
following trial. I thought it over though, and I'm giving this one
to Bouncee the Bounsweet. The Wishiwashi trial
can be challenging and having a Steenee
which bouncy should be before you do the
trial, will help a lot. It can continue to be
useful as a Tsareena, especially since it
has an Adamant nature boosting it's great attack. Also, it comes with
a Bright Powder, a very useful item,
especially for frail Pokemon. UltraSun and UltraMoon
changes the list up though. These are all the in-game
trades in the Ultra games, and the choice is simple for me. Cha the Hawlucha. I talk about this in more detail in my best team member
in every game video, but Hawlucha is
fricking incredible in UltraSun and UltraMoon. It's got a great base stat total that's really nice
to have that early, and it has super effective
stab against the vast majority of the in-game battles. The fact you can get one of
the best Pokemon in the game so early with the boosted
experience is incredible. Next up is Let's Go
Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, and they totally change up
the list of in-game trades from previous Kanto games. These ones are all Alola forms. These are all the in-game
grades in the Let's Go games, and the list is simply
the Kantonian Pokemon for the Alolan Pokemon with a few version
differences and exclusives. To me, the best contenders on this list are
immediately the Dark types. As I mentioned
earlier in the video, despite all the nerfs to
the Psychic type in Gen Two, it remains a dominant
type in Kanto playthroughs because there are no Dark types, there's only one Ghost type,
and it's weak to Psychic, and most of the Bug
types are pretty weak. Therefore being able to get a
Dark type is super valuable. So the Dark type Alola
forms are the most valuable, therefore the best trade in Let's Go Pikachu
is the Alolan Grimer, and the best trade in Let's
Go Eevee is Alolan Persian. I do think Alolan Muk is
a bit of a better Pokemon than Persian, but they're
both going to be really useful to you, especially
since you can get them before you fight Sabrina, you just have to get the surfing
replacement from Fuchsia, and then Surf to Cinnabar
and find the trade guy there. An honorable mention though,
goes to Alolan Raticate, which is also a Dark type. It's much weaker
than the other two, but you can get it way
earlier in the game, so I recommend tossing
it on your team at least in the interim
to deal with Psychic types before you can get
the better Dark types. Finally is Generation
Eight Sword and Shield, And I should say, I will not be including the Isle of
Armor Galarian form for not-Galarian form trades. Not everybody has the DLC
and her location and timing and offerings are
very inconsistent
depending on the day, and it just didn't make
sense to include them. This is the list of
main game in-game trades in Sword and Shield,
and of all of these, I think Snips the
Togepi is the best. It has a Timid nature, which is fantastic for Togekiss, and Togekiss is just an
extremely powerful Pokemon that will be super
useful to you. Togepi does evolve
by friendship, which can be a bit annoying. However, it's going to
get boosted experience. The most efficient way to
raise a Pokemon's friendship is to hand it to the Soothe Bell, and then level it up a
lot with experience candy. If it gets boosted experience, you're going to be able to
evolve that Togepi even faster. As for the Toxel
you have to provide, you could send the one
you got from the daycare, but also it's not too tough to find a wild one in the
Wild Area or on Route Seven. So there we have it. Those are what I believe to
be the best in-game trades in every main
series Pokemon game. Happy trading, but make sure you don't level them up too fast and make it so they don't
listen to what you have to say. Thank you so much for listening
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