What to do with Grimer

[rapidice]

So I caught a grimer, I'm just passed the first gym, and he sucks. He's completely useless because he doesn't learn any good moves until his level is in the 30s from what I saw. I also looked through the obtainable items sticky, and no good TMs for him for a long time either. Is grimer just terrible early, or am I missing the key to the slimy puzzle

edit: Is grimer just supposed to sit there and mudslap kids? Or can I make the bodies hit the floor with this bad boy

Edited February 12, 2016 by rapidice

[bepe]

It's not that great of a pokemon. If you can get your hands on a black sludge from a trubbish in one of the alleys you could try a poison gas minimize set it you have the patience to play stall style like that. Other than that I can't think of any great options for it.

[Bearadactyl]

Grimer/Muk is pretty good, it has a permanent place on my team to be honest; along side Trubbish/Garbodor as well, they compliment each other. If you're looking for raw offense with Grimer, you're doing it wrong. Grimer is best suited as a Stall, the good ole' Poison and wait. It helps that mine has its HA, though, Poison Touch is great and will pay off down the road when you have access to contact moves.

For early stages of Reborn you're better off using Mud-Slap, Minimize, and Poison Gas. I'd personally keep Sludge for damaging reasons until later. But, if you use your Grimer properly a combo of it and Trubbish can completely massacre Florina's gym and quite a few encounters down the road.

Good stuff mid-late game when you have a Muk and Garbodor with access to Venoshock as well. Unfortunately, utilizing Muk's attack stat will be a real pain until it learns Gunk Shot given the absence of Poison Jab. (Why no love for this well rounded move?)

Tl;Dr: The Grimer line works at its best when stalling, due to a lack of TMs to make it an effective damager.

The bodies WILL hit the floor, just in a slow and orderly fashion.

[rapidice]

Grimer/Muk is pretty good, it has a permanent place on my team to be honest; along side Trubbish/Garbodor as well, they compliment each other. If you're looking for raw offense with Grimer, you're doing it wrong. Grimer is best suited as a Stall, the good ole' Poison and wait. It helps that mine has its HA, though, Poison Touch is great and will pay off down the road when you have access to contact moves.

For early stages of Reborn you're better off using Mud-Slap, Minimize, and Poison Gas. I'd personally keep Sludge for damaging reasons until later. But, if you use your Grimer properly a combo of it and Trubbish can completely massacre Florina's gym and quite a few encounters down the road.

Good stuff mid-late game when you have a Muk and Garbodor with access to Venoshock as well. Unfortunately, utilizing Muk's attack stat will be a real pain until it learns Gunk Shot given the absence of Poison Jab. (Why no love for this well rounded move?)

Tl;Dr: The Grimer line works at its best when stalling, due to a lack of TMs to make it an effective damager.

The bodies WILL hit the floor, just in a slow and orderly fashion.

Cheers! This makes a lot of sense, thank you. I'm a pokescrub

[Bearadactyl]

No problem, you just happened to ask about a Pokémon I'm very familiar with; Poison Types are my favourite. I'd suggest getting a Gulpin if you want a Poison Type that can dish out some damage early on. Though Gulpin/Swalot are more of a wall in terms of stats, they have access to more offensive attacks earlier on. And, due to their even Sp. Atk and Atk stat you can roll Physical or Special.

I personally roll Special with Swalot, if only due to Acid Spray chewing through anything not Steel Type's Sp. Def. The Stockpile set works as well, and actually synergizes with Acid Spray due to having a minimum of 100 Base Special Damage with Spit Up.

You can get by with being a physical attacker too, you have Body Slam upon evolution in to Swalot; and a few pretty good Physical TM options. Though, for maximum efficiency Special is probably the better route due to STAB with Special Poison moves.

Toxic at level 25, and Venoshock access mid game creates a monster as well.

Also, this accounts for Grimer, Trubbish, and Gulpin; STAB Sludge rips through many Pokémon early on as well. Regardless, I would personally recommend keeping at least one of them in your party due to Julia. My Grimer tanked the later half of her team after I ran a sweep train with Fury Cutter Kricketune.