Steven was kinda shocked at first when i entered the champion hall in Pokemon Saphire - Kinda understandable when you have a level 100 Swampert & 5 Zigzagoon with Rare Candies sticking all over their fur as a team
@@jarrodnisly3333 to be fair this pickup tatic was only really op in ruby/saphire. They realized quickly how broken the drop chances were. So if you played mostly FR/LG or Emerald this wouldnt have been as game changing
Something else worth noting about Rayquaza's strongest soldier: Espeed has been turned into an Egg move for it as of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and Smeargle and Arcanine are both easily obtainable: this means you can teach your little Buddy the art of Greased Lightning without needing a Gamecube Game. This should also hold true in all newer games, but USUM is the last time Megas were a thing, so this is the last chance you have to style on things like Primal Kyogre
I always love seeing "trash" Pokémon have value for in-game play. It's a nice reminder that Pokémon isn't all numbers and stats. Zigzagoon definitely reigns supreme for its utility, but Furrett has always been my personal favorite Route 1 Rat. It's just so cute! Also actually useable in doubles. Special shoutout to Bidoof, who with its ability Simple can turn Charge Beam into Nasty Plot and fire off boosted Surfs and Ice Beams like nobody's business.
wtset here, thanks a lot for the shoutout! funnily enough i also have another battle tower team featuring linoone where it is used to set up another early game rodent in furret for a massive +6 omni-boosted rollout sweep. can't link it here but it can be found on the fourth post of page 50 of the smogon frontier forum thread that is linked in the description
I remember in Alpha Sapphire, Steven wiped nearly my whole team with his stupid mega metagross, but who came in clutch? My Ziggy, my beloved Linoone, 10-20 levels below everyone else, finished him off with surf. Love your hm buddies and they'll love you back
Nice story!!! I really hope Hoenn Zigzagoon can get more tools to be able to shine!!! As well as all the other Early routes birds and rodents pokemon!!!
Shoutout to Raticate in generation 1. A rocket grunt had a lv16 Raticate in Mt. Moon and it was so overpowered they had to replace it for the remakes. That just shows how important context really is. Fire Emblem taught me that the final map isn't the most important benchmark. If you get through a game smoothly thanks to those rodents and swap them out for a late pseudo-legendary if applicable (I guess Metagross for B2W2 could work), you'll have a breeze of a game since you covered all the bases. Even though I'm more of an early bug dude since they tend to have useful utility for the whole game, sometimes you just gotta demolish your game in half with that ludicrous STAB level 9 Headbutt
@@Brespawn3 I'm a gen 1 expert, I nuzlocke that game like 15 times per year and I tend to get smoked if I pick that battle without a fully evolved Nido. I usually just avoid him, it's almost mandatory
More Pokémon underdog stories would be nice. I always thought Taillow was the surprise star of gen 3 with the guts ability and facade, but Zigzagoon being great too shows that Hoenn has great early selection of Pokémon.
I agree! that is the kind of thing that compels me about these games at large. I guess I just want to be careful about the concept so they don't totally devolve into meta breakdowns and the story stays intact. anything with guts and facade is good in my book
That's part of why gen 3 is so great IMO. I can't think of a single early game pokemon that I wouldn't want to use. Most of them have awesome 3rd stage evolutions with some fun and unique moves. Shroomish, whismur, ralts, aron, alongside many of the others mentioned here
@@-FFFridge disagree. most early bug-types have a very nice utility of being an early game powerhouse that can get you out of a sticky situation or simply run through weaker teams, almost like a 'jeigan' if that term means anything to you. i will admit beautifly isn't the best, but dustox works wonders. can easily carry you through brawly with confusion.
In Alpha Sapphire, when Steven's Mega Metagross swept me, I went back to my save and looked for a way to beat it. Ultimately what I came up with was Belly Drum / Shadow Claw Linoone coming in on a Hyper Beam recharge, my final Pokémon to win the fight. That made Linoone a favorite of mine forever.
My current emerald cartridge has 5 lvl 91+ linoone for earthquake drops, and I’m currently leveling other linoone to get unlimited focus punches and rests. And also dozens of free proteins, hp ups, pp ups, and rare candies. Truly a play through mvp.
It's a huge pet peeve of mine that the fan community calls the early Normal types "rodents", because the minority of them are. Rattata, Bidoof, Skwovet and if you count the expanded cast, Tandemaus are the only early route rodents in the series. That's 3 out of 9 (or 4 out of 12 with the expanded count) gens that have rodents. Let alone rats, of which there's ONLY Rattata. Sentret is a mustelid (ferret), Zigzagoon is a mustelid (badger), Patrat is a meerkat (mongoose, of which the closest relative is the hyena), Bunnelby is a rabbit which are not rodents, Yungoos is also a mongoose, Lechonk is a pig, and if we include the 'expanded' roster, then we also get Lillipup (dog) and Wooloo (sheep). Give Zigzagoon its due. It's not a rat. It's a badger. Badgers rule.
I genuinely think Zigzagoon is the number one best Pokémon in the game in Ruby and Sapphire. That is because Pickup is absolutely broken in RS. In every other Pokémon game afterwards, the quality of items you get from Pickup scales with your level. However, in Ruby and Sapphire, the same item table was used for every level. This item table includes Ultra Balls, Nuggets, and best of all, Rare Candies. All these overpowered items are available from the very start of the game, so if you were to use a team of five or six Zigzagoon, you'll be farming amazing items throughout your whole playthrough. This is EXTREMELY useful for the Professor Oak challenge which is very grind heavy. In regular playthroughs, five Zigzagoons and your starter make the game easy. You can even go with six of them and use one of them as your main for maximum item gathering. It's a ridiculously overpowered strategy I've used many times before which absolutely blows through the game. I'm not surprised they nerfed it in every subsequent game.
@@spindash64 I’ve always liked bibarel, Never used it though past like gym 2 tho. You have access to Gyarados, which kind of fills the same niche but better IMO.
Let it be known that Raticate is great, often gets guts so it’s even better. Furret might not be as strong but makes up for it in cuteness. Zigzagoon (not Linoone) will give you loads of items and as someone who has used one up till like level 50 (because it’s a shiny) I can tell you that’s it’s surprisingly good, or at least not as bad as you’d expect. Haven’t really used Bidoofyet, but the whole Stoutland line is also awesome and I regularly use it. The gen 1 normal types are very good cute and useful
As someone who _has_ used Bibarel, it's secretly incredible: Water/Normal hits almost every Pokemon in the series for neutral damage, as there are very few ghost or steel types with a Water Resistant typing This means that Bibarel, despite low stats, will do consistent Damage to most enemies even in the late game. And all 3 abilities are excellent: Unaware: the "worst" ability, it "only" denies the enemy from getting any stat increases vs Bibarel. That Swords Dance Garchomp is still doing neutral damage, Bibarel doesn't give a crap Simple: doubled stat stage changes. Charge Beam now doubles Special Attack instead of 50% more. Curse now doubles attack and defense instead of 50% more. Amnesia TRIPLES Special Defense instead of doubling. It also multiplies negative effects, but the result still lets Bibarel hit insane numbers Moody (Hidden): ...I shouldnt need to explain this one, but this ability got BIDOOF banned from Ubers. Not Bibarel, BIDOOF "PUNY GOD"
Can confirm, Bibarel is super underrated in single player. Water/Normal with STAB Headbutt is ridiculous early game coverage, Simple Defense Curl/Amnesia/Curse is strong, and HM utility is nice. If Work Up existed in Gen 4, this thing would be a beast.
Zigzagoon is probably my favorite early route rodent Mon. So many uses with hms and cool design But I do enjoy how they started changing the typings later on to make them more interesting to get with bidoof and taloneflame
talonflame MOVED me when it was released! a concept like this can remain really familiar and foundational but still receive that type of variation? they were cooking for sure
My first shiny pokemon was a linoone on the used copy of Ruby I got, and even though I lost it in the many resets that cartridge went through, the speedy little badger is still one of my favorites. It provided young me so much move coverage and made my runs much easier. Love this little guy.
Funny thing, despite being called "rodents" or "regional rodents" or "rodent archetype" only 4 of 9 regions thus far have used an actual rodent: - Kanto, mouse/rat (Rattata and Raticate) - Sinnoh, beaver (Bidoof and Bibarel, the first major twist on the archetype via being dual typed with Water upon evolution) - Unova, prairie dog/groundhog (Patrat and The Ugly One, being a soft reboot of all 4 generations to this point condensed into a single entirely new region) - Galar, squirrel (Greedent) Twice, it's been a mustelid (major predator of rodents) - Sentret/Furret, being ferrets - Zigzagoon/Linnoone, being badgers Once, it's been a mongoose (which is more like the weasels than a rodent) Once, it's been a lagomorph (which is sometimes mistaken for a rodent due to similar function of regenerating incisors) Once, it's been a pig
The role of the HM user tends to be looked down on but I never really saw it that way. That's just a mon you've trained for something important other than battling, but battling isn't everything at least according to the themes of the games. I think if anything it could have been a lot more interesting if expanded on - balancing teambuilding focus on power and mobility would adjust the difficulty but also adjust how many rewards, optional areas, and shortcuts you can access throughout the game. With HMs being removed the rats have lost a big niche that made them useful on playthroughs.
Not to mention the Zigzagoon line got the buff rodent treatment with Obstagoon in Gen 8! Great video man, I truly thought this was gonna be an HM Slave video at first, but I was very wrong towards the end and actually learned a lot!
my favorite generic earlygame birds are staraptor and talonflame whether or not they actually qualify as “generic” is debateable given their stat spreads, good movepools, and in talonflame’s case, having a different primary type, all qualities that make them stand out from all the generic normal/flying types
my favorite generic earlygame birds are staraptor and talonflame whether or not they actually qualify as “generic” is debateable given their stat spreads, good movepools, and in talonflame’s case, having a different primary type
I love linoone! It's definitely one of my favorite normal types. The ability gluttony is amazing on it too since, after a belly drum, you can activate the healing berries that normally only activate at 25% hp. Typically, you would have to use a sitrus berry on a belly drum user, so it's excellent to get that extra healing. Also, if anyone plays gen 7 like I still do, you can actually breed extreme speed onto zigzagoon in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon!
I was playing PokeMMO trying to search the Dex to, coincidentally, find a Pokemon to give a Zangoose I had Belly Drum as an Egg Move. And then, I hear you mention Linoone has Belly Drum, and I had just caught Zigzagoon earlier. And yet again, Zigzagoon serves us well, yet again.
Belly Drum Linoone gets even better in later generations, where it gets the Gluttony ability, allowing it to instantly heal using a pinch berry once it boosts its attack.
Zigzagoon is one of my very favorite pokemon of all time. I get weird looks when I tell people that. But it just has such a great design. It was a core member on my team in Ruby and i spent hours using Covet with my Linoone to collect HeartScales from Luvdiscs simply because I could. It also became my core team member in Little Cup when I played semi competitively. We love Zigzagoon in this house.
For a nuzlocke I did in SoulSilver I had a furret who happened to not fall behind in levels. Thanks to the move tutor giving him headbutt he could always deal serious damage, and with sucker punch + picking up the TM for shadow claw he was able to sweep through Morty’s gym completely untouched
linoone carried my emerald team until a multi hit move crit her late game and it was the only time i stopped a nuzlocke not because i failed, but because it genuinely hurt to lose a pokemon i went from being certain she'd die early, to a pokemon who was easily the ace of my team. fly high, biscuit. you were the pokemon to make me realise stats weren't everything, even on a nuzlocke.
My bias for Zigzagoon aside, I thought that it was a great video because it wasn’t just a fluff piece. You had pertinent information for both Emerald players and collectors.
Minor note about Linoone's Belly Drum: it maxes ATK, so it can do more than quadruple the ATK if the 'mon had previously taken an Intimidate or other ATK drop.
It took me many years, but one day I realized Zigzagoon was my favorite Pokémon. The companion that was always there for me in Emerald, no matter how my team changed.
one of the best pokemon videos of all time, even though it underrates raticate (guts) and bibarel (simple). speaking of, those 2 deserve the same treatment. brilliant work bro.
Shoutouts to the level 85 Suicune named Yappinator. Nice video! Some sound effects could've been a bit quieter, IMO, but it was really nice seeing an easy to dog on Pokemon getting some love!
Thanks to this little 'goon I've understood the sheer power of an early Pickup Pokemon. More points for common right from the start and being capable of learning a lot of HMs. Meowth in FR/LG, Pachirisu/Aipom in DPPt, Lillipup in gen V games, Bunnelby in X/Y... They all became my auto-includes thanks to this little fella. Altough in terms of in-game teams I wish there were more Pokemon being able to become powerhouses later in the game so leveling up for better Pickup tiers would be more fun and didn't feel like playing with a team of 5. I might be wrong but in my experience only Linoone, Ambipom and Diggersby share this distinction of being fully evolved Pickup users.
Watchog has also a somewhat of a redemption arc story for being one of the best pokémon to find and catch pokémon with due its ability illuminate increasing the encounter rate of wild pokémon and it learning moves like hypnosis, thunder wave and super fang to safely weaken wild pokémon regardless of level. An immense help when you try to shiny hunt in gen 5, it covers pretty much all you need for the majority of targets.
I have fond memories of hoovering up Rare Candies with ease using a team of Zigzagoon back in Gen 3. I fed all those candies to my Jirachi, Kyogre and Rayquaza which I used to win Ho-oh in Mt Battle. I still have that team of lvl 100 legendaries transferred to Home who still owe their success to that team of Pick-up Zigzagoon 20 years ago
This definitely misses the fact that linoone also got a fairly good hidden ability in Gen 5 and then regaining Extreme speed in Gen 7 making it stand out even more. With a tiny bit of set up it could keep up in UU and OU again 4 gens later. belly drum and either a berry to regain full health or a flame orb to increase speed with hard to counter coverage. It realistically needs 1 free turn to sweep an entire team in Gen 7 if it gets the chance. Ofc it fell off in gen 9 because of powercreep.
For in-game runs, the strongest rats are Greedent(can basically win every battle in the game on its own, it is insanely strong), Simple Bibarel(setup sweeper) and Galarian Zigzagoon. Furret is also surprisingly super good in Gen 2 thanks to the mechanics(Stat Exp and Badges), but has been trash since.
I played through emerald with only route 1 Pokemon (zigzagoon, both wormple evolutions, and mightyana) and Linoon + belly drum cleared the entire elite 4 for me
Great vid showing off the many great overlooked capabilities of Zigzagoon! But I just can’t get over how Linoone’s design looks like a worse version of Furret :/ Zigzagoon looks different but better than Sentret, but Furret looks like a better version of Linoone!
I feel like everyone's been sleeping on Greedent. In single player (at the very least) I swear my Greedent absolutely *carried* my entire Shield playthrough, and basically single-handedly took out most Gym Leaders and the Champion. I was astonished, expecting her to be just an early game rodent I'd drop like I do in most generations I come across them. But Greedent has some BULK and some serious staying power- so, so good at outlasting so many opponents just by being a greedy fat squirrel stuffing her face, sleeping and then stomping all over the opponents. Greedent is amazing.
I admit I just used it as an HM slave, but Linoone has helped many times in battle with Rock Smash, dropping the defense of Pokemon, and the powerful attacks of Strength and Surf. Its ability to pick up items is so helpful like getting pokeballs and health items making me not waste money on them. Also once in a blue moon getting a King's Rock is very helpful for flinching Pokemon.
This video oddly reminded me of one of the many reasons I loved my Piplup in Pearl He was an HM mule, Surf, Waterfall, Cut and a Brick Break He did his job for someone who just played the game solo
zigzagoon fan cam
Zigzagooners Unite!
@@piranhalettuceThat sounds a bit like something else...
Zigzagoonian Army is the Strongest!
"i strapped a go pro to my zigzagoon"
Magdalena Bay was a nice touch
My favorite part about zizagoon is that he's just a zig zag raccoon. Something about that is so adorable
And it evolves into line badger.
No he’s a rat
@@tylerpetersen6226 Badgertar, master of all four garbage cans
Steven was kinda shocked at first when i entered the champion hall in Pokemon Saphire - Kinda understandable when you have a level 100 Swampert & 5 Zigzagoon with Rare Candies sticking all over their fur as a team
I just discovered this method of game play, and I'm wondering how it took me 20 years lol
this is the most classical definition of a goon squad, excellent work
@@droomish1"goon squad" ☠️
@@jarrodnisly3333 to be fair this pickup tatic was only really op in ruby/saphire.
They realized quickly how broken the drop chances were.
So if you played mostly FR/LG or Emerald this wouldnt have been as game changing
@@nsp6590got a problem with henchmen?
Something else worth noting about Rayquaza's strongest soldier: Espeed has been turned into an Egg move for it as of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and Smeargle and Arcanine are both easily obtainable: this means you can teach your little Buddy the art of Greased Lightning without needing a Gamecube Game. This should also hold true in all newer games, but USUM is the last time Megas were a thing, so this is the last chance you have to style on things like Primal Kyogre
Not necessarily the LAST. We can still hold out hope for the second Legends entry.
Never underestimate the power of a belly drum extreme speed linoone
Gengar.
@@TheModdedwarfare3 linoone can also learn suckerpunch
@@ScarletRebel96substitute
@@ScarletRebel96uses shadowball in gen 3 ou for gengar as well
Can Zigzagoon or Linoone not learn Foresight? Furret could ;)
"I got mine for 240$..."
Thanos: "A small price to pay for zigzagoon."
this is an investment and it WILL pay dividends
Oh hi.
@@bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257 I love that we keep watching the same vids 😂
@@bivcbmtgstgtssscqcrddgtrsm2257 Hi!!
10:41 love the little edit of the Zigzagoon hitting the map like a dart. so cute!
The Persona sound effect only added to the perfection lol
I always love seeing "trash" Pokémon have value for in-game play. It's a nice reminder that Pokémon isn't all numbers and stats. Zigzagoon definitely reigns supreme for its utility, but Furrett has always been my personal favorite Route 1 Rat. It's just so cute! Also actually useable in doubles.
Special shoutout to Bidoof, who with its ability Simple can turn Charge Beam into Nasty Plot and fire off boosted Surfs and Ice Beams like nobody's business.
I like Furret in Pokemon Colosseum for Follow Me support, yeah.
"Look at me. _I_ am the walker now"
Simple Swords Dance Bibarel w/ Aqua Jet and Quick Attack gets my nod
Nah, Moody is somehow even more broken. With Leftovers, Protect, Substitute etc, you can stall enough to sweep ANYTHING.
extreme speed belly drum sweeping
@@paulloy8728when I first found out they'd given it that moveset in sun/moon I tried to make it work in OU so hard lmao
wtset here, thanks a lot for the shoutout! funnily enough i also have another battle tower team featuring linoone where it is used to set up another early game rodent in furret for a massive +6 omni-boosted rollout sweep. can't link it here but it can be found on the fourth post of page 50 of the smogon frontier forum thread that is linked in the description
I remember in Alpha Sapphire, Steven wiped nearly my whole team with his stupid mega metagross, but who came in clutch? My Ziggy, my beloved Linoone, 10-20 levels below everyone else, finished him off with surf. Love your hm buddies and they'll love you back
Gotta love hm slaves. Steven was always a pain in the ass
Nice story!!! I really hope Hoenn Zigzagoon can get more tools to be able to shine!!! As well as all the other Early routes birds and rodents pokemon!!!
Shoutout to Raticate in generation 1. A rocket grunt had a lv16 Raticate in Mt. Moon and it was so overpowered they had to replace it for the remakes. That just shows how important context really is. Fire Emblem taught me that the final map isn't the most important benchmark. If you get through a game smoothly thanks to those rodents and swap them out for a late pseudo-legendary if applicable (I guess Metagross for B2W2 could work), you'll have a breeze of a game since you covered all the bases. Even though I'm more of an early bug dude since they tend to have useful utility for the whole game, sometimes you just gotta demolish your game in half with that ludicrous STAB level 9 Headbutt
That lv 16 Raticate killed 2 of my mons in a Nuzlocke of Blue I tried to do years ago.
@@Brespawn3 I'm a gen 1 expert, I nuzlocke that game like 15 times per year and I tend to get smoked if I pick that battle without a fully evolved Nido. I usually just avoid him, it's almost mandatory
The raticate grunt was removed in Yellow tho
@@danielcarrilho5217 you know what? Let's pretend yellow qualifies as a remake :D
To be fair, Raticate(as well as Greedent and Bibarel for that matter) become scary once they learn Super Fang.
On a side note, I think Galarian Zigzagoon is a brilliantly simple redesign.
And he gets an awesome final stage. Would love to see a Hoenn take on Obstagoon. The boy deserves it.
More Pokémon underdog stories would be nice. I always thought Taillow was the surprise star of gen 3 with the guts ability and facade, but Zigzagoon being great too shows that Hoenn has great early selection of Pokémon.
Meanwhile, Wingull gets some goofy good typing + moves for the game, and Poochyena eventually gets Intimidate for a mid game tank
I agree! that is the kind of thing that compels me about these games at large. I guess I just want to be careful about the concept so they don't totally devolve into meta breakdowns and the story stays intact. anything with guts and facade is good in my book
That's part of why gen 3 is so great IMO. I can't think of a single early game pokemon that I wouldn't want to use. Most of them have awesome 3rd stage evolutions with some fun and unique moves. Shroomish, whismur, ralts, aron, alongside many of the others mentioned here
@jek__ dunno, dustox and beautifly kinda suck gameplay wise
@@-FFFridge disagree. most early bug-types have a very nice utility of being an early game powerhouse that can get you out of a sticky situation or simply run through weaker teams, almost like a 'jeigan' if that term means anything to you. i will admit beautifly isn't the best, but dustox works wonders. can easily carry you through brawly with confusion.
Ah that's why everybody was always wonder trading zigzagoons in the 3DS games
In Alpha Sapphire, when Steven's Mega Metagross swept me, I went back to my save and looked for a way to beat it. Ultimately what I came up with was Belly Drum / Shadow Claw Linoone coming in on a Hyper Beam recharge, my final Pokémon to win the fight. That made Linoone a favorite of mine forever.
And this made possible ONLY because Steel type was nerfed in Gen 6 😂
i was NOT expecting to see a zigzagoon edit today but here we are
that's the droomish difference
Don't forget about a special shiny Zigzagoon with a leichi Berry you get for fixing the Berry glitch in Ruby and sapphire
My current emerald cartridge has 5 lvl 91+ linoone for earthquake drops, and I’m currently leveling other linoone to get unlimited focus punches and rests.
And also dozens of free proteins, hp ups, pp ups, and rare candies. Truly a play through mvp.
Emerald clone glitch for the win!
Nope, they’re all authentic 😁
It's a huge pet peeve of mine that the fan community calls the early Normal types "rodents", because the minority of them are.
Rattata, Bidoof, Skwovet and if you count the expanded cast, Tandemaus are the only early route rodents in the series. That's 3 out of 9 (or 4 out of 12 with the expanded count) gens that have rodents. Let alone rats, of which there's ONLY Rattata.
Sentret is a mustelid (ferret), Zigzagoon is a mustelid (badger), Patrat is a meerkat (mongoose, of which the closest relative is the hyena), Bunnelby is a rabbit which are not rodents, Yungoos is also a mongoose, Lechonk is a pig, and if we include the 'expanded' roster, then we also get Lillipup (dog) and Wooloo (sheep).
Give Zigzagoon its due. It's not a rat. It's a badger. Badgers rule.
ZigzagOON
raccOON
This editing mad me zigza-goon all over the place
I genuinely think Zigzagoon is the number one best Pokémon in the game in Ruby and Sapphire. That is because Pickup is absolutely broken in RS. In every other Pokémon game afterwards, the quality of items you get from Pickup scales with your level. However, in Ruby and Sapphire, the same item table was used for every level. This item table includes Ultra Balls, Nuggets, and best of all, Rare Candies. All these overpowered items are available from the very start of the game, so if you were to use a team of five or six Zigzagoon, you'll be farming amazing items throughout your whole playthrough. This is EXTREMELY useful for the Professor Oak challenge which is very grind heavy. In regular playthroughs, five Zigzagoons and your starter make the game easy. You can even go with six of them and use one of them as your main for maximum item gathering. It's a ridiculously overpowered strategy I've used many times before which absolutely blows through the game. I'm not surprised they nerfed it in every subsequent game.
Used a simple bibarel in Pearl. Simple + swords dance + stab return = Overkill
Plus, it gets STAB on the 2 major HM types, meaning it can mule you around while still dealing some damage mid game
@@spindash64 I’ve always liked bibarel, Never used it though past like gym 2 tho. You have access to Gyarados, which kind of fills the same niche but better IMO.
Let it be known that Raticate is great, often gets guts so it’s even better. Furret might not be as strong but makes up for it in cuteness. Zigzagoon (not Linoone) will give you loads of items and as someone who has used one up till like level 50 (because it’s a shiny) I can tell you that’s it’s surprisingly good, or at least not as bad as you’d expect. Haven’t really used Bidoofyet, but the whole Stoutland line is also awesome and I regularly use it. The gen 1 normal types are very good cute and useful
Furret stole all our hearts with the walk. Seriously, it was my first plushie and I'm known as a plushyless cheapskate!
I use Furret on nearly every playthrough in every game it's available in. It's my favorite Pokémon, bar none.
As someone who _has_ used Bibarel, it's secretly incredible: Water/Normal hits almost every Pokemon in the series for neutral damage, as there are very few ghost or steel types with a Water Resistant typing
This means that Bibarel, despite low stats, will do consistent Damage to most enemies even in the late game. And all 3 abilities are excellent:
Unaware: the "worst" ability, it "only" denies the enemy from getting any stat increases vs Bibarel. That Swords Dance Garchomp is still doing neutral damage, Bibarel doesn't give a crap
Simple: doubled stat stage changes. Charge Beam now doubles Special Attack instead of 50% more. Curse now doubles attack and defense instead of 50% more. Amnesia TRIPLES Special Defense instead of doubling. It also multiplies negative effects, but the result still lets Bibarel hit insane numbers
Moody (Hidden): ...I shouldnt need to explain this one, but this ability got BIDOOF banned from Ubers. Not Bibarel, BIDOOF
"PUNY GOD"
My Raticate made it all the way to the Elite 4 in my most recent FireRed playthrough.
Can confirm, Bibarel is super underrated in single player. Water/Normal with STAB Headbutt is ridiculous early game coverage, Simple Defense Curl/Amnesia/Curse is strong, and HM utility is nice. If Work Up existed in Gen 4, this thing would be a beast.
I too bought my Extremespeed Zigzagoon at a Wawa down in Philadelphia.
The Gang Buys a Hacked Pokemon
The civ 5 boat noise spoke to me
I know you were focusing mostly on gen 3, but I’m shocked you didn’t even mention that it got a very good final evolution in obstigoon in gen 8.
Zigzagoon is probably my favorite early route rodent Mon. So many uses with hms and cool design
But I do enjoy how they started changing the typings later on to make them more interesting to get with bidoof and taloneflame
talonflame MOVED me when it was released! a concept like this can remain really familiar and foundational but still receive that type of variation? they were cooking for sure
Talonflame is the early route bird.
My first shiny pokemon was a linoone on the used copy of Ruby I got, and even though I lost it in the many resets that cartridge went through, the speedy little badger is still one of my favorites. It provided young me so much move coverage and made my runs much easier. Love this little guy.
If it wasn’t for Dunsparce, Zigzagoon and Linoone would be my favorite normal types.
feeling like zigzagoon in the pianta parlor today tysm droomish
Funny thing, despite being called "rodents" or "regional rodents" or "rodent archetype" only 4 of 9 regions thus far have used an actual rodent:
- Kanto, mouse/rat (Rattata and Raticate)
- Sinnoh, beaver (Bidoof and Bibarel, the first major twist on the archetype via being dual typed with Water upon evolution)
- Unova, prairie dog/groundhog (Patrat and The Ugly One, being a soft reboot of all 4 generations to this point condensed into a single entirely new region)
- Galar, squirrel (Greedent)
Twice, it's been a mustelid (major predator of rodents)
- Sentret/Furret, being ferrets
- Zigzagoon/Linnoone, being badgers
Once, it's been a mongoose (which is more like the weasels than a rodent)
Once, it's been a lagomorph (which is sometimes mistaken for a rodent due to similar function of regenerating incisors)
Once, it's been a pig
The role of the HM user tends to be looked down on but I never really saw it that way. That's just a mon you've trained for something important other than battling, but battling isn't everything at least according to the themes of the games. I think if anything it could have been a lot more interesting if expanded on - balancing teambuilding focus on power and mobility would adjust the difficulty but also adjust how many rewards, optional areas, and shortcuts you can access throughout the game. With HMs being removed the rats have lost a big niche that made them useful on playthroughs.
The Zigzagoon fandom is dying! Thumbs up if you're a true Gooner!
More of a Nooner
Good one 😂
Bidoof(aka god): the stone that the builder refused shall become the cornerstone
Fellow Zigzagoon enjoyer detected. 🤩🤩🤩
Great video. I wasn't even aware of Linoone's Battle Frontier clout. Thanks for the shoutout~
your video and impact inspired!
Linoone is genuinely the most treasured member of my first Gen III playthrough. Rocky still holds a place of honor in HOME. I love you, Linoone.
Zigzagoon has a very special place in my heart ever since one of my PMD BRT playthroughts
Not to mention the Zigzagoon line got the buff rodent treatment with Obstagoon in Gen 8!
Great video man, I truly thought this was gonna be an HM Slave video at first, but I was very wrong towards the end and actually learned a lot!
4:03 my favorite part 😭😭😭
my favorite generic earlygame birds are staraptor and talonflame
whether or not they actually qualify as “generic” is debateable given their stat spreads, good movepools, and in talonflame’s case, having a different primary type, all qualities that make them stand out from all the generic normal/flying types
And all of this without even mentioning the Galarian Zigzagoon line!
4:03 Much appreciated the inclusion of Killshot by Magdalena Bay
The editing is SO good! Super cool video, Drew!!
my favorite generic earlygame birds are staraptor and talonflame
whether or not they actually qualify as “generic” is debateable given their stat spreads, good movepools, and in talonflame’s case, having a different primary type
I love linoone! It's definitely one of my favorite normal types. The ability gluttony is amazing on it too since, after a belly drum, you can activate the healing berries that normally only activate at 25% hp. Typically, you would have to use a sitrus berry on a belly drum user, so it's excellent to get that extra healing. Also, if anyone plays gen 7 like I still do, you can actually breed extreme speed onto zigzagoon in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon!
He’s a recoon with zigzags. Zigzagoon. Funniest shit I’ve ever seen.
AWW HELLZ YEAH!!! My mans Zigzaggoon!!!
The fan cam was so so good
I was playing PokeMMO trying to search the Dex to, coincidentally, find a Pokemon to give a Zangoose I had Belly Drum as an Egg Move. And then, I hear you mention Linoone has Belly Drum, and I had just caught Zigzagoon earlier. And yet again, Zigzagoon serves us well, yet again.
*definitely* want more of this! I love this angle of looking at pokemon
Tony soprano swerving to avoid zigzagoon is peak comedy
I love all of your content! your scripts employ the wonder of playing pokemon for the first time as a kid, exploring everything with a careful eyes
Can't forget that Facade Guts Swellow that TRIVIALIZES the entire gen. Gotta love the early route birds.
Zigzagoon is one of, if not, my favorite pokemon of all time, so glad my cute little racoon is getting the attention they deserve
I really enjoyed all the little edits and memes you put in this vid. The outro was really well done too
Belly Drum Linoone gets even better in later generations, where it gets the Gluttony ability, allowing it to instantly heal using a pinch berry once it boosts its attack.
headbutt is pretty fun to use too, feels like the flinch chance increases with the speed stat, and pinmissile is good coverage too
shoutout to the level 91 zigzagoon i had that kept picking up TM26 in emerald.
I loved this analysis of the GOAT of normal types.
Zigzagoon is one of my very favorite pokemon of all time. I get weird looks when I tell people that. But it just has such a great design. It was a core member on my team in Ruby and i spent hours using Covet with my Linoone to collect HeartScales from Luvdiscs simply because I could. It also became my core team member in Little Cup when I played semi competitively.
We love Zigzagoon in this house.
What else could have we expected of the Honey Badger pokemon! 😼😸
For a nuzlocke I did in SoulSilver I had a furret who happened to not fall behind in levels. Thanks to the move tutor giving him headbutt he could always deal serious damage, and with sucker punch + picking up the TM for shadow claw he was able to sweep through Morty’s gym completely untouched
linoone carried my emerald team until a multi hit move crit her late game and it was the only time i stopped a nuzlocke not because i failed, but because it genuinely hurt to lose a pokemon i went from being certain she'd die early, to a pokemon who was easily the ace of my team. fly high, biscuit. you were the pokemon to make me realise stats weren't everything, even on a nuzlocke.
My bias for Zigzagoon aside, I thought that it was a great video because it wasn’t just a fluff piece. You had pertinent information for both Emerald players and collectors.
Minor note about Linoone's Belly Drum: it maxes ATK, so it can do more than quadruple the ATK if the 'mon had previously taken an Intimidate or other ATK drop.
This was a cool video! I'd really love it if you ended up making more like this one
One difference isthat zigzagoon is a racoon therefore not rodent. They're procyon.
It took me many years, but one day I realized Zigzagoon was my favorite Pokémon. The companion that was always there for me in Emerald, no matter how my team changed.
one of the best pokemon videos of all time, even though it underrates raticate (guts) and bibarel (simple). speaking of, those 2 deserve the same treatment. brilliant work bro.
Shoutouts to the level 85 Suicune named Yappinator.
Nice video! Some sound effects could've been a bit quieter, IMO, but it was really nice seeing an easy to dog on Pokemon getting some love!
zigzagoon has been a favorite of mine since gen 3. and even more so now with its regional form. ziggy is forever a legend on my team.
Another great video! You should make one on cool Pokédex entries. I used to spend hours as a kid reading them in my pokemon pearl save 😅
Thanks to this little 'goon I've understood the sheer power of an early Pickup Pokemon. More points for common right from the start and being capable of learning a lot of HMs.
Meowth in FR/LG, Pachirisu/Aipom in DPPt, Lillipup in gen V games, Bunnelby in X/Y... They all became my auto-includes thanks to this little fella.
Altough in terms of in-game teams I wish there were more Pokemon being able to become powerhouses later in the game so leveling up for better Pickup tiers would be more fun and didn't feel like playing with a team of 5. I might be wrong but in my experience only Linoone, Ambipom and Diggersby share this distinction of being fully evolved Pickup users.
Finally a video I can share when people ask me, "why Zigzagoon?" I get ask " Why Zigzagoon?" so often.
Watchog has also a somewhat of a redemption arc story for being one of the best pokémon to find and catch pokémon with due its ability illuminate increasing the encounter rate of wild pokémon and it learning moves like hypnosis, thunder wave and super fang to safely weaken wild pokémon regardless of level.
An immense help when you try to shiny hunt in gen 5, it covers pretty much all you need for the majority of targets.
I have fond memories of hoovering up Rare Candies with ease using a team of Zigzagoon back in Gen 3. I fed all those candies to my Jirachi, Kyogre and Rayquaza which I used to win Ho-oh in Mt Battle. I still have that team of lvl 100 legendaries transferred to Home who still owe their success to that team of Pick-up Zigzagoon 20 years ago
7:34 I had Pokemon Box back when it was bundled with Colosseum on release - I still have Colosseum to this day but somehow I lost Box over the years 😭
This is, without the doubt, among the greatest rats of our time, even up there with the Great Rat Detective.
Rattata is my personal favorite rat. But zigzagoon was done proper justice here on this glorious day. Well done sir, well done
Obstagoon deserves a mention
This definitely misses the fact that linoone also got a fairly good hidden ability in Gen 5 and then regaining Extreme speed in Gen 7 making it stand out even more. With a tiny bit of set up it could keep up in UU and OU again 4 gens later. belly drum and either a berry to regain full health or a flame orb to increase speed with hard to counter coverage. It realistically needs 1 free turn to sweep an entire team in Gen 7 if it gets the chance. Ofc it fell off in gen 9 because of powercreep.
Love how you incorporate pop culture references into your content I laughed till I cried when Tony and Adriana swerved to miss hitting a zigzagoon 😂
For in-game runs, the strongest rats are Greedent(can basically win every battle in the game on its own, it is insanely strong), Simple Bibarel(setup sweeper) and Galarian Zigzagoon.
Furret is also surprisingly super good in Gen 2 thanks to the mechanics(Stat Exp and Badges), but has been trash since.
I played through emerald with only route 1 Pokemon (zigzagoon, both wormple evolutions, and mightyana) and Linoon + belly drum cleared the entire elite 4 for me
This video is so awesome, you knocked it out of the park on this one! Linoone used to be my favorite Pokémon 😁😁
Great vid showing off the many great overlooked capabilities of Zigzagoon! But I just can’t get over how Linoone’s design looks like a worse version of Furret :/ Zigzagoon looks different but better than Sentret, but Furret looks like a better version of Linoone!
I feel like everyone's been sleeping on Greedent. In single player (at the very least) I swear my Greedent absolutely *carried* my entire Shield playthrough, and basically single-handedly took out most Gym Leaders and the Champion. I was astonished, expecting her to be just an early game rodent I'd drop like I do in most generations I come across them. But Greedent has some BULK and some serious staying power- so, so good at outlasting so many opponents just by being a greedy fat squirrel stuffing her face, sleeping and then stomping all over the opponents. Greedent is amazing.
Bro I love your channel. It’s just a love letter to the franchise. It’s so inspiring. Keep up the great work.
Zigzagoon has always been one of my favorites, so I love this deep dive on my boy 🥹 more of this, please!
Back to full videos! Love to see it.
This makes me want to run through all the games with just the regional bird, rodent, bug, and pika clone along with the psuedo and your starter
Idk how many games you can catch the psuedo pre elite four so maybe we need a sub there
I admit I just used it as an HM slave, but Linoone has helped many times in battle with Rock Smash, dropping the defense of Pokemon, and the powerful attacks of Strength and Surf.
Its ability to pick up items is so helpful like getting pokeballs and health items making me not waste money on them. Also once in a blue moon getting a King's Rock is very helpful for flinching Pokemon.
Love my little raccoon warrior, he can learn everything, I once played with a team of Zigzagoons, they're so versatile it's incredible!
Magdalena Bay - Killshot
In case anyone asks.
Blue didn't toss out his Raticate, it died. That's why he was at the tower in Lavender Town
What a goated Zigzagoon/Linoone supporter
I'm happy for zigzagoon to get the love it deserves. I have always loved it.
This video oddly reminded me of one of the many reasons I loved my Piplup in Pearl
He was an HM mule, Surf, Waterfall, Cut and a Brick Break
He did his job for someone who just played the game solo
Droomish with the Magdalena Bay zigzagoon fancam. It's why you're the best pokemon youtuber 🙌🙌
yea, ngl using only your starter 4 zigzagoon and 1 psyduck (for every hm) was the one and only passive item grind strat every kid needed
I'm zigzagooning to this video