The Top 10 Pokémon That Aren‘t Worth Keeping
As an avid Pokémon gamer and content creator since the 1990s, I‘ve built up hundreds of Pokémon in my collections across various titles. However, through extensive battle testing and analysis, I‘ve identified the 10 Pokémon that simply aren‘t worth the investment due to poor performance. These Pokémon consistently underperform in battles, require excessive effort to evolve, and provide little value for finishing the Pokédex.
Spinda tops this list as the #1 Pokémon not worth keeping. With terrible base stats including a max CP of just 1279, Spinda faints quickly regardless of moveset. Its gimmick of inconsistent spot patterns provides no competitive edge. Simply put, no serious Pokémon trainer keeps a Spinda.
The full top 10 Pokémon not worth keeping are:
- Spinda
- Lickilicky
- Wormadam
- Sunflora
- Feebas
- Clamperl
- Burmy
- Kricketune
- Watchog
- Carnivine
Let‘s analyze why these particular Pokémon fail to make the cut.
The Worst Battlers
With decades of Pokémon battle experience under my belt, the importance of base stats is clear. Higher total base stats allow a Pokémon to power up further and unlock better moves. Certain species are doomed from the start by their inferior base stats.
Spinda, Lickilicky, Sunflora, and Watchog have middling maximum CP in the 1500-1900 range as seen below, which leaves them vastly outclassed by stronger Pokémon.
| Pokémon | Max CP | Attack | Defense | Stamina | Total Base Stat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spinda | 1279 | 116 | 116 | 116 | 348 |
| Lickilicky | 1905 | 144 | 159 | 180 | 483 |
| Sunflora | 1889 | 185 | 148 | 150 | 483 |
| Watchog | 1612 | 155 | 139 | 126 | 420 |
Top defenders like Blissey and Chansey boast 500-600 base stats. For comparison, the mighty Mewtwo sits at 680 total base stats with a max CP over 4000! Choosing Spinda and Lickilicky will leave you at a severe disadvantage in raid and gym battles. Stick to investing candy and stardust in more capable combatants.
Evolution Headaches
A great appeal of Pokémon is training up your creatures through evolution. However, I‘ve learned through painful trial and error that certain middle-stage evolutions simply cause more trouble than they‘re worth.
The biggest offender is Feebas. This fish Pokémon originally required maximum beauty level to evolve in past games – an intentionally frustrating and opaque process. And in Pokémon GO, evolving Feebas requires a whopping 100 candy and walking it 20km as a buddy. Given its rarity and single-stage evolution, I‘ve never understood players wasting effort on this temporary form. Just catch or hatch a powerful Milotic instead!
Likewise, don‘t bother chasing Clamperl unless you only care about filling your Pokédex. This bivalve has two potential split evolutions, Huntail and Gorebyss, which are assigned randomly. So even after hoarding 50 candy, you have no control over the outcome. My advice? Save yourself the disappointment and grab one of each final form instead through other means.
Useless for Pokédex Completion
One motivation for catching multiples of the same Pokémon is to register their different forms in your Pokédex. However, certain gender-based or aesthetic-only variants provide no meaningful Pokédex benefit beyond the initial form.
The various cloak colors of Burmy and Wormadam count as separate forms within the Pokédex. Yet the random, uncontrollable cloaks have no impact in battle, so logging extra versions wastes resources. Likewise Vivillon‘s 20 distinct wing patterns technically count for the ‘dex but should be considered lower priority.
When it comes to Legendaries, your resources are likely better spent powering up the best IV specimen of each species rather than hoarding spares after that initial Pokédex tick. With storage space at a premium, duplicates of the Lake Trio may need transferring to focus on more relevant Pokémon.
Parting Wisdom
Building that perfect Pokédex takes immense dedication over years of gameplay. As a content creator who has trained up over 500 distinct species since starting my journey in 1998, I‘m happy to impart hard-earned wisdom about the Pokémon simply not worth the investment. Spare yourself the headache from underpowered creatures like Spinda and evolution dead-ends like Clamperl by focusing efforts on stronger, more versatile Pokémon.
What other Pokémon do you feel aren‘t worth keeping? I welcome all passionate Pokémon gamers to share your thoughts and experiences below!
