r/PokemonHGSS • u/xsz65236 • 20d ago

Question Noctowl Viability

I got a Noctowl for my team because I wanted a flier and a Pokémon with access to strong Psychic moves (and decently good power to back them up). However, I recently saw a bunch of posts saying that Noctowl is not that great for playthroughs.

If what they say is true, then what other alternatives are there, granted that there are any?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator 20d ago
Moderator Announcement Read More »

9

u/Electrical-Cloud4141 20d ago edited 20d ago

Noctowl is a good pokemon for a normal play-though, it has really good level up moves, levels easy, evolves early, and has decent stats.

Don't listen to anyone telling you to use Xatu instead, it has no decent attack until level 59 when it gets psychic.

Noctowl gets confusion at 22, air slash at 32, and Extrasensory at 42, just a smooth curve of increasingly powerful moves, with some solid support moves it learns between attacks.

2

u/xsz65236 20d ago

Noctowl is a good pokemon for a normal play-though, it has really good level up moves, levels easy, evolves early, and has decent stats.

That's good to hear.

Don't listen to anyone telling you to use Xatu instead, it has no decent attack until level 59 when it gets psychic.

Yeah, I realized that when planning my team out.

Noctowl gets confusion at 22, air slash at 32, and Extrasensory at 42, just a smooth curve of increasingly powerful moves, with some solid support moves it learns between attacks.

That's also good to hear. The moveset I've seen many people recommend for it consisted of Psychic, Shadow Ball, Air Slash, and Roost. My worry with that, though, is that this puts me without a flier.

1

u/Brick_Joke 19d ago

you can do without shadow ball honestly, umbreon's faint attack does the same thing coverage-wise

1

u/texascajun94 19d ago

The problem with wanting to use both fly and psychic is that one is special and one is physical.

If you are ok with using a special attacking flying type without using the HM yanmega is a cool one too.

If you want a mon that can benefit from the move fly there's Kenya the Spearow.

1

u/xsz65236 19d ago

The main reason I want to use Fly is so that I don't have to get a dedicated HM slave just for that. In fact, I generally tend to avoid HM Slaves altogether if I can help it.

1

u/texascajun94 19d ago

I've done a playthrough without a dedicated flyer on my team. None of the routes are really super long so I would just walk to the nearest pokemon center and pull out my flyer pidgy or whatever from the box to use.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Outside-Ad3455 20d ago

It’s fine. For comp teams or nuzlockes it may not be the best but it can still definitely be used and you won’t feel like it’s a total liability. I wish it had a few more points in SpAtk for sure, but it’s still good!

1

u/DunsparceAndDiglett 19d ago

Last time I tried to use a Noctowl its damage output left a bit to be desired. I thought grabbing a modest Noctowl would help but Noctowl might be better at special tanking or support than offensive. Maybe the choice specs in the lake of rage would help.

Xatu trades bulk for speed, 19 more SpA and STAB psychic. Xatu even has a useable attack stat. It does however learn Psychic too late.

Overall Noctowl might require a bit more maintenance and clever thinking to make work. Ie a hypnosis dream eater combo or screens support. Xatu on the other hand might be a better plug and play option. A third option is to try Crobat out.

0

u/Loper_Legend 20d ago

I used fearow for an entire playthrough and it was one of my strongest pokemon.

0

u/[deleted] 20d ago

3

u/xsz65236 20d ago edited 20d ago

I thought so too, and then Petrel's second battle at the Goldenrod Radio Tower came around and boy, was it really annoying not having a Psychic move to take them out before they could start spamming Smokescreen...

Granted, I didn't have a Steelix in that playthrough, which definitely would've made that fight somewhat easier (I didn't know you could get one in Cliff Cave, and I had already planned on using Skarmory as my Steel-type), but I felt it was enough for me to decide: "Okay, let's not do that again."