Crafting a strong Pokemon team is essential for conquering the challenges of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Careful selection and strategic team composition are key to overcoming the game’s toughest trainers and Gym Leaders.
This guide provides in-depth analysis and recommendations for building an effective team. We’ll explore top-tier Pokemon choices, their strengths, weaknesses, and how they complement each other.
1. Infernape
| HP | 76 |
| Attack | 104 |
| Defense | 71 |
| Sp. Attack | 104 |
| Sp. Defense | 71 |
| Speed | 108 |
This Fire-Type Pokemon reigns supreme as the best option in Pokemon BDSP. Compared to other Fire-Type Pokemon, this stands the strongest owing to its 104 Special Attack and even better 108 Speed.
Infernape has 4 special movesets, including Close Combat, Flare Blitz, Acrobatics, and Rock Slide. Once you master these special moves, your Infernape can easily defeat the following teams and their Pokemon:
- Roark’s entire team
- Gardenia’s entire team
- Maylene’s Lucario
- Pastoria Gym’s Quagsire
- Fantina’s Drifblim
- Byron’s entire team
- Candice’s entire team
- Volkner’s Ambipom
- Saturn’s Bronzor and Toxicroak
- Jupiter and Mars’s entire team, except for Skuntank
- Cyrus’s entire team
- Barry’s entire team
- Aaron’s entire team, except for Drapion
- Bertha’s Golem and Sudowoodo
- Flint’s entire team
- Lucian’s Bronzong and Medicham
- Cynthia’s Roserade and Lucario.
2. Staraptor
| HP | 85 |
| Attack | 120 |
| Defense | 70 |
| Sp. Attack | 50 |
| Sp. Defense | 60 |
| Speed | 100 |
Staraptor is a very special Pokemon. It’s one of the few Normal/Flying types that can deal damage against Steel types due to its Close Combat attack.
This makes Staraptor a great option for a Normal and/or Flying-type as it can still damage Steel types, despite its weakness against that type.
Staraptor moveset includes Brave Bird. This move deals significant damage and makes Staraptor a surprisingly hard-hitting Pokemon. As a cherry on top, Staraptor also has the Intimidate ability, which makes it a great selection for a lead Pokemon, as it’ll decrease the attack damage of opponents when you start a battle with it. Some other movesets are U-Turn and Steel Wing.
Another great thing about Staraptor is that it’s very easy to obtain. You can find a Starly on the first route, which can evolve into a Staraptor at only level 34.
Now, moving to the teams Staraptor is best against
- Gardenia’s entire team
- Maylene’s Meditite and Machoke
- Byron’s Steelix and Bastiodon
- Candice’s entire team
- Volkner’s Ambipom
- Saturn’s Kadabra and Toxicroak
- Jupiter and Mars’s Purugly
- Cyrus’s Weavile
- Barry’s Snorlax, Roserade, Empoleon, and Heracross
- Aaron’s entire team, besides Drapion
- Bertha’s Golem and Sudowoodo
- Flint’s Steelix, Lopunny, and Infernape
- Lucian’s Girafarig, Medicham, Mr. Mime, and Alakazam
- Cynthia’s Roserade and Lucario
3. Roserade
| HP | 60 |
| Attack | 70 |
| Defense | 65 |
| Sp. Attack | 125 |
| Sp. Defense | 105 |
| Speed | 90 |
When it comes to Grass types, no Pokemon comes close to Roserade. Roserade is an extremely well-balanced Grass-Poison Type Pokemon, excelling in both offense and defense.
Not only does it have moves that inflict great damage, like Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball, but it also offers amazing utility, like paralyzing the opponent.
Roserade has an ability called “Natural Cure,” which removes all negative status effects when you switch to another Pokemon. This significantly increases the defense of Roserade by allowing it to survive for much longer.
The only downside to Roserade is the process of obtaining it. To get a Roserade, you must first evolve a Budew to a Roselia through happiness, then evolve the Roselia into a Roserade through a Shiny Stone. But Roserade’s utility is more than worth grinding through its evolution process.
Roserada is an ideal Pokemon to play against the following teams:
- Roark’s entire team
- Gardenia’s Cherubi and Turtwig
- Maylene’s Meditite and Machoke
- Pastoria Gym’s Quagsire and Floatzel
- Fantina’s entire team
- Candice’s entire team
- Volkner’s Octillery
- Saturn’s Kadabra
- Cyrus’s Honchkrow and Weavile
- Barry’s Heracross
- Aaron’s Heracross
- Bertha’s entire team
- Flint’s Drifblim
- Lucian’s entire team besides Girafarig
- Cynthia’s Spiritomb, Gastrodon, Miloticm and Garchomp
4. Gyarados
| HP | 95 |
| Attack | 125 |
| Defense | 79 |
| Sp. Attack | 80 |
| Sp. Defense | 100 |
| Speed | 81 |
Gyarados is another Pokemon that has an amazing type combination. This Water and Flying-type combination will give you the upper edge in many battles in Pokemon BDSP.
As you level up your Gyarados, it’ll learn some extremely powerful Water-type attacks. Attacks like Waterfall and Aqua Tail are some of the most powerful attacks in the game.
Another noteworthy thing about Gyarados is how easy it is to get one. All you need to do is fish out a Magikarp from any pool of water and level it up to level 20 to evolve it into a Gyarados.
This makes Gyarados arguably the most obvious choice for a Water-type for any team. With all said, let’s move to the teams your Gyarados can easily defeat in Pokemon BDSP:
- Fantina’s entire team
- Byron’s entire team
- Saturn’s Kadabra and Bronzor
- Jupiter and Mars’s Golbat and Bronzor
- Cyrus’s Honchkrow and Crobat
- Barry’s Staraptor, Roserade, and Rapidash
- Aaron’s Beautifly and Vespiquen
- Bertha’s Hippowdon, Golem, and Sudowoodo
- Flint’s entire team, except for Lopunny
- Lucian’s entire team, besides Medicham
- Cynthia’s Roserade and Garchomp
5. Snorlax
| HP | 160 |
| Attack | 110 |
| Defense | 65 |
| Sp. Attack | 65 |
| Sp. Defense | 110 |
| Speed | 30 |
Next, we have Snorlax, a strong-normal type Pokemon that is no longer hard to find. Once you’ve caught Munchlax evolve it with some friendship to get Snorlax.
Snorlax has a high special defense stat and some solid physical attacks, making it a good partner with Gyarados. As for the moveset, Snorlax has some strong attacks reserved under Body Slam, Brick Break, Earthquake, and Heavy Slam.
Snorlax can cause great body damage with the Body Slam moveset; it weighs a ton and can paralyze the enemy for some time. These moves make him the perfect opponent against Ice, Rock, and Fairy-Type Pokemon.
This Normal-Type Pokemon is a perfect fit against:
- Byron’s Steelix and Bastiodon
- Candice’s entire team, besides Medicham
- Volkner’s Raichu, Luxray, and Ambipom
- Saturn’s Toxicroak
- Jupiter and Mars’s Purugly and Skuntank
- Cyrus’s Weavile
- Barry’s Empoleon, Rapidash, and Snorlax
- Aaron’s Drapion
- Bertha’s Golem and Sudowoodo
- Flint’s entire team, except for Drifblim
- Lucian’s Mr. Mime
- Cynthia’s Lucario
6. Clefeable
| HP | 95 |
| Attack | 70 |
| Defense | 73 |
| Sp. Attack | 95 |
| Sp. Defense | 90 |
| Speed | 60 |
Our final pick for this list is none other than Clefable. Clefabe has always been one of the most powerful Pokemon in the franchise, but Pokemon BDSP takes this Pokemon to another level.
This is because, in Pokemon BDSP, Clefable is now a Fairy-type instead of a Normal-type.
Clefable is one of the only fairies you can obtain in the game’s main storyline. Its move pool is one of the most diverse in the game. It can learn practically any move you want it to.
This makes Clefable incredibly overpowered due to its insane utility. This Pokemon can work with any team in any situation, making Clefable arguably the best Pokemon in the entire game. Clefable stands a good chance against:
- Maylene’s Machoke
- Pastoria Gym’s Gyarados and Floatzel
- Fantina’s Drifblim and Gengar
- Candice’s Sneasel
- Volkner’s Octillery
- Saturn’s Toxicroak
- Jupiter and Mars’s Golbat
- Cyrus’s entire team
- Barry’s Empoleon, Roserade, Staraptor, and Heracross
- Aaron’s entire team besides Drapion
- Bertha’s Golem and Hippowdon
- Flint’s Drifblim
- Lucian’s Medicham
- Cynthia’s Roserade, Spiritomb, Milotic, and Garchomp
