Crikey Breakdown

 My Pokemon Scarlet Starter Breakdown

Intro:

As I stated in a previous post, I've chosen Fuecoco to be my starter Pokemon. Fuecoco will eventually evolve into Skeledirge at level 36. Skeledirge is a Fire/Ghost Pokemon that ranks as the fifth best ghost Pokemon and the fifth best fire Pokemon based on total base stats. What a great Pokemon to build a team around, right?! In the remaining post, I'll provide a breakdown on how I plan to build my "Crikey" to get me through the story mode. The breakdown will include details on optimizing his base stats, selecting his ideal move-set and selecting the best items for him to hold in battle.

Body:

Base Stats

Fuecoco will eventually evolve into Skeledirge, therefore it is important to understand the base stats of the final evolve to have a long term vision of Crikey's potential. 

Source

I'm going to keep it simple with Crikey. His best base stats are in HP & Special Attack. Therefore I plan to build Crikey as a bulky special attacker by optimizing on those two stats as best I can. 

One important way to optimize base stats is to train the Pokemon's Effort Values. Effort Values can be improved by giving your Pokemon vitamins. The vitamin "HP Up" would increase the HP stats & Calcium would increase the Special Attack stat. However, I think it will be easier and less costly to acquire Power Items. The Power Items can be purchased at the Delibird Presents shops around Paldea for ₽10,000. I'll need to buy the Power Weight & Power Lens items to optimize the HP & Special Attack stats as best I can. Since the Power Weight & Power Lens items enable +8 EVs in the respective stat when winning a battle, Crikey will need to win 32 battles while holding each item to gain a maximum 252 EVs per stat. Since a Pokemon can have a maximum of 508 EVs total across all stats, this would leave 4 EVs, which I would assign to his Special Defense.

I will need to use Crikey in battle before acquiring the necessary Power Items. Since you can't choose your opponents in battle during the story, Crikey will be defeating Pokemon that will increase undesired EVs. For example, if Crikey were to face off against a Rookidee early in the game, he would yield 1 EV in his speed stat.

Therefore, it might be necessary later in the game to remove the unwanted EVs in certain stats (e.g. Speed or Attack) by using berries. For example, in order to remove the unwanted EVs in the speed stat, Crikey would need to eat a Tamato berry. This would reduce his speed EVs by 10. Below is a handy chart about which berries reduce EVs in which stats:

Below is a list of where the berries can be found throughout Paldea:

• Pomeg Berry --> East Province Area 2
• Kelpsy Berry --> East Province Area 2
• Qualot Berry --> East Province Area 1
• Hondew Berry --> East Province Area 2
• Grepa Berry --> East Province Area 1
• Tamato Berry --> East Province Area 1

Moves

As one can see below, Fuecoco evolves to Crocalor at level 16 but stays a pure fire Pokemon until level 36: 

Source

For this reason, the most important moves while Crikey is Fuecoco & Crocalor will be the following learned special attack fire moves:

• Fuecoco starts out with Ember (Power 40)
• Crocalor learns Incinerate (Power 60) at level 17
• Crocolar learns Flamethrower (Power 90) at level 32

Fire moves are critical due to the Same Type Attack Bonus (i.e. STAB). For example, Ember will have the power of 60 instead of 40 because STAB amplifies the power by 50%. Flamethrower will have a power of 135!

At level 47, Skeledirge can learn Fire Blast with a power of 110. However, it only has an accuracy of 85%. Therefore, I'll likely stick with Flamethrower as my Special Attack of choice.

Once Crikey evolves into Skeledirge at level 36, he only needs two more levels before he learns his most power Special Attack ghost move. At level 38, Skeledirge learns Shadow Ball with a power of 80. STAB amplifies the power to 125!

Fire & Ghost provides great coverage for one another. See the weakness chart below:

For example, Fire is weak to Rock, Fire and Water, but Ghost is not. Ghost is unusable to Normal and weak to Dark, but Fire is not. Therefore, it does not seem necessary to give Crikey another coverage attack move.

Instead, I'd prefer to use the combination of Yawn and Protect. Crocalor learns Yawn at level 15 and Protect is a TM that can be created from the TM Machine as soon as you gain access to the Poke Center.

These two moves will be a devastating combination. Crikey can first use Yawn to make the opponent drowsy, enduring an attack in the process. In the next move, he can use Protect to stall and wait for the opponent to fall asleep. This will setup Crikey to finish his opponent off with either of his STAB moves: Flamethrower or Shadow Ball.

The final move-set I'll be striving for will be:

• Yawn Status --> make opponent Pokemon drowsy
• Protect Status --> stall to make opponent fall asleep
• Flamethrower Special Attack --> hit with STAB move
• Shadow Ball --> hit with STAB move

Item

The best early item, in my opinion for Crikey will be Charcoal. Charcoal can be purchased at the Delibird Presents shops around Paldea for ₽3,000. Charcaol is an offensive item for Fire Pokemon, which boosts fire attacks by an additional 20%. Including the STAB, Flamethrower will be increased from a power of 135 to 153.

The Life Orb would be another good offensive item for him later in the game. It increases all attacks by 30% but at the cost of doing damage of 1/10 his max HP after the attack.

However, I think that I would prefer a defensive item to help Crikey endure hits while he sets up the Yawn. Leftovers is a great defensive item. It restores 1/16th of the holder's max HP every turn. Leftovers can be obtained in Medali (for free) or purchased at the Delibird Presents shop in Cascarrafa. The price tag is pretty steep at ₽20,000, though.

Shell Bell is also an intriguing option and could fit well with the opening move Yawn strategy. The holder of Shell Bell gains 1/8th the damage in HP dealt to the opposing Pokemon. Since, Crikey will be doing massive damage to the opposing Pokemon after they are put to sleep, this item could be a better way to heal Crikey than with Leftovers.

Conclusion:

After having written this breakdown of Crikey, I'm more excited to use him than ever! Eventually, one could put the finishing touches on his build by changing his Nature to Modest and maxing out his IVs with bottle caps. This would further enhance his stats and make him an even more dangerous Special Attacker. Below is what the best version of Crikey could look like:

Watch out Paldea! Fear the Croc!