Cheap Alternatives to Expensive Legendary Pokemon in Pokemon GO

These days, Legendary Pokemon are most often the best choice. They tend to be just too good at what they do, which is mostly just killing things. However, here are some nice budget Pokemon for your raiding pleasure.

Machamp

These days, the best fighting type is Terrakion, who recently got Sacred Sword, a very strong fighting move. Before Terrakion though, we had the rather expensive and rare Lucario and Conkeldurr. Both of which were somewhat rare and a pain in the ass to get candy for. Luckily though, our old buddy Machamp is here to save the day. It hatches regularly from 5km eggs, and, if you can trade, you can evolve a Machop into a Machamp for only 25 total candy – half of what you need for the Timberr family.

Machamp also has some great coverage moves as well, especially Rock Slide, which can destroy the flying types Machamp is weak to.

Excadrill

Excadrill is a semi-common Pokemon which only needs 50 candy to evolve, being the cheapest option on this list aside from Machamp. But in a world of Groudons and Garchomps, there’s not much wriggle room. However, Excadrill is a strong pick if you don’t have either Groudon or Garchomp. Garchomp in particular is only good with Earth Power, but that was only available over a year ago. The same applies for Groudon, who, with Precipice Blades, was only available over two days back in the Hoenn tour. Excadrill though, with Drill Run, is a pretty damn good substitute. Sure, it can’t beat Groudon or Garchomp but it does get pretty close. And its pre-evolution spawns in the wild occasionally.

Plus, Excadrill can be shiny now, which is nice.

Tyranitar and Houndoom

Early on in Pokemon GO, Tyranitar was the strongest option against psychic types, with Houndoom being a glassy second. But these days, if it’s not Hydreigon, then it’s the Legendary Pokemon Darkrai and Giratina that do the best damage. We also have Hoopa Unbound, which is also pretty powerful. These are all very expensive though, unless you happened to play Deino Community Day last year. And even then, having a single day in a whole year (pretty much) to get a Hydreigon is easy to miss. Tyranitar

That being said, Tyranitar will be able to learn Brutal Swing, which will make it one of the top dark type attackers again. Hope you saved some of those Shadow Larvitars from Cliff, because that’s where the real money is. Assuming you have the resources to power one up. But a normal Tyranitar will do.

Houndoom is a cheap alternative as well, but while the damage output is there, it is pretty glassy. Weavile is also in a similar boat, but is even more glassy and requires an evolution stone to evolve.

Starter Pokemon

Starter Pokemon are good. Well, the ones that have had community days. Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn and Hydro Cannon are all powerful moves that will get the job done. A lot of them also spawn in the wild, and most events will generally have one or two to catch. In Season 10, we had Oshawott, Fennekin, Froakie and Chespin all as common wild spawns. While these guys aren’t particularly strong compared to the likes of Kyogyre, Reshiram and Kartana, they do hold their own and will get the job done.

Sure, these Pokemon aren’t the best, but they are reliable and cheap to obtain. Mostly.