Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - So You Chose Quaxly?
Quaxly is the incredibly stylish Water-type starter Pokemon for Scarlet and Violet. It's a great choice, but what other Pokemon would make useful teammates?
This will be a guide for how to build a good team around your starter choice for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Quaxly. Now first of all, you have made a great choice. Pokemon is a very subjective game so it’s always going to be a good idea to follow your heart.
However, certain challenges will be harder than others depending on what choices you make. So, if you would like some advice on what Pokemon would make excellent partners for Quaxly, then you have come to the right place.
If you didn’t choose Quaxly, check out these articles for Sprigatito or Fuecoco.
Before getting into it: this guide will focus mostly on the early and middle parts of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet in an effort to avoid as many spoilers as possible. These times will also be the parts of the game where you will make the most decisions about who to add to your team. Plus, if you’ve already made it halfway through the game, something must be working out. That being said, you have been warned.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Let’s talk about Quaxly’s strengths and weaknesses. Quaxly and its evolutions have a high Attack stat, and all-around decent other stats, which Speed, HP, and Special Attack standing just above its Defense and Special Defense. So Quaxly is a fairly well-rounded Pokemon, which is great. Its lowest stat is Special Defense, but it’s really not too bad.
Water is a great type. It only has two weaknesses to Grass and Electric, along with resistances to Water, Fire, Ice, and Steel. Water hits Fire, Ground, and Rock super effectively. Water-type attacks are resisted by Water, Grass, and Dragon, which is thankfully a pretty short list. Plus, with Dragon-types being somewhat rare, especially early on in the game, your Water-type moves will be pretty reliable. Quaxly’s final stage adds a new type to the mix, but we’ll get to that later.
So, Quaxly and the middle stage evolution, Quaxwell, both have some strengths and weaknesses. Before getting into the final evolution, let’s talk about which Pokemon would be strong partners early on in the game.
Early Game Partners
So Quaxly and its first evolution, Quaxwell, appreciate a teammate that can handle Grass and Electric-type attacks. One of the best options will be a Grass-type. Grass resists both itself and Electric, while appreciating Water’s ability to take on Fire-types. For Grass-types early on, you can catch a Smoliv or a Capsakid. Both of these options complement Quaxly and Quaxwell by having a stronger Special Attack stat. But, if you’re not a fan of the new Grass-type Pokemon you can find Skiddo, Bounsweet, or Deerling fairly early on.
Another type that will synergize well is a Fire-type. Fire-types also resist Grass, but can deal with it offensively better than most Grass-types typically can. Fire-types greatly appreciate how Water-types like Quaxly handle all three of their weaknesses in Water, Ground, and Rock. Charcadet is a strong option, though it can be somewhat rare.
Alternatively, Litleo can be found in the early game and Fletchling evolves into the Fire-type Fletchinder early on as well. If you manage to find a Fire Stone, Capsakid’s evolution can fill both roles in one, which is valuable. Numel can be an interesting choice, its secondary Ground typing makes it immune to Electric but neutralizes its resistance to Grass, so it is still a trade-off. The one major downside to Fire-types is they don’t provide a resistance to Electric, so it can still be valuable to have a Grass-type on the team.
Eventually, your Quaxwell will evolve into its final stage, Quaquaval, and gain its secondary typing: Fighting.
Final Evolution: Fighting
This provides a few new resistances to Rock, Bug, and Dark, while adding three new weaknesses in Psychic, Flying, and Fairy, which all notably resist Fighting-type attacks. Ghost also has a slight advantage because it is immune to Fighting-type attacks.
Fortunately, one type manages to resist all three of your new weaknesses: Steel.
Steel can be a difficult type to find, especially early on in the game, but once you have fully evolved your starter, the options become more widely available. Tinkaton is an excellent option for many reasons. Its Steel and Fairy dual-type is perhaps the best defensive combination in the game, sporting two immunities and nine resistances, which is honestly too many to list. But to narrow it down, Quaquaval will be weak to Grass, Electric, Psychic, Flying, and Fairy. Tinkaton resists all of those except Electric. In return, Quaquaval covers one of Tinkaton’s only two weaknesses: Fire.
The only thing left is to cover Quaquaval’s Electric weakness, and shore up the Ground weakness that is left uncovered for Tinkaton. This brings us right back to Grass-types. Arboliva, Brambleghast, and Toedscruel are all great options. All three appreciate Quaquaval’s ability to handle Ice-types, while Brambleghast appreciates Quaquaval’s ability to handle Dark-types. Arboliva is notable because its secondary Normal typing makes it immune to the otherwise troublesome Ghost-types. Toedscruel is unique in that it is actually immune to Electric attacks rather than simply resisting them, thanks to its Ground typing, but like Numel before, this does force it to lose its otherwise useful resistance to Grass.
If none of these new Pokemon strike your fancy, there are plenty of other Steel-types out there like Scizor and Bronzong. Neither of them have the same number of immunities and resistances that Tinkaton has, but they are still great options. Bronzong is particularly notable for its Levitate ability, which makes it immune to Ground. Klefki has the same typing as Tinkaton, and has a lot of great support moves, but doesn’t pack nearly the same offensive punch that Tinkaton does. For other Grass-types, Gogoat and Tsareena are great options.
Another notable teammate would be a Dragon-type. Dragons have a lot of useful resistances, including Quaquaval’s two main weaknesses: Grass and Electric. Dragon’s main weaknesses are Ice, Fairy, and itself, which are all covered by Steel-types, meaning it would add some great synergy to the duo of Quaquaval plus a Steel-type. Baxcalibur and Cyclizar are great options, but if you’d rather use a Dragon from older games it’s hard to go wrong with Dragonite, Dragapult, or Garchomp. But keep in mind that most Dragon-types only reach their final evolution at a high level.
So that’s that! Follow this guide and you should be well on your way to building a strong team around your adorable water duck Pokemon. Though, if you don’t like these ideas, that’s fine too! There are a lot of strong Pokemon wandering around Paldea and it’s honestly hard to go wrong.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is out now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. What is your team looking like? Leave a comment below letting us know!
