Note: This guide will only focus on non-legendary Water Pokemon and will not include Pokemon like Tapu Fini and Arceus- Water.
20: Vaporeon
Vaporeon is another Water Pokemon to maintain its status as an incredibly effective ‘mon. It’s capable of dishing out powerful Water-type moves, can take a good amount of damage, and has access to moves such as Acid Armor, Baton Pass, and Wish that make it a great support addition to your team, too.
19: Araquanid
Araquanid’s base stats don’t really do it many favors when trying to justify it as a great Water-type Pokemon, but thanks to its Water Bubble ability, it has the ability to unleash devastating Water-type attacks. It’s likely you’ll have to switch it out of the way of damage quickly after, though, as it’s got some pretty awful HP and Speed stats. It’s weak against Electric, Flying, and Rock-type moves, so you’re best avoiding these at all costs.
18: Sharpedo
Sharpedo is a great addition to your team if you’re looking for a bit of extra stopping power in your offensive abilities. Unfortunately, it suffers massively from poor Defense and Sp. Defense stats which make it unlikely to last long in a battle. Combine this with its multitude of weaknesses – Electric, Grass, Fighting, Bug, and Fairy – and you’ve got a hard hitter who can’t take the heat of battle for long.
17: Milotic
Milotic isn’t just one of the most beautiful Pokemon, it’s also one of the toughest. Milotic boasts an extremely high Special Defense and decent HP and Defense stats and serves as a great tank. It is especially difficult to take down when used with Recover, Toxic and Scald (to burn potential attackers).
16: Golisopod
Golisopod’s Bug and Water typing allows for it to keep its weaknesses to a minimum. What’s more, Golisopod has some pretty incredible stats to help it deal out some serious damage. Unfortunately, you’ll need to carefully manage its slow Speed and its Emergency Exit ability which will see it automatically switch out when its HP is half or less.
Primarina
Primarina follows the same typing as Tapu Fini and benefits from a limited list of weaknesses because of it. While you may want to consider equipping it with Quick Claw to rectify its Speed stat, Primarina’s Liquid Voice ability does alter the type of all sound-based moves to Water. Particularly handy if you run out of PP on your Water moves. Its Special Attack and Defense stats help to make up for its slow Speed.
14: Cloyster
Cloyster is dangerous when used with his hidden ability, Skill Link, which ensures that multi-hit attacks always hit for the full amount. That means Cloyster, after using shell smash, can rip off ridiculously powerful Icicle Spears that can take down all but the strongest Pokemon that resist Ice.
13: Mantine
Mantine, like Milotic, is an excellent Special Defense tank and support Pokemon. Its typing is Water/Flying which is pretty solid defensively and has a ton of support moves to choose from such as Defog, Scald, Haze, Roost and more. Just don’t expect it to do a ton of damage with its weak attack and special attack stats.
12: Crawdaunt
Crawdaunt, unlike Milotic and Mantine is a glass cannon. It has an absurdly Attack stat and access to a very powerful ability in Adaptability which boosts its STAB moves. Meaning it can OHKO many Pokemon after pulling off a Swords Dance, and overcome its bad speed with Aqua Jet.
11: Empoleon
Empoleon is an all around solid Pokemon. It has balanced stats across the board, and a great typing in Water/Steel. It is very versatile as it can be a support Pokemon with its access to Defog and Stealth Rocks. It also can rip off decently powerful Hydro Pumps, Scalds and Ice Beams as well.
10: Tentacruel
Tentacruel has always been a solid Pokemon because of its great defensive typing and access to very useful moves like Rapid Spin (to clear hazards) and Toxic Spikes (to put down hazards of its own). Just remember opposing Poison Pokemon will remove Toxic Spikes upon entering. Use its Poison STAB attacks to take down powerful Fairy Pokemon.
9: Alomomola
As is a running theme in this list Alomomola is a very bulky Pokemon that can act as a great support Pokemon for your team. It has an insanely high HP stat, and can use Regenerator to get some of it back on switching. It can take advantage of its high HP to set up massive Wish(es) to your other Pokemon if needed.
8: Gyarados
Gyarados continues to be incredibly strong as it always has been thanks to its powerful move set. Use Dragon Dance to further boost your Attack and Speed stats to unleash even more chaos. You’ll just need to make sure you avoid Electric-type attacks as they’ll put an end to your party in seconds. Rock-type moves are also effective, but other than that, Gyarados is a tough nut to crack.
7: Starmie
Starmie has remained almost completely unchanged from previous generations, which means it’s still one of the best water-type Pokemon around. With an amazing move pool at its disposal – including the likes of Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, and Psychic – Starmie is capable of delivering huge amounts of damage across a number of types. Its raised Speed stat is also handy for beating your opponent to the punch.
6: Azumarill
Azumarill might look cute but with its alternate ability, Huge Power, it’s an absolute monster that will take you down with a smile. Take advantage of its high attack stat to land extremely powerful Aqua Jet and Play Rough attacks. Dragons will want nothing to do with Azumarill because of its Fairy typing. If you really want to roll the dice, use Belly Drum to sacrifice half your HP while sending your Attack to nigh unstoppable levels.
5: Slowbro
Slowbro is a decent Pokemon all on its own, but in its Mega form its a defensive powerhouse with still very high Special Attack to boot. It can prevent annoying critical hits with Shell Armor, and with its 180 Defensive base power, it can pretty much withstand any non-Special Attack, while dishing out powerful 130 Base Special Attacks right back. Just keep in mind that you know, Slowbro is slow.
4: Pelipper
Pelipper doesn’t exactly look like the most powerful Pokemon and its base stats don’t really argue against that. However, its access to Drizzle and Defog can help clear the field of entry hazards and barriers, as well as further enhance the effectiveness of Rain Dance. If you’ve got a Water-focused team, Pelipper becomes a necessity. Just make sure you don’t send it out against a powerful Electric-type.
3: Kingdra
Kingdra has a pretty rare and powerful Water/Dragon typing which on its own makes it useful but when you pair that with its Swift Swim ability (doubling speed in rain) Kingdra becomes very difficult to stop. Once its speed is doubled, it can out-speed just about anything and rip off respectively powerful Dragon and Water attacks. Consider using Kingdra with Pelipper!
2: Toxapex
Toxapex’s attacks may not look great on the surface, but thanks to a combination of defensive moves and abilities, it’ll become the support Pokemon to have in your team this generation. The combination of Baneful Bunker, Recovery, Regenerator, Venoshock, and Merciless make Toxapex an effective damage dealer, as well as one that can hold its own in a fight.
1: Greninja
Finally we have the extremely powerful and popular Greninja. What makes Greninja special is its hidden ability, Protean, which changes its type based on the last attack it used. This alone makes Greninja one of the most hard to counter, and difficult to predict Pokemon. Combine that with its very nicely distributed stats (high speed, attack and special attack) and Greninja is very hard to stop.
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