Part I of the guide to dragons By DragoniteHyperBeam You may think dragons stink, with their dual classes they are quadruple weak to their weaknesses.Their only move, Dragon Rage deals a fixed amount of damage (40) and it stinks. I'll agree with you partly for Dragon move stinks, it's cost in the Exchange corner is misleading. With the parts of this guide I'm going to have to disprove that, because in my opinion dragons are the best class of all. This first guide is concerned mainly with raising dragons. Rule #1 of raising dragons. First off I classify a dragon as any fully evolved pokemon that learns Hyper Beam by level. True dragons are any dragon that has Dragon for one of its types, fake dragons are Pokemon as I said that learn Hyper Beam by level. This narrows it down to four pokemon, Snorlax, Aerodactyl, Gyrados and Dragonite. (Note: All stats have been researched from the Official Nintendo Pokemon Guide) I will compare the stats, learned moves and TM and HM moves etc. I personallythink that Dragonite is the best of the four. Gyrados Type: Water/Flying Stats Evolves from: Magikarp Moves Learned: HP : 5 Bite Lv20 Normal Attack: 4 Dragon Rage Lv25 Dragon Defense : 2 Leer Lv32 Normal Speed: 4 Hydro Pump Lv41 Water Special: 3 Hyper Beam Lv52 TM's learned: 06,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,20,23,24,25,31,32,33,39,40,44,50 HM's learned: 03,04 Comments: I don't like Gyrados much mainly because he evolves from a really weak pokemon, Magikarp, Dratini Dragonite's first elvolvtion is not useless because it can learn most of the by level moves of Dragonite and the more useful TM's. Also, Gyrados has horrible defence (if Nintendo's stats are to be trusted) making fall quickly to a fast electric pokemon. It can't even learn Dig,which would rid itself of it's weakness to electricity. If your using him as a water pokemon the only move he learns by level is Hydro Pump which has very few PP's making it run out of PP quick, also Hydro Pump is inaccurate so you'll have to rely on Bubblebeam and Surf as water moves which you may have wanted to use for other Pokemon (except for Surf which is Hm). I think Gyrados is highly overrated Dragonite Type: Dragon/Flying Stats Evolves from: Dratini, Dragonair Moves Learned: HP: 5 Hyper Beam Lv60 Normal Attack:5 Defence:3 Speed:3 Special:3 TM's learned : 02,06,07, 08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,20,23,24,25,31,32,33,34,38,39,40,44,45,50 HM's learned: 03,04 Comments: I think Dragonite is the best of all the dragons (including "fake"). With proper training a Dragonite could beat almost every single pokemon. Learning Thunderbolt or Thunder which can finish off most Water/Ice and Articuno, Dragonite found a way to beat his own weaknesses. Dragonite is the only one of these pokemon that actually under type says Dragon. Dragonite is resistant to most types. Dragonite is great!!! Aerodactyl Type: Rock/Flying Stats Moves Learned: HP:5 Supersonic Lv33 Normal Attack:4 Bite Lv38 Normal Defence:2 Take Down Lv45 Normal Speed:3 Hyper Beam Lv54 Normal Special:2 Tm's learned: 02,04,06,09,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,22,24,25,26,27,29,31,32,33,34,35,36,38,43,44 HM's learned: 02 Comments: Aerodactyl is okay, probably better than Gyrados. Still one of my complaints is that after Wing Attack and Agility Aerodactyl's learned moves are all normal. A redeeming factor is that it is the only one that can learn Fly out of the dragons (fake included). Aerodactyl's okay. Snorlax Type: Normal Stats Moves Learned: HP:5 Body Slam Lv35 Normal Attack:3 Harden Lv41 Normal Defence:2 Double-Edge Lv48 Normal Speed:2 Hyper Beam Lv56 Normal Special:1 TM's learned:01 ,05 ,06, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26,27,29,31,32,33,34, 35,36,38,40,41,46,48,50 HM's learned: 03,04 Comments: I don't like Snorlax much. He's vulnerable to both Fighting and Psychic pokemon, because of his low defence and Special. Still Amnesia helps with his special and he learns Psychic to ward off fighting, but Psychic won't be very effective because of his low special. Then again, Nintendo's stats might not be trusted. Rule #2: This isn't a necessity but trading for a Dragonair is a good idea because Dragonair has pretty good stats and can contribute more to your team than Dratini can. However your trade might have to be bigger because the person who has Dragonair might not want to part with it. Would you want to part with a future Dragonite. Rule #3 Although this should be mandated for all pokemon, thought is necessary because you don't want to waste move space and you don't want to waste a TM. Rule #4 Think about what moves you want for your Dragonite (or whatever). Think about what role you want him to play on your team. For example you want your Dragonite to play backup to the move types already on your team in case something happens to them. Rule #5 There are three schools of thought involved with raising Dragonite. School #1 is loading him down with TMs to save space and so he can take on anything. The disadvantages are that Dragonite does not get the 50% type bonus for moves and if your opponents sees that they will attempt to wear you down so that the base of your team has been crumbled. School #2 is not loading Dragonite down. The advantage is that you don't rely on Dragonite too much. The disadvantage is that Dragonite is not as versatile. School #3 is hybrid possibly being the best type because you don't rely to much thereby is not the total base of your team Rule #5 Patience!!! Dragons require lots of Exp per level. Rare Candies can be a good idea (rare candies sometimes reduce pokemon's stats) but don't load him down. Rule #6 The easiest way to train a Dratini may be to give him Toxic for the ToxicWrap combo (ToxicWrap for those of you who don't know is Toxicing badly poisoning with poison damage increasing every turn, after you toxic,you wrap holding the pokemon in place so he can't use his turn also damaging him with poison) Rule #7 Dragons don't really need stat changers such as Carbos, but give him Carbos to increase his speed, remember speed is very important for a dragon allowing him to have first attack increasing the chances that you faint the opposing pokemon before he damages you.