Pokemon Quest Best Pokemon: stats, evolution levels and strategies for the best team

As Pokemon Quest's expeditions ramp up the difficulty, you'll need the best Pokemon possible. Here's our picks for ones to blow combat wide open.

New iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch RPG Pokemon Quest features the first 151 Pokemon from the classic original Game Boy Pokemon games - and even though that's a lot less than you have to juggle in many Pokemon games, there's still a lot of Pokemon to consider when putting together your team.

On this page, we're going to run down our picks for the best Pokemon in Pokemon Quest - the Pokemon that have well-balanced Attack and Health stats, with access to good moves or unique properties that help them to soar in combat.

It's well worth remembering that Pokemon Quest is more team-focused than other Pokemon games - so like any other dungeon-crawling RPG, you'll want to consider putting together a team with a Damage Dealer to rack up the DPS damage, a Tank to soak up damage and a Support to buff the rest of the team. While this isn't required, this rough team shape will take you far - and below, we've got great examples of some of the Best Pokemon for fitting each role for both the early and late game.

Best Early-Game Pokemon in Pokemon Quest

Early on in Pokemon Quest, you'll practically be spoiled for choice. AS you begin to get to grips with the cooking and recipes system, you'll find a slew of low-level, early-game Pokemon coming to your camp - but choosing which to use for your expeditions and other tasks is an interesting question in itself.

Here are some of our recommendations from those early-game recruitments - plus we've listed them with their type, which you can cross-reference with our Pokemon Quest recipe list in order to decide how to cook the meal to recruit it.

Starter Pokemon & their Evolution Levels:

First off, it's well worth nothing that the classic and modern starter Pokemon from Pokemon Red, Blue, Green and Yellow are all fairly decent Pokemon with some solid evolutions that could stick around longer than many others with ease if you power them up and level them up successfully.

We've got a separate page on how to recruit them, and Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle are all worth it, with decent stats and even better stats for their later evolutions. They all share the same evolve levels - level 16 for their second form and level 36 for their second.

Pokemon Yellow and Pokemon Let's Go starters Pikachu and Eevee can also be nabbed early on, with their recruitment covered on the same page. Pikachu's evolve level is level 22, while Eevee evolves into one of three forms at level 36.

Best Early-game Pokemon

A common thread with these strong early-game Pokemon is that they don't tend to be Pokemon that have any evolution - so you're trading off the ability to evolve for them being stronger, with high HP and attack values right out of the gate. Here's our top four picks for the best Pokemon in the early game:

• Aerodactyl:
  • Flying / Rock type
  • Base ATK: 675 / Base HP: 125
  • Recipes: Light-as-Air Casserole & Stone Soup
• Onix:
  • Rock type
  • Base ATK: 100 / Base HP: 600
  • Recipes: Stone Soup
• Pinsir:
  • Grass type
  • Base ATK: 725 / Base HP: 75
  • Recipes: Honey, Light-as-Air Casserole
• Scyther:
  • Grass / Flying type
  • Base ATK: 700 / Base HP: 100
  • Recipes: Honey, Light-as-Air Casserole

Overall Best Pokemon in Pokemon Quest

Once you're out of those early hours, you're going to be looking at systems like the bingo bonus and mega stones as you try to build the best, most powerful team possible. One option is to go for the legendary Pokemon you can catch in Pokemon Quest, but there are some solid regular Pokemon that can give even legendary creatures a run for their money.

Here's our top picks of the best Pokemon everybody should have leveled up and fully evolved in their camp, plus their types, stats, recipes and evolution levels.

• Alakazam:
  • Psychic type
  • Base ATK: 700 / Base HP: 100
  • Recipes: Brain Food
  • Evolution Levels: Abra (Level 16), Kadabra (Level 36)
  • Enormously powerful, but a bit of a glass cannon. Best with the move Psychic.
• Dragonite:
  • Dragon type
  • Base ATK: 675 / Base HP: 125
  • Recipes: Blue Soda
  • Evolution Levels: Dratini (Level 30), Dragonite (Level 55)
  • Always a power-house. Great stats. Has the super-powerful 'Draco Meteor' move.
• Golem:
  • Rock / Ground type
  • Base ATK: 100 / Base HP: 600
  • Recipes: Stone Soup, Mud Pie
  • Evolution Levels: Geodude (Level 25), Graveler (Level 36)
  • The highest HP stat in the game. The ultimate tank.
• Lapras:
  • Water type
  • Base ATK: 150 / Base HP: 650
  • Recipes: Mouth-watering Dip
  • A strong tank/defense option, but also decent DPS with the right moves.
• Machamp:
  • Fighting type
  • Base ATK: 700 / Base HP: 100
  • Recipes: Get Swole Syrup
  • Evolution Levels: Machop (Level 28), Machoke (Level 36)
  • Machamp is strong, but can also use Bulk Up to buff team mates as a support through use of a sharing stone - you just need the right slots.
• Snorlax:
  • Normal type
  • Base ATK: 150 / Base HP: 650
  • Recipes: Plain Crepe
  • A bastion of sheer size and power, but you'll want a Bingo Bonus of 500+ attack, which in turn gives it incredibly balanced, powerful stats. Try to get Mega Punch, a hugely powerful normal-type move.