When is it too late to add Pokemon to your playthrough team in Diamond/Pearl?

Question

I'm playing Pokemon Pearl and only have four Pokemon in my team. Is it too late to add the other two to my team?

I got my 7th badge.

Comments

In that case, why did you ignore dragon dance and waterfall? Gyarados can learn both without TMs. Also the Pokemon League uses 5 Pokemon that are weak to fighting, so that's effectively equivalent to one Elite 4 member.
Why are you putting so much weight on each Pokemon's usefulness against Cynthia's Garchomp? The Pokemon League has 25 other Pokemon, and the other boss battles have several dozen Pokemon. Even if Garchomp is the single most difficult opponent in the game, spending one slot on your team and 120,000 experience just to defeat Garchomp will help against Garchomp a lot less than it will hinder you in boss fights that are almost as difficult as Garchomp.

---

If you get Abomasnow, you don't need to spend 120,000 experience because you catch it at Level 40.

If the OP is asking for final additions to his late game team, it is much more time efficient and beneficial in the short run that would be the rest of the game to just add an Abomasnow.

---

A level 40 Abomasnow can't survive Cynthia's Garchomp's brick break. Using any Pokemon that's under level 50 has a significant cost and will likely be less "efficient" than an empty slot.

---

It would level up between mt coronet and the league through normal play...

---

That's exactly when it'll take 120,000 experience that could have been gained by other Pokemon.

Answer 1

This is really more about personal preference than anything else. In DP, all 3 starters are more useful than most of your other options, so the easiest way to finish the game is using only your starter and a few HM slaves. However, using up to 3 or 4 battling Pokemon will make the game take only a little bit longer, and many people think this is more fun than a solo run. If you want to do this, it doesn't really matter when you add Pokemon to your team. Just stop before adding too many, and don't add Pokemon that have very low levels (ie. don't use Lucario and don't catch a Starly from Route 201 after getting through Victory Road). Additionally, adding a very high-level Pokemon (that also has a high attack stat and good moves) to your team won't hinder you very much, even if you do it later, because this effectively gives you a bunch of experience for free. In DP, this mostly applies to the box art legendaries, Azelf, and maybe also Mesprit.

Comments

If this guy has the patience to level up his Pokemon, then the best way to do so is on Mt. Coronet or Victory Road.

As well as using Rare Candies to reduce time leveling up.

---

I think it's faster to repeatedly challenge the Pokemon League until you get enough experience to win.

---

I think it's faster to just go beat the league, I beat Cynthia with a team of level 39's on my first attempt