Is Lopunny or Dustox better for a Platinum Nuzlocke?

Question

I am currently in a battle with a Cascoon and a Buneary in Eterna Forest with Cheryl. Which one should I catch?

Comments

Edited to comply with rule 1.6

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I tried to use a Dustox in my BDSP playthrough. It learns basically no moves, has 50s for attacking stats, and will die to nearly anything.

Lopunny has decent stats, a good defensive typing, and a usable movepool, with access to a lot of good Fighting type moves.

Neither are phenomenal Pokemon you'd be looking to use in a playthrough, but Lopunny is far superior to Dustox

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Buneary also learns frustration, which is useful for a while.

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That's true cause it starts at 0 friendship instant 100 BP move

Answer 1

Spare yourself the trouble of using Dustox in a legitimate playthrough of Platinum. Bug/Poison as offensive types, as well as lower offensive stats than the unevolved starter Pokémon, forces it to use Toxic + Moonlight to successfully defeat an opponent's Pokémon, which is far too resource heavy and time consuming to be effective. It takes until level 34 to make use of its Bug STAB, and the TMs for Shadow Ball and Psychic are not well-suited for it. Its sole merits are an alright enough Sp. Def stat, as well as its resistances allowing it to wall Gardenia's team and dish out fine enough damage with Gust.

Lopunny serves passably with good Speed and below-average Attack stats. Its obvious detriment is being a Friendship evolution, needing to go from 0 to 220 Friendship to evolve. This would be met really late in a playthrough if you do not go out of your way to farm Friendship for your Buneary, making doing so essentially a requirement. Lopunny's most defining trait is that it gets Return at level 13 through the Move Reminder, allowing it to not waste the TM. It also gets Frustration, which could very well be at 102 BP when its first caught.

Neither Pokémon are any good for a Platinum Nuzlocke, especially in comparison to Pokémon you are guaranteed to access (Gyarados, Jolteon, Haunter/Gengar, etc.), though Lopunny is far superior if you are willing to put in the effort necessary to evolve it.

Answer 2

I’m not qualified in anyway, but I’ll try my best.
Lopunny wins in base stat total by a long shot. But Dustox is good if you want a fully evolved Pokémon fast. For gyms, Lopunny is weak to the fighting gym and immune to the ghosts in that respective gym. Dustox is bad against the Rock gym, which you already passed, but in the Elite four, Dustox would not be good in the fire category, good in the psychic category, and probably gonna be weak in Cynthia anyways since literally 2% of Pokémon are good against her. For TMs, Dustox is alright. And Lopunny’s TM coverage is alsoalright though. So if I had to choose, Dustox would be decent enough before probably dying to Cynthia.

Comments

Dustox is extremely frail, with an awful defensive typing, (as well as offensive in terms of movepool.) It's also weak to Psychic despite having a STAB super effective type to it. Your also forced to use TMs if you want anything stronger than a 65 BP move before Level 41

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Lopunny doesn't need very much coverage when STAB return effectively has 153 base power.