mjdxp - Underleveled Pokemon

Something I've kind of always been interested in are finding Pokemon at very low levels in the Pokemon games. For example, there's an infamous trick to get a level 3 Electrode in the Kanto games by catching a level 3 Pikachu, evolving it, and trading it at the Pokemon Lab, even though Voltorb doesn't evolve until level 30 under normal circumstances.

Generation 1 and 2 are especially interesting to me, as there's a lot of weird jank which can be exploited to find some underleveled Pokemon the developers likely didn't anticipate. In Generation 1, Pokemon usually don't start learning moves until the levels they're caught at. Since the developers didn't think anyone would be able to get Pokemon like Seel below level 30 when Pokemon Red and Green first released, Seel does not learn any moves until level 30.

In Generation 2, breeding was introduced into the series, which allows for nearly any unevolved Pokemon to be obtained at level 5. Because of the Time Capsule, you can trade Pokemon to Gen 1 and use Pokemon at levels significantly lower than anticipated. However, Generation 2 also added opportunities to capture many other interesting underleveled Pokemon, such as a level 2 Geodude.

Additionally, many evolved Pokemon can be found in the wild at much lower levels than expected. For example, in Generation 2, Dragonair can be found at only level 10 by fishing in Route 45. A surprisingly large number of evolutions can actually be caught in the wild, especially ones from Generation 1, at levels lower than one would expect.

The last interesting mechanic which can lead to some truly ridiculous Pokemon is trading. Traded Pokemon always have the same level as the Pokemon you traded, which means you can get some very low leveled Pokemon unobtainable by other means. For example, Rhydon does not evolve until level 42 normally, but it can be gotten in a trade at only level 10!

To calalog all of the underleveled Pokemon obtainable in Generation 1 and 2, I made a spreadsheet and went through all 251 species, checking Bulbapedia to see where each species could be located. I then picked out the lowest level Pokemon and put it on the sheet, alongside where to find it and in which games it can be found.

Some things to note:

- Level 2 is the absolute minimum possible level a Pokemon can be without using glitches (with glitches, you can catch a level 0 Ditto through the Old Man Glitch, or pretty much any species at level 1 through the Trainer Fly Glitch). Any Pokemon which can be found at level 2 has a gold highlight in their level column.

- For most unevolved Pokemon, the lowest level they can be obtained at is level 5 via breeding in Generation 2. These Pokemon have a green highlight in their level column.

- If a Pokemon can be found at level 3 or 4 at the lowest, it will have a blue highlight in its level column.

- Pokemon that can be obtained at a lower level than they can evolve will have a yellow highlight in their level columns.

- A small number of unevolved Pokemon cannot be hatched from Eggs. This includes the legendary Pokemon, Ditto, and Unown. These Pokemon have a red highlight in their level column.

- Event Pokemon are not counted, with one exception. Mew is the only Pokemon which is completely unobtainable in any vanilla Generation 1 or Generation 2 game without glitches. Because it was distributed at level 5, its lowest level will thus be ranked as 5.

- Each location contains the games a Pokemon is available in. For Generation 2 Pokemon, if a Pokemon can be found in all of the Generation 2 games, it won't have any games listed.

- In Japan, the original Pokemon game releases were Pokemon Red and Green, with Pokemon Blue being the true third version. Pokemon Blue in Japan has different trades and encounters to Pokemon Red and Green, making it a completely different game which can yield potentially lower leveled Pokemon. For example, level 3 Mr. Mime is exclusive to Japanese Blue.

- Because Pokemon Red and Green's encounter data is identical to international Pokemon Red and Blue's encounter data, Japanese Red and international Red are labelled with an "R", Japanese Green and international Blue are labelled with a "G", Japanese Blue is labelled with a "B", and Japanese Yellow and international Yellow are labelled with a "Y". Technically, Green and Gold have the same letter, but I don't think it should cause much confusion.

- I almost certainly missed some underleveled Pokemon in my research. Feel free to yell at me on my socials if you find a mistake and I'll try to update the list.

Without further ado, here's the list:

I'll put some analytics here sometime when I'm less sleepy and lazy