Litwick, Lampent, Chandelure (SM)

Some weird lights.

Location: Hau'oli Cemetery (Island Scan on Saturday)

Stats, Evolutions
For this part of the game, Litwick's stats are not terrible. Pretty good special attack, good defenses, but it's very slow. Its other stats are negligible, although it has pretty decent HP.

But then the horror comes; it doesn't evolve until level 41 and you get it at 10. Lampent actually has a decent special attack, so should it take a hit, it will do quite a bit of damage. Its stats are mediocre even for middle-stage Pokémon, and no good for a Pokémon in this part of the game.

Fortunately, unlike a certain group of cogs and a hydra I know, Lampent can evolve into Chandelure right away. You get the Dusk Stone in Poni Wilds, which is actually available to you before the post-game. At what level will your team be when you get to Poni? Early forties. At what level does Litwick evolve again? Unless you want Chandelure to have Curse, there is no reason not to evolve it right away. Chandelure has a massive Special Attack stat, as well as decent defenses and speed. It's a beast, although it's a shame they didn't trade his Attack stat for more speed. Since it can pretty much go from Lampent to Chandelure immediately, it has an edge over the other late-evolvers. For comparison, Deino takes 51 levels to reach its final form. Klink takes 41. Crabrawler takes at least 42. Litwick "only" takes 31 levels.

Movepool, Abilities, Typing.
The unique move Litwick has is Acid, a Poison move with a chance of lowering the foe's special defense. Not bad, but it has low power. Its other starting moves are no hot. Smog has low power and accuracy, but it can poison the target and Fire Spin has just a bit of more power and accuracy, traps the target and damages him over several turns. Confuse Ray, however, is a move that is a must-have for Litwick, just remember that confusion was nerfed this gen. The next noteworthy move it gets is Will-o-Wisp at 16. Burns are more viable, but it has an accuracy of just 85%. Imprison at 24 is VERY situational, so get Hex at level 28, which won't hit very hard until you evolve it to Chandelure but the extra effect of doubling in damage when the target has a status condition is nice when combined with Will-o-Wisp. Memento at 33 is good for debuffing a Pokémon you are having trouble with and making him a joke by lowering its attacking stats, which also becomes much better if it's holding the Darkinium Z and turns into Z-Memento (Heals the Pokémon that switches in after the user faints). Before evolving, the last it gets is Inferno at 38, a highly-inaccurate but highly-effective move that always burns the target and combines well with Hex.

Unless you want to snatch up the last moves it gets, there is no reason not to immediately evolve Lampent to Chandelure. If anything, you should only wait if you want it to get Curse at 45 or Shadow Ball at 53, and it can get the latter via TMs anyway. Chandelure gets no more moves via level up.

Good TMs: Calm Mind, Sunny Day + Solar Beam, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Overheat, Energy Ball and Dark Pulse.

The abilities it gets are Flame Body and Flash Fire. Flame Body can burn the opponent on contact, while Flash Fire absorbs the opponent's Fire moves and powers up the user's ones.

And its typing is Ghost/Fire, which gives it no less than 5 weaknesses but 7 resistances and 2 immunities, as well as an extra immunity to Fire with Flash Fire.

Important Battles
The only early-game battle in which you can safely use Litwick is against Hala, since it's immune to Fighting moves. Then... he is mediocrish in Akala mostly because of his bad stats, and then he gets destroyed on Ula'Ula. After it evolves into Chandelure, it becomes much, much better, although it has disadvantages over Hapu and Elite Four Olivia.

Conclusion
Litwick's biggest problem is that it doesn't evolve until a bit over 30 levels after you get it, which is a real shame, but unlike Deino, Zweilous, Hydreigon (SM) or Klink, Klang, Klinklang (SM), the buildup is worthy since you can fully-evolve it immediately once you get the Dusk Stone. Chandelure is amazing, as he has lots of Special Attack and decent enough other stats, including actually good defenses, as well as a great movepool, good abilities and a typing with enough resistances and immunities to make up for its weaknesses. It just takes a lot of time for it to evolve, which brings the thing down.

Rating: 68%