Weedle, Kakuna and Beedrill (HGSS)

Weedle is the counterpart of Caterpie. It's a Bug/Poison-type Pokémon.

Stats and evolution
In its Weedle stage, it will have good Speed and decent Attack. When it reaches its Kakuna stage, it sacrifices Attack and Speed for Defense. In its Beedrill stage, it sacrifices Defense for a great increase in its Attack, Special Defense and Speed stats.

Moves, abilities and typing
Weedle will start off with only Poison Sting and String Shot. It's important to evolve it only at Level 15 to get Bug Bite.

At Level 16, Beedrill gets its signature move Twineedle, which attacks twice and has a chance to poison the target. I prefer having Bug Bite. At Level 25, it gets Toxic Spikes. Even though entry hazards are not very useful in-game, it can work great if timed correctly. At Level 37, can get Poison Jab, its best Poison-type STAB. Focus Energy is an option to raise its critical-hit rate.

Beedrill can get a few good TMs. Roost is an option to heal HP, but not recommended since you can heal it easier with Potions. U-Turn is one of its better options. Aerial Ace is a coverage option. Swords Dance, obtained at Game Corner with 4,000 coins, can be useful since it raises its Attack stat by two stages.

After Elite Four, the only good move that it can get is Brick Break.

Beedrill has Swarm Ability, whose raises the power of Bug-type moves by 50% with less than one third of its maximum HP. This ability is mainly useless since you can easily heal up your Pokémon with Potions.

Bug/Poison has problems against Fire, Rock, Psychic and Flying-types, but has advantage against Fighting-types.

Important battles
Has no major advantages with the possible exception of Will, Bruno, and especially Karen's Umbreon.

In Kanto, the only real worthwhile matchup is against Celadon Gym. In the Elite Four rematch, Bruno and Karen are the worthwhile matchups. Against Red, the only worthwhile matchup is against Venusaur.

Conclusion
Beedrill is far inferior than Butterfree, especially due to having a more lackluster movepool compared to its Bug/Flying-type counterpart. Use it carefully.

Rating: 35%.