Gothita, Gothorita, Gothitelle (SM)

Goths

Location: Route 6 AKA Straight Street (Island Scan on Sunday.)

Stats, Evolutions
Gothita has quite a bit of special defense, while it also has special attack and defense to spare. Actually, its stats are pretty balanced and in the right places.

But then the horror comes. It doesn't evolve into Gothorita until level 32, 15 levels after you get it. Wouldn't be that much of an issue if Gothita didn't have the stats of a first-stage Pokémon. Gothorita has the same stat distribution as Gothita. It has the stats of a middle-stage Pokémon. At this point, your middle stage starter is almost evolved, which means that Gothorita will lag behind the rest of your team. It does have enough stats though, and it benefits quite nicely from the Eviolite.

Gothorita evolves into gothic lolita Gardevoir Gothitelle at 41. Quite quick. Its stats are still distributed the same way as before. Quite bulky on either side, with a decent Special Attack, but low attack and mediocre speed and HP.

Movepool, Abilities, Typing
Unique move: Dark Pulse, an excellent 80 power dark move in this part of the game. When you catch it, its only other moves worth of note are Fake Tears and Psybeam. Fake Tears complements those two moves fairly well by lowering the opponent's special defense by TWO STAGES. A move that you'll want to keep around for when it evolves. Embargo at 19 is not bad for the potion-spamming people, but Knock Off on Machamp is the better item disabling move as it does pretty decent damage that is boosted when the opponent holds an item. Psyshock at 25 is a special-category move that does physical damage, useful for opponents with low physical defense. The last noteworthy move it gets before evolving is Future Sight at 31, which has 120 power, but you have to charge it for two turns (you can still do things while charging, though) but it's destructive if set up well.

At level 34 (evolved) it gets Heal Block, which does what it says on the tin. It's very situational, though... And the last thing before evolving? Psychic at 39, a standard psychic move.

When it evolves, it gets no more moves worth of note except for Charm, which lowers the opponent's Attack drastically, the problem is that you get it at level 54. So late into the game it doesn't make a splash.

For TMs, Gothitelle must have Calm Mind, which boosts its special stats. Don't teach it physical attacks, because of how bad its attack stat is. Definitely teach it Charge Beam for the Special Attack boost, as well as Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball or Hyper Beam. Thief is not a strong attack, but combined with its Frisk ability (tells you what item the opponent is holding) it can be useful if you want a specific item. And for defense you can teach it Light Screen and Thunder Wave, although Safeguard can be useful too.

Its abilities are Frisk (already explained) and Competitive, which boosts its Special Attack when one of its other stats is lowered. The best one for fighting is Competitive.

Its type is pure Psychic. You already know ￼about it.

Important Battles
Don't use it until it evolves... Although it can be helpful with Fake Tears + Psybeam/Dark Pulse, especially on Olivia. Even when evolved, it's not that great because in Ula'Ula it's countered by everything except maybe Vikavolt. It's good in most other battles after that except for Acerola.

Conclusion
For a Pokémon you have to babysit for 24 levels, Gothitelle is not half bad, but don't expect her to be stellar either. She has surprisingly good defensive stats for both a thin goth woman and a psychic type, and 95 special attack is absolutely nothing to scoff at. Its movepool is quite useable when it comes to levelling up and TMs, and may become the strongest member of your team if we only factor in moves. Problem? Again, you will be stuck with Gothita and Gothorita for quite a while, and unlike Litwick, you can't go from Gothita to Gothitelle immediately. As you have to baby her for a while, you can't use it a lot until it evolves into Gothitelle, and even as a Gothorita it struggles in Ula'Ula. Another problem Gothitelle has is that earlier into the game you can get better psychic types that are easier to train (Alakazam, Espeon...). It's still decentish if you want a psychic type, but it's nothing too amazing.

Rating: 55%