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Pokemon Scarlet and Violet come with a massive overworld that players can explore for days on end, even though there are limits to how exploration can be performed if players haven't unlocked all of the power-ups for their ride Pokemon yet. Still, the game is quite possibly the largest ever, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Pokedex reflects as much by adding the highest number of new critters ever since Gen 5, with a total of 103 all-new pocket monsters. Not all of these critters are exactly new, with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Toedscool being more of a reskin than a new Pokemon, for example, but there are notable exceptions.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's cross-gen evolutions are a great example of this because they are still new critters despite them being evolutions of returning Pokemon, and one of the most sought-after in Gen 9 is Kingambit, Bisharp's evolution. This Pokemon learns its signature move in the form of Kowtow Cleave, a Dark-type move that cannot miss and that has 85 base power, making it one of the best in Kingambit's arsenal. Still, while Kingambit is admittedly a very powerful pocket monster, there is an argument to be made for Bisharp to be even better than its evolution in a specific scenario.
Why Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Bisharp is Better Than its Evolution
Kingambit's base stat total equals 550, with a distribution of 100 HP, 135 Attack, 120 Defense, 60 Special Attack, 85 Special Defense, and finally 50 Speed, making it a reliable physical attacker with two major issues: low Speed and 4x weakness to Fighting, as well as weaknesses to Ground and FIre. As such, Kingambit's base stats would have benefited from a higher Speed value to allow it to go first with held items such as Choice Scarf, which locks the wielder into using the same move until switched out or KOed, but increases its Speed by 50%.
Because Kingambit's base Speed is so low, even a Choice Scarf wouldn't help its case against fast attackers, and its core bulk is not enough to keep it alive through some moves that take advantage of its weaknesses. That's where Bisharp comes into play, as it has very good base stats that can be boosted further by using an item called Eviolite, which made Pokemon like Galarian Corsola and Porygon 2 so strong in Gen 8. In Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Bisharp's stat distribution consists of 65 HP, 125 Attack, 100 Defense, 60 Special Attack, 70 Special Defense, and 70 Speed.
Eviolite can only be used by Pokemon that are not fully evolved, and it increases the user's Defense and Special Defense by 50%, which in the case of Bisharp means its base Defense would go up to 150, and its Special Defense would become 105. These are both higher than Kingambit's by a substantial amount, and Bisharp is also faster than its evolution with a base Speed of 70 compared to 50, partially fixing one of its evolution's major issues. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Kingambit has a unique evolution method, and it's not exactly easy to obtain, making Bisharp all the more alluring in comparison.
Even though Kingambit has more HP than its pre-evolution, its Attack stat is only higher by 10 points, whereas having 20 extra points allocated in Speed and incredibly high Defense and Special Defense through Eviolite make Bisharp the better of the two. In Gen 9, Bisharp's move pool is also quite good, and despite it losing access to Kowtow Cleave with an Eviolite build, it can still perform very well, and generally speaking better than Kingambit can. Still, Kingambit's design in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is far from bland, and players may prefer it to Bisharp solely based on that factor.
PokemonScarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.
