Pokemon Legends Arceus has completed Gen 8 and soon, the series will move on to Gen 9 with Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. Now that Gen 8 is complete, we can begin ranking the new creatures that were introduced in Pokemon: Arceus, Sword, and Shield. Tier lists are an easy way for new players to decide which Pokemon are best to include on their teams. Tiers are also a great conversation starter among long-time players and fans.

RELATED: Pokemon Fire Starter Tier List

The Ghost-type is certainly a fan favorite for many reasons. Ghost-types are known for their fun and innovative designs as well as their powerful presence in battle. So, we will begin with this wonderful type as we look at the overwhelmingly fabulous, ghostly entries added to the Pokedex in Gen 8.

S-Tier

Shadow Rider Calyrex

pokemon shadow rider calyrex

This is, quite simply, an overpowered Pokemon. There's no other way of putting it. It has phenomenal stats, with 165 Special Attack and a ludicrous 150 Speed. It's a Psychic/Ghost-type, both of which are excellent offensive types, as the only type that can resist both of these at once is Dark, meaning it can hit the vast majority of Pokemon neutrally. It has an absolutely terrifying move in Astral Barrage, a 120 base power, Special Ghost-type, move that has no drawback or a miss chance. It even hits both opponents in a Double Battle.

Finally, it has a fantastic Ability called As One. What makes As One so strong is that it's actually two Abilities. The first is Unnerve, a strong Ability that prevents the opponent from eating their Berry as long as the Pokemon with Unnerve is on the field. The other is Grim Neigh, an Ability that boosts the user's Special Attack stat by one stage every time they take a KO, up to 6 times.

All of this comes together to form a Pokemon that is an absolute beast. Make no mistake about it, this is one of the best Pokemon to use in the competitive game as of now. The closest thing it has to a flaw is the 4x weaknesses to Ghost and Dark, both of which are its only 2 weaknesses, I should add.

A+-Tier

Spectrier

Spectrier

Spectrier is a very strong Pokemon with a fantastic ghostly design. With 145 Special Attack, 130 Speed, and a pure Ghost typing, it's clearly meant to be a fast-but-fragile, damage dealer. What further bolsters this is Grim Neigh, an Ability that boosts Spectrier's Special Attack every time it KO's something, meaning it can snowball and become unstoppable given the right situation. Pure Ghost is a fantastic typing both offensively and defensively. It can hit most types for neutral, it only has 2 weaknesses and inherently comes with 2 resistances and 2 immunities.

The only thing Spectrier has going against it is the movepool. It learns Ghost, Normal and Psychic moves and really not much else. With how strong its high points are, however, the lack of good move variety doesn't hurt it too much.

Dragapult

Pokemon Dragapult In A Field

Dragapult is Gen 8's Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon and wow, it does not disappoint. It's a fast mixed attacker with 120 points in Attack, 100 in Special Attack, and an insane 142 Speed stat. Dragon/Ghost is a strong offensive and defensive pairing, as no type can resist both of these STABs simultaneously, and it comes with 6 resistances and 2 immunities.

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The moves and Abilities are quite good, too. Dragapult has a very wide movepool, having access to strong attacking moves from Dragon, Ghost, Flying, Psychic, Normal, Electric, and Fire, as well as good utility moves such as the screens, Dragon Dance and Substitute.

As for Abilities, it has access to Clear Body (blocks any and all stat reduction), Cursed Body (opponent has a 30% chance of one of their moves being locked for 4 turns if Dragapult is attacked), and Infiltrator (the effects of screens are ignored).

A-Tier

Hisuian Zoroark

A Hisuian Zoroark snarling and standing defensively in front of a Hisuian Zorua in a snowy area of Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Hisuian Zoroark is a simply delightful surprise Legends: Arceus gave to the series. Easily the most noteworthy thing about it is its type combination of Normal/Ghost. This is, hands down, one of the best type combinations in Pokemon as a whole.

On the defensive end, It has a single weakness to Dark. That's it. In exchange for this, the combination comes with 2 resistances to Bug and Poison, and a whopping 3 immunities to Normal, Fighting, and Ghost. For the offensive side, there is no type in the game that can resist Normal and Ghost at the same time, meaning it will almost never deal any kind of resisted damage, which is immensely helpful.

It excels at hitting opponents for neutral damage and uses its immunities, resistances, and Ability to switch in and out safely. Combine this with Hisiuan Zoroark's high offensive stats and high Speed stat of 110, this thing can easily do some big damage if kept away from Dark-type attacks.

Basculegion

pokemon-legends-arceus-basculegion-1

Basculegion is a classic example of a well-designed Pokemon. It has an excellent type combination that is Water/Ghost. This pairing has only 4 weaknesses to Grass, Electric, Ghost, and Dark, and 6 resistances to Poison, Ice, Water, Bug, Steel, and Fire, with 2 immunities to Fighting and Normal to top it all off. Offensively, it hits 5 types super effectively Ground, Rock, Ghost, Psychic, and Fire, and there is no type that can resist Water and Ghost at once.

The real magic of Basculegion and what makes it so strong however are the Abilities. First up is Adaptability. This Ability has a very simple but powerful effect. It makes STAB moves have a 2x multiplier instead of the usual 1.5x multiplier. This means Basculegion's Water and Ghost moves will have absurd damage output, especially given the fact that both types are good offensively anyway.

Next is Rattled. Basculegion is the first actually good Pokemon to get this Ability. If the user gets hit by either a Bug, Dark, or Ghost-type move or gets affected by the Intimidate Ability, their Speed increases by 1 stage. Basculegion has a middling Speed stat of 78, but after this boost, it becomes a respectable 117, making it quite fast.

B-Tier

Hisuian Typhlosion

Pokemon Gen 8 Ghost

This is the final evolution of the Fire-type starter in Legends: Arceus, and is probably the most useful of the 3. It has powerful typing in Fire/Ghost. 5 weaknesses, 7 resisted types, 2 immunities, 6 strengths, and no type is capable of resisting Fire and Ghost at the same time. Hisuian Typhlosion's most defining trait is that has an extremely strong combination of high Speed, good Special Attack, and access to the move Eruption.

Eruption is a very powerful move, it's a Special Fire-type move that uses the damage formula of more HP = higher damage. At full HP this move has 150 base Power, which is just crazy. Typhlosion's Speed of 95 allows it to usually use this move before the opponent can attack it and reduce the move's damage, (and this is not considering Speed boosts or the Choice Scarf item), and Typhlosion's high Special Attack of 119 means that Eruption *will* sting if the opponent gets hit with it.

Polteageist

The Pokemon Polteageist In A Field

Polteageist is a very good example of a "one-trick pony" kind of Pokemon, but it does that one trick amazingly well. Polteagiest has access to the insane combination of the move Shell Smash + the move Stored Power, and it's currently the only Pokemon to have this combination. Shell Smash drops the user's Defense and Special Defense by 50% in exchange for doubling Attack, Special Attack, and Speed.

Polteageist already has a very high Special Attack at 134, and its normally middling Speed of 70 becomes 140 after this boost. Add in that the only 2 types that can resist Ghost moves are Dark and Normal, and Polteageist can hold both the Focus Sash and White Herb items to help negate the defense drops from Shell Smash, and it can shred through foes like its nothing.

Stored Power also helps with this goal. Stored Power is a Special Psychic move that uses the damage formula of more stat increases = higher base Power. The short explanation of this is that after only one Shell Smash, this move's base Power becomes 140, and the move has no drawbacks or bad Accuracy to speak of, making it very reliable.

C-Tier

Cursola

Pokemon Galarian Cursola

Cursola is a Pokemon that shows there is power in simplicity. Cursola has a monstrous 145 Special Attack and 130 Special Defense, with a painfully low Speed stat of 30 as a trade-off. It's clear what its role is supposed to be. It uses that high Special Defense to soak up Special moves and deal back huge damage with its own Special moves, and it has several tools to facilitate this.

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First, the type. Pure Ghost only has 2 weaknesses to itself and Dark, meaning Cursola will not take super-effective damage often, especially when positioned properly. Ghost also hits every type in the game for neutral damage except for Normal and Dark, so not a lot can take reduced damage from its STAB moves.

Cursola's movepool is deep. It has access to strong Special Attacking moves from the Ghost, Grass, Water, Rock, Ground, Ice, and Psychic-types. It can easily fill in any coverage the player's current team might be lacking. Finally, its Ability in Weak Armor can actually make that seemingly horrible Speed stat actually worth something.

Runerigus

Pokemon Sword Shield Runerigus

Runerigus, despite being at the bottom of this list, definitely has several things going for it. Ground/Ghost is a very useful type combination. It comes with 5 weaknesses, 3 resistances, and 3 immunities on the defensive side, all of which are good traits, but the offensive end is where things get fascinating.

This combo can hit 7 different types for super effective damage, and there is no individual type in the game that resists both Ghost and Ground, making this pairing useful in pretty much any situation. It has a very interesting Ability called Wandering Spirit. This Ability trades Runerigus' and the attacker's Ability every time it's hit with a contact move.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available now on Nintendo Switch.

MORE: Pokemon Water Starter Tier List