Is Porygon Z any good in Pokemon GO?

Porygon Z has gained some attention as of late, thanks to Pokemon GO's Power Plant event, which boosts the rate at which its pre-evolved form, Porygon, spawns. With many players having the chance to obtain Porygon Z, many players are wondering if the Virtual Pokemon is worth the effort and can be used in Pokemon GO's Battle League.

Following the Electric Soldier Porygon incident, Porygon and its two evolved forms have yet to make any appearances in the anime aside from Porygon Z's brief cameo in the opening section of Kyurem vs. The Swords of Justice. Some players may remember Porygon Z for its brief role in Pokepark: Pikachu's Adventure on the Nintendo Wii, as players had to beat its quiz to obtain a secret word to open the gate in the Granite Zone.

To determine a Pokemon's potential in Pokemon GO, various factors have to be considered. The Pokemon's typing, the current state of the metagame, and how common the counters for that Pokemon are, are just some of the things that can affect a Pokemon's viability.

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An Analysis of Porygon Z in Pokemon GO

Porygon Z and its pre-evolved form, Porygon2 have both won competitive VGC Pokemon tournaments (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Poprygon Z, much like its two pre-evolved forms, is a pure Normal-type Pokemon. With this typing, Porygon Z is only weak to Fighting-type attacks and only resists Ghost-type attacks. This means that Porygon Z cannot take on Pokemon like Conkeldurr or Lucario and will not take any damage from Pokemon with Ghost-type attacks like Gengar or Chandelure.

Porygon Z's stat spread changes drastically from its pre-evolved form going from a standard defensive Pokemon to a powerful psuedo-glass cannon attacker. Porygon boasts a powerful attack stat of 264 and a stamina stat of 198. Porygon Z's weakest stat is its defense, sitting at a mere 150. This gives Porygon Z excellent usage, as a late-game cleaner capable of taking down weakened opponents.

Unfortunately, Porygon Z struggles to find its place in Pokemon GO's Battle League metagame, thanks to its terrible movepool. With it only having some of the most expensive charged attacks in the game like Hyper Beam and Zap Cannon, it is not too uncommon for Porygon Z to go down before firing off a single charged attack. To compensate for this, Porygon Z has Lock-On as an option for a fast attack, but all this does for Porygon Z is midigate the amount of damage it can do while it is still on the field.

While Porygon Z has incredible stats, its movepool and the current state of Pokemon GO are the only things holding it back. In a metagame dominated by powerful Fighting-types and bulky Steel-types, Porygon and its arsenal of Normal-type attacks can hardly put a dent in opponents. Porygon Z would drastically improve if it was given some cheaper charged attacks and a Fire-type attack. Niantic could hit two birds with one stone by giving Porygon Z access to Flamethrower.