Pokemon Legends: Arceus introduces several new Pokemon between Hisuian forms and entirely new critters, and while all of them are viable to a degree, some are arguably much better than others. This is not something that solely happens in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, of course, and every Pokemon game is usually filled with many creatures that can be especially great for a playthrough - and those that aren't. There are ten existing Pokemon that got a new Hisuian form, including all three starters, and a total of seven Pokemon that never appeared before, with most of them being evolutions of existing creatures.
Many of the new forms are noble Pokemon that tie into the lore of the Hisui region and the story of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, each with their warden, and all descendants of the old hero of legend's own Pokemon. This is why they are sacred to the people of Hisui and also why players meet them on their journey, eventually learning to summon some of them as their companions while exploring the region. Even though there are only a few trainer battles in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, the bulk of the fights will still occur in the wilds, and having the best team one can build is often crucial to not blacking out and keeping on exploring. This tier list puts every new creature into brackets, taking into consideration the offensive aspects of the Pokemon as well as its defensive ones.
S Tier
Hisuian Zoroark - One of the best Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus because of its fantastic stats and type combination, which is also a first in the franchise's history. Normal and Ghost make Hisuian Zoroark only weak to Dark-type moves while netting the Pokemon an immunity to Fighting. Plus, it has a signature move called Bitter Malice, which has decent base stats that are doubled if the opponent has a status condition. Bitter Malice can also apply that status condition on its own due to it having a 30% chance to inflict Frostbite, a new condition that works very much like Burn, dealing residual damage at the end of the opponent's turns. To add insult to injury, Frostbite reduces the target's Special Attack, making it invaluable in many situations both in Pokemon Legends: Arceus and outside it.
Hisuian Goodra - Hisuian Goodra is one of the best new critters from Pokemon Legends: Arceus because of how its stat distribution changed, its new type combination, and the fact that it has a fantastic signature move. Hisuian Goodra gained more defense than its regular form, making it a naturally bulky Pokemon thanks to its incredible special defense, and since it's now Dragon/Steel-type it gains plenty of resistances over weaknesses, alongside an immunity to Poison and a reduction in power of Fairy moves against it. Pokemon Legends: Arceus players can get Hisuian Sliggoo and Goodra very early, even before fighting the noble Pokemon of the Crimson Mirelands, and this makes it an even better Pokemon because it can be trained properly very soon (and also become the tankiest critter on the team).
Ursaluna - Ursaluna is a fantastic Pokemon to have on the team because of how powerful some Ground-type moves are, as well as how high its base stats are. While this perplexed bear is rather slow, it definitely packs a punch with its base Attack stat being 140, which goes a long way when combined with the Pokemon's great HP, Defense, and Special Defense. In mainline games it could also get the Guts ability, making it increase its Attack stat when affected by a status condition, potentially tearing down enemies very easily, all while also being immune to Electric-type moves such as those of the frequently used Regieleki.
Enamorus - An addition to the existing "Genie Trio" from Pokemon Black and White, Enamorus is the force of nature that governs love and hate, and it is a Fairy/Flying-type Pokemon. While Enamorus does not have the same level of stat distribution Landorus has, it is the genie with the highest base Special Attack, and it also has decent base Speed. Its Pokemon Legends: Arceus signature move makes it have a 30% chance to get an omniboost to its stats if in Incarnate form, and it has a 30% chance to drop both of the target's Defense and Special Defense if in Therian form. Overall, quite a strong addition to the genie Pokemon, and potentially also a meta pick in competitive battles if it comes to mainline games.
A Tier
Hisuian Typhlosion - Hisuian Typhlosion has the best stat distribution and resistances of all the starters, which is mostly due to its great Fire and Ghost types, making it immune to Normal and Fighting, but also resistant to popular types such as Grass, Steel, and Fairy. One of the biggest issues Hisuian Typhlosion incurs in Pokemon Legends: Arceus is that Dark-type moves like Bite and Crunch are commonly found on many creatures, which is not great when paired with the starter's average Defense.
Hisuian Samurott - Despite inheriting the type combination that made Greninja so popular from Pokemon X and Y, Hisuian Samurott cannot delve into the same mixed attacker role of its Gen 6 counterpart, and it also suffers from its rather low base Speed stat. This is something that affects Hisuian Decidueye as well, even more than Samurott, but it remains an issue even in Pokemon Legends: Arceus because of how impactful high Speed is on turn rotation, regardless of Agile Style or Strong Style moves. With six resistances and one immunity, Hisuian Samurott is still a decent Pokemon to use, maybe even in mainline games.
Hisuian Lilligant - Despite Hisuian Lilligant sharing Hisuian Decidueye's typing that makes it 4x weak to flying moves, it may outshine the starter because of it having a move called Victory Dance, which provides it with increased offensive and defensive stats, and a 50% bonus damage. With these buffs, Lilligant can easily one-shot weak opponents and really put a big dent in resistant ones. This Pokemon is a glass cannon, though, and without abilities and held items, it becomes less viable.
Hisuian Decidueye - Hisuian Decidueye's type combination is its biggest problem because, unlike Hisuian Lilligant, it also has a very low base Speed. Hisuian Decidueye is the bulkiest of the starting Pokemon, but its four-times weakness to Flying and its base Speed of 60 truly hinder its potential, especially if players take into consideration that it's the starter for Pokemon Legends: Arceus with the highest amount of weaknesses compared to its resistances. Yet, its Triple Arrows signature move is quite powerful as is, making Hisuian Decidueye a threat against Pokemon that are susceptible to Grass, Fighting, and Flying moves, which mostly comprise its kit.
B Tier
Basculegion - While Basculegion has quite unique lore in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it is not one of the best new Pokemon to be added to the game because of its stat distribution and its signature move. Basculegion has plenty of base HP and Attack, but it lacks defenses and Speed to be truly viable, which is something that its type combination doesn't help by being weak to Dark-type moves, and those are very frequent in the game in the form of Bite and Crunch. Wave Crash also deals recoil damage to Basculegion, even though it increases the Pokemon's action speed, and is overall an average move.
Sneasler - Sneasler has one of the strongest moves in Pokemon Legends: Arceus in the form of Dire Claw, which has decent base stats, augmented critical hit chance, and it can also inflict one of three status conditions at 50% chance. Using Dire Claw in Strong Style raises the chance to leave the target with Drowsy, Poison, or Paralysis up to 80%, and it also increases its base damage. Still, Sneasler has very low defense and average special defense, making it a glass cannon that is also four times weak to psychic.
Hisuian Electrode - Fantastic speed that makes it better than most Pokemon in the game, but in a mainline game it wouldn't make sense for players to use it over Regieleki, which is much faster and has a better bulk overall. Hisuian Electrode has a rather low base HP, Defense, and Special defense, with its Special Attack still being a bit too low to make the Pokemon shine. However, in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it can consistently get two turns in a row with Agile Style moves, making it a good pick. Its typing is not the best because it nets the Pokemon more weaknesses than resistances, but it's quite unique because it's only shared by one of Rotom's forms.
Wyrdeer - A decent Pokemon for Pokemon Legends: Arceus because of how Psyshield Bash allows it to deal damage and increase both its defenses at once. The typing is not the worst, considering that Normal/Psychic Pokemon lose a resistance to gain one immunity, and its Psychic type helps on the offensive side. Wyrdeer is not the bulkiest Pokemon, and while it has a good Attack and Special Attack, its Speed is quite low, making it a sub-par pick in many instances.
Kleavor - Kleavor is a fairly balanced Pokemon, and it comes with a very high base Attack, decent defenses, and average Speed. Its type combination grants it three weaknesses and two resistances, which is not ideal, but it does have STAB on very powerful offensive moves and also good coverage. Unfortunately, Kleavor's three weaknesses are all quite powerful types - Water, Rock, and Steel. Still, it has an interesting signature move in Stone Axe, which is quite good to deal residual damage to enemies.
Overqwil - The evolution of Hisuian Qwilfish doesn't bring an innovative type combination to the table, although it was theorized it could have been the first Poison/Steel-type in Pokemon games. Still, by being a Poison/Dark hybrid, Overqwil is only weak to Ground moves, and it has decent coverage in terms of offense. One of its issues is that it's built to be a physical attacker, and yet the only STAB Dark move it learns is Dark Pulse, which scales off Special Attack instead. At least, Barb Barrage is decent, and so are other moves it learns, such as Aqua Tail and Poison Jab.
Hisuian Arcanine - Hisuian Arcanine is a decent Pokemon that could be more viable in mainline games because of Intimidate, but less so in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The move pool offers decent coverage, but the Pokemon falls short in terms of defensive capabilities and Speed, especially with Fire/Rock being a sub-par type combination. The addition of rock as its secondary type means it gains a 50% resist and fire resist goes up to 75% in exchange for two 4x weaknesses (Water and Ground), which makes it very frail against even non-STAB moves.
C Tier
Hisuian Avalugg - One of the issues of regular Avalugg is that it has incredibly high Defense and Attack but an abysmal Speed and Special Defense, making it very susceptible even to special attacks that it naturally resists, let alone those that damage it normally or those it's weak to. Hisuian Avalugg doesn't fix its regular form's problems, and instead, it gains Rock as its second type, making it four times weak to Fighting and Steel moves, which are often found on many Pokemon. As such, Hisuian Avalugg is not a great Pokemon in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and it probably wouldn't be very good in mainline games either.
Hisuian Braviary - The biggest issue with Hisuian Braviary is that it has a very low base Speed that makes it not a great pick in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and a very bad one in mainline games if it ever is ported to them. Esper Wing's extra action speed does help in the game, but the move is not great due to its 90 base accuracy. While the Pokemon's type combination is not the worst, although not great either, Hisuian Braviary doesn't shine in battle, and it's likely one of the worst of the bunch.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available now for the Nintendo Switch.