Is Ekans Good in Crystal Playthrough?
Available in Crystal without needing Gold version. Route 32 at night produces Ekans early, but the Poison typing still doesn't threaten any gym leader in Johto. The wider access doesn't fix the core problem.
Ekans trades roughly evenly with Falkner's team.
Ekans trades roughly evenly with Bugsy's team.
Ekans trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Morty's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Chuck's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Jasmine's team.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Pryce's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Clair's team.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Lt. Surge's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Sabrina's team.
Arbok resists most of Erika's coverage and hits back hard.
Janine's team hits Arbok's weaknesses hard.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Misty's team.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Brock's team.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Blaine's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Will's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Koga's team.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Bruno's team.
Arbok has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Arbok trades roughly evenly with Lance's team.
Catchable
Catch Ekans on Route 32 (walking, Lv 4, common).
Recommended Moves
- LV 15DarkBitePower 60Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Bugsy
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- TM28GroundDigPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- After Jasmine
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 135Accuracy 100%PP 10Gift from an officer in the Route 43 gate
- LV 37PoisonAcidPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 30
- After Clair
- TM26GroundEarthquakePower 100Accuracy 100%PP 10Victory Road
- After Lt. Surge
- TM19GrassGiga DrainPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 5Prize for defeating Erika
Evolve Ekans to Arbok
Ekans evolves into Arbok at Level 22. Your Ekans should hit Level 22 before you reach Morty, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- LV 25NormalGlarePower —Accuracy 75%PP 30
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- After Jasmine
- TM36PoisonSludge BombPower 135Accuracy 100%PP 10Gift from an officer in the Route 43 gate
- After Clair
- TM26GroundEarthquakePower 100Accuracy 100%PP 10Victory Road
- LV 43PoisonAcidPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 30
- After Lt. Surge
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Celadon Game Corner prize (7500 coins)
- TM19GrassGiga DrainPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 5Prize for defeating Erika
How to Get Ekans in Crystal
Ekans splits between Kanto grass and Headbutt trees, with 11 encounters that lean uncommon in the trees and common on the routes. Unlike the version-locked Gold game, Crystal lets you catch it freely.
8 locations to catch Ekans
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 1
Badge 2
Badge 3
Badge 4
Badge 5
Badge 6
Badge 7
Badge 8Where To Catch Ekans in C
Ekans is the chain's first catch. You'll find walking and headbutt encounters from Lv. 4-42 across 18 total spots in the chain.
- Step 2Catch or Evolve into ArbokRoute 3Lv.10GrassRate 5%Morning/dayRoute 4Lv.10GrassRate 5%Morning/dayRoute 42Lv.15GrassRate 5%Morning/dayRoute 27Lv.28GrassRate 30%Morning/dayor evolve from Ekans (Step 1)
To plan your throws, open the Crystal catch rate calculator with Ekans preloaded.
How to Get Shiny Ekans in Crystal
Ekans slithers through Route 32's morning and day grass south of Violet City, with more on Route 42 and in Headbutt trees along Route 32, Route 33 & Route 42. Compare Shiny Ekans odds across every game
Crystal Shiny Ekans Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route is Breed w/ Shiny Parent, about 1 in 64 on each try.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
Breed w/ Shiny Parent: Eggs inherit stats from a shiny parent, so about 1 in 64 hatch shiny. A shiny Ditto helps every egg, and any other shiny parent (the red Gyarados works) helps only eggs of the opposite gender.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 7-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 19-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 45-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 147-- | -- |
Time assumes -- at your pace and does not change your shiny odds.
How is this calculated?
Every encounter has the same shiny chance, the Shiny Odds Per Try shown above. Each one is a separate roll that does not care how many you have already done, so the more you hunt, the higher your overall chance of at least one shiny. The formula below turns your odds and your number of tries into that combined chance.
chance after N tries = 1 − (1 − p)^N, where p = 1 / odds per try
Example at 1 in 8,192 (classic full odds): about 864 encounters for a 10 percent chance, 5,678 for 50 percent, and 18,862 for 90 percent.
The table above flips that around: it shows how many encounters it takes to reach a 10, 25, 50, and 90 percent chance at your current odds. Turning on boosts like the Shiny Charm, sandwiches, or chains improves your odds, so the encounter numbers drop.
These are estimates, not promises. Most games have no pity counter, meaning no guaranteed shiny no matter how many you hunt, so even Very Likely is not guaranteed: some hunters find one early, others go well past that point.
For time estimates and charm math, open the Crystal shiny odds calculator with Ekans already selected.
Ekans Weakness
Ekans's Poison typing leaves it vulnerable to Ground and Psychic. The Poison typing picks up 4 resistances to work with. Ekans's Poison typing only leaves 2 gaps to cover.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Ground, Psychic |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Grass, Fighting, Poison, Bug |
- Dark and Steel types added — Fairy does not exist yet
- Moves are Physical or Special based on type, not per move
- Special stat split into Sp.Atk and Sp.Def
What is Ekans Weak Against
Avg
Ekans Evolutions
Ekans is the base form in a two-stage line leading to Arbok. Check the evolution method below. A small partner pool for breeding via two egg groups. Eggs take an average time to hatch. The evolved forms gain up to 160 total stats over Ekans. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
Breeding
Breed Ekans easily with 13 breeding partners from the Dragon and Field egg groups. Pass egg moves like Beat Up, Crunch, Pursuit and 2 more to offspring.
C Ekans Best Moveset
Poison pre-evolution with no offensive or defensive typing advantage. Stats too low for any role. Arbok provides modest improvement without solving the type problem.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Sludge Bomb
- Acid
- Curse
- Toxic
Moves List
The natural movepool does the job, but Beat Up and Crunch from the egg pool give Ekans something extra.
How to Read the Moves Table
Tabs
- Level-Up
- Learned by leveling up.
- TM
- Taught by a Technical Machine.
- Egg
- Inherited via breeding.
- Tutor
- NPC tutor (cost: items, BP, money).
- Reminder
- An NPC reteaches any move this Pokemon could have learned by leveling up.
- Transfer
- Carried over from an older game using Pokemon HOME.
- Event
- Given out through Mystery Gift events.
Visual Signals
CAT (Category)
How the move deals damage and which stats it uses.
A small dot on the icon's corner marks the move as contact.
Tier (S to D)
Each move's competitive rank in RankedBoost's system. TM, Egg, and Tutor sort by tier by default (best first). On Level-Up, click the Tier header to do the same.
PWR (Power)
Base damage. Numbers shown in a type color include STAB (base × 1.5). Hover any colored number to see the math.
— means no power (status moves) or variable power.
Sorting & Filter
Click any column header to sort. Level-Up opens with Lv 1 at the top. TM, Egg, and Tutor open with the highest-tier moves at the top.
Search filters by move name or type. The Filter button limits the list to STAB, Physical, Special, or Status moves.
Level-Up Moves
TM Moves
16 of 21 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
It flutters the tip of its tongue to seek out the scent of prey, then swallows the prey whole.
Ekans Crystal Guide
In Crystal, for a casual playthrough, Ekans works as a placeholder. Poison coverage is useful early. The real payoff is Arbok. That's where the stats start mattering.
Game Availability
Present since Red & Blue, Ekans appears in 20 games spanning 9 generations. Gen 1 originals like Ekans have the longest track record of availability in the series.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RBDebut
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GS
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RS
Ruby & Sapphire - Gen 3E
Emerald - Gen 3FRLG
FireRed & LeafGreen - Gen 4DP
Diamond & Pearl - Gen 4Pt
Platinum - Gen 4HGSS
HeartGold & SoulSilver - Gen 5BW
Black & White - Gen 5B2W2
Black 2 & White 2 - Gen 6XY
X & Y - Gen 6ORAS
Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Gen 7SM
Sun & Moon - Gen 7USUM
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Gen 7Let's Go
Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee - Gen 8SwSh
Sword & Shield - Gen 8BDSP
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - Gen 8PLA
Legends: Arceus - Gen 9SV
Scarlet & Violet - Gen 9LZA
Legends: Z-A - Gen 10WW
Winds & Waves
Explore
Where to go next after Ekans.
Keep playing · CrystalCrystal Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Crystal Tier List