Is Forretress Good in Gold & Silver Playthrough?
Bug/Steel with one weakness: Fire. Forretress resists everything else and takes physical hits like nothing in the game. MoveSpikes chips opponents on switch-in. Low offense but the sheer defensive utility keeps it useful all the way through Red at Mt. Silver.
Pineco trades roughly evenly with Falkner's team.
Pineco trades roughly evenly with Bugsy's team.
Pineco trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Pineco trades roughly evenly with Morty's team.
Chuck's typing presses Pineco's defenses.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Jasmine's team.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Pryce's team.
Clair's typing presses Forretress's defenses.
Forretress trades roughly evenly with Lt. Surge's team.
Sabrina's typing presses Forretress's defenses.
Forretress trades roughly evenly with Erika's team.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Janine's team.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Misty's team.
Forretress resists most of Brock's coverage and hits back hard.
Forretress trades roughly evenly with Blaine's team.
Forretress trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Will's team.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Koga's team.
Forretress trades roughly evenly with Bruno's team.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Forretress has the type edge here and should clean up Lance's team.
Catch Pineco
Catch Pineco in Azalea Town (Headbutt (rare), Lv 10, common).
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 10)
- LV 10NormalSelf-DestructPower 200Accuracy 100%PP 5
- LV 15NormalTake DownPower 90Accuracy 85%PP 20
- After Bugsy
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- LV 36NormalExplosionPower 250Accuracy 100%PP 5
- After Clair
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 27
- After Lt. Surge
- TM19GrassGiga DrainPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 5Prize for defeating Erika
- LV 50NormalDouble-EdgePower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15
Evolve Pineco to Forretress
Pineco evolves into Forretress at Level 31. Your Pineco should hit Level 31 before you reach Jasmine, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 31)
- LV 31NormalSelf-DestructPower 200Accuracy 100%PP 5
- LV 31NormalTake DownPower 90Accuracy 85%PP 20
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- LV 39NormalExplosionPower 250Accuracy 100%PP 5
- After Clair
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Route 27
- After Lt. Surge
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Celadon Game Corner
- TM06PoisonToxicPower —Accuracy 85%PP 10Prize for defeating Janine
- LV 59NormalDouble-EdgePower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15
How to Get Forretress in Gold & Silver
Forretress has no wild presence; it arrives when Pineco reaches level 31. Since Pineco only ever drops from headbutted trees, the steel bug line starts with patient trunk-shaking before the levels can stack up.
Catch Pineco at any of these 11 spots to eventually evolve into Forretress.
- 1Catch Pineco
- 2Evolve Forretressat Lv.31
Badge 1
Badge 2
Badge 3
Badge 4
Badge 5
Badge 6
Badge 7
Badge 8How to Obtain Forretress in GS
To get Forretress, start by catching Pineco through headbutt encounters at Lv. 10. The chain covers 1 catchable stage before reaching the final form.
- Step 1Catch PinecoAzalea TownLv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Ilex ForestLv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Lake of RageLv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 34Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 35Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 36Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 37Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 38Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 39Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 26Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%Route 27Lv.10Headbutting special treesRate 30%
- Step 2Forretress ✓BREEDINGAvailableLeave a compatible parent at the Goldenrod Pokemon Day Care to receive a Pineco egg.
How to Get Shiny Forretress in Gold & Silver
Forretress never spawns on its own, so land the shiny on a Pineco instead, shaking it loose from the Headbutt trees around Azalea Town and Ilex Forest. Compare Shiny Forretress odds across every game
Gold & Silver Shiny Forretress 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 Gold & Silver shiny odds calculator with Forretress already selected.
Forretress Weakness
Fire moves hit Forretress for super-effective damage. Fire hits land at 4x, so they're the biggest threat. The upside? Poison-type moves can't touch it at all. With 9 resistances, the defensive profile is strong. Forretress's physical bulk (base 140 Def) helps cushion physical weakness hits, but special attackers are the bigger threat.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 4x (Critical) | Fire |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Normal, Ice, Psychic, Bug, Ghost, Dragon, Dark, Steel |
| 0.25x (Resist) | Grass |
| 0x (Immune) | Poison |
- 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 Forretress Weak Against
FortressBest Pokemon Against Forretress
Forretress Evolutions
Evolved from Pineco. Forretress is the final form in this two-stage line. A decent partner pool for breeding via one egg group. Eggs take an average time to hatch. Defense grew the most through evolution (+50 over Pineco), and Forretress peaks at 465 total stats. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed with Forretress to get Pineco eggs easily using 23 partners from the Bug egg group. Notable egg moves include Flail, Pin Missile, Reflect and 1 more.
GS Forretress Best Moveset
MoveSpikes sets the entry hazard that defines team strategy, and MoveRapid Spin clears the opponent's hazards. MoveExplosion deals massive physical damage when the setup job is done. Steel/Bug typing resists an enormous number of attacking types. Held ItemLeftovers sustains. The premier hazard package in the format.
Best Build
Support Moveset
- Spikes
- Explosion
- Rapid Spin
- Toxic
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Without breeding, Forretress misses out on Flail and Pin Missile. That's 4 egg moves adding depth that the base kit lacks. STAB comes from Pin Missile, with Normal and Grass coverage and more rounding things out.
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
18 of 24 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
Its entire body is shielded by a steel-hard shell. What lurks inside the armor is a total mystery.
It remains immovably rooted to its tree. It scatters pieces of its hard shell to drive its enemies away.
Forretress Gold & Silver Guide
In Gold & Silver, use Forretress as a hazard setter. Physical side carries the damage. It's slow, so Trick Room or priority moves are key.
Game Availability
Available in 16 titles since its debut in Gold & Silver, Forretress spans 8 generations of Pokemon games. It's accessible through wild encounters in most mainline games.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RB
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GSDebut
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 Forretress.
Keep playing · Gold & SilverGold & Silver Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Gold & Silver Tier List