Is Houndour Good in Emerald Playthrough?
Safari Zone catch. Houndour evolves into Houndoom at 24 with AbilityEarly Bird for fast sleep recovery. Dark/Fire handles Phoebe's Ghost E4 and Sidney's Dark types. Wallace's Water Champion team is bad for Fire. Strong through the E4, stuck at the finish.
Houndour has the type edge here and should clean up Roxanne's team.
Houndour trades roughly evenly with Brawly's team.
Houndour has the type edge here and should clean up Wattson's team.
Houndour trades roughly evenly with Flannery's team.
Houndour trades roughly evenly with Norman's team.
Houndour has the type edge here and should clean up Winona's team.
Houndoom has the type edge here and should clean up Tate & Liza's team.
Houndoom has the type edge here and should clean up Juan's team.
Houndoom has the type edge here and should clean up Sidney's team.
Houndoom has the type edge here and should clean up Phoebe's team.
Houndoom has the type edge here and should clean up Glacia's team.
Drake's team hits Houndoom's weaknesses hard.
Houndoom trades roughly evenly with Wallace's team.
Catchable
Catch Houndour in the Safari Zone (walking, Lv 36-39, rare). Safari Zone: 500 entry fee, 30 Safari Balls, 500-step limit.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 36)
- LV 36DarkBitePower 90Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Flannery
- TM50FireOverheatPower 210Accuracy 90%PP 5Prize for defeating Flannery
- After Norman
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 180Accuracy 85%PP 5Lilycove Department Store
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Safari Zone
- After Tate & Liza
- TUTORNormalDouble-EdgePower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15Sootopolis City
- LV 43FireFlamethrowerPower 143Accuracy 100%PP 15
- LV 49DarkCrunchPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15
- Post-Game
- TUTORPsychicDream EaterPower 100Accuracy 100%PP 15Battle Frontier
- TUTORNormalBody SlamPower 85Accuracy 100%PP 15Battle Frontier
- TUTORNormalSwiftPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 20Battle Frontier
Evolve Houndour to Houndoom
Houndour evolves into Houndoom at Level 24. You get it at Level 36 or higher, past Level 24, so it evolves into Houndoom the next time it levels up. A lower-level Houndour evolves when it reaches Level 24.
Recommended Moves
- After Flannery
- TM50FireOverheatPower 210Accuracy 90%PP 5Prize for defeating Flannery
- After Norman
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 180Accuracy 85%PP 5Lilycove Department Store
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Lilycove Department Store
- TM22GrassSolar BeamPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 10Safari Zone
- After Tate & Liza
- TUTORNormalDouble-EdgePower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15Sootopolis City
- LV 51FireFlamethrowerPower 143Accuracy 100%PP 15
- LV 59DarkCrunchPower 120Accuracy 100%PP 15
- Post-Game
- TUTORPsychicDream EaterPower 100Accuracy 100%PP 15Battle Frontier
- TUTORNormalBody SlamPower 85Accuracy 100%PP 15Battle Frontier
- TUTORNormalSwiftPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 20Battle Frontier
How to Get Houndour in Emerald
Houndour prowls the Safari Zone grass at levels 36 to 39, a rare slot that takes some patience to hit. The dark hound shows up nowhere else in Emerald, making that fenced preserve the one place to start its line.
2 locations to catch Houndour
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 6
Badge 7
Badge 8Where To Catch Houndour in E
- Step 2Evolve into HoundoomBREEDINGAvailableLeave a compatible parent at the Pokemon Day Care to receive a Houndour egg.
Want the exact numbers? Work out your catch odds in Emerald for Houndour.
How to Get Shiny Houndour in Emerald
Houndour prowls the Safari Zone's expansion area as a rare growl in the grass past the entrance gate, so keep re-entering and combing that back section to stack encounters toward the recolored dark pup. Compare Shiny Houndour odds across every game
Emerald Shiny Houndour Calculator
2 MethodsBoth methods here share the same odds, about 1 in 8,192 on each try. Pick whichever fits how you play.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
Breeding: Hatch eggs of this line; each egg rolls at the base shiny rate (no Masuda before Gen IV).
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 864-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 2,357-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 5,678-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 18,862-- | -- |
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.
Curious how fast a hunt could go? Work out your Emerald shiny odds for Houndour.
Houndour Weakness
Houndour is weak to Water, Fighting, Ground, and Rock. On the flip side, it's immune to Psychic-type moves entirely. 6 resistances give it solid defensive coverage on top of that. Flash Fire grants an additional Fire immunity, reshaping the matchup chart.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Water, Fighting, Ground, Rock |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Fire, Grass, Ice, Ghost, Dark, Steel |
| 0x (Immune) | Psychic |
- Dark and Steel types added — Fairy does not exist yet
- Moves are Physical or Special based on type, not per move
What is Houndour Weak Against
GoodBest Pokemon Against Houndour
 Hariyama Fighting | B | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Hariyama builds →Focus Punch 2x390-459%KO Dig 2x105-124%KO Rock Tomb 2x88-104%KO Surf 2x53-63% | ||
 Blaziken FireFighting | B | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Torchic (Route 101 Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Blaziken builds →Focus Punch 2x390-459%KO Dig 2x105-124%KO Rock Tomb 2x88-104%KO | ||
 Breloom GrassFighting | B | |
 Heracross BugFighting | A | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Heracross builds →Focus Punch 2x405-478%KO Dig 2x109-129%KO Rock Tomb 2x92-108%KO | ||
 Machoke Fighting | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Machoke builds →Focus Punch 2x335-395%KO Dig 2x92-108%KO Rock Tomb 2x76-90% | ||
 Swampert WaterGround | S | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Mudkip (Route 101 Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Swampert builds →Focus Punch 2x243-286%KO Surf 2x138-162%KO Dig 2x148-174%KO Rock Tomb 2x83-98% | ||
 Feraligatr Water | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Totodile (Littleroot Town Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Feraligatr builds →Focus Punch 2x234-276%KO Surf 2x130-153%KO Dig 2x95-112%KO | ||
 Regirock Rock | B | |
Obtain MethodRoute 111 Interact Encounter Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Regirock builds →Focus Punch 2x223-263%KO Ancient Power 2x138-162%KO Dig 2x92-108%KO | ||
 Ludicolo WaterGrass | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Ludicolo builds →Surf 2x143-168%KO Focus Punch 2x169-200%KO | ||
 Sandslash Ground | A | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Sandslash builds →Focus Punch 2x223-263%KO Dig 2x138-162%KO Rock Tomb 2x76-90% | ||
 Camerupt FireGround | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Camerupt builds →Earthquake 2x226-266%KO Rock Slide 2x112-133%KO Rock Smash 2x33-39% | ||
 Armaldo RockBug | B | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Anorith (Rustboro City Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Houndour View Armaldo builds →Ancient Power 2x163-193%KO Dig 2x109-129%KO Water Gun 2x35-41% Rock Smash 2x38-45% | ||
 Pelipper Water | C | |
Obtain MethodDewford Town Surfing | ||
 Solrock RockPsychic | C | |
Obtain MethodMeteor Falls Surfing | ||
Houndour Evolutions
Houndour evolves into Houndoom. It's a two-stage chain with the method shown below. A massive partner pool for breeding via one egg group. Eggs take an average time to hatch. Evolving adds up to 170 stat points total. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Houndour easily with 102 breeding partners from the Field egg group. Pass egg moves like Beat Up, Counter, Fire Spin and 5 more to offspring.
E Houndour Best Moveset
Dark/Fire is a strong offensive typing, but Houndour's stats are too low to use it before evolving. The moveset should focus on special Fire and Dark moves while leveling.
Best Build
Houndour best EVs are HP and Sp. Def
Wall Moveset
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Will O Wisp
- Crunch
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Egg moves make a real difference. Houndour gets Beat Up and Counter exclusively through breeding, filling gaps that TMs and level-up can't touch. Coverage across 8 types rounds out the picture alongside Overheat and Fire Blast.
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. That triggers abilities like Static, Flame Body, Rough Skin, or Iron Barbs, plus items like Rocky Helmet and Sticky Barb.
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
23 of 24 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
HOUNDOUR communicate with each other using a variety of cries to corner their prey. This POKéMON’s remarkable teamwork is simply unparalleled.
Houndour Emerald Guide
- How do I catch Houndour in the Emerald Safari Zone?
See the Locations section above for where to find Houndour in Emerald.
Safari rules: You can only use Safari Balls. No battling. Two tactical items shift the catch/flee trade-off:
- Throw bait to keep Houndour from fleeing (flee rate cut to 1/4) but it becomes harder to catch (catch factor halved).
- Throw a rock to make Houndour easier to catch (catch factor doubled) but it flees twice as often.
- Each effect lasts 2-6 random turns; throwing one cancels the other.
In Emerald, Houndour does the job early-game if you need a Dark/Fire type on your team. Evolve it into Houndoom before the later gyms and it holds up fine through the story.
Game Availability
Houndour first appeared in Gold & Silver and has been available in 17 games across 8 generations. Obtainable through catching or hatching as a base form in most titles where it appears.
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 Houndour.
Keep playing · EmeraldEmerald Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Emerald Tier List