Is Larvitar Good in Gold & Silver Playthrough?
Mt. Silver, postgame only. Larvitar starts a long grind toward Tyranitar at level 55, which is one of the strongest Pokemon in Gen 2. But Mt. Silver availability means you can't even start the grind until after beating Lance. A victory lap investment that most players never complete.
Larvitar trades roughly evenly with Falkner's team.
Larvitar trades roughly evenly with Bugsy's team.
Larvitar trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Larvitar has the type edge here and should clean up Morty's team.
Chuck's team hits Larvitar's weaknesses hard.
Larvitar has the type edge here and should clean up Jasmine's team.
Larvitar trades roughly evenly with Pryce's team.
Clair's team hits Larvitar's weaknesses hard.
Larvitar has the type edge here and should clean up Lt. Surge's team.
Sabrina's typing presses Larvitar's defenses.
Erika's team hits Larvitar's weaknesses hard.
Larvitar has the type edge here and should clean up Janine's team.
Larvitar trades roughly evenly with Misty's team.
Larvitar trades roughly evenly with Brock's team.
Larvitar has the type edge here and should clean up Blaine's team.
Larvitar trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Pupitar trades roughly evenly with Will's team.
Pupitar has the type edge here and should clean up Koga's team.
Bruno's team hits Pupitar's weaknesses hard.
Pupitar has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Pupitar trades roughly evenly with Lance's team.
Catchable
Catch Larvitar in Mt. Silver (walking, Lv 15-20, rare).
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 15)
- LV 15DarkBitePower 60Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Bugsy
- TM28GroundDigPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- LV 22RockRock SlidePower 113Accuracy 90%PP 10
- LV 29NormalThrashPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 20
- LV 43DarkCrunchPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15
- LV 50GroundEarthquakePower 150Accuracy 100%PP 10
- LV 57NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5
Evolve Larvitar to Pupitar
Larvitar evolves into Pupitar at Level 30. Your Larvitar should hit Level 30 before you reach Will, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 30)
- LV 30RockRock SlidePower 113Accuracy 90%PP 10
- LV 30NormalThrashPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 20
- LV 30DarkBitePower 60Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Bugsy
- TM28GroundDigPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- LV 47DarkCrunchPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15
- LV 56GroundEarthquakePower 150Accuracy 100%PP 10
- LV 65NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5
How to Get Larvitar in Gold & Silver
Larvitar hides in one place only, rare, in the mid-to-high teens. Eight encounters all at that single late spot, so the rock-eating pseudo-legend takes real patience to turn up, the start of a long climb to Tyranitar.
1 location to catch Larvitar
Encountered via tall grass encounters
Badge 8Where To Catch Larvitar in GS
Larvitar is the chain's first catch. You'll find walking encounters from Lv. 15-20 across 8 total spots in the chain.
- Step 2Evolve into PupitarBREEDINGAvailableLeave Tyranitar with a compatible partner at the Goldenrod Pokemon Day Care to receive a Larvitar egg.
- Step 3Evolve into Tyranitar
To plan your throws, open the Gold & Silver catch rate calculator with Larvitar preloaded.
How to Get Shiny Larvitar in Gold & Silver
Larvitar only rarely breaks cover in the grass of Mt. Silver, and even that scarce encounter can hand you a shiny if you grind long enough. Compare Shiny Larvitar odds across every game
Gold & Silver Shiny Larvitar 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 Larvitar already selected.
Larvitar Weakness
Type-wise, Larvitar takes extra damage from Water, Grass, Ice, Fighting, Ground, and Steel. Watch out for Water and Grass attacks, those deal 4x damage. Electric moves do nothing thanks to a full immunity. It resists 5 types, giving it decent defensive coverage.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 4x (Critical) | Water, Grass |
| 2x (Weak) | Ice, Fighting, Ground, Steel |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Normal, Fire, Flying, Rock |
| 0.25x (Resist) | Poison |
| 0x (Immune) | Electric |
- 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 Larvitar Weak Against
FragileBest Pokemon Against Larvitar
 Tangela Grass | C | |
 Vileplume GrassPoison | C | |
 Suicune Water | B | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Suicune builds →Surf 4x274-323%KO Blizzard 2x115-136%KO Iron Tail 2x82-97% Dig 2x50-60% | ||
 Victreebel GrassPoison | C | |
 Vaporeon Water | B | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Eevee (Goldenrod City Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Vaporeon builds →Hydro Pump 4x408-481%KO Blizzard 2x136-160%KO Iron Tail 2x74-88% Mud-Slap 2x16-19% | ||
 Meganium Grass | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Chikorita (New Bark Town Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Meganium builds →Solar Beam 4x322-379%KO Earthquake 2x89-105%KO Iron Tail 2x89-105%KO Rock Smash 2x19-22% | ||
 Slowbro WaterPsychic | C | |
Obtain MethodSlowpoke Well Surfing Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Slowbro builds →Surf 4x298-351%KO Blizzard 2x125-147%KO Earthquake 2x82-97% Iron Tail 2x82-97% | ||
 Sunflora Grass | C | |
 Golduck Water | C | |
Obtain MethodIlex Forest Surfing Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Golduck builds →Hydro Pump 4x361-425%KO Blizzard 2x120-142%KO Iron Tail 2x89-105%KO Dig 2x53-63% | ||
 Feraligatr Water | C | |
Obtain MethodEvolve Totodile (New Bark Town Gift) Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Feraligatr builds →Hydro Pump 4x310-365%KO Earthquake 2x109-129%KO Iron Tail 2x109-129%KO Blizzard 2x103-122%KO | ||
 Donphan Ground | B | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Donphan builds →Earthquake 2x183-216%KO Rock Smash 2x26-30% | ||
 Marowak Ground | B | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Marowak builds →Earthquake 2x131-154%KO Iron Tail 2x87-103%KO Blizzard 2x73-87% Dynamic Punch 2x87-103%KO | ||
 Lapras WaterIce | C | |
Obtain MethodUnion Cave Interact Encounter Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Lapras builds →Hydro Pump 4x328-386%KO Ice Beam 2x131-154%KO Iron Tail 2x91-108%KO Rock Smash 2x20-23% | ||
 Quagsire WaterGround | B | |
Obtain MethodRoute 32 Surfing Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Larvitar View Quagsire builds →Surf 4x212-249%KO Earthquake 2x137-161%KO Iron Tail 2x91-108%KO Ice Punch 2x56-65% | ||
Larvitar Evolutions
Larvitar is the start of a three-stage chain. It evolves into Pupitar first, then eventually reaches Tyranitar. For breeding, takes forever to hatch with a decent partner pool via one egg group. Evolving adds up to 300 stat points total. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Larvitar with 36 breeding partners from the Monster egg group. Pass egg moves like Ancient Power, Focus Energy, Outrage and 2 more to offspring.
GS Larvitar Best Moveset
Rock/Ground pre-evolution heading toward Tyranitar, one of the format's defining threats. Stats too low for any competitive purpose at this stage. Two evolutions away.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Protect
- Rain Dance
- Rock Slide
- Ancient Power
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Breeding's the move. Ancient Power and Focus Energy give Larvitar options it can't learn any other way, and Dark and Normal coverage already covers a decent range on top of Earthquake and Dig. The egg moves push it further.
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
17 of 22 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
It feeds on soil. After it has eaten a large mountain, it will fall asleep so it can grow.
It is born deep underground. It can’t emerge until it has entirely consumed the soil around it.
Larvitar Gold & Silver Guide
In Gold & Silver, Larvitar has 300 BST and evolves into Pupitar. Compare the two forms before you give either one a team slot.
Yes. Larvitar is not available during the main story. It can only be obtained after entering the Hall of Fame. Larvitar becomes available after the main story is complete in Gold & Silver.
Game Availability
Larvitar first appeared in Gold & Silver and has been available in 18 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 Larvitar.
Keep playing · Gold & SilverGold & Silver Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Gold & Silver Tier List