Is Muk Good in Crystal Playthrough?
Postgame physical tank with high HP. Muk can absorb hits in Kanto trainer battles and the Battle Tower, but that's a role you didn't need filling by the time Grimer shows up. Crystal's late-game options are already set.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Falkner's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Bugsy's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Morty's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Chuck's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Jasmine's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Pryce's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Clair's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Lt. Surge's team.
Sabrina's team hits Muk's weaknesses hard.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Erika's team.
Janine's team hits Muk's weaknesses hard.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Misty's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Brock's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Blaine's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Will's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Koga's team.
Muk trades roughly evenly with Bruno's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Muk has the type edge here and should clean up Lance's team.
Catchable
Catch Muk on Route 16 (walking, Lv 30, rare).
Recommended Moves
- After Bugsy
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 120Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Game Corner prize (5500 coins)
- TM25ElectricThunderPower 120Accuracy 70%PP 10Goldenrod Game Corner prize (5500 coins)
- LV 45PoisonSludgePower 98Accuracy 100%PP 20
- After Lt. Surge
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Celadon Game Corner prize (7500 coins)
- TUTORFireFlamethrowerPower 95Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod City
- TUTORElectricThunderboltPower 95Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod City
- TM03GhostCursePower —Accuracy 100%PP 10Gift in the Celadon Mansion roof house, at night only
- LV 60PoisonSludge BombPower 135Accuracy 100%PP 10
How to Get Muk in Crystal
Wild Muk is rare on those same Cycling Road routes and uncommon in the Celadon water. Most players evolve a Grimer at level 38 rather than chase the low odds.
Wild Muk may be holding when caught:
Nugget (2% chance) Made of pure gold. Sell high.4 locations to catch Muk4 locations to catch Grimer
Encountered via Surfing, tall grass encounters
Encountered via Surfing, tall grass encounters
Badge 8Catch Grimer at any of the 4 locations below, then level it up to 38 — it evolves into Muk.
Badge 8Where To Catch Muk in C
Grimer is your first catch on the way to Muk. You'll find walking and surfing encounters from Lv. 15-33 across 12 total spots in the chain.
- Step 1Catch Grimer
- Step 2Muk ✓Celadon CityLv.15-19Surfing on waterRate 10%Route 16Lv.30GrassRate 5%Route 18Lv.30GrassRate 5%Route 17Lv.33GrassRate 5%or evolve from Grimer (Step 1)
To plan your throws, open the Crystal catch rate calculator with Muk preloaded.
How to Get Shiny Muk in Crystal
Muk lurks rarely on Kanto's Route 16 through Route 18 at any hour; most hunters chain the common Grimer in the same grass and evolve the shiny at level 38. Compare Shiny Muk odds across every game
Crystal Shiny Muk 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 Muk already selected.
Muk Weakness
Ground and Psychic moves hit Muk for super-effective damage. The Poison typing picks up 4 resistances to work with. Muk's special bulk (base 100 Sp.Def) helps absorb special-type weaknesses, though physical moves exploit the lower Defense.
| 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 Muk Weak Against
AvgBest Pokemon Against Muk
 Rhydon GroundRock | B | |
 Marowak Ground | B | |
 Donphan Ground | B | |
 Nidoking PoisonGround | B | |
 Kadabra Psychic | C | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Muk View Kadabra builds →Future Sight 2x88-104%KO Dig 2x15-18% | ||
 Nidoqueen PoisonGround | C | |
 Graveler RockGround | B | |
 Sandslash Ground | C | |
 Jynx IcePsychic | B | |
Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Muk View Jynx builds →Dream Eater 2x71-84% Mud-Slap 2x7-8% | ||
 Piloswine IceGround | C | |
 Celebi PsychicGrass | C | |
Obtain MethodIlex Forest Interact Encounter Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Muk View Celebi builds →Future Sight 2x76-90% Mud-Slap 2x12-14% | ||
 Lugia Psychic | S | |
Obtain MethodWhirl Islands Interact Encounter Available Moves Moves
Damage vs Muk View Lugia builds →Dream Eater 2x58-69% Earthquake 2x49-58% | ||
 Xatu Psychic | C | |
 Pupitar RockGround | C | |
Muk Evolutions
Muk is what Grimer becomes. Breed it for Grimer eggs (average hatch time). A small partner pool for breeding via one egg group. Eggs take an average time to hatch. The evolution from Grimer pushed Muk to 500 total stats. Sp.Def saw the largest single gain at +50. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed with Muk to get Grimer eggs easily using 11 partners from the Amorphous egg group. Notable egg moves include Haze, Lick, Mean Look.
C Muk Best Moveset
MoveSludge Bomb for Poison TermStab with a poison chance and MoveExplosion for the massive physical finisher. 105 Attack powers both adequately. MoveFire Blast catches Steel types from 65 Sp. Atk. Held ItemLeftovers sustains. Poison-type that finally hits hard and trades well.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Sludge Bomb
- Explosion
- Curse
- Fire Blast
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Don't skip the egg moves. Muk picks up Haze and Lick only through breeding, and both fill gaps the natural movepool can't. STAB runs through Sludge Bomb and Sludge while coverage across 9 types adds range.
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
19 of 26 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
As it moves, a very strong poison leaks from it, making the ground there barren for three years.
Muk Crystal Guide
Yes. Wild Muk in Crystal can hold Nugget (2%). Use Thief (TM46) or Covet to swipe the held item without affecting your catch chance. Quickest way to farm rare items like Nugget.
Yes. Muk is a post-game Pokemon. You need to defeat the Elite Four and enter the Hall of Fame first. Muk becomes available after the main story is complete in Crystal.
In Crystal, use Muk as a tank. Physical side carries the damage. Not the fastest, Set up with Curse when you get a free turn.
Muk has an Alolan form that swaps the typing and reshuffles the stats. Introduced in Gen 7. Worth checking if the original version doesn't fit your team.
Game Availability
Available since Red & Blue, Muk appears in 19 games spanning 9 generations. Beyond its original form, it gained an Alolan form in Generation 7.
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 7SMAlolan
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 Muk.
Keep playing · CrystalCrystal Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Crystal Tier List