What are Dustox's weaknesses in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl?

If one thing is for sure, it’s that trainers will be seeing a ton of Dustox in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

The evil teams in the Pokemon franchise are known for spamming one or two Pokemon throughout a game. All the Team Aqua and Magma grunts seem to have Mightyena, and Team Rocket grunts often use Rattata and Raticate. In Team Galactic’s case, they use plenty of Dustox along with Zubat, Croagunk and Glamow, so trainers should have gameplans for these Pokemon.

---

Whic Pokemon deal the most damage to Dustox?

There are many powerful Pokemon in the Sinnoh region, but Dustox isn’t one of them. However, this Pokemon has one strong stat that can annoy newer trainers.

Dustox’s base Special Defense is 90, which gives it strong bulk against certain Pokemon. This is why Dustox can occasionally survive being hit with several Surfs, Shadow Balls, and Hyper Voices. If trainers can get strong damage onto Dustox, it can use Toxic and Protect, or set up a Quiver Dance.

To deal substantial damage to Dustox, trainers are going to need to use their physical attackers. Pokemon like Staravia, Monferno and Graveler have little to no issue finishing off Dustox with a single attack.

Staravia is an excellent Dustox counter (Image via The Pokemon Company)

As a Bug and Poison Pokemon, Dustox is weak to four types: Rock, Psychic, Fire and Flying. Of these four, though, Psychic-types are rare during the early game, and Fire-types are very scarce for any trainer that doesn’t pick Chimchar as their starter.

One Pokemon that’s both incredibly easy to catch and can burn through Dustox (and most other Pokemon that Team Galactic use) is Starly. Wing Attack and Brave Brid deal tons of damage to Dustox as well as Croagunk and Beautifly.

Starly is also a very useful Pokemon for the Eterna Forest escort mission with Cheryl. This mission isn’t terribly difficult, but trainers will run into plenty of Dustox. Starly (which most likely should have evolved into Staravia before Eterna Forest) can clean up most of the Pokemon in that area, Dustox included.