The Toughest Rock Pokémon, Ranked

Summary

• Rock-type Pokemon are known for their toughness, making them formidable opponents in battles.
• Iconic Rock-type Pokemon like Diancie and Tyranitar boast unique abilities and strong defensive stats.
• New additions like Garganacl in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet bring fresh challenges with unique abilities and moves.

When it comes to Pokémon, most fans of the series will likely bring up a Fire, Water, or Dragon-type as their favorite, as these typings tend to have the flashiest members. But if Brock from Pokémon Red & Blue taught players anything, it’s that it’s hard to find Pokemon tougher than those of the Rock variety.

Rock-type Pokemon come in varying shapes and sizes, but most seem to share a fortitude that matches their natural abilities. Here are some of the toughest Rock-type Pokemon in the games, and how they rank against one another.

Updated March 6, 2025, by Blaise Santi: The Pokemon franchise has an exciting year ahead with the impending release of Pokemon Legends Z-A, which will take players back to the Kalos region for a brand-new adventure. Of course, Kalos was home to some pretty iconic Rock-types, such as the Rock/Dragon-type powerhouse Tyrantrum, as well as the lovably Rock/Fairy-type Mythical Pokemon Diancie. With this impending game in mind, let’s take a look at a few of the other tough Rock-type Pokemon in the series’ history, including the aforementioned Mythical ‘mon who might have a renaissance when Pokemon Legends Z-A reintroduces Mega Evolution.

18

Iron Thorns

The Paradox Pokemon

Iron Thorns may look similar to Tyranitar, another Pokemon on this list. However, it’s a completely different ‘mon introduced as a Paradox form in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. Iron Thorns has the Rock/Electric-typing, which is only shared by the Alolan forms of Geodude, Graveler, and Golem. This doubles its weakness to the Ground-type, but gives it access to some powerful STAB moves, too.

As a competitive Pokemon, Iron Thorns can prove useful, especially when paired with unconventional moves like Dragon Dance. This move increases its Attack and Speed to power-up moves like Supercell Slam or Stone Edge, which can OHKO an opponent assuming it doesn’t miss.

17

Diancie

The Jewel Pokemon

Carbink is a pretty useless teammate for the most part, but its Mythical cousin, Diancie, is quite the incredible Pokemon. With its incredibly high Defense and Special Defense, which can’t be lowered by other Pokemon’s attacks thanks to its Ability, Clear Body, Diancie makes for an unexpected wall with its strong typing, powerful moveset, and versatile playstyles as either a wall or special sweeper.

Sadly, in Scarlet & Violet, Diancie is unable to Mega Evolve. In previous generations, this allowed it to trade its incredible defensive stats for offensive strength, paired with the Ability Magic Bounce and STAB moves like Moonblast and Diamond Storm. Hopefully, Pokemon Legends Z-A reintroduces this powered-up form so that Diancie can remain a go-to Rock-type for competitive players.

16

Glimmora

The Ore Pokemon

Glimmora has been the recipient of a lot of fan distaste in Scarlet & Violet, mainly for being the signature ‘mon of the game’s Champion, Geeta, who is considered one of the easiest Champion fights in the series’ history. Sadly, that’s because Geeta’s tendency to Terastallize Glimmora into a pure Rock-type, removing its useful Poison-type advantages, is quite a rookie mistake.

Competitive players should not underestimate Glimmora, though. It’s a high-ranking Pokemon thanks to its powerful Special Attack, making it a perfect choice to lead a match. It automatically sets Toxic Spikes when it’s hit, and has access to Stealth Rock. Certainly, players wouldn’t want to wait to throw out Glimmora last if they want to have any hope of intimidating opponents.

15

Drednaw

The Bite Pokemon

When it comes to new-age Rock-type Pokemon that are rough and tumble, players need look no further than Drednaw. Not only does this Pokemon have a striking design, it’s pretty capable of dishing out heavy damage to a wide array of opponents thanks to its dual Water and Rock typing.

While Drednaw is an excellent Pokemon with a wide move pool, it does have a pretty glaring weakness against Grass-type Pokemon (4x weakness). Those that can account for this weakness will find a visually enthralling Pokemon with decent stats to boot.

14

Stakataka

The Rampart Pokemon

Stakataka is definitely one of the weirdest Rock-type Pokemon to ever exist. Its strange design can be attributed to its place as an Ultra Beast, which serve as some of the most unique, odd, and off-the-wall designs to ever hit the Pokemon world. Not only do Ultra Beasts look strange but they’re incredibly powerful to boot and Stakataka is no different.

If players are looking for a tough Rock-type Pokemon, they’ll definitely want to add this curious creation to their team. Stakataka boasts some seriously impressive defensive stats and is pretty powerful in its own right.

13

Golem

The Megaton Pokemon

It’s hard to get tougher than a literal rock with arms and legs popping out. At first glance, Golem looks like a giant boulder that sprouted extremities and a head.

It’s unclear if they have soft bodies underneath the rock-like exterior or if the top layer is an extremely dense skin layer and all of their organs are inside the round rock-like shape. It also happens to have a lower center of gravity which gives it the upper hand against foes looking to topple it over and use its weight and body shape against it.

12

Crustle

The Stone Home Pokemon

At first glance, Crustle may look like a weird gimmick idea of a Pokemon, but it’s much more than that. For starters, it has one of the cooler Pokemon designs that aren’t reptilian or armored.

Considering its name is Crustle it makes sense that its body resembles the Earth’s crust and its many layers of varying sediment. Crustle is not much different from Golem in terms of being a piece of Earth with limbs poking out, but since its previous evolution is a play on hermit crabs, it can likely change to a different boulder, unlike Golem.

11

Gigalith

The Compressed Pokemon

On the surface, Gigalith simply looks like a mass of rocks with bright red crystals and geodes protruding from its body. It turns out that those red crystals absorb solar energy and that’s how Gigalith can shoot out beams of energy from its body.

The energy can be compressed so tightly with so much pressure that the attack fired off afterward is capable of blowing entire mountains to smithereens. It also has the drawback of causing an incalculable number of fissures in its own body.

10

Bastiodon

The Shield Pokemon

With Pokémon Sword & Shield on the horizon, people have been making fun of the legendary Pokemon called Zamazenta for having a shield on its face. However, longtime Pokemon fans would know that Bastiodon was actually the first face-shield design, and luckily for him, toughness has nothing to do with being aesthetically pleasing.

They’re a pretty docile Pokemon that will spend its free time eating grass and berries. The creature lived or died 100 million years ago, based on how effective it was at keeping threats in front of it.

9

Rhyperior

The Drill Pokemon

Rhyperior takes what many people love about Rhydon and simply coats it in what seems to be rock armor plating. It can be found with an ability called solid rock that reduces super effective attack damage by 25% showcasing just how formidable it can be.

Rhyperior also has holes in its palms that it will fill with rocks and shoot out at enemies or threats. Geodude have been casualties of this and have been shot from its palms. The previously mentioned rock-like plating is said to be able to withstand volcanic eruptions.

8

Rampardos

The Head Butt Pokemon

Sometimes Pokemon, like animals, can be a little too obvious about what their bodies were evolved for. In the case of Rampardos, it’s clear they were meant to butt heads for dominance and protection.

Sporting a large bulbous blue spot on the top of their head, Rampardos uses it to engage in battles for varying types of reasons. The spikes surrounding that spot make it even more dangerous for those looking to challenge it. Funnily enough, Rampardos is a Rock-type Pokemon that may be a rock’s greatest enemy.

7

Tyrantrum

The Despot Pokemon

Tyrantrum happens to be one of the coolest and toughest Pokemon in existence regardless of typing. It isn’t the first design based on the world-famous T-Rex, but the design and color palette make it come to life.

Tyrantrum’s jaw is said to be powerful enough to destroy thick metal plates as if they were cardboard. The toughest thing about them is finding a female as the gender rates are largely in favor of males at an astounding 87.5% to just 12.5% for females. Be on the lookout for that rare T-Rex queen.

6

Onix

The Rock Snake Pokemon

Anyone who grew up watching the Pokémon anime or played through the original Pokémon Red & Blue are familiar with the rock snake Pokemon known as Onix. In both mediums, Onix was the signature partner of Brock and showed fans how physically imposing certain Pokemon could be.

Onix on average is over 28 feet in length and weighs well over 450 pounds. Its body is composed of rock-like segments that come in varying shapes and sizes. It also sports a large piercing horn in the center of its head. Although it has an evolution in Steelix, giving an Onix the Eviolite item is a good way to get some mileage out of this memorable ‘mon.

5

Aggron

The Iron Armor Pokemon

When Aggron was first revealed many thought that he was just a ripoff of Rhydon from the first generation of games. Upon further review, people began to understand that he was meant to be an armored tank.

Though Rhydon looks like his body is formed of metal, Aggron carries the steel-typing confirming that his armor-plating is composed of metal. Both of the abilities an Aggron can end up having related to a formidable nature as he could either endure one-hit knockouts or receive no recoil damage from attacks.

4

Tyranitar

The Armor Pokemon

Tyranitar is more than just a nod to Godzilla. The 6-foot tall cave-dwelling monster is tough as nails, which is pretty evident simply by looking at it. It’s known as the armor pokémon likely due to the green scales covering its body looking thick and impenetrable.

Fighting it as a trainer isn’t only difficult because of how Tyranitar is built, but also because it’s known to kick up a sandstorm or two. This will cause it to get an upgrade in damage and make the conditions around the battle tougher to overcome.

3

Hisuian Arcanine

The Legendary Pokemon

Arcanine is one of the most iconic Pokemon from the first generation, and was well overdue for an upgrade by Gen 8. Luckily, that came with Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which takes place in Hisui, the region of Sinnoh far in the past. There, Growlithe and Arcanine have a slightly different design, and boast a Fire/Rock-typing.

Aside from a little boosted Attack and Speed, there’s little else that’s different about the two forms. Hisuian Arcanine boasts some pretty great new moves, but also suffers from 4x weakness to Ground and Water. Still, it makes for a strong opponent thanks to its strength.

2

Iron Boulder

The Paradox Pokemon

Paradox Pokemon were introduced in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, as version-exclusive past and present versions of recognizable creatures. The DLC expansions to the Switch games also feature some new Paradox Pokemon, including alternate versions of Unova’s Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion.

Iron Boulder, Terrakion’s variant, is Rock/Psychic-type, with incredible Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Although it’s weak to a total of 7 Pokemon types, its moveset is incredibly diverse, and its stats are nothing to sneeze at, either.

1

Garganacl

The Rock Salt Pokemon

In just a few short months, Garganacl proved one of the most intimidating new Pokemon in Scarlet & Violet. The pure Rock-type is the third stage evolution from Nacli after Naclstack. Its unique ability, Purifying Salt, makes it immune to status conditions; and its unique move, Salt Cure, inflicts damage every turn.

Suffice it to say, having a Garganacl on the team is guaranteed to frustrate even the most skilled competitive Pokemon opponents. Its resilience to being taken down easily, given its high HP and Defense, will only create more trouble as the battle continues.