Summary
When it comes toPokémon,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 fromPokémon Red & Bluetaught 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 June 02, 2025, by Blaise Santi:ThePokemonfranchise has an exciting year ahead with the impending release ofPokemon 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-Areintroduces Mega Evolution.
Area Zero (Violetonly)
Learned Moves
Sandstorm, Stone Edge, Electric Terrain, Wild Charge, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Earthquake, Pin Missile, Bite, Iron Defense, Giga Impact
Pokedex Entry
It has some similarities to a Pokémon introduced in a dubious magazine as a Tyranitar from one billion years into the future.
Iron Thorns may look similar to Tyranitar, another Pokemon on this list. However, it’s a completely different ‘mon introduced as a Paradox form inPokemon 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.
Diamond Storm, Ancient Power, Moonblast, Light Screen, Harden
A sudden transformation of Carbink, its pink, glimmering body is said to be the loveliest sight in the whole world.
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, inScarlet & 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-Areintroduces this powered-up formso that Diancie can remain a go-to Rock-type for competitive players.
Stealth Rock, Power Gem, Mortal Spin, Venoshock, Spiky Shield, Self-Destruct
Glimmora’s petals are made of crystallized poison energy. It has recently become evident that these petals resemble Tera Jewels.
Glimmora has been the recipient of a lot of fan distaste inScarlet & 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.
Casseroya Lake, Glaseado Mountain, Fellhorn Gorge, Kitakami Wilds, Timeless Woods
Razor Shell, Liquidation, Rock Tomb, Head Smash, Counter, Jaw Lock, Body Slam
Drednaw lurks along the shoreline. When prey come to drink water, Drednaw stretches its neck out and chomps down on them.
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.
Unobtainable
Rock Slide, Stealth Rock, Iron Defense, Iron Head, Magnet Rise, Take Down
When stone walls started moving and attacking, the brute’s true identity was this mysterious life-form, which brings to mind an Ultra Beast.
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.
Rock/Ground, Rock/Electric (Alolan form)
Abilities
Rock Head, Sturdy, Sand Veil, Magnet Pull (Alolan form), Galvanize (Alolan form)
Tera Raid Battles
Rock Blast, Stone Edge, Bulldoze, Earthquake, Thunder Punch (Alolan form), Discharge (Alolan form), Heavy Slam, Explosion
It is enclosed in a hard shell that is as rugged as slabs of rock. It sheds skin once a year to grow larger.
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.
Bug Bite, X-Scissor, Smack Down, Rock Wrecker, Withdraw, Shell Smash
It possesses legs of enormous strength, enabling it to carry heavy slabs for many days, even when crossing arid land.
At first glance,Crustlemay 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.
Sandstorm, Stone Edge, Mud-Slap, Iron Defense, Headbutt
The blasts of energy it makes from sunbeams have terrifying power. However, it’s not able to fire its blasts at night or on rainy days.
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.
Wide Guard, Ancient Power, Metal Burst, Heavy Slam, Block
Bastiodon live in herds. When assaulted by enemies, they line up side by side and use their hard faces to block attacks.
WithPokémon Sword & Shieldon 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.
Drill Run, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Rock Wrecker, Hammer Arm, Megahorn, Horn Drill
A Rhyperior’s brain is smaller than a Rhydon’s, but the Rhyperior is stronger because it spends more energy on battling and less on brainpower.
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.
