The 21 Best Snake Pokémon, Ranked from Ekans to Rayquaza

Plenty of Pokémon borrow their looks from real animals, but the snakes tend to get overlooked next to the dogs, cats, and starters that hog the spotlight. They deserve more credit. From legless legendaries that warp reality to a humble grass starter that sheds its arms on the way to glory, the franchise is packed with serpentine designs worth building a team around.

Snake Pokémon types and evolutions at a quick reference

Many of these aren't single creatures but full evolution lines. Here's how the standouts break down by typing and how you get them.

1. Ekans and 2. Arbok: The definitive Poison snakes

Ekans earns the crown because it nails the brief. It looks like an ordinary snake, carries a yellow rattle on its tail, and its name is simply "snake" reversed. Its Pokédex behavior leans into the theme too, from sliding through tall grass to curling up to sleep and unhinging its jaw to swallow prey whole.

Arbok takes everything menacing about real cobras and turns it up. It has a wide hood with a face-like pattern that it uses to frighten foes before constricting them, and its name spells "kobra" backward. It's one of the strongest fully evolved pure Poison-types in the game, and its design carries that weight.

3. Seviper: The fang snake with a blade for a tail

Seviper is the fang snake Pokémon, and you can spot it instantly thanks to its huge venomous fangs and knife-shaped tail. The Poison-type constricts opponents, then slashes and poisons them with that bladed tail. It became a familiar face in the animated series as one of Jessie's main battlers for Team Rocket, and you can catch it in the wild across many games from Generation 3 onward.

4. Onix and 5. Steelix: The rock and iron serpents

Onix is the rock snake Pokémon, a Rock/Ground-type chain of boulders topped by a craggy head. It's a piece of Generation 1 history, famously part of Brock's lineup in the anime. Onix tunnels underground at 50 miles per hour while hunting, causing tremors on the surface, and the passages it leaves behind become homes for Diglett.

Trade an Onix while it holds a Metal Coat, and it becomes Steelix, the iron snake. Its Mega Evolution doubles its mass and adds glittering armor and spikes, giving Mega Steelix the highest base Defense of any Steel or Ground-type. If you want a wall that won't fall over, this is it.

6. Silicobra and 7. Sandaconda: The sand snakes of Galar

Silicobra is the sand snake Pokémon, a small Ground-type with a permanent frown that swallows sand and stores it in a pouch around its neck. It can blast dust from its nostrils to blind a predator, then dig away to safety. It also carries the rare Sand Spit ability, which kicks up a five-turn sandstorm whenever it takes damage. Hold a Smooth Rock, and that sandstorm stretches to eight turns.

At level 36, it becomes Sandaconda, whose neck pouch can hold well over 200 pounds of sand that it sprays at enemies under enormous pressure. When it runs dry, it gets too nervous to fight. Its Gigantamax form stands on its tail and spins like a sand tornado.

8. Dunsparce and 9. Dudunsparce: The goofy land snakes

Dunsparce is the land snake Pokémon, a Normal-type from Generation 2 with a mix of insect and snake features. It has no hands or feet, just tiny wings for a little float, and it burrows away with a drill-like tail when it senses danger. It lives in maze-like underground tunnels alongside Pokémon like Diglett.

Generation 9 finally gave it an evolution. Dudunsparce simply tacks on another body segment and bumps its stat total from 415 to 520. The real hook is the rarity hunt. When Dunsparce evolves, there's a roughly one-in-a-hundred chance it gains a third segment instead of two, and those three-segment forms have become a favorite chase for collectors.

10. Dratini and 11. Dragonair: The divine dragons

Dratini is a small, winding Dragon-type with white fins on its head and a bump where its horn will grow. It sheds its skin regularly to keep growing, and it learns Dragon Tail at level 15, a move that deals damage and forces the opposing Pokémon to switch out, which is handy against a hard counter.

At level 30, it evolves into Dragonair, a larger, more elegant serpent with a crystal orb on its neck and two more on its tail. It can emit an aura that changes the weather, and it lives in clean lakes and seas where people leave offerings out of respect for its near-divine reputation.

12. Snivy, 13. Servine, and 14. Serperior: The Unova grass line

Snivy's line is the rare starter that gets more snake-like as it grows. Servine still has small arms and feet but already looks distinctly serpentine, using the leaves on its tail to photosynthesize while it hides in shadows and strikes from cover.

At level 36, it becomes Serperior, which drops its limbs almost entirely and turns truly regal. Two fangs show when it opens its mouth, its tail looks like a vine, and it learns powerful Grass moves such as Leaf Storm. Its gaze alone can freeze enemies in place, and it only fights at full strength against a worthy opponent.

15. Milotic: The tender water serpent

Milotic evolves from the famously underwhelming Feebas, either by trading it while it holds a Prism Scale or by raising its Beauty condition high enough. The result is one of the most admired designs in the series, a long, limbless Water-type with fins on its head and tail. Its Pokédex billing calls it the most beautiful of all Pokémon, and it's said to rise from lake beds to calm anger and hostility, the gentle opposite of a rampaging Gyarados.

16. Gyarados: The water dragon that rampages

Gyarados is the payoff for grinding the useless Magikarp to level 20, and the transformation flips its personality completely. It's a massive serpentine Water/Flying-type with overlapping scales and fins around its head. Something during evolution makes it extremely aggressive, and when angered, it can level entire towns before it settles down. It's a longtime fan favorite for a reason.

17. Gorebyss and 18. Huntail: The deep-sea predators

Both come from Clamperl, and the held item decides which one you get when you trade it. Give it a Deep Sea Scale for the pink Gorebyss, or a Deep Sea Tooth for Huntail. Gorebyss looks delicate but drains its prey's fluids through its thin, pointed mouth, growing more vivid in color after a meal, and its body can survive the crushing pressure of the deep ocean.

Huntail lurks in the darkest depths, wriggling its slender body like a snake and waving its fish-shaped tail to lure victims close. Its oversized, toothy mouth lets it swallow prey whole. Both also have standout shiny forms, with Gorebyss turning golden and Huntail shifting to green.

19. Eelektrik and Eelektross: The pure electric eels

Eelektrik evolves from Tynamo at level 39 and resembles a blue-and-black eel with a leech-like mouth. Yellow organs along its sides generate electricity, which it uses to shock prey after coiling around them. Feed it a Thunder Stone and it becomes Eelektross. The clever part is the typing. This line is purely Electric, even after Mega Evolution, and paired with the Levitate ability it shrugs off Ground attacks entirely, erasing its only natural weakness.

20. Rayquaza and the serpent legendaries

Rayquaza closes things out as the most spectacular snake on the board. The Dragon/Flying legendary has a coiling, missile-like green-and-yellow body and lived in the ozone layer for hundreds of millions of years, feeding on water, meteoroids, and atmospheric particles. Those meteoroids trigger its Mega Evolution, which adds glowing gold tendrils, and it's the only Pokémon that can learn Dragon Ascent.

It shares the legendary tier with a few other serpentine giants. Zygarde's 50% Forme coils like a cobra and guards the ecosystem from its cave. Giratina drops its dragon shape for a snake-like Origin Forme inside the Distortion World, where it can slip between dimensions. And Eternatus, the alien Dragon-type from Sword and Shield, becomes its coiled Eternamax form when fully powered, the source of the Galar region's Dynamax phenomenon.

Whether you want a wall like Mega Steelix, a glass-cannon legendary like Rayquaza, or just the pure nostalgia of Ekans and Arbok, the snake category quietly holds some of the most versatile picks in the entire roster. Slot one onto your team and these slithering designs more than earn their place.