With so much misinformation out there, figure I should at least try to do my part in trying to dispel at least some of it. Given that there seems to be a kind of warped idea of what makes a starter good in a playthrough. And thus, to get this discussion going, here’s my take on which starters are the best in their regions.
Squirtle is the best Kanto starter due to it starting strong and pretty much never really falling off. It has excellent coverage via its move pool. It gets Bite and Mega Punch/Kick before Misty, Dig and Body Slam before Surge, Ice Beam before Erika, and Surf before Koga. For any game set in Kanto, Ice Beam and Surf are Elite Four tier moves that you can have Squirtle rock the moment you get them. It wrecks Brock, walls Misty, Digs Surge, Ice Beams Erika, Digs Koga, Body Slams Sabrina, and Surfs Blaine and Giovanni. He also basically walls Lorelei, hits Bruno in the Special Defense where it hurts, brute forces Agatha, Ice Beams Lance, and has the best performance against the rival.
Now, for those of you who think the title should belong to Bulbasaur, let me remind you that it’s not very consistent, and in fact relies on type matchups, stall tactics, and brute force just to get by. It’s at a defensive disadvantage against Sabrina’s Psychics, Blaine’s Fire types, and Lorelei’s Ice moves, and an offensive disadvantage against Agatha’s Poison types (it can brute force Koga and Erika, but that can only get you so far), and is at an overall disadvantage against your rival in general. Long story short, what it has in Kanto just can’t measure up against Squirtle. And as for Charmander, it actually performs better than you think. Type matchups don’t really matter all too much in Kanto, and Charmander does get access to much of the tools it needs for a solid performance throughout the game, making it better than Bulbasaur, but never gets anything that’s effective against Dragon or even Water Pokémon. That, combined with Water weakness, prevents Charmander from being as good as Squirtle.
Totodile, much like how Squirtle is for Kanto, is the best starter for Johto. Sure, it learns primarily Special moves during a time where it was typing that determined whether a move was Physical or Special it also learns Rage, which is pretty much its Bread and Butter move. Every time Totodile gets hit after using Rage, the power of Rage increases. Giving the move staying power for a while at least until stronger Pokémon show up. This pretty much leads to the first 3 Gyms falling pretty easily. By Morty, you should already have Bite, which is super effective. And then, you get Surf and Ice Punch, which can be used to brute force Chuck, then Dig, which helps against Jasmine’s Steel types. Pryce depends on your strategy, and can go either way. But Feraligatr by Clair comes back with a vengeance with Ice Punch. Then, with the Elite Four, Ice Punch and Bite destroys Will, Earthquake, Surf, and Ice Punch all wreck Koga, Bruno’s Hitmonchan is the only risk Feraligatr faces, and Karen is taken out with Ice, Water, and Ground, and then Lance is utterly dominated by Feraligatr. And then, going into Kanto, it has much of the same advantages Squirtle has there, even with the Gym Leaders being stronger here than when you were controlling Red. It Surfs and Earthquakes Brock, walls Misty, Earthquakes Surge, Ice Punches Erika even with defensive disadvantage, Surfs, Earthquakes, and Ice Punches Janine, Bites Sabrina, and Surfs and Earthquakes Blaine (with Magmar posing the biggest threat with Thunder Punch). Blue poses the hardest challenge out of all of them, but even then, it brute forces Gyarados, Ice Punches Pidgeot, Bites Alalakazam, can Bite or Ice Punch Exeggutor (even though it poses the biggest threat), and Surfs Arcanine and Rhydon. And for Red, it Bites Espeon, Earthquakes Pikachu, Ice Punches Venusaur, Surfs Charizard, and brute forces Blastoise and Snorlax. However, despite these advantages, Red’s not the kind to go down easily. You could technically make an argument for the Red Gyarados being better, but that Pokémon doesn’t come in until you reach the Lake of Rage, and is otherwise pretty much meant to be a substitute for if you don’t choose Totodile at all.
For those of you who think that it’s Cyndaquil, just that it has its own share of disadvantages in Johto, even though it’s better in Johto than Bulbasaur is in Kanto. Falkner has Mud Slap, which is Super Effective against Cyndaquil. Bugsy is easily beaten. It falls to Whitney’s Rollout, but otherwise manages to fairly brute force Whitney. And it can brute force Morty, and later Chuck. Then wrecks Jasmine’s steel types, manages to hold its own against Pryce, but fails to do anything to Claire’s dragons. And going into the Elite Four, it devastates both Will and Koga, but has to resort to brute forcing Bruno and Karen. And with Lance, Thunder Punch gives it an edge on Gyarados, Aerodactyl, and Charizard, and lets it brute force the Dragonites. But with Kanto, it fares just as well there as Charizard did when you were playing as Red. Arguably less so considering that the Kanto Gym Leaders are stronger now than back then. Meaning, don’t expect it to hold up against Misty, and even Brock poses a threat due to actually having Rock and Ground moves this time around. But other than that, it Earthquakes Surge, wrecks Erika and Janine, brute forces Sabrina, and Earthquakes Blaine. For Blue, Typhlosion Thunder Punches Gyarados and Pidgeot, wrecks Exeggutor, brute forces Alakazam, and Earthquakes Arcanine and Rhydon. However, it’s worth pointing out that Gyarados and Rhydon poses the biggest threats. And for Red, it Earthquakes Pikachu, Thunder Punches Charizard and Blastoise, wrecks Venusaur, and brute forces Snorlax and Espeon. But again, Red won’t go down easily. At any rate, an overall worse performance than Totodile, but a solid choice nonetheless. Despite this, a case can be made here that Magmar is a better Fire type than Typhlosion in Johto, arguably a stronger case than the Red Gyarados being better than Totodile. Their stats are roughly comparable, with having tied Sp. Def, Magmar having higher Atk, and Typhlosion having higher everything else. But Magmar is putting out Typhlosion type performances, running both Thunder Punch AND STAB Fires Punch, when Typhlosion is still a Quilava, learns Flamethrower at an earlier level than Typhlosion (41, compared to Typhlosion’s 60), and can even learn Psychic. Which is worth pointing out. Which kind of makes up for the lack of availability in comparison. Make what decisions with that how you want.
However, everything that I said about Totodile and Cyndaquil to this point only really applies to Gen 2. With Gen 4, Totodile gets access to a wider move pool and benefits from the then-new Physical/Special split with much of its learn set now more optimized to run off its higher Atk stat. Waterfall is better on it than Surf for this very reason. And Ice Fang and the now Physical Crunch are solid options to run alongside Rage, Earthquake, and Waterfall. But why do I then consider Cyndaquil to be better than Totodile in Gen 4 but not in Gen 2? Well here’s is reason: Totodile and Cyndaquil are now both closer in terms of worth in Gen 4 as opposed to Gen 2. Cyndaquil now has earlier access to Flamethrower (level 42 as Typhlosion), and the Fire Blast access even further bolsters its offensive capabilities with the Choice Specs considered. Both it and Magmar now need a Move Tutor to learn Thunder Punch, which, unfortunately, is locked behind the Battle Frontier. However, Typhlosion now has access to Solarbeam, and could use the Sunny Day and Solar Beam combo, opening offensive opportunities against Brock and Misty. Magmar, unfortunately , doesn’t have that same access, so it’s overall worse than Cyndaquil in Gen 4 as opposed to Gen 2. While technically, Totodile is still better than Cyndaquil, much of the reason why I at least find it better to go with Cyndaquil for Gen 4 is not just because it’s the best Fire type in Johto in Gen 4, but also because of Totodile’s redundancy and overlap with Gyarados, which you can get as high as a Level 50 or so Magikarp on the way to the Lake of Rage, which is in turn better than the Red Gyarados. A Level 50 Pokémon at a point where the upcoming Gym Leaders will have Pokémon with levels in the 30’s? Yes please. Just feed it a Rare Candy as soon as you catch it. Also, keep in mind that the Kanto Gym Leaders and Red have slightly different Pokémon, such as a Thunder Punch Machamp replacing Alakazam on Blue’s Team, and Lapras replacing Espeon on Red’s team. It’s your call, either way.
For Hoenn, I don’t need to explain it. It’s Mudkip. An extremely effective weakness to Grass in a game with no Grass types in major Pokémon battles except for about 4 instances, wrecks the majority of the major battles. Need I say more?
For Sinnoh, I don’t feel the need to explain, either. It’s Chimchar. Close Combat at Level 41, mixed attacker, great coverage, outspeeds almost everything in the game (even its two fellow Sinnoh stsrters), doesn’t rely on type matchups to get things done. Moving on.
For Unova, the best starter is actually Oshawott. Though it is close between it and Tepig. Simply put, however, there’s really not many good Water Pokémon in Unova, you can only get a Water Pokémon that’s just as good as Oshawott is at best if you choose Snivy, and there’s a Gen 2 Cyndaquil vs Magmar situation going on with Tepig and Darumaka with Tepig having very little in terms of good STAB moves without drawbacks as the game progresses, and that Darumaka has more advantages including having better bulk and being able to brute force Drayden/Iris with help from Belly Drum.
For Kalos, the best starter duo is actually Froakie and Charmander. Not Fennekin and Bulbasaur, like you might be thinking. But before I go into why, I might as well state how Fennekin and Bulbasaur do.
Fennekin is super effective against Viola sans Surskit and the occasional Powder from Vivillon, gets wrecked by Grant, has super effective damage but no STAB against Korrina, and wrecks Ramos. It’s also good against Clemont’s Magneton and Dry Skin Heliolisk, and Valerie’s Steel type Mawile. It resists Olympia’s Psychics except for the Power Gem Slowking and Shadow Ball Meowstic, and wrecks Wulfric. For the Elite Four, it resists Malva save for Chandelure, which hits it for Super Effective STAB Ghost damage, wrecks Wikstrom but you have to watch out for the Shadow Claw Aegislash, and has coverage against 2 of Diantha’s Pokémon. Overall, a very solid sweeper. But it’s a pure Special Attacker, as one would expect for a Pokémon clearly meant to be a Black Mage. And its move pool actually hurts it a bit. Meaning that Ember will be out-damaging Flame Charge, despite the latter being a stronger move on BP alone, and the speed boost Flame Charge gives is redundant because Fennekin is fast enough already. It doesn’t learn Mystical Fire, which just has 65 BP, until evolving into Delphox, and Flamethrower doesn’t come until Level 42.
As for Bulbasaur, he clearly got a noticable buff in Kalos compared to Kanto, where he’s actually the worst starter there. Its Poison typing now gives it resistance to Fairy type attacks AND STAB super effective damage to Fairy type Pokémon. But defensively, it’s weak to Fire, Flying, Ice, and Psychic. HOWEVER, the Thick Fat ability it gets upon Mega Evolution effectively cancels out the Fire and Ice weaknesses it has. In addition, it gets Leech Seed immediately, and Sleep Powder at Level 13. Giving it stopping power to take out at least one Pokémon in every major battle. It learns Venoshock from the TM near Parfum Palace. Becomes Venusaur at Level 32 and learns Petal Dance immediately afterwards. And also can pick up Energy Ball and Sludge Bomb. For the major battles, it is super effective against Grant’s Amaura, which knows Aurora Beam, and hits Tyrunt neutrally. It’s for the most part neutral against Korrina’s Fighting types, but her Hawlucha, which is resistant to Grass, knows Flying Press. For Ramos, while Venusaur takes a quarter damage from Grass type attacks, Jumpluff knows Acrobatics, and Weepinbell is neutral to Poison moves. For Clemont, Emolga has STAB Aerial Ace, and Magneton requires Bulldoze to remove effectively, and Bulldoze could let Venusaur solo. For Valerie, Venoshock takes care of her fairies except Mawile. Forget about having it take down Olympia due to the Psychic weakness. (Her Sygiliph also has Air Slash.) But with Thick Fat, it basically brute forces Wulfric, netting an easy KO against Abomasnow. For the Elite Four, it can brute force or even solo Malva with Earthquake, it wins against Siebold’s Barbaracle and Clawitzer, but faces a risk from Starmie who can hit hard with Psychic and set up defensive support against Venusaur with Light Screen. For Wikstrom, Probopass can tank an extremely effective Earthquake with Sturdy, and Scizor is hit neutrally by Earthquake. It brute forces Drasna, whose Dragalge is hit by a super effective Earthquake, but you have to watch out for the Air Slash Noivern. And for Diantha, it’s only the Tyrantrum that falls to a super effective Earthquake; Aurorus, who doesn’t like taking Grass moves, is setting up defensive support, Hawlucha, Goodra, and Gourgeist are neutrally hit, and Gardevoir hits super effectively with STAB Psychic while tanking super effective STAB Poison Special moves. It’s not very often that Venusaur is using STAB Grass moves, or Poison moves for that matter. And its stats are just that good.
So then, what is it that makes Froakie better? Well, just like Fennekin, it has perfect availability. Greninja’s high base Speed means it’s always going first, and like Infernape before it, it’s a mixed attacker. For Viola, it has STAB Bubble, and resists Surskit. Like Charmander against Brock, it has the worst offensive performance of all the starters against Viola, but still manages to pull through, especially when none of its moves are getting resisted. After Viola, Froakie soon gets Water Pulse, and evolves to Frogadier shortly after. 60 BP, 90 with STAB, on a Frogadier. Let that sink in. And if that weren’t enough, Rock Smash lets it sweep Grant, who gives you Rock Tomb, and you’ll pick up Aerial Ace not long after. It’s sweeping Korrina, after whom that Water Pulse can be upgraded to the 90 BP, 135 with STAB, Surf. For Ramos, it might face risk from the Grass Pokémon, but it still has Aerial Ace, or the even better Acrobatics, to hit hard with before it’s even attacked. It evolves to Greninja, and gets the Dig TM before you face Clemont. For Valerie, it falls easily to her fairies, but not before taking about one or two fairies down with it with Surf. Then it solos Olympia, and brute forces Wulfric, who is pretty bad. For the Elite Four, Malva is sweeped, Siebold’s wrecked by Grass Knot, Rock Tomb handles Gyarados, and STAB Dark Pulse handles Starmie. For Wikstrom, Klefki has a Ground weakness, Probopass has a Water weakness, Aegislash has a Dark weakness, though Aegislash has Sacred Sword, Probopass has Discharge, and Scizor has X-Scissor. Drasna is clean swept by Ice Beam. And for Diantha, Hawlucha, Tyrantrum, Goodra, all fall to Ice Beam, Aurorus falls to STAB Surf, Gourgeist falls to STAB Dark Pulse, leaving Gardevoir as the only real threat. He’s also good against Lysandre’s Honchkrow, Pyroar, and Mega Gyarados, it’s good against Calem/Serena and his/her Meowstic, Altaria, Absol, and Chesnaught. It’s just so good, and even without a Mega Evolution at this point.
As for Charmander. As a Charizard, it gets solid stats, with an inclination towards Special attacks before Mega Evolution. Upon Mega Evolution, depending on what Charizardite it’s holding, it can become either a menacing mixed attacker, or a Special, Drought-toting nuke. It learns Dragon Rage as soon as it evolves to Charmeleon, and both it and Rock Smash help it against Grant. Aerial Ace helps it against Korrina. And when it finally evolves to Charizard is where things branch off depending on the version of the game. However, each of the benefits in the different versions both basically amount to the same results. As Mega Charizard Y, as mentioned earlier, it gets Drought and a whopping 159 Special Attack. While as Mega Charizard X, it swaps the Flying type for a Dragon type and gets 130 Physical AND Special Attack, and Tough Claws, which boosts contact-based moves, the vast majority of which are Physical moves, by 1/3. To put this in perspective, for Mega Charizard X, Dragon Claw + STAB + Tough Claws comes to about 156 damage before the 130 Atk is factored in. While with Mega Charizard Y, Flamethrower + STAB + Drought comes out to about 195 before the 159 Sp. Atk is factored in. OOF! And to top it off, Drought pretty much neutralizes Water damage. At any rate, For Clemont, you go in with Tough Claws Dig or just a brute force Flame Burst, netting the W. Valerie is brute forced, regardless of Charizard’s Mega. Olympia is brute forced, though Slowking is packing Power Gem, meaning you have to be careful there. Wulfric is bodied by Charizard without Mega Evolution. Malva also benefits from Drought, but that hardly matters when Charizard is packing Dig/Earthquake. Siebold is beaten by Mega Charizard X’s brute force, and Mega Charizard Y’s Solarbeam. Wikstrom is bodied, either way. And Drasna falls to Dragon Claw or just plain brute force. As for Diantha, Air Slash/Aerial Ace beats Hawlucha, Dig/Earthquake beats her fossils, Dragon Claw on Goodra, Gourgeist gets wrecked, but again, Gardevoir is the only real threat, though you can run Steel Wing for coverage. And, being honest, you’re kind of incentivized to choose Charmander anyways. Especially since the Charizardite has two version-exclusive variants. Still, XY is an easy game. So…
For Alola, it’s Popplio. And it’s not as close as you think. It only loses to 3 Pokémon, total, in major battles in its entire screentime, namely Vikavlolt, Laurantis, and Kahili’s Crobat. It beats half the enemy Pokémon in the game while only losing to about a tenth. And its moveset is excellent. I think that’s a good enough summary to explain why Popplio is so good.
And for Galar, it’s Scorbunny. Very few good type matchups, but more than made up for with stats and moveset. Plus the other two have questionable choices going on with their move sets. Like seriously. Grookey is stuck with Razor Leaf until it becomes Rillaboom, after which it gets Wood Hammer, which does recoil damage. And Intellion is a case of “bro, just use Surf”.
And for Paldea, it’s Fuecoco. Torch Song is like a Fire-based Charge Beam on steroids. It wrecks 6 of the 8 Gym Leaders. It’s consistent through the Elite Four. And it’s able to solo the Champion. Though I will give a shout-out to Sprigatito for being the first Grass starter to be considered the “middle of the road starter” WITHOUT tying with the Water starter of the region. (Sorry to break it to you, but at no point was the Grass starter ever the best starter for a region. With some exceptions, they tended to be the worst starter.)
Feel free to discuss. If you want to take a crack at this, or if you want to rank them under a different criteria, feel free to download the blank.
by Pepsi_AL