Who do I start with?

[Azure NightStriker]

So i'm about to finish school and the summer holidays are going to begin , which means that I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hands. I'm thinking of starting a new game on Reborn so that I have two save files, but I'm having trouble deciding on starter.

Sooo~I'm gonna leave it to you guys!

I don't want to use froakie as it is my starter in my main save file. I also don't want to use makuhita, gothita, ponyta, magnemite or duscull as my other party members so keep that in mind when choosing. Leave suggestions in the comments and it would help to have a reason why I should choose it.

I'm counting on you Etesian~

[Sheep]

I'd go for Infernape. That monkey is beast, but isn't super uber broken like Blaziken.

[Azure NightStriker]

I'd go for Infernape. That monkey is beast, but isn't super uber broken like Blaziken.

I would be more than happy to go with infernape, but from what I've seen it's somewhat frail. I could be wrong.

[Sheep]

Mmm it's certainly frail, but between its movepool, its offensive typing, and its offensive stats it's one of the better starters out there.

[Deleted User]

Based on the pokemon you don't want to use, I'd suggest a Fire Starter.

If you're not too fond of Infernape's fragility. You can opt for the slower Emboar.

[Gaunt]

Charizard! Early he's OP (Dragon Rage) and there's the possibility of having a Mega at the endgame

[Sharu]

Fire starter is best to start with.. I would suggest you to start with a fire starter pokemon or greninja

Edited November 12, 2014 by Sharath Bhat

[Gaunt]

Fire starter is best to start with.. I would suggest you to start with a fire starter pokemon or greninja

Do you even read? He said that he already have a Froakie in another save

[Sharu]

Do you even read? He said that he already have Froakie in another save

That is my suggestion for anyone who would start.. I did not ask him to start with froakie again. And i did not read his post.. just blindly wrote something in this thread , LOL

[Bessi]

Infernape has great attacks like close combat,flamethrower,flare blitz,acrobatics and punishment(useful when your opponent has increased stats during battle)not to mention moves it gets from breeding(blaze kick,elemental punches(combined with iron fist)) and from TMs.It even gets nasty plot and slack off from his prior evolution.

He can be used as a physical,special or mixed attacker.Did i mention he learns Calm Mind From Level Up?I feel its is the most completed fire starter.I have an Infernape so believe me when i say the fire monkey is a BADASS!!!

[Sapphire]

Blaziken. Can sweep whole leaders by himself. Makes Florinia, Samson, Terra, Luna, Shelly, Serra, and likely Titania (when she comes out) complete jokes.

[Etesian]

Guess I'm kinda late to the party. Ah well, not too late, it seems.

Anyways, I'd advise against most Grass-type starters. With Grass types like Liligant, Gogoat, Roserade, Leafeon (yes, Leafeon), Trevenant and Gourgeist, there's not too much of a reason to make a Grass type your starter.

Unless it's Torterra, Seprerior or maybe Chesnaught. Torterra gets a pretty sweet Curse set. Contrary Serperior can sweep if you set up 1-2 Leaf Storms and spam then either that, Wring Out or Hidden Power. Chesnaught has a pretty good stally-set available, but Gourgeist has a much better one, and Chespin can be obtained later.

Charizard could do well with a Dragon Dance set to boost it's decent speed and average attack, it gets a lot of good physical moves, with only a few usable special moves.

Typhlosion's only advantage over Delphox is slightly higher physical defense (though neither is too bulky) and Eruption, which is very unreliable.

Blaziken is OP, especially since it also gets Baton Pass, so I have no hands-on experience with the thing.

Infernape is a less-OP Blaziken with more move variety and-for some reason- a good Specially Offensive set with Nasty Plot.

Emboar actually functions really, really well in Trick Room, though it's not too great outside of that.

Delphox is underrated very fun to play with, at least for me. It has the highest special attack out of all starters, can be given Calm Mind if you go back to E12 or earlier and gets some pretty sweet utility stuff to mess around with, such as Light Screen, Trick Room or Magician.

As for other in-game Fire types, Arcanine is great, Ninetales and Houndoom have good Nasty Plot sets (though no real physical defense to speak of), Darmanitan with some Speed Boost support could take down at least half of (almost) any gym, and I hear people like Camerupt, which would be good in Trick Room, maybe not as good as Chandelure though.

Blastoise gets a lot of variety, but it's focused more on bulk than power, so those moves won't do too much damage. And there's bulkier out there as well.

Feraligatr can do good with Dragon Dance I'd imagine. Aqua Tail, Dragon Dance, Crunch/Superpower/Thrash.

Swampert is great, it's Speed being it's only really "low" stat. With Avalanche, It's also the only starter that gets a Water/Ice attack combo (which has perfect neutral coverage on all but Water types) without going back to E12 or earlier for Ice Beam. Though it can be gotten later.

-I'd say that, if you go back to E12 or earlier to breed, Empoleon is the best Water starter by far. It's not as physically bulky as Swampert, but it's still rather tough. It's also more specially bulky, and it has a Steel typing. It's also got a very good Special Attack stat along with great moves to utilize it (if you go back), among which is Agility, making Speed a on-issue. Just breed Scald (or keep Hydro Pump), Ice Beam and Agility onto it and give it either Drill Peck or Grass Knot and it's good to go. But then again, it's also obtainable later.

Samurott is nothing special on it's own. If you have some Speed Boost-er to Baton Pass him a boost or 2, like Scolipede, then have him use Swords Dance, he's pretty good.

Not covering Greninja since you have said you already have one elsewhere.

Notable non-starter in-game Water-type: Kingler, Crawdaunt, Clawitzer, Azumarill and Kingdra all function great in Trick Room. Although Crawdaunt has access to Dragon Dance, any special attack kills it, Azumarill can also go outside of TR, just set up Belly Drum and spam Aqua Jets or something, and Kingdra (a.k.a. Critdra) can use Agility along with Focus Energy so TR may not be that good for it. There's also the Shell Smash crew's members.

SO! I'd say go for either Torterra, Serperior, Infernape, Delphox or Empoleon.

[Sheep]

I'd say that, if you go back to E12 or earlier to breed, Empoleon is the best Water starter by far.

Depending on whether or not you can breed waterfall onto a Feraligatr with dragon dance or not it's like hell nah. Dragon dance + waterfall + sheer force = profit.

[Etesian]

Depending on whether or not you can breed waterfall onto a Feraligatr with dragon dance or not it's like hell nah. Dragon dance + waterfall + sheer force = profit.

Currently impossible to get both. Once we have the HM, sure, but until then, no dice.

[ShadowDefender]

I highly recommend Torterra. The physical tank that it is, is AMAZING for early leaders such as Julia, Florina(I know it seems odd, but trust me), and Corey. It gets early access to EQ, it doesn't do to badly at getting health back with Giga Drain.

Charizard is fairly decent, my only problem is his 4x weakness to rock. Dragon Rage makes the first two gyms a joke, and flame burst + Corrosive mist field= Dead Crobat (I really hate going up against this thing in early game)

And who could go wrong with TeamPalyer a.k.a. Swampert. I don't need to say much with him.

[Tomas Elliot]

Guess I'm kinda late to the party. Ah well, not too late, it seems.

Anyways, I'd advise against most Grass-type starters. With Grass types like Liligant, Gogoat, Roserade, Leafeon (yes, Leafeon), Trevenant and Gourgeist, there's not too much of a reason to make a Grass type your starter.

Unless it's Torterra, Seprerior or maybe Chesnaught. Torterra gets a pretty sweet Curse set. Contrary Serperior can sweep if you set up 1-2 Leaf Storms and spam then either that, Wring Out or Hidden Power. Chesnaught has a pretty good stally-set available, but Gourgeist has a much better one, and Chespin can be obtained later.

Charizard could do well with a Dragon Dance set to boost it's decent speed and average attack, it gets a lot of good physical moves, with only a few usable special moves.

Typhlosion's only advantage over Delphox is slightly higher physical defense (though neither is too bulky) and Eruption, which is very unreliable.

Blaziken is OP, especially since it also gets Baton Pass, so I have no hands-on experience with the thing.

Infernape is a less-OP Blaziken with more move variety and-for some reason- a good Specially Offensive set with Nasty Plot.

Emboar actually functions really, really well in Trick Room, though it's not too great outside of that.

Delphox is underrated very fun to play with, at least for me. It has the highest special attack out of all starters, can be given Calm Mind if you go back to E12 or earlier and gets some pretty sweet utility stuff to mess around with, such as Light Screen, Trick Room or Magician.

As for other in-game Fire types, Arcanine is great, Ninetales and Houndoom have good Nasty Plot sets (though no real physical defense to speak of), Darmanitan with some Speed Boost support could take down at least half of (almost) any gym, and I hear people like Camerupt, which would be good in Trick Room, maybe not as good as Chandelure though.

Blastoise gets a lot of variety, but it's focused more on bulk than power, so those moves won't do too much damage. And there's bulkier out there as well.

Feraligatr can do good with Dragon Dance I'd imagine. Aqua Tail, Dragon Dance, Crunch/Superpower/Thrash.

Swampert is great, it's Speed being it's only really "low" stat. With Avalanche, It's also the only starter that gets a Water/Ice attack combo (which has perfect neutral coverage on all but Water types) without going back to E12 or earlier for Ice Beam. Though it can be gotten later.

-I'd say that, if you go back to E12 or earlier to breed, Empoleon is the best Water starter by far. It's not as physically bulky as Swampert, but it's still rather tough. It's also more specially bulky, and it has a Steel typing. It's also got a very good Special Attack stat along with great moves to utilize it (if you go back), among which is Agility, making Speed a on-issue. Just breed Scald (or keep Hydro Pump), Ice Beam and Agility onto it and give it either Drill Peck or Grass Knot and it's good to go. But then again, it's also obtainable later.

Samurott is nothing special on it's own. If you have some Speed Boost-er to Baton Pass him a boost or 2, like Scolipede, then have him use Swords Dance, he's pretty good.

Not covering Greninja since you have said you already have one elsewhere.

Notable non-starter in-game Water-type: Kingler, Crawdaunt, Clawitzer, Azumarill and Kingdra all function great in Trick Room. Although Crawdaunt has access to Dragon Dance, any special attack kills it, Azumarill can also go outside of TR, just set up Belly Drum and spam Aqua Jets or something, and Kingdra (a.k.a. Critdra) can use Agility along with Focus Energy so TR may not be that good for it. There's also the Shell Smash crew's members.

SO! I'd say go for either Torterra, Serperior, Infernape, Delphox or Empoleon.

This is a very accurate post and it's hard to add anything to it. There is one factor that this analysis doesn't take into account tho: Ame's sadism. With many good things being axed in later episodes and the usual anti-grinding mechanic, building a strong or even half-decent team is as hard as ever now. Therefore, it is imperative that, upon setting your mind on using a certain Pokemon, you go with specimens that can naturally learn good moves as early as possible. For example, while Contrary Serperior is evil and all, it learns its key move (Leaf Storm) quite late, in fact later than you can obtain most good non-starter grass types. Empoleon's level-up learnset suffers from some severe schyzofrenia, specially at early stages, with normal and special attacks being learned without a defining logic, and without the stats to support a mixed set. Torterra has a double weakness to Ice, and given that Sierra still haunts my dreams after almost a year has passed since I battled her, that is enough of a reason for me to advice against it.

So, this leaves Infernape and Delphox. Chimchar can evolve into Monferno and learn Mach Punch before you face the Flobot and her Cradily. I think we have a winner.

[Etesian]

This is a very accurate post and it's hard to add anything to it. There is one factor that this analysis doesn't take into account tho: Ame's sadism. With many good things being axed in later episodes and the usual anti-grinding mechanic, building a strong or even half-decent team is as hard as ever now. Therefore, it is imperative that, upon setting your mind on using a certain Pokemon, you go with specimens that can naturally learn good moves as early as possible. For example, while Contrary Serperior is evil and all, it learns its key move (Leaf Storm) quite late, in fact later than you can obtain most good non-starter grass types. Empoleon's level-up learnset suffers from some severe schyzofrenia, specially at early stages, with normal and special attacks being learned without a defining logic, and without the stats to support a mixed set. Torterra has a double weakness to Ice, and given that Sierra still haunts my dreams after almost a year has passed since I battled her, that is enough of a reason for me to advice against it.

So, this leaves Infernape and Delphox. Chimchar can evolve into Monferno and learn Mach Punch before you face the Flobot and her Cradily. I think we have a winner.

Waiting to get to the good stuff is necessary, sure, but it's not like you have to rely on your starter for every single fight. Until you get the chance to get the good stuff, other Pokemon can help you out, plenty of counters to gym's team's/ace's exist. The mentioned Cradily is easily 2HKOd by Hariyama, Kricketune also reKs it, for example. Hell, I only use 6 Pokemon, no rotations and no "crutches" like Rain Dancing Charlotte and 3-0 is still the "closest" victory I've had in the entire game.

Waiting may be a pain, but it definitely does pay off in the long run.

[Tomas Elliot]

Waiting to get to the good stuff is necessary, sure, but it's not like you have to rely on your starter for every single fight. Until you get the chance to get the good stuff, other Pokemon can help you out, plenty of counters to gym's team's/ace's exist. The mentioned Cradily is easily 2HKOd by Hariyama, Kricketune also reKs it, for example. Hell, I only use 6 Pokemon, no rotations and no "crutches" like Rain Dancing Charlotte and 3-0 is still the "closest" victory I've had in the entire game.

Waiting may be a pain, but it definitely does pay off in the long run.

Well, my point was simply that in actual games, the early stages are not a real challenge, and thus you can afford using Pokemon that learn the good stuff MUCH later, simply because you won't risk anything serious from it. Basically, you keep winning through the early stages, and by the time you reach the difficult stuff your Pokemon have learned all the tools you may need.

But Reborn is hard from the get go (which is why we all play it, by the way), so it is wiser to pick Pokemon that learn good moves early on, simply because otherwise you'll be short of options to deal with the difficult stuff that will be thrown at you in the early stages.

This is just a generic rule of thumb: in the specific case, I had no idea you could obtain Hariyama before Flobot, hell Hariyama is actually a good Pokemon to have in Reborn in general, so yeah, I guess you are right when you say it can be used to fill in the Fighting spot, which leaves the choice to use something else as a starter...

Long story short: you are right when you say the starter doesn't have to do all the fighting. I just assumed it would have to do most of the fighting because I didn't know about many of the good options you can obtain early on.

(On a completely unrelated note, what do you mean by "Rain Dancing Charlotte"? I thought Charlotte was a human NPC?)

[Etesian]

Well, my point was simply that in actual games, the early stages are not a real challenge, and thus you can afford using Pokemon that learn the good stuff MUCH later, simply because you won't risk anything serious from it. Basically, you keep winning through the early stages, and by the time you reach the difficult stuff your Pokemon have learned all the tools you may need.

But Reborn is hard from the get go (which is why we all play it, by the way), so it is wiser to pick Pokemon that learn good moves early on, simply because otherwise you'll be short of options to deal with the difficult stuff that will be thrown at you in the early stages.

This is just a generic rule of thumb: in the specific case, I had no idea you could obtain Hariyama before Flobot, hell Hariyama is actually a good Pokemon to have in Reborn in general, so yeah, I guess you are right when you say it can be used to fill in the Fighting spot, which leaves the choice to use something else as a starter...

Long story short: you are right when you say the starter doesn't have to do all the fighting. I just assumed it would have to do most of the fighting because I didn't know about many of the good options you can obtain early on.

(On a completely unrelated note, what do you mean by "Rain Dancing Charlotte"? I thought Charlotte was a human NPC?)

I know what you're saying and there really isn't a lot of good stuff early (even Hariyama isn't that great post-Serra). But instead of final party members, you can just train whatever has good stats at that point or swap one gym-specific counter for another until you get to the good stuff. And there's plenty of good counters, depending on the gym, so your starter can take a break if it wouldn't do too well with the current foe.

(And by Rain Dancing Charlotte, I meant using Rain Dance in her gym battle, or a Drought Vulpix for Serra, or any such thing that makes the fight a lot easier if you just use X - I don't do that kinda stuff because I want my team to be able to beat everything without relying on crutches. I also don't use specific gym-counters, unless that happens to already be a member of my final party (Archeops>Charlotte))

[Sapphire]

Blaziken is OP, especially since it also gets Baton Pass, so I have no hands-on experience with the thing.

It doesn't get it via level-up, so it basically doesn't get it. No Swords Dance or protect either

One thing I'd advise-Blaziken lets you 6-0 a lot of leaders, especially when combned with Vulpix. I took him, because IMO an (almost) mono-fire team is bad enough that it's worth using him. (Amaria will bring me pain).

But my point is: if you're running a mixed type team, don't take him if you want to actually have to work against people like Serra or the like. (e.e. Send him out vs. Serra-use Bulk Up. Congrats you've just 6-0d her.)

[Sheep]

Dunno if you know this or not Sec but you're talking to the breeding king, now that gutten_tag isn't around much. Telling Etesian that breeding is a waste of time for in game is like telling a tree not to grow. Ain't gonna work too well unless you set 'em on fire.

Also like don't double post please. That one was easily editable.

[Sapphire]

Imo breeding takes too long, unless you feel like grinding. Sure, you can breed on Baton Pass to Blaziken...But then you have to grind him up to whatever level you're currently at.

Also I meant to edit it after I realised I double posted, but I'm at work and had to close down the intehwebz.

[Sheep]

Personally I agree with you, I don't breed my pokemon for reborn. I'm just saying that Etesian isn't going to limit a pokemon's viability to its level up movepool.

[Etesian]

Blaziken can get Baton Pass via breeding as soon as you get to the Day-Care/defeat PULSE Tangrowth #1, even before Florinia. Breeding also doesn't take that long. If you wish, you could make eggs hatch in 2 steps with Cheat Engine- it doesn't make the game any easier, just less tedious, so I don't count it as cheating- and also speed up the game for grinding. Swords Dance is also easy to get along with BP if you go back to E12 or earlier.

It's also most definitely worth it, many Pokemon are worthless if you don't get them a proper moveset, and some great ones can be made god-like. Whether it's really necessary is a different matter, but I have yet to do worse than 3-0 on any gym using only 6 Pokemon, the ones in my signature (yes, I took Leavanny to the Fire gym and yes, it did well there).

Well, I'm just providing options for people here, no need to breed if you don't want to.