Regarding the Starter Pokemon

[Lord Chespin]

So, I have to do an infographic for art class, and I was planning on doing one as a flowchart for which starter you should choose for Pokémon Reborn. Do you guys think you could give me some info about the starters (ex. what starters make for an easy game, what starters make for a fairly-difficult game, what starters make for a hard game, what each starter has going for them, etc.)? I'd really appreciate it! <3

[Shing]

Easily:

Torchic(HA, simple)

Froakie(As same, HA)

Cyndaquil(Once it get eruption in full evolution, it's really strong with the speed and HP),

Mid easy:

Snivy(Get on the high level for the leaf storm, plus contracy damn)

Chimchar(HA, but can get easily defeated)

Normal: Piplup(I don't think it will be that hard, got some decent moves and steel type tho)

All the kanto starter pokemon(They are decent enough for being normal),

Toditile(HA tho)

Mudkip(Get earthquake and hammar arm in full evolution, strong moves)

Fennekin( It's decent enough),

Chespin( Despite the flying weakness in full evolution, it have really great moves enough for me being normal when it's evolve).

Hard: Oshawott( Doesn't have that good movepool enough)

Tepig(it's not that strong compared to the others imo)

Cikirotha(Isn't really strong in near in reborn levels, maybe the weakest of all starter).

Starter i dunno set the starter: Turtwig.

Just something. Don't use starter as Piplup, Mudkip, Tepig, Chikirota and chespin. You can catch them in the story later of the game.

Edited April 16, 2015 by ShingSt

[Masquerain]

Haven't used most starters yet, but from personal and friend experience, I have to more or less agree with the post above

Froakie makes for an easy playthrough indeed. Saw that myself, especially HA one.

My first ever run was with a Mudkip, it was challenging back then, I really struggled in a decent amount of places

Current starter is Totodile with HA, it gets really nice moves early enough in the game and it makes for a nice playthrough...although I don't like the lack of any water moves (apart from water gun ofc) until superlate levels -.-

Fennekin is also a good starter, from friend's experience.

No idea about the rest, except that I remember ragequitting after picking charmander during a rainy game day :v

[Felicity]

Torterra is God. One way or another he literally puts in work all the time. Think his typing screw him over? The sheer amount of bulk this man has makes him strong enough to live most hits (Including some ice hits) and hit back with Earthquake. Hard. Also Froakie without TMs is meh. Like, really meh.

[Azeria]

Best Starter is Torterra for me,damn thing tanks everything and hits back with Wood Hammer and the GODLY level 32 EQ,earliest EQ user in the game btw. Seriously,with Rain Dance up,this guy can tank most fire hits and hit back HARD with a stab EQ,besides do any of the other starters carry a fucking tree on their back?(Besides Venusaur)

[Masquerain]

There's a Trapinch who also learns EQ pretty early on, before becoming a Vibrava even

[Nexus3465]

Charmander and Charmeleon will make early game pretty easy with dragon rage.

Charizard is good, if they don't have rocks, a lot of team meteor grunts have things with rocks moves so that can be a problem in some battles and make him/her not at all useless you have to be really careful, hes not an OP starter but still a good one.

[dondon151]

S tier:

Torchic

A tier:

Bulbasaur

Turtwig

Chimchar

Snivy

Fennekin

B tier:

Everyone else

C tier:

Squirtle

Chikorita

Totodile

Piplup

Pokemon are not ordered within tiers. In general, fire > grass > water and having a set-up move such as Bulk Up or Coil is greatly advantageous. Beyond that are important considerations such as a good movepool and a good offensive stat distribution. A good movepool should have, on top of set-up moves, offensive STAB attacks learned early and useful support moves such as Leech Seed or Will-o-Wisp to round out a Pokemon's moveslots.

Players tend to overvalue late-game, which is where Pokemon like Cyndaquil and Froakie stand out (once they have access to good moves), but the Pokemon listed in S and A tier are simply solid through all parts of the game. No doubt users will contest my opinion (especially Froakie in B tier), but I think this should suit your flowchart needs.

Edited April 16, 2015 by dondon151

[Vinny]

Torterra is God. One way or another he literally puts in work all the time. Think his typing screw him over? The sheer amount of bulk this man has makes him strong enough to live most hits (Including some ice hits) and hit back with Earthquake. Hard. Also Froakie without TMs is meh. Like, really meh.

The manelf knows.

I'll have to go ahead and agree on the Froakie thing too. Greninja level up set is not exactly the best one.

Snivy with Overgrow and Chimchar might be the two best starters for now. And Charmeleon's Dragon Rage spits on everything in the start of the game.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Vinny

[Etesian]

Honestly? I'd say Torterra, Empoleon, Feraligatr and Infernape are the current best (dunno 'bout Blaziken, never gonna use that boring thing). Torterra's already been covered. Empoleon with Agility (and pre-E13 Ice Beam) has a really fun time sweeping, it won't OHKO everything in the world, but that insane bulk lets it take it's time. As for Feraligatr, it gets Sheer Force and tons of moves to go with it, DD and perfect coverage...it just takes a bit to get it all the moves it "needs", with Ice Punch from Abomasnow from E14...Infernape is also really nice because it gets a ton of good moves naturally and can even run either a physical or special set well.

Serperior is good but it's only got one trick to it and it's really not that great until it gets Leaf Storm. And Delphox needs more love.

For the current worst, there's Venusaur, Meganium, Blastoise, Sceptile and Emboar. Non-mega Venusaur has always been mediocre and it doesn't even get anything that particularly sets it apart from other supporting Grass types, it's best offensive set if you don't go back for Sludge Bomb is a freaking physical Curse set. Meganium is just...Meganium, I'd love to see this thing actually be useful as something other than a Screener, but...*sigh*. Blastoise is also nothing special compared to other Water types, a waste of a starter without it's mega. Sceptile gets 3 non-STAB special moves in Reborn and it doesn't even hit that hard with anything baring Leaf Storm I guess.

But Emboar has to be the worst starter in the game. Not only is that the first starter you can get outside of the Grand Hall, for all the time I've been handling the Team Showcase section, I think I've seen maybe 2 of them and I've been around since E9. The thing is basically a Fire-type Hariyama with worse defenses and a little more power because of it's Ability.

[dondon151]

But Emboar has to be the worst starter in the game. Not only is that the first starter you can get outside of the Grand Hall, for all the time I've been handling the Team Showcase section, I think I've seen maybe 2 of them and I've been around since E9. The thing is basically a Fire-type Hariyama with worse defenses and a little more power because of it's Ability.

No one picks Tepig because Torchic and Chimchar are better, but Tepig isn't a below average starter.

Also I've never really understood the point behind judging a starter Pokemon based on its egg moves. It's your first Pokemon; of course it's not going to have any egg moves.

[Etesian]

Also I've never really understood the point behind judging a starter Pokemon based on its egg moves. It's your first Pokemon; of course it's not going to have any egg moves.

Well, when judging something, it's best possible state should be considered, and if egg moves are a part of that... The question in the first post is how easy a starter makes the game and I think there's no denying that an SD Speed Boost Blaziken is much better than a Blaze Bulk Up one. So just because something is your first Pokemon doesn't mean you shouldn't go for the best possible set on it.

[Chase]

Well, obviously people are going to assume you should play to the best of your ability with Reborn due to it's difficulty- but let's be honest. If you're playing fan-made games for the first time, you probably aren't going to be breeding or trying too hard for the best starter you can possibly have. So -my- list is going to focus on the average player.

S-rank

Torchic

Froakie

- Speed is Power in story playthroughs, and the two pokemon above have it in spades (one having the ability to get even faster as the match rolls along.) Protean is an ability that makes Froakie a viable teammate later in the game for any team whatsoever - the literal glue mon here as it is competitively.

A-rank

Chespin

Cyndaquil

Charmander

Mudkip

Chimchar

Fennekin

The following Pokemon have moves, abilities, and typings that really stand out to me. They have times in the game where they struggle. (Charmander and Charmeleon run through the early game with Dragon Rage, and then become x4 weak to Rock type moves that will be carried by MANY opponents as coverage later on. Marshtomp/Swampert have a typing that has a x4 weakness as well and it's a double-edged sword. Chimchar's Iron Fist works really well in a story playthrough. Cyndaquil's Eruption hits like a truck but won't run through the whole game. Chespin being immune to Ball and Bomb moves gives it some noteable protection and could potentially prey on some inadequacy with the AI, but the Pokemon hate's Flying type attacks. Fennekin's abilities are lackluster at times, but it's typing is unique.

B-rank

Squirtle

Treecko

Turtwig

Snivy

Tepig

Oshawott

Bulbasuar

These Pokemon have solid spots on teams with no real defining advantages if just picked at random. These Pokemon need a little breeding or TLC from the trainer to be better, but are still usable just by picking one up.

C rank

Totodile

Piplup

Chikorita

The worst Pokemon to pick at random would be these three. Piplup is a difficult pokemon to rely on it's learnset with. Totodile doesn't pick up a water type move past Water Gun for waaay too long, and Chikorita needs a lot of support and breeding and care to make somewhat decent. These Pokemon if picked randomly make life really difficult. Sure, Defiant and Sheer Force have redeeming qualities, but they still need some support and patience to really make those abilities pay off.

[Helia]

My personal favorite starter has to be Mudkip. It's strong, learns good and useful moves throughout the game. Right at the Electric gym you get Mud Shot, shortly after Mud Bomb, both very handy moves against the Poison gyms. Learns Earthquake and Hammer Arm, to very strong and useful moves naturally (okay one with move relearner, but still) and overall throughout the game a solid team member in every gym battle.

[Felicity]

@Etesian, Venusaur is actually similar to Torterra in that its bulk and nice typing is quite useful. Furthermore if you pair it with (Assuming) Pre-ep 15 Drought Ninetales it can sweep with Growth and chlorophyll.

Also, my final moveset on Torterra so far is Crunch, EQ, Wood hammer and one extra move that I can't remember for the life of me, maybe synthesis because who wants to pay for healing? Still, that right there is a very good moveset in-game, Crunch in particular made Torterra viable to demolish Radomus

Oh and @Hilda "speed is power" I can't stand speedy glass cannons like Froaki and Torchic. I've always preferred bulk to speed. That said, i'm quite the oposite in competitive, I prefer offense there.

[dondon151]

Well, when judging something, it's best possible state should be considered, and if egg moves are a part of that... The question in the first post is how easy a starter makes the game and I think there's no denying that an SD Speed Boost Blaziken is much better than a Blaze Bulk Up one. So just because something is your first Pokemon doesn't mean you shouldn't go for the best possible set on it.

Bulk Up Blaziken is sooo much better than Swords Dance Blaziken in-game. Bulk Up allows Blaziken to set up against any physical attacker that it's not weak to and some physical attackers that it is weak to. There are much more enemies that Bulk Up allows Blaziken to set up against than Swords Dance.

We shouldn't solely consider a Pokemon's "best possible state" because that's only the endpoint. Imagine if you had a terrible family vacation and the end result was that you returned home to your satisfactory daily life; that's not a "good" vacation even though the endpoint was good. A player still has to play through Reborn with his Pokemon in various sub-optimal states, so considering only the "best possible state" ignores most of the game. Froakie, for example, is a lackluster Pokemon until it learns Extrasensory, Grass Knot, and Surf (Ice Beam is no longer learnable), so only the users who ignore ~85% of the current game would rank it in the same tier as Torchic (and even with the benefit of its full movepool, Greninja doesn't trivialize the game to the degree that Blaziken does). Let's not forget that between the levels of 5 and 60, Froakie overall is probably about as good as Squirtle or Totodile, who are bad starters.

It does seem like there are many users who realize that Froakie is mediocre for most of the game, so that's a good thing!

A starter with a specific ability is easy to get because a player just needs to reset for the ability or use an Ability Capsule that takes a few seconds to obtain. A starter with an egg move requires the player to first find a parent Pokemon with the egg move, breed, and then re-raise the hatched Pokemon to a viable level. One could argue that this Pokemon is no longer the player's starter Pokemon because it's clearly not the Pokemon that the player started out with.

Oh and @Hilda "speed is power" I can't stand speedy glass cannons like Froaki and Torchic. I've always preferred bulk to speed. That said, i'm quite the oposite in competitive, I prefer offense there.

This is actually why Bulk Up Blaziken is so good, because it's not a glass cannon on the physical side.

Edited April 17, 2015 by dondon151

[Cyclonegale]

Torchic and Chimchar make the game easy in pretty much all stages of the game. Both hit extremely hard, and both are fast.

Torchic is def the faster of the two with it's HA, but I feel while Chimchar may be slower, Iron Fist let's it hit harder when it comes to mashing out close combat.

[dondon151]

Iron Fist doesn't boost Close Combat. Iron Fist is not a very good ability for Chimchar; it boosts Mach Punch by 20% and that's about it. It's probably slightly better than Blaze until Infernape learns Close Combat.