What starter pokemon should i choose?

[brianwee2013]

^^Its all in the title^^

And use this poll here: http://strawpoll.me/1567027

[Artemesya]

It depends on how difficult you want your travel to be, and your personal preference.

Some starters (like Chimchar and Torchic) are quite useful, especially if you soft reset for their hidden abilities, and will make the dreaded second gym easier. You can also get some of them in sidequests later in the game (check the obtainable list). There is no "dead weight" starter, you can go through the game with any of them.

[Calvius]

Snivy! Serperior is an awesome pokemon. Soft reset for it's hidden ability, and with some patience it will be extremly strong (Leaf Storm + Contrary ftw!). Also, ddesignwise its a masterpiece

[que]

I would pick one that is going to compliment your future team (if you like to plan that far ahead.) Or, you do the inverse, although it seems to me that you have no preference which makes that difficult for now.

[Meruem]

Whatever you do, don't pick a water type otherwise the first two gym leaders are going to be a pain in the ass. You shouldn't pick starters you can get later in the game either (bulbasaur, cyndaquil, mudkip, piplup, tepig and chespin). IMO Chimchar and Torchic (Speed Boost) are the best ones you can start off with.

[Greed_Demon]

Everyone and their mother will tel you to pick speed boost torchic anyway.

[GottaLoveShuckle]

MMM, on 24 Apr 2014 - 5:01 PM, said:

Whatever you do, don't pick a water type otherwise the first two gym leaders are going to be a pain in the ass. You shouldn't pick starters you can get later in the game either (bulbasaur, cyndaquil, mudkip, piplup, tepig and chespin). IMO Chimchar and Torchic (Speed Boost) are the best ones you can start off with.

Well Greninja can do fine in the first Gym thanks to Protean changing its type. I would also say Greninja is actually just as strong as Torchic and Chimchar especially since its easy to trick the AI with protean. In my Dark type mono Greninja was awesome for dealing with those fighting types and is what got me past Kiki. The opponent goes or fighting attack seems as its super effective and I turn to ghost get some damage of then go for a stronger move knowing it won't use a fighting type move seems as it now registers Greninja as a Ghost type. This may seem situation but you would be supposed how many times you can trick the games AI with Protean.

If you don't know what pokemon you plan on using I suggest Greninja (with Protean) as this allows it to fit around your team becoming any type of pokemon your team needs most.

[gutten_tag]

Well Greninja can do fine in the first Gym thanks to Protean changing its type. I would also say Greninja is actually just as strong as Torchic and Chimchar especially since its easy to trick the AI with protean. In my Dark type mono Greninja was awesome for dealing with those fighting types and is what got me past Kiki. The opponent goes or fighting attack seems as its super effective and I turn to ghost get some damage of then go for a stronger move knowing it won't use a fighting type move seems as it now registers Greninja as a Ghost type. This may seem situation but you would be supposed how many times you can trick the games AI with Protean.

If you don't know what pokemon you plan on using I suggest Greninja (with Protean) as this allows it to fit around your team becoming any type of pokemon your team needs most.

totally agree with this. protean is the most funny gimmic trick i have ever used against AI. and a ninja wearing a tounge?? i mean..c'mon, it way better than a black mask :v :v

Whatever you do, don't pick a water type otherwise the first two gym leaders are going to be a pain in the ass. You shouldn't pick starters you can get later in the game either (bulbasaur, cyndaquil, mudkip, piplup, tepig and chespin). IMO Chimchar and Torchic (Speed Boost) are the best ones you can start off with.

really??? how about mudkip with Damp?? immune to both lightning and explosion :v :v, i think you'll understand that :v (you might say that we can get mudkip later, but he's still too good to ignore from start)

[Lost Lore]

Adding on to the "don't choose Water-type starters" thing... Totodile I'm going to agree on, because of its terrible level up learnset (unless you don't mind breeding, in which case, by all means). The only ones I've personally used are Froakie (who was awesome because Protean) and Oshawott (who did all right and actually dealt the finishing blow to both Julia's Electrode and Rini's Cradily).

And Marshtomp is immune to Explosion with or without Damp in Julia's Gym, since Explosion picks up the Electric-type thanks to Electric Terrain. Just a heads-up. (Although I'm not 100% sure on that, being honest... not that Explosion doesn't really suck on Voltorb even with the boost anyway.)

Anyway, yeah, Torchic and Chimchar are kind of overpowered so far as starters go, because of Speed Boost/Infernape's crazy Speed. I've also used Chespin, and that did well in the early game, but I don't think I completed a playthrough with it... Piplup is pretty cool for the Steel-typing later on as well (just keep in mind that you can get it later if you don't pick it... way way later, like after the eighth badge later, but it's there) and...

...Oh, and Charmander is kinda broken in the early game because Dragon Rage. Has to be said.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Lost Lore

[TheBackwardsLegsMan]

I'm inclined to agree with the general consensus here - it depends on how hard you want your playthrough to be. Speed Boost Blaziken + Gyrados can seriously two man the early game up to the fighting gym, at which point you can beat the rest of the game with only three pokemon with ease (relative to how hard it is without those two anyway). I'm doing a playthrough with Turtwig as my starter right now, and I like the difficultly curve more. The first two gyms aren't a huge issue because once you get Grottle set up with a few curses neither of them can scratch you, but he doesn't remain OP into the late game. Still very useful of course, but I'm not sweeping gym leaders with him alone like I did with Blaziken.

[Mr.Shadow]

chimchar