Picking a starter is an intimate part of the experience. Every single mainline game begins with the player character selecting the Pokémon that will very likely accompa💦ny them for the rest of their journey. A trainer’s starter is simply put their main character: the leader of their party. This is the Pokémon you should want to take all the way to the Elite Four.
Naturally, which Pokémon 𒐪a trainer picks as their starter can make or break their experience– especially if they’re a🐓 beginner. While Pokémon isn’t a particularly difficult franchise, the earlier games do have an ed🍸ge and younger gamers will naturally rely on their starter more than anything. It goes without saying that some starters are simply better than others.
10 Best: Bulbasaur (Gen I)
What’s particularly interesting to note about Generation I is that its starters sort of represent a difficulty curve. Bulbasaur is easy mode, Squirtle is normal mode, and Charmander is hard mode. Naturally, the Pokémon r൩epresentingඣ the easiest difficulty is going to be the best choice for a beginner.
And what an excellent starter Bulbasaur is! In general, Grass Types do well in Kanto, but the first half of the game seems built for Bulbasaur: it’ll tear through the first two Gyms, be perfectly fine against the next two, and will be able to handle the rest of the game just fine with a few speed bumps along the way. Squi⛦rtle and Charmander have a considerably harder time.
9 Worst: Charmander (Gen I)
Charmander especially. W♈hile the Gen III remakes (FireRed and LeafGreen) gave Charmander Metal Claw to make the early game less punishing for Trainers who choose the Fire Type, Gen I has no such luxuries for Charmander. The early game ca🉐n be incredibly difficult for beginners. Not only is Rock a huge roadblock, Misty will outright counter Trainer’s starters, necessitating a beginner to use the rest of their party.
It really isn’t enough to grind Charmander into a Charmeleon either🃏. The starter should have naturally evolved by this point, but Misty’s Starmie and Staryu will be able to take it out easily. From there, things don’t really get much easier for Charmander and players will likely need to keep a balanced party for the full playthrough. If nothing else, at l🃏east Charizard makes it worth it.
8 Best: Chimchar (Gen IV)
Chimchar is a great Pokémon that becomes 🎐the insanely cool Infernape. While it may naturally be the best of Sinnoh’s three starters, what makes Chimchar the best starter of its Generation actually comes down t🤪o circumstance. Sinnoh doesn’t have a lot of Fire Types. In fact, most players will only be able to find a Ponyta before they tackle the Elite Four.
As a result, Chimchar becomes an incredibly valuable commod🥀ity. If you want a good Fire Type in Sinnoh💙, you absolutely need to select Chimchar as your s🗹tarter. Thankfully, it pays off. Infernape is insanely fast, his Typing (while not stale) was still cool at the time, and Sinnoh is pretty lax against Fire Typ🍬es.
7 Worst: Chespin (Gen VI)
A mediocre stat spread, an awkward move pool, and an ugly as sin final design make Chespin the absolute worst starter available in Generation VI. It’s a shame because Chespin’s design is actually quite cute. Tragically, it only becomes more grotesque with 🦩each evolution. Worse yet, Chesnaught’s seemingly highܫ HP and Defense are an illusion.
When it comes down to it, Chesnaught has a glaring Special Defense weakness that’ll render it vulnerable to Types it’s supposed to be strong against. To put into perspective just how bad Chesnaught ultimately is, it’ll likely never defeat a Greninja in an even fight– the ꦑrival starter making mincemeat out of the Grass T♌ype.
6 Best: Froakie (Gen VI)
Speaking of, how about that Greninja, right? Heading into the rel𒉰ease of X and Y, most were exciteജd to see what Fennekin would evolve into. This was a Fire Type destined for that rare Fire/Psychic glory. But Froakie ended up offering somethinꦓg far more interesting: a Water/Dark Type ninja frog.
Incredibly fast, 𓄧with a balanced stat spread, an excellent move pool, and great Type advantages in its region, Froakie is the definitive Generation VI starter. It is so much better than either Chespin or Fennekin, it’s honestly kind of crazy. There’s a reason Greninja replaced Lucario as the franchise’s pseudo-mascot.
5 Worst: Snivy (Gen V)
As far as actual RPGs go, Generation V might be Pokémon’s best outing. A respectable difficulty curve, great pacing, a surprisingly well written story, and decent Pokémon variety make for a very compelling gameplay experience. There’s just onไe major flaw: the starters. On a wole, Unova may have the worst star🐽ters in the franchise.
Both in tܫerms of design and usability, these are just not good st♕arters. Snivy’s final evolution, Serperior, managed to turn itself around by Sun and Moon, it is just no good in Gen V. A Mono-Type Grass Pokémon, Snivy’s going to spend a good chunk of the game gettinওg beat into the ground– and rightfully so.
4 Best: Tepig (Gen V)
Evౠeryone’s least favorite starter and for valid reasons (awful de♔sign, another Fire/Fighting starter, and awful speed make Tepig an easy “no.” Shockingly, howeღver, it’s the starter that fares the best through Gen V’s main game, tackling Unova with greater ease than either Snivy or Oshawott (who shall be touched upon momentarily.)
While Fire/Fighting Type Pokémon are boring, the typing tends to♏ offer a pretty decent move pool to choose from, with Emboar’s STAB attacks inflicting some potentially killer damage. Along with being a decent counter against ꧅moves like Stealth Rock, Tepig is unfortunately a beginner’s best choice in Gen V.
3 Worst: Oshawott (Gen V)
Oshawott is such a bad starter Pokémon, it’s almost offensive. Any Trainer who chooses Oshawott as their starter in Gen V is really just setting themselves up for disaster. Fully evo꧟lved, Samurott has the worst stat spread of any of the Water Type starters. It’s genuinely emb𒅌arrassing how pitiful Samurott is in comparison to quite literally everything else.
Samuro💯tt doesn’t have a lot of health, it can’t hit particularly hard, it can’t take that mu🍨ch damage, and its speed is just pathetic. It’s as if Game Freak wanted to design a “balanced” starter, but the end result is a Water Type absolutely no Trainers should have in their party, let alone as their starter.
2 Best: Treecko (Gen III)
Going by Sinnoh logic, Trainers might feel tempted to make Torchic their starter. There unfortunately aren’t that many Fire Types in Hoenn, but there are some important details to consider: there are better Fire T🔜ypes in Hoenn than there are in Sinnoh, and Fire Types aren’t🌟 useful in a region filled with water.
Especially in Emerald where the Champion uses a Water based team, Treecko makes an excellent starter choice. It’ll gradually keep improving 🐭over the course of the game, evolving into the fairly useful and speedy Sceptile, potentially wipi⛎ng out the entire Elite Four with little to no effort.
1 Worst: Chikorita (Gen II)
Chikorita may not be as aggressively bad as Oshawott, but the poor thing just does not get through Johto in one piece. A Mono-Type Grass Pokémon with poไor stats and an equally 🎶poor move pool, Chikorita is basically the antithesis of Bulbasaur, offering the hardest version of Johto possible. For a beginner, that's nothing but a pain.
But for a seasoned Trainer? Why wouldn’t you want to make J🌠ohto harder? Generation II is far and away 💟the easiest generation in the franchise. For a series veteran, picking Chikorita is an opportunity to play through the game with an actual difficulty curve. This may prove too much for beginners to the series, but Chikorita isn’t a total wash like Oshawott.