While most Pokémon players choose whichever Pokémon is liked most, choosing the right starter is necessary to building a successful team. While all starter Pokémon are typically powerful, choosing a starter that works well with a team, or catching other Pokémon that work well with the starter Pokémon, will create a much more powerful team.
Learn the stats, movelist highlights, and abilities of Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup - the starter Pokémon for DP.
Grass Pokémon Starter - Turtwig - Grotle - Torterra
- Type: Grass (final evolution Grass/Ground)
- Ability: Overgrow
- Evolves into Grotle at Lv 18, and Torterra at Lv 32
- Movelist Highlights: Leech Seed, Earthquake, Giga Drain, Synthesis, Crunch
- Base Stats for Turtwig: 55 HP, 68 AT, 64 DF, 31 SP, 45 SAT, 55 SDF
- Base Stats for Torterra: 95 HP, 109 AT, 105 DF, 56 SP, 75 SAT, 85 SDF
Note: If both Earthquake and Leech Seed are desired, Turtwig cannot evolve until Lv 30. If Turtwig evolves naturally, Leech Seed will be missed and Earthquake will be learned instead.
Final evolution Torterra is a beast of a Pokémon with quite a few options for effectiveness. Turtwig can learn strong attacks like Leaf Storm, Crunch, and Earthquake, and complement them by learning Sword's Dance through a TM. However, considering the (very) low speed stat, Turtwig works better as a tank, using Leech Seed and Giga Drain to drain HP, and Synthesis to heal when necessary. A combination of both works great too.
Turtwig's final form changes its type to Grass/Ground. Adding ground unfortunately hurts this Pokémon pretty badly, with a 4x weakness to Ice, and 2x weaknesses to Fire, Flying, and Bug. Resistances to Ground and Rock and an immunity to electricity help, but unfortunately do not offset the weaknesses.
Due to the crippling damage received by Ice attacks, the final evolution of Turtwig is simply not a reliable Water counter, since so many water types have at least one ice attack. Pokémon trainers who choose Turtwig as a starter should take note of this and make sure to bring along an Electric type for those pesky water Pokémon.
Fire Pokémon Starter - Chimchar - Monferno - Infernape
- Type: Fire as Chimchar, Fire/Fighting as Monferno and Infernape
- Ability: Blaze
- Evolves into Monferno at Lv 14, and Infernape at Lv 36
- Movelist Highlights: Mach Punch, Close Combat, Flare Blitz
- Base Stats for Chimchar: 44 HP, 58 AT, 44 DF, 61 SP, 58 SAT, 44 SDF
- Base Stats for Infernape: 76 HP, 104 AT, 71 DF, 108 SP, 104 SAT, 71 SDF
Starting with the movepool, Chimchar learns rather weak fire and fighting moves until later levels. Mach Punch, allowing Monferno to throw the first punch, is a great attack but doesn't have much KO potential.
Close Combat and Flare Blitz offer devastating power at the later levels, which turns Infernape into a powerhouse of destruction, but with frail defenses and low HP, Infernape must hope to smoke out Pokémon fast, otherwise death is certain. Sword's Dance (learned through a TM) can help immensely.
The Fire/Fighting type creates more problems than solutions. Weaknesses to Water, Ground, Flying, and Psychic covers quite a bit of common - and powerful - attacks (making the low defenses even more of a liability). But Fire/Fighting is strong against Steel, Dark, Normal, Grass, Ice, Rock, Bug (making the strong attack / special attack even more destructive).
Infernape is a Pokémon of extremes - huge attack power but frail defenses, crushing weaknesses, but numerous strengths. Pokémon trainers who choose Chimchar should try to catch a good offensive Pokémon to counter at least some of Infernape's weaknesses (Water, Ground, Flying, Psychic), and catch a few defensive/support Pokémon to hold the rest of the team together.
Water Pokémon Starter - Piplup - Prinplup - Empoleon
- Type: Water (final evolution Empoleon: Water/Steel)
- Ability: Torrent
- Evolves into Prinplup at Lv 16, and Empoleon at Lv 36
- Movelist Highlights: Brine, Drill Peck, Mist, Aqua Jet, Sword's Dance
- Base Stats for Piplup: 53 HP, 51 AT, 53 DF, 40 SP, 61 SAT, 56 SDF
- Base Stats for Empoleon: 84 HP, 86 AT, 88 DF, 60 SP, 111 SAT, 101 SDF
Empoleon has an excellent type combination, but unfortunately lacks a varied movepool to truly take advantage of it.
Before using Piplup/Prinplup/Empoleon, the user should choose between focusing on attack or special attack. Empoleon has a higher base special attack, and includes great attacks like Brine, and Ice Beam / Surf (through TMs/HMs). However, Empoleon can learn Sword's Dance through a TM to significantly boost attack and focus on the first-hitter Aqua Jet, and the powerful flying attack Drill Peck.
Remeber that Brine doubles in attack when the Pokémon is < half HP, and Piplup's ability Torrent increases water attacks when the Pokémon is < 1/3 HP. At low HP, Brine will pack a huge punch.
As far as typing is concerned, Empoleon's Water/Steel typing is only weak against Electric, Fighting, and Ground, with an immunity to Poison and resistances to just about everything else. Defensively speaking, Empoleon is sturdy against quite a few different types.
Empoleon, simply put, is hard to KO unless the other Pokémon has a Ground, Electric, or Fighting attack, which are all fairly easy to see coming. As a bonus, the Water/Steel combo nullifies a Grass weakness, and combined with either Ice Beam (TM) or Drill Peck, makes Empoleon a strong Pokémon to fight Grass types.
Build a team around Empoleon by focusing on a couple of strong offensive Pokémon. Empoleon may have staying power, but simply lacks the move-type variety and speed to make for an effective offensive Pokémon.
Starter Pokémon from Diamond, Pearl, Platinum - Conclusion
Choosing a clear winner between these three starter Pokémon is definitely a challenge. For Pokémon trainers who can work around the type weaknesses of Grass/Ground or Fire/Fighting, Torterra or Infernape can wreak havoc with powerful attacks.
However, due to the typing alone, Piplup's final evolution Empoleon is the most reliable and probably the best choice overall. While weaknesses to Fighting, Electric, and Ground can be a pain, the numerous resistances offered by the Steel type, along with immunity to Poison, makes it an effective type overall.
Bradley Kairis - Bradley Kairis loves games, comedy, technology, politics, news and journalism. From the endlessly intricate strategies of Magic the ...
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