Starter Pokémon from Fire Red, Leaf Green
Review Starters Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander in Pokémon RBG
May 31, 2009
The first step to Pokémon mastery is to choose one of three starter Pokémon. A difficult task - all three starter Pokémon offer strengths greater than any average Pokémon, and can be a real asset to any team.
Read about Fire Red and Leaf Green starter Pokémon below, for movelist highlights, abilities, stats, and more on Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle.
Grass Starter Pokémon - Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur
- Type: Grass/Poison
- Ability: Overgrow (Grass attacks' power increase at 1/3 HP or lower)
- Evolves into Ivysaur at Lv 16, and Venosaur at Lv 32
- Movelist Highlights: Leech Seed, Synthesis, Sleep Powder, Solar Beam
- Base Stats (Final Evolution): 80 HP - 82 AT - 83 DF - 80 SP - 100 SAT - 100 SDF
Taking down final evolution Venusaur is a difficult task. This beast of a Pokémon learns powerful attacks, alongside useful healing moves to stay healthy.
The combination Leech Seed and Sleep Power will take down a large number of foes by itself. Sleep Powder has a 75% accuracy, making it a fairly reliable disabling move, while Leech Seed drains 1/8 of a foes life, making it KO a foe in 8 turns.
Venusaur also learns the devastating grass attack Solar Beam, and the helpful heal move Synthesis. Venusaur can also learn Sunny Day through a TM, which negates Solar Beam's 1-turn charge time, and makes Synthesis more effective. Of course, the risk is giving fire attacks more potency.
Venusaur works most effectively as a tank - absorbing blow after blow and draining a foe slowly with Leech Seed, but can also work effectively as an attack-centric Pokémon using moves like Solar Beam or Sludge Bomb (TM) , while using Leech Seed or other support moves to help.
Even though Grass/Poison has an unfortunate number of weaknesses, Venusaur can help avoid those weaknesses with effective support moves and powerful attacks.
Fire Starter Pokémon - Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard
- Type: Fire (Fire/Flying as Charizard)
- Ability: Blaze (Fire attacks' power increase at 1/3 HP or lower)
- Evolves into Charmeleon at Lv 16, and Charizard at Lv 36
- Movelist Highlights: Flamethrower
- Base Stats (Final Evolution): 78 HP, 84 AT, 78 DF, 100 SP, 109 SAT, 85 SDF
Fire/Flying is an interesting type combination that actually helps the fire type by negating the Ground weakness. But unfortuantely, Charizard cannot fully utilize the type combo due to a severely lacking movepool.
One of the only notably powerful moves that Charizard learns naturally is Flamethrower. And, even through TM/HMs, Charizard can only really learn Aerial Ace or Fly to utilize his second type.
The lacking movepool is a bit of a letdown, as are Charizard's stats. While obtaining the move Dragon Rage would imply having some dragon blood inside him, he certainly doesn't show it through his stats. Only 78 HP results in frailty, and Charizard's only notable stats are Speed and Special Attack. This is doubly unfortunate, as Charizard can learn powerful attack-based moves such as Earthquake and Brick Break.
Even still, with a combination of moves such as this: Flamethrower, Brick Break (TM) , Earthquake (TM), and Sword's Dance (Move Tutor), Charizard can definately wreak some havoc. Just watch out for Rock, as the x4 weakness will down this wannabe dragon fast.
Water Starter Pokémon - Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise
- Type: Water
- Ability: Torrent (Water attacks' power increase at 1/3 HP or lower)
- Evolves into Wartortle at Lv 16, and Blastoise at Lv 36
- Movelist Highlights: Hydro Pump, Rain Dance, Rapid Spin
- Base Stats (Final Evolution): 79 HP, 83 AT, 100 DF, 78 SP, 85 SAT, 100 SDF
While Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise is a reliable starter Pokémon, and a great addition to any team, sadly, it faces fierce competition with several great Water types in the red/blue generation.
With a fairly lackluster movepool and stats focused on defense, Blastoise may be able to take quite a few hits before getting KOed, but it won't be able to do much more than that. Lack of move variety reduces strategy significantly, and Blastoise simply doesn't have the attack strength to take down opponents.
Rain Dance can help increase this Pokémon's power. Usually, accuracy is preferred over strength, but since Blastoise doesn't have much KO potential, Hydro Pump and Blizzard (TM), may be better choices than Surf (HM) and Ice Beam (TM).
Even though Blastoise is a starter Pokémon, that doesn't mean it's the best of its kind. Starmie and Gyarados offers better attack, while Lapras may even be a better tank due to a larger movepool.
Starter Pokémon from Fire Red, Leaf Green - Conclusion
So what is the best starter Pokémon in Fire Red / Leaf Green? It's a toss-up between Venusaur and Charizard. Blastoise simply lacks the movepool variety and attack strength to be effective.
Venusaur learns one of the best moves in the game - Leech Seed - and can make it doubly deadly when using it together with Sleep Powder. Charizard offers more raw power, but cannot fully utilize it due to a lack of good moves (particularly, a lack of a strong Flying attack).
Between the two, Venusaur can absorb more blows and the Sleep Powder / Leech Seed combination can destroy a large amount of foes with relative ease. Charizard may pack some serious punch, but just doesn't have Venusaur's staying power.
Starter Pokémon from Ruby / Saphire / Emerald
Starter Pokémon from Diamond / Pearl / Platinum
Starter Pokémon from Gold / Silver
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