Board 8 > How do you choose your starter pokemon?

(+) Yeah! (+)

With a new generation around the corner, I'm wondering: when faced with a brand new set of pokemon, how do you decide which starter you'll pick?

The options won't be exhaustive, please post with your own thoughts!

Vibes plus I try not to choose the same type two gens in a row.

Vibe

design of the line as a whole

sometimes a good pre-evo can outweigh the bad final (snivy great serperior shit)

vibe, split the difference between first form and last form probably

like I picked Sobble last time because I was immediately very into Sobble upon reveal, but my favorite last form was probably Rillaboom. But Intelleon was good enough to not drag Sobble down.

Usually Final Form Design. But for Diamond/Pearl I choose based on Typing.

Types. Ive always selected water on my first play of a generation.

Design of final evo, but I also almost never pick water because it's practically guaranteed that there will be a water type I like more later on. Not always true with grass and fire.

Both of the first options. The designs of the family as a whole is the main thing which determines what starter I use. First and last form carry a lil more weight than the middle form. I use my favorite looking family.

Design of the whole line.

Kenri posted...

Design of final evo, but I also almost never pick water because it's practically guaranteed that there will be a water type I like more later on. Not always true with grass and fire.

we've weirdly had a couple gens that only give like two non-starter fire lines

Genuinely all of these have been a factor at some point.

If you take Samurott as an example, it's a big mix of things. Firstly, I like the design a lot and it had serviceable stats; design-wise it was about even with Serperior (a surprise because Snivy vs. Oshawott is an easy win for Snivy, design-wise, imo), but Serp had godawful stats so I opted for Samurott. Movepool helps too - finding out that Samurott gets Megahorn was also a factor in choosing him. But I also chose Samurott because there weren't a lot of other water options that I was particularly into, and I wasn't going to chose Emboar because I'd already decided on using Darmanitan.

So in that particular case the thinking covered, like, most of the options there. (Oshawott was even kind of a meme in pre-release! But I can't stay that really affected my thinking.)

The #1 thing though is probably a combination of stats and design of specifically the final form. The base form doesn't matter to me at all - you will have the base form for, like 2 hours before it evolves.

Always fire

Base design. I don't usually spoil myself.

The exception being when I do a first playthrough with a friend. Then I counter pick their Pokmon as a proper rival should.

(Did that with Pearl and HeartGold

It was fun but I am kind of sad I never got to use the awesome Piplup in my Pokemonning and used the kind of lame Turtwig instead)

Types, usually. Only time I deviated from being a grass man was gen 2.

Edit: that said, I don't always stick with them. I dropped Chespin very quickly after it evolved to final form, and ditto Snivy.

final form design, as long as they're not super slow

honestly, usually the first form design. But the meme factor definitely plays into it.

"Smugleaf" lol

100% looks of first and final forms

stats do not matter at all for ingame and if i like a first form way more than the final i just won't evolve it. which has only happened for Fennekin

Usually whatever my favorite final form is. But sometimes, if I like a second one too, I might choose it if it has better usability or fits better in a team. Like if there's another new Water Pokemon I like even more, I might not choose the Water starter even if it's my favorite of the three.

Though now that we live in a mandatory Exp Share world, my "team" is always like 10-12+ Pokemon rotating in and out, so type overlap is gonna happen no matter what, so \_()_/

Not water. From there, I choose the starter that looks better.

I mostly decide based on the final forms.

I'm kinda surprised by the number of votes for base form design. I mean I get it, those are the heavily marketed cute ones we're already aware of beforehand and they're staring you in the face when you pick, but as XIII points out you have that form for a couple hours max!

How many of you ignored the leaks and have no idea what the cat/croc/duck's final evos will look like when you pick?

I have never not selected Water.

Probably the final evolution, but the whole line is important. For S/V Im not sure if Ill evolve any of them. I feel like all 3 look best in their base form.

A combination of type and base design. I lean heavily toward Water, but if something else is cuter or the Water starter doesn't appeal to me I'll pick outside my type preference. My first starter each generation I've played has been:

Cyndaquil (Crystal) then Totodile then Chikorita
Squirtle (Blue) then Bulbasaur then Charmander
Treecko (Sapphire) then Mudkip then Torchic
-skipped Gen IV lol-
Oshawott (Black) then Snivy then Tepig
-
Haven't played since Gen V, but if I had I would've picked Turtwig for IV, Froakie for VI, Rowlet for VII, Scorbunny for VIII, and I would Sprigatito for IX if I even had a Switch.

By type. Always pick the fire mon.

Type/s of the final evolution

Always pick Fire

Design of final evo

andylt posted...

I'm kinda surprised by the number of votes for base form design. I mean I get it, those are the heavily marketed cute ones we're already aware of beforehand and they're staring you in the face when you pick, but as XIII points out you have that form for a couple hours max!

I ignore leaks and often don't use my starter in my final team (I think the only time I ever used the starter long term was RBY) so third form doesn't matter as much

Look I grow attached to the basic forms so much so that I don't usually care what the final form looks like. It's about the journey, not the destination. Even though I picked Cyndaquil first I ended up growing most attached to my second playthrough starter. Feraligatr is ugly as sin, but she was mine and I loved her because I raised her from a little Totodile

GenesisSaga posted...

Look I grow attached to the basic forms so much so that I don't usually care what the final form looks like. It's about the journey, not the destination. Even though I picked Cyndaquil first I ended up growing most attached to my second playthrough starter. Feraligatr is ugly as sin, but she was mine and I loved her because I raised her from a little Totodile

You level up so fast in recent games, you barely get any time with the first form before it evolves. The journey is mostly with the middle and final stages, lol.

A combination of several of the options with the heaviest weight being on base form design.

Roll a 6 sided die with 2 numbers assigned to each and take whatever the result is.

Well, now we have a homepage PotD on this subject, though with much different options than this board poll.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/9009-

Vibes but that also seems like it lands me on fire more often than not.

mnk posted...

You level up so fast in recent games, you barely get any time with the first form before it evolves. The journey is mostly with the middle and final stages, lol.

but the base forms get revealed months ahead of time, so by the time I see the final form Ive already spent a bunch of time attached to the little guys

like two parts base design and one part the other stages (if I even have seen them before I start)

Fully evolved form because that's what gets used the most

Lopen posted...

Base design. I don't usually spoil myself.

This. Unless I got spoiled already, at which case it's mostly based on base + final design, with more weight on the base design. Yeah, you may only see it for like 2 hours, but by the time it evolved into the final form, there's a much bigger pool of Pokemon to choose from anyway.

base design, but a bad final evo can sway that.

Also seems like the better the base design the worse the final evo design. Snivy or Oshawott are awesome, their final forms are not. Was all psyched to pick fuecoco this gen, but it's going to be a tough pill to swallow

Thanks for all the responses! Today is the day. I wonder how all of you base design leakless folks will enjoy the final evo designs.

Usually by how the base starter looks because I don't spoil myself on their evolutions
The grass cat just evolved for me and jesus christ lmao the only thing fans wanted is that it would keep being on 4 legs but nope

Always the Fire one. Except Gen 2.

Nanis23 posted...

Usually by how the base starter looks because I don't spoil myself on their evolutions
The grass cat just evolved for me and jesus christ lmao the only thing fans wanted is that it would keep being on 4 legs but nope

That was always the fanbase being bad though