Every Starter Pokemon by Generation: Gen 1 Through Gen 10

30 starter pokemon by generation. Bulbasaur was first, way back in 1996. Browt, Pombon, and Gecqua are the newest, revealed this February for Pokemon Winds and Waves. Grass, Fire, Water. You pick one, it’s yours for the whole game. Been that way since day one and Game Freak clearly isn’t changing it. Some of these starters turned out broken in competitive (Greninja ruined an entire tier). Some turned out… less useful. Chikorita, I’m sorry. Kind of.

Red and Blue were my first games. Went with Charmander because cool fire lizard, obviously. Then Brock’s Onix wiped my entire team and I learned what “type disadvantage” means the hard way. Still overthink this decision every new gen. Anyway, this guide has all starter pokemon by generation laid out, every evolution chain, Gen 10 included. Browt, Pombon, and Gecqua got shown off at the Pokemon Day 2026 stream like two months ago so there’s a full section on them below.

Quick Reference: All Starter Pokemon by Generation

TL;DR for the impatient. All starters, all evolutions, one table. Here you go.

Gen	Region	Grass Starter	Fire Starter	Water Starter	Games
1	Kanto	Bulbasaur → Venusaur	Charmander → Charizard	Squirtle → Blastoise	Red/Blue/Yellow (1996)
2	Johto	Chikorita → Meganium	Cyndaquil → Typhlosion	Totodile → Feraligatr	Gold/Silver/Crystal (1999)
3	Hoenn	Treecko → Sceptile	Torchic → Blaziken	Mudkip → Swampert	Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (2002)
4	Sinnoh	Turtwig → Torterra	Chimchar → Infernape	Piplup → Empoleon	Diamond/Pearl/Platinum (2006)
5	Unova	Snivy → Serperior	Tepig → Emboar	Oshawott → Samurott	Black/White (2010)
6	Kalos	Chespin → Chesnaught	Fennekin → Delphox	Froakie → Greninja	X/Y (2013)
7	Alola	Rowlet → Decidueye	Litten → Incineroar	Popplio → Primarina	Sun/Moon (2016)
8	Galar	Grookey → Rillaboom	Scorbunny → Cinderace	Sobble → Inteleon	Sword/Shield (2019)
9	Paldea	Sprigatito → Meowscarada	Fuecoco → Skeledirge	Quaxly → Quaquaval	Scarlet/Violet (2022)
10	TBA	Browt → ???	Pombon → ???	Gecqua → ???	Winds/Waves (2027)

Generation 1: Kanto Starters (Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle)

Games: Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen, Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee

Do these three need an introduction? Probably not. Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle. Your grandma could name at least one of them. Starter pokemon by generation always gets compared back to this trio and honestly nothing has topped it in cultural impact. Charmander wins popularity polls. Every single one. Has for 30 years. But Bulbasaur hard counters both Brock and Misty so if you actually want an easy first few hours, the frog dinosaur is the play. Most people don’t pick him though because fire lizard goes brrrr.

Squirtle is… okay I guess? The cannons on Blastoise look cool but competitively it never did what Charizard or Venusaur could. Just kinda sits in the middle.

Gen 6 Megas saved this entire trio from irrelevance. Mega Charizard X flips to Fire/Dragon and hits stupid hard. Y cranks Sun so Flamethrower one-shots things it shouldn’t. And Mega Venusaur? Thick Fat. Fire and Ice barely scratch it. These three got like 20 extra years of relevance they probably didn’t deserve, all from one mechanic.

Oh right, Pokemon Yellow. Pikachu. Only option. The mouse. Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle came from NPCs later but your actual starter was Pikachu whether you wanted that or not.

• Bulbasaur → Ivysaur (Lv 16) → Venusaur (Lv 32) | Grass/Poison
• Charmander → Charmeleon (Lv 16) → Charizard (Lv 36) | Fire/Flying
• Squirtle → Wartortle (Lv 16) → Blastoise (Lv 36) | Water

Something I only learned recently, actually. Bulbasaur starts as Grass/Poison from level 1. Rowlet starts Grass/Flying. Those are the ONLY two starters that have dual typing right out of the gate. Every other one? Single type until it evolves. And Johto’s starters plus Galar’s? They never pick up a second type, ever. Three evolutions and still mono-type. Rough.

Gen 2 Starters: Johto (Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile)

Games: Pokemon Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, SoulSilver

Gen 2. Arguments start here and they never stop.

Cyndaquil is the easy answer. Typhlosion trucks through gyms and Eruption at full HP is disgusting damage. Totodile? Also good. Feraligatr’s Attack stat is no joke and Water covers a lot of matchups in Johto.

Then there’s Chikorita. Ugh. I don’t want to be mean but this thing is rough. Pure Grass, STAYS pure Grass through every evolution, garbage offensive stats. Falkner walls it. Bugsy walls it. Morty walls it. Half the gym leaders in Johto just don’t care about Meganium. Yeah it can take a hit. And then? Nothing. It tanks and does zero damage back. Every poll since ’99 has it dead last. Kinda deserved.

HGSS are goated games regardless. Picking Chikorita on purpose for a challenge run is actually kinda fun though, not gonna lie. Whole game feels different when your starter can’t carry.

• Chikorita → Bayleef (Lv 16) → Meganium (Lv 32) | Grass
• Cyndaquil → Quilava (Lv 14) → Typhlosion (Lv 36) | Fire
• Totodile → Croconaw (Lv 18) → Feraligatr (Lv 30) | Water

Hoenn Starters: Generation 3 (Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip)

Games: Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire

Best trio in the franchise? Tons of people think so. Ask on Reddit and Hoenn wins the “best starter pokemon by generation” debate constantly. All three good, no duds. That like… basically never happens in Pokemon.

Mudkip blew up as a meme back in 2005. “so I herd u liek mudkipz.” Ancient internet history at this point but people STILL bring it up. Doesn’t matter though because Swampert is genuinely busted. Water/Ground = one weakness total. Grass hits 4x but nothing else does anything. Resists Rock, Poison, Steel, Fire. Electric? Immune. Zero. You can sleepwalk through Hoenn with this thing.

Blaziken is a different kind of broken. When Game Freak gave it Speed Boost as a hidden ability, it went from “strong starter” to “banned from competitive.” It gets faster every single turn. After two turns nothing outspeeds it. Smogon threw it into Ubers and it never came back.

Sceptile got the short end competitively. ORAS Mega gave it Dragon typing which helped but still the weakest of the three. Whatever. Pick any of them. You won’t regret it. Three-for-three on good starters basically never happens in this franchise and Hoenn nailed it.

• Treecko → Grovyle (Lv 16) → Sceptile (Lv 36) | Grass
• Torchic → Combusken (Lv 16) → Blaziken (Lv 36) | Fire/Fighting
• Mudkip → Marshtomp (Lv 16) → Swampert (Lv 36) | Water/Ground

Why Mudkip might be the best starter pokemon ever

Let me nerd out here. Water/Ground. One weakness total. Grass does 4x damage but literally nothing else works. Rock, Poison, Steel, Fire, all resisted. Electric, zero damage, full immune. I ran my Swampert through like five gyms straight in Emerald without switching once, it was honestly too easy. Mega Swampert in ORAS made it even dumber. Go check any “best starter” thread on r/pokemon if you don’t believe me. Mudkip shows up in almost every single one.

Generation 4: Sinnoh Starters (Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup)

Games: Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl

Half my friends started with Diamond and Pearl and they will not shut up about Sinnoh. Starters here are legitimately good though. And they dropped right when the physical/special split happened which is kind of a big deal. Before Gen 4? Fire moves = always special. Fighting moves = always physical. Didn’t matter what the move actually was. Gen 4 separated physical and special by individual move instead of type. Sounds like a small change but it meant your Chimchar’s Fire Punch now scaled off Attack instead of Special Attack. That one tweak made starter pokemon by generation way more balanced.

Chimchar into Infernape was the move. Fast. Hits from both sides. Fire/Fighting was still fresh back then (before everyone got sick of it). Empoleon? Lowkey genius design. Water/Steel penguin emperor with TEN type resistances. Come on. Torterra is the slow tank of the group, a literal tortoise with a tree and mountain range growing on its shell. It’s not fast. At all. But when it connects? Yeah.

• Turtwig → Grotle (Lv 18) → Torterra (Lv 32) | Grass/Ground
• Chimchar → Monferno (Lv 14) → Infernape (Lv 36) | Fire/Fighting
• Piplup → Prinplup (Lv 16) → Empoleon (Lv 36) | Water/Steel

Gen 5: Unova Starters (Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott)

Games: Pokemon Black, White, Black 2, White 2

Lol Gen 5. Yeah. These starters get roasted and I can’t really defend them. Emboar. Fire/Fighting. For the THIRD time. Blaziken did it. Infernape did it. And then Tepig’s final evo is ALSO a beefy Fire/Fighting thing? People were done. Community went ballistic. Starter pokemon by generation polls rank Unova’s trio near the bottom almost every time and this is the main reason.

Snivy turned into a meme because of that smug little face (you know the one). And Oshawott had a whole redemption arc years later when Legends: Arceus gave it a Hisuian Samurott form with Water/Dark typing that actually slaps.

In competitive? Serperior does this disgusting thing. Hidden ability Contrary flips stat changes. Leaf Storm is supposed to nuke your Special Attack after use. With Contrary it boosts it instead. Two stages up per use. Three Leaf Storms in and your Serperior is hitting harder than most legendaries. Completely stupid in the best way.

BW’s story is legit by the way. N’s whole deal, Team Plasma actually making a philosophical point about whether catching pokemon is ethical. Real writing. Not just “evil team wants to use legendary for power” again. Play BW even if you hate Emboar’s guts. The campaign is worth it.

• Snivy → Servine (Lv 17) → Serperior (Lv 36) | Grass
• Tepig → Pignite (Lv 17) → Emboar (Lv 36) | Fire/Fighting
• Oshawott → Dewott (Lv 17) → Samurott (Lv 36) | Water

Generation 6 Starters: Kalos (Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie)

Games: Pokemon X, Y

Greninja and two backup dancers. That’s Gen 6. When people rank starter pokemon by generation, Froakie’s line lands at or near the top and Chespin/Fennekin are afterthoughts. Greninja made it into Smash Bros. Got a special Ash form in Sun and Moon. STILL wrecking competitive ladders in 2026. Protean swaps its type to match each move so everything gets STAB. 122 Speed. You need a scarf or priority to go first against this thing. Insane pokemon.

Chespin? Fennekin? I literally forget they exist sometimes. Chesnaught tanks hits but is too slow to matter. Delphox has okay special attack but dies to a stiff breeze. The frog carries this generation solo.

Real talk though, X and Y’s legacy is Mega Evolution and the 3D jump, not the starters. Unless you picked Froakie. Then Gen 6 was your gen.

• Chespin → Quilladin (Lv 16) → Chesnaught (Lv 36) | Grass/Fighting
• Fennekin → Braixen (Lv 16) → Delphox (Lv 36) | Fire/Psychic
• Froakie → Frogadier (Lv 16) → Greninja (Lv 36) | Water/Dark

Alola Starters from Gen 7 (Rowlet, Litten, Popplio)

Games: Pokemon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon

No gyms in Alola. Island trials instead. Risky move by Game Freak but it worked. What’s interesting about this trio is that ALL three final evos ended up relevant in competitive. Most generations have one star and two benchwarmers. Starter pokemon by generation rarely produces a trio this balanced at the top level.

Incineroar runs VGC. Just straight up lives there. Intimidate dropping both opponents’ Attack on switch-in is broken in doubles and the usage data backs it up, year after year. Primarina is slept on but Water/Fairy STAB Moonblast chunks anything that isn’t a Steel type. Decidueye has the sickest design (ghost archer owl? yes please) but its Speed stat is too mid for serious play. Shelf pokemon, not competitive pokemon.

Oh and remember when Popplio got revealed? People HATED it. Ugly, clownish, whatever. Then it evolved into Primarina and suddenly everyone acted like they were fans from day one. Standard Pokemon community behavior.

• Rowlet → Dartrix (Lv 17) → Decidueye (Lv 34) | Grass/Ghost
• Litten → Torracat (Lv 17) → Incineroar (Lv 34) | Fire/Dark
• Popplio → Brionne (Lv 17) → Primarina (Lv 34) | Water/Fairy

Gen 8 Starters: Galar (Grookey, Scorbunny, Sobble)

Games: Pokemon Sword, Shield

Galar went full British. Drummer gorilla (Rillaboom), soccer rabbit (Cinderace), spy lizard (Inteleon). Cool ideas on paper. Problem is none of them gain a secondary type when they evolve. Every evolution is still single-type. After Alola and later Paldea giving every final evo dual typing, Gen 8 feels kind of empty by comparison.

Cinderace was the standout. Libero = budget Protean. Type swaps to match your move. Smogon had to ban it because it warped the meta too hard. Rillaboom ended up solid too once people figured out Grassy Surge terrain strategies. Works in singles and doubles both.

Inteleon though. All glass, no cannon. Okay, the cannon part is there (high Speed, high SpAtk) but one physical move connects and it drops. Spy sniper aesthetic goes hard visually. Competitively? Paper.

• Grookey → Thwackey (Lv 16) → Rillaboom (Lv 35) | Grass
• Scorbunny → Raboot (Lv 16) → Cinderace (Lv 35) | Fire
• Sobble → Drizzile (Lv 16) → Inteleon (Lv 35) | Water

Generation 9: Paldea Starters (Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly)

Games: Pokemon Scarlet, Violet

Finally open world. Paldea is Spain/Portugal themed and the starters go hard on that. Last complete starter pokemon by generation set before Gen 10 came along, and it’s a strong one.

Meowscarada. Grass/Dark magician cat. 123 Speed. And then there’s Flower Trick. I have to rant about this move for a second. It ALWAYS crits. It NEVER misses. Both things. At the same time. No other move in 30 years of Pokemon does that. How did this get through playtesting? Who approved this? I’m not complaining, it’s hilarious, but come on.

Skeledirge is the opposite vibe. Slow crocodile that sings mariachi. Fire/Ghost. Tanky. And its move Torch Song bumps Special Attack each time you click it. Three turns in and this thing hits harder than half the legendaries in the game. Just sits there getting stronger while your opponent panics.

Quaquaval is a duck that does flamenco. Water/Fighting. Weakest of the three competitively but the design grew on people. First reaction from most fans was confused silence. Second reaction was “wait actually this rules.”

• Sprigatito → Floragato (Lv 16) → Meowscarada (Lv 36) | Grass/Dark
• Fuecoco → Crocalor (Lv 16) → Skeledirge (Lv 36) | Fire/Ghost
• Quaxly → Quaxwell (Lv 16) → Quaquaval (Lv 36) | Water/Fighting

Legends: Z-A and Legends: Arceus Starters

Oh and the spin-offs did this cool thing where they recycled old starters into new games. Arceus (2022) grabbed Rowlet, Cyndaquil, Oshawott, tossed them into ancient Sinnoh, gave each one a Hisuian final form. Hisuian Samurott (Water/Dark with Sharpness) went from forgettable to actually scary in competitive, which I did not see coming. Z-A (2025) pulled Chikorita, Tepig, Totodile into Lumiose City and threw Mega Evolutions at some of them. Not technically new starter lines but hey, Chikorita getting a Mega is the closest thing to a redemption arc it’s ever gonna get.

Gen 10 Starters: Pokemon Winds and Waves (Browt, Pombon, Gecqua)

February 27, 2026. Pokemon Day. The 30th anniversary stream. Game Freak dropped the Gen 10 reveal at the very end of the Presents showcase, and honestly, the starters caught me off guard. Pokemon Winds and Pokemon Waves are coming to Switch 2 sometime in 2027, and we now have starter pokemon by generation number ten: Browt, Pombon, and Gecqua. That’s 30 standard starters across the franchise now.

This video from the official Pokemon channel covers the Winds and Waves announcement and all three starters:

So what do we actually know? Let me break down each one.

Browt is your Grass pick. Game Freak calls it the “Bean Chick Pokemon,” and yeah, it looks like a grumpy little bird with leaves sticking up from its forehead. The official site says Browt photosynthesizes through those leaves while running around and being clumsy. Ability: Overgrow. People have compared it to Torchic and Rowlet (both bird starters), and I get the comparison, but Browt has this scrunchy angry face that’s pretty different from either of them. Reddit’s first impression? Mixed. Some people love the attitude, others think it looks too much like Rookidee.

Pombon stole the entire reveal. Fire-type Pomeranian puppy. Orange-red fluff. Glowing throat from a heat organ in its lungs, which is just sick design work. Ability: Blaze. The thing that made Twitter explode? No Fire starter has ever been a dog before. 30 years of fire lizards, fire birds, fire pigs, fire foxes, a fire rabbit, a fire croc. Zero dogs. Until now. Fan art was everywhere within hours. Pombon is going to be the most picked Gen 10 starter by a mile, I’d bet money on it.

Gecqua is the Water gecko. Shoots water balls out of its tail. Apparently has a massive ego, the official site says it “maneuvers shrewdly while putting on airs.” So it’s a smug water lizard. Ability: Torrent. Obviously people are comparing it to Treecko since, y’know, gecko starter isn’t exactly new territory. Different vibe though. Treecko was chill and cool. Gecqua looks like it’s plotting something.

Evolutions? Zero info. Game Freak treats final evo reveals like classified military documents. We’re a year out minimum. The teraleak from 2024 had some vague descriptions floating around but honestly I wouldn’t put much stock in those. We’ll know when we know. Switch 2 exclusive, sometime in 2027.

Starter Pokemon Type Triangle: Why It’s Always Grass, Fire, Water

Thirty years. Ten generations. Same three types every time. Grass, Fire, Water. You’d think Game Freak would mix it up eventually, but the formula works too well to change. Each starter pokemon by generation follows this triangle because it’s basically a tutorial baked into your first decision. Pick Fire? Cool, your rival’s Water type will wreck you. Now you know what type advantage means.

Most people don’t know this but every starter has the same 87.5% male / 12.5% female split. All of them. Every gen. Have fun soft resetting for a girl Cyndaquil. They also all come with matching abilities: Overgrow, Blaze, Torrent. Boosts your main type moves by 50% when HP gets low. Not flashy but it’s clutched more gym battles than I can count. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty stats on this stuff, Bulbapedia’s first partner pokemon page goes deep.

The real differentiator between gens is secondary typing on final evos. Johto? All three stay pure single-type forever. Galar too. Boring. Sinnoh, Kalos, Alola, Paldea? Every final evolution picks up a second type and that changes EVERYTHING. Empoleon’s Water/Steel resists ten types. Blaziken gets Fire AND Fighting STAB. One secondary typing turns a decent starter into something that warps the meta around it.

Best Starter Pokemon Per Generation: Quick Picks

Replaying an older gen? Cool, here’s who I grab every time. Strongest starter pokemon by generation for cruising through the story. No getting stuck at gyms, no grinding for hours.

Gen	Best Pick	Why	Hardest Pick
1	Bulbasaur	Type advantage vs first 2 gyms, learns Leech Seed early	Charmander
2	Cyndaquil	Best gym coverage, Eruption at full HP is devastating	Chikorita
3	Mudkip	Water/Ground = one weakness, solos most gyms	Treecko
4	Chimchar	Fast mixed attacker, Fire/Fighting covers everything	Piplup
5	Tepig	Best gym matchups despite the Fire/Fighting fatigue	Oshawott
6	Froakie	Greninja with Protean is borderline unfair	Chespin
7	Litten	Incineroar dominates later trials and Elite Four	Rowlet
8	Scorbunny	Cinderace’s speed and coverage carry hard	Sobble
9	Sprigatito	Flower Trick (always crits, never misses) is broken	Quaxly
10	TBD	Not enough data yet, wait for Winds and Waves launch	TBD

These are story mode picks. Not competitive. Big difference. Incineroar is a VGC god but I’m recommending Litten in-game because it handles the later trials and Elite Four better in a casual playthrough. “Hardest pick” doesn’t mean bad pokemon, by the way. It just means the early gyms are going to be rougher because of type matchups.

Most Popular Starter Pokemon: How Fans Actually Rank Them

I’ve spent way too many hours on r/pokemon reading tier list arguments. The pattern is clear, though. Ranking starter pokemon by generation, Fire types win the popularity contest almost every time. Reddit polls, Twitter threads, Japanese fan votes, doesn’t matter. Fire starters get picked more, get more fan art, and generate more arguments.

Same five names keep showing up everywhere: Charmander, Mudkip, Greninja, Cyndaquil, Rowlet. Every “top 10 starter” list on the internet has at least three of those. Greninja did something crazy in 2020 though. Won Japan’s Pokemon of the Year vote. Not best STARTER. Best POKEMON. Out of 890+. A frog beating Pikachu, Eevee, and every legendary in a popularity contest. Wild.

On the underrated side, Bulbasaur has this scrappy fandom that won’t stop telling you it’s the objectively best Gen 1 pick (and they’re right, statistically). Totodile and Piplup don’t get enough love either. Skeledirge from Gen 9 is a sleeper, too. Fire/Ghost typing plus Torch Song is genuinely good and the singer croc design grew on people hard.

Bottom of the barrel? Chikorita. Always Chikorita. Chespin, Tepig, and Sobble hang out near the bottom too. Sobble’s problem is mostly Inteleon. People wanted the crying chameleon to evolve into something cuddly or monstrous, and instead got a skinny spy lizard. That killed a lot of hype.

Pombon from Gen 10 is already everywhere. Calling it the “first Fire dog” was free marketing. Fan art exploded within a day of the reveal. Browt had a rougher time, with memes comparing it to Rookidee and calling it a “chud.” Gecqua is sitting in the “looks cool, need to see evolutions” zone, which is where most Water starters land at announcement.

Starter Pokemon in Competitive Play: A Tier Breakdown

Competitive is a whole different animal. Starter pokemon by generation looks completely different when you shift from “can I beat the game” to “can I win a tournament.” Some starters terrorize ranked ladders. Others rot in PU. The gap is massive.

Top of the food chain: Greninja and Blaziken. Not close to anyone else. Greninja’s Protean makes it impossible to predict. Blaziken’s Speed Boost makes it impossible to outrun after turn two. Smogon banned Blaziken to Ubers and it stayed there. Cinderace had its own Ubers stint with Libero before the nerf. Both Mega Charizards play OU wherever Megas are legal.

A tier below that, you’ve got some really solid picks. Serperior does this disgusting thing where Contrary turns Leaf Storm into a boosting move instead of a debuff. Rillaboom brings Grassy Surge to set terrain for the whole team. And Incineroar? Forget starters for a second. Incineroar might be the single most used pokemon in VGC doubles history. Intimidate on switch-in is broken in 2v2 and the usage stats prove it. Meowscarada from Gen 9 is climbing fast thanks to Flower Trick crit spam.

Mid-range you’ve got Swampert (solid Stealth Rock lead without Mega), Empoleon (decent special wall), Infernape (fast but paper-thin), and Primarina (underrated Fairy STAB in UU).

Then there’s the bottom. I’m sorry Meganium. And Typhlosion, non-Hisuian form at least. Chesnaught, Delphox, regular Samurott, and Inteleon are all down here too. They’re playable. They’re just worse versions of other pokemon that do the same job.

Legends: Z-A shook things up with new Megas. Mega Feraligatr jumped to 160 Attack, which turned it from a niche pick into an actual sweeper. Mega Greninja pushed already insane stats even higher. When Winds and Waves drops in 2027, whatever gimmick it brings (Tera? Dynamax? Something new?) could change everything for Gen 10’s starters.

Starter Pokemon Trivia: 15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know

1. Level 1 Bulbasaur? Grass/Poison. Level 1 Rowlet? Grass/Flying. Two starters out of 30 that come with dual typing before evolving. That’s it. The other 28 are all single-type until they hit their first evo.
2. 30 years of Fire starters and not ONE dog until Pombon showed up. We got lizards, chickens, monkeys, pigs, a fox, a bunny, a croc. But zero dogs. Gen 10 finally fixed that and the internet went feral (pun absolutely intended).
3. Greninja won Pokemon of the Year. Not best starter. Best POKEMON. Japan voted in 2020 and a frog beat Pikachu, beat Eevee, beat every legendary. 890+ options and the ninja frog took it. Still wild to think about.
4. 87.5% male. 12.5% female. Every. Single. Starter. Wanna breed for a competitive one with the right nature? Hope you like resetting.
5. Charmander wins every popularity poll but gets wrecked by Brock AND Misty, the first two Kanto gym leaders. Ironic.
6. Typhlosion and Cinderace are the odd ones out among Fire starters. They’re the only two final evos that stay pure Fire without picking up a second type.
7. Two generations gave us starters that NEVER get a secondary type through their whole evolution line: Johto (Gen 2) and Galar (Gen 8). Three starters each, all mono-type from start to finish.
8. Decidueye pulled off something weird. Its secondary type changes depending on which region you’re in. Alolan version is Grass/Ghost. Hisuian version? Grass/Fighting. Basically two different pokemon sharing a name.
9. Gen 2 had a bizarre math problem. Gold and Silver calculated gender and shininess from the same IV values, which meant a female shiny starter was mathematically impossible. Not unlikely. Impossible.
10. Three straight generations of Fire/Fighting. Torchic started it (Blaziken). Then Chimchar (Infernape). Then Tepig (Emboar). Community lost its mind by Gen 5. Game Freak got the message and hasn’t done Fire/Fighting since.
11. Check any starter’s level 1 moves. Tackle or Scratch or Pound, plus Growl or Leer or Tail Whip. Copy-paste across all 30 of them. Game Freak has used the exact same moveset template for three decades.
12. The OG three get recycled HARD. Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle show up in four separate regional dexes: Kanto, Johto, Central Kalos, Blueberry Academy. No other starter trio comes close to that many appearances.
13. Flower Trick might be the dumbest move Game Freak ever approved. It crits every time. It hits every time. Both. Simultaneously. Nothing else in 30 years of Pokemon does both those things. Sprigatito mains are eating good.
14. Winds and Waves is Switch 2 only. No old Switch version, no cross-gen. First time a mainline Pokemon game has been locked to a next-gen console without any backward compatibility option. Big deal for the franchise.
15. “Starter pokemon” isn’t even the official name by the way. Pokemon Company has been trying to make “first partner pokemon” happen for years now because apparently “starter” sounds like you’ll dump them later for legendaries. The community collectively shrugged and kept saying starter. Still does.

Which Starter Pokemon Should You Pick?

Pick whatever looks cool. Seriously. I know that’s a cop-out answer but the games are built so all three work. You won’t get hard stuck because of your starter. Well, maybe with Chikorita. That’s genuinely rough sometimes.

Water types give you the easiest time across most regions if you want a real answer. Not many early gyms run Grass or Electric, so your Water pick rarely gets countered right away. Grass starters have it harder because like… every other region puts a Flying gym or Fire gym in the first three. Fire is the popular choice (Charmander has been #1 for 30 years) but you’ll eat dirt at rock gyms early if you don’t catch a backup.

Competitive meta though? Different universe. The four that matter are Greninja, Blaziken, Cinderace, Incineroar. Those four warped tournament formats around themselves. Incineroar specifically, that dumb cat has been on more VGC championship teams than actual legendaries. Intimidate in doubles is absurd and probably will never get nerfed.

End of the day though? Just grab whoever you think looks the coolest. Every game is beatable with every starter. That’s how they designed it.

FAQ: Questions About Starter Pokemon

How many starter pokemon are there across all generations?

30 if you just count the Grass/Fire/Water trios from Gen 1 to 10. Pikachu (Yellow) and Eevee (Let’s Go) bring it to 32 technically but nobody really counts those.

What are the Gen 10 starter pokemon in Pokemon Winds and Waves?

Browt is the Grass one (angry bird), Pombon is Fire (the Pomeranian everyone lost their minds over), Gecqua is Water (smug gecko). Revealed at the Pokemon Day 2026 stream on Feb 27. Still no evolution reveals as of right now.

Which starter pokemon is the strongest competitively?

Greninja. Protean swaps its type every attack, 122 Speed outspeeds almost everything in the game, movepool covers every situation. Blaziken (Speed Boost) and Cinderace (Libero) are strong contenders but Greninja has been on top longer than both combined.

What level do starter pokemon evolve?

First evo usually happens at 16, final evo at 36. Couple exceptions: Bulbasaur goes Venusaur at 32 instead of 36, Cyndaquil’s first stage triggers at 14 not 16. Legends games messed with some evolution levels too.

Why are starter pokemon always Grass, Fire, and Water types?

Rock-paper-scissors. Grass beats Water. Water beats Fire. Fire beats Grass. Clean loop, no weird matchups. Works as a built-in tutorial for type advantages right from the start of the game.

What is the least popular starter pokemon?

Chikorita. Always has been, probably always will be. Bottom of every fan poll since 1999. Pure Grass typing, can’t hit anything hard, half the Johto gym leaders counter it. Some people run it on purpose for the challenge but as an actual first pick? Basically nobody.

Got other games you’re into? We write about League, Valorant, WoW, Marvel Rivals and more on the blog. I’ll update this starter pokemon by generation guide when Game Freak shows off the Gen 10 evolutions (whenever that happens). And if you play League and want a fresh account to mess around on, we’ve got LoL smurf accounts too.

Also worth checking out: our Marvel Rivals tier list, the WoW addons guide for Midnight, or Valorant accounts if you wanna skip the grind there.

Last updated: April 2026