1st Gen The best starter for Gen 1

We will be finding the best starter for Gen 1 among Bulbasaur , Squirtle and Charmander . Let us consider four rounds to find the best one .

ROUND 1 : BASE STATS
According to the pokedex in pokemon.com , Bulbasaur has increased Spl.Def and decrased Speed when compared to Charmander and increased Special Atk and speed and decreased defense when compared to Squirtle . I think Bulbasaur wins this round because technically speaking Bulbasaur has increased Spl.Defence and Spl.Atk when compared with the other pokemon . So the base stats support Bulbasaur . Although it is not able to move first it can compensate by its increased spl.def and spl.atk
WINNER : BULBASAUR

ROUND 2 : WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH
Being a ground and a poison type Bulbasaur is weak against Fire,Flying,Ice and Psychic type pokemon . Bulbasaur is strong against rock , ground and water type pokemon and can defend well against electric and grass type pokemon . Squirtle being water type pokemon is only weak against grass and electric type pokemon . It is strong against Fire , Rock and Ground type pokemon and also defends well against water and ice type pokemon. Charmander being a fire type pokemon is weak against Ground , Rock and Water type pokemon but when it evolves to Charizard it becomes a Fire-Flying type pokemon and is strong against Grass , Ice and bug . Its also defends well against Fighting and Fire type pokemon. Squirtle being the starter with less number of weaknesses and super effective against more types when compared to the others, Squirtle wins this round.
WINNER : SQUIRTLE

ROUND 3 : MOVE SETS ( Note : These are based on the GEN 1 Movesets )
Charmander and its evolutions can learn a variety of moves ranging from fire type to dragon types including the Egg and TM moves . It can learn moves that belong to Ten different pokemon types including Normal , Fire , Dragon , Flying , Ghost , Dark , Psychic , Poison , Fighting and Steel . Squirtle and its evolutions can learn moves that belong to nine different pokemon types including water , normal , dark , fighting , dragon , ice , psychic , ground , and rock . I decided to exclude steel because the only steel move it can learn is Iron Defense . Bulbasaur and its evolutions can only learn moves of Five different Pokemon types like Grass , Poison , Psychic , Normal and Ghost . With the most number of moves that belong to different types , the winner of the round is Charmander.
WINNER : CHARMANDER

ROUND 4 : APPEARANCE
At first Charmander appears as a cute little lizard with fire glowing on its tail . It then evolves to Charmelon and we get to see the blazing part of the species . When it finally evolves to Charizard , it becomes a super cool fire breathing dragon which is one of the famous reasons why trainers choose charmander as their starter . Squirtle looks like super cute turtle and when it evolves to Wartortle its color slightly changes and the appearance of its tail and ears change. When it finally evolves into Blastoise , it looks like a beast with two large cannons which is intimidating enough for its opponents . Bulbasaur , as its pokedex entry states cant be considered either as a plant or an animal . With a cute bulb on its back everyone falls in love with it . When it evolves to Ivysaur , it's bulb grows to a bud with sepals and its skin tone changes . When it evolves into a Venasaur , the bud grows to a flower making it look like a tank . But after many and careful considerations I find charizard intimidating enough when compared to others.So winner of this match will be Charmander.

WINNER : CHARMANDER

So I can conclude that Charmander is best among all the starters when compared with different aspects . Note : These facts are based on my own opinions .

This is my first own thread . So please support it and feel free to leave ur comments and replies

Sources : http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokedex
http://www.ign.com/wikis/pokemon-red-blue-yellow-version
https://pokemondb.net/pokedex

Bulbasaur, no question. Charmander loses to the first two gyms, and it won't get a better Fire move than Ember until Lv46. It's also pretty much dead weight against Giovanni and the E4, and Fire isn't all that useful of a type in Gen 1, anyways. Steel doesn't exist, most Ice types are part-Water, and loads of other things beat Grass.

Squirtle's decent, but it makes getting past Lt. Surge harder, and picking it means giving up Starmie, Slowbro, or Lapras (who are better than Blastoise, IMO) later down the road.

Bulbasaur, on the other hand, rules the first two gyms and resists the third. Good bulk and access to moves like Leech Seed and Sleep Powder also let it play a useful support role later in the game. It also fares well against Giovanni, Lorelei, and Bruno, which is far more than can be said for Charmander's late game performance.

The original gen 1 starters are actually pretty interesting if you think about it:

Bulbasaur:
The starter for beginners. It's strong against the first two gyms giving the player an easy way into the games. Its main issues are that it loses its edge afterwards, being weak to a lot of gym leader that come afterwards. However, it also gets boosting moves in Swords Dance and Growth making it not completely useless.

Squirtle:
The middle Ground starter, basically your "normal" difficulty. It's strong against the first gym and decent against later gym leaders. It also gets access to moves like Ice Beam and Blizzard, allowing it to hit the other starters both for super effective damage. The downside is, it doesn't get options to boost its stats. Alongside with its mediocre offensive stats it's not as much of a powerhouse as the other two.

Charmander:
Your "hard" difficulty. It's weak against the first two gym leaders, but excells later on in the game. It also gets access to Swords Dance, giving it even more power, just remember that statboosts and critical hits don't stack on top of each other.

So yeah, if you want an easy time, pick Bulbasaur. Heck, even the game manual itself recommends it for beginners. If you want a challenge, then Charmander is your pick.

Bulbasaur is really weak in Gen 1 in terms of its stats. I usually prefer to go with Squirtle and catch an Oddish, Bellsprout or Paras, which are pretty readily available, in order to deal with Misty easily. I've never had a need for Charmander as I'd only really need it against Erika, and I almost always trade a Spearow for the Farfetch'd (my favorite Gen 1 Pokémon) in Vermellion City, so I don't really need a Fire-type to use in the Grass gym.

I will always prefer Charmander on this one, it's true that it's weak against the first gym leaders like Misty, but I usually get around this by catching a Pikachu in Viridian forest and some other Pokemon that are somewhat effective against them.
Also it requires a lot of patience when training him, but you'll have a pretty strong Pokemon later in the game and it will be useful especially when facing the E4.

I think I picked more based on how much I liked the design of the starter...

Squirtle was great, especially his evolved forms. Charmander was kinda boring to me, I mean he looks pretty cool and dragon like but I think I was just over dragons at the moment.

Bulbasaur looked unique to my eyes. His voice, his personality was a bit more chill.. each of his components vibed just right with me.

And then I learned that Bulba was considered the worst of the three! Maybe he's a beginners choice, but he's also got that underdog overlooked spunk.

Bulbasaur is life.

If any starter's considered the "worst," it's arguably Squirtle. This isn't because Squirtle is a bad Pokémon or is even the worst of its type, but because its type includes loads of other Pokémon who are more powerful and useful than Blastoise.

Starmie is lightning fast, has the (then) broken Psychic typing, and gets a moveset that basically lets it solo the last two gyms and E4. Then, there's Lapras, who has great bulk and power, STAB Ice in a gen where Ice is actually a good type, and a vast movepool that includes the "beam" attacks plus Body Slam and Confuse Ray. And, let's not forget Slowbro, who can abuse Amnesia's insanely broken mechanics in RBY, while also having a fairly large movepool.

Even others like Gyarados, Dewgong, and Cloyster arguably have more going for them than Blastoise. Gyarados had a solid Special Attack in RBY, got Thunderbolt, and had a powerful Body Slam, while the latter two reaped the benefits of STAB Ice Beam/Blizzard and slightly better stats before the Special stat was split.

Blastoise is still a far better Pokémon than the likes of Seaking or Seadra (who later got an evolution for a reason), and none of this matters if you truly love Squirtle's line, but there's countless other Water types I'd rather use instead of it.

Squirtle if you want to beat the game quicker. It dominates the first and last two gyms and resists the second one and one shots all of the Rock and Ground types you see in tunnels and caves.

However, if you want the starter with the best move set, Charmander. It learns Fire, Dragon, Flying (As Charizard, of course) and even Fighting types moves all at once, making it a far more useful attacking Pokemon than the other two (Charmander and evos really shouldn't be using defense moves anyway).

However, Bulbasaur's your mon if you want a better early game experience. Not only can he destroy Brock and Misty, but he can take what Surge throws at him and he, like Squirtle, can one shot those pesky Rock and Ground types you see in tunnels and caves.

Bulbasaur!

Yeah Squirtle resists many types & Charmander gains immunity to Ground Types (but open up a 4x to Rock Types), when it evolves to Charizard, but Bulbasaur is the one you should pick, if you're looking for a good all round Pokemon. You cannot go wrong with a Leech Seed, Sleep Powder & Sludge Bomb combo. Throw in an Earthquake & you have the (almost) perfect moveset.

Pika Pika :chu:

Bulbasaur is my go to starter.


It hits both Brock and Misty super-effectively, decimates Giovanni and, to an extent, Bruno. It can learn variety of things like EQ and Sludge Bomb and Leech Seed.

It's just sad it isn't as cool looking as Charmander or Squirtle.

Varys said:

Bulbasaur is my go to starter.


It hits both Brock and Misty super-effectively, decimates Giovanni and, to an extent, Bruno. It can learn variety of things like EQ and Sludge Bomb and Leech Seed.

It's just sad it isn't as cool looking as Charmander or Squirtle.

Click to expand...

Charmander, however, can learn a much wider variety of moves than Bulbasaur or Squirtle. Squirtle and Bulbasaur typically only have Water, Poison, Grass and Normal in their arsenals, which will only get you so far. Charry, on the other hand, can learn Fire, Ground, Dragon, Flying, Fighting and now even Rock and Steel moves, which allows it to be ready for anything.

Charmander is my go to starter. It looks cute at the start and awesome when it evolves into Charizard and has a great variety in its move pool. It has also been one of the most reliable Pokemon I have used. Plus the game is a lot more fun to play when it's a challenge. Also if you are gonna use the Gen 1 move sets then you need to use the Gen 1 stats. Which means Bublasaur does not get Sp.Def or Sp.Atk since they don't exist in RBY. Only later in their remakes as Fire Red and Leaf Green which are Gen 3 I believe? So the first thing should be redone.

Well if you truely want to play the game just to have fun your starter should be squirtle though I have used all of them still his final evolution Blastoise gets a badass design and really is capable to deal with grass types with ice beam and electrics with earthquakes so yeah go with it or like me dump any of your starter in the box and kick everypne by catching and evolving magicarp into a killing machine Gyarados...:D

IMO, it depends how you want the game to go. Take a look at the gym leaders you have coming. You start off against Brock, and Misty, both can be a grind for Charmander, eventhough he is a fan favourite. Squirtle is just an awesome Pokemon all together, but will have an easier start. Bulbasaur will run train on the starting gym leaders, but will have to deal with a lot of Fire Types later on.

Personal preference, Blastoise is just dope in design and hydro pump, but Venusaur is strong as heck too.

Bulbasaur
-has the highest average base stats of the trio
-destroys the first 2 gyms
There's (arguably) better water and fire types than Blastoise and Charizard later on, and by the time you get to any gym that Bulbasaur (and the evolution line) are weak against, you have more Pok?mon on your team that can take it down.
He needs more love honestly :(