How do you choose starters?

[Duck]

Are you a type loyalist or do you check which type is harder to find in the game?

Do you pick purely on aesthetics? If so basic form only or do you consider middle evolution and fully evolved too?

Or maybe you pick at random using the last digit of the trainer card?

 

[Devalue]

Decides based on the aesthetics of the base form for blind playthroughs. Accounts for past starters as well, though. Shies away from Fire. Dislikes how they turn out. Favors Water, in general.

Picks based on the final form for repeat playthroughs, when allowed. Chooses with a random number generator otherwise. Usually pulled one up for the gender and skin tone choice anyways.

 

[Orion☆]

When choosing a starter, I usually consider the entire line beforehand; I can usually predict from the base form which one I'll like the most, however, so I rarely change my opinion from reveal to release. I don't really favor a type consciously, but I do tend to gravitate towards Fire and Water starters due to their designs and inspirations.

Additionally, the starters I pick on my first playthrough don't always remain my favourites for that region. For example...
-I picked Torchic the first time I played Ruby, but in Emerald I went with my current favourite Mudkip, and then picked Mudkip again in Alpha Sapphire.
-I started my first run of Diamond with Turtwig, but because I didn't like Grotle that much, I picked Piplup when I started over. To this day, the Piplup line remains among the few Sinnoh Pokémon I still tolerate.
-The Kanto starters are fine and Squirtle is my favourite of the three, but I much prefer starting off with Pikachu.
-I chose Snivy in both Black and Black 2, but seeing how much I like the Oshawott line now, I really wish I'd picked the latter instead. Maybe one day...

Conversely, sometimes I have a favourite starter and using another one doesn't work out as well, as in...
-Johto, where I gave Totodile a try after playing through with Cyndaquil. He was useful, but I couldn't get attached to him the same way I did with my little fiery baby.
-Hoenn again, where I started two re-runs of Alpha Sapphire with Treecko and Torchic and never finished either of them. (Bonus: I don't think I'll ever use the Treecko line again - it brings bad memories.)
-Alola, where I picked Rowlet for my Ghost monotype run. Again, Decidueye was fine, but I really missed my big wrestler kitteh Incineroar.

 

[Sheep]

Aesthetics! I consider the first and last form usually, since the first stage will be my first Pokémon to use in a game and the last is what I'll see most often. I want to make sure I like those two enough to keep the line around longterm. In the end probably the final form matters most though, since it's what I'll spend the bulk of my playtime using.

Using a type that's rare makes sense, especially in the case of fire types in DP and Chimchar, but I just can't pick based on something like that alone - I need my cute or cool Pokémon I like enough. <3

 

[Corveone]

I rarely build my team around a starter anymore. I prefer choosing one or two Pokémon I like and seem interesting to have from that region and build a team around them instead. I check starters' final stages designs, typings and stats, and if none of them convince me or look like it could fit on my team, then I just pick anyone and box it when I can catch something else. In Shield, Black 2, and Omega Ruby, for instance, I had no starter.

If I do intend keeping a starter, I typically go with either Grass or Fire, because if I want a strong Water type I know in the late game there will be a lot more options to choose from. Finding good Grass and Fire types is usually more difficult so that makes the Water starters less valuable to me.

 

[ReKoil]

On a first playthrough I just pick the one I like most.
Repeat playthroughs I'll try to use the one I've used the least, unless I really dislike that mon.

I rarely look up stuff before hand as I prefer to go into a new region completely blind and just wing it.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

I always choose the water type. It's often a coincidence but it also happen to be the starter I like the most lol. I also always keep the water starter in my team and I generally try not to use fire types, because idk there's some sort of inner rivalry with them lol. They also are the ones I often like less. I often like grass type starters as well, but in the end I always prefer water type starters ahah.

 

[Roni]

Pure aesthetics. All starters these days have a pretty good stat spread & move pool anyway, so I've removed those as factors :p

 

[Belly]

I pick starters based on the gyms leaders Pokémon weakness towards the end of the game

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I pick my starters based on which one I feel would be the best for an in-game playthrough. Just as Pokémon are better at battling than others, some Pokémon are inherently better than others for making your main story playthrough easier and/or more fun. For instance, I picked Bulbasaur in the generation I game remakes because it beats Brock and Misty and resists Lt. Surge. It can also learn the HM move Cut right off the bat. In the first game I played however, Pokémon Black, I picked Snivy because I thought it was not only the cutest the starter, but also because I looked up its hidden ability Contrary and thought it would be super fun for a playthrough. Of course, hidden abilities weren't available to starters then, but you could still unlock them with cheats, so I used an Action Replay at the time to do it and had a ton of fun with the Contrary Snivy line. It was just so fun seeing Pokémon using Growl and boosting my Attack and/or Sand-Attack and boosting my accuracy. I made sure to turn off all cheats when playing competitively however.

In the generation VI games, I also went by hidden abilities. I actually took the time to breed my starters and boxed the original ones in favor of the starters I bred with their hidden abilities. Thus, I chose Froakie because I thought Protean would be great, and it was. In the generation VII games, I chose Rowlet because I considered the likelihood to land critical hits in battle. I knew that the Rowlet line learned Leaf Blade at some point, which has an increased critical hit ratio. However, the affection system when maxed also boosts critical hit ratio as well. Thus, when I maxed Decidueye's affection, gave it a Scope Lens that I got early in the game, and had it use Leaf Blade, literally every attack was a critical hit and Decidueye KOed everything, making my playthroughs much easier. I chose Sobble mainly for the same exact reasons I chose Rowlet. However, unlike Rowlet, Sobble was designed strictly to be a critical hitter because of its Sniper hidden ability, Inteleon's signature move Snipe Shot, and ability to learn Focus Energy. This time, I didn't have to breed Sobble thankfully.

I had early access to an Ability Patch through Discord trade, which a contact was kind enough to give me for a Sword exclusive. Thus, I had a Sniper Sobble quite early and with Focus Energy combined with the ability Sniper, max friendship, and Snipe Shot, Inteleon literally KOed everything with a critical hit with one Snipe Shot. However, in the other generations, my process was slightly different. For instance, in the generation IV remakes, I picked Totodile because I felt Feraligatr was the best Pokémon statistically between the others, and in the mainline games, I chose Piplup because I thought Empoleon's Water/Steel was a great typing. In generation III, I picked Torchic simply because I thought it was adorable, but Blaziken turned out to be great anyway. In the generation VI remakes, I picked Torchic again not only because it was cute, but because of its hidden ability Speed Boost, which I bred for. For the upcoming games, I am going to wait for more information to come out and choose my starter based on its hidden ability, stats, and movepool to see which starter is better for an in-game playthrough.

 

[Fact Checking Gardevoir]

I choose them based on how much I like their visual look.

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

Water starter supremacy unless your piplup, then its turtwig

 

[Zed01]

I pick them based on the design of the final evolution. Over the generations my favorite designs were almost always Grass types with a couple of generations where Water type was my favorite. Still never had a generation where my favorite was a Fire type starter but I'm hoping that this generation will be different since I think Fuecoco has a potential to evolve into something super cool and unique.

 

[RealPokeSwapper]

I mostly play pokemon with Nuzlocke rules. So picking the starter is always a mystery.

 

[Lysander]

I usually just pick whichever starter I like the look of the most at the time, except for when I'm playing Diamond or Pearl in which case I always pick Chimchar by default

 

[Latios]

I usually go for the starter that I like the best, but if i'm playing through a game again after a while, I usually mix it up and try a different one. I used to always choose fire types, but then generation 5 came around, and I went with Snivy

 

[Fairy]

I just go with what I feel in the moment, honestly! Sometimes it's determined by aesthetics, sometimes what I know would be advantageous during gameplay, and sometimes I pick the one I haven't used yet just cause. Though I know I'll play favorites for a Fairy type, lol.

 

[Amore]

First playthrough I always go for aesthetics. Gen III and IV I knew very little - Torchic because I had a TCG one, Charmander likewise, Piplup because its a penguin...Cyndaquil because it was the cutest (although only the 2nd best final evo, sadly). Gen V I knew what the starters' final formes looked like, luckily Samurott is badass because Fire/Fighting had been done to death and I hate snakes!

When it came to rejoining Pokémon with SwSh, final evolutions again came into play - Rillaboom was the only one I liked (and I didn't like any of the middle stages). If they show the final evolutions of the SV starters that'll be a deciding factor too.

I use a different starter every time I play, however so eventually I'll use them all - so far Meganium is the only one where it didn't see out the entire storyline, as I swapped it for my Extremespeed Dratini back when that was a rarity. It was the back sprite that did it really though, it looked like it was crying!

 

[I-read-the-book]

To be honest... I go off of impulse, every time, and so far I've always had a fire starter, with the notable exceptions of Popplio and Squirtle. Torchic and Scorbunny claimed my heart pretty quickly, what with Torchic being my first starter ever, chosen because cute, and Scorbunny just being his spunky self.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

To be honest... I go off of impulse, every time, and so far I've always had a fire starter, with the notable exceptions of Popplio and Squirtle. Torchic and Scorbunny claimed my heart pretty quickly, what with Torchic being my first starter ever, chosen because cute, and Scorbunny just being his spunky self.

Torchic is just the cutest little thing