5th Gen The Early Game of Black/White

[Zeostar]

I bought Pokemon White for the first time in December 2018. I remember realizing..."huh, this game didn't pick up in choices until the desert".

Are there any early game Pokemon from the original Black/White that you feel fond of?

I love bliztle, but even that starts to lose footing later on.

 

[giradialkia]

This is probably the single greatest shortcoming of these games. They've got such wonderful polish and are really fantastic, but the amount of Pokémon you can access before the first few gyms is laughable.

The fact is, the early-game Pokémon of Black and White are all fine in their own right, but... there's so few of them. Patrat, Lillipup, Pidove, is all we really get before the first badge (excluding the starters/elemental monkeys). I do like Pidove/Unfezant's design, but it suffers from a messy movepool and less-than-average stats. I love Stoutland's design, but to give it Sand Rush is such a niche choice, virtually pointless in the story mode.

Here's what we get in the other regions before Gym 1:
Kanto: Pidgey, Rattata, NidoranM/F, Mankey, Spearow, Caterpie, Weedle, Pikachu
Johto: Pidgey, Rattata, Sentret, Hoothoot, Caterpie, Weedle, Ledyba/Spinarak, Geodude, Zubat, Bellsprout, Growlithe, Gastly, Mareep (technically Wooper and Slugma too)
Hoenn: Zigzagoon, Wurmple, Poochyena, Wingull, Taillow, Seedot/Nuzleaf, Surskit, Ralts, Nincada, Shroomish, Skitty, Geodude, Whismur, Slakoth, and the optional Makuhita.
Sinnoh: Shinx, Bidoof, Starly, Psyduck, Machop, Geodude, Ponyta, Zubat, Budew, Abra, Magikarp...
(All off the top of my head, might've missed one or two)

To go from those, to the 3 available in BW, is truly wild. It does affect the replayability a bit, because the early game is.. not a grind, but a bit of a bore.

 

[Zeostar]

Thank you to the mod who moved this.

I legitimately forgot previous generations was still a forum. (I assumed it got merged for some reason).

 

[CoolKid575]

Lillipup is a solid choice, albeit kinda basic. I remember using it frequently in my White 2 runs. The rest (minus the starters) are typical early 'mon slop that fall off hard by the 4th badge.

 

[Zeostar]

Lillipup is a solid choice, albeit kinda basic. I remember using it frequently in my White 2 runs. The rest (minus the starters) are typical early 'mon slop that fall off hard by the 4th badge.

It's probably my least favorite group of starters.

Emboar is strange and ends up with lots of recoil damage moves. Serperior has lots of typical grass type issues. Samurott has grown on me a little though.

 

[Palamon]

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying because there were a lot of Pokemon you could catch in the early game of Gen 5, unlike Gen 3. From Unova specifically, Lillipup was fun to use, despite how boring Herdier is.

 

[Zeostar]

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying because there were a lot of Pokemon you could catch in the early game of Gen 5, unlike Gen 3. From Unova specifically, Lillipup was fun to use, despite how boring Herdier is.

Perhaps that comes down to how you define the early game. Which I purposely leave open to interpretation. Before the first gym, there objectively is not. (Patrat, Lillipup, Pidove, one of the monkeys).

It opens up a little bit beyond that. Although part of this post is also questioning what can be placed into a party with long term stability, and not simply asking about everything that can be captured.

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

I am defining the early game before the Desert Resort....


I remember getting Venipede from Pinwheel forest. Scolipede was staple of my gen-V team, as it possessed really high speed and nice stat spreads. I usually start very slow in every game, and possible finish the early gyms with 2-3 Pokemon only, hence I am always behind in Pokedex things !!

 

[Alpawca]

I love BW to bits and have played it probably around 5+ times all the way through with different teams, and I honestly agree. I have a team planned for this year's playthrough and most of my Pokémon will come after the Desert Resort save for Scolipede. There's also some Pokémon that I wish were easier to get earlier on, especially Water-types like Alomomola and Jellicent. I feel like it'd be fun to use a Pokémon like Heatmor too, but you have to wait right up until Victory Road for it sadly. ^^; Still, I love this game's dex, and there are still some cool early game options like Drilbur who I've used before!

 

[ReKoil]

Purrloin is the only one coming to mind.
And a bit later in Venipede in the forest area.

The Lillipup line has grown on me much later on, but I was not fond of it during the BW1 playthrough.

 

[ThomasWinwood]

I am defining the early game before the Desert Resort...

The Desert Resort is after the third gym. If you'd said Route 4 that would be more reasonable (you can catch Pokémon there before fighting Burgh).

It's hard for me to not use Drilbur in Black and White, given you can get it almost immediately after the first gym. It's good from the moment you get it, and it just gets better. Gen 5 Excadrill is completely busted.

 

[Delta Crowned Sword]

The Desert Resort is after the third gym. If you'd said Route 4 that would be more reasonable (you can catch Pokémon there before fighting Burgh).

It's hard for me to not use Drilbur in Black and White, given you can get it almost immediately after the first gym. It's good from the moment you get it, and it just gets better. Gen 5 Excadrill is completely busted.

Thanks 😊.

Though that doesn't affects my early game in any way because I don't catch Pokémon a lot as written in the post which was quoted by you. Only 2-3 Pokémon are used by me for first few gyms.