"Secondary Starter Pokémon": Because 2nd Place Is Still Impressive

[bdt2002]

Recently I've found myself quite fixated with the idea and mechanics of the Starter Pokémon, having recently made a thread about them, multiple posts in various places, and I've even found myself researching what other type triangles for Starter Pokémon could somewhat realistically exist the iconic Grass/Fire/Water triangle. My research led me to realize something else, though- there's a surprising amount of non-Starter Pokémon that have become staples of in-game playthroughs for a multitude of reasons. It's Pokémon like these that I wanted to discuss in this thread: the ones I've seen referred to as "secondary" Starter Pokémon elsewhere on the Internet.



Unlike true-blood Starters, there is no consensus definition for what would count as a secondary Starter Pokémon for an in-game playthrough. The closest thing I can find to a consensus definition would include any three-stage evolutionary line obtained during the early parts of a playthrough and is often the second member of the player's final team that they'll obtain after, of course, their real Starter. Ampharos, Gardevoir, Staraptor, and Luxray are probably the four most well-known cases of something like this. Their evolution levels tend to fall right around what you could expect from an actual Starter Pokémon (Starly in particular actually shares both of its evolution levels with the Chimchar line, and Croconaw, Flaaffy, and Luxio all evolve at Level 30), and with the exception of Mareep's absence from Pokémon Crystal, none of these four are version exclusives or have anything getting the way of accessibility.



These two Pokémon from Kanto are a good idea of something that might feel like secondary Starter Pokémon but don't tend to be in the same kinds of discussion as those other four. All three of the Bulbasaur, Oddish, and Bellsprout lines have a lot in common with each other by intentional design, and one could be forgiven for wanting to use Oddish or Bellsprout especially if they did not choose Bulbasaur at the start of the game. That all makes sense. And yet, Oddish and Bellsprout's shared evolution level of 21 is arguably just a bit too late, being one level later than Ralts into Kirlia at 20, but the inevitable Leaf Stone requirement and their version exclusivity unfortunately killed their shots at being secondary Starter Pokémon before they even had a chance to make an argument otherwise.

I'm very interested to see what you guys think about this thread idea I had. Do you have any other ideas for Pokémon you could picture in this kind of group? Which Pokémon of this kind of discussion have you had a chance to use in playthroughs before? And do you have your own definition for this kind of thing? Only time will tell, really. The only thing I can say for absolute certain is that a lot of these seem to consist of the regional bird Pokémon...

 

[Ironmage]

Since my first game was PMD Blue, I'd probably include both Magnemite and Absol from all versions of Rescue Team. Both are forced joins, with Magnemite being the introduction to mons besides the player and partner while Absol's position in the plot means it has enough levels to be relevant in Magma Cavern and Sky Tower when the majority of main-story mons won't be.

The speedrun choice when it isn't a formal starter is probably worth mentioning here as well. My understanding is it's Nidoking for gen 1 and Hawlucha in several recent games, but I'm not super familiar with the scene.

I think Grubbin might also be noteworthy. The first encounter after getting balls in USUM appears to be fixed as a level 4 grubbin, apparently outside both the species and level range for that particular patch of grass. Though it might end up closer to the BW monkeys, where nearly everybody gets it but few actually keep it.

 

[bdt2002]

Since my first game was PMD Blue, I'd probably include both Magnemite and Absol from all versions of Rescue Team. Both are forced joins, with Magnemite being the introduction to mons besides the player and partner while Absol's position in the plot means it has enough levels to be relevant in Magma Cavern and Sky Tower when the majority of main-story mons won't be.

The speedrun choice when it isn't a formal starter is probably worth mentioning here as well. My understanding is it's Nidoking for gen 1 and Hawlucha in several recent games, but I'm not super familiar with the scene.

I think Grubbin might also be noteworthy. The first encounter after getting balls in USUM appears to be fixed as a level 4 grubbin, apparently outside both the species and level range for that particular patch of grass. Though it might end up closer to the BW monkeys, where nearly everybody gets it but few actually keep it.

A few things here:

• I misread the Grubbin part as “Gulpin” and got really confused for a second, lol
• I feel like the monkeys have enough people dislike and/or box them to where I personally don’t count them as secondary starters. Unova 1’s secondary starters to me were always Lillipup, Pidove, and while it’s later than I’d like for this list, Sandile due to Krookodile’s high popularity.
• Magnemite works as a secondary starter for a few other games too, specifically Unova 2 and the Alola games coming to mind. It evolves very late for such a nomination but Magneton was originally a fully evolved Pokémon so I can give it some grace.

 

[Codraroll]

Lillipup is definitely up there. It's one of the first Pokémon you encounter after obtaining your starter. I think it definitely was designed to remain a useful team member throughout the entire game. It evolves twice by level, at levels 16 and 32. Unlike the early-game birds, bugs, and rodents (and for that matter, the elemental monkeys), the Lillipup line generally stays aligned with the game's power curve and may stick with you all the way to the Elite Four. Its stats are somewhat lower than the starter's, but it has useful abilities and learns an array of quite usable moves. It is also nearly mandatory to use to get past the first Gym, unless you want to use the monkeys for some reason. It may be slightly on the weaker side towards the end of the game, and may actually be intended to be ditched for one of the really late-evolving Unova 'mons (it may very well be the weakest member of your team right when Deino becomes available ...), but by then you've formed enough of an emotional attachment to it to keep it to the end.

 

[Karxrida]

It's Pokémon like these that I wanted to discuss in this thread: the ones I've seen referred to as "secondary" Starter Pokémon elsewhere on the Internet.

I have never heard this before outside of XY literally giving you a second set of starters to choose from. Horrible name if it is a thing because it implies some sort of mutually exclusive options being presented, which has only really happened with a couple fossils. Doubly so since some of these Pokémon are caught regardless of what starter you do choose (see Starly). "Staples" is a far more intuitive name.

Regardless, the topic is fairly interesting. Whether by design or happenstance, players universally gravitate to some highly specific mons in each generation for their playthroughs. Even if you didn't pick up an Abra in GSC or tried out every starter, you've probably used Mareep just about every time you've played.

These Pokémon tend to have a lot of things in common:

• Extremely early availability. At or around the first Gym typically.
• Immediately useful in battle. Outside of like Ralts I guess.
• They either fulfill a specific team niche that's hard to plug (e.g. Mareep is one of the only Electric-types in Johto) or they're the among the best for said niche (e.g. Starly is the best Flying-type in Sinnoh by a mile). Typically said niche is also valuable.
• They remain a solid option for pretty much the entire game due to good stats and/or movepools and their stats staying on pace with the difficulty curve. This usually means evolving once or twice and at decent points for much needed power spikes.

 

[R_N]

Eclectic typings + reasonable good + pretty/cute/cool designs + you dont have to put in a lot of extra leg work.

Electric & Psychic are not very common early game, the designs of the entire Mareep, Ralts & Shinx lines are good to great depending on your preference, while they may not be stellar they are good enough for what you want and they all evolve by level up at relatively reasonable parts of your journey. Starly gets 3 out of 4 and makes up for the typing by being very good to use. Ralts isnt very good on its own but you get tricked into it due to the typing and magikarp-esque promise of evolution.

Zooming in on Gen 3, Seedot & Lotad only get like one or two of those and are big loads to carry around, with extra work of acquiring their final forms in particular being annoying. They never stood a chance. Meanwhile Shroomish might be able to make an argument, as its much more immediately usable and evolves into a quirky and continued useful evolution in a reasonable manner that still holds up the whole game.

I feel like Stoutland SHOULD be here, but anecdotally I don't know many people who stuck to using it. I think this is less on the Pokemon itself and more the context of the early game meaning you just see so much of it and its compatriots so people start gravitating towards the increasingly more eclectic options.

After gen 5 (arguably even during Gen 5, BW2's got quit the early game variety) I think the idea kinda-sorta fades away just because they got better at both general Pokemon quality and general variety. You're rarely lacking for choice for very long be it in quality, typing, design, whatever floats your boat (except ice types (and even then SWSH has you covered)). Like I used a team in SWSH primarily composed of pre-wild area dweebs (starter, corviknight, orbeetle, drednaw, boltund) but I know a lot of people who didn't use any of them because you had so much to choose from.

 

[Mex]

Frankly, I feel a lot of the time, the regional bird mon fits this mold pretty well. Available early (pre-second gym is the latest I can think of, with most of them being route 1), often 3 stages (Noctowl, Swellow and Kilowattrel being exceptions). Staraptor is when they peak, with it having a useful ability and Close Combat being a really interesting coverage move to have, while Talonflame and Kilowattrel have the differing types to try to incentivise them more.

I also don't think a somewhat unusual evolution method is enough to disqualify a mon from the list, something like Oddish or Bellsprout, especially in Let's Go where they're practically required catches due to Brock's gym requirement, fits pretty reasonably to me, even with the Leaf Stone evolution for the final stage compared to just being by level.

I'd also nominate either Lucario or Azumarill for Black and White 2, both are available pre-first gym in Floccessy Ranch, Riolu being the only mon to be capable of dealing SE damage to the entire first gym is a notable attractor for them, which the game notes itself in the Trainer School. They don't evolve similarly to starters at all, both being friendship evolutions to start with, while Marill then evolves at lv18 which is when Totodile evolves into Croconaw, but Azumarill having Huge Power is enough of a draw that makes it work out anyway to me. I just got done with a run of the game where I used Azumarill in place of any of the starters, and it did quite well for me, so that might be causing some bias, but idk.

 

[pika pal]

Frankly, I feel a lot of the time, the regional bird mon fits this mold pretty well. Available early (pre-second gym is the latest I can think of, with most of them being route 1), often 3 stages (Noctowl, Swellow and Kilowattrel being exceptions). Staraptor is when they peak, with it having a useful ability and Close Combat being a really interesting coverage move to have, while Talonflame and Kilowattrel have the differing types to try to incentivise them more.

I also don't think a somewhat unusual evolution method is enough to disqualify a mon from the list, something like Oddish or Bellsprout, especially in Let's Go where they're practically required catches due to Brock's gym requirement, fits pretty reasonably to me, even with the Leaf Stone evolution for the final stage compared to just being by level.

I'd also nominate either Lucario or Azumarill for Black and White 2, both are available pre-first gym in Floccessy Ranch, Riolu being the only mon to be capable of dealing SE damage to the entire first gym is a notable attractor for them, which the game notes itself in the Trainer School. They don't evolve similarly to starters at all, both being friendship evolutions to start with, while Marill then evolves at lv18 which is when Totodile evolves into Croconaw, but Azumarill having Huge Power is enough of a draw that makes it work out anyway to me. I just got done with a run of the game where I used Azumarill in place of any of the starters, and it did quite well for me, so that might be causing some bias, but idk.

The only hiccup I have with using Azumarill is that it needs Huge Power to be particularly spectacular, so catching it early game potentially multiple times for an ability roll is a mild detour compared to several examples that work regardless of what they get/only have one ability.

One thing I tend to run into is one of these would-be staple mons affecting the version I want to play. I prefer Black 2 over White 2 because Magby > Elekid for early fire access, and the latter is redundant with the also-easy-choice in Magnemite that appears in both versions vs Growlithe who is a sidegrade to Magby due to Stone Evo Movepool.

I also tend to gravitate towards Pokemon with good offensive coverage into the early game since it helps them snowball quickly, and several popular choices line up: Starly gets Wing Attack quick for bug and grass fodder; Fire and Fighting types fare well into the Normal and Bug com mons (which for me means things like Breloom, Talonflame in XY as a better Route 1 Bird, Tauros in SV was neat). I have some staple mons that come a little later like Darumaka/Sandile in BW being in the 3-4 Gym route transition, but I still think it fits some significant marks for me in that it's a mon that fills a strong role on the team and requires next to no work to on-board relative to how much it contributes.

 

[MegaFlareon]

Pidgeot in Kanto is the first one that came to my mind.
-Can be caught really early in Route 1
-Evolves in levels similar to the starters (Level 18 then Level 36)
-Provides useful utility in Fly as a reason to be used throughout the game
-Your Rival also uses it along with his starter all throughout the game (except in FRLG rematch). It also became Blue's ace in the Johto games in the absence of the Kanto starter in his team.

 

[R_N]

I'd also nominate either Lucario or Azumarill for Black and White 2, both are available pre-first gym in Floccessy Ranch, Riolu being the only mon to be capable of dealing SE damage to the entire first gym is a notable attractor for them, which the game notes itself in the Trainer School.

Which is funny because while every one immediately assumes this to be true....It gets Force Palm at level 15. Cheren's highest leveled Pokemon is 13. Most players aren't grinding that much! There is Counter but that'sssssss not really super effective, per say.
I'm sure people keep it on their teams because Lucario Cool though

 

[Gex Maniac]

This thread is super interesting, so I'll add my own two cents, despite not being someone who replays Pokémon games a lot and prefers to just have a save file that goes on forever.

The first Pokémon that could fit this archetype that comes to my mind is a favorite of mine among the original 151 - Nidoking.

Nidoking is fantastic, no matter which iteration of Kanto you go through. I won't go through the the age-old song and dance of it being something you can fully evolve as early as Mt. Moon, because most of us already know this, but it's a Pokémon that's almost too good to me to not pick up on a gen 1 or FRLG replay every time.
Sure, its stats are nothing to write home about, but it's not like stats matter all that much in a playthrough.

You can get a Nidoran-♂ pretty much as soon as you obtain Poké Balls, and while it won't wreck Brock as much as something like a Mankey or Metal Claw Charmander would, it quickly becomes your most powerful teammate for a good chunk of the early- and midgame right after the 1st badge.

I like to combine this guy with Squirtle, because it blanks Electric-type moves and is neutral to Grass-type attacks, meanwhile Squirtle takes the Water- and Ice-type attacks that Nidoking hates.

Nidoking is also a great safety net to fall back on, especially if you teach it Mega Punch before Cerulean City. Anytime I end up in trouble, the king comes in to punch the opponent through a wall, assuming it hits.
Its TM learnset with STAB Earthquake is also nothing to scoff at, though pretty much any gen 1 mon has an insane list of good TMs that it learns.

All in all, I really like Nidoking and pretty much always choose him in a playthrough. That's my pick for a 2nd starter Pokémon.

 

[mertyville]

As a repeated Pokemon Colosseum player, I want to give some representation for these Pokemon, who technically are starters because you decide which one you get. Tho technically they aren't because you have 2 Pokemon as your companions aka. starters:

Depending on what you value for your in-game run the opinion probably changes. You have options besides Bayleaf for catching Pokemon of your opponent with status spreading like Noctowl and Skibloom. Quilava might be the one that hits the hardest due to single targeting STAB moves and if you pick that you get Charcoal for another Fire Pokemon like Entei. Croco (man, I cannot spell its name because I never mention it) comes with Mystic Water for your Water option if you choose not to use it. It has the earliest evolution level on top of that.


If we don't count the ones before, your other 'Starter' options would be these fools. Status spreading options in Skipploom, Noctowl and Flaaffy. Flaafy might be the most popular option due to T-bolt and likely immediate evolution on purification. Skiploom is just annoying. Noctowl might be the worst option but maybe it has 'niche' uses for Nuzlocks.
Makuhita has 100% catchrate but I don't know. Never used it for some reason. Misdreavus is hilariously overpowered due to the AI having nothing to do against it (also Spell Tag for that STAB Shadow Ball). Quagsire is my personal favorite when I go for softresetting Entei. Just grind for EQ and get rid of all of Dakims annoying Pokemon. Also it has good typing.
Your last option is... Slugma...