"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...

 

[bdt2002]

There’s another Pokémon courtesy of the Unova games, specifically in Black & White 1, that I also wanted to mention:



It’s no secret that many Unova Pokémon are or at least feel like newer takes on older Pokémon, but what sets Tympole’s evolution family apart is that it seems to borrow traits from multiple other Pokémon simultaneously. That is to say, it starts out life as Unova’s answer to Poliwag before pivoting into Unova’s take on the Mudkip family, specifically the later stages. Tympole’s evolution at Level 25 does mean it takes a little bit longer to get going compared to Dewott or the Simpour you’ll have access to by that point if you chose Snivy at the start of the game, but you should be able to get the Ground-Type Palpitoad by the time you reach Elesa’s Gym Battle and from there it’s actually pretty solid for the rest of the game by Unova 1’s more limited PokéDex roster standards. Swampert famously has the whole “no Grass Gym” thing going on but the Tympole family also has this and while it’s obviously not going to be as strong as Mudkip is in Hoenn, I think I honestly like Tympole more than Oshawott as a Water-Type option in this game specifically.

 

[Pale Rose Star]

aw man, I had no idea other people did this! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I don't always see it discussed. This has been a tradition of mine for a long time XD

For me, what defines this is literally just choice. I think some mons are more clearly meant to be, like Eevee in RBY, but ultimately? These games aren't hard enough that you can't choose. I think it's clear you aren't meant to be just using your starter, but whoever you want to complement them. So I think as a true concept, it's hard to say who would be what, if it even exists. But regardless I'm gonna ramble about my choices :3 (im so sorry in advance)

My first games, I didn't 100% follow the idea. I had a full party oftentimes with mons who got similar attention. When I looked at my old Platinum save file in 2019 and decided to spend some time in that world again though... all those guys were already level 100 or close. I wanted to start a bit anew. I chose my Gengar traded to me, Haunty. I used Raptor the Staraptor alongside her, who I had neglected for a while in favor of Vampire the Crobat. I don't think these 100% count for the idea though. There were a few others but I can't remember off the top of my head.

My first true time doing this was when this asshole from middle school deleted my Black 2 save file out of jealousy (fuck you rohan i know it was you). After a few years mourning my loss, I tried again during the pandemic.

Lugh, who I named after the mvp of my Binding Blade run around the same time. Lugh was the partner to my Samurott Josuke, and honestly felt more like the main starter at times. For post-game content, I had many mons, but the most prominent was Scor the Gliscor. (new name ideas welcome please)

For my next game, a run of Diamond, I ran Lala the Alakazam to complement Sora the Empoleon. I traded her over from my aforementioned childhood Platinum save, also holding a copy of the Ice Beam TM for Sora, and well... yeah she kind of swept the game lol alongside Sora. Is there ever a game where Alakazam isn't good?

...likewise with Excadrill XD is there ever a time where this mon doesn't rule the game? Wilma the Drilbur, turned quickly into Excadrill, since for male Drilburs I usually name them Wilbur. This one "complemented" Winry the Emboar, and by that I mean basically replaced and the Emboar was secondary. I also ran a Sigilyph, Psy-Fly, who in retrospect maybe naming a name that started with a W would've completed the trio of Ws.

For Violet the choice was clear since the game was launched, and that was my Ceruledge whose name I don't remember off the top of my head b/c its been a while (iirc was an FE or FF char, probably Roy bc Roy Mustang) to go with Yami Yugi the Meowscarada. This basically dictated my entire run, since I wanted to get to where I could catch a Charcadet and find the Malicious Armor ASAP. I think it benefitted from that because that was definitely a "harder" run than intended. I also found Gardevoir on the way b/c I got lost in the mountains (I forgot her name as well oops, maybe Usagi or maybe Madoka?).

Finally, Ruby. This was a game I had as a kid, and lost the cartridge to. I later on bought it when I had an adult job and such. I knew I was going with Mizuno the Swampert, and what did I choose but... Gardevoir, again, though this time I named her Usagi b/c this was a Sailor Moon naming scheme. I also really wanted to try using a Pikachu with a Light Ball. It didn't take that long to find, but wow that sucked. Going with the theme, I named her Makoto.


and there you have it! Thanks for reading my lil trip down memory lane if you got to the end (or if you skipped, read it all ). I plan on doing a LeafGreen run, and I think I'm gonna go with Charmander and then Clefairy as my secondary :3

 

[Eriorguez]

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.

Spearow hits harder than PIDGEOTTO and is fully evolved 2 levels after Pidgey evolves; never really used Pidgey when Spearow is right there as a plain superior option.

The Nidoran line is the better Kanto example IMO.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I'm kind of stuck on the idea of what a "secondary starter" really is, tbh. People have posited some good examples, but IMO there's a big difference between "this is a strong Pokemon available comparatively early-on" (of which there are many) and a Pokemon the game actively positions as a backup or alternative starter (of which there are few). There are quite literal examples of "secondary starters", most obviously in XY, in that they're Pokemon the game pushes into your arms and basically tells you to use. Outside of that nothing in the games explicitly tells you one Pokemon is more worthy of your time than any other (outside of instances where an NPC might say "I need a Grass-type Pokemon if I'm to have a hope of defeating [gym leader]" or something.


Some thoughts off the top of my head for various titles:

Kanto

It's Eevee. Well, kind of. Even though it comes relatively late, in the RBY games Eevee is potentially something of a clutch mon as it's a cheap and easy way to add a strong Fire- or Electric-type to your team, both of which are fairly elusive and likely something a lot of players will be missing (the same can't really be said of Water, though at the point in the game at which Eevee is obtained there's still many Water-types the player won't yet have encountered). Despite being a 2-stage line it's comparable to first-stage starters in terms of stats, which is why it's been used as an actual starter in some titles.

Honourable mention goes to Pidgey for all the reasons MegaFlareon noted: it's one of the few early-game rodent/bird lines to be a three-stage line and has a very similar evolutionary pattern to actual starter Pokemon. It's built to be a dependable option and it absolutely is.

Pikachu is in a funny mid-ground of being a Pokemon that's not quite in the same boat as the former two examples - it's a useful and powerful Pokemon found very early on, but one that's extremely easy to miss - that later became an actual starter in Yellow. So it's not one that really counts, and in most of the other games it's found in comes way too late to ever be a viable secondary starter: in Johto it's post-Elite Four unless you hatch a Pichu from the Odd Egg in Crystal, in Hoenn it's in the Safari Zone, in Sinnoh it's solidly midgame, in Unova it's not there at all. Ironically of course Kanto makes its own actual starters secondary starters in both Yellow and LGPE, since you start with other Pokemon.

Johto

I'm not really convinced there is one for Johto. In large part this is because Johto shares so much with Kanto, so both Eevee and Pidgey reprise their roles from RBY - even being available in the same manner at pretty much exactly the same stages of both games.

I mean, yeah, sure, Mareep too. But it's not encountered quite as early on as a lot of other Pokemon (in the originals at least - HGSS made it possible to catch before the first badge) and it wasn't really pushed that hard in GSC; infamously, it's not even available in Crystal. It's certainly a crutch option in those games, but I don't really consider it a secondary starter to the same degree as Eevee or Pidgey.

Hoenn

As others have mentioned, Ralts is this to a certain extent in RSE. Despite being miserably hard to find on a single route, it features in an unskippable cutscene so it's one players actually know to look for. It's arguable how much that's RSE really pushing it at you though - I can imagine some people not wanting to use a Pokemon their rival is using, while others won't care about that and will want to use it anyway.

It's not exactly a Pokemon you'll fall back on in the earlygame though as it's incredibly weak compared to comparable Pokemon, but obviously it gets better as it evolves and definitely rewards the effort spent on it. Three-stage lines can often feel the most rewarding to raise up and it strikes a good balance in terms of when it evolves - 30 is relatively early for Hoenn, but it's just late enough that it won't dominate the game once it's fully-evolved.

And yet it's just a bit too niche for it to feel like a secondary starter really. The fact that it's so rare means a lot of players won't end up using it and it's weak enough that a good amount of people may have junked it out of frustration. Emerald even has an in-game trader requesting Ralts so I guarantee there were some players who traded theirs away.

In the remakes, Steven's Beldum, if you got the event distribution, is set up as the perfect secondary starter (it's even got Hold Back for extra in-game utility). I actually completely missed this distribution initially, but if I ever play through ORAS again I'm absolutely using it.


Sinnoh

I mean yeah, Starly and Shinx. I don't think there's much that hasn't been said about these two, but imo they're both very much in the "this is a strong Pokemon available comparatively early on" camp, not the "secondary starter" camp. But Sinnoh's roster is so limited there's not a lot else that really applies. It's interesting Budew isn't talked about much in the same vein as Starly and Shinx because it's another three-stage line available very early that's extremely good once fully evolved, and is even a Grass-type so is the natural option if you didn't pick Turtwig. I guess it's just less attractive in its base form since, as a baby Pokemon, it's not as immediately powerful as Starly and Shinx can be.


Unova

I mean this one's a gimme. The game literally could not do more to position these three as secondary starters if it tried. Cheren and Bianca both use one, the trio is used repeatedly in various instances throughout the games. It's just that, uh... not many people liked them. That doesn't change the fact that they very much are actual and literal secondary starter Pokemon, though. They even get Overgrow, Blaze, and Torrent as their Hidden Abilities for god's sake. Nothing else in Unova comes anywhere close to having a claim to "secondary starter" status than these.

Kalos

Not a Kalos Pokemon, obviously, but I don't think there's much of a better example than this one. The game does just about everything it can to force you to take it and use it. In a way that's very, very cringe, but that's a conversation for another day.

Speaking of cringe things the game forces on you, Kalos, of course, gives you an actual second starter Pokemon! I mean... does this really bear any further discussion? Not really. And it doesn't stop there: if you got XY right away you could also potentially get a third starter in the form of a Torchic distribution. Imagine actually having a starter trio composed of Froakie+Bulbasaur+Torchic or Chespin+Squirtle+Torchic. Wild stuff.

You could maybe make a case for Flabebe too, I guess. It's specifically pointed out to you as "hey, this Pokemon can be caught here! Do you have one? Why not?" That's obviously because it's a Fairy and the game wants you to try out the exciting new type that exists, but Flabebe is obviously a natural choice as another three-stage line with a fun gimmick in its different colours. Given Sylveon's introduction, it's interesting that XY doesn't give you an Eevee in a similar fashion to Lucario to try and push you towards that (it's available from an in-game trade, but this is luck-based and takes a few days to unlock).

Alola

There's a few things in the Alola games that could qualify, but Rockruff is the most interesting one since, prior to SM's release, there was an obscure reference in CoroCoro ("similar to the starters, Rockruff hides a secret") which got misquoted and mistranslated a lot and caused some people to think that the species had some sort of shared trait with the starter trio; it's generally accepted now that this simply meant that all four species had their own, not necessarily identical, secret(s), with the starters having unique Z-moves and Rockruff having a unique evolution method.

Regardless, that got people interested in it and Rockruff is very much a Pokemon the game nudges you to use. It's popularly featured in artwork alongside the protagonists, the Pokedex literally states it to be well-suited to beginning trainers, there was a distribution when USUM released for an Own Tempo Rockruff with an elemental fang. Yeah, this one was definitely made with the intention of being a secondary starter alright.

Beyond that, Alola gives you access to Munchlax and Happiny incredibly early compared to other games, with Munchlax even being distributed in the same fashion as Rockruff at SM's release. Were those not baby Pokemon, I would say they're more in the "this is a strong Pokemon available comparatively early on" camp, but the potential payoff of raising them up (and especially the fact that Munchlax comes with a Z-Crystal attached, which screams "use me") means there's a strong, strong incentive to use them so they just about edge into secondary starter territory IMO.


Orre

Including Orre too? Yeah. Because Colosseum actually does give you a pretty straightforward starter choice with the Johto trio. You start off with Espeon and Umbreon, of course, but very early on in Phenac City you're faced with a roadblock: three Cipher Peons, one red, one green, and one blue, bar the city's three exits and won't let you pass without a battle. Each has the middle stage of the starter that corresponds to their colour available to snag, but you only get to battle one of them and so can't snag the other starters until the end of the game*.

XD has a similar, but different scenario play out at a relatively early part of the game. The player is presented with six differently-coloured Peons, each with a Pokemon available to snag that roughly corresponds to the colour of their uniform (Houndour, Spheal, Seedot, Baltoy, Gulpin, and Mareep). However, unlike in Colosseum it's not a choice as you're at perfect liberty to catch all six of them. Since you get given the ability to evolve your starter Eevee almost straight away this gives you a great degree of flexibility in designing your team since you can pick the type(s) you're missing. The way these six Pokemon are made available to the player has always felt to me like a very deliberate facsimile of the starter choice.





*side note: impressively, they actually took steps to ensure you can't cheat this to get all three. If you snag one of the starters and deliberately lose the battle, both of the two peons you didn't fight will no longer have their starter on their team

 

[Codraroll]

I'm kind of stuck on the idea of what a "secondary starter" really is, tbh.

I think there are really few Pokémon that actually meet the definition, the way I see it.

Basically, it is a Pokémon that is encountered early ("being usable for every Gym" is a good enough benchmark), is relatively powerful from the moment you catch it, and grows in power alongside the game's difficulty curve, like the starters, and likewise stays usable all the way to the end of the game. This also involves evolving twice, without having to trade. Being native to the region is another criterion you may choose to apply.

So basically, it's Pidgey and most of its fellow regional birds, Mareep, Shinx, and Lillipup. Perhaps you might include Hoppip, Ralts, Lotad, and Seedot as well, but they don't quite have the power to stay relevant throughout the game, with notable weak periods early- to mid-game. Nidoran in Gen I and Pawmi in Gen IX could also be considered candidates, but they evolve in a way that makes their middle stage quite irrelevant, as you may breeze through it and receive the final form very early (in contrast to your starter, where you spend a fair bit of time with each evolutionary stage). And they don't quite stick all the way to the Elite Four either, missing out in terms of raw power towards the end of the game. Smoliv is another decent Gen IX candidate, but is second stage is reached rather late, so it will be quite weak compared to your starter for a long stretch.

Of course, this is a rather conservative definition. But I do think Game Freak deliberately tries not to make any "starter-like" Pokémon too often, so there shouldn't be too many of them in the first place. Having access to a powerful Pokémon early in the game tends to "lock in" your team for the entire playthrough. The designers want to encourage switching members and trying out new Pokémon as you progress through the game, otherwise each playthrough can start to feel a bit samey. The Sinnoh games in particular are notorious for railroading you into using certain team members, with a crop of Pokémon that are a lot more powerful (or in the case of Bibarel, useful) than anything else you can catch at that point in the game. This also tends to make playthroughs feel much more similar, and groups of friends may find they have all chosen to use the same handful of Pokémon, instead of exploring the diversity the games have to offer.

Come to think of it, that's another purpose of the early-game bugs and rodents: to take up a team slot early on, and then free it up later, when the Pokémon falls off the power curve and makes the player want to switch it for something better, at a point in the game where they have a lot more options to choose between. Conversely, starter-like Pokémon tend to hog a team slot all game through, just like the starter does.

 

[R_N]

I think there's a distinction to be made between "the community treats this as a secondary starter" and "this was likely intended to be a Pokemon that, like the starter, you would use your whole adventure"

No one treats Pidgeot like the former. Gamefreak absolutely treats Pidgeot like the latter.
Gardevoir likely leans on the former but from its rarity and focus on Wally's signature Pokemon, Gamefreak likely didn't intend it anymore than any of the other early game lines
Staraptor got to be both, because it's good so people wanted to keep using it.


That said for a mostly community made definition that goes entirely on vibes I will gatekeep if you start throwing out Pokemon you get at the midgame. That's just a good Pokemon you get a mid game. I'm sending XY Lucario to the abyss, sorry.

 

[Pale Rose Star]

I mean, I'd argue the concept doesn't fully exist as-is. We have some examples in earlier gens of something similar to it but not quite. Nidoran with double kick, pidgey, etc.. These were when the games felt more like traditional RPGs, where party changes aren't as common, and where locking in might make more sense. Even then though these oftentimes don't stay locked in.

As time has gone on though it really feels like the point is to play with what you want. These games were never hard enough to really gatekeep that. If you wanted a secondary starter to help take care of a scenario, like nidoran or the elemental monkeys, they were there, but the game doesn't feel designed to force you or even to encourage you to keep them. A pokemon's status even switches game to game, like with Riolu in BW2 and Lucario in XY, etc..

so I kind of don't ascribe to the idea of a secondary starter inherently. The reason I made my ramble post earlier was because there's no such thing (and also bc i wanted to :3). There are utility mons for certain points in earlier games, but nothing past that imho. I think the tier lists that this site makes for in-game runs kind of give the best idea of what a secondary starter could be, but even then those aren't exactly parallel to GF's intentions.

I think there's a distinction to be made between "the community treats this as a secondary starter" and "this was likely intended to be a Pokemon that, like the starter, you would use your whole adventure"

No one treats Pidgeot like the former. Gamefreak absolutely treats Pidgeot like the latter.

also I'd definitely contest this. In RBY pidgey is pretty weak and Pidgeot is definitely not the strongest. I'd argue the same for well all the other kanto/johto games. Growing up on Gen 4 it seemed to be generally believed the Starly line was meant as an answer to how weak early game birds were, with an early game bird that was pretty darn strong. Pidgey was just a Fly mon that you could replace later on as you got different, usually better ones.

 

[Mex]

also I'd definitely contest this. In RBY pidgey is pretty weak and Pidgeot is definitely not the strongest. I'd argue the same for well all the other kanto/johto games. Growing up on Gen 4 it seemed to be generally believed the Starly line was meant as an answer to how weak early game birds were, with an early game bird that was pretty darn strong. Pidgey was just a Fly mon that you could replace later on as you got different, usually better ones.

Pretty sure their point is that Pidgeot doesn't feel like one to the community, but as far as GameFreak themselves are concerned Pidgey is treated as one (immediately available once you can catch mons, 3 stage line that evolves at very similar levels to the starters, hell it's even treated as a secondary ace for Blue in a lot of media, being his ace in the johto games where he's not allowed a starter bc Red gets all 3, his debut partner pokemon in Masters and the Pokemon he awakens an Arc Suit with in the most recent storyline).

 

[Karxrida]

I mean, I'd argue the concept doesn't fully exist as-is.

This reminds me of that one SmithPlays Pokémon video about semi pseudos or whatever he called them where the criteria basically boiled down to vibes because there was no consistency. But at least the concept of "secondary starters" has a couple examples that actually exist lol.

Still think this topic is trying to square peg the more broad concept of playthrough staples into a round hole.

 

[Ironmage]

I think there's a distinction to be made between "the community treats this as a secondary starter" and "this was likely intended to be a Pokemon that, like the starter, you would use your whole adventure"

No one treats Pidgeot like the former. Gamefreak absolutely treats Pidgeot like the latter.
Gardevoir likely leans on the former but from its rarity and focus on Wally's signature Pokemon, Gamefreak likely didn't intend it anymore than any of the other early game lines
Staraptor got to be both, because it's good so people wanted to keep using it.


That said for a mostly community made definition that goes entirely on vibes I will gatekeep if you start throwing out Pokemon you get at the midgame. That's just a good Pokemon you get a mid game. I'm sending XY Lucario to the abyss, sorry.

I find that defining the midgame can itself be pretty shaky. There's a part of me that wants to say that the midgame is around Surf, both because it's a significant shift in available areas and starting into the level range where mons are fully evolved (I'd put lategame as generally when the title legend has become available). That said, I would still argue against XY Lucario for a category based on community use. I'd group it with the monkeys: something that is so blatantly prescribed to be on a team that the player has reason to actively reject it.

 

[mertyville]

This definition of 'secondary starter' is very tricky. Anyone can twist and tweak the meaning. I meand do Gift Pokemon count as starters? Then you have Togepi which generally is useless except being a fly slave if you can evolve it and you happen not to play Platinum pre-gen 6.
You have the Kanto-starters in Karlos and for completionist you have the Johto-starters in Emerald where at that point you are required to complete the Hoenn-dex rendering the concept of 'secondary' starter for the latter useless.

For me personally it should be defined early game preferably close to the first gym. Pokemon with the Type of starter Pokemon I consider substitutes if something like Shroomish suppose to be your Grass-type option over Treeko or Magmar/Magby your Fire-type over Cyndiquil etc.