Explorers of Sky- Best Starter Pokemon?

[Cap]

I am wanting to replay this game and am trying to decide who to start with- My first play through had Chimchar (Nasty Plot + Flamethrower/Grass Knot destroyed) with partner Shinx (Charge/Discharge the best move combo)
Who's the best pair to start with and why?
Who have you started with in the past and why?

 

[inanimate blob]

Hmm, I've played through this game a few times and gotten very different results from my pairings. I'm bringing up Explorers of Sky, too.

My first run through was Squirtle/Turtwig. It went well, Turtwig tanked hits, Squirtle hit hard with Hydro Pump and Ice Beam, and there weren't many issues with the run in general. So all in all a normal run-through.

I tried to get creative the next few times, and I ended up restarting multiple times. One that stood out to me was Munchlax/Pikachu. Between the two of them, we absolutley wrecked shit. Munchlax both tanked and killed everything with Body Slam, and Pikachu destroyed with Thunderbolt (we would just sit and grind on corners).

The last one of note was when I muscled through with a Skitty/Cyndaquil run. I would not recommend it - every time we encountered a Rock-type, we just about lost. They have probably the shittiest coverage, mainly due to Normalize.

 

[Shrug]

I used Piplup + Riolu and it did some work, Water/Fight is pretty hard hitting and they're bulky enough. I would just use whatever starter is your favorite and pick a partner that goes well with it, a lot of them work (Except for maybe skitty, as inanimate blob said, as Skitty sucks)

 

[Governess]

I have to say, Pikachu is by far one of the best starter Pokemon I've ever used in all of the Dungeon series I've played (which is all of them bar Gates to Infinity). The reason? Its ability to handle monster houses with Discharge (T-Bolt in the first two games, which lacked Discharge). Usually, I'd find myself HATING to go through tough dungeon, and I'd use the X-Ray Specs to avoid monster houses because I was always surrounded by Pokemon. With Pikachu, I literally lunged into every Monster House I could find, getting all the gummis ;) Thunderbolt is also a great move to use when you're surrounded as well, and Thunder Wave was always by my side.

As for a partner, I always used either a Water- (for Ground-types) or Fighting-type (for Rhyperior w/ Lightningrod, Dialga, or other Rock / Ground Pokemon), so I'd suggest Piplup (adorableness + great IQ abilities + Bubblebeam = awesomeness) or Riolu, whose IQ skills such as Aggresive and Concentrator can really make it powerful to face. Ok, it doesn't learn that much amazing moves, but its available moves are plentiful to finish the game in style. So tl;dr Pikachu + Piplup or Pikachu + Riolu. :)

 

[Majestic Electric]

I have a tendency to replay the game as Vulpix with Shinx as my partner. They work surprisingly well together, despite the shared weakness to Ground.

I'd recommend having Pikachu or Shinx because of Discharge. It's very helpful against Monster Houses.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

Started with Shinx and had Torchic as a partner. Shinx is a lot better than Pikachu imo because of access to Bite/Crunch, earlier Quick Attack, and Charge/Discharge. Pikachu's only real benefits are getting Discharge slightly earlier, and Agility.

Torchic is fun due to Dig spam, one of the best ways to kill Dialga and dodge Roar of Time at the same time.

Skitty's actually quite good in Rescue where there's no Normalize and you can actually troll stuff early on with Attract. also iirc you can't get the TM before beating the maingame (unless I'm just super unlucky, I haven't even seen one >.<"). Then again, Rescue is easily trivialised by multi-hit moves (rayquaza was a simple farfetch'd "swords dance + fury attack link combo, do it twice and dead ray")

 

[Governess]

@IceBeam, you can't single out Pikachu's IQ abilities, in which Pikachu has a slight advantage over Shinx (besides Intimidator, which is very useful in battling bosses) with Stair Sensor, which makes dungeons much easier to go through, especially with the X-Ray Specs. While Shinx does have those useful moves in Crunch (useful against the guardians of the lake), Quick Attack, and Charge, that's all it can truly boast about, whereas Pikachu gets support moves like Thunder Wave (which in PMD is extremely useful), and T-Bolt can't be overlooked if you are saving PP for Discharge. Nonetheless, they are both great Pokemon, but I can't really say that either is 'better' than another; they just have pros and cons, like the rest of them.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

The abundance of Max Elixirs and the ridiculousness that is Charge + Discharge makes the whole PP argument moot, really. You win against almost every monster house that doesn't have a Marowak/Rhydon/Manectric in it. Coupled with Agressor, Shinx is extremely useful for offense. It's my Sky starter, and from what I've seen (I run QA/Charge+Discharge/Dig) it's really only mediocre against Lightningrod users (only reason why it isn't curbstomping Darkrai).

I'm not exactly saying Pikachu is /bad/ though, it gets some nice shit like Agility and Extra Striker, which is useful.

Learning Thunder Wave/Thunderbolt is a meh-ish argument imo since those exist in the form of TMs too, though I'll give that to Pikachu for learning it naturally.

 

[Governess]

My apologies, but I wasn't really trying or intending to argue; it's more of "those two are great moves you can't really ignore" type of thing. Even with the abdundance of Max Elixers in the game (which does make that PP thing I said useless tbh), sometimes, especially against bosses with Pressure (or bosses in general), you don't really have the time to make use of the item 24/7. I think you're underestimating Thunder Wave a bit; I'd use it over a Sleep Seed / sleep-inducing move simply because it /usually/ lasts longer. While sleep's effects may vary, there have been many times that the chance to use an item or use attacks have been wasted, as it can wake up a turn later. Also, Thunder Wave as a TM isn't that common besides Amp Plains and finding it occasionally in Kecleon's Shop.

Regarding Shinx's great offensive presence, I'm not too big of a fan on Aggressor, (and Counter Basher if used together) because of the defense drop. Ik, it isn't /that/ much alone, but I have used Shinx and Riolu often, and the fact that a neutral attack causes so much damage to them (especially against Pokemon their typing is weak against; Flying for Riolu and Nidoqueen for Shinx) disappointed me. It's kind of a double-edged sword: you hit really hard, but when hit, it takes a lot more damage than desired.

In terms of offense in general, I'd definitely give the point to Shinx, but even with the natural moves it can learn (Crunch), TMs exist too, giving Pikachu some differing attacks besides Electric. Also, Thunderbolt is learned before Discharge for Pikachu, so it DOES have usefulness besides extra PP, as it can act as a semi-Discharge attack.

 

[Pika25]

I remember my Explorers teams consisting of Pikachu/Turtwig and Pikachu/Mudkip. I remembered how those teams manhandled Darkrai's army: Pikachu throws Sleep Seed at Darkrai, partner uses ranged attack (Bubble Beam/Water Pulse/Razor Leaf) to clean OHKO Rhyperior, then Pikachu spams Discharge on whole army. By the time Darkrai awakens, everyone (even Cresselia) teams up to finish him off. Also gotta LOVE Grass Knot; it's on every Pikachu I use not in Rescue, mainly to hit Ground types, especially those that have Lightningrod Ability, like the aforementioned Rhyperior.

I also remember using a team with Mudkip and Chimchar (a team without a Pikachu, for a change of pace), although I don't quite remember all those moments they had compared to the Pikachu teams'.

 

[Cap]

Decided to ultimately go with Squirtle/ Turtwig- so far it's been admittedly fairly challenging but it's also a lot of fun.
Makes me ask another question though, who are the best pokemon in the game in general? I guess for the eventual level 1 dungeons and such

 

[Manitary]

For 1-pokemon dungeon I really appreciate suggestions! I read somewhere that Smoochum is a good choice but it seems so strange to me...

I don't have all the pokemon (about legendaries, I don't have only Ho-Oh and Entei) and I've actually finished only Zero Isle West and East (the easiest, with only 40 floors), using:
Moltres leader, start with Ember/Wing Attack and learn Fire Spin at lvl8
Darkrai, start with Ominous Wind, learn Quick Attack at lvl11 (Giratina is more bulky and learn Ominous Wind at lvl8, but takes 2 team slots)
Mew, just because of his ability to learn every TM, also learn Mega Punch at lvl10
if I use Darkrai instead of Giratina I bring Mewtwo, good stats overall, start with Confusion

 

[Governess]

I would agree that Smoochum is great for Zero Isle South, as it levels up very quickly, has Sweet Kiss and Powder Snow VERY early and has great stats, but it also has Forewarn to avoid attacks, which is why it's very good for that specific Isle. That rumor isn't very far off. Here is a set I'd see Smoochum with:

- Powder Snow
- Pound
- Confusion/Psychic (if you find a TM)
- Sweet Kiss

Powder Snow is for monster houses / surrounded, Pound is well.. Pound, Confusion is a great STAB move, and Sweet Kiss is godly for escape or free attacks.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

The legendaries aren't a good choice, btw. Most of them generally start off with just 1-2 moves, so you're hard-pressed for coverage. (Palkia, for example, while generally considered the best Pokemon for exploring due to Absolute Mover and all dem shit, has only Dragonbreath/Scary Face at L1. There're some exceptions though: Darkrai starts off with an area move and Disable, which causes paralysis for easy kills.). What you want is something that has nice L1 moves to abuse: Charizard in Rescue is considered one of the best pokemon for L1 dungeon due to Heat Wave access at like L2, allowing for easy dungeon stomping > free exp!

Pound's actually pretty nice. 27 PP means that it's got one of the highest PP for most moves, meaning that Smoochum can generally just derp with it for a while.

Other suggestions iirc include Spiritomb (best L1 stats, iinw). Seems nice, especially with innate Spite for some trolling.

 

[Ricky Charizard 1998]

Squirtle, hands down. :D

 

[SquirtlEeveelutionsfan]

I'd personally recommend either squirtle or turtwig as your main and an eevee as your partner. I recently played through sky the past couple days with Turtwig as my main and Eevee as my partner, and you have no idea just how useful linking helping hand and quick attack is. I never had any problems with bosses or monster houses and rarely used reviver seeds. The helping hand + quick attack actually makes special attacks on turtwig (including GIGA DRAIN!) and physical attacks for squirtle useful due to the sp atk and atk boost, and your opponent will also take extra damage from eevee's normal type attack boosted quick attack (which can attack opponents through teammates).I'd imagine squirtle and eevee would also work since turtwig and his/her stats are similar, but I'd recommend turtwig and eevee more due to personal experience. Protect would also be a very useful move for your main to have and stock up on oran berries to deal with eevee's run away ability and I'd say you shouldn't have too much difficulty with this team.

 

[Karxrida]

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