Which starter is the best for beating Gyms in each generation?

Question

i am stupid.

Comments

What do you want to do with the starters? Do you want to battle other people, in-game trainers, or something else?

---

The best against the gyms in that region

---

Gen 2: Feraligatr
Gen 3: Swampert and Blastoise
Gen 4: Infernape
@Squirl In GSC, Croconaw learns surf as soon as you get to Ecruteak City, while Quilava is stuck with ember until level 31 (it can't learn fire punch). Typhlosion's weaknesses are also much more common than Feraligatr's weaknesses. In HGSS, all the starters are worse than Gyarados.

---

Ember is not better than surf in gyms.

Answer 1

I'll do them by their first Forms:

Gen I: Blastoise(Blastiose can handle well: Brock, Koga(due to Ground Type TMs available such as Earthquake, Sabrina(due to Bite), Blaine and Giovanni due to super effective STAB, and Ice for Giovanni as well)

Gen 2: Totodile

Gen 3: Mudkip

Gen 4: Chimchar

Gen 5: Oshawott(Good with Elenas Zebstrika with Dig, good with Clay because of STAB, Good with Skyla because of Ice Moves, and the same is said for Drayden.)

Gen 6: Fennekin(Super Effective STABs on Viola's Lead, Korrina's team, Ramos's Team, Clemont's Team, and part of Valerie's team, and Fire Stab on Wulfric.

Gen 7: Popplio(Good on the Olivia, Nanu, and Hapu Grand Trials, the Fire Trial and Dragon Trial, and if you overlevel it, potentially good with a Shadowball on the Mimikyu Trial. Good on all four E4s, with Shadow Ball for the Ghost Lady, also good on some of Kukui's team members, such as Lycanrock and Braviary, as well as even the Decidueye with Acrobatics TM.)

Gen 8: Both: Sobble(Good on the Grass Gym, Fighting Gym, if Acrobatics is available,I'm not sure since I've never played, , Ghost Gym with Dark Moves, Fairy Gym, with Mud on most of 'em,ss, the Rock Gym, some of the Dark Gym with Bug Moves, and the Dragon Gym, as well as Leo's Charizard.)

Hopefully I did well on that, I've never played SWSH, so I'm not sure if I misput something(ie, having a TM before it was available.)

Sources: Serebii, trusting in the comments, a bit of Experience(I always pick Mudkip for Gen 3 games.) and the Starter Pages.

Comments

Looks at his pokemons defense: Pikachu: 30: Voltorb: 50: Raichu: 55. Dig has 100 power in gen 1, so technically blastoise can still win, however you have to be careful with raichu as it can do a lot with thunderbolt, critical hit or not.

---

@Gatik 79 special attack was apparently good enough to defeat Red (the character) in Gold (the game) in less than 4 hours. Can you do that with a Typhlosion?
@Squirl Torterra is kind of slow, so it sometimes needs to use rock polish when Infernape can outspeed and OHKO the opponent on turn 1. Grass ground type also means Torterra does less damage to most grass, flying, and bug Pokemon, and only 9 Pokemon in Sinnoh resist both of Infernape's STABs.

---

Sorry guys, I haven't been able to respond because of my Mom, she shut off the internet last night, which is why I couldn't do Gen8, and today is a no-electronic day in my house. Also, to answer sumwun's Question, 1, Surge could easily wipe squirtle out with a Super Effective STAB Electric move, making Charizard a better choice for him. As for the tie thing, I was having the same thoughts myself, but couldn't change it, due to the previous statement about my internet I will now.

---

I will do Gen 8 first thing tommorrow, I can't really be on right now and I'm kinda risking it to tell you this at all.

---

I did Gen 8.

Answer 2

Gen 1 bulbasaur
Does well against the first 4 gyms and giovani. Does well against Bruno. There are much better water types than blastiose.
Gen 2 cydiquill
Good against 2d gym and is a power mess
I am not insulting
Gen 3 mudkip
Amazing against the first four gyms
Gen 4 chimchar/ totadile
Can do well against the first 2 gyms. It’s just much more helpful I mean hurtful thun turtwig. The reason for totadile is it gets ice fang way before 2 dragon bosses
Gen 5 tepig
Good against the first 3 gyms and continues to dominate the game.
Gen 6 Fenniken
Good against the 1st 3rd 4th and 8th gym

Comments

You're saying that "cydiquill" is the best starter for beating gyms because it is good against the second gym? There are seven more gyms.

---

He’s also good against jasmine and pryce also totadile does not get ice fang in gen 2 so it’s cyndiquill

Answer 3

I'll go with brief explanation:-
1) For Gen 1 : It's Blastoise although it has the least base stats but an improved movset can just kill the show,
it will kill- Brock, Koga(with earthquake even though there are flying types as well but there are other moves like bite, and some ice type moves.),Sabrina(with bite.),Blaine (no reason required it's a fire type gym.) and at last Giovanni with his Ground team. Elite four being neither easy nor tough but a tough time against champion. (That is the case with everyone.)

2)For Gen 2 : It's Feraligatr (it's not meganium for sure, Typhlosion even though having lots of advantages but will suffer against elite four and champions dragon team. Will have very bad time against kanto tour as it is identical to charizard, exeption will be for Third Kanto Gym)Feraligatr will be neutral for first gym, Second gym and third gym, Best Choice For fourth gym coz it can learn awesome dark type moves, Good for 5th Gym as it can learn earthquake, and earthquake is also handy for the sixth steel type gym, it will work for seventh gym as it can learn few steel type moves and fighting types as well.(if you play Heartgold or Soulsilver)Good for last gym as it can lear ice type moves along with dragon type moves and there moves wont be so effective on it. Tge elite four passes quickly and the same reason for champion with ice and dragon moves

3) For Gen 3 : It's Sceptille, he is the second fastest starter and if mega evolved it is a beast so now everything depends on your moveset. it can overtake anyone with it's speed it has to attack first everytime it has a great moveset as well. He will Kill the first gym, second gym (no advantage but no disadvantage as well) it will kill the third gym brutally (might face issues against magneton) it can learn earthquake so good against fourth gym as well because as I said it will move first so no point for the foe to attack after the earthquake. Gentle for fifth gym it will also get the sixth gym easily coz it can learn thunder punch accept altaria it is faster than scetile for some reason. it will kill the seventh and eight gym along with the elite four , yes also glacia coz it can learn fighting type moves and iron tail it can learn dragon type moves so it will be good against drake also and will kill champion wallace as well it will have a good game against steven storm with it's earthquake. it will have a good type against may with earthquake.(It's not blaziken as it will drifted at the first gym but if evolves it can learn double kick which is super effective but will make the second gym tough as it has only peck for advantage.advantage for fifth gym but will drift as sixth,seventh and eight gym and the champion and rival too.
Swampert is great always but will drift at eight gym and and the elite four with the rival).

4) For Gen 4: It's Torterra , it has a better moveset than sceptile but where it lags is speed and that's where sceptile overtakes it. it is a beast with earthquake, It will kill the first Gym, Second gym with neutral battle, Third gym with Bite, Fourth gym with Earthquake, Fifth gym , Sixth gym with earthquake, and the last gym as well with eartquake, destroy elite four and champion, and rival has no match against it with earthquake. that's why it is a beast with earthquake.

5)For Gen 5 : All starters are good but the worst is oshowatt because of it's really really poop stats

6)For Gen 6 Fennikin is best for first four of gyms greninja is good for last four of gyms and chesnaut is good the elite four and the champion so it is neutral.

7)For Gen 7 and 8 : no comments as I haven't played yet

Comments

"Each generation" means each generation, regardless of whether or not you've played them. Regardless, there are a few flaws in your reasonings:
- Bite will not "kill" Sabrina or her Pokemon in Gen 1. It actually won't do anything because there isn't Dark type in Gen 1.
- Sceptile can't mega evolve in Gen 3. Also, I don't think speed alone will allow you to win. That's not to say that Sceptile's other stats aren't any good, but the amount of emphasis that is put into the fact that Sceptile is fast makes it seem like the only thing that makes it good.
- Why would Torterra having a better moveset than Sceptile mean anything? They aren't starters in the same game. Also, the questions specifically asked about gyms, not the Elite 4 or rival battles.

---

ORAS are gen 6 games. In gen 3 (RSE), Sceptile's strongest move is bullet seed (which averages 30 base power) until after the third gym, so it gets destroyed by the second and third gyms. It can't learn earthquake before the fourth gym or learn thunder punch before the sixth gym. Glacia's Pokemon can survive Sceptile's non-STAB brick break and iron tail and hit back with ice beam, which is both STAB and super effective. Only 2 of Steven's Pokemon are weak to earthquake.
Torterra's earthquake does not destroy the seventh gym, Aaron, Lucian, or Cynthia. Infernape can do better in those battles because it's faster and can learn flare blitz (and fire punch in Pt), so Infernape is overall better than Torterra.