You’ve got a very important choice coming up soon, trainers. Three starter Pokemon are offered to you in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, but you can only choose one to accompany you on your adventure. Do you choose the fiery Cyndaquil, the cute and swift Rowlet, or the powerful pressure of Oshawott? Each of these three Pokemon has received an upgrade from previous games, and to help you out we have compiled information on the best starter choices for Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
Final evolution spoiler warning, read at your own risk.
Best Starter Choices in Pokemon: Legends Arceus
As with other Pokemon games, you can choose between a fire, water, and grass type. However, these starters are not exactly the same as they were in the other games. These Hisuian Pokemon have different Stage 3 evolutions, with altered moves and typings. Let’s break them down one-by-one and go over their key abilities:
Cyndaquil / Quilava / Typhlosion
Typhlosion got a big upgrade in Arceus. Now a Ghost/Fire dual-type, Typhlosion gains immunity to Fighting and Normal type attacks, as well as access to Ghost moves like Shadow Ball and the brand new Infernal Parade. They also gain a weakness to Dark and other Ghost type attacks, while retaining their usual Fire strengths and weaknesses. Don’t let the static image fool you into thinking Typhlosion is chill — when Typhlosion gets fired up, eerie purple flames billow out of their neck.
Infernal Parade is interesting, because it’s basically Hex with a base power of 60 coupled with a chance to burn the opponent. Burn is a very useful status to inflict on any Attack-based Pokemon. Typhlosion is immune to Fighting and Normal moves, and weak to Dark, Water, Rock and Ground, which are the types most likely to need Burn applied. You’re probably going to switch Typhlosion out against those types though, so use cases are slim. Still, with a base 119 Special Attack, Typhlosion is sure to do some hefty damage and cover most of your Ghost and Fire needs.
Rowlet / Dartrix / Decidueye
Grass/Fighting is a fairly unique pairing — only previously held by Breloom, Chesnaught and Virizion. Decidueye retains their normal Grass resistances, but gains weaknesses to Psychic, Flying, and Fairy. Access to Fighting moves, however, allow it to break through Normal, Ice, Dark, Rock and Steel types with ease.
Triple Arrows is a very good move, as well with a buff and a debuff attached to a single multi-hit attack. Triple Arrows alone allows Decidueye to snowball through enemies with little trouble. Be careful though, Decidueye-H is slower than their Alolan counterpart, and might struggle against quicker enemies.
Oshawott / Dewott / Samurott
Exchanging Steel for Dark typing isn’t great in Samurott’s case. Losing arguably one of the best defensive typings (Steel is resistant to 11 types) in exchange for Psychic immunity and a Fairy/Bug weakness is a poor trade. Stat-wise, Samurott gains some attack and speed, but at the cost of its defenses.
Thankfully, to balance it out, Samurott has Ceaseless Edge, an attack with higher Critical Hit chances and a damage-over-time aspect to it, thanks to the new Jagged Splinters hazard. This move provides consistent damage, and will inevitably be useful against Noble encounters and boss fights featuring higher health values.
There you have it, trainers! Those are the three starter Pokemon for Pokemon Legends: Arceus. All of them have changed somewhat significantly, but only time will tell if they will end up being MVPs or stored in your Pasture somewhere. Don’t feel bad if whichever you chose isn’t working out during your story playthrough — the Professor will give you the ones you didn’t pick once you beat the game.
