At the beginning of their quest, Trainers are given a starter Pokemon. This Pokemon will be used to battle the first wild Pokemon that the Trainer encounters. Once another Pokemon is caught, the starter may be retired, but it is often with this Pokemon that Trainers learn friendship and trust. As such, even advanced Trainers may still use their starters.
In the main games, each starter Pokemon is at level 5, armed with one damage-dealing move and another that affects stats. Trainers can choose between a Fire, Water or Grass-type Pokemon (with one exception). The trainer that will be designated as the player's rival will always choose or have the Pokemon of the starter trio that has a type advantage over the one the player chooses, though it may not be the case that they remain the true rival.
The following is a list of starters by region.
Kanto
In Pokemon Red, Green, Blue, FireRed and LeafGreen, Professor Oak will bring Trainers to his lab to give them one of the following to begin their journey.
Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle
In Pokemon Yellow, Oak instead gives out Pikachu.
Johto
In Pokemon Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold and SoulSilver, Professor Elm will have an errand for the player to run, and will give them one of the following for protection on this errand, which they will then keep after completion.
Chikorita, Cyndaquil or Totodile
Hoenn
In Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, after Professor Birch is rescued from a Poochyena or Zigzagoon, he allows the player to keep the Pokemon they chose to rescue him with, either:
Treecko, Torchic or Mudkip
Sinnoh
In Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, when two Starly attack the player and rival at Lake Verity, to which they travel upon hearing reports of a red Gyarados, they will choose one of the following from Professor Rowan's briefcase, which he left at the lake:
Turtwig, Chimchar or Piplup
In Pokemon Platinum, the player and rival are stopped by Professor Rowan just as they are about to run through tall grass to get to Sandgem Town to ask the Professor for Pokemon. After some questions about the player and the rival's love for Pokemon, he decides to entrust them with one starter Pokemon each.
Isshu
In Pokemon Black and White, the regional professor, Araragi, will offer the player a choice of the Grass-type Tsutarja, the Fire-type Pokabu or the Water-type Mijumaru.
In the anime
Upon their tenth birthday, youth can register for a Pokedex and pick up a starter Pokemon from the local Pokemon professor or Pokemon Center free of charge. Starters are usually raised specifically to be easy to train.
Like in the games, the specific starter Pokemon available vary from region to region, but are the same in each region as the games. That is, Kanto Trainers can only choose Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle, Johto Trainers can only choose Chikorita, Cyndaquil or Totodile, and so on.
Starter Pokemon Trivia
- All starters in the main series besides Pikachu have a 7:1 ratio of males to female
- Each of the Grass-type starters is based on a reptile, with Bulbasaur and Chikorita being based on prehistoric reptiles, Treecko on geckos, Turtwig on turtles, and Tsutarja on a lizard/snake.
- All of the Kanto starters are based on a reptile, dinosaurs (Bulbasaur), lizards (Charmander) and turtles (Squirtle).
- When gender differences were introduced in Diamond and Pearl, none of the Water-type starters recieved gender differences. Also, the Sinnoh starters were the only set not to have any gender differences, despite being introduced at the same time as that feature.
- Starting from Ruby and Sapphire, all the fully-evolved starters can learn Earthquake.
- Mudkip and Squirtle are the only starters that can't learn Cut, they are also both the Water-type choices in regions introduced in an odd-numbered generation.
- The Grass-type starters the Overgrow ability.
- The Fire-type starters have the Blaze ability.
- The Water-type starters have the Torrent ability.
- Bulbasaur the only dual-typed unevolved starter.
