Best Starter Pokemon

The best starter for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is Chimchar. Read on to learn which is the best starter Pokemon in Sinnoh, starter Pokemon matchups, type advantages and disadvantages and evolutions!

Best Starter Pokemon Video Guide

Best Starter Pokemon

Chimchar

Chimchar is the recommended starter Pokemon for the Sinnoh league, because it matches up well against most of the important battles (i.e. Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Team Galactic). The original Diamond and Pearl had a limited selection of Fire-types to choose from, making Chimchar an even more valuable addition to your party.

Chimchar Evolution and Learnset

Use Budew to deal with Water-types

Budew is a great Pokemon early-game Pokemon to partner with your Chimchar. Being a Grass-type, Budew covers Chimchar's weaknesses, namely Water, Rock, and Ground-types. Budew can be found as early as Route 204.

Starter Pokemon Matchups

Turtwig Important Trainer Matchups

Turtwig's final evolution is Torterra, a Grass and Ground-type Pokemon.

Chimchar Important Trainer Matchups

Chimchar's final evolution is Infernape, a Fire and Fighting-type Pokemon.

Piplup Important Trainer Matchups

Piplup's final evolution is Empoleon, a Water and Steel-type Pokemon.

Starter Pokemon Advantages and Disadvantages

The starter Pokemon will not make or break your game progression. All Starters are viable to sweep the game, if the right team is built around it.

Pokemon	Advantages	Disdvantages
Turtwig	・Has the lowest level needed to reach its final evolution at Lvl 32 ・Has early access to strong moves such as Razor Leaf and Bite.	・Type disadvantage against the Poison-types of Team Galactic, Ice-types in northern section of map, and more than half of Elite Four ・Slowest of all starters
Piplup	・ Its final evolution has a unique and strong defensive typing with Water/Steel ・ Has an easier time dealing with Cynthia's Garchomp compared to the other two	・Highly susceptible to Fighting and Ground attacks once fully evolved
Chimchar	・One of the few Fire-type Pokemon you can get in-game ・Strong against most of the Gym Leaders' typings	・Type disadvantage against first Gym Leader if not evolved

Which Starter Are You Choosing?

Best Natures for Each Starter Pokemon

Recommended Natures

Recommended Nature
Turtwig Adamant	Piplup Modest	Chimchar Adamant

For physical attackers Turtwig and Chimchar, we recommend the Adamant nature as it boosts their Attack while lowering their Sp. Attack. Piplup on the other hand is a special attacker, making Modest the best nature for it as it increases its Sp. Attack while decreasing its Attack.

Avoid Natures which decrease Speed

Having a Nature which hurts a Pokemon's Speed is unadvisable in any situation. We'd especially recommend avoiding any of these Natures in your Starter Pokemon.

Steps for Getting the Best Nature

It will take about 10-15 minutes of regular gameplay to reach the point where the Starter Pokemon are available.

Be sure to turn the Autosave Option to Manual

Before selecting your Starter Pokemon, be sure to turn off the Autosave Option from the menu screen. This is automatically set to On at the start of the game, and as the game will automatically save after obtaining your Starter Pokemon, you will need to completely erase your Save Data in order to choose your Starter Pokemon again.

Starter Pokemon Evolutions

Turtwig

Grass Starter Evolution - Turtwig
Turtwig	Lv. 18 ➤	Grotle	Lv. 32 ➤	Torterra

Chimchar

Fire Starter Evolution - Chimchar
Chimchar	Lv. 14 ➤	Monferno	Lv. 36 ➤	Infernape

Piplup

Water Starter Evolution - Piplup
Piplup	Lv. 16 ➤	Prinplup	Lv. 36 ➤	Empoleon

Best Team for the Story

Pokemon BDSP Related Guides

Beginner's Tips and Tricks

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Tips and Tricks