The Starter Pokemon and Their Exclusive Moves: An Analysis

Intro

Given past events, Squirtle is presumed to be the Pokémon of the July 2018 Community Day, and the exclusive move is presumed to be Hydro Cannon. While poor Blastoise isn’t going to make waves in the meta even if Hydro Cannon is made unprecedently powerful, the other Water-type starter Pokemon with better stats such as Swampert will have much more to say! So, how will the starter Pokemon, including those from the future, perform in the battle with their exclusive move?

Projecting Hydro Cannon

First, we must figure out what Hydro Cannon might be like. Before Blast Burn, it was assumed that all three starter exclusive moves would share the same parameters except for typing. Given how Blast Burn ended up, it can be argued that Hydro Cannon will be different from the two but remain a two-bar move. After some consideration, the following assumptions on Hydro Cannon were made:

Using these numbers, as Blast Burn is an improved Outrage (0.6s faster) and Frenzy Plant is an improved Shadow Ball (0.4s faster), Hydro Cannon will be an improved Wild Charge (0.5s faster). So Hydro Cannon will be a very strong charge move but still within reasonable limits; besides, Squirtle needs some love!

Water-type Starters with Hydro Cannon

With the above projected Hydro Cannon, how would its potential recipients, aka the Water-type starters, perform?

As shown above, even with Hydro Cannon, Blastoise won’t surpass Vaporeon, and is nowhere near Gyarados, let alone Kyogre. However, Swampert and Feraligatr receiving Hydro Cannon will be very promising, becoming the best non-Legendary Water-types.

Things will get even more interesting with future Water-type starters and mega evolutions:

Depending on how Niantic handles Mega evolutions, the above rankings may change the actual stats. With the current stat conversion formula, Greninja (Gen 6) and Primarina (Gen 7) are both very promising; they would surpass the current champ Kyogre in DPS. If Mega evolutions are implemented, there will be chance for Mega Blastoise and Mega Swampert to shine, before the glowing fish Primal Kyogre surfaces and retakes the crown of Water-type.

The poorest Water-type would be Empoleon. Without good stats or a Mega evolution, it really won’t compete with its starter colleagues.

Fire-type Starters with Blast Burn

Our Blast Burn Charizard Analysis has discussed the relevance of Charizard: “Blast Burn is a huge boon for Charizard, taking its performance to near legendary heights”. Well, the later Fire-type starters will be taken above legendary heights:

That’s right! Given Blast Burn, Blaziken will surpass Moltres as well as the later Heatran in DPS. It will be a formidable Fire-type "Glass Cannon".

Looking into the future, again, with Fire-type starters and mega evolutions, this will be what their DPS looks like:

There isn’t a “Primal Moltres” anywhere (Primal Groudon is Fire-type, yet it doesn’t learn a Fire-type fast move); therefore, with the current moves and un-nerfed stats projection, the most damaging Fire-type across all generations will be Blast Burn Mega Blaziken, with Mega Charizard Y as the second. A starter will take the crown of the type!

Grass-type Starters with Frenzy Plant

In our Frenzy Plant and Grass-types Analysis, it was concluded that being the “best” Grass-type doesn’t mean much. Indeed, in terms of neutral DPS, Grass-types don’t top Water or Electric. They are only relevant when the weather is in their favor or when the enemy is doubly weak to Grass attacks. Will things change with the later Grass-type starters receiving Frenzy Plant?

While being very competitive, a double Grass-type Frenzy Plant Sceptile still does not overthrow Raikou or Kyogre (blame Bullet Seed). While it is worth noting that Fury Cutter + Frenzy Plant Sceptile would surpass Raikou and Kyogre in neutral DPS, when it comes to matchups with single type advantage (e.g., against Ground), Sceptile still loses to Raikou or Kyogre.

Again, things will be different when Mega evolutions are taken into consideration:

Unfortunately for Grass-type starters, while their Mega evolutions can surpass the current best Electric-type and Water-type in DPS, they are walled by Kartana, a 355 base Attack Ultra Beast with access to Razor Leaf and Leaf Blade. Depending on Niantic’s timeline, the glory belongs to whichever is released first.

Conclusion

The introduction of starter exclusive moves will "restart" the starters. Combined with the Mega evolutions, starters will be our new heroes again. Beginning with Squirtle, it is recommended to grind the starters while they are massively available.

The future is uncertain and has infinite possibilities, but one thing will remain constant – we here at GamePress will always bring the best guides to our readers! Stay tuned for more future guides to come.