Starters, which one?

[Mr.MimeJr.]

I always have trouble picking a starter. How do you decide what starter you get for emerald ruby and saphire? Which one do you get?

[Near]

When I start a game for the first time, I always pick the water.
Next game is usually to test the most over-hyped, and then to use the last one.
The only starter I like to use is Sceptile though.

[Clare]

It's up to you, but, if you go with Torchic, I'd advise you to catch yourself a Water or Grass Type (eg, Seedot or Marill) to compensate for Fire's weakness against Roxanne's Pokemon.

[Near]

..Or get him to 16 and evolve him, he becomes part Fighting and learns Double Kick.

Seedot won't work, as he never learn any grass attack [and so does his evolutions]
Lotad learns Absorb at lv7 but he's still weak overally.

I'd go with a Shroomish.

[Darkness Anthem]

Swampert is the best ingame poke, no matter the version. It has one weakness- Grass. And guess what? There are no tough Grass trainers in the game. It also can use Surf (no need for HM slave), gets STAB'd Earthquake naturally, and can tackle 3/8 Gyms by itself. Pick up a Tailow to make the early game SUPER easy.

Blaziken is nice in Ru/Sa since it can pretty much sweep the Elite 4 and Steven by itself. In Emerald however, it loses at that with Wallace being the new champ. You should pick up a Shroomish early on if you plan to use it.

Sceptile is cool in Emerald since it learns Thunderpunch from the new move tutors for competitive play. Pick up Tailow and a Ground type early (probably Geodude), and later on the Camel who is Fire/Ground (forget name, evolves into Camerupt).

It's up to you who you prefer.

[meteorking]

mudkip all the way it is good against roxanne,flannery and wattson (because of mud shot)

[Near]

Swampert is the best ingame poke, no matter the version. It has one weakness- Grass. And guess what? There are no tough Grass trainers in the game. It also can use Surf (no need for HM slave), gets STAB'd Earthquake naturally, and can tackle 3/8 Gyms by itself. Pick up a Tailow to make the early game SUPER easy.

Blaziken is nice in Ru/Sa since it can pretty much sweep the Elite 4 and Steven by itself. In Emerald however, it loses at that with Wallace being the new champ. You should pick up a Shroomish early on if you plan to use it.

Sceptile is cool in Emerald since it learns Thunderpunch from the new move tutors for competitive play. Pick up Tailow and a Ground type early (probably Geodude), and later on the Camel who is Fire/Ground (forget name, evolves into Camerupt).

It's up to you who you prefer.
Swampert is perhaps the best for clearing the game, yes.
But you shouldn't care about it too much, only about what's after the League.
He gets a stabed earthquake?
And Blaziken gets a Blaze Kick stabbed, so..?

[North]

I haven't played Ruby or Sapphire, but I have gone Emerald a few times, using each starter.

Torchic is cool, but I don't like the combination of Fire and Fighting in the same Pokémon. It just doesn't seem right to see this thing weak to Flying and Psychic types, as well as Water and Ground.

Treecko isn't too bad, but I seemed to have struggled the most with it. A pure Grass isn't bad, but it's just tough to work with, like Charmander is R/B/Y.

I've had the best success with Mudkip. Ground and Water eliminates the threat of Electric attacks, makes it especially threatening to Fire types, gives it a fighting chance against Flying types and if you give it an Ice-type attack, it becomes a threat to Flying types and Ground types (I think)!
My Swampert right now (Level 55) knows Hyper Beam, Blizzard, Earthquake and Surf and is not only one of my best, but a force to be reckoned with (next to Rayquaza, of course).

What I'm basically saying is if you're still unsure, go with Mudkip. All around, it rocks.

[TobiasX]

Swampert is the best ingame poke, no matter the version. It has one weakness- Grass. And guess what? There are no tough Grass trainers in the game. It also can use Surf (no need for HM slave), gets STAB'd Earthquake naturally, and can tackle 3/8 Gyms by itself. Pick up a Tailow to make the early game SUPER easy.

If you go for S.ATK Swampert, you can teach it [Ice Beam] to destroy any Grass pokemon it encounters. Best game-clearer, at Level 56 mine was able to wipe out the ENTIRE Elite-4 AND the Champion by itself.

[Near]

I haven't played Ruby or Sapphire, but I have gone Emerald a few times, using each starter.

Torchic is cool, but I don't like the combination of Fire and Fighting in the same Pokémon. It just doesn't seem right to see this thing weak to Flying and Psychic types, as well as Water and Ground.

Treecko isn't too bad, but I seemed to have struggled the most with it. A pure Grass isn't bad, but it's just tough to work with, like Charmander is R/B/Y.

I've had the best success with Mudkip. Ground and Water eliminates the threat of Electric attacks, makes it especially threatening to Fire types, gives it a fighting chance against Flying types and if you give it an Ice-type attack, it becomes a threat to Flying types and Ground types (I think)!
My Swampert right now (Level 55) knows Hyper Beam, Blizzard, Earthquake and Surf and is not only one of my best, but a force to be reckoned with (next to Rayquaza, of course).

What I'm basically saying is if you're still unsure, go with Mudkip. All around, it rocks.
Well, your Swampert isn't exactly great, using a poor attack like Hyper Beam
[And Blizzard isn't that great, either] and mixing Special and Physical.

I won't even talk about Ubers/Legendaries right now if I don't want some warning.

Swampert is fine. Competive play, he's perhaps the worst of the three,
for the Badges he's perhaps the best.

[North]

Well, your Swampert isn't exactly great, using a poor attack like Hyper Beam
[And Blizzard isn't that great, either] and mixing Special and Physical.

Swampert is fine. Competive play, he's perhaps the worst of the three,
for the Badges he's perhaps the best.
I never said it was great. It works for me though.

I don't play competitively, I just play around on the GBA. I just go for the badges and the fun of the game.

[Darkness Anthem]

No, I think Blaziken is the worst of the three competitively speaking besides being a Skarmbliss counter. Has below average speed for a sweeper and is weak to a fair deal of things. Flying, Psychic, Water and Ground all see a fair amount of play.

Swampert has defensive stats of 100/90/90 I believe, with 110/80 or so Atk/SpAtk and the crappy 60 speed. However, this also lets him use Curse effectively, somewhat similar to Snorlax (albeit not quite as good). He also gets STAB'd Surf and Earthquake and can tank well. He is weak only to Grass, and the only Pokes that use those are Electrics (Hidden Power) and Sceptile. I won't mention Sunnybeamers as they aren't so great (Exxegutor being the best one IMO).

Sceptile is cool, and is probably the most balanced of the three.

It is also good to choose the starter depending on which game you're playing. In Ruby with team Magma you see more fire types on trainers, so Swampert is the most natural. Sceptile is good for Sapphire since it owns team Aqua, and gets Thunderpunch in Emerald. Again Blaziken is cool but probably the worst of the three, at least in Ru/Sa it can sweep the Elite 4. In Emerald Blaziken loses even that advantage. Of course you can bring a good Electric to compensate for that (*cough cough Maggy*).

So yeah, for just the game, Swampert all the way.

[E-hero Cyber Wingman]

When I start a game for the first time, I always pick the water.
Next game is usually to test the most over-hyped, and then to use the last one.
The only starter I like to use is Sceptile though.

I also choose water in all the games.they are cool specially ponchama:D

[StealthoftheWest]

Er...

Get Mudkip. It's by far the best starter, out of all of the three generations.

However, if my calculations are correct that will change in the fourth generation.

[Darkness Anthem]

Enperuto is good, and so is Goukazaru. Dotaitos is cool, but I have problems with a poke designed to tank having so many weaks. I assume you think Enperuto is the best? Water/Steel is pretty nice.

[dado90]

I always have trouble picking a starter. How do you decide what starter you get for emerald ruby and saphire? Which one do you get?



i don get wats so hard, de all 3 of de starters have got a weakness so derez no point havin trouble in pickin 1.

[Elemental-Anime]

I chose Treecko but I'd go with Torchic. Torchic's most difficult to use but interesting at the same time. I regret have my Sceptile...=.='

[swampertkills]

The best is DEFINITELY swampert,
second blaziken,
and last no second thought sceptile.

[murph]

It’s always best to pick water. Here’s why: in the earlier games you had to battle your rival. Well he always took the pokemon that was your starters weakness. The reason I always picked squirtle or todidile because I could always teach him icy wind or ice beam when they were blastoise or feraligatr. This way I’d have an advantage over my rival’s. Besides, Swampert has the advantage of being part ground, so that eliminates his electric weakness. Water is definitely to go… pick mudkip.