Starter Pokémon, or Starters, are the Pokémon a trainer chooses at the beginning of their Pokémon journey.
In each generation of Pokémon games, a set of Starter Pokémon are available for new trainers to choose from in sets of three; the types that make up these sets are Fire, Grass, and Water. However, Pokémon Yellow is currently the sole exception to all the above, with Pikachu as the only starter available to the player.
All starter Pokémon except Pikachu have a 12.5 chance to be female and a 87.5 chance to be male.
With the exception of Pikachu and Eevee, all starter Pokémon are the same types: Grass, Fire, and Water.
Bulbasaur is the only Starter to be dual-type in basic form.
All known Grass-type starters are based on pre-historic creatures and evolution. Venusaur has legs that lift it off the ground (a characteristic of dinosaurs), Meganium is based off a Apatosaurus, Sceptile is based of a Dilophosaurus, the Snivy-Serperior evolution represents the loss of hind legs (the transition from dinosaurs to snakes), and Chespin is based off the first mammal, the Megazostrodon. Also, each have a type of plant on their bodies which grows bigger through evolution.
Most Fire-type Starters' final evolutions consist of two types. The only exception is Typhlosion.
Ash has captured all known Starter Pokémon, with the exceptions of Eevee, Torchic, Mudkip and Piplup.
Ash has captured all of the Starters from Kanto, Johto, and Unova.
Ash has caught all the Grass Starters.
With the exception of Torchic, Ash has caught and evolved all of the Fire-type Starters at least once.
All the Starter Pokémon have a common color on their bodies. Fire starters have red, Water starters have blue, and Grass starters have green.
Oshawott is the only Unova Starter that does not have 5 letters in its name.
In Sinnoh, Torterra, Infernape, and Empoleon all have a super effective typing against the other. Example: Torterra is part Ground, Infernape is part Fighting and Empoleon is part Steel.
In Johto, the Starters stay pure Fire, Grass and Water types throughout their evolutions. They never gain a new typing.
All Water-type Starters are based on aquatic creatures (turtle, crocodile, mudskipper, penguin, otter, frog).
Starter Pokémon have unique special abilities: all Grass Starters possess the ability Overgrow, all Fire Starters possess the ability Blaze, and all Water Starters possess the ability Torrent.
However, Pansage and Simisage have Overgrow as their hidden ability, Pansear and Simisear have Blaze as their hidden ability and Panpour and Simipour have Torrent as their hidden ability.
Except for Pikachu and Eevee, all the Starters in any form can learn the ultimate attacks. Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treecko, Turtwig and Snivy can learn the ultimate Grass attack Frenzy Plant. Charmander, Cyndaquil, Torchic, Chimchar and Tepig can learn the ultimate Fire attack Blast Burn. And Squirtle, Totodile, Mudkip, Piplup and Oshawott can learn the ultimate Water attack Hydro Cannon.
However, both Eevee and Pikachu can learn what can be called the ultimate attacks in there respective type in any form. Pikachu can learn Volt Tackle, and Eevee in one of its evolved forms, can learn Hyper Beam.
The starters also have the Pledge moves that are exculsive to them: Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Treecko, Turtwig and Snivy have Grass Pledge, Charmander, Cyndaquil, Torchic, Chimchar and Tepig have Fire Pledge and Squitle, Totodile, Mudkip, piplup and Oshawott have Water Pledge.
In Pokémon Colosseum, the player starts out with an Espeon and Umbreon, while on Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, the player starts off with an Eevee. However, these games are not part of the main series.
Pikachu is the only Starter that has a pre-evolution.
This pre-evolution is Pichu.
However, in the game that Pikachu is the starter, Pichu didn't exist.
Bulbasaur, Eevee, Chikorita, Mudkip, Turtwig, and Tepig are starters that stand on four legs, others stand on two legs.
From Generation III to Generation V all Fire-type Starters are part Fighting-type in their secondary and third evolutionary forms.
The rival trainer you come across will always pick your Pokemon's weakness, with a few exceptions.
Thus far, all Fire-type starters have a flame somewhere on their bodies by their final evolution. Three of them, Charmander, Cyndaquil, and Chimchar, have such a flame from the beginning.
In the first five Generations the vast majority of fully evolved Fire type starters end up duel type with Typhlosion being the sole exception, however three out of five Grass type starters and three out of five Water type starters never gain another typing
Starting in Generation III with Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald the starters began to be obtained outside the resident professor's lab with Hoenn having the player save Professor Birch from a wild pokemon by picking from Treecko/Torchic/Mudkip in his briefcase, the wild pokemon was a Poochyena in Ruby/Sapphire & a Zigzagoon in Emerald. For Generation IV in Diamond/Pearl the Player & their rival find Sinnoh's starters Turtwig/Chimchar/Piplup inside a briefcase left behind at Lake Verity's shore by Professor Rowan, though in Platinum Dawn/Lucas returns it to Rowan shortly after he stops them from walking into the tall grass just outside Twinleaf Town giving them out on the spot. In Black/White Professor Juniper delivers a present to the players house containing the starters Snivy/Tepig/Oshawott. Black/White 2 had Bianca giving them to the player in Aspertia City, their home town, from inside a container. In Kalos the player recieves one of the regional starters, Chespin/Fennekin/Froakie, from a kid named Tierno in Aquacorde Town at an outdoor table along with several other kids, & they also get a Kanto starter from Professor Sycamore.
