Which Sword and Shield starter is the most useful for in-game playthroughs?

Question

Which Starter is more useful?
Seems Cinderace has a strong move—pyro ball.
And Inteleon has a strong special sweeper stat...
And Rilapoom almost sweep all the gyms...

Comments

It's Rillaboom.

Answer 1

Overall, I would say Inteleon is the most useful starter. It has the great stats of 125 SpA and 120 Spd. Great stats to sweep. It covers the gyms of Kabu Gordie (If you have Sword). As a bonus, you can cover Leon's Charizard as well which is very useful. Also, it learns great coverage coverage moves, albeit by TM/TR. These moves are moves like Shadow Ball, Air Slash and Ice Beam. This is just my opinion, but it is really up to you.

Comments

I played Shield and I used Grookey.  It worked fine for me, but just make sure you carry a Water Type like Drednaw to counter Leon. You have a fun time with Kabu, but just carry other Pokémon is the best advice I can give.  Feel free to choose Grookey.  I didn't have a Water Type and I died to Leon's Cinderace and Charizard.

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In Pokemon Sword, I chose Rillaboom, and yet I didn't have a Water-type on my team, and still beat Leon's Charizard without Dynamaxing. I gotta say, very hard fight, but if you're Pokemon are used correctly it can sweep Leon's team.

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thanks for the message！

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I would say if you choose grookey than make sure you get drednaw or barraskewda as drednew destroys leons charizard but will die to max overgrowth soo... but barraskewda, with its insane atk and sdp will prob one shot cinderace and charizard.

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My inteleon shredded through Leon :)

Answer 2

For in game I would say Rillaboom actually. My favourite is Cinderace but here’s why. Your first gym is grass, where attacks will be not very effective on (hopefully) Thwackey and just deal out damage. On your second gym, you have offensive advantage. By your third gym you will have caught your team some fire counters. Cinderace is good as it will be easy for first gym but it will disadvantage you for the second. Inteleon will disadvantage you at first but will prove useful during late game. So still, your choice.

Comments

The third gym is one of the hardest gyms to beat for beginners, you could catch Rolycoly, but I think you would still need to train it.

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I almost lost to Kabu, but revived my Corvisquire and beat his now-back-to-normal Centikorch with Plucks.

Answer 3

It depends on whether you are playing Sword or Shield, since the fourth and sixth gyms use different typings: Fighting and Rock for the former and Ghost and Ice for the latter.

If you're playing Sword, I suggest selecting Sobble as your starter. The Sobble line only has two major battles to worry about, that being Milo and Eternatus, while also being effective against Kabu, Gordie, Raihan with Ice Beam except Duraludon, and Leon's entire team aside from Rillaboom.

As for Shield, I'd rather suggest Scorbunny. The Scorbunny line struggles with Nessa, Eternatus, Gordie if you're playing Sword, despite its Fighting-type coverage, and Raihan, but bulldozes through Milo, Opal with Iron Head, Melony aside from her G-Max Lapras and Eiscue to an extent, due to its Ice Face ability, Piers with Fighting-type moves and Chairman Rose's Steel-types.

For the Grookey line, though, I would only recommend them if you're looking for a challenge, since Rillaboom, despite being effective against the first two gyms, Gordie, if you're playing Sword and Raihan to an extent, starts to struggle more as you progress further into the game, because its five weaknesses become more subceptible later on and makes Champion Leon more of a challenge, due to having two Fire-types instead of just one.

Overall, I would say Inteleon is the most useful, followed by Cinderace, and finally Rillaboom.

Answer 4

Rillaboom sweeps the whole gym and has extremely high Attack and a good physical tank and lot of HP but has poor Speed and Sp. Def.

So many people choose this guy, just make sure you don’t switch this guy to a Sp. Attacker

Cinderace kicks people’s butt hard, has good speed and has a amazing move: Pyro Ball with a base power of 120!

But Cinderace does not sweep well in gyms.

Inteleon has very high Sp. ATK and Speed, however, it is not the same as Greninja, with it’s Attack very low, it does not look good but pretty good is competitive battles.

Comments

Inteleon is the worst of the three for competitive. Rillaboom is ou, cinderace ubers, and inteleon is like nu

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Why is this flagged?

Answer 5

Inteleon is the best, for some reasons:
1. It has a water typing, the most defensive type among the three (it has 2 weaknesses, compared to 3 with Cinderace and 5 with rillaboom) and it has a 125 base sp.atk while having 120 speed, allowing it to outspeed lots of Pokemon
2. Paired with a rookidee and a yamper, this guy can destroy almost any gym!
3. In the later part of the game, you could switch Inteleon's ability to Sniper, which increases the power of critical hit moves.

Cinderace is also kinda good too, when paired with Barraskewda and Tsareena, can do a sweeping trio that can also destroy anyone else just as well.