Which starter is best for a nuzlocke in HGSS?

Question

I wanna play a Pokemon nuzlocke in the Johto region but I don’t now wich starter is beast. I like cyndaquill the most but I don’t wanna lose him when I fight Whitney’s miltank.
Also please tell me With which it will be easier to win in like baby difficulty couse is my first nuzlocke.

Comments

Typhlosion and Feraligatr are roughly equally good for regular gameplay. Typhlosion is generally better for early game (because flame wheel and fire blast), and Feraligatr is generally better for late game (because less weaknesses and better coverage moves). I don't know which one would be best in a Nuzlocke.

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Generally, Fire types are rarer so you should pick the Fire starter. You can get good Water types like Gyarados and Tentacruel, but your Fire options are usually inferior. I don't know enough about HGSS Nuzlockes to know if Typhlosion is an exception or not, though.

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I'm glad all the answers so far unanimously agree chikorita is trash for nuzlocking.

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@Luscinia Chikorita is trash for nearly everything. Period

Answer 1

The nuzlocke authority among the community, Jan aka Pokemon Challenges, always advocates to always pick the fire starter because fire types are rare and very good, water types are abundant, and grass types are just trash. At least in official games because things change up a lot when playing rom hacks

HGSS falls under that category because Meganium is like the single worst starter among all the starters. Feraligatr, while being good, is often times just completely outclassed by Gyarados, which is a guaranteed encounter in this game and it's even shiny. Gyarados is the single best Pokemon in any nuzlocke game and I know that from my own experience in nuzlockes. Even in Hoenn where Swampert is really insane, Gyarados still gives it a run for its money as the best water type. It can really save your ass with its stats, early evolution and intimidate. That just leaves discount Charizard as the only one that isn't trash nor completely outclassed

According to these threads on reddit, it's either a toss up between Cyndaquil and Totodile and many users do say that using Chikorita is just straight up making things difficult. Given that Gyarados is a guaranteed encounter, you might as well use Cyndaquil as it is the optimal strategy. Don't worry too much about Miltank. The only reason that thing seems hard is because many were kids when they first fought her and kids don't really have the best grasps on strategies. I don't think it is super hard to find a fighting type and I believe you can even guarantee a Heracross in this game, I just can't remember how. If you have Heracross, make Whitney cry so much even god himself will envious that her tears surpassed the flooding he ones subjected the world to

Comments

I think it's worth mentioning that you can guarantee the level 50 Magikarp encounter on Route 43 by using repels.

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sumwun is the official spokesperson for level 50 magikarp everywhere.

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The world needs to know.

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Okay, two things. First of all, why tf is there even a level fifty Magikarp in the game? Second of all, why would anyone use that Magikarp? You'd have to spend like a month's worth of salary of heart scales to reteach all the moves when you evolve it?

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If he thinks fire types are good when there are so many fighting and flying types in every game, then he's an absolute noob.

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@Mangy It really just needs to relearn dragon dance. Strength, surf, and waterfall are all HMs, and ice fang is completely optional when it's level 51.
@ejokuri Fighting and flying are completely neutral to fire.

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@sumwun I think ejokuri is talking about how Fighting + Flying covers everything that Fire does. Even so, I’d think that Cyndaquil is still the best option.

Answer 2

I will start this by saying it definitely isn't Chikorita. It has poor type matchups against 5/8 gyms, as well as Team Rocket. It's shallow move pool and bad defensive typing also doesn't help it at all.

Now that the trash is out of the way, we can debate real nuzlocke starters.

Cyndaquil is a solid choice, being fast to evolve and with good Sweeping stats and access to powerful STAB moves by level up, such as Flamethrower, Lava Plume, or potentially Eruption. It has a relatively easy time early game Clearing through Sprout Tower and Bugsy usually singlehandedly, and transitions well enough into late game, having only 2 true hard matchup, being Lance and Clair. It's flaw come from its also shallow move pool, making it more so just a 1 trick pony.

Totodile, in my opinion is the best starter for a nuzlocke in this vacuum. Water Typing alone makes it more viable then the other choices, considering this gens lack of a Grass or Electric specialist, As well as the generally weak selection of those typings available in this game. It can hit just as hard as Typhlosion late game with much better bulk for survival. But what really sets it apart from the other two is it's superior move pool. Capable of learning Bite and Ice Fang Early and Fighting/Ground/Rock coverage in the late game.

The caveat is their are so many good Water Types available, Namely Gyarados, Quagmire, and Tentacool to name a few. Gyarados in particular, is essentially a more powerful version of Feraligatr, filling all the same niches that Feraligatr does while having a superior ability and more powerful stat spread.

Typhlosion is much harder to replace, Fire types are often rare in the wild,and the selection this game isn't all that great with Ninetales, Rapidash, and Magmar, but if your playing HG, you can get access to Arcanine, a more well rounded Fire Type with better abilities.

TLDR while Totodile itself is a bit better then Cyndaquil, the wide array of good Water types available mitigates its advantage slightly. If you want your team to have a fire type, Cyndaquil is the answer, if you don't need a fire type, Totodile is the answer.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Cyndaquil
Cyndaquil is neutral against Falkner, but beats Bugsy and his beautiful Bug types, which is good because his Scyther is deceptively dangerous. As do all starters, it struggles with Whitney and her vile cow, but is neutral against Morty, as well as Chuck, but struggles against his Poliwrath. It will do good against Jasmine for the first part, but her Steelix needs something else to take it down. It also struggles against Pryce, and against Clair. In the Elite 4, it struggles against Will due to his Waters, and beats a good chunk of Koga's team. Bruno isn't a great matchup with the Rock coverage, and it does pretty well against Karen. Finally, it struggles a good amount with Lance.
Beats: Bugsy, Jasmine, Koga, Karen
Loses to: Pryce, Clair

Totodile
Again, Totodile is neutral VS Falkner and Bugsy, and struggles with Whitney, but beats Morty with Bite. It is neutral against Chuck and beats Jasmine's Steelix and resists Pryce, but struggles against Clair. It does well against Will and Karen.

Beats: Morty, Jasmine, Will, Karen
Loses to: Whitney

We will not talk about Chikorita.

In my opinion, you should go with Totodile due to its' attacking power and movepool.

MrKensa

Comments

Instead of just Gym Leaders and Elite Four, what about comparing and contrasting their respective roles to other similar Pokémon? For example, Gyarados was mentioned as an effective replacement/improvement in place of Totodile in the other two answers, but Cyndaquil was regarded as being necessary due to the low amount of fire-types.