Chikorita, Bayleef, Meganium (HGSS)

Chikorita is a cute dinosaur-like Grass-type starter.

Location: New Bark Town

Stats and Evolution
Chikorita's evolutionary line has great defensive stats, as well decent offenses.

Chikorita evolves into Bayleef at Level 16, and then Meganium at Level 32. Has the most balanced evolution of Johto Starters.

Moves, Abilities and Typing
Chikorita will learn Razor Leaf quite early, at Level 6. This is great due to its good power (even late-game it's acceptable) and high critical-hit ratio. At Level 9, it gets Poison Powder, whose can be useful for a strategy that needs patience. At Level 12, it gets Synthesis, whose can be useful early-game since it's pretty difficult in these games to get money until 7th Gym, when we get Amulet Coin.

In its Bayleef stage, it gets Reflect at Level 18, great for raising party's physical Defense for five turns. At Level 22, it gets Magical Leaf, also a pretty good STAB move, whose never misses regardless of accuracy and evasion. However, has a normal critical-hit ratio.

After that, it will get nothing interesting until reaching its Meganium stage. Immediately after reaching its Meganium stage, it will get Petal Dance, one of most powerful Grass-type moves in the game. However, it locks the foe from two or three turns and then causes confusion. The confusion effect can be easily remedied with Full Heals, whose are easily obtained at this point of the game. At Level 40, it gets Light Screen, whose is exactly the opposite of Reflect (raises Special Defense for five turns).

Since the best level for challenging Elite Four is between 40 to 45, the next moves will be only obtained after it. At Level 46, it gets Body Slam, whose has great power and high chances to paralyze the foe. At Level 54, it gets Safeguard, whose prevents all status ailment. It appears useless, but can prevent annoyances from them. However, Safeguard TM can be bought in Celadon City, and is quite cheap. At Level 60, it gets Aromatherapy, whose heals all status ailment.

Since the best level for challenging Red is between 60 to 65, it probably won't get Solar Beam. However, it can obtain it in Goldenrod City. The Sunny Day TM, that removes the charging turn from the move, is obtained in Goldenrod City after defeating Team Rocket. This will also increase the power of Fire-type moves.

From TM and tutors, Chikorita hasn't many options. Headbutt is probably the best option until it gets Body Slam. It's pretty powerful and has acceptable chances to flinch. Strength is an option to cover some secret areas of the game, and is also quite powerful. Iron Tail is a coverage option, but only works well against Ice-types since Meganium loves challenging Rock-types. Hidden Power is a very viable choice, but is risky in-game since is very hard to identify the Pokémon IV's, especially if the Pokémon is obtained at lower levels. Return has 102 power with maximum friendship. Frenzy Plant is the Grass-type version of Hyper Beam. Recharging turn isn't too terrible due to its great defenses. The best option is definitely Earthquake, giving coverage for Fire, Poison and Steel-types, and hitting super-effectively Electric-types.

In Kanto, its movepool can be expanded. Giga Drain is pretty average, but saps the foe's HP. Grass Knot is an option for heavier foes, very common at this part of the game. At the end of the game, it can get Rock Climb, whose has mediocre accuracy, but can be useful for covering several areas of the game.

If you play at Battle Frontier, you can obtain some nice TMs. Toxic, obtained with 32 Battle Points, badly poisons the foe, great for strategies that need patience. Energy Ball, obtained with 64 Battle Points, is sligtly weaker than Petal Dance, but not locks the foe for a few turns nor causes confusion. The only good tutors are Seed Bomb and Outrage. Seed Bomb (obtained with 40 Battle Points) is the physical version of Energy Ball, whose can make Meganium a user of Swords Dance. The TM can be obtained in Goldenrod Game Corner at 4,000 coins. Outrage (obtained with 48 Battle Points) is very nice since it's only resisted by Steel-types, uncommon in-game.

Overgrow raises the power of Grass-type moves with less than 1/3 of HP. Generally useless in-game since we can easily heal our Pokémon with Potions.

Grass is a very weak type in Johto, especially due to vast amount of Poison and Flying-types.

Important battles
Chikorita's toughest time will be against the first two Gyms. Since the variety of types is sparse early-game, you'll have a very tough time with Chikorita. At least against the third it has neutrality, and can sturdy Miltank's attacks thanks to its nice physical Defense.

Chikorita has no natural disadvantage at the fourth Gym, though little can do since the Pokémon used in the Gym are part-Poison, and unaffected by Normal-type moves. This also happens against the sixth. Against the seventh, has defensive disadvantage, though there are a lot of Water-types in the Gym. There also a few in the eighth.

In Elite Four, it's destroyed by Koga, Karen and Lance, and the only worthwile matchups are against Will's Slowbro and Bruno's Onix.

Against your rival, it's destroyed against his whole team with the possible exception of Alakazam. Also has disadvantage against Team Rocket since it uses a lot of Poison-type Pokémon.

In Kanto, it has advantage in Pewter and Cerulean Gyms (in the order that we travel about Kanto in these games, these are the 5th and 4th, respectively), and also resists from Vermilion City (1st Kanto Gym). Despite this, has disadvantages in Fuschia and Cinnabar Gyms (3rd and 6th, respectively). In Viridian Gym, the only worthwile matchup is against Rhydon.

In the Elite Four rematch, its only worthwile matchup is against Will's Slowbro. Against Red, has natural advantage against Lapras and Blastoise, though both know Blizzard.

Conclusion
Chikorita is by far the most difficult starter to use in these games. Pick it only if you want a high-defensive Pokémon or if you feel confident to have a team that all Pokémon cover themselves the weaknesses.

Rating: 50%