What Is The Best Starter Pokemon In Ultra Sun And Moon

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are games that are given an alternate take on the Sun and Moon games. Basically, they aren’t sequels but both games are taking the same premise. It pretty much has the same characters, Pokemon, and everything else. However, we’re not here to discuss these games in general, but rather find the best starter Pokemon in Ultra Sun and Moon.

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This is always the age-old question whenever anyone starts playing a Pokemon game: What is usually the best starter to use? The usual answer is that it depends on your preference and playstyle because these games offer a certain balance. We will dissect why you may want to use one starter from the other. The three starter Pokemon in Ultra Sun and Moon are Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio.

Best starter pokemon in ultra sun and moon

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Details On the Best Starter Pokemon In Ultra Sun and Moon

Types and Evolutionary Line

To find out the best starter Pokemon in Ultra Sun and Moon, we have to understand their types and evolutions. That’s because a lot of starter Pokemon will gain a secondary type later on as well as some added things.

Rowlet

  • Rowlet from the start is a Grass/Flying-type. In a way, this is good because Grass-types are weak to Bug-types but the Flying-type nullifies the weakness.
  • It is also immune to Ground-type attacks.
  • Rowlet has resistances to Water and Fighting-types and it is very resistant to Grass-types.
  • It is unfortunately very weak to Ice-type attacks due to the fact that both Grass and Flying are weak to it.
  • Rowlet evolves into Decidueye being a Grass/Ghost-type. It maintains some of the typing charts but gets a new weakness which is the Ghost-type.

Litten

  • Litten starts off as only being a Fire-type so it has the basic weaknesses such as Water, Ground, and Rock.
  • It is effective against Grass, Bug, Ice, and Steel-types.
  • Later on Litten evolves to Incineroar which gives it a secondary type of Dark.
  • This also means that Incineroar’s Dark-type will give an added weakness to Fighting-types.
  • The good thing though is that it makes it immune to Psychic-type and resistant to Ghost-type.

Popplio

  • Popplio also starts off with a single type which is Water.
  • It is effective against Fire, Rock, and Ground-types.
  • It is unfortunately weak to Grass and Electric-types.
  • Popplio will evolve into Primarina which gives it the secondary type of Fairy.
  • Fairy-type can be very advantageous against Dragon-types as well as Fighting, and Dark.

Stats and Moves

These Starters differ when it comes to what they specialize in. The stats determine what is the best Nature to have and the play style to go for. Don’t forget about the Moves that they can naturally learn and the ones you can teach them.

Rowlet

  • Rowlet is pretty much a well-balanced stat Pokemon. It starts off with a lot of its stats around 50. It neither excels nor is incompetent in some aspects.
  • Even when it reaches its final evolution, its stats are pretty much well-balanced.
  • The thing is that a lot of its Moves deal Physical damage. In fact, it doesn’t have Moves that deal Special damage, and it’s Sp. Attack stats is almost the same as its Attack stat.
  • Most of the moves it learns are offensive and buffs.
  • They start from being Grass and Flying but later on Ghost moves are introduced due to its final evolution.

Litten

  • Litten starts off having the fastest Speed out of all three of them.
  • It also has high Attack and Special Attack stats but its defensive stats are average to low and its HP is the lowest out of the three.
  • However, when it fully involves into Incineroar, it has the highest Attack stat but its Speed drops.
  • The high Attack stat does benefit Litten and later on Incineroar’s Move list since they are majority Physical attacks.
  • Teaching it Moves can be a good idea since it learns a plethora of different moves of the Physical variety. You can teach it Thunder Punch, Bulldoze, Iron Head, Outrage, and more to give a versatile attack lineup.

Popplio

  • Out of the three Popplio is the one that has excellence when it comes to Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense.
  • It has average stats compared to the rest but the Special aspect is its appeal.
  • When it fully evolves into Primarina, you have something that can destroy enemies that have low Sp. Defense due to its stats. It can even survive a lot of Special based Moves.
  • A lot of its Moves relies on Special attack anyway so its stats are pretty much built for it.
  • Speaking of moves, a fully evolved Popplio can have Moves from Water to Ice, Fairy, and even Psychic. Two of those types being Psychic and Fairy are very reliable.

Pros and Cons

This is our last analysis to give you an idea which one of the best starter Pokemon in Ultra Sun and Moon for you to use.

Rowlet

  • Rowlet is pretty much the go-to Pokemon in these games when you want something well-balanced. This is good if you don’t have a preferred play style because you can just build a versatile team around it.
  • It is very strong at the beginning of the game since that a lot of enemies in Ultra Sun and Moon are either Grass or Bug-types where Rowlet can come in and annihilate them.
  • Despite having a well-balanced stat lineup, a lot of the Moves it has are Physical. Basically, that Sp. Attack stat isn’t that useful since you can deal damage with it.

Litten

  • Litten is pretty much your powerhouse Pokemon that can deal a lot of damage. It has good Speed and offensive stats in the field of Physical damage.
  • Unfortunately, it will somewhat struggle at the start of the game. You need to spend extra time grinding Litten because it won’t be as effective at the start. The farther you get in the game, the stronger it can be.
  • It does have average to low Special stats so you might get knocked out when you encounter a strong Water-type that has Special Moves.

Popplio

  • In terms of early game status, Popplio can be pretty average. Popplio can’t be as effective but it doesn’t become a burden. It can tank a lot of damages but the farther you get, the better it can be.
  • It is your Special Pokemon of choice when you want to deal heavy damage. The Fairy-type that it gains later on, can be very useful giving you access to a plethora of reliable Moves.
  • Popplio in its fully evolved Primarina form can be the most durable out of the three. Considering a lot of its weaknesses rely on Special attack, this can be reliable in that aspect when it comes to setting up the team.

Final Verdict

It is often stated that either Litten or Popplio is the best starter Pokemon in Ultra Sun and Moon. Rowlet just falls into that category where it is balanced and plain. You can just swap out a better Pokemon with it later on if you want to. The real deal would be going for the Physical route which would be Litten or the Special route which will have Popplio into the mix.

They both have minimal impact at the start but excels later on in the game. It still boils around how you want to play and keep in mind that situations may change. You may encounter a situation where you need to use another Pokemon that neither of these three can fulfill. Building a team to supplement your starter of choice is also a good way of thinking.



About Taichee

Taichee is the ultimate writer for Pokémon gaming enthusiasts. With extensive experience, he expertly delves into popular Pokemon game series and ROM hacks for GBC, GBA, and NDS, meticulously testing cheats and sharing general gaming strategies on Pokemoncoders.

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