With the third version, Explorers of the Sky, just around the corner, and the game mechanics being much better understood than when Time and Darkness came out in North America, now is the perfect time to check out which starters are worth it and which ones shouldn't be touched with a ten-foot pole. For the sake of completion, I'll be covering all the starters from all three versions, even if they're exclusive to a version or another.

Like with the main games, starters are given excellent stats, so you may want to keep them on your team even when they're not required. Legendaries have been significantly buffed in MD2 though (the legendary birds are especially exceptional), so they have competition that may be too tough for them to handle when it comes to a spot on your team. But your starter choice will still matter a lot, since the majority of the storyline dungeons disallow the use of team members on your first time through. So people who tend to say "you can pass over Treecko, Girafarig can handle Agility" have it wrong.

And yes, I know, a personality test determines your starter, and then you're given a random selection of possible partners. There are ways around that, though: it's easy to find how to rig the test in a certain Pokémon's favor, and then you do that over and over until the partner you want appears.

One last note: this is for those who aren't playing favorites. If you like Phanpy and want to use it, do what you want. This is for those who want to get the most out of the biggest choice in the game.

One last, last note: Protect is universal, and nice filler for anything, really, so I'm not going to mention it anymore. (Detect has 2 more PP here though, and the Treecko line and Lucario both get it.)

One last, last, last note (honest!): Don't use generators, that's cheating. Receiving WM codes from friends who found them legitimately is fine, though... and your best shot at finding those TMs you're looking for.

#001 - BULBASAUR

My personal favorite, and for good reason. Grass-types have access to an impressive array of excellent Grass TMs. First and foremost is Bullet Seed. In MD1 it was the most insanely broken move in the game, thanks to its ranged aspect and ability to hit multiple times. Chunsoft found out about it and nerfed its accuracy to oblivion in MD2. The result? It's not as gamebreaking, but even after that it's still one of the best killing moves in the game.

Other than that, Energy Ball provides a more reliable ranged alternative, with excellent power and accuracy to boot. Not quite as good as Bullet Seed overall, but still a great move to have. There's also Giga Drain that can be used for healing purposes. It doesn't quite obsolete the Oran Berry, because you need to be at melee range of an enemy, which can be dangerous. Still a great way to do melee damage and heal if you want to conserve your berries (and Overgrow is there for the risk vs. reward thing).

In Bulbasaur's case, being Poison-type gives it access to Sludge Bomb, another ranged move. You're going to want to find that one, as Bulbasaur lacks type variety when it comes to its good moves. Thankfully, because of Mystery Dungeon's mechanics type coverage isn't nearly as important as it is in the main games, but Sludge Bomb will still be your only good source of variety offensively. Oh, and don't even consider Toxic. It's devastating when used on you, but when you use it on the enemies it does next to nothing.

Of course, TMs are nice... if you can find them. So what can Bulbasaur play with until it finds them? Bulbasaur's biggest selling point is Sleep Powder, which sends enemies ALL AROUND YOU to sleep. It's obtainable at level 15, but you'll need to wait until Electivire's shop opens to actually get it, since in Mystery Dungeon you can only learn one move per level-up, and sadly Poisonpowder comes first. So wait until Electivire arrives, and then make sure you get it, and never take it off Bulbasaur, ever. It and Bullet Seed together eat through Monster Houses like nobody's business.

Offensively, there's Razor Leaf, a ranged move that offers a big chance of critical hits. Consider this Energy Ball's physical counterpart, except you get it naturally at level 19. Sweet Scent looks nice, since it lowers the evasiveness of all the opponents in the room, but you're better off just attacking, plus it takes a moveslot better used on something else. Synthesis looks appealing, but unlike Morning Sun and Moonlight, it only heals the user, not the entire team. Oops.

As for moves it gets after evolving, which comes after the entire story is done, you've unlocked the Marine Resort and recruited Palkia (the criteria may be different in Sky though)... you don't get anything. Petal Dance and Frenzy Plant are both garbage moves, and to make them look even worse they're in one of the most stacked types in the game. So on the plus side, you'll get everything you'll ever need without having to evolve.

Overall, you'll want to use it for Sleep Powder, since that's what sets it apart from all the other starters. If you feel you need something else more than Sleep Powder, like Treecko's Agility, then you can go that way. However, if you DO decide to use Bulbasaur, you'll want to use it as your starter, and NOT your partner, since it'll be the one doing most of the killing, especially in Monster Houses.

#004 - CHARMANDER

Unlike with Grass moves, there's not much to say here: Flamethrower is the alpha and omega of Fire moves. Heat Wave is better, since it hits every enemy in the room, but much more restricted in learnbase (odds are, they're not bringing tutors into Sky). So most Fire-types, including Charmander prior to evolution, Flamethrower is the go-to Fire move. Learned at level 34, or by TM. Whichever comes first.

Other than that, Charmander's big money move is Smokescreen, which induces the Whiffer status on your opponent, making its attacks miss for a few turns (can you say, awesome return on investment?) However, keep in mind that Cyndaquil starts with it, whereas Charmander learns it at level 10. Yeah, because the first two dungeons REALLY require you to use Smokescreen.

When it comes to non-Fire offense, Charmander has quite a few options... unfortunately, they're all melee moves, and TMs to boot. Whether it's Dragon Claw, Iron Tail, Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Shadow Claw or Rock Slide, you'll have to tough it out right next to your enemy. I recommend Aerial Ace for the perfect accuracy (even though the lack of PP is a problem), and Rock Slide for the flinch chance (30%, unchanged from the main games).

So at this point, you may wonder, what's the point of using it over Cyndaquil? After all, the latter has one other big advantage that we'll see later. Here it is, the big reason to use Charmander over Cyndaquil: it learns a lot of kickass moves once it evolves. There's Air Slash with its flinch chance, Focus Blast and Dragon Pulse as ranged killers (you should have found TMs by then), and the best of them all, Monster House destroyer Heat Wave at level 59. Roost is nice for healing too, though whether you want to use a moveslot for this rather than Oran Berries is your call.

Of course, you have to be willing to wait until the endgame to unlock your true potential... oh yeah, don't ever use Earthquake on anything, it hits friend and foe alike. And since even immunities only halve the damage in this game, you can't say "I'll use flyers and levitators" and get away with it.

This one you can use as starter or partner, though if you intend to abuse Smokescreen a lot you might want to be the Charmander instead of leaving it to the erratic AI.

#007 - SQUIRTLE

Water-types, Squirtle included, have been blessed with a trio of fantastic TMs all of them can learn: Water Pulse, Ice Beam and Blizzard. In MD1 Blizzard was a melee move that could cut corners, but in MD2 it's been upgraded to a move that hits all enemies in the same room. So feel free to walk all over those Monster Houses with your Water-type starter of choice. As for the other two, they're great ranged moves, Water Pulse with its chance of confusion, and Ice Beam with its impressive power.

However, that's all Squirtle really has. It has access to Iron Tail and Brick Break by TM, and... that's it. Evolving it to Blastoise gives access to the ranged Focus Blast and the flinching Rock Slide, and that's about it. So Squirtle will mostly rely on those three big TMs (given that it actually, you know, FINDS them). However, Squirtle has an advantage that's only matched by Piplup: access to Bubble very early in the game. That's right, as soon as you hit level 7 you can unleash ranged death on your opponents.

So that makes the most direct comparison the one with Piplup. But Piplup also has the Fury Attack machine gun for its melee needs. Another big difference occurs after evolution: it's either un-STABbed Focus Blast or STABbed Flash Cannon. The latter has better accuracy and more PP. Even with a less useful type, the Piplup line still wins.

Bottom line: Squirtle is the bottom feeder of the Water starters, just like it is in the main games. Don't use it.

#025 - PIKACHU

First things first, let's discuss things common to Electric types before looking at how Pikachu stacks up compared to its competition (that means you, Shinx).

First and foremost, there's the Thunderbolt TM. It's an area of effect move, which means it affects all enemies around the user. It's nice for crowd control, but perhaps the coolest part is being able to hit ghosts that are inside walls, something you will really need for later dungeons. There's also Shock Wave, a neat ranged move that never misses (like with all never-miss moves, though, you'll have to deal with the low PP).

Finally, there's Thunder Wave. Let's be frank: it's no Sleep Powder. Paralysis is a worse status than sleep in this game, as it doesn't last as long, and it doesn't completely immobilize the enemy, it just prevents them from attacking and makes any escape attempt much slower. That's versus something like Hypnosis, Sleep Powder sleeps everything around you on top of that. So if you want status, I don't care about the type difference, stick with Bulbasaur.

But in Pikachu's case, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as it also learns a ton of useful moves by level up. There's the aforementioned Thunder Wave at level 10 and Thunderbolt at level 26, but there's also Quick Attack at level 13, which not only has a two-tile range, but can also hit straight through an ally without being blocked by it!

There's also the amazing Agility at level 34, which increases the number of movements your ENTIRE TEAM can do in a turn by one. Each Agility lasts a few turns, and you can keep stacking them until you can do four movements per turn! This eats through Monster Houses and bosses very quickly, as you can imagine. But can it get any better? Yes, it does! Discharge, at level 37, hits every enemy in the room while sparing allies. Just like Heat Wave, in fact, but unlike with Charmander, you don't need to wait until evolution to get your hands on the goods.

Grass Knot (via TM) can help against tough Ground-types, as aside from Quick Attack all the must-have moves are Electric, and those deal only half damage, like with all so-called immunities. Grass Knot is melee, though, so it's purely here for type coverage reasons. And with all these goodies, no one cares about Brick Break, right?

Oh yeah, unlike the 12 traditional starters, the other nine have a variety of abilities that don't require low HP to be effective. Pikachu got a great deal with Static. Nice chance of paralysis whenever you're hit with a contact move or, more commonly, the standard attack. You're going to be dishing out lots of unexpected para, that's for sure.

Pikachu can be a great starter, but it's an even better partner, as then it makes full use of Quick Attack's traits, and it can feed you (and your whole team) some Agilities if you end up needing them. Shinx's rebuttal comes later, and it better be good, especially since unlike Pikachu, it's not available as a starter or partner in Time and Darkness.

#037 - VULPIX
(Not available as starter or partner in Time and Darkness)

Okay, I lied. Full immunities DO exist, but only thanks to certain abilities, like Flash Fire.

Now that that's out of the way... outside of the obvious Flamethrower, which is learned naturally at level 24, Vulpix has a few moves of note. The earliest one you'll see is Quick Attack, which I've talked about before. This makes Vulpix a solid choice for a partner.

There's also Confuse Ray, which will make enemies attack in any random direction. The 100% accuracy is very nice, but it's still not quite as effective as sleep to prevent enemies from attacking. I don't use it myself, but confusion always seems to last forever when I'm the one on the receiving end, longer than sleep even, so that's a nice plus. Unlike Bulbasaur's Sleep Powder though, it's single target, so while it's a solid choice to use on a boss, don't even think of using this in a Monster House.

You may be tempted by Will-O-Wisp... do NOT touch it. Burn is even worse than poison here, and that's saying a lot. Even when YOU're burned it's nothing to worry about, as natural HP regeneration will keep going, unlike when you're poisoned. Extrasensory's decent filler if you don't have anything better, but as it's melee, its effectiveness is somewhat limited.

On the TM side, the only worthwhile move is Dark Pulse. Just like Thunderbolt, it attacks all around you, and it's even super-effective against those dastardly ghosts that hide in walls for that extra kickass factor. There's Iron Tail for melee fighting, but it's just as unimpressive as its main series counterpart. The only move you might want to look at after evolution is Nasty Plot, but stat-up moves aren't quite as effective as in the main games (unless we're talking Agility or Rock Polish), so stick with offense and Confuse Ray.

So in a nutshell, the highlight of Vulpix's movepool is Quick Attack, something Cyndaquil and Torchic can both rely on. Reasons to use Vulpix over these two: Quick Attack is obtained much, MUCH earlier than with Torchic, you like Confuse Ray better than Smokescreen (longer duration vs. guarantee not to get hit is the basic choice here), and the presence of Dark Pulse. The other two have other nice things to offer though, so if you're playing Time or Darkness you're not missing out on the be-all-end-all Fire starter.

The starter vs. partner decision depends on whether you want to use Quick Attack (partner) or Confuse Ray (starter) more. Both are fantastic moves.

#052 - MEOWTH
(Not available as partner in Time and Darkness, not available as starter in Sky)

Covering everything else is going to be a lot easier if I start with the abilities, so let's do that, k? (As a reminder, Pokémon with two abilities will have BOTH, not one or the other.) What Pickup does is that it gives you a chance to find an item every time you start a floor, not unlike in the main games, replacing the end of a battle with changing floors. Technician is the ability you want to focus your attention on, though. It increases the damage of low-power moves significantly, and with Mystery Dungeon's damage formula you'll gain a LOT by sticking to these low-power moves. I don't know what the limit is, but I know for a fact that Pay Day, which has a power of 8, works, so anything at 8 or below should be fine. Now, I know what you're thinking... in short, the answer is, the damage formula used here makes power a lot less relevant than in the main games, so Technician is worth it that much more.

Now that that's out of the way, let's look at the moves. Fortunately, Meowth gets a bunch of cool moves by level-up. One move you DEFINITELY want on your side is Fake Out (as early as level 9, no less!). It works just like Quick Attack in this game, except you add a 35% flinch chance! Oh, and it's got STAB and is compatible with Technician, too. Fury Swipes (level 14)... well, it's your average multi-hit move, though unlike Bullet Seed it isn't ranged. Once again, STAB and Technician.

Bite has low power, a 20% flinch chance and an assload of PP, so you should definitely pick this one up. At level 6, what a bargain! Faint Attack never misses, but the PP is considerably lower, and a certain TM obsoletes it anyway, so stick with Bite. As for Slash and Night Slash, they may be appealing at first with the high chance of criticals, but their power is getting high, so I don't think they work with Technician... stick with Fake Out, Fury Swipes and Bite.

Speaking of TMs... Water Pulse is ranged and works with Technician. Shock Wave is ranged, never misses and works with Technician. (It's what obsoletes Faint Attack BTW, since it's ranged.) Other than that, you've got the ranged Shadow Ball, which has 13 power... definitely too high, stick with Shock Wave. Thunderbolt and Dark Pulse are also there for your AoE needs. Both are absolutely identical other than for the type, so choose whichever one you think you need more. (No Technician on these, sadly.) U-Turn would be cool, but Fake Out has the edge of STAB, Technician, AND flinch. Ouch.

Evolution gives... Power Gem and Nasty Plot. I'd say boo, but that would be complaining with a full stomach. You don't need anything more than what Meowth has. The starter/partned decision is made rather easy by the version restrictions... starter in Time and Darkness, partner in Sky. There.

#133 - EEVEE
(Not available as starter or partner in Time and Darkness)

What makes Eevee popular is its evolution variety... however, you'll have to defend yourself unevolved for a long time. A long, hard, harrowing time. Fortunately, Adaptability is there to strengthen your Normal moves, so you're not completely helpless. It's a good thing too, because Normal moves are the bulk of Eevee's movepool.

The one you absolutely want, of course, is Quick Attack for its slight range. (Note how I'm not talking about going through teammates? I'll get to that later.) At melee range, though, you'll want to conserve its PP and stick with the slightly more powerful Tackle, which just happens to have 30 PP, more than any other offensive move in the entire game. Sadly, that's it on the Normal side. No Fury Swipes or Fake Out like with Meowth.

Outside of the Normal type, once again, only two moves are worth using: Shadow Ball as your ONLY ranged move, and Bite for that flinch chance and high PP. Yep, that's it. Every single Eevee should run Tackle, Quick Attack, Bite and Shadow Ball without any exceptions.

I said it wasn't available as a partner in Time and Darkness, but it might as well not be in Sky either. Make no mistake, Eevee makes a HORRENDOUS partner. Why? Because of Run Away. That ability makes it so Eevee automatically starts running away from everything at low HP, you have no control whatsoever over it, and so on. That, of course, makes it vulnerable to any ranged move from a Pokémon that's at the other end of the floor (and a few melee ones too, since the fleeing AI is far from perfect), and your Eevee's dead before you even know what happened, and your expedition ends there, and you lose items and money unless another player rescues you. Believe me, you'll want Eevee to stick with you even at low HP, and even if you WANTED it to run away, there's a command for it. Run Away makes you completely lose control over your teammate when it's about to die, and that's worse than anything.

So if you want to use Eevee, make it your starter. Heck, I don't know why you'd use the thing in the first place other than because you like it, because make no mistake, it's a pathetic starter. There's worse, but most important, there's better. Stick to Meowth in the Normal department, or maybe Munchlax too.

Oh, the Eeveelutions? Here's a really quick rundown of the good moves you'll be able to play with once you've finally evolved:

Vaporeon: Water Pulse, Aurora Beam (better than Ice Beam), Blizzard

Jolteon: Double Kick (attacks twice at melee range), Pin Missile (attacks 2 to 5 times from a distance, like Bullet Seed), Thunder Wave, Agility, Thunderbolt, Shock Wave

Flareon: Flamethrower

Espeon: Swift, Psybeam, Morning Sun (heals the entire party by an amount determined by the weather)

Umbreon: Confuse Ray, Moonlight (same as Morning Sun), Mean Look (status inflicted is a souped-up paralysis), Dark Pulse

Leafeon: Bullet Seed, Giga Drain, Grasswhistle

Glaceon: Ice Shard, Icy Wind (better than Ice Beam AND guarantees a speed drop), Blizzard, Water Pulse

So your hard work is at least rewarded by the possibility of getting awesome moves in return. Except for Flareon, which gets shafted. Again. I strongly, STRONGLY suggest that you go down the Electric path. Unless you already recruited an Eevee in Mystifying Forest and evolved it by that point... couldn't blame you for that.

#152 - CHIKORITA

As I've already mentioned in Bulbasaur's blurb, all Grass-types get Bullet Seed and Giga Drain (as well as Energy Ball if you want it for some reason, like not having found Bullet Seed yet). So what does Chikorita have to offer? Well... not much. It's a monster in the very early going, though, as it gets Razor Leaf at level 6! That's right, a very solid ranged Grass attack on your first level-up!

However, it goes downhill from here. Poisonpowder inflicts a horrendous status on only one target, and aside from the Toxic TM you're not gonna get any better when it comes to status, so you better leave that to Bulbasaur. Synthesis is cool in the early going, when your max HP is still pretty low, but as you move on it'll grow to be useless, even compared to the consumable Oran Berries. If only it could heal the entire team like Morning Sun and Moonlight... Reflect is unfortunately not that interesting, as is Light Screen, and Magical Leaf I don't consider to be quite as good as Razor Leaf. The only other move you may want to consider before Aromatherapy is Body Slam... until you realize the paralysis chance has been halved from the main games, to a paltry 15%.

Now, Aromatherapy is what sets Chikorita apart from the rest of the field (the awful Skitty notwithstanding). Healing your team's statuses is awesome... you'll really want to have that when your team inevitably gets nailed with the incredibly gamebreaking Perish Song. I say gamebreaking even with the horrible accuracy, because my heart stops every time a Politoed uses it, and with four targets odds are it'll nail one. Heal Seeds and Aromatherapy make short work of that, though. But I digress... it REALLY is a helpful move. The problem is, is it as helpful as Bulbasaur's Sleep Powder or Treecko's Agility? The answer is a resounding no. It's stuck in limbo between a pair of awesome Grass starters, so it's extremely hard to make a niche for itself.

Evolution, unfortunately, gives Chikorita nothing good. Just garbage like Earthquake, Frenzy Plant and Petal Dance. Lame. As for the starter vs. partner thing, Chikorita makes a better partner than starter. The reason is, of course, its one salvation, Aromatherapy. Your leader will be the one taking the brunt of the enemy's offense, including statuses. And you can't use Aromatherapy while you're asleep or paralyzed, so it's better to let your partner do the job.

#155 - CYNDAQUIL

Looking at its level-up list, its most direct competition appears to be Charmander. Both Pokémon learn Flamethrower in their mid-30s in case you haven't found a TM by then, and both get Smokescreen very early on (Cyndaquil even starts with it). But while Charmander only has a lot of melee attacks to go along with that (the variety is so high, though, it's not THAT much of a bad thing), Cyndaquil has two very useful Normal moves in Quick Attack and Swift. However, the latter shines a lot less once you get Flamethrower, so it's mostly Quick Attack.

On the TM side, Cyndaquil is a lot, and I mean a lot worse off than Charmander, presumably because it has to stand on all fours. Only Aerial Ace is present, and with the ranged Swift already there, there's no need for that. You may be thinking that Rollout looks awesome since it can attack up to 5 turns on the same turn, but that's only in theory. The move description says the damage increases with each hit, but I have NEVER, EVER seen such an increase. That makes Rollout somewhat of a copy of Rock Blast, only it stops hitting the moment you miss. And with 45% accuracy on each hit... you get the idea. Even Rock Throw would be better than this.

Cyndaquil gains a few noteworthy moves when evolving, the most important being the ranged Focus Blast. However, it's worth noting that all the final forms of the fire starters (sans Ninetales) get it, and Blaziken and Infernape even get STAB on it. So it's not a very good reason to pick Cyndaquil. On the melee side, you have Brick Break, Rock Slide and Shadow Claw... sadly, they're melee, so they're nothing more than filler. And you don't need me to tell you Blast Burn sucks balls.

The big reason to use Cyndaquil over its Smokescreen brethren Charmander is to be able to use Quick Attack. Otherwise, Cyndaquil loses out everywhere else, and when it comes to evolution Charizard owns Typhlosion through and through. It's your decision whether you want to trade overall superiority for Quick Attack. Naturally, that makes Cyndaquil a natural choice for partner, but you shouldn't ever consider it as your starter.

#158 - TOTODILE

Just like Squirtle, and just about every Water-type, Totodile has access to Water Pulse, Ice Beam and Blizzard. There, I said it. So what else does it have to offer? As Totodile, not every much. It does get access to Bite at level 13, and it is a handy move, with that 20% flinch chance and 19 PP. Rock Slide, which you get via TM, has a better flinch chance (30%), but it has six less PP and is slightly weaker (not that you'll notice that). I say stick with Bite's ammo clip, which is the main reason why you want it over Crunch as well.

One problem Totodile has compared to Squirtle and Piplup is that unless you find that Water Pulse TM fast, you're not going to be able to rely on a ranged Water move for a long, long time. Hydro Pump comes at level 43, but while it's one thing to be fashionably late, this is just plain too late. Rage, at level 8, is an interesting move that works much like in the main games, but Mystery Dungeon's mechanics mean you'll be more likely to get attack boosts. Unfortunately, said mechanics make attack boosts not as strong as in the main games, either. Nice filler early on, but you'll find yourself dropping it soon enough.

Scary Face acts sort of like a single Agility compared to only one enemy. While Agility is nice, its strengths are being stackable, working against everything and never failing. Scary Face has none of these (70% accuracy).

Thrash is garbage, stick with Scratch (for the PP) or Slash (for the criticals). If you still haven't found Water Pulse by the time you get to level 36... keep Water Gun. Better PP and accuracy than Aqua Tail dooms the latter. And finally, Superpower is a drawback move, and sadly, in this game, stat drops are much more noticeable than stat boosts. A few defense drops and suddenly moves that do 3 damage to you do in the triple digits. Don't touch any drawback moves in the entire game, even Draco Meteor.

Other than the big three, the TM pool isn't too hot either. There's the aforementioned Rock Slide, and there's also Iron Tail, Brick Break, Aerial Ace and Shadow Claw. All melee moves that can be nice filler while you wait for the better moves, but nothing more.

So right now Totodile isn't looking too hot, huh? After all, it's entirely reliant on TMs to do anything worthwhile, and while it has a better overall movepool than Squirtle, none of the goods are learned by level-up. Well, it becomes somewhat worth it when you turn it into a Feraligatr. Why? One word: AGILITY. You've suffered a lot in comparison to the Bubble users, and this one moves comes and makes it the best of the four final forms. You should've also found your big three by then, so you can get to rampaging. There's one thing, though: Pikachu and Treecko don't need to evolve to get it, and they can hold their own quite nicely. So you really need to think twice before picking Totodile for Agility as Feraligatr.

Agility coming after evolution doesn't necessarily mean you should use Totodile as your partner: once you've evolved, you'll never be forced into using your starter at the lead and your partner second, you can do the reverse. So it's up to you... but remember, only pick Totodile if you feel you can wait a long time for it to become worthwhile or you think you can find Water Pulse quickly.

#231 - PHANPY
(Not available as starter or partner in Time and Darkness)

Oh my god. What were they thinking, making this thing a starter? This is easily the worst of the lot, and you really need to be bad to topple Skitty and its horrible Normalize ability. Phanpy, through TMs and level-ups, only learns ONE move worth mentioning. The good news: it's at level 6. The bad news? It's Flail. FLAIL. Fortunately, Flail is a lot more useful here than in the main games. It deals almost as much damage as Tackle even at full HP, and damage grows pretty rapidly as your HP goes down.

It all goes downhill from here, though. I've already mentioned how much Rollout sucks, so let's leave it at that. After that... no, I can't even see something on its level-up list that one would even consider using. Endure can be a beginner's trap, but little more. You'll say, I'll rock with Flail if I can get down to 1 HP! And while Endure (and Protect and Detect as well) last a few turns instead of just one, there's a 25% chance of failure. So if you're about to die, use Endure and fail, the opponent attacks and you die.

As for TMs, you have Iron Tail and Rock Slide. That's right, even after adding two unimpressive TMs there's still one moveslot left. Unbelievable. I said I wouldn't mention Protect as it's universal, but you might as well use it to round out that moveset.

Even evolution isn't enough to save the Phanpy line here. Donphan gets another worthwhile offensive move, Fury Attack. W00t. All Grass starters, Piplup, Chimchar and a few others I might be forgetting get multi-hit moves before evolving. Heck, in Bullet Seed's case it's ranged, so suddenly using Phanpy because it gets Fury Attack as Donphan becomes as good an idea as sticking a fork in an electrical outlet. Yeah, so it gets a few more melee moves, like Poison Jab (by TM), Fire Fang, Thunder Fang and Stone Edge (the latter being outclassed by Rock Slide, no less).

However, what could be qualified as Donphan's main draw, Rock Polish, increases its own speed by two levels... sounds neat, until you remember Torterra also gets it, and Torterra actually has a few respectable moves before and after evolution. As for STAB, Magnitude and EQ are both horrendous, as I explained earlier, so let's do the math. Number of STABbed moves Phanpy and Donphan can use: zero. Number of ranged moves Phanpy and Donphan can use: zero.

Don't. Use. Phanpy. Ever. Even if you don't care which starter you get, please, RESET if you get Phanpy. If you want to play favorites and you like Phanpy best... I know I've said feel free to use your favorite before, but here's an exception, use your second favorite instead.

#252 - TREECKO

Bullet Seed, Giga Drain, Energy Ball TMs, yadda yadda yadda. This is getting old already. Oh, SWERVE! Treecko gets the last two by level-up, albeit very late, at levels 46 and 51 respectively. But fret not, for Mega Drain (level 26) is the superior draining move! It's a bit less powerful (once again, not that you'll really notice), but there's a LOT more PP to play with. Absorb (level 6) is good enough to play around with until then, too.

But that's not what Treecko's most famous for. While Bulbasaur is a terrific starter, Treecko's nearly unequaled as a partner, as it has Quick Attack (level 11) and Agility (level 31) as means to support you! Too bad you can't have both at the same time, since they're of the same type... oh well, Pikachu's every bit as good as Treecko and gets Quick Attack and Agility as well, so a Bulbasaur-Pikachu pairing can work wonders. But back to Treecko, all those goodies make the likes of Iron Tail, Aerial Ace, Drain Punch and Rock Slide utterly meaningless.

Evolution brings Treecko several moves, the most notable being Focus Blast and Dragon Pulse thanks to their range. But do you really need them with Bullet Seed around? I think not. Neither do you need Night Slash, X-Scissor, Leaf Blade, Dragon Claw, Brick Break and False Swipe.

That last one needs explaining. In the main games, it's used for making catching Pokémon slightly easier. Here, it works a bit differently. It has much, much more power than even the most devastating moves in the game, but it comes at a slight cost: you can't finish off anything with it, you'll have to knock your opponent out with a regular attack. The reason why it's pretty much useless is because as I said before, variations in the move's power are much less noticeable due to the different damage formula. Even with False Swipe towering over everything else, you'll be better served by something that can actually kill stuff.

Treecko has always been hailed as one of the best picks possible, whether it's by novices or experts, in MD1 or MD2. And with good reason.

#255 - TORCHIC

Like with all Fire-types, Torchic will mainly rely on Flamethrower for ranged STABbed damage. It gets it a bit later than the other Fire starters, at level 43, but it's still available as a TM if you can find it. Other than that, the only move that stands out is Quick Attack, which makes it a natural choice for a partner. It has another side effect, though: putting it in direct competition with Vulpix and Cyndaquil. Vulpix has Confuse Ray, Cyndaquil has Smokescreen. What does Torchic have to keep up?

Nothing. Nothing at all. Sure, it's got the token melee moves, like Shadow Claw and Rock Slide, and we can't forget Scratch and Peck and their bottomless PP either. Focus Energy sounds nice in theory, as it gives you guaranteed criticals for a few turns, but it doesn't last quite long enough to give you a significant edge over when you don't use it. Waste of a moveslot. So before it evolves, it loses out big time to Vulpix and Cyndaquil. (But it's available in Time and Darkness, so in those the advantage Vulpix has vaporizes.)

It's after it evolves that Torchic reaches a reasonable level of usefulness. The most important move it picks up then is STABbed Double Kick. It attacks only twice, unlike all these 2-to-5-attacks, but the accuracy is much better, which makes the damage output rival the likes of Fury Swipes and Fury Attack. I'd mention Bullet Seed, but it's ranged. Speaking of range, Focus Blast comes into play as well, and unlike Charizard and Typhlosion's versions, this one gets STAB, which is a big plus.

Of course, you also get melee moves like Stone Edge, which is outdone by Rock Slide, Fire Punch and Blaze Kick, made irrelevant by Flamethrower, Brick Break, worthless compared to Double Kick and Focus Blast, and Flare Blitz and Blast Burn, which you shouldn't touch with a flagpole.

All that makes Torchic a meh choice as a starter and a so-so pick as a partner, as its full potential will only be brought about by evolution, and even then it's not quite what Charizard or Infernape are capable of.

#258 - MUDKIP

I'll waste no time shilling the big three again, and go straight to the point instead: Mudkip is plagued with the same problem as Totodile, namely the lack of Bubble. However, Mudkip at least gets a very interesting way to try and make up for it the moment it levels up for the first time: Mud-Slap, which guarantees an accuracy drop when it connects. Repeated drops can be a very nice way to boost your survivability. Sure, the effect is inconsistent, but in drawn-out battles, such as bosses, you'll almost always notice the difference.

After that, Water Gun will be your melee attack of choice until you either find Water Pulse or get to level 42, at which point Hydro Pump will come around. If you haven't obtained Water Pulse by level 33, you may be tempted by Whirlpool, but you'll be trading power and accuracy for a 10% chance of immobilizing your opponent for a few turns. 10% is too low, stick with Water Gun. As for Bide, it's as terrible as ever, as you'll almost always deal more damage by spamming regular attacks than with Bide. TM-wise, outside of the big three, it's not so hot, with only the melee Iron Tail and Rock Slide. You might want the latter if you find it early enough though, as Mudkip's level-up movepool isn't that hot.

It's when evolution comes around that things get very interesting. You not only gain STAB on Mud-Slap, but also an arguably better alternative in Mud Shot. It's more powerful, but with a bit less PP, and the 65% accuracy leaves to be desired, but lowering your opponent's speed effectively gives you an Agility relative to that opponent. Remember what I said about Scary Face not being worth it? Here the accuracy's barely lower (65% vs. 70%), but you deal some nice damage and you have just one less PP.

As for Mud Bomb and Muddy Water, they have a decent chance of lowering accuracy... stick with Mud-Slap's guarantee and higher PP in Mud Bomb's case, and of course Water Pulse (or even Hydro Pump) trumps Muddy Water. Avoid Hammer Arm, as it lowers your speed. In this game, you want to avoid that at any and all costs.

Being able to stand on just two legs also gives Swampert access to two Fighting moves, the ranged and useful Focus Blast and the melee and negligeable Brick Break. Oh yeah, now is a fine time to point out that Avalanche is a clone of Bide in this game. Not good.

Overall, Mudkip is slightly better off than Totodile prior to evolution thanks to the useful Mud-Slap, and once you nab the big three you're in business. Evolution also gives it some nice toys, but not quite enough to counter Agility's awesomeness. It's basically a choice of before or after evolution: before Mudkip is better, after Totodile is. However, in the "before" department, Piplup is also an excellent choice thanks to its own toys.

#300 - SKITTY

Of course, the main point of comparison Skitty has is Meowth. To be honest, I don't think Skitty and Delcatty should've ever seen the light of day. Why didn't they just bring back Meowth and Persian in RSE is baffling, especially considering even without Technician the Meowth line is still leaps and bounds ahead of Skitty's in both power and popularity.

As for MD2, Skitty's movepool is very similar to Meowth, with the likes of Fake Out Thunderbolt, Shock Wave, Shadow Ball and so on, but it features several new additions. There's Sing and Heal Bell on the level-up side, and Ice Beam and Blizzard on the TM side. It does come at the cost of Dark Pulse, but Thunderbolt does the same job anyway, so it's a winning trade.

Fury Swipes isn't here, but it's replaced by the virtually identical Doubleslap. Same accuracy, same PP and just one less power (I DARE you to tell the difference). Assist is nice as novelty, but since Skitty has all the moves it'll ever need and then some, it's not worth spinning the wheel hoping you'll land on Agility. Wake-Up Slap is, as usual, a horrible choice, and while it does get Thunder Wave by TM, Sing's effect is just superior. It's only on one opponent though, so if you just want a sleeper stick with Bulbasaur. Evolving to Delcatty doesn't bring anything new at all, but what could there be? That movepool's already so huge to begin with!

So far, so good. Skitty looks to be on course to be among the elite starters in the game. But there's one factor that's significant enough to completely ruin that pretty picture. You guessed it, I'm talking about Normalize. It dooms any chance you might've had of landing super-effective hits, which is a tremendous blow to your damage potential. It's a good thing type coverage doesn't matter as much as in the main games, else Skitty would really be in trouble. On top of that, its rival Meowth has the formidable Technician ability, which it can whore out to make its own blows even more powerful. Cute Charm? Are you kidding me?

If you want to use Skitty, you have to play with the lack of super-effectives in mind, which may be too much to bear given that this is arguably the hardest Pokémon game ever made. But should you plan on using one anyway, I suggest using it as a starter, because a good and varied movepool is a good and varied movepool, no matter how much you can try to cover it up.

#387 - TURTWIG

No point in talking about the kickass Grass TMs by now, so I'll ask, what about other types? Zilch. Only Iron Tail at melee range, and it's hardly worth talking about. But even with the lack of TMs, a good level-up movepool will prove to be even better, as you don't have to find anything. Unfortunately, Turtwig's level-up moves are a slight notch ahead of Chikorita, but light years away from Bulbasaur and Treecko.

It does get Absorb very early, and Mega Drain at level 25, which remains the best draining move. Razor Leaf comes at level 13, giving Turtwig ranged firepower much earlier than Bulbasaur. It's later than Chikorita, but who cares? Chikorita's the worst of the bunch, and beating the worst isn't exactly a great thing to aim for. (The horn apparently is, however.) There's Bite with the chance of flinch, and that single-handedly relegates Crunch, which comes later, and the aforementioned Iron Tail to uselessness. I shouldn't need to mention it by now, but CURSE LOWERS SPEED FOR A FEW TURNS. DO NOT USE IT. And once again, Synthesis is there to taunt you with the single-Pokémon healing.

It's only when it evolves that Turtwig gets its hands on the thing that sets it apart from the rest. No, not Wood Hammer. Recoil moves suck, and they suck even more when there are so many godly Grass moves. Not Earthquake either. Not Rock Slide (as I said earlier, I prefer Bite for the extra PP). I'm talking about Rock Polish.

As I've said before in Phanpy's blurb, it increases the user's speed by two levels for a few turns. This sounds nice, and it really is. After all, sometimes some members of your team won't be able to exploit their Agility speed boosts, and if your leader is a Rock Polish Torterra, you'll get more bang for your buck. There are cases where Agility is better, so it's really a case-by-case situation. If you ask me, Agility's better, especially since your partners can feed them to you while you have to do Rock Polish yourself, but you'll like the latter sometimes nonetheless.

The big kicker, of course, is the fact that Treecko gets Agility BEFORE evolving, while Turtwig has to wait until after it has done so. While that still makes it better than Chikorita, you should consider the other two long before Turtwig. Starter or partner? Doesn't matter, because like Totodile, Turtwig gets its big money move after evolution, and by that point even if Turtwig was your partner, you can stick Torterra in the lead anytime once you're able to evolve.

#390 - CHIMCHAR

Once again, Chimchar sets out to fix what's wrong with Torchic. It's been an amazing success in the main games, but can it repeat? It does have a very appealing level-up movelist - outside of Flamethrower, which is obtained either at level 41 or via TM, whichever comes first, the crown jewel of Chimchar's movepool is Fury Swipes, which grants it that multi-hit move Torchic has to wait until evolution for. Sans STAB, unfortunately, but such is the price to pay.

Nasty Plot looks interesting at first, until you remember that not only are stat-up moves not as useful as in the main games, but a solid portion of Chimchar's (and Infernape's, for that matter) worthwhile moves are physical. Slack Off is excellent for nice, consistent healing - while it's single-target, once you get at high enough levels it will far outdo the pathetic Synthesis in clear weather.

As for TMs, Chimchar has everything Torchic has and then some. There's Iron Tail... pass. Brick Break is slightly more interesting, and Grass Knot can be nice against those pesky Waters, though be wary of the low damage against light Pokémon: that can offset the super-effective damage instantly.

However, that leaves Chimchar without Torchic's main asset, which is Quick Attack. *cue record scratching* ...wait, what? Actually, Chimchar also has something to that effect! That's right, U-Turn (via TM) is a Bug version of Quick Attack! So if you can manage to find the TM, then you've already nullified everything Torchic had over Chimchar! Now, finding specific TMs can be a hassle unless you have a friend with a WM code, but remember, Torchic also gets Quick Attack relatively late (level 28), so it's more of a moot point.

Upon evolution, Infernape pretty much gains the same things as Blaziken. No Double Kick though, but Fury Swipes, although slightly inferior due to lack of STAB and super-effectives, still covers the multi-attack base fairly well. So that pretty much means STABbed Focus Blast and Mach Punch as a U-Turn replacement is the one major thing to come out of evolution, along with all the melee junk I covered with Blaziken. If you've been following, Flare Blitz and Close Combat are terrible ideas, stick with Flamethrower and Focus Blast.

Overall, if you think you can get your hands on a U-Turn TM, there's absolutely no reason to use Torchic over Chimchar. I didn't know what U-Turn did back when I got the game (that was on release date, though, so I at least have an excuse), so I picked Torchic, but had I known that, I wouldn't have done that. That leaves Chimchar and Charmander as close contenders to the Fire starter crown. You'll want Charmander for Smokescreen early on and Heat Wave after evolution, otherwise Chimchar is a better pick with U-Turn and Fury Swipes, along with Mach Punch and STAB on Focus Blast after evolution.

Chimchar works well as both a starter and partner, though the latter will allow you to abuse U-Turn more. I suppose it depends on how confident you are that you'll find U-Turn to begin with... though even with U-Turn it makes a very nice starter, since you can also abuse offense like Fury Swipes whenever you like.

#393 - PIPLUP

Big three, blah blah blah. So other than that, Piplup is one of two starters that get Bubble very early on. That puts it in direct competition with Squirtle for your Water starter spot. (You also need to consider Totodile and Mudkip as well, but what these have to offer is much more different.) But as I said in Squirtle's blurb, getting Bubble early is all the little turtle has to brag about. Iron Tail and Brick Break aren't exactly worth gloating over, and while Piplup doesn't have the former, do you really care?

Meanwhile, Piplup has one move that should, if not secure its Water slot on your team should you want a Water starter or partner, at least completely annihilate Squirtle's chances. It's a melee move, but as you probably know by now, the only melee moves really worth talking about are those that either hit multiple times, or failing that, have a lot of PP (such as Peck, which Piplup also gets). Here, it's Fury Attack... ah hell, you know how things work, so let's move on.

Piplup can also learn several Flying moves, including Drill Peck, Aerial Ace and Pluck. Well, believe it or not, none of these are worth using. Stick with Peck's massive PP. Yeah, it's weaker, but you won't notice too much of a difference, especially at higher levels. Hell, even Peck's going to go down eventually once you start finding Ice Beam and Blizzard.

Evolution? Well, there's Metal Claw if you really, REALLY missed Iron Tail as Piplup. It's STABbed as an added bonus, but it's utterly pointless as Empoleon also gets the ranged Flash Cannon. Earlier on I compared it to Blastoise's Focus Blast, and crowned Empoleon winner due to STAB. Well, guess what? If I still didn't think so, I'd go back right now and change it, and clearly as you're reading this I haven't.

On top of that, Empoleon also nabs Aqua Jet for priority purposes. Let's see you do THAT, Blastoise! ...yeah, I know, egg move. But this is starters we're talking about, egg moves are off-limits. And even if we were talking about Pokémon born from eggs, getting the right egg moves is extremely unlikely to begin with.

But back to the topic at hand... if you were intending to pick Piplup solely due to post-evolution prowess, Feraligatr's the guy you want. But for pre-evolution purposes, Piplup is arguably the best of the four. And even if you like what Mudkip has to offer, Piplup actually makes the choosing easier by putting Squirtle out of the running entirely. Doesn't matter what you do with Piplup... starter, partner, same thing. The priority move comes after evolution anyway.

#403 - SHINX
(Not available as starter or partner in Time and Darkness)

So Explorers of the Sky finally brings some opposition to Pikachu as Electric starter. Well, let's see how it stacks up, shall we? Well, aside from the Thunderbolt and Shock Wave TMs, those are foregone conclusions.

The trouble starts right away, as Shinx gets its first STABbed move way later than the rest. Level 17, in fact. It's Spark... good power, fair PP, and 99% accuracy. Nice and reliable, at least for a melee move... too bad Chunsoft had to cut the para chance in half, to 15%. It DOES get Bite before that though, which is nice enough, I guess. The problem is that by the time Shinx reaches level 17, Pikachu will already have started rampaging with moves like not just Thundershock, but Quick Attack and Thunder Wave as well.

So after Spark come Roar and Swagger. Super. Then there's Crunch, which, as established before, is inferior to Bite. Thunder Fang looks nice with the flinch chance, but is in fact 11% less accurate than Spark. I'll stick with the latter for consistence. Scary Face, as mentioned before, isn't quite worth it even before factoring the shaky accuracy. You have to wait until Shinx's LAST level-up move, Discharge at level 41, to really see some degree of usefulness. Oh, did I mention Pikachu learns it four levels earlier? And will have had the time to pick up Thunderbolt (NATURALLY) and Agility since we last checked on it at level 17?

TMs, other than Shock Wave and Thunderbolt, are pathetic. Only Thunder Wave, which you might want considering that barren movepool, and lol Iron Tail. And believe it or not, it's STILL eons ahead of what evolution brings Shinx, which is... nothing. I wish I were kidding. Well, I am, if you REALLY enjoy Hyper Beam and Giga Impact.

Us Time and Darkness players really aren't missing out on much, because Shinx is everything Pikachu isn't. And unfortunately, that's not a good thing. And I don't care at which position you put it, it'll be terrible one way or the other.

#446 - MUNCHLAX
(Not available as partner in Time and Darkness, not available as starter in Sky)

With Skitty's Normalize practically meaning an instant disqualification, that makes Meowth the main competition for a Normal starter. But how well does it fare?

Just looking at the level-up list may make you press the panic button. It starts out with four moves, but only Tackle is worth it. Sure, playing with Metronome can be hilarious at times, but the game gets so hard so fast that you won't have much time to have fun hoping for Heat Wave or such. Plus you can also get stuff like Close Combat or Hammer Arm. Not good. After Amnesia, which you know you should pass over by now, you get Lick, which has quite a bit of PP and a 15% chance of paralysis. You'll want to stick with that one until you start finding the good TMs, which I'll get to later.

Recycle looks fantastic, as it allows to use the same TM over and over and over, so you don't need to find several copies of the same one. However, sticking it on your starter or partner is a terrible idea, because that's one less moveslot you'll have for battle situations. The one disadvantage to that point of view is that short of raising a Mime Jr. or a Porygon for a long while just for that purpose, you'll need to find a Recycle TM to give to some Recycle slave or other. I gave it to my Chingling, personally.

After that, there's nothing but junk I already covered for the most part. Body Slam isn't worth it: Tackle has much better PP. Wanna know how Swallow works? It heals 20 HP after one Stockpile, 40 after two and 80 after three. That's right, four turns and two moveslots for an effect that's inferior to an Oran berry. Rollout I already covered... so that leaves us with only Tackle and Lick in the level-up list. It's a far cry from Fake Out, Fury Swipes and even Bite.

Now, before moving on, I'd like to explain how Return and Frustration work, because surely you've thought of them by now, since they're such great Normal moves in the main games. Unfortunately, that isn't the case here. These two are fixed damage attacks here, and they deal between 5 and 45 damage depending on your IQ. That means in the late game, even if you manage to max out your IQ (or maybe even not increasing it at all), you can't hope to do more than 45 damage with these, while Tackle will deal a lot more than that, with two and a half times more PP.

Thankfully, the TM list puts Meowth's to shame. The cat can already play with Water Pulse, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse and Shock Wave, which is already fantastic, but here we add Ice Beam, Blizzard and Flamethrower. The first two are also obtained by Skitty, so if you feel guilty of passing over them because of Normalize, Munchlax is for you. Too bad that kickass level-up movelist is entirely gone, though. Munchlax also gets Psychic, Rock Slide and Brick Break at melee range if you really want to go there... which you shouldn't.

The one thing of note evolving into Snorlax brings to the table is Focus Blast, but as I've said before, when you start out with so many kickass TMs adding even more gets hard to do. I still want to mention how Belly Drum works, though. As usual, it maxes out your attack stat (somewhat pointless since all of your good moves are special), but instead of halving your HP, here your belly goes down to 1 (the move fails if your belly is 0 or 1, of course). That means if you want to use this consistently, you'll have to burn through a lot of apples. And as I just mentioned, you'll also have to pass up on all your good moves.

As for Block... don't. It prevents the opponent from moving, but not attacking. It's a reverse paralysis that lasts longer, but even the extra duration is meaningless, as attacking is the thing you want to prevent.

So, Meowth or Munchlax? Both have different moves to bring to the table (Fake Out and Fury Swipes for Meowth, Ice Beam, Blizzard and Flamethrower for Munchlax). However, Munchlax requires finding TMs to get good, while they're only a great complement for Meowth. On top of that, Meowth can abuse Technician like crazy, while Thick Fat will just be mildly useful to Munchlax. (It's worth noting that it acquires Immunity when evolving, which is great, as poison will tear you down pretty fast in this game.)

So even though Munchlax actually has a move that can hit every enemy in the room, Meowth still manages to be better. It doesn't make Munchlax completely obsolete though, so you can use it as well. And just like with Meowth, whether it's your starter or partner depends not on your own will, but by the version you're playing.

#447 - RIOLU
(Not available as starter or partner in Time and Darkness)

Last but not least, Riolu! I believe the little guy only got into the starting roster for Sky because of the sheer amount of people who wanted to use it in Time and Darkness. Every MD2 forum ever was flooded with "How do I start as Riolu?" topics, even though every piece of documentation ever said you couldn't. So with such big-time popularity, Chunsoft had to cave in. It was much the same for Eevee - people were pissed when it was removed of the starting roster in Time and Darkness.

Anyway, Riolu starts out with an incredible move right off the bat - Quick Attack! I can already imagine the people rushing to pick it as their partner. Unfortunately, Riolu's level-up list is quite short, and as such it only has two other moves you might want to use - Force Palm for the paralysis chance, and Reversal because, as I said with Flail, these two's damage starts out good and increases rapidly. But while Reversal has the chance for super-effectives as well as STAB, keep in mind that it's not nearly as accurate as its Normal brethren. And just like with Phanpy, combining it with Endure isn't the best idea.

Other than that... there's moves you don't even need me to tell you they suck for you to realize it. Counter, Feint, Screech, Copycat... not very good. So how about TMs then? Well, there are two you'll really want - Focus Blast and Drain Punch, the latter of which can be used in place of Force Palm, because healing is much more useful than a chance of paralysis. Other than that, you've got the expected melee extravaganza provided by Rock Slide, Brick Break, Shadow Claw and Iron Tail.

So right now Riolu's looking so-so, not very good, but not awful either. It's when it evolves that things get really interesting, since as we all know Lucario's movepool is just plain insane. Just by a visit to Electivire's you can nab Dark Pulse, Extremespeed, Dragon Pulse, Bone Rush and of course Aura Sphere. There's also two new TMs you may want to hunt down, namely Water Pulse and Shadow Ball. Psychic? No thanks.

Now, to explain some of these... Extremespeed is quite a bit stronger than Quick Attack, to the point where you might actually notice, and that increase comes at the cost of one solitary PP. Not bad. As for Aura Sphere, yes, it's weaker than Focus Blast, but the extra PP is extremely helpful, as is the part where it never misses. Bone Rush is one of those moves that attack two to five times... gimme gimme gimme. It's slightly less accurate than the rest, but more powerful on each hit, once again enough to notice.

Like with Totodile and Turtwig, Riolu really starts excelling after evolution, but it's the only Fighting starter, so if you want one or you just really like Riolu, you can use it if you want to. Definitely use it as a partner, Quick Attack right off the bat can really make a difference in places like Mt. Bristle.

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Well, that about wraps it up. I hope it's helpful... happy exploring!

It's funny how much my friends and I rely on you for up to date info. If you didn't make this topic I wouldn't even know they were making a sky version, now I know that and much, much more.

Pretty good reading, man. Now I want to get myself either MD2 or the Explorers of the Sky.

Edit: Decided to get Explorers of Darkness first, just to get myself familarized.

Don't do that, just wait for Sky. It's the exact same game with a load of extras.

Okay. Considering that I wouldn't have the money for awhile too. Release date on Explorers of the Sky?

It usually takes six to nine months for these to come out in North America. So... Q4 2009 would be my best bet.

Oh, alright, cool. Guess I got something to look forward to later on this year.

Side off topic note: Is it just me or is something up with the Active User function? It says that 0 users are online. o_0

Um... CHIMCHAR + TOTODILE GET.

Also, it's prolly broken, it says the same to me.

If I were to start with the MD games, should I get the first one and MD2 before going onto Sky so I familiarize myself with it?

If it's anything like darkness and time the introduction is plenty.

Well... to be honest, starting with MD1 isn't that good of an idea. Too many things changed in MD2, especially when it comes to convenience. There are things that are irritating enough in MD1 that you might not want to give MD2 a try.

So I suggest you just wait for Sky. Yes, MD2's much harder than MD1, but the first two dungeons are easy enough that you can get how things work fairly quickly.