#plza starters

[grimglitchy]

My silly take on what ZA starters could be

Based on the fairytales tropes of a princess, knight and the dragon

[revalentinee]

Pokemon Legends Z-A: Starter Prediction (but it's actually about more than that)

Since the announcement of this surprisingly early return to Kalos, there's been a lot of speculation regarding the starters. Following the trend of Legends: Arceus, we're expecting the starters to be ones from other regions. Snivy and Piplup seem like really likely choices given their inspirations, with things more up in the air for the fire starter. However, I have a different Idea.

The starters for Legends: Z-A will be...

...Chespin, Fennekin and Froakie, the same starters pokemon X and Y had.

Why, you may ask? A couple reasons, or rather, one main one...

Mega Evolution will be making its grand return in ZA. When this feature was first introduced, it was a way to breathe new life into old designs, without having to commit to a new evolution-even accessiable to pokemon who already had a three-stage line. This idea for rejuvinating old pokemon has stuck around, but not in the same way.

Gen 7 decided to leave Megas as they were and brought along Regional Variants. Generation 8 cut megas entirely, but brought the variants back alongside new evolutions of those variants and Gigantamax Forms. Legends: Arceus continued the variant + evo angle, including the starters...

...and then, gen 9 only gave only two old pokemon variants, with Paradox Pokemon taking up the majority of the "revamp old designs" idea as well as the small amount of so-called "convergent" pokemon, or regional fakes. Quite a few old pokemon even got straight-up normal evolutions.

My point is, when Game Freak makes a new way to rejuvenate old designs, the old way is reduced or not used at all...could the same not be true when bringing back an old idea? To put it bluntly, The Kalos Starters will receive Mega Evolutions.

-Lack of Kalos Megas. Out of all the pokemon introduced in XY, only Diancie received a Mega Evolution. The reasoning apparently being to let these pokemon stand on their own first, but it's been long enough, hasn't it? Especially for these three.

A few reasons to back up why this could be the case:

-Limited Scope. Legends: ZA is stated to be taking place entirely within Lumiose City. and while we know little of the specifics, one big city as opposed to an entire region leaves a lot less room for possible regional variants. All the more likely the old gimmick will take most if not complete focus.

-Starter Saturation. Assuming Legends: ZA beings back all previous mega evolutions, both the kanto and hoenn sets of starters will be bouncing around Lumiose. With the Kalos starters included as well, that's three sets of starters for one game. Legends Arceus only had two, and as shown with that game's 240-ish amount of pokemon, Legends will likely have a more limited pokedex than the main series. Feels like too much to throw in a fourth set.

-Galarian Precedent. The Base game for Pokemon Sword and Shield did not give its starters Gigantamax forms, but the DLC for it did. It's likely the same idea, but for megas, was intended for whatever XY followup was scrapped back in the early 2010s.

-Once isn't a trend. Some might site Legend Arceus' use of other starters as a trope of the "Legends" series, but Legends Arceus was only one game. We have no idea how much or how little of that game's ideas will continue into this one.

And well...They're in one game! The complete set of Kalos starters only had one set of games to enjoy being those starters, while starters of previous and later generations had multiple sets, or at least DLC continuation, to be >your< first partner in. I think they need another shot while not competing with pokemon that have had more chances to be picked, like snivy or piplup.

And...yeah, as someone who loves regional variants, speculated on what variants of other starters could look like and even somewhat preferts variants to mega evolution as a concept...I might be a little bummed if this prediction comes true. But the more I thought about it, the more likely this seemed, and the true Kalos starters frankly deserve getting what the kanto and hoenn starters got. Besides...

look at him face :)

[starfalcon555]

[love-is-a-pearl]

everyone deserves shoulder mon rights

[kafus]

hating any starter based on it being “bad” during main story battles is just a massive skill issue sorry. if you picked chikorita in johto and couldn’t make it work on your team that’s a you problem and not a chikorita problem

[macaroonkitti]

New kids!

[matthewonart]

[spookberry]

TEPIG

[tits-n-trix]

Also I want to extend a gracious fuck you to everyone who said "No it has to be in the past" when the first Legends ZA trailer came out and I thought it might be a future setting

[exopelagic]

ITS MEGANIUM TIME

[starfalcon555]

we gonna be popping the most gigormpus bottles in 20 minutes when litten and sobble are confirmed as starters for plza!!!!!!! (dies of copium overdose)

[digitalresorts]

how are we feeling about the PL:Z-A trailer?? i'm lowkey in shock i was expecting it to be completely different idk not like a SEQUEL to XY?

anyway idc i’m excited to do some team building tho hehehehe here are my teams from my XY playthroughs, so excited to bring em back

[reestallized]

game got me so hyped up idk what I'm doing at this point

[pyromaniac-cyndaquil]

Felt like playing some expanded sky on my phone so I downloaded melonDS, and the LCD filter it has makes pmd look soooooo pretty 💜💜💜💜

[bright-hope-spot-19]

I love Chikorita. They're so cute. I mean, my water dile Totters is still my Johto fave, but I like Chikorita more than Cyndaquil. It was my first ever starter in Gold, after all.

[goosetrainer]

Mari's Tera Raid Guide #29 - Quaquaval

Best one I got is Eelektross! (Maybe we're done for real now?)

Eelektross lv.100

Ability: /

Tera type: electric

Item: Shell Bell

Nature: Adamant/Naughty

IVs: 31 HP, attack, defense

EVs: 252 attack, 252 defense, 4 HP

Moves:

-Tera Blast (TM) / Supercell Slam (TM - DLC only)

-Coil (level up) / Bulk Up (TM)

-Gastro Acid (level up)

-Crush Claw (level up)

NPCs: 1 with Intimidate (Staraptor/Arcanine/Tauros)

Usage:

- re: moveset alternatives. Supercell Slam is the most powerful physical electric move Eelektross has access to, but it's exclusive to the DLC. You could ask a friend with it to teach it to your pokemon and trade it back if you want. Only to be used with Coil though! Tera Blast is a bit weaker but way more accessible and can be used with Bulk Up.

- Coil is cheaper to get and a must for Supercell Slam, but Bulk Up saves you some seconds.

- NPCs: I tried without but one Intimidate haver is needed, to keep Quaquaval's attack down to neutral or negative. I would NOT go with two, because you're supposed to go ko in the first 3-4 turns, which may become impossible if Quaquaval's attack gets too low too soon. Other NPCs aren't too important, but good ones will be healers (Gardevoir/Arboliva) and defense-debuffers (Weavile/Mudsdale/Arcanine).

So. First thing you're gonna do is erase Quaquaval's ability with Gastro Acid, and forget about it. That's already a lot of attack boosts you don't have to worry about!

Next up, some Crush Claws - you should be able to make a couple land before you go ko. It's not important that they lower the opponent's defense, but the chance it happens is a bonus. When you come back from the ko, though, use Coil(/Bulk Up) instead - 6 times total, it could be necessary to stop and heal (with cheers) towards the end or if you get hit with a crit.

Then use Crush Claw again enough times to charge the tera orb, terastallize, and start spamming Tera Blast/Supercell Slam. If it looks too weak, and you don't have any NPC that can lower Quaquaval's defense, you can try investing a couple of turns using Crush Claw to lower it yourself before you resume attacking with the main damage dealer. Not too hard!

TL;DR: Gastro Acid; Crush Claw until ko, then Coil/Bulk Up x6 (heal with cheer if needed); more Crush Claw until tera orb charged; terastallize, Tera Blast/Supercell Slam spam until victory (can alternate with Crush Claw to try and lower defense).

Pros:

-catchable in the wild

-easy to get the right tera type and ability

-lots of level-up moves

Cons:

-needs some attention to NPC allies

Other Options:

MAYBE (never happened to me) 2+ Intimidate NPCs is viable, but it needs to be enough to keep you alive AND with enough HP to survive past the player stat&ability reset (85% time left) and the first 1-2 turns of Coil/Bulk Up. Same thing if you have NPCs that can actively lower the opponent's attack (Toxapex/Sylveon/Staraptor/Drifblim) or that can inflict paralysis (Dudunsparce/Umbreon/Bellibolt). In short: I can't promise it will work, but don't be scared to experiment!