Starter Pokémon in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

There are a total of 16 possible starter Pokémon for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. If you’re looking for an overview on each of the starters, as well as their strong points and weak spots, you can use this guide as a reference.

Which Are The Best Starter Pokémon?

First of all, it’s important to understand that any combination of Pokémon can beat the game. At the beginning of the game, you’ll answer a personality test and will be assigned a Pokémon based on your answers — you don’t have to accept that suggestion, though, and can choose whichever Pokémon you’d like.

Some of the best Pokémon to use as your main Pokémon are Charmander, Pikachu, and Skitty. These are probably the overall best choices due to their stats, their moves, and also how they stand up against bosses. There are a lot of Flying-type bosses in the main storyline, which mean Grass- and Fighting-type Pokémon are at a disadvantage. It’s also important to remember that Pokémon are unable to evolve until after the game has been beaten, so some Pokémon like Mudkip and Torchic that have good evolutions with better types aren’t going to be any better until after the game has already been beaten, so just keep that in mind.

Having a good Pokémon for a partner is also important. The game won’t allow you to pick a Pokémon for your partner that is of the same type as the Pokémon you become, so you can’t be a Charmander and have either Cyndaquil or Torchic as a partner. You probably wouldn’t want to anyway.

One thing that is very helpful for partner Pokémon is range moves, so having any sort of moves that have 2+ range will mean you can fight on the frontlines while your partner is attacking from the back. Most Pokémon have at least one range move, but that’s definitely something to consider when choosing a partner.

Some Pokémon that make particularly good partners are Charmander, Pikachu, Eevee and, if you’re using a Water-type starter, Cubone is also a good idea thanks to its ability.

Bulbasaur

Review of Bulbasaur

Bulbasaur is a decent Grass-type starter or partner Pokémon to use. It gets some decent status moves fairly early on, which work well as linked moves. It is the only starter or partner Pokémon that starts with two types — Grass and Poison — and the fact that it is part Poison-type gives it some decent options for a lot of bosses that would normally resist Grass.

Chikorita

Review of Chikorita

Chikorita suffers from poor starting stats and from being a Grass-type Pokémon, which is a bad thing in a game where so many of the bosses resist it and are super effective. Thankfully Chikorita comes with Ancient Power to counter pesky Flying-types and potentially boost its stats for the rest of the floor. Razor Leaf is also a fantastic long-range move for it to use at a distance.

Treecko

Review of Treecko

Treecko is yet another Grass-type starter, which are definitely the hardest starter or partner Pokémon to use due to all of the bosses that resist Grass and are super effective against it, but thankfully Treecko has some alright options.

Absorb isn’t as versatile as Vine Whip or Razor Leaf, but the fact that it heals after doing damage is really nice for keeping Treecko alive. Dragon Breath is a decent long-range move for it that can also paralyze foes occasionally. Iron Tail also hits pretty hard although it is rather inaccurate.

Charmander

Review of Charmander

Charmander is a fantastic starter or partner Pokémon. Dragon Rage does a constant 30 damage, which is great early on in the game, plus its range increases as you gain levels. Flame Burst also is a long-range move that hits hard and damages nearby enemies as well, but it lacks a lot of PP, so you’ll need to keep a good supply of Max Elixirs.

Due to these two great moves, Charmander makes a particularly good partner because it can attack from a good distance while you’re going through tunnels or fighting enemies from afar.

Cyndaquil

Review of Cyndaquil

Cyndaquil has a lot of moves with high PP, giving it a lot of sustainability, although its moves aren’t as good as Charmander’s. Quick Attack and Ember are both nice for it that make it a good partner since it can attack from directly behind you. Double Kick is decent and Facade has good power that can increase even further if you’re affected by a bad status condition. It gets Smokescreen to lower the foe’s accuracy, too.

Torchic

Review of Torchic

Torchic is probably the worst of the Fire-type starter Pokémon since it doesn’t really have that great of moves and doesn’t do much that the others don’t. It has Quick Attack and Ember for distance moves, which are alright, but Cyndaquil does as well. Both are a bit similar, but Double Kick is better than Low Kick in most situations. The main advantage of Torchic is that it has a bit better accuracy in its moves overall.

Squirtle

Review of Squirtle

Squirtle is alright, although not all that special. It gets more support and defensive moves that can work well as linked moves. Brick Break is a solid move on it and it presumably learns Bubble later on, which has better range than Water Gun.

Totodile

Review of Totodile

Totodile is another alright option for a Water-type starter, although it’s probably not as good as a partner as the other options. Metal Claw and Ice Fang are both really good moves for it to use as a leader, though, and Metal Claw’s chance of raising Attack also makes it a good option for linking. Metal Claw also has a very generous 25 PP as a base. Ice Fang is also very good against quite a few bosses in the game.

Mudkip

Review of Mudkip

Mudkip’s base stats are pretty decent, but it’s moves are a bit on the lackluster and redundant side. Mud Bomb and Mud-Slap aren’t both necessary, although Mud-Slap is a nice move to include in a linked move because lowering the enemy’s accuracy is quite helpful. Other than that, it doesn’t get a lot of good moves leveling up.

Psyduck

Review of Psyduck

Psyduck is a fourth Water-type starter and not one of the usual ones, so it is quite a bit different as a result, not having Torrent for its ability but Cloud Nine instead. Cloud Nine isn’t super helpful, but it can make life a bit better in certain dungeons.

It’s the only starter to get damaging Psychic-type moves from the start, which is pretty decent. Having two of them is probably a bit redundant, though. Water Pulse that it (presumably) gets later on makes for a pretty good Water-type move. Other than that, it doesn’t have a lot of exciting level up moves, but it’s workable.

Pikachu

Review of Pikachu

Pikachu’s starting stats are way higher than all of the other starters. It has a great selection of moves early on, too, with Fake Out providing a good distance move and also Electro Ball generally hitting hard, especially if you can lower the foe’s Speed or raise Pikachu’s. Later on, Pikachu can get access to Discharge, which is a very powerful room-clearing move.

Additionally, Static is a great ability for Pikachu, as paralyzing the foe randomly whenever they damage it with a contact move can be surprisingly helpful, although you can also chain Thunder Wave in a linked move for a similar result.

Meowth

Review of Meowth

Meowth is alright, but not really the best cat to use. Its ability, Pickup, gives it a random item every time you arrive on a new floor, but only if it isn’t already holding an item — that makes it nice if you’re trying to get a lot of loot, but not overly helpful as you’ll have to unequip your held item in order to activate it, and that can be a bother.

Its moves are OK, in fact it can get quite a few moves that work very well in a link, plus it also has access to a lot of TM moves. It’s quite versatile in that regard. Foul Play is also a pretty strong move to use against bosses due to their generally better Attack stats.

Eevee

Review of Eevee

Eevee doesn’t have the greatest of stats or move diversity, but its Adaptability powers up its Normal-type moves. Since only Rock and Steel resist Normal, it gives Eevee a fairly solid neutral matchup against most enemies, bosses included. It also gets a fair amount of moves you can use for linking or support as well.

Skitty

Review of Skitty

Don’t underestimate Skitty. Though its starting stats are pretty poor and its appearance is extremely cutesy, it has good moves and a really good ability. Since this game doesn’t keep track of Pokémon’s genders in battles, Cute Charm’s infatuation effect can affect any Pokémon in this game, and that can prevent a lot of attacks over the course of the game.

Fake Out is great for a distance move and Echoed Voice is also good for crowd control, hitting all adjacent enemies and also boosting its power if used repeatedly. It also gets Charge Beam and Grass Knot and is capable of learning a good variety of TM moves.

Machop

Review of Machop

Machop packs a punch and it will hit even harder when it is affected by bad status conditions thanks to its Guts ability, but that can still make it fairly risky. Its moves are solid, although Bullet Punch doesn’t hit much for super effective damage that Machop’s Fighting-type moves don’t already, although it does give it an option for Fairy-type Pokémon. Bullet Punch is still good on it, though, since it doesn’t get many other distance options.

One downside to Machop is that Fighting-type moves are not going to be effective against many bosses in the game. There are quite a few that resist it and also several that will hit Machop for super effective damage.

Cubone

Review of Cubone

Cubone’s starting stats are absolutely terrible, but it seems to require less EXP to level up, so that may help it gain stats faster. Its moves are alright, but what makes Cubone good is when it is used as a partner Pokémon for a Water-type Pokémon. Its Lightning Rod ability draws in all enemy Electric-type moves in the room to Cubone, which is immune to Electric. This is very good synergy.

Its moves are alright, although it lacks distance moves in its starting moves, so that might detract from it being a good partner for non-Water-type starters. Brutal Swing is good to damage all adjacent enemies. Its other moves are far from bad, too, and can cause flinching.