PSA: Don’t Sleep on Turtwig in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Underappreciated for far too long, Turtwig is Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s unsung hero and a more than viable partner.

You Are Reading :PSA Dont Sleep on Turtwig in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Category : Pokemon

Picking a starter Pokemon is easily the single toughest conundrum every trainer has to tackle in each mainline installment of the Pokemon franchise. It’s not an exaggeration to say that whichever creature is chosen will in many ways go on to define the whole journey. Nowhere is the choice more difficult than in the fourth generation games Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, which ask players to partner with either Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup.

With Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl on the horizon later this year, trainers are once again faced with that exact same dilemma. On paper, Piplup and Chimchar are the most obvious choices based on their popular designs and effective type combinations. However that’s no excuse to sleep on Turtwig and rule it out without a second glance. With the next mainline Pokemon games to arrive on the Nintendo Switch being advertised as faithful remakes, it’s already easy to predict why the grass type could be the best of the bunch in the long term.

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s Hard Mode

Thanks to the way the original Sinnoh region was laid out and populated with specific Pokemon, it has to be said first off that picking Turtwig will effectively be Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s hard mode. For years the grass starter has had a reputation for being the toughest of the trio to use, thanks to its notoriously slow speed stat and weakness to some of the most popular move types that are encountered throughout the games. While that will be music to the ears of players who have been looking for some form of difficulty option in the franchise for a long time, there are still ways for everyone else to best the challenge as well. Despite this, in the early portion of the games Turtwig is arguably the most viable of the three starters to pick if players want to get off the mark quickly.

Sinnoh’s first Gym Leader, Roark, and his rock type Geodude, Onix, and Cranidos are a breeze for any Turtwig that’s had a little bit of training put into it. Speeding away from the start of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl like this could be a deceptive double edged sword though, as the difficulty after this point will get noticeably steeper if the original games are any indication. It’s therefore important to exercise care when trying to get the best out of Turtwig, which understanding the fundamentals of the Pokemon’s potential at this stage of the game will help with. Getting a Quick Claw from a girl in Jubilife City at the start of the game is just one of the ways that trainers can start to effectively take advantage of the grass starter as well.

Torterra The Tank

As trainers progress through the story of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, more options open up that allow Turtwig and its subsequent evolutions to shine more and more. This is especially true when the grass starter reaches the Torterra stage of its life at level 32, and becomes part ground type during the metamorphic process. Having a slow speed stat will admittedly continue to be a factor moving forward, but it plays less of a deciding factor in confrontations thanks to the fact that Torterra is much more bulky and tank like.

Surviving more attacks is only one aspect of the equation, however, as there are offensive options that allow for some powerful damage to be dished out in return as well. Torterra’s movepool has some exciting and diverse options within it, beyond the obvious devastating Earthquake attack it gains upon evolving. Pairing that particular ground type attack with Wood Hammer, Crunch, and Rock Slide will give Torterra some serious type coverage within Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, having the knock on effect of making more viable in a lot of encounters. Being a grass type naturally makes Turtwig effective against four of Sinnoh’s 8 Gym Leaders, however unlocking Crunch in particular boosts its effectiveness against more Gym Leaders, Elite Four Members, and Team Galactic Bosses.

The Team Builder

Players shouldn’t underestimate Turtwig for its ability to show them more aspects of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in other less obvious ways. Having a weakness to Ice, Bug, Poison, Fire and Flying types at various stages of its life means a carefully constructed team has to be built around Turtwig to get the best out of it. That’s a stark contrast to Chimchar and Piplup, and many other starters from other generations, who can often at times smash through most of the obstacles that will pop up in front of them single handedly.

Partnering Turtwig with two Pokemon that are easily found early on in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl allows for a solid foundation to be established quickly, which will last throughout the entire journey. Once fully evolved, Starly and its available attacking options supports Turtwig and its weakness to bug Pokemon. Finishing off the core trio with an evolved Magikarp, which can be caught after acquiring an Old Rod in Jubilife City’s western gatehouse, makes every other opponent look considerably less scary too. That still allows for three other party members to be chosen from the diverse array of Pokemon that are native to the Sinnoh region.

It’s all in the design

It might be a little superficial to judge a Pokemon based on its looks, but aesthetic can be an important factor to take into account whilst playing a lengthy RPG. While Chimchar and Piplup are definitely interesting conceptually, the Turtwig family arguably has a much more unique design when considering the franchise as a whole.

Turtle themed Pokemon might be a common staple across the franchise’s history, but that doesn’t stop Turtwig and its grass typing from being unlike any other. Which is a contrast to Chimchar in particular, and the other fire type monkeys that have wandered onto the scene after its introduction. Torterra especially gains bonus points for not only incorporating aspects of a snapping turtle and an ankylosaurus into its design, but also for the fact that it represents the World Turtle that’s a recurring theme in several mythologies across the real world.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are currently in development and will launch on Nintendo Switch in late 2021.

See more : PokemonWe