The strongest starter Pokémon Bruno L. Carli Independent researcher, Curitiba, PR, Brazil. Email: [email protected] Earlier this year, an article entitled “Which and Blue versions for Nintendo’s Game Boy is The Most Offensively Powerful Starter console. (As a side note, in celebration of its 20 Pokémon?” (Codd, 2016) caused great years of existence, earlier this year the controversy on the Internet among players and Pokémon Company released a website fans of the Pokémon franchise. This article containing a timeline of their products). compared the three classical starter Pokémon, On TV, Pokémon was first released in Japan based on the anime, and concluded that in 1997 with the episode “Pokémon – I Choose Charizard was the strongest one. You” (released in the United States only in The present work aims to analyze and 1998; Wikipedia, 2016), triggering wide public discuss the data presented by Codd (2016) attention. The franchise is now successful regarding the following issues: (1) Does his worldwide, attracting millions of fans and anime-based data coincide with the game players of all ages, ethnic groups and social mechanics? (2) Can his study be applied to classes, and the games are often regarded metagame prospects? (3) Is Charizard really the extremely seriously by the players. most “powerful” Pokémon in-game? CODD’S THEORY ABOUT POKÉMON Codd (2016) concluded in his article that Pokémon™ is an entertainment franchise, Charizard (the last form of the starter created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995, that started Charmander) was the most powerful of the with video games, but now includes an anime, a three initial options (the grass-type Bulbasaur, trading card game, clothing and several other the fire-type Charmander and the water-type products. Needless to say, the main products of Squirtle; Fig. 1). To reach this conclusion, Codd the franchise (the games and anime) caused a based his work on “data” provided by the large impact in recent pop culture. anime, specifically (for Charizard) in the The first products to be released were the episode “Can’t beat the heat!” (aired “twin games” Pokémon Red and Pokémon 17/Feb/2002), from which he estimated Green, in 1996 in Japan. These games were variables such as weight (body mass), height later (in 1998) released worldwide as the Red and width of the Pokémon. Through a series of Journal of Geek Studies 3(1): 27–34. 2016. 27 Carli, B.L. calculations, all very well-founded in Physics, gathered from the anime. Despite this, the Codd determined that the offensive power of authors surmises that his calculations may be Charizard is well ahead of its competitors. applied to the game. The discordance between Codd’s calculations are in fact quite Codd’s arguments and the games is based on a accurate and may be applicable to the anime. simple fact: he used estimates and variables But it behooves us a little analysis regarding the that are not true (or accounted for) in the applicability of his results to the game. At the native mechanics of the game, being thus very start of his article, Codd states: irrelevant in determining the offensive capability of a given Pokémon. In the game, “At the start of each Pokémon game, the player is given a choice of starter Pokémon. The “Each Pokémon has six major Stats, which are options are almost always a choice between a as follows: HP, Attack, Defense, Special fire type, a water type and a grass type. In Attack, Special Defense and Speed. HP means most ways the most iconic of the starter ‘Hit Points’ and represents health (‘amount of Pokémon across all Pokémon generations are vitality’) of a Pokémon. When it suffers the original three; Charmander, Squirtle and damage, a numerical value is calculated by Bulbasaur, which will fully evolve into the game, and the result is subtracted from Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur the current HP. When HP reaches zero, the respectively.” Pokémon faints and is out of action.” ― Codd (2016: p. 1), my highlight ― Vianna Sym (2015: p. 26), my translation Therefore, the first sentence of this In the games, Pokémon are defined by quotation makes it clear that the author refers certain features, among which are the above- to the games, with its challenging proposition mentioned Stats. Each Pokémon has a given of having to choose one of three possible number of points assigned differently to its options to continue. In the same paragraph Stats, making it tough, agile or strong. HP Codd says: represents the Health Points (or Hit Points) of a Pokémon, and from the work of Codd (2016), it “Each of these Pokémon also have a signature is understood that a Pokémon that is move, one which is closely linked to them “powerful” is the one with the highest chances through the course of the anime and the to take the opponent’s HP down to 0 more games. For Charizard this is Flamethrower, for effectively. Blastoise this is Hydro Pump and for Venusaur Thus, to estimate how powerful a Pokémon this is Solar Beam.” is, one should not base his/her calculations on ― Codd (2016: p. 1), my highlight features estimated from the anime, but rather Thus, the author establishes an intrinsic analyze the Stats distribution of a given connection between anime and game. From Pokémon as it appears in the game. This study this point on, he starts his analysis based on the takes into account the Stats of each of the size and proportions of the starting Pokémon starting Pokémon to more thoroughly analyze Journal of Geek Studies 3(1): 27–34. 2016. 28 The strongest starter Pokémon how powerful each can become, that is, how 1998. In these versions of the game, there were much damage a Pokémon can cause in a battle. less Stats, only: HP, Attack, Defense, Special and Speed (also, there were no mega- CASE STUDY evolutions). The distribution of stats between Let's first set the game to be any of the so- the starting Pokémon (in their last form) can be called “Gen I” versions (Pokémon Red, Blue, seen in Figure 1. Green or Yellow), released between 1996 and Figure 1. Base stats of (from top to bottom) Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise in Gen I. Source of the tables: Serebii.net. Original artwork of the Pokémon by Ken Sugimori; available through Bulbapedia. Figure 2. Chart comparing the Base Stats of the three starters in Gen I. Journal of Geek Studies 3(1): 27–34. 2016. 29 Carli, B.L. By comparing the so-called Base Stats of the seen that all three Pokémon sum up to the three starting Pokémon (from Fig. 1), we get same value: 425 points. In the first versions of the chart shown in Figure 2. This gives us a the games the Stats were kept in a balance broader view of the Stats distribution of each during the development of these three Pokémon, distinguishing their higher and lower Pokémon. Thus, the sum of Base Stats alone is attributes. If we add up all the Base Stats of not enough to show which starter is the each Pokémon, we obtain a grand total score of strongest. There’s more to consider. Stats points (Fig. 3). From Figure 3, it can be Figure 3. Sum of all Base Stats values of each starter Pokémon in its final form (Gen I). Using the Base Stats, we can estimate the depending on several variables, such as the possible amount of damage (measured in hit attacking Pokémon’s level and offensive Stat points, or HP; Vianna Sym, 2015) that a and the opponent’s defensive Stat, alongside Pokémon can cause with one of his moves. This some occasional bonuses. By default, the is in fact based on a complex calculation formula is expressed as (Vianna Sym, 2015): 2 퐴푡푡푎푐푘푆푡푎푡 퐴푡푡푎푐푘푃표푤푒푟 푅푎푛푑표푚푁푢푚푏푒푟 퐷푎푚푎푔푒 = [(( 푥 퐿푒푣푒푙) + 2 ) 푥 푥 + 2 ] 푥 푆푇퐴퐵 푥 푊푒푎푘푛푒푠푠 푥 5 퐷푒푓푒푛푠푒푆푡푎푡 50 100 where “Level” is the current character level of Stat or Special Stat (again, depending on the the attacking Pokémon, ranging between 1 and kind of move used) of the opponent; 100; “AttackStat” is the Base Attack Stat or “AttackPower” is the power of the move used Special Stat (depending on the kind of move, (this is pre-defined in the game and each move Physical or Special, used) of the attacking has its own power value), where a greater value Pokémon; “DefenseStat” is the Base Defense represents a greater damage output; “STAB” is Journal of Geek Studies 3(1): 27–34. 2016. 30 The strongest starter Pokémon an acronym for “Same-Type Attack Bonus”, Pokémon’s Stats caused by moves such as which means that if the move used has the Agility, Dragon Dance, Swords Dance etc. same type as that of the Pokémon using it, it Weather effects were not yet present in the increases in 50% (STAB = 1.5; otherwise, STAB = first versions of the game, so they will not be 1); “Weakness” is applied depending on considered in this study. Moreover, to keep the whether the chosen move is super effective on analysis simple (not to say feasible), the opponent (this variable can assume values increases/decreases in Stats will also not be of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 or 4, depending on the type of taken into account. The calculations here use the move and of the defending Pokémon); only the Base Stats of the Pokémon in question “RandomNumber” is simply an integer assigned and the set Power value of the moves. randomly by the game, ranging from 85 to 100. Weakness will also not be applied.