Choose Bulbasaur for recovery from Grass hits, Charmander for a consistent Fire-special kit, or Squirtle for armor and a shield you can recover between hits. For a first run where gradual HP loss is the main problem, Bulbasaur is a useful starting suggestion. If you prefer ranged Fire attacks and straightforward damage-item matching, try Charmander. If you can create gaps between hits, Squirtle turns that spacing into shield recovery.
Those are choices for different problems, not a universal tier list. This comparison uses the original game’s recorded kits and runtime rules; it does not claim measured win rates, a fastest clear or an unbeatable starter. Once you choose, continue to the complete Bulbasaur build, Charmander build or Squirtle build.
Compare the three starters on the same terms
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to compare every column. The bonuses below belong to the passive; they are not final level-1 stats after base species stats, Lab purchases, items or weather.
| Comparison | Bulbasaur | Charmander | Squirtle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting type and role | Grass / Poison; Healer | Fire; Fiery Assault | Water; Defender |
| Passive | Synthesis | Sea of Flames | Torrent Shell |
| Always-present passive bonus | +1.5 regeneration; +25% received healing | +10% Fire damage | +15 armor; +20 shield capacity |
| Conditional passive | Grass attacks heal for 0.4% of maximum HP per hit, at most 5 triggers per second | +40% damage while HP is below 40% of maximum HP | +40% damage while HP is below 40% of maximum HP |
| Native damage categories | Vine Whip and Razor Leaf are physical; Sleep Powder and Solar Beam are special | All four native moves are Fire-special | Water Gun, Bubble and Hydro Pump are Water-special; Rapid Spin is Normal-physical |
| Recovery pattern to learn | Keep landing Grass hits while avoiding contact | Recover HP when needed; low HP increases damage, not safety | Make more than 3 seconds without a hit so shield regeneration starts |
| Main early slot decision | Sleep Powder’s control or room for Solar Beam | Fire Spin’s control or room for Fire Blast | Rapid Spin’s nearby push or room for Hydro Pump |
| Evolution targets within a run | Ivysaur 24; Venusaur 41 | Charmeleon 24; Charizard 44 | Wartortle 24; Blastoise 44 |
Type and damage category answer different questions. Miracle Seed’s Grass-specific bonus can apply to both physical and special Grass attacks. Muscle Band applies to physical attacks; Wise Glasses applies to special attacks. Your Pokémon’s type alone does not make every attack use the same category. The combat reference explains the wider interactions.
Which starter fits the way you want to play?
Bulbasaur: choose it for ongoing HP recovery
Synthesis combines regeneration, a received-healing modifier and small Grass-hit heals. This makes a native Grass route useful without unlocking a shared-kit donor first. You still need to move and keep an escape route: the heal trigger has a cap, and being surrounded can cost more HP than it restores.
An attack’s type controls the Grass-hit interaction. A Grass-special Solar Beam can contribute; a Poison move does not contribute merely because Bulbasaur is also Poison-type. Use the pause menu to inspect what you actually learned.
The mixed native categories matter for upgrades. Early Vine Whip and Razor Leaf benefit from physical bonuses. Sleep Powder is a damaging special Grass move with sleep in PokéBonk, rather than a non-damaging move copied from the main series. Once special moves occupy more of your kit, reassess whether another physical-only bonus still answers your current need.
Continue to the Bulbasaur build for Grass-hit recovery, item alternatives and the three- or four-slot branches.
Charmander: choose it for Fire-special consistency
All four native moves share Fire type and special category. Charcoal (+30% Fire move damage and +3% total damage) and Wise Glasses (+15% special damage) therefore fit the native kit for different reasons. You can make coherent choices even if a particular named item never appears.
Sea of Flames adds +10% Fire damage and a separate +40% damage condition at less than 40% HP. If maximum HP were 100, 39 HP satisfies that condition; 40 HP does not. This example isolates the threshold and does not predict final damage after all other modifiers.
The condition is useful to understand when damage has already pushed you low. Keeping yourself at low HP on purpose reduces the margin before the next hit. Take needed healing rather than treating recovery as a mistake. A Life Orb’s +30% total damage also costs 10% maximum HP; its larger percentage does not settle the survival trade-off.
Continue to the Charmander build for native Fire routes and the different item implications of Dragon Breath or Fire Fang.
Squirtle: choose it for armor and hit-free shield recovery
Torrent Shell adds 15 armor and 20 shield capacity. Under the normal recovery rule, shield starts regenerating after more than three seconds without a hit, at 25% of shield capacity per second. At 20 capacity that is 5 shield per second until full; the wounded state halves the rate. Other bonuses can change the capacity, so 5 is an example for the passive’s 20, not a universal recovery amount.
Repeated contact prevents the interval that makes the shield work. Move into open space after pushing enemies away, and distinguish shield from HP: recovering shield does not restore missing HP. The below-40%-HP damage condition uses HP / maximum HP, not how much shield remains. An empty shield with healthy HP does not activate it.
Squirtle’s native exception is Rapid Spin: Normal-physical, even though its other native attacks are Water-special. Mystic Water’s Water-specific component and Wise Glasses’ special bonus do not support Rapid Spin. Its nearby push can still be useful if being trapped is the problem; choose its role deliberately.
Continue to the Squirtle build for shield spacing, Water routes and mixed-category alternatives.
Every native move and its required run level
All three open with one native move. Their other native moves become eligible at levels 2, 4 and 7. Eligibility adds a candidate; it does not promise the next upgrade card or bypass a full move bar.
| Starter | Start: level 1 | Level 2 | Level 4 | Level 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulbasaur | Vine Whip — Grass / physical strike | Razor Leaf — Grass / physical barrage | Sleep Powder — Grass / special cone with sleep | Solar Beam — Grass / special piercing beam |
| Charmander | Ember — Fire / special projectile | Fire Spin — Fire / special vortex | Flamethrower — Fire / special cone | Fire Blast — Fire / special exploding orb |
| Squirtle | Water Gun — Water / special projectile | Bubble — Water / special barrage | Rapid Spin — Normal / physical spin and push | Hydro Pump — Water / special piercing beam |
These are PokéBonk run levels. They are not the source Pokémon learnset levels. A later evolution can add evolution-line options and changes the form-specific Ultimate; it does not erase a learned move to create an empty slot. The evolution guide gives the three form chains, while the move reference and checker separate native, evolution-line and caught-donor requirements.
Plan around three move slots or buy the fourth
The default is three move slots and three vitamin slots. All four native moves fit only with Lab → Upgrades → 4th move, recorded at 1,500 Stardust. Fourth option, recorded at 3,000 Stardust, adds a card choice instead; it does not add learned-move capacity. Use the Lab guide to budget those separate upgrades.
| Starter | Three slots: take immediate control | Three slots: reserve the level-7 move | Four native slots |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulbasaur | Vine Whip + Razor Leaf + Sleep Powder | Vine Whip + Razor Leaf + Solar Beam; pass on Sleep Powder | Vine Whip + Razor Leaf + Sleep Powder + Solar Beam |
| Charmander | Ember + Fire Spin + Flamethrower | Ember + Flamethrower + Fire Blast; pass on Fire Spin | Ember + Fire Spin + Flamethrower + Fire Blast |
| Squirtle | Water Gun + Bubble + Rapid Spin | Water Gun + Bubble + Hydro Pump; pass on Rapid Spin | Water Gun + Bubble + Rapid Spin + Hydro Pump |
The reserve branch gives up control while you work toward level 7. It is a planning option, not an instruction to decline every useful card until a particular move appears. With three moves learned, upgrades to those moves remain possible, but a new fourth move does not fit. Refresh changes eligible offers; it does not remove this limit.
For example, a level-7 Squirtle with Water Gun, Bubble and Rapid Spin already has three learned moves. Hydro Pump’s level is met, but capacity is not. Keep improving the useful current kit, or use Hypno’s forget service if encountered and you want to change the plan. Forgetting frees space; it does not guarantee Hydro Pump on the next card.
What to take when a planned card or item is missing
| Situation | A useful response | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| An early native move is absent | Improve the starting attack or take a useful stat choice; check level and capacity before spending Refresh | You gain something immediately while eligible offers remain random |
| Bulbasaur wants another option | Leech Seed has a saved evolution-line route from level 1; Poison Powder from level 2 | Both consume a slot; Poison Powder does not trigger Grass-hit healing |
| Charmander wants another option | Dragon Breath has a saved evolution-line route from level 1; Fire Fang from level 3 | Dragon Breath is Dragon-special; Fire Fang is Fire-physical, so item matching changes |
| Squirtle wants another option | Water Pulse has a saved evolution-line route from level 2; Aqua Tail from level 6 | Water Pulse is Water-special; Aqua Tail is Water-physical |
| A desired type item is absent | Compare an applicable category bonus, Quick Claw’s +10% attack speed, or the defense/recovery currently needed | None requires the exact named type item to appear |
| You repeatedly lose HP | Compare Leftovers’ +1.2 HP regeneration per second or an appropriate defensive/movement choice | Extra damage alone may not fix repeated contact |
The evolution-line alternatives above do not need a shared-kit donor through those saved routes. Shared-kit options have their own caught-donor and type conditions; the checker explains those separately. A different move remains a real capacity choice, not a free addition to the native plan.
For vitamins, match the learned categories: Protein gives +10% physical damage per Common pick; Calcium gives +10% special damage per Common pick. Bulbasaur’s mixed kit makes that decision different from Charmander’s all-special native route. You can instead spend capacity on Carbos (+7% movement speed per Common pick), Iron (+5 armor), Zinc (+12 shield capacity) or HP recovery according to the problem. Card rarity scales those increments, and the default three vitamin slots do not fit every option. See the complete item and vitamin reference for caps and conditions.
Your first choice and unlocking the other starters
At a new first-partner selection, choose one of Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. That first choice becomes your starting partner without first completing its later League challenge. It does not instantly grant all three.
For a starter you did not choose, the saved League challenge is complete two runs, win or lose. Completing that counter opens the encounter stage. Find the target during a run, weaken and capture it, then confirm the joins your League result. A completed counter or an unsuccessful throw is not permanent ownership. The unlock guide gives the full challenge-to-capture workflow.
To act on your choice, open the original game in our player, select an available League member, then choose the map and mode. Classic asks you to clear three main zones, defeat the shrine legendary and enter the final portal; Survival measures an endless run and has no final victory. Starter selection does not unlock Rocky Desert or replace the map and difficulty requirements in the mode guide.
Sources and version scope
Native kits, recorded level requirements, evolutions, item effects and the two-run challenge use the original Beta 0.6.3 configuration and supported move routes collected 18 October 2026. Passive descriptions, strict low-HP threshold and shield recovery were read in the 0.7.1 public runtime with its English interface, reviewed 19 October 2026. The page date does not mean every base value was freshly playtested on that date. Read updates for later release notes.
This is a source-based comparison of Charcher’s original pokebonk.com, with practical recommendations derived from those rules. No complete-run comparison, randomized starter trial or measured win-rate ranking is claimed.