Pokemon Rejuvenation Starters — All 25 Choices & How to Pick the Best

Where You Get Your Starter: Gearen Laboratory

Your starter Pokemon is handed out during the main story of Chapter 1 at the Gearen Laboratory in the southwest of East Gearen City. Professor Jenner and his assistant Amanda introduce you to the selection, so you literally cannot miss it — the story walks you there.

Here is how the selection works:

• You pick one Pokémon out of 25 available starters: all 24 regional starters (Generations 1–8, three per region) plus the special Eevee option.
• Every starter is offered at Level 5, no matter which one you choose.
• Right after picking, Amanda challenges you to a battle, then Ren follows up with his own Protean Froakie — a nasty surprise if your starter has no answer to its type shifting.
• Winning those two battles earns you the classic starter kit: Poké Ball ×5, the Pokédex, and the CyberNav (your map and quest device).

All 25 Starter Pokemon Compared

This is the complete starter table as of V14. The "Community notes" column is general consensus from the forums and Reddit — no stats are invented here, just the reasons players usually give for picking each line.

Pokémon	Type	Gen	Community notes
Bulbasaur	Grass Poison	1	Bulky and self-sufficient with Leech Seed and Sleep Powder; early status support helps in double battles.
Charmander	Fire	1	Classic Fire pick; strong with Mega Charizard later, but fragile before evolving.
Squirtle	Water	1	Reliable defensive Water line; a safe, straightforward choice.
Chikorita	Grass	2	Often called the weakest option — Meganium struggles for coverage against several gyms.
Cyndaquil	Fire	2	Fast special attacker; Typhlosion's Eruption is a classic sweeper tool.
Totodile	Water	2	Physical attacker with strong priority options in Ice Shard and Aqua Jet.
Treecko	Grass	3	Very fast Sceptile line; a popular pick for speed control.
Torchic	Fire	3	Speed Boost Blaziken is one of the strongest starter evolutions available — frequently recommended.
Mudkip	Water Ground	3	Swampert's typing is excellent defensively and it answers Venam's Poison gym well.
Turtwig	Grass	4	Slow but very bulky Torterra; good anchor for the early game.
Chimchar	Fire	4	Fast Infernape with great mixed coverage; a frequent early-game recommendation.
Piplup	Water	4	Steel-typed Empoleon shrugs off Poison and is strong defensively.
Snivy	Grass	5	Fast Contrary Serperior can snowball; needs its hidden ability to shine.
Tepig	Fire	5	Bulky physical Emboar; slower but hard-hitting.
Oshawott	Water	5	Samurott gets a wiki-documented Crest (Chapter 9 era) that adds Fighting-type STAB and makes slicing moves critical — a strong late-game payoff.
Chespin	Grass	6	Physical Chesnaught with Spiky Shield; decent but situational.
Fennekin	Fire	6	Delphox is a fast special attacker; Magician can be fun for item tricks.
Froakie	Water	6	Protean changes its type to match every move — the most flexible starter and the most common veteran recommendation.
Rowlet	Grass Ghost	7	Decidueye's Grass/Ghost typing is unique and useful in the mid-game.
Litten	Fire	7	Incineroar brings Intimidate and utility — valuable in a game full of double battles.
Popplio	Water	7	Primarina's Fairy typing is excellent against late-game Dragon and Dark threats.
Grookey	Grass	8	Fast Rillaboom with Grassy Surge support; a solid modern pick.
Scorbunny	Fire	8	Fast Libero Cinderace — Protean-style type shifting on a Fire starter; very popular for V14.
Sobble	Water	8	Sniper Inteleon is a fast special sniper; one-dimensional but effective.
Eevee	Normal	Special	Password eeveepls required. Evolves into eight forms, so it can fill nearly any team role you discover you are missing.

Starter list and Level 5 start verified against the game's Chapter 1 content; community notes are consensus opinions, not official ratings.

Can You Get the Hisuian Starters?

Short answer: not as your starter. The 25 options in Gearen Laboratory are all standard regional starters plus Eevee — Hisuian forms are not among them. The longer answer: Hisuian Pokémon do exist in Rejuvenation V14. The wiki and our Pokémon guide document Hisuian Typhlosion and Hisuian Zorua as obtainable regional forms, and Hisuian starter forms are flagged as obtainable as of V14 — but through in-game encounters and evolution events elsewhere in Aevium, not through the starter selection.

If you specifically want a Hisuian Typhlosion or a Hisuian Decidueye on your team, plan for it as a mid-game catch rather than your opening partner. The Pokemon Rejuvenation Pokémon guide lists the documented Hisuian forms and where to look.

Starter Move Tutor & Starter Ball Tutors

Two related search terms — "starter move tutor" and "starter ball tutors" — point at the same early-game system: NPCs that teach your starter signature move options shortly after Chapter 1. The community treats this as a key early-planning step, because a well-tutored starter can cover its own weaknesses until TMs and the move relearner catch up. For example, a starter tutored into a strong coverage move can solo early routes and handle the first gym fight more comfortably.

Practical advice when you reach the tutor:

• Check your starter's learnable tutor moves before spending anything — the wiki documents each starter's tutor list.
• Use the tutor to patch your starter's biggest early weakness (for example, a Fire starter with no answer to Water-types).
• If you are choosing a starter around a movepool, the tutor can fix most coverage gaps, so pick the Pokémon you like rather than one specific move.

Our items & moves guide covers the move tutor, move relearner, TMs and heart scales in detail.

How to Pick: Community Advice on the Best Starter

There is no single "best starter" in Pokemon Rejuvenation — every option can beat the game, and the forums say so repeatedly. But certain picks come up again and again when players ask which starter they should choose:

Best Starter by Play Style

If you want a quick decision rule instead of reading 25 rows of notes, this table maps common play styles to the starters the community usually recommends for them. It is a summary of the "Community notes" column above — no new data, just a faster way to read it.

Play style	Recommended starters	Why players pick them
New to the game	Mudkip, Piplup	Water starters with bulky evolutions (Swampert, Empoleon) that shrug off early gyms and leave room for mistakes.
Optimizing / challenge runs	Froakie, Torchic, Scorbunny	Protean, Speed Boost and Libero respectively — the three strongest abilities available on a starter.
Flexible team building	Eevee	Pick the evolution later to fill whatever role your team ends up missing; needs the eeveepls password.
Long-term payoff	Oshawott, Snivy	Samurott's documented Crest adds Fighting coverage; Contrary Serperior snowballs once its hidden ability is available.
Fast early game	Chimchar, Cyndaquil	Fast Fire attackers with good mixed or special coverage from the first routes onward.
Story / casual play	Chikorita, Rowlet	Pick purely on preference — every starter can clear the game; these two just make the early gyms a little harder.

Play style rows summarize the community notes in the comparison table above and the FAQ; no new claims are added.