Alright, let’s talk. Y’all have some bad opinions and that’s a fact. The fire starters are some of the most polarizing starters in the entire Pokémon franchise. They are consistently the most slammed for always being big fighting bois, but they’re also picked the most by fans when they’re confronted with deciding who will be their starter. While certainly controversial, they all have their fanbases.
Today, we’re going to be taking a look at each and every one of the seven fire starters so far to decide which of them is the best of the best. While Scorbunny has been revealed as Sword and Shield’s fire starter, we aren’t including it because we’re taking the entire evolutionary line into account for our rankings. Without further ado, let’s jump right on into the list.
7 Tepig
Small pig transforms into a big pig. Um, are we missing anything here? Unova’s starter trio is arguably one of the weakest of the entire series, and Tepig does absolutely nothing to help out that reputation. Sure, while it does break that ever so common trend of fire starters becoming big punchy men, it really doesn’t do anything that interesting as a whole.
Emboar really isn’t better than any other fire starter and pales in comparison to both of the Unova's other picks. Angry tan pig and bouncy pig are better pig Pokémon too. No matter which category you slot it into, Tepig really just never comes out on top. At most, Tepig is kind of cute, but Pokémon hardly lacks for adorable companions.
6 Litten
Everything about Litten starts out great. We actually get a cat Pokémon that is pretty normal and probably will be a good meta pick. Okay, Torrocat’s looking pretty good. Bigger and a little bit meaner. Great, love it. Incineroar looks oh- you did the exact same thing you always do with the fire starters…great.
Thanks, Game Freak.
Litten had such potential, and rather than mixing things up, Game Freak made him as much of a fighting type as he could possibly be while still seeming like a fire type. You couldn’t just give us a cat, huh? I guess big head was the only cat Pokémon we were allowed to have in Alola.
5 Torchic
Torchic, the Hoenn fire starter, is pretty decent. He’s just a glorified chicken, but not by any means a bad chicken. He starts out adorable in his basic form, and Combusken is arguably one of the best middle evolutions of all starter Pokémon. From there, we get Blaziken and… eh? He’s fine if not a bit overdesigned.
There’s kind of a lot going on, but nothing really stands out. In all honesty, a bit more of a dressed up Combusken would have actually looked better as a final evolution. Torchic’s line is okay, but there is certainly room for improvement. Megas did nothing for this one either, by the way.
4 Cyndaquil
Cyndaquil’s family is another pretty okay fire type line. Hailing from the Johto region, this line doesn’t really do anything too interesting as it evolves. Going from Cyndaquil to Quilava to Typhlosion, the line basically just gets bigger? The flame on the back expands and Cyndaquil learns to properly walk on two feet.
There’s really nothing bad about Typhlosion’s design, it just never really deviates from the basic form’s look in any drastic or interesting ways. That said, it is still better than the fighting chicken. Plus it hasn’t fallen all the way down to PU on the competitive side, so that’s something right? NU isn’t exactly fantastic but it isn’t PU.
3 Chimchar
Chimchar is definitely one of the stronger designed fire starters. While Monferno isn’t anything too special for a middle evolution, the final stage of this line, Infernape, is incredible. Even with Diamond and Pearl’s more basic sprite work, you could tell that this Pokémon was one not to mess with.
The fire monkey Pokémon looks like he takes absolutely no prisoners, and is a force to be reckoned with competitively, standing tall in UU to this day. Chimchar was certainly the leader in Sinnoh starter picks and it’s easy to see why. Going from the adorable fire monkey Chimchar to the powerhouse that is Infernape certainly makes a case for picking this one as your starter Pokémon.
2 Charmander
The original and by far most iconic starter Pokémon of all time: Charmander. From day 1 of Pokémon’s inception, this was the Pokémon you picked. Squirtle was a strong second, sure, and Bulbasaur exists too, but this was the one. It’s a justified pick too.
Charmander has an adorable little design that gradually turns into an absolute beast in its final form, Charizard. Who doesn’t want a dragon as their starter Pokémon? This starter has really endured the test of time, too, with Charizard being one of the secondary mascots of the Pokémon franchise. While certainly one of the most iconic Pokémon out there, there is still one fire type starter that trumps this classic.
1 Fennekin
Unassuming at first, Fennekin is just a cute little firefox Pokémon. Certainly, nothing to sneeze at, but nothing special. However, Fennekin’s transformation into Delphox is arguably one of the best evolutionary transitions out there. There is not a single starter, especially not a fire starter, that bucks conventions like Fennekin.
While the middle evolution Braxien still looks like it could easily fall into the traps that other fire starters do, Delphox confirms that this line is not like the others. Delphox is a Fire-type magician, something completely different from most other Pokémon that we have previously come in contact with. Its design is nothing like any other Fire-type, which is why it takes the number one spot of our ranking of every single Fire-type starter.