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What if a kid isn't born in Pallet Town? How does he get his starter?

Neekz

New Member
If someone isn't as lucky as PkMn Trainer Red or Ash Ketchum and they aren't born in the town of Pallet, how do they first obtain their starter pokemon in the land of Kanto? Do they have to travel across the entire region just to get their first pokemon? How will they fight off the wild pokemon that ambush them on their way? Do they need to get a ride from mommy or something? What if they are born in Cinnabar Island? Swim across the sea to Pallet town? Or have mommy get them a ferry ride or something?

Also, it's interesting that in the anime we see many trainers, however they are NOT using one of the starter pokemon. In fact, it is incredibly rare to see a trainer using a starter pokemon of their region. Do they just release their starter as soon as possible? 99% of pokemon trainers didn't get along with their starters or something? Ash rolls with his starter 100% of the time. It's weird that we don't see many others like that. Unless they do, and have obtained unorthodox starter pokemon because of the fact that they weren't born in a starter town. Could this possibly be the answer? I wonder, if that's the case, how did they obtain their pokemon? Did Brock see an enormous onix as soon as he left Pewter City in Rock Tunnel and said "hey screw it! i'll just throw a ball even though I have no Pokemon to weaken it with!" and WALLAH! Caught!? Hmm... What do you think, Serebii?
 

Creeper

om nom nom
Probably akin to what Wally did in R/S/E. Ask a Gym Leader/responsible person, borrow Pokemon and Pokeballs, then catches a wild one.
 

Endolise

TengenToppaBoogaloo
Probably akin to what Wally did in R/S/E. Ask a Gym Leader/responsible person, borrow Pokemon and Pokeballs, then catches a wild one.

Bingo. You don't need to receive your Starter from the Professor. In fact, most Trainers don't. The Professors give Starters to the people that they choose to receive a Pokédex. And even then, as seen in B2W2 and XY, the Professor can just send a reliable pupil to deliver the Pokédex/Starter.
 
The way I see it, they would start their adventure from the town they currently live in, and would receive their starter Pokemon (assuming they didn't already receive a Pokemon to start with from, say, their parents) from the local Pokemon center.
 

KumaPanda

Psyduck is cute <3
I see it that you're considered lucky if you're born in the same town as a national professor. It's still a problem if you're born in that same town because there are only 3 starters from the looks of it. Do we ever see the professor have more than 3 starters all at once in the games or anime?

It might be like Pokemon RSE where you would have to borrow a pokemon from a gym leader to catch your first pokemon. Then there comes the problem if you don't live in the same town/city as a gym leader. I figure you would have to borrow a friend or family member's pokemon to catch your starter. You can also have parents catching pokemon and giving it to their children as gifts.

I've recall seeing more than one occasional of an NPC in the games claim that their parents took them to the Safari Zone to catch their first pokemon. So you can also get your first pokemon from the Safari Zone if your parents don't mind taking you there or if you live in the same city as the Safari Zone.

I'm sure there's also that one kid who decides to try to catch his/her own pokemon by hand like Iris from the anime did with her Excadrill. Or tries to hurl pokeballs at it like Ash did at the beginning of the series and hope for the best.
 

Endolise

TengenToppaBoogaloo
It's still a problem if you're born in that same town because there are only 3 starters from the looks of it. Do we ever see the professor have more than 3 starters all at once in the games or anime?

I'm going to disregard the anime; mixing canon is never a good idea and I don't watch the anime anyway. But as far as the games go, the implication is that the Starters are actually quite rare and, while they may certainly have more than three reserved for distribution, their supply is limited. For example, in Platinum, Rowan's assistant questions his decision to give you and Barry your own Starter Pokémon because they had just obtained those ones and they were very important to Rowan's research.

It might be like Pokemon RSE where you would have to borrow a pokemon from a gym leader to catch your first pokemon. Then there comes the problem if you don't live in the same town/city as a gym leader. I figure you would have to borrow a friend or family member's pokemon to catch your starter. You can also have parents catching pokemon and giving it to their children as gifts.

I've recall seeing more than one occasional of an NPC in the games claim that their parents took them to the Safari Zone to catch their first pokemon. So you can also get your first pokemon from the Safari Zone if your parents don't mind taking you there or if you live in the same city as the Safari Zone.

I don't recall anything being mentioned about parents taking their children to the Safari Zone to catch Pokémon, but there are indeed several ways to obtain a Starter Pokémon without being recruited by the Professor. Hugh hatched his Starter Pokémon from an egg before he ever received a Pokédex, and he wasn't even officially recruited by Juniper - Bianca just happened to have an extra Pokédex on hand. Also, Hugh's grandfather captured a Purrloin for Hugh's sister to use. And of course, there is the aforementioned Wally scenario.

It's just as I said. You don't need to be chosen by or even live near the Professor in order to obtain a Pokémon, and even if they do choose to recruit you despite living far away, they can just send one of their assistants or pupils on an errand to deliver your Starter and your Pokédex.
 
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randomspot555

Well-Known Member
I mean you can watch pretty much any anime episode or play any of the non Kanto games and you can easily discover the answer for yourself. It isn't really all that uncommon.
 

Xenomata

MS Paint Sableye
In terms of the games, some trainers claim to receive pokemon from their parents, or they typically have easy to obtain pokemon. For example, there is the case of Michael, protagonist of XD Gales of Darkness, who receives an Eevee from his father.

In terms of the anime, same as above, however it does not seem to be a requirement that a trainer claim a starter pokemon. Plus, as the case was with Ash, they may have received a pokemon that is not an "official" starter pokemon. As not everyone is seen with a pokedex however, it can be assumed that they simply inherit or get lucky with the pokemon they catch.

In terms of the Manga, or at least Adventures, which is based on the games... Well each of the pokedex holders have two or more "starter" pokemon before they officially leave for their journey, and they usually obtained them through different means. Yellow, for example, had help catching her Rattata from Red. Gold's Aipom was chosen to tag along with him (I think because of how he was the only one who wasn't stolen) from the big pool of pokemon he could have chosen from (poliwag aside, who he got back later on). Of course Ruby got his starters from his Father, and in the case of Black, he asked the Munna that would later become his to help him catch the Rufflet that would later become his, so there are a number of possibilities as to how someone could get their starter.

As for the starter pokemon they actually receive:

~Bulbasaur was given to Red after Oak saw them battle. Blue was given Charmander in the way it was given to him in the games (if I remember). Green stole Squirtle from Oaks lab, but only officially received proper ownership during the Indigo Plateaus tournament. Yellow caught Pikachu between the events of the Yellow and Gold/Silver chapters.

~Gold "borrowed" Cyndaquil from Elm after Silver invaded and stole Tododile. Krys allowed Chikorita to stay on her team when it impressed her.

~Sapphire got Torchic from Birch for research stuff. Ruby was forced to claim Mudkip when he was attacked by Sapphire, and Emerald was supposed to claim Treecko... as a Treecko, but it joined him as a Sceptile during the Battle Frontier chapters, long after he was supposed to get it.

~Rowan allowed Platinum and her bodyguards to claim one of three pokemon, those being Piplup, Turtwig, and Chimchar. As she already claimed Piplup, Turtwig and Chimchar were split between Diamond and Pearl.

~Black claimed Tepig, and left Oshawott and Snivy for Cheren and Bianca. White Received a Servine from N, and Lack-Two was given a Dewott to work with.

Ok doing this has made me want to reread Adventures manga...
 

bobandbill

Winning Smile
Staff member
Super Mod
Taking this from the view of the games only... well, there's a number of ways presented already, actually. The hint is to look at all those other trainers. You got preschoolers as a trainer class in newer games (which means they most likely got their Pokémon from parents), bug catchers (they just went out with Poké Balls and their nets and caught something that way), fishermen, etc. In other words, they don't get their starter Pokémon, they just get one from other means.

Not all the games gave starter Pokémon purposefully for people to start adventures, or help with the Pokédex too. DPPt for instance, you either use them to defend yourself against vicious starly (oh my) or get given them by a professor because you were going to go and get some Pokémon anyway, and he happened to have those with him. RSE - you just picked one from the bag Rowan left when he got attacked, and impressed him enough in punting a rabid zigzagoon with it that he let you keep it (besides, you were the child of a gym leader). GSC - you just were given one for an errand, and later on kept it because it got on so well with you, supposedly.
 

Mudcat

Well-Known Member
I would assume that a lot of new trainers would start off with Pokémon that are family pets, as it were.
 

Ketaru

Well-Known Member
Not every character that trains a Pokemon makes a career out of competitive Pokemon battling via the region's league. In a way, most of the league officials and gym leaders and trainers like Red are probably seen more a sports celebrities in the Pokemon world. Other professions in the Pokemon world probably receive their Pokemon through their own courses of training. For example, the police may be given specially trained Pokemon trained for law enforcement.

In Kanto/Johto, it was also possible to simply win a Pokemon via Safari Zone or Game Corner. Many people also seem to treat Pokemon merely as pets. In all likelihood, there are pet stores in the Pokemon world. The only reason the player is never able to explore them is because developers decided that kind of content is not relevant for gameplay (much like how it is very unlikely Pallet Town is really only three buildings).
 
Well, theoretically they would just find a nice stronger trainer to help them out.
 

HoundoomFan

shy shipper
Well, I'm sure like in B2/W2, if a kid wants to be a pokemon trainer & doesn't live by a professes all they have to do is contact the regional /closest professor and one of the aids well help you through the selection & basic trainer info.

Also in the anime, some people get their starter from older sibling/parent (Brock I believe got his Onix from his dad as a gift), who might of started out as a trainer, or one of their decedents did, but kept their starter and gave a non-starter pokemon to them.
 
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Blaze The Movie Fan

Reviewer and PokéFan
I am gonna use an anime episode as an example as it proves my point.

In Having a Wailord of a Time people get the starter from a Pokémon Center from Nurse Joy. That is one of the ways people get their first Pokémon.

Also keep in mind that not all trainers have the first fire, water or grass types in the PokéDex as their starter Pokémon.

Brock for example, got Onix as his first Pokémon.

But anyway, also keep in mind that fishermen, swimmers and bug catchers only use one types of Pokémon. Most likely one of the Pokémon in their team was their first Pokémon.

And I completely agree with the fact that going to the region professor is mostly to get the PokéDex. Most trainers don't have a PokéDex, you might get it in the games. But have you ever seen Brock or Iris carrying one around in the Pokémon anime? No, you don't. And I'm sure most trainers in the games don't have one either.
 

Murder Doll

Button Presser
To add on to this can't pokeballs be transported to pokemon centers and the like?

I meen Ash's pokemon are transported to Oak.

So in theory couldn't starters just be sent the closest pokemon center?

If so it wouldn't matter where you live because for the most part all citys/towns have a pokemon center.
 

dirkac

I smash your Boxes.
And I completely agree with the fact that going to the region professor is mostly to get the PokéDex. Most trainers don't have a PokéDex, you might get it in the games. But have you ever seen Brock or Iris carrying one around in the Pokémon anime? No, you don't. And I'm sure most trainers in the games don't have one either.

Considering how big a deal having one was in Gen II and Gen IV, I'd say that having a Pokédex is indeed a rather special case.



Anyway, though, likely beginning Trainers would just catch whatever thing they saw first and work they way up, receive them from family, etc.
The first has been shown to happen in the form of Wally and numerous Youngsters and the such, at least, and the latter relatively prominent in NPCs, including Falkner.
 

CliveKoopa

Well-Known Member
Pokemon trainers that don't come from Pallet Town, New Bark Town, etc would get their pokemon from their local pokemon centre or their parents most likely.
 

Xenomata

MS Paint Sableye
I probably gave much more info than ever needed, however there is ONE possibility that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

The daycare centers. In the anime, the characters have been given eggs that have hatched into many pokemon, with many of the eggs being given little explanation as to how they came into existence in the first place. Where did the givers get them exactly? Aside from the chances that they simply got the egg from their own pokemon, which is a little doubtful since many of the givers are never even seen with a possible parent, its a higher probability that they, like we do in the games, received the eggs from the daycare center and hand them out, possibly across multiple trainers before coming to a final resting place. And if they get eggs at the rate most of us get them, then it must be absolute chaos having so many eggs, so it would make sense that they would give them away, perhaps even to young aspiring trainers, or heck even to just anyone they bump into on the street.

In the games however, we have the option to turn away eggs if we don't want them for any reason (Myself it is when I am attempting to replace parents). There is not any explanation as to what happens to the eggs we turn down however. In Pokemon Crystal, the player can receive an egg from the Daycare Center that a person decided he/she didn't want. Considering how, in the games, a person who would benefit most from keeping an egg around would be a person with pokemon around and not just any old person, it is possible that they give the eggs to people who have someone they can give the egg to, or heck maybe even give the eggs to youngsters they see passing by and checking out the daycare center.

This is also likely, however it seems to be limited to Unova at the moment. The daycare center is located right next to a preschool. In Black and White, the Preschoolers you can fight here, as well as the twins located in front of the school, all have low level base form pokemon. In Black 2 and White 2, they are higher leveled, which makes sense since the area is post game, however they still use base form pokemon, with the exception of a Ledian and Kirlia. It is completely possible, and might I say maybe even exactly what happened, that they were given these pokemon by the daycare people to learn about pokemon more in-depth (what I would give to have gone to that preschool...), who received them as eggs from the Daycare Center next door, and simply hatched them on their own time and took care of them before giving them to the kids to keep.

God the ideas that swim in my head :confused:
 
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