Pokémon Go is finally getting Pokémon from the sixth generation added in during December’s Kalos Celebration event, but that also means players will need to test and build out competitive movesets for all of the new creatures.
Just like with most of the previous generations, all three of the Kalos starters make for decent competitive options, though just looking at the moves it appears that Chesnaught is going to be the most reliable of the newer trio.
You can make comparisons for Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja in the form of other starters, but in those terms, you will probably be a little disappointed. Chesnaught has some solid coverage and is well rounded, but both Delphox and Greninja are fairly one dimensional.
If you want to build up a team using one of the Kalos starters at the core, here are the best movesets you could try and work on, along with some of their general strengths and weaknesses.
Chesnaught
Being a Grass/Fighting-type gives Chesnaught a lot of weaknesses, but only one of those is truly going to matter in the long run, that being its massive weakness to Flying-type moves. Otherwise, it has a solid spread of 201 attack and 205 in both defense and HP that could lead to it being a great Pokémon, especially in the Great League.
Because its core strengths lie in its STAB moves, you will want to focus on the combination of Vine Whip and either Energy Ball and Superpower, which gets you around 41.7 or 48 DPS on a pretty bulky mon. Solarbeam is powerful but takes too long to charge and Gyro Ball while giving a decent option to counter Fairy-types if you really need that for your team does take away from Chesnaught’s effectiveness overall.
Delphox
Delphox is the opposite of Chesnaught, in that it only has three typings available in its movepool and is basically geared solely towards being an offensive threat with its 230 attack stat.
Completely ignore Scratch as an option and you can basically narrow Delphox down to a single moveset that will truly work in any situation. Fire Blast is unreliable, which means that a combination of Fire Spin and Psychic is what you should run, with a total of 53.9 DPS available.
Greninja
Greninja is a lot like Sceptile, with a high attack stat at 223 and middling defense and HP as a result. Delphox actually has higher stat totals in every category and a more reliable moveset that hits different typings, which is seriously saying something.
As it is, Greninja will probably only see use as a solid Water-type attacker since Bubble and Surf are amazing moves. That combo will give you roughly 57.9 DPS, which is better than Delphox’s most reliable combination.
The main downside here is that Aerial Ace and Night Slash don’t really give Greninja an out to many other typings and aren’t good enough to make reliable options in most situations.