Appendix:Diamond and Pearl walkthrough/Section 1: Difference between revisions

Turtwig, the Turtle Pokémon, is a solid choice. Turtwig evolves into Grotle, and then Torterra at level 32. Turtwig is a Grass type Pokémon, and Torterra gains a Ground type. Torterra has great Attack and Defense, but low Special Attack and Speed. It gets Razor Leaf and Crunch pretty early on, and Earthquake eventually. Torterra also gets Wood Hammer from the Move Tutor. Another good move for Torterra is Curse, which boosts its Attack and Defense, its two best stats, while decreasing its useless speed. It also gets Synthesis for healing itself. For TM moves it gets Bullet Seed, Iron Tail, Rock Tomb, Return, Giga Impact, Stone Edge, and Rock Slide. Also it gets TM Rock Polish to give it +2 Speed every time it uses it, which helps patch up its horrific speed. Swords Dance is useless with Curse in existance. It can learn Cut, Strength, Rock Smash, and Rock Climb for HM move. Torterra does have a 4x Ice weakness, so be wary of that. It any case Turtwig does good at the gyms for the most part and is a good choice for your starter.   

Chimchar, the Monkey Pokemon, has high speed, low defenses, and high attacking stats. It can use physical and special moves. It evolves at level 14, into Monferno, a Fire/Fighting type, and gains a lot of power. If you make sure Chimchar evolves before the first gym, you shouldn't have trouble with the rock types. Chimchar and its evolution line focus primarily on offense and speed, boasting high Attack, Special Attack, and Speed. Its Defense and Special Defense are low, but it has the power to take out most Pokemon in the game with one hit before they even get a chance to strike, so it's not really that bad. Some good moves Chimchar gets are Flame Wheel, Close Combat, Mach Punch, and Flare Blitz. Brick Break, Stone Edge/Rock Slide, and Swords Dance are the main TM moves to consider, although it learns many, many more. It gets the HMs Cut, Strength (a good attacking option as well), Rock Smash and Rock Climb. In comparison to the other two starter Pokemon, Chimchar is probably the best.  

Piplup, the Penguin Pokemon, has high defenses and special attack. Its attack is pretty meh and its speed is also pretty meh. When it becomes Empoleon, it gains the Steel type. The addition of the Steel-type will give it a wide variety of resistances, making it take very little damage from quite a few attacks. Pretty much, only Electric-, Fighting-, and Ground-type attacks are what you need to worry about — nearly everything else is resisted. Unfortunately, this good typing comes at a high cost: a bad movepool. Basically its best level up moves are Metal Claw, Aqua Jet, Bubblebeam, Peck, and Drill Peck and with Empoleon's sub-par Attack stat, it is better off using Special-based attacks. If you are fine using TMs and HMs on Empoleon, Surf (HM03) and Flash Cannon (TM90) are both very powerful attacks for Empoleon to learn. Also Empoleon does eventually get Hydro Pump at level 59, but surf is preferred for general utility. In comparison to the other two starters, Piplup is probably the hardest to use. It will struggle with sub-par moves until you get the HM for Surf (right before the 5th Badge), but will then become much more useful, and very powerful after getting Flash Cannon.  

All of the starters are solid choice and it is down to your preference and playstyle. In any case, time to move on.