Is Squirtle the best Kanto Starter? - Solo Pokemon Red/Blue Challenge

This is it, the final Kanto Starter! Which starter will claim the Champion's throne? (If you get that reference, I'll be very happy!)

[@Jrose11]

Road to 200K continues! Which Pokemon do you want to see next? Comment down below!

[@dawnsbuneary]

How about Paras? I saw MahDryBread do it in gen 3, so how about you give it a try?

[@thenuzlockeshow485]

Jrose11 Do caterpie

[@JB-bc2ry]

Voltorb

[@lewisp2862]

Oddish

[@StuckInAnEternalLoop]

Hi

[@ameliagil4600]

"I will never do a damage less run". One month later.... That aged well.

[@Darkphoenix-jl6dt]

" that is just not my thing " sure :) we'll see

[@Goldsnivy1]

@Philip Tucker To be fair, I'm pretty sure it *is* impossible to solo Red/Blue with Magikarp since there are mandatory battles against Ghost-types and Struggle was normal type in Gen I.

[@VermillionPengu]

* Dam, age le ss'r un

[@ghengiroo4143]

@General Pershing not in gen 1

[@InkayWeiss]

@General Pershing you mean generation 2, in generation 1 struggle is classified as a normal type move.

[@jcnot9712]

I kept wondering why he’s bumping into walls so much and finally realized that the footage isn’t sped up, this is just him using frame skip to go faster in real time.

[@lofiseeker1790]

I was wondering too

[@mr.krustykrust]

What exactly is frame skip?

[@lofiseeker1790]

@@mr.krustykrust cant remember exactly but speedrunners do it

[@jcnot9712]

No. Frame skip is an option that emulators have to speed up games. You either hold down a button or have the emulator do it automatically and the game speeds up the way it can be seen on this video.

[@mr.krustykrust]

Ohh. Is it like what the tab key does on Desmume? At least I think it’s tab. That’s what mine is set to

[@thiagozlin]

Can you hear it? The Bulbasaur fans cheering in the distance

[@body_blocker]

Grass starters are usually my favourite

[@ArtisChronicles]

Lol bulbasaur is a beast. I actually didn't expect charmander to take second though. I thought for sure that squirtle's coverage might've made squirtle take second at the very least, but no the stat moves just made that big of a difference.

[@gabrielgreene1205]

I don’t like Bulbasaur but I like his middle stage Ivysaur and I like squirtle in the squirtle line and charizard in the charmander line

[@Nerex7]

@@gabrielgreene1205 Someone is a pokemon trainer main in smash

[@EsoiTheGrumpyMawile]

@@Noah-wv4td This might surprise you but competitively, Venasaur is higher tiered than both Charizard and Blastoise, Blastoise being the worst of them.

[@berylliosis5250]

I really appreciate that your channel focuses on the more abstract way to get through the game consistently than your own personal luck or failures. In that way, these challenges become more like Pannenkoek's videos than NicoBBQ's; it's more of a "can anyone beat" than "can this one youtuber beat".

[@nihildwo4874]

regardless of which pokemon you ll use, i d love to see like a "classification" at the end of each video to show where the pokemon you just ran places, similar to how you did with this run. can be pretty hard to keep overview once the pokemon you ve run reach double digit.

[@thisisiampie6946]

26:50 he already started it up lol

[@RoninCatholic]

"I legitimately forgot about [Erica]" I think almost everyone does.

[@princebapalapashamalamadin7712]

nah, i mostly legitimately forget about sabrina

[@RoninCatholic]

@@princebapalapashamalamadin7712 Well so do I. In fact, the only gym leaders I usually remember are Brock, Misty, Lt. Surge, and Giovanni. _Maybe_ Crasher Wake and Clay if I also think of other generations.

[@vanillabeanos7911]

Nathan Is a Weasel Its really sad because shes my favorite gym leader! I love her fashion, he gym and she has my favorite pokemon, Vileplume! They shouldve made he harder, give tangela more than 2 moves and make them all higher level

[@jesserobertson8397]

@@RoninCatholic ones i remember is brock misty surge giovanni roxane and wattson

[@Brajxdv]

@@vanillabeanos7911 I agree

[@afmorales7155]

Actually i feel that if you used withdraw, some fight would be easier because your main problem about your speed will be fixed by using withdraw

[@sonic-bb]

lol thats what i was saying. like he's talking about it being useless, then complaining when he gets 2 shot by a physical attacker. makes no sense xD

[@paulnewton2284]

14:36 the birth of a legend

[@RoryTheFiend]

I really like how you're ranking these, I'm curious to see how it'll all end up. Hot take I think Poliwag could be a top contender with its high base 90 speed, and access to Amnesia at level 38 although it only has base 40 special. Main problem would be early game I'd guess, but I'm thinking that'll be the same for almost all of them since the movesets for so many Pokemon in gen 1 are disgustingly bad.

[@wombat4191]

Hypnosis at level 16 is also godsent for Poliwag, although it has very questionable accuracy. Before that it only knows Bubble, though. Edit: Then there seems to be many Pokemon that would seem great if not for their abysmal speed, like Clefairy, or Paras. Maybe if Paras could tank a move, put opponent to sleep (it has Spore, so it will put opponent to sleep), set up and use recovery move, it could be awesome, but its typing prevents it from reliably tanking a move.

[@TheBlueWizzrobe]

​@@wombat4191 Since Bubble gets past Brock, Poliwag should be okay enough in the early game. It should easily get Hypnosis before Misty, which is what really matters. Hypnosis should make the fight *_much_* easier than it would be for most Pokemon. After that, Surge and Erika can be skipped and fought later, Koga should be easy since Poliwag should be a high enough level to know Amnesia at that point AND has access to Psychic, and the entire rest of the game should be pretty easy as well since it has such a great movepool in Surf, Hypnosis, Amnesia, and your choice of Ice Beam or Psychic.

[@wombat4191]

@@TheBlueWizzrobe Yeah Brock will definitely not be a problem, but almost everything else before it gets Hypnosis (and Water Gun at lv 19) will. And since for the sake of fairness the rival should always get a starter that is hardest for each pokemon, Poliwag would have no chance to win against Bulbasaur, which would make the start really slow because it would miss that early exp. Misty would still be really hard before Double Slap at lv 25. But later game would be great because of that speed, amnesia and good coverage.

[@RoryTheFiend]

@@wombat4191 The problem is that poliwag literally only has bubble until level 16, which is only 20BP, watergun helps a level 19 but the main attraction is the late game moveset, psychic for koga will be great and then probably that will be swapped out for ice beam for the elite 4.

[@ekim613]

Bubblebeam from Misty will help until Surf

[@AniGaAG]

I mean, the _main_ reason Squirtle is often seen as the best starter is because it's Water-type. It's not even a particularly good Pokémon in any other way - but it's a Water-type. And due to the somewhat messy type chart, just _being_ a Water-type makes Squirtle much better than it has any right to be.

[@halfpace1462]

when has it ever been seen as the best starter? people who have never played the game say bulbasaur is the best one and people who have will agree that all starters are pretty shit

[@Nyzer_]

@@halfpace1462 Blastoise has the best coverage of all of the starters by miles. Ice Beam and Dig are great counters to Grass and Electric, and the one Electric type that doesn't fold to Dig (Zapdos) will instead fold to Ice Beam. Assuming the Blastoise is high enough level, anyway. And that's really good in Gen 1, because you can't train a full team of 6 without spending insane amounts of time grinding. On top of that, Squirtle's hardest point in the game probably comes from trying to fight Surge at level - but you can just toss on some Repels and go to Diglett Cave for an easy high level Dugtrio. By the time you reach Erika, you've had way more trainer battles to fight, and if you return to Lavender with the Silph Scope first, you can even grab a Snorlax or two to use in a pinch. Charizard's coverage is pretty solid as well, but it doesn't really have an answer for Water types, and Hydro Pump can be devastating. And the only real answer for Misty is Pikachu, which you can't find once you've reached her, and would need to be leveled up about a dozen times to be of any use. Oddish or Bellsprout could work, too, but you won't find them until there are almost no trainer battles left to level them with, and nothing super-effective to grind against in the wild. At least Brock's low Special units can be cleared out with a Charmander that spent a lot of time one-shotting bugs in Viridian. Venusaur has by far the worst coverage, AND the most weaknesses, with no real answer for Fire, Ice, Flying, or Psychic. It has an easier time at first, due to the gym order and lack of wild counters, but that's a double-edged sword - there's not much of an answer to Koga, Sabrina, or Blaine that the player can catch at a good level to counter them with, and the lack of need of a good secondary Mon early on can come back to bite you at that point. The Elite Four, especially, are going to be hard on it. Lorelei has Ice and Psychic, Bruno is a joke, Agatha resists Grass and Poison and has three Mons outright immune to Normal, Lance has a lot of Grass resistance, and then there's the rival with Pidgeotto, Exeggutor, Alakazam, and Charizard - AND his Water type is dual Flying. There's definitely a hierarchy in how useful each of them are on their own, and the normal game strongly encourages that playstyle, due to how the level curve and amount of available trainer EXP is set up.

[@bushlandrabbit5142]

Yoo, this dude is using Pokémon Conquest music. Glad to see some people still know the game, and at the very least for its music lmao

[@beechteeth]

Pokasprey is actually doing a Conquest run on his channel! I'm not too sure if it's gauche to recommend another channel, but they're both great to watch.

[@danielconant3653]

@@beechteeth You are right. Thanks for informing me. I know what I am watching after this.

[@bushlandrabbit5142]

@@beechteeth Ah, I've been watching that! That game was my favorite to play when I was a kid, so I've been watching it for the nostalgia

[@sterling8389]

Conquest gang rise up!!

[@zacharyyoungblood7013]

@@bushlandrabbit5142 I FREAKING LOVE CONQUEST. I'm still playing it to this day. The music, the artwork, the gameplay, EVERYTHING!!!

[@Stalaur]

14:36 rival fiveal

[@vwica]

im glad to know he actually said that and its not just me going insane

[@erik19borgnia]

Was this the origin? It looks like it is, right?

[@elephystry]

In many of these videos I notice that the ends of some words are totally unpronounced. The same word in two videos in fact, and other words in other videos. It doesn’t sound like an audio glitch either.

[@isaacleillhikar4566]

@@erik19borgnia I think so, Ive been looking for that legendary document going through his videos. He doesnt say it in the Charmander and Bulbusaur runs. And he says it once here and once says rival five. So, I think thats his slip he talks about as.

[@chrisbandicoot9552]

Been looking forward to this. I think this challenge will be tougher than Charmander and Bulbasaur, just because Squirtle doesn't have any good buffing moves like Growth or Swords Dance.

[@pembertoons4576]

*p r e d i c t e d*

[@kille42299]

People hyped up squirtle thinking of blastoise. Though he could've taught it tm32 double team for the badge buff and relevant stats

[@wombat4191]

@@kille42299 Yeah Blastoise is the speedrun mon of choice (well, Nidoking is but Blastoise is the only one that comes even close) because speedrunners can use x items and Blastoise has the best coverage. Those strategies do not translate to these runs at all. If Jrose let them evolve I'd suspect Blastoise would do considerably better in comparison, because there would be less need for boosting moves, and in turn Venusaur would lose some effectiveness because it gets Sleep Powder very late at level 55 as opposed to Bulbasaur's 41.

[@pricelesschess]

@Alpha Shadow I thought so too before watching the video. But what I found interesting was that the final times and levels of Charmander & Squirtle were much closer than I thought they were going to be. I thought Bulbasaur was going to be the best, but not by so much that Jrose11 could beat the game over 10 levels lower than with the other 2 starters! That's rather shocking honestly. I didn't think that it was going to be so much of a level gap. But what I do think is that he is going to be sick of this game after playing it 53 times!

[@amparolopez6236]

@@kille42299 to lucky, to boring.

[@aaronmurray9336]

You can skip Caterpie, Lavender Town will stonewall you and he can't learn TMs unlike all other pokemon left for you.

[@TVIDS123]

He already said he is

[@brasilballs]

@@thedudeisthedude5453 Struggle is normal-type in gen 1 so it wouldn't affect most of agatha's pokemon

[@Kanbei11]

@@thedudeisthedude5453 Struggle in gen 1 is normal type so it doesn't affect ghosts. There's a mandatory channeler in Pokémon tower which just can't be beaten

[@Muriuki34]

Same for Magikarp, too

[@laserbeamlightning]

Can’t wait till Abro

[@meko750]

Feels nice to see being Team Bulbasaur all these years finally vindicated. 😁

[@Acacius1992]

For me Bulbasaur will always the least favorite Starter lel

[@calemr]

It's definitely the best starter for general play. Arcanine and Lapras are usually considered better than Charizard or Blastoise. But there aren't great grass types in Gen1. And the hardest part in general play is the early game, when you have few wild Pokemon or TMs to cover your weaknesses. Bulbasaur stomps through the first 2 gyms, and by the time you hit Sabrina or Blaine you're meant to have a team to cover those weaknesses.

[@OmegaTyrant]

@@calemr There are great Grass types in Gen 1, Exeggutor is one of the best pokemon in Gen 1 and Victreebel outclasses Venusaur, doing everything it does and more with better stats. Also Arcanine sucks in Gen 1 and is worse than Zard, it's slower with even lower Special and has a worse movepool.

[@OdysseusKing]

Blastoise is just as superfluous as Venusaur by the late game, which is the only point that picking Squirtle pays off over picking Bulbasaur, if not more so. You get two free water Pokémon (Vaporeon and Lapras) that perform at or above Blastoise’s level.

[@OmegaTyrant]

@@OdysseusKing Yeah Blastoise is outclassed by so many Water pokemon too and really sucks compared to them, all the Gen 1 starters really are pretty damn bad compared to the other team options you can have and if people want to actually have the best team they should ditch their starter pretty quickly. Not that it really matters since the game is so damn easy that no one is truly having a harder time beyond Brock because of their starter choice, but if you're playing a hard mode romhack like Blue Kaizo or want to take your team into Stadium, you don't want to use any of the starters.

[@FawnDoeMusic]

Revisiting this after the Geodude one, I wonder how much more useful Withdraw could have been understanding how broken single stage power up moves can be with the badge boost glitch.

[@InfernosReaper]

Yeah, that's kinda my thought. Given how in later runs he does boosting for stats he isn't even using just to benefit from badge boost, it really seems like he should revisit the older pokemon runs to apply his experience for doing the run.

[@dannylopez5976]

@@InfernosReaper He has said that he does consider the fact that he is more experienced now the he was in earlier runs and does consider that when he's tiering.

[@vgpharaoh1344]

@@dannylopez5976 maybe so, but clearly it GREATLY impacted squirtle's placement so I feel like he should revisit its tier placement as I feel like squirtle got done dirty since bulba got to use the badge boost glitch with growth, charmander got to use it with swords dance, but he didn't use it with squirtle's withdraw

[@jakuth99]

I’m pretty sure that not only was he aware of the badge boost glitch from the end of his bulbasaur run onward, but he also said in the pikachu run that all of the moves on squirtle were necessary

[@jakuth99]

@OWƎN Dig and body slam both have types they can’t hit that the other one would’ve been needed to cover

[@SirKryntik]

I think there's a way to beat gen 1 with a Magikarp. There was an event in Japan (granted, it's very rare) that gave a Magikarp with Dragon Rage, which could be used to get around the ghosts in Lavender Town. Since it's technically a legal move that could be learned, I think it should be tried.

[@calemr]

Shame struggle was normal type in Gen 1. I was thinking it'd be possible before I remembered that all the Magikarp only runs are on Fire Red/Leaf Green for this reason.

[@Feltzer342]

I know what you're talking about: you're talking about that "University Magikarp" when it was still in Japan, which was based off a Magikarp TCG card which had Dragon Rage on it. Only 20 of 'em were released, and you had to get it through the "Tamamushi University Hyper Test". The only way you could obtain that Magikarp legit is if you stole either the DeLorean or a TARDIS because that event took place back in the summer of 1998 in July. Nowadays, you'd have to hack Dragon Rage into Magikarp's moveset.

[@JacSmash]

Feltzer342 or, participate in the event

[@Feltzer342]

@@JacSmash Like I said, this event happened back in July '98, so... tell me, how does one go about participating in this event nowadays?

[@SirKryntik]

@@Feltzer342 My argument is that since it did exist, that it is technically a legal move that Magikarp can learn in gen 1. It would require hacking, but since it's technically based off of a legitimate moveset, it should be tried.

[@atratus1132]

21:44 "I will never do a damageless run" 1,5 months later "Can you beat Pokemon Gold/Silver Without Taking Damage?" ^^

[@Besh091]

rewatching these and am so glad to have found what seems like the origins of Rival Fival

[@Wysewolf]

It is. I also am just now completing this journey to find the first Fival. Lol

[@spiritedaway0tutu]

I honestly think if this would have gone significantly better if you had kept withdraw, especially considering how bulky squirtle gets with it. I’m starting to wonder if, after all is said and done, you should go back to the first, like 5 pokemon and redo them, knowing what you know now after all of the later ones. It would be interesting to see if the placements change.

[@Walkerman379]

Wow, I liked how you swapped out moves in the middle of the elite 4 multiple times! Like bringing in a pinch hitter.

[@radaf4429]

I hope you call it "Rival Fival" every time

[@sand747]

Aged like fine wine

[@JohnzaloogIII]

Bulba being the best start makes my inner ten year old feel vindicated.

[@xmgaming2444]

Audio producer here. I like this channel, but that intro could use some work. if you want, I can make you a cleaner-sounding one.

[@ChaoticMeatballTV]

Yeah as a musician I'd like to hear a new one tbh lol

[@Jrose11]

As someone with 0 audio/music experience, I don't doubt that lol. I'd love to hear what you could do!

[@edgelordgilford]

It’s definitely a bit grating and abrasive.

[@PawsJb]

XM Gaming no I like it how it is

[@Felixkeeg]

@@edgelordgilford It's coarse, it's rough. And it gets everywhere

[@Crinbo]

I’ve been saying since I was 8 that Bulbasaur was the best starter. Cue the Dashboard Confessional! I’m Vindicated!

[@bittern4464]

The other two starters are E N D L E S S T R A S H

[@seanbroccoli2698]

Problem with that is Best Starter for the game is not the same as the best Starter Pokemon. At the end of the day he still had to utilize a glitch for Bulbasaur and Charmander.

[@OmegaTyrant]

So I've been trying this myself, with the caveat that I use perfect DV pokemon and don't care about playtime by explicitly grinding for Stat EXP instead of levelling up as fast as possible, to see how low a level you can truly go to win, and with Squirtle I used Withdraw instead of Body Slam. With that I was able to beat the game going into the Elite Four at level 52 and finish at level 58. In comparison with Charmander, even using the Fire Spin strat I mentioned on your Charmander video, it took me entering at level 60 and finishing at level 65 to win. So under your rules, you definitely could have won with Squirtle at least over 10 levels before you did, and thus he is definitely a tier above Charmander and possibly on or above Bulbasaur and Pikachu tier (I haven't use them yet). No Body Slam does make the Gyarados you fight a bit more difficult, but Blizzard suffices against them, especially after you stack some badge boosts with Withdraw. Getting badge boost stacks with Squirtle just does so much to help its poor Speed and offense, additional minor type coverage is absolutely not worth giving that up for. If you don't mind redoing runs when you made a big tactical error that adversely affected the final outcome, you should definitely give Squirtle another go so he can get a more accurate ranking.

[@far2ez539]

Perfect DVs is cheesy, though, because it largely mitigates squirtle's lower speed while not helping Charmander equally. You're effectively giving Charmander more speed he doesn't need (as +1 and +100 are equal) while completely flipping the binary switch on Squirtle (-1 and +1 are the difference between being hit 1x vs 0x; being able to set up 0x vs 2x). I agree entirely that he made a HUGE oversight with not including Withdraw, but I also think that he fucked up Charmander pretty badly as well. Overall, I think that Squirtle ekes out a victory over Charmander if you abuse BBG. Though I also think it's lame that he abuses BBG anyway. His attitude about it ("Well, it's going to happen by accident anyway!") doesn't justify how he uses it ("So I intentionally used a rare candy so I could enter this fight in a way that the BBG wouldn't reset in the middle...."). Saying "it would happen by accident" is fine, but using that as justification to abuse it (especially with 6x withdraw) is a bit much.

[@OmegaTyrant]

@@far2ez539 what

[@leaffinite2001]

@@far2ez539 idk why he bothers saying glitchless, just say no major glitches and no one cares about bbg anymore

[@fede7788]

I like very much all your videos but I think this one just doesn’t do justice to Squirtle, I have just beaten the entire Pokemon League with Squirtle at level 71 knowing Withdraw (that move is a game changer for him, since he can take advantage of the badge boost glitch) and I’m sure it can be done at an even lower level. I would like to see a second run with Squirtle knowing Withdraw, I think that his position in the rank would change radically. Greetings!!

[@rrickydanby]

This series has been keeping me at bare minimum sanity.

[@John-iw1nn]

Your commentary is leagues ahead of the other uploaders who do Pokémon challenges. Keep up the great work.

[@RebornAudio]

Imagine we’re essentially going to get exactly the same video over and over again. And I’m totally fine with that.

[@thisisiampie6946]

Funny how thats the pokemon franchise in a nutshell. Same game released every time but with minor differences

[@funguy398]

The devil hides in details

[@Xeronoia]

Imagine Nidolad and Nidolass and the random little differences actually mattering for some gyms.

[@mikofox9798]

I’m naming any and all Nidos I get in any game those names now. Thank you sir.

[@rafaellum]

Hey Jrose, took your challenge up and did this run with Squirtle at level 60 entering the League, exiting at level 65. It turns out Double team is really really good to activate the badge boost glitch :D All stats boosted plus evasion makes every battle easy. Moveset from rival 6 up to the Champion: Surf, Dig, Double team, Blizzard.

[@dwestside6945]

nice! double team is banned tho

[@doctorcaptainalex]

I tried it too. Beat it around level 65 with dig, surf, withdraw, and ice beam.

[@maidenslayer]

21 years ago I chose Bulbasaur.

[@MazterP28]

Me too bulbasaur is the best

[@joshuachudley1270]

You both choose poorly...Charmander FTW!

[@LiskHelio]

All 3 of you chose poorly, Squirtle is clearly the best

[@maxcrss2845]

HELI0_Z watch the video, objectively disproven.

[@Acacius1992]

@@LiskHelio Hell yeah! Screw ugly Toad and awesome (yet overrated a bit) Lizard! Squitle Gang united ;)

[@DustyTheKitty]

While I do understand your stance on not cheating, I do feel you would get more consistent and accurate results If all the pokémon you used were on the same level playing field, those stats do have an effect on the time to completion for each of these rounds, doing so would eliminate things out of the players normal control and putting it more on the pokémon base stats and move lists. For all we know with this set up The Bulbasaur could have been a lottery winning roll while Squirtle and Charmander were more mediocre. That aside, great stuff as always Jrose, always enjoy the older games content.

[@DustyTheKitty]

@Nathan Taffijn There's cheating to finish the game in record time and there is cheating to achieve consistent results to solve something, think of it like testing something in laboratory conditions.

[@ProjectMATHEW]

Would withdraw be useful in this run with the badge boost? It'll give you more defence for moves like hyper beam and take down and give you a potentially run saver speed boost you'll just be stuck with it from level 28

[@josheike3543]

Keeping withdraw might cost time in the early game, but Squirtle can easily finish the champion at level 70 using withdraw and badge boosts.

[@foggernaut8876]

In Gen 1 Blizzard is 92% accurate. Everyone just thinks about the 70% in every other gen

[@vitormadisantanna8652]

90%, not 92%

[@spiritedaway0tutu]

14:36 - “Rival Fival” has appeared for the first time. Welcome to the party! 20:50 - “Mimic” has appeared for the first time! Welcome to the party!

[@sergioorozco1087]

But why does he say rival fival? I've thought about it for a while and I can't find a reason why

[@alexortiz9777]

@@sergioorozco1087 he called him fival by accident once, but liked the sound of it so kept using the combination.

[@NeoZanther]

But he used Mimic on Bulba

[@woofexe4050]

The Squirtle Squad is all here 😎

[@thelegendofdylan4324]

Gastly solo run must be super easy for the first half. But I think it will still be cool to see. Love your videos btw :)

[@raynmanshorts9275]

I think the reason why people thought Squirtle would be easiest is not because it's used by speedrunners, but rather because water's two weaknesses (grass and electric) are weak to moves that it gets (ice beam/blizzard and dig, respectively). Furthermore, being able to use ice beam or blizzard against Lance would be a definite boon.

[@Andre217]

It also hurt because he tries to do these as fast as possible... squirtle isn't fast and its attack isn't amazing so guess it makes sense it would struggle in this type of run..

[@peacocca190]

I still think charmander won this. In my mind the easiest time for 99% of the game is more valuable then the overall lowest level and fastest time. But with that said I do agree with your method since this is gonna cover more then just the 3 starters. Great job so far.

[@kid_named_a]

This is argueably the best Pokémon KZbin series to watch during the quarantine

[@kamoroso94]

Hey GamerMaster3011, when you finish this series, I'd love to see a video afterwards explaining everything you learned from beating the generation one games 53 times!

[@francescod5179]

Hey J! You should redo this using the badge boost glitch and abusing withdraw. We want to see the difference:)

[@pancakeboi283]

Jrose: Lur-el-Lee Every other pokemon youtuber: lor-eh-Lie

[@flyforce16]

The worst part is that he's doubled down on this mispronunciation too.

[@hiei49]

'Using Withdraw would be useless' Proceeds to set up with reflect Seriously though, i think that withdraw could have been useful, since harden was useful in the Geodude run

[@lordlouie3550]

Jrose11: (releases next part of his thrilling series) Worm: “iM oN iT”

[@funguy398]

Boreworm, do you live in splatter house?

[@lordlouie3550]

Fun Guy I am currently located in the 8th-most region of SR-388. My main base of operations is a station on the 11th floor of a motel right outside The Uniform Bay, But I do travel often, and with that, I leave my fragments across the known universe... the house got boring. Eating people is great and all that, but then I have stomach cramps and occasionally my head/mouth explodes. Neh.

[@mikofox9798]

I hate when my head explodes, so inconvenient.

[@lordlouie3550]

@Miko Fox My Face is one of NUMEROUS SQUIRMING RODS My comment fragments can be found in places across the known lands, including videos by: RRThiel Chadtronic Timotainment And various game music uploads, usually from the 8-bit era.

[@KBVRdjFEVA]

Your persistence and pursuit of a scientific method has earned you my respect so please welcome this new subscriber. I’m excited to see more videos from you!

[@luizbezerra4373]

Bulbasaur has an easier time dealing with Blaine than Squirtle? Like wth?

[@AzureKite]

Bulbasaur is faster

[@OmegaTyrant]

Sleep is busted in Gen 1, and then if you boost your Special with Growth, Bulbasaur is hitting a lot harder and the Fire moves aren't going to do much damage unless they crit to bypass the Special boost.

[@rainpooper7088]

Omega Tyrant Blaine‘s AI being a dumbass also helps.

[@jonbanks2717]

It's actually kind of frustrating watching this older video today knowing the badge boost glitch really would have helped Squirtle get a better time.

[@flarithen]

would love to see this redone since badge boost glitch + withdraw changes the strats immensely

[@firedrake110]

In gen 1, there's only one move with 100% accuracy: swift. Everything else is 99.6%, or much, much worse

[@KixVux]

Swift just never misses but some moves have 100% accuracy. It's just that if the accuracy is lowered it could miss except for swift.

[@benjulc9271]

Allright. 53 runs. Let's say 6,5 hours per run (actually more because some pokemons are not as good as the starters but let's keep it at 6,5 for the sake of cenvenience). It would take nearly 344,5 hours to do this challenge. More than two weeks of continue playtime.

[@steelthunder7782]

Well you can atleast half that because we know he uses speed up

[@benjulc9271]

@@steelthunder7782 All right, let's say 10 days. (He still has to make strategies and plan the run).

[@funguy398]

You forget the most important part: editing

[@benjulc9271]

@8balln8 killingu65 Charmander run is already out.

[@SimpleAmadeus]

So far he's putting a video of this series out once every 2 days, so that's going to be 100 more days if he keeps up that pace.

[@markusblomer1208]

Very nice video! Personally, just for upset I hope an oddball like Cubone or Eevee is near the top, just for shock value. Also, just wanted to mention that you can get the TM for Water Gun in Mt. Moon. While I'm not sure it would have made a difference here (given that you knew it by the time you got to Mt. Moon), it might be important for type coverage with other pokemon. It doesn't really help with Brock, but it may make some hikers easier. Some notable ones to me are Rattata, Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Meowth, and Cubone for early game coverage. In addition, Psyduck, Shellder, and Crabby don't learn it by level up but can learn it by TM. Don't know if this helps or not, but whenever I replay Gen 1 I always grab it due to muscle memory.

[@arthurhoracio]

@rosefurcht no, evee can use bide in gen 1

[@OmegaTyrant]

Cubone is gonna be really bad; it's really slow with awful Special, its Attack is mediocre for first stage pokemon standards, its weaknesses are going to get exploited a lot, and it has no Thick Club in Gen 1 nor even gets Swords Dance so it has no way to boost its stats either. Cubone is probably going to need to be in the 90s to get past Lance's Gyarados and Blue, and it's gonna struggle hard throughout the rest of the game. Eevee is probably going to be mediocre to low tier; its stats are mediocre all-around, it just learns Normal moves, has no boosting moves without Double Team (which I'm assuming Jrose has banned for this challenge/analysis), and its only status moves only reduce stats. Being Normal and getting STAB Body Slam is going to be a huge boon, but having to rely on Bide and Mimic to get past Ghost types and not get walled by Rock types is going to really suck.

[@josheike3543]

We've learned so much more about the badge boost since this video first came out. Squirtle could finish at least 10 levels lower using withdraw.

[@cordellchase2023]

I'm loving these, keep them coming. You are my favorite pokémon youtuber.

[@casualjacob776]

I can't wait to see Farfetch'd! I've always loved that little guy.

[@Dizzyyi]

“i’ll never do a damage less run” nice one jrose

[@TheDiego908]

Do a "Can you beat Red/Blue with only Mew/Mewtwo" for shits and giggles

[@calemr]

Shame he's just missed April fool's. "Can I beat Pokemon Red with Only all the legendaries?"

[@drunkenhobo8020]

And fails to get past the bug catcher fight in Viridian Forest.

[@somebodyoncerolledme7211]

Might be interesting if he did Mew but only using Transform/Metronome!

[@pokemanceradrian8229]

Blastoise is my most favorite Pokémon, I'm glad you made a video on Squirtle!

[@canadian__ninja]

I know this isn't the video to rant about this, but its been bugging me for years at this point. Why on earth do specialized trainers like hikers as an example carry the pokemon they do? If I'm going hiking and will be battling pokemon native in mountains and caves, why would I be bringing three geodudes? I get maybe have something for strength if me as an NPC has that HM, but would it not be more efficient for a hiker to carry water or grass types?

[@imfamoushero]

Canadian Ninja they like rocks which is why they’re hiking

[@wilhelmdietz4023]

Plus they are always very bulky men, so Geodude fits more with how they look and their personality than I dunno a Goldeen or Bellsprout would. It'd be weird seeing a hiker with a Bellsprout.

[@lenkagamine4145]

think about it more this way, its not about whats convenient to have so much as whats convenient to catch. Since they're always in mountains and caves, they catch the pokemon they find there, they'd have to go somewhere else to catch pokemon strong against mountain and cave mon's.

[@jorlando1094]

The amount of effort this guy puts to his videos it’s crazy

[@TheJannis1994]

2:56 ahh the classic encounter on a trainer field

[@manguy01]

I totally called it! I knew Squirtle would be the hardest! The setup moves are so dang powerful. It makes the no-item rule basically unimportant.

[@ajaakola2]

Its kinda funny how everyone hates Bulbasaur evolution line, even tho Venusaur is one of the best starter evolutions ever.

[@islarf5095]

"I will never do a damageless run that is just not my thing"

[@maxcrss2845]

I started with bulbasaur, so I’ll be very happy if he’s the best or at least top tier. :)

[@trent800]

for a playthrough Squirtle and Bulbasaur are both good but Charmander is not

[@kassadus2499]

Top tier is gastly on it's own, it is better than most fully evolved pokemon and miles ahead of all other NFE mons. The starters are all in the next highest tier in my opinion.

[@Foreriverricky]

Jrose you got me into pokemon youtube like 2 years ago and you been my fave poketuber by far ever since! You uploading content more regularly has been great and I'm looking forward to see whats more to come!

[@kaathesacolyte2943]

I'm a simple man, I see a Jrose video, I watch it

[@cecillewolters1995]

I'm so glad my boy Bulbasaur is such a good choice :D The ranking system at the end is also a nice touch, maybe it's a smart idea to also put in the pros and cons of each pokemon, like how inconsistent Squirtle is for example. Can't wait to see more of these, and yes, I'll sub! ;)

[@Witherboss2015]

I have not finished this video but I can smell surf spam

[@Just_Shaun]

Watching this challenge has given me a strive to play Pokemon red on virtual console 3ds, I got it ages ago but couldn’t be bothered playing it because I had other games, also that conquest music is so nostalgic, that game is too big, there are so many side chapters and stuff.

[@cernanwinterfox85]

This is one of the ones Ive been most looking forward to. Squirtle Squad unite!

[@SimpleAmadeus]

Unfortunately this is a bad day for Squirtle Squad.

[@lichyyyyy]

@@SimpleAmadeus LMAOOO

[@hwate8]

17:13 Blizzard is 90% Accuracy is Gen 1. Edit: And at 25:25 you confirmed that you knew that, though to be fair, saving it until you've gotten use out of Mimic makes sense too. The REAL question, is why you kept Body Slam instead of Dig. You didn't run into any other Pokemon who resist both Normal AND Ice Moves...

[@cameroncookl7942]

If people thought squirtle would be the best one because speedrunners pick him, then those people probably don't watch speedruns then because the main pokemon in speedruns is nidoking

[@meko750]

It’s one or the other. There’s different routes for both. Nido being the primary doesn’t change that Blastoise is by far the most speedrun viable of the three starters, so that’s not really a fair analysis…

[@kassadus2499]

There is a blastoise route that is only a few minutes slower than nidoking and that's only cause of X-Accuracy and Horndrill interaction.

[@Andre217]

To be fair speed runners usually evolved this not an evolution run..

[@Scrumfen]

Yes, but you usually pick up squirtle first, and before the route with nidoking was discovered Squirtle was the fastest route, and even after nidoking was discovered the squirtle route was competetive until the nidoking route was optimized.

[@DannieRay23]

@@kassadus2499 doesnt Blast use xacc fissure tho?

[@abeniciocordoba-wilson71]

I was so surprised you opted not to learn withdraw!

[@DJTileTurnip]

Not to be that guy, but that intro may seem outdated when you exceed 200K

[@dgw9394]

i hope he keeps the piano thing if he updates it tho, its iconic

[@RoninCatholic]

Personally I think Bulbasaur is the best Gen 1 starter, and a major contributing factor to my Grass-type bias.

[@woooy1]

Please can you update your "league table" of time and level after every one of your 53? Would be really cool to see how it progresses alongside the previous ones you've done! Great series so far 👍

[@MrIronJustice]

Love these videos! Your commentary is very educational.

[@BlastOnWheels]

Thanks for the video. You know, I like to watch yours. There is no "Subscribe, like blalblablabla" or "Hey, find me on twitter blablabla" in the middle of the video. I mean, this alone is a big plus already. I like your commentary and don't really care what content you make. You are the best of them all, remember that. Oh, and keep up the format, it works for you.

[@MaxieMeat]

True story: When I got Blue version for Christmas as a kid I didn't try to figure out how to catch any Pokemon (I wasn't too big into RPGs as a kid so I just keep pressing A through the dialogue) so I just plowed through most of the game as Squirtle, then Wartortle, then Blastoise. By the time I got to Lavender Town I then decided to read the manual and reset my game.

[@StatusQuonald]

Short answer: Yes . Long answer: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

[@seanbroccoli2698]

I feel like the Squirtle run was unfair given the fact you used exploits for Bulbasaur and Charmander.

[@Y_z_r]

I'd really like that you upload Pokémon XD/Colosseum (or other spin-offs) at some point, as a susgestion

[@iwandesu]

Damn, this series is absolutely great. The way you go step by step and how it actually seems to have a purpose behind (instead of just "can x beat y game"?) make things novel like

[@HakeemKaree]

Stating that high defense is a flaw in Squirtle compared to the other starters is only a reflection in a flaw in your strategy. Your trying to use a screwdriver as a hammer, it may work but it won't function as easily as using a hammer as a hammer or screwdriver as a screwdriver. Should've used reflect sooner or light screen and skull bash over body slam for increased damage output and defense increase.

[@islarf5095]

I'm in another binge through this series. you probably know now, but for others, there's a hidden rare candy just to the right before the Fossil Guy.

[@vgpharaoh1344]

I feel like squirtle's placement was HEAVILY influenced by his refusal to use withdraw here. he badge boost glitch'd for the other starters but not squirtle and based on how geodude did with defense curl/harden I feel like squirtle would've done way better if he used it. ik the whole "'first runs" thing, but like... he badge boost glitched for the other 2 and didn't for squirtle which is a big deal

[@ASAPShitPost]

I just love that you're doing this Jrose. I loved your first handful of Pokemon videos, but I didn't think you were gonna continue making them consistently, especially at a rate like this. But I love Pokemon challenge runs, I love long videos in general, so you are just killin it! 😉

[@Torinna_]

See this is a better analysis of starters. I use Eryizo as an example cause his starter videos are awful. He generalized the gyms and doesn’t point out certain members of teams and also uses incredibly hypocritical points. For example he says in his Johto starter video that Feraligatr and Typhlosion can have their weaknesses counted because of having a full team of 6 but forgets to talk about Meganium just to make a point of making Meganium look worse than it actually is. Also Conquest music is amazing

[@trent800]

He did that on Hoenn too everyone knows Swampert is best for hoenn no questions asked but he said Blaziken was

[@pembertoons4576]

Who is this Eryizo?

[@sterling8389]

@@pembertoons4576 A KZbinr. Hes not bad, I think hes just not someone who has in depth information about solo runs like Jrose does.

[@amesstarline5482]

That reminds me.. I did play with a Chikorita/Bayleef/Meganium throughout my Heartgold run, and my team helped make up for other gyms. If anything, it also is useful against Red Gyrados and I barely had to worry about Whitney. These videos by JRose also give some love to Bulbasaur and why it helps Pokémon Adventures Red used one. I wonder if, even with how talented Chikorita was for me, if Tysplosion, Gold's main, really does hold up.

[@canerdemksk]

This needs a rerun with withdraw badge boost. Love the vids man keep it up

[@cjleach3442]

I find it amusing that Charmander is easily the best up until Lance.

[@rainpooper7088]

*cries in Gyarados*

[@2102082]

Pumping out videos quick and they’ve still got great quality content. Keep up the awesome work!!

[@micahqgecko]

Predict bulbasaur still the best

[@micahqgecko]

My childhood choice is finally validated for all time

[@birddabble2430]

Hey man, found your channel with the magikarp video and followed you since. You make really great videos with a whole new approach!

[@thenuzlockeshow485]

Jrose11 is top tear please do a randomizer nuzlocke someday

[@sagacious03]

Poor Squirtle. Also, I admire your dedication, JRose11! Thanks for uploading!

[@TemLightKiBlade]

Hey hey, if your going to keep saying Lorelie, you should pronounce how they do in the anime... Prima. Lets all get it right.

[@mepposhow]

I love that series. Hit the 200K! You established the Pokemon-Challenge-Series on YT! Go go go!