The Pokemon Legends Z-A best starter question has produced one of the sharpest community splits in recent Pokemon discourse. Game8 and Gamer.org pick Tepig. Siliconera, SteelSeries, GAM3S.GG, and PlayerAuctions pick Totodile. GamesRadar picks Chikorita. TheGamer hedges. Eight outlets, three different winners, and no clean math to back the loudest claim.
The right pick is Totodile. The data Game8 leans on does not say what Game8 says it does, and the typing math runs in the opposite direction across a campaign that funnels every meaningful encounter into a Mega-Evolved boss fight.
Key Takeaway
- The leaked Mega Evolution stat totals are within five points of each other across all three starters. Mega Meganium sits at 625, Mega Emboar at 628, Mega Feraligatr at 630. There is no statistically dominant pick on raw numbers.
- Mega Feraligatr has only two type weaknesses (Dragon, Fairy) and the highest Attack stat in the trio at 160. Mega Emboar has five weaknesses (Water, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Fairy). Mega Meganium also has five and takes 4x damage from any Poison move.
- Ice Fang neutralizes Feraligatr's own Dragon weakness. Emboar has no equivalent answer to its five-weakness profile. Meganium's Fairy advantage helps only against Dragon-types, which is one slice of the late-game roster.
- Water-types are scarce in Lumiose City's open zones. Fire-types and Grass-types are plentiful. Picking Totodile fills a team-composition gap the wild Pokedex does not easily plug.
- Mable gifts a Kanto starter (Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle) during Side Mission 22. The original starter still gets the story Mega Stone, which is the part that matters long-term, but the team is not locked the moment players choose at the start.
The stronger-stats case for Tepig does not hold up
Game8's case for Tepig hinges on one sentence: Tepig's final evolution "has an overall stronger stat line than the Gen 2 options." That would matter if it were true. Per the leaked Mega Evolution stats Vice reported in October 2025, all three Mega starters land within five points of each other on total base stats. Mega Meganium sits at 625. Mega Emboar at 628. Mega Feraligatr at 630. Pre-Mega base totals from the canonical Pokedex are similarly close: 525 for Meganium, 528 for Emboar, 530 for Feraligatr.
Nobody is statistically dominant. What is actually different is how each Mega distributes those points. The cleanest way to see the spread is to put the three side by side at the stats players actually feel during a fight.
| Mega starter | HP | Attack | Defense | Sp. Atk | Total | Type weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mega Feraligatr | standard | 160 | 125 | standard | 630 | Dragon, Fairy (2) |
| Mega Emboar | 110 | 148 | 75 | standard | 628 | Water, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Fairy (5) |
| Mega Meganium | standard | standard | 115 | 143 | 625 | Fire, Ice, Flying, Poison (4x), Steel (5) |
Mega Emboar invests heavily in HP (110) and Attack (148) but sits at 75 Defense, which is the lowest defensive stat in the trio by a wide margin. Mega Feraligatr puts 160 into Attack, the highest of any starter Mega in the game, with another 125 into Defense for a balanced offensive-defensive profile. Mega Meganium spreads its budget across Special Attack (143), Defense (115), and Special Defense (115), making it the only one of the three built around a special-attacker stat line.
Game8's framing of Emboar as the offensive monolith is accurate. Their framing of it as having stronger overall numbers is not. Emboar trades defense for offense, which is a different claim than being statistically superior. GAM3S.GG's description is more honest: Emboar operates on a "kill or be killed" philosophy. That is a real thing to be, and it is a fine pick for aggressive players. It is not the same thing as being objectively the best.
Feraligatr's weakness profile is what actually wins the game
This game is built around Mega Evolution combat. The story funnels players into Rogue Mega Battles, where each opponent is a Mega-Evolved boss with elevated stats and a charge attack. Outside the story, a Rogue Mega Rush boss gauntlet pits players against 27 Mega-Evolved opponents in sequence. The reliability question for a starter is not whether it can one-shot soft targets. It is how often it gets two-shot itself across a campaign full of Megas.
Per Game8's own analysis, Mega Feraligatr has only two type weaknesses: Dragon and Fairy. Compare that to Mega Emboar's Fire/Fighting profile, which takes super-effective damage from Water, Ground, Flying, Psychic, and Fairy. Five weaknesses. Mega Meganium's Grass/Fairy typing also lands at five (Fire, Ice, Flying, Poison, Steel) and gets worse on inspection: Grass/Fairy is double-weak to Poison, taking 4x damage from any Poison-type move. Any Mega opponent with a Poison move on its sheet melts Meganium fast.
Then there is the Ice Fang factor. GAM3S.GG flags Ice Fang as essential coverage for Feraligatr against the campaign's heavy Dragon and Fairy Mega rotation. Ice is super-effective against Dragon, which means Feraligatr's own Dragon weakness gets neutralized by a move it can actually run. Emboar has no equivalent answer to its five weaknesses. Meganium's situational Fairy advantage cuts in only against Dragon-types, which is one slice of the late-game roster.
The math here is not subtle: two weaknesses with Ice Fang coverage versus five weaknesses without it is not a close call across a 27-fight gauntlet.
The endgame Rogue Mega Rush, unlocked after completing the Mega Dimension DLC, forces players to clear all 27 Mega bosses with the same team, three full heals, and no item access. This is where a glass-cannon starter dies repeatedly. Nintendo Everything's strategy guide for the challenge builds its recommended team around Annihilape rather than any starter Mega, illustrating how specialized the optimal Rogue Mega Rush roster gets. Feraligatr's defensive profile keeps it viable as a story carry through the campaign and the DLC. Whether it slots into a Rogue Mega Rush team is a different question, and the answer for both Emboar and Meganium is harder than Feraligatr's.
The Water-type scarcity argument holds up too
Siliconera made a team-building case for Totodile that the other outlets glossed over. Fire-types are easy to come by in early Lumiose City. Fletchling shows up during the tutorial. Pansears spawn in the city's trees commonly enough that catching one is trivial. Picking Tepig doubles up on a type slot that the wild Pokedex fills anyway. Water-types are scarcer in the open zones, and the few that do spawn are often locked behind specific weather or time-of-day windows.
This is the sort of practical consideration that gets buried in raw stat comparisons. The "best starter" question is not only about the starter's stat sheet. It is about which type slot a player should permanently lock in given what is catchable around it. The answer there points to Totodile by a comfortable margin.
The same logic explains why Chikorita is the contrarian pick rather than the right one. Grass-types are also relatively scarce early, and Meganium's Mega Fairy typing does help against late-game Dragon Megas. But the Sp.Atk-focused stat line forces a special-attacker team build that Pokemon Legends Z-A's open-zone catch list does not easily support. Chikorita works if a player commits to that direction. Totodile works regardless.
Where Tepig and Chikorita still earn their slots
The argument is not that Totodile is the only acceptable answer. The starter choice is also less existential in Z-A than in older Pokemon titles because Mable gifts a free Kanto starter (Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle) during Side Mission 22, per GameSpot's mission walkthrough. The story-gifted Mega Stone still attaches to whichever starter Pokemon a player picks at the beginning, which is the part that matters long-term. But the team is not locked the moment a player chooses at the start of the game.
Tepig is the right pick for players who plan to play offensively, accept the defensive risk, and want the satisfaction of one-shotting Mega bosses through raw damage. The 110/148 HP/Attack Mega stat line is, in fact, the highest peak-damage profile of the three. A Tepig run that pairs Mega Emboar with a defensive backline (a Steelix, a Toxapex, or a Hippowdon) can absolutely carry the campaign, and the moment-to-moment gameplay reward of dropping a boss in two charge attacks is real.
Chikorita is the right pick for players who want a special-attack-focused playstyle and do not mind building a team that supports Meganium's softer offensive output. The Fairy typing on Mega Meganium is genuinely useful against the campaign's Dragon-type Megas, and a player who plans to lean on Earth Power, Energy Ball, and Moonblast can do real work with it. These are valid playstyles. They are not, however, the default.
The default is Totodile. Game8 should have caught its own analytical error. The five-point spread across the three Mega stat totals does not support the conclusion that Tepig is the best pick, and the typing math runs in the other direction.
How the pick actually plays out across the campaign
The starter decision compounds in three places: the early Rogue Mega story battles, the Mega Dimension DLC's late-game encounter pacing, and the Rogue Mega Rush gauntlet at the very end. Each of those checkpoints punishes a fragile starter slightly differently, which is part of why Feraligatr's two-weakness profile keeps paying off where Emboar's five-weakness profile keeps costing.
Early Rogue Mega Battles are tuned around the player having one fully evolved starter, an early-route Pokedex catch or two, and the basic Mega Evolution mechanic. Feraligatr's defensive cushion lets a player tank a missed dodge and recover. Emboar's 75 Defense usually means a missed dodge ends the run. The early-game churn is not where the gap shows up most starkly, but it is where a player decides whether their starter is going to be their carry or their problem child.
The Mega Dimension DLC pushes the encounter pacing harder. Bosses there cycle attack patterns at speeds that punish missed openings, and the DLC's specific roster includes several Megas with Dragon and Fairy moves on their sheets. Feraligatr with Ice Fang either resists or threats those matchups. Emboar gets cooked. Meganium gets melted by anything carrying a Poison move. The Ice Fang coverage matters most here, not at the start.
The Rogue Mega Rush at the very end is the cleanest stress test. Twenty-seven consecutive Mega bosses, one team, three full heals, no item access. Nintendo Everything's recommended team for the challenge swaps in Annihilape over any starter Mega, which tells the broader story: the optimal Rogue Mega Rush team is specialized enough that no starter is the centerpiece. But Feraligatr is the only one of the three that consistently slots in as a viable bench piece for the gauntlet rather than a liability that gets benched the first time it goes down.
Anyone who wants to follow the same pattern of guides hedging on a question with a clear data answer can read the parallel Silksong Reaper vs Wanderer crest analysis, where two community testers using a hidden-HP mod arrived at the same DPS ranking and the official guide sites still hedge between them. The structural pattern is identical: an empirically defensible answer exists, and the largest guide sites refuse to commit because hedging is safer for traffic than taking a position.
Final read
The Pokemon Legends Z-A best starter is Totodile. Feraligatr trades into the game's Mega-heavy combat with the cleanest weakness profile, the highest Attack in the trio, and the Ice Fang coverage that handles its own Dragon weakness. Emboar's claimed stat-line advantage does not exist in the actual data. Meganium's Fairy meta is real but narrow.
Pick Totodile. Take the Kanto starter you actually want from Mable after Side Mission 22. If you are playing on the latest hardware, our Nintendo Switch 2 review covers the framerate and load-time differences worth knowing about for an open-zone game like Z-A. Stop deferring to whichever guide site was loudest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best starter in Pokemon Legends Z-A?
Totodile is the best starter in Pokemon Legends Z-A for most players. Mega Feraligatr has the highest Attack stat in the trio at 160, only two type weaknesses (Dragon and Fairy), and access to Ice Fang for coverage that neutralizes its own Dragon weakness. The leaked Mega base stat totals across all three starters are within five points of each other (Meganium 625, Emboar 628, Feraligatr 630), so no starter has a meaningful raw-stat advantage. The typing matchup against the game's Mega-heavy combat is what actually decides the run, and Feraligatr's two-weakness profile beats Emboar's five and Meganium's five (with a 4x Poison weakness) in any extended boss gauntlet.
Is Tepig actually the best starter in Pokemon Legends Z-A?
No. Game8's case for Tepig hinges on the claim that Mega Emboar has stronger overall stats than the Gen 2 starters, which the data does not support. Per the October 2025 Vice report on the leaked Mega stats, Mega Emboar's total of 628 is one point below Mega Feraligatr's 630 and three above Mega Meganium's 625. Emboar invests heavily in Attack (148) and HP (110) but only has 75 Defense, the lowest defensive stat in the trio. It also has five type weaknesses (Water, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Fairy) versus Feraligatr's two. Tepig is a fine pick for aggressive players who want to one-shot bosses through raw damage. It is not the statistically dominant default Game8 frames it as.
How many weaknesses does Mega Feraligatr have?
Mega Feraligatr has only two type weaknesses: Dragon and Fairy. Per Game8's own type chart analysis, that is the cleanest weakness profile of any starter Mega in Pokemon Legends Z-A. Mega Emboar's Fire/Fighting typing carries five weaknesses (Water, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Fairy). Mega Meganium's Grass/Fairy typing also has five weaknesses (Fire, Ice, Flying, Poison, Steel) and takes 4x damage from any Poison-type move. The fewer weaknesses a starter has, the fewer Mega bosses across the campaign and the Rogue Mega Rush gauntlet can two-shot it.
What is Ice Fang and why does it matter for Totodile?
Ice Fang is a Bite-class Ice-type physical move that Feraligatr can learn through level-up or TM in Pokemon Legends Z-A. It matters because Ice is super-effective against Dragon-types, which is one of Feraligatr's two type weaknesses. Equipping Ice Fang means Feraligatr can threaten the same Dragon-type Megas that would otherwise threaten it, neutralizing the weakness with a move on its own sheet. Mega Emboar has no equivalent answer to its five-weakness profile, and Mega Meganium's Fairy advantage against Dragons is locked behind its slower special-attacker stat line.
Do you keep your Pokemon Legends Z-A starter Mega Stone after picking?
Yes. The story-gifted Mega Stone attaches to whichever starter Pokemon a player picks at the beginning of Pokemon Legends Z-A and remains permanently equipped. The starter cannot be respecced once the campaign is underway, which is part of why the choice carries long-term weight. Mable separately gifts a Kanto starter (Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle) during Side Mission 22, but that gifted Pokemon does not come with the same story Mega Stone treatment. The original starter is still the long-term Mega slot for the entire run.
Should I pick Chikorita in Pokemon Legends Z-A?
Chikorita is a defensible pick for players committed to a special-attacker team build. Mega Meganium's 143 Special Attack and 115/115 Defense/Sp. Defense splits make it a balanced special-leaning Pokemon, and the Mega's Fairy typing helps specifically against the late-game Dragon-type Megas. The downsides are real: five total weaknesses, a 4x Poison weakness from the Grass/Fairy typing, and an open-zone catch list around Lumiose City that does not easily support a special-attacker team build. For a player who already knows they want a special-focused run, Chikorita works. For most players, Totodile is the cleaner default.
