The beloved Sinnoh Starters, Torterra, Infernape, and Empoleon, have officially made their way to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet through The Teal Mask DLC, and each of them received some nice buffs to help them out in competitive battles.
Scarlet and Violet players who purchased The Teal Mask can kick their Kitakami journey off with one of the Gen IV Sinnoh Starters. Your teacher, Jacq, will give you an egg with one of the three Starters outside Mossui Town. Hatch the egg to see which of the adorable Starters you end up with—Turtwig, Chimchar, or Piplup.
If you decide to add your Sinnoh Starter to your team, there’s some good news; all the Sinnoh Starter final evolutions are stronger now than they were prior to Gen IX thanks to some new moves, and, in one case, a new Hidden Ability.
Popular Pokémon content creator Joey Pokeaim broke down each of the new and improved Sinnoh Starters in a series of YouTube Shorts on Sept. 19.
Starting with Torterra, the Grass/Ground Starter Pokémon now gets access to a super handy setup move called Shell Smash. This move sharply raises the user’s offensive stats and its Speed at the cost of its defenses, enabling Torterra to be more of a hard-hitting offensive threat. It can also now take advantage of the new Gen IX item, Loaded Dice, with multistrike moves like Bullet Seed and Rock Blast.
Empoleon arguably changed the most out of the three, with one very good new move and a much better Hidden Ability. For the first time ever, the Water/Steel penguin can use Roost to heal its HP consistently. As Joey Pokeaim mentioned, this pairs really well with such a defensive typing like Steel to keep it alive on the field for a long time.
In addition to gaining Roost, Empoleon’s Hidden Ability also changed from Defiant to Competitive, which works so much better with the penguin’s stats. Both Abilities activate when the user’s stats drop, but Defiant boosts Attack while Competitive boosts Special Attack.
As a special attacker, Empoleon benefits so much more from having the Competitive boosts that may activate whenever an Intimidate user hits the field.
Lastly, Infernape’s buff gives it more potential as a special attacker thanks to the addition of a certain attack in its move pool—Aura Sphere.
Prior to The Teal Mask, Infernape’s best special Fighting attack was Focus Blast, which doesn’t have the best accuracy. Now, Infernape will never miss with Aura Sphere while still having a strong Fighting-type attack to rely on.
The Fire/Fighting Starter also gets Knock Off, one of the most useful moves in competitive play, as it removes the target’s held item they might desperately need.
So, whichever Sinnoh Starter you end up with in The Teal Mask, see if you can take advantage of any of these new buffs to strengthen your team as you navigate through Kitakami.
