Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

The original set for the Pokémon Generation IV games. When HeartGold & SoulSilver are released in the contries outside of Japan, move this page (and HeartGold/SoulSilver) to the Generation IV engine page and make it a clickable link to this page.

Diamond and Pearl

Starters

Turtwig

Pros:

• A Grass type PKMN that knows Earthquake naturally at level 32.

• Nice physical tank (High HP, Attack, Defence)

• It evolves to Torterra at level 32, pretty early compared to most starters.

Cons:

• It evolves to Grotle at level 18, pretty late compared to most starters.

• Poor attacking movepool (needs to be Torterra to know Stone Edge/Rock Slide to counter Flying types). It can only learn Normal, Grass and Dark moves by level up.

• Slowest Starter out of all 12 starters in the franchise. Heavy luck manipulation with Quick Claw to make up for it.

Overall: One the worst types for speedrunning Pokémon thanks to it's bad type coverage and it's limited offensive movepool.

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Piplup

Pros:

• Evolves to a Water/Steel type that has incredible defensive typing.

• Can learn a Ice move (Ice Beam/Blizzard) to counter Grass and Ground moves to counter Electic types.

• Knows Surf by HM which is always nice.

• Highest Special Attack stat of all Water Starter types.

Cons:

• It's low base speed makes Torrent sweeping a bit difficult

• Movepool is pretty bad at the early game, especially in DP where s/he learns Bubblebeam at level 22 or 24 (depending if the Pokémon is Piplup or Prinplup).

• Limited Special Movepool (Surf, Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Grass Knot, Flash Cannon and the occasional Hidden Power [ELEC]).

Overall:

• One of the two useful starters in the run. It's been let down by its limited special movepool and low base speed but it makes up for 10+ resistances & 1 immunity which is useful for X-Item boosting.

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Chimchar

Pros:

• One of the 2 Fire Types familes in the Sinnoh Reigon, the other is Ponyta.

• Can evolve pretty early at Level 14 and learn Mach Punch to easily win the first Gym.

• Can learn some powerful fighting types (Mach Punch, Drain Punch, Brick Break, Close Combat) to defeat Normal, Dark, Rock, Ice, & Steel types.

• Learning Fire Types moves can KO Bronzors & Bronzongs without any hassle.

• High Attack, Special Attack and Speed makes it a good mixed sweeper and a fantastic Wall Breaker.

• Knows Grass Knot, Stone Edge, Shadow Claw, Aerial Ace and Solarbeam.

• With a varied movepool it has some good advantages against 6 of 8 Gym Leaders (most notably Grass, Steel, Ice).

Cons:

• Pretty frail, meaning using an X-Item is pretty risky.

• To know Flamethower by level up, it's only possible as Chimchar and it's level 41. Otherwise you would need to go to Fuego Fireworks and pickup a Flamethrower TM.

• Exposed to Water Types and Ground Types, making Quagsire a good counter.

• Gyrados, Crobat, Garchomp and Milotic are the biggest threats.

Overall:

One of the two impressive starters for speed running. It knows some pretty powerful STABs (Same-Type-Attack-Bonus) and can take down most walls (Bronzong, Blissey & Snorlax) with one attack! You got to have a Lucky egg to have a high level difference from your opponents and using 1 X-Attack or Special attack, it should manage to sweep an entire party (Blaze support should help too but it's limited to Fire attacks). Cyrus's Weavile is OHKO with STAB Mach Punch. If the player was really lucky and the Hidden Power type was Electric (Base Power 60-70) it can take down the almighty Gyarados!

Notable differenes between the two, for speed running

Most of the basic Pokémon in the original Sinnoh dex are pretty pointless, except the Legendary Titans.

Dialga

Diamond version only!

Pros:

• Incedible defensive typing, 10+ Resistances, 1 immunity (Poision), 2 Weaknesses (Fighting & Ground)

• Higher HP & Defence stat compared to Palkia.

Cons:

• Poor offensive movepool (in speed running)

• Poor secondary type for offensive (2 types are weak to Steel attacks, 3 are resistant to Steel)

• Lower Base speed compared to Palkia

• Signature move is only useful against the trainer's last Pokémon.

• Fighting is a very popular attacking type and Lucian's Alakazam knows Focus Blast.

Palkia

Pearl version only!

Pros:

• Faster than Dialga by 10 base speed points which could make a difference against Cynthia's Garchomp.

• Only has 1 weakness (Dragon) and only Garchomp is a threat in a speed run.

• Better Signature move (Higher Crit Hit Ratio, no turn loss)

• Knows Surf which is a good secondary type STAB move.

Cons:

• Lower HP & Defence than Dialga

• Doesn't have 10+ resistances... only has 3 resistances (4x resis to Water and Fire, 2x resis to Steel).

• Spacial Rend is less powerful than Roar of Time.

Strategies

Important Battles

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Platinum

Changes from Diamond/Pearl

• Hypnosis is now 60% not 70% which is a bit easier when facing against your oppoents who uses this move.

• There is a battle against Cyrus in Celestic Town and he has Golbat, Murkrow and Sneasel.

• You have a battle against your rival as soon as you get your starter. Your oppoents will always use a stat dropping move (Growl/Leer) and it's not possible to score a critical hit.

• The Distortion world doesn't have any new battles other than Cyrus before facing Giratina.

• Elite 4 has a updated team, most notably the Pokémon from the updated Sinnoh Dex, Cynthia's party level has reduced slightly.

• The later gym leaders has teams updated such as Magneton in Byron's team and Elctivire in Volkner's team.

• Updated level up movepools, most notable example is Piplup now learns Bubblebeam at level 18 now and not 22. Scizor can learn Bullet Punch via Heart Scale and Darkrai can learn Nasty Plot instead of Calm Mind via level up.

Giratina

• Giratina's Another Forme is designed to be a dual tank. But Giratina's Origin Forme is a mixed sweeper... sort of. The problem is that it's Special attack is 120 compared to Dialga/Palkia's 150. When playing the game normally, Giratina would not have the Griseous Orb so he would only be as Another Forme (dual tank). This makes the Attack/Sp.Attack base stats at 100... very low compared the other two titans. He does make up for having very high HP (up to 500+ at level 100). It's a good 'partner' pokémon if your main starter gets KO'd and using (max) revives to get pass the Elite Four.