Pokemon Sun/Moon PLUS ULTRA (Alola Region Games)

[TCB]

Fire/Ground...4x weakness to Water but 1x weakness to Rock and immunity to Electric

I'm smelling special sweeper for Litten.

[Tori Himemiya]

If this is true that means Rowelet actually has something against them. An immunity from a Ground type and its 2 types are good against Water/Fighting.

Even GF is Team Rowelet!

[TCB]

If true, then Rowlet is TPC & Game Freak's way of saying sorry to fans of the Grass starters since 2010

[Salamander]

...Drawing the conclusion that those type icons definitely relate to the starters seems like a pretty massive assumption, but within that sphere it's a pretty reasonable guess that we aren't going to get a second Water/Ground or a fourth Fire/Fighting starter...

Thinking about it, Water/Fighting would figure for Popplio, as while he's already got performing seal and clown vibes, one of his animations also gives me more of a circus strongman vibe, much like Pignite and Emboar.  ...Are we sure the circus theme doesn't just apply to Popplio and not to all the starters, because Popplio is a one-seal circus at this point.  Fire/Ground I'm having a harder time picturing for Litten, but some people have already suggested its coat is meant to resemble cooling magma, so even though that's more of a rock thing then I could see it coming through.  It'd be weird for Rowlet to have type advantages against both of the other starters, though... but I suppose Popplio only has to learn an Ice-type move and things balance out.  Though I don't see Litten learning any moves with an advantage against Popplio...

[Marcello]

The order the icons are named in actually hint at the types being Grass/Ground, Fire and Water/Fighting.

[Salamander]

Alright, I'll look this up for myself.

The Pokemon type icons that show up on the starters' pages on the Japanese website all have URLs marked with numbers, so Grass is 01, Flying 02, Fire 04, and Water 05.  Altering the URL to 03 and 06 turns up Ground and Fighting, in that order.  This implies that these types are also relevant to the starters, and the specific order of Grass, Flying, Ground, Fire, Water, Fighting implies any of the following:

1. Litten becomes Ground/Fire - which would be unusual, for a starter's primary type to be shifted over to the second slot.

2a. Rowlet loses its Flying type and becomes Ground - so it could become a burrowing owl.

(2b. Rowlet becomes the series's first triple-type at Grass-Flying-Ground - burrowing owls can still fly.  Hardly likely, but not inconceivable)

3a. The numerical order is meaningless.

(3b. The numerical order is not only meaningless, but irrelevant to the starters.  Also unlikely, or else why are the images there?)

Personally, I'm rooting for 3a, because it seems not only very possible, but also because if Rowlet was going to become Grass/Ground I don't see that it was necessary to give it the Flying type in the first place - and it would give both Rowlet and Popplio's lines a type advantage against the monotype Litten line, which isn't particularly fair.  The one thing that makes me think we could be looking at 2a is that it has been pointed out that Rowlet's name is an anagram of "trowel."

Edit: Rowlet's profile on the official site mentions it attacking with "powerful kicks."  That seals the deal for me; Rowlet's a burrowing owl for sure.  But I still think it was kind of silly to give it Grass/Flying to start with when it just sits on the ground anyway.

[Sonictrainer]

I know that this will never happen in the games, but I like the fan idea of crossbreeds of Pokemon

(Created by kitkaloid)

[Your Vest Friend]

On 05/16/16 at 10:09 AM, FFWF said:

Alright, I'll look this up for myself.

The Pokemon type icons that show up on the starters' pages on the Japanese website all have URLs marked with numbers, so Grass is 01, Flying 02, Fire 04, and Water 05.  Altering the URL to 03 and 06 turns up Ground and Fighting, in that order.  This implies that these types are also relevant to the starters, and the specific order of Grass, Flying, Ground, Fire, Water, Fighting implies any of the following:

1. Litten becomes Ground/Fire - which would be unusual, for a starter's primary type to be shifted over to the second slot.

2a. Rowlet loses its Flying type and becomes Ground - so it could become a burrowing owl.

(2b. Rowlet becomes the series's first triple-type at Grass-Flying-Ground - burrowing owls can still fly.  Hardly likely, but not inconceivable)

3a. The numerical order is meaningless.

(3b. The numerical order is not only meaningless, but irrelevant to the starters.  Also unlikely, or else why are the images there?)

Personally, I'm rooting for 3a, because it seems not only very possible, but also because if Rowlet was going to become Grass/Ground I don't see that it was necessary to give it the Flying type in the first place - and it would give both Rowlet and Popplio's lines a type advantage against the monotype Litten line, which isn't particularly fair.  The one thing that makes me think we could be looking at 2a is that it has been pointed out that Rowlet's name is an anagram of "trowel."

Edit: Rowlet's profile on the official site mentions it attacking with "powerful kicks."  That seals the deal for me; Rowlet's a burrowing owl for sure.  But I still think it was kind of silly to give it Grass/Flying to start with when it just sits on the ground anyway.

This would also mean that Litten stays a monotype. Going to be disappointing for those were hoping fire/dark. Heck, grass/ground would be kinda disappointing for people too probably, given that we already got the Turtwig line.

[Kuzu]

Well Rowlett is still an owl at the end of the day, I guess they wanted it to be part flying anyway.

 

Litten being straight Fire tho is kinda disappointing since monotypes are nowhere near as useful as dual-types.

[TCB]

Yeah a monotype starter line is pretty boring now, so the possibility of the Fire starter being the only one without a second typing will be a missed opportunity for the series to finally have a Dark and Fire type feline and canine Pokemon

[Marcello]

These secondary types would be for their first evolutions. Litten could still become Fire/Dark with his final evolution.

[TCB]

6 minutes ago, Marcello said:

These secondary types would be for their first evolutions. Litten could still become Fire/Dark with his final evolution.

The secondary typing could even be added in its second evolution. Happened before (Empoleon comes to mind)

 

[Your Vest Friend]

I think it being mono-fire throughout isn't out of the question given that mono-fire is the least used of the mono stater types (aside from gen 2 where all of them were mono-type, grass has the Treecko and Snivy lines, water has the Squirtle and Oshawott lines while fire has no other mono-type line).

[Kuzu]

It is likely they'll gain secondary types upon their second evolution; none of the Gen 6 starters got their secondary types until their final forms after all.

[Sonictrainer]

GameXplain redid their analysis after feedback, ideas, and speculation from viewers

 

[Salamander]

9 hours ago, Detective Reptiles said:

I think it being mono-fire throughout isn't out of the question given that mono-fire is the least used of the mono stater types (aside from gen 2 where all of them were mono-type, grass has the Treecko and Snivy lines, water has the Squirtle and Oshawott lines while fire has no other mono-type line).

I still believe that the Tepig-Pignite-Emboar line was designed as monotype Fire, but GameFreak bottled it and threw the Fighting type on to make it the easy-mode starter for the second and third gyms.

...I guess my point here is that GameFreak sometimes make really inelegant decisions.  Who knew?

[Radiant Hero Ike]

On 5/11/2016 at 2:47 PM, TCB said:

  Hide contents

Okay so this is broken and it isn't letting me type outside this box, one sec.

EDIT: NVM

Anyways, new info coming on June 2nd!

https://mynintendonews.com/2016/05/18/pokemon-sun-moon-information-coming-june-2nd/

[TCB]

Thinking we'll get our starter evolutions there first and foremost, as well as few new Pokemon, par the course.

 Also a bit more of a look at Alola. I need more.

 

[Marcello]

We're not going to get the starter evolutions. We'll see other Pokemon before that.

[TCB]

Likely right about that.

[Salamander]

Yeah, it will have been less than a month since they revealed the starters, that's way too early to be revealing their next stages.  (In an ideal world, I think they wouldn't show them pre-release them at all, but I dare say other people disagree.)  Hearing more about the Alola region makes a lot of sense, but I suspect we'll also be getting more details on Solgaleo and Lunaala (including confirmation that those are indeed their names).

[Johnny Boy]

I really hope Rowlett doesn't evolve to be Grass/Ground. He's the only flying starter we've had since Charizard so far.

[Tori Himemiya]

I did some type checking for resistances and...

Grass/Flying - 0 vs Ground -4x Grass -2x Fighting Water 2x Fire Flying Poison Rock 4x Ice

Grass/Ground 0 vs Electric -2x Ground and Rock 2x Bug Fire Flying and 4x Weak to Ice

Either way Rowelet gets an immunity and a double weakness to Ice which is a very interesting thing to note. It also has the same amounts of resistances and weaknesses. I guess if anything Grass/Ground might not be the optimal due to being weak to now common Bug typed moves. But I think the biggest factors now is stats (we won't know until release), what its strong against, and movepool.

So getting Grass out of the way, its strong against Water, Ground, and Rock. Pretty common types right? Well there's a lot that also resists Grass: Fire, Flying, Grass, Dragon, Bug, Poison, Steel. So what will each dual type do for Rowelet offensively? Flying hits Fighting, Bug, and Grass (the former 2 being fairly common in the meta) and what resists it is Rock, Steel, and Electric. So it hits 1 thing its Grass typing can't while its Grass typing compensates for its Flying type. What about Ground? It hits a whopping 5 types hard: Fire, Electric, Poison, Rock, and Steel. 3 of the 5 types are things Grass can't hit at all. The only thing it resists is Bug and Grass and the worst thing is that Flying and pokemon with Leviate can't be hit by it. Personally I think Ground is the better option because it hits more things than Flying does despite not being able to hit Flying types.

The only other thing we have left is mostly speculation. We can only guess what its movepool can be. Grass types do have various moves but judging by its seed motif it might only have access to Seed and possibly vine moves. I kind of doubt seeing any Powder moves on it, mostly since I don't see a logical place for spores to be shot from other its bowtie. Flying type gives it from the generic Wing Attack and Aerial Ace to more powerful moves like Brave Bird and Arcobatics. 2 noteworthy moves in its support pool are Roost and Defog for healing and removing hazards respectively. Not bad if I do say so myself. Ground typing does give it access to the powerful Earthquake which hits a lot of things hard with the only drawback is not hitting Flying. Its mostly unlikely but it could also gain access to hazards like Spikes. Also assuming because it evolves from a Grass/Flying pokemon also gives it access to the previous type moves it is possible for it to gain Roost and Defog, which is a big thing since it resists Stealth Rock which its previous type is weak against.

It may not be the flashiest thing but I honestly think giving Rowelet a Ground type would actually benefit more than its Flying type. Depending on its movepool and stats this thing can potentially be /meta/ if GF plays their cards right. It does suck that Litten might not get a dual type from this but making Rowelet the best starter is a much better priority anyways. ;D Don't ask why I wrote a novel about a hypothetical owl I was bored

[Pawn]

The official Pokémon Twitter has announced that the new information will be up at 6am PDT/ 2pm BST / 10pm JST (on the 2nd, as Gambling Idol Luka posted) now:

 

[Sonictrainer]

I'm glad that after 3 months of waiting, we're now getting specific dates for news.