Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - So You Chose Fuecoco?
Fuecoco is the incredibly goofy Fire-type starter Pokemon for Scarlet and Violet. It's a great choice, but what other Pokemon would make useful teammates?
This will be a guide for how to build a good team around your starter choice for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Fuecoco.
Now first of all: Don’t panic, you’ve made a great choice. You can play through the game with absolutely any Pokemon you want and you will persevere and complete the game.
But, if you do want some advice on who would make an exceptionally strong teammate for your adorable fire croc Pokemon, you’ve come to the right place.
This guide will focus mostly on the early and middle sections of the game to avoid as many spoilers as possible, and by the time you have taken on all the gyms, titans, and Team Star bases, you probably have something good going on already. But of course, fair warning, there will be some spoilers ahead.
Strengths & Weaknesses
So the first things that need to be established are Fuecoco’s strengths and weaknesses. Fuecoco, and its eventual evolutions, have high HP and Special Attack stats. Its defenses are solid, particularly physical Defense, but Fuecoco’s main weakness is speed. But that’s ok, every Pokemon has strengths and weaknesses. No one Pokemon is perfect. Well, except maybe Arceus. But you don’t get to start out with Arceus, so let’s work with what we have.
Fuecoco and its evolution, Crocalor, are both Fire-types. Eventually, it does gain a secondary type when it reaches its final stage, but we will get to that later on. First of all, Fire-types have three weaknesses in Water, Ground, and Rock. This can be a problem because right from the start these can be somewhat common types. But thankfully, Fire-types also have some useful resistances to Grass, Bug, Fire, and Fairy, and the first two (Grass and Bug) might be some of the most common types in the early game.
Fire-type attacks are resisted by Water, Rock, Fire, and Dragon. It’s worth noting that while Fire-types are weak to Ground-type attacks, Ground-types do not resist Fire-type attacks. Fire and Dragon-types won’t be very common early on in the game, so at least for now, your Fire-type attacks will be fairly reliable.
So, Fuecoco and the middle stage evolution, Crocalor, both have some strengths and weaknesses. Before getting into the final evolution, let’s talk about which Pokemon would be strong partners early on in the game.
Early Game Partners
These strengths and weaknesses make a Grass-type the perfect early game partner for Fuecoco. Grass-types resist Water and Ground and deal super effective damage against all three of Fire’s weaknesses. Grass-types also appreciate a teammate that can handle Bug and Fire-types as well as deal effectively with other Grass-types. This makes Smoliv or Capsakid great options in the early game. But if you aren’t a fan of these new Pokemon, you can find Skiddo, Bounsweet, or Deerling early on as well. As an alternative, Wingull is also notable for resisting Water-type attacks and being immune to Ground. But, it also shares a Rock-type weakness with Fuecoco, so that still needs to be covered somehow.
Grass and Water-types are useful in that they can deal super-effective damage to Rock-types, but neither of them provides a resistance, so a strong Rock-type Pokemon could still be difficult to deal with defensively. Using a Ground-type like Paldean Wooper can be a great option not only because it resists Rock-type attacks, but also because it has a chance of having the Water Absorb ability, which perfectly covers Fuecoco’s water weakness. Of course, being a Poison and Ground-type means that Wooper is weak to Ground in the same way as Fuecoco, so it is still important to have a Grass-type to resist those moves too.
Alternatively, if you happen to find a Fighting-type early on (you can find some Riolu in the earlier areas) that could be a great option as well. Fighting-types resist Rock-type attacks and can dish out super effective damage in return. Fighting-types will appreciate Fire’s resistance to one of their main weaknesses: Fairy. Plus, Riolu is a decently fast Pokemon, which will help with Fuecoco and Crocalor’s less-than-steller speed stat.
Eventually, your Crocalor will evolve into its final stage, Skeledirge, and gain its secondary typing: Ghost.
Final Evolution: Ghost
Ghost is a great type. It only has two weaknesses, those being Ghost and Dark, while having two immunities to Normal and Fighting. Ghost resists Poison and Bug alongside those immunities. This makes the perfect partner for Skeledirge a Dark-type. Pokemon like Mabosstiff, Lokix, and Bombirdier are great choices. Mabostiff stands out in particular as Lokix and Bombirdier are also weak to Rock, due to their secondary typings. Lokix is notable as well for how early in the game it evolves from Nymble, and for its great speed stat. But generally, Dark-types appreciate Skeledirge’s natural immunity to Fighting, as well as Fire’s resistance to Bug and Fairy. It’s worth noting that all of these Pokemon are physical attackers, which compliments Skeledirge’s strength with special attacks.
If any of those new Dark-types aren’t suitable for you, Krookodile or Weavile serve the role of a Dark-type, physical attacker, and are generally faster than Skeledirge. Against opponents that are faster than your starter, it will be important to have reliable fast Pokemon on your side as well.
Normal-types are another great pairing with Skeledirge. They only have one weakness, Fighting, which Skeledirge has an immunity to, and, thanks to their own immunity, Normal-types can switch into Ghost-type attackers that would otherwise be threatening to Skeledirge. Some great options for this are Arboliva, which notably has the Grass-type synergy with Skeledirge as well, or Cyclizar, which has a great speed stat and the useful Dragon typing. Both of these Pokemon appreciate Skeledirge’s ability to take would-be super-effective Ice-type moves. Maushold is another great option given its great speed stat and lack of secondary typing, meaning Skeledirge covers its only weakness: Fighting.
Outside of these new Pokemon, Sawsbuck, Staraptor, and Ursaring can all serve the team well as the resident Normal-type.
Other great Pokemon worth noting: Pawmot or Breloom can be great teammates that can offensively handle Water, Rock, and Dark-types, with Breloom standing out in particular for handling Ground-types and resisting all four. Unfortunately, Pawmot does share a Ground weakness with Skeledirge but both appreciate Skeledirge’s resistance to Fairy and ability to hit Psychic and Ghost-types super effectively.
So that’s that! Follow this guide and you should be well on your way to building a strong team around your adorable fire croc Pokemon. Though, if you don’t like these ideas, that’s fine too! There are a lot of strong Pokemon wandering around Paldea and it’s honestly hard to go wrong.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is out now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. What is your team looking like? Leave a comment below letting us know!
