Which starter to pick and how your first three minutes should go

Pick for the delivery, not the creature

PokéSurvivor gives you every region's starters from the first run, plus a couple of extra friends. You are not locked into Kanto, so the usual "Bulbasaur is the best beginner" advice is the wrong question. The only real question is how the partner's move reaches enemies, because you never press attack yourself.

Your partner fires on its own. What you control is where it is standing when it fires. That turns every starter into one of three shapes: a projectile you lead with your body, a short-range burst that only hits what touches you, or a slow persistent effect that covers ground. The first shape is the easiest to learn, the third is the most forgiving while you are still reading the screen.

The rule that decides it: if you cannot tell where your move is going to land, pick a different partner. A move you cannot aim is a move that will kill you when you walk backwards into the horde.

• Projectile or straight-line starters: easiest to control, because you position the shot by walking.
• Burst or melee-range starters: strong early, but only when enemies are already touching you. Expect to be surrounded.
• Area or orbiting starters: forgiving, because coverage does not depend on aim. They scale well into denser waves.

The first thirty seconds

You start with one move active. Enemies come from all sides and the screen is small enough that standing still is a decision you will regret. Before anything else happens, do three things: pick a direction with open ground, move in that direction, and keep moving.

1. Do not stand in the middle of the wave. Walk to the outside edge and let the horde come to you.
2. Circle in wide loops instead of reversing. A circle turns a blob of enemies into a trailing line.
3. Keep your active move pointed at the densest group. Switching costs you the seconds you just bought.
4. Use the whole map. A survivor who owns two thirds of the screen is already winning the fight.

There is no attack button to press, which means there is no button to panic-mash. The skill is reading where the crowd is going and standing somewhere it is not going to be.

Your first level-up cards

Experience comes from the Pokémon you defeat, and every level gives you a choice of three cards: learn a new move, upgrade a move you already have, or take a permanent boost for that partner. Early on, almost every successful run is a run where you took damage and coverage cards first and left the defensive ones on the table.

• Take a damage card when offered. It resolves fights directly and cannot go to waste.
• Take coverage (a second move) once your first one stops clearing a full screen.
• Skip pure defence while enemies are still dying in one or two hits. You will not outlast what you cannot kill.
• Read the card as "does this let me kill more per screen?" If yes, take it and worry about defence later.

Moves cap at level 5, so a move you never upgrade stops growing. Plan which two moves you want at max early, because the upgrade card for a move you never level is a card you can never use.

Mistakes that end the first ten minutes

• Backing straight away. It pushes new enemies into your path instead of leaving them behind you.
• Standing on the item's spawn point because you walked backwards over it.
• Chasing a single rare enemy out of the crowd instead of letting the wave resolve.
• Switching moves constantly. Each switch is dead time; switch once, then commit to the new move for a while.
• Ignoring the telegraphs. Ground circles and stripes fill before they land, and the ones you walk into are the ones that hurt.

None of these are mechanical mistakes. They are all positioning mistakes, which is why the game is generous to players who move carefully and unforgiving to players who move fast.

What a good first run looks like

You do not need a long run on day one. A good first run is one where you can explain what killed you. "I walked into a telegraphed attack while chasing a shiny" is a lesson. "The horde got bigger" is not, because that is the game working.

Once you can read the crowd and keep a full screen of enemies dying for several minutes at a time, move on to the card and evolution guide — that is where the real build decisions start.

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