Early Game: Gulpin or Whismur

[Athea Andrea]

Which one of the above Pokemon should I use during the battle with Julia (super freaking early)? And which will remain useful throughout the game?

[Ryu]

I used gulpin when I fought her and when it evolved into swalot it help me out by taking hits and landing those poison status. But I switched it out later on, not sure how a whismur would do though.

srry for my bad grammar

[Simon]

All of them you can use for Julia. However, only Fennekin will truly be able to remain useful imo.

also 10/10 smiley face iseeu

[Hank_Nghiem]

Gulpin might find more usage later on in the game than Whismur. like Ryu stated before that poison status can really come in handy as well as his tank-ability. Additionally your team really doesn't need Whismur when you have a gorgeous Fennekin unless you are planning on taking Fennekin out sometime even than there are better choices. Whismur's main usage is that amazing Boomburst when it becomes an Exploud with that stab + 140 base power. Still it's a normal type move meaning is viability is greatly hampered.

However it shouldn't be too much of a problem as there are SO MANY TRAINER BATTLES you will be seeking more Pokémon to start consuming up experience so your main team doesn't out level the badge level limit.

[Ironbound]

Use Gulpin. Why? Here are some reasons:

1. Whismur is very, very weak until it becomes Exploud, which isn't until level 40. It has very poor stats and can't take a hit at all with those 23/23 defenses.

2. Whismur has a horrible movepool, unless you have TMs. Which this game won't give you until far, far later. It also learns no useful moves before exceeding the level cap. Your best moves would be Echoed Voice and...Pound.

3. The only perk Whismur has is that it evolves at level 20 into loudred. But even then it's bulk is only slightly better than Gulpin's, and it still learns no moves at all. Its best move is only Hyper Voice; Boomburst is learned only by Exploud. By then, you're better off using Noivern as your Boomburster, since it is fast, has a bunch of high powered moves to abuse, and is a friggin DRAGON.

4. Gulpin has good bulk, evolves by level 26, and has a bunch of useful moves it can use even after Julia. Acid Spray is a good move because it continually lowers the foes' SpDef harshly, making your consecutive Acid Sprays stronger. It can also use Yawn to put things to sleep or cause switches, Poison Gas to act Poison things, Stockpile to boost both defenses, Amnesia to raise its SpDef, and Encore to force things into one move. It's also going to learn good moves like Sludge Bomb and Gunk Shot eventually.

Also, by the way, Trubbish might be better even than Gulpin. It has slightly less overall bulk, and evolves later, but it gets Toxic Spikes which is huuuge.

[Fumble]

I guess Whismur could be useful for Julia if it manages to stay alive without getting paralyzed and spam Echoed Voice? It's similar to the Kricketune strategy, although a bit weaker due to no Technician and less of a base stat.

Gulpin is pretty good with Acid Spray and Yawn / Poison Gas, as well. Amnesia will be helpful, since Julia uses quite a few special moves on her team, like her signature move Charge Beam.

I guess you could use Exploud later on in the game since it gets nice moves like Boomburst and Flamethrower (from TM), but it relies heavily on TMs, and we don't get many of the goods ones yet. Swalot can be a fairly decent wall, but it will be eventually outclassed by other bulky Poison types.

[Ironbound]

Indeed, but for now Gulpin and Swalot outclass Whismur and Loudred. Eventually, though, Swot is easily beaten by better bulky Poison types like Nidoqueen and Dragalge.

[Jacobliterator]

Whismur's movepool may be quite good, but I gotta say Gulpin. Use Stockpile for a tanky Swalot later on and combine that with Acid Spray, it will kick butt.

[FairFamily]

As someone who has used both gulpin ,whismur,trubbish and even fenniken as well, I say you this: use the gulpin. Whismur was a complete dissapointment weak stats and weak moves. I was so fed up with it, I boxed it before I could evolve it to exploud. Gulpin on the other hand has a decent defensive stats and a good early game movepool. For the trubbish vs gulpin I actuallly used them both in the same run and they worked very well together. They fulfilled fundemantally different roles: trubbish was basically a suicide lead for toxic spikes, gulpin was actually a tank that could deal some decent damage over time. This gave them a nice synergy especially with double acid spray and fenneken could play a role in this as well. It actually cleans up poison and steel types which heavely resist these two mons. However if you only want one , I would suggest gulpin,trubbish' only advantage over gulpin is toxic spikes . Gulpin on the other hand is a bit stronger and evolves earlier which was very noticable,since I had to drag trubbish to gabrador while gulpin evolved just at the right time.

Edited April 12, 2016 by FairFamily

[Athea Andrea]

So what I'm seeing here is the general consensus being that I should use Gulpin, not Whismur, which is fair. Whismur has no status moves, and is relatively terrible until it evolves into Exploud, and even then I'd probably be able to find something that hits harder than an Exploud Boomburst.

[Tomas Elliot]

Scrappy Boomburst tho. Potentially a terror against Shade.

[Samalet]

I guess you could use Exploud later on in the game since it gets nice moves like Boomburst and Flamethrower (from TM), but it relies heavily on TMs, and we don't get many of the goods ones yet.

Is Flamethrower available in the game? I'm at Agate Circus now and I haven't gotten a single TM over 70 base power.

[Simon]

It is. You get it after defeating Charlotte. That battle happens after Agate Circus so you're close to getting it.

[Commander]

In regular Reborn, Trubbish is a lot better than Gulpin due to the first two leaders being very, very vulnerable to toxic spikes to the point they're kind of a joke. Gulpin really shines a lot more in Hardcore due to the fact tanks are really, really useful since you're butt will get handed to you on a silver platter if you go hyper offensive against Julia. But in normal Reborn, she's kind of a pushover.

Whismur is kind of useful as it can more or less sweep 2/3rds of Julia's team with Echoed Voice settup. I also used it on a challenge run against Florinia where it just Screeched and destroyed her Cradily. Yes, a normal type owned a rock type. It won't be that useful after the second gym as that's where things start to become somewhat difficult.

As for your team, only Fennikin will stay useful the entire game, but when I used Cherrim, it was a lifesaver on a few double battles such as the poison leader. Sunny Day plus early game Solar beam was definitely a good feature, but unfortunately, there aren't that many good lifelong teammates at the start of the game. Of course, anything can be made good into the game if you're willing to spend time learning how to use it.

[Felicity]

Gulpin. Get a Swalot at a pretty early level, which makes it pretty useful for the mid game gyms, surprisingly that includes Corey, and then you get access to Toxic which you can then breed onto another mon that scales better into the later game such as Quagsire. Toxic is then quite useful for anything you can't hurt too easily.

[Luna]

well i would use wismur since sound proof is very very very very useful against taka's annoying chatot with chatter. with soundproof chatter is nothing and can't annoy you.

[Frostilicious]

Instead of using either gulpin or whismur i'd use Budew since it has access to toxic spikes/toxic, leech seed and powerful grass type moves-petal dance as well as the fact that roserade is a fast mon with high sp.atk and can be useful in general throughout the game.

[Ironbound]

Roserade is excellent, I agree. I use one myself in Reborn as one of my good Grass types. However, I am the guy who endured breeding a rose incense Roselia with an exeggutor and a ditto several times to get me a good HP fire one with excellent IVs and moves like Leaf Storm, Extrasensory and Sleep Powder.

The thing about the Roserade family is, they learn rather crappy moves through level up. They get Toxic, Toxic Spikes, Synthesis and Giga Drain, yes, but nothing else, and without breeding they can't learn a single good Poison type move or any coverage moves. TMs are also scarce. Besides, Roserade is not bulky by any means; it has decent spdef but horrible physdef. Roselia is even worse, more so because the Shiny Stone can't be gotten until one progresses a long way into the game. So, in short, Roserade is only for the dedicated, and that too later in the game. As of now, Gulpin or Trubbish are better (and more easily replaceable) Poison types.