So you chose Tepig? Building the perfect Pokémon Legends: Z-A team around your starter

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You picked Tepig as your first Pokémon in Pokémon Legends: Z-A? Excellent! While Tepig wasn’t available in previous games, it’s just as cute as the other starters. Starting with a Fire-type Pokémon is also a big advantage, and we’ll discuss that later. Really, you can’t go wrong with any starter – they each have their strengths. If you’d like some advice on how to build a team around your choice, this guide can help.

Which Pokémon should you add to your team to support your starter, Tepig?

This article contains potential spoilers for Pokémon Legends: Z-A. I’ll try to avoid revealing story details, but if you want to discover the Pokémon for yourself, you might want to skip this. Read with caution! If you’ve already begun the Z-A Royale or encountered Rogue Mega Evolutions, you likely have a good team started. However, these tips will help you choose the best teammates for your starter Pokémon, no matter how far you’ve progressed in the game.

We also have teambuilding guides available if you prefer Chikorita or Totodile as your starter Pokémon.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Tepig is a Fire-type Pokémon, which is a bit less common than Water or Grass types – making it a good choice for a starter! Fire-types are weak to Water, Ground, and Rock attacks. However, they resist many types, including Grass, Fire, Bug, Ice, Steel, and Fairy. Fire-type moves work really well against Grass, Bug, Ice, and Steel, but Water, Fire, Rock, and Dragon types are strong against them.

When building a team around a Fire-type Pokémon like Tepig, the other two starter types – Grass and Water – make excellent partners. This is because Fire, Grass, and Water types work well together. Grass types specifically cover many of Fire’s weaknesses and can deal significant damage to the types that Fire struggles against. Fire can then help out by effectively battling Grass, Bug, and Ice types, which are difficult for Grass Pokémon. Water-types are also a strong choice, as they can easily defeat Ground and Rock types, which pose a threat. In return, Fire-types can handle the Grass types that Water types are vulnerable to.

Tepig is a bit different from the other starter Pokémon because it gains the Fighting type when it evolves. This makes it weak to Flying and Psychic attacks, but thankfully, its Fire typing still protects it against Fairy-type moves. The Fighting type actually works well with Fire, as it’s strong against Rock-types and helps cover Fire’s weakness.

Now that you know Tepig’s type and which types work well with it, let’s look at some specific examples.

Early Game Partners

I’m really glad that Pokémon Legends: Z-A has a lot of Water and Grass types right from the start! I’ve been keeping an eye out around the trees, and you can actually find those little monkey Pokémon pretty easily. They’re awesome for rounding out your team if you’re missing those types early on. Honestly, Panpour and Pansage are both really good choices to add – I’m thinking of using at least one of them!

If you’d prefer not to use both of the monkey Pokémon, there are other good choices available. Once you get to Wild Zone 2, you can find Magikarp and Staryu, which are both helpful Water-type Pokémon. Staryu is especially strong, but you’ll notice that more as you play. You can also find the Grass-type Budew in Wild Zone 2 and Skiddo in Wild Zone 3. These Pokémon can be excellent early-game teammates, especially when facing Water, Ground, and Rock-type Pokémon that could be a problem for Tepig.

When Tepig evolves into Pignite at level 17, it gains a weakness to a new type of attack. That’s where a Pokémon like Staryu can be really helpful, more so than most Water-types. When Staryu evolves into Starmie, it also becomes a Psychic-type, allowing it to protect Pignite from strong Psychic-type attacks.

For a really effective counter to these weaknesses, consider Honedge. As a Steel-type Pokémon, it’s incredibly durable, resisting ten different types and being completely immune to one. Importantly, Steel resists both Psychic and Flying attacks, which are now a problem for Pignite. Honedge’s secondary Ghost typing also lets it deal significant damage to Psychic-types. Plus, Honedge benefits from Pignite’s resistance to Dark-type attacks, which would normally be super effective against Ghost-types.

Honedge appears in the Wild Area’s Zone 4, but only during nighttime. It’s a strong Pokémon to have on your team, but because it’s weak to Ground-type attacks – just like Fire-types – it’s helpful to also include a Grass-type Pokémon to protect against that weakness.

Tepig’s Final Evolution (Spoilers Ahead)

Tepig quickly gains a second type, so you’ll become familiar with it as you progress. It stays as a Fire and Fighting-type when it finally evolves into Emboar. However, we need to talk about something that could spoil details from Pokémon Legends: Z-A, so if you want to avoid spoilers, please stop reading now.

In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Tepig’s evolved form, Emboar, gains a Mega Evolution. Thankfully, this doesn’t change its type – Mega Emboar stays a Fire and Fighting-type Pokémon, and is simply a more powerful version of the original.

Many of the Pokémon we talked about earlier are still excellent choices. Gogoat is a particularly good Grass-type option. While Budew’s evolution line is still strong, its Poison typing makes it weak to Psychic-type attacks, a weakness shared by Emboar. Several other Grass types have this same problem. However, Phantump and Pumpkaboo are two interesting alternatives. Like Honedge, these Grass and Ghost types work well together, but it’s generally best not to include too many Ghost types on one team. You can find Phantump in Wild Zone 13 and Pumpkaboo in Wild Zone 15.

If you like the idea of using Grass and Ghost types, you can replace Honedge with other Steel-type Pokémon. Excadrill is a strong choice, and Skarmory is good because its Flying typing means it isn’t weak to Ground attacks. Scizor is another solid option, though both Skarmory and Scizor usually become available later in the game.

Conclusion

That wraps things up! We hope this guide gave you some useful ideas for building a great Pokémon team around your fire pig starter. Remember, these are just suggestions – there’s no right or wrong way to play Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Feel free to build a team of six Pokémon you simply love, and you’re guaranteed to have fun!

Good luck climbing the ranks of the Z-A Royale!

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2025-10-25 02:33