Charmander SWOT Analysis

Water gun fights, paddling pools, and sprinklers can be a nice gentle start, but move on to swimming pools and more natural settings as soon as your Charmander is ready. Image Credit: Faiahaato

There are a multitude of benefits and limitations you get from different Pokémon. This SWOT analysis helps you decide whether to include Charmander to your battle team, and includes specialist advice for both breeder and catcher, as well as combatants facing this Pokémon in battle.

Strengths

Charmander is an excellent choice for a fire trainer, or someone looking to add some heat to their team. Its Ember is a strong move that is learned relatively early in the Charmander lifecycle. There are many fire types that don’t get their first fire-related move until much later, so this early development means plenty of practice time. Therefore, Charmander often have a stronger flame, higher flame quality, and greater stamina than others. Dragon breath, which is learned just before the Charmeleon evolution, is also a great addition to a Charmander moveset as it brings that edge against dragon types—importantly, without being weak to dragon-type moves itself. Outside of the fire-related moves, Charmander has versatile, sharp claws and it is naturally stealthy.

Charmander grow strong bonds with their team mates (especially other fire types). They are fiercely loyal and protective, and looking after others is a big motivator for growth. This high self-motivation makes them relatively easy Pokémon to train. One thing to keep in mind is that they enjoy routine and structure, but this is often seen in a positive light in the early days as young Pokémon must be dedicated if they want to achieve the levels of power needed for competitions.

Besides stealth, Charmander are also surprisingly speedy. It uses its head and arms for steerage, enabling it to manoeuvre well on the battlefield. Its no Doduo, and won’t win any races, but these head-first charges can add some additional scare-factor to the flame attacks.

Weaknesses

Charmander is an extremely effective communicator with other Charmander, using tail position, vocalisation and eye contact to synchronise. However, team a Charmander up with a Pokémon that isn’t Charmander, and it can quickly become frustrated. It would take years of focused training for many Pokémon to be able to read Charmander’s body language as well as another Charmander could, so—unless you’re a multi-trainer (a trainer that likes to use multiple of the same Pokémon)—I’d recommend not using Charmander for team battles.

Charmander is a creature of habit and routine. While this brings many benefits (dedication to consistent training and practicing skills being just two examples), it makes them rather inflexible. For example, say you decide a good general strategy for most Pokémon is a Tackle, followed by an Ember, so you practice this pattern with Charmander. However, you get to a battle and you find you’re against a water, fire or rock type—that fire isn’t going to help much! However, because training has taught Charmander to combine these moves, it may be a touch stubborn and refuse to drop the Ember, simply because it is it’s habit to use it. This leads many Charmander trainers to have to spend significant time on routine training Charmander with enough move sets to cover all likely scenarios. This is a huge time sink: that time would have been best spent elsewhere.

While they have caught the public’s attention, trainers often do not have a good understanding of Charmander behaviour. In fact, there are many false beliefs around Charmander that should be addressed. For example, many think that Charmander are easy Pokémon for first timers (I wouldn’t say so…), many think they’re rather independent (they are very much pack Pokémon), and many believe that wild Charmander will quickly adapt to home life (very much not true, it can be tough even with bred Charmander). These rumours are easily correctable, but they often lead to some dissatisfaction and frustration in trainers—especially inexperienced trainers just starting out on their journey.

Charmander have an intense fear of water, which includes rain, snow and any water body (sea, lake, river etc). In their natural environment, they get the water they need via their prey or by licking the small streams that run down cave walls. Therefore, rainfall can be very unnatural to them. Trainers should ensure Charmander is introduced to water and taught how to combat it, or risk deeply ingrained weaknesses to water moves. Their flame tail is particularly vulnerable in the early years, and a Charmander can become severely injured if its flame is dowsed.

Opportunities

While many trainers focus on its fire moves (not that this is a bad strategy, the high stamina means Charmander likely has enough flame for the entire battle), I would like to see more trainers utilising Charmander’s stealth. Smokescreen can be a great environmental attack to give Charmander that edge. Charmander can see well in smoky environments, due to their natural affinity with volcanoes and fire, and it is worthwhile using this move steadily throughout a battle.

Agility in Charmander is a largely overlooked ability, especially in breeder circles. Speed training tends to come in at the Charmeleon stage, but it is often set aside for more flame training in Charmander. I would like to see more time dedicated to speed and agility, preparing for more creative moves on the field. Similarly, intelligence training would be beneficial. This is not usually high up on the list because Charmander isn’t always the sharpest knife in the draw. However, they’re interested and quick learners because they love any one-on-one time. I’ve known one or two where this has been very beneficial—including where a Charmander was part of a detective agency.

Threats

There is an unfortunate rise in urban Charmander. Many are illegally bred or escaped from inexperienced trainers and take to living in cities on the streets. This is an unnatural environment for a Charmander, and the harshness of street life can quickly make them hostile to humans. In Los Angeles, where there is a particularly high number on the streets, it is thought that 50% of arson cases are perpetrated by rogue Charmander. The Meleon Menders society charity in LA is doing important work to try and make positive contact with the Charmander (and Charmeleon) gangs in LA and to help rehabilitate its members.

Charmander has poor defence, and, while its fire attacks are very powerful, sometimes Charmander trainers forget that not all opponents are as ill equipped. This is one of the reasons why Charmander tends to have trouble with rock and ground types: their trainers go all out on flame moves but rock/ground types endure it well enough that they cut through the beam. Consistency and strength are good, but not always enough.

With leagues getting more and more flexible in terms of arena construction, more opponents are honing in on weaknesses when it comes to battle environment choice. Charmander’s weakness to water can be a big disadvantage here. While arena management do have rules for the amount of land mass that must be available in heavy water-based arenas, you must learn to make good use of what you are given.

Breeders

• While fire development is important, remember areas such as intelligence and speed. This will help trainers be more creative in battles and better prepare Charmander for its Charmeleon phase. Enrol your Charmander up for ballet and chess clubs to keep them well socialised while they train.
• Be particularly responsible when finding trainers for Charmander. Always be mindful that these Charmander are likely to be evolved into Charmeleon in the future. Trainers seeking Charmander are likely dazzled by their potential power, but if they are not dedicated or skilled enough, this could lead to frustration and abandonment. We want to avoid contributing to Charmeleon gangs.
• The focus on Charmander’s flame can be a great opportunity to experiment with different diets and natural supplements to identify the best combination. There are a couple fire type mini leagues where different breeders and trainers get together and discuss Charmander health, and events like this can really help you refine your techniques, ingredient mixes and (best of all) try out your Charmander against others. Its a good day out for all.

Combatants

• Charmander has low defence that is tricky to counter without relying on team work. If your Pokémon are tough enough to withstand the flame attacks, push through to make direct hits, or focus on agility to dodge the fire and get in some quick hits.
• Charmander can be a little unsteady on its feet, so any moves that shake the ground or cause tripping hazards can be useful to stop Charmander in its tracks long enough to get some hits in
• Heat tolerance training is essential when battling Charmander. Its attacks tend to be much stronger than other base-level fire Pokémon, so don’t underestimate its strength. If you’d usually heat tolerate to a particular temperature, add on 10 degrees to be safe.

Trainers

• Be creative when it comes to water training to ensure you’re not caught out by water arenas. Water gun fights, paddling pools, and sprinklers can be a nice gentle start, but move on to swimming pools and more natural settings as soon as your Charmander is ready.
• Charmeleon can have issues with anger, so it is good preparation to teach Charmander anger management techniques ahead of time. There are some great Pokémon Behaviourists that can provide healthy routines and mental health support.
• Do what you can at leagues and events to do your part in teaching Charmander responsibility. Work with your local firefighters to find out if there is any fire safety messages you can help spread.

Want to find out about how to look after Charmander? See the Guide post here.

To see more advice as to how to communicate with your Charmander, see this post on How to Read Your Charmander’s Tail