I'm playing Pokemon Blue. I'm at Mt. Moon and I have a level 19 Charmander and no other Pokémon over level 5. I'm wondering if I'm playing the game correctly right now. If my charmander dies I will 'black out'. It seems weird that I should be expected to have multiple Pokémon at high levels when I haven't had much of an opportunity to level the others.
Most of the other Pokémon I have are crappy and I don't intend on playing with later on. It hardly seems worth the time to level them now.
Should I go back and gain some levels for my other pokemon?
Best Answer
It's disadvantageous to stick to a single Pokémon, but not all that impractical. There was once a run of Pokémon Yellow, I believe, done with just a Pidgey.
You don't need multiple high level Pokémon, it simply helps. Type coverage is the main reason - for example if your highest level Pokémon is just a Fire type and can only do Normal and Fire attacks, then you stand a hefty disadvantage against Rock types who resist all your attacks and can deal double damage. As well, Fire and Dragon types will block you completely, while Water types mostly block you and also do double damage.
Having your other Pokémon be of equal or near level as your highest helps in survivability of that other Pokémon as well. For example, a Ground type with high defense like Sandslash can help protect against the Rock types while also taking them down. This also gives you the opening to fully heal your primary Pokémon in between the assault of your opponents - it's a lot easier to keep your primary Pokémon in top shape when your supporting ones don't fall down in a single hit. At this stage, though, it probably helps to make those "assist Pokémon" simply capable of taking down foes on their own right.
It's ultimately up to the preference of the player, though. It's fairly common for people to stick solely with their starter of choice, and by sheer force of their levels take out all opposition. As long as you have good type coverage with it (for example, Charizard can use the TM to learn Earthquake to help mitigate some of the problem foes), enough of a level advantage will keep you on top.