Is Cyndaquil Good in Gold & Silver Playthrough?
The recommended starter for most Gold and Silver playthroughs. Fire coverage is incredibly scarce in Johto, and Cyndaquil fills that gap from the very start. Handles Bugsy easily, contributes against Jasmine and Pryce, and Typhlosion is one of the strongest Pokemon in the game.
Cyndaquil trades roughly evenly with Falkner's team.
Quilava resists most of Bugsy's coverage and hits back hard.
Quilava trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Quilava has the type edge here and should clean up Morty's team.
Chuck's team hits Quilava's weaknesses hard.
Quilava resists most of Jasmine's coverage and hits back hard.
Quilava has the type edge here and should clean up Pryce's team.
Clair's team hits Typhlosion's weaknesses hard.
Typhlosion has the type edge here and should clean up Lt. Surge's team.
Typhlosion has the type edge here and should clean up Sabrina's team.
Typhlosion resists most of Erika's coverage and hits back hard.
Typhlosion resists most of Janine's coverage and hits back hard.
Typhlosion trades roughly evenly with Misty's team.
Typhlosion trades roughly evenly with Brock's team.
Typhlosion trades roughly evenly with Blaine's team.
Typhlosion trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Typhlosion has the type edge here and should clean up Will's team.
Typhlosion resists most of Koga's coverage and hits back hard.
Typhlosion has the type edge here and should clean up Bruno's team.
Typhlosion resists most of Karen's coverage and hits back hard.
Typhlosion trades roughly evenly with Lance's team.
Starter
Cyndaquil is available as a starter at Lv 5.
Recommended Moves
- LV 12FireEmberPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Bugsy
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 180Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Game Corner
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- TM28GroundDigPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- LV 27FireFlame WheelPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Jasmine
- TM23SteelIron TailPower 100Accuracy 75%PP 15Prize for defeating Jasmine
- LV 36NormalSwiftPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 20
- LV 46FireFlamethrowerPower 143Accuracy 100%PP 15
Evolve Cyndaquil to Quilava
Cyndaquil evolves into Quilava at Level 14. Your Cyndaquil should hit Level 14 before you reach Bugsy, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 14)
- LV 14FireEmberPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Bugsy
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 180Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Game Corner
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- TM28GroundDigPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 10National Park
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- LV 31FireFlame WheelPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Jasmine
- TM23SteelIron TailPower 100Accuracy 75%PP 15Prize for defeating Jasmine
- LV 54FireFlamethrowerPower 143Accuracy 100%PP 15
Evolve Quilava to Typhlosion
Quilava evolves into Typhlosion at Level 36. Your Quilava should hit Level 36 before you reach Clair, at typical leveling pace.
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 36)
- LV 36FireFlame WheelPower 90Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Bugsy
- TM38FireFire BlastPower 180Accuracy 85%PP 5Goldenrod Game Corner
- TM48FireFire PunchPower 113Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod Department Store
- TM41ElectricThunder PunchPower 75Accuracy 100%PP 15Goldenrod Department Store
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- After Clair
- TM26GroundEarthquakePower 100Accuracy 100%PP 10Victory Road
- After Lt. Surge
- TM15NormalHyper BeamPower 150Accuracy 90%PP 5Celadon Game Corner
- LV 60FireFlamethrowerPower 143Accuracy 100%PP 15
How to Get Cyndaquil in Gold & Silver
Want the fire type? Cyndaquil is the middle option when Elm lays out his three at level 5, and taking it waves off Chikorita and Totodile. None of the trio ever appears wild, so this pick is final.
1 location to catch Cyndaquil
How to Obtain Cyndaquil in GS
- Step 1Cyndaquil ✓
- Step 2Evolve into QuilavaBREEDINGAvailableLeave Typhlosion with a compatible partner at the Goldenrod Pokemon Day Care to receive a Cyndaquil egg.
- Step 3Evolve into Typhlosion
How to Get Shiny Cyndaquil in Gold & Silver
Cyndaquil is a one-time pick from Professor Elm, so plant yourself outside his New Bark Town lab and reset that gift roll until the fire starter flashes gold. Compare Shiny Cyndaquil odds across every game
Gold & Silver Shiny Cyndaquil Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route is Breed w/ Shiny Parent, about 1 in 64 on each try.
Breed w/ Shiny Parent: Eggs inherit stats from a shiny parent, so about 1 in 64 hatch shiny. A shiny Ditto helps every egg, and any other shiny parent (the red Gyarados works) helps only eggs of the opposite gender.
Soft Reset: Save in front of a static, gift, or legendary encounter, then reset until it sparkles.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 7-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 19-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 45-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 147-- | -- |
Time assumes -- at your pace and does not change your shiny odds.
How is this calculated?
Every encounter has the same shiny chance, the Shiny Odds Per Try shown above. Each one is a separate roll that does not care how many you have already done, so the more you hunt, the higher your overall chance of at least one shiny. The formula below turns your odds and your number of tries into that combined chance.
chance after N tries = 1 − (1 − p)^N, where p = 1 / odds per try
Example at 1 in 8,192 (classic full odds): about 864 encounters for a 10 percent chance, 5,678 for 50 percent, and 18,862 for 90 percent.
The table above flips that around: it shows how many encounters it takes to reach a 10, 25, 50, and 90 percent chance at your current odds. Turning on boosts like the Shiny Charm, sandwiches, or chains improves your odds, so the encounter numbers drop.
These are estimates, not promises. Most games have no pity counter, meaning no guaranteed shiny no matter how many you hunt, so even Very Likely is not guaranteed: some hunters find one early, others go well past that point.
For time estimates and charm math, open the Gold & Silver shiny odds calculator with Cyndaquil already selected.
Cyndaquil Weakness
Cyndaquil's Fire typing leaves it vulnerable to Water, Ground, and Rock. The Fire typing picks up 5 resistances to work with.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 2x (Weak) | Water, Ground, Rock |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Fire, Grass, Ice, Bug, Steel |
- Dark and Steel types added — Fairy does not exist yet
- Moves are Physical or Special based on type, not per move
- Special stat split into Sp.Atk and Sp.Def
What is Cyndaquil Weak Against
Avg
Cyndaquil Evolutions
Cyndaquil kicks off a three-stage evolution line through Quilava all the way to Typhlosion. For breeding, average hatch time with plenty of partners via one egg group. The evolved forms gain up to 225 total stats over Cyndaquil. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Cyndaquil with 66 breeding partners from the Field egg group. Pass egg moves like Foresight, Fury Swipes, Quick Attack and 2 more to offspring.
GS Cyndaquil Best Moveset
Fire starter pre-evolution. MoveFire Blast exists at stats too low to threaten. Typhlosion is the competitive endpoint two evolutions away.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Flamethrower
- Quick Attack
- Double Edge
- Swift
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
You'll want to breed for Foresight and Fury Swipes on Cyndaquil. These egg moves aren't just nice to have. Combined with STAB from Fire Blast and Flamethrower, they expand what Cyndaquil can actually threaten in practice.
How to Read the Moves Table
Tabs
- Level-Up
- Learned by leveling up.
- TM
- Taught by a Technical Machine.
- Egg
- Inherited via breeding.
- Tutor
- NPC tutor (cost: items, BP, money).
- Reminder
- An NPC reteaches any move this Pokemon could have learned by leveling up.
- Transfer
- Carried over from an older game using Pokemon HOME.
- Event
- Given out through Mystery Gift events.
Visual Signals
CAT (Category)
How the move deals damage and which stats it uses.
A small dot on the icon's corner marks the move as contact.
Tier (S to D)
Each move's competitive rank in RankedBoost's system. TM, Egg, and Tutor sort by tier by default (best first). On Level-Up, click the Tier header to do the same.
PWR (Power)
Base damage. Numbers shown in a type color include STAB (base × 1.5). Hover any colored number to see the math.
— means no power (status moves) or variable power.
Sorting & Filter
Click any column header to sort. Level-Up opens with Lv 1 at the top. TM, Egg, and Tutor open with the highest-tier moves at the top.
Search filters by move name or type. The Filter button limits the list to STAB, Physical, Special, or Status moves.
Level-Up Moves
TM Moves
20 of 24 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
It is timid, and always curls itself up in a ball. If attacked, it flares up its back for protection.
It usually stays hunched over. If it is angry or surprised, it shoots flames out of its back.
Cyndaquil Gold & Silver Guide
In Gold & Silver, for a casual playthrough, Cyndaquil works as a placeholder. Fire coverage is useful early. The real payoff is Quilava. That's where the stats start mattering.
Game Availability
Debuting in Gold & Silver, Cyndaquil appears in 17 games across 8 generations. A reliable presence in most mainline games, typically found through catching or hatching as a base form.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RB
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GSDebut
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RS
Ruby & Sapphire - Gen 3E
Emerald - Gen 3FRLG
FireRed & LeafGreen - Gen 4DP
Diamond & Pearl - Gen 4Pt
Platinum - Gen 4HGSS
HeartGold & SoulSilver - Gen 5BW
Black & White - Gen 5B2W2
Black 2 & White 2 - Gen 6XY
X & Y - Gen 6ORAS
Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Gen 7SM
Sun & Moon - Gen 7USUM
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Gen 7Let's Go
Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee - Gen 8SwSh
Sword & Shield - Gen 8BDSP
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - Gen 8PLA
Legends: Arceus - Gen 9SV
Scarlet & Violet - Gen 9LZA
Legends: Z-A - Gen 10WW
Winds & Waves
Explore
Where to go next after Cyndaquil.
Keep playing · Gold & SilverGold & Silver Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Gold & Silver Tier List