How to unlock Grookey
Grookey is one of the free starters: pick it from the starter selector at the start of a run and it costs no tickets. Later copies come from the Galar banner, where it sits in the 1★ pool. The 1★ band takes 45% of all pulls and holds 233 partners, so one specific Grookey works out to about 0.1931% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Grookey has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Grookey refunds 15 coins at the 1★ rate.
Grookey stats and rank
Grookey reads 92 HP, 105 speed, ×1.06 attack, ×1.06 physical, ×0.92 special, 50 defense and 40 special defense, for a 310 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 30.0 out of 100, which puts Grookey at rank 693 of 966 and in tier C. The relative picture matters more than the total: its strongest slot is speed (47th percentile) and its weakest is special defense (9th percentile), so every one of its stats sits below the roster median, so its case rests on move pool and availability rather than raw numbers.
Best moves in Grookey's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Petal Blizzard at 33.6 damage per 0.26s (119.0 effective DPS, ×0.92 multiplier), then Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (112.5 effective DPS, ×1.06 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (95.0 effective DPS, ×1.06 multiplier). 8 of its 14 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 6 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its physical multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.06 against ×0.92), so physical moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 6.5 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call. Effective DPS is damage over cooldown times the matching multiplier; it ignores range and area, so a lower-DPS cone can still clear faster than a single-target melee.
Evolution cards for Grookey
Its starting move, Vine Whip, evolves into Power Whip once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. Menu upgrades use a separate system and never stand in for Power. 14 of its 18 moves carry an evolution card, across 6 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes, Armor and Synthesis). The strongest of them is Petal Blizzard at 119.0 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Grookey compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Chewtle (+0 HP, -9 speed, -0.01 attack, -26 total) and Rockruff (-2 HP, -2 speed, same attack multiplier, -30 total). Against Chewtle, Grookey is 9 speed faster and Grookey hits harder by ×0.01, and the rank gap is 137 places. Read those deltas as swap costs, because a gain on one line is usually paid for on another, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.