How to unlock Squirtle
Squirtle 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 Kanto banner, where it sits in the 1★ pool. The 1★ band takes 45% of all pulls and holds 233 partners, so one specific Squirtle works out to about 0.1931% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Squirtle has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Squirtle refunds 15 coins at the 1★ rate.
Squirtle stats and rank
The sheet lists Squirtle at 90 HP, 96 speed, ×0.97 attack, ×0.96 physical and ×0.97 special, with 65 defense and 64 special defense — 314 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 14.4 out of 100, which puts Squirtle at rank 905 of 966 and in tier C. Relative standing explains more than the total here: its strongest slot is special defense (45th percentile) and its weakest is attack multiplier (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 Squirtle's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (101.9 effective DPS, ×0.96 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (86.0 effective DPS, ×0.96 multiplier), then Quick Attack at 44.8 damage per 0.56s (76.5 effective DPS, ×0.96 multiplier). 5 of its 12 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 7 with the special one, alongside 5 support moves. Its special multiplier is the higher of the two (×0.97 against ×0.96), so special moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 15.8 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call.
Evolution cards for Squirtle
Its starting move, Water Gun, evolves into Scald once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. If Power never appears in that run's level-up offers, the move stays at level 5 and unevolved. 12 of its 17 moves carry an evolution card, across 6 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes, Armor and Synthesis). The strongest of them is Body Slam at 101.9 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Squirtle compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Chikorita (+0 HP, +1 speed, same attack multiplier, +4 total) and Clauncher (+2 HP, +0 speed, +0.05 attack, +16 total). Against Chikorita, Chikorita is 1 speed faster and the two carry an identical ×0.97 attack multiplier, and the rank gap is 14 places. Those differences are what you actually trade when swapping partners, not a straight upgrade path, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.