How to unlock Tepig
Tepig 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 Unova banner, where it sits in the 1★ pool. The 1★ band takes 45% of all pulls and holds 233 partners, so one specific Tepig works out to about 0.1931% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Tepig has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Tepig refunds 15 coins at the 1★ rate.
Tepig stats and rank
Tepig reads 99 HP, 97 speed, ×1.05 attack, ×1.05 physical, ×0.95 special, 45 defense and 45 special defense, for a 308 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 29.9 out of 100, which puts Tepig at rank 699 of 966 and in tier C. The relative picture matters more than the total: its strongest slot is HP (44th percentile) and its weakest is defense (15th 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 Tepig's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (111.4 effective DPS, ×1.05 multiplier), then Fire Spin at 33.6 damage per 0.30s (106.5 effective DPS, ×0.95 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (94.1 effective DPS, ×1.05 multiplier). 7 of its 14 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 7 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its physical multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.05 against ×0.95), so physical moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 4.9 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call. The figure is a ceiling for a single target: splash, piercing and knockback can outweigh a gap this size.
Evolution cards for Tepig
Its starting move, Ember, evolves into Fire Blast once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. A level 5 move without Power in the run is still just a level 5 move. 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 Body Slam at 111.4 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Tepig compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Quaxly (-4 HP, +2 speed, +0.01 attack, +2 total) and Gible (-3 HP, -1 speed, +0.03 attack, -8 total). Against Quaxly, Quaxly is 2 speed faster and Quaxly hits harder by ×0.01, and the rank gap is 35 places. The exchange rate is the point: nothing here improves on both lines at once, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.