How to unlock Turtwig
Turtwig 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 Sinnoh banner, where it sits in the 1★ pool. The 1★ band takes 45% of all pulls and holds 233 partners, so one specific Turtwig works out to about 0.1931% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Turtwig has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Turtwig refunds 15 coins at the 1★ rate.
Turtwig stats and rank
Turtwig reads 95 HP, 91 speed, ×1.07 attack, ×1.07 physical, ×0.95 special, 64 defense and 55 special defense, for a 318 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 20.9 out of 100, which puts Turtwig at rank 825 of 966 and in tier C. The relative picture matters more than the total: its strongest slot is defense (43rd percentile) and its weakest is speed (7th 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 Turtwig's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Petal Blizzard at 33.6 damage per 0.26s (122.9 effective DPS, ×0.95 multiplier), then Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (113.5 effective DPS, ×1.07 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (95.9 effective DPS, ×1.07 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 (×1.07 against ×0.95), so physical moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 9.4 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call. Range, area and knockback are not in the DPS number, so a nova can beat a melee on clear speed despite a smaller figure.
Evolution cards for Turtwig
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. If Power never appears in that run's level-up offers, the move stays at level 5 and unevolved. 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 122.9 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Turtwig compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Clobbopus (-3 HP, +0 speed, same attack multiplier, -8 total) and Paras (-9 HP, -3 speed, +0.01 attack, -33 total). Against Clobbopus, the two are level on speed and the two carry an identical ×1.07 attack multiplier, and the rank gap is 36 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.