"Starter" moves on evolved Pokémon

Lots of sites state that certain Pokémon have some starter/level 1 moves that can be learned.

For example, for Raichu, Thunder Shock, Tail Whip, Quick Attack and Thunderbolt are listed; Bulbapedia states that:

will be known by a Raichu obtained at level 1 in Generation VI

Is this actually true? Since a Raichu can't hatch from an egg or be caught in the wild, is he actually able to learn these moves without inheriting it from its pre-evolution? Or is this just a quirk from these databases?


There are a couple situations for moves that are obtained "at level 1" (Bulbapedia lists them as learned at "Start"):

For a Pokemon's first evolution, either by being caught (at levels low enough to not have learned many moves from level up) or hatched, their move list will be populated by these level-1 moves. Hatched pokemon may have a number of these moves replaced by those passed down by their parents, like egg moves.

For the other uses, often on more evolved Pokemon, I like to point to Aegislash. It learns no moves by leveling, yet it's signature move that allows it to transform back to to the defensive shield forme, King's Shield, is a 'level 1' move, and not learned by it's prior evolutions. In cases like this, the intended way to obtain these moves on the Pokemon is through the Move Reminder.


The starter moves are the moves that the pokemon will have if at level one, even if they are not obtainable at level 1. In this case if you encounter a level 1 Raichu in the wild (not possible playing a legit game), it will have these moves. These moves can be accessed via the move reminder.