Pokémon Type Chart - Strengths and Weaknesses

If you played Pokémon Blue or Red, or even Green if you are THAT old, and chose Charmander as your first pokémon, you know how types can be nasty to you. You killed Caterpies and Weedles with your ember like they were made of paper. But then, a not-so-wild Onyx appeared and put a stop to your dream.

Miraculously, you won. But right after you fought Misty with her water Pokémons and you watched as your Charmeleon bathed in defeat. That's when you proclaimed "No more!" and went on to study Pokémon's type chart strengths and weaknesses.

The thing is, generation after generation more types were added and some older Pokémons got revamped, changing their type or adding new ones. Today you will learn about the most recent type chart from the latest Pokémon released, Sword and Shield, so your badass fire dragon-like Pokémon won't ever again get squashed by a starfish.

We created a table chart showing all Pokémon's types, which types they strike hard, and which types strike them. Plus, we also added resistances, because some types take less damage from others and Dr. Oak forgot to tell you. Below the chart, there's an explanation about single and double-type Pokémon and how attacks behave in these situations.

I bet you're wondering: how can fairies do extra damage to dragons? Well, me too.

Moving on, there's some math to do regarding single-type and double-type Pokémons. A single-type (a Fire attack against a Grass-type Pokémon) will deal double normal damage. But advantages stack, so if your opponent's Pokémon has double-type and both are weak against your attack (a Fire attack against a Grass/Bug-type Pokémon) you will deal quadruple damage. The message in the game is the same for both attacks, "It's super effective!".

On the other hand, a single- and double-type resistance will only suffer half and a quarter normal damage respectively (a Water/Dragon-type Pokemon receiving a Fire attack). In-game, the message will be "It's not very effective".

There's another feature in Pokémon which I never knew until... now. It's called STAB, an abbreviated form of Same Type Attack Bonus. It amplifies the power of the move if the attacking Pokémon has the same type as the move used (for example a Water-type Pokémon using a Water-type move). In this case, the damage is 1.5 times normal. This is also added to any other advantages, so a Fire-type Pokémon using a Fire-type move against a Grass/Bug-type Pokémon will cause six times (2×2×1.5) normal damage! How about that, Misty?!

The game manual didn't say that you would have an algebra test, right? The good news, we're not done yet. What happens if you use an Electric attack against a Ground-type Pokémon? It has no effect, so it causes no damage (Ground is immune to Electric). And if you use an Electric attack against a Ground/Water-type Pokémon? Even though Water is weak against Electric, it won't have an effect and thus, no damage.

The last one, I swear. This one is easy. If the type of a move is super effective against one of the opponent's types but not very effective against the other, Grass attack versus Water/Flying Pokémon, then one nullifies the other, causing regular damage.

That's it. You now have at your disposal the most recent Pokémon type chart along with a math lesson: your Pokémon's strength plus your opponent's weakness equals your victory. Now go show Misty what you are made of!