Every Pokémon and every move has a type, like Fire, Water or Grass. When a move hits a Pokémon, the two types decide how much damage it does. A strong matchup does double damage, a weak one does half, and a few do nothing at all.
There are 18 types. You don't need to learn the whole chart at once. Start with three, and the rest will come.
Start with the triangle
Fire, Water and Grass beat each other in a circle:
- Water beats Fire, because water puts fire out.
- Fire beats Grass, because fire burns plants.
- Grass beats Water, because plants drink up water.
That is why the starter Pokémon in every main game are one Grass, one Fire and one Water type. Whichever you choose, it beats one of the other two and loses to the other.
Lots of the chart makes sense like this if you picture real life. Electric zaps Water and Flying things, but it can't hurt the Ground. Ice freezes Grass and Dragon types. Rock knocks Flying Pokémon out of the sky.
The four words the games use
| The game says | What it means | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| "It's super effective!" | A strong matchup | 2× (double) |
| (nothing) | A normal hit | 1× |
| "It's not very effective..." | A weak matchup | ½× (half) |
| "It doesn't affect..." | The Pokémon is immune | 0× (none) |
All 18 types in one table
Read across a row. The middle column says which types that type's moves hit for double damage. The last column says which move types hit Pokémon of that type for double damage.
| Type | Its moves are strong against | It is weak to |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | nothing | Fighting |
| Fire | Grass, Ice, Bug, Steel | Water, Ground, Rock |
| Water | Fire, Ground, Rock | Electric, Grass |
| Electric | Water, Flying | Ground |
| Grass | Water, Ground, Rock | Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Bug |
| Ice | Grass, Ground, Flying, Dragon | Fire, Fighting, Rock, Steel |
| Fighting | Normal, Ice, Rock, Dark, Steel | Flying, Psychic, Fairy |
| Poison | Grass, Fairy | Ground, Psychic |
| Ground | Fire, Electric, Poison, Rock, Steel | Water, Grass, Ice |
| Flying | Grass, Fighting, Bug | Electric, Ice, Rock |
| Psychic | Fighting, Poison | Bug, Ghost, Dark |
| Bug | Grass, Psychic, Dark | Fire, Flying, Rock |
| Rock | Fire, Ice, Flying, Bug | Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Steel |
| Ghost | Psychic, Ghost | Ghost, Dark |
| Dragon | Dragon | Ice, Dragon, Fairy |
| Dark | Psychic, Ghost | Fighting, Bug, Fairy |
| Steel | Ice, Rock, Fairy | Fire, Fighting, Ground |
| Fairy | Fighting, Dragon, Dark | Poison, Steel |
Two things jump out. Normal moves aren't super effective against anything, but Normal Pokémon have only one weakness. Grass and Rock Pokémon have five weaknesses each, the most of any single type.
The 8 immunities
These matchups do no damage at all. They're worth learning by heart, because using the wrong move here wastes a whole turn.
| This move type | does nothing to | Why it makes sense |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | Ghost | You can't punch a ghost |
| Fighting | Ghost | Same reason |
| Ghost | Normal | Normal Pokémon don't get spooked |
| Electric | Ground | The ground soaks up electricity |
| Ground | Flying | Flying Pokémon are off the ground |
| Poison | Steel | Metal can't be poisoned |
| Psychic | Dark | Dark Pokémon block mind tricks |
| Dragon | Fairy | Fairies are immune to dragon power |
When a Pokémon has two types
Many Pokémon have two types. Of the 1,025 Pokémon on pokee.si, 526 do. Then the game works out the damage for each type and multiplies the two together.
Here is the classic example. Gyarados is Water and Flying. Electric moves are super effective against Water (2×) and against Flying (2×), so a Thunderbolt hits Gyarados for 2 × 2 = 4 times the damage. One Pikachu with an Electric move can be enough to beat it.
It can work the other way too. If one type is weak and the other resists, they cancel out to a normal hit. Our dual-type weaknesses guide has more examples.
Your move matters too
The chart uses the type of the move, not the type of the Pokémon using it. A Water Pokémon can learn an Ice move like Ice Beam, and that move hits Dragon types for double damage, even though the Pokémon using it is Water.
There's one bonus for matching, though. When a Pokémon uses a move of its own type, the move gets 1.5× stronger. Players call this STAB, short for same-type attack bonus. Our guide to types and STAB explains it with numbers.
A few type facts
- Water is the most common type, with 154 Pokémon. Ice is the rarest, with 48.
- Fairy is the newest type. It was added in Pokémon X and Y in 2013, and it helped balance Dragon types, which had very few weaknesses before then.
- No type is best at everything. Every type has at least one weakness.
When you're ready for the full 18 by 18 grid, the interactive type chart lets you tap any type to see its matchups.