Steel types are weak to Fire, Fighting and Ground moves, which hit a pure Steel Pokémon for 2× damage. That is the whole list. If you have seen a page saying Steel is also weak to Rock or Ghost, it is wrong: Steel resists Rock, and Ghost does normal damage.
What makes Steel unusual is how little it takes. It resists ten types, the most of any type, and is immune to Poison. The counts below are species from the pokee.si Pokédex: 65 Steel species, 10 of them pure Steel.
What pure Steel resists
A pure Steel Pokémon takes half damage from Normal, Flying, Rock, Bug, Steel, Grass, Psychic, Ice, Dragon and Fairy moves. Poison moves do nothing to it. Everything else, including Water, Electric, Ghost and Dark, does normal damage.
Steel is the only type that resists Dragon moves. Steel types are also immune to sandstorm damage, and from Generation III they cannot be poisoned at all unless the attacker has the Ability Corrosion.
Steel arrived in Generation II, when Magnemite and Magneton became part Steel. In Generations II to V it also resisted Ghost and Dark. That ended in Generation VI, so guides written before then still list those two resistances.
How the second type changes it
Most Steel Pokémon have a second type, and its matchups are multiplied with Steel's. If both types share a weakness the damage is 4×. If one type resists what the other is weak to, they cancel out. The three damage columns show Fire, Fighting and Ground in that order.
| Second type | Weak to | Fire / Fighting / Ground damage | Species | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal/Steel | Fighting (4×), Fire, Ground | 2× / 4× / 2× | 0 | none |
| Fire/Steel | Ground (4×), Water, Fighting | 1× / 2× / 4× | 1 | Heatran |
| Water/Steel | Electric, Fighting, Ground | 1× / 2× / 2× | 1 | Empoleon |
| Electric/Steel | Ground (4×), Fire, Fighting | 2× / 2× / 4× | 4 | Magnemite |
| Grass/Steel | Fire (4×), Fighting | 4× / 2× / 1× | 3 | Ferroseed |
| Ice/Steel | Fire (4×), Fighting (4×), Ground | 4× / 4× / 2× | 0 | Alolan Sandshrew (form), Alolan Sandslash (form) |
| Fighting/Steel | Fire, Fighting, Ground | 2× / 2× / 2× | 2 | Lucario |
| Poison/Steel | Ground (4×), Fire | 2× / 1× / 4× | 2 | Varoom |
| Ground/Steel | Fire, Water, Fighting, Ground | 2× / 2× / 2× | 3 | Steelix |
| Flying/Steel | Fire, Electric | 2× / 1× / 0× | 3 | Skarmory |
| Psychic/Steel | Fire, Ground, Ghost, Dark | 2× / 1× / 2× | 8 | Beldum |
| Bug/Steel | Fire (4×) | 4× / 1× / 1× | 5 | Forretress |
| Rock/Steel | Fighting (4×), Ground (4×), Water | 1× / 4× / 4× | 7 | Aron |
| Ghost/Steel | Fire, Ground, Ghost, Dark | 2× / 0× / 2× | 4 | Honedge |
| Dragon/Steel | Fighting, Ground | 1× / 2× / 2× | 3 | Dialga |
| Dark/Steel | Fighting (4×), Fire, Ground | 2× / 4× / 2× | 3 | Pawniard |
| Steel/Fairy | Fire, Ground | 2× / 1× / 2× | 6 | Mawile |
Flying/Steel takes 0× from Ground, and Ghost/Steel takes 0× from Fighting. A second type can also strip away most of Steel's weaknesses: Bug/Steel is weak to Fire and nothing else. A "(form)" label means no species has that pair, but a form does. The multiplying is explained step by step in dual-type weaknesses explained.
Steel types with a 4× weakness
Of the 65 Steel species, 25 take 4× from at least one move.
| 4× weak to | Count | Steel Pokémon |
|---|---|---|
| Ground | 14 | Magnemite, Magneton, Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Shieldon, Bastiodon, Magnezone, Probopass, Heatran, Togedemaru, Stakataka, Varoom, Revavroom |
| Fire | 8 | Forretress, Scizor, Escavalier, Ferroseed, Ferrothorn, Durant, Genesect, Kartana |
| Fighting | 10 | Aron, Lairon, Aggron, Shieldon, Bastiodon, Probopass, Pawniard, Bisharp, Stakataka, Kingambit |
Several of them appear twice because they are 4× weak to both Ground and Fighting. The full list across all types is in Pokémon with 4× weaknesses.
Which Steel types escape each weakness
- Fire: 12 Steel species are not weak to it, through Rock/Steel, Water/Steel, Dragon/Steel and Fire/Steel.
- Fighting: 28 are not weak to it, through Bug/Steel, Flying/Steel, Steel/Fairy, Psychic/Steel, Ghost/Steel and Poison/Steel.
- Ground: 11 are not weak to it, through Bug/Steel, Flying/Steel and Grass/Steel.
Abilities that block a weakness
| Weakness | Ability that blocks it | Steel species that can have it | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | Flash Fire | 1 | Heatran |
| Ground | Levitate | 2 | Bronzor, Bronzong |
| Ground | Earth Eater | 1 | Orthworm |
Flash Fire makes a Pokémon immune to Fire moves, and once it has been hit its own Fire moves do 50% more damage. Levitate makes a Pokémon immune to Ground moves. Heatran is the only Steel species in our data that can have Flash Fire. Because Heatran is Fire/Steel, that Ability removes its Fire weakness, though Ground still hits it for 4×.
The best moves against Steel types
These are the moves of each type that the most Pokémon can learn, by the learner counts in our data.
| Super effective type | Moves many Pokémon learn (power) |
|---|---|
| Fire | Flamethrower (90), Fire Blast (110), Fire Punch (75), Heat Wave (95) |
| Fighting | Brick Break (75), Focus Blast (120), Focus Punch (150), Body Press (80) |
| Ground | Dig (80), Bulldoze (60), Earthquake (100), Stomping Tantrum (75) |
Check the second type before you pick. Earthquake does 4× to Electric/Steel and Fire/Steel, but nothing at all to Skarmory.
What Steel is good against
Steel moves are super effective on Rock, Ice and Fairy. They are not very effective on Steel, Fire, Water and Electric, and no type is immune to them.
The strongest Steel types
By base stat total, Dialga (Steel/Dragon) and Solgaleo (Psychic/Steel) lead at 680. Metagross, Jirachi, Heatran and Genesect follow at 600. The most common Steel typings are pure Steel (10 species), Psychic/Steel (8), Rock/Steel (7) and Steel/Fairy (6).
To compare two Steel Pokémon directly, the Regirock vs Registeel, Dialga vs Palkia and Metagross vs Garchomp pages put their stats side by side.
Practise the chart
The types lesson covers the basics. Type Clash and Type Master test how fast you can call a matchup, and the types quiz pack has more questions. A printable type chart PDF is on the printables page, and the Steel type page lists every Steel Pokémon.