Much of Pokemon’s battle system boils down to type matchups. You can have all the powerful moves you want, but if they’re not very effective on your opponent, you’re not going to get very far. Knowing how all eighteen types interact with one another is a difficult task, but it’s necessary to be the best there ever was.
Some types have many more weaknesses than others, and if you’re looking to use those ones, you’ll have to be sure to avoid their counters. Here are the types with the most weaknesses.
Note: most Pokemon are dual-types, meaning they will interact with other types differently than these types will on their own.
10 Steel and Dark
Fans who know their type matchups might be surprised to Steel on this list, but it actually ties with Dark in terms of number of weaknesses. Despite having a whopping 10 resistances (11 in Generation V and earlier), the most of any type, and an immunity, Steel actually has three weaknesses, each of which is fairly common. These are Fighting, Fire, and Ground, three types that are very commonly used in the competitive scene.
Dark, on the other hand, also has three weaknesses, being Bug, Fairy, and Fighting, and an immunity in Psychic.
9 Dragon and Psychic
Like Dark and Steel, Psychic and Dragon also have three weaknesses. The reason they are placed higher on this list, though, is because Dark and Steel have an immunity each, making them ever-so-slightly less weak to things.
Psychic is weak to Dark, Bug, and Ghost, while Dragon is weak to itself, Fairy, and Ice. Dragon and Psychic are both not effective against another type offensively, though, with Dark being immune to Psychic and Fairy being immune to Dragon. Both Psychic and Dragon are highly-specialized types, so do your research before adding them to your team.
8 Fire
Fire is a mostly-offensive type, despite being second to Steel for the most resistances. Many Fire-type attacks are focused on pure offense and attack power, and Fire-types typically have high Attack and Special Attack.
Fire’s disadvantage is also that it’s weak to a few common types that are used offensively quite often, these being Water, Ground, and Rock. As three of the most commonly-used types, Fire-types are extremely vulnerable and should be used carefully. Luckily, Fire-types cannot be burned, so they have a slight advantage there.
7 Bug
Bug-types are terrible offensively, being resisted by seven types, putting them at a serious disadvantage in that regard. They also tie with Fire, Psychic, and Dark for their number of weaknesses — three. Bug-types are weak to Fire, Rock, and Flying.
In Generation I, Bug-types were also weak to Poison, so they, fortunately, received a slight buff when that weakness was removed. Unfortunately, Bug is resisted by Fairy, so they got knocked back down a tiny bit. On average, Bug-types also have the lowest base HP stats out of the eighteen types. Poor things.
6 Ground
As a typically defensive type, one might think Ground wouldn’t be on this list, but it is. Tied with the other types already mentioned, Ground has three weaknesses: Water, Grass, and Ice. This type really wouldn’t have a good time in the arctic pine forests of the world.
Interestingly, Rock is also weak to Water and Grass. With Rock and Ground often being paired together, this opens those Pokemon to a ton of double-weakness they need to watch out for. They’ll take those Fire-types down easily, though.
5 Flying
It’s rarely worth examining which weaknesses a pure Flying-type would have, since only three of them exist across all eight generations: Tornadus, Rookidee, and Corvisquire. Flying is very frequently paired with the Normal-type, which, in fairness, has the same weaknesses as pure Flying.
The three types that will take down a Flying-type are Ice, Rock, and Electric. With three resistances and an immunity to Ground-types, Flying doesn’t have much to worry about, though. However, there are a lot of strategies that look to make Flying-types vulnerable to Ground attacks, including Smack Down and Gravity.
4 Fighting
The last type on this list to be tied with three weaknesses is the Fighting-type. Fighting is weak to Flying, Psychic, and Fairy. Fighting-types are used more offensively, like Fire-types, meaning that you’ll have to watch out for their vulnerabilities.
In generations I through V, Fighting has one less weakness, as the Fairy-type did not exist yet. Offensively, Fighting has the honor of being the only weakness of Normal-types. However, Ghost-types are immune to Fighting attacks, so make sure to avoid that whenever possible, especially since Ghost-types often learn a lot of Psychic-type attacks.
3 Ice
Often considered the worst type defensively, Ice surprisingly doesn’t take the top spot on this list. Ice-types are weak to an unfortunate four types, but that still isn’t enough to make them the worst, defensively. Ice is weak to Fighting, Fire, Rock, and Steel, and it resists only itself.
One perk, though, is that Ice-types cannot be frozen or knocked out by Sheer Cold. They’re also immune to Hail. Ice is often used as an offensive type, especially to take down the common Dragon- and Ground-types of the world. Watch out, Garchomp.
2 Rock
“Rock is such a defensive type,” many might say. And, they’re right. Rock-types are, to put it bluntly, rock-solid, with a high average defense stat — one of the highest of any type. Unfortunately, Rock is tied for first place for the most weaknesses, with five.
These weaknesses include Grass, Water, Fighting, Steel, and Ground. To make matters worse, Rock is often paired with Ground or Water, giving it a series of double-weaknesses. Luckily, Rock-types are immune to Sandstorm, and their special defense increases during a sandstorm.
1 Grass
Poor Grass-type. This natural and foliage-based type ties for the top spot for having the most weaknesses, and many players avoid using it for that reason. Grass is weak to an incredible five types: Bug, Fire, Flying, Ice, and Poison. Just to add insult to injury, it’s also not very effective offensively, resisted by Bug, Dragon, Fire, Flying, Poison, Steel, and itself.
It’s difficult to make good use of the Grass-type in the competitive scene, but if done right, it can be as powerful as any other type. Just make sure not to match it with something like Ice or Steel, which will make it double-weak to Fire.
NEXT: Pokemon: The Highest Average Stat Per Type
