In Pokemon, the beginner-friendly Fire-Water-Grass triangle sprang an elemental system far more complicated. As of 2013's Pokemon X & Y introduction of the Fairy type, there are 18 different types, and many, many dual-type Pokemon. It’s a jungle out there.
Is there, in truth, one type that rises above the rest? Of course not. But can fans voice their thoughts on how all 18 types perform, based on personal experience and overall discourse? Absolutely. So, that's precisely what we'll set about doing, as impartially as possible and with the most modern data available.
Updated on June 9, 2023 by Quinton O'Connor: It's been about a year since last we revised this page. A little something called Pokemon Scarlet & Violet launched while we were away. It's time to rearrange this list with additional examples of sturdy Pokemon of every type.
18 Rock
Rock Slide's a mainstay on so many competitive teams, and beloved all through single-player campaigns. And that's kind of Rock-types in a nutshell — Rock Slide and a couple of other moves are fantastic. Right off the bat, we can see that even the type we rank dead last has some real utility.
Here's where things get murkier. Rock is designed first and foremost around the notion of a sky-high physical defense. But its range of elemental weaknesses runs the gamut of some of the most popular types in the series. Does this nuke them from online orbit? Not at all, but it can be a fairly frequent thorn in your side.
Diancie, Glimmora, and Kleavor are excellent Rock-type candidates.
17 Bug
We sang Rock's attack-oriented praises, but Bug earns no such joy. Move into the realm of Paldea's Iron Moth and Iron Treads, and you'll have some of the best Pokemon in the series, but there are so few Bug-types that come within a country mile of them.
Any Bug-type Pokemon who can dish brutal damage out with moves like X-Scissor can still be competitive - after all, no type is truly useless. Kleavor's terrific for this.
Bug's resistance to Fighting, Grass, and Ground can occasionally put it in unexpectedly prime situations. Surviving Earthquake, for example, is more doable with the sturdy Forretress.
16 Ice
Now, this really bums many people out. Ice Beam is so good, but actual Ice-type Pokemon are practically walking targets. With some slight tweaks, they'd be better off, but alas.
The issue here is just the same as with Rock. Ice-types are incredibly vulnerable; their weaknesses are designed to balance out their power, but they're such common and versatile types that your chilly friends will be toast in seconds.
In many scenarios, you might well be better off teaching Ice Beam to something that isn't a native Ice-type. You'll lose STAB, but stay alive in exchange. If you think there are relatively few threats in an upcoming match, Glastrier and Baxcalibur are currently ranked quite highly.
15 Psychic
Psychic has had quite a rollercoaster ride of a journey through the generations. In the Red & Blue era, it was weak only to Bug, which boasted all the offensive prowess of an actual insect. At that stage, Ghost moves had no effect on Psychic-type, which was all kinds of messed up and ensured the typing’s total dominance.
Psychic was so overpowered that its nemesis, Dark-type, was created just to foil its schemes. Since this change was made in Gen 2, Psychic-type Pokemon have taken a huge fall from grace. Offensively, it’s lackluster, being super effective on two types and resisted by two types.
For all we've just said, there are still ample capable Psychic-types to pull out when you think the coast is clear for them. Hisuian Braviary, Galarian Articuno, Espeon, and Gallade deserve some thought.
14 Poison
In another example of the Rock/Ice situation, good Poison-type team members are commonly chosen in spite of said typing. In and of itself, Poison doesn’t really offer much. On the offensive, it's super-effective only on Grass and Fairy, and resisted by four types in return.
When Poison is utilized, it's in a defensive role, owing to its dual weakness (Psychic and Ground) trade-off for five resistances. You’d see the occasional physical tank Weezing and the like, but competitive showings from Poison-types have historically been slim.
Poison-type Pokemon tend to shine the brightest with a suitable secondary type - Amoonguss, Glimmora, and Toxapex are all impressive.
13 Grass
Grass is strange. The best way to summarize it is to say that Grass-type moves often lend themselves to status inflictions rather than raw damage, and if your team will thrive with such a devious little devil, you can think about saving a slot for one.
It also hits for twice as much damage against Water, Ground, and Rock; Rock-type Pokemon might not be terribly common online, but those other two surely are.
Just bear in mind that Grass is weak to seven types. That's pretty high up there. This is another situation in which looking for powerful Pokemon with complementary secondary types may be best, but Hisuian Decidueye, Amoonguss, and certainly Meowscarada can turn the tables if properly set to do so.
12 Ghost
Ghost is a curious typing indeed. It’s one that is often overlooked while building teams, whether as a potential member or as a potential threat. Much of this is due to the fact that it’s such a run-of-the-mill neutral type, neither resisted nor super effective on very much.
Ghost-types themselves are usually restricted to truly excellent Pokemon that just happen to be Ghost, such as Aegislash and the ever-present Gengar. A powerful Ghost can be difficult to stop due to the lack of resistance to its STAB.
There are definitely some great and commonly-used Ghost types, and their attacks can be situationally mighty, but the typing alone will do little for you.
11 Normal
Where else to rank Normal but squarely in the middle? These Pokemon are, by definition, the jacks-of-all-trades. Since Red & Blue, they’ve been defined by their diverse movepool potential and varied stats that allow them to do a bit of everything.
Normal has great special attackers like Porygon-Z, the best Special Wall in the entire franchise in Blissey, physical powerhouses… everything you could ever want. The issue with Normal is that it isn’t super effective on anything by itself, often relying on powerful neutral hits to get the job done.
Additionally, Steel and Rock resist Normal, and Ghost is immune, meaning that these friends will often find themselves stonewalled.
10 Flying
Yet again, we’ve got quite the mixed bag on our hands here. Flying is, admittedly, a cool type. Remember the Bird Keeper trainer class? The sprite of the spiky-haired little dude with the bird cage?
This is one of the most balanced types. Flying has three weaknesses and three resistances. It is super effective on three types and is resisted by three types. Flying is powerful offensively, able to cover the types that resist it well, but its weaknesses are some of the most common types in the game (Ice, Rock, Electric).
On the flip side, Flying sort of shares Ghost's caveat insofar as few Pokemon are actually defined by it, because gaining STAB on Bug, Fighting, and Grass is just not worth bragging about.
9 Dark
Here’s another elemental type that has risen, fallen, and risen again over the years. Dark was introduced with Pokemon Gold & Silver, after Game Freak realized they’d goofed and created a monster with the rampant Psychic-type.
As Psychic became less of a threat, so did Dark itself, and the lacking base power of most Dark moves didn’t do much to help their cause. Then, Fairy-types appeared, and Dark-types were given the needed kind of counter that they themselves been created for.
Meowscarada, Kingambit, and Zarude still proudly fly thi flag, and are all competitively savvy.
8 Ground
If you’ve ever seen an Excadrill tear your team apart in a sandstorm, you’ll know what a fearsome type this can be. On the other hand, that really is the exception to the rule.
Generally speaking, Ground-types are hulking, slow, defensive beasts — think Hippowdon. They’re super tanky, and have access to possibly the strongest and most popular STAB move in the series: Earthquake.
Offensively, this is excellent, super effective on five different types, and resisted only by two (Flying-types are also immune).
The trade-off is that Ground-types are weak to the common Water, Ice, and Grass attacks; these are usually Special-based, and Ground’s typically high Defense won’t save it when the… water... hits the fan.
7 Fighting
Next up, we have Normal’s only weakness: Fighting. Fighting is usually characterized by strong physical threats; the Heracrosses, Terrakions, and Machamps of the world. A fair few are tanky, but they tend to favor speed over survivability.
There have been some real highs and lows for Fighting, but it's enjoying a bright and shiny phase again with recent arrivals like Sneasler, Hisuian Decidueye, and the well-established Urshifu.
6 Fire
Things are a little more balanced for our fiery friends. They have some common weaknesses in Ground- and Rock-type moves. With Water being the most common type in Pokemon,there’ll almost always be something on a team tailored to end your reign.
Yet Fire has some key advantages. It can scare away the ever-present Steel-types, and it also has a highly important (and rather rare!) resistance to Fairy. There’s always a danger for a Fire-type on a team, but there’s almost always a place for one as well.
Hisuian Arcanine and Scarlet & Violet's new Skeledirge are both good picks for the online scene. Cinderace is still hot stuff, and while we don't tend to mention them, there are an impressive number of Ubers here as well.
5 Electric
As we’ll soon see, Water-types are a hugely popular part of the meta. Grass-types being somewhat rarer and a little less powerful, it follows that Electric-types also feature prominently as a way of sinking those popular picks.
Like Fighting-types, Electric Pokemon usually want to hit hard and fast, so they can struggle with anything that resists their STAB. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with Zapdos, Thundurus, or even Rotom-Wash.
4 Water
There are more Water-types than any other type, and that’s a neat little metaphor for their place in competitive battling. From Barraskewda to Volcanion, and so many species in-between, Water can frequently make a huge difference in competitive matches.
Water has only two weaknesses, Electric and Grass, the latter of which is rarely a factor. In return, it boasts four resistances, all of which are quite commonly seen. As such, Water is one of the best defensive types, arguably the best. It shines in a walling/tanking role but can be just as terrifying on the offensive.
3 Dragon
Throughout this list, we’ve taken a look at a lot of types that have risen and fallen in favor. That’s the way a metagame works; top threats appear, are countered and so fall in use, as do their counters.
Dragon, however, doesn't have much to care about during any of this. Since the type was first introduced, it’s been hugely powerful. It’s only weak to itself and Ice, and it has some key resistances.
In the current meta, look for Dragon-types like Baxcalibur, Roaring Moon, and Hydreigon to slot into your arsenal.
2 Fairy
The Fairy-type, as mentioned, was created for the sixth generation of Pokemon, partly in response to player backlash about those darn Dragons.
Fairy not only gave those scaly Dragon-types another weakness to worry about, but they are also completely immune to Dragon-type attacks. Granted, you still see Garchomp and their top-tier buddies lurking around, but they’re not as safe as they once were.
Weak only to Poison and Steel, and boasting great neutral coverage, they are now one of the top threats to contend with as well. Carbink and Hatterene are great grabs right now.
1 Steel
And so, we arrive at Steel. Since their introduction, Steel-types have been known as an unbreakable defensive force. Notorious for resisting almost everything, sometimes for seemingly no reason at all, Steel was another type that was nerfed when Gen 6 arrived.
Previously, Steel resisted an absurd 11 different types. Dark and Ghost were removed from that tally, and Fairy added, giving them a total of ten resistances. But, and pardon the basic math, 11 minus one is not exactly a significantly smaller number.
Until and unless an upcoming generation of Pokemon games revises the rules, Steel will continue to dominate whenever you're up against someone whose attraction to specific elemental attacks you can safely predict. Kingambit, Iron Treads, and the hilarious Gholdengo should be given due consideration.