Becoming a Pokemon pro means remembering a long list of type matchups. With eighteen types and a majority of Pokemon having two of them, it's hard to remember absolutely every combination possible. But, it can be helpful to learn which types have the most resistances. They won't necessarily be great offensively, depending, but you know they'll be able to take a hit from at least a few other types. Most Pokemon are dual-types, so their weaknesses and resistances will sometimes slightly change, depending on the combination.
Updated February 23, 2023 by Gabrielle Huston: Pokemon can be hard to keep track of. We've refreshed this list to include every single Pokemon type and its resistances (and immunities).
How Do Type Resistances/Weaknesses/Immunities Work?
First, a quick refresher for those who may need it: Pokemon have a type, and their moves have a type. When a Pokemon is attacked with a move, the defending Pokemon's type and the move's type matter:
- If the defending Pokemon is resistant to the move's type, the move will do half as much damage (x0.5), also referred to as super effective.
- If the defending Pokemon is weak to the move's type, the move will do twice as much damage (x2), also referred to as not very effective.
- If the defending Pokemon is immune to the move's type, the move will do no damage (x0), also referred to as ineffective.
If the Pokemon has two types, the effects are multiplied together. Take two examples:
- A Ground-Rock-type Pokemon like Rhyhorn is attacked by a Water-type move. Ground type is weak to Water and Rock type is weak to Water, so the move will do four times as much damage (x4).
- A Normal-Flying-type Pokemon like Pidgey is attacked by a Fighting-type move. Normal type is weak to Fighting and Flying type is resistant to Fighting, so the move will do the normal amount of damage (x1).
18 Ice - 1 Resistance, 0 Immunities
The Ice type is only resistant to ice-type attacks, making it the weakest type in terms of resistances.
Honestly, from a numbers perspective, Ice is one of the weakest, if not the weakest, types in the games. Its only redeeming quality is that it's super effective against Dragon-types. It's really too bad that Ice-types do so poorly, because the ice type has given us some of Pokemon's absolute coolest trainers, including Candice from Diamond and Pearl and Brycen from Black and White!
17 Normal - 0 Resistances, 1 Immunity
Normal-type Pokemon aren't resistant to any attacks, but they are immune to ghost-type moves. For the sake of simplicity on this list, we're counting an immunity as better than a resistance.
Normal-type Pokemon can be polarizing. Are they underappreciated, or just boring? Everyone has their own take. Regardless of how you feel, the Normal type has undoubtedly given us fan-favorite Pokemon like Ditto, Porygon, Spinda, and Chatot.
16 Psychic - 2 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Psychic Pokemon are resistant to only two types of moves: Fighting and Psychic. That puts them as one rung from the bottom of the Pokemon resistance ladder.
There's some thought behind these resistances. For Psychic-type moves, a Psychic could identify other Psychic abilities, right? As for Fighting-type moves, Psychic-type moves are super effective against Fighting-type Pokemon because of the idea of "psyching out" a fighter. It wouldn't make sense, then, for Fighting-type moves to be any good against Psychic-type Pokemon.
15 Electric - 3 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Electric-type Pokemon are resistant to Electric, Flying, and Steel-type moves. This places them in the average; most Pokemon are resistant to, or resistant/immune to, three or four other types.
Everyone's favorite Electric-type Pokemon is Pikachu, of course, but there have been dozens of great Pokemon with this type throughout the Generations. In fact, some of them are even viable in the competitive Pokemon scene, if you feel like testing your skills against the best!
14 Fighting - 3 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Fighting-type Pokemon also have resistances to three move types: Bug, Rock, and Dark. We're not exactly sure where the logic of these resistances comes from, except that maybe bugs are small and fighters are big and muscular? Probably it was a balancing game.
The Fighting-type contains a lot of Pokemon that are really humanoid, like Machamp, Hitmonchan, Hariyama, and Throh. They make us question the gap between Pokemon and people, but we'll save that question for another day.
13 Bug - 3 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Bug-type Pokemon are resistant to Grass-, Fighting-, and Ground-type moves.
Bug-type Pokemon are often some of the coolest in a generation, and the most unique, since there are lots of motifs to draw on. There are more than 900 thousand species of known insects on the planet Earth, and we are well aware that there are plenty of undocumented ones out there! Talk about inspiration.
12 Ground - 2 Resistances, 1 Immunity
The Ground type has two resistances: to Poison-type and Rock-type moves. Those both make sense, right? Hard to poison some dirt (at least, in the conventional sense of the word poison) and rocks are just ground that hasn't stopped moving long enough yet.
Ground-type Pokemon are also immune to Electric-type moves. If you think about the concept of "grounding," that one will make sense in no time, too. Grounding electricity sends it back to the earth so it can't do any more harm.
11 Dark - 2 Resistances, 1 Immunity
Like Ground-type Pokemon, Dark-type Pokemon have two resistances and an immunity. They are resistant to Ghost- and Dark-type moves, and they are immune to Psychic-type moves.
The Dark-type is a bit hard to wrap your head around, since it's a bit more abstract than other types, but these resistances and immunities make sense when you think about it. You can't bother the dark with more dark, after all, and if ghosts are real they live in the dark, so that wouldn't be an effective way to attack. As for psychic, well, there's not exactly anything in the dark for them to use their psychic abilities on, right?
10 Rock - 4 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Rock-type Pokemon will resist Fire-, Flying-, Normal-, and Poison-type moves. It's weak to Fighting-, Grass-, Ground-, and Water-type moves.
Rock is an interesting type. Did you know that if a Pokemon somehow had all eighteen types, its only weakness would be Rock? Offensively, Rock is great, being super-effective against four types: Bug, Flying, Fire, and Ice.
9 Water - 4 Resistances, 0 Immunities
The most populous type in the game is Water, and it also holds the title for the second-most monotypes, just behind Normal. The type makes up almost a fifth of all Pokemon. While being very populous, Water is also busy resisting several other types.
Tying with Rock, Water resists four types of moves: Ice, Fire, Steel, and Water. If you're using an Ice-type against a Water-type, though, the move Freeze-Dry is unique in being super-effective, which is cool (literally).
8 Grass - 4 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Tied with Rock for the most weaknesses, Grass also interestingly has quite a few resistances, tying with Rock again. With five weaknesses and four resistances, Grass has some type of matchup effectiveness with half of all the types.
Grass resists Electric-, Ground-, Water-, and Grass-type moves. One might think "Grass has the most weaknesses, why would I pick it as a starter Pokemon choice?" but it's frequently paired with other types, like Poison, that reduce its weakness count and increase its resistances.
7 Dragon - 4 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Another interesting type is the Dragon-type, which has some weird matchup combinations when it comes to weaknesses. Dragon-type Pokemon resist four types— Fire-, Water-, Grass-, and Electric-type moves. It's interesting to note that these are the four starter types from Generation I — Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu.
In terms of its use offensively, Dragon is only actually good against one other type: itself. At the same time, it is only resisted by Steel and ineffective against Fairy.
6 Fairy - 3 Resistances, 1 Immunity
As the newest type to be introduced into the series, it seems as though Fairy was meant to balance out some of the meta-game. It was made to be offensively powerful against some of the more common and somewhat-unchallenged types like Fighting, Dragon, and Dark.
The developers also gave Fairy a good number of resistances. It resists Bug-, Dark-, and Fighting-type moves. Furthermore, it's entirely immune to Dragon-type attacks. It was definitely meant to be a Dragon killer.
5 Flying - 3 Resistances, 1 Immunity
The Flying-type, which only has three Pokemon within it that are pure-Flying (Tornadus, Rookidee, and Corvisquire), ties with Fairy for resistances and immunities. Flying has three resisted types and a single immunity. It will resist Fighting-, Grass-, and Bug-type moves. Additionally, Ground-type moves will have no effect on Flying-type Pokemon.
This is of course, under normal circumstances. There are a variety of items and moves that will "ground" Flying-type Pokemon, making them vulnerable to the Ground-type.
4 Ghost - 2 Resistances, 2 Immunities
If you like Flying and Fairy Pokemon because they are completely immune to another type, consider the Ghost-type. This spooky and unusual type doesn't just have two resistances — Bug-type and Poison-type moves — it's also completely immune to two different types.
Normal-type and Fighting-type moves will have zero effect against Ghost-type Pokemon. Some species that pair Ghost with another type that has an immunity, like Drifloon (Ghost/Flying) will have an immunity to three whole types. Now, that's overpowered.
3 Poison - 5 Resistances, 0 Immunities
Some fans may be surprised to see Poison so high on this list. At face value, it doesn't seem like it should resist more than other types like Rock or Ground do, but it does. Poison has a total of five resistances, which is very good. Poison types will resist Fighting-, Bug-, Grass-, Fairy-, and Poison-type moves.
It also only has two weaknesses — Ground and Psychic. Defensively, it's a great type. It's a smart strategy to inflict poison on a foe and then resist more than a quarter of the types, outlasting them while the poison status slowly chips away at their health.
2 Fire - 6 Resistances, 0 Immunities
In second place for the most resistances is the very popular Fire type, which resists a fantastic six types. It resists Fairy-, Ice-, Steel-, Grass-, Fire-, and Bug-type moves.
Having so many resistances might make one think that a Fire-type starter would be the best choice of the three, but unfortunately, Fire is weak to the very common Water, Ground, and Rock, meaning it'll go down quickly to both Surf and Earthquake.
1 Steel - 10 Resistances, 1 Immunity
The reigning ruler of type resistances is the super-defensive Steel-type, which boasts a whopping ten resistances. This means it resists more than half of all the types, plus it has complete immunity to Poison-type moves.
Steel's long list of resistances includes Bug-, Dragon-, Flying-, Grass-, Ice-, Normal-, Psychic-, Rock-, Fairy-, and Steel-type moves. Before Generation VI, Steel-types were even more insane, resisting Dark and Ghost, bringing the total to twelve resistances and an immunity.