Type advantages and disadvantages are a major part of Pokémon, but some interactions between types are harder to explain than others. With so many types to keep track of it seems inevitable that some of their relationships might make less sense than others. However, even the stranger type matchups are an important part of strategy in Pokémon.
Pokémon has 18 types, with every move having a type, and every individual Pokémon having one or two as well. When a move is super effective against a Pokémon, it does double damage, or quadruple if it’s super effective against both of a Pokémon’s types. Ineffective moves are the opposite, having their damage halved or even quartered. Even further, some types of moves will deal no damage at all to certain types of Pokémon. Some Pokémon only have one weakness, so mastering these type relationships are vital for any player.
While most type relationships in Pokémon make sense on some level, like Fire being weak to Water, there are some that are more puzzling at first glance. However, even the weirder relationships between types are important to know because they’re just as effective as the more obvious ones. Even if they don’t always make sense, they’re just as important to commit to memory.
Bug-Types In Pokémon Somehow Resist Fighting-Type Moves
Pokémon‘s Bug-types are among the most interesting and creative designs in the series. The fact that they are super-effective against the popular Dark and Psychic-types is another point in their favor. However, one of the Bug-types’ biggest advantages is also easily their most puzzling. For some reason, Bug Pokémon are resistant to Fighting-type moves. While Pokémon designs have evolved since Generation 1, this odd relationship remains.
Fighting-types are most commonly associated with martial arts of various styles, with moves such as Karate Chop and Low Sweep. The reason for Bug-types being resistant to Fighting moves is quite the mystery. After all, people swatting bugs with their bare hands is a common media trope, so if anything, one would expect Bug Pokémon to be weak against Fighting-types. Instead, they are able to shrug off such attacks much easier than most. The most reasonable explanation would be that the unusual physiology of most Bug-type Pokémon makes it harder to fight them with traditional martial arts, but even that explanation is something of a stretch. However, it’s the closest thing to a rational reason one can think of for this odd circumstance.
It may make less sense than Dialga and Palkia’s Origin Formes in Legends: Arceus, but Bug Pokémon only take half damage from Fighting-type moves. Considering that Fighting-type is both popular and is super effective against a good variety of types, this gives Bug-types their own place in Pokémon‘s metagame. Even though Bug’s resistance to Fighting moves is inexplicable, it does a lot to help them become a stronger choice in battle.
Ghost Pokémon Should Not Be Weak To Dark-Type Moves
The introduction of the Dark type in Pokémon Gold and Silver helped to give the series a much-needed rebalancing. Most prominently, it provided a weakness for the incredibly dominant Psychic type, as well as the Ghost type, whose only other weakness was itself. The Dark type may be best known for providing a weakness to the previously dominant Psychic Pokémon of Generation 1, but its confusing advantage over Ghost-types is equally noteworthy.
Both Ghost-type and Dark-type are associated with nighttime and darkness, so one would assume that they would be somewhat symbiotic rather than one having a specific advantage over the other. As a result, one would believe that if anything, the two of them would likely be resistant to each other due to their similar nature. However, the Dark type evolved to be more associated with dirty fighting and relentlessness rather than dark forces. Even so, it doesn’t make a lot of sense as to why a dirty fighter would have an advantage in combat over a ghost. Perhaps it could be a reference to how a person couldn’t directly fight a ghost, but even that may be reaching too far.
Even Gen 4’s changes to Ghost Pokémon’s immunities didn’t change Ghost-type’s Dark weakness. One would think that the Ghost and Dark types would work hand-in-hand, but that is not the case where type advantages and disadvantages are concerned. As it stands, Dark is Ghost’s only weakness aside from itself, making Dark’s ability to ward off both Ghost and Psychic-types its biggest strategic asset. However, there is still not a solid reason for the Dark type to have this power over Ghost Pokémon.
Steel Pokémon Still Resist Psychic Attacks
When the Steel type debuted in Pokémon Gold and Silver, it could be seen as the ultimate defensive type. While it did have its weaknesses in Fire, Fighting, and Ground, it had a resistance to 11 types of attacks. This meant that over half of the types in the game did reduced damage to Steel-type Pokémon. However, when remembering every Pokémon weakness and resistance, few are more confusing than Steel’s resistance to Psychic.
The reason why the Steel type in Pokémon has so many resistances makes sense. After all, a Pokémon made of metal would be naturally durable and harder to damage through typical means. However, a resistance to Psychic attacks is an odd choice. Psychic moves usually involve magic or mental energy, so the hard shell of a Steel-type Pokémon shouldn’t be a solid defense against it. It would actually make more sense if Psychic-type moves were super effective because of their ability to bypass such defenses. Instead, Steel-types are inexplicably shielded from Psychic attacks for some reason.
In Generation 6, Ghost-type Pokémon lost their resistances to Ghost and Dark-type attacks, presumably because they didn’t make sense. However, their resistance to Psychic attacks remained despite it being as nonsensical as the Pokémon versus Digimon debate. Even though it doesn’t make any real sense, it seems like Steel Pokémon’s resistance to Psychic-type attacks is here to stay.
With 18 types to keep track of, it was inevitable that there would be some interactions between them that made less sense than others. Even so, a couple of examples seem particularly egregious. However, Pokémon players need to learn even the strangest weaknesses and resistances, because they are just as important as the others.
