Every Pokemon Type Ranked

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best types in “Pokémon.” And we’ll be ranking them all!

Let’s get the good out of the way first - Ice-type is an incredible offensive typing. It hits a lot of common and powerful types, including Dragon, Flying, Grass, and Ground, super effectively. Additionally, their designs are quite striking. But…like real ice, Ice-types are extremely fragile. Even if they have good defense or a good secondary typing, there’s no getting around the fact that Ice is weak to some of the most common attacking types in the game, like Fire, Rock, and Fighting. Plus, it only resists itself! Even Ice’s strong offense isn’t that great, considering so many other Pokémon can learn Ice-type moves! So there’s little benefit to using an Ice-type, when you can just teach a different Pokémon an Ice move!

This type has a reputation for being weak, and it’s pretty deserved. A whopping 7 different Pokémon types resist Bug-type attacks! Additionally, while they do resist common attacking types, like Fighting, Ground, and Grass, they’re weak to common ones too. Flying, Fire, and Rock types are everywhere! Bug-types also tend to be early game Pokémon who never attain the power of other types. Bugs have gotten better of late, with newer, stronger moves and even a few powerhouse Pokémon to improve their stable. Even so, they’re still outclassed by most other types on average.

For most of the franchise, Poison has been a bottom-tier type. Despite resisting an impressive 5 different types, Poison is weak to 2 common, powerful types - Ground and Psychic. But what’s worse is that, until recently, Poison was only super-effective against Grass-types. And with Flying and Fire-types being so common, there was little reason to use Poison instead. All that changed with the introduction of Fairy-type, a strong newer type that Poison is great against! Recent buffs aside, Poison has always been a reliable type for defensive, stall strategies and chip damage with the Poison status condition. While they rarely win beauty contests, Poison-types do have their uses.

In concept, Rock-type sounds great. Although generally slow, Rock Pokémon are very physically defensive and they’re great against types like Flying, Fire, and the aforementioned Bug and Ice. It even has resistances to Normal and Fire types, among others. But, the trouble is how many types it’s weak to - five. That’s tied with another type we’ll be discussing later as the most in the entire franchise! And they’re all super common types too, like Water, Grass, Ground, and Fighting! It’s even weak to Steel, which is basically a better Rock-type! And because Rock is so often paired with Ground, it takes quadruple damage to some types! While Rock can be tough in some situations, in many cases, it’s surprisingly paper-thin.

These are just regular ol’ Pokémon. It may not be great against anything, but that can also be Normal-type’s strength. They’re only weak to Fighting-type attacks, and they’re immune to Ghost. While Ghost is also immune to Normal, and it’s resisted by defensive types like Rock and Steel, it otherwise hits everything “normally.” Despite often featuring as the weak Pokémon early on in Pokémon journeys, Normal-types also have some of the most diverse movepools in the series, often being able to learn a wide variety of attacks to be great against any type you need them to hit. So, while they’re rarely the standouts on a team, Normal-types can have a lot of versatility in supportive roles.

Out of the 3 starter Pokémon types, Grass is easily the worst. It’s tied with Rock for having the most weaknesses of any type, with 5 - and most of them are common types, like Flying, Fire, and Ice. In addition, 7 different types resist Grass-type attacks. However, compared to many of the previous types, Grass isn’t as bad, thanks to some decent resistances and the fact that it hits types like Water, Ground, and Rock super-effectively. From an aesthetic perspective, Grass also has some of the most iconic and striking designs, given that most of them are based on plants. And of course, we love all our Grass starter Pokémon.

Flying-types are very common and have been combined with every other type. Their designs take inspiration from basically every real or imagined creature with wings or that moves through the air. Additionally, they’re great against frequently seen types, namely Bug, Fighting, and Grass. While they’re weak against Rock, Ice, and Electric, Flying-types also enjoy some nice resistances and an immunity to Ground. Honestly, if we had to point to one type as the absolute middle of the road for Pokémon types, Flying-type would probably be it. It has some drawbacks, but just as many strengths.

In terms of offensive types, Ground is easily one of the best! It hits a whopping 5 types super-effectively, including bulky defensive ones like Steel, Rock, and Poison, as well as quick powerhouses like Fire and Electric. Additionally, while Ground moves can’t hit Flying-types, Ground-types are completely immune to Electric attacks, which comes in handy! However, a major drawback of Ground-types is that, in addition to many of them being slow, they’re weak to both Grass and Water, which are everywhere, as well as Ice. Regardless, Ground-types can still send shockwaves, or rather Earthquakes, through most Pokémon teams.

Introduced initially as a hard counter to the Psychic-type, Dark-types are immune to the ESP Pokémon, and hit them super-effectively. They’re also great against Ghost Pokémon. Often sporting high attack power and cool and/or sinister designs, Dark-types were once near the top of the food chain, given that their only weaknesses were the comparatively puny Bug-types, as well as Fighting-types. However, since Bugs have gotten better and with the introduction of Fairy-types, Dark Pokémon aren’t as good as they once were. Yet even if they’ve been nerfed somewhat, Dark-types remain a solid choice.

With a name like Fighting-type, it follows that these Pokémon have great physical attack strength. Frequently boasting strong moves and tough designs, Fighting Pokémon hit hard and they do so against 5 different types, including the aforementioned Dark, Normal, Rock, and Ice-types, as well as Steel. Their blows may pass through Ghosts, but Fighting-types strike most types pretty well and often have diverse move pools to deal with the ones they don’t. Sadly, Fighting is another type that fell off slightly when Fairy was introduced, now being weak to that, along with Psychic and Flying-types. They still pack plenty of punch though!

Ah, how the mighty have fallen. Once the most broken and overpowered type in “Pokémon,” the Psychic-type has gotten much weaker as time has gone on. This is primarily due to the introduction of Dark and Steel, which are immune and resistant to it, respectively. That isn’t to say Psychic isn’t still strong though. Apart from those two, only other Psychics resist it. And sure, its weaknesses to Bug, Ghost, and Dark are a problem. However, Psychic-types tend to have the highest special attack of all Pokémon. Additionally, there are many strong and legendary Psychic-types making the type quite powerful on average.

One of the main counters to Psychic-types, Ghosts hit these powerhouses super-effectively, along with themselves. In addition to making Ghosts one of only 2 types whose attacks are good against themselves, it also makes them very similar to Dark-types. However, it’s in other areas that make Ghosts better than their fellow spooky Pokémon. Ghosts are resisted by fewer types, and they’re the only type with 2 immunities, being completely unaffected by Normal and Fighting-types, whose moves are everywhere! Ghost-types often have tricky status moves, and the fact that they’re weak to other Ghosts (and Dark-types) can make them a more technical type than most. But they’re still scary-good!

As one of the 3 starter types, Fire-types are certainly one of the most popular kinds of Pokémon. Their fierce and fiery designs definitely leave an impression. Not only do they look amazing, they also hit amazingly well too, striking 4 types super-effectively, including Ice, Bug, Grass, and Steel. They’re also surprisingly good defensively, since they resist everything they’re good against, along with Fire and Fairy moves. While Fire-types are held back from the absolute top tier by their weaknesses to the common types Ground, Rock, and Water, they’re still a Pokémon type that burns brightly.

Given that the mascot of the whole “Pokémon” franchise is an Electric-type, this one is certainly in the spotlight. But Electric Pokémon are more than just the face of the franchise. Not only are most of them extremely fast, they also pack plenty of voltage! Electric attacks are fantastic against Water and Flying, which are frequently used types. And, while they may not be good against each other, or Grass or Dragon-types, they only have one weakness - Ground, which is also immune to Electric moves. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot wrong with Electric-types. There are just some types that are better than them.

Out of all the Pokémon types, Water is the most common. Water is everywhere in the Pokémon world (some have said there’s “too much”), and the glut of Water Pokémon means that there are plenty to choose from. The type itself is excellent. It only has two weaknesses, in Grass and Electric, which are easy to avoid. Meanwhile, it hits the “earthy” types Ground and Rock super-effectively, along with Fire. Its defenses aren’t half bad either, since Water Pokémon resist attacks from Ice, Steel, Fire, and other Water-types. With their ease of use and all-around strengths, Water-types may not have the power of our top 3, but any decent trainer will have one on their team!

The newest type on the block, these ethereal Pokémon haven’t been around long, but that just means they haven’t gotten a chance to be nerfed yet. Fairy-type’s only two weaknesses are Poison and Steel, which aren’t typically types that are used offensively. Fairy-type moves hit Dark, Fighting, and Dragon-types super-effectively, and they also resist these types, in the case of the former 2, or are immune, in the case of Dragon. While Fairies can’t hit their weaknesses or Fire-types very well, they’re still quite powerful offensively and they usually boast some impressive special defense. Fairy Pokémon may often be cute, but they’re also incredibly strong!

Sometimes the best defense is having the best defense! Despite the Steel-type having 3 common weaknesses in Fire, Ground, and Fighting, that barely matters since it either resists or is immune to 11 different types out of 18! That means, there’s a good chance that whatever’s thrown at a Steel-type just isn’t going to hurt much, particularly when most of them have spectacular physical defense! For most of “Pokémon”’s history, Steel’s offense wasn’t particularly good, since it was only good against Ice and Rock, 2 types that other more offensively based types hit better. However, given that it's one of only 2 types that’s good against Fairy, Steel has gotten quite the buff of late, helping these Pokémon shine nearly as much as their namesake.

This awesome type has long been at the top of Pokémon’s food chain. Not only do most of them have cool designs, most Dragons are either powerful legendaries or nearly as strong “regular” Pokémon. While they’re only super-effective against other Dragons, their overall strength and often varied movepools helps them blow away whatever’s in front of them. They even resist the trio of starter types (Fire, Water, and Grass), as well as Electric. Their only weaknesses for a long time were themselves and Ice-type, which, as we established - isn’t great. Although Fairy’s introduction has made Dragon-types not quite as overpowered, since Dragons are weak against them and Fairy can’t be hit by Dragon attacks, we’d argue that the Dragon-type is still the best one overall.

Is there a Pokémon type you’d have ranked higher? Help our list “evolve” by sharing your picks in the comments!