Knowing what your Pokémon are weak and strong against will help you become a better Pokémon trainer!
There are 18 different types of Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield, which means there is also those same 18 types of attacks in the game as well. Every Pokémon and every attack in the game has a type (some even have multiple), and different types react to certain moves a different way. Knowing these strengths and weaknesses is going to make you a better trainer and allow you to use the right attacks against the correct type of Pokémon. Here’s everything you need to know about Pokémon and attack types in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
Pokémon Sword
Welcome to the Galar region
Pokémon Sword features new Pokémon to tame and a legendary Pokémon exclusive to this version. There’ll be plenty of things for trainers to explore and do that haven’t been seen before.
Pokémon Shield
Welcome to the Galar region
Pokémon Shield features new Pokémon to tame and a legendary Pokémon exclusive to this version. Explore, discover, and catch ’em all.
Every Pokémon has a type
Every Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield has at least one of the 18 types in the game. Some Pokémon, like the Hootoot, even have two types. The entire list of types found in the game are as follows:
- Bug
- Dark
- Dragon
- Electric
- Fairy
- Fighting
- Fire
- Flying
- Ghost
- Grass
- Ground
- Ice
- Normal
- Poison
- Psychic
- Rock
- Steel
- Water
You can see what type a particular Pokémon is by looking in your Pokédex or your menu once you encountered the Pokémon in the game.
Even more importantly, every move in the game also has a type, so although you may have a Grass Pokémon like Grookey (see below), you’ll notice that the moves it knows vary by type.
Certain attack types do more damage to certain types of Pokémon, while certain others will do less. There are even some attack types that won’t affect certain Pokémon types at all.
Every type’s strengths and weaknesses
The more you can remember from the table below, the better, as it will help you know which Pokémon and which moves to use against your opponents. Here’s a quick guide on how to read this table:
- Type: The type of Pokémon/move
- Super Effective: The types of Pokémon the attack type will do double damage against
- Not Very Effective: The types of Pokémon the attack type will do half damage against
- Weak: The types of attacks that will do double damage to a Pokémon of this type
- Immune: Types that this Pokémon type is immune to — meaning they take no damage.
Using the information above and the table,e below, you can deduce everything you need to know about how each type interacts with each other. Here’s an example of how this breaks down:
- Bug attacks are super effective against Grass and Psychic-type Pokémon and will deal double damage.
- Bug attacks will do half damage to Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ghost, Steel, Fire, Dark-type Pokémon.
- Bug Pokémon are weak to Flying, Rock, Fire, and thus will take double damage from these types of attacks.
- Bug Pokémon are not immune to any damage.
| Type | Super Effective | Not very Effective | Weak | Immune |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bug | Grass, Psychic | Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ghost, Steel, Fire, Dark | Flying, Rock, Fire | None |
| Dark | Ghost, Psychic | Fighting, Dark, Fairy | Fighting, Bug, Fairy | Psychic |
| Dragon | Dragon | Steel | Ice, Dragon, Fairy | None |
| Electric | Flying, Water | Grass, Electric, Dragon | Ice, Dragon, Fairy | None |
| Fairy | Fighting, Dragon, Dark | Poison, Steel, Fire | Poison, Steel | Dragon |
| Fighting | Normal, Rock, Steel, Ice, Dark | Flying, Poison, Bug, Psychic, Fairy | Flying, Psychic, Fairy | None |
| Fire | Bug, Grass, Steel, Ice | Rock, Fire, Water, Dragon | Ground, Rock, Water | None |
| Flying | Fighting, Bug, Grass | Rock, Steel, Electric | Rock, Electric, Ice | Ground |
| Ghost | Ghost, Psychic | Dark | Ghost, Dark | Normal |
| Grass | Ground, Rock, Water | Flying, Poison, Bug, Steel, Fire, Grass | Flying, Poison, Bug, Fire, Ice | None |
| Ground | Poison, Rock, Steel, Fire, Electric | Bug, Grass | Water, Grass, Ice | Electric |
| Ice | Flying, Rock, Grass, Dragon | Steel, Fire, Water, Ice | Fighting, Rock, Steel, Fire | None |
| Normal | None | Rock, Steel | None | None |
| Poison | Grass, Fairy | Poison, Ground, Rock, Ghost | Ground, Psychic | None |
| Psychic | Fighting, Poison | Steel, Psychic | Bug, Ghost, Dark | None |
| Rock | Flying, Bug, Fire, Ice | Fighting, Ground, Steel | Fighting, Ground, Steel, Water, Grass | None |
| Steel | Rock, Ice, Fairy | Steel, Fire, Water, Electric | Fighting, Ground, Fire | Poison |
| Water | Ground, Rock, Fire | Water, Grass, Dragon | Grass, Electric | None |
How this affects Pokémon with multiple types
As I mentioned before, some Pokémon will have multiples types, and this table gets even more tricky to understand once you start looking at how interactions like that work. The good news is there’s a pretty simple way to break it down.
All modifiers for damage by a particular attack are calculated together when it comes to dealing with Pokémon that have multiple types.
For example, if you use a Flying attack against a Pokémon with both Bug and Grass types, it would do four times as much damage, since Flying attacks usually do double damage to each type.
Following in the pattern, if you were to use a Ground attack against a Pokémon with both Bug and Grass types, it would do 1/4 of the damage, since ground attack normally would do 1/2 damage to each type.
Any Questions?
Do you have any questions about how the different Pokémon types and attack types interact with each other? Let us know in the comments below!
Pokémon Sword
Welcome to the Galar region
Pokémon Sword features new Pokémon to tame and a legendary Pokémon exclusive to this version. There’ll be plenty of things for trainers to explore and do that haven’t been seen before.
Pokémon Shield
Welcome to the Galar region
Pokémon Shield features new Pokémon to tame and a legendary Pokémon exclusive to this version. Explore, discover, and catch ’em all.
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Source of the article – iMore