Pokemon Types and Type Chart: Complete Matchup Reference

The type system is the mechanical backbone of every Pokemon battle — the set of 18 elemental categories that determines whether an attack hits for double damage, half damage, or nothing at all. Grasping the full matchup chart is non-negotiable for competitive play and makes a meaningful difference in casual playthroughs too. This page covers every type, the logic behind immunities and resistances, dual-typing interactions, and the historical changes that shifted the meta across generations.

• Definition and Scope
• Core Mechanics or Structure
• Causal Relationships or Drivers
• Classification Boundaries
• Tradeoffs and Tensions
• Common Misconceptions
• Checklist or Steps
• Reference Table or Matrix

Definition and Scope

Every Pokemon and every damaging move carries a type — one of 18 categories recognized in the main series as of Generation VI (The Pokemon Company, Kalos type introduction, 2013). Before Generation II, the system held only 15 types; Steel and Dark were added in Gold and Silver, and Fairy arrived in X and Y. The type of a move is compared to the type(s) of the target to produce a damage multiplier.

That multiplier is the heart of the system. A "super effective" hit lands at 2× normal damage. A "not very effective" hit lands at 0.5×. An immune target takes 0× — a complete block. These multipliers apply at the calculation level, before other modifiers like held items, Abilities, weather, or stat stages enter the picture.

The scope extends beyond offense. A Pokemon's own typing determines which incoming attack types it resists, is vulnerable to, or is immune from. A Steel-type Pokemon carries 12 resistances or immunities, making it the most defensively diverse single type in the game (Bulbapedia, Steel type). That asymmetry between offense and defense is what gives the system much of its strategic texture.

Core Mechanics or Structure

Damage multipliers work on a straightforward scale: 4×, 2×, 1×, 0.5×, 0.25×, and 0×. The extreme values — 4× and 0.25× — only appear when a Pokemon has two types and both interact with the incoming attack in the same direction.

A dual-type Pokemon multiplies the two relevant modifiers together. A Charizard (Fire/Flying) hit by a Rock-type move receives 2× from the Flying weakness and 2× from the Fire weakness, resulting in 4× total damage. The same Charizard is immune (0×) to Ground-type moves because of its Flying typing, canceling out the Fire-type's Ground weakness entirely.

STAB — Same Type Attack Bonus — adds a 1.5× multiplier when the move's type matches any of the attacking Pokemon's own types. A Water-type Pokemon using Surf at 1.5× STAB against a Fire/Ground type that takes 2× from Water lands a combined 3× effective multiplier before any other modifiers. STAB is not shown in the type chart; it operates separately but compounds with type effectiveness in every damage formula.

Immunities are categorically different from resistances. A 0× immunity cannot be pierced by normal means — Ground moves do not graze a Flying-type for half damage, they simply fail. Certain Abilities and moves can bypass immunities (Scrappy lets Normal/Fighting moves hit Ghost-types; Foresight has a similar effect), but these are explicit mechanical exceptions, not chart variations.

Causal Relationships or Drivers

The type chart is not arbitrary flavor. Game Freak has publicly described the design intent: types map loosely onto elemental logic and genre conventions drawn from rock-paper-scissors structures and Japanese RPG traditions. Fire burns Grass; Water douses Fire; Grass grows from Water — the simplest triangle in the chart.

But the chart has been revised for balance reasons, not lore ones. The most significant historical adjustment came in Generation II, when Steel and Dark were introduced specifically to counter the Psychic type's dominance in Red and Blue. Psychic had no in-game weaknesses that functioned correctly in Generation I — the Bug-type had almost no viable Bug moves, and Ghost-type moves had a coding error that made them do zero damage to Psychic-types rather than super effective damage (Bulbapedia, Psychic type Gen I quirks). Dark was introduced as an explicit Psychic check, with complete immunity by design.

The Fairy type in Generation VI followed similar competitive logic. Dragon-type had become overwhelming, particularly in competitive formats, because only two types resisted it (Dragon and Steel) and only Ice and Dragon hit it super effectively. Fairy was designed to hit Dragon for 2× damage and be immune to Dragon-type moves, immediately reshuffling the competitive Pokemon team building calculus across every format.

Classification Boundaries

The 18 types form distinct categories, not a continuous spectrum. A move is exactly one type; a Pokemon is one or two types. There is no three-type Pokemon in the main series games, and no fractional typing exists in the base mechanics.

Moves change their effective type under certain Abilities. A Normal-type move used by a Pokemon with the Pixilate Ability becomes Fairy-type and gains a 1.2× power boost. Refrigerate converts Normal moves to Ice-type. Galvanize converts them to Electric-type. These Ability-based conversions mean the chart must be applied to the modified type, not the verified move type — a detail that trips up competitive players unfamiliar with the specific Ability interaction.

Hidden Power was a Normal-type move in Generations II through VII whose actual damage type was determined by the user's individual values (IVs). It could be any of 16 types (not Normal or Fairy), meaning the chart had to be applied dynamically based on the specific Pokemon's stats. Pokemon IV breeding guides frequently addressed Hidden Power type optimization before the move was removed from the main series in Generation VIII.

Tradeoffs and Tensions

The chart produces genuine strategic tension at every level of play. Steel is defensively extraordinary — 12 resistances and 3 immunities as of Generation VI (it lost its Poison and Dark resistances in Generation VI compared to its Generation II–V profile) — but offensively, Steel moves are resisted by Steel, Fire, Water, and Electric, four of the most common defensive types. A Pokemon built around Steel's defensive profile may struggle to do meaningful damage.

Ground has one of the best offensive profiles in the game, hitting Electric, Fire, Poison, Rock, and Steel for 2× damage. Five super effective targets is notable. But Ground is completely blocked by Flying-types and Pokemon with the Levitate Ability, and those two categories represent a large share of common team members. An entire coverage move slot may produce zero damage against a Flying-type lead.

The Electric type presents the opposite shape: excellent offense against Water and Flying (two extremely common types), but only one weakness (Ground) and no immunities on offense. It is arguably the most "clean" offensive type in the chart — the catch is that one Ground weakness is shared by nearly every Electric-type Pokemon because Ground resists and is immune to Electric, creating a type-specific vulnerability gap that opponents can reliably exploit.

Common Misconceptions

Misconception: Ghost-type moves hit Normal-types for half damage.
Correction: Normal-type Pokemon are immune to Ghost-type moves — 0× damage, not 0.5×. The reverse is also true: Ghost-types are immune to Normal-type moves. Both directions of this pairing are complete blocks.

Misconception: STAB is factored into the type chart.
Correction: STAB is a separate 1.5× multiplier applied to the attacking Pokemon based on its own type, not a property of the type matchup itself. The chart shows only move-type versus defender-type relationships.

Misconception: Poison-type moves counter Fairy-types.
Correction: Poison moves deal 2× damage to Fairy-types, which is super effective — but the misconception runs in the other direction. Fairy-type moves deal 2× damage to Poison-types. Both types have a mutual weakness to each other, not a one-sided counter relationship.

Misconception: All type immunities can be broken by Abilities.
Correction: Only specific Ability-immunity interactions exist. Scrappy bypasses Ghost immunity to Normal and Fighting. Moldbreaker and similar Abilities bypass Levitate (the Ground immunity). But Mold Breaker does not bypass type-chart immunities — a Mold Breaker Electric move still fails against a Ground immune target's Ground immunity, because the immunity comes from the chart, not the Ability.

Checklist or Steps

Type coverage assessment — process for a moveset:

Reference Table or Matrix

The table below covers all 18 types. Columns represent the defending Pokemon's type; rows represent the attacking move's type. Values: 2 = super effective (2×), ½ = not very effective (0.5×), 0 = immune (0×), blank = neutral (1×).

For dual-type Pokemon, multiply the two relevant values. Full interactivity is available at the Pokemon types and type chart page and broader Pokemon game mechanics are covered in the site index.

Source: Bulbapedia type chart, reflecting Generation VI–IX mechanics (Bulbapedia, Type). Steel's resistance to Ghost and Dark was removed in Generation VI.