Pokémon Type Calculator
Calculate type effectiveness and analyse team coverage for competitive battles
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Type Effectiveness Guide
Type effectiveness is the cornerstone of Pokémon battle strategy. Each of the 18 types has specific strengths and weaknesses against other types, creating a complex web of interactions that determines battle outcomes.
Damage Multipliers
Type effectiveness uses a multiplier system that affects the damage dealt by moves:
- Super Effective (2×): The attacking type is strong against the defending type
- Not Very Effective (0.5×): The attacking type is weak against the defending type
- No Effect (0×): The attacking type cannot damage the defending type
- Normal Damage (1×): Neither strong nor weak, standard damage
Dual-Type Interactions
When a Pokémon has two types, both types affect the damage calculation. The multipliers are multiplied together, creating these possible outcomes:
- 4× Damage: Both types are weak to the attacking type (2× × 2×)
- 2× Damage: One type is weak, the other is neutral (2× × 1×)
- 1× Damage: Both neutral, or one weak and one resistant (2× × 0.5× or 1× × 1×)
- 0.5× Damage: One type resists, the other is neutral (0.5× × 1×)
- 0.25× Damage: Both types resist the attack (0.5× × 0.5×)
- 0× Damage: One type provides immunity (0× × any multiplier)
Strategic Applications
Master trainers use type effectiveness for multiple strategic purposes:
- Team Building: Ensure your team can hit all types for at least neutral damage
- Coverage Analysis: Identify gaps where opponents might exploit your weaknesses
- Defensive Planning: Choose Pokémon that resist common attacking types in the current meta
- Move Selection: Optimise movesets to cover the widest range of threats
Common Type Combinations
Some dual-type combinations create particularly notable strengths or weaknesses:
- Steel/Fairy: Resists 10 types, only weak to Fire and Ground
- Water/Ground: Only weak to Grass (4×), resists many common types
- Rock/Flying: 4× weak to Electric, creating a major vulnerability
- Grass/Ice: Seven different weaknesses, making it defensively poor
Battle Strategy Tips
Offensive Strategy
When planning offensive moves, consider these key principles:
- Always aim for super effective hits when possible – doubling damage is significant
- Carry moves of different types to ensure good coverage
- Be aware of common dual-type combinations that might resist your attacks
- Consider STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) which provides a 1.5× multiplier
Defensive Strategy
Building defensive teams requires careful consideration of resistances:
- Steel and Fire types resist many common attacking types
- Water types provide reliable neutral or better matchups against most types
- Flying types are immune to Ground attacks, useful against physical attackers
- Fairy types resist Fighting, Bug, and Dark – common offensive types
Team Balance
Competitive teams typically aim for:
- Coverage of all 18 types with super effective moves
- Multiple Pokémon that can handle common threats
- Minimal overlapping weaknesses between team members
- At least one answer to each type’s strongest representatives
Frequently Asked Questions
Both types affect the damage calculation. The multipliers are multiplied together. For example, if a Grass/Flying Pokémon (like Tropius) is hit by an Ice move, it takes 4× damage because both Grass (2× to Ice) and Flying (2× to Ice) are weak to Ice attacks.
Some type combinations create complete immunity (0× damage). For example, Normal and Fighting moves cannot affect Ghost types at all. Even if a dual-type Pokémon has one type weak to the attack, immunity from the other type reduces damage to zero.
STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) gives a 1.5× damage multiplier when a Pokémon uses a move matching its own type. This multiplier applies alongside type effectiveness, so a super effective STAB move deals 3× damage (2× from effectiveness × 1.5× from STAB).
Steel types resist the most types (10 total), including Normal, Flying, Rock, Bug, Steel, Grass, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, and Fairy. Fire and Water types also have strong defensive profiles with multiple resistances.
Fighting and Rock moves together provide excellent neutral or better coverage against most types. Electric and Ice moves cover many common dual-type combinations effectively. Ground moves are powerful but cannot hit Flying types.
The most significant change was the addition of Fairy type in Generation VI, which is super effective against Dragon, Dark, and Fighting types. Steel types also lost their resistance to Ghost and Dark moves in Generation VI.