Pokemon GO: Every type's weakness

Pokemon GO shares the rock-paper-scissors nature of the mainline series when it comes to combat, but it can be quite tricky to remember all of the elemental type advantages with so many types in play at once.

Niantic has fortunately provided a helpful article on its official Pokemon GO site to help its players remember what weaknesses and resistances are out there in the game.

Since the game's inclusion of the latest Fairy-type Pokemon and moves, Pokemon GO is now up-to-date with its type effectiveness alongside the current titles in the franchise, such as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

Super-effective damage is extremely vital to trainers' combat capabilities, as taking advantage of type weaknesses is a core concept of battles in Pokemon GO.

Pokemon GO: Type effectiveness chart

Pokemon mobile game (Image via Niantic) Type Weakness chart (Image via Niantic)

Some of the Type weaknesses in Pokemon GO are straightforward and quite easy to remember, such as the core weaknesses of the Fire, Water, and Grass types. The formula is very simple: Fire beats Grass, Grass beats Water, and as expected, Water beats Fire.

However, it becomes complex when considering the less straightforward types like Dragon, Ghost, Fairy, Poison, or Dark-types. Thanks to Niantic's Pokemon weakness chart, as well as several produced by the Pokemon community on sites like Bulbapedia, these type advantages and disadvantages can be easily referred back to.

Breaking down this chart, the X-axis represents defending from a given move, while the Y-axis represents attacking with a particular move type.

Green circles indicate super-effective damage, whereas red triangles indicate resistance to damage, and empty spaces indicate standard damage. Lastly, the black X in some places on the grid indicates immunity to damage from that particular move type.

In written form, the type weaknesses break down as such (excluding resistance/immunity):

Normal-type: Weak to Fighting-type moves.
Fire-type: Weak to Water-, Ground-, and Rock-type moves.
Water-type: Weak to Grass- and Electric-type moves.
Grass-type: Weak to Fire-, Ice-, Poison-, Flying-, and Bug-type moves.
Electric-type: Weak to Ground-type moves.
Ice-type: Weak to Fire-, Fighting-, Rock-, and Steel-type moves.
Fighting-type: Weak to Flying-, Psychic-, and Fairy-type moves.
Poison-type: Weak to Ground- and Psychic-type moves.
Ground-type: Weak to Water-, Grass-, and Ice-type moves.
Flying-type: Weak to Electric-, Ice-, and Rock-type moves.
Psychic-type: Weak to Bug-, Ghost-, and Dark-type moves.
Bug-type: Weak to Fire-, Flying-, and Rock-type moves.
Rock-type: Weak to Water-, Grass-, Fighting-, Ground-, and Steel-type moves.
Ghost-type: Weak to Ghost- and Dark-type moves.
Dragon-type: Weak to Ice-, Dragon- and Fairy-type moves.
Dark-type: Weak to Fighting-, Bug- and Fairy-type moves.
Steel-type: Weak to Fire-, Fighting- and Ground-type moves.
Fairy-type: Weak to Poison- and Steel-type moves.

It will likely take plenty of referencing and practice to keep many type advantages in mind, but fortunately for trainers, these resources are readily available.

Check out our other Pokemon GO guides:

Ditto disguises || Armarouge vs Ceruledge in Pokemon GO: Who should you evolve Charcadet into? || Is the Wonder Ticket worth it in Pokemon GO World of Wonders? || GO Battle League World of Wonders || Buddy evolution Adventure Together guide || Best Fast Attacks in Pokemon GO || Sierra counters || Cliff counters || Arlo counters || Giovanni counters