Pokémon Type Chart — Complete Effectiveness Reference

01At a glance

The type chart governs how every offensive interaction in Pokémon resolves. A move's type is matched against the defender's type(s), producing a multiplier from 0× (immunity) up to 4× (dual super-effective).

Every gen since Gen 6 has used the same 18-type chart. The most recent structural change was in 2013 when Gen 6 added Fairy and removed two of Steel's defensive resistances; the chart has been stable since.

02The 18 types

The franchise has 18 elemental types. Most Pokémon have a primary type plus an optional secondary type; moves have exactly one type each.

Above: the 18 standard types plus the Stellar Tera type (Gen 9 only, exclusive to Terastallization). Each colour matches the canonical type colour used across competitive Pokémon — these colours are inherited from Game Freak's in-game UI and are universal across Smogon and VGC.

03Effectiveness math

The chart produces a multiplier between 0 and 4 inclusive. The full computation: look up each defender type, multiply the attack's effectiveness against that type, then multiply the attack's damage by the result.

Single-type defender

A move's effectiveness against a single-type defender is the type chart cell value: 0×, 0.5×, 1×, or 2×.

Dual-type defender

A move's effectiveness against a dual-type defender is the PRODUCT of its effectiveness against each type:

• 2 × 2 = 4× — "double super-effective". Common against (e.g.) Bug moves on a Grass/Flying defender, where Bug is super-effective on both halves.
• 2 × 1 = 2× — standard super-effective.
• 2 × 0.5 = 1× — neutral despite one super-effective entry.
• 0.5 × 0.5 = 0.25× — "double-resisted".
• 2 × 0 = 0× — immunity wins. Even with a super-effective entry, the immunity zeros the damage.

04Offensive matchups

For each attacking type, the table below lists every defending type that it's super-effective on, resisted by, or immune to. Defenders not listed take neutral (×1) damage.

05Defensive matchups

The defensive matchup table shows each type's vulnerabilities. For dual-type Pokémon, multiply the entries from each row.

06How the chart evolved

The 18-type chart wasn't always 18. The franchise has performed two structural edits — both in their respective Gen 2 and Gen 6 launches.

Gen 6 — the defining edit

Gen 6's changes had the biggest competitive impact. Pre-Gen 6, Dragon-types had no type-level counter (only Ice was super-effective, and it required absolute coverage). Fairy provided a hard counter at the type level — walls Dragon at 0× immunity AND hits Dragon for super-effective damage.

The Steel resistance edits were equally consequential. Pre-Gen 6, Ghost-type wallbreakers (Gengar, Aegislash) struggled against Steel walls; Dark-type Knock Off was less universal. Gen 6 made Steel neutral against both Ghost and Dark, opening the offensive type bracket significantly.

07Ability-based type modifications

Several abilities modify the type chart at runtime — granting immunities, changing the user's type, or modifying outgoing damage.

08Move-based type modifications

Moves can modify the chart in four ways: changing the user's type, changing the target's type, removing immunities, or providing temporary type cover.

09Common misconceptions

Several frequently-repeated claims about the type chart are wrong. The corrections below are based on engine behaviour, not folklore.

• "Levitate makes the user immune to all Ground moves" — almost true, but with caveats. Thousand Arrows hits Levitate users despite the immunity. Smack Down grounds the target, removing Levitate's immunity for the rest of the match.
• "Steel-types resist all status conditions" — wrong. Steel-types are immune ONLY to poison (and Toxic). Burn, paralysis, sleep, freeze can all afflict Steel-types normally.
• "Fairy-types are immune to Dragon moves" — correct. Dragon does 0× damage to Fairy-types, and was the original counter-design reason for adding Fairy in Gen 6.
• "Bug is super-effective on Psychic" — correct, but rarely consequential since most Bug-type moves have low BP and few competitive Bug-types stack the matchup.
• "Ghost moves can't hit Normal-types" — correct in default cases. Mind's Eye / Scrappy users override this; Foresight reveals the target.
• "Steel resists Ghost and Dark" — true in Gen 1-5, FALSE in Gen 6+. The resistances were removed in the Gen 6 type chart edit.
• "Stellar Tera is a 19th type with full chart entries" — wrong. Stellar exists ONLY as a Tera Type; it has no defensive entries in the chart and is purely an offensive boost mechanic.
• "Tera Type changes the chart for the rest of the match" — partially correct. Tera changes the affected Pokémon's type for defensive calculations (and its STAB rules), but the chart itself is unchanged. Other Pokémon's typings are not affected.

10Where to go from here

The type chart is the foundation of every offensive interaction. The pages below cover the layers built on top of it.

• Damage calculation — Damage Formula covers how the type multiplier combines with base power, attack stats, and other modifiers to produce the final hit number.
• Status conditions — Status Conditions covers paralysis, sleep, freeze, burn, poison and confusion (independent of type).
• Tera Type — Gen 9 — Scarlet & Violet covers Terastallization, including how Tera Type interacts with the chart.
• Live data — Moves Index filterable by type. Pokémon Index filterable by typing.
• Glossary — every term used above is defined in the Competitive Glossary.