You’ve been there. You're staring at the screen, your Garchomp is facing down an Alolan Ninetales, and for a split second, you forget if Ground resists Ice. It doesn't. In fact, your dragon is about to get deleted by a 4x weakness.
The pokemon strength weakness table is basically the periodic table of the Nintendo world. If you don't know it, you're not just playing at a disadvantage; you're essentially playing rock-paper-scissors where you think "rock" is a marshmallow. Understanding these matchups is the difference between winning a Master Ball tier match and crying over a fainted starter.
Why the Table Still Trips Us Up
Honestly, the chart is a bit of a mess of logic and "wait, really?" moments. Some of it makes total sense. Water puts out Fire. Fire burns Grass. But then you get into the weird stuff. Why does Bug beat Dark? Most players assume it’s because bugs are "active at night," but in reality, it’s a balancing mechanic from Gen 2 that just stuck.
And don't even get me started on the Fairy type.
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Since its introduction, Fairy has basically acted as the "anti-meta" police. It exists primarily to keep Dragons from running the entire game. If you're looking at a pokemon strength weakness table in 2026, you'll see Fairy resists Fighting, Bug, and Dark while being totally immune to Dragon. It's a defensive powerhouse that only fears Poison and Steel—types that, historically, were never big offensive threats.
The Math of the Matchup
It’s not just a binary "win or lose." It’s about the multipliers.
- Super Effective: You're doing 2x damage.
- Not Very Effective: You're doing 0.5x damage.
- Immune: 0 damage. Period. Ghost doesn't care about your Normal-type moves.
Things get spicy with dual types. Take a Pokemon like Scizor. It's Bug and Steel. Fire is super effective against Bug (2x) and super effective against Steel (2x). You do the math. Scizor takes 4x damage from a single Ember. One spark and it's over. On the flip side, Scizor is a defensive god because those two types overlap to resist almost everything else.
The Most Common Misconceptions
People always mess up the "logical" ones. You'd think Poison would be strong against Water (pollution, right?), but it’s actually neutral. People also forget that Steel used to resist Ghost and Dark. That changed years ago, but I still see veteran players switching their Metagross into a Shadow Ball thinking they’re safe. They aren't.
Psychic and Dark: The Mind Games
Psychic was the king of Gen 1 because it had almost no weaknesses. Now? It’s arguably one of the hardest types to use. It’s weak to Bug, Ghost, and Dark. Dark is the big one here. Dark is completely immune to Psychic moves. If you're running a pure Psychic attacker and the opponent brings in a Tyranitar, you literally cannot touch them with your primary STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) moves.
The Rock vs. Ground Confusion
Is there anything more confusing than the difference between Rock and Ground?
Probably not.
They feel like the same thing. They aren't.
Electric moves have zero effect on Ground types. But Rock types? They take normal damage from Electric. Meanwhile, Rock types resist Fire, but Ground types don't. Ground types actually beat Fire types. It’s a subtle distinction that loses people games every single day in the VGC (Video Game Championships).
Leveraging the Table for Competitive Play
If you want to actually win, you need to stop looking at the pokemon strength weakness table as a list of things to avoid and start looking at it as a roadmap for "coverage."
Coverage is the art of giving your Pokemon moves that hit the things they are weak to. For example, a Water type like Starmie is weak to Grass. So, you give it Ice Beam. Now, when a Grass type switches in to "counter" you, they get hit with a super-effective Ice move.
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Terastallization: The 2026 Wildcard
We can't talk about matchups anymore without mentioning the Tera mechanic. It effectively allows you to throw the entire pokemon strength weakness table out the window for one turn. You have a Flying type weak to Electric? You "Tera" into a Ground type. Now, that Thunderbolt that was going to knock you out does zero damage.
It makes the game feel like a high-stakes poker match. You aren't just playing the types on the screen; you're playing the types your opponent might become.
Actionable Strategy for Your Next Battle
Stop trying to memorize the whole 18x18 grid at once. It’s too much. Instead, focus on these three pillars:
- Memorize the Immunities first. They are the only "hard" stops in the game. Ground vs. Electric, Fairy vs. Dragon, Steel vs. Poison, Ghost vs. Normal/Fighting, and Dark vs. Psychic.
- Identify your 4x weaknesses. Check your team right now. Do you have two or more Pokemon weak to the same thing? If you have a Gyarados and a Pelipper, a single Jolteon is going to sweep your entire squad with one Electric move.
- Prioritize Steel and Fairy. Defensively, these are the best types in the game. If you're building a team and you don't have a way to resist Dragon or Fairy moves, you're going to have a bad time.
Check your current roster against a digital calculator to see where your "defensive holes" are. Most players lose because they have three Pokemon weak to Rock and don't even realize it until a Stealth Rock or a Stone Edge ruins their day. Fix the gaps, learn the immunities, and stop treating Rock and Ground like they're the same thing.