Route 2: Trainer's School
Good morning, night, or mid-day to you. Welcome to the trainer’s school. After walking down Route 1, there is so much to see and so much to learn. There are many different sizes and many different kinds of Pokemon. You might encounter multiple birds, rats, and plants. Although they can look vastly different, they are all closely related by their Type. Every Pokémon has a type; some even have two. This is the backbone of everything around us. As a recap, there are currently 18 types: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, Steel, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, Dark, and Fairy. All unique and each typing might have some advantages. In terms of battling, each move has a type, just like Pokemon. Each Pokemon typing has strengths and weaknesses to move types. These can come as "super effective" or do 2x damage, "not very effective" or 1/2x damage, or even "does not effect" or 0x. Starting with the simpler two, most Pokemon types are super effective toward at least one type (with the exception I'll go over after). An example of this is the Fire type moves. This move type is strong towards three types: grass, steel, and ice type Pokemon. These make a lot of sense in the real world; heat melts both ice and steel/metal while fire burns grass. Now in the reverse, fire is "not very effective" to fire, water, rock, and dragon. Some reasons for these can be easily understood in nature like with fire being extinguished by water so it doesn't do much, fire can't beat fire, and rocks prevent fire from spreading. Now with dragons, we can use the idea that dragons are able to breathe fire and tend to live in areas surrounding in heat so fire wouldn't affect it well. In the Pokemon community, we come up with "logical" reasonings for why Pokemon types are weak or strong versus certain move types. If you want to check it out, click this link to ScreenRant.
As I mentioned earlier, most types are super effective against at least one other type. If you had to guess, out of all 18 types, which one might it be? If you said 'Normal,' you would be correct. The Normal type is considered the 'basic' type because it only deals neutral damage to everything. Think of it as a normal animal in a world full of elements, magic, and mythical creatures.
So far, I've only mentioned Pokemon with single types. You know what they say? What's better than one? TWO! For dual-type Pokemon, it gets a bit interesting. It's like a math equation. Let's take Fire as an example again. If I use a Fire move on a Bug/Grass-type Pokemon, since Fire is super effective against both Bug and Grass types, it will be 4x effective (2x • 2x). Now, let a Fire-type move attack a Water/Dragon type; this will only be 1/4x effective (1/2x • 1/2x). With this understanding of type advantages and disadvantages, it gives you the upper hand in any battle you take on. But hold on, didn't I mention there are moves that "do not affect"? In Pokemon, there are a total of 8 immunities: Electric to Ground, Poison to Steel, Ghost to Normal, Normal to Ghost, Fighting to Ghost, Ground to Flying, Psychic to Dark, and Dragon to Fairy. Here are some quick explanations for each of these:
Electric to Ground: soil grounds out electricity
Poison to Steel: Diseases have absolutely no effect on inorganic material.
Ghost to Normal: A ghost can't physically interact with a the normal world
Normal to Ghost: A normal being can't touch a ghost
Fighting to Ghost: Brute strength doesn't work since you can't touch a ghost
Ground to Flying: Flying objects are not touching the floor, therefore cannot be affected.
Psychic to Dark: Psychic: The fear of darkness cannot be conquered with positive thoughts alone.
Dragon to Fairy: Magic defeats mythical creatures in fairytales.
In the case of dual-type Pokémon, even if one of their types is weak to a particular move, they can still be immune to it. A great example is the Ground/Flying type Pokémon. Normally, Electric moves are super effective against Flying types, but because this Pokémon is also a Ground type, it becomes immune to Electric moves (2x • 0x = 0).
That concludes our discussion on Pokémon types for today! Next week, we'll dive into the first hurdle on the path to becoming a Pokémon Master: the Pokémon Gym. Until then, keep on grinding! See you soon!
Hi Gedle, First of can I just say I am impressed with the format of your blog. Reading it I felt as if I was a student attending class at the trainer school. Pokémon is one of my favorite games, along with Legends Of Zelda. I have bought and played every game that has been released since I first played. The first Pokémon game that I played was Heart Gold/Soul Silver. You are analyzing this video game very well, while I know most of what is being stated , it felt like a great refresher on the game mechanics. I look forward to what you put next.
ReplyDeleteGedle, when I saw your blog title on the list, I immediately clicked. I grew up playing this game and just loved it; in fact, my boyfriend is currently fixing and customizing a Gameboy for me so I can play a Leaf Green cartridge we found at the swap meet! Your breakdown of the move/Pokemon types was very well done, and I thought it was a perfect introduction for someone who has never played the games or watched the show/movies. I thought your opening of setting it up as though we were at a training (reference to gyms in game?) was really fun, and your way of explaining the rules was filled with just enough detail. Your style of writing reminded me of how board game and card game guides are structured: accessible, concise, and clear. Great post, and I look forward to reading more from you.
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