Weaknesses that don't make sense

[Xtacy]

We all know fire scorches steel, and water turns the ground into mud, but I thought it'd be interesting to list weaknesses that are odd than try to explain them..

I'll start off: Psychic, Weak against bug.

Anyone care to add more or take a shot at explaining this? Maybe bug types are so simple minded that complex psychic attacks don't have as strong an effect?

[Lord Jaws]

Thats the general idea I think. Although I dont think Dark should be completely immune to Psychic, just make Psychic NVE against Dark.

[Yumecosmos]

Well, considering I don't know anyone with actual psychic powers, that theory is a little hard to test ^_~
And why is psychic strong against poison? That one I really don't get.

[Happy Dude]

And how is leaf super effective against ground.

You'd think the leaves would bounce of.Try throwing a leaf at a rock and see what happens.

[SleepyGomamon]

Well....grass against ground and rock makes some sense, given that plants bore into the soil and stones and can break them.
But yeah, anything involving psychic, dragon, dark and poison are hard to test.

[kohei]

Ground against Steel. Whats up with that?

[Lord Jaws]

Think of it this way. Building Vs Earthquake, who would win? XD

Help at all?

[Lucifer]

And why is psychic strong against poison? That one I really don't get.

Probably something to do with psychic waves causing explosions within Poison-types I'm guessing (due to all the chemicals and gases in monsters like Weezing and Muk).

And yeah, I agree with the Bug > Psychic explanation. Although it would've made more sense to have psychic attacks be NVE against Bugs as well as psys being weak against them.

Dragon against Dragon. Now there's a difficult one to test out in reality. :bandit:

[squiq]

Well, considering I don't know anyone with actual psychic powers, that theory is a little hard to test ^_~
And why is psychic strong against poison? That one I really don't get.

Psychics can detect poison, thus making it ineffective against them? Although that doesn't really explain why psychic is effective against poison, just the opposite x_X

[Porygon]

Mwar, psychic abilities are all about the mind… perhaps a bug's mind is too darn tiny to be affected by Psychic abilities, and as such would have an advantage.

But that would be resistance, mwar, wouldn't it? O_O

[kohei]

Think of it this way. Building Vs Earthquake, who would win? XD

Help at all?
But arn't most buildings concrete? I mean, they do have steel to reinforce it's foundations, but....

[Usohachii_Pot]

Rock, weak against Ice. Water, weak against Grass. How does that work?

[nickw1101]

it works like this,

in the scientific world, Rocks get water in the cracks of tehm, and when it freezes it starts to crack the rock (hope that helped)

And water and grass, i think its because the water makes the plant stronge r by making its plant components grow ^_^

[ryan]

can anybody explain why fighting is weak to flying?? it's like "hey i'm a ninja! o crap! a pidgeon!!!!!" *dies* that makes no sense to me...

[nickw1101]

sure it does, the lfying nature of the pokemon puts it out of reach of the figihting pokemon, allow it "free" shots a tehe fighting pokemon ^_^

[ryan]

bulllllllllcrap. not with moves like "high jump kick" and besides... real fighters cary ninja stars and poison darts... immagine this... ryu from street fighter against big bird from seasame street... are you going to tell me that big bird has an advantage??? i don't think so!

[Porygon]

Mwar, Big Bird is a pansy. No comparison.

[vonboy]

why is fire weak against rock? i thought heat would melt the rovk into magma/lava, or are the fire attacks not hot enough?

[Lord Jaws]

Yes thats why.

~Filler

[Nicks]

How is Fire good against Bug type? accept of they might not have any hair leftXD

[MewthreeXL]

Try setting a bug on fire.You'll see.

[Lucifer]

Psychics can detect poison, thus making it ineffective against them? Although that doesn't really explain why psychic is effective against poison, just the opposite x_X

Poison is neutral against Psychic. ;)

[Yumecosmos]

Really? Because when I use Confusion on a tentacruel it's super-effective, and I'm pretty sure Psychic isn't strong against water...

I think you guys are right about the psychic vs. bug. Makes sense to me. It's probably the same principle that makes psychic weak to rock. You can't really confuse a rock.

As for the flying vs. fighting thing... come on, big bird is not a fair representative for the flying type. You might as well say Barney is a dragon type. x_x

[Kyle_Katarn]

XD

What I really dont get is how Ground is SE against ghost

[ryan]

Really? Because when I use Confusion on a tentacruel it's super-effective, and I'm pretty sure Psychic isn't strong against water...

As for the flying vs. fighting thing... come on, big bird is not a fair representative for the flying type. You might as well say Barney is a dragon type. x_x
psychic is super effective on poison, but i'm not sure if poison attacks are weak on psychic pokemon... i'd have to look that up (but i'm too lazy). and i'd still like somebody to offere a better explanation as to why flying is super effective on fighting other than they can get out of range... that would hold true for every type pretty much... the big bird thing was to point out that fighters are much cooler than birds and should therefore not be weak to them...

[MewthreeXL]

Psychic types are not weak against poison.It's the other way around.It only does a lot
of damage to them because most psychic types have low defense.

Really? Because when I use Confusion on a tentacruel it's super-effective, and I'm pretty sure Psychic isn't strong against water...

I think you guys are right about the psychic vs. bug. Makes sense to me. It's probably the same principle that makes psychic weak to rock. You can't really confuse a rock.

As for the flying vs. fighting thing... come on, big bird is not a fair representative for the flying type. You might as well say Barney is a dragon type. x_x

It's only SE against Tentacruel because of it's poison attribute.
Psychic types are not weak to Rock types.They are weak to:Bug,Dark,and Ghost.

What I really dont get is how Ground is SE against ghost

Ground is not SE against Ghost.Back in the R/B/Y days,it was SE against Gastly/Haunter/Gengar because of their Poison attribute.It's not anymore because
of the Levitate ability.

[Yumecosmos]

Psychic types are not weak against poison.It's the other way around.It only does a lot
of damage to them because most psychic types have low defense.

It's only SE against Tentacruel because of it's poison attribute.


Um... that's what I was trying to say ^_^ Cause I thought someone said psychic is neutral against poison. Maybe I misread that, though.

Psychic types are not weak to Rock types.They are weak to:Bug,Dark,and Ghost.


Hehe... my bad, I was thinking psychic attacks were weak against rocks, but I got that mixed up with steel. I always get those two mixed up... Yeesh, I'm such a noob. Gomen ne for insulting your intelligence *pleasedon'teatme*

[MewthreeXL]

Not meant as an insult.I didn't mean to sound harsh.I apologize if I offended you.

Psychic types are not weak to Steel,either.Steel are resistant to Psychic types,this
doesn't mean that they can't damage them,it's just not very effective.

-1x= is how the damage is calculated,I think.

[Yumecosmos]

No offense taken ^_^ I just opened my mouth when I shouldn't have.

Anyway, I think I was just getting the terminology mixed up. I meant resistance but I said weakness. ^_^; Well, I don't claim to be the brightest crayon in the box. Thanks for correcting me, though.

Wait a minute, though. Wouldn't -1x damage be healing them? (But I flunked out of algebra, so don't trust my judgement on that one...)

[Xtacy]

About the flying-fighting thing, there is no better explanatin than the out of range thing. That's why they're not as effective. Although by that thinking Normal attacks should also be not very effective, but oh well. A Machamp's Cross Chop doesn't do much when the Pidgeot sees it coming and flies up in the air, with only a tiny scratch. Similarly a flier can annoy the heck of out of a pokemon trying to pummel it with it's fists.

bulllllllllcrap. not with moves like "high jump kick" and besides... real fighters cary ninja stars and poison darts... immagine this... ryu from street fighter against big bird from seasame street... are you going to tell me that big bird has an advantage??? i don't think so!

You don't think hi jump kick could reach a flying charizard, do you?

And anyways, throwing stars and poison darts wouldn't be fighting type attacks, would they? Anyways, weaknesses don't really go that far, in my opinion, I think they just take a general idea and make it into a weakness/resistance.

why is fire weak against rock? i thought heat would melt the rovk into magma/lava, or are the fire attacks not hot enough?

Well I'm guessing they thought "Well, should the fire attacks be not hot enough to do little to rocks, or should they be so hot that they melt them?" They obviously chose the former.

[Yumecosmos]

Maybe it's because a lot of birds and such are relatively light, so they aren't hurt as much by being thrown and stuff, and you can't really use their own force against them. Compare dropping a feather to dropping a rock.

[MewthreeXL]

No offense taken ^_^ I just opened my mouth when I shouldn't have.

Anyway, I think I was just getting the terminology mixed up. I meant resistance but I said weakness. ^_^; Well, I don't claim to be the brightest crayon in the box. Thanks for correcting me, though.

Wait a minute, though. Wouldn't -1x damage be healing them? (But I flunked out of algebra, so don't trust my judgement on that one...)
In most RPGs,it would be healing them,but Pokemon doesn't work that way.
It damages them only if they don't have an ability like Water Absorb or
Volt Absorb or Flash Fire.

Notice that a pokemon that doesn't have those abilitys,if they are of that type, will be damaged.

Example:When Blastoise is hit by Surf,it will be damaged because it
doesn't have the Water Absorb ability.

[Yumecosmos]

Oh. I got it. ^_^ I was just thinking from a general math sense, since multiplying by -1 would give negative damage, which I thought would be healing... Gah, the Pokemon battle formula is so confusing. I don't even dare go into DV's and such...
Well, after this, I'm definitely gonna go study up those type advantages again. Must learn them! Thanks again for all the answers!

[MewthreeXL]

It's okay.Algebra is hard for a lot of people.

I might be on genius status,I've just never been tested.

All martial arts aren't just defensive,some are offensive.Hit a bird with a fist
instead of trying to throw it,then watch what happens.Purely hypothetical.
Animal abuse is wrong.

I think the reason Fighting attacks are SE against Rock types is because
it is easy for an experienced martial artist to break a rock.

[Lucifer]

Um... that's what I was trying to say ^_^ Cause I thought someone said psychic is neutral against poison. Maybe I misread that, though.

I said Poison is neutral against Psychic, not the other way round. :pirate:

[chaosispower22]

why ISNT water weak against ice?

[Hungry Homer]

I recken its weird how grass is super effective against rock types.

[Stacee]

The vines may intiwine with the rocks???

[Xtacy]

I recken its weird how grass is super effective against rock types.

Someone tried to explain that already a while ago:

grass against ground and rock makes some sense, given that plants bore into the soil and stones and can break them.

why ISNT water weak against ice?

Well you can freeze water, but water can also melt ice, so I guess they cancel each other it.


I think the problem with Pokemon weakness thinking is that the developers varied between long-term real life stuff to every day stuff. For instance, fire does no damage to a rock if you went outside and did it right now. That's an everyday-taken weakness. However water pressure if strong enough can break rocks. But it's not an everyday thing because if you throw some water on a rock right now nothing will happen. That's why some weaknesses may seem odd (other than the ones which are downright odd anyways..)

[♥Naomi♥]

i dont get why dragon is weak aginst ice,i get how they are weak aginst dragons though because if you saw dragons-a fantasy made real on animal planet you'ed know i just dont get why they are weak aginst ice

[Lord Jaws]

Id say the Ice > Dragon thing is for lack of a better option. And for MewthreeXL and Yumecosmos, the damage multipliers are as follows:

If the attack is strong against:

Both Types of the Defending Pokemon = 4x Damage
One Type of the Defending Pokemon and Neutral to the Other = 2x

Neutral to Both Types = 1x

If the attack is NVE (Not very effective) against:

Both Types of the Defending Pokemon = 0.25x Damage
One Type of the Defending Pokemon and Neutral to the Other = 0.5x

And finally, if the attack is Super Effective against one type and NVE against the other = 1x Damage

No negatives involved, just reductions.

[MewthreeXL]

Oh,thanks.I had forgotten.

I prefer fractions to decimals.

[kohei]

i dont get why dragon is weak aginst ice,i get how they are weak aginst dragons though because if you saw dragons-a fantasy made real on animal planet you'ed know i just dont get why they are weak aginst ice

I guess to the devolper, dragons=reptiles, and so they are weak to the cold.

[Yumecosmos]

Honestly, it was probably because dragon type needed another weakness besides just dragon. Or else they'd have kind of a monopoly, right?

[Lord Jaws]

Perhaps, but Kohei's theory is a good one, seeing as dragons are related to lizards (not in real life duh).

And MewthreeXL, its easier in terms of damage calculation to have decimals y'know. If they were fractions youd have to convert them anyway to do the damage calc.

[Doomhanger]

In a galaxy far far away...

back in the days of R/B/Y, phsicic pokemon were unstoippable, with Zam being the best example. Very high speed, and High Sp Attack. There were hardly any pokemon who could stand up to the phsicic types (Beedrill dies before attacking) and megahorn did not exist.

Something had to be strong against phsicic, so they chose bug, but the stupid Nintendo game designers didnt create any GOOD bug pokemon. Then all the other colour versions were made, and the popularity of phsicic pokemon diminished, but are still quite powerful.

With dark being the type that phycic could not touch, is probably the way of the Nindento developers making the phsicic pokemon seem less godlike. (There are also heaps of counter nowadays)

[Lord Jaws]

Not only did that have nothing to do with the topic, it was completely old information as well. <_<