What is the characteristics of a pokemon that say what type it should be?

[cloa513]

Fire, water, grass, rock, fighting, poison, flying, electric types are easy to ascribe as the types of pokemon.
Dragons, psychic, are moderately defined but still need a little more precision such as reptilian suggests dragon or exists in some legend as a dragon, psychic is traditional sort of psychic powers but what are psychic and what not psychic powers?
Ground, dark, fairy, ghost, steel are the particular difficult ones.
Ground: most pokemon are on the ground and should Ground be limited to ones like animals that burrow and also pokemon that contain ground,
Dark: is it bad or dodgy for me it is like a rogue
Fairy: is cute fairy. What diffentiates it from ghost when its origin is some myth?
Ghost: I think it has once have been dead.
Steel is also a bit awkward as it is items of "steel"-armour & swords and/or all machines.


Normal- eh- can't fit in somewhere else.

 

[soulzzii]

i feel like a lot of pokemons have colors that represent their typing, or have similar color palletes to pokemons on the same typing. while lucario's blue might not represent fighting, it has an similar color pallet to the likes of machamp and poliwrath for example.

 

[cloa513]

That is if you are going in the game's conventions but what do you think make sense or is reasonable especially if you consider retyping pokemon?

 

[Corveone]

Well, I'm not sure there's a solid definition for all the types, but I'll try doing my best.

Based on what it is

Bug: The mon is a bug. Easy.
Ghost: Either a spectre without a tangible physical body, a spirit hid behind a possessed inanimated object, or a Pokémon that might still have a body but has some spiritual supernatural force around it (Golurk, Hisuian Typhlosion), usually connected to the afterlife.
Rock: Body made/partially made of rough hard minerals obtained from nature.
Steel: Same as Rock, but based on refined and polished metals. Can be actually made of steel or just have a steel armor covering its body.
Dragon: Based on dinosaurs, snakes, lizards, and other reptilians, or more literal mythical dragons. Of course ignoring things like Alolan Exeggutor wich just got the Dragon type as a joke.
Grass: Supposedly based around different plants, flowers, funguses, seeds, etc. On paper though, you might as well just pick a random animal, put a bunch of leaves somewhere on its body and call it a Grass type, so not as simple as it may seem. It can be an animal that has some plant traits.
Normal: Supposedly a mundane creature that has no special attributes... although if things like Ditto and Porygon are "Normal"...

Based on what it does

Fire: Basically any creature that's hot (literally, has insanely high body temperature) and can control and spit flames somewhere from its body.
Electric: Like Fire, anything that can control and emanate electricity from its body. Can be a random animal, object-based, or anything.
Poison: The mon is inherently poisonous/venomous.
Psychic: The mon has a natural ability to attack and perform special techniques inside or outside battle without moving a muscle, just by using the power of its mind.
Fighting: Pokémon with a natural instinct for fighting, who specialize in certain martial arts or street fight techniques. Also usually asociated with the concepts of justice, heroism, bravery, and honor.
Dark: Essentially Fighting's counterpart. It's like the Rogue/Villain type so the concept is pretty clear, just poorly translated. These are Pokémon with a natural aptitude for fighting through vile, dirty, cheap, unfair, and dishonorable tricks.
Fairy: Mostly works as the "Light" type, but it feels pretty shoehorned in various cases. Also seems related to cuteness and positive feelings.

Both/Idk

Ice: The mon is entirely/partially made of ice, or live in very cold environments and has naturally adopted Ice as an offensive element.
Water: Mon that lives in/near/under water and has the ability to control it. Mostly based on water creatures.
Flying: More vague than it seems. We may say they're Pokémon with wings, but nope, some Flying types like Drifblim or Minior don't have wings, and some Pokémon with wings like Decidueye and Volcarona aren't Flying.
Ground: Pretty vague, since plenty of Pokémon live and are found on the ground and aren't Ground type (same as it happens with Grass). Might be Pokémon with a body partially made of minerals but not as hard as Rock, might be simply animals that live in the sand or underground, or maybe in muddy areas and therefore they're allways covered in sand or mud... I mean, Mudsdale is literally just a horse, Gligar and Flygon don't even touch the ground (and for sure aren't made of ground either) so...

 

[Squirtkipfan01]

The existence of rock and ground alone make this a tough thing to figure out lol

 

[cloa513]

Thanks for your attempt to explain the thinking of the Pokemon Company but I would really your own view on what should each type especially the difference between a psychic and fairy type choice for a pokemon?

 

[Corveone]

The existence of rock and ground alone make this a tough thing to figure out lol

Rock is very straightforward though. They're made of/covered by rocks, and that's basically it. Ground is a lot more random and ambiguous.

Thanks for your attempt to explain the thinking of the Pokemon Company but I would really your own view on what should each type especially the difference between a psychic and fairy type choice for a pokemon?

What they should isn't that different from what they already are. Most types have well defined parameters that don't leave much to the imagination. Some others can't because their options would be too limited. Ground, for example, if it was exclusive to creatures that are made of soil/sand, or are somehow stick to the ground, it would be limited to species like Diglett, Baltoy, Sandygast lines, and probably not much else. But most of the time, there isn't any particular visual trait that tells us "this is a Ground type"

But whatever type certain Pokémon "should" be based on logic or any parameters isn't allways necessarily the most reasonable choice, because there are gameplay aspects that should allways take priority over that.

An obvious example is Gyarados. It is definitely a dragon, but making it Water/Dragon would have been insane, because it would have been a Pokémon with 540 BST, No weaknesses in Gen 1, and only one weakness in Gen 2-5, that you could get at level 20 by simply evolving a mon that you can find everywhere with no effort (and the point of Dragons is that they're supposed to be strong, but difficult to find and raise, and Magikarp is one of the easiest Pokémon to get). And Gyarados is already broken enough (for the in-game) as it is.

Fairy and Psychic are based on very different concepts, choosing one or the other doesn't sound difficult.

 

[Duck]

I have gone on record before saying I think ground could be scrapped from the games and merged with rock, so I agree that it isn't a particularly well defined type but type in Pokemon in general is all kinds of loosey goosey.

Some times it makes sense by itself (like say, Bug which is uniformly given to insects / arachnids), sometimes it's a conceptual link (moles live underground so mole Pokemon are ground type) and sometimes it's just whatever the design person thought was a good fit either for their aesthetic sensibilities or gameplay concerns.

For example, GF has stated that Fairies were only added since the competitive meta was a bit of a mess. Dragons needed a check, Poison needed a buff. So fairies were added.

And while the initial wave of Fairy retypes can be a bit random, from then on they mostly feel right for fairy Pokemon: they're spirits, often associated with nature in a way or another, maybe they're a bit mischievous or some kind of mythical and if all else fails, they're cutesy and girly.

Impidimp is an imp, Galarian Ponyta is a unicorn, Mimikyu is a doppelganger, Alcremie is cute. Stuff you'd expect from a loose pop culture meaning of fairy rather than any hard and fast ruling on what is and isn't a certain type.

An obvious example is Gyarados. It is definitely a dragon, but making it Water/Dragon would have been insane, because it would have been a Pokémon with 540 BST, No weaknesses in Gen 1, and only one weakness in Gen 2-5, that you could get at level 20 by simply evolving a mon that you can find everywhere with no effort (and the point of Dragons is that they're supposed to be strong, but difficult to find and raise, and Magikarp is one of the easiest Pokémon to get). And Gyarados is already broken enough (for the in-game) as it is.

I have seen people raise the argument that it's Water/Flying due to koinobori, so it might not be purely from a gameplay consideration.
I personally find that argument kinda weak considering that koinobori itself is based on the same carp to dragon legend, and that Gyarados comes from Magikarp instead of being a standalone or not coming from a direct carp.

Still, it very well could be that GF decided that this reference was good enough and went with Flying because of that instead of gameplay considerations.

 

[Palamon]

Well, hmm...

Bug: It's a type of insect, arachnid, or invertebrate. Really, there's nothing else to say.

Dark: It has to be described as a Pokemon that doesn't exactly always do something "good" (like stealing from other Pokemon) or do something that is considered "bad". Or generally be morally grey.

Dragon: Be a Dragon, or similar like creature like a kraken, leviathan, etc.

Electric: Be described to be able to wield electricity, have a motor of some kind, etc.

Fairy: Be based off of some sort of fairy, mythological creature besides a Dragon, or be fae like in general. I would say "feminine" and "pink" but, Impidimp exists, which is a masculine Fairy Pokemon.

Fighting: Has to know a type of fighting style, martial arts, or be a humanoid like creature that can be described to fight with fists or legs.

Fire: Either have fire somewhere on its body, be described to have an extremely high body temperature, or be based off of something that has the ability to wield/control fire.

Flying: Either being a bird, something that is able to fly, or some cases glide. But, honestly, Flying is just one of those extremely...vague types? I guess? I don't know.

Ghost: Either be a spirit, something that is dead, was once something else, or possessing an object.

Grass: Be a plant, type of fungi, seed, or a hybrid of an animal and a plant. Or in some cases, be an animal with plants on its body. Pretty self explanatory.

Ground: Have connection to the earth, sand, or ground in some way or be a creature that is known to burrow, dig, tunnel, etc.

Ice: be a creature that lives in a cold climate, have and be able to wield the power of ice, or be based off of something that is extremely cold.

Normal: a place-holder type, or a type for Pokemon that are just...a regular animal but with powers, or be a Pokemon that wouldn't really fit in any other type.

Poison: be or have toxins, described to be able to make people or other Pokemon within its radius sick, and in some cases, smell bad. (A lot of Poison types are described to have foul smells).

Psychic: Have psychic powers, plain and simple. And I suppose, be from another planet for alien like Pokemon, because almost all of those (except Clefairy) are partially Psychic.

Rock: be a type of rock, have or mostly be consisting of rocks on the body, or any type of mineral that is a rock/crystal, etc.

Steel: Be mostly metallic. Or be made of a type of metal/have metallic type of armor on it.

Water: Be a creature that lives near, under, or around water, be an aquatic or semi-aquatic creature. But, there are a lot of Pokemon that live in Water that aren't water type, such as Stunfisk, and I guess the Clobbopus family that are examples that contradict that statement. But, for the most part, that's what a water type mostly is.

That's all I can really think of for this. And some of these reasons may not even fit.

 

[moon]

Honestly, I think type should be decided more from what the pokemon can or should do, than their looks or analogue animal species. Obviously plants will be Grass and fish will usually be Water, but Stunfisk and Sudowoodo exist.

I think the game makers agree with me, because we have stuff like Chespin and Grookey and Rockruff.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

Normal – Pokémon that are more closer to common animals in the real world and/or Pokémon without superpowers or superpowers that don't comfortably fit in the other categories such as the ability to use Hyper Beam for example.
Fire – Pokémon that are closely associated with fire, whether they can manipulate it, can tolerate extremely hot temperatures, are extremely hot themselves like Magcargo, or are made of fire like the Magby line.
Water – Pokémon that are closely related to water, as in live in and/or around bodies of water, have the ability to manipulate water, and so on.
Grass – Pokémon that are associated with fauna in some form or fashion, have plants growing on them, made out of plant cells, and manipulate plants as weapons such as Razor Leaf, Petal Dance, Wood Hammer, and so on, and can absorb sunlight to use as a weapon (Solar Beam) or food (Synthesis).
Electric – Pokémon associated with electricity in some way, such as with the ability to generate and manipulate it.
Ice – Pokémon that are associated with the cold, have the ability to use the cold to freeze things such as with Ice Beam or cause blizzards, bring out Hail, and Pokémon that are made of ice themselves such as Avalugg for example.
Fighting – Pokémon that are associated specifically with different types of fighting styles and martial arts more so than other Pokémon.
Poison – Pokémon that are clearly toxic in some form or fashion, be it being venomous (Arbok, Seviper, Drapion, etc.), hazardous (Weezing, Garbodor, Swalot, etc.), or generally poisonous in some way (Toxicroak, Skuntank, etc.).
Ground – Pokémon that are associated with the ground, as in the live in or spend a lot of time in the ground or caves, or Pokémon that are generally rough and rugged enough to live among rough terrain.
Flying – Pokémon that are associated with wind in some form or fashion rather than just mere flight, are closer to real life birds or well-known flying creatures, and so on.
Psychic – Pokémon that have the ability to utilize telepathic powers, can read minds, predict the future, and/or Pokémon that are extremely intelligent.
Bug – Pokémon that are based on real life bugs and have characteristics similar to them.
Rock – Pokémon that are rough, rugged, such as Rhydon for example, are similar to actual rocks such as Geodude, are revived from fossils such as Aerodactyl, and so on.
Ghost – Pokémon that are like spirits, such as those with ghost-like bodies, actual spirits of deceased people such as Phantump and Yamask, or Pokémon that ae just known for being terrifying and associated with death such as Giratina.
Dark – Pokémon that would otherwise be very similar to Normal-type Pokémon, but learned how to battle using dirty tactics. Pretty much every Dark-type move except Dark Pulse is based on some cheap, underhanded tactic.
Dragon – Pokémon that are either based upon dragons directly or reptiles in some cases.
Steel – Pokémon that are rough and rugged with bodies that are tough as steel.
Fairy – Pokémon that are associated with magic and/or Pokémon that are really cute.