FIRE TYPE POKÉMON: NOT REALLY THAT NECESSARY FOR YOUR TEAM
Published: April 8th 2025
Alright so I literally just finished watching this video because it just showed up on my feed and, I'm not gonna lie, going into it I was actually super excited to hear a Pokémon youtuber with a decent viewer count talk about something I don't think I've ever heard another human being on this planet talk about which is the fact that fire type pokémon are just like. NOT AS NECESSARY for teambuilding as people think.
Now I have watched the full video and like. I'm disappointed.
Not because I thought the video was bad or that he was wrong, it's just like... I don't know how to put it but his arguments are very like. I dunno. How do I say this without sounding like a complete douche.
...casual?
Like he's not WRONG it's just that the whole video boils down to like. "Oh this gym is a fighting type gym so you don't hit them for super effective with fire type moves so fire types don't matter a lot here!" or maybe "This fire type pokémon isn't as good as the others available so it doesn't count!" which is like. No man what are you SAYING. I fucking LOVE Heatmor are you really gonna erase us HEATMOR FANS just because you can only catch it in the late game?????????????
Okay I lied that video makes me mad. As a Heatmor fan.
But as a Pokémon fan. I think that video could've gone a little deeper on the subject.
Personally I came to that conclusion for two different reasons but both around the same time. I think the first factor was me trying to learn how to play Pokémon Showdown by the very end of Gen VIII, where I'd hear that having a grass, water and fire core was like, a decent way to get a team rolling. But then it took me no longer than three seconds of teambuilding to realize that yeah no fire types are replaceable, water is supreme and grass is like. It's either this or electric cause someone's gotta take care of those water types.
Water really is one son of a bitch type huh good grief.
Second reason was the fact that I was replaying the main series games a bunch at the time (my final year of high school experience can be summed up by the fact I would bring my modded 3DS to school) and I was starting to notice a distinct lack of fire types on all my teams. But the reasons were threefold:
Fire types are really not super common in the earlier games in the series (Also Known As: the games than ran on my phone.)
I just don't like 'em that much lol
A secret third thing this whole post is going to be about.
Now don't get me wrong. It's not like I HATE EVERY SINGLE FIRE TYPE or anything, there's just not a lot of them that I like that much.
I like uh. Ninetales a little I guess. I used to be a Typhlosion guy but then I changed allegiance to the arigato nation (super obscure joke). Magcargo is funny but I've never used it I think. I used Torkoal in Emerald once it kinda stinked. Blaziken is pretty cool but I like all three Hoenn starters and I like that one the least. Same thing for Infernape except I like it a little less. Magmortar is cool. Rotom-H exists I guess. Every Gen V fire type is cool except the poor monkey. I don't care enough about the rest to really list them. This paragraph is already longer than it should've been.
Y'know looking at a list really does put into perspective how, for one of the three types you can pick from to start the game with, fire has
very few pokémon in each generation.
And yet, even with the scarcity of fire types in the older games, people will still look at you dead in the eyes and tell you you just GOTTA have one on your team. Because they've been brainwashed by BIG STARTER to think that fire types are an essential part of every pokémon team.
Brother you don't even need to use
your starter throughout the game. The problem is
YOU.
Okay but that is enough conspiracies. Let's get to the facts.
Source: I conjured it from within my dreams.
Obviously when it comes to a casual playthrough it's typical for one to try and build a team capable of hitting as many types as possible for super effective damage for that MAXIMUM VERSATILITY. If you're not doing that you're either a child with a team of 6 Mewtwos, someone abusing the fact those games are not difficult or someone doing a challenge run. In any of those cases, you don't matter and the universe will forget you once you perish.
So let's look at those offensive properties. Let's start with the types fire hits for super effective. Grass has a ton of weaknesses, fire just adds to the already large pile, making a total sum of five types grass is weak to. Okay, not that impressive. Fire is also super effective against ice which... is also kinda weak to a ton of stuff. As well as a notoriously bad defensive type so
you kinda really don't need those super effective hits anyways. Then there's bug which only has two other weaknesses (flying and rock) and this one is a little more interesting. And finally, steel, which
also only has two more weaknesses (fighting and ground.)
Alright, not a bad start. Focusing just on the super effective moves... Fire type is looking pretty decent. But take into account it also hits a good number of other types neutrally and that most fire types are very offensive mons, and you have yourself a pretty sweet deal. But here's the thing. It's not the
only type that does all that.
In fact, wanna see me kill two birds with one stone?
ENTER: THE ROCK TYPE.
Okay, I'll give you one thing. Rock
has a bunch of weaknesses. As many as grass does, in fact. But two of those overlap with fire's weaknesses (water and ground) so it's not the absolute end of the world. Also, let's be real: in a casual playthrough where you know what you're doing, you're probably going to be doing your best not to get hit with super effective moves.
But besides that? You get
pretty much the same ammount of value from rock types offensively as you get from fire types. Good against bug? Check. Good against Ice? Check. Grass types have four other weaknesses so no big loss. And as for steel?
You can literally just slap Earthquake or some fighting type moves on pretty much anything. And that's not even considering both types are just
kinda really good to have on your team? ESPECIALLY GROUND??
And that's not even mentioning how pretty much every rock type learns Earthquake and if they don't they're fake and stupid.
And it's not like rock is the only one. Every type fire is super effective against has other weaknesses that are really useful and most likely going to be on your team. The only exception is maybe bug but. When was the last time you saw a mono bug type mon. Or one that was GOOD?
God help us against ACCELGOR.
But sure, fire has a ton of resistances, but most fire types don't even have super high defenses. And again, in a casual playthrough? It's a cool thing to have I'll admit, but you're not going to DIE from missing out on that ELUSIVE steel type resistance.
And I guess that's the point I'm trying to get across here. Are fire types bad? Nah. Not at all. You can hit most types for netural damage and it is super effective against some somewhat niche types (like all of them but grass.) But you don't
have to use one and it's pretty clear that the games don't think you need to. Every type fire is super effective against can be dealt with something else and rock types are pretty much just a 1:0.5 replacement. But that's just my main example.
After all if they really thought fire types were THAT necessary they wouldn't have had to fix Ronald McDonald's team in Platinum.
So the next time you're playing through the Sinnoh games, if you pick Piplup or Turtwig and are feeling like your
really need something to deal with Candice's team and you don't want to catch a Rapidash or, GOD FORBID, a Magmar... Consider catching a Bonsly. Or hell, how about a Nosepass?
This is the part of the post where I reveal rock is my favorite type and this whole post was just rock type propaganda.
Unrelated but I was playing Omega Ruby while writing this and holy fuck this Metang is going to take forever to evolve.
