Poison-type Pokemon weaknesses & resistances explained

Poison-type Pokemon are a great addition to any team, threatening opponents with toxic strategies and venomous attacks. Here’s what you need to know about their weaknesses, strengths, counters, and more.

Poison-type Pokemon have been around since the very beginning of the franchise. In fact, the Gen 1 games introduced more Poison Pokemon than any other type. Though Poison has since been surpassed by other types like Water and Bug, it’s still the eighth most common with 87 Pokemon species.

Here’s everything a trainer needs to know about Poison-type Pokemon, including their weaknesses, strengths, and counters.

Contents

• What is a Poison-type Pokemon?
• Poison-type Pokemon weaknesses
• Poison-type Pokemon strengths & resistances
• Best counters for Poison-type Pokemon
• Best Tera Types for Poison-type Pokemon
• All Poison-type moves

What is a Poison-type Pokemon?

The Pokemon Company

Poison-types are fairly common in the Pokemon world. Many are based on real-life creatures and plants with poisonous or venomous qualities, like the scorpion-based Skorupi and mushroom-inspired Foongus. Others take inspiration from real-world pollution, such as the Koffing and Trubbish evolutionary lines.

Many Poison Pokemon are purple and/or green, though that especially varies with dual-type species.

These Pokemon are great at carrying out strategies that involve inflicting the Poisoned condition. Using a move like Toxic to badly poison an opponent allows you to focus on defense and healing, staying in the fight as the poison whittles away their HP. It’s also important to remember that Poison and Steel types cannot be Poisoned unless the user has the Corrosion ability, which is exclusive to the Salandit line.

Poison-type Pokemon weaknesses

Poison type Pokemon are weak to the following types:

• Ground
• Psychic

When facing off against Poison-types, Ground is a slightly better option than Psychic. This is because Ground-type Pokemon resist Poison-type moves while Psychic-types take normal damage from them.

Of course, that doesn’t account for dual types, which impact a Pokemon’s weaknesses and resistances, so keep that in mind.

Poison-type Pokemon strengths & resistances

Poison-type moves are super effective against two types:

• Grass
• Fairy

They are also not very effective against the following types:

• Ghost
• Ground
• Poison
• Rock

It’s also important to remember that Steel-type Pokemon are completely immune to Poison-type moves.

Additionally, Poison-type Pokemon also have some resistances, only taking half damage from the following:

• Bug
• Fairy
• Fighting
• Grass
• Poison

Best counters for Poison-type Pokemon

The Pokemon Company

The following Pokemon are great for countering Poison types:

• Claydol (Ground/Psychic)
• Clodsire (Poison/Ground)
• Espeon (Psychic)
• Garchomp (Dragon/Ground)
• Hippowdon (Ground)
• Iron Boulder (Rock/Psychic)
• Iron Treads (Ground/Steel)
• Metagross (Steel/Psychic)
• Steelix (Steel/Ground)

The best options are Ground or Psychic-type Pokemon that also have the Steel-type, as they’ll have access to super effective STAB moves while being completely immune to the opponent’s STAB Poison attacks.

Best Tera Types for Poison-type Pokemon

In addition, those playing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will need to keep Tera types in mind when building a team. The following are good Tera-type options for Poison-type Pokemon:

• Poison: You get an extra boost of power on top of the STAB and remove any weaknesses from a secondary type.
• Dark: Counters Psychic types and grants immunity to Psychic-type moves
• Ghost: Counters Psychic types and grants immunity to Normal and Fighting-type moves
• Water: Counters for Ground-types with few weaknesses

All Poison-type moves

The Pokemon Company

There are 36 Poison-type moves, all of which are listed below:

Gen 1

• Acid
• Acid Armor
• Poison Gas
• Poison Powder
• Poison Sting
• Sludge
• Smog
• Toxic

Gen 2

• Sludge Bomb

Gen 3

• Poison Fang
• Poison Tail

Gen 4

• Cross Poison
• Gastro Acid
• Gunk Shot
• Poison Jab
• Toxic Spikes

Gen 5

• Acid Spray
• Clear Smog
• Coil
• Sludge Wave
• Venoshock

Gen 6

• Belch
• Venom Drench

Gen 7

• Acid Downpour
• Baneful Bunker
• Purify
• Toxic Thread

Gen 8

• Barb Barrage
• Corrosive Gas
• Dire Claw
• G-Max Malodor
• Max Ooze
• Shell Side Arm

Gen 9

• Malignant Chain
• Mortal Spin
• Noxious Torque

That’s everything you need to know about Poison-type Pokemon. For more Pokemon content, check our guides below:

Dragon-type weaknesses | Ice-type weaknesses | Electric-type weaknesses | Flying-type weaknesses | Fire-type weaknesses