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The typing of a Pokemon is one of the most important things to consider when forming a solid team for battle. Scarlet and Violet isn’t the most challenging game out there, but it does give more recent main series titles a run for their money with players having the option to challenge gym leaders and Team Star bases at higher levels very early on. If a player is going to be taking this approach, or if they want to do some competitive battling, having the best types is essential.
This list will examine which types in Gen 9 are best based on all current strengths, weaknesses, and resistances, alongside current move pools and how many currently available top-tier Pokemon can even use these types. A type is only so effective if it has some strong Pokemon worth using associated with it.
S Tier
The highest-tier types of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet all bring significant strengths and negligible weaknesses. Steel type in particular has proven itself to be the stand-out defensive type in the game, being able to resist more than half of all types alongside a complete immunity to Poison. When Steel is paired with a solid offensive type, like Heatran’s Fire-Steel combo or Kingambit’s Dark-Steel, it becomes borderline broken.
Fairy and Ground are similarly fierce. Ground’s combination of Earthquake (A move that is eternally present in competitive play) while only being weak to some of this generation’s weaker types make it powerful in Pokemon like Great Tusk or Ting-Lu, while many Fairy types from Hatterene to Iron Valiant to Flutter Mane have been absolutely dominating.
- Steel
- Fairy
- Ground
A Tier
The A-tier contains many of the types that have similar arguments as those in the highest tier: amazing strengths and not a lot of weaknesses. For one reason or another, though, they don’t quite make the cream of the crop. Ghost, in particular, has had a meteoric rise this generation. One of its biggest weaknesses in the past has been a lack of viable Pokemon properly utilizing the type, an issue which is virtually gone now that Annihilape, Ceruledge, Gholdengo, Skeledirge, and, once again, Flutter Mane are here.
The more powerful the Fairy typing becomes, the more Dragon suffers, but its large number of resistances and powerful Pokemon pool containing Dragapult, Walking Wake, and Baxcalibur continue to carry it. Dark and Fire are also great offensive types that players will likely notice a lot in professional battles in Pokemon like Chi-Yu, Iron Moth, and many other overpowered contenders that have already been mentioned.
- Ghost
- Dragon
- Dark
- Fire
B Tier
The B-Tier types have strengths that outweigh their weaknesses, but still, a number of weaknesses to consider. In a lot of ways, Water and Electric are two of the better defensive types in the game, while Psychic and Fighting are great offensive types when paired with complimentary dual-types. But these types can also suffer from substantial weaknesses to strong types, not enough types to strike super-effective moves against or a lackluster pool of available picks.
Palafin alone nearly bumps Water up to a higher tier, being one of the strongest single-type Pokemon in all of Scarlet and Violet. Some other notable standouts using types in this tier are Quaquaval (Water-Fighting), Miraidon (Electric-Dragon), Koraidon (Fighting-Dragon), and Iron Leaves (Grass-Psychic).
- Water
- Psychic
- Fighting
- Electric
C Tier
The C Tier types have just enough utility to save themselves from the bottom, but these still aren’t the main types players should be looking at when it comes to strong Pokemon. Types like Grass and Rock just have far too many weaknesses, making it necessary to pair them with other types that counterbalance those issues, like Glimmora or Ogerpon wearing one of its masks.
The biggest issues with Poison and Flying largely lie with a lack of a viable Pokemon pool. Some of the standouts are picks like Iron Moth (Fire-Poison), Toxapex (Poison-Water), or Corviknight (Flying-Steel).
- Poison
- Grass
- Rock
- Flying
D Tier
Unfortunately, the types in this bottom tier just can’t catch a break. The combination of reasons for this boils down to a weakness on all fronts that have been analyzed thus far. Not only do these types tend to have a lot of weaknesses, but they also don’t tend to have many resistances, and the pool of Pokemon utilizing these types tends to be pretty lacking.
It’s very rare that any of these types will appear in competitive play. Normal will occasionally make itself known in the way it typically does, with tank Pokemon like Blissey, which does prove more useful as Ghost becomes a more prominent type. Ice occasionally factors in with stronger Pokemon like Baxcalibur and Chien-Pao, which dual with high-tier types like Dark and Dragon, and the case is the same with a Pokemon like Ribombee which duals Bug-Fairy. Overall, though, these types present more of an obstacle to overcome rather than something to be sought.
- Bug
- Normal
- Ice
