Evergreen
Poison Type in Pokémon GO
Poison-type Pokémon in Pokémon GO: what Poison is strong against, weak to and resists, its weather boost, well-known examples and practical tips.
Poison is primarily a defensive type in Pokémon GO, resisting five types (Grass, Fighting, Poison, Bug and Fairy). Its offensive reach is narrow, just Grass and Fairy, and Poison-type moves do only around 0.39× to Steel-types, Pokémon GO's version of the core series immunity.
Poison type matchups
Poison's lists are lopsided towards defense. The type chart gives it two 1.6× targets and five 0.625× resistances, and Poison attacks land on Steel at just ~0.39×.
Poison is strong against
Poison is weak to
Poison resists
- Grass — damage reduced to 0.625×
- Fighting — damage reduced to 0.625×
- Poison — damage reduced to 0.625×
- Bug — damage reduced to 0.625×
- Fairy — damage reduced to 0.625×
Weather boost
Poison shares the Cloudy boost with Fighting and Fairy. Cloudy weather is also when wild Poison-types such as Grimer appear at higher levels; see the weather boosts page for how boosts work.
Well-known Poison-type Pokémon
Well-known Poison-types, most of them dual-typed:
- Muk
- Crobat
- Nidoking
- Gengar
- Venomoth
Practical GO tips
- Poison-type attackers are mainly useful against Grass and Fairy-type targets; against everything else, look at moveset and stats rather than type advantage.
- A Poison-type move does only ~0.39× damage to a Steel-type, so a Poison attacker is the wrong pick for a Steel-type raid boss.
- Poison's resistances to Fighting, Bug and Fairy make Poison-types handy switch-ins in PvP, where absorbing a Fairy-type charged move can swing a match.
Most Poison-types carry a second type, and that second type usually decides how they're used: Gengar is played as a Ghost attacker, Nidoking often as a Ground one. Read the pair of types together rather than Poison on its own.
Against a Poison-type, Ground and Psychic attackers get the 1.6× bonus; Ground has the edge because it also resists Poison's attacks.
FAQ
Are Poison-types useful in raids at all?
Rarely for the Poison typing itself, since only Grass and Fairy bosses take extra damage from Poison moves. Poison-types have found more of a role in PvP, where the Fairy matchup and their resistances to Fighting, Bug and Fairy count for more.
Keep exploring
The types hub and type chart cover the rest of the matchups. Our core mechanics guide explains why a Pokémon's stats matter as much as its type; the database hub and Trainer Hub homepage have everything else on the site.