Pokémon: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Psychic Types

Since its inception, Pokémon has used a type system to help format its battles, with each Pokémon having one or two types and each type dealing more or less damage to others. This creates a battle system that is easy to navigate and memorize but complicated enough to keep players coming back for more year after year.

The Psychic type has always been one of the most mysterious in the Pokémon franchise, being used to represent Pokémon with ESP, supernatural empathy, or even downright magical powers. As befits the most mystical of the types, there is a lot about the Psychic type as a whole that many fans might not have picked up on over the years.

10 Steel Used To Cover Their Weaknesses Completely

The Psychic/Steel type combination is exceptionally powerful, as demonstrated by the Alolan Legendary Pokémon Solgaleo and the Metagross line. However, prior to Generation VI, Metagross was even stronger than it is now. In Generations II-V, Steel resists Bug, Dark, and Ghost type moves, Psychic’s only three weaknesses.

This meant that Steel/Psychic type Pokémon were left with only their Steel type weaknesses to Fire, Ground, and Fighting, making them exceptionally defensive. Gen VI removed Steel’s Dark and Ghost weaknesses, making Psychic slightly less powerful as well.

9 They Were So Strong They Created Two New Types

The Psychic type is often considered one of the strongest in the games, and with good reason. In fact, it is so powerful that both the Steel and Dark types owe their existence, in part, to the Psychic type. In Generation I, Psychic types were only weak to Bug type moves resisted Fighting and Psychic type moves, and were immune to Ghost type moves.

Between their lack of weaknesses and extremely high stats, these Pokémon became extremely overpowered. The Dark type was added to give Psychic another weakness, and Steel was added to make another defensive type that could resist Psychic. Ghost was also changed to be super effective against Psychic types, rather than useless.

8 There Are A Lot Of Them

As of Generation VIII, there are a total of 98 Psychic type Pokémon, including alternate forms like Mega Evolutions and Gigantamax Forms. This accounts for about 10.79% of all Pokémon, making Psychic the 5th most common in the game. Out of those 98, 45 are purely Psychic type. This is a fairly high ratio of mono-type to dual-type Pokémon.

Psychic also had the most Mega Evolutions back in Generation VI with a total of ten. Since the Psychic type is often used as a shorthand for magic and many Pokémon are based around some kind of folklore, it should come as no surprise that it is a fairly common type.

7 They Have Been Paired With Every Other Type

Generation VI marked an important milestone for Pokémon, as Flying became the first type to be paired with every other type with the debut of the Fighting/Flying Hawlucha. Water followed shortly after with the Fire/Water Volcanion, and in Generation VIII, Psychic became the third type to earn this distinction.

Galarian Slowbro is, somewhat ironically, a regional variant of a Pokémon from all the way back in Generation I that eschews its original Water typing in favor of the Poison type, possibly a reference to the highly venomous cone snail, which has a shell that greatly resembles Slowbro’s.

6 Some Generations Had More Than Others

Every generation since Gen I has introduced a smattering of Psychic types, but Generation III holds the title for introducing the absolute most with a grand total of 20. Generation VI had only six new Psychic type Pokémon, indicative of that Generation’s relatively small number of brand-new Pokémon.

Generation I takes the record for introducing the most Psychic type moves with fifteen, another indicator of its high power level in that generation. Generation VI introduced only a single new Psychic move, the signature move of the Psychic/Ghost or Psychic/Dark type Mythical Pokémon Hoopa Hyperspace Hole.

5 They Are Legendary

Legendary Pokémon are powerful creatures of myth that often play key roles in the history of the Pokémon world and the core plots of Pokémon games. Mythical Pokémon occupy a similar role, and the line between the two is blurry but definitely present.

Since these two categories of Pokémon dwell in the realm of myth and folklore, it should come as no surprise that they are very often Psychic types. 19 of the 74 Mythical and Legendary Pokémon in the series are at least part Psychic type.

4 They Form A Pair With Fighting

The Psychic and Fighting types are often considered two halves of the same coin, with Psychic being emblematic of Special Attack and Special Defense while Fighting is the epitome of Attack and Defense. Several pieces of evidence point towards this duality. Psychic is the only type that used to be all special not to have any of its old moves changed to physical, while the reverse is true of the Fighting type.

Additionally, they have several moves that seem like opposites of one another like Counter/Mirror Coat and Bulk Up/Calm Mind. Finally, the Cram-o-matic in Isle of Armor’s dojo considers both the Choice Band and Muscle Band to be FIghting type inputs, while it considers Choice Specs and Wise Glasses to be Psychic type inputs.

3 Though Pink Is Their Color, They Have A History With Gold

While the Psychic type is almost universally represented by a pink color, it has an interesting association and history with the color gold as well. In Kanto, where city names often match up with their gym types, Saffron City is home to the Psychic type gym, and Saffron is a golden yellow color. This gym also rewarded the player with a Gold Badge. The Gen I Pokémon Golduck has “gold” in its name, and both the Abra and Drowzee lines are yellow in color. This is possibly a reference to the color and metal gold’s significance in numerous magical and psychic traditions.

2 They Have Some Interesting Interactivity

The Psychic type’s weaknesses and resistances interact in some interesting ways. Firstly, it is impossible for a Pokémon to have a double resistance to Psychic without being a Psychic type itself. Additionally, Psychic types can only ever have a double resistance to one type at a time, no matter their combination.

Lastly, the Rattled ability is designed to interact with these types, as it raises a Pokémon’s speed when hit by a Bug, Dark, or Ghost type move. However, there are currently no Psychic types able to benefit from this ability.

1 There Are A Lot Of Psychic Type Trainers

Psychic is an extremely popular type among in-game trainers. It has the highest number of notable trainers out of any type, which includes gym leaders, Elite Four members, and their regional equivalents. There are ten of these trainers throughout the series, including some extremely popular characters like Kanto’s Sabrina, Hoenn’s Tate and Liza (who bring the count to 11 if tallied separately), and the Generation VIII pseudo-rival Bede. Psychic is also the only type to share a name with a class of trainer.