Pokémon Poison Guide, Types, Strategies, Hints

Poison Pokémon Guide with Tips, Type FAQ, Moves, and Type Lists

Aug 21, 2009

Poison Pokémon are strong against Grass Pokémon, and can inflict the Poison status, which slowly drains away HP. This Pokémon guide has Hints and Tips on the Poison Type.

Poison attacks are super-effective against Grass types. However, are Poison Pokémon more than just a specialized counter to Grass types? Learn more about the Poison Pokémon type by reading this beginners guide to Pokémon.

Poison Pokémon FAQ

General Hints and Strategies on Poison Pokémon

Simply glancing at the Poison FAQ suggests the Poison type might be an easy one to pass up. With two common, and strong, weaknesses and only one super-effective, Poison doesn't look too appealing.

However, some Poison Pokémon certainly stand out admirably. Additionally, the resistance spread (four total) isn't bad, and the resistance against Fighting in particular makes the Poison type stand out.

Oddishly enough, Poison works best as a secondary type. Poison/Grass adds a Fighting resistance and gives it Poison attacks to counter other Grass Pokémon, and Tanks benefit from powerful Poison attacks, especially Toxic, which increases in effectiveness each turn. Leech Seed and Toxic can be an effective combination attack for Tanks.

Poison, whether used as a single or dual type, offers focused strengths, but can sometimes be far too focused for its own good overall, making it a difficult type to squeeze into a Pokémon team unless using a dual type. Also, one of the most powerful Poison attacks, Toxic, can be learned by a wide variety of Pokémon through a TM.

Poison Pokémon - List of Dual Types

Dual types are quite frequent with Poison. The following are all the dual types associated with Poison: Poison/Water, Poison/Grass, Poison/Fighting, Poison/Ground, Poison/Flying, Poison/Bug, Poison/Ghost, Poison/Dark.

Unlike some types out there, the Poison type fits works well as a dual type, since only one of these combos has a x4 weakness (and it only has one). Poison/Fighting has a x4 weakness to Psychic, but despite that it's still a good type (especially since Psychic is fairly predictable).

However, by far the best Poison dual type is Poison/Dark, Pokémon Drapion and Skutank, which are only weak against Ground attacks. The only other type this good is exclusive to Wheezing, a pure Poison type with the ability Levitate, making it weak only against Psychic attacks.

Poison/Water is a good type, negating the Grass weakness (but adding weaknesses to Psychic and Ground).

Poison/Grass, Poison/Flying, and Poison/Bug all have double resistances against Grass attacks, and Poison/Flying and Poison/Bug also have double resistances against Fighting. And due mostly to Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, Poison/Grass Pokémon are quite numerous, so there's plenty to choose from there.

Unfortunately, Poison/Bug Pokémon typically have low stats, such as Dustox and Beedrill, but nevertheless can make good Grass counters. Zubat / Golbat / Crowbat is the only Pokémon with the Flying/Poison type, which is a great counter to Fighting.

Powerful Poison Pokémon List

Unfortunately, not too many Poison Pokémon stand out as being truly exceptional. Many are adequate, such as Muk and Swalot, but few break the boundaries of mediocrity.

Weezing is one of the few that does. With the ability Levitate, Weezing is only weak against Psychic attacks, and makes for an excellent counter to Fighting Pokémon, especially with its huge defense stat. Weezing can learn great disabling moves to counter offensive Pokémon, moves such as Will-O-Wisp and Thunder Wave, and can learn Haze to eliminate any stat boosts gained in combat.

Dustox is worth mentioning as a Poison/Bug type with some excellent moves, including (but not limited to) Moonlight, Psybeam, Whirlwind, Toxic and Bug Buzz. But unfortunately, as with most Bug Pokémon, the short-handed stats reduces this Pokémon's effectiveness in battle.

Toxicroak, a Fighting/Poison type, has high attack and learns some powerful Poison and Fighting moves, but will feint quickly by a Psychic attack. Nidoking and Nidoqueen offer the unique combination Poison/Ground, and have a large movepool variety.

Drapion, Poison/Dark, is only weak against Ground, and learns rare moves, and the two types covers some interesting counters, but will find great difficulty fighting off Steel Pokémon.

Most of the many Poison/Grass Pokémon are definitely worth a mention, particularly Venusaur, but also Vileplume, Victreebel, and Roserade, among others. And Gengar, the first (and still one of the best) Ghost types is also a Poison type, and is a truly powerful Pokémon.

Advanced Poison Strategies, Tips

One of the most common, but also most powerful, strategies for Poison Pokémon is to learn either Toxic or Toxic Spikes, along with a move like Whirlwind. The idea is to inflict the Poison status, switch out the opponent, inflict the next with poison, switch that one out, and so forth.

For Grass/Poison types, the combination of Poison and Leech Seed is a great way to slowly drain an opponent's life bar.

Aside from Toxic Spikes and Toxic, many Poison attacks have a % chance to inflict poison, and Poison Fang can even inflict strong Poison.

Having a Fighting resistance really helps Poison Pokémon stand out, and, especially in the case of double resistances like Poison/Flying and Poison/Bug.

Some Poison Pokémon lack the attack strength to take advantage of strong (typically physically-based) Poison attacks. In such a case it might be best to focus on disabling moves, or (if possible) to learn strong elemental attacks like Thunder. The lower accuracy may be a pain, but the extra damage helps when its not a STAB (same type attack bonus) attack.

Pokémon Poison Conclusion

Speaking strictly from a type standpoint, Poison isn't great. However, Poison Pokémon learn some good disabling moves, and the type works well as a dual type. Pure Poison Pokémon worth using are quite rare, but strong dual type Poison Pokémon abound. In most cases, if looking for a strong Poison Pokémon, a dual type will allow for more versatility.

The copyright of the article Pokémon Poison Guide, Types, Strategies, Hints in Role-Playing Video Games is owned by Bradley Kairis. Permission to republish Pokémon Poison Guide, Types, Strategies, Hints in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.