When it comes to Pokémon Types, you've got a slew of fun and often powerful options that roam the vast region of Galar and elsewhere, ranging from the inferno killing machines of Fire to ♍the freezing titans of Ice. Yet, one of the more overlooked varieties has to be the aptly-named♔ "Normal."
While they tend to be a go-to early on in most Pokémon journeys, many will cast them aside as they progress and cooler, more potent elemental Types come out of the woodwork. Still, while there is a certain "blandness" and lack of usefulness when it comes to many Normal Pokémon, they do have their finer points.
With this list, we'll go over 5 reasons that mak൲e this uninspiring Type use👍less, along with 5 reasons you may want to keep them around.
10 Useful: Some🧔 Uniquely Awesome Varieties 🌠
Sure, the early portions of most Pokémon games tend to be crawling with a large number of pretty weak varieties, filling the role as your typical "starter" monsters at weaker levels. Still, many of the Normal-Types that are good are really good; often uniquely so.
You've got the self-healing Blissey, the massive tank Snorlax, the Special Attack-beast Porygon, and the transforming Ditto. There definitely exists a slew of more distinct, strategic Normals, especially later down the road in many Pokémon titles, who can slot into unique roles﷽ and allow astute playe𒆙rs to show off their battle smarts.
9 ꦕ Useless: ...But A Lot Of Duds 𝓀
Regardless, there's a reason you'll usually be tangling with Normal-Types in the early phases of most Pokémon titles; they're typically pretty meager and unintimidating. They don't often hold a ton of tricks up their sleeve, nor come with a particularly stron✱g, diverse moveset.
Early on, weaker mons🐬ters such as Pidgey and Rattata basically exist as the "beginner's Pokémon" who are as lacking in their designs as they are in any useful skills. Many of these monsters also come with some pretty weak Attack and/or Defense base꧋ stats.
8 Useful: Powerfu♚l, Versatile Moves
When it comes to raw strength and physical attacks, Normal Pokémon tend to reign supreme more often than not, surpassed mainly by Fighting-Types. Moves like Thrash, Techno Blast, and Boomburst can really pack a punch. This makes Norm🦩al an ideal choice to emphasize for more offensively-minded⛄ players.
On top of this, there are quite a few deceptively impactful Normal status moves that are useful under the right circumstances and can complement physical moves qu🦄ite well. An example of this is the deadly combo of Sto😼ckpile and Spit Up/Swallow.
7 🦂 Useless: Largely Useless Against Rock and Steel ♉
One of the most brutal aspects of Normal Pokémon is the utter mismatch when it comes to them and Rock and Steel, whose hard bodies mini꧂mize even some of the stronger Normal moves. This essentially negates one of the few Normal advantages, which relies on brute strength to wallop foes with straight-up physical attacks.
Of course, you can always hope your Normal Type is equipped with another elemental move, but chances🤪 are, going up against a Rock and/or Steel-Type is going to minimize the effectiveness of 75% of your moveset.
6 Useful: A Jac꧃k Of꧋ All Trades
As the name of the Type itself might reveal, the "ace in the hole" of Normal Pokémon is that they reside in a sort of safe middle ground, where they never quite go too high or too low in any one area. You also have the luxury of only having to worr🥃y about Fighti💫ng-Types as your weakness.
Basically, they're the jack-of-all-trades, in that ꩲthere's a lot they're capable of, come with all-around average stats, and can fulfill a number of roles.
Again, this also goes back to their versatility. You've got Pokémon that can emphasize speed and overwhelming foes with swift attacks,⭕ defensive tanks that stress survivability, offensive powerho🃏uses, and everything in-between. This is a contrast to, say, Ghost or Ice, which is more strictly defined and slots into very specific roles.
5 Useless: ...But A Master Of Non♛e
Sure, you won't be harmed too harshly with the vast majority of elements, but the flipside of this is that your Normal-Types won't be able to destroy opponents with super-effective hits either. Of cours💙e, this isn't the case if you've got a hybrid or you've managed to teach a TM of another element to your fighter.
But again - Normal Pokémon mainly learn - and thrive most - from Normal moves, and these physical attacks are going to be limited in how much ღdamage they can deal on most targets.
4 Useful: Surviv💎alists ♐
We've established that N🏅or🐈mal Pokémon tend to stay alive longer and be "safer" options in the long haul on account of their lack of weaknesses against them.
On top of this, though, Normal-Types are typically laced with a bit more HP than𒊎 their counterparts as well. According to , Normal-Types have a slightly higher base HP on average, residing in the upper tier with 76.30 HP and a whoppi🅠ng 87.15 when fully evolved. This is only outmatched by a few types, and easily eclipses, say Bug, which is 57.23 and 67.11 respectively.
This combination of traits make these guys more ideal surviva🀅lists.
3 🐠 Useless: Ghost Is 𒅌Their Kryptonite
Sure, it might be annoying to spend minutes slowly chipping away at the HP of a beastly Steel-Type, but even this is preferable to launching sꦬtrong 🐎Normal attacks at Ghosts only to come up empty. That's right; not only is Normal "not very effective," but it doesn't affect these ghostly manifestations at all!
Thankfully, you are tossed a meager tradeoff in being unaffected by Ghost moves as well, but this is a small price to pay given the small list of these moves compared to Normal. Basically, if you're traversing an area rife with spirits like Red & Blue's Laven🐽der Town, your Normal-Types are rendered almost useless.
2 🌄 Useful: Can 𒉰Learn Tons Of TMs
Normal-Types get a bad rap for having relatively weak and unexciting default movesets as a whole. Yet, when it comes to the vast lits of , the vast majority of these monsters are able to learn an impressive variety of these, compared to🦂 the more specific elemental Types which are confined to mainly being compatible with moves that match their Type.
This is important as there are a great deal of super-powerful TMs like Giga Impact and Hyperbeam. Players that like to interchange the moves of theirꦡ fighters through TMs will surely want to stick with Normal varieties.
1 Useless: Lower Overall🐟 Base Stats ✱
Ok, so the average base stats are fairly decent when it comes to HP and Attack, but as a whole, these guys comes with some pretty weak Base Stats when everything gets averaged out. And this is factoring in a few super-strong varieties like Snorlax which artificially inflates even this meager number somewhat.
Compare these average evolved-form stats to Fighting, which stands at 530.99, and the difference becomes apparent.
Of course, as is the case with any ꦅRPG, there's far more to factor in that mere Base Stats. But ultimately, if you're battling with Normal Pokémon, chances are you're going to have monsters that are least a touch weaker and/or less effec𒉰tive in a fight overall.