If Flying-type Pokemon are swooping down and ruining your day, here’s how to take advantage of their weaknesses in battle and bring them down to earth with the best counters.
Flying-type Pokemon are some of the most evasive and frustrating creatures you can battle in Pokemon games as they can fly up into the air, dodge your attacks, and then hit back with devastating levels of accuracy.
As with any type in the Pokemon game series, Flying types can be countered by targeting and exploiting their weaknesses, so here’s a full rundown of everything you need to know about this type to take them down fast.
What is Flying-type weak to?
Flying-type Pokemon have three primary weaknesses when it comes to moves and opposing Pokemon types:
When looking to take down a Flying-type Pokemon, bring along a team that includes Pokemon that belong to those types and make sure they have matching movesets.
Flying-type strengths
As well as having weaknesses, Flying-type Pokemon are also resistant to Fighting, Bug, and Grass, while being immune to Ground types. So, either avoid using Ground-type moves completely or be sure to have a move like Gravity to get rid of the immunity.
To exploit your Flying Pokemon strengths, take them out against Grass, Fighting, and Bug opponents to deal super effective damage.
Flying-type weaknesses
Besides being weak to Electric, Ice, and Rock-type opponents, Flying-type Pokemon with matching pure Flying movesets are bad against Electric, Rock, and Steel, as those attacks don’t deal much damage.
Super effective types against Flying Pokemon
When coming up against Flying types, you can go for all pure Electric, Ice, or Rock types. However, you’ll have an advantage if you use a Pokemon with two of those.
These are some of the best Pokemon you can use to counter Flying-type Pokemon:
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- Alolan Golem (Rock/Electric)
- Aurorus (Rock/Ice)
- Iron Thorns (Rock/Electric)
- Arctozolt (Electric/Ice)
- Hisuian Avalugg (Ice/Rock)
Keep in mind that even though these examples are effective, the opposing Pokemon may have resistances based on their primary/secondary type.
Super effective moves to use against Flying Pokemon
There are plenty of Electric, Rock, and Ice super-effective moves that players can use against Flying-type Pokemon. Here are the ones we recommend due to their power and effects:
- Bolt Strike (Electric)
- Zap Cannon (Electric)
- Thunder (Electric)
- Rock Wrecker (Rock)
- Meteor Beam (Rock)
- Stone Edge (Rock)
- Ice Burn (Ice)
- Blizzard (Ice)
- Ice Beam (Ice)
- Icicle Spear (Ice)
Bolt Strike is a physical nuke that deals 130 damage and has a 20% chance of paralyzing the opponent, a very common effect in Electric-type moves. Both Zap Cannon and Thunder are special moves. The first one has bad accuracy but paralyzes the enemy for sure, while the second has better chances of landing but only a 30% chance of causing paralysis.
Rock Wrecker is the best physical Rock-type move. This powerful nuke deals an outstanding 150 damage and its 90% accuracy means it rarely misses. However, the user must recharge the next turn. On the other hand, Stone Edge excels due to its very high critical hit ratio.
Ice Burn is the strongest special Ice move available with 140 power. It requires a turn to charge, but it has a 30% chance of also burning the opponent. Icicle Spear is not as powerful, but it hits 2-5 times per turn and has 100% accuracy. More so, you can spam this move as it has 30 PP.
Best Tera Types
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet‘s addition of Tera Types changed the battle rules, so here are the ones you should consider to make your Flying ‘mons stronger:
- Flying: Boosts the power of Flying-type moves with STAB
- Ground: Makes your Flying Pokemon immune to Electric-type moves and helps them resist Rock-type attacks, too
- Steel: Eliminates the Flying-type weakness to Ice and Rock
Best Flying-type moves
There are 30 Flying-type moves and we’ve picked the most powerful special, physical, and status attacks you can use in battle:
| MOVE | CATEGORY | POWER | ACCURACY | PP | EFFECT | GEN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Special | 110 | 70% | 10 | May confuse the opponent | Gen V |
| Aeroblast | Special | 100 | 95% | 5 | High critical hit ratio | Gen II |
| Bleakwind Storm | Special | 100 | 80% | 10 | May lower the opponent’s Speed | Gen VIII |
| Oblivion Wing | Special | 80 | 100% | 10 | User recovers most of the HP inflicted on the opponent | Gen VI |
| Sky Attack | Physical | 140 | 90% | 5 | Takes a turn to charge. High critical hit ratio, but may cause flinching | Gen I |
| Brave Bird | Physical | 120 | 100% | 15 | User receives recoil damage | Gen IV |
| Dragon Ascent | Physical | 120 | 100% | 5 | Lowers the user’s Defense and Sp. Defense | Gen VI |
| Fly | Physical | 90 | 95% | 15 | Takes a turn to charge | Gen I |
| Feather Dance | Status | X | 100% | 15 | Sharply lowers the opponent’s Attack | Gen III |
| Roost | Status | X | X | 5 | User recovers half of its max HP and loses the Flying type temporarily | Gen IV |
Best Flying-types ever in Pokemon
The Pokemon franchise has a total of 133 Flying-type creatures (up to Gen 9), and here are the 10 best of the ranking:
- Rayquaza
- Yveltal
- Lugia
- Tornadus
- Ho-Oh
- Salamence
- Togekiss
- Corviknight
- Shaymin
- Cramorant
Those are the weaknesses, strengths, and resistances you need to consider when facing a Flying-type Pokemon. You can also check out our list of all the Cat or Dog Pokemon in the franchise, and learn more about other types such as Dragon, Ground, and Electric.