Pokemon has a lot more strategic depth in its metagame than one might assume. A lot of work can go into crafting your dream team of up to six Pokemon in a single party. Each creature has a set of roughly one or two different affinities, and those selfsame affinities come with their own strengths and weaknesses. Within the aforementioned framework, an eye-boggling spread of combat moves with differing effects is available to each of the series’ various Pokemon, opening myriad opportunities for potential threats as well as a great deal of runway for theory-crafting your own Pokemon builds.
There are over 18 different types of Pokemon — including quite a few strange ones. The Psychic type pertains to an entire category of pocket monsters that are themed around various superstitions in the Pokemon universe. This includes classics like Mewtwo and Alakazam to name just a few.
As with any of the many Pokemon types, the Psychic types are especially impervious to certain attacks, but they also gain a bonus when using matching Psychic-type attacks. These are, in turn, more powerful when fighting certain types of Pokemon. This makes it useful to have at least a few strong Psychic-type Pokemon in your rotation so you can play them into your strategy when appropriate.
Pokemon Psychic Type Weaknesses & Counters
Psychic-type Pokemon have three main weaknesses: Bug, Dark, and Ghost. Specifically, you’ll do the most damage with one of these three when facing off against a Psychic-type opponent.
That means, when fighting against a Psychic-type Pokemon, you’ll want to use characters such as these examples:
- Bug: Genesect, Buzzwole, Scizor, Centiscorch, Yanmega, Hericross, Kleavor, Araquanid, Ninjask
- Dark: Yveltal, Umbreon, Absol, Zoroark, Urshifu, Houndoom, Grimmsnarl, Weavile, Dusknoir, Hoopa
- Ghost: Calyrex (Shadow Rider Form), Gengar, Dragapult, Giratina, Ceruledge, Aegislash, Dusknoir, Lunala, Necrozma
Pokemon Psychic Type Strengths
Psychic Pokemon have a few strengths as well, so it’s good to include Psychic types in your party when facing Fighting or Poison-type creatures.
That means a Psychic-type Pokemon makes an excellent counter to a handful of tough opponents:
- Fighting: Kaldeo, Terrakion, Conkeldurr, Heracross, Gallade, Lucario, Machamp, Blaziken, Breloom, Sirfetch’d, Toxicroak
- Poison: Naganadel, Roserade, Eternatus, Nidoking, Dragalge, Toxapex, Toxtricity, Venusaur, Toxicroak
Best Psychic Type Pokemon
Pokemon operate a bit differently across each of the games, but we like to use Pokemon GO as a standard baseline, since CP is the clearest universal indicator of a Pokemon’s overall combat ability. Since this score still seems to translate (mostly) to console games when creatures are transferred over, this is how we’re presenting our top picks. Just take the rankings with that particular grain of salt in mind.
Credit to Pokemon GO Hub for the information I’ve referenced below, though it uses its own scoring system based purely on damage output. That said, the top five best standard (as in, non-Mega and non-Shadow) Psychic-type creatures in Pokemon GO are as follows:
- Mewtwo (Max CP 4724)
- Hoopa (Unbound) (Max CP 4530)
- Lunala (Max CP 4570)
- Latios (Max CP 4310)
- Metagross (Max CP 4286)
Have your own recommendations? Let your fellow trainers know in the comments below! No one answer is always correct; even if Mewtwo and Naganadel are almost always the best in their respective roles.
