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Dark Type in Pokémon GO: The Past, Present and Future

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Dark Type in Pokémon GO: The Past, Present and Future
Pokemon GO Tyranitar

The Dark type was one of the two new types introduced in the Gen 2 games, Gold, Silver, and Crystal, alongside the Steel type. There are 54 Dark type Pokémon in the games as of Gen 7, landing it 7th in rarest types, and 11 of those Pokémon are pure Dark types.

There is a large selection of Dark type moves in the games as well, though the most common and popular one in Pokémon Go and the main series games (in terms of how many Pokémon can learn it) is Bite.

There are still many Dark Pokémon to be added to the game, so below we have a list of Dark Pokémon that are worth a mention, as they will be the more relevant Dark types in the game.

Pokémon Gen Max CP Atk/Def/Sta
Tyranitar RockDark 2 3670 251/212/200
Hydreigon DragonDark 5 3401 256/188/184
Krookodile GroundDark 5 2911 229/163/190
Incineroar FireDark 7 2822 214/175/190
Weavile IceDark 4 2815 243/182/140
Pangoro FightingDark 6 2759 226/149/190
Bisharp SteelDark 5 2666 232/191/130
Honchkrow FlyingDark 4 2566 243/103/200
Houndoom FireDark 2 2529 224/159/150
Greninja WaterDark 6 2436 223/154/144
Legendaries and Ultra Beasts
Yveltal FlyingDark 6 3665 250/186/229
Guzzlord DragonDark 7 2906 188/99/446
Mythicals
Darkrai Dark 4 3404 285/198/140

Discussion and Move Predictions

The majority of amazing Dark types are to be announced in later generations, but Tyranitar is doing a great job holding down the fort as the current best Dark type and will continue to be one of the most grounded Dark types in the game.

Hydreigon will be moving in as a great Dark type attacker, with just a slightly higher attack than Tyranitar but a lower overall stamina and defense, making Tyranitar the more well-rounded choice. Assuming Hydreigon gets a good Dark type move set, it will make a great addition to any Dark team, and the same goes for Legendary Pokémon, Yveltal.

Darkrai however, blows the other two out of the water with its massive attack stat. Unfortunately, Darkrai will likely be obtained through quests and research therefore only one per person but it will serve a good backbone to your Dark team.

Now we can move on to an interesting topic, move discussions for the new Pokémon mentioned above! Below we will speculate some fast or charge moves that each of these new Pokémon might have. Charge moves can hold a good amount of variability, so they will be based mostly on coolness factor and a little bit on power. Take these with a grain of salt; new moves can be added in each gen to expand on these ideas, but these move sets would be fun to see!

Pokémon Fast Move? Charge Move?
Hydreigon
  • Zen Headbutt Psychic
  • Bite Dark
  • Outrage Dragon
  • Dark Pulse Dark
  • Fire Blast Fire
Krookodile
  • Bite Dark
  • Mud-Slap Ground
  • Earthquake Ground
  • Aqua Tail Water
  • Crunch Dark
Incineroar
  • Fire Fang Fire
  • Snarl Dark
  • Dark Pulse Dark
  • Cross Chop Fighting
  • Flame Charge Fire
Weavile
  • Feint Attack Dark
  • Ice Shard Ice
  • Night Slash Dark
  • Icy Wind Ice
  • Shadow Ball Ghost
Pangoro
  • Snarl Dark
  • Karate Chop Fighting
  • Stone Edge Rock
  • Brick Break Fighting
Bisharp
  • Sucker Punch Dark
  • Night Slash Dark
  • Iron Head Steel
Honchkrow
  • Snarl Dark
  • Feint Attack Dark
  • Peck Flying
  • Wing Attack Flying
  • Dark Pulse Dark
  • Drill Peck Flying
  • Foul Play Dark
  • Brave Bird Flying
Greninja
  • Bubble Water
  • Feint Attack Dark
  • Dark Pulse Dark
  • Water Pulse Water
Yveltal
  • Snarl Dark
  • Air Slash Flying
  • Sky Attack Flying
  • Dark Pulse Dark
Guzzlord
  • Bite Dark
  • Dragon Tail Dragon
  • Dark Pulse Dark
  • Outrage Dragon
Darkrai
  • Snarl Dark
  • Shadow Ball Ghost
  • Dark Pulse Dark
  • Foul Play Dark

Dark Types in the Meta

Dark types are a hot topic with Mewtwo EX raids, as well the as Psychic type Eon duo’s presence in legendary Raid battles. There are more Psychic type legendary Pokémon in the future as well that Dark types will thrive against, including Cresselia and the lake trio: Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie.

Giratina, a Gen 4 Ghost / Dragon type, will also be countered by Dark types. Farther into the future we can even begin to think about countering Necrozma (psychic), Lunala (psychic/ghost), Solgaleo (psychic/steel), and Blacephelon (fire/ghost). Several mythical Pokémon are also countered by the Dark type, but unless gym systems or quests are changed, it does not seem like we will have to battle the mythicals any time soon.

  • Pure Dark types themselves take super effective damage from Fighting, Bug and Fairy types and take resisted damage from Dark and Ghost types. Since Psychic is not an immunity in Pokémon Go, Dark will take double resisted damage from that type instead.
  • Dark type moves deal super effective damage against Psychic and Ghost type Pokémon, and will not be very effective towards Fighting, Fairy and other Dark types.

Needless to say, Dark types are going to be pretty useful in the coming years in raids against powerful legendary Pokémon.

History of the Dark Type

The Dark type in Japan has been referred to as the ‘evil’ type, which could contribute to why there has never been a dark type gym in the main games, though a few Elite Four members have featured the Dark type, including Karen of Johto, Sydney of Hoenn, and Grimsley of Unova. Nanu of Alola also features a Dark type team for his Island Kahuna battle.

The Dark type was added to the game to counteract the over-powered Psychic types of Gen 1 (seriously, it was bad, they needed to be stopped) much like how Fairy was added to counter the ever growing Dragon type. Dark types, alongside Poison types, are also the most used by the evil teams in the main games.

The Dark type, though regarded as evil, is a really good offensive type and will continue to be useful in the future!