Pokémon types are the rock-paper-scissors under every battle. Each Pokémon has one or two of 18 types, each move has one, and the matchup decides the damage: a super-effective hit does double, a not-very-effective one does half, and some types cannot touch others at all. Evolution is how a Pokémon changes into a stronger form, usually on reaching a level, sometimes through a stone, a trade or friendship. Legendaries are the rare, usually one-of-a-kind Pokémon at the centre of each game's story.
This covers the main series of games, from Red and Blue onward, with the animated series and films named where they come in. Every design on the Pokémon shelf sits somewhere below.
How the type chart works
The 18 types are Normal, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Bug, Rock, Ghost, Dragon, Dark, Steel and Fairy. Red and Blue had 15; Gold and Silver added Dark and Steel, and X and Y added Fairy.
The starting triangle teaches the idea: Fire beats Grass, Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire. Then it gets wider. Some matchups are immunities: Ground moves miss Flying Pokémon, Electric moves do nothing to Ground, Psychic cannot touch Dark and Dragon cannot touch Fairy.
Two types multiply. Charizard is Fire and Flying (not Dragon, whatever it looks like), and Rock is strong against both, so a Rock move hits it for four times the damage. A move that matches its user's own type also gets a bonus, which is why Charizard's Flamethrower hits harder than the same move from a Pokémon that is not Fire.
Gengar and the Ghost type
Gengar is a Ghost and Poison type, and the last stage of a line that starts with Gastly. Gastly evolves into Haunter at level 25, and Haunter becomes Gengar only when it is traded. In Red and Blue those three were the only Ghost types in the game, which is the trio on Ghost Type.
The Ghost type works in both directions: Normal and Fighting moves pass straight through it, and its own Ghost moves cannot hit Normal Pokémon. It is weak to Ghost and Dark. Gengar's Poison half adds weaknesses to Psychic and Ground, though from Ruby and Sapphire to X and Y its Levitate ability let it float over Ground moves; Sun and Moon swapped that ability out.
The first games also carried a famous mistake. Ghost moves were apparently meant to be strong against Psychic types, but in Red and Blue a glitch left them with no effect at all. Gold and Silver fixed it.
How evolution works: Magikarp to Gyarados
Most Pokémon evolve by reaching a set level. Others need an item such as a Fire Stone, a trade, high friendship with their trainer, or a stranger condition of their own. Evolution in the games is permanent; Mega Evolution, added in X and Y, lasts for one battle.
Magikarp is the best-known case. It is close to useless: at first its only move is Splash, which does nothing. Train it to level 20 and it evolves into Gyarados, a huge Water and Flying type and one of the strongest Pokémon a player can have early on, an echo of the old legend of the carp that leaps a waterfall and becomes a dragon.
Gold and Silver added the Lake of Rage, where a red Gyarados, a rare alternate colour, thrashes in the water. It turns out Team Rocket is broadcasting a signal from a hideout in Mahogany Town that forces the lake's Magikarp to evolve. That is the story behind Red Lake.
On the shelf
Legendaries, Mew and Mewtwo
A legendary Pokémon is a rare, powerful one tied to the myths of its region, usually met once per game. Mythical Pokémon are rarer still, historically handed out at events rather than found in the game. Mew was the first of them.
Mew is a small Psychic type said to carry the genetic code of every Pokémon. Mewtwo was made from it: in Red and Blue, journals left in a burned-out mansion on Cinnabar Island tell how scientists created it from Mew's genes, and it waits in Cerulean Cave, which only opens to a player who has already become Champion.
Mewtwo vs Mew is the plot of Pokémon: The First Movie. Mewtwo, angry at being made as a weapon, clones Pokémon and sets the copies against the originals, then fights Mew itself. Ash steps between their attacks and is turned to stone, and the tears of the Pokémon around him bring him back. Psychic Clash puts the two of them face to face; Trainer Showdown puts Mewtwo among a crowd of first-generation Pokémon.
On the shelf
Groudon vs Kyogre, and Rayquaza
In Ruby and Sapphire, set in the Hoenn region, legend says Groudon (Ground) raised the land and Kyogre (Water) filled the seas, and the two fought an ancient battle over them. Team Magma wants to wake Groudon to expand the land; Team Aqua wants Kyogre to expand the sea. Emerald makes Rayquaza, a Dragon and Flying type that lives high in the sky, the one that ended that battle: both wake, and the player climbs the Sky Pillar to bring Rayquaza down to calm them.
In battle, Groudon vs Kyogre is a fight over the weather. Groudon's ability brings harsh sunlight, which powers up Fire moves and weakens Water ones; Kyogre's brings rain, which does the reverse. The remakes, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, give both Primal forms. Land and Sea sets the pair against each other.
The same remakes add the Delta Episode, in which the player rides Mega Rayquaza into space to stop a falling meteoroid and then meets Deoxys, an alien Pokémon. The film Destiny Deoxys pits the two against each other too. Both Delta and Sky High take that matchup.
On the shelf
Lugia, Ho-Oh and the dragons of Unova
Gold and Silver tell a legend of Ecruteak City, which had two towers. Ho-Oh, a Fire and Flying type, perched on one; Lugia, a Psychic and Flying type, on the other. Lightning set the second tower ablaze and Lugia left for the sea. Three Pokémon died in the fire, and Ho-Oh brought them back as the legendary beasts Raikou, Entei and Suicune. Ho-Oh is on the cover of Gold, Lugia on Silver, and Tower Guardians has both.
Black and White tell of a single dragon that served twin heroes in the Unova region. When the brothers fell out, one seeking truth and the other ideals, the dragon split in two: Reshiram, the Dragon and Fire type of truth, and Zekrom, the Dragon and Electric type of ideals. Reshiram fronts Black, Zekrom White. Truth and Ideals and Black and White both carry the pair.
On the shelf
On the back of a tee
All of these are on the Pokémon shelf, drawn from canon reference art, along with Coronation, Ash with the team that won him the World Coronation Series in the animated series (Pikachu, Gengar, Lucario, Dragonite, Dracovish and Sirfetch'd), and Showdown, seven heavy hitters from the early games. Check the size guide before you pick a size.
Why it works on the back: every Pokémon is designed to be known by its outline alone, which the animated series turned into a game with "Who's That Pokémon?", so a big back print reads from across the room.
Read next: The Triforce, Majora's Mask and the Zelda timeline explained and Hadoken, Shoryuken and the Satsui no Hado explained.
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