How Fire Type Pokemon Became Broken

This is the history of Fire Type Pokemon and how they went from bad to broken!

[JPRPokeTrainer]

You guys get JPR Friday an hour early bc I’m sitting the World Championships crowd rn lol, enjoy!

Also wanted to clarify, Hidden Power is a Gen 2 move, but didn’t see widespread usage until it was reworked in Gen 3, just thought I should clarify that point

[tedscheett]

A few things you missed or just skipped over.

In Generation 2, Fire gained a resistance to Ice and Steel, meaning the Fire type went from a pretty average 3 resistances, to the type with the second most resistances of any type in one generation. By Gen 6, Fire's Resistances had Doubled from where it was in Gen 1.

In Gen 4, Stealth Rocks were introduced, which made Fire types tricky to use. The ones that did see usage typically had a neutrality to Stealth Rocks. One of the reasons behind Heatran seeing wide usage was because of it's neutrality to Rocks, although having 11 resistances at the time, as well as two immunities, one natural and one from it's ability certainly helped.

Gen 6 gave us Megas, and by far some of the best Megas were the Charizards. Despite it's glaring Stealth Rock quad weakness, Mega Charizard Y was one of the strongest Fire Types in Gen 6, being a powerful Sun setter that could immediately take advantage of the weather to fire off boosted Fire moves or no charge Solarbeams. Charizard X was the more Physically oriented version but dropped it's Flying type for Dragon, making it Neutral to Fairy and taking less damage from Stealth Rocks. The fact Charizard had two Megas would set up some mind games. Would you have to face Sun boosted Flamethrowers and Heat Waves, or Tough Claws boosted Flare Blitz?

And while you did meantion Incineroar, I think it bears mentioning to how insane Incin is. This Pokemon is perhaps the most deceptively bulky Pokemon out there. Typically, when you see base 90 or 95, in a stat, you don't bat an eye (Flareon can relate). But through what I can only assume is some black magic, Incineroar is able to live hits like no other. And like a heel wrestler, it's can pull out the most absurd moves. Fake Out, Snarl, Flare Blitz, Will-o-wisp, Knock Off, Helping Hand, U-Turn, Parting Shot, Taunt, Leech Life, Close Combat, Throat Chop, Stomping Tantrum, Acrobatics, Swords Dance, Darkest Lariat, the list goes ON. It is perhaps the most absurd Fire Type Pokemon to date, at least in VGC. Whenever it is legal, it will almost certainly be top 10 in usage.

Finally, in Gen 8, Heavy-duty Boots revolutionized the Fire type. Gone were the days of fearing Stealth Rocks and now the Fire types would have their day.

So would I say the Fire type is one of the most powerful types? Yes, 200%, yes. It's also one of the types that has quietly gained more and more power, much like a fire does.

[JohnDoe-dfbl]

I find it so funny that FIRE of all types is mediocre at best offensively but the second best defensive type ever.

[ghost_curse]

If you're in Hawaii and see JPR the only appropriate greeting is "Good morning JPR, good morning. It's everybody" regardless of what the actual time of day is

[BaithNa]

Fire is definitely not the best type but its become one of the best counters to the best types

[Jlaps]

1:57 fun fact, the weather moves being from Gen 2 is why Solar Beam is 200 power in the Let’s Go games, since there’s no way to bypass the charge turn without it and GF wanted to keep LGPE mostly faithful to Gen 1 and not include them. It applies to Sky Attack too since there’s no Power Herb due to LGPE not having held items

[Nosretep]

Gen 9 is the only Generation where all three Starters have amazing Hidden Abilities.

[The_Meme_Lady_]

Fire types have been my favorite starters ever since I was small, so it becoming so good makes me happy

[CrimpyPlate]

10:24 It also helps that fire can deal with a lot of grass's weaknesses

Fire - a lot of fire type pokemon can have Flash Fire as an ability. Heatran being the most prevalent. But Armorouge, Ceruledge, and Arcanine are also big threats that can have that ability

Ice - fire beats ice. Not to mention, aside from a small handful of pokemon, most ice types (for some reason) are slow. So most of the time, a fire type can outspeed and KO

Bug - next

Flying and poison are really the only types you'd need to worry about. But going from 3 weaknesses down to 2 at the push of a button is a pretty good trade, I'd say

[CenterSteadfast]

As a basic boi who loves charmander and always runs fire on a playthrough…this video made me very happy(:

[dammaoe]

By the way, if you didn't notice, Fire is really underated as a defensive type

[ShadyRK]

Ah, back then when Pokémon almost didn't have any coverages and they mostly ONLY knew moves to their types.


Also love how Torkoal basically became a fire type Peliper where in their debut Gens they was kinda useless/bad but recently got a buff and a much better ability to boost their popularity now!


And my favorite fire types is Arcanine, Alolan Marowak, Turtonator, and Kantoian Rapidash. 🔥

[gtdqlmq]

Watch Game Freak make Litten the Fire Starter in Legends Z-A just so that Incineroar can get a Mega Evolution

[harleyevans]

Flys under the radar but the drop off of stealth rock usage really helps out a lot of fire types that are 4x weak to rock.

[FreeTempest]

Don't forget that it didn't resist ice in generation 1, which they changed in generation 2 along with it resisting steel, so it got two resistances between the generations

[silveratlas]

Thinking in gen 1 fire types only resisted Bug, Grass and Fire moves is insane how much they improved.
Not having them resist Ice until Gen 2 was wild to find out.

[DOW]

7:27 I was today days old when I realized these 2 use the same color pattern

[SuperbGorilla]

Guess the design team hasn't burned out yet ...

[Circmspice]

As a non competitive player I thought fire types would be bad because of stealth rock weakness but then I remembered incineroar exists

[lucygirl]

my favorite fire type i can't really pick between 3 of them Darmanatan, Fuecoco and Centiskortch