Dark (type)

If you were looking for the moves known as Dark moves in Japanese, see Shadow move.

Types

Normal

Fire

Fighting

Water

Flying

Grass

Poison

Electric

Ground

Psychic

Rock

Ice

Bug

Dragon

Ghost

Dark

Steel

Fairy

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Stellar

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The Dark type (Japanese: あくタイプ Evil type) is one of the eighteen types. Notable Trainers that specialize in Dark-type Pokémon are Karen of the Johto Elite Four, Sidney of the Hoenn Elite Four, and Grimsley of the Unova Elite Four. Notably, the Dark type is the only type that has never had a Pokémon Gym specialize in it. Prior to changes in Generation IV all Dark-type moves were special, but they may now also be physical depending on the attack. Dark-type Pokémon were added in Generation II.

Statistical averages

Overall

Fully evolved

Battle properties

Generation II-V

Offensive			Defensive
Power	Types		Power	Types
2×			½×
½×			2×
0×	None		0×

Generation VI-onward

Offensive			Defensive
Power	Types		Power	Types
2×			½×
½×			2×
0×	None		0×

Characteristics

Defense

Dark-type Pokémon are notable for the fact that they don't have any strong stat trends other than Attack (which is in and of itself modified by a few powerful outliers and slightly ironic as Dark was a special type, not a physical type), but usually have relatively poor defenses, with the exception of Umbreon, Spiritomb, Bisharp, Drapion, Scrafty, Mandibuzz and Tyranitar. On the plus side, Dark types have an immunity to Psychic-type moves.

Additionally, prior to Generation VI, Pokémon that are both Dark-type and Ghost-type have no weaknesses (excluding Fighting-type moves used under immunity-negating conditions such as Ring Target or Scrappy), as the resistances of the Dark type cover the weaknesses of Ghost, and vice-versa. In Generation VI, the Fairy type was introduced, which is super effective against Dark and not resisted by Ghost, so these Pokémon now have a weakness to Fairy.

Meanwhile, a Psychic/Dark-type Pokémon, such as Inkay and Malamar, has no resistances while having a double weakness to Bug-type moves, a single weakness to Fairy-type moves and an immunity to Psychic.

Offense

Dark-type moves, when combating Psychic types, are especially useful due to their secondary effects; Crunch lowers Defense (an already low stat among Psychic types), Bite causes flinching, Faint Attack never misses, Night Slash has a high critical hit ratio while Pursuit hits Pokémon as they switch for double damage. Many Dark-type moves also involve stealing or deception, such as moves like: Thief, which steals an opponent's held item; Snatch, which steals the beneficial effects of an opponent's moves; and Foul Play, which uses a number of the opponent's offensive modifiers, such as Attack, to calculate damage.

Even though the Dark type was considered a special type prior to Generation IV, the three Dark-type moves that are currently special (Dark Pulse, Snarl and Night Daze) were introduced after Generation III, meaning that all Dark-type moves that were once special moves are now all physical moves, which helps many Dark types since most of them are physical attackers.

Contest properties

When used in Contests, Dark-type moves typically are of the Smart category, but can also fall in any of the other four Contest categories.

Pokémon

As of Generation VI, there are 45 Dark-type Pokémon or 6.1% of all Pokémon (counting forms and Mega Evolutions that change typing as different Pokémon).

Pure Dark-type Pokémon

# Name 197 Umbreon 261 Poochyena 262 Mightyena 359 Absol 491 Darkrai 509 Purrloin 510 Liepard 570 Zorua 571 Zoroark

Pokéstar Studios opponents

# Name N/A Monster

Half Dark-type Pokémon

Primary Dark-type Pokémon

# Name Type 1 Type 2 198 Murkrow Dark Flying 215 Sneasel Dark Ice 228 Houndour Dark Fire 229 Houndoom Dark Fire 302 Sableye Dark Ghost 430 Honchkrow Dark Flying 461 Weavile Dark Ice 559 Scraggy Dark Fighting 560 Scrafty Dark Fighting 624 Pawniard Dark Steel 625 Bisharp Dark Steel 629 Vullaby Dark Flying 630 Mandibuzz Dark Flying 633 Deino Dark Dragon 634 Zweilous Dark Dragon 635 Hydreigon Dark Dragon 686 Inkay Dark Psychic 687 Malamar Dark Psychic 717 Yveltal Dark Flying

Secondary Dark-type Pokémon

# Name Type 1 Type 2 130 Gyarados* Water Dark 248 Tyranitar Rock Dark 274 Nuzleaf Grass Dark 275 Shiftry Grass Dark 318 Carvanha Water Dark 319 Sharpedo Water Dark 332 Cacturne Grass Dark 342 Crawdaunt Water Dark 434 Stunky Poison Dark 435 Skuntank Poison Dark 442 Spiritomb Ghost Dark 452 Drapion Poison Dark 551 Sandile Ground Dark 552 Krokorok Ground Dark 553 Krookodile Ground Dark 658 Greninja Water Dark 675 Pangoro Fighting Dark

Pokéstar Studios opponents

# Name Type 1 Type 2 N/A Brycen-man Dark Psychic N/A Majin Dark Ghost

Moves

Trivia

• Generation V introduced the most Dark-type Pokémon of any generation (minus Generation I), with 16, and Generation VI introduced the fewest Dark-type Pokémon, with five.
• Generation IV introduced the most Dark-type moves of any generation (minus Generation I), with 11, and Generation V introduced the fewest Dark-type moves, with five.
• In Generation II, the Dark type saw one retroactive type change in a move (Bite), but no change in a Pokémon. The opposite is true for the Steel type, which saw one retroactive type change in a Pokémon family (Magnemite and Magneton), but no change in a move.
• There has yet to be a Pokémon Gym that specializes in the Dark type.
• Because Dark-type moves are only super effective against the Psychic and Ghost types, and there has not yet been a Pokémon with that type combination, Dark-type moves cannot currently deal 4× damage.
• Despite Dark-type moves being exclusively special before the physical/special split, every Dark-type move introduced before the split was made a physical move.
• Dark is the only type without a move that has 100 or more base power, not considering Fling with an Iron Ball.
• Dark is the only type not represented by a Pokémon (retroactive or otherwise) in the Kanto regional Pokédex, not counting Mega Gyarados. Consequently, it is the only type absent from a regional Pokédex.

In other languages

Language Title Japanese あく (悪) Aku Mandarin Chinese 惡 / 恶 È 邪惡 / 邪恶 Xié'è Danish Mørke Dutch Duister Donker Finnish Pimeys Pimeä French Ténèbres German Unlicht Greek Σκοταδιού Skotadiou Hebrew אופל Offel Indonesian Kegelapan Italian Buio Korean 악 Ak Norwegian Mørk Polish Mroczny Brazilian Portuguese Sombrio Noturno Romanian Întuneric Russian Тёмный Tyomnii Spanish Latin America Oscuridad Spain Siniestro Swedish Mörker Thai มืด or ความมืด