Something that could be argued as important to the Pokemon series as the creatures themselves is the types that classify them. Game Freak's most famous IP has always been known for being a more complex version of rock-paper-scissors featuring many different elements to change things up. In order to keep the game balanced and interesting, some Pokemon have more than just one type. Plenty of these powerful critters have two types to their name, and some are much rarer to find in the series than others.
When it comes to competitive Pokemon, type combinations are incredibly important as it gives certain creatures vastly different weaknesses and advantages based on what types they're up against. It's also important for a full team of six critters to have full coverage over any weaknesses to work properly, among other things that make the competitive play in the games so interesting. Some dual-type Pokemon have such incredible coverage that they've risked changing the game by just being added, such as Hisuian Zoroark and Zorua.
The Rarest Type Combinations
In order to figure out how rare certain type combinations are in Pokemon, fans should keep a few things in mind. While there are just over 900 Pocket Monsters as of this writing, tons of them share the same type combination with other creatures. Due to this, there are quite a lot of type combinations that only have one creature, or one evolutionary line, to represent them. Some of these critters are much easier to find than others, such as Bibarel, the series' current only Normal/Water Pokemon.
This situation is only amplified by how some Pocket Monsters won't be obtainable once the Nintendo 3DS eShop shuts down next year, and Pokemon Bank will only be accessible to those who have the application already downloaded onto their system. This makes the creatures that players can only catch in the DS and 3DS games far rarer than even most legendaries, as modes such as the Dynamax Adventures have made legendaries notably easier to get. The Pokemon-type combinations that are rare to catch and obtain can be found below.
- Fairy/Ice
- Dragon/Fairy
- Ground/Dark
- Rock/Electric
- Ground/Electric
- Poison/Fairy
- Grass/Ground
- Electric/Fire
- Electric/Normal
- Ice/Fire
- Normal/Grass
- Electric/Grass
- Dark/Psychic
- Electric/Psychic
- Dark/Steel
- Water/Steel
- Rock/Dark
- Bug/Fairy
- Psychic/Poison
- Bug/Ghost
- Dragon/Fighting
- Ice/Steel
Why these Types Combinations are the Rarest in Pokemon
While it may seem like some type combos on the list above are more common, players might think one type combination is used more than it is because a Pocket Monster may be incredibly well-known while also being the only Pokemon with that type combination. Sandile and its evolutions, for example, might be available in Pokemon Sword and Shield, but they're surprisingly the only Ground/Dark-type creatures found in the series. This situation is shockingly common in a franchise full of so many critters for players to catch.
Stunfisk, which can be found easily in its Galarian Form in Sword and Shield, is the series' only Ground/Electric-type in its original form from Generation 5. Pokemon's only Dragon/Fairy-type representative so far is Mega Altaria, which is completely inaccessible in every Switch title. As a rather egregious example, Deerling and Sawsbuck are more generation 5 Pokemon that represent a type combination by themselves, Normal/Grass, and players can't catch either in any games found on the Switch.
How to Expand the Type Combinations Available
As Game Freak works towards making new critters to represent as many type combinations as possible, the developers should look into possibly fixing the accidental scarcity with these types at the same time. When it comes to the regional variants that have a unique typing to them, simply making it easier for players to get a hold of them would be a great place to start. Sword and Shield players have no way to get Unovan Skunfisk unless they either trade from Pokemon Home or trade with one specific NPC that fans could easily miss, for instance. For many of these Pokemon, the issue is all in a lack of accessibility to the creature itself.
However, not every type combination can be made available by just allowing the Pokemon to be caught or traded. Mega Altaria is a big example of this problem, since the only Dragon/Fairy-type creature in the series is tied to a battle mechanic that Game Freak doesn't seem too interested in revisiting anytime soon. The only solution to situations like this is to create a new Pokemon. This may gradually be tackled, as newly introduced critters have resulted in never-before-used type combinations reaching the game.
Even creating plenty of new creatures most likely won't be a permanent fix to the lingering issues of type combinations slowly being made unavailable. In order to make sure the series doesn't fall into creating a secret kind of rarity with these specific Pokemon, Game Freak should think a bit more carefully about the creatures used in each region. A fair deal of trainers are well aware that GameFreak incidentally likes to play favorites. This can be easily seen with how Pokemon like Lucario have made it into almost every game on the Switch so far, among other popular and nostalgic choices.
If this situation continues, however, Game Freak's implied mission to make sure there's a Pokemon available for each and every type will eventually backfire. This is bound to happen as some forgotten creatures are left out despite that they're the only creature available that fits a certain type combo. This is partially due to the choice Game Freak made to remove the National Dex from recent titles, which was done to make development easier. The accidental scarcity with these Pokemon can easily be fixed by making sure these critters and type combos aren't left out by accident, and this needs to be kept in mind if the series is to ever have a game featuring every type combination.
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet will launch on the Nintendo Switch in late 2022.