Ice-types are one of the most fascinating groups of Pokémon, but they haven't always been treated fairly in the eyes of players and fans. After an extremely underwhelming introduction to the franchise in Gen I, Ice has been rather poorly treated over several of the following generations.
Ice-types are some of the hardest hitters in the Pokémon universe. So, you would think they would be getting more love from the Game Freak team. Unfortunately, things haven't always turned out that way, and players want to know why. It doesn't make sense that such a cool type would receive such frosty treatment. So with that, here are ten unanswered questions we still have about Ice-types.
10 What's With The Slow Start?
The first generation of Pokémon had lots of issues with balancing the numbers among various Pokémon types. Ice is just one glaring example of the problem. Out of the original 151 Pokémon, there were only five Ice-types, giving the type an immediate handicap within the Pokéverse.
Compounding the problem, of those five original entries, none were pure Ice-types. Game Freak missed the opportunity to give players at least a little variety when they made three of the five into Ice-/Water-type combos.
9 What Was The Deal With Pryce?
One of the main reasons that Gym Leaders exist is to spotlight the new Pokémon available within their Generation. The seventh Gym in Gen II is Ice-themed and has a leader named Pryce. Pryce uses three Pokémon to battle: Seel, Dewgong, and Piloswine.
Already, you can see an issue with this trio. Seel is a pure Water-type Pokémon, which goes against the archetype of the rest of the gym. Seel is also the pre-evolution of Dewgong, making their presence redundant. Out of Pryce's team, only Piloswine is actually from Generation II, despite there being plenty of other new Ice-type Pokémon available, such as Sneasel and Delibird.
8 Why Is Ice The Rarest Type?
Ice is a mainstay element throughout the RPG genre, with the overwhelming majority of RPGs having Ice-themed attacks, areas, characters, and more. So, that begs the question: why is Ice the rarest type in all of Pokémon?
There are currently only 49 Ice-types out of the known 894 Pokémon available through Gen VIII. For what is usually such an elemental staple in RPGs, that number is pathetic. The scarcity of Ice-types doesn't make sense, as icy climates are far from rare in the world of Pokémon. It's not like you need a magical place or situation for Ice-types to appear, like you would with types such as Ghost, Dragon, or Fairy.
7 Why Is Hail So Underdeveloped?
Hail is one of four types of Weather you can set up to give your team an advantage in battle. Of those four however, Hail is the only one that is Ice-based and is by far the least useful. Hail has only two main things going for it.
First, it allows the use of the Move Aurora Veil, which gives your entire team both a Defense and Special Defense boost for five to eight turns. However, that's only if you happen to have Aurora Veil. Secondly, Hail causes the move Blizzard to never miss, which is a very powerful effect (again, if you happen to have Blizzard.) And, that's about it. In comparison, Sandstorm (Hail's counterpart) gives Rock types a 50% Special Defense boost, no special moves needed.
6 Why Does Ice Only Resist Ice?
The Ice-types have a grand total of one resistance (Ice) with no immunities. This easily makes Ice the weakest defensive type. While Ice is archetyped as "hard-hitting" offensively, being this frail defensively is a bit ridiculous. It's not like giving Ice more resistance would make it overbearing.
Ice should at the very least resist Water, Grass, and Dragon. Think about if you pour water on solid ice. What will it do? Not much. Even if it is hot water, the most you're going to do is slowly melt the ice, not instantly destroy it. Additionally, plants (Grass) cannot survive in the cold, and reptiles (Dragon) struggle in low temperatures.
5 Why Are Ice-types Continually Neglected?
Gen I gave us only five Ice-types. After that, Gen II added four, Gen III gave us three, Gen IV added five, Gen V only three, Gen VI a pathetic two, and Gen VII just three. This is like death from a thousand cuts. More should be added to the Pokémon universe.
Thankfully, with Gen VIII, we received a whopping six new Ice-types. So, maybe things are looking up for Ice in terms of quantity of new Pokémon added, but it is still far from becoming a common type anytime soon.
4 Seriously, No (Non-Legendary) Ice/Dragons?
Ice-themed dragon creatures are yet another fixture in the RPG genre. Yet, Pokémon has made only one attempt at adding a Dragon-/Ice-type. This came about in Gen V with the addition of Kyurem, which is, of course, a Legendary. Legendary Pokémon are usually found near or at the end of the game (or even post-game in some instances.) By that point, you certainly have a full team established.
Additionally, Legendaries rarely get put in games outside of the ones they debuted in, and when they do, they're (again) placed very late, making it extremely difficult for a player to use in substantial game-play.
3 Why Was Gen VI So Tough on Ice?
Generation VI as a whole was negligent toward a lot of Pokémon types, Ground, Bug, Poison, and yes, Ice as well. Aurorus and Avalugg were the only new Ice-types added in the entire generation. While they both have excellent designs (and Aurorus has an interesting combo typing), neither is really anything worth celebrating, as they are both slow and frail.
You might think they would have learned by this point to start giving the type a decent amount of attention after six generations of neglect, but no. There's still no love for the frozen.
2 Why Wait Until Gen III To Give Us Pure Ice?
For being a type that has existed from the very beginning of Pokémon, it took until Gen III for the first pure Ice-type to show up. While the strength of pure Ice-typing is nothing to really write home about, the fact that we were three generations in before the first one appeared, just goes to show how neglected the Ice-type has been.
The other somewhat neglected types that got their start in Gen I (Fighting and Dragon) had pure types from the beginning. Yet, it took Ice another two generations to get there.
1 Why Is There An Ice-Type Expert In Every Gen?
You might think, with Ice being the rarest Pokémon type, that Ice experts would be hard to find. However, that has not stopped Game Freak from making an Ice expert for every single region. This seems extremely contradictory. It's as if they can't decide whether they want to give the Ice-type priority or not.
Players will keep the faith that there are more wonderful Ice-types in their future, but no one is banking on it just yet. For now, there remains a glaring need for more cold creatures in the Pokéverse.