Is Charizard weak to Ice? (Why is Charizard weak to Ice?)
When Generation One Pokémon types came, fire types couldn’t resist ice, allowing it to deal full damage on fire types. For a while, this never made sense to me.
I mean, neutral or normal damage would have made sense. But ice is super effective? That’s one of my least favorite things about Charizard.
Despite being one of the most amazing Pokémon ever created, it can still receive damage from water and ice-type moves (can you believe it? 🙄🤦).
Here’s why.
Why is Charizard weak to ice?
The creators of the Pokémon games established a system to determine the type effectiveness of all Pokémon types against each other.
These relationships have an aspect of nature and logic to them. For example, elemental types: fire, water, grass, ground, and electricity gain their relationships from the natural order. Fire burns grass, and water puts out fire.
Based on this logic, ice types are effective against fire-type Pokémon like Charizard.
Charizard is a half-flying type hence it is weak to ice. Ice types are super effective against grass, ground, dragon, and flying types.
Charizard is a dual-fire flying- type therefore, it can still be damaged by ice even though fire is effective against it.
To balance the games, the creators had to ensure that each Pokémon type was weak to something. If the Charizard is superior or neutral against ice, it would be a more superior Pokémon, affecting the balance and general entertainment level of the games and movies.
Do you want a more logical reason outside of gaming rules and balance?
🦎Charizard is designed based on reptiles and fire-breathing dragons, right? According to mythology and lore, salamanders and lizards belonged in fire and generally hot places.
The cold and water also affected these reptiles, according to the stories. So, you have a Pokémon designed off of lizards, isn’t it logical to give it similar habits?
I believe that contributed to Charizard’s association with fire and being weakened by the cold (water and ice).
In addition, Charizard takes part of its design inspiration from traditional European dragons🐉. According to mythology, a dragon would die if its heart was frozen since it couldn’t create any more fire. Similarly, ice-type can damage the Charizard.
Why is the ice type effective against Charizard?
Ice types are super-effective against grass, ground, flying, and dragon types. They are not effective against fire, water, ice, and steel.
Being a dual-fire flying-type Pokémon, Charizard receives normal levels of damage from ice types since it bears the flying-type.
Here is a table to clarify the strengths and weaknesses of Charizard based on its typing.
|
Pokémon Type |
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
|
Fire |
Bug Grass Ice Steel |
Ground Rock Water |
|
Flying |
Bug Fighting Grass |
Rock Electric Ice |
What ice-type moves are effective against Charizard?
Rock, water, and electric-type moves are super effective against Charizard, so in a competition against Charizard, I’ll always go for those.
However, this article is about ice types, so I tried finding move sets that work for that.
Using frost breath or ice shard as a fast move with Blizzard as a charge move is probably the most effective strategy against Charizard.
Dual-water ice-type Pokémon such as Cloyster, Dewgong, and Lapras are your best bet here. Dual-flying ice-type Pokémon like Articuno, or water-type Pokémon like Seel would also offer a good fighting chance.
As a Pokemon gaming expert, there is no Pokemon game that I have not played. The last 15 years have been quite entertaining since I have been playing this game and gaining more experience each day. My expertise has also given me the opportunity to participate in some of the greatest Pokemon tournaments. With such experience, I am enthusiastic about sharing my insights on Pokemon games with every Pokewolf reader to help you become a pro! You can read more about me on the about us page.
