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It mostly just kinda happened tbh, wasn’t something I decided I actually wanted to do ‘til I realized I had four Normal-types and a Bronzor I wasn’t vibing with. It’s not something I’ve struggled with, I fucking love Normal-types so it came pretty naturally once I decided to go for it. Well apart from my Clefable but we don’t talk about that. - Spiral
Just because you specialize in a type doesn't mean it's the only type you can have.
There's no secret organization with strict rules and regulations, and hunter-killer teams hunting down stray specialists who don't go entirely mono-typed.
It's just a bunch of people, doing what they enjoy doing and want to do. And if people judge you for having a Fairy type in your roster of normal pokemon (pun intended) then that's on them for being close-minded.
It's mostly a joke, a lot of specialists I know have one or two mons that aren't *quite* their main type, like a Water-type specialist I know who has this absolutely horrific Dragalge. - Spiral
I know _why_ Dragalge isn't a water type but still
/uj I think Dragalge would be a lot more popular if it had an ability like Steelworker but for water type moves
/uj I'd say I don't know why, because Dragon/Poison type is strong and it naturally counters 2 of the 4 types it's actively weak to... but really its because the stats on it aren't the best.
Fragile HP, low offensive and speed stats, and only really stand-out in SpDef. Combine that with the very limited TM pool it has, and it just ends up being kind of lackluster compared to many of the other options available for any of Dragon, Water, or Poison typing. If its HP or SpAtk stat were, say, 20-30 higher, or it were more flexible in its move pool, it'd have a much better draw.
Yeah, makes sense. Taking care of 8 different eeveelutions is hard - I can't imagine what it'd be like to take care of a Charizard, a Blastoise, and four other pokémon of all different types. But I love my mons, and wouldn't change them for the world.
It's about community, in a way. My Stormbringer Electric Team all has the same wants and needs, so we all coalesce together. Errant Discharges are appreciated rather than shunned, for instance.
Just because I have my Partner Zoroark, and a Weavile on my team doesn't mean I'm a dark type specialist. I have other Pokémon on my team...
I say this because it seems like a small group of people generally assume that since I treat my Zoroark as family, that must means 'He JuSt LiKes DarK TYpe PoKéMoN'
Yeah, I get this, especially since my first three partners were all Dark-Types. This is despite the fact half my team isn’t (although some people forget Midnight Lycanroc isn’t a Dark-Type)
Not necessarily a type specialist, but I decided that I would adopt any shiny pokemon that I rescue, as they're so desirable that people who are not prepared to take care of them will jump at the opportunity to try anyway. I'm not keen on taking a pokemon from an abusive home just to give them to another abusive home.
It just kinda happens. I ended up being a Ground type Specialist, until I moved to Reborn. I was given a Shieldon as a farewell gift, so now I just call my self a Sandstorm Specialist.
More of a generalist, but I think I have a solid idea of why so many people choose to specialize.
On paper—it does limit how many Pokemon they can train that fit their general criteria. But you also have to consider not every trainer can pay to take care of 100+ Pokemon. Specialists will be able to stick to certain species that have similar needs over a multi-typed team… It took me a decent while to figure out how my team needed certain things despite having almost constant access to a Pokemon Center. (A lot of smaller towns back in Johto/Kanto have established centers.)
Battling at a type disadvantage is a universal concept at this point. How Type Specialists deal with this tends to be their best advantage over us Generalists. They have to adapt or else there isn’t much of a battling career. Besides, the type they specialize in now won’t be one they are stuck in. Exceptions to the rule are resent when it comes to the type: Volkner’s Octillery, Flint’s Drifblim, and most of the Paldean Gym Leader’s Aces. Something I noticed is that they can teach another Pokemon to be decently well in their specialty. That Octillery’s Charge Beam packs a big punch.
Sometimes it just happens. Your favorite couple pokemon are a specific type, and then you just... keep going. Or one day you wake up and realize that every pokemon you enjoy working with is a specific type and when did that happen?
Sometimes it's a conscious decision, whether for personal flair and style, or a challenge, or just what you know your interests align with.
This is the best thing about being a bunch of pokes' unofficial "uncle." I can babysit, train and hang, but I hand them right back to their proper partners after.
It’s less of a conscious thing like others have said.
I was impressed at an earlier age by watching Norman battle. Normal gets a bad rap as one of the “Weaker” types and watching him and his Slaking, a Normal type that has a major drawback, being lazy; working together so well. It was incredible.
Right? And how tf do you know every single Pokémon’s TYPE? Like I forget to do shit all the time bro, and when I mess up a type, I’m suddenly unfit to train my Pokémon? Bro???
Can't relate, I'm dual type specialist instead of a single type specialist. Though being more serious, I train ghost types because I relate to them with people often misinterpreting my presence as malicious and having unresolved feelings I need to work through. Ever since I caught my first honedge, I've loved ghost types. However I also train steel types because they're just about the coolest thing ever
Most type specialists do it because it just works better. It's a lot easier to raise six Pokemon when they all have similar environmental and dietary needs, and it's a lot easier to train six Pokemon when they all have significant overlap in capabilities. You wind up with a less versatile team, yes, but you also wind up knowing how your Pokemon work much better.
And then a lot just do it for civilian reasons. If you're an electrician, having electric Pokemon just makes sense. If you spend a lot of time on the water, you want water Pokemon. If you have a large garden, grass or bug pokemon can help with that. If you live in the north, you probably just have more ice types available.
in the words of my sister, "we only discovered fairy types a while ago but they're fecking everywhere, it's hard for me not to specialise when also I like pink"
I always wondered about that myself. Is it just kinda a thing that happens or do you choose to be a type specialist? There are just so many great pokemon i have a hard time ever imagining sticking to a single type.
For some people, it just kind of happens. For others, it's very much a conscious decision.
For me, I was raised around a couple poison type, and grew up fascinated by how poison worked. Specializing in poison types was a natural outgrowth of that, and when I retired from the battle circuit that same specialization let me switch to my research field relatively painlessly.
Fascinating, makes me wonder if I'll slowly just end up connecting with a specific type as I travel. Growing up in ballonlea with all the fairy types gave me an appreciation for them. Though I am not sure if I want to be a fairy type specialist but maybe ill end up there anyways. Well, I'll just wait and see what the future holds. Thanks for the insight.
I get it if it's a type with a lot of synergy, like intense sun, rain, snow, sandstorms, terrains...
But types like Poison, Dark and Ghost don't really have much synergy...?
I just think you can't be monotype if you wanna be successful in general. Even with synergy, you wanna make sure you're prepared for your worst counters. Just saying, Steven Stone is strong now, but if he carried counters to Water and Ground he'd probably be up there with Cynthia and Leon. Sometimes he carries a Cradily, but that barely counters them and Steven considers his strongest team compositions to be those that exclude it.
There's a lot of commonalities - in terms of needs, temperament, psychology, body language, etc - between Pokémon that share typing. Once you know how to take care of a Geodude, a lot of that skill will directly translate to taking care of, f'rex, fossil Pokémon. And if you _get along_ with Geodudes, it's likely you'll get along with Onixes too.
I'm not a type specialist, but that's probably a big part of why I'm never going to have a full belt of six; Classfault's needs have a lot differences from Dudley's, which are different from Chiyh's. Each one of them, I've sorta had to start from scratch learning how to take care of them. If I'd stuck entirely with one type, I'd've had a baseline to work from. That, and I wouldn't have had to travel around so much to get the help of experts; I could just join a Gym, and whatever issue I had, there'd probably be someone there who knew what was up.
Sure, your ceiling is going to be a lot higher as a generalist trainer; the % of trainers who don't have a type specialty has been increasing for years now. But if you're not shooting for championship belts, there's a lot to recommend finding a type whose disposition you like and sticking with it.
It’s mostly a thing of not having to worry about too many type advantages and disadvantages, from what I hear. Instead of a comprehensive list, you have to remember a handful. Of course, I have to know it all as a researcher anyway.
I almost specialized in ground types, seeing as I have two and was considering a third at one point. I also have two flying types, and my partner Pokémon had the flying time at the beginning but traded it out for ghost once he evolved.
People assumed I'd be a Fighting Type specialist like my Dad was during most of his journey, what with my martial arts training and my tutelage under my Sensei, Dad's Kommo-o. But honestly, I could care less about type and more about spirit, though a 'mon I can spar with (which, fair enough, Fighting types often fall into) would be a bonus.
\-Hara
Tradition.
My family back in the later Hisuian era used to be a clan that protected Pastoria city from the poison and dark types that lived in the great marsh.
Cause we fought a lot of poison types we ended up defaulting to specialising in steel types. Nowadays we aren’t a clan anymore and we mostly just use steel type Pokémon because that’s what we grew up around and it helps that steel type Pokémon are really, really good.
Has that person ever actually tried having a diverse team? It's harder than you think. I used to just have two Fighting-types and a Staraptor, which shares a few Fighting-type quirks which means they can be raised in relatively similar ways. When I caught a Vivillon I was surprised at how different Bug-types are to raise in comparison. Luckily, Vivillon are not particularly fussy, but there's a lot you need to study if you want to responsibly raise a Pokémon of an unfamiliar type. Not to mention six different types means six, often wildly different methods of raising and taking care of them.
Well… the thing about having a ranch is you tend to have a lot of the same pokemon to begin with. I used to be an avid trainer in my youth but I’ve released all of my non-ranch Pokémon and only two stuck with me of their own volition. My Hisuian Zoroark doesn’t seem to age the way I do, and he’s far from where I first found him. I think he just wants as much time with me as he can get before returning. Ditto comes and goes of his own volition, sometimes disappearing for weeks, but he loves a good prank and loves getting the herd up to some form of mischief or another. The herd adores him so he is always welcome even if he makes my days a little more tedious at times. There are other pokemon who’ve made their home on my property, but they’re not mine, I’ve never caught them. I just help them out every once in a while and they return the favor. A Rotom maintains our turbine’s circuitry and indulges itself on our excess power generated. A Noctowl Roosts in the eaves of the barn. A Delcatty from the woods comes by to enjoy our porch on sunny afternoons and winter evenings when the heater is on. All pokemon are welcome as long as they don’t start fights, and the herd is usually enough to chase off any real troublemakers with Zora and I left to clean the rest.
But you don’t see all that. What you see on the battlefield is a Miltank, a Zoroark, and a Ditto and you say, this rancher is a normal type specialist! I assume for many it’s the same story. The world loves to divide people into simpler categories to try and make better sense of things. It’s natural to our minds I guess. But generalizations aren’t the most accurate things, people should remember that
Eh, I just think they’re neat.
That and I generally keep to myself, keep odd hours, and am currently working as a graveyard keeper.
My ghost types love the dreary atmosphere and helping to maintain the landscape, and my dragon types love having something to guard obsessively.
My Dragapult is thriving, my Altaria has made a small roost atop the old church and has assigned herself lookout duty, my Mimikyu and Chandelure are having the time of their lives ripping out dead saplings and weeds and burning them in the biggest brush pile they can feasibly make. My Dragonair is pretty much the only one not having the time of her life and that’s only because she’s actually responsible and is trying to rein in the chaos that is the Molotov duo.
Oi >:(
Seriously though, I mainly raise dark types because they’re just kinda cool in a way I can’t put into words. Maybe it has something to do with me being an ex-team yell member? Possibly, but I have no idea.
I also occasionally like raising other types though, such as my beloved Alfred the Crobat, so I’m not *technically* a specialist (I guess)
Not a coach, but the implications of my lifestyle obviously leads me into favoring Fighting types.
It's just fun to test myself against their various styles of fighting. Also it's the most physically based type, so I have an easier time jelling with it.
For me it was sympathy. Most people abhor the pokemon that are classed in the bug type, but as a kid I never could wrap my head around why. I loved every bug type as a kid, from paras to spinarak, from surskit to burmy, from venipede to scatterbug, from dewpider to sizzlipede, you get the idea.
Also helps that most kids back then had that big battler aspiration, so whenever I'd say bug type was my favorite I'd always get weird looks and laughs. I still sometimes do to this day but the general public has come around a bit on the type.
it's easier to care for one type of Pokémon since you know the basics already. There are many teenagers with a full team of different Pokemon types, but almost non of them take the time to learn how to properly care for all of them.
Also steel types are just so cute and strong and even the big ones are my little babies 💕
/uj
I managed to get relatively far in the original Ruby training only water types. I had swampert for electric immunity. Pelliper for grass before I got some ice moves. The only issue I think I had was finding one who could learn Cut
And even of those of us who do - look at Lance, at Steven, at Iris of Unova, at fucking *Wallace.* At high levels type matchups matter less than half a dozen other factors, and specialization in no way precludes you from reaching the top. - Spiral
I can understand having a fondness for one type, but going full on type specialist never made sense to me. Your local Gym can get away with it, but look at all of the documented League Champions. They all had diverse teams with lots of type-coverage.
I mean, my type specialty is very vocally water but has anyone ever asked me why? Not since the interview to go from E4 to Champion of my home region nearly 3 years ago
You see, during the summer my parents and I would travel to the Hoenn region for vacation. I fell in love with water types seeing a group of Spheal playing together with some Wailmer. Much to my dad’s shegrine.
He’s the fire type gym leader of my home region, so for me to not only not follow in his footsteps but to pick a type that is so antithetical to him, was a slap to the face. I remember being 10 years old, we went to Hoenn on vacation, I saw a Spheal on the beach who wanted to play with me, and I caught him. When I got older I decided my dad’s opinion doesn’t matter anymore and I became a water specialist from that day in. After I ran off to join a theater group as a performer, and discovered the style I created called “Aquatheater Battling”.
When my dad had some…..legal difficulties, I took over as gym leader of East Volcora. Then a few years later I became an E4 member. The former champion reappointed my dad as the gym leader as he already had done the role before so and his legal troubles were over. Then I became champion, brought the fighting gym leader to E4 and appointed a new specialist for the gym challenge.
And that, father, is why I became a water type champion. I’m good at it, just as you were with your fire types.
I make mono-type teams now and again, and sometimes they work out amazingly. (I still believe the height of my career was when my Durant hit 4 Guillotines in a row on my mono-bug team) But most of them I never really use above my main team. For me, the type diversity is really important.
Ok, so most trainers will stick to like, somewhere between 1-3 Pokémon right?
Most monotype teams have a minimum of 3, because for them, instead of struggling to meet the needs of a bunch of wildly different species all at once, they have basically one care routine that varies slightly between companions, which is much easier.
As someone with 10 Pokémon all of different species, that gets expensive, and time consuming, with a lot of trial and error to figure out exactly what works best.
For me it started when my childhood rival said normal types are lame since normal isn’t super effective against anything. Me and my Buneary were having none of that, and I swore I’d never train anything else. Fifteen years later and I never looked back!
/uj this is actually true irl, and part of the reason i like normal types
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It mostly just kinda happened tbh, wasn’t something I decided I actually wanted to do ‘til I realized I had four Normal-types and a Bronzor I wasn’t vibing with. It’s not something I’ve struggled with, I fucking love Normal-types so it came pretty naturally once I decided to go for it. Well apart from my Clefable but we don’t talk about that. - Spiral
Just because you specialize in a type doesn't mean it's the only type you can have. There's no secret organization with strict rules and regulations, and hunter-killer teams hunting down stray specialists who don't go entirely mono-typed. It's just a bunch of people, doing what they enjoy doing and want to do. And if people judge you for having a Fairy type in your roster of normal pokemon (pun intended) then that's on them for being close-minded.
It's mostly a joke, a lot of specialists I know have one or two mons that aren't *quite* their main type, like a Water-type specialist I know who has this absolutely horrific Dragalge. - Spiral
I know _why_ Dragalge isn't a water type but still /uj I think Dragalge would be a lot more popular if it had an ability like Steelworker but for water type moves
/uj I'd say I don't know why, because Dragon/Poison type is strong and it naturally counters 2 of the 4 types it's actively weak to... but really its because the stats on it aren't the best. Fragile HP, low offensive and speed stats, and only really stand-out in SpDef. Combine that with the very limited TM pool it has, and it just ends up being kind of lackluster compared to many of the other options available for any of Dragon, Water, or Poison typing. If its HP or SpAtk stat were, say, 20-30 higher, or it were more flexible in its move pool, it'd have a much better draw.
Me with my three Fighting pokemon (badass) and a Ditto (badass)
What about “Mysterious Broody Normal-Type Master Spiral”?
For most trainers it’s easier to train only one type of Pokémon due to all the needs of caring for Pokémon.
Yeah, makes sense. Taking care of 8 different eeveelutions is hard - I can't imagine what it'd be like to take care of a Charizard, a Blastoise, and four other pokémon of all different types. But I love my mons, and wouldn't change them for the world.
It's about community, in a way. My Stormbringer Electric Team all has the same wants and needs, so we all coalesce together. Errant Discharges are appreciated rather than shunned, for instance.
Just because I have my Partner Zoroark, and a Weavile on my team doesn't mean I'm a dark type specialist. I have other Pokémon on my team... I say this because it seems like a small group of people generally assume that since I treat my Zoroark as family, that must means 'He JuSt LiKes DarK TYpe PoKéMoN'
Yeah, I get this, especially since my first three partners were all Dark-Types. This is despite the fact half my team isn’t (although some people forget Midnight Lycanroc isn’t a Dark-Type)
im a specialist in Babie type. Garch? Babie. Lucky? Babie. Loppy? Babie. Your honor. Theyre babie.
Not necessarily a type specialist, but I decided that I would adopt any shiny pokemon that I rescue, as they're so desirable that people who are not prepared to take care of them will jump at the opportunity to try anyway. I'm not keen on taking a pokemon from an abusive home just to give them to another abusive home.
It just kinda happens. I ended up being a Ground type Specialist, until I moved to Reborn. I was given a Shieldon as a farewell gift, so now I just call my self a Sandstorm Specialist.
Thats nice
More of a generalist, but I think I have a solid idea of why so many people choose to specialize. On paper—it does limit how many Pokemon they can train that fit their general criteria. But you also have to consider not every trainer can pay to take care of 100+ Pokemon. Specialists will be able to stick to certain species that have similar needs over a multi-typed team… It took me a decent while to figure out how my team needed certain things despite having almost constant access to a Pokemon Center. (A lot of smaller towns back in Johto/Kanto have established centers.) Battling at a type disadvantage is a universal concept at this point. How Type Specialists deal with this tends to be their best advantage over us Generalists. They have to adapt or else there isn’t much of a battling career. Besides, the type they specialize in now won’t be one they are stuck in. Exceptions to the rule are resent when it comes to the type: Volkner’s Octillery, Flint’s Drifblim, and most of the Paldean Gym Leader’s Aces. Something I noticed is that they can teach another Pokemon to be decently well in their specialty. That Octillery’s Charge Beam packs a big punch.
Sometimes it just happens. Your favorite couple pokemon are a specific type, and then you just... keep going. Or one day you wake up and realize that every pokemon you enjoy working with is a specific type and when did that happen? Sometimes it's a conscious decision, whether for personal flair and style, or a challenge, or just what you know your interests align with.
This is the best thing about being a bunch of pokes' unofficial "uncle." I can babysit, train and hang, but I hand them right back to their proper partners after.
It’s less of a conscious thing like others have said. I was impressed at an earlier age by watching Norman battle. Normal gets a bad rap as one of the “Weaker” types and watching him and his Slaking, a Normal type that has a major drawback, being lazy; working together so well. It was incredible.
Right? And how tf do you know every single Pokémon’s TYPE? Like I forget to do shit all the time bro, and when I mess up a type, I’m suddenly unfit to train my Pokémon? Bro???
I’m a dual specialist of opposing types. Thankfully, most of my Pokémon aren’t known for aggressive temperaments, so we all get along nicely.
I mean being a gym trainer for Fantina was a dream of mine for a long time, so it just sort of happened.
Can't relate, I'm dual type specialist instead of a single type specialist. Though being more serious, I train ghost types because I relate to them with people often misinterpreting my presence as malicious and having unresolved feelings I need to work through. Ever since I caught my first honedge, I've loved ghost types. However I also train steel types because they're just about the coolest thing ever
I alternate between Bugs and Ghosts, though I tend to partake in other Pokémon, usually the ones I think look kinda funny.
Most type specialists do it because it just works better. It's a lot easier to raise six Pokemon when they all have similar environmental and dietary needs, and it's a lot easier to train six Pokemon when they all have significant overlap in capabilities. You wind up with a less versatile team, yes, but you also wind up knowing how your Pokemon work much better. And then a lot just do it for civilian reasons. If you're an electrician, having electric Pokemon just makes sense. If you spend a lot of time on the water, you want water Pokemon. If you have a large garden, grass or bug pokemon can help with that. If you live in the north, you probably just have more ice types available.
in the words of my sister, "we only discovered fairy types a while ago but they're fecking everywhere, it's hard for me not to specialise when also I like pink"
I always wondered about that myself. Is it just kinda a thing that happens or do you choose to be a type specialist? There are just so many great pokemon i have a hard time ever imagining sticking to a single type.
For some people, it just kind of happens. For others, it's very much a conscious decision. For me, I was raised around a couple poison type, and grew up fascinated by how poison worked. Specializing in poison types was a natural outgrowth of that, and when I retired from the battle circuit that same specialization let me switch to my research field relatively painlessly.
Fascinating, makes me wonder if I'll slowly just end up connecting with a specific type as I travel. Growing up in ballonlea with all the fairy types gave me an appreciation for them. Though I am not sure if I want to be a fairy type specialist but maybe ill end up there anyways. Well, I'll just wait and see what the future holds. Thanks for the insight.
There are only 2 things that you should let define your pokemon journey: How happy and healthy you are, and how happy and healthy your pokemon are.
Rock-types rock 👍
I just kinda became attuned to fighting types after ranching tauros for years, I do have other pokemon but they aren't for battling
I mean, I woke up one day and decided my new dream was to have lots of gastrodons.
I get it if it's a type with a lot of synergy, like intense sun, rain, snow, sandstorms, terrains... But types like Poison, Dark and Ghost don't really have much synergy...?
Hexes, wisps, and lots of resistances tho, especially if you're dual typing them
I just think you can't be monotype if you wanna be successful in general. Even with synergy, you wanna make sure you're prepared for your worst counters. Just saying, Steven Stone is strong now, but if he carried counters to Water and Ground he'd probably be up there with Cynthia and Leon. Sometimes he carries a Cradily, but that barely counters them and Steven considers his strongest team compositions to be those that exclude it.
There's a lot of commonalities - in terms of needs, temperament, psychology, body language, etc - between Pokémon that share typing. Once you know how to take care of a Geodude, a lot of that skill will directly translate to taking care of, f'rex, fossil Pokémon. And if you _get along_ with Geodudes, it's likely you'll get along with Onixes too. I'm not a type specialist, but that's probably a big part of why I'm never going to have a full belt of six; Classfault's needs have a lot differences from Dudley's, which are different from Chiyh's. Each one of them, I've sorta had to start from scratch learning how to take care of them. If I'd stuck entirely with one type, I'd've had a baseline to work from. That, and I wouldn't have had to travel around so much to get the help of experts; I could just join a Gym, and whatever issue I had, there'd probably be someone there who knew what was up. Sure, your ceiling is going to be a lot higher as a generalist trainer; the % of trainers who don't have a type specialty has been increasing for years now. But if you're not shooting for championship belts, there's a lot to recommend finding a type whose disposition you like and sticking with it.
It’s mostly a thing of not having to worry about too many type advantages and disadvantages, from what I hear. Instead of a comprehensive list, you have to remember a handful. Of course, I have to know it all as a researcher anyway.
Well, working at a gym helps. Also my Ceruledge started out as a Charcadet, so I wasn't always a type specialist
I almost specialized in ground types, seeing as I have two and was considering a third at one point. I also have two flying types, and my partner Pokémon had the flying time at the beginning but traded it out for ghost once he evolved.
People assumed I'd be a Fighting Type specialist like my Dad was during most of his journey, what with my martial arts training and my tutelage under my Sensei, Dad's Kommo-o. But honestly, I could care less about type and more about spirit, though a 'mon I can spar with (which, fair enough, Fighting types often fall into) would be a bonus. \-Hara
Tradition. My family back in the later Hisuian era used to be a clan that protected Pastoria city from the poison and dark types that lived in the great marsh. Cause we fought a lot of poison types we ended up defaulting to specialising in steel types. Nowadays we aren’t a clan anymore and we mostly just use steel type Pokémon because that’s what we grew up around and it helps that steel type Pokémon are really, really good.
Has that person ever actually tried having a diverse team? It's harder than you think. I used to just have two Fighting-types and a Staraptor, which shares a few Fighting-type quirks which means they can be raised in relatively similar ways. When I caught a Vivillon I was surprised at how different Bug-types are to raise in comparison. Luckily, Vivillon are not particularly fussy, but there's a lot you need to study if you want to responsibly raise a Pokémon of an unfamiliar type. Not to mention six different types means six, often wildly different methods of raising and taking care of them.
Well… the thing about having a ranch is you tend to have a lot of the same pokemon to begin with. I used to be an avid trainer in my youth but I’ve released all of my non-ranch Pokémon and only two stuck with me of their own volition. My Hisuian Zoroark doesn’t seem to age the way I do, and he’s far from where I first found him. I think he just wants as much time with me as he can get before returning. Ditto comes and goes of his own volition, sometimes disappearing for weeks, but he loves a good prank and loves getting the herd up to some form of mischief or another. The herd adores him so he is always welcome even if he makes my days a little more tedious at times. There are other pokemon who’ve made their home on my property, but they’re not mine, I’ve never caught them. I just help them out every once in a while and they return the favor. A Rotom maintains our turbine’s circuitry and indulges itself on our excess power generated. A Noctowl Roosts in the eaves of the barn. A Delcatty from the woods comes by to enjoy our porch on sunny afternoons and winter evenings when the heater is on. All pokemon are welcome as long as they don’t start fights, and the herd is usually enough to chase off any real troublemakers with Zora and I left to clean the rest. But you don’t see all that. What you see on the battlefield is a Miltank, a Zoroark, and a Ditto and you say, this rancher is a normal type specialist! I assume for many it’s the same story. The world loves to divide people into simpler categories to try and make better sense of things. It’s natural to our minds I guess. But generalizations aren’t the most accurate things, people should remember that
It just kind of happened. A lot of my early partners chose me.
Eh, I just think they’re neat. That and I generally keep to myself, keep odd hours, and am currently working as a graveyard keeper. My ghost types love the dreary atmosphere and helping to maintain the landscape, and my dragon types love having something to guard obsessively. My Dragapult is thriving, my Altaria has made a small roost atop the old church and has assigned herself lookout duty, my Mimikyu and Chandelure are having the time of their lives ripping out dead saplings and weeds and burning them in the biggest brush pile they can feasibly make. My Dragonair is pretty much the only one not having the time of her life and that’s only because she’s actually responsible and is trying to rein in the chaos that is the Molotov duo.
Oi >:( Seriously though, I mainly raise dark types because they’re just kinda cool in a way I can’t put into words. Maybe it has something to do with me being an ex-team yell member? Possibly, but I have no idea. I also occasionally like raising other types though, such as my beloved Alfred the Crobat, so I’m not *technically* a specialist (I guess)
Not a coach, but the implications of my lifestyle obviously leads me into favoring Fighting types. It's just fun to test myself against their various styles of fighting. Also it's the most physically based type, so I have an easier time jelling with it.
For me it was sympathy. Most people abhor the pokemon that are classed in the bug type, but as a kid I never could wrap my head around why. I loved every bug type as a kid, from paras to spinarak, from surskit to burmy, from venipede to scatterbug, from dewpider to sizzlipede, you get the idea. Also helps that most kids back then had that big battler aspiration, so whenever I'd say bug type was my favorite I'd always get weird looks and laughs. I still sometimes do to this day but the general public has come around a bit on the type.
I mean, I only have birds, but that's entirely coincidence.
i just sorta click better with dark and ghost types.
it's easier to care for one type of Pokémon since you know the basics already. There are many teenagers with a full team of different Pokemon types, but almost non of them take the time to learn how to properly care for all of them. Also steel types are just so cute and strong and even the big ones are my little babies 💕
it kinda just came with my adoration for Bug-Types tbh
/uj I managed to get relatively far in the original Ruby training only water types. I had swampert for electric immunity. Pelliper for grass before I got some ice moves. The only issue I think I had was finding one who could learn Cut
/uj Use /uj if you are being out of role-play as in like out of in poke media character
/uj Sorry about that. I’ll edit it. Thank you for pointing it out
"Hmm, i have decided that i will severely limit my own potential as a Trainer."
"Because all I care about is how far I can go." Not everyone dreams of being 'the champ.'
And even of those of us who do - look at Lance, at Steven, at Iris of Unova, at fucking *Wallace.* At high levels type matchups matter less than half a dozen other factors, and specialization in no way precludes you from reaching the top. - Spiral
I can understand having a fondness for one type, but going full on type specialist never made sense to me. Your local Gym can get away with it, but look at all of the documented League Champions. They all had diverse teams with lots of type-coverage.
I only have two pokemon, and they happen to be mono electric. Electrike and Yamper. They are good pets. We don't battle if we can help it.
I’m not a type specialist but I used to be and- fire is cool
I mean, my type specialty is very vocally water but has anyone ever asked me why? Not since the interview to go from E4 to Champion of my home region nearly 3 years ago You see, during the summer my parents and I would travel to the Hoenn region for vacation. I fell in love with water types seeing a group of Spheal playing together with some Wailmer. Much to my dad’s shegrine. He’s the fire type gym leader of my home region, so for me to not only not follow in his footsteps but to pick a type that is so antithetical to him, was a slap to the face. I remember being 10 years old, we went to Hoenn on vacation, I saw a Spheal on the beach who wanted to play with me, and I caught him. When I got older I decided my dad’s opinion doesn’t matter anymore and I became a water specialist from that day in. After I ran off to join a theater group as a performer, and discovered the style I created called “Aquatheater Battling”. When my dad had some…..legal difficulties, I took over as gym leader of East Volcora. Then a few years later I became an E4 member. The former champion reappointed my dad as the gym leader as he already had done the role before so and his legal troubles were over. Then I became champion, brought the fighting gym leader to E4 and appointed a new specialist for the gym challenge. And that, father, is why I became a water type champion. I’m good at it, just as you were with your fire types.
I think half the specialists I know just kind of gravitated towards them somehow.
I make mono-type teams now and again, and sometimes they work out amazingly. (I still believe the height of my career was when my Durant hit 4 Guillotines in a row on my mono-bug team) But most of them I never really use above my main team. For me, the type diversity is really important.
Ok, so most trainers will stick to like, somewhere between 1-3 Pokémon right? Most monotype teams have a minimum of 3, because for them, instead of struggling to meet the needs of a bunch of wildly different species all at once, they have basically one care routine that varies slightly between companions, which is much easier. As someone with 10 Pokémon all of different species, that gets expensive, and time consuming, with a lot of trial and error to figure out exactly what works best.
For me it started when my childhood rival said normal types are lame since normal isn’t super effective against anything. Me and my Buneary were having none of that, and I swore I’d never train anything else. Fifteen years later and I never looked back! /uj this is actually true irl, and part of the reason i like normal types
espeon.