Dragon (type)

The **Dragon type** (Japanese: **ドラゴンタイプ** *Dragon type*) is one of the eighteen types. Notable Trainers who specialize in Dragon-type Pokémon are Lance, the current Champion of the Indigo Plateau, Clair of Blackthorn City, Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four, Drayden of Opelucid City, Iris, the current Champion of the Unova Pokémon League, Drasna of the Kalos Elite Four, Zinnia of the Draconid people, and Ryuki. Prior to changes in Generation IV, all damaging Dragon-type moves were special, but they may now also be physical depending on the attack.

## Characteristics

### Defense

Defensively, Dragon types have powerful resistances to {{Electric}}, {{Fire}}, {{Grass}}, and {{Water}}; the types of the traditional starter Pokémon including Pikachu. However, they are weak to Ice, and indeed many fully-evolved Dragon-type Pokémon have secondary types of either {{Flying}} or {{Ground}}, resulting in a double weakness to it, and combined with the high Special Attack averages for Ice types this means they are generally taken down in one hit. They are also weak to themselves, although their high stat totals mean they can generally sustain more than one Dragon-type move before fainting. Their weakness to {{Fairy}} is checked by the scarcity of powerful Fairy-type moves, and as with Dragon they are generally able to take even a Template:STAB Fairy-type attack without fainting.

### Offense

The Dragon type is statistically the best type overall, as many of them are pseudo-legendary or Legendary Pokémon with above-600 base stat totals. Dragon-type Pokémon frequently have high Attack *and* Special Attack, as well as good Speed. Although Dragon-type moves are only super effective against Dragon-type Pokémon, the type itself has only one resistance ({{Steel}}) and one immunity ({{Fairy}}), meaning Dragon types typically make use of strong neutral damage with same-type attack bonus. Dragon-type Pokémon also have famously wide physical and special movepools, which combined with their high offensive stats does give them some options against Fairy types, Steel types, and {{Ice}} types.

Despite Dragon's numerous offensive advantages, however, Dragon-type moves are generally not well utilized by Pokémon that do not possess Dragon typing themselves. As addressed, Dragon-types rely on STAB neutral damage combined with their good offensive stats, but in the hands of a non-Dragon-type the moves lose STAB. This, combined with the fact that Dragon-type moves do neutral damage to nearly all types, means that the power of the moves is usually underwhelming.

Dragon-type Pokémon, on average, have the highest base stat total, HP, Attack, and Special Attack of all Pokémon and of fully evolved Pokémon. They also have the highest average Special Defense of all Pokémon.

When Misty Terrain is in the effect, the power of Dragon-type moves are decreased by 50% if the target is on the ground.

### Contest properties

In Contests, Dragon-type moves are typically Cool moves, but some may be Beautiful or Tough. None of them are Cute or Clever moves.

## Pokémon

As of Generation VII, there are 50 Dragon-type Pokémon or 6.2% of all Pokémon (counting those that are Dragon-type in at least one of their forms, including Mega Evolutions and Alola Forms), making it the third rarest type, tying with {{Fairy}}, only behind {{Ice}} and {{Ghost}}.

## Abilities

### Interacting with the Dragon type

A Pokémon with Color Change, Protean, Imposter, RKS System, or Multitype will become a Dragon-type Pokémon if (respectively) it is hit with a Dragon-type move, uses a Dragon-type move, is sent out against a Dragon-type opponent, is holding a Dragon Memory, or is holding a Draco Plate or Dragonium Z.

### Exclusive Abilities

Currently, no Abilities are exclusive to Dragon types. This does not include signature Abilities.

## In the TCG

*Main article: Dragon (TCG)*
Introduced in the Template:TCG set, previously many Pokémon in this set were listed as Template:TCG-types. Dragon-type Pokémon in the TCG are generally weak to Template:TCG and Template:TCG with no resistances. Dragon-type Pokémon can be strong against other Dragon-types, and there are no types that resist them.

## Trivia

* Generation V introduced the most Dragon-type Pokémon of any generation, with 10, and Generation II introduced the fewest Dragon-type Pokémon, with only one.
* Generation IV introduced the most Dragon-type moves of any generation, with five, while Generation VI introduced the fewest, with zero.
* In Generation I, there was no way to do super-effective Dragon-type damage, since the then-only Dragon-type attack, Dragon Rage, always deals 40 HP of damage.
	+ Also, for the same reasons, there was no way to get Template:STAB from a Dragon-type move in Generation I.
* Sinnoh is the only region without a notable Dragon-type specialist.
* There are only seventeen Dragon-type moves, the fewest of any type.
	+ The Dragon type also has the fewest number of non-damaging moves out of all of the types, with only one.
* In Generation I, no type resisted the Dragon type. However, there were no Dragon-type moves that utilized the standard damage formula in Generation I, making this a moot point.
* In Generation III, all Dragon-type moves were Cool moves.
* Dragon is the most common type to serve as version mascot, with seven Dragon-type Pokémon having served as mascots for eight games of the core series.
* Dragon-type moves have the most held items that boost their power: Draco Plate, Dragon Fang, Dragon Gem, all three timespace orbs, and the Soul Dew (as of Generation VII).
* The Dragon type resists all three of the traditional primary types of core series starter Pokémon: {{Grass}}, {{Fire}}, and {{Water}}. In addition, it resists {{Electric}}, which was the type of the player's starter in Pokémon Yellow.
* Currently, there are no Dragon-type Pokémon that evolve by a method other than leveling up.
* More Pokémon gain the Dragon type through Mega Evolution than any other type, with three.
* The Dragon type has been paired up with every other type at least once, except {{Bug}}.
* The Dragon type is the only type for which a move was not introduced in Generation VI. This is also the only instance of any generation not introducing a move for a type after that type's introduction.

## In other languages

de:Drache
fr:Dragon (type)
it:Drago (tipo)
ja:ドラゴン
zh:龙（属性）