Typing Review: An Overview of Fire Types for Raids in Pokemon Go

The current top Fighting Type attackers in the game are already outlined in our Best Attackers by Type list, linked above, so we recommend that you take a look at that to get a better list-breakdown, but these are the current candidates that we'll be working with in this article:

Right now, Fire is a type in a pretty good place. It sports two of the strongest Mega Evolutions currently available in the game, a few genuinely great shadows, and some very strong Legends. It also has a number of strong TDO options like Shadow Ho-oh and Heatran to bring balance where needed, making it one of the most well-rounded types in the game. On top of this, Clear weather tends to be at least fairly common in many places across the globe, so Fire will generally get a weather boost a fair percentage of the time to bring its damage up even higher. Honestly, when Fire is one of the weaknesses that a Raid Boss carries, then Fire will tend to be the main type that we call for in our raid guides due to just how good this type is overall. 

The Secondary Options

While the top options are pretty much always the best way to go, Fire does have a number of options that don't quite hit the numbers of the above. So here are a few options for those struggling to put together a team that can help out in Fire-weak raids.

As of the publishing of this article, we currently have access to 24 different Fire Type attacks, divided into 5 Fast Moves and 19 Charged Moves.

The Good Moves

Generally speaking, Fire Spin is the gold-standard for Fire Type Fast Moves. It’s the move of choice for many of the top Fire Type attackers, and it definitely deserves the title given its solid stats. However, it's not the top Fire Type Fast Move, as Fire Fang tends to out-pace Fire Spin most of the time. Despite having a lower base power and lower energy generated per use, Fire Fang’s speed allows it to have a higher DPS and an energy generation that’s just slightly below Fire Spin, so Pokemon with access to both will tend to stick with Fire Fang. Moving on, we come to a doozy of an attack; Incinerate. This Fast Move has the highest base power of any Fast Move in the game, to the point where it’s actually stronger than a few Charged Moves. It’s also got very high energy generation per use, ranked 2nd in the game alongside Gust, Ice Fang, Present, and Splash, and surpassed only by Volt Switch. So how could this monster of a move possibly fall below Fire Spin and Fire Fang? It can because it holds one other record currently; the slowest Fast Move in the game. Executing a single Incinerate takes 2.3 seconds, which is more than double the execution time of Fire Spin, so it actually tends to fall behind a bit in terms of actual performance. Oh, and forget dodging when you’re locked into a Fast Move that lasts an eternity to fully execute. Incinerate is best utilized by bulky attackers like Ho-oh that can tank hits and keep firing back, and even then it’s best classified as “usable” as it is substantially weaker than the big-two, but it’s still enough to make some Fire Type attackers acceptable. Honestly, it BARELY gets a pass here, and primarily because it’s one of the moves that finally made Ho-oh decent.

For Charged Moves, we have to start with V-Create, the signature move of Victini and the strongest Fire Type Charged Move in the entire game to date. This attack mixes power and flexibility, making it the move that any Fire Type would want, but its extremely limited distribution means we probably won't see it take the top ranks any time soon, or rather at all. Next up is Fusion Flare, which is the move that really put Reshiram back on the map. Again, this is a move with pretty limited distribution, so it's unlikely to spread far beyond what we have now, but it's still objectively great. Following that is Blast Burn, the signature move of all Fire Type starters. It's another genuinely powerful move and is strong enough to make many starters viable despite lower stats. And with an almost identical general performance we have Magma Storm, bringing up Heatran's performance substantially. After that is Sacred Fire+, which is a great move for anyone lucky enough to have a good Apex Shadow Ho-oh. Next up is Weather Ball Fire, which is a strong and versatile move.... that basically no Fire Types actually learn. And then we come to Overheat, which is the gold-standard of the type. It's the strongest Fire Type Charged Move with general distribution, making it the move of choice for a great many Pokemon. After that are Blaze Kick and Mystical Fire, which are great moves... but they have to directly compete with Blast Burn on the only two Pokemon that can currently learn them, so they're not going to see much utility in practice. We follow that up with the other move that finally brought Ho-oh out of the abyss, the basic version of Sacred Fire. Despite being weaker than the + variant, it's still a solid move that.. is actually pretty close to Flamethrower in practice. And speaking of, we finish up this side of the list with Flamethrower, which is the borderline move of the type. Flamethrower is the Fire Type equivalent to moves like Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, and is just good enough to keep Pokemon like Heatran from falling into total obscurity. It's not a good move, but it's serviceable. 

The Bad Moves

When it comes to the bad Fast Moves, we come at last to Ember. And… It's pretty unremarkable. Its overall attack profile is pretty unappealing, and it just doesn’t have many saving graces. Honestly, an argument can be made that it’s better than Incinerate due to the fact that it only has a slightly lower DPS, but at least it’s possible to dodge with it. But Ember didn’t help to save Ho-oh from obscurity, now did it? And just when you thought that we'd hit the bottom of the barrel,  Hidden Power (Fire) is here again. And as usual, it's really underwhelming. You roll the dice for this move, and if you happen to get it on a Pokemon that may actually want it, it generally won't be enough to push said Pokemon into viability.

The Charged move list starts with Fire Blast. Despite being iconic in the main series, this move got a bad treatment in Pokemon Go, and is one of the moves that Pokemon genuinely don't want to see in their moveset. From here, we have Fire Punch, Flame Burst, Heat Wave, Flame Wheel, and Flame Charge, all of which are disappointing moves for any Fire Type. "But wait!", I see some of the more eagle-eyed readers already getting ready to type. "You've missed a couple of Charged Moves on the list!". Well, these moves weren't missed so much as reserved a special place in this section just for them! First is Techno Blast (Burn), which is a great move that gets relegated down here due to the lack of Pokemon that ever have a chance of utilizing it. And second is Sacred Fire++, strictly because no Ho-oh should ever, ever have this move! Seriously; do not purify your Apex Shadows! In no way is having "++" on the move able to compete with the sheer power Shadow Boost combined with a single "+"!.

Currently Unreleased Fire-Type Pokemon

Currently Unreleased Fire-Type Moves

• Armor Cannon*
  • Armarouge
• Bitter Blade*
  • Ceruledge
• Blue Flare*
  • Reshiram
• Burning Jealousy 
• Burn Up
• Eruption
• Fiery Dance**
  • Volcarona
• Fire Lash**
  • Heatmor
• Fire Pledge*
  • Fire-Type Starters
• Flare Blitz
• Heat Crash**
  • Emboar
• Inferno
• Ivy Cudgel*
  • Ogerpon (Fire Type when used by Ogerpon - Hearthflame Mask)
• Judgment*
  • Arceus
• Lava Plume
• Mind Blown*
  • Blacephalon
• Multi-Attack*
  • Silvally
• Pyro Ball*
  • Cinderace
• Raging Bull*
  • Tauros (Fire Type when used by Paldean Tauros- Blaze Breed)
• Raging Fury
  • Hisuian Arcanine
• Searing Shot*
  • Victini
• Shell Trap*
  • Turtonator
• Sizzly Slide*
  • Eevee (Let's Go Eevee)
• Torch Song*
  • Skeledirge
• Sunny Day
• Wil-O-Wisp

*: Signature Move
**: Formerly a Signature Move

The Non-Threats

Aside from the Pokemon that aren't fully evolved, we can pretty safely rule out Paldean Tauros - Blaze Breed, Rotom Heat, Silvally, Coalossal, Centiskorch, and Scovillain due to the lack of strong stats or good moveset potential.

Candidates that will only make the cut if we get some new, really good moves that they can utilize are Arceus, Armarouge, Ogerpon - Hearthflame Mask, and Ceruledge. While potential exists, these Pokemon are not projected to be genuinely great for the Fire meta unless their signature moves end up really powerful for whatever reason and/or they somehow gain access to a good Fire Type Fast Move.

Sadly, it's also worth mentioning that Hisuian Typhlosion, Incineroar, and Cinderace are unlikely to make major waves when they're inevitably given access to Blast Burn. This is due to their low base Attack stat, which leaves other Fire Type starters objectively better than them within the same niche. Likewise, Mega Camerupt is destined to be an underwhelming Mega Evolution unless Niantic goes out of their way to buff its moveset with something brand new.

For Signature Moves that probably won't pan out in the future (if we get them at all), we have Fire Lash, Multi-Attack, Shell Trap, Torch Song, Pyro Ball, Bitter Blade, Armor Cannon, Raging Fury,  Raging Bull, Icy Cudgel, and Sizzly Slide. This is because of low stats, odd moves, or other issues with the Pokemon that can utilize them.

On that note, Pokemon frequently gain access to moves that aren't signature but that bring them into viability regardless, so even our low-priority list isn't 100% safe, they're simply the least likely to see new viability in the future given what we currently know.

The Existing Threats

Pokemon in this section have already been released into Pokemon Go, but their future is still bright. Due to moveset updates or other bonuses, they have the potential to rise on the list to varying degrees.

Note that we may treat select unreleased Mega Evolutions and alternate formes as Existing Threats, where applicable, due to their base-formes already existing in-game.

The Future Threats

These are the Pokemon that we don't currently have in-game, but have the potential to join our Top Attackers by Type list if Niantic does them justice. Note that this list won't necessarily order Pokemon according to their potential, as we will take likelihood of a good implementation into consideration as well.

The Looming Shadows

The biggest potential Shadow threat has to be Shadow Reshiram, which is a Pokemon that we're very likely to see... someday. Since we've still got a lot of ground to cover by way of Legendary Shadows, this monster is probably several years away still. Other big-names would be Shadow Chandelure, Shadow Volcarona, Shadow Darmanitan, and Shadow Heatran if it ever gets a better moveset.

Surprisingly, Shadow Flareon would actually be pretty good too, and it seems a bit odd that we still don't have Shadow Eevee yet. Shadow Hisuian Typhlosion and Shadow Cinderace could be good as well if they get good Fast Moves to back up Blast Burn, while Shadow Emboar and Shadow Delphox and Shadow Infernape could be good as well.

Moving into the "less likely" category, one of the scariest potential Shadows would be Shadow Blacephalon given a good moveset, and not too far below that would be a far-future Shadow Iron Moth.  Shadow Volcanion could also be a good one, though Shadow Mythical Pokemon aren't really a thing right now.

The Gigantamax Factor

While not extremely likely, it's possible that Niantic could release the Dynamax/Gigantamax system first introduced in Generation 8/Galar into Pokemon Go. For those unaware, this system turns Pokemon giant, gives them new/overpowering moves, and grants a tremendous HP boost while active. And while the release of this feature isn't super likely, we thought it best to at least list the possible candidates with unique formes just to cover all bases, so these are all of the Fire Type Pokemon with a Gigantamax forme:

• Gigantamax Charizard
• Gigantamax Cinderace
• Gigantamax Coalossal
• Gigantamax Centiskorch

As we are now, Fire as a type likely isn't going to improve a whole lot. But that isn't actually a bad thing, as Fire is currently among the better types in the game. We definitely have some room for improvement, but investing in the current Fire Type roster is a pretty safe move, all-in-all.