Why are Bug type attacks effective against Dark type Pokemon?


This question actually originated from the games, but it applies to the
anime/manga as well.

Water is strong against fire because water can extinguish fire. Electricity is
weak against Grass because grass is grounded, which nullifies electricity.

What is the reasoning for Bug to be effective against Dark type?

> And I've already heard about the Malaria in Africa joke, it's not funny!




If I had to guess, it was because of game balance more than logic.

There are only two types that are super-effective against Dark.

  * Fighting
  * Bug

Neither of which make much logical sense. But it would be fairly safe to say
that Dark would be overpowered if it only had one or no weaknesses.

Another argument to support the game-balance motivation is that bug types
would otherwise be considered weak since they are super-effective against few
other types.

So in short, they probably needed to keep Dark in check and make Bug more
competitive.

* * *

This sort of balancing isn't particularly new. Psychic is a good example.

In the first generation of games, Psychic had only one weakness - Bug. Despite
ghost also being super-effective against Psychic, there weren't any "real"
ghost attacks in generation 1 (and only a couple of bug attacks).

So generation 2 added Dark types to keep Psychics in check.




If I had to guess, it was because of game balance more than logic.

There are only two types that are super-effective against Dark.

  * Fighting
  * Bug

Neither of which make much logical sense. But it would be fairly safe to say
that Dark would be overpowered if it only had one or no weaknesses.

Another argument to support the game-balance motivation is that bug types
would otherwise be considered weak since they are super-effective against few
other types.

So in short, they probably needed to keep Dark in check and make Bug more
competitive.

* * *

This sort of balancing isn't particularly new. Psychic is a good example.

In the first generation of games, Psychic had only one weakness - Bug. Despite
ghost also being super-effective against Psychic, there weren't any "real"
ghost attacks in generation 1 (and only a couple of bug attacks).

So generation 2 added Dark types to keep Psychics in check.

