Understanding battle messages ("Super Effective!", etc.)
When doing battle at a gym, messages appear next to both your Pokemon and the enemy Pokemon. Some messages are obvious, like "Dodged" appears above your Pokemon when you successfully dodge.
What is not so clear (at least to me) is when a message like "Not Very Effective" appears above my Pokemon, does that mean my Pokemon's attack was not very effective? Or the attack that is hitting my Pokemon is not very effective?
Whatever the answer to that is, I assume it applies to the messages above the enemy Pokemon in a complementary fashion?
Best Answer
When a message appears above your Pokemon in battle it is referring to the enemy's attack against you. And the reverse is true, when it pops up above the enemy it's referring to your attack against them.
The "super effective" and "not very effective" refers to the type of attack and the Pokemon type that is hit. There are many different types of Pokemon and these types often have advantages or disadvantages against each other. For example fire is super effective against grass type, but weak against water.
This is a chart that shows all of the relationships between the types. Pokemon Type Chart But in Pokemon Go there is a slight difference and there is no 1/4 effectiveness or immunity, only X1/2 (not very effective) and X2 (super effective).
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What does super effective mean in Pokemon go?
It means the attack hitting your Pokemon is not very effective. As you suggested when it's complementary, when you launch a not very effective attack, it appears above enemy pokemon. as you can see here kadabra's psychic attack is super effective against nidoran as she's a poison type pokemon.What does Super Effective mean?
: extremely effective a supereffective way to manage stress One of our chemical-free drugstore favorites, this oil-free sunscreen uses physical filters titanium dioxide and zinc oxide to form a supereffective sun-protective shield.\u2014 Stephanie Saltzman.What does effective mean in Pokemon?
Type effectiveness in Pok\xe9mon GO corresponds to a specific modifier, which can have a positive or negative impact to the overall damage of the move. It is similar to the game Rock-Paper-Scissors, wherein each type has both type(s) that it is weak and strong against.What does not very effective mean?
adjective. not effective; not producing results; ineffectual: ineffective efforts; ineffective remedies. inefficient or incompetent; incapable: an ineffective manager. lacking in artistic effect, as a literary work, theatrical production, or painting.“It’s SUPER EFFECTIVE!” – The Pokémon Damage Formula, Attack Mechanics \u0026 More Explained [All Gens]
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Answer 2
The messages "Not Very Effective", "Its's Super Effective", etc.. is based of the Type of the attack your using. Every type is strong against another type, and every type is weak against other. Other types have full immunity to other types.
Pokemon Go Pokemon Type Chart lays it out quite nicely in Pokemon Go standards
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: cottonbro, cottonbro, Lavendula Peace, DS stories

