Dragapult’s Ghost/Dragon typing gives it five clean weaknesses on paper. In practice, almost none of the Pokemon that carry those types are fast enough to use them before Dragapult’s 142 base Speed puts a Dragon Darts or U-turn into them first. Beating this thing isn’t about finding a type that’s “super effective” — it’s about finding one that can land the hit before getting hit, or that shrugs the hit off entirely. Here’s the full chart, the mechanism behind it, and the specific Pokemon that actually pull it off.
Dragapult’s Full Weakness Chart (and Why It’s Built This Way)
Dual-type effectiveness isn’t additive, it’s multiplicative — each attacking type gets checked against both of Dragapult’s types separately, then the two multipliers are multiplied together. That’s the only way to get an accurate combined chart; averaging or eyeballing the two single-type charts is how most auto-generated “weakness calculators” get it wrong. Ghost-type defense on its own is weak to Ghost and Dark (2x each), resists Poison and Bug (0.5x each), and is flat-out immune to Normal and Fighting [1]. Dragon-type defense on its own is weak to Ice, Dragon, and Fairy (2x each) and resists Fire, Water, Electric, and Grass (0.5x each), with no immunities of its own [2]. Multiply the two together for every attacking type and this is what Dragapult actually takes:
| Result | Attacking Types | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Immune (0x) | Normal, Fighting | Ghost’s immunities carry straight through — Dragon doesn’t cancel them |
| Weak (2x) | Ice, Ghost, Dragon, Dark, Fairy | Each type is 2x from one half and neutral from the other |
| Resist (0.5x) | Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Poison, Bug | Each type is 0.5x from one half and neutral from the other |
| Neutral (1x) | Ground, Flying, Psychic, Rock, Steel | Neutral against both halves, or a resist and a weakness that cancel out |
That last row is where most people get tripped up. Steel-type attacks look like they should be resisted (Steel is one of the classic anti-Dragon tools on defense), but that’s a different chart — what matters here is Steel-type moves attacking Dragapult, and Steel is neutral against both Ghost and Dragon on offense. A second independent source lists the identical five-type weak / six-type resist / two-type immune breakdown, confirming the merge [4]. If you’ve seen a “Dragapult resists Steel” claim anywhere, that’s the additive-chart mistake in action.
Why 142 Base Speed Matters More Than the Type Chart
A 2x weakness only matters if the attacker gets to move. Dragapult’s 142 base Speed outruns the vast majority of the Pokemon that share its five weak types before any investment at all [1]. Weavile, one of the most commonly cited Dark/Ice answers, has a base Speed of 125 — 17 points behind Dragapult’s 142 before either side invests a single EV [9]. Iron Bundle sits at 136, still short of 142 [11]. Flutter Mane comes in at 135 [6]. None of these clear the bar through raw stats alone, which is exactly why the Pokemon that actually threaten Dragapult in practice fall into two camps: Pokemon with priority moves that skip the Speed check entirely, or Pokemon whose ability temporarily inflates their Speed past 142.
If you’re screening a potential answer, run it through this before anything else: does it have a priority move that hits one of Dragapult’s five weak types? If yes, its base Speed stops mattering. If no, does its ability or item push its effective Speed past 142? If neither is true, it’s a check at best — it trades, it doesn’t wall.
Scarf-locked Dragapult raises the bar further: a Choice Scarf applies the same roughly 1.5x Speed multiplier that Booster Energy gives Iron Bundle or Flutter Mane, except it’s stacking on top of a higher base Speed to begin with, so it comes out ahead of both in a straight race. Against that specific build, priority is the only mechanism left standing — outspeeding stops being an option once Dragapult is the one holding the Scarf.
The 5 Types That Beat It, Grouped by How They Actually Win
Named counters from Smogon’s competitive analysis thread split cleanly into three mechanisms, not five types [5]. Treating this as five equally-viable answer types is the second most common mistake after the additive-chart error above.
| Pokemon | Type | Mechanism | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingambit | Dark/Steel | Resists BOTH Dragapult STABs (0.5x Ghost, 0.5x Dragon) and answers with priority Sucker Punch | Base Speed is only 50, and its Steel half is still 2x weak to Fire coverage [5][7] |
| Weavile | Dark/Ice | Priority Ice Shard bypasses the Speed gap entirely | Weavile’s own Ice typing is 2x weak to Draco Meteor — it has to strike first or it’s dead [9] |
| Iron Bundle | Ice/Water | Quark Drive + Booster Energy inflates Speed roughly 1.5x, clearing 142 easily | Needs the item active; without it, 136 base Speed loses the race [11] |
| Flutter Mane | Ghost/Fairy | Same Booster Energy trick pushes Speed past Dragapult’s | Its own Ghost half is 2x weak to Shadow Ball/Hex — it out-speeds but doesn’t out-tank [6] |
| Clefable / Tinkaton | Fairy / Fairy-Steel | Immune to Draco Meteor outright; specific bulk (Clefable 95/73/90, Tinkaton 85/77/105) tanks Shadow Ball and answers with STAB Fairy | Doesn’t outrun it — has to already be in on a slower matchup or a switch [8][10] |
Choice Scarf changes this table for one mon: a Scarf Greninja jumps well past 142 and threatens with Dark Pulse, but only while Scarf-locked into that single move [5].
Which of These Actually Survive Its Full Moveset (Not Just the STABs)
A Dragapult set built around Draco Meteor, Shadow Ball, and U-turn leaves a coverage slot open, and the two most common fillers — Flamethrower or Fire Blast — exist specifically to punish the Steel-types that would otherwise sit on it forever. Steel doesn’t appear on Dragapult’s own weakness chart at all (it’s neutral against both halves, see above), but Steel-types are 2x weak to Fire on defense, so a Fire-coverage Dragapult turns a would-be neutral matchup into a 2x loss for the switch-in — and this catches Kingambit too. Kingambit is Dark/Steel, and while it resists both Ghost (0.5x) and Dragon (0.5x), that same Steel half is 2x weak to Fire, so a Fire Blast-carrying Dragapult can punish a predicted Sucker Punch switch-in hard [7]. Fairy-types are the one answer here with no such gap: Clefable and Tinkaton are immune to Draco Meteor by typing alone, and no coverage move added to Dragapult’s kit gets around a flat immunity, which is why bulky Fairy answers remain the most consistent long-term answer even without the Speed to out-race it.
Legends Z-A Just Added Two New Answers
Pokemon Legends Z-A’s base-game Mega Evolution roster adds Mega Meganium (Grass/Fairy) and Mega Floette (Fairy) to the 76-Mega lineup [12]. Both inherit the same Draco Meteor immunity every Fairy-type gets for free, but they don’t handle the rest of the set identically: Mega Floette’s pure Fairy typing takes only neutral damage from a Fire-coverage slot, while Mega Meganium’s added Grass half is 2x weak to Fire — the same coverage tech that already punishes Steel-types cuts straight through it despite the Dragon immunity. Mega Floette is unlocked post-game through Infinite Z-A Royale (15 match wins), Mega Meganium through the Chikorita starter path (Main Mission 10), so neither is a same-day answer — but Mega Floette specifically extends the “immune to the one STAB that can’t be coverage-teched around, and safe from the usual follow-up” list that made Clefable reliable in the first place [12].
Battle Plan by Player Type
| Player Type | Priority |
|---|---|
| New player | Don’t chase a “hard counter.” Pack any bulky Fairy (Clefable is the easiest to raise) — immunity to Draco Meteor alone removes half its damage output before you calculate anything else |
| Casual player | Run one priority user (Weavile’s Ice Shard is the cheapest to build) as an emergency button, and don’t switch it in on a predicted Draco Meteor — it’s 2x weak |
| Hardcore / optimiser | Speed-tier check every build against exactly 142 before assuming a Paradox mon out-speeds it; Iron Bundle and Flutter Mane both need Booster Energy active, not just equipped, to clear that number |
| Completionist | Track which of your walls are true immunities (Fairy vs Dragon) versus which are only on-paper resists that a coverage move can undo (Steel vs the Ghost/Dragon STABs, but not vs Fire tech) |
FAQ
Does a Choice Scarf make anything a hard counter to Dragapult?
No — a Choice Scarf only boosts Speed, not damage, and locks the holder into whatever move it uses first. A Scarf user that isn’t also resisting or immune to what it eats on the way in (Draco Meteor, Shadow Ball, or the Fire coverage) is still trading, not walling, since it can’t pivot to a different move once it’s locked in.
Is Kingambit really the best answer despite 50 base Speed?
For raw survivability against its STABs, yes — it’s the only common answer that resists both Ghost and Dragon outright rather than just one, so it doesn’t need to worry about which STAB Dragapult picks. The tradeoffs are that Sucker Punch fails outright if Dragapult switches out or uses a non-attacking move that turn, and Kingambit’s Steel half is still 2x weak to a Fire Blast coverage slot — strong answer, not an automatic one.
Why do Fairy-types beat it without outspeeding it?
Because immunity doesn’t require a Speed check. Draco Meteor does zero damage to any Fairy-type regardless of who moves first, which is a structurally different kind of answer than Weavile’s or Iron Bundle’s — those still have to win a timing race, Fairy-types just remove one of the two attacks from the equation entirely.
Key Takeaways
Dragapult’s five weaknesses are real, but almost none of the Pokemon carrying those types are fast enough to use them — the actual answer list is short: Kingambit’s dual-STAB resistance plus Sucker Punch, priority Ice Shard off Weavile (at its own risk), Booster Energy-boosted Paradox mons, and bulky Fairy-types that simply ignore Draco Meteor. Check any build against 142 Speed before trusting a type chart alone, and remember that a “neutral” typing like Steel is only safe until a Fire-coverage slot says otherwise. For the mechanics behind every other type interaction in the game, see our full Pokemon type chart breakdown — and for two more Speed-and-typing tradeoffs worth knowing, check how Ampharos’s weaknesses play out against a slower Electric/Dragon-adjacent metagame, or how Aron’s evolution line into Aggron trades Speed for a completely different kind of wall.
Sources
[1] Dragapult Pokedex — Pokemon Database
[2] Ghost type defensive chart — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/type/ghost)
[3] Dragon type defensive chart — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/type/dragon)
[4] Dragapult Analysis — ChampDex (champdex.com/dex/dragapult)
[5] Dragapult competitive analysis thread — Smogon Forums
[6] Flutter Mane Pokedex — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/pokedex/flutter-mane)
[7] Kingambit Pokedex — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/pokedex/kingambit)
[8] Tinkaton Pokedex — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/pokedex/tinkaton)
[9] Weavile Pokedex — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/pokedex/weavile)
[10] Clefable Pokedex — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/pokedex/clefable)
[11] Iron Bundle Pokedex — Pokemon Database (pokemondb.net/pokedex/iron-bundle)
[12] List of Mega Evolutions — Game8, Pokemon Legends Z-A
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.