These 2 Pokemon are officially the only ones of their kind after almost 20 years

I have played Pokémon game for over 27 years now, and I think I've racked up almost 11,000 hours in the series – especially with how much I've been playing Pokemon Legends: ZA and Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen in recent months. One of my favorite aspects of Pokémon game is that I can befriend animals I find while exploring new places, and I can train them in so many different ways to win battles against both NPCs and other players. This kind of freedom is hard to beat for me, although it does come with some limitations. For example, each Pokémon species has its own distinct abilities, stats, and moves, and while I can customize them to a degree, the same is not true for types.

You can't really change a Pokemon's types, and while Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Terasallization provided a way to temporarily do this, it's obviously not final. This isn't really a problem, and the best way to deal with it is to build teams with few overlapping types and weaknesses. But some of the best type combinations in Pokémon games are locked behind very few animals, if any. Some types have expanded into other Pokemon over the years, but some never got any representation other than a pocket monster, which happens to be the case for Empoleon and Heatran.

Say hello to the only Pokemon of their kind

Empoleon and Heatran are some of the best Gen 4 Pokemon because of their type combinations, being Water/Steel and Fire/Steel respectively. These type combinations are strong for a few reasons:

• Empoleon

  • Weaknesses: Fighting, Ground, Electric (x2)

  • Resistances: Normal, Flying, Rock, Insect, Water, Psychic, Dragon, Fairy (x0.5); Steel and Ice (x0.25)

  • Immunity: Poison

• Heat run

  • Weaknesses: Ground (x4); Fighting, Water (x2)

  • Resistances: Normal, Flying, Psychic, Dragon (x0.5); Bug, Steel, Grass, Fairy, Ice (x0.25)

  • Immunity: Poison

It is undeniable that steel is one of the best types within Pokémon game, if not the best, as it offers incredible defenses with its many resistances at the cost of reduced offensive prowess. Combined with Water and Fire, two other incredibly good types, it becomes all the stronger. This is especially good in the case of both Empoleon and Heatran due to their abilities.

Empoleon gains access to Torrent, which is the default ability for all water-type starters Pokémon game, but it also has Competitive as its hidden ability. This raises the user's Special Attack by two stages whenever one of its stats is reduced, making Empoleon good against Pokemon with Intimidate. As for Heatran, it has Flash Fire and Flame Body, and while the latter is decent for burning opponents, Flash Fire gives Heatran a second immunity and even a way to heal if he's hit with Fire moves.

Empoleon and Heatran are the only Water/Steel and Fire/Steel types

Despite being so unique, Empoleon and Heatran are unfortunately the only Water/Steel type and Fire/Steel type in the series so far. It's hard to say if this will change with the starters in Pokemon winds and waves or new Pokémon in general, but at the moment these two Pokémon have been the only ones of their kind for 19 years — since Pokemon Diamond and Pearl is launched.

These aren't the only Pokemon with this problem, with another big example being Mega Altaria as the only Dragon/Fairy Pokemon in the series. However, these are both nearly 20-year-old Pokemon, and it's strange to think that no other Water/Steel or Fire/Steel creatures were ever made. Whether a new one ends up in Pokemon winds and waves The Pokedex remains to be seen, but I doubt the starters in Gen 10 will have any of these type combinations.