Steelix: Best Moveset, Weaknesses & Counters, Stats, and Evolution

The world of Pokémon has been a growing phenomenon since 1996, when the first pair of video games came out in stores. Pokémon started off as a video game series and although new creatures are primarily introduced in the video games, the anime series has become as popular as the video games. As of December 2021, there are almost 900 individual Pokémon identified by the PokéDex and in this article, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about one of them – Steelix.

Steelix is a dual Steel- and Ground-type Pokémon introduced in Generation II. It is the only evolution of the Generation I Pokémon Onix, from which it evolved by Trading when Onix holds the Metal Coat item. By using Steelixite, it can evolve into Mega Steelix. Steelix is a very powerful defender from Generation II, although it doesn’t have too high offensive stats. It is weak to Fighting-, Ground-, Fire-, and Water-type moves, and is super effective against Fairy-, Ice-, Rock- and Flying-type Pokémon.

In this article, we are going to tell you all the information you’ll need if you want to breed a Steelix in any of the games. You’ll find out about its type, its powers, its strengths and weaknesses, its evolutions, and its moves. We’re going to focus on both the core games, as well as other popular video games based on the Pokémon franchise.

Best moveset

In the Pokémon GO videogame, the best moves for your Steelix are Iron Tail and Earthquake if you’re battling Pokémon in Gyms. Namely, this moveset gives you the highest total DPS and is, likewise, the best moveset for PVP battles. The official description for Iron Tail reveals the following: “The target is slammed with a steel-hard tail. This may also lower the target’s defensive stats”; as for Earthquake, the attack is described as follows: “The user sets off an earthquake that strikes every Pokémon around it.”

Weaknesses and Counters

As a dual Steel and Ground-type Pokémon, Steelix is super effective against Fairy-, Ice-, Flying- and Rock-type Pokémon. It is weak against Fire-, Water-, Fighting-, and other Ground-type Pokémon. It is immune to Poison- and Electric-type attacks. It deals and receives normal damage from Ghost-, Grass-, Ice-, and Dark-type Pokémon.

Powers and abilities

Steelix’s Stats, based on the most recent available data, are:

In Pokémon GO, Steelix has a Base Stamina of 181, a Base Attack of 148, and a Base Defense of 272.

As for its abilities, they are:

• Rock Head: Protects the Pokémon from recoil damage. (or)
• Sturdy: It cannot be knocked out with one hit. One-hit KO moves cannot knock it out, either.
• Sheer Force: Removes additional effects to increase the power of moves when attacking. (Hidden Ability)
• Sand Force: Boosts the power of Rock-, Ground-, and Steel-type moves in a sandstorm. (as Mega Steelix)

Evolutions

Steelix is the final and only evolution stage of Onix; unlike Onix, which is a Generation I Pokémon, Steelix was first introduced in Generation II. The evolution is relatively simple – simply give your Onix a Metal Coat to hold and then trade it and it’ll evolve into Steelix. If a Steelix holds the Steelixite, it can evolve into Mega Steelix. This Pokémon doesn’t have any known Regional Variants.

In Pokémon GO, Steelix also evolves from Onix. To evolve your Onix into Steelix, you need a total of 50 Onix Candy, as well as one Metal Coat. Mega Steelix is available as of December 2021 in Pokémon GO, and in order to evolve your Steelix into Mega Steelix for the first time, you need 200 Steelix Mega Energy; the additional cost for the same Steelix is 10 Steelix Mega Candy.

Moves

As of Generation VIII, the movies that Steelix can learn are:

• Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Steelix
• Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an evolution of Steelix
• × indicates a move that cannot be used in Generation VIII

By leveling up

By TM

By transfer from another generation

In Pokémon GO, Steelix can learn Iron Tail, Dragon Tail, and Thunder Fang as Fast Attacks, and Earthquake, Heavy Slam, and Crunch as Charged Attacks. Some of these attacks depend on when you caught and evolved your Steelix, as they are event-only attacks.