Random: Could Cellular Automaton Determine The Best Pokémon Type?

Man, Pokémon types... If you're super into the Pokémon franchise, you'll know that a strong knowledge of the various types can often mean the difference between failure and success within both the campaign and online community. Of course, there are many other variables that ought to be considered when jumping into the world of competitive battling, but we won't go into that here... Just give us a flute and a sleeping Snorlax and we're happy.

Fans have been debating which Pokémon type is generally considered to be the best for years at this point. With the introduction of type combinations and relatively new types like 'Fairy', deciding which type comes out on top is frankly a near-impossible task.

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To lend a helping hand, however, Apple researcher (and Twitter user) Matt Henderson has concocted a rather fascinating way to determine which Pokémon type might come out on top when you throw them all into the ring at once. He's created a 'cellular automaton' in which each pixel is assigned a random Pokémon type. By then pitting them all against one another, we get to see exactly which type gains the upper hand.

Mesmerising, right? It's a cool little experiment, to be sure, even if it perhaps isn't the most fool-proof way of determining the best Pokémon type. We see that 'Electric' gains overwhelming ground around halfway through the video, with small pockets of 'Ghost' and 'Psychic' sprinkled within. What's interesting, though, is that we see a wave of 'Ground', 'Fire', 'Grass', and 'Water' spread across the screen towards the end. 'Ground' is, of course, super effective and particularly resistant to 'Electric', which explains its ability to gain the upper hand at such a late stage.

Matt also presented a version of the cellular automaton in which each pixel could only battle those in the immediate north, south, east, and west, excluding any pixels in the corners. Here, we see that 'Fire', 'Grass', and 'Water' covers significant ground over time, with groups of 'Ghost' and 'Dark' holding their own.

What does all of this prove, exactly? Well, probably not very much. The very nature of Pokémon types, much like the classic game of 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' that Matt's experiment is based on, is that every type has its own strength and weakness. Some types are better than others, undoubtedly, but the efforts to determine exactly which type is the very best will likely continue ad nauseam.

Or maybe Rotom is the best Pokémon..!

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What do you think of the Pokémon cellular automaton video? Do you think it proves anything, or is it just a bit of fun? Let us know in the comments!