Primary typing
From the Polandball Go Wiki
A ball with two types defends with both of them but attacks with only one. That one is the copy's primary typing. It decides which hits land strong, which land weak, and which raid bosses and PvP lineups the copy is good against.
1 How it's chosen#
The game picks a copy's primary typing at random when you unlock it, from the ball's two types. You can't choose it, and the copy keeps it for as long as you own it.
A ball with only one type has nothing to pick: Switzerland is Balance and always attacks with Balance. The same goes for forms that override their base typing with a single type. Global Dominion British Empire is Cosmic only, so every copy attacks with Cosmic, while copies of the plain British Empire attack with either Water or Light.
2 Why it matters#
Two copies of the same ball can be very different attackers. The United States is Oil and Agriculture:
- An Oil copy is strong against Fire and Nature, and weak against Energy and Water.
- An Agriculture copy is strong against Faith, Light, Nature and Water, and weak against Fire, Ice, Metal, Shadow and Storm.
Against a Water ball such as Koi Pond China, or the raid boss Sea Ruler, the two copies sit on opposite sides of the chart: the Agriculture copy hits at +1 and the Oil copy at −1. With Attack orbs at 10 and the defender's Multiattack at 10, that's the difference between a hit at 130% and one at 75%.
China, Agriculture and Energy, is another split. An Agriculture China has four types it's strong against. An Energy China is strong only against Energy and weak against Cosmic, Ice and Nature.
Both copies still defend the same way. A hit into a United States is scored against both Oil and Agriculture whichever primary typing that copy has, so a Fire hit lands at +2 on every copy. See Types and matchups.
3 What changes it#
Trading. When two balls are traded, both get a new primary typing, drawn again from each ball's own two types. A copy you trade for may come out on either type, whatever it had before. A single-typed ball keeps its one type. Trading also drops both balls to the lower level and lower prestige of the two, so it's a costly way to fish for a typing. See Trades and friends.
Nothing else is known to change it.
4 Working around a weak primary typing#
An item can give a ball a second attack type. In PvP and war duels, the Weapon move hits with the item's resonance type instead of the ball's own, for two charges a duel. An Oil United States carrying Emeraldshot Bow ✦✦✦, a Nature item, has Nature hits for its two Weapon charges, strong against Water. See Items, tiers and resonance.
Holding several copies also helps. Because each copy is separate, a collection with copies of the same ball on both types can field whichever suits the opponent.
5 Primary typing in wars#
An alliance war uses each player's roster as it stood when sign-up closed on Friday at 00:00 UTC, and the game freezes each copy's typing along with its CP, orb levels and item. See Alliance wars.
6 On polbielytics#
Each primary typing of a ball has its own page on polbielytics, so an Oil United States and an Agriculture United States can be compared side by side. Where a copy's primary typing isn't known, the site averages both possibilities and says so, instead of assuming the better one.