Pokémon Red and Blue / GAME HISTORY

Why Does Lick Fail Against Psychic Pokémon in Red and Blue?

The original type table blocks Lick, while Night Shade follows a different damage route.

By Patchlo Editorial Desk · Published October 26, 2026 · Sources checked October 26, 2026

Scope: Original Game Boy Pokémon Red and Blue; type table checked in the community disassembly.

The move matters, not just the Pokémon using it

Choose Lick against a Psychic target and the Ghost-to-Psychic entry blocks its normal damage. Repeating Lick does not get around that entry. The obstacle is the matchup, not a run of ordinary misses.

A Pokémon’s species type and the type of its selected move are different things. Sending out a Ghost Pokémon does not make every move in its menu a Ghost attack, and it does not make Lick a useful answer to this particular target.

Why Night Shade can still deal damage

Night Shade uses fixed damage through a different route. It is therefore a mistake to extend Lick’s result to every Ghost-type move. The useful comparison is the action selected in the battle menu: Lick meets the zero multiplier, while Night Shade is not resolved through that same ordinary damage calculation.

The old table is the evidence

The pret/pokered project preserves the Ghost-to-Psychic no-effect entry. Bulbapedia’s generation-specific matchup history provides the wider context. A type chart from a later game is not a replacement for that original table. These are the rules of the Game Boy release, not a new warning about Psychic matchups throughout the series.