Fighting

Fire Attacks

Flying

Fire attacks are most effective against Grass, Ice, and Bug Pokémon. (Watch out, Parasect!)

Fire attacks are weakest against Fire, Water, Rock and Dragon Pokémon. (Not for use against fossil Pokémon!)

Most Fire attacks have a chance of burning their victims. Burnt Pokémon take damage in the same way that poisoned Pokémon do: on each round after the burn takes place, they lose 1/16 of their maximum HP value. (This has the interesting side effect of causing more damage to Pokémon with lots of Hit Points.)

Burns also greatly lower the Attack stat of the victim (a reduction equivalent to 2 Growls). This, coupled with the greater initial damage caused by Fire attacks, makes them much better than Poison attacks and quite formidable on the whole.

Note that Pokémon affected by another major Status change (eg, paralyzed or sleeping Pokémon) cannot be burned. This does not include minor status changes like confusion.

Fire Spin has the lowest average damage of any Fire attack, and is the only one which has no chance of burning the victim. The only worthwhile feature of this move is that, if successful, it prevents the victim from attacking during the rounds that it causes damage. Because of this, its Average Damage is higher than you might expect, based on its tiny Power rating. Because a victim cannot attack while being Spun, it is fair to consider the multiple turns it takes to deliver the damage as one instance of the attack for comparison purposes in the chart above.

Nevertheless, because Fire Spin is so weak, it should almost certainly be replaced by Flamethrower or Fire Blast at the earliest opportunity. Even Ember is probably a better choice!

If you're thinking of using a multi-turn attack to hold a victim in place (eg, once they've been Toxicked), consider that Clamp causes more than twice as much damage and is more accurate. Also, if the victim is burnt by another Fire attack, it's safe from Toxic.

Flamethrower is the standard by which other Fire attacks must be measured. Ember is a solid choice for low-level Pokémon, and is learned by the majority of Fire types. However, Flamethrower is the clear winner here: less PP, but equal accuracy and more than twice the average damage (thus negating Ember's PP advantage).

Fire Blast is relatively accurate for a top-rank elemental attack, being exceeded in this regard only by Blizzard. However, Flamethrower is more accurate still, and has 3 times the PP. Also, while Fire Blast's chance of causing a burn is three times greater than Flamethrower's, this status change is among the least likely to be decisive in battle. Ultimately, choosing between these two comes down to the usual trade-off of reliability vs. stopping power. The difference in PP may also help you decide: if your Pokémon does not have many PP for its other attacks, Fire Blast may not be the wisest choice, even though it has the numerical advantage over Flamethrower.

Because of its accuracy and power, it makes for a reasonable TM to add to any Pokémon who could use a Fire attack, especially considering it's the only Fire TM available. Not as nice as Blizzard, but much better than Thunder.

As with its elemental counterparts Ice Punch and Thunder Punch, the main reason to choose Fire Punch is the novelty value. It's a decent move, even for higher-level Pokémon, but Flamethrower matches it in PP and accuracy, and exceeds it in power.

None.