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Interactive Raikou Counters Guide

Raikou

Instinct pulled it off! After a little bit of a scare that we might finally fail one of Niantics challenges, Raikou Raid day was unlocked in the final stretch of Go Fest. Raikou has been neglected somewhat by never being featured in a flashy Anime movie like his siblings. Even so, they made it up to him by far the strongest of the trio in terms of raid usefulness relevancy.  Oh and did I mention we’re getting a very stylish Orange Shiny to boot? Raikou Raid day is going to be a blast!

Pokemon Raid Day Info

Raikou will be featured for 3 hours during  June 29th! Assuming Niantic follows their patterns from the previous raid days:

All gyms will activate with a Tier 4 Tier 5 Raikou Raid for the full 3 hours from 4-7 PM local Time.

You will get 5 free raid passes, but you only get them consecutively once the previous one is used, so you need to do the 5 raids in that time block.

Niantic appears to have settled on a 10% shiny rate for these events, but that can always change without warning.

Raid Utility

Electric-Type Attacker

• Thunder ShockWild Charge

Raikou is still the reigning thunder king (although Luxray and Electivire are pretty close on it’s heel). It will be having it’s event just days after Kyogre, one of the best uses for Raikou, departs sadly. But Raikou is frequently the top Pokemon against Water and Flying type Pokemon, who are also much less likely to have a coverage move against it than other counters.

Ghost-Type Attacker

• Thunder ShockShadow Ball

Much more out there, Raikou is an occasionally usable B Tier Ghost Type, especially when it’s Electric Typing gives it helpful resistances. Deoxys (all of them) are one such example where it comes in handy.

Raikou Movesets

Raikou has 3 Electric Charge Moves and only one Ghost one, so the majority of the time you will be facing Electric Moves.

• Shadow Ball- Hardest Moveset because the ground type counters double resistance doesn’t matter here. Also Mewtwo doesn’t like it I suppose.
• Wild Charge- Strongest STAB moveset and a double bar charge move.
• Thunderbolt Another double bar charge move
• Thunder single bar charge move

General Raikou Counters

Raikou takes 1.6x damage from Ground .

Raikou can be beaten by 3 players in optimal weather, with max friendship and perfect level 40 counters or by 5 unfriended players using level 20 counters from this guide. When caught, Raikou will be between 1889 and 1972 cp without a weather boost. In Rainy weather, Raikou will be between 2361 and 2466 when caught.

Garchomp

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Garchomp is an absolute monster here with it’s Dragon/Ground Typing. He can put that triple Electric resistance to good use far better than Flygon’s Stats ever allowed. He on average manages to be a hair ahead of Groudon thanks to having even better survivability than the king himself. He doesn’t have quite the same level of crazy survivability against shadow ball however, falling down to “only” matching Groudon. It’s possible to take Raikou down in a 2 man with 5 Garchomp each!

Garchomp is pretty hard to get your hands on however. She is a very new mon, with Psudo-Legendary rarity in the wild with no nests. No research rewards either so far or events. On top of that they are a second stage Pokemon so if you have managed to get one without dumping a mountain of rare candies, congrats!

Groudon

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

While Garchomp might be the new hotness here, Groudon has come to be our standard for a phenomenal Ground Type. It reclaims its number 1 title against Shadow Ball, and is far from being strictly outclassed or anything.

Groudon while being a legendary, has been featured a couple times recently and has also been available as a research reward if you get lucky. Groudon will also be featured for the two days right before Raikou Raid day!

Mamoswine

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Yes mamorswine is also a fantastic ground attacker! While slipping a bit in both bulk and DPS from the above Tyrants, it’s actually decently likely you have a high level one already if you were playing recently.

Mamoswine was featured in a community day and Swinub has been a mainstay of all ice events. Outside of that though Swinub’s are very rare, but do exist as occasional tier 1 raid bosses. Being able to find one at high level in sunny is also a nice bonus on saving a ton of candy! Sinnoh Stones are somewhat of a pain, but can be acquired from Trainer Battles.

Rhyperior

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

An alternative Sinnoh Evolution, Rhyperior is an even easier Pokemon to get than Mamoswine. Rhydons are a decently accessible Pokemon, and both has nests and has been featured in the recent earth day event. They also are boosted in 2 very common weathers so hopefully not too bad to get one even though it takes a lot of candy. It does require a Sinnoh stone however, which can be acquired at random from your first daily Trainer Battle.

Rhydon

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rhydon works as well,if you are short on candy, falling just behind it’s evolution in power.

Rhydon is of course, even easier to acquire than Rhyperior. If you are short on TMs and rolled lucky on your Rhydon, you might wanna consider leaving it as is.

Donphan

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Donphan never really got a moment to excel in the game, being a bit below average-but there are so few viable ground types that he really is perfectly acceptable here!

Phanpy are an uncommon Pokemon but they do nest, and are boosted in sunny.

Alternative Raikou Counters

Nidoking

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Now here’s a weird one. Fury Cutter has a high energy build up, allowing you to spam your charge more frequently. In terms of non-stab moves it’s very good. Poison Jab however only knocks it down one rank, so don’t sweat it too much. You do want Earth Power over earthquake though.

Nidorans are of course very common, but Nidoking lost Fury Cutter in February 2017. He doesn’t become unusable without the legacy move, but falls down must closer to his sisters ranking on this list.

Rayquaza Windy

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Rayquaza used to be a viable counter to most raid bosses since there were fewer Pokemon to pick from. His stats were phenomenal so he popped up in all sorts of places he didn’t belong-such as here. There are such few ground types his positioning basically serves as drawing a line between what Ground Types are preferable to just using a generalist.

Rayquaza despite being beloved by fans has been very rarely available and re-released compared to most legendaries. Then there’s the candy cost to consider on top of that

Golem

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

While Golem has had it’s time in the light as the top Rock Type in Gen 1, it’s always lagged Rhydon in Ground, and now has half a dozen other blokes outclassing it.

Geodudes are now too much of a pain to acquire for most people and exist in research rewards as well. Hunt down a nest or play in partly cloudy will be enough for many to get Golem.

Hippowdon

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Shiny New terrifying Hippo! Although the Black female form isn’t actually shiny. It doesn’t have a Stab fast move, and against Raikou both perform well enough. It will make more a difference if using it against Ice or Water types however.

Hippowdon is mostly limited in availability to how new it is, leading many to not have had a chance to find high level Hippopotas yet.

Salamence Windy

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Dragonite’s angry cousin has been pretty popular of late, with community day and all. Salamence has very recently had a community featured with the exclusive move, making it much more accessible than many other legacy mons.

Palkia Rainy

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Palkia was released earlier this year as a legendary, but is quite the pain to power up and Salamence does just as well.

Mewtwo

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Mewtwo is only here due to its raw neutral DPS, in a lot of ways it’s a terrible choice due to it’s active weakness to Shadowball. But if you’re facing Electric moves and can’t be bothered to find Ground Types, yah boi got your back.

Flygon

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

My dear visual pun Pokemon never got a moment to really shine. It was rocking the amazing Ground/Dragon triple resistances to Electric long before Garchomp…

But Much Like How Water/Dragon Kingdra was upstaged by Palkia, Flygon really didn’t have the stats to make strong use of it. It does however at least make up for it’s stats somewhat and if you are anything like me you will find excuses to use this little delight anyways.

Trapinch have been uncommon spawns in a couple recent events but is overall pretty difficult to acquire and doesn’t nest. 50/50 on whether it will be getting a community day someday.

Gastrodon

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Gastrodon is another Gen 4 rookie, but unlike Garchomp they have an unfortunate Water duel typing-which partially negates it’s Electric resistances.

Shellos while cosmetically region-locked, is still available globally otherwise. They aren’t too hard to find for the time being

Dragonite

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

While now there are a whole pantheon of dragons outclassing him as a specialist and a generalist, Dragonite is still a perfectly acceptable choice here. Dratini got a community day ages ago and has been infrequently sprinkled around in events since then.

Swampert

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Swampert is like Gastrodon in that it’s typing is disadvantageous to facing Electric Pokemon. Mudkip haven’t had a community day yet and aren’t too common.

Dialga

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Dialga was released earlier this year as a legendary, but is quite the pain to power up, and Salamence does just as well. It’s Steel typing does not imbue and additional resistance to Electric, but it’s lack of a Flying Type at least doesn’t negate it.

Rampardos

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐☆☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

He’s just here for the raw neutral DPS. Rampardos is very new, but Cranidos was featured as a quest reward just earlier this month!

Nidoqueen

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nidorans are very common, especially in Mt. Moon Biomes so hopefully not too much a chore to get one of these if wanted.

Roserade

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Another neutral DPS option, a little better in Cloudy.

Camerupt

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Shockingly Camerupt actually makes the list since there are so few Ground Types. Numel is very common as well.

Dugtrio – Alola

⚔️ Raw Damage: ⭐☆☆☆☆
🛡️ Survival/Bulk: ⭐☆☆☆☆
📉 Consistency: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
🌐 Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

The Alolan Form comes out ahead of the default due to Niantic not updating for the Gen 1 Pokemon stat buffs, but doing so for their Alolan Forms. Available both in the wild and in Alolan 7k Eggs from opening Gifts when you have an Egg Slot.

Closing Thoughts

Raikou is a decently popular, incredibly useful pokemon with a pretty shiny coming! This Raid day will have something for everyone, and we’ll see if it proves to live up to the hype. Just be sure to come prepared with lots of Raid Passes!

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