Popplio Community Day happens on Saturday, August 31, from 2pm to 5pm. Any Primarina evolved from 2-10pm will learn the event-exclusive move, Hydro Cannon. In this article, we’ll take a look at how well Primarina performs as a raid attacker, with both Hydro Cannon and its other moves.
Main Points
Hydro Cannon Primarina is one of the best (currently released) water-type regular non-legendaries for raids, essentially tied with Greninja.
- Between the two, Greninja has slightly higher DPS in theory, but Primarina is much more consistent in practice: due to better bulk, its “wins” have bigger margins than its “losses”. A mix of both would also make a solid team.
Otherwise, Primarina almost always outperforms regular forms of other starters, such as Swampert. It’s even quite comparable to Surf Kyogre, and the only non-shadow non-mega counter that’s solidly above it is Origin Pulse Kyogre. Many shadows and megas are much better, though.
Overall, this Community Day should help many players build (or round out) a cheap but effective team of water attackers for anyone that lacks them (just like Froakie CD a year ago).
Charts
Water-type Attackers
Comparisons
Quick Note on Primarina’s Other Moves
Primarina also gains a permanent charged move, Sparkling Aria, that can be obtained with a regular TM even after the Community Day.
- Sparkling Aria is worse than Hydro Cannon, so don’t hold back evolving your Popplios during CD.
- However, Sparkling Aria Primarina will still be a great non-legendary water attacker, especially as one that doesn’t require a legacy move (there are surprisingly few of them!). Theoretical metrics suggest that its performance will most likely match the traditional “non-legendary water trio” — Swampert, Kingler, Samurott.
- I didn’t include Sparkling Aria on the chart primarily because of time constraints: this would require me to run new simulations, which would delay this article further. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, not at all.
Primarina can also function as a decent fairy-type attacker, similar to other solid non-legendaries like Granbull and Sylveon. It’s not as outstanding there as on the water front (pun unintended), as there are several better fairies ranging from Gardevoir and Togekiss to the Gen 6-8 legendaries. Still, Primarina (with a second charged move) can still be valuable particularly for those that don’t have or don’t want a dedicated fairy team, even if just for occasional uses like Guzzlord and future Urshifu/Koraidon raids.
- The most recent chart on fairy-type attackers is here.
- Note that Guzzlord is a rare soloable “T5” raid. A team of 6*L40 Primarina is sufficient for soloing Guzzlord as long as it doesn’t have Sludge Bomb; even Sludge Bomb Guzzlord can probably be dealt with by some dodging and/or powering up Primarina a bit further. Non-Sludge Bomb Guzzlord raids may even be soloed with 6*L35 Primarina.
Future Considerations
Primarina will not stay as the best Hydro Cannon starter forever — in fact, it will be knocked down the next time a water starter has a Community Day! With a future CD, Gen 8’s water starter Inteleon can easily become the best regular non-legendary water attacker by far, despite its glassiness. On the line chart, it even slots above Origin Pulse Kyogre. Additionally, Gen 9’s Quaquaval also lies slightly above Primarina, but not by much. When exactly Sobble and Quaxly CDs will happen is anyone’s guess.
I don’t have the ability to simulate shadow forms of Gen 6+ Pokemon, but future Shadow Primarina with Hydro Cannon is also expected to be a top-tier water type. Its edge over Shadow Greninja will likely be bigger than their non-shadow forms.
Imgur Links and Additional Charts
General attacker charts: ASE and ASTTW*
Comparisons:
* indicates additional charts that are not in the main post.
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