Raid Battle Guide

[bobandbill]

Like with other guides, do share your feedback, tips and suggestions to help improve the guide!

 

[Neltharion83]

Furthermore, Raid Bosses are guaranteed to have good Individual Values (IVs) for their stats! The minimum is believed to be 80% of perfect stats overall, similar to Pok?mon hatched from Eggs.

This is wrong about eggs and raid bosses. Raid bosses are like egg hatches, but the IVs are that all 3 values can be between 10 and 15 and are random between those values. So 10/10/10 is as rare as 15/15/15, but if you get that unlucky, you are looking at a 66.7% IV pokemon. 80% or higher is rather likely.

Otherwise, the guide is quite nice. The list of best counters, or infographic to be precise, needs to include movesets, only some movesets make the correct pokemon using it into a great counter. For example, i cannot do electabuzz alone because i am missing 5 seconds because all of my 3 Rhydons have the same moveset.... Rock Smash + Stone Edge. No ground. Not enough damage.

One thing to add: Even as a very high level trainer, to solo a level 2 boss, you need the right movesets, otherwise you run out of time. Strong pokemon and good dodging means that only 1 or 2 of your pokemon will die, but you still lose due to running out of time. Running out of pokemon happens to low level players, or if you fail to dodge. Low level players can still do hefty damage against raid bosses.

So its mostly about having the right moveset on the right pokemon.

 

[bobandbill]

This is wrong about eggs and raid bosses. Raid bosses are like egg hatches, but the IVs are that all 3 values can be between 10 and 15 and are random between those values. So 10/10/10 is as rare as 15/15/15, but if you get that unlucky, you are looking at a 66.7% IV pokemon. 80% or higher is rather likely.

Otherwise, the guide is quite nice. The list of best counters, or infographic to be precise, needs to include movesets, only some movesets make the correct pokemon using it into a great counter. For example, i cannot do electabuzz alone because i am missing 5 seconds because all of my 3 Rhydons have the same moveset.... Rock Smash + Stone Edge. No ground. Not enough damage.

One thing to add: Even as a very high level trainer, to solo a level 2 boss, you need the right movesets, otherwise you run out of time. Strong pokemon and good dodging means that only 1 or 2 of your pokemon will die, but you still lose due to running out of time. Running out of pokemon happens to low level players, or if you fail to dodge. Low level players can still do hefty damage against raid bosses.

So its mostly about having the right moveset on the right pokemon.

Cheers for pointing out the IVs stuff, I've changed that.

I've also added more emphasis on the importance of movesets, but not so far as to name specific moves for each Pokemon (just yet anyway).

 

[Neltharion83]

Thanks.

In general, the best counters have resistance against the type of the raid boss, and have access to powerful STAB moves that hit right into a type weakness of the raid boss. Then they are the best counters if they have one of these movesets.

Over at gamepress, there is a guide listing all these movesets: https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/raid-boss-counters

So you would be re-inventing the wheel if you do the same. You could re-do it if you see gamepress as competition and want to be a full alternative, otherwise you could also just link to that gamepress guide.

You did a good job at explaining how you should look for powerful moves with STAB bonus that hit a weakness, ideally a double-weakness, in the raid boss.

One thing you should add: It is a good idea to use your daily free raid pass for a daily free raid. There is no need to fear a loss, at least you gain practise, the bigger loss is if you do not use your free daily raid pass at all.

Also, but you have to research and confirm this, i believe the technical machines are only available from level 3 or level 4 raids. These are incredibly valuable and sought-after, everyone has some amazing pokemon with amazing IVs that are total garbage because the movesets are bad, I have both a Dragonite and a Gyarados with IVs 96% or 98% that have the worst moveset that the pokemon can have, the Dragonate is rated DC and the Gyarados even worse, at FF.

So these are trash, not useable as attackers, completely pathetic, but with ideal movesets, these would be two of the very best pokemon in the game, with the only possible improvement being 100% IVs instead of 98% or 96%. Technical machines do just that.

Some top-level players would prefer a technical machine over another Tyranitar or Snorlax, because they already have high IV or 100% IV of many top-tier pokemon, but with bad movesets. So a TM gives them a better chance at getting another perfect pokemon compared to getting just another lvl20 Snorlax with rather good IVs.