Pokemon Go Players Are Beating Level 3 Raids Solo

When Pokemon Go raids first came out earlier this month, players noticed that there seemed to be two tiers of difficulty. The Level 1 and Level 2 raids, denoted by a pink Raid Egg, could be easily defeated by players on their own. However, Level 3 and Level 4 raids proved to be much more challenging, even for high level players.

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Now that the initial hype surrounding raids have died down, players are starting to feel out the limits of the new raid bosses. And with the right Pokemon and strategy, those Level 3 Raid bosses aren’t quite as impossible to beat solo as previously thought.

A general consensus has emerged on Reddit that five of the seven Level 3 Raid bosses can be beaten with just one player. Although several of the solo Raids will use up almost all of a raid’s 180 seconds, it seems that a team of Level 30 Pokemon has enough firepower to beat a Raid Boss.

Keep in mind that if you want to take down a Raid Boss, you’ll need to have your Pokemon fully leveled up and armed with the “right” attacks. Only powerful Charge moves will really do a dent against Raid Bosses, so if you have a Pokemon with a weak Charge move, you’ll probably not have much success against these Raid Bosses.

Here’s a look at which Raid Bosses can and can’t be beat on their own:

Vaporeon and Machamp

The two easiest Level 3 Raid Bosses are Machamp and Vaporeon, both of which can be defeated comfortably with plenty of time left on the clock.

Machamp is relatively easy for any player that has multiple Espeon and Alakazam, both of which have extremely high Attack stats. Although Machamp isn’t a chump, players can power through this Raid without dodging any of Machamp’s attacks.

Vaporeon is also becoming an easy solo raid target due to the strength of Pokemon like Exeggutor and Jolteon. The general key to beating Vaporeon is to have Exeggutor that knows Solar Beam, since that dishes out the highest damage per second of any Grass-Type attack.

Arcanine, Alakazam, and Gengar

Here’s where Level 3 raids get a lot dicier. Some players have found solo success battling these three Raid Bosses, but only under certain circumstances.

Alakazam presents the most trouble for players because it often knows the Fighting-Type move Focus Blast. Since you need a Pokemon with Dark-Type moves to beat Alakazam, Focus Blast is a threat as it can one hit KO most Dark-Type Pokemon. Be sure to dodge Alakazam’s Charge attacks or you could be looking at a short battle.

Arcanine can be taken out by a team of Rhydon and Golem. While Arcanine is weak against Water-Type attacks, it can counter with the Electric-Type move Wild Charge, so leave your Vaporeon and Gyarados at home.

Gengar can be taken down by the same Pokemon team as Machamp. Depending on Gengar’s moveset, you might need to dodge its charge attacks, but you still should be able to squeeze in a victory right under the wire.

Flareon and Jolteon

The two Level 3 Raid Bosses that remain undefeated against solo players are Flareon and Jolteon. Both have significantly higher Defense stats than the other Raid Bosses, so it’s likely that a single player just can dish out enough damage to beat them even under ideal circumstances.

It also helps that both these Pokemon don’t have a ton of type disadvantages, which means that a lot of powerful Pokemon simply aren’t that effective against them.

If you see Flareon or Jolteon at your local gym, find a friend. Otherwise, you’re not going to wind up beating these Level 3 raids at all.