Pokemon Go Adds Surprise Legendary as Next Raid Boss

Pokemon Go fans will have a new Legendary Pokemon to battle starting today.

Pokemon Go announced via its website that the Psychic-type Pokemon Cresselia will be the game’s next Legendary Raid Boss. Cresselia will replace Giratina as the game’s sole Legendary Raid Boss starting later today.

The announcement is a bit of a surprise for players, who assumed that either Palkia or Dialga would be the next Legendary Raid Boss. While players assumed that Pokemon Go would follow a similar release pattern as they used for their “Gen 3” rollout, it seems that developers are spreading out the more popular Legendary Pokemon to keep players interested over the next few months.

Cresselia is a Psychic-type Pokemon known as the “Lunar Pokemon.” Not only does its head resemble a pair of crescent moons and has the ability to dispel nightmares. Interestingly, if Pokemon Go is adding Cresselia, it could mean that its counterpart Darkrai (which is a Mythical Pokemon) could also be added to the game somewhat soon.

As a Psychic-type Pokemon, Cresselia is weak to Bug-type, Ghost-type, and Dark-type attacks. Gengar, Weavile, Honchkrow, and Tyranitar are all ideal attackers for a Cresselia raid. A Mewtwo with Shadow Ball is also an optimal attacker, provided you got one from an EX Raid.

While Cresselia has high Stamina and Defense stats, its Attack stats are low, so don’t expect Cresselia to have much of an impact in Pokemon Go‘s metagame. Basically, this is a pretty Pokemon that will fill a hole in a PokeDex, but won’t really do much in high level raids.

Cresselia will be available from today through December 18th. Of course, that also means that we’ll have another Legendary Pokemon Raid just in time for next month’s holiday season.