How to Beat Raikou in Pokemon Go

A new Legendary challenge is coming to Pokemon Go. The Legendary Pokemon Raikou has arrived in Pokemon Go as a powerful new Raid Boss. This Electric-Type Pokemon will appear in North and South America for the month of September before traveling to a different continent to battle even more trainers.

While the Legendary Birds all had a common weakness, Raikou and its counterparts Entei and Suicune are all single-type Pokemon with few weaknesses. Players will need to bring specialized teams of Pokemon in order to beat these Legendary Pokemon as they rotate through their area.

Most raid battles come down to a combination of having a numbers advantage and having luck on your side. Here’s a couple of tips that could also help you beat Raikou in battle:

Only One Weakness

As a pure Electric-Type Pokemon, Raikou only has one weakness: Ground-Type attacks. That means that several of the Pokemon you used in the Legendary Birds could still come in handy…although you might need to use a TM to change their charge moves. 

For instance, Rhydon and Golem both resist Raikou’s powerful Electric-Type attacks due to being Rock/Ground-Type Pokemon. However, the Stone Edge attacks you were using against Zapdos and Moltres won’t be as effective as an Earthquake attack. 

While Rhydon is the strongest Ground-Type Pokemon that can learn Earthquake, you might want to also consider bringing Donphan into battle against Raikou. Donphan has a slightly higher Attack than Golem and gets the Same Type Attack Bonus just like Rhydon and Golem. 

Other strong Ground-Type Pokemon that come in handy against Raikou include Nidoking, Sandslash, and Nidoqueen. 

Other Resistances

While Raikou is only weak against Ground-Type attacks, there’s two other types of Pokemon that can resist its powerful Electric-Type attacks. Both Dragon and Grass-Type Pokemon have a resistance to Electric-Type attacks, meaning that Raikou’s attacks won’t do as much damage as it would to another Pokemon. 

While there isn’t a good Dragon-Type Pokemon to use against Raikou in Pokemon Go right now (Dragonite and Kingdra’s natural resistance to Electric-Type attacks are cancelled out by their other types,) there are plenty of powerful Grass-Type Pokemon that can stand up to Raikou’s attacks. 

The strongest Grass-Type Pokemon in Pokemon Go are Exeggutor, Victreebel, and Vileplume. Although there’s plenty of other Pokemon that have stronger attack stats than these three Pokemon, they’re all effective as “anchors” in that they can dish out decent amounts of damage and survive a charge attack or two. 

Bring Some Friends

The Pokemon Go fanbase is still feeling out the Raikou raid, but the general consensus is that it’ll take at least 6 players to take down this powerful Electric-Type Pokemon. That seems like a lot, but remember that most players will be pretty pumped for a chance to grab one of these powerful Pokemon.

The good news is that Raikou will come in handy in the coming months when Suicune and Ho-Oh come to the game. While Zapdos has a slightly higher max CP, Raikou is a much more rounded Pokemon and should be one of the best Electric-Type Pokemon in Pokemon Go for a very long time.