Pokemon Go Makes Big Changes to Raid Bosses

Pokemon Go just made a big change to its raids.

On Saturday, Pokemon Go made a sudden and unannounced rotation of all of its raid bosses, adding nearly twenty new Pokemon for players to beat in raids.

Almost all of the old raid bosses were cycled out of the rotation, although a few high level raid bosses were spared, at least for the time being. The new raids bosses almost all come from the “Gen 1” set of Pokemon, although the recently added Sableye was made a Level 2 Raid Boss.

New raid bosses were much needed in Pokemon Go, although the timing and new raid boss choices are a bit curious. Some players are speculating that some of these Pokemon could be cycled out of egg pools and common spawn areas when Pokemon Go adds more Pokemon later this year, so raids could be one of the only ways to get these Pokemon (and the candies that come with them.)

Keep scrolling down to see the new raid bosses, their key stats, and some preliminary strategies how to beat them.

Level 1

Bayleef, Quilava, Croconaw, and Magikarp have all been cycled out, although players should be generally happy with their replacements. Replacing the Johto starters are Ivysaur, Charmeleon, and Wartortle, while Magikarp was replaced with the equally pathetic Pokemon Metapod. 

None of these new Pokemon should pose much a challenge and can easily be beaten by a single trainer with decently high CP Pokemon.

Ivysaur: CP: 5238

Charmeleon: CP: 5085

Wartortle: CP: 4503

Metapod: CP: 1534

Level 2

All of the Level 2 raid bosses were also cycled out and replaced with equivalent Pokemon. While there weren’t any particularly useful Pokemon in the original pool of Level 2 raid bosses, several of the new raid bosses are a bit more versatile. 

Both Cloyster and Magneton will be pretty strong raid bosses for low level players, although both are still soloable. Cloyster has great defensive stats, while Magneton has resistances to just about every type of attack except for Fire and Ground-Type attacks. 

Here’s the full list of Level 2 Raid Bosses:

Sandslash: CP: 12312

Marowak: CP: 9891

Cloyster: CP: 15678

Tentacruel: CP: 12190

Magneton: CP: 14172

Sableye: CP: 8266

Level 3

Alakazam, Gengar, and Machamp were all spared during the great Raid Boss shakeup, but Arcanine and the three Eeveelutions were all cycled out and replaced with new Pokemon.

None of the new Level 3 raid bosses are particularly strong, especially compared to the first set of raid bosses. Ninetales is a big step down from Arcanine, and neither Scyther or Porygon will be particularly challenging. 

The only interesting new Level 3 raid boss is Omastar, which players have used as a secondary attacker in raids against Fire-Type Legendary Pokemon.

All of these new raid bosses should be soloable, which is both good news and bad news for players. While lower level players will be happy that they can try their hand at Level 3 raids on their own, many higher levels liked the challenge of beating the Level 3 raids on their own. 

Here’s the full list of new Level 3 raid bosses:

Ninetales: CP: 14914

Scyther: CP: 17358

Omastar: CP: 18915

Porygon: CP: 11419

 

 

Level 4

Tyranitar, Lapras, and Snorlax were all spared during the shakeup, but Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Rhydon, and Blissey were all cut and replaced. 

The good news is that Golem is now a raid boss, which should make a lot of players happy. Golem is one of the most useful Pokemon in Pokemon Go, so a lot of players will probably be thrilled to have “easy” access to it. You’ll want to use a Pokemon with Solar Beam to quickly off Golem, and you’ll likely need at least one or two other trainers. 

The other new Level 4 raid bosses aren’t all that great. Nidoking, Nidoqueen, and Victreebel aren’t particularly challenging or useful in gyms. At least, Poliwrath could be a bit challenging due to its extreme variance in moves, as it has access to both Water-Type moves and Fighting-Type attacks.

Here’s the full list of new Level 4 raid bosses:

Nidoking: CP: 24873

Nidoqueen: CP: 23216

Victreebel: CP: 23780

Golem: CP: 30572

Poliwrath: CP: 24272