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What are raids and how do they work?

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Pokémon GO Raids are social cooperative battles against very strong Pokémon called Raid Bosses. Raids have exclusive rewards and special encounters which can help you fill your Pokédex, get great IV Pokémon and have fun. Up to 20 players per group can raid at the same time.

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Up to 20 Players can battle one Raid Boss per Raid group, multiple Raid groups are available. On the Raid Lobby Screen you will see the list of people in your Raid Group and you can see their stats.

Once the Battle starts, you attack the Boss in the same manner as you would attack a Gym: tap, swipe, dodge. In large groups, Bosses go down very fast.

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If you’re high enough Level, you will get a notification saying that a nearby Raid is starting soon. In order to enter a Raid, you will need a Free or a Premium Raid pass. Upon entering, you will be added to a public Raid group (unless you joined a private group via the Raid password) and you will wait for the Raid to start in a Raid Lobby.

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After you successfully defeat a Raid Boss, you will receive Raid Rewards: Premier Balls, Technical Machines (TMs), Golden Razz Berry and Rare Candy. In addition, a “Bonus Challenge” will start, giving you a chance to capture the Raid Boss in a depowered, normal, Combat Power range. Raid Bosses have significantly higher IV values than their wild counterparts.

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HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR RAIDING EXPERIENCE

 

In a perfect world, we would want to have the most maximized teams for each raid. Sometimes stacking the same pokemon works really well but that's not always easy for all of us as we haven't had enough catches or startdust to maximize, say 10 Machamps for a Tyranitar raid.

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Below are some tips on how to maximize your raiding experience:

  • Travel with groups if you can! I can't stress this enough. It's hard enough fighting these Tier 4 bosses, most of them require anywhere between 5-10 people. Plus you never know when people will be showing up.

  • Get there early. Best time to show up for a raid is right when the egg cracks (you'll find the most people there then). The game gives players a two hour warning before a raid goes live and once it goes up, you have an hour to kill the raid boss. 

  • DODGE! If you are in a smaller group, try your best to dodge the raid boss's charged moves. Doing this will allow you to stay alive longer giving you more of a chance to defeat the boss. If you are finding yourself in a large group of 8+ people, spamming your buttons and doing as much damage as you can is probably the idea way to go about it as this will maximize the amount of premier balls you get for catching the raid boss. 

  • Maximize the amount of Premier balls you receive! There are many factors that go into how many premier balls you receive at the end of a battle.

  • Get a good team setup! You can check out some of the raid bosses' weakness below or go to our Legendary Pokemon Page to see what Pokemon are best used against the level 5 Legendary Raids. 

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Here are some examples below:

  • The base Pokeballs

  • Your damage contribution

  • Team Damage contribution

  • Gym Ownership

  • The percentage of damage inflicted by your team

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TIP: A good idea might be to take over the gym with your team before the raid boss egg cracks.​​

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  • Determine whether you want to use pinap berries or golden razz berries for your raid boss catch. In order to determine this, figure out whether or not you need this specific raid boss to use, or just use candies to power up ones that you already have. Also, you can pretty much predetermine the IV's of the raid boss pokemon when you go to catch him. To do this, you check out the CP of the raid boss, and match it up with the maximum CP to an IV 100 raid boss's CP in the chart below.

This should help you identify if a Raid pokemon's IVs are important to you

So let me give you an example of what I do when determining whether to use Pinaps or Golden Razz's.

I defeat a Tyranitar raid boss and I'm about to go catch him. I see that his CP is 2097 and realize that he's a PERFECT 100% IV pokemon (according to the chart above)! I will make sure I use Golden Razz Berries for EVERY throw. I will also make sure I at least get great throws each time too. You want to do everything you can to make sure you do not miss him! 

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If you run into a Tyranitar that is say, 2080 CP he's going to be above 90% IV which is definitely worth catching. The only time that wouldn't be worth the catch for you is if you are going for a 100% IV or you have all the Tyranitars you need and just need candies now to power them up. At that point you will go ahead and use Pinap Berries. I personally Pinap Berry any Tyranitar that is below 2075CP. Because I know I won't want to invest a ton of candy and stardust into one that low and instead save it for a T-Tar with better IV's. 

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What are the catch rates for Raid Bosses in Pokémon Go?

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Here's what GamePress lists at the base catch rates for Raid Bosses, as well as what those change to with Razz Berry and Golden Razz Berry modifiers. (See below for more on those.)

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Some multipliers to check out next time you decide to throw your Premier Ball:

Curved - 1.7x

Razz - 1.5x

Golden Razz - 2.5x 

Nice - 1.15x

Great - 1.5x

Excellent - 1.85x

 

Curved Nice - 1.95x

Curved Great - 2.55x

Curved Excellent - 3.15x 

curved nice w/ golden razz - 4.89x

curved great w/ golden razz - 6.38x

curved excellent w/ golden razz - 7.87x (best chance!)

Best chances:

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Countering other Level 3 and 4 raids                    

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  • Counter: Machamp with Counter + Dynamic Punch. Goes through Tyranitar like Bruce Lee through a wooden board.

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  • Counter: Lapras with Frost Breath and Blizzard. Ice is a Dragonite's worst enemy.

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  • Counter: Machamp with Counter and Dynamic Punch. Otherwise through anything tough at it, including Tyranitar, or anything that does a ton of damage, like Alakazam.

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  • Counter: Vaporeon with Water Gun and Hydro Pump or Exeggutor with anything and Solar Beam. They're plentiful and powerful.

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  • Counter: Exeggutor with Extrasensory (Legacy: Zen Headbutt) and Solar Beam. (I also like Jolteon because it multitasks against Gyarados.)

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  • Counter: Espeon, Alakazam, or Exeggutor, anything Psychic and tough, really. It's so opposite-of-a-tank that you can run over it with any high-powered attacker with the possible exception of a weak Tyranitar.

  • Counter: Tyranitar or Machamp. If you want variety, Flareon or Arcanine with Fire Fang and Fire Blast. They've been weakened but they still burn.

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  • Counter: Tyranitar with Bite + Crunch. Dark STAB and super effective is devastating.

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  • Counter: Golem with Rock Throw + Stone Edge. Rock beats fire.

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  • Counter: Rhydon with Mud Slap and Earthquake. It's not just a monster but it takes advantage of Jolteon's weakness to Ground-types.

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POKEMON GO RAIDING GUIDE

Let's talk RAIDS in Pokémon GO! Learn how raids work, how you can participate, how to maximize your chances of catching a raid boss, and everything else you need to know about raids in Pokémon GO! Raids are easily the best content addition to Pokémon GO since launch, so you won't want to miss out on the fun!

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Credit: Trainer Tips 

In this episode of 'Pokemon Go' I break down the BEST Pokemon Go Raid Boss Counters for all Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 Raid Bosses! Be sure to give this video a like if it helped you out!

 

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Credit: StraightUpKnives 

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