PoGO – Pokémon Go: Raikou as Raid Boss - Counter Guide

Although Pokémon Go now features legendary fighters like Zekrom, the legendary Raikou from the second generation of Pokémon is still a talented electric fighter that you’ll want to add to your collection if possible. Check out our Raikou counter guide to find out everything you need to know about defeating the Electric Wildcat.

Update from January 20, 2021: To coincide with the Johto event in Pokémon Go, all three legendary beasts from the second generation of the game are returning to the Tier 5 Raids in Pokémon Go. Entei kicks things off, followed by Raikou and Suicune. Entei and Raikou are still interesting in the Pokémon Go metagame in 2021, so we’ve updated our counter guide for Raikou – we’ve left out the Crypto Pokémon because they become very expensive to level up. If you’re lucky, you can also get the pocket monster as a Shiny. Raikou itself will appear in level 5 Raid battles from January 31, 2021 starting at 10:00 a.m. until February 4, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. We hope you enjoy the battle and good luck catching it!

Current counters for Raikou

Rihornior with clay clamp and earthquake
Stalobor with clay clamp and percussion drill
Knakrack with clay shot and earthquake
Groudon with clay shot and earthquake
Demeteros with clay shot and earth forces
Rabigator with clay clap and earthquake
Rizeros with clay clamps and earthquake
Mamutel with clay clamps and steamroller
Regigigas with power reserve and gigastroke
Golgantes with Clay Clamp and Earth Forces
Donphan with Clay Clamp and Earthquake
Geowaz with clay clamp and earthquake

Original news on September 19, 2019: The next raid event in Pokémon Go is coming up! Because trainers have completed all the requirements of Spark’s Candy Challenge for Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago, the legendary beast Raikou will appear in the Tier 5 arenas of Pokémon Go on June 29, 2019, starting at 4 p.m. local time. Raikou is still a pretty strong electric attacker, often rated stronger than Zapdos. So if you don’t have one yet or want to buff your team of Electric Pocket Monsters, you should grab one! There’s also the possibility that you’ll be able to catch Raikou in his shimmering form after defeating the raid boss – and who doesn’t want that! We have some tips and counters below in our short guide if you want to tackle Raikou as a raid boss!

Pokémon Go: Raikou as Raid Boss

Raikou has 45,435 CP as a Raid Boss, which you must beat down with your Pokémon to claim victory. You shouldn’t even think about facing a Raikou solo, that’s something you can take care of – you should have at least five to six like-minded trainers with you for a fight. Since Raikou is a purely Electric Pokémon, you should mainly use Ground-Type Pocket Monsters and their Ground Attacks to give it a run for its money. Raikou has electric attacks almost without exception, with the Thunder Shock and Surge attacks being particularly nasty. The only attack of a different type is the ghost attack Spukball. Earthquake is one of the strongest ground type charge attacks in Pokémon Go, so you should go for it if you want to tackle Raikou – even if it’s boosted by rainy weather.

Basically, the following attackers are recommended for fighting Raikou in Pokémon Go:

Groudon with the attacks Clay Shot and Earthquake.
Rihornior with the attacks Clay Shake and Earthquake
Mamutel with the attacks Clay Shaft and Steamroller
Donphan with the attacks Clay Shell and Earthquake
Sumpex with the attacks Clay Shot and Earthquake
Libelldra with the attacks Clay Shot and Earthquake

Furthermore you can fall back on the following attackers if you want to fill up your team:

Dragoran with Rage Attack
Stahlos with Earthquake
Relaxo with Hyper Beam
Machomei with Blast

Pokémon Go: Catch Raikou

Raikou does not appear in the wild and, away from raids in Pokémon Go, has so far only been available via a Field Breakthrough. A level 20, unboosted Raikou reaches a maximum CP value of 1,972 – which it must then have to offer a perfect IV value of 100%. If Raikou is boosted by rainy weather to level 25, then it will reach up to 2,466 CP for a 100% IV value. We hope you enjoy the battle and the hunt, especially for the Shiny version of Raikou!

Pokémon GO

Pokémon Go is the mobile spin-off of Nintendo’s popular Pokémon game series for Android and iOS. It is a so-called “location-based game”, i.e. a game that uses the player’s immediate surroundings. It is based on the principle of augmented reality.

Pokémon Map: Between landmarks and sights

Pokémon Go uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine the player’s location and displays it on a map that also represents the playing field. The map is based on OpenStreetMap maps. The game is played mostly outdoors and uses landmarks, landmarks and other notable or eye-catching objects in the world to position either PokéStops or arenas there for you to battle for supremacy. Join either Team Intuition (Team Yellow, Zapdos), Team Wisdom (Team Blue, Arktos), or Team Daring (Team Red, Lavados). Under their flag you can then fight for the arenas, which are placed at hotspots like churches or similar. Pokémon can appear anywhere, though.

Pocket monsters visible on the Pokémon Go Map are randomly loaded into the game’s virtual map by the game server. If several players are playing in the same location, each player can see and catch the Pokémon independently of the others.

Pokémon Go Updates, News, Raids and More

The developers at Niantic regularly provide Pokémon Go with new updates or special raids that should only be tackled in a group of several people. The Pokémon Go Raids are therefore very popular, as they also offer the prospect of particularly rare Pokémon. For example, in the past, legendary Pokémon could always be caught on special occasions (Pokémon Go events). For particularly eager mobile or smartphone Pokémon trainers, there is also an external IV calculator, such as the online tool from Pokemon.gameinfo.io or on Pokefans.net, to check the values of your Pokémon.