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

All good things come in threes: Alongside Terrakium and Kobalium, Viridium will also return to the Tier 5 Raids in Pokémon Go in November 2021. Since some things have changed in the metagame in the meantime, we have updated our Viridium counter guide for you. You also have the chance to catch Viridium aka Virizion as a Shiny!

Update from November 5, 2021: During the 2021 Light Festival, you’ll once again find Viridium alongside Terrakium and Kobalium in Pokémon Go’s Tier 5 Raids. If you’re lucky, you’ll also be able to snag Virizion, the Plant Knight of Probity, as a Shiny. But have the best counters for fighting Viridium changed since his last appearance as a raid boss? We have an update for you below, but leave out the very expensive to level Crypto Pokémon. A rule of thumb for the fight against Viridium: It is best to take flight attacks with you!

Mega dew boss with wind blast and swoop
Lavados with wingbeat and sky sweep
Rayquaza with air cut and hurricane
Mega Glurak Y with Air Slash and Lohe Cannonade
Kramshef with beak and sky sweep
Yveltal with Wind Blast and Gale
Ho-Oh with power reserve and swoop
Washakwil with air cut and swoop
Staraptor with wing cut and swoop
Boreos with air cut and hurricane
Fasasnob with air cut and sky sweep
Boreos (animal spirit form) with wind cut and hurricane

Original news from December 12, 2020: Although the Tier 5 Raids are generally among the more challenging content in Pokémon GO, the bosses vary in difficulty so much that you can even defeat individual Pokémon as a duo. The Pokémon Viridium, which belongs to the dual type Plant/Combat, is one of these easier challenges. If you prepare suitable counters, Viridium will be defeated in no time – we explain what you need to keep in mind based on an article from Pokemongohub.

Raid against Viridium – General info and attacks

Basically, you should consider the following details for the fight against Viridium:

Viridium is expected to have 39,601 Raid Boss WP as a Raid Boss.
You can catch the Plant/Combat Pokémon with the following WP values: 1,649-1,727 WP (level 20) or 2,061-2,159 WP (with weather boost to level 25).
Viridium receives a weather boost from sunny and cloudy weather as a Plant/Combat-type Pokémon.
Viridium reacts weakly to attacks of type Flight, Psycho, Fairy, Fire, Poison and Ice.
If you have the best Flight counter Pokémon, which we list below, you can defeat Viridium in a team of two. All other players should play in groups of five to six trainers against the Raid Pokémon.

Viridium also uses a selection of the following attacks in the Raid:

Jerking Blow (normal attack, normal type).
Zen Headbutt (normal attack, Psycho type)
Leaf Blade (charge attack, plant type)
Melee (Charge Attack, Fighting Type)
Stone Edge (Charge Attack, Rock Type)

Only Stone Edge can be dangerous to you from these attacks under certain circumstances, because the counter Pokémon best suited for fighting Viridium are of the Flight type – and Flight Pokémon are sensitive to Rock attacks. Otherwise, Viridium has a strong defense that can cost you crucial seconds on the raid clock if you’re in doubt.

Raid against Viridium – The weather effects

As always in Pokémon GO, the weather also influences the battle in the Raid against Viridium. You have to be prepared for the following possible effects or make use of them yourself:

Sunny: Boost for fire counter, boost for Viridium’s plant attack Leaf Blade.
Partly cloudy: Boost for Viridium’s attacks Jerking Blow (Normal) and Stone Edge (Rock)
Cloudy: Boost for Poison and Fairy counters, Boost for Viridium’s Combat attack Close Combat
Windy: Boost for flying and psychic counters, boost for Viridium’s psychic attack Zen Headbutt.
Rain: no effect
Snow: Boost for ice counter
Fog: no effect

Raid Against Viridium – The Best Counter Pokémon

With Viridium’s general nature in mind and weather effects considered to your advantage, you can assemble your team for the actual raid battle. Here, the best counter Pokémon include:

Lavados (Fire/Flight type) with Wingbeat (Flight type) and Sky Sweeper (Flight type).
Kramshef (Unlight/Flight type) with Borh Beak (Flight type) and Sky Sweep (Flight type)
Rayquaza (type Dragon/Flight) with Air Slice (type Flight) and Aero Ace (type Flight)
Fasasnob (type Normal/Flight) with Air Slice (type Flight) and Sky Sweeper (type Flight)
Mewtu (type Psycho) with Confusion (type Psycho) and Psycho Strike (type Psycho)
Togekiss (type Fairy/Flight) with Air Cut (type Flight) and Aero Ace (type Flight)
Staraptor (type normal/flight) with wing slash (type flight) and swoop (type flight)
Glurak (Fire/Flight type) with Fire Whirl (Fire type) and Lohe Cannonade (Fire type)
Simsala (type Psycho) with Confusion (type Psycho) and Psychokinesis (type Psycho)
Skelabra (Spirit/Fire type) with Fire Whirl (Fire type) and Heat Fury (Fire type)
Roserade (Plant/Poison type) with Poison Blow (Poison type) and Mud Bomb (Poison type)
Kokowei (Plant/Psycho type) with Confusion (Psycho type) and Psychokinesis (Psycho type)
Psiana (type Psycho) with Confusion (type Psycho) and Psychokinesis (type Psycho)
Latios (Type Dragon/Psycho) with Zen Headbutt (Type Psycho) and Psychokinesis (Type Psycho)

If you don’t have these Pokémon at all or not enough for a complete attack team, you can also fall back on the following (weaker) alternatives:

Metagross (Steel/Psycho type) with Zen Headbutt (Psycho type) and Psychokinesis (Psycho type).
Yanmega (type Beetle/Flight) with Wingbeat (type Flight) and Aero-Ass (type Flight)
Glaziola (type ice) with ice breath (type ice) and avalanche (type ice)
Mamutel (type ice) with Powder Snow (type ice) and Avalanche (type ice)
Lohgock (type Fire/Combat) with Fire Whirl (type Fire) and Lohe Cannonade (type Fire)
Galagladi (type Psycho/Combat) with Confusion (type Psycho) and Psychokinesis (type Psycho)
Guardevoir (type Psycho/Fairy) with Confusion (type Psycho) and Psychokinesis (type Psycho)
Dragoran (type dragon/flight) with dragon rod (type dragon) and hurricane (type flight)
Ho-oh (type fire/flight) with power reserve (type normal) and swoop (type flight)

We wish you success in the fight against Viridium and a fun and communicative raid experience!

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.