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How to beat Mega Gyarados in Pokémon Go – Weaknesses, counters, strategies

Mega Gyarados has arrived.

The mega raids in Pokémon Go give you a chance to earn mega candy for a particular Pokémon to give them a chance to mega evolve. Not every Pokémon can go through this transformation, but the ones that can are extremely powerful. They’re primarily used against five-star raids, giving everyone attacking in that raid a powerful boost. But before you can add them to your roster or evolve your Pokémon, you need to defeat them in a mega raid. For those looking to walk around a Mega Gyarados, you need to first defeat it.

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Mega Gyarados weaknesses

Mega Gyarados is a Dark and Water-type Pokémon. It’s going to be weak to Bug, Electric, Fairy, Fighting, and Grass-type moves, but it’s resistant to Dark, Fire, Ghost, Ice, Psychic, Steel, and Water-type attacks. You primarily want to focus on pairing a Grass-type up, making it harder for Mega Gyarados to do any damage to your team.

Best Pokémon to counter Mega Gyarados

You have several choices available to you to take down Mega Gyarados. We recommend using Mega Venusaur, Zekrom, and Machamp.

Mega Venusaur is a Grass and Poison-type Pokémon. You can only use it if you’ve already defeated a Mega Venusaur in a raid and have enough mega candy to evolve it. While the effect only lasts for a short time, it would be a superb choice to use against Mega Gyarados to expose its weakness to Grass-type moves. For PvE, Mega Venusaru has a maximum CP of 4,181, an attack of 241, a defense of 190, and a stamina of 246. The best moveset it can use during this raid is vine whip for its fast move, and then frenzy plant and sludge bomb for its charged moves.

The next option we recommend using is Zekrom, the legendary Dragon and Electric-type Pokémon. It’s a powerful Pokémon to use against Mega Gyarados, but it’s definitely on the rarer scale as not every trainer will likely have it in their roster. Those that do, though, would be well advised to utilize it. For PvE, Zekrom has a maximum CP of 4,565, an attack of 275, a defense of 211, and a stamina of 205. The best moves it can use during the raid is charge beam for its fast move and then crunch and wild charge for its charged moves.

The final Pokémon we highly recommend trainers to use is Machamp, the Fighting-type Pokémon. Trainers in the Battle League often use Machamp, and it’s an extremely useful Pokémon to take on some of the stronger meta choices. While it does not have the best defensive stats, it dominates in attack power, and it’ll be able to do some serious damage to Mega Gyarados. In PvE, Machamp has a maximum CP of 3,455, an attack of 234, a defense of 159, and a stamina of 207. The best moveset it can use in the raid includes the fast move counter and then cross chop and dynamic punch.

Top Pokémon to counter Mega Gyarados

You need a full team of six Pokémon to take on Mega Gyarados. While the ones above are our most recommended, there are several other choices you can consider using during the battle.

  • Mega Beedrill
  • Lucario
  • Conkeldurr
  • Electivire
  • Magnezone
  • Raikou
  • Roserade
  • Zapdos
  • Sceptile
  • Heracross
  • Togekiss
  • Sirfetch’d
  • Tangrowth

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Author
Image of Zack Palm
Zack Palm
Zack Palm is the Senior Writer of Gamepur and has spent over five years covering video games, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Oregon State University. He spends his free time biking, running tabletop campaigns, and listening to heavy metal. His primary game beats are Pokémon Go, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and any newly released title, and he finds it difficult to pull away from any Star Wars game.