Max Raid Discussion Thread

So we have gmax eevee, meowth, and Melmeltal left to bw open for public. Depending on how the stretch it out, that should line up with the Isle of Armor release.

UPDATE: seems we got more news thanks to Serebii.
Gigantimax Pikachu will run from now til May 18th
Gigantamax Eevee will be available in Max Raid Battles from May 19th through May 25th
Gigantamax Meowth will be available in Max Raid Battles May 26th through June 1st
 
Last edited:
So Meowth has rotated into raids now and... its catch rate seems unusually low. I had two in a row break out of repeat balls, and it looks like several people on twitter are complaining about the same issue. I suspect/hope this is just an error and its catch rate isn't meant to be this bad...
 
So Meowth has rotated into raids now and... its catch rate seems unusually low. I had two in a row break out of repeat balls, and it looks like several people on twitter are complaining about the same issue. I suspect/hope this is just an error and its catch rate isn't meant to be this bad...
g-max event raids should be like catch rate 20, yeah?
so I think it's probably more people noting their bad luck more than their good
 
g-max event raids should be like catch rate 20, yeah?
so I think it's probably more people noting their bad luck more than their good
Normally I would agree that this is the most likely case, and while still within the realm of possibility, after the ease with which I was catching G-max Pikachu and Eevee, and given that I don't see any similar complaints on Serebii's Twitter for Eevee at least, I suspect something is amiss with Meowth. Even in multiplayer raids I had a very high success rate with repeat balls, and have ~10+ G-max Pikachu & Eevee each, including 2 shinies each*. Out of all the raids I did maybe only a couple ran using repeat balls? In contrast, I have gone at least 7 online Meowth in a row in which repeat balls have failed. The only successful catch I have had is with a dusk ball. All of those Meowth raids have been online. I've seen the hypothesis floated that repeat balls are not getting the 3.5 multiplier for G-max Meowth, and while it bears more testing I am starting to suspect that may be true.

Since most of my first set of raids were online, which supposedly gives abysmal catch rates, I decided to test the offline rates a bit. I just beat the same 5* Meowth offline 8 times in a row. On the first 4 attempts I used repeat balls and caught it 0 times. On the next 4 attempts I used dusk balls and caught it 3 times (nighttime in game).

While I suspect this is too small of a sample to be statistically significant, if I run into any shiny G-max Meowth I will be using a dusk ball or ultra ball instead of a repeat ball to be safe...

*This alone makes me question whether G-max Pikachu and Eevee have catch rate 3 in online raids, or at least whether we have an accurate catch rate formula for max raids. Based on a gen 7 catch rate calculator, a catch rate 3 mon at level 60 supposedly gives a 9% chance to be caught by a repeat ball when registered in pokedex (3 level 60s, 1 level 40, same 9% chance apparently). At a 9% success chance, 4 successes out of 4 is a 0.006561% chance. That's about a 1/15000 chance. This doesn't count all of the other G-maxes I successfully caught from online raids, since I didn't keep track of which were online or not, nor how many I battled in total. Is there something I'm misunderstanding about how the catch rates work?
 
So its been a while since i posted, but as im sure everyone is aware, there is a HUGE max raid festival going live right now. Every gmax mon sans eevee, meowth, and Pikachu are roaming live right now, and will last until the 29th. Even more enticing, they drop a ton of dynamax candy and the version exclusives are swapped! So if you missed your flapples or lapras, great chance to stock up.

I also want to point out that with Isle of armor coming up, we're gonna get some new pokemon into the Max Den pool. Only time will tell if theres any new gmaxes, but we will see tomorrow!
 
Does we have a list with the locations of the Dens in The Isle of Armor? I know it just dropped today, but I need to find HA Galarian Slowpoke lol
 
Got a couple Zeraora raids done, they're definitely nowhere close to the Mewtwo's difficulty (then again , Zeraora happens to have slightly less BPs and is way squishier).

Seems just having 4 ground types (or bulky resists) that don't kill each other with earthquakes is enough
 
It seems like Lightning Rod Kanto Marowak with a thick club would be pretty good against Zeraora.

Does anyone know if the thick club works during Dynamax?
 
I've been able to finally host and deal with the shiny variant. I used D-Palossand and called a friend which joined with his Sandaconda, so the SS helps me with shore up and also Palossand isn't affected by D-Draco, because it's running Earth Power. A random joined with Mudsdale, finally a guy who knows what he's doing, and the 4th slot was the Clefairy NPC, which helped us with Follow Me and Gota Vital, don't know the name in english, the one that heals the entire party. The thing is a beast in terms of damage, 2 deaths and the 2 were 2-shots against ultra bulky lvl 100 mons.

Definitely something I'm not interesting in with randoms. The normal Zera can be dealt with anything, just run a Specs Eternatus and it's done, I even managed to kill one of those while in second phase shield with behemoth blade after SD with Zacian. They are totally different worlds.
 
I've also had the displease of running into Shiny Zeraora and... my 100 golurk got obliterated O_O
Yeh this seems... difficult to work with.
Can you even use anything other than monoground and Golurk/Rhyperior/Palossand? Is there any bigbrain strat (like the quad water absorb/surf for mewtwo) to deal with this?
 
I've also had the displease of running into Shiny Zeraora and... my 100 golurk got obliterated O_O
Yeh this seems... difficult to work with.
Can you even use anything other than monoground and Golurk/Rhyperior/Palossand? Is there any bigbrain strat (like the quad water absorb/surf for mewtwo) to deal with this?
From the only experience I had... Marshadow, or something with Clear Smog (Gastrodon?), might be useful because the Shiny Zeraora I encountered in one of my dens spammed Max Knuckle and Work Up.
 
Last edited:
Yup, both remove boosts even when the boss is behind a barrier.
Gastrodon spamming Clear Smog seems like a good fit for Zeraora then. Technically it can Earth Power too but Clear Smog seems to be the way to go always anyways.
 
I’ve been running Kantonian Marowak with Bonemerang and Stomping Tantrum. Since Bonemerang has a miss chance, Stomping Tantrum will then become twice as strong if the former misses.
 
Gastrodon spamming Clear Smog seems like a good fit for Zeraora then. Technically it can Earth Power too but Clear Smog seems to be the way to go always anyways.
Assuming Shiny Zeraora has no Special Attack EVs, a 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD spread with a Special Defense-boosting nature works well enough.

It can take a single Max Overgrowth in a pinch, and it can't be 2HKOed by any other unboosted attack.

0 SpA Zeraora Max Overgrowth vs. 252 HP / 112+ SpD Gastrodon: 360-424 (84.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Zeraora Max Wyrmwind vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Gastrodon: 126-149 (29.5 - 34.9%) -- 14.6% chance to 3HKO
0 Atk Zeraora Max Knuckle vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Gastrodon: 85-101 (19.9 - 23.7%) -- possible 5HKO
0 Atk Zeraora Max Flare vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Gastrodon: 58-69 (13.6 - 16.1%) -- possible 7HKO

One could run Special Attack EVs to power up Earth Power... but I don't think it's worth the time.

UPDATE: Okay, Shiny Zeraora TOTALLY has Attack EVs, probably a lot of them, and maybe with an Attack-boosting nature as well. A +0 Max Wyrmwind somehow dropped my Gastrodon to pixels above 50% HP, and then KOed with a +1 Outrage, and this combo can't happen without EVs.
 
Last edited:
Assuming Shiny Zeraora has no Special Attack EVs, a 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD spread with a Special Defense-boosting nature works well enough.

It can take a single Max Overgrowth in a pinch, and it can't be 2HKOed by any other unboosted attack.

0 SpA Zeraora Max Overgrowth vs. 252 HP / 112+ SpD Gastrodon: 360-424 (84.5 - 99.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Zeraora Max Wyrmwind vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Gastrodon: 126-149 (29.5 - 34.9%) -- 14.6% chance to 3HKO
0 Atk Zeraora Max Knuckle vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Gastrodon: 85-101 (19.9 - 23.7%) -- possible 5HKO
0 Atk Zeraora Max Flare vs. 252 HP / 144 Def Gastrodon: 58-69 (13.6 - 16.1%) -- possible 7HKO

One could run Special Attack EVs to power up Earth Power... but I don't think it's worth the time.

UPDATE: Okay, Shiny Zeraora TOTALLY has Attack EVs, probably a lot of them, and maybe with an Attack-boosting nature as well. A +0 Max Wyrmwind somehow dropped my Gastrodon to pixels above 50% HP, and then KOed with a +1 Outrage, and this combo can't happen without EVs.
Maybe just max defense and use an Assault Vest or Rindo Berry to offset Overgrowth? I think everything but Overgrowth is physical. Rindo is better, but items are consumable in raids iirc.
 
Maybe just max defense and use an Assault Vest or Rindo Berry to offset Overgrowth? I think everything but Overgrowth is physical. Rindo is better, but items are consumable in raids iirc.
That could be an option, but it still needs 44 SpD EVs to survive an Overgrowth.
 

Clefable @ Rocky Helmet / Wiki Berry
Ability: Unaware
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Follow Me
- lol
- lol
- lol

Haven't tried this against a shiny yet, but this has served to be really good support for the regular 5 star ones. Paired this with screens Grimmsnarl support and Clef sticks around for quite a few turns, ignoring Work Up Boosts and redirecting Close Combat/Max Knuckle like a champ. Meanwhile, Max Wyrmwind is ineffective which means your physical Ground-type breakers won't be getting their Attack stats dropped while Clef is alive. Unfortunately, Follow Me takes priority over Lightning Rod, so it will be taking Electric moves (and possibly getting paralyzed by Thunder Punch .__.), but Clef should survive long enough to the point where Zeraora's heavily weakened.

Edit: Rocky Helmet works really well with this set thanks to the fact all of Zeraora's non-Max moves make contact, and that helmet chip adds up. Pinch Berry is also an option to increase longevity.
 
Last edited:
priority over Lightning Rod, so it will be taking Electric moves
That wouldn't really be a big deal considering Zeraora (like most raids) will often nullify the ability. In fact, it will do it almost every turn due to Close Combat stat drops and the AI priorizing resetting them.

That said, the issue is that the Shiny Zeraora will attack 3 times per turn, so if it opts to use his non-dragon attacks, might realistically destroy clefable within a single turn while still accumulating Work Up or Max Knuckle boosts.
It would however at least negate the Max Wrym attack drop so I can see trying this out myself today.
I'll let you know how it went
 
That wouldn't really be a big deal considering Zeraora (like most raids) will often nullify the ability. In fact, it will do it almost every turn due to Close Combat stat drops and the AI priorizing resetting them.
I know that, but my point is Clef won’t be shielded from Electric moves at the start of the battle.

Either way, the biggest benefit to the strategy is the Max Wyrmwind redirection which mons like Marowak and Rhyperior really appreciate.

edit; also keep in mind I’m running this with Screens, too, making Clef extra bulky during the beginning rounds.
 
Last edited:
I know that, but my point is Clef won’t be shielded from Electric moves at the start of the battle.

Either way, the biggest benefit to the strategy is the Max Wyrmwind redirection which mons like Marowak and Rhyperior really appreciate.

edit; also keep in mind I’m running this with Screens, too, making Clef extra bulky during the beginning rounds.
I've tried it out a bit.
Slight variation on the theme, my Clefable is Bold 252/252 def hp, Rocky Helmet and... Follow Me spam.
I actually have Moonblast / screen / Life Dew as other moves but... never clicked them anyway.
Rocky Helmet actually does quite the work since outside Max moves and Grass Knot, every attack is contact and the chip damage adds up.
So far it literally carried 3 regular Zeraora raids with 1 other human player and 2 useless or even worse (normal attacks + plasma fist woweee) AI.

I havent managed to catch a shiny zeraora raid yet today sadly, but for normal ones assuming there's 1 other player with dedicated mon, works wonders.
 
Last edited:
Rocky Helmet actually does quite the work since outside Max moves and Grass Knot, every attack is contact and the chip damage adds up.
Interesting item option. I'll try this out myself. I usually just spam Follow Me as well and also happened to have Life Dew and Moonblast on my set, but I really just specifically use Follow Me only.

I'd like to point out that Grass Knot, despite being a special attack, also makes contact.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top