Primal Groudon 4-Person Raid Guide

Primal Kyogre is the top counter by a very wide margin. This thing lasts a long time, hits super hard, and resists Fire Blast, meaning it will absolutely shred poor Primal Groudon, putting an end to their rivalry once and for all. Just beware of Solar Beam, as one poorly timed dodge could take out your strongest Pokemon before it can really get going!

As strange as it seems on the surface, Mega Gyarados is actually one of the best non-Primal-Kyogre picks for this raid, and arguably the best non-Primal Mega pick. And this is despite the fact that it's substantially weaker than Mega Swampert and Mega Blastoise in terms of DPS.

So why do we say that it's the second best pick? Despite the fact that it's weaker than the aforementioned Mega Evolutions, its DPS is well above trio-range. And since the other options never reach Duo-level DPS, their performance is virtually identical in terms of getting the job done given a good raid group. Mega Gyarados also has the same weakness/strength profile as the other options (save Mega Swampert which does not like facing Solar Beam), and it has the longest time-on-the-field of all of the Mega options save Primal Kyogre, meaning it will provide its Mega boost for a longer time than the other options.

All of these factors come together to make Mega Gyarados one of the best counters for this raid. The one drawback is if you have a number of other Pokemon on your raid team that fall below 25 DPS on average, as then Mega Gyarados' comparatively low DPS might hamper your whole-team performance. Either that, or it can be a problem if your raid group isn't putting out the numbers needed and you need to pick up their slack in order to secure a win. But even then, its DPS is over 30, so it's going to put in some serious work.

In short; stick with Primal Kyogre, but note that Mega Gyarados is surprisingly good in this raid if you lack the king of the seas!

Dethroned, yet not forgotten. Mega Swampert hits very hard and can ruin Primal Groudon's day. However, it might even drop to a dodged Solar Beam thanks to its 2x Grass weakness, so use caution if utilizing this Mega!

Mega Blastoise is very strong in this raid, but for all intents and purposes it's a worse Primal Kyogre, sporting no defining advantages to let it stand out against the competition. Well, It's a great goldilocks pick either way! 

The dark variant of Kyogre rises from the depths, and hits like a truck. While not on a par with its Primal forme (but what is?), this is a Pokemon capable of leveraging massive DPS and flooding out Primal Groudon with ease, just so long as it doesn't eat a Solar Beam while doing so.

Strong and fast, but also frail. Solar Beam is likely a death sentence even if dodged.

Often overlooked, Shadow Feraligatr has a strong presence in this raid due to its great moveset, solid base stats, and Shadow boost.

Among the Water Type Shadow Starters, Shadow Empoleon stands with a fairly distinguished niche thanks to its Steel sub-typing, but that sub-typing does it few favors here. With a weakness to Ground and a lost resistance to Fire, its one brag is that it only takes neutral damage from Solar Beam. Still, it's a good Pokemon that's worthy of a slot.

Despite the fact that its Primal form rightfully takes the spotlight here, basic Kyogre can hit like a truck and has great overall performance. Just watch out for Solar Beam!

ON THAT NOTE: this list has a lot of mono-Water Types, so we're not really going to talk about them unless they have some interesting feature from here out. Only so much can be said about what is essentially a bunch of remixes of the same Pokemon!

Gyarados was the counter-king when Groudon first dropped, and once again it shows up for its Primal form. Shadow Gyarados' Flying Type allows it to double-resist Earthquake and take neutral damage from Solar Beam while it naturally resists Fire Blast, so it's a very good overall counter for this raid.

Water Shuriken and Hydro Cannon is a killer move combo, and Greninja uses it very well. In fact, Greninja is arguably the single best basic Water Type starter in the game thanks to this shining moveset.

If you have an old Gyarados that once battled Groudon in its initial run, bring it back for old time's sake!

Empoleon's Steel sub-typing means it's weak to Earthquake and doesn't resist Fire Blast. But it takes neutral damage from Solar Beam, so that's something at least.

Please bring Shadow Wailord if only because it's a funny Pokemon.

On second thought, don't. That's a big investment for a sub-par Pokemon....

A bit of an odd one on this list, as it's actually Ice/Fighting Type, but the power of Crab Hammer allows it to work. It doesn't resist anything that Primal Groudon can throw at it and is actually weak to Fire Blast, so don't raise one just for this raid....