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Mega Salamence Raid Duo Guide

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Tier 5 Raid Boss Guides
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Difficulty:

Doable at trainer level 30 with optimized counters or weather boost

HP15,000 ATK244.99 DEF198.36
CP Range
Lvl 20 2773 - 2875 Lvl 25 3467 - 3594

Notable Weather

Boosts Boss's Moves Boosts Counters' Moves
Sunny / Clear, Fog, Rain, Windy Snow, Windy, Partly Cloudy, Cloudy

Fast Move Difficulty

Move Difficulty
Fire Fang Challenging
Dragon Tail Intermediate
Bite Easy

Charge Move Difficulty

Move Difficulty
Draco Meteor Intermediate
Hydro Pump Challenging
Fire Blast Intermediate

Overview

Salamence is a pretty powerful Mega Evolution, so it's no wonder that it's a pretty high-priority target for anyone looking to maximize their raid team. Fortunately, this isn't a terribly difficult raid, though it definitely has some potentially dangerous issues due to Mega Salamence' high Attack stat combined with a few particularly dangerous attacks. Still, a huge number of counters hit the necessary 25 DPS needed to score a Duo run, so anything with 3+ halfway decent trainers should be a sure win for the most part.

Approach

Team composition

  • Ice Types are the name of the game, preying on Salamence' 2x weakness and out-performing even the omni-powerful Dragons without any issue.

  • Focus on a bit of TDO instead of pure DPS, as many of these Pokemon are well above the 25 DPS benchmark, so staying in the game will tend to be a bigger priority than beating out the clock for better players.

  • A viable strategy is to have both players load up a team consisting of nothing but Mega Glalie or Mega Abomasnow and heal up/re-enter as soon as they faint out. It's a bit resource-heavy, but it can get the job done with good dodging.

Battling strategy

  • Beware of Fire Fang, it will wreck most Ice Types pretty quickly. Fire Blast will score OHKOs pretty easily too, but it takes a fair bit to charge up and is easy to dodge. Dragon Tail can be fairly threatening too.
  • Draco Meteor has a nearly identical dodge window and higher raw power, but will tend to be a bit less threatening to players using Ice Types, which should be basically everyone outside of Windy weather.
  • Hydro Pump has a bit less damage output, especially since it will tend to not deal Super Effective damage, but its very short dodge window means that it will tend to hit all but the most proficient and mindful dodgers. 
  • Dodging is definitely recommended. All of Mega Salemence' Charged Moves are single-bar, so they won't come out too frequently and tend to hit very hard. 

Note: "Good" movesets are not necessarily viable at the level indicated.

Best Raid Boss Counters

Supreme Mega Evolution Counters

Mega Glalie Mega Glalie
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The king of the Ice Type Mega Evolutions, Mega Glalie is the obvious choice for this raid. Its high DPS combined with the ability to boost other Ice Types on the field makes it a prime choice for any Mega Salamence raid, just beware of Fire Type movesets.

Mega Abomasnow Mega Abomasnow
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Mega Abomasnow is very competitive with Mega Glalie, but it has the added advantage of resisting Hydro Pump, which can be a pretty bothersome move to face. However, it will also go up in flames just looking at a Mega Salamence that's packing Fire Fang and/or Fire Blast.

Mega Rayquaza Mega Rayquaza
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The Dragon King is one of the few things in this game that can compete with a double-weakness by preying on a mere single-weakness. It has the disadvantage of not granting an Ice Type Mega Boost, but it's still powerful in-and-of itself!

Good Mega Evolutions

Mega Diancie Mega Diancie
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The top Rock counter for this raid, Mega Diancie doesn't care about Mega Salamence' powerful Dragon Type moves and comes in strong in return. Still, its DPS is substantially lower than the Ice Mega Evolutions.

Mega Gardevoir Mega Gardevoir
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The top option if Fairy damage is your goal, but still falls behind Mega Diancie, which also provides a Rock boost. On top of that, it's also far behind the DPS of the Ice Mega Evolutions.

Mega Salamence Mega Salamence
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While definitely below the Ice Type Mega Evolutions in terms of performance for this raid in general, the mirror match is a great option in Windy weather or if you know that your raid group is likely going to run a bunch of Dragon Types. It also has the advantage of resisting Hydro Pump and Fire Type movesets, but it will fold pretty quickly to Dragon Type movesets.

Mega Latios Mega Latios
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Pretty close to Mega Salamence, and all of the same points still stand, but it also has the added disadvantage of being weak to Bite.

Supreme Counters

ShadowSwine Shadow Mamoswine
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The frigid monarch itself, Shadow Mamoswine is a devastatingly powerful force with a performance in this raid that is unmatched. It fears Hydro Pump and Fire Type movesets alike, but it can still power through with huge damage.

ShadowWeavile Shadow Weavile
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Basically Shadow Mamoswine but... worse. Despite this fact, it still makes our Supreme Counters list due to its very high DPS capabilities. And hey, it resists Bite and isn't weak to Hydro Pump, so that's something, right? In all seriousness, though; Shadow Weavile is an outstanding counter for this raid.

Good Counters

Galarian Darmanitan Galarian Darmanitan
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One of the best vanilla Ice-Types, Galarian Darmanitan is a gold-standard counter with outstanding general performance, and makes for a great counter for this raid.

Mamoswine Mamoswine
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Yes, that army of Mamoswine that you raised back when Gen 4 first started dropping works wonders here too. Like its Shadow variant it fears Water and Fire, but it's still a great overall performer.

Shadow Mewtwo Shadow Mewtwo
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Power incarnate, Shadow mewtwo once again breaks into a raid graph with nothing but a relevant charged move to its name. Everyone's favorite Legendary mutant is actually a really solid overall counter in this raid as it doesn't sport the weaknesses to Fire or Dragon that hampers most of the other Pokemon on this list, but it does need to be careful of Bite... though Bite is so weak that it will have similar performance to Fire Fang against Mewtwo when used by a raid boss.

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Take everything that we said about Shadow Weavile and bring it down a few notches.

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Arguably the top budget counter for this raid, a high-leveled Glaceon is very duo-worthy, and is a fine pick for this raid.

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Despite not having an Ice Type Fast Move, Kyurem is actually a pretty solid counter here due to the sheer power of Glaciate. It also has the advantage of being an Ice Type resists Hydro Pump and is not weak to Fire Type movesets. Just watch out for Dragon Type movesets, as Draco Meteor will end this frigid dragon very quickly.

Shadow Articuno Shadow Articuno
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Despite being overlooked, Shadow Articuno is actually a fairly strong counter for this raid that has decent overall performance. And, for once, its Flying Type has absolutely no baring on this matchup.

cloyster Shadow Cloyster
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Despite being a little low on the DPS scale when compared to the above Pokemon, Shadow Cloyster still hits well within duo-range DPS and it has the best resistance set on this list. It resists Hydro Pump, takes neutral damage from Fire Type movesets, and isn't weak to Dragon Type movesets as is a tradeoff with its similar competition. Overall, Shadow Cloyster is a pretty safe universal counter for this raid.

Shadow Salamence Shadow Salamence
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Despite not being an Ice Type, Shadow Salamence just barely makes its way into this list; a true testament to its sheer power. It has the standard fare of resisting Fire and Water while being weak to Dragon, and is best utilized under Windy weather.

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All of the same points as Shadow Mewtwo apply, but just... not quite as much.

Glass Counters

ShadowAbomasnow Shadow Abomasnow
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Solid DPS, but melts pretty quickly... especially if Mega Salamence has Fire Fang.

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One of the original Ice Type attackers, Jynx is... okay, but really frail.

Shadow Porygon-Z Shadow Porygon-Z
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Definitely an oddity, Porygon-Z has the raw stats needed to be an okay counter that sits fairly close to Mega Salamence, and it has the advantage of having no weakness among Mega Salamence' moveset. Just... don't invest heavily in it, as it's still pretty mediocre.

Raid Graph