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Primal Kyogre 5-Person Raid Guide

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Tier 3 Raid Boss Guides
Primal_Kyogre_Raid_Guide
Difficulty:
HP22,500 ATK DEF
CP Range
Lvl 20 3261 - 3372 Lvl 25 4077 - 4215

Notable Weather

Boosts Boss's Moves Boosts Counters' Moves
Snow, Rain Sunny / Clear, Rain

Fast Move Difficulty

Move Difficulty
Waterfall Challenging

Charge Move Difficulty

Move Difficulty
Surf Challenging
Blizzard Challenging
Hydro Pump Intermediate
Thunder Intermediate

Overview

Since the dawn of Pokemon Go, every player with any knowledge of the main series has seen monolithic figures standing on the distant horizon, slowly growing closer with each new generation added. And now it's finally time for another of the true greats to finally complete its ancient journey.

Primal Kyogre is a hard fight that's made harder by the fact that it's released as a Tier 6 raid, meaning it has 22,500 HP instead of the standard 15,000 HP for Tier 5/Mega Raids. In a manner similar to its original run, this thing has a powerful Fast Move that racks up damage quick, a very spammable Charged Move in Surf, and outstanding coverage with Blizzard. And even when playing against the "easy" movesets, you've got Hydro Pump and Thunder, both of which hit hard and are difficult to dodge. Honestly, for general raid groups that aren't organized and ready to take this beast on, it's probably best to rack up 6-8 players just to ensure that you don't waste your raid passes, because this thing will drown any players who don't know what they're doing.

Approach

Team composition

  • Primal Kyogre only has two weaknesses: Grass and Electric.

    • If you're lucky enough to have the top Grass Types, they're generally your best options. Those aside, Electric tends to have high DPS and lower TDO with a few exceptions

  • Mega Sceptile is the VIP Mega Evolution here... just so long as Kyogre isn't packing Blizzard.

  • Kartana is king, and Xurkitree is pretty close behind for top non-Mega counters

  • Pay attention to the recommended lineup when building your team! And remember that Surf/Thunder may auto-select similar teams, so watch for nuance

  • If you're not blessed with the absolute best team options, then be ready to have two teams; one for Blizzard, and one for everything else.

Battling strategy

  • Re-entering will be necessary unless you have a huge group.

  • Dodging is very recommended! The one major exception may be Surf if it's resisted.

    • On that note, know when to let your Pokemon faint. Better for them to drop early than to lose them with 90 energy!

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

Best Raid Boss Counters

Supreme Mega Counters

Mega Sceptile Mega Sceptile
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Mega Sceptile is the best overall option for this raid. It has a great moveset, great stats, and a 2x resistance to both Water and Electric Type moves, meaning it will power through most of what Primal Kyogre will throw at it without breaking a sweat.

...but then there's Blizzard, which it's double-weak to. This move may flat-line Mega Sceptile even if dodged in some cases, so pay attention to the recommended lineup so that you're not caught off-guard!

Mega Manectric Mega Manectric
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Mega Manectric is the top DPS option for boosting Electric Type counters, and the top DPS option when Primal Kyogre is packing Blizzard. It falls a bit behind on other movesets, but it definitely has some major value. The one issue is the fact that players can only have one Mega Evolution at a time, so it's really only optimal if you coordinate with your raid group.

Good Mega Evolution Counters

Mega Venu Mega Venusaur
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Mega Venusaur looks like the TDO option to Mega Sceptile's DPS power at first glance, but that impression can be deceiving. While it's true that it has superior bulk and isn't as weak to Blizzard as its Generation 3 counterpart, it also lacks the 2x resistance to Water and Electric Type moves, so it tends to be a wash in general. Mega Venusaur doesn't really have an appreciable niche that allows it to be considered "situationally optimal", but it's still a very good Mega Evolution for this raid.

Mega Ampharos Mega Ampharos
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Similar to how Mega Venusaur parallels Mega Sceptile as a slightly deceptive alternative to the top option, Mega Ampharos parallels Mega Manectric. As discussed above, Mega Manectric is generally great, but operated best against Blizzard, where it can out-perform Mega Sceptile on paper. Well, then we can consider Mega Ampharos the TDO option to Mega Manectric's DPS, but Mega Ampharos is weak to Blizzard thanks to its Dragon sub-typing! And while it's true that this gives it a 2x resistance to Thunder and a resistance to Water Type movesets, Mega Sceptile objectively does a better job of playing that game.

Mega Ampharos is good in its own right, but never really "optimal" in this raid.

Supreme Counters

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This is the Pokemon that you want to prioritize! Kartana's got outstanding power, the ability to resist Thunder and Water Type movesets by virtue of its Grass typing, and it takes neutral damage from Blizzard thanks to its Steel sub-typing! This is one of the few counters that can safely and effectively join the battle regardless of what Primal Kyogre can throw at it.

Xurkitree Xurkitree
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While not as universally useful as Kartana, Xurkitree has very high DPS and the advantage of not sporting any weaknesses to whatever Primal Kyogre can throw its way, even resisting Thunder. It's a great way to keep up DPS!

ShadowRaikou Shadow Raikou
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A very good Electric Type. Its performance tends to be under that of Xurkitree, but its higher average TDO can make a big difference against a wreckingball like Primal Kyogre.

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While its DPS is below the heavy-hitters above by a fair margin, Zekrom's general TDO makes it an attractive option for such a hard-hitting boss. In particular, its resistance to Water Type movesets and double-resistance to Thunder is particularly nice, even if it is weak to Blizzard. 

And yes, we did just point out these exact features as negatives on Mega Ampharos, but remember that Mega Ampharos has to directly compete with Mega Sceptile, while Zekrom can stand on its own merit as a non-Mega option.

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Despite being a tad low on the DPS spectrum, Zarude can still slot in and get the job done, and its high TDO is pretty attractive too. In fact, Zarude sits pretty close to Zekrom in terms of actual performance, even sporting the same weakness/resistance profile for this raid. If you're lucky enough to have a good one, definitely bring it along for the fight... and hope that you're not staring down a Blizzard.

Good Counters

ShadowZapdos Shadow Zapdos
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Shadow Zapdos has strong performance, but one major flaw; one of the main advantages of Electric Types over Grass Types is the fact that they aren't weak to Blizzard. Well, Zapdos is, and it also takes neutral damage from Thunder. It can perform, but it cherry-picks the worst of both types in this raid.

ShadowMagnezone Shadow Magnezone
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Shadow Magnezone has one of the best typings for this raid, as it's one of the few options that actually resists Blizzard! It makes an outstanding pairing with Mega Sceptile to cover your bases!

Shadow Mewtwo Shadow Mewtwo
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The good-old universal counter, Shadow Mewtwo shows up with good, middle-of-the-road performance that can fill in a team wherever needed.

ShadowVenusaur Shadow Venusaur
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shadow-tangrowth Shadow Tangrowth
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Another vanilla Grass Type with solid overall performance.

Pokemon GO Shaymin Sky Forme Shaymin (Sky Forme)
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Shaymin - Sky Forme needs to have Hidden Power Grass in order to be even slightly good, or Hidden Power Electric to be a filler option. And even then it's not the greatest, sporting a double-weakness to Blizzard and no resistance to Thunder despite its Grass typing.

Fast MoveCharge MoveRating
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Shadow Exeggutor Shadow Exeggutor
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Shadow Alolan Exeggutor Shadow Alolan Exeggutor
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Like Mega Sceptile, Shadow Alolan Exeggutor double-resists Water Type movesets and Thunder, but has a 2x weakness to Blizzard. 

Magnezone Magnezone
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Glass Counters

ShadowElectivire Shadow Electivire
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The other half of the old-classic top Electric Type attackers, but sadly not standing shoulder-to-shoulder with its old rival this time. Shadow Electivire has a performance semi-similar to Xurkitree, but it is pretty much just objectively worse. And where Shadow Raikou can make up for its shortcomings with higher TDO in a raid where TDO does matter, Shadow Electivire is way too glassy to be a top counter this time around. Don't let that keep you from using it, though; It's got a good average DPS that can fill in your team well.

Shadow Luxray Shadow Luxray
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ShadowTorterra Shadow Torterra
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So Shadow Torterra is an interesting case; it's lost the Water Type resistance that its Grass typing grants it, and also has a 2x weakness to Blizzard. But it's also got a huge 3x resistance to Thunder, so it's a great option for that moveset, right?

Well, no. Thunder doesn't come out extremely frequently, meaning Torterra is going to have to survive an onslaught of Waterfalls, and it will probably lose all of the HP that it would have saved from tanking Thunder while taking neutral damage from Primal Kyogre's heavy hits. It can work, but it's not great.

Thundurus (Therian Forme) Thundurus (Therian Forme)
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Electivire Electivire
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Electivire Electivire
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shadow-manectric Shadow Manectric
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ShadowVictreebel Shadow Victreebel
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ShadowShiftry Shadow Shiftry
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Raid Graph