Sept 2023: Raid Counters have been Updated. Find the new details on the update page here: /pokemon-go-raid-counters
Linked below is my collated list of all the best raid counters in Pokemon Go. These numbers of based on the calculations made by Gamepress’s Comprehensive DPS Spreadsheet but put together on a single page, rather than multiple ones.
It’s not the prettiest page, but it shows everything I need in order to build my raid team. Each cell shows the following:
- the name of the Pokemon
- the level of the Pokemon used for the calculations
- the fast move
- the charge move
- the DPS
- the TDO
- the final figure is DPS*4 x TDO / 100000. This is the number I used to sort each list.
Doing more damage quickly is more important than staying alive, so I prioritize DPS. But, it’s not solely sorted by DPS because if you die immediately with no defense, it’s totally worthless. Therefore, I’m using DPS*4 rather than DPS*3.
I’m including level 40 for all Pokemon, but I’m also including level 50 for all non-legendary pokemon and level 45 for all legendaries. It’s not too difficult to boost Pokemon up to level 40, but even though you can boost them all the way up to 50, getting XL candies for legendaries is not so easy. Includes two levels for each Pokemon can show you how much more powerful one is compared to the rest.
For some quick background, in Pokemon Go, there are these Pokemon battles called raids that multiple people can join to defeat the boss. Once the boss is defeated, each player has a chance to catch that Pokemon for themselves. These Pokemon are strong enough that you cannot defeat them by yourself. Each boss is different, but you usually must have 3 or 4 players minimum to win, assuming they have the best Pokemon for the battle.
But what are the best Pokemon for the battle? A while ago, the Pokemon community on Gamepress wrote a calculator that would tell you just how powerful a Pokemon was versus a raid boss. If you typed in the Pokemon you wanted to fight, it would give you a numbered list of all the best pokemon you’d need to defeat it.
When I was first doing raids, I found this calculator very useful to determine which Pokemon to catch and boost. However, for this calculator, you need to type in each individual Pokemon one by one to see each of the best counters. I wanted a page that I could look at and see ALL of the best pokemon versus ALL of the raid pokemon in Pokemon Go. So, I made one.
The calculator will save a CSV will all the data for the raid counters. So, back in 2019, I made this page to display all the information from these CSV files. Over time, this became unmanageable because the number of raid bosses continued to grow and the number of best Pokemon and best moves began to grow too. It would take me about an hour to download each individual sheet.
The Gamepress Calculator does all of its calculations in JavaScript. So over summer, I went through that code and ported it to Java. Now, rather than compiling data from generated CSV files, I can generate that data myself. And, rather than downloading 30+ CSV files, I only need to download the raw data files and rerun the page.
The General list says which are the best raid pokemon overall, but I also wrote a page that shows me which of my Pokemon are the best. I have to manually add every one of these, so my list is often out of date, but it gives me a general idea how much damage my team can do or how many people I’ll need to recruit to beat the boss.
I’m not sure if any of this is readable to anyone else, but it helps me out. :)