If, like me, you live on the MCLA campus or another campus which has two or fewer gyms (most colleges in the country, if not the entire planet) you probably don’t get a lot of raiding in during the week. For our part here at MCLA, we have a single gym located at the Mark Hopkins building, with another gym down the street at the Houghton Mansion. In times of particularly bad weather, the latter is simply not a good option for raids, relegating Mark Hopkins as your primary source of raids. Additionally, there is a huge rivalry between the three teams of Mystic, Instinct and Valor going on here at MCLA. Combine these two, and raid ‘groups’ scarcely, if ever, actually come to fruition here. Because of this, to avoid going an entire week (possibly longer if you don’t have a car to drive off campus with) without raids, it is important to learn how to “shortman” a Pokemon Go raid. Shortmanning in this context is simply using the minimum, or very close to it, of the amount of people needed to defeat a given Raid Boss. This article will best describe how to go about shortmanning a raid.
For the purposes of compressing this article, it should be worth noting that Tier 1 and Tier 2 raid bosses are easily soloed, have dozens upon dozens of viable Pokemon that are easy to get (and usually don’t even have to be very good as a whole) that can aid you in a solo. Tier 3 and 4 raid bosses are significantly harder.
At the time of writing this article, it is currently reasonably possible to solo any of the Tier 3 bosses currently available to us. However, for Tier 4 bosses, only Tyranitar has had official documentation proving that it can be soloed, while Absol and Ursaring can only be soloed in theory, and haven’t had anyone do it to prove that they have done so. Aside from them, no other T4 is possible to solo. For the two T5s, Palkia is absolutely not doable alone, and is an extreme challenge to do with two heavily optimized, highly skilled players. Deoxys-Attack forme is the current Ex-Raid boss, but it is only a Tier 5 by name; it is easier to solo than any Tier 4 and easier to solo than multiple Tier 3s in this game.
The following coverage on Tier 3s will assume that you are trying to solo them, but it may highlight methods of going about two-manning them. They also cover the Tier 3 bosses available only at the time of writing this article.
Granbull
Overall Solo difficulty: Intermediate
Explanation: Granbull is a Fairy type, meaning that it inherently does not get STAB on its Fast move. In fact, both of its Fast moves are awful. Its charge moves are a mixed bag: Crunch will hammer you hard and often, Play Rough is a hard hitter albeit one which is easily resisted, while Close Combat is just all sorts of pathetic. In a vacuum, you will want the Granbull you’re dealing with to be Bite + Close Combat, but the actual spike in difficulty between that moveset and Granbull’s hardest moveset, Snarl + Crunch, is really not that great. Survival isn’t too difficult here. In a nutshell, loading up your team with Metagross or Roserade and calling it a day is plausible. For the less privileged player, though, many Steel types or Poison types will do. Metagross, however, is unique amongst its Steel brethren in that it is not really bothered by Close Combat. That move becomes immensely more threatening against other conventional Steel types, such as Heatran, Lucario and especially Aggron. Play Rough becomes a nuisance to any non Poison or Steel type, but against those two typings, it is not that big of a deal. Crunch puts the hurting on Metagross. If you go the route of neutral DPS, Mewtwo and Alakazam are also bothered by Crunch, and Rayquaza gets torched by Play Rough. All three of them easily deal with Close Combat, however.
Dodging Strategy: There is absolutely no point in dodging Crunch; Granbull uses it so frequently that you will spend more of the fight dodging than actually attacking, and will subsequently lose the game via time-out. Close Combat should be dodged, and it becomes mandatory to dodge if you’re utilizing a non-Metagross Steel type for this raid. Play Rough should be dodged if you’re using Alakazam, Rayquaza, or a half-health Mewtwo with just a little bit left to go on your Charge move. Note that this fight seldom ever actually poses a survival issue, so you could theoretically get by with minimal to no dodging.
Best Counters: Roserade is an extremely safe bet, covering all of Granbull’s moves. Metagross handles Play Rough Granbull thoroughly, and could even contend with Crunch Granbull as well. Beyond them, a team of well-suited Poison or Steel types should be ridden to victory. Pokemon with Poison or Steel coverage moves, such as Breloom with Sludge Bomb or Ho-Oh with Steel Wing, can suffice as well. Strong neutral attackers like Mewtwo, Rayquaza or Alakazam can make for adequate fillers, but should not be leaned too heavily on unless you’re a very high level.
Azumarill
Overall solo difficulty: Hard
Explanation: Don’t let that low CP fool you: Azumarill is one tough bunny. Thing is, being a very passive Pokemon actually hinders you, since Azumarill’s weak hits don’t charge your charge moves very much. It has above average bulk which is skyrocketed from the HP boost a Raid Boss gets. Because of these elements, generally the counters for any of its moves will be the same in most cases. There isn’t really a particular moveset you’ll usually want to target to solo, as a result.
Dodging Strategy: Unless you have a particularly fragile Pokemon on the verge of being KO’d just as its Charge Move is ready, don’t even think about dodging. This fight is a battle against the clock, and any moment you aren’t attacking is a moment you aren’t doing any damage.
Best Counters: In a perfect world, a team of six maxed out Raikous will send this thing packing without struggling. Assuming you aren’t that immensely privileged (let’s be honest, especially if you’re an MCLA student, you probably aren’t), you will want to be constantly hitting this thing super effectively, so most good Electric, Grass or Poison type attackers will get the job done. Particularly frail Grass types, like Breloom, do need to be mindful of Ice Beam or Play Rough Azumarill, while frail Poisons, such as Toxicroak, should try to dodge a Hydro Pump if they can. While Electrics make for wonderful counters, and see their moves boosted in the rain, Azumarill’s Hydro Pump also experiences a boost, so be wary.
Alakazam
Overall solo difficulty: Extremely Challenging
Explanation: By far the hardest Tier 3 in the entire game (counting unavailable T3s at the time of writing this), Alakazam is truly a benchmark to be met. Battles against this offensive powerhouse not only turn in to fights for survival, but its not-too-shabby bulk as a result of its HP increase causes races against the clock as well. What’s more, this thing has insane versatility between its movesets; what makes for an excellent counter against one variant can get turned into dust and ashes against another. If you’re inexperienced with soloing stuff, get a friend or consider sitting this one out. This is not for the faint of heart.
This thing has such a wide, encompassing, oppressive moveset that I decided to individually cover each of its possible movesets with brief difficulty ratings. Note that ratings such as “Easy” or “Hard” are relative to one another, meaning that regardless of the moveset you’re dealing with, you’re going to have a hard time.
Moveset guide:
Psycho Cut + Future Sight= Easy
Psycho Cut + Shadow Ball= Intermediate
Psycho Cut + Focus Blast= Very Hard
Confusion + Future Sight = Intermediate
Confusion + Shadow Ball = Hard
Confusion + Focus Blast = Extremely Hard
If this is your first time trying out an Alakazam, as you can see, you’re best suited targeting a Psycho Cut variant. Either of its double Psychic movesets can be countered by Dark types. Interestingly, Gengar is completely unviable against Confusion movesets unless at max level, as it won’t be able to survive long enough to use even a single Shadow Ball. Because of this, Banette and Mismagius are viable glass cannon Ghost leads, capable of getting off multiple Shadow Balls before kicking the bucket. Focus Blast presents the biggest challenge of the three Charge moves, as this move blasts Dark types to pieces. Yanmega, however, is incredibly sturdy against Psycho Cut + Focus Blast and packs good DPS to contend with Alakazam to boot. Scizor is also usable as filler, but avoid leaning on it too heavily, as it doesn’t churn out quite enough DPS to be particularly reliable by itself unless the weather is rainy. Shadow Ball and Future Sight can be comfortably countered by most Dark types, but Shadow Ball bothers Ghost type counters a lot. Shadow Ball is also a two bar charge move, meaning Alakazam will use the move early and often, enough to wear down even Dark type counters. Speaking of which, Future Sight hits harder than you’d think, even against Dark types with their quadruple resistance to the move. However, it is slow, easy to dodge and one bar charge, meaning there will be lengthy periods in between Alakazam using the move.
Dodging Strategy: Before going in depth on any particular scenario, it cannot be stressed enough that you should NEVER wait for Alakazam to fire off its charge move before you use yours. Alakazam is the best Pokemon, possibly in the entire game in terms of Raid bosses, at punishing overtly passive play. That said, Dark types should avoid dodging Future Sight and Shadow Ball, as damage taken from these attacks will help you use more charge moves, and faster, while they can usually comfortably take at least one or two of these attacks. Tyranitar absolutely has got to dodge Focus Blast, as the move will completely obliterate it from full health if left undodged. This extends to most Dark types in general, as they are either too frail or suffer from a blatant weakness to Fighting to comfortably take a Focus Blast. Ghost types usually need to dodge the first Future Sight or Shadow Ball, but dodging the second is pointless since it would likely KO them even if they dodged it anyway. Much like Darks, Ghosts should tank Focus Blast so they can use more frequent Charge moves of their own. Finding a fluent dodging strategy is going to be hard, because there are so many variables that go into your decision making. If you’re falling behind the clock, it’s all too easy to let the pressure get to you, and to have it result in just tanking everything so you can just continuously attack. Problem is, if your team gets wiped out, a re-lobby is pretty much a loss. In a similar frame of mind, dodging everything in sight runs the risk of not doing enough damage to beat the clock, and puts you in danger of getting timed out. You have to balance survivability with getting in enough damage. The guidelines stated above are as efficient a way of doing that as is reasonably possible.
Best Counters: Tyranitar is a good place to start, even against Focus Blast. Unless its at a high level, though, it is slow and its DPS isn’t super amazing as a result, so it should be paired with a frail glass cannon or two, such as Absol, Honchkrow, Mismagius or Weavile. Gengar can work against Psycho Cut Alakazam in this capacity as well. Yanmega and Scizor in rainy weather are good, with the former covering Focus Blast incredibly well and the latter dealing with Future Sight and Alakazam’s fast moves rather well. They can also work in neutral weather, although they present moderate problems with DPS at mid level. Your own Alakazam or Mewtwo with a Psycho Cut + Shadow Ball moveset are decent options, good against Future Sight or Focus Blast Alakazam. Rayquaza becomes an option against Focus Blast, though neutral DPS is not usually optimal, so Rayquaza should really be kept in the back of your team unless it’s nearly maxed out. In general, you should find a middle ground between tankiness and damage dealing; two glass cannons and two-three Tyranitars is a solid build that will work most of the time, depending on their levels. In the event of Focus Blast Alakazam, one or two Tyranitars can be replaced by Mewtwo.
Machamp
Overall solo difficulty: Intermediate
Explanation: This fight is literally Alakazam, but as a Fighting type, and a lot easier. Machamp has an extremely similar stat build and its arsenal of movepools are about as fast and generally hard hitting as Alakazam. Here’s the thing, though: Machamp’s coverage is a lot weaker, and Fighting has a significantly greater amount of counterplay than Psychic does in this game. That said, Machamp’s stat build is similar to Alakazam’s, so keeping an eye on that clock and planning accordingly is still important. Survivability is easier, but dealing damage is about as hard as it is to Alakazam.
Dodging Strategy: Machamp’s moves are mostly too weak or too fast to warrant putting a serious amount of time into dodging. Heavy Slam can be annoying if you’re giving Alakazam or Gardevoir a shot as a counter, though, so they will likely benefit from dodging.
Best Counters: Like with Alakazam, dealing with Machamp will need a good blend of DPS and tankiness. Lugia is an amazing anchor in this matchup, and single handedly gives you all the tankiness you could possibly need. That said, it needs help getting ahead of the clock. Thankfully, Alakazam and Mewtwo are masters of that particular craft. Deoxys-Attack is also a nice lead with humongous DPS in this matchup, although it can’t take so much as a single Charge move before going down, making it mandatory to have a Lugia or multiple bulky Psychics along to compensate for Deoxys-A’s immense fragility. Exeggutor and Gardevoir are interesting options, and the latter can even offer some nice tankiness against double Fighting variants of Machamp, though this concept falls flat against double Steel Machamp. Ghosts can work against Double Fighting Machamp. Gengar is actually amusingly tanky against double Fighting Machamp, thanks to its typing, and churns out good neutral DPS as a result. Ho Oh could be a filler option, though it is not particularly impressive in either DPS or tankiness and should only be used as filler. Predictably, Rayquaza’s Flying moveset is godlike here, for as rare as such a thing may be. Sky Attack Moltres works as both a great source of DPS and passable tankiness, especially against Double Steel Machamp, but again, good luck actually obtaining one.
Tier 4s
Currently, Tyranitar is the only one who can actually be soloed, while Absol and Ursaring could theoretically be soloed. Togetic and Alolan Marowak are completely impossible by every relevant metric, though they are both extremely easy to two man.
Tyranitar
Let’s just cut to the chase here: You aren’t beating Tyranitar in a solo unless you have a team of maxed Machamps, maybe with a maxed out Breloom to be your lead. That said, since we college students are almost definitely not that privileged or insanely lucky, this is probably not a realistic thing to actually achieve. So, this writeup will be assuming you are two-manning this raid.
Bite + Stone Edge Tyranitar is the easiest to fight, Iron Tail + Fire Blast is the hardest, and the difficulty curve is very high between the two. Poliwrath is only viable in the two man, but it can be a useful anchor in this capacity. Remember that, because there is a second player here, dodging an attack which would KO you if undodged will trigger the death loop glitch, so dodge sparingly and only if you are certain you would survive the attack if left undodged. In the two man, just about any decent Fighting type is viable, and in favorable weather, Waters, Grass types and Grounds can work as well. Because Fire Blast Tyranitar poses a very real threat to wipe out your team, make sure to communicate the status of your team with your partner, and coordinate a plan before the raid. Remember if both of you are wiped out at the same time, Tyranitar will slowly begin to regenerate health until one of you returns, so you will always want one of you active. The solution is simple; have one of you leave the fight when you get to your last Pokemon to heal your team up, while the other one sticks around until you return, and likely goes down shortly thereafter. While an extreme challenge to solo, two-manning this raid is pretty straightforward most of the time.
Next week’s writeup will have a more comprehensive guide on two-manning T4s, as well as how to tackle Palkia and Deoxys-A. Stay tuned!