Hariyama (Battledex)

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Hariyama is currently one of the best Fighting type Pokémon in the game, acting as a fat Machamp. This sumo wrestler ‘Mon has 25 less attack than Machamp and 48 less defense, but a massive boost of 108 to stamina. This has the added benefit of greatly increasing the Total Damage Output of Hariyama in the long run, while also maintaining a comparable DPS to Machamp due to the similar Attack stats and the same best moveset for Fighting types: Counter and Dynamic Punch.

In addition, Hariyama is a more candy efficient attacker than Machamp, as unlike the 125 to take a Machop to Machamp, there is only 50 candy needed to take a Makuhita to Hariyama. This means less candies to evolve one, and less of a need to give it rare candies if you get desperate. Although of course one would argue this gets offset by Machamp being a almost permanent tier 3 raid, that Machamp will only be level 20 or 25, and you will have to power it the whole way, a potential 248 candy investment in the worst case.

Pokémon Stats Max CP
ATK DEF STA
Hariyama Fighting 209 114 288 2765

Hariyama Overview

Hariyama might not be the king of Fighting type Pokémon, but you will not find a bulkier one that can also deal the damage needed to complete raids in a timely manner. There are no other Fighting types in any generation to come that have a higher Stamina.

Type chart:

Weaknesses Resistances
Psychic Fairy Flying Rock Bug Dark

Its main strengths are:

  • It is usually only 10-20 seconds behind Machamp in terms of Time to Win in raids we can currently simulate, while usually fainting 1-2 times less throughout the raid. This is a blessing and curse, as while it can deal similar damage to Machamp, while being both candy and time efficient, it might potentially add too much time to the clock to do a raid.
  • While the art of anchoring to prevent a loss of damage bonuses is long gone, anchoring can still provide benefits if you struggle with network errors while attempting to rejoin a raid in progress. For this then, when it comes to Tyranitar where a rejoin might be necessary in low-man raids, you will find no better anchor than Hariyama in your 6th slot.
  • If one wanted to be potion wise, the gym meta is still defined by bulky Normal types like Snorlax, Blissey, and Slaking, ones that Hariyama can absolutely clean up in a time very similar to Machamp, while also not gobbling up the potion and revive count.
  • A added benefit to Hariyama that Machamp cannot lay claim to is that it is a decent defender in gyms. It has incredible bulk, which gets doubled from being in the gym, and is not weak to Fighting types.

It does have some glaring weaknesses though:

  • If defending, it has a bevy of counters that can hit it hard. As Hariyama is weak to Fairy, Flying, and Psychic, it has a list of counters that do not worry about its bulk. Think Mewtwo, Alakazam, Espeon, Sky Attack Moltres, Gardevoir, and Rayquaza.
  • If your time to win matters, Hariyama might be a dangerous option, as stated above. Its lesser attack stat but higher bulk is a blessing and a curse. A mix of the two is best, leaning more towards higher numbers of Machamp in the team with Hariyama relegated to anchoring.
  • It needs to be careful fighting in gyms, as several of the common defenders do learn moves like the Fairy Dazzling Gleam, and the Psychic moves Psychic and Zen Headbutt. The bulk minimizes the damage, but it still is a concern.
  • It will eventually be outclassed in the future, perhaps not in Generation IV as the moveset outlooks seem bleak for possible usurpers like Gallade and Lucario, but certainly come Generation V, the home of hard hitting Fighting types like Keldeo, Terrakion, and Conkeldurr.

Best Hariyama Movesets:

 Role Quick move Charge move
Gym offense Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Gym defense Counter Fighting or Bullet Punch Steel * Dynamic Punch Fighting or Heavy Slam Steel *
PvP (speculative) Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting

*This is if there is a need for a Fairy counter in the gym, unlikely as that may be.

Best Hariyama Moves in Pokémon Go

Hariyama does not have the storied past that Machamp did with legacy moves, but it does share its current movepool, which means it has access to that fantastic combo of Counter and Dynamic Punch.

Hariyama moves in Pokemon GO
Fast Move Charge Move Cycle DPS (STAB)
Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting 23.78
Counter Fighting Close Combat Fighting 22.14
Bullet Punch Steel Dynamic Punch Fighting 21.25
Counter Fighting Heavy Slam Steel 20.71
Bullet Punch Steel Close Combat Fighting 18.58
Bullet Punch Steel Heavy Slam Steel 17.42

*Keep in mind that STAB cycle DPS calculations just compare the different movesets and they are not Pokémon-specific.

  • Any Fighting type out there almost needs Counter and Dynamic Punch to be able to compete effectively. Focus Blast is really close to Dynamic Punch, which is why in Fighting type rankings Blaziken is relatively high up, but it just is not quite there.
  • Close Combat is just not a terribly good move, especially in comparison to Dynamic Punch. 1-bar moves are already hard to justify as you are very likely to lose energy halfway through generating a bar, but only 100 damage makes it that much worse.
  • There is not really a need to have Hariyama with Steel moves, the only benefit is to potentially surprise a Gardevoir attacker with something that hits Super Effectively.

Hariyama Counters

Supreme Counters

 Pokémon Fast move Charge move
Mewtwo Psychic Confusion or Psycho Cut Psychic Psychic Psychic
Alakazam Psychic Confusion or Psycho Cut Psychic Future Sight Psychic
Espeon Psychic Confusion Psychic Future Sight Psychic
Rayquaza Dragon Flying Air Slash Flying Aerial Ace Flying
Moltres Fire Flying Fire Spin Fire Sky Attack Flying
Gardevoir Psychic Fairy Confusion Psychic Dazzling Gleam Fairy

Mewtwo is the best Psychic attacker in the game. 300 attack compensates for the lack of Future Sight, and it has the lowest Time to Win among any of the other, comparable Psychic attackers.

Alakazam and Espeon are basically the same when it comes to attacking, Alakazam is more fragile and Espeon has a bit more bulk, but the time to win is virtually the same, with the slight edge to Alakazam. Either way, this is only possible due to their access to Future Sight.

Rayquaza is the current king of Flying types, as much of a complement that can be considering the rather lackluster usage of Flying types. It has some competition from Sky Attack Moltres, but it still is the best non-psychic attacker there is for the likes of Fighting types.

Moltres got a huge buff against Grass and Fighting types with access to Sky Attack from Moltres Day, making it a supreme counter to some Fighting types, with Hariyama being no exception.

Gardevoir is the the fan favorite Psychic and Fairy type that is really the only viable Fairy type attacker out there. It might not be the strongest counter, especially since Hariyama’s Steel type moves can shread it for Super Effective damage, but against Fighting moves it is double resistant and allows it to tank any damage it throws at it.

Other viable alternatives

 Pokémon Fast move Charge move
Latios Dragon Psychic Zen Headbutt Psychic Psychic Psychic
Dragonite Dragon Flying Dragon Tail Dragon Hurricane Flying
Lugia Flying Psychic Extrasensory Psychic Sky Attack Flying
Exeggutor Grass Psychic Confusion* Psychic Psychic Psychic
Metagross Psychic Steel Zen Headbutt Psychic Psychic Psychic
Ho-Oh Fire Flying Extrasensory Psychic Brave Bird Flying

* Legacy move

Latios is unfortunately stuck in a position as both a Dragon and Psychic attacker that is decent, but not the best in either category. In this case, as shown above there are far better Psychic attackers out there than it, with its only claims to fame being a high attack stat and resisting Hariyama’s Fighting movesets.

Dragonite is surprisingly good as a Flying type counter, despite the fact that it has no ready access to a Flying type fast attack move. While that fast move may just be a STAB Dragon type move, it still charges up a decent damage Hurricane to hit Hariyama.

Lugia is probably one of the tankier options to take on a Hariyama, boasting the lowest fainting times among all counters, tying with Ho-Oh and Mewtwo, as well as outputting decent damage due to it getting the Sky Attack boost a while back.

Exeggutor is only so high up because it had access to Confusion at one point. Without this overpowered Psychic move, a generalist Salamence would do better in battle than it. If you have this legacy move, by all means lay the smack down.

Metagross is just a example of how badly a sub-par moveset can reduce the usage of what would otherwise be a offensive powerhouse. 257 attack cannot save it having Zen Headbutt and Psychic. It is still decently tanky and can dole out some damage, so it is not the worst choice out there to hit a Hariyama, or other Psychic weak Pokémon.

Ho-Oh, like Metagross, is sub-par by lack of moves, but the moves it does have allow it to have a niche here. It exists to be a tank like Lugia, with just worse damage output.

Weather influence

Weather Pros Cons
Sunny
Partly Cloudy
Cloudy Boosts its Fighting type moves Boosts super-effective Fairy type moves
Rainy
Fog
Windy Boosts super-effective Psychic and Flying type moves
Snow Boosts its Steel type moves

Viability in raids

Hariyama can be efficiently used in several raids, but here is a compilation of the ones in which it is one of the top counters:

 Raid Boss Fast move to use Charge move to use
Absol Dark Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Tyranitar Rock Dark Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Aggron Steel Rock * Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Snorlax Normal * Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Lapras Water Ice * Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Walrein Water Ice * Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Regice Ice * Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Regirock Rock Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting
Registeel Steel * Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting

* Legacy raid boss ** Potential future raid boss

Rating

 Pokémon Hariyama Fighting
Attacker 4.0
Defender 3.5
Generalist 3.0
Overall 3.5
Tier II

Hariyama is fat Machamp, having bulk that allows it to operate more efficiently as a Defender than Machamp could, while having similar, yet slightly sub-par, attack that makes it still efficient in gym battles where Fighting types excel.

Furthermore, it is a very useful Pokémon, as Fighting types are commonly used in raids. As stated above, it might not be the main team composition, that honor goes to the king of fighters Machamp, but having it as an anchor or a candy efficient attacker is a great idea.

Author & tags

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ProHitman002
ProHitman002
Level 40 Dedicated Mystic Player, Small town player, loves writing and burning other gyms with Charizard. Age 20

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