Cottonee Raid Guide

Cottonee GrassFairy

Cottonee is a Tier 1 raid boss in Pokémon GO, and it can be caught with the following CP values:

• 362 – 400 CP at Level 20, no weather boost
• 453 – 500 CP at Level 25 with Sunny or Cloudy weather boost

Cottonee is a generation 5 Pokémon and has been around for awhile at this point, and the upcoming Lush Jungle Event will be releasing its shiny form for the first time! If you are in need of Cottonee candy (regular or XL) this is a chance to get some and if you are extremely lucky, you may even find a shiny! The likelihood of you still needing this Pokémon is extremely low, unless you are a new player and haven’t come across many spawns, but everyone will be looking for a shiny this upcoming event. It will have a spotlight special spawn event during the Lush Jungle Event, which is something to keep in mind if you are planning to hunt for the shiny form and don’t want to waste too many raid passes. They also spawn pretty frequently for mossy lures, but that requires some luck. Whimsicott, Cottonee’s final evolution, and even Cottonee itself are also useful in PvP in the Great League and Little Cup, respectively.

It is a GrassFairy type Pokémon, which makes it weak to Fire, Ice, Flying, Steel and Poison type moves. And again it can be shiny!

Cottonee Raid Counters

Cottonee best raid counters are listed below, according to our Pokémon GO DB battle simulator:

#	Pokemon	Fast Move	Charge Move	Time to win	Deaths
1.	Beedrill (Mega)	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	36.87s	0.00
2.	Gengar (Mega)	Lick Ghost	Sludge Bomb Poison	37.39s	0.00
3.	Charizard (Mega Y)	Fire Spin Fire	Blast Burn Fire	50.33s	0.00
4.	Roserade	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	56.40s	0.00
5.	Pidgeot (Mega)	Gust Flying	Brave Bird Flying	57.54s	0.00
6.	Charizard (Mega X)	Fire Spin Fire	Blast Burn Fire	58.20s	0.00
7.	Houndoom (Mega)	Fire Fang Fire	Fire Blast Fire	58.35s	0.00
8.	Venusaur (Mega)	Vine Whip Grass	Sludge Bomb Poison	62.45s	0.00
9.	Gengar	Hex Ghost	Sludge Bomb Poison	63.58s	0.50
10.	Toxicroak	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	64.35s	0.33
11.	Victreebel	Acid Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	66.16s	0.00
12.	Scolipede	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	67.44s	0.00
13.	Vileplume	Acid Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	68.92s	0.00
14.	Muk (Alola)	Poison Jab Poison	Gunk Shot Poison	70.80s	0.00
15.	Muk	Poison Jab Poison	Gunk Shot Poison	70.84s	0.00
16.	Skuntank	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	70.94s	0.17
17.	Slowbro (Galarian)	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	72.36s	0.00
18.	Reshiram	Fire Fang Fire	Overheat Fire	73.23s	0.00
19.	Roselia	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	71.82s	0.33
20.	Abomasnow (Mega)	Powder Snow Ice	Weather Ball Ice	73.86s	0.00
21.	Dragalge	Acid Poison	Gunk Shot Poison	75.58s	0.00
22.	Genesect (Douse)	Fury Cutter Bug	Gunk Shot Poison	76.10s	0.00
23.	Darkrai	Snarl Dark	Sludge Bomb Poison	71.22s	1.00
24.	Slowking (Galarian)	Acid Poison	Sludge Wave Poison	77.91s	0.00
25.	Haunter	Lick Ghost	Sludge Bomb Poison	55.97s	0.00
26.	Beedrill	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	77.42s	0.33
27.	Nidoking	Poison Jab Poison	Sludge Wave Poison	73.95s	1.00
28.	Metagross	Bullet Punch Steel	Meteor Mash Steel	79.39s	0.00
29.	Chandelure	Incinerate Fire	Overheat Fire	77.63s	0.67
30.	Drapion	Poison Sting Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	80.41s	0.17
31.	Weepinbell	Acid Poison	Sludge Bomb Poison	77.79s	0.83
32.	Darmanitan	Fire Fang Fire	Overheat Fire	78.60s	0.67
33.	Moltres	Fire Spin Fire	Sky Attack Flying	82.5s	0.00
34.	Steelix (Mega)	Iron Tail Steel	Heavy Slam Steel	82.21s	0.33
35.	Rayquaza	Air Slash Flying	Hurricane Flying	84.93s	0.00

 

Disclaimer: Since Shadow Pokémon are extremely expensive to power up and require specific events to remove Frustration with a Charge TM, they will NOT be listed as raid counters in this guide. That being said, if you have the shadow form of a listed raid counter Pokémon powered up and TMed, use it.

Cottonee is fairly easy to take down and shouldn’t take you more than one of the above Pokémon if fully powered up to be successful. Cottonee is double weak to poison, so even not fully powered up poison types should be very effective. If it has “Sludge Bomb”, then go ahead and use it. When in doubt, bring all your Poison type Pokémon.

Stats and Max CP

Cottonee GrassFairy
Max CP at Level 40 700 | Max CP at Level 50 791
ATK 71		DEF 111		STA 120
Weak to			Strong Against
Fire Flying Ice Poison Steel			Water Fighting Dragon Ground Rock Dark

Moveset

Fast Moves	Charge Moves
Charm Fairy Razor Leaf Grass	Energy Ball Grass Seed Bomb Grass Grass Knot Grass

Weather Influence

Weather will likely only help you out against Cottonee. Since its strongest counters are mostly Poison and Fire types, Cloudy and Sunny weather will benefit you more than it does Cottonee. Its move pool does not offer good coverage and its Grass type moves are not very effective against the counters listed above, so even in Sunny weather, the empowered grass type attacks shouldn’t cause you too much pain.

Final Notes

• Use your best Poison types when in doubt, especially in Cloudy weather
• It is possible to encounter a shiny Cottonee after the raid.
• This raid boss can be taken down solo
• If low on Poison types, use your best Flying and Fire types

Whimsicott (Cottonee’s evolution) is actually a very strong razor blader and charmer in great league. If you have a good shadow one to use, I definitely suggest raiding for candy to power it up. Whimsicott maxes out at 2277 cp, so it is not likely to be used in Ultra league. There is a chance it could have a niche use, but it might not be worth the stardust to power up.

In summary, if you need more candy to power up some good PvP Pokémon, then I would suggest to raid a few while you can. However, if you already have your Little Cup Cottonee and your Whimsicott squared away, then you can use your free daily raid pass to hunt for that shiny Cottonee chance. The shiny form is pretty cool, using its complimentary colors!

We hope you found this raid guide useful, happy hunting!