Cranidos is a Rock type Pokémon so takes super effective damage from Fighting, Grass, Ground, Steel and Water types, giving you some really great options to help you get the better of it!
Cranidos is a tier 3 raid so depending on your levels and counters high level trainers should be able to solo quite easily, lower level trainers should stick to a group of 2+.
See below for advised optimal counters that will help you get your hands on the Sinnoh Head Butt Pokémon!
Full credit to DeviantArt and All0412 for the beautiful artwork of Cranidos!
Cranidos Counters
Shadow Pokémon have been excluded from the counters list due to the huge stardust cost, if you have a shadow version of one of the top counters though, use it!
| Top Raid Counters | ||
|---|---|---|
Metagross
|
Bullet Punch Steel | Meteor Mash (legacy) Steel |
Mega Blastoise
|
Water Gun Water | Hydro Cannon (legacy) Water |
| Great support Pokémon | ||
Mega Gyarados
|
Waterfall Water | Hydro Pump Water |
Mega Venusaur
|
Vine Whip Grass | Frenzy Plant (legacy) Grass |
Conkeldurr
|
Counter Fighting | Dynamic Punch Fighting |
Therian Landorus
|
Mud Shot Ground | Earthquake Ground |
Lucario
|
Bullet Punch Fighting | Aura Sphere Fighting |
Excadrill
|
Mud-Slap Ground | Earthquake Ground |
Kyogre
|
Waterfall Water | Surf Water |
Machamp
|
Counter Fighting | Dynamic Punch Fighting |
Groudon
|
Mud Shot Ground | Earthquake Ground |
Mega Lopunny
|
Low Kick Fighting | Focus Blast Fighting |
Cobalion
|
Metal Claw Steel | Sacred Sword (legacy) Fighting |
Landorus
|
Mud Shot Ground | Earth Power Ground |
If you don’t have the legacy move mentioned in this list then another move of the same type from the same Pokémon would also be fine, perhaps with the exception of Metagross, without Meteor Mash it falls down the list.
Cranidos
Cranidos
Rock
|
|||||
| Max CP at lvl 40 1820 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK 218 | DEF 71 | HP 167 | |||
| Weak to | Strong Against | ||||
| Fighting Grass Ground Steel Water | Fire Normal Poison | ||||
Caught at level 20 in CP range – 847-1040
Caught at level 25 in CP range – 1059-1300
Cranidos Moveset Analysis
| Fast Moves | Charge Moves |
|---|---|
|
|
Without access to a Rock fast move Cranidos cannot benefit from STAB, the best moveset you can hope for is Zen Headbutt and Ancient Power.
Conclusion
Although Cranidos at face value seems unappealing with its embarrassingly low defence, once evolved it does give you access to DPS powerhouse Rampardos (check it out here https://db.pokemongohub.net/pokemon/409) which has has appeared in many a raid guide suggested counters list. With a wide variety of weaknesses coupled with low defence this would be a nice boss to try your hand at your first tier 3 raid solo if you have been thinking of trying it out.
