Gengar Raid Counters Guide

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Gengar is a Tier 3 raid boss in Pokémon GO with a raid boss CP of 21207. Gengar counters are mostly strong Ghost, Psychic, Dark and Ground Pokémon like Shadow Ball Mewtwo, Groudon, Zen Headbutt / Psychic Metagross, Bite / Crunch Tyranitar and Psychic Latios.

As Mega Gengar is available in Pokémon GO, Gengar can be shiny from raids.

A Gengar raid boss can have these Combat Power values when caught through raid encounters:

  • 1420 – 1644 CP at Level 20, without weather boost
  • 1776 – 2055 CP at Level 25, under Fog or Cloudy weather boost

A Tier 3 Gengar raid can be solo’d by the prepared, high level trainer. Lower level trainers, or those without ideal counters, may want to bring a friend or two.

Best attackers against Gengar

# Pokémon Fast Move Charge Move Time to win Deaths
1. Gengar (Mega) Lick Ghost Shadow Ball Ghost 61.50s 2.11
2. Latios (Mega) Zen Headbutt Psychic Psychic Psychic 68.08s 2.67
3. Houndoom (Mega) Snarl Dark Foul Play Dark 77.58s 2.89
4. Latias (Mega) Zen Headbutt Psychic Psychic Psychic 80.20s 2.78
5. Gyarados (Mega) Bite Dark Crunch Dark 84.87s 2.56
6. Absol (Mega) Snarl Dark Payback Dark 79.94s 4.89
7. Mewtwo Psycho Cut Psychic Psystrike Psychic 84.02s 3.44
8. Slowbro (Mega) Confusion Psychic Psychic Psychic 95.26s 3.33
9. Hoopa (Unbound) Confusion Psychic Psychic Psychic 92.64s 4.22
10. Gengar Shadow Claw Ghost Shadow Ball Ghost 103.81s 3.17
11. Hydreigon Bite Dark Brutal Swing Dark 101.49s 3.89
12. Charizard (Mega Y) Fire Spin Fire Blast Burn Fire 102.26s 3.56
13. Hoopa (Confined) Confusion Psychic Shadow Ball Ghost 104.72s 3.33
14. Excadrill Mud-Slap Ground Drill Run Ground 112.80s 1.67
15. Chandelure Hex Ghost Shadow Ball Ghost 105.28s 3.67
16. Darkrai Snarl Dark Dark Pulse Dark 106.89s 3.71
17. Giratina (Origin) Shadow Claw Ghost Shadow Ball Ghost 115.19s 2.57
18. Latios Zen Headbutt Psychic Psychic Psychic 108.18s 4.56
19. Alakazam Confusion Psychic Psychic Psychic 104.98s 5.67
20. Deoxys (Attack) Zen Headbutt Psychic Dark Pulse Dark 95.28s 9.67
21. Blastoise (Mega) Water Gun Water Hydro Cannon Water 111.98s 4.00
22. Pidgeot (Mega) Gust Flying Brave Bird Flying 117.49s 2.75
23. Landorus (Therian) Mud Shot Ground Earthquake Ground 112.26s 3.78
24. Gardevoir Confusion Psychic Psychic Psychic 117.63s 2.67
25. Aerodactyl (Mega) Rock Throw Rock Earth Power Ground 113.75s 3.89
26. Metagross Zen Headbutt Psychic Psychic Psychic 113.83s 4.00
27. Espeon Confusion Psychic Psychic Psychic 109.58s 5.20
28. Articuno (Galarian) Confusion Psychic Future Sight Psychic 116.96s 3.00
29. Yveltal Snarl Dark Psychic Psychic 117.21s 3.33
30. Groudon Mud Shot Ground Earthquake Ground 117.92s 3.13
31. Azelf Extrasensory Psychic Future Sight Psychic 113.36s 5.00
32. Garchomp Mud Shot Ground Earthquake Ground 116.84s 3.67
33. Landorus (Incarnate) Mud Shot Ground Earth Power Ground 116.91s 3.71
34. Landorus Mud Shot Ground Earth Power Ground 116.55s 3.57
35. Rhyperior Mud-Slap Ground Earthquake Ground 119.10s 3.17

No matter if you try to solo Gengar or raid with friends, keep in mind that Gengar is dual typed: ghost and poison.

Gengar Raid Move Analysis

Gengar is notorious for its varied move pool, with moves like Shadow Ball and Focus Blast eliminating certain counters in their respective match ups. Let’s see how they stack up.

Fast move Charge move
  • Lick Ghost
  • Shadow Claw Ghost
  • Sucker Punch Dark
  • Focus Blast Fighting
  • Sludge Bomb Poison
  • Shadow Ball Ghost

If you take a deeper look at Gengar’s fast moves, you’ll soon realize that they’re not that different in a raid environment. All of them are dangerous against your Mewtwo and Gengar teams, where they deal Super Effective damage, but you will likely keep Gengar energy capped for the better part of the encounter, so it doesn’t really matter that much.

Charge move analysis

  • Shadow Ball is Gengar’s most dangerous charged move, as it eliminates Mewtwo as a viable counter and deals a ton of damage to other Gengar counters. Best counters against this move are Tyranitar and Gengar, with Tyranitar being a potion friendly option.
  • Focus Blast is another interesting move, as it eliminates Tyranitar from the list of viable counters. Although Gengar doesn’t benefit from STAB when using Focus Blast, the sheer damage output is too high for Tyranitar. Best Gengar counters versus Focus Blast are Mewtwo and Gengar.
  • Sludge Bomb is a two bar Poison type move which we consider to be a easy Gengar raid move: it’s not super effective against any of the top counters and the damage output is not that high. Best counters against a Sludge Bomb Gengar are Mewtwo, Gengar and Tyranitar, but Groudon, Espeon and Meteor Mash Metagross are also viable.

Quick Gengar Solo Raid Tips

Gengar Solo raids are possible and have been already achieved using the Pokémon highlighted above.

  1. Stock up with a healthy amount of Mewtwos and any combination of the above mentioned Pokémon
  2. Do not attempt if you’re under Level 30 and your Pokémon are not decently powered up, you will just waste resources
  3. Do not enter the raid unless you have proper movesets. Movesets are everything against Gengar. A focus blast Gengar can ruin a Tyranitar for example, but at the same time it just makes the already godly Mewtwo and frail Gengar that much better.

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