Giratina (Origin Forme) Heat Map

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Starting April 2nd at 1 PM PDT and ending April 29th at 1 PM PDT, Giratina (Origin Forme) will make its first appearance in Tier 5 Raids, directly preceded by Giratina (Altered Forme). Because the two Formes have the same typing, the same moves are super effective against them both, but as they have different base stats and movesets, the effectiveness of their counters does vary.

We’ve produced both a Giratina (Altered Forme) Heat Map and a Giratina (Origin Forme) Heat Map, but as Altered is only with us for a week, you could be forgiven for just setting up Battle Parties for Origin and using them to counter both Formes. If you’re planning on battling a lot of the Altered Forme and/or battling it with smaller groups, then making specific parties for both Formes would still be a good idea.

Another good idea would be to set up a third Party which doesn’t feature any Gengar. If Origin Forme Giratina has the recently acquired Charged move Shadow Ball, Gengar won’t last very long. Also, unless you’re prepared to use a lot of Max Revives to keep bringing those Gengar back, sticking with the other counters may serve you better in the long run. You’ll be able to determine whether Giratina’s moveset features any Ghost-type moves by the fact that the game will most likely recommend high TDO Dark type attackers like Tyranitar that will resist the Ghost-type moves (but use the heat map below to determine whether Tyranitar is, in fact, the best counter for you to use).

What’s a Heat Map?

Most Raid Boss counter lists assume that you have maxed out versions of each Pokémon on it, but in reality, the majority of people do not. With our Giratina (Origin Forme) Heat Map, however, you can identify whether a lower level Pokémon will do more damage to the Raid Boss than a higher level one, due to it having a better and more effective moveset. An excellent example of this is how a level 30 Rayquaza with Dragon Tail and Outrage will do more damage to a Giratina Raid Boss than a level 40 Rayquaza with Air Slash & Outrage (given the same amount of time).

There are several different methods for ranking Raid Boss counters, but the one we’ve selected to use is TTW, which stands for ‘Time-To-Win.’ This metric tells you which Pokémon would potentially beat the Raid Boss in the shortest amount of time so if you’re short of Trainers, this will give you the best chance of beating the Boss before the time runs out. Not only that, but doing more damage can mean more Premier Balls with which to try and catch the Raid Boss!

So to supplement our Giratina (Origin Forme) Raid Guide, here’s the Heat Map that we’ve made. Below, we’ll explain how to read and use the Heat Map to get the most out of your Raid squads:

Giratina (Origin Forme) Heat Map

Giratina Origin Heat Map by Orangeheart

(Shoutouts go to Pokebattler.com for the data, Redditor u/Rayunge for his guidance in compiling the data, and GOHub Artist OrangeHeart for creating the Giratina Heat Map info-graphic)

*This data assumes that you don’t know the moveset of the Raid Boss, that no moves will be weather boosted, and that you aren’t getting a friend damage bonus, so basically, almost the worst case scenario; unless the weather boosts the Raid Boss’ moves, things can only get easier.

How to use our Heat Maps

As detailed at the bottom of the graphic, to use a Pokémon GO Hub Heat Map, you first need to identify which of the listed Pokémon you have, whether they have the specified moveset (If not, you can of course use some TMs) and what level they are. As a rough guide:

  • If your Pokémon is fully powered up (and you’re at Trainer Level 38 or above), it’s at Level 40.
  • If it costs around 8000 Stardust to power up, it’s at about level 35.
  • If it costs around 5000 Stardust to power up, it’s at about level 30.
  • If it costs around 4000 Stardust to power up, it’s at about level 25.
  • If it costs around 2500 Stardust to power up, it’s at about level 20.

Try to identify your 12 best counters so that you can fill two Battle Parties because if Giratina defeats your first Party and you don’t want to use Max Revives, you’ll then have your next-best-optimized one ready to go straight back into battle.

Once you know which of these Pokémon you have and roughly what level they are, it’s time to put them in order of best to worst; The numbers in the grid represent how long that counter, at that level, with that moveset would take to beat the raid boss if the counter had unlimited HP. So the lower (and greener) the number, the better.

When you have ordered your Pokémon from best to worst, you can make a couple of battle parties so that you’re ready for every encounter you have with the Raid Boss.

Best of luck in your battles with Giratina, and if you have any feedback, suggestions or changes you’d like to see in our future Raid Boss Heat Maps, please Tweet @GoHubQoncept or join us on the GO Hub Discord and tag @Qoncept with your comments.

Author & tags

Qoncept
Qoncept
Age 32, from Grantham UK. Team Valor - Admin of the Pokémon Go Grantham Community.

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