Best Ho-Oh counters are strong Rock type attackers that utilize Ho-Oh’s double weakness to Rock moves. Ho-Oh raid boss is a Tier 5 Legendary Raid Boss in Pokémon GO, with 50064 CP. Shiny Ho-Oh is available from raids. Ho-Oh is an easy fight that can even be (theoretically) duoed with a strong selection of Smack Down Tyranitars.
Ho-Oh Raid Boss CP is 45702 and it can have Max Capture CP:
- 2119 – 2207 CP (Level 20, perfect 100% IV)
- 2649 – 2759 CP (Level 25, perfect 100% IV Sunny and Windy weather)
Smack Down Tyranitar and Smack Down Tyrantiar are the best Ho-Oh counter, even in cases when Ho-Oh has Solar Beam.
Ho-Oh Counters
| # | Pokemon | Fast Move | Charge Move | Time to win | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  Rampardos |
Smack Down | Rock Slide | 494.7s | 29 |
| 2. |  Tyranitar |
Smack Down | Stone Edge | 624.8s | 22 |
| 3. |  Terrakion |
Smack Down | Rock Slide | 587.4s | 30 |
| 4. |  Rhyperior |
Smack Down | Stone Edge | 642.2s | 24 |
| 5. |  Aggron |
Smack Down | Stone Edge | 755.3s | 20 |
| 6. |  Aerodactyl |
Rock Throw | Rock Slide | 650.7s | 30 |
| 7. |  Omastar |
Rock Throw | Rock Slide | 684.1s | 27 |
| 8. |  Golem (Alola) |
Rock Throw | Stone Edge | 721.2s | 27 |
| 9. |  Regirock |
Rock Throw | Stone Edge | 800.8s | 23 |
| 10. |  Golem |
Rock Throw | Stone Edge | 718.7s | 31 |
| 11. |  Rayquaza |
Dragon Tail | Ancient Power | 818.3s | 27 |
| 12. |  Zapdos |
Thunder Shock | Ancient Power | 841.5s | 28 |
| 13. |  Raikou |
Thunder Shock | Wild Charge | 844.1s | 28 |
| 14. |  Lunatone |
Rock Throw | Rock Slide | 780.4s | 33 |
| 15. |  Solrock |
Rock Throw | Rock Slide | 781.8s | 33 |
| 16. |  Moltres |
Wing Attack | Ancient Power | 907.3s | 28 |
| 17. |  Magnezone |
Spark | Wild Charge | 898.7s | 28 |
| 18. |  Sudowoodo |
Rock Throw | Rock Slide | 847.5s | 37 |
| 19. |  Kyogre |
Waterfall | Hydro Pump | 902.7s | 34 |
| 20. |  Probopass |
Rock Throw | Rock Slide | 1004.2s | 26 |
| 21. |  Kabutops |
Waterfall | Ancient Power | 897.7s | 37 |
| 22. |  Mewtwo |
Psycho Cut | Thunderbolt | 937.9s | 35 |
| 23. |  Kingler |
Bubble | Crabhammer | 852.5s | 43 |
| 24. |  Palkia |
Dragon Tail | Hydro Pump | 977.4s | 31 |
| 25. |  Gyarados |
Waterfall | Hydro Pump | 969.1s | 33 |
| 26. |  Ampharos |
Charge Beam | Power Gem | 932.5s | 37 |
| 27. |  Swampert |
Water Gun | Hydro Cannon | 918.9s | 38 |
| 28. |  Electivire |
Thunder Shock | Wild Charge | 879.4s | 43 |
| 29. |  Emboar |
Low Kick | Rock Slide | 900.3s | 41 |
| 30. |  Armaldo |
Fury Cutter | Rock Blast | 886.2s | 45 |
As always we also have this infographic for you from CoupleOfGaming!
Ho-Oh Raid Counters Explained
Ho-Oh has mostly the same counters like Moltres, as they have the same type combination. However, Ho-Oh has access to Solar Beam, which makes it quite dangerous to Rock and Water attackers, especially if they are combination types like non-Alolan Golem and Omastar.
Simply put, with the advent of Smack Down Tyranitar from Larvitar Community Day, Tyranitar is hands down the best counter, and even if Ho-Oh has Solar Beam, Tyranitar still has the best time to win by far. Use Smack Down Tyranitar, it is that simple for the easy wins against this Legendary. No Aggron, or Hydro Pump Lugia, or other Ho-Oh, Tyranitar with Smack Down brings the pain.
Golem, as listed above, is good in both its Alolan form and its regular form, although the Alolan form outperforms the regular due to it being a Rock Electric, instead of a Rock Ground. In other words, Solar Beam will not destroy it entirely, every single time, A-Golem might survive one possibly. A consideration to have is if you know Ho-Oh has Solar Beam, and for some reason you are not fighting will a full team of Tyranitar, perhaps use Rock Blast as the charged move instead of Stone Edge. The logic being at least with Rock Blast (50 Damage each) you are almost guaranteed to fire off two of them, whereas with Stone Edge (100 Damage each), you might get lucky and fire one before Solar Beam knocks you out of existence, and even then you might not manage the one.
Zapdos and Raikou are also great as Ho-Oh raid counters. They offer strong DPS and utilize electric moves to be achieve advantage over Ho-Oh, but they are a bit squishy.
Kyogre is one of the best Water type attackers in the game, so utilize it well! It is relatively tanky, so even against Solar Beam Ho-Oh it is a good one to take in.
Rayquaza is one of the top tier attackers with amazing DPS and very few deaths. It makes an amazing counter for Solar Beam Ho-Oh, as it will double resist the devastating charge move.
Please, be very careful of Solar Beam Ho-Oh! It’s completely devastating for Rock and Water types, especially to Golem (low HP) and Omastar (double weakness). Think of it in the same way you think about Hydro Pump Lugia, Groudon, and non-Thunder Kyogre. Scary, isn’t it? 👻
Ho-Oh can have the following moves:
- Steel Wing (quick) steel
- Extrasensory (quick) psychic
- Brave Bird (charged)
- Fire Blast (charged) fire
- Solar Beam (charged) grass
Weather Influence on Ho-Oh
Partly Cloudy weather will be your best friend, along with Rainy weather! Sunny weather might cause a few issues, and take a lot more effort to beat, with it boosting both Solar Beam (*screaming*) and Fire Blast! But enough talk, here is a chart to help you see what weather would be optimal for battling the great Ho-Oh!
| Weather | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Sunny | — | Boosts its Fire Blast and Solar Beam attacks |
| Partly Cloudy | Boosts all Rock type move | — |
| Cloudy | No pros nor cons | |
| Rainy | Boosts all super effective Water and Electric type moves | — |
| Windy | — | Boosts its Extrasensory and Brave Bird attack |
| Fog | No pros nor cons | |
| Snow | — | Boosts its Steel Wing attack |
Additional Ho-Oh Counters
These Pokemon are weaker than the counters mentioned above, but they are still viable, especially in large raid groups. Do note that these Pokemon are often siting in your inventory forgotten, even though they can perform better than much higher CP Aggron or Ho-Oh:
- Zapdos with Thunder Shock / Thunderbolt
- Salamence with Dragon Tail / Hydro Pump (for both Solar Beam and non-SB variants)
- Gyarados with Waterfall / Hydro Pump
- Sudowoodo with Rock Throw / Rock Slide
- Mew with Charge Beam / Rock Slide
- Armaldo with Fury Cutter / Rock Blast
Considerably weaker, but still viable counters, mostly used in large groups as throw away attackers:
- Vaporeon with Water Gun / Hydro Pump
- Jolteon with Thunder Shock / Thunderbolt
- Mewtwo with Confusion / Shadow Ball
- Aerodactyl with Bite / Ancient Power
- Starmie with Hidden Power / Power Gem
- Sharpedo with Waterfall / Surf
- Swampert with Water Gun / Surf
Ho-Oh Catch Chances with various throws and berries
Ho-Oh BCR is 2% as observed in the GAME_MASTER file. The following table shows various throw/berry combos.
| Berry | Curve | Throw type | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Nice | Great | Excellent | ||
|
No Berry
|
– | 2.00% | 2.30% | 3.00% | 3.70% |
| Curve | 3.40% | 3.91% | 5.10% | 6.29% | |
|
Razz Berry
|
– | 3.00% | 3.45% | 4.50% | 5.55% |
| Curve | 5.10% | 5.87% | 6.29% | 7.65% | |
|
Golden Razz Berry
|
– | 5.00% | 5.75% | 7.50% | 9.25% |
| Curve | 8.50% | 9.78% | 12.75% | 15.73% | |
