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Last Minute Guide to Articuno Raid Day: Leeroy Jenkins!

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Last Minute Guide to Articuno Raid Day: Leeroy Jenkins!

This is a breakneck speed guide to tomorrow’s Articuno Day, written by a lazy Trainer for other lazy Trainers to enjoy. Hope this guide will serve you well, my fellow lazy friend!

Important information

Shiny Articuno in Pokémon GO
Shiny Articuno in Pokémon GO

Articuno is the only Tier 5 that will hatch during the  event period. No, Regice won’t be hatching and all Tier 5 eggs will be Articuno, at least if NIA’s support agents are to be trusted. The event really lasts for only three hours and no one is guaranteeing that you’ll encounter a shiny Articuno. Shiny rates are not known, but usual shiny rates for Raid Bosses are 1/19 according to The Silph Road research article.

You can only hold one free raid pass at a time but can pick up up to 5 during the 3 hour window. Here are the event times in various regions: (PAY ATTENTION TO GMT OFFSET FOR YOUR COUNTRY)

  • The Asia-Pacific region: 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. JST (GMT +9)
  • Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India: 9:00 a.m.to 12:00 p.m. UTC (GMT +0)
  • The Americas and Greenland: 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. PT (GMT -8)

Counters and battling strategy

Bestest Articuno counter is Tyranitar! Source.

Smack Down Tyranitar. No, seriously, that’s all you need. You can trio with six level 25 Smack Down / Stone Edge Tyranitars, so don’t worry too much.

  • Don’t have a team of six SD / SE Tyranitars? Get some Golems and Omastars with double Rock moves.
  • Articuno is 2x weak to Rock. Entei / Moltres or Raikou perform worse than any decent Rock counter (under non-Clear weather)
  • Don’t dodge, you’re just wasting time, seriously.
  • Prepare a team with Smack Down Tyranitars:
    • Create a new team and search for @smack
    • Select six => save => you’re done

Smack Down breakpoints are not super important vs Articuno, but here they are (credits to jzhang91). If you don’t understand these, read our What are Breakpoints in Pokémon GO? article:

Attack IV Breakpoint level
(neutral weather)
Breakpoint level
(partly cloudy)
15 33.5 35.5
14 34 36
13 34.5 36.5
12 34.5 37
11 35 37.5
10 35.5 38
9 36 38.5
With GREAT FRIENDS bonus
15 34 35
14 34.5 35.5
13 35 36
12 35.5 36.5
11 36 37
10 36.5 37.5
9 37 38

IVs and CPs

Articuno is relatively usable as a Dragon-type counter, but not for long: Mamoswine is coming to retire Articuno soonish (our guess is Q4 2017 / Q1 2018). In other words, don’t sweat it, if you get a high IV one keep it, but don’t go crazy with Stardust. Here are some useful CPs:

  • 1599 – 1676 CP (raid catch with no weather boost, level 20)
  • 1999 – 2095 CP (raid catch with Snow or Windy weather boost, level 25)

Useful info graphics

Articuno raid stats and CPs
Articuno raid stats and CPs
Articuno day event times
Articuno day event times
Best Articuno counters
Best Articuno counters

Parting words

Tomorrow, the streets are ours. Yes – ours. This is essentially a Community Day, but without the Poke Ball and Pinap grind, this is a day to play, battle and be a real raider. You wanted a chance to REALLY use your shiny Tyranitars? This is your chance – don’t waste it.

Bust that Lucky Egg, get your group going and prepare to raid: I don’t want to see anyone saving those five free Raid Passes for “a better time”. If we do this correctly, we strongly believe this won’t be the last raid boss to be featured in a similar way.

Time’s up, let’s do this! Leeeeeroy Jenkins!

Update: EU and Asia experience

  • When the event starts, an Articuno raid will spawn on EVERY GYM that is not blocked by an EX raid. The raids lasts 3 hours and disappear when the event ends.
  • You get one free raid pass every time you spin a gym and you don’t already have one in your inventory. This works up to five free passes and it includes your guaranteed free pass you may have picked up before – it’s kinda weird, none of us remembers did we do 5 or 6 free raids. Asian folks reported only getting 4 free ones in addition to the one they had before.
  • The Articuno you’re battling is a Tier 4 raid boss (Level 40, 7500 HP, 29217 CP) and the timer is 180 seconds long. The boss is fairly easy and we usually ended up with only two fainted Pokemon (max)
  • Shiny rates are as usual, nothing is increased: 1 in 19 on average. A lot of people didn’t get a shiny
  • Lucky Egg all the time, seriously, the XP gains are immense, especially if you’re playing with a Gotcha or a GO Plus
  • We advise to enter the encounter screen and start moving towards the next raid – you’re saving time in transit and it’s more efficient

This is how the city center of Split, Croatia looked like this morning (more raids left and right, not pictured):