Machamp Solo Raid Guide

A comprehensive guide on how to solo a Machamp Raid, written by Kristy. Be warned, this is a huge guide.

A Machamp solo raid can be effectively performed starting around Level 31, with a team of carefully selected Machamp counters. With high level Mewtwo, Espeon, Moltres, or even Alakazam, you have a good chance of taking down this raid boss.

Machamp’s raid boss CP is 19707 and we would describe the difficulty of a Machamp solo raid as challenging, but fair. It becomes much easier to pull off if using Mewtwo.

Table of Contents

Quick fact sheet

• Reliably soloable around Level 31, possibly earlier in windy weather
• Requires a full team of high level (31+) Psychic, Flying or Fairy counters: Mewtwo, Alakazam, Espeon, Moltres, and so on
• Difficulty: challenging, but fair

Solo Machamp Counters

Machamp is weak to Psychic, Flying and Fairy types. We recommend using the counters from the table below, powered up to level 31/32 and without dodging.

#	Pokemon	Fast Move	Charge Move	Time to win	Deaths
1.	Mewtwo	Psycho Cut Psychic	Psystrike Psychic	91.48s	2.00
2.	Hoopa (Unbound)	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	97.46s	3.70
3.	Hoopa (Confined)	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	114.04s	2.20
4.	Latios	Zen Headbutt Psychic	Psychic Psychic	115.47s	2.80
5.	Alakazam	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	110.75s	4.10
6.	Moltres	Wing Attack Flying	Sky Attack Flying	115.99s	3.40
7.	Tapu Lele	Confusion Psychic	Future Sight Psychic	120.53s	2.38
8.	Espeon	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	114.60s	3.80
9.	Metagross	Zen Headbutt Psychic	Psychic Psychic	121.24s	3.00
10.	Ho-Oh	Extrasensory Psychic	Brave Bird Flying	126.77s	1.88
11.	Gardevoir	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	123.39s	3.00
12.	Azelf	Extrasensory Psychic	Future Sight Psychic	118.82s	3.90
13.	Xurkitree	Spark Electric	Dazzling Gleam Fairy	118.07s	4.38
14.	Rayquaza	Air Slash Flying	Hurricane Flying	122.72s	3.40
15.	Gallade	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	123.17s	3.40
16.	Exeggutor	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	123.52s	3.70
17.	Braviary	Air Slash Flying	Brave Bird Flying	127.41s	5.00
18.	Zacian	Metal Claw Steel	Play Rough Fairy	131.69s	2.50
19.	Yveltal	Gust Flying	Hurricane Flying	127.40s	3.63
20.	Lugia	Extrasensory Psychic	Aeroblast Flying	136.88s	1.14
21.	Beheeyem	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	130.65s	3.00
22.	Honchkrow	Peck Flying	Sky Attack Flying	116.64s	6.00
23.	Tornadus (Incarnate)	Air Slash Flying	Hurricane Flying	128.66s	3.60
24.	Togekiss	Charm Fairy	Dazzling Gleam Fairy	135.15s	1.80
25.	Jirachi	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	138.01s	2.00
26.	Latias	Zen Headbutt Psychic	Psychic Psychic	133.97s	2.67
27.	Zacian (Hero)	Quick Attack Normal	Play Rough Fairy	133.93s	2.83
28.	Meloetta (Aria)	Confusion Psychic	Psyshock Psychic	131.33s	3.14
29.	Zapdos	Charge Beam Electric	Drill Peck Flying	134.19s	2.80
30.	Staraptor	Wing Attack Flying	Brave Bird Flying	125.60s	4.50
31.	Victini	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	138.54s	2.00
32.	Celebi	Confusion Psychic	Psychic Psychic	138.65s	3.00
33.	Tornadus	Air Slash Flying	Hurricane Flying	126.55s	4.00
34.	Delphox	Zen Headbutt Psychic	Psychic Psychic	133.89s	3.00

Without any surprise, Mewtwo is easily the best Machamp counter. Incredible stats, a solid move set and arguably the best TTW / deaths ratio across all Machamp’s moves. If you don’t have Psystrike, Psychic will work as well.

Alakazam is a budget Mewtwo, solid DPS, a bit lower TTW, dies a bit more. It needs the legacy move Psychic to be viable, but it’s not worth the elite TM.

Moltres is one of the strongest non-mega Flying-type attacker currently available, deals a lot of damage and takes reduced damage from Machamp’s Fighting sets.

Pidgeot is the best Mega choice to raid Machamp. It takes neutral damage from Machamp’s Fighting sets, so it won’t last long. Its strength rivals Mewtwo’s, however

Machamp raid movesets difficulty

Machamp has access to the following moves:

• Bullet Punch (fast, Steel type)
• Counter (fast, Fighting type)
• Close Combat (charge, 1 bar, Fighting type)
• Dynamic Punch (charge, 2 bars, Fighting type)
• Heavy Slam (charge, 2 bars, Steel type)
• Rock Slide (charge, 2 bars, Rock type)
• Cross Chop (charge, 2 bars, Fighting type)

Bullet Punch and Heavy Slam is a surprisingly difficult moveset to go up against, as the normal Psychic type counters that would be used do not resist it, and therefore go down very quickly. Counter is the easier of the two fast moves. Rock Slide makes for the second most difficult charge move, for similar reasons, and your Flying types will not appreciate it very much! Being a two bar move, like Dynamic Punch and Heavy Slam, it can fire off a lot faster than you would like. Close Combat, being a Fighting type, 1 bar move, can be countered by your Psychic and Flying types, and since it is 1 bar, it will fire off less frequently than the other two. Cross Chop is pretty weak outside of PvP, so it’s one of the better options for safety.

Solo Machamp weather influence

Windy weather would be the best weather to attempt soloing Machamp, as it boosts the power of both Psychic and Flying, but if you do not encounter any Windy weather, it would be best to attempt it outside of Cloudy weather in any other neutral weather. Although Cloudy boosts Fairy type moves, it would also boost the Fighting moves. If it is Cloudy and Machamp has a double Steel move set it could be worth trying, but not in any other instance.

Overall, Windy or neutral weather would be best.

Additional Notes

If you are alone and below Level 30, soloing a raid might be difficult for you, but the levels of your Pokémon matter as much as your trainer level. It might take some candy and stardust to get your Pokémon up to par to take on a powerful raid boss, such as Machamp, by yourself.

Weather is important! Use it to your advantage when you can — Windy weather is a huge help.

The moves that Machamp has also plays an impact on your success in the raid, and it is usually hard to tell what moves it has until you have already used up your raid pass and saw what counters the game set for you.

Otherwise, this should not be too difficult of a raid boss to beat, as Machamp’s defensive stats are not particularly high, and the right Pokémon will resist its attacks. Glass cannons such as Alakazam are useful, but so are the bulkier Pokémon such as Lugia. It has been soloed many times before, so good luck!