Mega Gyarados Raid Counters Guide

Gyarados (Mega)

Mega Gyarados is a Dark and Water type Mega Raid boss. Optimal raid counters will include powerful Electric Grass Fighting Bug and Fairy types, with quite a broad range of different counters available to help you defeat it.

Gyarados can be caught in the following CP ranges:

• 1855 CP – 1937 CP (no weather boost)
• 2319 CP – 2422 CP (boosted by Windy or Rainy weather)

Depending on your levels and counters, we would recommend 3-5 trainers who are high level, and more if you don’t have optimal teams. This guide will tell you how to beat this fan favourite Mega, as well as its optimal stats, moves and CP range.

Best Mega Gyarados Counters

Since Shadow Pokémon are extremely expensive to power up and require specific events to remove Frustration with a Charge TM, they will NOT be listed as raid counters in this article. That being said, if you have the shadow form of a listed raid counter Pokémon powered up and TMed, use it.

Let’s check out the top raid counters for Mega Gyarados:

#	Pokemon	Fast Move	Charge Move	Time to win	Deaths
1.	Xurkitree	Thunder Shock Electric	Discharge Electric	665.59s	39.50
2.	Zekrom	Charge Beam Electric	Wild Charge Electric	724.69s	31.58
3.	Pheromosa	Bug Bite Bug	Bug Buzz Bug	665.77s	49.70
4.	Zarude	Vine Whip Grass	Power Whip Grass	771.12s	23.42
5.	Lucario	Counter Fighting	Aura Sphere Fighting	716.75s	37.75
6.	Thundurus (Therian)	Volt Switch Electric	Thunderbolt Electric	760.72s	41.36
7.	Conkeldurr	Counter Fighting	Dynamic Punch Fighting	777.62s	36.42
8.	Tapu Bulu	Bullet Seed Grass	Grass Knot Grass	844.63s	23.25
9.	Raikou	Thunder Shock Electric	Wild Charge Electric	804.81s	36.30
10.	Sceptile	Fury Cutter Bug	Frenzy Plant Grass	782.62s	39.33
11.	Electivire	Thunder Shock Electric	Wild Charge Electric	784.19s	41.40
12.	Terrakion	Smack Down Rock	Sacred Sword Fighting	827.82s	34.13
13.	Buzzwole	Counter Fighting	Superpower Fighting	844.16s	29.78
14.	Venusaur	Vine Whip Grass	Frenzy Plant Grass	856.23s	32.67
15.	Machamp	Counter Fighting	Dynamic Punch Fighting	814.54s	37.70
16.	Magnezone	Spark Electric	Wild Charge Electric	836.54s	30.00
17.	Zacian	Quick Attack Normal	Play Rough Fairy	888.63s	19.55
18.	Tapu Koko	Volt Switch Electric	Dazzling Gleam Fairy	860.95s	26.44
19.	Breloom	Counter Fighting	Dynamic Punch Fighting	792.18s	45.17
20.	Meloetta (Pirouette)	Low Kick Fighting	Close Combat Fighting	846.01s	31.09
21.	Roserade	Razor Leaf Grass	Grass Knot Grass	811.79s	40.33
22.	Zacian (Hero)	Quick Attack Normal	Play Rough Fairy	883.25s	22.30
23.	Zapdos	Thunder Shock Electric	Thunderbolt Electric	837.81s	34.33
24.	Heracross	Counter Fighting	Megahorn Bug	879.70s	39.00
25.	Gardevoir	Charm Fairy	Dazzling Gleam Fairy	875.42s	21.00
26.	Deoxys (Normal)	Charge Beam Electric	Thunderbolt Electric	781.95s	63.50
27.	Tangrowth	Vine Whip Grass	Power Whip Grass	876.52s	34.20
28.	Sirfetch'd	Counter Fighting	Close Combat Fighting	860.86s	36.00
29.	Hariyama	Counter Fighting	Dynamic Punch Fighting	870.18s	38.00
30.	Luxray	Spark Electric	Wild Charge Electric	826.01s	39.29
31.	Blaziken	Counter Fighting	Focus Blast Fighting	826.13s	37.33
32.	Leafeon	Razor Leaf Grass	Leaf Blade Grass	891.53s	33.67
33.	Togekiss	Charm Fairy	Dazzling Gleam Fairy	907.73s	21.50
34.	Exeggutor	Bullet Seed Grass	Solar Beam Grass	876.36s	37.00
35.	Leavanny	Bug Bite Bug	Leaf Storm Grass	874.55s	38.50

Best Mega Pokémon vs Mega Gyarados

#	Pokemon	Fast Move	Charge Move	Time to win	Deaths
1.	Venusaur (Mega)	Vine Whip Grass	Frenzy Plant Grass	571.91s	20.92
2.	Manectric (Mega)	Thunder Fang Electric	Wild Charge Electric	538.43s	31.08
3.	Ampharos (Mega)	Volt Switch Electric	Zap Cannon Electric	613.50s	27.67
4.	Beedrill (Mega)	Bug Bite Bug	X-Scissor Bug	583.03s	37.33
5.	Lopunny (Mega)	Double Kick Fighting	Focus Blast Fighting	641.87s	31.75

With a wide range of counters and a fair few different type weaknesses thanks to that Water and Dark dual typing, most trainers should find themselves able to whip up a strong team of counters. Many of the strong counters have had events or community days which helps! Reach for those powerful Grass Electric Fighting Fairy and Bug type Pokémon. So many of these counters are incredibly useful and versatile in terms of PVE, the likes of Machamp, Togekiss and Zekrom being a name we see pop up again and again.

For more budget counters you can check out the whole counters list here, but Roserade, Hariyama, Torterra, normal Genesect and Sirfetch’d all make an appearance, so keep them in mind.

How to Get Mega Gyarados

You cannot catch Gyarados in its mega evolved form from the raid. The mega raid boss is always catchable in its base form and as such, the CP ranges are for a regular Gyarados.

Gyarados can be caught with the following CP values:

• 1855 – 1937 CP no weather boost
• 2319 – 2422 CP boosted by Rainy or Fog weather boost

In order to get Mega Gyarados you will need 200 Mega Energy for the initial evolution, then 40 Mega Energy to evolve the same Gyarados again in the future. Mega Energy can be obtained via Mega Gyarados Raids, and once you have evolved Mega Gyarados, you can earn 5 Mega Energy per candy while walking it as your buddy. You can walk any Magikarp or Gyarados to earn Mega Energy, as long as you have previously evolved one to register it to your Mega Pokédex.

Gyarados Shiny

Like all Mega Raid Bosses, you can catch the shiny version of Gyarados from a raid, and also in the wild potentially, if you can find it! Gyarados does have a slight gender difference in both the regular and shiny sprites, with its whiskers changing colour.

Regular Sprite (Male)	Shiny Sprite (Male)

Regular Sprite (Female)	Shiny Sprite (Female)

Mega Gyarados Stats

Gyarados (Mega) WaterDark
Max CP at lvl 40 4717
ATK 292		DEF 247		HP 216
Weak to			Strong Against
Grass Electric Fighting Fairy Bug			Fire Ground Rock Psychic

With a whopping max CP at level 50 of 5332, Mega Gyarados officially becomes the highest CP Pokémon in Pokémon GO, overtaking the previous highest Mega Charizard Y. It is an absolute beast!

Mega Gyarados Moveset Analysis

* denotes Legacy move, only obtainable via Elite TM.

For optimal DPS Bite and Hydro Pump are the way to go. If you need your strongest Water type attacker, Waterfall and Hydro Pump are preferred for DPS, and for a Dark type attacker Bite and Crunch. Mega Gyarados doesn’t have Dragon typing, but if you want to use it as a Dragon type attacker you will need legacy move Dragon Tail with Outrage as the Charge move.

Conclusion

Mega Gyarados is a Pokémon that regardless of its stats, is going to be a Mega that people want on their teams, Gyarados is a fan favourite! It has a huge CP stat, and a high attack stat of 292, making it a great Water type attacker. It does have some big weaknesses, losing that Flying type it has in its regular form means it is much more weak to Grass types than it used to be.

Mega Gyarados isn’t generally considered one of the top tier Megas, but with such a cool design, and so many trainers having a soft spot in their heart for this big shiny red beasty, does it really matter? It’ll be great to raid strong Fire types, and can be a help against Psychic and Ghost types, including the Mega Mewtwo forms, whenever they become available.