Mega Houndoom Raid Counters Guide

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A guide to best Mega Houndoom counters in Pokémon GO. The strongest Pokémon to use against a Mega Houndoom are Rock, Water Fighting and Ground types.

Regardless of your stance on mega evolution, Mega Houndoom is set up to be one of the strongest dark attackers in Pokémon GO, making it worth gathering energy for. Bosses such as Origin Giratina and Mega Gengar will give Mega Houndoom plenty of mileage as a useful PvE Pokémon.

Its bulk is average and its counters are some of the best Pokémon in the game, so 3-4 should be an adequate amount of trainers with average teams. A weatherless duo is tough, but possible. Rainy, Cloudy and Partly Cloudy weather make a duo more manageable, as well as using a Mega boost.

Mega Houndoom Stats

Houndoom (Mega) DarkFire
Max CP 3842
ATK 289 DEF 194 HP 181
Weak to Strong Against
Rock Fighting Water Ground Grass Fire Steel Ghost Dark Ice Psychicx2

You receive a base form Houndoom after the raid instead of the mega. It can be caught at these CP ranges:

  • 1432 – 1505 Level 20, without weather boost
  • 1790 – 1882 Level 25, Sunny or Fog boost

Mega evolving Houndoom will cost 200 energy initially and 40 energy for subsequent mega evolutions.

Mega Houndoom Raid 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.

Reminder: Mega-Evolved Pokémon give other Pokémon special bonuses when brought to a Raid Battle. While a Mega-Evolved Pokémon is on the battlefield, all Trainers’ Pokémon receive an attack boost to all their attacks and gain an additional attack boost if their attack types match the Mega-Evolved Pokémon’s type(s).

# Attacker Fast Move Charge Move Faints TTW
1. Groudon (Primal) Mud Shot Ground Precipice Blades Ground 9 307.6s
2. Kyogre (Primal) Waterfall Water Origin Pulse Water 9 308.3s
3. Swampert (Mega) Water Gun Water Hydro Cannon Water 12 335.5s
4. Terrakion Double Kick Fighting Sacred Sword Fighting 12 357.2s
5. Blaziken (Mega) Counter Fighting Focus Blast Fighting 14 354.9s
6. Diancie (Mega) Rock Throw Rock Rock Slide Rock 14 355.3s
7. Rayquaza (Mega) Dragon Tail Dragon Dragon Ascent Flying 13 367.4s
8. Blastoise (Mega) Water Gun Water Hydro Cannon Water 14 368.4s
9. Tyranitar (Mega) Smack Down Rock Stone Edge Rock 9 388.7s
10. Keldeo (Ordinary) Low Kick Fighting Sacred Sword Fighting 13 376.3s
11. Gyarados (Mega) Waterfall Water Hydro Pump Water 11 399.1s
12. Aerodactyl (Mega) Rock Throw Rock Rock Slide Rock 17 400.5s
13. Kyogre Waterfall Water Origin Pulse Water 15 406.2s
14. Groudon Mud Shot Ground Precipice Blades Ground 18 413.6s
15. Rampardos Smack Down Rock Rock Slide Rock 25 415.1s
16. Lucario Counter Fighting Aura Sphere Fighting 32 426.9s
17. Rhyperior Mud-Slap Ground Rock Wrecker Rock 15 423.0s
18. Conkeldurr Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting 19 423.6s
19. Greninja Water Shuriken Water Hydro Cannon Water 20 426.5s
20. Garchomp Mud Shot Ground Earth Power Ground 16 436.9s
21. Excadrill Mud-Slap Ground Scorching Sands Ground 32 448.8s
22. Swampert Water Gun Water Hydro Cannon Water 19 444.3s
23. Tyrantrum Rock Throw Rock Meteor Beam Rock 17 447.5s
24. Lopunny (Mega) Double Kick Fighting Focus Blast Fighting 21 446.5s
25. Samurott Fury Cutter Bug Hydro Cannon Water 21 449.5s
26. Machamp Counter Fighting Dynamic Punch Fighting 22 450.2s
27. Kingler Bubble Water Crabhammer Water 26 452.4s
28. Alakazam (Mega) Counter Fighting Focus Blast Fighting 34 466.1s
29. Landorus (Incarnate) Mud Shot Ground Earth Power Ground 24 458.7s
30. Feraligatr Water Gun Water Hydro Cannon Water 20 461.4s

Mega Houndoom Moveset Analysis

Mega Houndoom can have these moves during a raid battle, or as it’s base form on catch:

Fast Moves Charge Moves
  • Snarl Dark
  • Fire Fang Fire
  • Foul Play Dark
  • Flamethrower Fire
  • Crunch Dark
  • Fire Blast Fire

Fire Blast is easy peasy since it takes forever to become active so you can dodge it effortlessly. Water and Rock also resist it, which are most of its counters.

Foul Play and Flamethrower are pretty basic 2-bar moves. Not the worst you could go against, but Snarl’s energy gain could make Foul Play very frustrating.

Crunch is a spammy nightmare for any non-fighting type. If it’s paired with Snarl, be prepared to either dodge constantly or take them all to the face like a champ.

After the raid, you’d want Snarl and Foul Play on your own Houndoom for a solid Dark type attacker.

How to get Shiny Houndoom and shiny Mega Houndoom

Like all Mega Raid Bosses, you can catch the shiny version of Houndoom from a raid, and also in the wild potentially, if you can find it!

Houndoom Shiny Houndoom

Shiny Mega Houndoom is only obtainable via Mega Evolution.

Mega Houndoom Shiny Mega Houndoom

 

How to Get Mega Houndoom

In order to get Mega Houndoom you will need 200 Mega Energy for the initial evolution, then it is possible to evolve that particular Houndoom again for free after a cooldown period. The cooldown period depends on their mega level, and you can use mega energy to evolve quicker if you don’t want to wait for the end of the cooldown period.

Mega Energy can be obtained via Mega Houndoom Raids, and once you have evolved Mega Houndoom, you can earn 5 Mega Energy per candy while walking it as your buddy. You can walk any Houndour or Houndoom to earn Mega Energy, as long as you have previously evolved one to register it to your Mega Pokédex.

Author & tags

Platinum
Platinum
I enjoy drinking coffee and going for walks if I can muster the energy. I mostly spend time shiny hunting in mainline Pokémon games. My favourite Pokémon is Falinks, and I'm still in disbelief that it was added to GO like a year or two early. Empoleon is a close second, though.

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