Pokémon GO Max Battles Guide: Best Strategies, Moves, and Top Pokémon (2025)

Max Battles are a unique and exciting feature in Pokémon GO which often require planning and teamwork. This guide should help you to improve your battling skills in this very exciting game mode.

Format

Max battles are fought in person with teams of up to 4 Trainers, each using 3 max Pokémon. The battles require you to work together to charge the max meter which in turn allows your max Pokémon to Dynamax/Gigantamax and enter the max phase where they use their powerful max moves to win the battle. In general, Max Pokémon can be categorised into two types – Chargers and Attackers.

Chargers

Chargers are your workhorse Pokémon that will do their job outside of the Max phase. Important factors for these Pokémon include having high Defence and HP stats, being resistant to the moves from the opposing Pokémon, and also having a 0.5 second fast move which will charge the Max meter as fast as possible. These Pokémon will benefit from having their Guard and Spirit max moves levelled up.

Attackers

Attackers are your powerhouses that will pop out during the max phase to dish out as much damage as they can with their powerful Max attacks. These Pokémon require a high Attack stat, levelled up Max attack, being super effective against the opposing Pokémon type, and it massively helps if they are the Gigantamax version as well.

Battle flow

Battles will generally play out in the following pattern.

1. Start with your Charger Pokémon using ONLY Fast moves – Charged attacks are slow and will slow down your progress in charging the max meter, the tiny amount of extra damage they do is negligible in Max Battles. Continually attack until the Max meter is charged!
2. During this time if the opposing Pokémon targets you – which will be indicated by three white lines above your Pokémon’s head – then a simple swipe to the side will dodge this attack and reduce the damage, no timing necessary, just swipe either way when you see the three lines.
3. Also during this time a bonus, pink Max meter Charge icon might appear next to your Pokémon, if it does, swipe into it and your Pokémon will collect it and boost the max meter even more.

Once the Max meter is charged, a 3 second timer will start in which time you can choose which Pokémon you want to enter the Max phase.

• During the Max phase you can use 3 Max moves from the available moves on your chosen Pokémon.
• After the max phase has ended, you can switch back to your charger if necessary (there is no cooldown on switching Pokémon).

What Are Max Moves?

There are three different types of Max Moves:

• Max Attack, a strong offensive move with high base power
• Max Guard, a move that adds bonus HP to the user that blocks damage taken
• Max Spirit, a move that heals the user and all allied Pokémon in the Max Battle by a percentage of the user’s max HP

How is Max Attack Typing Decided?

Each Max Pokémon has a Max attack move. For Gigantamax Pokémon this is a fixed, predetermined type that cannot be altered, however for Dynamax Pokémon the type of the Max attack is determined by the type of the Fast move the Pokémon is currently using.

So if a Dynamax Pokémon is using a Rock Fast move the Max attack will also be Rock type. This allows for more flexibility, even if the Dynamax Max attack deals 100 base damage less than Gigantamax attack.

How to level up your Max Moves

Max Moves can be unlocked and upgraded on your Max Pokémon. These moves can be levelled up to levels 1, 2, and 3 by spending a certain amount of Max particles, Candy, and Candy XL. The amount of Candy and Candy XL needed per level depends on the specific Pokémon species, with each species being assigned to group 1, 2, 3, or 4. For a listing of groups by species, see Max Move upgrade cost groups.

All Dynamax Pokémon start with their Max Attack unlocked at level 1. Max Guard and Max Spirit start out locked. Upgraded and unlocked Max Moves are not reset to their initial levels if the Pokémon is evolved or by using a Fast TM to change the type of Max Attack.

However, upgraded Max Moves are reset back to Level 1 if the Pokémon is traded.

Max Move effects

General Team Tactics

For harder Max battles some team tactics might be necessary. It can be very beneficial for one of your team to focus on being a “Tank”, this means this Trainer will use their Charger in the Max phase to add Guard to themselves, and heal others. 

This allows other team members to use their attackers in the max phase to do maximum damage. This helps because the Pokémon with the most Shields will ALWAYS be targeted by the Max Boss, therefore it becomes much easier to control the battle.

🛡️ Best Chargers for Max Battles

Chargers are Pokémon that attack using their 0.5 second fast move to charge the max meter as quickly as possible whilst also resisting as many of the attacks from the opponent as possible.

As these Pokémon will not be attacking in the max phase it does not matter if they are the Dynamax or Gigantamax versions. If you are taking the Tank role in your team then you can enter the max phase with these Pokémon and apply Guard and use Spirit if people need healing. If you are not the tank then when the 3 second timer begins for max phase you need to switch to your attacker and then after the max phase IMMEDIATELY switch back to your charger.

Currently these are the best Chargers available:

Pokémon	Defence/HP (Total) stat	Fast Move	Weaknesses	Resistances
Blissey	169/496 (665)	[Pound]	x1.6 Fighting	x0.39 Ghost
Chansey	128/487 (615)	[Pound]	x1.6 Fighting	x0.39 Ghost
Snorlax	169/330 (499)	[Lick]	x1.6 Fighting	x0.39 Ghost
Lapras	174/277 (451)	[Water Gun]	x1.6 Electric, Fighting Grass Rock	x0.625 Water x0.39 Ice
Greedent	156/260 (416)	[Tackle]/[Bite]/[Mud Shot]	x1.6 Fighting	x0.39 Ghost
Corviknight	192/221 (413)	[Sand Attack]	x1.6 Electric Fire	x0.625 Dragon Fairy Flying Ground Psychic Normal Steel x0.39 Poison BugGrass
Raikou	195/207 (402)	[Thunder Shock]	x1.6 Ground	x0.625 Steel Flying Electric
Blastoise	207/188 (395)	[Bite]/[Water Gun]	x1.6 Electric Grass	x0.625 Water Steel Ice Fire
Rillaboom	168/225 (393)	[Scratch]	x1.6 BugFire Flying Ice Poison	x0.625 Water Electric Grass Ground
Zapdos	185/207 (392)	[Thunder Shock]	x1.6 Ice Rock	x0.625 Steel Ground Grass Flying Fighting Bug
Venusaur	189/190 (379)	[Vine Whip]	x1.6 Fire Flying Ice Psychic	x0.625 Water Fighting Fairy Electric x0.39 Grass
Excadrill	129/242 (371)	[Metal Claw]/ [Mud Shot]	x1.6 Fighting Fire Ground Water	x0.625 Steel Psychic Normal Flying Fairy Dragon Bug x0.39 Electric Rock x0.244 Poison

⚔️ Best Attackers for Max Battles

As mentioned earlier Attackers are Pokémon that you bring out exclusively during the max phase of the battle to do maximum damage. With this in mind the Defence and HP of these Pokémon is irrelevant as they will not be receiving any damage. Furthermore Gigantamax Pokémon have fixed types so their fast and charged moves are also irrelevant.

Currently these are the best Attackers available:

Pokémon	Attack	Attack Type
Gigantamax Gengar	261	Ghost
Gigantamax Kingler	240	Water
Machamp Gigantamax	234	Fighting
Gigantamax Toxtricity	224	Electric
Gigantamax Charizard	223	Fire
Gigantamax Venusaur	198	Grass
Gigantamax Snorlax	190	Normal
Gigantamax Lapras	165	Ice
Gengar Dynamax	261	Dark
Metagross Dynamax	257	Psychic/Steel
Excadrill Dynamax	255	Ground
Moltres Dynamax	251	Flying
Toxtricity Dynamax	224	Poison
Charizard Dynamax	223	Dragon

If a type is not listed above then GMAX Gengar is the best counter unless Ghost is resisted in which case work down the list. This is because GMAX moves have a base power of 450 at level 3 and DMAX is 350. If we look at how damage mechanics work we see that with a high attack stat of 261 GMAX Gengar will outperform any DMAX Pokémon with an attack stat of 210 or less even if they are super effective. Remember for Dynamax Pokémon the type of the Max attack matches the fast move assigned to the Pokémon.