Zekrom is a Tier 5 raid boss in Pokémon GO. Its counters are strong Dragon, Ground, Ice, and Fairy types. Zekrom can be safely duoed with a full team of powered up Dragons with Windy weather and Best Friend boosts. Ideally, use 3-5 high-level players or 6-10 lower-level players when going up against this raid boss.
Zekrom can be caught with the following Combat Power values:
- 2217 – 2307 CP at Level 20, no weather boost
- 2771 – 2884 CP at Level 25 with Rainy or Windy weather boost
In this guide we will cover the strongest Zekrom counters, the best strategy on how to defeat it, and what CPs you can get when catching a strong Zekrom. Shiny Zekrom is available in Pokémon GO.
Best Zekrom counters
# | Attacker | Fast Move | Charge Move | Faints | TTW |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Groudon (Primal) | Mud Shot Ground | Precipice Blades Ground | 13 | 511s |
2. | Rayquaza (Mega) | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 24 | 499s |
3. | Garchomp (Mega) | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 16 | 532s |
4. | Garchomp (Shadow) | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 23 | 577s |
5. | Salamence (Shadow) | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 39 | 585s |
6. | Salamence (Mega) | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 26 | 600s |
7. | Excadrill (Shadow) | Mud-Slap Ground | Scorching Sands Ground | 25 | 605s |
8. | Dragonite (Shadow) | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 37 | 611s |
9. | Mamoswine (Shadow) | Mud-Slap Ground | Avalanche Ice | 30 | 609s |
10. | Latios (Mega) | Dragon Breath Dragon | Dragon Claw Dragon | 27 | 610s |
11. | Gardevoir (Mega) | Charm Fairy | Dazzling Gleam Fairy | 30 | 623s |
12. | Latios (Shadow) | Dragon Breath Dragon | Dragon Claw Dragon | 37 | 644s |
13. | Latias (Mega) | Dragon Breath Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 25 | 655s |
14. | Groudon | Mud Shot Ground | Precipice Blades Ground | 21 | 671s |
15. | Rayquaza | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 39 | 673s |
16. | Zekrom | Dragon Breath Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 25 | 678s |
17. | Garchomp | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 24 | 683s |
18. | Rhyperior (Shadow) | Mud-Slap Ground | Earthquake Ground | 27 | 682s |
19. | Salamence | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 40 | 687s |
20. | Kyurem | Dragon Breath Dragon | Glaciate Ice | 33 | 688s |
21. | Dialga | Dragon Breath Dragon | Draco Meteor Dragon | 26 | 701s |
22. | Haxorus | Dragon Tail Dragon | Breaking Swipe Dragon | 39 | 696s |
23. | Latias (Shadow) | Dragon Breath Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 36 | 701s |
24. | Excadrill | Mud-Slap Ground | Scorching Sands Ground | 26 | 717s |
25. | Sceptile (Mega) | Fury Cutter Bug | Dragon Claw Dragon | 35 | 710s |
26. | Reshiram | Dragon Breath Dragon | Draco Meteor Dragon | 30 | 716s |
27. | Baxcalibur | Dragon Breath Dragon | Avalanche Ice | 37 | 716s |
28. | Dragonite | Dragon Tail Dragon | Outrage Dragon | 38 | 717s |
29. | Mamoswine | Mud-Slap Ground | Avalanche Ice | 31 | 721s |
30. | Swampert (Mega) | Mud Shot Ground | Earthquake Ground | 24 | 733s |
When picking your battle parties to fight Zekrom, it is important to know how many players are in your group and what moveset Zekrom has. If you have a large group then it is usually safe to use high TDO options like Dialga or Excadrill to save revives and potions. If your group only consists of 3-5 players you might want to bring out your dragons to make sure you can take down Zekrom. If you’re up against an Outrage variant then it is a good idea to use Gardevoir or Excadrill instead of Dragon types.
Outside of those listed above, Togekiss, Groudon and Weavile are decent options. Togekiss is slower but bulkier than Gardevoir and I only recommend using it against Outrage or Crunch. Groudon is significantly slower than Excadrill, and because it doesn’t have the part Steel typing its TDO ends up being lower most of the time. Weavile has about the same DPS as Mamoswine but is more glassy and should only be used against Crunch.
Zekrom stats
Zekrom is a Dragon Electric type that has the following stats:
Zekrom DragonElectric | |||||
Max CP at lvl 40 4038 | MAX CP AT LEVEL 50 4565 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ATK 275 | DEF 211 | HP 205 | |||
Weak to | Strong Against | ||||
Dragon Fairy Ground Ice | Water Dragon |
Zekrom Moveset Analysis
Zekrom can have the following moves in a raid battle and when captured:
Fast Moves | Charge Moves |
---|---|
|
|
*Marks a Legacy Move, only available via Elite TM.
As previously mentioned, the charge move that Zekrom has in a raid will be the main indicator of what counters you should pick. Outrage is the most threatening move, as it does insane damage to everything besides Excadrill and Fairy types and completely rules out dragons as viable counters except Dialga. Rayquaza, Salamence, Palkia and Dragonite will take heavy damage from Wild Charge so Garchomp will be the best option against that followed by Dialga, Latios, Mamoswine and Excadrill. Crunch doesn’t do much damage to any of Zekrom’s counters except Latios but it is a three bar move, so Zekrom can potentially overwhelm them with consecutive uses of Crunch. Flash Cannon threatens Mamoswine, Gardevoir, Weavile and Togekiss but is otherwise Zekrom’s weakest charge move, as it only has 100 power and is a one bar move.
Crunch and Flash Cannon are the safest moves to attempt a Zekrom duo with dragons. The best scenario is Windy weather with Best Friend boosts as they boost the already high power of dragons to insane levels. The duo is still possible without any weather boost using a full team of maxed out Rayquaza or Outrage Salamence against Crunch, or with a fully maxed out Palkia team against Flash Cannon, although it will be a really close battle and both scenarios still require the Best Friend boosts.