Mega Garchomp raid day happens on Saturday, November 11, 2-5pm local time. The official Japanese PoGO account also suggests that it will stay in Mega Raids afterwards until the morning of November 16. In this article, I will look at Mega Garchomp’s role as a Ground– and Dragon-type raid attacker. At the end of this article, I also attached fixes for some Mega Rayquaza charts from August.
Note: Garchomp caught during the raid day will NOT have its Community Day move, Earth Power.
- You can use an Elite Charged TM to get it. For any Garchomp caught from raids, ETM is the only option.
- If you can afford to wait, you can also hold off evolving your Gible and Gabite until some future event that gives you Earth Power upon evolution without ETMs.
My analyses of other types are in this spreadsheet. You can also follow me on Twitter (X) and Threads!
Main Points / TL;DR
Garchomp (Mega)
Mega Garchomp is #2 as both a Ground and Dragon attacker. The problem? Primal Groudon (with Precipice Blades) and Mega Rayquaza are much stronger.
Both also have a “permanent” mega boost that elevate themselves above and beyond in group raids, while Mega Garchomp doesn’t. On most occasions when you can use a Mega Garchomp, the “Mega” legendaries are way better.
There may be one exception: Dialga raids, where Mega Garchomp uniquely serves as both a raid attacker and candy (XL) booster.
Ground-type Charts
Mega Garchomp is good, arguably and mathematically the second best Ground-type attacker in the game. Nothing comes even close, aside from Shadow Garchomp and Shadow Excadrill. The problem is that Primal Groudon exists, and it has created such a power vacuum on top, that Mega Garchomp will always play second fiddle in scenarios where Ground-type Mega/Primal Pokémon is required.
As we said, Mega Garchomp is an amazing Ground-type attacker, but Primal Groundon is so much better, that it is hard to describe without a visual chart. See how far the Primal Groundon’s % of total damage contribution grows with the number of raiders.
Dragon-type Charts
When comparing Mega Garchomp to other Dragon-types, we see a repeat of what happened when we tried to compare it to Ground-type attackers. Mega Garchomp is the second best Mega Dragon type, and it unfortunately needs to take a step back to Mega Rayquaza.
A note on Primal Groudon and Mega Rayquaza without legacy moves
I didn’t note it in the chart, but in terms of solo power (without group damage boosts):
- Primal Groudon with Earthquake is almost identical to Mega Garchomp with Earth Power. It’s a significant downgrade from Precipice Blades.
- I’d still use an Earthquake Primal Groudon over Mega Garchomp in group raids, for reasons in the next section.
- Mega Rayquaza with Outrage is only a marginal downgrade from Breaking Swipe, and still better than Mega Garchomp.
“Permanent” Primal/Mega Ray boost explained
Mega and Primal Pokemon provide a 30% boost to other raiders’ attacks that match one of their types, and 10% boost to other types of attacks. For most megas such as Mega Garchomp, this only applies when it’s on the field and attacking.
However, Primal Kyogre, Primal Groudon and Mega Rayquaza provide the boost as long as your current party of 6 includes them. They boost other players while on the field, but also before and after they enter the field (even after they faint).
As a result, whenever they deal Super Effective damage, they absolutely dominate other megas in group raids. Even if not, you can still achieve a permanent 10%/30% damage boost by putting them in the “background” – have them in the 6th slot, and relobby as soon as they enter the scene.
To me, this is the killing blow for Mega Garchomp. Unless your Primal Groudon and Mega Rayquaza are on cooldown, using them is simply better for almost all intentions.
When Mega Garchomp pulls double duties
Mega Garchomp’s unique Dragon/Ground typing will likely be relevant for catching. It can also double duty as both a raid attacker and an (XL) candy booster in the following T5 raids:
- Dialga
- Stands out from Primal Groudon
- Future Mega Lucario is the only other option that can do this
- All other dragons
- However, Mega Rayquaza and any other dragon mega can also do this, so it doesn’t stand out
- Note: Against Reshiram and Zekrom, Mega Garchomp wants DT/Outrage
- Primal Groudon (as the raid boss)
- Mega Swampert does this much better
- (Iron Treads and Sandy Shocks?)
- Primal Groudon can also do this
Honestly, I expected more from this. But I guess Dialga is important enough of a use case.
Mega Rayquaza chart fixes
These are corrections to the Mega Rayquaza charts that I made in August. At that time, it was observed that Mega Rayquaza did not provide a background boost. However, Niantic has since clarified that it was a bug, and Mega Rayquaza does provide a background boost now.
Imgur Links and Additional Charts
General attacker charts: ASE, ASTTW* and ASE Dodge*
Mega charts:
* indicates additional charts that are not in the main post.
