Trainers, the second Ultra Beast to debut in Pokémon GO is almost here! In case you missed it, GO Fest Berlin attendees will be able to catch Pheromosa as a Special Research reward. But how good is it as a raid/gym attacker in Pokémon GO? You came to the right place to find out!
Pheromosa Stats and Moves in Pokémon GO
Pheromosa
BugFighting
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| Max CP at Level 40 2842 | Max CP at Level 50 3213 | |||||
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| ATK 316 | DEF 85 | STA 174 | |||
Pheromosa does have one of the highest attack stats in the game as of now. But unfortunately, its bulk is less than ideal. It’s in fact the very definition of a glass cannon.
| Fast Moves | Charge Moves |
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As for its moves, Pheromosa has access to Bug Bite and Low Kick as fast moves and Close Combat, Focus Blast, Bug Buzz and Lunge as charge moves. Or at least that’s what the GAME_MASTER file shows at the time of writing this article.
Pheromosa as a Bug Type Attacker
Pheromosa did get access to a full Bug type moveset, but how does it compare to other bug type attackers?
First of all, I just wanna point out again how bad bug type moves are for raids. If we take the DPS*DPE metric into consideration, none of the bug type moves currently available in the game surpass Megahorn’s 55 DPS*DPE. And 60+ is usually the minimum for a move to be considered “good”. Bug Buzz is a close second at 54.06, but that’s still not ideal. And Bug Buzz is a heavy-hitting move despite being “only” a 2-bar move, but that comes at the cost of having an endless move cooldown. And Pheromosa isn’t the kind of Pokémon that can stick around long enough to fire off a charge move.
With the Bug Bite + Bug Buzz moveset, Pheromosa would instantly become the #1 non-mega bug type attacker in the game, even surpassing BB/BB Volcarona (not by much, though) and some mega Pokémon such as Mega Beedrill, but still trailing behind the unreleased Mega Heracross and Mega Pinsir. However, Pheromosa’s lack of bulk might make it unusable in some scenarios so its performance is not always gonna be that good as it seems on paper.
Personally, I’d expect Volcarona to be a much safer investment as it’ll have much more bulk and the potential to learn Quiver Dance as a special move (Pheromosa also learns this move in the main series games but it’s one of Volcarona’s most popular moves in competitive play).
Pheromosa looks like the glass cannon you’d perhaps like to try using in the lead slot of your raid team (when the raid boss doesn’t have enough energy to knock you out) to deal as much damage as possible before fainting. Should you build a team of 6 for PvE purposes? Probably not, but it’s far from a bad Pokémon.
Then again, bug types are usually outclassed by other raid attackers with better moves & stats. Bug moves are super effective against grass, dark and psychic type Pokémon. Against grass types, you’d probably want to use fire types such as Mega Charizard Y or Reshiram. Against dark types, powerful fighting type Pokémon such as shadow Machamp or Lucario are probably much better. And against psychic types, Brutal Swing Hydreigon, Darkrai and even top-tier ghost types are probably much better as well. Bug types are unfortunately doomed unless a major move shakeup happens and byg type moves are buffed.
Pheromosa as a Fighting Type Attacker
As a Fighting type, things aren’t looking too great. Low Kick + Focus Blast is a less than ideal fighting type moveset, to be honest. And then again, Pheromosa isn’t the kind of Pokémon suited for slow, 1-bar charge moves such as Focus Blast.
In terms of performance, Pheromosa is probably a Breloom-tier fighting type attacker. Much worse than shadow Machamp, Lucario, Conkeldurr and Mega Lopunny, but also trailing behind Pokémon like Hariyama or regular Machamp, and even one of the other Ultra Beasts coming soon to Pokémon GO, Buzzwole.
If you want a good fighting type attacker, I’d recommend looking for better (& cheaper) options like the ones mentioned above.
Parting Words
Here’s the tl;dr of the article:
- Pheromosa has an impressive attack stat, but its lack of bulk and energy efficient charge moves make it really difficult to use
- As a bug type attacker, Pheromosa would become the best non-mega bug type attacker in the game. But its performance is probably not always gonna be that good as it seems on paper. And bug types are usually outclassed by many other raid attackers with different typings and better moves & stats
- As a fighting type attacker, Pheromosa is unfortunately nothing special. There are tons of much better (and less expensive) attackers you can use, like the ones mentioned in the article
We hope you found this article useful. Happy hunting, trainers!
