Theorycrafting: Is It Possible to Solo Gigantamax Meowth?

Update: Unfortunately, early testing shows that G-Max Meowth deals about 4-5 times more damage than expected, with 3.0 attack CPM and at least 150,000 HP. It took a team of 75 trainers two turns to down Meowth… so it is not possible to solo it at all 🙁

It has been nearly a year and a half since Max Battles made their debut in Pokémon GO – a game mode that forced trainers to unlearn those old Raid battles habits, pick up new mechanics, and most importantly, work together to overcome some of the most punishing encounters the game has ever offered. We’ve all seen it, trainers who walk in without preparation, hoping to be carried with their Wooloo or Caterpie, and quickly discover just how unforgiving Max battles can be.

As time went on, and stronger, more meta-relevant Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon entered the game, trainers start to become more daring and begin pushing the limits. Duo attempts, and even the occasional solo, are now fairly common sights every time a 5★ Dynamax event comes around. Some 6★ Gigantamax battles, most recently Gigantamax Snorlax, have been successfully cleared by just two trainers. Yes, these attempts often rely on premium boosts such as Max Mushrooms or Eternatus’s Dynamax Cannon Adventure Effect, but a duo is a duo. For a mode that supports up to 100 trainers per battle, being able to duo the G-Max boss clearly shows the growth in roster and experience among trainers, that one can become more adventurous in taking down Legendary Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon.

And yet, one milestone remains completely untouched: soloing a Gigantamax battle. The idea was discussed, the thought was there, but so far it has never materialized into anything. 

That changed the moment Gigantamax Meowth was announced for Pokémon GO.

Gigantamax Meowth

From a meta standpoint, G-Max Meowth arrives with… absolutely no fanfare. Sporting puny numbers of 92 ATK and 78 DEF in values, Meowth is, by a considerable margin, the weakest Gigantamax Pokémon ever released in the game. It serves hardly any function besides being a collectible G-Max Pokémon, with its G-Max Battle event functioning primarily as a short, 3-hour EXP-and-Stardust-gathering session rather than a meaningful meta shake-up. It is however a hilarious addition to your collection that AR photographers are wishing they could photograph it all its long boi glory.

However, those same underwhelming stats are exactly what make G-Max Meowth interesting… at least for those who love to push the limits. When compared to the second-weakest Gigantamax Pokémon released so far, Gigantamax Butterfree, Meowth possesses nearly half the ATK and half the DEF of the Kanto butterfly. In practical terms, this suggests that Gigantamax Meowth may be roughly 4 times easier to take down than Butterfree.

The question is just simple:

Is this the moment?

Could G-Max Meowth become the first G-Max battle in Pokémon GO history that is theoretically soloable?

Let’s dive into the mechanics we know so far and see whether soloing a G-Max battle can finally become more than just an idea and a thought!

What Makes Gigantamax Battles Impossible to Solo so far?

Before evaluating the feasibility of soloing G-Max Meowth, it’s worth re-visiting why soloing any Gigantamax battle has been impossible up to this point; and three mechanics unique to Gigantamax encounters are primarily responsible for that.

1. Gigantamax Boss HP

While a Gigantamax boss retains the same ATK and DEF stats as its base form, what truly justifies its 6★ classification is its massive HP pool, which typically sits around 100,000 HP. This is roughly 4 to 5 times higher than that of a 5★ Dynamax boss – encounters that already demand proper coordination among groups of trainers. This absurdly high HP pool also means that even the most damaging, super effective G-Max move against the Gigantamax boss will hardly make a dent to it. 

2. Attack Frequency of the Gigantamax Boss

Gigantamax bosses also attack far more frequently than their lower-tier counterparts. In 5★ or lower Dynamax battles, bosses typically take around 9 seconds (plus animation time) to charge and execute an attack. In contrast, Gigantamax bosses fire off Large Attacks every 3 seconds, and Single-Target Attacks every 5 seconds, again excluding animation time.

While Gigantamax bosses lack the high damage multipliers seen in 5★ Dynamax encounters, this relentless spamming more than compensates for it. It is this constant pressure that firmly establishes Gigantamax battles as true 6★ content.

3. Desperation and Enrage Timers

Finally, and perhaps most critically, there is the desperation and enrage mechanic.

In 5★ or lower Dynamax battles, bosses typically enter a desperate state after around 6 minutes, followed by enraged mode roughly a minute later. Once enraged, the boss deals 4× its normal damage, effectively guaranteeing one-shot knockout for most Pokémon. Even if trainers survive this phase, the battle forcibly ends around the 8–9 minute mark.

Gigantamax battles are far less forgiving.

A Gigantamax boss becomes desperate after just 2.5 minutes (excluding Max Phase time), and gets enraged a mere 30 seconds later. From that point onward, the boss continues to spam attacks every 3–5 seconds at 4× damage. To date, reliable data on the absolute time limit when a Gigantamax battle ends on its own remains unavailable – largely because surviving long enough to find out has proven extremely difficult.

This accelerated enrage timer is arguably the single biggest reason soloing a Gigantamax battle has never been possible. Even under ideal conditions, using a 0.5-second Fast Move and consistently collecting Max Energy every 15 seconds, it would take a solo trainer around 40 seconds to fully charge the Max Meter for a single Max Phase. Against a boss that enrages at 180 seconds, the math simply isn’t mathing.

So… Why Are We Still Discussing Soloing G-Max Meowth?

As mentioned earlier, G-Max Meowth’s damage output is roughly half that of G-Max Butterfree, previously the weakest G-Max boss in Pokémon GO. To put it into numbers, a G-Max Meowth using Night Slash as its Large Attack deals just 5 damage (2.95% HP) to a level 50 Crowned Shield Zamazenta.

At that rate, Meowth requires 16× Night Slash simply to break Zamazenta’s shield layer that it starts the battle with. Even in the enraged state, where damage from Meowth is 4×, Meowth still needs 4× Night Slash to remove the shield and an additional 9 hits to actually knock Zamazenta out.

This low damage output from Meowth, even deep into enraged mode, is the core reason why soloing G-Max Meowth might be possible.

Meowth’s lack of bulk further reinforces this possibility. With just 78 DEF, it sits at roughly half the defensive value of G-Max Butterfree. Against G-Max Machamp, Meowth takes approximately 4,026 damage (4.03% HP) per G-Max Chi Strike, totaling 12.09% HP per Max Phase. This suggests that around 8 Max Phases, combined with Fast Move chip damage from Zamazenta, could theoretically bring Meowth down. There is also room for optimization with Zamazenta’s Close Combat charged attack offering substantial Fighting-type damage at the cost of slower Max Meter generation – a trade-off that may still prove worthwhile in a solo context, especially when the time limit for G-Max battles remain unknown.

With all these variables on the table, it’s finally time to put theory into practice. Let’s theorycraft what a solo Gigantamax Meowth battle might actually look like.

Theorycrafting: Soloing vs. Gigantamax Meowth

Buffs (all required):

• Cloudy weather (Fighting-type boost)
• 🍄 Max Mushroom active
• 🧬 Dynamax Cannon Adventure Effect (Eternatus)
• 🧤 15+ Helper Bonus (4-glove lobby)

Team:

• 2× Crowned Shield Zamazenta
  • Metal Claw / Close Combat
  • Level 50, preferably with 15 ATK
  • Level 3 Max Guard
• 1× Gigantamax Machamp
  • Karate Chop / Dynamic Punch
  • Level 50, preferably with 15 ATK
  • Level 3 G-Max Chi Strike

Battle Assumption:

• G-Max Meowth moveset:
  • Night Slash (Large Attack, 2s animation)
  • Body Slam (Single-target Attack, 2s animation, dodgeable)
• Typically, and from our limited testing, a D-Max / G-Max boss would do around 70% Large Attack vs. 30% ST Attack; however, if there is an active Pokémon with Max Guard shield on the field, then the ratio will flip to 70% ST Attack vs. 30% Large Attack.
• In this theorycrafting, we will assume the worst possible scenario, i.e. 100% Night Slash large attack, as this means our Pokémon will take a hit every 5 seconds (3s per Large Attack + 2s animation). 

General Battle Plan: All-out attack

• Building up Max Meter with Zamazenta (Z): 
  • Spam Metal Claw to build up Max and Charged Attack meter
  • Use Close Combat immediately when fully charged
    • It takes 20 Metal Claw to fully charge up a Close Combat
    • Close Combat has a 2.5s animation window
• Max Phase with G-Max Machamp (M):
  • Use 3× G-Max Chi Strike in every Max Phase
• Expected damage output:
  • Metal Claw: 0.03% HP / hit
  • Close Combat: 0.82% HP / hit
  • G-Max Chi Strike: 4.03% HP / hit

Turn-by-Turn breakdown:

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. Based on everything we know about G-Max Battle mechanics so far, this theorycrafting shows that soloing Gigantamax Meowth is, at least on paper, possible, achievable in just 6 turns using 2× Crowned Shield Zamazenta and 1× Gigantamax Machamp, under extremely strict conditions and near-perfect execution.

That said, it is important to note that this is, as of this moment, purely a theorycrafting, and that there are still a few critical unknowns that prevent us from declaring this a guaranteed solo.

The biggest question mark is the absolute G-Max battle time limit. While we know that Gigantamax Meowth enters its enraged state at around the 3-minute mark, we have no confirmed data on when a Gigantamax battle forcibly ends. This scenario pushes towards the 4.5-minute mark, meaning that trainers would need to survive roughly 90 full seconds of enraged Meowth. If the actual hard timer turns out to be shorter than that, then even a flawless execution would still unfortunately fail.

The second major variable is Gigantamax Meowth’s HP value. This theory assumes 100,000 HP, based on the observed average of previous Gigantamax battles. The actual HP, however, can only be told on the day of the event itself. While a lower HP value would immediately make the solo more forgiving, possibly even comfortable, a higher one, on the other hand, would likely invalidate the attempt entirely. As the calculations show, this strategy already succeeds with almost no margin for error; and if the battle steps into turn 7, it is likely going to end very badly as Machamp alone would not be able to tank the enraged Meowth.

Nevertheless, if any Gigantamax Pokémon were ever going to be soloed, G-Max Meowth is the one, and probably the only one that is possible. And for trainers willing to push the limits, optimize every detail, and gamble against the unknowns, this might just be the first, and only real shot at making Pokémon GO history by soloing a Gigantamax battle.

Good luck – you’ll need it. I know I will.

Credits to the numbers and calculation from Pokechespin.net, and in-depth discussion with its creator CreatorBeastGD.