Is Rhyperior good in Pokemon GO PvP?

Pokemon GO is inching closer toward the Rhyhorn Spotlight Hour, and you might probably be wondering if it is any good in the game. While Rhyhorn might not impress you with its performance in PvE or PvP, its evolutionary line will definitely catch your attention. While some trainers will grind for candies during the Rhyhorn Spotlight Hour, others will try to hunt for its shiny variant.

As the name suggests, Rhyhorn looks like a rhinoceros with a rigid design. It is a Ground- and Rock-type beast with two stages of evolution: Rhydon and Rhyperior. Both its evolutions share the same elemental type as Rhyhorn; however, the design differs greatly.

In this article, we will talk about Rhyperior’s viability in the current Pokemon GO PvP metagame. We will dive into its best moveset and guide you on using Rhyperior to squeeze the most out of it in the game.

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Rhyperior in Pokemon GO PvP

Rhyperior as seen in Pokemon Legends Arceus (Image via Nintendo)

Rhyperior is a strong tool in the hands of a PvP veteran. However, the top-ranking creatures in a given meta greatly determine the extent to which a certain Pocket Monster can perform in battles.

Typing efficiency is a key element in Pokemon GO PvP. If the more commonly used beasts have elemental typings that hard-counter your critter, it most likely will perform poorly. But that does not make it a bad PvP fighter.

Currently, the top 10 most used creatures in Great Battle League are as follows:

Great League:

• Carbink
• Registeel
• Galarian Stunfisk
• Swampert
• Medicham
• Shadow Swampert
• Scrafty
• Pelipper
• Lickitung
• Shadow Quagsire

Ultra League:

• Registeel
• Cresselia
• Shadow Registeel
• Cobalion
• Regirock
• Pidgeot
• Altered Giratina
• Shadow Swampert
• Virizion
• Swampert

Rhyperior is a Ground- and Rock-type beast. This weakens it to creatures of the following elemental types: Fighting-, Ground-, Steel-, Water-, Grass-, and Ice-type. With the likes of Registeel, Shadow, and normal variants of Swampert, Scrafty, Pelipper, and more plaguing the current PvP meta, it would not be wise to take Rhyperior on the battlefield.

While it does have a decent base attack of 140, it is not the fastest creature in the game. Moves like Mud Shot take a fairly long time to generate energy, often more than 7-8 turns. By the time Rhyperior is ready to use its hard-hitting Charged moves like Rock Wrecker and Earthquake, the enemy will force you to exhaust your shields with a more efficient energy generation.

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Pokemon GO Rhyperior - Rock Wrecker and legacy moves

Rhyperior as seen in Pokemon Legends Arceus (Image via Nintendo)

While Rhyperior has a wide array of moves it can learn in GO, it performs best with Mud Slap as a Fast move plus Rock Wrecker and Surf as Charged moves. These will give Rhyperior decent elemental typing coverage, making it somewhat palatable in the current PvP metagame of Pokemon GO.

Rock Wrecker is Rhyperior's legacy move. If you do not have one with this move, you should use an Elite Charged TM to teach Rock Wrecker to your Rhyperior. It has two bars and comes with a base power of 110. It requires 50 energy to be used and has a Damage Per Energy (DPE) of 2.2. If you play this move correctly, you can bait out your enemy's shields with low-cost moves like surf, which will leave them exposed to the sheer power of Rock Wrecker Rhyperior.

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Pokemon GO Rhyperior - Max CP and evolution

300k Stardust is needed to max Rhyperior from level 36 (Image via Niantic)

At Level 50, Rhyperior has a Combat Power (CP) of 4,221. This makes it one of the strongest beasts in the game. However, maxing out this beast can be extremely taxing on your resources. It not only requires a truckload of Rhyhorn Candies and Rhyhorn Candy XL, but you will also have to invest a lot of Stardust.

You would need over 300,000 Stardust and 300 Rhyhorn Candy XL to take a Rhyperior from Level 36 to Level 50. Considering the highest level of the creature you can catch in the wild is capped at 35, you get a rough estimate of how expensive upgrading this beast can be. But is it worth it? Most definitely, yes!

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How to catch Rhyperior in Pokemon GO?

Rhyperior as seen in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Usually, you can’t really encounter a Rhyperior in the wild. However, you will come across plenty of Rhyhorns. With Rhyhorn Spotlight Hour currently live in the game, you should consider getting one with a decent PvP appraisal.

Like most beasts in the game, you will need 25 Rhyhorn Candies to evolve it into a Rhyhorn. You will need another 100 Candies to evolve the Rhydon into a Rhyperior.