Pokemon GO: Exploring Heatran's weaknesses

Trainers will be able to catch Heatran during its Spotlight Hour in Pokemon GO, but they’re going to need some strong counters to win the battle.

Heatran is statistically one of the most balanced Pokemon in the game. The combined stats of 213 Defense and 209 Stamina give Heatran phenomenal bulk, and it also deals solid damage with 251 Attack. It’s typing of Fire and Steel also gives it lots of resistances.

---

Legendary Pokemon Heatran appearns as a raid boss in Pokemon GO

Anyone who knows their type matchups will recognize that Heatran gets demolished by Ground type moves. Fire and Steel have a shared weakness of Ground, so these Pokemon will do the most damage to Heatran.

Just about any Pokemon with enough CP and access to Earthquake will make quick work of Heatran. The top three counters, however, will be Garchomp, Landorus-Therian and Rhyperior.

All three of these Pokemon have strong Attack stats. Garchomp probably gets an edge, though, due to access to Earth Power. This is a hard hitting move that only needs half the energy bar to use.

Earthquake does more damage, but Garchomp can charge Earth Power more quickly. Also, it could likely one shot Heatran with Earth Power if the Garchomp is strong enough.

Thankfully, since Heatran is so weak to Ground-type attacks, trainers definitely won’t require elite Pokemon or legendaries to have a good matchup in this raid battle. More ordinary Ground-types will still beat Heatran in a short time.

Garchomp can beat Heatran in the quickest time (Image via The Pokemon Company)

A good example would be Swampert, since Mudkip isn’t the hardest Pokemon to find. Golem, Krookodile, Donphan and Gastrodon also have great matchups against Heatran.

One particularly great counter to Heatran is Ho-oh, if a trainer is lucky enough to have one. Ho-oh resists virtually all of Heatran’s moves. It can also run a set of Counter and Earthquake, both of which hit for super effective damage.

Finally, Ground-types will not be the only Pokemon who can deal with Heatran. Strong Fighting-types like Hariyama, Machamp and Conkeldurr can inflict loads of damage on Heatran as well.