What is the most powerful legendary Pokemon in Pokemon GO?

With over 900 Pokemon in the franchise, a lot of powerful Pokemon are available in Pokemon GO. Some of the most powerful Pokemon are known as legendary and mythical Pokemon. Many players strive to collect them either to add them to their Pokedex or to use them in Pokemon GO's competitive Battle League.

For players wanting to use them in the Battle League, knowing which legendary Pokemon is the most powerful could help them reach the top of the leaderboards and be the very best.

Master League is typically where the most legendary Pokemon are seen. Still, it is only restricted by combat power, so legendary Pokemon can be seen in Great and Ultra Leagues if their combat power is low enough.

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Pokemon GO's strongest legendary Pokemon

Promotional Imagery announcing Shadow Mewtwo's addition to Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

Sitting firmly on the throne of being the most powerful legendary Pokemon in Pokemon GO is, unsurprisingly, Shadow Mewtwo. Shadow Mewtwo was a Pokemon players could catch back in 2020 as part of the "An Inter-Egg-Sting Development" Research.

However, while Shadow Mewtwo was intended to be captured for this Special Research, it only requires the player to defeat Giovanni, the boss of Team GO Rocket, to complete. When Giovanni appears in Pokemon GO, he typically brings a new Shadow Pokemon with him.

With the Festival of Lights event recently coming to an end, the most recent Shadow legendary Pokemon Giovanni brought with him was Lugia, meaning that Shadow Mewtwo may not be catchable again for some time.

Legendary Pokemon Giovanni brings tend to be in the order they were introduced to the franchise as Giovanni already had all of the Kanto legendary Pokemon and just concluded the Johto legendaries with the recent addition of Shadow Lugia.

Sadly, Giovanni is the only way players could catch Shadow legendary Pokemon in Pokemon GO. Funnily enough, the best Legendary Pokemon in Pokemon GO that is not a Shadow Pokemon is regular Mewtwo. It's only fitting that the original legendary Pokemon is the most powerful in Pokemon GO.

In summary, Mewtwo is by far the best legendary Pokemon in the game, both in Shadow and its standard variant. While Shadow Mewtwo is not the most powerful Pokemon in the game, that is sure to change once its Mega Evolutions are added to the game.

Currently, the Pokemon with the highest damage output is Mega Blastoise, but as that is a Mega Evolved form and not a regular or legendary Pokemon, it does not really count as all Mega Evolutions have yet to be added to Pokemon GO.