Pokemon GO Necrozma raid guide: Best counters and weaknesses

Necrozma's Pokemon GO debut is centered on the raid arena. The Pocket Monster appears as a Tier-5 raid boss during GO Fest 2024's real-world and global celebration events. If trainers want a chance to catch it (or potentially its shiny variant), they'll have to assemble a solid team of counters that can exploit its three elemental weaknesses and deal heavy damage in a short amount of time.

Fortunately, since Necrozma is a mono Psychic-type Pokemon, exploiting its weaknesses shouldn't be too difficult at all. That just leaves finding Pocket Monsters with high IVs and CP and outfitting them with the right moves to hammer away at Necrozma's boosted raid HP and take it down.

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Necrozma's strengths and weaknesses in Pokemon GO

Necrozma is a Psychic-type species in Pokemon GO (Image via The Pokemon Company)

As a Psychic-type in Pokemon GO, Necrozma has three elemental weaknesses and two elemental resistances to be aware of while building a raiding team.

The following elemental weaknesses will deal 160% of their damage value to Necrozma, so trainers should prioritize them:

• Bug
• Dark
• Ghost

Meanwhile, Necrozma resists the following elements and takes 62.5% damage from them, so they're best avoided:

• Fighting
• Psychic

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Best Pokemon counters to Necrozma in Pokemon GO

A Ghost-type like Mega Banette is a perfect counter to Necrozma (Image via Niantic)

Since Necrozma is weak to Bug, Dark, and Ghost-type moves, this makes Bug, Dark, and Ghost-type Pokemon the natural best fits to counter and defeat it. This is not just because there are several powerful Pokemon of each type but also due to the fact that matching a Bug/Dark/Ghost-type move to the type of its user will increase damage via the Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB).

With that in mind, the following Pocket Monsters are perfect for countering Necrozma:

• Mega Tyranitar
• Mega Gengar
• Mega Banette
• Mega Heracross
• Mega Pinsir
• Mega Houndoom
• Mega Scizor
• Mega Gyarados
• Mega Absol
• Shadow Chandelure
• Hydreigon
• Blacephalon
• Shadow Weavile
• Darkrai
• Gholdengo
• Shadow Honchkrow
• Origin Forme Giratina
• Hoopa Unbound
• Volcarona
• Incineroar

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Best moves to counter Necrozma in Pokemon GO

Once players have their team of Bug-, Dark-, and Ghost-type Pokemon to battle Necrozma, they'll want to outfit their team with quality moves that exploit the critter's three primary elemental weaknesses.

Below, trainers can find a collection of Fast and Charged Moves that should be able to accomplish this with flying colors:

Fast Moves

• Bite
• Lick
• Shadow Claw
• Hex
• Snarl
• Astonish
• Struggle Bug
• Bug Bite
• Fury Cutter

Charged Moves

• Brutal Swing
• Shadow Ball
• Foul Play
• Crunch
• Dark Pulse
• Megahorn
• X-Scissor
• Shadow Force
• Bug Buzz
• Darkest Lariat

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Necrozma's learnable moves in Pokemon GO

Inside and outside of raids, Necrozma has the ability to learn three different Fast Moves and four different Charged Moves of various types.

It's not a bad idea to be familiar with these moves before raiding Necrozma to help account for what it might be battling the raiding party with.

The full list of learnable Necrozma moves can be found below:

Fast Moves

• Shadow Claw
• Psycho Cut
• Metal Claw

Charged Moves

• Dark Pulse
• Iron Head
• Future Sight
• Outrage

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Pokemon GO Necrozma Catch CP in raids

Necrozma has a sizable catch CP after beating it in raids (Image via Niantic)

Depending on whether or not the Weather Boost effect is active, Necrozma has a certain CP range that trainers can expect after defeating it in raids.

Below, players can find the CP totals once they've beaten a Necrozma raid:

With Weather Boost - 2522 to 2630 CP in windy weather

Without Weather Boost - 2018 to 2104 CP

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It should be noted that these metrics are based on Necrozma's initial raiding stats during Pokemon GO Fest 2024. They may be subject to change in the future if Niantic chooses to add Necrozma to Tier-5 raids for other events.