Pokemon GO Shadow Sawk raid guide (June 2023): Best counters, weaknesses, and more

Shadow Raids are a recently introduced phenomenon in Pokemon GO during May 2023's Team GO Rocket takeover. This mechanic involves the evil team taking over Gyms across the world and implanting highly boosted shadow forms of Pocket Monsters as raid bosses. In the primary iteration of the event, the second evolutionary levels of the Johto starters were the most popular Shadow Raid bosses.

In June's rotation of Shadow Raids, there are many new creatures for trainers to challenge, defeat and capture. One of them is Shadow Sawk from the Unova region. Another interesting factor about Shadow Sawk raids in Pokemon GO is that they can only be found in certain continents of the world: Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Shadow Sawk will be a three-star raid boss in Pokemon GO, which means you should be able to defeat it on your own if you are going in with the right counters, which have a type advantage and powerful moves.

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What are Shadow Sawk's weaknesses in Pokemon GO?

It is important to know Sawk's elemental typing in the game before diving into the details of what creatures and moves to take into fighting it. Shadow Sawk is a pure Fighting-type Pocket Monster in Niantic's mobile game. This means it is weak to Psychic, Flying, and Fairy-type attacks. At the same time, it resists Dark, Bug, and Rock-type moves.

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What are the best counters to Shadow Sawk in Pokemon GO?

Shadow Sawk can use moves like Poison Jab and Low Kick as Fast Attacks, of which the former can knock down Fairies quite easily, so be careful with that. In terms of Charged Attacks, Sawk gets access to Focus Blast, Body Slam, and Low Sweep, all of which are powerful in their own ways.

Your best bet is to take high-CP Psychic and Flying type attackers who can dish out the maximum amount of STAB boosted super effective damage, while absorbing at least one or two charged attacks from Shadow Sawk.

Your best options in defeating Sawk on your own, along with their recommended movesets, are as follows:

• Alakhazam or Mega Alakhazam: Confusion + Psychic
• Altaria or Mega Altaria: Peck + Dazzling Gleam
• Staraptor: Wing Attack + Brave Bird
• Gardevoir or Mega Gardevoir: Confusion/Charm + Psychic
• Mewtwo: Confusion + Psystrike
• Ho-Oh: Extrasensory + Brave Bird

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Tips and tricks to handle Shadow Raid bosses in Pokemon GO

As a Tier 3 raid boss, Shadow Sawk will be approximately 19131 CP in Shadow Raids. Remember that it will have boosted attack stat and lowered defenses, so the faster you deal damage, the better it is for you. Moreover, Shadow Raids introduce the mechanic of the boss getting enraged, so make sure to take the precious Purified Gems with you on these raids.