Pokemon GO Swanna: Best moveset, counters, and is it any good?

Pokemon GO introduced Swanna, Ducklett's evolution, back during the 4th Anniversary Celebration in July 2020, and it even received a shiny variant during GO Fest 2024: New York City. However, many trainers are likely wondering, is Swanna any good in PvP or PvE? Sadly, Swanna is only a niche PvP pick at best, but if trainers are using it, they'll want to know its best movesets and counters.

Swanna lacks the firepower to do much of anything in PvE, but it can be something of an under-the-radar pick in Pokemon GO's Great League PvP. Since that's the case, learning the counters that give it trouble and the moves that optimize its damage output and type coverage is a task worth undertaking just in case players decide to use Swanna or end up battling it.

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Pokemon GO Swanna: Best movesets

Swanna in the Pokemon anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Swanna's best PvP and PvE movesets aren't that different in Pokemon GO. But trainers using it in PvP will want to teach it a second Charged Attack to improve its ability to counter different opponent types. A breakdown of these movesets can be found below:

Pokemon GO Swanna best PvE moveset

• Fast Attack: Water Gun
• Charged Attack: Bubble Beam

Pokemon GO Swanna best PvP moveset

• Fast Attack: Water Gun
• Charged Attacks: Bubble Beam and Fly

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Is Swanna good in Pokemon GO PvP and PvE?

Swanna in PvE

Sadly, with a considerably restricted collection of learnable moves and a middling base Attack stat of 182, Swanna doesn't offer the kind of firepower to do much in PvE. It isn't a quality pick for raids, though it could be used for gym attacks and defense when necessary, and it may be able to take on certain Team GO Rocket grunts but doesn't achieve much beyond that.

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Swanna in PvP

Although Swanna can be used in niche cases in Great League PvP thanks to its solid durability (132 base Defense, 181 base Stamina), it still lacks any real firepower and its move selection doesn't do it any favors. Put plainly, there are better options to use a Water/Flying-type on PvP teams in the Great League including Gyarados and Mantine.

In its prior evolution, Ducklett can be a top-tier threat in some specialty PvP formats like the Element Cup, but Swanna is average and is best avoided for PvP.

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Pokemon GO Swanna: All moves and stats

Cameron's Swanna in the Pokemon anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Fast Attacks

• Air Slash
• Water Gun

Charged Attacks

• Bubble Beam
• Ice Beam
• Hurricane
• Fly

Base Stats

• Attack: 182
• Defense: 132
• Stamina: 181
• Max CP: 2,361

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Pokemon GO Swanna: Strengths and weaknesses

As a Water/Flying-type Pokemon, Swanna will take additional damage from the following attack elements due to its weaknesses to them:

• Electric (256% damage)
• Rock (160%)

Meanwhile, Swanna will take reduced damage from the following elements due to its resistance to them:

• Ground (39.1%)
• Bug (62.5%)
• Fighting (62.5%)
• Fire (62.5%)
• Steel (62.5%)
• Water (62.5%)

When using its Water and Flying-type STAB moves, Swanna can deal super effective damage to the following opponent types:

• Ground (160%)
• Rock (160%)
• Fire (160%)
• Fighting (160%)
• Bug (160%)
• Grass (160%)

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Best counters to Pokemon GO Swanna

Best Great League Counters: Lanturn, Shadow Electrode, Ampharos, Shadow Magnezone, Shadow Manectric

Best Ultra League Counters: Lanturn, Shadow Manectric, Registeel, Elektross, Shadow Electrode

Best Master League Counters: Zekrom, Shadow Raikou, Melmetal, Xurkitree, Therian Thundurus, Zapdos, Electivire

Best PvE Counters:

• Shadow Raikou with Thunder Shock and Wild Charge
• Xurkitree with Thunder Shock and Discharge
• Shadow Magnezone with Spark and Wild Charge
• Mega Manectric with Thunder Fang and Wild Charge
• Shadow Electivire with Thunder Shock and Wild Charge
• Zekrom with Charge Beam and Fusion Bolt
• Shadow Zapdos with Thunder Shock and Thunderbolt

It should be noted that Swanna has yet to appear in PvE environments like raids, and rarely appears outside of Great League PvP, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of its counters as both a user of Swanna and as its opponent.