The best moveset for Honchkrow in Pokemon GO

Thanks to Pokemon GO's Luminous Legends Y event, a massive amount of Murkrow catches have naturally evolved into Honchkrow.

But what moves provide the most damage for it?

Thankfully, Pokemon GO trainers asking themselves this can have definitive answers thanks to collected metrics on Pokemon moves. As a Dark/Flying-type Pokemon, Honchkrow has a small but solid variety of moves of different types if it needs to exploit certain type matchups. In a vacuum, however, there are two moves that stand out in overall numbers compared to the rest of its moveset.

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Pokemon GO: Detailed move breakdown for Honchkrow

Image via The Pokemon Company

Pokemon GO movesets are divided into two categories: fast moves and charged moves. Fast moves are used with every tap of the player's screen, while charged moves are special attacks that require to be powered up before they are used. Charged moves' damage output is also dictated by how well the player can perform the swiping minigame upon activation, and each minigame changes depending on the elemental type. These mechanics are different but simplified in Pokemon GO compared to the main series' attack strategies.

Honchkrow has a total set of six available moves. Only two moves will be usable by Honchkrow unless a player purchases an additional charged move using Stardust. It will have one fast move and one charged move. The total available moves to Honchkrow are:

• Snarl (Fast move) (Dark-type)
• Peck (Fast move) (Flying-type)
• Brave Bird (Charged move) (Flying-type)
• Sky Attack (Charged move) (Flying-type)
• Psychic (Charged move) (Psychic-type)
• Dark Pulse (Charged move) (Dark-type)

When it comes to pure statistics, Snarl and Brave Bird are considered the top moves for Honchkrow in Pokemon GO when breaking the moves down into three primary categories:

• Damage per Second (DPS) - The amount of damage an attack deals every second of battle.
• Total Damage Overall (TDO) - The maximum amount of damage a Pokemon can deal with its moves before it faints from sustaining too much damage.
• Time to First Activation (TTFA) - The number of seconds it takes to activate a Pokemon's charged move for the first time.

With these categories in mind, Pokemon GO players can take a deep dive into all the move combinations' full damage potential:

• Snarl + Brave Bird - 18.5 DPS - 517.3 TDO - 8.8 second TTFA
• Snarl + Sky Attack - 17.96 DPS - 502.33 TDO - 4.4 second TTFA
• Peck + Brave Bird - 17.63 DPS - 492.98 TDO - 10 second TTFA
• Peck + Sky Attack - 17 DPS - 475.29 TDO - 5 second TTFA
• Snarl + Dark Pulse - 15.36 DPS - 429.47 TDO - 4.4 second TTFA
• Snarl + Psychic - 15.2 DPS - 425.11 TDO - 4.4 second TTFA
• Peck + Dark Pulse - 15.03 DPS - 420.15 TDO - 5 second TTFA
• Peck + Psychic - 14.89 DPS - 416.32 TDO - 5 second TTFA

Although these moves are subject to change by Niantic, and their damage can change based on type effectiveness or weather boosts, these are the flat statistics for Honchkrow's moves in Pokemon GO when everything is considered even.