Mega Gyarados is one Dark and Water type Mega Raid boss. Optimal raid counters are powerful Electric Grass Fight Bug and Fairy types, with quite a wide variety of different counters available to help you beat it.
Depending on your levels and counters, we recommend 3-5 trainers that are high level, and more if you don’t have optimal teams.
This guide will tell you how to beat this fan favorite Mega, as well as its optimal stats, moves, and CP range.
Mega Gyarados Counters
Since Shadow Pokémon are extremely expensive to boot and require specific events to remove Frustration with a ChargeTM, they are NOT listed as robbery counters in this article. That said, if you’ve enabled and TMed the shadow shape of a listed raid counter Pokémon, use it.
Let’s take a look at the best raid counters for Mega Gyarados:
* stands for Legacy move, only available through EliteTM.
With a wide range of counters and therefore quite a few different types of weaknesses Water and Dark double typing, most trainers should be able to whip up a strong team of counters. Many of the strong counters have had events or community days that help! Reach for the powerful Grass Electric Fight Fairy and Bug type of Pokémon. So many of these counters are incredibly useful and versatile in terms of PVE, like Machamp, Togekiss and Zekrom, a name we keep popping up over and over again.
For more budget counters, you can check out the entire list of counters here, but Roserade, Hariyama, Torterra, normal Genesect, and Sirfetch would all show up, so keep them in mind.
How to get Mega Gyarados
You cannot catch Gyarados in its mega-evolved form of the heist. The mega raid boss is always catchy in his basic form and as such the CP ranges are for a regular Gyarados.
Gyarados can be caught with the following CP values:
- 1855 – 1937 CP no weather boost
- 2319 – 2422 CP stimulated by Rainy or Fog boost again
To get Mega Gyarados you need 200 Mega Energy for the first evolution and then 40 Mega Energy to develop the same Gyarados again in the future. Mega Energy can be obtained through Mega Gyarados Raids, and once you develop Mega Gyarados you can earn 5 Mega Energy per candy while walking it as your buddy. You can run any Magikarp or Gyarados to earn Mega Energy, as long as you have previously developed one to register it with your Mega Pokédex.
Gyarados shiny
Like all Mega Raid Bosses, you can catch the shiny version of Gyarados from a robbery, and possibly in the wild too, if you can find it! Gyarados has a slight gender difference in both the regular and the glossy sprites, with the whiskers changing color.
| Regular Sprite (male) | Shiny sprite (male) |
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| Regular Sprite (female) | Shiny Sprite (female) |
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Mega Gyarados statistics
WaterDark |
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| Max CP on lvl 40 4717 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK 292 | DEF 247 | HP 216 | |||
| Weak for | Strongly against | ||||
| Grass Electric Fight Fairy Bug | Fire Ground Rock Paranormal | ||||
With a whopping max CP at level 50 of 5332, Mega Gyarados officially becomes the highest CP Pokémon in Pokémon GO, overtaking the previous highest Mega Charizard Y. It’s an absolute beast!
Mega Gyarados Moveset Analysis
| Fast movements | Charge Moves |
|---|---|
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* stands for Legacy move, only available through EliteTM.
For optimal DPS, Bite and Hydro Pump are the right choice. When you need your strongest Water attacker type, waterfall and hydropump are preferred for DPS, and for one Dark attacker type Bite and Crunch. Mega Gyarados doesn’t have that Dragon typing, but if you use it as a Dragon type of attacker must move your legacy Dragon Tail with Outrage as the Charge move.
Conclusion
Mega Gyarados is a Pokémon that, regardless of its stats, will become a Mega that people want on their team, Gyarados is a fan favorite! It has a massive CP stat and high attack stat of 292, making it a great one Water type of attacker. It has some major weaknesses and it loses that type that has it in its normal form means it is much weaker Grass typing than before.
Mega Gyarados isn’t generally considered one of the best Megas, but with such a cool design and so many trainers who have a soft spot for this big shiny red beast, does it really matter? It will be great to rob strong Fire types, and can be a help against Paranormal and Spirit types, including the Mega Mewtwo forms, when they become available.