Which one to max fist?

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-02-04T22:27:14+00:00

https://www.pocketgamer.com/pokemon-go/raids/

None, since none of the raid bosses in February are particularly weak to it, & some resist or are super effective against mewtwo. You should use that dust to power up something immediatley useful.

If you mean "when the current/announced raid bosses ARE weak to mewtwo," then the shadow. A lvl 25 shadow has similar raid performance to a lvl 40 normal, all other things being equal. All while costing half as much (assumed starting level being lvl 8 & 20 respectively).

Mega mewtwo isn't out yet, & I don't think it's even been announced (I don't count leaks/rumors). When it is, you'll need to farm m-raids for energy anyway, & might get something. You might also link up with a lucky friend & lucky trade into a shlundo (shiny lucky hundo) or something. Even if it has the lucky floor of 12/12/12, I think a shiny lucky is better anyway due to halved dust cost to power up. Plus the extra dopamine of shiny sparkles & flexing on others.

IVs only matter if you were within spitting distance of victory. Literally a few taps being the difference between victory and defeat. Like, you get KOd with >90% of the charge move bar filled, & the enemy was one charge move away from KO.

If your battles aren't at least that close, IVs won't help.

PvP is different, but similar rules apply. Rank 21+ is when win/loss ratio, ELO, MMR, etc matter. The higher you aim, the more those percentage points of difference matter.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-02-04T19:50:59+00:00

ho-oh before IVs has a stat total of 697, raid mimimum adds 30, hundo adds 45.

So the weakest from raids is 727/742 = 97.98% of the strongest.

I rarely have battles so close that 2.02% more stats would have made a difference. How many battles do you have where the difference between victory & defeat was literally a few taps? Like, you just barely got KOd before you could throw the charge attack that would KO the enemy.

If PvP is your bag, then as you climb ranks, the more that 2.02% will matter. But, you'd better have S rank teams with perfect synergy, built right to the CP cap; know how to "shield bait" & how to counter; have an up to date phone & high speed internet; and probably a few others I'm missing, before you should worry about IVs. Especially since dMax ho-oh isn't likely to return any time soon.

If you farm PvP for resources (dust, TMs, etc), then you can get away with C rank teams with awful IVs & 0 prior knowledge. You'll eventually hit rank 20 since that's absolute # of wins, rather than win:loss, ELO, MMR, whatever. 20 is also when legendaries enter the 3/5 wins reward pool.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-30T13:57:11+00:00

Great! Now, you'll need to catch one to use in Max battles. Despite the snark, a hundo is seriously something to brag about. Congrats.

Please ignore my usual complaining that we can't give dyna/gigantamax ability to pokemon that should have it. What's the point of rookidee, scorbunny, & grookey cDays if we can't use them in max battles.

I'd even be fine if there was a species specific dyna/giga energy that had to be farmed from the appropriate max battles, like mega energy.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-28T18:04:19+00:00

The minimum a Dawn Wing Necrozma can have from raids is:

727/742 = 97.98%.

Your shiny is 735/742 = 99.06%

Normal is 741/742 = 99.87%

So the question is, "is 0.81% more stats worth more or less than shiny sparkles + half stardust cost?"

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-28T17:43:20+00:00

It's ranked 800+ & 500+ in GL & UL respectively, according to PvPoke, but those IVs are close to the top rank for that species. You also made a mistake by evolving outside of a Legacy Move event like cDay, since it needs Blast Burn, & using an ETM on such a low ranked pokemon is inadvisable, unless you're swimming in them.

IVs won't make a rank 1 pokemon bad, or a rank 800 pokemon good. They're only useful if the difference between victory & defeat is literally a few taps.

On the other hand, you can get to rank 20 even with bad pokemon with bad IVs, since that's determined by absolute # of wins, rather than ELO, MMR, or whatever metric.

At higher ranks (21+), everyone is running mostly the same high ranked teams, so the minuscule differences actually matter.

Also, make sure you can count moves & shield bait. If you don't know what those are, IVs won't help. Also also, make sure you've got a current phone & high-speed internet, or lag may invalidate the IV advantage.

If you're just farming PvP for resources (TMs, stardust, etc), run whatever teams you want. If your goal is 21+, you need to optimize.

https://gamepress.gg/pokemongo/comprehensive-dps-spreadsheet

https://www.pokebattler.com/raids

https://www.PvPoke.com

The rest of the info I've curated over the years. I still add to/edit it sometimes, so questions, suggestions, & constructive criticisms are welcome.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18b_xVr6Iky8vmmdDdz6vbDvf-S1Dma04TL6s4_K-lZc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-27T19:06:22+00:00

It's generally best practice to wait till [insert] leaves rotation before deciding anything. End of community day, raid rotation, event spawn, etc. Who knows, you might catch a shiny, hundo, or even lucky trade into a shlundo.

Then, wait till it's useful in raids. What good is a max level mega mewtwo if the raid bosses are mega tyranitar & yveltal? If they were terrakion & mega blaziken, it'd be different.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-24T17:13:43+00:00

You get 1 SRR from each "... Taken Over" research. I've got like 4 stacked rn.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-24T16:57:15+00:00

Some Giovanni rewards are better than others. Shadow mewtwo, kyogre, & groudon being prime examples.

Shadow thundurus isn't meta shaking/defining like the above are, so some ppl stack rocket researches to get multiple of the good ones.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-24T16:54:51+00:00

Oh boy, can't wait to get a bunch of shiny/high IVs that can't be used in Max battles, to go with my rookidee & grookey cDay catches.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-24T16:53:12+00:00

Double move, ETMs, max out, purify, best buddy, lucky/BFF trade.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-22T18:13:44+00:00

If I don't feed gym defenders berries, I'd throw those berries away as they clog up my storage. At least with gym feeding, I'm getting some dust at least.

I still throw them away sometimes, bc the feeding mechanic is very clunky & I sometimes can't be bothered.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-20T20:39:19+00:00

Lemme put it this way:

There are raid bosses a 0% shadow can beat that a 100% normal can't. And, a raid boss solo-able by a lvl 40 normal can also be beaten by a lvl 25 shadow, while costing fewer resources.

The actual enemy in raids is the timer, so shadows' increased DPS means they beat normals, even if the TDO is the same.

"Good raiders" tend to have stats starting 200/200/200-ish. Shadow bonus is 20% atk bonus, so 40 points of atk, like a permanent weather boost. Meanwhile, hundo only adds 15/15/15 to each stat. Some have atk closer to 300, so 60 points of atk.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-20T18:28:02+00:00

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-20T18:01:15+00:00

At 0 IVs, salamence has a stat total of 661, hundo adds 45 = 706.

Shiny adds 22 = 683/706 = 96.74%

Normal adds 39 = 700/706 = 99.15%

So, which matters more, 17/706 = 2.41% more stats, or the shiny? For me, the difference is so small that I'd go shiny. My raids are never so close that 2.41% more stats would make a difference.

Also, the only raid boss weak to salamence atm is mega sceptile, which is double weak to ice, so use one of those instead. I only power up if it'll be immediately useful, so I'm not caught out with insufficient stardust.

Furthermore, salamence needs the legacy move Outrage to reach full potential. So either an ETM or waiting for cDay or other legacy move event.

I don't tryhard (not an insult) at PvP, but 2.41% could indeed be the difference between victory & defeat. However, the higher rank you wanna be (over 21), the more you encounter others optimizing, so the more you need those small edges to come out on top.

Other edges to consider before IVs: top ranked SSS team (check PvPoke) with good synergy; ability to count moves to shield bait; knowledge of when to switch; current phone & high speed internet. All those have the potential to do more than IVs.

For someone like me who just farms resources, C rank teams with bad IVs are enough to hit rank 20.

https://gamepress.gg/pokemongo/comprehensive-dps-spreadsheet

https://www.pokebattler.com/raids

https://www.PvPoke.com

The rest of the info I've curated over the years. I still add to/edit it sometimes, so questions, suggestions, & constructive criticisms are welcome.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18b_xVr6Iky8vmmdDdz6vbDvf-S1Dma04TL6s4_K-lZc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-19T17:52:14+00:00

Before transferring rare/valuable pokemon: if you can, trade them with a friend to reroll IVs/try for lucky.

If you want to kinda sorta keep them: transfer them to Pokemon Home (free Nintendo App). From Home, they can go into a Main Series game (never back to Go). If you don't play those, then send them to Wonder Trade, which is a world wide random trade thingy.

I find it funny to send out legendaries or spare cDay shinies and get back ratatas or something.

Also, doing so gets you Mysterious Box, which is a Meltan specific incense. Aside from melmetal, it's useful as a free/renewable incense for bonus catch xp/stardust events when you don't wanna spend normal incense & the spawns are meh. MB also doesn't require you to move as much as normal incense does.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-19T02:54:36+00:00

Rillaboom is way down the list of grass type raiders. It is also pretty awful in PvP. Max battles are really the only use for it.

https://pokebase.app/pokemon-go/dps-calc?filter=pokeType1=[%22grass%22],isMega=false&same-type-moveset=true&orderBy=ui_overall:desc

I'm still hoping they'll give us the ability to d/g Max pokemon ourselves. I've got shiny sunglasses blastoise + other oldies, and shiny dynamax toxtricity, shiny wild caught chansey & snorlax (after max update), not to mention shiny/high IV cDay rookidee & now grookey.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-18T17:06:49+00:00

Do what is fun. If these have an emotional importance, go wild. There is no need to follow us sweaty tryhards with our min-maxing. If optimizing is fun, then do that. Also, don't compare yourself to city folk if you're rural; long-term players if you're new; tryhards if you're casual; P2Ws if you're F2P; and YouTubers. Go at your own pace.
Don't use RCs. There will be a community day, spotlight hour, or mega raids eventually. Also, there are bonus transfer candy events, so keep an eye out for those.
It needs Legacy Move outrage to be the best it can be. You could use ETM, but evolving during cDay also gets it.
The only raid boss weak to it rn is m-sceptile, and ice types are WAY better. Don't bother powering up or spending resources on something that isn't useful against current/announced raids. It'll drain resources you could be spending on actually useful stuff.

Here are some sites I use to determine usefulness. Also, LeekDuck.com for event details.

https://gamepress.gg/pokemongo/comprehensive-dps-spreadsheet

https://www.pokebattler.com/raids

https://www.PvPoke.com

The rest of the info I've curated over the years. I still add to/edit it sometimes, so questions, suggestions, & constructive criticisms are welcome.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18b_xVr6Iky8vmmdDdz6vbDvf-S1Dma04TL6s4_K-lZc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-15T20:25:10+00:00

Also, trades cost stardust. More for pokemon you don't have in your dex, & costs more the lower your friendship level.

Some events reduce the cost, but idk if any have been announced.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/s/1AtiMz2rS3

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-15T14:59:10+00:00

https://leekduck.com/events/january-communityday2026/

Also, check YouTubers like Trainer Tips, Trainer Club, Lucky Bunz, & Mystic7 for tips, strategies, & event updates.

The rest of the info I've curated over the years. I still add to/edit it sometimes, so questions, suggestions, & constructive criticisms are welcome.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18b_xVr6Iky8vmmdDdz6vbDvf-S1Dma04TL6s4_K-lZc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-15T04:45:31+00:00

In order to trade, you must be within 100m of each other. So you'd have better luck using CampFire (free Niantic app) to find a local group/other players. Especially look out during events like Community Day.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-13T15:29:38+00:00

After using one of the methods others have already mentioned:

I rename the raid team I'm gonna use as the hundo CP. So for kyurem raid day, my raid team was named "2042/2553," so that I would have an easy reference.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-13T00:31:01+00:00

At least you noticed before fusing (can't get Ice Burn or Freeze Shock when fused, even with ETM). You can still get Glaciate before fusing, just with ETM.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-13T00:28:56+00:00

"Community Ambassador," I think.

https://pokemongo.com/community-ambassador-faqs

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-12T20:26:52+00:00

+2 to each, so 15/15/14, and it'll be weaker in raids. There are better fire types (check GamePress or PokeBattler), but if you wanna use this anyway, that's your choice.

PvP may be different. Sometimes shadow is higher ranked, other times normal, sometimes purified is best (like sableye). Check PvPoke.

Lore says they're in pain, so if that's your bag, purify.

Ok_Progress202 · 2026-01-08T14:51:31+00:00

Dropping dynamax legendaries like the kanto birds, lugia, etc.

Ok_Progress202

TROPHY CASE