How to beat Tornadus in Pokémon Go

The upcoming new legendary coming to five-star raids in Pokémon Go is Tornadus. They’re a fearsome opponent, with the previous raid featuring Heatran. It’s all apart of the new February update for the mobile game, where you can also take part in the new A Professor’s Work is Never Done Special Research project. Taking on Tornadus will not prove to be an easy task, though.

These five-star raids become available starting on Feb. 4 at 1pm PST and end on Feb. 25 at 1pm PST.

Battling Tornadus

Tornadus is a Flying-type Pokémon, which should give you a distinct advantage. Because it only has one type, all you have to think about using Electric, Ice, and Rock-type attacks against it. You want to use any Pokémon of these types in the battle to withstand it, provided you can beat Tornadus utilizing a mixture of defensive Pokémon with aggressive attacks.

Some of the best Pokémon you can use against Tornadus include: Raikou, Golem (Alolan), Avalugg, Regice, Beartic, Gigalith, and Regirock. These are only a handful of examples, but they should give you an idea of what type of Pokémon you should have in your team.

You want to spread yourself out to find the best Pokémon available to you that are going to have the ability to do Electric and Rock-type attacks. You want to review your Rock-type Pokémon because some of them could have a secondary Ground-type, which Tornadus may be able to exploit.

You want to avoid filling out your team with any Ground, Bug, Fighting, and Grass-types, which Tornadus can heavily damage. You can expect Tornadus to use these attacks against you during the fight:

• Air Slash (quick, STAB)
• Bite (quick)
• Dark Pulse (charged)
• Grass Knot (charged)
• Hurricane (charged, STAB)

Tornadus only has two same type attack bonus (STAB) attacks, which increases the strength of these attacks by 25 percent. You shouldn’t have to worry too much about Bite, but Air Slash will prove the most troubling. A handful of sturdy Rock-type Pokémon are likely to help prevent Tornadus from dealing out too much damage, and you can use your Pokémon’s sturdy defense and Rock-type moves to deal severe damage against him. However, if it starts dishing out Grass Knot, they could take some serious damage and take a turn for the worse. Having a handful of Electric-types should help prevent too many losses and enable you to deal substantial damage against him.

How to capture Tornadus

To catch Tornadus, you can only use Premier balls. These are special Pokéballs you receive for your participation in the raid, and you receive them in multiple ways:

• The level of your Gym Badge at the Raid Gym
• Your team’s overall performance
• Your battle performance
• Does your team control the Raid Gym?

The more Premier balls you have access to during the raid, the more chances you have in attempting to capture Heatran before it runs away. Coordinate with your friends and think about how you want to maximize your results during the battle to receive the most Premier balls at the end. Unfortunately, some conditions are out of your control.