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How to beat Mega Houndoom in Pokémon Go – Weaknesses, counters, strategies

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Pokémon Go trainers have their work cut out for them if they want to unlock access to Mega Houndoom. All players need to work together to complete the Mega Battle Challenge, which tasks everyone in the game to help bring the total number of battles to 275 million before the end. If they do, Mega Houndoom becomes available in Mega Raids. It will be a formidable foe to take down, and those who do earn Mega Houndoom Energy to power their Mega Evolution. What are some of the best ways to take it down?

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Mega Houndoom Weaknesses

Mega Houndoom is a Dark and Fire-type Pokémon. It’s weak to Fighting, Rock, Ground, and Water-type Pokémon, giving you a pretty decent variety of choices to pick from for the raid. You and your friends can use a variety of rosters to take it down. You want to avoid using Dark, Fire, Ghost, Grass, Ice, and Steel-type attacks, as it is resistant to these moves, especially Psychic-type ones.

Pokémon to counter Mega Houndoom

The three best choices to take on Mega Houndoom are Swampert, Rhyperior, and Kyogre.

Swampert is a Ground and Water-type Pokémon, making it an excellent choice to take down Mega Houndoom. It won’t be able to adequately resistant any of Mega Houndoom’s Dark-type attacks, but it can optimize against it Fire-type weakness and won’t take too much damage for those attacks. It has a maximum CP of 2,974, an attack of 208, a defense of 175, and stamina of 225. The best moves it can learn are water gun and hydro cannon. Unfortunately, hydro cannon is a legacy move, so you may want to stick with it knowing surf.

The next Pokémon you want to have in your roster is Rhyperior, the Ground and Rock-type Pokémon. Much like Swampert, it doesn’t have any proper resistances to Houndoom’s Dark-type attacks. It has a maximum CP of 3,733, an attack of 241, a defense of 190, and stamina of 251. The best moves you can teach it to include smack down and rock wrecker. Rock wrecker is a legacy move, so you’re better off using earthquake for its charge move.

The final optimal Pokémon choice against Houndoom is Kyogre, the legendary Water-type. It’s a fearsome Pokémon, but difficult to capture, so if you have one, you definitely want to make sure it’s prepared to be available for the raid. It has a maximum CP of 4,115, an attack of 270, a defense of 228, and stamina of 205. The best moves you can have it know include waterfall and hydro pump.

You want to fill up your roster with other reliable Pokémon to create an outstanding team to down Mega Houndoom. Make sure to use Conkeldurr, Terrakion, Machamp, Tyranitar, Garchomp, Hariyama, Groudon, Kingler, Lucario, Empoleon, Gyarados, or Gigalith. After you defeat Houndoom, you have a chance to capture a standard one with the possibility of it being shiny.


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Image of Zack Palm
Zack Palm
Zack Palm is the Senior Writer of Gamepur and has spent over five years covering video games, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Oregon State University. He spends his free time biking, running tabletop campaigns, and listening to heavy metal. His primary game beats are Pokémon Go, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and any newly released title, and he finds it difficult to pull away from any Star Wars game.