Pokémon Go Raid Guide: How To Fight And Catch Powerful Pokémon

The latest update to Pokémon Go has changed up the way gyms work while also adding a new feature called Raids. These raids allow groups of players to work together to defeat extremely powerful Pokémon, and gives those who are victorious the chance to catch the Pokémon.

First things first, you must be a high enough level in order to join in raids. This means if you aren’t at least at level 25, don’t bother with raids at all.

Once at level 25 or above, players will need a raid pass in order to access a raid. These are easy to get; all you have to do is spin a Pokéstop disc at a gym. You can get one free raid pass per day, with extra raid passes available in the in-game shop. Each extra raid pass costs 100 coins. If you want to raid twice in one day for free, get a raid pass and don’t use it. Wait until the day you want to use it and cash it in. This will allow you to go get a second free raid pass and use it the same day.

Active raids show a Pokémon sitting on top of a nearby gym. A raid will be starting soon when an egg is on the top of the gym. The timer above the gym indicates how much time is left until the raid has ended.

Now that you have met the level requirement and have a raid pass, it’s time to get started. There are four different levels of raids, each measured by a monster face. One monster face means that raid is relatively easy, while four faces means there is an incredible challenge waiting for you. In my personal experience, easy raids can be completed solo or with one friend while the hard ones will wreck even two experienced players. This means if you want to go for the hardest raids, you’ll need to bring along a posse.

Once you actually start a raid, you’ll enter into a lobby. This lobby will keep you waiting around for two minutes, giving other nearby players the time to join in and help take out the strong Pokémon. If you don’t want to fight with strangers, it’s possible to create a private room for only your friends to join. The creator of the private room is given a code to tell people so they can join in your session.

After the two minute timer runs out, the fight actually begins. Battling works exactly like if you were to fight at a gym, except there’s only one, very powerful Pokémon instead of a team of six. Keep battling away until the Pokémon either is taken down, time runs out or all of your Pokémon have fainted.

If you take down the Pokémon, you’ll be gifted with a number of Premier balls. The number of balls you get after each raid is determined by how much you contributed to helping win the raid. You can only use Premier balls to catch raid Pokémon. Also, the raid Pokémon will not be the mega-powerful 25,000+ CP monster you just battled; its strength will be greatly reduced. For example, an easy raid I participated in was against a 5,000-ish Quilava. After taking it down, the Quilava reduced itself down to around 700 CP, making it much easier to catch.

So what do you think? Are you excited to go find and battle the strongest Pokémon around? Do you have to earn a few more levels until you can participate in raids? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.