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Welcome back, Trainers!
As a treat, Niantic has interrupted its regularly scheduled Shadow Moltres raids in order to give us the opportunity to catch something very special. Returning this weekend is Shadow Ho-oh! Like all Shadow Legendary Pokémon, Ho-oh will be a 5-star raid. Since it is a Rocket Raid, these raids are only available locally – you cannot use remote raid passes. In order to attend these raids, you must be there physically.
Ho-oh will be available startingSaturday,August 22, 2025, at 6:00 am local time until Sunday, July 03, 2025, at 10:00 pm local time.This timing coincides with the beginning of theTaken Treasuresevent that lasts untilFebruary 1st.
You can encounter Shadow Ho-oh at the followingCP Ranges:
Additionally, Ho-oh will have anIV floor of 6/6/6. This means that your chances of catching a decently strong Ho-oh are high this time around. Try to stock up onpremium raid passesin order to give yourself the most chances at getting a strong Ho-oh, because you never know when this bird will be back in raid rotations.
For the first time in Pokémon GO, Ho-oh will be released alongside its shiny version. This is particularly exciting, as Ho-oh is one of the better looking Legendary shinies out there. Here are some pictures of its regular and shiny forms respectively:
Just imagine these two covered in purple smoke effects with red eyes, and that’s what they will look like in the game.
Just like its standard counterpart, Shadow Ho-oh is aFire-andFlying-typePokémon. This gives it weakness toRock-, Electric-,andWater-type attacks. You should pick Pokémon that will be able to tank some damage from Ho-oh as well as dish out attacks of any of those types.
Keep in mind, despite itsFlyingtyping, you want to avoid bringing anyIce-typesto this raid. Shadow Ho-oh is aFire-typeas well, meaning that anyIce-typePokémon you bring will get absolutely annihilated by this bird.
Due to itsFire-andFlying-typing, Shadow Ho-oh is boosted by all the same weather conditions asShadow Moltreshas been. These are theSunnyandWindyweather types. If you find a Shadow Ho-oh during these weather conditions, verify you double-check that your Pokémon are strong and prepared for the fights ahead.
Because of the Shadow Raid enrage mechanics and its damage boost for being a Shadow Pokémon, Shadow Ho-oh will be an immensely difficult raid to complete. Not only will you want to prepare with a good counter, strong Pokémon, and movesets, but you will also want to make sure you have an abundance ofPurified Gemsfor these raids.Purified Gemswill help you keep Ho-oh’s enrage mechanic in check while your team whittles down its health. They are a must if you want to navigate these raids smoothly and, most importantly, win.
Since you will need to be physically present for these raids, you have an edge when it comes to planning. Try to get a team of 10 Trainers together to get through these raids, especially if your Pokémon GO friends are weaker Trainers at the moment. If you and your friends have strong Pokémon, ideally ones that are maxed out, you can do this raid with 4 Trainers minimum. Ideally, you will have more. More Trainers means faster raids.
Take advantage of the Party Play bonus for this raid event. It will be infinitely helpful while you tackle Shadow Ho-oh. The damage boost to your Charge Attacks really goes a long way, and since you will all be together in person, there is no reason not to do this.
Recommended Teams
Thankfully, Shadow Ho-oh’sTypinggives us a lot of Pokémon to work with as we design our teams. Since this is a Shadow raid and the damage is going to be really high coming in, we want to verify that our Pokémon are tanky while simultaneously taking advantage of STAB as much as we can. With this in mind, these are the Pokémon we recommend for your teams.
Most of the top-performing Pokémon to pick from are Rock-Type Pokémon, so you will see them overwhelmingly in these lists. This is especially true for the regular Pokémon you can bring along.
Unfortunately, a lot of the Legendary Pokemon that will perform well against Shadow Ho-oh have not been in rotation for a while. If you missed Terrakion and Zekrom from last month, however, there is still some light at the end of the tunnel for you.
Landorus is in the raid rotation during this event, so do your best to go out and get it if you don’t have any Legendaries for your squad! You can check out our guide to the Landorus raids over here:
Pokémon Go: Landorus Raid Guide
Landorus launches starting on January 24th, 2024, at 6:00 pm local time and will last until January 31 at 7:00 pm local time.
Mixing and matching any of these Pokémon will give you the best chances at success during the Shadow Ho-oh raids. There are other Pokémon that you may use on your teams, but they will not perform at the same caliber as a team made from the above Pokémon.
Do not be too worried about this. As tricky as these raids are on paper, all it takes is a little bit of preparation, and you will fly through these raids without much problem. Good luck out there this weekend, Trainers!
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