How To Beat Lugia In A Pokemon GO Raid Battle

Pokemon GO's newest biggest baddest Pokemon in the bunch is Lugia, and today we're running down the ways to beat it. Straight from the codes in the game we've got the mathematically perfect set of monsters that'll beat down Lugia with the right set of circumstances. Of course, as it is with all Legendary Pokemon, it'll really depend on having the right number of people to help out in the Raid Battle itself.

News of the first Legendary Pokemon in Pokemon GO was quickly squashed by the revelation that LUGIA would be amongst the first birds released. Each of the three legendary bird Pokemon from the three teams in the game are represented too: Zapados, Moltres, and Articuno. The Mystic Blue Pokemon Articuno was released first due to the team's heaviest-of-all involvement in capturing all prerequisites for challenges at the big Pokemon GO Fest this past weekend.

For more information on the Pokemon in Pokemon GO Fest, have a peek at our Pokemon GO Fest event postmortem from this morning. There's a lot to learn from an event as blockbuster as this!

Now it's time to talk about the monster that's got our minds in a bind – the Flying / Psychic type Pokemon Lugia. This is a Legendary Bird Pokemon closely associated with the original three legendary birds – set aside from Ho-Oh in all games and TV shows. Lugia is also the Trio Master of the original Legendary Bird Pokemon – Lugia is the big boss.

Base Stamina for Lugia is 212, Base Attack is 193, and Base Defense is 323 – these numbers all set within Pokemon GO. Buddy Distance for this Legendary Pokemon once caught is 5 km, and Lugia has no evolution of any sort. Fast Attacks include Dragon Tail and Extrasensory, while Special Attacks include Sky Attack, Hydro Pump, and Future Sight.

To defeat Lugia, users will want to have a combination of Pokemon that match what we've outlined in the recent past in our Top 5 best Pokemon for Legendary Raid Battles. A few KEY differences exist for this specific battle.

To beat Lugia, you're going to want to focus on Lighting, Rock, Ghost, Dark, and Ice Pokemon. The best of the best for this battle is Tyranitar, while Jolteon and Houndour are also top-notch attackers. Don't count out Gengar and Jynx for this battle, but remember that they're both Glass Cannons – which means they hit hard, but they die easily.

Once the Raid Battle is done, assuming your team won, you'll get the chance to capture Lugia. Depending on how much you damaged Lugia, how much your team damaged Lugia, and whether or not your team controls the Gym in which the Raid is taking place, you'll get a certain number of Raid Boss Pokeballs. Use these Pokeballs wisely, and remember to feed the bird berries first!

Also note that once you open the berries bin, you'll have to pull to the right and/or up to find the best berries of all. These orange-colored berries give you an even greater chance at capturing Lugia than the rest. Don't bother using the Pinap Berry – you won't be able to evolve Lugia anyway.

For more information on the latest batch of Pokemon, have a peek at our @TeamPokemonGO Twitter portal. We're rolling out the early info, data on events, and memes aplenty!