Attack Form Deoxys and a Desire for more Solo Raids

As of writing, we’ve got Deoxys in raids in Pokemon GO. But it’s not just any Deoxys, we got Attack Form Deoxys. What’s so special about that? Well, Attack Form Deoxys is one of the very, very few level 5 raids you can fight solo and actually win. The last time Deoxys’s forms were around, I didn’t have as good a team as I wanted, but also lacked the confidence. This time though, I had no such problems.

Defeating a Level 5 Raid is generally hard

For most Legendary raids, you will need at minimum one or two extra players. For much bulkier Pokemon like Lugia and Cresselia, you may need 5 or even 6 players, especially with raiding with randoms. If you’re looking for a guarantee that you’ll win a raid, you want as many players as possible. The game even rewards you for bringing friends into a Raid, giving you more Pokeballs.

Mega Pokemon are in fact even worse. They’re on the same level as Legendary Raids, but the rewards from them just aren’t as good.

However the pool of solo-able level 5 raids is incredibly small. Aside from Attack Form Deoxys, it’s possible to beat Moltres solo, but that requires the correct weather conditions and a pretty much maxed out team. Attack Form Deoxys has almost no defensive stats at all, so it dies really easily. And while Attack Form Deoxys does actually hit quite hard, that strength means nothing against Dark Types, which resist it.

There was also a level 5 Bidoof raid which I did manage to complete, but, well, it’s Bidoof. That raid battle was a meme more than anything else.

When it comes to Deoxys, I went all Dark

Why? Because I have plenty of Dark types to use. Not only do I have my 100% Houndoom, I also have a maxed out 100% Shadow Tyranitar, two 98% shiny Tyranitars and plenty of Darkrai and Yveltal to use. I decided to Mega Evolve my HUNDOom for the extra damage but I kinda doubt I needed it. I could have also used Mega Gengar and Giratina, but decided to stick to Dark types. While Mega Gengar is great, it’s even more of a glass cannon, and is actually weak to Psychic moves.

I did luck out a little though. Deoxys had Zen headbutt and Psychoboost. Both of those do so little damage to Dark types that Deoxys couldn’t do anything about it. It also reiterates how ineffective Gengar would have been. Honestly, it wasn’t even that hard. I finished the raid without having to revive and go back in, and I had plenty of time left on the clock.

Should have more high challenge raids for solo players

Really, we need more challenges like this. Sure, PvP and the Go Battle League are more technically challenging, especially with shifting metas, but I like having a simple PvE challenge to beat a raid boss. There are tasks similar like this for levels past 40, but most of them are repetitive and not actually fun.

In the mean time though, players make up their own challenges. My personal challenge is to defeat Team Rocket grunts and leaders with as few Pokemon as possible. Most other people just play PvP, I guess.

Unfortunately, my solo’d Deoxys fled.

Yep. The Deoxys I defeated, it failed to catch, escaping from all 13 Great or Excellent throws I made. All I could do was watch as the bastard Deoxys blasted back off into space. Because I had solo’d the raid, I got far, far fewer Pokeballs compared to a normal raid with normal people. Not only did I lose balls because of how long I took, but I was screwed over, amusingly, by the lack of friends in the raid. This meant I had far less tries to catch the bugger. But nope, Deoxys ran away, despite my best efforts.

On the plus side, at least I managed to record it. Heck, might even make it into a SPUF of Legend video. So at least I got something out of all this…