How to Read a Raid Counters List: DPS, TDO and Picking Your Six

Pokemon GO uses the main games' type chart with different numbers, and there are no immunities: a move that "has no effect" in the main series is simply resisted twice here. Four multipliers produce every counters list you will ever read.

Two more multipliers stack on top. Same-type attack bonus (STAB) adds 20% when the move's type matches one of the attacker's own types. Weather adds another 20% to moves of the boosted type in raids and gyms.

Put together: a Rock-type Pokemon using a Rock move against a boss that is doubly weak to Rock deals 2.56 × 1.2 = 3.07 times the base damage, against 1.6 × 1.2 = 1.92 for a plain super effective hit. That 60% gap is bigger than the difference between almost any two Pokemon of the same type, which is why the first thing to read on a boss page is the weakness row, not the names.

DPS — damage per second

The damage a Pokemon deals over one full attack cycle (enough fast moves to charge the charged move, then the charged move) divided by the time that cycle takes. It already includes STAB and type effectiveness. This is the column that decides whether the boss is beaten before the timer ends, and it is the one lists are sorted by.

TDO — total damage output

DPS multiplied by how long the Pokemon survives: everything it deals before it faints. TDO rewards bulk. Two attackers with the same DPS are not equal if one of them faints in half the time, because every faint costs you seconds — and a full party wipe costs you a trip back through the lobby.

eDPS — a blend of both

On this site eDPS is (DPS³ × TDO) to the power of one quarter: three parts damage to one part survival. It exists for the cases where sorting by DPS alone would put an attacker that faints almost immediately at the top.

Which one to trust

• In a full lobby, DPS. The boss will die either way; you are racing for damage bonuses and the clock.
• Short-manning, DPS first and TDO as the tie-breaker. When the group-size arithmetic says you are close to the limit, time lost rejoining is the thing that makes you fail.
• Never TDO alone. The Pokemon with the highest TDO are walls. A team of walls survives the whole raid and loses it on the timer.

This site has two kinds of attacker list, and they answer different questions.

Best attackers by type

The type rankings answer "which Pokemon is my best Ice attacker, in general?". Every fast and charged move combination is simulated at level 40 against a boss with ordinary defense that is weak to that type. The charged move has to be of the type being ranked; a fast move of another type is allowed but only deals neutral damage, so mixed movesets rank only when they still out-damage the pure ones. Use these pages to decide what to power up, because a good Ice attacker stays useful against every boss that is weak to Ice.

Counters for one boss

A page in the raid section answers "what do I bring against this boss today?". It uses the boss's real Defense stat and both of its types, so all four multipliers above come into play at once. Two consequences follow:

• A double weakness reorders everything. Against a Dragon/Flying boss, Ice attackers hit for 2.56× while Dragon, Rock and Fairy attackers hit for 1.6×. An average Ice attacker beats an excellent Dragon attacker there, even though the Dragon attacker sits far higher on its own type ranking.
• A second type can cancel a weakness. A Water/Ground boss is not weak to Electric at all — Ground resists it twice over — and its only weakness, Grass, is a double one. Bringing your best Electric team because "it is a Water type" is the classic mistake.

The rule: use the type ranking to build teams, and the boss page to choose between the teams you have built.

Every ranking is a simulation with simplifications. These are the ones that matter when you read ours, and most of them apply to any list you find elsewhere.

• The boss's moves. Our TDO assumes the same incoming damage for every attacker. That ranks bulk consistently, but it cannot see that a boss carrying an Ice charged move deletes your Dragon types in one hit. Check the boss's possible moves in its Pokedex entry; if one of them is super effective against your best counters, the second-best type may be the better team.
• Level. Everything is simulated at level 40. Your level-30 copy of the #1 counter deals less than your level-40 copy of the #8. When you compare rows, compare the Pokemon you own at the level you own them.
• Legacy moves. A ranking shows each Pokemon with its best moveset, and the best moveset is often a legacy move that a regular TM cannot give. The moves table on each Pokedex page flags those as Elite. Without the move the Pokemon can drop a long way — whether it is worth an Elite TM is a separate decision, covered in the Elite TM guide.
• Dodging and energy from damage taken. Neither is modelled. Dodging a charged attack saves a Pokemon but costs attack time; in practice it matters most when you are short-manning with fragile attackers.
• Weather and friendship. The lists assume neither. If your counters' type is boosted today, all of them move up together by 20%; the order among them does not change, but their order against a different, unboosted type does.

Shadow

A Shadow Pokemon deals 20% more damage and takes 20% more. In a DPS-sorted list that is a straight promotion, which is why Shadow forms crowd the top of almost every type. The cost shows in TDO, and in your Stardust: powering up a Shadow costs 20% more. Whether to keep a Shadow or purify it is its own question — see Shadow, purified or regular.

Mega and Primal

A Mega row is two things at once. It is a strong attacker in its own right, because Mega stats are far higher than the base form's. And while it is on the field it raises every other trainer's damage by 10%, or by 30% for moves that share a type with the Mega. In a lobby of five, that second effect is usually worth more than the Mega's own damage.

Two limits apply. Only one of your Pokemon can be Mega Evolved at a time, so a party holds one Mega row at most. And the boost only applies while the Mega is the Pokemon in battle, so lead with it and pick a Mega with enough bulk to stay out. Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon are the exception: their type boost applies as long as they are in your party.

1. Read the weakness row. If there is a double weakness, only that type matters. If there are several single weaknesses, any of them works and you pick by what you own.
2. Go down the list until you hit Pokemon you have. Ignore rows you do not own. The list is a ranking of species; your team is a ranking of your storage.
3. Check the moveset, not just the name. The row says which fast and charged move it was ranked with. A Pokemon with the wrong charged move can deal half the listed damage. A regular TM fixes ordinary moves; legacy moves need an Elite TM or the right event.
4. Discount for level. A level-40 Pokemon ten rows down usually beats a level-25 one at the top.
5. Add one Mega of the matching type and lead with it, if you have one.
6. Look at the boss's moves once. If a possible charged move is super effective against your whole team, swap two or three slots for the next type down so one attack cannot wipe the party.
7. Fill duplicates without guilt. Six of your best attacker beats a varied team of weaker ones.
8. Save it as a battle party named after the boss. The lobby countdown is 120 seconds; that is not the time to scroll through storage.

After a few bosses the pattern becomes obvious: the same dozen or so attackers, one or two per common weakness, cover most of the rotation. That is the list worth spending Stardust on, in the order set out in where to spend Stardust.