Pokémon Go: Artic Guide – the 15 best counters!

Update from June 30, 2022: Starting July 1, 2022 at 10:00 AM CEST through July 7, 2022, you’ll have a chance to earn a Shiny Arktos from Pokémon Go’s Tier 5 Raids! This also means that you can maximize your shiny chances on July 6th, 2022 at the legendary raid hour between 18:00 and 19:00! It is best to choose the following counters for your battle team, which we have updated for you in the guide so that you do not waste time with annoying defeats against Arktos!

Top 15 Counterattacks Against Arktos (July 2022)

• Crypto despot with catapult and stone edge
• Mega Aerodactyl with stone throwing and stone hail
• Rameidon with catapult and stone hail
• rhyperior with catapult and rock launcher
• terracotta with catapult and stone hail
• Crypto Amoroso with stone throwing and stone hail
• despotary with catapult and stone edge
• Crypto Stolloss with catapult and stone edge
• Crypto Aerodactyl with stone throwing and stone hail
• Crypto Metagross with bullet slash and star slash
• Brockoloss with catapult and stone hail
• amoroso with stone throwing and stone hail
• Lycanroc (Night Form) with stone throw and stone edge
• Mega Charizard Y with fire whirl and tan cannonade
• Alola Geowaz with stone throw and stone edge

---

Original report from September 16, 2020: After Arktos Day on July 7th, the legendary bird is making a comeback in Pokémon GO’s Raids. As part of the Ultra Bonus Event, the Ice Flying Pokémon will make an appearance as a Tier 5 boss from September 13 to September 20 at 10:00 p.m. CEST, alternating with its legendary fellow fowl, Zapdos and Lavados. With a little luck, all three birds can also be found in their Shiny variant and once again have their exclusive attacks Hurricane (Arktos), Thunder Shock (Zapdos) and Sky Sweep (Lavados) in their luggage, which you already got from the reward days of the three global challenges knows.

As a Tier 5 boss, Arktos is one of the more challenging raid opponents in Pokémon GO – especially since Niantic reduced the time window for Tier 5 raids from 300 to 180 seconds with the ultra bonus event. So you should fight with at least three trainers – but a group of four or five players is better. Arktos has 37,603 Boss CP and is of the Ice Flight type combination. It is therefore particularly sensitive to rock, fire, electric and steel, with rock attacks having a double effect.

In combat, Arktos relies exclusively on ice attacks. In the raid against the legendary Pokémon, you should therefore not use any Pokémon that are weak to ice-type attacks. Specifically, Arktos uses the following attack sets:

• Ice Breath (normal attack, ice-type) and Blizzard (charged attack, ice-type)
• Ice Breath (normal attack, ice-type) and Ice Beam (charged attack, ice-type)
• Ice Breath (normal attack, ice-type) and Ice Storm (charged attack, ice-type)

The most dangerous is the combination of ice breath and blizzard, while you can get off relatively lightly with ice breath and ice storm. If you want to maximize your chances in the raid against Articuno, it is best to rely on the following counter-type Pokémon:

• Tyranitar (rock/dark type) with Catapult (normal attack, rock type) and Stone Edge (charged attack, rock type)
• Amoroso (Rock/Water-type) with Rock Toss (normal attack, Rock-type) and Rock Storm (charged attack, Rock-type)
• Geowaz (Rock-type) with Stone Toss (normal attack, Rock-type) and Stone Edge (charged attack, Rock-type)
• Eintei (fire-type) with Fire Whirl (normal attack, fire-type) and Overheat (charged attack, fire-type)
• Lavados (Fire/Flying type) with Fire Flurry (normal attack, Fire type) and Overheat (Charged attack, Fire type)
• Flare (Fire-type) with Fire Flurry (normal attack, Fire-type) and Overheat (Charged attack, Fire-type)
• Blazeblaze (Fire/Fighting type) with Counter (Normal attack, Fighting type) and Heat Fever (Charged attack, Fire type)
• Raikou (Electric-type) with Thunder Shock (normal Electric-type attack) and Electric Shock (Charged Electric-type attack)
• Metagross (Steel/Psycho-type) with Bullet Smash (normal attack, Steel-type) and Flash Cannon (charged attack, Steel-type)

Alternatively, you can use the following, slightly weaker counter-pokémon:

• Lanturn (water/electro-type) with charging beam (normal attack, electro-type) and Thunderbolt (charged attack, electro-type)
• Charizard (fire-type) with Fire Flurry (normal attack, fire-type) and Overheat (charged attack, fire-type)
• Tornupto (fire-type) with Ember (normal attack, fire-type) and Overheat (charged attack, fire-type)
• Kabutops (rock/water-type) with Shatter (normal attack, rock-type) and Ancient Power (charged attack, rock-type)
• Aerodactyl (rock-type/flying) with Bite (normal attack, dark-type) and Ancient Power (charged attack, rock-type)
• Houndemon (Fire/Dark-type) with Fire Fang (normal attack, Fire-type) and Firestorm (charged attack, Fire-type)
• Steelix (Ground/Steel-type) with Iron Tail (normal attack, Steel-type) and Ram Boss (charged attack, Steel-type)
• Magcargo (Fire/Rock-type) with Stone Toss (normal attack, Rock-type) and Stone Edge (charged attack, Rock-type)
• Shamrock (rock-type) with Stone Toss (normal attack, rock-type) and Stone Edge (charged attack, rock-type)
• Blitza (Electro-type) with Thunderbolt (normal attack, Electro-type) and Thunderbolt (charged attack, Electro-type)
• Magneton (Electro-type) with Thunderbolt (normal attack, Electro-type) and Lightning Cannon (charged attack, Electro-type)
• Ampharos (Electro-type) with Charging Beam (normal Electro-type attack) and Lightning Cannon (Charged Electro-type attack)

Finally, note the following general tips for fighting Arktos:

• Rainy weather boosts Electric attacks. When it rains, use Electric-type Pokémon.
• In the sun, fire attacks are stronger. Then use fire-type Pokémon in particular.
• When it snows, Arktos’ attacks are stronger, but so are Metagross’s. Also, Arktos’ CP will be higher when you catch it. The same goes for windy weather.