As most longtime players have known already, Lugia’s attack animation in catch challenge last longer than the attack cooldown it has. Such that Lugia can be hit with a pokeball even when it is still in the middle of its attack animation, and at the same time it can start next attack before it return to the centre of the screen. This does not matters much in normal circumstance while it still has a good chance to stays at centre for a while so you can hit it as excellent throw with good timing and circle locking. However, Shadow Lugia attacks extremely frequently, same as all other Shadow Pokemon, such that it almost never gives players a chance to hit it while it is at the centre of the screen. This means it is extremely hard to hit excellent or even great throw on Shadow Lugia, unless one would use a Nanab berry.
Lugia is one of the most infamous raid boss in this game for its sheer difficulty. Multiple raid challenges have been planned for Lugia back in March 2023 in this channel. Even when Shadow Boost hurts its defense, it is still an extremely defensive raid boss. With enrage mechanics, it is almost impossible to defeat Shadow Lugia as a Duo Raid without Purified Gems usage, even with the new Party Power feature.
Lugia as a Psychic/Flying type Pokemon is weak against Rock/Electric/Dark/Ghost/Ice type moves. As a Shadow Raid Boss, its shadow boost means it is less defensive than its normal form as a raid boss. Although it takes time to subdue Shadow Lugia with Purified Gems, it is still easier than its normal form as long as the team would use Purified Gems to subdue Shadow Lugia as soon as possible.
While there is not much change for Ice/Electric type, Dark/Rock/Ghost types got significant buffs since Lugia’s return in March.
For Dark-type, with Tyranitar able to learn Brutal Swing, both Shadow Tyranitar and Mega Tyranitar are now one of the top counters against Lugia.
Where Shadow Gengar, Shadow Chandelure, Shadow Rhyperior and Shadow Rampardos are also extremely effective against Shadow Lugia with their debut in the new Team GO Rocket rotation.
While Lugia is not weak against Mega Rayquaza, it is also one of the top counters against Lugia while also providing extra candy on catch, although it might not matter as much stated at the beginning.
Since the Shadow Rock/Ghost types Pokemon has just been released, it’s difficult to assemble a team of those. Mega Tyranitar is used against Shadow Lugia this time with Purified Gems. As shown in Cresselia Duo Raid, Mega Tyranitar has extremely high survivability against Psychic-type moves thanks for its high base stats and resistance against Psychic-type. Mega Tyranitar can defeat Shadow Lugia with only a single rejoin if Shadow Lugia is using its Psychic-type moveset – Extrasensory/Future Sight.
Similar to all previous raids against a Shadow Raid boss, enrage mode provides more room of optimisation through strategy planning. Back in Shadow Moltres Raid, it has been shown the importance to time a charged move before Shadow Moltres enrage so it starts enraging at lower HP, which result in shorter enrage duration where it gained significant defense buff.
For this raid, since Purified Gem is used, it was not necessary to time a charged move before Shadow Lugia enrages. Instead, it is important to plan the action under enrage mode where Mega Tyranitar is waiting for Purified Gems to subdue Shadow Lugia. Under Enrage mode, Mega Tyranitar has much lower DPS and taking much more damage from Shadow Lugia’s attack. So it is more beneficial to focus on defensive action while also keep on stocking up energy such that they can use charged moves instantly after Shadow Lugia subdue, which could deal significant damage to it. Overall, Mega Tyranitar tried to dodge as much moves as possible while trying to delay Brutal Swing usage until it is close to fully charged up its energy circle on enrage mode.
Mega Tyranitar successfully defeated Shadow Lugia as a Duo Raid with Purified Gem usage, even without friendship bonus or weather boost damage bonus. Apart from the period where Shadow Lugia enraging, Mega Tyranitar can handle Shadow Lugia’s attack comfortably when it dodges the charged moves.
Pokemon used:
CP 6118 Mega Tyranitar- Lv501 15/15/15 Bite/Brutal Swing
CP 6118 Mega Tyranitar- Lv501 15/15/15 Bite/Brutal Swing
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