Zacian (Hero)

The Hero of Many Battles Zacian is a Tier 5 legendary raid boss in Pokémon Go and returns to raids at the end of September. For the first time, its shiny form will be available!

Zacian, along with Zamazenta, is one of the two cover legendaries of the Pokémon Sword and Shield games. While its Crowned form, the more powerful version of Zacian, will be marking its presence in the game at a future date, we will be catching the Hero of Many Battles as a part of the Max Out season. 

Zacian can be caught with the following CP values:

• 2100 – 2188 CP at Level 20, no weather boost

• 2625 – 2735 CP at Level 25 with Cloudy weather boost

With a pure Fairy typing, Zacian is boosted by Cloudy weather and its counters include strong Steel and Poison type Pokémon such as Dusk Mane Necrozma and Metagross, and mega evolutions like Mega Gengar and Mega Beedrill. With such strong counters, Zacian can possibly be duo’d in ideal weather conditions and high-level counters. But to be safe, 4-5 high-level trainers can get the job done easily. 

Zacian Crowned form is a monster with a mouth-watering Fairy and Steel typing, possibly making it the ultimate bane in the existence of Dragon types? That remains to be seen but for now, let’s check out the raid guide of Zacian!

Zacian Raid Counters

The best counters for Zacian, based on the time required to win, are the following. Note that shadows and Mega evolutions are now included in the top counters.

#

Attacker

Fast Move

Charge Move

Faints

TTW

1.

Necrozma (Dusk Mane)

Metal Claw Steel

Sunsteel Strike Steel

15

395s

2.

Gengar (Mega)

Shadow Claw Ghost

Sludge Bomb Poison

25

533s

3.

Necrozma (Dawn Wings)

Metal Claw Steel

Moongeist Beam Ghost

22

560s

4.

Metagross (Shadow)

Bullet Punch Steel

Meteor Mash Steel

26

560s

5.

Excadrill (Shadow)

Metal Claw Steel

Iron Head Steel

31

543s

6.

Rayquaza (Mega)

Air Slash Flying

Dragon Ascent Flying

25

586s

7.

Dialga

Metal Claw Steel

Iron Head Steel

26

610s

8.

Dialga (Origin)

Metal Claw Steel

Iron Head Steel

25

620s

9.

Groudon (Primal)

Mud Shot Ground

Precipice Blades Ground

16

686s

10.

Gengar (Shadow)

Shadow Claw Ghost

Sludge Bomb Poison

41

581s

11.

Magnezone (Shadow)

Metal Sound Steel

Flash Cannon Steel

33

625s

12.

Excadrill

Metal Claw Steel

Iron Head Steel

32

646s

13.

Metagross

Bullet Punch Steel

Meteor Mash Steel

27

675s

14.

Genesect (Douse)

Metal Claw Steel

Gunk Shot Poison

32

659s

15.

Kyogre (Primal)

Waterfall Water

Origin Pulse Water

24

698s

16.

Melmetal

Thunder Shock Electric

Double Iron Bash Steel

26

696s

17.

Empoleon (Shadow)

Metal Claw Steel

Flash Cannon Steel

40

645s

18.

Jirachi

Charge Beam Electric

Doom Desire Steel

26

711s

19.

Aggron (Mega)

Iron Tail Steel

Heavy Slam Steel

25

730s

20.

Mewtwo (Shadow)

Psycho Cut Psychic

Psystrike Psychic

38

692s

21.

Genesect (Shock)

Metal Claw Steel

Magnet Bomb Steel

35

709s

22.

Genesect (Normal)

Metal Claw Steel

Magnet Bomb Steel

35

709s

23.

Genesect (Chill)

Metal Claw Steel

Magnet Bomb Steel

35

709s

24.

Genesect (Burn)

Metal Claw Steel

Magnet Bomb Steel

35

709s

25.

Gengar

Shadow Claw Ghost

Sludge Bomb Poison

42

692s

26.

Magnezone

Metal Sound Steel

Flash Cannon Steel

33

735s

27.

Groudon (Shadow)

Mud Shot Ground

Precipice Blades Ground

32

742s

28.

Beedrill (Mega)

Poison Jab Poison

Sludge Bomb Poison

43

707s

29.

Heatran (Shadow)

Fire Spin Fire

Iron Head Steel

32

751s

30.

Venusaur (Mega)

Vine Whip Grass

Sludge Bomb Poison

26

787s

• marks a Legacy Move

Zacian: Stats and Max CP

Zacian

Fairy

Max CP at Level 40 3829  Max CP at Level 50 4329

ATK 254

DEF 236

HP 192

Weak to

Strong Against

Poison Steel

 Dark Dragon Fighting

Zacian Moveset Analysis

Fast Moves

Charge Moves

• Metal Claw Steel

• Snarl Dark

• Fire Fang Fire

• Quick Attack Normal

• Iron Head Steel

• Play Rough Fairy

• Close Combat Fighting

• Wild Charge Electric

Fast Moves:

• Metal Claw and Quick Attack won’t be any issue whatsoever for your Steel counters. However, Fire Fang will do super-effective damage.

• Snarl generates energy very quickly and deals super-effective damage to Metagross.

Charged Moves:

• Play Rough gains STAB, is pretty damaging but is resisted by both Steel and Poison types.

• Iron Head is fairly slow, doesn’t have STAB and is resisted by Steel types. This is the ideal charge move to battle against.

• Close Combat is a powerful move that charges quickly, and despite lacking STAB, can KO your Steel types (except for Metagross) consistently.

• Wild Charge does a lot of neutral damage to almost all your counters and can hit frequently.

Sprites

As of 26th September 2024, Zacian can be shiny!

Regular Sprite

Shiny Sprite

Conclusion

Zacian has gained a decent set of moves and at various times has risen to be one of the top Fairy types in the Master League. It is worth noting that Zacian Crowned does not learn Iron Head and it would be replaced by the assumedly powerful Behemoth Blade. The future does look promising for Zacian Crowned and Zacian, for now, is still very good in PvP as a swiss-army knife. As such, it is definitely a worthy legendary Pokémon to raid.

Draw your swords and tame Zacian! All the best, trainers!

The post Zacian Raid Counters Guide (Hero of Many Battles form) appeared first on Pokémon GO Hub.