EX raid Questions

Grats on the pass! Let me pass you some of my experiences:

- I've done 3 in the past. For the most part we used big groups, and for one of them we split and did it with 8 people.

- Mewtwo has been soloed with as few as 3 people, and can be done with 5-6 level 30's, depending on the moveset. Confusion makes Mewtwo harder. Focus Blast makes Mewtwo much harder.

- Before beginning, consider going in with a Pokemon to see what its moves are. After all, it's not like it wastes anything to dip your foot in the water. Let you team know what the moveset is to further optimize your counters. Counters will vary greatly depending on what moveset it knows. For example, you shouldn't be using Gengars if it doesn't know Psycho Cut, and you probably shouldn't be using Lugia if it doesn't know Focus Blast.

- The gym was under attack for nearly two hours before the raid started each time. The area isn't usually super busy, and the gym has an Instinct stranglehold on it (and I'm Mystic), so I only usually would get 6-7 balls. The last raid I managed to split the group into a Mystic and Valor group and got something like 10.

- WARNING: Mewtwo has a good catch rate (i think it's 6% base and 30% with bonuses, not sure and not checking right now), but don't underestimate it. A lot of people around me caught it first ball. Most people caught it at some point. All of my Mewtwos, however, have either been last or second to last ball, and this is with great throwing. It all depends on luck. I failed to catch my girlfriend's Mewtwo and my friend's as well. Don't let that freak you out, since they only ever missed one and chances are you'll catch it, but every ball might count.

- Lastly, try to coordinate with your team. Show up early to prepare. Charge up and bring external batteries if you have them. Lastly, wait for 15-25 minutes before attempting the boss, as people are ALWAYS late to the Ex-Raid. If you're unsure of your group size, you might need every player you can get.

Let me know if you have any more questions, and good luck~

Good luck.
I will watch this thread and pick up any hints too...at least I know there is already enough confirmed going to mine that we will get the kill, even on Xmas day.

Can I hijack your thread with a side note?

My one concern is the young lad who is going in our group...I would hate for his permanent long term memory of PoGo and/or Xmas to be the time that he failed to catch Mewtwo.

Just think, somewhere on Xmas day, will be a little kid going to his first EX raid, his family get dragged along because all he wants for Xmas is his Mewtwo, so they go...and he fails the catch.
RNG picks him to have a terrible day.
So many will get their Xmas Mewtwo, and that is going to be awesome...but spare a thought for what will happen to some poor kid somewhere.

My Xmas wish is that all the little kids that think Mewtwo will be their Xmas present...actually CATCH their Xmas present.

Congrats on your invite!

Just a few advice:

- get to the gym early. It will be easier to manage groups and defend the gym if your team controls it. I personally fed the gym for 45mn with 3 other Mystic players to keep it.

- Mewtwo is not hard to hit/catch but sometimes RNG are not on your side. Got mine after 5 consecutive excellent/curve/gold razz while it ran away from a girl who did 8 excellents out of 9 balls.

- relax, breathe and take your time when you’re about to catch him. Keep in mind that Mewtwo has almost a 50% catch rate with an excellent/curve/gold razz.

I wish you all the best and hope you’ll catch a good one ;-)

Totally forgot quality-of-life stuff:

- Trim your fingernails before you go (I'm serious lol) it will improve your curveballs

- Don't use anything but Golden Razz Berries. Don't be the hero that pinaps Mewtwo, or the conspiracy theorist that believes a certain # of Nanab berries will get the job done any better.

- Stock up on Golden Razz Berries before the raid. You'll need 14 maxmimum for catching Mewtwo, as well as any others to feed the gym for the ball bonus.

Well, look at you, finally getting a shot at Mewtwo! Congrats on the invite! :)

I've yet to receive an EX Raid Pass, so I'm not too sure how many are needed to take down Mewtwo. If it makes you feel any less stressful, Mewtwo is the easiest legendary to catch, with a 6% base catch rate. Still pretty low, but it certainly beats a 2% catch rate, right? ;)

You'll be fine. Make sure you stick with what you know will give you the best chance of catching it. GR berries and excellent curveball throws on every ball if you can (or great throws if you can't get the excellents consistently), and be very patient with Mewtwo. I heard its attack animation has very tricky timing, so try to gauge how long it takes for the attack animation to end before you throw your ball. Who knows, maybe you'll even get a critical catch! Just wanted to send you my support. Best of luck!

EDIT: Almost forgot, if you can, try taking over and holding down that gym before Mewtwo appears so you can get those extra 1-2 balls from gym control. More balls is always better!

We did Mewtwo with 9, it was very easy and 8 out of those 9 caught it. We allowed the gym to be turned blue, as there was only one mystic, with 4 valor and 4 instinct players.
We were the only 9 players that came to the raid for the whole time it was on.
I have another EX raid pass at the same gym and as far as I know, only 7 people got it this time!

His attack animation is pretty fast, but the circle return only a good second or two after the animation ends. This lead to a tendency to throw too early and hit before the circle return. My advice is to learn his timing before the first throw by letting him attack while holding on the ball.
Good luck.

We 4-manned one today because nobody else showed up. My first EX. Our levels were 40, 38, 37 and 32. Its moves were confusion/shadow ball, and we had plenty of time left after defeating it. For a bonus, each of us caught a Mewtwo. As stated above, the timing of the attack animation and the range is a little tricky, but you can figure it out after a premier ball or two.

I accompanied my sister to her Ex-raid yesterday. We live in a small town and thus people aren't that hardcore in defending gyms before raids.

Still, I was surprised to see that the gym had just one mon in there 20 minutes before the raid. I powered up my Blissey a little and put her in ready to throw golden razzies at the gym but no one even tried to take it down! Anyway, some points about the raid:

- They had coordinated the raid in a Whatsapp group and decided to meet right at the start. There was some hassle with one person's phone so they had to restart the raid. They entered with ~35 minutes remaining.

- There were 10 people in total and they beat the raid comfortably with way over a minute left. My sister is level 27 and she noticed at least two people who were lower level than her in the lobby. Some players were low- and some high-thirties.

- Only three of my sister's Pokémon fainted. She had lv25 and 20 Tyras to tank Confusion but her next best attacker (lv27 Entei) took a LOT of damage from that. You can tell that her team is far from optimal and that tells something about the raid's difficulty (=not that hard apparently). Mewtwo's charge move was Shadow Ball and posed no real threat.

- Catching: Mewtwo is pretty far away but not as far as Muk or Lapras, for example. After a golden Razz the colored circle wasn't red anymore but dark orange instead. My sister got 12 balls. Mewtwo broke free from the first two great throws and got caught in the third with no hit bonus; she could've hit greats consistently but that one throw failed... at least we thought so until it twitched the third time, lol.

TLDR: Mewtwo doesn't seem to be that hard to beat or to catch. Congratulations for the pass and best of luck! :)

Edit: you can go take a look at a Youtube video of a Mewtwo raid and you get a good idea of the distance during catch phase.