Zacian - Hero of Many Battles Raid Guide

CP Range

Move Difficulty

Among Zacian's fast moves, Quick Attack and Metal Claw are the easiest to face. Since Steel is the top counter-type here, these are both likely to be resisted by just about every optimal counter into Zacian. The same goes for Iron Head, which is easily Zacian's least threatening Charged Move.

Snarl has great neutral coverage against Zacian's counters, making it a bit challenging to face down. Fortunately it's not extremely strong and lacks STAB, so it's not terribly threatening overall. Play Rough is resisted by all of Zacian's counters, but it's got enough raw power post-STAB to pose a bit of a threat, sitting just a bit below Wild Charge when resisted. Close Combat, meanwhile, takes a fairly large amount of energy to reach, meaning Zacian won't be using it extremely often. However, it's also pretty hard-hitting and Super Effective against many Steel Types. Still, at times it could be argued that Close Combat belongs in the easy category, though it poses just enough of a threat to be worth watching out for.

Arguably the most threatening move that Zacian has is Fire Fang. It hits hard and deals Super Effective damage to most Steel Types, meaning it can potentially cut a lot of time out from many of the top counters.

Approach

As a pure Fairy type (it only gains Steel in its Crowned Sword forme), Zacian's only weaknesses are Steel and Poison

• Steel is the clear winner here. With a great set of resistances and high power behind many of them, Steel Types are the go-to for beating down the sword-dog.
• Poison is... not great. Even in Cloudy weather, Steel Types will tend to out-pace them with ease.

Dodging Strategy

Since the most recent update to the Raid system, dodging has become something of an enigma, so it isn't necessarily a good idea to attempt it at the moment. Still, some players seem to have no issue with the new dodging system, so it's definitely a good idea to dodge some of Zacian's more dangerous Charged Moves if you're comfortable with it.

Note on Counters

As of right now, we still don't fully have resources to precisely work out how various Pokemon will actually perform after the raid system update. To this end, please note that while we are generally confident in the viability of this list, the exact placement of the Pokemon contained is definitely up for debate.

Best Raid Counters

Supreme Mega Evolution Counters

Good Mega Evolution Counters

Supreme Counters

Good Counters