Raids in Pokémon GO are a big deal, and Trainers only have one month to engage with the selected Legendary Pokémon that Niantic unleashed on the masses. From January 7 to February 4, all trainers have the opportunity to meet Heatran, a Legendary Fire and Steel-type Pokémon. Taking him down will be tough, but with detailed planning and crafting from the ideal team, you'll be able to take down Heatran and add him to your growing Pokémon collection.
Heatran has a chance to be brilliant this time around.
Heatran's weaknesses and resistances
Heatran is a Fire and Steel-type Pokémon, so it only has a handful of weaknesses and even more resistances. However, you need to know what it is to understand what you need for an ideal listing. Heatran is weak for these types of Pokémon:
Heatran is resistant to Pokémon that use this type of movement:
- Thumbtack
- Dragon
- Fairy
- Flying
- Herbe
- Ice
- Ordinary
- Psychic
- Poison
- Steel
Ideally, you'll want to bring in either a Water or Fire-type Pokémon, so that Heatran's movements have little or no effect on your Pokémon. If you bring a fire type, they could use fire moves to damage Heatran as it is a steel type, although it is also a fire type.
Heatran counters
Ideal choices for taking on Heatran in a fight lean towards powerful Ground-type Pokémon. You want to trust the use of Pokémon, such as Groudon, Rhinastoc, Carchacrok, Minotaupe or Laggron. Laggron would be an ideal choice to use against Heatran as it is a soil and water type, meaning Laggron could have a mud hit for his fast movement and then have Hydro Cannon or Surf for his charge attack.
However, Heatran now takes a lot of additional damage from Ground-type Pokémon. Trainers will want to act on this strike and focus on the ground moves and take their time when battling the Legendary Lava Dome Pokémon.
Mammochon is another great land-type attacker. However, since it is also an Ice type, it is best to keep it in your collection. Heatran has too many Fire-type moves to potentially wipe the ground with Mammochon, and only one Steel type that could do a lot of damage as well. It's best to rely on the alternate land-type Pokémon you picked up from your Pokémon GO Travel expansion.
Heatran Moves
When you face off against Heatran, the Pokémon will have several moves ready to be used against you. These attacks could influence your choice of Pokémon to put into battle. Heatran movement sets include:
- Fire Spin (fast attack)
- Shot (Charge)
- Flamethrower (Charge)
- Iron head (load)
- Bug Bite (fast)
- Stone edge (load)
Few of the ground types are weak to these Fire, Steel, Rock, or Bug attacks, but they also can't resist them well. Trainers will need to have durable and hardy Ground-type Pokémon in their arsenal to take down Heatran. When choosing a team to face it, consider your Pokémon's defenses and the types of movement they have.
How to fight Heatran
You can fight Heatran in raids that spawn across Pokémon GO. He does appear in five-star raids, so stay tuned for those five-star locations to see if Heatran makes it here. If you try to go and find Heatran but fail, you might want to coordinate with friends to team up to take down this legendary creature.
You need a pass to access a Battle of Heatran. Each trainer receives a Raid Pass once per day by spinning a Poké Stop and receiving one. If you want to do another raid on this day, you need to purchase a Premium Raid Pass from the shop for 100 Pokécoins.
To catch Heatran, you will have to rely on the use of Premier Bullets. These are special Pokéballs that you receive for participating in the raid. You receive them in several ways:
- The level of your Gym badge at the Raid Gym
- Overall performance of your team
- Your combat performance
- Does your team control the Raid Gym?
The best you and your teammates do in the gym, and if you fight against the one your team has gives you extra Premier balls. The more access you have to Premier Bullets during the raid, the more likely you will be to attempt to capture Heatran before he runs away.
