Dynamax Moltres counters, weakness, and battle tips in Pokémon Go

Dynamax Moltres is the third Legendary we’re seeing in Max Battles for Pokémon Go. It’s making its debut during Max Monday on Feb. 3 from 6-7 p.m. and will be available until Feb. 10 when the Max Battle rotation swaps.

While Dynamax Moltres isn’t as hard as the very tough Gigantamax battles we’ve seen in the past, it can be tricky as there’s not many Dynamax Pokémon to use to counter it.

Below, we list out some general Max Battle tips and counters for Dynamax Moltres in Pokémon Go.

Dynamax Moltres weakness

Moltres is fire- and flying-type, so it only has two weaknesses to exploit: rock-, water-, and electric-type moves. Just like with its siblings Articuno and Zapdos, the problem is that there aren’t any Dynamax Pokémon that have rock-type Dynamax moves (as of this writing).

There are actually quite a few water-type Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon, so you should have a pretty decent spread to use for this.

Dynamax Moltres best counters

With the above in mind, there are a few counters to bring to Moltres. We recommend the following to focus on offensive moves:

Gigantamax Kingler with Bubble
Gigantamax/Dynamax Blastoise with Water Gun
Gigantamax Toxtricity with Spark
Dynamax Inteleon with Water Gun
Dynamax Zapdos with Thunder Shock

Moltres doesn’t have complex movesets like its siblings, so you don’t have to worry too much about conflicting typing. The only concern here would be using Zapdos if Moltres has Ancient Power, which can hurt it quite a bit.

As for defense, you should bring the following with Max Guard and Max Spirit:

Gigantamax/Dynamax Blastoise with Water Gun
Metagross with Zen Headbutt
Excadrill with Metal Claw

These Pokémon are just meant to tank hits from Moltres, while they quickly charge up the max meter with their fast moves. Blastoise is preferred, but Excadrill and Metagross can both hold their weight.

Even if you don’t have these powered up, consider just bringing the strongest Dynamax Pokémon you have. If you have a maxed out Dynamax Gengar and your Dynamax Sobble isn’t evolved to Inteleon (and you don’t have the means to power it up), just bring your Gengar.

General Max Battle tips

If you’ve been struggling in Max Battles, here are some general tips to survive — and make sure you’re an asset to your team. While Gigantamax Battles are tough, a Legendary Max Battle shouldn’t be as tough as that. You can slack a little, but you should still heed our advice:

Make sure you have enough players. High-efficiency players with maxed out investments will likely be able to solo Moltres, but this isn’t going to be realistic for most people. Try to go at it with three other players for the highest chance of winning. Note that unlike Gigantamax Pokémon, the Dynamax Legendary Pokémon have a max party size of four (rather than 40).
Don’t sleep on Max Spirit and Max Guard. Teams work best when there’s a variety of moves, not just maxed-out attacks. Each player should bring Pokémon with the defensive and healing moves unlocked as well. Max Guard will focus single-target damage towards you and reduce the damage taken and Max Spirit will heal the whole party, so these moves are really important to make sure your damage-dealers can keep dishing.
Remember to swap to super effective moves when it’s time to Dynamax. For Dynamax Pokémon, their max moves are determined by whatever type their fast move is. This means if you have a Cryogonal with Frost Breath, it will know Max Hailstorm. A Gengar with Lick will know Max Phantasm. Take advantage of this and make sure to swap to a Pokémon that will deal super effective damage to your target before Dynamaxing, if you can.
Focus on your fast moves. You want to spam your fast moves to build up that Dynamax meter and often times, using your charge move is actually a DPS loss when compared to the damage you could be doing with your max move will be. Spam those attacks!
Level up a few ‘mons, but you don’t have to go too hard. Depending on your group size, you absolutely do not need to max out all your Dynamax Pokémon to level 40-50. While this will make it easier on the rest of your group, if this isn’t an investment you can make, you don’t have to stress about it. Power things up as high as you can afford to, but don’t fret if you don’t have a maxed out Pokémon.
That all being said, make sure to come as prepared as you can be. This is a team effort and there’s a chance that a full group of four can still fail. Do not just bring your unleveled Dynamax Wooloo expecting a free ride to a powerful Pokémon. (After all, if everyone does that, then you certainly won’t clear the battle.) Again, you don’t have to completely max out your Pokémon, but it will be better for everyone involved if you bring something helpful to the table.
Keep your eye out for a shiny Moltres! If you clear the raid, there is a chance that the Moltres you catch will be shiny — which also means it’ll be a guaranteed catch. Use a Pinap Berry to score extra candy if you get lucky enough to find a sparkly Moltres.