Dhelmise makes its debut in Pokémon Go as part of February 2025’s “Beloved Buddies” event.
Despite resembling an anchor and living underwater, this haunted Alolan Pokémon is in fact a ghost- and grass-type — and according to its Pokédex entry, a predator of the mighty whale Pokémon Wailord. Oh buoy!
As with most new Pokémon added to Pokémon Go in the past year, Dhelmise cannot be found in the wild — but thankfully, there’s a clear and direct route on how to get one on its debut.
How to get Dhelmise in Pokémon Go
Making its first appearance in 2025’s “Beloved Buddies” event, Dhelmise can only be found in raids on its debut.
In terms of raid difficulty, Dhelmise is in the three-star category — so for solo players, unless you have strong counters (and ideally a Mega Evolved or Shadow Pokémon in the mix), you’ll want to bring a friend or two to help you take it down.
Dhelmise weakness and counters in Pokémon Go
As a ghost- and grass-type, Dhelmise is weak to fire-, ice-, flying-, ghost-, and dark-type moves. That’s quite a range, giving us plenty of options — but if you wanted specific Pokémon in mind, we recommend:
- For fire-type options, consider (Mega) Charizard or Blaziken, or Ho-Oh
- For ice-type options, consider (Mega) Abomasnow, Mamoswine, or Mewtwo with Ice Beam
- For flying-type options, consider (Mega) Rayquaza with Dragon Ascent, or (Mega) Pidgeot
- For ghost-type options, consider Dawn Wings Necrozma, (Mega) Gengar, or Mewtwo with Shadow Ball
- For dark-type options, consider (Mega) Tyranitar, or (Mega) Houndoom
As noted, Mega versions of the relevant Pokémon listed above are recommended, but know you cannot bring more than one Mega Pokémon into battle. Similarly, if you have a Shadow version of any of the above, that can help give you the edge.
Can Dhelmise be shiny in Pokémon Go?
On its debut, Dhemise cannot be shiny in Pokémon Go. The rollout for shinies in Pokémon Go varies — sometimes a Pokémon can be shiny on its debut, sometimes they can take years — so know you might be waiting a while.
Until then, you can see what shiny Dhelmise looks like thanks to this video by Majin Munchlax on YouTube from Pokémon Sword and Shield:
Next, see if you should choose the Candela or Arlo path!
The post How to get Dhelmise in Pokémon Go, Dhelmise counters and weakness explained appeared first on Polygon.
