Pokemon Go Nihilego Raid Guide, counters and best moves

Nihilego is set to return to Pokemon Go Raids very soon and trainers will want to know the best counters to take it down.

The unique Rock and Poison-type Ultra Beast will be available in Five-Star Raids starting Wednesday, November 23 until Thursday, December 1. In that time, trainers will be able to find Nihilego in Five-Star Raids wherever they may appear.

Trainers will also have more chances to defeat and catch this powerful Pokemon during special Raid Hours. From 6-7 p.m. local time on November 23 and November 30, all Raids will house Nihilego, giving the most chances to find this jellyfish-looking Pokemon.

Any trainers looking for a battle plan before Nihilego begins appearing in Pokemon Go Raids will want to read our handy guide on all its counters and the best moveset to use against it.

Pokemon Go Nihilego Raid Counters

Nihilego is a Rock and Poison-type Pokemon, giving it a lot of weaknesses for trainers to exploit. The Ultra Beast is weak to Water, Psychic, Steel and Ground-type attacks. Nihielgo is four times weak to Ground moves so trainers will want to use Pokemon that can bring those attacks into battle.

Mega Steelix is the only, current Mega Pokemon that has the Ground typing. While it doesn’t have the best moveset, having both Ground and Steel-type moves gives it a leg up in battle as well as having the ability to exploit Nihielgo’s weaknesses to both types. Trainers looking to bring all Ground types should use Steelix along other powerhouses like Garchomp, Groudon and Rhyperior. Excadrill, Golem, Landorus and Mamoswine are also great choices.

While Mega Steelix can be used in Steel-type teams, Mega Aggron is probably better. Metagross and Excadrill are great Steel Pokemon to use on the team. 

Bringing in an all-Psychic team is probably the second-best option behind a Ground team, mostly because of the powerful Megas that use this typing. Mega Alakazam and Mega Latios/Latias are powerful attackers that can really take out Nihilego quickly. Other Pokemon like Mewtwo should be used alongside these powerful Megas. Trainers can also just use non-Mega Latios/Latias and they will still be effective.

Water-type teams are probably the least useful in this Raid, but can still be effective with Mega Gyarados and other powerful attackers like Swampert and Kyogre. 

Here are some options for Nihilego counters in Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go Nihilego Moveset

Being a Rock and Poison-type, most of Nihilego’s moves consist of those two categories. Ground and Steel types resist both Rock and Poison attacks so those two teams will excel in battles against Nihilego.

Pound, a Normal-type attack, is the only non-Poison/Rock move the Ultra Beast knows and Steel types resist it as well. That makes Pokemon like Steelix and Excadrill resist all of Nihilego’s attacks.

Psychic types don’t resist any of Nihilego’s moves, but if they have a secondary typing like Metagross’ Steel typing, they can last longer in battles against Nihilego. However, Psychic teams are really there to reduce Nihilego’s HP to zero as fast as possible so it should be ok.

Here are all of the moves Nihilego knows in Pokemon Go.