How To Find And Defeat Legendary Moltres In Pokemon Go

As of yesterday, Articuno is no longer available in Pokemon Go. Instead, the fiery Moltres has started spawning in gym raids across the globe. Given that Moltres will only be around until August 14th, here are some tips for tracking it down and capturing it.

For some, finding a Moltres will be as easy as checking the “raid” tab on the Nearby menu of Pokemon Go. But since the spawns are random, there’s a chance you won’t see Moltres at all in the specific timeframe you look. In that case, scanning website Gymhuntr is a great tool — just input a zipcode or location, and it will give you a wider-reaching overview of what’s around you (or the area you want to scope out). Helpfully, the website will also tell you how long the raid is and what CP to expect:

It will not, however, help you find buddies to take monsters down, so plan accordingly. Don’t make the mistake of travelling somewhere just to find you’re the only schmuck trying to take down a powerful beast; you need at least a few people to properly take Moltres down. I live in Brooklyn, which is densely populated, and I still had trouble randomly finding enough folks for raids, so your mileage might vary. If you don’t have friends playing the game, most major cities have Facebook groups full of eager fans also wanting to take down legendaries, so reach out.

As we’ve detailed before, one of the top counter-picks for Moltres is Golem, because it is a rock/ground type that resists the fire bird’s flying and fire-type attacks. Golem’s ideal moveset — Rock Throw, Stone Edge, or Rock Blast — is also super effective against Moltres. And of course, like before, Tyranitar, with its Rock/Dark-type, can also be mighty helpful here, so long as you’re packing Stone Edge as well.

Beyond that, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that good picks are water types like Omastar (Rock Throw, Rock Slide), Vaporeon (Water Gun, Hydro Pump) and Gyarados (Dragon Tail, Hydro Pump) — all of which are resistant to Moltres’ fire attacks. If you have any of these, you might want to break out the Stardust for some power-ups, if not tweak some movesets with TMs.

Moltres starts out at a 3% Capture Rate, which can increase if you use berries. Players are reporting that the creature appears a little farther back on the screen, so getting those fancy throws might prove tricky.

Some folks are also being hit with a bug that makes them lose Premiere Balls, if not the general connectivity issues that also made Articuno a bit of a headache to obtain. If things go well, however, you might find yourself in a similar situation as YouTuber cmellor21, who happened to grab Moltres in a single throw below:

Good luck!