Alolan Raichu Weaknesses and Raid Counters in Pokemon GO

I sincerely hope that whatever employee of the Pokemon Company came up with the idea of giving an island-dwelling Raichu bright blue eyes and psychic powers got a raise, because gosh darn it, they deserve one. It was such a fantastic move to reinvigorate a Pokemon that’s had an image problem since the very beginning, and it’s worked like crazy. You know how I know it’s worked? Regular Raichu barely gets Raid appearances, while Alolan Raichu gets them all the time. Like now, for example! Here are Alolan Raichu’s weaknesses and Raid counters in Pokemon GO.

Alolan Raichu Resistances and Weaknesses

Unlike regular Raichu, which is a pure Electric type, Alolan Raichu is an Electric/Psychic type. That means it has some different resistances, as well as different weaknesses, which are as follows:

• Resistant to: Fighting, Flying, Steel, Electric, Psychic
• Weak against: Ground, Bug, Ghost, Dark

Alolan Raichu Moveset

These are the moves that Alolan Raichu has in its kit:

Quick Moves

• Spark (Electric)
• Volt Switch (Electric)
• Thunder Shock (Electric)

Main Moves

• Thunder Punch (Electric)
• Wild Charge (Electric)
• Psychic (Psychic)
• Grass Knot (Grass)

Alolan Raichu Counters

Normally, a regular Raichu, being a pure Electric type, would only be weak against Ground type moves. In fact, the regular Raichu’s kit actually has some moves built to counter Ground types. Alolan Raichu, on the other hand, inherits all of the weaknesses from its secondary Psychic typing, which opens up some new and interesting possibilities for counters. It helps that Alolan Raichu’s stats aren’t anything special, with its base defense actually being a bit below average, so you don’t need to be especially picky here.

List of Alolan Raichu Counters

• Gengar – Shadow Claw/Shadow Ball
• Chandelure – Hex/Shadow Ball
• Excadrill – Mud-Slap/Earthquake
• Darkrai – Snarl/Shadow Ball
• Therian Landorus – Mud Shot/Earthquake

Rather than going for Ground types, the best counter for Alolan Raichu is Ghost types. Ghost type Pokemon generally have higher DPS, and are resistant to Psychic type moves. If you’re going the Ghost route, your best picks would be Chandelure or Gengar. Their respective base attack stats absolutely dwarf Alolan Raichu’s, so while Gengar is weak to Psychic moves due to its partial Poison typing, it can easily win a DPS race.

If you’d like to play it a little safer, you can still stick with Ground type Pokemon. The best choice on that front would be Excadrill, as it has high damage potential with a lot of Ground moves, not to mention resistance to both Psychic and Electric moves. Its base attack isn’t quite as high as Chandelure or Gengar’s, but you won’t have to worry about outlasting Alolan Raichu.

If you’re feeling saucy and want to use a Legendary, your ideal choices would be Darkrai or Therian Landorus, both of whom have type superiority and insane damage-dealing potential. 

Those are all of the Alolan Raichu counters you need to know in Pokemon GO. For more related content and guides, check our website’s Pokemon GO section.