Typing Review: An Overview of Ice Types for Raids in Pokemon Go

The current top Ice Type attackers in the game are already outlined in our Best Attackers by Type list, linked above, so we recommend that you take a look at that to get a better list-breakdown. But to make things a bit easier on us, here's the list of the current candidates that we'll be working with in this article:

Ice is simultaneously one of the best types in the game and pretty mediocre. This is a type that a lot of extremely high-priority Pokemon are double weak to. This fact gives the top Ice Types a lot of raw value to most players, as many of these Pokemon definitely can pay back any investment in spades given time. However, this is also a type that frequently can't quite keep up with the competition when on a level playing field. On top of this, the value of the top Ice Types drops pretty quickly after the top picks, leaving the power of the type pretty concentrated among the top echelon. On top of this, Ice is well known to be one of the weakest types in the game defensively, sporting weaknesses to Fire, Steel, Rock, and Fighting, most of which are pretty common types for Raid Bosses to have available in the form of coverage moves. Add to that the fact that Ice is only resistant against itself, and this means that many Ice Types are going to fall pretty quickly. It's admittedly not quite as bad as Dragons sporting a weakness to the Dragons that they're frequently called on to slay, but it's definitely an issue that hurts the viability of Ice Types in select raids. That said, the pros definitely outweigh the cons when it comes to investing in Ice Type attackers in most cases.

As of the publishing of this article, we currently have access to 16 different Ice Type attacks, divided into 5 Fast Moves and 11 Charged Moves.

The Good Moves

Honestly, it's hard to say if Ice Types got the long or the short end of the stick in terms of Fast Moves. The move-selection on offer here isn't the strongest, but it's also not objectively horrible. In fact, most of the Ice Type Fast Moves perform fairly similarly in practice. Among the moves, Ice Fang, Frost Breath, Powder Snow, and Ice Shard are best. These moves have a bit of variance in terms of DPS and Energy Generation, but they're all perfectly great and worth using in their own right. At times one or two will pull ahead of the others depending on the moveset of the Pokemon using them or whatever their target may be, but none of them is an outright disappointment.

To start out with good Ice Type Charged Moves, we absolutely have to talk about Glaciate. This is a powerful move that is outright strong enough to make Kyurem worth using on 2x Ice Weak opponents, even when its Fast Move is only 1x effective. It's an objectively great move, but the only Pokemon that can possibly learn it is basic Kyurem. No, not even Black and White Kyurem can learn it, as they have their own Signature Moves... oh, and Victini can learn it in the main series too via an event, for some reason. Next up is the classical, top-tier, generally available Ice Type move; Avalanche. A great stat-line and solid accessibility makes it one of the big wants for any Ice Type, and is frequently the deciding factor as to if an Ice Type will be good or not when it's released. Extremely close to Avalanche is Weather Ball - Ice. While not quite as strong as it once was, it's an attack that has an average damage output very close to Avalanche, and potentially even even better due to its 3-bar status. A bit behind that is Triple Axel, which is the latest move in the Ice Type family as of this writing. While not on a par with the big-names above, it's still a good move that doesn't instantly doom an Ice Type to obscurity. Icicle Spear is next, and while weaker than Triple Axel, it's also got the advantage of 3-bars to make it a bit more reliable. It's just a shame that virtually nothing learns it. Next is Ice Beam, which just barely manages to squeak by, though it could be argued that it should drop to the Bad moves section. The main reason that it's up here is the fact that it's at least serviceable if a Pokemon has a high enough Attack stat to make up for the damage loss, so it doesn't instantly doom a Pokemon to obscurity just for having it. Heck, look at Shadow Mewtwo; it's still a perfectly serviceable pseudo-Ice Type attacker with Ice Beam, even if it doesn't generally top the charts in this role. 

The Bad Moves

As usual, we have to give the gold medal of "bad fast moves" to Hidden Power (Ice). It's actually not too far behind the other options, but the RNG of hoping the right type it makes it a bad move literally 15 out of 16 times.

Starting out the bad Ice Type Charged Moves, we have Blizzard. This move is about on a par with Ice Beam, but it's also single-bar, making it unwieldy for its lower performance. It's serviceable, but definitely not good. After this is Ice Punch, which is 3-bar, but pretty low in terms of damage output. Then comes Aurora Beam, which is a pale shadow of Ice Beam, and genuinely not worth using. Finally, Icy Wind is arguably the single worst Ice Type Charged move in raids, leaving anything cursed with it and no other Ice Type Charged Moves basically non-viable.

Currently Unreleased Ice -Type Pokemon

Currently Unreleased Ice-Type Moves

• Aurora Veil
• Chilly Reception*
  • Galarian Slowbro & Galarian Slowking
• Freeze Shock*
  • Kyurem Black
• Freeze-Dry
• Freezy Frost*
  • Eevee (Let's Go Eevee)
• Glacial Lance*
  • Calyrex - Ice Rider
• Hail
• Haze
• Ice Ball
• Ice Burn*
  • Kyurem White
• Ice Hammer**
  • Crabominable
• Ice Spinner
• Icicle Crash
• Judgment*
  • Arceus
• Mist
• Mountain Gale*
  • Hisuian Avalugg
• Multi-Attack*
  • Silvally
• Sheer Cold
• Snowscape

​*: Signature Move
**: Formerly a Signature Move

The Non-Threats

Aside from the Pokemon that aren't fully evolved, we can pretty safely rule out Silvally, Eiscue (both formes), Arctozolt, and Arctovish due to a lack of strong stats or good moveset potential.

For Signature Moves that probably won't pan out in the future (if we get them at all), we have Chilly Reception and Freezy Frost. This is because of low stats, odd moves, or other issues with the Pokemon that can utilize them.

On that note, Pokemon frequently gain access to moves that aren't signature but that bring them into viability regardless. This means that even our low-priority list isn't 100% safe, as they're simply the least likely to see new viability in the future given what we currently know.

The Existing Threats

Pokemon in this section have already been released into Pokemon Go, but their future is still bright. Due to moveset updates or other bonuses, they have the potential to rise on the list to varying degrees.

Note that we may treat select unreleased Mega Evolutions and alternate formes as Existing Threats, where applicable, due to their base-formes already existing in-game.

The Future Threats

These are the Pokemon that we don't currently have in-game, but have the potential to join our Top Attackers by Type list if Niantic does them justice. Note that this list won't necessarily order Pokemon according to their potential, as we will take likelihood of a good implementation into consideration as well.

The Looming Shadows

Let's start with the absolutely crazy theorycrafting that goes a bit off the deep-end: Shadow Galarian Darmanitan - Zen Mode, and Shadow Kyurem Black or White, if given the proper moves at some point in the future, could be insanely good. These Pokemon could basically rule the meta, and they'd be unlikely to ever be dethroned given our current Pokemon list.

Back in the world of "reasonable" Pokemon that wouldn't involve large changes, we have Shadow Iron Bundle, Shadow Galarian Darmanitan, Shadow Baxcalibur, Shadow Kyurem (if it ever gets Ice Fang), Shadow Chien-Pao, Shadow Kyurem, Shadow Glaceon, Shadow Beartic, and Shadow Frosmoth all sitting with the potential to make some waves in the future given a chance. Most of these Pokemon likely won't dethrone the current meta, but they'd all at least be good additions to the Ice meta.

The Gigantamax Factor

While not extremely likely, it's possible that Niantic could release the Dynamax/Gigantamax system first introduced in Generation 8/Galar into Pokemon Go. For those unaware, this system turns Pokemon giant, gives them new/overpowering moves, and grants a tremendous HP boost while active. And while the release of this feature isn't super likely, we thought it best to at least list the possible candidates with unique formes just to cover all bases, so these are all of the Ice Type Pokemon with a Gigantamax forme:

• Gigantamax Lapras

We're not really going to go into any depth here, as Dynamax/Gigantamax only effects HP in terms of raw stats. The majority of the offensive power that these Pokemon gain in the main series comes from the unique moves that overtake their normal movesets while Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed.

The Terastallization Factor

For the uninitiated, Terastallization was the regional-gimmick of Paldea/Generation 9. With this unique effect, Pokemon could change their typing up and increase their STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus), meaning attacks that match their new types wouldn't just deal more damage in the standard sense, they'd also get a boost on top of that. It's hard to really speculate on when/if we'll get Terastallization in Pokemon Go, and how it will be implemented if we do see it, but it's pretty likely that Shadow Pokemon won't be capable of utilizing Terastallizing as they can't currently Mega Evolve, so we're going to leave them off of this list. And speaking of Mega Evolution, we're also leaving them off the list as utilizing multiple regional-gimmicks at once probably won't ever happen. It's also worth noting that we're just going to look at these Pokemon if they had a normal STAB, as we can only speculate as to where a boosted STAB would fall. 

Note that most if not all of the Pokemon sets included in this section are extremely unlikely to ever actually materialize, but it's fun to consider them regardless, so here are just a few of the options that could benefit the Ice Type if this ever pans out:

What About Z-Moves?

The regional gimmick of Generation 7/Alola, Z-Moves focused on transforming normal versions of moves into mutant, hulking versions of themselves for a single use. However, it seems that The Pokemon Company has all but swept this particular regional gimmick under the rug, and it seems like it would be pretty awkward to add to the Raid meta of Pokemon Go if ever it made its way back into the spotlight, so we're not really going to even consider what sort of an impact it could have here.

Sadly, Ice has largely stagnated as of late. We have a few potential power-house attackers like Kyurem Black and White, as well as Galarian Darmanitan - Zen Mode on the horizon, while more distant attackers like Chien-Pao and Iron Bundle are likely to take up a good position in the more distant future. But all of the meta-defining Pokemon of the type in terms of raw stats are going to need moveset updates and/or a Shadow boost to have a shot at rocking the top echelon of the type. Of course, if this did end up happening, then Ice would go from powerful to absolutely centralizing on any double-Ice-weak Pokemon, potentially even turning some raids into absolute jokes.

Chances are that Ice will never ever be able to compete with something like Dragon when taking on normal, 1x Super Effective Raid Bosses. This is because Dragon can never be double-Super Effective against any Pokemon, meaning it has to be stronger than many other types to make up for not being able to go thermonuclear against specific Raids. Give Ice Types power on a par with the top Dragon Types, and there's basically no reason to ever use Dragons again, and the same could easily be said of anything else that counters Grass, Ground, and Flying Types as well.... 

...on that note, we'll probably see Shadow Galarian Darmanitan - Zen Mode someday, which has the potential to out-DPS Shadow Mewtwo in a neutral scenario, while the two variants of Kyurem could also become absurdly strong given Ice Fang and strong Signature moves. Also, monsters like Mega Rayquaza and Shadow Mewtwo exist and are capable of dealing 2x Super Effective damage despite their raw power, so so much for the typing balance theory!

Everything aside, Ice is still a great type, and a must-have for any real raiders. It stays competitive despite the centralizing monster that is Mega Rayquaza competing with it directly, and is virtually needed for specific Five Star/Mega solo runs, so don't feel bad about making a cold decision when building your raid team!