Celesteela Raid Duo Guide

Table of Contents

Weather/Moves
Raid Guide
Best Counters
Raid Graph

Difficulty:

Doable at trainer level 30 with optimized counters or weather boost

HP	15,000	ATK	163.59	DEF	157.26

CP Range
Lvl 20	1694 - 1772	Lvl 25	2117 - 2216

Notable Weather

Boosts Boss's Moves	Boosts Counters' Moves
Snow, Sunny / Clear, Windy, Partly Cloudy	Sunny / Clear, Rain

Fast Move Difficulty

Move	Difficulty
Air Slash	Intermediate
Smack Down	Challenging

Charge Move Difficulty

Move	Difficulty
Iron Head	Easy
Body Slam	Challenging
Heavy Slam	Easy
Bulldoze	Challenging

Overview

Celesteela may not have an outstanding presence as a raider, and is well known as a defensive behemoth in the main series. Its Defense isn't outstanding, its Attack is relatively low, and it has two nasty weaknesses in Fire in Electric. Its one saving grace is the fact that it has decent counter-coverage with Smack Down for Fire Types, Body Slam for spammy neutral damage, and Bulldoze to hit both of the types that Celesteela is weak to. This means that Celesteela can situationally be a pain in the neck to fight, and it can be hard to build a team that is perfect for every scenario. Still, it's not uncommon to throw raiders at something that they're weak to (ask just about any Dragon), so Celesteela isn't a huge threat in reality.

Approach

Team Composition

Look at your initial lineup and try to figure out what Celesteela may be packing.
- If you see a number of Electric Types recommended when you have a number of better Fire Types, then it may be packing Smack Down, making Fire/Flying types risky.
- If you see Pokemon with a Flying sub-typing showing up, then you're likely to encounter Bulldoze, which can be threatening to the majority of all major counters.
Fire Types are generally the way to go, as they tend to out-damage their Electric Type competition
Electric Types are still perfectly great in their own right, and can be very competitive with Fire Types when the weather is rainy.

Dodging Strategy

Know when to dodge and when to let a Pokemon faint. If your Pokemon is close to throwing out another Charged Move, then definitely try to dodge. If your Pokemon is unlikely to throw out another Charged Move and is close to fainting, then it's probably best to just let it faint to keep up your average DPS.
Bulldoze is very threatening for many counters, and isn't terribly difficult to dodge, so it generally should be evaded.
Bodyslam comes out frequently and is hard to dodge, so it's unfortunately best to just eat it most of the time.
Iron Head and Heavy Slam are resisted by just about everything that counters Celesteela, meaning they're not too threatening.

Raid Counter Search String

If you want to make finding the best counters for this raid as simple as possible, click on the button below to copy a Search String to your clipboard. Pasting this in the search bar in Pokemon Go will show a list of all of the Pokemon featured in this article to make building your strongest possible raid team a bit easier.

Best Raid Boss Counters

Supreme Mega Evolution Counters

Mega Charizard Y

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Blast Burn

Best

While it's not the absolute best DPS option for this raid, Mega Charizard Y realistically is most likely the best overall counter here. Its DPS is comparable to Mega Blaziken's, but it also has substantially higher TDO on average due in part to its ability to actually resist Bulldoze, which can be a very valuable trait for this raid. However, there's also a 50/50 chance of dealing with Smack Down on any given raid, which can cut huge amounts of HP off of Mega Charizard Y in short order. This move alone is the reason that Mega Charizard Y the absolute and undisputed "use this" Mega Evolution, and why Partly Cloudy can be very scary when fighting Celesteela, depending on your team.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam, Bulldoze
Weaknesses: Smack Down (2x)

Mega Blaziken

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Blast Burn

Best

The DPS-king for this raid, Mega Blaziken hits like an absolute truck. If you've got a large raid group, then this is the Pokemon that's most likely to earn you the DPS title if played right. It's also got the advantage of standing as a Fire Type that is not weak to Smack Down thanks to its Fighting sub-type, meaning it will tend to have the absolute top overall performance for this raid when fighting this common Fast Move... and not Bulldoze at the same time. But, at the same time, it's also weak to Air Slash, so its average performance falls off when compared to Mega Charizard Y. Still, it's never an outright bad choice here.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Air Slash, Bulldoze

Good Mega Evolution Counters

Mega Manectric

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Thunder Fang

Wild Charge

Best

The top Electric Mega Evolution counter, Mega Manectric should probably be on the Supreme Mega Evolution Counter list, but its raw power is fairly low when compared to the above. Still, this is a great Mega Evolution in its own right, and the main Mega choice if your raid group is bringing a lot of Electric Types along for the ride and/or if the weather is Rainy.

Strengths: Air Slash, Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Bulldoze

Mega Charizard X

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Blast Burn

Best

Whoops, you hit the wrong button. Go back and pick "Y".

In all fairness, Mega Charizard X isn't terrible, but it's definitely the inferior option.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Smack Down, Bulldoze

Mega Houndoom

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Fang

Flamethrower

Best

Mega Houndoom makes a decent backup Mega option, with a solid overall presence that can work if you're farming more energy for the better options/waiting for the Mega Evolution cost to drop. It's not exceptional, but it's still good!

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Bulldoze

Mega Ampharos

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Volt Switch

Zap Cannon

Best

Mega Ampharos is the silver-medal among Electric Type Mega Evolutions... but there are only two medals to give. Still, Ampharos is a solid backup Electric Type Mega Evolution that can put up work, though its DPS is slightly below Duo-worthy without boosts, generally speaking.

Strengths: Air Slash, Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Bulldoze

Supreme Counters

Shadow Darmanitan

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Fang

Overheat

Best

The king of the vanilla Fire Types, Shadow Darmanitan hits like a truck and has a great overall presence that can wreck Celesteela with ease. However, it's also got all of the Fire Type issues in terms of weaknesses, so it can be a bit of a mixed bag... though most of what comes in that bag is still great.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Smack Down, Bulldoze

Shadow Blaziken

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Blast Burn

Best

Shadow Blaziken has great DPS, but is pretty glassy at the same time. It's another great Fire Type, but its Fighting sub-type has the same issues that we covered with Mega Blaziken above.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Air Slash, Bulldoze

Shadow Chandelure

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Overheat

Best

One of the only counters on this list that can resist Body Slam, Shadow Chandelure goes a step farther by double resisting it, making this a great Pokemon for this raid.

Strengths: Iron Head, Body Slam (2x), Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Smack Down, Bulldoze

Xurkitree

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Thunder Shock

Discharge

Best

The living lightning bolt itself, Xurkitree is arguably the top non-Mega Electric Type counter on this list. It rivals many of the top Fire Types, and has great average performance.

Strengths: Air Slash, Iron Head, Heavay Slam
Weaknesses: Bulldoze

Shadow Electivire

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Thunder Shock

Wild Charge

Best

A true rival to Shadow Xurkitree, Shadow Electivire trades a bit of TDO for a bit of DPS.

Strengths: Air Slash, Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Bulldoze

Shadow Moltres

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Overheat

Best

One of the top counters to Bulldoze, just watch out for Smack Down!

Strengths: Air Slash, Iron Head, Heavy Slam, Bulldoze
Weaknesses: Smack Down

Reshiram

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Fang

Fusion Flare

Best

Reshiram has fairly low DPS when compared to some of the above, but it's still well above Duo-worthy, and is also the highest DPS tank counter when not including Mega Evolutions. This alone makes it great for a duo run.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Smack Down, Bulldoze

Shadow Raikou

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Thunder Shock

Wild Charge

Best

An outstanding overall Electric Type option, Shadow Raikou just plainly works.

Strengths: Air Slash, Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Bulldoze

Good Counters

Shadow Infernape

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Blast Burn

Best

Basically Shadow Blaziken, but a bit weaker.

Strengths: Air Slash, Bulldoze
Weaknesses: Iron Head, Heavy Slam

Shadow Charizard

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Spin

Blast Burn

Best

Same story as Mega Charizard Y and Shadow Moltres; resists Bulldoze, but watch out for Smack Down.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam, Bulldoze
Weaknesses: Smack Down (2x)

Shadow Entei

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Fire Fang

Overheat

Best

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam
Weaknesses: Smack Down, Bulldoze

Shadow Zapdos

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Thunder Shock

Thunderbolt

Best

Electric/Flying is one of the more interesting options here, as it's basically Fire/Flying, but with a lesser weakness to Smack Down.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam, Bulldoze
Weaknesses: Smack Down

Thundurus (Therian Forme)

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Volt Switch

Wildbolt Storm

Best

Same as the above.

Strengths: Iron Head, Heavy Slam, Bulldoze
Weaknesses: Smack Down

Shadow Magnezone

Fast Move	Charge Move	Rating

Spark

Wild Charge

Best

Shadow Magnezone is a double-edged sword here, as it resists everything that Celesteela can possibly throw at it... save Bulldoze, which will flatline it extremely quickly.