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If it is so easy to solo Machamp...

... where does this leave those of us who haven't been able to do it?

The guide on GP, and other comments I have read on Reddit/TSR, suggest that soloing Machamp is easy or even "very easy" and that anyone should be able to do it (well, at least level 30+). But here I am, level 38, and still unsuccessful.

Conditions aren't ideal (older phone, lag - rarely more than 173-174 seconds, and lack of opportunity - there simply haven't been that many doable t3 raids available when I would have been able to do them.) But "very easy" suggests that this really shouldn't matter too much.

Thoughts? Constructive criticism welcome ;)

Asked by DeLana_997 years 6 months ago

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congrats tier 3s are now easier and still hand out the same rewards

I have no constructive criticism, jut thoughts. My thoughts, backed up by experience, are that it is not EASY to solo any Tier 3 Raid Boss, Machamp included. You have to have the right equipment, the right pokemons, with the right movesets, and a good measure of luck. Not EASY, but doable, with some degree of luck.

Thank you, this is what I was hoping to hear. Perhaps it should be clarified that soloing Machamp is "very easy" compared to the other t3 bosses with all conditions being favorable (e.g., good phone). But this it is clearly not the case for just anyone (with conditions NOT being equal ;)

I have to add that I was referring to the old t3 bosses only and wasn't able to comment further on replies to my question because I worked all weekend and did not have time for any serious playing... the only raid that appeared at the gym near work was... Suicune (Why, Niantic?! You will never have enough players for legendary raids at this hard to get to gym!)

Thanks to everyone, I appreciate every comment.

Investing in Exeggutor probably the best route, take a couple to level 35 or better, use your Dragonites, add a glass cannon or two. Key most times is to limit dodging, need effective bulk for that.

great advice, biggest problem i found on my older android phone was even when solo enemy charge moves cause the old KO bug - registers as a hit then hp gets refunded, but if your 'mon is K.O.'d it bugs out and becomes unusable actually costing more time than if it had simply died,

No. Invest in Espeons, and to a lesser extent, Alakazams, and take them to level 30. If they don't have confusion, fast-TM them. And then spam away, and you will beat the Machamp boss. Maybe use one or two DT/H Dragonites at the end, but they will underperform the Espeons and 'Zams in terms of DPS.

If you are dodging, stop. A level 38 player should be able to assemble a team that can take out the Machamp boss without dodging. Once you have succeeded once or twice, you can play around with selective dodging to try to win faster, but until then, just brute-force the win with high DPS psychic types,

"If they don't have confusion, fast-TM them."

I somewhat disagree with this. Confusion is so slow, even the charge move Cross Chop is faster. Dodging with Psycho Cut on Alakazam may allow you to get off one extra Future Sight, which will do much more damage than the difference between Psycho Cut and Confusion.

In fact I do the opposite: If Alakazams have Confusion, I fast-TM them. Fortunately my good Alakazams already have Psycho Cut.

For Espeons, it's up to you. If you want to use the TMs, do it. If you want to keep ZH, it's fine too.

I like using psycho cut better than confusion, but the reality is that if you look at multiple simulations, confusion Zams and Espeons almost always outperform PS and ZH ones, even to the point where the charge move is secondary. Against Machamp, C/PB or C/P Espeon outperform ZH/FS on the same Espeon, for example.

it'd help if you could tell us why are you failing - running out of time or having your stuff knocked out (which, when solo is such a delay on slower android phones it's pretty much game over). what monsters are you using ?

me, i've managed the only one i've tried with seconds to spare, which had counter/heavy slam (which is one of the harder movesets) and none of my pokes were beyond what a lv.32 player could field - one decent level lugia was only thing i'd term as rare. i really do need to practice more though.

I've managed to do both... time out or all fainting, and you're right, with my Galaxy S5 this means game over.

I've tried combinations of Espeon, Zam, D'nite and Eggy... but have no legendaries (none, so no supreme counters). I've come close, very close (not enough, though). Sadly, there haven't been a lot of Machamp raids lately... so I haven't had *that* much practice.

I was just wondering, in general, whether anyone should be able to do a "very easy" raid (like Magikarp, LOL).

I took this to mean easy if you have the right counters. Don't sweat it. I'm level 35 and I don't have 6 mon good enough to do it. I have failed twice at Gengar. I'm learning that the boss move set makes a HUGE difference and it's an unpredictable variable until you are in the raid.

Get a good high-level Espeon or two. Or Alakazam. Or Exeggutor, Dragonite, Gengar or Mewtwo. There are a lot of options.
I typically lose ⪆4 seconds from the start and end of a raid, and had little trouble beating Machamp. What teams are you using? Do you power your pokemon past 30, or are you a filthy stardust hoarder? I have so many questions.

Stop listening to mass and level up past level 30. Max them out.

There , I said it for you.

Nothing to hoard, LOL - I pretty much spend it as I go, and have several high level D'nite (among others; if I can, yes I take them beyond 30, and consider breakpoints as well).

We assume the following when deciding the difficulty of T3 Solo:

1. Optimal counters
2. Good phones and connections
3. Certain play skills

Then we investigate the room of error, or success rate, or time remaining. Take Machamp Solo, with optimal counters (Esp Mewtwo), even though RNG is really against you (you often faint with a lot of energy wasted), you can still finish it. This is not the case with Flareon - even if you have optimized everything you still stand a very little chance.

Without those assumptions you can’t rate the difficulty by a unified standard - some trainers have strong psychic types while others don’t. In an extreme case, a trainer would think soloing Alakazam is easier than soloing Machamp if he only has maxed T Tars in his storage!

I hope it helps clear the confusion. Good luck to your Machamp Solo.

Level 34-35, I've been soloing Machamps because they don't pop up spontaneously here - I've literally found more wild Larvitars (3) than Machops (2).
Move set is critical. Counter/Close Combat I can beat with 10-15 seconds to spare. I've beaten Bullet Punch/Heavy Slam once, by throwing in Entei to resist the steel moves and pound out high damage with Fire Spin/Overheat.
It would be easier if I had a Mewtwo or a Lugia. Have neither. My team: Level 36 and 35 Espeons (C/FS and ZH/FS), Dragonite 36 DT/O, Dragonite 33 DT/H, Exeggutor 36 ES/Sol, plus one of the following - Dragonite 31 DT/O, Exeggutor 31 C/P, or Entei 29 FS/OH.

If the boss has Dynamic Punch, I can get him into the red, or with little left in the red if I'm getting attacks off well, but haven't taken him out yet.

If the boss has Heavy Slam, he spams it and nobody resists it. Entei can help here, maybe I'll tweak the team for that move.

If the boss has Close Combat, I win first try every time.

I'm working on getting an Alakazam, but my only ones have DG and SB. I'd also love a Gengar to tank the pure fight ones, but I've had no luck getting a high level Gengar with Shadow Ball. Have Focus Blast, and a ton of Sucker Punch/Sludge Bomb. Sucker punch is bad against Machamp. Still working on that, got over 1000 Gastly candy over halloween.

All of this will be moot when Metagross is available - he'll shred Machamp, resisting everything, attacking with psychics, and having big CP. Of course, Machamp may no longer be a raid boss by then.

I would suggest trying to borrow someone else's old iPhone (Even a 5C is good enough). Log in and try it out. Once you see the difference the phone makes you might feel better about your team. When I watch the Zam solo video's I realize how underpowered/slow my phone is. There really isn't much you can do to overcome this besides a phone upgrade.

If you have a good phone then I don't know what to tell you. There are plenty of options to use, I'd go Dragonite heavy to start (Hu and O).

I think the phone is a big problem, but I know people have succeeded with Galaxy S5... I just don't want to wait until I have a faster phone.

For most of us the problem is the phone and the internet comnection I guess. I soloed Machamp and Arcanine, but tryed Vaporeon, Gengar and Alakazam once and didn't make it although the counters were mostly there. Just try again and make sure to restart the App before each try

Some people have leveled up way too fast since Raids were introduced.
Now they can’t power up as many Pokémon to really have a solid line up because their XP didn’t really come from grinding the General population of spawns which coincides with stardust.
Since they lack stardust but have potential to “max out” at say level 38.5 for example; they still can’t solo a single Tier 3 Raid Boss .

I reached 38 after a year... by grinding ;) And no XP are from legendary (or even t4) raids. But this makes it harder because I have no legendary counters....

But you're right, I haven't succeeded yet.

I see many trainers use Psychic Pokemon. The key for me is to use 4 maxed-out Dragonite with DT/O DT/H (which resist fighting attacks because of flying typing). I often have around 15-20 seconde left.

I have 4 DT/H D'nite - level 39, 33.5, 33, 30.5. Should they be enough? My Espeon/Zam have been glass cannons... but what else to you use on your team?

The attached picture shows my best lineup, according to Pokebattler, for soloing Machamp with unknown moveset. If I look at performance against specific individual movesets, the top 6 remain the same, but the order varies slightly. Notice that the top six are all high DPS psychic types with confusion for a fast move. And note that the psychic types win considerably faster than the Dragonites, even the one with hurricane

Honestly, for a level 38 player, soloing Machamp should be a formality. If you haven't done it yet, you are not trying hard enough, or using a completely wrong strategy. Your priorities, in order, should be:

1. DPS
2. DPS
3. DPS

And don't dodge.

However, you SHOULD dodge if it will allow you to get 1 extra charge move off. Also, you should dodge (but not too much) if you know your team will be completely knocked out. That's why I'm not a fan of full Confusion teams.

Also, many psychic types (minus Mewtwo, Exeggutor and Lugia) are glass cannons. Find high level Exeggcutes to evolve. Only use those with Extrasensory/Psychic (or Confusion/Psychic if you have it). Confusion/Solar Beam is fine too, and doubles up as a grass attacker.

Personally I have only done CC Machamps with both fast moves (failed on C/DP and C/HS), using 3 level 30 Espeons (C/FS, ZH/FS, C/Pb), a lower level PC/FS Alakazam, a SC/SB Gengar and a DB/Hu Dragonite.

I'm not sure why people are reacting negatively to Scooter's advice. It is exactly right based on my experience. Phone matters but hammering Machamp with Espeon, Zams and a closer or two (Lugia is ideal-maybe MewTwo when I try him) all with max DPS movesets (Confusion!!!) and never dodge works almost every time for me. And most of my mons are level 30 to 34.5 based on break points. And if all 6 of your initial mons faint, go back in and keep DPSing. It works, unless perhaps your connection or phone are bad.

Because his advice will get your team knocked out fast. With the best phones you can go back in and finish him off but not with most phones. Especially with the boss gaining a big chunk of health back when you rejoin. Maybe with lugia you can tank without dodging but not with dragonites. Unless you go 3-4 dragonites you have to dodge.

No it won't, The all-psychic team will survive long enough to beat the Machamp, although if you want to play it extra-safe, you can stick a hurricane Dragonite at the end.

Pretty sure fainting and getting back in isn't an option for the OP. This week I fought 4 Machamps and they all had DP, I've been starting at 174, finish between 8 to 10 remaining. 3314 Mewtwo C/ShB, 2511 Espeon C/FS, 2554 C/SoB Exeggutor; 3213 Dragonite DT/Hu; 3175 EX/SA Lugia...the ultimate security blanket. Survivability and the necessity to dodge would be a big concern if I didn't have it. However, if I didn't have the Mewtwo nor Lugia like the OP and had my current lackluster phone...guess I'd take 2 Espeons to 2700, Exeggutor to 2700, put in another Dragonite and/or another big psychic exeggutor to facilitate a no dodging strategy. I agree with Bioweapon saying easy is something you can do 7/10 or 8/10 times with a great lineup...Alakazam, not easy maybe 3/10 with a similar tailored lineup. For me Gengar is a 9/10 with a bunch of Tyranitars. I got good at Hydropump Vaporeon...bad phone and needed no luck after powering up some electric legendaries.

Then per YouTube videos, Porygon and Scyther will be extremely easily, even possible to solo at level 20 literally.

Since ios 11, my iphone 5s get worse time starting battle best at 174-175, often at 170-172
My advice is to keep calm, and stay focus on the raid battle
I use screen recording when i am doing a unique challenge (no duplicate, no legendary) on heavy slam machamp, and it start at 171
I just stay focus at the battle, and try not to be bothered by the 9 second lag
Still manage to win in 8 second left
And i am using a level 30-35 mons
I am using alakazam, espeon, dodrio (yes that 3 headed bird), exeggutor, dragonite, and slowbro
I wish i can send my recorded battle, but cannot do it in this site..