How to beat Heatran in Pokémon Go - Weaknesses, Counters, Strategies

Heatran is a formidable Pokémon to fight in Pokémon Go. It's one of the many legendary encounters you can have in the game's various five-star raids. Heatran will be available when Niantic announces that Trainers can find them in the world, or during specific events. These times vary, and when you see an available Heatran, do your best to take as many sneakers with you to take it down. You may not have too much time. Although it is a legendary Pokémon, Heatran has a handful of weaknesses that you can exploit to destroy it. There are specific Pokémon that you want to use to counter it.

Heatran's weaknesses

Heatran is a Steel and Fire type Pokémon, which makes it a difficult Pokémon to counter. It only has a few weaknesses, but it is resistant to Bug, Fairy, Grass, Ice, Poison, Steel, Dragon, Flight, Normal, and Psychic type moves. You want to avoid using any of these items as much as possible. You want to focus on using the Water and Combat types, and he's incredibly vulnerable to all Ground-type attacks.

Pokémon to counter Heatran

The three Pokémon you want to use in your roster when fighting Heatran include Garchomp, Rhyperior, and Swampert.

Garchomp is a Dragon and Ground-type Pokémon capable of causing Heatran a lot of trouble. He has the highest defense and offense of the three picks. It has a max CP of 3, attack of 962, defense of 261, and stamina of 193. You want yours to know that mud blasts and earthquakes or sand graves cause the most. damage in this raid. The earthquake will be your best bet, however.

Then you have Rhyperior, a Rock and Ground-type Pokémon. While his stats aren't as strong as Garchomp, he's a great choice to take him into battle. He has a max CP of 3, attack of 733, defense of 241, and stamina of 190. Your ideal moveset for Rhyperior consists of a mud slap and an earthquake.

The final optimal choice is Swampert, the Ground and Water-type Pokémon. With Swampert being a Water-type, any Fire-type attacks Heatran uses against him won't do too much. It has a max CP of 2, offense of 974, defense of 208, and stamina of 175. Although it has significantly lower offensive and defensive stats, it is only weak for Grass-type moves. It resists Steel and Fire attacks. You want yours to know about mud blasts and earthquakes.

While these are better choices, you need to bring at least six Pokémon to take on Heatran. Your party can also be made up of Excadrill, Groudon, Golem, Flygon, Seismitoad, Kyogre, Kingler, Mamoswine, Cokeldurr, Lucario, Feraligatr, Emploleon, Machamp or Nidoking.

After defeating Heatran, you and your friends have a limited number of chances to try and capture him using Prime Bullets. You can receive more Premier Balls by contributing more to the battle, hosting the Heatran Raid at a gym owned by your team, and wrestling with trainers on your Friends List.