Pokemon Sword and Shield - How to beat Gigantamax Ectoplasma

How to beat Gigantamax Ectoplasma

As we covered in our guide for Gigantamax Mackogneur, some of these Max Raids are version-exclusive or exclusive. While Gigantamax Mistletoe is exclusive to Pokemon Sword, Gigantamax Ectoplasma is exclusive to Pokemon Shield. If you want to have Gigantamax Ectoplasma in Pokemon Sword, you'll just have to rely on the good old Shield trade.

Now on to the actual combat, you will have to start by making your way through the wild area for the different Dens Pokemon until you come across one which is a five star raid with a figure that looks like Ectoplasma and has the hits Ghost / Poison. Once you've done that, you can choose to do a matchmake to find three other players or go it alone. With five-star raids, it's always recommended to have at least one other human player, as AI partners aren't of much help with much weaker Pokémon as a rule.

First off, don't bother entering this Max Raid with a Normal or Fighting-type Pokémon, as their moves won't do anything as a result of Ectoplasma's Ghost strike. When it comes to Ectoplasma, it's not as important to worry about its Poison typing for offensive purposes, as Psychic won't perform well and Ground won't do anything special.

Instead, the strike you really want to focus on this match is a Dark-type Pokemon with dark moves to use. You can technically use Ghost, but doing so will make you vulnerable yourself. While having a Dark-type Pokémon, you will take half the damage from Ectoplasma Ghost's attacks and also deal 2x damage when using Dark attacks.

It looks like Angoliath is still going to be as useful in raiding as ever, but this might be your best bet here against Gigantamax Ectoplasma. Tyranitar can also be a good choice, especially if you have ground moves mixed with darkness. However, any high-level Dark Pokémon can really do the trick as long as its moveset is solid. Just enter with a human player or two and you should be able to defeat Ectoplasma and hopefully manage to catch it with your one try at the end.