Zapdos is one of Pokémon's original three Legendary Birds, and when available in a Five Star Raid, you can add them to your collection. This is a rare find as Five Star Raids regularly rotate Legendary Pokémon. When capturing a Zapdos with decent stats, figuring out how to best optimize your new Legendary with the best moves to make him exceptionally powerful for raids and fights against other Combat League Trainers is critical.
Zapdos is an electric and flying type Pokémon. It is only weak against ice and rock type attacks, making it resistant to insect, combat, flight, grass, ground, and steel type moves. It's a solid choice when you want to use it as an electric-type attacker. He has a max CP of 3527, attack of 253, defense of 185, and stamina of 207.
Here are all the moves Zapdos can learn:
Rapid movements
- Charging beam (electric type) - 5 damage, 3,6 energy per turn
- Thunder Shock (electric type) - 3 damage, 4,5 energy per turn
Load movements
- Ancient Power (Rock type) - 45 potency, 45 energy (10% chance to increase your attack and defense)
- Peck drill (flywheel type) - 65 power, 40 energy
- Thunder (electric type) - 100 power, 60 energy
- Thunderbolt (electric type) - power 90, energy 55
- Canon Zap (electric type) - 150 power, 80 energy
For Zapdos, you want to remove the charging harness. It's a slower movement than the shock of thunder, and it won't be able to do as much damage over time. Additionally, Thunder Clash generates more energy, allowing Zapdos to use his more powerful attacks.
When selecting a charge move, Zapdos has several choices. But remove the old power. It's useless for Zapdos and it's not worth considering. Many have a mix between thunder and lightning, but of the two, thunder is the better option. So stick with that option, because the five extra energies it needs are worth the 10 extra damage. Finally, the Zap Cannon is probably not a good option, considering how much energy it needs and how much damage it deals. While admirable, there are better choices. With Zapdos, piercing peak and thunder are your best options.
When you choose a moveset for Zapdos, you want his fast attack to be the shock of thunder, then choose thunder, then for his second charge move, go for the drill peak. These will be the best options for most of the things he has to fight, and your Zapdos will deal a decent amount of damage.
