Suicune is a legendary Pokémon you add to your collection in Pokémon Go. Because it’s a legendary Pokémon, you typically have to catch it by beating it in five-star raids, or by completing specific special research task that become available in the game, every so often. More often than not, you have to beat it in a raid, and you’ll need a few friends to help take it down. Once you do, what is the best moveset it can learn to be the best combatant?
Suicune is a Water-type Pokémon. It’s only weak to Grass and Electric-type attacks, and it’s resistant to Fire, Ice, Steel, and Water-type moves. Because it’s weak to a handful of attacks, you can use that to your advantage and when creating a Pokémon team. For PvP, it has a maximum CP of 2,983, an attack of 154, a defense of 197, and a stamina of 189. For PvE, it has an attack of 180, a defense of 235, and a stamina of 225. While it has a lower attack than you might want for most PvP battles, Suicune’s defenses are helpful, and it’s diverse moveset make it a niche choice.
These are all of the moves Suicune can learn.
Fast moves
- Extrasensory (Psychic-type) – 8 damage and 3.3 energy (2.6 damage per tap)
- Hidden Power (Any type) – 9 damage and 2.6 energy (3 damage per tap)
- Ice Fang (Ice-type) – 8 damage and 2.5 energy (4 damage per tap)
- Snarl (Dark-type) – 5 damage and 4.3 energy (1.6 damage per tap)
Charged moves
- Bubble Beam (Water-type) – 25 damage and 40 energy (100% chance to lower an opponent’s attack by 1 rank)
- Hydro Pump (Water-type) – 130 damage and 75 energy
- Ice Beam (Ice-type) – 90 damage and 55 energy
- Water Pulse (Water-type) – 70 damage and 60 energy
Suicune has several choices in each category. Starting with its fast move, you want to go with snarl over the other choices. Unfortunately, Suicune does not have a Water-type move available to it, which would give it a same-type-attack-bonus (STAB) effect. With that in mind, you want to go with snarl as it provides the most energy of all the choices. You’ll be able to use that energy to give Suicune the chance to use its charged attacks far more often.
With the charged move choices, the first option you want to go with is hydro pump or bubble beam, depending on how you plan to use Suicune. Hydro pump requires the most energy of Suicune’s charged moves, but the damage output from it, including the STAB bonus with the attack, moves it a worthwhile option. Bubble beam is a low damage attack that wouldn’t punch through some of the tougher Pokémon you’d be battling in the Master League, and water pulse doesn’t do enough damage for the energy requirement. Bubble beam is more effective in the Ultra League because Pokémon in that league have lower health, and you can use it far more often, lowering their attack stat. But for the Master League, if you’re already trying to reach 60 energy, you might as well hold for hydro pump and do twice the damage.
The second option you want to grab for Suicune is ice beam. It does not cost as much energy as hydro pump does, and it does quite a bit of damage. The Ice-type attack also makes Suicune effective at taking down Dragon, Flying, Grass, and Ground-type Pokémon. It’s good it can battle against Grass-types, as that is one of its primary weaknesses.
Suicune is a good choice. Although, because it has a lower PvP maximum CP, you’ll probably want to keep it in the Ultra League rather than use it in the Master League. It has a better chance of being effective there, but if you pair it with the correct team, you can catch some trainers off-guard. Make sure Suicune learns snarl for its fast move, and then ice beam and hydro pump for Master League, or bubble beam for Ultra League, for its charged moves.
