Xerneas is a new legendary Pokémon that you can catch in Pokémon Go. It will be making its appearance in the Luminous Legends X event, which kicks off on May 4 at 10 AM in your local time. You have a limited time to catch this Pokémon and add it to your collection, which you can do by beating it in five star raids. You’ll need a small team of trainers to defeat it. We’ve discussed the chances of encountering a shiny version of it, if Xerneas is good, and how to beat in the five star raids. When you do capture this Pokémon, you want to make sure you teach it the best attacks and give it the best moveset.
Xerneas is a Fairy-type Pokémon. It will be weak to Poison and Steel-type attacks but resistant against Bug, Dark, Dragon, and Fighting-type attacks. Unfortunately, it received the expected nerf as a legendary Pokémon, but the reduced stats made it even weaker than most of the other legendary Pokémon in the game. You want to be careful when using it because it’s not too strong.
These are all of the attacks Xerneas can learn.
Fast moves
- Tackle (Normal-type) – 3 damage and 2 energy (3 damage per turn)
- Zen Headbutt (Psychic-type) – 8 damage and 2 energy (2.6 damage per turn)
Charged moves
- Close Combat (Fighting-type) – 100 damage and 45 energy (100% chance to lower user’s defense by two ranks)
- Giga Impact (Normal-type) – 150 damage and 80 energy
- Megahorn (Bug-type) – 100 damage and 55 energy
- Moonblast (Fairy-type) – 110 damage and 60 energy (10% chance to lower the opponent’s attack by one rank)
- Thunder (Electric-type) – 100 damage and 60 energy
Xerneas does not have a lot of options for both the fast and charged moves. When picking Xerneas’ fast move, you want to go with tackle. It’s a Normal-type move, but compared to zen headbutt, it’s the better option. It’s a faster attack, and Xerneas can acquire more energy throughout a battle to use its more powerful charged moves.
For the charged moves, you want to go with close combat and moonblast. Close combat is the charged move that costs the least amount of energy, allowing Xerneas to burn an opponent’s shields, potentially baiting them from wasting it. When it comes to the second charged move, we recommend you use moonblast because it is a Fairy-type move, and Xerneas receives a bonus for using it. The other charged move options are okay, but they’re not as appealing.
When it comes to the attacks, Xerneas does not have anything in its arsenal, making it a standout legendary Pokémon. It has the expected charged move moonblast that good Fairy-type Pokémon have, but it lacks a solid fast move to make it truly devastating. It also doesn’t have the best stats, making a weaker choice than other legendary Pokémon in Pokémon Go.
The best moveset to teach Xerneas is the fast move tackle, followed by the charged moves close combat and moonblast.
