GO Rankings Methodology

What the score is

Our tier list and best-attackers pages rank Pokémon by a neutral-target weave-DPS estimate: how much damage per second a Pokémon deals by weaving its best fast + charged move pairing against a target that neither resists nor is weak to the moves. It is a measure of raw offensive pressure — not a prediction of performance against a specific raid boss.

The exact formula

For each Pokémon we test every fast × charged move combination it can currently learn and keep the highest-scoring pairing. Scores are relative — only the ordering matters. Tier letters are percentiles of the #1 score: S ≥ 95%, A ≥ 85%, B ≥ 72%, C ≥ 60%, else D. By construction the top Pokémon is always S-tier.

Inputs

• GO base Attack per form (regional forms, Megas and Primals have their own real stats).
• Move power, energy, and duration (PvE values), including legacy and Elite-TM moves.
• The ×1.2 same-type attack bonus (STAB) and the official level-40 CP multiplier (0.7903).

What the model does NOT account for

These are real limitations — they're why we label the rankings an estimate:

• Defender typing and type effectiveness — per-boss raid guides use the separate matchup model documented below instead.
• Bulk and survivability (TDO): on the tier list a fragile attacker scores the same as a durable one with equal DPS. Raid guides do model TDO (see below).
• The Shadow Pokémon damage bonus — Shadow forms are listed with base-form stats and annotated on their pages instead.
• Weather boost, friendship bonuses, dodging, relobby time, and multi-Pokémon raid dynamics.
• Energy gained from taking damage.
• Availability: whether a Pokémon (or a legacy move) is currently obtainable is not filtered — but movesets that require a legacy/Elite-TM move now carry a “Legacy” badge.

For research-grade simulations that model all of the above, we genuinely recommend the community simulators (GamePress, Pokebattler, PvPoke for trainer battles). Our rankings aim to be a fast, transparent starting point computed from public game data.

The per-boss matchup model (raid guides)

The counter rankings on each raid guide use a deeper model than the tier list: every attacker's best fast + charged pairing is evaluated against that boss's actual typing and tier-scaled boss stats, using GO's real per-hit damage formula.

Type effectiveness uses GO's multipliers — super-effective ×1.6, resisted ×0.625, and ×0.390625 for main-series immunities (GO's double-resist tier) — stacked multiplicatively for dual-type bosses (double super-effective = ×2.56). The fast and charged moves' effectiveness are applied separately, since they can differ in type.

Raid bosses don't have levels: their stats are (base stat + 15) × a fixed per-tier CP multiplier, with a fixed HP pool — the well-documented community constants: Tier 1 CPM 0.5974 / 600 HP, Tier 3 CPM 0.73 / 3,600 HP, Tier 5 and Mega CPM 0.79 / 15,000 HP, Elite & Primal CPM 0.79 / 20,000 HP. Boss HP isn't part of the score (it's shared across the whole lobby); the tier CPM scales every candidate identically, so the counter ordering is robust to the tier choice.

Survivability (TDO) is a documented estimate, not a simulation. Incoming damage uses a neutral boss-DPS proxy: boss effective Attack × 3.6 ÷ the attacker's effective Defense — calibrated so a typical Tier-5 boss (effective Attack ≈ 250) matches the long-standing community rule of thumb of ≈ 900 ÷ Defense. Attacker HP and Defense are (base + 15) × 0.7903; Shadow Pokémon take ×1.2 damage (defense ÷ 1.2). We do notmodel the boss's specific moveset or its type matchup against your attacker, dodging, energy gained from damage taken, energy overflow (fast-move counts may be fractional), or relobbying.

The combined score is DPS³ × TDO ÷ 1000— the community-standard balance metric. Cubing DPS weights clear speed heavily (raids are timed) while the linear TDO term still rewards attackers that live long enough to deliver their damage; the ÷1000 only normalizes the displayed numbers. Shadow attackers aren't ranked yet, even though the model supports their ×1.2 damage dealt / ×1.2 damage taken.

How this compares to full simulators:the simplifications above shift absolute DPS/TDO numbers but largely cancel out in ordering, so our top counters track simulator lists (Pokebattler, GamePress) closely. Expect divergence mainly where survivability against a specific boss moveset separates glass cannons from bulky attackers, or where dodging changes the outcome — full simulators model both, we deliberately don't. Every formula on this page is pinned by hand-computed unit-test fixtures in the codebase, so a change to the math can't ship silently.

Where the data comes from

Stats, movepools, and move timings are imported from the community-maintained PogoAPI through a validated import pipeline — data only changes when a new import passes its checks, and the snapshot below is the import the current rankings are computed from. Page caching may re-render daily, but that never means the underlying data changed.