Mega Heracross as a Bug-type and Fighting-type Raid Attacker

Mega Heracross will debut in Pokemon GO on Saturday, April 13. On this day, there will be a special raid day from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and will continue to participate in regular Mega Raids until April 25. In this article we will look at its utility as a raid attacker in both its types.

Note: For this particular analysis, the simulation data for both types is 1-1.5 years old (before ghost raids became a thing), and I have not re-run new simulations due to time constraints. time. I’m confident that general line placement is still valid, but minute details such as the distance between two attackers may not be perfectly accurate.

Main points

Mega Heracross is, for the moment, the Bug #1 and Combat Attacker #1. He narrowly surpasses Mega Pinsir and Terrakion, respectively, and will remain the best bug attacker until Shadow Volcarona becomes a thing. It is also a mega bulky this will help you contribute even more to group raids by increasing the damage dealt by other players.

However, the picture is a little less rosy once we leave this narrow framework:

• Bug types lack power compared to other types of attacks for the same role, notably Ghost and Dark Attackers. In particular, Mega Heracross can’t compete with Mega Tyranitar, Mega Gengar, and most other megas; not to mention that these megas are much more likely to provide a similar 30% boost to other players.
• Mega Lucario will eventually outclass Mega Heracross as solo fighting the attacker. However, an often overlooked caveat is: Mega Heracross is best suited for group raids due to its volume: if 2+ other players bring Fighting types, Mega Heracross generally contributes more group damage than Mega Lucario (assuming neutral types).
• In terms of contribution to group damage, the management of a primal or Mega Ray “background” will likely yield better results, now or in the future:
  • As a bug mega-type, Mega Heracross is largely overshadowed by a background Primal Kyogrewhich increases the bug damage of others by 30%.
  • As a fighting-type Mega, any background primal already deals slightly more group damage than Mega Heracross without a type match; but if Mega Mewtwo also gets the background enhancement feature, this destroys the competition.
  • (See the 4th section here for an explanation of how Primal works in the background.)

Nevertheless, Mega Heracross is still an exceptional attacker overall despite the shortcomings. It will also be particularly useful for a small number of bosses (mostly future) where bug counters are mandatory (the most likely of which are Calyrex, Wo-Chien and Iron Leaves).

My analyzes of other types are in this spreadsheet. You can also follow me on Twitter (X) and Topics!

Graphics

Imgur links and additional graphics

General attacker graphs: ASE and ASTTW*

Mega-graphics:

*indicates additional graphics not included in the main post.