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Pokémon Go Genesect counters, weaknesses and moveset

Add the Paleozoic Genesect to your Pokédex!

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Guide by Lottie Lynn Guides Editor
Additional contributions by Nic Bunce
Updated on

Genesect, the Paleozoic Pokémon, can now be added to every player's Pokédex in Pokémon Go.

Originally released as part of the paid in-game event, A Drive to Investigate, Genesect will now be available for all players to battle and catch.

While Genesect is a mythical Pokémon, it will, like many legendary Pokémon, appear in five-star raids. This means that if you want to complete your Gen 5 Pokédex, you'll have to team up with a group of trainers, which, thanks to Remote Raiding, you can now do at home.

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Genesect counters and weaknesses in Pokémon Go

If you're looking for a Genesect raid guide to help take down this five-star Pokémon, you'll find Genesect's weaknesses, along with a list of possible counters, below:

  • Genesect type - Bug and steel-type
  • Genesect is very weak against - Fire-type
  • Genesect counters - Mega Charizard X or Y (Fire Spin / Blast Burn), Mega Houndoom (Fire Fang / Flamethrower), Shadow Ho-oh (Incinerate / Sacred Fire +), Reshiram (Fire Fang / Overheat), Darmanitan (Fire Spin / Flamethrower), Chandelure (Fire Spin / Overheat), Blaziken (Fire Spin / Blast Burn), Heatran, Moltres (Fire Spin / Overheat), Emboar (Ember / Bast Burn), Entei (Fire Fang / Overheat) and Flareon (Fire Spin / Overheat)
  • Other Genesect notes - Genesect is one of the easier five-star Pokémon to raid, and can be beaten with a team of two or three trainers with the best Level 40 counters.

    The Pokémon listed above are in the order of usefullness, but selecting counters for Genesect is actually quite easy. Simply select your most powerful fire-type Pokémon with their strongest fire-type attacks and tap the screen until either Genesect faints or your party does.

    If your team faints, send in your remaining fire-type Pokémon and keep going!

Genesect CP in Pokémon Go

Here are the CP ranges you can expect to see when battling and attempting to catch Genesect in Pokémon Go:

  • Raid Boss CP - 47,836
  • CP range when being caught - 1,833 to 1,916
  • Weather boosted CP (Rain) when being caught - 2,292 to 2,395

Thank you to Arik90 from reddit for the help with this information.

Genesect Moveset in Pokémon Go

Like every Pokémon in Pokémon Go, Genesect can use a variety of Fast and Charged moves, but, unlike other Pokémon, Genesect's 'drive' decides which Charged moves it can learn.

This does not change its overall typing - just the moves it can use. This means that while it is always very weak to fire-type attacks, the attacks it will hit you vary depending on the version you come across.

Here are the moves Genesect can use:

Genesect.

Possible Fast Moves:

  • Fury Cutter (Bug)
  • Metal Claw (Steel)

Possible Charged Moves:

  • Flamethrower (Fire) - Burn Drive only
  • Gunk Shot (Poison) - Douse Drive only
  • Hyper Beam (Normal)
  • Ice Beam (Ice) - Chill Drive only
  • Magnet Bomb (Steel)
  • Techno Blast (Electric) - Shock Drive only
  • Techno Blast (Fire) - Burn Drive only
  • Techno Blast (Ice) - Chill Drive only
  • Techno Blast (Water) - Douse Drive only
  • X-Scissor (Bug)
  • Zap Cannon (Electric) - Shock Drive only

The World of Wonders season has come to Pokémon Go. Wiglett can now be caught as part of Rediscover Kanto, but don't forget to complete the World of Wonders quest. Don't forget to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

Can Genesect by shiny?

With the addition of the Chill Drive Genesect in August 2022, all forms of Genesect are now out. However, whether your Genesect can be shiny depends on which form is availble.

As of August 2022, only regular Genesect can be shiny. This means that if you're raiding for a Chill Drive Genesect, it cannot currently be shiny.

Everything we know about Genesect

When it comes to Pokémon lore, Genesect has a lot in common with Mewtwo.

As it's category as the 'Paleozoic Pokémon' suggests, Genesect was inspired by the giant insects of the Paleozoic era and, like in our world, these huge insects are now preserved in fossils.

It was one of these Genesect fossils that Team Plasma, the villainous team of the Unova region, brought back to life and then added a number of cybernetic enhancements to the revived Pokémon. This includes the cannon on Genesect's back and the various drives, which allows Genesect to use moves from a variety of different Pokémon types.

These enhancements also explain Genesect's status as a dual-type Pokémon; the bug typing comes from it being an ancient bug-type Pokémon, while the steel typing represents the experimentation it experienced.

Genesect was originally released into Pokémon Go as part of the paid in-game event, A Drive to Investigate, where players would receive the mythical Pokémon as part of the special Research Task questline.

Now, however, it will become part of the legendary Pokémon raid roster, making Genesect the second Mythical Pokémon, the first being Darkrai, to be made available via five-star raids.

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