Pokemon Go: How to defeat Metagross, weakness & counters

ByAdam B Hours
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Shiny Metagross in the Pokemon Anime

Metagross is among the most popular and powerful Pokemon available in Pokemon Go, but what weakness does the Iron Leg Pokemon have?

This short guide is designed to inform you enough about Metagross and any possible weakness you can target so that you know how to defeat the psuedo-legendary Iron Leg Pokemon.

What is the biggest weakness of Metagross in Pokemon Go?

As is typical in any Pokemon title, including Pokemon Go, precisely how strong a Pokemon is and what moves it uses may vary depending on the individual, but there are a few things that remain consistent across all versions of it.

Regardless of the stats, moves and other aspects of a Pokemon, Type is a constant we can use to target a weakness in any Pokemon, even a Pokemon as strong as Metagross.

Metagross is a Steel/Psychic Dual-Type, which is a complex and highly viable typing, but not one without a weakness or two in Pokemon Go.

M. Metagross in the Pokemon Anime
Mega Metagross from the Pokemon Anime, Credit: Bulbapedia

Due to the sheer amount of interactions with this typing, I’m going to resort to lists for both resistances and weaknesses below rather than covering them individually.

Metagross resistances

Note that doubled resistances are double resisted, dealing only 39% damage total, instead of the usual 62.5% that the rest of the resistances take.

  • Dragon
  • Fairy
  • Flying
  • Grass
  • Ice
  • Normal
  • Rock
  • Steel
  • Poison
  • Psychic

Metagross weaknesses

Metagross notably has no double weaknesses whatsoever, meaning each of these is equally viable on a damage dealt basis.

  • Dark
  • Fire
  • Ghost
  • Ground

So which of these weakness options is the best to use against Metagross in Pokemon Go? Well they all take the same damage, so let’s see what Metagross has in its possible attacks to make sure we’re picking the best counter Type possible.

Pokemon Metagross
Metagross can be a difficult combatant to beat in Pokemon Go, with only a few possible weakness targets compared to how many resistances it possesses.

READ MORE: Pokemon Go Raids: Hidden Mechanic Discovered

What moves can Metagross use in battle?

Fast Attacks
  • Bullet Punch (Steel)
  • Zen Headbutt (Psychic)
Charged Attacks
  • Earthquake (Ground)
  • Flash Cannon (Steel)
  • Psychic (Psychic)
  • Meteor Mash (Steel)

Ghost-Types will take the standard 100% damage from every move Metagross has, so that’s a type to avoid, and the same applies to Ground-Types. Fire-Type can resist any Steel moves, but the type is a risk as Earthquake can cause real trouble for Fire-Types.

This leaves Dark, which is possibly our best safe choice here. Fire theoretically has the advantage from resisting half of Metagross’ possible moves, but Dark types are completely immune to two attacks due to them being Psychic, and has no weakness that Metagross can target back.

In short, Fire-Types are the strongest but have additional risks due to a Ground-Type weakness that can be exploited by Earthquake. Dark-Types offer a similar strength against Metagross while not having any additional risk, therefore Dark-Types will be the most reliable option against Metagross in Pokemon Go.

Countering Metagross in Pokemon Go – Summary

Metagross is still a very strong Pokemon to deal with, and has far more Types resisted than possible weaknesses for us to abuse. With that said, both Dark-Types and Fire-Types are good options to use against Metagross, though Dark-Type is a more reliable choice.

With the weakness of Metagross in Pokemon Go now revealed, we’ve covered this topic about as much as is needed. If you’d be interested, you can find further Pokemon Go articles, stories, and guides on The Click right here, and more pieces written by me personally here.