Rayquaza is one of the many legendary Pokémon you can capture in Pokémon Go. You’ll normally find it by participating in five-star raids, although it has been given as a reward for completing specific special research tasks. These special research tasks are normally interwoven with larger events, so you’ll have to make sure to participate in these when they happen. By defeating Rayquaza in a five-star raid, you have a chance to catch it, and you might even find its shiny version. While Rayquaza is not the best Pokémon, you need to give it the best moves to make sure you optimize it for combat.

Rayquaza is a Dragon and Flying-type Pokémon. It’s weak to Dragon, Fairy, Ice, and Rock-type moves, but it’s resistant against Bug, Fighting, Fire, Grass, Ground, and Water-type attacks. For PvP, it has a maximum CP of 3,835, an attack of 236, a defense of 146, and a stamina of 180. For PvE, it has an attack of 284, a defense of 170, and a stamina of 213. Despite it having a high CP, it won’t be able to do well against most Pokémon in the master league, and you’re better off using it for raids.

These are all of the moves Rayquaza can learn.

Fast moves

  • Air Slash (Flying-type) – 9 damage and 3 energy (3 damage per turn)Dragon Tail (Dragon-type) – 9 damage and 3.3 energy (3 damage per turn)

Charged moves

  • Aerial Ace (Flying-type) – 55 damage and 45 energyAncient Power (Rock-type) – 45 damage and 45 energy (10% chance to increase user’s attack and defense by 2 ranks)Hurricane (Flying-type) – 110 damage and 65 energyOutrage (Dragon-type) – 110 damage and 60 energy

Rayquaza doesn’t have access to too many moves, which is its biggest drawback, and why it struggles so much in the Battle League. Of the fast move choices, you want to go with dragon tail. It provides a small degree more energy than air slash does. The two do the same damage.

When it comes to charged moves, we’re going to recommend you go with outrage and aerial ace. While hurricane is Rayquaza’s exclusive move, it is not the best choice, unless you plan to use Rayquaza for PvE raids. In that case, you want to swap out aerial ace for hurricane. But, for PvP battles, you want to keep with outrage and aerial ace. These attacks are two different types, spreading out Rayquaza’s overall attack coverage.

Rayquaza is not the best PvP Pokémon. You primarily want to use it for raids, and use it in PvE. Make sure it knows dragon tail for its fast move, and then aerial ace and outrage for its charged attacks. Rayquaza does do much better if you power it up using XL candy, but that can take you quite a bit of time to grind.