Best counters to Tapu Fini in Pokémon Go

The final Island Guardian of the Alola region has made its way into Pokémon Go to continue the game’s Season of Alola. For a limited time, players will be able to find and capture the elusive Tapu Fini and add a powerful Legendary Pokémon to their teams.

Tapu Fini is currently available as the five-star Raid boss around the world alongside special research celebrating its status as the Guardian of Poni Island in the Alola region. This Pokémon was first discovered in Pokémon Sun and Moon, where alongside Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, and Tapu Bulu, it acted as a central part of the games’ stories.

As a five-star Raid-exclusive Pokémon, Tapu Fini requires numerous players to come together in an attempt to take it down. Its status as a powerful Legendary Pokémon is boasted with access to powerful moves like Surf and Moonblast, rendering a variety of popular Raid combatants useless.

As a Water-and-Fairy-type Pokémon, Tapu Fini possesses a myriad of weaknesses, though also enjoys access to multiple resistances. Poison, Grass, and Electric-type moves will deal super-effective damage to the Land Spirit Pokémon, though there are not many high-CP Pokémon that are easily accessible with these types of moves.

Raikou and Zekrom are great options for dealing massive damage to Tapu Fini and should be considered as options when heading into the Raid battles. More common Electric-type Pokémon like Raichu, Lanturn, and Jolteon can deal super-effective damage to Tapu Fini but struggle to contend against the damage that the Legendary Pokémon can deal.

Gengar can similarly chip down Tapu Fini with Poison-type damage but also suffers from its placement as a glass cannon. Mega Evolving it may work in the player’s favor for this fight due to the massive CP and stat boost. Most other Poison-type Pokémon do not reach a CP threshold that can efficiently deal with Tapu Fini without being taken down with one attack, so Mega Gengar should be an option to consider.

Players opting to use Grass-type Pokémon against Tapu Fini should be aware that it has access to Ice Beam. As an Ice-type move, this will deal massive damage to these Pokémon despite them having the innate type advantage, though not every Tapu Fini will have Ice Beam in its arsenal. Dragon-type Pokémon should be avoided completely unless their secondary typing has an advantage over Tapu Fini, like Zekrom.

Steel-type Pokémon like Metagross or Registeel can also be considered due to their resistance to many of Tapu Fini’s moves. However, due to Tapu Fini’s Water-typing with its Fairy-type, Steel-type moves will not deal super-effective damage to it.

Tapu Fini will be available in five-star Raids in Pokémon Go until May 20. It is unclear when it will be returning to Riads after this period has concluded.