How to beat Heatran in Pokemon GO raids in January 2022

Heatran may seem like one of the more intimidating Raid bosses in Pokemon GO, but it’s actually very exploitable.

Trainers are likely in a hurry to challenge this Raid, since it only lasts until January 15th (when it will be replaced with Genesect Shock Drive). The type combination of Fire and Steel that Heatran has gives it a laundry list of resistances, but also one very large weakness that every trainer should be able to take advantage of.

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Which Pokemon beat Heatran in the quickest time?

Being Fire-type and Steel-type, Heatran suffers from a double weakness to Ground. Moves that are double super effective deal 256% damage, so despite Heatran’s 213 Defense and 209 Stamina, it will fold quickly if it starts getting pelted with Ground-type moves.

Fortunately, some of the best Pokemon in the game are Ground-type (Excadrill, Mamoswine, Swampert, etc.) The number one ranked counter to the Heatran raid, though, is Garchomp.

This is likely due to the Mud Slap and Earth Power moveset. Obviously, a Pokemon that can charge a strong Earthquake should at least be able to do a huge chunk of damage to Heatran. Since Earth Power only eats up half of the energy bar, though, Garchomp can have access to it quicker.

A perfect case study of this is Flygon, the 13th ranked counter for Heatran. Flygon gets access to both Earth Power and Earthquake, but it’s specifically Earth Power Flygon that is ranked 13 here.

Flygon's Earth Power does tons of damage to Heatran (Image via Game Freak)

In terms of availability, Flygon might be the best counter. It’s a Tier 3 Raid boss itself, so if any trainer has no Ground-type Pokemon at all, they can battle the Flygon Raid, catch it, and use that.

Simply because Earth Power looks a little better, though, doesn’t mean Earthquake isn’ a great move to use against Heatran. Plenty of top ranked counters (Landorus Therian, Rhyperior, Groudon) use Earthquake in their movesets.

Excadrill is another top counter to Heatran, but trainers should really think before they use it. Excadrill is weak to Heatran’s Fire Spin, Fire Blast and Flamethrower. Normally, this wouldn’t matter, since Excadrill deals out way more damage than it receives, but an underleveled Excadrill with low CP could potentially have a rough time with this Raid.