Gigantamax Snorlax counters, weakness, and battle tips in Pokémon Go

Gigantamax Snorlax is the latest Gigantamax Pokémon to debut in Pokémon Go, and being the chonker it is, it’ll be hard to take down. Its high defensive stats will make it tough, so make sure to group up with as many players as you possibly can to increase your odds of winning.

Snorlax will specifically be around on Gigantamax Snorlax Max Battle Day on April 19 from 2-5 p.m. in your local time, showing up every 30 minutes or so at Power Spots in your area.

Below we list Gigantamax Snorlax’s best counters and weaknesses in Pokémon Go, as well as general battle tips for the lazy fat cat.

Gigantamax Snorlax weakness

As a normal-type Pokémon, Snorlax only has one weakness: fighting-type moves, which means we only have a few options for super effective attacks, annoyingly enough.

Since it’s normal-type, Snorlax will resist ghost-type moves, so you definitely don’t want to use those as your attackers in this case.

Gigantamax Snorlax best counters

Try to bring at least one of these attackers to deal the most damage:

Dynamax Machamp with Counter
Dynamax Passimian with Counter
Gigantamax Kingler with Metal Claw
Gigantamax Charizard with Dragon Breath
Dynamax Falinks with Counter

It should be noted that the DPS difference between Machamp and the rest of these Pokémon is large. It is really annoying to somewhat “have” to level up a Dynamax Machamp when we know that Gigantamax Machamp is on the horizon (as it’s been shown in trailers for this season). That being said, if you do not have the extra Machop resources and you would prefer to save them for Gigantamax Machamp, that is totally cool, just bring one of the other aforementioned choices.

Notably there is a Timed Research set active right now until the end of the raid day event that rewards you with Machop Candy and a Dynamax Machop to help you get a powered up Machamp! As a reminder, you can also trade Machops with your friends to reduce the cost of evolving Machoke into Machamp (from 100 Machop Candy to zero!), which should help ease the candy requirements for powering up and evolving this thing.

For your tanks, you’ll want to bring one or two of these with leveled up Max Guard to tank damage and build up your gauge:

Dynamax Blissey with Pound
Dynamax Chansey with Pound
Gigantamax/Dynamax Gengar with Shadow Claw
Gigantamax Lapras with Water Gun

Notably you should have Max Spirit (healing) unlocked for your Blissey and Chansey. There is a chance that Snorlax will know Superpower, a fighting-type move that will give Blissey/Chansey and Lapras a hard time — in which case you can use your Gengar to charge your meter instead. (Though it’s entirely possible for your very tanky Blissey to just eat the attacks and heal through it.)

The ideal strategy would be to bring two Blisseys and a Machamp, have the Blisseys tank and charge the meter, and then swap to Machamp to dish out Max Knuckle damage.

Even if you don’t have these powered up, consider just bringing the strongest Dynamax or Gigantamax Pokémon you have. If you have a maxed out Gigantamax Toxtricity and your Dynamax Machamp isn’t leveled (and you don’t have the means to power it up), just bring your Toxtricity. This one is particularly tough due to the lack of options and the looming fear of power creep due to Gigantamax Machamp’s upcoming introduction.

General Gigantamax Snorlax tips

If you’ve been struggling in Max Battles, here’s some general tips to survive — and make sure you’re an asset to your team. Gigantamax battles involve way more strategy than the usual rampant tapping that you do in raids, so make sure to know what you’re doing before jumping in.

Make sure you have enough players. High-efficiency groups with maxed out investments can take down the Snorlax with fewer people, but practically, if you don’t have hundreds of spare candy and even more Stardust laying around, this isn’t going to be an option for you. Make sure you have as many people as possible to ensure that you get your sleeping road obstacle.
Don’t sleep on Max Spirit and Max Guard. Teams work best when there’s a variety of moves, not just maxed-out attacks. Each player should bring Pokémon with the defensive and healing moves unlocked as well. Max Guard will focus single-target damage towards you and reduce the damage taken; Max Spirit will heal the whole party. These moves are really important to make sure your damage-dealers can keep dishing.
Remember to swap to super effective moves when it’s time to Dynamax. For Dynamax Pokémon, their max moves are determined by whatever type their fast move is. This means if you have a Darmanitan with Fire Fang, it will know Max Flare. A Gengar with Lick will know Max Phantasm. Take advantage of this and make sure to swap to a Pokémon that will deal super effective damage to your target before Dynamaxing, if you can.
Focus on your fast moves. You want to spam your fast moves to build up that Dynamax meter and often times, using your charge move is actually a DPS loss when compared to the damage you could be doing with your max move will be. Spam those attacks!
Level up a few ‘mons, but you don’t have to go too hard. Depending on your group size, you absolutely do not need to max out all your Dynamax Pokémon to level 40-50. While this will make it easier on the rest of your group, if this isn’t an investment you can make, you don’t have to stress about it. Power things up as high as you can afford to, but don’t fret if you don’t have a maxed out Pokémon.
That all being said, make sure to come as prepared as you can be. This is a team effort and there’s a chance that a full group of four can still fail. Do not just bring your unleveled Dynamax Wooloo expecting a free ride to a powerful Pokémon. (After all, if everyone does that, then you certainly won’t clear the battle.) Again, you don’t have to completely max out your Pokémon, but it will be better for everyone involved if you bring something helpful to the table.
Keep your eye out for a shiny Snorlax! If you clear the raid, there is a chance that the Snorlax you catch will be shiny — which also means it’ll be a guaranteed catch. Use a Pinap Berry to score extra candy if you get lucky enough to find a sparkly Snorlax.