Why You Can't Win a Five Star or Higher Raid Alone and How to Change That

You’re standing on a street corner, tapping furiously at your phone while a massive, shimmering egg hatches into a legendary beast. It looks cool. It’s intimidating. But then you see the CP—maybe it's 45,000, maybe it’s 50,000—and you realize your team of seasoned fighters is basically throwing pebbles at a tank. Honestly, trying to win a five star or higher raid is the ultimate "vibe check" in Pokémon GO. It’s the moment the game stops being a casual stroll through the park and starts demanding actual strategy, timing, and a bit of social engineering.

Raids are the heartbeat of the endgame.

If you’ve ever jumped into a lobby, wasted a Remote Raid Pass, and watched the timer hit zero with the boss still at 10% health, you know the frustration. It’s not just about having high-level Pokémon. It's about understanding the mechanics that Niantic doesn't explicitly explain in the tutorial. We’re talking about break points, Mega Evolutions, and the brutal reality of the 300-second clock.

The Brutal Math of Legendary Encounters

Let's be real: the game doesn't tell you that a Tier 5 boss has a fixed HP pool that makes soloing effectively impossible for 99% of the player base. Most Five Star bosses, like Kyogre or Groudon, have around 15,000 HP. If you're trying to win a five star or higher raid by yourself, you'd need to output massive damage per second (DPS) that current Pokémon stats simply don't allow. Even with a level 50 Shadow Mewtwo, you're looking at a mathematical brick wall.

Team size matters, but quality matters more. I've seen groups of ten players fail a Mega Rayquaza raid because they were all using "Recommended" teams. Never trust the recommended button. The game’s AI prioritizes "survival" over "damage," which means it often picks Aggron or Blissey because they won't faint quickly. That’s a trap. While your Aggron is busy tickling a Dialga, the timer is ticking toward a loss. You need glass cannons. You need counters that hit for Super Effective damage, even if they faint every thirty seconds.

Mega Raids and Elite Raids take this to a different level. When we talk about "higher" than five stars, we're usually looking at Mega Legendaries or Primal Reversions. These bosses can have upwards of 22,500 HP. You aren't just fighting a Pokémon; you're fighting the clock.

Type Matchups Are Only the Beginning

Everyone knows Water beats Fire. That’s basic. But to consistently win a five star or higher raid, you have to look at secondary typing and weather boosts.

If it’s raining outside, your Electric and Water moves get a 20% power bump. That is massive. It’s often the difference between a "Time’s Up" screen and a "Victory" screen. I remember a particularly nasty Blizzard Kyogre raid where the only reason we pulled through was the Sunny weather boosting our Grass-type attacks.

• Shadow Pokémon: They deal 20% more damage but take 20% more. In a raid, the timer is your only real enemy, so Shadow Pokémon are objectively better than their Purified counterparts.
• Mega Evolutions: Having a Mega active on the field boosts the attacks of everyone else in the raid. If you coordinate and tell your group, "Hey, I'm leading with Mega Sceptile," everyone else should bring their best Grass types to capitalize on that boost.
• The Dodge Glitch: It’s better now than it used to be, but dodging is still a risk-reward play. If you're about to get hit by a Draco Meteor, dodging might save your Pokémon to fire off one more Charged Attack. But if you dodge too much, your DPS drops. Sometimes it's better to just take the hit and faint so you can bring in the next attacker faster.

Tools of the Trade: Apps and Coordination

You can’t just hope people show up at a local gym anymore. Unless you live in Tokyo or New York City, the "wait and see" method is dead. To win a five star or higher raid, you have to use third-party tools. Apps like PokeGenie or LeekDuck’s Raid Now are industry standards. They allow you to host a raid and invite five people from across the globe.

There is a specific etiquette to this. If you're hosting, make sure you have a strong signal. Nothing ruins a raid faster than the host’s game crashing or lagging out. If you're a guest, be ready with your Remote Raid Pass the second the invite pops up.

Also, check the "Verified Damage" features on these apps. Some raids require you to prove you can do at least 20% of the boss's health before the app lets you join a high-level lobby. It sounds elitist, but it’s actually about respect. Nobody wants to carry a level 20 player through a Primal Kyogre raid when the margins are that thin.

Managing Your Resources

Stardust is the rarest currency in the game. Don't waste it powering up "cool" Pokémon that have no raid utility. If you want to win a five star or higher raid, you need a focused roster. Focus on "Generalists" first—Pokémon like Mewtwo, Rayquaza, or Kartana—that have such high base stats they can brute-force their way through many different bosses.

Elite TMs are another bottleneck. Don't use them lightly. Saving them for "Legacy Moves" like Psystrike on Mewtwo or Meteor Mash on Metagross is essential. These moves often increase a Pokémon's viability by 10-15%, which is huge in a Tier 6 environment.

The Power of the Party Play Boost

Recently, Niantic added the Party Play feature. If you’re playing with at least one other person in a "Party," you get a "Party Power" button during raids. Tapping this doubles the damage of your next Charged Attack.

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This is a game-changer for small groups. Two high-level players using Party Power can often take down a Five Star boss that previously required four or five people. It rewards the "boots on the ground" style of play that the developers are pushing for. If you aren't using this, you're essentially playing with one hand tied behind your back.

Why Some Raids Feel "Rigged"

Ever notice how some Five Star bosses are incredibly easy (looking at you, Guzzlord) while others feel impossible? It comes down to Double Weaknesses. Guzzlord is Dark/Dragon, making it double-weak to Fairy. This means it takes 256% damage from Fairy moves. You can solo a Guzzlord with a team of Gardevoirs.

Compare that to something like Lugia. Lugia is a defensive powerhouse with no double weaknesses. It’s a "tank" boss. Even with six people, Lugia can be a struggle because it just soaks up damage. Understanding the base stats of the boss is just as important as knowing your own team. You can check sites like GamePress or Pokebattler to see the "Time to Win" metric for any given boss. If the "Time to Win" is over 300 seconds for a single player, you're going to need backup.

Breaking Down the "Higher" Tiers

When the game says "higher than five stars," it’s talking about:

• Mega Raids: Usually 4-star difficulty, but Mega Legendaries are 6-star.
• Elite Raids: These are local-only. No remote passes allowed. These are the hardest challenges in the game.
• Primal Raids: Primal Kyogre and Groudon are arguably the toughest fights ever released.

To win these, you need a minimum of 6-8 players who know what they’re doing. You need to be "Best Friends" with as many people in the lobby as possible to get that extra attack bonus. You need to use your Mega Evolutions strategically so that someone always has a Mega on the field providing a boost. It’s a literal raid, in the MMO sense of the word.

Actionable Steps for Your Next Big Raid

Winning isn't about luck. It’s about preparation. If you want to stop losing passes and start catching Legendaries, follow these steps:

1. Audit your team: Go to your Pokémon storage and search for @1move & @2move to see who has the right move types. Use a site like Pokebattler to see the top 10 counters for the current raid boss.
2. Download a hosting app: If you don't have a local community, PokeGenie is your best friend. It bridges the gap between a lonely gym and a full lobby.
3. Invest in "Shadows": Stop purifying everything. A 0-IV Shadow Pokémon deals more damage than a 100-IV non-shadow Pokémon in raids.
4. Check the weather: If the boss is boosted by weather, it will be harder to catch and hit harder, but it will also be at a higher level (Level 25 instead of 20) when you catch it. Plan accordingly.
5. Coordinate Megas: If you're raiding with friends, don't all drop your Megas at once. Stagger them so the damage boost lasts for the entire duration of the fight.
6. Fast Catch and Fast Lobby: Learn how to "empty" your lobby team so you can jump back in faster if your first six Pokémon faint. Every second spent in the "rejoin" screen is a second you aren't doing damage.

Success in high-level raiding comes down to one thing: removing the "Recommended" team from your life and replacing it with a curated, high-DPS squad. The beast is waiting. Go take it down.