Pokémon Go Gigantamax Machamp counters, weaknesses and tactics explained

Gigantamax Machamp counters and weaknesses in Pokémon Go

In order to battle a Gigantamax Machamp, you first need to do three things:

• Have 800 Max Particles
• Have IRL friends who play the game or use a Remote Raid Pass
• Find a Power Spot with a Gigantamax Machamp

While the upside to Max Battles not using Raid Passes is that this is obviously a money-saver for the player. The downside is that you need to find people to play with in real life, rather than remoting in. As with previous Gigantamax battles, we strongly recommend travelling to an urban centre for a pre-arranged meet-up. You have little chance of doing this solo or with a small group in a rural area.

Once you have achieved these lofty feats, you can begin the Max Battle and attempt to take down Gigantamax Machamp. Don’t worry if you fail the first time – your Max Particles aren’t taken until you win the battle; as long as you have enough Revives and Potions, you can keep trying until you run out of battery!

Below you’ll find the counters and weaknesses for Gigantamax Machamp to help you win the Max Battle:

• Gigantamax Machamp types – Fighting-type
• Gigantamax Machamp is weak against – Fairy, Flying and Psychic-type attacks
• Gigantamax Machamp is resistant to – Bug, Dark and Rock-type attacks
• Gigantamax Machamp top offensive counters – Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dynamax Metagross (Zen Headbutt) is your best bet. It is an absolute beast, look at it. After that, you’re looking at your Dynamax fliers – Dynamax Moltres (Wing Attack), Dynamax Unfezant (Air Slash) or Dynamax Charizard (Wing Attack or Air Slash). One trap to avoid is Gigantamax Charizard, which has a Fire-type attack when Maxed.

• Number of players to beat Gigantamax Machamp – As always, the more the merrier, up to a maximum of 40. Remember, you will be split into teams of four, so don’t worry if you don’t see everyone in your lobby! In your group of four, you should aim for two attackers, one healer and one defender.
• Tactics – Dynamax and Gigantamax raids are a little more complicated than traditional raids in Pokémon Go.
  First, be aware that your Fast move governs your D-Max move, so make sure to bring a Fast move that Gigantamax Machamp is weak against, if you can (ideally the one we suggest above).
  If you’re one of the attackers, you need to focus on using your Fast Move as much possible, to unleash your Max Attack as quickly and often as possible.
  If you’re out of fighters, and can leave that to someone who isn’t, you should focus on either defending or healing your team. Your top defenders who can put up a strong Max Guard are Gigantamax Venusaur, Gigantamax Blastoise and Dynamax Raikou, while Dynamax Blissey, Gigantamax Snorlax and Gigantamax Lapras are the best healers with Max Spirit. A little teamwork here goes a long way!
• Rewards for beating Gigantamax Machamp – For taking down a 6* Gigantamax Machamp, you will receive 25,000 Stardust, 25,000 XP, 1 Rare Candy XL, 30 Machamp Candy, 1 Machamp Candy XL and 10 Premier Balls. Don’t forget to crack a Star Piece and a Lucky Egg beforehand if you want to maximise your Max rewards!

Gigantamax Machamp CP in Pokémon Go

Unlike with Raids, there is no visible CP on a Max Battle boss. Instead, it just has a giant health bar that gets slightly smaller with each hit. It’s also worth noting that because these battles take place in their own special arena, there is no weather boost available.

Below you’ll find the CP levels for Gigantamax Machamp in Pokémon Go:

• CP range for catching Gigantamax Machamp – 1667 to 1746 CP
• CP for perfect Gigantamax Machamp – 1746 CP

Best Machamp moveset in Pokémon Go

While Gigantamax Machamp is currently the only Fighting-type Gigantamax Pokémon in Pokémon Go, it is not the only Fighting-type Max Pokémon. That said, your Max-champ is going to put the likes of Dynamax Falinks to shame. You’re going to want a decent Gigantamax Machamp if you like doing these raids.

That said, if you want to use your fancy new Machamp in Go Battle League, you are welcome to do so. Be aware, however, it won’t be in its Gigantamax form! It’s hardly fair for you to show up with a 82’+ (25m+) behemoth to take down the opponent’s Rattata, is it? That’s just taller than 15 Machamps standing on each other’s shoulders (because yes, we measure Machamps in Machamps).

However, you should note that Machamp was not built for Go Battle League – look at him, he was built to punch! Or to put it in a more mechanical way, its attack stats are too high relative to its defence, which is the opposite of what you want for PVP. Sure, Shadow Machamp isn’t bad as you can lean into the glass cannon archetype, but you’re not going to get of those doing these raids!

Instead, Machamp is a famed Gym and Raid attacker, so if you get a high-IV Machamp, it’s probably not a bad idea to give it some performance-enhancing Candy. If those narcs from the Pokémon League ask, it’s totally legal, nothing to see here…

Back to the topic at hand. You should run Counter (Fast) and Dynamic Punch (Charged). Don’t bother adding a second Charged move. It’s also nice to know that Gigantamachamp has a special move when maxed out: G-Max Chi Strike. It hits pretty hard…

Here are all the Fast and Charged moves Gigantamax Machamp can use in Pokémon Go:

Fast Moves:

• Bullet Punch (Steel)
• Counter (Fighting)

Charged Moves:

• Close Combat (Fighting)
• Cross Chop (Fighting)
• Dynamic Punch (Fighting)
• Heavy Slam (Steel)
• Rock Slide (Rock)

Legacy Fast Moves:

• Payback (Dark)
• Stone Edge (Rock)
• Submission (Fighting)

Legacy Charged Moves:

Everything we know about Machamp

The Superpower Pokémon, Machamp, is iconic. The poster-child of the Fighting type, Machamp is the final evolution of Machop.

Machop is a cute little Pokémon. It’s design is basically a reptilian body-builder, while the name is a mix of ‘macho’ (male in Spanish/Portuguese) and ‘chop’. Machop evolves into Machoke, a larger, more muscley Pokémon and one that looks better suited to wrestling. Perhaps this is why we swap ‘chop’ for ‘choke’. Finally, we have Machamp, the macho macho champ… Machamp is so strong it even grew a second pair of arms… go figure.

Sticking to the names, the beta version of Pokémon Red and Blue had different names for this trio – Karatee, Kung-Foo and Ju-Doh. This is interesting considering Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee being from the same generation and highlighting other martial arts. It’s also nice to know that this idea wasn’t abandoned completely, with Sawk and Throh being the Karate and Judo Pokémon respectively. The list of martial arts has also expanded, notably with Kubfu being the Wushu Pokémon.

Finally, as cool as Machamp is, it’s less unique than you might think. It has a couple of obvious counterparts – Alakazam and Gengar from Gen 1, which follow similar designs (Alakazam is heavily statted towards Special Attack rather than Attack, for example) and have the same trade-based special evolution. In later generations, we would eventually get Conkeldurr as a strongly Machamp-inspired alternative to this classic Pokémon, too.

As for Gigantamax Machamp, they pretty much just made it bigger and stronger. Interestingly, it is the only Pokémon capable of learning the move G-Max Chi Strike!

If you want to learn more about Machop, Machoke, Machamp and Gigantamax Machamp, you can read their official Pokédex entries below:

• Machop: ‘Its whole body is composed of muscles. Even though it’s the size of a human child, it can hurl 100 grown-ups. Always brimming with power, it passes time by lifting boulders. Doing so makes it even stronger.’
• Machoke: ‘Its muscular body is so powerful, it must wear a power-save belt to be able to regulate its motions. Its formidable body never gets tired. It helps people by doing work such as the moving of heavy goods.’
• Machamp: ‘It punches with its four arms at blinding speed. It can launch 1,000 punches in two seconds. It can knock a train flying with a punch. However, it is terrible at delicate work using its fingers.’
• Gigantamax Machamp: ‘The Gigantamax energy coursing through its arms makes its punches hit as hard as bomb blasts. One of these Pokémon once used its immeasurable strength to lift a large ship that was in trouble. It then carried the ship to port.’

It’s also good to know that shiny Machamp is in the game, which means that shiny Gigantamax Machamp is in the game too! As you can see below, Shiny Machamp is a hideous shade of vomit-green.

Mankey & Machop shiny family
byu/Kelven91 inTheSilphRoad

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Fortunately, the darker green and the shadows on the Gigantamax version make it look a lot better, and weirdly, a little like Buzzwole…

Thanks to Reddit user Kelven91 and YouTuber SmkGaming05 for the handy previews!

Good luck defeating Gigantamax Machamp in Pokémon Go!