Pokémon Go Genesect Counters, Weaknesses And Moveset

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Genesect, the Paleozoic Pokémon, can now be added to every player's Pokédex in Pokémon Go.

Originally released as part of the paid Pokémon Go in-game event, A Drive to Investigate, Genesect will now be available for all players to battle and catch.

While Genesect is a mythical Pokémon, it will, like many legendary Pokémon, appear in five-star raids. This means that if you want to complete your Gen 5 Pokédex, you'll have to team up with a group of trainers, which, thanks to Remote Raiding, you can now do at home.

On this page:

• Genesect counters and weaknesses
• Genesect CP in Pokémon Go
• Genesect Moveset in Pokémon Go
• Everything we know about Genesect
• Can Genesect by shiny?

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Genesect counters and weaknesses in Pokémon Go

If you're looking for a Genesect raid guide to help take down this five-star Pokémon, you'll find Genesect's weaknesses, along with a list of possible counters, below:

• Genesect type - Bug and Steel-type
• Genesect is very weak against - Fire-type
• Genesect Mega counters - Mega Charizard X / Y, Mega Houndoom and Mega Blaziken.
• Genesect counters - For Fire-types, Primal Groudon, Heatran, Reshiram, Victini and Volcarona.
• Other Genesect notes - When it comes to battling Genesect it's Fire-types all of the way! Grab your strongest Fire-types, have a Fire Mega Evolution if you can to boost damage and Genesect should easily fall to your attacks. Genesect is one of the easiest five-star raid bosses, so you only need three or four other players to defeat. Who knows, if your Pokémon are incredibly powerful, you might be able to defeat it by yourself…

Genesect CP in Pokémon Go

Here are the CP ranges you can expect to see when battling and attempting to catch Genesect in Pokémon Go:

• Raid Boss CP - 47,836
• CP range when being caught - 1,833 to 1,916
• Weather boosted CP (Rain) when being caught - 2,292 to 2,395

Thank you to Arik90 from reddit for the help with this information.

Genesect Moveset in Pokémon Go

No matter which Drive your Genesect has, our recommendation for Genesect's best moveset is Metal Claw as a Fast Move and Magnet Bomb as a Charged Move. Like we said, this setup works well with whatever Genesect you have but, if you do want to utilise the Drive, then add its move as a second Charged Move.

Below you'll find Genesect's complete moveset in Pokémon Go, along with which Drive offers which move:

Possible Fast Moves:

• Fury Cutter (Bug)
• Metal Claw (Steel)

Possible Charged Moves:

• Flamethrower (Fire) - Burn Drive only
• Gunk Shot (Poison) - Douse Drive only
• Hyper Beam (Normal) - No Drive
• Ice Beam (Ice) - Chill Drive only
• Magnet Bomb (Steel)
• Techno Blast (Electric) - Shock Drive only
• Techno Blast (Fire) - Burn Drive only
• Techno Blast (Normal) - No Drive
• Techno Blast (Ice) - Chill Drive only
• Techno Blast (Water) - Douse Drive only
• X-Scissor (Bug)
• Zap Cannon (Electric) - Shock Drive only

The Winter Holiday Part 1 event is currently running and it's brought the Go Pass: Winter Holiday. Remote Trading has been released in Pokémon Go! You can get a shiny Keldeo thanks to the Masterwork Research: Pony Tales quest and there's also the new Precious Paths Special Research quest. There's a lot to do in Pokémon Go outside of the current event! First, it's worth learning about the level update. After this, you might want to fight in the Go Battle League, use Party Play, compete in a PokéStop Showcase or explore a Route for its Gift Exchange. Keep an eye out for rare Pokémon and don't forget to collect Max Particles, so you can battle Dynamax Pokémon in Max Battles.

Can Genesect by shiny?

Yes, Genesect can be shiny in Pokémon Go. In fact, all of the Genesect forms, decided by the Drive, have their shiny version released in Pokémon Go.

Genesect without a Drive was released in August 2020 during Unova Week. 2023 saw three shiny Genesect forms being released - shiny Shock Drive Genesect was released in May, shiny Burn Drive arrived during September and, finally, shiny Douse Drive Genesect was released in November. The final Genesect Drive released in Pokémon Go, Chill Drive, saw its shiny form released in December 2024 as part of the Just My Cup of Tea event.

No matter whether Genesect has a Drive or not, it's shiny form will look the same - a cool red colour compared to Genesect's traditional violet. The only thing which will differ between the version is the colour of the Drive - yellow for Shock Drive Genesect, for example - which will remain the same colour as regular Genesect.

Below you'll find an example of shiny Genesect in Pokémon Go - thank you to Froggo14 from reddit for this preview.

Shiny Genesect WITH TechnoBlast (Electric) from r/TheSilphRoad

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Everything we know about Genesect

When it comes to Pokémon lore, Genesect has a lot in common with Mewtwo.

As it's category as the 'Paleozoic Pokémon' suggests, Genesect was inspired by the giant insects of the Paleozoic era and, like in our world, these huge insects are now preserved in fossils.

It was one of these Genesect fossils that Team Plasma, the villainous team of the Unova region, brought back to life and then added a number of cybernetic enhancements to the revived Pokémon. This includes the cannon on Genesect's back and the various drives, which allows Genesect to use moves from a variety of different Pokémon types.

These enhancements also explain Genesect's status as a dual-type Pokémon; the bug typing comes from it being an ancient bug-type Pokémon, while the steel typing represents the experimentation it experienced.

Genesect was originally released into Pokémon Go as part of the paid in-game event, A Drive to Investigate, where players would receive the mythical Pokémon as part of the special Research Task questline.

Now, however, it will become part of the legendary Pokémon raid roster, making Genesect the second Mythical Pokémon, the first being Darkrai, to be made available via five-star raids.

Best of luck catching Genesect in Pokémon Go!

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