Zapdos is one of the three original Legendary Birds in Pokémon, and when available in five-star raids, you can add them to your collection. This is a rare find as five-star raids regularly rotate Legendary Pokémon. When capturing a Zapdos with decent stats, it's essential to figure out how to best optimize your new Legendary with the best moves to make it exceptionally powerful for raiding and fighting against other Battle League trainers.
Zapdos is an electric and flying type Pokemon. It is only weak against Ice and Rock type attacks, making it resistant to Bug, Fighting, Flying, Grass, Ground, and Steel type moves. It's a solid choice when you want to use it as an Electric-type attacker. It has a maximum CP of 3527, an attack of 253, a defense of 185, and a stamina of 207.
Here are all the moves Zapdos can learn:
Quick movements
- Charge Beam (Electric-Type) – 5 damage, 3,6 energy per turn
- Thunder Shock (Electric-type) – 3 damage, 4,5 energy per turn
Load movements
- Ancient Power (Rock-type) – 45 power, 45 energy (10% chance to increase your attack and defense)
- Peck Drill (Flying Type) – 65 power, 40 energy
- Thunder (Electric type) – 100 power, 60 energy
- Thunderbolt (Electric type) – 90 power, 55 energy
- Zap Cannon (Electric-type) – 150 power, 80 energy
For Zapdos you want to remove the charging beam. It's a slower move than Thunder Clash and it won't be able to do as much damage over time. Additionally, Thunder Clash generates more energy, allowing Zapdos to use his more powerful attacks.
When selecting a charge move, Zapdos has several choices. But remove the old power. It's useless for Zapdos and not worth considering. Many have a mix between thunder and lightning, but of the two, thunder is the better option. So stick with that option, because the extra five energy she needs is worth the extra 10 damage. Finally, the zap cannon is probably not a good option, considering the amount of energy it needs and the damage it deals. While admirable, there are better choices. With Zapdos, piercing peak and thunder are your best options.
When picking a moveset for Zapdos, you want his fast attack to be thunder shock, then choose thunder, then for his second charge move, go for drill spike. These will be the best options for most things he has to fight, and your Zapdos will deal a decent amount of damage.
