Mega Heracross as a Bug-type and Fighting-type Raid Attacker

Mega Heracross will make its Pokemon GO debut on Saturday, April 13. It will have a special raid day from 2-5pm on that day, and continue to be in regular Mega Raids until April 25. In this article, we will look at its utility as a raid attacker in both its types.

Note: For this particular analysis, the simulation data for both types are 1-1.5 years old (before shadow raids became a thing), and I didn’t rerun new sims due to time constraints. I’m confident the general placement of lines is still valid, but minute details such as distance between two attackers may not be perfectly accurate.

Main Points

Mega Heracross is, at the moment, the #1 bug and #1 fighting attacker. It narrowly outperforms Mega Pinsir and Terrakion, respectively, and will remain the best bug attacker until Shadow Volcarona becomes a thing. It’s also a bulky mega that will help you contribute even more in group raids by boosting other players’ damage output.

The picture is a bit less rosy once we move out of this narrow scope, however:

Bug types lack power when compared to alternative attacking types for the same role, most notably Ghost and Dark attackers . In particular, Mega Heracross can’t compete with the likes of Mega Tyranitar, Mega Gengar and most other megas; not to mention these megas are way more likely to provide a same-type 30% boost to other players.

when compared to alternative attacking types for the same role, most notably . In particular, Mega Heracross can’t compete with the likes of Mega Tyranitar, Mega Gengar and most other megas; not to mention these megas are way more likely to provide a same-type 30% boost to other players. Mega Lucario will eventually outclass Mega Heracross as a solo fighting attacker. However, an often-overlooked caveat is that Mega Heracross is better suited for group raids due to its bulk: If 2+ other players bring fighting types, Mega Heracross usually contributes more group damage than Mega Lucario (assuming neutral typings).

will eventually outclass Mega Heracross as a solo fighting attacker. However, an often-overlooked caveat is that due to its bulk: If 2+ other players bring fighting types, Mega Heracross usually contributes more group damage than Mega Lucario (assuming neutral typings). In terms of group damage contribution, running a “background” primal or Mega Ray will likely yield better results, either now or in the future: As a bug-type mega, Mega Heracross is way outshined by a background Primal Kyogre , which gives a 30% boost to others’ bug-type damage. As a fighting-type mega, any background primal already does slightly more group damage than Mega Heracross without type-matching; but if Mega Mewtwo X also gets the background boosting feature, it destroys the competition. (See the 4th section here for an explanation of how background primal works.)

will likely yield better results, either now or in the future:

Nevertheless, Mega Heracross is still an outstanding attacker overall despite the shortfalls. It will also be particularly useful for a small number of (mostly future) bosses where bug-type counters are mandatory (the most likely of which are Calyrex, Wo-Chien and Iron Leaves).

My analyses of other types are in this spreadsheet. You can also follow me on Twitter (X) and Threads!

Charts

Imgur Links and Additional Charts

General attacker charts: ASE and ASTTW*

Mega charts:

* indicates additional charts that are not in the main post.