Shiny Lunala Debuts in Raids: Counters, Catch CP, and How Many to Keep

Shiny Lunala finally shows up. After sitting in the game as one of the last big shiny holdouts, the moon bat gets its debut when Lunala returns to five star raids on Wednesday, August 19.

This is one of the rare weeks where the answer to "is it worth my passes" is a flat yes, and not because of the shiny. Lunala is a top ten Ghost attacker and a top five Master League pick, which is a combination almost nothing else on the current rotation offers.

Got a spare from a previous rotation you want to move before the new ones pile up? The live trade feed is where they change hands. Read the fusion section first though, because there is one thing you cannot undo after you fuse.

Raid window

Raid Hour lands on day one, which is unusual and worth planning around. If you want volume, that 6 p.m. hour on the 19th is your best shot at back to back lobbies before the week thins out.

Lunala in the raid

Psychic and Ghost is a glass jaw of a typing on defense. Dark and Ghost moves are super effective against both halves, so they land at roughly 2.56x. That is a double weakness, and it means a properly built Dark lead melts this thing.

It resists Fighting, Normal, Poison, and Psychic, so leave the Machamps at home.

Counters

Bring a Mega. Tyranitar with Bite and Brutal Swing sits at the top and the Mega version pulls the whole lobby up with it, so if one person in your group has it, use theirs.

On group size the community numbers spread a bit. Pokemon GO Hub's raid guide suggests three trainers can do it with strong counters and recommends four to six to be safe, while their counters database puts the hard floor at two. Treat two as a flex for maxed Mega Dark leads and plan for three to five in practice.

Catch CP

Windy or Fog on raid day is a gift here. A weather boosted catch starts at level 25, which saves you a pile of dust and candy on the way to a raid ready build. Run your catches through the CP calculator if you want to see what a given IV spread ends up as maxed.

Shiny Lunala

Deep red wings with gold crescents. It is one of the better legendary shinies and it has never been available until now.

Niantic does not publish shiny rates. The community standard for shiny eligible five star raids has held around 1 in 20 for years, and nothing suggests a different rate here. Two things worth remembering about that number:

• Every raid is an independent roll. There is no pity counter and no streak. Your twentieth raid has the same odds as your first.
• 1 in 20 is a rate, not a promise. Plenty of people will go 40 raids without one, and that is normal rather than a bug.

At roughly 1 in 20 with a seven day window, remote passes and a raid group matter more than luck does. Line up the Raid Hour on the 19th and use the raids page to see what is live near you.

Is Lunala worth building

Short version: yes, and it is not close.

Best raid moveset is Shadow Claw and Shadow Ball, which slightly edges out Confusion and Psychic on damage while giving you the Ghost coverage that gets more use. For Master League the build is Shadow Claw with Shadow Ball and Moonblast.

That 264 stamina with 255 attack is what makes it work. It hits hard and it stays on the field, which is why it holds an S Tier Master League slot rather than being a fragile nuker.

If your Ghost bench is thin, this is the single best week of the month to fix it.

The fusion trap

Lunala fuses with Necrozma to make Dawn Wings Necrozma, and this is where people waste a good catch.

Two things to get straight before you plan around it.

Lunala raids do not give Lunar Fusion Energy. That energy comes from Dawn Wings Necrozma raids, at roughly 80 per raid and up to about 170 if you maximise Premier Ball rewards. So this week builds your Lunala stock, not your fusion meter. Both are needed, but they come from different events.

The fusion uses the Necrozma's stats, not the Lunala's. Your Dawn Wings Necrozma inherits the IVs and level of the Necrozma you fed it. A hundo Lunala contributes nothing to the fused form beyond being consumed. Save the good spreads for raids and Master League, and feed your worst Lunala to the fusion.

Two more rules that catch people out:

• A fused Pokemon cannot be traded. If you want a lucky Dawn Wings Necrozma, you need to get the Necrozma lucky first, then fuse.
• Separating a fusion is free, but re fusing costs the full price again. There is no discount for repeat fusions, so do not split one on a whim.

Fusing also grants Moongeist Beam automatically, no Elite TM needed. Its Adventure Effect runs 3000 Stardust and 3 Necrozma Candy per 10 minutes, extendable to two hours in one go and up to 24 hours total. It pulls in night spawns and lets night only evolutions happen at any hour, which is the real reason to care. It will not run alongside Incense, Daily Adventure Incense, a Mystery Box, a Coin Bag, or another Adventure Effect.

How many should you keep

A reasonable target for the week:

Everything past that is candy. Transfer without guilt, and log what you kept in your inventory so you are not raiding for a slot you already filled.

What else wants your passes this week

The Regis rolling in on the 26th is the useful part of that table. They are a permanent fixture of the rotation, so there is no reason to hold passes back from Lunala for them.

What to prioritize

1. Raid Hour on August 19, 6 p.m. Day one Raid Hour is the densest lobby window you get all week.
2. Build one good Lunala. S Tier Ghost and a top five Master League slot justify the dust on their own.
3. Keep a junk one for fusion. The fused form takes Necrozma's stats, so your worst Lunala does the job perfectly.
4. Trade spares before you fuse. Fused Pokemon are locked out of trading permanently, and a lucky Dawn Wings has to start as a lucky Necrozma.
5. Chase weather. Windy or Fog pushes catches to level 25 and saves you real resources.
6. Do not bank passes for the Regis. They return on the 26th and they always come back.

Track it on PoGoPit

• Raids for the live Lunala boss list and Raid Hour timing
• Events calendar for the full week including Mega Swampert and Starmie
• Live trade feed to move spares before you fuse
• Trade calculator to check a special trade before you spend it
• CP calculator to see what your catch maxes out at
• Inventory to track what you have kept

Raid windows and event data credited to Leek Duck and the community datasets that mirror it. Counter rankings, catch CP ranges, tier placements, and fusion mechanics come from Pokemon GO Hub and community trainer reports. Shiny rates are community estimates, not official figures.

PoGoPit is not affiliated with Niantic, Nintendo, Scopely, or The Pokemon Company.