Pokémon Go Mega Mawile counters, weaknesses and moveset explained

Mega Mawile counters and weaknesses in Pokémon Go

If you want to earn Mega Mawile Energy then you need to defeat it in a Mega Raid, so here are the Mega Mawile counters and weaknesses you'll need to do this:

• Mega Mawile type - Steel and Fairy-type
• Mega Mawile is weak against - Fire and Ground-types
• Mega Mawile is resistant to - Dragon and Bug-types
• Mega Mawile is super resistant to - Dark, Fairy, Flying, Grass, Ice, Normal, Poison, Psychic and Rock-types
• Mega Mawile Mega counters - Primal Groudon is our top pick for your Mega counter against Mega Mawile. If you can't use this Pokémon, then it's worth considering Mega Charizard, Houndoom, Blaziken, Swampert or Garchomp.
• Mega Mawile non-Mega counters - Flareon, Moltres (ideally Shadow), Groudon (ideally Shadow), Chandelure, Heatran, Volcarona, Reshiram, Therian Forme Landorus, Blacephalon and Necrozma Dawn Wings.
• Number of players to beat Mega Mawile - Mega Mawile can be defeated by a group of three players if everyone uses Level 40 counters. If not then additional players will be required.
• Tactics - Now that is quite the list of resistances… I'd say try to avoid using them, but that would leave you with barely any Pokémon to choose from. Instead, it's a good idea to use Primal Groudon if you can, pick your strongest Fire-type Pokémon and ensure you're not soloing Mega Mawile.

Mega Mawile CP in Pokémon Go

Below you'll find the CP levels for battling Mega Mawile and, if defeated, catching a Mawile after the fight in Pokémon Go:

• Mega Mawile Raid CP - 29,333 CP
• CP range for catching Mawile - 1290 to 1360 CP
• Weather (Windy and Snowy) when being caught - 1613 to 1700 CP

Best Mega Mawile moveset in Pokémon Go

Our recommendation for Mega Mawile's best moveset is Fairy Wind as a Fast Move and Play Rough as a Charged Move. These recommendations will also work well when using Mawile in its regular form.

It's important to note though that both of our recommendations are Fairy-type moves, which means that they will only be properly effective against Dark, Dragon and Fighting-type Pokémon. Still, this doesn't stop Mawile from being a strong counter against Pokémon with these types, especially if you're planning on using it in the Go Battle League. (Just remember that you can't use Mega Evolutions in the Go Battle League.)

Oddly, despite being part Steel, Mawile can only learn one Steel-type move in Pokémon Go - the Charged Move, Iron Head. If you want to add this attack to its moveset, increasing the number of types Mawile has an advantage over, then we recommend unlocking this Pokémon second Charged Move as Play Rough is a better choice overall.

Here are all the Fast and Charged moves Mega Mawile can use in Pokémon Go:

Fast Moves:

• Astonish (Ghost)
• Bite (Dark)
• Fairy Wind (Fairy)
• Fire Fang (Fire)
• Ice Fang (Ice)

Charged Moves:

• Iron Head (Steel)
• Play Rough (Fairy)
• Power-Up Punch (Fighting)
• Vise Grip (Normal)

The Max Out Season is here and includes a new global event, Wild Area! You can now catch Dynamax Pokémon through Max Battles. First, however, you need to visit Power Spots to collect Max Particles and complete the To the Max! quest. Don't forget to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

What does shiny Mega Mawile look like?

Shiny Mega Mawile sees the black colouring of its hair jaws taken on a lovely magenta colour. Elsewhere, its typically light yellow body takes on a darker tone and we can see the same effect happen to the section of its body that were once purple. These choices of shiny colourings are similar to those given to a regular shiny Mawile.

Shiny Mega Mawile Comparison from r/TheSilphRoad

Thank you to GabeBit08 from reddit for the shiny Mega Mawile comparison.

Everything we know about Mawile

Mawile made its debut as part of Gen 3 in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire for the Game Boy Advance. There it was exclusive to Pokémon Ruby, with its version exclusive counterpart being Sableye, making it one of the Pokémon Sapphire players would have to trade for if they wanted to complete their Hoenn Pokédex. Since their initial release, Mawile and Sableye have gone on to be one of the long running version exclusive Pokémon in the franchise having been separated in five different instalments in the series so far at the time of writing.

An odd Mawile fact is that the original English release of Pokémon Ruby saw the Pokédex actually misspell its name as 'Mawhile'. Though this typo was fixed in later releases. Another Mawile Pokédex related fact is that its footprint actually changed between Gen 3 and Gen 4, becoming far more circular.

Mawile's design appears to be inspired by the futakuchi-onna - a yōkai from Japanese myth who, despite looking like a normal woman, has a second mouth hidden within the hair on the back of her head. Rather than being futakuchi-onna from birth, women actually transform into them. Now you may think this transformation is tied to them eating too much, but it's actually the opposite. The second mouth will actually appear on women who barely eat at all and demand food. If not fed, it will insult the woman and scream until it gets what it wants. Eventually, the woman's hair may even fall under control of the second mouth, allowing it to use the strands to feed itself.

This inspiration can clearly be seen in, despite having a rather sweet appearance upfront, the massive jaws sprouting from Mawile's head like a ponytail are inescapable. Even its official Pokédex states that Mawile 'uses its docile-looking face to lull foes into complacency, then bites its huge, relentless jaws.' Ouch.

Best of luck battling Mega Mawile in Pokémon Go!