Pokemon GO: Best Shadow Snorlax counters

Shadow Snorlax is just as hard to beat in Pokemon GO as regular Snorlax was below Lavender Town in Kanto.

Snorlax’s greatest asset is its 330 Stamina stat, which is one of the top five highest in the game. As a Shadow Pokemon, Snorlax takes a 20% reduction to its Defense, but it’s practically irrelevant since its high Stamina remains untouched.

This makes Snorlax one of very few Shadow Pokemon who can benefit from the Attack boost and not really get hurt by the Defense reduction. All things considered, this Pokemon is a huge threat, and trainers are going to want to keep these strategies in mind when facing one.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinion of the writer.

Which Pokemon should be used to beat Shadow Snorlax?

Since Shadow Snorlax retains strong defensive capabilities, opposing Pokemon aren’t going to be able to use sheer offense alone. The alternative to this would be using a Pokemon to defend against Snorlax’s attacks.

Normally, Ghost-type Pokemon would be great for this job since they resist Normal-type attacks. This isn’t a perfect strategy, though, since Shadow Snorlax can use Lick for its quick move. It definitely isn’t too strong, but it will be super effective, and the damage will add up very quickly. Unless the Ghost-type knows a charge move like Focus Blast, Shadow Snorlax will still be able to defeat it by just spamming Lick.

The better option here would be Steel-type Pokemon. Most of them (Steelix, Metagross, Ferrothorn) have gigantic Defense stats. They all resist most of Shadow Snorlax’s moves, including Outrage, Heavy Slam, and all of its Normal-type moves.

Even Steel-types need to proceed with caution. Shadow Snorlax does have access to Earthquake and Superpower, both of which will do super-effective damage to Steel-types.

In PvP modes like The Ultra League, opposing trainers will definitely be aware of Steel-types ability to defend against Shadow Snorlax, so they may account for this by teaching it one of these two moves.

If any trainer is looking for a guaranteed counter, the best Pokemon to deal with Shadow Snorlax is Skarmory. With its typing combination of Steel and Flying, Skarmory will resist Outrage, Heavy Slam, Earthquake, all of Shadow Snorlax’s Normal-type moves, and it will take neutral damage from Superpower. Shadow Snorlax will have real trouble hitting Skarmory, who can just Brave Bird until it eventually gets the KO.

Outside of Steel-types, the other way of dealing with Shadow Snorlax is through using strong Fighting-types. Pokemon like Lucario and Machamp will inflict tons of damage with Close Combats.

Shadow Snorlax won’t faint to one hit, though. It’s probably better to spam a quick move until Shadow Snorlax’s health is low enough to score the KO with Close Combat.