How to defeat and use Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf in Pokemon GO

Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf are arriving in Pokemon GO as the new five-star raids. The gen-four legendary trio has long been underappreciated in the games.

Unfortunately, that lack of appreciation is somewhat justified in Pokemon GO as the trio is significantly shakier than many other sub-legendary Pokemon. So can players make the Lake Guardians work in Pokemon GO? Here’s how to defeat, capture, and make the most of Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf as the Season of Mischief event rolls on.

What counters Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf in Pokemon GO?

Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf are all countered by bug, dark, and ghost-type moves.

The Lake Guardians are all pure psychic types with a relatively limited move pool. This makes it very easy to pick out strong counters to deal with all three of them.

All three only have psychic-type fast attacks, with their charged attack being either normal-type Swift, psychic-type Future Sight, or an elemental move. Azelf can learn Fire Blast, Mesprit can learn Blizzard, and Uxie can learn Thunder.

Tyranitar is an excellent counter to all three Pokemon. It’s doubly resistant to all possible fast attacks and is either resistant or doubly resistant to everything other than Thunder and Blizzard. All this combines to make Tyranitar the ideal counter to all three of the Lake Guardians.

Outside Tyranitar, any powerful dark Pokemon is basically serviceable. Hydreigon and Bisharp are roughly as good as Tyranitar while legendaries like Giratina, Darkrai, and Yveltal can all do great work against them. After that, Weavile, Houndoom, and Honchcrow can all do strong work against Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf.

Is Mesprit any good in Pokemon GO?

Mesprit is a decent but not an especially good Pokemon in Pokemon GO.

At level 40, Mesprit’s maximum CP is 3,058. Despite the fact that Mesprit is a legendary Pokemon, its maximum CP is comparable to regular Pokemon such as Espeon, Exeggutor, and Alakazam. Not only that but its coverage with attacks isn’t especially great either.

This leaves Mesprit as a generally underwhelming Pokemon but it’s not worth investing Rare Candies into raising. Mesprit’s only really useful for filling up the Pokedex.

Is Uxie any good in Pokemon GO?

Uxie is not a good Pokemon in Pokemon GO.

At level 40, Uxie can reach just 2,524 CP. In the mainline Pokemon games, Uxie’s strength lies in its bulk and access to a long list of support moves. This doesn’t translate to Pokemon GO, which makes it a generally weak Pokemon.

With its limited moveset and low CP ceiling, Uxie is less impactful than regular psychic Pokemon such as Jinx, Slowking, and Starmie. It’s worth catching Uxie because of its rarity, but the Pokemon has little value in any kind of battle.

Is Azelf any good in Pokemon GO?

Azelf is a decent Pokemon in Pokemon GO but it isn’t as good as other legendary Pokemon.

Azelf’s CP tops out at 3,210 at level 40. This makes it slightly better than most standard psychic-type Pokemon, but still significantly weaker than other psychic legendaries such as Lugia, Mewtwo, and Latios.

Azelf is the strongest of the Lake Guardian legendaries in Pokemon GO but still isn’t worth investing significant effort into improving. It’s better to save those Rare Candies for stronger Pokemon.

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How to get Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf in Pokemon GO

Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf have occasionally appeared as five-star raid bosses in Pokemon GO. According to the official website, they will be available once again from September 14 to October 1, but not all will be made immediately available to all players.

Each one will appear in specific regions, with Uxie available in the Asia-Pacific region, Mesprit appearing in Europe, the middle-east, and Africa, and Azelf appearing in the Americas and Greenland. This means that players will only have the chance to catch one at home.

This is easily remedied by becoming friends with players from other regions and joining them in raids with Remote Raid Passes. Players will need to work quickly to catch all three, with the trio disappearing after just two and a half weeks.