With over 890 pocket monsters available, it can be hard for players to catch em' all in Pokemon GO. Some Pokemon are far rarer than others in Pokemon Go, with Salamence being among that list.

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Salamence is an incredibly powerful Dragon-Type Pokemon that is especially useful in raids and for holding gyms in Pokemon GO. Many players want to have more than one on their team for that reason but find it's a bit harder to manage that with other Pokemon.

Updated on October 11, 2021, by Reyadh Rahaman: Salamence has some excellent moves that make use of its great stats, however, due to there being a few options for both the fast attacks and charged attacks, it can sometimes be tricky to determine what are the best choices for one's Salamence moveset in Pokemon GO. Trainers can grasp which moves are the best for them by identifying which will deal the most damage to opponents and what role Salamence will take on the player's team. Comparing each fast and charged attack to others in their category is the best way to go about doing this with objective reasoning.

Getting A Salamence Starts With Catching Bagon

The days of getting a Salamence in Tier 4 raids are unfortunately over, so Pokemon Go players will need to catch a Bagon and fully evolve it up into this impressive Dragon Pokemon. Bagon are incredibly rare spawns in the game as well, so players will need to do all they can to increase the chances of finding one.

Search For Bagon On Windy Days

Thanks to the Dynamic Weather System in Pokemon GO, different types of Pokemon show up depending on what the outside looks like in the real world. Catching a Bagon becomes much easier when players search during the right weather conditions to increase their spawn rate. Dragon types like Bagon appear more often in windy weather.

Hunt Down Bagon In The Right Biome

Pokemon spawns are tied to various biomes within the game. This means that while it's possible to catch a Bagon deep in the forest, the spawn chances increase when searching in the correct area.

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Dragon Type Pokemon like Bagon (sometimes referred to by fans as 'baby Salamence') spawn in "areas of interest" according to Pokemon GO. These can be anything from public landmarks, famous places, or anywhere particularly notable in a given area. Players should try to hunt near the largest gyms and Pokestops they can when trying to find their Bagon.

Bagons Are Rare — Make Sure To Catch One On The First Try

Bagon only has a 9% flee rate, but, with how rare it is to spawn, players should take special care to make sure they can catch it on the first try especially in case they encounter a shiny. Leave the Great Balls and Pokeballs at home — come with an Ultra Ball to really guarantee the catch. Make sure to practice throwing curveballs as well to increase catching chances.

Players should also make sure to stock up on Razz Berries (or even Golden Razz Berries) to help make Bagon even easier to catch. Also, trainers should make sure they have enough room to actually catch Bagon, or else it might despawn while they're trying to transfer pokemon to Professor Willow.

How To Evolve Bagon Into Salamence

Bagon is a three-stage evolution Pokemon, so Pokemon GO players will first have to evolve it into Shelgon before finally evolving it into the Salamence they desire. Unfortunately, Shelgon do not appear in the wild, so players will have to evolve all the way up from Bagon requiring quite a few candies in the process.

• Bagon - Sheldon: 25 Candies
• Sheldon - Salamence: 100 Candies

Fortunately, there are many effective ways to grind for candies including:

• Making a Bagon, Shelgon, or Salamence their walking buddy.
• Transferring Bagons to Professor Willow.
• Trading Bagons or Sheldons to other players.
• Using a Pinap Berry (or a Silver Pinapp Berry) when catching Bagons.
• Use Rare Candies to supplement Bagon candies.

Grinding for candies will be well worth the wait as once players get the 125 candies required, they can evolve their Bagon to get a Salamence and have one of the best Dragon-types to use in raids in the entirety of Pokemon GO.

The Fast Attack & Charged Attacks Of Salamence In Pokemon GO

The Fast Attacks Of Salamence

Unlike many other pocket monsters in Pokemon GO, Salamence has access to 3 great Fast Attacks, so whichever ones the player picks, there won't ever be an awful choice--just less ideal ones. Bite, by looking at the stats, is the weakest out of the 3, though can be a decent move if players have no Dark-type pokemon to take down Psychic-type opponents.

Though, besides that factor, both Dragon Tail and Fire Fang are most often considered better choices. Fire Fang is useful in case players go up against Fairy-types who are immune to Dragon-type attacks, however, in every other case, Dragon Tail is superior for higher base damage, higher DPS, and also gaining a Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) from being the same type as Salamence in Pokemon GO.

The Charged Attacks Of Salamence

Before analyzing the potential of each charged attack, it should be mentioned that Outrage was only available during a few specific events, and is not normally attainable. Though, with that said, it's arguably the weakest out of all the possible charged attacks, and would only be useful to trainers who prefer minimal charging over other traits.

However, the other 3 charged attacks all stack up pretty evenly. Fire Blast and Hydro Pump are both excellent moves, though players should only choose either of them based on the coverage one needs in battle--Fire Blast if one doesn't have a Fire-type pokemon or Hydro Pump if they are lacking a Water-type pokemon respectively.

Overall, due to higher damage, DPS, and gaining a STAB bonus (similar to the situation for this Pokemon's fast attacks), Draco Meteor is objectively the most powerful out of all of Salamence's Pokemon GO charged attacks. Just be sure to have a counter ready for Fairy-types!

Pokemon GO is available on Android and iOS.

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