TL;DR

[KEY POINT] Yes, you DO want both Aura Sphere and Dazzling Gleam on your Togekiss for raids. But it’s ultimately not too big of a deal, with or without it.

Aura Sphere is a small upgrade in raids whenever it can be used! Better than Dazzling Gleam if boss is weak to both (Darkrai, Kyurem, Terrakion), and makes Togekiss better than regular Gardevoir in these cases.

Sadly, this only happens 25% of the time or less. Otherwise, regular Gardevoir is still slightly better.

Bigger problem: Even though it’s among the top non-shadow fairy attackers, Togekiss (and fairy types in general) can’t compete with other types.

• Worse than Machamp against dark, much worse than Dragonite against dragon.
• Good to have 1, but not worth building a full fairy team, unless you’re a new player or want to solo Guzzlord.
• Not worth an ETM for raids.

Keep reading for:

• Charts: Fairy attackers, Fairy vs Fighting attackers, Fairy vs Dragon attackers
• Togekiss vs. Gardevoir
• What if the CD move was Fairy Wind?
• List of my previous analyses, in Appendix

Introduction

Togetic Community Day happens this Saturday, April 15, from 2pm to 5pm. If you evolve Togetic before 10pm, you’ll get a Togekiss with its CD move, Aura Sphere.

While the Togepi line is highly popular and its CD is long-awaited, the choice of the CD move is… Interesting. In fact, so many people betted on Fairy Wind and they aged like milk. While Aura Sphere is an incredibly strong move that offers some interesting PvP implications, on the surface, its lack of Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) on Togekiss means it seems to be useless in raids… Right?

NO!!!

This article will tell you why you DO want an Aura Sphere Togekiss for raids – but also why Togekiss is ultimately still not too big of a deal, with or without it. I’ll address this with the following parts:

1. Togekiss among Fairy attackers, and compared to regular Gardevoir
2. Aura Sphere Togekiss compared to Fighting attackers (anti-Dark)
3. Togekiss compared to Dragon attackers (anti-Dragon)
4. The could-have-beens: What if Togekiss got Fairy Wind instead?

If you’re on desktop and want to jump to a particular part, search “Part X”. There’s also a “Verdict” at the end of the article, which is more condensed but still somewhat elaborate with more advice.

Before I forget, a brief note on Togekiss as a Flying attacker: Functional, but not great, worse than Staraptor and Unfezant. For more details, the most recent plot of flying attackers I’ve made is in this post (search for Shadow Rayquaza).

You can now follow me (@teban54) on Twitter!

Preliminaries: Stats, Moves, Typing and DPS/ER Numbers

[Section TL;DR] Aura Sphere is so OP that its neutral DPS trumps Dazzling Gleam, despite no STAB. This is actually relevant in some cases where both fairy and fighting are super effective, especially against dark-type bosses.

Aura Sphere is one of the most broken PvE moves in the game, as it was designed with the specific goal of elevating Lucario, with a rather mediocre 236 base attack, into relevance.

• For those who have been following my articles, my “Arceus Test” has Aura Sphere as the #4 best charged move in the entire game ^{(when paired with Tackle, excluding the +/++ moves)}. It’s stronger than Hydro Cannon, miles ahead of Psystrike and Meteor Mash, and better than all the exclusive moves introduced in the past year. (The only ones better than it are even more OP moves: Flying Press, V-Create and Doom Desire.)
• This has also been verified by others using alternative methodologies, such as this article.

The main problems: not only does Togekiss have an even lower 225 base attack, but Aura Sphere, being a fighting-type move, lacks STAB for Togekiss’s role as either a fairy- or flying-type raid attacker. However, as it turns out… No STAB, no problem! Aura Sphere is just too strong.

In neutral scenarios – where both fairy and fighting have equal Super Effectiveness to the raid boss – Togekiss’s ER and DPS look like this:

That’s right. When both are super effective, Aura Sphere is better than Togekiss’s fairy charged move, Dazzling Gleam. 5% higher DPS, and actually overtakes Gardevoir (which has higher DPS than DG Togekiss but is glassier, resulting in similar ER).

But in practice, we’re not dealing with neutral scenarios. When we use Togekiss, we use it against a boss that’s weak to fairy, but it may not necessarily be weak to fighting. Luckily, there’s good synergy between fairy and fighting types, especially against dark-type bosses:

• Fairy is super effective against: Dark, Dragon and Fighting.
• Against (typical) Dark-type bosses, Togekiss prefers Aura Sphere over Dazzling Gleam, since both Fairy and Fighting are super effective.
• Against Dragon and Fighting bosses, you still want Dazzling Gleam. Super effectiveness is the most important.
• There are some exceptions:
  • Aura Sphere is preferred against Kyurem, Terrakion and Meloetta Pirouette (Elite raids?), since they happen to be weak to both fairy and fighting.
  • Dazzling Gleam is still the choice against several dark-type bosses, because they’re either not weak to fighting (Yveltal, Galarian Moltres) or double weak to fairy (Guzzlord, Urshifu Single Strike).

Below, we’ll look at how well Togekiss performs with both Aura Sphere and Dazzling Gleam, and how often each move is used.

Part 1: Togekiss as a Fairy Attacker

[Part 1 TL;DR] One of the top non-shadow fairy types, similar to but slightly below others in this tier, particularly Gardevoir. Also much worse than Shadow Gardevoir. But Aura Sphere lets Togekiss outperform Gardevoir in the 1/4 of cases when it can be used (mainly against Darkrai, Kyurem, Terrakion).

Notes about the chart:

• There are two lines for Togekiss on this chart: The dark blue one uses either Dazzling Gleam or Aura Sphere depending on which is better, and the light blue one only uses Dazzling Gleam.
• This chart is averaged across all bosses that fairy is good against. These include more dragons than anything else – in fact, dragon, dark and psychic have a roughly 2-1-1 split. So Togekiss only gets to use Aura Sphere 1/4 of the time.

Togekiss, with Dazzling Gleam, was already one of the several top non-shadow non-mega fairy attackers. It falls in the same league as Zacian, Dazzling Gleam Xurkitree, and the most well-known Gardevoir. However, it’s the lowest among this tier, and it’s also well below Shadow Gardevoir (L30 S-Gardevoir > L40 Togekiss).

It’s difficult to see exactly how much Aura Sphere helps, simply because it can’t be used all the time. So let’s do a few more detailed examinations.

Togekiss vs. (Regular) Gardevoir

[Section TL;DR] Togekiss is still worse than Gardevoir more often than not. Much of its “win” cases are when the boss is also weak to fighting (1/4 of the time), where Aura Sphere lets it overtake Gardevoir. But otherwise, its main niche is just being bulkier, and that often doesn’t translate to better performance. So Gardevoir is still better.

In this comparison, we let Togekiss use either Aura Sphere or Dazzling Gleam as deemed fit. Gardevoir has the choice between Charm and Confusion, but is locked with Dazzling Gleam as the charged move.

• If the boss is also weak to psychic, Confusion > Charm, but Psychic > Dazzling Gleam. So Gardevoir would be even better than shown here.

Even with the option of Aura Sphere, Togekiss is still worse than Gardevoir the majority of the time. However, Aura Sphere helps Togekiss consistently overtake Gardevoir in the 1/4 of cases that it can be used (e.g. Darkrai, Kyurem, Terrakion).

The second chart, which breaks down all raid bosses by whether they’re also weak to fighting or psychic, illustrates this clearly:

• If the boss is also weak to fighting, Togekiss rules.
  • You may think these are dark-type bosses, but among Tier 5 raids, there are actually more non-dark bosses than dark bosses (Darkrai, Kyurem, Terrakion, as noted above).
  • 1/4 of the time.
• If the boss is also weak to psychic, Gardevoir rules (as long as it’s not also weak to fighting).
  • These are mostly fighting-type bosses. 1/4 of the time.
• If the boss is weak to neither, Gardevoir is typically better. Togekiss may help you avoid a relobby, though.
  • Mostly dragon-type bosses. 1/2 of the time.

Overall, Gardevoir is generally still the better choice. Togekiss has two niches: (1) Having Aura Sphere; (2) Being bulkier, thus occasionally having a better Estimator. But considering most people will use fairy types primarily as anti-dragon counters, niche (2) is the more, if not only, relevant one here.

Part 2: Fairy vs. Fighting – Where Aura Sphere Togekiss stands among true fighters

[Part 2 TL;DR] Worse than regular Machamp, same tier as Hariyama. Not to mention, such raid bosses are rare to begin with, and most of them (except Darkrai) also have much better counters elsewhere. You’ll rarely find a use for Aura Sphere Togekiss over what you have, especially your fighting team.

“What’s a better option than Shadow Gardevoir?”

“Not using fairies at all and instead resorting to dragon, ice or fighting types against dragons and dark types.”

In Part 1, we only looked at how Aura Sphere Togekiss compares to fellow fairy types. But whenever Aura Sphere can be used in a raid, that means the “true” fighting types can be used too.

Unfortunately, the picture isn’t nearly as rosy when we add the fighters into the competition…

In this specific setup where the boss is weak to both fairy and fighting:

Aura Sphere Togekiss is worse than regular Machamp, and similar to regular Hariyama. By extension, it’s also worse than all the premium counters above them: Terrakion, Keldeo, Shadow Machamp, Shadow Hariyama, Conkeldurr, Lucario.

• FYI, AS Togekiss only outperforms Machamp when there’s a pretty significant typing advantage, such as a dragon charged move.
• This is not surprising given Machamp has much higher DPS and slightly higher ER. (Table)

Sorry, but when it’s worse than even a “basic” fighter that most veteran players have built teams of… AS Togekiss simply won’t do much to your anti-dark raid squad. It’s even outside of Unique 6 range.

The good news is that AS Togekiss is now the best of the bunch of non-shadow non-mega fairy types, now surpassing regular Gardevoir, Zacian, and generally Xurkitree. But that’s just a technical fact that has little practical relevance.

How often does this scenario happen, anyway?

How many Tier 5 (or potential T5+) raid bosses are weak to both fairy and fighting?

Answer: Kyurem, Darkrai, Terrakion, Arceus Dark, Meloetta Pirouette, Ting-Lu. That’s it. A surprisingly short list.

• You may think the entire dark type falls under this category. Turns out, not only are dark-type legendaries not that common, but several are not weak to fighting (Yveltal) or double weak to something (Hoopa Unbound, Guzzlord). Darkrai is the only one that fits.
• Gen 9 adds four new dark-type legendaries, but Ting-Lu is the only one that qualifies for this list. Same for Paradox forms even if they become raid-exclusive.

For megas, there are a few more that fit the scenario. But Mega Sharpedo (and maybe Mega Absol) are the only ones that most of you will still have any interest raiding.

So, TL;DR: This is a very niche scenario that sees little practical use for AS Togekiss. Anyone with a somewhat prepared raid squad will have much better options.

Part 3: Fairy vs. Dragon

[Part 3 TL;DR] Togekiss falls WAY below practically all dragons (even an underleveled Dragonite is better). Even in cloudy weather or when the boss has a dragon charged move, it still only ties other dragons, not being better than them. Can serve as an anchor or fill up a team of 6, but not a must-have.

A much more practical use for fairy attackers is as counters against dragon-type bosses. This is both due to the (relatively) high number of dragon-type legendaries, and because fairy type was basically designed for this purpose, with a double resistance to dragon moves.

However, Togekiss, as well as other fairy types, are still not as good as you’d expect…

Welp. On average, Level 35 Dragonite >= Level 50 Togekiss. As long as you have any complete team of dragons, non-shadow non-mega fairies are really not of much use for you.

Also note that in this case, Gardevoir > Togekiss pretty consistently.

This plot is a rehash of several “Fairy vs Dragon” comparison plots I made in my Mega Gardevoir analysis. That article shows two more comparison plots, where fairy attackers gain more advantage:

• In cloudy weather: Togekiss ≈ all regular dragons (Rayquaza, Salamence, Palkia, Dialga, Garchomp, Zekrom)
• When the boss has a dragon charged move: L40 Togekiss <= most L40 dragons, except Salamence and Outrage Rayquaza. Difference is much smaller than the general plot.

However, when neither occur, Togekiss does way worse than other dragons.

To be clear, any fairy attacker (all Gardevoir forms, Togekiss, Zacian, Xurkitree) is still a good way to round out an anti-dragon team of 6. They’re particularly good at being an “anchor”, the last Pokemon in the team, to delay or avoid a relobby in worse-case scenarios. But they’re simply not top-tier anti-dragon options as a whole, except Mega Gardevoir.

Part 4: The could-have-beens – What if Togekiss got Fairy Wind instead?

[Part 4 TL;DR] Fairy Wind makes almost ZERO difference from Charm. In fact, Aura Sphere may be the best PvE CD move Niantic could have picked (on the fairy front).

Setting aside inter-type comparisons for a bit, let’s return to just fairy attackers. I already covered potential future fairy options thoroughly in the Mega Gardevoir analysis, but at that time, I intentionally left out one very popular question: What if Togekiss gets Fairy Wind?

As seen from how many people were betting Fairy Wind to be the CD move, it’s certainly a likely outcome for the future. But I left it out because… It’s not an impactful outcome. Not even close.

Have fun distinguishing the lines for Fairy Wind vs Charm on this chart!

That’s right… Fairy Wind offers practically ZERO upgrade from Charm. More accurately, 0.2% upgrade in my ASE metric, 0.8% in ER and DPS – both of which are as good as nothing.

• If anything, it makes Togekiss perform less consistently and be more reliant on charged moves. Charm is a damage-oriented fast move, while Fairy Wind is the complete opposite and focuses on energy generation (this is true in both PvE and PvP). So Fairy Wind Togekiss needs to reach that Dazzling Gleam for most of its damage output, something that Charm Togekiss doesn’t need to worry so much about.

Note that Fairy Wind would be a bigger improvement if paired with a more powerful charged move than Dazzling Gleam, namely:

• Fairy Wind/Aura Sphere is a more significant upgrade over Charm/Aura Sphere, now having 3% higher DPS. Still, it has few use cases to begin with.
• If a more powerful fairy-type charged move gets created one day and is given to Togekiss, it will almost certainly want to pair it with Fairy Wind instead of Charm. However, no such options exist. ^{(Unless Niantic turns another fairy-type status move into a damage-dealing one in Go… Please don’t.)}

Given the status quo, it can even be argued that Aura Sphere may be the best pick for a PvE CD move (as a fairy type), despite lacking STAB. You’re faced with two CD move options:

• A move that can only be used 25% of the time, but is an upgrade
• A move that can be used all the time, but offers no upgrades (while also locking that specific Togekiss out of being a flying-type attacker, and making it a much worse gym defender and Rocket grunt counter)

Even without considering PvP at all, the choice is pretty clear.

Fairy Wind would have had much bigger implications for PvP, which I’ll leave to the PvP experts (possibly u/JRE47) to comment on in their analyses.

One quick note about another could-have-been for the CD move: Sky Attack. It would have made Togekiss a much better flying attacker than Aerial Ace does, but it would probably end up being similar to Honchkrow and Hurricane Rayquaza at best (similar ER, lower DPS). Still not a transformative upgrade, though it would also have had impacts for PvP.

Verdict: How good is it?

Summarizing what we have, there are a few positives for Togekiss and Aura Sphere:

• Togekiss is among the group of top non-shadow non-mega fairy attackers (together with Zacian, DG Xurkitree and Gardevoir).
• Aura Sphere is better than Dazzling Gleam when both are equally super effective. This allows Togekiss to situationally pull ahead of others in the non-shadow group, especially Gardevoir.

But there are more negatives:

• Togekiss (with either Dazzling Gleam or Aura Sphere) is much, much weaker than counters of other types. Namely, Fighting, Dragon and Psychic-type counters are all better, including even the “basic” ones like Machamp and Dragonite.
• There are very few use cases for Aura Sphere. Happens only about 1/4 of the time when you want a fairy, and the only practical and notable raid boss is Darkrai.
• Gardevoir is still generally better than Togekiss, unless Aura Sphere can be used.

My overall judgment for Togekiss (and regular Gardevoir to a huge extent):

They’re great budget options for a cheap anti-dragon team, that can also serve as anti-dark and anti-fighting. However, for someone with more established and dedicated teams (dragon and fighting types), they have relatively low practical value.

In other words… Good for beginners. Perhaps good if you get cloudy weather often. But don’t stress too much about it.

One more use case of fairy attackers is against raid bosses that are double weak to fairy, including:

• Current: Guzzlord
• Future: Urshifu Single Strike (Gen 8), Koraidon (Gen 9)
• Possible future: Roaring Moon (Gen 9)

This is still a very short list, but interestingly, a team of (Level 35 or so) Gardevoir and Togekiss can solo Tier 5 Guzzlord. (I wrote a guide on the solo, which is admittedly a bit too conservative). So there’s still some value for a fairy team, but not a priority.

If you do build them, the best possible Togekiss for raids should have Aura Sphere/Dazzling Gleam as two charged moves, with the option to TM to a double flying moveset if needed. However, while Aura Sphere is an upgrade and I do recommend evolving good ones during CD, missing out on Aura Sphere is no big deal. Definitely not worth an Elite TM, unless for sentimental value like a hundo.

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Articles coming up next

• Quick analysis on Tsareena. Preliminary thoughts here.
• Mega Pinsir has been datamined recently, so I’ll try to have an analysis whenever it and/or Mega Gallade are actually released. Preliminary thoughts on Mega Pinsir here.
• Quick analysis on Blast Burn Delphox in May, assuming leaks are true.

Appendix: Past analyses on other types

• Bug: Bug Out
• Dark/Ghost: Gholdengo & DIB Melmetal
  • For Tyranitar speculations: Tyranitar CD Classic
  • For Giratina-O comparisons: Shadow Force Giratina-O
• Dragon: Breaking Swipe Rayquaza
  • For full future attackers: Mega Salamence
• Electric: Reshiram & Zekrom with Fusion moves
  • Mega Mewtwo Y (Thunderbolt) data is wrong
  • For Xurkitree comparisons: Bug Out
• Fairy: This article
  • For full future attackers and detailed fairy-dragon comparisons: Mega Gardevoir
• Fighting: Shadow Mewtwo (Part 2 Terrakion section), with a few future and speculative attackers
  • For future megas: September GBL update (Mega Mewtwo X data is wrong)
  • Also Galarian birds, Ultra Beasts & Sneasler
• Fire: Shadow Sceptile & Blaziken
  • For more on Reshiram: Reshiram & Zekrom with Fusion moves
  • Mega Mewtwo Y (Flamethrower) data is wrong
  • For full future attackers: Gen 3 mega starters
• Flying: Staraptor CD
• Grass: Shadow Sceptile & Blaziken
  • For full future attackers: Kartana and Gen 3 mega starters
• Ground: Primal Kyogre & Groudon
• Ice: Kyurem & Mega Glalie
  • Mega Mewtwo Y (Ice Beam) data is wrong
• Poison: Poison attackers
• Psychic: Mega Gardevoir
  • For Shadow Mewtwo with IVs: Shadow Mewtwo
  • For full future attackers: September update/Psychic Spectacular
  • Mega Mewtwo data is wrong
• Rock: Tyranitar CD Classic
  • For full future attackers: Gigalith CD
• Steel: Gholdengo & DIB Melmetal
  • For full future attackers: Mega Aggron
• Water: Mega Slowbro CD
  • For more on Primal Kyogre: Primal Kyogre & Groudon
  • For full future attackers: Gen 3 mega starters