Pokemon Go Venusaur: Evolution, moveset, counters, type, tier ranking

Paul Cotton

Being one of the original starter Pokemon, you will often encounter Venusaur in one way or another in Pokemon Go. We take a look at everything you need to know about the Seed Pokemon in the mobile game.

Bulbasaur has been available in Pokemon Go from the very beginning when it first released in July of 2016. The Gen 1 starter even featured in its own Community Day back in March 2018, making it far easier to get than is fully evolved form.

In addition to its base evolution, you can also find Venusaur as a Shadow Pokemon, Clone Pokemon and as a Shiny. Additionally, you can even Mega Evolve it. This gigantic evolution has a max CP of 2,720!

Venusaur Pokemon Go
When you think of a grass-type Pokemon, the Bulbasaur line immediately comes to mind…

Evolution

Unless you started playing Pokemon for the first time very recently, you’ll know Bulbasaur evolves into Ivysaur and then into Venusaur.

  • Bulbasaur -> 25 Candy -> Ivysaur -> 100 Candy -> Venusaur

Type

The grass-type Kanto starter is actually a dual-type Pokemon – grass and poison. This changes what it is resistant and vulnerable to. They are as follows:

Resistant to Vulnerable to
Electric Fire
Fairy Flying
Fighting Ice
Grass Psychic
Water

Moveset

In Pokemon Go Venusaur has access to the following moves:

Fast Moves

  • Razor Leaf (grass) – 5.5 DPT, 2 EPT
  • Vine Whip (grass) – 2.5 DPT, 4 EPT

Charge Move

  • Petal Blizzard (grass) – 110 damage, 65 energy
  • Sludge Bomb (poison) – 80 damage, 50 energy
  • Solar Beam (grass) – 150 damage, 80 energy

Elite Charge Move

  • Frenzy Plant (grass) – 100 damage, 45 energy

In PvP Vine Whip is considered the better of its two Fast Moves as energy generation is more important in this mode. Both can be effective in PvE, however.

Due to its massive DPE of 2.2 Frenzy Plant is clearly Venusaur’s best Charge Move. If you’re willing to spend the 25 Candy and 10,000 Stardust it costs to get Venusaur a Second Charge Move (and we recommend you should), then Sludge Bomb is Frenzy Plant’s best compliment due to its poison typing.

Tier ranking

  • PvE attacker: 7/10
  • Great League: 8/10
  • Ultra League: 7/10
  • Master League: 5/10

Counters

In the event Venusaur appears in Raid Battles, and it does occasionally, there are a lot of Pokemon you can use to exploit its weaknesses.

However, it isn’t as simple as just choosing Pokemon with fire-type attacks though, as the Raid time limit prevents this. Consequently, you’ll need to focus on ‘mons with a excellent attack stats.

The best options are (when using attacks Vensaur is weak to):

  • Chandelure
  • Entei
  • Heatran
  • Metagross
  • Mewtwo
  • Moltres

There are certainly superior grass-type Pokemon to Venusaur, but it is well worth the time to add to your team. Besides, it is the very first Pokemon line found in the National Pokedex!