Lucario: Best Moveset, Weaknesses & Counters, Stats, and Evolution

Lucario is a dual Fighting- and Steel-type Pokémon first introduced in Generation IV of the core video games. It is the first and final evolution form of Riolu, a baby Pokémon introduced in Generation IV of the core games; Riolu evolved into Lucario with a high-enough Friendship level.

Lucario has a Mega Evolution, Mega Lucario, which is obtained by exposing Lucario to Lucarionite. It is weak to Fighting-, Ground-, and Fire-type moves, and is super effective against Normal-, Rock-, and Fairy-type Pokémon.

Best moveset

In the PokémonGO videogame, the best moves for your Lucario are Counter and Aura Sphere if you’re battling Pokémon in Gyms. Namely, this moveset gives you the highest total DPS and is, likewise, the best moveset for PVP battles. The official description for Counter reveals the following: “A retaliation move that counters any physical attack, inflicting double the damage taken”; as for Aura Sphere, the attack is described as follows: “The user lets loose a blast of aura power from deep within its body at the target. This attack never misses.”

Weaknesses and Counters

As a dual Fighting- and Steel-type Pokémon, Lucario is weak to Fighting-, Ground-, and Fire-type moves, and is super effective against Normal-, Rock-, and Fairy-type Pokémon. It is immune to Poison-type moves. It receives normal damage from Flying-, Ghost-, Water-, Electric-, Psychic-, Fairy-type moves.

Powers and Abilities

Lucario’s Stats, based on the most recent available data, are:

In Pokémon GO, Lucario has a Base Stamina of 172, a Base Attack of 236, and a Base Defense of 144.

As for its abilities, they are:

• Steadfast: The Pokémon’s determination boosts the Speed stat each time the Pokémon flinches. (or)
• Inner Focus: The Pokémon’s intensely focused, and that protects the Pokémon from flinching.
• Justified: Being hit by a Dark-type move boosts the Attack stat of the Pokémon, for justice. (Hidden Ability)
• Adaptability: Powers up moves of the same type as the Pokémon. (Mega Lucario)

Evolutions

Lucario was first introduced in Generation IV as the first and final evolution of the baby Pokémon Riolu, also introduced in Generation IV. Riolu evolved into Lucario with a high enough level of Friendship, but only during daytime. Lucario does not have any Regional Variant, but it does have a Mega Evolution – when exposed to the Lucarionite, it evolves into Mega Lucario.

In Pokémon GO, Lucario is also obtained by first evolving Riolu, for which you need 50 Riolu Candy, and no other requirements. Mega Lucario is, as of the time of writing this article, not yet available in the game.

Moves

As of Generation VIII, the movies that Lucario can learn are:

• Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Lucario
• Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an evolution of Lucario
• × indicates a move that cannot be used in Generation VIII

Moves by leveling up

Moves by TM

Moves by transfer from another generation

In Pokémon GO, Lucario can learn Counter, and Bullet Punch as Fast Attacks, and Flash Cannon, Shadow Ball, Close Combat, Power-Up Punch, and Aura Sphere as Charged Attacks. Some of these attacks depend on when you caught and evolved your Lucario, as they are event-only attacks.