Dynamax Drilbur has been added to Pokémon Go as part of the “Simply Groundbreaking” event, and though the launch of Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon has been somewhat frustrating, it’s not a Pokémon you’ll want to skip.
There are a lot of reasons why to grab a Drilbur when you can, so let’s go down the list.
For one, you don’t have to worry about direct powercreep. While the Kanto starters and Gastly were immediately replaced by their better, Gigantamax forms after launch, you don’t have to worry about that happening to Drilbur. Excadrill, it’s evolved form, has no Gigantamax form. This is the strongest this thing is going to get (in the case of Max Battles, at least).
Full disclosure here, it’s worth mentioning that there is a ground-type Pokémon that can Gigantamax: Sandaconda. However, we have no idea when it will get added to Pokémon Go, as the game is missing a ton of Galar region Pokémon to begin with. At the very least, your candy and Stardust won’t be wasted if you invest it into Excadrill, the way it may have been if you invested in a Dynamax Charizard before Gigantamax Charizard came around.
It’s also the third best ground-type attacker (excluding Legendary Pokémon, Mega Pokémon, and shadow Pokémon), so it’ll likely be a mainstay of your Max Battle line-up for a long time. (For those wondering, it’s currently beaten out by Garchomp and Rhyperior.) Ground-type moves are also super effective against a lot of types — poison-, rock-, steel-, fire-, and electric-type Pokémon take doubled damage from this move type, adding to its usefulness.
The most important factor here is that Excadrill will be the best counter available for the upcoming Gigantamax Toxtricity Max Battles, since it’s both poison- and electric-type. If you plan on taking part in the upcoming Pokémon Go Wild Area event on Nov. 23 and 24, then you should definitely nab one of these things.
Image: Niantic
Unfortunately, as it stands, Gigantamax battles can still be tough for players, especially if you’re in an area without many other experienced players. You’ll want any competitive edge you can get to help make these fights easier, and taking advantage of type advantage of a particularly strong Pokémon is definitely one of them.
You don’t have to build an army of Dynamax Excadrill, especially since the candy and Stardust cost isn’t reasonable for the average player. Grab one, power that bad boy up, and help out your local raid groups with it. Having one modestly built Excadrill will be way more helpful than bringing in your unbuilt Squirtle.
Dynamax Drilbur itself is a modest battle — as a one-star rank, it’s about as hard as any of the other one-star raids. You should be able to take it down even with the free Dynamax Wooloo the game initially gave you if you don’t have any other Pokémon to use.
Since it also only costs 250 Max Particles to take on Dynamax Drilbur, we recommend catching a few, even if that means you only focus on powering one up. You should be able to reamass your Max Particles for Toxtricity by Nov. 23, so there’s no harm in having a few back-up Excadrill for later.
Even if you don’t really like Max Battles, we still recommend throwing your free aforementioned Wooloo at this thing to grab one. You never know when Niantic may nerf Gigantamax battles or make this feature more appealing, and you won’t want to lament the fact that you missed one of the easier-to-get hard hitters if you ever want to start dipping your toes into Dynamax.
