If you’re about to take on your first tier 5 in a small group, here are some helpful rules of thumb.

Use the empty lobby trick to gain time

This trick skips the GO animation when the raid begins, bringing you directly into battle. Usually you can start ~3 seconds earlier than usual, even more on older phones. See our article to learn how to do the trick.

Dodge charged moves only, if at all

Dodging fast moves costs too much time to be viable. When a guide says that a Pokemon is reliant on dodging, it means dodging charged moves only. Against many tier 5 bosses dodging is neither required or recommended.

How to avoid triggering the dodge glitch

When a Pokemon dodges an attack that would KO it if undodged, the client and server often disagree on whether the Pokemon really faints. The Pokemon will visually disappear and no longer be able to use charged moves. This doesn’t occur in solo raids. This glitch appears to have been mostly fixed as of May 2019.

Don't leave the battle at the same time

If both combatants retreat to the lobby at the same time (e.g., to revive their team), the raid boss often regains some HP when they rejoin the fight. This can make a short-man attempt impossible, especially since most of these raids require re-entry. It’s not known why this happens - the client and server probably disagree on the amount of damage done.

When battling a raid boss against whom combatants will likely have to rejoin the fight, stagger your lobbying to prevent boss HP regain. Player A can retreat to the lobby after 4-5 Pokemon faint, while the other players wait until after player A rejoins to retreat to the lobby.

Minimize time required to re-enter battle

Most tier 5 small groups require more than one team of 6 Pokemon. Time spent leaving and re-entering battle is lost DPS. Use these tricks to rejoin the fray faster:

Leave battle before wiping out to avoid the “all your Pokemon have fainted” screen.

Use an “A team” battle party if you plan to revive and re-enter with your main team.

Use a “B team” battle party if you only need a little bit of damage.

Delete all Potions and Super Potions in order to use Max Revives without scrolling.

See this video tutorial for further details.