How to unlock a Max Move in Pokemon GO

Unlocking a Max Move in Pokemon GO is one of the many new mechanics you can explore as part of the Dynamax mechanic in Niantic's mobile game. The phenomenon was introduced in early September 2024 and is here to stay. Max Moves are essentially more powerful forms of regular moves.

There are three main types of such moves in the game—a damaging move whose type corresponds to the type of the Fast Attack known by the user, a protection move called Max Guard, and a healing move called Max Cheer. You can check out the entire list of Pokemon GO Fast Attacks and the Max Moves they correspond to.

This article will tell you how to unlock a Max Move in Pokemon GO.

Steps to unlock a Max Move in Pokemon GO

To unlock a Max Move in Pokemon GO, follow these steps:

Capture a Dynamax Pokemon from Max Battles.
Open your collection of Pocket Monsters and select the creature you want to unlock a Max Move for.
Click the Dynamax icon to see all available options. Here you will see that the attacking move is unlocked by default.
To unlock Max Guard and Max Cheer, you need to spend a certain amount of Candy and Max Particles.
If you have the required resources, click on the confirmation button and your Dynamax critter will learn the new Max Move.

There are three Max Moves for every creature in Pokemon GO (Image via TPC)

The amount of resources you need varies with the tier of Max Battle you found your creature in. So far, critters found in tier-one Max Battles require 400 MP and 50 Candy each to unlock the two moves. Pocket Monsters from tier-three Max Battles need 400 MP and 70 Candy.

Once you unlock a Max Move in Pokemon GO, you can upgrade it. The following section tells you how.

Check out our guides for help with the present Max Battles:

Scorbunny
Sobble
Grookey
Falinks

How to upgrade Max Moves in Pokemon GO

To upgrade Max Moves, follow these steps:

Select the Max Move you want to upgrade.
If you have the resources, click the Train button.

Upgrading Max Moves can be useful as it increases how hard the attacks hit or how much health it recovers. Similar to the unlocking process the upgradation also costs Candy or Candy XL and Max Particles.

Here are the costs involved:

Level	Tier 1 Dynamax Pokemon	Tier 3 Dynamax Pokemon
Level 1 - 2	600 MP and 100 Candy	600 MP and 120 Candy
Level 2 - 3 (Max!)	1,500 MP and 40 Candy XL	1,500 MP and 50 Candy XL

If you wish to take on higher-level Max Battles in Pokemon GO, you should unlock and upgrade the additional Max Moves.

Check out our other Pokemon GO guides:

Ditto disguises
Buddy Evolution Adventure Together guide
Best Fast Attacks in Pokemon GO
Sierra counters
Cliff counters
Arlo counters
Giovanni counters
Team GO Rocket Grunts