How to unlock Heatran
Getting Heatran means pulling the Sinnoh banner and hitting its 5★ slot. The 5★ band takes 1.5% of all pulls and holds 103 partners, so one specific Heatran works out to about 0.0146% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter guarantees a 5★, but it does not target Heatran specifically, so a guarantee can still resolve to another 5★. A duplicate Heatran refunds 300 coins at the 5★ rate.
Heatran stats and rank
Heatran carries 111 HP, 110 speed, a ×1.42 attack multiplier, ×1.2 physical, ×1.42 special, 106 defense and 106 special defense, 600 in total. On the three-stat percentile this is 78.4 out of 100, which puts Heatran at rank 94 of 966 and in tier A. What separates it from its neighbours is shape, not size: its strongest slot is special multiplier (96th percentile) and its weakest is speed (62nd percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Heatran's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Fire Spin at 33.6 damage per 0.30s (159.2 effective DPS, ×1.42 multiplier), then Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (127.3 effective DPS, ×1.20 multiplier), then Metal Claw at 37.8 damage per 0.38s (121.0 effective DPS, ×1.20 multiplier). 10 of its 19 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 9 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its special multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.42 against ×1.2), so special moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 31.9 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call.
Evolution cards for Heatran
Its starting move, Ember, evolves into Fire Blast once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. Menu upgrades use a separate system and never stand in for Power. 19 of its 23 moves carry an evolution card, across 6 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes, Armor and Synthesis). The strongest of them is Fire Spin at 159.2 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Heatran compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Magearna (-5 HP, -5 speed, same attack multiplier, +0 total) and Necrozma (+3 HP, +1 speed, -0.02 attack, +0 total). Against Magearna, Heatran is 5 speed faster and the two carry an identical ×1.42 attack multiplier, and the rank gap is 115 places. Read those deltas as swap costs, because a gain on one line is usually paid for on another, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.