How to unlock Raikou
Raikou is not sold directly, so the only route is the Johto banner, where it occupies a 5★ slot. The 5★ band takes 1.5% of all pulls and holds 103 partners, so one specific Raikou works out to about 0.0146% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter guarantees a 5★, but it does not target Raikou specifically, so a guarantee can still resolve to another 5★. A duplicate Raikou refunds 300 coins at the 5★ rate.
Raikou stats and rank
Raikou reads 110 HP, 126 speed, ×1.33 attack, ×1.17 physical, ×1.33 special, 75 defense and 100 special defense, for a 580 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 83.7 out of 100, which puts Raikou at rank 49 of 966 and in tier S. The relative picture matters more than the total: its strongest slot is speed (94th percentile) and its weakest is defense (58th percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Raikou's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (124.1 effective DPS, ×1.17 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (104.8 effective DPS, ×1.17 multiplier), then Hyper Beam at 126.2 damage per 1.76s (95.3 effective DPS, ×1.33 multiplier). 5 of its 12 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 7 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its special multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.33 against ×1.17), so special moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 19.3 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call. The figure is a ceiling for a single target: splash, piercing and knockback can outweigh a gap this size.
Evolution cards for Raikou
Its starting move, Thunder Shock, evolves into Thunder once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. A level 5 move without Power in the run is still just a level 5 move. 12 of its 16 moves carry an evolution card, across 5 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes and Armor). The strongest of them is Body Slam at 124.1 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Raikou compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Delphox (-6 HP, -4 speed, same attack multiplier, -46 total) and Zapdos (+0 HP, -6 speed, +0.06 attack, +0 total). Against Delphox, Raikou is 4 speed faster and the two carry an identical ×1.33 attack multiplier, and the rank gap is 58 places. The exchange rate is the point: nothing here improves on both lines at once, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.