How to unlock Tornadus
Getting Tornadus means pulling the Unova banner and hitting its 5★ slot. The 5★ band takes 1.5% of all pulls and holds 103 partners, so one specific Tornadus works out to about 0.0146% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter guarantees a 5★, but it does not target Tornadus specifically, so a guarantee can still resolve to another 5★. A duplicate Tornadus refunds 300 coins at the 5★ rate.
Tornadus stats and rank
Tornadus carries 106 HP, 125 speed, a ×1.39 attack multiplier, ×1.33 physical, ×1.39 special, 70 defense and 80 special defense, 580 in total. On the three-stat percentile this is 82.8 out of 100, which puts Tornadus at rank 53 of 966 and in tier S. What separates it from its neighbours is shape, not size: its strongest slot is speed (93rd percentile) and its weakest is defense (51st percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Tornadus's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Gust at 31.2 damage per 0.26s (167.0 effective DPS, ×1.39 multiplier), then Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (141.1 effective DPS, ×1.33 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (119.2 effective DPS, ×1.33 multiplier). 7 of its 12 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 5 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its special multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.39 against ×1.33), so special moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 25.9 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call.
Evolution cards for Tornadus
Its starting move, Gust, evolves into Hurricane once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Sprint card, which boosts speed for that run. That card has to drop inside the run; nothing in the permanent menu replaces it. 12 of its 16 moves carry an evolution card, across 5 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes and Armor). The strongest of them is Gust at 167.0 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Tornadus compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Thundurus (+0 HP, +0 speed, same attack multiplier, +0 total) and Enamorus (-3 HP, -2 speed, +0.05 attack, +0 total). Against Thundurus, the two are level on speed and the two carry an identical ×1.39 attack multiplier, and the rank gap is 1 places. Treat the gaps as the price of the switch rather than free stats, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.