How to unlock Zapdos
There is no direct purchase for Zapdos. It appears on the Kanto banner inside the 5★ pool. The 5★ band takes 1.5% of all pulls and holds 103 partners, so one specific Zapdos works out to about 0.0146% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter guarantees a 5★, but it does not target Zapdos specifically, so a guarantee can still resolve to another 5★. A duplicate Zapdos refunds 300 coins at the 5★ rate.
Zapdos stats and rank
The sheet lists Zapdos at 110 HP, 120 speed, ×1.39 attack, ×1.2 physical and ×1.39 special, with 85 defense and 90 special defense — 580 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 83.1 out of 100, which puts Zapdos at rank 51 of 966 and in tier S. Relative standing explains more than the total here: its strongest slot is special multiplier (93rd percentile) and its weakest is physical multiplier (66th percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Zapdos'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 (127.3 effective DPS, ×1.20 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (107.5 effective DPS, ×1.20 multiplier). 7 of its 17 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 10 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its special multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.39 against ×1.2), so special moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 39.6 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call.
Evolution cards for Zapdos
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. Menu upgrades use a separate system and never stand in for Power. 17 of its 21 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.
Zapdos compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Hydreigon (+1 HP, -1 speed, same attack multiplier, +20 total) and Moltres (+0 HP, -4 speed, same attack multiplier, +0 total). Against Hydreigon, Zapdos is 1 speed faster and the two carry an identical ×1.39 attack multiplier, and the rank gap is 6 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.