How to unlock Zeraora
Zeraora is not sold directly, so the only route is the Alola banner, where it occupies a 5★ slot. The 5★ band takes 1.5% of all pulls and holds 103 partners, so one specific Zeraora works out to about 0.0146% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter guarantees a 5★, but it does not target Zeraora specifically, so a guarantee can still resolve to another 5★. A duplicate Zeraora refunds 300 coins at the 5★ rate.
Zeraora stats and rank
Zeraora reads 110 HP, 138 speed, ×1.32 attack, ×1.32 physical, ×1.26 special, 75 defense and 80 special defense, for a 600 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 85.1 out of 100, which puts Zeraora at rank 41 of 966 and in tier S. The relative picture matters more than the total: its strongest slot is speed (99th percentile) and its weakest is defense (58th percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Zeraora's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (140.1 effective DPS, ×1.32 multiplier), then Tackle at 33.6 damage per 0.38s (118.3 effective DPS, ×1.32 multiplier), then Quick Attack at 44.8 damage per 0.56s (105.1 effective DPS, ×1.32 multiplier). 5 of its 12 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 7 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its physical multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.32 against ×1.26), so physical moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 21.8 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call. Range, area and knockback are not in the DPS number, so a nova can beat a melee on clear speed despite a smaller figure.
Evolution cards for Zeraora
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. If Power never appears in that run's level-up offers, the move stays at level 5 and unevolved. 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 140.1 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Zeraora compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Dragapult (+0 HP, +0 speed, +0.04 attack, +0 total) and Arcanine (+0 HP, -20 speed, -0.01 attack, -45 total). Against Dragapult, the two are level on speed and Dragapult hits harder by ×0.04, and the rank gap is 5 places. Those differences are what you actually trade when swapping partners, not a straight upgrade path, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.