Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has introduced a brand new online event following the special “Eevee Spotlight” shortly after the game’s launch. This event allows players to catch a special “Unrivaled” Charizard within black Tera Raid crystals accessible to those who have completed the main storyline (i.e. seen the credits roll) and completed enough raids after that to have been informed of black Tera Raid crystals within the game. The rewards for this event are incredible: defeating this raid allows you to catch a Charizard (which is otherwise impossible to obtain in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet) at level 100 with perfect IVs and a Modest nature (which boosts special attack at the expense of attack), obtain a guaranteed ability patch, receive the Overheat TM, and get a bunch of incredibly valuable items in game. All of this doesn’t come easy though; this raid is one of if not the hardest in the game, ranked 7 stars over the usual maximum of 6. But, there are a few specific Pokémon and strategies you can use to make it a lot easier on yourself.
Listicles are annoying, click-baity, and usually based on nothing but vibes. This article will attempt to be as little of that as possible. All the context you’ll need is in the first paragraph. The rest of the article will be the 5 Pokémon I’d recommend using (in ascending order of viability), an explanation of why, and nothing else. For best results try to get them all to the highest level and stats (via EVs, IVs, and Nature) that you can.
5. Dachsbun or Azumarill
Both of these Pokémon approach the Charizard raid with a similar strategy: use Play Rough over and over until you win. In the case of Dachsbun its advantages come from a combination of its ability Well-Baked Body, which makes it immune to Fire-type moves, and its pure Fairy typing. This is useful because this Charizard only is able to use flying, fire, and Dragon-type moves. This effectively means only one move can hit. For Azumarill, it has the similar advantage of fairy typing to negate dragon moves but has water typing to resist fire rather than negate it. Additionally, Azumarill has access to the Huge Power ability and the move Belly Drum, the latter of which allowing the user to cut its own HP to maximize its attack. Both can make use of the Assault Vest or Covert Cloak items which boost special defense or prevent additional effects of moves (like burns from Fire Blast) respectively.
The thing keeping these two are at the bottom of the list is the same thing holding back the best parts of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: bugs. The move Play Rough currently has some odd interactions with Tera Raid battles. Sometimes when used to do super-effective damage, the game will glitch and revert damage dealt by the move, giving the appearance of Charizard randomly healing mid-battle. Additionally, Azumarill’s ability Huge Power, which doubles its attack stat, doesn’t work properly in Tera Raids. You can certainly win with these two; they have the right tools. But those tools just aren’t as sharp as they could be.
4. Florges
Florges is a pure Fairy-type Pokémon (you should sense a pattern here) with the highest base special defense stat of any of the Pokémon on this list. This is incredibly useful against Charizard, which uses solely special moves. It carries the same benefit of fairy typing as above (negating dragon moves) and a strong special move pool. Combined with an Assault Vest, its special defense hits absurd levels capable of taking incredible amounts of damage. Without that item, Florges can make use of Calm Mind to boost its stats and Misty Terrain to block status conditions for the whole team and equip Covert Cloak or a Metronome. Either way, your main attack will be Moonblast. Spam it.
3. Gardevoir
Gardevoir is a fantastic option due to its fairy typing, ability, and excellent special attacking move pool. Additionally, it has a solid special defense stat which will allow it to take multiple hits from Charizard. Similar to numbers 1 through 4 on this list, it has a strong special attack in Moonblast, which can be spammed. It also has access to Calm Mind to boost its special attack and defense as well as Misty Terrain to prevent status conditions. What makes Gardevoir a better choice than the rest of the list thus far is its ability, Trace. Trace copies the ability of a foe and this Charizard has the ability Solar Power. During harsh sunlight, this ability increases special attack by 1.5x at the cost of 1/8 of a Pokémon’s maximum health at the end of each turn. Charizard will always use Sunny Day when its health begins to go down, meaning Gardevoir will get the same boost in power that it does. Finally, Gardevoir gets access to Draining Kiss to restore some health and can use Covert Cloak or a Metronome like the others.
2. Sylveon
Like Gardevoir, Sylveon is a nice Fairy-type with access to Moonblast, Calm Mind, Draining Kiss, and Misty Terrain. Unlike Gardevoir however, Sylveon also has access to the move Fake Tears, which lowers a target’s special defense by two stages. The raid Charizard always begins the battle by using Overheat and then resetting the drop to its special attack caused by the move. It doesn’t tend to reset its stat changes again. This means Sylveon is able to use Fake Tears multiple times early in the battle to lower Charizard’s special defenses to their absolute minimum before unleashing powerful super-effective fairy moves. Even more, Sylveon’s hidden ability, Pixilate, increases the power of Normal-type moves by 30%. It then changes those moves to Fairy-type. This lets Sylveon use incredibly powerful moves like Hyper Beam for super-effective damage. I’ve actually done the math on this one — Sylveon using Hyper Beam on a Charizard with its special defense fully reduced should comfortable destroy ~75% of this Charizard’s health bar.
1. Flutter Mane
Flutter Mane narrowly takes the top spot over Sylveon due to it having almost of all of the prior Pokémon’s benefits with few of the drawbacks. Flutter Mane has a combination of ridiculously high special attack and defense even in comparison to the rest of this list. Its base health is comparable to Gardevoir but exceeded by Sylveon. Like Sylveon, it has access to Moonblast, Misty Terrain, Fake Tears, Draining Kiss, and Calm Mind. As an ancient Paradox Pokémon, it has the ability Protosynthesis, which increases its highest stat by 30% (or 50% if that stat is speed) under sunlight. To suit that ability, it has a monstrous base special attack stat even compared to the other hard hitters on this list. This means Flutter Mane is able to hit extremely hard in the sun and doesn’t suffer the cost of health that a Trace Gardevoir does. It doesn’t have the veritable nuke Hyper Beam of Sylveon, but it does have a higher base special attack stat in general to do more damage per turn (remember, Hyper Beam requires a turn of recharge after use). While Flutter Mane is a Scarlet exclusive, trading is fairly easy and most people will be attempting these raids online anyway.
Good Luck Raiding in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet!
That’s it, that’s the list. Try out these strategies and hopefully you’ll defeat this raid. At the very least, definitely don’t bring things weak to fire, flying, or dragon moves. Additionally, while Scarlet players may be tempted to use Koraidon, remember that its ability will immediately grant Charizard a Solar Power boost and that it’s weak to flying and dragon moves.
The event will run within Pokémon Scarlet and Violet from Thursday, December 1, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. – Sunday, December 4, 2022, at 3:59 p.m. PST and from Thursday, December 15, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. – Sunday, December 18, 2022, at 3:59 p.m. PST. See full details here.
Images from the Pokémon official website unless otherwise stated.
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