Charizard the Unrivaled is a brand new Tera-Raid event added into Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for a limited time, and continues the trend of extremely difficult raids in the game.
Compared to the tame raid events of Sword and Shield, Scarlet and Violet’s raid events have been a new challenge for even experienced players. You can no longer go in and catch your Charizard and get all of the items it drops without a coordinated team, and most importantly, a Pokémon built to take on the challenge.
The Charizard raid can be buggy, is hard as nails, and without a competent team that knows what they’re are doing, there is really no way to beat it. Which sucks, as this raid event is currently the only way to get Charizard in Scarlet and Violet before Pokémon Home compatibility comes into play sometime next year.
How to beat Charizard the Unrivaled Tera Raid in Pokémon SV
There are three phases to the fight, and your success will rely on certain Pokémon taking on an attacking role while others support it. This is new, as many raids in Sword and Shield required little to not support from teammate Pokémon to beat them.
It also goes without saying that making sure your Pokémon are level 100 is the only way to beat this raid, as the Charizard is level 100 and will not take much damage from anything under max level. Unfortunately, if you haven’t beaten the game yet and leveled-up your Pokémon, this raid is probably not going to be doable for you, even if you have three experienced teammates.
There are a few things to know about Charizard the Unrivaled before jumping in to your first raid.
Charizard is only a Dragon-type during this raid, but can still use Fire and Flying attacks. As such, there are really only a few Pokémon you should use to have a chance at beating it.
Azumarill
Azumarill is likely one of the best Pokémon to use, so long as its Tera-type is Fairy.
You will need to use the Belly Drum method to have the most success in the Charizard raids.
The best build for an Azumarill is for the Pokémon to have the Adamant nature and Huge Power ability. The best Azumarills will have this moveset:
- Belly Drum
- Play Rough
- Helping Hand
- Liquidation
With Belly Drum, you can double your Azumarill’s attack by double in exchange for losing half of its health. After that, use the move Play Rough to deal a sizeable chunk of damage to Charizard’s health. This is probably the best Pokémon you can use, but you might struggle without the Fairy Tera-type when it comes to the final stretches of the raid.
You’ll definitely need to have other Pokémon raiding with you using Cheer to heal you up, since Belly Drum will cut your health.
You can try having a team of four friends all using Azumarill, with two people using the Belly Drum strategy, another using Helping Hand to boost the attacks of the main damage dealers, and another using Cheers to heal people up, absolutely crucifying Charizard in seconds. Nothing compares to watching a Charizard lose all its health in a couple of moves.
Alternatively, you can have your Azumarill team up with something like Umbreon that uses screech to lower Charizard’s defense and really hit it where it hurts. But if you don’t have someone using Azumarill, this raid will probably feel like banging your head into a wall, so it’s best to get someone with one of this Pokémon on your side.
Sylveon
Sylveon is another extremely viable option for this raid, and a popular choice since many trainers might already have a Sylveon in their boxes, being a beloved Pokémon.
Sylveon is already one of the strongest Fairy-type Pokémon for 5-7 star raids in Scarlet and Violet. It is a powerful Pokémon that has a diverse moveset, able to take many different Tera-types on. For Charizard, Sylveon could be perfect.
The best Sylveon to use for this particular Charizard event will have a Modest nature and Pixilate ability. The recommended moveset is as follows:
- Hyper Voice
- Light Screen
- Moonblast
- Calm Mind or Fake Tears
Hyper Voice and Moonblast are both strong attacks that will work well to chip away at Charizard’s HP. If you have an Azumarill alongside you, your Moonblasts can be a welcome addition to their already powered-up attacks from Belly Drum.
Hyper Voice is another strong move, and the key reason you want this attack and the Pixilate ability is that with the ability, Hyper Voice will become a Fairy-type move. This will make it even stronger on Charizard.
Light Screen is one of the key defensive abilities in Pokémon, so having a Sylveon with the ability will reduce the amount of damage your colleagues will take from special attacks.
Calm Mind and Fake Tears can both be effective depending on your play strategy. Fake Tears will lower Charizard’s special defense ability, so if you are targeting it with special moves this will be helpful. If you use Calm Mind instead, your own Pokémon will get buffs to their special attack and defense stats. It really just boils down to if you’d prefer to play passively or aggressively.
Any Fairy-type Pokémon with Fairy Tera-type
Dacshbun and Grimmsnarl, among others, can also be good options. Taking advantage of the Dragon typing of Charizard is crucial for victory here. Nothing else will cut it. If you want any chance against Charizard the Unrivaled, you need to just act fast and kill it quickly while also protecting your teammates with strong attack moves.
Fairy Tera-type is also needed at this point for any Pokémon you plan to use. It’ll negate the effect of Charizard’s Tera Blast move and make your life much easier.
Umbreon
Having at least one Umbreon on your team running Screech as an opener with Helping Hand on an Azumarill which has used Belly Drum as their opener can be an easy killer. Bonus points if you have two Umbreon and two Azumarill on your team, hitting Charizard hard with two Play Roughs while it’s at -4 Defense.
Another positive side of Umbreon is its high Special Defense, which helps it survive many of Charizard’s moves, including Focus Blast.
If your team is struggling after Charizard raises its Tera Shield, try using Cheers to heal your allies or increasing their Defense and Sp. Def, since Azumarill will need to set up Belly Drum again if they die.
