This article is about the Charizard the Unrivaled 7-star Tera Raid Battle event that first took place from December 1, 2022 at 4:00pm PST / 7:00pm EST (00:00 UTC) until December 4, 2022 at 3:59pm PST / 6:59pm EST (23:59 UTC), and has repeated for a second run from December 15, 2022 at 4:00pm PST / 7:00pm EST (00:00 UTC) until December 18, 2022 at 3:59pm PST / 6:59pm EST (23:59 UTC).
Charizard the Unrivaled is at level 100 and has a lot of very strong moves. In order to stand a chance against it, you’re going to want to go in with Pokémon that are level 95+, ideally level 100 as well. Not only that, but if you aren’t already EV Training, you will want to learn about EV Training and EV Train some of your Pokémon before going into the battle.
Don’t know how to EV Train? There’s an EV Training Guide here on the Marriland website to explain the basics, and if you already know about EV Training, there’s a Scarlet & Violet EV Training Guide available that shows you where to EV Train in Scarlet & Violet.
Which Types of Pokémon to Bring
Charizard is a pure-Dragon-type while Terastallized, so Fairy-type Pokémon in particular are a very good choice, especially as it has no Steel-type moves to counter them. It will still do a lot of damage with its attacks, though. Water-type Pokémon are also a good choice against it.
Several Pokémon that I have seen mentioned across social media are:
- Sylveon (Fairy-type)—Sylveon is a great Pokémon to use for support, but you can also use it to solo Charizard if you want to, so long as it has Pixilate for its Ability.
- For support, you can go with moves like Helping Hand to power up an ally, Misty Terrain to prevent Hurricane from confusing your team, and Light Screen to give your team extra Sp. Def.
- If you want to solo Charizard with Sylveon, running Pixilate is important, and you’ll want to go with 252 Sp. Atk/252 HP EVs (Sp. Def instead of HP works as well), Hyper Beam, Calm Mind, Fake Tears, and then a fourth move (Misty Terrain is nice to prevent confusion from Hurricane). Just use Fake Tears three times, hope your NPC allies don’t activate Charizard’s shield (this requires coordination if playing on multiplayer), let Charizard KO you if you get weak, then set up two Calm Minds and then unleash Hyper Beam. You should do enough damage to OHKO Charizard and bypass its shield.
- Mimikyu (Fairy/Ghost-type)—has Disguise to hopefully block the brunt of Charizard’s initial Overheat plus it can use Swords Dance and Play Rough to deal damage.
- Grimmsnarl (Fairy/Dark-type)—gets a lot of helpful support moves and also has Spirit Break to inflict a lot of damage while also lowering Charizard Sp. Atk, although Charizard can eventually reset its debuffs.
- Dachsbun (Fairy-type)—with its Well-Baked Body Ability, it absorbs Fire-type attacks, and Charizard uses a lot of them. As with Azumarill, equipping the Ability Shield ensures you don’t lose Well-Baked Body when Charizard shuts off Abilities.
Because Charizard only uses Special-based moves, you’ll want either HP or Sp. Def in order to survive its hits better, and then will want to make sure you max out your Attack or Sp. Atk, depending on which Pokémon you’re using.
The Battle Against Charizard the Unrivaled
According to Serebii.net’s coverage of the Charizard, it has the following moves available to it:
- Dragon Pulse
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane (getting confused can be very dangerous!)
- Focus Blast
- Tera Blast (Dragon)
- Inferno
It uses these moves fairly regularly, but it also has a few other combos that it will do at certain points in the fight.
At the start of the battle, it immediately uses Overheat to do a lot of damage and lower its own Sp. Atk by stages, but it then resets its stats, meaning the lowered Sp. Atk is reset, so this is something to watch out for.
As with most high-level Tera Raid Battles, Charizard the Unrivaled sets up a shield once its HP gets low enough, and you’ll need to break through that shield in order to weaken it further. This can be a daunting task and Terastallizing helps, but just make sure that, if you Terastallize, you can still handle Charizard’s attacks! For instance, if you have one of the Fairy-type Pokémon mentioned above but it has a non-Fairy Tera Type, it will suddenly be exposed to getting hit with a very strong Dragon-type Tera Blast or Dragon Pulse.
Finally, after the shield is broken, Charizard the Unrivaled will set up Sunny Day, which in turn activates its Solar Power Ability. Sunny Day powers up its Fire-type moves and Solar Power raises its Sp. Atk while the weather is sunny, so it’s going to do a lot of damage in this final phase.
Teamwork is Recommended
It’s best that you fight against Charizard the Unrivaled with friends, especially ones that know what they’re doing. Remember, it’s important to focus on strategy rather than just doing damage, so be sure to make strategic use of your Cheers during battle, to use Cheers to heal up when needed, and to coordinate status moves. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t do damage, though! You’ll need a combination of both.
Stacking buffs and debuffs is good (these do get reset periodically, though, but are still worth it), but so is doing damage, so ensuring you have one or two Pokémon on the team that are focused primarily on damage will be more effective than having a lot of smaller, weaker attacks. Also, when a Pokémon gets knocked out, there’s a penalty to your time remaining, so try to keep the whole team healthy.
If you don’t have a group of friends you can take on Charizard the Unrivaled with, you can still have a chance at winning with a random group, but it’s a better idea to focus on a more reliable strategy rather than one that requires a lot of coordination and to be willing to play support if needed.