Charizard is one of the most iconic Pokemon of all time. Ever since its box art debut back in 1996, Charizard has been beloved by the larger Pokemon community. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet has introduced this legacy mon into the game in the form of a 7-Star Tera Raid, and it’s up to you to figure out how to take it down and capture it.
Unrivalled Charizard is no joke either. Being a 7-Star Raid, Charizard is the hardest Raid the game has seen thus far. Its stats are through the roof, its attacks are devastating, and its health is seemingly endless. If you aren’t prepared, you are going to lose. If you’re willing to put in the work, we’ve got the solution though.
More Pokemon Scarlet & Violet content:
Gym Order | How To Catch Ditto | How To Breed Pokemon | Evolution Items | Beginner Tips | Combat Guide
How To Unlock Unrivalled Charizard
Before we go into how to beat Charizard, we need to talk about how to unlock the Raid. Unrivalled Charizard is locked behind Black Tera Crystals. These powerful Crystals are only found after you complete the game. This means if you want to nab yourself this Pokemon, you need to get a move on and wrap up all your loose plot threads.
Once you have beaten the game, you will be introduced to these new Raids, and Charizard will be among them. You can find him in the Raid Finder within the Poke Portal, or you can find them scattered around your world.
Do be aware that you will only have until December 4th to catch Charizard, as it will leave the Raid pool after this date.
What Makes Unrivalled Charizard Special?
The catch with Unrivalled Charizard is that it’s not only incredibly powerful, but it uniquely does not change its Tera Type. You will ALWAYS fight Unrivalled Charizard with a Dragon Tera Type, making it more predictable. Because Unrivalled Charizard removes its Fire and Flying weaknesses, this Charizard is only weak to Fairy, Ice, and Dragon Type moves.
Not only that, but you can only catch ONE Unrivalled Charizard. You can fight it as many times as you like, but your account can only house one of this Pokemon.
How To Defeat Unrivalled Charizard
Attacks
Now we have all that out of the way, how do you defeat Unrivalled Charizard? Firstly, let’s talk about its available attacks:
- Overheat
- Fire Blast
- Hurricane
- Sunny Day
Understanding these attacks is key to taking out Charizard. From this lineup, Charizard only has access to two types of attack – Fire and Flying. Under no circumstance should you bring a Pokemon weak to either of these types. If you do, you will lose.
Secondly, Hurricane can cause Confusion. This can devastate a team as it makes your damage unreliable.
Thirdly, Overheat and Fire Blast can inflict Burn. Burn is a pain due to its DOT potential, however, the biggest drawback is that it reduces your ATK drastically.
Finally, Sunny Day gives Charizard a massive boost to its Fire attacks – so much so that its ‘Not Very Effective Attacks’ can almost land a OHKO.
All of these things are terrifying, and all of them will pose a threat during this Raid. This kit has been designed to mess with your plans.
Best Pokemon
The best Pokemon to take into this Raid, in our opinion, is Azumaril. Why? Azumaril is packing Water/Fairy, it’s a fairly tanky Pokemon, and its damage stats are pretty good too. This means Azumaril is not too bothered by Charizard’s fire damage, it can land big hits with attacks like Play Rough, and it can even heal itself with the use of various items.
We recommend running Azumaril with the following Attacks, Items, and Abilities:
- Rest
- Play Rough
- Rain Dance
- Belly Drum
- Item – Shell Bell / Leftovers / Lum Berry
- Ability – Huge Power
- Tera – Water
This kit gives you a lot of wiggle room and a lot of power. Firstly, you want to be using Play Rough as much as possible. Play Rough is Super Effective and will be your primary damage source.
Next, we have Belly Drum. This move is incredibly powerful but risky. Charizard is likely going to be faster than you, so Belly Drum could lead to your death if Charizard hits you with two Hurricanes back to back before you can heal. We have it in the kit, but we don’t always recommend using it.
Rain Dance is going to be your counter to Sunny Day. You can use it early to dial back Charizard’s Fire damage, but do be aware that will give Charizard’s Hurricane 100% Accuracy.
Finally, Rest. Rest will heal Azumaril to full HP when used, but it will also put you to sleep. This is where we bring our Items. Shell Bell and Leftovers will heal you over time, but Lum Berry gives us some options – specifically in relation to Rest and/or Burn.
Burn is devastating to Azumaril since it will destroy your damage output. Lum Berry will remove Burn, allowing you to stay at full power. If you never get burned but need to heal, Lum Berry will instantly wake you up after a Rest. This can give Azumaril a lot of staying power.
We chose Water Tera instead of Fairy Tera because we want to keep our Resistance to Fire. If we Tera Fairy, we become Fire Neutral, and this means Charizard’s Fire Blast deals far too much damage to justifiably let happen. Tera Water still lets us hit hard with Play Rough but keeps us healthy against Fire.
Solo Raid Or Group Raid?
The final thing to cover is whether or not you should go into the fight Solo, or with a Group. In a Solo Raid, you are relying on fairly useless AI companions to pick up the load. This can be quite the irritation, but Charizard is also easier to defeat to offset this. In an Online Raid, Charizard is more powerful, but your team could also straight suck.
In our time doing this raid, we have had parties running some truly awful Pokemon – and these Raids are instant defeats. You need the perfect party to take Charizard down, and even then, due to the difficulty of the fight, you could still end up losing.
Our recommendation is to go with AI companions OR to bring a group of friends. Randoms online are too sporadic in nature to reliably take Charizard down, and you will probably end up rather frustrated when someone brings a Tinkaton.
That’s all we have on Pokemon Scarlet & Violet for now, but we have more guides and content on the way and a bunch ready to view.
