Charizard Tera Raid Return:

Charizard Tera Raid Return for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. A limited-time Charizard the Unrivaled tera raid the week of December 16. The event will run until December 18th, and it’s the only way players can catch the iconic dragon in the game right now. So if you want to add Charizard to your team, you’ll only have a few short days to get it back in your vault. But there’s still time to gather a squad of four and beat the Raid when it goes live, so here are some tips on how to best counter and catch the Charizard.

Charizard is a 7-star raid, which means it’s level 100, and is harder than most terastallized raid bosses you’ll find in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s main game. So, better know what you’re getting into and prepare for level 100 Pokémon, because anything else will be underpowered.

Some general facts to keep in mind about a Boss Charizard’s build is that it has a tera-type dragon, meaning that although the character is clearly a fire/fly type, it has strong and weak attacks against the same dragon-type Pokémon. However, it still has some fire moves. So while an Ice-type Pokémon might be able to deal extra damage to its Dragon Terra type, it’s vulnerable to Charizard’s fire attacks.

In general, it’s more important to make sure the Pokémon you and your friends are using can withstand the base type of the tera raid boss than the tera type against it, because if your “monster” is being attacked, any super effective attacks won’t Important one shot hit by Fire Blast. Dragon-type Pokémon are weak against dragons, ice, and fairies, and since the former two are weak against dragons and fire respectively, fairy-type Pokémon and attacks are the best against this fire-breathing dragon.

It’s also important to keep in mind the Pokémon’s defensive abilities. Charizard the Unrivaled is built as a special attacker whose action set does not include any physical action. So if you send a Pokémon with poor special defenses, Charizard will most likely kill them, even if its moves aren’t necessarily very effective.

The complete action of the tera raid boss is as follows:

Dragon Pulse (Dragon)
Fire Blast (Fire)
Hurricane (Flying)
Focus Blast (Fighting)
Overheat (Fire)
Tera Blast (Dragon)
Sunny Day (Fire)
Inferno (Fire)

Most of these attacks rely on Charizard’s fire-based bread and butter, but the surprising fighting-style moves in the dragon-style Tera Blast and Focus Blast are worth watching and planning for. Combat attacks are powerful against many elements: Dark, Ice, Normal, Rock and Steel. So, between fire, flight, dragon and fighting moves, Charizard is equipped with options to fight all kinds of Pokémon. The biggest gap in its attack range is Faerie, which is a weakness that can be exploited.

As such, the general consensus in the Pokémon community is that Azumarill, a water/goblin-type “beast” resistant to fire and dragon attacks, is ideal for taking down Charizards. Players had such great success with the initial run of the raid that Scarlet and Violet ended up malfunctioning after the player completed the raid with one attack. Whether Game Freak will address the glitch when raids resurface this week remains to be seen, but the strategy itself remains solid. While it’s possible to take out a Charizard in one hit, it still takes some setup, planning, and good support from your teammates to make it work.

The Azumarill strategy revolves around two moves: Belly Drum and Play Rough. Belly Drum halves its user’s HP and in return increases their physical attack stat by 6 stages. This is one of the fastest ways to boost a Pokémon’s stats to max levels in battle, and it pairs really well with Play Rough, a physical Pokémon-like move. Using a Belly Drum and immediately following it up with a Play Rough is a surefire way to, if not take it out immediately, at least take a considerable hit to this Charizard’s health.

The main weakness of this strategy is that Azumarill’s health will be depleted significantly during processing, making it vulnerable to Charizard. If your aquatic rabbit faints, you have to do the Belly Drum setup again after it’s revived. So, to avoid this, a good rule of thumb is to have at least one person on your team in a supporting role. You can use the “Heal Up!” cheer to refill your team’s health, or have one of your teammates bring on a Pokémon like Hatterene, which knows healing abilities like Heal Pulse, which can be turned off after Azumarill uses Belly Drum. Pre-emptively using the “Hang Tough!” cheer to boost your team’s defenses is also helpful, as it will give the Azumarill some survivability.

Having at least one designated support player can make a huge difference to a raid; teammates prioritize healing and boosting your stats can be the difference between catching a raid boss or being blasted out of its lair. A good choice for this role is Dachsbun, a fairy-type bread dog that can take Charizard’s Tera Blast, deal some damage with its own Play Rough, and use Helping Hand to boost the attacks of its teammates.

All of this assumes that Charizard manages to survive the initial Play Rough attack, but players ran into a common bug in the original raid where Charizard the Unrivaled would suddenly regain HP with one hit after being hit hard by Azumarill. When that happens, it’s still possible to finish the fight, but you have to make sure you get more hits, and that’s where those support and defensive tactics come into play.

If you and your friends manage to defeat the Charizard, you’ll be able to capture the beast and add it to your party. However, you’ll only get the various rewards and loot if you’ve previously completed the raid and caught it, as you can only catch this Charizard once per save the file. The other prizes are nothing to scoff at, though, ranging from high-level Exp. Candies, tera fragments to change a Pokémon’s tera type to a dragon, and ability patches to unlock a Pokémon’s hidden abilities. Also worth noting is that the Unrivaled Charizard is shiny-locked, so if you try to catch a Charizard of a different color, you won’t find it in its raid lair. However, you can use Charizard to breed and get Charmander eggs, which themselves glow.

Charizard Tera Raid Return raid will run from December 16-18, but Nintendo says that specific Charizard “may appear in future events, or be obtainable through other means.” So if you don’t manage to beat it this time Or miss the game altogether, then it seems likely that Charizard the Unrivaled will return to the game in some way at a later date as well.

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