Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - Empoleon the Unrivaled
11This weekend will be a packed one for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Not only do we have the Global Challenge 2024 I online competition, we got this 7-star Tera Raid Battle too, for those of you who prefer PvE over PvP. But when it comes to Pokémon, I like them both, so I plan to do both. Well, I got one of them done at least. If all goes well, I plan to put up videos for that competition through the following workweek/schoolweek. Monday through Friday. And there’s Eggstra Work going on in Splatoon as well!
No, I don’t think this is a response to the success of Palworld, or related to it at all. Though a fandom rivalry exists, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and Palworld have very different target audiences and have no platforms in common (Pokémon being only on Nintendo systems, Palworld currently being Microsoft only). Though I have an interest in Palworld, out of curiosity to how it plays out compared to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, I don’t have anything to play it on. My impression of it, however, is that it feels very much like a “dark fic.” It’s as if someone took the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic “Cupcakes” and made a whole TV show out of it, except the character designs are just far enough to avoid a lawsuit from Hasbro.
In any case, perhaps it’s because I was playing this on the first day Empoleon the Unrivaled was available, but I saw a particularly large amount of stupid. Maybe I’ll show another outtakes reel of sorts, but it was a real challenge to figure out what Pokémon to bring that would complement the reckless play style of the people who bring in stuff like Koraidon (who will have to eat Blizzards and Ice Beams from Empoleon) and Skeledirge (who, in case you forget, is weak to Water-type moves, and Empoleon being a Water Pokémon, won’t last long. After trying Ditto, Smeargle, Keldeo, Uxie, and Mismagius, I found success in perhaps one of the most unlikely, most forgotten Pokémon of all:
Grumpig (Macon)
Level 100
Ability: Gluttony
Effort Points: 252 Defense, 252 Sp. Defense, 6 Sp. Attack
Hold Item: Covert Cloak
Nature: Calm (via Mint)
Tera: Steel
Moves: Light Screen, Snarl, Skill Swap, Helping Hand
Empoleon has Tera Ice and begins with Snowscape. That’s your first sign that you should bring in a special attacker. (Another is that Empoleon is scripted to use Iron Defense late into the raid.) “Unrivaled” series raids also always use the Pokémon’s Hidden Ability, if one exists. In this case, it’s Competitive (which you might have seen me use in Blueberry Prologue in conjunction with an Adrenaline Orb to deal with Incineroar). That Ability effectively causes any stat drops to backfire, and it’s extremely hard to complete a 7-star Tera Raid Battle without doing any stat drops, so that has to go—which is where Skill Swap comes in. I use it to replace Competitive with Gluttony.
Empoleon’s other moves are Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Flash Cannon, and Grass Knot, and he uses Blizzard right after using Snowscape to ensure 100% accuracy. No Pokémon resists all four of these types, and trying to counter Empoleon with your own Water-type gets your Pokémon clobbered by Grass Knot. So I decided to forgo type resistances entirely and minimize damage. Grumpig has a base HP of 80 and a base Sp. Defense of 110, making it better capable of taking hits than Mismagius. Unlike Pokémon with Skill Swap or Entrainment with better special defenses not weak to any of those moves, like Cresselia (with Skill Swap) or Araquanid (with Entrainment), Grumpig is able to use both Light Screen and a move that always lowers Sp. Attack, which is Snarl. Helping Hand is to give Grumpig something to do once fully set up, though after a raid where all three of my teammates also brought in support Pokémon, I was considering changing Helping Hand to Flash Cannon (yes, Grumpig can learn this move).
Why is it better to take away Competitive and lower Empoleon’s stats than to raise your own stats? Because even though Empoleon resets its own stat drops at 50% HP, he will reset your own stat gains twice, once at 80% HP left and once when the timer is halfway down. If you choose to raise your own stats, Empoleon will keep resetting them, putting you stuck in that loop the whole raid long.
With this strategy, we were able to win, even with a teammate bringing in Koraidon—you probably don’t need an explanation as to why this is a terrible choice (though to be fair, that may be the only Level 100 Pokémon they have). That being said, this Grumpig has no healing of his own, so perhaps you might want to put in Leftovers instead of a Covert Cloak. That Mew using Life Dew was key.
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