Pokémon Scarlet And Violet: How To Solo The 7-Star Cinderace Raid

The first part of Cinderace's debut run in the 7-star Tera Raids of "Pokémon Scarlet and Violet" has come and gone, and the verdict is in: This scorching rabbit is an absolute nightmare to face in battle. Already coming in with a naturally high attack and speed stat, Cinderace also has access to Bulk Up and can easily take physical moves while hitting with hard moves like Pyro Ball and Iron Head, the latter of which completely rules out bringing a solo-raid kitted Azumarill to the fight despite the primary type advantage. And if this punishing moveset wasn't enough, its brutally early shield threshold at 75% HP had many players attesting that it hits harder than the previous featured 7-star Raid boss, Charizard.

According to the official website, Cinderace the Unrivaled will be coming back to terrorize the Paldea region from January 12 at 4:00 p.m. PST, to January 15 at 3:59 p.m. PST. Thankfully, that gives players plenty of time to set up a now tried-and-true strategy for winning the raid without breaking a sweat or the time limit bar — with the unlikeliest of Pokémon, to boot. Here's how to easily solo the 7-star Cinderace raid in "Pokémon Scarlet and Violet" with a tailor-made Slowbro build.

Thankfully, the IV and EV management in "Scarlet and Violet" means that any old Slowbro or Slowpoke you pick up off the beach will do, so long as it has a Psychic Tera-type – and you have the Pokédollars to buy the right training materials. Despite the minor variations in specifics among the community, the overall consensus (via Reddit and Twitter) is to have a Slowbro that has:

• A Modest nature
• Hyper Training in HP, Defense, and Sp. Atk 
• Perfect EVs in Defense and Sp. Atk with the extra 4 points invested in HP
• Either a Life Orb, Shell Bell, or Twisted Spoon as a hold item

Other than purchasing the hold items, at most you'll need a Modest Mint, three Bottle Caps, and a set of 26 Iron, 26 Calcium, and one HP Up: The Mint can be skipped if your Slowbro is already Modest, the Bottle Caps aren't needed if it has perfect IVs in HP, Defense, and Sp. Atk, and you can put in the time to EV train your Slowbro by hand if you don't want to drop hundreds of thousands on expensive vitamins. Another important factor is having the Slowbro at level 100, but this can be easily achieved with a little grinding in Area Zero and feeding it all the EXP Candies earned from beating Tera Raids of any star level.

The moves you'll want your Slowbro to know are Iron Defense, Nasty Plot, Stored Power, and either Slack Off or Psychic Terrain.

The core plan of attack is to reset until you have at least one NPC Pokémon who can Intimidate Cinderace right out of the gate, use Iron Defense three times to max out the stat, and then Nasty Plot three times to max out your Sp. Atk, then collect on your buildup with one to three hits of Stored Power before Cinderace can reset all the stat changes on the field. If you have the leeway, try a "Go all out" cheer right before launching the offensive for extra damage.

Whether you're using Psychic Terrain to boost the potency of Stored Power, or using Slack Off to heal your Slowbro for better health sustain is simply a matter of personal preference, as either going hard and fast with few recovery options or taking too long to set up the big offense can be equally risky. You might find that one approach is far more effective than the other depending on how RNG favors you.

The only thing that really differs is the fact that, if you are using Psychic Terrain, you do not want Arboliva under any circumstances, as its Seed Sower ability will constantly override the arena conditions. If you're using Slack Off, on the other hand, Seed Sower can actually be very helpful in keeping your Slowbro topped up.

Despite how powerful of a counter this Slowbro build is, once again, the heavily RNG-dependent element of Tera Raids prevents it from being a guaranteed win every single time. If you have at least one friend to coordinate with, doing a tag team instead of a solo offers a much more stable rate of success. So far, the most popular support build for this raid has been Armarouge with max EVs in HP and Defense, as well as the Flash Fire ability (if only to avoid the Weak Armor alternative), and a good pool of helpful moves (via Reddit):

• Acid Spray
• Clear Smog
• Iron Defense
• Reflect
• Taunt
• Psychic Terrain
• Will-O-Wisp

The best approach would be to synergize with the attack Slowbro as much as possible — having Psychic Terrain to boost its attacks so that it can have Slack Off to heal itself can be very helpful. Iron Defense and Reflect are very good for personal survivability — with Light Clay to extend Reflect duration — while Will-O-Wisp can help put out some consistent damage. Acid Spray mitigates Cinderace's extremely high attacks, while Clear Smog and Taunt can help neutralize Bulk Ups — though be careful using Clear Smog, as it can clear debuffs as well.

A good base strategy (via Reddit) is to set up initial moves like Reflect, Psychic Terrain, and/or Will-O-Wisp, then spam Acid Spray while using Clear Smog and/or Taunt, refreshing the initial moves, and using cheers as needed at your discretion.