Pokemon Scarlet and Violet launch amidst enthusiasm and disappointment, with a great number of players being excited about a new mainline game after three years since Gen 8, and an equally big number of fans being upset about the performance issues in Gen 9. Still, the recent slew of Tera Raid events in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have been generally well-received by the community at large, especially the first 7-star ones revolving around Charizard. While Charizard getting an exclusive event is no surprise due to its incredible popularity worldwide, Game Freak followed suit with another Fire-type starter in the form of Cinderace.
While Gen 8 starters had been confirmed by datamines to be in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet even before launch, they aren't officially supported just yet. Instead, they will likely become available when the Pokemon Home link with Scarlet and Violet goes live in 2023. However, with the latest Cinderace 7-star Tera Raid in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, players can get their hands on the fiery rabbit much sooner than anticipated, with the only caveat being that they have to actually beat the boss in its den. This is no easy feat for players who haven't fully explored the endgame section of Gen 9 games, but there is an unexpected hero coming to the rescue.
Why Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Best Pokemon to Beat Cinderace is Slowbro
The Charizard event was probably less new-player-friendly than the Cinderace Tera Raid simply because it came out much sooner into the shelf life of Gen 9 games, but that doesn't mean that the new boss had players prepared. In fact, Cinderace works differently than Charizard in terms of move rotation and how it removes debuffs from itself or buffs from opponents, and its having Iron Head ruined any sort of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Azumarill sweep strategy players could have had. Thus, Fairy-type Pokemon are best kept out of this specific event.
What follows is that some players found effective strategies with Psychic-type Pokemon to counter Cinderace's Fighting Tera type, mainly using Pokemon like Espathra and Armarouge, both with attacks that reduce the Special Defense of the target. Then, players typically buff their stats to then use Stored Power, a move with a base power of 20 that gains another 20 for every stat stage the user increased for itself, thus making for an interesting sweep strategy. The issue with it is that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's new Tera Raid boss shields itself even sooner than Charizard did, and then immediately removes buffs from opponents.
However, players came up with a similar strategy that doesn't revolve around dealing damage to Cinderace at all up until the very end, which most of the time results in one-shots. This is achieved by using Slowbro to beat Cinderace in Tera Raids, which is given Slack Off to heal itself when it takes too much damage, Iron Defense and Nasty Plot to increase its Defense and Special Attack respectively, and finally, Stored Power. The combo, when paired with an All Out cheer to further increase offensive stats, tends to one-shot Cinderace even with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players running solo.
Unlike Espathra and some of the popular Armarouge sets, which respectively use Lumina Crash and Acid Spray to reduce Cinderace's Special Defense, Slowbro comes with a more self-centered strategy. The reduced chip damage dealt to Cinderace immensely helps with it not shielding itself too soon, also helping with the turn count before the shield is automatically cast. Although Armarouge sets without Acid Spray are more similar to Slowbro's, they use Calm Mind to increase their Special Attack, which often requires a longer set-up that results in Cinderace casting the shield. Overall, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players can get Cinderace in many ways, but Slowbro is the unexpected hero that is allowing many fans to beat the Raid safely and completely solo.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are currently available for the Nintendo Switch.
