The Best Build for Gyarados in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (Pokemon SV). See the recommended Move set, held items, how to distribute EV, and build up for each type.
Table of Contents
Gyarados Summary & Review
 | |
| HP | |
|---|---|
| ATK | |
| DEF | |
| SP. ATK | |
| SP. DEF | |
| SPD |
Ability & Hidden Ability
- Lowers the opposing Pokémon's Attack stat.
- Boosts the Attack stat after knocking out any Pokémon
▶Ability & Hidden Ability List
Gyarados Review In Match Battles
- The abilities, [Intimidate] and [Moxie] are both powerful.
- Can also support using [Thunder Wave] and [Taunt].
- Cannot learn the excellent Physical Flying moves with [Same-type attack bonus].
▶Best Pokemon For Ranked Battles
Gyarados Best Build & Moveset
EVs: HP Def / Rocky Helmet Style
EVs: HP Def / Rocky Helmet Style| Tera Type | Nature | Ability | Item | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impish | Intimidate | Rocky Helmet | ||||
| HP | ATK | DEF | SP. ATK | SP. DEF | SPD | ||
| Base Stats | 201 | 145 | 144 | × | 120 | 103 | |
| EV | 244 | - | 252 | - | - | 12 | |
Recommended Moves
Category
| Role | |
|---|---|
| Build Type |
Strengths & How to Use
Excellent Physical Tank
Gyarados is a Water/Flying dual-type Pokemon, which means that it has few weaknesses, and it can be a Physical Tank due to its ability, "Intimidate", which lowers the opponent's Attack. Also, by holding Rocky Helmet, Gyarados can reduce the HP of the opponent who makes contact with Gyarados, giving it an advantage against Physical Attackers who use Contact moves.
Useful moves in Pivot Battles
Taunt prevents high durability Pokemon using recovery moves and Stealth Rock, and Thunder Wave reduces the Speed of the opposing high speed Attacker to half. Be aware of using these Status moves to make the situation easier for your attackers.
Things to Keep in Mind
Beware of Electric moves
Gyarados is 4x weak to Electric moves, and since Volt Switch is often used in Pivot Battles, it is easy to get into a risky situation unless you have Ground type pivots on the team. Dealing with Ground Terastal is the last resort.
Has no recovery moves
Since it has no recovery moves such as Recover, it is not suitable for long Pivot Battles. Reduce the opponent's HP with Rocky Helmet and Attack moves and use allied Attackers to defeat the opposing pivots as quickly as possible.
Pokemon Team Compositions
| Pokemon | Reason |
|---|---|
| Clodsire | A Special Tank that is immune to Electric type and has many helpful moves for Pivot Battles, such as [Toxic]. |
| Dragonite | It'd be powerful if you can reduce the opposing Pokemon's HP with pivots enough to defeat them with the Fast move, [Extreme Speed]. It is good to combine with both [Dragon Dance] style or [Choice Band] style. |
Other Suggestions
Suggested Moves
| Move | Reason |
|---|---|
| Aqua Tail | It can be used when you want to deal more damage than [Waterfall]. But note that the hit rate is only 90. |
| Dragon Tail | It can be used to force the opponent switching Pokemon like [Roar] or [Whirlwind], and because it is an Attack move, it can be used against an opponent who uses [Taunt] or against Gholdengo. |
| Rest | A learnable recovery move for Gyarados, with the disadvantage of falling asleep for two turns, but useful because it increases the number of times it can switch in Pivot Battles. |
Dragon Dance Style
Dragon Dance Style| Tera Type | Nature | Ability | Item | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jolly | Intimidate | Life Orb | ||||
| HP | ATK | DEF | SP. ATK | SP. DEF | SPD | ||
| Base Stats | 171 | 177 | 99 | x | 120 | 146 | |
| EV | 4 | 252 | - | - | - | 252 | |
Recommended Moves
Category
| Role | |
|---|---|
| Build Type |
Strengths & How to Use
Easy to deal consistent damage with Tera Blast
The Gyarados in this game cannot learn [Bounce], so you need [Tera Blast] in order to use Physical Flying type moves. Since Flying type moves with high power in the current environment are not considered threats, Flying type Tera Blast is easy to deal [Consistent] damage to Fairy, Dragon, and Ghost types.
Stacking support with the Ability "Intimidate"
The Ability [Intimidate] is excellent that it can makes the team strong against Physical Attackers. Gyarados can take a wide range of actions, such as making a chance to stack Dragon Dance for itself, or swiching in to trigger [Intimidate] for supporting the following pivots.
Things to Keep in Mind
Unaware Dondozo is its nemesis
Flying Tera type Gyarados relies on [Dragon Dance] for Attack, which is a clear disadvantage against Dondozo with [Unaware]. If you want to use Gyarados, which has no way to deal with Dondozo, you need to put some Pokemon against Dondozo on the team.
Beware of the consistent damage from Electric type
Flying Tera type Gyarados is still weak to Electric types even after terastalizing. Therefore, it is necessary to have preparations against Electric type such as putting Ground type on the team.
Pokemon Team Compositions
| Pokemon | Reason |
|---|---|
| Wash Rotom | Strong against Dondozo, which Gyarados is weak to, and easy to receive the benefit of [Intimidate] with the pivots using [Volt Switch]. |
Pokemon that can support [Dragon Dance] matches well with Gyarados
Gyarados' offensive capability will greatly increase if it can stack [Dragon Dance] even once. For this reason, Gyarados should be builded with support Pokemon that make it easier to stack [Dragon Dance].
Other Suggestions
Nature & EV Distribution
| Nature | EV/Reason |
|---|---|
| Adamant (ATK⬆,SP. ATK⬇) | HP 4 / Atk 252 / Spe 252 Although it will not be able to exceed the fastest Dragapult with one stack Dragon Dance, but it will increase the firepower and have a wider range to defeat. |
Suggested Moves
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Builds & Movesets for Ranked Battles
| Duration of Series 1 |
|---|
| 12/2 (Fri) 0:00am ~ 2023/1/31 (Tue) 11:59pm UTC |
Series 1 Best Build & Moveset
| Palafin | Grimmsnarl | Dragonite |
| Breloom | Gyarados | Gholdengo |
| Baxcalibur | Dragapult | Sylveon |
| Mimikyu | Scizor | Hippowdon |
| Meowscarada | Glimmora | Cloyster |
| Amoonguss | Clodsire | Dondozo |
| Skeledirge | Garganacl | Heat Rotom |
| Hydreigon |
Helpful Articles
| Best Pokemon Tiers | About Ranked Battles |
