Tinkaton is a solid Pokémon overall, having a decent movepool along with the best typing in the game with Fairy and Steel, but is it a good contender for Tera Raid battles?
One would be foolish to not consider Tinkaton as an asset in Tera Raids, where it can use an offensive, hybrid, or a support set to take on the formidable Tera Raid bosses while also being able to support its teammates.
The Unrivaled Grening Tera Raid Battle is also taking place right now, while returning once more from Feb. 10 to Feb. 12, and Tinkaton has one specific set that it can use to pull its worth in this incredibly tough Seven-Star Tera Raid Battle as well.
If you want to bring out Tinkaton’s full potential, then continue reading our guide on the best Tinkaton Tera Raid builds in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
Best Tinkaton Tera Raid builds in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Tinkaton has good bulk overall, with its outstanding stats being its HP and Defense. Apart from its tankiness, Tinkaton possesses a decent Speed stat and a pretty lackluster Attack stat. This is, however, offset by its signature move Gigaton Hammer, which possesses a base power of 160.
The drawback for the move’s sheer strength is that it can’t be used twice in a row, but you can simply use another attacking or supportive move while the move is on cooldown to make sure you’re not a liability instead of an asset to your team.
Tinkaton has decent damage-dealing and supportive coverage options apart from its most reliable STAB moves, Gigaton Hammer and Play Rough, making it a versatile Pokémon to use in Tera Raid Battles.
If there isn’t a specific Tera Raid Battle that you have in mind, there are three general viable options to pick from when it comes to Tera Raid Battle potential.
Pure Physical Attacker
Tera Type
Steel should be its best offensive Tera type to maximize the damage it deals through Gigaton Hammer while also retaining its amazing defensive utility.
Ability
Mold Breaker: The Pokémon’s moves are unimpeded by the Ability of the target.
Nature
Adamant (+ Attack, – Special Attack) should be an offensive Tinkaton’s best nature, letting it maximize its damage output while keeping its bulk and Speed uncompromised.
Held item
Sitrus Berry works best, giving Tinkaton a quick burst of healing so it can set up more easily and proceed to dish out damage.
Moveset
- Gigaton Hammer
- Play Rough
- Swords Dance
- Brick Break/Bulldoze
This moveset takes Tinkaton’s poor Attack stat and bolsters it to its full potential, and with access to a devastatingly strong attack like Gigaton Hammer, it should be able to output massive amounts of damage after a Swords Dance or two.
With Play Rough as its secondary STAB move, it uses a coverage move on its third attacking slot, with Bulldoze and Brick Break dealing with the Steel-types it usually has a tough time hitting for good damage.
EV Spread
- 252 HP
- 252 Attack
- 4 Special Defense
This is a simple EV spread that maximizes Tinkaton’s Physical Attack while also maximizing its HP, making it a bulky offensive threat.
While its Physical set may be alright, Tinkaton does suffer due to its naturally low Attack stat, which becomes especially evident in some of the tougher Tera Raid Battles, which is why we have detailed more support-oriented Tera Raid builds for Tinkaton below.
Physical + support hybrid
Tera type
Flying or Water both make good Tera types for a hybrid Tinkaton Tera Raid build as she isn’t as focused on dealing damage as she was when being a Physical Attacker, with Flying and Water giving her an immunity/resistance to Ground and Fire respectively, which are her only two original weaknesses.
Ability
Mold Breaker: The Pokémon’s moves are unimpeded by the Ability of the target.
Nature
For the hybrid set, you can either go for an Adamant (+ Attack, – Special Attack) nature or a Careful (+ Special Defense, – Special Attack) nature, depending on whether you want to lean more into its Attacking or Supportive half of its role.
Held item
Since this Tinkaton build is made to survive for long periods of time to support its teammates throughout the duration of the Tera Raid Battle, Leftovers works best for consistent healing. Sitrus Berry could also make for a decent burst healing option.
Moves
- Gigaton Hammer
- Play Rough
- Skitter Smack
- Reflect
Tinkaton can constantly apply damage mitigation tactics onto the Tera Raid boss with Reflect, supporting its teammates against strong Physical Attacks, and Skitter Smack to constantly decrease the Tera Raid boss’ Special Attack damage output while also dealing chip damage at the same time.
When Tinkaton has no use of decreasing the Tera Raid boss’ damage any further, it can simply go on the offensive with strong Gigaton Hammers and Play Roughs, and then reapply Reflect and spam Skitter Smack when needed.
EV spread
- 252 HP
- 252 Attack
- 4 Special Defense
Even though Tinkaton has more of a supportive role in this build, we are still maxing out its Attack rather than putting some of it into its Defenses since it still has three attacking moves, with Skitter Smack supporting while dealing damage at that. With maxed-out HP EVs, it should still be bulky enough to support its team and deal consistent chip damage as well.
Pure support
Tera type
Flying or Water both make good Tera types for a pure support Tinkaton Tera Raid build as she isn’t focused on dealing damage like she was when being a Physical Attacker, with Flying and Water giving her an immunity/resistance to Ground and Fire respectively, which are her only two original weaknesses.
Ability
Mold Breaker: The Pokémon’s moves are unimpeded by the Ability of the target.
Nature
For a pure support set, focusing on patching up its mediocre Special Defense by going for a Careful (+ Special Defense, – Attack) nature is most optimal since this set only carries one attacking move and focuses more on staying alive and supporting its teammates.
Held item
Since this Tinkaton build is made to survive for long periods of time to support its teammates throughout the duration of the Tera Raid Battle by using dual screens, Light Clay works as the best option as it lets Reflect and Light Screen last an extra three turns, letting it deal damage and boost its teammates offense when it’s done setting up.
Moves
- Gigaton Hammer
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Helping Hand
The goal of this moveset is simple: get up the required screen depending on the moves the Tera Raid boss is using, and then alternate between dealing damage with and then boosting its teammates’ offense with Helping Hand when Gigaton Hammer is on cooldown. Once the screens die out, simply set them up again and repeat.
EV spread
- 252 HP
- 252 Special Defense
- 4 Defense
This is a simple EV spread that solely focuses on Tinkaton’s bulk, mainly in its Special Defense since we are trying to patch up its naturally mediocre Special bulk.
Best Tinkaton builds for the Unrivaled Greninja Tera Raid in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
There is only one build you should consider if you want to use Tinkaton when facing Unrivaled Greninja, whenever the Tera Raid event is active, which is its pure support build. Tinkaton’s offense is way too poor to be making use of in such a tough Tera Raid Battle, but it can do an amazing job supporting its teammates.
Tinkaton’s Unrivaled Greninja Tera Raid Battle support set is slightly different from its general support set, however, which we will elaborate on below.
Pure support (Unrivaled Greninja version)
Tera type
Flying and Water prove to be the best defensive Tera types for Tinkaton’s support set, with each Tera type taking care of either one of its weaknesses in Ground and Fire.
Ability
Mold Breaker: The Pokémon’s moves are unimpeded by the Ability of the target.
Nature
For a pure support set, focusing on patching up its mediocre Special Defense by going for a Careful (+ Special Defense, – Attack) nature is most optimal since this set only carries one attacking move and focuses more on staying alive and supporting its teammates.
Held item
Since this Tinkaton build is made to survive for long periods of time to support its teammates throughout the duration of the Tera Raid Battle by using dual screens, Light Clay works as the best option as it lets Reflect and Light Screen last an extra three turns, letting it deal damage and boost its teammates offense when it’s done setting up.
Moves
- Skitter Smack
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Helping Hand
Unrivaled Greninja only threatens Tinkaton on the Special side with Hydro Pump as it deals neutral damage to Tinkaton. This is why the combination of Light Screen and Skitter Smack plus Reflect is so potent, making its Special Attack stat negligible after a while. It further resists and has an immunity to its Physical moves, as well as resisting Ice Beam.
This lets Tinkaton easily stay alive and keep lowering Unrivaled Greninja’s damage output while increasing its partners’ with Helping Hand.
EV spread
- 252 HP
- 252 Special Defense
- 4 Defense
This is a simple EV spread that solely focuses on Tinkaton’s bulk, mainly in its Special Defense since we are trying to patch up its naturally mediocre Special bulk.
