First we had an archer Mightiest Mark ‘mon, but The Pokemon Company and Game Freak are turning things up by upgrading to Ineleon, the secret agent-themed pokemon with the (finger) gun for the next tera raid event in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Akin to the last Bond’s icy blue eyes, Inteleon’s gone Ice-type, but since he’s natively a Water ‘mon, that means Fire and Rock counters are off the table. That leaves Fighting and Steel, so let’s try to figure out which of the two will be our main ‘mon to prepare for the April 28th to 30th run (and again when it returns May 5th to 7th).
Like many of our previous ‘mon, Inteleon has a versatile kit that threatens many of its potential weaknesses. Game Freak always leaves one glaring weakness for players to potentially exploit. On the one hand, Inteleon learns Mud Shot via TMs, which would threaten Steel types. However, it also learns Acrobatics natively, which is more in-line with its image anyway, so I’m going to guess that Fighting types will probably be out of the question. Steel may be the way to go this time.
If I’m correct, there may be a chance that players can make heavy use of Perrseker and its hidden ability, Steely Spirit, which does stack. In that case, you may want to do the quest that rewards a Galarian Meowth. Then, grab an Everstone and give it to your kitty to breed with (for simplicity) your best Ditto, as the stone is needed to ensure the offspring are also Galarian.
From there, it varies. You could build support Perrserkers, which would all use Screech on their first turn, followed by Helping Hand for a heavy hitter like Tinkaton with Swords Dance on turn 1 and Gigaton Hammer for turn two with the Helping Hand buff, most likely getting a 1-attack KO. Similarly, you could go with Lucario, grab Swords Dance, and then finish it with Steel Beam. Or there’s also Copperajah with the Heavy Metal ability, a Choice Band, and Heavy Slam, which plays a bit different but will still smash real good. Expect lots of potential attacker choices, including Perrseker itself (though you’ll take Hone Claws).
My favorite Chansey and probably Umbreon builds should be safe, and support Blissey should be OK too. Those who built a Corviknight for Samurott might also be fine, as it’ll take neutral damage from Ice attack. I’m not expecting Inteleon to be too tough, but as always, we’ll update this after once the event starts, both to make track my predictions but also to help ensure you have a clean and simple strategy to tackle these with.
4/27 Update:Â We were correct about Steel largely being the way to go, but Fighting ended up being safe as well. Instead, Inteleon only deals Ice, Water, and Dark-type damage. Rather than hitting hard Inteleon uses Snowscape to its defense and Mist to protect itself from direct stat debuffs, making it quite hard to 1-hit KO. Much like with shields, you can use something like Acid Spray to lower its defenses still, or you can go with an old reliable like Azumarill, Iron Hands, or Annihilape if you have Chansey support to keep everyone alive. I’d still mostly recommend Steel types though, as they deal super effective damage and resist Ice damage.
You can also use Cloyster, as it’ll resist two-thirds of Intelon’s moves, benefit from Snowscape, use Razor Shell to lower Inteleon’s defense, and support with both Lightscreen and Helping Hands. Honestly though, Inteleon isn’t terribly difficult, it just requires a bit more planning and patience than most of the past bosses.
Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
