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You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why: seven-star Iron Bundle raids have arrived inPokemon Scarlet and Violet!The first non-starter and non-legendary seven-star raid proves to be just as difficult as its predecessors.
Iron Bundle may look cute, but this raid is no walk in the park. Iron Bundle’s Speed, high Special Attack, and bulky defenses that it boosts even more, makes this little guy daunting to defeat. Its moveset is designed to cover most common counters to Ice-types, but even if you bring something that resists it, you’ll still be hit hard if you’re not fully prepared.
Event Information
The Iron Bundle raids will run untilSunday, Dec. 24 at 23:59 UTC. You can access this raid in both versions of the game despite Iron Bundle being a version exclusive.
Upon beating Iron Bundle, you willget the TM for Snowscape.Iron Bundle will be level 100 and have the Mightiest Mark, along with Quark Drive.
110
70
Will always hit while it is snowing, and may leave opponents frozen.
-
Protects all Pokemon on the user’s side of the field from physical and special moves.
80
No secondary effect
Covers the ground in electricity, powering up Iron Bundle’s Quark Drive and boosting one of its stats.
50
100
Lowers the target’s Attack
Has a chance of freezing target and does super effective damage to Water-types
Iron Bundle is a special attacker, made bulkier by the fact thatit immediately sets up snow,boosting its Defense, and Aurora Veil, which is like Light Screen and Reflect in one move.
Once the timer has gone down about a tenth, Iron Bundle will activate its barrier, and you have to terastalize. Halfway through the timer it will use Snowscape again, butwon’t set up Aurora Veil again.
The final thing to watch out for isElectric Terrain, as it willboost one of Iron Bundle’s stats, but there’s no guarantee as to which one. However,it doesn’t always use this.If it will set it up, it usually does so about midway through the timer.
Thankfully,Iron Bundledoesn’t reset statsveryoften, so you’re free to set up.
While it also has Chilling Water,it does not use it very often,so don’t rely on that to boost your stats.
The biggest difficulty in dealing with Iron Bundle is Blizzard, asit will always hit as long as the snow is up.You’ll want a Pokemon that resists Ice-type attacks or that can change the weather to deal with it.
Break The Ice With Annihilape
Annihilape returns to being very good in seven-star raids, though this strategy is somewhat luck-based and may take a few tries.
Defiant
Screech, Drain Punch, Sunny Day
If you need Tera Shards, there are also various Blissey raids which give out bonus shards and Exp Candy.
When the battle starts, use Sunny Day to disable Iron Bundle’s snow, preventing Blizzard from always hitting you. Next, use Screech tolower Iron Bundle’s defense until you faint.
Harsh Sunlight will also prevent you from being Frozen
This will move the timer to the point where Delibird activates its shield, so when you come back, keep using Drain Punch andterastalize as soon as you can.
The Metronome will make Drain Punch stronger each time you use it in a row, sokeep using Drain Punch until the barrier is broken. If Iron Bundle sets up the snow again, you’re able to choose to break your streak and use Sunny Day, or just keep going asDrain Punch should heal you back the damage from Blizzard at this point.
The downside to this strategy is it is very luck-based, as you have to rely on Iron Bundle missing Blizzard enough times that you’re not knocked out too early.You can survive being knocked out around twice before the battle becomes unwinnable.
With its normal 70% accuracy, Blizzard will miss more often than anything else, but in an individual battle it can end up missing every time or never missing once.
This one will take a couple of tries until you get it.
Conquer The Raid With Empoleon
This strategy takes advantage of the fact that Iron Bundlewill always use Freeze-Dry on a Water-type, even to its own detriment.
Modest
Mud-Slap, Flash Canon
As soon as the battle starts, use Mud-Slap three times. Because Iron Bundle will keep using Freeze-Dry, you can cause it to miss by lowering its accuracy.
If you want to adapt this strategy, know that Blizzard bypassesanyaccuracy checks, so another Pokemon will require removing the snow first if they’re not Water-type.
Once you may, terastalize into a Steel-type and start spamming Flash Canon for the rest of the fight. Between the Shell Bell, and missing attacks, you should be healed up before you’re knocked out. While you’re a Steel-type, Iron Bundle will stop using Freeze Dry, but instead switch to Hydro Pump.It’s entirely possible that it won’t end up using Blizzard at all.
The ability you give Empoleon doesn’t really factor in to this strategy, but since there’s a chance Iron Bundle will use Chilling Water on you, Competitive will boost your Special Attack.
This strategy also has a bit of RNG as whether or not attacks miss, or you get the Special Defense drop from Flash Canon will affect your outcome, but it’s more reliable than Annihilape.
If you keep having trouble, try Hyper Training in Montenevra to give your stats a little more of a boost.
The main downsideis Empoleon is not native to the base game.If you do not have the Polar Biome upgraded in the DLC, you’ll need to trade or transfer it from Pokemon Home.
