The Pokémon Company has kicked off a new batch of special event raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that, if all goes well, could see players rewarded with rare and exclusive shiny variants of legendary Pokémon for the first time. The first of these raids see players facing off against a shiny Wo-Chien, which can be fairly challenging despite its 5-star status.
This guide will give you everything you need to know about Wo-Chien’s move set and the best counters for it in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
With the Wo-Chien event raid live, we have the full details for the powerful legendary Pokémon below:
Shiny Wo-Chien – Level 75
Wo-Chien seems like it would be a pushover, with its low level and fairly vulnerable typing, but it’s a bit more challenging than it looks at face value. Its ability is annoying to deal with, and its stats and move diversity make it a frustrating fight if you’re not prepared.
In this raid, Wo-Chien will always start with the move Ruination, which halves the HP of a Pokémon selected at random. It also has moves like Snarl, which lowers your special attack, Dark Pulse, which has the ability to cause your Pokémon to flinch, and the powerful Leaf Storm, which it typically uses before resetting its stats, effectively nullifying the move’s usual special attack drop.
The big kicker here is Wo-Chien’s ability, Tablets of Ruin, which drops the physical attack of all opponents by 25%. Using a special attacker is obviously an option, but Wo-Chien has a monstrous special defense stat, which complicates things a bit. Thankfully, there are options, and one clear counter.
With all we know about Wo-Chien, we need something that ideally can deal a good amount of physical damage without being affected by Tablets of Ruin, and do damage that’s good against Grass-types. There is a very clear front runner, though, and it’s good enough to solo it quite easily.
Ogerpon
Yup, Ogerpon is far and away the best choice for dealing with Wo-Chien, specifically in its Hearthflame Mask form. Before we get into why it’s so good, here’s our recommended set for it:
Ogerpon – Level 100
Ogerpon’s Hearthflame Mask form turns it into a Grass/Fire-type Pokémon, making it 1/4 resistant to Wo-Chien’s Grass-type moves. It has the excellent ability Mold Breaker while not Terastalized, which prevents it from being affected by Tablets of Ruin, and a fantastic attack stat. Its signature move, Ivy Cudgel, turns into a Fire-type move while in this form, deals 100 base damage, and has a high critical hit ratio, making it a fantastic attacking move for this raid.
The flow of the raid is fairly simple, whether you’re with allies or going it alone. On the first turn, you’ll want to use Sunny Day, which powers up your Ivy Cudgel and turns on the increased Synthesis healing. After that, use Ivy Cudgel until you’ve built up Terastalization, but don’t Terastalize until Wo-Chien’s popped its shield up.
Once those shields are up, you’re free to Terastalize, though it’s worth noting that you’ll lose the Mold Breaker ability, which makes you susceptible to Tablets of Ruin. Thankfully Embody Aspect, which is the ability for Ogerpon when Terastalized, boosts your attack stat by one stage, and that plus the boost from Terastalizing means you won’t be too negatively affected. Use some more Ivy Cudgels to knock out its shield, then throw in a Swords Dance or two once the shield bursts to get ready to finish it off. Use Synthesis when needed to top up your HP, and it should be a clear shot to the finish.
This is an extremely consistent and solid strategy while soloing, and it gets even better with multiple raiders — with three or four Ogerpon in a raiding party, you should easily finish it off with more than half of the timer left.
There are other potential options, all of which can be reasonably good. Reshiram and White Kyurem both have the Turboblaze ability, which works the same as Mold Breaker, and a host of strong Fire-type moves. White Kyurem in particular is a decent choice, since it gives you access to both Fire- and Ice-type moves, giving you a few different options depending on how you want to approach it. Ogerpon is still the better choice, though, since it’s more easily accessed and more than does the job.
Even if you defeat Wo-Chien, you won’t be able to catch it. That’s because this raid works a little bit differently to most raids — in order to get a shiny Wo-Chien, there needs to be 1,000,000 successful raids across the entire playerbase. If successful, everyone can get a shiny Wo-Chien as a mystery gift.
The rewards for completing the raid are quite good, and include a whole host of XP Candy and Herba Mystica for making shiny sandwiches, so it’s not a bad idea to knock out as many as you can before the event ends on August 8, 2025.