Pokémon Scarlet Violet 7-Star Cinderace Tera Raid Event Strategy Guide

Cinderace returns to the spotlight in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s 7-star Tera Raid, bringing fierce speed and devastating power to the field. This event challenges trainers to craft precise strategies, clever counters, and the perfect timing to bring down the fiery ace before it burns through their team.

Cinderace Tera Raid rewards

Completing the Cinderace 7-star Tera Raid can reward players with a range of valuable items, including high quantities of EXP Candies, Tera Shards, and Bottle Caps. There’s also a chance to earn Ability Capsules, rare materials, and valuable sellable items like Nugget or Star Piece. Players can only catch one Cinderace per save file, but they can continue joining raids to collect more rewards. These prizes make repeated battles worthwhile for trainers aiming to strengthen their teams or gather useful resources for future raids.

Upon defeating Cinderace, you’ll be able to catch one, but only one. After you capture your first one, you will not be able to catch any more, even if you defeat it again. You’ll also get TM64 (Bulk Up) and a guaranteed Ability Patch for your first victory.

The caught Cinderace has its Hidden Ability, Libero, which changes its typing to the first move it uses once per switch-in. (Libero does not activate if the Pokémon is Terastallized, so you don’t have to worry about it in this raid.) It also comes with the Mightiest Mark, just like the Charizard from earlier raids. It also has complete perfect IVs.

Similarly to other Tera Raids, you can get other drops, like Exp. Candy, Tera Shards, Bottle Caps, and treasure items to sell for money. Serebii.net has a complete drop table. Cinderace raids do not drop Herba Mystica.

Cinderace Tera Raid best counters

Slowbro and Espathra stand out as reliable counters against Cinderace’s Fighting Tera Type in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet 7-star raids, leveraging Psychic moves like Stored Power and Lumina Crash to exploit its weaknesses while shrugging off Pyro Ball and High Jump Kick. Armarouge works well too, using high defense and Psychic Tera Type to tank Iron Head and Bulk Up boosts before striking back with super-effective damage. Charizard provides solid support with Air Slash for Flying-type coverage, resisting Cinderace’s Fire and Fighting attacks to stay in the fight longer.

There are two common builds you’ll see in Cinderace raids: Espathra and Slowbro. These are successful builds that do work quite well, allowing players to even solo the Cinderace without using online allies. We’ll explain how to mimic these builds and how they work.

Cinderace is level 100 with a fighting Tera Type. It knows High Jump Kick, Pyro Ball, Acrobatics, Iron Head, and Bulk Up. Bulk Up makes it extra dangerous, as it’ll power up its attack a ton before attempting to nuke your Pokémon. It’s important to either lower its stats back down or to beef up your Pokémon defensively.

You can still use your Azumarill (the one everyone builds with Belly Drum and Play Rough) against Cinderace, but your mileage may vary. You need luck and/or a reliable support Pokémon; when we used our Azumarill, we were unable to Belly Drum successfully without risking fainting. Cinderace hits like a brick and without proper support, your Azumarill will not work.

Personally, I do not recommend using Azumarill. You’re better off cheesing the raid with the two builds we list below:

Cinderace Tera Raid Slowbro build

• Nature: Modest
• Ability: doesn’t matter
• Tera Type: Psychic
• EVs: 4 HP/252 Defense/252 Special Attack
• IVs: Maxed HP, Defense, Special Attack
• Held item: Life Orb or Twisted Spoon
• Moveset: Stored Power (TM41), Iron Defense (TM104), and Nasty Plot (TM140)

With your level 100 Slowbro, you can one-shot Cinderace – as long as it doesn’t have its shield up. Use Iron Defense twice, Nasty Plot twice, a “Go all out!” cheer once, and wrap up with Stored Power to defeat the Cinderace.

Stored Power does more damage the more your stats are increased, so after beefing up your Defense and Special Attack, you’ll be able to take out the Cinderace quickly while withstanding its attacks.

If Cinderace debuffs your Pokémon, you will need to start this process again, sadly.

We used this Slowbro strategy successfully to win against Cinderace.

Cinderace Tera Raid Espathra build

• Nature: Modest
• Ability: Opportunist
• Tera Type: Psychic
• EVs: 252 HP/252 Defense/4 Special Attack
• IVs: Maxed HP, Defense, Special Attack
• Held item: Light Clay or Shell Bell
• Moveset: Lumina Crash, Reflect (TM74), Feather Dance, Roost (egg move)

In order to successfully use this build, you need to spam Feather Dance in the beginning of the fight to keep Cinderace’s ever-growing Attack down. If the Cinderace has the shield up, stop using Feather Dance and use Lumina Crash instead, also mixing in Roost to heal up. Make sure to also Terastallize to make Lumina Crash even stronger. Remember to also using healing chants if your and/or your teammates’ HP is getting too low.

The key here is Opportunist, Espathra’s ability, which will match its stat growth based on Cinderace. If Cinderace keeps using Bulk Up, then Espathra’s Attack and Defense will also rise.

We did not test this Espathra build ourselves, but we had seen it many times in our raids, which we were able to clear successfully.

Best Pokémon to solo Cinderace 7-star Tera Raid

Slowbro stands out as the top choice for soloing the 7-star Cinderace Tera Raid due to its exceptional bulk against Cinderace’s physical Fighting attacks and its ability to set up massive Stored Power damage.​​

Why Slowbro excels

It tanks Bulk Up-boosted hits reliably while stacking Iron Defense and Nasty Plot for a one-shot potential on Cinderace, even through its shield after proper cheers.​
Espathra ranks second, using Feather Dance to neuter Cinderace’s Attack and Lumina Crash for Special Defense drops plus chip damage.​​
Other viable options like Armarouge or Gyarados work but require more precise execution or luck with AI teammates in solo play.​

Slowbro solo build

• Level: 100, Modest or Bold nature.

• EVs: 252 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 4 Def (hyper train HP/Def/Sp. Atk if possible).​​

• Item: Life Orb, Leftovers, or Shell Bell.

• Tera Type: Psychic.

• Moves: Stored Power, Nasty Plot, Iron Defense, Slack Off.​​

Step-by-step solo strategy

1. Enter the raid and let Cinderace open with Bulk Up; use Iron Defense x2 to max Defense.​

2. Follow with Nasty Plot x2 to max Special Attack, healing with Slack Off if needed.​​

3. Call “Go all out!” cheer, then Terastallize to Psychic and unleash Stored Power for the KO.
   If Cinderace resets stats or shields early, repeat setup-its bulk lets you outlast multiple cycles.​

Espathra alternative build

• Level: 100, Timid or Bold nature.

• EVs: 252 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 4 Def.

• Item: Leftovers.

• Tera Type: Psychic.

• Moves: Lumina Crash, Feather Dance, Roost, Calm Mind.​​
  Spam Feather Dance early, then Lumina Crash post-Tera for debuffs and damage; Roost sustains you.​

This setup guarantees success with minimal risk, as confirmed across multiple raid event runs.​

Slowbro EV spread and nature for Cinderace raid

Slowbro requires a defensive EV spread with Special Attack investment to survive Cinderace’s physical onslaught while maximizing Stored Power damage.​

Recommended EV Spread

Maximize bulk and offense with 252 HP / 252 Defense / 4 Special Attack (or minor adjustments like 252 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 4 Def for more damage).​
Hyper Train IVs in HP, Defense, and Special Attack for optimal performance.​​
This setup tanks Bulk Up-boosted Fighting moves reliably, letting you stack boosts safely.

Best Natures

• Bold (+Defense, -Attack): Prioritizes physical tankiness against Cinderace’s STABs.

• Modest (+Special Attack, -Attack): Boosts Stored Power output if your Defense is already sufficient.
  Use a Mint from Chansey Supply if needed to change nature.​

Quick Build Summary

Pair with Psychic Tera Type, Shell Bell or Leftovers, and moves like Iron Defense, Nasty Plot, Stored Power, Slack Off for the standard solo setup.​​