how to beat the shiny Chien-Pao event

The Pokémon Company is in the middle of a batch of special event raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that could see players rewarded with rare and exclusive shiny variants of legendary Pokémon for the first time. The first of these raids saw players facing off against a shiny Wo-Chien – which was wildly successful – and now it’s time for the next Pokémon, Chien-Pao. 

This guide will give you everything you need to know about Chien-Pao’s move set and the best counters for it in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

With the Chien-Pao event raid live, we have the full details for the powerful legendary Pokémon below: 

Shiny Chien-Pao – Level 75

Chien-Pao, like the other Treasures of Ruin, has an annoying ability in Sword of Ruin, which lowers the physical defense of opposing Pokémon by 25%. Thankfully, being a 5 star raid at level 75, that’s not too big of an issue, although we do have to be slightly careful, in part due to its speed. 

In this raid, Chien-Pao will always start with the move Ruination, which halves the HP of a Pokémon selected at random. It also has moves like Icicle Crash, Ice Shard, Sacred Sword, and Crunch, all of which are fairly damaging and can be frustrating to deal with. 

The biggest thing to look out for is Haze, which Chien-Pao will use three times throughout the raid – at the 90%, 70%, and 35% time remaining marks. Haze resets stat boosts, which can hinder your ability to do damage somewhat — although there are definitely ways around this. 

With all we know about Chien-Pao, we need something that ideally can withstand a few hits from a decently powerful physical attacker, and do damage that’s good against Ice-types, which should be fairly easy since Ice is one of the weakest types defensively. Here are our picks: 

Ogerpon 

Much like the raid against Wo-Chien, Ogerpon is far and away the best choice for dealing with Chein-Pao, specifically in its Hearthflame Mask form. Here’s our recommended set for it: 

Ogerpon – Level 100 

Ogerpon’s Hearthflame Mask form turns it into a Grass/Fire-type Pokémon, which makes it neutrally defensive to most of Chien-Pao’s moves. It has the excellent ability Mold Breaker while not Terastalized, which prevents it from being affected by Sword 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 Chien-Pao’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 Sword of Ruin. You’ll take a bit more damage because of this, so use Synthesis when needed to top up your HP. 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, 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. 

Iron Hands 

Iron Hands is a raiding mainstay, and just about everyone who’s into raiding will likely have one of these lying around at level 100. Here’s our recommended set for it: 

Iron Hands – Level 100

Iron Hands is one of the most powerful Pokémon in the game, with a monstrous physical attack stat and plenty of options for moves to make the most of it. You’ll want to use Scary Face on the first turn to drop Chien-Pao’s speed – it should make you just faster than it – then use Thunder Punch to try and get a paralysis off ahead of the Haze. It’s a small chance, but there’s not much else worth doing just yet. 

Once you’ve been Hazed, you can use a Belly Drum to set your attack to +6, then Terastalize and Drain Punch for monstrous damage and healing. If you get Hazed again or your stats are reset, it’s simple enough to set up another Belly Drum — so just repeat until you get the win. 

This is a riskier strategy than Ogerpon, but it is much faster overall thanks to Iron Hands’ massive attack stat. Just err on the safe side of things, and consider using a Shell Bell instead of a Booster Energy for extra healing if you think you need it. 

Even if you defeat Chien-Pao, 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 Chien-Pao, there needs to be 1,000,000 successful raids across the entire playerbase. If successful, everyone can get a shiny Chien-Pao as a mystery gift. 

The rewards for completing the raid are quite good, and include a whole host of XP Candy, Tera Shards, 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 17.