Best Hisuian Goodra PvP build in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: Nature, Tera Type, moves, and more

Regulation D of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's PvP battle scene is ongoing. This ruleset allows creatures imported into the Generation IX games through Pokemon HOME to participate in competitive battles. The list of creatures that can be brought to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet includes all the Hisuian variants, of which Hisuian Goodra is one of the best examples.

Hisuian Goodra is a bulky step up to its original form hailing from the Kalos region. The addition of the Steel type does wonders to the creature's list of resistances. It makes it much more viable to use in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's competitive ladder than the original form. This guide will tell you how to build the creature to get the best value out of it.

---

How to build Hisuian Goodra for Regulation D competitive battles in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

The Hisuian form of Goodra is a Steel and Dragon-type Pocket Monster. This gives it a whopping nine resistances. These are Normal, Flying, Rock, Bug, Steel, Water, Grass, Electric and Psychic. Additionally, it is immune to Poison-type damage. The creature only has two weaknesses: Fighting and Ground.

Hisuian Goodra, being a pseudo-legendary Pokemon, has a base stat total of 600. This is distributed over 80 HP, 100 Attack and Defense, 110 Special Attack, 150 Special Defense, and 60 Speed. Outside of its Speed, all its other stats are rock solid.

Keeping these in mind, this is the best build for Hisuian Goodra for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Regulation D ruleset:

• Ability: Shell Armor
• Nature: Calm (+ Special Defense, - Attack)
• EVs: 252 HP / 252 Defense / 4 Special Defense
• Moves: Shelter + Body Press + Heavy Slam + Life Dew
• Tera-Type: Fairy
• Held Item: Rocky Helmet

---

Hisuian Goodra's PvP build in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet explained

Ability

Hisuian Goodra's Shell Armor ability prevents it from taking critical hits. This is great because getting critical hits is one of the biggest win conditions for the opponent. Moreover, with this build, the battle is expected to continue for a long time, increasing the chance of some attacks being critical hits.

---

Nature and EVs

Hisuian Goodra's main task with this build is to stay on the field and chip away at the opponent's health bar over time. Since it already has very high Special Defense, investing 252 EVs each in HP and Defense will make it nearly impossible to remove with even a couple of super effective attacks. The Calm Nature further helps this cause.

---

Moveset

Goodra's moveset in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Regulation D is also based on maximizing its physical defense. This is done using Shelter, which boosts the creature's Defense by two stages. Life Dew heals up Hisuian Goodra and its ally by 25%.

Body Press and Heavy Slam are Hisuian Goodra's best attacks. The former calculates damage using the user's Defense stats instead of Attack, and the latter uses Goodra's massive physical weight to calculate damage.

---

Tera-type and Held Item

Hisuian Goodra's typing, by default, is excellent, making it a less than ideal candidate for Terastallization. Changing into Fairy Tera is only viable if faced with a Fairy-type attacker you cannot deal with.

Lastly, every time a physical attack hits Hisuian Goodra with Rocky Helmet, the attacker takes 1/6 damage. This works out excellently in Shell Bunker Pokemon's favor, as the damage taken by the attacker is often more than Goodra itself sustains, thanks to its massive defensive stats. This makes the Rocky Helmet Hisuian Goodra's Held Item of choice.