Garchomp, the Mach Pokémon. It is said that when one runs at high speed, its wings create blades of wind that can fell nearby trees. The protuberances on its head serve as sensors. It can even detect distant prey.
Overview
Garchomp makes a return in Scarlet and Violet as one of the best Pokémon in the game. And to little surprise as Garchomp has nearly everything going for it. Base 102 Speed is amazing for getting the jump on many conventionally fast opponents and a brutal Base 130 Attack with STAB Earthquake and Dragon moves guarantees Garchomp’s position as a fierce offensive threat. And its bulk is not bad either, Base 108 HP is well above average and coupled with average defenses, Garchomp can become quite the tank with investment, increasing the breadth of its roles and giving it an enviable degree of flexibility.
The generational shift has been a mixed bag for Garchomp. Spikes is an incredible boon for defensive sets, but the loss of Scale Shot means that Garchomp has no way of boosting its Speed outside of Choice Scarf, which is problematic with Weavile 2.0 Chien-Pao running amuck. The greatly reduced format has removed many key threats to Garchomp like Clefable, Rillaboom, and Tapu Fini, but has added many fantastic Ground types including Great Tusk, Clodsire, and Ting-Lu all who have similar defensive profiles, which can strain teambuilding, and the quadruple weakness to Ice remains an ever present Achilles Heel that Garchomp must contend with. In the end, Garchomp remains a standard of excellence, both offensively and defensively, that must be planned for when teambuilding.
Positives
Base 130 Attack with STAB Earthquake and Dragon STABs is brutal. Even the most defensive Garchomp will be hitting hard.
Base 108 HP is great and when coupled with average defenses and its decent typing, Garchomp can be surprisingly sturdy with the right investment.
Good movepool -In between its STABs numerous coverage options, and entry hazard support in Spikes, Stealth Rock and Dragon Tail, Garchomp has a degree of Flexibility.
Base 102 Speed is great, surging Garchomp past most of its contemporary Dragons
Negatives
Quadruple weakness to Ice ruins otherwise great bulk and weakness to Fairy doesn’t help either
Incapable of boosting Speed, leaving Garchomp vulnerable to many faster threats
Lack of reliable recovery outside of Rest reduces the efficacy of defensive sets.
Movesets
Sword Sand Shark Sweeper
-Swords Dance
-Earthquake
-Dragon Claw
-Fire Fang
Ability: Rough Skin
Item: Life Orb
EVs and Nature:
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Classic Swords Dance Garchomp -come in on an opponent Garchomp scares out or is otherwise compromised, setup Swords Dance and start ripping holes in the opposing team. STAB Earthquake is phenomenal, doing incredible damage even unboosted, and ratcheted up to terrifying levels after a single Swords Dance. Dragon Claw is secondary STAB, and is extremely complimentary with Ground, leaving few natural resists to both moves. Fire Fang rounds out the set, hitting Corviknight, Orthworm and Tera Steel Hydreigon, the few who can tank Garchomp's STABs.
Tera Types:
Tera Fire is excellent both defensively giving new resists to Fairy and Ice, Garchomp's prominent weaknesses as well as badly needed Fire STAB to push through Corviknight. Tera Steel is worth mentioning, especially if more Fairies get reintroduced for its all around excellent defensive profile covering all of Garchomp's weaknesses and opening up extra opportunities to Swords Dance. Tera Ground is an offensive pick, boosting Earthquake to stupefying levels of power.
EVs and Items:
Standard Sweeper array. You always want to go max Speed with the speed boosting Nature to get the jump on slower dragons like Salamence, Hydreigon, and Volcarona who otherwise can outspeed and cripple Garchomp in turn. There are many great choices for items. Life Orb is great for the additional power, but it is far from the be all end all. Leftovers gives Garchomp a degree of resilience and prevents the opponent from wearing Garchomp down with good prediction. Lum Berry is great for countering Will-o-Wisp and Yawn, otherwise great methods for stopping a Garchomp sweep.
Partners:
Volcarona makes for a good partner with Garchomp, its Fire attacks melting the Corviknight and Orthworm who otherwise trouble Garchomp, and can open up new setup opportunities with Flame Body and/or Will O Wisp and lures Rock Attacks for Garchomp to pivot into. Other Fire types like Iron Moth and Skeledirge provide similar utility.
Steel types make for decent partners, able to pivot into any of Garchomp's weaknesses, while enjoying Garchomp's ability to check most opposing Steel types in turn.
Other Options:
Iron Head -works great with Tera Steel and addresses troublesome Fairy types.
Substitute -offers a greater degree of protection against Status and Faster/Frailer threats, and opening up new windows to setup Swords Dance.
Choice Band/Choice Scarf -can forgo Swords Dance for immediate power or speed.
Shark Tank v2
-Stealth Rock
-Spikes
-Earthquake
-Dragon Tail
Ability: Rough Skin
Item: Rocky Helmet
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Impish Nature
Defensive Garchomp makes the most of its great bulk to abuse all the passive damage it can pile on. Rough Skin, a minor bonus on its offensive sets is critical to Garchomp’s defensive sets, enabling it to chip opponents even when setting up, and can wear down an opponent just by switching in. Stacking it with Rocky Helmet is amazing causing 29.1% damage to a directly attacking target. Add in Stealth Rocks and Spikes and the damage starts piling up incredibly quickly. Dragon Tail synergizes wonderfully with Spikes and Stealth Rock, damaging both the on field target and whatever Dragon Tail forces in… who might be a bad matchup to Garchomp, forcing it out and racking up even more entry hazard damage. Earthquake rounds out the set, as even uninvested Earthquake hits hard and with the passive damage accrued Garchomp doesn’t need much to reach a KO.
Tera Types:
Tera Steel is highly recommended here. Steel resists all of Garchomp's weaknesses and gives it an overall much better typing that helps it stick around longer. Tera Water is also worth considering -Mono Water is good defensively and Electric types won’t want to switch in for fear of Earthquake.
EVs and Items:
Max HP and Speed are recommended for a great balance of bulk and speed increasing the number of foes Garchomp can stack hazards in front of, while also bluffing an offensive set. If your team has reliable answers to faster threats, then moving that investment to Defense is a great way to keep Garchomp around longer so it can reestablish entry hazards as needed. Base 112 Speed with Jolly is the minimum to outspeed Specs Gholdengo. Rocky Helmet is recommended for its aforementioned synergy with Rough Skin, but Leftovers is of course invaluable for giving Garchomp more longevity.
Partners:
Gholdengo is an amazing partner for Garchomp, completely blanking every form of hazard removal, ensuring Garchomp’s hard work does not go to waste, on top of having the extremely synergistic Steel typing and special offense to compliment Garchomp’s physical and Thunderbolt to reliably take on Corviknight.
Garganacl also stands out as a great Garchomp partner, providing an additional physical wall to the team and adding yet even more passive damage with Salt Cure, as well as checking Dragapult and Chien-Pao, who have otherwise favorable matchups into the Garchomp+Gholdengo combination.
Iron Treads is a great Rapid Spinner that does not share weaknesses with Garchomp, providing Hazard removal without undoing Garchomp’s own work.
Setup Sweepers in general work well with Garchomp, the passive damage it piles on greatly facilitating KOs.
Other Options:
Rest -Garchomp’s only form of recovery, and clears Status as well giving some greatly needed longevity.
Doubles and VGC Options
Garchomp's general excellence carries over to doubles. Its impressive speed is even more noticeable when so many slower threats take center stage, while still having appreciable bulk so that it is not predicated on both opponents being KO’d. The newly added Clear Amulet is another boon, blocking Intimidate and the after effects of Icy Wind that otherwise give Garchomp so much trouble. Garchomp does have its own struggles in Doubles. While Garchomp’s Earthquake is great for spreading around damage, its friendly fire aspect requires careful planning and the damage falloff is noticeable. Several popular threats beat Garchomp in a vacuum, or with the right team support. But that threat is often mutual, and Garchomp must be respected.
Land Shark Pack Attack
-Earthquake
-Dragon Claw
-Rock Slide
-Protect
Ability: Rough Skin
Item: Clear Amulet
Tera Type: Ground
EVs and Nature:
4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Garchomp excels as an attacker, using its incredible STAB combination, Attack and Speed to apply consistent pressure and wear down the opponent. Earthquake provides incredible spread damage with Ground hitting many popular targets including Iron Hands, Arcanine, Gholdengo, Torkoal, Armarouge, Kingambit, etc. the list goes on and on. Dragon Claw compliments this, being STAB with few resistances, and the ones that do often don’t want to take an Earthquake as well as not being blocked by Wide Guard. Rock Slide rounds out Garchomp’s coverage, having extremely synergistic coverage with Garchomp’s STAB Earthquake and has an appreciable Flinch chance that Garchomp’s excellent speed enables, which can be game determinative. Protect in the last slot as the best move in Doubles. Stall out your opponent’s beneficial conditions (Weather, Tailwind, Trick Room, Screens etc.), scout for Attacks and switches to discern your opponent’s moveset, save Garchomp from an Ice attack so that Garchomp’s partner can take out the target, there are plenty of reasons to use Protect.
Partners & Other Options:
Iron Head -wrecks Flutter Mane and Tera Fairy targets without being Wide Guard fodder.
Somping Tantrum -Ground STAB that isn’t blocked by Wide Guard and doesn’t have friendly fire. And with the prevalence of Fake Out, there is a good chance to get the power doubling effect.
Murkrow and Talonflame are excellent partners for Garchomp, setting up crucial Tailwind that gives it a leg up against many normally faster opponents and having a Flying typing that enables Garchomp to fire off Earthquakes without fear for its partners.
Countering Garchomp
Corviknight and Orthworm are as close as you can get to an outright Counter to Garchomp, only fearing boosted Fire Fang/Fire Tera Blast and taking pittance from everything else, though Orthworm is not found of having its own health ruined by Rough Skin and Rocky Helmet. Corviknight even excels against defensive sets, clearing away Garchomp’s entry hazards while Garchomp has little recourse.
Sturdy physical walls not weak to Earthquake also give Garchomp pause. Dondozo and Slowbro are standout examples, Dondozo being a hard stop to the Swords Dance set, while Slowbro does well against the Tank sets.
Checking Garchomp is a relatively simple affair, its Ice weakness being very exploitable. Dragapult, Chien Pao, Protean Greninja, etc. all natively outspeed Garchomp and can OHKO with their STAB/Coverage, along with many Choice Scarfers that are faster than Tyranitar though Scarf Garchomp outspeeds the entire unboosted game and requires naturally Faster Choice Scarfer or some other speed manipulation to be addressed.
Locations in Games
Red/Blue/Yellow:
Not in game
Gold/Silver/Crystal:
Not in game
Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald:
Not in game
FireRed/LeafGreen:
Not in game
Colosseum/XD:
Not in game
Diamond/Pearl/Platinum:
Evolve Gabite
HeartGold/SoulSilver:
Evolve Gabite
Black/White:
Trade from Black 2
Black 2/White 2:
Evolve Gabite (Black 2)
Trade from Black 2 (White)
X/Y:
Evolve Gabite
Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire:
Evolve Gabite
Sun/Moon:
Evolve Gabite
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon:
Evolve Gabite
Let's Go, Pikachu!/Let's Go, Eevee!:
Not in game
Sword/Shield:
Tunnel to the Top, Path to the Peak ( Shield)
Max Raid Battles: Giant's Bed, Path to the Peak, Frigid Sea, Three-Point Pass, Ballimere Lake
Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl:
Evolve Gabite
Legends: Arceus:
Alabaster Icelands: Avalanche Slopes or nearby
Coronet Highlands: Massive Mass Outbreak
Scarlet/Violet:
Fixed: Great Crater of Paldea, West Province Area Two
Tera Raid Battles: 5 Star Raid Battles, 6 Star Raid Battles
Anime Appearences
