Flying-type Pokémon are surprisingly diverse and can be pretty effective in competitive situations.
The Pokémon that belong to the flying category have some important weaknesses that can be increased depending on their second type.
Yet, they might use that same second type to increase their chances against Pokémon, which are usually good against Flying types.
Let’s check the best Flying Pokemon in Scarlet & Violet, when to use them, and why they are so good. Please note that, in this article, we will not include legendaries.
The Best Flying-Type Pokémon
Suppose you know your Pokémon strengths and weaknesses. In that case, you know you are meant to avoid using Flying Pokémon against Rock, Steel, and Electric adversaries.
That said, a Flying Water Pokémon might easily defeat a Rock- or Steel-type. On the other hand, that same Pokémon might have issues against electrical ones.
When you consider all that, and the attacks a Pokémon has, it gets much easier to find a Pokémon that is genuinely effective against most adversaries.
Gyarados
One of my favorite Pokémon, Gyarados has a powerful ability — Intimidate — that diminishes the adversary’s attack.
Frankly, I’m not sure what this Pokémon gets from being a Flying-type besides a few resistances and being extra weak against Electric-type attacks. That said, you can always Terastallize your Gyarados defensively to prevent it from being one shot by the adversary.
Gyarados can also make great use of Hydro Pump, Dragon Dance, and Waterfall. Those attacks, combined with Intimidate, make him a force to be reckoned with.
The fact that Gyarados has access to many good moves outside its types is something that makes this Pokémon impressive and effective in competitive battles. Players should not expect just water attacks from this Pokémon.
For that reason, make sure to add Earth Quake to your Gyarados’ repertoire if you intend to have a way to deal with Electric-type enemies. This way, you can try one-shotting them as well, making your Gyarados an even more intimidating foe.
Iron Jugulis Hydreigon
Iron Jugulis Hydreigon is an S-Tier Paradox Pokémon with very solid stats. Its total base stats can be as high as 570, which makes Iron Jugulis Hydreigon an S-Tier Pokémon. Its best IV stat is Special Defense, which can be up to 122.
It gets even higher if it has the Modest nature, which increases its Special Attack stat and reduces its Attack stat. Its Speed is also pretty decent, going as high as 108.
This makes Iron Jugulis Hydreigon somewhat capable of acting first and one-shotting most enemy Pokémon if you manage to call it out at the right moment. Another thing that makes this Pokémon so good is its strengths and weaknesses.
Due to its combined Dark and Flying Types, Iron Jugulis Hydreigon is weak to only four attack types.
It takes twice as much damage from Fairy-, Rock-, Electric-, and Ice-type moves. On the other hand, it is immune to Psychic and Rock attacks and takes half damage from Ghost, Dark, and Grass attacks.
Hyper Beam can be especially powerful when used by Iron Jugulis Hydreigon. This move’s Accuracy is 90, and its Power is 150. It is also a Special type attack, which benefits from Iron Jugulis Hydreigon’s high Special Attack stat. Unfortunately, it is also a risky attack.
Alternatively, you can go for Hurricane, a Special move that also uses the Special Attack stat. It has 110 Power and can confuse the target.
Salamence
Salamence is a Pokémon that, much like Gyarados, has excellent stats and the Intimidate ability.
Intimidate is a skill that allows your Salamence to last much longer in battle.
Thanks to that, you can use Dragon Dance to make sure Salamence will be a powerful, scary foe to be dealt with.
Draco Meteors is another way to make sure that your Salamence will scare the enemy, and it is made much better after Dragon Dance.
Once you put Dragon Dance, Draco Meteors, and Intimidate in a single Pokémon, you sure have something special. Your opponent better has powerful Fairy-type Pokémon to handle these powerful moves.
On top of all that, you can also pull off a defensive transformation due to the Terastal Phenomenon. This way, not even Fairy Pokémon will be able to take down your Salamence.
Dragonite
It should be no surprise to find Dragonite in this list. He was always a powerful Pokémon and one of the best in most games it is in.
Dragonite’s special ability, Multiscale, reduces the amount of damage the Pokémon takes when HP its hp is full.
So you are pretty much guaranteed to survive at least one hit, so you can apply as much damage on your adversary as you can with this Flying- and Dragon-type Pokémon.
You can Multiscale to survive the first attack, so you can make sure you can pull off a Dragon Dance move. Once you do that, you will have much greater attack speed and damage. This can give you an edge against the Pokémon you’re fighting and the one that’s to come.
Multiscale is so powerful that it helps Dragonite survive powerful Fairy-type attacks if you need to keep it around for one extra round.
Dragonite gets even better, considering it also has an ability called Inner Focus: This Pokémon will not flinch. Does not prevent flinching with Focus Punch. Also prevents stats from being lowered by the ability Intimidate.
Charizard
Charizard has been one of the best Pokémon in nearly all games it has been a part of. One of the many reasons is its abilities. Now, it can have Solar Power and Blaze. Use both correctly, and no enemies will survive your flying fire lizard.
Blaze: Increases the damage of Fire-type moves by 50% when the user’s HP is below 1/3 of its max.
Solar Power: This is a Hidden ability that increases the user’s Special Attack by 50%, but HP decreases by 12.5% of its max HP at the end of every turn.
So, your Charizard loses some health to deal more damage, which can activate its Blaze ability, allowing it to deal even more damage.
Like Gyarados, I don’t really see what the Flying type does for Charizard, but it is a Flying-type Pokémon, so it’ll be in this article.
Charizard is not a Pokémon you can normally find in Paldea, so you need to beat his raid to capture it. Charizard’s Tera Type during the raid is Dragon.
However, you change a Pokémon’s Tera Type in Scarlet & Violet. Using Fire-type attacks, Fire Tera Type is already enough to make Charizard way too strong.
If you combine all that with Solar Power and Blaze, this Pokémon will become an unstoppable damage dealing fire beast.
What to Do Next
Once you’ve picked out which Flying Pokemon you want to add to your team, I’d recommend looking up some leveling methods to make sure that you can get your new Pokemon to max level and into battle as quickly as possible.
I’d also recommend looking up the best Ice, Electric, and Rock Pokemon as these types are super effective against Flying and it’s good to have a counter prepared.
