Eternamax Eternatus is a new Pokemon so ludicrously overpowered even in the realm of ubers that it only exists for the player to fight against, not use. Its defenses alone sum up to a BST that surpasses all existing Pokemon besides Mega/Primal ubers. And while its offenses seem microscopic in comparison, they're actually pretty good too. So a while back, I wondered, is it even possible to OHKO this monstrosity? Well, as it turns out, yes, and ironically Eternatus itself is basically the perfect Pokemon for the job since it has very high special attack and hits super-effectively with Dynamax Cannon which doubles in power. They were Level 100, though, so that got me thinking on this concept a bit further: what's the lowest level you could possibly OHKO Eternamax Eternatus at?
What are we dealing with here?
I alluded to Eternatus's (I'm just going to skip the "Eternamax" part from here on out) absurd bulk earlier, but to be specific, it's base 255 HP/250 Def/250 SDef. Godly in every respect. It then gains an HP Boost from being a raid battle. The exact multiplier doesn't seem to correspond to existing Max Raid battle multipliers, but from Scientific Pixelnalysis(tm) on a Super Fang dealt to Eternatus, it seems to be a x1.8 HP multiplier, or very close to it. However, Eternatus is only Level 60, and what you fight against is indeed what you catch. This means that nature and IVs are partially random. So theoretically, it can have a 0 IV in relevant defensive parameters and a hindering nature. Getting these minimum IVs is obstructed by Eternatus being a legendary though, which means it gets at least 3 perfect IVs. And while you might think you could Synchronize a bad nature, this no longer works on legendaries for whatever baffling reason. So getting these perfect conditions is already pretty unlikely.
Next, critical hits. Eternatus can be critically hit itself, but cannot dish them out in return. Being able to crit Eternatus obviously leads to a free but lucky damage boost. Thankfully, via max Friendship any Pokemon can get a free critical boost, going from 1/24 to 1/8 odds on moves without heightened crit-ratios. This also potentially gives a Focus Band effect to any Pokemon. Still, on top of the nature/IV luck above, this makes getting optimal luck very rare. And that's only exacerbated by damage variance, since obviously you want to be on the high end of that. On the mostly more fortunate hand, Eternatus being unable to crit improves consistency for some strategies slightly, though it also ruins one potent idea.
While not too relevant for all of you, one merciful aspect for resetting is that losing to the final Eternatus fight and returning lets you skip the other fights and the cutscene in the Slumbering Weald, considerably shortening the time for resets (shaves off about 4 minutes per attempt). What is very relevant about this to all you is that doing this also skips the forced heal that happens after the initial Eternatus fight. This means I can enter the final fight with low HP, which enables a number of interesting things.
Now for what happens in the battle itself. Zacian and Zamazenta will move before basically anything, but this is beneficial anyways. Zacian always starts with Howl, which gives a free attack boost. Zamazenta uses Light Screen, which lets some Pokemon survive attacks they otherwise couldn't. Eternatus itself can be outsped (especially since it can roll bad speed), but most Pokemon can't do this. It has smart AI that will pick the optimal move, and on turn 1 it will always attack either Hop's Dubwool or my Pokemon. On Dubwool it will use Max Wyrmwind, which lowers the party's attack. And on mine it depends what Pokemon I have out. Note that if the best move on my Pokemon is Max Wyrmwind, then it's not really possible to avoid the attack lowering effect unless I'm faster than Eternatus. After all that, my Pokemon will need to attack, and then Hop's Dubwool will use Double-Edge. This introduces another constraint. While this Double-Edge does hardly anything, if Dubwool moves before my Pokemon and attacks, I'm not technically OHKOing Eternatus. Kind of pedantic, I know, but I wanted this to be as authentic as possible. For reference, Dubwool has 108 speed. Not really a roadblock for most Pokemon, but it is there.
With all that out of the way, let's see the top contestants for destroying Eternatus! Assume max IV/EVs for the relevant attacking stat.
#6: Swoobat, Level 65
Ability: Simple, Item: Starf Berry, Nature: Modest, Enters at critical HP, 252 Speed EVs
Move: Stored Power
Entering a battle with critical health and a pinch berry causes it to immediately activate. This is another level of randomness to deal with, since Starf Berry raises a random stat by 2 stages. I need Special Attack in this case, clearly. With Simple, that changes into a +4 boost, and I also get a +2 attack boost from Zacian's Howl. Swoobat is also one of the rare Pokemon that can outspeed Eternatus, so it avoids the inevitable Wyrmwind and attack lowerering. This lets it have +6 total boosts when it attacks, for a 140 BP Stored Power.
#5: Drampa, Level 63
Ability: Berserk, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Modest, 252 Speed EVs
Move: Draco Meteor
Drampa is a casualty of slow speed. Until Level 63, it can't actually outspeed Dubwool. While it could use a Timid nature instead, then it can't get enough damage to OHKO Eternatus until this same level anyways. Oh well. Note that I'm using Weakness Policy instead of Starf Berry here. While the damage result is the same, it's much more consistent since Drampa can survive Wyrmwind due to Light Screen. And either way Berserk is triggered.
#4: Flapple, Level 62
Ability: Hustle, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Adamant, 252 Special Defense EVs
Move: Outrage
Flapple is a tragic case that simply can't avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop. It's weak to Dragon and can't outspeed Eternatus. Its raw power is incredible, but with that attack drop it drops quite a bit in the rankings. Like Drampa it can utilize Weakness Policy, though it needs the Special Defense EVs to survive.
#3: Eternatus, Level 60
Ability: Pressure, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Modest
Move: Dynamax Cannon
&
Galarian Darmanitan, Level 60
Ability: Gorilla Tactics, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Adamant
Move: Icicle Crash
Tied at number 3, it's the 2 most obvious candidates. Eternatus is a bit of a funny case, since despite not even having an ability that boosts damage, it is flat-out the strongest option. However, Eternatus simply doesn't exist below Level 60, so this is as far as it goes.
Galarian Darmanitan is similar to Flapple, and is technically weaker since despite the attack difference, Icicle Crash is substatially weaker than Outrage. However, since it's weak to Max Flare, Darmanitan can avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop, letting it be at +3 attack and place higher.
#2: Kingdra, Level 59
Ability: Sniper, Item: Starf Berry, Nature: Jolly, Enters at critical HP
Move: Scale Shot
You may have wondered why I've even been writing the natures, since it seems like it would be self-evident as maxing IVs and EVs. While generally the case, Kingdra is an exception. Kingdra can potentially outspeed Eternatus at this level with Jolly, letting it avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop. With Adamant, it has to be at least Level 60 to have a chance. With a +2 attack boost from Starf, Kingdra then just needs to get a 5-hit Scale Shot in which every hit crits and gets high damage rolls. Yeah, at this point the luck is ludicrous - don't forget Eternatus has to roll low speed too. Kingdra is definitely the worst with luck, but our winner certainly tries to rival it...
#1: Indeedee (Male), Level 58
Ability: Psychic Surge, Item: Starf Berry, Nature: Modest, Enters at critical HP
Move: Prismatic Laser
While Psychic Terrain may be nerfed, it's still putting in work versus Eternatus. With that 1.3 boost, +2 Special Attack from Starf, and a strong Prismatic Laser, Indeedee can destroy Eternatus at the minimum Level of 58. Now, astute readers may point out that Indeedee doesn't learn Prismatic Laser. No, but it does learn Metronome. And with Metronome, (almost) anything is possible. With the move purge, I'm not entirely sure how many moves exist now - there would be 818, but excluding invalid Metronome moves and purged moves, it's probably 1/~700 to pull of a Prismatic Laser. Also, unlike the other critical health strategies, Indeedee needs to either have Wyrmwind target Dubwool or rely on the Focus Band effect from Friendship. As awful as that is, the 4 extra consecutive crits Kingdra needs to roll are 1/4096 alone, so it's not as bad as that, at least.
edit: I have since been informed that low-level Mewtwos can be obtained from Pokemon Go. It uses an identical strategy to Indeedee and OHKOs at the same Level.
Something else I spent a little bit of time analyzing was how low level you could be to OHKO Eternatus with a neutral hit. The lowest for that, I'm almost sure, is Crowned Zacian. Not terribly surprising, but there it is. Like using Eternatus before, it's constrained by its available level at 70. However, what I'm pretty sure is the second lowest neutral hit, at Level 73, was too good to resist recording:
(I was annoyed my Farfetch'd vs Eternamax Eternatus video featured neither of those in any of the generated thumbnails, so I decided to see what verification for custom thumbnails entailed. Turns out it's trivial, so now I can inflict my MS Paint graphic design upon the world.)
Farfetch'd (Kanto), Level 73
Ability: Defiant, Item: Choice Band, Nature: Adamant, Enters at critical HP
Move: Flail
The mighty Farfetch'd. Hearing rumors that Farfetch'd in Galar can evolve by honing their strength, it set out to fell the strongest foe it could find. With an attack boost from Howl and a quick riposte on Wyrmwind's attack decrease with Defiant, it ends up with +2 attack, which with Choice Band and a 200 BP STAB critical hit Flail cleaves Eternatus in a single hit. Sadly, it doesn't evolve, but it does in my heart.
One nice aspect of Farfetch'd is that because stat boosts have diminishing returns in the upper stages, going from +2 to +4 is a 50% boost, equivalent to Choice Band. So it doesn't need to rely on Starf Berry randomness. On that note, you may notice my Farfetch'd in the video was Level 84. Simply put, that was just so I didn't lose my mind trying to get a recording. Even ignoring the absurdity of trying to pull off Kingdra or Indeedee's strats in practice, having the nature/IVs/crit/damage rolls all line up is very rare in and of itself. So I went to Level 84 so that I could still have a roughly 50% chance to KO with a crit on even a max HP/Defense neutral defense nature Eternatus. I still got amazingly unlucky, going 27 hits before I got my 1/8 crit, so I'm very glad I did this!
Failed Experiments
I had a lot of ideas for how to do this, and sadly some didn't work out for various reasons.
Flapple, Level 55
Ability: Hustle, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Lonely, 0 Defense IV
Move: Outrage
Flapple returns. I mentioned earlier it can't avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop, but I thought might not be true because Flapple is also weak to the Max Ooze Eternatus can use. This Ooze is derived from Cross Poison, a physical move, so I thought that by manipulating my defenses so that I minimized defense while maximizing special defense, I could get it to use Max Ooze instead. To test the waters on this, I transferred a random Flapple over, but in 10 attempts I never saw Max Ooze. While this wasn't particularly rigorous, I'm very doubtful it would work, because even in an optimal scenario (Lonely Eternatus with max attack IV, 0 special attack IV versus Lonely 0 defense IV Flapple with 184 special defense EVs (needs to reserve 76 speed to outspeed Dubwool)), Wyrmwind STILL outdamages Ooze without Light Screen - Max Ooze is very weak with only 85 BP. While Zamazenta sets Light Screen up turn 1, Eternatus doesn't know this at move selection. Still, since I'm not 100% sure this doesn't work and it would be the winner if it did, this one is kind of borderline.
Meowstic (Female), Level 59
Ability: Competitive, Item: Choice Specs, Nature: Modest
Move: Assist->Prismatic Laser
This was an idea I really liked. Competitive triggers off of Wyrmwind on either target, and unlike Metronome, Assist can be guaranteed to call Prismatic Laser if it's the only valid option. Unfortunately, Assist no longer exists, so this idea is moot.
Wigglytuff, Level 64
Ability: Competitive, Item: Choice Specs, Nature: Modest
Move: Copycat->Dynamax Cannon
This is very similar to Meowstic, but Wyrmwind needs to hit Dubwool since Wigglytuff is Fairy. Copycat on a max move copies the base move, so it would copy Dynamax Cannon, which even without STAB is very powerful. But as it turns out, Copycat simply fails on Dynamax Cannon.
Krookodile, Level 48
Ability: Anger Point, Item: Choice Band, Nature: Adamant
Move: High Horsepower
Now that's a low level! While this would require both a 1/24 crit from Eternatus and the 10?% chance of Friendship survival, Anger Point unlocks some incredible damage potential. +6 attack with a Choice Band is x6 damage, and with Krookodile's high attack and strong STAB, it would win this contest in a landslide. But sadly as mentioned earlier, it was clear after many attempts that Eternatus simply can't crit, so this doesn't work at all.
The End
This was a silly little project I started on a while ago. It started as an idle curiosity, but as I looked into it more and more there were a lot of fun little quirky strategies I could use to OHKO Eternatus. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
What are we dealing with here?
I alluded to Eternatus's (I'm just going to skip the "Eternamax" part from here on out) absurd bulk earlier, but to be specific, it's base 255 HP/250 Def/250 SDef. Godly in every respect. It then gains an HP Boost from being a raid battle. The exact multiplier doesn't seem to correspond to existing Max Raid battle multipliers, but from Scientific Pixelnalysis(tm) on a Super Fang dealt to Eternatus, it seems to be a x1.8 HP multiplier, or very close to it. However, Eternatus is only Level 60, and what you fight against is indeed what you catch. This means that nature and IVs are partially random. So theoretically, it can have a 0 IV in relevant defensive parameters and a hindering nature. Getting these minimum IVs is obstructed by Eternatus being a legendary though, which means it gets at least 3 perfect IVs. And while you might think you could Synchronize a bad nature, this no longer works on legendaries for whatever baffling reason. So getting these perfect conditions is already pretty unlikely.
Next, critical hits. Eternatus can be critically hit itself, but cannot dish them out in return. Being able to crit Eternatus obviously leads to a free but lucky damage boost. Thankfully, via max Friendship any Pokemon can get a free critical boost, going from 1/24 to 1/8 odds on moves without heightened crit-ratios. This also potentially gives a Focus Band effect to any Pokemon. Still, on top of the nature/IV luck above, this makes getting optimal luck very rare. And that's only exacerbated by damage variance, since obviously you want to be on the high end of that. On the mostly more fortunate hand, Eternatus being unable to crit improves consistency for some strategies slightly, though it also ruins one potent idea.
While not too relevant for all of you, one merciful aspect for resetting is that losing to the final Eternatus fight and returning lets you skip the other fights and the cutscene in the Slumbering Weald, considerably shortening the time for resets (shaves off about 4 minutes per attempt). What is very relevant about this to all you is that doing this also skips the forced heal that happens after the initial Eternatus fight. This means I can enter the final fight with low HP, which enables a number of interesting things.
Now for what happens in the battle itself. Zacian and Zamazenta will move before basically anything, but this is beneficial anyways. Zacian always starts with Howl, which gives a free attack boost. Zamazenta uses Light Screen, which lets some Pokemon survive attacks they otherwise couldn't. Eternatus itself can be outsped (especially since it can roll bad speed), but most Pokemon can't do this. It has smart AI that will pick the optimal move, and on turn 1 it will always attack either Hop's Dubwool or my Pokemon. On Dubwool it will use Max Wyrmwind, which lowers the party's attack. And on mine it depends what Pokemon I have out. Note that if the best move on my Pokemon is Max Wyrmwind, then it's not really possible to avoid the attack lowering effect unless I'm faster than Eternatus. After all that, my Pokemon will need to attack, and then Hop's Dubwool will use Double-Edge. This introduces another constraint. While this Double-Edge does hardly anything, if Dubwool moves before my Pokemon and attacks, I'm not technically OHKOing Eternatus. Kind of pedantic, I know, but I wanted this to be as authentic as possible. For reference, Dubwool has 108 speed. Not really a roadblock for most Pokemon, but it is there.
With all that out of the way, let's see the top contestants for destroying Eternatus! Assume max IV/EVs for the relevant attacking stat.
#6: Swoobat, Level 65
Ability: Simple, Item: Starf Berry, Nature: Modest, Enters at critical HP, 252 Speed EVs
Move: Stored Power
Entering a battle with critical health and a pinch berry causes it to immediately activate. This is another level of randomness to deal with, since Starf Berry raises a random stat by 2 stages. I need Special Attack in this case, clearly. With Simple, that changes into a +4 boost, and I also get a +2 attack boost from Zacian's Howl. Swoobat is also one of the rare Pokemon that can outspeed Eternatus, so it avoids the inevitable Wyrmwind and attack lowerering. This lets it have +6 total boosts when it attacks, for a 140 BP Stored Power.
#5: Drampa, Level 63
Ability: Berserk, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Modest, 252 Speed EVs
Move: Draco Meteor
Drampa is a casualty of slow speed. Until Level 63, it can't actually outspeed Dubwool. While it could use a Timid nature instead, then it can't get enough damage to OHKO Eternatus until this same level anyways. Oh well. Note that I'm using Weakness Policy instead of Starf Berry here. While the damage result is the same, it's much more consistent since Drampa can survive Wyrmwind due to Light Screen. And either way Berserk is triggered.
#4: Flapple, Level 62
Ability: Hustle, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Adamant, 252 Special Defense EVs
Move: Outrage
Flapple is a tragic case that simply can't avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop. It's weak to Dragon and can't outspeed Eternatus. Its raw power is incredible, but with that attack drop it drops quite a bit in the rankings. Like Drampa it can utilize Weakness Policy, though it needs the Special Defense EVs to survive.
#3: Eternatus, Level 60
Ability: Pressure, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Modest
Move: Dynamax Cannon
&
Galarian Darmanitan, Level 60
Ability: Gorilla Tactics, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Adamant
Move: Icicle Crash
Tied at number 3, it's the 2 most obvious candidates. Eternatus is a bit of a funny case, since despite not even having an ability that boosts damage, it is flat-out the strongest option. However, Eternatus simply doesn't exist below Level 60, so this is as far as it goes.
Galarian Darmanitan is similar to Flapple, and is technically weaker since despite the attack difference, Icicle Crash is substatially weaker than Outrage. However, since it's weak to Max Flare, Darmanitan can avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop, letting it be at +3 attack and place higher.
#2: Kingdra, Level 59
Ability: Sniper, Item: Starf Berry, Nature: Jolly, Enters at critical HP
Move: Scale Shot
You may have wondered why I've even been writing the natures, since it seems like it would be self-evident as maxing IVs and EVs. While generally the case, Kingdra is an exception. Kingdra can potentially outspeed Eternatus at this level with Jolly, letting it avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop. With Adamant, it has to be at least Level 60 to have a chance. With a +2 attack boost from Starf, Kingdra then just needs to get a 5-hit Scale Shot in which every hit crits and gets high damage rolls. Yeah, at this point the luck is ludicrous - don't forget Eternatus has to roll low speed too. Kingdra is definitely the worst with luck, but our winner certainly tries to rival it...
#1: Indeedee (Male), Level 58
Ability: Psychic Surge, Item: Starf Berry, Nature: Modest, Enters at critical HP
Move: Prismatic Laser
While Psychic Terrain may be nerfed, it's still putting in work versus Eternatus. With that 1.3 boost, +2 Special Attack from Starf, and a strong Prismatic Laser, Indeedee can destroy Eternatus at the minimum Level of 58. Now, astute readers may point out that Indeedee doesn't learn Prismatic Laser. No, but it does learn Metronome. And with Metronome, (almost) anything is possible. With the move purge, I'm not entirely sure how many moves exist now - there would be 818, but excluding invalid Metronome moves and purged moves, it's probably 1/~700 to pull of a Prismatic Laser. Also, unlike the other critical health strategies, Indeedee needs to either have Wyrmwind target Dubwool or rely on the Focus Band effect from Friendship. As awful as that is, the 4 extra consecutive crits Kingdra needs to roll are 1/4096 alone, so it's not as bad as that, at least.
edit: I have since been informed that low-level Mewtwos can be obtained from Pokemon Go. It uses an identical strategy to Indeedee and OHKOs at the same Level.
Something else I spent a little bit of time analyzing was how low level you could be to OHKO Eternatus with a neutral hit. The lowest for that, I'm almost sure, is Crowned Zacian. Not terribly surprising, but there it is. Like using Eternatus before, it's constrained by its available level at 70. However, what I'm pretty sure is the second lowest neutral hit, at Level 73, was too good to resist recording:
Farfetch'd (Kanto), Level 73
Ability: Defiant, Item: Choice Band, Nature: Adamant, Enters at critical HP
Move: Flail
The mighty Farfetch'd. Hearing rumors that Farfetch'd in Galar can evolve by honing their strength, it set out to fell the strongest foe it could find. With an attack boost from Howl and a quick riposte on Wyrmwind's attack decrease with Defiant, it ends up with +2 attack, which with Choice Band and a 200 BP STAB critical hit Flail cleaves Eternatus in a single hit. Sadly, it doesn't evolve, but it does in my heart.
One nice aspect of Farfetch'd is that because stat boosts have diminishing returns in the upper stages, going from +2 to +4 is a 50% boost, equivalent to Choice Band. So it doesn't need to rely on Starf Berry randomness. On that note, you may notice my Farfetch'd in the video was Level 84. Simply put, that was just so I didn't lose my mind trying to get a recording. Even ignoring the absurdity of trying to pull off Kingdra or Indeedee's strats in practice, having the nature/IVs/crit/damage rolls all line up is very rare in and of itself. So I went to Level 84 so that I could still have a roughly 50% chance to KO with a crit on even a max HP/Defense neutral defense nature Eternatus. I still got amazingly unlucky, going 27 hits before I got my 1/8 crit, so I'm very glad I did this!
Failed Experiments
I had a lot of ideas for how to do this, and sadly some didn't work out for various reasons.
Flapple, Level 55
Ability: Hustle, Item: Weakness Policy, Nature: Lonely, 0 Defense IV
Move: Outrage
Flapple returns. I mentioned earlier it can't avoid Wyrmwind's attack drop, but I thought might not be true because Flapple is also weak to the Max Ooze Eternatus can use. This Ooze is derived from Cross Poison, a physical move, so I thought that by manipulating my defenses so that I minimized defense while maximizing special defense, I could get it to use Max Ooze instead. To test the waters on this, I transferred a random Flapple over, but in 10 attempts I never saw Max Ooze. While this wasn't particularly rigorous, I'm very doubtful it would work, because even in an optimal scenario (Lonely Eternatus with max attack IV, 0 special attack IV versus Lonely 0 defense IV Flapple with 184 special defense EVs (needs to reserve 76 speed to outspeed Dubwool)), Wyrmwind STILL outdamages Ooze without Light Screen - Max Ooze is very weak with only 85 BP. While Zamazenta sets Light Screen up turn 1, Eternatus doesn't know this at move selection. Still, since I'm not 100% sure this doesn't work and it would be the winner if it did, this one is kind of borderline.
Meowstic (Female), Level 59
Ability: Competitive, Item: Choice Specs, Nature: Modest
Move: Assist->Prismatic Laser
This was an idea I really liked. Competitive triggers off of Wyrmwind on either target, and unlike Metronome, Assist can be guaranteed to call Prismatic Laser if it's the only valid option. Unfortunately, Assist no longer exists, so this idea is moot.
Wigglytuff, Level 64
Ability: Competitive, Item: Choice Specs, Nature: Modest
Move: Copycat->Dynamax Cannon
This is very similar to Meowstic, but Wyrmwind needs to hit Dubwool since Wigglytuff is Fairy. Copycat on a max move copies the base move, so it would copy Dynamax Cannon, which even without STAB is very powerful. But as it turns out, Copycat simply fails on Dynamax Cannon.
Krookodile, Level 48
Ability: Anger Point, Item: Choice Band, Nature: Adamant
Move: High Horsepower
Now that's a low level! While this would require both a 1/24 crit from Eternatus and the 10?% chance of Friendship survival, Anger Point unlocks some incredible damage potential. +6 attack with a Choice Band is x6 damage, and with Krookodile's high attack and strong STAB, it would win this contest in a landslide. But sadly as mentioned earlier, it was clear after many attempts that Eternatus simply can't crit, so this doesn't work at all.
The End
This was a silly little project I started on a while ago. It started as an idle curiosity, but as I looked into it more and more there were a lot of fun little quirky strategies I could use to OHKO Eternatus. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
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