To celebrate the new year, Lance returns with Gyarados, another Pokémon capable of using Hyper Beam. Being a Flying-type sync pair with Flying Shift, Hyper Beam is no longer a Normal attack. Bounce, however, is completely absent from any builds because of its limited use and simply not being as good as Hyper Beam.
But this pair pays tribute to Gyarados’ Water-type with a grid full of skills that all rely on the weather being rainy. Included are several variations depending on what kind of team you’re making. They don’t lose all of their power if it’s dry, but pour the points into making Hyper Beam even stronger.
The best sync grid builds for Lance and Gyarados are Sync Level 2, Paralysis/ No Rain Build, and Rain Builds.
Universal Recommended Lucky Skill:
Critical Strike 2
No tile is used in all builds and all variations of the Rain build, so each build will include all of its stats. But, every build does want to use Critical Strike 2 as its lucky skill. Critical Strike 2 increases the amount of damage an opponent takes whenever Gyarados has a critical hit.
Sync Grid Builds
Sync Level 2
Total Sync Orb Cost: 738
Total Energy Used: 59
Unique Upgrades:
HP +10
Attack +10
Defense +5
Sp. Atk +5
Sp. Def +10
Speed +10
Hyper Beam Power +3
Hyper Beam Accuracy +10
Hyper Beam Move Gauge Refresh 2
Hyper Beam Paralysis Synergy 1
Racing Rain 3
Terrify 1
Torrential Tenacity
Gyarados’s main concern is getting Hyper Beam’s 4-bar cost down or making sure the rate of recharge is fast enough to keep up. Hyper Beam Move Gauge Refresh 2 and Racing Rain 3 work together to help give you enough bars. Racing Rain 3 activates when the weather is rainy and speeds up the charge rate of the move gauge.
To make sure that Gyarados won’t waste the energy, Hyper Beam picks up +10 accuracy to reach 100 accuracy. Torrential Tenacity will prevent Gyarados from becoming confused, trapped, or flinching while the weather is rain.
Terrify 1 lowers the opponents’ Attack by -1 when Gyarados enters the battlefield. Pairing Gyarados with an ally that can paralyze an opponent will allow Hyper Beam to increase its damage against any paralyzed opponents with Paralysis Synergy 1.
Paralysis / No Rain Build (Sync Level 3/5)
Total Sync Orb Cost: 750
Total Energy Used: 60
Unique Upgrades:
HP +10
Attack +10
Defense +5
Sp. Atk +15
Sp. Def +5
Speed +10
Hyper Beam Power +9
Hyper Beam Accuracy +10
Hyper Beam Move Gauge Refresh 2
Hyper Beam Move Gauge Refresh 3
Hyper Beam Paralysis Synergy 1
Terrify 1
If you aren’t going to be putting Gyarados with a Rain team, he is able to focus purely on making Hyper Beam as powerful as possible. The devastating attack gains an extra +9 power and +10 accuracy. This brings it up to 100 accuracy, meaning Hyper Beam won’t naturally miss anymore.
Without another way to decrease the cost of Hyper Beam, the build picks up both Move Gauge Refresh 2 and Move Gauge Refresh 3. This means there is a small chance of both tiles activating simultaneously after Hyper Beam is used.
While Bounce can be used to paralyze an opponent, pair Gyarados with an ally that can so Hyper Beam Paralysis Synergy 1 activates and increases damage against the paralyzed opponent. Finally, Terrify 1 will decrease all opponents’ Attack by -1 when Gyarados enters the battlefield.
Rain Builds (Sync Level 3/5)
Total Sync Orb Cost: 750
Total Energy Used: 60
Base Upgrades:
HP +20
Attack +5
Defense +5
Sp. Atk +5
Sp. Def +5
Speed +5
Bounce +3
Raging Rain 2
Picking out your rain build is dependent on what you most need in the battle and what your team composition is. If SS Blue & Blastoise are on your team, you might not need the tiles to speed up the move gauge. But if you have SS Leaf & Venusaur, you might not need the extra healing. Perhaps you use them and the tiles on Gyarados’ grid.
Every variation picks up Raging Rain 2, which powers up Gyarados’ attacks when the weather is rainy.
Need Healing / Accuracy Variation:
Attack +5
Defense +5
Sp. Atk +5
Speed +5
Hyper Beam Power +6
Hyper Beam Accuracy +10
Refreshing Rain 1
Terrify 1
This variation is more suited for longer battles where healing is needed to stay up as long as possible.
Picking up +10 accuracy increases Hyper Beam to 100 base accuracy, meaning the attack will not normally miss. Grabbing Terrify 1 decreases all opponents’ Attack by -1 when Gyarados enters the battlefield. Refreshing Rain 1 will allow Gyarados to gradually heal himself after each attack in rainy weather.
Need Healing / Move Gauge Charge Variation:
Sp Atk +10
Hyper Beam Power +3
Racing Rain 3
Refreshing Rain 1
Terrify 1
Torrential Tenacity
This variation is more suited if you have an ally that can raise Gyarados’ accuracy naturally or you plan on using Superior Might! Right away. The rest of your team may have low Speed and you need to speed things up.
When the weather is rainy, Racing Rain 3 increases the move gauge recharge speed and Refreshing Rain 1 restores a little bit of Gyarados’ health when he attacks. To reach these two tiles and improve Gyarados in other ways, Terrify 1 and Torrential Tenacity are picked up.
Terrify 1 will decrease each opponent’s Attack stat by -1 when Gyarados enters the field, meaning all allies will take a little bit less damage from any physical attack. Torrential Tenacity also activates when the weather is rainy by preventing Gyarados from becoming trapped, confused, or flinching.
Need Move Gauge Charge / Accuracy Variation:
Attack +5
Defense +5
Speed +5
Hyper Beam Accuracy +10
Hyper Beam Move Gauge Refresh 2
Hyper Beam Move Gauge Refresh 3
Racing Rain 3
Torrential Tenacity
With plenty of sync pairs able to heal allies and gradual healing only activating after an attack and only restoring a little bit of health, giving up Gyarados’ ability to heal lets him be able to reliably hit hard and quickly.
Hyper Beam picks up +10 accuracy to raise it to 100 base accuracy, meaning you don’t need to use Superior Might! to be able to hit every time. Hyper Beam gets both Move Gauge Refresh 2 and Move Gauge Refresh 3 to potentially restore one bar to the move gauge on each tile. This means you could get back zero, one, or two bars after a Hyper Beam.
Since Gyarados’ passive skill Power Flux 5 increases his damage the fuller the move gauge is, Racing Rain 3 is very helpful to speed up the charging rate of the move gauge, but it only activates during rain. Finally, during rain, Torrential Tenacity will prevent Gyarados from becoming confused, trapped, or being flinched.