Pokemon Scarlet/Violet: How to Defeat Arven in the Academy Ace Tournament

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet offer a lot of different things to do in its main story, like finding and defeating the new Titan Pokemon, disbanding the mysterious Team Star, winning against all of the Gym Leaders in the region, and challenging the Pokemon League to become a Champion and be the very best like no one ever was, or even just catching ‘em all to complete the Paldea region’s Pokedex.

After all that, there are still many things the player can do after completing the main story and the credits roll in the game challenging the Gym Leaders and the former Team Star squads and their bosses to a rematch. One of the big ones is the Academy Ace Tournament.

This guide will teach us how to defeat Arven again but in the Academy Ace Tournament!

The Academy Ace Tournament

Nemona and the Pokemon League set up the Academy Ace Tournament to commemorate the player achieving a milestone of reaching the Champion rank in the Paldea region.

After defeating every Pokemon Gym Leader in the Paldea region again, the Academy Ace Tournament will officially begin! However, before the player is able actually to participate in the tournament, Top Champion Geeta will ask for the player’s help before she can also actually participate in Academy Ace Tournament: she will ask the player first to inspect every Pokemon Gym in the Paldea region and check if their skills are still up to the standards by challenging them to a rematch.

In the Academy Ace Tournament, the player will battle four Pokemon Trainers in a row, be it a student or a faculty member, and the player must beat every single one to become the last trainer standing and deemed as the academy’s ace.

To participate in the tournament, speak to the staff member wearing a blue shirt right next to a Gengar at the front desk of the Entrance Hall of the Academy in Mesagoza.

For the player’s first time participating in the Academy Ace Tournament, the set of Pokemon Trainers that the player will face are predetermined and fixed: the player will face Arven, Jacq, Dendra, and Top Champion Geeta.

After that, once the player decides to participate in the Academy Ace Tournament again, the player will face a different set of four Pokemon Trainers, and they will be decided at random. For the player’s subsequent attempts in the Academy Ace Tournament, the player may battle Arven, Jacq, Dendra, Hassel, Tyme, Miriam, Raifort, Saguaro, Salvatore, Penny, Director Clavell, or Nemona.

In the Academy Ace Tournament, the player cannot change the Pokemon in their party once the tournament starts. But the player’s Pokemon will be healed, and the player’s Tera Orb will be recharged after every battle or round.

Rewards

Aside from the money and the EXP gained after every battle, the player will also receive a Sporty Cap (Pokemon League) and will be able to unlock 6-Star Tera Raids (also requires the player to finish at least ten runs of 4-Star Tera Raid battles) for becoming the last trainer standing in the Academy Ace Tournament for the first time.

For the subsequent times that the player will win the tournament, the player will receive a random prize which may be either of the following: a maximum of 10 Rare Candies, a maximum of three Nuggets, one Big Nugget, a maximum of three PP Ups, one PP Max, three random Vitamins, three random Tera Shards, one random and rare Apriball (a Beast Ball, a Dream Ball, a Fast Ball, a Friend Ball, a Level Ball, a Lure Ball, or a Moon Ball), one random nature Mint, one Bottle Cap, one Gold Bottle Cap, or one scarce Ability Patch.

Arven

For the player’s first time participating in the Academy Ace Tournament, the first Pokemon Trainer that the player will face is Arven!

Arven does not have a type specialty and will use six Pokemon: a Level 67 Greedent, a Level 67 Toedscruel, a Level 67 Scovillain, a Level 67 Garganacl, a Level 67 Cloyster, and a Level 68 Mabosstiff with a Dark Tera Type.

With that in mind, it is worth noting that Greedent is a Normal-type Pokemon, so it has a weakness to Fighting type moves (super effective) and an immunity to Ghost-type moves (no effect).

Arven’s Greedent will use the following moves: 

• Bullet Seed is a physical Grass-type move with 25 Power and 100 Accuracy where the Pokemon using the move will hit the player two to five times consecutively (37.5% chance to hit two times, 37.5% chance to hit three times, 12.5% chance to hit four times, and 12.5% chance to hit five times).
• Body Slam is a physical Normal-type move with 85 Power and 100 Accuracy that, in addition to dealing damage, also has a 30% chance of inflicting Paralysis on the opposing Pokemon.
• Psychic Fangs is a physical Psychic-type move with 85 Power and 100 Accuracy that, in addition to dealing damage, destroys the protective barriers active in the battle.
• Earthquake is a physical Ground-type move with 100 Power and 100 Accuracy that will hit all of the Pokemon on the battlefield and even deal double damage if the hit Pokemon is in the middle of the move Dig.

Toedscruel is a Grass and Ground-type Pokemon so it has a weakness to Bug-type, Fire-type, Flying-type, and especially Ice-type moves (super effective), a resistance to Ground-type and Rock-type moves (not very effective), and an immunity to Electric-type moves (no effect).

Arven’s Toedscruel will use the following moves: 

• Sludge Bomb is a special Poison-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy that, in addition to dealing damage, also has a 30% chance of inflicting Poison on the opposing Pokemon.
• Earth Power is a special Ground-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy that, in addition to dealing damage, has a 10% chance of lowering the opposing Pokemon’s Special Defense stat by one stage.
• Spore, which is a Grass type status move with 100 Accuracy that will put the opposing Pokemon to sleep.
• Power Whip, which is a physical Grass type move with 120 Power and 85 Accuracy.

Scovillain is a Grass and Fire-type Pokemon so it has a weakness to Flying-type, Poison-type, and Rock-type moves (super effective) and resistance to Electric-type, Fairy-type, Steel-type, and especially Grass-type moves (not very effective).

Arven’s Scovillain will use the following moves: 

• Crunch is a physical Dark-type move with 80 Power and 100 Accuracy that, in addition to dealing damage, has a 20% chance of lowering the opposing Pokemon’s Defense stat by one stage.
• Zen Headbutt is a physical Psychic-type move with 80 Power and 90 Accuracy that, in addition to dealing damage, also has a 20% chance of causing the target Pokemon to flinch.
• Energy Ball is a special Grass-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy that deals damage, and has a 10% chance of lowering the opposing Pokemon’s Special Defense stat by one stage.
• Fire Blast is a special Fire-type move with 110 Power and 85 Accuracy that, in addition to dealing damage, also has a 10% chance of inflicting Burn on the opposing Pokemon.

Garganacl is a Rock-type Pokemon, so it has a weakness to Fighting-type, Grass-type, Ground-type, Steel type, and Water-type moves (super effective) and resistance to Flying-type, Fire-type, Normal-type, and Poison-type moves (not very effective).

Arven’s Garganacl will use the following moves:

• Body Press is a physical Fighting-type move with 80 Power and 100 Accuracy. The Defense stat of the Pokemon using the move will be used to calculate the amount of damage that will be dealt to the opposing Pokemon instead of its Attack stat.
• Stone Edge is a physical Rock type move with 100 Power and 80 Accuracy, and it is an attack that increases the Critical Hit ratio by one stage.
• Earthquake is a physical Ground type move with 100 Power and 100 Accuracy that will hit all of the Pokemon on the battlefield and even deal double damage if a Pokemon uses the move Dig.
• Stealth Rock is a Rock-type status move where rocks will be set on the opposing Pokemon’s area in the field and deal damage to all the opposing Pokemon that will be sent out to the field (the damage amount depends on the opposing Pokemon’s weakness or resistance to Rock-type moves).

Cloyster is a Water and Ice-type Pokemon. Hence, it has a weakness to Electric-type, Fighting-type, Grass-type, and Rock-type moves (super effective) and resistance to Water-type and especially Ice-type moves (not very effective).

Arven’s Cloyster will use the following moves: 

• Rock Blast, which is a physical Rock-type with 25 Power and 90 Accuracy where the Pokemon using the move will hit the player two to five times in a row (37.5% chance to hit two times, 37.5% chance to hit three times, 12.5% chance to hit four times, and 12.5% chance to hit five times).
• Icicle Spear, which is a physical Ice type move with 25 Power and 100 Accuracy where the Pokemon using the move will also hit the player two to five times consecutively (37.5% chance to hit two times, 37.5% chance to hit three times, 12.5% chance to hit four times, and 12.5% chance to hit five times).
• Liquidation is a physical Water-type move with 85 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it has a 20% chance of lowering the opposing Pokemon’s Defense stat by one stage.
• Light Screen is a Psychic-type status move that will lessen the damage received from Special Attacks on the Pokemon using the move’s side of the field by 50% in Single Battles and 33% in Double Battles. The effect of this move lasts for five turns.

Mabosstiff is a Dark type Pokemon and has a Dark Tera-Type, so, as Arven will Terastallize his Mabostiff, it still has a weakness to the Bug-type, Fairy-type, and Fighting-type moves (super effective), a resistance to Dark-type and Ghost-type moves (not very effective), and an immunity to Psychic-type moves (no effect).

Arven’s Mabosstiff will use the following moves: 

• Fire Fang, a physical Fire-type move with 65 Power and 95 Accuracy that, aside from dealing damage, also has a 10% chance of causing the opposing Pokemon to burn or flinch.
• Crunch, a physical Dark type move with 80 Power and 100 Accuracy that, aside from dealing damage, also has a 20% chance of lowering the Defense stat of the opposing Pokemon by one stage.
• Psychic Fangs, a physical Psychic type, move with 85 Power and 100 Accuracy that, aside from dealing damage, also destroys the protective barriers active on the battlefield.
• Play Rough is a physical Fairy-type move with 90 Power and 90 Accuracy that, aside from dealing damage, also has a 10% chance to lower the Attack stat of the opposing Pokemon by one stage.

Aside from its moves, Arven’s Mabosstiff also has the Ability called Intimidate, which will lower the opposing Pokemon’s Attack stat by one stage once it enters the battlefield.

Again, as Arven will Terastallize his Mabosstiff, its Dark-type move, Crunch, will be boosted.

Tips

As Arven’s Pokemon are Level 67 and 68, it is recommended that the player use Pokemon that are Level 69 and higher with Fighting-type and Flying-type moves as Fighting-type moves will deal super effective damage to Arven’s Greedent, Garganacl, Cloyster, and Mabosstiff.

In contrast, Flying type moves will deal super effective damage to Arven’s Toedscruel and Scovillain. Having Bug-type and Rock-type moves will also help, as Bug-type moves will also deal super effective damage to Arven’s Toedscruel and Mabosstiff. At the same time, Rock-type moves will also deal super effective damage to Arven’s Scovillain and Cloyster.

After defeating Arven in the first round, the player’s Pokemon will be healed, the player’s Tera Orb will be recharged, and the player better be ready to face the second round: a battle against Jacq!