The build
Item
Air Balloon
Ability
Mold Breaker
Tera type
Flying
Nature · EVs
Jolly · 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Moves
Showdown export
Tinkaton @ Air Balloon Ability: Mold Breaker Tera Type: Flying EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Gigaton Hammer - Knock Off - Stealth Rock - Encore
Overview
Tinkaton became a competitive staple thanks to Gigaton Hammer — 160 BP physical Steel move that can't be used twice in a row, but with Mold Breaker bypasses Multiscale (Dragonite, Lunala), Sturdy, Levitate, and Disguise. Air Balloon avoids the 4× Earthquake weakness on turn 1 and turns the matchup vs. Garchomp into a guaranteed Stealth Rock + KO. Encore traps setup Pokémon and Choice-locked attackers.
Move analysis
Gigaton Hammer is your nuke — only usable every other turn but at 160 BP + Mold Breaker, it tears through anything that isn't Fire/Steel resistant. Knock Off for Specs Dragapult, Blissey, Pex item removal. Stealth Rock as a backup hazard option. Encore is the secret tech — lock Substitute/Calm Mind users into setup and force them out.
Team partners
Great Tusk (handles Fire and Ground threats), Iron Bundle (Freeze-Dry covers Steels and bulky Water), Gholdengo (Make It Rain partner, soaks special hits), Sinistcha (Matcha Gotcha cleric).
What beats Tinkaton
Heatran (Fire/Steel walls everything but Earthquake, which Tinkaton doesn't run), Iron Hands (Drain Punch + Wild Charge), Skeledirge (Ghost/Fire walls Steel STAB), Tera Fire on a defensive mon flips the matchup.
How to use the build
Open our damage calculator and plug in the EV spread above to see what Tinkaton OHKOs and 2HKOs against the current OU/VGC meta. Drop Tinkaton into the team builder to check defensive coverage gaps when paired with your other 5 slots.
Other Fairy/Steel options
If you want to run a different Fairy-type, browse our competitive builds hub. For more on Tera mechanics, see the damage calculator's Tera explainer and our guide on type matchups.