Coalossal, The Coal Pokémon. It's usually peaceful, but the vandalism of mines enrages it. Offenders will be incinerated with flames that reach 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. While it's engaged in battle, its mountain of coal will burn bright red, sending off sparks that scorch the surrounding area. Its body is a colossal stove. With Gigantamax energy stoking the fire, this Pokémon's flame burns hotter than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. When Galar was hit by a harsh cold wave, this Pokémon served as a giant heating stove and saved many lives.

Overview

Rolycoly was one of the first Pokémon revealed for Gen VIII and immediately drew attention with its new ability Steam Engine which maxes out the wielder’s speed after hit with a Water or Fire attack. Flash forward to the release of Sword and Shield and our introduction to Coalossal who proved to be an interesting take of the early game Rock type. Unlike its predecessors, Coalossal has decent Special Defense, and several methods to boost its Speed to respectable levels. However, both of Coalossal’s offenses are average at best, and while usable, lack the oomph necessary to make a dent without boosting, which it cannot do outside of Meteor Beam or Body Press powered Max Knuckle.

Coalossal finds itself shoehorned into a defensive role in Singles, with Steam Engine and Weakness Policy being too unreliable as not every team carries a Water move and the general difficulty of surviving a Water attack in the first place. However, even at this role, Coalossal struggles. Lack of reliable recovery and a horrible typing completely offset Coalossal’s good natural bulk, synergistic traits and great movepool for the role, leaving it outclassed by Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Rhyperior, and many more.
Positives
Coalossal has impressive bulk -at 110/120/80 defenses, Coalossal is near guaranteed to survive several hits
Rock Fire typing does provide valuable resistances in Ice, Bug, Flying and Fairy
Wide movepool gives Coalossal a great degree of flexibility, allowing it to mix and match its offensive and defensive options at its leisure.
Negatives
Rock Fire is a horrible defensive typing with crippling x4 weakness to Water and Ground on top of common weaknesses in Fighting and Rock.
Lack of reliable recovery, low speed outside of Steam Engine and vulnerability to all entry hazards means that Coalossal is easily worn down under repeated assaults.
Limited boosting options for its average offenses hinders any offensive set

Movesets

Old King Coal

-Stealth Rock
-Rapid Spin
-Rock Blast/Stone Edge
-Spikes/Heat Crash
Item Attached: Heavy Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs and Nature:
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature

Coalossal finds itself to be a reliable entry hazard setter, its high natural bulk ensuring that it can get the entry hazards up. Rapid Spin enables Coalossal’s team to maintain the Entry Hazard advantage, clearing away your opponents while leaving yours intact. Rock STAB in Stone Edge or Rock Blast enables Coalossal to threaten out or punish most defoggers looking to clear Coalossal’s hazards. Stone Edge has more power, while Rock Blast has more PP and Accuracy. Spikes enables Coalossal to double down on setting Entry Hazards, while Heat Crash runs off of Coalossal’s other STAB and gives it an answer to Steel types who otherwise resist Rock. Flame Body serves as a punish for physical attackers, and effectively makes Coalossal even more physically resilient.

DYNAMAX:
Dynamaxing is not recommended on this set. You want to control Entry Hazards with this set, something Coalossal cannot do while Dynamaxed, despite having a great HP stat under normal conditions.

EVs and Items:
EVs are to maximize special bulk, as Coalossal’s physical bulk is quite good even when only invested in HP. Heavy Duty boots are necessary when Coalossal is expected to come in on them to clear them away. Investment in Defense can be considered if you want to double down on Coalossal’s good points and leave another teammate to deal with Special attacks.

Other Options:
-Flamethrower is an alternative to Heat Crash, hitting several Steel types even harder since a lot of Steels tend to be on the heavy side with higher Defense, but would get its power reduced by the Calm nature.
-Will-o-Wisp makes Coalossal even more physically bulky and can be a great alternative to punishing switch ins looking to take advantage of Coalossal’s Ground, Rock or Fighting weaknesses.
-Body Press provides good coverage and runs off of Coalossal’s incredibly defense.

Partners:
Grass types are the go to partner for Coalossal, taking care of the many Ground, Rock and Water types that threaten it and forms 2/3rd of the Grass-Fire-Water core. Rillaboom and Tapu Bulu standout for Grassy Surge providing Coalossal desperately needed recovery and weakening Earthquake to survivable levels. Torkoal and Kantonian Ninetails alongside Tyranitar, Hippowdon and Gigalith all setup favorable weathers for Coalossal that make it even more bulky (with Sun reducing Coalossal’s water weakness and Sand increasing Coalossal’s Special Defense). Water types also prove good partners for Coalossal due to their ability to counter Ground and Rock types and many can pivot into water moves for some benefit. Vaporeon stands out for being able to pass massive Wishes to keep Coalossal healthy.

VGC & Double Battle Options

As opposed to Singles, Coalossal is a potent win condition in Doubles, with Weakness Policy and Steam Engine being much more reliable when you can bring your own water move user to trigger it. Massive HP while Dynamaxed and great bulk prevents blowing Coalossal by with priority and makes it difficult to out without serious investment. Good coverage and synergizing well with two weathers give Coalossal a strong place in many teams and a mainstay in doubles for the foreseeable future.

Runaway Train

--Protect
-Meteor Beam
-Heat Wave
-Solar Beam/Earth Power
Item Attached: Weakness Policy
Ability: Steam Engine
EVs and Nature:
88 HP / 252 SAtk / 168 Spe
Modest Nature

Coalossal’s plan is simple. Trigger Steam Engine and Weakness Policy with a weak Water move, then run over the enemy team as you are now impossible to outspeed. Meteor Beam is Rock STAB that enables Coalossal to further snowball its Special Attack and turns into a power Max move when Dynamaxed. Heat Wave is a STAB spread move, good fire piling on the damage. Solar Beam provides anti Water/Ground and Rock coverage, while Earth Power hits Heatran and Duraldon harder than anything else. Protect is there as standard, to have your opponent waste turns, while Coalossal remains running at full steam.

DYNAMAX:
This set is wholly meant to Dynamax/Gigantamax right out of the gate as to better take the water attack to setup. Both forms are viable. The Sandstorm from Max Rockfall makes Coalossal incredibly bulky on the special side, provides conditional chip damage and synergy to any teammates that can take advantage of Sandstorm. Max Vocalith however provides unconditional chip damage to the tune of 1/6th of the opponents health each turn, placing your opponent on an even tighter clock. Heat Wave empowered Max Flare provides valuable Sun support and escalates Coalossal’s Fire attacks as well as removing the downside for Solarbeam post Dynamax. Solarbeam Empowered Max Overgrowth sets up the valuable Grassy terrain, providing protection against Earthquake and making Coalossal even harder to take down. Max Quake’s Special Defense boost is helpful, if more situational.

EVs and Items
EVs to Maximize special offense. 168 Speed EVs are necessary to outspeed Timid Regieleki, with the remainder put into HP to make Coalossal as bulky as possible. Pushing Speed EVs to 180 enables Coalossal to outspeed Timid Chlorophyll Venusaur in the Sun. Weakness Policy is the Crux of the set and gives Coalossal much of its power.

Partners
Any Aqua Jet user is worth consideration as to get Steam Engine and Weakness Policy online as soon as possible. Thankfully Aqua Jet is such a weak move that even fully invested Aqua Jets can’t OHKO while Coalossal is Dynamaxed. Standout users include Urshifu Rapid, Azumarill, and Marill. Weak Surf users are recommended as a backup method to setup Steam Engine. Surf is necessary as it bypasses Follow Me/Rage Powder which do foil Aqua Jet setup. Dragapult stands out for having a weak Non-STAB Surf that can’t be stopped by Fake Out. Rillaboom again is a fantastic partner for Coalossal, with Grassy Terrain support being too valuable to pass up and able to eliminate opposing Water, Ground and Rock types before they can react with Grassy Glide.

Other Doubles Options

A physical set with Heat Crash, Rock Slide and Body Press can perform similarly to Special Steam Engine Coalossal, but Heat Crash’s power can be inconsistent and fails vs opposing Dynamax Pokémon, the set lacks reliable answers to Water types and is generally outclassed by other physical Weakness Policy sweepers like Metagross and Rhyperior. Scald is a nice special attacking option but has poor affinity with Max Flare and there are usually other Water move users on your team to activate Steam Engine

Countering Coalossal

Water Ground types like Gastrodon, Seismitoad and Quagsire wall any Coalossal set lacking Solar Beam, resisting both STABs and OHKOing with their STAB Ground moves that won’t trigger Steam Engine or Flame Body. Urshifu Rapid is in a similar boat with its STAB Fighting moves, but must be wary of Will-o-Wisp as well.
Water types are a huge problem for Coalossal in general, able to easily OHKO and resisting Coalossal’s Fire STAB. However Coalossal can easily turn that matchup on its head if it survives the Water attack and can strike back with a Max Overgrowth. Jellicent stands out for being able to Spin Block coalossal as well. Ground types or really anything with Ground moves are similarly threatening, able to easily prey on Coalossal’s 4x weakness with their STAB and resisting Coalossal’s Rock STAB, but similarly dislike Will-o-Wisp burns and Max Overgrowth. Nidoking and Nidoqueen standout for not minding either of those, but generally dislike Fire STAB in general.
Knock Off tends to be very crippling for Coalossal as most of its sets rely on Coalossal’s item to function effectively.

Anime Appearences

Coalossal has made a few anime appearances. Most notably one was forced to Gigantamax after Rose's experiments with Eteratus unleashed Dynamax Energy across Galar # -English Episode Name- -Jp. Episode Name- Pics 1132 Sword and Shield: The Darkest Day! Sword & Shield II: Darkest Day Pics