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

In its main story, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet provide a wide range of activities to undertake, including locating and vanquishing the new Titan Pokemon, disassembling the enigmatic Team Star, prevailing over each of the Gym Leaders in the region, and contending in the Pokemon League to emerge as a Champion and become the very best like no one ever was, or simply capturing all the creatures to finish the Paldea region’s Pokedex.

Even after accomplishing these feats and watching the credits roll, there are still many possibilities to pursue, such as challenging the Gym Leaders and the former Team Star units and their leaders to a rematch. One noteworthy event to partake in is the Academy Ace Tournament.

This guide will teach you how to defeat Jacq in the Academy Ace Tournament!

The Academy Ace Tournament

Nemona and the Pokemon League have organized the Academy Ace Tournament to honor the player’s achievement of becoming the Champion in the Paldea region. However, Top Champion Geeta will request the player’s assistance before participating in the tournament.

She needs the player to challenge all the Pokemon Gym Leaders in the Paldea region to check if their skills are up to par. Only after defeating all of them, the Academy Ace Tournament will commence.

The tournament involves battling four Pokemon Trainers consecutively, be it a faculty member or student. The player must defeat each to emerge as the ultimate champion and declare the academy’s ace. To join the tournament, the player must talk to the staff member in the Entrance Hall of the Academy in Mesagoza wearing a blue shirt and standing next to a Gengar.

On the first attempt at the Academy Ace Tournament, the player must battle a set of pre-determined Trainers: Arven, Jacq, Dendra, and Top Champion Geeta. But in the subsequent attempts, a set of four different trainers will be selected at random from Arven, Jacq, Dendra, Hassel, Tyme, Miriam, Raifort, Saguaro, Salvatore, Penny, Director Clavell, or Nemona.

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

Rewards

Apart from the monetary rewards and EXP points obtained after every battle, winning the Academy Ace Tournament for the first time also unlocks a Sporty Cap (Pokemon League) and grants access to 6-Star Tera Raids (which require the player to have completed at least ten runs of 4-Star Tera Raid battles).

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

How To Defeat Jacq

Prepare for an exciting battle as Jacq, the Pokemon Trainer for the second round, awaits the player in their first-ever participation in the Academy Ace Tournament!

Jacq does not have a type specialty and will use six Pokemon: a Level 65 Arcanine, a Level 65 Mudsdale, a Level 65 Slowbro, a Level 65 Lurantis, a Level 65 Swalot, and a Level 66 Farigiraf with a Psychic Tera-Type.

How To Defeat Jacq’s Arcanine

With that in mind, it is important to mention that Arcanine is a Fire-type Pokemon, so it is weak (super effective) to Ground-type, Rock-type, and Water-type moves and resistant (not very effective) to the Bug-type, Fairy-type, Fire-type, Grass-type, Ice-type, and Steel-type moves.

Jacq’s Arcanine will use the following moves: 

• Flare Blitz is a physical Fire-type move with 120 Power and 100 Accuracy. Aside from dealing damage, it also has a 10% chance of inflicting Burn on the opposing Pokemon, and the Pokemon using the move will also receive recoil damage equal to a third of the damage dealt.
  
• Play Rough is a physical Fairy-type move with 90 Power and 90 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it has a 10% chance to lower the opposing Pokemon’s Attack stat by one stage.
  
• Psychic Fangs is a physical Psychic-type move with 85 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it will destroy the protective barriers active in the battle.
  
• Close Combat is a physical Fighting-type move with 120 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it will also lower the Defense and Special Defense stat of the Pokemon using the move by one stage.

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

How To Defeat Jacq’s Mudsdale

Mudsdale is a Ground-type Pokemon, so it is weak (super effective) to Grass-type, Ice-type, and Water-type moves, resistant (not very effective) to Poison-type and Rock-type moves, and immune (no effect) to Electric-type moves.

Jacq’s Mudsdale will use the following moves: 

• 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.
  
• Heavy Slam is a physical Steel-type move with 100 Accuracy that has an attack power based on the target Pokemon’s weight, where the lighter the target, the bigger the power.
  
• Stone Edge is a physical Rock-type move with 100 Power and 80 Accuracy. It is also an attack that has increased the Critical Hit ratio by one stage.
  
• Close Combat is a physical Fighting-type move with 120 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it also lowers the Pokemon using the move’s Defense and Special Defense stat by one stage.

Aside from that, Jacq’s Mudsdale also has the Ability Stamina, which will increase the Pokemon with the Ability’s Defense stat by one stage every time it gets hit by an attack.

How To Defeat Jacq’s Slowbro

Slowbro is a Water and Psychic-type Pokemon, so it is weak (super effective) to the Bug-type, Dark-type, Electric-type, Ghost-type, and Grass-type moves and resistant (not very effective) to Fighting-type, Fire-type, Ice-type, Psychic-type, Steel-type, and Water-moves.

Jacq’s Slowbro will use the following moves: 

• Psychic is a special Psychic-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy. Aside from dealing damage, it also has a 10% chance of lowering the Special Defense stat of the opposing Pokemon by one stage.
  
• Surf is a special Water-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, will also deal damage to Pokemon who are in the middle of the move Dive.
  
• Flamethrower is a special Fire-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it has a 10% chance of inflicting Burn on the opposing Pokemon.
  
• 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 battlefield by 50% in Single Battles and 33% in Double Battles. The effect of this move will last for five turns.

How To Defeat Jacq’s Lurantis

Lurantis is a Grass-type Pokemon, so it is weak (super effective) to the Bug-type, Fire-type, Flying-type, Ice-type, and Poison-type moves and resistant (not very effective) to Electric-type, Grass-type, Ground-type, and Water-type moves.

Jacq’s Lurantis will use the following moves:

• Leaf Blade, a physical Grass-type with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy, has a 1-stage increased Critical Hit ratio.
  
• Leech Life is a physical Bug-type move with 80 Power and 100 Accuracy. Aside from dealing damage, it will also recover the HP of the Pokemon who used the move, equal to half of the damage dealt to the opposing Pokemon.
  
• Night Slash is a physical Dark-type move with 70 Power and 100 Accuracy; it also has a 1-stage increased Critical Hit ratio.
  
• Brick Break is a physical Fighting-type move with 75 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it will break the active protective barriers in the battle.

Aside from its moves, Jacq’s Lurantis also has the Leaf Guard Ability, preventing it from getting status conditions if sunny weather is active.

How To Defeat Jacq’s Swalot

Swalot is a Poison-type Pokemon, so it is weak (super effective) to Ground-type and Psychic-type moves and resistant (not very effective) to the Bug-type, Fairy-type, Fighting-type, Grass-type, and Poison-type moves.

Jacq’s Swalot will use the following moves: 

• Fire Punch is a physical Fire-type move with 75 Power and 100 Accuracy. Aside from dealing damage, it also has a 10% chance of inflicting the status condition Burn on the opposing Pokemon.
  
• Toxic is a Poison-type status moves with 100 Accuracy that will inflict Poison on the opposing Pokemon and will inflict this status condition even if the opposing Pokemon uses moves like Fly or Dig but cannot penetrate moves like Protect or Detect.
  
• Protect is a Normal-type status move that will protect the Pokemon using the move from attacks except for a few select moves.
  
• Ice Punch is a physical Ice-type move with 75 Power and 100 Accuracy. Aside from dealing damage, it also has a 10% chance to inflict Freeze on the opposing Pokemon.

How To Defeat Jacq’s Farigiraf

Farigiraf is a Normal and Psychic-type Pokemon. Still, as Jacq will Terastallize it, it will become a pure Psychic-type because of its Tera-Type, meaning it is weak (super effective) to the Bug-type, Dark-type, and Ghost-type moves and resistant (not very effective) to Fighting-type and Psychic-type moves.

Jacq’s Farigiraf will use the following moves: 

• Thunderbolt is a special Electric-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it has a 10% chance of inflicting Paralyze on the opposing Pokemon.
  
• Psychic is a special Psychic-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy. In addition to dealing damage, it has a 10% chance of lowering the target Pokemon’s Special Defense stat by one stage.
  
• Energy Ball is a special Grass-type move with 90 Power and 100 Accuracy. Aside from dealing damage, it also has a 10% chance of lowering the Special Defense stat of the target Pokemon by one stage.
  
• Shadow Ball is a special Ghost-type move with 80 Power and 100 Accuracy. Aside from dealing damage, it also has a 20% chance of lowering the target Pokemon’s Special Defense stat by one stage.

Again, as Jacq will Terastallize Farigiraf, its Psychic-type move, Psychic, will be boosted.

Tips

As Jacq’s Pokemon are Level 65 and 66, it is recommended that the player use Level 67 and higher Pokemon with Bug-type, Ground-type, and Ice-type or Water-type moves. This is because Bug-type moves deal super effective damage to Jacq’s Slowbro, Lurantis, and Terastalized Farigiraf; Ground-type moves deal super effective damage to Jacq’s Arcanine and Swalot; Ice-type moves will deal super effective damage to Jacq’s Mudsdale and also Lurantis; and Water-type moves deal super effective damage to Jacq’s Mudsdale and also Arcanine.

After defeating Jacq in the second round, the player’s Pokemon will be healed, the player’s Tera Orb will be recharged, and the player should be prepared to face Dendra in the third round!