The definitive guide to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Tera Raids

To get into endgame Tera Raiding in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, there are quite a few things to know beyond “just bring in a strong Pokémon.” Five- and six-star raids can be difficult, especially if you don’t have the right matchup.

If you want to catch Pokémon with perfect IVs, farm Herba Mystica, or collect rare items like Bottle Caps, you’ll need to take part in high-level Tera Raids, but how do you do it? Time is the most valuable resource in Tera Raids and every time an allied Pokémon faints, the timer goes down significantly. You’ll need strong Pokémon to clear these raids successfully.

Below, we talk about how to build Pokémon for Tera Raids and how to farm Herba Mystica quickly using raids, plus outline some of the most popular meta builds.

Building Pokémon for Tera Raids

While lower-level raids are easy enough to clear with whatever Pokémon you have on hand, higher-level ones can actually be quite tough. That said, you should consider Hyper Training your IVs, EV training, and setting your Pokémon’s nature to one that suits their stats. You also might want to avoid using Pokémon who have lower defensive stats, as you don’t want to waste time by fainting.

Your Pokémon should also be an appropriate level depending on the raid. The levels of Pokémon in Tera Raids are as follows:

• One-star: level 12
• Two-star: level 20
• Three-star: level 35
• Four-star: level 45
• Five-star: level 75
• Six-star: level 90
• Seven-star: level 100
  (Note that seven-star raids are limited to events and do not spawn under normal circumstances.)

Though the Pokémon you fight will be high leveled, the Pokémon you opt to catch will join your team at a lower level (i.e., six-star raid Pokémon being at level 75 instead), so don’t expect to bring home level 90 Pokémon just from clearing a six-star raid.

You will not even have access to six- and seven-star raids until after you beat the Academy Ace Tournament and do a handful of higher-level raids.

That said, you should bring Pokémon who are either at the same or a higher level than the Pokémon you’re fighting against. Nobody wants your level 25 Pikachu in a six-star raid. Sorry.

Using type matchups to your advantage

You need to pay attention to type advantages in higher-level raids (five-, six-, and seven-star raids). This is not a recommendation. It is an essential tactic that you’ll need to utilize to win. Even if you use the high-level Pokémon who excel in the meta, they’ll only end up fainting if they’re weak against the opponent’s moves, costing you time.

You should have a Pokémon that either deal regular or super effective damage to the Tera Type of the raid Pokémon, which you can identify by the symbol in the top right corner of the raid screen. Your chosen Pokémon should also either take reduced or regular damage from the raid Pokémon.

That said, you have to pay attention to the regular typing of that Pokémon too. If you’re facing a dragon-Tera Type Charizard, it can still know fire- and flying-type moves. While you may be tempted to take your very strong Froslass to counter the dragon-type with ice-type moves, Charizard will use a fire-type move against your Pokémon to wipe it out.

For extra assistance, Serebii.net has a complete list of raid targets and what moves they can have.

Be smart about your picks. The main reason you run out of time and lose in a raid is because your Pokémon (or your teammates’ Pokémon) faint too many times.

Farming Herba Mystica from Tera Raids

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo

If you want to farm Herba Mystica from Tera Raids for the purposes of shiny hunting, you should be on the lookout for several specific raids. Herba Mystica only drops from five- and six-star raids, and certain Pokémon drop certain Herba Mystica varieties.

Not every Pokémon in five-star raids will drop Herba Mystica, but if they do, they’ll drop it at around a 10% chance per Herba, according to Serebii.net. Every six-star raid Pokémon has a chance to drop Herba Mystica at about 13% per Herba.

Notably, the Pokémon below have a chance to drop every type of Herba Mystica, meaning you can get up to five Herba Mystica in one run if you’re lucky.

In five-star raids, look for Gengar, Blissey, Glalie, Drifblim, Amoonguss, Eelektross, Palafin, Cetitan, and Dondozo.

In six-star raids, look for Vaporeon, Blissey, Amoonguss, Cetitan, Dondozo, and Farigiraf.

High-level Ditto raids

If you are hosting a Ditto raid, select a weak Pokémon, as Ditto will transform into the host’s Pokémon. Magikarp is a popular choice, but it can reasonably just be anything weak. This will allow you to clear the raid easily — and in the end, you’ll nab a Ditto with a few perfect IVs, which is great for breeding.

Meta Pokémon picks

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo

Realistically, if the type matchup is good and your Pokémon is properly trained, you can use most Pokémon successfully in even high-level Tera Raids. However, some players have taken a liking to specific builds to help them truly obliterate raid targets.

Here are some popular picks that we’ve also tested and used:

Belly Drum Iron Hands raid build

Iron Hands, which is caught in Area Zero as a Pokémon Violet exclusive, is a powerful electric- and fighting-type you’ll see often in online raids. It can solo some six-star raids if built correctly. Set it up with the following:

• Nature: Adamant
• Ability: Quark Drive
• Tera Type: fighting or electric
• EVs: 4 HP/252 Attack/252 Special Defense
  (You can also do put 252 in Defense instead, or you can split EVs among the two defensive stats.)
• IVs: Maxed HP, Attack, Defense, Special Defense, and Speed
• Held item: Punching Glove or Booster Energy
• Moveset: Belly Drum (learned at level 84), Thunder Punch (learned at level 21), Electric Terrain (remembered move), Drain Punch (TM68)

Using this strategy, you use Belly Drum on your first turn, which will cut your HP down to half. You then spam Drain Punch to regain HP. Drain Punch deals a ton of damage (especially with the Punching Glove item) and can restore Iron Hands to full health. If the target Pokémon is weak against electric-type moves, you can use Thunder Punch instead, but you should still use Drain Punch to ensure that Iron Hands doesn’t faint.

If you have lots of other Iron Hands in your raid (an occurrence that will happen often if you play online), then you can use Electric Terrain to boost its stats even further, thanks to Iron Hands’ Quark Drive ability. You only need to do this if you and your fellow Iron Hands don’t have the Booster Energy item.

Do not bring Iron Hands against psychic-, fairy-, or ground-type opponents.

Huge Power Azumarill raid build

This is another fan favorite you’ll see in tons of online raid battles. Set it up with the following to make a scary water- and fairy-type destroyer:

• Nature: Adamant
• Ability: Huge Power
• Tera Type: fairy or water
• EVs: 252 HP/252 Attack/4 Defense
• IVs: Maxed HP, Attack, Defense, Special Defense, and Speed
• Held item: Shell Bell
• Moveset: Belly Drum (mirrored egg move), Play Rough (learned at level 25), Liquidation (TM110), Helping Hand (learned at level 1)

To teach Azumarill Belly Drum, you need have it hold a Mirror Herb item (bought from Delibird Presents) and delete one of its moves, giving it an open move slot. Then, put it in a picnic alongside a Hariyama with Belly Drum. After waiting a minute, the Azumarill will learn Belly Drum.

This strategy is just like the Iron Hands strat: Use Belly Drum and then use Liquidation or Play Rough to obliterate the target Pokémon. Unlike Iron Hands, Azumarill doesn’t have an HP-draining move, so you’ll need to rely on HP-recovering cheers or its Shell Bell hold item to heal it up.

Note that, as of writing this, something about this Azumarill build is buggy. When using Play Rough, it may appear that lots of damage is done, but the target Pokémon will “regain” some of its lost HP. While we’re not quite sure what is going on, the amount of damage is still huge despite this error, so don’t be alarmed if it looks like you OHKO’d the target but then it gains 25% of its HP back. The Pokémon Company has acknowledged this bug and says a fix will come in a future update.

Do not bring Azumarill in against poison-, grass-, or electric-type Pokémon.

Eviolite Chansey raid build

This is a personal favorite of mine to use when you have a party full of Iron Hands and Azumarill already. You can run support with Chansey by setting it up with the following:

• Nature: Bold
• Ability: Healer (Hidden Ability)
• Tera Type: doesn’t matter
• EVs: 252 HP/252 Defense/4 Special Defense
• IVs: Maxed HP, Defense, Special Defense, and Speed
• Held item: Eviolite
• Moveset: Helping Hand (learned at level 32), Life Dew (learned at level 12), Heal Pulse (learned at level 28), Soft Boiled (learned at level 44)

You can also sub out Soft-Boiled for Thunder Wave (TM84) to help restrain the raid Pokémon, but make sure to avoid using this against normal-type targets who may know the move Facade. (Facade does more damage if the user is paralyzed, poisoned, or burned.) If you’re worried about a raid Pokémon using Taunt, you can give your Chansey a simple offensive move like Echoed Voice.

The strategy here is really simple: Just keep your companions alive. Spam Life Dew repeatedly and use Heal Pulse if one specific teammate is getting low on HP. If everyone is healthy, you can use Helping Hand to boost up a strong Pokémon instead.

A Chansey holding an Eviolite, when trained properly, is bulkier than a Blissey, which is why you go with this setup.

This strategy works pretty well against all Pokémon (even fighting-types), but will not work in battles with NPC teammates.