Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Samurott 7-star Tera Raid guide

Samurott, the water-type Pokémon from Unova, is making its Pokémon Scarlet and Violet debut in seven-star Tera Raids. It has a bug Tera Type, but its attack types only allow for a few stable counters.

Samurott with the bug Tera Type and Mightiest Mark is only in raids from March 30 at 8 p.m. EDT until April 2 at 7:59 p.m EDT and April 6 at 8 p.m. EDT until April 9 at 7:59 p.m. EDT.

Samurott Tera Raid rewards

Upon defeating Samurott, you’ll be able to catch one, but only one. After you capture your first one, you will not be able to catch any more, even if you defeat it again in another raid. You’ll also get TM88 (Swords Dance) and a guaranteed Ability Patch for your first victory.

The caught Samurott has its Hidden Ability, Shell Armor, making it so that no attacks against it are ever critical hits. It also comes with the Mightiest Mark, just like the Pokémon from earlier seven-star raids. It also has complete perfect IVs.

Similarly to other Tera Raids, you can get other drops, like Exp. Candy, Tera Shards, Bottle Caps, and treasure items to sell for money. Serebii.net has a complete drop table. Samurott raids do not drop Herba Mystica.

Samurott Tera Raid best counters

Samurott is at level 100 with a bug Tera Type. It knows Aqua Cutter, Megahorn, Night Slash, and Drill Run, as well as Focus Energy, Swords Dance, and Bulldoze. These moves make it a physical attacker primarily. It will start the battle with Focus Energy, raising its critical hit ratio.

Remember that your Pokémon should be level 100 when bringing them into seven-star raids. You may be able to get away with not perfectly EV or IV training them, but it’s recommended that you do for easier knockouts.

There are several builds that allow you to take down Samurott easily, but below we list the ones we either personally partied up with or used to take down the raid.

Samurott Annihilape solo Tera Raid build

• Nature: Adamant
• Ability: Vital Spirit (but it doesn’t really matter)
• Tera Type: Ghost (but it doesn’t really matter)
• EVs: 252 HP/252 Attack/4 Defense
• IVs: Maxed HP, Attack, Defense
• Held item: Shell Bell
• Moveset: Screech, Rage Fist

We used an Annihilape we picked up on the side of road, boosting its IVs, but not bothering EV training it. Despite this, we were able to solo Samurott with three NPCs. Here’s what we did:

1. Use Screech twice to lower Samurott’s attack, before it puts up its Tera shield. Screech has no effect on Samurott while its shield is up.
2. Spam Rage Fist until it dies.
3. If Samurott clears its debuffs and its shield is down, use Screech twice again.

Rage Fist does more damage the more times your Annihilape has been hit, making it super strong. You can also Terastallize if you have a ghost Tera Type to help deal more damage, but it may make you more susceptible to Samurott’s Night Slash. (Ours was fighting Tera Type, so we didn’t bother, but we still cleared the raid.)

Your Annihilape may die once or twice during this, alongside the NPC Pokémon, but don’t fret too much. Annihilape will keep the Rage Fist stacks even after it faints and comes back, so it’ll remain very strong.

It’s entirely possible that we got lucky with our NPCs (who were using Sylveon, Drifblim, and Haxorus), so you might get unlucky and roll some less useful Pokémon. As of writing this, we are unable to test this in more than one solo run, since we can only get one seven-star Tera Raid to appear per day.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo via Polygon

Note that using this strategy can be viable in multiplayer online raids, but it’s significantly harder — it really relies on your teammates bringing in Pokémon that won’t activate Samurott’s shield after one turn. You need it to be shield-less for two turns so you can use Screech against it.

Samurott Koraidon attacker Tera Raid build

• Nature: Adamant
• Ability: Orichalcum Pulse
• Tera Type: Fighting
• EVs: 252 HP/252 Attack/4 Defense
• IVs: Maxed HP, Attack, Defense
• Held item: Life Orb
• Moveset: Swords Dance, Flame Charge, Flare Blitz, Drain Punch
• Other moves: Screech, Fire Fang

This is the Reddit build, but we are hesitant to even recommend this build because there are so many people bringing in Koraidon and using the wrong moves. Using Flare Blitz recklessly will just end up killing your Koraidon via recoil damage, wasting precious time in the raid.

We recommend running this in multiplayer only if your teammates are bringing in lots of Screech-using Pokémon. This can be Annihilape (above), Corviknight (below), or other Screech users.

The Reddit strategy involves all three supports using Screech on turn one, while Koraidon uses Swords Dance. On turn two, the supports all use attack cheers and Koraidon uses Flare Blitz to one-hit KO Samurott. If you don’t OHKO it, spam Flame Charge in the following turns, while keeping your health up with Drain Punch.

It’s extremely important that you allow the Screech-using Pokémon to set up without doing damage. If damaged too much, Samurott will put up its shield and as stated above, Screech has no effect on Samurott if its Tera shield is up.

We did see players bring in Koraidon with Fire Fang and Screech instead, allowing them to debuff Samurott on their own before unleashing strong attacks that won’t simultaneously kill their Koraidon.

Samurott Corviknight support Tera Raid build

• Nature: Relaxed
• Ability: Mirror Armor (but it doesn’t really matter)
• Tera Type: Flying (but it doesn’t really matter)
• EVs: 252 HP/252 Defense/4 Attack
• IVs: Maxed HP, Attack, Defense
• Held item: Zoom Lens
• Moveset: Screech, Taunt, Drill Peck, Roost

This is, again, via the Reddit strategy listed above, but it serves as a good support all around. (See the above section for the official strategy to use alongside Koraidon.) Use Screech until Samurott’s attack can’t be lowered any further, and then just spam Drill Peck, throwing in a Roost whenever your HP gets low. You can also use cheers to help buff your party as necessary.

Corviknight is our support recommendation, just because it’s immune to Samurott’s ground-type moves and it can assist with bits of damage between debuffs.