Pokémon Scarlet and Violet | Iron Leaves Tera Raid Event Guide

The next Tera Raid Battle Event for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has just been released, reimagining two iconic Legendary Pokémon into strange new Paradox forms. Iron Leaves is the Future Paradox form of Unovan Legendary Virizion, one of the four Swords of Justice. It’s sporting a new chromed-out look and typing and it is certainly something you want on your team. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the Iron Leaves Tera Raid Battle Event in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. If you want to learn how to catch and counter the other new Paradox form, Walking Wake, you can find our guide on it here.

Want more Pokémon Scarlet and Violet content and articles? You can find more here on KeenGamer:

1. How to Increase Your Shiny Odds in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
2. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Ultimate Sandwich Guide
3. How to Change Your Pokémon’s Tera Type in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
4. The Best Pokémon for Tera Raid Battles in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
5. How to Catch and Evolve Gimmighoul in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Release Date and Run Time

The Walking Wake and Iron Leaves Tear Event begin today (February 27th) in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Walking Wake (Paradox Suicune) can be encountered in Tear Raid crystals in Pokémon Scarlet, whereas Pokémon Violet players will find Iron Leaves (Paradox Virizion). Both the Walking Wake and Iron Leaves Tera Raids are 5-Star in rarity, so they will be level 75 when you encounter them.

If you want to encounter the opposing Tera Pokémon (a Scarlet player wanting Iron Leaves or a Violet player wanting to get Walking Wake) you will need to use the Poké Portal. You can match up with players from other games and battle the wild Tera Pokémon there: upon completing the battle, you’ll be able to catch the opposing Pokémon.

This event will run from February 27th to March 12th so be sure to get them both before they disappear.

Walking Wake and Iron Leaves

Iron Leaves Pokémon Overview

Pulled from a far-off future, Iron Leaves is the Future Paradox form of Virizion, one of Unova’s Swords of Justice. Coated in a thick layer of chrome and with new robotic parts to match, this technologically enhanced Legend is surely one you will want to catch and add to your collection. 

Iron Leaves is ordinarily a Grass/Psychic type, but the one you will encounter in 5-Star Tera Raids will be a pure Psychic Tera Type. It is a hard-hitting Physical Attacker with the ability to buff itself and deal serious damage across multiple different types. Like other Violet Paradox forms, it also has Quark Drive as an ability, raising the Pokémon’s highest base stat (in this case it is Attack) while under the effects of an Electric Terrain. 

Iron Leaves isn’t much of a challenge compared to the 7-Star Raids of Charizard, Greninja, Cinderace and even Pikachu. However, it is still best to go into the encounter with knowledge of what Iron Leaves of capable of to give yourself the best chance at catching it. 

Artificial Sword

Moveset

Iron Leaves has access to the following moves:

• Swords Dance (Normal, Status)
• Leaf Blade (Grass, Physical)
• Megahorn (Bug, Physical)
• Psyblade (Psychic, Physical)

As a Physical Attacker, Iron Leaves will likely try to buff itself at least once with Swords Dance before it comes at you. This can be a big problem as Iron Leaves already has several sources of Attack increases, and this move will just make it even worse. Psyblade is the only STAB move that it has, but the other two attacking moves (Leaf Blade and Megahorn) are mostly there to counter Pokémon effective against Psychic types. 

Iron Leaves Moveset

Just like how Walking Wake has a signature move, so does Iron Leaves. Psyblade is a Physical Psychic move with 80 base power and 100% accuracy. When cast, the user rends the target with an ethereal blade, which increases in strength by 50% if Iron Leaves is in an Electric Terrain. This is an extremely powerful move that, if you don’t have an effective counter, can put an end to your Iron Leaves dreams then and there.

Another thing that needs to be noted is that, just like the 7-Star Raids, Iron Leaves will cast an additional move for free at the start of the battle. As soon as the fight begins and before you or your team can act, Iron Leaves will get off a free Electric Terrain. This can prove to be a real nuisance thanks to Iron Leave’s ability, Quark Drive, which will instantly activate and make the Paradox Pokémon way stronger by immediately boosting its Attack. Paired with that Psyblade that we just mentioned, you’ll be in for a world of hurt while that Terrain is up on the field.

Finally, Iron Leaves will put up a Tera Shield when it goes below 50% HP. This can only be effectively damaged by Terastalized attacks and can bring the battle to a halt if you aren’t prepared to deal with it.

The Battle Begins

Resistances and Weaknesses

As a pure Psychic type, Iron Leaves will be weak and resistant to the following types:

• Resistant to: Fighting and Psychic.
• Weak to: Bug, Dark and Ghost.

Fortunately for us, Psychic has very few resistances, meaning that most of your attacks will be dealing good damage no matter what. Additionally, the three types that it is weak to all house some really strong Pokémon that can help you deal with Iron Leaves effectively (especially Ghost types). 

However, Dark types are at a slight disadvantage. Because Iron Leaves is running Megahorn, it does have a super effective move that can easily KO any squish Dark type in no time flat. You can still run a Dark type, but just know that you’ll want to have some Defence boosts or Defence Cheers ready to survive Iron Leaves’ onslaught. 

Iron Leaves

Best Pokémon for Iron Leaves

When going up against Iron Leaves, there are quite a few things you need to consider when picking a suitable Pokémon. Compared to a 7-Star Raid, you do have a bit more leeway and wiggle room for available options, but you still want to be prepared. 

Out of the three super-effective types, we would recommend leaning more towards a Ghost type for this matchup. Dark is full of strong attackers, but the chance of getting instantly KO’d by a Megahorn is too high of a risk. Meanwhile, Bug is a much safer bet but your pool of strong Bug types is much smaller than similar strength Ghost types. No matter what, though, make sure you’re around level 80 to effectively compete with Iron Leaves.

In addition to that, you’ll want to consider either bringing a Pokémon with moves like Iron Defence or Chilling Water/Clear Smog. If you are rocking the former, you can raise your defences to match the Attack boosts from Iron Leaves’ Swords Dance, allowing you to live for much longer. Alternatively, if you use either of the latter options, you can simply get rid of the Attack boosts and not have to worry as much about raising your Defence. A good option for either of these is the Slowbro build used in both the 7-Star Cinderace and 7-Star Greninja Raids, which you can find more information on here.

For this Raid specifically, we have two recommendations for you to try out: Ceruledge and Gholdengo. 

Recommended Pokémon

The first is Ceruledge, the Violet exclusive evolution of Charcadet. You’ll want to pick Ceruledge because of its offensive potential paired with a good level of self-sustain. It has access to some strong Ghost and Dark-type moves like Shadow Claw and Night Slash and it can even get Clear Smog if you want to play a little support. Alongside those heavy hitters, it also has Bitter Blade, a Fire-type move that heals Ceruledge on use, giving you a potent tool for damage that’ll keep you alive for longer. We’d recommend running Ceruledge in co-op alongside teammates who can buff your Defences (which are admittedly Ceruledge’s weak point). 

Then we have Gholdengo, the fabled 1000th Pokémon. The reason why Gholdengo is so good is that it not only hits hard, but it also happens to resist everything that Iron Leaves has: it resists Megahorn, Leaf Blade and Psyblade, allowing it to take hit after hit without too much trouble. Alongside that stupendous bulk is a range of great attacking Ghost-type moves like Shadow Ball that will be able to bring Iron Leaves down a peg or two very quickly. Gholdengo may be hard to get a hold of, but it is well worth thanks to how effective it is in this Raid. 

Whatever Pokémon you decided to use, go in prepared and with a game plan. Be at the appropriate level and know how to counter Iron Leaves’ myriad of moves and you’ll have this artificial sword caught in no time. 

Victory Achieved!

That was everything you needed to know about how to catch and counter the Future Paradox form of Virizion, Iron Leaves, in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.