Pokemon Violet & Scarlet: Tera Raid Battle Guide

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet allows players to embark on multiplayer raid battles known as tera raids. These battles allow players to acquire powerful new additions to their team! These battles can be incredibly difficult early on, and scale in level depending on the stars of the raid made available. There are several different ratings, ranging from the simple one-star raid to the five-star which can be found naturally in the wild. Once you get closer to the end of the game, six-star and seven-star raids will be available for players to really test their luck. These Tera Battles are a great way to acquire some powerful Pokemon with unique moves, stats, abilities, and terastallizations. 

Besides collecting powerful Pokemon, these tera raid battles are great for collecting items that are hard to find. Some of these items include rare herbs, items, and experience boosters that can further your progress. Occasionally you can find other loot such as Pokemon parts, TMs, and valuables, such as golden nuggets, and stardust. All of these items are great for making powerful teams in multiple ways, getting you where you need to go quickly! Once you’ve beaten the main story, tera raid battles will be the main bread and butter of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

Tera Raid Battle Basics

Tera Raid Battles are the basic new mechanic meant to expand on Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Gigantamax feature. This time, changing a Pokemon’s type and abilities is based on a feature called Terastallization. In these battles, you will have one Pokemon joined by three others from friends, strangers, or NPCs. These battles are timed, and range in difficulty based on the stars shown at the beginning of the start-up. These battles can be played offline, but become much easier, and more enjoyable when played in an online setting with friends or strangers. 

Joining a Tera Raid

When it comes to participating in a Tera Raid battle, there are a few ways you can find yourself getting into one. Three methods of participating are finding a crystal den yourself, joining one via the Poke Portal, or a social circle. The best method of ensuring you will enter a tera raid is to find dens yourself, making you the host of the battle. Playing with friends in the union circle allows you to circumvent codes, and it notifies your union circle of incoming battles. Finally, joining via the Poke Portal allows you to either pick one on the board, input a join code, or pick a random battle to join!

Star Rating

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have dedicated these tera raid battles to a star system that ranges from one to seven. These ratings impact both the difficulty of the battle itself and the level of the Pokemon you are battling. These ratings can grant the player better loot and often mean that the Pokemon will be stronger, or rarer in quality. Generally, these will scale with your completion of the game with seven-star events being available once you’ve completed the game. It’s important to note that the more difficult the raid, the more likely you are to encounter more players that are likely to help you. 

Dragon Terastallization Charizard

Terastallization

The new mechanic added to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, is that of terastallizations. This mechanic is the simple process of a Pokemon changing its type for something else when it gains enough energy. These can be used in normal trainer battles as well as in tera raid battles, and serve as a great way of mixing up a battle. One of the many ways terastallizations help the player is by potentially boosting a Pokemon’s base type stats, or changing them altogether to make them more versatile against strong opponents. You can, in effect, change the type of your Pokemon so it is no longer weaker than its natural enemies. 

It’s important to note that these terastallizations can be seen at the top right corner of any Tera Raid Battle when you join them. Any Pokemon can have any type of terastallization, allowing for an infinite number of potential combinations. This mechanic can easily change the course of a battle by introducing a firm switch-up from the usual nature of a Pokemon in battle! Keep in mind that moves are boosted if they are the same type as the terastallization, allowing for more damage. Make sure when you are using these mechanics to include moves in your arsenal capable of adding terrains. These terrains are another new mechanic to the game that can further the damage boost of a Pokemon! 

Dragon type Charizard Tera Raid Loot

Terrains

Acting like weather conditions, the new terrain moves allow players to add a bonus to any type of terrain that they can get that terrain from. This works especially well when paired with a terastallization of the same type as a mono-type Pokemon holding an item. The result is that you can deal some ridiculously stacked damage of that terrain type for as long as it is in effect. The important thing to note about these terrains is that similar to screens and boosts they can be broken via special terrain-breaker moves. For this reason, it’s important to keep terrains around as long as possible for increased damage!

Battle Timers

One of the more difficult aspects of tera raid battles is undoubtedly the timers that come along with them. Ordinarily, so long as no one’s Pokemon faints, these timers are pretty generous and last three minutes. However, whenever one of your ally’s Pokemon, or your own goes down, you will have a five-second penalty that goes up over time. This means if all four are knocked out at once, twenty seconds can be removed in one swing. Added to status effects like sleep, confusion, or paralysis and it leads to some anxiety-ridden scenarios. The best way to handle the timer is to maximize your type advantage against the terastallization, and hit them as hard as possible!

Combat 

A distinct difference between tera raid battles and regular combat in Pokemon games will be that there is a significant boost in the terastallized Pokemon’s health. Additionally, they will gain access to a damage-reducing shield once they reach around fifty percent of their health points. These can be a terrible means of slowing down a fight, and when mixed with status effects and Pokemon fainting, it can really bog down the experience. Another difference is that some moves will have type-effects such as healing, or increasing a stat which would not ordinarily occur. These effects can be activated by terastallizing, but some, like the barrier, are not available to players. 

Broken shield

A good way to circumvent a lot of these shenanigans on the part of wild Pokemon is to keep yours stocked with appropriate berries and stat-boosting moves. Using a Pokemon that’s super effective against the Terastallization of the raid will be better overall. Finally, always bring your strongest Pokemon with you. Level 100s are the best way of making sure that you don’t fall behind in terms of damage. Stat-boosting moves like Torch Song, Metal Claw, and Discharge are great for upping your damage potential as well! Finally don’t forget to terastallize your own Pokemon as every shred of bonus makes a difference!

Victory/ Rewards

Once you’ve finally defeated the raid Pokemon, you’ll have the opportunity to either capture it or let it go. No matter what kind of Pokeball you use, you will be able to capture it, so don’t waste a master ball on tera raids! Afterward, you will be treated to a variety of rewards that can range in value and usefulness. One of the most common items you’ll receive is experience boosts which can be used like rare candies to increase the level of your team! It’s important to note that these are a great way to get rare herbs, as well as TMs of powerful moves.

One-Star Raids

When dealing with one-star loot drops, you’re going to come across a lot of berries, experience candies, and feathers. Additionally, you may come across some tiny mushrooms, stardust, or even a pearl which can help you get some money! Something to keep in mind when obtaining level one loot is that you are going to want to use it to level your Pokemon up for the coming gym battles ahead as these only spawn early in!

Crystal Den

Loot Table

Two-Star Raids

There are a lot of similarities between one-star raids and two-star raids, as they come early in the game after a few gym badges. They are great for making sure that your Pokemon stays powerful by giving lots of features, experience boosts, and plenty of berries. Offering the first look at Medium sized experience boost, these raids can allow you to catch up with new Pokemon quickly, especially early on!

Loot Table

Crystal Dens for Events

Three-Star Raids

Three-star raids are the lowest-level tera raid battles that can be performed once you’ve beaten the game. This is a great way to increase your berry storage as well as gain more stat-boosting items. As always, these raids include a fair amount of loot to further your Pokemon along. However, starting at third-level raids you’ll have access to more berry types. These berries can be great for not only battling but for crafting sandwiches and are used to increase Pokemon stats!

Loot Table

Four-Star Raids

Four-Star raids will see your rewards including such things as large experience candies, and golden nuggets. These are great finds that can help improve your wealth and Pokemon levels quickly on your way to victory. These are one of the more common raid types to encounter, and have fairly decent reward incentives for completing them! The usual inclusion of berries, feathers, and other sellable objects makes each four-star raid its own little goodie bag of adventure.

Tera Raid Pokemon Capturing

Loot Table

Five-Star Raids

Five-Star raids offer some of the best loot available for most players once they’ve completed the game. Including powerful mint items for stat boosting, as well as items like bottlecaps and ability capsules. These bonus items help make five-star raids far more rewarding, especially because they can be rather difficult without friends. These are perfect for collecting amazing stat Pokemon, and can make great additions to your team! Remember that these ability items, including ability capsules, can get quite pricy if you try to acquire them through alternative methods. 

Loot Table

-source Verlisify

Six-Star Raids

When dealing with six-star raids are by far the best possible raids to do if you want to build a competitive team. Including the most rewards besides event raids, these have rare candy, and ability patch items in their drop chances. Both of these items, along with EXP candies, and the many treasures within can make a Pokemon powerful in no time. Make sure to bring your strongest Pokemon to these raids as these are also by far the toughest save for events. 

Loot Table

Seven-Star Raids (Events)

Event raids usually have their own set of rewards that are specific to the raid itself. There’s no particular loot table that can be made as sometimes they include eggs, TMs, and rare items, while others give lots of experience and candies. These are the top-tier raids for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, so make sure to participate in as many as you possibly can! Whether it’s with your friends or complete strangers, these raids will yield you a lot of rewards if you’re able to play them with others.

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