Learn the best tips for Tera Raid Battles in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet including how to prepare your Pokémon, and how to obtain legendary rewards

Tera Raid Battles are all the rage in Paldea. There’s no better way to catch rare Pokémon, collect Tera Shards, and quickly earn money or LP. Completing Tera Raid Battles is also the only way to obtain Ability Patches and special ingredients for Meal Powers that’ll take your picnics to the next level. Whether you’re a Shiny Pokémon collector in need of Herba Mystica to create a sandwich with Sparkling Power or a competitive battler looking for an Ability Patch or Bottle Cap to strengthen your team, there are plenty of reasons to host and join Tera Raid Battles on a regular basis. It’s also a great way to spend time with your friends as you attempt to defeat powerful Tera Pokémon. Learn more about how to unlock Tera Raid Battles, prepare your Pokémon for battle, and more!

Unlocking Tera Raid Battles

Tera Raid Battles become available as soon as you leave Mesagoza and embark on your Treasure Hunt across Paldea. To enter Tera Raid Battles, look for Tera Raid crystals—glimmering formations that shine beams of light into the air. If you follow one of those beams of light, you’ll eventually find a Tera Raid crystal at its source. Generally, you won’t know what Pokémon will appear at a Tera Raid crystal until you’ve arrived to check its silhouette in-person, so keep your surroundings in mind while searching for specific Pokémon!

Another way to participate in Tera Raid Battles is by selecting Tera Raid Battle from the Poké Portal menu. From there, what you can do depends on whether you’re playing offline, online, or in a Union Circle group. If you’re offline and not in a group, you can join raids via Link Codes. If you’re playing solo online, you’ll see a selection of raids looking for more players, and you can join one of these, opt for a random raid, or join specific raids via Link Codes as you would in offline mode. In a Union Circle group, the only raids you’ll see here are ones posted by others in your group, and you can join these raids regardless of where you and others in your group are in the game world.

Early on, you’ll be able to dip your toes into the world of raids with 1-star Tera Raid Battles, but higher tiers will become available as you earn more Gym Badges—from 2-star Tera Raid Battles to 3-star Tera Raid Battles and so on. Once you’ve completed the main story associated with the three paths, you’ll unlock 5-star Tera Raid Battles that require powerful Pokémon and a higher level of teamwork.

After completing the postgame events that follow the main story and clearing some high-level Tera Raid Battles from your map, you’ll be able to take on 6-star Tera Raid Battles at black Tera Raid crystals. These Tera Raid Battles are especially difficult, featuring high-level Pokémon with near-perfect stats and a hugely increased HP pool.

Every day at midnight local time, a new set of raids—including a new 6-star raid—will appear on your map. Completing the postgame events will also be necessary to unlock 7-star Tera Raid Battles on your map. These Tera Raid Battles are available only during special events. Note that you can join any Tera Raid Battle regardless of game progress if you are provided with a Link Code—but make sure your Pokémon is strong enough to hold its own before you join any raid.

Training Your Pokémon

Every time a player’s Pokémon faints in a Tera Raid Battle, the remaining time to defeat the raid boss declines significantly, so it’s important to train Pokémon that can both withstand a raid boss’s onslaught and deal enough damage to take it down. The most effective way to do this is to train Pokémon to the highest level—Lv. 100—and distribute their base points effectively by strategically battling wild Pokémon or using items such as HP Up, Protein, and Carbos.

Getting your team to Lv. 100 may seem like a challenge, but battling Pokémon that award lots of Exp. Points (such as Chansey) and using Exp. Candy from Tera Raid Battles will help your Pokémon level up faster. When it comes to base points, giving your Pokémon items like the Power Weight—which can be purchased at all Delibird Presents locations—will likewise speed up the training process. Selling treasures earned from Tera Raid Battles, including Rare Bones and Nuggets, will make it easier to purchase stat-training items as well.

You’ll also want to consider the Pokémon’s most effective Nature in battle. For example, a strong physical attacker, like Azumarill, will benefit most from an Adamant Nature, while a skilled special attacker, like Sylveon, would get more mileage out of a Modest Nature. Supportive Pokémon, such as Umbreon or Blissey, should consider Natures that accentuate their defensive strengths, including Calm and Careful Natures. You can catch or breed Pokémon to get these specific Natures, or you can use mint items to help Pokémon you already have reach their maximum potential. Mints can be purchased from all Chansey Supply locations once you’ve progressed far enough in the game, earned from Tera Raid Battles, or found while roaming the open world of Paldea.

Approaching Type Matchups

It may seem appealing to choose a Grass-type Pokémon to counter a Talonflame that has the Water Tera Type, but it’s important to remember the types of moves a Pokémon like Talonflame might have. Grass-type moves will hit this Talonflame for supereffective damage, but most of Talonflame’s available moves are Fire or Flying type, which would deal supereffective damage right back to a Grass-type Pokémon. In this case, an Electric-type Pokémon, like Miraidon, is particularly strong—it can deal supereffective damage and resist Flying-type moves, like Brave Bird. Staying in the battle is just as important as doing damage, so picking a Pokémon with effective defensive typing goes a long way in coming out victorious.

Abilities

Knowing how to leverage your partner’s Ability in a Tera Raid Battle can help you overcome even the toughest opponent. For example, an Azumarill whose Ability is Huge Power will have its Attack stat automatically doubled, allowing physical moves like Play Rough and Liquidation to hit twice as hard.

Abilities can also provide crucial support by boosting your Pokémon’s defensive stats or covering for their weaknesses. Flash Fire, Sap Sipper, and Storm Drain are situationally useful but highly impactful, as they boost the Pokémon’s offensive power while negating damage from Fire-, Grass-, or Water-type attacks, respectively. If you want to challenge the high-level opponents that appear at black Tera Raid crystals, choosing a Pokémon whose Ability is suited to the battle at hand is key.

While a Pokémon’s Ability is important, it isn’t set in stone. Ability Capsules and Ability Patches allow a Pokémon you’ve already trained to switch its current Ability to another Ability its species can have. So, if you caught an Azumarill with great offensive stats but its Ability is Thick Fat, you could still maximize its damage output by using an Ability Capsule to change its Ability to Huge Power. Or, if your Azumarill is struggling to withstand a powerful Tera Pokémon’s Grass-type attacks, you could use an Ability Patch to switch its current Ability to a rare one—in this case, the abovementioned Sap Sipper. Ability Capsules can be purchased at Delibird Presents and Ability Patches can be earned by completing 5- or 6-star Tera Raid Battles.

Held Items

Choosing the right item for your Pokémon to hold is another way to prepare for the ups and downs of a difficult Tera Raid Battle. Punching Gloves, Muscle Bands, and other attack-oriented items are a great fit for hard-hitting Pokémon such as Iron Hands, while Umbreon and other supportive Pokémon will benefit more from defensive items such as Light Clay or Sitrus Berries. Held items can be found throughout your adventures or bought at a Delibird Presents, each of which offers a different selection of items for sale. When in doubt, consider the role you want your Pokémon to play in battle and which held items are most likely to help achieve that goal.

Battling and Cheering

Every battle requires its own strategy. There will be times when it’s best to bring a damage-dealing Pokémon, like Azumarill, and times when it’s best to support the rest of your squad with a defensive Pokémon, like Blissey. If most of your teammates are choosing Pokémon like Perrserker or Umbreon with supportive moves like Screech, it’s probably best to pick a Pokémon like Azumarill that can take advantage of your teammates’ stat-decreasing moves. If your teammates already have the damage covered with strong Pokémon equipped to deal supereffective attacks, bringing Pokémon with defensive moves like Light Screen and Reflect in addition to stat-decreasing moves like Metal Sound and Screech will have a greater positive impact than picking another strong offensive Pokémon.

Cheering is also a key element of Tera Raid Battles. Cheering doesn’t charge up your Tera Orb—which requires you to land three attacks before it can be activated—but it can help your teammates deal damage by boosting their offensive power or keep them on the field with clutch healing. Keeping everyone in the battle indirectly speeds up Terastallizing and ensures that the time needed to complete the Tera Raid Battle doesn’t deplete too quickly. It can be tempting to try to be the star of every Tera Raid Battle, but cheering is just as valuable in almost every situation.

Terastallizing

After a reaching a certain threshold, Tera Pokémon encountered in 3- to 7-star Tera Raid Battles will activate a Tera Shield that reduces all damage received and negates the effects of status moves. This shield can be broken with enough regular attack damage, but your Pokémon’s moves will be much more effective if it’s Terastallized. Once you’ve landed three attacks and activated your Tera Orb, remember to select moves that match your Pokémon’s Tera Type—there’s no better way to damage a Tera Shield!

Recommended Pokémon for Tera Raid Battles

Azumarill, Garchomp, Iron Hands, Koraidon, and Miraidon are some of the strongest attackers you can bring into any Tera Raid Battle. Umbreon, Blissey, and Toxapex are similarly flexible when used as support Pokémon. Each of these Pokémon has access to moves like Belly Drum, Light Screen, Metal Sound, Reflect, Screech, and Swords Dance, which are perfect to select at the start of battle. Read below for some powerful move sets to get the most out of these Pokémon.

• Ability: Huge Power
• Held Item: Shell Bell
• Moves: Belly Drum (Normal), Liquidation (Water), Play Rough (Fairy), Superpower (Fighting)

• Ability: Synchronize
• Held Item: Light Clay
• Moves: Helping Hand (Normal), Light Screen (Psychic), Snarl (Dark), Taunt (Dark)

• Ability: Healer
• Held Item: Light Clay
• Moves: Helping Hand (Normal), Life Dew (Water), Light Screen (Psychic), Tail Whip (Normal)

• Ability: Sand Veil
• Held Item: Sitrus Berry
• Moves: Earthquake (Ground), Outrage (Dragon), Rock Slide (Rock), Swords Dance (Normal)

• Ability: Merciless
• Held Item: Poison Barb
• Moves: Acid Spray (Poison), Chilling Water (Water), Recover (Normal), Sludge Bomb (Poison)

• Ability: Quark Drive
• Held Item: Punching Glove
• Moves: Belly Drum (Normal), Electric Terrain (Electric), Drain Punch (Fighting), Thunder Punch (Electric)

• Ability: Orichalcum Pulse
• Held Item: Black Belt
• Moves: Collision Course (Fighting), Drain Punch (Fighting), Screech (Normal), Swords Dance (Normal)

• Ability: Hadron Engine
• Held Item: Magnet
• Moves: Calm Mind (Psychic), Electro Drift (Electric), Metal Sound (Steel), Parabolic Charge (Electric)

Catching Pokémon from Tera Raid Battles

Once your team has shattered a Tera Pokémon’s Tera Jewel, the hard work is over—all that’s left is to reap your rewards. Wild Pokémon defeated in Tera Raid Battles are guaranteed to be caught, no matter which kind of Poké Ball you select. Whether you’re a Premier Ball enjoyer or a Luxury Ball enthusiast, choose your favorite Poké Ball and let it fly—you’ll have a powerful new Pokémon by your side and plenty of useful items to go alongside it. Happy raiding, Trainers!