Pokémon Day 7* Tera Raids (Paldea Starters and Pseudos)

[Albus]

Cloyster @ Shell Bell
Ability: Shell Armor
Level: 100
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 8 Def / 248 SpA
Relaxed/Modest Nature
IVs: 9 Spe
- Iron Defense
- Chilling Water
- Surf
- Shell Smash

The clam is an underrated-yet-decent option for this raid. I built this Cloyster set and I've had good success with solo raids so far. Thanks to Shell Armor and its high Defense, it can set up on Chomp without the risk of losing against crits and has decent synergy with some of the AI partners which help it set up with ease, mainly Intimidate users, Arboliva's Grassy Terrain and Gardevoir's Life Dew. Even some of the least useful partners are also great if they pick the right moves - more specifically Sylveon's Charm, Drifblim's WoW and Haxorus/Bellibolt/Dudunsparce's Speed reducing options. It also works with online raids, but people and their questionable choices have been worse than AI partners overall lol.

The moveset is self explatanatory and the raid pretty much boils down to get enough Defense boosts/Attack drops, Shell Smash at the right moments, Terastallize and attack until it dies. The EVs are fairly straightfoward, but are the result of a couple of iterations I went with. My first iteration was max HP/Defense, but when I saw how overkill that bulk was, I moved most of the EVs to SpA. The spread makes a neutral EQ pretty much a guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery. I used a Relaxed nature out of laziness and because this -Spe nature and low Speed IV were irrelevant here since they were still enough to outspeed Chomp at +2.

• Lv. 100 0 Atk Tera-Ground Garchomp Earthquake vs. Lv. 100 252 HP / 8+ Def Cloyster: 98-116 (32.2 - 38.1%) -- 0.78% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

After I noted that the Leftovers recovery - as incredibly useful as it is - often made me lose to the timer, I changed it for a Shell Bell which solved my timer/recovery issues and I left the +Def nature as-is. A Modest also works and the increase in power is great for the timer, but the loss in bulk is more noticeable and makes it more reliant on getting the right AI partners to set up without issues.

The only shortcomings I've seen with this Cloyster set have been that EQs long animation can be annoying and wastes time compared with other Mons where it doesn't spam the move, specially when it attacks twice in a row. Its setup is also somewhat reliant on good AI partners. With bad AI partners the damage will add up quicker and Cloyster will be constantly under 35% before Chomp sets the first Swords Dance where it will KO more often than not after a Chilling Water leaves it at +1. This might either force a reset or a Heal Cheer which is inconsistent and wastes precious time.

 

[theAstrogoth]

This Smeargle intrigued me, so I built my own set for it, which I'm assuming the EVs are what that player used:

Smeargle @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Technician
Tera Type: Flying
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Def / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Reflect Type
- Burning Bulwark
- Lunar Blessing / Jungle Healing / Life Dew
- Chilling Water

Love Smeargle with Burning Bulwark—one of my favorite raid supports!

Wide Guard is potentially a useful option for support for this event depending on what everyone else brings. With double STAB, Garchomp should use it almost all of the time against anything that isn't resistant or immune to it. If you time Wide Guard right (using it as the 1st, 5th, 9th, etc move across your raid team will let it protect all of your allies as well), you completely shut down Earthquake and Garchomp will continuously waste its moves.

The downside is that the timing can be tricky, especially if you lose count of the moves used by your team so far. And if a lot of your team is resistant/immune to ground moves or if Grassy Terrain is up, Garchomp won't choose Earthquake and Wide Guard becomes useless.

That said, you can probably cheese the raid pretty easily if you have a friend. I haven't tried it, but maybe an attacker weak to ground (Contrary Empoleon?) supported by something like Wide Guard Bastiodon would work pretty well.

 

[Vengeance417]

I can confirm the Smeargle set is goated. If you're running the raid (today's the last day) and you pair with a Flying-type player, use it. It's so good.

 

[doipy hooves]

https://bsky.app/profile/serebii.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lrolms5vik2r

After going through each generation in order, suddenly game freak managed to avert another pattern by putting Baxcalibur up ahead of time this week. I don't think anyone could have predicted this.

Watch out for random fire types/Arcanine NPCs proccing Thermal Exchange, I guess.

 

[R_N]

Guessing for a turn 1 snowscape to really beef up its defenses too.

How does Glaive Rush interact with this? I know sometimes bosses can get around the "off turn" type effects just due to being 4 battles at once, not to mention the second phase.

 

[Pikachu315111]

After going through each generation in order, suddenly game freak managed to avert another pattern by putting Baxcalibur up ahead of time this week. I don't think anyone could have predicted this.

Maybe they've re-organized them so that Goodra would be released close to Z-A's release?

EDIT: Okay, so I did some calculating. Legends Z-A releases on October 16th. If we continue to follow the schedule pattern so far, between now and then there would be 6-7 more 7* Tera Raids:

July 4th-13th
July 18th-August 3rd
August 8th-17th
August 22nd-31st
September 5th-14th
September 19th-28th
October 3rd-12th
October 17th-26th

But problem is we only have 5 Psuedos left: Hydreigon, Goodra, Kommo-o, Dragupult, & Hisuian Goodra.

Of course, we've just had Porygon2 take up the June 6th 5th-15th slot, so perfectly possible they can fill in the remaining 2-3 slots with another Pokemon. For example, one lands on July 4th, there may be a possibility that they could have like a Braviary 7* (or release Hydreigon being it's Unova's Psuedo).

 

[Esserise]

But problem is we only have 5 Psuedos left: Hydreigon, Goodra, Kommo-o, Dragupult, & Hisuian Goodra.

I remember Hisuian Goodra not being part of the original announcement; was it mentioned later?

 

[Pikachu315111]

I remember Hisuian Goodra not being part of the original announcement; was it mentioned later?

It wasn't, though I wouldn't be surprised if they threw it in as a surprise (especially if they're trying to keep normal Goodra for around the release of Z-A).

 

[R_N]

I mean never say never I guess but I don't know why they'd keep it as a surprise rather than just include it in the line up.

 

[AztecCroc]

Could always do some more Hisuian Pokémon or like Wyrdeer or regular Ursaluna.

 

[RocketSurgery]

There are also still 5* iron valiant and roaring moon paradox raids to do, and presumably something like Gimmighoul rerun (or straight up Gholdengo?) for the world championships.

It would be nice, though I'm not going to hold my breath, if they also did paradox beasts and koraidon/miraidon raids to wrap up novel raid bosses before PZA releases.

 

[Worldie]

koraidon/miraidon raids to wrap up novel raid bosses before PZA releases.

I wouldn't expect a miraidon/koraidon raid specifically. We never had a Zamazenta/Zacian raid, the only thing we got was a distribution that you had to physically go to.

Something like that though? Sure, I can see them doing a distribution of "other version's shiny" or just "other version's legendary" later after VGC Worlds is over.

 

[Vengeance417]

If Baxcalibur ends up running Ice Body over Thermal Exchange, my goat could be good again, but the signature ability is likely being used. so RIP (unless Skill Swap is heavily used).

Orthworm @ Shell Bell
Ability: Earth Eater
Shiny: Yes
Tera Type: Fighting / Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA or 252 / 252 Atk / 4 Def
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Mud-Slap
- Iron Defense / Coil
- Body Press / Iron Tail
- Rest / Bulldoze

Orthworm's once again a likely-good pick after the last few 7* raids, resisting both STABs and immune to Earthquake. The Body Press set offers more immediate progress, but removes both STAB resistances upon Tera Fighting. Tera Steel Coil + Iron Tail is safer, but way slower.

Bronzong @ Shell Bell
Ability: Levitate
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Reflect
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Trick Room / Bulldoze

Similar characteristics to Orthworm, but offers Reflect + Trick Room (the latter of which is nice in case of Dragon Dance).

Archaludon @ Shell Bell
Ability: Stamina
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Breaking Swipe
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Reflect

EQ-weak, but Stamina / Breaking Swipe / Reflect / Iron Defense patches that up, followed by Tera Fighting removing the EQ-weakness.

 

[Terimas]

Icicle Crash, Glaive Rush and Earthquake already cover mostly everything Baxcalibur wants to hit so its fourth moveslot is very flexible.

In terms coverage there are options like Brick Break, Aqua Tail or Zen Headbutt which aren't very impressive, though Brick Break denies screens and hits Orthworm super effectively.

Snowscape could be an interesting option to constantly have that boosted Defense and also denying opposing weather like Sun. It would also combo very nicely into a scripted Blizzard. I could also see Icy Wind, Breaking Swipe, Focus Energy Dragon Dance or Swords Dance among the scripted moves.

 

[DougJustDoug]

Tera Steel Coil + Iron Head is safer, but way slower

If running Tera Steel Coil Orthworm, wouldn’t Iron Tail be much preferred over Iron Head? Much higher BP, a big chance to lower Def, and if Glaive Rush is in play, depending on the off-turn sequence, the accuracy boost from Coil may not be required to still get a guaranteed hit (after a player stat wipe for example).

 

[Vengeance417]

If running Tera Steel Coil Orthworm, wouldn’t Iron Tail be much preferred over Iron Head? Much higher BP, a big chance to lower Def, and if Glaive Rush is in play, depending on the off-turn sequence, the accuracy boost from Coil may not be required to still get a guaranteed hit (after a player stat wipe for example).

Correct, I just forget Iron Tail exists lmao

 

[Vengeance417]

Holy shit, this is a CHONKER

 

[doipy hooves]

A record 55x HP multiplier (for 20405 raw HP before shield reduction) and several resets makes for quite a behemoth of a raid boss, even with Glaive Rush to theoretically cut that down. I couldn't really tell if it went for it or not, mostly because I was Azumarill, but still. I imagine it would have to go for it on a NPC to count in solo at least, and that might be a hard sell before the random double attack phase.

After seeing how little damage my tera Liquidation did on a test run, and then seeing the full script and imagining having to re-set up past the several resets, instead of timing all that, I decided to just go with the old reliable strategy of brute force with a big super-effective Rollout solo.

The set is the typical tera Rock, Shell Bell, Huge Power max HP/Attack Defense Curl/Rollout/Belly Drum/Mud-Slap Azumarill. Baxcalibur is pretty vulnerable to debuffs after 50% time, and Mud-Slap is my debuff of choice to save time and HP though Chilling Water could work just as well.

AI notes: Staraptor helped to cancel out the initial Swords Dance and keep it busy without running Chilling Water myself. Tauros works too but not Arcanine. Garganacl seemed to use Rock Slide more than the potential Rock Tomb for speed control, but it did get to -1 speed by the end. Gardevoir is generous as always with Life Dews.

My opening was a Belly Drum, aiming to faint within the first 3 turns to set an offense cheer and also preserve the AI defense cheer. +1 Icicle Crash serves well enough to put you in death range in the next turn but sometimes it can flinch, I imagine it will kill within 3 turns even after a defense cheer though.

+1 0+ Atk Tera Ice Baxcalibur Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill: 167-197 (41.3 - 48.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

After having both cheers permanent, I burned the remaining time before the 50% debuff reset by setting up Defense Curls to +6 and also Belly Drum to save time later. As usual, Defense Curl is vital for doubling Rollout's power off the bat, but also helps out since Baxcalibur's debuff reset will also remove the Intimidated stat drops later, and there's nothing really better to do since Mud-Slap

Then I got 3 Mud-Slaps in (I think I got flinched once between them) and decided to send my tera Rollout from there and watch the boss go down.

Though it missed immediately on the first turn, so I had to send it again.

The shield went down in 3 Rollouts, though this procced the buff reset on 60% HP.

Still even without Belly Drum or Huge Power active, Rollout 4 hurt quite a bit and there was still a 5th Rollout to spare.

Though this did proc the 40% HP buff reset, so once again I didn't have Huge Power active for a turn. And also Baxcalibur got a Swords Dance off.

Icicle Crash kind of hurt and could have flinched, but then I landed Rollout 5 and it didn't actually finish it off, but I healed to full anyway.

So in the end, I had to add another input to finish it off with a simple first hit of Rollout and hope it worked out, though it at least gave me an opportunity for some nice finishing shots of the status screens.

It hit me with Earthquake, doing about half again but forgoing a flinch chance.

Finally, the light Rollout finished the job.

Calcs:
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Tera Rock Azumarill Atk Cheer Rollout (60 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Ice Baxcalibur: 1530-1802 (7.4 - 8.8% of 55x hp boss) -- possibly the worst move ever
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Tera Rock Azumarill Atk Cheer Rollout (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Ice Baxcalibur: 3060-3600 (14.9 - 17.6% of 55x hp boss) -- possible 6HKO
+6 252+ Atk Huge Power Tera Rock Azumarill Atk Cheer Rollout (240 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Ice Baxcalibur: 6116-7196 (29.9 - 35.2% of 55x hp boss) -- 23.6% chance to 3HKO
252+ Atk Tera Rock Azumarill Atk Cheer Rollout (480 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Ice Baxcalibur: 1530-1802 (7.4 - 8.8% of 55x hp boss) -- possibly the worst move ever
252+ Atk Tera Rock Azumarill Atk Cheer Rollout (960 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Tera Ice Baxcalibur: 3060-3600 (14.9 - 17.6% of 55x hp boss) -- possible 6HKO

Judging from these calcs, I might have gotten some Glaive Rush procs on the buffless Rollout turns, maybe? I feel like they did about double that of what was expected on those turns. Either that or Huge Power came back mid-turn.

Either way I'm perfectly fine with taking a quick and satisfying win regardless of knowing how it happened, and a boss that could take a full barrage of super effective tera permacheered Rollouts is respectable enough to acknowledge, even if it was more due to having 2 late resets.

Rollout is fun in that way in that you can just rely on the power of numbers doubling enough and staying there even if your other visible stat stages get reset, and I'm happy to see it carry me through this without too much trouble.

EDIT:
I also had a nice attempt with the perfect 2 Intimidators originally, but ran out of time right before Rollout 5 would've gone through.

 

[Slowpokeking]

 

[Vengeance417]

Also won with Considering there's 3 player stat resets, Stamina is a good way to quickly get back to +6 Defense. Used Focus Energy for some crits, too.

 

[DougJustDoug]

Archaludon @ Shell Bell
Ability: Stamina
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Breaking Swipe
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Reflect

EQ-weak, but Stamina / Breaking Swipe / Reflect / Iron Defense patches that up, followed by Tera Fighting removing the EQ-weakness.

Also won with Considering there's 3 player stat resets, Stamina is a good way to quickly get back to +6 Defense. Used Focus Energy for some crits, too.

Upvote on Archaludon for an easy solo clear. Max Defense Tera Fighting Body Press is the way to go. I also used Focus Energy instead of Reflect, and it worked great. Be sure to give it those 20 Speed EVs so you can Iron Defense after the frequent stat wipes and giggle at whatever Bax throws at you while building offense effectively for Body Press at the same time. There is probably an argument to be made for Rock Smash somewhere in there for randoms, depending on teammates. Anyone worried about the EQ weakness, it’s not too big a deal. Yeah, untimely crits could be an issue, but that’s table stakes for tera raids. Archaludon is a pretty safe solution for the raid, and plays very easily in what is likely going to give most mons a lot of trouble.

 

[Worldie]

I would assume the reason he CHONKS is to make up for Glaive Rush making it take double dmg often.

I do wonder, how does that work with the raid? Does "next attack it takes" get doubled rather than next one from a given player?

 

[P3DS]

Archaludon @ Shell Bell
Ability: Stamina
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 236 HP / 252 Def / 20 Spe
Impish Nature
- Breaking Swipe
- Iron Defense
- Body Press
- Reflect

EQ-weak, but Stamina / Breaking Swipe / Reflect / Iron Defense patches that up, followed by Tera Fighting removing the EQ-weakness.

Won mine in solo with this :) nearly lost to a crit but yeah

 

[formula4speed]

Support idea:

Cloyster: Shell Armor / Leftovers / Max HP & Defense

Chilling Water
Life Dew
Iron Defense
Razor Shell (50% chance def drop)

 

[R_N]

used the Archaludon and took it online

Attempt 1: Archaludon, Orthworm, Dondozo
The other archaludon died instantly. Then I died across 2 more turns. Also the Archaludon started using electroshot & meteor beam. The whole thing just went terribly
Though towards the end everyone started body pressing which was fun once it started spamming glaive rush.

Attempt 2: Iron hands (mmmmm), Torkoal, Avalugg (?!)
I...didn't do this one. I strongly suspect the Torkoal was going to spam clear smog which wasnt going to get us anywhere and the Iron hands would die, badly. Avalugg was interesting, at least.
Attempt 2.1: Orthworm and...Terapagos. Definitely not trusting a host terapagos
Attempt 2.2: Why am I doing this with randos. Time to try to solo! Umbreon, Starpator, Arboliva. This is like, the god tier set.
Too bad I couldn't do anything with this. I forgot ot max the IVs which meansi I get outsped, I got a ton of flinches from icicle Crash, didnt max out Body Press PP
Take 2 I got the same set and remembered to Hyper Train! I forgot to max out body press. As such this attempt somehow...went worse? Even though I played way better and didnt get flinches. I think I didnt roll enough glaives
Take 3 I remembered to max the PP!
This fight is so damn annoying because of the constant stat resets. I almost timed out. I think that if it had literally even less glaive rush boosted body press somewhere in there, i would have lost.

But I didnt so its in a Heavy ball now. How obnoxious