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

[War Incarnate]

This one worked... just barely.

Malamar (M) @ Shell Bell
Ability: Contrary
Tera Type: Stellar
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 11 HP / 10 Atk / 1 Def / 11 SpA / 15 SpD / 17 Spe
- Tera Blast
- Psyshock
- Stored Power
- Skill Swap

Essentially, you Skill Swap t1, use Psyshock to build Tera charge, die, and then from there go all in with Tera Stellar Tera Blast and Stored Power. This used to have Light Screen in place of Psyshock, but trying to build Tera charge with 20 BP Stored Powers and unstabbed Tera Blasts from 68 special attack is just way too slow

This one took a lot to get rolling, because either I rolled an Intimidate NPC and immediately conceded (Intimidate + Contrary is a no-no), I died while Terastallized and had to concede, or I simply ran out of time because I got the ball rolling too late. My winning attempt had a somewhat of a lucky Paralysis early on (I think I got Umbreon/Bellibolt/Weavile as my NPC partners), and I used that to my advantage, and then later on Paralysis RNG saved me from having to endure an onslaught of attacks that would've otherwise ended my run.

In the end, I won with the timer effectively depleted, and I caught it in a Repeat Ball. Not the most reliable strat, but it worked, and it even came with a version-exclusive psuedo-legendary (I play Pokemon Violet, and Tyranitar/Hydreigon are exclusive to Scarlet. Now if only there were ways to obtain the rest of those version-exclusives...)

 

[R_N]

Trying to look ahead to whenever we get Dragapult and man this one's going to be so weird. Its movepool is all over the place, especially varied & strong on the special side but the physical side is kind of limiting but it's also the only one that benefits from its boosting moves. All of its abilities are annoying in different ways.

 

[pika pal]

I ended up doing this with friends, 2 cresselias + a frosmoth (bless that set btw Arcticblast ).
Took a few attempts cause me and the other cress have had this funny habit of eating crits back to back and dieing horribly.

That said I just wanted to share this funny moment.
Me: "Oh hey I can skill swap Levitate onto my Magearna and then i'm pretty much set"
*goes in battle*
*does skill swap*
*Reads "Hydreigon: Soul Heart"*
*Realizes the terrible mistake* (note: we had 1 AI)
ABORT MISSION, ABORT M--

*everybody died*

Future Proof by giving Soul Heart to someone else first if anyone eligible. Worst case scenario you faint once and give a buff before stealing Levitate

 

[formula4speed]

Would it be worth bringing a Skill Swap Umbreon just to bring Mud Slap into play for Hydreigon?

 

[Worldie]

Would it be worth bringing a Skill Swap Umbreon just to bring Mud Slap into play for Hydreigon?

Eh, you can, but at that point you're not really doing much other than tanking tera blasts and dragon pulses.
You always have the issue where you dont really want to spam snarl as if you do terablast will become physical and risk killing your team which is likely mainly made off calm mind users.

I dont think it's bad but i dont really see it doing anything other supports can't also do.

 

[pika pal]

The main concern I think Umbreon would have is the Shield timing. Snarl is still important to balance Nasty Plot, regardless of negative stat stages, but for the Tera Blast reason, ATK debuffs are definitely worth fitting if you can.

The reason I cite the Shield is because Umbreon CAN debuff both stats with Tickle for the physical side, if you can get through it, so ideally you'd try to keep it at +0 until the Shield goes down. If anything has Snarl and Chilling Water with a decently Neutral profile, that'd be a combo I'd look into as well.

Eh, you can, but at that point you're not really doing much other than tanking tera blasts and dragon pulses.
You always have the issue where you dont really want to spam snarl as if you do terablast will become physical and risk killing your team which is likely mainly made off calm mind users.

I dont think it's bad but i dont really see it doing anything other supports can't also do.

So my only thought is that Calm Mind users can work defensively, but the opening Snarl does put them a little behind for damage output. I could see Physical attackers to avoid contending with that, whether out of laziness from individuals or leaning on the friends providing Support to survive for them like Tinkaton or this mentioned Umbreon.

 

[no me vean]

Solo'd Hydreigon today finally. Here is the guy

Excadrill @ Shell Bell
Ability: Mold Breaker
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 172 HP / 252 SpD / 84 Spe
Careful Nature
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Rock Tomb
- Mud-Slap

The game plan was simple: mud slap Hydreigon to build up tera, immediately tera out of the earth power weakness, SD up, and earthquake while low-accuracy Hydreigon whiffs all attacks. In my first (winning) attempt, I pulled this off while only fainting once from a lucky hit after the nasty plot boosts.

Some things of note:

• Speed EVs are to outspeed Hydreigon by default. Rock Tomb is there to lower Hydreigon's speed right before the scripted dragon dance.
• In my run, I was lucky to have a partner Bellibolt for paralysis and light screen support. Gardevoir was also there for Life Dews in the early-run.
• Do note that Hydreigon resets its stats once before nasty plotting up. Before the reset, I had it down to -3 accuracy and I was up to +4 attack. Afterwards, it broke through the evasion and KO'd me. After respawning, I made sure to get it down to -6 accuracy and then myself up to +6 attack. Luckily it did not break through.

 

[R_N]

Next up is Tera Water Goodra starting the 21st

 

[Worldie]

Next up is Tera Water Goodra starting the 21st

Now this is a flip on what ability they give it...
All 3 would have their merit, being Tera Water, Sap Sipper would remove the grass weakness while Hydration makes it virtually immune to status, and Gooey is just annoying period.

Well, at least neither of the 3 is really "dangerous".

Goodra has a very wide movepool, and being Water tera I would be extremely surprised if it doesn't have a scripted Rain Dance as well as Muddy Water or Surf.

Other than that uuuh... Dragon Stab is obvious, that leaves for two. I'm going to assume no fire coverage since rain is probably going to be part of the moveset.
In fact scripted rain (maybe twice) + Thunder is something I can see. Throw in a Ice Beam or Sludge Bomb for potential grass types, and we have the full set.

Going to be pretty difficult to wall but at same time
- Goodra's spatk isn't exactly amazing, 110 is good but not spectacular, nor is its 100 attack if they want to have it mixed.
- Massive special bulk but exploitable 70 phys def
- No good boosting at all. No Calm Mind, no Sword Dance, no Dragon Dance, best it has is Curse I guess. And uuuuh Dragon Cheer. Might however have Acid Armor to boost its lackluster defense, or Breaking Swipe to neuter physical attackers.

I have a feel this one will not be hard to *survive*, but may be actually somewhat challenging to kill on timer with how tanky it is.

Ironically assuming its dragon stab is simply Dragon Pulse, it may be better to bring something neutral or weak to dragon so it uses that, no secondary effects means no RNG and easier to plan around.

 

[AztecCroc]

And uuuuh Dragon Cheer.

Dragon Cheer doesn't affect the user.

 

[SadisticMystic]

Ironically assuming its dragon stab is simply Dragon Pulse, it may be better to bring something neutral or weak to dragon so it uses that, no secondary effects means no RNG and easier to plan around.

Covert Cloak Bellibolt should be a solid choice to ignore whatever side effects it might throw out. Even if Goodra comes with Earthquake for coverage, it's not that threatening with it.

 

[Sugarbear]

Iron Hands @ Shell Bell
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Belly Drum
- Electric Terrain
- Thunder Punch
- Drain Punch / other filler move

Targets Goodra on its weaker stat, smashes it for STAB super effective damage.

 

[P3DS]

In terms of moveset, could see:

Scald / Muddy Water (Burn or Acc drop could be rough)
Flamethrower
Dragon Pulse
Earthquake/Acid Spray

With Sap Sipper

As for additional moves, I could see Acid Spray or Acid Armor or Curse or Tearful Look

Would make it a breaker by bulk reduction with acid spray and acid armor allows it to not die to iron hands

 

[Vengeance417]

My guess on the moveset is:


Goodra
Ability: Sap Sipper / Hydration
Tera Type: Water
Quiet Nature
- Dragon Pulse
- Surf / Scald / Muddy Water
- Earthquake
- Sludge Wave / Sludge Bomb / Ice Beam

I don't see Fire coverage happening because the Goodra line is connected to Rain. Rain Dance t0 is a likely possibility, which has negative synergy with Fire-type moves. Instead, Sludge Wave/Bomb or Ice Beam to deal with Grass-types seems more likely. Earthquake off its decent 100 Attack will be there for Electric-types.

 

[R_N]

Doesn't Sap Sipper eat up Worry Seed?

 

[Vengeance417]

Doesn't Sap Sipper eat up Worry Seed?

...yeah

But it it can't block Skill Swap:


Trevenant @ Yache Berry
Ability: Natural Cure
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Skill Swap
- Skitter Smack
- Growth
- Horn Leech

 

[pika pal]

Sap Sipper is indeed immune to Worry Seed (at least without shenanigans like Mold Breaker or something). So I believe that leaves Skill Swap and Gastro Acid as the more common ways to remove Sap Sipper if that is the chosen ability.

I'm anticipating a Physical move somewhere simply because Blissey shuts this down so hard otherwise with no boosting, and Skill Swap is easy to fit to enable heavily Physical Grass teammates that otherwise prey on Goodra's weaker DEF as well.

You know what could be funny (if not necessarily good)?


Gallade @ Leftovers
Level: 100
Careful Nature
Tera Type: Steel
Ability: Sharpness
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
- Life Dew/Heal Pulse
- Skill Swap
- Coaching/Light Screen/Mystical Fire
- Helping Hand/Light Screen/Mystical Fire

Gallade actually has a Stupidly deep movepool shared with Gardevoir, who might work better for this particular raid depending on the moves chosen (i.e. does it have Poison for Fairies), but I don't get a lot of chances to shill Gallade in Raids. The below calcs (which I assume to be Goodra's best offense given its lack of good boosting and generally being neutral into Gallade) should extend to Gardevoir and it can run the majority of the above moves besides maybe Coaching.

0+ SpA Tera Water Goodra Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gallade: 72-85 (21.1 - 25%) -- possible 5HKO
0+ SpA Tera Water Goodra Hydro Pump vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Gallade: 93-109 (27.3 - 32%) -- 46.1% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery

Does about what you'd expect. Life Dew keeps the crew (including yourself) alive, Gallade has no "notable" abilities for Goodra in the Swap, and then take your pick of Support options for Special Bulk, Debuffing through the Shield, or increasing Ally Damage. Other niche stuff I hadn't listed include Sunny Day (in case of Rain for Water "STAB"), Misty Terrain (weaken Dragon STAB plus avoid stuff like Sludge Bomb Poison or Scald Burns if that's the Water STAB), and probably even more.

One really funny move you could try is Psych Up to copy ally boosts and use Tera-Grass Leaf Blade (might even be able to fit all 3 if Skill Swap proves unnecessary or you trust allies to debuff like Skitter Smackers), but that's just my gimmick brain trying to force Gallade over likely-better supports even more than I already am.

 

[Terimas]

Charjabug @ Eviolite
Ability: Battery
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Light Screen
- Electric Terrain
- Lunge / Mud-Slap
- Struggle Bug

Assuming Bellibolt will be a popular pick among randoms, this Charjabug set aims to support it with damage boost from both Battery and Electric Terrain. We also have Struggle Bug, Lunge, Mud-Slap and Light Screen available for damage reduction, depending on what will be most useful.



Polteageist @ Leftovers
Ability: Weak Armor
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Skill Swap
- Light Screen
- Aromatic Mist
- Giga Drain / Strength Sap

Speaking of Skill Swap, Weak Armor Polteageist is always an appealing option. If Iron Hands ends up being the meta choice for randoms, this set provides both massive defense drops from Weak Armor as well as damage reduction with both Light Screen and Aromatic Mist.



Mew @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Transform
- Life Dew
- Struggle Bug
- Lunge / Coaching

Perhaps a meme option. Spam Life Dew and damage reduction to keep your allies alive early on, then Transform later on into one of your allies and unleash heavy damage with Tera Electric boosted attacks. Acid Spray, dual screens, Sunny Day and more are also viable options.

Speaking of Life Dew, that's actually one of the moves I could see Goodra use as one of its scripted moves in this raid. The 25% heal is not too outrageous, and it would be an interesting gimmick to try to work around.

 

[SadisticMystic]

25% on a 35x health bar means Life Dew would heal less than 1% of its actual HP supply, which is amazingly irrelevant. You can see this on the event Blissey raids that use Softboiled late in the health bar; each use recovers only 2.5% of its HP (possibly up to 10% if it goes for Softboiled in all four lanes on the same turn), not 50%.

 

[Vengeance417]

It was a pretty easy solo with

Rage Fist w/ Shell Bell ended up out-healing Goodra’s attacks. Screech’d turn 1, Rage Fist turn 2, Focus Energy’d when the shield came up, then spammed Rage Fist to win.

Also, I was pretty on-point with the moveset prediction lmao, only it was Modest instead of Quiet, which ended up worse for the boss. Surprised on the lack of rain, though. Sludge Wave turn 0 is definitely…a decision.

 

[doipy hooves]

This was a tight clear for solo Azumarill with Goodra having a fat 35x HP and decently large shield, but fortunately I did not see any Scalds on my end. T0 Sludge Wave into Sludge Bomb is a pretty rude opener, but sets up nicely enough for a double permanent cheer into faint setup as long as it doesn't high roll and poison. From there, it's just a matter of setting up and timing things around the scripted actions. Fortunately Goodra vastly favours time based actions, and also doesn't seem to have a 40% HP action for the first time since these Pokemon Day events have started.

Bellibolt is definitely a MVP NPC here with Light Screen, Mud Shot, and Discharge all helping Azumarill out, and it's nice that it appears in 25/101 of the solo (if non-locked in/group raid played) NPC parties.

I had a couple Sylveon runs before this, but I think it actually ended up making me choke at the end by using Charm and making Goodra go for Sludge Bomb instead of Earthquakes. I imagine Intimidators might lead to similar results, and Goodra using Earthquake is much nicer to avoid getting poisoned and wasting time and HP. Weavile in this winning attempt was quite helpful with Leers to ensure the final kills.

My Azumarill has the standard 252 HP/Atk (4 SpD) setup as usual, and Play Rough/Mud-Slap/Belly Drum/Amnesia favouring special damage reduction. (Tera Blast works if you don't like missing 90% hits.)

The gameplan here ended up pretty straightforward to figure out. As mentioned, Azumarill takes a death on T2 to maintain both cheer boosts for the rest of the raid, and I use Mud-Slap on turn 1 just to build up a tera charge and also add some miss chances while setting up. There is the risk of Goodra missing and not killing (or using some weaker move if Azumarill is in the red), but dying on T3 still works too.

After the first faint, Goodra will put up its shield/reset player stats/use Surf on scripted actions. After respawning, I use Amnesia twice to get to +4, and then sit on Mud-Slap and wait out the timer until Goodra hits 55% time and resets its own stats for the first and last time. From there I can mash and fit in a Mud-Slap before it uses scripted Earthquake, and then hit Mud-Slap again just to get 3 tera charge. In this attempt I decided to just leave it at -2 accuracy because I had just barely lost on timer in the previous attempt, but I did still need to burn my last 2 heal cheers to get enough HP to drum and gun it as shown above.

I could use Mud-Slap earlier before the reset, but I value the permanent accuracy drops for the rest of the fight more so than building the tera charge, since activating tera doesn't really do much here defensively.

Around this point and after +4 it usually favoured Earthquakes, which are fairly tankable and lack rude status effects.
0- Atk Tera Water Goodra Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Azumarill through Def Cheer: 52-62 (12.8 - 15.3%) -- possible 7HKO

Bellibolt also finally got a paralysis proc from Discharge and I got 2 full paras while Play Roughing Goodra to bits. 3 Play Roughs broke down the shield (and also I procced a Play Rough attack drop), triggering the player stat reset, but all I faced was a whiffed Earthquake.

I set up again, using Amnesia on the free shield break turn and Belly Drum immediately after, still outspeeding thanks to paralysis and Mud Shot. Goodra did go for a Sludge Bomb on me, but it did similarly little and fortunately did not poison. Meanwhile with the shield down, Weavile got 2 Leers in, doubling my damage output from there on and more.

Two more Play Roughs were all that was needed to finish the job, and just barely after the 10% timer warning kicked in. I think I could have afforded one miss, but it's hard to say if it would have procced anything more or gotten a double attack off. Maybe the NPCs would have had my back though, but I'm glad enough for Leer Weavile saving me those turns of damage to have time to spare either way.

Goodra drops the Scald TM here, which Azumarill cannot learn in SV.
Fittingly, it was raining in the overworld where the raid spawned, putting a nice rain icon on the top right of the Pokedex.

 

[R_N]

It was a pretty easy solo with

Rage Fist w/ Shell Bell ended up out-healing Goodra’s attacks. Screech’d turn 1, Rage Fist turn 2, Focus Energy’d when the shield came up, then spammed Rage Fist to win.

Also, I was pretty on-point with the moveset prediction lmao, only it was Modest instead of Quiet, which ended up worse for the boss. Surprised on the lack of rain, though. Sludge Wave turn 0 is definitely…a decision.

View attachment 787842

What's the spread. I've got an Annihilape but I can't remember how I built it

Also did it seem like you had to worry about Scald, or did it prefer using like Dragon Pulse.

 

[Vengeance417]

What's the spread. I've got an Annihilape but I can't remember how I built it

Also did it seem like you had to worry about Scald, or did it prefer using like Dragon Pulse.

I was just max Attack and max SpDef. It only clicked Dragon Pulse vs me, except for the scripted moves ofc. The best part is because of the t0 Sludge Wave, you start with 100 BP Rage Fist.

 

[doipy hooves]

Goodra's detailed raid script from https://stevecooktu.github.io/sv_raid_lookup/. This one has a couple surprises. A 480s/8 minute raid timer is on the lower end for these pseudo raids, especially being backed up by 35x HP and an early shield worth 40% of that HP. The other oddity is that the random (50%) double attack phase has been moved up slightly to the 45% HP mark, but with no corresponding action like every other raid since Pokemon Day having a 40% HP phase trigger and also an extra action at 40% HP. We'll have to see if Dragapult bucks the trend any further.

Also, Scald is the star of the set as a DLC TM and drop. Predictions were shaky on this one, but there's been a few DLC TM appearances over the 7-star runs (just in the main movepool there's Curse Meganium, Smack Down Torterra, Scale Shot Dragonite, Breaking Swipe Sceptile, Sludge Wave Swampert) and Dragonite/Swampert/Sceptile did drop those TMs. I wasn't looking closely at the scripted move uses, but most of the Breaking Swipe appearances would count as well.

Also also, Goodra joins the rare club of 7-star raid bosses set to be female. Make of that what you will.

 

[R_N]

I was just max Attack and max SpDef. It only clicked Dragon Pulse vs me, except for the scripted moves ofc. The best part is because of the t0 Sludge Wave, you start with 100 BP Rage Fist.

Yep sure enough this worked flawlessly. Did tera ghost for extra damage. Even without crits gosh it just rips through everything.

I did have some ok support with light screen bellibolt and life dew gardevoir, but honestly I think I could have taken a death and still been fine. once the rage fist builds up enough it's kind of irrelevant.