Max Raid Discussion Thread

[Garrus01]

I've had good success just throwing up raids online with random players when my usual group is not on. IMO, the main problem is that most of the AI are glass cannons who go down in one or two hits. A sandstorm pretty much guarantees a wipe on 5 star max with AI. Almost any human player will do better... unless they bring type disadvantaged glass cannons, in which case they're at best on par with the AI. Even then, if they understand they can heal they still do better. In my experience, three fourths of randoms know what they are doing, and the last fourth either do not really have the Pokemon to do the raid they joined or just want to use their pet favorite at all times.

In my experience, one decent random joining is enough to clear most five star raids. No friends really needed.

 

[Elveman]

When alone, I use 252 SpA/4 SpD/252 Spe Modest lv100 Eternatus. Since its damage output is enough, and you're guaranteed to catch the pokemon when raiding alone (needs confirmation but didn't have problems catchng Dittos and other mons with the regular Poke Ball 100% of the time), it can be equipped with Assault Vest or Leftovers or any health-restoring berry if you have enough (or Lum Berry for GMax Butterfree). And since AI level is scalable, they're gonna be around level 70, and that's usually enough to survive at least one attack (and Magikarp has Focus Sash)
Also you're outspeeding most of the stuff even at +1 (Airstream/QD/DD/etc.)

 

[Rarycaris]

I've found that using a level 100 (preferably Adamant) Zacian that's fully EV'd trivialises most raids -- you can usually just damage it down through the barriers. Things that are resistant to Steel and spam spread moves are the only things that pose any credible threat -- everything else is more an annoyance than anything, and level 70 raid friendlies are *usually* tough enough to survive 4 turns between them.

 

[eworm]

Just use Silvally. For everything. It handles everything.

There's a few HA Pokemon I am keen on getting my hands on (Hatterene and Indeedee come to mind). Do I need to follow a similar method at the proper wells to get one to spawn? Is the ability of the Pokemon that spawns locked on the spawn day (like the Pokemon itself)? So a 5 star Hatterene spawn might not have the HA and I'd need to continue changing the day until one does?

As a Hidden Hunter myself, here's what I do:
1. seek out HA-possible spawns of the right Pokémon here. Not every den with the Pokémon can spawn a HA Pokémon of that species.
2. spawn the right beam with a Wishing Piece at the right den (resetting trick)
3. have a Trace Pokémon first in your party. Doesn't need to be capable of fighting, can be a lv. 1 Ralts.
4. whenever the Pokémon you want spawns, save the game and enter the Raid offline and without inviting anyone.
5. observe the Traced Ability. That's the Ability this particular Raid boss has.
6a. if it's the Ability you want, reset the game immediately and fight the Raid, alone or with others, doesn't mater. I typically invite online folks, give others a chance at a rare mon.
6b. if it's not the Ability you want, continue spawning new bosses until the same Pokémon spawns again, rinse and repeat.

 

[Elveman]

Even if you go online, you still can reset raid to have multiple chances of catching the mon, right?
Spot GMax/HA/desired IVs mon -> save -> go online -> invite friends -> raid the mon (don't save after that)
If someone didn't catch it, reset the game -> go online -> invite friends -> raid the mon
rinse and repeat

 

[Rarycaris]

Can the trick for rolling Gigantamax Pokemon also be used to reroll for hidden abilities? Could I, for instance, use it to get Imposter Ditto?

 

[Worldie]

Can the trick for rolling Gigantamax Pokemon also be used to reroll for hidden abilities? Could I, for instance, use it to get Imposter Ditto?

Tecnically yes, however if you're referring to the "save in front of den then reset if not purple beam", you have to actually start the raid / save the game to check if there's an HA, thus you aren't really saving any wishing star.

 

[CTNC]

Can the trick for rolling Gigantamax Pokemon also be used to reroll for hidden abilities? Could I, for instance, use it to get Imposter Ditto?

Yes, but assuming you have tons of watts from abusing this trick for other Pokemon to buy more Wishing Stars, why not catch every Ditto? You could get some with 5 IVs for breeding.

 

[eworm]

Tecnically yes, however if you're referring to the "save in front of den then reset if not purple beam", you have to actually start the raid / save the game to check if there's an HA, thus you aren't really saving any wishing star.

Wait, what? Just reset for the purple beam, then save the game, enter the Raid, check Ability, reset if not a Hidden Ability, change date while inviting online, check again, rinse repeat. One Wishing Piece required.

 

[Windgrace]

Wait, what? Just reset for the purple beam, then save the game, enter the Raid, check Ability, reset if not a Hidden Ability, change date while inviting online, check again, rinse repeat. One Wishing Piece required.

I believe this is the case. I don’t think you have to be online though when you invite people to the raid, at least I wasn’t when I was resetting for G-max Charizard. Just be sure to have auto-save off and text speed set to slow when working to get that purple beam.

 

[Siggu]

So I just learned one thing: facing a Raid Boss with Defiant is a nightmare if you don't greatly overlevel it.

They get a free +4 Attack every time you destroy their shield. Even worse if it's a Braviary and starts using Max Airstream.

 

[DreamPrince]

So I just learned one thing: facing a Raid Boss with Defiant is a nightmare if you don't greatly overlevel it.

They get a free +4 Attack every time you destroy their shield. Even worse if it's a Braviary and starts using Max Airstream.

Same thing with Milotic, except it has Surf. Obstagoon is also really obnoxious with Obstrucy. Let’s not forget Shuckle and Malamar with Contrary.

 

[Windgrace]

Same thing with Milotic, except it has Surf. Obstagoon is also really obnoxious with Obstrucy. Let’s not forget Shuckle and Malamar with Contrary.

Moxie Gyarados can be tough too, especially if you’re going up against it with the NPCs...

 

[Worldie]

Same thing with Milotic, except it has Surf. Obstagoon is also really obnoxious with Obstrucy. Let’s not forget Shuckle and Malamar with Contrary.

Allow me to introduce you to Clefable / Driflblim and their Minimize.......

 

[stage7_4]

Some other annoyances:

Grass weak Pokemon are a trap (even those 4x ones like Dreadnaw), as Max grass sets up grassy terrain and heals them. Which can really suck when they have a barrier up.

In fact, just be careful with your max moves as even the super-effective ones can carry "bonuses" that do more harm than good (like sandstorm voiding offline ally focus sashes). I recommend keeping a stat lowering max move (like max strike) on hand at least for barrier breaking.

Protect and detect void an entire round of battle unless you are dynamaxed, which on a 10 turn time limit is awful. You can't even break barriers with it!

If you get Wobbofett and/or Solrock as allies offline you might as well reset your game now. It's sad when Magikarp is one of the better allies.

For some tips that haven't been brought up yet: while status moves are underwhelming, will-o-wisp is the exception. It is amazing for physical raids so get it up and keep it up!

 

[Siggu]

For some tips that haven't been brought up yet: while status moves are underwhelming, will-o-wisp is the exception. It is amazing for physical raids so get it up and keep it up!

Paralysis is also useful as it can leave some breathing space by the time bosses start attacking three times per turn. And of course, Nuzzle is the better move to use as, at worst, it will remove one barrier level, instead of completely failing to do anything.

 

[Steel With It]

Another good way to solo raids is to get yourself a Dracovish. At Lvl 100, it outspeeds most or all of the Lvl 50-70 bosses, so Max Geyser into Banded Fishious Rend dismantles anything that isn't straight-up immune.

I assume the other fossils do the job just as well, but Dracovish is as broken on cart as it is in OU, so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[stage7_4]

Another good way to solo raids is to get yourself a Dracovish. At Lvl 100, it outspeeds most or all of the Lvl 50-70 bosses, so Max Geyser into Banded Fishious Rend dismantles anything that isn't straight-up immune.

I assume the other fossils do the job just as well, but Dracovish is as broken on cart as it is in OU, so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It suffers a bit from the same problem the legendaries have, as dealing damage isn't absolutely important since you run into those barrier HP thresholds.

But being able to dynamax does give it a leg up on Eternatus and the cover legends. Although I'd still say Silvally is the best pick overall for type-changing utility and bulk, but I can't deny that Dracovish is up there too (water dragon is a great type combo).

 

[Rarycaris]

I haven't been too impressed by Silvally tbh. Its Max Multi Attack is pretty much always weaker than other max moves because it gets the fighting/poison penalty, and that's coming off 95 base attack with no item.

Most of the time, I prefer being able to use the raw power of the legendaries to damage the opponent down through barriers. A resisted Behemoth Blade from Zacian is still usually going to deal more damage than a super-effective Max Multi Attack, and when you can frequently get things down without breaking all the barriers, breaking two instead of one isn't as useful as you might think. The downside is that you don't get the defense drops from the barriers dropping, but against anything this is relevant on, you probably don't need them. (This can also be an upside vs Defiant users.)

Things with 4x weaknesses are where Silvally really shines, but you can probably cover that with a fairly small number of backup Pokemon.

 

[SeraviEdalborez]

For what it's worth: while the HP gates on barriers are definitely a pain, you can still deal significant damage through the shields outside of those HP gates. On more frail mons (and/or usually with good human teamwork) you can even sometimes do enough to drop a 5-star to its 2nd shield gate while the 1st shield is still active (in this circumstance the shield just refreshes).

While setting up is a bit over-elaborate and prone to dyna-reset-thing, I think a case could be made for things that can passively augment Zacian spam such as a Steely Spirit Perrserker, and otherwise spamming Eternatus on especially spdef-weak things. Togekiss in my experience has been an extremely solid dyna-mon for most occasions with STAB and a fire move.

Mechanically I know the dyna-roar
1) resets the enemy mon's negative stats to +/-0 but leaves any positive boosts
2) resets all allied mons' positive stats to 0 and nulls (most?) abilities until end of turn
3) clears status ailments on enemy mon(I think?)
Although I'm wondering what other effects it can nullify, such as Leech Seed, type-changing moves, etc.

 

[Worldie]

1) resets the enemy mon's negative stats to +/-0 but leaves any positive boosts

Not quite the case. Debuffs on the raid remain.

What it does, is remove all stat buffs (but not effects like Reflect or Tailwind) from the party and disable the party abilities for that turn (for example, I had a Galvantula raid roar and then able to hit AI Jolteon through Volt Absorb.)

Status and conditions on the AI mon do persist as long as they got applied before the barrier went up as usual

 

[SeraviEdalborez]

I could swear I've seen the Def/Spdef down from shield breaks disappear on that action several times, but perhaps I'm spacing out and missing other boosts every time.

To clarify when I say enemy mon in this example I'm saying the Raid-mon is removing its own negative stat changes.

 

[CTNC]

Something I want to point out, even though everyone probably knows it by now, is as long as the Raid Pokemon's HP would reach 0, it gets KOed. No effects go out of the way to stop the HP from stopping at 1. I've seen Raid Pokemon KOed by the damage from their barrier breaking, end of turn status move effects like Leech Seed, and Solrock attacking after doing nothing the entire time just to kill steal. I hadn't seen the first two mentioned here, the second one is kind of obscure because of how little status moves deal, and the third is another reason to hate the Solrock NPC.

I could swear I've seen the Def/Spdef down from shield breaks disappear on that action several times, but perhaps I'm spacing out and missing other boosts every time.

To clarify when I say enemy mon in this example I'm saying the Raid-mon is removing its own negative stat changes.

Can confirm this. I've checked their status after they do the thing and the barrier breaking debuff gets removed. Sometimes I check their status just to see if they've done the thing while I was paying less attention, like when I'm watching Youtube while trying to get a 0 Attack Ditto. (AKA, most of the time.)

 

[stage7_4]

I haven't been too impressed by Silvally tbh. Its Max Multi Attack is pretty much always weaker than other max moves because it gets the fighting/poison penalty, and that's coming off 95 base attack with no item.

Most of the time, I prefer being able to use the raw power of the legendaries to damage the opponent down through barriers. A resisted Behemoth Blade from Zacian is still usually going to deal more damage than a super-effective Max Multi Attack, and when you can frequently get things down without breaking all the barriers, breaking two instead of one isn't as useful as you might think. The downside is that you don't get the defense drops from the barriers dropping, but against anything this is relevant on, you probably don't need them. (This can also be an upside vs Defiant users.)

Things with 4x weaknesses are where Silvally really shines, but you can probably cover that with a fairly small number of backup Pokemon.

What draws me to Silvally is it's bulk, as 95/95/95 with a resistant typing is pretty darn good at level 100.

Power frankly is not that important. The Barrier HP thresholds mean you only need enough power to get to the next barrier, and the defense debuffs from barrier breaking make finishing off a raid boss super easy. Survival is the bigger challenge than power. Yes I know you can kill through a barrier, but in offline mode I'm trying harder just to keep my party alive than spam Behemoth Blade over and over.

Heck, rather than going for simply what is super-effective, I tailor my Silvally to whatever secondary effect will support the team the best. I gave it Dragon Claw and X-Scissor so it can use Max Wyrmwind and Max Flutterby to get the Atk and SpAtk debuffs on the first turn, then Multiattack is just whatever type is unresisted and useful to the team. I also keep fire fang around just to set up harsh sunlight if necessary (to get rid of harmful weather like sandstorm and hail). Might not seem like much, but a -1 offense can mean my AI allies get an extra turn to live which really makes the difference.

For example, instead of Rock Silvally for a G-Butterfree raid I used Elec Silvally to set up electric terrain and ignore it's attempts to put my party to sleep.

 

[Siggu]

It might be worth noting that charge moves (e.g. Dig, Bounce) used by Raid Bosses skip the charging turn. I'm not sure if it's at the cost of using one less move during the current turn, though.