Nov-Dec 7* Tera Raid: Water-type Samurott-H

[DHR-107]

Did this first time earlier with an Acid Spraying Toxapex teammate, two Miraidons (one of them me) and a random Hisuian Decidueye who did swap over to Leaf Storm after trying to be physical - so clearly got the message.

I simply ran Electric Seed to help nullify the Bulldoze at the start, click metal sound before barrier and then kept Electro Drifting (While throwing in some heal cheers).

Weirdly enough, we did do what Worldie mentioned earlier - Broke Sheild -> HSam to zero HP -> It used Focus Energy -> Promptly died

I think this is now the 13th? Starter raid so far (Not including Pikachu and Eevee) and I think only One or Two of them have been actually difficult.

 

[R_N]

I think it's fine for raids to be easy once you figure out "the trick(s)". Little puzzle boxes except sometimes when you solve the puzzle you still get punched in the face

 

[Terimas]

You really think Weavile or Snorlax would be standing up to this thing?

No. But Toxapex or perhaps Toxicroak certainly could.

 

[newseeds]

I tried Anubis's Corviknight strategy and it was pretty free. I managed to roll Staraptor, Bellibolt and another Corviknight as NPCs and it actually made the raid a bit too easy because intimidate/paralysis meant I didn't die early on when I was expecting to and had to improvise. I just charged tera early instead though and it worked perfectly

 

[Emergence]

Solo'd on a very lucky first try with Shaymin-Sky:
Shaymin-Sky @ Shell Bell
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
- Seed Flare
- Giga Drain
- Worry Seed
- Grassy Terrain (didn't use)

Didn't have any Intimidates but it didn't matter. I didn't get down to half timer, so it couldn't erase my Seed Flare SpD drops. Turn 1 Worry Seed to disable Sharpness, then Samurott missed its first +2 Ceaseless Edge. It insisted on using Ceaseless Edge on me the whole battle, even after my Grass Tera, which was still at +2 and did about 2/3 of my max HP each time. Seed Flare hit twice and lowered Samurott to -4, and at -4 and still unshielded my Giga Drain was able to heal me back to full. Then it put up its shield, I tera'd and used Seed Flare again to get it to -6 and do a good chunk of damage. A Giga Drain and another Seed Flare was enough to break the shield, then two more Seed Flares to beat it. Paralysis from Bellibolt really helped me here, as did me not missing a single Seed Flare.

 

[doipy hooves]

Didn't have any Intimidates but it didn't matter. Bellibolt's full paralysis seemed to actually block Samurott from resetting its stats at half health, so it couldn't erase my Seed Flare SpD drops.

The half HP action is Focus Energy. You just didn't get to the point of 50% time where Samurott resets itself.

 

[Vengeance417]

Arbok’s been a fun support online:


Arbok @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Intimidate
Tera Type: Poison
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Gastro Acid
- Mud-Slap
- Acid Spray
- Sunny Day

Gastro Acid to turn Sharpness off, and Intimidate to start the boss off at +1 rather than +2. 44 Speed let’s you outrun the boss and hit it with a Gastro Acid before it can attack you, letting you tank the first hit much better. I like to Sunny Day right after to weaken Razor Shell even further. It’s ok if you die because you then Intimidate the boss again. It’s a pretty fast-paced raid anyway, so as long as your teammates survive, it’s fine. Mud-slap is noticeably really good here since the boss’s stabs aren’t 100% accurate. Acid Spray helps the many Miraidon do more damage.

 

[Worldie]

All I'm getting from the reports is that the best Pokemon for this raid is Bellibolt. The AI one though.

Praise Lord Bellibolt and his Paralysis spreading.

 

[AztecCroc]

No. But Toxapex or perhaps Toxicroak certainly could.

Those only learned Snatch via TM/Tutor, they wouldn't have access to it in SV even if still existed.

 

[R_N]

Those only learned Snatch via TM/Tutor, they wouldn't have access to it in SV even if still existed.

If it still existed, there is a chance it could have been added to their moveset or, considering the eclectic mix of TMs...would haev been made a TM again
The whole thing is a hypothetical so hypothetically there's options on the table if it still existed.

 

[Worldie]

You know, it's kind of funny. Most of us were freaking out about this raid, yet it seems it's all been over nothing. Then again, I suppose that's mainly because he only uses Focus Energy when he's at half health, at which point victory should be yours anyways. Just imagine if the timing for Focus Energy and Swords Dance were swapped and Focus Energy was his turn 0 move.

Tbh it's still a very brutal raid. It goes wrong VERY quickly if someone dies too early in groups.

The Sword Dance t0 basically means that if you don't have people cutting its attack (via debuffs or ability suppression, possibly both) right away, good chance the raid is over within a minute to 3 people dead in two turns.

Just it's convenient that there's 2 Pokemon relatively widely distributed (anyone with Violet has Miraidon, and tecnically anyone with Legends has access to Shaymin) who can bruteforce through it in solo.
Still not on my list of things I'd have wanted to pug. The kind of raids where all it takes is a single person with a suboptimal mon to just lose before the raid even loads aren't my favourite.

 

[DougJustDoug]

Seeing the typing and after seeing lots of posts by doipy hooves, I tried a standard Azumarill and failed miserably.
I tried Tera Fairy, and tried Belly Drumming early and that went badly, even with intimidate npc support. I saw dhooves used mudslap and tickle, and tried mud slap on my second run, with paralysis and intimidate npc support, but still got hit a ton, just bad luck probably, and so I didn’t want to go a third try. I didn’t try the tera rock version, and honestly don’t want to redo it, but for anyone thinking Azumarill might be a relatively easy clear, I suggest you look elsewhere. I know doipy hooves has a thing for Azu, and I’m sure it works fine for them, but it wasn’t a straightforward strat for me and I couldn’t see an interesting play there for me, so I put Azu back in the box and tried other mons.

I then switched to Tera Fighting Corviknight from Anubis post and I followed their post script exactly and it worked like a charm. If you want an easy roadmap to clearing this raid, this was super easy. Thanks Anubis!

I‘m going to give Victreebel a try and see how that works next. And then I might look for my own solutions. we’ll see how it goes!

 

[Wild Eep]

For the Victreebel solo, I recommend 132 Def / 252 SpA / 126 Spe Modest. It has comparable physical bulk to the 204 HP build but you can run even more SpA.

If you faint a second time while setting up Acid Spray, I've found it worthwhile to just wait at the menu until the timer hits 50% and Samurott clears its debuffs to reapply Acid Spray so you can keep the Giga Drain train moving once you're Terastallized.

 

[pika pal]

Will verify the Victreebel Solo only took 1 try once I remembered things like the Bottle Caps. Only notable partner was an Arboliva (Sylveon had Charm but didn't use while Shield was down), Intimidators obviously helpful if you get them.

 

[doipy hooves]

I tried Tera Fairy, and tried Belly Drumming early and that went badly, even with intimidate npc support. I saw dhooves used mudslap and tickle, and tried mud slap on my second run, with paralysis and intimidate npc support, but still got hit a ton, just bad luck probably, and so I didn’t want to go a third try. I didn’t try the tera rock version, and honestly don’t want to redo it, but for anyone thinking Azumarill might be a relatively easy clear, I suggest you look elsewhere. I know doipy hooves has a thing for Azu, and I’m sure it works fine for them, but it wasn’t a straightforward strat for me and I couldn’t see an interesting play there for me, so I put Azu back in the box and tried other mons.

I think you were just using the wrong moves or something. Belly Drumming should be saved until when the boss is debuffed and you have tera ready to make a big hit. My Marill clear with Defense Curl as a baseline is also applicable to Azumarill since Azumarill is just a stronger mon than Marill without Eviolite, and I just did another clear using Defense Curl and replacing Mud-Slap with Chilling Water and only heal cheers for demonstration that you can still win even with getting hit every time.

 

[Vinc2612]

This is my solo theorymon that I will definitely try out tonight:

Victreebel @ Covert Cloak
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 120 HP / 244 Def / 20 SpA / 124 Spe
Bold Nature
- Worry Seed
- Giga Drain
- Strength Sap
- Acid Spray

124 Speed and Covert Cloak allows Victreebel to stay faster while also protecting from random potential drops if he goes for Razor Shell.
Worry Seed turn 1 removes the annoying Sharpness.
Strength Sap debuff and heals at the same time, fully heals the first two times.
Acid Spray + Giga Drain looks better than self-boosting, since Samurott resets us twice early, and Giga Drain will provide the heal when Strength Sap becomes less effective.

244+ Def to minimize the damages of a X-Scissor Critical Hit on tera-grass Victreebel
88 HP and 52 SpA guarantees that Tera-Giga Drain on -2 Samurott through shield always fully restores Victreebel

The idea would be:
- Turn 1 Worry Seed
- Turn 2/3 Strength Sap
- Turn 4/5/6 three Acid Sprays, maybe throw a Strength Sap within if I go under 140 HP (max damage on a crit is 139)
- Tera-Giga Drain until Samurott's reset and Focus Energy
- Acid Spray
- Not sure where I am with the Shield, if it's close I Giga Drain, if it's not I Acid Spray again and pray that I'm not getting crit at that specific time
- Giga Drain Spam until the end

Easily won with this set, didn't reach the 50 % timer bar so the strategy was haxproof.

Gastro Acid (I realized it was easier to learn than Worry Seed), Strength Sap *2 right before its shield, Acid Spray *3, Tera-Giga Drain until the end.

 

[McGrrr]

Miraidon (Magnet/Electro Drift/Parabolic Charge/Calm Mind/Electric Terrain) with at least one Intimidate support is a ridiculously straightforward solo. Turn 1 Calm Mind and attack until dead; Electric Terrain should run out just before your first death so it gets reset, then Tera Electric. It might even be more efficient to not die, but I didn't need to try again.

 

[craymond727]

Yeah, I've had no issues soloing w/ Miraidon, even when dying. Am curious about how people are pulling off two-turn setup strategies - I can get one Metal Sound off no problem, but if I go for a second setup move (either another Metal Sound or Charge/CM), I can never get an attack off before shield goes up

 

[Worldie]

Yeah, I've had no issues soloing w/ Miraidon, even when dying. Am curious about how people are pulling off two-turn setup strategies - I can get one Metal Sound off no problem, but if I go for a second setup move (either another Metal Sound or Charge/CM), I can never get an attack off before shield goes up

It depends a lot on what partners you get, you kinda need to get passive low damage AI so they do not trigger the shield by % dmg

 

[doipy hooves]

Tbh it's still a very brutal raid. It goes wrong VERY quickly if someone dies too early in groups.

The Sword Dance t0 basically means that if you don't have people cutting its attack (via debuffs or ability suppression, possibly both) right away, good chance the raid is over within a minute to 3 people dead in two turns.

Just it's convenient that there's 2 Pokemon relatively widely distributed (anyone with Violet has Miraidon, and tecnically anyone with Legends has access to Shaymin) who can bruteforce through it in solo.
Still not on my list of things I'd have wanted to pug. The kind of raids where all it takes is a single person with a suboptimal mon to just lose before the raid even loads aren't my favourite.

I can agree with this because my first attempt of this raid online just now was with a Struggle Bug Mew whose death caused the shield to go up before I could even input while Miraidon's ability text was showing up.

Yeah, I've had no issues soloing w/ Miraidon, even when dying. Am curious about how people are pulling off two-turn setup strategies - I can get one Metal Sound off no problem, but if I go for a second setup move (either another Metal Sound or Charge/CM), I can never get an attack off before shield goes up

Without seeing it in practice, it sounds like you just need to input faster. The HP threshold for the shield to go up is 80%, which the AI is not likely to pull off alone within 2 turns of attacks. As an example, this Pawmot clear gets 4 attacks (3 Charm and 1 Thunder Punch) before the shield goes up, though it goes through less text than Miraidon.

 

[DougJustDoug]

Tried out Victreebel and used a mixture of the builds posted by Anubis and Vinc2612 (big thanks to both of you) It worked brilliantly! Here’s the set I used:


Victreebel @ Covert Cloak
Tera Type: Grass
Modest Nature
EVs: 252 SpAtk / 132 Def / 126 Speed
- Giga Drain
- Acid Spray
- Gastro Acid
- Strength Sap

Although this set pulls elements from both builds Anubis and Vinc2612 posted, the playbook is pretty much the same for Victreebel in all three sets.
Turn 1: Remove Sharpness with Gastro Acid
Turn 2 & 3: Strength Sap to lower Samurott’s attack and heal yourself
Shield goes up.
Acid Spray 3 times in a row.
Go Tera and Giga Drain repeatedly until Samurott faints.

I really like Victreebel over other mons I’ve used because at no point do I expect to faint in order to win. I love the Corviknight set by Anubis that I used for my first solo win, but Corv is explicitly expected to faint along the way to victory. I haven’t yet used Miraidon, but it appears that fainting is mostly expected there too. Although I never succeeded with three different Azumarill sets, I think one reason I might have struggled was because I was trying too desperately to not faint along the way. And not that there is anything wrong with fainting, if it the path to victory is clear. Like I said, with Corviknight, it’s an explicit part of the game script and it worked perfectly for me. But when I‘m looking to “solve” a raid (as opposed to simply trying to clear it by any means necessary), it feels a little bit “unsolved” if taking a faint is acceptable or even expected.

Victreebel not only doesn’t faint, but it clears the raid even before the 50% timer stat reset for Samurott! And I like it even more because it’s not a pokemon we normally see or even consider for Tera raids, so big bonus points for the novelty factor. Yeah, Victreebel feels like a real “solution” on this one.

I’m not sure Victreebel succeeds solo if there isn’t some form of help by NPCs. But like Anubis said, there are tons of NPC’s that can lend the requisite support, whether it be Intimidators or other Attack lowerers or even Arboliva laying down Grassy Terrain. But with just a little help, it easily puts the “victory” in Victreebel!

 

[AztecCroc]

it’s not a pokemon we normally see or even consider for Tera raids

Considering that the only raids it could have been used in prior to this were Decidueye-H, Typhlosion-H, Eevee, and the very tail-end of Mewtwo? There's kind of a reason for that.

 

[doipy hooves]

Yeah, I've had no issues soloing w/ Miraidon, even when dying. Am curious about how people are pulling off two-turn setup strategies - I can get one Metal Sound off no problem, but if I go for a second setup move (either another Metal Sound or Charge/CM), I can never get an attack off before shield goes up

Update: If you have a Bellibolt AI partner or mostly special attackers, then setting early Metal Sounds may be the reason they might hit that damage range, on top of Bellibolt benefiting from both Electric Terrain and its own Electromorphosis boosted Discharges. I didn't really make note of it until now since I opt for Charge T1, but I've been trying some more attempts at the Miraidon OHKO with paralysis and noted the AI Bellibolt goes hard if I set up both Metal Sound and an attack cheer. It hasn't messed me up on turn 3 though but it's the only special attacking AI there, though I would prefer Dudunsparce or Umbreon in slot 2 just for Glare/Thunder Wave first.

For support Azumarill online I've been using Charm/Mud-Slap/Helping Hand/Chilling Water with Clear Amulet/Covert Cloak, starting off fights by mashing Charm, though I've conflicted with Clear Smog a couple times. It doesn't save terrible picks, but I've gotten through with a fair share of Miraidon and Koraidon teams using their default movesets. As long as you have a solid damage dealer to boost it should be fine, and if the others know what they're doing and also set early debuffs then you have a good chance of finishing before the 50% reset. With proper teams I don't really use Chilling Water that much and was considering Fake Tears as an alternative, but the usual special attackers (Bellibolt/Victreebel) seem to be self sufficient with Acid Spray or Metal Sound anyway, or in other cases they just attack/die early to trigger the shield.

 

[doipy hooves]

I finally got the perfect OHKO with Miraidon that I was imagining. To save animation time, I opted to use Life Orb over Throat Spray and still used the Charge + Metal Sound + Attack Cheer setup, which may take a roll to kill even with the NPC damage.

252+ SpA Life Orb Hadron Engine Miraidon Atk Cheer charged Electro Drift (133.3251953125 BP) vs. -2 0 HP / 0 SpD Tera Water Samurott-Hisui in Electric Terrain: 9431-11098 (83.9 - 98.7% of 35x hp boss) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Step 0: Rig for a mon that can set paralysis (Dudunsparce/Umbreon preferred) in slot 2/3, because slot 1 will spend its T1 using Defense Cheer. Paralysis is necessary to stop Bulldoze from happening, which cannot miss and takes up time to display each speed drop animation. Here I got Haxorus in slot 2, but Haxorus prefers to Scary Face early anyway, so it won't trigger Bulldoze by attacking before paralysis goes up. Dudunsparce and Umbreon will prefer to Glare/Thunder Wave when no status is present, which is more reliable than Bellibolt's Discharge that will immediately trigger Bulldoze.

Step 1: Use Charge. In this attempt I even got a Ceaseless Edge T1 miss (10%), which also saves time not displaying the spikes animation and text. I also got the 25% paralysis to block Bulldoze from Umbreon's Thunder Wave (90% accurate).

Step 2: Use Metal Sound (85% accurate). Samurott loses its turn to another 10% miss, with the alternative of 25% paralysis leading to an overall 32.5% chance of Samurott losing a turn here. I think a miss is better time-wise because paralysis still plays a small animation.

Step 3: Attack cheer. Samurott loses its turn to paralysis here. I think an attack cheer is faster than using Calm Mind here because it doesn't have to mention boosting SpD, and it resets the menu for the next turn.

Step 4: Electro Drift for the near-OHKO. You can mash A at this point, since after a cheer your cursor is placed on Battle and moveslot 1.

Overall this is probably the fastest win you can get outside of relying on a critical instead of the attack cheer. I would say an intimidator is preferred so you can actually take more than 1 Ceaseless Edge, but dodging Bulldoze was the main goal and you have a good chance of dodging the remaining attacks after paralysis. If you invest in Defense instead of HP, then you can also take 1 more hit naturally after the defense cheer.

How close was this raid? I timed the shield's 87% activation time from the first possible input (Battle screen appearing, after ability text and Samurott's Swords Dance) while idling and came to about 1 minute and 2 seconds, which estimates the whole raid to last about 8 minutes long. The length of my clips from that point total to 30 + 17 + making the final input at about 6 seconds in for 53 seconds, so it was still close even with never getting hit and I probably couldn't have taken another turn of setup, but 9 seconds was probably enough spare time for a Ceaseless Edge to hit and set spikes. As for chance of success, disregarding the initial prep to get a winning team, the chance of a Ceaseless Edge miss + Umbreon's Thunder Wave + Bulldoze paralysis + Metal Sound landing + 2 missed turns comes down to about 0.2% or 1/500 odds for this particular attempt.

 

[Vengeance417]

Here's another fun, albeit hard to get, support for online:


Golduck @ Covert Cloak
Ability: Damp / Swift Swim (don't use Cloud Nine in case someone brings Sun)
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Simple Beam
- Chilling Water
- Helping Hand
- Rest

Changing the boss's ability to Simple not only removes Sharpness, but also means Chilling Water turns into an offensive Charm that works on shield. This also means Acid Spray and Metal Sound drop SpDef by -4. The other two moves are kinda filler, but I like Helping Hand + Attack Cheer since Golduck lacks Victreebel's Acid Spray, and Rest to bring me back to full, then wake with Heal Cheer (should only have to do this once). Screech can also work if you have physical teammates, but they aren't very common compared to Miraidon, Bellibolt, and Victreebel.

I think I still prefer Victreebel since Acid Spray + Giga Drain makes the raid go faster, but Golduck is a cool pick that works with squishier teammates. Simple Beam Golduck is still limited to Sword and Shield breeding, however, needing a Woobat or Swoobat parent.