Easiest way to beat Great Tusk Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

After being postponed due to a major crashing issue, the Great Tusk and Iron Treads Tera Raid event is officially coming back. You should be prepared to take these raids on with strong Pokémon at your side from June 15 to 18.

Each Great Tusk Tera Raid will be five stars, meaning they’ll be difficult but not nearly as extreme as the seven-star events we’ve struggled through in the past. As long as you have properly trained Pokémon and know what to expect from this raid, you should be able to defeat Great Tusk without too much trouble. 

How to beat Great Tusk Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

When dealing with Great Tusk, one of the most important things to keep in mind is its uneven stat distribution. While the elephant has great physical Attack and Defense, its two special stats are pretty low. Therefore, an ideal Great Tusk counter would be a special attacker with some physical bulk behind it. A perfect example of this is Slowbro with the Stored Power build, which has already proven to be a great counter for Tera Raids.

You’ll also want a Pokémon that can change the weather since Great Tusk has access to Sunny Day, which will give it a stat boost thanks to its Protosynthesis ability. Because Ice and Rock-types are both weak to multiple attacks in Great Tusk’s moveset, snow and sandstorm are probably not the best weather options here. Instead, aim to set up the rain if possible. Changing the weather will weaken Great Tusk and make it a little easier to deal with.

From a defensive perspective, there are a handful of types that do well against the Ground/Fighting-type Great Tusk. The best is Flying, which is completely immune to Ground and resists Fighting. Flying-types will still have to watch out for Rock Slide and Ice Spinner, but those attacks will not have the same-type attack bonus (STAB). In fact, the Flying/Steel-type Corviknight should be able to take any attack pretty well with its defensive bulk and typing.

Ghost-types are also great since they are immune to Close Combat, Great Tusk’s strongest attack. Annihilape has been a solid pick for the toughest Tera Raids, so it should be able to put in work against Great Tusk, too. It might not be a special attacker, but Annihilape’s Rage Fist allows it to do significant damage in longer battles like Tera Raids.

Other viable types to consider are Water and Bug. Water pairs well with the rain if you’re planning on setting it up. Meanwhile, Bug resists all of Great Tusk’s STAB attacks.

Since Great Tusk will have varying Tera Types for this event, use your best judgment to determine when to bring specific Pokémon. For example, Slowbro’s Stored Power will thrive in Poison or Fighting Tera Raids, but it’ll be absolutely useless in Dark Tera Raids. Having a super-effective counter to Great Tusk’s Tera Type will be the key to beating the raid.