Best counters and builds for defeating 7-star Primarina Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The Unrivaled Primarina Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are no joke, and it takes a strong counter and good strategy to beat them.

The Alola Water Stater will be the focus of seven-star Tera Raids popping up in the Paldea region from Thursday, May 9 at 7pm CT to Sunday, May 12 at 6:59pm CT, and again the following week from May 16 at 7pm CT until May 19 at 6:59pm CT. This Primarina comes with the event-exclusive Mightiest Mark, so give this tough Tera Raid a shot if you want to add another special Starter to your collection. Here’s what you need to know to counter and defeat Unrivaled Primarina in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Beating the Unrivaled Primarina Tera Raid in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

This Primarina has a few annoying tricks up its sleeve, but it’s not invincible. The key to beating the raid is to bring a Pokémon that can avoid these tricks, tank hits, and deal meaningful damage to Primarina. To identify the right counter, you must first consider Primarina’s typing, Tera Type, moveset, and battle patterns.

What type is Unrivaled Primarina?

Primarina is a Water/Fairy-type Pokémon with the Fairy Tera Type for this event. Since its Tera Type matches its natural Fairy-typing, it will be hitting extra hard with Fairy attacks. Therefore, you may want to lean more toward a Poison or Steel-type counter to resist those Fairy attacks while hitting Primarina for super-effective damage.

Primarina’s Hidden Ability, Liquid Voice, also turns any sound-based Pokémon moves into Water-type moves, essentially giving them a STAB boost. Don’t let that throw you off when considering type matchups in your prep though.

What moves does Unrivaled Primarina know?

Primarina has a mix of strong offense and annoying status moves. It hits pretty hard with Moonblast, Sparkling Aria, and Surf. It’s also packing Psychic to hit Poison-type counters for super-effective damage. Based on these attacks, a Steel Pokémon should hold up better defensively than a Poison ‘mon.

And by “annoying status moves,” I mean Sing and Encore. While Sing doesn’t have the best accuracy, it’s super frustrating to waste time sleeping when it does connect. Meanwhile, Encore will lock your Pokémon into using the same move for multiple turns in a row, which can also waste a lot of time on the clock.

To work around these status moves, you can either block Primarina with Taunt or use a Pokémon that’s immune to them.

Moves

• Moonblast
• Sparkling Aria
• Sing
• Psychic

Additional Moves

• Encore
• Surf

Best counter for the Unrivaled Primarina Tera Raid in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

One Pokémon that checks all the boxes to defeat Primarina is Gholdengo. Gholdengo not only has the Steel-typing to give it the type advantage, but it also has a signature ability that blocks annoying status moves—Good as Gold.

Thanks to Good as Gold, Gholdengo doesn’t have to worry about being put to sleep or getting locked into one move. In fact, its immunity may even bait Primarina’s AI into wasting multiple turns using Sing despite failing every time. You could say this gives Gholdengo the golden opportunity to set up and chip away at the raid boss’ HP until you win.

Best Gholdengo Tera Raid build in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The strategy and build for Gholdengo in this raid is very straightforward. All you need to do is set up with three Nasty Plots until your Special Attack is maxed out and then spam Flash Cannon. Primarina will remove Gholdengo’s stat boosts at some point in the battle, so pay attention and set up again with Nasty Plot when necessary. Terastallize to the Steel Tera Type as soon as it’s safe to do so.

For the build, give Gholdengo a Modest nature (+ Special Attack, – Attack) to maximize its damage. Similarly, make sure to max its Special Attack EVs. I used my generic Tera Raid Gholdengo, which also had max HP, though max Special Defense EVs should be fine too. For HP recovery, have your golden Pokémon hold the Shell Bell and use Recover if you’re really in a pinch.