Pokémon players are using 2 crafty tactics to crush Scarlet and Violet Delphox Tera Raids

The ongoing Unrivaled Delphox event might be the toughest seven-star Tera Raid in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet so far—but players have identified a couple of strategies that have proven effective in defeating the raid.

Delphox generally isn’t a scary Pokémon, but make it a raid boss with the Fairy Tera Type and it becomes a huge menace. The biggest issue here is finding a Pokémon that can land super-effective hits on Fairy types without taking too much damage in return. It’s tricky because Fairy is only weak to Steel and Poison, which are easily countered by Delphox’s Fire and Psychic attacks.

Thankfully, players have found a loophole in this dilemma—the handy Flash Fire ability. In Scarlet and Violet, a handful of Fire-type Pokémon gain access to this ability, making them completely immune to Fire attacks. This works exceptionally well against Delphox when paired with a Steel Tera Type to boost the offense. Having Flash Fire will protect your Steel Tera Pokémon from super-effective Fire Blasts.

Related: Best Pokémon to counter Unrivaled Delphox Tera Raid event in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

Among the Pokémon that get Flash Fire, players are gravitating the most toward Heatran, Armarouge, and Ceruledge. With Steel as one of its natural types, Heatran is the most obvious pick to go with, though it’s not the easiest Pokémon to obtain if you don’t already have one to transfer from Legends: Arceus, Brilliant Diamond, or Shining Pearl. If you do happen to have one, the strategy is simple—lower Delphox’s Special Defense with Metal Sound, spam Flash Cannon, and utilize the Steel Tera Type as soon as possible.

If you don’t have a way of obtaining Heatran, one player shared an Armarouge build that promises to “consistently solo the raid.”

This build allows you to set up your Armarouge with Calm Mind and lower Delphox’s Special Defense with Acid Spray. In terms of offensive, you have Flash Cannon for super-effective damage and Stored Power to use after you’re all set up and Terastallized. Following this player’s build and guide should secure the win for you and your Armarouge.

Outside of the Flash Fire method, there’s also a fun team strategy you can try with friends to take Delphox down in a single turn, as showcased by one player on Twitter. Utilizing Perrserker’s signature ability, Steely Spirit, you’ll need three of the cats along with the strongest Steel-type Pokémon you have—Gholdengo or Dialga are two great options.

On the first turn of the Tera Raid, the three Perrserker all need to use Fake Tears to lower Delphox’s Special Defense. Between all the Steely Spirit boosts and Special Defense drops, Gholdengo and Dialga can one-shot the fox with their strongest Steel-type attacks. 

A similar Perrserker strategy was previously used to one-shot Unrival Inteleon with Tinkaton, so it’s safe to say the Galarian cat is one of the best counters for these difficult Tera Raids.

Aside from Flash Fire and Perrserker, we haven’t really seen other trending strats to deal with Delphox. So if you’ve been struggling with the tricky fox, stick with a Flash Fire Pokémon for solo raids or try out the Perrserker method with friends.