Pokémon Scarlet and Violet players praise 7-star Raids as perfect road to competitive play

After a year of seven-star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, players admit they’ve gained a deeper understanding of the game from those challenging raid battles, including useful knowledge for competitive play.

Seven-star Tera Raids are perhaps the most difficult battles offered in the Gen IX games outside of PvP. Generally speaking, you can’t just blindly walk into these raids and expect to win on your first try without the proper Pokémon, build, and strategy. You can’t just breeze through the battle with a team of over-leveled Pokémon like you can throughout the story—you need to actually think things through.

In fact, these seven-star Tera Raids can be tough even for the most seasoned Pokémon veterans. The Mewtwo Tera Raids from September, for example, were nearly impossible to clear without joining forces with other players. But as hard and frustrating as the raids can be, they’ve forced players to think outside the box and learn useful new skills along the way. This is exactly how some players say they’ve “unlocked” a whole new part of the game and become a better player overall, according to a Nov. 25 Reddit thread.

In addition to collecting rare items like Herba Mystica and catching exclusive Pokémon with the Mightiest Mark, players are learning how to properly EV train their ‘mons and prep for battle from these Tera Raids. EV training is when you intentionally focus on raising certain stats on an individual ‘mon—either through vitamins like Calcium and Protein or through wild encounters. 

While you can play through the entire Gen IX story without worrying about EVs and stats, this aspect of the game is essential in seven-star Tera Raids as well as pro play. As a general thumb, you can usually focus all of your EV training on HP and either Attack or Special Attack for Tera Raid builds. EV spreads are a lot more complex in pro play, but this is a nice foundation and starting point for players who would otherwise not know how stats work on a deeper level.

Alongside EV training, seven-star Tera Raids give players an opportunity to come up with some awesome strategies that may or may not involve weak Pokémon like Magikarp—emphasizing the importance of setting up. Even if you’ve never clicked Belly Drum or Iron Defense while playing through the story, these setup moves have likely helped you beat seven-star raids. Again, these strategies can also be utilized in competitive play. The popular Iron Defense and Body Press strategy, for example, can clear the hardest raids and win regional VGC tournaments. 

So, while seven-star Tera Raids can be a pain to deal with at times, there’s also handy knowledge to gain from them if you ever want to start dabbling in competitive battling.