Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s 2 hardest Tera Raids prove you need more than strategy to win

With the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Unrivaled Delphox event returning for its second wave today at 7:00pm CT, players are debating which seven-star Tera Raids were the most challenging so far.

Since the release of Scarlet and Violet, we’ve had a powerful lineup of special Tera Raid events, ranging from the iconic surfing Pikachu to everyone’s favorite fire dragon, Charizard. With Delphox’s debut last week, every Starter Pokémon from Kalos, Galar, and Legends: Arceus have now been featured in these Tera Raid events except for Rillaboom, who is likely next in line.

Out of these Starters, many players are naming Greninja and Delphox as the two hardest seven-star Tera Raids in the game, according to a July 11 Reddit thread. What made them difficult, however, wasn’t due to skills issues or weak strategies. In fact, it’s probably not your fault if you struggled with either of these raids.

Take the Greninja raid for example. The ninja frog was notorious for using Double Team to boost its evasiveness. Because of those annoying boosts, there was always a chance your Pokémon might miss their attacks and waste precious time on the clock. In other words, this was a Tera Raid where you needed luck on your side to pull off a victory. One player called this Tera Raid “incredibly cruel and mean-spirited” purely because of Double Team.

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Meanwhile, the Delphox raid has been especially hard for players attempting to solo it. Even with great counters like Heatran or Ceruledge, a lot of players had to redo the raid multiple times before finally succeeding in soloing it (trust me, you’re not alone). Delphox is just a weird case where you’re much better off challenging it with friends or fellow players—one group of players even beat the raid with baby Pokémon like Igglybuff.

After Delphox, we will likely see Rillaboom, the Gen VIII Grass Starter, to round out all of the Starter Pokémon that have been added to Scarlet and Violet so far. Based on its movepool, it’d make sense for the monkey to have a Fighting or Ground Tera Type, but we won’t know for sure until the raid is officially announced.