What time does the Unrivaled Empoleon Tera Raid event start and end in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?

Empoleon is taking over Paldea in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for a special Tera Raid event. The Gen IV Water/Steel penguin is the next Starter Pokémon to be featured in these difficult battles.

For this seven-star Tera Raid event, Empoleon will have the Ice Tera Type, to boost powerful moves like Ice Beam or Blizzard. It’ll also come with the rare Mightiest Mark, which is exclusive to the seven-star raid bosses. This battle may be more challenging than previous Tera Raid events—especially if you plan on soloing it without friends—so you should make sure you’re prepared to beat the penguin before the raids disappear for good.

Here’s when you can challenge the Unrival Empoleon Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

When is the Unrivaled Empoleon Tera Raid event in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet?

As with previous seven-star Tera Raids with Starter Pokémon, there will be two event periods to take on the Unrivaled Empoleon Tera Raids. 

• The special Empoleon Tera Raid dens will make their first appearance in Paldea from Thursday, Feb. 1 at 6:00pm CT to Sunday, Feb. 4 at 5:59pm CT.
• They will appear once more the following week from Thursday, Feb. 8 at 6:00pm CT until Sunday, Feb. 11 at 5:59pm CT.

Special five-star Blissey Tera Raids will also be popping up around the map during the second event period for the raids. The Blissey raids offer plenty of Tera Shards and Exp. Candies as rewards, so that’s a quick and easy way to farm any of these useful items, if you need them. Who knows, you might even need to use some Tera Shards and Exp. Candies to train up a strong Pokémon to help you defeat Unrivaled Empoleon. After all, this penguin can hit pretty hard if its Special Attack stat is boosted by its Competitive ability.

Make sure you have a solid plan to counter its troublesome Hidden Ability so you can defeat and catch it without running into too many issues. You’ll want to start with strong Fighting or Steel-type Pokémon like Annihilape, Iron Hands, or Corviknight to hit Empoleon for super-effective damage. Then think of different ways you can ignore or change Empoleon’s ability so you won’t have to deal with its Competitive boosts.

It’ll also help to work with friends rather than the NPCs for this raid battle.