[Question] Chesnaught Tera Raid strats?

[Sandslash Fan]

The new tera 7-star raid was announced; Chesnaught with Rock tera type. What is everyone planning to try for the raid?

I haven't ever had to fight against a Chesnaught before, but I used one for my first playthrough of X/Y. It's Physical Defense and HP are immense, so I'm not sure if I would try a physical attacker this time. Chesnaught also has immunity to Energy Ball (thanks to its hidden ability Bulletproof) which would normally be good against its low Special Defense and its Rock-type tera. Bulletproof also makes Chesnaught immune to Acid Spray, so Bellibolt won't do well this time. For moves, it will likely have Wood Hammer and Hammer Arm. To match with its Rock-type tera, I am thinking Rock Slide would be a good move for it to have over Stone Edge, but since it has access to a lot of 120 base power moves, they might as well go big for him. Rollout is on the move list, and that would be funny to see a raid Pokémon use, and scary if it kept chaining. We haven't seen Bulk Up spam since Cinderace, but Chesnaught gets that for a level-up move as well. Pin Missile is the last one that looks interesting, since it is a coverage move for Grass-type that people could bring to a raid. Since it doesn't care about outspeeding, Chesnaught might carry Curse instead of Bulk Up. Belly Drum and Spikes could be dangerous from the egg moves as well, with Spikes being more likely. It would be brutal to come back from a 5 sec faint only to take a lot of damage from spike layers, so Heavy-Duty Boots might be worth looking into. Earthquake is another move I just remembered is common for raid mons to have, but I am not sure if a Rock-type tera would carry that since Rock covers Fire already and Hammer Arm covers any Steel-type.

After looking at a few Pokémon, and embarrassingly at a few like Lucario with Aura Sphere (forgetting Bulletproof blocks that too), I think I will try an Appletun or Lurantis.

Appletun
Nature: Relaxed (+DEF, -Spd)
Ability: Ripen
Tera: Grass
Item: Heavy-Duty Boots / (some kind of berry)
- Iron Defense
- Apple Acid
- Giga Drain
- Recycle/Recover/Grassy Terrain

Lurantis
Nature: Rash (+SAtk, -SDef)
Ability: Contrary
Tera: Grass
Item: Heavy-Duty Boots / Metronome
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Grass Knot
- Defog

 

[Devalue]

Guesses this to be a high Defense raid. Learns several Defense-boosting moves (Iron Defense, Bulk Up, Curse) and Body Press. Reduces how strong Intimidate is in solo too.

Moveset guess: Seed Bomb, Body Press, Stone Edge/Rock Slide, and...something. Learns Aerial Ace, Zen Headbutt, Shadow Claw, Thunder Punch, Dragon Claw, Poison Jab, Iron Head, Crunch, and Earthquake. Leans towards Zen Headbutt (for Fighting types), Poison Jab (for Grass types), or Shadow Claw (for Ghost types).

Pointed out Bulletproof above. Could be nice to grab to block Seed Bomb, if it has it.

Some solo build ideas:

Gholdengo
Tera: Steel
Ability: Good as Gold
Nature: Modest (+Special Attack / -Attack)
EVs: Max Hitpoints and Special Attack
Moves: Make It Rain, Nasty Plot, Recover, and Metal Sound/Flash Cannon.
Hold Item: Shell Bell

Delivers massive damage with Make It Rain. Resists Chesnaught's three STABs at minimum...until you Terastallize. May be wise to hold off on that. Only do if it you can demolish the shield in a single blow.

Originally put in Tera: Ghost and Shadow Ball. Spaced on Bulletproof. Do not do that.

Shortcomings: Possible Earthquake, Crunch, and Shadow Claw.


Gogoat
Tera: Grass
Ability: Grass Pelt
Nature: Adamant (+Attack / -Special Attack)
EVs: Max Hitpoints and Attack. (Better off with Defense over Hitpoints here. Prefers general builds.)
Moves: Horn Leech, Milk Drink, Bulk Up, Grassy Terrain
Hold Item: Shell Bell

By no means the strongest build. Sets up with Bulk Up. (Ideally gets Grassy Terrain from Arboliva.) Leeches back health as it goes.

Shortcomings: Slow. Possible Poison Jab.


Avalugg
Tera: Fighting (Picked one up from a raid a while ago. Specifically looked out for this combination.)
Ability: Whatever (Ice Body, if you want)
Nature: Impish (+Defense / -Special Attack)
EVs: Max Hitpoints and Defense
Moves: Body Press, Recover, Iron Defense, and whatever (Snowscape, if you want)
Hold Item: Shell Bell

No fear. Carries the highest Defense stat in Scarlet/Violet currently. Use it. Suffers 26.3 - 31.9% damage from a +Defense Chesnaught's Body Press at +0. May wish to lead with three Body Presses and faint, depending on buff clears. Start your new life by Terastallizing and building your Defense.

Other decent choices for this strategy: Forretress, Bronzong, and Carbink (if it was in). Might be able to make Slowbro work with Intimidate help (and/or Skill Swap?). Probably Corviknight too.

Shortcomings: Criticals.

Koraidon
Tera: Fighting
Ability: Orichalcum Pulse
Nature: Adamant (+Attack / -Special Attack)
EVs: Max Hitpoints and Attack
Moves: Swords Dance, Collision Course, Drain Punch, Screech
Hold Item: Shell Bell or Life Orb, depending how you want to play it.

Likely the multiplayer superstar. Deals ridiculous damage with Collision Course. Knocks down any Body Press nonsense with Screech.

Shortcomings: Dragon Claw.


Plans to give other long shots a try. Could be Polteageist's time to shine. Might manage another evasion win with Qwilfish. Fares okay with Tinkatuff and Revavroom.

Agrees on the Appletun and Lurantis above likely being good picks, also. Built both of them already.

 

[Sandslash Fan]

Gholdengo
Tera: Steel
Ability: Good as Gold
Nature: Modest (+Special Attack / -Attack)
EVs: Max Hitpoints and Special Attack
Moves: Make It Rain, Nasty Plot, Recover, and Metal Sound/Flash Cannon.
Hold Item: Shell Bell

Delivers massive damage with Make It Rain. Resists Chesnaught's three STABs at minimum...until you Terastallize. May be wise to hold off on that. Only do if it you can demolish the shield in a single blow.

Originally put in Tera: Ghost and Shadow Ball. Spaced on Bulletproof. Do not do that.

Shortcomings: Possible Earthquake, Crunch, and Shadow Claw.

Plans to give other long shots a try. Could be Polteageist's time to shine. Might manage another evasion win with Qwilfish. Fares okay with Tinkatuff and Revavroom.

Agrees on the Appletun and Lurantis above likely being good picks, also. Built both of them already.

The only reason I didn't bother looking at Qwilfish was that Acid Spray gets blocked by Bulletproof. I thought about Gholdengo as a possibility, as long as Chesnaught doesn't have Earthquake or Bulldoze it should be fine, favoring Flash Cannon over Make it Rain.

EDIT: Qwilfish with Metronome and Chilling Water could be a great support Pokémon for a team though. I guess that could be good for solo with Minimize spam.

 

[Devalue]

The only reason I didn't bother looking at Qwilfish was that Acid Spray gets blocked by Bulletproof. I thought about Gholdengo as a possibility, as long as Chesnaught doesn't have Earthquake or Bulldoze it should be fine, favoring Flash Cannon over Make it Rain.

EDIT: Qwilfish with Metronome and Chilling Water could be a great support Pokémon for a team though. I guess that could be good for solo with Minimize spam.

Hm. Brings up a valid choice with Flash Cannon over Make It Rain. Inflicts more overall damage with Flash Cannon x3 (1398.6 - 1648.5%) over Make It Rain x2 + Nasty Plot (1312.2 - 1545%), plus the 10% Special Defense drop and better PP. Might trigger a buff clear after the first or second hit, however. Favors Make It Rain, in that instance.

Might be able to get some distance out of Qwilfish in multiplayer. Competes with Toxapex, though.

Toxapex's advantages: Better defenses, Recover, and Iron Defense
Qwilfish's advantages: Intimidate, Taunt, Thunder Wave, more damage, Minimize, and Acupressure?

Views Toxapex as more reliably safe in a multiplayer support role. (Does not really do multiplayer raids, though, so take it with a grain of salt.)

Depends on the number of buff clears for Metronome versus Bright Powder. Gains the most benefit from Bright Powder when you need it the most (8-10%, depending on Seed Bomb or Stone Edge), but almost nothing after fully setting up (2.6 - 3%). Matters whether you need the damage boost or not too, of course. Bested the much frailer Inteleon, but with normal effective attacks. Hm. Handles Chesnaught's hits better than Inteleon's, also, thanks to Intimidate support solo. Relies less on every miss.

 

[Devalue]

Gave the first attempt to Avalugg. Breezed through it. Never went below 66% health. Feels like a pretty easy raid solo.

Chesnaught's moves: Wood Hammer, Hammer Arm, Stone Edge, and Earthquake. (Chickened out on giving it Body Press.)
Nature: Impish (+Defense / -Special Attack)

Begins the raid with an Iron Defense. Adds a Curse and Bulk Up partway through too.

Clears your buffs twice. Never cleans off its debuffs. Makes it incredibly susceptible to Intimidate partners in solo.

Credits Arcanine for being really handy. Brought Intimidate and Leer. Kept Chesnaught's Defense from being annoying.

Will have to give Espathra a shot at this one. Has not beaten much with it recently. Needs a win from time to time. Edit: Did so. Finished without fainting and about 45% of the timer left. Spammed Lumina Crash and Psychic. Nothing fancy.

Also, a useful idea in general: Use Strength Sap on an ally to heal during the shield phase. Netted Polteageist tons of health off a +1 Tauros.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I think Walking Wake is one that has potential to do well against it if you have one.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

This was by far the easiest Raid I've taken part in. First tried 'em with my not even fully EV/IV'd Koraidon.
Started with just using Screech, got its Defence down to just 2 above the lowest before I had to use Drain Punch to heal. That caused the shield to go up, so I continued with more Drain Punches 'till I could Tera, let myself faint to get my health back, Tera'd, then began using Collision Course 'till the shield broke, DPing as necessary. GGEZ.
Something else that's a little 'funny' is that I gave Scarlet King (my Koraidon) a Bright Powder, Chesnaught never missed once... Nice RNG lol.

 

[Hashimi]

I'm glad that finally they have decided to make an event about Chesnaught, one of my favourite Pokémon to be honest.

This is my go to Pokémon for this raid:

Nature: adamant - Tera type: grass - Held item: leftovers
Movepool: trop kick, low kick, reflect and synthesis

By using Tsareena I can both damage and support mainly due to trop kick who lowers Chesnaught's high attack in repetition. The online group must be good of course for this to actually work.

 

[Sandslash Fan]

Haven't tried with my Appletun yet, but my Lurantis did just fine. After the first raid I swapped the boots out for Shell Bell and pretty only have to use Leaf Storm and Giga Drain. I tried Defog once and that's the only reason I fainted once. I was mistaken in thinking it could clear buffs as well as hazards. The cleanest run was when I was teamed with randoms on the tera raid finder and one person had a Walking Wake with Chilling Water. I don't think either of us fainted the entire time. We carried the other two players.

 

[ReKoil]

Tried Iron Hands first expecting to live the non-stab earthquakes, which it did.
Got into trouble when it cleared the buffs on my end though. It had the shield up and my Drain Punches weren't healing me enough anymore. It's HP went down steadily ever since.
Eventually just became unwinnable and I pulled out rather than waiting out the timer.

Went in with an Espathra after that and won despite me completely forgetting my Espathra has an Ice Tera type...
'ah I can Tera, let's grab that extra Psychic damage'
*clicks Tera and Lumina Crash*
*remembers the Tera type Espathra has and realizes the mistake immediately after clicking* 😅

Espathra went down once to several Hammer Arms after that mistake xD
Managed to still win with a sliver of time remaining though =D

 

[Devalue]

Tallied wins for Surfing Pikachu (the 7-star raid one) and Sunflora.

For Pikachu: Charmed Chesnaught twice. Let Intimidate handle the rest. Eked out two Fake Tears before fainting, thanks to a paralyze. Racked up some Tera Orb charges on the second life before fainting again. Played a dangerous game of grabbing Nasty Plot boosts and Surfing back health (with a Shell Bell) after that. Probably only ever had two Nasty Plots active. Took a lot of damage from Earthquake and later Wood Hammer as Tera: Water. Never suffered any critical hits, thankfully.

For Sunflora: Led with Leech Seed for ~40 hitpoints of healing every turn. Switched between Giga Drain and Growth for healing. Went hard greed after the first buff clear. Probably got off 5 Growths. Spammed Giga Drains with a Metronome in hand. Kept that effect rolling, rather than renewing buffs at the second buff clear. Finished it with one Petal Dance. (Did not PP Up Giga Drain.)

Will get around to using actual good Pokemon eventually. Feels like the game rooting for the weak ones. Earned two Ability Patches and one Ability Capsule for winning with Surfing Pikachu. (No Raid Power active and not the first-clear Ability Patch either.) Picked up an Ability Capsule for Sunflora. (Has tons of those, though.)

Edit addition: No Arboliva partner for either one. (Dampens Earthquakes. Bumps up Grass moves, for better or for worse.) Same Modest nature and max Hitpoint and Special Attack EVs builds too.

 

[TwilightBlade]

I defeated Chesnaught easily with Choice Specs Modest Gholdengo with 3 support players using Fake Tears / Metal Sound Perrserker (ability Steely Spirit). My Gholdengo had max EVs in HP and SpAtk to tank the incoming Earthquake.

 

[Devalue]

One final update on weak solo raid picks. Tried for two further insults to Chesnaught: Luvdisc and (male) Salandit.

Spoiler: Best Attempt Images

Luvdisc


Salandit (behind a Substitute)

Survived well enough to bust the shield. (Went deathless in both of those attempts.) Lacked the damage to win in time, however.

Luvdisc (notable bits)
EVs: Max Defense and Special Attack. Bothered to optimize it.
Ability: Hydration
Moves: Surf, Charm, Rain Dance, and Rest
Hold Item: Mirror Herb

Grabs Chesnaught's +2 Defense boost right off the bat. Immediately Charms twice to bring down the damage. Stabilizes with its best trick: Rain Dance + Rest + Hydration. Heals to full and clears the Sleep status instantly. (Note: Do not do this with 1/5 turns on rain.)

Experimented with different items: Petaya Berry, Shell Bell, Damp Rock, and Bright Powder. Never bothered with Mystic Water / Metronome. Figured never fainting (via Mirror Herb) and saving time beat or tied the extra damage.

Thought about a physical build and hoping for ridiculous Defense drops from Liquidation. Already took ages resetting for a good ally team. Could also lose at any point to a critical.

Salandit
Moves: Poison Fang, Mud-Slap, Substitute, and Protect
Hold Item: Bright Powder

Capitalized on debuffs for previous Pokemon. Uses a similar angle: badly poisoned. Works slowly, of course. Hits as hard as it would on a normal Chesnaught without the humongous 35x health multiplier. Ticks for 15/16 of its health at its peak (296 damage), unaffected by the Tera Shield...probably. (Actually thought it kept going above 15/16. Was not counting turns.)

Badly poisoned Chesnaught one turn after the shield went up. Stalled for the duration of the timer with Substitutes, Protects, heal cheers, and Chesnaught's garbage accuracy. May or may not have been able to close the deal with more time. Ran low on healing towards the end. Still did quite well, given almost no direct damage from Salandit.

Initially started with Toxic Orb + Fling. Accepted Poison Fang's 50% chance as good enough and less damaging to Salandit. (Fun fact: Activates Corrosion on itself with a held Toxic Orb. Cannot normally poison a Poison type with its own Toxic Orb.) Translates this strategy to other Pokemon, such as Delibird, with the Fling option, however.

__________

Cleared it with (Johto) Qwilfish, at least. Changed it to Tera: Water. Lucked into the two best partners: Arcanine and Weavile. Cooperated with Leering Chesnaught. Brought it down to -2 Defense between Leers and Liquidation by the end. Equals 6 Defense drops over the course of the fight. Highlighted how grim physical Luvdisc's prospects were as a bonus. Reaches a damage equilibrium between Liquidation and Surf at -2 Defense.

Gained renewed frustration with the AI, as a sidenote. Knew about them doing stupid stuff like spamming Glare into the Tera shield. Witnessed Toxapex, in the rain, choose Poison Jab over Chilling Water and Surf against a Tera: Rock Chesnaught. Why?