(newbie) How do I beat the 5 star raids?

[Sorenzor]

I beat the league, I got all legendaries without the expansion, I have my first level 100 pokemon (meowscarada), other 6 or 7 level 80-90 pokemon... but I can't beat a single 5 star raid. It's impossible, nothing hurts them once they get that armor. Also, they seem to only attack ME.

I am playing offline since I am still not buying into switch online.

I just... can't win. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. At first I thought it was a matter of level, but my reach is as good now with my 100 meowscarada as it was with level 67. In fact, I lose always at the same point. I try terastilizing, I am DESTROYED, the crystal breaks, time runs out, sometimes I am killed a second time. Cheering does nothing, I barely heal, usually not enough to survive one or two more strikes at that point.

What am I missing?

 

[Devalue]

Will go over a few things. Pertains to offline raids, specifically.

Moves: Arguably requires moves that either strengthen your Pokemon or debuff your opponent.

• Good buffing moves:
  • Nasty Plot and Swords Dance: Reaches your peak offensive quickly. Maxes out at three uses (x4 damage). Ideally plays to your strengths, so something like Swords Dance for a physical-based Pokemon.
  • Belly Drum: Risky, but effective. Can go wrong if your buffs get cleared at a bad time.
  • Bulk Up, Coil, Curse, Calm Mind, and Quiver Dance: Good against the right opponent. Uses something like Bulk Up on a physical Pokemon against a physical boss.
  • Iron Defense: Builds your Defense against physical opponents. Recommends this with Body Press. (Relies on your defense for damage.)
• Good debuffing moves:
  • Acid Spray: Excellent for any Special Attacker (and assuming a non-Steel opponent). Works with the Tera Shield up.
  • Fake Tears, Metal Sound, and Screech: Situational. Works if you can apply this before the Tera Shield AND the boss does not clear debuffs at the wrong time.
  • Charm, Feather Dance, Chilling Water, Mystical Fire, and Struggle Bug: Helps you survive attacks and get off your buffing moves. Builds your Tera Orb charges in some cases.
  • Mud-Slap: Not a reliable debuff, but not the worst move for mitigating damage.

Note: Largely does not care about Speed. Goes on for quite a few turns. Smacks you outside of the turn order sometimes too. Worries about this when the boss has something like Iron Head (which flinches you) and some other more niche situations.

Other good moves:

• Recovery moves. Some examples: Slack Off, Recover, Drain Punch, Giga Drain, and Leech Life. Prefers the damaging ones.
• Body Press. With Iron Defense (or Cotton Guard) only.
• Power Trip and Stored Power. Ramps way up with buffs. Works well with Bulk Up and Calm Mind.

Would not call Meowscarada a particularly strong Pokemon for Tera Raids, unfortunately. Relies on Hone Claws with a physical set. Takes a long time to set up. Gives a special set some side eye, despite getting Nasty Plot and Fake Tears. Probably fares better than a physical Meowscarada, however. Deals with a lot of weaknesses on top of this. Likely takes super-effective damage from the boss.

A special-based Meowscarada set:

• Nasty Plot: Your go-to buff.
• Fake Tears: Not ideal, but alright. Use this before the Tera Shield goes up.
• Chilling Water / Mud-Slap: Builds your Tera Orb charges on top of weaking your opponent. Go with Chilling Water if you plan on facing physical opponents. Uses Mud-Slap against any opponent. Pick whichever. Notably works with the Tera Shield up too, if necessary.
• Giga Drain, Energy Ball, or Dark Pulse: Pick based on your Tera type. Goes into why in the Tera Shield section. Leaves you without much coverage, but what can you do?

Mentions a few niche moves: Skill Swap, Worry Seed, Taunt, and Throat Chop. Requires knowledge of your opponent beforehand. Could be useful.


Items

Generally only recommends one of two items.

• Shell Bell. Faces an opponent with an inflated health pool. Keeps you healthy. Good on just about any Pokemon. Buy it in Levincia at Delibird Presents.
• Big Root. Hold this if your main damaging move is a healing move. Recovers more, on top of one less healing message.

Generally advises against Leftovers, due to the animation time. Adds up.


Cheers

Considers the Healing Cheer okay. Cures status ailments like poison, paralysis, and sleep. Goes before the boss if you really need a quick health injection. (Mainly uses it for the status ailment cure.)

Do not bother with Attack and Defense cheers solo. Does not recall precisely how long it lasts. Believes only 2-3 turns. Boosts your partners, but who cares about them? Hits for nothing.

Other raid preparations

Sort out your nature, Individual Values, and Effort Values.

Nature: Usually Adamant (+Attack / - Special Attack) or Modest (+Special Attack / -Attack). Check out Chansey Supply for mints.

Individual Values: Get some Bottle Caps. Buys these at Delibird Presents in Levincia, Mesagoza, and Cascarrafa. Go to Montenevera and look for a person near an Abomasnow. Talks about Hyper Training. Feel free to boost up all six stats. Recommends at least four for most: Hitpoints, your offensive stat, Defense, and Special Defense.

Effort Values (EVs, for short): Hit L on your Pokemon's stat screen with the hexagon graph. May look something like this.


Look at the more solid color. (Will be blue if you are at your EV cap and a more vibrant yellow if not.) Tells you what your Pokemon trained in. Likely looks much less spiky, if you simply fought whatever. Wastes points in things you may not be using.

May only have a total of 510 EVs. Means you want to remove points in stats you care less about. How do you do that? With berries like the Tamato Berry. Says this:

If a Pokémon is fed this Berry, it will grow more friendly, but it will lose base points for its Speed stat.

The list of EV-reducing berries: Pomeg (HP), Kelpsy (Attack), Qualot (Defense), Hondew (Special Attack), Grepa (Special Defense), and Tamato (Speed).

Alternatively, use a Fresh-Start Mochi to completely bring all your EVs to 0. Obtains this from Ogre Oustin' (in the DLC).

Next: gaining EVs. Head back to Delibird Presents. Look for the Power items, such as Power Bracer. Likely wants Power Weight (HP), Power Bracer (Attack), and/or Power Lens. Recommends buying 6 of each, if you can afford it. Equip your Pokemon with an item that reflect the stats it wants (probably one offense and HP). Gains 8 EVs in that stat per Pokemon with that equipped.

Last step: battling. Gains EVs based on what you fight. Personally prefers beating up Chanseys and Blisseys near the Team Star Fairy in the north, in the grassy area. Eat a Ham Sandwich (#80) to find them much easier. Advises starting with your offensive stat, maxing that, then switching to the Power Weight.

Gets a little grindy. Takes 32 battles to max your Attack on Chanseys/Blisseys with the Power Lens or Bracer equipped. (Check your status screen to see if you maxed it out. Sparkles in that stat if you have.) Requires fewer battles to finish maxing your Hitpoints, due to the HP EVs obtained from the Chanseys/Blisseys. One bright spot: Gains EVs on all the Pokemon in your party, not just the one doing the fighting. Allows you to train up to six Pokemon at the same time.


Boss Mechanics

Faces a 4 on 1 battle. Gave the boss some advantages. Sports 20 times the normal hitpoints (for 5-star raids), for one. Also has a few tricks up its sleeve.

• Out-of-turn moves: Occurs outside of the normal turn order. May be before you even move. Happens on one of two thresholds: Hitpoints or Time Remaining. Generally sees one move at about 85% Time Remaining and another at 45% Hitpoints Remaining.
• Buff clear: Wipes away all the positive stat changes you have, such as from Nasty Plot, Swords Dance, and even cheers. Also negates your ability for one turn. Believes you keep any stat drops you have.
• Debuff clear: Removes all the negative stat changes the boss has, as well as any statuses it has (like paralysis). Will not remove the boss's positive stat changes.

Still follows a general turn order, outside of the above things. Only attacks you and your allies after you select a move. Uses a move "against" each ally. Provides an example of a turn below.

Meowscarada: Flower Trick
Raid Boss: Close Combat on Ally 1, Close Combat on Meowscarada, Dragon Dance on Ally 2, and Yawn on Ally 3.
Ally 2: Light Screen
Ally 3: Life Dew
Ally 1: Brick Break

Would put the Raid Boss at -2 Defense, -2 Special Defense, +1 Attack, and +1 Speed. Be wary of any boss with a move that boosts stats, such as Ancient Power. Uses it up to 4 times in a single "turn". Could go very badly very quickly.

Leaves one final, major boss mechanic.

The Tera Shield

Protects the boss massively. Prevents all non-damaging status moves against it, such as Screech, Charm, and Fake Tears. (May use moves that do damage, such as Chilling Water. Applies the -1 Attack debuff still too.) Significantly reduces all damage too. Depends on being Terastallized and your move, however.

• Reduces your damage by 80% if not Terastallized.
• Reduces your damage by 65% if you are Terastallized, but not using a move of that Tera type.
• Reduces your damage by 25% if you are Terastallized and using a move that matches your Tera type.

As an example, say you normally hit for 100 damage with Leaf Blade.

• Not Terastallized: 20 damage
• Terastallized as something like Dark: 35 damage
• Terastallized as Grass: 100 damage. (Gained extra damage from the Terastallization. Increases your same-type attack bonus from x1.5 to x2. Evens out exactly with the damage reduction from the shield. Math: (100 / 1.5) * 2 * (1 - 0.25) = 100.

Makes a big difference in damage.

The short version: Do not expect to do much damage while the shield is up unless you are Terastallized and using a move of that type. Forces you to specialize Pokemon, more or less.


The Flow of the Fight

Expects a fight to go roughly like this:

• Turn 1: Chilling Water or Mud-Slap. Cuts the incoming damage a little. May help to get the next moves off.
• Turn 2, 3, and 4: Fake Tears. Fit in as many as you can. Should be okay for 5-start raids if you only manage two.
• Faint. Pile on some more Chilling Waters/Mud-Slaps, if still alive. Ignore this and skip to the next step if you are able to survive for several more turns.
• Return to the battle. Use Nasty Plot three times.
• Spam your attacking move. Terastallize when you can.
• Buff reset or debuff clear. Probably happens after your first Terastallized hit.
• Either:
  • (Cleared both buffs and debuffs) Nasty Plot once. Do it a second time, if you can get away with it. Then spam attacks until you win.
  • (Cleared buffs or debuffs, but not both) Continue spamming attacks until you win.

One big takeaway: Do not be afraid to faint in a solo raid. May even plan around it. Definitely try to avoid fainting while Terastallized, however. (Can happen, but hopefully only after the Tera Shield goes down.)

Partners

Based their level off of your Pokemon. Will be 80% of your level. (So, level 80 allies with your Pokemon at level 100.)

Views some partners as better than others, for different reasons. Consider running and starting it up again if you do not like your allies. (Might give you the same ones if you do it too quick. Experiment with this a little.) Some useful ones:

• Arcanine, Staraptor, and Tauros: Intimidate. Triggers each time the ally Pokemon faints, which is fairly often. Try resetting to get one of these if you are struggling against a physical raid boss.
• Gardevoir: Sometimes heals you with Life Dew (although not that often). Can hit the boss with a status via Synchronize too.
• Sylveon: Lowers the boss's Special Attack with Moonblast. Knows Charm too, for physical opponents.
• Bellibolt: Light Screen. Stands a good chance of paralyzing with Discharge.

A note: May witness your allies being dumb. Failed to include a check to see if the Tera Shield is up. Will sometimes waste tons of turns in a row trying to Glare while the shield is up.
_______________

Congratulations if you read everything up to this point. Threw a lot at you. Will gladly recommend some movesets for any other Pokemon you have and answer any questions you have.

 

[Sorenzor]

Wow, that was detailed. Thanks. I am really struggling with the typing and the moves that get me paralized or burned. There's not really a solution, they always use those, and ruin me completely. Kind of force me to pick a pokemon that is immune to the stats... but I don't have that many strong pokemon.

I am starting to understand that this is the endgame. And I am not prepared at all. I wanted to hunt for shiny pokemon, but I needed the herbs so I thought to beat some 5 star raids. Nope, it doesn't work like that, it doesn't for me at least. I need the perfect pokemon for the right enemy, and even then, it needs to be outstanding.

Being honest, I am not finding it fun. The mechanics seems made to frustrate the player. The way the enemy just goes against the established rules (kind of cheating) to beat your ass isn't very cool. The entire game teaches you how the battles go, just to throw everything out the window, the only way to create real challenge is to ignore those rules.

The stat changing effects are particularly nasty. Losing because of flinch... when your pokemon suffers it 12 times in a row... or when you are finally doing it and the thing creates an impossible barrier.

By the way, did I miss your explanation about how to destroy that barrier? Do I need to terastalize like the game says, or not? Does it help to use tera type attacks or super effective attacks?

 

[Devalue]

Wow, that was detailed. Thanks. I am really struggling with the typing and the moves that get me paralized or burned. There's not really a solution, they always use those, and ruin me completely. Kind of force me to pick a pokemon that is immune to the stats... but I don't have that many strong pokemon.

I am starting to understand that this is the endgame. And I am not prepared at all. I wanted to hunt for shiny pokemon, but I needed the herbs so I thought to beat some 5 star raids. Nope, it doesn't work like that, it doesn't for me at least. I need the perfect pokemon for the right enemy, and even then, it needs to be outstanding.

Being honest, I am not finding it fun. The mechanics seems made to frustrate the player. The way the enemy just goes against the established rules (kind of cheating) to beat your ass isn't very cool. The entire game teaches you how the battles go, just to throw everything out the window, the only way to create real challenge is to ignore those rules.

The stat changing effects are particularly nasty. Losing because of flinch... when your pokemon suffers it 12 times in a row... or when you are finally doing it and the thing creates an impossible barrier.

Use the Heal cheer if you get paralyzed/burned at a bad time. Usually happens on a percentage chance for those. Ignore the burn if you are a Special Attacker. May wish to consider a Ground type if the boss is a baseline Electric type. On that note, keep the boss's standard typing in mind more than the Tera type. Like, do not bring Salazzle to a Garchomp raid, even if Garchomp is Tera: Grass. Fights bosses who do not have a move of their Tera type far more often than not.

Disagrees on needing to perfectly train and match Pokemon to most* raid bosses (for 5-stars). Certainly helps to have a few options and proper training, to be fair. Considers some Pokemon good enough to be pretty versatile, although certainly not unstoppable in all raids. Agrees that what makes a Pokemon good in a standard 1v1 is not the same for a Tera Raid Battle. Argues what makes a Pokemon good in a 1v1 is not the same for a 2v2 battle too. Still relies on the fundamentals of good type match-ups.

*One exception: Amoonguss because of Spore and Clear Smog. Bring a sleep immunity, such as Electric Terrain, Misty Terrain, Insomnia, Sap Sipper, or Purifying Salt. Probably wants debuffs as well.

Rarely found flinching to be an issue, even when not investing in Speed at all. Faces a level 75 Pokemon with extra hitpoints and good Individual Values. Take Garchomp with Iron Head, for example. Hits, at most, 198 Speed (usually less). Could be outsped by a level 100 Magby, Cutiefly, Mabosstiff, or Skuntank, none of whom are renowned speedsters. Expects some ally to have a Speed-lowering move too.

Oh, one other note: Skip the Effort Value stuff if you are going to cut any corners. Takes the most time, outside of leveling itself, relative to what you get out. Grants roughly a 10% boost to those stats compared to 0 Effort Values. Considers an even spread of Effort Values to be sufficient for a solo 5-star raid.

By the way, did I miss your explanation about how to destroy that barrier? Do I need to terastalize like the game says, or not? Does it help to use tera type attacks or super effective attacks?

Look at its health bar when it brings up the shield.


See that brighter spot of the health bar? Indicates the shield's health. Breaks upon hitting that bright line. Robs the boss of their next turn as well. (Will still do out-of-turn stuff like buff clears and moves, though.) Has not done a 5-star raid recently enough to remember how big that amount will be. Maybe half of its total health? (May be thinking of 7-star raids.) Likely no more than that.

Helps immensely to Terastallize and use a move of that Tera type. Hits for only 1/5 of your normal damage otherwise. Hinges entirely on Terastallizing. Never hurts to be super-effective either.

Never fully explained Terastallizing. Must hit the boss with an attack 3 times before you can Terastallize. (Keep an eye out for out-of-turn Tera Orb charge steals too. Wipes away one of your hits. Happens on some bosses, but not all.) May only Terastallize once during the raid. Do not Terastallize if you are going to faint.
_________________

Might as well bring up some good Pokemon and an explanation as to why.

• Koraidon
  • Moves: Swords Dance and Drain Punch. And sure, Collision Course.
  • Tera: Fighting. (Capture the one in Area Zero. Has Tera: Fighting by default.)
  • Held Item: Big Root
  • Explanation: Keeps itself alive very easily. Use Swords Dance a few times. Toss in a Drain Punch to heal, as needed. Hardly needs other moves. Keep it away from anything with a Fairy attack, however.
• Miraidon
  • Moves: Electro Drift, Parabolic Charge, Calm Mind, and Metal Sound
  • Tera: Electric. (Capture the one in Area Zero. Has Tera: Electric by default.)
  • Held Item: Shell Bell
  • Explanation: Slower than Koraidon...sometimes. Hits extremely hard with Metal Sound x3 into a super-effective Electro Drift. May be able to bypass the shield entirely and just knock it out. Downside: Landing those 85% accurate Metal Sounds. Expect to miss one. Mentions the other two moves for a more drawn-out battle, particularly one you are not super-effective in.
• Appletun
  • Moves: Apple Acid, Iron Defense, Amnesia, and Recover
  • Tera: Grass
  • Ability: Thick Fat, ideally, which is the Hidden Ability. Do not worry too much if you cannot get it. Take whatever otherwise.
  • Held Item: Shell Bell
  • Explanation: Applies a -1 Special Defense debuff on every Apple Acid. Use maybe one Iron Defense or Amnesia, depending on your opponent. Likely never needs Recover.
• Iron Hands
  • Moves: Belly Drum and Drain Punch / Thunder Punch (depending on your Tera type).
  • Tera: Fighting or Electric. Manages both pretty well.
  • Held Item: Big Root (with Drain Punch) or Shell Bell (with Thunder Punch)
  • Explanation: A well-known champion for Tera Raids. Use Belly Drum on Turn 1, then destroy. May need to Belly Drum if your stats get cleared. Do not worry if you faint.
• Hisuian Goodra and Goodra
  • Moves: Acid Spray, Acid Armor / Shelter, Dragon Pulse / Flash Cannon, and Chilling Water. Pick Dragon Pulse or Flash Cannon based on your Tera type.
  • Tera: Dragon for standard. Steel or Dragon for Hisuian.
  • Ability: Sap Sipper for standard. Sap Sipper or Shell Armor for Hisuian Goodra.
  • Held Item: Shell Bell
  • Explanation: Pretty tanky and a good typing. Worries less about super-effective moves. Use Acid Spray to weaken. Heal up with your main attack as needed.

Is not an exhaustive list. Mentions Azumarill, Iron Moth, Gholdengo, Slowking, Krookodile, Bellibolt, Ceruledge, and Espathra as good options too. Could name more. Basically comes down to having decent defenses, healing (usually Shell Bell or a move), and some means of improving your damage while the Tera Shield is up.

 

[ReKoil]

Imo Meowscarada is too frail for a general use raiding mon. I've raided with it, but it kinda requires the right opponent.

How are you doing on cash? I personally prefer just buying Vitamins for EV training over having to do actual EV training. It's more costly, but also faster.... if you got the dough. All the mons I EV trained in SV I just spammed Vitamins on. Kinda need 1 good raiding mon to get the ball rolling as you get stuff from raids you can sell as well as Exp. Candies.
Avoid using the mon you want to EV train before doing the vitamin spam so you don't mess up where the EV's go.

I assume you got Koraidon/Miraidon as you got all legendaries in the basegame, so I think I'd recommend getting that Raid ready first. They are strong and versatile raiding mons that can handle 5 star raids fairly easily in general.
Use Protein to max Attack if using Koraidon, use Calcium to max Sp. Attack if you have Miraidon. Will need 25 vitamins + 2 corresponding feathers to max EV's (Muscle or Genius Feather for Koraidon/Miraidon). Or just use another vitamin though it's a bit of a waste for those 2 EV's.
I don't remember what other stat I EV trained on my own Koraidon/Miraidon. For raids you might want to prefer HP, Defense or Sp. Defense as Speed isn't as important.
You'll have some leftover EV's you'll often end up ditching into one of those stats as well.

Use Bottle Cops at the Hyper training guy already mentioned. For 5 star raids just Attack/Sp. Attack and your Defenses are probably enough, but I often just do everything. Should already have 3 Best IV's on Miraidon/Koraidon due to being legendaries iirc.
Use a Mint to change nature if needed. Buys them easily at Chansey Supply post league. Generally wants Adamant for physical attackers and Modest for Special attackers. Should check what nature it has first though... might be lucky and already have it.

And then level your mon to level 100.
Make sure Koraidon has Drain Punch for heals and Miraidon Parabolic charge. The heal cheer is only useful for getting rid of status... the actual hp healing is usually insufficient.
Have it hold a type based damage boosting item, the Magnet for Miraidon or Expert Belt for Koraidon.
For mons that can't heal themselves with a move like Drain Punch you'll want a Shell Bell.

Imo there are only a few 5-6 star Pokemon that require specific preparation, for example:
-If your 5 star raid is an annoying spore user like Amoonguss, have your mon hold Safety Goggles.
-If your up against Galarian Slowking and it's PP reducing Eerie Spell you'll want a soundproof mon to avoid running out of PP. Iirc I used a Kommo-o for it.

Wow, that was detailed. Thanks. I am really struggling with the typing and the moves that get me paralized or burned. There's not really a solution, they always use those, and ruin me completely. Kind of force me to pick a pokemon that is immune to the stats... but I don't have that many strong pokemon.

Substitute can help. Pretty much every Pokemon can learn it via TM. Stuff like Will-O-Wisp or Thunder Wave won't work with a sub up.

I am starting to understand that this is the endgame. And I am not prepared at all. I wanted to hunt for shiny pokemon, but I needed the herbs so I thought to beat some 5 star raids. Nope, it doesn't work like that, it doesn't for me at least. I need the perfect pokemon for the right enemy, and even then, it needs to be outstanding.

Do you have the DLC's ?
Because if you just want some Herba Mystica, you can get 2 of each type (10 total) for collecting every tablecloth in the game and showing it to a guy in Kitakami.