Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: Complete Rayquaza Tera Raid Guide

Christmas has come in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet with the arrival of Shiny Rayquaza! For a limited time, players will be able to treat themselves to this rare present from GameFreak this holiday season. However, this present doesn't exactly come free.

True to its reputation, Rayquaza puts up a fight in a five-star tera raid battle. Although not the strongest tera battle to date, Rayquaza is still a fearsome legendary pokemon. You'll want to enter its lair with the optimal pokemon or risk facing a stocking full of carkoal this year.

Shiny Rayquaza Raid Event Information

You can catch Shiny Rayquaza until Sunday, January 5, 2025, at 3:59 p.m. PST.

This event is significant because Rayquaza cannot be encountered in Scarlet & Violet normally. Additionally, it has the rare shiny black coloring.

You can only catch one Shiny Rayquaza during this event, but additional prizes will be rewarded if you manage to defeat it more than once. These prizes include but are not limited to:

• Dragon Tera Shards
• TM115: Dragon Pulse
• Ability Capsules
• Ability Patches

If you're struggling to find Rayquaza's tera den, try opening your PokePortal and choosing the Tera Raid Battle option. Rayquaza should appear as an option on the following menu.

Friends can link together by a host first finding Rayquaza's den (indicated by a shining Dragon Tera symbol) and creating a group and a Link Code; friends can then join by using the Link Code option on the Tera Raids portion of the Poke Portal.

Rayquaza's Abilities And Moves

This Rayquaza will have the following profile:

Level	Normal Typing	Tera Typing	Ability	Moves To Be Wary Of
75	Dragon/Flying	Dragon	Air Lock - Cancels all active weather effects	Dragon Ascent, Hurricane, Earthquake, Extreme Speed, Draco Meteor

The greatest threat Rayquaza poses is its unpredictability. It has balanced physical and special attack stats (slightly leaning depending on its randomized nature).

Its three most concerning moves are:

• Earthquake, countering Steel, Ice, and Electric-type Pokemon that might have otherwise been ideal against Rayquaza.
• Extreme Speed, causing headaches for squishy Pokemon.
• Hurricane, which presents a risk through the Confusion status effect.

Due to the rank of the raid, Rayquaza has a 35 multiplier to its base HP stat but no apparent effects on its offensive or other defensive stats. Its bulkiness will require at least one solid offensive Pokemon on a raid team.

Best Pokemon For Shiny Rayquaza

While Shiny Rayquaza can be bested with a wide assortment of good Pokemon, we have a list of those that rise above the rest:

Pokemon	Special Notes
Sylveon	Just an all-rounder.
Gardevoir	Its fragility means it should wear a Shell Bell for survivability.
Zacian	Should not wear the Rusted Sword as a result of Earthquake; better with another item
Azumarill	Can switch easily between offensive and defensive positions. Versatile.
Fluttermane	Like Gardevoir, should wear a Shell Bell. Ghost and Fairy type gives immunity to Rayquaza's Extreme Speed and Dragon-type moves.
Mimikyu	Similar to Fluttermane, but has heightened survivability with its Ability allowing a hit against Mimikyu for no damage.
Clefairy	Similar to Azumarill with a bigger lean toward support than offense.
Grimmsnarl	Able to use status effect moves with priority, possibly outspeeding Rayquaza's Extreme Speed, when it has the Prankster ability.
Arceus (Fairy Plate)	High, balanced stats on-par with Rayquaza's. Judgement turns into a Fairy move and has a higher damage output than Moonblast.

These pokemon all have the Fairy typing in common, but you'll notice that not all Fairy Types are on this list. This is because Rayquaza's Earthquake is a dangerous counter to usually-powerful Fairy types with the Steel typing, such as Iron Valiant, Tinkaton, and Magearna.

The strongest of these choices will be those that have the ability to both lower Rayquaza's stats and raise their own in an efficient way.

You can make use of Steel-cross Fairies if you give them an Air Balloon, their second typing is Steel and their Tera type is Fairy, if they have the Levitate ability, or if you have a supporting pokemon with Life Tear, Heal Pulse, or defensive team stat boosts.

Dragon and Ice types can also see success in these Tera Raids, but they must be cautious that their offensive bonuses against Rayquaza will come at the cost of increased damage to your own team.

If you don't have a strong Fairy type from the list above, you can focus instead on these alternative strategies:

1. Change a Pokemon's Tera Type to Fairy, even if it doesn't have a Fairy type move. This will give you immunity to Draco Meteor and Dragon Ascent.
2. Bring a Pokemon that can easily inflict status conditions.
3. Bring a bulky Pokemon that can easily support teammates (such as Milotic).

Tips And Strategies For Shiny Rayquaza

On the first turn of any encounter with Shiny Rayquaza, it will always use Dragon Ascent. This is why Fairy-type Pokemon are optimal; with a Fairy Pokemon, Dragon Ascent will deal no damage.

Afterward, your first goal should be lowering Rayquaza's stats. Fake Tears, Screech, Tickle, Snarl, etc. are all optimal moves.

Do not use stat bonuses on your own pokemon until after Rayquaza reaches 80 percent health and clears stat changes for your team. You can safely do so after as Rayquaza will not repeat this later in the encounter.

Once Rayquaza has cleared the field, you can start focusing on your own team. Your goal should be to raise your stats and gear up for Terastallization. Ideally, buff yourself three times or until you feel threatened.

As soon as you can Terastallize safely, you should do so.

Rayquaza will use Dragon Dance at 50 percent health. At such a point, you should play aggressively to prevent taking unnecessary damage, fainting, and reducing the timer.

There will also be two Draco Meteors at 60 and 30 percent health respectively. If you are a Fairy-type, this is negligible.

If you're having issues with staying alive until you are ready to Terastallize, you should try putting a Shell Bell on your Pokemon or use a health-draining move such as Draining Kiss.

So long as you remember the following strategy, you can complete this tera raid without needing to team-up if you are unable or unwanting:

1. Debuff Rayquaza until 80 percent.
2. Buff yourself.
3. Attack and Terastallize as soon as possible (unless health is low; if so, wait for reset).
4. Catch your jolly present.

While you cannot catch Rayquaza any more than once, you can challenge it to battle an unlimited number of times. This can be an excellent way to farm Herba Mystica, Tera Shards, and Ability Patches while also helping out your friends.

Although its IVs and Nature will be randomly calculated, Rayquaza will always have the following moves when you catch it:

• Dragon Pulse
• Hurricane
• Earthquake
• Extreme Speed

With these legendary, shiny Rayquaza in your hands, we hope you'll both have a very, very happy holidays together.

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