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Following the February 2024 Pokémon Presents, the Pokémon Company announced that all three original Kanto starters would be making a comeback in powerful seven-star raids. Blastoise with the Steel Tera type is the second of the trio to become available in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and will be followed by a Dragon Tera-type Charizard next week.

If you want the best chance to pick up your own Mighty Blastoise here is everything you need to know.

When does the Blastoise raid start?

Unlike the usual seven-star raids, which are held over two weekends, the Mighty Blastoise will be available for an entire week. One raid will appear in each game every day, but you can only catch Blastoise once.

Here is when Blastoise raids will be available:

  • Tuesday, March 5, 2024 until Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Raids will change over at 7pm ET on March 12, when Charizard will take over raids.

7-Star Tera Raid Blastoise stats, moves, and ability – Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Blastoise is more of a defensive than an offensive Pokémon, which means you will need to boost your stats if you hope to knock it out within the time limit. While it doesn’t have the greatest offensive stats, it will still be able to deal a lot of damage if it lands a Super-Effective hit, so you will want to make sure you have a good type match-up. Luckily Blastoise doesn’t have amazing coverage, so there are a number of Pokémon that are viable for these raids.


The Mighty Blastoise in this week's 7-star raids has a?Steel Tera type.The Pokemon Company

Blastoise uses Withdraw and puts up the barrier turn one. It also has Iron Defense so your physical attackers will be useless here. After the barrier breaks, Blastoise will use Shell Smash to boost its offense and speed, and Rain Dance for recovery. We recommend that you wipe the boost, or override the weather here for your best chance at survival.

Here is the set for the Mighty Blastoise:

The Mighty Blastoise – Level 100

  • Nature – Naive
  • Ability – Rain Dish
  • Item – None
  • Tera type – Steel
  • Move set – Withdraw, Iron Defense, Aura Sphere, Flash Cannon, Hydro Pump, Shell Smash, Rain Dance

Best counters for Blastoise – Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Steel is weak to Fighting-, Ground-, and Fire-type damage but unfortunately the latter two are weak to Blastoise’s Water-type attacks. However, there are ways around this with some smart Tera and ability choices. Special attackers are key here with Blastoise constantly raising its defense and a weather setter is a good option too.

These are the four Pokémon we recommend against Mighty Blastoise.


The Pokemon Company / Nintendo

Storm Drain protects Gastrodon from any nasty Hydro Pumps while also boosting its Special Attack. If you are working in a team, you can even activate each other’s Storm Drain using Chilling Water to get strong quickly. This is the standard Gastrodon raid set with Mud-Slap to build Tera Orb charge and lower accuracy before going in with strong attacks. Amnesia is great if you are taking on the raid solo, but Skitter Smack to lower Blastoise’s Special Attack might be better if playing in a team.

Here’s what we recommend:

Gastrodon – Level 100

  • Nature – Calm
  • Ability – Storm Drain
  • Item – Shell Bell
  • Tera type – Ground
  • Move set – Mud-Slap, Chilling Water, Earth Power, Amnesia / Skitter Smack

Nintendo

From the Indigo Disk DLC, Terapagos has an absurd Special Attack stat that you can further boost with Calm Mind. This move is great in this raid as it boosts both the attack and defense stats that you will need to catch Blastoise. Sunny Day will help you override the weather, both reducing the damage from Hydro Pump, and increasing the damage of Flamethrower. Tera Starstorm is also Super Effective against Blastoise once Terapagos has Terastylized.

Here’s the set we recommend:

Terapagos – Level 100

  • Nature – Calm
  • Ability – Tera Shell
  • Item – Shell Bell
  • Tera type – Stellar
  • Move set – Tera Starstorm, Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Calm Mind

The Pokemon Company / Niantic

Dialga is a great typing for this raid, but unfortunately doesn’t have a way to boost its stats, which is necessary when dealing with such a bulky foe. While you can’t use Psych Up to copy the stats from Blastoise, you can use it to copy a teammate, so any partner using Calm Mind, Nasty Plot, or Amnesia is perfect for helping support. After the barrier breaks, Metal Sound will reduce Blastoise’s defense, allowing you to take it out quickly.

Here’s what we recommend:

Dialga – Level 100

  • Nature – Calm
  • Ability – Telepathy
  • Item – Shell Bell
  • Tera type – Dragon
  • Move set – Metal Sound, Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Psych Up

The Pokemon Company / Nintendo

Slowbro is another raid staple thanks to its great defenses and amazing supportive move set. Calm Mind and Stored Power have great synergy together, hugely boosting your potential damage output. Slowbro is also the perfect partner for Dialga as it can boost stats to copy with Psych Up. Light Screen and Sunny Day will further support your team by negating some of Blastoise’s damage.

Here’s what we recommend.

Slowbro – Level 100

  • Nature – Calm
  • Ability – Oblivious
  • Item – Shell Bell
  • Tera type – Psychic
  • Move set – Light Screen, Sunny Day, Calm Mind, Stored Power

This article first appeared on Video Games on Sports Illustrated and was syndicated with permission.

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