Update: The Great Tusk & Iron Treads Tera Raid battles have been canceled due to an error that caused the game to crash. The event will be postponed.
A new Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Tera Raid event is here, and this time around, it seems each edition of the game will have its own version-exclusive Paradox Pokemon for gamers to catch. This weekend, players will be able to catch Great Tusk and Iron Treads in 5-Star Tera Raid battles.
Great Tusk is an encounter for players that own Pokemon Scarlet, while Iron Treads is an encounter for players that own Pokemon Violet. It's been a while since version-exclusive Pokemon were available in a Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Tera Raid event. This guide will help players defeat and catch both Pokemon.
How To Participate In The Tera Raid Event
The Great Tusk and Iron Treads Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Tera Raids will be live from May 19 at 00:00 UTC until May 21 at 23:59 UTC. Although many Tera Raids during events are 7-Star battles, both Pokemon can be found in 5-Star Tera Raid battles. These Tera Raids will be accessible to more gamers in the community; to encounter Great Tusk and Iron Treads, players only need to have beaten the main story of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.
Before searching Tera Crystals for these Pokemon, gamers have to check the Poke Portal News in the Mystery Gift tab to update their encounters.
In order to catch the Pokemon that can only be encountered in the other version of the game, players will have to enter these battles with other trainers. Gamers that own the Nintendo Switch Online membership can enter the online battles, but those that don't subscribe to the service will have to stick to local play.
How To Catch Great Tusk
Great Tusk is a Ground- and Fighting-Type Pokemon with three great stats: HP, Attack, and Defense. On top of this, considering the Pokemon's dimensions, it's not as slow as many players would think. Its weak points are its low Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense stats.
Offense
Unfortunately, the Great Tusk that gamers will encounter during this event can have any Tera Type, so it's impossible to know what its weaknesses will be.
If the player wants to focus on dealing damage to Great Tusk during the battle, their best option is to get a Pokemon with a high Sp. Attack stat to take advantage of its weak Sp. Defense.
Gholdengo is one of the best Special Attackers in the game right now, especially with access to its powerful Special signature move, Make It Rain.
Defense
Great Tusk gets access to very strong Physical moves of various different types, making it difficult to predict what it might use in the Tera Raid battle. It is likely that it will stick to STAB Ground and Fighting-Type moves, so a Grass-Type Pokemon with a high Defense stat might be ideal when it comes to choosing a defensive Pokemon.
Scyther is another great option to take to the Great Tusk Tera Raid battle. Its dual Bug- and Flying-Type allow it to resist Fighting-Type moves and make it immune to Ground-Type moves. The only downside is its quadruple weakness to Rock-Type moves, which Great Tusk might have learned. To deal with this situation, the player can have it hold a Charti Berry to weaken the damage.
To use Scyther as a support Pokemon, the player can teach it Helping Hand or take advantage of the Cheer support options.
How To Catch Iron Treads
Iron Treads is a Ground- and Steel-Type Pokemon with particularly strong Attack, Defense, and Speed stats. It's also got a decent HP stat that, paired with its high Defense, can make it difficult to take down.
Offense
Just like Great Tusk, players won't know Iron Treads's Tera Type until it terastilizes. This makes it particularly difficult to decide the best Pokemon since players won't know what its weaknesses and resistances will be until they've already entered the battle.
Iron Treads has a weaker Sp. Defense stat; players need to take this into consideration before choosing the right Pokemon for the raid and aim for a good Special Attacker.
Since players won't be able to know its Tera-Type beforehand like in other raid events, taking Gholdengo and spamming Make It Rain is always a great option. It's high Sp. Attack stat paired with Make It Rain will always work well together in this type of situation.
Defense
Iron Treads can learn tons of strong Ground-, Steel-, Rock-, and Normal-Type moves, which can definitely make it hard for other Pokemon to defend themselves.
Even though Steel-Type Pokemon can resist most of these types, they're weak to Ground-Type moves, which is precisely Iron Treads's specialty. This is why Forretress is the perfect option to provide support against Iron Treads.
Forretress has an impressive Defense stat to counter Iron Treads's high Attack stat, and none of its moves are super effective against it. It can also learn Helping Hand and Reflect, which are great Status moves to boost the strength of the player's teammate's offensive moves.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.