Pokemon Scarlet and Violet 7-Star Greninja Tera Raid Second Run Guide

The limited-time 7-Star Greninja Tera Raid has been brought back to Pokemon Scarlet & Violet for round two.At the end of January, a 7-Star Greninja Tera Raid event was held, and during this time, players would have the chance to catch a Level 100 Greninja with the Mightiest Mark. Fans had a hard time defeating this powerful 'mon, and some even deemed this raid the hardest Pokemon Scarlet & Violet raid to beat so far. Just like Charizard, players that didn't succeed in catching the Pokemon the first time they played through the raid would get another chance a few days later.

The Greninja event is live once again, and players will have until February 12 to challenge the water type. Even though the Tera Raid Greninja doesn't have Battle Bond as its ability, it's still a powerful Pokemon worth catching. The Pokemon has a Poison Tera-Type and knows the moves Gunk Shot, Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, and Night Slash; this is a wide variety of moves that make this 'mon extremely viable to use and difficult to take down.

What to expect in the Greninja tera raid

Greninja’s full moveset is as follows:

Hydro Pump / Water
Toxic Spikes / Poison
Night Slash / Dark
Ice Beam / Ice
Gunk Shot / Poison
Double Team / Normal
In previous raids, Charizard was spec’d to be a special attacker and Cinderace was a physical attacker. Greninja has a respectable physical and special attack stat, though its special attack comes out ahead. However, it balances out by having lower defense, so if you can withstand its attacks, you can probably do meaningful damage in return if you’ve got the right Pokémon and moves.

The best Pokémon and moves to bring to the fight for the Greninja raid

The funny thing about the recent Cinderace raid was that some of the best strategies for December’s Charizard raid remained pretty solid for that one as well. This trend continues with Greninja, as the Slowbro Stored Power build can still do some real damage because of the boss’ poison tera type. This tactic involves a Slowbro that knows Stored Power, Iron Defense, and Nasty Plot. Stored Power is a psychic attack that increases in power for each stat boost the user has received during battle. After three uses of Iron Defense and three uses of Nasty Plot, Slowbro can drop a devastating Stored Power, and I’m speaking from personal experience when I say that using this build, alongside teammates using Helping Hand to give your attacks a further boost, was potent enough to take Cinderace down in the last raid almost instantly.

The trouble is, Greninja’s dark base typing puts Slowbro at much higher risk than it was during the Cinderace raid. Slowbro is bulky and has high defense stats, but Greninja is a heavy hitter, and if it fixates on using Night Slash on your damage-dealing Slowbro, actually getting this combo off can be a challenge. There are a few things you can do to keep the pressure off Slowbro while it prepares to use Stored Power. The easiest option is to bring a Pokémon that knows Follow Me, which will divert an enemy’s attention to you as its sole target for a few turns. However, in Scarlet and Violet, there are only three Pokémon that can learn this move: Indeedee, Pachirisu, and Maushold. Indeedee is a psychic type, so it would be just as susceptible to Greninja’s dark attack as Slowbro; Maushold’s defensive stats are fine; Pachirisu’s are somewhat better. None of the options are great, but it is one way to divert attention away from Slowbro while it stores power.

The other route you can go is to just prioritize supporting Slowbro and keeping it alive. This can be done through using cheers to heal and raise your team’s defenses, as well as by bringing Pokémon to the fight who can use abilities like Heal Pulse. There are a handful of Pokémon who can learn this move, but a lot of them are psychic and will be at risk of getting smacked down by Greninja’s dark attacks. Blissey is one of the most effective support Pokémon in the game, and wouldn’t be weakened by either of Greninja’s base typings. Having a player who acts as the support character is a good rule of thumb for tera raids, and Blissey’s a good one to have both for Heal Pulse and for Helping Hand to boost attacks.

If you want something less risky, Gastrodon and Clodsire are leading the pack in the Pokémon community as reliable counters to a poison-type Greninja. Gastrodon as a water/ground type is both relatively resistant to Greninja’s water attacks, and has an inherent strength against Greninja’s poison tera type with ground attacks. Gastrodon also has an ability called Storm Drain, which draws all water attacks to it, nullifies damage, and increases the special attack stat. Couple this with reliable ground moves like Earth Power and self-healing moves like Recover, and Gastrodon can both deal and take a lot of damage in this fight.

Another strategy is to use Clodsire, which has a possible immunity to water with the right ability. Clodsire is a poison/ground type, which makes it technically weakened by water attacks, but it can also have an ability called Water Absorb that converts any water damage to HP. So if you want to render some of Greninja’s attacks not only useless, but beneficial to you, Clodsire’s a good choice.

As for its moveset, Earth Power remains a reliable ground-type damage dealer, but Clodsire’s survivability is one of its key perks in this fight. While Water Absorb will keep Greninja’s water attacks at bay, it also has Ice Beam. Clodsire’s a bulky Pokémon with a lot of HP, but if Greninja starts using ice attacks, keeping Recover in your moveset is a good way to ensure it stays on the field. You can also raise Clodsire’s defense stats in the battle by using Stockpile, because as long as you don’t use Spit Up or Swallow, this will increase Clodsire’s defense and special defense. Keeping Blissey around as support will also help keep Clodsire up and ready to dish out Earth Power.

Getting Recover for Clodsire will be a bit trickier than for Gastrodon, however, as it can only learn it through breeding. This means if you want your Clodsire to know it, you’ll have to breed a Paldean Wooper through a female Wooper or Clodsire and a male Pokémon that is compatible with Wooper or Clodsire that knows Recover. The Pokémon who fall into this criteria would be a male Shellos, Gastrodon, Mareanie, Toxapex, and Pincurchin. All of the potential fathers in this situation can learn Recover by leveling up, so that process is much easier. Make sure they know the move when you make a picnic for them to get to breeding, then the Wooper that pops out of the egg when it hatches should know the skill. Then you’re free to raise it up to a tanky Clodsire.

If you’ve got a Clodsire or Gastrodon but neither have the abilities mentioned above, you can change it by using an Ability Capsule. These can be found as drops during high-level tera raids, or bought at Chansey Supply stores after completing the main game.

Gamers that have already caught Greninja the first time around won't be able to catch it again, but they can play the raid as many times as they wish, which isn't pointless at all since high-ranked raids give out great and rare rewards such as Tera Shards and multiple L and XL Exp. Candies. Both of these items are exceptionally valuable in competitive Pokemon as Tera Shards are required to change a Pokemon's Tera-Type, and Exp. Candies are very useful when it comes to leveling up Pokemon quickly.

During this event, gamers will also have the chance to find high-leveled Lucario and Bronzong. In the future of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, more 7-Star Tera Raid events are sure to come with all sorts of different Pokemon on the spotlight, but it is unknown when or if Greninja will make a return to the Tera Raid battlefield, so it's best not to pass up this chance to catch it.

If you're interested in learning more about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, check out our other guides on Pokemon, along with all potions, all special evolution conditions, secret gift codes, all held items, and more. Of course, you can also buy Pokemon SV shiny and held items on pkmbuy.