How to Unlock 6-Star Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: A Comprehensive Guide

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduced a thrilling new feature to the franchise: Tera Raid Battles. These cooperative battles against powerful Terastallized Pokémon offer incredible rewards, including valuable resources, rare Pokémon encounters, and the chance to catch Pokémon with powerful hidden abilities. While 1- to 5-star raids are relatively accessible throughout your journey, 6-star raids represent the pinnacle of difficulty, providing the ultimate test of your training prowess. But, unlocking these challenging raids requires more than just battling your way through the main story. This comprehensive guide will walk you through every step necessary to unlock 6-star Tera Raid Battles and delve into tips for succeeding in these high-stakes encounters.

Understanding Tera Raids: A Quick Overview

Before we dive into the unlocking process, let’s quickly recap how Tera Raids function. In Scarlet and Violet, Pokémon can Terastallize, changing their type to a unique Tera Type, often different from their original typing. These Terastallized Pokémon appear in glowing crystals scattered across the Paldea region, ranging in difficulty from 1 to 6 stars. The higher the star rating, the stronger the Pokémon, and the better the potential rewards.

Tera Raids can be tackled solo with AI partners or with up to three other players online. While soloing raids is feasible, especially with optimized strategies, 6-star raids are designed to be incredibly challenging, making teamwork the most viable path to victory.

The Prerequisites: What You Need Before Attempting 6-Star Raids

Before you can even think about unlocking 6-star raids, you’ll need to meet a few key prerequisites. These act as roadblocks, preventing you from accessing the highest difficulty until you’ve proven yourself worthy. Here’s a breakdown of what you need to accomplish:

1. Complete the Main Story: This is the most crucial prerequisite. You must finish all three main storylines: Path of Legends (Titan Pokémon), Victory Road (Gym Challenge and Elite Four), and Starfall Street (Team Star bases). This involves defeating all five Titan Pokémon, earning all eight Gym Badges, defeating the Elite Four, and vanquishing all Team Star Leaders. Completing these main storylines will trigger the post-game content, including unlocking further research options from Director Clavell.
2. Complete the “The Way Home” Story Arc: After defeating the Elite Four and the Champion, and also finishing off the Team Star bases you will initiate the “The Way Home” storyline, this requires going to Area Zero. Progress through this story arc until the credits roll again. This will unlock new areas in Area Zero and access to new NPC’s. This can be considered the second half of the main story.
3. Unlock 5-Star Raids: This is also an important step that requires completing all the main storylines including “The Way Home”. Once complete, you will unlock 5-star raids which allow you to collect great rewards.
4. Attend the Academy to receive a call from Jacq: After completing all these story lines including post game activities, you will need to complete a class at the academy and walk out of the academy doors. At this point, you will get a call from Jacq that you have unlocked 6-star raids.

The Detailed Steps to Unlocking 6-Star Raids

Once you’ve satisfied all the prerequisites, the path to unlocking 6-star raids becomes clearer. Here are the detailed steps you’ll need to follow:

Step 1: Complete All Three Main Storylines

As previously mentioned, this is the cornerstone of your progress. You need to finish all three narratives to unlock the post-game content. This involves the following tasks:

• Path of Legends (Titan Pokémon): Defeat the five Titan Pokémon scattered across Paldea: Klawf (The Stony Cliff Titan), Bombirdier (The Open Sky Titan), Orthworm (The Lurking Steel Titan), Great Tusk/Iron Treads (The Quaking Earth Titan), and Dondozo/Tatsugiri (The False Dragon Titan). These battles are challenging and require a decent team composition, knowledge of the Titan’s types, and strategic use of your Terastallizing ability.
• Victory Road (Gym Challenge and Elite Four): Challenge and defeat all eight Gym Leaders in their respective towns (Cortondo Gym, Artazon Gym, Levincia Gym, Cascarrafa Gym, Montenevera Gym, Medali Gym, Alfornada Gym, and Glaseado Gym). Once you’ve collected all eight badges, you’ll gain access to the Pokémon League. Defeat the Elite Four and the Champion to complete this storyline.
• Starfall Street (Team Star): Locate and defeat each of the five Team Star Bases, each led by a different boss: Giacomo, Mela, Atticus, Ortega, and Eri. These battles require you to face multiple waves of Team Star members before confronting their leader. Each battle becomes progressively more difficult, requiring a well rounded team.

Step 2: Complete the “The Way Home” Story Arc

After defeating the Champion, a new storyline is unlocked called “The Way Home.” This takes you to Area Zero, where you will uncover the mysteries of Terastallization and battle a powerful Pokemon. This story arc includes battles with various types of Pokemon and requires an understanding of type matchups. Completion of this storyline is crucial to unlock other post-game events, including 5-star raids which are needed to unlock 6-star raids.

Step 3: Unlock 5-Star Raids

Upon completing the main story including the “The Way Home” storyline you will have unlocked 5-star raids. These raids will start appearing in the wild in random tera crystal spawns. Completing these raids will provide you with the required resources to breed high IV Pokemon and to allow your Pokemon to be level 100. These are important factors in being able to take on 6-star raids.

Step 4: Triggering the 6-Star Raid Unlock

After completing all of the main story lines and 5 star raids, you need to attend at least one class at the academy. After leaving the academy you will receive a call from Jacq the Biology Teacher informing you that 6 star raids have been unlocked. After this call, a 6-star raid will appear on the map, signifying the unlock.

Tips for Tackling 6-Star Raids

Unlocking 6-star raids is only half the battle. These encounters are incredibly difficult, and you’ll need a solid strategy and team composition to succeed. Here are some tips to help you prepare for and conquer these challenging battles:

1. Optimize Your Pokémon’s Builds

6-star raids require your Pokémon to be at the peak of their power. This means:

• Level 100: Maximize your Pokémon’s level to ensure they have the highest possible stats.
• EV Training: Invest Effort Values (EVs) into the stats that matter most to your Pokémon’s role (e.g., Attack/Special Attack and Speed for offensive Pokémon, HP and Defense/Special Defense for bulky support Pokémon).
• IV Breeding: Aim for Pokémon with perfect Individual Values (IVs) in crucial stats. This can be achieved through breeding with high IV parents, or using Bottle Caps to hyper train your pokemon.
• Beneficial Natures: Choose a nature that complements your Pokémon’s role (e.g., Adamant for physical attackers, Modest for special attackers).
• Optimal Movesets: Select moves that synergize well with your Pokémon’s type and role, considering type matchups and support moves (e.g., stat boosts, healing, status effects).

2. Understand Tera Types

The Tera Type of the raid Pokémon is crucial. You need to know what weaknesses it has and how it can exploit your own Pokémon’s type. Pay close attention to the Tera Type and prepare a team to counter it effectively. Be mindful of dual type pokemon because they can have tera-types different from either of their original typings.

3. Team Composition is Key

Soloing 6-star raids is incredibly difficult, and highly dependent on the tera raid Pokemon. If you’re planning on tackling them in a group, a well-rounded team is vital. Consider bringing the following:

• Damage Dealers: Pokémon with high offensive stats and moves that exploit the raid Pokémon’s Tera Type weaknesses.
• Support Pokémon: Pokémon with the ability to buff the stats of other pokemon, provide healing, inflict status effects, and provide overall team utility.
• Tanky Pokémon: Pokémon with high HP and defenses to withstand heavy attacks and provide time for your damage dealers to do their thing. These are usually also good support Pokemon.

4. Utilize Teamwork and Communication

If playing with others, coordinate your moves. Before the battle begins make sure to discuss roles and who can contribute what. Communication will make the difference between winning and losing the fight. This means understanding your role and how to support others in your team. This is especially true if multiple teammates have similar Pokemon.

5. Learn from Experience

Don’t get discouraged if you fail a few times. 6-star raids are extremely difficult. Take notes of what went wrong and adjust your strategy for next time. Try new combinations of pokemon and different movesets. Success will come with persistence and learning from experience.

Popular Pokémon for 6-Star Raids

While the specific Pokémon needed will vary based on the raid boss and its Tera Type, here are some popular choices for 6-star raids:

• Azumarill: With its ability Huge Power, its moves Belly Drum and Aqua Jet, along with access to Play Rough, makes Azumarill a force to be reckoned with.
• Iron Hands: A great physical attacker, with high attack, defense and HP, Iron Hands is great at dealing consistent damage. Its access to belly drum and drain punch makes it very self sufficient.
• Annihilape: With its signature move rage fist, and high attack stat, Annihilape is a great consistent damage dealer. With defiant ability and access to bulk up, it can do significant amounts of damage while being able to increase its defenses.
• Armarouge/Ceruledge: These fire types are great special attackers. Armarouge’s high special attack stat, along with its access to Armor Cannon, can output massive damage. Ceruledge can learn bitter blade, a great physical fire move that also heals it.
• Corviknight: An amazing defensive wall with access to roost to recover its health. Corviknight also has access to reflect/lightscreen, allowing it to mitigate damage for the team.
• Umbreon: With its access to Helping Hand, and other support moves, Umbreon is a great defensive support Pokemon. It’s great for applying buffs to your team while also mitigating damage.

Remember, these are just a few examples, and many other Pokémon can excel in 6-star raids with the right build and strategy. The key is to experiment and find what works best for you.

The Rewards of 6-Star Raids

Conquering 6-star raids comes with the promise of great rewards, including:

• Rare Pokémon: Certain Pokémon are more likely to appear in 6-star raids, including some starter Pokémon, evolved forms, and Pokémon with specific hidden abilities.
• Herba Mystica: Used to create sandwiches that provide various buffs, such as the chance to encounter shiny Pokemon, herba mystica is only obtainable through raids. 6-star raids often drop multiple Herba Mystica, making it the best source of this valuable resource.
• Ability Patches/Capsules: Items that allow you to change your Pokemon’s ability or hideen ability.
• Tera Shards: Needed to change the tera types of your pokemon, 6-star raids are the best way to farm specific shards for your pokemon.
• Rare Candies: Used to level up your Pokemon, 6-star raids provide a steady amount of rare candies.
• Tera Raid Battle Items: Items that can help with tera raid battles.
• Experience Candy: Provides large amounts of experience to level up your pokemon.

Conclusion

Unlocking 6-star raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a challenging but rewarding endeavor. It requires dedication, strategic planning, and a well-trained team of Pokémon. By completing all the necessary story lines, mastering your team’s builds, and developing your knowledge of type matchups, you will be well on your way to conquering the most difficult challenges that the Paldea region has to offer. Good luck, trainers, and may your raids be fruitful!