The 6-Star Tera Raid Build Tier List (December 2025)

by Doc – Owner, Founder, Two and a Half Years Late to This List, But Two and a Half Years More Experience Than the Other Lists You’ll Find

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What to Understand About 6-Star Raids (seriously, read this first):
3. The Special Attacker Tera Raid Builds Tier List
4. The Physical Attacker Tera Raid Builds Tier List

Introduction

Many of the “best” Tera Raider tier lists on the internet fall into one of three categories:

• Bad info
• Geared only towards 5-star raids, not 6-star
• Game8 (completely wrong, all the time)

I’m not kidding about Game8 having flatly wrong Tera raid builds and information on the internet: at the time of this writing (I won’t post the image for copyright reasons) their Koraidon build consists of Collision Course, Drain Punch, Screech and Fire Fang instead of Bulk Up or Swords Dance. Why would you ever need Fire Fang for a Fighting-type attacker? Utterly noobish.

I’ve taken it upon myself, having stopped counting the number of raids I won after 5,000 6-star Tera raids, the overwhelming majority of them having been offline and without assistance, to produce a tier list of the raid builds that I use on a regular basis. There’ll be significant overlap with the existing list of recommended Tera Raid builds, but you’ll notice that some builds on that list simply aren’t listed on the tier lists I’m about to present because that page exists more to teach you about raid strategies and mechanics outside the 6-star exclusive environment. Frankly I need to rework it from the ground up anyway.

What to Understand About 6-Star Raids (seriously, read this first):

• There are a near-infinite number of possible Tera Raid builds, so a complete tier list simply can’t exist.
• It doesn’t matter how good the build is, if you pick a Pokemon that’s getting whacked super effectively, you’re 10x more likely to lose. That ain’t the build’s fault.
• Tera Raids are unpredictable, RNG-heavy experiences and each raid and raid combination is unique. Sometimes you just get hit by two 10% freeze chances in a row and then a critical hit.
• We’re assuming you’re playing offline, using NPC teammates (online services won’t last forever). This a solo tier list.
• Your EV investments will almost always be 252 in Sp. Atk or Atk and the remainder put entirely Sp. Def or Def on the condition that if you’re running Bulk Up, Calm Mind, or some other move that raises a defensive stat, you invest in the stat not boosted. These moves will cover the other defensive stat for you. If you’re not running Bulk Up or Calm Mind, or other moves that raise a defensive stat, invest the remainder of your EVs into Sp. Def and Def equally.
• Your Tera Type will always be the type you plan to attack with. Everyone’s holding Shell Bell unless their primary attack is a lifesteal attack like Giga Drain/Drain Punch, in which case they’re usually holding Life Orb, and everyone’s 6IV/Hyper Trained at level 100 with the proper nature, no exceptions.

Please keep in mind the two tier lists are not ranked relative to each other, and the tiers are not ordered. The usefulness of a build depends on the opponent and their Tera typing, so relative rankings are about all we can do.

Because of the staggering number of possible Tera raiders available, I encourage you to generate your own Pokemon using third-party methods so as to not have to supply rare mythicals, legendaries etc. to try the builds. Tera Raid builds should be something that is accessible to everyone. Just don’t let the generated Pokemon leave your save file!

The Special Attacker Tera Raid Builds Tier List

Do bear in mind that some types basically don’t have any special moves, chief among them being the Fighting-type, who is only represented by Keldeo. I encourage you to build out a healthy repertoire of special and physical-attacking raiders of all types because of the lopsidedness of some types of attacks.

SS Tier

Bellibolt

As I’ve made clear in the other, more detailed builds page, Bellibolt is without a doubt the best Pokémon Tera raider that I have yet to ever encounter. The reason for this isn’t that he is a faster killer or a great support – I placed him there because so long as you play him correctly and don’t use him against Ground and Steel types, he’ll win basically every time. I won’t rehash everything that went on in that post, but the idea for Bellibolt is pretty simple: Drop an Acid Spray. Now a Parabolic Charge. Do it again. Do it again. You’re good. So long as Bellibolt is not somehow in a situation where he is getting one-hit KO’d or one of the few weaknesses described below, you can beat the raid 99.9% of the time.

Bellibolt runs:

• Acid Spray
• Parabolic Charge
• Electric Terrain
• Optional move slot (explored in detail on the other page)

His one really unbeatable weakness is being hit with Ground-type attacks, which pose a problem to him. Otherwise every other conceivable weakness can be mitigated: inflicting sleep can be mitigated with Electric Terrain. Stat drops can be mitigated with his ability Electromorphosis and with the Metronome held item. The opponent raising their stats is harder but can be mitigated with screens. Steel-type Tera opponents are difficult because they’re immune to Acid Spray and resist Parabolic Charge, but Electric Terrain and Attack cheers help with that. Confusion… okay, confusion you’re stuck with. But basically he’s invincible when played correctly save for those one or two things.

S Tier

Gholdengo

Gholdengo is extremely useful both as a Ghost and as a Steel type attacker, and the only change you need to switch from one to the other is changing his Tera type. Gholdengo runs:

• Make It Rain
• Shadow Ball
• Nasty Plot
• Metal Sound

But that’s not where his real abilities lie. His great moveset is combined with his ability Good as Gold, which renders him immune to other status moves. The only flaw on this ability is that on the turn that your stats are reset about halfway through the raid, your abilities are nullified. Otherwise, you can’t get status inflictions! And the ability kicks in on the very next turn, so if you find yourself with a status infliction, just use a Heal Cheer and it’ll go away.

Gholdengo is straightforward: raise your stats with Nasty Plot, lower the enemy stats with Metal Sound, and then hit them with Make It Rain or Shadow Ball. I keep mine on a default Ghost type because Shadow Ball is much more consistent, but either should be fine so long as Make It Rain users have enough Nasty Plots under their belt to balance out the Sp. Atk-lowering side effects. And as always, be aware of his type weaknesses and plan appropriately.

You might consider using Stellar Tera Type for Gholdengo, but you do miss out on the extra STAB if you run that. I encourage having two similar builds with different Teras if you can.

Miraidon

Miraidon is almost as flexible as Bellibolt – I have three Miraidon builds on this tier list for a reason – so I’ll rank each of them separately.

Parabolic Charge Option is just Bellibolt but Miraidon. You show up, drop an Electric Terrain if you want, drop a Calm Mind if you want (honestly, drop two), hold your Metronome, and release Parabolic Charge until the cows come home. This is the very reliable version of Miraidon. You’ll run:

• Calm Mind
• Parabolic Charge
• Metal Sound
• Electric Terrain

Electro Drift is the sexy version of this build. You’ll run:

• Calm Mind
• Electro Drift
• Metal Sound
• Electric Terrain

This is very similar to the build above. The only difference is that you’re trying to do more damage with fewer hits, which will self-heal you more (oh yeah – hold Shell Bell too), but you run low on PP much quicker, and are more reliant on your stats. Both Parabolic Charge and Electro Drift builds are S tier, and for good reason.

One Shot Build is really the same build as Electro Drift, but the way that you play it is different. You’ll see on the other Tera raid builds page that I link to periodically on this page that there are what I call “play it by ear” builds and “lock and load” builds. The “play it by ear” builds are ones where you make decisions in the moment, thinking one or two turns ahead, and they’re generally more successful as a result. “Lock and load” builds are ones where you go in, buff your own stats, debuff the enemy stats as much as you possibly can and then take your shot, hoping to knock out the entire opponent in one hit. Lock and load builds (also called one-hit KO builds) are typically not as successful in six-star raids. Frankly, I’m being a bit generous by putting it in A tier.

Arceus (Grass)

Arceus is arguably the best Grass type attacker for special attackers, due in no small part to the fact that Ogerpon is a physical attacker! While it would be really nice if we had a way to quickly self-heal with Arceus besides Shell Bell or Giga Drain, we unfortunately don’t have that. No, the move Recover doesn’t count – it takes an entire turn, and that is too costly for time.

To this end, Arceus really can only be Normal type holding Shell Bell, or Grass type holding anything he wants, and using Giga Drain. I’ve decided to give him the Meadow Plate so that his Grass type attacks are boosted, and that you get the Grass type same-type attack bonus, so he’s a great Grass type killer. Arceus is very tanky with very high Special Defense and Defense stats both, so you shouldn’t be worried about dying – you should be worried about doing enough damage in the meantime. To this end, he packs:

• Giga Drain
• Acid Spray
• Calm Mind
• Judgment (optional)

Acid Spray is the best offensive move in the game besides Parabolic Charge for the simple fact that, while it doesn’t do a lot of damage, it lowers the user’s Special Defense by two stages, effectively doubling your special damage output against them. So using one or two Acid Sprays, two Calm Minds and then starting with Giga Drain is an excellent start to any raid, because then you have your Tera orb charged and if you’ve survived this long, the healing from Giga Drain will be immense. However, don’t be afraid to prematurely use Giga Drain, because you’ll get a lot of HP from that as well. As Queen would say, “Keep yourself alive”.

Kyogre

Kyogre is an excellent Water type attacker, due to the simple fact that his stats are insane and compensate for his somewhat bad moves. He has a handful of options that I’ve gone into detail on the other page, so I will stick with this recommendation:

• Surf
• Water Spout
• Calm Mind
• Rain Dance

The strat is obvious: keep a Rain Dance up whenever possible to boost water moves unless the opponent spends a turn nullifying your weather. Drop one or two Calm Minds, or even three if you’re feeling it (three is pretty good actually) and then hit with Surf and Water Spout. Hit with Surf when you’re below about 2/3 HP, and hit with Water Spout when you’re above it.

Enamorus-Therian

Enamorus-Therian is annoying, but really good at survivability, which is hard to pull off for a Fairy type. Run:

• Moonblast
• Draining Kiss
• Calm Mind
• Misty Terrain

Fair note: Misty Terrain is optional, as it does nullify status effects but you don’t always need that due to her ability Overcoat. You’re basically making two decisions with this one: if you need to heal, use Draining Kiss. If you need to do damage, use Moonblast. Keep stocked up on Calm Minds and you’ll be fine. Bonus points for using it against Sleep.

Mew

Mew is a Pokémon that has a theoretically infinite number of builds, or might as well have that many. For purposes of this tier list, we will simply split them into Psychic type Mew and non-Psychic type Mew, as that is much simpler. Just know that he’s got a lotta options I’m not giving you here.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t state that there are tons of great Psychic type attackers due to the consistent presence of Nasty Plot and Psychic among the Psychic type legendaries. If you don’t have Mew, try Mewtwo. If you don’t have either… seriously, use Bulbapedia. You’ve got a Psychic type with Nasty Plot somewhere in there.

Psychic type Mew runs:

• Psychic
• Amnesia
• Nasty Plot
• Acid Spray (Metal Sound if you’re needing to cover Steel)

His Special Attack stat is much lower than Enamorus and Kyogre by almost 100 at max level, and max IV training, but he has Nasty Plot, so it works out just fine. With all of this in place, he’s really quite a potent Psychic type attacker. He’s easily S tier.

Non-Psychic type Mew still runs:

• Amnesia
• Nasty Plot
• Acid Spray
• Whatever special attacking type move he’s going to run

You may also consider going for a Stellar Tera typing with non-Psychic type Mew, as that is the optimal typing for off-type attacks so long as you’re not wanting your defensive profile to change (if you do want your defensive profile to change, then just change your Tera to whatever you’re attacking with, though I don’t recommend doing that). I put this at top of A tier but that’s about as high as you’ll get out of Mew when he’s not running Psychic or something similar. Play it safe. Run Psychic Mew.

Calyrex-Shadow

Calyrex-Shadow is a useful alternative to Gholdengo when his Steel typing is getting in the way. The downside is Calyrex is triple weak to Ghost and Dark both. It’s a real downside, but if you’re not getting hit by those two types, then you’re pretty much fine. He’s a beast.

He runs:

• Astral Barrage
• Nasty Plot
• Shadow Ball
• Taunt

I would encourage you to start your raids by hitting a Taunt, and then hitting Shadow Ball to build up your Tera raid charge. This will give you an idea of whether Dark and Ghost type attacks are present or not, and if they are, you can just dip out of the raid (assuming you’re offline) and grab a different raider. Once you’ve built up your Tera charge, use it, buff yourself with a Nasty Plot and keep hitting Shadow Balls until the Tera shield goes up. Once the shield goes up, and your stats are wiped, drop another Nasty Plot or two if you can manage a second one, and then hit Astral Barrage. Odds are you will outspeed the opponent, so you don’t need to worry too much about self-healing so long as it’s above a moderate amount.

Dawn Wings Necrozma

Necrozma is the ingredient to great Ghost type or Psychic type attacks no matter which side you’re coming from. Merging him with Lunala results in Dawn Wings Necrozma, which can work either as a Psychic or a Ghost type. Either way, he will run this moveset:

• Calm Mind
• Psychic
• Iron Defense
• Photon Geyser (if you want Psychic type) or Moongeist Beam (if you want Ghost type)

These tiers are not ordered but if they were, Dawn Wings Necrozma would be near the top of S. Just remember – it takes two legendaries to produce this raider, and most of these moves have to be learned by Lunala or Solgaleo, not Necrozma.

Ho-Oh

Ho-Oh suffers from bad typing… which can be easily mitigated by simply not using him when he’s going to get hit super effectively. Ain’t it crazy how different Tera Raids are from regular Pokemon? Just remember that you lose your Ground immunity when Terastallizing.

Aside from his typing, Ho-Oh feels like some sort of flying fortress, with fantastic Sp. Def and acceptable Defense, in addition to the necessary tools to raise those defenses. Stick your EVs into Sp. Atk and Defense.

Ho-Oh runs:

• Flamethrower
• Calm Mind
• Sunny Day
• Reflect/Sacred Fire

Reflect or Sacred Fire is a real thinker of a tradeoff. Sacred Fire is physical attack, so it’s not boosted by Calm Mind nor is it 100% accurate. However, it has a 50/50 burn chance, which cuts the opponent’s Attack in half and it can give you a Tera Orb charge while healing some HP, so it’s particularly helpful in the early game. However, Reflect survives stat wipes and is guaranteed. Defensively, they’ll have basically the same effect. Sacred Fire’s the better move when it works, Reflect is the better move on average. Up to you.

A+ Tier

Lugia

Lugia is one of precious few options for Flying types. Lugia runs:

• Rain Dance
• Calm Mind
• Aeroblast
• Hurricane

This is an unusual strategy: You need to keep Rain Dance up so that your Hurricanes will always hit. To that end, Lugia relies on a factor not typically relied on in raids: the weather. If Rain Dance goes out and you don’t have the HP to survive the two hits that it would take to put up Rain Dance and land a Hurricane, you have Aeroblast at your disposal. It’s unlikely you’ll ever be in that situation, because Lugia is absurdly bulky.

Psychic type Lugia also exists. It’s honestly hot garbage, and if you have access to legendaries, get any of the other Psychic type legendaries that have Calm Mind or Nasty Plot and use them instead.

Vileplume

Vileplume is an interesting one: he can work either as a Grass type or a Poison type attacker, but the Grass type one is better because of Giga Drain just being an awesome move.

The Grass type version runs:

• Acid Spray
• Giga Drain
• Growth
• Grassy Terrain/Sunny Day

while holding Metronome. I also encourage the ability Effect Spore so that raiders that make contact with you may find themselves paralyzed even after their Tera shield is up. The Grass type strat is the same as Arceus: drop a Growth or two, and Acid Spray or two, and then whale away with Giga Drain.

The Poison type runs a similar moveset as well:

• Sludge Bomb
• Acid Spray
• Stun Spore/Sunny Day
• Growth

but holding Shell Bell, not Metronome. Acid Spray and Growth as needed, Stun Spore if you can get away with it, and then just Sludge Bomb. Vileplume is one of the only good Poison type attackers you’ll ever find, so be sure to use both builds. He’s available in the Indigo Disc DLC, not the base game, so if you don’t have the DLC you may need to import him from Pokémon Home or a previous Pokémon game.

For both of these, be aware that sun causes Growth to boost your Attack and Sp. Atk by +2 instead of +1, so while it costs you a turn to set it up you save the turn of running a second Growth. Highly worth considering Sunny Day regardless of which build you run.

Armarouge

Armarouge is A+ in the current iteration of the special tier list, whereas his cousin Ceruledge is A in the physical tier list, but I would still consider Ceruledge to be the better of the two – these tier lists are ranked relative to the other attackers of their type, and aren’t comparable to the other kind of attacking.

Armarouge runs:

• Calm Mind
• Mystical Fire
• Acid Spray
• Taunt

He also runs the Flash Fire ability, though that’s not often helpful. He’s very straightforward – Calm Mind, Acid Spray, Taunt if you need it, and then attack. He also has a Psychic type option and the ability to use Stored Power, but those are inferior enough that I wouldn’t consider it necessary to use those builds.

Deoxys

Deoxys only has one form viable for raids – Defense Form. The good news is that he will basically never die in this form, unless he’s getting hit super effectively and the opponent has been buffed. The bad news is you have to squeeze every bit of damage out of him that you can get. To that end, he runs this moveset:

• Nasty Plot
• Cosmic Power
• Expanding Force
• Psychic Terrain

This is an unusual moveset. Nasty Plot serves its typical purpose, and Cosmic Power basically makes you invulnerable after a single use because your stats are so high. The real issue is much like what Kyogre ran into: keeping the battlefield favorable to you. Expanding Force is a move that will only do a noticeable amount of damage if you have Psychic Terrain on the field. Psychic Terrain lasts for five turns because we’re holding Shell Bell, not Light Clay, so you’ve got to stay topped off on having at least two Nasty Plots and a Psychic Terrain up. However, if you can pull that off this Psychic attacker set will be one of the most effective in your arsenal. I would consider it roughly equivalent to Mew in general, save for the trade-off in having lower attack stats for significantly increased defense stats. Consider them each to be one half of a Psychic type pair.

Terapagos

Terapagos is one of the most unique builds that you will see in raids due in no small part to this Pokémon’s gimmick. Terapagos has absurdly good stats when Terastalized. To that end, your goal is to stay alive long enough and to Terastalize fast enough so that you can make Terastalization happen, and then start doing the big damage.

To that end, he runs this moveset:

• Tera Starstorm
• Calm Mind
• A third move option that attacks
• Substitute

The idea is straightforward: You are only weak to Fighting, so put up a Substitute on turn one, Calm Mind if you need it, hit them with three or four of the third move option that you chose, Terastalize, and then rain down Tera Starstorms as much as possible. Don’t use Starstorms until you have three Calm Minds under your belt. You only get 8 PP, so it’s a waste to do it with anything less than that.

I won’t lie: this build is slow, tricky and may feel like a waste of time. However, you may find that it’s more successful to maximize your Special Attack EV investment and your defensive investment to speed up the process without really sacrificing bulk. It is extremely important that you DO NOT DIE. These builds are generally designed so that you wouldn’t die anyway, but if you lose your Tera with this build then your raid is completely lost.

Your third move choice is also an important option. Personally, I use Earth Power because it’s his highest damage dealing special attack move with a base power of 90, and an accuracy of 100%, and it also is effective on many types while having a chance to lower the target’s Special Defense. However, Flying types are immune to it. You may consider switching it out for a move that you prefer instead.

Mewtwo

Mewtwo is Mew, but two. As in, he’s the second-best Mew around. Mewtwo is almost as good as Mew (remember, the tiers are unordered) but he’s lacking some defensive stats that are actually pretty crucial. Objectively though, they’re much more similar than they are different, and there’s a solid argument for bringing Mew down to A+ or putting Mewtwo in S. Their differences bring situational advantages, that’s all.

Mewtwo is another straightforward Legendary Psychic-type special attacker, featuring access to Nasty Plot, Psychic, Psychic Terrain, Expanding Force, Light Screen, Reflect, Calm Mind, Psystrike, Amnesia and any other moves that you might find necessary. There’s really a lot you can customize around a Mewtwo.

I recommend going with a straightforward but flexible Mewtwo build that runs as follows:

• Psychic
• Nasty Plot
• Expanding Force
• Psychic Terrain

This build lets you gauge the situation and decide whether you have enough time to set up three Nasty Plots and drop the hammer with Psychic, or whether you are potentially facing a stat wipe and so you put down a Psychic Terrain and Expanding Force, and try to continue self-healing with Expanding Force through the stat wipe thanks to the terrain boost. You’re not locked into one or the other, either, so use them appropriately.

There’s also the option of swapping Expanding Force and Psychic Terrain out for screens, or swapping Psychic out for Psystrike. Screens are a utility on all builds, but Mewtwo’s not usually going to have a hard time as his defensive stats are acceptable and he can often shrug a super effective hit from the opponent before self-healing. Swapping Psychic for Psystrike comes down to the stats of the opponent – will you do more damage with special damage, or physical? 

Darkrai

Darkrai is, as one might imagine, a Dark-type attacker. Darkrai’s main schtick is that he puts the opponent to sleep and does… something. That’s not how we play him here: Tera shields block sleep moves and your best bet is with Hypnosis anyway, which is only 60% accurate, and it’s not like you’d do any real damage with your ability to the opponent. So instead we’ll play him as a straightforward stat-boosting and damage dealing build.

Darkrai runs:

• Dark Pulse
• Will-O-Wisp
• Calm Mind
• Nasty Plot

He can swap Nasty Plot or Calm Mind out for Taunt or Haze if you’d prefer.

The setup is easy: hit ’em with a Will-O-Wisp to cut their Attack in half, then drop a Calm Mind and then a Nasty Plot. Once you’ve got +3 Sp. Atk and a +1 Sp. Def, start whaling away with Dark Pulse. If your stats get wiped, build them up again and continue. Nothing complicated. Just put your EVs all into Sp. Atk and Def., because Calm Mind will cover you on the Sp. Def side.

G-Moltres

You like Moltres? How about a pissed off Moltres? Galarian Moltres has the ability Berserk, which tacks on a +1 Sp. Atk stage whenever he’s hit by an attack that takes him below half HP. In normal battles that’s a nice thing to have. In Tera Raids that’s going to happen all the time, so let’s plan for it!

Galarian Moltres runs:

• Fiery Wrath
• Nasty Plot
• Taunt
• Snarl

Unfortunately, Fiery Wrath doesn’t inflict flinch on Tera opponents. Bummer. However, we still have a lot to play with. In addition to a great Sp. Def stat and an acceptable Defense stat, Snarl drops the Tera opponent’s Sp. Atk stat by a stage and gives you a Tera Orb charge. It’s like Chilling Water, but for special attackers. So if you’re fighting a Tera Raid that only uses special attacks, or even mostly special attacks, you’ve really got it made. Just remember that you gain a Ground neutrality and pick up a Bug and Fighting type weakness when you Tera out of Dark/Flying into Dark.

A Tier

Diancie

Diancie is a disappointment. Diancie has incredible stats besides her HP, so as long as she’s not getting hit super effectively, she should be okay. Problem is, she’s Rock and Fairy. Yeah. It’s easy to get hit super effectively when you’re weak to four of the most common types in Tera raids, so you’re not going to find a lot of scenarios where you can run her.

However, we make do, so Diancie runs this moveset:

• Fake Tears
• Calm Mind
• Meteor Beam
• Power Gem

There’s some flexibility in the exact moves that you run, so you may consider examining what other Rock type attacks Diancie has. Fake Tears is our alternative to Nasty Plot, because it lowers the opponent’s Special Defense until the shield comes up so you can hit with her Rock type attacks. That’s also the only thing Diancie is good for – Rock type attacks. There are basically no Rock type attackers that I can find, so we’re doing our best with this. She’s probably not going to die, her problem really is that she doesn’t do damage fast enough unless she’s hitting super effectively and has two Calm Minds under her belt. However, when she works she works, and sometimes she is the only thing that works.

Skeledirge

Skeledirge is the only starter that I could get a really good raid build out of, as disappointing as it sounds. I think this is because the Pokémon Company typically tries to give starters about 500 base stat total, and Skeledirge is the only one that can reliably boost his own stats while keeping up with raids besides Contrary Serperior, who is… bad.

He’s a real glass cannon, so you may find you have to play on defense a little bit. That’s okay though, because he has a really unique move that we can make use of. Skeledirge Fire runs:

• Torch Song
• Sunny Day
• Yawn
• Slack Off (consider Will-O-Wisp instead for Attack nerfing)

Yawn is to put the opponent to sleep before the shield goes up, which buys you time to boost your Special Attack stat with Torch Song, allowing you to build your self-healing capabilities before you rely on them. Sunny Day is useful for boosting your Fire type attacks, and more importantly, neutralizing Water type attacks. With this raider, you’re going to spend a lot of time covering your butt by trying to do as much damage as possible, so it’s good to keep Water type attacks down. And of course, Slack Off is your emergency alternative to a Heal Cheer. This is a build where using a Defense Cheer after the Tera shield goes up is a perfectly honorable strategy. Normally I’d poke fun at you a little bit for using a cheer, but with a glass cannon like this I think it’s appropriate.

There’s also the option of Skeledirge Ghost, who is a great contender for the bottom of the barrel. Skeledirge Ghost runs:

• Torch Song
• Shadow Ball
• Yawn
• Slack Off (or consider Will-O-Wisp for the Attack nerf)

Skeledirge has no way to raise Sp. Atk without Torch Song, so you’re still stuck using it to raise Sp. Atk, but once it gets to the level you want it at you’ll switch to Shadow Ball. It’s… not great. But it’s there, if you need someone to resist Fire and hit with Ghost.

Lunala

Lunala on his own is a pretty good Ghost type attacker, who has the potential to be really tanky. It’s basically the same idea as Necrozma, but not as inherently tanky. Lunala runs:

• Moongeist Beam
• Calm Mind
• Cosmic Power
• Shadow Ball

Build up your Tera orb charge with Shadow Ball, use a Cosmic Power if you’re getting hit with physical attacks for that juicy, juicy double defensive stat boost, use at least two Calm Minds, and then just whale away with Moongeist Beam. Whichever order you prefer to do these things in is up to you. However, if you have a Necrozma handy, you should always combine the two. 

Magearna

Magearna is celebrated as a Tera Raider because of Soul-Heart, which raises her Sp. Atk each time some NPC partner dies. When she’s super effective, Soul-Heart works out really well because you’re doing enough damage to outpace the timer, and you’re self-healing more than enough to stay alive (provided as always that you’re not being hit super effectively), and when you’re not hitting super effectively, you at least have Soul-Heart to make up the difference.

However, there’s a problem, and this problem restricts Magearna to A tier; what if your NPC teammates don’t die that much, or your stats get reset at a bad time? Well, then you’re not going to perform that well anymore. It takes time to re-boost your Sp. Atk, and until it’s boosted enough you won’t be self-healing enough to stick around. We try to mitigate this with Calm Mind and by allocating maximum EVs to Defense (Calm Mind will cover Sp. Def boosts), but that doesn’t go far enough to place her in A+ tier.

Magearna runs:

• Flash Cannon (Dazzling Gleam if Fairy, don’t run Fleur Cannon)
• Calm Mind
• Metal Sound
• Misty Terrain

Magearna does have the ability to counter Sleep with Misty Terrain and has a great defensive profile, so she’s good. But she’s not a top tier raider.

Hoopa Unbound

Do you like Darkrai? Would you like him with a 4x weakness to Bug? Heck yeah you would!

Hoopa Unbound runs:

• Dark Pulse
• Nasty Plot
• Reflect
• Calm Mind

Hoopa Unbound’s a bit frail on the physical defense side. Actually, he’s really frail on the physical defense side, and that’s keeping him from being higher up on this list. Invest all your EVs into Def and Sp. Atk, drop a Reflect on the first turn and keep it up whenever possible, and build stats with Calm Mind and Nasty Plot as per usual.

I’d been asked about running Hyperspace Fury, the signature move, instead of Dark Pulse. We aren’t going to run that because 1) Hoopa doesn’t have a move to boost its physical attack and 2) the Defense stat drop is something you really can’t afford to have happen to Unbound. He’s only barely A tier viable with his current defense as it is.

By the way, you can swap Hoopa Unbound’s Tera to Psychic and switch Dark Pulse to Psychic, and you’d have a similarly decent Psychic type attacker. It’s just… look at the number of Psychics on this list! Use him for the Dark type instead.

B Tier

I consider the line between A tier and B tier to be somewhat important – if you are A tier or above, you don’t necessarily have to be super effective against the type of the opponent to win. If you are B tier or below, you do. If you’re deciding which builds to build, you should always start above B tier, and only consider ones B tier or below if you cannot afford any of the better ones.

Enamorus-Incarnate

Enamorus-Incarnate is a wildly different beast than her counterpart. For starters, this build and Terapagos are the only two times I will ever tell you you absolutely have to be Stellar Tera type (though it may be useful, but not optimal, on Gholdengo and other builds that attack with two types). That’s because this build uses:

• Tera Blast
• Draining Kiss
• Taunt
• Misty Terrain

If you squint at that build a little bit, you’ll see what I’m going for. If you haven’t seen it yet, consider this: it will use the Contrary ability. Yep, now you see it.

The Contrary ability reverses any stat drops that hit your Pokémon. There are many Contrary ability theorycrafts out there, and I haven’t had the chance to try many of them, but this one is definitely a pretty good one. Basically, you hit Draining Kiss to stay alive until you charge your orb, drop a Misty Terrain at some point to prevent status infliction, and then rain Tera Blasts as much as you possibly can. Tera Blast when Stellar Tera-typed typically drops your Attack and Special Attack stats by one, kind of like Close Combat, but the Contrary ability turns it into a boost. It also becomes base power 100, and is guaranteed super effective against the raid opponent. You’ve got 16 shots with this thing – make them count!

The cumulative effect of this build is that you’re basically boosting your Special Attack each time you use it, so the more times you use it without having your stats nerfed the more powerful you will be. This is why it is extremely important that you DO NOT DIE. If you die, you cannot Terastalize again, at which point you have lost irrevocably.

The downside of this build is her typing. Typing is not typically a large concern in raids so long as you are not being hit super effectively, and you are hitting the opponent super effectively. However, Fairy and Flying types together have kind of a random assortment of things to get hit super effectively by. Steel, Poison, Electric, Ice and Rock together makes up about 1/3 of the possible types. Keep an eye out for all of these types in the Pokémon that you’re fighting, lest you lose.

Regice

Regice is a raid build that I really tried to squeeze a lot of juice out of, and the result is one of the weirdest builds I’ve ever seen. He runs:

• Snowscape
• Blizzard
• Charge Beam
• Thunder Wave

Regice does not have Calm Mind or Nasty Plot, and has no other way to boost his own Special Attack other than Charge Beam, which boosts Special Attack 70% of the time. The result of this is a build that is uniquely suited for fighting Flying types exclusively. While there are plenty of better options to take out Flying types, such as the many Electric types available to us, Regice has no weakness to Ground like the other builds do. So keep him around!

The strat is not straightforward really! Put up a Thunder Wave on the opponent to get an early paralysis, use Charge Beam as many times as it takes to get two Special Attack boosts, put up a Snowscape so Blizzard is a guaranteed hit, and then use Blizzard until your stats get wiped. Once your stats get wiped, keep using Charge Beam and try to reset the field in your favor. Snowscape is also just kind of required for Regice because you also get 1/16 of your HP back each turn, just like holding Leftovers in addition to your Shell Bell gains.

Stored Power Build

Stored Power builds are very common, because any Pokémon with Stored Power that can also run any sort of self-stat boosting move can run a Stored Power build. I’ve seen tons of them, and they’re most popular when people can’t figure out seven-star raids. Slowbro seems to be everyone’s favorite for some reason.

Because of the ubiquity of great Psychic type attackers, and the shortage of reasons to use a Psychic type attacker, I wouldn’t make a Stored Power build your only Psychic type attacker. However, if it works, it works, so you may consider keeping one in the backfield just in case. Still, your stats will get wiped at least once in a six-star raid, and in the DLC raids usually twice, and there are some types that resist Psychic, so don’t rely on it too much.

Vaporeon

Vaporeon is not a particularly impressive Water type attacker, but there’s not many impressive Water type attackers in general. The most important thing for Vaporeon is that you use a shiny Vaporeon – it doesn’t change anything about the raid, but it just looks cool.

Seriously though, Vaporeon should run these moves:

• Surf
• Acid Armor
• Calm Mind
• Rain Dance

with the Hydration ability. It’s pretty obvious as to why: Rain Dance keeps your statuses away and boosts Water damage, Acid Armor keeps you physically defensive to make up for the terrible Physical Defense stat, Calm Mind boosts your Special Attack, and Surf is your main Water type attack. Surf is 90 base power with really no fringe benefits to it, so it’s not that great unless it’s hitting super effectively. If you don’t have Kyogre, then I guess Vaporeon is your best bet, but it’s not a great bet. Still, he’s better than:

Suicune

Suicune runs kind of a similar moveset to Vaporeon. She runs:

• Surf
• Scald
• Calm Mind
• Rain Dance

This is a strictly inferior moveset to what Vaporeon has because you lose the defensiveness of Acid Armor in the hopes of gaining a burn status with Scald. Burn statuses cut the enemy’s Physical Attack in half, which is kind of like giving yourself a Defense boost, but it comes at the cost of only working 30% of the time and losing 10 base power. I recommend dropping a Rain Dance, two to three Calm Minds and then hitting with Scald until you get a burn, at which point you should switch to Surf. Suicune is glassy at best and tends to die the most out of the three Water types in this tier.

Manaphy

Manaphy is an interesting Water raider because, while Manaphy does run the expected Scald, Surf, Rain Dance combination, she also runs Tail Glow. So her moveset includes an extremely unique move. Tail Glow is just Nasty Plot but it boosts your Special Attack by an extra stage, so if you use it twice, you’re at maximum Special Attack. Unfortunately, Manaphy has no way to boost her own Defense, so she is the most glass cannony of these three, but also has base 100 across the board, so you’re really not giving up much when you use Manaphy over the Vaporeon or Suicune options. I’d say Manaphy is probably the fastest killer of the three since you don’t need to spend as much time powering up.

Keldeo

Keldeo’s ability Justified makes for a unique situation when fighting a Dark-type Pokemon, as getting hit by a Dark-type move raises his Attack… which doesn’t help us here. So that’s fun. At least he’s uniquely a Special Fighting-type attacker.

Keldeo Fighting runs:

• Secret Sword (or Aura Sphere)
• Calm Mind
• Taunt
• Reflect

Keldeo Water runs:

• Surf
• Calm Mind
• Taunt or Rain Dance
• Reflect

For both builds, put all your EVs into Defense, because Calm Mind will cover you on Sp. Def. And you’re going to need it, too – his stats aren’t great besides his Sp. Atk. 

For his Fighting build, keep in mind Secret Sword uses the opponent’s physical Defense stat, not their typical Sp. Def stat like you’d expect. You can still self-boost your Sp. Atk stat and it’ll increase damage output, it just switches which of their stats it takes into account. That factoid doesn’t often make a difference in Raids, but I’ve seen it help here and there. If you’d rather give up 5 base power and use their Sp. Def stat instead, Aura Sphere’s got your back.

And no, I didn’t intentionally place the 4 Water users in a row next to each other, that’s just kinda how it happened.

Cresselia

Cresselia has one reason you’d use her over the other Psychic-type users, and that’s her immunity to Ground moves. She’s got good defensive stats, terrible Sp. Atk stats and when the earth is quakin’, she’s not shakin’. That’s Cresselia.

Cresselia runs:

• Psychic
• Reflect
• Calm Mind
• Psychic Terrain

Cresselia will struggle with damage output far more than with staying alive, so don’t be afraid to drop 3 Calm Minds before you even get started. Actually, don’t do anything less than 3 Calm Minds. She can’t cut it without that. Otherwise, it’s a typical build. Drop a Reflect, your Calm Minds and a Psychic Terrain, and start hitting the opponent. If you’re not doing enough damage, drop another Calm Mind. Just keep an eye on that mid-raid stat wipe.

G-Articuno

Talk about a Pokemon who could have had real potential in a crowded field. The big draw for Galarian Articuno is Freezing Glare, one of the rare usable moves that can also inflict Frozen. Its 10% chance to cause freeze means that in a Tera Raid you’re pretty likely to get at least one Freeze off, buying you time to set up screens, boost, whatever. Problem is, he just isn’t sturdy enough to do something like that. Galarian Articuno will typically crumple unless he can set a screen, and even then he’ll struggle to keep up without a Freeze unless he goes into the Tera Shield with a screen up.

Galarian Articuno runs:

• Freezing Glare/Psychic
• Calm Mind
• Reflect
• Light Screen

As always, put your EVs into Sp. Atk and Defense so Calm Mind takes care of the Sp. Def. Psychic is a useful alternative to Freezing Glare if you’re wanting to get a Sp. Def drop, but let’s be real… Frozen status is almost certainly more valuable.

Wo-Chien

Wo-Chien is confusing to place, as he seems to be sometimes victorious when not super effective (earning him a spot in A tier, over the line) but only barely so, and sometimes a failure, but only barely so. Giga Drain strats are weird like that. If you’re the type to reroll NPC partners, Wo-Chien pairs extremely well with Arboliva.

Wo-Chien runs:

• Giga Drain
• Growth
• Sunny Day
• Solar Blade/Stun Spore/Reflect/Light Screen/Taunt/Grassy Terrain/Solar Beam

Bearing in mind that Growth boosts your Sp. Atk and Attack by +2 instead of +1 in the sun, we are only left with what you run for that last move slot. Honestly, all of the above options have their niche. I’d encourage Light Screen to make up for his lower Defense stat, but Wo-Chien will rarely have a hard time staying alive if he’s not being hit super effectively, so you’re not really going to need it. Grassy Terrain will boost your Giga Drain damage, Stun Spore inflicts Paralysis, etc.

He’s not fantastic unless he’s super effective, but if you need a tanky Grass user and don’t feel like replaying Legends: Arceus and paying for a HOME subscription Wo-Chien can be useful.

C+

Eternatus

You’d think I’d be able to find Eternatus a better moveset, but his stats go one way while his moves go the other. He runs:

• Sludge Wave
• Venoshock
• Cosmic Power
• Recover

His big flaw is not his stats, but rather the fact that he just can’t seem to do any real damage without getting a lucky poison. To this end, your strategy is simple: drop a Cosmic Power at the beginning, hit Sludge Wave until you get a poison, and then hit Venoshock. If one of your Tera raid partners puts a status effect on the opponent first, you lose! You won’t be able to do enough damage without the boost from Venoshock. I hate this build.

Blood Moon Ursaluna

Ursaluna dangles on the edge of uselessness, but his possession of Calm Mind and Fake Tears rescues him slightly. He runs:

• Calm Mind
• Earth Power
• Taunt
• Fake Tears

Which should be a pretty good moveset on paper. The downside is that he’s weak to basically everything under the sun, and even when he’s not getting hit super effectively he seems to just die. However, this is your only real option for special attack Ground type attackers because Earth Power is the only special attack with Ground typing. Good luck.

Sylveon

Sylveon is the budget form of the other Fairy types on this list. Sylveon runs:

• Calm Mind
• Reflect
• Misty Terrain
• Draining Kiss

This is an extremely low damage output build, and it will take at least four Calm Minds to make your Draining Kiss have any real effect. Honestly, this build is so bad that it almost isn’t worth using on a six-star raid.

Jirachi

Gen 4 competitive players rejoice, your king has fallen. Serene Grace is still active in Tera Raids… but Iron Head’s flinch is not. Where you’d think there would be a 60% chance to flinch the opponent every turn (which would render Jirachi possibly the best Tera Raider ever), there is instead disappointment.

Jirachi’s Steel options make her an alternative to Gholdengo, should you need one. Defensively they’re identical, almost, with Gholdengo having additional resistances and immunities, but they’re both weak to the same things. Jirachi is a bit bulkier but loses a large chunk of the Sp. Atk stat, so it’s something of a trade-off between the two.

Jirachi as Steel runs:

• Flash Cannon
• Steel Beam
• Cosmic Power
• Calm Mind

Cosmic Power is legitimately the best defensive move in Tera Raids, bar none, so Jirachi dying isn’t that much of a concern. It’s damage output that’s holding her back, and she doesn’t really have a solution to that besides stacking a buncha Calm Minds.

Serperior

You want a glass cannon? You’ve got one. Contrary Serperior’s gimmick is to Tera into Stellar and use Stellar Tera Blast, which normally reduces both attack stats by one… except it’s Contrary, so they increase. Great! Problem is, you’re a really frail attacker. 

Serperior runs:

• Tera Blast
• Giga Drain
• Taunt
• Light Screen

Taunt and Light Screen are both discretionary, but I encourage them both over any alternatives.

The real problem with Serperior is that even if he’s super effective and not having defensive struggles, he isn’t going to output enough damage to justify running him over another Grass-type option until he’s about +4 on his stat stages, and that takes a lot of time to get up to, and he’s extremely vulnerable to the mid-raid stat wipe.

Latios & Latias

I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing wrong with Dragon Lati Twins, but I seem to be unable to get any real mileage out of it beyond what I’d get from the other C+ tiers. The Twins require x3 Calm Minds to do any real damage (though fortunately you have Chilling Water to mitigate physical damage in the meantime) and that’s not easy to pull off without knowing exactly when the stat wipe is going to come. Basically, raids with an early stat wipe tend to rule out the twins as an option.

Lati Twins Dragon can:

• Dragon Pulse
• Calm Mind
• Chilling Water/Reflect
• Thunder Wave/Draco Meteor

The Thunder Wave/Draco Meteor decision is up to you, and there’s probably other utility moves out there you may find useful.

The real upside of the Lati Twins is their resistances – they resist Fighting, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric and Psychic and are immune to Ground thanks to Levitate. That’s really, really helpful in some specific raids, and it’s honestly one of the better resistance charts available to you.

C Tier

Arceus without Shell Bell

Special attacker Arceus without Shell Bell relies on Recover to gain HP, as he has no other non-Grass self-healing moves. That stuff’ll work over on the physical tier list (Arceus-Normal is pretty good, thanks to Shell Bell) but it won’t work over here.

Still, most people attempting this build try:

• Judgement
• Recover
• Acid Spray (consider Cosmic Power instead)
• Calm Mind

I should mention that Arceus will waste a lot of turns using Recover to gain HP unless you run Cosmic Power. Frankly, you can also swap Calm Mind with Cosmic Power instead, as Acid Spray gives you a similar effect to a degree. It’s the kind of build that can work if you force it to, but why bother forcing it to?

Deoxys without Psychic Builds

You can try it, and you’ll win about 1/5 of the time. Even when super effective. Don’t do it. You won’t do enough damage and you’re missing out on STAB, so you’ll not outpace the clock.

Deoxys without Psychic-type attacks runs:

• Nasty Plot
• Cosmic Power
• (attack of preferred type)

Deoxys-Defense isn’t powerful enough to deal damage to outpace the clock without STAB. Even with STAB that Psychic Terrain is kind of your best shot, so why switch off Psychic?

Tornadus – Therian

Let’s say you’re facing a Bug Tera, and you don’t have access to any Flying, Fire or Rock builds. It’s not unheard of – Armarouge is weak to several things, and Lugia and Diancie are sometimes hard to get a hold of. Understandable.

In that scenario, you may have a reason to use Tornadus-Therian. T-T works well if he’s resisting what’s being thrown at him, and he’s hitting super effectively, and there’s no weather wars going on. If he can set up two Nasty Plots and rain, and survive long enough to land a Bleakwind Storm, then he’ll self-heal enough to dig himself out from the low-HP mess he’s gotten himself into. (Honestly, you may be better off starting with a Defense cheer to make sure you live that long.)

Tornadus-Therian typically runs:

• Nasty Plot
• Bleakwind Storm
• Rain Dance
• Air Slash (Tailwind is optional)

Air Slash is your “break glass if dead” move, where you don’t have enough HP to set up rain before your next Bleakwind Storm, but you don’t want to take the 20% chance that you’re going to miss your shot and die, so you take the safer 95% hit chance with Air Slash. Tailwind can help with that by making you faster, but it doesn’t heal you.

The Physical Attacker Tera Raid Builds Tier List

The physical attackers tier list is a more uphill battle compared to the special attackers tier list, due in no small part to the number of mechanics that are set up against the benefit of physical attackers. For starters, there’s much less distribution of Bulk Up and Swords Dance compared to Calm Mind and Nasty Plot. This severely truncates the pool of potentially usable Pokémon that we have available. 

Second, many high stat physical attacking types have some sort of trade-off to them such as having low Defense or Special Defense, or not having moves to boost those stats. While that is a problem that special attackers had, at least the special attackers had wider distribution of Calm Mind and Nasty Plot to make up for it. The physical attackers have no such advantage. Additionally, some key attacking types such as Rock type and Flying type which are primarily physical also contain built-in imperfect accuracy. This severely limits their reliability in Tera raids, which is deeply unfortunate as Rock and Flying types would theoretically be two of the best offensive types for Tera raids. Let’s not forget that Burn status halves your Attack while no equivalent exists for Special Attack. You get the idea.

(Having said that, the S tiers on the physical tier list are on average better than the ones in the special tier list, in my opinion. It’s a weird outcome, I know.)

The basic thought process for all of these is almost exactly the same as with special attackers: everyone’s holding Shell Bell unless otherwise stated, boosting their own stats, and self-healing by doing a lot of damage thanks to Shell Bell. You’ll also notice that there are nowhere near as many options to deal with sleep outside of Sleep Talk. I’ve not yet thought up a solution to that problem.

S Tier

Annihilape

Annihilape is unimaginably offensively potent. This is because his moveset consists basically of:

• Bulk Up
• Rage Fist/Drain Punch
• Taunt/Focus Energy/Screech
• Pick a second move from the above bullet

The strategy is pretty obvious: use a few Bulk Ups, one of the three secondary options if the Tera shield is not up yet, and then either Rage Fist or Drain Punch, whichever type you are. Rage Fist ends up being a base power 300 in pretty much every Tera raid, because you’re going to get hit a lot by the opponent, and Drain Punch with even a single Bulk Up will typically heal you back to full. Unfortunately, you’re not going to be able to use Drain Punch against Ghost types, and you’re not going to be able to use Rage Fist against Normal types, so you’ll need two builds to really maximize his usefulness.

Annihilape Ghost is noticeably better than Annihilape Fighting because while Annihilape Fighting can run an item besides Shell Bell (run Life Orb for Fighting Annihilape by the way), there’s just nothing that really stands up to a 300 base power Ghost move besides the Normal type. Never mind that Focus Energy is going to nab you some crits until the midraid stat wipe!

Oh, and run Vital Spirit on him if you want him to be useful in Sleep builds. There’s a lot of raids that run Sleep and have no real counterplay, so… use it!

Koraidon

Koraidon has two optional attacking types as well. He can go with Fighting type, which is what he was designed for, or he can go with Dragon type. The Fighting type option consists of:

• Bulk Up/Swords Dance
• Collision Course
• Drain Punch
• Screech

I encourage Bulk Up over Swords Dance because you get the defense boost, and it’s not like you need more attack boosts than you need at least one defense boost. However, you can switch out Screech for Sunny Day if you would prefer to keep his ability useful throughout the end of the battle. Screech stops being effective when the shield goes up.

His Dragon type option is similar: instead of Collision Course, you have Dragon Claw. You’ll keep Drain Punch and Bulk Up, as Drain Punch is the best HP recovery option available to just about any Pokémon, and Bulk Up is of course always necessary.

Zamazenta (and Body Press Analysis)

Zamazenta is one of the best Body Press users, although Body Press strategies in general are pretty darn good. Zamazenta is straightforward:

• Iron Defense
• Body Press
• (Brick Break and Coaching are nice too)

Iron Defense plus Body Press equals high defense which translates into extremely high attack stats. Dropping two Iron Defense and switching that into a Body Press is pretty much all you need. Also, he basically never dies because he has an over 300 special defense stat when fully leveled, which is way more than enough for what you need. Other Body Press strategies are really good as well, which is why I’ve kind of pulled them together and put them in a tier, although you should of course feel free to experiment if you really want Body Press. Unfortunately, Body Press is a Fighting type move, and the competition for being the best Fighting type move is extremely difficult with physical attackers.

Please take note that Zamazenta runs Shell Bell, not the Rusted Shield.

Dusk Mane Necrozma

At present, the only non-Fighting type Pokémon that I would consider to be S tier is Dusk Mane Necrozma. Dusk Mane is a Steel type who runs:

• Swords Dance
• Iron Defense
• Sunsteel Strike
• Iron Head

Fortunately, his Psychic and Steel typing and Steel Tera typing makes him a viable alternative to your Fighting types if your opponent Pokémon is a Fairy type. You’ll notice that everything else in S tier is weak to Fairy and Psychic both, and Dusk Mane Necrozma happens to resist both of those. That’s not by design: it’s just convenient.

Zacian

Zacian is the best Fairy type attacker you’ll find, although he suffers from Play Rough syndrome, which is what I call the fact that he can only hit with 90% accuracy. He’s pretty straightforward: he runs:

• Play Rough
• Swords Dance
• Noble Roar
• Iron Defense

Zacian make sure to hold a Shell Bell instead of the Rusted Sword, because the Rusted Sword form does not actually help us. Besides, it’s probably better to have the solo Fairy typing anyway. Zacian does hit pretty hard, and can hit harder than some of the S tiers, but his defense is lower and he’s especially weak to special defense boosting Poison and Steel types which are more common than you’d think.

Dialga

Dialga’s typing is, quite frequently, the answer to many raids. You’ll often see scenarios where he resists everything or almost everything they can throw at him, and he’s tanky enough that whatever he does get with is irrelevant. Dialga has one flaw, and that’s damage output. It’s acceptable, but it takes a lot of stat building to get there, so you’ll find yourself using three or four turns before you can start taking the shot.

(Also, it’s super dumb that he doesn’t have Calm Mind. Dialga would be a phenomenal special attacker!)

Dialga runs:

• Bulk Up
• Iron Head
• Tera Blast
• Thunder Wave

Dialga’s pretty straightforward: use some Bulk Ups, then Iron Head, and Tera Blast if you need it. Note that Iron Head doesn’t cause flinching against a Tera Raid. Dialga’s also perfectly functional as a Dragon-type attacker, it’s just not as good because of the seriously good defensive benefits of having a Steel Tera over a Dragon Tera. Dialga Dragon just swaps Iron Head for Dragon Claw.

Rayquaza

I’ll stop you now: no, we’re not running Dragon Ascent. Dragon Ascent cuts your Defense and Sp. Def and you have no easy way to get them back, so you’re not running that.

Rayquaza runs:

• Air Slash
• Swords Dance
• Tera Blast
• Bulk Up

Rayquaza’s really quite odd. He doesn’t have any good physical Flying type attacks, so to charge the Tera Orb we go with the 95% accurate Air Slash. The slight inconsistency with Air Slash is good cause for an A+ placement, but he’s just so powerful once he gets the Tera that it doesn’t matter. He’s tanky, can fight weather wars, can self-boost Defense but still has Swords Dance, he’s fantastic. He’s also just about your only real Flying-type option for Tera Raids, so have fun with that.

A+ Tier

Ogerpon (Grass)

Ogerpon is the best Grass type attacker that we have, which is unfortunate as he basically requires either the Miracle Seed or the Shell Bell to be functional, limiting his ability to Tera raid with his other types. That’s the trade-off with Ogerpon: if you go with one of the other types, you still can only self heal with Grass type attacks, so why would you limit yourself to that? Instead, don’t have him hold a mask, have him hold a Miracle Seed or Shell Bell. Miracle Seed boosts your Grass type attacks better, which by my math makes it slightly more effective than Shell Bell when running his moveset:

• Ivy Cudgel
• Horn Leech
• Swords Dance
• Grassy Terrain

Each of these are pretty straightforward: Ivy Cudgel is the move that you use to do most of your damage. Horn Leech is how you self-heal. Swords Dance boosts yourself, Grassy Terrain functions as a boost to your Grass type moves. Ogerpon is noticeably less tanky than other Pokémon you’ll see here, so you’ll have to be more aggressive with him. With basically all of these builds I encourage splitting half of your EV investment between special defense and defense, but that’s especially true with Ogerpon.

Landorus-Therian

Landorus-Therian is powerful, but suffers from low physical defense. Fortunately, Bulk Up can prevent this. He has very high physical attack, boosted by his moveset:

• Bulk Up
• Earthquake
• Mud-Slap
• Swords Dance

That’s a typical moveset, except for the inclusion of Mud-Slap. I recommend starting off with one or two hits of Mud-Slap in each raid so that you just don’t get hit as much. It’s a simple strategy, and it builds up your orb charge. Unfortunately, Landorus-Therian suffers from having a double weakness to Ice and a weakness to Water. This isn’t usually a problem, but Ice and Water moves are kind of randomly distributed, and you don’t really see them coming until they’ve already hit you. But as you’ll see with the other Ground type attackers, the strategy is really simple: boost your stats and then hit with Earthquake.

Regirock

Regirock is another Body Press user. Regirock has an obscene defense stat of 200, and also has access to:

• Iron Defense
• Drain Punch
• Body Press
• Sleep Talk

Sleep Talk is an optional move slot: I use it in case he gets put to sleep. Although Regirock is a Rock type, limiting his same type attack bonus from using Body Press, his extremely large defense stat combined with Iron Defense, and Body Press means that you won’t miss it much. Keep him as Rock Tera type or use Stellar, because you don’t want to be changing your type weaknesses in the middle of the raid.

Also, give him the Impish nature instead of Adamant, as his Defense stat is what’s important here.

Single Strike Urshifu

Single Strike Urshifu is an acceptably strong Dark type attacker, whose unique moveset allows him to bypass defense boosts that the opponent applies to themselves. That’s because Wicked Blow is a critical hit, and critical hits bypass defense boosts. Urshifu has:

• Swords Dance
• Wicked Blow
• Taunt
• Crunch

Taunt is optional, but recommended, because Taunt has situational usefulness that you don’t expect until it helps you. Urshifu is a glass cannon: his defense and special defense stats are pretty low even when boosted, and if he’s dying it’s going to be to special defense moves.

Rapid Strike Urshifu

Rapid Strike Urshifu is somewhat similar. Rapid Strike Urshifu runs:

• Waterfall
• Swords Dance
• Surging Strikes
• Taunt

In both of these movesets, you see their signature move of their type, and also a secondary move of that type – that’s because we want the Pokémon to be able to attack even after they’ve run out of PP. I know it seems unnecessary now, but just wait until you need it.

Groudon

Groudon is our other good Ground type attacker, but he suffers from the same issues that Landorus does. The strategy is the same:

• Earthquake
• Bulk Up
• Swords Dance
• Sunny Day

Do note, however, that it’s missing Mud-Slap. Mud-Slap itself does not make that much of a difference between the two that Groudon is better: really what it is is the fact that Groudon is more reliant on setting up with Sunny Day. Having Sunny Day limits his Water weakness, so it’s a trade-off: Groudon is weak to Grass but not so much to Water.

Calyrex-Ice

You get precisely one great physical Ice type move in this stinking game, and that’s Glacial Lance. Calyrex-Ice is your only real option for Ice type attackers (Kyurem’s a bust), and fortunately he’s a good one. Calyrex-Ice runs:

• Glacial Lance
• Iron Defense
• Icicle Crash
• Swords Dance

and typically puts all his EVs into Sp. Def, because Iron Defense will boost Def like crazy. With maximum Attack and Sp. Def investment you’ll have an unboosted 471 attack on top of Glacial Lance. Your only downsides are being Ice and Psychic type, which are easily hit super effectively in raids. Still, he’s often good enough to overcome super effective hits thanks to Iron Defense and the investments.
You could also run Snowscape instead of the less consistent Icicle Crash, but know that you’re only getting 8 shots with Glacial Lance so there’s really nothing you can waste here. 

Palkia

Palkia’s the solution to many raids where Water, Ice or Fire-type attacks are the problem.

Palkia runs:

• Liquidation
• Rain Dance
• Bulk Up
• Aqua Ring (could also run Chilling Water, Thunder Wave)

Palkia is pretty close to having it all. He’s a bit light on the damage output side of things, but otherwise he can fight weather wars, set his own version of Leftovers through Aqua Ring (though Switch 1 users be aware – the animations take longer, and by setting Aqua Ring you’re taking off probably 30 seconds of time from the raid), and otherwise stat boost as needed. Palkia’s easy to play, just use three or four Bulk Ups, set Rain Dance, and start whaling away.

Palkia is perfectly fine as a Dragon-type, but his moves are better on the Water side, and there’s plenty of options to tackle Dragon Tera Types as it is already. Still, Dragon Palkia runs:

• Dragon Claw
• Bulk Up
• Aqua Ring
• (discretionary)

You might run Thunder Wave or Breaking Swipe in that last slot. Chilling Water and Breaking Swipe both knock off an Attack stage from the opponent.

Meloetta – Pirouette

Yes, it’s Drain Punch spam. But there’s a twist! The twist is inconvenience. Meloetta has to use Relic Song first to become her Pirouette form, changing her type from Normal/Psychic to Normal/Fighting. Your Tera stays the same, so make sure it’s Fighting beforehand.

Otherwise, Meloetta runs:

• Drain Punch
• Swords Dance
• Relic Song
• Discretionary

Meloetta has so many potentially useful moves that I’m not going to tell you what to run for that fourth slot, you can pick just about anything and make it work. Skill Swap? Yep. Thunder Wave and screens? Got ’em. Meloetta’s got a vast selection of utility moves for that last slot.

The gameplay is otherwise normal – Swords Dance, then Relic Song when it’s switchin’ time. Then Drain Punch until the cows come home.

A Tier

Ceruledge

Ceruledge runs:

• Bitter Blade
• Swords Dance
• Taunt
• Iron Defense

Ceruledge is a bit more frail defensively than I’d’ve liked, but he makes up for it with Bitter Blade being fantastic and by Iron Defense’s Defense boost, allowing you to invest fully into Sp. Def. He’s pretty straightforward – drop Swords Dances and, if needed, an Iron Defense, and whale away. He has some flexibility to hold options besides Shell Bell thanks to Bitter Blade’s lifesteal ability, so I recommend Life Orb or Big Root. Life Orb’ll get you more damage at the cost of losing a few HP at the end of the turn, but Big Root will gain you back more HP. Life Orb is probably better.

Metagross

I won’t lie to you, Metagross is kind of an annoying build to run. Metagross runs:

• Hone Claws
• Heavy Slam
• Iron Defense
• Iron Head

Metagross is irritating because instead of Bulk Up you get Hone Claws, which only boosts your Attack and your… accuracy. Great. Additionally, Heavy Slam is less effective on heavier Tera raid opponents, so you’re not going to know whether it’s better to use Heavy Slam or Iron Head unless you do that math beforehand. Just FYI: if they’re under 404 lbs (183 kgs) you’re going to use Heavy Slam.

Also, fair warning: Iron Head doesn’t cause flinch in Tera Raids. Right? I wasn’t happy either.

Mew

Mew is a Pokémon that certainly could use multiple loadouts, however for convenience sake I’ve only included the Psychic type one here. Mew can run:

• Psychic Fangs
• Psychic Terrain
• Bulk Up
• Any other move you feel appropriate

The strategy is very straightforward: Bulk Up, drop a Psychic Terrain, then hit with Psychic Fangs. He doesn’t do as much damage as some of the other raiders in A tier, but he’s more survivable and safer.

Iron Hands

Iron Hands is one of the most overhyped physical attackers out there regarding his Belly Drum moveset, but extremely potent when not running Belly Drum. Iron Hands in most online Tera raid content is well celebrated for his ability to one hit KO 5-star raids when super effective. Good for him! That doesn’t really fly here in 6-star raid land. We’ll get to Belly Drum stats later, but for now know that Iron Hands is far more survivable and successful when going off of one of these loadouts:

Fighting Iron Hands:

• Swords Dance
• Drain Punch
• Electric Terrain
• Discretionary – Iron Defense, Close Combat, Sand Attack are all functional choices

Electric Iron Hands:

• Swords Dance
• Electric Terrain
• Thunder Punch
• Discretionary – Iron Defense, Wild Charge, Sand Attack and Charge are all functional choices

Iron Hands’ game plan is straightforward: gimme two Swords Dance and an Electric Terrain (regardless of which type you’re running, you need that boost, and it counters Sleep as well), and start hitting with the type effective option. I don’t encourage the “drawback” moves like Close Combat or Wild Charge, especially not Close Combat given its Defense drops, but they will often heal you for more HP than you’d lose in using them. 

I explain why Belly Drum is comparatively ineffective later, but for now just know that you’re taking a large risk with Belly Drum to get a slightly faster KO, and on average you’ll die more often than it’s worth to run Belly Drum.

Body Press Strategies

Please see the Zamazenta section in the S tier for a rundown of Body Press strats.

Garchomp

Groudon, but not weak to Grass or Water (until he Terastallizes, at least). That’s the sales pitch for Garchomp. Oh, and gambling. That’s the other sales pitch.

Groudon runs:

• Earthquake (Dragon Claw if running Dragon)
• Swords Dance
• Sand Attack
• Sandstorm

See, Garchomp’s ability Sand Veil boosts his evasiveness in a sandstorm, and Sand Attack lowers the opponent’s accuracy. With Sand Veil up and a Sand Attack against the opponent, you can reduce the odds of a 100% accurate move to a 66%ish percent, giving you the occasional freebie. He’s got plenty of HP and acceptable defensive stats, and nearly 400 Attack when maximally invested plus Swords Dance, so as long as he’s not getting hit with an Ice type attack (which are rare in Tera Raids anyway) he’ll actually be pretty darn strong. He’d be pretty good even without the evasion, but the evasion just adds to the mix.

You can swap Earthquake for Dragon Claw, but the loss of 20 base power doesn’t do it any favors. It’s doable, though. The Dragon Tera also changes the list of vulnerabilities when you Tera, so you do have options there.

Kingambit

Supreme Overlord doesn’t work with Tera raids as far as I can tell (though that’s admittedly hard to test) but Defiant does carry a lot of water for Kingambit. Kingambit’s a typical stat-boosting user, who runs:

• Kowtow Cleave
• Swords Dance
• Taunt
• Iron Defense

Kingambit has a beastly 405 attack stat when fully invested, and his only real hangup is his low speed and Sp. Def. Otherwise, he’s a straightforward loadout and comes with Taunt, to boot. Defiant is also a great option for physical Tera raiders, because it functions like a free Swords Dance when you least expect it. Shadow Ball proc’d a Sp. Def drop? Swords Dance on the house! Chilling Water knocked off an Attack stage? Take two back! He sets up and sets up quickly in those raids.

Just… stay away from Fighting-types.

Okidogi

Okidogi is your option for Poison type attacks, unless you want to go over to the special side. Even then… not much in the way of Poison.

Okidogi runs:

• Bulk Up
• Poison Jab
• Taunt
• (discretionary)

The strategy is straightforward: run Poison Jab and Bulk Up ad infinitum. Taunt if you need to. Terastallize when you can. The only real hitch is what to run for that fourth move. I chose Sleep Talk, because there is nothing else to use it for. You can try Toxic, but Poison is the most useless status in Tera Raids, and Toxic Chain means you’ll likely get a poison on them anyway. You can go for Curse or Howl, but that doesn’t do anything for you that Bulk Up won’t. At least Sleep Talk takes care of Sleep, which is a pain-in-the-arse subgroup of Tera Raid strats.

Arceus

The special tier list has Arceus-Grass, and the physical one has Arceus-Normal. Yes, he’s holding Shell Bell. 

Arceus runs:

• Body Slam (see note)
• Swords Dance
• Cosmic Power
• Misty Terrain

Body Slam versus Normal Judgement is a trade-off. Judgement has fifteen extra base power, but Body Slam has a 30% chance to paralyze. Both are functional, but if you’re not the type to check when the mid-raid stat wipe is and instead just drop two Swords Dances and start hitting, then Judgement is probably better for you. Body Slam is generally more impactful if you can plan for the stat wipe and Swords Dance accordingly.

Also, yes, I know Arceus can’t be super effective against anything. However, he’s still pretty functional and is probably the only Pokemon to really effectively break the “try to be super effective” philosophy. Think of it like this: Cosmic Power makes him unkillable, Misty Terrain makes him unsleepable, and aside from Rock and Steel he has a shot against every type. Why not build one?

Swampert

Swampert Water is A tier, Swampert Ground is… significantly less helpful. Aside from an immunity to Electric, Swampert’s not defensively impressive out of the gate. Don’t even think about mowing your lawn near a Swampert, because one blade of grass will kill him. Still, he double resists Water, resists Ground and Steel, and does run Bulk Up and Amnesia, so he can get a decent defensive profile going if you give him a turn or two. Be sure to invest in Sp. Def and Attack exclusively so Bulk Up can do the rest.

Swampert Ground runs:

• Earthquake
• Bulk Up
• Amnesia
• Screech/Chilling Water

Bulk Up and Earthquake are the only two mandatory moves for this build, but Amnesia and Screech don’t hurt to add so you can solve the defensiveness problem. Once he gets going, he actually gets going pretty well, but his reliance on defensive stat boosts renders him really vulnerable to mid-raid stat wipes, and that’s not a great thing to be vulnerable to. Chilling Water does help with that, if need be.

Swampert Water runs:

• Liquidation
• Bulk Up
• Chilling Water
• Rain Dance/Amnesia

Swampert was truly designed for Water-type attacking, thanks in no small part to his ability Torrent, which gives Water attacks a boost when he’s low on HP. This’ll help you recover when you’ve been beaten within an inch of your life. More specifically, within 1/3rd of your life. Swampert Water will often toss at least one Chilling Water to the opponent to build up Tera and drop their Attack stat, then a Bulk Up or two as needed, and finally a Rain Dance if he’s not busy dying. You can swap out Rain Dance for Amnesia if you need the defense.

The end result of all this is a surprisingly competent Water-type attacker who can drop Attack stats through the Tera shield and play weather wars fairly competently.

B Tier

Belly Drum Strategies

Belly Drum strategies are very overhyped when it comes to solo six-star raids. In online raids they’re much more successful because teammates who know how to support will often recognize the Belly Drum strategy and use cheers appropriately, and so long as other teammates don’t immediately die (they often do) then you’ll at least get your Belly Drum attack off. However, Belly Drum presents an inherent problem: after you’ve cut your HP in half, you’re exceedingly vulnerable. Depending on whether you out speed the opponent, they might get to attack twice before you even drop your attack. So if you’re not using Belly Drum on a four-hit KO Pokémon, you might just die. And if you die, you take the raid out with you. So I don’t recommend Belly Drum strategies unless you’re coordinating with a teammate – which is not the scenario that this tier list is designed for anyway. As a result, I’ve placed most Belly Drum kits in B tier because they’re simply too risky to be your first choice.

Azumarill

Azumarill runs basically the same option regardless of which type you want to use: holding Shell Bell, he will run Aqua Ring and Belly Drum. Then, if he’s running Water type attacks he will run:

• Rain Dance
• Aqua Tail
• Aqua Ring
• Belly Drum

But if he’s running Fairy type attacks he will run:

• Play Rough
• Aqua Ring
• Belly Drum
• Fourth move slot open for your decision

Azumarill benefits from Huge Power, which is an automatic doubling of his attack stat. However, he suffers from the same drawbacks that a typical Belly Drum user suffers from, so I don’t recommend him over the other Water and Fairy type alternatives.

Slither Wing

Slither Wing is a Bug type attacker I’m especially proud of, as I came up with this move set without inspiration or observation from anyone else. Slither Wing should run:

• Leech Life
• Bulk Up
• Sunny Day
• Stun Spore

Because he has Protosynthesis as his ability, setting a Sunny Day boosts your attack, which stacks with Bulk Up and his already high physical attack, resulting in Leech Life being a great way to self-heal. Actually it’s a phenomenal way to self heal! And of course, you have Stun Spore available if you need to buy some time with paralysis. Do bear in mind that because he is Bug and Fighting type, he’s double weak to Flying and has a handful of other type weaknesses, so he’s not your best option when fighting Psychic and Dark and Grass raiders in every circumstance.

Great Tusk

Great Tusk is our forgotten stepchild of a Ground type attacker. Like the Ground types, Great Tusk runs:

• Earthquake
• Bulk Up
• Sunny Day
• Taunt (recommended for open third slot)

Great Tusk is simply inferior because, like Groudon, he has to run Sunny Day and should set that up before attacking. He’s also just a bit more glassy, and can’t take as much of a hit as the other two. Actually, his special defense is so low that I recommend you put your EV investment into his special defense instead of his physical attack. He also has far worse typing, being weak to everything that Ground is weak to and also everything that Fighting is weak to.

Galarian Zapdos

Galarian Zapdos is a moveset that I really had to force to work together. Galarian Zapdos runs:

• Bulk Up
• Drill Peck
• Taunt
• Fly or Tera Blast

That’s not a great moveset, but it’s about as much horsepower as we can get out of him. Honestly, instead of running Fly you might just run Tera Blast to not have the turn skip. He’s a bit of a glass cannon especially because of his bad typing, but he’s also your only real option for Flying type attacks. Flying type Physical attack is otherwise nonexistent in Tera Raids insofar as I can make a Flying type build work.

Shaymin

Shaymin’s weird, man.

• Swords Dance (or Growth)
• Petal Blizzard
• Grassy Terrain
• Discretional (I use Giga Drain)

Shaymin basically has two builds: all physical, or the only physical and special build in the game thanks to Growth. The double-attack moveset uses Growth and Giga Drain and still focuses on Petal Blizzard, but can hold something besides Shell Bell much in the same way Ogerpon can with Horn Leech. The problem is that Shaymin doesn’t have that much attack output without Swords Dance. So the Swords Dance + Petal Blizzard and Shell Bell moveset is faster but doesn’t self-heal as much, while the double-attack moveset self heals a lot more but isn’t as offensive, and so may not do enough damage to beat the timer. Up to you how you want to run it.

C Tier

Kleavor

Kleavor is your other Bug type option, though I don’t like him as much as I like Slither Wing. Kleavor runs:

• Double Team
• Light Screen
• X-Scissor
• Swords Dance

Basically the entire time that you’re running Kleavor you’re praying not to get hit by a special type move: that’s why you run Double Team and Light Screen. His special defense is bad enough that a single super effective hit can sometimes end your entire run. Problem is, he’s Bug and Rock type, which is not what one normally calls “a great defensive type”. Still, if he’s not being hit super effectively and he’s given the room to set up two Swords Dance and a Double Team, he can pull it off.

Terrakion

In the rare instances where Terrakion isn’t getting hit super effectively, he’s frail enough defensively that he’s going to wish he wasn’t there at all. Terrakion’s the Pokemon you wish was useful, as he has an absurd Attack stat and access to Swords Dance, and if you’re facing an opponent who isn’t super effective nor do they have special attacks, you’ll probably be alright. But if not… ouch.

Terrakion runs:

• Swords Dance
• Rock Slide
• Reflect
• Tera Blast

Terrakion suffers from Rock Slide being his best pre-Tera Rock type option. Rock Slide is 90% accurate, which means you’ll miss it right when you are about to charge your Tera Orb. If you manage to survive long enough to Terastallize, Tera Blast does save your butt. Terrakion and Iron Thorns would be totally useless if they weren’t just about the only tolerable physical Rock type options on the playground.

C+ Tier

Iron Thorns

Iron Thorns is one of the worst still-viable raiders that I’ve ever found, and the only reason you should build him is because of his Rock type potential. Iron Thorns runs:

• Swords Dance
• Rock Slide
• Electric Terrain
• Tera Blast

He has some of the worst typing in the game, being double weak to Ground and weak to Water, Fighting and Grass. Good luck not being hit super effectively. However, if that is the case and you’re not going to die within three turns, you have a bit of room for setup: you can start with Swords Dance, Electric Terrain and lastly start hitting with Rock Slide. Unfortunately, Rock Slide is only 90% accuracy, so you’re not going to be doing a lot with that either, and you run the RNG risk that ruins so many other builds. Much like Terrakion, Rock Slide is just there to charge your Orb until you can Tera Blast. 

This goes without saying, but… if Iron Thorns isn’t super effective, don’t run him.

Zarude

Zarude is just baaaaaaarely viable enough to include on this list, and that’s really just in optimal conditions. Zarude is a weather warrior, relying on Sunny Day to maximize his damage output. Problem is, as soon as the weather changes away from sun he’s crippled. Zarude runs:

• Sunny Day
• Solar Blade
• Swords Dance
• (discretionary)

Basically, you drop x3 Swords Dance, or as many as you can until it’s time to start self-healing, make absolutely certain that sun is set up, and hit Solar Blades. If you’re doing that, you’re smoothly sailing. Even with all that though, you’re reliant on both the sun and on not being hit particularly hard.

Maybe there’s a better build for Zarude, but I can’t seem to find it.

Ogerpon (Water)

You were so preoccupied with whether you could, you didn’t stop to think if you should. Ogerpon Water strips the Shell Bell in favor of the Wellspring Mask, relegating Ogerpon’s self-healing ability to Horn Leech. That severely truncates its usefulness. Still, Water Absorb is a tremendous asset against some raids (looking at you, Politoed).

Ogerpon (Water) runs:

• Horn Leech
• Ivy Cudgel
• Swords Dance
• Rain Dance

The basic idea is that while Ivy Cudgel is a Water-type move now, Horn Leech remains a Grass-type move, so the only types this build is doubly super-effective against are Ground and Rock. Make no mistake, you don’t want to use this build against anything that resists Grass-type Horn Leech. If you do, you don’t have a way to self-heal particularly well. Ogerpon’s not very defensive either, so shrugging off hits just doesn’t happen. Oh, and your defensive profile changes completely when you Tera, going from a weakness to Flying, Poison and Bug to a weakness to Grass and Electric, so be aware of that as well.