I previously suggested that the Switch 2 update to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet would alter the Tera Raid meta by making the game faster, which would result in the real-time timer not being modified, while the time required for processing and syncing the game might be sped up. I was exactly right!
I now have a Switch 2 and the Switch 2 edition of Scarlet and Violet, and I can certainly say that Tera Raids are much faster, and the real-time timer does not appear to have been modified. It’s a lot of small time saves here and there. By my estimate, a typical six-star Tera Raid would have about 30 to 45 seconds of dead time, which is what I call instances where the game is synced but still trying to process what’s going on or otherwise suffering from frame rate drops. That dead time is gone now, and it’s a really noticeable result.
The largest examples of this is when selecting items in the menu where after selecting the first item in the menu it takes two to three seconds for the next item to appear, and then there’s also another second or two after you press that before it actually occurs. So it would take about 10 seconds to simply execute an attack. Well, on the Switch 2 version, if you know what your menu looks like and the layout of your moves, you can execute an attack in about 1 second. That’s about eight to nine seconds of time save per attack, depending on how fast you move.
Additionally, smaller animations like the health bar, Terastallisation, deployment of partner Pokémon back onto the field after dying, etc. have all been sped up significantly. The health bar is nearly instantaneous, shaving by my estimate about a half-second per attack. Terastallisation used to be a 15 to 20 second process depending on your frame rate, and it is now about an 8 to 10 second process. Because there are no other frame drops, and the game was originally balanced to be a fairly balanced meta while taking the frame drops into account, you have marginally more time in your Tera Raid timer than you previously did.
The result of this in the Tera Raid meta is that more builds are viable: if it’s a build that is staying alive, and wasn’t doing enough damage to outpace the timer on the Switch 1 version, it might be doing enough damage to outpace the timer now. This is because by saving 30 to 45 seconds over the course of the raid you basically get two to three more turns of damage output over the course of the raid so long as you’re fast, and those two to three turns can make quite the difference.
The most notable example of this might be Eternatus-Poison, who I’ve ranked in C or C+ tier as a Tera Raider, because while he can’t buff himself significantly, when he’s Terastallized he does just enough damage to outpace the timer. Another good example is Regice, who has the same problem because he can’t boost himself very well but still does enough damage to outpace the timer. It remains to be seen whether these specific raiders are now more viable than they were before, but my early testing suggests that they’re at least more usable than they were before.
In short, the Switch 2 version of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet made Tera Raids easier by speeding them up without modifying the real-time timer.
Amiibo Doctor 