by Doc – Owner, Founder, Yes, Still Working on That Raiders Tier List
When you unlock 5 and 6-star raids, your set of available partners changes. While the base game of Scarlet and Violet introduced these partners as being nothing more than a stand-in for human companionship (with the occasional Intimidate user), the Teal Mask update modified their AI and movesets such that they’re now actually useful sometimes.
NPC Partners are important in Tera raids because they do actually have an effect on battle: some of them set terrains, sometimes they’ll lower the opponent’s stats and they may even set screens for you.
Here’s the list of NPC partners I’ll be using as a reference.
S Tier
Gardevoir – Gardevoir sets Life Dew frequently, which restores up to 1/3rd your HP. Having a Gardevoir on your team often keeps you fully healed when you’d otherwise be struggling for HP. Honestly, some of the riskier Tera builds only become viable when you have a Gardevoir on your team, otherwise you’d have died long earlier.
Arboliva – Arboliva brings a few benefits, most of which are situational. Arboliva’s most obvious benefit is Seed Sower, which sets a Grass terrain on the field every time Arboliva is hit. Grassy Terrain boosts Grass-type attacks and also heals a bit of HP per turn. Arboliva also sets Safeguard, which is the real meat of this partner: having Safeguard can sometimes invalidate the opponent’s entire gimmick (often just setting sleep) while Safeguard is up. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Arboliva is also noticeably more helpful of an opponent on the Switch 2 version of Scarlet and Violet, because the end-of-turn healing animation is much faster due to having no processing time. Additionally, the Grass-type attack boost can work to your detriment if the opponent is using Grass-type attacks, so Arboliva’s really a more situational benefit for a partner.
A Tier
Arcanine, Tauros, Staraptor – These three Pokemon run Intimidate, which lowers the Attack stat of the opponent Pokemon each time they spawn or respawn. In my experience, you’ll usually get about three respawns from each each game, which is exceedingly helpful. Unfortunately it only applies to physical attack, leaving special attacks still completely viable for use by the opponent. Still, it’s quite helpful.
Arcanine also runs Leer, which lowers Defense. Staraptor runs Feather Dance, which lowers Attack by two stages. Tauros can break barriers with Raging Bull. Each of these three has their own unique benefits they bring as well as Intimidate.
Umbreon – Umbreon sets Thunder Wave, which in the early rounds is often quite helpful. Paralysis stats can sometimes buy you another free turn for setup where you otherwise wouldn’t have it, and having that free turn is the difference between life or death in some of the riskier builds. It’s RNG-dependent, but when Paralysis comes through, it comes through.
Drifblim – Drifblim and the other Pokemon in this tier (save for Umbreon) are all part of the “nerfing physical attacker Pokemon to hell” crew. Drifblim does this by using Will-O-Wisp to set a burn status on the opponent, halving their physical Attack stat.
Bellibolt – Bellibolt is the only Pokemon who acts in any way to nerf special attacks, and he does this by setting Light Screen. He doesn’t do it all the time, but it’s a useful thing to have in tandem with an Intimidate or Will-O-Wisp.
Dudunsparce – Dudunsparce runs Glare, which has a 100% accuracy, but can’t hit Electric Tera. Dudunsparce is basically superior to Umbreon, but their roles are so small they’re in the same tier.
B Tier
Toxapex – Toxapex will run Chilling Water, which lowers the Attack stat of the opponent, but he only uses it when it’s his most damaging move available. That’s a rare scenario, so it’s not that great.
Sylveon – Sylveon runs Charm, which lowers the opponent’s Attack stat twice. Yay! Problem is, it only works before the Tera shield goes up, and he doesn’t use it often. Not so great.
Weavile – Weavile runs Leer, which is about all he brings to the table. Still, it’s a nice boost to have before the shield goes up, and it’s not RNG-dependent like Mudsdale’s Rock Smash.
Heracross – Heracross runs Brick Break, which breaks screens. Screens are rare, so it’s not a great party trick, but it’s at least useful.
Irrelevant Tier
The remaining NPC partners – Corviknight, Mudsdale, Haxorus, Clodsire, Heracross and Garganacl are basically all irrelevant to your gameplay and you’re not likely to notice them unless it’s Clodsire being a bother. There’s a few extremely niche benefits, but otherwise they don’t help you.
Corviknight – Corviknight runs Scary Face, which lowers the opponent’s Speed by two stages. Sometimes this makes a difference, but it’s usually wiped quickly.
Haxorus – Haxorus also runs Scary Face.
Mudsdale – Mudsdale can run Rock Smash, which occasionally lowers Defense, but it’s rare.
Clodsire – Clodsire runs Toxic and Poison Jab, which make him possibly the worst partner of all of them. Poison is the least helpful of perhaps all of the status effects because it serves to only prevent you from inflicting a more useful status effect.
Garganacl – Garganacl runs Rock Tomb, which lowers Speed. It’s worse than Scary Face, which at least lowers it by two stages.
Amiibo Doctor 