First, there was Charizard, then there was Cinderace and Greninja. Now Decidueye is the latest seven-star tera raid in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. This limited-time event will give you a chance to catch the Alolan grass-type starter, who is otherwise not available in the games at this time. While there are still some aspects of the raid we don’t know, Game Freak has revealed enough information that there’s some reasonable preparation we can make ahead of the event. Let’s run down some things to keep in mind to defeat and catch Decidueye the Unrivaled before it goes away forever.
When is the Decidueye tera raid?
The Decidueye raid is ongoing and will be available until Sunday, March 19 at 7:59 p.m. ET. Then it will go into the vault until the following week on March 24 at 8 p.m. ET and finally conclude on March 26 at 7:59 p.m. ET.
What should I expect when facing Decidueye?
As is the case with any seven-star raid, Decidueye will be at level 100, and any Pokémon you bring to fight it should be, as well. While the owl archer has a base typing of grass and ghost, its tera type will be flying. This means its inherent weaknesses and resistances will be that of a flying-type Pokémon, rather than its natural grass/ghost. Despite this, its moveset still includes moves from all three of these types, as well as a fighting move. So it’s important to consider what Pokémon you can bring that will both be able to deal damage to a flying-type Pokémon, and resist the damage output of an enemy who operates with grass, ghost, and fighting moves, as well. Decidueye’s full moveset includes:
- Brave Bird (Flying)
- Leaf Blade (Grass)
- Spirit Shackle (Ghost)
- Air Cutter (Flying)
- Feather Dance (Flying)
- Swords Dance (Normal)
- Low Kick (Fighting)
Decidueye will use Feather Dance to lower your team’s physical attack, so if you can prioritize special attackers like Miraidon over physical attackers like Iron Hands, you’ll probably be in a better position to deal some real damage.
An example of what not to do is bring a Pokémon that can weaken flying Pokémon but would be susceptible to a well-placed Leaf Blade or Spirit Shackle, like the rock-type Sudowoodo or the ice/ghost-type Froslass. These two Pokémon would have rock and ice attacks to weaken Decidueye, but would themselves be weakened by the attacks it will inevitably have. So even if you don’t end up running the Pokémon discussed in this guide, it’s important to be cognizant of how you can juggle striking at Decidueye’s tera type weaknesses while not opening yourself up to getting bulldozed by its attacks.
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Who is the best Pokémon to fight Decidueye?
Decidueye’s attacks are exclusively physical attacks over special attacks, it’s best to bring a Pokémon that has high physical defense, and honestly one of the best picks seems to be Pokémon Violet mascot Miraidon. Its electric/dragon typing makes it resistant to Decidueye’s Leaf Blade, and with a respectable base 100 defense stat, it’s primed to tough out pretty much any grass attack. This will also extend to Decidueye’s flying tera type, as its electric typing will make it resistant to flying attacks. The tera type will increase the strength of Brave Bird and Swords Dance will push its physical strength up a few stages, but Miraidon is well-equipped to handle these attacks.
On top of this, Miraidon can increase the power of your team’s electric moves through its Hadron Engine ability. This automatically creates an electric terrain on the battlefield, which makes electric attacks more effective. If you want to give yourself every advantage possible, give Miraidon an electric tera type of its own to strengthen electric attacks even further. Decidueye has much lower physical defense than special, and there aren’t many options for physical attacks. Miraidon can learn Wild Charge by using TM147, but given just how much more powerful its special attack stat (135 base points) is compared to its physical attack stat (85 base points), you’re probably better off using special attacks anyway. Hadron Engine and an electric tera type will more than make up for Decidueye’s high special defense.
Speaking personally, I had grouped up with a team of randos for the raid and all four of us ran Miraidon, and while I ended up playing the support role by using cheers, we were able to take down Decidueye pretty easily. I used Hyper Training to increase its IVs, as well as equipped it with the Choice Specs held item to increase its special attack and used PP Ups to increase Electro Drift PP for good measure. One of us also used Taunt to ensure Decidueye could only use offensive moves, preventing it from increasing its own attack with Swords Dance or lowering ours with Feather Dance. Then it was just a matter of everyone unloading Electro Drifts onto Decidueye to deal as much damage as possible.
How do I get Miraidon if I have Scarlet?
As I mentioned before, Miraidon is Violet’s mascot, thus, is exclusive to that version of the game. If you have Scarlet and want to run a Miraidon for the raid, the only way you can do that is by trading with someone who has Violet. However, it’s not as straightforward of a process as you might think. Violet has two Miraidon in total, and only one is tradable. The first is the one the player receives at the beginning of the game that acts as their mount. While you get this silly little motorcycle man early on, it can’t be used in battle until the end of the game when it gets all its power back. So while a Violet player can use this Miraidon in the raid, it can’t be traded because you’d be missing a mount to explore its open world.
The Miraidon that can be traded between games is the one that acts as the game’s final boss. You’ll have to defeat it to finish the game, but then you’ll have to go find it again in the depths of Area Zero. The quickest way to find it is to go to the entrance of the Paldean crater and teleport to Research Station No. 4. Leave the lab and fly down directly off the cliff in front of you. The second Miraidon will be waiting at the end of a walkway leading up to one of the giant tera crystals at the bottom of Area Zero. It will be at level 72, and can be battled multiple times if you accidentally defeat it. But this is the Miraidon that will be transferable between games and can be given to a struggling Scarlet player who wants to defeat Decidueye.
Can I get a Hisuian Decidueye from this raid?
The Decidueye raid only includes a standard Decidueye, rather than the Hisuian regional variant introduced in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The grass/fighting version of Decidueye isn’t available in Scarlet and Violet yet, and likely won’t be until Game Freak integrates Pokémon Home functionality, which will allow you to trade between different Pokémon games and Scarlet and Violet. If you breed a Rowlet using the Decidueye from this raid, it will not evolve into a Hisuian Decidueye, as Pokémon only evolve into their regional variants when in that specific region. So there’s no way to get Hisuian Decidueye in Scarlet and Violet right now.
Reminder: You can only catch one Decidueye
As is the case with all seven-star raids, you can only catch one Decidueye through the tera raid event. You can take part in the battle to help your friends as many times as you like, but you’ll only be able to catch one for yourself. The Decidueye is also shiny locked, so if you want a shiny Decidueye in Scarlet and Violet, you’ll have to do so through breeding. Just throw Decidueye and a Ditto together during a picnic and wait for the eggs to show up. Then you can have as many Decidueye as you like.
