How To Beat And Use Hydreigon And Dragapult From Tera Raid Battle Spotlight In ‘Pokémon Scarlet And Violet’
Here’s our guide for the Hydreigon and Dragapult Tera Raid Battle Spotlight event in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
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While details are scant at this stage, we do know a few details thanks to Famitsu. It seems that the Pokémon will have a random Tera Type. Being the event features two “pseudo Legendaries,” it may be similar to the recent Salamence and Tyranitar Spotlight event — another pair of pseudo Legendaries.
If so, this would mean Hydreigon and Dragapult will appear in 4 and 5-Star Tera Raid Battles, but only in the versions where they naturally appear. As such, we imagine Hydregion will only appear in Scarlet version, while Dragapult will only appear in Violet.
Keep in mind you need six Badges to unlock 4-Star Tera Raids, and 5-Star Tera Raids are unlocked once you’ve seen the end credits. You’ll also need to download the event via the Poké Portal News from January 6th and before the 8th.
The Pokémon will have a chance at having their Hidden Ability (except Hydreigon as it can only ever have Levitate), and certain Tera Types may be more common in 5-star raids. Steel for Hydreigon, and Ghost for Dragapult — if promotional images are anything to go by.
Potential rewards included berries and rare sellable items, with the 5-star encounters offering the chance of finding Feathers, Tera Shards, Nature Mints, PP Up, Bottle Caps, and Ability Capsules — but not Herba Mystica as they usually do. The Mints are usually those best fitting the Pokémon you just battled.
Hydreigon
While the Tera Types are random, we can still offer assistance in what to expect in a battle, and how to use them. Hydreigon is a Dark and Dragon-Type, and will still deal extra damage using those moves no matter what Tera-Type it is. As such, avoid using Dragon, Psychic, and Ghost-Type Pokémon. Also, keep in mind its Levitate ability makes it immune to all Ground-Type moves.
Steel-Types can resist Dragon-Type moves, while Fairy, Fighting, and Dark-Types themselves can resist the Dark Type moves. Even so, Hydreigon is likely to pack moves to help it fend off what it typically struggles against. Since it can learn powerful Fire, Water, Psychic, Normal, Steel, Ground, and Rock-Type moves — be prepared for anything!
While there are several viable Pokémon to use for high-end Tera Raid Battles, Azumarill, Umbreon, Gardevoir, Sylveon, Perrserker, Hatterene, Grimmsnarl, Kingambit, Gholdengo, Flutter Mane, Iron Hands, and Iron Valiant are all good options. Most of them are bulky, and all resist Dark and/or Dragon moves.
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Stat-wise, Hydreigon has adequate Speed and bulk (HP, Defense, and Special Defense), with respectable physical Attack, and great special Attack. Despite usually having several common weaknesses — including 4x damage from Fairy-Types — it’s stats and movepool have carried it to competitive tournaments.
Players usually support it with speed control moves (such as Tailwind or Icy Wind), or items that eek out a little more speed or damage (Choice Scarf, Choice Band, or Life Orb — though Assault Vest for extra Special Defense has also seen use). It can even support itself and its allies with its own Tailwind or Snarl.
Give it powerful Dragon and Dark type moves like Draco Meteor and Dark Pulse, give it a Fire or Steel Type move to stop it being walled by Steel or Fairy-Types, and keep on the offensive pressure. Due to the popularity of Steel Tera Types, the former may be more desired. A Modest Nature usually works best to maximize its Special Attack, but Timid is also viable depending on how fast you need it to be.
As for its best Tera Type, former Pokémon World Champion Wolfey Glick covered “the best tera type for EVERY Pokémon.” When discussing Hydreigon, he noted there were many viable options, but Steel Tera Type was one of the best.
This was thanks to offering many resistances to what Hydreigon is typically weak to, and powering-up Steel-Type moves like Flash Cannon to take care of the Fairy Types it usually fears.
While Steel Tera Type may be more common to find in the Spotlight event, Poison Tera Type was also noted as quite a good option. While weak to Ground and Psychic, Hydreigon’s Levitate removes the former, and it’s own Dark-Type moves deal Super Effective damage to the latter. This is for defense, as Hydreigon’s only Poison-Type move is Belch, which requires it to eat a Berry during the battle.
Team composition aside, whether you prefer Steel or Poison Tera Type depends on whether you want many resistances and a few weaknesses, or no weaknesses or resistances at all.
Dragapult
The Dragon and Ghost-Type has plenty of tricks up its sleeves. Its three potential abilities include Clear Body (preventing its stats being lowered), Infiltrator (ignores Substitute and screens like Reflect and Light Screen), and Cursed Body (a 30% chance of disabling the move it was hit by).
You should avoid using Dragon, Ghost, or Psychic-Types, as they’ll take more damage from its Dragon and Ghost moves. Steel and Fairy will resist (or be outright immune) to Dragon moves, while Dark and Normal Types can handle Ghost Type moves. However, keep in mind Dragapult can pack Dark, Fire, Water, Normal Bug, and Electric-Type moves.
As such, we’d recommend using Azumarill, Umbreon, Sylveon, Perrserker, Grimmsnarl, Kingambit, Gholdengo, Flutter Mane, Iron Hands, and Iron Valiant. They’ll all resist either the Dragon or Ghost moves, and in some cases both.
Dragapult was another competitive and championship poster-boy, but usage has dropped off in favor of other Pokémon. Nonetheless, it offers blistering Speed, and can be used as a physical or special sweeper. It has many options with its moves as well, usually leaving opponents guessing how you trained it until the first move hits and it’s too late.
Dragon Darts can hit both foes, Phantom Force takes two turns to hit but will bypass Protect, U-Turn can switch it with an ally while dealing damage, Sucker Punch gets priority when a foe is about to attack, Psychic Fangs can break screens, and it can boost its offenses and speed with Dragon Dance. For pure damage, you’ve also got Dragon Pulse, Draco Meteor, Shadow Ball, Flamethrower, and Surf.
Again, the Choice items and Life Orb are common items to deal more damage, but to stop it being shut down by Status Effects, Lum Berry and Safety Goggles can also work as a held item for it. Thanks to its Speed being so high, you can use an Adamant or Modest Nature (depending if you need physical or special attack).
You can use Jolly or Timid if you really want, but you don’t need to max out its Speed stat with its Nature and EV training. Most Pokémon usually can’t get around having a stat lowered in battle, no matter how its EV or Nature is tinkered. Don’t strategize based on already being on the back foot — plan so you stop your opponents advantage before it happens!
When Glick discussed Dragapult’s best Tera Type, he was brief but succinct. Steel Tera-Type plays into how flexible it usually is by offering many resistances, including to three types it’s usually weak to — Dragon, Fairy, and Ice-Types. While others could argue for Dragon or Ghost Tera Type — powering up its best moves even more — it’s hard to justify.
Neither Dragon nor Ghost offer a lot of coverage, only hitting their own types for double damage, and Psychic in Ghost’s case. Dragon is only resisted by Steel-Types, while Ghost deals less damage to Dark-Types. However, Fairy and Normal types are immune to them respectively.
Defensively, Dragon has many common resistances (Electric, Grass, Fire, Water), but also weaknesses (Dragon, Fairy, and — though not as common — Ice). Ghost-Types only resist Bug and Poison (not terribly common, though U-Turn can be learned by many Pokémon), and suffer from Dark and Ghost-Types.
Some of the most popular Pokémon used right now are those very types — including Meowscarada, Gholdengo, Annihilape, Hydregion, Murkrow, Garchomp, Kingambit, and Grimmsnarl. While Dragapult can outspeed the aforementioned Ghost-Types, it would need to be Ghost Tera Type and even items like Life Orb or Choice Band/Scarf on top of that to get a one-hit KO.
Most players are likely to know this, and will attempt to switch out, use Protect, Terrastalize to resist it, Sucker Punch, or more. Worse still, if your attack doesn’t secure the KO, you can be sure the opposing Ghost and its partner will make quick work of Dragapult.
As such, you’re better off following Glick’s advise with Steel Tera Type. If you want more raw power, you’ll need to play with the Dragon or Ghost Tera Types carefully.
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