Tera Raiding Thread!!

[colours]

After enough tries on Decidueye, I am now thoroughly convinced that a disturbing amount of Pokémon players do not understand basic type matchups or the effects of Terastal. And I also utterly hate how this boss gets multiple moves in one turn after making the barrier. Put all that together and this 7 star boss has easily been the worst one so far. Cinderace was a cunt and a half, but this one is beyond the pale.

You know what? I'm skipping it this time. Fuck this. HOME's transfer update is coming soon, and even if it weren't, I'm after the Hisui form. And I also have all the Ability Patches I need for my projected team. And the Unrivalled mark is purely cosmetic fluff that don't affect anything. I see no point to or no substantial reward in it for me putting up with an obnoxious raid boss that openly cheats to win.

And to think I'd said earlier that the 7 star events would be one exception for my general thoughts on these raids. After Decidueye, I'm not sure about that anymore.

it's really weird, because on paper this raid boss honestly should've been one of the easiest. as long as you have someone with a) acid spray and b) a miraidon, the battle is as good as won provided everything goes to plan, but somehow even simple raids get made fairly difficult by people who don't understand how raid bosses work nor the terastal types. s:

i don't blame you for passing on this. at any rate, i think people are breeding rowlets and wonder trading them, so if you'd like you can go that route. i know you mentioned you'd rather the hisuian form anyway, but something to consider.

 

[UxieLover1994]

it's really weird, because on paper this raid boss honestly should've been one of the easiest. as long as you have someone with a) acid spray and b) a miraidon, the battle is as good as won provided everything goes to plan, but somehow even simple raids get made fairly difficult by people who don't understand how raid bosses work nor the terastal types. s:

i don't blame you for passing on this. at any rate, i think people are breeding rowlets and wonder trading them, so if you'd like you can go that route. i know you mentioned you'd rather the hisuian form anyway, but something to consider.

This is why I've decided to forego on Decidueye; you can't trust your guests with bringing actual counters, and I've had to reset several Blissey raids because people were ignorant/greedy/trollish enough to bring in nothing but Iron Hands regardless of the Tera Type. And like what Gengarzilla said, HOME will be available soon enough, and I've evolved a lot of GO-imported Rowlet/Dartix in Hisui that can't wait to see Paldea (same with all the Teddiursa that came from last November's Community Day). I'm just happy enough with the Unrivaled Mark Greninja I caught after two attempts.

90% of surprise trade results are starters (especially Charmander and Froakie) or Hisuian Zorua, so it's obvious Rowlet is now in circulation and easy to obtain. Too bad Scatterbug isn't...

 

[colours]

this samurott raid might be the first one where i'm legitimately stumped on what to use (solo, that is). usually i have one or two raid 'mons for these seven star events, but that focus energy hurts s: (which is funny thinking about it bc focus energy crit strats are what i typically use against other raid 'mons).

 

[Astro Pantherion]

this samurott raid might be the first one where i'm legitimately stumped on what to use (solo, that is). usually i have one or two raid 'mons for these seven star events, but that focus energy hurts s: (which is funny thinking about it bc focus energy crit strats are what i typically use against other raid 'mons).

I used 1 Level 100 Azumarill against it, with the following moves:

Play Rough, Defense Curl, Rollout, and Aqua Ring, although the last move is debatable. I play roughed him a few times to do some damage while terastalized as a Fairy type. It was lucky I had some okay CPU partners to take some hits. Resistances to most of his moves help....unless they Crit-Hit you constantly. Occasionally using the Cheer option to heal damage. or/and increase attack stats After that, once his shield was gone, I used Defense Curl + Rollout to faint him just before the timer ended. It's not easy, that is for sure.

In fact, you need to be lucky to have some okay CPU partners to take some hits for you and pray he doesn't constantly target you all the time. Taunt Raid mons are by far the worst, however. I had far more issues and troubles with 5-star raids than with 6-star or even this 7-star raid, which only took me three tries to do. That and I really wanted a Samurott, as its one of my personal faves.

 

[Nicolas721]

I...don't like them. The presentation is nice, but the connection issues are similar to the ones from SWSH and the turn order and damage taken by the enemies are really messy even after the update. Half of the time it feels I'm the only one doing and receiving damage. Fortunately 3 stars and below are manageable.

But the worst without a doubt is the events. There's a gigantic portion of the fandom (including most kids...and me) that has never bothered to raise a competitive Pokemon, and now they want us to raise one every two weeks? Who the hell has time for that? Needless to say, it shows when you go online. At least make it so the event Pokemon is weak to the previous one, but nope, my Decidueye was 2HKNO by Samurott and didn't make any significant damage. If Gamefreak doesn't change their methods and starts giving more valuable stuff I feel hacking will become more popular.

 

[Astro Pantherion]

Compared to the 5 star raids, 6-7 star raids are absolute nightmare to do. They require extreme specific movesets to counter, and that is if you get lucky to get them to the end phase. Azumarill helped me in a clutch against a Normal Tera Type Salamence. If not for her Flamethrower (Salamence was female) I could have used Mimikyu to breeze through the fight due to natural immunties. Really difficult.

Once more, it also depends on the CPU partners you get if you don't play with real-life people. You can have a good moveset but if the CPU has sucky PKMN to use, you're pretty much carrying the fight.

 

[Kallyle]

I really wish Game Freak and TPC didn’t have raids as the sole evergreen endgame activity after everything I’ve heard about 6-7 star raids.

 

[UxieLover1994]

I really wish Game Freak and TPC didn’t have raids as the sole evergreen endgame activity after everything I’ve heard about 6-7 star raids.

I miss the sidequests PLA had, and admit it was a bad choice to only allow one set of rematches with the Gym Leaders. And the Acadamy Ace Tournament gets stale after a few rounds because you're facing the same trainers over and over despite the large cast. I'm able to handle most 5-Star raids and a handful of 6-Star raids on my own now, but I don't go public much these days because everyone uses Iron Hands. I'm just waiting for SV to connect with HOME so I can focus on Vivillon until the first expansion arrives (provided Pokémon GO survives the ugly Remote Raid Pass controversy).

 

[colours]

i think raids themselves are fine, because what else would there be as far as battle-content goes? for too many generations there was the copypasted battle tower which tbh can get really boring, so it's nice to change things up a bit with a challenging raid, even if said raid tends to be a bit... on the unfair side.

 

[Kallyle]

i think raids themselves are fine, because what else would there be as far as battle-content goes? for too many generations there was the copypasted battle tower which tbh can get really boring, so it's nice to change things up a bit with a challenging raid, even if said raid tends to be a bit... on the unfair side.

I’m fine with raids existing; I just don’t like how Game Freak seems to be using the special raids as a replacement for in-game challenges like the Battle Tower. They’re two different types of experiences, not to mention they’ll stop supporting raids for SV once the next generation roles around. It really doesn’t need to be either/or, especially when the choice they made is essentially planned obsolescence.

 

[FelipePR]

this samurott raid might be the first one where i'm legitimately stumped on what to use (solo, that is). usually i have one or two raid 'mons for these seven star events, but that focus energy hurts s: (which is funny thinking about it bc focus energy crit strats are what i typically use against other raid 'mons).

You can conquer the raid extremely easily solo with Koraidon. It is a quite easy job, even committing suicide with flare blitz. Honestly, I found this raid the easier 7 star so far.

 

[Kelleo]

Has any player actually beaten this 7 star Typhlosion? Because to me it looks fricken impossible.

I don't understand at all why GF would make these raids like this. Do young kids and casual players not matter? I don't care about being competitive. I prefer a somewhat easy game, not this BS. I play games to get rid of stress and crap, not add to it.

 

[FelipePR]

Has any player actually beaten this 7 star Typhlosion? Because to me it looks fricken impossible.

It's quite difficult, because at certain times the Pokémon will attack twice in a row, otherwise it would be fine. I couldn't beat him alone, but in a group using an Annihilape and other support Pokemons;

 

[Astro Pantherion]

Has any player actually beaten this 7 star Typhlosion? Because to me it looks fricken impossible.

I don't understand at all why GF would make these raids like this. Do young kids and casual players not matter? I don't care about being competitive. I prefer a somewhat easy game, not this BS. I play games to get rid of stress and crap, not add to it.

I have beaten him about 6-7 times now using the well-accepted Annihilape method, which is foolproof. Another method is Houndoom using its Dark Tera Type and using Flash Fire to absorb Eruption. Houndoom's native Dark-type also makes it resistant to Ghost and allows it to get normal damage from Play Rough. Only Earthquake is a pain, however, given Houndoom's Fire type. As such, I find Annihilape easier to do.

Solution:
1. Breed a Mankey with perfect IVs in Speed and Attack at the very least. (The more perfect IVs the easier it is.) At the very least, max out Attack with Vitamins.
2. Learn Rage Fist, and evolve it all the way to Annihilape and make it Level 100.
3. Have it learn Screech.
4. For maximum results, but which is optional, make sure to have its HA - which is Defiant and alter its Tera Type into Ghost (default is Fighting)
5. Equip Shell Bell as the hold item. you can buy one in Levencia City at the Delibird store.

In the Raid, do the following:

1. Start off with Screech to lower the Defense of Typhlosion. Most of the time, just using it once is enough.
2. Typhlosion will counter often with Shadow Ball at you, which is super effective but doesn't kill you.
3. Counter with Rage Fist, which does more damage every time you take damage. 50% increase every time.
4. Terastalize into Ghost Type for an increased STAB boost, making Rage Fist even stronger, yes even with the boosts to the attack itself.
4. The more damage you do, the more you heal from the damage you already took.
5. If you faint in the fight, even twice, don't worry, because the power boosts you got with Rage Fist stay intact.

Optionally, if you have Defiant as your mon's HA, then Shadow Ball, which has a chance to lower your Special Defense, will cause your mon to get its Attack raised in two stages. Your Rage Fist is now monstrously overpowered.

With this in mind, just spam Rage Fist after Terastalizing and do nothing else. Within three/four turns, Typhlosion will be a smoldering PKMN of the past.

I did this method about 6 times, never failing, making this raid an easy one to spam and gather your Raid rewards.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kelleo]

Y'all are too late, I actually got some help from someone already. But thanks anyway.

 

[colours]

hey raiders~ anyone preparing for the upcoming inteleon raid?

'dunno what i'm personally going to use against it, but i'm not thinking about it much, right now. i'm still trying to farm as many shards as i can with the blissey event (yes, it's technically "over", but i haven't connected back online yet, so..). gonna take me a while before i start the inteleon raid.

 

[Bolt Strike]

Yeah, I'm also on the side of "I don't want to bother with this because it's way too difficult". It seems like only top tier, competitively raised Pokemon can win this, and I just don't want to bother with all of that. It really destroys the freedom and flexibility of Pokemon, part of the appeal is that you can win with whatever Pokemon you want, but you pretty much can't here. No, I don't want to raise the same Azumarills and Iron Hands as everyone else with the same movesets, abilities, natures, items, and max EVs and IVs. That's boring. Just let me win with my storyline team Game Freak! Save the metagame top tier stuff for competitive.

It's a good thing the only thing you miss by skipping them is the marks and I can import the starters when Home is finally supported to avoid them. Arceus forbid they run exclusive shiny events under this like SwSh did.

i think raids themselves are fine, because what else would there be as far as battle-content goes? for too many generations there was the copypasted battle tower which tbh can get really boring, so it's nice to change things up a bit with a challenging raid, even if said raid tends to be a bit... on the unfair side.

Ehh, this doesn't really solve things because this is still copypasted battle content, just now with a 4v1 Raid instead of a 1v1 battle facility. We need the varied battle styles back, such as the Battle Frontier facilities, or quirky battle styles like Rotation, Triple, and Inverse Battles, that's what would really keep the post game battles interesting. But nope, they just want plain jane single battle stuff because kids get bored with anything that isn't apparently (or at least that's what Masuda claims).

 

[colours]

Yeah, I'm also on the side of "I don't want to bother with this because it's way too difficult". It seems like only top tier, competitively raised Pokemon can win this, and I just don't want to bother with all of that. It really destroys the freedom and flexibility of Pokemon, part of the appeal is that you can win with whatever Pokemon you want, but you pretty much can't here. No, I don't want to raise the same Azumarills and Iron Hands as everyone else with the same movesets, abilities, natures, items, and max EVs and IVs. That's boring. Just let me win with my storyline team Game Freak! Save the metagame top tier stuff for competitive.

i understand that tera raids aren't everyone's cup of tea, but i don't think they're any more (maybe slightly more because of the multiple types to watch out for) or less difficult than max raid battles in swsh or any other end-game battle content. as you've said in your post, it's optional content in the end and if people really wanted to they can just transfer whatever 'mons that show up in tera raid battles from HOME anyway.

that said? i personally don't mind the difficulty and i enjoy it (even if it is... frustrating at moments). to me, there's nothing wrong with the difficulty in and of itself. you don't need to be a sweaty competitive nerd to do well in tera raids. yeah, some pokemon aren't going to do as well in certain raids as others - that's just how it goes, you have to develop actual strategies that counter the boss' own, it's not designed so you can throw whatever you feel like at it and i think that's where some people tend to struggle. if your pokemon's attacks are too weak, is your pokemon the right nature? what about abilities? the more difficult tera raids sometimes force you to take a step back and re-assess. are you using the right pokemon, for example?

i do want to be clear on one point - people are absolutely free to dislike the more involved aspects of pokemon battling - that is to say, EVs/IVs/Natures, etc. i totally get it, but this is what tera raids teaches in the first place (albeit perhaps rather poorly) - that you can't just brute force, hit (insert super effective move here) and win - sometimes there's strategy and even coordination involved and it forces the player to really take a step back and take a different approach, whatever that approach may be, until they find a strategy that works. that may be restrictive in the sense that people can't use their favourite pokemon, but that's by design.

heck, you don't really even have to use "meta" pokemon. azumarill and iron hands are easy for a lot of people because belly drum strategies are rather simple to execute and they're sometimes instant win buttons, but there are way more options, and you can even be creative with them, too!

anyway the tl;dr is that the difficulty of tera raids i don't mind and i don't think i agree people should win with their story team. the nature of more difficult content in pokemon is that sometimes you have to strategise and perhaps a part of that strategising means using pokemon outside one's own comfort zone and i think that's okay! variety is good, using different approaches and mixing things up is a good thing, as flawed as tera raids themselves are.

Ehh, this doesn't really solve things because this is still copypasted battle content, just now with a 4v1 Raid instead of a 1v1 battle facility. We need the varied battle styles back, such as the Battle Frontier facilities, or quirky battle styles like Rotation, Triple, and Inverse Battles, that's what would really keep the post game battles interesting. But nope, they just want plain jane single battle stuff because kids get bored with anything that isn't apparently (or at least that's what Masuda claims).

i miss emerald's battle frontier the most because it took a really interesting approach in restricting how you can battle in some facilities, and even the facilities themselves can be like, a giant puzzle or something to figure out (i'm reminded of battle pyramid and battle pike...). it was, imo, rather creatively done!

personally, i've avoided some of the battle tower clone content these past couple of generations because they aren't very engaging to me. a lot of what made battle frontier fun in the first place (the aforementioned creative restrictions and battle design) are gone, and the battles themselves are mostly boring, so there's no real reason to do them. tera raids on the other hand at the very least attempts to shake things up by having an inflated-HP boss that hits like freight train so even if at its core it's 4-v-1, it's a lot more interesting and fun for me to do than typical 1v1 battle tower stuff due to the gimmick itself so it tends not to be boring more often than it is, though i understand your mileage may vary on that.

 

[Bolt Strike]

i understand that tera raids aren't everyone's cup of tea, but i don't think they're any more (maybe slightly more because of the multiple types to watch out for) or less difficult than max raid battles in swsh or any other end-game battle content. as you've said in your post, it's optional content in the end and if people really wanted to they can just transfer whatever 'mons that show up in tera raid battles from HOME anyway.

Ehh, I played Max Raids extensively and they never got as bad as the 7 Star Tera Raids. The 5/6 Star Tera Raids are roughly equivalent to the 5 Star Max Raids, but adding the 6 and 7 Stars really cranked up the difficulty. I have no issue doing the 5/6 Tera and 5 Max Raids with my storyline Pokemon as long as I'm with 2 or 3 other quality partners. 7 Star even at Lv. 100 I'm barely making a dent with them.

that said? i personally don't mind the difficulty and i enjoy it (even if it is... frustrating at moments). to me, there's nothing wrong with the difficulty in and of itself. you don't need to be a sweaty competitive nerd to do well in tera raids. yeah, some pokemon aren't going to do as well in certain raids as others - that's just how it goes, you have to develop actual strategies that counter the boss' own, it's not designed so you can throw whatever you feel like at it and i think that's where some people tend to struggle. if your pokemon's attacks are too weak, is your pokemon the right nature? what about abilities? the more difficult tera raids sometimes force you to take a step back and re-assess. are you using the right pokemon, for example?

i do want to be clear on one point - people are absolutely free to dislike the more involved aspects of pokemon battling - that is to say, EVs/IVs/Natures, etc. i totally get it, but this is what tera raids teaches in the first place (albeit perhaps rather poorly) - that you can't just brute force, hit (insert super effective move here) and win - sometimes there's strategy and even coordination involved and it forces the player to really take a step back and take a different approach, whatever that approach may be, until they find a strategy that works. that may be restrictive in the sense that people can't use their favourite pokemon, but that's by design.

It really doesn't do anything to teach you that you can't brute force it, and in fact it seems more like it teaches you that the game is willing to cheat to demoralize you with things you can't do such as have more than 4 moves or attack multiple times in a row, you don't really learn anything from that on how to improve your strategy. If they really want you to learn to do things other than just hit hard with a SE hit, they should be instilling this MUCH earlier in the game. Pulling this out of their hats at the very end just feels like an unreasonable difficulty spike.

This is one area where I'm really questioning why the Academy didn't have a battle tutorial mode like Earl's Pokemon Academy in Stadium 2, now something like this would really help with something like that.

heck, you don't really even have to use "meta" pokemon. azumarill and iron hands are easy for a lot of people because belly drum strategies are rather simple to execute and they're sometimes instant win buttons, but there are way more options, and you can even be creative with them, too!

Doesn't seem to matter which Pokemon I choose, they barely put a dent in their HP. Of course it doesn't help that Mints and Bottle Caps aren't very accessible in this game, maybe if it were easier to grind those kinds of resources I'd have a better shot (why couldn't they just keep LA's EL system and its easily accessible Grit items again?), but that's all the more reason they shouldn't be reaching this difficulty.

anyway the tl;dr is that the difficulty of tera raids i don't mind and i don't think i agree people should win with their story team. the nature of more difficult content in pokemon is that sometimes you have to strategise and perhaps a part of that strategising means using pokemon outside one's own comfort zone and i think that's okay! variety is good, using different approaches and mixing things up is a good thing, as flawed as tera raids themselves are.

I vehemently disagree. I think that really only has a place in a competitive environment where players are competing to be the best, then it makes sense to take a step back and see if your team could be optimized with better Pokemon choices and the like. But outside of that, it really seems to defy the spirit of the franchise to force you to discard the Pokemon you form a bond with for ones that have optimal BSTs, abilities, and movesets (and especially the first of those). Creating an environment that basically says "screw you if your favorite Pokemon's BST sucks" just isn't a good precedent outside of the competitive environment where it's really necessary.

 

[colours]

Ehh, I played Max Raids extensively and they never got as bad as the 7 Star Tera Raids. The 5/6 Star Tera Raids are roughly equivalent to the 5 Star Max Raids, but adding the 6 and 7 Stars really cranked up the difficulty. I have no issue doing the 5/6 Tera and 5 Max Raids with my storyline Pokemon as long as I'm with 2 or 3 other quality partners. 7 Star even at Lv. 100 I'm barely making a dent with them.

so have i - some of the max raids tend to be pretty spicy sometimes! in fact, try out dynamax adventures for difficulty similar to tera raids. you're not always going to have "quality" partners, and dynamax adventures teaches you to use pokemon outside of your comfort zone in situations in which the balance more often than not tips way in favour in the opponent than your team, mostly due to your AI team (assuming you go that route) being incompetent. even if you go into a dynamax adventure raid with a few friends, that is by no means a guarantee that you'll even do well - as stated, you aren't using your own pokemon, and those pokemon sometimes have suboptimal movesets, so you have to strategise to work with what you have while sometimes recognizing you're at a disadvantage. do you opt for healing your team and go for longevity by choosing the route with the berry, or do you choose the route with the professor so you can switch out your pokemon? what about the backpacker that can perhaps help with an item?

it's the same general concept with tera raids. not much different, here.

It really doesn't do anything to teach you that you can't brute force it, and in fact it seems more like it teaches you that the game is willing to cheat to demoralize you with things you can't do such as have more than 4 moves or attack multiple times in a row, you don't really learn anything from that on how to improve your strategy. If they really want you to learn to do things other than just hit hard with a SE hit, they should be instilling this MUCH earlier in the game. Pulling this out of their hats at the very end just feels like an unreasonable difficulty spike.

there's a lot to unpack with this statement, i think. let's start with the "cheating" part, because i think that in itself is a lot to break down.

max raid pokemon are also "cheating", in a sense. they have shields, you don't, as a player. unless you nuke them with a super powerful move turn one and circumvent the shield turn (which is something you can also more or less do with tera raids), shields are going to go up, and max raid 'mons have the freedom to go absolutely ham on your team with raid moves that lower your stats or cause status conditions, etc. of course, you can counter all of that by dynamaxing your own pokemon in turn, damaging their shields and ultimately breaking them, lowering their defenses and turning the tide of battle.

tera raids aren't all that dissimilar from max raids. the biggest difference between the two is the gimmick used - alongside having a lot more HP than usual (because otherwise it'd be far too easy to steamroll them), you'd have to prepare for their tera type. with 7 star raids in particular, you're basically fighting a lv 100 pokemon with your own lv 100 pokemon. the playing field isn't entirely equal, sure, which you, the player have to prepare for in advance. if the 7 star raid mon has a boosting move, what kind is it? would having a pokemon with intimidate help? for almost every 7 star raid that had a boosting move in particular, having AI pokemon with intimidate faint repeatedly and having that trigger the ability several times over was the key to victory as i boosted myself and timed my terastilization turn right and took down my opponent. in that sense, they aren't all that different from 5 or 6 star raids, just with a higher HP multiplier and more things to prepare for but ultimately the same concept applies.

they should be instilling this MUCH earlier in the game. Pulling this out of their hats at the very end just feels like an unreasonable difficulty spike.

i 'unno. they kind of.... do. the difficulty is gradual as you progress through the game - very early game you can do a max of 3-star raids until you start collecting badges in which the difficulty increases - until the time you have.. the 8th badge (or around there?) in which 5 star raids are unlocked. 5 star raids should, in theory, be the moment in which the game teaches you that yeah, just brute forcing through this like you have been through earlier raids isn't going to work all the time, and 5 star raid 'mons are the threshold in which ideally the player should start recognizing that they should probably start thinking of more effective strategies. mastering 5 star raids makes 6 star raids a lot easier as it's essentially putting to practice what you've learned in 5 star raids except in 6 star raids the pokemon have a higher hp multiplier and they're higher level making them less squishy, so on top of them hitting harder than usual you have to start thinking of ways to do more damage.

once you master 6 star raids, 7 star raids are the next step as the games up the ante by not only having you face against a pokemon of equal level, but a pokemon of equal level with monstrous HP and the advantage of starting off with one or two moves at the beginning of battle. the objective is to see what those moves are and how to best counter them. it's the same principle learned and applied during 5/6 star raids except a higher level.

This is one area where I'm really questioning why the Academy didn't have a battle tutorial mode like Earl's Pokemon Academy in Stadium 2, now something like this would really help with something like that.

fair point - EVs/IVs/Natures probably could've been its own academy course explained for newer players who aren't accustomed to that.

Doesn't seem to matter which Pokemon I choose, they barely put a dent in their HP. Of course it doesn't help that Mints and Bottle Caps aren't very accessible in this game, maybe if it were easier to grind those kinds of resources I'd have a better shot (why couldn't they just keep LA's EL system and its easily accessible Grit items again?), but that's all the more reason they shouldn't be reaching this difficulty.

disagree on mints not being very accessible - you can buy them at chansey stores for like 10 or 20K pokedollars and even if that seems like a lot, grinding 4/5 star raids should provide more than enough materials so that becomes affordable.

bottle caps, sure, i don't really have an issue with making them more accessible, but you yourself said 7 star raids are the main problem, not 5/6 star raids, and iirc bottle caps drop pretty commonly (from my experience?) in 5/6 star raids and aren't that tedious to grind out, depending on how many pokemon you're planning on maxing out and what stats and all that.

I vehemently disagree. I think that really only has a place in a competitive environment where players are competing to be the best, then it makes sense to take a step back and see if your team could be optimized with better Pokemon choices and the like. But outside of that, it really seems to defy the spirit of the franchise to force you to discard the Pokemon you form a bond with for ones that have optimal BSTs, abilities, and movesets (and especially the first of those). Creating an environment that basically says "screw you if your favorite Pokemon's BST sucks" just isn't a good precedent outside of the competitive environment where it's really necessary.

the big flaw in this argument that i think a lot of "casual" players overlook as well is that tera raids are optional. the game by no means shoves them in your face or obligates you to do them. you are no more obligated to do harder content in this game than you are to do max raids, dynamax adventures, battle tree, battle maison or really any other battle facility in past generations that progressively get more difficult the further you go. tera raids are in the same boat. you can go the entire playthrough and even do the academy ace tournament with your favourite pokemon and the game will not penalise you for it.

there are things that i agree with that needs to be fixed in tera raids. most notably the all too frustrating issue of getting stuck in menu screens and not to mention lag issues. but i'm sorry, i do not agree with trivialising optional post-game content. i don't see anything wrong with the player actually being challenged and being put to a disadvantage so that they form a strategy and overcome that disadvantage. that's what makes the challenge fun, that's what makes tera raids themselves fun. removing the difficulty aspect of tera raids to the point of throwing whatever pokemon you'd like at it, to me, is boring. it doesn't feel like a challenge nor is it engaging.

the "spirit" of the franchise isn't just using the pokemon you love. it's that - when presented with a difficult challenge that you can't overcome by conventional means, you have to strategise accordingly - how to go about doing that in a way that ensures victory is up to the player to figure out. i think it's a bit of a negative viewpoint to see the utilization of strategy in and of itself as a bad thing, because it's absolutely not. what if my favourite pokemon can't win? then i have to use pokemon that i'm not accustomed to using, that i haven't considered using before, and maybe i'll like that pokemon! that, too, is within the spirit of the franchise. getting to know other pokemon and realizing their potential and what they're capable of and harboring that strength is absolutely within the spirit of the franchise.

i don't think we'll completely see eye to eye on this so i think it's okay to agree to disagree for the most part, but for me, the difficulty feels at least appropriate for what the game expects players to be prepared for, even if the game itself can do a better job (which it absolutely can and should) at teaching battle mechanics.