Credit: Nintendo/The Pokemon Company
It makes me happy that the starters from previous Pokemon generations are gradually making their way to Scarlet and Violet. It’s genuinely never been easier to amass a collection of starters, which in turn makes it easier for other players to get them via breeding and Surprise Trade circulation. I just wish catching these starters didn’t entail getting my butt repeatedly kicked in Tera Raids. Oh well, gotta put the work in, I guess. Here’s what you need to know about the Intelon Tera Raid in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: Inteleon Tera Raid Guide
Starting tonight, April 27 at 8:00 PM Eastern time, and until Sunday, April 30 at the same time, Inteleon, the Water starter of Pokemon Sword and Shield, will be heading up seven-star Tera Raids. While Inteleon is usually a pure Water type, for this raid, it’ll be rocking an Ice Tera Type. Sounds like a straightforward switch, but it’s hiding some tricky counters, made more concerning by Inteleon’s natural skill at landing deadly critical hits.
As a reminder, in order to participate in six-star or higher Tera Raids in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, you’ll need to have completed the game’s main story and post-game questline, as well as completed at least 10 Tera Raids of four-star difficulty. High-level Tera Raids appear on your map as glowing, black type symbols. Additionally, while you can challenge this raid’s Inteleon as many times as you like to win items, you can only catch the Inteleon once per save file.
Inteleon Counter Ideas
Credit: The Pokemon Company/Nintendo
With an Ice Tera Type, Inteleon’s resistances break down like this:
- Weak against: Fighting, Fire, Rock, Steel
- Resistant to: Ice
The important thing to remember here is that while Ice may be Inteleon’s Tera Type, it still has access to its usual array of Water-type moves, including its deadly signature attack, Snipe Shot. As such, Rock and Fire-types are absolute no-gos right off the bat. This leaves us with Fighting and Steel, though the former may not be such a great idea either. Inteleon specializes primarily in Special Attack damage, something strong-bodied Fighting-types may not be able to stand up. That leaves us with one primary candidate: Steel-types.
Luckily, Scarlet and Violet, the latter more so, offer no shortage of sturdy Steel types. The best choices for this particular raid would be Tinkaton, Steel Hands, and Perrserker. Iron Hands in particular, already a common pick for high-level raids, can pull some major workhorse duty here with its natural resistance to Inteleon’s kit and its powerful offensive and defensive stats. Tinkaton is a bit of a riskier play, as while it has decent Special Defense and a type advantage, those stats aren’t as high as they could be. However, with the ability to use Skill Swap to take away Inteleon’s crit-boosting Snipe ability, as well as buffing skills like Light Screen and Swords Dance, it could make for a great support. On the off chance you’ve been training up that Perrserker from Professor Salvatore, its Steely Spirit ability, which boosts the power of Steel-type moves for the whole party, could prove invaluable as long as everyone else in your party is going for the Steel route.
Once again, this raid begins tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern and ends on Sunday night. If you miss the raid, they’ll be running an encore from May 4 to May 7. Don’t forget to breed some Sobbles and put them into Surprise Trade for those who can’t make it (or can’t beat it).
