How To Defeat Samurott in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet has been keeping fans sated by drip feeding them new and old Pokémon alike through the Tera Raid battle system. They’ve been adding in fan favorite starters like Decidueye and Greninja and even had a 2 week long event where players could capture new Paradox Legendary Pokémon based on Suicune and Virizion. The next 7-Star Starter to hit the Tera Raids is the water type Samurott from Pokémon Black & White.
Samurott will only be available for a few days, so drop everything you're doing and start preparing now! Samurott will be in Tera Raids on March 31st through April 2nd and again from April 7th to April 9th.
Unlock the High Level Raids
If you haven’t battled in the 7-Star Tera Raids, this is what is going to take you the most time. To unlock access you need to have finished the core story of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, that shouldn’t be an issue. You’ll be asked to go around and battle all the gyms again, then participate in the Ace Tournament. All of that shouldn’t give you too much difficulty, so all that’s left is to participate in ten of 4 and 5 Star Tera Raids.
When you’ve participated in enough of them, you should see 7-Star Tera Raids start to pop up on your map but only when you are connected online.
Taking Down Samurott
Start by finding the raid den for Samurott, it’ll be a dark, black flashing Bug icon on your map. Samurott will always be a Bug Tera-type for these raids, so that’s going to help determine the best counter to take him down.
The 7-Star Raids are very tough, so it’s recommended you go in with a group of actual players and don’t just fill up your team with the NPC players. But, if you think the Pokémon you have is up to the challenge, people have soloed the 7-Star Raids in the past.
Legendary Counters
Any Legendary Pokémon you have are great for Tera Raids because they’re likely already very powerful even without Hyper Training or EV Training. If you managed to snag a Walking Wake from a few weeks ago, or have a Koraidon handy, both of them will prove useful against Samurott.
Walking Wake
You’ll want to have your Walking Wake set to Dragon or Water for their Tera Type. The move set you’re going to want to prepare is Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Chilling Water and Noble Roar. It should be easy enough to chip away at Samurott’s health, but the biggest challenge to overcome in Tera Raids is breaking their shield. So have Sunny Day set and ready and when that shield goes up, hit your own Tera Raid and start pummeling it with Flamethrower.
Koraidon
Koraidon is going to take the same approach as a Walking Wake by exploiting the Samurott’s Bug Tera Typing. Start by giving your Koraidon a Heat Rock to boost the duration of his Sunny Day and set that up immediately. It’ll boost your attacks and weaken the Samurott. From here, start with your Sunny Day, then hit Flare Blitz and use Drain Punch to help keep your Hit Points up. As for your fourth move, you can use something like Screech to drop Samurott’s defense by two stages or Bulk Up to increase your own defense and attack.
More Commonly Used Pokemon
Not everyone has access to all the Legendary Pokémon, but don’t worry, we have you covered with a few options that you may already have prepared if you’ve been doing Tera Raids already. Here are some other fantastic counters to give you an edge over the 7-Star Samurott Tera Raids.
Azumarill
This water type Pokémon is perfect to put up against the Samurott Tera Raid. Make sure you’re using a Water Tera Type so that you’re minimizing any potential damage from Samurott and you’ll want the Huge Power ability on your Azumarill as well. If you’ve got the time to train and want the best possible stats, an Adamant Nature is best with a focus on Attack and Hit Points for its EVs.
From here you’ll want a move set of Aqua Ring, Defense Curl, Belly Drum and Rollout. Give your Azumarill a Sitrus Berry which will help it negate some of the effects of our Belly Drum ability. Start with Aqua Ring, Belly Drum, Defense Curl and then you’ll hit Rollout and roll to victory. Rollout is particularly powerful because it gains power if you used Defense Curl previously and gains more power every round it’s used.
Cloyster
One of the key focuses in Tera Raids is surviving, every time your Pokémon faints the timer you have to finish drops down further. So it’s imperative you stay alive while focusing on the boss Pokémon. With that in mind, Cloyster is a great defensive choice to bring against Samurott.
Its ability Shell Armor will automatically negate Critical Hits, so being one shot isn’t something you’ll need to worry about with it on your Cloyster. Depending on what other Pokémon your team is using, you’ll want to set up Snowscape to boost your Ice Beam damage. Hopefully no one else is running a Walking Wake or Koraidon and needs Sunny Day. If you equip your Cloyster with a Shell Bell and Life Dew in your move set, it should be enough to help keep you alive throughout the battle.
Paldean Tauros
Finally, the easiest to get and train whether you’re playing on Pokémon Scarlet or Pokémon Violet, a Paldean Tauros. You can find these roaming in the wilds to the Gym east of the School by the dozens.
You’re going to want to make sure this is the Fire Breed of Tauros and it has a Fire Tera Type with the ability Anger Point. Samurott can easily land Critical Hits and when it goes, Anger Point will max out your Tauros attack stat. So if you have an Adamant Nature Tauros, train his Attack EVs up and then get hit with a Critical Hit? You’re basically running the Hulk in Pokémon form.
Give your Tauros a Shell Bell to help keep his Hit Points up and then spam Tail Whip to lower his Defense until you take a Critical Hit. Once you do and Tauros gets enraged, set up a Sunny Day if someone else hasn't already. When everything is aligned and ready to go, unleash Raging Bull. You can also put Flare Blitz into your line-up to help take care of the Tera Shield.
