Best Pokémon for Primarina Tera Raid: How to beat the Primarina 7-Star Tera Raid event

Everything you need to know about the Primarina 7-Star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

The Pokémon Company

Pokémon has just announced the next 7-Star Tera Raid for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, as another powerful ‘mon is available to take down. Continuing the tradition of adding starter Pokémon to these difficult raids, Primarina, the Water-type starter from Generation 7, will be the next raid target. If you want to catch the Mightiest Primarina for yourself, here are the best counters.

Table of Contents

1. When does the Primarina raid start?
2. 7-Star Tera Raid Primarina stats, moves, and ability – Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
3. Best counters for Primarina – Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

When does the Primarina raid start?

Like many other 7-Star Raids, Primarina will be available over two weekends. One 7-Star Raid will appear each day, giving you six opportunities to take it down. However, no matter how many times you complete this raid, you’ll only be able to catch it once.

Here are the dates when Primarina is available:

• From Friday, May 10, 2024, until Sunday, May 12, 2024
• From Friday, May 17, 2024, until Sunday, May 19, 2024

7-Star Tera Raid Primarina stats, moves, and ability – Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Primarina is a special attacker with good special defense as well. It also comes with the hidden ability Liquid Voice, which turns all sound-based moves into Water-type. This means that more of Primarina’s moves will be Water-type than you’re expecting. The scariest thing about Primarina is that it has a surprisingly deep move pool, with move types that can counter almost every Pokémon available.

Here is Primarina’s set.

The Mightiest Primarina – Level 100

• Nature – Modest
• Ability – Liquid Voice
• Item – None
• Tera type – Fairy
• Move set – Sparkling Aria, Moonblast, Psychic, Sing, Surf, Encore

Best counters for Primarina – Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Primarina is a strong special attacker with weak physical defenses, so we’re looking for a strong physical attacker with good special defense that resists or is neutral to Primarina’s attacks.  Primarina also gets access to Sing, which can put you to sleep if you're not prepared and can be very annoying. It wasn’t an easy task but we found a few Pokémon which fit the bill.

Snorlax

Snorlax wins this fight in its sleep. / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company

Snorlax has great attack and special defense, but even more importantly, it has Belly Drum. Belly Drum is important as you only need to spend one turn raising your attack. It also has one of the best moves for raids: Mud-Slap, which lowers accuracy and helps you stick around for longer. Snorlax’s weight means that Heavy Slam will deal huge amounts of damage, while Hard Press is more situational. Here’s what we recommend.

Snorlax – Level 100

• Nature – Careful
• Ability – Thick Fat
• Item – Shell Bell
• Tera type – Steel
• Move set – Belly Drum, Heavy Slam, Mud-Slap, Hard Press

Gholdengo

Gholdengo might look silly, but they're very strong / The Pokémon Company

Gholdengo has a great typing for this, as Steel can hit Fairy for super effective damage. The main allure of using Gholdengo is that it has the ability Good as Gold, which means that it’s immune to Primarina’s more annoying moves like Sing and Encore. You’ll need to set up Light Screen at the start to keep you safe, but after that you can start setting up. Start with a few Flash Cannon’s to charge your Tera Orb, and then once your boosts are wiped you can set up a number of Nasty Plots before going for powerful Make it Rains. From there you can top up your special attack with more Nasty Plots as needed. Primarina will keep trying to Sing you to sleep as it doesn’t recognize that Good as Gold is blocking it, giving you more time to set up.

Here’s the set we recommend.

Gholdengo – Level 100

• Nature – Calm
• Item – Shell Bell
• Ability – Good as Gold
• Tera-type – Steel
• Moveset – Flash Cannon, Make It Rain, Light Screen, Nasty Plot

Clodsire

Worry not: Your lord and savior, Clodsire, is here! / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company

Aside from being a happy little guy Clodsire has great typing for this raid. The ability Water Absorb means it won’t take any damage from Primarina’s many sound-based attacks meaning we can get around Surf and Sing, which as a sound-based move, gets turned into a Water-type move. Clodsire is just heavy enough to deal maximum damage with Heavy Slam, and some support from Alcremie with Decorate will see this move rip through Primarina.

Clodsire – Level 100

• Nature – Careful
• Ability – Water Absorb
• Item – Shell Bell
• Tera type – Steel
• Move set – Heavy Slam, Mud-Slap, Iron Head, Amnesia

Alcremie

Temperatures may be getting warmer, but please don't try to eat this cutie. / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company

Alcremie is known for its special defense and also has a fantastic supportive move set. Decorate will double an ally’s attack, and Light Screen will help keep your whole team healthy by reducing damage from Primarina's exclusively special moves. Once your partner has buffed its stats, Alcremie can do decent damage by using Psych Up on them, followed by Stored Power.

Alcremie – Level 100

• Nature – Calm
• Ability – Sweet Veil
• Item – Leftovers
• Tera type – Psychic
• Move set – Light Screen, Psych Up, Stored Power, Decorate