Credit: The Pokemon Company/Nintendo

I’ve been a member of the “Water Starters for Life” club ever since the first generation of Pokemon, so you’d better believe I’ll hop at the opportunity to bring any previous Water-type starters into my modern Pokemon squad. Of course, when said opportunity is a seven-star Tera Raid, well, that might take a bit of planning. Here’s a guide to the Samurott event in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Samurott Event Guide

From today, March 31st, to April 2nd, and again from April 7th to April 9th, a special Bug-type Mighty Samurott will be appearing in seven-star Tera Raids in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. As is usually the case with seven-star Raids, the Samurott is level 100 and has a carefully-curated moveset designed to offset the weaknesses of both its native Water typing and its Tera Bug typing. If you can defeat it, you can catch it, as well as breed it to get Oshawotts and Dewotts, which are not in the Paldean PokeDex.

As a reminder, in order to participate in seven-star Raids, you’ll need to have completed the main story or Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, cleared the Academy Ace Tournament in the post-game, and participated in at least 10 Raids ranked four-star or higher. Seven-star Raids appear on your map as pulsating black icons and show up in the world as black Tera Crystals with arcs of lightning sparking off of them.

Mighty Samurott Counters

Credit: The Pokemon Company/Nintendo

As mentioned, this Mighty Samurott is a Bug Tera Type, which makes it weak against Fire, Flying, and Rock-type moves. However, since it’s still, y’know, a Samurott, it can use Water moves, which means attempting to fight it with a Fire or Rock-type Pokemon is a bad idea. It can also use Ground moves, which make Rock-types a doubly-bad choice.

Here are the moves that the Mighty Samurott may have in its kit:

• Aqua Cutter (Water)
• Megahorn (Bug)
• Night Slash (Dark)
• Drill Run (Ground)
• Focus Energy (Normal)
• Swords Dance (Normal)
• Bulldoze (Ground)

While these moves are fairly powerful, there is a blind spot in them: Flying types. Flying-type Pokemon are completely immune to Ground-type moves and are neutral to Water, Bug, and Dark moves. For the purposes of countering this Samurott, your best Flying-type choice would be Corviknight. Thanks to its partial Steel typing, Corviknight is exceptionally hearty, and while Steel types would normally be weak to Ground moves, its Flying type removes that concern. Have a Corviknight focus on building its defense with Bulk Up, then pummel the Samurott with powerful Flying moves like Drill Peck to whittle it down. Ideally, your Corviknight will have a Flying Tera Type, both to remove Samurott’s shield midway through the fight and to maximize Flying-type STAB damage.

Alternatively, if you don’t mind a more drawn-out fight, you can try one of the Tera Raid standbys, Azumarill. Its Water/Fairy typing keeps it mostly neutral to Samurott’s kit, while its naturally-high attack and defense stats make it great for an old-fashioned beatdown. You can set up an Aqua Ring for HP support and use Defense Curl to build up defensive stats, followed by Belly Drum to max out your attack after you can safely endure a few hits. After that, just spam Rollout. It’ll be bolstered by both Defense Curl and Belly Drum, making its damage output too ridiculous for even Samurott to stop.

Remember, if you manage to catch that Samurott, breed a few Oshawotts and shoot them off into the Surprise Trade for those who weren’t able to clear the raid. Consider it a Pokemon public service.