How to unlock 7-star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

For anyone who thought the danger of entering a six-star Tera Raid battle in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet unprepared was where things capped out, Game Freak has another challenge for players who stick with the game for special events—seven-star Tera Raids. However, you need to unlock them.

Unlike the other raids available at Tera Raid Crystals scattered around Paldea, these seven-star Tera Raids will only be available during special events and ensure that anyone looking for a real challenge won’t leave dissatisfied.  Despite being tied to an event, players do still have to meet several unlock requirements even to gain access to a seven-star raid. This will likely keep under-leveled or new trainers from jumping into the max-difficulty Tera Raids and ruining the experience for people trying to grind during the events. Here’s what you need to know about unlocking seven-star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Unlocking seven-star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet explained

Unlocking seven-star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is relatively simple and they are easy to find since they can only appear during set event periods. Although, it’s easy to miss out on the process on unlocking these raids as the game doesn’t quite explain the process. What you need to do is go about unlocking the normal six-star Tera Raids. You can complete the Scarlet and Violet main story, finish Victory Road, Starfall Street, Path of Legends, and the post-game Academy Ace Tournament.

After you complete those tasks, Professor Jacq calls your character regarding completing the five-star and six-star Tera Raids. He wants you to work your way through completing these raids, completing a small handful to test your Pokémon against these hefty challenges, which take a reasonable amount of time. We recommend coordinating with other players to work on them, simplifying these difficult encounters. After you complete enough five-star raids, six-star raids become available.

Once you complete enough six-star raids, Professor Jacq tells you how there are powerful Tera Raid crystals that emit a lot of energy. This powerful energy transforms these Tera Raids into black crystals, which are the seven-star raids. You’ll know you can now access these special raids after you get this call from Jacq.

Once an event begins, certain Black Tera Raid Crystals around the region will occasionally shift to house seven-star raids instead of the usual six-star raids that typically act as the game’s max difficulty. You can easily find Black Tera Raid Crystals because they have a distinct icon on the map, and ones from events typically have a unique white glow too. 

The seven-star raids are not available all the time. They periodically appear occasionally, but you’ll want to see any announcements from Game Freak, who regularly shares these updates. You can check the Poké Portal news page to see when these events are happening, if the team has any updates, and check the times for any upcoming seven-star raids.

What do you get for completing seven-star Tera Raids in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

The rewards for seven-star Tera Raids vary to the same degree as any other raid in the game, but you can expect a hefty haul of rare items, XP Candy, and Herba Mystica for clearing what is typically referred to as the “Unrivaled Challenge.” In addition to the usual raid rewards, most seven-star raid events will also give players a special bonus should they catch the Raid Boss. 

For example, the Unrivaled Charizard event that introduced seven-star Tera Raids featured Dragon Tera Type Charizard and was the first time players could legally access the Charizard evolution line in Gen IX—Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard were previously unobtainable through just playing Scarlet and Violet usually. This was always the case up until Pikachu was featured, but it is still a unique way to introduce Pokémon to the game.

And if you caught an Unrivaled Pokémon by clearing the raid, it will feature a unique Mark you can equip in its Summary known as the Mightiest Mark.