Greninja is being added to the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet roster via seven-star Tera Raids. This event-exclusive raid is a higher difficulty, just like the last ones, so you’ll need to be properly prepared before diving in.
Greninja’s seven-star Tera Raids will run from Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. until Jan. 30 at 6:59 p.m. EST and Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. until Feb. 13 at 6:59 p.m. EST, so if you miss it the first time around, you’ll have a second chance. If you completely miss the event, tons of players will be breeding Froakie, so you can always get one via trade, though it won’t have the event Mightiest Mark.
These raids are tough and you won’t even have access to them until you unlock six-star raids, which requires you to clear the Academy Ace Tournament and do a handful of four- and five-star raids. Jacq will give you a call once you’ve hit the requirements, warning you to stay away from these powerful raid dens.
Greninja Tera Raid rewards
When you beat Greninja, you’ll be able to catch it, but you can only catch one. After you catch the Greninja, you won’t be able to get another one, even if you successfully clear the raid again. You can continue to beat Greninja for additional rewards after catching it, though.
Just like the seven-star raid targets that came before it, Greninja has its Hidden Ability, Protean, which changes its type to the type of the move its about to use. This only works once per switch in, but it has no effect while the Pokémon is Terastillized, so you won’t have to worry about it during the raid. This special Greninja will also come with perfect IVs and the Mightiest Mark.
Just like other Tera Raids, you can get lots of good loot, like Exp. Candy, Tera Shards, and Bottle Caps by completing the raid. On the first clear, you’ll get TM91 (Toxic Spikes) and an Ability Patch. Greninja does not drop Herba Mystica. You can see the complete loot table on Serebii.net.
Greninja Tera Raid best counters
As of this writing, there are a few successful builds that we’ve been seeing: Clodsire, Gastrodon, and Slowbro (the same one from the Cinderace raids, actually).
Greninja is level 100 with a poison Tera Type. It knows Gunk Shot, Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Night Slash, Double Team, and Toxic Spikes. It will use Toxic Spikes right away at the beginning the match, poisoning your Pokémon only if they faint and get thrown back into battle.
As usual, there are lots of builds that can help take down Greninja or solo it entirely. While we’ve seen clears with Pokémon like Kingambit and Toxapex across the internet, the Pokémon we list below are ones we had first-hand experience with and give our stamp of approval.
Greninja Slowbro Tera Raid build
- Nature: Modest
- Ability: doesn’t matter
- Tera Type: Psychic
- EVs: 4 HP/252 Defense/252 Special Attack
- IVs: Maxed HP, Defense, Special Attack
- Held item: Twisted Spoon or Leftovers
- Moveset: Stored Power (TM41), Iron Defense (TM104), and Nasty Plot (TM140)
Just like against Cinderace, this Slowbro will pack a bunch just from stacking Iron Defense and Nasty Plot and then using Stored Power.
On turn one, make sure to set up Iron Defense, as Greninja does know Night Slash, a dark-type move that is super effective against Slowbro. It should not kill your Slowbro, as long as it’s been trained correctly. After using Iron Defense once or twice, the damage from Night Slash will be negligible.
If your team has no supports in it, make sure to keep your Slowbro healthy. You can use this by teaching it Heal Pulse or you can just use the healing cheers. (We had a team of all Slowbro and alternated between buffing, cheering, and using Stored Power, so we could keep each pink round friend alive.)
Greninja Gastrodon Tera Raid build
- Nature: Modest
- Ability: Storm Drain
- Tera Type: Ground
- EVs: 4 Defense/252 HP/252 Special Attack
- IVs: Maxed HP, Defense, Special Attack
- Held item: Soft Sand
- Moveset: Clear Smog (Mirror Herb move), Recover, Earth Power
To give Gastrodon Clear Smog, delete a move from its repertoire, give it a Mirror Herb to hold, and set up a picnic with only the Gastrodon and another Pokémon that knows Clear Smog. Foongus and Torkoal both learn this by leveling up. After about a minute, your Gastrodon should learn Clear Smog from its picnic partner.
The strategy with Gastrodon is to debuff the Double Team that Greninja uses with Clear Smog and then spam Earth Power. Once you can Terastillize, power-up further and keep spamming Earth Power. Heal and keep debuffing as you need to.
The prize here with Gastrodon is its Storm Drain ability, which not only makes it immune to water-type moves, but it sucks up all the water-type moves, so no other Pokémon in your raid will get hit with it either. It also boosts its Special Attack when it absorbs the moves, becoming a monstrous hard-hitter. You won’t have to worry about a health-depleting Hydro Pump if you have a Gastrodon in your party!
Greninja Clodsire Tera Raid build
- Nature: Modest
- Ability: Water Absorb
- Tera Type: Ground
- EVs: 4 Special Defense/252 HP/252 Special Attack
- IVs: Maxed HP, Defense, Special Attack
- Held item: Leftovers
- Moveset: Acid Spray, Helping Hand, Chilling Water, Earth Power
The Clodsire build we recommend is more supportive, so don’t expect to one-shot the Greninja, but you will be able to beef up your buddies who are using Gastrodon, Slowbro, or another offensive Pokémon.
Spam Chilling Water to lower Greninja’s attack and Acid Spray to lower its Special Defense. This will leave it wide open for attacks, increasing its damage taken and reducing its damage output. Use Helping Hand to beef up your allies a bit more and you can use Earth Power to help deal damage, especially once Greninja’s Special Defense has been lowered.
Water Absorb, similarly to Gastrodon’s Storm Drain ability, will render Clodsire immune to water-type moves. Greninja’s Hydro Pump will instead heal Clodsire. It’ll still take damage from Ice Beam, but it shouldn’t one-shot it. Make sure to heal using cheers appropriately.