Are you looking to build a competitive team or prepare a trusty partner for your next Tera Raid Battle? Either way, you’ll want to train your Pokémon to meet their maximum potential so that they can really shine in battle. Helping a Pokémon hit their ceiling may sound like a daunting task, but almost any Pokémon can reach new heights with a bit of effort. This can be done with just about any Pokémon, so don’t worry—you’ll always be able to keep your favorites by your side!

Choosing Your Pokémon

The first step to putting together a competitive team is figuring out which Pokémon you want to focus on. If you already have a favorite Pokémon from your adventure—such as a Shiny Pokémon or a Pokémon with a special mark—then you can skip right on ahead. Unless you’re looking for a Pokémon with a deliberately low Attack or Speed stat, you’ll find that it’s easy to adjust your Pokémon’s stats. There’s no need to stress over starting with a particularly strong Pokémon!

Catching Pokémon in Tera Raid Battles

If you don’t already have a species of Pokémon for your desired team, it’s never been easier to get out there and find your next powerful partner. Generally, Pokémon that appear in high-level Tera Raid Battles will be fully evolved, join your team at a higher level, and boast better individual strengths than the average wild Pokémon. For example, a Pokémon caught from a 5-star Tera Raid Battle will be Lv. 75 and have at least four “Best” stats. We’ll talk more about these individual strengths later.

Abilities

Every Pokémon has a special Ability that can influence the circumstances of battle. Depending on your strategy, you may want to prioritize one potential Ability over another. Ability Capsules can be used to switch between your Pokémon’s two common Abilities (if it has two) on-demand, but things get tricky if your desired strategy best functions when your chosen Pokémon has its Hidden Ability. For example, you may want to change your Dragonite’s Ability from Inner Focus to its Hidden Ability, Multiscale.

Changing your Pokémon’s common Ability to its Hidden Ability requires an Ability Patch, a rare item that can normally be obtained only by completing 6- or 7-star Tera Raid Battles. Ability Patches can also be used to change a Pokémon’s Hidden Ability to its common Ability, but you’ll probably want to hold onto as many Ability Patches as possible. If you don’t have a huge stock of these built up, it’s best to start with a Pokémon that already has its Hidden Ability. Pokémon caught in 6-star Tera Raid Battles may sometimes have their Hidden Ability.

Natures

A Pokémon’s Nature is key to drawing out its full potential, and there are usually a couple of Natures worth considering when preparing a Pokémon for battle. Your starting Pokémon may not have a Nature that complements its natural strengths when you first add it to your team, but you can still help it reach its maximum potential by using mint items.

Mints do not directly change a Pokémon’s Nature, but they do change how a Pokémon’s stats develop. For example, an Adamant Mint makes it so that a Pokémon’s Attack stat grows more prominently while its Sp. Atk stat grows less prominently. Your Pokémon’s Nature won’t become Adamant, but its stats will grow as though it did. Mints can be earned from Tera Raid Battles, purchased from all Chansey Supply locations once you’ve progressed far enough in the game, or found while roaming the open world.

As an example, you may want to train your Gyarados to be quicker than average, in which case a Jolly Nature would be more suitable than an Adamant Nature, though both are viable options for Gyarados. Dragonite likewise offers Trainers a choice between two equally viable Natures, as it can learn both strong physical attacks and powerful special attacks.

If you’re training your Dragonite to overwhelm opponents using Draco Meteor, for instance, you’ll want it to have a high Sp. Atk stat, so a Modest Nature would be ideal. But if you’d rather have a Dragonite that hits hard and fast with Extreme Speed, an Adamant Nature would further augment its impressive Attack stat.

Or, you may even choose to focus on defense over offense by training a Gyarados or Dragonite with a Calm or Bold Nature, resulting in a Pokémon that’s bulkier and more supportive. The beauty of battling is that you can always try and tailor the strengths of your Pokémon to suit your style!

Breeding Pokémon

If you’re low on Ability Capsules, Ability Patches, and mints, you can always try to hatch your next competitive Pokémon from an Egg. For example, let’s say you want to battle with a Dragonite that has a specific Nature. Rather than tracking down and catching droves of wild Pokémon until you get lucky, you can to set up a picnic with a pair of Dratini, Dragonair, or Dragonite in your party—one male, one female—while you’ve got Egg Power activated from eating a meal. If you wait a little while, you may find one or more Eggs in your picnic basket that will eventually hatch into Dratini. You can also bring a Ditto to your picnic alongside your Dratini, Dragonair, or Dragonite to achieve the same result. It may take some patience, but sooner or later you’ll be able to hatch a Dratini with a desired Nature.

Training Your Pokémon to Optimize Their Role

Stats and Base Points

One of the most important aspects of raising a Pokémon is making the most of its stats with base points. Base points are underlying values that help determine the growth of a Pokémon’s six stats: HP, Attack, Defense, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def, and Speed. Each Pokémon begins with zero base points in each stat, but they can earn base points in several ways. There are limits to how many base points each stat can earn—as well as the combined total of all six stats—so you won’t be able to train your Pokémon to have the best possible stats in every category. These limits allow you to either hit the maximum in two stats—with a tiny bit left over for a third—or spread your Pokémon’s training more evenly among a greater number of stats.

We suggest focusing on maximizing two of your Pokémon’s stats—usually Speed and Attack or Sp. Atk for Pokémon intended to play offense, or HP and Defense or Sp. Def for more defensively oriented Pokémon. Unlike a Pokémon’s Nature, base points offer the same stat increase for any species, which means that base points can have a greater impact on Pokémon with exceptionally low stats, such as Blissey’s Defense. In most cases, however, it’s more effective to lean into your Pokémon’s strengths than to shore up its weaknesses.

Turn Up Your Base Points

Every time you participate in a battle that rewards Exp. Points—with the exception of Auto Battles—the Pokémon that received Exp. Points will also receive base points. Note that every Pokémon on your team that receives Exp. Points by defeating opponents will also receive base points, regardless of whether they entered the battle. Pokémon that are Lv. 100—such as those caught in 7-star Tera Raid Battles—will not receive Exp. Points, but they can still benefit from base points.

What kind of base points you receive depends on the species of Pokémon defeated. For example, defeating Pokémon with high Defense like Tarountula will net you base points in Defense—your opponent’s level and training don’t matter.

Eat Up and Speed Up

In Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, you can use a particular Meal Power called Encounter Power—either by buying food from vendors or by making sandwiches at picnics—to increase the likelihood that you’ll encounter wild Pokémon of a specific type. Activating Encounter Power can help ensure a steady stream of wild Pokémon you can defeat to gain base points for the desired stat. For example, having Encounter Power: Bug active near Area One of the South Province will make Tarountula and Scatterbug more likely to appear, allowing you to net base points for Defense more quickly.

Helpful Training Items

The training process will speed up even more if you have your Pokémon hold one of the six “power” items, such as a Power Belt or Power Band. These can be purchased from the General Goods section at all Delibird Presents locations. Each of these items grant some base points for a specific stat whenever an opposing Pokémon is defeated.

Vitamins, Feathers, and Mochi

If you’re looking for other ways to expedite your training, you can give your Pokémon vitamins like Protein and Calcium; feathers like Muscle Feathers and Clever Feathers; and mochi like Health Mochi and Swift Mochi. These consumable items can increase the number of base points a Pokémon has in a single stat. You’ll need 26 vitamins, 252 feathers, or 26 mochi to bring a stat from zero all the way to its maximum.

Vitamins can be purchased from Chansey Supply shops, found in the wild, or received as rewards from Tera Raid Battles. Feathers can be found in the wild or received as rewards from Tera Raid Battles. Mochi are exclusively rewarded for completing rounds of the Ogre Oustin’ minigame found only in Kitakami, the setting of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask.

Changing Base Points

If you feel like you want to take your Pokémon in a different direction, you can always use specific Berries to reset your Pokémon’s base points. These Berries can be found in the wild, purchased from the Porto Marinada auction, and received as a reward from Dendra’s Emotional Spectrum Practice minigame in Alfornada. You can also use Fresh-Start Mochi, an item that can only be obtained by completing rounds of Ogre Oustin’ at higher difficulties, to completely reset a Pokémon’s base points. Who doesn’t love a fresh start and a clean slate?

Individual Strengths

No two Pokémon are exactly alike, and individual strengths are yet another way they differ from one another. Individual strengths are the innate affinity each individual Pokémon has for each stat, ranging from “No Good” to “Best.” A Pokémon with a higher individual strength in Attack will be able to reach a higher maximum Attack stat than a Pokémon of the same species with a lower individual strength in Attack.

Once you defeat the Pokémon League and complete the Victory Road story path, you will be able to discern a Pokémon’s individual strengths with the judge function. While the cursor is over a Pokémon in your Box, you can press the + Button to see all their individual strengths for yourself.  Not every single stat needs to be maxed out for a Pokémon to be effective in battle.

Boosting Individual Strengths with Bottle Caps

If your Pokémon’s individual strengths aren’t hitting that “Best” threshold, you can always Hyper Train them to reach their maximum potential. Look for a Trainer chilling alongside Abomasnow in Montenevera—if your Pokémon are Lv. 50 or above, you can exchange a Bottle Cap to Hyper Train one of their stats. You can also exchange a Golden Bottle Cap to Hyper Train all of a Pokémon’s stats in one fell swoop, but they tend to be harder to come by than your average Bottle Cap. Your Pokémon’s individual strengths will appear as “Hyper Trained,” but they will be functionally equivalent to “Best.”

Bottle Caps can be purchased from the General Goods section at all Delibird Presents locations, making them easy to acquire if you have the funds. You can also get Bottle Caps by winning 5-, 6-, and 7-star Tera Raid Battles, where they’ll potentially be rewarded alongside other useful training items.

Finish Preparation with Held Items

Held items don’t permanently influence your Pokémon’s stats, but they play an important role in accentuating their strengths. Choosing the right item for your Pokémon to hold is another way to prepare for your next Tera Raid Battle or Ranked Battle. Punching Gloves, Muscle Bands, and other attack-oriented items are a great fit for Pokémon that prefer an offensive approach—specific examples of effective combinations include Flutter Mane holding Choice Specs or Chi-Yu holding a Life Orb. Meanwhile, supportive Pokémon generally benefit more from defensive items such as Eviolite or Sitrus Berries.

The tricky part about choosing the right held item is that attack-oriented Pokémon sometimes benefit from holding defensive items just as much as your support Pokémon. For example, you might actually want to give a Focus Sash to your Flutter Mane or Chi-Yu—Pokémon that are often knocked out in one hit—to keep them in the battle and dealing out damage for as long as possible.

Held items can be found throughout your adventures or bought at various Delibird Presents locations, each of which offers a different selection of items for sale. When in doubt, consider the role you want your Pokémon to play in battle and which held items are most likely to help achieve that goal.

Training Pokémon for competitive play can take some planning and effort to get the species, Ability, Nature, and base points you need to suit your strategy. But the time you put into training the best Pokémon you can is not only fun—it will pay off in victories! Good luck building your next Championship team, and remember to keep checking Pokemon.com/Strategy for more Pokémon TCG and video game articles, strategy, and tournament analysis!