Pokemon Scarlet & Violet's new Tera Raid system provides an altered version of Sword & Shield's established formula, opting for a more free-flowing battle that doesn't require you to wait for your teammates' moves. Unfortunately, the system's poor connection and extremely difficult bosses muddle the experience, but the rewards are of the absolute highest quality.
Several vital items highlight the possible rewards from these daunting Tera Raid battles, which will be instrumental in your efforts to train your Pokemon. The five, six, and seven-star raids offer increased difficulty for a better chance at the most coveted rewards, but you should be prepared with a team of friends using level 100 Pokemon if you plan to challenge the two highest tiers.
8 TM157 — Overheat
While you may have noticed that some TMs can be acquired at certain locations or by speaking with the Battle League Representatives scattered throughout the map, the TM for Overheat can also be acquired by defeating a Tera Charizard Raid. This will save you valuable time and resources if you have already used your TMs, but don't want to or don't have the materials to craft more.
Thematically, Overheat is a fitting reward from Charizard and is a favorite among some of the most powerful Fire-type Pokemon. If you're in a giving mood, but have no particular need for the TM, you could always give it to a Pokemon and surprise trade it to make a stranger's day.
7 Exp. Candy
Exp. Candy may be the most important innovation ever made in Pokemon, as you no longer need to spend hours training each of your Pokemon up to a high level. While Rare Candy has always been a difficult resource to acquire, they are far more common from Tera Raids than any previous method of acquisition.
The additional Exp. Candy, ranging from XS to XL, are also found in abundance and offer a helpful means of rounding out your levels without wasting a drop of experience. While it may be easy to overlook these Candies, remember that they allow you to train a Pokemon from level one to level 100 in just a few seconds. Remember how long that would take in Pokemon Red and Blue? Let's never speak of it again.
6 Nature Mints
Nature Mints definitely stand out alongside Exp. Candy as some of the best quality of life (QoL) improvements in Pokemon, allowing you to alter a Pokemon's stats to follow a given nature. To be clear, Nature Mints do not change a Pokemon's actual Nature, rather, they change the growth rates of a Pokemon's stats just as their Nature would.
For example, if you give your Pokemon an Adamant Mint, their nature will not change to Adamant, but their Attack will grow at a higher rate, while Special Attack grows at a slower rate. The reason behind this choice is not certain, but it may be because Toxtricity's form is dependent on its Nature and the game may not be able to process a form change every time you use a Mint.
5 Vitamin Bottles
If you've ever trained your Pokemon's Effort Values (EVs), then you know how long and arduous the process can be. However, Vitamin bottles can be used to fully train a Pokemon's EV stat to its maximum of 252. The only problem with this convenience is the immense expense, as it will cost you in the neighborhood of 500,000 Poke Dollars to fully EV train a Pokemon from scratch.
It's not difficult to come across Poke Dollars in Scarlet & Violet, but it is very painful to amass such a fortune for every Pokemon you want to be fully trained. Luckily, these Vitamins can be acquired for free from Tera Raids, though they are quite rare. You should also receive quite a few items you can sell, which are basically roundabout ways of acquiring these valuable Vitamins.
4 Tera Shards
Terastallization provides incredible power and a massive appearance change, but having the wrong Tera type can be a major pain. Luckily, Tera Shards are available in small chunks ranging from two to six, depending on the difficulty of the raid completed. While you can sometimes find shards scattered throughout the world, Tera Raids offer the best method to farm the rare resource.
Changing your Pokemon's Tera type will cost 50 Tera Shards at the Treasure Eatery in Medali after you defeat the Gym Leader, Larry. The cost is rather steep, and it will take around ten five-star raid completions of a certain type to accumulate enough to change your Pokemon's Tera type, so be wise about where you spend them.
3 Ability Items
Ability Items offer an exceptional QoL improvement for players tired of hunting or breeding Pokemon for a particular ability. The newly introduced Ability Patch makes life easy as it immediately changes your Pokemon's ability to its Hidden Ability, often one of the most annoying parts of preparing Pokemon for competitive play.
Ability Capsules are available from five-star or higher raids while Ability Patches are only available from tier six and above in addition to an extremely low drop rate. For players who have no interest in competitive or optimal play, the Ability Patch also sells for an incredibly large sum, so you can always put your resources elsewhere; however, you should try to use them on a favorite Pokemon to improve it.
2 Bottle Caps
For shiny collectors and people who develop sentimental connections to their most-used Pokemon, Bottle Caps offer the perfect means to turn your Pokemon into the very best it can be. Bottle Caps improve a Pokemon's Individual Values (IVs), which influence how rapidly each of its stats grows. Each IV grows according to its value ranging from zero to 31, with 31 offering the highest growth rate.
Bottle Caps themselves don't do anything in Scarlet & Violet but can be exchanged with an NPC in Montenevera for Hyper Training, which will maximize a Pokemon's IV for your stat of choice. Their extremely rare cousins, Golden Bottle Caps, will raise every stat to 31, giving you a perfect IV Pokemon. In some instances, perfect IVs in all stats are unnecessary or even detrimental, so be prudent with how you spend these.
1 Herba Mysticas
Without a doubt, the newly introduced Herba Mysticas are the most desirable Tera Raid rewards as they can be used for shiny hunts, egg hatching, and more. Tera Raids are the only method for acquiring these rare herbs, so you'll likely want to load up before you head out into the wilderness on your next shiny hunt.
There are five types of Mysticas to collect: Spicy, Bitter, Salty, Sour, and Sweet, each combining in slightly different ways when added to your sandwich creation. While your goals will dictate the particular combination you may want, it's a good idea to stockpile as many as you can from Tera Raids -- you can never have enough delicious sandwich ingredients!