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Because you have to cheer more in raids

Four Pokémon trainers are found in a tera raid den in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Screenshot: The Pokémon / Kotaku company

Tera bursts in Pokémon Scarlet And Viola they’re a team-based affair, and some of that teamwork comes from using the cheers, a set of commands exclusive to these four-player boss battles scattered across the Paldea region of the games. However, in my experience grouping with online randos, I’ve often found myself being the sole cheerleader in the group, while my teammates just keep dealing damage; this has led to some crushing wipes in high level raids. While extremely common, this type of damage-only playstyle isn’t sustainable. We talk about why cheers are important and why even the most offensive player should use them.

Grab your megaphone

Tera raids give you three different cheering abilities, and each player can only cheer three times per raid. Since raid teams have four players, that’s 12 cheering uses maxed out. The three types of cheering are “Give it all!”, which increases the attack and special attack for the team, “Hold it hard!”, which increases the defense and special defense, and “Get well!”, which gives to all a respectable restoration of health. Tera’s raids are built around a push and pull of stat changes and your enemy building defenses, all of which happens while a timer slowly counts down to the moment your team is kicked out of the boss’ lair of the Tera raid. Understanding how cheers help you make the most of your limited time while being a limited resource is critical to success in difficult battles such as the Charizard event taking place later this week.

“Go all out!” and “Hold on!” they’re good to use right off the bat, as they’ll allow your team to hit harder and defend against a raid boss’s more powerful attacks. That survivability opens up more windows for players to use “Heal up!”, as tera raids don’t allow for healing items. While some specific Pokémon can also use attacks like Heal Pulse to heal teammates during these fights, the “Heal up!” it’s your primary healing method in raids and has a team-wide effect that can give everyone a turn or two before they’re in danger again.

The stat-based tug of war comes from the ability of tera raid bosses to periodically wipe out everyone’s stat buffs. As such, that initial use of “Go all out!” and “Hold on!” it will only give you a short window of increased offense and defense. But tera raids are all about soft resets and reapplying those perks, which is why the cheers can’t be relegated to just one player. A coordinated team of four must rotate responsibility for cheering, as each player only gets three uses during combat. It’s not three of each clap, it’s three claps, period.

A team of Heracross, Bellibolt, Raichu, and Dundunsparce battle a terastalized Cloyster in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

My Raichu is best suited to deal heavy damage to this Cloyster, but I’m still taking the time to support my team with a round of applause.
Screenshot: The Pokémon / Kotaku company

Time is money

This was the biggest problem I encountered when grouping online for high level raids. If I’m not on a Discord call with friends, I often find myself with three people reluctant to switch between their attack and cheer menus, which places a burden on me in the support role, even though my favorite Pokémon is doing the most damage of the group. I’m more than happy to throw in a heal and a buff, but since the boss builds more powerful defenses as a raid progresses, I often find myself needing to cease the offense and dump all three of my cheers into healing all at once just to keep my teammates on the pitch because they’re not willing to do it themselves.

Besides being a waste of resources, anyone who has to spend part of their turn using claps is a waste of valuable time. Coordinating attacks and team composition is important, but using your limited time wisely during a third raid is probably the most important key to success. Every time a squad member falls in battle, a considerable amount of time is deducted from the raid clock, and if a single player is stuck doing all the heals, they will be limited by cooldowns and three total uses. When the raid boss lands powerful attacks during these time slots between healing rounds, he can (and inevitably will) knock a team member unconscious, a raid time penalty, and wait several precious seconds for them to regenerate .

Smart teams can avoid this cascade of failure by maintaining awareness of each team member’s health and complementing people accordingly. Healing will be more readily available during a fight if the responsibility for boosting typhus doesn’t rest with just one person. Anyone who steps in at the appropriate time to personally contribute to the cheering will avoid the cooldown issue and result in more optimal cheering times during the raid.

A lot of tera raids are about thinking on your feet and under pressure, and knowing when cheering would be the best use of your turn is a good club to have in your bag. In a pinch, cheers can also serve as good alternatives to trying to attack when your Pokémon has been afflicted with a status effect like sleep or confusion. In standard battles, these debilitating conditions can sometimes be worth overcoming, as a Pokémon can wake up or come out of the confusion and attack normally.

But in a terra raid, time is money, and if you can get more value out of each turn, your team’s standing in the battle will be better for it. When my Pokémon got confused, I took that time to use a cheer or two, rather than risk hurting myself and wasting precious time. This helped turn the tide of fights saving precious seconds that would have been wasted if my Pokémon dealt damage to each other.

A Pokémon trainer cheers on his teammates in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Even the biggest damage dealer isn’t doing his part if he’s not cheering back.
Screenshot: The Pokémon / Kotaku company

We’re all supportive now

Ultimately, using your cheers is never as exciting as landing a super effective attack, but they’re so critical to success in high-level tera raids that it makes it nearly impossible to win if applying them isn’t a team-wide effort. So if you are logging into Pokémon Scarlet And Viola and by participating in online raids, start using your cheers and you’ll quickly see how they can help your team weather the storm and come out triumphant on the other side. You and your team will be glad you did.

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