Iron Leaves and Walking Wake Raid Event Movesets

[Chou Toshio]

Initial impressions, Azu and Iron Hands seem to take down Walking Wake pretty easily.

Iron Leaves is kinda absurd for a level 5 raid. Mowing down teams of Kingambit/Scizor/Skeledurge, but did manage to catch it.

Only 1 catch per person is BS, and item drops being weak is bleh. Shoulda been unlimited catch and come with regular Paradox companion raids.

Still hyped for these mons but not hyped that I can’t have a Raid Version, an online battle version, a level 75 take-to-nostalgia-win-Ace Tourney version of each

 

[CTNC]

Skill Swap Weak Armor is brilliant. I wish I heard about it sooner. It's useless against the current event, (unless you want to sabotage other people :P) but still something to keep in mind and try to get later.


I figured out a pretty good support Pokemon for taking on Walking Wake. I know it looks pretty bad, especially because of the Dragon weakness, but hear me out.

Dragonite @ Covert Cloak/Whatever
252 HP/4 Def/252 SpD
Multiscale
-Mist
-Snowscape
-Light Screen
-Roost

Mist Turn 1 is the most important thing because even just one Nobel Roar can make Walking Wake practically immortal against anyone that can't buff themselves. You'll be able to survive Dragon Pulses to use Snowscape to cancel Sun early and Light Screen to make attacks easy to take. Roost instead of an attack is because you'll need to recover HP and I use Status Moves only. I haven't been able to do 6 Star raids, let alone 7. :( using the Offense Cheers is good enough for offense and the Healing cheer is only better then Roost if you're not stuck with AIs. There's no penalty for them getting KOed, so go ahead and let them die! :D You wouldn't have much time to attack anyway because of all the support.

Doing this raid solo with this Dragonite took way fewer attempts than I thought it would. Turns out, the AI can deal pretty good damage if you stop Nobel Roar with Mist. I soft reset for Arboliva or Bellibolt, or an offensive trio and it only took a couple of tries. It was so easy that I even chose not to save after catching it so I could try again until I get a 0 Atk IV one.


For Iron Leaves, I'd probably try Skuntank for Haze if I had a Switch Online subscription or any friends, but I don't, so I can't catch one. At least I got the guy with Roar and Nobel Roar. That'd be fun for tormenting Battle Facilities... if there were any... I'm so going back to Shield soon.

 

[Valoo]

Initial impressions, Azu and Iron Hands seem to take down Walking Wake pretty easily.

Iron Leaves is kinda absurd for a level 5 raid. Mowing down teams of Kingambit/Scizor/Skeledurge, but did manage to catch it.

Wake is pretty easy as a whole. I soloed it with roaring moon which I only brought cause it was the first thing in my party.

Leaves is a lot harder. Lost badly when I brought Kingambit, and after a couple of tires with Skeledirge (along with two more skele and an umbreon)

 

[newseeds]

Holding a Clear Amulet makes Walking Wake relatively easy. I used a Rotom-Wash and just boosted with Nasty Plot. For Iron Leaves, I didn't have much trouble using a Kingambit holding a Mirror Herb to copy it when it uses Swords Dance

The real difficulty of these raids is just finding online teammates who won't bring something weak to WW/IL's stab moves

 

[The Crusade]

Now that I've caught my Wake and Leaves, I may as well post the secrets of my success.

Walking Wake

Iron Hands @ Punching Glove
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 192 Atk / 24 Def / 252 SpD / 40 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Ice Punch
- Drain Punch
- Thunder Punch

Literally just biff the blue idiot. Weather-boosted Hydro Steam barely deals 40%, so Iron Hands can just set SD and drain HP to his cold heart's content. When the shield comes up, just start firing SE Thunder Punch from +3 Atk or wherever he's at after Noble Roar. Electric Terrain can provide a pretty substantial boost, but it's not strictly necessary. I did this raid in a team with 2 other Iron Hands and 1 Iron Thorns.

Iron Leaves

Tinkaton @ Metal Coat
Ability: Own Tempo
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Protect
- Bulldoze
- Gigaton Hammer

Not an optimized set, but she completed the job in just one solo run. I'll be the first to admit that my success was greatly helped by an AI Arcanine with Intimidate and Leer, but Tinkaton's useful resistances and decent speed let her set up SD with ease and lay down the hammer before the boss could get in a word edgewise. It was a close battle that came down to my hitting +4 Atk and Terastallizing to beat down a shield with zero time left.

If you're attempting this fight with other players, God help you. It's a crapshoot out there. Steel is the name of the game, and instead of Tinkaton I'd recommend something like Scizor, Gholdengo, or Perrserker. The cat even comes with Steely Spirit, Charm, and Chilling Water: it can mitigate the boss's astronomical damage output while passively supporting friendly Steel-types. If your teammates are executing attacks, you're winning.

 

[Nexor]

I beat Leaves in my first try with 3 random teammates, I used my Support Corviknight, set up Reflect for the Team and that was about it. Probably had decent team mates.
I had more trouble fighting Wake, had to go for 3-4 attempts if I recall correctly. Many people bring the wrong pokémon. I used my Umbreon in the run that had success.

 

[DougJustDoug]

Walking Wake just isn't very hard at all. I soloed it first try, sight unseen, with my standard Belly Drum Azumarill. And I've heard stories of tons of other mons working fine against Wake. Even with the normal random stupid teammates you get in public raids, it's not hard to beat this 5* Walking Wake raid.

Iron Leaves is another matter entirely!

Iron Leaves is harder than any other 7* raid I've seen, which is saying a lot. It's a very, very difficult raid. It has great coverage with its moves, and when it gets a Swords Dance or two under its belt, it hits like a truck even when resisted by a fully trained and leveled mon. If you're thinking you can just cruise into this raid with anything and do ok, because you are level 100 and trained, and it's level 75 with no EVs -- you are sorely mistaken. Iron Leaves needs very specific counters, just like, or even moreso, than past 7* event raids.

I've heard that soloing Iron Leaves is not so difficult with the right pokemon, but I haven't done it myself. It makes sense it would be easier to solo, because honestly the biggest problem with Iron Leaves public raids is the near-unbelievable level of stupidity of teammates in their pokemon selections!

To start off, people seem to be very proud of these Walking Wakes they caught previously, because I see tons of them in every Iron Leaves lobby. And, of course, they get fainted easily and often. Even worse on the stupidity meter is all the Meowscaradas being used in this raid. I guess people see what looks like a Virizion with a Psychic Tera type and they assume Meowscarada is a good choice. And they quickly discover that when Leaves busts out 4x SE Megahorn on their ass -- magic kitty fall down and go boom.

It's ridiculous.

Then you have the normal shiny flexing that seems more rampant in this raid than normal. "Look at my shiny Drifblim!" - dead. "Look at my shiny Gardevoir!" - dead. "Look at my shiny Toxicroak!"... yes, you read that right, TOXICROAK against a raid boss with a signature nuclear Psychic attack boosted by the terrain and by Tera for crissakes --- Dead, dead, DOUBLE-DEAD!


Here's the three mons that I have used personally in the Iron Leaves raid, and all three of them have great survivability. One is pure offense, one is pure support, and the other is a mix of offense and support. I like using all three equally, depending on my mood.


Kingambit @ Leftovers
Ability: Defiant
Tera Type: Steel
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Adamant Nature
- Kowtow Cleave / Foul Play
- Iron Head
- Iron Defense
- Swords Dance

Fully defensive Kingambit pretty much giggles at everything Iron Leaves does. Yes, if it gets +6 and crits with Megahorn or something, it hurts. But for most raids, I Swords Dance up and Lefties keeps me in green health by the time I start landing Kowtow haymakers. If a teammate gives a Go All Out cheer, I have done 70% to Iron Leaves in one shot from near-full.

I had Foul Play for a while, and it worked fine, using IL's swords dances against itself. But personally, I like the control of my own setup, and not relying on IL to do anything to help me. But it's not like Leaves is shy about Swords Dancing. In fact, it does "hidden sword dances" all the time, where it doesn't show any animation or message display about its attack raising. But, if you look at its status, you see it at +4 or whatever, and soil yourself...

Kingambit is pretty popular in this raid, with good reason. I highly recommend it if you like to go in and attack. Just make sure to adjust your EV's to be bulky, because it makes a big difference.



Torkoal @ Leftovers
Ability: Shell Armor
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Bold Nature
- Lava Plume
- Will-O-Wisp
- Clear Smog
- Iron Defense

I love using this because it barely gets scratched by Leaves, even when it has a full complement of Swords Dances under its belt. The sheer joy of having Shell Armor and knowing your Iron Defenses will not be bypassed by a crit cannot be understated. It is a little slice of stall-battler heaven, I tell you. ;-)

Lead off with Will-O-Wisp and your frail idiot teammates will thank you later. Clear Smog when Iron Leaves is getting a little too hyperactive with the Swords Dancing and cut it back down to size. Again, another massive help to teammates that had no clue how much of a punch this robot Virizion packs. Lava Plume is mainly to fish for burns post-shield and do chip damage. And, if you're lucky enough to get a team that isn't filled with fainting noobs and the battle lasts a while, you can Tera freely and take bigger chunks out of the shield.

I haven't seen any other Torkoal's out there, and DHR-107 is the only other person to talk about using it on Discord. But honestly, for people that like running support mons, Torkoal is a hidden gem.



Skeledirge @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
Modest Nature
- Torch Song
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Slack Off

Adjusted my EVs to go full defensive for this specific raid, but the moveset is pretty standard. Burn the boss at the start, and then start boosting with Torch Song and hitting SE with Shadow Ball. Slack Off as necessary. The great thing about Dirge is that it doesn't care about how many SD's Leaves has done, hidden or otherwise. Unaware makes life so much calmer in the game of pokemon.

Skeledirge is also pretty popular in this raid, but you need to be careful in assuming they are well-built. Since it's a starter mon, there are tons of noobs using their normal ingame Dirge -- complete with that worthless Blaze ability and probably underleveled to boot. Also because the fire crocodile has such an awesome pink shiny, expect lots of shiny flexing with this mon too, ugh...

 

[Worldie]

I've heard that soloing Iron Leaves is not so difficult with the right pokemon, but I haven't done it myself. It makes sense it would be easier to solo, because honestly the biggest problem with Iron Leaves public raids is the near-unbelievable level of stupidity of teammates in their pokemon selections!

Just a few days ago, I was telling someone "after you play a bit of online raids, you understand how bad the average pokemon player is, and why GameFreaks has to dumb down their games so much".

Idk, the amount of times I see people bringing absolute unmon or worse, "ha ha koraidon go br-- wdym 4x fairy from gardevoir raid? but it was a dark type??".

 

[R_N]

i don't know what it is about psychic teras but it just completely breaks my brain and I feel that extends to randoms because even the ones who were clearly trying against Iron Leaves could beest be described as a big, collective head tilt and question mark

even my successful run was a success not because of any true synergy

 

[SadisticMystic]

The thing about the new raid events is the script dump says there's a time limit of only 5 minutes, when typical raids take 7.5 (and Pikachu allowed 10 minutes). That means any faint would be much more crippling, taking away a full third of the timer if you're not underleveled.

Here's a goofy set for Walking Wake:


Veluza @ Shell Bell
Ability: Sharpness
Tera Type: Psychic
EVs: enough Speed to get to 211, then max Atk and rest in SpD
- Snowscape
- Focus Energy
- Psycho Cut
- Recover

Snowscape turns off Protosynthesis as well as the power boosts on Hydro Steam and Flamethrower, effectively serving as an Aurora Veil without having to use Aurora Veil. Then Focus Energy + Psycho Cut is 100% criticals, so you ignore any attack drops from Noble Roar. Recover shouldn't really be necessary, it's mainly there in case you urgently need to gain health during the shield phase when shielded hits might not give back enough Shell Bell recovery but you don't have Tera access for some reason (but really, by the time the shield goes up, you should be able to use tera to power through the rest of the health bar even when you give up your resistances in exchange, and even if you're playing solo). Burns suck but you have heal cheers for that.

You could even take the idea to its logical extreme with a pure supporter:


Iron Bundle @ Light Clay
Ability: Quark Drive
EVs: HP / SpD
- Snowscape
- Aurora Veil
- Helping Hand
- Electric Terrain / Freeze-Dry

Who would have thought 56/60 bulk was enough to effortlessly shrug off everything from the second coming of Suicune Keldeo? Once Veil goes up, Dragon Pulse only deals about 15%, and you might even squeeze in a defense cheer to make it easier to ignore. Team this with Iron Hands and they can drum up in complete safety, otherwise you just keep using HH on whichever teammate looks best suited to strike.

And for completeness, when it comes to using a "kill their ability" strat on Iron Leaves, the first thing that comes to mind is this:


Klefki @ Shell Bell
Ability: Prankster
EVs: HP / Def
- Misty Terrain
- Foul Play
- Iron Defense
- Reflect

Misty Terrain is the only terrain that doesn't boost any of Iron Leaves' attacks, so that limits your options. Unfortunately, it does mean nobody can set up burns, so if you suspect one of your teammates might lead with Will-O-Wisp, you can try delaying your first turn until after their move pops up. Get some boosts with Iron Defense to counteract the inevitable Swords Dances, and because you're attacking with Foul Play, the physical bulk stats are the only ones you care about whatsoever. Even if you only go to +2 defense, Shell Bell gives back more than the futuristic four-legged fighter can dish out pre-shield with its array of nothing but resisted moves. After you get poz-wiped, +6 Psyblade only does about 25% as you regain your first Iron Defense with priority (12% if you have Reflect up at the time or if someone landed a burn after the neg-wipe), so you should still have enough leeway to get built back up. Fake Tears might have been worth considering as a support move except Skeledirge is forced to ignore it. Alas, sometimes it helps to have awareness.

 

[formula4speed]

Apparently I got lucky, jumped into both raids online the other night without reading about them.

Walking Wake got 1 shotted by my teammates on my first try. Fake Tears Sylveon and Miraidon if I remember right. Didn't even get an attack off with my Iron Hands and the raid was over.

Irons Leaves I went in with my Skeledirge. One teammate burned with will-o-wisp, another set up reflect and I boosted with Torch Song then started clicking Shadow Ball. Iron Leaves went down pretty quickly after that, not sure if it ever even used Swords Dance?

 

[DougJustDoug]

I am continuing to tinker with this Iron Leaves raid, because... well, mainly because I just like tinkering with difficult raids, lol :-D And this raid is particularly vexing because it's just a 5* raid with a level 75 pokemon, but it is wiping out teams left and right! And yes, there are a ton of noobs, and because this raid is on a short timer, those faintings are super-costly to the team. But I am amazed how many times I have been part of losing teams with what appear to be decent pokemon on them. Maybe they are underleveled or have bad movesets, but for a 5* raid it's just incredible how difficult Iron Leaves can be sometimes.

So, I'm continuing to have fun trying out different things in this raid. I posted earlier about the Kingambit, Torkoal, and Skeledirge I have been using successfully. Well here's two more good pokemon for the Iron Leaves raid:



Armarouge @ Leftovers
Modest Nature
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 190 HP / 252 SpAtk / 68 Speed
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Clear Smog
- Iron Defense

This is a support pokemon along the exact same lines as the Torkoal I posted earlier. Almost the exact same moveset really, just trading an SE but not STAB Shadow Ball for Torkoal's STAB but not SE Lava Plume. Armarouge doesn't have that cozy safe crit-prevention ability like Torkoal's Shell Armor, but Arma is EV'ed to have 203 Speed which is one point higher than the max speed attainable by level 75 Iron Leaves. But beware that it is possible (but not likely) for Leaves to get a speed boost from Quark Drive, if the nature or IV's are just right. So, be sure to pay attention to the proc message when Quark Drive kicks in. Moving faster than Iron Leaves is SOOO NICE, particularly after playing this raid with the 3 slowmons I posted earlier. Throwing out WoW, ID or Clear Smogging before any hit, is arguably more comfortable and reassuring than being able to ignore crits like Torkoal.

My Armarouge is Modest with max SpAtk, mainly because I repurposed this from an Arma I already had leveled up and trained. I can always go heavier on the defense, but honestly, it's not needed. I haven't been too worried about health with Arma in any of the raids I've done with it so far. But even with max SpAtk and a super-effective Shadow Ball, Arma really does little more than chip damage to Leaves. These raids are always short, win or lose, so I don't attack much and do Heal Up and Go All Out cheers for my teammates instead. It's a much better use of the limited turns available in this raid. However, on at least two occasions, I have been able to get in a quick hit at the very end, after the "not much time left" warning, when IL was at a sliver of health and we won the raid. So, that's nice too.



Klefki @ Sitrus Berry
Impish Nature
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
- Foul Play
- Reflect
- Misty Terrain
- Recycle

I built this because I wanted to see if I could find a pokemon that could get rid of that damn Electric Terrain that Iron Leaves lays down at the start of every battle. That terrain procs a big Attack boost for IL because of Quark Drive, and it also powers up Psyblade from a normal 80 BP into a mammoth 120 BP nuke. Unfortunately most mons that can set a different terrain, that are typed decently for this raid (ie. grass and psychic types) can only set Grassy Terrain or Psychic Terrain -- which really doesn't help much at all. Grassy Terrain just powers up those crit-happy Leaf Blades that already give everyone fits at normal strength. And Psychic Terrain, although less beneficial to Leaves than Electric Terrain, still boosts up those Psyblades, so... thanks, but no thanks. I needed something that could set Misty Terrain. That led me to Klefki, which was nice because I already had one leveled up in my box, and just needed to change the EV's, nature and moves.

And I gotta say -- I LOVE KLEFKI IN THIS RAID! It has worked wayyyyy better than I expected. In terms of support + offense for this raid, Klefki is almost unmatched.

Impish with max HP max Def make Klefki amazingly bulky. Most hits barely dent the little keyring, and with Sitrus and Recycle it can priority heal whenever it needs to. Although, I almost never need to use Recycle, unless I catch a really bad string of crits. And even then, it's a calm and casual heal, because I KNOW that I'm going to heal before the hit, even if Leaves had the unlikely IVs/Nature to get a whopping 50% speed boost from Quark Drive.

The playbook for Klefki is pretty straightforward. Misty Terrain at the start to bring Iron Leaves back down into the realm of mere mortals, without its big Quark boost and uber-powerful Psyblade. Then throw up a Reflect to further dampen its DPS against the team. Just those two things alone start making this raid play a lot more like a regular 5* raid. Even better is that both of those "debuffs" can't get wiped by the boss, unlike the common WoW used by all the Fire types, which gets cleared as soon as the shield goes up. After doing the support thing, normally Leaves has a Swords Dance or two under its belt. Which allows Klefki to start pounding away with Foul Play like a boosted heavyweight. And I just chuckle, because I get the benefit of all that physical hitting power, and yet I didn't set the Nature or spend a single EV on Attack, and none of the moveslots are spent on boosting moves.

Klefki is almost poetic in how beautifully everything fits together for it in this raid. It spends the entire first half of the battle selflessly supporting the team, and then it instantly flips to attack mode for the second half, backed by power that can normally only be gained by selfishly boosting from the start.
Really, it just doesn't get much better than that.

Chef Doug gives Klefki 5 stars and a hearty "C'est magnifique!"

 

[Chou Toshio]

I hosted Iron leaves ~4 times until I got it. But even when I won it didn’t feel easy. I brought Dark Tera Thief Scizor (SD, X-Scissor, Bullet), there were two Kingambit, and a Skeledirge— all of us were wacking it hard, and all of us got taken out in some point in the raid. Truly just a war of attrition where my Scizor’s bullet punch killed as it was collecting energy.

 

[Menshay]

Done Iron Leaves solo:

Ceruledge
@ Shell Bell
252 Atk
- Will-O-Wisp
- Swords Dance
- Clear Smog
- Shadow Claw

Should work best when coupled with attack reducers, possibly with Arboliva to negate Electric Terrain.
Start with Will-O-Wisp, then Swords Dance and Shadow Claw.
Clear Smog to wipe away those hidden Swords Dances.

 

[Chou Toshio]

So many people have been saying “poor Violet players, Iron Leaves so bad.” But, that may be people only playing on Showdown not realizing how easy/hard these raids are, not knowing you’d rather have the option to solo the much harder one and access the easier one online.

 

[War Incarnate]

Beat Iron Leaves [and plan to try and look for a Walking Wake raid to join soon but that one is cheeseable with Iron Hands], so here's the build I used:


Kingambit @ Shell Bell
Ability: Defiant
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 31 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / xx Spe [SpA/Spe IVs do not really matter but the Bisharp I evolved it from somehow rolled a 31 for SpA IVs.]
- Iron Head
- Kowtow Cleave
- Swords Dance
- Thunder Wave
I've had this build for a while, which I intended to use all the way back when the Greninja raid was active [it used to have Zen Headbutt for that reason, at least before that got replaced with Iron Head]. Unfortunately, I never got that chance since Clodsire became my ace for that raid [to nobody's surprise] and while I used it for a few 6-star raids for the most part it was left unused.

That was, until now.

The Iron Leaves raid boss didn't pack Fighting-type coverage so I was good to go. And while I could've probably used Gholdengo since its typing let it resist all of its moves Kingambit was readily available so it was only natural I chose it.

Max HP + Atk as well as an Adamant nature were used to give it massive power after a few Swords Dances while letting it live a hit [the ev spread was initially crafted for maximum damage against Greninja but I didn't feel like re-training this mon so here you go I suppose]. The remaining 4 EVs were thrown into Special Defense which didn't matter that much but it was still worth it. The main addition was Thunder Wave, which was used for speed control. Being able to slow down Iron Leaves gave me ample time to set up and attack while its options were significantly inhibited.

This build was my ticket to soloing the raid on the first try. Here was the sequence of events from my experience:
- T0: Boss uses Electric Terrain but because it somehow rolled a Timid nature it boosted Speed and not Attack. This made my job so much easier since it's not as powerful [turns out the Natures weren't locked lol]
- T1: Thunder Wave to drop speed, I find that without Quark Drive's attack boost, Megahorn doesn't do shit even on a neutral hit
- T2-4: Setup with Swords Dance, once again Iron leaves attempts to attack but to no avail. Arboliva also set up Grassy Terrain, which got rid of the Electric Terrain set up T0. Meanwhile, Iron Leaves uses Swords Dance. [at some point I get my Tera Charge stolen]
- T5: Used Kowtow Cleave, it did quite a bit of damage. Meanwhile, I recover HP thanks to Shell Bell
- T6-7: Iron Leaves gets its shield up but Kowtow Cleave manages to do plenty even with it up. At some point, the boosts get reset.
- T8: I set up again [and later I try to attack] but die from repeated SD-boosted attacks. That SD boost means Megahorn now actually hurts and even Leaf Blades will hit hard.
- T9 & 10: I get back on my feet and Swords Dance up to +4. I don't have much time left.
- T11: With the help of my AI partners they break the barrier for me and I Kowtow Cleave to finish it off.
Additional Notes:
Rolled Arboliva/Drifblim/Sylveon as my partners. They provided useful chip damage thanks to their attacks [Drifblim in particular thanks to its super-effective attacks] and Arboliva even managed to get rid of the Electric Terrain [at no point did the boss attempt to re-set it up]. Sylveon did not do much of note here but the chip damage was useful.

 

[Emergence]

Klefki @ Sitrus Berry
Impish Nature
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def
- Foul Play
- Reflect
- Misty Terrain
- Recycle

Just wanted to thank you for this Klefki, with the right teammates it's amazing! I happened to get in with two Gholdengos and a Kingambit that were actually being played by competent people. Sitrus Berry + Recycle came in clutch, even though the Iron Leaves was hacking and got four crits on me over the course of the battle (two Leaf Blades, a Psyblade, and a Megahorn) but Klefki just managed to hang on with one Recycle and a timely ally's team heal. Foul Play hits like a truck after Iron Leaves boosted itself, and my teammates were good too. Got the Iron Leaves after just one try with this. Also it never attempted to set up Electric Terrain again.

As for Walking Wake, it was much easier because I got matched with a Miraidon and two Iron Hands. I used this Rotom-Wash as support:

Rotom-Wash @ Clear Amulet
Calm Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpD
- Thunderbolt
- Light Screen
- Thunder Wave
- Nasty Plot
Fortunately Walking Wake wasted three turns using Noble Roar on me, Clear Amulet blocked all of them so I could eventually boost with Nasty Plot to help the team. First turn Light Screen to protect the team, then Thunder Wave so the Iron Hands can attack, and then boosting with the Nasty Plots. With Miraidon's Electric Terrain, plus the two Iron Hands, the four of us just nuked the poor creature with our boosted Electric moves. Only took one attempt. No attempt on WW's part to set sun again, not that it really had a chance to.

As a side complaint, not sure why some people decided to be stupid especially with IL it seemed. I had teammates bringing in Gengars, Annihilapes, and Iron Hands (all weak to Psychic), Water-types like Greninja, Slowbro, and Quagsire (thing is Grass/Psychic), people showing off their new Hisuian Zoroarks (with its 55/60/60 bulk), and of course the idiots showing off their random shinies. Sigh.

 

[gali]

NP Gholdengo handled Leaves solo pretty well, definitely one of the hardest 5* raids we've seen yet. Mine was max Speed instead of HP so it's a bit inconsistent depending on the teammates (if you get like Charm Sylveon as a partner it's pretty easy), but with max HP you can stomach even boosted Psyblades pretty well. Make sure you're at +6 before teraing because Ghost loses your resistances to its STABs

 

[pika pal]

As a side complaint, not sure why some people decided to be stupid especially with IL it seemed. I had teammates bringing in Gengars, Annihilapes, and Iron Hands (all weak to Psychic), Water-types like Greninja, Slowbro, and Quagsire (thing is Grass/Psychic), people showing off their new Hisuian Zoroarks (with its 55/60/60 bulk), and of course the idiots showing off their random shinies. Sigh.

I think it's two factors

1. The raids being 5* means that people get access to them as soon as they beat the game, which is likely well before they're prepared for what that level of raid is asking for in terms of both experience and resource preparation. This happens more with Leaves simply because Violet seems to be the more played version and Law of Averages kicks in.

2. Leaves thanks to SD and QD is trickier to counter while carrying Counterplay to its main issue with Megahorn. Walking Wake is not only dealt with decently by two "generic" Raid Attackers in Iron Hands and Azumarill, but it doesn't have any real way to Snowball off of one bad egg. Snowscape/Rain/Sandstorm or such immediately removes its Proto Sun, and easily fit on mons who make good Support or even offensive answers to it. By comparison, you NEED to resist Leaves AND have good Physical bulk because of its Invisible SD stacking, and the only terrain that really makes it easier to tackle is Misty, since it exploits all 3 of the others, meaning Supports are mandatory compared to Unga against the Raptor.

For the mons you listed, Hands just feels like people not caring what they bring, 2/3 of the Water types feel like they're leaning on the Psychic resist and not remembering the Grass STAB (Clodsire vs Quagsire would make sense on paper even if not in practice), and Zoroark I assume is new toy syndrome + people thinking "Psychic Boss -> Ghost Weakness", a problem you see a LOT with people only looking at the Tera type but never the actual types (I have seen Iron Hands brought to Tera Ghost Jolteon which will have Volt Absorb).

 

[Worldie]

(I have seen Iron Hands brought to Tera Ghost Jolteon which will have Volt Absorb).

I have Miraidons brought to Pikachu 7 star PTSD

 

[pika pal]

I have Miraidons brought to Pikachu 7 star PTSD

Yes please keep giving the Quark Drive Boss its boost back. I'm sure it's setting that pre-emptive Electric Terrain for YOUR benefit and not its own.

People seem to at least be better about not bringing Koraidon to Leaves and Wake than Miraidon for some reason.

 

[Worldie]

People seem to at least be better about not bringing Koraidon to Leaves and Wake than Miraidon for some reason.

Tbfh probably because they aren't weak to their stabs (in fact, Wake's tera resists Koraidon's)...

 

[R_N]

Water is instinctively easier to figure out and a lot of "premade" Pokemon happen to be good against

Psychic does not, alas, hit the ungabunga brain. We clearly need a Psychic 7-star raid to get the juices flowing.

 

[pika pal]

Water is instinctively easier to figure out and a lot of "premade" Pokemon happen to be good against

Psychic does not, alas, hit the ungabunga brain. We clearly need a Psychic 7-star raid to get the juices flowing.

Tera Psychic Magearna, chosen for the massive brain of anyone who brings Dark to it.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Thanks to Mods for making this a thread!

Anyway probably what makes the raids annoying, Iron Leaves in particular— is the no repeatable value for veterans. Not that you want folks mad farming it non-stop necessarily, but without item or catching incentives there’s little replay value and little optimization incentive, and as a result fewer veterans to help newbies catch them.

I managed to grab a second Walking Wake today though— had another playthrough where I was sitting at right before Area Zero arc, so last couple of days I went ahead and finished up.

I had planned to take my time enjoying the ambience of the Area Zero plot and 2nd gym run, but instead bc Gamefreak was grinding it and grinding with the intent of powering up Azumarril as much as possible. Fortunately had one on my team.

Even then I was only level 83 coming out of Ace Academy, but instead of trying to build up resources I decided to roll dice on other players and just play support.

My teammates must have been thinking “What the…?” As they saw my Assault Vest Azu just sitting there (not dying though) and strategically cheering and Liquidating to fish for defense drops. I was amazed how little damage Azu took, and on my 2nd attempt I did nab some Defense debuffs, then threw up an offense cheer and my team’s Meow and Iron Leaves (powered up by Miraidon) took down Walking Wake.

Then the beauty of having Violet is I can just not connect to the internet and take my time to build up enough resources to train a mon to Solo Iron Leaves. If I had Scarlet instead this would be a fight against the deadline to somehow grab the Iron Leaves from online with an account with no candy or true raid builds. Brought my daughter’s game to the same state— at least we caught her Walking Wake, and she also has saved No candy but eventually we can prep her Goldengho for the win probably. On Scarlet, much more annoying situation to be in.