Where did these raids come from?
If you’re grinding just about anything in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, you’re probably hitting Tera Raids. These give tons of EXP candy, rare drops, and chances to catch Pokemon you might not even see in the wild. But what’s the deal with these blue star raids?
These are raids that might show up on your map for seemingly no reason. What’s more, they presumably all contain encounters against the same Pokemon. There’s a simple explanation for this, the game just doesn’t explain it very well.
Event raids return in Scarlet & Violet
Tera Raid Battles marked with blue stars are tied to ongoing events. These events last for a limited time, though they can go live again in the future. There are a few unique advantages to Blue Star raids that make them distinct from your regularly scheduled content.
First, Blue Star Raids can range in difficulty. The first event in Scarlet & Violet used Eevee as the featured Pokemon, and it appeared as both a simple one-star raid and as a high-level encounter. This was particularly important as it gave trainers an easy way to get Eevees with the Tera Type of their choice. This event didn’t necessarily feature exclusive content, since you can customize the Tera Type of any Eevee with enough grinding. Still, it was a nice bonus for those actively playing.
That said, Blue Star Raids can offer exclusive content. The first announced raid after the Eevee event was Charizard. This is significant for two reasons. First, Charmander doesn’t appear in the game, so this is the only way to get this Pokemon during its run. Second, this encounter is rated as a Seven-Star Raid, which is harder than anything else that exists in the game. This means Blue Star Raids can theoretically take any form in the future, though hopefully time-limited content will eventually become permanent. It would be a shame for someone to miss out on an encounter like this because they didn’t play the game at launch.
Stay up to date
To keep track of the current available events, press L to enable Online Mode in your Main Menu. From there, go to the Poke Portal and press the + button. This will bring you to a page that will list all ongoing events, including mystery gifts. This is especially helpful if you don’t want to miss events in the future.
An internet connection is required for the game to download the data necessary to participate in events. Though you need a Nintendo Switch Online account to participate in events with friends, this fortunately is not required to access this content by yourself.
