Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Water Dondozo 7-star Tera Raid guide: Counters, weaknesses, and more

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet players taking on 7-star Tera Raids from July 25 at 5:00 PDT to August 8, 2024, at 4:59 PDT will encounter a Water Tera Type Dondozo as the raid boss. As one might expect, trainers have been taking on black crystal raid dens to defeat and capture this boss while racking up plenty of Herba Mystica and other useful rewards for their adventures.

If you hope to take on this Dondozo raid yourself, it's wise to know the creature's weaknesses, the counters that exploit them, and ways to defeat this boss in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

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Water Dondozo's strengths and weaknesses in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet raids

Dondozo in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Pokedex (Image via The Pokemon Company)

• Tera Type: Water
• Ability: Unaware
• IVs: 31 IVs in all stats
• Usable Moves: Wave Crash, Order Up, Earthquake, Avalanche, Yawn, Curse

In this 7-star Tera Raid, Dondozo will have the same weaknesses and resistances since it's a Water-type Pokemon and is Terastallizing into a Water-type. Given this information, Dondozo will take super effective damage from the following move types:

• Grass
• Electric

Meanwhile, Dondozo will resist the following elemental attack types, so they should be avoided when taking on this raid:

• Steel
• Fire
• Water
• Ice

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Best counters to Water Dondozo in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet raids

Bellibolt is an excellent counter to many Water-types in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The best counters to this Dondozo 7-star Tera Raid in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will be able to resist or absorb the boss' Water-type attacks while dealing super effective damage back to it. Moreover, since this raid boss has the Unaware ability, the best counters won't need a ton of setup to start fighting, as the ability allows Dondozo to ignore stat changes when it makes its attacks.

The following counters/loadouts should be very effective at winning this particular Dondozo 7-star Tera Raid in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet:

Pokemon	Ability	Tera Type	Nature	Moveset	Held Item	EV Points
Bellibolt	Electromorphosis	Electric	Modest	Parabolic Charge, Reflect, Acid Spray, Electric Terrain	Metronome	252 Sp. Atk, 252 Def, 4 HP
Victreebel	Chlorophyll	Grass	Modest	Strength Sap, Acid Spray, Giga Drain, Gastro Acid	Metronome	252 Sp. Atk, 252 Def, 4 HP
Sinistcha	Hospitality	Stellar	Modest	Matcha Gotcha, Grassy Terrain, Strength Sap, Nasty Plot	Metronome	252 Sp. Atk, 252 Def, 4 HP

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How to beat Water Dondozo in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet raids

Sinistcha's Matcha Gotcha move is excellent in these Dondozo raids (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Below, you can find a collection of strategies to win this Dondozo 7-star Tera Raid using the counters outlined above:

• Bellibolt - Begin by setting up Reflect to reduce Dondozo's attack damage and then deploy Electric Terrain to ensure Yawn doesn't put Bellibolt or its teammates to sleep. Use Acid Spray to lower Dondozo's Special Defense stat and then use Parabolic Charge for damage dealing. Each time Bellibolt is hit, its Electromorphosis ability will activate, working in tandem with Electric Terrain to vastly increase Bellibolt's Parabolic Charge damage. Metronome will also increase the attack's damage as it's used in succession.
• Victreebel - Utilize Acid Spray to lower Dondozo's Special Defense before using Giga Drain to heal and deal damage which will increase with Metronome. Utilize Gastro Acid to remove Dondozo's Unaware ability, allowing you to use Strength Sap to heal Victreebel based on Dondozo's Attack stat while reducing the boss' Attack stat by one stage.
• Sinistcha - This build is pure damage, so be sure you have teammates that complement it. Begin by laying down Grassy Terrain and attacking with Matcha Gotcha, which will also help heal Sinistcha. In the event that Dondozo's Unaware ability is removed or deactivated, use Nasty Plot to increase Sinistcha's Special Attack power while using Strength Sap to simultaneously heal and reduce Dondozo's high Attack stat.

In addition to these strategies, it's wise to bring along teammates who have access to the ability Intimidate. This way, if Dondozo's Unaware ability is deactivated by the raid party, Dondozo's Attack stat can be lowered to make it much less of a threat.