Pokémon’s ninth generation still has plenty of staying power nearly three years after launch, as evidenced by the player base’s resounding response to the games’ latest tera raids. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trainers have easily eclipsed the victory requirements for catching Shiny Wo-Chien with a weekend to spare.
Announced during the Pokémon Presents stream in July, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are receiving a series of four shiny tera raids through mid-September, one each for the four Treasures of Ruin legendary Pokémon. Unlike previous raids, where players could catch the raid ‘mon after defeating it, each shiny legendary will only be catchable once the player base has collectively defeated it one million times. That number may sound like a lot, but players have already defeated the first raid’s Shiny Wo-Chien 3.5 million times ahead of the raid’s August 3 conclusion, meaning the shiny legendary will be distributed via Mystery Gift starting August 7 at 8 p.m. EDT.
Being a five-star raid, rather than a difficult seven-star raid, makes defeating Shiny Wo-Chien a little easier, and the rewards from the raids incentivize players to continue defeating it further. Each defeat of Wo-Chien grants several Herba Mysticas and exp. candies.
At least one player was able to catch Shiny Wo-Chien early. “Idk man it let me catch him,” one Redditor wrote midway through the raid period with a screenshot of the Shiny Pokémon. They likely unknowingly joined a hacked lobby and were able to catch it that way, though in a follow-up post they mentioned releasing the Shiny Wo-Chien to the wild as they “didn’t feel right about it after a while.” They’ll be able to receive a new, official Shiny Wo-Chien next week, as we all will.
The Shiny Treasures of Ruin raids are a great way to tide fans over until Pokémon Legends: Z-A releases in October. They’re also a great excuse for Nintendo Switch 2 owners to return to the games and discover how much better they perform on the new hardware. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were littered with bugs and performance issues at launch, and they still don’t look great on the original Nintendo Switch. With the Switch 2 performance upgrade, the games can handle more Pokémon on screen, helping shiny hunters catch new shiny ‘mons, and, more importantly, achieve a higher frame rate. Scarlet and Violet run much smoother, and the difference on Switch 2 is a noticeable difference.
The next shiny raid begins immediately after the Shiny Wo-Chien raid ends. The ice-type Chien-Pao will be up next, and players will have two weeks to defeat it a million times. Something tells me they’ll be done much sooner.