How to defeat the 7-Star Pikachu Tera Raid (and not lose your mind)

destructoid.com:

It would be easy, they said.

Pikachu is the surprise 7-Star challenge in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet this weekend. Similar to past 7-Star events, completing this fight awards a unique Pikachu with the Mightiest Mark title that can be obtained once per save file. Additionally, Pikachu will always sport the same moveset and Water Tera-Type, so a winning strategy should theoretically work every time. Otherwise, this encounter is a good way to obtain rare materials like Ability Patches and Bottle Caps that drop exclusively in Tera Raids. On paper, anyway.

See, when Pikachu was announced as the next 7-Star encounter, people treated it like a joke. It was assumed this would be a relatively easy event to celebrate Pokemon Day, and we’d get our real raid challenge later. Surely they wouldn’t multiply Pikachu’s max health by an even greater amount than normal to make it challenging. It would be silly for them to give Pikachu exclusive mechanics we haven’t seen in a 7-Star raid yet. Surely they wouldn’t give Pikachu a Light Ball, breaking a tradition of raid Pokemon not holding items since Pokemon Sword & Shield, right?

Hahahahaha.

As a silver lining, you’ll see Pikachu’s main gimmick right away. At the beginning of the encounter, Pikachu will immediately enter the shield phase. Sorry, by shield “phase” I mean Pikachu’s entire health bar is the shield. In short, all the rules of Tera Raid shields apply for the fight’s duration. Status moves won’t work unless they’re a secondary effect, and you’ll need to Terastalize to deal significant damage.

Following this, Pikachu will immediately use Rain Dance followed by Surf. This is the only time Pikachu will use Rain Dance during the encounter, as Pikachu’s normal moveset is all about