Best Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Azumarill raid build

The best Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Azumarill raid build uses Fairy attacks, combined with Belly Drum and the Huge Power abilities to massive effect. Despite looking cutesy and harmless, Azumarill quickly rose up the tera raid tier list as a devastating powerhouse known as an equal of the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Iron Hands Raid build, and maybe better, depending on what you're up against. And with the Iron Leaves and Walking Wake raid battles entering the game today - the latter of which is weak to Fairy attacks - Azumarill is a more potent and necessary choice than ever. We'll take you through the best Azumarill Raid build for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet today, and how to teach Azumarill Belly Drum, and integral part of its arsenal.

Best Azumarill raid build in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

The best raid build for Azumarill in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet usually focuses on giving it the following qualities:

• Level: 100
• Technique: Belly Drum (learned via Mirror Herb)
• Technique: Liquidation (learned via TM)
• Technique: Rough Play (learned via levelling)
• Ability: Huge Power (either catch it with this, or change it via Ability Capsule)
• Nature: Adamant (changed via Adamant Mint)
• EV Training: HP/Attack (via Vitamins and Feathers)
• IV Training: HP/Attack (via Hyper Training with Bottle Caps at Montenevera)
• Held Item: Shell Bell (purchased from Delibird Presents at Levincia)

The focus here is on maximising offensive power for attack-type moves, while also boosting HP to negate the damage taken from Belly Drum, as this move halves health to maximise attack stats. You'll also notice that we've only given three suggested moves for Azumarill to learn - that's because the fourth one can be the player's choice, and probably chosen depending on what opponent you're going up against.

How to use the Azumarill Raid build

Once you have Azumarill set up, your approach should be the following in Raid Battles based around Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Tera types and Terastallizing:

1. Use Belly Drum to maximise attack and cut health in half.
2. If the enemy has a type advantage, use a Cheer to heal. If not, use an Attack-based technique.
3. Continue attacking or healing as needed until the enemy negates your stat changes. 
4. Heal up with Cheers and repeat the process from step one.

It's a basic, but effective process, as the raw power of Azumarill built in this way can eliminate half the health bar of a Five-Star Raid boss in one attack. Just make sure that you're always healthy before using the Belly Drum move.

How to teach Azumarill Belly Drum with Mirror Herb

To teach Azumarill Belly Drum is a slightly complex process, involving a secret use of the Mirror Herb item that the game doesn't tell you it's capable of. We'll explain how it works below.

1. Go to Cascarrafa City and its branch of Delibird Presents.
2. Purchase a Mirror Herb for $30,000.
3. Equip the Mirror Herb to the Azumarill you want to learn Belly Drum.
4. Catch or evolve a Hariyama (these large Fighting-type Pokemon appear all over North Paldea, but we had the best luck in North Province, Area Three).
5. At Level 26, Hariyama will learn Belly Drum.
6. Make Hariyama forget ALL moves except Belly Drum.
7. Make Azumarill forget one move, so it only knows three.
8. Put all your other Pokemon in Boxes so you just have Hariyama and Azumarill in your party.
9. Throw a Picnic! Then simply wait for several minutes while watching Hariyama and Azumarill ambling about the picnic table.
10. Check Azumarill's moveset. It should have learned the Belly Drum technique somewhere along the way in its empty move slot.

It sounds odd, but this is because the secret effect of the Mirror Herb is to allow Pokemon to copy certain moves off OTHER Pokemon - but only once. By setting it up like this, you guarantee that Azumarill can learn Belly Drum and become a powerhouse Pokemon, especially if you're playing Scarlet and don't have the chance to add Iron Hands to your Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Pokedex.