Raid Battle (TCG)

The Pokémon Trading Card Game Raid Battle is a cooperative game type of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. It is based on the Max Raid Battles of Pokémon Sword and Shield, allowing up to four players to work together to defeat a powerful Dynamax or Gigantamax Pokémon. It was revealed on July 13, 2020.

In 2022, the Alternative Play Handbook introduced Raid Format. It is a second representation of a Raid Battle in the Trading Card Game that uses more of the standard rules of the Trading Card Game than Raid Battle.

Mechanics

Raid Battles utilize Pokémon cards but have altered or removed mechanics from the standard Trading Card Game. The following mechanics have been removed entirely:

Evolution—any stage of Pokémon can be used
Energy
Retreat cost, however players can still retreat
Prize cards
Special Conditions
Decks and discard piles for the players, the Boss Pokémon uses these concepts
Hands
Trainer cards
Costs and effects of attacks and Abilities that involve removed mechanics (coin flips are still required)

The following mechanics function differently in Raid Battles than they do in the standard Trading Card Game:

Weakness and Resistance may be used or ignored at a group's discretion.
Knocked Out Pokémon are not removed from the field or able to switch positions. Instead, the turn of a player with a Knocked Out Pokémon is mostly skipped, save for the Cheer action.
- If a Pokémon would cause the opponent to take more than one Prize card, that effect has no affect on the game. Raid Battle only cares about how many times Pokémon are Knocked Out, and not the Prize cards that would be taken.
Despite working together and taking turns together, each player's board state is separate. An attack or Ability effect that specifies an Active Pokémon or Benched Pokémon only affects the Active or Benched Pokémon of the player that used the attack or Ability. Additionally, each pair of Pokémon may use a GX attack once per Raid Battle.

How to play

Raid Battles are conducted by having four pairs of Pokémon team up to battle a Boss Pokémon. Traditionally, Raid Battle is a four player game where each pair is being controlled by a single player. However, a single player can control multiple pairs if there are less than four players, or the players can decide what the pairs without their own players will do as a team. One player controls the Boss Pokémon; a Boss Pokémon's actions are dictated by Boss Attack cards, so the controlling player can also play as one or more of the pairs.

A Raid Battle concludes either when the Boss Pokémon being Knocked Out (the players win) or when the players' Pokémon have been Knocked Out four times in total (the players lose). Note that the same Pokémon can be Knocked Out multiple times in the same battle, and this still contributes to the total. This is tracked through the the use of four Knock Out counters.

All necessary components, except the players' Pokémon cards, can be downloaded from Pokémon.com and printed out. Alternatively, a Digital Raid Battle Assistant that runs in a web browser is also available here.

Additional Raid Battle exclusive components

Boss Pokémon cards. They come in sets of three: a Level 1 oversize card, a Level 2 oversize card, and a level 3 oversize card.
Boss Attack deck, consisting of all 20 Boss Attack cards
Cheer deck, consisting of all 5 Cheer cards
4 Knock Out counters

Players

Players choose their pair(s) of Pokémon, an Active Pokémon and a Benched Pokémon. The largest attack number of each pair of Pokémon is added together to determine the level of the Boss Pokémon. Modifiers and effects are not applied for this, only the number printed on the card. An order for the players (and pairs of Pokémon that do not have players, if applicable) to take their turns in is determined and the game begins on the first player's turn.

Each player's turn will play out as follows:

If one of that player's Pokémon is Knocked Out, they take their turn first, regardless of turn order. That player draws a Cheer card from the Cheer deck, applies its effect (this action is called Cheering), and ends their turn. (They do not get to attack or retreat.)
If no Pokémon is Knocked Out, the player can choose to have their Active Pokémon retreat. Since there is only one Benched Pokémon per player, this functionally switches their positions such that the Benched Pokémon becomes the Active Pokémon and the Active Pokémon becomes the Benched Pokémon
The player then chooses an attack of their Active Pokémon to perform. If it deals damage, it does so to the Boss Pokémon. (Players cannot attack the Active Pokémon of other players.)

At the end of the four players'/pairs of Pokémon's collective turn, if a player Cheered that turn, their Knocked Out Pokémon are revived. This removes the Knock Out counter from it, along with the damage it had sustained before it was Knocked Out. (The Knock Out counter is flipped to its back to continue to track how many times Pokémon were Knocked Out) (Pokémon that are Knocked Out during the players' turn by self-inflicted damage remain Knocked Out until the end of the next turn, as their player has not Cheered yet.)

Boss Pokémon

Boss Pokémon have three levels that affect their HP, the damage of their attacks, and how many attacks they can potentially do in a turn. To determine which level used in a game, the sum of the largest attack number printed on each pair of Pokémon is compared to a scale:

If the sum of the attack numbers is within the range of 250-390, the Level 1 oversize Boss Pokémon is used. It can use a maximum of two attacks per turn.
If the sum of the attack numbers is within the range of 400-590, the Level 2 oversize Boss Pokémon is used. It can use a maximum of three attacks per turn.
If the sum of the attack numbers is greater than 600, the Level 3 oversize Boss Pokémon is used. It can use a maximum of four attacks per turn.

If the sum of the attack numbers is less than 250, it is recommended that the players choose more powerful Pokémon. The Digital Raid Battle Assistant does not allow players to play Raid Battle in this instance.

Each turn the Boss Pokémon takes will play out as follows:

The player controlling the Boss draws a Boss Attack card and follows its instruction. Boss Attack cards all list which attack of the Boss Pokémon is used, the player that the attack is used against, and may or may not cause another Boss Attack card to be drawn. If it does, this step will repeat. However, do not draw a new card if the maximum number of attacks this turn have occurred, as determined by the boss's Level.

A Boss Pokémon's attack deals damage to the player's Active Pokémon. (Some attacks eschew this and can deal damage to other Pokémon.) As per usual, if a player's Pokémon has taken more damage than its maximum HP, it is Knocked Out. As a reminder of the mechanics of being Knocked Out, a Knock Out counter is put on that Pokémon.

If a drawn Boss Attack card targets a Knocked Out Pokémon, the card is discarded to no effect and another is drawn in its place If all Boss Attack cards are used, the discard pile is shuffled and reused. (If all four players have a Active Pokémon that is Knocked Out, the game is already over)

Boss Attack cards

A Boss Attack card

There are 20 numbered Boss Attack cards.

1/20	Use attack 1 against Player 1 Draw one more card
2/20	Use attack 1 against Player 2 Draw one more card
3/20	Use attack 1 against Player 3 Draw one more card
4/20	Use attack 1 against Player 4 Draw one more card
5/20	Use attack 1 against Player 1 Draw one more card
6/20	Use attack 1 against Player 2 Draw one more card
7/20	Use attack 1 against Player 3 Draw one more card
8/20	Use attack 1 against Player 4 Draw one more card
9/20	Use attack 2 against Player 1 Draw one more card
10/20	Use attack 2 against Player 2 Draw one more card
11/20	Use attack 2 against Player 3 Draw one more card
12/20	Use attack 2 against Player 4 Draw one more card
13/20	Use attack 2 against Player 1
14/20	Use attack 2 against Player 2
15/20	Use attack 2 against Player 3
16/20	Use attack 2 against Player 4
17/20	Use attack 3 against Player 1
18/20	Use attack 3 against Player 2
19/20	Use attack 3 against Player 3
20/20	Use attack 3 against Player 4 Draw one more card

Cheer cards

A Cheer card

There are 5 numbered Cheer cards.

1/5	A Pokémon of your choice does double damage this turn!
2/5	Heal 80 damage from each player's Pokémon!
3/5	Heal all damage from 1 Pokémon!
4/5	The Boss can't play more than one card next turn.
5/5	Attacks from all players' Pokémon do 50 more damage this turn.

List of Boss Pokémon

Card	Type	No.
Pikachu		01
Drednaw		02

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.