Tera Shards are valuable, somewhat rare items in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
You need Tera Shards to change a Pokémon’s Tera Type and assemble a team composition that can give you a significant competitive advantage.
Changing a Pokémon’s Tera Type might help you throughout the entire game. With the right Tera-Type, winning fights against Gym Leaders and other unavoidable enemies will be easier.
That said, here’s where to get Tera Shards in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet to change your Pokémon’s Tera Type and have a strong team composition.
Where to Find Tera Shards in Scarlet & Violet
Players will come across Tera Shards in the open world.
From time to time, by interacting with an item when traveling between areas or exploring, you will find out that some of the items you find in the wild are Tera Shards.
There is another way to effectively gather Tera Shards. It may not be as simple, but it is undoubtedly much more effective.
Check the Ground for Shards When Traveling
As mentioned above, you can find Tera Shards in the open world.
From time to time, you will see a small object shining on the ground or a Poké Ball.
These Poké Ball that you find in the wild do not necessarily grant you a Poké Ball or another capture item.
Instead, those Poké Balls and shining objects contain items that can be quite helpful such as candy, potions, and even Tera Shards. This is why it is important to check them when exploring the Paldea region.
Tera Shards aren’t easy to find, and searching for them while exploring is not the ideal way to get more Tera Shards. There might be more effective ways to find the shards you need.
That said, there is an exception. It’ll take some time, but you will eventually visit The Great Crater of Paldea. This happens late in the game, so it will take a while before you can do this effectively.
Once you get to that location, you will see many shining dots on the ground — much like the ones you usually find when traveling throughout the map.
However, in The Great Crater of Paldea, most of these items will be Terra Shards.
Fight in Tera Raids Against Terastallized Pokémon
You will often see huge crystals waiting to be found when exploring the world. They are noticeable and shiny and do more than be a part of Paldea’s natural landscape.
When you find one of these crystals, you can enter a raid to battle a Terastallized Pokémon.
These battles are rarely super difficult. Hard battles are usually fought against trainers with multiple Pokémon. They often Terastallize their last Pokémon for a final push or to shield them from your Pokémon’s attacks.
Although the Pokémon on the other side is often too strong, you will be accompanied by other players or NPCs that will assist you during this battle.
Defeating these Pokémon will grant you many items as a reward. Some of these items are the Tera Shards you are looking for.
It is important to notice that raids have difficulty ratings attributed to them. This difficulty ranking is classified by the number of starts a raid has.
The more starts a raid has, the greater your chances of finding Tera Shards and Candy that will help you level up your Pokémon in Scarlet & Violet.
You can check the number of stars each raid has before taking part in one. If you find a crystal in the wild and interact with it, you will be taken to a screen that shows the information on the raid.
That information will include the difficulty of the raid. You will see the Pokémon’s silhouette and the number of stars the raid has.
Note that you don’t always have to go to the wild to find these crystals. If you play online, there is an alternative that. Something you might be able to do with friends.
You can take advantage of the Poké Portal. This option is on the same menu you use to change the order of your party and check your items.
Once there, go to the Poké Portal option and from there, select Tera Raid Battle. You will be taken to the Tera Raid Battle menu, where you will see the available raids and the number of stars each of them has.
This is a great way to make money in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, too. Tera Raids are, in fact, a great way to get a bunch of different resources at once.
Each time you win a Tera Raid, you will get a new Pokémon — that might have an unusual Tera Type — and a bunch of items that might either grant you extra experience, another Tera Type, or more Poké Dollars.
Get 50 Tera Shards of a Single Type From Teachers
When you get to Medali, the same NPC that changes a Pokémon’s Tera Shard will give you 50 Normal Tera Shards.
This alone is already very useful to throw off your opponent that used a Pokémon to counter your Pokémon’s Type.
However, there are other characters that might give you 50 shards of a single type. These characters are the teachers in the Academy.
You need to do your tests, talk to your teachers, and keep talking to them so you will raise your friendship level with them.
Once the friendship level is high enough, that teacher will give you 50 Tera Shards of a single type.
Different teachers will provide shards of different types. For that reason, make sure you talk to all of them and do whatever you can to increase your friendship level with each of the teachers.
Note that 50 shards is a lot of shards and will prove quite useful when you decide to change a Pokémon’s Tera Type. After all, it’s 50 shards of a single type.
Defeat Shining Pokémon in the Wild
Sometimes, in the wild, you will see a Pokémon that, unlike regular Pokémon, has a shining aura around it.
That Pokémon will have an unusual Tera Type. Defeating that Pokémon will grant you Tera Shards. Those Tera Shards will be of the same type as the defeated Pokémon’s Tera Type.
For instance, if you defeat a Jigglypuff whose Tera Type is Dark, you will get Dark Tear Shards.
Unfortunately, these Pokémon are not that easy to find. Not only are they a bit rare, but they also do not necessarily show up in areas they usually would.
For instance, you might find a shining Jigglypuff in an area where you typically find Psyducks and Magikarps.
On top of that, it seems that the Pokémon’s level might influence the items dropped. There’s a much lower chance that these glowing Pokémon will drop Tera Shards in low-level or initial areas.
In many ways, the idea here is very similar to partaking in Tera Raids. You will get items, experience, and possibly a Pokémon with an unusual Tera Type.
However, it will be a little more practical if you are not actively grinding Tera Shards or experience, but not very practical at all if you are.
Why You Should Collect Tera Shards
As mentioned above, Tera Shards allow you to change your Pokémon’s Tera Type.
You might want to check our guide on how to change your Tera Type for more information on that.
You need 50 Tera Shards of a specific type to change a Pokémon’s Tera Type. For that reason, gathering them is necessary.
Having a few dozen Tera Shards won’t serve you any purpose besides monetary. You can sell Tera Shards to get some extra Pokémon Dollars.
Still, there are other ways to earn money in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. Besides, those other ways do not necessarily include selling items that can significantly impact the effectiveness of your Pokémon party.
If you know what kind of team you want, you will have to put in some work to make it happen.
You need to know where to find every Pokémon in Scarlet & Violet and have the shards that allow you to shape your team’s Tera Types.
That way, you will be able to have an incredibly powerful team composition.
For instance, the initial Fire Type Pokémon’s Tera Type is also fire. This means it’ll keep the same strengths and weaknesses.
Note, however, that a Fire Type Pokémon deals more damage when using a Fire Type attack. That damage is increased when that Pokémon is Terastallized if its Tera Type is also fire.
That said, if your Fire Type Pokémon’s Tera Type is normal instead of fire, you have another advantage.
A Fire Type Pokémon that turns into Normal Type due to the Terastal Phenomenom will no longer take double damage from Water Type attacks. So it all depends on your strategy.
Keep all that in mind when you find new shards. You never know when a new idea for an unusual strategy might come to your head.
When that happens, you will want to have hundreds of shards to turn your Pokémon team into the dream team you want. This is why it might not be wise to sell them.
What to Do After Getting Tera Shards
Once you’ve got Tera shards, it’s worth taking a look at your team and thinking about their types and weaknesses. Is there a particular type that your team is vulnerable to? If so, it could be worth changing Tera types to account for this.
