Max Raids are an exciting and infuriating new feature in Pokemon Sword & Shield. It’s awesome that you can fight giant boss Pokémon with up to three other friends online, but it’s also ridiculously annoying if you’re aiming to capture one of the rare Pokémon that only appear in Max Raids — rare Pokémon like Ditto.
If you’re aiming to catch one of those annoyingly rare Pokémon, there are a couple ways you can speed up the process. There are ways you can ‘reset’ raids — you can potentially skip unwanted raids, generate new raids, and speed up the raid process entirely. It’s important to know how raids spawn so you can get as many rare Pokémon as possible.
More Pokémon Sword & Shield guides:
How To Evolve All The New Galar Region Pokémon | Evolution Guide | What’s Exclusive To Each Version? | How To Catch Shiny Pokémon | Pick This Starter Pokémon For An Early Advantage | How To Easily Evolve Farfetch’d Into Sirfetch’d | Brilliant Aura System | How To Catch Improved Pokemon | Combo & Ultimate Moves | Move Tutor Locations | How To Catch Pokemon Easier | False Swipe & Hypnosis Guide | How To Level Up Fast | Exp. Candy Farming Tips
What Are Max Raids?
Max Raids are four trainer cooperative battles where you and three players can work together to fight a giant-sized Dynamax Pokémon. Max Raids can be between 1 and 5 stars, with 5 stars being the most difficult. At higher rating, Max Raid Pokémon can attack multiple times in a row, or generate shields to absorb attacks.
Max Raids spawn in the Wilds — interact with Pokémon Dens marked with beams of light. Swirling beams of light denote that a Gigantamax (special Dynamax Variant) Pokémon is located in the den.
You can also spawn Max Raids at specific locations with Wishing Pieces. Find a map of all the Max Raid locations here.
How To Reset Raids
Max Raids reset under a number of conditions. Some players believe that raids can be reset by switching between online / local connection, but that does not seem to be the case. There are other methods that can help you reset raids.
- All Max Raid reset at 00:00 every day. Changing the Nintendo Switch internal clock will not change when Max Raids reset.
- All Max Raids will reset, even ones you’re farming. It’s a full 24 hour interval if there are raids you want to clear and don’t want to (or can’t) complete.
- Completing all the Max Raids in the Wilds will add more Max Raids to random locations.
Neither of these methods is especially helpful for clearing Max Raids you don’t want to complete. There is a way to do that — by using Wishing Pieces. By dropping Wishing Pieces into Pokémon Dens, you can ‘overwrite’ current Max Dens.
For example: If you have two Max Dens available in the Wilds, then use Wishing Pieces to complete two Max Dens, you’ll reset the Wilds dens.
This method doesn’t always work, and you’ll still have to complete the same number of Pokémon Dens, but you’ll be able to choose the locations and (hopefully) spawn better dens.
Where To Find Wishing Pieces
Wishing Pieces are essential for farming Max Raid dens. They’re rare items, and there are only a few ways you can get them.
- You can find one in the Dappled Grove, Motostoke Riverbank, and Wyndon Stadium.
- The Digger Brothers (Digging Duo) can randomly find Wishing Pieces. Only the Right Brother can find Wishing Pieces — you’ll need 500 Watts per search.
- Hikers and Fishers will randomly give Wishing Pieces when you give them 100 Watts.
Wishing Pieces are hard to find, but you’ll earn a lot of Watts just by wandering around and farming Pokémon Dens. Use those Watts on the reward-focused digging brother (the NPCs are located near the Wilds Pokémon Daycare) to get Wishing Pieces.
