Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Ends 7-Star Hisuian Samurott Raid on July 17

Q: Is this rare Samurott raid a final farewell to Pokémon Scarlet & Violet players before support for the game ends?

No. The Hisuian Samurott raid does not appear to be a final farewell to Pokémon Scarlet & Violet players. What is clear is that the event is part of Game Freak’s ongoing support cycle for Scarlet & Violet, not an announced endpoint. The current 7-Star raid runs through July 17, 2026, and official event scheduling shows Scarlet & Violet content continuing beyond it. A new Water-themed event featuring a 7-Star Mightiest Mark Magikarp is scheduled to begin immediately after, running from July 17 to August 6, 2026. That alone undercuts the idea that Samurott is the game’s last sendoff. There is some reason for speculation. Scarlet & Violet is nearing its fourth anniversary, Generation 10 is planned for 2027, and some fans have pointed to the long starter-raid rotation and the lack of broader announcements as signs support may be winding down. Separate reporting also suggests Scarlet & Violet’s competitive era is ending, with ranked play and VGC activity shifting to Pokémon Champions. But that is different from saying overall game support has ended. The available evidence shows event support is still active, with raid reruns and new limited-time content continuing in 2026. Neither Game Freak nor The Pokémon Company has officially said the Samurott raid is the final event or that Scarlet & Violet support is over. So the better reading is that this is a valuable late-life event for collectors, not a confirmed goodbye.

Q: Has the Switch 2 update finally stabilized the game's performance for intense online battles like this 7-star raid?

Yes—by most accounts, the Switch 2 update has substantially improved Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s stability and responsiveness, and that should carry over to demanding online content such as the current 7-star Hisuian Samurott raid. What is supported by available reporting is that the free Switch 2 update improved visuals, frame rate, and general performance for Scarlet & Violet, a game that was widely criticized at launch for technical issues on the original Switch. Recent coverage describes it as feeling “like a whole new game,” which is a strong indication that traversal, menus, and battle flow are much smoother than before. That said, there is no clear public benchmark specifically isolating 7-star online Tera Raids under heavy network load. So it would be too strong to say the game is fully “fixed” in every raid scenario. Tera Raids depend not only on local hardware performance but also on online synchronization, matchmaking, and connection quality among all players. The practical takeaway for players is that Switch 2 appears to have solved much of the frame-rate and presentation instability that made Scarlet & Violet feel rough, making intense raids more playable and consistent. But if a raid still feels laggy, the likely bottleneck is now more often the online session itself rather than the console struggling to run the game.

Q: Will future transfer rules make this event Pokémon a collector's dead end, trapped in older game generations?

Probably not — but it could become one-way if moved into certain future games. The Hisuian Samurott from Scarlet & Violet’s 7-Star raid is not, on current evidence, a collector’s dead end. Pokémon HOME remains the main long-term storage and transfer hub, and Scarlet & Violet event Pokémon have generally stayed usable across newer services and formats through HOME. That means the raid Samurott should at minimum remain preservable in HOME, even if Scarlet & Violet support winds down. The real caveat is the new transfer rule tied to Pokémon Legends: Z-A. HOME 4.0.0 introduced compatibility with Z-A, but transfers into Z-A are one-way relative to earlier games. If a Pokémon from Scarlet & Violet is sent into Z-A, it cannot go back to Scarlet & Violet or other prior titles. So the risk is not that the Samurott becomes trapped in Generation 9 by default; it is that future compatibility may be forward-only in some cases. There is precedent for Pokémon becoming effectively stranded by transfer rules. Some special forms in older generations, such as Spiky-eared Pichu, could not move forward at all. But that is a stricter case than what is happening here. For Hisuian Samurott, the more likely outcome is continued survival in HOME and possible use in compatible future games, with backward movement restricted if transferred into titles like Z-A. So for collectors, the safest approach is simple: keep it in HOME unless you are comfortable with a one-way move into a newer game.

3 articles · Updated · TheGamer · Jul 14

July 17 is the deadline to catch a special Hisuian Samurott in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s 7-Star Tera Raids, with the event ending at 3:59 p.m. PT and 6:59 p.m. ET.
That Samurott carries the Mightiest Mark, making it a rarer collector target than a transferred Pokemon Legends: Arceus version and unavailable once the raid rotation ends.
Players must finish the main game and clear the Ace Academy Tournament to unlock 6- and 7-Star Raids, then look for black-crystal raid markers across Paldea.
The event closes a summer run of Hisuian starter raids that began with Decidueye in June and continued with Typhlosion earlier this month.