Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Best Team Star base order
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have five Team Star bosses to defeat, and you’ll need to complete a Let’s Go mode challenge for each of them. You can technically challenge any Team Star base in any order, but there’s not a lot of direction in-game to tell you what to do next. We’ve put together a guide for the best order, based on the Star boss’s levels and relative challenge.
1. Giacomo of the Segin Squad - Dark-type
Despite all marketing suggesting otherwise, Mela is not actually the best Team Star boss to take down first. Instead, it’s Giacomo, whose challenge revolves around Dark-type Pokémon. Dark-types are weak to Fighting-type moves, but this early in the game it’s unlikely you’ll have many of those. Instead, you’ll want to pick up a Bug-type Pokémon – there are absolutely plenty to choose from – and take him down that way. It’s not too difficult, as long as you make sure none of the first three Pokémon in your party are weak to Dark – those are Ghost and Psychic-types.
2. Mela of the Schedar Squad - Fire-type
Mela is a very straightforward challenge, only higher in the list because her levels are much higher than Giacomo’s. Fire-type Pokémon have a ton of common weaknesses – Rock, Water, and Ground – and by this point in the game you should have access to many of them. Finizen is a good bet here, as is Klawf, but frankly anything that can dish out attacks of those three types should do just fine. It’s probably best not to use Sprigatito or its evolutions for this, however.
3. Atticus of the Navi Squad - Poison-type
Atticus is a tricky fight. The first phase of this challenge, clearing the base, isn’t too difficult as long as you remember to heal your Pokémon up at vending machines throughout the base. The second phase, the actual fight against Atticus, is a bit of a nightmare, owing largely to the fact that his Starmobile throws out Poison Spikes whenever it gets hit. This means that any Pokémon switching in will get poisoned or badly poisoned, putting a pretty harsh time limit on the fight. To counteract this, I’d suggest finding a Steel-type Pokémon like Tinkatink or Orthworm, as Steel-types can’t be poisoned. It can be a slow, tedious fight, but keep yourself healed up – maybe use a couple of X items – and you should get through it.
4. Ortega of the Ruchbah Squad - Fairy-type
Fairy-type Pokémon are the newest in Pokémon lore, and there aren’t many options for dealing with them. Steel and Poison-type moves are very effective, but Poison-type Pokémon tend to be frail, and Steel-types are on the rarer side. Still, the battle against Ortega isn’t too bad, all things considered. Dunsparce and its evolution can learn Poison Tail, which isn’t strong but absolutely gets the job done, and you might want to have an Electric-type up your sleeve for Ortega’s lead, Azumarill. His other two Pokémon are reasonably frail, and his Starmobile can’t do much in the way of gimmicks, so it should be a straight shot to victory, even if you’re not packing a party full of Steel-types.
5. Eri of the Caph Squad - Fighting-type
Taking down Eri is probably the hardest challenge of the game, depending on how you’ve played up to this point. Fighting-type Pokémon are susceptible to Psychic, Fairy, and Flying-type moves, but just bringing those types to the fight won’t get you far, since she has a solid answer for all of them. Having said that, half of her team is weak to Ground, and getting those out of the way is a great place to start. After that, it’s just a battle of attrition. If you can find a good, tanky, Fairy-type Pokémon you should be good to go once Toxicroak is down, or you can go in with a fully-evolved Fuecoco and blast your way through with its absurd signature move.
Be sure to check out our guides for the best Titan order, and the best Gym order in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.