SwSh Raid Dens Guide

Quick tips:
 - Turn auto-save off for any kind of save scumming advised below.

Q: How do I find X in a raid?
A: First Ctrl+F in
  https://www.serebii.net/swordshield/maxraidbattles.shtml
Serebii calls spawn tables "den IDs" even though this is wrong. Dens each have 2 spawn tables ("den IDs"), one for common raids and one for rare raids, which spawn from red transparent beams and pink with cloudy swirls beams, respectively.
Ids 43 or higher are rare spawn tables (again, pink beams), and the lower IDs are common spawn tables (again, red beams.)

The following image shows the common and rare spawn table IDs for each den:
https://imgur.com/t3bSrrc
So, for example the west-most den in hammerlock hills just before you reach the cliff uses spawn table 23 for common, red beams and 73 for rare, pink beams (both tables give ice types, only 73 gives glaceon.)

Very useful version with pictures for dens of G-max mons:
https://imgur.com/ORBCHcp
https://imgur.com/a/XBXF2EZ

Promoted "event" raids can spawn in all dens at some rate. This is why you can get G-max Drednaw, Sandaconda, Butterfree, etc. from any den right now. Usually G-Maxes are exclusive to one or two dens each. All G-maxes normally only appear as rare raids (again, pink beams.)

Q: How do I get pink beams (rare dens)?
A: Wishing piece scum. Save up enough to buy a wishing piece, go to the den, save, then repeat until you get a pink beam:
If you set text speed to slow you have enough time to hit the home button before the wishing piece saves your game. You can see the beam color before it saves. You can get a pink beam from a wishing piece even if there's another pink beam on your map.

Q: Clock change exploit, or just "the exploit"
This is the major exploit right now that allows you to reroll a wishing piece beam. A side effect is you get lots of watts.
1) get a pink beam on your map at the den using a wishing piece scumming (see above)
  Note: we need a wishing piece beam for this exploit.
2) To reroll the raid mon, start "searching" for others to join (do this offline so as not to fuck over innocent people)
3) as it is searching, hit home -> settings -> system clock -> change DATE forward 1 day.
  Note: Going back in time any number of days does nothing. You must go forward to reroll the raid mon.
4) go back into the game, click 'quit' to stop searching for players
5) check your purple beam again. You'll know it works because you'll get the 2K watts again.
Repeat as necessary.

Important: Once you get the raid you want, it's safe change your system time back. As long as you change the time while not currently "searching" it will _NOT_ reroll the raid. This is how you can get an accurate "caught" timestamp on the raid you used the exploit to get.

Q: If you breed the G-max Mon does it pass on the G-max form to it's offspring?
A: No.

Q: Can raid / g-max be shiny?
A: yes.

Q: Can I skip battle animations / use fast text speed when raiding with others?
A: No. Unless you are raiding solo, animations always play and text speed is "Normal."

Q: How do I get better IV raid mons?
A: The star rating determines # of perfect IVs on the raid mon. You get 1,2,3,4,4 perfect IVs for 1,2,3,4,5 star raids, respectively. Whether or not star rating has an impact on HA rate is unknown, but see next question.

Q: How rare are HAs from raids? do they NEED to be from the rare pink beams?
A: Anecdotally, it seems pretty common but some have had terrible luck in the thread. You need to make sure the den you're farming actually can give the HA for the mon you're looking for, so refer to:
  https://www.serebii.net/swordshield/maxraidbattles.shtml
in particular note that Toxapex can be HA from some dens but not others (i.e. it can't get HA when in table 91). It's weird.

Q: What do we know about catch rates?
A: Thanks to some solid research by poketuber Austin John and friends:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVo6AEjM7KM

We know the base catch rates for raid mons (listed below.) We also know that ball multipliers apply as you would expect, and that master balls work. Repeat or net are good choices as they have the highest multiplier of 3.5x when you meet their conditions.
Raids you host (online or local, doesn't matter):
 - Promoted, event G-maxes: ~15% (e.g. G-max butterfree, centiskorch, etc. right now.)
 - Standard (non-event) G-maxes: Guaranteed catch.
 - All other raids: Guaranteed catch.
Raids you join as a guest:
 - Promoted, event G-maxes: ~3%
 - Standard (non-event) G-maxes: ~3% (e.g. G-max Lapras, Machamp etc.)
 - All other raids: Same catch rate as catching that mon in the wild at its level at 1hp

The "Guaranteed catch" conditions above for host are well established. The others numbers are based on experiments in the above youtube video and should be taken with a grain of salt. But they seem about right.

Q: Can I soft reset catching raid mons? When can I leave the lobby as a host?
Yes. Raid mons are entirely fixed when the beam spawns, so IVs, abilities, etc. stay the same. Interestingly, for non-wishing piece spawns the spawn is seeded on your trainer ID somehow so you'll get the same spawn if you soft reset the beam itself.

You can soft reset _even if you go online_. The host of the raid just reloads their save as soon as the fight starts. The raid lobby will continue with the host as a "zombie" randomly choosing moves. Host can rehost immediately for a different group of guests. All of the guests joining your raid lobbies will get an identical, duplicated raid mon if they catch it. Catch rates are low for guests, probably to make this whole system a little bit less absurd (see above for catch rates.)

The big question is whether you can soft reset for shininess of raid mons, those who have managed to get shiny raids haven't kept good notes so we don't know for sure.

Note that if you're hosting a rare raid take care that your raids reset at midnight.

Q: How do dens reset?
A: When you clear all dens on your map, a fresh wave of them spawn. If you used a wishing stone, that den counts and must be cleared to get a fresh wave. Using a wishing stone erases the wishing stone den you already had up, so you can alternate using wishing stones between two dens if you like.

All non-wishing piece beams reset at midnight your time. Also at midnight, your wishing piece beam reshuffles in the same pool (this is partly why "the exploit" works.)

Note that the sequence of raid spawns in this way is seeded with your trainer ID somehow. If you clear a wave of raids, the next wave is predetermined and will spawn exactly the same way if you reload your save and clear that last one again.

If you then go online and clear someone else's raid, there's a chance (more research needed into seeing why it's not 100% of the time) that one of your raids will be erased from the map. It seems like this doesn't work for pink beams.

Q: I got a G-max centiskorch, butterfree, drednaw, corviknight, sandaconda from a den and it's not in the spawn table!
A: As mentioned above, event spawns can come from any den. Current events:
 Both sword / shield event:
 - G-max Butterfree
 Shield event:
 - G-max Corviknight
 - G-max Centiskorch
 Sword event:
 - G-max Sandaconda
 - G-max Drednaw

Q: Do weather requirements apply to raid spawns or just overworld spawns? Like Salandit only spawns during intense sun in a few areas so will the salandit raids also only appear when it's intense sun?
A: As far as we know, weather has no impact on raid spawns.

Q: How do I get W? Why did I suddenly get way more W from dens?
A: Once you beat the champion, you get 2k W for inspecting an active den and 200 for inspecting an inactive one. Keep clearing your dens until you're satisfied. Farming W before defeating the champion is suffering, Rotom Rally might be your best bet.

"The exploit" above makes farming W trivial. You should spend it on the "Skill" digging brother for amazing drops like bottlecaps.

Q: How do I solo high level raids?
A: Every* raid can be solo'd with Eternatus.
 Eternatus
 Recommended: Level 100. Use EXP gems you get from raids.
 Optional: Choice specs (find in Spikemuth.) Situational: Life orb, leftovers, lum berry. None are necessary.
 Optional: PP Up Dynamax Cannon to 6 PP.
 Move Dynamax Cannon to the first attack slot. Carry something else to use against fairy types obviously, numbnuts.

Then, just mash the right trigger button through the entire raid and put on netflix until it's over. Did you know that the right trigger button is a synonym for A? Maybe 10% of the time the raid will fail because the NPCs didn't use enough damaging moves, but the NPCs are different every time so you can just try again.

* - You will have some issues with some 5*s that spam AOE moves (Flygon, ribombee, others.) Here it makes more sense to pick a type-appropriate match up that can set light screen or reflect as appropriate turn one. The NPCs scale to your level, if you're level 100 they'll be ~70 and shouldn't get OHKO'd by anything if light screen or reflect are up, allowing you to slowly clear the raid.

!!CAUTION!! Take care when mashing through raids that you don't accidentally use your master ball on a trash raid.

Q: How do I join raids online?
A: The only reliable way to join a raid is to be friends with the host. The host should disconnect from internet and reconnect with + in the Y-comm screen before hosting. Guests that are online when the raid is hosted should see the stamp immediately when it gets hosted. If you don't see the stamp as a guest, disconnect/reconnect with + in Y-comm screen, search for seeking and scroll down - a raid lobby from a friend tends to get buried with other raids and shows up at the bottom of the list.

You can't search for raids by code.

Q: Why does it give an error message when I try to join this raid?
A: Clear out stale lobbies by disconnecting/reconnecting with + in Y-comm screen. If you just stay online your client gets backlogged with lobbies that are already gone and have filled.

Q: Why don't I see any raids / why don't my friends see my raid?
A: The game servers suck. Even when disconnecting / reconnecting, restarting the app, etc.,, the servers just refuse to send raid stamps sometimes. It's probably worst at peak hours.

Q: Why is noone joining my raid?
A: Try taking it down, disconnect and reconnect to internet with + in the Y-comm screen, and start inviting again. If that doesn't work, it could be that noone wants to join your raid. The rewards aren't that compelling if it's not a mon people are interested in (you don't get W for clearing raids.)