How to Enter The Great Crater of Paldea in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and Finish the Post Game Story

Even though Pokemon is not known for its narrative, it’s an experience defined by the post game activities. This is where you can obtain legendary Pokemon, the hardest challenges, find some of the most beloved monsters, or grind to achieve peak power. This is no different in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, though the conditions to unlock might seem confusing to some. To make it easier, we wanted to explain how to enter the final area and finish the post game story.

How to Enter The Great Crater of Paldea in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and Finish the Post Game Story

Unlocking the Gate

Upon finishing the Path of Legends you’ll learn the next destination is The Great Crater of Paldea. However, before you can open the gate and see what is beyond it, you’ll need to find a champion and a hacker.

As players might guess, you need to finish the Victory Road story to fulfill the first condition. Not only do you have to defeat each gym leader, this requires a successful completion against the Elite Four and their champion, Geeta. This honestly sounds harder than it is. The Elite Four have five Pokemon each, and must be defeated in a single go. That being said, you can swap Pokemon, use healing supplies, save and make other preparations between battles. Before the final battle you’ll receive a full heal, which includes a Tera transformation, to fight Geeta. After defeating her six Pokemon, you’ll need to face Nemona, though this can be done at any time. After beating her you’ll fulfill the first condition.

Unsurprisingly, the second condition is completed by finishing the Starfall Street narrative. This is done by traveling to the five locations, followed by beating two opponents at the school. If you’re having issues with the final condition, you first must return at night. Time seems to pass by actually playing Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, with people estimating a day as roughly 30 minutes of roaming. If you’re unsure about the time, push Y and you’ll see an icon above the map with the current time period. Once it’s night, enter the school, select schoolyard and get ready for the final fight.

After finishing both you’ll receive a phone call telling you it’s time to enter the gate. The four of you will enter the crater, which starts the post game narrative.

Finding the Four Unlock Terminals

At this point you’ll learn that the crater housed a research center that is currently locked. You need to find four buildings and interact with a terminal to unlock it. How you want to approach this is ultimately your call.

The Pokemon in this area are roughly level 60, so any decently leveled Pokemon can just auto battle every enemy along the way. You can also engage if you really want, or simply ignore everything.

As for finding the buildings, there is basically only one path and they all appear at some point. For the third and fourth one you need to enter the cave by the second station and keep going down. At the very bottom you’ll find the gate, which houses the final fight.

Fighting the Final Boss

At the bottom there will be another trainer battle. To keep spoilers to a minimum, we will not reveal who it is or what they have and just say they’re around level 60. This should be a pretty easy fight, one that doesn’t even have a Tera Pokemon. With their defeat the stage will shift and you’ll lose access to every Pokemon prompting the final battle.

Defeating Koraidon, the Guardian of Paradise

Editor’s Note: Violet players will have a boss based off Miraidon.

To actually fight Koraidon, the Guardian of Paradise you need to select your Koraidon. This is done by clicking Pokemon, followed by scrolling down to Koraidon and selecting them. By doing this it will appear in battle form for the first time, allowing you to defeat the other Koraidon.

The fight itself is pretty straightforward. Keep exchanging attacks until you unlock the ability to Tera transform with Koraidon. This takes around four to five turn, so don’t be surprised if things don’t go extremely fast. Transform immediately and hit the other one with Tera Blast. One attack might not be enough to win, though it will lose on the second hit.

Following the fight there will be a brief cutscene, credits, and then another cutscene in the director’s office. At this point you can use Koraidon in battle by changing it to battle mode. To actually use it you must have a space open, so keep that in mind. To change it back, simply push plus at any time.

Final Unlocks

In addition to unlocking Koraidon, and a Master Ball, you’ll gain the ability to challenge every gym leader again. Not only will there be new dialogue, their Pokemon will be at a much higher level. For example, Katy went from two level 14 and a level 15 Pokemon to five at level 60+. There is also new dialogue if you beat them, so they’re worth doing.