Gym Leader Battle 1: Falkner of the Violet City Gym

Type: Flying

If you chose Chikorita then this gym is not for you! As you may have noticed in your battles with wild Hoothoot and Pidgey, Grass-type Pokémon fare poorly against Flying Attacks. This puts you at a disadvantage unless you have other Pokémon waiting in the wings – a difficult thing to do at this point of the game! Your best bet is to raise Chikorita’s level in Sprout Tower until it evolves into Bayleef at Level 16.

If you chose Totodile or Cyndaquil at the start of the game you should have no problem enduring Falkner’s challenge. If you are unsure of your Pokémon’s abilities, try battling the Trainers in the Gym first. If you defeat them easily then try your luck against Falkner but if you have difficulty its best to complete Sprout Tower first.

Because Flying-type Pokémon are weak to Rock-type attacks, you may want to pick up a Geodude on Route 46 and raise it up until it learns Rock Throw on Level 11.

Falkner’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Rock

Prizes:  Zephyr Badge – This badge raises the Attack of all your Pokémon and allows you to use HM05 (Flash) outside of battle.

            TM31 (Mud Slap): This move works offensively and defensively at the same time by reducing your opponents Accuracy while causing the damage of a normal attack.

Gym Leader Battle 2: Bugsy the Azalea Town Gym Leader

Type: Bug

In a nutshell Bug-type Pokémon don’t like Fire, so if you chose Cyndaquil (by now probably Quilava) you’re all set! They also don’t like the attacks of Rock and Flying-type Pokémon so if you’ve been training a Pidgey, Hoothoot, Geodude or Onix you are also ready for this battle. Even a Totodile/Croconaw based team should have no trouble against the Bug-type theme of Azalea Town Gym. Chikorita/Bayleef based teams on the other hand, have a bumpy road ahead of them since Bug-types have a big advantage over Grass-types.

Psncureberries are a must here since you can cure poison without wasting an attack round. In the battle with Bugsy, this is especially important since you want to bring out a Pokémon in full health when you go up against his Scyther. Bugsy’s Scyther relies heavily upon the Fury Cutter attack and after a couple of rounds it has the strength to take out a Level 20+ Bayleef in one blow. If you are concerned about your Pokémon’s ability you can easily beat Bugsy’s strategy with a paralyzing move or something that will lower accuracy.

Bugsy’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Rock ~ Water ~ Fire ~ Flying

Prizes:  Hive Badge – Makes Pokémon up to L30 obey you and lets you use HM01 (Cut) outside of battle.

            TM49 (Fury Cutter): This move increases in power every turn it is successfully used. The increase in strength stops when the attack misses.

Gym Leader Battle 3: Whitney the Goldenrod City Gym Leader

Type: Normal

Whitney’s Miltank is the Pokémon to watch out for here, especially if you have a lot of Male Pokémon in your team! Miltank’s preferred method of attack against Males is to charm them with Attract (causing your Pokémon to fall in love with her and refuse to attack 50% of the time!), then pummel them with Rollout. Rollout is a lot like the Fury Cutter move Bugsy’s Scyther used. It increases in strength with each successful hit, so the best way to defeat it is to increase the chances tat it will fail. Ideally the best Pokémon to use against Miltank is one who can defeat both Attract and Rollout: A female Machop, or just a female Pokémon with the move Flash or any Confusion, Paralyze or Sleep-inducing move.

Defeating Whitney makes her cry, so talk to her friend Bridget until she pulls herself back together! Then, (make sure you do this!) talk to her a second time and get the Plain Badge and TM45 from her. It is very easy to forget this step and to leave the gym without the badge that you fought so hard for! 

Whitney’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Fighting ~ Rock

Prizes:  Plain Badge – Boosts all of your Pokémon’s Speed and lets you use HM04 (Strength) outside of battle.

            TM45 (Attract): Causes opponents Pokémon of the opposite gender to fall in love with the casting Pokémon. Pokémon in love fail to attack 50% of the time.

Gym Leader Battle 4: Morty the Ecruteak City Gym Leader

Type: Ghost

Before you can battle Morty you must find the hidden path through the gym. Talk to the Trainers after you defeat them and they’ll tell you the path lies right before their eyes. Think about it, and everything should become clear, also if you can take out all the Trainers’ Ghost Pokémon you can probably defeat Morty’s pretty easily. Ghost Pokémon such as the Gastly family used by Morty, tend to follow one of two patterns. They use moves such as Hypnosis and Lick to immobilize your Pokémon, or an attack such as Mean look to prevent your Pokémon from Switching Out. This causes you to sacrifice attack turns to heal your Pokémon while the opposition continues to attack and damage your Pokémon. Watch out for attack combos such as Hypnosis-Dream Eater and take some Awakenings or Full Heals with you just incase.

The new move for Ghost-type Pokémon is the unusual Curse. This move sacrifices half the casters HP in order to place a curse on the opponent Pokémon. A Cursed Pokémon loses HP each turn much the same as a Poisoned or Burned Pokémon does. The difference is that you can’t cure a Curse! Used with Mean Look, this move can prove fatal to your attacking Pokémon.

The good news is that Curse is usually more of a help than a hindrance. By cutting their HP Ghost-type Pokémon become much more easier to defeat! Don’t forget that the entire Gastly clan consists of Poison-types as well as Ghost-types. Psychic and Ground-type attacks are very effective against them but remember that Psychic Pokémon are also weak to Ghost-type attacks.

Morty’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Ground ~ Psychic

Prizes:  Fog Badge – Makes Pokémon up to L50 obey you; allows you to use HM03 (Surf) outside of battle.

            TM30 (Shadow Ball): Combines a Normal Attack with the 20% possibility of reducing the opponents SP Defense by a point.

Gym Leader Battle 5: Jasmine the Olivine City Gym Leader

Type: Steel

Steel-type Pokémon are a new discovery and Jasmine appears to be the only Trainer who’s really mastered the specialty. Steel Pokémon are incredibly resistant to most move types. Bug, Dark, Dragon, Ghost, Grass, Flying, Ice, Normal, Psychic, Rock and Steel moves have little effect on Steel-type Pokémon, and Poison moves have no effect at all! Fighting, Fire, Ground and Water attacks are extremely strong against Steel Pokémon, but because Jasmine’s Pokémon are Steel hybrids, you must consider the other types (Electric and Ground) when choosing attacks.

This can be a very tough battle if you have the wrong Pokémon on your team, or if they’re not strong enough. Again, Typhlosion and Feraligatr based teams should have no problem defeating Jasmine, while Meganium based teams will find the going tough! This is another battle where Accuracy-lowering moves come in very handy. The two Magnemite are pretty easy to dispose of with a strong Ground Pokémon or another Electric Type Pokémon such as Ampharos. Steelix is the troublesome part. Without a strong Water, Ground or even Fire-type Pokémon, you’ll want to concentrate on lowering this Pokémon’s defenses before trying to take it out.

Jasmine’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Fire ~ Ground ~ Water

Prizes:  Mineral Badge – Raises the Defense strength of all your Pokémon.

            TM23 (Iron Tail): Offers a strong attack combined with a 30% chance of lowering the opponent Pokémon’s Defense by 1 point.

Gym Leader Battle 6: Chuck the Cianwood City Gym Leader

Type: Fighting

The first two Trainers in the gym hit you with a one-two punch. The first uses his Hitmonlee; the second goes with Hitmonchan. If you defeat both easily then you have a pretty good chance against Chuck. If you’ve been training a Psychic Pokémon (Abra, Drowzee or Espeon) since Ecruteak City, you’ll have no problem defeating these skilled fighters.

Chucks two Pokémon are an odd combination. First a Primeape, which is pretty easy to take out, then Poliwrath who has an interesting, move combo. Poliwrath comes with two new moves – Mind Reader and Dynamicpunch. With use of Mind Reader, Poliwrath can be sure that Dynmaicpunch hits 100% of the time. When Dynamicpunch does connect it causes damage and confusion. If you see Poliwrath cast Mind Reader you know which move will follow. Attacks like Protect and Detect come in handy here. Fortunately Poliwrath is also a Water-type and vulnerable to Bayleef/Meganium.

Chuck’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Psychic ~ Flying

Prizes:  Storm Badge – Makes Pokémon up to L70 obey you and allows you to use HM02 (Fly) outside of battle.

            TM01 (Dynamicpunch): This move has an accuracy rating of 50% but when it hits, it causes the opponent to become Confused.

Gym Leader Battle 7: Pryce the Mahogany Town Gym Leader

Type: Ice

You’re unlikely to have run into many Ice-type Pokémon until now, so you have a lot to learn in a short space of time. Ice Pokémon, on the whole, are strong against other Ice attacks and weak against Fire, Fighting, Rock and Steel types. The problem is there are no pure Ice Pokémon in the game; they’re all Ice hybrids! Usually you’ll find Ice combined with Water in the case of Cloyster and Dewgong, which negates the super-effective status of Fire attacks. You’ll also see Ice combined with Flying (Articuno) or with Psychic powers (Jynx), negating the super effectiveness of Fighting moves. In this gym you’ll also find a new Ice hybrid – Ice and Ground – the mammoth like Swinub and Piloswine. This combo negates the extra power of Rock-type moves.

So how could you proceed in this battle? A good Electric Pokémon or Water/Electric mix should be able to take on all of Pryce’s Pokémon with great effect, as long as the Pokémon is of the same level as Pryce’s. Electric moves work well against the Seel and Dewgong; Water moves should drown Pryce’s Piloswine. The other factor in your favour is sheer strength. The level os Pryce’s Pokémon are low compared to Jasmine’s. Jasmine’s Pokémon were not only better protected, but were of a higher level. If you could beat Jasmine, Pryce’s Pokémon should be no problem!

Chuck’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Electric ~ Fire ~ Water ~ Steel

Prizes:  Glacier Badge – Increases the Special status of all your Pokémon and allows you to use HM06 (Whirlpool) outside of battle.

            TM16 (Icy Wind): This move has a normal attack with the added feature of lowering your opponents Speed by 1 point.

Gym Leader Battle 8: Clair the Blackthorn City Gym Leader

Type: Dragon

The Blackthorn City Gym is a two-story monstrosity that requires Strength as well as cunning to clear! You need a Pokémon with the Strength move to push the boulders through the holes in the floor to the floor below. This creates bridges over the lava there so that eventually you’ll be able to reach Clair.

If you haven’t spent much time with Dragon Pokémon, this gym may come as a shock to you. Dragon Pokémon are weak to only two types of attacks – Ice and Dragon. Their weakness to Dragon moves makes bringing in another Dragon Pokémon into battle a bad idea, but it does open the possibility of using other types of Pokémon with Dragon-type moves. Gyrados is a good example, because defensively it won’t be particularly weak or strong against any move used (except Thunderbolt!), but offensively it should be able to use moves such as Dragon Rage and Twister (depending on level) to great advantage.

Of course the best Pokémon to bring into battle is an ice Pokémon and Jynx would be the best on in the area (you can get one at Ice Path). If you pick it up on the way back to Goldenrod City to get rid of Team Rocket, you’ll have plenty of time to level it up and prepare it for battle. Ice Punch, Lovely Kiss and Powder Snow are good moves to use against Clair’s Dragons.

Clair’s Pokémon

Recommended Pokémon Types: Ground ~ Psychic

Prizes:  Rising Badge – Makes all Pokémon obey you, regardless of level and allows you to use HM07 (Waterfall) outside of battle.

            TM24 (Dragonbreath): Has a normal attack with an added 30% chance of Paralyzing the opponent.