Alright this thread is about Gym leaders and which are the hardest at their respective part of the game. It will go from Gym 1 to Gym 8
Gym 1
Gym 2
Gym 3
Gym 4
Gym 5
Gym 6
Gym 7
Gym 8
Hardest gym Leaders
Community-driven video game blog & discussion
Wouldn't say the hardest, but gen 1 Brock is a shining example of a gym leader being a good gatekeeper.
Do you think any of the other first gym leaders are as difficult as brock?
Roark
Roark is literally an upgraded Brock.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfwgGwX5JQfZb7MIM3tHDwwVsP5_hXMkC probably roxie or misty
My IQ isn’t low enough to be able to tell.
Why does she sit like that?
She wants some bro dick
Giovanni. Enough said.
That's preposterous! Nidoking doesn't learn sludge!
Rhyperior?
The 3ds release of RBY added some newer cross evos to keep things updated.
Liar.
>Surf
>which of these (boss fights that you mash A a few times to get through) is the hardest??
I genuinely think lobotomized patients are smarter than your average Pokemon fan
yeah whatever dude
Lyza and Tate are easy mode just bring an Azumaril or something to take it the rocks Norman is probably the only Emerald leader who is a bit of a challenge recently fought him and he kept KOING or spamming hyper potion everywhere
Winona
>annoying supersonic protect Pelican
>one of the very few mandatory steel fights in the game against fucking Skarmory
But what tips her over the edge is the monstrosity that is dragon dance Altaria
>all five starter stabs are resisted or immune
>rock and steels demolished by earthquake
>dragon dances to outspeed and sweep
>ice beam TM requires backtracking to a shipwreck in bumfuck nowhere 5 towns back
>Vibrava's dragonbreath is the only dragon move available would be a good counter if Altaria wasn't also carrying dragonbreath
Her chlorophyll Tropius can be a pretty scary Swampert counter too if you don't trivialize her gym with ice beam or blizzard
>gen 1
Brock and Misty.
Brock is only true if you do Charmander or Yellow, but Starmie is just tougher, faster, stronger, and hits harder than anything you have by that point. Even Bulbasaur can get fucked if a bit underlevelled
Gen 2: Whitney and Clair
Miltank is the same gist as Starmie. Its numbers are just bigger than anything you have at this point, and you basically NEED to have gotten a Machop, or Geodude, or something to deal with it. Rollout specifically is kinda anti-player, because it punishes recovery items.
Claire's Kingra doesn't have the raw stats, but it's still strong, and no starter or welfare mon deals with it.
>Gen 3
Flannery, and Norman in RS, Tate and Liza in E. Flannery gets fucked by Swampert (who doesn't), but will herself basically fuck anything that doesn't resist fire. It's hard to match her shitmon to team slot, you need to have a plan. RS Norman is kinda cracked unless you have Protect or Dig or something, his Slaking goes first, probably kills whatever it hits. and takes several hits. State and Liza are pushovers in RS, but in E, they will hard fuck anyone doing a mostly solo run, and can chew through teams like nothing
>gen 4
Fantina in Platinum, her shit is just faster and hits harder than what else is available.
>gen 5
Clay and Marlon. Excadrill is an absolute fucker for Clay, and if you don't KNOW Marlon is going to Shell Smash on you, you probably lose on the spot. Setup sweepers and shit.
>Gen 6
lmao
>Gen 7
Uuuuuuh. Totem Wishiewashi and Lurantis are spooky. Do those count? And Ultra Necrozma.
>Gen 8
Bea. Similar verse, Machamp is just better than anything you're likely to have at that point, and it's a decent Dynamax pokemon. It gets cucked by its Gigantimax making it worse, but, that's just how it is.
>Gen 9
Lmao
So, it's usually a product of the ace just being much better than player options available at this time, basically requiring some countermeasure to be obtained, or overlevelling to match the stats.
Marlon is a joke. Cheren should be there instead.
maybe i was just unprepared but last time i played HGSS bugsy's scyther raped my team w/two deaths
it's obviously his only threat but scyther's stats compared to most things you can get atp are pretty absurd
doesnt help my geodude missed two rock throws back to back
Liza made me hard
Rockhard.
Cheren
Can't think of a hard second Gym leader, so in a way it defaults to misty
Third gyms are easy in every game
Elesa easily
Koga Chuck and Clay all gave me trouble
Winona
Tate and Liza
Clair
Not me, but my brother picked Piplup in Platinum and got so severely raped by Gardenia by the time he beat her his Prinplup was severely overleveled of the many battles and he easily cleared the rest of the game like nothing.
Sabrina
Jasmine
Liza
Candice
Iris
Valerie
Lana
Melony
Iono
Oh you said hardest, not which gets me hardest
Hoenn had an excellent lineup of gym leaders. People forget how much of an asshole Juan's Kingdra is with its rest and double team. Maybe it's because the rest of his team isn't anything special. Drake's Kingdra is ironically far more reasonable.
It's just a forgettable gen
sure anon
Generation 1: Probably Sabrina because her team is full of the Abra line at 15+ levels higher than the previous gym.
Generation 2: Clair, that Kingdra is a beast. (Whitney wasn't hard for me; I literally beat her with my overleveled Bayleef)
Generation 3: Probably Norman, I had to form a strategy specifically to handle his Slakings; Mud Shot and Dig combos plus lots of potions.
Generation 4: Probably Candice, but this is because my team was underleveled (or overleveled and disobedient). I've never had a 100% normal Platinum playthrough because for my first I traded over some of my Diamond Pokemon and my most recent playthrough was a Fire type only challenge.
Generation 5: Definitely Elesa, because she hard-counters Archen. I had to level my Archen to Level 37 to get Archeops to defeat Elesa.
Generation 6: Nobody (the gyms are too easy especially Wulfric)
Generation 7: Hapu was really hard for me to beat in Moon but that's likely because I picked Incineroar and had few Ground resists.
Generation 8: Raihan, he's the only actually hard gym leader
Generation 9: Larry, but this is because I didn't know the correct order and skipped Kofu, plus I had an overleveled Greavard and Frigibax that wouldn't obey me.
>Tate and Liza
I don't think I would class them as hardest, but they certainly make me hardest.
Here are the Gyms I've struggled with over the years.
>Gen 1
Honestly, going back and replaying it I realised most of the Gym Leaders are a joke. Misty was the one I struggled with the most, due to Starmie being overpowered for that stage in the game, but I can't really say I struggled with any others.
>Gen 2
Now that trainers can have tailored movesets, many Gym Leaders became much more of a challenge. Of course, there's Whitney, not much has to be said. I also occasionally struggle with Morty's bullshit Hypnosis + Dream Eater combo if I don't have a Normal-type on hand. Clair can sometimes fuck me over too. In general, the Gyms were just a bit more tougher than Gen 1.
>Gen 3
Emerald Wattson still filters me to this day. Shock Wave on everything makes him hard to cheese, and it's when they started giving Gym Leaders held items. Juan is also a cunt to beat sometimes, basically just being Clair on crack.
>Gen 4
I'm ashamed to admit I've lost to Roark in some play throughs. Cranidos just hits harder than anything you can have at that point that can also tank hits and deal damage back. Geodude and Onix also setting up Stealth Rocks also makes it impossible to stay at full health unless you're able to one-shot them both. Crasher Wake also gives me trouble with his super optimized team. I feel like Gen 4 was when they really started trying to make Gyms an actual challenge.
>Gen 5
These Gyms were a bit dissapointing coming after Platinum. Lenora's Watchog is the only thing that really gave me trouble, but it's easily beatable once you figure out its strat. Apart from that, the rest of them aren't really worth a mention.
>Gen 6
Lol. Ok, in all fairness, sometimes I struggle a bit with Grant, but this Gen's Gyms were an absolute joke.
>Gen 7
I can remember nothing about this game.
>Gen 8
I only lost to Allister or whatever his name was because I was so underlevelled at that point. The Gyms were a bit of an improvement over Gen 6, but nothing noteworthy.
(1/2)
>Gen 9
Much better than the last 4 Gens, but not Emerald or Platinum level. I lost once to Iono because I was underlevelled and wasn't expecting 4 team members that early on, and not having any Ground-types to deal with Mismagius let it set up Charge Beam without any penalty. I also lost to Larry on my first attempt for the same reason.