Like with previous Pokemon games, the game’s checkpoint where it comes to strength and your team’s growth is usually determined through Gym challenges. They are the mini-boss battles that are your stepping stones towards becoming the Champion.
Gym Leaders are usually much stronger variants of Pokemon Trainers and they usually specialise in a single typing. For beginners, these Gym Leaders can be a problem and we’re to help you overcome them!
So, let’s get started where we carefully dissect the Gym Leader battles scattered across the Paldea region!
1. Cortondo Gym: Katy
Bug-type Pokemons have received significant buffs throughout the games. In earlier generations, Bug Pokemon are deemed very weak due to their limited offensive moves. Defensively, they are also weak to many common typings like Fire and Flying.
Nowadays, the Bug Pokemons have quite a decent variety of moves and Katy’s Bug team has pretty strong Bug moves. For instance, Tarountula has Bug Bite and can consume any Berry that your Pokemon is holding.
Her ace is her Terrastalised Teddiursa that knows Fury Cutter. Fury Cutter is a move that grows stronger which each successful hit so you will need to end the battle as fast as possible. If you pick Fuecoco as your starter, this Gym shouldn’t be a problem.
However, if you chose Sprigatito instead, you might want to consider getting catching a Fire or Flying type for this Gym. Fletchling would be the best candidate as it resists 4x against Bug attacks.
2. Arzaton Gym: Brassius
Generally, Brassius is not a difficult Gym Battle. His first two Pokemons can be easily handled with a decent Fire/Flying attack as both Petilil and Smoliv are extremely frail.
The problem here though is Sudowoodo. Naturally against a Grass type, you would play on the aggressive with Fire or Flying Pokemon. Sudowoodo punishes this as it knows Rock Throw to deal heavy damage to both of those types.
Especially considered when Sudowoodo is a rather fast and bulky Pokemon at this stage, if you are under-levelled, you will be in trouble. What you can do is make use of your Terrastalised Pokemon and try to take it out at least within two hits before it can do huge damage to your Fire or Flying-type Pokemon.
If worse comes to worst—level up some more and overcome this battle with sheer level advantage.
3. Levincia Gym: Iono
The Levincia Gym is arguably one of the toughest Gym Battles in the game. Electric-type Pokemon are generally hard to counter due to it having one weakness in Ground.
This also doesn’t help when Iono has two Electric Pokemon that can cover their Ground weaknesses. Both Wattrel and Mismagius have tools to completely negate Ground moves which mean to take them down, you will need to use sheer power.
What you can do is not hit Iono Pokemon with a super-effective move but instead play a little defensively by using Pokemon that resist Electric Types. Clodsire is a good candidate for this match as it can stop Mismagius from using Charge Beam which can get dangerous if it were to use it successfully.
The key here is to use Ground Pokemons but use other type-moves to hit Iono Pokemon. Fortunately, Iono Pokemons are rather frail and can be taken down with high-base power moves fairly quickly.
4. Cascarrafa Gym: Kofu
Grandpa Kofu shares many resemblances to Crasher Wake of the Sinnoh region. Coincidentally, Kofu is also a master of the Water-type Pokemons. Fortunately, he isn’t as threatening as Wake when it comes to Pokemon selection
If Sprigatito is chosen at the beginning, the first two Pokemons—Veluza and Wugtrio—are cakewalks and to a certain extent so is his ace, Crabominable.
The only thing you might need to worry about is his Rock Smash which might cause you some trouble if you have fully evolved Sprigatito. The best Pokemon for this battle is Dedenne as it has a dual Electric/Fairy typing which is a straight counter to his Crabominable’s Water/Fighting.
5. Medali Gym: Larry
Despite its super creative Gym setup in a restaurant, the Medali Gym fight with Larry is rather underwhelming.
His first Pokemon, Kamala is basically a walkover and can be taken down with any decent Fighting-type move. Dudunsparce is a tad bit bulkier but again with a couple of good Fighting-moves, it should bite the dust real soon
Larry’s big carry is Staraptor, one of the best Pokemon available back in the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum days. It has the Intimidate ability to cut down your Attack stat from the get-go, so if you feel confident, you can switch out to negate this effect.
Funny enough, Larry terrastalising his Staraptor is actually a double-edged sword. It makes Staraptor vulnerable to Fighting moves as it loses its Flying coverage. Use this to your advantage to earn yourself the 5th Gym badge.
6. Montenevera Gym: Ryme
Specialising in Ghost Pokemons, Ryme has a pretty unique set of Pokemons that can catch many players off guard. Just know that Normal and Fighting-type moves here are essentially useless.
What’s more, this battle with her will be conducted in a Doubles format. Therefore, you will need to bring two highly-levelled Pokemon to get through this Gym. Better so, if both of them are Dark-types as they can resist and deal great damage to all her Pokemon except Mimikyu.
Meowscarada takes the spotlight here as it was chosen but if you chose the other starters, consider getting a Dark-type Pokemon like Mabosstiff to hit hard. Remember to try focusing all your attacks on Mimikyu first as it knows Light Screen which can seriously limit your damage output.
7. Alfornada Gym: Tulip
If you have no problem getting through Ryme’s Gym battle, you shouldn’t have trouble dealing with Tulip. This is because Psychic-type Pokemons share a lot of weaknesses that Ghost types have. Abuse Dark-type attacks and you’ll see Tulip’s Pokemon falling like leaves.
Like with Mimikyu, try to take out Farigiraf as soon as possible to prevent it from setting up Reflect which reduces your Physical-based moves. This is important because you would want to be hitting Tulip’s Pokemons with Phys moves as their Def stats are all very low.
Managing to do that will allow you to comfortably sweep through most of her Pokemon. Her Gardevoir is neutral to Dark-type moves due to her secondary Fairy typing. That said, Gardevouir’s Def stat is garbage and a powerful Phys attack should knock it out real quick.
8. Glaseado Gym: Grusha
Grusha Pokemons can be an issue due to her Ice Pokemon having great coverage against Fire Pokemon, which are usually the go-to against Ice types.
Her Beartic knows Aqua Jet and Earthquake while here Cetitan has a very powerful Water-type move in Liquidation. Her first Pokemon Frosmoth will probably go down with a 4x weakness to any Fire move. The polar bear can be dealt with using Fighting-type moves like Aura Sphere which means Lucario is really good here.
Plus, Lucario can also safely handle both Cetitan and Altaria with its secondary Steel-typing. A viable option would be to buff up using either Calm Mind or Swords Dance when you are against Frosmoth. After that, you can simply sweep through her team either using Aura Sphere or Meteor Mash.
And that’s pretty much all there is to it for the Gym Battles in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Hopefully, this guide will help you ease through your way against these Gyms. Make sure you are properly levelled and have a diverse type team and you are generally good to go!
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