What is the Hardest Battle in Every Pokémon Region?

[@Fatalkal]

Personally for X and Y, I feel like Grant, the second gym leader, is the most challenging. His Amorus is easy enough but if you don't fix the paralysis, he Tyrunt is a problem. Strong Jaw bite which has a 30% chance to flinch and you may still be paralysised from his previous pokemon. If you're not prepared, he can sweep your team. Ashamed to say I've been sweeped by him before

[@caterpillarh8490]

With x and y the random trainers from post gym one to pre gym three were the most and only challenging trainers in the game, especially the area in and around the cave before the third gym

[@dylans.1741]

Not only that, but I'm pretty sure he is the earliest gym leader in any main series game to use a Dragon Type. I feel like I should bring that up

[@weisstofall2615]

Definitely agree

[@sephirotten2413]

unless you get the trade steelix that the game gives you for free.

[@noahberan6498]

​@@sephirotten2413That's similar to the Whitney geodude or machop idea though

[@ThePsych123]

Lol "In Sinnoh, the question isn't which trainer is the hardest, it's which version of Cynthia you're choosing"

[@Sakurasan2023]

Yes

[@Arcryoshi]

Still shoutout to Cyrus, he rekt me as a child :(

[@shadowfire5926]

Other than Cynthia and Cyrus, I'd say Crasher Wake is kinda difficult as well

[@Aurirang]

@@shadowfire5926 I remember having had quite the issue with Fantina. but i'm not sure which version it was. I think the one, where she's the 5th Gym leader and had evolved Pokémon?

[@Sonic101hedgehog]

​@@Aurirang as a kid she definitely gave me trouble and even my replay of platinum cause I wanted to do Cynthia's team but I didn't have a proper team still

[@GMSryBut]

The most difficult trainer in Kanto is obviusly the Fisherman on Route 21 with his 6 Magicarp on Lv 27. He is, next to the champion himself, the ONLY trainer who ever carried 6 Pokémon. That knowledge alone makes him superior!

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

But no joke here, he really strong. Very easy to get rage quit and W/O lose with him. Not gonna lie, once I did it... And i feel that shame... STILL! I think i must pay Game Freak 1 000 000 USD for this, if i dont wanna feel humiliated again!

[@manuelperezjr8876]

Imagine if he actually evolved his magikarp. It would fierce us to go back and spam electric attacks

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

@manuelperezjr8876 Reminded me Cyrus final battle in Distortion World in Platinum. Not hard battle, not at all, but once due to HMs i put electric pokemon in PC boxes and i cannot beat Cyrus at all, until i taked Electric guy back.

[@FungusBug]

>cynthia is no longer the most difficult battle in the series, we’ll talk about that later >look inside >cynthia’s ancestor

[@NezuChan]

The professor battle in base S/V really threw me for a loop. I guess my team wasn't built very well because the paradox pokemon got me. One of the very few battles in recent memory that I had to retry. Not a trainer battle, but finding an alpha shiny Walrein in Legends Arceus when I barely started the game made me sad. I just couldn't catch it.

[@Zozo_ZOMG]

oof

[@MercuryA2000]

Yea the professor was a really cool fight. Not only are all the paradox Pokemon just shy of pseudo in terms of bst, but for half of them you have to guess their types. Actually made me use my brain a little in my first run, which was nice.

[@Semystic]

The only right answer. Its part of the story and unless you went out of your way to over level your pokemon, its a legit tough fight. The dlc was released long after most people finished the game and got their good mons to level 100. You'd have to intentionally use lower leveled mons to make it challenging.

[@Crafty_boy70]

@@Semystic Maybe I just suck but Champion Kieran REALLY kept me on my toes even though I had a mostly maxed out lvl 100 team. Hydrapple was easy though.

[@trisertricordoh2127]

Had to use all three entry hazards, and I hate those moves, so I normally don't use the TMs or let them learn those moves. I don't play competitive so I don't see their appeal. Just that fight made me have to use entry hazards on a well balanced team, my poor Clodshire, I had to make it tank a ton of damage just to set up three layers of spike, two layers of toxic spikes, and stealth rocks. and pray.

[@TheKabuto90]

I've never liked the "just use machop or geodude" argument for whitney. Machop isn't going to be outspeeding miltank and will inevitably be taking a powerful stomp to the face. As for geodude, it does resist both stomp and rollout but even a resisted rollout from base 80 attack is still going to hurt once it gets going. That's all not to mention that everyone just totally sleeps on clefairy. An unlucky metronome, unlucky for the player that is, can lead into some sticky situations.

[@wheatleythebrick2276]

its not just machop or geodude, theres a lot of debuff/status moves you can use and you also get dig in national park to cancel her rollout chains. Ofc a lot of ppl playing casually wont consider those options tho, cause pokemon doesnt rly encourage strategy most of the time

[@berylredburrow__8810]

Then don't let it get going with rollout. Set up on clefairy, wipe out miltank before it builds up. Or get dig and reset it. Its an absolute joke of a fight if you think even slightly.

[@Sononono]

I promise you as someone who very often uses Geodude vs Whitney, Rollout doesn't do shit and you will most of the time (Thanks Magnitude) kill the Miltank before Rollout starts to become a problem

[@leeeroyjenkins555]

You can sweep with Heracross with fury cutter. Just get the fury cutter going on with cleafairy and once you reach miltank you will be hitting her hard

[@beagleboygaming1701]

Perlize or sleep breaks the rollout combo

[@davidhower7095]

Lowkey, I think the hardest fight in Galar is versus Calyrex-Rider. Not because he’s hard to defeat - but because you have to survive his insane attacks while trying to catch him. If just one of your Pokemon goes down, he’ll steamroll you with Moxie Boosts.

[@TLNT2103-zg3sb]

I presume you mean either form of Calyrex-Rider, though I would argue Shadow Rider edges out due to having more moves that will be boosted by As One's ramping power, being ghost typed so no false swipe unless you have Scrappy, and being hideously frail. Zacian is arguably in a similar boat, due to it just straight up having Swords Dance.

[@SuperUltimatediablo]

I sucker punched him 🤣 my team was to overpowered even before the dlc

[@tritran7003]

Moxie Boosted, good KZbinr.

[@krackawoody2556]

I just dump my masterball on him otherwise i never use them

[@willemdafoe6256]

While I understand the argument, I do think Clair is a hardest fight in Johto mainly because of her Kingdra(the rest of team does suck). Compared to Whitney, the counters to Kingdra aren't as obvious as Miltank. It hits hard, isn't particulary weak in either defense, and in the remakes, stalling it is dangerous due to the sniper ability.

[@sebastianstiernspetz7205]

You (should) have a full team of six when facing Clair. If you struggle to win 6 v 1 (as you said, the rest of her team sucks)...I don't know what to say lol. Though there are ways to deal with Miltank, Whitney is miles clear of Clair in terms of difficulty.

[@ohaodhe]

you can literally sweep whitney with rage, or get a machop, clairs kingdra is way harder and also spams smokescreen​@@sebastianstiernspetz7205

[@IrrelevantOaf]

Clair I only ever struggled for my first time as a kid that knew nothing. But with a bit of experience and common game knowledge she's a joke.

[@jamiecinder9412]

@@willemdafoe6256 I don't ever remember having that hard of a time against Clair. By the time you challenge her, your team is usually complete and fully evolved, giving you more to work with than you would have against Whitney.

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

Even Wallace in ORAS is harder than Clair.

[@leandervandenbroeck3914]

Even tho I agree with Cynthia as the strongest sinnoh trainer. I feel like the double battle just before veilstone and the double battle on the foggy route (especially with fog) can kick your ass since you are not prepared for them like a gym or e4.

[@carogavilana]

It reminds me of mandjtv saying something like "these trainers always give me a hard time no matter the playthrough"

[@dervertica]

The two ace trainers before Veilstone can be battled separately though

[@leandervandenbroeck3914]

@@dervertica true, if you battle them 1v1 they are way easier

[@MarioMastar]

@@leandervandenbroeck3914 Yeah but that's to your point. the fact that you have to go out of your way to battle them separately. Plus I think mentioning those trainers is better than just "lol Cynthia" cause while I found Cynthia challenging, she never stuck out to me as "WOW....I barely survived that fight...what a crazy battle.... WHEW...she's strong". if anthing Pearl and Diamond's Flint and Lucian gave me far more trouble, cause Flint carries 2 fire types and some of his pokemon know electric attacks and Lucien.... it just wasn't easy to take him down. with his bronzong walling and I don't recall what dark options there were.... if any. Also shoutouts to Aaron's drapion that knows ice fang. Forget Cynthia, the WHOLE E4 was challenging (except Bertha, my Giga draining Torterra used her as a free heal but every E4 has a Bruno. XD)

[@InkedAquatics]

Volo is the only trainer as a nearly 30 year old adult that’s been playing since Gen 1 and Gen 2 make me have to retry more than twice

[@Aaronn-je8cx]

only trainer i had to leave and build a specific team for.

[@hone_n_bone24]

Volo was probably the most fun I had with a genuine "boss" fight in a Pokémon game. The moment of "oh no Giratina", to going all out assuming it would be done, only to be on my last legs for Giratina to load back up and cook me. It took me a few tries too. I wish there was a way to rematch him without having to fill an entire pokedex on a new save file

[@wolfdragonblood2015]

if we're talking just base game paldea (sans the dlc) i think the hardest trainer in the region is eri by a landslide the only trainer in gen 9 to knock me flat on my ass not once but in two seperate playthroughs that's gotta be worth something. as for gen 6 i think the second gym leader grant at least deserves a mention having two fossil mons with good coverage that early in the game is definately a threat and and amaura having a functionally base 117 power ice move with stab is nothing to sneeze at.

[@davidhower7095]

Yeah, Eri was tough. Without a doubt the hardest fight in the base game.

[@elladrinn4318]

I had no problem with Eri, should also mention I played blind (no guide, internet of any kind so no spoliers of what was to come - played on launch as well). Only fght I had some difficulty with was Hassell - elite 4 member no# 4. fighting that over glorified secretary after him was such a let down (yes i mean geeta). I dont like including DLC fights in these sorts of lists as they were made after the release so they should address things like difficulty - specially when they take place after main storyline when you are probs lvl 70-80 anyway and have access to everything you need to win. Sorta sad the PWT fights weren't mentioned but they are similar to battle frontier facilities so I understand. Also agree about Grant for Gen 6 hardest fight - the only gym leader to knock out a single 1 of my pokemon (got a crit against a paralyzed 'mon with tyrunt)

[@MercuryA2000]

I'd also give the professor an honorable mention just because they have 6 super strong Pokemon and you don't know what type half of them are.

[@Semystic]

I had to look up who Eri was. Apparently I didn't struggle with that fight enough to remember 😅

[@prof.thiagoalmeida1226]

I also struggled against Eri, even more than against Hassel or Professor Sada. I would give an honorable mention to Iono who made me need to devise a strategy specifically to deal with her Mismagius with no weakness...

[@TheForbiddenLean]

Going into the figth blind, Ultra Necrozma actually didn't give me trouble when I played the Ultra games (I know this was an uncommon experience). However, Alolan Marowak beat me like twice in a row when I first played Gen 7.

[@noahberan6498]

For me, Necrozma was challenging, but I beat him relatively easy. But Totem Ribombee defeated me at least 6 times in my first play through of USUM

[@MercuryA2000]

The main reason I handled that fight so well is because I had gone "I wanna start the game with one of my favorites" and had an Aegislash on my team. Necrozma struggled to break that thing.

[@DreiPinguine]

I beat that thing in two turns with Malamar lmao

[@Kurby_uxz]

Sameeeee

[@Crafty_boy70]

Ultra Necrozma was hard as hell for me, but I was a bit more prepared since Totem Komo-o completely swept me multiple times.

[@sankalpchoubey6629]

For sword and shield, I believe hop's rematch at glimwood tangle is the hardest battle, specially if you are playing shield. Firstly, your team can be severely underleveled to hop's team at this point. Secondly Zacian might outspeed everything and one to two hit ko everything. I had to intimidate switch gyarados repeatedly against snorlax, then dragon dance 6 times so that it could easily outspeed everything, and it had leftovers to recover from damage taken by snorlax. And this strategy took 2 tries, as 1st time Rillaboom survived my hit, and then crit hit me. No other Pokemon was able to deal with Zacian

[@BubblesChika]

I strongly regret picking Shield purely because Hop had the infinitely SUPERIOR Zacian and wrecked my team

[@michaelgum97]

I have another contender for Hoenn's most challenging, and that's Blackbelf Hideki from ORAS. The guy is insane, sure, he only has a level 13 Machop, but for some reason, his Machop has 30 IVs in every stats. That Machop has No Guard, so all of his attacks will land, he has Foresight so you can't rely on Ghost types, he Low Sweep which lowers your speed, he has Focus Energy so Low Sweep has a 50% chance to crit, and he has Karate Chop which also has 50% chance to crit or be a guaranteed if Focus Energy was used prior. As for reliable counters, you don't have any, Ralts/Kirlia have low defense so a crit Karate Chop is going to hurt a fair bit and you don't have access to Pokémon like Koffing who could theoratically survive a hit or Shell/Battle Armor users who are immune to crits. Evasion or defense spam is no good because No Guard and crits, and there are no mono Flying types with naturally high defense by that point in the game. The almost max IVs turn what would normally be a simple opponent into an absolute nightmare, even more so if you're doing a Nuzlocke with its even more limited selection of Pokémon or a speedrun where things have to go your way with very little margin for error.

[@MegaSpamziken1996]

Double Kick Combusken:

[@erinpezoldt117]

Am I the only one who beat Whitney on the first try and had no idea until years later that people think she's hard to beat? I don't think I even had a fighting type in my team, I just used my starter for almost everything back when I first played Gold. Though the fact that I chose chikorita was probably a factor.

[@safruddinaly5822]

👍

[@juliodaguy]

I feel like people who use Bayleef (then Chikorita) in this battle have more chances at winning than with the other starters, ironically enough.

[@roxasbaker]

@@juliodaguyyeah because Bayleef learns poison powder which can whittle away at Miltank hp even with Drink milk move

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

Same Erin.

[@MmeCShadow]

Me too, although I think my strategy was teaching Quilava Dig. The off turns meant Rollout would never get a chance to build power. Not that I understood that at the time, I just knew Dig was a strong move.

[@MeerPatManor]

I personally think that one of the hardest battles in Gen 7 is actually a purely optional one. It's actually Wally in the Battle Tree. His second battle specifically. His whole team is insanely physically bulky (and fully EV trained) including a Cotton Guard Altaria, Assualt Vest Magnezone, Choice Scarf Garchomp with Earthquake, and just to add some randomness a Mega Gallade with Destiny Bond that can instantly KO any of your Pokémon from full health if you happen to be unlucky that turn. And for the record, if you didn't know, if yours and Wally's last Pokémon faint on the same turn due to Destiny Bond, you'll still lose because your Pokémon always faints first. Wally has killed MANY Battle Tree win streaks for me over the years.

[@bugcatcherjacky1334]

For me, in Paldea, Atticus was definitely the hardest boss. I looked up a list online so I would never be under or overleveled, so when I fought Atticus I was at a point where most of my members weren't yet fully evolved, but he had a team full of final stage mons making his battle the most difficult.

[@Squrtile101]

I would say Misty is really hard to beat in Kanto. Her Starmie is really difficult and fast

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

Agreed, even in Speedruns she play very important role.

[@MarioMastar]

Yeah and remember, speed determines crit rate, so she was a massive difficulty spike. especially if you picked Charmander (though Brock was going to give you trouble anyway).

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

@@MarioMastar Trying Misty with just a Charmander who the hell will do that :D :D But maybe beginners, true. And true, Brock already was hard with just Charmander. That's why you need to catch other Pokemons to beat them both, and also theres a trick on Misty: Beat all trainers and get to the Bill, so you get enough of level power to beat her. Then catch Dugtrio/Diglett and 3 badges easily gotten and then you just easily continue to the... Championship. :)

[@GhulamMurtaza-qt8xj]

I agree! Starmie wrecks you especially if you have Charmander

[@jamiecinder9412]

@@Squrtile101 I'm doing another playthrough of Blue, and I nearly last to her despite having Wartortle on my team because I chose to challenge her earlier than I should have.

[@ind0mitablewill]

Eri was definitely a major struggle for me in Gen 9, upon my first playthrough I used mostly physical Pokémon Meowscarada, Ceruledge, Palafin, Clodsire, Tinkaton and Baxcalibur so fighting the stamina Revavroom that kept boosting was unable to be statused, was level 56 and had super high HP was very challenging, this fight becomes a lot easier with Skeledirge, but it’s super difficult for the other 2 starters

[@UltimusTerminus]

Yeah, I kind of went the wrong route and fought her earlier than I should have, but even then I only lost once because my Houndstone was too high leveled and didn't obey me to Last Respects cheese

[@TwoHeadedMeerkat]

To me, I'd actually place Lorelei above Sabrina. Psychic's really busted, but Sabrina herself just has _awful_ movesets and doesn't take full advantage of it. And I love Venomoth, but it's just dead weight in Gen One, ESPECIALLY with two different powder moves at once. Lorelei presents a rather steep level-spike compared to Giovanni, with a whole herd of bulky water-types. She's still not _hard,_ I mean her Slowbro's only attacking move is Water Gun. But she's at least more challenging than the lady who'll die on the hill that Psywave isn't just move-slot-filler.

[@TheKabuto90]

Shoutout to yellow version sabrina who actually remembered to teach psychic to alakazam and swept through my entire team. Earlier this year was my first time actually finishing a gen 1 game, as i started with gen 2 and never went backwards though i did play the other kanto games, and that is one moment that will stick with me. The main other thing is that gen 1 dewgong is amazing, as I used one, and it makes me so sad to see it fall from grace.

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

Both are strong, depends also on what team you have and levels.

[@MarioMastar]

Well the problem with Lorlei is most ice types were part water, so it was easy to bring a strong electric type to deal with her. Yeah the other types strong against ice weren't really good at the time, but again most of her team is water, just as Bruno uses a lot of rock types and Agatha is all poison types. Lance is probably a genuine challenge though but he mostly uses flying types except 2 dragonaires so if you have a bolt beamer like Starmie, you can clear them all. Course WE didn't know that back then but I think even in the STadium 1days, having a Starmie was a game winning move.

[@muticere]

Yeah Paldea is crazy in how it was the first time in over a decade where I got to play hard Pokémon simply by going and challenging sections of the game that were out of my depth. Or maybe I arrive at a new area that’s actually under where I should be so I cruise the countryside picking up local low level Pokémon to build out a new low level team to make the fights more fair. People shit on the openness of that game, but it’s that openness that made it one of the more fun Pokémon games I’ve played tbh.

[@joltx9909]

I personally love the battle against hau as you arrive at ula ula island and malie city in the ultra games. He has a solid team of mid stage starter, an eeveelution, noibat, tauros and alolan raichu. its like the battle against gen 3 rival before mauville but even more intense

[@caterpillarh8490]

The ultra games definitely weren't perfect but what they did do right was the fun and challenging difficulty

[@Thojac]

For real, his A-Raichu swoop my ass 2 or 3 times before I managed to cheese him. The rest of his team was no threat tho, as much as I remember.

[@AxelRod45]

Personally, I feel that it's hard to call May 2 the hardest in Gen 3 when Emerald's fights against Tate & Liza and Wallace exist. For T&L, you're gonna have a scary time without having two Dark types in the lead to invalidate the Xatu. And Wallace is just fucking brutal. Ludicolo with Double Team that makes me always want to bring an Aerial Ace mon to E4, Gyarados with a potentially scary setup in DDance, the Toxic-immune Tentacruel and that FUCKING MILOTIC, THAT DAMN DEMON FROM HELL. Imo, if Cynthia didn't exist then Emerald Wallace would def be the hardest fight in the series.

[@cis22]

Winona with her Altaria is also a tough battle in Hoenn. You can't spam items because Dragon Dance invalidates that. Electric-type attacks aren't super effective because Altaria is part dragon-type. Also, Altaria has Earthquake. Rock-types have the same problem due to Earthquake. So what are your options? 1. Brute force it. Just use neutral moves while also tanking Altaria's attacks. 2. Use rock-type moves but not rock-type pokémon. You escape the weakness to Earthquake at the expense of not getting STAB. 3. Use ice-type moves. You normally have no access to ice-type pokémon at this point in the game (aside from Castform, I guess). And as far as I know, the only ice-type damaging moves you could learn at this stage in the game would be from TMs. And the repeatable one you have access to is Ice Beam in the Game Corner (meaning, grinding for it could be tedious). There's a free Ice Beam TM in the Abandoned Ship though. 4. Use dragon-types. Maybe have your own Altaria with Dragon Breath. Or maybe a Vibrava (unlikely that it would be a Flygon already).

[@ProfessorRugops]

The thing is Tate & Liza require Surf to get to them, while their team is 3/4ths weak to it and mostly pretty slow. Even if you don’t pick Swampert most Water types can fairly easily take on their team with support for Xatu.

[@roxasbaker]

I beat them easily in emerald May/brendan used to beat me all the time back then so they was considered hard

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

Honestly, Hoenn has hardest battles in whole region from all regions by my vision. Because... Who is really easy there? Let's talk fast...: Roxanne, you dont get Combusken? Brawly and his Makuhita? Wattson, who destroy you if you not use double kick / Marshtomp properly? Defensive Torkoal and Flannery? Insane Norman with his Slaking(s)? Winona and her Altaria? Tate and Liz, one of hardest gym leaders? ¨(But here carefully, they hard in Emerald, but ez in Ruby/Sapphire and ORAS). Wallace, also hard, Juan, probably only one "easier" but also not complete suck. And then there's a league... With insane champions Wallace/Steven... Which region is that hard like Hoenn? Tell me... Oh, i honestly know, which. Unova, maybe. Because there was hard even Team Plasma.... (But i agree May is pretty easy, even Wally harder, and in ORAS, his last battle especially hard)

[@irjafcuy4923]

i used gardevoir with imprison move for defeating tate and liza.

[@shadowoflugia]

Arven KILLED me during my first battle! I had no idea that there was gonna be a real battle or that it was meant to be near end game! 😭😂

[@nishantdayama4558]

14:34 And unlike a certain someone, he doesn't terastrallise his Kingambit into a flying type to ambush fighting and ground types. 😂😂😂

[@fictionfan0]

If we're talking Paldea specifically, I'd say that honor goes to Mela. As you said, the difficulty of any battle largely depends on where the player is at the time, levels-wise. However, Mela's base is located in between the Artazon and Levincia Gyms, whose strongest Pokémon are at levels 17 and 24, respectively. Mela, meanwhile, has her strongest at level 26. In addition, she starts the battle with Drought Torkoal, so if you go into it with a Water type, she's effectively nullified your super-effective moves.

[@jbcatz5]

Hoenn has Winona, whose Altaria can buff itself with Dragon Dance, has Earthquake and you need to go out of your way to sequence break just to find an Ice type (that or hope Castform’s Powder Snow will get you through that), and Emerald’s Tate and Liza, who start with the Xatu/Claydol combination to really mess with your day before Lunatone and Solrock mop up what’s left of your team if you manage to knock out Xatu and/or Claydol.

[@dvillines26]

You can get Ice Beam as soon as you beat Norman and get Surf, it's in the part of the abandoned ship you don't need Dive to navigate.

[@Duck_Praise]

Hmmmm you know I had another contender for Sinnoh. The two Cool Trainers right before the third gym city, with the Gyarados in the rain and all that. I always remember them.

[@TheLMBLucas]

Fair picks. I 100% agree with some for sure and could totally agree with the others. Recently, I've been trying to play extremely chill to make them harder with no restrictions, but going unprepared, and some battles can get a bit annoying. I didn't evolve Piplup for BDSP and oh boy he was not ready for Cynthia even at lvl 78.

[@karthus006]

For me, the hardest battle in Kanto is Koga in Pokemon Yellow. His team comprises of 3 Venonats and a Venomoth. Sounds like an easy team on paper right? Nope. This team was hard due to 2 factors, the level jump and their movesets. Koga's team in Yellow comprises of a Level 44 Venonat, Level 46 Venonat, Level 48 Venonat, and a Level 50 Venomoth. Now compare this with Erika's team of the 4th Gym, whose levels are at 30-32, that's a whopping 12-20 level jump. Especially so when the trainers around are only starting to pack level 30ish Pokemon, Koga's team level wise is a very huge leap. Then, there's their moveset. All of them comes with Toxic and PSYCHIC. Yes, you read that right, PSYCHIC to counter other Poison types we might bring to cheese our way around Toxic. And if that isn't enough, 2 of his Venonats packed Sleep Powder if you heal your way out of Toxic, leaving you at the mercy of strong attacks like the aforementioned Psychic and Double Edge for one Venonat. The Venomoth packed Double Team, so it will make your attacks harder to land once it stacked enough evasion bonuses.The Venomoth also packed Leech Life seeming just to remind you of those pesky Zubats you encountered, and also to counter any Psychic types. I find even Yellow Sabrina easier than Yellow Koga. Cause Sabrina is just carried by the Psychic type, Koga combines power with status conditions. Yellow Koga changed how I play Kanto in future games. Heck, it changed how I approach future Pokemon games by necessitating the need to level grind my entire team to 20 before the 1st gym and 40 before the 3rd.

[@luisfradique2031]

Yellow sabrina also only has one good pokemon. The lv 50 abra and kadabra do nothing, but the lv 50 alakazam is scary. Compared to koga's venomoth, koga surely wins

[@Kali_Krause]

For me, the hardest trainer in GSC and with HeartGold and SoulSilver, is undoubtedly Red. His team is level 81 in gen 2 and a whopping 88 in the remakes. In GSC, his team consists of Pikachu/Espeon/Venusaur/Charizard/Snorlax/Blastoise. In the remakes however, his team has changed to Pikachu/Lapras/Charizard/Venusaur/Blastoise/Snorlax. Red's team in gen 4 is a bit of a downgrade as now half of his team is weak to Electric. Therefore, Red is the hardest trainer in generation 2. In generation 4, that was taken by Cynthia

[@Mathewthechanman]

I agree that Red has the best team to take you on but exclusive to HGSS you can catch Mewtwo at lv 70, making the fight way less hard compared to Clair or Whitney

[@Radditz36]

first ever Play Through running into red with a Team in the 60s and no answer for Snorlax. I´ve used a Level 17 Gastly with Curse and Nightmare, Red spamming Rest

[@irjafcuy4923]

@@Kali_Krause yes, red espeon in gsc is powerfull

[@MarioMastar]

Yeah but you expect those fights to be hard and it's kind of your own fault if you're unprepared for them. That's why I don't like them saying "The final trainer is the hardest" cause it's like "Yeah...duh they're the final boss, and you have the WHOLE region at your disposal". If you don't know about the machop trade or underestimate how good Graveler is despite it's double weakness to many types, you don't have many options against Whitney. Heck even Bugsy gaslights you with the Kakuna and Metapod, then evicerates you with Scyther and Fury cutter. Again, don't sleep on Geodude and rock moves. it's YOU who have a grass/water starter, not the opponents and a Graveler earthquake is nothing to sneeze at. Also switch training Abra to a Kadabra IF you have the patience to catch one. Most players didn't at the time. so that's why those early gyms were extremely tough back then. Heck Morty walled me in my Soul Silver play as I needed to power level my Haunter til it learned shadow ball so I could deal with his gengar who also knows shadow ball. and this is HG/SS, the special/physical split is a thing, and Gengar with the TM shadow ball is CRAZY strong in this point in the game.... and you have a ghastly and two haunters and curse to deal with. That haunter carried me the rest of Johto, as well as an ampharos cause I could.

[@MarcMagma]

Leon is by FAR Galar's most difficult battle of the region. When I did my first playthrough, which is always a Nuzlocke, he was the only trainer I lost Pokémon to. Specifically three, including 2 of my Power Trio, my 3 aces, who, up to that point, had dominated any opponent I send them against, including higher leveled Pokémon and Pokémon where are super effective against them.

[@jamiecinder9412]

I'd also say that the second rival fight in RBY/FRLG can be difficult too for beginners. Especially because there's really no good way to train for it once you reach Cerulean City, since you are unable to backtrack until you receive HM01.

[@Machoke.]

I got to say when I was a kid, i actually found morty and claire to be the hardest gym battles in gsc. Now I dont think they are, but when I didn't know as much they always gave me trouble.

[@arzeenine]

Another note on RSE rival 2 - if you ever wondered why Absorb was only 20bp in gen 3, it's to make sure that during this fight the rival''s (primary) STAB move -talking about Water Gun on Marshtomp here - always had the same base power when used on your starter. This is why you are given the Bullet Seed TM and Miracle Seed to buff Treecko at the start of the game. Didn't make this fight any easier for me as a kid though.

[@egg1899]

Leon's "Very well constructed team" having 3/6 of his Inteleon team share a weakness and 4/6 of his Rillaboom team share a weakness.

[@vexxan050]

I remember the fight with Ultra Necrozma, thing was so powerful, it actually crashed my game. I lol'd so hard at it every time it happened. xD

[@CrazyWeridoRH]

Stantler also trivializes Miltank because it can have Stomp, Thunderwave, Confuse Ray, and Flash. That mean combo can completely hospitalize Miltank.

[@TommySkywalker11]

For Kalos it's one of the sky battles, there's a lot of sky battles with pretty tough mons sometimes with SE moves against flying types, where you're restricted to only have a couple pokemon that are primarily going to be flying types unless for some reason you have a lot of levitate mons

[@DOW1100]

For Kanto it should be Misty, especially if you picked the very popular Charmender or forgot to grab the rare Pika enounter at Viridian Forest (or aguably Paras/Magikarp?). Facing Starmie at that point in the game with the limited resources you have is quite hard.

[@ricetanooki8655]

In Kalos, you hit it on the nail. It's a really difficult battle fo that point in the game and it destroys my nuzlockes each time I fight them hahaha

[@carlrowlinson2833]

Whitney's Miltank was outrageous the first time you faced it! It was brutal and totally without mercy! Sure, she's easy to take down after you've either figured it out or done a tonne of grinding, but damnit if she didn't mess us all up first time!

[@YoichiMutou]

if you didn't know Normal type weakness and low on Trainers to battle for exp. also if you were a onga bunga type player yeah it was difficult all Kids got filtered by her 😂

[@raikaria3090]

I'm going to have to disagree with Hoenn, and say Emerald Wattson or Emerald Flannery. Both of them have 4 pokemon, 2 of which are fully evolved. The Electric type only has 1 weakness, and the Ground-type is not readily avaliable in Hoenn at this point unless you picked Mudkip [Nincada isn't sweeping this gym, neither is Geodude taking the whole thing on with it's speed and Sonicbooms being thrown at it] And by your Whitney logic [which I'd actually say Claire otherwise] "use Geodude" or worse "You must use Mudkip" isn't enough to cross Wattson out. And Flannery is just raw power. She uses Sunny Day, and has STAB BP140 Overheats, and her Torkoal has a White Herb. Also; her pokemon have physical attacks to resort to post-Overheat. And you still can't get many Ground-types; and the only new one is weak to Ground, which Flannery has. And yes; good call on Kalos. Although I'd have said Battle Girl Hedvig; who is stronger Korrina but earlier. Her Hawlucha has almost perfect coverage; as opposed to Korrina who can't even hurt Ghosts. She's also deep in a cave, and has a Throh too; which is really strong for that point.

[@Aurirang]

Also an honory mention of Emerald Tate&Liza if you did not pick Mudkip as a starter. The fact, that it's a double battle makes the fight so much ahrder, especially since your team definitely won't be laid out for this. But yes, Flannery is just nasty, even if you took Mudkip as a starter. (Rip my starter in a few Nuzlockes there)

[@raikaria3090]

@@Aurirang Eh; Emerald Tate and Liza isn't hard for me. You literally must have a pokemon which knows Surf at this point, which is super-effective on 3 of their pokemon. It does punish you for using a HM friend for Surf I suppose.

[@MrSonicHedgehog]

​@@raikaria3090 I used Shiftry and Sharpedo, trained to Lv 40 by grinding against Wailmer

[@shadowdoublade3333]

The double Furfrou on Kalos Route 6 is a nuzlocke killer *I speak from experience*

[@TheWtfanime]

In all my years of playing Pokemon, since childhood in gen. 1, after I got old enough to figure out how the game worked there was only one battle that genuinely surprised me and made me go back and rethink my entire strategy. And that was AI Sada. Between not knowing the typing and that damn flutter mane always attacking first, that's the only battle where I've been completely whited out as an adult. I was stunned and then I actually felt happy for a second that I finally actually met a legitimate chanallege in a Pokemon game.

[@VA_Nightshade]

Ultra Necrozma can also be beaten fairly consistantly with Mimikyu. I grabbed one after my third wipe, and the little guy carried me from Necrozma through Rainbow Rocket.

[@SuperNerdDaniel]

Cycling Road May is where I failed my first-ever attempt at a Nuzlocke, so I can definitely confirm what a nightmare she is to battle

[@AndyBrixton999]

IDK why so many people consider Machop to be an 'easy answer' to Miltank. You aren't one shotting her, and even worse, you are 1 flinch away from fainting without even touching her.

[@MarioMastar]

For Kalos I'd probably have given it to Grant because for a Rock type Gym leader, neither of his pokemon are weak to the usual water or grass that you usually go for. As he uses both fossil pokemon which will catch you off guard. Aurorus's Freeze Dry can catch you off if you're using Froakie and Tyrantup is literally a dragon pokemon that early in the game, so if you didn't catch a Flabebe and get to know fairies real quick, it'll throw you off as well. Kind of a nice touch though. Similarly Valerie could be considered hard as the first time we played Gen 6, NO ONE knew anything about Fairy types, so the idea of preparing a good Poison or Steel type to deal with her gym would be difficult. Though it's unlikely you had dragons or dark or fighting types (unless you had Chestnaught or Greninja by then). Gen 6 was easy, but those two battles in my memory come to mind as the ones that threw me off. Though nice touch mentioning the random route trainers along the way. and honestly I found storming Team Flare's stronghold before reaching Yveltal was a bit more of a challenge since they and Lysandre have decently strong pokemon and you don't have the chance to heal much during it, unlike the previous Evil team fortresses.

[@SegaMario]

"Grusha will crush ya and Larry will bury you" Hol' up...is bro's writing *THIS* fire?🔥🔥🔥

[@xfdzfd4370]

I certainly can see why Cynthia leads Sinnoh, especially since in BDSP she had a competitively-trained team. That being said, I never seem to see people consider the double battle with Barry against Mars and Jupiter to be one of the harder Sinnoh battles, especially if you don't pick Chimchar. It's a double battle, so you probably don't really have a lot of strategy to deal with doubles-specific battles (eg Protect, Follow Me, Fake Out, etc). The Bronzors are so annoying and provide a ton of screen support, and if you don't have Infernape (or Houndoom for Platinum players) you can't get rid of either of them quickly, and only Platinum users with Magmar can get rid of both of them quickly with Lava Plume. The Golbats are also super annoying. Purugly and Skuntank hit incredibly hard. The reason this battle is hard, however, is because Barry doesn't know what he's doing. His Munchlax is absolutely terrible, it's so egregious he doesn't have Close Combat on Staraptor, and while the rest of his team is pretty good, he always calls the wrong moves. I always end up losing at least a couple of Pokémon when I fight this battle. Also, I think Juan's battle in Emerald was harder than any battles with May, but maybe that's my confirmation bias from always catching a Taillow on my team whenever I had Mudkip. Juan's Mon's can mess you up in so many ways with Double Team and Water Pulse confusion, and his Kingdra does more damage with non-STAB Ice Beam than Clair's GSC one does with STAB Dragonbreath (also means you can't use Altaria or Flygon). I remember almost always having to resort to Swampert to get into an Ice Beam war with Kingdra whenever I play Emerald. Don't forget about Chesto Rest either. A lot of important battles in Black and White and Black and White 2 were hard: Lenora (of course), Ghetsis, Elesa, and surprisingly N despite you getting a Zekrom/Reshiram. I also thought in BW2 Iris and a couple of N's seasonal teams weren't easy. XY is so easy, but I did lose a Pokémon against Lysandre. This was a game when I was playing with a ton of constraints, but it's worth mentioning I didn't sweep every important battle in the middle and endgame.

[@BubblesChika]

Right? Barry's Munchlax sucks so much that even offical guides recommend taking him out as soon as possible. Brutal battle. The final battle with Cyrus in the Distortion World in Platinum is also brutally difficult, especially if you DON'T bring electric coverage. Even my Snorlax was getting absolutely washed by Gyarados' Waterfall.

[@Meloettadg2]

Lance gen 1 Red gen 2 Winona or liza/tate gen 3 Cynthia gen 4 The fighting type e4 gen 5 Lysandre gen 6 Mimikyu trial gen 7 The dragon gym gen 8 The ghost gym gen 9

[@Dark_Dusknoir]

Almost the same, except Gen 8 and 9. Leon/Chilli. I mean that fire guy from E4 in Blueberry Academy, forgot his name.

[@jamiecinder9412]

@@Meloettadg2 I'm glad somebody gave Gen I Lance a shout out. I recently did a run of Yellow, and I actually had a harder time against Lance than I did against the champion Blue. His Dragonite is no joke.

[@Meloettadg2]

@@jamiecinder9412 gyarados. Or lapras. I run surf, rain dance, ice beam, thunder. Should help.. but him spammin full restores doesnt help

[@jamiecinder9412]

@@Meloettadg2 Oh, I was talking about this Gen I team. Gyarados, 2 Dragonair, Aerodactyl and Dragonite.

[@Meloettadg2]

@jamiecinder9412 i know. So was i. You can get lapras in silph co

[@alpha-sama]

I would argue Red is the hardest fight in the Johto games, not just because he's the highest leveled but because you're pretty much guaranteed to be severely underleveled for this fight due to the Johto games' bad level curve. Also Juan deserves a mention for Hoenn due to his double team Kingdra, which makes him even harder than Clair.

[@astutheit]

For Paldea, Drayton's gym challenge trainers because you HAVE to use pokemon caught in the academy. No tera raids, no Kitakami or Paldean mon, no Home transfers. Yes, you can still power level them and even change their tera types by the point, but competitive teams with actual strategy vs a limited roster (assuming you aren't going to breed a mon there) is kinda crazy

[@MoeSyzlack-o9y]

Personally for me: Kanto-Surge Johto-Clair Hoenn-Watson Sinnoh-Cynthia Unova-Elesa Kalos-Grant Alola-Water Trial Galar-Raihan Paldea-Atticus (I think he’s the poison guy)

[@texlyr3457]

bro i am playing my first nuzlocke ever and also in kalos and it’s been super easy EXCEPT THOSE TWO DOUBLE BATTLES. You hit the nail on the head im deaddddd

[@Slenderquil]

The Hop battle in shield is definitely the hardest in that game. Leon's Charizard is strong, but only because of the dmax solarbeam. Once the Dynamax is over, you can easily take him down. Hop has the super busted Zacian that can take down your whole team without worrying about dynamax. He's the only time I wiped out in shield because I was not prepared for that monster.

[@peteypiranalover]

3:50 machop is really out of the way too. The pokemart extras usually have nothing important to say so many people skip them too.

[@Rin-tp2dn]

i think i may have just been underleveled with several team members lagging way behind and relying too hard on my starter and one other pokemon, but the first time I played B/W, Cheren hardstopped me like 6 times in the final rival battle before the Elite 4. To the point where I went and grinded and caught several brand new pokemon to replace my current team. its not actually that hard a fight, but that core memory of throwing myself against what felt like a brick wall has stuck with me

[@christianihle7252]

I agree with you except for Sun/Moon Region. The reason is that Ultranecrozma is quite easy to defeat. All you need is a strong Vaporeon with the Toxin attack and the issue is settled. I also had problems at first until I realized my Aquana wasn't defeated by Necrozma's one shot attacks. I found the ruler Pokemon more challenging than Ultra Necrozma

[@ElainaMaruyama]

Funny thing is, Whitney's team was actually nerfed in HGSS. Her Clefairy and Milktank both got their level reduced by 1.

[@Zackattackplayspokemon]

So i only skimmed over the video but just wanted to say this thumbnail is a breath of fresh air compared to most pokemon thumbnails

[@Akherousia502]

Thank you for addressing the Whitney counterpoints. Not only does your argument about time revealing our options down the road hold true, but it's important to note that people play Pokemon in a variety of ways and the route of just grabbing a Machop doesn't hold up. Machop might simply not be a Pokemon you want on your team, or you could be working on a Nuzlocke/challenge run. Pokemon having a counter doesn't suddenly undercut their difficulty.

[@dvillines26]

the funny thing is that there's actually some amusing intended Game Freak design in the run of Gym Leaders from Falkner to Bugsy to Whitney. Those two give you Mud Slap and Fury Cutter. The former can be used to ruin Miltank's ability to stack up Rollouts, and the latter can maybe be built up on the Clefairy. in the unlikely event you have a Pokemon faster than Miltank, Headbutt exists for flinch chance. the Rollout and Dig TMs are also available. Whitney is meant to subtly teach the players about the uses of these TMs rather than simply coasting on super effective moves. but a lot of people didn't really learn that lesson because they tried brute force, just using their strongest STAB. and then even when Rollout didn't get them, the Stomp/Attract/Milk Drink shenanigans did them in.

[@Akherousia502]

@@dvillines26 In our defense, a lot of us were kids barely getting by in the first place - and that first impression became the foundation of Whitney's reputation. It's really cool to look back on it because you're absolutely right about us being given multiple tools (not just Machop) to strategize and deal with the threat, but on account of still being a little clueless most of us didn't put the pieces together until much later. I appreciate Whitney as a meme, but it frustrates me that people genuinely think there weren't options - or that Machop was the only way around it. There were a lot of clever options available, GameFreak just kind of overestimated us.

[@urmadasf]

4:56 THIS FIGHT LITERALLY GAVE ME SUCH A HARD TIME

[@henryknippling2408]

My list kanto- blue Johto- the Clair and Lance double battle with your rival. Hoenn-Norman Sinnoh- Cynthia Unova- the one verteran npc that exists in the depths of the cavern just past the daycare. Kalos- grant Alola- kukui/ultra necrosis Galar- base game Leon, dlc 100% zygarde Dynamax raid battle. Hisui- Volo Paldea- professor Turo (I played violet)

[@stevenbrown4001]

Just talking about Cynthia makes me want to replay Pokemon Platinum. Such a good final battle. The elite 4 in that game were genuinely hard for a Pokemon game. Some little kids were probably rage quitting! 😂 Ultra Necrozma was the hardest Pokemon fight by far for me. I ended up killing him with toxic and just outlasted him by spamming revives and potions.

[@BJGvideos]

Ok imma be That Person and point out that you don't fight Ultra Necrozma in Alola, nor do you fight the Kitakami Ogre Clan in Paldea. Hardest fight actually taking place in the Paldea region, especially if you don't know what to prepare for, has gotta be Terapagos. Even with support you'll be floundering until you figure out what to do. Even the battle against the security system/AI and the inability to properly prep for it unless you have prior knowledge can be sidestepped if you just power level your party. But Terapagos keeps coming back and brings with it a brand new typing.

[@General_C]

Let's Go's Red fight is actually pretty tricky if you aren't pumping your mons full of stat candies. Some of the highest levels in the series.

[@ZeroZmm]

I don't really remember feeling all that challenged playing Pokemon. Whitney went down after a couple attempts. My sister and I started playing HG/SS at the same time (both got the games for Christmas) but she played it a lot more than I did and yet she told me she was stuck on Red, so I rushed to get to him and see what was up. Beat him first attempt using 2 revives "man that's cheap"..😐 In B/W I found a Minccino, thought it was cute and kept it, it got echoed voice and the rest is history. Ghetsis went down before his chorus kicked in.

[@crimeZlive]

tbh in Hoenn the arena fight against the twins and their psychic pokemon was an absolute nightmare. You could get ultra punch, but it wasnt a garantueed win

[@kosmaukaszczyk8401]

it depends on many things like witch starter you have . if it is a normal run or nuzlocke.on if you play with level caps,if you are speedruning.

[@firechasersparkles2023]

The first time I fought Volo and Giratina, I was NOT expecting that third phase. That really threw me for a loop. I had to go back multiple times with different pokemon to figure out the best team for it. I beat it in the end though.

[@ujingamer]

The fact that nemona or professors didn't come up is crazy to me. Their type diversity is really good they have really hard hitting mon and other than just heal spamming are just really difficult to deal with

[@Alche_mist]

Even as a kid playing the original Gold, I wasn't scared from Whitney as much as from Morty. Even as a kid, I saw a strategy to invalidate the threat of the Miltank using only the very universal tools - namely, the Mud-Slap TM you get from Falkner. After 2 Mud-Slaps, you hardly ever see Rollout 3 or more and can quite safely chip Miltank down. On the other hand, Bugsy was rather tough with his Fury Cutter spam forcing you to lead as strong as possible (which I didn't like to do) and Morty, with ghost-immunities, Curses on your mons in preparation and Hypnospamming Gengar was far tougher for a kid's understanding of the game, the one I knew I need to use both preparations and luck (or overlevelling - L28 Rock Slide Sudowoodo did a lot) to win.

[@Grey_Warden_Invasion]

For me Kabu was actually the by far the hardest battle of Sword and Shield. Even during my third playthrough, when I had the water starter and thought this might give me an advantage, I still struggled for some reason.

[@brandonespinoza9279]

For me, I would have to see Leon put in the Galar battle, not in the championship, as it’s pretty much endless mode in that facility is that he will match your level with yours and Charizard is will always be at least in both singles and double battles as those even more tougher because he can strategize and every time that he can pretty much buff, his speed with airstream or even G-max to basically make it effectively a fire spin, but as a very strong fire type g-max move.

[@garrettfornea1088]

In Violet, you chose Sprigatito and Nemona took Quaxly, then that battle after the fourth or fifth badge - when Quaxly had fully evolved into that tacky disco duck - was probably the hardest for me. I literally had to just revive my Pokémon until that disco duck ran out of moves.

[@Wildflower2760]

For FRLG tbh I'd say the hardest battle is honestly the post game Blue rematch. He has pokemon ranging from lvl 73-75 and is guaranteed to have a Heracross, Tyranitar, and Alakazam, as well as a decent Fire-Water-Grass core, and the level jump is quite steep as you possibly may not have really leveled up your mons a lot

[@jtmcgee124]

I think for base Black and White, the first gym leader is def a contender for hardest battle. At that stage in the game u have no way of dealing super effective moves to their elemental monkey outside of the gift monkey you receive in the dream yard. And if u choose not to add it to ur team, that first battle can take 3-4 attempts just to get exp off their first lillipup till u get high enough lvl to tackle them out.

[@kralik394]

"In Unova, there really isn't a Whitney or a Cynthia" You SURE about that last one, bro?

[@StormHollie]

Necrozma and Volo were definitely difficult for me. When I was battling Necrozma, I had to keep restarting the battle until my Magnazone could paralyze it with Discharge. As for Volo, I had to do extra training and give my pokemon a bunch of Grit to raise their effort, just so they could last longer in the battle.

[@bitzibaerlie]

I personally struggled a lot against the first Marnie fight in Shield. Wiped twice against her in my casual playthrough. One of the reasons being that I could not figure out her typings, plus switching around my team to get to know the new Pokémon.

[@indecentthinking]

People love to trivialize Whitneys fight, like you didnt just walk into a challenge. She literally uses a Pokemon that has a near 500 base stat total when your pokemon and those youve encountered are almost always under 400 at that point. Your starter might have slightly over 400 in its second evolution, but thats still almost a 100 point difference in stats. And running into that battle blind is crazy. Honorable mention to Bugsy for roadblocking non fire type starters (especially grass) since he ALSO has a 500 BST pokemon that is probably even further out of your league at that point (we were just fighting Geodudes and zubats in that damn cave like 30 seconds before this gym)

[@dnoyrnoptere3499]

For Ultra Necrozma, it was the first time I had to use a berry to protect a Pokémon from a super effective move to survive and beat it without loosing a Pokémon xD

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

Blue's difficulty spike makes more sense when you remember you're not supposed to fight him until after you beat koga (whose levels are higher than him). He's basically a skill check for players who skipped badge 5 and decided to go straight to Sabrina. Very manageable if you did things in order, but difficult if you did it out of order.

[@RobynAnarchist]

One of my favourite Pokémon memories of late is using Golisopod against Ultra Necrozma and just First Impressioning it three times, getting OHKOed after each one then reviving. It's a cheese for sure but it was great.

[@Scorpionspear77]

If we discount Whitney, I’d say the toughest in Johto is Clair. First, Johto’s bad level curve in all gens means you’re likely to be underleveled for her, especially with a full team of six. Second, her Pokémon can be pretty tough, especially in HGSS where they can play more to their strengths, like physical Water moves on Gyarados. Lastly, your options for weaknesses are limited. Gyarados isn’t too bad- you’ve had access to Ampharos in GS and HGSS since the start, Crystal can get Raichu or Electabuzz from the Odd Egg, and all versions can get Magneton/zone (again with trades). Plus in Gen 2, the Thunder Punch TM exists, giving weakness options to others like Kadabra/Alakazam or Haunter/Gengar. The Ice Punch TM can be an answer to her Dragonair, but if you don’t have an Ice Puncher then your options drop- and in Gen 4 that isn’t an option. Jynx is probably your best bet in Gen 2 if you’re playing Crystal (not sure if it’s in HGSS) The Swinub line is really only good in Gen 4 where they got access to Ice Shard or Ice Fang to use their physical Attack, Delibird is worthless, Sneasel isn’t around in most versions until Mt. Silver, and I’m not sure if Dewgong is an option at this point. But that’s just Ice. And that won’t do much good against Kingdra. With Kingdra’s only being weak to Dragon, you’ve got even less options. Getting a Dratini of your own is not easy to do (and if you planned to get the Extremespeed one after the fight, you may not have bothered) and getting your own Kingdra is even harder. This basically forces you to fight it without its weakness, and since you’re likely underleveled, that thing is going to take a beating and dish one right back out before it drops. Kingdra alone has ended otherwise great attempts at the fight before for me.

[@MmeCShadow]

Hardest fight in Kanto is that guy with the Raticate in Mt. Moon. It's a single Pokémon team so the developers gave it a higher level than everybody else in the area, and the Raticate -- in addition to the level advantage -- is fully evolved. Raticate obviously isn't all that powerful in the grand scheme, but the strongest Pokémon you might have stat-wise at this point are probably Butterfree or Beedrill, and this guy is plunked right in the middle of the dungeon. If you know what's coming he will absolutely cream you. He's easy to walk around, fortunately, but he was a major punch to the face when I was a kid.

[@raydespoir]

He's only really a problem because you are weakened going through mt moon. Plus, fighting him leaves you even weaker for the upcoming super nerd fossil battle, and the zubat rocket trainer just before him. You find a revive just north before facing him, so there's that as well. Tough but certainly not the hardest.

[@GinaCorr]

Hisui - Arcues is the hardest fight by far! I still have yet to defeat it. What makes it so challenging is that it's less about your team and about your ability to dodge attacks while simultaneously trying to throw balms Paldea - As long as I didn't go to Grushas gym too early - no issues Galar - no issues Aloha - Totom lurantis (solar blade + harsh sunlight) For X and Y Siebold of the elite four should have been on this list. If you don't have much type coverage against water he can be a real pain. Also the Karate girl in Reflection Cave with a Throh that knows earthquake has killed so many of my Pokémon 😢 Unova - Cheran in BW2 - having a normal type gym first is really hard especially when nuzlocking For Diamond and Pearl, the first battle with Mars and her Purugly was most challenging. I actually deleted a save file to restart the game with Chimchar instead of Turtwig as I could not beat her. For Hoenn, Watson if you didn't choose Mudkip as then you have to grind up an Aron for the gym. For Johto: Clair - Very few viable options since ice has so many weaknesses. Kanto - I wouldn't say that any gym leader has caused me to pit down the game, but navigational issues have 😂

[@camrong5680]

PERSONALLY IT'S LIKE THIS FOR ME! Kanto - Misty (her starmie is so fast or its typing is too offensively good for me most times when I was a kid I almost quit pokemon because of that ONE fight lucky for me I beat it but still) Johto - Red ( yes whitney was a pain but you had options for it for example overleveling but once you get to red you had to actually plan that out EVEN ONE of his pokemon unchecked would cook me unlike whitney were it was just the milktank.) Hoenn - Wallace ( ignoring the battle fontier Honestly I thought steven was tough worthy champ but fair. and tate and liza were BULLSHIT but u usually had a way out. wallace on the other hand was consistent thanks to water being water weaknesses were covered just unfortunate ii like fire) Sinnoh - Cynthia (yeah yeah duh ofc It was her that milotic and garchomp crazy with a pokemon with no weaknesses crazy. Outside of that shoutout to bertha ground type elite four honestly just solid sand team.) Unova - Ghetsis ( honestly elsa was annoying but due to ground types being nearby not too much of an issue clay is another annoying one but doable, Ghetsis cheated I swear in both bw and sequels but yeah its him) Kalos - Diantha ( nobody here is that hard the victory road is hardest place but given my nuzlocke this one got me.) Aloha - Ultra Necorma ( u know why I know why. but shout out to guzma who somehow always catches me off guard.) Galar- Leon (duh no notes) Hisui- volo ( duh again but shout out to boss pokemon electrode) Paldea - our boy with doggo caught me off guard, but with dlc kerime (little guy last fight honestly he got tough a few times.)

[@nano31742]

Leon was the only one who kicked my ass multiple times. I love Leon as a character, he's super cool.

[@MamutaBCU]

Let me throw my take in for Johto: Morty. Whitney isn’t too hard with Muscle the Machop and proper training, So surely your team will be set for next gym, considering how your team didn’t have to change much as to this point, not counting adding on Pokemon because it’s the early game, right? no This battle took me over 2 weeks to beat. The sheer relief i got when I found out it was over is unrivaled.

[@bvdf84]

For me, there is always a gym i struggle at in every pokemon game. And i honestly don't remember ever struggling harder than i did in the first 3 team star base bosses in scarlet

[@NowiGreen]

There is actually a glitch in gen 3 where the fire pokemon is swapped for Torkol for some reason and its BST is higher then any pokemon you had encountered at that level and its Lv 20.. its basically a early harder Flannery basically though without the moves.

[@Redhoodtcf]

Ultra Necrozma violates the Geneva Convention.

[@360tony]

I'd give that Paldea title to Atticus for sure. Going from Mela to him was a struggle, and he's got solid coverage plus all final stage mons. I went in a few levels over and still got knocked on my ass twice during my first playthrough. Eri is really tough as well but nothing compared to Atticus imo

[@MidnightUmbra]

Elisa is actually what taught me that it's ground that's immune to electric, not rock. Because I thought I was big brained as a 10 year old and brought a Roggenrola to my 10th try Died immediately

[@nicholasmills5166]

Not counting the DLC's in Gen 9 I would say the strongest battle is against the respective professor in the Area Zero Lab. At this point you wouldn't have met all the Paradox Pokemon and don't know all their weaknesses yet. Adding insult to injury is the Booster Energy on their final Pokemon which boosts their highest stat by 30% (50% if speed).

[@sasori379]

I actually think Watson should be an honorable mention for hoe. Maybe it's just from a nuzlock point of view but without marshtomp or Geodude he is pretty tough. Magneton is quite tough on the low level and can even throw ground types for a loop with supersonic and Sonic boom. Also manectric can get scary if it sets up.

[@nelsanderson4214]

Norm's Slaking in Hoenn was always difficult for me. Also, I remember Tate and Liza being difficult too