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4th Gen Who is the toughest Gym leader you ever battled?

Jip

Hipster Jipster
10
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 26
  • Seen Jun 1, 2020
Whitney and her Miltank were always a pain because I seemed to be attracted to picking pokemon of the opposite gender.
 
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For Diamond and Pearl, none of them were overly difficult.

In Platinum, probably Fantina. That Mismagius I remember causing me so much trouble the first time I played it, 2/3 my team was dead, I couldn't keep up with healing, and I only won because my Monferno (who was my last one that wasn't an HM slave) killed it with a critical hit Flame Wheel.

Then with HeartGold and SoulSilver, I have to go with Clair. That Kingdra is, if you ask me, the hardest Pokémon in the game. Why? Well, because it has very powerful attacks and you can't exploit any weakness to that Kingdra easily, unlike Lance who is full of stuff weak to similar types. The Dragonairs can also survive hits well enough and use Thunder Wave. That and the fact that her levels are a huge jump from the weak trainers you've been fighting. Also, Blue comes darn near close (none of his Pokémon are as hard as that Kingdra, but the sheer diversity of his team makes him tough).
 

Shrew

is a Shrew
838
Posts
10
Years
The only gymleaders I usually lose against are ones at the beginning of story mode. Later on in story mode, I purposely restrict myself into using the same number of pokemon as the gymleader in order to make it more challenging. As a result of this extra challenge, Chuck and Clair were challenging for me.
 
12,284
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11
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  • Seen Oct 22, 2023
It's gotta be Whitney. Just like most of you, I had a very hard time defeating her Milktank. Every time I managed to get its health down, it used to restore itself by using Milk Drink. Volkner was hard for me to take down as well, because his Luxray used to Crunch its way through most of my Pokémon. He wasn't that hard in my second Platinum run, though, because fortunately, I had a Torterra that knew Earthquake. n__n
 
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  • Seen Nov 13, 2013
Fantina was hard for me, took me at least two tries to take her down, I got all my pokemon to level 35 (For Murkrow with Faint attack and Luxray with crunch) and then she was a breeze. All the other gym leaders were too easy, i'm currently training for Volkner.

Actually, for me whitney was easy, thanks to my Flaffy paralyzing that Miltank.
Morty was harder IMO. Dang status problems.
 
419
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11
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  • Seen Aug 11, 2017
mine would have to be fantina or maylene. it took forever for my to get to fantina and her mismagius was just a pain but maylenes lucario was just so hard. In johto however it would have to be either Blue or whitney. Blue just had varying types unlike other gyms so when you send out a pokemon super effective to the current one, he sends out the nidoking and earthquakes you to death. but whitneys miltank is just a pain for everyone. especially with a quilava. ive gotten to the point in trying to beat her where i lost so many times and i dont have any money at all and i have to resort to leveling up by wild pokemon. and that takes forever.
 

Elaitenstile

I am legend
1,908
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11
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  • Age 24
  • Seen Feb 27, 2015
Probably Whitney. You know the story, don't you? Milk Drink, Rollout etc.
Second probably comes Claire, because that Kingdra is pretty damn hard to beat.
 

OmegaTL

Time Lord
59
Posts
10
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  • Age 28
  • Seen Oct 4, 2013
Gardenia, since I chose Piplup as my starter and my Starly was still pretty weak. Magical Leaf was such a pain.
 

CoffeeDrink

GET WHILE THE GETTIN'S GOOD
1,250
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Whitney is the Devil and she came down from Georgia, koff~

Attract+is+no+joke+of+a+move+either+_1cf2c9fb2c5bbf87bdc3124ced029e6f.jpg

This pretty much sums up everyone's experience with Whitney. She was hard to beat in Pokemon Silver Version and she was hard to beat in Pokemon Soul Silver Version. Some things never change, koffi~
 
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Byron was THE hardest Gym trainer I've ever faced in Gen 4. His pokemon were so annoying; because he had higher leveled pokemon, better movesets, and insanely high defense. I had to grind my pokemon one at a time and lose purposely against his last one, just so I could even the odds and be around his level.
 
38
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10
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  • Age 28
  • Seen May 3, 2014
Candice isnt the HARDEST but i would say the most ANNOYING HARD kind. First getting to her takes a while if you cant find the right path and her abomasnow can be deadly if it gets you in a grass whistle then uses wood hammer like 2 times you are going to get hurt unless you got a fire pokemon THAT LATE in the game then its going to take a while to defeat her. plus why does she have a medicham... its only ice move is the ice punch and its a fight/psychic... at LEAST she isnt that random with her team like Volkner in Diamond/Pearl...
 

MiniMinun

Azumarill Lover Since Gen II!
118
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10
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I don't remember much from Gen IV, but I am doing a HG Nuzlocke right now. Honestly, not one gym leader has given me any problem (Most of them I didn't even lose hit points). All of them but one.

That's right. Whitney.

She gave me such a freight. I had to sacrifice my random Rattata so no one else had to take the full-power Rollout... I still feel guilty...
 

KawaiiFutureFriend

Friend of the People
18
Posts
10
Years
I have no clue why I'm about to say what I'm about to say, but my god, I just always had trouble with Maylene. To this very day, I still have large issues with fighting Maylene. She doesn't seem like she should be such a difficult challenge, especially because I've seen others take her out easy. I just always lose to her. She's my Air Man, I swear.
 

AkameTheBulbasaur

Akame Marukawa of Iyotono
409
Posts
10
Years
The toughest gym leader I've battled in Pokemon Pearl was Volkner, only because he almost defeated me (but he didn't). My lead was an Empoleon (Poseidon) and my others that I remember were Palkia (Legend), Staraptor (Raptor) and Luxray (Tiger). Tiger ended up saving the day, because Legend wasn't very strong as I'd only just caught him. Raptor and Poseidon were both weak to electric type moves. I found it pretty easy overall, it was just more difficult compared to the other leaders.
 

Crystalanachrony

ℱ a e r i e . ℚ u e e n
59
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10
Years
Fantina and her blasted Mismagius always got me. Always. The rest of the Region was a pretty good challenge, but nothing more; Fantina, however, always required a lot of panicked training before I even got close to her Gym.
 

psychomew2

Rank 1: Otsdarva
129
Posts
13
Years
  • Age 32
  • Seen Jun 5, 2014
Fantina and her blasted Mismagius always got me. Always. The rest of the Region was a pretty good challenge, but nothing more; Fantina, however, always required a lot of panicked training before I even got close to her Gym.
Yeah, pretty much this. Didn't help matters that she was the third gym leader in platinum, and Mismagius is a bit op for that point in the game. At least in diamond/pearl you had a chance to have a few fully evolved pokemon of your own before you faced Fantina seeing as she was fifth, but chances are you won't have many (if any) fully evolved pokemon by the time you faced here in platinum. At least Gardinia (who also had a final stage pokemon) was weak to one of the starters, and the easily obtainable flying type.
 

Bidoof Overlord

All hail Raticate
24
Posts
10
Years
Watson.
His Magneton has about 13 resistances.
Only thing stopping it is Marshtomp and Combusken.
I took a Grovyle, knew I was dead meat.

Fantina was not hard, Candice wasn't, and even Whitney. Whitney's Miltank was beat by a below average Growlithe, I might add.

Claire... Kingdra was hard. Meganium and Lickillicky pretty much nailed Kingdra.
Sinnoh sucked in terms of Gym Leaders and Elite Four... Cynthia doesn't even deserve to be Champion. Good thing they made Platinum harder, Diamond and Pearl were child's play.
 

Crystalanachrony

ℱ a e r i e . ℚ u e e n
59
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10
Years
Whitney was reasonably simple to beat if you had a Pokémon that could withstand a few hits and you were ready for the long haul. I once took her out using only an underlevelled Murkrow.

As for Wattson... well, I only ever used Marshtomp or Combusken, so he never struck me as that big of a deal?
 
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