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4th Gen Hardest Gym Leader in D/P/Pt - The Redux

Hardest Sinnoh Gym Leader?


  • Total voters
    25
50,218
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I once made a thread like this but it died out so time for a remake!

We all know there are Gym Leaders who give us trouble, but Sinnoh is notably the region with some of the hardest Gym Leaders to date.

So, which Gym Leader was the hardest for you in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum?
 

pleryt16

ERMAHGERD ITS A VAPOREON
177
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13
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  • Age 25
  • Seen Feb 19, 2013
For me, it was always Candice. I usually start with Turtwig, so I cant use him, and her Froslass sucked. It killed me so many times in Platinum, more than any other gym leader.
 
31
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12
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  • Seen Feb 5, 2014
I remember Fantina being such a pain during my first playthough of Diamond. I didn't have anything to counter her Pokemon.
 

Grif of Hearts

Que sera sera~
311
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12
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Thing is, I've never really considered any of the Sinnoh Pokemon to be particularly tough. Unlike the other regions which usually have one Gym leader that I struggle with, those in Sinnoh changed quite drastically depending on which Pokemon that I had in my team. It was different with each playthrough, and that always made it interesting.

I would have to say that Gardenia was a tough one more often than not. I never seemed to have the right Pokemon to counter her.
 

curiousnathan

Starry-eyed
7,753
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iirc, I believe the hardest for me personally were both Maylene and Candice at their respective points in the game. Maylene's team for the mostpart was quite easy to tackle, but when her signature pokemon lucario was sent out onto the battlefield, it seemed to easily dispose of my team. Candice on the other hand proved to be a pain at the beginning of our every battle. The hail, slowly dwindled my team's health down, why her abomasnow sweeped my team with grasswhile + woodhammer/hammer arm combo. I think I found the most trouble with both gym leader's signature pokemon, compared to their other pokemon in their teams, if we look at it in a larger persective.
 

Mentalii

Back
653
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12
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As far as I remember, Fantina was the hardest for me. I didn't lose against her but it was close. The other gym leaders seemed so easy compared to her.
 
50,218
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13
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For me, I agree with most of you.

It's a tie between Candice and Fantina.

Candice really gives me problems cos she likes to use Snover/Abomasnow's ability to trigger hail which sets up 100% accurate Blizzards and also her Froslass (in Platinum) has Snow Cloak, which means there's a chance you won't be able to hit.

Fantina's Pokemon have diverse attacks and there's a severe lack of Dark-types available by the time you face her. Also, that Mismagius of hers is really tough. I mean, if you're playing Pearl or Platinum there's an absolute ZERO chance of finding an efficient Dark-type to face her with, which is unfortunate for me.
 
18
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11
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The only pokemon I used in Pearl was Luxray (until post-game where I used Flygon too) so Gardenia and Candace were hard, Byron would've been hard too, if I didn't use Prinplup for the Steelix. but the hardest for me was Maylene. Lost to Lucario three times.
 
5,616
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  • Age 35
  • Seen May 15, 2023
I never had any trouble with any of the gyms in Sinnoh. Really wish they stood out more for me. If I had to choose which was the hardest, it would be Gardenia only because I usually have a team that is mostly water types when I played D/P/Pt.

I also destroyed all the gyms except Gardenia and Maylene's with a Bidoof/Bibarel....so ya...the Sinnoh Gyms really weren't hard at all.
 

Altairis

take me ☆ take you
5,188
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11
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Maylene! I don't really know why, I guess I was just underleveled and I didn't have a fire type (...lack of gen 4 fire types..) for Lucario and my flying type wouldn't be strong enough to take it out. This happened whenever I didn't pick Chimchar. =/
 

curiousnathan

Starry-eyed
7,753
Posts
14
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Maylene! I don't really know why, I guess I was just underleveled and I didn't have a fire type (...lack of gen 4 fire types..) for Lucario and my flying type wouldn't be strong enough to take it out. This happened whenever I didn't pick Chimchar. =/

Yes! My flying type would easily take out her prior two pokemon, but Lucario seemed to ground my Staravia. ):
 

PlatinumDude

Nyeh?
12,964
Posts
13
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I'd probably say Candice. Every battle with her, I have to deal with hail. She was harder when Turtwig was my starter.
 

Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'
9,875
Posts
16
Years
Candice only because she proved to last slightly longer than the rest of them. Really, none of them posed a big problem to me, not that any Gym Leader in any Pokemon game has been especially challenging.
 

Rainbow Arcanine

now known as aslan
636
Posts
11
Years
Candice I always dreaded. I never picked Chimchar for some reason and even though I had Rapidash, my team was doomed. Her team is way too powerful with the Blizzard and Hail statergy. The number of times she beat me at the last moment was painful. Maylene wasn't that much of a trouble for me to be honest. Volkner however was definitely a nightmare. My poor Pokemon fainted to all the paralysis and powerful electric attacks. He finished me off with quick attack most of the time so he's a pain :P.
 
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66
Posts
12
Years
Maylene and Fantina.
Maylene because of her Lucario. Didn't know how to deal with it.
Fantina, first of all, because I didn't know how to open her gym xD
Second, her Mismagius...
 

o Pikachu o

Pikachu
209
Posts
11
Years
None were even hard for me. The only gym I really thought was a challenge was Maylene only because of Lucario. Her other Pokèmon's were easy to kill.
 
9,535
Posts
12
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  • Age 29
  • Seen May 11, 2023
None of them were especially hard, but Byron was certainly hardest. It's probably just because I always used to skip out Iron Island (I don't like caves xD) so I was usually underleveled fighting him, plus I train mainly Grass/Poison/Bug types so I was at a big disadvantage against him, which all ended up in him being one tough cookie to defeat! Fantina is also worth mentioning, her team is very cool but pretty tough.
 
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