4th Gen Hardest Gym Leader?

In the remastered return to Johto, a lot of the gym leaders had their teams buffed up from the originals. New moves, stats and even the introduction of abilities changed the pace a little.

As a veteran of the series, I recall Gold/Silver and Crystal's gyms not really proving too difficult. In particular finding Falkner and just about any of the Kanto gyms a breeze.

However I find the remakes' attempt a lot more challenging. Falkner's Pidgeotto with Roost, Jasmine's Steelix with its Rock hard defences, Miltank with its Rollout and Milk Drink.

Never the less, if I had to choose one that continuously gave me trouble it'd be Claire. There's something really daunting about her and her gym in my opinion. The Dragon type user always seems to cause me trouble provided I'm not packing a good Ice type. Her diverse move sets, and now being able to call on a Gyarados as well as Dragonair(s) and Kingdra, she really was and continues to be the bane of my Johto experience.

Whitney never caused me any trouble in the remakes, oddly.


With 16 gym leaders in total spanning two regions, who did you find yourself struggling against?

Ugh, I don't really recall any of the Kanto leaders that well. It's been a while since I played that far. Sabrina was difficult, I think.
However, Claire is definitely the most difficult. I just find Dragon types hard to overcome, especially with the roster of Pokemon you're given in this game. Kingdra is especially difficult with Hydro Pump and Sniper.

It's definitely got to be Whitney. My team was very well-trained when going up against her, I believe, but her Milktank was still able to reign supreme; its defenses were simply heavy, making it extremely difficult to hurt, and whenever its health would go down to a lower amount, it'd instantly recover itself with Milk Drink. Plus, it knew Roll-out, if I remember correctly, and with that attack, it was able to take down more than three of my members pretty easily. All-in-all, it was frustrating. I was able to beat it, though, but in order to, I had to use a lot of recovery and status items.

Clair was tough, too, as her Dragonair would simply refuse to stay down. Every time I'd strike, it'd always find some way to hit back even harder. Another would be Blue; his team was built like a wall, and each of his member was able to look after each other pretty well. If you counter one of his Pokémon, he'd re-counter you with something else. Battling against him was like playing a game of chess, so to speak.

As for easiest, I'd say Brock. My Feraligatr was able to get through him very easily, without taking much damage at all.

Whitney was an extremely powerful Gym Leader for her level who can sweep most teams with that Miltank. My team was much higher level than her Pokémon, but as Ashley has said above, Miltank, who is basically a 'beef tank', reigned supreme. Its defences were trained to perfection and I could get hardly anything past her. Whenever I began chipping away at its help, it decided to heal itself with Milk Drink.

Overall, Whitney is Queen of the Stallers.

Whitney and Clair.

I beaten Whitney's Miltank by sheer luck after a ton of tries.

As for Clair, that Kingdra was annoying, it wasn't weak to Ice and you couldn't get a Dragon type pokemon at that point of the game(i think). And my Starter was Cyndaquil (Typhlosion at that point) so yeah.

^ Same, for me it was both Whitney and Clair. Whitney's Miltank = 'nuff said. For Clair, it was the serious lack of trainers in Johto that left me quite unprepared for her. Kingdra...

In my current HG Wedlocke, so far Chuck has been the hardest, but only because of a massacre of critical hits. My last remaining pair was weak to his Poliwrath, but they both lived because he was paralyzed and almost dead.

Clair was second, though. Kingdra gets two critical hits in a row, while I have Light Screen up...that is just uncalled for. Thankfully, shortly after that she was out of Hydro Pumps, so my Forretress was able to take her on. I trained my entire team to Level 41, and just for kicks she gets a critical hit Hyper Beam and leaves Forretress at 11 HP, I swear if that had killed me I would have been just done.

But yeah! That's how things have gone for me recently.

Definitly Claire cause it was rediculously boring to grind to a decent level. Im not sure but I think I had a Mamoswine then as my main muscle for that gym. Still had to get the whole team to a level where they wouldnt get totaly wiped.

Hardest for me must have been Clair, it took me a miracle to get through her and it unexpectedly happened with an underleveled Dewgong I used at the time. It's mainly because that Kingdra is strong and only weak to Dragon, and as mentioned there's a severe lack of obtainable Dragon-types prior to her unless if you managed to get a Dratini at the Game Corner that is.

Whitney however, I was oddly enough able to beat her easily.

Obviously Whitney! It's like she became even more of a pain in HG/SS. That ridiculous Miltank with Milk Drink, ans the insane defense. Second to her would be Falkner. Whitney is why I started carrying a Pokemon with Toxic and/or taunt.

Hardest for me is definitely Bugsy. I normally play through the game with Cyndaquil, so he is a breeze, but any time I do not, I have to overtrain my pokemon to be able to beat that Scyther.

Whitney was still the hardest for me in my first run through, but I usually plan ahead for her now so it's not as hard. Clair's Kingdra is what usually gets me, that thing is an absolute tank. Blue was tough too because he is very much over the rest of the Kanto levels. Morty is a pain if you get hit by Hypnosis and get Dream Eater'd to death.

Said it before, don't really understand anybody finding Whitney hard. Zubat with Taunt and U-Turn easily stopped her from Milk Drinking.

Does it need to even been said?

Whitney.


And Clair too, to a point. ;o;

I actually thought Falkner was pretty challenging for a first Gym Leader, especially when I picked Chikorita but even without that I always needed to train up a little to take him on. Chuck as well was someone I needed to grind for, my technique was training up a Venonat and when it evolved using Psybeam to take him down, although it still took a while. Finally Clair's Kingdra was also tough, I didn't have any Electric types so making do with my Grass starter proved more challenging. I agree with Sonkitts about the aura of her Gym having a daunting feel, imo she wouldn't be out of place as an Elite Four member haha :)


Whitney was always a breeze for me, I just caught a Nidoran and spammed Double Kick to take her down lol :)

Most definitely Claire for me. Besides Liza/Tate it was the only gym leader I've ever needed to save scum on. I spent a night and a morning fighting her, and actually snuck my DS into school when I thought I had a good chance at winning that morning.

On my first play through I ended up borrowing my friend's high-leveled Espeon out of frustration. {XD}

It's funny, everyone says Whitney is extremely difficult because of Rollout.
For me, I found her annoying because of Stomp! I kept getting flinched every single turn, and when I took down a lot of its hp, boom Milk Drink!

Claire is also another annoying gym leader because you're most likely not packing a dragon type or an ice type by the time you battle her. And there's like no access to an ice beam TM for your water type to dominate her. Gyarados was easy because Ampharos destroys it but Kingdra is annoying without Fairy type being introduced.

Whitney was definitely the hardest person to beat in any pokemon games ever for me. Ugh I would always hope for female pokes to beat her with. Male pokemon could not beat her. Bleahh

I don't remember being stuck at Whitney's gym, probably because I was able to overcome her since we share the same name 8) I dunno actually. I just don't really remember her being that much of a problem compared to Clair. I had a much harder time with her because her Kingdra doesn't have too many resistances plus it packs a punch with both Dragon and Water type moves, which cover a lot of different types that try and come in on it.

I'm going to say what most of people said here. I was on the edge of rage quitting against Whitney. Clair was difficult and annoying too...