[All Gen] Hardest Gym

[Splash]

What gym do you think is the hardest to finish? Puzzles, Gym Trainers and the Leader itself is a factor in this.

For me it would be Sabrina and her Saffron Gym. I could never figure out those teleporters and am I the only one who used escape rope to actually escape her gym? What do you guys think is the hardest gym to finish?

 

[Dazel]

I think it was Whitney. Her Miltank was ridiculous with its Milk Drinks, and it took me six times beating the game to finally understand the mechanics of the weird cat-walk maze. Then, when you finally beat her, it suggests you aren't getting your badge. That Gym has always been my least favourite.

Pryce and Brycen's Gyms were both rather difficult as well.

 

[Tirion]

I've only played the first 3 gens, but the two leaders I remember actually being difficult are Misty and Whitney. I think I'll have to give the top honors to Misty.

Even choosing Bulbasaur and catching a Pikachu in Viridian Forest, that Starmie would wreck me repeatedly. I'm sure the smug chunk of star-metal was laughing the whole time. Misty too. What a bully.

 

[Splash]

I also forgot to mention battling Brock in Pokemon Yellow. Oh man that was one tough rock pokemon I tell you. Also I noticed that Ice Type Gyms are the ones with lots of puzzles. They really are distinct since Ice walking is really annoying when trying to beat the gym

 

[AFeralFurry]

Misty, because I had no type advantage and had to overlevel my Charmeleon to evolve it to Charizard in order to beat her.

 

[Tirion]

Misty, because I had no type advantage and had to overlevel my Charmeleon to evolve it to Charizard in order to beat her.

Wowee!! I'm sure the rest of the game was a breeze then, huh?

 

[Pendraflare]

Tate and Liza in Emerald are a big one - with their defenses it can be really hard to have the proper coverage and/or attacks for them and they have crazy strategies including Reflect/Light Screen, Sunny Day/SolarBeam and Calm Mind, which isn't helped by what you have to do to get to them. Clair's Kingdra is pretty brutal, too.

 

[Golbit]

Tate and Liza. They were a terrible nightmare for me and my team in Pokémon Emerald. A Claydol and a Xatu. Then, Lunatone and Solrock. My God!

 

[Hiatus]

Like Dazel, I also found Whitney to be pretty tough to beat. Her Milktank was overly difficult to go up against, in my opinion; it was hard to damage, and whenever you manage to get its health down to a low percentage, it would always restore itself with Milk Drink. If you do it again, it would do the same and heal. It was quite frustrating. Plus, it also knew Rollout, and with that, it's able to wreak some major havoc. To defeat her, I've had to rely on plenty of recovery items.

Alongside, another tough Gym Leader was Clair. When I'd first faced off against her in Pokémon Silver, my entire team was taken down by her KIngdra extremely easily, with attacks such as Surf, Dragon-breath, and Hyper Beam. Her Dragonair were pretty hard to go up against, too; especially since they had access to moves like Thunder Wave.

 

[AFeralFurry]

Wowee!! I'm sure the rest of the game was a breeze then, huh?

Up until Blue, yeah. I did spend quite a bit of time doing the grinding, though, so it wasn't so efficient.

T'was awesome, however. ^_^

 

[jfuze174]

Misty's Starmie and whitneys miltank were headaches

 

[Sonata]

Pryce or Claire. That dang Kingdra always messed with me because I don't use grass types, I don't usually use dragon types or I can't get my hands on them, and I don't use electric types. And then I always forget how to navigate Pryce's gym and end up sliding around for 10 minutes or so.

 

[Emboar]

Puzzlewise, Volkner's gym is the most difficult for me. I always think that I remember how to navigate the last part of the gym, but I find that I really don't. I would even practice it when I first played Platinum.

Battlewise, I find Clair to be the hardest. When I did a Nuzlocke on SoulSilver (which I completed) the battle with Clair was THE only battle where I lost multiple Pokemon. (I lost 8 total, 2 were to Clair.)

 

[Thursday]

I'm going with Misty or Clair. Harden + Bubblebeam usually beat my Pokemon. For Clair it was Thunder Wave. Constant Thunder Wave made her battle annoyingly hard.

 

[Altius]

I found Winona extremely difficult. Her skarmory was painful enough, but Altaria just took it to a whole new level. I nearly resorted to only defeating her after getting the rain badge.

Her gym puzzle didn't make things better either. Apart from the Sootopolis ice puzzle which was a pain in the a*s and Snowpoint's ice boulder smash, I really struggled with the Fortree gym puzzle.

 

[Khoshi]

Fantina in Pokemon Diamond could use Nightmare on herself for all I care. Her Gengar and Mismagius both caused me tremendous trouble during my multiple attempts at her...so much that I put down my copy of Diamond and played some Sonic Heroes instead for a week.

 

[Mistyblu]

Misty was always brutal with her high speed starfish, the gym puzzle is also simple enough but in RB what always gets me is the trainer before her with the Goldeen. Peck and Supersonic really annoyed me back then especially since Peck would be strong against the Grass types

Morty was pretty hard to beat in GSC as well and that invisible path would catch you off guard at first. Clair was also really challenging and the boulders were not as challenging as the Ice Path but I would usually mess one boulder up and have to go back ip

 

[Tirion]

I seem to recall struggling a bit with Chuck now, too. I think it was the Poliwrath. I think.

 

[bobandbill]

Clair was tough the first time around for me back in Silver (double team? D=). And if you thought Whitney was bad with giving out gym badges, Clair just outright refused to give you hers.

Morty can be difficult at times (and his gym puzzle did require trial and error back in GSC). I agree that Winora's gym puzzle was annoying first time around too.

I think Lt. Surge's puzzle deserves mention. It's not hard, but it sure is tedious! Unless you get lucky, but it's an annoying gym puzzle usually.

Come to think of it, generally the gym leaders I had trouble battling were from earlier games, probably because I just knew less about battling to begin with. Newer games I've had less trouble in general because I know better than to have three water moves on my Feraligatr or whatnot, haha. So I do wonder if younger fans have their own real struggles in the 5th and 6th gen games that would be comparable to our tales about Whitney, for instance. Any any gym leader can be hard if you go up against them with a bad matchup and a monotype team. :V

On the flip side, X&Y did have a limit of three Pokemon per Gym Leader, which... is weird and disappointing. =/ And four Pokemon max for the E4 first time around the last two gens is also similarly disappointing.

 

[Hiatus]

Those who said Winona, I definitely agree! Her Skarmory was built like a huge tank, and regardless of how tough you hit, it would simply refuse to be damaged. Thank lord that it didn't have Roost, though (I'm not sure, but it probably didn't exist back then); if it did, it would have been even more tough.

Her Altaria was also kind of challenging to go up against, especially since it was hard to get your hands on any ice- or dragon-type TMs near Fortree or any other previous locations.

Fantina in Pokemon Diamond could use Nightmare on herself for all I care. Her Gengar and Mismagius both caused me tremendous trouble during my multiple attempts at her...so much that I put down my copy of Diamond and played some Sonic Heroes instead for a week.

Yeah, she was also pretty tough. I was able to take down her Gengar without much trouble, personally, but her Mismagius, though... haha.