That frustrating battle....

[adamant57]

I'm sure we've all had experiences of a battle being so ridiculously hard you just feel like throwing your Game Boy/DS across the room. Share your experiences. It doesn't necessarily have to be battles against gym leaders or the Elite 4. I'll start. I have at least one experience for every generation.

Generation 1:
Sabrina

Spoiler:

Okay, I think Game Freak was just screwing with us when they did this. After beating Erika, you had the option to go either to Saffron or Fuchsia City first. Suppose you skipped Fuchsia and decided to tackle Saffron first,were you in for a surprise. Not only were the levels of the pokemon there ridiculously higher than yours, they can take you out in one clean sweep. Now, consider how broken Psychics were that time, her Alakazam's special stats and the lack of pokemon that can actually counter Psychics, the whole fight with Sabrina just seem like a suicide mission.

Generation 2, HG and SS:
Whitney

Spoiler:

Ah yes, I'm sure Whotney has been a bane for most players and sent many crying themselves to sleep. The whole battle with her was just ridiculous. Her Miltank specifically. That thing had ridiculous defense which gave us a hard time. Then when you finally get her Miltank down to red, what happens?

"Miltank used Milk Drink!"

Having male pokemon didn't help either...

"Miltank used attract!"

Woe if your starter was Cyndaquil...

"Miltank used rollout!"

At least we had ghost types in Generation 2. The remake gave her Miltank the Scrappy ability which enables you to hit ghost types. Bye-bye Gastly...

But oh no, that's not the worst of it....

"Clefairy used Metronome!"
"Clefairy used Roar of Time!"

Yes, that happened to me once

Morty

Spoiler:

Immediately after Whiney was Morty. If you weren't prepared, his Gengar WILL rape you. His Gengar will constantly put you to sleep and use dream eater on you. Not only does it hurt you, it heals it too. There went all your hard work. When it's not eating your dreams, it Shadow Balls you to death, which deals ridiculous damage considering Gengar's Special Attack stat. Wanna switch out?

"Gengar used Mean Look!"

If that sleeping pathetic wreck over there having its dreams munched on was your only hope of defeating Gengar you'll have to use a revive. Which at that point of the game is a strategy that will get you bankrupt. At least we could use Geodude on it because it was part poison. Now, suppose in the remake they gave Gengar some kind of levitation ability to nullify his weakness to ground and changed Shadow Ball to a Special move that feeds off Gengar's Special Attack stat... Oh wait...

Generation 3:
Norman

Spoiler:

For those who didn't pick Torchic as their starter. This guy is only the fifth gym leader, yet he has two Slakings, which have the highest attack stat of any non-legendary Pokemon up to then and a ton of HP. Even though they can only attack every other turn, they are still capable of KOing a Pokemon in one hit. He also has a Vigoroth, which is less powerful but incredibly fast, able to attack before most other Pokemon you probably own. Finally, all three Pokemon come equipped with Facade, an attack that doubles in power if the user is poisoned, burned, or paralyzed. So if you're trying to break him with stuff like Thunder Wave, he'll just throw attacks at you that are only 10 points weaker than a Hyper Beam! and that's not counting STAB. Norman is so tough in Ruby and Sapphire that when they updated all the Gym Rosters for Emerald he was the only to get nerfed - he still has Vigoroth and a Slaking but the other Slaking is replaced with cannon fodder in the form of Linoone and Spinda, not that it makes the battles any easier with Spinda's constant Teeter dance.

Generation 4:

Cyrus. More so in Platinum.

Spoiler:

"Gyrados used Waterfall!"

Bam! Dead... Okay, lets try an electric pokemon...

"Gyrados used Earthquake!"

Dead again. Okay, let's try Gabite...

"Gyrados used Ice Fang!"

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

It doesn't help that in Platinum Gyrados has Quick Claw! So even if you have an Electabuzz, Magneton, or something really fast with an Electric attack, he might get you before you can slam him. And God help you if his last pokemon is Weavile and you didn't pick Chimchar. Even bringing in a Lucario won't save you, as the thing knows BRICK BREAK. Distortion Cyrus is far, far above anyone you've fought so far levelwise, and is absolutely brutal.

And then there's Cynthia

Spoiler:

The champion battle with Cynthia is far and away one of the most difficult fights of the franchise. Her team is very highly leveled even compared to the fight immediately before her, has varied typings, and boasts perfect EV's across the board, meaning that they're far stronger than normal pokemon that you might fight at the same level. And then there's her overpowered Garchomp... Unless you've been grinding for ages, or get extremely lucky with ice attacks, prepare to get raped. That's not to mention Spiritomb, her first Pokemon, has NO weaknesses. And the ability Pressure, which makes your attacks use 2pp instead of 1 - this could be crippling after the E4 slog.

Generation 5:
Lenora

Spoiler:

Lenora's Watchog is Lv. 20, probably a few levels ahead of your Pokemon, and knows Retaliate, a Normal-type move with a very respectable base power of 70. However, if a Pokemon in the user's party faints on the same turn, it doubles to a whopping 140, and that's not even counting STAB. Since Watchog will always be Lenora's second Pokemon, it can Retaliate right after you defeat Herdier, and it can OHKO pretty much anything you throw at it. And that it doesn't stop there! Her Watchog knows Crunch, a very powerful move at that point in the game, and can put your Pokemon to sleep with Hypnosis. Herdier is no pushover either, having stats comparable to Watchog's and knowing Take Down, which hurts a lot coming from a Normal-type.

Elesa

Spoiler:

Elesa constantly spams Volt Switch when you're not using ground types. Using Grass might seem a fair idea to resist Electric until you realise...

"Emolga used Aerial Ace!"
"Zebstrika used Flame Charge! Zebstrika's speed increases!"

Oh crap indeed. And, because there's no Geodude anymore, there are very few Ground types which resist or can take enough of a beating from Flying attacks that early on. Trying to resist both Electric and Flying attacks is a nightmare. The game is basically laughing at you as the area before her gym is completely full of Ground types, basically telling you to use those.... Until you get hit by her immune to Ground Emolgas. First thought after that is to go catch an Ice type to counteract the Flying type without losing out to the Electric type... Then you realize that it is completely impossible to get an Ice type at that point in the game, but the area with the Ice types unlocks DIRECTLY AFTER YOU BEAT ELESA. What's that? You think you can handle her Emolgas as long as you use Smack Down (which negates their ground immunity)? Well, guess what? The only pokemon you have available at that time that learns it is the Roggenrola line, which is painfully slow even when fully evolved, so even if you do try using Smack Down, you'll still likely end up taking a beating.

Ghetsis

Spoiler:

Ghetsis can be a real hair-puller, coming immediately after another difficult fight without so much as a chance to save—thankfully your Pokemon are healed fully between the fights, but this is still a trick the franchise rarely pulls. Some of his pokemon are more deadly than others; Bouffalant can rip through whole teams with a powerful STAB move (and has amazing defenses), Eelektross is an Electric pokemon with levitate, which means no weaknesses! And unlike Cynthia's Spiritomb above, it has the offensive stats to do more than stall. His main is Hydreigon, a monster of a special attacker with a wide range of moves that give it amazing type coverage. Good luck. Oh, and did I mention Hydreigon is UNDERLEVELED?!

Anyway, that's my experiences. Share yours

 

[PlatinumDude]

FR/LG: The battles against Lance and the rival. Their Pokemon were hard to deal with.

HG/SS: Red. I was underleveled, but I managed to get the job done.

R/S/E: Norman, because of his Slaking. I also had a hard time with Wallace (all 3 versions).

D/P/Pt: Cynthia. Why'd I have to go up against a level 66 Garchomp the very first time I battled her? Well, at least they made it easier in Platinum.

 

[shengar]

I'm sure we've all had experiences of a battle being so ridiculously hard you just feel like throwing your Game Boy/DS across the room. Share your experiences. It doesn't necessarily have to be battles against gym leaders or the Elite 4. I'll start. I have at least one experience for every generation.

Generation 1:
Sabrina

Spoiler:

Okay, I think Game Freak was just screwing with us when they did this. After beating Erika, you had the option to go either to Saffron or Fuchsia City first. Suppose you skipped Fuchsia and decided to tackle Saffron first,were you in for a surprise. Not only were the levels of the pokemon there ridiculously higher than yours, they can take you out in one clean sweep. Now, consider how broken Psychics were that time, her Alakazam's special stats and the lack of pokemon that can actually counter Psychics, the whole fight with Sabrina just seem like a suicide mission.

Generation 2, HG and SS:
Whitney

Spoiler:

Ah yes, I'm sure Whotney has been a bane for most players and sent many crying themselves to sleep. The whole battle with her was just ridiculous. Her Miltank specifically. That thing had ridiculous defense which gave us a hard time. Then when you finally get her Miltank down to red, what happens?

"Miltank used Milk Drink!"

Having male pokemon didn't help either...

"Miltank used attract!"

Woe if your starter was Cyndaquil...

"Miltank used rollout!"

At least we had ghost types in Generation 2. The remake gave her Miltank the Scrappy ability which enables you to hit ghost types. Bye-bye Gastly...

But oh no, that's not the worst of it....

"Clefairy used Metronome!"
"Clefairy used Roar of Time!"

Yes, that happened to me once

Morty

Spoiler:

Immediately after Whiney was Morty. If you weren't prepared, his Gengar WILL rape you. His Gengar will constantly put you to sleep and use dream eater on you. Not only does it hurt you, it heals it too. There went all your hard work. When it's not eating your dreams, it Shadow Balls you to death, which deals ridiculous damage considering Gengar's Special Attack stat. Wanna switch out?

"Gengar used Mean Look!"

If that sleeping pathetic wreck over there having its dreams munched on was your only hope of defeating Gengar you'll have to use a revive. Which at that point of the game is a strategy that will get you bankrupt. At least we could use Geodude on it because it was part poison. Now, suppose in the remake they gave Gengar some kind of levitation ability to nullify his weakness to ground and changed Shadow Ball to a Special move that feeds off Gengar's Special Attack stat... Oh wait...

Generation 3:
Norman

Spoiler:

For those who didn't pick Torchic as their starter. This guy is only the fifth gym leader, yet he has two Slakings, which have the highest attack stat of any non-legendary Pokemon up to then and a ton of HP. Even though they can only attack every other turn, they are still capable of KOing a Pokemon in one hit. He also has a Vigoroth, which is less powerful but incredibly fast, able to attack before most other Pokemon you probably own. Finally, all three Pokemon come equipped with Facade, an attack that doubles in power if the user is poisoned, burned, or paralyzed. So if you're trying to break him with stuff like Thunder Wave, he'll just throw attacks at you that are only 10 points weaker than a Hyper Beam! and that's not counting STAB. Norman is so tough in Ruby and Sapphire that when they updated all the Gym Rosters for Emerald he was the only to get nerfed - he still has Vigoroth and a Slaking but the other Slaking is replaced with cannon fodder in the form of Linoone and Spinda, not that it makes the battles any easier with Spinda's constant Teeter dance.

Generation 4:

Cyrus. More so in Platinum.

Spoiler:

"Gyrados used Waterfall!"

Bam! Dead... Okay, lets try an electric pokemon...

"Gyrados used Earthquake!"

Dead again. Okay, let's try Gabite...

"Gyrados used Ice Fang!"

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

It doesn't help that in Platinum Gyrados has Quick Claw! So even if you have an Electabuzz, Magneton, or something really fast with an Electric attack, he might get you before you can slam him. And God help you if his last pokemon is Weavile and you didn't pick Chimchar. Even bringing in a Lucario won't save you, as the thing knows BRICK BREAK. Distortion Cyrus is far, far above anyone you've fought so far levelwise, and is absolutely brutal.

And then there's Cynthia

Spoiler:

The champion battle with Cynthia is far and away one of the most difficult fights of the franchise. Her team is very highly leveled even compared to the fight immediately before her, has varied typings, and boasts perfect EV's across the board, meaning that they're far stronger than normal pokemon that you might fight at the same level. And then there's her overpowered Garchomp... Unless you've been grinding for ages, or get extremely lucky with ice attacks, prepare to get raped. That's not to mention Spiritomb, her first Pokemon, has NO weaknesses. And the ability Pressure, which makes your attacks use 2pp instead of 1 - this could be crippling after the E4 slog.

Generation 5:
Lenora

Spoiler:

Lenora's Watchog is Lv. 20, probably a few levels ahead of your Pokemon, and knows Retaliate, a Normal-type move with a very respectable base power of 70. However, if a Pokemon in the user's party faints on the same turn, it doubles to a whopping 140, and that's not even counting STAB. Since Watchog will always be Lenora's second Pokemon, it can Retaliate right after you defeat Herdier, and it can OHKO pretty much anything you throw at it. And that it doesn't stop there! Her Watchog knows Crunch, a very powerful move at that point in the game, and can put your Pokemon to sleep with Hypnosis. Herdier is no pushover either, having stats comparable to Watchog's and knowing Take Down, which hurts a lot coming from a Normal-type.

Elesa

Spoiler:

Elesa constantly spams Volt Switch when you're not using ground types. Using Grass might seem a fair idea to resist Electric until you realise...

"Emolga used Aerial Ace!"
"Zebstrika used Flame Charge! Zebstrika's speed increases!"

Oh crap indeed. And, because there's no Geodude anymore, there are very few Ground types which resist or can take enough of a beating from Flying attacks that early on. Trying to resist both Electric and Flying attacks is a nightmare. The game is basically laughing at you as the area before her gym is completely full of Ground types, basically telling you to use those.... Until you get hit by her immune to Ground Emolgas. First thought after that is to go catch an Ice type to counteract the Flying type without losing out to the Electric type... Then you realize that it is completely impossible to get an Ice type at that point in the game, but the area with the Ice types unlocks DIRECTLY AFTER YOU BEAT ELESA. What's that? You think you can handle her Emolgas as long as you use Smack Down (which negates their ground immunity)? Well, guess what? The only pokemon you have available at that time that learns it is the Roggenrola line, which is painfully slow even when fully evolved, so even if you do try using Smack Down, you'll still likely end up taking a beating.

Ghetsis

Spoiler:

Ghetsis can be a real hair-puller, coming immediately after another difficult fight without so much as a chance to save—thankfully your Pokemon are healed fully between the fights, but this is still a trick the franchise rarely pulls. Some of his pokemon are more deadly than others; Bouffalant can rip through whole teams with a powerful STAB move (and has amazing defenses), Eelektross is an Electric pokemon with levitate, which means no weaknesses! And unlike Cynthia's Spiritomb above, it has the offensive stats to do more than stall. His main is Hydreigon, a monster of a special attacker with a wide range of moves that give it amazing type coverage. Good luck. Oh, and did I mention Hydreigon is UNDERLEVELED?!

Anyway, that's my experiences. Share yours

Wow, you really have a lot of experience of having difficult fights, which is rarely do because I'm always end up overleveled my pokemon. I'm envied you for that since I'm always hoped for difficult fights.

Spoiler:

I'm having difficulties against Ghetsis's Hydreigon as well. He bring down THREE of my powerhouses pokemon, force me to used max revive three times, full restore two times and an ether. And that Bisharp, really I would have lost if my Volcarona getting a critical hit form his Night Slash.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Gen 1: The Rocket member in Mt. Moon with the Lv16 Raticate. That thing slaughtered half my team to death with Hyper Fang...

Gen 2: Whitney's Miltank the first time I faced. Since then, a female Graveler/Golem has ALWAYS been a part of my Johto teams.

Gen 3: None really stand out to me. Hardest would be Koga in LG.

Gen 4: Lucian's Lv63 Bronzong in D/P especially with the lack of Fire-types in those games.

Gen 5: All the post game guys with their Lv65-70 teams. I mean, come on! There's a 10-15 level jump over Ghetsis with nobody in between to practice on!

 

[bwburke94]

Gen 5: Shauntal. That Chandelure of hers OHKOs basically EVERYTHING.

 

[Seeds Horizon]

Gen I:

Brock- Always difficult on Yellow version, seeing as you start out with a FRIGGIN PIKACHU *Raaageee*. And added to that there are no Pokemon around the area that you can use effectively against him, so your stuck with over leveling Pikachu and even then stocking up a lot on Potions..

Gen II: Clair and Lance. The two horrid Dragon type users. Clair is a piece of cake, but Lance is another story. Most likely, his Dragonite are only a few levels below your strongest Pokemon, and his third and final Dragonite knows Outrage, probably OHKO most of your Pokemon. His Aerodactly isnt a joke either, and it can deal quite a bit of damage before you can finally take that little bugger out.

Gen III: No real trouble here, Norman a piece of cake, even the champion fell under my onslaught of attacks.

Gen IV: Didnt really play this series, so gonna skip it~

Gen V: Burgh was probably the worse, since I used Oshawott the first playthrough, and Snivy the second playthrough.

 

[Markus1992]

In the earlier days, i basically captured and trained any Pokemon i liked the look of, which of course didn't give me many advantages against 'Gym Leaders', 'Elite Four' and the 'Champion. Now, i seem to plan my teams in advance to playing a game, which means i involve Pokemon i don't necessarily like just to defeat an individual. I enjoyed Pokemon more when i was younger, i should retrace my steps. Anyways, more to the point...

Pokemon Yellow (Brock) - When battling Brock, i had Butterfree and of course Pikachu, which quite evidently doesn't give me much of an advantage. I still remember the joy i felt when i finally defeated him... on what must have been the 30th run through. :S

Pokemon Emerald (Norman) - Slaking... enough said.

Pokemon Emerald (Winona) - A speciality in the flying type, right??? So, i decided to train my Manectric to a high level, in the hopes of zapping her team out of the sky... only to face off Altaria and its earthquake. :/

Pokemon Emerald (Liza & Tate) - I cant believe no-one had mentioned this pair yet, these girls put me through hell. Not to mention their age, just to rub it in my face that little bit more. After Winona had finished wiping the floor with me, i had to surf my sorry self across the ocean just to be kicked to the ground again by these two. My Vileplume was burnt to a crisp by flamethrower, my Swampert was destroyed by solarbeam... and dare i say it, yes... my Manectric was up against earthquake once again. I was a poor excuse of a Pokemon trainer.

Pokemon Emerald (Steven) - Just as i thought it couldn't get any worse, i stumbled into Steven. All i wanted was a Bagon from Meteor Falls, but that's asking for a little too much... don't you think. I was not prepared for what he had to show me, his levels were ridiculously high... i didn't stand a chance. To this day... i have beaten him once... with the aide of a cheat. :'( I'm sorry Pokemon... god damn you Cradily.

So, Pokemon Emerald isn't particularly my favourite. But... i enjoyed it all the same. It gave me a challenge, which is what i thrive for in Pokemon. And i got to use the Pokemon i liked... :)

Whilst on the topic of frustrating battles... I was in a battle with a Fearow, and i had only one Pokemon to oppose it. However, this Pokemon has no PP for its moves... which meant i had to struggle all the way through. In addition to this torment, the Fearow was only using sand attack. Grrr... and i couldn't turn the game off because i had made so much progress since my previous save, so the first thing i did when the battle FINALLY finished... SAVED!!!

I talk too much... :/

 

[Calamity]

One that stands out to me is in gen 4, against Lucian, or more precisley, his Bronzong. I just didn't know what that thing was! Or what type, and with it having levitate and me having no fire types. Yeah. Took awhile.

 

[Jesspke]

Uhh..Lots of recalling battles...:

SoulSilver

Whitney - The hardest gym leader EVER. Even when my cosin gave me his lvl 47 Lugia to complete her with, she still nearly took me down. I was >.<ing because the battle went like this:
*Sitting in Deano's playing the DS*
Me: I'm SO gonna mop the floor with her...*
Lugia Turned away!
Lugia took a nap!
Lugia used Rock Smash! (Yeah, that's how..Unexperianced my co. is....)
*The dreaded Miltank comes out*
*At least 10 minutes later*
Lugia used Crunch!
Me & Co.: YESSSSS!
*Trades Lugia back to co.*
Lol, after that, I always dreaded that battle with whitney...

Clair - Oh, god. Typlosion, Typlosion. That was my only decent pokemon.
The thing the annoyed me most was her god damnit Kingdra.
It must have Hydro pumped/Whatever water move'd me and my Typlosion into hell,
made me cut my left and right hands off,
made my dance the tango with my poor typlosion,
shoved me and typ's heads down a loo filled with crap, then FINALLY, I strengthed the hell outta her. God, bad memories :/

Pearl

Flint - Yes, as my main was Tortie, at least lvl 70 by now, I was gettin' pwned by him. Nuf' Said.

There's more, but I can't be bothered to type :/

 

[Echidna]

the only battle that comes to mind right now is against Chuck in Hg/Ss, my god it would take me hours at him every time i went through the game. I like keeping a flrying type on me, and i usually choose the water type, both which are cruched by one or two max of his pokemon's rock slide.

 

[Hikamaru]

For me, it was the Gym Battle against Blue in HGSS, I battled with a Lv100 Swampert and swept his whole team.

But his Machamp was the problem, it kept confusing me with DynamicPunch and I had to keep switching and using Full Restores.

I eventually beat him, though.

 

[The Noob Hacker]

Gen 1: Never really had all too much trouble in this one, the E4 did give me trouble on my very first play through, but that was just because I made really stupid choices move wise.

Gen 2: Morty- I had nothing that could withstand his Gengar. Nothing. Everything that had type advantage got out sped and one to two hit KO'd.

Gen 3: Norman- This guy screwed me over, especially in my Nuzcloke run. Surprisingly, it wasn't really the Vigorath or Slaking that got me, it was his Belly Drum Linoone, I'm pretty sure that he also somehow boosted its speed. So basically I had a really fast Pokemon with 255 attack hammering down on me. Neither my Swampert, nor Gyardos, who were underleveled could beat it.

Gen 4: Never had much trouble here either. Cynthia might have put up a fight, but it was nothing I couldn't take.

Gen 5: Also, not much trouble. Most of the time, they give you an advantage right before a major battle: The super effective elemental monkey for gym one, fighting types for Lenora, the box dragon for N, etcetera.

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

Misty's never fun in Leaf Green with her Starmie, but the one, or ones I should say, that really stand out to me are Tate & Liza in Emerald. The first time I was playing it, I lost count of the number of times I had to face them.