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3rd Gen Hardest Gym Leader? Easiest Gym Leader?

SuperEspeon

Sinnohbaby
180
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10
Years
Title says all.

For me, the easiest was Lt. Surge. I mean his team could have proved decent threat, if it was not for Diglett Cave right ♥♥♥♥ing next to the gym. Maybe it's just me, but Surge is kind of setting himself up for failure by making his gym right next to a cave that harbors many ground types. The hardest, however, Sabrina. Her Alakazam in particular. For one it was a pretty big level jump, and also after a couple calm minds it could be really tough to deal with.
 

FifePokemon

AlShao
42
Posts
9
Years
Based on my experiences..

Easiest: Brock, considering that two of the three starters have type advantages and the other learns metal claw at lv13. Or Blaine because i destroyed him with my Blastoise..

Toughest: Misty? Personally i've found her combo of water pulse (with an annoying, seemingly high confusion-rate) and recover a real pain at times. Also Koga's poison-types were kinda problematic for me (i think his Muk can use minimize which is infuriating..)
 
12,284
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  • Seen Oct 22, 2023
For me, easiest Gym Leader from Kanto would probably be Misty. When I had first faced her, I had an Ivysaur with me, and was able to get through her team pretty quickly. Alongside, Brock was pretty easy, too; same story, it was a piece of cake for Ivysaur. As for hardest, that's probably got to be Giovanni. Took me a while to get him beaten, haha.
 
139
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  • Seen Jul 17, 2016
Fire Red and Leaf Green are two games which you can drastically alter the difficulty of any gym leader by quite a bit in my opinion.

Easiest - It's got to be Brock. There is no difficulty here and he's barely even a gym leader in my eyes. The fact they gave Charmander Metal Claw never sat well with me. I don't understand why they needed to make it so easier especially with Bulbasaur and Squirtle having a 4x weakness over him anyway. That said, I've started files where I haven't used a starter and found him really, really tough. I guess that only emphasises how much easier they made it though with the three available.

A special mention to Blaine, poor Blaine. So much potential. His team sucks and all of them as Fire type and none resistant to any of the weakness they carry just kills that potential. Hydro Pump/Surf = Flames out.

Hardest - This is a bit tough to answer. I have nightmares about Misty's Starmie for some reason, and Sabrina's Alakazam isn't nice to deal with the lack of Dark types in the Kanto dex. If I had to choose one though I'm gonna go with Misty. Yeah she may have got a downgrade from the originals but she's still packs a punch with Water Pulse. I think the lack of any real good counters to here powerful evolved Pokémon really makes her difficult. Yeah there's Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Oddish/Bellsprout but they don't measure up to her evolution powered Starmie. Recover and Water Pulse aren't fun to contend with, is what I'm saying. Other than that I don't tend to have too much difficulty with any Gym leader. Sabrina's Psychic types can be troublesome but something with decent Special Defence is usually available and in my team.
 
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  • Age 25
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In my opinion. It would be Giovanni in fire red as he had infinite Full restores.
 
460
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  • Seen Feb 8, 2016
Easiest gym for me is always Erica, mostly because I always choose Charmander. Going on that statement, by right the hardest gym is misty unless I get a pikachu in viridian forest. Other than that the only team member I ever pick up before is pidgey so I'm reliant on "Pidgey weaken Starmie, Charmeleon go for the kill while your opponents health is low".
 
63
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  • Age 28
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For me the easiest would be Erika just because of how easy it is to get over leveled because of all the trainers you can fight before even going to her gym.
The hardest for me is either Koga, Sabrina, or Lt. Surge.
 

Kikaito plush

Angeline plushxKikaito plush
5,557
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14
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The easiest one was Erika as there was an chance to get an Flyng/fire pokemon before battling her.

The hardest was Misty as her Starmie bubblebeam kept hitting citacal everytime.
 
18
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  • Age 28
  • Seen Mar 14, 2021
I had least trouble against Erika and Lt.Surge, I'd say the most challenging leaders would be Misty and sometimes Brock, as I usually chose Charmander *o*')
 

Apollo

怖がらないで
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Brock was the easiest, and I found Sabrina the hardest. Koga was also quite a pain too.
 

dresden_88

Warden
34
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9
Years
For some odd reason, I've found Misty to always be the most difficult for me. That starmie of hers that early in the game is a massive challenge to take down. Koga used to be my weak point until I started playing with a Dreameater style Butterfree....Koga is cake now, Sabrina was never that bad since well...Butterfree says yes to Shadow Ball :3
Overall, I think the easiest trainer for me to take down since educating myself to better combos, probably Koga.
 
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Last I played (my Red Mono-Color), the hardest Gym Leader was probably Brock or Lt. Surge. The former because I kept losing with only Charmander and had to evolve it into Charmeleon, the latter because his Raichu kept using Double Team, and it really came down to the wire, but I luckily got my Gloom to poison it with PoisonPowder, and I hit twice in a row and lived with 5 HP and paralyzed. He then died from poison. I was one turn away from being left with only a Magikarp, haha.

Easiest was Sabrina, ironically. Kadabra and Mr. Mime were easy OHKOs with my Flareon's Shadow Ball, so was Alakazam. I set up Light Screen with my Electrode and switched in Flareon again, but she only used Calm Mind twice and she was an easy kill. Venomoth was no sweat either. Koga was also an easy sweep for my Jynx after I got his Muk to sleep. The rest of his guys were OHKOs with Psychic.
 

The Serious Table

Can't touch this
139
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9
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Easiest Gym Leader: Giovanni
Because he's the 8th Leader. Usually when it gets to that point in the game, my Pokemon are much better than any Gym Leaders. I also catch a Mankey early on to combat this. If not this, I get the Hitmonlee. Either way I have a high rated fighting type.

Hardest Gym Leader: They are all easy
Because Abra. I know well enough to catch this thing anyway. With this thing, having Alakazam at one point makes this game too easy.

Only Easier From Here
 
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Hardest: Probably Giovanni or Koga.

Easiest: Blaine. By the time you fight him, you usually already have a good Water-type Pokémon to use against him, even if you didn't pick Squirtle as a starter.
 
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Easiest was Brock. Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Butterfree, pick one and you're good to go. Hardest was definitely Sabrina. Only weakness in original games was Bug, and in FRLG it was difficult to have a Dark type at that point in the game. In my Nuzlocke, Sabrina killed half of my team with her Alakazam. :[
 
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Easiest was probably Brock, though Blaine and Giovanni were a breeze too. I started with Squirtle. I don't recall anything being that difficult in FRLG because I was pretty overleveled, but Misty was the gym leader I had the most trouble with when I first played Red.
 
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The easiest would have to be Blaine. His Fire Type Pokemon were nothing compared to my Dugtrio and Blastoise.

The hardest would have to be Sabrina! Psychic-types were waaaaay OP in the original games-and that's the reason why Sabrina, who uses such type, is the worst. There were no good super-effective moves to use, nor any good Pokemon to use-since a lot of Bug-types and Gengar were part-Poison, they were all weak to Psychic, and a glitch makes Ghost-type attacks have no effect on Psychics. While Mr. Mime and Venomoth weren't too much of a challenge, Kadabra, and especially Alakazam, were fast, which means more critical hits. It had high Special, and Psychic! Alakazam also had Reflect, which made defeating it more difficult.
 
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The easiest would have to be Blaine or Brock. If you picked Squirtle then both would be a breeze, and you're pretty much guaranteed to have a Water type by the time you get to Blaine as well.

The hardest for me would probably be Koga. His Muk gave me quite a lot of trouble, especially as it spammed Minimize and Acid Armor. Even if you used a Ground type he could still give you trouble due to Weezing and most Psychic types were too frail to last long enough to beat him, especially if he used Self-Destruct.
 
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Hardest? With Charmander it's Brock, Metal Claw's a physical move so you need a lot of levels on him. But overall, Misty is the hardest - confusion from Water Pulse is a real ♥♥♥♥♥, and Bulbasaur's type advantage is generally off-set by the sheer speed and power of Starmie (I can have a team of Bulbasaur and Pikachu and still struggle).

Easiest? Probably Viridian's mystery gym leader :P
But seriously, everyone has a water-type by that stage, my preference for Bulbasaur and Charmander means I either have an immunity to his STAB or a way of hitting super-effectively also.
 
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