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5th Gen Hardest Gym Leader in Black/White?

Zeostar

Zeostar

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    In context, this is my first playthrough, and I'm approaching the 6th gym. Which I'm guessing is flying. Although I played on an emulator, I found the phone screen made it hard to enjoy and as a result I never finished. Unlike now, where I bought an actual copy from GameStop.

    I've taken one loss so far, to Clay. The way my team is constructed, he destroyed me. I was hoping he would send out Sesmitoad, but it was Excadrill, which I feared greatly.

    Since my team consists of

    Pignite (Outspeed and beaten in one hit).
    Tirtouga (My water type, which which was outspeed and had a bad typing for this).
    Sigilyph (Could not touch Excadrill).
    Scolipede (Faints to one Rockslide, 4x weakness).
    Stoutland (Could not touch Excadrill).

    I had no idea this would be so hard, but after years of playing, it really shows me how team construction changes the difficulty. Had I properly prepared for this, I probably would have breezed through. I ended up looking up the location for the eviolite and scald, which helped me win the 2nd time.

    I'm more interested in answers for the original game, in what people here found difficult. I've yet to play Black/White 2, but I've also heard it offers a challenge. Due to changing up the moves on my team, I don't expect difficulty for the final two gyms. Although I could be taken by surprise again.
     

    strangerhypno

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    Yeah pokemon games are generally easy, but sometimes your team could screw you over. Excadrill is a generally overpowered pokemon, ground steel + 135 base attack and high speed.

    But overall I think I struggled with Elesa the most, her volt switching Emolga screwed over my Dewott and Tranquill back in 2010 where I was completely unfamiliar with the new pokemon then. I completely forgot what else I had though. I think Clay may have given me trouble too. For me mid game is where the difficulty spikes for both BW/B2W2.
     

    Percy

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    • unova was challenging imo. starting with that normal type gym leader who spammed work up. but i got the most trouble from elesa. even with a krookodile, i had trouble with her darned emolga. it can't use volt switch but it has air slash (emolga has high SpA and it has a flinch chance)
     
    Zeostar

    Zeostar

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    Elesa was challenging. My team in the original post clearly doesn't match up well against her either. Although I believe I used Return to weaken everything that was volt switching around, until they were in reach where I could win with Aqua Jet. (Although I had to use revives, I avoid them in battles unless I actually feel like I'm going to take a loss).

    The normal gym was exploitable. Her strategy involved knocking something out with Retaliate. I had a few things in my team I caught temporarily, so I sent one of them out to take the hit. Though I admit, it might have been harder if I didn't have a fighting type on my starter.

    Excadrill does already have 135 attack, to make it more difficult, the AI is intelligent. If you stay in with something that can't do enough damage, it'll start raising its attack with Hone Claws. In my case, Aqua Jet wasn't doing much. It gave her one opportunity to use Hone Claws, and at that point I could do nothing.
     

    strangerhypno

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    Yeah BW was the first time I noticed myself struggling, first few gyms was okay for me. After Skyla it became easier for a bit. E4 and Ghetsis was tough, Stoutland and Samurott carried me, the rest of my team was useless especially Simisear. I also think the AI was smarter like you said and had better coverage moves than previous games.
     
    Last edited:
    Sydian

    Sydian

    fake your death.
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    • bw was surprisingly difficult when it wanted to be. the second gym leader (lenora??? i'm probably completely wrong) wrecked my shit for a while.
     
    VisionofMilotic

    VisionofMilotic

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    • Clay. Even though I had a partial type advantage with the 2nd stage grass starter Servine, I still could not get pass Clay on my first attempt. While I had some other close battles before and after like Elesa and Ghetsis, Clay was the only fight I flat out lost to, and had to do over.

    His star pokemon Excadrill is a really powerful pokemon, and if he is allowed to set up he can sweep through your entire team. I knew exactly what he was doing, but I could not shut him down in time on my first playthrough.

    Even though it was Excadrill that went in for the kill, my problems arose before that. Krokorok is the pokemon to watch. It is frail, and cutting through it looked like short work. It seemed like a prime opportunity to set up my own pokemon with a coil. However, this is a pure evil pokemon dreamed up by the scummiest of trolls. If you don't straight up one shot it, then this little monster can remain a thorn in your side, even after its brief time on earth has ended. While Krokorok won't be killing many things, every move it knows is ANNOYING.

    It knows swagger to get you confused, so that you will hurt yourself (badly I might add due to the stat boost) and not be able to attack Excadrill, giving Exacdrill potentially multiple free turns. This is what happened to yours truly.

    Alternatively Krokorok can use bulldoze, so that your speed will be very low and Excadrill can have the first move, either to straight out attack you or set up on you. The other annoying one is the move torment, so you can't use the same move consecutively. So if you had a strong super-effective move to use against ground or steel type pokemon then you won't be able to spam it against Excadrill. Did you use a water move to take out the Krokorok? Well if Krokorok used torment then that move is disabled on your next turn, and no good against Excadrill. Now you have Excadrill taking less damage and able to set up.

    Even if you switch out to end the effect of some of these cheap status conditions, you are still playing into Clay's hands, and giving Excadrill a free turn. Almost no matter what you do Excadrill is setting up.

    While you should try to kill Krokorok right away. This spawn of Giratina has a way of living with an invisible focus sash just long enough to launch an attack. Your best hope is to pray for the 1-4 chance that Krokorok selects crunch before dying. The strong damage output and defense drop is the least bad thing it can do before you square off with Excadrill.

    While some people hate Whitney's Miltank, I don't. I don't dislike Elesa's Emolga either. I'm generally a forgiving person. The trechery of the sandile line however is unforgivable. I'll always remember the crimes of Clay's Krokorok and Grimsley's Krookodile. I will never complete the Unova dex because i don't want these pokemon anywhere near me. I won't catch them, and if anyone dares trade me one then I'll release it back into the swamp. Die Krookorok!
     
    lillipup03

    lillipup03

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    • In Unova as a whole, surprisingly it was Cheren in BW2 since you don't have access to any fighting types (that I know of) and his Lillipup is... fun. But in Black and White specifically, I'd have to say that Elesa's team challenged me the most. Of course it all depends on the Pokemon you have on your team, but that's all I have to say.
     

    strangerhypno

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    Cheren was easy for me. I found B2W2 to be easier overall than the original BW, dunno why. Maybe because I used older pokemon.
     
    Homeskulled Kid

    Homeskulled Kid

    Banned
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    • It's a toss up between Clay and Elesa, though Dryden certainly gave me cause to disintegrate my lungs through too much screaming. Some say that Pokémon is good for your mental health, but the physical side of things can prove... painful.

    I remember everyone ranting about Lenora, but she posed no threat to me. Not until one of my later runs, when I discovered the conjoined horror of Hyper Fang and Hypnosis. Chances are I'm mistakenly thinking of BW2, though...
     
    Zeostar

    Zeostar

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    VisionofMilotic said:
    Clay. Even though I had a partial type advantage with the 2nd stage grass starter Servine, I still could not get pass Clay on my first attempt. While I had some other close battles before and after like Elesa and Ghetsis, Clay was the only fight I flat out lost to, and had to do over.

    His star pokemon Excadrill is a really powerful pokemon, and if he is allowed to set up he can sweep through your entire team. I knew exactly what he was doing, but I could not shut him down in time on my first playthrough.

    Even though it was Excadrill that went in for the kill, my problems arose before that. Krokorok is the pokemon to watch. It is frail, and cutting through it looked like short work. It seemed like a prime opportunity to set up my own pokemon with a coil. However, this is a pure evil pokemon dreamed up by the scummiest of trolls. If you don't straight up one shot it, then this little monster can remain a thorn in your side, even after its brief time on earth has ended. While Krokorok won't be killing many things, every move it knows is ANNOYING.

    It knows swagger to get you confused, so that you will hurt yourself (badly I might add due to the stat boost) and not be able to attack Excadrill, giving Exacdrill potentially multiple free turns. This is what happened to yours truly.

    Alternatively Krokorok can use bulldoze, so that your speed will be very low and Excadrill can have the first move, either to straight out attack you or set up on you. The other annoying one is the move torment, so you can't use the same move consecutively. So if you had a strong super-effective move to use against ground or steel type pokemon then you won't be able to spam it against Excadrill. Did you use a water move to take out the Krokorok? Well if Krokorok used torment then that move is disabled on your next turn, and no good against Excadrill. Now you have Excadrill taking less damage and able to set up.

    Even if you switch out to end the effect of some of these cheap status conditions, you are still playing into Clay's hands, and giving Excadrill a free turn. Almost no matter what you do Excadrill is setting up.

    While you should try to kill Krokorok right away. This spawn of Giratina has a way of living with an invisible focus sash just long enough to launch an attack. Your best hope is to pray for the 1-4 chance that Krokorok selects crunch before dying. The strong damage output and defense drop is the least bad thing it can do before you square off with Excadrill.

    While some people hate Whitney's Miltank, I don't. I don't dislike Elesa's Emolga either. I'm generally a forgiving person. The trechery of the sandile line however is unforgivable. I'll always remember the crimes of Clay's Krokorok and Grimsley's Krookodile. I will never complete the Unova dex because i don't want these pokemon anywhere near me. I won't catch them, and if anyone dares trade me one then I'll release it back into the swamp. Die Krookorok!
    Click to expand...

    While I didn't mention it in the original post, my team had damaged themselves in confusion 5 times total in the battle, due to swagger. That still might not sound too bad, but effectively it's like losing 5 turns.

    I did not complain about it though, since I'm pretty sure I would have lost to the Excadrill anyways.
     
    Noblejanobii

    Noblejanobii

    The Maddest Shaymin
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    • It's been a while since I played non-randomized versions of these games but probably Elesa and Clay. Emolga and Excadrill are tough pokemon to combat if you don't have the right set up to counter them.
     
    Inner Rhymes

    Inner Rhymes

    Rhythm & Poetry.
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    • I struggled with Elesa when I played BW for the first time. I was 15 I believe and I chose oshawott as a NY starter. Back then I'd only train my starter and so needless to say, I was getting walloped.
     

    Digifiend

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    lillipup03 said:
    In Unova as a whole, surprisingly it was Cheren in BW2 since you don't have access to any fighting types (that I know of)
    Click to expand...
    Two options there. Evolve Tepig to Pignite. Not only is it overlevelled at that point, it has a fighting move, Arm Thrust. Or, you can get Riolu at Floccesy Ranch, 5% chance.

    Homeskulled Kid said:
    I remember everyone ranting about Lenora, but she posed no threat to me. Not until one of my later runs, when I discovered the conjoined horror of Hyper Fang and Hypnosis. Chances are I'm mistakenly thinking of BW2, though...
    Click to expand...
    Lenora isn't a gym leader in the sequels. Cheren replaced her.
     
    Last edited:
    Living Arrow

    Living Arrow

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    For me, Elesa has got to be the toughest. That Emolga duo in B/W can be a real pain and there's not many Pokemon that you can pick up before that stage in the game that don't have a weakness to at least one of the moves held by her team members.

    I hear what everyone is saying about Clay but if you have Dewott or Servine he really isn't that bad. Drayden in B2/W2 can give a heavy challenge if you let him set up with Dragon Dances - he certainly gave me more of a challenge on my most recent playthrough!
     
    Zeostar

    Zeostar

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    I finished my first playthrough. Finally.

    The 7th and 8th gyms were no problem at all. I expected more from the 8th gym leader being Dragon, but she didn't use anything besides Dragon Dance. The Haxorus started to seem so scary, but it didn't attack. The puzzle to the gym leader was very fun however. I loved turning the dragon heads.

    Elite Four was challenging. I did not grind before it, so I had mid level 40's. I used many revives. For having the same types, they had their weaknesses covered decently.

    N was easy. Ghetsis was not. He was a monster, story wise and battling him. I replaced my Sigilyph for Zekrom when offered. I remembered Ghetsis team well enough from Ultra Sun, so I knew Sigilyph would be almost completely useless. The Hydreion completely destroyed me the first time. So again, my team was:


    Emboar (Defeated by Surf)
    Carracosta (Defeated by Focus Blast). I attempted to Shell Smash on the Cofagrious, but was burned. And it was still slower than Hydreigon.
    Excadrill (Defeated by Focus Blast).
    Scolipede (Defeated by Fire Blast).
    Zekrom...I thought this would help me. Killed in one hit by Dragon Pulse.
    Stoutland. (Defeated by Focus Blast).

    So I won on the second attempt. Stoutland defeated the Hydreigon. I froze it with Ice Fang, but he immediately thawed and missed Focus Blast. Then I proceeded to flinch it twice with Ice Fang and KO'ed it with Return. It was extremely lucky on my part. For the rest of the battle I set up Sandstorm with Excadrill and used Sand Rush on Stoutland to defeat his team.

    I really liked playing through this, and I will surely do the post game. Not my best idea using a sand team in game, but it was fun.
     
    Last edited:

    Pixel_Platinum

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    I have never played Black 2 or White 2, but in White the hardest gym leader to me was Lenora. It's been a while, so I don't really remember why, but I actually never beat her. I handed my game to a friend and they did it.
    I managed to beat Elesa after I evolved my Dewott, but she did give me trouble as well.
    And Ghetsis was a nightmare.
     
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