1st Gen Hardest Gym Leader?

Which gym leader would you say you had the biggest difficulties battling against in the Kanto region?

It depends on the team I use but most of the time it would be sabrina because on how fast and strong her team is it not help either that psychic type was so broken in gen 1

Have to agree that Sabrina is arguably the hardest of the 8 Gym Leaders due to the fact her Psychic Pokemon have such tremendous power and speed and lack any notable weaknesses other than Bug Type moves(which only appear on two Pokemon worthy of consideration or Paras and Beedril and even then Beedril has Poison Type(making it vulnerable to Psychic attacks) and Bug Type moves are nothing compared to what a Psychic attack can do). You basically just have to overpower her with a strong attack that critically hits often(like Slash). Not far behind in 2nd Place would be Koga due to Toxic(its a nasty move if utilized right) but frankly none of the Gym Leaders really pose a challenge if you train enough before facing them.

Misty having a Starmie makes for a pretty difficulty challenge; especially that early in the game. That Bubblebeam does decent damage to even types that resist it. Brock is only a pain if you started with Charmander as it's just bug/normal/flying types at the beginning.

Definitely Sabrina, but I also had trouble with Koga on some run-throughs. Especially if I skipped ahead to Fuchsia before I was ready.

Since I Choose Charmander.Misty is Hard since her Starmie so OP.even with Pikachu on my side.

thedestinedblade said:

Brock is only a pain if you started with Charmander as it's just bug/normal/flying types at the beginning.

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I don't exactly remember but, I never struggle with Brock.I only remember my Charmeleon Sweep his team with Metal Claw.

KNS27 said:

don't exactly remember but, I never struggle with Brock.I only remember my Charmeleon Sweep his team with Metal Claw.

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Charmander only gets Metal Claw in the GBA remakes. It's pretty obvious they gave them that move specifically to use against Brock so it wouldn't be as challenging as in the original. {XD}

thedestinedblade said:

Charmander only gets Metal Claw in the GBA remakes. It's pretty obvious they gave them that move specifically to use against Brock so it wouldn't be as challenging as in the original.

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Oh sorry.I guess I only remember I sweep Brock with Metal Claw.But I don't remember it original or the remake.So I must be in the wrong Generation

Sabrina sounds like a good choice, but tbh I hate Brock when I have Charmander.

Mawa said:

Sabrina sounds like a good choice, but tbh I hate Brock when I have Charmander.

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Did Charmander even have any moves early on that could affect Brock's Pokémon? Could he learn Double Kick or no?

El Héroe Oscuro said:

Did Charmander even have any moves early on that could affect Brock's Pokémon? Could he learn Double Kick or no?

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He only learn normal type and fire type moves. There's some fighting moves in TM's but you don't have them this early in the game.


I always end up with a Nidoran-M in yellow because of double kick (this game is hard with Pikachu too, you can imagine)

If you're Pokemon Red/Blue, you have one of the 3 Kanto starters. Obviously if you have Squirtle or Bulbasaur, the first two Gym's aren't too bad while Charmander is at a severe disadvantage due to having normal and fire type moves(there are no Steel, Dark or future generation types or moves to call upon).

Best means of handling Brock are Mankey(level 9 Low Kick), Nidoran(Male or Female since they both learn Double Kick at level 12) or Bug-types like Butterfree/Beedril. Against Misty, Bulbasaur owns the day again while Squirtle has some resistance to water type moves(granted Bubblebeam still does sting). With Charmander, you're at Misty's mercy so other Pokemon must be used. Pikachu is a strong counter if you use Thunder Wave to paralyze it, as would Mankey's pure power(Karate Chop at level 18 does wonders thanks to its high critical hit). You can also utilize Oddish/Bellsprout to battle her if you persevere in training them.

If you're Pokemon Yellow(like me), Pikachu is your golden boy, hence Misty is a piece of cake if you really train Pikachu hard. He learns Thunderbolt naturally at level 26, although its possible to kick her butt with Thunder Wave and Thundershocking her to victory. Bulbasaur is another option if you figure out how to acquire it(no ditto glitch necessary), as would Oddish and Bellsprout. To counter Brock, merely use the Fighting type move counters I mentioned above or use Butterfree(Beedril is unavailable).

As I noted before, Sabrina is arguably the hardest Gym Leader, regardless of what Generation 1 version you have. Of the three Kanto starters, I find Charmander to have the best luck due to Slash's critical hit chance while also having decent speed to overcome the first strike ability of Sabrina's Psychic Pokemon. Bulbasaur obviously would be a suicide mission and Squirtle would be an ok option but he's not my first choice. In Pokemon Yellow's case, while Pikachu's speed is unmatched, he simply lacks the power to knock her Psychic types out.

Sabrina is the hardest to beat, psychics were too powerful in RBY.

None. Because I caught Nidoran M early on. This is how it went:

Beating Brock was a case of using double kick. By the time I reached Misty I had Nidoking so I used thrash. Surge's Raichu was also thrashed.

Erika's, Sabrina's, Koga's, Blaine's and Giovanni's pokémon all met the same fate: X Accuracy and Horn Drill.

I'm always severely underleveled or unprepared for Sabrina. Also psychic haxx

I had to grind to capture a Scyther at the Safari Zone just so I can go beat Sabrina. She was really hard to beat.

Her, and Koga too. Both were really hard pickles.

I only played RBY once and it was a solo run so I didn't feel any leader being hard.

in FRLG however, Koga gives me the most trouble for some reason. His Minimize Muk is really annoying and a serious threat.

No pun intended, but when I was a kid it was Brock. I remember in Blue I had originally chosen Squirtle, but in Yellow I had no clue what to do till I got a Link Cable. That's when the fun truly began lolol

It's funny looking back now though and realizing that all I had to do was catch and raise a Caterpie into a Butterfree

I found the first few gym leaders difficult to defeat, but none of them specifically was "most" difficult, but still among them, i found brock difficult as i lacked metal claw from Charmander.

I think Misty wins this by a mile. Brock you could easily cheese past with super effective starters or a Double Kick Nidoran if you went for Char but Misty's Starmie just would not die and somehow seemed to do half of your HP with Bubblebeam, even if you chose Bulbasaur. I spent a long time trying to beat her the first couple times I played through!