5th Gen Hardest Unova Gym Leader

Started by PaxAmericana March 9th, 2011 3:26 PM
  • 16382 views
  • 208 replies
  • Public Poll

Which Gym Leader gave the hardest challenge for you?

Age 23
Male
Alabama
Seen July 15th, 2016
Posted July 13th, 2016
808 posts
12.9 Years
Saw this on Serebii forums, so it migrated to Pokecommunity.

What was your hardest?

I felt that Clay was very hard.
West, on a plane bound west
I see her stretching out below
Land, blessed mother land
The place where I was born

Scars, she’s got her scars
Sometimes it starts to worry me
Cause lose, I don’t want to lose
Sight of who we are

From the mountains high
To the wave-crashed coast
There’s a way to find
Better days I know

It’s been a long hard ride
Got a ways to go
This is still the place
That we all call home

.Wolfie-kun.

The Raggedy Doctor

Age 30
Male
Inside the Pandorica
Seen November 30th, 2014
Posted October 20th, 2013
751 posts
14.1 Years
Iris, since I'm never that good against Dragon types >.>

I managed to win first time, but man that one was difficult

My Pair/Bow ties are cool

All Friend Codes - Add as 'Glyn'
Diamond: 2663-9763-5037|Platinum: 1634-6624-8742|SoulSilver: 0346-1722-8041|
|White: 0218-2733-2414|White 2: 3397-1978-8150|
Female
Seen March 27th, 2011
Posted March 21st, 2011
26 posts
13.1 Years
OH GAWD LENORA.

Seriously, the only times I've won are when her AI went stupid and made her watchog use leer or hypnosis after her herdier fainted... (I have both Jap. and American versions of both black and white...)

TL;DR: Lenora is a boss, and Retaliate = Srs bzns.
Soul Silver FC: 5457 1684 3433
Pearl FC: 3309 7022 4855

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
Chili! It's hard to train at the beginning, and without a monkey, you're screwed. And Incinerate burns away your Oran Berry, even if you are using Panpour against his Pansear. :( I didn't have too much trouble with any other leader, so... v_v
BURY ME SIX FEET DEEP COVER ME IN CONCRETE
twitter | twitch | youtube

JP

wut?

Age 32
Male
USA
Seen December 13th, 2019
Posted February 27th, 2019
2,163 posts
14.8 Years
Lenora, her Pokemon knowing Take Down was a huge pain in the ass. Elesa's two Emolga's Volt Switch were also pretty annoying, though I must say very effective. Thirdly, Burgh's bugs were quite a pain for me as I had pretty much nothing that was effective against Bug types.

The rest was pretty much smooth sailing. I did have some problems with Clay's Excadrill, though I suppose I was just not ready. I must say, never had I so many rough patches through winning my badges as I had in this generation. Was definitely fun though.
Age 29
Female
Lake of Rage
Seen December 12th, 2015
Posted August 15th, 2012
1,931 posts
13.7 Years
Burgh gave me a very, very hard time. My entire team was weak to Bug type. So I had to keep resetting the game and train until I was able to finally beat him.
<br>
Currently working on: Tales of the Abyss, Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Phantom of the Hour Glass

Nick

Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted July 28th, 2021
17,572 posts
18.6 Years
I just beat Iris, so now I can reply to this with experience.

For me, the hardest gym leader to beat was Lenora due to her always using retaliation. I had to battle her multiple times and it was just so frustrating! I only had and only wanted to use my starter to beat her.

After that, the gym leaders became extremely easy, apart from Burgh. I easily 1HKO'd most of them. But Lenora was the only gym leader that I lost against.
Male
England
Seen September 29th, 2014
Posted May 7th, 2014
62 posts
13 Years
Lenora was really difficult for the second Leader I found, Take Down and Retaliate just ripped my team to shreds every time, nothing a bit of grinding couldn't fix though.
The rest of the Leaders I haven't had any problem with at all though I am yet to fight Iris or the Ice Leader.
Soul Silver: 1978-2823-9674
Diamond: 0303-3549-5929

Use Soul Silver unless otherwise stated :)

Signomi

Age 32
Female
Britland (United Kingdom)
Seen 2 Weeks Ago
Posted October 10th, 2022
7,480 posts
17.8 Years
Because I overlevelled before all gym challenges, I didn't find any of them ridiculously hard. I didn't need to reset my DS just in case I lost, or even saved before the battle (like I usually do and everybody really should do always.)

I guess I was just confident, so I didn't find any of them any difficult than the other. But on another note, Skyla was definitely the easiest gym leader I faced, with Elesa coming a pretty close second.

Dance, Carmen! ☆★

Paired with Aizuke » @instagram

Shadow

Original Flavor Darkness

Age 34
Male
The Middle of Nowhere!
Seen August 6th, 2021
Posted July 27th, 2021
2,863 posts
19.6 Years
Lenora as the level is quite high for that stage of the game and you need to grind and/or get fighting pokemon or use rocksmash.
I will further the Lenora votes.

Her Pokemon are quite high compared to everything around her. It almost seems like she's balanced for doing after the Pinwheel Forest bit with Team Plasma.

Not to mention, she pretty much has a guaranteed KO on any non-Roggenrola Pokemon at that point with Retaliate after you take out Herdier.

Alternative

f i r e f l y .

Age 30
Male
Adelaide, Australia
Seen July 4th, 2020
Posted December 21st, 2019
4,258 posts
14.3 Years
I've only three badges in so far, and I found Lenora to be quite hard. I mean that Herdier of hers is a Take Down spammer, and a strong one at that, and Watchog is just ew Retaliation. I had to copy her strategy and pretty much kill my Cut Slave Purrloin and Retaliate back with Minccino.