5th Gen Train in Vain

I found it easy to over level in B/W I was 5 to 7 levels higher than every gym I fought just traveling to them as opposed to all the older games where I had to grind for ours to close the gap between me and the Gym, even with training I had to grind extra hours to get over the Gym's level to the safe point.

I didn't find it that hard because I was really overlevelled, my team were all at lv64 at the Pokémon League the first time. I have a level grinding addiction I think.

The experience system in B/W is punitive upon overlevelling, and so smaller teams, which is disdainable. Anyway, I had no personal issue with the difficulty of the game(s).

I have the tendency to grind (and slightly simultaneously EV train) my Pokemon up to the point when my Pokemon are at a slightly higher level than the strongest Pokemon in the area; because of that, I didn't have too much trouble in the gyms and Elite 4.

When I first played a Black ROM, I quit somewhere along Route 7; I never saw Twist Mountain. In that run, I had trouble in the fourth (Electric) Gym, but using save states and experimenting figured out that the leader's Emolgas were being EXTREMELY smart and intentionally using the move that is strongest on the Pokémon you have out. I developed a strategy for switching the Pokémon over and over (so that the move intended for a Pokémon weak to the move instead hit one resistant to that move) until each ran out of moves, and then wiped out the final Pokémon easily and moved on. I learned to come properly leveled to this fight, and did it extremely easily on my proper game run on the actual system. I now come to every Gym battle trying to have the main participants at or above the Gym leader's highest leveled Pokémon.

As for challenge, I found that grinding on Audinos made the game EASIER. You can hand an Exp. Share to someone who isn't strong against them and take one of the many Fighting types to go to town on them, leveling up both very quickly in the process. I learned not to put Fighting or Poison against Audinos, and the rest was elementary. I'm still grinding on Route 10 as I type (Lv.33-36 Audinos and the occasional Stoutland, I run from Emolgas to avoid the Static).

Cyclone

Outside of the first time I played through the game (whereby my team was heavily underlevelled upon reaching the Elite Four), I had no problems completing it. If anything, it was slightly easier; or at least levelling up new recruits felt a lot easier. In my latest playthrough, the newest additions to my team would catch up very quickly compared to previous games. I also never had to grind my team at any point outside of levelling up new team members.

droomph said:

Eew, so much crap. This time, I'm in trouble, because I have the tendency to overlevel one Pokémon (usually the starter) and then forget about all the rest. So this time, I told myself, "No. We are going to train them all equally." And guess what? I'm about 90 cumulative levels behind the E4 and I really don't want to finish the game now. :(

Click to expand...

You can take one Fighting Pokémon and gain 7 levels in 20 fights if you start slightly higher than the Audinos you seek out and battle. I just got Cobalion and Virizion up 11 levels each very quickly. Since I haven't finalized my team, I'm focusing on leveling up Pokémon of each type for future use along the Route 11-15 part of the circle (trainers all Lv.60+ and wild Pokémon starting in the 40s).

Cyclone

I only had trouble the first time in Black because I didn't think ahead and had a really bad team, and I was desperately trying to train a Purrloin. I would use it in all the trainer battles so then when I needed to level up my other Pokemon, I would have to grind on wild pokemon forever :/ In White it was easier, but still I was always underleveled. The fact that you can really only gain EXP from Audinos and having the Lucky Egg should have been seen by game developers, and well, fixed somehow :c

It was only difficult for me at the start since I didn't encounter any wild Pokemon so when I had to battle Cheren again he was higher level than me. Then I had like 10 Pokemon by the time I was at the second gym since I wanted to check which Pokemon were good even though I could of just checked Serebii. By the time I got to the third gym I narrowed my team down to Snivy(yes Snivy) and Blitzle. If I didn't finish the fight with Blitzle's Flame Charge I pretty much lost. I got an Archen before I got to Nimbasa but that's not going to help much, but Blitzle's Motor Drive pretty much meant invincibility there anyway. After that it just got easier especially when i got the Lucky Egg. I also had Munna throughout most of the game until I got a Moon Stone, I just chose to not include it in my battle plans since it was so slow and normally got taken out before I could do anything.

This was the first Pokemon game I actually had to use some strategy to beat the gym leaders. Before I would just kill everything would brute strength, literally. ie: Tentacool shows up, I would still double kick it with Combusken. Couldn't do that stuff in this game until I got Archen.

I think this game was pretty easy, I don't remember being very underleveled, even the Electric type gym, which is usually one of my biggest challenges because of my Water type starter that is my main Poke', was easy because I had access to Sandiles. I didn't have much problem with the E4, having to rechallenge them only once, I think, because I didn't bring enough healing items.

droomph said:

Uh yeah :c lol, but the problem is - in this game, the main problem is the Elite Four. The Gyms are incredibly easy and you can beat them with Level 38 Pokémon (as I did), but then you get to the Elite Four, and they have some Level 50 Pokémon. Route 11-15 is good and all, but if I can't beat the Elite Four, I can't train there :P

Click to expand...

You are correct. I'm grinding on Route 10's Audinos. Logically, when I feel ready to take on those Routes, I'm ready for the Elite 4.

Cyclone

I thought the game was at a very good balance point, and I only really found myself struggling at the Elite Four because I stopped doing extensive training and wanted to run through the last leg of the story.

I found the Elite Four challenging on the first go around - to say nothing of N/Ghetsis - but that was about it, to be honest. Everyone else seemed relatively straightforward, be it Gym Leaders or just regular trainers. Even during the post-game, when the levels went up significantly, it never really felt like as much of a challenge as, say, GSC or even the days of RBY. But I do have a tendency to grind to the absolute max, so others probably would have felt differently in that regard.

I think the games handled this pretty well. The new EXP system made us work harder to get to a decent level thanks to the Lucky Egg and wild Audino.

I was a bit overleveled when I got to some Gyms but the Elite Four gave me a challenge even though my team were around Level 50 when I battled them.

The post-game Trainers with Level 60+ Pokemon really took me by surprise. At least that when you get to a Gym there's a wild Pokemon in the surrounding area that has a type advantage against the Gym.

I knew the Trainers had 60s lurking. However, I've immediately found on Route 11 that the Audinos themselves got a major upgrade; they went from 33-36 to 46-47 in my first encounters. They still know Heal Pulse (learned at Lv.35), so they are more likely to heal you themselves so you can keep fighting; however, they also know Double-Edge and can hurt some of your Pokémon badly. I did defeat one Trainer on 11 and one who faced my way as I tried to sneak through on 12. I've slipped into the towns and can Fly anywhere now. I missed a shot at a Gliscor due to me leveling up my Ice Pokémon a few levels (Ice Beam was supereffective!). Especially in the post-E4, trek over to the later Routes and hunt Audino like it's going out of style; you will be able to gain at least 3,000 experience in one fight while you're still in the 50s. Already found my prime spot on Route 11 and will hang around there for a while, but I better fight the Trainers on either side to be sure I don't encounter them while weak. ;) Lv.60+ on all Trainers!

Cyclone