Most difficult badges to achieve?

Started by Pave Low December 25th, 2014 4:31 PM
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Pave Low

Male
London
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted December 15th, 2022
3,326 posts
14.8 Years
After a fair few generations of Pokemon, we've had several Gym Leaders award different badges for defeating them, but which ones do you think are the hardest to achieve? Which ones are you most proud of earning?

Here are a list of them all to help you decide:

Kanto
Spoiler:
Boulder Badge
Cascade Badge
Thunder Badge
Rainbow Badge
Soul Badge
Earth Badge
Volcano Badge
Earth Badge


Johto
Spoiler:
Zephyr Badge
Hive Badge
Plain Badge
Fog Badge
Storm Badge
Mineral Badge
Glacier Badge
Rising Badge


Hoenn
Spoiler:
Boulder Badge
Knuckle Badge
Dynamo Badge
Heat Badge
Balance Badge
Feather Badge
Mind Badge
Rain Badge


Sinnoh
Spoiler:
Coal Badge
Forest Badge
Cobble Badge
Fen Badge
Relic Badge
Mine Badge
Icicle Badge
Beacon Badge


Unova
Black and White
Spoiler:
Trio Badge
Basic Badge
Insect Badge
Bolt Badge
Quake Badge
Jet Badge
Freeze Badge
Legend Badge

Black and White 2 additions
Spoiler:
Toxic Badge
Wave Badge


Kalos
Spoiler:
Bug Badge
Cliff Badge
Rumble Badge
Plant Badge
Voltage Badge
Fairy Badge
Psychic Badge
Iceberg Badge


I always tend to trip up at the psychic-typed gyms, especially Tate & Liza, I think they are probably the hardest overall Gym Leaders for me. It's the double battle system that makes it very hard, because if you have both Pokemon attack one, then the other Pokemon you haven't atacked will use Calm Mind and then you're in trouble. Also, the Dynamo Badge is one I struggle to achieve, because of how easy it is to get paralyzed and then Magneton confuses you 9 times out of 10. If you're Pokemon aren't in an awful situation by them, they still have Manectric in the way whos always there on hand to finish off the job.

Female
Seen February 19th, 2015
Posted February 13th, 2015
257 posts
8.6 Years
I found the following Badges to be hard to achieve:

Marsh Badge (Sabrina)
Rising Badge (Clair)
Knuckle Badge (Brawly)
Heat Badge (Flannery)
Feather Badge (Winona, Emerald only)
Mind Badge (Tate and Liza, Emerald only)

I find the Mind Badge in Emerald to be the hardest to achieve, however. Every time I defeat Tate and Liza, I always feel rather proud.
Seen January 1st, 2023
Posted March 23rd, 2022
3,316 posts
9.2 Years
Brock (boulder badge) because I went with charmander a lot and we all know the rest of the story without me explaining it.

I found Whitney hard (plain badge) when I was younger, but when replaying with hg/ss she was pretty easy. I'd say Morty (fog badge) can be a real pain with his gengar and shadow ball if your team is lacking.

Maylene (cobble badge) was difficult sometimes because Lucario is such a psyducking pain to face.

I can't remember his name, but the quake badge was also annoying because excadrill is satan

Nah

Age 30
she/her, they/them
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 5 Hours Ago
15,645 posts
9.5 Years
Clair is usually a pain in the ass to deal with, because there are seriously no good Dragon counters in Johto before that point.

Gardenia was also really terrible to deal with in my Rock monotype. I don't think I need to explain why. Funnily enough a had a fairly easy time with Maylene and Wake on that one though.
Nah ンン
“No, I... I have to be strong. Everyone expects me to."

Hiatus

Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted July 24th, 2021
12,283 posts
10.8 Years
Most difficult badge to achieve would have to be Whitney's from Johto League, without a doubt.

Whitney's team, as most of us know, had consisted of Milktank, which was quite difficult to take down on many of our ends, including mine. Its defenses were rather top-notch, as well as health, allowing it to endure a ton of hits. On top of this, this Pokémon also knew the move Milk Drink. With this, it was able to recover its health any time we wanted to, which was frustrating to see (whenever we got to get its HP down, one way or another, it'd find a way to use Milk Drink). If it weren't for that, I'm sure things wouldn't have been as challenging.

Aside from here, I feel Tate and Liza from Hoenn were also tough. Their Pokémon, especially Lunatone and Solrock, were pretty bulky; regardless of how many times you hit, they would never cease to get around to surviving and striking back. It was pretty surprising, actually. Due to similar reasons, I also found Wallace to be sort of difficult; some of his team members were quite bulky.

curiousnathan

Male
Australia
Seen October 18th, 2020
Posted October 5th, 2020
7,753 posts
13.7 Years
Icicle, Heat, Balance and Normal Badge for me.

Candice was quite challenging for me on my first playthrough of Diamond. That Abomasnow dominated, especially when my starter was Piplup (by then an Empoleon) and I had no fire type team member. :L

I found Flannery frustratingly hard in ORAS. Mainly because my whole team was weak to fire, or at least couldn't withstand Incinerate/Lava Plume.

Norman was quite hard to take down too. Especially with his Slaking in ORAS. One hit and most of my Pokemon would be down. I reaaalllly had to battle strategic against him, unlike my usual "hit hit hit" tactic on the Gym Leaders before him.

And...finally Whitney. She doesn't need an explanation. She's Whitney.