Everyone knows that in one way or another, the Elite 4 isn’t
some cute place that houses hopping bunnies and beautiful roses.
It does house, however, a nasty challenge for the unprepared
that tests the skill and knowledge that you’ve gained from
your journeys across the Land of Sinnoh. Lucky for you, this
guide will cover virtually every thing you need to know about
the league, plus a boatload of tips, tricks, and strategies
for preparing your team to get it through the league. Some
things that will be mentioned in this faq will require
you to do a bit of searching and catching, but nothing
mentioned in here will force you to go with a particular
strategy (for instance, I won’t say you must have so and so
Pokemon to get past a certain part. Instead, I’ll go basic.).
So with that being said, let’s get down to business.
Table of Contents
1.) Getting Started
2.) Getting a Team Together
3.) Getting Moves Together
4.) Preparing for the League
5.) The Elite 4
6.) Conclusion
7.) Legal
1.) Getting Started
Probably what winds up being one of the toughest choices in the
game will also reflect one of the toughest choices when it
comes to the league. That choice is of your starter.
Depending on whom you choose will strongly dictate how you
have to mold your team to reflect that choice. For instance,
if you pick Chimchar, then you don’t have to worry about
stocking your team with a fighting type or fire type. If you
pick Piplup, then you don’t have to worry about finding a
decent water type down the road. Turtwig is too slow, in
my opinion at least, to effectively be used at a lower level
in the league. As most people have found out, almost every
Pokemon save one or two will outrun it even in the fifties.
Its saving grace is that if you’re willing to raise it into the
fifties, you can pick up the powerful earthquake move that will
flatten a bunch of Pokemon in the league given you can survive
the ensuing attack.
Another big choice is if you’re going to attempt the league at
a lower level or break your back a bit and go for the mid
fifties. I’ll say it now and I’ll probably say it about 500
times down the road, the recommended level for the league is in
the mid fifties. The problem is you’ll either be hideously
below that (in my case, the majority of my team was in the
lower forties), or if you’ve not skipped many fights, right
in front of it. It is suggested that unless you really want
an easy time you attempt the league at a lower level. You’ll
need a bit of a miracle if you want to do it in the low forties,
however, so the mid to high forties is what most people should
do it at. If you want to do it lower, then you’ll have to do
a little trick that some of the better players in the game
called Ev training.
Ev training requires that you fight certain Pokemon in order
to acquire “Evs”. For every four points you get in a
particular stat, you’ll receive an extra stat point. Those
extra stat points can really go a long way, as it’s because of
them that people can attempt the league 26 levels below the
final Pokemon. There are a couple of other methods you can use
to get your Pokemon stronger in addition to the normal Ev
training, such as nature picking, moveset planning, and hold
item planning. Each of those topics will be covered later in
the faq. For now, all you have to worry about is what you
choose to attempt the league on.
2.) Getting a Team Together
Probably one of the hardest things to do in any Pokemon game
would be to resist making your starter some over leveled
powerhouse and making a balanced team. Now don’t get me wrong,
that doesn’t mean you’ll have to forsake all previous methods
of planning in an attempt to get this right. No, you just have
to make sure you’re getting a team of equal level together.
At the suggest level of the mid forties to early fifties, you
should have no problem getting at least three Pokemon. If you
go higher, that number slowly drops. The point is, if you’re
going to go in, at least make sure you can abuse the right
types at the right time instead of blowing fifty revives on a
single Pokemon. There are a couple of techniques that can and
should be used (such as shielding) that require you to have a
couple of sacrifice Pokemon, but as a general rule of thumb,
the higher the better.
Now, the main point of this section is getting you a team that
fits your fighting strategies while allowing you the freedom to
deviate. As I said earlier, I do not intend to tell you to use
which Pokemon where and when – that’s solely up to you. I’ll
just prod you in general types, giving suggestions of who I
think would be in your best interest to take. If you want to
use different types, be my guest. Just know that all that I’m
trying to do is get you in the best possible position to win.
Since that’s out of the way, let’s start out with basic
planning. The Pokemon league has five trainers, 26 Pokemon in
total. That’s a big number for you to deal with with only
your team of six, which is exactly why you’ll need to get
things going early and fast. If you’d do yourself a favor and
look under a Pokemon’s profile in your team menu, you’ll see a
little thing called nature (adamant, jolly, etc.). That little
word determines how your Pokemon will grow, sort of like how
we do in every day life. The problem is these natures matter
a bit more – they’ll end up adding 10 percent of a stat and
taking away the same number. As you could probably guess, it
doesn’t make sense to give an attacking nature to a defensive
Pokemon. When you catch a Pokemon during the main game, you’ll
normally have several opportunities to get another of that same
type. Do yourself a favor, and please pick the one that
compliments it rather than taking away. If you’re that
unsure, just look at the Pokemon’s stats. They usually are
an excellent guideline when it comes to picking a nature that
benefits it.
Now, below is a list of Pokemon that are recommendations for
you to use. As I said earlier, you don’t have to use any of
them. If you see a Pokemon type repeated more than once,
however, it’s a good idea to at least include a type of that
nature.
Suggested Using
Azelf: Ah, the little devil itself. Azelf can be caught on
level 50 in Lake Valor after freeing Dialga. This little
monster has an incredible speed and special attacking stat base,
plus it also gets a great movepool for you to make use of. At
level 51, it gets extrasensory. It is rec. that you teach it
psychic instead because of the higher power and special defense
drop chance. Shadow Ball is a must for the fourth member,
because this little thing will clobber him silly with it
while resisting practically everything thrown at it (save
that evil giraffe).
Gyrados: Gyrados got much better in Diamond and Pearl, so much
so that it’s now a monster to take down. You can catch its
pre-evolution very early, so not picking one of these things
up is a sin unless you’d rather use one of the other options
that the game has. Aqua Tail is the water move of choice,
Hydro Pump is an absolute waste because of it relying on its
horrible special attacking stat rather than that monster
physical one it has access to.
Golduck: If you don’t want the former, then this thing is
another decent option from which you can choose. Surf and
Raindance allow it to semi sweep, so keep that in mind when
pursuing it.
Gastrodon: Being a ground water type gives this thing a nice
movepool. At the same time it absolutely gets it killed by
grass. Gastrodon can be found early, come with good moves, and
are suggested to use throughout the game. The only problem is
that these things are slow, which can hurt you a bit.
Lucario: Lucario has a rare type combo is fighting steel, which
gives it access to some great moves at rather low levels.
Aura Sphere comes in the late thirties, while Close Combat
comes soon after. Both are great moves, although Aura Sphere
takes advantage of its slightly higher special. Dragon Pulse
comes in the high forties (level 50 actually), which can be a
great help in taking out Cynthia’s Garchomp.
Bronzong: Probably one of the best new walls in the game, this
little bugger will stall for you will you heal up your wounded
Pokemon. It gets levitate, which allows it to resist
earthquakes from potential killers, while possessing a good
assortment of moves to prolong its death.
Rapidash: Rapidash is one of the only other fire type Pokemon
in the game besides Infernape, which basically makes it
necessary considering that a good fire type would help out
tremendously. The only problem is it's garbage, practically
inferior to Infernape in every way. I think Infernape is the
better choice to go with with the league in mind, because
unlike the other two, he’s pretty hard to replace.
Roserade: Staple grass type that can utterly kill anything not
named the fourth or third member. It’s absolutely necessary
to have some type of a grass type for the second member,
because she’s torture without the super effective hits that
are needed to get it down the drain.
Gengar: If possible, getting a Gengar will make the league a
whole lot easier. Not only does this ghost killer have access
to a wide variety of deadly special attacks, but it’s also fast,
gets levitate to block out earthquake (which, not surprisingly
, more than 12 Pokemon have), and is immune to normal and
fighting type attacks. Both Shadow Ball and Psychic give
Gengar the ability to sweep out the fourth member of the
league, while the recommended thunderbolt will give you some
good power against a select few people otherwise resistant to
his set. It’s a bit risky, but on some occasions Gengar can be
used to stall if you’re sure that nothing touches it.
Staraptor: It’s a flying type that’s immune to ground type
attacks, pretty fast, and gets good attack ratings. This
Pokemon is more filler than anything else is, because more
likely than not you chose it as your flyer.
Snorlax: This lovable beast can be caught if you’re incredibly
lucky, and will give you some solid offensive and defensive
capabilities. Snorlax is a special sponge, so treating it like
that is a good idea. Crunch on the set if possible to mess up
the fourth trainer.
Raichu: The electric rodent is, in my opinion at least, vastly
superior to that lion thing. Teach it thunderbolt and focus
punch to watch the sparks fly.
Anyway, the aforementioned list is just a few Pokemon that I
suggest you think about using. In no way should you solely
make a team out of these Pokemon. Heck, some of them overlap
to be quite honest. The point is these Pokemon represent some
of the best of their respective type, which makes them
incredibly useful at lower levels if you’re going to attempt
it. If I were you, I’d try to build a team that takes
advantage of the type chat as effectively as possible,
because nine times out of ten it’s the only way you’ll be doing
normal damage if you’re fighting on a lower level. Try not to
load up on a single attack type on one Pokemon either, variety
is key if you’re going for a low level run. If you’re going
high level, then feel free to blitz them. Just be aware that
filling sets with the same type attacks isn’t recommended.
With that being said, I’d like to mention that earthquake is an
extremely dangerous move that many of the league Pokemon have
in some way shape or form. It will kill you in one hit, so the
second you see one of these Pokemon that carries it make sure
to switch out to a resistant. The game gives the option, so
don’t pass it up. In this faq I’ll try to mention the Pokemon
that carry the move, so pay attention to it. As I said,
though, just because I don’t mention it doesn’t mean that the
Pokemon doesn’t have it. Making a team to counter this move is
in your best interest.
3.) Getting Moves Together
As hard as it is to get an effective team together, it’s almost
always harder to get a good team with excellent movesets. I’ve
already said that it’s important to load your team with type
trumping attacks, now I’ll be going over where to get those
moves and how to plan with them. First off, let’s go over a
little thing I like to call stab.
Stab basically means same type attack bonus. When a Pokemon of
the same type as the move uses it, they’ll get a 1.5 attack
bonus. As you could guess, that bonus is a huge help to
Pokemon since it gives their respective elemental attacks
something that can do a dent, and in the Elite 4, it will
prove pivotal to your success. For example, Milotic is a
water type, correct. Well, actually it’s a giant snake, but
that’s another story. Anyway :p. By giving a water type move
like Surf to Milotic, you’ll get the same type attack bonus.
Surf is already powerful to begin with, so with the bonus
you’re looking at something that can absolutely kill ground
types.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Stab is great to use, but only in
certain situations. If you know that you can cover more types
with a move like ice beam, then use it over something that
would prove weaker (such as if a Pokemon’s only learnable move
would be water gun, don’t hesitate to scrap it for something
more powerful). This also means that if you’ve got an
opportunity to do both, take it.
Something else that should probably be mentioned is a small
list of moves to always avoid. You should never even think
about these moves, if only in certain, very limited, situations.
The Hyper Beams: As fun as it is to have a mega powerful
attack, you’ll get killed on the recharge turn. I don’t care
how powerful of a Pokemon you have, most likely you won’t kill
any of the Elite 4 member’s Pokemon with it in one hit, which
would be necessary to avoid the lag. The worst part is when
you don’t kill, you will. You see, in the Elite 4, especially
in lower level runs, you run a great risk of being out-speeded
and KOed very quickly. Unless you have some sort of game plan,
always stay away from anything with a lag turn.
The HMs: Most of the HMs, excluding Surf, are horrible. Once
you get to the league, do yourself a favor and scrap any HM not
named surf – you’ll thank yourself later. Most of the HM moves
come either with a lag turn or with a weak base attack power,
which doesn’t do you any good at all.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to some move
planning. Every league member, excluding Cynthia, uses a
certain type of Pokemon almost exclusively. That basically
means that you have a great opportunity to flatten them given
you get the right moves on the right Pokemon. For example,
member number two, Bertha, is a ground/rock type master. What
kills those types? Water, ice, and fighting. That means that
in that fight, save one or two Pokemon, you’ll use moves of
that type to take her out. Now, just because I say that using
a particular move type would help, doesn’t mean that I’ll ignore
other strategies to get rid of a league member. If you’re
going for a low forties run, however, take my advice and use
the following move types for the different members.
Now, just what are the best moves to use for each respective
type? Below is a small list detailing what I’ve experimented
and worked with on each trainer. Once again, if you can find
something better, be my guest. The important thing is that you
use these types for lower level runs.
Fire: Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Flame Wheel, Flare Blitz
Psychic: Psychic, Extrasensory
Water: Surf, Hydro Pump, Aqua Tail
Fighting: Aura Sphere, Close Combat
Ice: Blizzard, Ice Beam
Ghost: Shadow Ball
Dark: Dark Pulse
Flying: Aerial Ace, Fly
Now comes the fun part. Some of these moves are Tms, others
are learned by level. Below is a list of moves obtainable by
Tm to the best of my knowledge.
Fire Blast – Buy
Flamethrower – Find/Buy
Psychic – Find
Surf – HM
Blizzard – Buy
Ice Beam – Buy from Game Corner
Shadow Ball – Find/Buy
Dark Pulse – Find
Aerial Ace – Find
That list basically dictates things that you’ll be able to find
and buy. The rest of the moves are either learned or egg.
Some of the moves on that are on that list are more accurate
than others, such as Flamethrower vs. Fire Blast, but more
often than not your usage depends upon whether or not you’d
like to take a chance. My advice would be to play it safe
with moves that are more accurate, because you just don’t know
how many more turns you have to gamble. If you’re feeling
lucky, then you may want to go for the extra power and save
some cash.
Now comes the hard part, putting those moves on Pokemon that
can use them. Please, only put special attacks on Pokemon with
a decent special attack rating. Putting Hydro Pump on Gyrados
is a waste due to its horrible special attack stat. Another
thing that you have to worry about in DP is the special attack
variation on moves. You can find it in the move’s menu. Just
do yourself a favor and don’t stick a special attack on a
physical attacker.
4.) Preparing for the League
In this small section, I’ll go over the various items that are
needed, in my opinion at least, to get past the league in one
piece. It honestly varies depending on level, and you may have
to do a couple more matches with various trainers to get the
cash, but even if you are leveled, try to have what I’m putting
out.
20 Revives: Can never get enough of these things. They’ll come
in later when I discuss a technique that you should be using.
30 Lemonades: They’re cheap, they’ll save you on potions, and
they’ll make your life a whole lot easier. They heal 80 Hp a
pop, which is more than enough to fill what revive missed out
on. They’re the best healing items in the game, cheap to buy,
yet effective to use.
5 Max Revives: Why max? They’ll come in handy when I go over
the champion. Every other match in the Elite 4 will be able to
give you breaks to stall. She, unfortunately, won’t. That’s
why these babies will prove invaluable when it comes to getting
yourself prepared for her brutality.
5 Hyper Potions: These things will be used in different matches
where you don’t have the time to sit out Lemonades. If you’re
careful enough, you won’t really need to worry about using
these much. They’re great to have as back up, and that’s why
they are included.
Now that that’s been done, let’s go over a couple of the
different techniques that will be put into practice when you
go to take on the league. The below list is what I
specifically designed for these matches, and they may require
you to do a bit of prep work during the match itself if you
want to get them off.
Shielding: Ah, Shielding. This technique is exactly what it
states, you’re shielding with a blocker while you heal up.
Unlike what some of you may think, this isn’t just throw out
some useless Pokemon to go and get killed. No, this requires
you to bring a defensive Pokemon with Block. Switch it in on
something that it resists, and you’re set to shield for a
couple of rounds to get yourself together. This technique
works best with Pokemon immune to earthquake, although it can
be used at any time given you have a good Pokemon with decent
defensive capabilities. What are good shields? Bronzong,
Gengar on occasion, etc. Just be careful with when you do it.
Switching: What good is switching? Everything. Switching will
ensure you don’t get killed in five seconds. Switching should
be done in between matches, not in them. I repeat, not in
them. At low levels, most Pokemon can’t afford to take a hit
and then start the match. Don’t work like that. Just let the
Pokemon die, and then bring in your next.
5.) The Elite 4
This is what we’ve all been waiting for, the point in which we
finally take down those over hyped jerks. Well, it’s time to
get going, please try your best not to get knocked out. When I
list a trainer, I’ll go over their vital statistics, and then
go into their Pokemon one at a time until they are done. I’ll
then give a quick summery of what should be done to get you
past the league.
Elite 4 Member One: Aaron
Pokemon Types: Bug, Grass, Poison
Items: Two Full Restore
Pokemon: Five
Money Awarded Upon Win: 6840
Dustox – 53
Gender – Male
Strategy – Dustox will always be the Pokemon Aaron leads off
with, and is by nature his weakest. Dustox are generally slow,
lack many terms of offense, and will go down quickly. That’s
exactly why we’ll use him to blow his full restores on. Unlike
no other Pokemon Aaron has, Dustox really won’t be able to give
you many problems. Drapion, Heracross, and especially
Vespiquen, will. There’s different reasons for each, but let’s
just say that in any case this is the safest Pokemon for you to
do it on. Anyway, Dustox will likely fall to any fire or
flying attack, with preference on fire being as though his
defense is slightly higher. Depending on your level and
Pokemon, Fire Blast should be able to kill it in two shots.
Flamethrower will take three. It is generally safer to use
flamethrower with this, as wasting Fire Blasts is not
recommended this early on. If you don’t have access to Fire
(which you should), then wing attack should kill it in a
couple of hits. Fly is not to be used. Most likely the only
form of attack it will use is Bug Buzz, although on rare
occasions it may do something else weak.
Beautifly – 53
Gender – Male
Strategy – Beautifly is the exact opposite in terms of stats
when you compare it to Dustox. Instead of a powerful defense,
this thing has a stronger special defense. Flying attacks are
the way to go with this thing, as it will take a bunch more
fire attacks to take this thing down. Flame Wheel can finish
it in two hits, but only a few Pokemon have access to it.
Thus, wing attack or, if you desperate, fly, are the way to
go. Either way, you’ll most likely have this thing down in
short order. The only move it will really use unless provoked
by a type trump is Silver Wind. Silver Wind can be painful,
which is why I tend to use Dustox to eat up his Full Heals. He
usually leads off with this Pokemon second.
Drapion – 57
Gender – Male
Strategy – This is, without doubt, Aaron’s strongest Pokemon.
You can’t use flying or fire attacks on this thing for the type
trump, and being as though it can literally shred anything
within a few seconds, only the most powerful Pokemon on your
team should be used barring any type trump on your Pokemon.
Drapion can and will hit you hard with a variety of moves,
which makes it imperative that you get rid of it as quickly as
possible. Out of all of Aaron’s Pokemon, please don’t make the
same mistake I did and let him heal it with his Full Restores.
Just what can you do to take this thing out, then? Well, I
personally smacked it with an Earthquake from my Gyrados, which
to me at least was the safest way to go. It lasted two rounds
of Earthquake in my non-testing phase.
Heracross – 54
Gender – Male
Strategy – Heracross is decently fast, has a deadly attack
stat, and will consistently be a pain unless you take it out
fast. Flying moves are the way to go here, as you get a 4x
multiplier due to its bug/fighting type. If I were you, I’d
seriously think about either abusing Ariel Ace or Fly for this
fight. Aerial Ace ensures you’ll hit it hard, and more likely
than not will take him out in two rounds, possibly one if you
luck out with a critical. You can go the fire route for this
fight, but please, only use Fire Blast as you can’t afford to
sit on him with the way that he’ll be hitting you.
Vespiquen – 54
Gender – Female
Strategy – Normally, I’d say that this match would be a piece
of cake. Really, the only move it constantly uses is Power
Gem, a rather weak attack that won’t be able to do much at
all. One problem – it has pressure for a trait. Because of
that, you can’t afford to be throwing out moves needless. Pick
the attacks that will hit it hard and hurt it the most, because
if not, it will make you eat up much of your PP before you know
it, forcing you to use a precious either that you may or may
not have. Flying moves such as Aerial Ace get the job done
quickly enough, because barring pressure the only real thing
this bee has going for it is its attack and special defense.
Nothing big, really. Just make sure not to needless waste
anything that you don’t have to. If you don’t have Aerial Ace,
then sticking to Flamethrower is in your best interest. Why?
Because Fire Blast has only 5 PP, which is relative garbage
when you’re taking out two per turn and more likely than not
you’ll be taking two to get rid of it.
Just from the above descriptions, you can already tell Aaron’s
a pain to get rid of. He almost always leads off with Dustox,
and then goes into his Beautifly. After that, it’s really up
in the air as to what he does next. Some matches will have him
use Drapion (which is literally heck if you haven’t blown his
Full Restores yet), while others have him taking his Heracross
for a spin. He almost always uses Vespiquen for last, although
on rare occasions I caught Drapion being his last Pokemon
(which is what you pray for). All in all, Fire and Flying are
the way to go for this match.
Elite 4 Member Two: Bertha
Pokemon Types: Water, Ground, Rock
Items: Two Full Restore
Pokemon: Five
Money Awarded Upon Win: 7,080
Quagsire – 55
Gender – Female
Strategy – Quagsire is probably one of the most annoying
Pokemon in this fight. Why? It leads off with Protect, and
then begins to make you blow turns by using Dig. Both eat up
your PP, while Dig does a very large amount of damage if you
let that thing go unabated. Luckily, it’s decently slow, so
hitting it first shouldn’t be that hard of a problem. Quagsire
is 4x weak against grass, so anything in that attack type
should take it out within a turn or two. If you don’t have
that (which you should), then you may be wise to take out
Earthquake on it while it’s underground – you’ll damage it
badly and force it out. Quagsire, depending on who you’re
using, would probably be the safest Pokemon to let her blow
her full restores on. The next Pokemon may be, but in that
match, you can’t go ahead and smack it while it’s underground.
Sudowoodo – 56
Gender – Female
Strategy – Sudowoodo is probably the only other safe Pokemon
to let Bertha blow her Full Restores on, because everyone from
here on out can and will make you life miserable. Sudowoodo
knows a couple of fighting type attacks, which luckily will do
very little to a grass type. It’s rock, so fighting will also
damage it considerably if you have something along the lines of
Close Combat or Aura Sphere. Close Combat is incredibly risky
to use in a situation such as this, because the match is still
rather early and the stat drops can be a real pain depending on
the Pokemon you’re using (more likely than not it will be
either Infernape or Lucario that has it, in which case either
way they’ll both get a OHKO on the spot.
Hippowdon – 59
Gender – Female
Strategy – This is where the battle gets nasty. Unless you
have a steel or ground/rock type Pokemon on the field, Sand
Stream will be taking off a good chunk of your HP at the end of
each round, and that’s something that you can’t afford. The
worst part is you’ll have to deal with it for the remainder of
the match, which can be a pain in the long run unless by some
miracle you found a leftovers or shell bell in your journeys
(shell bell most likely). Hippowdon is your first real problem
Pokemon that you’ll encounter in the league. Everyone bar
Drapion (which even that wasn’t that big of a deal), has been
rather easy up until this point. What makes Hippowdon as much
of a threat as it is is its durability. More likely than not
it will survive several hits from even an ice type attack,
which trumps it. Both water and grass do 4x damage, so please,
do yourself a favor and get rid of this guy as quickly as
possible with them. Any water attack along the lines of Surf
or Aqua Tail will do fine, with Grass Knot practically
guaranteeing you a OHKO thanks to that fat thing’s weight. Be
careful, Hippowdon knows and will most likely exclusively use
Earthquake, although on occasion you may get a nasty Stone Edge
from it.
Golem – 56
Gender – Female
Strategy – Golem, unlike Hippowdon, really has a hideous
special defense stat. Know what that means? Roast turtle.
Ice type attacks murder it, with grass and water type attacks
practically guaranteeing you the KO. Be sure to use a special
attack, and its defense will last it out a move or two should
you not KO it. Golem knows Earthquake and Stone Edge, both of
which it will throw into the mix depending on the type trump.
On a side note, you’re more likely than not still dealing with
Sand Stream’s annoying affects, so be sure to heal up when
necessary.
Whiscash – 55
Gender – Female
Strategy – Whiscash should be basic mop up after having to deal
with Golem and Hippowdon. It has a 4x weakness to grass, which
you should exploit upon meeting it. It still knows Earthquake,
and that extra water type guarantees that you’ll be in for a
match unless you can exploit the aforementioned weakness. If
you don’t have grass (which please to god you should), then
using a basic power move to chip at it will be in order.
Bertha, unlike Aaron, is a nasty person all around to face.
Aaron gave you rests for the first two Pokemon, she’s dangerous
even in her beginning stages. Be sure to make her blow her
Full Restores on either Sudowoodo or Quagsire, because anything
after that will ensure you a long match that you can’t afford
to fight at the moment. Hippowdon, in my many tests, almost
always was used as her third Pokemon, with Golem as her
fourth. Keep that in mind when you’re healing.
Elite 4 Member Three: Flint
Pokemon Types: Fire, Fighting, Normal, Steel, Ghost, Ground
Items: Three Full Restore
Pokemon: Five
Money Awarded Upon Win: 7,320
Rapidash – 58
Gender – Male
Strategy – This is what Flint usually leads off with. I’ll put
this bluntly – Rapidash is utterly garbage. It’ll blow off a
Sunny Day on occasion, partially protecting it from water
attacks, but even that still doesn’t help it. It is fast,
however, so keep that in mind. Ground is the best way to go
with this thing, particularly Earthquake if possible. One
thing I really want you to notice is the spike in levels.
It’ll only get worse after this, so be on guard. Rapidash is
the best Pokemon out of Flint’s arsenal to make him blow his
Full Restores on, which is exactly why you should take
advantage of the opportunity.
Infernape – 61
Gender – Male
Strategy – Yet again, the levels keep on going up and up and
up. Infernape is Flint’s danger Pokemon, because it’s fast,
has incredibly high attack, and knows a bunch of moves that
will make your life miserable. Most notable is Mach Punch.
What’s so bad about that, though? It goes first. In a league
full of chances for you to go first and possibly avoid damage,
this thing will go first and likely get a OHKO on anything that
doesn’t have a great defense stat because of the nasty fighting
STAB it has. Please, do not let him use Full Restores on this
thing. The longer the fight goes, the more likely this thing
will be to sweep your team – literally.
Lopunny – 57
Gender – Male
Strategy – Fighting will kill this pathetic thing in one or two
hits. The only reason why you shouldn’t wait for this thing to
pop up to let him blow his Full Restores is because it’s
usually his third Pokemon – right after the Infernape – that’ll
make your life miserable. It knows Charm, which lowers attack,
so if your hit make sure to either keep smacking it or switch
out. Very rarely will this thing actually do damage, at which
point you’ll still be in for an easy time. There is one small
problem, though, this thing usually has the ability to come
in – and he’ll switch it out for some reason when it’s in
danger. You have a free hit, but the resulting Pokemon can
prove disastrous. Fighting is the way to go, any strong attack
to target that weak defense if not.
Steelix – 57
Gender – Male
Strategy – Steelix is only dangerous of you let it be, because
if your smart you’ll smack it with a strong ground attack
before it has the opportunity to do any serious damage to
you. It does know Earthquake, which is why I strongly suggest
you stay away from using a fire type Pokemon in this round,
even if you do get to type trump it. It has a pretty high
defense rating, and his steel typing affords him some
resistances, so be careful at any rate. Fighting still gives
you a nice weakness to hit.
Drifblim – 58
Gender – Male
Strategy – It’s a ghost type, so if that’s any inclination at
all, you’re in for a long fight unless by some miracle you have
the ability to smack it quickly with something that will hurt
it. My advice is to stick with a strong offense, as it has
very few weaknesses for you to pick easily enough on. Drifblim
has a nasty trait, aftermath, which will do a great deal of
damage upon its defeat. Be ready for some healing afterwards.
Fire is usually what I used to get rid of it, particularly a
physical type to target that defense. If not, any move that
hits ghost and is physical should do well enough, just be ready
for a long match.
Flint is someone that gives you your first great taste of a
mixing trainer in the Elite 4. He has several types at his
disposal, and his habit of switching out that annoying Lopunny
gives you a really good reason to always be on guard. Nothing
in this match will really give you that bad of a time, save
Infernape. Everything else is basically waiting out until it
falls. Just be sure to make him blow his Full Restores on the
Rapidash, because it’s all down hill from there.
Elite 4 Member Four: Lucian
Pokemon Types: Psychic, Fighting, Dark, Steel
Items: Three Full Restore
Pokemon: Five
Money Awarded Upon Win: 7,560
Mr. Mime – 59
Gender – Male
Strategy – Contrary to popular belief, this is exactly the
Pokemon you want to avoid letting sit for a while while he
blows his Full Restores. Why? Because it will put up light
screens that will make your life miserable for the rest of the
match. Hit it with a strong Ghost or Dark type move like
either Shadow Ball or Dark Pulse respectively. Shadow Ball is
preferred for this match, as it has a good chance of lowering
Special Defense while doing a very great amount of damage to
anything. Give it to a Ghost type and watch the sparks fly.
Mr. Mime also knows Psychic, which can be a problem depending
on who your using.
Medicham – 60
Gender – Male
Strategy – This is the Pokemon you want to let him blow his
full restores on, because even with Pure Power – which will
do a big amount of damage – you’ll still be in a relative
green zone because you can take it out on whim. Ghost is
much better for an attack type than Dark is, because the
fighting side of Medicham will protect it from Dark type
attacks. Other than that, Medicham is a decently fast
Pokemon that will hit decently hard while you sit it out.
Just heal and beat respectively and you’ll come out on top.
On a side note, this thing usually comes out second, although
a much worse alternative of Girafarig bares chance. If that’s
the case, shut off your game and restart right before him –
it’s not worth the struggle that that thing will cause.
Medicham is the “Safe” choice for the second match, even
though you may or may not be better rested for it at this
point. Either way, be careful when stalling this thing.
Alakazam – 60
Gender – Male
Strategy – Alakazam is what Lucian usually uses as his third
Pokemon, meaning that you may or may not want to use it as your
buffer zone for the rest of the match (worse comes to worse you
decided to fight it out with the Girafarig in the last round,
this will be your time to heal up. If you are going to heal
up, simply putting a psychic type out will more than compensate
for any damage that it causes.). Now that that’s out of the
way, let’s look at its stats. Alakazam comes at level 60, and
just loves to beat you down with psychic, it’s most dangerous
move. In general, it’s probably all that it will use save the
rare deviation, which basically means that you’ll have only a
little bit of a problem if you have a good psychic shield up.
Ghost works well if you can OHKO it with the SE hit. If you
can’t, than a good dark type is the way to go. Either way,
physical hits if possible due to its low defense.
Girafarig – 59
Gender – Male
Strategy – This is Lucian’s danger Pokemon. Why is it his
danger Pokemon? Because you can’t go the normal way with
psychic or ghost attacks. Girafarig knows both Psychic and
Crunch, giving it complete type trumping on both of the types
that would otherwise due to trumping take it out. The only
good way how to take this thing out would be to just hit it
with the best moves that you have. Either way, a good wall
that can slowly whittle it down would work fantastic here, as
this is one of those rare instances here where brute strength
may prove to backfire. If he appears second, you more likely
than not will get a Full Restore unless you took my advice and
shut off of it appears. You do not want a bad situation with
this thing, because it’s strong enough to cause enough havoc
that you’ll be too weak to take out the final Pokemon on his
team.
Bronzong – 63
Gender – --
Strategy – Bronzong is probably one of the nastiest Pokemon
in the league, simply because you’re most likely weakened
from that last brawl with that stupid giraffe. If you were
smart and popped up your team before fighting it, then you’ll
most likely have at least two Pokemon around to either shield
or be ready to heal with. What makes Bronzong as interesting
as it is is it carries both some nasty special and physical
moves – most notably Earthquake. Earthquake will end your
game here, because even with Bronzong’s low attack you’ll
still not be able to take more than two hits from it. If
you’re lucky, it will spend a couple of turns pumping itself
up with Calm Minds. That’s the point in which you either
heal or attack it without remorse, because you need to be able
to take it down now or at least be ready to when it stops.
More likely than not it will use Gyro Ball once it’s finished
Calm Minding, a move that isn’t really as much of a threat as
it is an annoyance. Better than Earthquake, at least. The
best way to go hear would be a physical fire more. Flame Wheel
works wonders, while if you did a ton of training with an
Infernape you may have Flare Blitz. Flame Wheel is the safe
choice, though. Anyway, if you can’t do that, then either
dark or ghost type attack will work, Crunch being ideal for a
physical dark type while Shadow Ball giving you some power
before it gets the wise idea to use Calm Mind. One more
thing, it has levitate as a trait, so no Earthquake for
you.
All in all, Lucian is a nasty opponent that will cause some
problems for you depending on the order that he sends his
Pokemon out. Don’t let Mr. Mime get those walls up early,
because once it does it’s curtains for a long time. Girafarig
needs to come out in the fourth position, and you need to make
sure to heal on Alakazam to ensure you’ll have two Pokemon left
for the menace named Bronzong. Depending on what you use,
either attack it early or wait it out and heal.
Elite 4 Champion: Cynthia
Pokemon Types: Ghost, Grass, Poison, Ground, Dragon, Water,
Steel, Fighting
Items: Four Full Restore
Pokemon: Six
Money Awarded Upon Win: 13,200
Spiritomb – 61
Gender – Female
Strategy – Well, this is what we’ve all been waiting for,
the champion match with Cynthia. You’re in for one heck of a
fight, so be sure to heal up before time and get ready to
rumble. Cynthia always opens up with Spiritomb, a Pokemon
that has no weakness whatsoever for us to exploit. If you
want, you can go ahead and smack it with your strongest
attacks. If you’re smart, though, you’ll go ahead and
beat up on it with status altering moves like Toxic or
Burn that will at least slow it down a bit while you chip
away at it. It’s recommended that you take this thing down
quickly, as it can do quite a bit of damage if you leave it
unattended to. More likely than not it will go last, so feel
free to do what you want to do in your rounds.
Roserade – 60
Gender – Female
Strategy – This is the most crucial round of the fight. If
she doesn’t put this thing out in this order, shut off the
game and restart. You need this thing to come out second,
because trust me, it’s probably the only Pokemon that she
has that’s safe for you to make her blow her full restores
on – and that’s not saying much. Roserade knows a couple
of powerful moves, notably Toxic and Extrasensory. For
those of you who don’t know what Extrasensory does, it
basically does decent damage and gives Roserade a chance
for the flinch. Funny part is it makes you flinch much
more often than it should. With that being said, fire moves
work wonders here, although psychic will get you the 4x damage
multiplier thanks to the poison/grass type that this Pokemon
entails. Ice is also another option, Ice Beam in particular.
Please, make sure to heal all you can on this Pokemon if you’ve
been damage a lot, because the next is a nightmare.
Garchomp – 66
Gender – Female
Strategy – You had better have an ice move for this fight,
because to be quite honest, you won’t win without it unless
you can get lucky with a critical. I can’t stress enough the
importance if making her blow her Full Restores on Roserade,
because if she doesn’t, then she’ll most certainly use them
here. You can not afford to have a drawn out match with this
thing, because the longer it goes on, the more casualties
you’ll take. Garchomp can type trump a ton of types, and it
gets even worse being as though it liberally switches between
them with the changing of your Pokemon. Earthquake is the move
you really don’t want to see, because she gets STAB on it
making it hurt like crazy. It’s a basic OHKO thanks to
Garchomp’s massive attack stat. Dragon Rush is another move
that it uses often, and since it is a Dragon Type move, you can
basically see it doing a rounded damage base to every Pokemon
in the game barring Steel, which it will promptly hit with
Earthquake. The big move that you want to see, even if it is
a guaranteed KO, is Giga Impact. Giga Impact has an insane
base power, but along with that, it also make Garchomp take a
turn out of reload. That’s your chance, because once it’s
ready, it will begin to pound you. If you don’t have any ice
moves (which you should), then Close Combats can take off about
a quarter of its HP bar – just expect to be Koed soon after.
Gastrodon – 60
Gender – Female
Strategy – After Garchomp, Gastrodon is basic mop-up as long
as you have the ability to safely dispense of its Earthquake.
A simple grass type attack is all that’s needed to make this
thing cry, as it gives you a 4x multiplier on your attack due
to Gastrodon’s incredible typing. Other than that, it only
knows Sludge Bomb and Muddy Water, which basically gives you a
safe time through.
Lucario – 63
Gender – Male
Strategy – There are two things that Lucario dislikes.
Earthquake, and Fire Blast. Both of those moves will rip
into its pitiful defenses and make this match a simple one-two-
three. If it does get a move off on you, it will most likely
be Aura Sphere. It’s a fighting type attack, so plan
accordingly. This thing is pretty fast, so make sure to be
ready to try and get around that with a good move. At this
time, she shouldn’t have any Full Restores left, so just go
agro on it to finish things up.
Milotic – 63
Gender – Female
Strategy – Please, please, please don’t mess up on this
Pokemon, especially after all we’ve been through. Milotic
has Marvel Scale, so stat altering moves are a big no no in
this fight. Milotic is a darn tank, and on top of that, it
usually has Aqua Ring up within the first round. Aqua Ring
slowly heals its HP, making the fight a long one if you don’t
plan well. It will primarily be using Surf, which from
experience is a great move to have on your side – but not on
the enemies. For their own pleasure, they decided to give
Milotic Mirror Coat. You know what that means? Instant KO if
you use a special attack on it. Really. That thing has so
much HP that even if it looks like you didn’t take a ton off,
you still did. Grass Knot, although special, will be more than
good enough to take a nice chunk out of its Hp if you’re
willing to blow a revive. If not, best attacks for this, we’ve
got nothing left to fight.
All in all, Cynthia’s a world ahead of the other trainers
here. Her attacks hurt, she doesn’t give you many heal turns,
and worst of all, her Pokemon are usually fast enough to hit
hard. Remember what I said about those Max Revives? Use them
here. Don’t wait for those stupid revives, you don’t have time
for that. Five should be more than enough to take you through
this match. Also, blow your Hyper Potions here as well,
they’ll help out greatly.
6.) Conclusion
So there you have it, a complete guide to beating the Elite
4. Many hours were spent fighting the Elite 4 over and over
again to get the data necessary to complete this, so I hope
you got something out of it. Thanks be to God for what’s been
done, because without him, I would have been way over my head
with this one.
7.) Legal
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except
for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site
or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written
permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a
part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a
violation of copyright.
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are
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