Who did you find to be the toughest/easiest gym leader so far?

[AsNKrysis]

So I know topics like this have been posted many times in the past, but now everyone here has clearly gotten their fill of the game up to the end of E16. With Hardy, Amaria, and (most popular) Titania showing up soon in E17, let's take a look back at all the Hell we've been through. I play on Set by the way so it's hard as balls for me to face these gym leaders.

 

In your personal opinion, who was the toughest and who was the easiest gym leader you faced in Reborn?

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Toughest for me:

Noel.

Little bastard kept destroying my team countlessly. It was raining for the WHOLE MONTH (Thank God this'll be fixed in E17) so I wasn't ever able to light up the field in flames. And of course he gets literally 2 of the 3 normal-type tanks (Wigglytuff and Clefable). It took me over a week to beat this little edgy kid, and here was my strategy.

 

Team:

A-Aron (Aggron with Weakness Policy)

Mizukage )Greninja with Sea Incense)

Kuru (Espurr with Light Clay)

Waiban (Noivern with Wide Lens)

Shades (Krokorok with Dread Plate)

RK9 (Arcanine with Charcoal)

 

Battle:

1st - Wigglytuff vs. A-Aron: Wigglytuff Dazzling Gleams A-Aron twice, A-Aron Iron Heads it to death.

 

2nd - Porygon Z vs. Kuru: Porygon is sent out, I can't switch out between that due to Set battle style so I have to switch out to Kuru in the middle of battle. Kuru is sent out and gets hit by a Tri Attack. Kuru sets up Light Screen and gets hit by another Tri Attack. Kuru sets up Reflect and gets hit with another Tri Attack. Kuru gets in a Psychic before fainting to the last Tri Attack.

 

3rd - Porygon Z vs. Shades: I switch into Shades and he starts putting in work. I needed that Light Screen up by Kuru so that Shades wouldn't get destroyed by Tri Attack. Shades Earthquakes Porygon Z to death.

 

4th - Cinccino vs. Shades: Not much I could do here, Cinccino had Bullet Seed with King's Rock so Shades was dead. I got in one last Earthquake before getting murdered by Bullet Seed.

 

5th - Cinccino vs. RK9: Since I couldn't light the grass on fire, I had to just hit Cinccino as hard as I could until it died. RK9 sends out a flurry of Fire Fangs and Heat Waves where he was left with half health after taking out Cinccino.

 

6th - Swellow vs. RK9: There was so little I could do against it due to rain, especially once it got its burn. I got in a slightly weak Fire Fang before RK9 was down for the count by being hit from a Brave Bird and Facade.

 

7th - Swellow vs. Waiban: I needed to outspeed Swellow, and there was only one Pokemon in my arsenal capable of doing so (Well, 2 but I had to save Mizukage for later). Waiban gets in a Super Fang to put Swellow to half health. Swellow Facades and brings Waiban to half health. I take out Swellow by having Waiban use Hurricane.

 

8th - Girafarig vs. Waiban: Waiban was at half health, and Girafarig's electric moves would bring it down low every single time. I get a Super Fang in before Waiban is taken out.

 

9th - Girafarig vs. Mizukage: Mizukage used Dark Pulse.

 

10th - Clefable vs. Mizukage: I NEEDED to one-shot this thing. It's a damn murderer. But none of my Pokemon were capable of doing so. Not without any boosts. I had to heal A-Aron back to full health in order for A-Aron to live when he gets sent out. Mizukage was still a Dark Type from using Dark Pulse and having Protean, so he gets demolished by Clefable.

 

Last - Clefable vs. A-Aron: The final stretch. EVERY SINGLE ONE of the my other Pokemon are FAINTED. It's down to A-Aron, who I could use Iron Head with but wouldn't be able to one-shot Clefable without an attack boost. That's why I equipped the Weakness Policy and healed A-Aron fully. Clefable clearly outspeeds my A-Aron and uses Hidden Power (which just has to be Ground Type, of course Ame would do this to us). A-Aron is left with 1 HP due to Sturdy and Weakness Policy activates, giving it that major attack boost that I need. Then A-Aron Iron Heads the living crap outta Clefable and OHKOs it, giving me the win.

 

I tried this battle over 40 TIMES before finally getting it. I literally studied which Pokemon he would send out against mine, which moves he would use against mine respectively, and find out everything my Pokemon were capable of doing on the battlefield. At the end, I was left with only 1 Pokemon left at 1 HP. I don't understand how much closer that battle could've gone for me. But by far was it the most tortuous thing I've ever went through in this game.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Easiest for me:

Radomus.

Yeah, by far it was the easiest. Why?

Adamant Natured Krookodile with Moxie spamming Earthquake. 

Yep, that's literally all I did. I one shot all of his Pokemon. I had to Super Fang his Gallade at first, but then Shades just went to town on his Pokemon. Super easy, especially when Waiban was team battling with him so he'd never get hit.

 

I could've also said Serra because her field and what typing she specializes in made it so insanely easy for me to just have RK9 use Heat Wave over and over and over, but it just wasn't as easy as it was with Radomus.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anyway, what were you guys' toughest/easiest gym leaders?

[pokemastercj1]

I think you reminded me who the toughest gym leader was, I had always said corey (and he's still an absolute ass) but come to think of it, though I beat noel on the third try, it came down to his clefable and my drapion and I had to PP stall it to win, I did crap for damage even with cross poison and it did over half to me. I won because I had bought like 70 strawberry ice cream. I ended the battle with 5. Easiest was Adrienn, Since I was sick of the team I had used most of the game, because all of them except charizard were slow and couldn't live hits (This team was Charizard, Ampharos, Golem, Scrafty, Drapion and Beartic. Sounds like a defensive team but even Golem's sturdy was useless) , I decided to finally look up where to find some useful Pokemon for a last-second Power squad! I kept Charizard and scrafty but added Lapras, Eelektross, Flygon and the new god, a shiny Metagross (which by the way I had no ghost types for, only thunder wave, so I had to watch 3 of them kill themselves before catching one). Adrienn swept my whole team, except for my metagross, who swept Xem in return in the first attempt. Made all the more hilarious because Adrienn's field effect increased the power of steel type moves.

[BurningToTheLast]

Well, the hardest for me would probably be Aya, because she had such a diverse arsenal that it was hard to beat her even with a swoobat and a Swampert on deck. Gengar would shut swoobat down hella quickly, and venusaur would literally tear swampert to pieces, i had to get my timing down, and with some luck, i finally beat her.

 

Easiest gym battle(s)(?) was probably Kiki or samson because Swoobat + Simple + Calm Mind + Psychic/Air Slash + Fast as hell = win.

[Sceptilespy]

Corrosive Mist Corey and Ciel consistently give several ass whoopings to my team so idk who to choose. At least they both have set up fodder mons being Grimer and Archeops respectively. 

[2awk4u]

Surprisingly my hardest battle had to be Shelly, i had to keep soft resetting i had no flying type, my starter was only a marshtomp who couldn't stomp anyone on her team out til all the giga drainers were knocked out. so far my easiest battle was Serra, with my Magnezone and Arcanine stomp her out. lots of violence in my battles tho 

[mde2001]

I've always stuck by Kiki being the hardest gym leader for me. Realistically, it isn't because she's actually that tough, but my first time playing through the game my team was really awful at that point and I was using an unpheasant with air slash to try to beat her. However, due to the field, every time unpheasant used that move its accuracy was lowered. Rather than being sensible and training a new pokemon, I persisted with the same strategy, meaning it took me about 60 battles to beat her. 

 

Easiest for me was probably Terra. I just had stuff that could beat all of her pokemon and I ended up not losing anything to her, which was a nice change given how awful I am at the game. 

[seki108]

--For the hardest, it was either Shelly or Charlotte, both in ep 16.   I was definitely not used to the system (or any amount of competitive battling competence....even against an A.I.).

 

In hindsight, I had the right tool to stop the rain (Fake out on Meostick), but I never thought of using it to stop Illomise's Rain Dance........thus I couldn't just torch the field.   If I had a Rock type, it would have also been easier, but nothing that early interested me.  I mostly had to brute force it and had to rely on a mon obeying me even after it leveled up mid-battle; also, I had to evolve Greninja then de-level it, since it's second evo wasn't sufficient.

 

I was determined to beat Charlotte without using Rain Dance, even going as far as to EV train my Pokemon using the last of the friendship berries I had.  I think in the end I still had to use Rain Dance, though I might have gotten through without it.  I can't remember clearly a this point.

 

 

 

--Luna was by far the easiest, being the only leader I beat on my first try in (my one run of) Reborn so far, though some of that was getting used to system.  I guess I just had the right mons with me.   

 

I only had to reset once or twice for Samson and Noel, with the Samson loss being carelessness on my part, so they were  close second for easiest this time around.

Edited November 30, 2017 by seki108

[bamboozler]

Hardest battle for me is always Corey. Partly because of not having a fully evolved team that can deal significant damage/tank, partly because his Crobat just sweeps everything at the end. 

 

Samson was pretty easy with a fast Psychic or Flying pokemon. 

[Dragoknight]

For me, I'd have to say Ciel was the toughest. The problem I had was with Acrobatics and Earthquake. I think my problem was mostly my terrible luck with the field. Most of her 'mon would spam Acrobatics or EQed my team to oblivion. I tried at least a dozen times with different strategies. I realized that my team just sucked at the time so I tried training up a Rypherior from a Rhyhorn off of Route 2.

When I finally got through her first 5 pokemon, suprise! EQ! Mega-Altaria's here!

So, after some stress reducing exercises and a couple more tries, I finally got it. After an arduous battle of taking out her 'mon 1 by 1 immediately followed by a revenge kill from her, the gods decided to show mercy and told her AI to have Altaria use sing. It missed, and then Gardevoir earned its spot as the MVP of the playthrough with a Moonblast to decide the fate of the universe.

 

As for the easiest, probably Sampson. Only needed Acro Crobat and Mamoswine to take him out. I'd say Terra but the only reason I beat her with 1 'mon was from BS luck rather than actual strategy.

[SilverAngelus]

Much like Dragoknight, I think Ciel was the toughest gym leader. She's the ultimate gym leader I've ever faced because I couldn't beat her and then my save was lost. She's that one leader who I could not beat. And I rise to episode 17 to go and obliterate her! Mega Altaria, just you wait! Steel type Silvally is gonna rock your world!!!

[Maqqy]

For me, Aya was the hardest mainly because of her setup moves with toxic spikes and spikes with the corrosive field. Second would be Ciel because I had no viable electric type on my team that time. Both I had to battle almost 15+ times.

 

Easiest was Charlotte. I had Flygon with Earthquake to thank you for that battle.

 

[Firestorm]

I've played this twice, and the answers for each playthrough are completely different tbh.

 

The first time I played, the hardest was Charlotte. I'm pretty sure I had to battle her like 20 times before I finally took her down, my team did NOT have anything to take her down and I was debating just quitting the game for good whoops. Easiest was surprisingly Noel, I know everyone finds him insanely difficult, but i swept the team with a Magcargo (got a couple shell smashes off immediately and swept). This first playthrough the later gyms were all impossible because I refused to switch any of my team out so I was in the 70s with a team of six i got before the second gym including a Magcargo and a Pachirisu, the second I finally beat Ciel and got told I got to the end I was so relieved, the torture was finally over...

 

The second time I played (my current save), Shelly ended up being the hardest, which I did not expect at all! I remembered her being easy the first time, but the second time playing I just had nothing to use against her. Ciel was a close second, Mega Altaria is still a nightmare. Easiest was probably Luna?

[Timber Dragon]

Back in the Ye Olde Days before field effects were a thing, Florinia, Aya, and Noel were tied for my three absolute hair-tearing borderline-rage-quitting nightmares, especially Noel. His team hits hard and is damn near impossible to totally defend against. His counters against Fighting-types are so good that unless you have something OP like Speed Boost Blaziken, you might not even wanna bother with Fighting-types. He's only manageable now because his field is easy to abuse.

 

These days, Serra might be the easiest for me, even if it's just because I always remember to bring someone with Magnitude or Earthquake into the fight. Serra has the most annoying field, but it's the easiest to get rid of and it's laughable how crippled her team is without it.

 

My hardest one depends on what kind of run I'm doing, but Corey seems to consistently give me problems. He has a nasty field effect that under normal circumstances you have no real way to completely manage at that point in the game -- no good (or any?) Steel-types and no Pokemon with moves that can reliably counter the field. The most you can do is make his field a slightly less dangerous version, then hope for the best with what you got. Crobot + field + Nasty Plot + Venoshock is pretty much a game over if you let him set up.

[GuillerXD]

In my first  playthrough the leader I found the hardest was by far Shade, gengar was very fast and continued using thunderbolt all the time that because of field hited very hard all my team, and the that chandelure....I needed more or less 10 attempts to finally defeat him (i almost turned in to a savage that the guy in the center spoked too lol) , now the easiest was Serra, luckily infernape close combat never missed.
Now in my Ice monorun the hardest as Charllote, took me i think 20 attempts and even so:
 

Spoiler

And my easiest as Luna because Beartic's superpower and Mamoswine's earthquaker taked care of her alone.

Edited November 30, 2017 by ~ Guiller ~

[Whitelight]

I mean I understand the nature of the topic of this thread, but to me there isnt really a "hardest" leader. it just depends on who your team is atm. IMO the only way to determine who the hardest leader is would be if you caught and trained a direct counter team for each leader (using only pokemon you could legitimately obtain up to that point of course) and then run through each leader like that. THEN you could truly say a gym leader was "more difficult" if it was powering through a team designed to beat it. I have had trouble with Noel before in certain runs but i learned after a while he crumples to any pokemon with a good setup. All you have to do is stall out on one of his tanks by paralyzing it and repeatedly dropping its stats until it practically cant hurt you then throw in a set up sweeper with d-dance, belly drum, howl, etc and boost its speed either through a move or give it an xSpeed and then blow through the rest of his team.

[Endless_TGX]

 My hardest was Shelly, when I first went into that battle I had high hopes...dear god I was dumb. That Rain Dance set up is a pain, Anorith with Rock Slide wipes out any hope for Flying types, Wormadam's Steel/Bug typing, and Heather the Yamega...the soul reason I both hate and love Yamega now. I love Shelly to bits, but I despise her as an opponent.

 

As for my easiest...I would have to say either Florinia or Adrienn. For Florinia I had Trubbish, Tranquil, and Pancham at the time so that battle went by very quickly, Adrienn I had a chance to prepare myself and with the help of Garbage the Garbador and my newest edition Metallica the Shiny Bronzong with Heavy Slam and the Heavy Metal ability it went by with no problems.

 

I'm 50/50 for the next three. So here's to the future and the pain of battling.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Endless_TGX

[Dante52]

It's fun reading who people thought was hardest. For me it was probably Ciel. She just kicked my butt. I finally got so sick of it that I wound up Pressure-stalling her with Dusknoir and Ultra Potions until she just Struggled to death. Not very proud of that victory. 

 

Shelly gets an honorable mention. I think I laughed maniacally when I finally got that field lit up. And then I watched her pokemon burn. I wasn't bitter

Easiest would probably be Kiki or Sera... Probably Sera I think Kiki was just some BS luck with Noibat. Donphan earthquaked right off the bat, and then Delphox, Toxicroak, and Pangoro mopped everything up pretty effortlessly.

I wonder if she'll get A-ninetales to help counter fighting types... 

Edited November 30, 2017 by Dante52

[Yagami]

I had like 3 and a half playthroughs:

The half playthrough: Aya,the very first time I played reborn.I had no idea about the type chart and Aya's bulky pokemons schooled me.Heck,it was the first time I even saw a dragalgae.Then I rage quit hence the toughest for me.

The actual first playthrough(that I finished): With the help of RNG,I won with a lucky hyper voice against Aya.But the toughest gym leader for me was Charlotte.Charlotte basically plays like me which is hyper offensive except she is better at it.Then I again lost interest for the time being until I suddenly won with trick room + double rock slide combo.The easiest for me was Shelly.Just a simple fake out+fire pledge combo.

The second playthrough:This time I choose blaziken.It was first time using a blaziken and I was happy with it's performance.This time the easiest gym leader for me was Luna.Obviously because of speed boost,bulk up blaziken with HJk.The hardest for me was Ciel.Because noe of pokemons were that bulky.Hence 110 BP acrobatics tore through everything.

The third playthrough:This time I played on hardcore.But because of previous playthrough,it was much easier even though starting from Shade,gym leader had mega evolution.The easiest was Radomus because I sweeped him with a nasty plot mismagimus.The other leaders I sweeped were Noel,Luna and Adrienn.

[Rainlove]

The hardest battle with me was Shelly! That was the only battle that I didn't enjoy to be honest! I spent an entire day soft-resetting. she always started with her Rain Dance strategy. Kills all my Pokemons with in like 4 turns. I tried almost everything, and won by luck!. The easiest for me was Shade, I just suckered Punch his entire team with Croagunk.  

 

One was extremely hard to me was Noel as well. Mostly because of his fast Porygon-Z. Once I bypassed Porygon and Cinccino, he was a piece of cake.

[Paperblade]

1 hour ago, Timber Dragon said:

My hardest one depends on what kind of run I'm doing, but Corey seems to consistently give me problems. He has a nasty field effect that under normal circumstances you have no real way to completely manage at that point in the game -- no good (or any?) Steel-types and no Pokemon with moves that can reliably counter the field. The most you can do is make his field a slightly less dangerous version, then hope for the best with what you got. Crobot + field + Nasty Plot + Venoshock is pretty much a game over if you let him set up.

Only steel types are Klink line and Wormadam. They're not good (4 of his pokemon have coverage that SE Steel), but they do have a really funny niche: in Corrosive Mist field both of his Crobat's attacks do Poison damage, so you can totally cheese his most threatening mon with a Klink you just caught without training it at all

Edited November 30, 2017 by Paperblade

[Ainz Ooal Gown]

For me...

On my first one.... the hardest one will be Ciel. Because goddamn, even when i had Emolga back then, she still crushed my team real easy. But the easiest one is Luna, because Scrafty is the MVP in that battle ( yes, that mon rekt 4 of her mons with HJK and Moxie ).

 

On my second one.... suprisingly it was Samson. Because his coverage move equipped Machamp always destroyed at least maybe 2 or 3 of my mons. And the easiest one is still Luna. Blaziken ( i didn't think much about strategy back then ) with Speed Boost and Sky Uppercut and Scrafty with the same setup as my first playthrough did their job splendidly.

 

 

Edited November 30, 2017 by Ainz Ooal Gown

[Wolfox]

Hardest: Serra. I fought her before she had a Mirror field and let's just say that She send me packing many times.

 

 

easiest: Floninia. simple reason really. I was able to get a Magikarp back in the day and I did. so I had a Dragon Raging Gyarados and a Braixen that completely send her packing

[J-Awesome_One]

Hmmm... Hardest for me, I'd have to say Kiki and/or Charlotte. They usually ALWAYS destroy me and I only ever really beat them thanks to lucky crits. Haha.

 

Easiest for me is... Julia. But I mean I ALWAYS beat her. So if I had to choose someone else, I guess I'd have to say Luna. Idk why but it's so easy just to sweep through her team.

[Mimikyu]

Terra was super easy to me for whatever reason, but the devil incarnate herself Ciel....

it took me 2 months of on and off attempts to finally beat her stupid face

[Fabidieboy4]

For me I have to say that the most easy where Serra and Radomus.

But I always have trouble when I battle against Corey, so I would say that he is the most difficult for me.