What strategies do you use to battle leaders/bosses?

[Shia]

Now that E17 is finally publicly out, no doubt that many will replay the game again from the start. Me included considering Gen 7 is finally in the game. Reborn's been a very very difficult game, so what do you do to counter many of the difficult boss fights in game?

Do you build up a whole team centered in one strategy? Like creating terrains, baton pass set-ups, weather teams, etc? Or do you simply just grab lots of Pokemon that can do well in many fields? Do you go for a very hyper-offensive direction, or a very stall-ish one? Or maybe you go for monotypes? I'm really interested to see what sort of unique strategies you guys use. 

[Rainlove]

Throughout my run, stat based moves helped me a lot. Mostly Trick Room, Confuse Ray, Screech, Nasty Plot and Toxic. I don't really follow a specific strategy. I just keep soft-resting until I win. I struggled a lot with Shelly and Titania. I was able to win against Shelly by luck to be honest. Psybeam confused a lot of her Pokemons, and they all hit themselves. As for Titania, I won because of Gigalith's sturdy ability. Other gym leaders were not as difficult.

[Maqqy]

I formulate my team with a variety of movesets, type and stats so each and every one can be an ace. No types are the same, and my team needs to have these following requirements:

 

- A barrier mon (has learned Light Screen, Reflect and Aurora Veil).

- A mon that can set up a weather (Sandstorm, Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Hail).

- A mon with status moves (Thunder Wave, Toxic etc.).

- A mon with Perish Song or Destiny Bond (For major bosses).

 

EV training is vital in my opinion so I also incorporate this method. You also need to cater a team which can do well in doubles. For example, one mon has Earthquake and the other is a flying type (or has the abilities: Levitate, Telepathy etc.). Another example is one mon is a poison type and the other one is a steel type. So I mostly prefer a setup, terrain changing, weather enforcing, offensive team in a hellish game like Reborn.

[BRS swag]

I mainly focus on mons with tanky personalities (or medium tanky but can take attacks) like empoleon, swampert,etc. Speed is immaterial, better if lesser coz trick room is one of my strategies. Although, some exceptions such as Noivern, Gardevoir(not defensive, but my fav, will be always there) are present for the time being. My team does best in doubles. @Maqqy, we share a similarity here. My EV training spread is also similar to the tankiness I desire. It's mostly like this 170HP, 84 Def&SpDef, 172 Atk/SpAtk, subject to changes in case of low base hp mons. EV training is most preferrably done in multiples of 4(as each stat gains a point from 4 of its EVs)to ensure maximum EV utilization. But, 510/4 isn't a multiple of 4, so, you'll often come up with some difficulties.

[GenEric]

5 of my mons are sweepers that can take two hits or more with the exception of ninetales with aurora viel

[FairFamily]

I build around certain gimmicks. Right now my team is build around passive damage: leech seed , toxic, entry hazards, trapping moves. That doesn't mean the pokemon all follow that strategy but they must support it.

 

Within that strategy there are still counters prepared for bosses or leaders. For instance delphox is meant to cripple boss monsters with either mystical fire or will-o-wisp.

[BRS swag]

4 minutes ago, FairFamily said:

I build around certain gimmicks. Right now my team is build around passive damage: leech seed , toxic, entry hazards, trapping moves. That doesn't mean the pokemon all follow that strategy but they must support it.

 

Within that strategy there are still counters prepared for bosses or leaders. For instance delphox is meant to cripple boss monsters with either mystical fire or will-o-wisp.

The entry hazards are very useful. I tend to use it sometimes too. Mostly on gym leaders whom I can't take down by brawn power.

[ShadowStar]

I mainly take advantage of Inverse Terrain in order to open up more weakness on my opponent's team.

[guidy]

I don't care about IV's/EV's so my gameplay has to lie somewhere else. I just think of a way to get around the field terrain to make it an even battle and use the mons that I have.
I recently started a run which I allow myself only gen7 pokémon,  so i guess I'll have a bit of a harder time, but I'll see where it goes.

[Maqqy]

@BRS swag Our EV Spreads are similar, however I only prioritize Speed, Atk/SpAtk and HP (depends on the bulkiness of the mon like yours).  Nature is also very important as it could greatly help your mons lacking stat or rather increase offensive power (and we have Mr. Psychologist in 7th street to thank for that).

[BRS swag]

Yup. True that. Luckily enough we don't have to breed mons for nature and IVs

[Egzample]

Brute force. Sheer force doesn't work? Use a hammer. Still troubling? Swap the weakest team member, repeat.

[HAWmaro]

My most common strategy used, is Venusaur Sleep powder into blaziken setting up to sweep or a Mon using sunny day so venusaur comes in, sets up and sweeps.  

Simple but depending on the bosses team one of those usually works Perfectly or takes down most of his team. with greninja or garchom plugging any holes I need(got them both in wodner trade fairly early in this run) and Jolteon providing support moves as needed(replaced with Togekiss next episode probablly).  

Otherwise I change sets occasionly depending on enemy, for example i used petal blissard venusaur with choice band against Amaria in Doubles and it compeltly destroyed her team.

[phoenica]

In E16 i always had at least 1 mon that could abuse any given field at the time. Later I got rossarede that would set up grass terrain, and than either typlosion for erruption sweep, or tanky dralage for toxic field. Always had at least 1 trick room user and destiny bound for bosses. It felt very cheesy, so this time i got more standard team.

 

4 - 2 special / 2 physical, and 2 tanks/bulky mons (physical / special). I use sword dance lucario / Sniper Kindra for sweep potential, and flygon /gardevoir as more all rounder attackers.

Though i still have problem with amaria with this setup, even though i have 2-3 water mons for her
Will probably replace 1 attacker for Aloan Ninetails, so it can set up auroa Veil

[Jess]

After my original run and my shiny run, I started going for monotypes. In my first two runs, the plan was to get pokemon I really like (up to, say 12-15), then test the waters vs a leader. See what their strategy is, and study Bulbapedia to alter movesets and team comp around to counter that. But never add a certain pokemon only to defeat a leader. That's a bit cheap in my eyes. It isn't really, but I don't like doing it.

With monotypes, strategy is simple. Gather pretty much every available pokemon as soon as you can (providing it has the correct type, of course). Then, again, check the leaders strategy and make a team comp/moveset around it (e.g. Chaarlotte relies heavily on attacking moves that target both 2 opponents (Eruption, Heat Wave, Rock Slide Darmanitan). So, I used Wide Guard).

 

EV training is a must to me as well. And some move breeding too, but I've never done IV breeding for perfect mons. Natures aren't THAT important either, as long as it isn't as terrible as a Modest Mienshao or something similar.

[Azeria]

Usually just speed control with Trick Room, Tailwind or Sticky Web. Rhyperior quickly became a favourite of mine due to Trick room.

[Shia]

Interesting answers! Since I'm the one who asked anyway, I might as well give some of my strategies too. I'm a very theme-centric player, so I always build my teams based on a specific strategy too. Usually I go for either field-dependent or weather-dependent. 

My most favorite strategy currently is my Psychic Terrain team. Based on Oranguru setting up with another lead, then following up with my dangerous duo of Clefable and Gengar. I've always liked the theory about Gengar being Clefable's shadow, and what better way to prove that theme by using them both at the same time? With Psychic Terrain, Hypnosis has 90% accuracy, which I further boost with some Wide Lens on Gengar. With Follow Me on Clefable, Gengar is safely protected from any attacks, as Hypnosis is sure to cripple one Pokemon, while Follow Me soaks up the other. After that, Hex is boosted into astronomical levels due to the status infliction and the field boost, which I then use to basically nuke everything into oblivion.

 

I LOVED curbstomping Adrienn with it, and I can't wait to use it on the gym leaders in E17. It is a bit tricky to pull it off completely though, as it can go very wrong very quickly if the opponent manages to break free from it. Either you steamroll them or they steamroll you. But after that, it's just an endless nightmare for them. 

 

(Also forgot to mention that Gengar is actually unavailable as of now. I only got mine through trading from an older save file which had it.)

[Alaris]

In my first (and only) run (ep. 11) I basically abused parafusion with Pachirisu. Needless to say, I had trouble with some leaders (especially during the approximately 200 attempts to beat Aya).

[LeesusFreak]

I abuse BP teams (the inclusion of a certain Z-move made me inordinately happy). Drifblim blasting minimize and Scolipede have cheapened sooo many fights for me.

Or I do something super weird. One playthrough I passed in a Shelder that just wrecks face. Another was a team of glass cannons-- Banette, Blaziken, Sharpedo, and the like. 

[SpottedZebra]

I beat most of the 1-on-1 battlers with a shell armor Torterra that was bred with stockpile, and partially ev'd in def / sp. def cuz the more def you have to begin with, the more you gain from buffing it. (correct?) It starts with reflect / lightscreen by a prankster holding light clay, then let that die so torterra comes in fresh with the screens. If stockpile successfully reaches x3, which it will against pretty much anything other than ice types thanks to having potions in story mode, removing it with attack moves becomes impossible since he can't be critted. For the few that have an answer, caveman style is fine. Screens opening still cuz why the hell not, but then follow it with well-built glass cannons instead.

[MetrololAce]

One of my favorites on the replay was Bennett. I hit his first super hard with a rock move then when he starts over powering me with quiver dance I swapped in a Pokemon with a move I can't remember now. It copies the stat differences though. 

Anyway I bet he was feeling pretty nervous when that happened. He's powering up a butterfree and I'm powering up something for free with much higher base stats lol! That felt like a serious victory and reminded me of why I love Pokemon fan games. 

[Alistair]

I try to kill my opponent's dudes while keeping my dudes alive. Simple right? But beware! There are many little tricks to it. They include (but are not limited to):

- Stronk sweepers

- Stronk coverage moves when available

- Weather advantages when possible (Rain Dance all day)

- Exploiting the field when possible (hello Samson)

- Set up moves when available (fufufufufu Quiver Dance)

- Lots of potions if necessary (what?? leaders use those too! don't judge me >.<)

[Lord Drakyle]

@AlistairAs Lance from Pokémon Golder Version would say: "You don't get to be Champion of the Pokémon League without knowing how to spam full restores!"

 

As for my strategy? it's literally just make an attempt, see what works/doesn't work, SR (if needed) try again until I know everything that I need to see victory happen and then SR as many times it takes for my victory to be brought about...sometimes using revive/full restores to get a second chance at a needed pokemon using a needed move to carve a path towards the end victory I seek.

[iDunno]

I basically just try to muscle my way through it. If it doesn't work, I take a note about what I did wrong or what's the advantage the boss has, soft-reset, and counter it. The only Gym Leaders I actually had prepared a strategy for were Titania and Amaria. While waiting for E17, I trained a bunch of Pokemon to counter their possible teams/fields (like a Lapras with Freeze-Dry and a Sceptile to counter Amaria), but I was only able to put my strategies to work with Amaria. Since there were no PC's nearby when you fight Titania, I had to muscle through her with my normal team, and actually beat her with only two "casualties". I have some counters prepared for Saphira's Dragon Den field, but I usually just try to beat trainers normally with my main team (the trainers where that didn't work were Aya, Charlotte, Ciel, Adrienn, and Blake, my main team tends to perform badly in Double Battles).

[bddennver]

My strategy is lose until I win.