Samson

[GovernmentPigz]

So I have been trying to beat Samson the fighting gym leader and I can kill 5 Pokemon every single try, but either his conkeldurr or his Hawlucha always sweeps the remaining members of my team. As well I am stuck in the circus. My current team is:

Greninja (protean) lv 67-Impish with water shuriken, extrasensory, dark pulse, and shadow sneak.

Mawile(shear force) lv 65-Lonely with play rough, iron head, sucker punch, and strength.

Arcanine(intimidate) lv 66-Hardy with Crunch, Flame thrower, Flare Blitz, and outrage.

Galventula (compound eyes) Impish lv 66- Discharge, Bug Buzz, Sucker Punch, and cut.

Gallade(Justified) Serious lv 66- Psycho cut, close combat, night slash, and Swords Dance.

Flygon(levitate) gentle lv 65- Dragon Claw, earth power, rock slide, and Crunch.

When it comes to my current strategy, I have been leading with arcanine against his haryama. Flame thrower is a 3 hit KO,and makes it good work and takes minimal damage to arcanine. Next he generally sends in Meinshao which I fight with Gallade. First turn a swords dance, plus a justified boost from knock off puts me at +3 attack. After that I can generally kill either conkeldurr, or hawlucha, then chesnaught. Blaziken then kills gallade, Flygon kills Blaziken with Earth power. After that I just get swept by hawlucha or conkeldurr.

I was wondering what tips you guys could give me based on my team, I have other Pokemon in the PC, but I would prefer not to train them. What has worked for you guys when beating this gym. Any tips are appreciated, thanks!

[Phlytosion]

For starters, Mawile is of no use in this fight considering everything on Samson's team probably takes him out in one hit. Also, half of Galvantula's moves are no help here either. (i'd recommend getting rid of cut for something else once you beat Samson).

Anyways...

Gallade is definitely your best bet for this fight. It's speed and attack power are very beneficial. You want to keep him healthy no matter what. Buy some Cotton candy from one of the vendors at the circus just in case. You can use Mawile as a sacrifice to revive Gallade if need be since it has no real role in this fight.

Samson was pretty easy for me on my first go because I managed to sweep his entire team with Gallade. I used Swords dance on the first turn. I also want to think that Hariyama used knock off, which boosted my attack once more with Justified. From there, I pretty much destroyed everything. His Hawlucha is definitely a threat, but I was able to live one attack.

Might I also suggest picking up a Ruflett from Route 2 and training it into a Braviary. Sure, it's part Normal type, but it is still part flying. Plus it has a pretty decent movepool as well as abilities.

[GovernmentPigz]

Mawile has been useful, in past fights I have been able to hit the conkeldurr with a play rough which does almost half. As well chesnaught ties with the speed on my mawile, so upon level up it could outspeed. I am thinking more grinding is in order. As well sucker punch from mawile, with all of it's attack does like 1/6 to almost everything on his team. So mawile can be useful for revenge killing. The problem I have with gallade leading is that heavy slam does like a TON of damage, and is a 2 hit KO after knock off.

As for cut on Galvantula, there is not much to replace it with at the moment. Stick webs, gastro acid, and thunder wave are also ideas. As well I have a base 49 (I think) hidden power flying. those are all options, but I have 2 heart scales.

Edited July 5, 2014 by GovernmentPigz

[Cepheus]

you have awful lot of dark moves... Every one on your team has at least one, If I see it correctly.

Greninja with Protean - Extrasensory makes him a Psychic type which should help a lot. Against Blaziken use Water Shuriken (it looses it's Dark Type then, doesn't it?)

As mentioned Gallade is super, if you can keep it alive for 2 turns and it needs to outspeed Samsons team, it should wreck Samsons team:

- Swords Dance - Psycho Cut spam - Profit!

Mawile if it can get Play Rough without being should do something

Galvantula's Discharge could be helpful against Hawlucha, but it needs to outspeed it. Other than that you could use it and try to get Paralyse on his other Pokemon (but it is most certainly a OHKO because of 'Stone Edge' / Blaziken fire move / Hawlucha Flying Press...)

Arcanine's intimidate might also help to reduce the attack power on his Pokemon.

I recommend to go and gain 1 or 2 additional levels on route 2. you don't get an increased level cap after Samson, but you will still be under 2 or 3 levels below 70, which should be enough to get to the enxt Gym Leader next episode.

Roufflet/Braviary might help, as was suggested. fast Flying-Type works wonders here.

I had a Gardevoir instead of a Gallade and it swept his team with Calm Mind into Psychic/Moonblast.

Magnezone took out Hawlucha.

Noivern took out Chesnaught with Air Cutter.

[Phlytosion]

I had a Gardevoir instead of a Gallade and it swept his team with Calm Mind into Psychic/Moonblast.

Magnezone took out Hawlucha.

Noivern took out Chesnaught with Air Cutter.

Considering he can't leave the circus until he beats Samson, this wouldn't really benefit him.

Cepheus has a good point about Arcanine, you can use him for sure to lower attack, but continually switching him out will do you more harm than good.

One thing I always do when battling a gym leader is to make them waste their restoring items as soon as I can. Greninja nay be able to outspeed and seriously hurt any frail member on his team (Blaziken, Hawlucha, Mienshao). This should get him to waste his Full Restores?? if he has any remaining, allowing an easier time.

If you want to break the speed tie, then raise Mawile and your other Pokes one or two levels. The level cap doesn't increase once you defeat Samson, so just be wary of that. You can still use common candies. And as much as I hate using Cotton Candy's in battle against gym leaders, they are a Max Revive.

[GovernmentPigz]

The dark type moves were for Radomus, as well just for coverage/lack of other moves. Gallade does not really get anything else other than maybe leaf blade. There is just a lacking of good moves to replace crunch on arcanine, flygon, and night slash on gallade. Arcanine gets extreme speed, but as I said, I have a lack of heart scales.

[GovernmentPigz]

For substitute pokemon, I have a noibat, but it's really low level. As well I have a huge power azurill. Although they could come in useful, I am trying to avoid training new pokemon, as I already had to grind all of my pokemon 10 levels to even play this update. Other things that might be useful that I have in the PC are, Abra. Abra is modest with magic guard. As well as an Eevee, which is timid with anticipation. Or I could use this:

[Phlytosion]

The dark type moves were for Radomus, as well just for coverage/lack of other moves. Gallade does not really get anything else other than maybe leaf blade. There is just a lacking of good moves to replace crunch on arcanine, flygon, and night slash on gallade. Arcanine gets extreme speed, but as I said, I have a lack of heart scales.

A little off topic, but once you beat Samson, I suggest you get the Itemfinder from Route 1 if you haven't already and go around EVERYWHERE spamming that. Not only will you pick up a lot of heart scales, but also shards and other really decent items along the way.

Back on topic,

For substitute pokemon, I have a noibat, but it's really low level. As well I have a huge power azurill. Although they could come in useful, I am trying to avoid training new pokemon, as I already had to grind all of my pokemon 10 levels to even play this update. Other things that might be useful that I have in the PC are, Abra. Abra is modest with magic guard. As well as an Eevee, which is timid with anticipation. Or I could use this:

Bird Jesus.png

I suggest you just still pick up a Ruflett. From what it sounds like, those Pokemon you have are no higher than Level 30, which means you are just going to hate training them more than ever. I still think you could be able to beat Samson with the team you have, but it may involve some luck and patience.

If I were you, I would start training more Pokemon now for the next release. Running with just a team of only 6 Pokemon is going to cause problems along the way. My main save file has around 15 different Pokemon all capable of being in the starting 6 granted I've had this file for over a year now.I'm not saying that you should have that many, but I've played through this game several times to know that its very important to have 2 or 3 reserves that could be useful for a given situation.

[GovernmentPigz]

My problem is, is that over the summer I work a full time job at a summer camp. So I have a limited amount of time I can play, which makes it hard to breed things. Combined with school I really only have time to play the updates. Perhaps later in the summer I will have time to make some back-up pokes, but right now I want to finish the update.

[Ousawa]

Sweeped him with an Azumaril. 252 EV att + Play rough makes delicious samson soup

[Wizardchu]

Sticky web on Galvantula isn't a half bad idea. You also might want to switch mawhile's ability to intimidate just for this fight. It'll do a lot less damage but that way your team can actually sponge hits from some of his guys.

[RebornRanger]

well you could always grab a venipede with speed boost/protect/iron defense/baton pass to get you gallade to outspeed everything. it wouldnt even have to be high level, all you need is to use protect to get that speed boost, then baton pass to gallade

[Personthing]

You should be doing fine with a team like that... (For Greninja I'd recommend seeing the nature changer on 7th street).

I won mainly with a level 61 Honchkrow. I burned Hariyama with Typhlosion, then intimated it with a Mightyena that I used to use, then sent out Honchkrow and had it use Tail Wind. Then proceeded to knock out all of his Pokemon in one hit (Including his Conkuldurr) with Wing Attack (My Honchkrow has Moxie for it's ability).

[WarriorofGod2700]

imposter ditto one of his speedy guys with bounce. that's what i did to beat him. then again, thats what i did for a lot of gyms after i got it lol

[dragoniteborntacoz]

well if you want to quickly beat him without too much grinding then your going to want cotton candy and a few throw away pokemon

also you can teleport out using abra and it will bring you to the last not circus healer you wet to

just find the pokemon that can do the most damage to the pokemon that are the biggest problems and revive them