Hardest Unova Gym?

[Almonds]

Again, Cheren. I tried a short replay of Black2 without erasing the save file to see how it'll go with Tepig...


...and believe me, I barely managed to win even after Tepig learned Flame Charge. I had a team of five with two mareeps, a patrat, and a purrloin with Tepig and Cheren spammed two or three Work Ups before pwning them straight through. Goodness, even with paralysis...


Cheren is probably one of the unexpectedly difficult leaders because he's the first ... and probably underestimated before challenging. AI can be that strong ;_;

 

[KarlG]

I played Challenge Mode on B2... Used the gift Genesect given to me, plus one Scoliopede, a Zorua and a Dwebble (quite a HM slave, him).

Elesa's team wiped them out so easily! It was horrific to watch.

Her Zebstrika, to my horror, knows Flame Charge, so that eliminates my two golden boys Genesect and Scoliopede (who was my most powerful) in one go. Dwebble's attack is useless and Zorua alone could not face the Joltik after beating the Zebstrika.

Took me like 5 tries and a lot of stat boosts.

 

[Mami Tomoe]

Lillipup. Work Up. Bite.
That is all. （　ﾟ Дﾟ）

 

[Hidden Mew]

In B/W, I thought that most of the Gym Leaders were pretty easy. I did have a bit of a rough time with Lenora due to Retaliate. I think it took me a second try to beat her with my Pignite, but I also didn't have a lot of Pokemon on my team that I was interested in training beyond my starter at that point. I never had much of a problem with Elsea in B/W or B2/W2, but I did have Pokemon that were immune to her Electric attacks on my teams in both games, so that probably helped.

In B2/W2, Drayden was a bit of a challenge, even with my Growlithe in W2 knowing Outrage and having a Piloswine in B2, but everyone else was pretty easy. Cheren wasn't as easy to defeat as other first Gym Leaders are, but it still didn't take me long to defeat him.

 

[SimH5]

I'd say Drayden, 1 Dragon Dance from his Haxourus can really screw you over.

 

[Winterdaze]

Elesa was a complete headache for me in BW, all three of the Pokemon I had at that point were weak to Electric or Flying and I had to enlist the aid of a Dwebble with Stealth Rock to put an end to their Volt Switch shenanigans.
On a side note, I'm pretty sure the main reason everyone finds Elesa difficult is that her two Emolga have an advantage over all three starters, making them pretty much useless in that battle.

 

[Silverwynde]

But nothing can ever compare to Elesa and her flying rats. Ugh, that was a nightmare.

Ground types are your friend. And Trapinch is your best friend in BW2, it's immune to all of her Electric type attacks, can keep her from constantly switching thanks to Arena Trap, and can learn Rock Slide by level up to take out her Emolga.

In Black, I tried using Drilbur. Notice I said "tried". It had a great Nature but its stats must have blown chunks as Zebstrika kept murdering it. After blowing my fifth Revive, I fell back on my Sawk and Boldore and ended up with a twenty five minute swearfest.

Enter Pokemon White.

Same battle, only I had a Golett. Elesa was done in five minutes. I cut her off at the knees in one fell swoop. Same thing on B2--one Rock Slide from my Japanese DW Golett ended the threat from Emolga. I cracked up laughing when I was done. What a difference adding a little robo-ghost makes.

Kinda the same thing with Marlon--I expected an epic battle when he brought out his Jellicent and BAM! My Golurk KO's it with one Shadow Punch. A bit anti-climactic to me. :sweat:

 

[Bolt Strike]

In Black, I tried using Drilbur. Notice I said "tried". It had a great Nature but its stats must have blown chunks as Zebstrika kept murdering it. After blowing my fifth Revive, I fell back on my Sawk and Boldore and ended up with a twenty five minute swearfest.

I can kind of see Drillbur not being much help if Zebstrika kept spamming Flame Charge. I used a Sandile and Archen in my run of Black and didn't really have much trouble IIRC.

Kinda the same thing with Marlon--I expected an epic battle when he brought out his Jellicent and BAM! My Golurk KO's it with one Shadow Punch. A bit anti-climactic to me. :sweat:

Oh dear Arceus, don't even bring up that joke of a final gym leader. My Serperior blew right through him, no problem.

 

[Camille]

Lenora, because of Watchog's Hypnosis and Retaliate hitting very hard, especially if used right after you have taken down Herdier.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I used a Sandile and Archen in my run of Black and didn't really have much trouble IIRC.

Exactly. I will never understand why people had such trouble with Elesa. I used a Sandile each time, taught it Rock Tomb to take care of both Emolga, then either Sandile had leveled up enough by that point to take care of Zebstrika and sweep Elesa by itself, or I used something else (I wanna say my starter, but only if I picked Snivy or Tepig, not Oshawott for obvious reasons.)

 

[Gengarzilla]

Yeah, Clay generally gives me better battles. It's tough to hold Elesa's Volt Switch strategy in high regards when she's using that move in one of the worst ways possible. If you're just swapping between two of the same species then that's not Volt Switch, it's just shitty Thunderbolt. At least Clemont pairs his Emolga with a Magneton.

 

[Silverwynde]

Exactly. I will never understand why people had such trouble with Elesa. I used a Sandile each time, taught it Rock Tomb to take care of both Emolga, then either Sandile had leveled up enough by that point to take care of Zebstrika and sweep Elesa by itself, or I used something else (I wanna say my starter, but only if I picked Snivy or Tepig, not Oshawott for obvious reasons.)

See, I had a Drilburr. With a great Nature and garbage stats, so it was zero help. Then she tossed out the flying rats...

On White, I had a low level Golett on my team that I had added fairly early; cue Elesa curled in a fetal position, sobbing as my Golett went full bore "Punch of Kill Everything" on her flying rats. It was glorious.

Same story with Clay: he gave me fits on Black but was a cakewalk on White because of my Golett. Is it any wonder why I love my precious little robo-children?

 

[Gengarzilla]

On the topic of Drayden/Iris, it's hard to look favourably on their usual tactic too. That Dragon Dance Haxorus looks scary on paper but then it's half-neutered by Dragon Tail's negative priority. Yeah, it's gonna hurt, but you're still landing hits first, which should not be happening at +1 Speed, before getting forced out. It's a bit like my aforementioned critique of Elesa where they're just misusing the gym's TM move.

 

[Harryghost]

I have played Pokémon White 2, and Drayden was like an immovable wall for me. I had to cheese the battle with Entrainment Leavanny, so that his Mold Breaker Haxorus does not OHKO my Sturdy Boldore and Gigalith.

Unironically, this was the battle when I realised that status moves like Entrainment and Growl are not useless filler moves, but useful utility, and I love that for me lol.

 

[guzmania]

most nuzlockers, myself included, can tell you that clay is beyond torturous
elesa's double emolga volt switch was no fun either

pretty sure we can all agree brycen was the easiest?

 

[Zexy]

For me it absolutely is Opelucid, both in the originals and the sequels. But that may be because I did not include Ice or Dragon types in most Unova teams I have tried playthroughs with.

I absolutely like the feeling of the sequels, after Skyla and the plane, you just KNOW you have almost all eastern Unova unlocked for grind JUST so you can have a fair shot against Drayden... Marlon feels like too much of a joke after that, by such point the last Badge is an afterthought, the main challenge is Plasma already.