First of all, congratulations on getting this far. I imagine that you are reading this because you have realised that either you think it wise to prepare for the Elite Four before losing to them, or you already have lost to them and are trying to find out why and how to amend it. Or it is none of the above and you are reading it for the sheer pleasure of it. In which case, I think that you are either insane, or obsessed with Pokemon. Oddly enough, the two coincide with one another more often than they should…

Anyway. You need to have a hell of a lot of Revives and Full Restores. You’ll find it difficult to take on the whole five of them (including the Champion) without healing in between. A couple of Full Heals won’t go amiss either. Secondly, your Pokemon should be in the early fifties. That said, I mean in Levels, not age, so no, your Pokemon will not get a bus pass allowing it to ride around charity shops. It will, however, give them a much better chance at taking on the Elite Four. Give your team some variety. If you take on the Elite Four with a team of Poison Pokemon, you won’t get far. You need to have a varied roster of Pokemon with different types and different moves. There is a glossary of sorts at the end that will help you with more suggestions, such as Pokemon that are brilliant in the game and items I mention.

Lastly, good luck. You’ll need it if you want to win.

Name	Image
Aaron

Image	Pokémon	Level	Attacks
	Dustox	53	Bug Buzz Double Team Toxic Light Screen
	Heracross	54	Close Combat Megahorn Night Slash Stone Edge
	Vespiquen	54	Attack Order Defend Order Heal Order Power Gem
	Beautifly	53	Bug Buzz Energy Ball Shadow Ball Psychic
	Drapion	57	Aerial Ace Cross Poison Ice Fang X Scissor
With the right Pokemon, you can shut down Aaron with little problems. Your main asset would be a strong Rock Pokemon, such as Golem/Graveler or Rampardos. Rock attacks inflict quadruple damage to Beautifly, Dustox and Vespiquen, whereas you will have to take advantage of type advantages with Drapion and Heracross. If you trained a Staraptor while traveling around Sinnoh, he will be a great help against Heracross due to its quadruple weakness. Drapion would be easily disposed of by a strong Ground type (again, Graveler/Golem helps) but you must beware of its versatile moveset; Ice Fang will shut down many Ground Pokemon if it can’t OHKO it on the outset. Your best bet would be to inflict it with status or hit with a strong attack (Torterra’s Earthquake, Infernape’s powerful attacks) and then you can allow your other Pokemon to bring it down. Similarly, without a strong Rock attack on your team’s roster, you will have problems with Vespiquen’s combination of Defend Order and Heal order. Attack Order also heaps trouble your way, so try and knock it out before it can set up its Defence.

Name	Image
Bertha

Image	Pokémon	Level	Attacks
	Quagsire	55	Protect Dig Double Team Sandstorm
	Whiscash	55	Aqua Tail Fissure Rock Slide Zen Headbutt
	Hippowdon	59	Crunch Earthquake Curse Stone Edge
	Sudowoodo	57	Hammer Arm Sucker Punch Sandstorm Earthquake
	Golem	56	Earthquake Sandstorm Gyro Ball Brick Break
If you think that leading with a strong Water Pokemon is the way to victory, think again. Quagsire stops any Water Pokemon by walling them. Protect and Double Team make a real annoying combination, with Sandstorm to add the salt to the injury. A strong Grass attack would be required here, preferably a Special one, due to the low Special Defense that it wields. Grass attacks also murder Whiscash, and either Grass or Water ones will dispose of Golem (again, preferably Special as opposed to Physical.)Sudowoodo is displaced easily by Special attacks, Focus Blast from Infernape doing a spectacular amount of damage, while Hippowdon can shut down your entire team. It's ability calls in a Sandstorm, providing its teammates haven’t already done so. The most reliable way is to induce Poison and try to out stall it while adding to the damage that the poison is inflicting. I found that Leech Seed worked very well when combined with Big Root, because you will be restoring the damage received from the tank-like Pokemon.

Name	Image
Flint

Image	Pokémon	Level	Attacks
	Rapidash	58	Flare Blitz Bounce Solar Beam Sunny Day
	Infernape	61	Earthquake Thunder Punch Flare Blitz Mach Punch
	Steelix	57	Sunny Day Fire Fang Screech Rock Tomb
	Lopunny	57	Fire Punch Charm Mirror Coat Sunny Day
	Drifblim	58	Ominous Wind Will o Wisp Baton Pass Double Team
For only having two fully evolved Fire Pokemon in the Sinnoh Dex, Nintendo chose to have a Fire type Elite Four member. How dense can you get? Regardless, this spells doom for challengers. All those thinking that they can Surf to victory or somewhat mistaken. Rapidash usually leads off with a powerful Flare Blitz, but when it doesn’t on the rare occasion, it’ll set up Sunny Day for the rest of the team to take advantage of. It’s exceedingly brittle and any super effective move (Water, Ground, Rock) will remove it. Infernape is the main problem. It covers its Water and Flying weaknesses with an impossibly strong Thunder Punch attack and murders most other things with a powerful Flare Blitz attack. If you can try to put it to sleep or paralyse it, that would be highly useful, and Leech Seed can work wonders. The only problem is getting in a hit before it hits you; and it hits hard. Really, the best bet would be to keep on attacking it, using the wealth of Revives to your advantage. I found this to be the hardest match due to its pure power, but I managed to overcome it by making it sleep and then Aqua Tailing it with Gyarados. If you have an Intimidator, switch it in and out. The couple of fainted Pokemon are worth it for the attack decrease, and you can bring them back with Revives. Other than that, I wish you good luck for his Infernape. His Steelix is fairly easy to kill, though watch out when using Water attacks; Sunny Day reduces their power, so you may want to go with a Special based Fighting attack, or even try and change the weather to Sandstorm or preferably rain. Drifblim suffers immensely from having very little defense, and Thunder Fang from Luxray will deal with it well. Lopunny is rather annoying, what with draining you of your attack and hitting you with a Sunny Day boosted Fire Punch. A powerful Fighting attack works well here, or just a good Rock Type.

Name	Image
Lucian

Image	Pokémon	Level	Attacks
	Mr Mime	59	Psychic Reflect Light Screen Thunderbolt
	Girafarig	59	Crunch Psychic Double Hit Shadow Ball
	Medicham	60	Drain Punch Fire Punch Thunder Punch Ice Punch
	Alakazam	60	Psychic Focus Blast Recover Energy Ball
	Bronzong	63	Gyro Ball Psychic Calm Mind Earthquake
Well, Lucian is pretty damn cool, you have to give him that. I mean, “I’ve just finished reading a book, you see.” What was it, some kind of “intellectual book,” that we wouldn’t understand? My, he is a little patronizing… Anyway, you’ll want a good dark type or dark type attack. I found Honchkrow very good for this, though if you don’t have Diamond, Sneasel will serve as a nice substitute. Mr. Mime’s walls will also help the rest of the team, so if you could remove him quickly, or stop him from using them (sleep and paralysis work well again) then that will be a great asset to the rest of your performance. He falls pretty quickly, though watch out for T-bolt if you are using a Honchkrow. Alakazam was my main problem; he took out my Honchkrow fairly easily, and I had to Leech Seed and stall him before reviving Honchkrow to deliver the powerful dark type attack. If you are having trouble, any powerful Physical based attack will work wonders, especially coming off of a STABbed Pokemon (such as Gyarados and Aqua Tail or Infernape and Flare Blitz.) Girafarig isn’t that powerful, I found. Dark attacks murder it, but any strong attack will bring it down pretty quickly. Just watch out for that STABbed Double Hit attack. Disarmingly strong. Medicham proves the biggest nuisance. Its moveset allows for the covering of all types, and the computer/AI seems to know how to exploit it (or I’m just rather unlucky…). Again, exploit its weaknesses, but be careful of its Ice and Thunder Punches. Flying Pokemon will be struck down mid-flight if unprepared or not fast enough, while Sneasel will feel the pain of a STABbed, 4x effective Drain Punch. That, and it will recover loads of HP after inflicting so much damage. Bronzong is fairly strong, though a Metagross would have been much more desirable. For Lucian, that is, not for the challenger. That would be nigh on impossible to defeat…Leech Seed, again proved more than effective (again, combined with Big Root) and strong Fire type attacks are effective too.

Name	Image
Cynthia

Image	Pokémon	Level	Attacks
	Spiritomb	61	Dark Pulse Embargo Psychic Silver Wind
	Gastrodon	60	Sludge Bomb Muddy Water Stone Edge Earthquake
	Garchomp	66	Dragon Rush Earthquake Giga Impact Brick Break
	Milotic	63	Aqua Ring Ice Beam Mirror Coat Surf
	Roserade	60	Energy Ball Shadow Ball Sludge Bomb Extrasensory
	Lucario	63	Dragon Pulse Aura Sphere Earthquake Psychic
Yup, Cynthia is easily the most difficult opponent you will have ever faced. She has a load of Pokemon that benefit from high stats and a versatile movepool, which she has made productive use of. Spiritomb, her first Pokemon, immediately stops your items if it finds that it can’t type-trump you. Silver Wind seems to have an uncannily high percentage rate of increasing all its stats (which I put down to my bad fortune, though others would say is the system “cheating.”) and it’s other two attacks benefit from STAB. You can’t type trump it yourself, as its typage means that it has no weakness. So, an all out offensive is the only way to go. Gastrodon is fairly easy to remove, in comparison to her other Pokemon. A strong Grass attack is a good way to go, or a poison or status inflicting move. Then, powerful attacks will bring it down. Her Milotic is the main Pokemon that challengers should be weary of. Its trait means that inflicting a status upon it will increase its Defense, complementing its already astronomical Special Defense. In other words, don’t use status moves. Leech Seed murdered this Pokemon when I challenged it with my Torterra, but for those of you with Infernape, be really careful. Luxray’s Thunder Fang was potent, and it inflicted a large amount of damage, but if they aren’t available to you, go out with a Physical based barrage of attacks. Aqua Ring will restore some of its HP, so that’s another thin to keep in mind. Garchomp is the total opposite in terms of where its strengths lie, but its equal in terms of potential team-breaking. Its attack power is emphasized through a host of strong moves. Ice attacks are excellent here, for it has a 4x weakness to it, whereas Dragon Attacks will prove “super effective.” However, if you do manage to get your hands on a Garchomp of your own, be careful that Cynthia’s makes heavy use of Dragon Rush. Yes, the recoil damage is a nice distraction, but the hard hitting truth is that your own Dragon will fall fairly quickly to it. Status moves work well again, Poison allowing you to focus on healing your Pokemon with Full Restores and Revives, while ensuring that its HP is slowly being sapped. Roserade is strong in terms of its varied movepool, but can easily be disposed of by a strong Psychic or Fire attack. Just be careful of Shadow Ball if you opt for the Psychic option. As for Lucario, Ground attacks work wonders. Fire is useful, but Earthquake will stop your Infernape/Rapidash. If you can, Golem’s Earthquake murders Lucario, but you have to beware of the potential Earthquake that could it send your way.

After all that, you become the Champion! All is nice and jolly, the Professor and Cynthia exchange in some boring conversation while you wait to see what the cool animation is like at the end of the game. Well, don’t hold your breath.

Oh, and well done for defeating them. It’s tough, but worth it when you’ve finally won. Congratulations, and I hope this guide helped you.

Glossary-type-thing

Here is a list of Pokemon and a few of their attacks that might help you through the Elite Four:

• Gyarados: Ice Fang and Aqua Tail. This Pokemon’s monstrous attack power allows you to wipe out some of the Pokemon that are plagued with type disadvantages of Water and Ice. Flint cowers at the sight of this Pokemon, though you’ll have to watch out for Infernape’s Thunder Punch.
• Rampardos: This will get you clear of Aaron no problem. Seriously, Rock Slide or Rock Head (preferably the former) will bring you to victory in no time at all. Earthquake will also murder some of the other Pokemon within the challenge, but Rampardos’ strength lies within dismantling Aaron. Or his team, rather.
• Luxray: Pretty useful in the first match, as it takes advantage of the Bug Pokemon’s Flying dual type, and its value increases as it nears Cynthia. It’s a brilliant asset when up against Milotic, but do not paralyse it. The increase in defence lowers Thunder Fang’s power. A female Luxray is probably best, as the trait it has, Rivalry, will allow you to inflict more damage to her.
• Torterra: its real use comes in the form of Leech Seed. This can sap away the energy of pretty much all the Pokemon in the challenge, notably Cynthia’s, while its Grass attacks murder most of Bertha’s Pokemon.
• Infernape: As a mixed sweeper, the fire monkey will assist you in all of the battles in the League. Just watch out for Cynthia though, while Infernape can kill Roserade and Lucario, her other Pokemon will hurt it. Badly.

Items that are note worthy

• Quick Claw: Yes, rubbish chances of it actually working, but on the occasion that it does, you will be thanking Arceus that it did, because it comes in times of great need, I find.
• Big Root: Use this in conjunction with Torterra, as Leech seed’s value rockets up while this item is held.
• TM26: Earthquake: This TM will help you a lot during these battles. You get it after doing all that cycling about in Wayward cave, where you can catch Gible. Worth wandering around there for this brilliant attack.
• TM80: This TM contains Rock Slide and will kill Aaron dead if used correctly. It can be found in Mt. Coronet, but needs the use of Rock Climb in order to be found.

Thanks to Enigma for this!

Page written by Typhlosion.

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