Newbie Guide: How to defeat each Elite Four

[Bhimoso]

 

Welcome to the how to defeat the Elite Four Guide! (Newbie friendly edition, of course)

 

This guide will teach you how to prepare for each Elite Four if you do not want to struggle for days and instead just take a few hours to train. This guide will also assume you use your own pokemon and can use Trade Evolutions as you can ask a Staff Member to help trade evolve. However, I'll try to first keep it SOLO friendly, without external help if needed.

Additionally, we will NOT be using healing items UNLESS you manage to beat the 4th member and are about to beat the Champion.

Remember that you can keep refighting the Elite Four infinite times as long as you do not beat it completely, so you can keep grinding EXP there as much as you need.

 

Let's begin!

 

 

Recommended team for all the Elite Fours.

These are all extremely to farm, very common and very easy to level up pokemon and their preevolutions.

 

Gengar/Haunter

Gengar is the MVP. Gengar can solo the entire Kanto Elite four due to its sheer stats and movepool.

I recommend a Timid, Hasty, Naive, Rash, Mild or Modest nature Gengar or Haunter.
Its movepool should be: Shadow Ball (level up move), Psychic (TM obtainable in Saffron Gym), Thunderbolt (TM purchasable in Celadon Department Store). The fourth slot is open for anything you think can help (Curse, Night Shade, Dark Pulse, Icy Wind, Destiny Bond)

I recommend equipping a Spell Tag. This item boosts Ghost Type Attacks' damage by 20%. It can be obtained from wild Haunter in Pokemon Tower (Lavender).

Gastly can be leveled up in Victory Road Kanto vs Donphan, Ursaring as it is immune to all of their attacks.

You can easily hunt for Gastly in Vermillion Graveyard.

 

Note: Gengar can SOLO the Kanto Elite Four. However, for future Elite Four you will need MORE than just Gengar. Thus, I recommend some of the pokemon below.

 

Any other five pokemon

 

Magnezone

Magnezone is incredible. The absurd SPATK stat it has, amazing abilities and strong moves.

Thunderbolt (TM), Flash Cannon (level up) and any other two attacking moves are good to go. You can use Discharge (level up) if you don't want to spend money on Thunderbolt. I recommend Thunder Wave (level up) if needed, with a Sturdy Ability.

Use one with a Timid, Hasty, Naive, Rash, Mild or Modest nature.

Voltorb in Power Plant, Route 10 and Magneton in Power Plant hold Magnets. This item boosts 20% the damage of Magnezone's Electric type attacks.

Magnemite is very easily leveled up in Seafoam Islands. 

You can easily hunt for Magnemite in Power Plant.

 

Slowbro

This dude is overpowered honestly. Extremely good defensive stats, absurd movepool, and just monstrously tanky.

Surf (HM), Ice Beam (TM from Celadon Department Store)), Psychic (level up) and Slack Off (level up) are the moves I recommend on it.

Quiet, Modest, Bold, Relaxed, Sassy or Calm are the natures I also recommend.

I recommend equipping a Leftovers for this. It is held by Munchlax and Snorlax in Munchlax Resort and also found in Dig Spots.

Slowpoke can be leveled up in Victory Road.

You can easily hunt for Slowpoke in Route 22.

 

Machamp/Machoke

 

Machamp or Machoke are really good utility pokemon you can use for the Elite Four if you need an extra punch. They also learn useful moves and have an overpowered ability in No Guard.

Dynamicpunch (level up), Cross Chop (level up), Earthquake (TM in Viridian Gym) and Rock Slide (tutor in Rock Tunnel) are the best options.

Adamant, Jolly, Naughty, Lonely, Naive and Hasty are its best natures for story.

You can equip a Black Belt that you can find in wild Makuhita in Seafoam Islands or from Primeape in Victory Road Kanto 2F. It increases Fighting type moves damage by 20%.

Machop can be leveled up in Victory Road.

You can easily hunt for Machop in Rock Tunnel or Victory Road.

 

Golem/Graveler

Golem is an utility pokemon for the Elite Four that is there mainly to support you. It also hits like a truck but is VERY slow so be careful.

You will want the Sturdy ability with a Brave, Adamant, Naughty, Impish, Relaxed, Careful or Sassy natures.

Golem's moveset should be Stealth Rock (level up), Earthquake (level up), Stone Edge (level up), and here you can decide if you want to run Rollout, Rock Slide or Explosion. Any of these is fine.

Equip a Hard Stone that can be obtained from wild Geodude in Mt Moon that boosts 20% the attack of Rock Type attacks.

Geodude is very easy to level up in Cinnabar Mansion.

You can easily hunt for Geodude in Rock Tunnel.

 

Bellossom

Most players will be like "wtf why are you using this". Basically Bellossom is one of the greatest PvE Grass Types due to it getting the move Moonblast, Giga Drain, Quiver Dance and any other attacking move by level up. Your moveset should be Giga Drain, Moonblast, Moonlight from Gloom's level up moveset and Quiver Dance from Bellossom's level up moveset itself. It is an incredible pokemon for support and clearing.

You want a Modest, Timid, Bold, Calm, Rash, Mild, Hasty or Naive natures.

Equip a Miracle Seed from wild Tangela in Route 12, 15 or 21. It boosts by 20% the power of Grass Type attacks.

Oddish can be leveled up in Victory Road and Seafoam Islands.

You can easily hunt for Geodude in Route 25 or 5.

 

Kanto

Recommended level: 75

 

The Kanto Elite Four is both at the same time the hardest and easiest: it is the hardest for newbies as most will have literally no idea about what natures are or abilities and will probably try to fight the Elite Four while being unprepared. Big mistake, honestly. Please, read up guides and don't use garbage pokemon for story, it will keep you grinding extra days instead of a few hours.

Let's analyse the types one by one:

 

Lorelei - Water/Ice

 

This is by far the easiest to tackle in the entire Elite Four. Her team is formed by Dewgong, Slowbro, Lapras, Jynx and Cloyster.

Dewgong is weak to Grass, Electric, Fighting, Rock.

Slowbro is weak to Grass, Electric, Bug, Dark, Ghost.

Lapras is weak to Grass, Electric, Fighting, Rock.

Jynx is weak to Fire, Steel, Ghost, Dark, Bug, Rock.

Cloyster is weak to Grass, Electric, Fighting, Rock.

 

Did you notice anything? Almost her entire team is weak to Grass and Electric types. Her nature choices are also really weird (Jolly Jynx, Serious Dewgong and Bashful Cloyster, like wtf). Using Grass types would look good here but it's actually a mistake. If you check later, Grass types struggle REALLY hard in this Elite Four (Lorelei's Ice, Agatha's Poison and Lance's Dragon and Flying will run over you). The key to this fight is to use Electric type attacks for four out of the five, then use a different type to handle Jynx. Using Fighting types is also valid here as it deals with four of them too, but be careful with Jynx! Rock types are not very recommended as they are slow and most Rock types have really, really bad SPDEF. They will fall in one go. However, setting up Stealth Rock with a Geodude (or its evolutions) with the Ability Sturdy will make this fight way, way easier for you.

 

Bruno Fighting/Rock

 

Fun fact, Bruno appears in many games as an Elite Four member. Fun fact number two, he's almost a pushover. His team is formed by two Onix, Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee and Machamp.

Onix is weak to Grass, Water, Steel, Ice, Ground.

Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee and Machamp are weak to Psychic, Fairy and Flying.

 

Well, you're wondering: why does the Elite Four have two unevolved Onix. Don't ask me, ask Content Scripters I guess lmao. Tackling this fight is extremely easy (to be honest, the easiest of the entire Elite Four). I suggest you use Fairy Type attacks or Psychic type attacks. Flying types can accidentally faint to Onix if you don't play it carefully (honestly if you faint against an Onix you should probably uninstall the game but I won't judge you).

 

Agatha Ghost/Poison

 

Agatha uses a plethora of Poison types. In fact, I wonder if she's just a Gengar spammer. Her team is literally two Gengar, a Haunter, an Arbok and a Crobat.

Gengar is weak to Ground, Psychic, Ghost, Dark.

Haunter is weak to Psychic, Ghost, Dark. This is because Haunter has Levitate but Gengar doesn't.

Arbok is weak to Psychic, Ground.

Crobat is weak to Psychic, Electric, Ice, Rock.

 

The answer is pretty clear here. You run over Agatha with Psychic type attacks. The problem is that Psychic is weak to Ghost, so it is a risky strategy. My recommendation is to use a fast attacker that can learn the TM Psychic that will strike first and ensure you win. They can't hit you if they die first!

 

Lance Dragon/Flying

 

Lance decides to ACTUALLY be smart and incorporate SOMETHING into his team that can defeat Ice Types. Lance has a Charizard, Dragonair (wtf?), Aerodactyl, Dragonite, Gyarados and Tyranitar.

Charizard is weak to Rock, Water, Electric.

Dragonair is weak to Ice, Fairy, Dragon.

Dragonite is weak to Ice, Fairy, Dragon, Rock.

Aerodactyl is weak to Rock, Water, Electric, Steel, Ice.

Gyarados is weak to Electric, Rock.

Tyranitar is weak to Ground, Steel, Water, Grass, Fighting, Bug, Fairy (lol).

 

Lance is a bit weird to tackle. His team is basically "hey I picked 6 pokemon that looked hella cool and put them together" basically. The main strategy to tackle his team is to combine Rock and Ice type attacks because they break through the entire team until you get to Tyranitar. Normally Tyranitar would be a problem but then you realise he has SEVEN weaknesses and is slower than me walking after I eat in a Macdonalds. 

 

Gary - Varied

 

Gary's team is composed by Pidgeot, Alakazam, Rhydon, Arcanine, Exeggutor and Blastoise.

Pidgeot is weak to Rock, Electric, Ice.

Alakazam is weak to Ghost, Dark, Bug.

Arcanine is weak to Water, Ground, Rock.

Rhydon is weak to Water, Grass, Steel, Ice, Ground.

Exeggutor is weak to Bug, Ghost, Dark, Flying, Ice, Poison, Fire, and depression like wtf is wrong with this dude he's weak to anything

Blastoise is weak to Grass, Electric.

Gary has a better composed team that does not share many weaknesses. He has at best two weaknesses to the same type and does not have many in common. You'll have to analyse each pokemon individually!
 

Johto

Recommended level: 80-85

 

If you listened to my advice, CONGRATS! You will be reusing the above six pokemon for this Elite Four. Let's list them one by one.

 

Will Psychic

 

Will is REALLY easy to handle with Gengar (as long as you always go first). Will's pokemon are Bronzong, Jynx, Grumpig, Slowbro, Gardevoir and Xatu.

Bronzong is weak to Fire (note, this Bronzong is LEVITATE), Dark, Ghost.

Jynx is weak to Rock, Steel, Fire, Ghost, Dark, Bug.

Grumpig is weak to Bug, Dark, Ghost.

Slowbro is weak to Grass, Electric, Dark, Bug, Ghost.

Gardevoir is weak to Poison, Steel, Ghost.

Xatu is weak to Electric, Rock, Ice, Ghost, Dark.

 

If you haven't noticed by now, Ghost literally sweeps his entire team. Gengar absolutely runs over this dude.

 

Koga Poison

 

Koga is a newbie trap. Koga's Poison is resisted four times by Gengar. He has a Skuntank that resists it, Venomoth, Toxicroak, Swalot, Muk and Crobat.

Skuntank is weak to Ground.

Venomoth is weak to Rock, Fire, Flying, Psychic.

Toxicroak is weak to Psychic, Flying, Ground.

Swalot is weak to Ground, Psychic.

Muk is weak to Ground, Psychic.

Crobat is weak to Electric, Rock, Ice, Psychic.

 

Be a bit careful with this one: Skuntank is IMMUNE to Psychic due to it being Dark Type. Take care of it with Golem! Then you can run over his team.

 

Bruno (yes, again) Fighting

 

Bruno now actually has a decent team! His team is composed by Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, Hariyama, Lucario and Machamp.

Machamp, Chan, Lee, Top, Hariyama are all weak to Fairy, Flying and Psychic.

Lucario is weak to Ground, Fire and Fighting. This is because his Steel type neutralises his Fairy, Flying and Psychic weaknesses.

You can easily see five of his team fall to three different types alone. The only concern is dealing with Lucario!

 

Karen Dark (no, not the one that wants to speak to the manager)

 

Karen's team is even scarier than Lance's. I'm not kidding: Weavile, Absol, Spiritomb, Houndoom, Honchkrow and Umbreon. Half of these can oneshot most of your team.

Weavile is weak to Fire, Steel, Rock, Fighting, Fairy, Bug. If you can even hit him first lol.

Absol is weak to Fairy, Fighting, Bug.

Spiritomb is only weak to Fairy.

Houndoom is weak to Rock, Ground, Water, Fighting.

Honchkrow is weak to Rock, Ice, Electric and Fairy.

Umbreon is weak to Fairy, Fighting, Bug.

 

The problem with Karen is that Spiritomb and Umbreon are her only tanks. The other three hit like a TRUCK. If you do anything stupid she'll run over your team. You will have to combine Fighting and Fairy to deal with her team. Bellossom and Machamp taking turns can do the job but you will need your whole team for this.

 

Lance Dragon (yes, this dude again)

 

Lance decided to "improve" his team by making it worse. Charizard, Gyarados, Garchomp, Altaria, Salamance and Dragonite form his team.

Charizard is weak to Water, Electric, Rock.

Gyarados is weak to Electric, Rock.

Garchomp is weak to Dragon, Fairy, Ice.

Altaria, Salamance and Dragonite are weak to Dragon, Fairy, Ice and Rock.

 

You might've noticed that 4 out of his pokemon are weak 4 times to Ice. The other two get stomped by Rock and Electric. Oh wait, five of his pokemon are weak to Rock. This is easier than the Kanto one lmao.

Hoenn

Recommended level: 70-75

 

Hoenn is honestly an awful region crippled by bad level ranges. Thankfully you can use all of your pokemon in each Elite Four anyway!

 

Hoenn's elite four is formed by:

 

Sidney (no, not the city) Dark

 

Sidney's team is a joke. Mightyena, Shiftry, Zoroark, Cacturne, Sharpedo and Absol.

Mightyena, Absol and Zoroark are weak to Fighting, Bug and Fairy.

Cacturne, Shiftry are weak to Poison, Fire, Bug, Flying, Ice, Fighting, Fairy.

Sharpedo is weak to Electric, Grass, Fighting, Bug, Fairy.

 

Sidney is an absolute joke. You could literally spam click Fighting or Fairy type attacks and everything gets oneshot.

 

Phoebe Ghost

 

Phoebe is weird, she's basically an annoying Ghost type spammer. Her team is Dusclops, Banette, Sableye, Chandelure, Mismagius and Dusknoir.

 

Dusclops, Banette, Mismagius and Dusknoir are weak to Ghost and Dark.

Sableye is weak to Fairy.

Chandelure is weak to Ghost, Dark, Ground, Rock and Water.

 

This one is honestly really easy, Gengar spams Shadow Ball and you use Bellossom's Moonblast against Sableye.

 

Glacia Ice

 

Glacia's Abomasnow, Froslass, Glalie, Walrein, Vanilluxe and Beartic are a bit weird but easy t odeal with.

Abomasnow is weak to Fire, Fighting, Rock, Poison, Flying, Steel.

Froslass is weak to Fire, Steel, Rock, Ghost, Dark.

Glalie, Beartic and Vanilluxe are weak to Fighting, Fire, Steel, Rock.

Walrein is weak to Grass, Electric, Rock, Fighting.

 

Her team is a mix of bulky and slow pokemon that don't really threaten much. Rock demolishes her entire team alone.

 

Drake Dragon

 

Drake is a literal joke. Altaria, Flygon, Kingdra, Haxorus, Salamance and Dragalge get dealt with easily.

Altaria and Salamance are weak to Ice, Fairy, Dragon, Rock.

Flygon is weak to Ice, Fairy, Dragon.

Kingdra is weak to Fairy, Dragon.

Dragalge is weak to Dragon, Ground, Psychic.

Haxorus is weak to Fairy, Dragon.

 

Bellossom can handle the entire team except Dragalge, which is dealt with by Golem if needed (even Gengar lol).

 

Steven Steel/Rock/Ground

 

I was going to state his team as Steel but it's pretty weird. Claydol, Cradily, Armaldo, Metagross, Skarmory and Aggron.

Claydol is weak to Grass, Ice, Water, Dark, Ghost.

Cradily is weak to Fighting, Steel, Ice.

Armaldo is weak to Steel, Water, Rock.

Metagross is weak to Fire, Ghost, Dark, Ground.

Skarmory is weak to Fire, Electric.

Aggron is weak to Ground, Fighting, Water.

 

His team is VERY bulky and it mixes all of the weaknesses. You will need to constantly switch to tackle with his entire team properly.

 

Sinnoh

Recommended level: 75-80

 

Aaron Bug

 

Aaron's team is extremely weak to Fire. Galvantula, Vespiquen, Heracross, Scizor, Yanmega and Drapion (no, this one isn't a bug lol).

Galvantula is weak to Rock, Fire.

Vespiquen and Yanmega are weak to Rock, Fire, Ice, Electric.

Heracross is weak to Psychic, Fairy, Flying, Fire.

Drapion is weak to Ground.

Scizor is weak to Fire.

 

Literally Flamethrowering his entire team gets you through it. Be careful with Drapion! It's Dark/Poison.

 

 

Bertha Ground

 

Bertha's really easy. A Whiscash, Golem, Hippowdown, Excadrill, Gliscor and Rhyperior form her team.

Whiscash is weak to Grass.

Golem and Rhyperior are weak to Grass, Water, Ice, Steel, Fighting, Ground.

Excadrill is weak to Water, Fighting, Ground, Fire.

Gliscor is weak to Water, Ice.

Hippowdown is weak to Grass, Water, Ice.

 

Water and Ice run over her team. Once Whiscash is gone you just spam Surf.

 

Flint Fire

 

His team is VERY weak to Ground and Water type moves. Infernape, Rapidash, Ninetales, Magmortar, Houndoom and Darmanitan.

Infernape is weak to Flying, Psychic, Ground, Water.

Houndoom is weak to Ground, Rock, Fighting, Water.

Ninetales, Rapidash, Magmortar and Darmanitan are weak to Ground, Rock and Water.

 

You literally spam click Surf and Earthquake, everything instantly faints.

 

Lucian (no, not the league one) Psychic

 

His team is okay. Alakazam, Mr Mime, Bronzong, Girafarig, Sigylph and Gallade make an interesting team.

Alakazam is weak to Bug, Dark and Ghost.

Mr Mime is weak to Ghost, Poison and Steel.

Bronzong is weak to Fire, Ghost, Dark. This one has LEVITATE.

Girafarig is weak to Dark, Bug.

Sigylph is weak to Ice, Rock, Electric, Ghost, Dark.

Gallade is weak to Ghost, Flying, Fairy.

 

You have to be careful with what you click since some of his pokemon have immunities!

 

Cynthia (cueue the piano music here)

 

Cynthia's the final story boss! Togekiss, Lucario, Garchomp, Milotic, Spiritomb and Roserade.

Spiritomb is weak to Fairy.

Togekiss is weak to Steel, Poison, Electric, Rock, Ice.

Lucario is weak to Fighting, Fire, Ground.

Garchomp is weak to Dragon, Ice, Fairy.

Milotic is weak to Grass, Electric.

Spiritomb is weak to Fairy.

Roserade is weak to Psychic, Fire, Flying, Ice.

 

I hope this small guide has helped you! :^)

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Bhimoso