History ThatOneBoss / Pokemon

* Sabrina at Gen 1. Her team of Psychic-type Pokémon is fifteen to eighteen (depending on which version you're playing) levels higher than the last gym leader. It doesn't help much that Psychic-types were also [[GameBreaker extremely overpowered]] in Gen I due to a glitch making them immune rather than weak to Ghost, contrary to in-game advice and Nintendo's own guides, and a [[FakeBalance poorly-balanced elemental system]] in which Psychic's only weakness, Bug, had lackluster Pokémon and moves. To rub salt in the wound, the only Ghost types at the time were also part-Poison, creating a vulnerability to Psychic moves. Thank goodness this has been fixed in the remakes.

* Several players have a pretty rough time with Steelix, too. Even when he coils up (which is about the only time that circling him is even ''possible''), his sheer size makes drawing those loops awkward. Having multiple Water and/or Fighting assists comes highly recommended.

'''NOTE''': {{Final Boss}}es and {{Wake Up Call Boss}}es are not allowed unless they're overly difficult by their standards. {{Bonus Boss}}es are not allowed; they're optional and have no standards for difficulty. Battle Frontier/Pokémon World Tournament/challenge area bosses count as Bonus Bosses, so same rules apply.

** ''Sun and Moon'': Its Disguise ability (basically a free Substitute--sans the HP loss--as soon as it's sent out) guarantees that it'll survive to call in an ally Pokémon, and every ally it calls has [[StandardStatusEffects Hypnosis]], so if you don't OHKO it immediately, it ''will'' put you to sleep. Its Totem Aura [[LightningBruiser boosts all of its stats]], so have fun trying to outspeed and overpower it. Thanks to these boosts, odds are it will survive to call another ally if you KO the first ally first. Thought you were going to be clever by bringing a Dark-type? Mimikyu has Play Rough to make short work of it.

* Misty's Starmie is effectively almost guaranteed to be faster and stronger than anything you will have at that point and it does very high damage even for mons that resist Water. In [=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen,=] her Starmie has switched [=BubbleBeam=] for Water Pulse which confuses you about once every three turns it's used.

* Lance in Yellow. All of his Pokémon have been given upgrades to their Red and Blue movesets, making them much more threatening due to the wider range of moves. His Dragonite in particular has the strongest Fire-, Ice-, Electric-type moves available backed by its high stats to ensure that the player has a hard time trying to take it down.

* Blue in [=HeartGold/SoulSilver=]. Your team will be nerfed by Exeggutor's Trick Room, making the slowest Pokémon move first. The MightyGlacier aspect of Pokémon like Machamp and Rhydon is thus conveniently removed, [[LightningBruiser allowing them to destroy you.]] This is made even worse by the great type coverage provided by their extremely powerful move sets, and his Machamp has No Guard and knows Dynamic Punch. Of course, if you choose to rematch him, he turns out to have gotten a Tyranitar. [[OhCrap Oh crap,]] indeed.

* Likewise, Black and White 2 gives us the first Gym Leader, Cheren. All his Pokémon know Work Up, and while his Patrat isn't that big a deal, his Lillipup is. It'll probably be faster than you, and if it sets up Work Up, there's little you can do once it uses it once or twice, and it'll probably sweep your team.

* The final trainer of Prime Cup Master Ball in Pokémon Stadium 1 is a Male Cooltrainer with a '''Mew''', in both rounds. Round 2 kicks it up several notches, as his Mew has higher stats, '''Softboiled''', and overused competitive teammates like ''Tauros, Exeggutor, and Starmie.'' To a lesser extent, the Female Cooltrainer in Round 2 Master Ball, as she's the only one that can make the gamebreaking Substitute Mewtwo users think twice. How? With an Electrode that will outspeed and paralyze Mewtwo before it sets up, or just power through with Body Slam Snorlax. Good luck beating those two, especially with a rental team.
* '''Any FinalBoss with a Snorlax''' in any of Pokémon Stadium 2's Round 2 cups. Snorlax is extremely versatile, extremely hard to kill, and can easily destroy your Pokémon from the transfer packs (Including Mewtwo), especially rentals. Gym Leader Castle’s final boss, Pokémon Trainer Red’s signature Pokémon is a Snorlax, and even among a team of legendaries, it is by far the most dangerous Pokémon, but is covered well by the two non-legendaries. Poke Cup Master Ball Finalist [=PokéManiac=] Pedro’s Snorlax is level 55, has Leftovers, and uses a Belly Drum/Rest/Snore/Earthquake combo, and if he rests after belly drumming, you have already lost, but he could choose the much “easier” level 55 Dragonite instead. There is a reason why you never face Snorlax in Round 1 Pokémon Stadium 2… outside of Challenge Cup Master Ball.
* Compared to what a joke he was from the games, Pokémon Stadium 1 included, Round 2 Pokémon Stadium 2 Bruno ironically became arguably the hardest boss in Johto Gym Leader castle, as his incredibly powerful Machamp is paired with very powerful physical attackers. It is bulky, has insane coverage, and it hits very hard with Cross Chop and Rock Slide, but it also has Quick Claw, and worst of all, ''Fissure'', (ironically, it was a useless special moveset for Bruno’s Machamp in Red and Blue) that can ruin your day. He's no slouch either if he selects Kangaskhan and Blastoise in round 1.

[[AC: Generation VII: [[VideoGame/PokémonsunAndMoon Sun and Moon]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon]]]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonStadium]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonPuzzleLeague]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonTradingCardGame]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonRanger]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonColosseum]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon series: [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam Rescue Team]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Explorers]] ]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon: Gates to Infinity]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonConquest]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonTrozei]]

[[AC:VideoGame/PokemonRumble]]

Behold the tales of Franchise/{{Pokemon}} bosses, Gym Leaders, and Grand Masters for whom laughter at the player's expense flow more readily than the water in the Eclo Wastes. To make a long story short, these are the reason why Gym Guides exist.

'''NOTE''': {{Final Boss}}es and {{Wake Up Call Boss}}es are not allowed unless they're overly difficult by their standards. {{Bonus Boss}}es are not allowed; they're optional and have no standards for difficulty. Battle Frontier/Pokémon World Tournament/challenge area bosses count as Bonus Bosses, so same rules apply.

* Sabrina at Gen 1. Her team of Psychic-type Pokémon is fifteen to eighteen (depending on which version you're playing) levels higher than the last gym leader. It doesn't help much that Psychic-types were also [[GameBreaker extremely overpowered]] in Gen I due to a glitch making them immune rather than weak to Ghost, contrary to in-game advice and Nintendo's own guides, and a [[FakeBalance poorly-balanced elemental system]] in which Psychic's only weakness, Bug, had lackluster Pokemon and moves. To rub salt in the wound, the only Ghost types at the time were also part-Poison, creating a vulnerability to Psychic moves. Thank goodness this has been fixed in the remakes.
* Lance in Yellow. All of his Pokémon have been given upgrades to their Red and Blue movesets, making them much more threatening due to the wider range of moves. His Dragonite in particular has the strongest Fire-, Ice-, Electric-type moves available backed by its high stats to ensure that the player has a hard time trying to take it down.

* Whitney's Clefairy is for the most part is easy to deal with, but the same cannot be said for the ''[[MemeticMutation infamous]]'' Miltank. It has Rollout, a Rock-type attack that gets stronger every consecutive turn it connects, and lasts up to five turns[[note]] The move's attack power ''doubles'' its previous value from hit two onward, meaning on the fifth consecutive hit it's doing ''1600% of its base damage''[[/note]]. At this stage in the game, Rollout can gradually put the hurt on pretty much anything, even if it resists Rock. Miltank also knows Attract, which can infatuate male Pokemon and give them a 50% chance of not attacking every turn, Stomp, a strong STAB attack with a chance of causing flinching, and Milk Drink to restore health. Add to that Miltank is surprisingly fast and has enough bulk to give most physical attackers pause. In [=HeartGold=] & [=SoulSilver=], they gave her the ability "Scrappy" ([[TheScrappy how appropriate]]) which allows it to hit Ghost-types with Normal-type attacks. On top of that, they gave it a Lum Berry as a hold item, giving it the ability to remove whatever status ailment you inflicted upon it.

* Clair's ace: Kingdra, a dual typed Water/Dragon Pokémon. It's only weak against Dragon-type moves, which you are unlikely to have at this point. Kingdra is packing some serious heat in the form of Surf, Dragon Breath, and Hyper Beam - and it has the stats to use those as well. In HG/SS, Kingdra gets even more brutal, with Surf and Dragon Breath upgrading to Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse, a held Sitrus Berry, and the Sniper ability, which boosts the damage on Kingdra's critical hits.
* Champion Lance has 6 Pokemon which all know the super-powerful Hyper Beam. His team consists of 3 under-leveled Dragonite, one of which has Outrage, which will easily take out most of your team unless you happen to have a then-rare steel type (only 5 fully-evolved steel Pokemon existed in Generation 2). They also know Thunder Wave, so chances are you'll be the slower one. His Aerodactyl is super-fast and has the flinch-inducing Rock Slide, which Aerodactyl [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard isn't even supposed to learn]] in Generation II.. Gyarados and Charizard will be the least of your troubles, but even they are quite annoying.
* Blue in [=HeartGold/SoulSilver=]. Your team will be nerfed by Exeggutor's Trick Room, making the slowest Pokémon move first. The MightyGlacier aspect of Pokémon like Machamp and Rhydon is thus conveniently removed, [[LightningBruiser allowing them to destroy you.]] This is made even worse by the great type coverage provided by their extremely powerful move sets, and his Machamp has No Guard and knows Dynamic Punch. Of course, if you choose to rematch him, he turns out to have gotten a Tyranitar. [[OhCrap Oh crap,]] indeed.

* Norman. This guy is only the fifth gym leader, yet he has ''two'' Slaking, which have the highest attack stat of any non-legendary Pokémon up to then and a ton of HP. Even though they can only attack every other turn, they are still capable of [=KOing=] a Pokémon in one hit. He also has a Vigoroth, which is less powerful but pretty fast, able to attack before most other Pokémon you probably own, and isn't crippled by Truant. Finally, all three Pokémon come equipped with Facade, an attack that ''doubles in power'' if the user is poisoned, burned, or paralyzed. Norman in Emerald isn't too shabby either. He may have replaced one of his Slaking with Spinda and Linoone, but those two can certainly be annoying in their own way. [[SarcasmMode Dear daddy]] sure meant it when he said he won't hold back even when he's up against his own child.
* Winona uses Flying-types, and her last Pokemon is an Altaria which knows the deadly combo of Earthquake and Dragon Dance, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard which she can't learn at the level you fight her]], setting her up perfectly to sweep your entire team with powered up Earthquake and STAB Aerial Ace techniques, the latter of which never misses. Plus, Altaria is part Dragon-type, neutralizing its weakness to Electric-type moves. She's also the first leader to use Full Restores, which restores health and cure ailments.
* Tate and Liza in ''Emerald''. It's fought in a Double Battle, a brand-new mechanic not seen much prior to this fight, which requires much more strategy than Single Battles. In Ruby and Sapphire, their team only consisted of two Pokémon (meaning you could, in theory, defeat them in one hit). These two Pokemon, incidentally, have a much stronger physical defense than most of the Psychic types you are used to fighting. This time around, however... You first need to fight through a [[SquishyWizard Xatu]] (which can either use Confuse Ray on your fighters or Calm Mind to jack up its stats, aside from flat-out attacking with Psychic) and a [[StoneWall Claydol]], which spams Earthquake and [=AncientPower=]. The best part? Earthquake hits everything on the field, but thanks to their team choices, ''you're'' the only one who will get hit by it. Then there's Solrock and Lunatone you have to deal with. Solrock will use Sunny Day to power up its Flamethrower and instantly use [=SolarBeam=], as well as attacking with Psychic, while Lunatone will put up Light Screen (Claydol knows it, too) to raise the opposing team's already high Special Defense, put you to sleep with Hypnosis, and do the same Calm Mind/Psychic combo as Xatu. The team is also prone to using moves (such as the aforementioned Claydol's Earthquake) that hit both of your Pokémon at once, raising the stakes that much higher.

* Fantina. Her Pokémon have powerful Psychic-types moves that can easily mess you up pretty badly. In Platinum, her first two Pokémon are pretty easy, but her Mismagius can easily wipe you out. It has great stats for that section of the game and a great moveset to take advantage of them. It can use Confuse Ray and hit hard with Psybeam, STAB Shadow Ball, and Magical Leaf, which never misses.
* [[BigBad Cyrus]]'s battle in Spear Pillar[[note]]Diamond / Pearl[[/note]] / Distortion World [[note]]Platinum[[/note]]. His Gyarados has high attack and packs dangerous moves such as Aqua Tail/Waterfall, Earthquake to deal with Electric-type Pokemon slower than it and Ice Fang to with Flying-type, Grass-type, and Dragon-type Pokemon. His [[FragileSpeedster Crobat]] is just as bad. Confuse Ray to throw you in for a loop, Air Slash to flinch, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard which is likely to happen]], and Toxic just to make it more painful. Honchkrow has a good mix of attacks, especially in Platinum. Houndoom in the Platinum version can pack quite a punch with Flamethrower and Dark Pulse, as well as Thunder Fang in case you were trying to use a Water-Type against it. Weavile, Cyrus's strongest Pokémon, has very high Attack and Speed. He will be able to demolish your team quite easily thanks to its high coverage, with attacks like Night Slash, Ice Punch, X-Scissor, and depending on the version, Brick Break (Diamond / Pearl) or Fake Out (Platinum). His team's movesets are much better than what you have faced up to that point as well, so... less to be said, Cyrus's team is quite the thing for that point in the game. If you lose, [[ContinuingIsPainful you're climbing back up Mt. Coronet and through the Distortion World]].
* Hell, speaking of Team Galactic, Commanders Mars and Jupiter, due to the EarlyGameHell aspect in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum being downright absurd, with their level curves resulting in extensive grinding for the average player. Not only this, but they have also earned the bane of many for their hideously underleveled Pokemon, ranging from [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Purugly at Level 16 and a Skuntank at Level 23]], both with endgame stats and movesets that otherwise annihilate any player that dares fight them unprepared or worse, (And [[ForcedLevelGrinding more than likely]]) underleveled. It doesn't help that these Pokémon have typing that leaves them each with only one type weakness. Purugly also knows the aptly-named Faint Attack, which can KO at low levels.

* The champion battle with Cynthia is by far one of the most difficult fights of the franchise. Her team is very high-level even compared to the battle immediately before her, has varied types, and boasts perfect [=IVs=] across the board, meaning that they're far stronger than normal Pokémon you might fight at the same level. She has Spiritomb, which back then had no weaknesses to any types by default[[note]]Generation 6 introduced the Fairy type, which is super effective against Spiritomb.[[/note]]; you just have to have a Pokemon strong enough to hit it until it gets knocked out. She has Milotic with Ice Beam for your Grass-types and Mirror Coat for your special attackers. And then there's her Garchomp, a LightningBruiser of a pokemon with powerful moves.

* Gen V follows the tradition of Normal-type Gym Leaders being ThatOneBoss with Lenora. Her Watchog knows Retaliate, a Normal-type move with a very respectable base power of 70. However, if a Pokémon in the user's party faints on the same turn, it doubles to a whopping 140, and that's not even counting STAB. Since Watchog will always be Lenora's second Pokémon, it can Retaliate right after you defeat Herdier, and it can OHKO pretty much anything you throw at it. It doesn't stop there, either. Her Watchog knows Crunch, a very powerful move at that point in the game, and can put your Pokémon to sleep with Hypnosis. Herdier is no pushover either, having stats comparable to Watchog's and knowing Take Down, which hurts a lot coming from a Normal-type. It also has Retaliate, if you feel like using Roar to take out Watchog first.
* Likewise, Black and White 2 gives us the first Gym Leader, Cheren. All his Pokemon know Work Up, and while his Patrat isn't that big a deal, his Lillipup is. It'll probably be faster than you, and if it sets up Work Up, there's little you can do once it uses it once or twice, and it'll probably sweep your team.

* The FinalBoss, Ghetsis, can be a real hair-puller, coming immediately after another difficult fight without so much as a chance to save -- ''thankfully'' your Pokémon are fully healed between the fights, but this is still a trick the franchise rarely pulls. Some of his Pokémon are more deadly than others; he starts out with Cofagrigus, which will badly poison you with Toxic and stall out your Pokemon with a combination of Protect and its excellent defenses. It can also override your Pokemon's ability with Mummy if you use a move that makes direct contact. Bouffalant can rip through whole teams with a powerful STAB move powered up even further by Reckless and has amazing defenses. Eelektross is an Electric Pokémon with Levitate (which means no weaknesses) and has the offensive stats and type coverage to do more than stall. But all that's just preparing you for his worst: an [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard underleveled]] Hydreigon. This thing is monstrous. Aside from the fact that it's almost certainly a couple levels above you, it has astonishingly good type coverage and perfect [=EVs=] and [=IVs=].

[[AC: Generation VII: [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Sun and Moon]] and [[VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon]]]]
* Totem Mimikyu.
** ''Sun and Moon'': Its Disguise ability (basically a free Substitute--sans the HP loss--as soon as it's sent out) guarantees that it'll survive to call in an ally Pokémon, and every ally it calls has [[StandardStatusEffects Hypnosis]], so if you don't OHKO it immediately, it ''will'' put you to sleep. Its Totem Aura [[LightningBruiser boosts all of its stats]], so have fun trying to outspeed and overpower it. Thanks to these boosts, odds are it will survive to call another ally if you KO the first ally first. Thought you were going to be clever by bringing a Dark-type? Mimikyu has Play Rough to make short work of it.
** ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'': Totem Mimikyu received upgrades similar to the other unchanged Totem Pokémon. The rather useless Astonish has been replaced by Leech Life, giving it a powerful new coverage move and healing option. Its allies are now Banette and Jellicent. The former has Screech to turn its targets' Defense into butter, Will-O-Wisp to cripple physical attackers, and Curse, which it gleefully abuses to steadily whittle down your Pokémon's HP. Jellicent, on the other hand, has heavy damage output with Water Pulse and the guaranteed damage of Night Shade.

** ''Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon'': Totem Lurantis replaces Razor Leaf with Low Sweep (a move that always lowers the Speed of those hit) to ensure your Pokémon won't outrun it. Its allies this time are Comfey and Kecleon, ''who both know Sunny Day'' (giving Lurantis a stronger heal from Synthesis, makes Solar Blade a one-turn move instead of two, and activates its Leaf Guard ability which makes it immune to Status effects) and are just dying to use it on you. Kecleon's Ancient Power will give most Pokémon with a type advantage over Lurantis a run for their money, and confuse others with Dizzy Punch. Comfey on the other hand, will support Lurantis by raising its Defense with Flower Shield, and restoring its HP through Floral Healing, effectively giving Lurantis ''two'' healing methods. But the big kicker is Comfey's ability: Flower Veil, which not only protects Lurantis from Status moves, but also prevents it from having ''any'' of its stats lowered!

* The final trainer of Prime Cup Master Ball in Pokemon Stadium 1 is a Male Cooltrainer with a '''Mew''', in both rounds. Round 2 kicks it up several notches, as his Mew has higher stats, '''Softboiled''', and overused competitive teammates like ''Tauros, Exeggutor, and Starmie.'' To a lesser extent, the Female Cooltrainer in Round 2 Master Ball, as she's the only one that can make the gamebreaking Substitute Mewtwo users think twice. How? With an Electrode that will outspeed and paralyze Mewtwo before it sets up, or just power through with Body Slam Snorlax. Good luck beating those two, especially with a rental team.
* '''Any FinalBoss with a Snorlax''' in any of Pokemon Stadium 2's Round 2 cups. Snorlax is extremely versatile, extremely hard to kill, and can easily destroy your Pokémon from the transfer packs (Including Mewtwo), especially rentals. Gym Leader Castle’s final boss, Pokemon Trainer Red’s signature Pokémon is a Snorlax, and even among a team of legendaries, it is by far the most dangerous Pokémon, but is covered well by the two non-legendaries. Poke Cup Master Ball Finalist [=PokéManiac=] Pedro’s Snorlax is level 55, has Leftovers, and uses a Belly Drum/Rest/Snore/Earthquake combo, and if he rests after belly drumming, you have already lost, but he could choose the much “easier” level 55 Dragonite instead. There is a reason why you never face Snorlax in Round 1 Pokemon Stadium 2… outside of Challenge Cup Master Ball.
* Compared to what a joke he was from the games, Pokemon Stadium 1 included, Round 2 Pokemon Stadium 2 Bruno ironically became arguably the hardest boss in Johto Gym Leader castle, as his incredibly powerful Machamp is paired with very powerful physical attackers. It is bulky, has insane coverage, and it hits very hard with Cross Chop and Rock Slide, but it also has Quick Claw, and worst of all, ''Fissure'', (ironically, it was a useless special moveset for Bruno’s Machamp in Red and Blue) that can ruin your day. He's no slouch either if he selects Kangaskhan and Blastoise in round 1.
* The level 20 Alakazam in Pika Cup, who knows Psychic and Thunder Wave. Doesn't sound that intimidating, right? ''Wrong''. He's genuinely impossible to beat with rental Pokémon barring miraculous freeze hacks that you'll have only one chance at pulling off or else you die. The guides even advise the player to use a transfer pack, or pray that your opponent end up being the level 20 Dragonair.

* Murray, leader of the Psychic Club in the first gameboy game. His deck is based around Stall, playing key monsters such as Chansey and Snorlax to soak up damage with their massive HP pools and using Scoop to return them to the bench with out losing energy. On their own they can just take attacks or attack, but Murray can also use Alakazam's Pokemon Power to transfer any damage he takes to any of his benched Pokemon(Like Chansey or Snorlax). Even worse, Murray can use Pokemon Center to heal all the damage you've manged to inflict on his active and benched Pokemon. Losing to him because of a Deck Out is very possible.
* Bernard, leader of the GR Fire Fort, in the second game boy game. His "special rule" is easily one of the most unfair in the game: Fire type Pokemon have ''no weaknesses!'' Why is that so unfair? Well, unlike the other masters' rules, there's pretty much no way to possibly use this to your advantage, since his deck doesn't have any Water cards to hit ''your'' Fire types' weaknesses. So basically, it's just TheComputerIsACheatingBastard disguised as a rules change. His deck is by no means bad either, and with no weaknesses to exploit the only real strategy is just to play really, really well. Or hope his AIRoulette gets handed the IdiotBall.

* Drapion is a rather irritating boss due to the fact that you face two group captures directly before it. And that you come to a full stop at one part unless you happen to have a Normal-type Poké Assist ready.
* Flygon. You're not allowed any other Pokémon because it's a "test" and the bloody thing resists Plusle/Minun's assists. And it's incredibly fast, making it nigh-impossible to get the amount of circles you need to finish the battle.
* Entei. Not only is it fought at the apex of a SequentialBoss gauntlet of all three legendary beasts, you have to deal with the fact that it basically attacks the entire screen. And in the refight, you can only bring three Pokémon for the whole thing...

* [[spoiler:Regigigas]] in the second and third games causes damage just by WALKING. It's easy to screw up and lose and assisting Pokémon, and your Styler gets damaged if you don't circle the thing '''immediately''' before or after it launches an attack.
* Ditto in Guardian Signs. You thought fighting each of the beasts individually was bad, this thing will transform into each of them over the course of the fight. Unless you have a variety of Poké Assists, you're in for a long fight.

* Salamence in the first game. Like with Flygon, you aren't allowed to have other Pokémon with you. Unlike Flygon, however, it's slow but more than makes up for it by having to draw a ridiculous amount of circles around it (22, surprassed only by ''three'' Pokémon[[note]]Meganium's 25, Metagross's 30 and PSYDUCK's 32[[/note]]). It also outright ''ignores'' your starter's assist. When on ground, circling him is difficult, as it shoots beam around, likely hitting your Capture Line. The only reasonable time to circle the guy is when he's flying, and even then he can interrupt. Also, simply ''landing'' counts as an attack, and it ''hurts''.

* The Cipher Admins are all ThatOneBoss, not because they were difficult to defeat but because you had to spend ages trying to capture the legendary beasts while keeping ''yours'' alive. Don't forget the fact that, when you catch a Shadow Pokémon, all they have is Shadow Rush (at least in Colosseum, anyway)... but before you catch them, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard their original trainers can use all of their other moves.]] Hence allowing the aforementioned Thunderdance combo. It also means that there's a chance that your Shadow Pokémon-owning opponent could use Shadow Rush, which gives recoil damage. This means that someone trying to catch a Shadow Pokémon had to be very careful about the opponent's HP; leaving it at 1 HP or near it could leave it vulnerable to its own recoil. At least the Shadow Pokémon owners generally didn't use Shadow Rush, but that doesn't mean the possibility was gone. Thankfully, XD eliminated recoil except on a couple moves.
** Ein has a Raikou with a damaging Thunderdance combo. He's also a big fan of inflicting the Confusion status, and as is usual for the Pokémon games, your team will suddenly become about 250% more susceptible to the detrimental effects of Ein's status ailments. You hopefully have Suicune and Entei then, but his water team will destroy the Fire-type Entei, and Suicune falls easily to Raikou's Thunder.
** With Dakim, you had to try to capture the legendary Fire Pokémon Entei, who was weak to Ground moves. Guess what Dakim's favorite move was? That's right, Earthquake! Every one of his Pokémon had it, and got STAB bonus from it as it hit everyone else on the field, which meant that if Entei came out too early, it was going to get knocked out before you could catch it. If their constant Earthquakes didn't defeat you, the high probability of Entei fainting too soon would probably have you replaying this fight over and over again.
** Mirror B. has several Ludicolo that use Rain Dance to activate their abilities Rain Dish and Swift Swim, meaning either they regenerate their health or make them far faster than you. They are all fully evolved Pokémon at a decent level and have very few weaknesses you can exploit at that point in the game. Fortunately, he's easier in the sequel, although he does have a Shadow Dragonite in the last battle.

* One of Grand Master [[spoiler:Greevil's]] right-hand men as well as the penultimate boss, [[spoiler: Eldes]]. He has four Shadow Pokémon, which will be the highest amount you've seen in the game so far, and they are all hard hitters. Special mention goes to his Marowak, who hits extremely hard thanks to its held item the Thick Club, and his Salamence, who is Level 50 at a point where your past opponents have been in the mid forties. Without a decently bulky Shadow Pokémon to absorb their blows, Marowak and Salamence will pretty much one-shot anything you throw at them. And to make things worse, all of them (save for his Shadow Manectric) are decently bulky as well, making them even harder to take down. If it's any consolation, his non-Shadow Ninjask and Flygon are nowhere near as annoying to deal with as the rest of his party.
* The other right-hand man, [[spoiler: Ardos]], is far more nasty in other ways. Half of his team consists of very dangerous Shadow Pokémon, and the other half, consists of very dangerous non-Shadow Pokémon, unlike the aforementioned Ninjask and Flygon. His signature Pokémon, [[spoiler: Alakazam]], which utterly [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] a previous boss, has all the elemental punches and a very powerful STAB attack, all coming off from one of the highest Special Attack stats in the series. [[spoiler: Alakazam]] can easily target the weaknesses of many Shadow and non-Shadow Pokémon. Heracross and Kingdra are no slouches either; the former has a powerful STAB Megahorn attack which will leave a mark, while the latter has a weakness to a type that you most likely won't have and can cover that weakness easily. Two of his Shadow Pokémon are extremely fast and have a nasty move called "Shadow Half", which works like an unholy combination of Pain Split and Super Fang, halving the HP of every Pokémon on the field at the cost of recharging for the next turn. The third Shadow Pokémon is a Snorlax, which introduces the powerful Shadow End move, which will destroy non-Shadow Pokémon very easily and works really well together with its equally dangerous teammates. In addition, the first two Shadow Pokémon have four different Shadow moves, including Shadow Break, Shadow Storm, Shadow Sky, and Shadow Mist. Oh, and the Snorlax has Leftovers, which actually makes this one of ''the'' most annoying Shadow Pokémon to catch, as every turn it heals itself and makes it harder to catch.

* Articuno in the first games. Its main attack is Powder Snow, which will hit both you and your partner and the damage is high enough to ''OHKO you''. Not even Pokemon that resist Ice are safe from it, so unless you brought plenty of Reviver Seeds, this is a battle that pretty much rides on luck.

* Axew's recruitment mission seems fairly innocuous, being the third one unlocked, having a one-star difficulty, and ending at the fourth floor of the easy dungeon. What lies at the end? A '''level 50 Salamence'''. Its stats are about four times greater than everything else in the area, and it has over ''400 HP''. It resists almost all of the types you have at this point, and the one Pokémon that has a chance against it, Sylveon, might be out of commission for the time it's unlocked, leaving you to fend for yourself. Due to its high stats, and its Intimidate Ability, all of your attacks will do about 5-7 damage at most. Salamence's attacks, on the other hand, can KO you three times over. And worst of all, it's required to be defeated to unlock more missions (but not advance the story).

* During the initial story, Oichi warns you that Normal-types are weak to Fighting-types when attacking the Fighting kingdom Pugilis. It so happens you have to take your character and Oichi every time you attack a kingdom, and your two Pokémon are Eevee and Jigglypuff, neither of which you can possibly evolve at this point in the game yet. Right off the bat, two of your Pokémon are at a heavy disadvantage. And if you're new to the game and don't know the strategy for how to conquer Pugilis[[note]]the map requires you to capture four flags on a center platform and hold them for five turns, with Pokémon on the edge of that platform being knocked off and having to go around to climb back up. This in mind you can blockade the paths onto the platform and let the timer run out[[/note]], you're going to probably going to end up having to just fight it out until the enemy is all defeated, which ain't easy.
* Taking Nixstorm is ''very'' difficult to conquer in any storyline. It's the Ice-type kingdom, and the battlefield is a large mass of FrictionlessIce like you know from the main games, making it very difficult for Pokémon to move around. Not that the Nixstorm warlord Mitsuhide cares, his Lapras is an Ice-type, as likely are the Pokémon of his allies, and they can move on the ice normally. You'll need Flying-types or Levitate to move normally (and remember Flying is weak to Ice), because Ice-type Pokémon of your own to use are not easy to find at that point in the game. And Mitsuhide's Lapras is very powerful with a nasty Ice Beam that can really hurt anything it finds in that icefield, and Shell Armor to block critical hits. Finally, on top of it all, in any storyline where Mitsuhide remains in Nixstorm, including the initial storyline, one of his allies has a Munna with Hypnosis.

* In Pokemon Shuffle, a lot of the Mega Evolutions are tough. But the standout seems to be Stage 120, Mega Glalie. To start things off, you don't just have your four chosen Pokemon on the field; the Mega Glalie fight also has Glaceon drop in along with what you brought in! He will also change your Pokemon into Snorunt on occasion. Know the only type that Ice resists? That's right, Ice itself! The worst part, however, is when he freezes two columns solid at once! And it's likely where you would have made your next move. Now, it's possible for Mega Glalie to freeze the entire field, in which case the board is reset, and you're probably getting some damage in. If he keeps freezing the same two columns over and over, you're stuck with poor choices that won't do a lot of damage to Mega Glalie. It oftentimes takes a combination of purchasing five extra moves, a Disruption Delay, a Mega Start, and/or a Complexity -1 to defeat him. And you may even need five more moves at the end and have to spend a Jewel. Fortunately, you do get a Jewel in return if you defeat him.
* People also have a load of trouble with Mega Gengar. Like the Mega Glalie battle, Mega Gengar throws in its own "support" Pokemon that isn't very effective against it, namely Eevee. And he loads the field up with them! Unlike the Mega Glalie fight, however, Mega Gengar only ever freezes the middle two columns, which is the absolute worst place to do this because it makes combos damn near impossible! He also turns your support Pokemon into Haunter. Three. Moves. In a row. Unsurprisingly, actually using Haunter only mitigates this problem a little.

* If the EscortMission "Restraunt Opening" was not hard enough, the Slurpuff battle in ''World'' can be this. Coming right after the Tarous midboss, Slurpuff has come prepared with a heckload of Swirlix, who endlessly spawn to no end and will ''gladly'' spam Attract, which can and will home in on you and make your Pokemon unable to do anything at all. In addition, it has a move that can '''restore''' its HP. You also have to do this mission and boss fight within the time limit, and if you either run out of time or if your Mii loses all of its HP, you have to do the mission again.

* Those bloody group bosses. I'm talking to you, Luxio/Electrike tribe, [[spoiler:Dusknoir and Sableyes]], 'The Grand Master of All Things Bad' and their cronies. And let's not forget [[spoiler:Darkrai and pals]].

* Totem Pokémon Mimikyu, of all things. Its Disguise ability (basically a free Substitute--sans the HP loss--as soon as it's sent out) guarantees that it'll survive to call in an ally Pokémon, and every ally it calls has [[StandardStatusEffects Hypnosis]], so if you don't OHKO it immediately, it ''will'' put you to sleep. Its Totem Aura [[LightningBruiser boosts all of its stats]], so have fun trying to outspeed and overpower it. Thanks to these boosts, odds are it will survive to call another ally if you KO the first ally first. Thought you were going to be clever by bringing a Dark-type? Mimikyu has Play Rough to make short work of it.

* Totem Lurantis can also be a complete pain. Its moveset includes hard hitting attacks like Solar Blade, which it can charge up in one turn because it holds a Power Herb, and X-Scissor. It ''also'' knows Synthesis, so it gains half of its HP back whenever it wants to. It will even call forth a Trumbeak that loves spamming Supersonic and Pluck. Thought that bringing a Bug type would be helpful against it? You're dead wrong. But the worst part if it calls a Castform. The Castform it calls know Headbutt, which is surprisingly powerful at that point in the game and can let it flinch you, Weather Ball, and ''Sunny Day''. This means two things; First, it can take out most Bug types one might bring to beat it in one shot (Plus, if you chose Rowlet it can likely one shot that too). Secondly, it lets the Totem Lurantis heal ''75% of its HP'' and use Solar Blade without wasting a turn or Power Herb. And just to add insult to injury, Totem Lurantis can also use Synthesis [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard more times]] than is possible for the player to[[note]]The highest a player can get Synthesis to is 8 with a PP Max. Totem Lurantis has been reported to use it nine times or more during a fight.[[/note]].

* The final trainer of Prime Cup Master Ball in Pokemon Stadium 1 is a Male Cooltrainer with a '''Mew''', in both rounds. Round 2 kicks it up several notches, as his Mew has higher stats, '''softboiled''', and overused competitive teammates like ''Tauros, Exeggutor, and Starmie.'' To a lesser extent, the Female Cooltrainer in round 2 Master Ball, as she's the only one that can make the gamebreaking Substitute Mewtwo users think twice. How? With an Electrode that will outspeed and paralyze Mewtwo before it sets up, or just power through with Body Slam Snorlax. Good luck beating those two, especially with a rental team.
* '''Any FinalBoss with a Snorlax''' in any of Pokemon Stadium 2's Round 2 cups. Snorlax is extremely versatile, extremely hard to kill, and can easily destroy your pokemon from the transfer packs (Including Mewtwo), especially rentals. Gym Leader Castle’s final boss, Pokemon Trainer Red’s signature pokemon is a Snorlax, and even among a team of legendaries, it is by far the most dangerous pokemon, but is covered well by the two non-legendaries. Poke Cup Master Ball Finalist Pokemaniac Pedro’s Snorlax is level 55, has leftovers, and uses a Belly drum/Rest/Snore/Earthquake combo, and if he rests after belly drumming, you have already lost, but he could choose the much “easier” level 55 Dragonite instead. There is a reason why you never face Snorlax in round 1 Pokemon Stadium 2… outside of Challenge cup Master Ball.

[[AC:[[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Generation VII: Sun and Moon]]]]

* The other right-hand man, [[spoiler: Ardos]], is far more nasty in other ways. Half of his team consists of very dangerous shadow pokemon, and the other half, consists of very dangerous non-shadow pokemon, unlike the aforementioned Ninjask and Flygon. His signature Pokemon, [[spoiler: Alakazam]], which utterly one-shotted a previous entry, has all elemental punches and has a very powerful STAB attack, all coming off from one of the highest special attack stats in the series, and he can easily target many shadow pokemon's, and even regular pokemon's weaknesses. Heracross and Kingdra are no slouches either, the former has a powerful STAB megahorn attack which will leave a mark, the latter has a weakness to a type that you most likely won't have, and can cover that weakness easily. Two of his shadow pokemon are extremely fast, and have a nasty move called "Shadow Half" which works like an unholy combination of pain split and super fang, which halves the HP of every pokemon on the field, with a recharge turn. The third shadow pokemon is a Snorlax, which introduces the powerful Shadow End move, which will destroy non-shadows very easily, and works really well together with its equally dangerous teammates. In addition, the first two shadow pokemon have four different shadow moves, including Shadow Break, Shadow Storm, Shadow Sky, and Shadow Mist. Oh and the Snorlax has leftovers, which actually makes this one of ''the'' most annoying shadow Pokemon to catch, as every turn, the catch rate decreases.

* Champion Lance has 6 Pokemon which all know the super-powerful Hyper Beam. His team consists of 3 under-leveled Dragonite, one of which has Outrage, which will easily take out most of your team unless you happen to have a then-rare steel type (only 5 fully-evolved steel Pokemon existed in Generation 2). They also know Thunder Wave, so chances are you'll be the slower one. His Aerodactyl is super-fast and has the flinch-inducing Rock Slide, which Aerodactyl [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard isn't even supposed to learn]] in Gen2. Gyarados and Charizard will be the least of your troubles, but even they are quite annoying.

* Winona uses Flying-types, and her last Pokemon is an Altaria which knows the deadly combo of Earthquake and Dragon Dance, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard which she can't learn at the level you fight her]], setting her up perfectly to sweep your entire team with powered up Earthquake and STAB Aerial Ace techniques, the latter of which never misses. Plus, Altaria is part Dragon-type, neutralizing its weakness to Electric-type moves. She's also the first leader to use Full Restores, which restore health AND cure ailments.

* [[BigBad Cyrus]]'s battle in Spear Pillar[[note]]Diamond / Pearl[[/note]] / Distortion World [[note]]Platinum[[/note]]. Gyarados used Aqua Tail / Waterfall! Bam, you're dead. Reload. Gyarados used Earthquake! Bam, you're dead. Gyarados used Ice Fang! Bam, you're dead. His [[FragileSpeedster Crobat]] is just as bad. Confuse Ray to throw you in for a loop, Air Slash to flinch, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard which is likely to happen]], and Toxic just to make it more painful. Honchkrow has a good mix of attacks, especially in Platinum. Houndoom in the Platinum version can pack quite a punch with Flamethrower and Dark Pulse, as well as Thunder Fang in case you were trying to use a Water-Type against it. Weavile, Cyrus's strongest Pokémon, has very high Attack and Speed. He will be able to demolish your team quite easily thanks to its high coverage, with attacks like Night Slash, Ice Punch, X-Scissor, and depending on the version, Brick Break (Diamond / Pearl) or Fake Out (Platinum). His team's movesets are much better than what you have faced up to that point as well, so... less to be said, Cyrus's team is quite the thing for that point in the game. If you lose, [[ContinuingIsPainful you're climbing back up Mt. Coronet and through the Distortion World]].
* Hell, speaking of Team Galactic, Commanders Mars and Jupiter, due to the EarlyGameHell aspect in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum being downright absurd, with their level curves resulting in extensive grinding for the average player. Not only this, but they have also earned the bane of many for their hideously underleveled Pokemon, ranging from [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard PURUGLY AT LEVEL 16 AND A SKUNTANK AT LEVEL 23]], both with endgame stats and movesets that otherwise annihilate any player that dares fight them unprepared or worse, (And [[ForcedLevelGrinding more than likely]]) underleveled. It doesn't help that these Pokémon have typing that leaves them each with only one type weakness. Purugly also knows the aptly-named Faint Attack, which can KO at low levels.

* Totem Lurantis can also be a complete pain. Its moveset includes hard hitting attacks like Solar Blade, which it can charge up in one turn because it holds a Power Herb, and X-Scissor. It ''also'' knows Synthesis, so it gains half of its HP back whenever it wants to. It will even call forth a Trumbeak that loves spamming Supersonic and Pluck. Thought that bringing a Bug type would be helpful against it? You're dead wrong. But the worst part if it calls a Castform. The Castform it calls know Headbutt, which is surprisingly powerful at that point in the game and can let it flinch you, Weather Ball, and ''Sunny Day''. This means two things; First, it can take out most Bug types one might bring to beat it in one shot (Plus, if you chose Rowlet it can likely one shot that too). Secondly, it lets the Totem Lurantis heal ''75% of its HP'' and use Solar Blade without wasting a turn or Power Herb.

[[quoteright:202:[[VIdeoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Miltank_of_doom_3160.jpg]]]]

* Champion Lance has 6 Pokemon which ALL know the super-powerful Hyper Beam. His team consists of 3 under-leveled Dragonite, one of which has Outrage, which will easily take out most of your team unless you happen to have a then-rare steel type (only 5 fully-evolved steel Pokemon existed in Generation 2). They also know Thunder Wave, so chances are you'll be the slower one. His Aerodactyl is super-fast and has the flinch-inducing Rock Slide, which Aerodactyl ISN'T EVEN SUPPOSED TO LEARN in Gen2. Gyarados and Charizard will be the least of your troubles, but even they are quite annoying.

** Miror B. has several Ludicolo that use Rain Dance to activate their abilities Rain Dish and Swift Swim, meaning either they regenerate their health or make them far faster than you. They are all fully evolved Pokémon at a decent level and have very few weaknesses you can exploit at that point in the game. Fortunately, he's easier in the sequel, although he does have a Shadow Dragonite in the last battle.

** One of Grand Master [[spoiler:Greevil's]] right-hand men as well as the penultimate boss, [[spoiler: Eldes]]. He has four Shadow Pokémon, which will be the highest amount you've seen in the game so far, and they are all hard hitters. Special mention goes to his Marowak, who hits extremely hard thanks to its held item the Thick Club, and his Salamence, who is Level 50 at a point where your past opponents have been in the mid forties. Without a decently bulky Shadow Pokémon to absorb their blows, Marowak and Salamence will pretty much one-shot anything you throw at them. And to make things worse, all of them (save for his Shadow Manectric) are decently bulky as well, making them even harder to take down. If it's any consolation, his non-Shadow Ninjask and Flygon are nowhere near as annoying to deal with as the rest of his party.
** The other right-hand man, [[spoiler: Ardos]], is far more nasty in other ways. Half of his team consists of very dangerous shadow pokemon, and the other half, consists of very dangerous non-shadow pokemon, unlike the aforementioned Ninjask and Flygon. His signature Pokemon, [[spoiler: Alakazam]], which utterly one-shotted a previous entry, has all elemental punches and has a very powerful STAB attack, all coming off from one of the highest special attack stats in the series, and he can easily target many shadow pokemon's, and even regular pokemon's weaknesses. Heracross and Kingdra are no slouches either, the former has a powerful STAB megahorn attack which will leave a mark, the latter has a weakness to a type that you most likely won't have, and can cover that weakness easily. Two of his shadow pokemon are extremely fast, and have a nasty move called "Shadow Half" which works like an unholy combination of pain split and super fang, which halves the HP of every pokemon on the field, with a recharge turn. The third shadow pokemon is a Snorlax, which introduces the powerful Shadow End move, which will destroy non-shadows very easily, and works really well together with its equally dangerous teammates. In addition, the first two shadow pokemon have four different shadow moves, including Shadow Break, Shadow Storm, Shadow Sky, and Shadow Mist. Oh and the Snorlax has leftovers, which actually makes this one of ''the'' most annoying shadow Pokemon to catch, as every turn, the catch rate decreases.

* '''Any FinalBoss with a Snorlax''' in any of Pokemon Stadium 2's Round 2 cups, and are usually among the last enemies you face in the tournament. Snorlax is extremely versatile, extremely hard to kill, and can easily destroy your pokemon from the transfer packs (Including Mewtwo), especially rentals. Gym Leader Castle’s final boss, Pokemon Trainer Red’s signature pokemon is a Snorlax, and even among a team of legendaries, it is by far the most dangerous pokemon, but is covered well by the two non-legendaries. Poke Cup Master Ball Finalist Pokemaniac Pedro’s Snorlax is level 55, has leftovers, and uses a Belly drum/Rest/Snore/Earthquake combo, and if he rests after belly drumming, you have already lost, but he could choose the much “easier” level 55 Dragonite instead. There is a reason why you never face Snorlax in round 1 Pokemon Stadium 2… outside of Challenge cup Master Ball.

* '''Any trainer with a Snorlax''' in any of Pokemon Stadium 2's Round 2 cups, and are usually among the last enemies you face in the tournament. Snorlax is extremely versataile, extremely hard to kill, and can easily destroy your pokemon from the transfer packs (Including Mewtwo), especially rentals. Gym Leader Castle’s final boss, Pokemon Trainer Red’s signature pokemon is a Snorlax, and even among a team of legendaries, it is by far the most dangerous pokemon, but is covered well by the two non-legendaries. Prime Cup Semifinalist Skier Kathy proved to be ''much'' harder than the finalist (who has a Machamp, ''Raikou'' and '''Celebi'''), because her Snorlax has the most versatile moveset, and not many openings. It is the cornerstone of a very powerful team with Suicune, Kingdra, Jolteon, Tyranitar, and Scizor (who she almost never uses), and it's return attack is at max happiness, so enjoy 153 base damage from 110 base attack. Poke Cup Master Ball Finalist Pokemaniac Pedro’s Snorlax is level 55, has leftovers, and uses a Belly drum/Rest/Snore/Earthquake combo, and if he rests after belly drumming, you have already lost, but he could choose the much “easier” level 55 Dragonite instead. There is a reason why you never face Snorlax in round 1 Pokemon Stadium 2… outside of Challenge cup Master Ball. Swimmer Darcy has a high chance of getting Snorlax in round 1, that is capable of using attract, a team strategy among some pretty scary normal types like Miltank and Tauros. The only comforting thing about this is that none of them use Curse or Sleep Talk Movesets. (Except for the rare chance of gentleman Travis, an upcoming entry, getting curse, but never rest or sleep talk)

* Axew's recruitment mission seems fairly innocuous, being the third one unlocked, having a one-star difficulty, and ending at the fourth floor of the easy dungeon. What lies at the end? A '''level 50 Salamence'''. Its stats are about four times greater than everything else in the area, and it has over ''400 HP''. It resists almost all of the types you have at this point, and the one Pokémon that has a chance against it, Sylveon, is out of commission for the time it's unlocked. Due to its high stats, and its Intimidate Ability, all of your attacks will do about 5-7 damage at most. Salamence's attacks, on the other hand, can KO you three times over. And worst of all, it's required to be defeated to unlock more missions (but not advance the story).

** The last boss, [[TheRival Gary]], is incredibly difficult even for a final challenge, as he is quick and easily makes multiple chains for major damage on your side of the field before you can react. It gets even better when you defeat him on hard mode and you face the TrueFinalBoss, [[spoiler:Mewtwo]], who is a much more difficult version of Gary. The best part about this whole ordeal is if you lose against the TrueFinalBoss (which is very likely), you have to defeat Gary all over again.
** The reward for defeating Hard Mode completely is [[spoiler:accessing Very Hard Mode, where everyone hits this status.]] And then, if you beat that, you get access [[spoiler:to Super Hard Mode, where everyone becomes an SNKBoss.]]

* Elesa even has the dubious honor of coming after ''another'' ThatOneBoss: N. Or more specifically, his Sigilyph, which has insane stats for that section of the game - its Speed is high enough to nearly guarantee it the first strike against anything you throw at it, and it knows Tailwind to eliminate the "nearly". Its Special Attack is high enough to virtually guarantee a OneHitKill on pretty much any Pokémon. Think it's a GlassCannon? Not at that point in the game it isn't. It also has Magic Guard.
* Even within the Elite Four, Marshal can be pretty difficult, because all his Fighting-types have very high Attack and wide coverage. His Sawk has Sturdy, which keeps you from [=OHKOing=] it. Throh and Conkeldurr have big HP and will likely not be taken down without you receiving a big hit in return, and in the rematch, he has a Breloom with Spore (Black/White) or a Lucario and Medicham (Black 2/White 2), the former of which has high Special Attack, especially for a Fighting-type; and the latter of which has a devastatingly strong STAB Hi Jump Kick and the [[FireIceLightning elemental punches]]. If you're about to die, Lucario ''will'' slam you with [=ExtremeSpeed=].
* Shauntal can be a pain considering most of her Pokémon have a secondary type, meaning that they're actually somewhat well-balanced in comparison to other Elite Four members. They also have high defenses ([[StoneWall Cofagrigus]] and Jellicent/Drifblim), high power ([[MightyGlacier Golurk]] and [[SquishyWizard Chandelure]], which have the highest physical and special attack stats of all Ghost-types, respectively), or are just plain fast ([[FragileSpeedster Froslass]] and Mismagius). Also, her Mismagius knows ''Perish Song.'' Be glad it doesn't know Mean Look. In that same vein, in both the initial battle and rematches, Chandelure gets a ''Choice Scarf'', which boosts its Speed by 50% in exchange for locking it into the first move it uses until it switches out or dies, so if you're not high leveled it's almost guaranteed to get a hit off.

* Candice in Platinum. Most of her Pokémon are pretty easy, but after Abomasnow sets up some permanent hail with Snow Warning and Froslass comes out, things can get hectic. Endless hail will be chipping away at your health while an absurdly fast Froslass spams perfectly accurate Blizzards. Furthermore, its ability Snow Cloak will cause you to miss 20% of the time. Even worse, it can use Double-Team to even further decrease your chances of hitting it. Type advantages are meaningless if you keep missing while Hail and powerful coverage moves takes large chunks out of your HP every turn.
* Volkner in Platinum. Most of his Pokemon are very fast and likely to strike first, and all of them hit hard. Most of them are also perfectly capable of dealing with type disadvantages. Raichu and Electivire can hit Grass-types hard with Signal Beam and Fire Punch, respectively. Luxray can use Fire Fang to deal with Grass-types, as well as Ice Fang, which is super-effective against everything that resists Electric-type moves.

** The double battle between them at Sky Pillar has you dealing with all the things that made their signature mon's difficult at the same time. Your rival is supposed to be helping you but he always stats with a Munchlax which can give you a bad start.
* Flint. His Infernape is outright terrifying due to its high level and great coverage (Flare Blitz, Thunder Punch, Mach Punch, and Earthquake). He usually starts off with Sunny Day, and then the "fun" really begins. His Infernape's Flare Blitz combined with Sunny Day will pretty much instantly defeat anything and even then he still knows Earthquake. He's no slouch in Platinum either. If his Houndoom or Rapidash manage to use Sunny Day, you're in trouble. Rapidash is pretty damn fast. His strongest Pokemon, Magmortar, will hit extremely hard with any of its moves, and it can easily cover its type weaknesses. If Sunny Day is still in effect from one of Flint's previous Pokemon, Magmortar's Solar Beam will take no time to charge up, and it is super-effective against anything that normally has an advantage over Fire-types. It also knows Thunderbolt, which can make short work of most Water-type opponents and takes no time to charge up, in case Sunny Day is not active.
* And then there's Lucian, who directly follows Flint in the Elite 4. He's a Psychic-type user, and his team is nasty. Mr. Mime using Reflect and Light Screen will stop your one-shots. There's also Alakazam, with huge Speed and Special Attack (plus Focus Blast for your Dark-types), and then there's his Bronzong. It knows the notorious Calm Mind + Psychic combo and Gyro Ball to take advantage of its low Speed. In addition, Bronzong has Levitate, meaning your Ground-types won't help you.

* Exol is also a really tough fight as he his Pokemon are in the low 20's which is high for this point and his team has very good type coverage. Namely his Raichu and Loudred. He also has attacks like Shock Wave which is extremely dangerous at this point as it doesn't miss and early on it's 60 base power is incredibly strong. His Raichu also gets Dig and Seismic Toss. The type coverage with his team and his high levels make this an extremely hard fight. His Shadow is easy however as it's Mawile before Mega Evolution existed.
** Thug Zook, when encountered outside the Key Lair immediately after [[spoiler:the Snag Machine is stolen]], is a ''nightmare''. He has a Shadow Zangoose with him that is above the typical level for that point in the game, and it will happily kill off one of your team members every single turn, first, without fail. Essentially this forces you to constantly pick away at it with the survivor, hoping you have enough firepower to kill it before it wipes out your whole team, and then proceed to spam Revives and healing items while his other Pokémon are busy trying to kill you less effectively. It's so bad that in the rematch with him, his mons ''haven't leveled up at all'', and he's still a very hard opponent to beat.