History ThatOneLevel / PokeMon

* Wallace's cracked ice gym puzzle. Step on every tile to open the stairs to the next platform; step o0n the same tile twice and you fall through the floor. Fall through the floor and you have to repeat whatever puzzles you've already solved.

* Mt. Silver from HGSS is a major competitor too. The original version was a short cave with only three rooms, whereas this revamp takes inspiration from Mt. Coronet (see Gen IV below) and requires Rock Climb to ascend. While Rock Climb is a fairly decent move as far as HMs go, it still means that you have to face the TrueFinalBoss with an [[JokeCharacter HM Slave]] in your party unless one of your mainstays has it. Though it's still an improvement on the original game, where you needed one of your Pokémon to know ''Flash'' to make it through the first room.

* Wallace's cracked ice gym puzzle. Step on the same tile twice and you fall through the floor. You also have to step on every tile at least once before it will let you move on. Even if you completed the puzzle, it won't stay solved until after you've climbed up the steps.

** The worst part, for {{Hundred Percent Completion}}ists looking to complete the Pokedex, is Tynamo. There is a 1 in ''50'' chance of this mon appearing (unless you go to the bottom floor, in which case it's 1 in 12, but of course going to the bottom floor is quite annoying in itself). Even going through the entire dungeon, it's quite possible to never see a single one, meaning you will have to stay there for quite a while searching. And Tynamo has very poor defenses, so unless you brought False Swipe, good luck weakening it without killing it. Granted, Tynamo eventually evolves into the [[MagikarpPower devastatingly strong]] [[PsychoElectricEel Eelektross]], so the difficulty was probably intentional.

* The World Tournament can turn into this, because you cannot predict which gym leaders you'll face and it's hard to get type coverage for everything out of just three Pokémon.
** One of the worst in the region leader tourmanents, though, is the Kanto Leaders tournament. If you want to access all the other tournaments, you have to beat the first five regions' leaders, which turns them into brick walls. The worst part is that the Gen I (and the cross-generational evolutions of them) mons they use are ''strong''. Very strong. Lt. Surge's Electrode, Giovanni's Rhyperior, Misty's Starmie...they're all very nasty. And conveniently hold items that dampen your attacks or boost their one stat/move you were trying to use to get through them/don't want to be hit with. Unlike the other region's Gym Leaders their type specialties rarely share a common weakness, so your team would be more likely to be disadvantaged in either round. Yeesh.

** Thankfully though, there are no level and olympus mon limits placed on the player, meaning that it is all fine and dandy to unleash your level 100 Zekrom upon the unsuspecting trainers in the area.
* Though the general bulk of the main game is light on these areas, one very tricky area is Victory Road. Unlike the ones in the previous games, this Victory Road is different from any you've seen. The trainers there use Pokémon at Levels 54 and 55 (and on Challenge Mode, ''58 and 59''), which is higher than the levels Ghetsis and Colress had in the Plasma Frigate that you just harrowed through. And nearly all of them, especially Veterans and Ace Trainers, have very odd movesets on their Pokémon that often provide wide type coverage and can sneak up on you if you're not prepared for them. In addition, there are ''seven'' different areas that you can catch wild Pokémon in, and types including Ghost, Grass, Flying, Rock, Water, Fighting, Ground, Rock and Dragon. And in the thick grass they come out at Level 52-55, which tops at ''one level'' below what the Elite Four's lowest are. To put that in perspective, you could catch yourself at least half a team's worth and use that against the Elite Four. Finally, you have to fight your rival at the very end, and he only has four Pokémon, but they're quite powerful, especially Bouffalant, his new addition to his team, which is quite bulky and can hit very hard with moves like Head Charge and Earthquake. This place may honestly be just as hard as the Elite Four and Champion themselves. The only thing that keeps it from being any worse is that there's a Doctor not far in who will heal your Pokémon free of charge if you can beat his Clefable (that likes to be stupid with Minimize), and if you're deep in, it might be an unpleasant walk back to him unless you have Fly to return to the entrance.

** While not as bad, there's also Western Cave. 99 floors, no food items not in Kecleon Shops, and Tyranitars swarm the middle floors and activate Sand Stream. This dungeon will throw everything at you, including the kitchen sink, if you aren't high leveled. And your reward for making it to the last of those 99 floors? Mewtwo [[spoiler: (who should be a complete joke compared to some of the bosses you've faced, especially after making it past those previous 98 floors. Also, he won't join you the first time. That's right, you have to go through the cave a SECOND time to recruit him]]. But on the plus side, the wild foes give LOTS of EXP points. Expect to gain at least ten levels per one go through to the end.

** ''Explorers of Sky'' brought us the ultimate dungeon: Destiny Tower. Like Purity Forest, it has 99 floors, you're only allowed to bring in your leader and its level will be lowered to 1, and you're not allowed to bring in any items or money. It also prevents you from using your IQ skills [[note]] which keeps Reviver Seeds from activating thanks to no Item Master[[/note]], and keeps traps hidden when you step on them. Worst part? Some of these traps are absolute cruelty, with the worst one being the "Grudge" trap, which gives a PERMANENT grudge status to EVERY SINGLE POKÉMON ON THE FLOOR. And for the icing on the cake, you can't be rescued, so if you're knocked out even one time, you have to start all over again. Good luck getting to the top.

* Johto Route 40-41 can also be a contender. Most likely, it's the first time you'll be sailing/surfing on your Pokémon, as Cianwood City Gym would be your next gym after Ecruteak. On your way, you'll be facing Tentacools and Tentacruels. Problem is, due to their dual-Water/Poison type, and their moves, your Pokémon will probably be poisoned, requiring lots of antidotes and/or potions and your Grass-type will mostly be useless. They are the only ones you'll be facing, and due to the nature of water terrain, you'll probably end up encountering more often. Repels may not necessarily work either, as there are Tentacruels which can go up to level 29, which is rather high for this stage in the game. [[note]]For reference, all of the swimmers' trainer battles on the way are mostly around 18-23. Eusine's Pokémon in the Cianwood City event battle is around 25 at the most. Chuck's Pokémon for the gym battle are 27-31.[[/note]] And this is in addition to any trainer battles you make along the way. At least, once you beat Chuck, you'll now have the option to fly straight back to Olivine City.

* Mt. Silver from HGSS is a major competitor too. It got a major revamp from the original version and is quite long, and requires Rock Climb to ascend--which means the game forces you to face the TrueFinalBoss with an [[JokeCharacter HM Slave]] in your party, or waste one of your mainstay's move slots with it.
** Though at least Rock Climb isn't a completely atrocious move--for an HM, anyway--it's got fairly decent attack and can cause opponents to become confused.

* What about the one Trick House with all the arrow floors that only let you go one way? Thank God it's optional. (Mossdeep Gym, which has similar floors, is almost as tough but not quite.)
** Worse yet is the setup with the barriers that rotate every time you pass through them, which are used in Winona's Gym as well.
* Route 111's desert may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. For starters, there's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn, dragging battles out. Then, [[GoddamnedBats the area is lousy with Pokémon (wild and trained) who come with accuracy lowering moves]], including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Naturally, each fight can drag on as it devolves into "[[LuckBasedMission Will the game decide your move actually struck this time before you keel over from sandstorm?]]". The kicker? In the originals, by this point you have the [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Shock Wave]] TM...and as an Electric move, it's practically useless here with all the Ground-types!

* Sky Pillar. You have to use the Mach Bike and do everything exactly right in regards to speed and sharp turns to get across the floor before you fall through it. In Emerald, you have to do it to progress the storyline, because you need to wake up Rayquaza to calm Kyogre and Groudon. However, the floor isn't so bad then. It's only after Rayquaza flies out and destroys the place that you have a problem. Then you have to do it all over again later to catch the darn thing. On top of that, the resident Claydol are tanks and are just waiting to explode in your face (the Banette, Altaria and Sableye aren't terrible, really, though Sableye isn't weak to anything you throw at it and is immune to Normal, Psychic, and Fighting-type attacks. Banette is also invulnerable to Normal and Fighting attacks but still has weaknesses). Just bring lots of repels unless you're out to catch one.

* Chargestone Cave. The wild 'Mons are annoyingly tough (Boldore has a LastChanceHitPoint ability but thankfully can't explode at the levels it's found here; Joltik can prevent you from using Berry items and can slow you down with Electroweb; Klink are Steel-type and will whack you with Gear Grind, which hits twice; Ferroseed, which on top of being a StoneWall with only two weaknesses has an ability that costs you health every time you hit it; and Nosepass in the sequels, which is even more of a StoneWall, also has Sturdy, and prevents fleeing if the active 'Mon is a Steel-type). While most of them are slow enough that running away is easy, there will be a lot of encounters, and they will get very annoying very quickly. The cave is ''long'' and packed with Trainers. Also, the Doctor trainer is located somewhat off the beaten path. At least he's right before the start of the Team Plasma gauntlet, making healing much more convenient.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' has the Cave of the Deep, which is the third in a string of five dungeons you need to do back to back. It's only 7 floors, but it's chock full of Ditto, and in this game when they Transform it ''confuses your entire party'' other than the Pokémon that it transformed into. They can also [[SchmuckBait disguise themselves as items]]. While you have two guests for this dungeon, including [[spoiler:a level 50 Mawile]], that means that the Ditto can potentially destroy you with that Pokémon's moves...if you don't destroy yourselves from confusion, that is.

* Route 111's desert may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. For starters, there's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn, dragging battles out. Then, [[GoddamnedBats the area is lousy with Pokémon (wild and trained) who come with accuracy lowering moves]], including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Naturally, each fight can drag on as it devolves into "[[LuckBasedMission Will the game decide my move actually struck this time before I keel over from sandstorm?]]". The kicker? In the originals, by this point you have the [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Shock Wave]] TM...and as an Electric move, it's practically useless here with all the Ground-types!

** Those points outlined are not even the worst parts of it. The worst part about the dream radar is how it handles saves and sending Pokémon. When you send a Pokémon through dream radar to Black and white 2 in such a way soft resting is impossible. And you can only send one each legendary per save file on both games. Resetting Black and white 2 is easy and you can get to the point where transfer is possible in only a few minutes of play, but Dream Radar? I hope you like going through the whole thing again. Oh, and as an added bonus, once you get to the point where transfer is possible, Nintendo anticipated the possibility of you trying to back it up, so that means if you want to back up your data, you have to manually delete the software to get that backup file and then transfer it over to some other medium, because it will automatically be deleted when you reinstall the software.

* Aegis Cave in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]] [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Explorers of Time/Darkness]]''. It's not a hard dungeon-- there are ample oran berries and the Unown aren't that tough at all. But you have to find stones that Unown drop, of their own letter-shape, to spell out I-C-E, R-O-C-K, and S-T-E-E-L. Not every type appears, and even then, the stones are dropped maybe a quarter of the time. And you have to keep repeating a three-floor section until you get all the letters you need so you can go on and fight the appropriate Legendary Golem (who, thankfully, aren't that tough). And did I mention you can't save in between, so you HAVE to do this all in one go? Fortunately, much of the annoyance can be simplified, thanks to an inherent quirk of the Legendary Golems. Simply put, bring a Fighting type.

* A [[UnlicensedGame SNES bootleg]] called ''VideoGame/PocketMonster'' (also titled "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Picachu]]" in the box art) has the third stage, named "Jump Around". [[PortingDisaster Due to the bad programming compared to the Sega Genesis port]], it became UnwinnableByMistake. It is composed of a [[BottomlessPits enormous hole]] that fills almost the entire stage and Pikachu needs to [[JustifiedTitle jump around]] small lifts to complete the stage (whose graphics and level sprites [[NewWorkRecycledGraphics were almost entirely ripped]] from a stage of the Genesis game ''VideoGame/{{Quackshot}}''). The problem? Many of those lifts sometimes simply disappear from the stage due to the [[ObviousBeta bad framerate of the sprites]] and the limitations of the console.

* Aegis Cave in [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]] [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Explorers of Time/Darkness]]. It's not a hard dungeon-- there are ample oran berries and the Unown aren't that tough at all. But you have to find stones that Unown drop, of their own letter-shape, to spell out I-C-E, R-O-C-K, and S-T-E-E-L. Not every type appears, and even then, the stones are dropped maybe a quarter of the time. And you have to keep repeating a three-floor section until you get all the letters you need so you can go on and fight the appropriate Legendary Golem (who, thankfully, aren't that tough). And did I mention you can't save in between, so you HAVE to do this all in one go? Fortunately, much of the annoyance can be simplified, thanks to an inherent quirk of the Legendary Golems. Simply put, bring a Fighting type.

* Rock Tunnel. You need Flash to get through it, and it's full of ComMons like Geodude and Zubat. It's just a minor thing, but it's a maelstrom of GoddamnedBats. Not only that, but it's much, MUCH bigger in ''[=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]'' than it was in the original.

* Victory Road in these games is generally considered up there with 4th Gen's and [=BW2=]'s as one of the hardest in the series. It's [[MarathonLevel long]] (the average LetsPlay takes around ''one and a half hours'' to get through it), requires Surf, Waterfall, Flash and Rock Smash and is filled with tough trainers (and in Emerald, there's one Pokémon that uses [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules a move it can't normally learn]]). And at the end (Ruby, Sapphire, and ORAS) or beginning (Emerald) you have to fight Wally...who's taken a major [[TookALevelInBadass level in badass]] since you last saw him.

* Seafoam Islands in Red/Blue/Yellow. If you want to catch the legendary Articuno, you have to travel through the underground caves. However, Articuno is located in a part of the caves only accessible by Surfing on water where the current is extremely fast, so you can't Surf normally until you use Strength to drop boulders through holes into the water, which will change its flow and slow the current.
* Another contender is Rock Tunnel in [=FireRed=] and [=LeafGreen=]. You need Flash to get through it, and it's full of ComMons like Geodude and Zubats. It's just a minor thing, but it's a maelstrom of GoddamnedBats. Not only that, but it's much, MUCH bigger in the remakes than it was in the original.
* The Pokemon Mansion. A huge [[SurpriseDifficulty jump in wild pokemon levels]], a storm of GoddamnedBats, and [[DemonicSpiders Raticate and Weezing or Muk await to make your life hell.]] [[YouWillNotEvadeMe Raticate's high speed will deny your escape]] and, despite their low defenses, they WILL ZergRush you, [[TakingYouWithMe whereas Weezing will constantly Selfdestruct]], likely taking away a large chunk of your party's health. [[StoneWall And Muk... good luck killing it]] if you don't have a [[GameBreaker high-leveled Psychic-type that knows Psybeam and/or Psychic.]] Oh, and did we mention that [[RidiculouslyDifficultRoute it is a FREAKIN' MAZE and is required to reach the]] [[BreatherLevel Sevii Islands in the remakes?]]

* Silph Co. An enormous, 11-floor dungeon with a maze-like layout, confusing teleporters, half the dungeon hidden behind locked doors, and no hint as to the location of the Card Key and the teleporter leading to Giovanni. Absolute hell for a first-time player.

* The Ice Path from ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' and remakes is another one, between the ice sliding and pushing boulders through holes and more ice...
* [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mt._Mortar Mt. Mortar]] in Gold/Silver. It's the largest cave in the entire series, it's basically an enormous [[MalevolentArchitecture maze]], it's pitch-black inside, it has countless [[BlockPuzzle Strength puzzles]], and, to top it all off, it has the highest possible [[RandomEncounters Pokémon encounter rate]], so when you inevitably get lost you'll spend five times as long getting out as you would otherwise. Thankfully, it was made a little easier in Crystal and the VideoGameRemake, but it's still rather annoying.

* Johto Route 40-41 in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' can also be a contender. Most likely, it's the first time you'll be sailing/surfing on your Pokémon, as Cianwood City Gym would be your next gym after Ecruteak. On your way, you'll be facing Tentacools and Tentacruels. Problem is, due to their dual-Water/Poison type, and their moves, your Pokemon will probably be poisoned, requiring lots of antidotes and/or potions and your Grass-type will mostly be useless. They are the only ones you'll be facing, and due to the nature of water terrain, you'll probably end up encountering more often. Repels may not necessarily work either, as there are Tentacruels which can go up to level 29, which is rather high for this stage in the game. [[note]]For reference, all of the swimmers' trainer battles on the way are mostly around 18-23. Eusine's Pokemon in the Cianwood City event battle is around 25 at the most. Chuck's Pokémon for the gym battle are 27-31.[[/note]] And this is in addition to any trainer battles you make along the way. At least, once you beat Chuck, you'll now have the option to fly straight back to Olivine City.

* Route 111's desert may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. For starters, there's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn, dragging battles out. Then, [[GoddamnedBats the area is lousy with Pokémon (wild and trained) who come with accuracy lowering moves]], including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Naturally, each fight can drag on as it devolves into "[[LuckBasedMission Will the game decide my move actually struck this time before I keel over from sandstorm?]]". The kicker? In the originals, by this point you have the [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Shock Wave]] TM... and as an Electric move, it's practically useless here with all the Ground-types!

* Sky Pillar in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire''. You have to use the Mach Bike and do everything exactly right in regards to speed and sharp turns to get across the floor before you fall through it. In Emerald, you have to do it to progress the storyline, because you need to wake up Rayquaza to calm Kyogre and Groudon. However, the floor isn't so bad then. It's only after Rayquaza flies out and destroys the place that you have a problem. Then you have to do it all over again later to catch the darn thing. On top of that, the resident Claydol are tanks and are just waiting to explode in your face (the Banette, Altaria and Sableye aren't terrible, really, though Sableye isn't weak to anything you throw at it and is immune to Normal, Psychic, and Fighting-type attacks. Banette is also invulnerable to Normal and Fighting attacks but still has weaknesses). Just bring lots of repels unless you're out to catch one.
** Mirage Tower has a similar setup with trying to get across the cracked floor, though it's not as big as Sky Pillar and there are just a lot of Trapinch and Sandshrew in there, nothing serious.
** The cracked floor in Dewford Cave is also very annoying, especially since you have fairly narrow areas to steer through. Thankfully, this part of the cave is completely optional (and, if it's the first time you've played the game, you might not even think to go back there).
* Route 134, where the sunken area for the Regi sidequest is at. You have to watch the currents and try not to miss the small square, or fly back to Pacifidlog Town and do it all over again. Getting to all the trainers and items on the route is just as big a pain.

* Victory Road in these games is generally considered up there with 4th Gen's and [=BW2=]'s as one of the hardest in the series. It's [[MarathonLevel long]] (the average LetsPlay takes around ''one and a half hours'' to get through it), requires Surf, Waterfall, Flash and Rock Smash and is filled with tough trainers (and in Emerald, there's one Pokemon that uses [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules a move it can't normally learn]]). And at the end (Ruby, Sapphire, and ORAS) or beginning (Emerald) you have to fight Wally... who's taken a major [[TookALevelInBadass level in badass]] since you last saw him.

* Worse is the route (and part of Mt. Coronet) in fourth generation that features fog. Fog that lowers your accuracy, making your Pokémon miss ''nearly every single time'' but has almost no effect on your opponent. Add to this the fact that Defog is just about the most useless HM ever [[note]]This changes in the competitive scene in Generation 6 after it stops being a Hidden Machine, as it was modified to disable entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes on both sides of the field.[[/note]] (and only Pokémon with wings can learn it, preventing you from giving it to a common Pokémon like Bibarel).
* Another from the Gen. IV: the muddy terrain around Pastoria and inside the Great Marsh. There's a good chance of getting stuck when walking into a marsh tile, in which case the player must press different directional buttons repeatedly to become unstuck. This has to be done at practically ''every single step''. As if that wasn't excruciatingly slow enough, each of those little wiggles to free oneself can result in a wild Pokémon encounter.
* Gen IV also gave us routes 216 and 217, especially 217. Lots of ice types, long distances, perpetual hail, the necessity of pushing through Mt Coronet to even get there, and in the case of 217, a straightforward blizzard that makes it virtually impossible to see what you're doing or where you're going beyond "Snowpoint is ''up''". Then, just for giggles, remember that the first two games in this series had ''only one Fire type'' that could be caught in the wild prior to completing the main game.

* Pinwheel Forest in Black and White. The sign outside more or less says "Pinwheel Forest: Hope you remembered some Antidote."
** Chargestone Cave. The wild 'Mons are annoyingly tough ([[{{Expy}} Boldore]] has a LastChanceHitPoint ability but thankfully can't explode at the levels it's found here; Joltik can prevent you from using Berry items and can slow you down with Electroweb; Klink are Steel-type and will whack you with Gear Grind, which hits twice; Ferroseed, which on top of being a StoneWall with only two weaknesses has an ability that costs you health every time you hit it; and Nosepass in the sequels, which is even more of a StoneWall, also has Sturdy, and prevents fleeing if the active 'Mon is a Steel-type). While most of them are slow enough that running away is easy, there will be a lot of encounters, and they will get very annoying very quickly. The cave is ''long'' and packed with Trainers. Also, the Doctor trainer is located somewhat off the beaten path. At least he's right before the start of the Team Plasma gauntlet, making healing much more convenient.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''
** The Driftveil Gym in ''Black 2'' and ''White 2'' proves that combining TheMaze with a BlackoutBasement is extremely annoying. And the gym leader himself is ThatOneBoss.
** The World Tournament can turn into this, because you cannot predict which gym leaders you'll face and it's hard to get type coverage for everything out of just three Pokémon.
*** One of the worst in the region leader tourmanents, though, is the Kanto Leaders tournament. If you want to access all the other tournaments, you have to beat the first five regions' leaders, which turns them into brick walls. The worst part is that the Gen I (and the cross-generational evolutions of them) mons they use are ''strong''. Very strong. Lt. Surge's Electrode, Giovanni's Rhyperior, Misty's Starmie... They're all very nasty. And conveniently hold items that dampen your attacks or boost their one stat/move you were trying to use to get through them/don't want to be hit with. Unlike the other region's Gym Leaders their type specialties rarely share a common weakness, so your team would be more likely to be disadvantaged in either round. Yeesh.
*** The less said about the Champions' Tournament... [[SNKBoss the better.]]
*** The Mix/Mix Master Tournaments, which are similar to the rest of the tournaments... but the twist is, a random mon of your team and the opponent's team is switched. Your GameBreaker isn't so awesome when it's going against you, huh? Plus, you have to figure out how to work with the mon you received, which is a challenge in and of itself. A fun challenge, but still brutal.
** Black Tower/White Treehollow. The first half is fine, but after Area 5, all the areas have multiple floors for you to search through to find the gate boss. And you can't use items from your bag (though your Pokemon can hold berries or herbs or battle items). There are nurses scattered about, but remembering where they are can be tricky. Also, by the end, everyone's using level 70 and above Pokemon, including the Legendary Bird trio. Since we all know TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, look out for their OHKO moves like Articuno's Sheer Cold.
*** Thankfully though, there are no level and olympus mon limits placed on the player, meaning that it is all fine and dandy to unleash your level 100 Zekrom upon the unsuspecting trainers in the area.
** Though the general bulk of the main game is light on these areas, one very tricky area is Victory Road. Unlike the ones in the previous games, this Victory Road is different from any you've seen. The trainers there use Pokémon at Levels 54 and 55 (and on Challenge Mode, ''58 and 59''), which is higher than the levels Ghetsis and Colress had in the Plasma Frigate that you just harrowed through. And nearly all of them, especially Veterans and Ace Trainers, have very odd movesets on their Pokémon that often provide wide type coverage and can sneak up on you if you're not prepared for them. In addition, there are ''seven'' different areas that you can catch wild Pokémon in, and types including Ghost, Grass, Flying, Rock, Water, Fighting, Ground, Rock and Dragon. And in the thick grass they come out at Level 52-55, which tops at ''one level'' below what the Elite Four's lowest are. To put that in perspective, you could catch yourself at least half a team's worth and use that against the Elite Four. Finally, you have to fight your rival at the very end, and he only has four Pokémon, but they're quite powerful, especially Bouffalant, his new addition to his team, which is quite bulky and can hit very hard with moves like Head Charge and Earthquake. This place may honestly be just as hard as the Elite Four and Champion themselves. The only thing that keeps it from being any worse is that there's a Doctor not far in who will heal your Pokémon free of charge if you can beat his Clefable (that likes to be stupid with Minimize), and if you're deep in, it might be an unpleasant walk back to him unless you have Fly to return to the entrance.
** The Dream Radar. Nintendo lured people to plunk down money/trade in their old DS systems by making the game a DS game but the radar 3DS. Once you get it, you battle mons by chasing them with a RayGun, wishing they'd stay still because you have about 90 secs to zap them enough to catch them or they flee. It's nice when you get enough dream orbs to get the extensions that freeze 'em for a few seconds, makes your beam stronger and increases your time. Especially since every zap you get from a mon cuts your time. Oh and some mons, like Swablu,port and zip all over and are a pain to catch. Also annoying when what you get from all that isn't a mon but an item. And for the three legends, you need lots of patience. Tornadus comes at 400 orbs, which comes fast. But Thundurus comes at 1500 orbs and Landorus at 3000. By then, you'll be bored with the regular mons because you catch several of a few, like Munna, Swablu, Drifloon and Riolu. More come out with each genie you catch but you're still going to end up with a lot of repeats by the end.
*** Those points outlined are not even the worst parts of it. The worst part about the dream radar is how it handles saves and sending pokemon. When you send a pokemon through dream radar to Black and white 2 in such a way soft resting is impossible. And you can only send one each legendary per save file on both games. Resetting Black and white 2 is easy and you can get to the point where transfer is possible in only a few minutes of play, but Dream Radar? I hope you like going through the whole thing again. Oh, and as an added bonus, once you get to the point where transfer is possible, Nintendo anticipated the possibility of you trying to back it up, so that means if you want to back up your data, you have to manually delete the software to get that backup file and then transfer it over to some other medium, because it will automatically be deleted when you reinstall the software.
** Match 14 of the Battle Subway, on the regular lines. Before, you've been fighting unevolved Pokémon with a few singly-evolved ones and maybe a couple of weaker fully-evolved ones. Suddenly, the Trainers start throwing [[DemonicSpiders the Elemental Monkeys and Basculin]] at you, and pack other strong fully-evolved mons. Considering this is right at the end of a good winning streak, it hurts even more to lose. Then if you somehow win, you have to go through even ''more'' of Trainers like these.

* While it's a bit strange for a ''city'' to be this, Lumiose City in VideoGame/PokemonXAndY is easily one of the most hated areas of the game. Absurdly awkward camera angles make it very hard to see where you're going, the circular design makes all of the features seemingly blend into each other, there are few landmarks apart from the central tower, and everything looks almost exactly the same. Unless you use the Taxi system or have the patience to roam around the city long enough to get used to its design, finding anything other than the first Pokémon Center and Sycamore's Lab is an exercise in frustration, looking around seemingly everywhere with very few hints. It's also entirely possible to walk right by your destination without even noticing due to the camera angle. If you want access to the boutique, you need to visit every single place in the city - LastLousyPoint doesn't even begin to describe it. Sometimes, it's easy to wind up in the wrong building, especially through the error of slightly nudging yourself into the wrong door. And if all of this wasn't enough, there was a GameBreakingBug (now with available patch) where if you saved outside in the wrong place, it can permanently freeze your game and was hard to fix, as described [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/696959-pokemon-x/67488169 here]].
** The Post-Game has you going back and forth all over the city looking for lost Pokemon, thieves, and the like hidden all over the place. They are at three tricky to find alleys that you have to backtrack to multiple times, and which you cannot Taxi to.
* Laverre Gym. It's another teleporter maze. In addition, the gym's specialty type is brand-new, so new players may not know how to deal with the Pokémon the trainers and Valerie have, and are decently high-leveled.
* Route 20, or the Winding Woods as it's also referred to as. It's another forest, and when you go forward, should you attempt to go back through the same entrance, chances are you can end up in a completely different part of the forest from where you came in. This can make attempting to find certain parts of the area frustrating. What's even worse is that it's a pretty good location to grind your team in...if you don't mind all of the wild Level 50 Amoonguss that like to spam Solar Beam and Synthesis, and can status you with Effect Spore should you use contact moves against them.

* The Reflection Cave is the first cave with random encounters (The Glittering Cave has a certain amount of wild Pokemon that are scripted to come out). There are tons of dead ends, and the worst part is you can find wild Wobbuffet here. All Wobbuffet have the ability Shadow Tag, which prevents any non-Ghost-type Pokemon from fleeing the battle or switching out. Its HP happens to be incredibly high enough that Wobbuffet can easily survive and it can use Counter and Mirror Coat to inflict double damage from physical and special attacks respectively. And the majority of the trainer in Reflection Cave cannot be avoided because they're facing at the mirrors, so they will see the player passing by behind them. This place can become a nightmare.

* The second visit to [[spoiler: Aether Paradise]]. The trainers have high levelled Pokémon, many fighting you in a row with no break to heal. Backtracking to heal and stock up on supplies is also rendered a pain by the size of the place. And to top is all off is two bosses that qualify as ThatOneBoss.

*** Likewise, Sky has Zero Isle Center. Foes begin at Level 90 and quickly make their way to Level 99 but give no EXP Points whatsoever. Similarly to Destiny Tower, traps only become visible when you step on them, Grudge Traps which give never-ending Grudge status to every Pokemon on the floor, lots of traps and frequent monster houses, only being allowed to bring 16 items, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking some randomly placed Level 5 Pokemon like Clefairy and Togepi on some floors]].

** Not long afterwards is the Forest of Shadows, for several reasons. What's the biggest? ''[[MultiMookMelee MONSTER HOUSES]].'' This is the first dungeon that includes Monster Houses, and they're quite brutal. End up wandering into [[ShmuckBait a room full of treasure]] and you're assaulted by 10 or so strong Pokemon at once while an Archeops in the back spams Agility (double speed for everyone!) There's also a good chance you'll step on a trap when you immediately enter; if it's a Sleep trap, you're screwed. If you don't have any Petrify or Sleep Orbs on you, you're good as dead unless you can pull off a Team Attack right then and there. And if you're really unlucky, it's possible that the only way through a dungeon is ''through a Monster House''. It's also a 14-floor dungeon with weather effects, though thankfully it's only Rain. Still disables passive healing and weakens Tepig's more powerful moves, but at least it doesn't damage you like Hail. You also can ''only'' take two party members: yourself and your partner. The local mons are quite annoying: Vaporeon has lots of health and will spam Sand-Attack, Tail Whip, and Aurora Beam (which can lower your attack), and are immune to Water-type attacks. Druddigon are quite strong and can randomly hurt you when you hit them. Archeops are thankfully sleeping outside Monster Houses but are so powerful they need [[PowerLimiter the Defeatist Ability]]. Conkeldurr is very strong and can boost its Attack if burned or poisoned. It's also right at the beginning of a long gauntlet of dungeons (although you can switch to Companion Mode to have them obtain items if needed).

** The Worldcore, in which you must play as your partner solo in the postgame in order to [[spoiler: get you to come back to the Pokemon World.]] It is basically every enemy similar to [[spoiler:Munna's gang]] in the dungeon. Whirlipede can and will eat your Reviver Seeds and Oran Berries with its Bug Bite. Munna (similar to the [[spoiler: Munna from the main storyline]]) can use Yawn and Psybeam on you to inflict Sleep and Confusion respectivley, and Salamence and Chandelure can seriously hit you hard in the face. And Arceus help you if your partner is a Grass type.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' has the Cave of the Deep, which is the third in a string of five dungeons you need to do back to back. It's only 7 floors, but it's chock full of Ditto, and in this game when they Transform it ''confuses your entire party'' other than the Pokemon that it transformed into. They can also [[SchmuckBait disguise themselves as items]]. While you have two guests for this dungeon, including [[spoiler:a level 50 Mawile]], that means that the Ditto can potentially destroy you with that Pokemon's moves...if you don't destroy yourselves from confusion, that is.
** Poliwrath River is a very frustrating early-game dungeon, especially for any Fire or Water type players/partners. The worst offender of the Pokemon living there, however, is Heliolisk with its '''''motherfucking Razor Wind.''''' It uses up a turn to charge it, and once it's executed, it can and will hit you VERY hard, meaning you're gonna need a lot of wands, Oran Berries, and Reviver Seeds.

** When you become Gold Rank, the Mysterious Geoglyph becomes available. Another relatively short dungeon, coming in at just 8 floors, but there's a good reason for that. Unlike every other dungeon that features a Legendary Pokemon up to this point, where it's just a regular dungeon with the Legendary at the end (or in some cases, just a fight with the Legendary), this is a dungeon ''where the only enemy is Genesect.'' That's right! The entire dungeon consists solely of Genesects running around blasting you with Techno Blast and Signal Beam. Not to mention they come in all different Drive varieties, meaning even if you come in with a team of all fire Pokemon there's still a chance one can ruin your day if it has the Douse Drive, making its Techno Blast water type. And the last floor has a fixed layout; it's a spiral pattern where you can't just tunnel through the walls and make a beeline for the exit, meaning you have to face all of the Genesect head-on. Having attacks that hit the whole room make this less of a pain, but it's still a doozy.

* ''Empoleon's Snow Slide'' in PokeParkWii, especially when you're trying to get all the bonuses by beating the required time limits. Your worst enemy isn't another Pokemon, but rather the ''wall''. That's right, walls are your worst enemy in this minigame. They slow you down, you will ''always'' hit them when you make a turn (Yes, even if you slow yourself down deliberately beforehand), and they are ''everywhere''. It's especially bad when you're using a particularly fast Pokemon such as Empoleon or Glaceon, who seem to be magnetically attracted to hit every single wall in existence.
** The "Obstacle Hop" skill game in which you befriend Machamp. Remember how easy the first one was with Spearow? Well, welcome to Pokemon's version of PlatformHell. Complete with bad camera angles, surprisingly difficult jumps, and Machamp hurling boulders at you that are ''impossible'' to dodge.

** If you thought you would sweep the game by bringing a team of ridiculously powerful Pokémon... welcome to Neon Colosseum. The Pokémon are randomly chosen from both your team and your opponent's team... Which means, more often than not, you will end up with your opponent's crappy Pokémon and your opponent will get your OlympusMons. Good luck.

* Togekiss's stage in ''Pokemon Shuffle'' is especially hard. It has a fairly limited number of moves and when it starts there will always be a specific pattern of panels made from Togepi, Togetic, and Togekiss which makes it look like one of the puzzle stages making you think there is a trick to beating it. But there isn't, you just have to be lucky and try to work around the Togepi pieces.

** Mega Gengar's stage is sheer madness and is very likely the first pay wall the player will hit unless he or she has jewels/a Complexity -1 on hand. Its board starts off absolutely littered with Eevee (which, thankfully, at least do some damage to it in this version, but still aren't effective at all), which makes starting combos almost impossible due to there being 5 different Pokemon (6 if you don't bring Haunter with you) on the board, but after 3 turns, it gets worse, with it sealing off movement between the middle 2 rows. Mega Gengar can potentially make supereffective matches against itself with Haunters, but its health pool is so ungodly massive that they're practically moot.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonRumble World'' has the challenge called "Restaurant Opening." In it, you must protect your Mii from wild Pokemon attacks. However, this EscortMission has a difficult twist; combine the fact that it has 400+ power, the fact that you are timed, the fact that every single Pokemon wants you dead, and the fact that if your Mii runs out of HP you automatically lose and you get a hard challenge that makes sure you have '''any''' Pokemon close to 400 power. Also, you have to deal with multiple bosses in one go, and it is not helped that the Pokemon will ''gladly'' gang up on your Mii, and that the weapons ''also'' damage your Mii. Also, fighting [[ThatOneBoss Slurpuff]] does not make it any better. So, while you can, make sure you get a Scizor, because you are going to need it.

* Route 111's desert may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. For starters, there's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn, dragging battles out. Then, [[GoddamnedBats the area is lousy with Pokémon (wild and trained) who come with accuracy lowering moves]], including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Naturally, each fight can drag on as it devolves into "[[LuckBasedMission Will the game decide my move actually struck this time before I keel over from sandstorm?]]". The kicker? By this point you have the [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Shock Wave]] TM... and as an Electric move, it's practically useless here with all the Ground-types!

* Route 111 may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. For starters, there's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn, dragging battles out. Then, [[GoddamnedBats the area is lousy with Pokémon (wild and trained) who come with accuracy lowering moves]], including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Naturally, each fight can drag on as it devolves into "[[LuckBasedMission Will the game decide my move actually struck this time before I keel over from sandstorm?]]". The kicker? By this point you have the [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Shock Wave]] TM... and as an Electric move, it's practically useless here with all the Ground-types!

* What about the one Trick House in Gen III with all the arrow floors that only let you go one way? Thank God it's optional. (Mossdeep Gym, which has similar floors, is almost as tough but not quite.)

* Sky Pillar in ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire''. You have to use the Mach Bike and do everything exactly right in regards to speed and sharp turns to get across the floor before you fall through it. In Emerald, you have to do it to progress the storyline, because you need to wake up Rayquaza to calm Kyogre and Groudon. However, the floor isn't so bad then. It's only after Rayquaza flies out and destroys the place that you have a problem. Then you have to do it all over again later to catch the darn thing. On top of that, the resident Claydol are tanks and are just waiting to explode in your face. (The Banette, Altaria and Sableye aren't terrible, really, though Sableye isn't weak to anything you throw at it and is immune to Normal, Psychic, and Fighting-type attacks. Banette is also invulnerable to Normal and Fighting attacks but still has weaknesses.) Just bring lots of repel unless you're out to catch one.

** Also from Gen III is the water route where the sunken area for the Regi sidequest is at. You have to watch the currents and try not to miss the small square, or fly back to Pacifidlog Town and do it all over again. Getting to all the trainers and items on the route is just as big a pain.

*** One of the worst in the region leader tourmanents, though, is the Kanto Leaders tournament. If you want to access all the other tournaments, you have to beat the first five regions' leaders, which turns them into brick walls. The worst part is that the Gen I (and the cross-generational evolutions of them) mons they use are ''strong''. Very strong. Lt. Surge's Electrode, Giovanni's Rhyperior, Misty's Starmie... They're all very nasty. And conveniently hold items that dampen your attacks or boost their one stat/move you were trying to use to get through them/don't want to be hit with. Yeesh.

* The Reflection Cave is the first cave with random encounters (The Glittering Cave has a certain amount of wild Pokemon that are scripted to come out). There are tons of dead ends, and the worst part is you can find wild Wobbugget here. All Wobbuffet have the ability Shadow Tag, which prevents any non-Ghost-type Pokemon from fleeing the battle or switching out. Its HP happens to be incredibly high enough that Wobbuffet can easily survive and it can use Counter and Mirror Coat to inflict double damage from physical and special attacks respectively. And the majority of the trainer in Reflection Cave cannot be avoided because they're facing at the mirrors, so they will see the player passing by behind them. This place can become a nightmare.

* Route 13 is this in SPADES. On the plus side, there are no random encounters. However, they're replaced by digging Pokémon that move in erratic fashions,follow you relentlessly and are immune to repels. Combine that with an easterly wind that slows you down to a crawl (regardless if you walk, run, or use the Roller Skates or Bicycle), and those diggers are nigh unavoidable. And for navigation...well, it's not bad if you're just traveling between Coumarine City and Lumiose City. But have fun finding the Kalos Power Plant, and may Arceus help you if you're brave (or foolish) enough to go hunting for items. And that's not all — it's the only place in the entire game where you can evolve Magneton and Nosepass, so if you want Magnezone and/or Probopass on your team or just want to complete your Pokédex, you'll HAVE to return. At least one player has wondered why the Kalos government hasn't just carpet-bombed the entire route.
*** What doesn't make things any better is that the encounters are mostly Dugtrio and Trapinch, both of which sport the infamous Arena Trap ability. Better lead with a Ghost-type or a Flying-type when going through the route. Or catch a Pokémon that has the "Run Away" ability.

* The Reflection Cave. Good god, the Reflection Cave. It's the first cave with random encounters that you face (The Glittering Cave has a certain amount of wild Pokemon that are scripted to come out). The mirrors make it very hard to see where you're going, there are a ton of dead ends, and the worse part is you can find wild WOBBUFFET here. All Wobbuffet have the ability Shadow Tag, which prevents you from fleeing the battle or even swapping out. It's also incredibly defensive, which means it can easily survive the attacks you have to use to finish the battle and it knows both Counter and Mirror Coat which can reflect your attacks back for DOUBLE DAMAGE. If you run into a wild Wobbuffet, expect to lose at least one Pokemon to it. And did I mention there are still trainers to fight? And majority of those you cannot avoid because they face the mirrors, so they ''will'' see you passing by behind them. This place can become a nightmare.

** Poliwrath River is a very frustrating early-game dungeon, especially for any Fire or Water type players/partners. The worst offender of the Pokemon living there, however, is Heliolisk with its ''''motherfucking Razor Wind.''''' It uses up a turn to charge it, and once it's executed, it can and will hit you VERY hard, meaning you're gonna need a lot of wands, Oran Berries, and Reviver Seeds.

** Poliwrath River, is a very frustrating early-game dungeon, especially for any Fire or Water type players/partners. The worst offender of the Pokemon living there, however, is Heliolisk with its ''motherfucking Razor Wind.'' It uses up a turn to charge it, and once it's executed, it can and will hit you VERY hard, meaning you're gonna need a lot of wands, Oran Berries, and Reviver Seeds.

** Similarly, if you or your partner is a Fire type, Surrounded Sea will royally screw you over. And it has ''50'' floors. Really, any dungeon that has an overall type advantage against your team turns into one of these.

* Whitney's Miltank. There's a good reason this blasted cow is so infamous.

** The Worldcore, in which you must play as your partner solo in the postgame in order to [[spoiler: get you to come back to the Pokemon World.]] It is basically every enemy similar to [[spoiler:Munna]]'s gang in the dungeon. Whirlipede can and will eat your Reviver Seeds and Oran Berries with its Bug Bite. Munna (similar to the [[spoiler: Munna from the main storyline]]) can use Yawn and Psybeam on you to inflict Sleep and Confusion respectivley, and Salamence and Chandelure can seriously hit you hard in the face. And Arceus help you if your partner is a Grass type.

* Johto Route 40-41 in ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' can also be a contender. Most likely, it's the first time you'll be sailing/surfing on your Pokémon, as Cianwood City Gym would be your next gym after Ecruteak. On your way, you'll be facing Tentacools and Tentacruels. Problem is, due to their dual-water/poison type, and their moves, your Pokemon will probably be poisoned, requiring lots of antidotes and/or potions. They are the only ones you'll be facing, and due to the nature of water terrain, you'll probably end up encountering more often. Repels may not necessarily work either, as there are Tentacruels which can go up to level 29, which is rather high for this stage in the game. [[note]]For reference, all of the swimmers' trainer battles on the way are mostly around 18-23. Eusine's Pokemon in the Cianwood City event battle is around 25 at the most. Chuck's Pokémon for the gym battle are 27-31.[[/note]] And this is in addition to any trainer battles you make along the way. At least, once you beat Chuck, you'll now have the option to fly straight back to Olivine City.