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Behold the tales of Pokémon 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 Bosses and Wake Up Call Bosses are not allowed unless they're overly difficult by their standards. Superbosses are not allowed; they're optional and have no standards for difficulty. Battle Frontier/Pokémon World Tournament/challenge area bosses count as Super Bosses, so same rules apply.


Examples

Generation I: Red, Blue and Yellow, plus FireRed and LeafGreen

  • 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.
  • 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 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 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.
  • 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.

Generation II: Gold, Silver and Crystal, plus HeartGold and SoulSilver

  • Whitney's Clefairy is for the most part is easy to deal with, but the same cannot be said for the infamous Miltank. It has Rollout, a Rock-type attack that gets stronger every consecutive turn it connects, and lasts up to five turnsnote . 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 Pokémon 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" (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.
  • Morty's Gengar was already strong, with STAB Shadow Ball, Hypnosis to put you to sleep, Dream Eater to Life Drain sleeping Mons, and Mean Look to prevent switching out. Then HG/SS improved it even further, with Levitate turning its Ground weakness into an immunity, and Shadow Ball running off Gengar's monstrous Special Attack, instead of its inferior Attack meaning that just about anything that doesn't resist it will be floored in one hit, or have most of their health blasted off.
  • 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 Pokémon 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 Pokémon 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 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 Mighty Glacier aspect of Pokémon like Machamp and Rhydon is thus conveniently removed, 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. Oh crap, indeed.

Generation III: Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald, plus Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

  • 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. 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 Pokémon is an Altaria which knows the deadly combo of Earthquake and Dragon Dance, 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 Pokémon, 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 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 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.

Generation IV: Diamond, Pearl and Platinum

  • 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.
  • Cyrus's battle in Spear Pillarnote  / Distortion World note . His Gyarados has high attack and packs dangerous moves such as Aqua Tail/Waterfall, Earthquake to deal with Electric-type Pokémon slower than it and Ice Fang to with Flying-type, Grass-type, and Dragon-type Pokémon. His Crobat is just as bad. Confuse Ray to throw you in for a loop, Air Slash to flinch, 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, you're climbing back up Mt. Coronet and through the Distortion World.
  • Hell, speaking of Team Galactic, Commanders Mars and Jupiter, due to the Early Game Hell 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 Pokémon, ranging from 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 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.
  • And then there's Lucian, the last member of the Elite Four. 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.
  • 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 defaultnote ; you just have to have a Pokémon 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 Lightning Bruiser of a Pokémon with powerful moves.

Generation V: Black and White and Black 2 and White 2

  • Gen V follows the tradition of Normal-type Gym Leaders being That One Boss 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 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.
  • We also have the fourth Gym Leader, Elesa. She uses two Emolga (Electric/Flying) and a Zebstrika (Electric). Her two Emolga are very fast and know Double Team, and can potentially paralyze you with Static if your attack makes direct contact. Then her Zebstrika is so fast and so strong it mows down anything that comes in its path. And all three get Volt Switch, which does reasonable damage and switches them out.
  • The Final Boss, 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 Pokémon with a combination of Protect and its excellent defenses. It can also override your Pokémon'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 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.

Generation VII: Sun and Moon and 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 Hypnosis, so if you don't OHKO it immediately, it will put you to sleep. Its Totem Aura 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.
  • Totem Lurantis.
    • Sun and Moon: 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 more times than is possible for the player tonote .
    • 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!
  • Unless you happened to pick Rowlet, then Totem Wishiwashi will be this. With decent bulk and sky-high offenses, it will blow holes in your team. All of its allies have Helping Hand to further boost said offenses, and it can also summon Alomomola, who can heal it. Thankfully, it loses its school form once it reaches 25% HP or lower, though Alomomola will usually heal it back up and restore its school form.
  • Ultra Necrozma quickly gained notoriety for its abnormally high difficulty, often being compared to Cynthia or Ghetsis in terms of difficulty. Its base stats, especially both Attack stats, are immense, having a BST of 754, higher than Arceus. It starts battle at Level 60 and with an Aura that boosts all its stats further, and it has an extremely varied movesetnote  specifically designed to line up super-effective attacks against nearly all types. If that's not enough, he outspeeds pretty much anything in the game, is deceptively bulky, and delivers lethal or near-lethal attacks with every turn, further bolstered by its Neuroforce ability that increases the damage of its super-effective moves even more, but even without type effectiveness its attacks still shave off huge amounts of health. You had best hope that you have a supply of Potions and Revives stocked up, because chances are you'll need them. And God help you if you're doing a Nuzlocke run...

Pokémon Stadium

  • 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 Final Boss 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.
  • 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.

Pokemon Puzzle League

  • Team Rocket of all opponents, is easily one of the toughest opponents you'll face. Right before you try to gain the Earth Badge from defeating Giovanni, Jessie, James, and Meowth ambush you and force you to face them first. Ironically as opposed to most games where they're defeated easily, in this game they are a major threat and know how to chain combos like nobody's business as they can easily hit a 10+ combo even on lower difficulties which is usually enough for an instant victory, and they're even worse on harder modes. The Giovanni battle right afterwards while formidable is nowhere near as difficult as the previous battle.
  • The last boss, 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 True Final Boss, Mewtwo, who is a much more difficult version of Gary. The best part about this whole ordeal is if you lose against the True Final Boss (which is very likely), you have to defeat Gary all over again.
  • Butch and Cassidy in the Spa Service mode. Their level scrolls at 45, they have the rare diamond blocks to throw off basic combos and chains, and they have a very large health meter. They're even harder than Giovanni, the final boss, as while his stage features are mostly the same, his is in a 3D scrolling area that makes it easier to rack up combos and stop the scrolling. Butch and Cassidy's isn't. To make matters worse, you only get one shot to beat them; the only way to fight them more than once is to quit in the middle of the level or restart the mode.
  • The final Team Rocket levels in Spa Service will often have a very high scroll rate and start very close to the top, and take a long time to complete.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

  • 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 Pokémon Power to transfer any damage he takes to any of his benched Pokémon(Like Chansey or Snorlax). Even worse, Murray can use Pokémon Center to heal all the damage you've manged to inflict on his active and benched Pokémon. 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 Pokémon 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 The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard 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 A.I. Roulette gets handed the Idiot Ball.

Pokémon Ranger

  • Charizard in the first game. The second time with him is a lot harder. Not only does he like to fly around while blowing flames, but his fireballs scatter much more densely, making it hard to circle him — and even with assists, it takes a lot of loops to get him. It also doesn't help that if you take too long, he flees the battle and you have to start all over again...
  • Steelix from the first game is another really tough boss. It is constantly moving around with a rather long body, meaning that you have to wait for it to coil up if you wish to actually draw any loops around it as otherwise it is really awkward to do. The worst part, however, is that touching Steelix at all will have you suffer Collision Damage, meaning that you only have so many tries to actually capture it before you black out. Having multiple Water and/or Fighting assists comes highly recommended.
  • 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 Sequential Boss 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...
  • Metagross can be a real pain if you don't have the right assists. It pretty much fills the screen with beams and makes shields for itself.
  • 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.
  • Feraligatr in the third game. It's not so bad before and after it rages, but while it's raging, it tackles all. the. time. And 9 times out of 10, it will charge off screen so you can't circle it between attacks, not that there's much time in between for circling it. And each tackle does 10 points of damage.
  • 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 Pokémonnote ). 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.

Pokémon Colosseum

  • The Cipher Admins are all That One Boss, 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, 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.

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

  • One of Grand Master Greevil's right-hand men as well as the penultimate boss, 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, 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, Alakazam, which utterly 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. 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.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series: Rescue Team and Explorers

  • 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 Pokémon 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.
  • Primal Dialga is no pushover either. He packs a lot of HP. He's got a great defensive typing (Steel/Dragon). He's got the intimidator IQ skill, which more often than not prevents you from hitting him at melee range. And to top it off, he's got Roar of Time, which can hit both you and your partners from anywhere in the arena, is surprisingly accurate and deals triple digit damage (thankfully you can turn it into a double-edged sword via confusing it)...at a stage when you just reached triple digit HP, which means you'll really need those Oran Berries and Reviver Seeds. Oh, and did we mention that you fight in your unevolved forms and losing forces you to climb Temporal Tower again?
  • Darkrai. It's hard enough getting to him with Cresselia in tow, and he wouldn't be all that hard to beat, being considerably weaker than Dialga, were it not for the exact same Cresselia whose relatively annoying tendency to throw herself into battle with just about everything becomes a downright suicide attempt against Darkrai, to whom Cresselia has a weakness. No matter how hard you try to keep her safe behind yourself and your partner, she will simply move right next to Darkrai all over again, allowing Darkrai to destroy her in 3-4 turns, if you are lucky. And, of course, as soon as she goes down, you all teleport out. The only way to overcome this is to take out Darkrai before Cresselia can go down, which is quite difficult, or fill your bag with a lot of revive seeds.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity

  • The final battle with Munna and cronies is truly a difficult fight. Try to use a Wonder Orb to cripple the team? Not gonna work, they've got a Team Skill that'll wipe it immediately. It's also a seven-on-four battle. Munna herself will spam Hypnosis and Psybeam to inflict status ailments on you, and bulk up her defenses with Defense Curl (fortunately, Synchronoise, the other move she has, has no effect on anybody). Get put to sleep, and you're screwed; especially since you are closest to her. Toxicroak will spam annoying moves like Taunt and Swagger, Chandelure can confuse you (easily the most frustrating status ailment in the game), poison you, and hit you with Flame Burst, which deals an additional 10 damage to everyone in your party after hurting you. On top of that, the four Gigalith will spam Harden and Iron Defense to tank up their defenses, and may randomly survive fatal damage because of their Tough team skill. You will get stomped if you're not careful. Kyurem afterwards is almost a cakewalk compared to this.

Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon

  • 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).
  • The fight with the Void Shadows at the end of Reverse Mountain. The two Mega Gengars aren't so bad beyond having Confuse Ray, and even the Mega Tyranitar isn't too hard, other than being very bulky. It's the Void Shadows themselves that will give the most trouble, as they can duplicate themselves, they have an area of effect attack, and they can also drain your health. Worse still, their attacks do not have types, so you cannot resist them. They also have about 225 HP apiece. If you don't take them out before any of the other enemies, you'll be overwhelmed very quickly.

Pokémon Conquest

  • 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 Pugilisnote , 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 Frictionless Ice 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.

Pokémon Trozei!

  • In Pokémon 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 Pokémon on the field; the Mega Glalie fight also has Glaceon drop in along with what you brought in! He will also change your Pokémon 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" Pokémon 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 Pokémon into Haunter. Three. Moves. In a row. Unsurprisingly, actually using Haunter only mitigates this problem a little.

Pokémon Rumble

  • If the Escort Mission "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 Pokémon 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.

Alternative Title(s): Pokemon Stadium

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