Toughest Gym Leader in Every Pokemon Game 

I over leveled a geodude then used self destruct to kill Whitney’s miltank.

I see the rage in michael’s eyes just talking about Whitney’s Miltank

Funny thing is, Whitney never had quite the same lasting impression on me that she apparently did for many people. When I played gold, she gave me some trouble with attract, but I ended up heading north of Goldenrod and catching Nidoran Female. Nidorina, was immune to attract, pretty tanky against Rollout, and hit decently hard with double kick. Nidoqueen became one of my favourite pokemon because of that game.

For Gen 3: In ruby and saphire i would agree with norman. But not in emerald. The Twins are so much harder in that game.

Everyone knew what was coming when he said "now for generation 2"

It’s really interesting to see the development in Pokémon Gen 1: it’s a glitch how good she is and sees kinda broken Gen 8: raihan has legit strategy and counter play while also having Pokémon that work as a team and take advantage of it

What made Jolteon so nasty was that even though his attack was low, his speed (for the time) was stupidly high, with him only tying with Electrode for the fastest Pokemon in the game. Back in Gen 1, Speed governed your crit chance, which meant that it only took a couple of boosters to get a Jolteon that crit-shot every time. This, couple with the fact that he had Pin Missle, meant that he pretty much wrecked any Psychic type he came across, even Mewtwo. Now, Jolteon's good but not fantastic, but back in the day, Doc J was a friggin' rock star. After 25 years, he's still my boy.

When I realized I could build up my Feraligatr's rage with Clefairy and destroy Miltank almost immediately, I felt so OP

I remember in Let’s Go Eevee when I saw Sabrina was the next gym. I just looked at my over-leveled new Alolan Persian and smiled with delight.

“You’re gengar is dead” Me: it’s a ghost type it’s already dead

I'm astounded that you didn't mention clay at all. His excadrill is outrageously powerful.

Whitney tip: use x attacks when miltank comes out and it should take one or two hits before rollout gets too good

i wonder why brock doesn't use his drying pan against water types

Mikey: "no new areas between norman and flanery" Hoenn desert: am i a joke to you?

14:52- Another point that added to Gengar's dismay. Back then, there was no physical/special split and the kind of move it was, depended on its type. Gengar was a special attacker, while shadow ball was physical upto gen 3. So it was useful only for the versatility it had with the TMs it could learn. Same case for Starmie

Sabrina’s apparently the queen telling noobs to get Gud.

Earthquake: *hits everyone* Me who identifies as a bird keeper trainer: I don’t have such weaknesses.

mikey: miltank is gonna- me: who leveled my quilava to level 31 since i accidentally deleted ember

Another reason Whitney is tough- I remember playing SoulSilver and I caught a mareep and a gastly. I remember getting to Whitney and thinking that I would just confuse her Pokemon to death with gastly, seeing as normal moves dont hit ghost type Pokemon, but in SoulSilver, her miltank has an ability that allows it to hit ghost type, so it stomped me to death.

I was one who was guilty of just enjoying overleveling and slamming through enemies. I was concerned more with getting certain things done than losing. Though I only ever played Emerald first, and then LeafGreen later, so I've only had two game experiences. I can see where it's a lot harder if you just go right to the gym battling without a ton of grinding.

I wanna mention with Raihan: when doing the championship, he sends out a Torkoal first. Because he predicts you'll use an ice type for his other dragon types.

Whitney: beats me 100X Me: Beats her 1 time Whitney: cries Me: *surprised Pikachu meme*

Fun strategy I used for beating Elesa on my last gen 5 run was by using a dwebble. I didn't have many options for doing damage to her emolgas beyond some sort of rock type, but since I already had an unevolved sandile and wasn't really trying to level up a decent rock type pokemon for one battle I realized I could use a dwebble I caught in the desert resort. Only problem was that this was less than optimal seeing as dwebbles offensive capability is well known to be subpar, but I also remembered that it had smack down. I ended up using dwebble to smack down her emolgas and then switching into sandile once the emolga was grounded. Ending up working decently well, and it felt good being able to finally hit her with ground moves.

First run through of Silver back in the day that Miltank hard stopped me for quite some time.

Ah yes, Whitney's Miltank, the only pokemon that can cause a kid to say "I wish my pokemon was gay"

nobody: gamefreak during the 3ds era: "why do we allow pokemon to have 4 moves again? yeah, give all the gym leaders 3 moves"

Curiously, the thing I struggled the less in all of HeartGold was Whitney, I didn't know that miltank was such a big deal since I defeated it in two moves or so.

I never found Norman tough at all for the slakings. All I needed was protect on anything which usually torkoal got and I just protected on non-truant turns. Tate and Liza definitely got the cake there for me.

Whitney’s Miltank: “I’m one of toughest Pokémon to beat!” My Quagsire: “Are you sure about that?”

I never understood why everyone thought Whitney’s miltank was hard to beat until I replayed gen two without an extremely over leveled typhlosion with rollout

I travelled a lot as a kid and usually had level 50 Pokémon by the 2nd or 3rd gym by half sleeping and half button mashing in tunnels or penned areas, scyther was always really cool on the tv show I didn’t realize how weak he was, he was always one of the first Pokémon I got and pretty much never left my party, it makes me feel kind of good how as almost all of the kids around me playing Pokémon and the kids you play on Wi-Fi only use or like the legendaries and think of the rest of the Pokémon as an afterthought where my Pokémon are always 20-40 levels past the legendaries when they are available and they are my afterthought, although theirs nothing like getting the perfect breeding rolls and smacking a child with a max speed jolteon using double team and mid to low level attack moves they use in the show while they are using a full team of legendaries with moves I’ve never even heard of but can’t land 😂 that being said though theirs nothing like the feeling of devestation coming across a better breeder and getting wrecked by a marill

I had the brilliant idea of doing a mono grass team after gym 2 in scarlet/violet. And then I met Larry's starraptor...

Michael: Rants about Miltank Aura Guardian: *Laughs in Metronome*

Video idea: who's the best gym leaders of each type

Opal’s gym battle questions are programmed to ALWAYS receive the stat lowering. One time she ask what’s her age. I answered correctly but she said I was being mean or something and got my stats lowered.

I think replace Winona with Juan in Emerald. The Kingdra loves to use double team. Once Kingdra is low, he either uses a potion or rest. Cancelling out its status condition. And it’s evasiveness doesn’t get diminished! I still think Norman is harder. But Juan is most certainly annoying!

"you're only option is Gengar" but it is one of those stupid trade evolution so if you cannot trade then you don't even have that option

Newbies: "Normal Type Pokemon are the weakest type!" Me: *Laughs in Whitney and Norman*

I remember playing heartgold, and whitney stopped me from making any progress for a few days, despite the fact I got lucky with my totodile being female (so miltank couldnt use attract)

I hated Lenora in my playthrough of white she beat me like three times before I got her while I didn’t really struggle with Elise

Me: votes on the polls Michael puts out Michael: Ah yes, its all coming together...

Oh, that's why you sent out all of those polls. Cool

I would say they clear as the toughest because there is one answer to Whitney's Milton it's called use dig every time you use dig it will stop her increasingly tough roll out

Michael: All three still know Volt Switch, and that strategy is still a giant pain. Me: *Using krokorok were he was immune to volt switch until excadrill*

Whitney's Miltank: *uses rollout My traded Machop: showtime

It made me so happy when he said Normal-type leaders are so hard, cause I’m a Normal-type specialist (with the exception of any given starter) and I organize Gym Battles with my friends. However, I hardly ever get taken seriously as a battler since I use the most “sub-par” type available. Glad to see someone taking Normal-type trainers seriously ^-^

For Emerald, I think it was Tate & Liza. Claydol was bulky as heck and you're not taking it down in one shot, so you better survive Earthquake. Trying to outsmart it with Flying types gets them smacked by AncientPower, levitators like Gengar and Weezing go down to Psychic, and if it sets up Light Screen, you lose significant power from Grass and Water moves that you might need later. If you spend time on Claydol, Xatu gets turns to set up Calm Mind then Psychic. Confuse Ray can force you to waste turns hitting yourself, and Sunny Day powers up Solrock. Lunatone and Solrock can be easier, but not easy. Lunatone has Xatu's Calm Mind/Psychic trick, with Hypnosis replacing Confuse Ray, and Light Screen still lowering your special moves. Solrock is just purely Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Flamethrower/ Psychic. If your team has been weakened by the other three, then its coverage will hit pretty much everything, with Flamethrower getting a boost if you dare to use Steel types in a Psychic gym. Their Ace Pokemon are at level 43, ten levels higher than Winona's Altaria, so you will have to do mandatory grinding. Dark types like Absol/Mightyena/Sableye/Crawdaunt are not defensive powerhouses, so they will need to be leveled up significantly to survive hits, and Water types with Ice Beam get stymied by Light Screen and Sunny Day, in addition to having the power of their Surfs cut (because of double-battle mechanic) and still hurting your ally. The Solrock and Lunatone have Sitrus Berry if you can't take them out in one hit, and Hyper Potions (4?) on any Pokémon may cost you the battle (but full healing on Claydol hurts the worst). Overall very fiendish construction. Nuzlockers, level cap challengers, single Pokemon challenges (with a filler second Pokemon), and no item challengers hate them for good reasons.

Torkoal with protect and curse: I’m bout to end this man whole career

Michael"her Clefairy is a pushover" I have bad memories of that Clefairy. One it's metronome got TRANSFORM and I to battle not a Clefairy, but a QUILAVA

Caption: "You're reaching for the pen. Michael here." Me who is actually reaching for the pen: who told you?

In one of my playthroughs of Platinum i actually had Torterrra before facing Fantina. I went a bit overkill in that playthrough. This is similar to when I had a Feraligatr before fighting Whitney in a Soul Silver playthrough and completely destroyed her Miltank.

Update for this video: Pokemon legends arkoos: Im considering frenzied Pokemon to be the equivalent of gym leaders, of the four Arcanine was the hardest for me because of the limited area to dodge it's attacks. Scarlett and Violet: Iono was the hardest because 2 of her Pokemon are immune to ground. I took her on as my 3 gym and I did not have any good rock moves at the time for her watral and I was a bit underleveled. And her mismagious has no weaknesses. Why not grusha?, I chose fuecoco.

I knew that Whitney’s mil tank was horrible, so I grinded my cyndaquil to a typhlosion at the third gym

Michael: “Whitney is why I hate Miltank so much.” MBF S1 Viewers: “What about the Aura Gaurdian?”

Note, coming back to this, Quagsire easy sweeps Raihan with a support mon like machamp or pangoro, which i used. There are quite a few pokemon that can outspeed his team and get a few hits out. setting up rain through drizzle or max move can basically destroy his strategy.

25:25 Maybe an unpopular opinion, but in sword, I think gordie is on par with Raihan difficulty wise. In my nuzlocke of Pokémon sword, gordie killed my boltund, Linoone, and grimmsnarl with just his barbaracle using razor shell. That thing, at least for me, has always been a total beast. Btw I used boltund against it because I had taught it a grass move that I though would OHKO it. The other two I used to try to brute force.

Michael: And Miltank had the rudest move set ever. Me: You can see Mikeys passionate about this.

Mikey: Norman was hard Me: Haha Combusken go Pew

i dont think whitneys miltank is that insane, if you caught a geodude at the start of the game she becomes insanely easy, geodude eats miltank for breakfast, you can even use its own strategy against her and rollout on miltank for free, geodude is insanely resistant against miltanks attacks, if you both start using rollout at the same time, geodude wins every time. croconaw also beats it with rage/fury cutter. clefairy however can be pretty bad if your unlucky, it can pull stab explosion and if your using geodude it can use hydropump or something, its pretty trolly.

Kabu was surprisingly one of the harder gym leaders despite the fact that I chose Sobble.

Me training Shedinja specifically to deal with Norman's Linoone in Emerald: "They called me a madman."

Everyone: *questioning his choices* Me: **wondering why dewgong learns signal beam**

I'm curious which gen 9 gym leader would make this list and if it would be limited to just Gym Leaders or all the major boss battles since they all give you badges. Personally I think Iono if it was limited to just gym leaders since a Mismagius with no weaknesses is kinda scary that early and the other gym leaders where kinda easy unless you went in really underleveled. If other battles could be included I think it would be Eri. That chick's team is terrifying.

Red:what do I do duwgong:I have signal beam Red:why? Duwgong: I do not know

Everyone: oh my god! Norman is so difficult! Me: laughs in blaziken

Michael: Greetings Pokefans! Subtitles: You're Reaching For Pens!

Playing a nozloc grabs a geodude and heads into Whitney’s gym “for give me little one it is your time” geodude used self destruct

another thing that can make sabrina easier (at least in FRLG) is that you don't have to fight her until you've already beaten both Koga and Blaine (I haven't checked to see if you can fight Giovanni first), by the time you get past Blaine, your pokemon are probably high enough level to take on Sabrina.

Yup, Sabrina was everyone's nightmare in red, blue and yellow. And on top of that, Blue had a lv 59 alakazam when you fought him to become the champion.

In Ruby I struggled with Norman.

Gen 1: getting berated by a ghost which who can see into the future with dangerous monsters😮 Gen 2: getting destroyed by a pink haired tween with a cow that has sausage nipples 😂

„Three words: Whitney. Miltank. Rollout“ - Nathaniel Bandy

I feel Morty deserves at least a shout-out with that whole Gengar Dream Eater combo

For Gen 3 Kanto here's what I would recommend for Sabrina. #1. Use the Magnemite line. It's the only Steel type you'll have acess to and you can catch one before you fight Sabrina. Steel resists Psychic so you'll at least have a defensive advantage against her. #2. Use Jolteon, but don't evolve it until level 30. At level 30 Eevee learns bite, a dark move that in Gen 3 is special. Jolteon has high special attack and speed so it having access to a dark move and having high speed means you might go first with it and if you're lucky Bite might make Alaksam flinch a few times. For Whitney my best strategy is using smoke screen on her Miltank if you picked Cyniquill as a starter. Hit her with as many smoke screens as you can to lower her accuracy as much as you can.

Imagine if Slaking didn't have Truant. It would be overpowered as hell, because it has the same base stat total as both Groudon and Kyogre.

11:50 But what really makes Norman difficult..... *is that he's your father*

Allister's Japanese name is Onion.

In X and Y, Grant was the only Gym Leader that I lost to. I thought Tyrant was Rock/Dark so I didn't use Psychic (which Braxien has) moves against it. Turns out, it's Rock/Dragon

I know that everybody else has trouble with Sabrina, but every time I've gone up against her(though I've only played yellow) it's been fairly easy. I just had Charizard use slash. Also, they were around level 40 then, so I did have a level disadvantage.

You knew this was coming after seeing those polls almost daily

15:59 Michael: (signal beam) which can only be learned by one, volbeat, and two... Me: illumise Micheal: Dewgong Me:

I always thought Sabrina was extremely easy. You just needed anything that knew Bodyslam, Rockslide, Earthquake, or Mega Punch other than Nidoqueen. Or a Charizard with Slash. Or a slightly overleveld Pidgeor or Fearow. Or just solo the game with your starter. You had a lot of options. Misty and Koga were much more difficult.

I love how the two gym leaders that were narrowed down for Gen 2 both cry or get pissed off if they lose the fight.

Michael: Slaking is tough to beat! Me: *laughs in pokemon that knows protect*

Talks about fantina. Me: Remembering the Regenade Platinum game. "I agree."

Don't forget that in gen 3 ghost type moves are physical and the only pokemon that gains STAB from them (Gengar) has 65 in the Attack stat. Your best option for sabrina would probably be Snorlax with Shadow Ball at that point.

"...is level 20 {Gen 4}, and you DEFINITELY don't have any fully evolved Pokemon." Me: *laughs in 1/2 my team being Bug Pokemon*

“Nanu was hard” *Laughs in Primarina*

I’m surprised Clay isn’t on this list. He’s known as the locke-killer by a lot of challenge run creators

In HGSS, there are a lot more move options to choose, and Heracross can learn Brick Break at level 19, and this can easily kill Whitney's Clefairy and fight Milktank fairly well (And the traded machop still a good option for sure)

My experience with Whitney was terrible not only for the miltank, but also for an absurd luck for her Clefairy. After being decimated by Miltank (By Rollout and Stomp-Flinch) a couple of times i decided to take the in-game trade Machop (usualy i never like using in-game trades). With a fighting pokemon in the team i was confident, but then "Clefairy use Metronome... PSYCHIC!!", Machop KO, then again Stomp-flich + Rollout KO the others... 2nd try with Machop and 4th total "Clefairy use Metronome... AEROBLAST... it's a critical hit" For the 5th try I thought "ok again with machop... and Clefairy can't be so luck to find again a supereffective move against machop with metronome!" So i used it again and "Clefairy use Metronome... FISSURE... It's a One-Hit KO" ...... ARE U FU**ING KIDDING ME!?!?!

“But then you notice their levels.” “That escalated quickly. I mean that really got out of hands fast...”

there are 8 gens, imagine a region with all these gym leaders

The only gym leader I have ever had an issue with, is that one with the miltank. I didn't even remember exactly what game that gym leader was in, all I remember is that it was hard and that she kept rollouting me to death.

whitney is way easier then people realise just use self destruct with graveler and miltank dies instantly

Michael: the ingame machop trade is the best option for miltalk Me nuzlocking soulsilver and having that machop be critted by a nidoran: i'm in danger

People who look at the community posts, we all knew this was coming.

My teams are just built different. kabu? *GONE* Opal? *DESTROYED* Raihan? *WRECKED BEFORE I WALKED IN THE BUILDING*

I find Grant hard in XY. It’s a combination of rock types being weak to few moves this early and both of his Pokémon, the fossils, having somewhat annoying things with them. His Amaura has a quad Fighting weakness but it has strong ice moves and Take Down makes it harder to tank bc now it’s an ice attack. Tyrunt is not as annoying but it’s moves hit HARD. Bite is boosted, Stomp and Bite both can flinch, and Rock Tomb makes you slower, so it might go first again. Amaura has Thunder Wave as well as Rock Tomb so your mons will be a lot slower then normal… Oh, he’s the second gym leader too but both of his Pokémon are level 25 and the first gym had a level 10 and a level 12. Rock Smash is also missable and Mienfoo, one of only a few fighting types you can get at that point, learns it’s first Fighting move at level 29. Ground types from Route 9 are weak to Amaura so one of your only main options is Machop. It learns a good amount of Fighting moves but it’s base speed of 35 and its evolution only gaining 10 more base speed makes it hard to use because Amaura is faster and can paralyze or lower your speed, it can Aurora Beam to make your phys attacks even weaker, and though it’s only good moves against fighting types is Stomp, Tyrunt is EVEN FASTER than Amaura. None of the Kalos gym leaders are that hard but Grant is the hardest to beat of them. Tyrunt even resists all 3 STAB attacks of the starters.

Mandjtv: "Miltank has a BST of 490 and it's the third gym" Me: *Laughs at Misty's Starmie*