Gym Leaders in the Pokémon world are beacons of strength and authority, widely respected in their respective towns and cities. Some of them even act as mayors of their districts. However, everyone knows the most important role they fulfill; the Gym Leaders are meant to be walls for aspiring trainers to surpass and grow stronger after battling them.
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The Kanto Leaders are rather memorable because many experienced tough battles against them in their youths. In the 2018 release of Pokémon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!, the Kanto Gyms are reintroduced with slightly different teams and slightly different weaknesses.
8 Brock – Special Water-/Grass-Types
Brock is one of the best-known Gym Leaders all around due to his presence in the first portion of Ash’s journey and in several other pieces of media. Regardless, Brock serves as the first test in every young Pokémon Trainer’s journey. His team consists of a Geodude and an Onix.
To go into the Gym, you’re required to have at least one Water- or Grass-type in your team, which makes sense considering Brock’s Rock/Ground Pokémon are four times weak to these types. Your best bets here are catching a Bellsprout or an Oddish in Routes 1 and 2, since they’re easy to evolve and also learn special attacks to exploit the lack of Special Defense that the Pewter Gym’s Pokémon have.
7 Misty – Grass-Types and Slowing Moves
This young Gym Leader specializes in Water-type Pokémon, and has her signature Starmie as her Ace. Misty’s first send is a Psyduck, but it is not too much of a threat outside of its ability to confuse your team. As long as you kept the Grass-type from before, you should easily be able to get over it.
The reason the Starmie is more threatening is the fact that it’s usually faster than the average Pokémon, but if you’re playing Let’s Go, Pikachu!, your Buddy Pokémon should have learned Thunder Wave which would be a great advantage against the Star Pokémon. Don’t depend on accuracy-reducing moves since Starmie knows Swift, a move that cannot miss.
6 Lt. Surge – Ground-Types
Lieutenant Surge has given headaches to many a child playing this game for the first time, as well as speedrunners playing Generation 1 games, because of the dreaded trashcan puzzle. Luckily, in Let’s Go!, this has been simplified by making the first switch easier to find.
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As far as his team goes, Surge specializes in Electric-Types, with funny-looking Voltorb, Magnemite, and Raichu. Sadly for him, Diglett is found near Pewter in Diglett’s Cave, and its Ground-type makes it immune to most if not all attacks Surge’s team can dish out. If you’re not a fan of Diglett, then evolving Geodude into Graveler can also be a good choice.
5 Erika – Flying-Types
This gym’s requirement is pretty strange: you must show that you have a cute Pokémon. Luckily, your Partner Pokémon is cute enough to let you through. Inside you’ll meet the sleepy Gym Leader Erika, Grass-type specialist. Her team consists of Tangela, Weepinbell, and Vileplume.
This bunch of flowery goons isn’t much trouble for a Flying-type such as Fearow, which evolves from the Spearows you can catch in earlier routes. If you’re feeling fancy, a Kadabra can do great against the Poison-type of her last two team members. Just be wary when dealing with Tangela. It knows Sleep Powder and it can put you in a bad spot.
4 Koga – Steel-Types
The Poisonous Ninja Master is a fitting title for this Fuchsia City’s famous Gym Leader. His gym is full of illusory walls and trainers that will stand in your way. It’s recommended that you have a Steel-Type for this gym, since they are completely immune to Poison.
If you don’t have a Steel-type, then bring many antidotes or a Pokémon that is fast and packs a punch. Most of Koga’s Pokémon know Toxic, so you’ll always end up badly poisoned unless you get rid of them before they can act. If not, the only other alternative is to get yourself many, many antidotes…
3 Sabrina – Dark-/Poison-Types
Sabrina is the monotonous-speaking Psychic-type specialist from Saffron City. She has four strong Psychic Pokémon, so if you bring a Fighting-type to this battle, prepare to be heading to the Pokémon Center in a few moments. Dark-type moves, however, are effective against Psychics and are four times effective against her Mr. Mime.
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Luckily, Bite is a pretty common move for a few of the Pokémon you can find in earlier routes, such as Rattata and Ekans. Evolving them can help you take out her team, although not with ease. Psychic is one of the strongest types in this game, so her challenge is definitely a hard one.
2 Blaine – Water-Types
After retrieving the key from the Pokémon Mansion, you can access Blaine’s gym to challenge him… but not before a quiz. This professor-type character will put your knowledge to the test before giving you the right to fight him. If you get a question wrong, you get to fight a trainer to claim the prize anyway, so don’t worry too much.
After getting all questions right, you’ll be face to face with Fire-type specialist Blaine. He leads with Magmar, and has a Rapidash, Ninetales and an Arcanine. The latter may pose a bigger threat than the rest, but nothing that can’t be solved with a good ol’ Water-type. By this point in the game you can get a Seaking or a Gyarados, which will make this battle trivial for you.
1 Giovanni – Fast Water-Types
As a twist to the Generation I games, the fearful leader of Team Rocket is the last Leader you need to fight before going up against the Elite Four and becoming the Champion. Giovanni is a Ground-type specialist, and has his signature Nidoking with him.
His team relies on being bulky and withstanding hits but lacks a lot in the speed department. Another good Water-type can get through his team without a lot of hassle. Be mindful that Dugtrio is not as slow as you may think, so having the Swift Swim ability and setting up Rain Dance would be fantastic against this Gym Leader.
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