The Hardest Pokémon League Ever

Part 5 of my first playthrough of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond!

Edited by Katie Rose

[justadude]

Imagine if enemy pokemon also had affection, just Imagine "Cynthia's Garchomp toughed it out so she wouldn't be sad"

[zachw]

I feel like in this game, the Elite Four actually earn their title as “Elite”

[I_SupaNova]

She’s insane. Hardest champion by far. Never struggled so much in a battle in my life. This is the one game, where it actually matters what Pokémon you choose to have on your journey.

[marquis_bryan]

My mom started her Sinnoh Journey a couple months ago. Shes taking her time and she's about to battle Maylene. Her team at the moment is Prinplup, Dustox, Absol, Gyarados, Mismagious & Staravia. They're all mid 30s leveled so she hasn't lost a battle at all yet. Shes got a good attitude so far with her journey.

[visitjoan]

“How is her garchomp faster than my weevile?”
It’s Cynthia’s garchamp

[NezyVenus]

I was literally down to the revive-and-die strategy where I was just hoping one of my pokemon would survive with 1 hp due to affection. It eventually worked and I managed to land an ice beam taking down the Garchomp. My least graceful champion battle ever 😂

[arraneeno]

I swear the friendship mechanic is literally the only way to get anywhere close yo beating Cynthia without a full team of lvl80+ pokemon. I feel like it's the games way of rewarding you for having a well balanced team to carry you that far

[dubbingsync]

Say what you want about Affection and how it feels “cheaty” it does lead to some very good story moments in games. Like how my incineroar toughed out a hit that should have knocked it out during the ultra necrozma fight and managed to beat it the next turn. It felt like a proper moment from the anime to me.

[neverfasty]

I love the fact that the elite four is still difficult. This game made many changes, but the fact that made the elite four actually as difficult or harder than the original is such a beautiful idea and the fact they still kept the challenge is by far the best idea by them.

[coldzoroark]

Flint's Drifblim has no attacking moves. It's moveset is Will-o-Wisp, Minimize, Strength Sap, and Baton Pass. Which is honestly scary, due to it baton passing to Infernape with upped evasiveness.

[chefjake]

I love how everyone got lucky with affection or a quick claw to win against that damn garchomp

[laneleach]

Cynthia's Garchomp has a counter for all of it's main weaknesses, it's berry weakens ice type moves, it knows poison jab, and dragon on dragon is basically a death sentence with her.

[JayPi]

Still remember how people thought Cynthia would be easy with fairy types and other variables now, . So Pokémon saw that as a challenge and made the league harder than ever before. You gotta love the irony.

[x-Lilith-x]

I'd love to see Cynthia's Garchomp have Effection. I can just imagine:
"Garchomp would not faint in front of because".
"Garchomp's willpower has caused your pokemon to faint"
"Cynthia looks upset: Garchomp decides to Mega Evolve, it is now wise to turn off the game"

[SuperUmizoomi]

16:50 this was my exact reaction when i battled Cynthia, i read flame orb and immediately was like "please don't have guts"
i still lost the first attempt and only won the second bc my lucario got dragon claw which i beat garchomp with

[Nioriel]

BDSP was my first ever Nuzlocke. Had a level limit. I'm honestly shocked I beat her. My Whiscash was the sole survivor with 3 HP. The elite 4 in this game is crazy.

[dachking]

I’ve never actually feared a Pokémon League before…every single one I’ve ever done was a first try. But idk man…the amount of people talking about how crazy this one is and the fact that they all have perfect competitive teams (correct natures, EVs, abilities, good held items, etc.) makes me a bit wary.

[dr.narwhalmd]

This was easily the hardest elite four and I absolutely loved it. However I did not absolutely love being a bit underleveled and being unable to kill Flint's Drifblim before it minimized fully, used STRENGTH SAP, AND THEN BATON PASSED TO INFERNAPE. Either way though when I finally beat them I actually felt accomplished.

[CasualVideoGamer]

It's insane how they really buffed up the Elite 4. I remember the E4 being a real challenge when gen 1 came out. Gen 2 was really difficult cause I didn't understand the importance of held items and the level differences really got to me (not to mention not having access to most evolution stones). But after that, most E4 were really simple (not counting Cynthia because she was just beast mode). What they did to these remakes really makes me appreciate the challenge again. Sure it took them needing to use held items, have great coverage, AND have great IV/EV distributions, but that's still a challenge.

Just feel bad for the kids that got the games and had tears against Cynthia without realizing her power.

[ronzstavo]

I love how everyone has these giant strategies to beating Cynthia and then there's me who uses Belly Drum Snorlax to sweep