For me, the hardest rival battles tend to be the one after their starter Pokemon evolves. It's still early game, so the Pokemon you can get are limited. Unless you can find a Pokemon with a type advantage over their starter, it's always a pain.
Route 110 May in ORAS is the most jank difficulty spike I've encountered. One moment I'm breezing through the game with my Grovyle, the next I'm sprinting down back to Slateport because Combusken had murder in his eyes.
i remember that the silver fight after the 2nd gym when you tried to enter the forest was so brutal for me back then. the levels were pretty high for that point
Me Too!Silver Was Devilish,Even With Bayleef!But The Digimon DS Rival Battles/Digimon Battle Spirit Sub Bosses Are Even Harder!Bad Tamer Boss Kain And His Enslaved Digimon Sovereigns,Koh/Sayo In The Legend Tamer Quest Or Even At The Beginning Of The Game,Impmon In Digimon Battle Spirit 1/1.5 With His Soul-Sucking Ability And MotherFlippin' Matrix Evolution And Loweemon In 2 With His Confuse Ray!
This fight when I was a kid was difficult. And I started with cyndaquil. I did not have a balanced team in any way. Even the gym was a struggle cause of scyther. I was underleveled for these.
So true! On a recent playthrough of Gold VC he utterly destroyed my 3 Pokémon, since your starter usually isn't in its middle stage at that point if you equally train at least 3 Pokémon
I have two picks for hardest rival fight! For early game, I’d say my first time playing through Pokémon Silver as a kid, when I ran into Silver after the Azalea Town gym. It’s unexpected, which always leaves you caught off guard, but what’s worse is that it’s one of those rival fights that, again if you aren’t expecting it, you’ll potentially go in unprepared and not healed. What’s worse at that point my team’s types were not prepared to deal with poison and fire types. A very humbling reminder to stay prepared. My second choice is more recent, but if you think Wally is a push over, then try battling his team post game. When this boy gets his mega team consisting of Mega Gallade, Garchomp, Magnezone, Roserade, Azumarill, and Talonflame, I was shooketh!! It’s such a well-balanced team! All dual types, great items, and very threatening if you underestimate the synergy.
I still think the hardest rival fight is Silver in Azalea Town (Soul Silver for me). That Ghastly is brutal with curse, as you likely lack the firepower and type coverage to OHKO it. There’s a good chance it can take out a weaker team member and/or debilitate your starter. This is followed by a middle evolution starter, which provides a counter for your own starter if it survived the Ghastly. If you haven’t built up a good team by this point you’re in for a world of hurt. Granted, Soul Silver was the first Pokémon game I ever played so I may not have been that good, but I still remember this encounter vividly for the trouble it caused me.
You're absolutely right. I recently HC Nuzlockd Heartgold and that fight always made me lose 1 or 2 Pokemon. I found out in my first run that a Bellsprout could get OHKO by that Bite. And just how terrifying the Ghastly could be. If you didn't have a Mareep by this point then good fucking luck xD
Also, Curse is easy to beat when used by the AI. He usually goes for Curse first, so all you have to do is switch out before he hits you with Mean Look to trap you. If he goes for Curse again, he just knocked out one of his Pokémon for you. It's part of why the Ecruteak gym is easy. Also, I call bull on Blue is the most annoying rival. Silver straight up ruins your attempt to infiltrate the Radio tower to stop Team Rocket and just leaves like there's nothing going on. But then, don't know what I should expect from Giovanni's son (yes, I'm serious, Silver is canonically the son of the leader of Team Rocket).
The first time I battled May in Route 110 in Emerald, it was not hard because I was my Combusken was Overleveled, But the time I battled her in Sapphire, That made me feel the pain on losing to her Marshtomp. Edit: She kept spamming Mud Shots on me ;-;
Not surprised X & Y weren't on here. From my experience in Y, it wasn't until the rival battle, Serena in my case, where they promise to defeat you one day is when I finally realized "Wait? Serena is the main rival in this game?" Growing up with Blue, Silver, Barry, Cheren, and Hugh, it was clear who THE rival was. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but Serena never came off as THE rival like previous rivals did.
The Gary/Blue battle on the Nugget Bridge in FRLG is the one I remember having the most trouble with. My team was Ivysaur and Mankey so his sand-attack and gust spamming Pidgeotto was really annoying to deal with. Moreover in that situation you cannot backtrack and have only one patch of grass to train for the battle. You have to either accept defeat or prevail to progress in the game.
Yeah, then you realise you didn’t grab the centre in Cerulean and get put back to the beginning of mt moon. I still remember this from my red play through as a kid
What makes Gen 5 battles more challenging is that there is no Exp share from the beginning of the game. You get the Lucky Egg after beating Skyla (6th gym), so you have to really grind to proceed with “ease”.
Burned into my mind too, that battle with Brendan took me by surprise; underleveled and unhealed going up against that Marshtomp with Mud-Shot and it always lowering accuracy while hitting like a freight train made me so much core conscious of healing after battles and wild encounters. Needless to say I lost that battle more than once, that was the day I unknowingly discovered Grinding.
@@NintendoMeister2260 it was probably an Electrike because I don't think Mareep was in Hoenn When Ruby came out I was still at this point in time of my life where I was only using starters, Hm slaves and legendarys on my team so I used to get destroyed by rival battles in general
@@pellet1167 Oh sorry that was meant for this comment about the Heartgold azalea battle either way yeah I caught a electrike and it made the battle a bit easier.
I also struggled against route 110 May/Brendan cause I was using marshtomp and was too lazy too grind new party members so I got swept by her grovyle. How I beat here, well there was a dire hit near the rival fight and I used it to try landing a critical on her and worked. I also think the 1st fight with gladion is hard. Well his first few pokemon aren't hard, it's his type null having a really high base stat total. The ones that complain the most are nuzlockers.
I’ll never forget when I first played Omega Ruby. And I got to May, i then proceeded to lose more than 10 times because her Combusken would boost up with Flame Charge and win. And since I was only using Grovyle and didn’t know how to use other Pokémon. I ended winning by sheer force. But I damn, May is tough. I will agree on it being number 1 on this list
The Hugh team reminded me of the time I swept a team of hacked in legends with my bouffalant in black and white. I seriously need to see if I have that save file still
I don't remember the fight against May being hard. If I remember correctly, the third gym leader had level 22-26 monsters. My team was too strong to struggle against May because it was strong enough to combat the gym leader.
*Thank you* for adding Rt 110 Brendan/May, my first battle against Brendan there was hell man. Came in expecting a quick win but got swept by his fast moving Grovyle instead
My very first pokemon game was sapphire, when I was like 6, I had absolutely no way to figure out how to play other than trial and error, so when I hit may on 110, it took me probably half a dozen tries, I picked torchic because Ive always felt it was the coolest, which btw also made for a difficult first gym, I got lucky when it evolved and learned double kick
For me it's definitely Hau's Malie City battle. That's the point where his Pokemon gain some serious EVs and IVs and he even switches. During my Sun playthrough I actually lost but found out that was one of the few instances in the game where you can lose and you progress without blacking out. I chose Litten so he had Alolan Raichu, Vaporeon and Dartrix. His USUM team was even harder, especially with 5 Pokemon this time round including Tauros compared to the 3 in SM. Though I still managed to win but just barely.
Silver gave me so much trouble in gold. I was young but was starting to think i was getting better and had a decent team but i dreaded most of his rival fights. Especially once his pokemon had become fully evolved. Since then ive always been over leveled for all my battles. Lol
I too suffered on the may/brendan fight, but i really want to know if someone else suffered on the azalea rival fight. Silver's croconow was really annoying to defeat in my experience
13:48 so picking Torchic will allow the easiest variant in this fight (if you’re playing either Sapphire or Emerald). Lotad/Lombre handles the two ground mon rather well. And a Swellow/Tailow bodies that Shroomish. For other starters? Grab a Wingull for the Mudkip playthrough team… or just go Tailow swellow. And for Treeko playthrough team? Swellow murders that team. Anyways… I hope that teensy bit of advice can help anyone tryna pass that point in the game. Just good mon to recommend so that it’s easier for playthroughs.
Grovyle and Swellow bodies Rival’s Combuken Team. & Combusken and Lombre shit on the Rival’s Marshtomp team. Best I can recommend for Rival’s Grovyle team… is easily just to grab a Shroomish yourself, get a Tailow as well… and use your starter for the remaining fodder.
So basically… bc YT hates me. Tl:dr Treeko + Tailow, universally good. Torchic + Lotad, good for S&E AND Mudkip + Shroomish + Tailow, will be best bet… Unless you want less mon, then Wingull + Shroomish.
Video idea: Top 10 Pokemon introduced per generation, excluding starters and legendaries. There's a couple different ways to go about it: Stat/competitive based, or popularity.
Interesting… IDK if it’s just me but in platinum the Rival fight infront of the Pastoria city Gym is always a fun challenge, the platinum fight on Canalave city Bridge come in as a close 2nd In fight 2 all of his Pokémon are evolved, he will always have a Staraptor and Heracross. He will have a fully evolved starter, and he will have 2 of these 3 depending on which starter he choses. Roserade, Rapidash, or Floatzel.
That May battle was the worst Rival batte i ever had, first time i faced her i had combusquen, which meant i was facing a Marshtomp with no Grass types, and my only other team members were Tailow and Eletrike. From that day, i always carried a Shroomish, Lotad, Tentacool or Tailow so i wouldn't go through it again
Soul Silver/Heart Gold, second fight right after Bugsy. If you start with Totodile, you now have a Croconaw. He has a Bayleaf, with the moves Reflect, Poison Powder, Razor Leaf and Synthesis. If you have the trade Onix, then two of your team are weak to razor leaf. If you waited to pick Spearow for your flyer, it is caught at level 6 outside of the town you are in. So, unless you decided to go Hoothoot, you have no super effective moves. Ghastly most likely only has Curse for an attacking move, and the Bayleaf loves spamming Synthesis to heal past any of the minor damage you are able to inflict on it. That battle to me is the most difficult, especially when taking account the slow leveling progress of Johto
Even though half of Silvers team wasn't fully evolved in Mt. Moon, just imagine the difficulty of challenging him if they were. I wish they did make his team all fully evolved
Huh Number 1 its hard only for speed runs because you solo the game with Swampert, you can just sweep her team with Tailow or Swellow. Unless you are severe under level or only have your starter , then I see it been hard
Ah~ Hugh! Platinum and white 2 were my first games :) If unova is revisited, hope they do a 3rd sequel of unova with the original dragon making its appearance FINALLY
I called the Top 2 being the Silph Co. Rival Battle and Gen 3 Route 110 Rival Battle, and I definitely agree with the latter being the #1, it is a huge difficulty spike that countering the middle staged starter has the same insanity as easily beating Whitney's Miltank in the Gen 2 games.
Let's not forget that the Cerulean City Rival fight in Red/Blue/FireRed/LeafGreen can be a pain as well. Especially because of the Pidgeotto using Sand Attack. I recently did a Leaf Green no items Feebas solo run and ran into a big problem here. I'd enter the battle on 7 HP so Pidgeotto uses Quick Attack, bringing me to 1 HP (200 base power flail), which IS enough to take it and the Bulbasaur out. But then the Rattata comes out, which also has Quick Attack....
May Route 110 the very first time I played Ruby. This was my first ever Pokémon game and I had no internet or guidebook and my starter was Torchic. At this point my team was a Torchic, Wingull and Electrike. My team was level 15. I did not heal before the battle because I did not even know the battle was coming up. Needless to say this battle was a living hell for me. I ended up winning through a combination of paralysis, growls, using 10 potions, luck that the order of my Pokémon made it where her starter was last and by sacrificing both my starter and Electrike so my Wingull could take the victory. I was so weak that on my way to the Pokémon center a wild Gulpin finished my Wingull in one hit and warped me back to the pokemon center.
100% agree with the number one pick. It's the only surprise rival battle I've ever gotten stuck at as a kid in Sapphire. That Marshtomp is just brutal. Plus, Brendan is a bit of a prick about May not being a boy and show-offy, so you want to crush him. Wally at the end of Victory Road in R/S is tough too in that I was hurt and limping towards the exit NOT expecting that. I can't remember if I lost and was pissed about going through again or was pissed that I would have to if I lost. I always play underleveled so an Altaria out of nowhere with the end in sight was not pleasant. At least the ORAS Victory Road is significantly less annoying if you lose.
From memory i think Silver is consistently the hardest, he has a great team and plays really aggro to fit his personality. Gary/Blue is close second for similar reasons. Rivals in gen 3/4/5/6 are trivial. I don't even remember most of them (gen 6 is when i quit pokemon). Edit : i'm so confused about the battle with May thing. Pokemon Emerald is the game in the series i replayed the most and i have absolutely no memories of ever struggling with it.
I prefer overleveling my starter over training poke which I don't intend to use, but you had to prepare specifically for this battle at this point in the game, where you've barely started playing.
#1 Makes sense. That battle is one of the few where I always hesitate and check if my team can take them. Sometimes I'll even go back and get some extra levels to make sure in a Nuzlocke.
Recently tried Pokemon white 2 challenge mode, and it was a nice step up. I wiped in the electric gym (annoying battle), and had to use two of my max revives against the team plasma leader. Also, yeah, that Mt Moon battle vs silver has caught me off guard a few times, particularly if I have the wrong Pokemon opening.
Lol tell me about it.... I had on a repel for my first play thru of emerald and thought all was good because my Pokemon was weak...hoping to teach a poke centre quickly...then there was MAY
The one I remember least fondly today is the penultimate fight against Hau in Sun/Moon (Not Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon; one of the biggest reasons for this fight’s difficulty, in my opinion, is gone in that installment, one of the few things that Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon made easier). You get forced directly into the fight after a long cutscene, with absolutely no prep time beforehand (This is why I think the fight is a bit easier in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon; you at least get to prepare for the fight beforehand, since Hau doesn’t immediately suggest the fight at the end of the cutscene, and if you say no, Hau doesn’t force you to fight right away). As for the fight itself… that Raichu is the face of evil. Electro Ball is nasty here, since this is Alola; everything is really slow here, compounded by the fact that, unless you overlevel, not many of your team members will be fully evolved by this point, increasing its power even further (Due to the speed gap), as well as going toward a lower Special Defense stat. Then there’s Psychic, which is, frankly, WAY too powerful of a move for an enemy to be using at this point (Some of you are probably going to say “BuT yOu GeT tHe Tm FoR pSyChIc JuSt BeFoRe ThE fIgHt!” Like I said, you’re shoved straight into the fight right out of a cutscene; you don’t even get the chance to use it yourself before the battle).
Kinda surprised you didn’t include Hop’s final battle. Not every day that the Rival team has a box legendary. And if you’re playing Shield, you have to face Zacian, which could potentially sweep an unprepared team. Honestly the unexpected challenge kinda redeemed Hop in my eyes
Another good listing. The hardest rival battle I remember was with Klara in Sw/Sh. Once her Slowbro Dynamaxes, you may very well be screwed. Especially when it's Ability kicks in.
with Hau, I think the battle you have with him once you get to Ula'Ula Island in USUM is a lot harder than his champion battle. of the five times I've played the game, I only won that battle once
10 year old me used to steal AA batteries to play ruby on my GBA. When I finally got past May I was so hyped that I forgot the golden rule. Batteries die while in Verdanturf, when I finally open my game up again I’m in the middle of Dewford Gym next to Brawly 🙃 ALWAYS SAVE!
When I did the Turtwig solo run of Shining Pearl, I barely recall beating Barry's Infernape team with a level 100 Turtwig and an X Speed. Yes, I had to use an X item purely because of Infernape, and thanks to double Intimidate from Staraptor Turtwig's Razor Leaf wasn't even a 2HKO on Snorlax. And to make things worse, I needed _two_ X Speed, _three_ X Sp Atk, *_AND CHOICE SPECS_* to defeat Cynthia.
I just finished my first ever nuzlocke playing alpha sapphire and the 110 rival fight brought me the closest to wiping in the entire run. I hadn't played a pokemon game in almost 10 years and forgot the fight existed. It was fine until whalmer busted out roll out. Would have been a lot less devastating if I wasn't being dumb and remembered that my treecko resisted roll out.
Yuuuup. Brendon KILLED me. So many times. I only ever used my starter for everything when I was a kid (more or less took care of the elite four with Swampert and stupidly lucky rng ffs, what an idiot) and just kept overleveling until I won... I didn't understand typing very well back then... So I was stuck there for MONTHS. Every time I played ruby henceforth, this segment made me fear for my team... Eventually I figured out about diversifying my team and figured out how to take care of the battle with WAY less trauma and casualties... But boy was that a long time after.
I agree 100% that the Route 110 rival battle the first time was a pain in the butt, but only the first time. After that, as long as you prepped, the battle is a breeze. I would have actually put Rival-Fiveal as number one and the Red/Blue version one. The first time you face that fully evolved team when you were not expecting it is absolutely awful. That is just personal preference though.
My personal favorite is the battle against Hau at ulaula island in ultra sun and moon. a middle stage starter, a noibat, a tauros, an eevelotion and an alolan raichu is one hell of a team for this point in the game
I've not played RSE story in well over a decade and I don't recall struggling with route 110. I was probably overleveled and item spamming. But, Azelea Silver battle is always a pain and where I expect to struggle or even outright lose. Especially when I'm rushing and I go there straight after Bugsy and forget to heal beforehand
I agree with this list if you're not using Legendary Pokemon but if they are included then NONE of the battles from Gen 6 onwards because either the battles happen after you get a Legendary that's tied to the story or (in ORAS and SWSH) you get so many Legendary Pokemon it doesn't matter how hard a battle might be.
Mystic: who really cares about unfezant Me who used unfezant more than once: me I care about unfezant, it's a great flying type and idc what anyone else says
I never really had these battles before. When you reached Hop I thought you would be talking about his last battle after he catches Zacian when you play Shield. I chose Cinderace as my starter so I dealt with Rillaboom which I had no problem with. I’m currently playing Soul Silver and Typhlosion was my starter choice. Hope I win against Silver in Mount Moon. Btw some people mentioned his fight in Azalea Town was hard but I had no trouble taking him on (this is my experience)
Hey, not certain he is considered a rival, but how about Volo? It’s said the Legends Arceus duel with him at the Temple of Sinnoh happens during the post game, but isn’t the game not really finished until you’ve captured every single Hisuian Pokemon? Consider: Volo is supposed to have a team near identical, to such an extent as it being possibly mistaken for, to Cynthia’s, and Cynthia is supposed to be the toughest champion. Also consider the fact that he has Giratina, who, even following it’s initial defeat, completely revives itself, and needs to be defeated again. There’s no other thinkable battle harder with a rival than Volo’s.
Not to mention the mechanics of PLA makes the battle harder but there's some grey area of whether you consider that the post game or if he's even a "rival"
Trace should not be in the list because all of his Pokemon have three moves even the mega. His penultimate or his ace Pokemon should have at least 4 moves.
I think the 110 may/brandon battle was particulary hard the first time because it's after quite a few battles, so if you weren't prepared for it your fighting with a team half down already. I know as a kid she blew me back for that reason! Hop is actually fairly tough once he get's Zacian on his team (after championship so doesn't count I know).
When I went against may in emerald, I barely woke because I used laron alot as well as my marshtomp, so I won by the skin ov my teeth, but I never forgot about that close call
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For me, the hardest rival battles tend to be the one after their starter Pokemon evolves. It's still early game, so the Pokemon you can get are limited. Unless you can find a Pokemon with a type advantage over their starter, it's always a pain.
Yeah same here those battles can always give you a good challenge early on
@@AlphaLykkan they are also infamous for being the end of many nuzlocke runs
that battle on the bridge in gen 3 was always a road block for me in my younger years
I agree, except that has not been the case since Gen 7.
@@cyber00123 that battle was always hard when I was younger. Lol
Route 110 May in ORAS is the most jank difficulty spike I've encountered. One moment I'm breezing through the game with my Grovyle, the next I'm sprinting down back to Slateport because Combusken had murder in his eyes.
Weird I never had any problems with her🤔
It's not that hard in ORAS imo, whilst I found it very challenging in RSE tho
@@thuikippl5034 i did it in RSE. Never owned ORAS.
Just pick Swellow lol
Am I the only one that has never had any problems with that battle?
i remember that the silver fight after the 2nd gym when you tried to enter the forest was so brutal for me back then. the levels were pretty high for that point
Me Too!Silver Was Devilish,Even With Bayleef!But The Digimon DS Rival Battles/Digimon Battle Spirit Sub Bosses Are Even Harder!Bad Tamer Boss Kain And His Enslaved Digimon Sovereigns,Koh/Sayo In The Legend Tamer Quest Or Even At The Beginning Of The Game,Impmon In Digimon Battle Spirit 1/1.5 With His Soul-Sucking Ability And MotherFlippin' Matrix Evolution And Loweemon In 2 With His Confuse Ray!
This fight when I was a kid was difficult. And I started with cyndaquil. I did not have a balanced team in any way. Even the gym was a struggle cause of scyther. I was underleveled for these.
Dont run from any wild encounters and fight every trainer is the best strat that has worked for me.
Togepi's metronome is op in gen 2
So true!
On a recent playthrough of Gold VC he utterly destroyed my 3 Pokémon, since your starter usually isn't in its middle stage at that point if you equally train at least 3 Pokémon
I have two picks for hardest rival fight!
For early game, I’d say my first time playing through Pokémon Silver as a kid, when I ran into Silver after the Azalea Town gym. It’s unexpected, which always leaves you caught off guard, but what’s worse is that it’s one of those rival fights that, again if you aren’t expecting it, you’ll potentially go in unprepared and not healed. What’s worse at that point my team’s types were not prepared to deal with poison and fire types. A very humbling reminder to stay prepared.
My second choice is more recent, but if you think Wally is a push over, then try battling his team post game. When this boy gets his mega team consisting of Mega Gallade, Garchomp, Magnezone, Roserade, Azumarill, and Talonflame, I was shooketh!! It’s such a well-balanced team! All dual types, great items, and very threatening if you underestimate the synergy.
I still think the hardest rival fight is Silver in Azalea Town (Soul Silver for me). That Ghastly is brutal with curse, as you likely lack the firepower and type coverage to OHKO it. There’s a good chance it can take out a weaker team member and/or debilitate your starter. This is followed by a middle evolution starter, which provides a counter for your own starter if it survived the Ghastly. If you haven’t built up a good team by this point you’re in for a world of hurt. Granted, Soul Silver was the first Pokémon game I ever played so I may not have been that good, but I still remember this encounter vividly for the trouble it caused me.
*Croconaw with Bite*
@@cyberend1863 which is only available if you picked that starter
@@cyberend1863 Facts ! 💯
You're absolutely right. I recently HC Nuzlockd Heartgold and that fight always made me lose 1 or 2 Pokemon. I found out in my first run that a Bellsprout could get OHKO by that Bite. And just how terrifying the Ghastly could be. If you didn't have a Mareep by this point then good fucking luck xD
Also, Curse is easy to beat when used by the AI. He usually goes for Curse first, so all you have to do is switch out before he hits you with Mean Look to trap you. If he goes for Curse again, he just knocked out one of his Pokémon for you. It's part of why the Ecruteak gym is easy. Also, I call bull on Blue is the most annoying rival. Silver straight up ruins your attempt to infiltrate the Radio tower to stop Team Rocket and just leaves like there's nothing going on. But then, don't know what I should expect from Giovanni's son (yes, I'm serious, Silver is canonically the son of the leader of Team Rocket).
The first time I battled May in Route 110 in Emerald, it was not hard because I was my Combusken was Overleveled,
But the time I battled her in Sapphire, That made me feel the pain on losing to her Marshtomp.
Edit: She kept spamming Mud Shots on me ;-;
Me too bro
Not surprised X & Y weren't on here. From my experience in Y, it wasn't until the rival battle, Serena in my case, where they promise to defeat you one day is when I finally realized "Wait? Serena is the main rival in this game?" Growing up with Blue, Silver, Barry, Cheren, and Hugh, it was clear who THE rival was. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but Serena never came off as THE rival like previous rivals did.
The Gary/Blue battle on the Nugget Bridge in FRLG is the one I remember having the most trouble with. My team was Ivysaur and Mankey so his sand-attack and gust spamming Pidgeotto was really annoying to deal with.
Moreover in that situation you cannot backtrack and have only one patch of grass to train for the battle. You have to either accept defeat or prevail to progress in the game.
Yeah, then you realise you didn’t grab the centre in Cerulean and get put back to the beginning of mt moon. I still remember this from my red play through as a kid
What makes Gen 5 battles more challenging is that there is no Exp share from the beginning of the game. You get the Lucky Egg after beating Skyla (6th gym), so you have to really grind to proceed with “ease”.
Not to mention the exp system in the og black and white is whack lol.
Burned into my mind too, that battle with Brendan took me by surprise; underleveled and unhealed going up against that Marshtomp with Mud-Shot and it always lowering accuracy while hitting like a freight train made me so much core conscious of healing after battles and wild encounters. Needless to say I lost that battle more than once, that was the day I unknowingly discovered Grinding.
I’ve never had any problems with number 1 but from what you described, I should feel blessed
The battle with May/Brandon on the way to Mauvile city its just a nightmare to imagine.....
Yes that battle w May under the Bike bridge used to be a major pain for me back in the day.
I never had trouble with the battle but that was mainly because I had a mareep and zubat with bite.
@@NintendoMeister2260 it was probably an Electrike because I don't think Mareep was in Hoenn
When Ruby came out I was still at this point in time of my life where I was only using starters, Hm slaves and legendarys on my team so I used to get destroyed by rival battles in general
@@pellet1167 Oh sorry that was meant for this comment about the Heartgold azalea battle either way yeah I caught a electrike and it made the battle a bit easier.
@@NintendoMeister2260 azalea is a tricky one if you forget to heal after you leave the gym
@@pellet1167 My paranoia makes that impossible.
Personally I didn't struggle with #1 but I do know how much havoc it reeked 😂
Blue is my all time favorite rival, to me he's Gary
Blue Is Actually Number #1
I also struggled against route 110 May/Brendan cause I was using marshtomp and was too lazy too grind new party members so I got swept by her grovyle. How I beat here, well there was a dire hit near the rival fight and I used it to try landing a critical on her and worked. I also think the 1st fight with gladion is hard. Well his first few pokemon aren't hard, it's his type null having a really high base stat total. The ones that complain the most are nuzlockers.
I’ll never forget when I first played Omega Ruby. And I got to May, i then proceeded to lose more than 10 times because her Combusken would boost up with Flame Charge and win. And since I was only using Grovyle and didn’t know how to use other Pokémon. I ended winning by sheer force. But I damn, May is tough. I will agree on it being number 1 on this list
The Hugh team reminded me of the time I swept a team of hacked in legends with my bouffalant in black and white. I seriously need to see if I have that save file still
Barry is like hey I want to battle the sinnoh league not the rival because his Pokemon is a bulldozer especially snorlax and the starter Pokemon.
I don't remember the fight against May being hard. If I remember correctly, the third gym leader had level 22-26 monsters. My team was too strong to struggle against May because it was strong enough to combat the gym leader.
In ORAS, I went and fought her on route 110 and got absolutely decimated
*Thank you* for adding Rt 110 Brendan/May, my first battle against Brendan there was hell man. Came in expecting a quick win but got swept by his fast moving Grovyle instead
You mean Sceptile
Never played the hoenn games
Really? I'm shocked
@@Mojaveknight17 About Sonic’s comment or mine?
Sonic's comment
My very first pokemon game was sapphire, when I was like 6, I had absolutely no way to figure out how to play other than trial and error, so when I hit may on 110, it took me probably half a dozen tries, I picked torchic because Ive always felt it was the coolest, which btw also made for a difficult first gym, I got lucky when it evolved and learned double kick
I tend to ALWAYS train up all of my pokemon several times through any game .
Same
That's got to be my plan from now on too
Idk i never had any Problems with the gen3 rival 😅
You're not the only one
At All . 😂
I dont get it why they dont give the rival a full team when you Battle them after the sixth Gym 😂
I’m glad the Black and White games made this list. They are severely underrated
Hugh basically my favorite rival and Wally
I was pretty young, but yeah. I was swept by Brendan where his Marshstomp was tanky and powerful in Ruby and Emerald.
For me it's definitely Hau's Malie City battle. That's the point where his Pokemon gain some serious EVs and IVs and he even switches. During my Sun playthrough I actually lost but found out that was one of the few instances in the game where you can lose and you progress without blacking out. I chose Litten so he had Alolan Raichu, Vaporeon and Dartrix.
His USUM team was even harder, especially with 5 Pokemon this time round including Tauros compared to the 3 in SM. Though I still managed to win but just barely.
Silver gave me so much trouble in gold. I was young but was starting to think i was getting better and had a decent team but i dreaded most of his rival fights. Especially once his pokemon had become fully evolved. Since then ive always been over leveled for all my battles. Lol
I too suffered on the may/brendan fight, but i really want to know if someone else suffered on the azalea rival fight. Silver's croconow was really annoying to defeat in my experience
i COMPLETELY forgot about the gen 3 route 110 rival battle! it was so painful on my first playthrough.
13:48 so picking Torchic will allow the easiest variant in this fight (if you’re playing either Sapphire or Emerald). Lotad/Lombre handles the two ground mon rather well. And a Swellow/Tailow bodies that Shroomish.
For other starters?
Grab a Wingull for the Mudkip playthrough team… or just go Tailow swellow.
And for Treeko playthrough team? Swellow murders that team.
Anyways… I hope that teensy bit of advice can help anyone tryna pass that point in the game. Just good mon to recommend so that it’s easier for playthroughs.
Grovyle and Swellow bodies Rival’s Combuken Team.
&
Combusken and Lombre shit on the Rival’s Marshtomp team.
Best I can recommend for Rival’s Grovyle team… is easily just to grab a Shroomish yourself, get a Tailow as well… and use your starter for the remaining fodder.
So basically… bc YT hates me.
Tl:dr
Treeko + Tailow, universally good.
Torchic + Lotad, good for S&E
AND
Mudkip + Shroomish + Tailow, will be best bet…
Unless you want less mon, then Wingull + Shroomish.
The 6 v 8 fight against Volo.
Video idea: Top 10 Pokemon introduced per generation, excluding starters and legendaries. There's a couple different ways to go about it: Stat/competitive based, or popularity.
Future video idea if you haven’t done it already: hardest super boss battles
Interesting… IDK if it’s just me but in platinum the Rival fight infront of the Pastoria city Gym is always a fun challenge, the platinum fight on Canalave city Bridge come in as a close 2nd
In fight 2 all of his Pokémon are evolved, he will always have a Staraptor and Heracross. He will have a fully evolved starter, and he will have 2 of these 3 depending on which starter he choses. Roserade, Rapidash, or Floatzel.
11:14 Ah, like father, like son!
I remember always losing to May when I was a kid since I only ever leveled up my Swampert
Most of the time The elite four is when I get push back, gen one rival did give a hassle but I didn't know what I was doing
That May battle was the worst Rival batte i ever had, first time i faced her i had combusquen, which meant i was facing a Marshtomp with no Grass types, and my only other team members were Tailow and Eletrike. From that day, i always carried a Shroomish, Lotad, Tentacool or Tailow so i wouldn't go through it again
Soul Silver/Heart Gold, second fight right after Bugsy. If you start with Totodile, you now have a Croconaw. He has a Bayleaf, with the moves Reflect, Poison Powder, Razor Leaf and Synthesis. If you have the trade Onix, then two of your team are weak to razor leaf. If you waited to pick Spearow for your flyer, it is caught at level 6 outside of the town you are in. So, unless you decided to go Hoothoot, you have no super effective moves. Ghastly most likely only has Curse for an attacking move, and the Bayleaf loves spamming Synthesis to heal past any of the minor damage you are able to inflict on it. That battle to me is the most difficult, especially when taking account the slow leveling progress of Johto
Even though half of Silvers team wasn't fully evolved in Mt. Moon, just imagine the difficulty of challenging him if they were. I wish they did make his team all fully evolved
Huh Number 1 its hard only for speed runs because you solo the game with Swampert, you can just sweep her team with Tailow or Swellow. Unless you are severe under level or only have your starter , then I see it been hard
just started watching, and im gunna say the may fight before watson in R/S/E is on the list?
OH YEAH!!!!! NUMBER !
For me it's always been the may fight in emerald right before slateport. Idk why but I've always struggled with her in playthroughs
Mystical umbreon can you make a video of the hardest champions next like both Cynthia and Leon
Ah~ Hugh!
Platinum and white 2 were my first games :)
If unova is revisited, hope they do a 3rd sequel of unova with the original dragon making its appearance FINALLY
That route 110 battle kicked my ass when I was a kid. The game punishes you if you relied too much on your starter up to that point.
I called the Top 2 being the Silph Co. Rival Battle and Gen 3 Route 110 Rival Battle, and I definitely agree with the latter being the #1, it is a huge difficulty spike that countering the middle staged starter has the same insanity as easily beating Whitney's Miltank in the Gen 2 games.
Let's not forget that the Cerulean City Rival fight in Red/Blue/FireRed/LeafGreen can be a pain as well. Especially because of the Pidgeotto using Sand Attack. I recently did a Leaf Green no items Feebas solo run and ran into a big problem here. I'd enter the battle on 7 HP so Pidgeotto uses Quick Attack, bringing me to 1 HP (200 base power flail), which IS enough to take it and the Bulbasaur out. But then the Rattata comes out, which also has Quick Attack....
You totally nailed number 1. Good job
May Route 110 the very first time I played Ruby. This was my first ever Pokémon game and I had no internet or guidebook and my starter was Torchic.
At this point my team was a Torchic, Wingull and Electrike. My team was level 15.
I did not heal before the battle because I did not even know the battle was coming up. Needless to say this battle was a living hell for me. I ended up winning through a combination of paralysis, growls, using 10 potions, luck that the order of my Pokémon made it where her starter was last and by sacrificing both my starter and Electrike so my Wingull could take the victory.
I was so weak that on my way to the Pokémon center a wild Gulpin finished my Wingull in one hit and warped me back to the pokemon center.
100% agree with the number one pick. It's the only surprise rival battle I've ever gotten stuck at as a kid in Sapphire. That Marshtomp is just brutal. Plus, Brendan is a bit of a prick about May not being a boy and show-offy, so you want to crush him.
Wally at the end of Victory Road in R/S is tough too in that I was hurt and limping towards the exit NOT expecting that. I can't remember if I lost and was pissed about going through again or was pissed that I would have to if I lost. I always play underleveled so an Altaria out of nowhere with the end in sight was not pleasant. At least the ORAS Victory Road is significantly less annoying if you lose.
From memory i think Silver is consistently the hardest, he has a great team and plays really aggro to fit his personality.
Gary/Blue is close second for similar reasons.
Rivals in gen 3/4/5/6 are trivial. I don't even remember most of them (gen 6 is when i quit pokemon).
Edit : i'm so confused about the battle with May thing. Pokemon Emerald is the game in the series i replayed the most and i have absolutely no memories of ever struggling with it.
Blue 2, the optional one, with pidgey and starter lvl 9
I prefer overleveling my starter over training poke which I don't intend to use, but you had to prepare specifically for this battle at this point in the game, where you've barely started playing.
#1 Makes sense. That battle is one of the few where I always hesitate and check if my team can take them. Sometimes I'll even go back and get some extra levels to make sure in a Nuzlocke.
Recently tried Pokemon white 2 challenge mode, and it was a nice step up. I wiped in the electric gym (annoying battle), and had to use two of my max revives against the team plasma leader.
Also, yeah, that Mt Moon battle vs silver has caught me off guard a few times, particularly if I have the wrong Pokemon opening.
Thank you for reawakening my trauma from Gen 3 rival at roue 10
Lol tell me about it.... I had on a repel for my first play thru of emerald and thought all was good because my Pokemon was weak...hoping to teach a poke centre quickly...then there was MAY
Marshtop mudshot is the most OP pokemon early game to battle. It lowers your speed for another hit. Plus it's STAB
What about the Silver battle before you re-match the elite four?
The one I remember least fondly today is the penultimate fight against Hau in Sun/Moon (Not Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon; one of the biggest reasons for this fight’s difficulty, in my opinion, is gone in that installment, one of the few things that Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon made easier). You get forced directly into the fight after a long cutscene, with absolutely no prep time beforehand (This is why I think the fight is a bit easier in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon; you at least get to prepare for the fight beforehand, since Hau doesn’t immediately suggest the fight at the end of the cutscene, and if you say no, Hau doesn’t force you to fight right away).
As for the fight itself… that Raichu is the face of evil. Electro Ball is nasty here, since this is Alola; everything is really slow here, compounded by the fact that, unless you overlevel, not many of your team members will be fully evolved by this point, increasing its power even further (Due to the speed gap), as well as going toward a lower Special Defense stat. Then there’s Psychic, which is, frankly, WAY too powerful of a move for an enemy to be using at this point (Some of you are probably going to say “BuT yOu GeT tHe Tm FoR pSyChIc JuSt BeFoRe ThE fIgHt!” Like I said, you’re shoved straight into the fight right out of a cutscene; you don’t even get the chance to use it yourself before the battle).
100% with May my first run of the game years ago took me multiple runs to get through her haven’t struggled with a rival at that level
#1 is absolutely perfect… as a kid just trying to fly through the game.. I was stuck forever. Made me grow up and strategize.
Kinda surprised you didn’t include Hop’s final battle. Not every day that the Rival team has a box legendary. And if you’re playing Shield, you have to face Zacian, which could potentially sweep an unprepared team. Honestly the unexpected challenge kinda redeemed Hop in my eyes
Another good listing. The hardest rival battle I remember was with Klara in Sw/Sh. Once her Slowbro Dynamaxes, you may very well be screwed. Especially when it's Ability kicks in.
when I was still a noob at pokemon I played omega ruby and may's wailer destroyed me with rollout so yeah I totally agree with the 1st spot
with Hau, I think the battle you have with him once you get to Ula'Ula Island in USUM is a lot harder than his champion battle. of the five times I've played the game, I only won that battle once
10 year old me used to steal AA batteries to play ruby on my GBA. When I finally got past May I was so hyped that I forgot the golden rule. Batteries die while in Verdanturf, when I finally open my game up again I’m in the middle of Dewford Gym next to Brawly 🙃 ALWAYS SAVE!
When I did the Turtwig solo run of Shining Pearl, I barely recall beating Barry's Infernape team with a level 100 Turtwig and an X Speed. Yes, I had to use an X item purely because of Infernape, and thanks to double Intimidate from Staraptor Turtwig's Razor Leaf wasn't even a 2HKO on Snorlax. And to make things worse, I needed _two_ X Speed, _three_ X Sp Atk, *_AND CHOICE SPECS_* to defeat Cynthia.
I just finished my first ever nuzlocke playing alpha sapphire and the 110 rival fight brought me the closest to wiping in the entire run. I hadn't played a pokemon game in almost 10 years and forgot the fight existed. It was fine until whalmer busted out roll out. Would have been a lot less devastating if I wasn't being dumb and remembered that my treecko resisted roll out.
what about thre hop fight after getting the legendary
Yuuuup. Brendon KILLED me.
So many times.
I only ever used my starter for everything when I was a kid (more or less took care of the elite four with Swampert and stupidly lucky rng ffs, what an idiot) and just kept overleveling until I won... I didn't understand typing very well back then... So I was stuck there for MONTHS.
Every time I played ruby henceforth, this segment made me fear for my team... Eventually I figured out about diversifying my team and figured out how to take care of the battle with WAY less trauma and casualties... But boy was that a long time after.
Huh, interesting opinions, will look forward to see what more you will come up with.
Hardest fight for me was silver in azalea town the og games
I actually bought the strategy book for RS before getting the game so I knew what to expect and made preparations.
I agree 100% that the Route 110 rival battle the first time was a pain in the butt, but only the first time. After that, as long as you prepped, the battle is a breeze. I would have actually put Rival-Fiveal as number one and the Red/Blue version one. The first time you face that fully evolved team when you were not expecting it is absolutely awful. That is just personal preference though.
I think the hardest rival battle for me had to be the encounter against Blue on nugget bridge. As a child I was not prepared for that pidgeotto...
My personal favorite is the battle against Hau at ulaula island in ultra sun and moon. a middle stage starter, a noibat, a tauros, an eevelotion and an alolan raichu is one hell of a team for this point in the game
Definitely for me the hardest is the 2nd rival battle in RSE. I always chose mudkip and that grovyle was brutal
I said at the start the number 1 spot for me was the bridge fight 😅 didn't think it would be up there
I've not played RSE story in well over a decade and I don't recall struggling with route 110. I was probably overleveled and item spamming.
But, Azelea Silver battle is always a pain and where I expect to struggle or even outright lose. Especially when I'm rushing and I go there straight after Bugsy and forget to heal beforehand
I agree with this list if you're not using Legendary Pokemon but if they are included then NONE of the battles from Gen 6 onwards because either the battles happen after you get a Legendary that's tied to the story or (in ORAS and SWSH) you get so many Legendary Pokemon it doesn't matter how hard a battle might be.
I feel like the only solution to #1 is grind, and you’ll be able to sweep Mays whole team
May with that 123 combo was devastating. All my Pokemon were low level because I was having fun catching and trying new Pokemon.
Nice list mystic
I really love this video it's just so good
Mystic: who really cares about unfezant
Me who used unfezant more than once: me I care about unfezant, it's a great flying type and idc what anyone else says
I never really had these battles before. When you reached Hop I thought you would be talking about his last battle after he catches Zacian when you play Shield. I chose Cinderace as my starter so I dealt with Rillaboom which I had no problem with. I’m currently playing Soul Silver and Typhlosion was my starter choice. Hope I win against Silver in Mount Moon. Btw some people mentioned his fight in Azalea Town was hard but I had no trouble taking him on (this is my experience)
Thanks. For reminding me about the first time I lost in a Pokemon game with number 1
Hey, not certain he is considered a rival, but how about Volo? It’s said the Legends Arceus duel with him at the Temple of Sinnoh happens during the post game, but isn’t the game not really finished until you’ve captured every single Hisuian Pokemon? Consider: Volo is supposed to have a team near identical, to such an extent as it being possibly mistaken for, to Cynthia’s, and Cynthia is supposed to be the toughest champion. Also consider the fact that he has Giratina, who, even following it’s initial defeat, completely revives itself, and needs to be defeated again. There’s no other thinkable battle harder with a rival than Volo’s.
Not to mention the mechanics of PLA makes the battle harder but there's some grey area of whether you consider that the post game or if he's even a "rival"
I can not lie i was definitely thinking about that battle and sure enough it was number one 🤣🤣
Wally's ORAS rematch team when his team is fully fixed and one of the highest in the entire pokemon series
Trace should not be in the list because all of his Pokemon have three moves even the mega. His penultimate or his ace Pokemon should have at least 4 moves.
Gen 6 onward were only challenging with EXP Share off.
#1 is not even up for debate. Absolutely nailed it.
I think the 110 may/brandon battle was particulary hard the first time because it's after quite a few battles, so if you weren't prepared for it your fighting with a team half down already. I know as a kid she blew me back for that reason!
Hop is actually fairly tough once he get's Zacian on his team (after championship so doesn't count I know).
Emerald Is My Favorite so I've Been Destroyed By My Rival On There More Times That I Can Count
When I went against may in emerald, I barely woke because I used laron alot as well as my marshtomp, so I won by the skin ov my teeth, but I never forgot about that close call