Brock was the hardest gym leader I faced in Yellow. This was also my first Pokémon game at age 9 and I thought everything was supposed to work like it did in the Anime.
@@slamgaming32@ slamgaming32 Nidoran learnt double kick pretty early on, and there is a makey who knows fighting-type moves in the area where you fight Gary before the elite four.
Good list. However, I would put Misty above Erika. You can access Fly before entering Erika's gym, which trivializes all the Grass types in it, heck you can catch a Fearow or Doduo and just go to town on it there, whereas Misty might give you some trouble if you picked Squirtle, and definitely will if you picked Charmander as your only options really are either to have already caught a Pikachu in Viridian Forest or grind an Oddish/Bellsprout to an acceptable level.
Also, that Starmie is strong enough that it can take out Ivysaur, especially since Ivysaur only has Vine Whip unless you level it up to 22. I was genuinely surprised at how tough Misty was when I did a run of LG with Bulbasaur. I was expecting her to be a breeze.
I would personally put Misty at 2nd place; she and Sabrina are the only Kanto gym leaders I remember having to consider putting off instead of facing them as soon as I arrived at the gym, due to the strength of Alakazam in the Kanto region mentioned in the video, and the level gap between a post Mt Moon team and Misty before running nugget bridge. I'd also put Giovanni in 8th and Blaine in 7th; as much as I like their pokemon, being able to just click surf- a move you need to even fight them, and one that's probably on a decent level water type -over and over makes them outright trivial, whereas Brock at least takes a while to whittle down, and Surge can potentially knock out some pokemon if you don't cheese the fight by bringing an overlevelled Dugtrio from next door. Speaking of Surge, I think it's unfair to dock him that many points for the game giving you the tools to take him down, because all gyms do. IIRC, depending on the version, you can get either a Mankey with karate chop or a Nidoran with double kick pre-Brock, a grass type from the lawn west of nugget bridge for Misty, a Flareon, Arcanine, or Ninetales for Erika (or the Pidgeotto/Fearow you probably have for Fly), a Haunter for Koga and Sabrina, and Blaine and Giovanni are trivialised by surf. Of those, Sabrina is the least countered due to Kanto lacking dark types, good bug moves, and having only psychic-weak ghosts, and thanks to levitate Koga is only really hard countered by a pain-to-katch Kadabra, but still. Not enough to immediately put Surge at the bottom, IMO. So I think it would go, in ascending order of difficulty: Giovanni, Blaine, Brock, Erika, Surge, Koga, Misty, Sabrina, with the gaps between Brock and Erika and Koga and Misty being fairly significant
I have to agree with the other comments about erika and misty. The rest of the list is spot on. Ironically, the only time I didn't have trouble with Sabrina was during my poisonlocke, where I began EV training a beedrill from the beginning to face her. She got swept.
I appreciate the comment! And I think you’re right, I would make those changes to a revised list. Interesting about the poisonlocke though, Beedrill definitely puts in that work as the second best physical bug attacker in Kanto behind Scyther
There is one way to completely trivialize Sabrina, and its name is Zapdos! Take out Koga first, Surf over to the Power Plant, and you can even bring the Master Ball from Silph Co. if you want to skip the grueling capture process. (I prefer it that way, as Zapdos comes early enough to be genuinely useful and fun, whereas Mewtwo and the roaming beasts are strictly post-game.) Even that terrifying Alakazam is no match for a Level 50 powerhouse with a Drill Peck that tears through every physically frail target in its path! First time I swept her with Zapdos, I was like, "Ah, THIS is how someone in the Pokémon world would actually feel if they were fortunate enough to capture a Legendary!"
I would be interested in a discussion of the gym leaders’ designs and personalities. They’re a bit basic compared to later generations, but I still think it would be interesting.
I would actually put Misty in the #2 spot and slide Koga and Erika to #3 and #4 respectively. That Starmie is no joke. Water Pulse can confuse, potentially allowing her to cheese through a specific counter like Ivysaur or Gloom then heal up with Recover. As for Koga, I never had any trouble with him. You are required to pass a Snorlax to get to him and I happened to catch one with Immunity, which made the fight quite manageable.
Snorlax is also a pretty good answer to Sabrina in my experience. While it's very slow so it's certainly going to get outsped, it tanks special attacks very well (which is what Sabrina's Pokémon will use against you), and it hits very hard with physical attacks (which is ideal for hitting Sabrina's Pokémon, which are generally frailer on the physical side). In my first FireRed nuzlocke I remember my Snorlax taking out Sabrina's entire team almost singlehandedly (though to be fair I prepared for that fight in advance after seeing what happened to Alpharad in that nuzlocke where he lost almost his entire team to Sabrina's Alakazam). In general Snorlax is one of the best team members you can get for a Kanto playthrough.
I played Gen 1 a lot more so my list goes: 1. Sabrina-Alakazam & Psychic were so OP & the lore about her kicking the Fighting Dojo's asses is 10/10 2. Koga-I hated Toxic so bad 3. Misty-Bubblebeam was kinda beastly NGL 4.Giovanni-Not bad also not too hard 5. Brock- Depending on how quick you progressed & how many Pokeballs you can afford he can be rough 6. Blaine- Lapras/Vaporeon/Gyarados always cleaned up 7. Lt. Surge-Raichu is fast but Mt. Moon has a Moonstone 8-Erika- Ember/Fire-Spin/Flamethrower/Gust always cleaned up, my Vulpix in particular made it easy work.
i actually lost to neither of them in FR/LG but in the originals Giovani was the one i lost to the most as i just didn't know he was weak to water types and soloed the game with my starter Charizard (although i had a considerable easier time when i reset and chose Squirtle as my starter and at this point i knew the dupes glitch so i kept dupping my Blastoise to eventually end up with a team of lv 70 Blastoise all with different moves.
No wonder Ash didn't stand a chance in the anime when he battled her. She was even harder than Blaine and Koga. I remember losing a lot to Sabrina before I even beaten her. A good way to beat her is by using dig with Charizard and having earthquake on Snorlax. All her pokemon have terrible psychical defense.
Erika's Gym in generation 1 it was just all about Stun Spore and Wrap, it was a total nightmare fight in that gym, so sad they didn't do an upgrade to that when Wrap didn't prevent to move anymore in Fire Red Leaf Green.
Nice ranking. I would only swap Erika and Misty. My reason is because Misty actually made my entire team faint and I've never had such trouble with Erika.
I like the list, I just completed a hardcore nuzLocke of fire red with no deaths…my secret? A beedrill w twin needle against Misty’s starmie and Sabrina’s whole team. Thank goodness my viridian forest encounter was weedle and he never died
8- Surge: Dig, Diglett and Dugtrio, and grass resist elec. 7- Giovanni: give or take 7 surf to take all of his Gym leader team out. 6-Erika: too many flying pokemon, fire pokemon, and the HM fly. 5-Blaine: his levels are slightly high. but still surfable face. 6-7 surf max. 4-Koga: the level curve may give you a hard time, but this should be easy 3- Brock: if you choose Squirtle or Bulbasaur, good job, you cheese him. if you choose charmander, i hope you are ready to grind a little bit. 2- Misty: fully evolved pokemon in second gym, which has great speed and special attack. i hope you are lucky enough to catch that 'chu in viridian forest. 1- Sabrina: bug type has no moves that creates a presense on battle, ghost has only one pokemon, psychic type is still OP as ever, Dark type does not exist in Kanto, steel type is rare as heck(magnemite line only) and most psychic type mon has good special attack = sabrina is op as heckin hell
Amazing, I agree with every single gym leader rank you stated. It cannot be stressed enough how much stronger Erika, Koga and Sabrina are compared to the others with Misty being the only one to bridge that difference to a bunch of weaker gym leaders.
yea no questions about the top 4 on the list, i wouldn't put Giovani that low though as i had allot of trouble with him as a kid over Blain who was extremely easy,
Sabrina in Yellow was rough. Coming from Blue, where Sabrina was easy, seeing Sabrina having all of her pokemon at 50 while mine were in mid 30s was cruel. Her kadabra and alakazam recovering every cra|○ i threw at them was not pleasant.
I don't really agree with Erika being so high on the list. By the point of the game she's at, you probably already have a Flying type that can handle her gym, and that's if you haven't chosen Charmander as your starter. She's definitely not as free of a fight as Giovanni or Blaine, who you can just sweep with Surf, but I wouldn't really consider harder than Misty. I do definitely agree with Sabrina as 1st, I think we all agree she's the toughest gym leader in the region, she specializes in the strongest type in Kanto, and that Alakazam is deadly. I also agree with having Koga and Misty high on the list, they're both challenging fights. I remember for my first playthrough of FireRed I went with Charmander, and while Brock was definitely a challenge, Misty was a lot harder. Starmie is just so fast, hits really hard with Water Pulse and can confuse you. It's definitely a big challenge for the point in the game you fight her at. If I had to provide my own ranking for the Kanto Gym Leaders, that would go something like this: EASY 8 - Blaine: When I think of a gym leader in Kanto with a reputation for being easy, Blaine is the one I think of, and I think that's fair. You need to already have Surf in order to face him, and his team is swept easily with Surf. While Arcanine is a great Fire type, and Rapidash is fast, The fact that you're pretty much forced to have a Surf user at this point means you already have the perfect counter for him. 7 - Giovanni: For the point in the game you fight him at, his team is very underwhelming. As you said, you can just spam surf and destroy everything. The Dugtrio is the only fast Pokémon on his team, and it's very frail, so it shouldn't be too hard to take it out. And the rest of the team can be dealt with using Surf very easily. Honestly I'd say Blaine and Giovanni are about equally easy in my opinion. They just don't have any counterplay against the tools you're forced to already have by the point of the game you fight them in. I think both would be a lot harder if you had to fight them before Surf (including leveling them down appropriately). 6 - Brock: Let's be honest: If you chose Squirtle or Bulbasaur, this fight is basically free. But if you chose Charmander, then this fight is going to be a hard one. I'd rank him at the bottom if it weren't for the challenge he can pose when you pick Charmander as your starter. 5 - Lt. Surge: He's not a hard gym leader. Most of the challenge comes from the speed advantage he has against you. He's pretty much destroyed if you chose to get a Diglett from Diglett Cave, or if you're using the Dig TM you got from Cerulean City. Like Giovanni and Blaine, I think he suffers for how you are given exactly what you need to counter him before you go into his gym. And you could still will without a Ground type, as long as your Pokémon are bulky enough to take a hit from his team, his Pokémon are very frail, so he's not really a big challenge. MEDIUM 4 - Erika: I've never really considered Erika to be a hard gym leader. By the point of the game she appears in, I always have at least 1 Pokémon who can completely sweep her team. Most teams tend to have at least one Flying type in them, and that Flying type can usually sweep the gym without much issue. That being said, she can still be a decent challenge as she can spread status effects, so I rank her higher than the gym leaders I placed in "easy". HARD 3 - Misty: Misty is probably the hardest fight in the early game in terms of the challenge she gives for the point of the game she's at. As someone who picked Charmander on his first playthrough, Misty was even harder than Brock was. Her Pokémon are fast, and Starmie is really strong for so early in the game. Water Pulse can confuse you which is always annoying. Unless you have a PIkachu from Viridian Forest, or happened to choose Bulbasaur as your starter, you're probably going to have a hard time against her, since your only other option for super effective damage would be to grind some of the early grass types you can find around this point of the game, which would probably take a while. 2 - Koga: Definitely one of the harder fights in Kanto. His Pokémon are bulky, so unless you have a very strong Psychic type on your team, you're likely not going to come close to one-shotting his Pokémon. And that gives him time to play a variety of tricks on you, like exploding, poisoning you, using evasion tactics, etc. He can really give you a very hard time. I think he really is a step above most of the other gym leaders in the game in terms of how big of a difficulty spike he is compared to the previous gym leader. 1 - Sabrina: I think we all agree she's the hardest one. She does specialize in the strongest type in Kanto, which is the Psychic type. Calm Mind can easily sweep a team if you can't take them out fast enough. She's a gym leader you really have to prepare for, and I agree that if all eight Kanto gym leaders fought each other, I'd bet on Sabrina without a doubt.
If you mention Gen 1 for Erika you need to mention it for Giovanni and his Pokemon Yellow fight. He has a Persian, a Dugtrio with very high crit rate Nidoking and Nidoqueen with Thunder and Rhydon with some very high levels. For Kanto standards he has very decent coverage and you can actually lose to him if you're underleveled
I'm surprised you're saying the lets go games took away from the strength of the teams. In context of the lets go games sure, with how easily you can overlevel and get stronger in those games with candies, but if you keep to a similar level or you'd place the lets go versions of the teams into frlg and tweaked the movesets a bit they pack far more of a punch in my opinion.
Even with Ivysaur and a pikachu on my team, Misty was such a difficult fight. Water pulse did a lot of damage and also recover. Staryu was never the issue. It was always Starmie and it alone was taking down my team 3-1.
speaking from personal experience with what i struggled with the most i would rank as follows, 1. Lt. Surge 2. Blaine 3. Misty 4. Koga 5. Sabrina 6. Erika 7. Giovanni 8. Brock
True Gen 1 powerhouse is Misty for sure, either 1st or 2nd spot. Like, with all the pokemon available leading up to that point, only Bulbasaur is immune to her bubblebeam, and she will not 5 surf but 5 bubblebeam your whole team it's absurd.
For me, only koga, Giovanni & misty are challenging. Other gym leaders, I defeat them with a single move per Pokémon (except Brock's onix if my starter is charmander). But more important than that, how do you raise lapras's level so high between Sabrina's town to the island? Do you use cheat, or rare candy or just taking your sweet time leveling up? Cuz I always put lapras in PC / day care since its level is too low compared to my other Pokémon
Yellow Sabrina also deserves mention for being an ABSURD difficulty spike. Her team has been downgraded to 3 (2 pokemon because Abra is one of them) but it's purely gen 1 Kadabra and Alakazam the 2 best Pokemon in this entire game. She also gets mention for being an OBSCENE level jump, for context Yellow Eirika's ace caps out at level 32, the Silph Co Rival fight capstones at level 40 and Giovanni at 41 before Sabrina comes out of left field with 3 level 50s putting her at a mere 5 level gap behind Giovanni's final gym team's ace with wholly inferior Pokemon and even his weakest Pokemon on his team is the same level as Sabrina's entire team. If you were to take Yellow Sabrina's team there is a very real possibility you could defeat the rest of the game with her level 50 Kadabra and Alakazam making Yellow Sabrina probably one of the few gym leaders if not the only one that could beat the rest of their game and she's only the 5th gym leader.
@sheogorath6834 Gamefreak actually gave people some options of what order to do some of the gyms back in the day. Sabrina could be done as early as third, if you traded in something with Cut, or as late as 7th.
@@qwilliams1539 That doesn't change the fact that her badge is the 6th. Also, who would do that..? They are 20 levels between Surge and Sabrina (except in yellow or it's more like 25 for some reason) If you want "options" with order, just look at Johto. The 5th, 6th and the 7th badge can be done in the order you want. On the other hand, they all share basically the same level. (And the 6th champion is actually stronger than the 7th champion lmao.)
Sabrina was even tougher in Gen I since there was no good way to deal super-effective damage against her team then. With Psychic's only weakness in Gen I being Bug and the only Bug-type attacking moves being Pin Missile and Twinneedle, it was usually better to go for strong neutrally damaging physical moves like Body Slam, Slash, or Dig.
This is quite an accurate list; though like others, I'd shuffle the top 4 as: 4) Erika 3) Koga 2) Sabrina 1) Misty That Starmie is almost illegal to be this strong this early. It puts Maylene's Lucario, Fantina's Mismagius, Whitney 's Miltank and Morty's Gengar to shambles when arguing about early game BST advantage. Though I have only played FR/LG, if it is RBY, I can see the arguments for Erika being hard and Sabrina being super hard.
Misty can be difficult, but she suffers from the developers putting one or more grass types right next to her gym that just stonewall her; similarly to how Surge suffers from the Diglets next door.
5:10 Misty is severly underrated. Shes probably the hardest Kanto Gymleader. Erika is pretty easy in Gen 3, but not in Gen 1. The Victribel doesnt learn Wrap, but has 100% Crit Chance on Razor Leafe, and a much more powerfull, and dangerous Sleep, cause you wake up and that counts already as a Round. The lack of a Special Split means, all of her Pokemon are extra bulky. Koga suffers from just the quality of his Pokemon, lack of Attack Power besides Selfe-Destruct, and lack of speed. Hes kinda a free kill. My Ranking for Gen 3: 8:Giovanni 7:Brook 6:Surge 5:Erika 4:Koga 3:Blain 2:Sabrina 1:Misty In Gen 1 the AI, Movesets, and your own Options are so different, the List cant be the same. 8:Giovanni 7:Koga 6:Blain 5:Surge 4:Brook 3:Sabrina 2:Misty 1:Erika
i mean sabrina is a challage if you dont have snorlax LIKE hes bulky and sabrina can in fact boost but 1 headbutt or smth like that from snorlx and alakazam is dead cuz alakazams base stat for defanse IS 45
Yeah erika is just too high on this placement for me, you have access to the hm fly and have access to plenty of grass counters by this point in the game between the pidgey, spearow, growlithe, vulpix, abra, and drowzee lines. An argument can even be made for butterfree, not to mention access to eevee for flareon and the game corner pokemon and TMs as well. Misty is just way harder in comparison especially since starmie is fast and hits hard with much fewer options to deal with it at that point in the game.
@@scorpiothk307 A Sabrina team as the eight Gym Leader, with a Lv 45 Kadabra, Lv 42 Mr. Mime, Lv 44 Hypno, Lv 45 Mr. Mime and a Lv 50 Alakazam would have made for a lot better showdown than what our good Giovanni had to offer in that role. And maybe, since its gen 1, switch out Sabrinas pitiful TM Psywave for something nice, like Psychic.
If you are not ready for Brock, he can be a pain in the ass, to be honest. The Gen 1 games barely gave the players tools to beat him if you choose Charmander (there is Butterfree, but if you are in Red version, Butterfree's line is rarer to encounter than Beedrill's, and Mankey is basically the other option, if you don't want to powerlevel until you can overwhelm Brock's mons with Charmander's ember), so I'd almost disagree with you... if you didn't have access to two mons that, as you said, completely destroy him in two of the starters. Even then, I probably would rank him higher than 7, maybe 6, as even with Metal Claw, his Onyx has a lot of defense to take a few to the face and survive. And I NEVER had problems with Erika. Flyers, Vulpix/Growlithe just before her gym, she can't barely hurt Bulbasaur, so it can take most of her attacks and survive (I don't remember if leech seed affected grass mons in gen 3, though). Misty is always a pain in the ass. In Gen 1, even if you choose Bulbasaur, her Starmie can survive a few hits and it has a chance of taking down Ivysaur if you didn't train it enough.
You say Erika’s Victreebel can decimate teams with Wrap in Gen 1. While this might be true, in Red and Blue, her Victreebel and Vileplume can be cheesed with a Grass/Poison type. The AI sees a Grass type opponent and spams Poison Powder, which obviously does nothing. And since only the players Pokémon consumes PP, this will last indefinitely.
I think the point of brock being better than surge due to metal claw being able to miss is pretty dumb when you consider that surges raichu has double team and is faster than most pokemon you will have at that time. If your not careful, surge can sweep, iv'e seen it before. Brock on the other hand is easier to deafet with mankey than surge is with diglet.
Frankly I always thought Koga was one of the weakest. He has status, but none of his pokemon can do any serious damage apart from explosion. He is too weak offensively.
Koga isn't that difficult. Send out a Haunter or Gengar he's laughably easy to beat. Like Lt. Surge vs Graveler easy. It's hysterical when his Koffings or Weezing blow up and just hand Gengar the free EXP. (I'm basing my experience on the Gen 1 originals, however, it doesn't appear that the Gen 3 teams and movesets function with any discernable difference).
The tangent about wrap vitreebel makes no sense she has smart ai so if she has a super after move she will go for it even if it does nothing and this super effective check only looks at the primary type so let’s say u had a bulbasaur Erika’s vitreebell and vileplume would spam poison powder forever as in gen 1 ai trainers have infinite pp so yeah
@@slamgaming32 don't worry. I understand the confusion since they have mostly the same formula as the main games and were the first traditional pokemon games on switch even if they are technically spinoffs.
Hang on a sec, Sabrina in 1st? Really? Pff, what a joke. You can easily beat the gym if you have a good physical atacker that isn't either a fighting or poison type pokemon (god, even with reflect up its still easy). Koga should be at the top imo cuz i honestly think that he is tougher to beat since you have to rely on a lot of luck to win. While that you use a strong move like fly on any of Sabrina's pokemon and bam, easy sweep. Its That Easy
Brock was the hardest gym leader I faced in Yellow. This was also my first Pokémon game at age 9 and I thought everything was supposed to work like it did in the Anime.
So true, Yellow really didn’t give you a ton of options for handling Brock easily - another reason to bump him over Surge!
@@slamgaming32@ slamgaming32 Nidoran learnt double kick pretty early on, and there is a makey who knows fighting-type moves in the area where you fight Gary before the elite four.
@@bobmaloney9850 I was green.
butterfree
@@ReneeBunny Confusion Butterfree was beastly way back.
Good list. However, I would put Misty above Erika. You can access Fly before entering Erika's gym, which trivializes all the Grass types in it, heck you can catch a Fearow or Doduo and just go to town on it there, whereas Misty might give you some trouble if you picked Squirtle, and definitely will if you picked Charmander as your only options really are either to have already caught a Pikachu in Viridian Forest or grind an Oddish/Bellsprout to an acceptable level.
Great point! I can’t believe that slipped my mind honestly, especially after I considered the dig TM for Surge - thanks!
Also, that Starmie is strong enough that it can take out Ivysaur, especially since Ivysaur only has Vine Whip unless you level it up to 22. I was genuinely surprised at how tough Misty was when I did a run of LG with Bulbasaur. I was expecting her to be a breeze.
All problems with early gyms go away if you just overlevel the crap out of Charmander :) I took Misty down with Embers in my Gen 1 days!
misty's starmie when my squirtle uses bite
Sabrina
Misty
Koga
Surge
Brock
Blaine
Giovanni
Erika
yall Squirtle and Bulbasaur people got it different.
I would personally put Misty at 2nd place; she and Sabrina are the only Kanto gym leaders I remember having to consider putting off instead of facing them as soon as I arrived at the gym, due to the strength of Alakazam in the Kanto region mentioned in the video, and the level gap between a post Mt Moon team and Misty before running nugget bridge.
I'd also put Giovanni in 8th and Blaine in 7th; as much as I like their pokemon, being able to just click surf- a move you need to even fight them, and one that's probably on a decent level water type -over and over makes them outright trivial, whereas Brock at least takes a while to whittle down, and Surge can potentially knock out some pokemon if you don't cheese the fight by bringing an overlevelled Dugtrio from next door.
Speaking of Surge, I think it's unfair to dock him that many points for the game giving you the tools to take him down, because all gyms do. IIRC, depending on the version, you can get either a Mankey with karate chop or a Nidoran with double kick pre-Brock, a grass type from the lawn west of nugget bridge for Misty, a Flareon, Arcanine, or Ninetales for Erika (or the Pidgeotto/Fearow you probably have for Fly), a Haunter for Koga and Sabrina, and Blaine and Giovanni are trivialised by surf.
Of those, Sabrina is the least countered due to Kanto lacking dark types, good bug moves, and having only psychic-weak ghosts, and thanks to levitate Koga is only really hard countered by a pain-to-katch Kadabra, but still. Not enough to immediately put Surge at the bottom, IMO.
So I think it would go, in ascending order of difficulty: Giovanni, Blaine, Brock, Erika, Surge, Koga, Misty, Sabrina, with the gaps between Brock and Erika and Koga and Misty being fairly significant
I have to agree with the other comments about erika and misty. The rest of the list is spot on. Ironically, the only time I didn't have trouble with Sabrina was during my poisonlocke, where I began EV training a beedrill from the beginning to face her. She got swept.
I appreciate the comment! And I think you’re right, I would make those changes to a revised list. Interesting about the poisonlocke though, Beedrill definitely puts in that work as the second best physical bug attacker in Kanto behind Scyther
There is one way to completely trivialize Sabrina, and its name is Zapdos! Take out Koga first, Surf over to the Power Plant, and you can even bring the Master Ball from Silph Co. if you want to skip the grueling capture process. (I prefer it that way, as Zapdos comes early enough to be genuinely useful and fun, whereas Mewtwo and the roaming beasts are strictly post-game.) Even that terrifying Alakazam is no match for a Level 50 powerhouse with a Drill Peck that tears through every physically frail target in its path! First time I swept her with Zapdos, I was like, "Ah, THIS is how someone in the Pokémon world would actually feel if they were fortunate enough to capture a Legendary!"
Speculation: Sabrina is so powerful that Team Rocket has to lock the gym during the Silph Co take over.
I would be interested in a discussion of the gym leaders’ designs and personalities. They’re a bit basic compared to later generations, but I still think it would be interesting.
For Lt. Surge, another thing is that his Gym is almost right beside Diglett Cave.
Great point, I can’t believe I forgot about that too! One level 31 Dugtrio and he’s toast
@@slamgaming32 Better pokemon to battle him is geodude from mt. moon. Lt. Surge just isn´t able to hurt this thing.
1:33 don't forget Diglett's Cave is right up the road.
I would actually put Misty in the #2 spot and slide Koga and Erika to #3 and #4 respectively. That Starmie is no joke. Water Pulse can confuse, potentially allowing her to cheese through a specific counter like Ivysaur or Gloom then heal up with Recover. As for Koga, I never had any trouble with him. You are required to pass a Snorlax to get to him and I happened to catch one with Immunity, which made the fight quite manageable.
Ooh yeah I forgot about immunity Snorlax! I always just default to thick fat haha
Snorlax is also a pretty good answer to Sabrina in my experience. While it's very slow so it's certainly going to get outsped, it tanks special attacks very well (which is what Sabrina's Pokémon will use against you), and it hits very hard with physical attacks (which is ideal for hitting Sabrina's Pokémon, which are generally frailer on the physical side). In my first FireRed nuzlocke I remember my Snorlax taking out Sabrina's entire team almost singlehandedly (though to be fair I prepared for that fight in advance after seeing what happened to Alpharad in that nuzlocke where he lost almost his entire team to Sabrina's Alakazam). In general Snorlax is one of the best team members you can get for a Kanto playthrough.
I played Gen 1 a lot more so my list goes:
1. Sabrina-Alakazam & Psychic were so OP & the lore about her kicking the Fighting Dojo's asses is 10/10
2. Koga-I hated Toxic so bad
3. Misty-Bubblebeam was kinda beastly NGL
4.Giovanni-Not bad also not too hard
5. Brock- Depending on how quick you progressed & how many Pokeballs you can afford he can be rough
6. Blaine- Lapras/Vaporeon/Gyarados always cleaned up
7. Lt. Surge-Raichu is fast but Mt. Moon has a Moonstone
8-Erika- Ember/Fire-Spin/Flamethrower/Gust always cleaned up, my Vulpix in particular made it easy work.
Do you have the same video as this but for generations 2 - 9? Would love to see your rankings from worst to best gym leaders.
I’m going to! Still a work in progress, but they’re coming!
@@slamgaming32 please let us know!
i actually lost to neither of them in FR/LG but in the originals Giovani was the one i lost to the most as i just didn't know he was weak to water types and soloed the game with my starter Charizard (although i had a considerable easier time when i reset and chose Squirtle as my starter and at this point i knew the dupes glitch so i kept dupping my Blastoise to eventually end up with a team of lv 70 Blastoise all with different moves.
Bro... You are so underrated
sabrina was a monster in yellow version 😭 giving me ptsd lol
No wonder Ash didn't stand a chance in the anime when he battled her. She was even harder than Blaine and Koga. I remember losing a lot to Sabrina before I even beaten her. A good way to beat her is by using dig with Charizard and having earthquake on Snorlax. All her pokemon have terrible psychical defense.
Gen 1 erica was a nightmare with stun spore wrap combo
Erika's Gym in generation 1 it was just all about Stun Spore and Wrap, it was a total nightmare fight in that gym, so sad they didn't do an upgrade to that when Wrap didn't prevent to move anymore in Fire Red Leaf Green.
Misty is the best Kanto gym leader. I don't blame Misty, water-type pokemon 🌊 💧 💦 are the best.
Nice ranking. I would only swap Erika and Misty. My reason is because Misty actually made my entire team faint and I've never had such trouble with Erika.
Honestly good point! I’m definitely in agreement after some more thought, I wish I had misty as a top 3 leader
Great list! I would add that you get Digletts from Diglett Cave before Surge, and Fly before Erika!
Brock is always the hardest, because if you choose Charmander in Red/Blue, he is a pain, and, of course, good luck in Yellow.
Good video bruh looking forward to what you post next 🤙🏾
Yeah, I predicted Sabrina would be at the top. She’s a bit of a doozy in Kanta.
I like the list, I just completed a hardcore nuzLocke of fire red with no deaths…my secret? A beedrill w twin needle against Misty’s starmie and Sabrina’s whole team. Thank goodness my viridian forest encounter was weedle and he never died
8- Surge: Dig, Diglett and Dugtrio, and grass resist elec.
7- Giovanni: give or take 7 surf to take all of his Gym leader team out.
6-Erika: too many flying pokemon, fire pokemon, and the HM fly.
5-Blaine: his levels are slightly high. but still surfable face. 6-7 surf max.
4-Koga: the level curve may give you a hard time, but this should be easy
3- Brock: if you choose Squirtle or Bulbasaur, good job, you cheese him. if you choose charmander, i hope you are ready to grind a little bit.
2- Misty: fully evolved pokemon in second gym, which has great speed and special attack. i hope you are lucky enough to catch that 'chu in viridian forest.
1- Sabrina: bug type has no moves that creates a presense on battle, ghost has only one pokemon, psychic type is still OP as ever, Dark type does not exist in Kanto, steel type is rare as heck(magnemite line only) and most psychic type mon has good special attack = sabrina is op as heckin hell
Amazing, I agree with every single gym leader rank you stated.
It cannot be stressed enough how much stronger Erika, Koga and Sabrina are compared to the others with Misty being the only one to bridge that difference to a bunch of weaker gym leaders.
yea no questions about the top 4 on the list, i wouldn't put Giovani that low though as i had allot of trouble with him as a kid over Blain who was extremely easy,
This makes me interested in seeing an anime made battle between Giovanni and Sabrina.
Sabrina in Yellow was rough. Coming from Blue, where Sabrina was easy, seeing Sabrina having all of her pokemon at 50 while mine were in mid 30s was cruel. Her kadabra and alakazam recovering every cra|○ i threw at them was not pleasant.
Great video once again man
The Blastoise line can learn Bite in FireRed ang LeafGreen.
I don't really agree with Erika being so high on the list. By the point of the game she's at, you probably already have a Flying type that can handle her gym, and that's if you haven't chosen Charmander as your starter. She's definitely not as free of a fight as Giovanni or Blaine, who you can just sweep with Surf, but I wouldn't really consider harder than Misty.
I do definitely agree with Sabrina as 1st, I think we all agree she's the toughest gym leader in the region, she specializes in the strongest type in Kanto, and that Alakazam is deadly. I also agree with having Koga and Misty high on the list, they're both challenging fights. I remember for my first playthrough of FireRed I went with Charmander, and while Brock was definitely a challenge, Misty was a lot harder. Starmie is just so fast, hits really hard with Water Pulse and can confuse you. It's definitely a big challenge for the point in the game you fight her at.
If I had to provide my own ranking for the Kanto Gym Leaders, that would go something like this:
EASY
8 - Blaine: When I think of a gym leader in Kanto with a reputation for being easy, Blaine is the one I think of, and I think that's fair. You need to already have Surf in order to face him, and his team is swept easily with Surf. While Arcanine is a great Fire type, and Rapidash is fast, The fact that you're pretty much forced to have a Surf user at this point means you already have the perfect counter for him.
7 - Giovanni: For the point in the game you fight him at, his team is very underwhelming. As you said, you can just spam surf and destroy everything. The Dugtrio is the only fast Pokémon on his team, and it's very frail, so it shouldn't be too hard to take it out. And the rest of the team can be dealt with using Surf very easily. Honestly I'd say Blaine and Giovanni are about equally easy in my opinion. They just don't have any counterplay against the tools you're forced to already have by the point of the game you fight them in. I think both would be a lot harder if you had to fight them before Surf (including leveling them down appropriately).
6 - Brock: Let's be honest: If you chose Squirtle or Bulbasaur, this fight is basically free. But if you chose Charmander, then this fight is going to be a hard one. I'd rank him at the bottom if it weren't for the challenge he can pose when you pick Charmander as your starter.
5 - Lt. Surge: He's not a hard gym leader. Most of the challenge comes from the speed advantage he has against you. He's pretty much destroyed if you chose to get a Diglett from Diglett Cave, or if you're using the Dig TM you got from Cerulean City. Like Giovanni and Blaine, I think he suffers for how you are given exactly what you need to counter him before you go into his gym. And you could still will without a Ground type, as long as your Pokémon are bulky enough to take a hit from his team, his Pokémon are very frail, so he's not really a big challenge.
MEDIUM
4 - Erika: I've never really considered Erika to be a hard gym leader. By the point of the game she appears in, I always have at least 1 Pokémon who can completely sweep her team. Most teams tend to have at least one Flying type in them, and that Flying type can usually sweep the gym without much issue. That being said, she can still be a decent challenge as she can spread status effects, so I rank her higher than the gym leaders I placed in "easy".
HARD
3 - Misty: Misty is probably the hardest fight in the early game in terms of the challenge she gives for the point of the game she's at. As someone who picked Charmander on his first playthrough, Misty was even harder than Brock was. Her Pokémon are fast, and Starmie is really strong for so early in the game. Water Pulse can confuse you which is always annoying. Unless you have a PIkachu from Viridian Forest, or happened to choose Bulbasaur as your starter, you're probably going to have a hard time against her, since your only other option for super effective damage would be to grind some of the early grass types you can find around this point of the game, which would probably take a while.
2 - Koga: Definitely one of the harder fights in Kanto. His Pokémon are bulky, so unless you have a very strong Psychic type on your team, you're likely not going to come close to one-shotting his Pokémon. And that gives him time to play a variety of tricks on you, like exploding, poisoning you, using evasion tactics, etc. He can really give you a very hard time. I think he really is a step above most of the other gym leaders in the game in terms of how big of a difficulty spike he is compared to the previous gym leader.
1 - Sabrina: I think we all agree she's the hardest one. She does specialize in the strongest type in Kanto, which is the Psychic type. Calm Mind can easily sweep a team if you can't take them out fast enough. She's a gym leader you really have to prepare for, and I agree that if all eight Kanto gym leaders fought each other, I'd bet on Sabrina without a doubt.
Please do this for the other regions too!
If you mention Gen 1 for Erika you need to mention it for Giovanni and his Pokemon Yellow fight. He has a Persian, a Dugtrio with very high crit rate Nidoking and Nidoqueen with Thunder and Rhydon with some very high levels. For Kanto standards he has very decent coverage and you can actually lose to him if you're underleveled
I'm surprised you're saying the lets go games took away from the strength of the teams. In context of the lets go games sure, with how easily you can overlevel and get stronger in those games with candies, but if you keep to a similar level or you'd place the lets go versions of the teams into frlg and tweaked the movesets a bit they pack far more of a punch in my opinion.
I kinda gotta disagree on Sabrina. You get Snorlax before her, and Snorlax absolutely demolishes her team.
Even with Ivysaur and a pikachu on my team, Misty was such a difficult fight. Water pulse did a lot of damage and also recover. Staryu was never the issue. It was always Starmie and it alone was taking down my team 3-1.
You should do the Gen 2 through Gen 9 Pokemon gyms
speaking from personal experience with what i struggled with the most i would rank as follows,
1. Lt. Surge
2. Blaine
3. Misty
4. Koga
5. Sabrina
6. Erika
7. Giovanni
8. Brock
True Gen 1 powerhouse is Misty for sure, either 1st or 2nd spot. Like, with all the pokemon available leading up to that point, only Bulbasaur is immune to her bubblebeam, and she will not 5 surf but 5 bubblebeam your whole team it's absurd.
Solid list
U should do more of these for other regions
I’m going to! I would love to see how later gens shake out
If i was ever to make a pokemon game, I'd do this
Starters
Water / Flying - Volt Absorb
- 2x Rock
HP: 100
Attack: 50
Defence: 120
Sp Atk: 80
Sp Def: 120
Speed: 80
Grass / Steel - Fire Absorb (new)
- 2x Fighting
HP: 100
Attack: 80
Defence: 120
Sp Atk: 50
Sp Def: 120
Speed: 80
Fire / Ground - Water Absorb
- 2x Ground
HP: 100
Attack: 80
Defence: 120
Sp Atk: 80
Sp Def: 120
Speed: 50
Gym Leaders
Gym 1 - Fire / Water / Grass - 15
Gym 2 - Bug - 20
Gym 3 - Poison - 25
Gym 4 - Rock - 30
Gym 5 - Ice - 35
Gym 6 - Flying - 40
Gym 7 - Dragon - 45
Gym 8 - Single type mixed - 50
Elite 4 - level 55 - Permanent Weather / Terrain
Elite member 1 - Snow / Psychic Terrain Based
Elite member 2 - Sand / Misty Terrain Based
Elite member 3 - Sun / Grassy Terrain Based
Elite Member 4 - Rain / Electric Terrain Based
Champion (all duel types) - Level 60
Pokemon 1 - Dark / Psychic - Toxic Debris
Pokemon 2 - Water / Ground - Storm Drain
Pokemon 3 - Grass / Steel - Sap Slipper
Pokemon 4 - Fire / Fairy - Flash Fire
Pokemon 5 - Electric / Fighting - Motor Drive
Pokemon 6 - Ghost / Normal - Levitate
pseudo legendary - Water / Dragon - Adaptability
pseudo legendary - Ghost / Normal - Levitate
Legendary Duo:
Legendary 1 - Ghost / Fairy - Magic Guard
Legendary 2 - Ghost / Dark - Clear Body
For me, relative to the point when I faced the gym leaders, the hardest to beat was Sabrina
I'm so glad that my favorite gym leader is the first on this list
For me, only koga, Giovanni & misty are challenging. Other gym leaders, I defeat them with a single move per Pokémon (except Brock's onix if my starter is charmander).
But more important than that, how do you raise lapras's level so high between Sabrina's town to the island? Do you use cheat, or rare candy or just taking your sweet time leveling up? Cuz I always put lapras in PC / day care since its level is too low compared to my other Pokémon
Yellow Sabrina also deserves mention for being an ABSURD difficulty spike. Her team has been downgraded to 3 (2 pokemon because Abra is one of them) but it's purely gen 1 Kadabra and Alakazam the 2 best Pokemon in this entire game. She also gets mention for being an OBSCENE level jump, for context Yellow Eirika's ace caps out at level 32, the Silph Co Rival fight capstones at level 40 and Giovanni at 41 before Sabrina comes out of left field with 3 level 50s putting her at a mere 5 level gap behind Giovanni's final gym team's ace with wholly inferior Pokemon and even his weakest Pokemon on his team is the same level as Sabrina's entire team. If you were to take Yellow Sabrina's team there is a very real possibility you could defeat the rest of the game with her level 50 Kadabra and Alakazam making Yellow Sabrina probably one of the few gym leaders if not the only one that could beat the rest of their game and she's only the 5th gym leader.
Sabrina is the 6th gym leader, not the 5th.
@sheogorath6834 Gamefreak actually gave people some options of what order to do some of the gyms back in the day. Sabrina could be done as early as third, if you traded in something with Cut, or as late as 7th.
@@qwilliams1539 That doesn't change the fact that her badge is the 6th.
Also, who would do that..? They are 20 levels between Surge and Sabrina (except in yellow or it's more like 25 for some reason)
If you want "options" with order, just look at Johto. The 5th, 6th and the 7th badge can be done in the order you want.
On the other hand, they all share basically the same level. (And the 6th champion is actually stronger than the 7th champion lmao.)
As a harmander die hard, Misty is the only GL I sometimes have to try multiple times
Sabrina was even tougher in Gen I since there was no good way to deal super-effective damage against her team then. With Psychic's only weakness in Gen I being Bug and the only Bug-type attacking moves being Pin Missile and Twinneedle, it was usually better to go for strong neutrally damaging physical moves like Body Slam, Slash, or Dig.
That is true but her Pokémon are too fragile to physical moves you could in easily sweep her team with a raticate without any issues.
I feel like Erika should be lower, I usually get a clefable and teach it flamethrower If I don't choose charmander as my starter
Honestly fair, I was really torn on where to slot her
I wonder what blue and Janine would be ranked since they technically were gym leaders
Dude, great videos. Why are you posting so lil videos? Got disappointed when open the channel once i saw the video.
Hope you will get some time 😇
Thank you for this! Slowly but surely I am working on more longer-form content, I promise haha
As somebody who always goes Charmander Misty was always a tough fight.
Unless you have a Gyarados which pretty much walls her team which you can have access to before my moon.
@@romus1299 Grinding for a Pikachu in Viridian Forest was also an option though I usually didn't.
@@TheAnon03 yeh pikachus are rare to find!
Misty is easy. Just catch a Pikachu in Viridian Forest. It’s what I usually do.
I always thought Brock was the hardest because I started with yellow. I used to think Onix was the strongest pokemon
I lost 3 times to misty and 1 time to brock cuz i chose charmander... The rest of the leaders were done in first try tbh
This is quite an accurate list; though like others, I'd shuffle the top 4 as:
4) Erika
3) Koga
2) Sabrina
1) Misty
That Starmie is almost illegal to be this strong this early. It puts Maylene's Lucario, Fantina's Mismagius, Whitney 's Miltank and Morty's Gengar to shambles when arguing about early game BST advantage.
Though I have only played FR/LG, if it is RBY, I can see the arguments for Erika being hard and Sabrina being super hard.
Misty can be difficult, but she suffers from the developers putting one or more grass types right next to her gym that just stonewall her; similarly to how Surge suffers from the Diglets next door.
5:10 Misty is severly underrated. Shes probably the hardest Kanto Gymleader.
Erika is pretty easy in Gen 3, but not in Gen 1. The Victribel doesnt learn Wrap, but has 100% Crit Chance on Razor Leafe, and a much more powerfull, and dangerous Sleep, cause you wake up and that counts already as a Round. The lack of a Special Split means, all of her Pokemon are extra bulky.
Koga suffers from just the quality of his Pokemon, lack of Attack Power besides Selfe-Destruct, and lack of speed. Hes kinda a free kill.
My Ranking for Gen 3:
8:Giovanni
7:Brook
6:Surge
5:Erika
4:Koga
3:Blain
2:Sabrina
1:Misty
In Gen 1 the AI, Movesets, and your own Options are so different, the List cant be the same.
8:Giovanni
7:Koga
6:Blain
5:Surge
4:Brook
3:Sabrina
2:Misty
1:Erika
i mean sabrina is a challage if you dont have snorlax LIKE hes bulky and sabrina can in fact boost but 1 headbutt or smth like that from snorlx and alakazam is dead cuz alakazams base stat for defanse IS 45
as a charmander chooser, misty scares me lol
Yeah erika is just too high on this placement for me, you have access to the hm fly and have access to plenty of grass counters by this point in the game between the pidgey, spearow, growlithe, vulpix, abra, and drowzee lines. An argument can even be made for butterfree, not to mention access to eevee for flareon and the game corner pokemon and TMs as well. Misty is just way harder in comparison especially since starmie is fast and hits hard with much fewer options to deal with it at that point in the game.
I feel like Sabrina should’ve been the final gym leader or elite four or even the champion
Fun fact: at some point in Gen 1's development Sabrina was actually the final Gym Leader of Kanto, though Giovanni wasn't a Gym leader at that point
@@scorpiothk307 should’ve kept it that way realistically
@@scorpiothk307 A Sabrina team as the eight Gym Leader, with a Lv 45 Kadabra, Lv 42 Mr. Mime, Lv 44 Hypno, Lv 45 Mr. Mime and a Lv 50 Alakazam would have made for a lot better showdown than what our good Giovanni had to offer in that role. And maybe, since its gen 1, switch out Sabrinas pitiful TM Psywave for something nice, like Psychic.
If you are not ready for Brock, he can be a pain in the ass, to be honest. The Gen 1 games barely gave the players tools to beat him if you choose Charmander (there is Butterfree, but if you are in Red version, Butterfree's line is rarer to encounter than Beedrill's, and Mankey is basically the other option, if you don't want to powerlevel until you can overwhelm Brock's mons with Charmander's ember), so I'd almost disagree with you... if you didn't have access to two mons that, as you said, completely destroy him in two of the starters. Even then, I probably would rank him higher than 7, maybe 6, as even with Metal Claw, his Onyx has a lot of defense to take a few to the face and survive.
And I NEVER had problems with Erika. Flyers, Vulpix/Growlithe just before her gym, she can't barely hurt Bulbasaur, so it can take most of her attacks and survive (I don't remember if leech seed affected grass mons in gen 3, though).
Misty is always a pain in the ass. In Gen 1, even if you choose Bulbasaur, her Starmie can survive a few hits and it has a chance of taking down Ivysaur if you didn't train it enough.
You say Erika’s Victreebel can decimate teams with Wrap in Gen 1. While this might be true, in Red and Blue, her Victreebel and Vileplume can be cheesed with a Grass/Poison type. The AI sees a Grass type opponent and spams Poison Powder, which obviously does nothing. And since only the players Pokémon consumes PP, this will last indefinitely.
Let me save y'all 7 minutes real quick...
SABRINA is the hardest Kanto gym leader in any game that doesn't have Blue in it.
do it with their rematch team of lets go or FRLG pleeeaaassseeeee
Fr/Lg true kanto experience....
It aint authentic unless youe Charmander is struggling against Onix w/o that Metal Claw 😂😂😂
True haha
Misty smokes Erika imo. Any flying type just sweeps it. Sabrina really gives a nuzlocke run problems especially if you don’t over level
I think the point of brock being better than surge due to metal claw being able to miss is pretty dumb when you consider that surges raichu has double team and is faster than most pokemon you will have at that time. If your not careful, surge can sweep, iv'e seen it before. Brock on the other hand is easier to deafet with mankey than surge is with diglet.
You forgot how easy Koga is to neat with a ghastly or haunter
Imo i think Surge is hard all the time, wait you’re talking about difficulty?
Frankly I always thought Koga was one of the weakest. He has status, but none of his pokemon can do any serious damage apart from explosion. He is too weak offensively.
I beat Sabrina first try with Pokémon at her level.
I always have Alakazam by the poison gym, which completely trivializes it for me
4:05 i have never lost to Giovanni but i have lost to misty
Koga isn't that difficult.
Send out a Haunter or Gengar he's laughably easy to beat.
Like Lt. Surge vs Graveler easy.
It's hysterical when his Koffings or Weezing blow up and just hand Gengar the free EXP.
(I'm basing my experience on the Gen 1 originals, however, it doesn't appear that the Gen 3 teams and movesets function with any discernable difference).
The fact that Erica is on 3rd place shows how weak the gym leaders in Kanto are.
Victreebel has a base speed of 70, that's not fast.
The tangent about wrap vitreebel makes no sense she has smart ai so if she has a super after move she will go for it even if it does nothing and this super effective check only looks at the primary type so let’s say u had a bulbasaur Erika’s vitreebell and vileplume would spam poison powder forever as in gen 1 ai trainers have infinite pp so yeah
Sabrina is the best
Let's go Pikachu and Eevee aren't gen 8, they're gen 7.
You’re right! I honestly can’t believe how long I’ve gone thinking they were gen 8 lol. Thanks for the heads up!
@@slamgaming32 don't worry. I understand the confusion since they have mostly the same formula as the main games and were the first traditional pokemon games on switch even if they are technically spinoffs.
Erica imo is the easiest. Mostly swept her with a flying or a fire type. Easy
Misty definitely is above Erika
erika not number 3. misty starmie is goated
Hang on a sec, Sabrina in 1st? Really?
Pff, what a joke. You can easily beat the gym if you have a good physical atacker that isn't either a fighting or poison type pokemon (god, even with reflect up its still easy).
Koga should be at the top imo cuz i honestly think that he is tougher to beat since you have to rely on a lot of luck to win. While that you use a strong move like fly on any of Sabrina's pokemon and bam, easy sweep.
Its
That
Easy
Number 3 should be near the bottom