Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen/The Elite Four

The Elite Four are, technically, the last bosses of the game. After defeating them, you'll face the Champion. The Elite Four from FireRed and LeafGreen will both be covered here.

It is heavily recommended that your Pokémon be at least Level 50 each. Anything lower than that and you may not succeed. The simplest possible team that can win the tournament comprises four Pokémon: one fire, one Water, one Ice and one Electric type. A Water-Ice dual Pokémon such as Lapras will decisively reduce your workload.

Make sure to bring Revives, Full Restores and Full Heals. Consider also bringing drinks such as Fresh Water, Soda Pop and Lemonade, as they are quite cheap. Finally, if your moves are short on PP, consider bringing along a couple of Ethers or Elixirs.

Lorelei


Lorelei shouldn't give you much trouble as most of her Pokémon are Water types and can be battled comfortably with your Electric Pokémon. She begins with Dewgong who will use Safeguard to block status problems for five turns and Hail to pelt your team with hail for five turns. Dewgong also knows Ice Beam and Surf which are both powerful moves and Ice Beam can freeze your Pokémon, although this is very unlikely as the chances are only ten percent. An Electric type is the best choice here, although a Grass type can work as long as it's strong enough to take an Ice Beam.

Cloyster is the most defensive of Lorelei's Pokémon, using Protect to block attacks whilst slowly weakening your Pokémon with Hail. She also has Spikes so switching Pokémon will result in any Pokémon that cannot fly or Levitate, getting hurt by the trap. Cloyster also knows Dive to dodge attacks and strike on the next turn. Due to her very high Defense, Special Attacks are best used against her.

Slowbro is the only member of Lorelei's team that is not an Ice type but she has Ice Beam to make up for this. She also knows Surf and has Yawn, which will put your Pokémon to sleep on the turn after it is used. Slowbro has high Defense, although not as high as Cloyster, and also has Amnesia to raise her Special Defense by two levels each time she uses it.

Jynx is the only member of Lorelei's team that is not a Water type. Since Ice Punch is, in this generation, a Special Attack, Jynx can hit quite hard with that move, but her preferred strategy is to cause Sleep with Lovely Kiss or, against male Pokémon, infatuation with Attract. Double Slap is hardly worth mentioning because it's such a pathetic move.

Lapras is Lorelei's strongest Pokémon and is not only bulky but also has a Sitrus Berry to restore health. She has a brilliant moveset consisting of Confuse Ray, Body Slam, Ice Beam and Surf. Confuse Ray is especially annoying because there is fifty percent chance that your Pokémon will hurt themselves, and Body Slam has thirty percent chance of paralysis to make things even harder.

Bruno


Bruno's main type is Fighting, so bring in your strongest Flying or Psychic types for him. On the other hand, he has two Onix to counter any Flying type, so bring in your best Water or Grass type for them. He begins with the lower-leveled Onix, who uses Rock Tomb to hurt your Pokémon and lower their Speed; Earthquake to damage Pokémon who use Dig or simply as a powerful move; and Iron Tail, which might miss but also might lower your Pokémon's Defense. This Onix also has Roar to scare off your Pokémon, but if you are using a Water or Grass type, it is unlikely that he will get a chance to use it.

The second Onix is slightly stronger and can actually make use of his Rock Head ability, due to Double-Edge, which would normally cause recoil damage. While Bruno's first Onix might scare off your Pokémon, his second might trap it in a Sand Tomb, meaning you can't recall it until the Sand Tomb wears off. Like the weaker Onix, he has Earthquake and Iron Tail.

Bruno's Hitmonchan can hit a Pokémon that uses Fly with Sky Uppercut. He also uses Counter to send Physical Attacks back at the opponent with twice the power, making Psychic types the safest option against him. He has Rock Tomb, but causing the opponent to lose Speed seems a bit pointless, since he also has Mach Punch to strike first.

Hitmonlee has Foresight, to make up for the fact that none of his attacks can hurt Ghost types. These attacks are Façade, Mega Kick and Brick Break.

Machamp is slow but has two moves to make up for this: Rock Tomb and Scary Face. He also has Bulk Up to increase his already-sky-high Attack power and reasonable Defense. His final move is the powerful but fairly inaccurate Cross Chop. Be thankful that No Guard didn't exist in this generation, or Machamp would be a far greater challenge. He has a Sitrus Berry to restore health.

Agatha


Bring in your strongest Psychic type. All of Agatha's Pokémon are weak to the Psychic-type. However three of them are Ghost types which sort of counters the weakness. Her first Gengar is arguably the more powerful one, despite being at a lower level, although her strategy is to frustrate you rather than use raw power. Using Double Team, Confuse Ray and Toxic is a very irritating combination and the near-unavoidable Shadow Punch makes her even more annoying. A Pokémon with Safeguard can be a life saver against this Gengar.

Haunter has a fairly good moveset, as she has the Hypnosis and Dream Eater combination and the energy she loses whenever she uses Curse can be restored with Dream Eater. She also has Mean Look, to stop you from switching Pokémon, which makes Curse rather lethal. Fortunately, Haunter is the weakest of Agatha's Pokemon, and a strong special attack should bring it down quickly.

Golbat has Confuse Ray, Bite, Poison Fang and Air Cutter. You need to watch out for Poison Fang's side effect as it deals a severe poison damage similar to Toxic.

Arbok is quite powerful and she knows Screech to lower your Pokémon's Defense by two levels, Bite to deal with Psychic types and Iron Tail and Sludge Bomb to hit most other Pokémon hard, with Iron Tail having a chance of decreasing Defense even further and Sludge Bomb being able to cause poisoning.

Agatha's second Gengar is not as annoying as the first, but she does have more powerful attacks consisting of Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb. She also knows Hypnosis and Nightmare. One might think that Dream Eater would be a better choice of move, but this Gengar has a Sitrus Berry to restore energy.

Lance


Lance starts with Gyarados, a very strong Pokemon that nevertheless has a massive weakness to Electric types due to its Water/Flying type. Hyper Beam is his deadliest move, although it requires recharging after it's used. He also knows Dragon Rage which always takes away 40 HP, unless your Pokémon has less than 40 HP remaining. Twister and Bite are weak but can cause flinching.

Lance's two Dragonair are identical in every way except one of them knows Dragon Rage and the other knows Thunder Wave. Their other moves are Hyper Beam, Outrage and Safeguard. Safeguard is fairly pointless as they both have Shed Skin and it won't protect them from Outrage's confusing side effect.

Aerodactyle is very fast and can use Scary Face, just in case you use a Pokémon that's faster. He also has Ancient Power, which has a decent chance to raise his Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack and Special Defense all at the same time. His last two moves are Wing Attack and Hyper Beam.

Dragonite has a massive weakness to Ice types due to its Dragon/Flying type but is still very powerful. His moveset consists of Outrage, Hyper Beam and Safeguard, like Lance's two Dragonair, and Wing Attack like Aerodactyle. He also has a Sitrus Berry to restore health.

If your starter was Squirtle


No matter which Pokémon you started with, Blue will always use Pidgeot, Rhydon and Alakazam. Pidgeot is first and prefers to stall rather than attack with his only damaging move:. He has Sand Attack to lower Accuracy by one level, Feather Dance to lower Attack by two, and Whirlwind to blow away Pokémon he doesn't want to fight. Use Electric, Rock, or Ice moves to exploit its weakness.

Rhydon is probably the weakest of Blue's Pokémon and any strong Water or Grass attack (such as Surf) can wipe him out easily. He attempts to make up for his appalling Speed with Rock Tomb, Scary Face and Earthquake. His Rock Head ability nullifies the damage that Take Down would usually inflict.

Alakazam is Blue's lowest leveled Pokémon but by no means the weakest. Alakazam is very fast and its techniques are quite deadly. Psychic can decimate almost any opponent at this point in the game since you can't get Dark types until after you've beaten the Elite 4 and the only Steel types you can get before now are Magnemite and Magneton. He also has Future Sight which will strike two turns later, Recover to restore half of his energy, and Reflect to make up for his appalling Defense.

Gyarados (present if Blue did not choose Squirtle), unlike Lance's, doesn't have Hyper Beam but he won't need it. He has Hydro Pump, Bite as well as Dragon Rage, but its deadliest move is Thrash. Fortunately for you Thrash will confuse him after two or three turns.

Arcanine (present if Blue did not choose Charmander) likes to use Flamethrower and also has Extreme Speed to deal with faster opponents. Bite is not much of a threat although it will hurt Ghost and Psychic types and can cause flinching. He also has Roar to scare away Pokémon he doesn't like.

Exeggutor (present if Blue did not choose Bulbasaur) will a massive weakness to Bug types. He knows Light Screen which works the same way as Reflect except it will weaken Special Attacks instead of Physical ones. He will also use Sleep Powder, Giga Drain, and his signature move Egg Bomb.

Blue's Starter Pokémon will always hold a Sitrus Berry. Venusaur may be the weakest as it is virtually helpless against Fire types, especially since Venusaur will probably use Sunny Day, increasing the power of Fire attacks. However Sunny Day will allow it to use Solarbeam instantly and restore three quarters of its HP through Synthesis. It will also use Growth to increase its Special Attack by one level.

Charizard manifests a massive weakness to Rock types and an inability to hit them hard. He has Fire Spin to trap and damage your Pokémon, Aerial Ace which is almost impossible to avoid, Slash which has a good chance of causing a critical hit, and Fire Blast which will really hurt any Pokémon that doesn't resist it.

Blastoise has enough bulk to hold his own against Electric and Grass types. It has Rain Dance to increase the already considerable power of Hydro Pump and can also use Bite. It is also fond of raising its Defense and then striking hard on the next turn with Skull Bash.

VICTORY!!!

After defeating Blue, Professor Oak comes over to congratulate you and scold his grandson. He then takes you to the Hall of Fame where, "You and your Pokemon's memories will last forever." Congratulations!! You beat the game!!!

Or did you? Head back to Vermillion City and head to the dock. It's time for your next adventure in the Sevii Islands!