The Elite Four are the last bosses. After defeating them, you face the champion.
When you defeat the champion you are rewarded with the National Pokédex. With that trinket in hand you can visit 5 EXCLUSIVE locations to capture 5 VERY rare Pokémon.
Also, a note before battle. Once you enter, you cannot leave until you have beaten all four of the Elite Four, plus the Champion. That being said, if you don't want to lose half of your money after losing to one of them, save before you enter, and if you lose, turn your DS off and start it up again. One more thing to be noted: you are not healed in between battles. Make sure to bring several items with you to heal your Pokémon in between battles. More on that later.
Now, there are three things you can do when you lose. The first is this: if you lose after the first or second fight (with heals in between), pull out and level up your Pokémon. More on leveling later. The second thing you can do if you lose by round four or five is fly to a different area (as the second part of Victory Road is added to your Fly spots, allowing you to Fly back to the Pokémon League building without having to go through Victory Road all over again) and get more items. Refer to the Items List on this page. Finally, the third thing you can do if you lose at any round is adjust the Pokémon in your party. This can make a huge difference in battles as the finishing blow is vital to prevent them from healing their Pokémon.
Level and Type Recommendations
Since the Elite Four's Pokémon are between level 55 and 66, the minimal level for your team is around mid-fifties. Even if you have a couple strong Pokémon at level 70, the Elite Four is going to be hard as there is a wide variation of types represented here. So try and balance the levels in your team. A full team of high fifties to low sixties Pokémon with varied types will almost certainly give you victory.
As far as types, if you vary them enough (about five to eight different types should be sufficient), you shouldn't have much trouble. However, there are also certain types that will do especially well. Some recommendations are:
- Steel: immune to poison moves (handy for the first battle), and also are good defenders against Normal, Bug, Steel, Ice, Rock, Dark, Ghost, and Dragon attacks. The few drawbacks are weaknesses to Fighting, Ground, and Fire, which appear a lot battles to come.
- Flying: immune to Ground type moves, and also good defenders against Fighting and Bug types, which show up a lot. They have many drawbacks, however, being vulnerable to Rock, Electric, and Ice, many of which appear in your opponent's roster.
- Water: invaluable against the many Ground, Fire, and Rock type Pokémon you will encounter. And their weaknesses to Grass and Electric appear rarely.
- Electric: good against the tough Water type Pokémon you will encounter here. Also good against Flying types. Don't use it against Ground or Water/Ground Pokémon, though, as those types are immune to Electric
- Fire: a good Fire type will make the first battle go in a flash, and will help against the Champion's Roserade, though will be in danger of the reasonably well-numbered ground and water type Pokémon here.
Item Recommendations
Strong Pokémon aside, items are going to play a very essential role to your survival. Since you are not healed between battle, you will undoubtedly be burned out after one or two fights. Also remember that HP isn't everything. If you use powerful attacks a lot, you will find yourself out of PP in no time. So here's a list of good Items to bring with you.
- Hyper Potions:X20
- Revives:X30
- Any Ethers, Max Ethers, Elixers, or Max Elixers you have left from your adventure
- Full Heals:X15
- As many Leppa berries as possible(just in case you run out of PP restoring items)
You will also want to give every Pokémon in your roster a Hold Item. Give Pokémon with specific types a that type-boosting item. If you want to bring a Pokémon weaker than the rest up to speed, then give it an EXP. Share. If you want more cash after defeating one of the Elite Four, then give a participating Pokémon an Amulet Coin. You can also give items to cause flinching, raise critical-hit chances, or give a berry to restore health automatically. But most berries don't give out that much health so you're better off with a Shell Bell or Leftovers. Blackglasses work very well with Bite as a move, the enemy flinches almost every time so that's a good item.
The Elite Four
Aaron
As the first member of Elite Four in Sinnoh, Aaron is a Bug-type expert. He has a variety of Bug-type Pokémon, ranging from Level 53 to Level 57.
His main strategy is to induce status problems on his opponents and deal damage directly or indirectly. Without using status-healing items while battling, it is quite difficult to defeat him.
The best types to defeat him with are definitely Flying and Fire (Infernape and Staraptor are good choices), though Rock is pretty effective as well. If you have a Steel type, you may want to use it against Aaron's Dustox, as it will try and poison you with Toxic, but Steel's immunity will counter his strategy. There are also two types that you will not want to lead with: Dark and Psychic. Heracross has a dual weakness to Flying types while Drapion's only weakness is Ground.
As with past Pokémon games, the first of the Elite Four should be used as a test to see how well you'll do against the rest of the Four. If you have a hard time, pull out and level up more.
His Pokémon are Dustox, Heracross, Vespiquen, Beautifly and Drapion.
Bertha
She is the second member of Elite Four and is a Ground-type master. Her Pokémon are Quagsire, Hippowdon, Sudowoodo, Whiscash,and Golem. If you chose Torterra as your starter, you will have no problem in defeating Bertha. All of her Pokémon can be easily defeated Grass-type attacks. Water-type moves are also effective against Sudowoodo, Golem, and Hippowdon. Whiscash may be Bertha's most dangerous Pokémon of all, wielding the deadly 1 hit K.O. Fissure, so once she sends it out into battle immediately launch any powerful attack you have at it (A well leveled up Torterra can take Whiscash down with a single Giga Drain). You can counter her strategy by using a higher-level Pokémon than Whiscash, which will automatically drop Fissure's accuracy to 0. Once Hippowdon is sent out, you may hit a snag, even with Torterra. It is weak against Grass-type moves, but it has high enough defense to withstand a few attacks before it goes down.
Flint
While focusing on Fire-type Pokémon, Flint mixes his team with various Pokémon with different types to stand an advantage against his opponents. His Pokémon are Rapidash, Drifblim, Infernape, Steelix, and Lopunny. Rapidash, Infernape, and Steelix are all susceptible to a Ground-type move such as Earthquake, but don't use a Rock-type Pokémon or you'll be hurt badly by Infernape's Fighting-type moves. Flint also has two non-Fire-type Pokémon as well. Lopunny is fairly weak, but don't test your luck with a Special Attack, as it knows Mirror Coat. His other non-Fire-type, Drifblim, is a very odd part of his team: it has no Fire-type moves except Will-o-Wisp, but this burns you, so watch out for that. Though he has ample HP, he is weak to Ice, Rock, Ghost, Electric, and Dark-type moves, so he should fall easily. Also, be careful of using Physical Attacks this time, as one of Drifblim's abilities is Aftermath, which gives you 1/4 of the damage you inflicted on him back to you, whcih will hurt a lot as he has a ton of HP.
Lucian
Lucian is known to read books in between matches. Most of his Pokémon are dual-type. Lucian's Pokémon are Mr.Mime, Medicham, Alakazam, Girafarig, and Bronzong. Using a lot of items and strong Dark-type moves, he is a tough trainer to defeat. The main strategy to bring about Lucians downfall is to head into battle with at least one or two strong Dark-type moves at the ready. You can make easy work of Lucian's Mr. Mime, Alakazam and Girafarig with a Dark-type move such as Crunch, but when it comes to Medicham and Bronzong, you need much more than that. Medicham can at times be lethal, especially with damaging and health restoring Drain Punch. If you can maneuver around and survive assaults from Medicham, you can defeat with a few well placed moves. You can either steadily and most often unsuccessfully hack away at Bronzong health, or if you were lucky enough to choose Chimchar as your starter or catch and train a Ponyta, you can quickly dispatch the Steel-Psychic type with a hardy fire move.
The Champion
Cynthia
Cynthia is the only female league champion in the games. Her Pokémon include Spiritomb, Garchomp, Lucario, Gastrodon, Milotic, and Roserade. Cythia starts out with Spiritomb, who to your disadvantage, is weak to nothing and completely resistant to Normal, Fighting and Psychic-type attacks. Just throw any attack you have at it to bring the ghost down. Grass-type moves will send Gastrodon down with ease, also dethrone Milotic, but when using a Grass-type, beware of its deadly Ice Beam. You can make quick work of Lucario with Fighting, Fire or Ground-type attacks. Garchomp, Cynthia's highest at level 66, can be a nuisance with its heavy-damaging Giga Impact. If you have been playing Diamond, you will probably have Dialga in your party. If you have a Dialga on you, just bring it out, and rip through Garchomp with a combination Dragonclaw, Roar of Time. If you have Palkia, you could use the same combination as Dialga but instead of Roar of Time Spacial Rend. Or use some ice-attacks. Roserade is the easiest of Cynthia's Pokémon; with weaknesses Fire, flying and Psychic Types, you can quickly defeat it.