Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/The Elite Four

The Elite Four are located in the Pokémon League and they are the final bosses before the Champion. Defeating the Champion, gives you the Champion title and it unlocks more areas in the game.

Be aware that once you go past the Ace Trainer in the Pokémon League lobby to challenge the Elite Four, you wont be able to leave until you have beaten all of the Elite Four and the Champion. That being said save your game before you challenge the Elite Four that way if you do lose then you can just close the game and restart from the beginning. One more thing to be aware of is that you dont get healed in between battles. Make sure to bring several items with you to heal your Pokémon in between battles.

If you lose after the first or second Elite Four member then go back into Victory Road and train your Pokémon. If you lose to the last Elite Four member or the Champion then rebattle some trainers to get money and buy more items. Refer to the Items List on this page. Finally, if you lose at any round you can try to adjust the Pokémon in your party. This can make a huge difference in a battle 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 the mid 50s. 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 50s to low 60s Pokémon with varied types will make these fights easier.

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:

• Grass: needed for those pesky water/ground dual types such as Whiscash and Quagsire.
• 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.

A good team combination is fire, ground/water, grass, fighting, dark, ice and flying

Item Recommendations

Strong Pokémon aside, items are going to play a very essential role to your survival since you need items to heal between battles or you will undoubtedly lose 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: X60
• Revives: X50
• 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 an item that boosts their type. 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 members, 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. Black Glasses work very well with Bite as a move, the enemy flinches almost every time so that's a good item.

Exterior of Pokémon League

Pokémon League exterior

A nice relaxing place with a beautiful water. You can kick back here to calm your mind before the big challenge ahead of you.

Just south of the southwestern statue is a hidden Sky Plate

Pokémon found

Note:Return here later with the Super Rod to obtain more powerful Pokémon.

Diamond and Pearl
Pokémon		Level	Rate
Surfing
	Tentacruel	35-45	35%
	Pelipper	35-45	65%

Diamond and Pearl
Pokémon		Level	Old Rod	Good Rod	Super Rod
	Magikarp	3-10	100%	-	-
	Magikarp	10-25	-	55%	-
	Remoraid	10-25	-	45%	-
	Gyarados	30-40	-	-	40%
	Octillery	20-40	-	-	45%
	Luvdisc	20-30	-	-	15%

Items

• Sky Plate (hidden) - south of the southwestern statue

Pokémon League lobby

The lobby of the Pokémon League has a Pokémon Center and a Poké Mart. Stock up on the items listed above and heal your Pokémon. Right before you challenge the Elite Four, Barry will come rushing in and challenge you to see who is more worthy of facing the Elite Four. To beat him you should have Fire (For Roserade/Torterra and Heracross), Fighting (for Snorlax), Electric (for Floatzel/Empoleon and Staraptor), and Water/Ground (for Infernape/Rapidash).

Final battle with Barry

If you chose Turtwig:

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
PKMN Trainer Barry Reward: 5300	Staraptor Lv. 48 Heracross Lv. 50 Snorlax Lv. 51 Roserade Lv. 49 Floatzel Lv. 49 Infernape Lv. 53

If you chose Piplup:

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
PKMN Trainer Barry Reward: 5300	Staraptor Lv. 48 Heracross Lv. 50 Snorlax Lv. 51 Floatzel Lv. 49 Rapidash Lv. 49 Torterra Lv. 53

If you chose Chimchar:

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
PKMN Trainer Barry Reward: 5300	Staraptor Lv. 48 Heracross Lv. 50 Snorlax Lv. 51 Rapidash Lv. 49 Roserade Lv. 49 Empoleon Lv. 53

After you beat him, he says he's not ready for the Elite Four but he will come back and tells you to not lose to anyone before he can beat you.

If you lose to him then you won't be able to challenge the Elite Four and you will have to rebattle him until you beat him.

Elite Four Aaron

DP

Aaron is a master of Bug type Pokémon. The recommended types to beat him are Fire and Ground (for Drapion as he is Poison/Dark)

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
Elite Four Aaron Reward: 6840	Dustox Lv. 53 Beautifly Lv. 53 Heracross Lv. 54 Vespiquen Lv. 54 Drapion Lv. 57

His first Pokémon is Dustox, who uses Double Team and Light Screen cuts the special attack damage done to it for 5 turns and Toxic which badly poisons your Pokémon if it doesnt have the Immunity ability. His only attacking move is Bug Buzz and his Ability is Shield Dust meaning that side effects such as burning from moves like Flamethrower or flinching from moves like Air Slash won't affect it.

Beautifly also has Bug Buzz and his other moves are all aggressive unlike his defensive counterpart. He has Energy Ball, Shadow Ball and Psychic. Bug Buzz gets a boost if Beautifly has low HP thanks to his Swarm Ability.

Although he isn't as high leveled as Drapion, Heracross is the most dangerous of Aaron's Pokémon, since he has extremely high Attack power and all of his moves are Physical Attacks. Even Flying types are not safe from Heracross because of his powerful Stone Edge. Heracross also uses Megahorn and Close Combat, both of which are very powerful, although Megahorn lacks accuracy and Close Combat lowers Heracross' Defense and Special Defense. Night Slash is basically only there to fill a moveslot, although if you're using a Ghost type you should watch out for it. Fortunately, this Heracross does not have the Guts Ability so it is safe to use status conditions on him.

Vespiquen could be a fairly good defensive Pokémon and is designed to stall opponents and cause them to waste PP by using Pressure but unfortunately for Aaron, she is a Bug and Flying Pokémon which makes her extremely vulnerable to Rock type moves. Vespiquen is the only member of Aaron's team that is female because it is literally impossible to get a male Vespiquen. She has all three of her signature moves: Attack Order, Defend Order and Heal Order, and she also uses Power Gem.

Drapion is Aaron's highest level Pokémon and is also the only member of his team that is not a Bug type, although he does evolve from a Bug type, Skorupi. Drapion's only weakness is Ground types but Aaron was smart enough to give him Ice Fang which is super effective on Ground types. Drapion also wields Cross Poison, Aerial Ace and, presumably to make up for the fact that he actually isn't a Bug type, X-Scissor. Although Ground type moves are the only moves that are super effective against him, Drapion is basically helpless against Steel types since they are immune to Cross Poison and can resist all three of his other attacks. Aaron should have taught him Fire Fang or Earthquake to deal with Steel types but despite preparing Drapion for Ground types, he wasn't clever enough to prepare him for most Steel types. Any Steel type that's at a fairly high level, with the possible exceptions of Bronzong, Metagross,Steelix and Skarmory, who can be hurt a decent amount by X-Scissor for the two half Psychic types and Ice Fang for the half Ground and half Flying-type, can stall Drapion long enough to wear it down and knock it out. Drapion has pretty strong Defense and his Battle Armor makes him immune to Critical Hits.

Platinum

Like all members of the Elite 4 as well as the Champion, Aaron has different Pokémon in Platinum, replacing Dustox and Beautifly with Scizor and Yanmega. Yanmega is Aaron's first choice and likes to use Double Team to avoid attacks and U-Turn to escape if he's at a disadvantage. He also has Bug Buzz and Air Slash, both of which are very dangerous due to Yanmega's high Special Attack and their unpleasant side effects of sometimes lowering Special Defense or causing flinching. Rock-type moves are the best attacks to use on Yanmega. He also has Speed Boost, so if your Pokémon are faster than him, it is likely that they won't be faster for long since Yanmega constantly increases his speed after each turn.

Scizor is powerful and although he's not as fast as its pre-evolved form, Scyther, he has Quick Attack to allow him to strike first. Quick Attack gets a boost from his Technician ability. Scizor also has X-Scissor, Iron Head and Night Slash. However, he is extremely vulnerable to Fire-type moves.

Aaron's Vespiquen, Heracross and Drapion all have exactly the same movesets and abilities they had in Diamond and Pearl. The only difference is that they are at lower levels in the first battle and higher levels in all later battles.

Elite Four Bertha

DP

Bertha is the second member of Elite Four and is a Ground-type expert, although she also has Sudowoodo which is a pure Rock-type. Recommended types to beat her are grass (for Whiscash and Quagsire) and water.

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
Elite Four Bertha Reward: 7080	Quagsire Lv. 55 Sudowoodo Lv. 56 Whiscash Lv. 55 Golem Lv. 56 Hippowdon Lv. 59

Her first Pokémon is Quagsire which is a defensive Pokémon, using Sandstorm to cause damage on each turn and Double Team and Protect to stall you. She also has Dig as a stalling and damaging move. Quagsire is extremely weak against Grass-type moves. Some Quagsire are immune to Water type moves and restore damage when hit by them thanks to Water Absorb but this Quagsire's Ability is the fairly useless Damp, which only prevents Explosion or Self-Destruct, which are not moves you're likely to be using anyway.

As mentioned above, Sudowoodo is a Rock type, but, presumably in an attempt to make it seem like a Ground-type, it uses Earthquake and the only Rock type move it knows is Sandstorm. It also uses the powerful Hammer Arm and the priority move Sucker Punch to make up for its appalling Speed. Horn Drill, Guillotine, Fissure and Sheer Cold won't work on Sudowoodo because of its Sturdy ability.

Whiscash has the same weakness as Quagsire, but is a more aggressive fighter. She is immune to Attract thanks to Oblivious and won't be in any danger of being affected by Cute Charm either. Using Captivate is completely pointless, even if she didn't have Oblivious since she uses only Physical Attacks. Whiscash is notable for being the only Pokémon in the Pokémon League who uses an OHKO move, having learned Fissure, although this move is very inaccurate. She also has Earthquake, Aqua Tail and Zen Headbutt.

Golem is exceptionally vulnerable to both Water and Grass-type moves and therefore is probably the weakest member of Bertha's team. She uses Brick Break, Gyro Ball, Earthquake and Sandstorm. Using a fast Pokémon can be risky, unless they can knock out Golem in one blow, because Gyro Ball gains more power against swifter opponents. Brick Break will smash Reflect and Light Screen.

Finally Bertha will use Hippowdon. Having so many of her other Pokémon use Sandstorm was pointless since Hippowdon will summon a sandstorm instantly using her Sand Stream ability and, unlike an ordinary Sandstorm, this will last until the battle has ended or you use a weather changing move or ability of your own. Hippowdon uses Curse to increase her Attack and Defense stats and, since she is slow anyway, the loss of Speed doesn't make much of a difference. Hippowdon also has Earthquake, Crunch and Stone Edge, all of which will really hurt if she uses Curse too many times. A Water, Ice or Grass-type who specializes in Special Attacks is the best Pokémon to use, since Physical Attacks will get weaker each time Hippowdon uses Curse.

Platinum

Unlike all the other members of the Elite Four, Bertha has changed the movesets of the Pokémon that she previously had in Diamond and Pearl, which are Hippowdon, Golem and Whiscash. She has also replaced Quagsire and Sudowoodo with Gliscor and Rhyperior, both of which are at higher levels than her former main Pokémon, Hippowdon.

Like in Diamond and Pearl, Bertha starts with a Water and Ground type although this time it's Whiscash instead of Quagsire. Whiscash no longer has Fissure, presumably because Fissure's accuracy is so unreliable and there are actually a lot of Pokémon that are immune to it, instead using Sandstorm and she has also replaced Earthquake with Earth Power. She does still have Aqua Tail and Zen Headbutt however.

Golem still has Sandstorm and Earthquake but has replaced Brick Break and Gyro Ball with Fire Punch and Thunder Punch. Since most Grass or Water-types have either enough Defense to endure these moves or enough Speed to strike before Golem can use them, it is still easy to defeat. Golem has Rock Head which is completely pointless without Double-Edge, the only move Golem can learn that gives Rock Head any use. It should have Sturdy instead.

Gliscor is probably Bertha's most dangerous Pokémon. She uses Earthquake and all three of the Elemental Fangs: Ice Fang, Thunder Fang and Fire Fang. Thank your lucky stars that Gliscor does not have Sand Veil since you're likely to be having to deal with a Sandstorm throughout most of this battle and the last thing you need is for Gliscor to become harder to hit. However, Hyper Cutter prevents her Attack stat from being dropped, which is bad since she is a powerful Physical Attacker. Gliscor also has strong Defense but her Special Defense is nothing special and she has a massive weakness to Icet-type moves.

Hippowdon is almost exactly the same as she was in Diamond and Pearl, except that she has replaced Curse with Yawn and is no longer Bertha's highest level Pokémon, having been demoted to third highest leveled, after Gliscor and Rhyperior.

Speaking of Rhyperior, she is a very powerful Physical Attacker but, like Golem, extremely vulnerable to Water and Grass types. Rhyperior uses Earthquake, Megahorn, Avalanche and her signature move Rock Wrecker, which is the Rock-type version of Giga Impact. For some reason, this Rhyperior does not have Solid Rock. Instead, she has the completely useless Lightning Rod, which is only useful in Double Battles. Oh well, it makes things easier for you.

Elite Four Flint

DP

Despite claiming to be the ultimate authority on Fire type Pokémon, Flint actually only has two Fire-type Pokémon. However, all of his Pokémon have at least one Fire-type move. Recommended types to beat him are Dark, Fighting, Fire and Ground. Water isn't recommended due to the fact that three of his Pokémon know Sunny Day which decreases Water-type attacks.

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
Elite Four Flint Reward: 7320	Rapidash Lv. 58 Drifblim Lv. 58 Steelix Lv. 57 Lopunny Lv. 57 Infernape Lv. 61

He starts with Rapidash, who likes using Sunny Day to power up Flare Blitz. He also has Solarbeam to deal with Water, Rock and Ground-types and, thanks to Sunny Day, he can fire it instantly. Rapidash's final move is Bounce which can cause paralysis.

Flint also has a Steelix who, like Rapidash, knows Sunny Day. He also has Fire Fang which gets a boost from the bright sun. Screech lowers your Pokémon's Defence by two levels and Rock Tomb causes damage and lowers Speed. You can easily turn Steelix's Sunny Day against him by using a Fire type.

Lopunny is the third Pokémon on Flint's team that knows Sunny Day and, like Rapidash and Steelix, he has a Fire-type move that gains a boost from it, in his case Fire Punch. Lopunny also has Charm to lower your Pokémon's Attack by two levels and Mirror Coat to turn Special Attacks against you with double the power. He also has the annoying Cute Charm ability so use a male Pokémon or a Pokémon that has Oblivious. A Fighting type can inflict super effective damage on Lopunny but it needs to be strong enough to win quickly. Otherwise, Lopunny can be very difficult to defeat.

Drifblim only has one Fire type move Will-O-Wisp. This causes a burn and also halves the Attack stat. Driflim can also increase his evasiveness with Double Team, although considering the fact that Drifblim can learn Minimize by level up, teaching it Double Team is pointless and a waste of a TM. The only move he has that causes direct damage is Ominous Wind which has a very small chance of raising all his stats at once, except evasiveness and accuracy. Baton Pass is used to pass these stat changes on to another member of Flint's team. When battling Drifblim, it is wise to not use a Physical Attack to knock him out because his Aftermath ability will cause damage if your Pokémon makes direct contact when it defeats it. Dark, Ice and Electric types are the best choices to use against Drifblim.

Finally Flint's Infernape is his main Pokémon and also the most dangerous. All of his moves are Physical Attacks and he has Thunder Punch to deal with Water and Flying types, Earthquake to deal with Pokémon that are fond of using Dig, Flare Blitz to cause severe damage at the cost of some of his own HP and Mach Punch to strike first and finish off weakened opponents. When Infernape is tired he will activate Blaze so if Flare Blitz suddenly seems more powerful than normal, that means that it has gotten a boost thanks to Infernape's Ability. Fortunately, although Flare Blitz get's a boost from Blaze, this can actually work in your favor since the more damage Infernape causes to your Pokémon, the more recoil damage he will take from Flare Blitz.

Platinum

In Pokémon Platinum, Flint has replaced Lopunny, Steelix and Drifblim with Flareon, Houndoom and Magmortar, with Magmortar replacing Infernape as his highest level Pokémon. Houndoom is up first using Sunny Day to increase the power of his Flamethrower (note: none of Flint's Pokémon knew Flamethrower in Diamond and Pearl). Houndoom also uses Dark Pulse and Sludge Bomb. He has a high Special Attack stat but lousy Defense so a Physical Attacker is a good choice to take him down.

Flareon has a high Attack stat and the powerful Giga Impact to prove it. He also has Quick Attack to finish weakened opponents, Will-O-Wisp to cause a burn and Overheat to inflict a lot of damage although Overheat does sharply lower Flareon's Special Attack. A Special Attacker is a good choice since Will-O-Wisp halves the Attack stat. You could also use a Pokémon with Guts, which prevents Will-O-Wisp from lowering your Pokémon's Attack and instead gives them more physical power.

Rapidash and Infernape are both the same as they were in Diamond and Pearl, just at different levels. Magmortar is now Flint's main Pokémon and is a Special Attacker who uses Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Solarbeam and Hyper Beam. Fortunately, Magmortar has to depend on Rapidash and Houndoom to allow him to power up Flamethrower and charge Solar Beam instantly, since he does not know Sunny Day so if Sunny Day wears off or you use Sandstorm or Rain Dance, Magmortar will be easier to defeat. Using Physical Attacks against Magmortar is dangerous because he can burn your Pokémon with Flame Body. Magmortar can cover all of his weaknesses with Solar Beam and Thunderbolt, but if Sunny Day is not in effect, a Water, Rock or Ground-type should be able to knock him out before he can fire a Solar Beam. Ground is the best choice due to their immunity to Thunderbolt.

Elite Four Lucian

DP

Lucian is the most dangerous member of the Elite 4 and a master of Psychic types. Unlike Aaron, Bertha and Flint, all five of Lucians' Pokémon belong to his signature type, although in Platinum, Bertha and Flint both replace their non-Ground and Fire-types with Pokémon that do belong to their signature type. Recommended types to beat him are Dark, Fire, and Flying/Ghost (for Medicham)

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
Elite Four Lucian Reward: 7560	Mr. Mime Lv. 59 Girafarig Lv. 59 Medicham Lv. 60 Alakazam Lv. 60 Bronzong Lv. 63

Lucian starts with Mr. Mime who is mainly used to set up Reflect and Light Screen, although he also has Psychic and, for some reason, Thunderbolt. Brick Break smashes Reflect and Light Screen but won't hurt Mr Mime very much. The best strategy is to just hit it as hard as you can with a super effective move before he can use his defensive moves. Soundproof makes Mr Mime immune to any sound based moves.

Girafarig is the only member of Lucians team that is immune to Ghost type moves (although why Normal types are not affected by Ghost type moves is a mystery). He has Shadow Ball and Crunch to take down any Ghost type foolish enough to challenge him and also uses Double Hit and Psychic. Dark type Pokémon should be able to deal with him fairly easily. Girafarig is immune to flinching because of Inner Focus.

Medicham is a Psychic type but also a Fighting-type and does not know any Psychic type moves. All of his attacks are some kind of punch and get a boost from his Pure Power Ability. Drain Punch allows him to cause damage and restore energy and he also has Fire Punch, Ice Punch and Thunder Punch allowing him to deal with a wide variety of Pokémon. Ghost types are the best choice, as long as they cannot be hit super effectively by any of the Elemental Punches.

Alakazam is very fast and a devastating Special Attacker. However his Defense is appalling. Alakazam uses Psychic which will really hurt any Pokémon that doesn't resist or is not immune to it, Focus Blast to deal with Dark and Steel types and Recover to restore half of his energy when he gets tired. Alakazam also has Energy Ball which does not cover any of his weaknesses but is super effective against Rock, Water and Ground types. Don't inflict status conditions on Alakazam because he can send them back at you with Synchronize.

Lucian's main Pokémon is Bronzong who is notable for being the only Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokémon League who has no gender. It has very high Defence and Special Defence and the ability to boost both its Special Defence and Special Attack with Calm Mind. Fortunately, Psychic is its only Special Attack. Bronzong is very slow but Gyro Ball allows it to turn its lousy Speed into an advantage. It also has Earthquake. Bronzong is immune to Ground type moves because of Levitate. Use a Dark-type Pokémon if you don't want to take the risk of having your Fire-type Pokémon dying to Earthquake.

Platinum

In Platinum, Lucian still uses Bronzong, Alakazam and Mr Mime and all three of them have the same movesets and abilities. However he has replaced Girafarig and Medicham with Espeon and Gallade.

Espeon has very high Special Attack and three moves that take advantage of this, namely Psychic, Shadow Ball and Signal Beam. This also allows Espeon to cover his weaknesses to Ghost and Dark types so Bug types are the best choice. Espeon also has Quick Attack to strike first and finish exhausted opponents. His special ability is Synchronize.

Gallade has replaced Bronzong as Lucian's most powerful Pokémon. He is a Physical fighter who knows Drain Punch, Psycho Cut, Stone Edge and Leaf Blade. Gallade also has Steadfast as his Special Ability so if you make him flinch his Speed will increase. Ghost types are the best Pokémon to use.

Champion Cynthia

DP

Cynthia is the first female league champion in any of the games. She uses a variety of different types to test your knowledge with type advantages. Before battling her make sure all your Pokémon are revived and healed up. Recommended types to beat her are Fire, Ground, Grass, Electric, Ice, and Flying.

Diamond and Pearl
Trainer	Pokemon
Champion Cynthia Reward: 13200	Spiritomb Lv. 61 Roserade Lv. 60 Lucario Lv. 63 Gastrodon (West Sea) Lv. 60 Milotic Lv. 63 Garchomp Lv. 66

Cynthia starts with Spiritomb, who has no weaknesses unless you use Foresight or Odor Sleuth in which case she becomes weak to Fighting type moves. However Cynthia is not the Champion for nothing and she taught her Spiritomb Psychic to deal with Fighting types that can use Foresight. Spiritomb also has Dark Pulse and Silver Wind. She also knows the very rare Embargo which prevents you or your Pokémon from using items for a few turns. The best strategy with Spiritomb is to just pound her with your strongest moves. Try to finish her as quickly as possible because Pressure will lower PP twice as quickly as normal.

Cynthia's second Pokémon is Gastrodon who is a Ground/Water dual type which makes it very vulnerable to Grass type moves, although she does have Sludge Bomb to counter this weakness. She also wields Stone Edge, Muddy Water and Earthquake. Presumably Cynthia realized that Recover was pointless against Grass types because although Gastrodon can learn the move by level up, Cynthia's Gastrodon doesn't know it.

Milotic is quite possibly Cynthia's second strongest Pokémon, since she is a powerful Special Attacker and knows Mirror Coat, which is very difficult to teach to a Milotic. Although Milotic can use Recover, Cynthia chose to teach her Aqua Ring instead, which restores energy but much more slowly. Milotic also has Surf and Ice Beam. An Electric Pokémon who uses Physical Electric type moves is the best choice. Make sure you don't cause status conditions because, if you do, Milotic's Marvel Scale will activate and raise her Defense.

Lucario is a dangerous opponent and can hit a variety of Pokémon super effectively. In Diamond and Pearl, Lucario is the only male member of Cynthia's team. He knows his species signature move Aura Sphere which is powerful and never misses. He also knows Dragon Pulse, Psychic and Earthquake. Fortunately Lucario does not have very strong defences. Fighting and Fire types are super effective but it is safest to use Ground types since none of Lucario's attacks can hit them super effectively, unless they are also a Dragon, Rock or Steel type. Don't cause Lucario to flinch or his Speed will increase thanks to Steadfast.

Cynthia also uses a Roserade, which should be a very familiar Pokémon by now. However, this Roserade is unique because she knows Extrasensory a move that she can only learn through Breeding. She also has Energy Ball, Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball and all four of her moves are strong thanks to her high Special Attack. Shadow Ball covers Roserade's weakness to Psychic types but most are fast enough to deal with her anyway. Fire or/and Flying types should have a fairly easy victory. You could also use an Ice type but it is best to save Ice types for Cynthia's strongest Pokémon. Unless you're using Mean Look, Block, Fire Spin, Whirlpool, Wrap, Bind or Sand Tomb, don't inflict status conditions on Roserade because if you do, Cynthia will recall Roserade causing her to activate Natural Cure, which will heal all of her status ailments.

Garchomp is Cynthia's most powerful Pokémon and is a very strong Physical Attacker. Her only true weakness is Ice types and even Ice types are not safe because of Brick Break. Garchomp has amazing endurance and can sometimes even take an Ice Fang from a Gyarados after it used Dragon Dance twice. Garchomp has Dragon Rush, which is very powerful but inaccurate. She also knows Earthquake like Gastrodon and Lucario, and Giga Impact which forces her to recharge after using it. In addition to Ice types, Dragon types can cause super effective damage but this works both ways, and any Dragon type you use is in danger of being smashed into defeat by Dragon Rush. You're unlikely to be using Sandstorm in this battle but if you do, or have a Pokémon that knows Sand Stream, this will work in Garchomp's favor because Sand Veil will make her harder to hit.

It is interesting to note that Shedinja can bring down half of Cynthia's team by itself since Garchomp, Milotic and Lucario have no moves that can hurt it. Of course you'd have to have dealt with Roserade, Spiritomb and Gastrodon though.

Platinum

In Platinum, Cynthia has replaced her Gastrodon with Togekiss and become even more powerful. She is also the only trainer in the Pokémon League who gives her Pokémon different movesets the second time you challenge her. Spiritomb no longer has Embargo, having replaced it with Shadow Ball but all of her other moves are the same. In the rematch Spiritomb replaces Shadow Ball with Ominous Wind giving her ten chances of raising all her stats at once since Ominous Wind can have the same side effect as Silver Wind.

Roserade is largely the same in the first challenge and exactly the same in the second apart from her level. In the first battle she uses Toxic instead of Shadow Ball.

Togekiss is the only member of Cynthia's team, apart from Lucario, that is male. He has high Special Attack and all of his moves take advantage of this. Like Lucario he has Aura Sphere. He also wields Air Slash, Water Pulse and Shock Wave. In the second battle he replaces Shock Wave with Psychic. You're very lucky that this Togekiss does not have Serene Grace because if he did, Air Slash, Psychic and Water Pulse would have a higher chance of causing flinching, loss of Special Defence or confusion. Strangely Cynthia has not taught Togekiss any Physical Attacks, despite the fact that Hustle increases his Attack power.

Lucario's moveset is very different from the one he had in Diamond and Pearl in the first battle but, like most of Cynthia's Pokémon, it becomes exactly the same in all of the later battles. In the first battle, Lucario still has Aura Sphere but has replaced Psychic, Dragon Pulse and Earthquake with Shadow Ball, Stone Edge and ExtremeSpeed.

Milotic is like Roserade and Garchomp because she has only one different move from the ones she had in Diamond and Pearl in the first battle and exactly the same moves in later battles. Her different move is Dragon Pulse.

Finally Garchomp has Flamethrower instead of Brick Break in the first battle but relearns Brick Break before later battles.

Hall of Fame

Once you beat Cynthia, you will be crowned the Sinnoh Champion. Professor Rowan hears word of this and meets you and Cynthia before the three of you head into the Hall of Fame room. Once your Pokémon are registered, the game will save and go into the ending credits. You can skip the ending credits by turning off the game and reloading it.

National Pokédex

At this point the game is beaten but if you want to be a true Pokémon Master and complete the National Pokédex then continue on in the guide.

If you have been following this guide then you will have SEEN all 150 Sinnoh Pokémon already and you can obtain the National Pokédex from Professor Rowan in his lab in Sandgem Town. To check to see how many Pokémon you have seen open your Pokédex and look at the number next to seen. If it's not 150 then head to National Pokédex to see where to find your missing Pokémon. Just remember that you only need to see them and not catch them.

After you get the National Pokédex, a familiar face will tell you that Pal Park is now open but we will get into that later. Fly to Snowpoint City and go to the port to continue your journey