The Elite Four are the last bosses. After defeating them, you face the champion. The Elite Four from FireRed and LeafGreen will be covered here.
To beat them it is recommended that your Pokémon be at least Level 61 each. 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 will decisively reduce your workload.
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 Pokemon 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
- Onix (lvl. 51)
- Hitmonchan (lvl. 53)
- Hitmonlee (lvl. 53)
- Onix (lvl. 54)
- Machamp (lvl. 56)
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 Pokemon 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 is rather weak but has a fairly good moveset since 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.
Golbat has Confuse Ray, Bite, Poison Fang and Air Cutter. You need to watch out for Poison Fang's side effect which is severe poison like 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 Pokemon 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
- Gyarados (lvl. 56)
- Dragonair (lvl. 54)
- Dragonair (lvl. 54)
- Aerodactyl (lvl. 58)
- Dragonite (lvl. 60)
Lance starts with Gyarados who has a massive weakness to Electric types because the Pokémon creators were stupid enough to make him part Flying type instead of part Dragon type. Hyper Beam is his deadliest move, although it requires recharging after it's used. He also knows Dragon Rage which always takes away forty HP points, unless your Pokémon has less than forty 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 pointless since they both have Shed Skin and it doesn't protect them from Outrage's confusing side effect.
Aerodactyle is very fast but has Scary Face just in case you use a Pokémon that's faster. He also has Ancient Power, which can 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 but is still 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.
Blue/Rival
Constant Pokémon
If player chose Bulbasaur
If player chose Charmander
If player chose 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 being Aerial Ace. 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.
Rhydon is probably the weakest of Blue's Pokémon and any Water or Grass type worth your time can wipe him out easily. He attempt to make up for his appalling Speed with Rock Tomb and Scary Face and also know Earthquake. He has Take Down to make use of his Rock Head ability.
Alakazam is Blue's lowest leveled Pokémon but that doesn't mean he's his weakest. 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 and weaken Physical Attacks for five turns.
Like Lance, Blue has a Gyarados, unless you chose Charmander as your Starter Pokémon. This Gyarados doesn't have Hyper Beam but he doesn't need it. He has Hydro Pump and Bite as well as Dragon Rage and his deadliest move is Thrash. Fortunately for you Thrash will confuse him after two or three turns.
Arcanine likes to use Flamethrower and also has ExtremeSpeed 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 has a massive weakness to Bug types. He knows Light Screen which works the same way as Reflect except it weakens Special Attacks instead of Physical ones. He also has Sleep Powder, Giga Drain and his signature move Egg Bomb.
Blue's Starter Pokémon will always have a Sitrus Berry. Venusaur is the weakest and is virtually helpless against Fire types, especially since he increases the power of their attacks with Sunny Day. However Sunny Day does allow him to fire Solarbeam instantly and restore three quarters of his HP with Synthesis. He also has Growth to increase his Special Attack by one level.
Charizard is the second weakest due to his massive weakness to Rock types and 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. He has Rain Dance to increase the already considerable power of Hydro Pump and can also use Bite. He is also fond of raising his Defense and then striking hard on the next turn with Skull Bash.
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 memeroies last forever." Congratulations!! You beat the game!!! Or did you?