The Indigo Plateau serves as the capital for the Pokémon League. It is the final destination for Pokémon Trainers competing in Indigo or Johto League competitions against the Elite Four. This is the where the powerful Elite Four battle against Trainers in a final showdown of becoming a master Pokémon trainer, who may be challenged after defeating of all eight Gym Leaders of each respective region.
The Indigo Plateau is located just north of Victory Road, and east of Mt. Silver. The only way to reach the Indigo Plateau is by going through Route 26. In order to reach Indigo Plateau by foot, Trainers must venture through Victory Road, a lengthy cave acting as a final test for Trainers.
The Elite Four must be battled consecutively, with breaks to the Pokémon Center prohibited. Trainers are unable to go back or return to previous rooms. The only way to open the door and progress through each room is to defeat the Elite Four member of that room. Each member of the Elite Four is stronger than the previous member, while like Gym Leaders, each specialize in a different type.
Will uses Psychic Pokemon and has two Xatu on his team. Interestingly, despite being a male trainer, Will uses female Pokemon. The first Xatu has Synchronize to send status conditions back onto your Pokemon and the second has Early Bird to wake up quickly from sleep. The lower levelled Xatu has Psychic, Me First, Confuse Ray and U-Turn. The second also has Psychic and Confuse Ray, in addition to Ominous Wind and Aerial Ace. Rock, Ice, Electric, Dark or Ghost types can take them both out. His higher levelled Xatu is holding a Sitrus Berry to restore energy.
Interestingly, despite Slowking being introduced in the same generation as Will, he has a Slowbro instead. At the moment Slowbro's Curse is only good for raising her Defence since both of her offensive moves, Psychic and Water Pulse are Special Attacks. She can also raise her Special Defence by two levels with Amnesia. Electric, Grass, Bug, Ghost and Dark types can all inflict super effective damage.
Jynx has her signature move Lovely Kiss, to put your Pokemon to sleep and then she'll attack you with Psychic, Ice Punch and DoubleSlap although Ice Punch and DoubleSlap shouldn't hurt much because she has low Attack power. Her Defence is also pitiful so a powerful Physical Attacker should be able to take her out easily.
Bug types are fantastic against Exeggutor, who uses Psychic, Egg Bomb, Reflect and Hypnosis.
Koga uses mainly Poison types although he also has a Forretress on his first team. He starts with Ariados who uses its signature move Spider Web, and can use Baton Pass to escape whilst ensuring that your Pokemon is still trapped by Spider Web when Koga brings out another Pokemon. Ariados also uses Poison Jab and Giga Drain. Fire, Rock, Flying or Psychic types can deal with him easily. Don't both with sleep causing moves; Insomnia makes him immune to them.
Forretress is not a Poison type instead being a Bug and Steel type, which makes him extremely vulnerable to Fire. Forretress uses Toxic Spikes to poison your Pokemon when you switch, although there are a variety of ways to avoid or get rid of Toxic Spikes. Protect stops moves from hitting and Explosion will knock out Forretress but is likely to knock out your Pokemon too. Swift is a stupid move to give Forretress because it cannot use Special Attacks very well.
Venomoth has a rather pitiful moveset in the first battle, using the very innaccurate Supersonic and the very weak Gust. Toxic and Psychic are more of a threat but a powerful Fire, Rock or Flying type should be able to deal with it swiftly and easily.
Muk can be very annoying because he can use Toxic to cause severe poison and Minimize to make him harder to hit. He also likes to lower your Pokemon's Defence by two levels with Screech. Gunk Shot is a powerful move which causes more damage after Screech but is inaccurate. A Steel type is the best choice since Muk has no moves that can hurt it. Muk is holding Black Sludge to restore a little bit of energy after each turn and because of his Sticky Hold ability, you can only get rid of the Black Sludge if you're using Gastro Acid or a Pokemon with Mold Breaker.
Crobat is well known for its Speed but for some reason, Koga decided to teach his Crobat Quick Attack. Crobat also has Double Team, Wing Attack and Poison Fang. Poison Fang is the move you really need to watch out for because it can cause flinching or cause serious poisoning or, if you're very unlucky, both. A Steel type can resist or is immune to Crobat's offensive moves while Electric, Rock, Ice and Psychic types can hit him super effectively. Crobat has a Sitrus Berry to restore energy when he's tired.
Bruno uses mainly Fighting types and has all three evolutions of Tyrogue. He starts with Hitmontop who uses his signature move Triple Kick in addition to Dig, Quick Attack and Counter. Physical attacks are a bad idea because Counter will allow Hitmontop to inflict twice the amount of damage your Pokemon inflicted so stick with Special Attacks. Hitmontop has Technician to power up Quick Attack and Triple Kick.
Hitmonchan uses all three of the Elemental Punches as well as Bullet Punch and all of his moves get a boost from Iron Fist, making him arguably Bruno's most dangerous Pokemon in the first battle. A Pokemon with good Defence and type advantage is your best chance.
Hitmonlee uses Focus Energy to increase the chances of him giving your Pokemon a Critical Hit with Hi Jump Kick or Blaze Kick. He also has Swagger which confuses your Pokemon but the good news is that it also increases their Attack power by two levels. Reckless gives Hi Jump Kick a power boost but will also cause Hitmonlee to hurt himself more if he misses.
Bruno's only non-Fighting type is Onix and you can take him down effortlessly with Grass or Water types. He uses Dragonbreath, Sandstorm, Rock Slide and Earthquake.
Bruno's Machamp has an awesome ability called No Guard which means it will never miss your Pokemon. However this also means that your Pokemon will never miss Machamp. If you use a Ghost type, Machamp will use Foresight to allow him to hit your Ghost with Cross Chop or Revenge. He also has Rock Slide to deal with Flying types so Psychic types are the best choice. Machamp will be holding a Sitrus Berry in the first battle.
Karen uses Dark type Pokemon although two of her Pokemon are not Dark types but are associated with night time. Umbreon is her first choice and he uses Confuse Ray and Double Team, making him difficult to take down, especially considering the fact that, despite his frail appearance, he is a resilient Pokemon. He has Payback and Faint Attack to cause direct damage. Don't cause status conditions unless your Pokemon is immune to whatever status condition its using, because Umbreon's Synchronize will send it right back at you.
Vileplume usually comes out at night, which is why Karen has her on her team despite Vileplume being a Grass and Poison type. She has Petal Dance which is powerful but will cause her to become confused after two or three turns. Acid is weak but can lower Special Defence and Stun Spore paralyzes your Pokemon. To show that Vileplume is a night time Pokemon, Karen has also taught her Moonlight so that she can restore energy although the amount she can restore depends on whether there is a weather condition and what that weather condition is. If that condition is sunlight, Moonlight will restore three quarters of her HP and she'll also get a speed boost thanks to Chlorophyll.
Despite being a member of the Elite 4, Karen has an extremely disappointing Gengar. Who in their right mind teaches Gengar the pitiful Lick attack? True it can cause paralysis but it will hardly hurt at all, even against Pokemon that are weak against it. Focus Blast is a completely different story however and can cause a lot of damage to Pokemon that are weak against it. Spite will cause your Pokemon to lose 4 PP of whatever move they used before Spite and Destiny Bond is used to take your Pokemon down with Gengar. Knock her out before she uses Spite or Destiny Bond and you'll be hunky dory. Despite having feet, Gengar can Levitate so don't use Ground types.
Murkrow is fast but frail. She can use Whirlwind to force you to switch Pokemon and mess up your strategy. Don't use a Pokemon with a berry because she can use Pluck to cause damage and steal any berry your Pokemon is holding unless they have Sticky Hold. Murkrow also uses Faint Attack and Sucker Punch and if she's lucky enough to get a Critical Hit it will hurt even more than usual thanks to Super Luck.
Houndoom is a powerful Special Attacker who also uses Crunch to deal with Pokemon that have high Special Defence. Nasty Plot increases her Special Attack by two levels after each use which means her Flametrower and Dark Pulse can really hurt. However she has weak Defence so a Fighting, Rock or Ground type can take her out and Water types work well too. Houndoom has a Sitrus Berry.
Although Lance claims to be a master of Dragon types, only half of his team are Dragon types and all of them are Flying types, although Gyarados is a massive sea serpent that has more in common with a Dragon type than a Flying type, therefore making the fact that he is part Flying type ridiculous. Anyway, Gyarados is Lance's first choice and as soon as he's brought out his Intimidate will lower your Pokemon's Attack power so use a Special Attacker. Dragon Pulse is usually quite powerful but Gyarados has low Special Attack so it shouldn't do much damage. However Waterfall and Ice Fang will both hurt and sometimes they can cause flinching. Ice Fang also has a chance of freezing your Pokemon. When Gyarados is tired he will use Flail which he can only learn as a Magikarp and which gains more power when Gyarados is exhausted. Electric types should be able to deal with Gyarados easily.
Aerodactyle is very fast and a strong Physical Attacker. He is also the only member of Lance's team that does not use a Dragon type move. He uses Aerial Ace, Rock Slide, Crunch and Thunder Fang. An Electric type is the best choice, although Water or Ice types are also options as long as they are strong enough to withstand Thunder Fang and Rock Slide.
Charizard looks like a Dragon and acts like a Dragon but is not a Dragon type. However he does have Dragon Claw in addition to Shadow Claw, Fire Fang and Air Slash. Air Slash is his most dangerous move due to the possibility of flinching and Charizard's high Speed and Special Attack Power. Fire Fang is also very dangerous if Charizard is tired because when he's exhausted he will activate Blaze to increase Fire Fang's power. Charizard is extremely vulnerable to Rock types.
Lance has somehow managed to get his hands on not one, not two, but three Dragonites. Two of them are identical apart from Blizzard and Thunder. Their other moves are Dragon Rush, Thunder Wave and Hyper Beam. Lance's third Dragonite is his strongest Pokemon and uses Fire Blast to deal with Ice types, Safeguard to block status conditions, Outrage to go on a rampage for two or three turns before becoming confused (for some reason Safeguard does not prevent Outrage from confusing the user) and Hyper Beam to cause a hell of a lot of damage at the cost of forcing Dragonite to recharge. Dragonite are very vulnerable to Ice type moves. His strongest Dragonite has a Sitrus Berry.
After becoming Champion
Once the Champion is finally defeated, there is a great congratulations and the respective Trainer will be recorded in the Hall of Fame and made current champion. The Hall of Fame is a record kept by the Pokémon League of all the Pokémon Trainers who have ever beaten the Elite Four and the Pokémon Champion. In the hall of Fame recording room, Professor Oak will be waiting for Trainers to congratulate and finally record. It is a fairly large room, that only contains a large computer. The Hall of Fame will record all Trainer's ID number, name, and Pokémon team are recorded. For each Pokémon of the player's party, the species, name, gender, level, and area met are recorded.
After becoming Champion, the player returns home, rather than staying at the Pokémon League to fight challengers. This may be a decision of the player character and his/her family rather than official Pokémon League rules, as Champion Lance also keeps his position.
Rival Silver
On Mondays and Wednesdays,after becoming Champion, you will be challenged by your rival, Silver, at the steps outside the entrance to the Elite Four.
Silver never has and, in Heart Gold and Soul Silver at least, never will evolve his Sneasel and Magneton, but he is still a pretty tough opponent. Sneasel is fast and has high Attack. He can use Ice Wind, which is a Special Attack and therefore won't hurt much. His Physical Attacks are Shadow Claw, Metal Claw and Faint Attack. Sneasel can be easily dispatched by a Fighting type.
Magneton has Magnet Bomb which doesn't hurt much but can't miss. Mirror Shot does sometimes miss but thanks to Magneton's high Special Attack it can hurt and also has an unpleasant side effect of sometimes causing your Pokemon to loose accuracy. Discharge is strong and Thunder Wave causes paralysis. Ground types can deal with Magneton easily.
The battle gets harder when you get to Silver's fully evolved Pokemon. He has a Crobat to prove that he has become a better person than he was at the beginning of the game since Golbat requires a close friendship with its trainer in order to evolve. Crobat has Confuse Ray and Toxic to cause status conditions and Air Cutter and Bite to attack directly. Deal with him the same way you dealt with Koga's Crobat.
Alakazam can take out Dark and Steel types with Focus Blast while Psychic can deal with most other Pokemon. He also has Reflect to increase his rather pathetic Defence for five turns and Recover to restore energy. However Alakazam is completely useless against Shedinja, Sableye or Spiritomb.
Gengar has Confuse Ray and three powerful Special Attacks to take advantage of his high Special Attack power. These attacks are Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb and Dark Pulse. He is much more of a threat than Karen's Gengar.
Finally Silver's Starter Pokemon depends on which Pokemon you started with. Typhlosion uses Will-O-Wisp, Rollout, Swift and Flamethrower. He is a strong Special Attacker and when he's tired, Flamethrower will get a power boost thanks to Blaze. Use a Water, Rock or Ground type to take him down. Don't forget that if your Pokemon is burned by Will-O-Wisp or a lucky Flamethrower, its Physical Attacks will become weaker unless it has the Guts ability.
Meganium has Light Screen to raise his Special Defence for five turns and also has Synthesis to restore energy. Body Slam can hurt and sometimes cause paralysis, while Petal Dance will cause a lot of damage but also cause Meganium to become confused after two or three turns. Overgrow gives Petal Dance a power boost when Meganium is tired. Fire, Ice, Flying, Poison or Bug types are good choices as long as they can use Physical Attacks because Light Screen will halve the power of Special ones.
Feraligatr is a purely Physical fighter who uses Aqua Tail, Ice Fang, Crunch and Slash. He has Torrent to increase the power of Aqua Tail when he's tired. Electric and Grass types can bring him down.
Once Silver is defeated, he will pledge to further train his Pokémon, step aside, tell you to heal your Pokémon before challenging the Elite Four, and leave.
After collecting 16 badges
If you return to Indigo Plateau after collecting the eight Kanto Badges, the Elite Four's Pokémon will have significantly changed. You can challenge them as many times as you like
Will starts the battle with his Bronzong who has Heatproof to help it resist Fire type moves, although this means it doesn't have Levitate and can therefore be hit with Ground type moves. Will taught Bronzong Reflect, so stick to Special Attacks. It also has Gravity which at first glance seems pointless but more experienced players will know that Gravity not only forces Flying and Levitating Pokemon to the ground, but also lowers evasiveness by two levels. Bronzong also has Payback and Psychic.
If Gravity is still in effect, then Jynx's normally fairly innaccurate Lovely Kiss will hit you and then she can use Dream Eater to cause a lot of damage and restore energy. Blizzard also benefits from Gravity. Jynx's final move is Fake Tears which will weaken your Pokemon's Special Defence by two levels.
Will's Slowbro has learned Body Slam which can only be learned by a Slowbro in one of the Generation III games and therefore should be impossible but then again Will is a member of the Elite 4. Slowbro can now make use of her Curse since it increases Body Slam's power. She still has Psychic and Amnesia.
Grumpig is a Pokemon who can deal with most of her weaknesses, having Power Gem to defeat Bug types and Signal Beam to deal with Dark types, making Ghost types the best option to use against her. She can use Confuse Ray but cannot be confused herself because of Own Tempo. Grumpig's last move is Psychic.
Gardevoir likes to use Calm Mind to increase her Special Attack and Special Defence and most times she uses Charge Beam it will give her Special Attack an extra boost in addition to causing damage. Focus Blast is there to deal with Dark types and Psychic is the signature move of Will's whole team except Jynx.
Will chose to keep his Early Bird Xatu, although the Synchronize one would probably have been better. Actually this is the offspring of one of his other Xatu's since it can only learn Quick Attack by breeding. Obviously Xatu also has Psychic. Her last two moves are Confuse Ray and Shadow Ball and like the Xatu Will used last time, she will be holding a Sitrus Berry.
Koga starts the battle with his Skuntank which is his best defence against Psychic types since he is part Dark type. Ground types are Skuntank's only weakness but Koga seems eager to point this out since he taught his Skuntank Dig which makes him more vulnerable to Earthquake and Magnitude. Aside from Dig, Skuntank also uses Toxic, Sucker Punch and Explosion. His special ability is Aftermath so don't use an attack that makes physical contact to finish him off.
Toxicroak is extremely vulnerable to Psychic types but has X-Scissor to hit slower ones super effectively. He also has Swagger to cause confusion whilst also raising your Pokemon's Attack power. Gunk Shot and Cross Chop are both powerful but innaccurate.
Muk is unique since it is the only Pokemon in the Indigo Plateau, or any other Pokemon League championship for that matter, that cannot directly damage his opponents. Instead he relies on indirect damage through Toxic and Swagger. He still has Screech so if your Pokemon hurts itself in confusion it will really hurt partly because of lowered Defence and partly because of raised Attack. Muk also has Minimize to make him harder to hit. A Pokemon with Safeguard would be extremely useful here. He still has a Black Sludge and Sticky Hold means he'll be keeping it unless you can disable his ability.
Swalot has Amnesia to raise his Special Defence by two levels and Yawn to cause your Pokemon to fall asleep on the turn after it is used. He also has Pain Split which shares HP equally between himself and your Pokemon; in other words when Swalot's HP is lower than yours, he will restore it and you will lose it and when his HP is higher than yours, you will restore it and he will lose it. Swalot's last move is Sludge Bomb. Like Muk, Swalot has Sticky Hold and so that his ability doesn't go to waste, Koga gave him an item to restore energy after each turn, in his case, Leftovers.
Unlike last time, Koga's Venomoth has got a good moveset using Double Team to make him harder to hit and Baton Pass to pass stat changes on to other members of the team. Silver Wind is not particularly powerful but has a chance, although only a very slim one, of raising all of Venomoth's stats at once, except evasiveness and accuracy. The only move that Venomoth has kept from last time is Psychic.
Koga's Crobat uses Mean Look to prevent you from switching Pokemon and Toxic to cause slowly increasing damage, whilst using Fly to stall and then strike on the next turn. He has also learned Cross Poison which is quite strong. At least he is not as evasive as he was last time since he no longer has Double Team.
Bruno got rid of his Onix and five out of six of his team are pure Fighting types, with only his Lucario having a secondary type which is Steel. Hitmontop is up first with more powerful moves. He still has Quick Attack and Counter but has also learned Close Combat and Earthquake. Fortunately for you, Close Combat lowers his Defence and Special Defence each time it's used.
Hitmonchan no longer has the Elemental Punches, having replaced them with Close Combat, Drain Punch and Substitute although he does still have Bullet Punch to strike first. Substitute causes him to lose energy in order to create a copy which won't last long against most attacks while Drain Punch restores energy and causes damage.
Hitmonlee still has Blaze Kick and Swagger but has also learned Reversal which causes more damage when Hitmonlee is tired. Like Hitmontop and Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee also has Close Combat.
Hariyama is tough since he can use Bulk Up to raise his Defence and Attack at the same time and Payback to deal with Psychic and Ghost types. He has Low Kick so don't use a heavy Pokemon and he also has Bullet Punch to make up for his lame Speed. Hariyama has the Guts ability so for goodness sake do not inflict poison, burn of paralysis or Hariyama's already considerable Attack power will reach an overwhelming level, especially after a couple of Bulk Ups. Hariyama uses a Sitrus Berry when he's tired.
Machamp still has No Guard which is useful since two of his moves, Dynamic Punch and Stone Edge, are normally inaccurate. Dynamic Punch will cause confusion whenever it hits and even using Fly, Dig or similar moves won't save you because of No Guard. This Machamp has obviously been bred because he knows Bullet Punch. Foresight is there to allow him to hit Ghost types with Dynamic Punch.
Finally Bruno's Lucario is arguably his strongest Pokemon and also the only member of his team that is not a pure Fighting type. Because he is part Steel type, Lucario has some resistance to Psychic and Flying type moves but he is vulnerable to Fire, Ground and other Fighting types. Lucario has Close Combat and Counter, as well as Iron Tail and ExtremeSpeed.
For some reason, Karen did not use a Sneasel when you first challenged her. However she now has a Weavile who is quick and a strong Physical Attacker but also doomed if she's facing a strong Fighting type. She uses Ice Punch, Night Slash, Ice Shard and Low Kick. If you don't have a Fighting type then Fire, Rock or Bug types can also deal with Weavile.
Spiritomb has no weaknesses as far as type is concerned but she will sacrifice half of her HP to lay a Curse on your Pokemon, giving you a better chance of beating her. However she can restore energy with Pain Split and has Confuse Ray to make it harder for your Pokemon to strike back. Spiritomb is very slow but she knows Sucker Punch to make up for this weakness.
Absol has Perish Song so recall your Pokemon if she uses it. Karen will recall Absol just before the Perish Song count reaches 0 but you can turn Absol's Perish Song against her with a move like Mean Look or Fire Spin. Absol also has Detect so that she can dodge attacks whilst waiting for Perish Song to work. In order to cause direct damage, Absol uses Night Slash, which will hurt because of her high Attack power, and Psycho Cut to deal with Fighting types. Bug types are a good choice against Absol.
Honchkrow has been bred from the Murkrow Karen used last time and this is proven by the fact that she knows Drill Peck. She also has Whirlwind just like her mother, and Sucker Punch to strike first. Karen also decided to teach Honchkrow Thunder Wave.
Karen's Umbreon has Curse (obviously different from Spiritomb's Curse since Umbreon is not a Ghost type) as well as Confuse Ray, Sucker Punch and Payback. Sucker Punch is obviously there to make up for the Speed Umbreon loses each time he powers up his Attack and Defence with Curse. Umbreon's Sitrus Berry allows him to restore health, making him harder to take down. Umbreon also has the ability Synchronize, so any status effects inflicted on him will be mirrored back onto your Pokemon.
Lance replaced two of his Dragonite and his Aerodactyle and now has three different Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon on his team. He starts with Salamence, which is one of his Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon. Salamence has Flamethrower to deal with Ice types and Dragon Claw and Shadow Claw for various other Pokemon. He also knows Rest and before you get your hopes up about having Salamence sleep for a few turns, you must remember that he has a Lum Berry to wake himself up after the first Rest. Salamence will lower your Pokemon's Attack with Intimidate as soon as he enters the battle.
Gyarados also has Intimidate but is fairly easy compared to Salamence. He can hit hard but has no moves that cover his massive weakness to Electric types. His moveset consists of Thunder Wave, Dragon Dance, Waterfall and Ice Fang.
Charizard is more deadly than before as he now relies mostly on Special Attacks, although he still knows Dragon Claw like he did last time. Charizard still has Air Slash and has also learned Flamethrower and Hyper Beam. Don't forget about Blaze.
Garchomp is a devastating Physical Attacker and can raise his already high Attack power even further by using Swords Dance. He knows Roar but rarely uses it. Garchomp has a frighteningly powerful Outrage attack but this will cause him to become confused after two or three turns. He also knows the very powerful Earthquake.
Altaria is a less ferocious opponent but still not one that should be underestimated. He knows Double Team which can get extremely annoying if used too many times. He also has Perish Song and Lance will recall him on the third turn of the Song, just before the count hits 0. Like Karen's Absol, you can easily turn this strategy against him with Mean Look, Fire Spin or similar moves. Dragonbreath is not too strong but it can cause paralysis. Altaria also knows Hyper Beam and after a few Double Teams the turn he has to use to recharge might not make much difference because your attacks might be missing.
Finally Lance's Dragonite is his highest levelled Pokemon. However although he is a powerful Pokemon, Dragonite's moveset is not as good as it should be; all of his offensive moves are Special Attacks and one of them lowers his Special Attack by two stages after each use. Anyway, Dragonite has Safeguard to prevent status problems and still has Fire Blast and Hyper Beam. Since last time, Dragonite has also learned Draco Meteor, but this is the move that was mentioned above, the one that decreases his Special Attack by two stages. Dragonite should have at least one Physical Attack to make up for the side effect of Draco Meteor but he doesn't. Oh well it makes the battle easier for you. Dragonite's Sitrus Berry allows him to restore health but won't make much difference against a powerful Ice type move. An Ice type that is also part Water type is the best choice since it gives it some resistance to Fire Blast.
600*
