The most elite and powerful trainers in each region of the Pokemon world are the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elite Four. These master battlers are so powerful and great at what they do that they have literally been chosen to stand in a room and defeat wannabe-Champions. They're the last stand before the ultimate battle – the League Champion – so they have to be tough.

But, some Elite Four challenges are harder than others. Of course, they're all difficult, but some of them have been more brutal challenges than others. Without looking at the Champions that follow, here are all the Elite Four challenges, ranked by relative difficulty.

Updated December 31, 2023 by Quinton O'Connor: Holy heck, right? Pokemon Scarlet & Violet's 'The Indigo Disk' DLC has shaken up our rankings rather considerably. With the inclusion of this latest League, our Elite Four analysis has been revamped.

9 Kalos

Pokemon X & Y are considered by many longtime players to be too easy. The Kalos games feature eight Gym Leaders with terrible lineups (some of their Pokemon don't even have four moves), and a new Mega Evolution mechanic that is not really used by anyone outside the Champion and the villainous team leader, Lysandre.

The simplicity of the Elite Four compounds matters. The Kalos League members only have four Pokemon each, and none of them have good defensive coverage in their typing or move𝓡s. They even each have a Pokemon (some of them more than one) with double weaknesses. They do get points for style, though, being interesting characters with side jobs, espec🎃ially Malva, who is part of the villainous team.

8 Alola

Helping to establish and create the Alola E🎃lite Four is a super cool part of the Generation VII games. Knowing that you helped create something so great, just to go on and become the Champion of it all, is an ex𓆏cellent feeling and a unique move for a Pokemon game.

Unfortunately, the rush of happiness and accomplishment of seeing those familiar faces selected for the Elite Four — your friends and peers — and knowing you helped create something like this is far superior to the sense of accomplishment you get for defeating them. The Alolan Elite Four aren't that hard to take down. Some of them don't even have full move slots on their teams. Fortunately, they do get a bit stronger in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon - generally regarded as some of the 🐬hardest games overall, but not for their Elite F♔our.

7 Hoenn

A bit more difficult than Kalos and Alola, but still not that hard is Hoenn's Elite Four. Hoenn's League consists of four trainers with cool type choices to specialize in. Sidney uses Dark types, Phoebe uses Ghost types, Glacia uses Ice types, and Drake uses Dragon types. Overall, they have a lot going for them, but they just aren't as difficult to take down as other Elite Four challenges.

These four trainers have some great Pokemon with powerful moves, but their levels are pretty low. Each Pokemon in the Hoenn Elite Four Challenge is around the high forties or low fifties, which isn't too hard for you to level past with a bit of training. To make matters worse, there are a lot of repeats on some of these teams.

The sixth-generation Nintendo 3DS remakes, Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, maintain the original Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald's level spread, but give the Elite Four members' teams the best layouts and movesets they've ever had. Even so, the only truly notable uptick in challenge comes from Champion Steven, who isn't part of our rankings analysis!

6 Johto

The members of the Johto Elite Four 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:(technically the Kanto Elite Four) are rather interesting. This iteration of the Indigo League contains a former Gym Leader (Koga), a member from Kanto's original lineup (Bruno), and a specialist in the new Dark type (Karen). And, on top of this, another former member of this League, Lance, has been promoted to Champion. Even though they have the lowest level Pokemon of any Elite Four, they can still be somewhat formidable.

The Johto crew throws a few curve balls at you with Pokemon that don't match their type. Koga, the Poison-type specialist, has a Forretress (Bug/Steel), Bruno, who uses the Fighting-type has an Onix (Rock/Ground), and Dark-type user Karen has a Vileplume (Grass/Poison) and a Gengar (Ghost/Poison). This keeps you on your toes a bit. Some of them missed some great options though. Why doesn't Karen have a Tyranitar or a Sneasel?

5 Paldea

The Paldean Elite Fou🧸r is easily the most relatable one on this list. It is made up of an art teacher, a bossy child, an overworked business guy pulling a second shift, and the laid-back Rika. More so than any other Elite Four, this group just feels like four regular people.

The Paldean Elite Four features Ground, Flying, Steel, and Dragon-type Pokemon. And while these are some powerful typings on some powerful teams, none of their trainers successfully counter the bulk of their weaknesses. The Paldean Elite Four is middle-of-the-road on the challenge scale, but stay tuned, because Game Freak did something about that post-launꦑch...

4 Kanto

Technically-speaking, Kanto and Johto share the same Elite Four organization, via the Indigo League. However, games based in the Johto region feature a different lineup than the Kanto-based games, since the Johto-starring games take place three years later within the games' timeline.

However, the lineup in Kanto is more difficult. As with Johto, the members feature Pokemon that aren't part of their specialty type; but the Kantoan group uses this to greater effect - especially Agatha, who is a Ghost-type specialist but has five Poison types, two of which are not Ghost types. The Kanto Elite Four are specialists in the four least common types in the game, and two of them (Agatha with Ghost and Lance with Dragon) use types that have themselves as a weakness.

3 Unova

Some people might argue that Unova's League belongs in the top spot, while others think it isn't as hard as Sinnoh's. Regardless, it's tough. These four trainers — Caitlin, Marshal, Grimsley, and Shauntal — are no pushovers. They specialize in Ghost, Fighting, Dark, and Psychic, respectively, and they're truly masters of their specialties.

Each of them puts up a fierce fight and knows exactly what they're doing. Even though they only have four Pokemon each except in B2W2's Challenge Mode, in which they have five, they know how to use their teams to maximum efficiency. Even setting aside Challenge Mode, the Unovan Elite Four members all know how to handle themselves in battle better in the sequels; go in unprepared, and you may experience a rude awakening.

2 Sinnoh

There's a bit of debate over which of this penultimate pair of Leagues is harder. Some argue it to be Unova, while others struggle more with Sinnoh. They can both get rough, but Sinnoh has the edge here. One might look at it and think types like Bug and Fire are fairly easy to counter, but the Sinnoh League can be impressively resilient. Like others, this League features non-specialty types, like Aaron's Dark and Poison-type Drapion, and Flint's three (yes, three!) Pokemon that aren't Fire type: Lopunny, Drifblim, and Steelix.

Another problem, albeit one that applies to Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, but not Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, is Lucian's Bronzong. This thing has Levitate, making it immune to one of its weaknesses. And before Gen Five, Steel resisted both Dark and Ghost-type moves. As a result, it's only weak to Fire, and Sinnoh is notorious for its lack of Fire-type Pokemon. Once again, we're not debating Champions here, but it's worth mentioning that Sinnoh's got Cynthia, the most difficult Champion in series history.

1 Blueberry

Whoa, right? Say what you will about all the staggeringly bad performance issues and underwhelming visuals in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, but these games sure know how to surprise us in more positive ways as well. The Blueberry Academy Elite Four is, ironically, abbreviated to 'BB League'. But, um, take our advice, and don't go into this expecting anything childish. With levels up to 80 even before the optional rematches, and genuinely multiplayer-competitive teams to tap into those levels, you won't just need to be prepared for what Pokemon's solo experiences tend to involve. You're going to need to get at least passingly familiar with what works online.

Crispin uses Fire (heh), Amarys specializes in Steel, Lacey's all-in on Fairy, and Drayton goes with the classic Dragon. What complicates matters is the fact that all Blueberry League battles use the 'Double' format, meaning you each use two Pokemon at once - and your foes can pair a powerful Pokemon with a crippling weakness with another powerhouse who can check that weakness. It's pretty incredible what Game Freak brought to the plate here, and we're pretty confident this is the toughest Elite Four in the series.