Elite Four and Cynthia preparation
Build coverage for the first League challenge without depending on one perfect team.
Story and late-game spoilers.
Original Nintendo DS release; not Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl.
3 characters · one picture per entry · open a picture for full size.
Character directory
Aaron and Bertha
Aaron specialises in Bug types, but Drapion is Poison/Dark and changes the matchup. Bertha’s Ground team encourages Water and Grass coverage.
Flint and Lucian
Use Water or Ground coverage against Flint while watching for coverage moves and status effects. Against Lucian, Dark attacks offer a useful starting point, but Bronzong’s secondary Steel typing complicates simple type matching.
Cynthia’s mixed team
Cynthia uses Spiritomb, Roserade, Togekiss, Lucario, Milotic and Garchomp. In Generation IV, Spiritomb has no type weakness: Fairy does not exist yet.
Quick notes
- Prepare a team with distinct jobs. Bring reliable damage from both physical and special attackers, status recovery, and enough healing to last consecutive fights.
- Turn a failed run into a specific adjustment. Identify which opponent exhausted your items or forced repeated revives.