by Once we’ve beaten all the Sinnoh Gym Leaders , our next goal in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Glistening Pearl will be to break through to the Pokémon League and defeat the champion, Cintia.
Remember that once we enter the Pokémon League challenge it will not be possible for us to leave and therefore heal our Pokémon, so remember to be well stocked with potions, revives and some ether just in case.
Really, the first opponents of the High Command that prevent us from passing are very easy to defeat, therefore, we will focus more on having a team that resists well against the champion.
ALECRAN – FIRST HIGH COMMAND
Alecrán is the first High Command that will hinder us and his team is made up mostly of Bug-Type Pokémon; Let’s take a look at the composition of your team:
- Dustox (Black Mud): Level 53, Bug and Poison Type (Toxic, Light Screen, Double Team and Buzz).
- Beautifly (Special Glasses): Level 53, Bug and Flying Type (Buzz, Psychic, Shadow Ball and Energy Ball).
- Vespiquen (Berry Zidra): Level 54, Bug and Flying Type (At Attack, To Defend, Help and Light Jewel).
- Heracross (Flamesphere): Level 54, Bug and Fighting Type (Megahorn, Point Blank, Sharp Rock and Shadow Slash).
- Drapion (Periscope): Level 57, Poison and Dark Type (Poison X, Aerial Strike, Ice Fang and Scissor X).
With the exception of Drapion, they are all Bug-Type Pokémon with some mix and it will be a relatively easy encounter; These are the properties of the Bug type:
- Bug-type moves are effective against Grass-, Psychic-, and Dark-type Pokémon.
- On the other hand, they are ineffective against Steel-, Ghost-, Fire-, Fairy-, Fighting-, Poison-, and Flying-type Pokémon.
- They are weak against Fire, Rock, and Flying-type moves.
- They have resistance against Fighting-, Grass-, and Ground-type moves.
So we usually don’t need much more than a couple of Pokemon with some Fire-, Rock-, or Flying-type move; some good options might be Togekiss (which covers both the fire and flying parts), Rapidash, Infernape, Pelipper , Steelix, or Golem.
In Drapion’s case, its only weakness is Ground-Type; so we will need a Pokémon that learns Earthquake such as Garchomp or Gliscor .
GAIA – SECOND HIGH COMMAND
Our second High Command opponent is Gaia , who specializes in Ground-Type Pokémon and her team is as follows:
- Quagsire (Wreckage): Level 55, Water and Ground Type (Recovery, Toxic, Earthquake and Surf)
- Sudowoodo (Zidra Berry): Level 56, Rock Type (Double Edge, Headbutt, Low Blow and Low Parry).
- Golem (Fine Sand): Level 56, Rock and Earth Type (Polish, Heavy Body, Earthquake and Sharp Rock).
- Whiscash (Tamar Berry): Level 55, Water and Earth Type (Earthquake, Ice Beam, Belch and Hydro Pump).
- Hippowdon (Atania Berry): Level 59, Ground Type (Ice Fang, Earthquake, Shred and Rest).
Although our opponent specializes in Ground-Type, she has many Pokémon with Water-Type and Ice-Type attacks, so be careful when choosing Pokémon. The characteristics of the Earth Type are the following:
- Ground-type moves are effective against Steel-, Electric-, Rock-, Poison-, and Fire-type Pokémon.
- They are ineffective against Bug- and Grass-type Pokémon.
- Ground-type moves do not affect Flying-type Pokémon.
- Ground-Type is immune to Electric-Type Attacks.
- They are resistant to Rock and Poison-Type moves.
- And finally, they are weak against Water-, Ice-, and Grass-type moves.
As you can see, the bad thing is that the weakness to Water and Ice is covered in Pokémon like Whiscash and Quagsire, so it would not hurt for some of our Pokémon to have a Grass-Type move.
The good thing is that Gaia’s toughest Pokémon is Hippowdon and it is a pure Ground-Type, so if it has all the weaknesses of its Pokémon Type and it will be very easy to defeat it with an Ice Beam or Hydro Pump.
FAUST – THIRD HIGH COMMAND
The Third High Command is about Faust and he specializes (supposedly) in Fire-Type Pokémon, his team is as follows:
- Rapidash (Magnifying Glass): Level 58, Fire Type (Nitrocharge, Iron Tail, Noxious Puya and Hypnosis).
- Steelix (Lifesphere): Level 57, Steel and Earth Type (Lightning Fang, Fiery Fang, Iron Tail and Shred).
- Drifblim (Zidre Berry): Level 58, Ghost and Flying Type (Absorbs Force, Reduction, Relay and Will-o’-Wild).
- Lopunny (Remnants): Level 57, Normal Type (Mirror Cloak, High Jump Kick, Fast Attack and Fire Punch).
- Infernape (Focus Gang): Level 61, Fire and Fighting Type (Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Point Blank and Ultra Punch).
I suppose that since there are hardly any Fire-type Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex, they have filled their team as well as they could.
On the one hand, we have Lopunny, which is a Normal Type and therefore the only thing that is very effective against this Pokémon is Fighting-Type moves (but since it has no resistances of any kind, only immunity to Ghost-Type, well, it’s not that be a big hurdle).
Next up is Drifblim, which has a ton of weaknesses: Electric, Ghost, Ice, Psychic, and Rock. However, he has three immunities: To Fighting-Type moves, Normal, and Ground.
And finally, against Rapidash, Steelix and Infernape, using some Water-Type Pokémon will be more than enough (although watch out for Infernape’s Thunder Punch).
DELOS – FOURTH HIGH COMMAND
And finally we come to the fourth and last member of the High Command; This is Delos and his team is based especially on Psychic-Type Pokémon and they are these:
- Mr. Mime (Reflectlight): Level 59, Psychic and Fairy Type (Light Screen, Reflection, Psychic and Magical Glow).
- Girafarig (Mind Grass): Level 59, Normal and Psychic Type (Light Screen, Psychic, Lightning and Trick Space).
- Medicham (Strong Ribbon): Level 60, Fighting and Psychic Type (Zen Headbutt, High Jump Kick, Thunder Punch and Ice Punch).
- Alakazam (Lifesphere): Level 60, Psychic Type (Scheming, Psychic, Premonition and Volt Wave).
- Bronzong (Zidra Berry): Level 63, Steel Type and Psychic (Gyro Ball, Earthquake, Vendetta and Trick Space).
We’re probably going to eat a Screen of Light (and Reflectlight lasts longer on the battlefield), so better avoid Special Attacks as much as possible and focus more on physical ones. With that said, let’s look at the properties of the Psychic Type:
- Psychic-Type moves are effective against Fighting-Type and Poison-Type.
- Instead, they are ineffective against the Steel-Type and the Psyker himself.
- The Dark Type is Immune to Psychic.
- Psychic Type is weak against Bug, Ghost, and Dark Types.
- They have resistance to Psychic and Fighting-Type attacks.
Obviously, in this case, what is most profitable for us is to use a Dark-Type Pokémon or one that can learn a movement of this type; I highly recommend taking Luxray for this Bite encounter.
CINTIA – POKÉMON LEAGUE CHAMPION
Finally, we meet the fearsome Champion of Sinnoh, the almighty Cintia (or Cynthia). She possesses a powerful team that covers many Pokémon types at once. Interestingly, when I went to fight with her, she was practically wearing the same Pokémon team, which is the following:
- Spiritomb (Zidra Berry): Level 61, Ghost and Dark Type (Shadow Ball, Psychic, Shadow Pulse and Cheap Shot)
It has quite a few immunities, to Fighting Type, Normal and Psychic. And it’s also only weak against Fairy-Type. So you know, it’s time to use a Fairy-Type like Clefairy, Togekiss, Blissey or Mr. Mime (although Spiritomb isn’t really that resistant either, it’s not essential to use a Fairy-Type against it either).
- Roserade (Ribbon Expert): Level 60, Grass and Poison Type (Magic Shine, Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb and Energy Ball).
It has tons of weaknesses, to Flying, Fire, Ice, and Psychic. Therefore, we can run a Togekiss, Rapidash, Infernape, Staraptor, or Spiritomb against this Pokemon and quietly sweep it.
- Gastrodon (Remains): Level 60, Water and Earth Type (Scald, Earthquake, Sludge Bomb and Rock Tomb).
It has a good mix of Types, as it is resistant against Fairy, Steel, Psychic, and Rock-Types, as well as being Immune to Electric, which is one of Water-Type’s main weaknesses.
However, it is extremely weak against Grass-types, so we can pull Torterra, Roserade, or a Bug-type Pokémon that can learn a move like Energy Ball.
- Lucario (Special Glasses): Level 63, Fighting and Steel Type (Aural Sphere, Dragon Pulse, Radiance Focus and Scheming).
Lucario is weak against Fire, Fighting, and Dark-type moves. So we’ll look for a Pokémon that can learn Fire Blast, Flamethrower, Bite, or Point Blank and dispatch it quickly.
- Milotic (Flamesphere): Level 63, Water Type (Recovery, Mirror Mantle, Ice Beam and Scald).
For my taste, Milotic is the most difficult Pokémon to knock down Cintia, since it has Special Scale and Flamesphere (Special Scale makes that while Milotic suffers from status problems, its defense increases by 50%).
In addition to this, with Ice Beam it has coverage against the Grass-Type and with Mirror Mantle it can take a serious toll on us if we use a Special Attack against it. My recommendation is to take out a Luxaray or an Electabuzz and start with Cruel Volt and throw everything at him (trying to paralyze him or put him to sleep will also help).
- Garchomp (Rimoya Berry): Level 66, Dragon and Earth Type (Dragon Claw, Earthquake, Sword Dance and Noxious Puya).
In the case of Garchomp, I recommend using a Flying-Type Pokémon to avoid Earthquakes and also be careful with Melee Attacks, because its ability is Rough Skin and it will do damage when you hit it with movements like Image.
It’s weak to Dragon-Type and Fairy-Type, so Togekiss is again a good asset if we run it with Magical Sheen, but wow, we could also use a Blissey that has a lot of defense.
And with this we will have become Sinnoh Champions! The next step is to complete the Sinnoh Pokédex (sighting the Pokémon is enough) to unlock the National Pokédex and be able to catch Pokémon from other versions.
