The difficulty spike between Victory Road and the Elite Four is abnormally high. But the jump from Lucian to Cynthia is no joke. Not only will you be dealing with Pokémon with abnormally high IVs (read:nearly all of her Pokémon’sIVsare maxed), but they’re also very fast.
You can go about beating Cynthia in three ways,outspeed her Pokémon,tank her Pokemon’s attacks, ordeal super-effective damage(while also outspeeding Pokémon or tanking attacks).
Outspeeding Cynthia’s Pokémon
Gastrodon is weak to Grass. If you don’t have a grass Pokémon in your party, that’s okay! Unlike Roserade and Milotic, Gastrodon doesn’t hit as hard. As long as youdon’t pit a Pokémon weak to Ground moves against it, they’ll very likely survive.
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Tanking Cynthia’s Pokémon attacks
Lucario and Garchomp are both extremely fast and very heavy hitters. Furthermore, they both have natures that boost Speed by 10% (Timid for Lucario and Jolly for Garchomp). Unless you haveEV trained your Pokémonbefore this battle,never expect to outspeed them. The goal is to survive the first attack and hopefully take them out with one of yours.
Battling Lucario is easier. He’sextremely fragile—one super-effective hit will knock him out. His attack moves areAura Sphere,Dragon Pulse, andFlash Cannon. Dragon Pulse is tankable since it won’t gain same-type attack bonus (STAB) with Lucario being a Steel/Fighting Pokémon. You’ll survive Aura Sphere and Flash Cannon as long as the Pokémon you use isn’t weak to Fighting and Steel.
How to beat Cynthia’s Garchomp
There’s a reason why Garchomp is Cynthia’s ace. She’s only weak to three very rare Pokémon types:Ice,Dragon, andFairy.
A lot ofFairy types, like Gardevoir, have reallylow HP and Defense, so it’s really not recommended that you take one. Meanwhile,using a Dragon Pokémon is super risky, simply because Dragons are weak against Dragons. It might not survive Garchomp’s Dragon Claw STAB move, especially if it’s only five or so levels above her.
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There’s no one correct strategy to take on Cynthia, especially when we bring different Pokémon to challenge the league. If you lose the first time, don’t worry—just reload your save and try again. You can even take the loss, capture or grind the Pokémon you need to, and just rebattle the Elite Four. The key to success is preparedness.
For more help withPokémonBrilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, we at Pro Game Guides have you covered.
