Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Cynthia Teams (2023)

Who said Pokemon games were easy? Since the olden days, Gamefreak has upped the challenge for budding trainers looking to become Pokemon League Champion. The Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Gym Leaders are some of the most difficult we’ve ever seen.

Champion Cynthia has always been know as the toughest adversary in almost the entire Pokemon series, but now the Elite Four are close to her level as well.

How has this been achieved you ask? Sinnoh’s strongest trainers have been buffed with specially EV-trained Pokemon, competitive movesets, and tactical item strategies. This means their stats are higher, their attacks are more devastating, and they employ game plans used by real-life players in tournaments.

Take the first Elite Four trainer, Aaron, for instance. Where in the original Diamond and Pearl his Heracross was pretty vanilla with Swarm for its ability, in the Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes it makes use of the Guts ability and a held Flame Orb to massively boost its attack stat.

Combine that with the addition of Facade to its moveset - which doubles to 140 base power when the user has a status condition - and you’re dealing with a real powerhouse.

This is just an idea of the new kinds of challenges you face as you challenge Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s Gym Leaders, let alone the Elite Four and Cynthia.

While it was always Mars’s Purugly that gave me the most trouble back in the day, here are the updated teams for all the Gym Leaders in Sinnoh.

If you want an early-game boost, be sure to check out the Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Mystery Gift codes as well.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Gym Leaders Teams

Just like in every classic Pokemon game, there are 8 Gym Leaders to face as you continue your adventure through Sinnoh.

Each Gym Leader has their type speciality, of course. But unlike some of the older games in the series, the super-effective type coverage of their movesets is a lot more varied.

Trying to take on the Fighting Gym Leader with only a Psychic type could lead to you getting battered with an Expert Belt-boosted Dark type Knock Off, for instance.

Or getting cocky as you try to take advantage of the Steel Gym Leader’s secondary Water weakness could lead to a shock in more ways than one, as a Thunder Fang or Thunderbolt hits you hard.

If you need to train up, you could take a trip into Sinnoh's Grand Underground, or use an evolution stone on one your Pokemon.

We’ve included as much information as possible with each of the Gym Leaders’ Pokemon to give you the edge you need in battle.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Roark Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Gardenia Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Maylene Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Crasher Wake Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Fantina Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Byron Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Candice Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Volkner Team

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Elite Four Teams

After you’ve made it past Sinnoh’s Gym Challenge, the Elite Four awaits. These hardened trainers have competitive teams with awesome type coverage and tailored movesets.

Prepare well and bring your strongest team to have any chance of prevailing.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Aaron Team - Bug Types

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Bertha Team - Rock/Ground Types

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Flint Team - Fire Types

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Lucian Team - Psychic Types

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Cynthia Team and Weaknesses Strategy

Legendary in the Nuzlocke challenge run community as one of the most difficult Pokemon League Champions to defeat, Cynthia is just as tough in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Boasting a combination of the Sinnohdex’s hardest hitters and most impenetrable walls on her team, Cynthia requires careful planning to take down, even without self-imposed handicaps.

Her lightning-fast and brutally strong Garchomp now holds a Yache Berry so it can tank an Ice type hit as its most common weakness.

While her special attacking tank, Milotic, holds a Flame Orb to boost its Defence thanks to the Marvel Scale ability. This gives it a formidable trio of 100+ in Defence, Special Defence and Special Attack.

That’s not even mentioning Lucario and Roserade, two of the most dangerous Special Attackers around, and forgetting her difficult-to-damage Spiritomb - which is only weak to Fairy - and bulky, Water-immune Gastrodon.

Cynthia’s Spiritomb and Yache Berry Garchomp make a strong Fairy type like Mr Mime in Diamond or a Huge Power Azumarill an absolute must on your team.

Then, a fast Fire type can outspeed and deal with the Grass type Roserade and Steel type Lucario. Hopefully you have Infernape, or you have to risk using a Fighting type like Medicham, Gallade, or Toxicroak - all of which are slower than Roserade and Lucario. However, Toxicroak also has the added advantage of resisting Grass, Poison, and Fighting, and if it has the Dry Skin ability, is immune to the Water attacks of Milotic and Gastrodon.

Finally, a Grass type is a decent choice against Gastrodon and Milotic, but will get hit hard by Sludge Bomb and Ice Beam, respectively. It might be slow as molasses, but consider evolving a Snover into Abomasnow for a Grass/Ice type which resists Ground and Water and is damaged normally by Ice.