Hardest Relative NPC

XY offered no resistance at all. All previous games have had some nasty NPCs, but not XY.

BW2's Pokekmon World Tournament triple battle against the champions was by far and away the biggest challenge, IMO. It's really hard to create a team capable of facing ANY of the 8 potential challengers. The best I could do was a tournament win ratio of about one in three attempts. Mono-water and mono-dragon teams may be weak when you can custom make teams to beat them, but when you also have to be ready to face Red and Blue, plus Alder and Cynthia, it's a different story (I'm excluding Stephen, as he was rubbish).

I still have nightmares about Cyntia's Garchomp and Togekiss in that tournament.
 

Mario With Lasers

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XY offered no resistance at all. All previous games have had some nasty NPCs, but not XY.
Well, that Brains and Brawn just before Reflecting Cave and that double battle with two Furfrou surely were challenging, at least to me. Hell, I actually lost to them both...
 
Speaking from no EXP.Share [Everyone is easy with it and this is relative] X/Y:

Route 6: PokeFan Family Jan and Erin. Double Battle. Each use a Lv14 Furfou. They each have a Super Potion. There are very few special attackers at this point; and the ones there are will be OHKO'ed/2HKO'ed by their Headbutts. Physical attackers have to deal with their ability and Growl spamming. They also like using Tail Whip.

Furfou on it's own is bad enough at this point with it's 'higher than yours' BST and ability; but the fact it's two at once and they both have Super Potions as well makes this battle an absolute nightmare.

Sky Trainers are specifically designed to screw you over. Game Freak pulled no punches with them.

The Ace Trainers and Katate Guys/Battle Girls all like to use TM's and catch you off guard; something exceptionally rare in-game. They have good AI and pokemon too.

I'd say the general level of the random trainers in X/Y is far harder than mooks in the other games. The Gyms; on the other hand... well... Ramos is a complete and utter joke; and Wulfric is almost as bad.
 
Any NPC whose Pokemon has Protect/Detect, an evasion increasing move, or and accuracy decreasing move because I can never hit the damn thing.
 
I beat the whole game

and I still have no idea where to catch Honedge.
I caught a Honedge and had no idea what it was. So I ditched it.

Route 6 btw, side grass.

Any NPC whose Pokemon has Protect/Detect, an evasion increasing move, or and accuracy decreasing move because I can never hit the damn thing.
Not an NPC, but early-game Scraggy hordes are the most evil things alive. All of them know Sand-Attack, Leer, and Low-Kick. My Flabebe nearly lost to them because Fairy Wind kept missing. After like 4 switches, I killed the fuckers.
 
My toughest challenge was against Red in Soul Silver. But to be fair, I brought that on myself. My highest leveled Pokemon at the time was a Feraligatr at Lv 75. Which is five levels lower than Red's lowest level Pokemon, Lapras. My lowest was Latios, who I had just caught before making the trip up Mt. Silver. I was just to stubborn/lazy to grind.
Took me 10 or so tries to figure out a strategy. Shout outs to the Berry that reduces SE Electric attacks. A vital part of my plan :p
 
I blitzed through them in my Speedrun with Monferno. Grass Knot is awesome.



Honedge is something everyone must run in-game. It's just that good. Also I don't know how you would have beaten Korrina without Honedge, so kudos.
Korrina is a joke, I swept her with my Bibarel, and no, it didn't have moody.

In fact, pretty much all of XY was pretty dang easy, for me at least, (Not that I was expecting it to be superbly hard or anything.) and I never even turned on the exp share.
 
XY was fairly easy, but two NPCs gave me trouble: first, the pokefan duo on route 14 with the two furfrou, and sky trainer sera on route 19. she had a noctowl and an aerodactyl, and the only pokemon I had eligible for sky battles at the time was a talonflame. the aerodactyl absolutely destroyed me with stone edge.
 
The Brain and Brawn pairs in XY love to give me trouble, for some reason. There was one right before Reflection Cave that took a couple tries for me to beat, and another pair in Terminus Cave that took out half of my team at the time :/
 
I don't know if anyone mentioned it but the goddamn dunsparce in BW2 who carries defense curl and rollout. I nearly lost my first nuzlocke right then and there. That dunsparce is so much worse the Whitney's miltank because its so early in the game.
 

Litra

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While X/Y was mostly a joke (I wasn't expecting Exp Share to be so... broken), there were some battles that stood out:
- The aforementioned Furfrou duo.
- The Rising Star with the Lunatone and Solrock in Cyllage Gym during my Nuzlocke of Y. Hypnosis + Cosmic Power = Hell.

From other games:
- HG/SS: That Ace Duo on Route 47 with their Magmar and Electabuzz. They got their good stabs, disable you with Confuse Ray and Thunderbolt. Clair also gets one if I am not using Dragon Claw Feraligatr.
- B2/W2: The Doctor early on in Victory Road. Didn't know his Cleffable had Magic Guard and it loved Cosmic Power. Another one is the four veterans on Route 18 since I didn't expect them to be packing serious heat.
- B/W: Ghetsis, and it wasn't just his Hydreigon.
 
I wonder if I was the only one who had a problem with CYnthia's Milotic in Platinum that loved to do Mirror Coat.

I found Sabrinas Espeon quite tough in HG/SS as its got so much power and its not that long after the elite four so you would not of had much of a chance to level up yet.

also in HG/SS the level increase between Pryce and Clair is so drastic that you may be underleveled when you play her as there is not much grinding opportunities between her unless you fight 100s of wild pokemon lol.

Bryce strongest was 34 and clairs was 41.

then the level increase between Claire and Elite 4 is drastic again.

since victory road has weak type pokemon XP wise it takes a lot of effort to be around level 50 for Lance. (That was one of the more frustrating elements of HG/SS the level spikes in short periods of time between major NPCs)
I agree. There's a similar situation in the original RBY games, where after Erika there's three different paths you can take, so they're all the same level, but whichever one you take first will be difficult since you'll be under-leveled no matter what. At least in GSC where there were the split paths they made it so both were a natural progression from gym 4, although that results in whichever bit you do last becoming very easy. In Yellow the way they did it meant that there was a huge gap between gym 4 (L.32 Gloom) and gym 5 (L.50 Venomoth), even though really you can get from gym 4 to gym 5 just by going down cycling road, which has only about 20 trainers on it. You don't level up proportionally, although there are plenty of good places to train at least.

HGSS actually shortened the level gap between Pryce and Claire, from 31->40 to 34->41. I agree Claire is very difficult. I'd say moreso in HGSS than in the originals. I usually find the Gyarados the biggest problem, since it's got such a high special defense and Intimidate. I don't usually have anything with an electric move (especially when I'm doing a non-TM run). The Kingdra is a challenge as well, but I find it easier to kill.

After Claire in HGSS you have the Kimono Girls as well, who I also find very difficult sometimes. The Umbreon in particular can be so difficult to wear down if you don't have Leech Seed or PoisonPowder or something. It would be a lot easier if you could heal between them.

I don't think the level increase between Claire and the E4 is that big, if you compare Claire's levels to Will's, and at least there's a good amount of trainers inbetween, but the HGSS E4 is difficult for sure. Will is difficult, especially the Slowbro, also Bruno's Machamp I sometimes struggle against. The worst is probably Karen's Houndoom. In a lot of cases just one Nasty Plot will allow it to outspeed and OHKO my entire team, and all its moves have 100% accuracy. At least with Lance a lot of his moves can miss which gives you a chance to retaliate or heal.
 

MoxieInfinite

Banned deucer.
The Luxray tribe from PMD2. Seriously, it's fucking impossible.

Honorable mentions goes to:

Brock in Pokemon Yellow.
Red in GSC and HGSS.
N at that wheel-thing in BW1(fuck you Sigilyph).
Lance in Pokemon Yellow when you do not know that Ice is super-effective on Dragons(I was three years old dammit).
Dialga in PMD2(Roar of Time spam).
Pike Queen Lucy and her Shuckle of Doom.
 
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The Luxray tribe from PMD2. Seriously, it's fucking impossible.

Honorable mentions goes to:

Brock in Pokemon Yellow.
Red in GSC and HGSS.
N at that wheel-thing in BW1(fuck you Sigilyph).
Lance in Pokemon Yellow when you do not know that Ice is super-effective on Dragons(I was three years old dammit).
Dialga in PMD2(Roar of Time spam).
Pike Queen Lucy and her Shuckle of Doom.
I'll admit, I also had trouble with the Luxray tribe, but I've heard it becomes rather easy if you have something with Lightningrod.
Dialga... Well, I think Palkia is much harder, because Spacial Rend has no cool down. Although I seem to remember always beating them using Hunger Seeds. And Lucy's Shuckle, I agree, is a huge pain. But, its moveset is: Toxic/Sandstorm/Rest/Protect iirc. In other words, it is completely powerless against Steel-types, Taunt, and Nidoking/queen. I found her Milotic to be much more difficult.

Everyone says that XY is too easy, and I don't doubt it, but there's that one trainer in the Cyllage gym with the Relicanth that I had a lot of trouble with... It just never dies!
 
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MoxieInfinite

Banned deucer.
And Lucy's Shuckle, I agree, is a huge pain. But, its moveset is: Toxic/Sandstorm/Rest/Protect iirc. In other words, it is completely powerless against Steel-types, Taunt, and Nidoking/queen. I found her Milotic to be much more difficult.
As a 9-year old (or something like that), I never had any good steel-types, nor anything good with Taunt, but I beat it with Swampert after a few tries. The Milotic was a bitch though, I agree.
 
I have yet another Sky Trainer to add: There's one on the Mamoswine Road (Route 17??) that has a Rotom, and at that point my Talonflame did not have Flare Blitz. The problem with these Sky Trainers is that I had only one Flying-type on my team (I was trying to fit as many badasses on my team as possible and did not use Charizard) so if one had even a hint of a Rock, Ice, or Water move, I'd essentially lose.

Marshall was also irritating for me to face in both games. In Black/White you do have Archeops but Sawk requires 2 hits to KO and will almost always use the Rock move to get you into Defeatist range/KO you. Air Slash from almost anything that learns it in-game won't OHKO Throh (except maybe Tornadus). And Mienshao not only has a STAB move stronger than Close Combat, but he has U-Turn+Regenerator in BW2. Musharna and Reuniclus were the best options i'd used against him, but Throh has Payback...

Conclusion: Throh is a bitch, and fuck Sky Trainers
 
Till today, I will remember the thrashing I received at the hands of Cynthia (first Pearl playthrough). Granted, I was underlevelled (all my mons are in the mid-50s range) but I didn't even dream of losing that badly.

Marshall in BW / BW2 was also stupid. Stupidly bulky/ speedy fighting types who hits extremely hard was very annoying when most mons available are glass cannons or moves very slowly is just unfair in general. That was also the reason I used a Mold Breaker mon(normally Haxorus) in all my playthroughs after my first Unova journey.
 
BW1 Ghetsis' Hydreigon. Loaded with powerful special attacks to spam to its heart's content, though it may do you a favor if it goes with Focus Blast what with its horrible accuracy. If I can stomach it, I'll attempt to EV train a Haxorus to take it on next time I play White. (yay for not having easy access to Power Bracer and Anklet...)

Cynthia is challenging no matter what version is played. Though once you know you're eventually going to have to face a Garchomp, a tough Pokemon that can spam Ice Beam is going to be your bestest best friend. Especially if you refuse to use the mascot of your game.

And of course Red is always going to be a challenge thanks to how ridiculously high leveled his Pokemon are. Now add about ~5 more levels, switch Espeon for Lapras, and hail for the entire battle for the hell of it. At least a Steelix can laugh at anything his Pikachu attempts to do.
 
BW1 Ghetsis' Hydreigon. Loaded with powerful special attacks to spam to its heart's content, though it may do you a favor if it goes with Focus Blast what with its horrible accuracy. If I can stomach it, I'll attempt to EV train a Haxorus to take it on next time I play White. (yay for not having easy access to Power Bracer and Anklet...)
I'm pretty sure the fighting types in this game are sufficient to deal with Hydreigon (you do have Fighting types in his game, right? There were so much of them in Unova) . Mienshao and the musketeers outspeeds and the former has Jump Kick / High Jump Kick while the latter all have Sacred Sword . Sawk, Throh and Conkeldurr has enough bulk to survive and retaliate with Close Combat, Superpower, or Hammer Arm.
 
I'm pretty sure the fighting types in this game are sufficient to deal with Hydreigon (you do have Fighting types in his game, right? There were so much of them in Unova) . Mienshao and the musketeers outspeeds and the former has Jump Kick / High Jump Kick while the latter all have Sacred Sword . Sawk, Throh and Conkeldurr has enough bulk to survive and retaliate with Close Combat, Superpower, or Hammer Arm.
Usually by the time I face him, I'm a bit underleveled and don't usually have access to link trade. Interestingly enough, my Darmanitan in White2 DESTROYED his Hydreigon with a Hammer Arm as they were pretty close. I've also only played through that game like two or three times.
 

Codraroll

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So I'm guessing there's no general consensus on the top hardest ones?
Whitney and BW1 Ghetsis seem to be supported by most people. The ones arguing against those seem to
1) have years of experience playing Pokémon, know exactly what to do in which situation, and use their considerable knowledge to pull of an easy victory.
2) happen to have one of the true counters to the problem Pokémon in question on their team. For instance, female Machop against Whitney's Miltank.
Claire, Marshal and Cooltrainer Jennifer are also repeatedly mentioned and rarely questioned.
 
Cooltrainer Jennifer wasn't too hard for me, but maybe that's because I was using Mega Drain Beautifly and Thunderbolt Kecleon...
 

BenTheDemon

Banned deucer.
While playing Sapphire for my first time, Wally's Gardevoir fucked me over by spamming Double Team.
I was pissed, and that's probably the reason I've never even came close to questioning the Evasion Clause.
 

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