Hello, and welcome to my newest Pokemon game guide, the Pokemon Black Major Battle Guide, where I'll be giving you, the viewer, tips on defeating gym leaders, the Elite Four, Rivals, Team Plasma, and Major Post Game Battles. I hope that this guide will help you get through whatever part you may be stuck at in this game. Now, I think it would be a good idea if I get on with this guide!

Gym Leader 1: Chili/Cilan/Cress: The Fire/Grass/Water Type specialists

The first gym usually never has anything really special about it's gym battle, but in this game, you'll face one of the following 3 gym leaders, Chili, the fire type user, Cilan the Grass type user, or Cress the Water type gym leader. Who you'll battle depends on the starter you chose, and you'll battle the leader who's main pokemon has the type advantage against your starter. The only real difference between these leaders besides their specialty is one move from their main pokemon, in Chili's case, Pansear knows incinerate, Cilan's Pansage knows Vine Whip, and Cress' Panpour knows water gun. Other than that, the battle works the same. They each have a level 12 lilipup along with their main level 14 pokemon which I already mentioned. As long as you have another pokemon in your party that isn't weak to their main pokemon's type, you should win this battle with no problems at all.

Gym Leader 2: Lenora: The Normal Type Specialist

The 2nd gym will have you going up against the normal type leader Lenora. She has 2 pokemon at her disposal. Her first being a level 18 Herdier, who's the partly evolved form of Lilipup, and a level 20 Watchog, who's the evolved form of Patrat. Her Herdier knows Take Down, Bite, Retaliate, and Leer, while her Watchog has Leer, Hypnosis, Retaliate, and Crunch. If you're having trouble with this gym leader, then if you haven't done this already, you should head to Pinwheel Forest and try to capture a Sawk, train it, and then return and use it against the leader, since fighting type moves are normal type pokemon's weakness. If you do this, you shouldn't have a problem defeating this leader.

Gym Leader 3: Burgh: The Bug Type Specialist

Burgh, the 3rd gym leader in the game, specializes in Bug type pokemon. He has 3 pokemon at his disposal. A level 21 Whirlipede and Dwebble, as well as a level 23 Leavanny, which is the fully evolved form of Sewaddle. The Whirlipede knows Poison Tail, Struggle Bug, Pursuit, and Screech. Dwebble knows Smack Down, Struggle Bug, Faint Attack and Sand-Attack. Finally, Leavanny knows Razor Leaf, Struggle Bug, String Shot, and Protect. If you have both a fire type and water type pokemon on your team, then this battle shouldn't be too hard for you, since Dwebble is part rock, fire type moves are not super effective against it, but the other 2 pokemon will get pwned by those types of moves, especially Leavanny, who's a grass/bug type. If you don't have either of those types in your party, then if you have a rock type in your party, I'd suggest using that against Whirlipede and Dwebble, and then switch to something that can take out Levanny, such as a poison type. If you do any of these things, you'll earn your 3rd gym badge.

Gym Leader 4: Elesa: The Electric Type Specialist

Elesa, the 4th gym leader in this game, specializes in Electric type pokemon. Like Burgh, she has 3 pokemon on her team. She has 2 level 25 Emolga's and a level 27 Zebstrika. Both Emolga's have the same moveset: Volt Switch, Pursuit, Quick Attack, and Aerial Ace. Her Zebstrika knows Quick Attack, Volt Switch, Flame Charge, and Spark. When battling the Emolga's, I'd highly recommend not using an electric type pokemon against them, because at any time, they could use Volt Switch and switch to Zebstrika, which has the lightningrod ability. The electric type move will not have any effect, and it'll raise Zebstrika's special attack. Also, another type that is normally good to use against electric types, the grass type, isn't a wise choice to use here either because all of Elesa's pokemon have moves that are super effective against grass types (Aerial Ace for the Emolga's and Flame Charge for Zebstrika). Instead, it would be wise to use a Ground or Rock type pokemon here. The rock type can quickly take out the 2 Emolga's and a ground type can bring down the Zebstrika, if it's leveled up enough. If you follow that strategy, victory will definitely be yours. Now there are only 4 gym badges to go before you can make your way to the pokemon league.

Gym Leader 5: Clay: The Ground Type Specialist

Clay, the 5th gym leader in Pokemon Black, specializes in Ground type pokemon. He too has 3 pokemon on his team. His first is a level 29 Krookodile, followed by a Palpitoad at the same level, and finally, he has a level 31 Excadrill. His Krookodile has the ability Intimidate, which lowers your attack. Using a water or grass type pokemon here would be wise, since all the fighting pokemon so far are physical attackers. It's moveset includes Crunch, Swagger, Bulldoze, and Torment. Like I said before, a water or grass type pokemon would be your best option here. Next is Palpitoad, who can easily be brought down with a grass type move, since it's also part water. Finally, the Excadrill is best fought with a fighting type pokemon like Sawk or Scraggy, or a water type like Dewott. Bringing this guy down shouldn't be much of a problem, as long as you have a some super potions with you. Now that Clay's out of the way, it's time to move on.

Gym Leader 6: Skyla: The Flying Type Specialist

Skyla, the 6th gym leader, as you'd probably expect just from looking at her name, specializes in Flying type pokemon. She has 3 pokemon on her team: a level 33 Swoobat, a level 33 Unfezant, and a level 35 Swanna. Skyla is the first and only gym leader in this game to have 3 fully evolved pokemon on her team (I'm not counting Elesa here since Emolga doesn't have an evolved form). If you have a Zebstrika on your team, then this battle will be a piece of cake, since all her pokemon are weak to electric attacks, especially Swanna. If you don't have Zebstrika or an electric attack, then your best move here is to use a rock or dark type physical attack against Swoobat, a rock or ice type move against Unfezant, and for Swanna, using a pokemon that isn't weak to water or flying type moves would be your best strategy. Using one of these strategies will help you get the jet badge.

Gym Leader 7: Brycen: The Ice Type Specialist

Brycen, the 7th gym leader, specializes in ice type pokemon. He has 3 pokemon on his team: a level 37 Vanillish, a level 37 Cyrogonal, and a level 39 Beartic. This gym leader doesn't require much strategy to defeat. Vanillish can easily be defeated using a fire, rock, or fighting type pokemon, which you should have at least one of by now. Cyrogonal is even easier to KO than Vanillish, because you don't even need a super effective move to possibly 1 hit KO this thing. Just use any physical move against Cyrogonal, who has an abysmal base defense of 30. Now that you've taken care of that joke, now it's time for Brycen's best pokemon, Beartic. Just use the same strategy you used with Vanillish and you'll win this battle. Now that you've taken care of Brycen, it's time for the final gym!

Gym Leader 8: Drayden: The Dragon Type Specialist

Drayden, the 8th and final gym leader, specializes in dragon type pokemon. As with most of the gym leaders in this game, he only has 3 pokemon on his team. He has a level 41 Fraxure, a level 41 Druddigon, and a level 43 Haxorus. Fraxure can easily be defeated with special moves and with an ice or dragon type pokemon. Drudiggon is also weak to ice and dragon. Beating this pokemon shouldn't cause problems because of it's horrible speed. The only threat on this guy's team is Haxorus, which is fittingly the single toughest pokemon you've faced so far. It has insanely high attack, and when you take into consideration that this pokemon can use dragon dance, this battle can turn ugly really fast. As with the other pokemon, using an ice type would be your safest bet here. It would be very unwise to use a dragon type against this pokemon, since along with it's super high attack, it also has high speed as well. No dragon types you have at this point in the game can out-speed Haxorus. Also, using the fastest pokemon on your team before he starts using Dragon Dance is another great strategy. IF you use this strategy, you should be able to bring down this formidable opponent. If you can't, then level grinding would be a wise decision. Assuming you brought down that Haxorus, you can now go to the Elite Four YAY!

You can take on the elite four in any order you wish, so I'm going to list them based off the order which I faced them.

Elite Four Member: Grimsley: The Dark Type Specialist

This guy really should not cause anyone problems, he's one of the worst Elite Four members in the history of the series. Since I'm making a strategy guide for every major battle in the game, I guess I should just get done with this part.

Grimsley, the Dark Type specialist, has 4 pokemon on his team. He has a level 48 Scrafty, a level 48 Liepard, a level 48 Krookodile, and a level 50 Bisharp. Scrafty can be defeated using flying or fighting attack. It may take a couple of hits to bring down since it has high defenses. Liepard is an absolute joke and can easily be 1 hit KOed. Krookodile is his toughest pokemon, despite it being 2 levels lower than Bisharp. You can bring it down pretty easily with water, grass, fighting, or bug type moves. Finally, you have Bisharp, who can easily get 1 hit KOed with a fighting type attack. Congratulations! You've defeated the easiest elite four member in Pokemon history.
In your second battle against this guy, his Scrafty, Liepard and Krookodile are level 71, and his Bisharp is level 73. He also now has a level 71 Sharpedo, who can easily be defeated with a physical move due to it's terrible defense, and a Drapion at the same level, who can be defeated quickly with a ground type move like Earthquake.

Elite Four Member: Marshal: The Fighting Type Specialist

Marshal, another Elite Four member, specializes in Fighting Type pokemon. Like Grimsley, he has 4 pokemon on his team. The pokemon on his team are a level 48 Throh, a level 48 Sawk, a level 48 Conkeldurr, and a level 50 Mienshao. The best strategy for taking out all his pokemon is using psychic type pokemon, since all his pokemon are purely fighting type. Alll his pokemon know one rock type move each, so using a flying type is not the smartest strategy, unless you think you can take out Throh with one hit Throh is definitely the easiest pokemon on his team, since it has horrible speed. Besides it's fighting type attack, circle throw, it can also use the ground type move bulldoze, and the rock type attack stone edge, as well as payback. Sawk has the ability sturdy, so using a flying type pokemon here would not be recommended, since it to can use stone edge, which could easily end up KOing your pokemon. Instead, using a psychic type or your starter would be a much safer move. Now comes Conkeldurr, which can be a pain to bring down. It has some very powerful moves like Hammer Arm, Stone Edge, and Retaliate, which will can do serious damage. Once again, using a psychic type is recommended, but if you don't have one, you should use a flying type, though you likely won't one hit KO it unless you're overleveled. His final pokemon, Mienshao, is by far the fastest pokemon on his team. You're most likely going to move second each turn, so using a pokemon with high defense is recommended here. If you have a pokemon with protect, that's another good strategy to use since Mienshao knows jump kick, which if it misses, damages itself. Mienshao doesn't have high defenses, so bringing it down isn't very tough.
In the 2nd battle against Marshal, his 1st 3 pokemon are level 71 and his Mienshao is level 73. He also has a level 71 Breloom and a level 71 Toxicroak, which ironically happen to be his 2 weakest pokemon. Breloom can easily be one hit KOed with a flying attack, and Toxicroak will get one hit KOed using a psychic attack.

Elite Four Member Shauntal: The Ghost Type Specialist

Shauntal, another Elite Four Member, specializes in Ghost type pokemon. She has 4 pokemon at her disposal. She has a level 48 Cofagrigus, a level 48 Jellicent, a level 48 Golurk, and a level 50 Chandelure. Her Cofagrigus is her tank and can burn you with will-o-wisp. It can also use grass knot, psychic, and shadow ball. Using a Dark type pokemon here is highly recommended since psychic doesn't effect dark types, and shadow ball isn't very effective against them. Using a dark type will easily give you the edge and the KO. Her second pokemon, Jellicent, is easily her weakest link. It has plenty of weaknesses, such as grass, electric, ghost, dark. Bringing down this pokemon doesn't really require any strategy. Golurk can be defeated quickly with a grass, water, ice ghost or dark type move. The only major threat on Shauntal's team is Chandelure, who's got extremely high special attack, and an amazing moveset to take advantage of that stat: Shadow Ball, Psychic and Fire Blast can easily wreck your team, so taking it down quickly is important. It's weak to water, ground, rock, ghost and dark type attacks. One or two hits should do the trick.

In the 2nd battle against her, the level 48 pokemon on her team are now level 71 and her Chandelure is now level 73. She adds 2 new pokemon to her team: Level 71 Drifblim and Froslass. Neither of these pokemon really pose a threat.

Elite Four Member Caitlin: The Psychic Type Specialist

Caitlin, the last Elite Four member mentioned on this guide, specializes in Psychic type pokemon. Like the other Elite Four Members, she only has 4 pokemon, a level 48 Reuniclus, Musharna, Sigilyph, and a level 50 Gothitelle. Her Reuniclus is possibly her best offensive pokemon, with moves such as Focus Blast, Psychic, Thunder and Energy Ball, it's tough to bring this one down. If you have a ghost type in your party, I'd recommend using that one. If not, then a bug type pokemon would be another one to use for this fight. Once you take down Reuniclus the battle gets much easier. Musharna Sigilyph, and Gothitelle can each defeated with a dark type pokemon pretty easily, since none of them have focus blast. A scrafty or Krookodile would be perfect for bringing this team down.
In the 2nd battle, her Reuniclus, Musharna, and Sigilyph are each level 71, while her Gothitelle is now level 73. She now has 2 other pokemon on her team, Bronzong and Metagross, both of which are steel fighting. Using a fire type pokemon here would be your best bet against both pokemon.

Champion Alder

You won't face him in your first pokemon league visit. Instead, you'll face him in the post story, and he has 6 pokemon at his disposal: a level 75 Accelgor, a level 75 Bouffalant, a level 75 Druddigon, a level 75 Vanilluxe, a level 75 Escalvier, and a level 77 Volcarona. His Accelgor can easily be beaten with just about any physical move due to it's abysmal defense, so there isn't much strategy needed here. His Bouffalant is best fought using a fighting type attack, Druddigon can easily be defeated with another dragon or an ice type, Vanilluxe is best fought with a fire or fighting type, since rock types can get beat by it's flash cannon attack. Escalvier's only weakness is against fire, so a fire type move can easily KO it. Finally, Volcarona will get 1 hit KOed by a rock type move.

Next, I'll be going over the last 2 battles against your rivals Cheren and Bianca.

Bianca: Route 8

Bianca at this point has 4 pokemon on her team: level 38 Stoutland, the Simi pokemon that's strong against your starter, Musharna, and the fully evolved form of the starter that's weak against your starter, which is level 40. (example she has Emboar, you have Samurott) Stoutland can easily be defeated with a fighting type move, Musharna can easily be beaten with a dark, ghost, or bug type move, and the other 2 pokemon can be beaten by using a move that it's weak to.

Bianca: Nuvema Town
The final encounter with her is the same way, except her first 3 pokemon are now level 65, and her starter is level 67. She has 2 new pokemon: Mienshao and Chandelure. You beat them the same way you beat them in the Elite Four.

Cheren: Route 10

Just as you're heading to Victory Road, Cheren will battle you. He has 4 pokemon with him: The first being a level 43 Unfezant, Liepard, The Simi pokemon that's weak against your starter, and the starter that's strong against your starter. Unfezant can easily be defeated with an ice, rock, or electric attack. Liepard can possibly be 1 hit KOed with any attack because of how weak it is, and the other 2 can be beaten with a move that it's weak to.

Cheren: Victory Road

Post story, you can fight Cheren and this time, he'll have the same pokemon as before, but with 2 others as well: Gigalith and Haxorus. Gigalith can be KOed in 2 hits and Haxorus can be beaten the same way I mentioned with Drayden, only this Haxorus doesn't have Dragon Dance.

Next I'll be going over the final N battle and the Ghetsis battle

N: N's Castle

N has 6 pokemon at his disposal. a level 52 Zekrom and level 50 Carracosta, Vanillluxe, Archeops, Zoroark, and Kinklang. He starts out with his legendary Zekrom. Assuming that you caught and are now using Reshiram, this will be the battle of legendaries. If you lose, then Zekrom will be weak enough for you to finish off. After that the battle gets easier. Carracosta can get KOed in 2 hits, Vanilluxe has already been explained earlier in the guide, with Archeops, you can either 1 hit KO it with a super effective move, or you can opt to not KO it in one hit, it's ability Defeatist will kick in and it's attack and special attack will be halved. Zoroark can take the form of any of N's pokemon, so hit it with an attack and it's illusion will fade. From there, one more hit should bring it down. Finally Kinklang can easily be defeated with a fire, fighting or ground type move. Now there's only one more member of Team Plasma to fight, Ghetsis.

Ghetsis: N's Castle

The leader of Team Plasma, Ghetsis also has a full team of 6 at his disposal: a level 52 Cofagrigus, level 52 Bouffalant, level 52 Seismitoad, level 52 Bisharp, level 52 Eelektross, and finally a level 54 Hydreigon. Cofagrigus acts as Ghetsis' tank: with Shadow Ball, Psychic, Toxic and Protect at it's disposal, this pokemon can become a real nuisance. With a Dark Type pokemon in your team, you can take it down in a couple of hits, but be sure to either have an antidote or full heal so that you can get rid of the toxic. Use this strategy and Cofagrigus will be defeated. Next is Bouffalant, which can be defeated by using a fighting type move or two. Seismitoad's weakness is grass, use a grass move, and Seismitoad will be defeated, even if you don't have a grass type move, Seismitoad's still easy enough to beat without using much strategy. Bisharp will easily be defeated by a fighting, fire, or ground type move. Eelektross doesn't have any weaknesses, thanks to it's levitate ability. It doesn't have a lot of defense, so you should be able to KO it in a couple of moves no problem. Now comes his 6th and final pokemon, Hydreigon. This one pokemon is fully capable of wrecking your entire team if you're not prepared and/or underlevelled. It's moveset is Dragon Pulse, Surf, Fire Blast, and Focus Blast. If you have a Mienshao on your team, you'll be able to outspeed him and a high jump kick will KO Hydreigon. If you don't have a Mienshao with you (like me on my first playthrough), then this battle will push you to your limits and may require a little bit of luck. When using Reshiram, try to paralyze Hydreigon using Dragon breath. If successful, the battle will no longer be a challenge, since the biggest reason why so many people have trouble against this pokemon is because of it's speed along with it's amazing power and moveset. If you can't paralyze it, use your fastest pokemon against Hydreigon and hope that it's fast enough to land a hit. If any of these tips work and you win the battle, then congratz! You've completed the hardest battle of the main story.

Now it's time to discuss the post game major battles: Cynthia and Morimoto.

GAME FREAK Morimoto has a full team of 6. A level 75 Liepard, Simipour, Simisage, Simisear, Swoobat, and a level 77 Zebstrika. This Liepard as I've mentioned several times already, is not a threat, and can easily be taken out in 1 hit. All of his pokemon can taken out if you use super-effective moves on them. This is by far the easiest battle you'll have with level 70+ pokemon in this game.

Cynthia has 6 pokemon on her team: a level 75 Spiritomb, Eelektross, Milotic, Braviary, Lucario, and a Level 77 Garchomp. Her Spiritomb can get extremely annoying, especially once it starts using double team, and the fact that it doesn't have a weakness makes it that much more annoying (this was before the fairy type existed okay!?) A good strategy for this battle is to use your most powerful pokemon against it and take it out as soon as possible. Eelektross has already been explained before, but just as a reminder, it too has no weaknesses, but it's defenses are nowhere near as good a Spiritomb's, so taking this pokemon down shouldn't be too much of a problem. Milotic has 2 moves that can cause serious trouble: Hydro Pump and Blizzard. It's other 2 moves are physical, thus making them practically useless because Milotic is a special attacker, not a physical one. Using an electric or grass type move is the smartest thing to do here. Braviary doesn't have good defenses, and it isn't very fast either, so using an electric or ice type here will easily bring down that pokemon. Lucario is weak to ground, fire and fighting type attacks, and it's defenses are also low, like Braviary, so Lucario shouldn't cause too many problems either. Last but not least, we have Garchomp. The best move here is to use an ice type move, since Garchomp's Achilles Heel happens to be against Ice type pokemon. If you have a pokemon with Ice Shard, you've already won this battle.

There you have it, I hope that this game guide will help you get through the major battles of Pokemon Black.

Nice walkthrough, much like the ones I like to do, focusing only on the major battles and leaving the adventure to the player.

If I may say something, it would be better if you highlighted each trainer you must face, as an easy visible signal for the reader to know where does each section start. My personal choice is to use different colors, but there are more ways you can explore.

The second advice would be to list separately the opposing team from the battle description. Coupled with the above, the reader can easily browse through all your guide to get to the key information quickly and smoothly. That way, the description would only provide details about the opponent and tips in how to defend against them, as well as defeating them swiftly.

All in all, it's well structured, something I struggled to achieve in only my second walkthrough, so I must praise you for that. You provided all the needed information, although in my opinion the rivals and the villainous team of the game are out of the guide. I consider them part of the adventure, a challenge the player must come through by using everything they learned both in the game and in the guide provided. In fact, if you can defeat all Gym Leaders and the Elite 4, you will have no trouble dealing with them. But it's just a personal opinion.

EX Palen : Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I'm new to game guide writing, so I'll take what your advice into consideration if and when I decide to make another one. What you said about the rival battles makes sense. I'll be sure to leave those battles out from now on when I do these kinds of guides. I felt like adding the last villainous team battles was important, but for future guides, I might leave them out depending on the Pokemon game I'm making this kind of guide for.