Hello my fellow Pokemon fans, and welcome to yet another major battle guide of mine! Today, I'll be going over the major battles from Pokemon Platinum, including gym leaders, the elite four and the champion. For those of you who haven't had the chance to play this gem, I hope this guide will come in handy for when you finally get the chance to play it.

Gym Leader 1: Roark: Oreburgh City Gym Leader

Roark, the 1st gym leader in the Sinnoh region, has 3 pokemon on his team. He has a level 12 Geodude, a level 12 Onix, and a level 14 Cranidos. If you chose Chimchar as your starter, make sure it's evolved to Monferno before you begin this gym battle. His Geodude and Onix are both very easy to take out. Just use either a water, grass or a couple of fighting moves to take them down. Onix should be fought with the a Pokemon that you won't be using against Cranidos though, because Onix can use screech, which will pretty much guarantee the Pokemon that got hit with screech to get KO'd. Now comes the hardest part of the battle, Cranidos. Cranidos is easily the hardest Pokemon that a first gym leader has in the entire series. We all know how powerful the Cranidos family is, and when you give that Pokemon Headbutt and Pursuit, you know you're in for a brutal battle. If you have Monferno, a couple of Mach Punches will take it out. If you chose Piplup or Turtwig, then as long as you're a couple of levels higher than Cranidos, you should be able to take it out, assuming that Cranidos' moves don't land a critical hit. In case that happens though, it's wise to have a high leveled Machop, Budew, or Psyduck on your team to finish the job.

Gym Leader 2: Gardenia: Eternia City Gym Leader

Gardenia specializes in grass type Pokemon. She has a level 20 Turtwig, a level 20 Cherrim, and a level 22 Roserade. Her Turtwig is the wall on her team, since it can use Reflect. It would be wise to try and take this Pokemon out before it can use Reflect, because it will make the upcoming Pokemon significantly tougher to beat. Her Cherrim is probably her least threatening Pokemon on her team. It can use leech seed and safeguard though, so using a status inflicting move would be a bad move on your part. Her final Pokemon Roserade is easily the toughest Pokemon you've faced up to this point. It knows moves like magical leaf, grass knot, poison sting, and stun spore. The obvious Pokemon choices to use against Roserade are Monferno (that is if you chose Chimchar as your starter), Staravia, Golbat or Crobat. Using moves like Monferno's Flame Wheel, or Pluck for one of the flying type Pokemon are your best bet against this beast of a Pokemon. Even then, you have to deal with Roserade's Stun Spore and Poison Sting, since they paralyze or poison you, respectively. As long as you use those fire or flying type moves though, you should be able to defeat Gardenia.

Gym Leader 3: Fantina: Hearthome City Gym Leader

Unlike in Diamond and Pearl, Fantina is now the 3rd gym leader you'll face in your journey. She has a level 24 Duskull, a level 24 Haunter, and a level 26 Mismagius. Her Duskull isn't much of a threat, but it can inflict burn on your Pokemon with Will-O-Wisp. It can also deal some decent damage with Shadow Sneak, Pursuit, and Future Sight. Still, Duskull shouldn't  give you any trouble in taking out. Next up is her annoying Haunter. It's attacking moves are both physical, so it won't deal very much damage to your party, but it's confuse ray and Hypnosis can prolong the battle, making it an annyoing Staller. Still, a couple of physical moves should be enough to take it down. Her most powerful Pokemon is Mismagius by far. It can use Shadow Ball, Psybeam, Magical Leaf, and Confuse Ray, so it has a massive amount of type coverage, making it even tougher to beat than Gardenia's Roserade. If you want to beat her, you're going to need several high leveled Pokemon that can deal out a good chunk of damage on Mismagius, because with all the type coverage she has, you're going to need all the help you can get in bringing it down. As long as you keep on using your most powerful attacks on it, you should be able to eventually beat it. However, iif you're still having trouble, I'd recommend getting a Probopass on your team, and leveling it up to level 25, so that it can learn thunder wave. By using that move, you can guarantee that Mismagius won't attack before you, making the battle much less daunting.

Gym Leader 4: Maylene: Veilstone City Gym Leader

Maylene, the 4th gym leader in Platinum, also has 3 Pokemon on her team. She has a level 28 Meditite, a level 29 Machoke, and a level 32 Lucario. Even though Meditite is an overall weak Pokemon, it does have some good moves like Fake Out, Drain Punch, and Rock Tomb, so you shouldn't underestimate it, and instead take it out quickly with your starter Pokemon. Next up is Machoke. I'd definitely not recommend using a flying type against this pokemon, since not only does it have a very high attack stat, but it also knows Rock Tomb, which is of course super effective against flying types. I'd recommend using your starter against this Pokemon as well since Machoke doesn't have any moves that are super effective against them.

Finally, She has a Lucario, which in case you didn't already know, is my favorite Pokemon. Her Lucario can use Force Palm, Metal Claw, Bone Rush, and Drain Punch. If you have a Crobat on your team, then that should be your Pokemon of choice because of it's quad resistance to fighting moves. If you don't have Crobat, then I'd recommend using your starter and Staravia to take down this formidable foe. Taking down her Lucario shouldn't be quite as tough as Mismagius and Roserade were since by now, I'm guessing you've got a pretty solid team by now with plenty of them not being pre evolved anymore, and plus you should already have Earthquake on one of your Pokemon via TM, so this really shouldn't be a tough gym for you to beat.

Gym Leader 5: Crasher Wake: Pastoria City Gym Leader

Wake, the 5th gym leader in Platinum, has 3 Pokemon on his team. He has a level 33 Gyarados, a level 34 Quagsire, and a level 37 Floatzel. He starts things ovv with a bang by using Gyarados, who has Waterfall and Bite as it's main attacks, with Brine and Twister not being all that effective due to them being special moves. Here would be a perfect time to use an electric type Pokemon. If you don't have a Luxio with you, then the go all the way to the Pokemon Mansion and get a Pikachu and evolve it into a Raichu with a Thunderstone, that way, Gyarados won't have the opportunity to wreck you team, because if you don't have a powerful electric move, then Gyarados could destroy your whole team.

His Quagsire on the other hand is much less of a threat than his other Pokemon. While the water/ground combo is one of the best type combos in the series, it's lackluster offensive ability makes it pretty easy to bring down, especially if you have a grass type move. His Floatzel can pack quite a punch, and it has pretty good type coverage with moves like Ice Fang and Crunch, as well as Brine and Aqua Jet. Using an electric type against Floatzel is your best bet here, since they're not weak to any of those moves.

Gym Leader 6: Byron: Canalave City Gym Leader

Now it's time for me to talk about the leader I consider to be the easiest in the entire game, Byron. He has a level 37 Mangeton, a level 38 Steelix, and a level 41 Bastiodon. Assuming you got the TM Earthquake from Wayward Cave, You should be able to wreck his team easily. His Magneton has a wide variety of powerful moves like Fash Cannon, Thunderbolt, and Tri Attack. Since it's 4x weak to ground moves, Earthquake should be able to 1 hit KO it. Next up is Steelix, who's awful special defense should allow you to 1 hit KO it with either a flamethrower, fire blast, or a special water move like Surf. Finally, Bastiodon is a joke. As long as you have a ground or fighting type move, Bastiodon should go down in one or 2 hits, and since it's purely a tank statwise, there's really nothing that Byron can do against you.

Gym Leader 7: Candice: Snowpoint City Gym Leader

Candice, the 7th gym leader in Sinnoh, has 4 Pokemon at her disposal: a level 40 Sneasel, a level 40 Piloswine, a level 42 Abomasnow, and a level 44 Froslass. Her Sneasel has Faint Attack, Slash, Aerial Ace, and Ice Shard. While that is pretty solid type coverage, there is one pokemon that can absolutely wreck Sneasel, and that's Lucario. Just use a Force Palm or any other good fighting type move you have for it, and KO that Sneasel. Her Pilowine is best taken down with a water type Pokemon, since it's part ground, and it's earthquake will destroy any fire and steel types you have.

Her Amomasnow is the easiest Pokemon on her team to bring down, just one fire type move, and it's pretty much an automatic 1 ht KO. Her last pokemon is Froslass. This Pokemon can get extremely annoying to bring down because it can spam double team, and with it's excellent variety of attacks, Froslass can and will be the Pokemon to wreck your team if you're not careful. Here, it would be best to use a fire type like Infernape, or a Dark Type since Froslass doesn't have an attack that's super effective against dark types, though blizzard can deal big damage to just about anything. As long as you have a strong team, and most of your Pokemon haven't taken much damage, you shouldn't have any problem winning this battle.

Gym Leader 8: Volkner: Sunyshore City Gym Leader

Now for the 8th and final Gym Leader of the Sinnoh region. Volkner has 4 electric types on his team: a level 46 Jolteon, a level 46 Raichu, a level 48 Luxray, and a level 50 Electivire. All of his Pokemon can be taken out with your Earthquake user pretty easily, though if the Pokemon you have Earthquake on is part ground type, Luxray's Ice Fang can deal a good chunk of damage to you. It also has the Thunder Fang, Fire Fang, and Crunch, giving it a good variety of moves to use against you. Jolteon and Raichu's low defense stat makes taking them out with and Earthquake too easy. Electivire has 2 of the 3 elemental Punches: ThunderPunch and Fure Punch to be exact. It also has Quick attack and Giga Impact, making it a tough Pokemon to bring down, even if you've got a type advantage. Even with it's Sitrus Berry and Volkner's Full Restores, you should have no problem beating Volkner, who I consider to be one of the easier gym leaders to beat, despite having a very respectable group of electric types. Now that you've beaten all the gym leaders, it's time to take on the Pokemon League!

Elite Four Member 1: Aaron

The first Elite Four member you face is Aaron, the Bug Type specialist. He has 5 Pokemon at his disposal. He has a level 49 Yanmega, a level 49 Scizor, a level 50 Vespiquen, a level 51 Herracross, and a level 53 Drapion. Now, before I begin, I should say that by this point in the game, your Pokemon should somewhere between level 55 and level 60, since the Champs Pokemon range in level from 58 - 62, so if you're around this level, Aaron's Pokemon shouldn't pose much of a threat. His Yanmega knows Bug Buzz, Air Slash, U-Turn, and Double Team. Be sure to take Yamega out with a rock type move before it uses double team, or else it could start to be come a nightmare agaisnt your team. His Scizor can quickly be taken down with a fire type move, his Herracross is extremely weak to flying moves, and his Vespiquen can be taken down easily with rock type moves. His Drapion can be brought down quickly with an Earthquake with all the level grinding you've been doing before you entered the Pokemon League.

Elite Four Member 2: Bertha

Bertha also has 5 Ground type Pokemon with her: A level 50 Whiscash,  a level 52 Golem, a level 52 Hippowdon, a level 53 Gliscor, and a level 55 Rhyperior. All of her Pokemon except for her Hippowdon have 4x weaknesses of some kind, so bringing her team down should be no problem for you. Her Whiscash is extremely weak to grass, Golem is extremely weak to grass and water, same as her Rhyperior, and her Gliscor is 4x weak to ice. The only Pokemon that I'd say you should fear is Rhyperior due to it's Rock Wrecker move, which is basically a rock type version of Giga Impact. Other than that though, Bertha's team shouldn't give you any trouble whatsoever.

Elite Four Member 3: Flint

This is where the elite four starts the get tougher. Flint has 5 Fire Type Pokemon with him: a level 52 Houndoom, a level 53 Rapidash, a level 55 Flareon, a level 55 Infernape, and a level 57 Magmortar. His Houndoom has Flamethrower, Dark Pulse, Sludge Bomb, and Sunny Day. Houndoom can be brought down pretty easily due to it's poor type combo of fire and dark, but you should try to take it down in one hit because if not, then it could possibly use Sunny Day, which would benefit his remainin Pokemon in more way than fire type moves being more powerful. His Rapidash has Flare Blitz, Bounce, Sunny Day, and Solar Beam. If Rapidash comes out durin the effects of Sunny day, do not use a water type against it becaseu Rapidash will unleash a devastating Solarbeam on you. Here, I'd recommend using a Pokemon that's not weak to fire or grass, and take it down with that Pokemon.

His Flareon isn't much of a threat, despite it being at level 55, like Infenape. Speaking of Infernape, that Pokemon has the best amount of type coverage of all his Pokemon, making it in my opinion his best Pokemon, despite it being 2 levels lower than Magmortar. With Flare Blitz, Mach Punch, Earthquake, and Thunderpunch combined with it's high speed, Infernape is a force to be reckoned with. I'd recommend using a paralyzing move first if you have one. If not, then send out your fastest Pokemon and make sure that it has a higher level than Infernape, so that you'll be able to outspeed it and deal out enough damage to take it out before it has a chance of taking you out. Last up is his Magmortar, which has Flamethrower, Solarbeam, Thunderbolt, and Hyper Beam. Magmortar has mediocre speed and terrible defense, making the best choice to take it out being a Pokemon that knows Earthquake. Make sure to use that or any other Pokemon that have super high attack stats on your team to take out Magmortar.

Elite Four Member 4: Lucian

The final member of the elite 4 also has 5 Pokemon on his team: A level 53 Mr. Mime, a level 54 Bronzong, a level 55 Espeon, a level 56 Alakazam, and a level 59 Gallade. While Mr. Mime is by far the lowest leveled Pokemon on his team, it can make the remaining battle a living nightmare if it can get Reflect and Light Screen off. Make sure to take it out as quickly as possible. His Bronzong has the Levitate ability, meaning it's only weakness in this game is fire (back then, ghost and dark moves were still not very effective against steel). If you have Infernape on your team, a couple of flamethrowers should be enough to take down Bronzong, and if you decided to keep Brick Break as a move for it, go ahead and use that to break the reflect and light screen. If you don't have an Infernape, just use a Pokemon who has moves that can deal a good amount of damage to Bronzong, and you'll beat it pretty quickly.

Next up is Espeon, which is the first major threat on his team. It knows Psychic, Shadow Ball, Signal Beam, and Quick Attack. I'd recommend using Spiritomb if you have one, mainly because back before gen 6 Spiritomb had no weaknesses, while you can deal out massive damage with ghost and dark type moves to take it and Alakazam out. If you don't have one, then I'd say to use a Pokemon that can use either a powerful ghost, dark, or bug type move, and keep using that until Espeon goes down. His Alakazam is even tougher, with Psychic, Focus Blast, Energy Ball, and Recover, this is Lucian's most intimidating Pokemon, despite being 3 levels lower than Gallade. For this battle, you need to have a strong physical attacker with high speed and a few level higher than Alakazam in order for your team to not get wrecked. Deal out all the physical damage you can because that's always been Alakazam's Achilles Heel.

Once you've managed to take down that Pokemon, all that stands in your way is Gallade. With Stone Edge, Psycho Cut, Drain Punch, and Leaf Blade, Gallade is a pain to bring down. For this battle, I'd recommend starting with a strong flying type Pokemon. Use Fly on it, then if you go down from Stone Edge, go to your next best Pokemon and finish the job. Assuming you still have plenty of revives and Full Restores in your inventory, use those before moving onto the champion: Cynthia.

Sinnoh Champion Cynthia

The Pokemon League champion Cynthia has 6 Pokemon on her team, starting with a level 58 Spiritomb, a level 58 Roserade, a level 58 Milotic, a level 60 Togekiss, a level 60 Lucario, and a level 62 Garchomp. Despite being her lowest leveled Pokemon, Spiritomb is still tough to bring down. Having no weaknesses and good defenses, it'll take a few turns to bring it down. It knows Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Psychic, and Silver Wind. Her next Pokemon is Roserade, which is easier to deal with here than it was during the Gardenia battle because now all your Pokemon should be fully evolved by now, instead of being either partially evolved or not evolved at all. Just use a flying or fire type on Roserade and it'll go down rather easily. Her next Pokemon is Milotic. It has Surf, Ice Beam, Dragon Pulse, and Mirror Coat, For this Pokemon, I'd recommend using an electric type like Luxray or Raichu, Preferably Luxray since it can use Thunder Fang, a physical electric type move. If you don't have that, then just use a Pokemon that has high attack and can take a few hits from Milotic's powerful moves.

Next up is Togekiss. It knows Air Slash, Aura Sphere, Water Pulse, and Shock Wave. For this Pokemon, I'd recommend using an electric type Pokemon because a Pokemon of that Type is likely going to be the only Pokemon on your team that isn't weak to one of Togekiss' moves, so a few Thunderbolts should be enough to take it down. Next up is my favorite Pokemon in the series, Lucario! Her Lucario has a good mix of physical and special moves. It's physical moves are Stone Edge and Extremespeed and it's Special moves are Aura Sphere and Shadow Ball. The easiest way to take down a Lucario is either by using another fighting type Pokemon, a fire type, or a ground type, since those are Lucario's weaknesses. It won't last very long as long as you use one of those types on it.

Finally, her signature Pokemon is Garchomp. It takes full advantage of it's massive attack stat with moves like Dragon Rush, Earthquake and Giga Impact. It also knows Flamethrower, which can also deal a good chunk of damage. To take down a Garchomp, the most fullproof strategy is to have a Mamoswine with Ice Shard. If you don't have a Mamoswine with Ice Shard, then you're going to need to use some serious strategy to take this formidable Land Shark down. First, I'd start with a flying type so that it'll have to use one of it's less accurate moves (those being Dragon Rush and Giga Impact). If you're using Staraptor, then use Close Combat. If you're using a Crobat, I'd start off with confuse ray so that Garchomp has a chance of hurting itself. After that, I'd recommend using a move that has a chance of poisoning like Cross Poison or Poison Fang. If the flying type you're using goes down, I'd recommend using a Garchomp against her Garchomp, and use Dragon Claw or Draco Meteor. If you already dealt damage to it with another Pokemon, then her Garchomp should go down. If you're still having trouble but don't have Mamoswine, I'd recommend either level grinding your party some more or get a Mamoswine as your 6th Pokemon and level grind it enough for it to take down Garchomp with an Ice Shard.

Assuming you were able to beat Cynthia, I say congratz, you're the new Pokemon League Champion! I hope that this guide was helpful enough for you to make it through Pokemon Platinum.

Phenomenal walk through man. It had to take a lot of effort to figure all this out and explain everything in such detail. Keep up the great work.