The Elite Fourhave been a staple in most entries of thePokemonmainline games, testing the player’s gathered party at the end of their journey. As the final barrier to the Champion, the Elite Four often consists of the most powerful and intelligent trainers in their game’s respective region. Additionally, many of them have remained iconic characters in the series.
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The Elite Four plays an integral role in eight of the ninePokemongenerations, sincePokemon Sword& Shieldreplaced the franchise staple for a tournament competition. However, each Elite Four has to be judged based on thememorability of each member, as well as their overall power and difficulty to defeat in battle.
8Sinnoh (Gen 4)
The four members of Sinnoh’s Elite Four have some pretty uncommon type specialties for late-game battles, including the Bug-type specialist Aaron and the Fire-type user Flint. However, this group of four probablytake the cake for the most unmemorable selectionof Elite Four members: Aaron, Bertha, Flint, and Lucian.
Out of all these characters, the one with the most relevance in the anime series is Flint, who becomes a rival to the Electric-type Gym Leader Volkner. As a Fire-type Elite Four member, though he only uses two Fire-type Pokemon: Rapidash and Infernape. The same also applies to Aaron, whose main team includes the Poison/Dark-type Drapion.
7Indigo Plateau (Gen 2)
In the second generation games, players return to the Kanto region to re-match the Indigo Plateau, although the Elite Four line-up has been shook up since. Only Bruno, the Fighting-type user remains, while Poison-type Gym Leader Koga has upgraded from Fuchsia City to one of the strongest in Kanto, which is definitely earned due to his difficulty to battle.
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The other two Elite Four members, however, are sadly unremarkable. Will the Psychic-user has a below-average team including two Xatu, when there were much stronger Psychic-types in the series at that point. Karen the Dark-type leader’s team is certainly formidable, but as a character her design in relation to that typing is lackluster.
6Alola (Gen 7)
InPokemon Sun & Moon, players face an infantile Pokemon League in the Hawaii-based region, involving task-based Gym Challenges rather than the traditional format. This all culminates ina rather formulaic Elite Four challenge, featuring the likes of two island kahunas (Hala and Olivia) as well as Trial Captain Acerola and former Champion Kahili.
While Hala, Olivia, and Acerola are encountered by players throughout the main story ofPokemon Sun & Moon, Kahili stands out as the only one not encountered until the Elite Four. Her Flying-type team is also nothing to scratch at, with the other three also posing pretty lackluster threats with their low-tier Pokemon teams, competitively speaking.
5Hoenn (Gen 3)
The third generation games,Ruby & Sapphireandtheir remakesOmega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, are fan-favorites amongPokemonfans. At least in the original versions, these teams contain a lot of duplicate Pokemon among the four members: Dark-user Sidney, Ghost-user Phoebe, Ice-user Glacia, and Dragon-user Drake.
For instance, Drake possesses both Shelgon and its evolution Salamence, as well as two Flygon. Similarly, Glacia possesses two Glalie and two Sealeo, as well as its evolution Walrein. The only one with a completely unique team in every game is Sidney, who boasts powerful Pokemon like Absol and Sharpedo in the original games and the remakes.
4Unova (Gen 5)
The Unova region inPokemon Black & Whitehas the honor of having one of the toughest Elite Fours in the franchise’s history, albeit one of the least memorable selections of characters. There are no surprising type choices among these four; Ghost, Fighting, Dark, and Psychic are among the most common Elite Four specialties across the game series.
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While the foursome of Shauntal, Marshal, Grimsley, and Caitlin pose enough of a threat on first fight with only four Pokemon, their rematch teams are no joke. They also don’t skimp on team members, as their initial teams containsome of the strongest of each type in Gen 5, and their rematches including outstanding Pokemon from previous generations.
3Kalos (Gen 6)
Pokemon X & Yhave a pretty memorable and unique selection of Elite Four members. There’s Fire-user Malva, Water-user Siebold, Steel-user Wikstrom, and Dragon-user Drasna. Malva is perhaps the easiest, while Siebold boasts the powerful team additions of Gyarados and Clawitzer, the latter of whom is a stand-out Water-type from Gen 6.
The other two alsohave some pretty no-nonsense teams. Wikstrom’s Steel-type team contains Scizor and Aegislash, two powerful mons in Gen 6’s metagame. Drasna’s Dragon-type Pokemon, including Altaria and Noivern, are also nothing to sneeze at, but with the addition of Mega Evolution and Fairy-typing, they can be easily dealt with.
2Indigo Plateau (Gen 1)
Most millennials probably remember having to grind hard for their teams to face their very first Elite Four challenge. These teams suffered from the same lack of diversity as Hoenn, but withonly 150 Pokemon to choose from, and type exclusivity included, it’s a little more understandable. Still, these fights are no laughing matter.
Lorelei and Agatha boast powerful Ice and Ghost-type teams, respectively, with Agatha’s two Gengar proving quite a problem compared to Lorelei’s Jynx and Dewgong. Bruno’s Fighting-type team feels a bit lackluster without a good selection of Fighting-types, but the real stand-out is Dragon-user Lance, who later becomes the Champion in Gen II.
1Paldea (Gen 9)
Few Elite Four are as endearing to players as the four from the Paldea region, who can be fought at the end of the Victory Road quest line. Three of the four members (Rika, Poppy, and Hassel) introduce themselves to the players as they defeat more and more Gyms, with their dynamics between each other proving to bequite unique for an Elite Four team.
The fourth member, however, is the shining star of the franchise: Larry. Initially encountered as the Normal-type Gym Leader of Medali, Larry makes a surprise return as an Elite Four member boasting a Flying-type team. His use of Staraptor and Altaria makes him one of the more clever Elite Four battles in the series' history, just like his impressive Gym battle.
