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Biggest cheaters in the Pokémon games

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
Most people in the Pokémon world play fair and square, but of course, there will always be some who play dirty. Who do you think are the biggest cheaters in the games? These are my thoughts:

  • Lance - He has three Dragonites who are five levels below what they should've evolved at, and in the original R/B/Y games, one of them has Barrier, which Dragonite cannot learn legally in any way. His Aerodactyl also has Rock Slide, which it could not learn in Gen 2.

  • Ghetsis - A similar situation to Lance. His Hydreigon is ten levels below what it should evolve at, and it also has all sorts of nasty moves to throw you off, including Flamethrower and Surf (!) It seems Dragon-type users are more likely to cheat since they are often seen as "unstoppable" in the games, at least before Gen 6 introduced the Fairy type. If Black/White ever get remade in the future, Ghetsis's Hydreigon will probably get a new move to deal with Fairies, possibly something Poison-type.

  • Lenora - Retaliate is just too powerful for just the second Gym Leader. It seems Normal-type Gym Leaders are some of the hardest to beat (I'm looking at you as well, Whitney...) :rolleyes:

  • Elesa - Although not really a cheater, her tactics do seem cheater-ish, what with her two Emolgas constantly using Volt Switch so you can't hit them, and Ground-types will amount to null against them. Luckily B2/W2 made her a little easier by replacing her second Emolga with Flaaffy.

  • Battle facility/Subway opponents - They always seem to have all the luck while you get none. Some of them even use Legendaries, which just seems a bit overkill (as most people don't use Legendaries in-game). Whenever they use a move that isn't too accurate (e.g. Focus Blast), it nearly always seems to never miss, which is immensely frustrating and often causes "ragequits" amongst the community. These people are the reason I don't do competitive battling.
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
I agree with everyone but Elesa.

Elesa exploits a legimate strategy and uses the move whose TM she ends up giving you. I'd say her tatic show the value of Volt Switch so in this sense, she was the best gym leader as far as displaying the TM's usefulness goes.
 

The Admiral

the star of the masquerade
Only two of the list on the main post are actually "cheating" (i.e. doing something you can't). But you forgot that B2W2 Ghetsis has a Hydreigon at 52, meaning he somehow gets even cheesier as he goes!

Elesa is bad design using something that's unusual for an electric-type leader since most of her Pokemon aren't subject to any of the electric type's weaknesses. Lenora is imo not that hard (Isn't there a rock-type available by that point? If so, that pushes Watchog to use Crunch instead of Retaliate, which is still strong for that part in the game, but a. noticeably less than Retaliate (especially with its bonus); b. is way weaker and coming off of Watchog's mediocre attack stats. Alternately: get a Sawk or a Throh and turn it into a fine paste with one attack.).

As for Battle Facility RNG? That's just the "Fire Emblem Rule" at play; nothing good ever happens to you, but everything good happens for the opponents. Basically, this is already a thing (or just a superstition...) in the main game to begin with. The difference is that the opponents have optimized, competitive-ready sets (or sets that resemble competitive-ready sets) and have equal level to yours and good stats for the 'mons they're using, plus the format raises the stakes by a lot.
 

TokoyamiTheDark

The Purple Karakasa
  • Ghetsis - A similar situation to Lance. His Hydreigon is ten levels below what it should evolve at, and it also has all sorts of nasty moves to throw you off, including Flamethrower and Surf (!) It seems Dragon-type users are more likely to cheat since they are often seen as "unstoppable" in the games, at least before Gen 6 introduced the Fairy type. If Black/White ever get remade in the future, Ghetsis's Hydreigon will probably get a new move to deal with Fairies, possibly something Poison-type.
Not to mention than in USUM, Ghetsis' Pokémon are ALL coming out of Master Balls. How could someone have not one, but SIX Master Balls!??
 

Requiem Aeternam

Dance like an eggplant!
Dakim in Pokémon Colosseum and Gonzap in Pokémon XD can both be accused of cheating.

During the first fight with Dakim he has a Marshtomp that knows Muddy Water at Lv36 when Marshtomp couldn’t learn it until Lv37 and Mudkip couldn’t learn it at all.

When you face Gonzap during the story of Pokémon XD he has a Skarmory that knows Hyper Beam and a Nuzleaf that knows Aerial Ace, moves these Pokémon can’t learn. Skarmory is an interesting case as during the Orre Colosseum fight with Gonzap his Skarmory is the only Pokémon on his team WITHOUT Hyper Beam or a variation of it.
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
  • Lenora - Retaliate is just too powerful for just the second Gym Leader. It seems Normal-type Gym Leaders are some of the hardest to beat (I'm looking at you as well, Whitney...) :rolleyes:

  • Elesa - Although not really a cheater, her tactics do seem cheater-ish, what with her two Emolgas constantly using Volt Switch so you can't hit them, and Ground-types will amount to null against them. Luckily B2/W2 made her a little easier by replacing its quiher second Emolga with Flaaffy.

Neither of these I would consider cheats. Lenora has a strong move but its not that powerful. As for Elesa her frequent use of volt switch wasn't that bad as once you get how the move works it's easy to power through

For me the biggest cheater though I would say is Opal. Wasn't that hard of a battle but the quiz questions she asks are deliberately the opposite of what would be a logical answer. That feels a bit of a cheat.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
In Emerald there was that one trainer on Victory Road that had a Lanturn that knew Earthquake.

Oh yes, forgot that one. Why would a Pokémon learn a move of the type it's weak to? o_O

Not to mention than in USUM, Ghetsis' Pokémon are ALL coming out of Master Balls. How could someone have not one, but SIX Master Balls!??

Maybe he used the cloning glitch from trying to catch MissingNo. and got unlimited Master Balls, then caught six legendaries with them. :p

During the first fight with Dakim he has a Marshtomp that knows Muddy Water at Lv36 when Marshtomp couldn’t learn it until Lv37 and Mudkip couldn’t learn it at all.

Logically, shouldn't Mudkip be able to learn Muddy Water? It even has "mud" in the name. Also, doesn't Marshtomp evolve into Swampert at level 36?
 

TwilightBlade

Well-Known Member
Lance because of his underleveled and illegal Dragonites in the Johto games. Sure I get why they were underleveled since Gamefreak wanted to make the battle more fair to players but still I hate when they ignore their own rules by giving trainers underleveled Pokemon.

One of his Dragonites also knew an illegal move in RBY and I don't know why it did since Game Freak could've given it any legal move instead of Barrier.
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
For me the biggest cheater though I would say is Opal. Wasn't that hard of a battle but the quiz questions she asks are deliberately the opposite of what would be a logical answer. That feels a bit of a cheat.

Only question I got "wrong" was the one asking her age. I picked the correct answer but I still got the penalty of answering wrong.
 

Weavy

I come and go suddenly
A lot of people have already mentioned the obvious ones, so I'll refrain. But I have one that I want to talk about because I also feel it makes no sense too...

Nessa and her Drednaw.

In the first fight with her, she has a HA normal Dynamax Drednaw. Come the second fight, said Drednaw is now a G-Max with one of its regular abilities, Shell Armour. What's going on here? Did she hack her Drednaw to change it? Did she catch a new one entirely? No one knows...

I'd comment on Hop and his G-Max Corviknight too, but that's more "why and how?" as opposed to cheating, so it's less of a priority in this scenario.
 

Luthor

Well-Known Member
A lot of people have already mentioned the obvious ones, so I'll refrain. But I have one that I want to talk about because I also feel it makes no sense too...

Nessa and her Drednaw.

In the first fight with her, she has a HA normal Dynamax Drednaw. Come the second fight, said Drednaw is now a G-Max with one of its regular abilities, Shell Armour. What's going on here? Did she hack her Drednaw to change it? Did she catch a new one entirely? No one knows...

I'd comment on Hop and his G-Max Corviknight too, but that's more "why and how?" as opposed to cheating, so it's less of a priority in this scenario.

For me there's a simple explanation behind this. The Dynamax one is Male. Seems likely she has two (at least). The Gigantamax one is female. My theory is that the Dynamax is one she uses just for just the gym battles (where it's only a test) but the Gigantamax is one she uses for more serious battles.
 
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Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
For me there's a simple explanation behind this. The Dynamax one is Male. Seems likely she has two (at least). The Gigantamax one is female. My theory is that the Dynamax is one she uses just for just the gym battles (where it's only a test) but the Gigantamax is one she uses for more serious battles.
This was my thought too. We know that Gym Leaders often have more Pokémon than what they use in their respective battles for Badges in both the games and anime that aren’t seen. This could also be why third versions tend to have them us3 completely different Pokémon with Platinum being the most notable of this.
 

NovaBrunswick

Canada Connoisseur
This was my thought too. We know that Gym Leaders often have more Pokémon than what they use in their respective battles for Badges in both the games and anime that aren’t seen. This could also be why third versions tend to have them us3 completely different Pokémon with Platinum being the most notable of this.

That could explain why Roark has a Tyranitar and his father Byron has an Aggron in their Battleground battles in Platinum, whereas in their Gym battles, they don't. It would make sense that they would catch new Pokémon and train to be stronger after their defeats.

Only two of the list on the main post are actually "cheating" (i.e. doing something you can't). But you forgot that B2W2 Ghetsis has a Hydreigon at 52, meaning he somehow gets even cheesier as he goes!

Not to mention than in USUM, Ghetsis' Pokémon are ALL coming out of Master Balls. How could someone have not one, but SIX Master Balls!??

Maybe they're trying to show that Ghetsis is so evil that he'll resort to outright cheating (and even trying to kill the player character with Kyurem's attacks in B2/W2) just in order to secure victory.

Only question I got "wrong" was the one asking her age. I picked the correct answer but I still got the penalty of answering wrong.

I think that might've been intentional, since it's a common stereotype that women (especially older women like Opal) don't like to reveal their true age.
 
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