Not just anyone can become the Pokémon Champion of an entire region, as any aspiring trainer will have to fight through a variety of different Pokémon experts to reach the very top. These experts are each region’s Gym Leaders, who specialize in a specific Pokémon typing to test the mettle of young trainers.
Sword & Shield’s gym leaders certainly don’t mess around, including Bea, leader of the Stow-on-Side Gym. The Karate Prodigy challenges players with seven different Pokémon across their three encounters with her, where she has a mix of top-tier battlers and more niche picks. Which of Bea’s Pokémon hold the most battling potential?
7 Grapploct
One of three of Bea’s Galar-exclusive Pokémon, Grapploct is actually a pure Fighting-type and not the Water/Fighting dual-type one would initially come to think. Although this limits its defensive capabilities by quite a bit, it a least still has access to some great Water-type moves.
Its stats are pretty middle of the road, with its Attack and Defense being its best qualities. While it may be able to relentlessly chase down surfing trainers, its Speed stat is pretty terrible and the lack of a priority attack like Mach Punch means that it’s almost guaranteed to get out-sped and hit hard by the prevalent Fairy, Psychic, and Flying-type Pokémon.
6 Falinks
This adorable formation of tiny brawlers ends up being strikingly similar to Grapploct, as it has many of its same strengths and weaknesses. They’re both pure Fighting-type and have almost identical stat-spreads, but it has a differing moveset and abilities to set itself apart.
Falinks has a Fighting, Bug, and Poison-focused moveset, as it does look like it should have been a Bug-type in the first place, so it only makes sense. While it can use some pretty great Bug and Poison moves, Bea chooses to use none of them, instead opting for mostly Fighting-type moves, making it pretty easy to take down.
5 Hitmontop
The Hitmon-family of Pokémon have a history of being some of the most underrated Fighting-types around, and this still rings true in Sword & Shield. Hitmontop falls in the middle of the three behind Hitmonlee and above Hitmonchan as a threatening user of priority moves due to the ability Technician.
Breloom is not currently available in the Galar region, but Hitmontop has a very similar gameplan to it of whittling down foes with priority moves and finishing them off with powerful attacks, of which Hitmontop has a great variety of. Bea certainly doesn’t give it an optimal moveset whatsoever (as she’s still a CPU in a kid’s game after all), and only uses it during the first battle.
4 Sirfetch’d
Bea really, REALLY has a fondness for pure Fighting-types, as this is the fourth one that we’ve seen so far, and hopefully, a trend will start to become clear within the next few Pokémon. This brand-new evolution to Farfetch’d seems like the perfect Pokémon for games called “Sword & Shield”.
Sirfetch’d’s gimmick is its unique item, the Leek, which boosts its critical-hit ratio by two stages, allowing it to place the user’s fate in the hands of RNG. Its high Attack stat, access to Curse and Swords Dance, and access to moves like Night Slash allow its critical hits to deal massive damage, but it can struggle without being able to hold a Leek and a Speed-boosting item at the same time to make up for its mediocre agility and defenses.
3 Pangoro
Here we can see the first of Bea’s two nonpure Fighting-type Pokémon, making it pretty clear that pairing it with a second typing is simply a much more economically-sound choice. Having a Dark-typing means that the usual Psychic-type weakness will become an immunity while gaining a 2x weakness to Fighting.
Pangoro has great attacks like Bullet Punch to deal with Fairy-types, Drain Punch and Power-up-Punch to get some extra mileage out of hitting opponents, and Earthquake, Outrage, and Hammer Arm for raw power. Pangoro’s Iron Fist increases the power of punch-based moves, but Bea prefers to use its less useful ability, Mold Breaker.
2 Machamp
Acting as Bea’s Dynamaxer, Machamp brings in an absolute ton of raw damage output. Not only does it have an amazing base 130 Attack, but it has Guts, which, when paired with a Flame Orb, which increases it to 195.
It has plenty of hard-hitting moves to choose from, including Bullet Punch as a priority move, ensuring that any Pokémon hit by it is going to feel it. Unfortunately, its mediocre defensive stats and Speed hold it back from being a top-tier threat like Conkeldurr is, but it’s still a great choice as a pure Fighting-type.
1 Hawlucha
Hawlucha is, without a doubt, Bea’s best Pokémon. Ever since its debut in X & Y, Hawlucha has shown just how threatening a Flying/Fighting-type is and likely has one of the best type combinations in the series. Its base stats are great with a base 118 Speed, 92 Attack, and decent enough defenses.
Where Hawlucha really shines is with its ability Unburden, which doubles its Speed upon losing its held item. So, not only can you give it an item such as a Sitrus Berry to restore some of its health, but it’ll also raise its Speed to an insane 236, meaning that almost no opponent will be able to outspeed it.
NEXT: Pokémon: Every Kanto-Johto Elite Four Member’s Signature Pokémon (& Their Level)
