8 Pokémon Games with the Most Surprising Difficulty Spikes

Pokémon games have never really been known for their difficulty, but when a tough fight pops up, you'd better believe it sticks with us for good.

Surprisingly, nearly every Pokémon game has a fight that can feel really unfair to go up against, and requires a well-thought-out strategy (or hours of grinding) to overcome. These difficulty spikes have become renowned among the Pokémon community, with fans airing their grief over these fights as though the game had reached through the screen to hurt the player itself.

In saying that, some of these difficulty spikes are the result of impressive design from developers Game Freak. 30 years into their franchise, the team are still pushing players to adapt to tough situations and craft fool-proof strategies to handle some of the series' toughest challenges.

Here are 8 surprising difficulty spikes across the Pokémon franchise that stuck with us, and made players lock in and take the game seriously.

8 Pokémon FireRed / LeafGreen

Blue's Rival Battle on the S.S. Anne

Rival battles have been a staple of the Pokémon series since its inception, but none have been as hard and unpredictable as Blue in FireRed and LeafGreen.

While Blue has many tough encounters throughout the game, none are quite as frustrating as his surprise encounter in the S.S. Anne.

After clearing out the boat for items and trainers, before you're able to ascend the stairs and claim the HM 'Cut', you'll suddenly be stopped by your rival, who demands you challenge him to a duel. If you forgot to use items to heal your Pokémon before this encounter, you're sure to start panicking. But even if you were fully healed, Blue's team here still poses a major challenge.

Blue will open the fight with his Pidgeotto, and if you're unlucky, he'll spam Sand-Attack on your team repeatedly, severely weakening your accuracy, almost necessitating a switch.

After dispatching his Pidgeotto, you'll have to deal with his Raticate, which knows Hyper Fang and can easily one-shot one of your Pokémon if you're not careful. Blue will then follow this up by sending out Karabra, who at this point of the game, doesn't have many weaknesses to take him out in one go. Then, finally, you'll have to deal with the starter Pokémon your rival picked, who by now, might be enough to sweep your team.

While this version of Blue is far from his toughest, it's the sheer unrelenting surprise and lack of coverage available to deal with his team at this point that makes it one of the toughest difficulty spikes in the game.

The Restaurant Le Wow Quest

The Restaurant Le Wow quest may be one of the most frustratingly absurd endurance gauntlets to ever land in a Pokémon game. For this quest, you have to fight 10 teams in a row; you can't use any items, and the very first opponent you'll go up against has a team filled with Pokémon that spam Poison moves.

Without your own Poison or Steel-type Pokémon to tank the poison moves with their immunity, you're likely not going to last all 10 rounds while poisoned. You could opt to equip the team with Pecha berries or use Safeguard as well, but you'll be sacrificing an important item slot to cure poison only once.

The next teams aren't slouches either, as each will have its own specific gimmick you'll need to adapt to. For example, the sixth trainer you fight, Estelle, runs a protect comp, stalling out the fight and baiting you to get reckless with your moves and positioning. All of these previous trainers are but a mere setup for the true challenge, with Christoph, the final trainer in the gauntlet.

His Drampa is surprisingly beefy thanks to the leftovers it's holding onto. His Skarmory is also equipped with a rocky helmet, helping its Drill Run and Iron Head hit like a truck. But the biggest challenge is overcoming his Mega Tyranitar, which comes loaded with Stone Edge, Earthquake, Crunch and Fire Fang for coverage.

If, by some miracle, you manage to beat the challenge blind on your first try, you're going to need a long walk just to ease the nerves afterwards.

6 Pokémon Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon

Totem Lurantis

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon took the original game's base difficulty and cranked it up a notch, and its most surprising challenge is Totem Lurantis.

The Alolan region was the first in the series to pivot from the series staple of Gyms, instead opting for a variety of challenges spread across different islands to prove a trainer's skill. And Totem Lurantis ended up being a test so fierce that it'd come to rival any gym leader throughout the series.

Throughout the battle, Lurantis will summon Comfey or Kecleon, who will cast the setup move Sunny Day. This is problematic as Lurantis will spam Synthesis, which heals for extra damage during sunny conditions. Lurantis also knows Solarblade, which requires no turn to set up under the sunlight as well. Comfey will also use Flower Shield on its turn, raising Lurantis' defence so you'll never be in a position to one-shot it.

If you thought you could just poison Lurantis and stall the fight, you'd better think again. Lurantis has the ability Leaf Guard, which prevents it from being afflicted with any status effect. So your best shot for the battle is making sure you get a crit to one-shot the bug, or praying you can stall out all of its synthesis PP without it being able to wipe out your party.

5 Pokémon Black 2 / White 2

Elesa's Volt Switching Pokémon Party

Pokémon Black and White 2 may be the hardest mainline Pokémon title in the series. Not only does the series have solutions to punish grinding, but the trainer AI in this game can be surprisingly punishing. And while it's hard to say that the gym leaders who had come before were pushovers, it's Elena who's more than ready to have you stop and think before each move.

This is because the fashionable electric gym leader will exploit Volt Switch in the fight, making it tough to finish off individual targets, as she'll slowly chip away at your team, switching out her team. What's worse is that if you planned to use a ground-type Pokémon and moves, Elesa opens with Emolga, which has the Electric-Flying typing, making it immune to ground-type moves. It also has the ability Static, meaning hitting it with physical damage will paralyze you, making the Volt Switch stall even deadlier.

Unless you had dabbled in the competitive scene, it's unlikely you would have come across a stall team quite like this before. If you also went in blind, only knowing that the trainer was an electric-type, you're likely to get blindsided by her Emolga.

Elesa's team is one of the earliest walls players will face in the game, and goes on to reiterate that players should always come prepared for any situation.

4 Pokémon Colosseum

Cipher Admin Dakim

While Pokémon Black and White 2 are arguably the toughest mainline games in the series, Pokémon Colosseum may just be the hardest Pokémon game of all time.

One of the reasons for this is that there are limited Pokémon available to catch throughout the game and fewer options to train. Which means to ensure you're able to keep up with the pace of its main story, you'll have to go out of your way to hunt for side quests to grind out much-needed levels.

If you're just keeping up with the main story, however, you may hit a wall battling Cipher Admin Dakim on Mt Battle. Before facing off against Dakim, you'll have to fight through 10 trainers, which can drain plenty of your healing items before facing the big bad himself. But even without this element, Dakim is a worthy fight to begin with.

Dakim will open up with Golem and Metang, which already makes for a fairly bulky frontline at this stage of the game. Even more annoying is that he'll spam Protect and Earthquake to whittle you down and make it tough to punish him. After making it through an already tough wall, you'll still have to face his Marshtomp and Camerupt, which will, once again, repeat the same strategy.

You could use Flying types to subvert this strategy, but the team still has plenty of coverage to punish you either way.

If you planned on grinding levels to be able to damage his team and endure their assault, this could also bite you here. Dakim's final Pokémon is a level 40 Entei, which you have to weaken without KOing it if you want a chance to catch it. It's likely that after such an extensive gauntlet, you might not have the resources to stall trying to catch Entei as it lobs powerful fire moves at you.

All of which is to say, this fight is an immensely tough early game challenge which finds new ways to pummel you whenever you think you're making progress.

3 Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red & Blue Rescue Team

"Accidentally" Stealing from Kecleon

If you accidentally step off Kecleon's shop map without paying, the Pokémon will instantly label you a thief, suddenly transforming the entire floor into a terrifying nightmare scenario.

Suddenly, the floor will be flooded with multiple high-level Kecleon, who will be all too eager to chase you down and nearly one-shot you in the early game. If you manage to fight your way through them, you may find yourself too low to carry on and needing to abandon your mission before making any significant progress.

What's worse is that stepping off the map can happen accidentally, and yet the Kecleon will have little interest in any chance to explain that to him.

While it's entirely possible to avoid these encounters, the first time you trigger it is sure to be a major humbling moment.

2 Pokémon Emerald

Flannery's Torkoal

Pokémon Emerald's early game is surprisingly tough, with one of the roughest strings of early gym leaders in the series. After finally clearing your way through Lt Surge, who is a beast in his own right, you'd be forgiven for thinking you're finally in the clear. However, that was just a mere warm-up for the hardest gym leader in the third generation.

Flannery is the Fire-type gym leader in the game, and unless you started with Mudkip, you're going to have a hard time here.

Not only is Flannery's gym one of the more nauseating to navigate, but her team is an absolute powerhouse.

Throughout her battle, Flannery will cast the move Sunny Day, which her entire team knows, along with the move Overheat. Not only will Sunny Day weaken your Water-type moves against her, at this point of the game, there also aren't a lot of powerful Rock and Ground-type moves available to do consistent damage.

If Flannery can set up her team, she'll proceed to spam Overheat, which will deal massive damage to whichever poor Pokémon you have out on the field. Flannery's Camerupt can also use Body Slam, which has a chance to paralyze you as well.

But the real challenge is the Gym Leader's Torkoal. Not only can it repeat her strategy of using Sunny Day, Overheat and Body Slam, but it can also attract your Pokémon as well, making it tougher to land any hits on it. Even worse, Torkoal is an absolute tank of a Pokémon, and will take a few turns to whittle down before taking it out for good anyway.

By the time you're able to take out Flannery's team, there's a good chance a lot of your Pokémon will be in the red and in dire need of a Pokémon Center.

1 Pokémon Gold / Silver

Whitney's Miltank

Whitney is the most iconic gatekeeper in all of Pokémon's history, and she wouldn't have that title were it not for her Miltank.

Unless you go out of your way to build a team to account for this monster of a Pokémon, you're going to be in for a world of hurt. Whitney's ace has a punishing moveset, with Stomp for stab damage, Attract to stall, and Milk Drink to heal her up throughout the battle. However, what Miltank is most famous for is its infamous Rollout ability.

Because Miltank is so beefy, it'll take some time to whittle it down to low health. While doing so, Miltank will slowly be charging its Rollout, which can quickly wipe your team with no way to stop it without status moves. By the time Rollout is fully charged, it's likely to almost one-shot any Pokémon that doesn't have a resistance to the Rock type.

Given that grinding in the Johto region can be a major slog, it's likely most parties will have Pokémon fairly even with Miltank's level as well, making it even harder to beat. This might be controversial, but I'd go as far as to say Whitney is the first and maybe only real challenge in the game before the Elite Four, and is definitely going to catch players off guard their first time around.

Whitney's Miltank is still renowned to this day, giving players trouble more than 25 years after the game's release. It's for that reason that whenever a Pokémon player thinks about the series' difficulty, their minds almost always go to Whitney and her infamous Miltank.