In Pokémon Sword, the Stow-on-Side Stadium specializes in Fighting-type Pokémon. Its Gym Leader is Bea, a feisty and determined Trainer skilled in the art of karate.
The are several differences between Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. One of the major differences is that there are two Gym Leaders that differ between the two games. The content below is only relevant to you if you’re playing Pokémon Sword, although puzzles in the Gym are essentially the same regardless of which version you’re playing.
Before taking on the Gym Mission, be sure to talk to your friend, the Ball Guy, and he’ll give you a Heavy Ball, which has a higher catch rate when used on heavier Pokémon. Again, this is a fairly rare ball, so you’re probably best holding onto it for specific purposes.
Anyway, make sure your Pokémon are healed, and then head on into the Gym Mission.
How to Get Through the Stow-on-Side Gym Mission
The Stow-on-Side Gym Mission is definitely pretty interactive compared to other Gym Missions. It involves you spinning in a teacup down a slope, similarly to a pachinko machine.
In order to steer, you’ll have to actually spin your control stick in a direction. You can’t just hold a direction in move in that direction. It may be a little tricky to figure out at first, and which direction you spin the control stick — clockwise or counterclockwise — will determine which direction you go and at what speed.
Keep in mind that you can leave the challenge by taking the teleporter on any of the platforms, but you’ll have to restart your Gym Mission, meaning you’ll be placed back at the beginning (although you won’t have to fight any of the Gym Trainers along the way).
Gym Trainers
Here are the Trainers that you’ll fight while going through the Gym Mission. You’ll fight one at the end of each puzzle.
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First Puzzle
For the first puzzle, there’s nothing too tough to figure out, except for learning the basic controls. Just do your best to spin in the direction you want to go, making your way all the way down to the lower area.
After clearing the puzzle and hopefully getting a feel for how the spinning works, you’ll have to fight against Gym Trainer Ian. He’s got a Stufful and a Bewear, which are Normal/Fighting-types and can hit pretty hard, so watch out for them.
Second Puzzle
The second puzzle is more difficult and has a new mechanic in the form of eerie hands that will push your teacup far up, sort of like a bumper from a pinball machine.
- You’re going to want to slide down and hug the right wall and guide yourself to the hand over on the right.
- That hand and the hand after it should be enough to push you up to the top of the bend on the top-right.
- As you fall down after that, hug the left side so you don’t fall onto the hand down below and can instead land on the platform.
After clearing this second puzzle, you’ll have to fight against Gym Trainer Claire before proceeding to the third and final puzzle. She has a Galarian Farfetch’d that shouldn’t prove too challenging, but it’s still worth remembering that it’s a pure Fighting-type Pokémon and not part-Flying-type like its Kantonian cousin.
Third Puzzle
The final puzzle is quite a bit trickier, so get ready for a wild ride.
- You’ll want to go into that opening in the left first and foremost.
- You’ll be pushed down by the hand on the ceiling.
- Spin to the left, over to the hand there, and keep spinning left after that to fall into that hole on the left side.
- The hand down that hole on the left side will launch your teacup up near the top again. You need to spin to head to the right as much as possible, along the “stairs” that go into the right side of the puzzle.
- “Hand chaos” will ensue after that, but you should be fine and arrive at the end without any inputs required, so don’t worry.
Once you’ve gotten through the final puzzle, you’ll still have to fight one more Gym Trainer before you can fight the Gym Leader. Gym Trainer Simon blocks your path, so take him down and then make your way to the pitch to get ready to fight the Gym Leader. He has both a Hitmonlee and a Hitmonchan, which are pretty strong Fighting-types to deal with.
Gym Leader Battle
Use healing items to heal your Pokémon if necessary, or leave the pitch and exit the Gym Mission, which actually allows you to skip right back to the Gym Leader battle as long as you’ve cleared the puzzle.
When you’re ready, make your way to the pitch and prepare to face off against the fourth Gym Leader, Bea! Flying-type Pokémon are strongly recommended here, as none of her Pokémon have any moves super effective against them such as Rock-type moves that are often carried by Fighting-type Pokémon. However, even though Psychic- or Ghost-type Pokémon may be tempting to use, keep in mind that most of her Pokémon have Dark-type moves to counter them.
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Bea starts the fight with her Hitmontop, which is a fairly defensive Pokémon. It has some strong Fighting-type moves, including both Triple Kick and Revenge, but perhaps most frightening is that it has the move Counter, which deals double the damage back to an attacker if it uses a Physical-based move against Hitmontop on the turn it uses Counter. Because of that, you’re best off using Special-based moves against it.
She has a Pangoro, which is a strong Fighting/Dark-type Pokémon and packs moves like Night Slash and even Bullet Punch to catch Fairy-type Pokémon off-guard. It can also use Work Up, which is nice because it won’t attack you on that turn, but then its attacks will do more damage on subsequent turns, so that can be a bit rough due to its already high Attack power.
Her Sirfetch’d is another threat to watch out for due to its very high Attack stat. It also packs Swords Dance, which sharply raises its Attack stat, meaning it will hit very hard if it does hit you. The good news is its main attacking move, Revenge, has low priority, so you should be able to get two good hits in on it without taking damage if it ends up using Swords Dance, but, if you can’t knock it out by then, it can get pretty scary.
Lastly is her Machamp, which she will always Gigantamax on the first turn. It, too, has a ton of Attack and will hit pretty hard with its attacks. It has a Dark-type and Normal-type Dynamax move, both Physical-based, but it also has G-Max Chi Strike, its signature G-Max Move that hits hard and also raises its own critical hit chance by one stage each time it’s used. If it pulls it off too many times, you’ll be seeing a lot of critical hits from it, so watch out.
After Beating the Gym
After you’ve defeated Bea, she’ll reward you with the Fighting Badge, which allows you to catch Pokémon up to level 40. You’ll also be rewarded with TM42 Revenge, a 60 power Physical-based Fighting-type move that has low priority, so you’ll usually attack last, but its power is doubled if you take damage on that turn. This is great for slower Fighting-type Pokémon in particular. You’ll also get the Fighting Uniform to add to your clothing collection.
Now that you’ve got your fourth Gym Badge, you’ll need to head back to Stow-on-Side and take care of some business before making your way to the next town.