Glossary: Gym Leader

A Gym Leader (also referred to as simply “Leader” in battles) is the leader and strongest Trainer in a Pokémon Gym. They are generally considered a “boss” by video game terminology and are usually a more challenging fight than most others in the surrounding area. Gym Leaders usually specialize in one type and most of the Gym Trainers inside of the Gym that you’ll generally need to fight before reaching the Gym Leader utilize that type as well.

Most regions in the Pokémon world have eight Gym Leaders in them. When a Trainer beats a Gym Leader, they receive a Gym Badge from that Gym Leader as a reward, and usually a TM as well to go along with it. In order to challenge the Pokémon League’s Elite Four and Champion, Trainers need to earn the eight Gym Badges of the region, so thus need to defeat eight Gym Leaders.

Gym Badges are necessary to use certain HM moves outside of battle, such as Cut, Strength, and Surf, so fighting Gym Leaders is necessary to progress to new places in the game in most cases.

Kanto Gym Leaders

In Red/Blue/Yellow/FireRed/LeafGreen/Let’s Go

In the original Kanto games and games based on them, these are the Gym Leaders that you fight and the order that their Badges are listed in the game.

In a standard playthrough, you can fight Sabrina or Koga in either order and they are at the same levels.

In Gold/Silver/Crystal/HeartGold/SoulSilver

These games take place three years after the main Kanto games, so there are a few adjustments to the Gym Leaders. They can more or less be fought in any order, with the exception of Blue, who must be fought last, although due to how Kanto is arranged in these games, it takes more effort to fight them in the listed order; instead, most players will start with Lt. Surge.

Johto Gym Leaders

Similar to Kanto, some of the Gym Leaders can be fought in a different order than what’s shown above. Chuck, Jasmine, and Pryce can all be fought in whichever order is desired, and Chuck and Pryce even have more or less the same levels for their Pokémon.

Hoenn Gym Leaders

* In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire, the 8th Gym Leader is Wallace. However, in Pokémon Emerald, the 8th Gym Leader is instead Juan. Both offer the Rain Badge as a reward and use Water-type Pokémon.

Sinnoh Gym Leaders

* In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Maylene and Wake can be fought in either order and have the same levels for their Pokémon, and Fantina must be fought after them, making Fantina the 5th Gym Leader. In Pokémon Platinum, Fantina is the 3rd Gym Leader and is fought during the first visit to Hearthome City.

Unova Gym Leaders

In Black/White

* In the original Pokémon Black and White, the 1st Gym Leader you fight is based on which starter Pokémon you chose at the beginning of the game—if you picked Oshawott, you’ll fight Cilan; if you picked Snivy, you’ll fight Chili; if you picked Tepig, you’ll fight Cress. Regardless of which you fight, you’ll earn the Trio Badge as a reward.

** Additionally, the 8th Gym Leader varies based on which version you are playing—in Pokémon Black, you fight against Drayden, whereas in Pokémon White, you fight against Iris instead. However, their Pokémon are almost identical in stats and moves, so it is not a substantial change functionally—just cosmetically, essentially.

In Black 2/White 2

As these games take place two years in the future from the original Pokémon Black and White, the roster of Gym Leaders has changed a bit as well. While you do fight some of the same Gym Leaders from the originals, the first two you fight are completely different, along with the final Gym Leader, who is now Marlon in Humilau City.

Kalos Gym Leaders

Alola Gym Leaders

The Alola region is an outlier to the traditional formula of Pokémon games, as it does not have the traditional structure of the Pokémon League that other regions do and, as such, does not have Gym Leaders in any of the games (aside from an optional “fake” Gym Leader in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon).

It does, however, have a similar concept in Trial Captains and Island Kahunas, along with the Totem Pokémon that serve a similar function as Gym Leaders, except they are battles against super-strong Totem Pokémon and their cohort in a 2-vs-1 battle. The Trial Captains aren’t usually directly fought during the Island Trial, but there are ways to fight them throughout the game. Kahunas must be fought at the end of the island, generally, and they are more similar to Gym Leaders than the Trial Captains are.

Trial Captains

Island Kahunas

Galar Gym Leaders

* Depending on which version you’re playing, you’ll fight against different Gym Leaders in two Gyms. In Pokémon Sword, you fight against Bea and Gordie, whereas in Pokémon Shield you fight against Allister and Melony instead.

On top of that, by the end of the game, two of the Gym Leaders end up retiring and two replacements that you run into throughout your adventure succeed them. You don’t fight them as Gym Leaders throughout the main adventure, though, so they are not included in the table above.