Gym Leader Level: 47–48
Path to Glaseado Gym
From Montenevera’s Pokémon Center, you’re going to leave from the southern exit and continue further south, crossing a small bridge. Keep going south until you find a snowy path on the left leading further up the mountain, and then continue to ascend while staying within the “valley,” turning where necessary. As long as you keep on that path, you should wind up reaching the Pokémon Center at the top of Glaseado Mountain.
Glaseado Gym
There’s really nothing as far as a city goes at the top of Glaseado Mountain, just the Gym, so don’t worry, you’re not missing much. However, right outside of the Gym, by a snowman, you can find TM052 Snowscape. Head to the Gym and accept the Gym Test and you’ll then be tasked with completing the Snow Slope Run.
This is another minigame where you basically need to slide down one of the ski slopes on the mountain, but you need to line yourself up between the various checkpoints or flags or whatever they are, otherwise you’ll lose some time. You need to get to the bottom within 1 minute and 30 seconds, but as long as you are able to cross a few of the lines, you should get there within that time limit just fine.
Then you’ll be able to challenge the Gym Leader when you return to the Gym.
Gym Leader Grusha
8,640
Blizzard
Tailwind
Bug Buzz
Earthquake
Aqua Jet-
Icicle Crash
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Ice Shard
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Liquidation
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Ice Spinner
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Ice Beam
Dragon Pulse-
Hurricane
Moonblast
The strongest of all of the Gym Leaders, Grusha specializes in Ice-type Pokémon. Although Ice-type Pokémon have quite a lot of weaknesses, the snowy peak of Glaseado Mountain often brings forth the Snowscape weather effect, which boosts the Defense stat of Ice-type Pokémon by 50% and ensures that Blizzard has 100% accuracy, so watch out for that.
He leads with his Frosmoth, an Ice/Bug-type Pokémon that has major weaknesses to both Fire- and to Rock-type moves. It has Blizzard, Bug Buzz, and Tailwind. It likes to start with Tailwind to speed up Grusha’s team for the next three turns, so try to take it out before it can pull it off, otherwise you may have to deal with much faster threats.
His Beartic has very high Attack and is a pure Ice-type. It has extra evasion during a snowstorm thanks to Snow Veil, and it packs Icicle Crash, Earthquake, and Aqua Jet. Aqua Jet may catch you off-guard thanks to it being Water-type and also striking first, so be careful with your Fire- and Rock-type Pokémon, and its Earthquake counters Steel-types.
His third Pokémon is Cetitan, another very strong, very solid Pokémon. It has Thick Fat for its Ability, though, which reduces the damage it takes from Fire-type moves by 50%, effectively negating its weakness to Fire. It has Ice Spinner, Liquidation, and Ice Shard for moves, once again posing a threat to Fire- and Rock-type Pokémon.
Lastly, he uses his Altaria. While Altaria is normally a Dragon/Flying-type Pokémon, he will Terastallize it on the first turn into an Ice-type, so keep that in mind while deciding what to do against it. It has Ice Beam, Dragon Pulse, Moonblast, and Hurricane, so it has a variety of moves to strike with, although Altaria doesn’t have the greatest offensive stats. It is quite durable, though, so it may not go down in one or even two hits.
After defeating Grusha, he’ll give you a badge and also TM124 Ice Spinner.
Where to Go Next
If you’re following the Victory Road storyline, you should now have all eight Gym Badges you need and your next stop should be the Pokémon League near Mesagoza, although there’s more than a 10 level difference between Grusha and the Elite Four so you may need to train or occupy yourself with something else first. If you’re following the recommended order, your next destination should be the Team Star Fairy Crew base to the north.