Was Whitney hard to beat for you?

[Sheep]

Third Johto gym leader Whitney is known for being difficult to beat, especially in GSC, due to her Miltank's bulk + Rollout + Milk Drink.

Did you guys find her difficult, or were you one of the people who never had much trouble with her? Maybe her HGSS team + moveset gave you more problems, but GSC didn't?

 

[Nah]

Can't say I distinctly remember the first couple of times given how long ago those were for both GSC and HGSS, but I think I did have a hard time with her yeah.

 

[XNaut]

I never had any trouble with her. I remember my starter Pokemon would always be around 10 levels higher than her Miltank and I think that's the reason why I was able to defeat her.

 

[Devalue]

Played too long ago to be certain. Probably lost once between flinches, Attract, and Rollout always hitting.

Mulled on what the team could have been then. Should have owned Croconaw and Flaaffy. Perhaps a freshly caught Oddish and a Sentret (for HMs) too? Could have solved the problem by adding Geodude or Onix.

 

[colours]

every time i replay pokemon stadium 2 to beat her, i'm reminded of just how much of a pain in the ass she is

of course, that could very well be because her team is vastly superior to most of the rental pokemon available to the player, so she can't exactly be steamrolled easily.

 

[Palamon]

Yes, she was. Especially considering at this point in the game, there aren't many Fighting types or Ghost types for you to catch. I know there's that Female Machop trade, but I bet you that most people don't even remember that trade is in the game to even be able to help you defeat Whitney's Miltank rather easily.

I played G/S/C last year and I remember having so much trouble with her Miltank. The combination of moves her Pokemon has just makes it difficult to beat, even if you're someone who's played the games multiple times.

 

[JDragon921]

I had Rocky and strats in HG, so it wasn't too bad for me. She definitely is one of the harder Johto gym leaders. She's not really "overhyped" imo, people are just underprepared.

 

[Megan]

Normal is a pretty good offensive typing, especially in the beginning of the game. Add to that that Miltank has pretty good stats for that part of the game, as well as it having access to both Rollout and Milkdrink. This makes it pretty challenging to beat, especially if you go there unprepared.

I actually don't remember how my first couple times with her went. I do remember picking Cyndaquil on my first playthrough, though. So I can imagine having had quite a bit of trouble dealing with Rollout.

 

[Methodical]

Yeah she defeated my team a couple of times. So, of course I did the pro move and leveled up a few times above her pokemon and had a little bit of an easier time beating her.

 

[Sheep]

Pretty sure I only won with crit or status effect luck (if using Bayleef), but in later replays when I was older it was less tedious since I knew to train up more and shift my team around. Definitely hecka tough.

I never had any trouble with her. I remember my starter Pokemon would always be around 10 levels higher than her Miltank and I think that's the reason why I was able to defeat her.

That's pretty high for that point in the game! You must have trained a lot. I think I always went in being lv. 22-26 or something, maybe a bit more depending on my team.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I never understood why so many players had trouble beating Whitney. I had no problem beating her at all. If you went to the mall in Goldenrod City, you had the option of talking to a guy that wanted to trade his Machop for an Abra, which was found on the route right before you reached Goldenrod that included the Pokémon Nursery. I always defeated Whitney's Miltank with one hit using Karate Chop, which had a high chance of a critical hit. In addition, Machop also resisted Miltank's Rock-type Rollout as a Fighting-type.

 

[Orion☆]

From what I can remember, I had more trouble beating Whitney in Crystal than in SoulSilver. In the latter, I had snagged a female Heracross from Azalea Town by Headbutting trees and trained her until she was at an appropriate level, so I had little trouble countering Miltank. I couldn't repeat this in Crystal when I finally played it, so naturally I had to compensate through extra level grinding.

I do agree with the sentiment though - I don't get Whitney's reputation as a difficult Gym Leader. If anything, in the same playthrough where I steamrolled Whitney with my Heracross, it was Jasmine who gave me more trouble because I didn't have a Special attacker to do quick work of her Steelix! It all really depends on what your team composition is.

 

[SailorVee]

I recently played both Silver and HeartGold as part of my Gotta Play 'em All challenge and I didn't struggle against Whitney in either games. Granted, I did get kind of lucky because my Scyther got a critical hit when her next Rollout would have most definitely taken me out. Let's see if my luck continues when I play Gold, Crystal and Soul Silver. :p

Also agree with what some other people have said here. While Miltank is powerful, I'd say that Bugsy's Scyther can be even more of a threat with Technician Quick Attack + Leer. However, Geodude are readily available in the early game and if you catch a female one, you basically have a hard counter for the first 3 gyms.

 

[Amore]

It depends on the play through. Whilst I've only once had a Fighting-type move (and Pokémon, a Machop) available, that was actually the easiest one as my entire team had randomly turned out to be female, removing the Attract issue. Other times yeah, it was tough to face a Pokémon that strong - especially as I tend to delay evolution in order to enjoy my Pokémon in their cute forms for longer (especially in Johto, knowing I'll have a whole other region to explore once they're fully evolved).

Also agree with what some other people have said here. While Miltank is powerful, I'd say that Bugsy's Scyther can be even more of a threat with Technician Quick Attack + Leer. However, Geodude are readily available in the early game and if you catch a female one, you basically have a hard counter for the first 3 gyms.

Yeah, Bugsy's Scyther is tough in the remakes. That STAB U-turn is by far the most powerful attack you face in the early phase of the game, and that Technician-boosted Quick Attack means even picking Cyndaquil isn't a guarantee for success (unlike Sinnoh, where Monferno sweeps Gyms 1 and 2, as well as obliterating Maylene's Lucario with Mach Punch). I don't help myself as I have an aversion to picking Pokémon that weren't introduced in the region I'm playing (although I made an exemption recently for Machamp and Gengar given I never had trading available on GBA). A previous team of Chikorita (possibly evolved to Bayleef), Slowpoke, and Togepi really struggled. Although in my most recent one I think Togepi OHKO'd Scyther with some Metronome madness!

 

[SailorVee]

It depends on the play through. Whilst I've only once had a Fighting-type move (and Pokémon, a Machop) available, that was actually the easiest one as my entire team had randomly turned out to be female, removing the Attract issue. Other times yeah, it was tough to face a Pokémon that strong - especially as I tend to delay evolution in order to enjoy my Pokémon in their cute forms for longer (especially in Johto, knowing I'll have a whole other region to explore once they're fully evolved).



Yeah, Bugsy's Scyther is tough in the remakes. That STAB U-turn is by far the most powerful attack you face in the early phase of the game, and that Technician-boosted Quick Attack means even picking Cyndaquil isn't a guarantee for success (unlike Sinnoh, where Monferno sweeps Gyms 1 and 2, as well as obliterating Maylene's Lucario with Mach Punch). I don't help myself as I have an aversion to picking Pokémon that weren't introduced in the region I'm playing (although I made an exemption recently for Machamp and Gengar given I never had trading available on GBA). A previous team of Chikorita (possibly evolved to Bayleef), Slowpoke, and Togepi really struggled. Although in my most recent one I think Togepi OHKO'd Scyther with some Metronome madness!

I totally get wanting to play with new Pokemon! I usually impose this rule upon myself when I play the newer games as well.

Unfortunately, this is really difficult in the Johto games because they keep on forcing Gen I Pokemon down your throat. > < I still don't understand why the Houndour line needed to be Kanto exclusive when there's already so little Fire types to choose from! (Especially in G/S/C where Fire stones are super difficult to get so the Vulpix & Growlithe lines are barely viable...)

On my HeartGold team, I had a Quilava to face Bugsy and only just barely won the match-up against her Scyther with 2 or 3 HP remaining. Ember may be STAB and Super Effective but it's also only 40 BP and Scyther has high stats for the early game because it was technically a 'fully evolved Pokemon' at one point. So I don't even want to imagine how hard it is with a Bayleef, Slowpoke and Togepi...Thank god for broken Metronome haha.

 

[Amore]

I totally get wanting to play with new Pokemon! I usually impose this rule upon myself when I play the newer games as well.

Unfortunately, this is really difficult in the Johto games because they keep on forcing Gen I Pokemon down your throat. > < I still don't understand why the Houndour line needed to be Kanto exclusive when there's already so little Fire types to choose from! (Especially in G/S/C where Fire stones are super difficult to get so the Vulpix & Growlithe lines are barely viable...)

On my HeartGold team, I had a Quilava to face Bugsy and only just barely won the match-up against her Scyther with 2 or 3 HP remaining. Ember may be STAB and Super Effective but it's also only 40 BP and Scyther has high stats for the early game because it was technically a 'fully evolved Pokemon' at one point. So I don't even want to imagine how hard it is with a Bayleef, Slowpoke and Togepi...Thank god for broken Metronome haha.

Oh yeah, I think I would find the Gen II originals insufferable - luckily Pokéwalker makes a lot more accessible early on, especially if you work in hospitality doing a half-marathon daily!

I always have to rely on gimmicks to keep the early-game interesting - often that's what I call 'Day-Care Moveset Challenge' where I teach every level-up move, deleting the oldest - in Gen V this has given me a team with no STAB - but for sheer nail-biting tension Metronome is the best. Unlike shuffle play on Spotify etc. it appears to be truly random. A couple of favourites were Togepi choosing Earthquake twice in succession...against Bugsy's Scyther, and choosing Explosion when it was the last Pokemon left in another battle.

 

[Fairy]

Oh yeah, she kicked my childhood butt plenty of times before I finally beat her. It's just a habit to save right outside her gym now, no matter how prepared or overleveled I am lol. It's fun though, having something so challenging so early on.

Now I don't find her much of a challenge, unless RNG really plays in her favor. Been a few years since I've had to face her though so I shouldn't talk big about a battle I haven't dealt with in a hot minute.

 

[Bellsprout]

I had a lot of trouble as a kid because I almost always chose Cyndaquil as well as a flying and bug type. I would go in with a team all weak to rock type moves and my team would crumble from rollout.

 

[VisionofMilotic]

I don't ever remember having the issues with Whitney that others have had. When I first played Pokemon Gold as a kid and fought her I think the battle was kinda close, with roll out being super-effective against my Quilava, but still defeating her, though our health was in the low zone.

When I played Crystal on the Virtual Console release it wasn't even a close match. I had a Croconaw this time, and had bought the ice punch TM for my Pokemon, and we threw once punch at her miltank that froze it solid, so Whitney got destroyed. It also probably helped that my Croconaw happened to be a girl, so Whitney couldn't use attract to try to immobilize us.

Because Whitney relies on a lot of hax and luck-based moves like attract, getting stomp flinches, whatever random move the metronome generates for clefairy, using mimic on whatever move you have, I gotta say suffering the frozen status does seem like a hefty dose of karma for her.

 

[Drayton]

Thick fat makes it much tolerable to either Totodile and Cyndaquil attack and I had bit struggle if using fire-type around here since it keeps locking me with attract I was that level earlier and I would just survive if I had keep the onix from the npc because it was really useful to narrow the threat down a notch. Lacking of me finding a fighting-type really makes me in a pickle because of constant flinching and luck from Clafairy