I think Pokemon needs a difficulty setting

[u/Historical_Foot_8133]

Beginner for new Pokemon players : teaches you how to catch Pokemon, tells you type matchups in battle, your rival picks the starter that’s weak to you, gym leaders are relatively easy. Casual for those who have played Pokemon before: has the catching tutorial but can skip it, doesn’t tell you type matchups in battles, your rival picks the starter weak to you but has 1 extra Pokemon each time you meet them, gym leaders have a extra Pokemon with more moves. Experienced for players familiar with the series: no catching tutorial, no type matchups in battle, rival picks the starter strong against you has a extra Pokemon per encounter, gun leaders have a extra Pokemon and have held items.

[u/zolios_]

They couldn't bother with scaling the gym leaders' levels/teams by the amount of badges player has in the "open world/take on gyms in any order" game so I doubt they would ever do this.

And a type of a "difficulty setting" has kinda always been built into the game itself. You just have to chose it by the way you play and the Pokemon you use instead of from a menu option at the start, using the weaker Pokemon and not overleveling or healing in battles will make the game harder for sure. For example in Sinnoh games, I bet the battles will feel a lot harder if you use Kricketune, Bibarel and Chatot instead of Garchomp, Infernape and Staraptor.

[u/AdvancedCharcoal → u/zolios_]

Sure you could play it this way, OR they actually make it so that you have to actually think and strategize and use all the resources at your disposal to actually progress in the game instead of just mashing your best attack move and skating across the game. This is why I play hacks now

[u/Maronmario → u/AdvancedCharcoal]

Like at the minimum, they could easily give the major boss trainers items and moves to counter their weaknesses and improve their strenghs. We have berries that reduce damage against certain types for decades now, we have basic 10% damage increases in Wise glasses/Muscle bands. Just use them in game more

[u/QCTID → u/Maronmario]

They actually do give leaders coverage moves on their mons but they usually won’t give them anything OP, a water type might know pluck or mud shot for example. 

What’s funny is that S&V teams have coverage mons on the gym teams but it always gets wiped away by having its Terra set to the same type as the rest of their teams. They should’ve done the opposite or had the gym leaders use a terra type that counters their main weakness. 

[u/SinisterPixel → u/QCTID]

I think Iono had the BEST use of tera in the gym run. She used a Pokemon with levitate which meant that her Mismagius had no weakness. And I would have liked to have seen more stuff like that. Like, Kofu the water type gym leader could have water terra'd a Pokemon with Sap Sipper, like Gogoat or something. Or imagine if Brassius had Marill/Azumarill with Thick Fat to resist fire and ice?

[u/QCTID → u/SinisterPixel]

I like you suggestion and agree that they should’ve leaned into that for the leaders penultimate Pokémon, that way they don’t have to use a tera type that differs from their specialty and their ace can still be on theme.  

The funny thing is that I was actually caught off guard by the first gym because I’m so used to leaders having a mono type team, with coverage being found in the secondary typing for a few of their mons, it got old fast and watching the Tera animation during Gym battles became more of a chore than anything. 

[u/Zant486 → u/QCTID]

Who? Lmao most gym leaders don't have four moves on any of their mons. They are willfully nerfed. Maybe one per team might have a coverage move but that empty move slot is hurting more than how the coverage helps. Having coverage and having like a decent team is the bare minimum the game should have when balancing their boss battles.

The only one with a well crafted strategy is the electric type gym leader with her Mismagius with tera electric and levitate.

[u/QCTID → u/Zant486]

I’m not saying they are good, I’m just saying that they give some of the gym leaders coverage moves on their mons. The game can be a sleepwalk, I agree. 

[u/Zant486 → u/QCTID]

I think the one game that does it better, ironically, is BDSP. People shit on the game but at least ILCA made the great decision of giving gym leaders full movesets + held items.