After you've beaten Elder Kousei in the Sprout Tower, you'll be able to take the lift in the Violet Gym to elevate you way up to a few Trainers and the Gym Leader, Falkner. You can walk across the clear tiles on the side if you feel like dodging one or both of the Trainers, but why would you want to do that? Miss out on valuable experience points? Come on!
Unlike the original Gold and Silver, you MUST visit Sprout Tower and beat the Elder on the top floor in order to get into the Gym. Go and do that if you are wondering why you can't get in.
| Trainers at Violet Gym | ||||
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Bird Keeper Shouta | $288 | ||
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Spearow  |
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Lv. 9 111 EXP |
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Bird Keeper Tsubasa | $224 | ||
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Pidgey |
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Lv. 7 82 EXP |
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Pidgey |
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Lv. 7 82 EXP |
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Before fighting the Gym Leader, you might want to go back and heal your Pokemon if they aren't up to the battle. Might as well have them in prime form. Then talk to Falkner to begin your first Gym Battle!
Pidgey can annoy you with Sand-Attack, which is certainly annoying. Try and switch the affected Pokemon out when Falkner switches for his Pidgeotto, which is at level 13. Level 13 is actually pretty tough for this point in the game. They did a good job at making Falkner a bit more of a challenge, since he used to use only a level 7 Pidgey and a level 9 Pidgeotto.
Pidgeotto likes to use Tackle, which isn't too strong normally, but Pidgeotto's rather high level may make it a bit painful nonetheless. It also has Roost in its arsenal, which heals its HP and restores it by 50% of its max. Don't underestimate that, because it can use it whenever it likes to heal its HP back!
If you're having trouble beating Falkner, go catch a Mareep to the southwest of town on Route 32, level it up a few levels, and then just send it out against Pidgeotto. Hopefully Static will activate when Pidgeotto uses Tackle, paralyzing it, cutting its Speed by 75% and hopefully preventing it from using Roost due to paralysis. Mareep doesn't even need to know Thundershock (learned at level 10) to be useful.
After beating Falkner, he'll give you the Zephyr Badge, let you use Rock Smash outside of battle, will let traded Pokemon up to level 20 obey you without question, and even give you that annoying Roost move in the form of TM51. That's a nice move to teach your Hoothoot or Pidgey if you plan on using it, though you may also wish to save it for other, more useful Pokemon. (Hoothoot is a good option though, due to its already high defenses and the fact that it can use Hypnosis.)
