Trainer Bede up next in Pokemon Sword & Shield! Is this a rival fight? Well, Bede certainly has that smug, annoying look on their face that goes with the territory.. They also seem to have stored their Pokemon in different Poke Balls. Plus, they seem to enjoy taunting us as they bring out their next Pokemon! Certainly displaying typical rival behaviour…

Anyway, let’s see what this rival-ish Trainer Bede has for us to take on!

Don’t forget to check out our full archive of Pokemon Sword & Shield trainer battles here!

Trainer Bede

Location: Galar Mine #1

Rival Bede, or rather, Trainer Bede will ambush you just as you come to the end of your trip through the Galar Mine. Upon meeting, Bede proceeds to give you a bit of a verbal dressing down and subsequently challenges you to a battle! It might not be described as such, but we’re feeling a bit of a rivalry growing. Or, at the very least, we want to destroy whatever feeble excuses for Pokemon they choose to throw at us…!

Pokemon:

solosis – Psychic Type – Level 13

• Weaknesses: Ghost, Bug and Dark Type
• Resistances: Psychic and Fighting Type
• Immunity: None
• Notes: Low speed, lower physical than special defence

Gothita – Psychic Type – Level 15

• Weaknesses: Ghost, Bug and Dark Type
• Resistances: Psychic and Fighting Type
• Immunity: None
• Notes: High all round defences

hatenna – Psychic Type – Level 16

• Weaknesses: Ghost, Bug and Dark Type
• Resistances: Psychic and Fighting Type
• Immunity: None
• Notes: Slightly higher special defence than physical defence

Guide

Well, it’s fairly obvious that this… Rival fight is here to catch out unsuspecting players, specifically due to it’s choice of Psychic Pokemon – you’re unlikely to have a big selection of powerful Bug, Dark or Ghost Types at our disposal just yet. All of this means that you’re pretty unlikely to be able to reliably attack their weaknesses. Well, unless you’ve been capturing and levelling up some quite specific Pokemon.

We had to tough it out unfortunately, having to rely on our starter Pokemon and it’s strongest abilities, all the while being taunted by this buffoon between every encounter. Still, once we had the battle won we did a bit of research and came up with a few suggested Pokemon for you to capture that will help you out.

Recommended Pokemon

Firstly, if you have a Purrloin from Route 2, it’s entirely immune to Psychic Type attacks. Whilst you’re unlikely to have any Dark Type attacks with it yet, you’ll surely be able to outlast the opponents due to that immunity.

Dottler is also a possibility, which you can easily get by raising a Blipbug to level 10. Whilst it’s not completely immune like Purrloin, it does have a fairly powerful Bug attack, meaning you’ll do some great damage to each of Bede’s Pokemon. It will also take half damage from Psychic attacks, meaning you can save those valuable potions.

By far the easiest option however, is Zigzagoon, which in Sword and Shield is both Normal and Dark Type. Not only is this Pokemon completely immune to Psychic, but it also learns a powerful Dark attack, Snarl, at level 9! To be honest, we had caught one and had no idea until we did a little research! Let that be a lesson: Always do your research.

Oh you weren’t trying were you? Honestly, the cheek of some people. If this is another of those game long rival types, we’ll certainly enjoy defeating Bede time and time again.

Maybe they’re roaming the mines, looking down on the workers due to their superior salary. Disgusting.