Up steps Gym Trainer Mark, as we continue to make our way through Turffield Stadium (Gym)! We’re really not used to calling them that yet if we’re honest. No matter though, after another Wooloo (Sheep) herding mini game we’re ready to dive into another trainer battle. Come on then Mark, let’s see what you’ve got to show us! (Grass types, of course).

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

Gym Trainer Mark

Location: Turffield Stadium

To be completely honest, we were a little annoyed at ourselves during our battle with the previous trainer – we forgot to put our Grass Type counter out first and had to waste a turn switching. We’re sad to report that said hubris continued into this battle… We’ll remember next time honest. Still it’s not so bad, given that our starter is pretty much immune to most of their attacks, though we have to deal with the fact that we don’t do much either..

We’ve immediately noted that he has two Pokemon to bring to bear on us, so the stakes have been upped somewhat since our previous battle, so we’re looking forward to see what exactly is going to be opposing us this time around.

Pokemon:

BUDEW – Grass & Poison Type – Level 16

• Weaknesses: Psychic, Ice, Fire and Flying Type.
• Resistances: Electric, Fighting, Grass, Water and Fairy Type.
• Immunity: None.
• Notes: Lower physical defence than special defence.

oDdish – Grass & Poison Type – Level 17

• Weaknesses: Psychic, Ice, Fire and Flying Type.
• Resistances: Electric, Fighting, Grass, Water and Fairy Type.
• Immunity: None.
• Notes: Low speed but both defences are good.

Guide

Erm, so as you can see we still had our starter out, which is a bit of a pain. This being a grass type based gym, we’d normally start the battle with a Pokemon that counters them. Alas no, we have to take a free hit whilst we’re switching over. This is not normally an issue, however our usual grass counter, Wingull, doesn’t have the best defences. We will consider replacing it at some point, but right now it’s providing us with good coverage of both water and flying type attacks.

We took the hit on our flyer at the start then, which did a fair bit of damage, but once we let our own flying abilities go the battles soon ended. Oddish did take a few hits due to those higher defences, but it really didn’t present too much of an issue.

Recommended Pokemon

Resident early game favourite, Wingull has to make an appearance here as usual. It’s such a versatile Pokemon, especially when the enemy teams seem to be filled with Grass and Rock types through some of the early portions. You can catch these in the first wilds area. Once again, the mainstay backup option of Rookidee will also work well for these fights, which can be found in the first two routes of the game.

If you find yourself struggling to get flying types for whatever reason, and perhaps you didn’t pick the fire starter Pokemon, you can find a Sizzlipede on Route 3. It might not have the highest special attack rating, but the powerful fire type abilities it learns naturally will demolish your opponents here, Flame Wheel in particular.

As if the Yamper’s making themselves annoying during the herding game wasn’t bad enough, we now have a trainer impersonating them! Doing so with that smug grin on his face too! Once we get enough power in the Galar region, you’re going to be demoted to running around in the fields with a furry suit on Trainer Mark, living out the rest of your days in a haze of sweat and constant defeats!

That prize money does soften the blow a little bit however, and we’re actually starting to amass quite the piggy bank at the moment and it leaves us with a bit of a conundrum: Spend it all on outfits and Poke Balls, or save it up just in case we really can buy field and rightfully punish all these annoying trainers…