How to Defeat Maylene in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Seems like every Pokémon game has at least one prominent trainer that specializes in Fighting types, be they a Gym Leader or a member of the Elite Four. Sometimes both! It makes sense; Gym Leaders do lead gyms, and when you think gyms, you probably think physical activity and martial arts. Maylene, the lead of Veilstone City’s Gym, is one such trainer, and she’s trained to peak fitness. Here’s how to defeat Maylene in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Maylene is packing the following Pokémon in her team, who in turn have the following moves.

• Meditite, Level 27 (Fighting/Psychic)
  • Drain Punch (Fighting)
  • Light Screen (Psychic)
  • Flash (Normal)
  • Bulk Up (Fighting)
• Machoke, Level 27 (Fighting)
  • Low Sweep (Fighting)
  • Knock Off (Dark)
  • Rock Tomb (Rock)
  • Bulldoze (Ground)
• Lucario, Level 30 (Fighting/Steel)
  • Drain Punch (Fighting)
  • Screech (Normal)
  • Metal Claw (Steel)
  • Bulk Up (Fighting)

How to Defeat Maylene in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

If Maylene was only packing pure Fighting types, this wouldn’t be a very complicated fight, but the dual typing of Meditite and especially Lucario can complicate matters a bit, especially considering they both know the self-healing Drain Punch. 

First and foremost, you want natural counters to Fighting types, not just for the purpose of exploiting type weaknesses, but to minimize damage from any Fighting moves. I’m talking Flying, Psychic, and Fairy types. Since you can carry six Pokémon versus Maylene’s three, you can get some variety, and that’s an advantage you’ll want to press. Ideally, you want to try and one-shot Maylene’s Pokémon, as if you give her an opening, she’ll use one of her two Hyper Potions to heal her Pokémon and drag the fight out.

For countering Meditite, I’d recommend a Flying type like Starraptor. Its dual Fighting/Psychic typing dulls its Psychic weakness, but since its only actual attack is Drain Punch, as long as you’ve got something tough and Fighting resistant, you can deal with it fairly easily.

For Machoke, I’d recommend switching to a Psychic type like Kadabra or Psyduck. Keeping the Flying type in is a bit of a risky play, as they would be weak against Machoke’s Rock Tomb. Granted, this does present a slight risk from Machoke using Knock Off, but if you can one-shot it with a Psybeam, it’s a moot point.

Finally, for Lucario, I’d recommend taking advantage of its Steel typing instead of its Fighting typing and using a Fire type like Ponyta or Monferno. Lucario is a very sturdy Pokémon, but even a simple Fire move like Ember should be able to make short work of it. Plus, Fire types aren’t weak to any of Lucario’s moves, so it won’t be able to do much to stop you.