Pokemon: Scarlet & Violet Gym Leaders Ranked

Gym leaders are often among the most memorable characters in any Pokemon game, and Scarlet and Violet is no difference. In this guide, we’re going to be ranking them from worst to best based on various criteria including how strong they are, how memorable they are and more.

Also just to make things a little more fun and as a crossover with our love for Pokemon TCG, this article will be featuring artwork for each gym leader!

#8 Katy

I’m not sure if this is unique to Scarlet and Violet or if this is the case of most Gym Leaders, but they all have careers outside of being Pokemon trainers – all of them except for poor Grusha (more on that in a bit). Katy seems more interested in her day job than battling, even forgetting which role she is in at any given moment.

She’s a pretty vanilla gym leader and also fairly easy to beat, landing her the last spot on this list.

#7 Brassius

Brassius was the first gym leader I faced and as such, he was pretty forgetable, especially since I had the fire type starter Pokemon that made this matchup particularly breezy. Apart from his grass type Pokemon, Brassius is most noteable for being an artist. However, that side of him doesn’t come out massively as a huge draw for him and so he’s last on this list.

#6 Rhyme

Rhyme’s got some pretty sick rap skills. Indeed, she seems to care more about rapping than Pokemon battling. That being said, the coolest thing about facing this gym leader is the tag team format where you use two Pokemon instead of one. Indeed, just getting to her is a bit of a gauntlet that’s much easier if you have Pokemon that perform well against Ghost type.

#5 Grusha

For a world that’s all about positivity and following and achieving your dreams, Grusha’s meloncholy over his lost dream career stands out. Sometimes, things don’t work out as you want. There are constant references to Grusha’s past prime – something which feels a little odd given how young he still is (in his twenties). By prime, however, we find out people aren’t talking about his Pokemon prime but rather his prime as a snowboarder. Some tragic accident forced Grusha out of snowboarding and into being a trainer full time. I would love to be a Pokemon gym leader full time so its hard to feel too bad for him.

Still, Grusha’s Cetitan is a massive surprise, forcing players to think on their feet in order to deal with its combination of heaviness and water power that can quickly counter your Fire Pokemon.

Grusha is seriously cool – so cool he doesn’t even want to take a selfie (can you blame him?) and is one of the tougher cookies you’ll face in Scarlet & Violet.

#4 Iono

Iono is probably the most fun gym leader. She’s a bit weird, but not terribly unrealistic in today’s very strange landscape of streamers and influencers. She’s got a pretty iconic look and her Mismagius is one of the toughest Pokemon you will face due to its typing that makes it hard to counter. You’ll have to match brawn with brawn for that one and not just type advantage.

Apart from all that, Iono’s gym challenge is arguably the most fun. You get to play a game of “Where’s Waldo” interspersed with Pokemon battles.

Overall, facing Iono is everything a gym battle should be: fun, challenging and memorable.

#3 Tulip

Tulip may not say the most exciting things in the world, however she’s still pretty cool if you think about it. She’s an influencer and successful businesswoman, and I found her by far the strongest gym leader of all. She’s a huge challenge to beat until you realize that there’s a bunch of Ghost Pokemon running around nearby which you can just catch and battle her with. Regardless, her Pokemon are well trained and a massive challenge which makes her one of the game’s most memorable gym leaders.

She’s deadly combo of beauty and power that should make any grown Pokemon trainer tremble.

Apart from her skills as a businesswoman and gym leader, Tulip has a darker side. It’s hinted at that Tulip keeps Dendra as something of a forced employee simply because Dendra lost a battle once when they were kids.

#2 Larry

How do you make a normal Pokemon gym leader stand out in a crowd? How about by not trying at all. Larry is a total downer of a guy who is more interested in eating a nice meal than battling. Despite that fact, his Pokemon pack a powerful punch. Indeed, his Staraptor is one of the toughest you’ll come across in the game, in part because there isn’t a great way to counter it due to its advantageous typing.

Larry’s normalness is in stark contrast to his otherwise vibrant surroundings: a restaurant filled with characters and cheering diners excited for a show to accompany their presumably tasty dishes.

Quite fitting, Larry shares a meal with you afterwards – the one indulgence even normal businessmen can agree on.

#1 Kofu

Overall, Kofu was the most intriguing gym leader from all of Paldea, despite not having the strongest Pokemon of all. At first he comes off as a bit of a bit of a blundering older guy more interested in getting his ingredients and cooking a good meal than he is in battling. Only, it’s when you face him down that his serious side comes out, and you begin to understand that his whimsical, go-with-the-flow attitude isn’t due to ineptitude as it is more a way of life.

His instant change in demeanor from your favorite sushi-making uncle to powerful water gym leader is one of the most startling moments from any character in the game, and only shows the secret intensity hiding under this placid exterior. In this way, he is very closely aligned to his Pokemon typing: calm and tranquil one moment, stormy and raging the next.

“At the auction, we battle with buyin' and sellin'. At my Gym, we battle in a more traditional sense! Moves and tactics—ever-changin' as the raging sea!”

For whatever reason, Kofu is the only gym leader not to have a card yet in the Pokemon TCG, so we’ll just go with his image from the game.