This is part 24 of our official Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl complete guide and walkthrough, which picks up right after you beat Elite Four Flint in the Pokemon League. Your next opponent is Elite Four Lucian.
Lucian is arguably the most annoying of the Sinnoh League’s core members, so it’s no surprise that he’s earned himself the coveted spot of number four. While his team consists of some atypical picks, he uses all of his Pokemon extremely well and has a surprising amount of versatility at his disposal. Once you take him on, it starts to make sense that all he ever does is read books - man’s a certified brainbox.
Before getting into the nitty gritty of lambasting Lucian, let’s have a look at his team:
- Mr. Mime level 59
- Girafarig level 59
- Medicham level 60
- Alakazam level 60
- Bronzong level 63
As with our previous Elite Four guides, we’re going to take a look at Lucian’s strong points before discussing strategies and counters. While leading with Mr. Mime might seem like a bit of a weird decision, this particular Mr. Mime is a mighty pain in the Arceus. Despite having the Soundproof ability in the original games, Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl give Lucian’s lead Pokemon Filter instead. If you’re not sure what this means, the damage it receives from super-effective attacks is drastically reduced - basically, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to take it down in one hit.
Why does this matter? Well, if Mr. Mime survives one hit, it’s inevitably going to use either Reflect or Light Screen, significantly decreasing the damage Lucian’s entire team receives from either physical or special moves, respectively. Given that all of his ‘mons have pretty good offensive capabilities, the increased sustainability they gain from Mr. Mime’s defensive setup puts you in grave danger. The only real way to combat this is to lead with a Pokemon who can hit Mr. Mime so hard that you burst through its Filter.
What are the prerequisites for this? Well, you need to hit it with either a physical Dark, Ghost, or Bug move with a Dark, Ghost, or Bug Pokemon. This is because Mr. Mime’s Special Defense drastically outweighs its standard Defense. If you’re going Dark, make sure your Pokemon has the Black Glasses equipped, whereas Ghost ‘mons should have a Spell Tag and Bug ‘mons should have Silver Powder. If you for some reason have none of these items, an Expert Belt might also do the trick.
If you have Brilliant Diamond, head down to the Grand Underground and pick up a Larvitar from the Hideaways. A Tyranitar with Black Glasses equipped will hit Mr. Mime with a 288 base damage Crunch. Shining Pearl has Houndoom as a direct equivalent to this. Meanwhile, Weavile is an excellent option in both games.
For Bug-type Pokemon, the main candidates are Scizor, Pinsir, and Heracross. Unfortunately, most Ghost Pokemon in Gen 4 are Special Attackers, so they’re not as viable in this instance as the other two types, although they’re still useful if you don’t have any other options.
I know it may seem odd to spend so long talking about Lucian’s Mr. Mime, but it really changes the entire dynamic of the battle. Aside from Alakazam, the rest of Lucian’s Pokemon can be outsped relatively easily - as long as there are no barriers up, you can one-shot them with super-effective hits. Alakazam, meanwhile, is so frail that you can take it down with almost anything provided it’s a STAB move with decent base damage. Lucian’s entire strategy has Mr. Mime at its core - if you nullify its utility at the beginning of the fight, the battle is as good as over.
Other things to look out for are Medicham’s elemental punches, meaning sending out a Flying-type that doesn’t outspeed it can be a risky move. On top of that, Bronzong carries Earthquake, so be wary of using a Fire Pokemon unless you’re absolutely certain you can land an OHKO. The main thing is that once you remove Mr. Mime from the picture, you can Crunch sweep the entire team outside of Medicham, who can be insta-killed with a speedy Fly or Brave Bird. The rest of the fight is really that simple.
Now that you’ve beaten the Elite Four, it’s time to move on to part 25 of our complete Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl walkthrough: how to beat Cynthia.