Do you think my levels are high enough to beat Brawly in Pokémon Emerald?

Question

Brawley Battle

Hi (first time player) everyone,

I have gotten my first badge against Roxanne and am now looking to battle Brawly. I have been reading a few threads and wanted to see if you think I could beat him with what I have now or if I should level up/catch other Pokémon.

I currently have:
Marshtomp lv 17: Tackle, Mudshot, Bide, Water Gun

Lombre lv 16: Astonish, Growl, Absorb, Nature Power

Ralts lv 16: Growl, Confusion, Double Team, Teleport

Zigzagoon lv 15 (using for HMs): Tackle, Headbutt, Cut, Sand Attack

Zubat lv 8: Leech Life, Supersonic
I just captured the Zubat because I read that Wing Attack was good to use against Brawly and I didn’t not like the way the other flying Pokémon that I’ve seen so far have looked (been catching my Pokémon based on cuteness factor up until this point ). I just realized that Zubat doesn’t get Wing Attack until level 21 . Is it worth keeping the Zubat and leveling up?

Should I catch an Abra and level up to use against Brawly as well?

Answer 1

In Emerald, Brawly's attacking moves are all Fighting type. This means that if you go into Granite Cave and catch a Sableye, it is completely immune to the entire team unless they run out of PP and use Struggle.

Even a freshly caught Sableye at level 9 can beat Brawly, but with the entire team knowing Bulk Up, it's a pretty tedious process. Against Machop, you'll want to use Leer exactly 26 times (getting down to 4 left), with the first 20 cancelling out the Bulk Ups and the remaining six sticking to force it down to -6 Defense. Then keep using Scratch until it faints, which Brawly will uselessly drag out by using a potion. Use the remaining Scratch PP against Meditite, who will set some screens interspersed with the Bulk Ups, and eventually get down to 1 damage a hit but that's fine. Once Scratch PP is all gone, switch to using Night Shade, which doesn't care about defenses. The level ups from gaining experience will make it deal more damage and let you wear down Makuhita as well.

In Sapphire, Makuhita has Knock Off, so the battle can't be completely free like this. Same deal in Ruby, but there Sableye is not catchable at all, with the version-exclusive being Mawile instead (and no other ghost types are available this early in the game).

Comments

Would Cut help minimize the tedious process at all with using Sableye against Brawly? Assuming you don't plan to use it after the fight, the HM is gotten before Brawly, and it deals a bit more damage than Scratch at the cost of some accuracy.

Answer 2

Brawly's strongest Pokemon is his Level 19 Makuhita, so you could probably afford to bring some of your Pokemon up a few levels. If you don't want to overlevel, the best options at this point are:

• Beautifly
• Dustox
• Zubat
• Taillow
• Ralts
• Abra
• Sableye

If you don't mind passing Level 19, Kirlia (Level 20) and Golbat (Level 22) will make short work of Brawly. Otherwise, just grind to whatever level you feel most comfortable and spam super effective moves --- Brawly offers little resistance to Psychic and Flying types.

Comments

I would recommend not using Beautifly, Dustox, Zubat, or Sableye because they're pretty useless in many of the boss battles after Brawly.