Though players pass through Hearthome City fairly early on in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, it's not until much later on in the games that they're able to try their hand against the city's gym leader, Fantina. As her appearance might suggest, this pink-loving Pokemon trainer is a ghost-type specialist with a real passion for pageantry and theatrics and is capable of delivering some truly devastating performances should players enter her domain unprepared.

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Ghost types are a little tricky, as they're immune to many contact moves as well as all normal-type attacks and are only really weak against ghost and dark-type moves. Due to how few competitively viable ghost and dark-types there are up to this point in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, players will therefore need to get a little creative when it comes to bringing Fantina down and earning their Relic Badge.

Updated December 3, 2021 by Tom Bowen: Fantina will more than likely be the first gym leader that really challenges players due to both the strength and the composition of her team. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, this is also true of the rematch that players can have with Fantina by returning to the Hearthome City Gym after beating the Elite Four and unlocking the National Dex. This guide has been updated to provide information about how to beat Fantina in the rematch and also includes key details about the Pokemon that she'll be using the second time around.

How to Prepare for the Hearthome City Gym

Given that all of the Pokemon found in the Hearthome City gym are ghost-types, players should be looking to counter them with either dark or ghost-type attacks. Sadly, there aren't really any good dark-type Pokemon available at this point in the games, so, unless players are able to get their hands on one via a trade, they may have to settle for a non-dark-type that's capable of using dark-type moves. Those who chose Turtwig as their starter should be able to get away with using Bite, while Machoke can also do the job with Knock Off.

When it comes to ghost-type Pokemon, there are actually one or two half-decent options, with Gengar being the pick of the bunch. Players will be able to find a level 16 Gastly roaming around in the long grass on Route 209 during nighttime hours, and this will evolve into a Haunter once it reaches level 25. To get Haunter to evolve into Gengar, players will simply need to trade it with somebody else and then trade it back again. If they're unable to do this, however, Haunter will probably still suffice providing its level is in the high-thirties.

How to Get to Fantina

Reaching Fantina is actually incredibly easy when compared to some of the previous gyms. Rather than having to solve another elaborate puzzle, players are instead faced with some very basic questions and must choose which door they go through based on the correct answers. Of course, if they'd like to gain some extra experience for their Pokemon, players can intentionally get the questions wrong and take on the gym's other eight trainers. Those who want to go straight to Fantina though can simply go through the Right, Middle, Left, and Right doors respectively.

How to Beat Fantina

All three of Fantina's Pokemon have the potential to cause serious problems if players let them build up a head of steam, particularly Drifblim. Its Strength Sap move will not only lower the attack power of the player's Pokemon, but also recover some of Drifblim's HP as well. After a few turns of this, it can become incredibly difficult to deal sufficient damage. Thankfully, however, both Drifblim's Defense and Special Defense stats are fairly low, so those attacking with weakness should be able to take it down in one or two turns before their Pokemon's Attack stat drops too low.

Gengar is probably the easiest of Fantina's three Pokemon, as although it has a fairly decent move set on paper, Phantom Force is a Physical move and so doesn't benefit from Gengar's high Special Attack stat and, as a fairy-type move, Dazzling Gleam doesn't benefit from STAB (same-type attack bonus). To be clear, Gengar can still do a decent amount of damage, but not enough to be able to sweep the player's team. Fantina doesn't use any healing items either, although her Gangar is holding a Colbur Berry and will use it to reduce damage on the player's first hit.

Fantina's final Pokemon, Mismagius, has the potential to be her most deadly, though its effectiveness will likely be determined by how fast the player's Pokemon are. Its Magical Leaf and Phantom Force attacks can dish out some serious damage even against neutral opposition, but its low Defense stat makes it fairly easy to take out with a single super-effective attack. This being the case, it may well all come down to which Pokemon is faster: the player's, or Mismagius. Assuming it's the former, the battle should be over fairly quickly. If not, players will need a bulky Pokemon capable of tanking a hit or two.

How to Beat Fantina's Rematch Team

Dark-type attacks are effective against all six of Fantina's rematch team, which, when combined with their innate resistance to ghost-type attacks, makes a dark-type attacker something of a must for this battle. Honchkrow (evolve Murkrow) is a good choice for Brilliant Diamond players, while Shining Pearl players should instead turn to either Absol or Houndoom, both of which can be caught in the Grand Underground. Rotom (Heat form) can also be useful for dealing with Dusknoir, as it's completely unaffected by both Earthquake and Will-O-Wisp.

This time around, Gengar is arguably the toughest of Fantina's Pokemon, with Focus Blast allowing it to make light work of players' dark-type Pokemon if given the chance. As a result, players should be aiming to outspeed it and then hit it with weakness, with Psychic being particularly effective due to how powerful the attack is. With this in mind, either Alakazam (evolve Abra) or Mewtwo (catch at Ramanas Park) can come in handy here, as both have a higher base Speed stat than Gengar and very high Special Attack stats to boot.

Hearthome City Gym Trainers

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