How To Beat E4 Bruno: Pokémon FRLG Walkthrough Part 17

by ReOcelot

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Quick Guide
Key Pokémon & Types
Bruno’s Team
How To Beat Bruno
- My Recommended Strategy

Quick Guide

Bruno uses Fighting and Rock/Ground type Pokémon, so Psychic and Water-type Pokémon are key here
If you have Gengar or Wheezing, then their levitate ability will be counter Bruno’s Ground type moves and their typings will counter his Fighting type moves
Bruno is all about launching a strong offensive bombardment. He focuses entirely on hitting hard so all of his moves are very powerful
Against Bruno, you can rely on status effects much more because he has no Safe Guard or Protect.
Bruno has Full Restores that he will use when his Pokémon get low, so plan your attacks accordingly

Key Pokémon & Types

Psychic-type Pokémon are going to be extremely strong against Bruno’s Fighting type Pokémon.

If you have a Haunter or Gengar, it should lead your party.

Gengar’s levitate ability will protect it against Bruno’s Onix’s Earthquakes, and its Ghost typing will protect it against his Fighting type Pokémon.

Wheezing is another strong option. It can still be hurt by Fighting-type moves, but they’re still not very effective.

Flying-type Pokémon would usually be pretty strong, but a lot of Bruno’s Pokémon know Rock Tomb, which will make quick work of your Flying type. So it’s better to stick to Psychic for his Fighting type Pokémon if you can.

Bruno’s Team

Pokémon	Level	Type
Onix	51	Rock / Ground
Hitmonchan	53	Fighting
Hitmonlee	53	Fighting
Onix	54	Rock / Ground
Machamp	56	Fighting

As you can see, Bruno has three Fighting type Pokémon and two Rock/Ground-type Pokémon.

His Fighting types also know Rock Tomb, which is a Rock type move. This makes it very hard to bring Flying types against him, so if you have a Psychic type it’ll be your key to victory.

How To Beat Bruno

Bruno is a legitimate brute.

His strategy is pretty simple – hit ’em hard.

He’ll start the battle with an Onix. You can expect a ton of Earthquakes from this Onix.

Bruno’s Onix using Earthquake, its main move

If you brought a Wheezing, Gengar, or any Flying type Pokémon though, then Bruno won’t be able to use Earthquake against them. Instead, he’ll likely use Iron Tail or Rock Tomb.

Of course, I don’t recommend Flying types against Onix because Rock Tomb will pretty much one-shot them.

Fighting-types are another option here. They won’t be super effective against Bruno’s own Fighting-type Pokémon, but they’ll make quick work of his two Onix.

After you defeat Onix, Bruno will likely send out Hitmonchan.

Hitmonchan’s bread and butter move is Sky Uppercut.

Bruno’s Hitmonchan using Sky Uppercut

Sky Uppercut is a Fighting type move that can hit Pokémon while they’re in the air. So if you try to use the move Fly, for example, then Sky Uppercut can still hit your Pokémon.

With that being said, Fly and other Flying type moves are still going to deal huge amounts of damage to Hitmonchan.

Alternatively, you can use a Psychic-type Pokémon. If you brought Gengar, you’re in luck again, especially if you taught it Psychic. If not, you still get the advantage of a Ghost-type Pokémon. Bruno will be forced to use alternative moves like Rock Tomb, which just won’t be very effective.

Once you take Hitmonchan down, Bruno will likely either send out another Onix or Hitmonlee.

We know how to take out Onix already, so I’ll go over Hitmonlee next.

Hitmonlee is very similar to Hitmonchan, except its bread and butter move is Mega Kick.

Bruno’s Hitmonlee using Mega Kick

Hitmonlee loves Mega Kick even more than Hitmonchan loves Mega Punch.

This is pretty much the only move you’ll see from Hitmonlee, even if you use a Flying-type Pokémon. Hitmonlee is the only Pokémon you can safely use a Flying type against without worrying about a Rock Tomb, so enjoy the opportunity while you have it!

Note: Hitmonlee cannot be paralyzed due to its Limber ability. So if you want to apply any status effects, you’ll have to rely on poison or sleeping.

Bruno’s Hitmonlee’s Limber preventing paralysis from Raichu’s Thunder Wave

Once Hitmonlee goes down, we’ll be met with Bruno’s Final Pokémon – Machamp.

Machamp’s main move is Cross Chop.

Bruno’s Machamp using Cross Chop

Cross Chop isn’t super special, but it is a strong Fighting-type move with a very high crit chance. So you do have to be careful.

Machamp also knows Rock Tomb, which means we’re once again going to avoid using Flying Pokémon as much as we can.

Psychic Pokémon, once again, will do the trick and make quick work of Machamp.

My Recommended Strategy

Bruno doesn’t have Safeguard and Protection like Lorelei does. This means status effects can be our key to victory.

When I faced Bruno, I used:

My Snorlax’s Yawn
My Hypno’s Hypnosis
My Raichu’s Thunder Wave

All to make his Pokémon weak and vulnerable.

He won’t do anything except spam strong moves, so we have to use our brains to beat his brawn (unless, of course, you have more brawn).

Note: just like the rest of the Elite Four, Bruno isn’t afraid to use Full Restores. His Full Restores won’t just fully heal his Pokémon, but they’ll also cure status effects too.

You can take advantage of this, though.

Bruno using a Full Restore to completely heal his Machamp

If you suspect he’s going to use a Full Restore on the next turn and cure your status effect, then take the opportunity to just apply another one!

Items always go first in a turn, so if he uses a Full Restore when you select a status inflicting move on the same turn, the turn order will heal him first & then you’ll hit your status move right afterwards.

The good news is that his Full Restores won’t cure stat debuffs.

So if you’ve been spamming your Wheezing’s Smokescreen, then his Pokémon will still be as blind as a Zubat.

Once you defeat Bruno, the back door will open and you’ll be able to walk through it to take on Agatha and her Ghost-type Pokémon.

Make sure to save the game (if you want), heal your Pokémon with any items you might have, and then carry on so we can show you how to rearrange your party to prepare to defeat Agatha.

Walking through the door to take on Agatha after defeating Bruno in the Elite Four

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- How To Beat E4 Bruno: Pokémon FRLG Walkthrough Part 17

ReOcelot

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A jack of all trades when it comes to gaming. I can sit down for hours in a casual playthrough of Pokémon, or I can spend months trying to hit Diamond in League of Legends. I love and appreciate everything about games, and love sharing that passion with my readers.

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