How To Beat E4 Agatha: Pokémon FRLG Walkthrough Part 18

Battling Agatha at the Elite Four in Pokémon FireRed

Quick Guide

  1. Every single one of Agatha’s Pokémon are at least half Poison types, so Psychic and Ground type moves will be very strong.
  2. Agatha’s Pokémon know a lot of Dark and Ghost moves, so Psychic Pokémon will be at a disadvantage. This means we want to a Ground-type if we have one.
  3. Agatha has a Golbat, which can’t be hit by Ground types. So we also want a healthy Pokémon with Electric or Rock-type moves.
  4. Agatha’s main strategy will involve putting your Pokémon to sleep, inflicting Confusion on them, or Poisoning them. So Awakenings, Antidotes, and Full Restores will be very useful.
  5. Remember that the Poké Flute will wake up your Pokémon, even during battle. Since Agatha uses moves like Dream Eater and Nightmare, waking your Pokémon up immediately is likely to waste one of her turns.

Key Pokémon & Types

Psychic type Pokémon aren’t going to be as strong against Agatha as they were against Bruno.

All of her Pokémon are Poison types, which are weak against Psychic attacks. However, we have to be a bit more careful against Agatha, since her Pokémon also know Ghost and Dark- type moves, which are Super Effective against Psychic types.

Ground-type attacks are going to be the key to victory against Agatha. Her Poison types will fall very easily to moves like Earthquake.

Ground-type Pokémon also take less damage from Agatha’s Poison attacks, making them the perfect counter.

Pokémon like Golem are going to shine.

You’ll also want to make sure you have a counter for her Flying type Golbat.

You won’t be able to hit Golbat with Ground-type moves since it is Flying, but you can quickly take it out with Rock or Electric-type moves.

So if you have a Pokémon with Rock or Electric type moves, make sure that they are healthy and that their PP is restored before this fight.

Agatha’s Team

Pokémon Level Type
Gengar 54 Ghost / Poison
Golbat 54 Poison / Flying
Haunter 53 Ghost / Poison
Arbok 56 Poison
Gengar 58 Ghost / Poison

As you can see, every single one of Agatha’s Pokémon are at least half Poison-type.

This is great for us because it means that they’re all weak against Psychic type moves. They’re also all weak against Ground-type moves, with one exception:

Since Golbat is a Flying-type Pokémon, Ground-type moves will not affect it.

With that being said, you do have to be careful using Psychic-types here. Because most of her Pokémon are also Ghost types. They know many Ghost and Dark type moves, which will absolutely decimate your Psychic-type Pokémon.

How To Beat Agatha

Agatha’s strategy is all about the status effects.

She’ll try to confuse your Pokémon, poison them, and put them to sleep.

So hopefully you have some Full Heals or Full Restores in your bag. At the very least, hopefully you have some Antidotes from early game.

Agatha will start out with Gengar, who will spam Double Team so you can’t hit it (very annoying).

Agatha’s first Gengar using Double Team / Pokemon FRLG
Agatha’s first Gengar using Double Team

It will also throw a few Confuse Rays in your direction, which means there’s quite a bit of luck involved with this first Pokémon.

The best way to take care of this Gengar is to try to KO it as soon as possible, before it can build its Evasiveness up too high.

I was able to take it down with two Psychics from my Hypno.

You just have to cross your fingers and hope to hit… Alternatively, you can try to put her Pokémon to sleep or inflict paralysis first.

This Gengar is the first of three Ghost types that Agatha has (Gengar, Haunter, and Gengar). When facing the Ghost-type Pokémon in her party, remember that they can’t be hit by Normal type moves.

This means no Hyper Beam, no Headbutt, no Double Edge, etc.

Normal type moves do not affect Ghost type Pokémon like Gengar / Pokemon FRLG
Normal type moves do not affect Ghost type Pokémon like Gengar

When using a Psychic-type Pokémon like me, you also have to be careful of the Gengar’s Dark and Ghost-type moves. Agatha is going to spam Double Team a few times, but when she’s ready to hit, she’ll hit hard.

Gengar using Shadow Punch, a Ghost type move which is Super Effective against Psychic type Pokémon / Pokemon FRLG
Gengar using Shadow Punch, a Ghost type move which is Super Effective against Psychic type Pokémon

Shadow Punch is a Ghost type move that you can expect to see quite a bit from Agatha. Expect your Psychic Pokémon to get taken down by one of these moves sooner or later.

Golbat is likely going to be Agatha’s second Pokémon.

Golbat, like the rest of her Pokémon, is going to focus on trying to confuse your Pokémon and attack it while it’s vulnerable. Agatha’s Golbat also seems to love the move is Air Cutter, so I’d avoid sending out any Pokémon that’s weak against Flying-type moves.

Agatha’s Golbat using Confuse Ray and confusing my Pokémon / Pokemon FRLG
Agatha’s Golbat using Confuse Ray and confusing my Pokémon

If you have an Electric-type, now is it’s time to shine.

Some Thunders or Thunderbolts are going to make quick work of Golbat.

Tip: We can’t use Ground-type moves here because Golbat is immune.

Arbok or Haunter will come next. Arbok is pretty straight forward, it will use a mixture of Screech and Sludge Bomb to weaken and Poison your Pokémon.

Agatha’s Arbok using Screech to greatly lower my defense / Pokemon FRLG
Agatha’s Arbok using Screech to greatly lower my defense

Any Ground or Psychic-type moves will quickly KO Arbok without much of an issue.

Haunter is a bit more “fun” since it uses a little more strategy when fighting.

When Haunter uses Curse, it sacrifices about half of its HP and inflicts your Pokémon with a Curse that will hurt it at the end of every turn (similar to Poison or Burn damage).

Weezing being hurt by Curse at the end of the turn / Pokemon FRLG
Weezing being hurt by Curse at the end of the turn

This Haunter will also try to put your Pokémon to sleep and use Dream Eater to heal itself while damaging your Pokémon.

We can counter Dream Eater by waking our Pokémon up with an Awakening, or even using your Poké Flute (seriously!). When you wake your Pokémon up, Agatha’s Dream Eater will be completely negated, wasting her turn.

And finally, we’ll need to take down Agatha’s second Gengar.

This Gengar is a higher level than her first one, and it’s a bit tougher too.

This Gengar’s main strategy is to put your Pokémon to sleep with Hypnosis and then use Nightmare to inflict bonus damage at the end of every turn (like Haunter’s Curse).

Agatha’s Gengar using Nightmare on a sleeping Wheezing after putting it to sleep with Hypnosis / Pokemon FRLG
Agatha’s Gengar using Nightmare on a sleeping Wheezing after putting it to sleep with Hypnosis

This Gengar will also use Sludge Bomb for quick, powerful damage. You’ll want to take this Gengar out the same way you took out the first one. Try to put it to sleep or paralyze it and then use powerful Psychic or Ground-type moves to finish it off.

And remember that Agatha has Full Restores just like every other Elite Four member.

So if you know she’s going to use a Full Restore next turn, don’t over commit on a damage move. Because a Full Restore will fully restore her Pokémon’s HP and cure it of paralysis, sleep, etc.

Agatha using a Full Restore on her Golbat, fully restoring its HP and curing its paralysis / Pokemon FRLG
Agatha using a Full Restore on her Golbat, fully restoring its HP and curing its paralysis

The Poké Flute is actually going to be a major key to victory against Agatha.

Many of her Pokémon rely on putting your Pokémon to sleep. So if we can wake them up immediately, we’ll avoid a lot of damage and waste a lot of her turns.

I started off with my Hypno, who has the Insomnia ability (prevents Pokémon from sleeping). I pretty much swapped between using Hypnosis to put Agatha’s Pokémon to sleep, and then using Psychic to deal major damage.

If you have a Ground-type, then you can start with them instead and spam moves like Earthquake to one-shot her Poison types.

When Agatha switches to Golbat, you want to switch to your Electric-type Pokémon ASAP.

Electric type moves will make quick work of Golbat, and then you can switch right back to your Ground or Psychic Pokémon to finish off the rest of her party.

After you defeat Agatha, the door behind her will open and you can continue on to defeat the final Elite Four member, Lance.

Just make sure to cure any Poisonings your party may be suffering from before you start walking. Lance is tough.

My Charizard fainting from taking a step, after being Poisoned by Agatha / Pokemon FRLG
My Charizard fainting from taking a step, after being Poisoned by Agatha

But we only have two battles left before becoming the League Champion!

Make sure to save your game (if you want) and heal any Pokémon using items as needed, and then let’s get ready to take on Lance.

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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