How To Beat Pryce in Pokémon HG/SS

The easiest way to defeat Pryce is by running a Lanturn on your team. Lanturn resists almost all of his Pokémon’s attacks, and it has STAB (Same-type Attack Bonus) on both Discharge and Surf.

Although you can also just go in with a team running one strong Electric-type and one strong Water-type Pokémon, since Pryce likely won’t be too challenging compared to other Johto gym leaders.

Although Pryce’s Piloswine has Mud Bomb, which is super-effective against Lanturn, Piloswine does not have very good Special Attack Stats. Lanturn has enough Special Defense to tank a few hits from Piloswine while dishing out stronger attacks.

Lanturn evolves from Chinchou starting at Level 27, but you might want to keep it from evolving until Level 34 so it can learn Discharge early.
Chinchou can be caught by Fishing with the Good Rod in New Bark Town and on Routes 42 and 47.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

How To Defeat Pryce (Quick Strategy)
Pryce’s Team
Preparing Your Party
- Our Team Comp
- Getting a Lanturn
Pryce Gym Puzzle Solutions
Battling Pryce

How To Defeat Pryce (Quick Strategy)

Here is a step-by-step overview of our recommended strategy:

Lead your party with Lanturn.
Defeat Seel and Dewgong with Discharge.
Spam Surf against Piloswine until it goes down.

Pryce’s Team

Unlike the other Gym Leaders so far, not all of Pryce’s Pokémon are Ice-type.

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Pokémon	Level	Type/s	Ability	Held Item	Moveset
Seel (♂)	Lv. 30	Water	Thick Fat Ups resistance to Fire- and Ice-type moves.	–	Icy Wind Rest Snore Hail
Dewgong (♂)	Lv. 32	Water/Ice	Thick Fat Ups resistance to Fire- and Ice-type moves.	–	Aurora Beam Rest Sleep Talk Ice Shard
Piloswine (♂)	Lv. 34	Ice/Ground	Snow Cloak Raises evasion in a hailstorm.	Sitrus Berry	Blizzard Ice Fang Mud Bomb Hail

Pryce’s main gimmick revolves around using Hail to ensure that Blizzards from his Piloswine will always hit. In addition to that, his other Pokémon have smaller gimmicks of their own.

Seel and Dewgong will use Rest to recover HP. They also have Snore and Sleep Talk to allow them to attack while they are asleep.

All of Pryce’s Pokémon are weak to Grass, but it is not advisable to run Grass-types against him because he primarily uses Ice-type moves. The next best coverage will be Electric- and Water-type Pokémon.

Pryce is arguably easier than Jasmine, because Ice is the weakest Pokémon Type defense-wise. Additionally, you should have access to so many good Pokémon at this stage in the game, so creating an effective team should be simple.

Preparing Your Party

Here’s a list of Pokémon that we suggest you put in your party, listed in order of importance.

Essential Pokémon, Abilities, and Moves are in bold text.

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Pokémon	Type/s	Level	Ability	Suggested Move/s	Location
Lanturn	Water/Electric	34+	Any	Surf Discharge	Fishing (Good Rod): New Bark Town, Routes 42 & 47
Typhlosion	Fire	35+	Any	Lava Plume	Evolve Cyndaquil: Prof. Elm’s Lab
Feraligatr	Water	35+	Any	Surf	Evolve Totodile: Prof. Elm’s Lab
Meganium	Grass	35+	Any	Petal Dance Synthesis	Evolve Chikorita: Prof. Elm’s Lab

Note: We have only listed locations that are accessible at this point in the game.

Lanturn is the ideal counter to Pryce, due to its Water/Electric typing giving it STAB on super-effective moves. It also has decent defensive stats and high HP, which will allow it to tank large hits.

Just keep in mind that Piloswine has Mud Bomb, which is super-effective to Lanturn.

Lanturn is fairly tanky though, so you should be able to withstand a few good hits from Piloswine.

Of the three starters, Typhlosion ironically is the best to use against Pryce. Although he runs two Water-type Pokémon, neither of them have any Water-type moves. Typhlosion also has access to SolarBeam which gives you coverage against Seel and Dewgong.

Note: Hail cuts SolarBeam’s power in half, so it will not be as powerful while the weather is in effect.

Meganium is a riskier starter to run despite its great Grass-typing but can be devastating with its STAB Petal Dance. Feraligatr will be useful at resisting most of Pryce’s Pokémon, but does not have the benefit of great coverage that Typhlosion has.

Our Team Comp

The team we used for this guide is as follows:

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Pokémon	Type/s	Level	Ability	Held Item	Moves
Lanturn	Water/Electric	35	Volt Absorb Restores HP if hit by an Electric-type move.	Quick Claw	Discharge Surf Signal Beam Confuse Ray
Cyndaquil	Fire	35	Blaze Powers up Fire-type moves in a pinch.	Charcoal	Fire Plume Swift Leer Smokescreen

You should be able to win against Pryce with just Lanturn, but we added another Pokémon in case we get unlucky and get frozen by Aurora Beam or Blizzard.

Getting a Lanturn

Lanturn evolves from Chinchou starting at Level 27.

You can encounter wild Chinchou by Fishing with the Good Rod in New Bark Town, and on Routes 42 and 47 (right near Mahogany Town).

Fishing with the Good Rod on Route 42.

We recommend catching one with the Ability Volt Absorb, as it’s more useful than its alternative Ability, Illuminate.

A good way to determine if the wild Chinchou has Volt Absorb is to try using Electric-type moves against it. The move will fail, and a text box will pop up if it has the Ability.

A wild Chinchou with Volt Absorb stopping a Thunderbolt.

Once you’ve caught a Chinchou, train it until it reaches Level 34, when it learns Discharge.

So do not evolve your Chinchou immediately after catching it! Lanturn learns Discharge way, later and won’t have any other Electric-type move other than Spark in the meantime.

Note: Spark is a Physical Electric-type move, and will not be good to use with Lanturn.

Pryce Gym Puzzle Solutions

The Mahogany City Gym has three rooms with sliding puzzles that you’ll need to solve in order to reach Pryce.

Room 1 Puzzle

The first room is relatively simple, you just need to walk straight and maneuver to the left to reach the second room.

The solution for the first Gym Room, highlighted in red.

Room 2 Puzzle

The second room also has an easy solution, but you will need to fight a trainer to pass through.

Head to the left and enter the slippery ice from the side, hitting the ice block. Once you’ve pushed the ice block, bump into it again and you should be able to clear the room.

The solution for the second Gym Room, labeled in order.

Room 3 Puzzle

The final room is a little more complicated, and the solution will involve another battle with a trainer.

Step 1: Push the middle ice block, and head straight back (red line below).

Step 2: Enter between the two ice blocks and loop to the left, bumping into the trainer (yellow line below).

Step 3: Push the ice block from step 1 to the right, then continue heading right (blue line below).

Step 4: Finally, head north to clear the puzzle.

The solution for the third Gym Room, labeled in order.

Pryce should be at the end of the third puzzle, waiting to be challenged.

Battling Pryce

Pryce will begin the battle with Seel.

Send out Lanturn and immediately use Discharge.

Seel is fairly tanky and will likely not get KO’d in one hit, so continue using Discharge. Pryce might use a Hyper Potion to heal it up, so just spam Discharge until Seel faints.

Lanturn using Discharge against Seel.

Pryce will swap to Piloswine afterwards to try and counter Lanturn. Use Surf against Piloswine and tank one or two hits of Mud Bomb. If you’re lucky, Mud Bomb might even miss since it only has an 85% chance of hitting.

Remember to use recovery items if your Pokémon is in trouble. Piloswine should go down after a couple uses of Surf.

Lanturn using Surf against Piloswine.

Finally, Dewgong will be his last Pokémon.

Dewgong is a bit stronger than Seel, but will be just as vulnerable to Electric-type moves.

Just spam Discharge (or your favorite Electric-type move of choice) and you should win the battle fairly quickly.

Pryce being defeated

After defeating Pryce, he will award you with the Glacier Badge, as well as TM07 Hail.

You will also gain the ability to use HM05 Whirlpool outside of battle.

BACK TO THE MAIN GAME Pokémon HGSS Full Strategy Guide

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Crumble Thorn

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Game Developer, Digital Artist, and Lifelong Pokémon enthusiast. Writes about pretty much anything Pokémon-related, and also covers other games that they happen to hyperfixate in.

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