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Afterdefeating Roark in the Oreburgh City Gym,Pokemon Brilliant Diamond&Shining Pearlplayers will need to make their way to Eterna City. Once there, they’ll find the games' second gym and its nature-loving leader, Gardenia. She and her fellow trainers have the potential to cause a lot of issues for players, as their grass-type Pokemon are strong against two of the game’s three starters. With a little bit of forethought, however, taking them all down should be pretty straightforward.
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As well as a healthy amount of experience and money, players will also receive the Forest Badge, some stickers, and a few TM86s for beating Gardena. The latter can be used to teach the Grass Knot move to certain Pokemon, while the former grants players the ability to use the Cut hidden machine outside of battle. This will allow them to cut down small trees to open up new pathways, including the one that leads to the next major city inBrilliant Diamond&Shining Pearl.
Updated June 24, 2025 by Tom Bowen:For those who’ve played a Pokemon game before, the initial battle with Gardenia can be relatively straightforward, particularly if they chose Chimchar as their starter Pokemon. Thankfully, the game makes up for this later on, with players able to challenge Gardenia to a rematch by returning to her gym afterunlocking the National Dex. This guide has been updated to provide details about her updated team, as well as information about how players can beat Gardenia in the rematch.
How to Prepare for the Eterna City Gym
In a complete reversal of roles, Chimchar is now the MVP for the Eterna City gym, with Turtwig all but useless and Piplup being downright bad. Those who took a gamble on the fire-type starter can therefore sit back and reap the rewards for their bravery, as Monferno should have very little trouble tearing through the Eterna City Gym. Those who picked either ofthe other two starters, however, may well have a little bit of work to do.
As is often the case withPokemongames, there are quite a few solutions toPiplup and Turtwig’s poor effectiveness against grass-types, with the simplest one being Starly. This annoying little bird Pokemon shows up just about everywhere during the game’s opening stages, meaning that many players will already have one in their party at this point in time. If not, they should catch one as soon as possible and start leveling it up in Eterna Forest, with a view to getting it to around level 18.
Upon reaching level 9, Starly will learn the flying-type move Wing Attack, which will be super effective against all of the Pokemon found in the Eterna City gym. At level 14, it will evolve into a Staravia and receive a healthy boost to all of its base stat totals. When combined with Wing Attack, its much higher physical attack and speed stats should now be more than enough to overwhelm all of the trainers in the gym, including the leader Gardenia.
How to Get to Gardenia
Though not all that apparent from the first gym that players visit, most of the gyms in Sinnoh have their own themes and gimmicks. At the Eterna City gym, for example, players will first need to find and defeat four hidden trainers to make the gym’s leader show up. All of them are hidden behind trees throughout the gym, but will only appear once the previous trainer has been defeated. Luckily, they’re all pretty bad at hiding and so are fairly easy to spot, but, for those having trouble, the game also provides clues as to where players should look next.
How to Beat Gardenia
If players are attacking with fire or flying-type moves, Gardenia’s team really won’t stand a chance. Chimchar (who will almost certainly have evolved into a Monferno by this point) will be able to take them all down with one or two hits, as too will a well-leveled Staravia using Wing Attack. The only thing to watch out for is Gardenia’s use of Super Potions. She has two of them and is not at all afraid to use them, but all they’re really likely to do is prolonge the battle rather than turn the tide.
How to Beat Gardenia’s Rematch Team
Just like Roark before her, Gardenia’s team for the rematch is much improved from the one that players faced earlier on and twice as large to boot. Fire and flying-type Pokemon once again prove to be an effective counter though, withCharizard(evolveCharmander) an excellent choice due to it having access to strong attacks for both types. The iconic gen 1 Pokemon also benefits from Sunny Day and is immune to Torterra’s powerful Earthquake attack. That said, Torterra can still hurt Charizard pretty badly if players allow it to use Stone Edge.
Fire-type attacks will deal double damage to every single one of Eternia’s rematch team, while flying-type moves can be used to deal four-times damage to Breloom. Bringing along a strong ice-type Pokemon likeGlaceon(evolveEevee) can also be a good idea, as ice-type attacks can do four-times damage against both Jumpluff and Torterra. With STAB, most of Gardenia’s Pokemon should go down with a single hit, though Cherrim’s Focus Sash will ensure that it survives for more than one turn, so players should be prepared to face at least one Solar Beam at some point during the battle.
