How to beat Alder in Pokemon Black and White

Alder has definitely earned his spot as one of the tougher champions in Pokemon history. Due to how late the player actually faces him, Alder’s team is incredibly high leveled.

Although he seems to favor Bug-types, his team is varied enough to be a pain to deal with for trainers who don’t have a game-plan going in. Trainers should definitely pick up some counters to Adler’s team and make sure they are well trained.

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Tips for beating Alder, one of the toughest Pokemon champions

While the battle against Alder will be tough regardless of preparation, one Pokemon trivializes this fight a fair bit, and that Pokemon is Terrakion. Any trainer who manages to catch Terrakion in Victory Road is going to have a much easier time with this battle.

This is because Terrakion’s typing (Rock and Fighting) deals with a good portion of Alder’s team. Sacred Sword or Close Combat can hit Vanilluxe and Bouffalant, which Stone Edge would one-hit knockout Accelgor and Volcarona. At that point, it’s just a matter of finding counters to the rest of his team (Escavilier and Druddigon).

If a trainer doesn’t want to use Terrakion, then it’s probably best to take his role and split it in two. Finding a Rock-type and a Fighting-type can certainly help a lot.

The Unova region is full of Fighting-types, but trainers who pick Tepig as their starter will be in luck. Emboar can deal with the majority of Alder’s team because of its Fire/Fighting-type combination.

Terrakion can be a great tool against Alder (Image via Game Freak)

Another great Rock-type to use in this match would be Gigalith. This is because it’s bulky enough to take both STAB (same-type attack bonus) moves from Volcarona, who far and away is Alder’s biggest threat. Volcarona also happens to be double weak to Rock moves, so Stone Edge or even Rock Slide should probably pick up a KO.

With those counters, all a trainer is really going to need is a way past Druddigon. There aren’t any Fairy-types in Generation V, so trainers will need to rely on an Ice-type. The best options for these in Black and White would be Vanilluxe, Beartic, or Cryogonal.

If possible, it might be wise to favor Cryogonal here. This Pokemon has a solid speed tier, so it would likely get the jump on Druddigon. Something like Beartic, on the other hand, might take a Superpower before it can attack.