How to beat Steven in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

Steven Stone will go down in the history books as one of the toughest characters in Pokemon. He is the Pokemon League Champion in Ruby and Sapphire.

Despite being a fan of Steel-types, Steven actually has a fairly balanced team. Trainers with no game plan may reset a lot against the champion, who has many serious threats on his side, including a level 58 Metagross.

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Recipe for beating one of the toughest champions in Pokemon history

Players who chose Blazekin as their starter are going to have a much easier time against Steven. With a combination of Blaze Kick and Sky Uppercut, Blazekin can easily take out four of Steven’s Pokemon (Skarmory, Cradily, Aggron, and Metagross).

The remaining two team members (Claydol and Armaldo) are both weak to Water, so they can be easily countered. Fortunately, the abundance of water in the Hoenn region has been well-documented, so there are plenty of opportunities to catch Water-types.

If trainers don’t want to rely on the legendary Kyogre, they can get Starmie, Gyarados or Walrein on the routes around Ever Grande City.

Without Blazekin, this battle is going to be much tougher. In this case, the easiest way to go about team-building is to find a strong Water-type.

The Water-type will take care of Aggron, Armaldo, and Claydol, while the rest of the team can be taken out with other options.

Starmie is a decent pick for trainers looking for a Water-type. However, trainers will only have a 15% chance of catching Staryu outside Lilycove City (and that’s with a Super Rod).

Blazekin is one of the best counters to Steven (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The best thing about catching Staryu and evolving it into Starmie is that it can also deal with Skarmory. Due to its horrendous Special Attack, Skarmory will take tons of damage from a Hydro Pump or Surf. Trainers can also simply run Thunder and hope that it hits.

Outside of Starmie, the best option might be Walrein. The only downside with Walrein is that it will take a Super Effective hit from Rock moves. Swampert is also great for those who choose it as their starter since it can Earthquake Metagross too.

Finding ways to counter Metagross can be pretty tough. If any trainer is willing to go through the effort, they can always catch the Bagon in Meteor Falls. Once it’s trained up to Salamence, it will have the Intimidate ability, which would cut Metagross’ Attack stat.

Gyarados can also do this, making it a great candidate for the Earthquake TM.

Outside of those powerhouses, a surprising counter would actually be Claydol. It can resist Zen Headbutt and fire back with super effective damage.

With a combination of these Pokemon, all trainers will need to look out for is Cradily. The Pokemon is really weak to Fighting and Steel-types, so trainers should try to catch an Aggron or Hariyama to counter it.