This guide covers everything you need to know to beat the Oreburgh City Gym Leader, Roark, in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, a Pokemon remake for the Nintendo Switch. Read on to learn about Roark's Pokemon team, Roark's type specialty, recommended Pokemon to use against Roark, and how to beat Roark.

Getting the 1st Badge

Roark's Pokemon Team and Types

Type and Suggested Level

Type Specialty
Suggested Level	Lv. 14 ~ Lv. 18

Roark's Pokemon

Pokemon	Type	Ability / Item	Moves
Geodude (Lvl. 12)		Rock Head	・Stealth Rock ・Defense Curl ・Rollout
Onix (Lvl. 12)		Sturdy	・Stealth Rock ・Rock Throw ・Bind
Cranidos (Lvl. 14)		Mold Breaker	・Headbutt ・Bulldoze ・Leer

How to Beat Roark

Use Grass and Water Type Pokemon

Roark's Pokemon has a weak defense against Grass-type and Water-type Pokemon. If you have Piplup or Turtwig as your Starter Pokemon, this won't be a problem. You can easily defeat Roark by using either a Water-type or Grass-type move. However, make sure you are at least three levels higher than all of his Pokemon.

How to Level Up Fast

Evolve Chimchar to Monferno

Roark's Pokemon are strong against Chimchar because it is a Fire-type Pokemon. It would be best to train and evolve Chimchar to Monferno first before challenging Roark. Once Chimchar evolved to Monferno, it will learn Mach Punch, which is a Fighting-type move.

Roark's Pokemon has a weak defense against Fighting-type moves, which is why Mach Punch would help defeat Roark.

How to Evolve Pokemon

Save Your Best Pokemon for Cranidos

Cranidos is Gym Leader Roark's strongest Pokemon, which can easily knock out your Pokemon if you give it a chance to move first. So it would be best to save your strongest and highest level Pokemon for it!

It's also a good idea to bring some Potions just in case. Take note that Roark will also use Potions if his Pokemon are low on health.

Best Team to Beat Roark

When Starting with Turtwig

Best Team to Beat Roark When Starting With Turtwig
Grotle	Bibarel

Since Turtwig has a natural type-advantage over Roark's team, having one at a decently high level should be enough to take on Roark's whole team. Reaching Level 17 to have access to Curse will be good, and reaching Level 18 to evolve into Grotle will be even better.

Set up your offensive stats with Growth or Curse against Onix so that it'll have less of a chance to deal significant damage. Setting up against Geodude may not bode well if his Rollout damage ramps up, so be mindful of that. After 1 or 2 attack increases, you should be able to rely on Razor Leaf to deal a good chunk of damage against Roark's team!

In case you need a back-up option, we can also recommend Bibarel. Its Water-type can provide an additional helpful type advantage.

When Starting with Chimchar

Best Team to Beat Roark When Starting With Chimchar
Monferno	Roselia

Trainers who chose Chimchar as their starter may have the hardest time with the first gym battle than the others. As suggested above, it would be best to let Chimchar evolve into Monferno first and gain access to Power-Up Punch and Mach Punch to have a reliable move against the rock-type team.

Alternatively, you may want to catch and train a Budew north of Jubilife, or a Machop north of Oreburgh, With some effort, you could get Roselia early by reaching a high enough friendship with Budew before levelling it up in the day. This should equip you with a stronger Grass-type to deal with Roark's team. Ideally you would let Budew evolve into Roselia at or before level 5 to get access to Mega Drain.

When Starting with Piplup

Best Team to Beat Roark When Starting With Piplup
Prinplup	Machop

Much like Trainers with Turtwig, Piplup Trainers should have a relatively easy time with the Oreburgh Gym. Water Gun will be Piplup's best move against Roark's team.

Trainers may opt to evolve Piplup into Prinplup and grind up to Level 18 to get Metal Claw and Bubble Beam to have stronger moves, both of which are super-effective against every member of Roark's team.

In case you need a back-up option, we can also recommend Machop. Its Fighting-type Low Kick can deal massive damage to these heavy foes.

All Roark Battles

Previous and Next Gym Leaders

Pokemon BDSP Related Links

Related Story Pages

Complete Story Walkthrough

Gym Leaders

All Gym Leader Types and Pokemon

Gym Leader Rematches

All Gym Leader Rematch Teams