How to Beat Gardenia: Eterna City Gym Guide

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

Gardenia's Pokemon Team and Types

Type and Suggested Level

Type Specialty
Suggested Level	Lv. 22 ~ Lv. 25

Gardenia's Pokemon

Pokemon	Type	Ability / Item	Moves
Cherubi (Lvl. 19)		Chlorophyll	・Grass Knot ・Growth ・Dazzling Gleam ・Safeguard
Turtwig (Lvl. 19)		Shell Armor Miracle Seed	・Grass Knot ・Razor Leaf ・Reflect ・Work Up
Roserade (Lvl. 22)		Technician Sitrus Berry	・Grass Knot ・Petal Blizzard ・Poison Sting ・Stun Spore

Gardenia's Eterna Gym Puzzle

You will have to navigate through the maze of trees inside the Eterna City gym as you try and locate the different gym trainers. Only after finding and defeating four of the gym trainers will you be able to face the Grass-type Gym Leader, Gardenia.

Gym Puzzle Solution Video

Gardenia's Trainers Locations

Trainer	Location
Lass Caroline	Northwest From the main entrance, travel north. Enter the small path near the green platform and walk south.
Aroma Lady Jenna	Southwest From Lass Caroline's location, travel south. At the end of the field, turn right.
Aroma Lady Angela	Center From the main entrance, walk forward and enter the area with three shrubs. Go behind the shrubs to find trainer Aroma Lady Angela.
Beauty Lindsay	Northeast From the main entrance, go east and then north. At the end of the field, turn left.

How to Beat Gardenia

Use Flying and Fire Type Pokemon

Players who chose Chimchar as a starter should have a Monferno by this point and will be able to make quick work of this gym battle. Another fire-type option available can be to catch the wild Ponyta available east of Eterna City in Route 211.

As for Flying-type options, players who have Staravia, Zubat, or Drifloon will have the upper hand against Gardenia's multiple Grass-types. You may even trade a Buizel for a Chatot in the nearby Eterna Condominiums. Chatot learns Chatter at Level 21 which is likely to be the strongest Flying-type move you can access at this stage of the game.

Prepare Status Healing Items and Berries

Gardenia's Roserade can be a pain to handle if it is able to spread status conditions to your team. With access to both Stun Spore and Poison Sting, it is likely to cripple members of your team one way or another. Preparing Status Healing items such as Antidotes or Paralyze Heals or even Cheri and Pecha Berries will better equip you for the battle.

Best Team to Beat Gardenia

When Starting with Turtwig

Best Team to Beat Gardenia When Starting With Turtwig
Staravia	Ponyta	Grotle

Trainers who started with Turtwig will probably want their turtle to sit this battle out. Netiher Turtwig nor Grotle are really well-equipped to handle Gardenia's team. Instead they'll have to rely on other party members to handle these Grass-types.

The most accessible Flying-type is probably Staravia and should be able to handle most of Gardenia's team without any major issues. Have some recovery items ready just in case!

When Starting with Chimchar

Best Team to Beat Gardenia When Starting With Chimchar
Monferno	Staravia	Roselia

Compared to the first gym battle, Trainers who started with Chimchar will have a cinch with Gardenia's gym. The battle can be pretty straightforward. We recommend building up your Attack Stat by using Power-Up Punch against Gardenia's Cherubi and Turtwig before using Flame Wheel against Roserade. This approach is the most efficient way of dealing the most damage against her entire team.

When Starting with Piplup

Best Team to Beat Gardenia When Starting With Piplup
Staravia	Ponyta	Prinplup

It may not be the best idea to bring a water-type to a grass fight, but at least Prinplup can use Peck to fight back to a certain degree. Ultimately, we do not recommend relying on Prinplup's flying-type move to overcome this battle as Peck doesn'tr eally pack the punch needed to take the foes down.

As with Turtwig Trainers, you can instead opt to use an actual Flying-type to deal super-effective damage against the grass-types in this gym. Alternatively, trainers may find a Ponyta east of Eterna City as one of the few Fire types available in the game.

All Gardenia 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