Fantina is Hearthome City’s resident Gym Leader. Armed with powerful Ghost type Pokémon, this Pokémon Trainer/Coordinator can and will beat you if you don’t know how to counter her team. Here’s everything you need to know to get your Relic Badge.

Hearthome Gym

Described as a city that’s warm & kind, Hearthome City is one of Sinnoh’s largest cities. In fact, it’s actually classified as the 5th largest city out of any city in the Pokémon games. It’s a place where people and Pokémon can grow closer together. While the gym doesn’t exactly embody the city’s image, it still showcases the strength of the bond between Fantina and her Pokémon.

Once you enter the gym, you’ll notice that there is a sign board with a question and three doors behind it. On the sign board, you’ll find basic math questions that you’ll need to solve in order to get through the right door unscathed. Wrong answers will lead you to a battle with a trainer. If you’re in a rush to beat Fantina, you could just go ahead and whip out your Poketch and use the calculator app to quickly solve these math problems. But, if you want to gain some experience and a bit of cash, then we strongly suggest battling each trainer.

There are a total of 8 trainers you can battle in the Hearthome Gym before facing Fantina and each of them carry Ghost type Pokémon.

Youngster Donny

• Gastly Lv. 27
• Haunter Lv. 29

Lass Molly

• Misdreavus Lv. 30

Camper Drew

• Gastly Lv. 27
• Gastly Lv. 27
• Gastly Lv. 27

Picnicker Cheyenne

• Drifloon Lv. 28
• Misdreavus Lv. 28

School Kid Mackenzie

• Drifloon Lv. 28
• Drifloon Lv. 28

School Kid Chance

• Haunter Lv. 30

Ace Trainer Allen

• Gastly Lv. 26
• Haunter Lv. 28
• Gengar Lv. 30

Ace Trainer Catherine

• Misdreavus Lv. 30
• Drifblim Lv. 30

As you can see, all of these trainers are carrying Ghost type Pokémon. These Pokémon are very strong against Psychic types while being very weak to Dark types. Like Dragon types, Ghost types are also weak against other Ghost types. So you’ll need to bring a Dark type Pokémon or at the very least, have some Dark type moves with you to easily clear this gym. 

Fantina

Fantina is Hearthome’s Gym Leader. Aside from being an accomplished trainer, she is also an accomplished coordinator having won several contests. Her lineup of Ghost type Pokémon can be a pain to deal with so make sure you stock up on Dark types so that you’ll have an easier time. Here are the Pokémon she’ll pull out in your battle:

• Drifblim Lv. 32
• Gengar Lv. 34
• Mismagius Lv. 36

All of Fantina’s Pokémon will try to inflict some sort of status ailment on you. Drifblim can inflict a burn through Will-O-Wisp while Gengar and Mismagius can cause confusion using Confuse Ray. Having items like Burn Heal, Rawst Berry, and Persim Berry can be handy in situations where her Pokémon succeeds in causing a status ailment. At this point in the game, you could have a variety of strong Dark or Ghost type Pokémon on your team. In the Grand Underground, you can find strong Dark Pokémon like Houndoom and Absol. These two Pokémon can easily sweep this entire gym with the right movesets. Since the starter Pokémon don’t really have any type advantage or disadvantage, it’s fair to say that they’ll all do pretty well against Fantina’s team. Just avoid using Normal type moves since Ghost types are immune to any Normal type move.

Relic Badge

Once you beat Fantina, you’ll receive the Relic Badge. This raises the level of Pokémon that will obey you without question that you receive from trades. You’ll also be able to use the Hidden Move Surf outside of battle. Surf is our personal favorite out of all the HMs since it allows you to travel on water. Fantina will give you TM65 as an additional reward for beating her. This TM contains the move, Shadow Claw, which is a damaging physical Ghost type move that has a very high critical hit ratio.

So there you have it! That’s everything you need to know about how you can beat Fantina and the Hearthome Gym in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Be sure to check back with us again for more awesome guides on your favorite games. Have fun!