The Snowpoint City Gym is the seventh that players will visit in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl and is home to the ice-type specialist, Candice. Due to its devilishly difficult puzzle, Snowpoint is by far the most complicated gym in the gen 4 games, with players likely to spend far more time actually getting to Candice than they will battling with her. It is worth noting though that this is as much down to it being a very easy fight as it is the puzzle being all that hard.

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Due to Candice's over-reliance on ice-types, players with a half-decent fire-type Pokemon should have very little trouble bringing the gym leader down. Doing so will see them rewarded with the Icicle Badge, which will allow players to use the Rock Climb HM outside of battle. Players will also finally be able to head over to Lake Acuity after beating Candice, meaning there are plenty more battles with Team Galactic just on the horizon.

Updated December 3, 2021 by Tom Bowen: Due to the inherent weaknesses of ice-type Pokemon, Candice is arguably one of the easiest gym leaders to beat the first time around. When players return to Snowpoint City for a rematch after they've unlocked the National Dex, however, the same cannot be said. Granted, all of her new team are once again ice-type Pokemon, but this time she has a few tricks hidden up her sleeves. This guide has therefore been updated to provide information about her revised team, as well as a strategy for how to beat Candice in the rematch.

How to Prepare for the Snowpoint City Gym

Players who chose Chimchar as their starter Pokemon shouldn't need to do too much prep work for the Snowpoint City Gym, as a level 48 Infernape should be more than capable of defeating all of Candice's Pokemon without the need for any healing items. Some of the other trainers in the gym do have Pokemon against which fire and fighting-type moves are ineffective though, while others have access to water-type attacks. With this in mind, players should bring a few other heavy hitters along with them just to be safe.

Thankfully, Infernape isn't the only viable option for beating Candice, with Ponyta (which by now should really have evolved into a Rapidash) once again a solid pick. For those who don't already have one, Ponyta can be encountered on Routes 206, 211, and 215 and will evolve into a Rapidash at level 40. Machoke and Graveler can do the job too, both of which can be found on Route 216. The only other thing that players really need to worry about is stocking up on healing items, as leaving the gym before defeating Candice is not advised.

How to Get to Candice

Of all of the gym puzzles in Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, the one found in Snowpoint City is arguably the most challenging. It requires players to slide along sheets of ice in order to break some of the many giant snowballs that are littering the gym, which is required to clear a path to its leader, Candice. This task is made all the more challenging by the fact that players can only slide into the snowballs from certain directions and will also need to defeat a number of Ace Trainers as they go.

Anyone hoping to solve the puzzle by themselves should be able to do so with enough trial and error, but those who'd rather just follow a guide can find one right here. It's definitely worth noting that, unlike some of the games' other gyms, the one found in Snowpoint City will completely reset the moment that players step outside. With this in mind, players should stock up on healing items at the nearby Pokemart before heading inside, as they won't be able to visit a Pokemon Center before taking on the gym leader.

How to Beat Candice

Those heading into the Snowpoint City gym with Infernape as their main attacker may well find that Candice is actually a lot easier to beat than some of the gym's other trainers. This is because three of her four Pokemon are weak to fire-type moves, with the other having fairly low defenses and thus quite easy to take out with a powerful move like Close Combat. Granted, the other three Pokemon do all have Earthquake, but as Infernape is faster, it should be able to take them all out with a single hit from Flame Wheel before Candice's Pokemon even get a chance to act.

Players using Groveller or Machoke should also have very little trouble with Snover, Sneasel, and Abomasnow, but may come unstuck against Medicham due to their poor type effectiveness. With this in mind, players may want to bring a Haunter along with them just for the Medicham portion of the fight in order to speed things up a little. At high enough levels though (mid-to-high forties), both Groveller and Machoke should be more than capable of outlasting Medicham and winning the battle on their own.

How to Beat Candice's Rematch Team

The good news is that all six of Candice's rematch team are weak to fire-type attacks in some capacity. Unfortunately, however, Candice seems to have taken this into account when deciding on their move sets, as several of her Pokemon have attacks that would be deadly to most fire-types. Players can get around this somewhat by using Charizard (evolve Charmander) to avoid Earthquake, though Mamoswine's Stone Edge could still cause problems if it ever gets the chance to use it.

With this in mind, players may want to bring a water or fighting-type Pokemon just for Mamoswine, with Milotic (evolve Feebas) and Machamp (evolve through trading) providing solid options. The latter should also come in handy against Weavile, which takes four times as much damage from fighting-type attacks than it does neutral ones. Players may also want to consider bringing along a decent dark-type Pokemon like Absol (catch in the Grand Underground) to deal with Jynx and Froslass, but a fast fire-type could just as easily do the job.

Snowpoint City Gym Trainers

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