Pokémon Sword & Shield follows a formula familiar to any long-time Pokémon trainer. The game begins in a small, quaint hometown of the protagonist who is suddenly swept up into the adventure of becoming a trainer and conquering the surrounding gyms in the region.

The game does provide the twist that the protagonist and their rival, Hop, are battling the gym leaders in order to join the Galar region's Gym Challenge and participate in the Champion Cup. The player will eventually face off against Hop's older brother and current Galar Champion, Leon.

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On the road to glory, the player faces off against eight gym leaders from different towns across the region. Each gym leader is different from the last and some even became popular among fans before the game's release. The two games feature minor differences in leaders, so on the basis of design, personality, and challenges, we're ranking Shield's gym leaders.

8 Nessa

Players first meet Nessa while overlooking a port in Hulbury, where Nessa introduces herself before the eventual face-off in the Hulbury Stadium. While Nessa's gym isn't the most challenging the game has to offer, the design of the character immediately charmed fans. Her water-type line of Pokémon and uniform is certainly well-loved by fans everywhere, given the amount of fanart that's been dedicated to her.

Moreover, we can't help but love Nessa for her relaxed yet confident attitude and her obvious love for the gorgeous sea-side town of Hulbury. Not to mention, of all the gym leaders, her initial mission for trainers proved to be fun and sometimes challenging mind-teaser.

7 Opal

If you were expecting a straight-forward battle or mission upon arriving in the atmospheric Ballonlea, then you were probably surprised when you arrived at the gym and the mission wound up being not a puzzling challenge, but instead an audition to become the next fairy-type gym leader.

Opal's line of Fairy-type Pokémon proved to be one of the most challenging battles with a vast array of tricks up Opal's sleeves, but in spite of the aggravation of trying to best her Pokémon, we can't help but adore Opal for her theatrical nature. Spending any amount of time with Opal is an absolute riot, and thankfully the game allows us to get more time with her after the battle ends by allowing the player to travel to Hammerlocke with her, where Opal finds her successor in Bede.

6 Raihan

Raihan is the final gym leader the player has to battle before collecting all the gym badges, and for good reason. Although Raihan's battle was arguably easier than previous leaders, we still have to admire Raihan for his charismatic and energetic nature that easily compliments his specialty in Dragon-type Pokémon.

We also appreciate Raihan's technique of battling with two Pokémon at once (which was also how his mission was set up), which upped the stakes in the final gym battle and made for a more interesting play overall. Raihan's humility in losing the battle made him all the more endearing, along with his long-lasting friendship and rivalry with Leon.

5 Melony

Located in the wintery and historic Circhester, Melony is the game's Ice-type gym leader, and easily one of the most difficult leaders to beat. Her initial mission is to travel across a maze made of fragile ice, and the player must use dousing rods in order to navigate their way through without falling into a hole (at one point, during a blizzard).

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Melony is noted to be stern and has a complicated relationship with her son, who is Circhester's Rock-type gym leader in Pokémon Sword. Despite the challenges Melony represents, we can't help but love her for her dedication and elegant sense of style.

4 Allister

pokemon gym leader allister

As fans enter Stow-On-Side's stadium, it's increasingly obvious that the gym belongs to a leader that prefers Ghost-types, thanks to the skittish employee that preps the player for Allister's mission and eventual battle. The gym mission is easily one of the most challenging and dizzying in the game, as the player must steer a cart to the gym entrance, avoiding many different obstacles.

Once the mission is complete, the true battle begins as the player faces off against Allister. Of all the leaders, Allister is easily the creepiest as we never see his face — for the duration of the game (aside from a rare league card), Allister wears a white clay mask that disguises his true features. The mask itself is widely theorized to be from the corpse of a Galarian Corsola, which only adds to Allister's scare factor. 

3 Milo

The player's first stop is Turffield to battle its' gym leader, Milo. As gym missions go, on paper Turffield Stadium's challenge seems rather easy: the player must herd a group of Wooloos to a stack of hay, however thanks to the Yampers that belong to the gym trainers, the mission quickly becomes more complicated and aggravating then you'd initially think it would be.

Milo himself proves to be one of the easiest leaders to beat, although his Grass-type lineup of Pokémon is impressive, we mostly remember and love Milo for his personality and appearance. He is, in every sense of the term, a gentle giant and everything about him from his strawberry pink hair to his freckles endears him to the player.

2 Kabu

Kabu is the third gym leader the player must battle, and specializes in Fire-type Pokémon. Although compared to the rest of this list, Kabu's personality and gym are rather underwhelming in terms of challenge and lacks anything truly memorable, apart from his energetic nature.

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Located in Motostoke Stadium, Kabu has challengers capture wild Pokémon to prove they're worthy of battling him, which helps differentiate him from other gym leaders as his mission is not that difficult, but unfortunately, this mission becomes blurred with battles the players can face in the wild.

1 Piers

The only gym leader who cannot Dynamax his Pokémon, Piers is the final gym leader the player must battle before returning to Hammerlocke to defeat Raihan. While he is also the Dark-type favoring gym leader of Spikemuth, it's also revealed he is the captain of Team Yell   a group of gym trainers disguised as devotees of Marnie, another rival of the protagonist, who happens to be Piers' youngest sister.

Despite the interesting plot twist revolving Piers and Team Yell, and how Spikemuth was closed off to the general public so that Marnie could win the challenge, Piers is ultimately the easiest gym leader to beat and has no memorable qualities about him, making him the most underwhelming leader of the game. He eventually passes on the title of gym leader to Marnie, who is easily the better trainer.

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