Need help fighting Gym Leader Candice? This page has strategies and tips to deal with the Ice-type master.

Candice is the 7th Gym Leader, waiting at the end of Snowpoint City Gym. True to her name, she’s unabashedly a big fan of Ice-types.

Gym Leader Candice¶

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(1 of 2) Candice is the penultimate Gym Leader.

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Candice is the penultimate Gym Leader. (left), Snover will cause Hail when it enters battle. (right)

Pokémon	Level	Type
Snover	38
Sneasel	38
Medicham	40
Abomasnow	42

Candice leads with Snover. Thanks to its Snow Warning ability and Icy Rock, Hail will appear in battle for 8 turns, damaging non-Ice Pokémon.

Fielding your own Ice-type generally isn’t that useful, so do your best to finish this Gym Leader fight fast and/or vary your Pokémon. You could also use a Pokémon with the Cloud Nine ability (mainly Psyduck/Golduck) to cancel the weather or summon your own weather with Sunny Day/Rain Dance etc.

Anyway, Snover itself isn’t too scary. It can use Mist to protect its team from status conditions, Razor Leaf and Avalanche for STAB, plus Water Pulse to annoy Fire-types. That said, Fire-types are highly recommended for their quadruple damage. Besides that, Fighting, Poison, Bug or Steel are good choices.

Meanwhile, Sneasel has Avalanche for STAB, Dig to waste your time and hurt Fire, Rock and Steel-types, Metal Claw to hurt Fairy-types and Hone Claws to boost its Attack and Accuracy. Fighting-types deal quadruple damage, although Sneasel is holding a Chople Berry, which weakens one Fighting-type attack. We’d still suggest a Fighting-type though or a Bug-type.

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(1 of 2) Candice’s ace is her Abomasnow.

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Candice’s ace is her Abomasnow. (left), A decent Fire-type that’s not slow should KO Abomasnow with ease. (right)

Medicham isn’t an Ice-type, but it is found near Snowpoint City, if that counts for anything. Candice’s can use Brick Break for STAB and to shatter screens, Rock Slide to terrorize Flying-types, Ice Punch for a similar reason and Bulk Up to raise its Attack and Defense. Ghost or Fairy-types would be great here.

Finally, Abomasnow also has Snow Warning, but no Icy Rock, so it’ll only cause 5 turns of Hail. For attacks it has Blizzard, which hits hard and has 100% accuracy in Hail, Giga Drain for STAB and to siphon health, Earthquake to punish Fire, Rock and Steel-types and Aurora Veil to trigger Reflect and Light Screen in hail. Like with Snover, Fire-types are highly recommended. Otherwise, go with Fighting or Bug.

After the Fight¶

Once you’ve defrosted Candice’s team, she’ll hand you her Icicle Badge, which lets you use HM Rock Climb outside of battle. Plus a stack of TM72 Avalanche.

From here, the Galactic Grunts blocking the entrance to Lake Acuity, towards the west, will have gone. Hmm, better go see if your rival needs help over there…