This page offers a guide on how to beat the Ice Gym Leader Grusha at the top of Glaseado Mountain in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as part of the Victory Road story path. You will first need to finish the snowboarding Gym Test before you can face Grusha in battle.

How to Reach the Ice Gym atop Glaseado Mountain¶

The Ice Gym is likely the last gym you’ll want to take on as you’ll be battling against Level 48 Pokémon. The Ice Gym can be found atop Glaseado Mountain. You’ll want to head to the peak to find the Ice Gym from the Ghost Gym, so fast travel to Montenevera. From there head out of the arch to the south and follow the path until you cross the bridge. Then, head up the path that’s going up the hill until you reach Glaseado Gym.

If you’re interested in finding out about the optimal way to complete this game, head over to our guide on What is the Best Story Order in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

Recommended Pokémon for Fighting Gym Leader Grusha¶

Your Pokémon team should ideally be Level 48 or higher for this battle.

Since you’re fighting at the Ice Gym, you’ll want to make-up a team of Pokémon that do well against Ice-types. Fire , , Rock and Fighting Pokémon all do x2 damage against Ice-types.

A strong Fire-type Pokémon is highly recommended because you can apply burn to your opponents and there is also an Ice/Bug-type Pokémon that will be susceptible to x4 damage because bug-types are also weak to fire! That being said, a few of the Pokémon do know water and ground-type moves so your fire-type Pokémon won’t be completely safe from harm! Any Pokémon with Flame Thrower, Fire Fang or Overheat will do well in this gym!

Try to avoid bringing in Pokémon that are weak to Ice-type moves. This includes Dragon , Flying , Ground and Grass Ice Pokémon as they are all weak to Ice damage. With the final Pokémon being Altaria, you’ll especially want to avoid bringing in Grass and Dragon-types as you’ll be susceptible to x2 damage from its flying, dragon and ice-type moves!

Gym Leader Grusha’s Pokémon¶

Frosmoth¶

If you’ve got a good Fire-type Pokémon you shouldn’t even be seeing any of Frosmoth’s moves! Remember, since it’s a bug and ice-type, it’ll take x4 damage from fire-type attacks so one-shotting this lil guy should be a piece of cake.

That being said, Frosmoth does have some annoying attacks if you aren’t able to one shot him. He has the flying-type move, Tailwind which does a modest amount of damage. But his most powerful attack will be his ice-type move, Blizzard. Not only does it do a decent amount of damage, it also has the chance to freeze its opponent. Freeze is a bit like paralyze and has the chance to stop your Pokémon from being able to make its moves.

Beartic¶

Beartric is the secret anti-fire Pokémon in this battle! It has the ground-type move, Earthquake and a water-type move, Aqua Jet, ready to attack the unsuspecting Fire-type! It is possible to one-shot him with a powerful fire-type move, but if your Pokémon doesn’t go first, it runs the risk of being one-shot itself. You may prefer to bring out a strong steel or rock-type Pokémon against Beartic, and save your strong fire-type for later!

In addition, it also has the strong ice-type move, Icicle Crash. This move primarily does damage but it does have a 30% chance of inflicting Flinch, which will prevent your Pokémon from being able to attack during this turn!

Cetitan¶

Cetitan is a tanky Pokémon that has a Water-type move, Liquidation, to also deal with those pesky fire-type and ground-types. It does a lot of damage and also has a chance to lower defense stats. In addition to Liquidation he also has two damaging ice-moves: Ice Spinner and Ice Shard. The best way to deal with Cetitan is to bring out a fire or ground-type and use healing potions to deal with the big damage from Liquidation.

Terastallized Altaria¶

Altaria is a flying/dragon-type Pokémon that will be immediately terastallized into an Ice tera-type upon entering the battlefield. This means that Altaria has a lot of different move types to take into account when entering this fight.

Altaria will use the flying-type move Hurricane a fair bit during this battle. It does damage and has a 30% chance of confusing its target. When confused, your Pokémon may hurt itself rather than perform the assigned move. It can last a few turns.

Moonblast is another attack that Altaria will use quite frequently. It is a fairy-type move that does a lot of damage! It also has access to the dragon-type move, Dragon Blast but it appears to rarely use this.

And finally, it’s ice-type move, which will do extra damage whilst its terastallized, is Ice Beam. Ice beam inflicts a lot of damage and will also have a chance of freezing your Pokémon. Luckily, it doesn’t appear that Altaria likes to use this move all that much, and favours Moonblast and Hurricane.

After defeating Altaria, you’ll earn the Ice Gym Badge - the last badge to collect, woo! Additionally, you’ll also be rewarded TM124 Ice Spinner. You can now also catch Pokémon of any level and they’ll listen to you, too!