Pokémon Scarlet & Violet love to bring some challenging battles your way. You’re almost to the end of the main story at the point you face the Glaseado Gym and try to claim the Ice Badge. This is the final Gym battle ahead of the Elite Four, and one of the toughest yet. You will want to train hard and raise a well-rounded team before taking this one, so keep reading to learn more. This guide has all the tips and tricks you need to defeat the Glaseado Gym in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet and claim the elusive Ice Badge. Learn how to take down Ice Gym Leader Grusha at the top of Glaseado Mountain in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as part of the Victory Road story path. This is the final main Gym in the game, and one of the more challenging fights before the Elite Four. Having finished the Psychic Gym, you should be ready to take on the next challenge.
How to reach the Glaseado Gym
The terrain in this icy region is quite hard to navigate. You won’t find many shortcuts here, thankfully, there’s not a ton of distance that you need to cover. Head out of Montanevera and cross the bridge to continue up the mountain to Glaseado Gym.
The path is fairly short and straightforward. Head south up the mountain, turning to the north once you encounter the Black Belt Trainer. All the Ice and Steel Pokemon on this part of the map will be fairly low-level if you’re coming straight here from the seventh Gym. Most of the Pokemon are around levels 33-36. When you get to the Gym, your rival will be inside, and then announce that she’s off the challenge the Elite Four. Keep your head in the game as you have a Gym Leader to own.
Once you reach the Glaseado Gym, you will be asked to take on a time-trial race called the Snow Slope Run. You just have to ride your mount down a short course and reach the finish line in less than 01:30. It’s a fairly easy challenge as long as you pay attention to the path ahead. Missing any of the goalposts will cost you time, so you have to hit most of them to succeed. When you hit a post, turn immediately towards the next one and your Koraidon/Moraidon should turn easily enough into it.
How to beat Grusha, and claim the Ice Badge
Located in Glaseado, Grusha is the Ice-type Gym Leader of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The recommended level to face him is Level 48. But since you can command up to level 55 Pokemon after claiming 7 badges, there’s no reason not to overlevel if you’re concerned about losing. There may be a tendency to rely on Fire types for this fight, thanks to the Ice type domination his team has, but Ice Gym Leader Grusha is an experienced Trainer, and has multiple counters to Fire built into his movesets. All of these Pokemon carry some kind of combination of counter or stall move. Here’s the breakdown of his team so you can see what I mean:
- Frosmoth: Lvl 47 – Type: Ice/Bug – Moves: Blizzard, Bug Buzz, Tailwind
- Beartic: Lvl 47 – Type: Ice – Moves: Aqua Jet, Icicle Crash, Earthquake
- Cetitan: Lvl 47 – Type: Ice – Moves: Ice Spinner, Liquidation, Ice Shard
- Altaria: Lvl 48- Type: Dragon/Flying – Moves: Ice Beam, Dragon Pulse, Moonblast, Hurricane
Because of that, you will absolutely need to bring a good mix of types to this fight. Fire is an option for a couple of slots, but you need something that isn’t weak to Water to hold off some of his counters. Fighting and Steel are very good choices for this final fight. that Altaria can be a real pain to deal with, as Dragon types are weak to multiple moves it can bring to bear. The best thing to do is begin the fight with your Fire type to take out Frosmoth, then swap in your Fighting type to carry against Beatric and Cetitan. Bring a mildly tanky Fairy-type to finish off Altaria and you’re good and done with this fight.
Frosmoth can be taken out first if you have a fast Fire-Type like Arcanine. Throw a Fire Fang at it and it will go down. Beartic is the first swap you should do, preferably to a Fighting Type. I used Primeape and Close Combat to take it down. I took the chance to swap in Crabominable and let it soak up some attacks from Beartic while I healed Primeape. Bringing Primeape back out to deal with Beartic finished off this round. Cetitan was a much tougher fight. Ice Spinner is a particularly harmful move. I had to bring in Azumarill to finish it off with Superpower as Primeape went down.
Then, the real foe comes down the pipe with Altaria. Hurricane will come out and wreck whatever it hits, so be ready to heal when this move comes out. If you managed to keep your Fighting type from the previous rounds alive this long, it’s going to get KO’d by this move. A iahd to burn through Crabominable’s remaining HP to allow me to heal Primeape and Azumarill setting up for the final fight. I managed to eek out the victory with a couple Close Combats and Superpower moves.
With Gym Leader Grusha beaten, you can finally command Pokemon of any level. You will also be given 8,640 Pokédollars, as well as the TM 124 Ice Spinner.
