How to beat Aaron in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

The Elite Four kicks off with the Bug-type enthusiast Aaron, who won't be easy to squish underfoot.

Note: This guide is for your first match with him. His team and levels change during rematches.

His Team

Aaron has five skittering Bug Pokémon to throw at you:

• Dustox - Level 53
  • Moves: Toxic, Bug Buzz, Moonlight, Light Screen
  • Ability: Shield Dust
  • Item: Black Sludge
• Beautifly - Level 53
  • Moves: Bug Buzz, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Quiver Dance
  • Ability: Swarm
  • Item: Wise Glasses
• Vespiquen - Level 54
  • Moves: Acrobatics, Attack Order, Aerial Ace, Defend Order
  • Ability: Unnerve
  • Item: Sitrus Berry
• Heracross - Level 54
  • Moves: Earthquake, Rock Slide, Facade, Brick Break
  • Ability: Guts
  • Item: Flame Orb
• Drapion - Level 57
  • Moves: Cross Poison, Night Slash, Earthquake, X-scissor
  • Ability: Sniper
  • Item: Scope Lens

Related: How to beat Volkner in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Strategy

Dustox is a menace. Its plan is to set up a Light Screen, use Toxic, then use Moonlight as needed to heal up while your Pokémon's HP ticks down. It even has a Black Sludge to heal itself at the end of every turn. Muscle it out quickly with Fire, Flying, Rock, or Psychic moves quickly.

Beautifly takes the opposite approach from Dustox. It wants to set up with Quiver Dance to become a Special Attack monster and sweep through your team with its diverse move set. Its Wise Glasses help it to this end as well. It's fairly squishy, so one or two solid Fire, Flying, Electric, or Ice move should KO it, while a single four-times effective Rock move should for sure take it down.

Vespiquen wants to use Defend Order until it reaches yellow HP, eats its Sitrus Berry, and then uses empowered Acrobatics to do major damage. Its damage is limited to Flying and Bug, though, so a Rock or Steel-type Pokémon will shut Vespiquen down completely.

Heracross is terrifying. It has a massive Attack stat that only gets stronger once the first turn ends, it gets burned by Flame Orb, and the burn activates its Guts ability. Add in its murderous repertoire of moves, and almost no Pokémon is safe. KO it as quickly as possible with a Flying-type move, but be careful not to get you first with Rock Slide.

Drapion can either fail pathetically or destroy everything. Drapion's entire kit (aside from Earthquake) is centered around getting critical hits. Night Slash, Cross Poison, and X-Scissor all have increased crit ratios, Scope Lens increases Drapion's crit chance, and its ability Sniper makes crits do increased damage.

Your best bet for facing Drapion is to either rush it down via a fast Pokémon with a Ground-type move (its only weakness) or to try and weather its blows with a tank.

If you want to create your own monstrous Heracross, go check out Best Nature for Heracross in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl on Pro Game Guides!