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Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Ballonlea gym: Guide to beating Opal

Opal uses a cute crew of fairy-types

By Julia Lee
A Pokémon trainer stands in front of Opal, the Ballonlea gym leader Game Freak, The Pokémon Company/Nintendo via Polygon
Julia Lee (she/her) is a guides producer, writing guides for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Genshin Impact. She helped launch the Rift Herald in 2016.
Part of Pokémon Sword & Shield guides and tips

Pokémon Sword and Shield’s fifth gym is against Opal, a fairy-type user in Ballonlea.

Fairy-typing still feels confusing, despite releasing nearly 10 years ago, so if you still are stuck on what to use against her Pokémon, check out our guide below.

Ballonlea gym challenge

Opal’s gym features trainers that ask you trivia questions. If you get the questions right, you’ll get a stat boost in the battle. If you get them wrong, a random stat will get lowered. After taking out three trainers, you’ll move on to battle Opal.

Opal’s Pokémon

A Cinderace takes on Opal’s Mawile at the Ballonlea gym Game Freak, The Pokémon Company/Nintendo via Polygon

Opal uses four fairy-type Pokémon and most of them having some kind of dual typing. Just like other gym leaders, she’ll Gigantamax her final Pokémon, Alcremie. Throughout her battle, she will also ask you various trivia questions to boost or lower the stats of your Pokémon, most of them being trick questions. For example, she’ll ask you how old she is, and if you pick the obviously wrong answer (16), then she’ll say she likes your choice and will give you the stat boost.

  1. Weezing, level 36, poison/fairy
  2. Togekiss, level 37, fairy/flying
  3. Mawile, level 36, fairy/steel
  4. Alcremie, level 38, fairy

Recommended counters against Opal

Fairy-types are weak against steel- and poison-types, but using those won’t work against Weezing and Mawile. Mawile’s fairy-type weaknesses are completely negated by its steel-typing, so just blast it with fire- and ground-type moves to get by. This gym is also fairly clearable just by using your starter Pokémon, if you’re leveled high enough.

Here are some good Pokémon to catch and evolve for this gym, as well as the easiest places to find them:

  • Koffing, poison
    Found in Motostoke Outskirts
  • Skorupi, poison
    Found on Route 6
  • Meowth, steel
    Found on Route 4
  • Klink, steel
    Found on Route 3

Ballonlea gym rewards

After beating Bea, you’ll get TM87, Draining Kiss, and a fairy gym uniform to wear outside of gym challenges. You’ll also be able to catch Pokémon up to level 45.

Pokémon Sword & Shield guides and tips