This page offers a guide on how to beat the Psychic Gym Leader Tulip in Alfornada in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet as part of the Victory Road story path. You will first need to finish the Gym Test before being allowed to take on Tulip.

How to Reach the Psychic Gym in Alfornada¶

The Psychic Gym is likely the seventh gym you’ll want to take on as you’ll be battling against Level 45 Pokémon. The gym can be found in Alfornada in the southwest of Paldea. To get to Alfornada, you’ll need to head into the cave southwest of Cortondo, and there is a path directly leading there from the city. First take the path heading west out of the city. It’ll start to head north then south in a winding fashion but keep going until you reach the bridge across the river. Continue along the path heading past the West Province (Area One) Pokémon Center and at the cross roads you’ll want to take the path heading in a general southern direction until you reach the mouth of the cave.

Before you can navigate this cave and reach Alfornada, you’ll need to defeat the titan Orthworm to unlock the ability to jump high. Head over to our guide on How to Beat Orthworm, the Lurking Steel Titan for more information!

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 Tulip¶

Your Pokémon team should ideally be Level 45 or higher for this battle.

Since you’re fighting at the Psychic Gym, you’ll want to make-up a team of Pokémon that do well against Psychic-types. Bug , Ghost and Dark Pokémon all do x2 damage against Psychic Pokémon so you may want to consider bringing them along with you to the gym battle! You should avoid bringing Pokémon that are susceptible to double damage by psychic moves, such as Fighting and Poison types.

In addition to performing Psychic moves, there are two Pokémon at this gym that are also Fairy types and know fairy moves. The final Pokémon that Tulip brings out knows a particularly powerful fairy move and so for this reason, you’ll want to avoid bringing out Pokémon types that are weak to fairy moves during this fight in particular. This includes Fighting , Dragon and Dark types.

Gym Leader Tulip’s Pokémon¶

Farigiraf¶

Farigiraf is the first Pokémon that comes out during the battle against Gym Leader Tulip. It’ll primarily use the normal move, Crunch to bite its opponent. Additionally, it will also use Reflect near the start of your battle, which will double its defense when your Pokémon uses a physical move. When Reflect is up, you’ll want to focus on using Special attacks so as to avoid his high defense. It will only last a few turns and you’ll be informed when Reflect has worn off (if Farigiraf lasts that long!).

Gardevoir¶

Gardevoir is a Psychic and Fairy-type, meaning that Dark-type moves aren’t going to do x2 damage to it. It knows the move Dazzling Gleam, which is a damaging Fairy-type move and will also frequently use the psychic-move, Psychic, which does damage and has a small chance of lowering the target’s special attack. Be mindful that Gardevoir is a fairy-type and that Dark-type

Espathra¶

Like Gardevoir, Espathra also possesses the Psychic move. In addition to its psychic-type move, it also knows the Ghost-type move Shadow Ball, which mostly just does damage and has a 20% chance of lowering the target’s special defense. Espathra is reasonably tanky too, but if you have a powerful Dark-type Pokémon or a Pokémon that has strong attacks that critically hit, you should be able to chunk its health in one or two turns.

Florges¶

Florges will mostly use a combination of the fairy type move Moonblast and the psychic move, Psychic. Moonblast is a very powerful attack and if you’re using a Dark-type Pokémon, which do x2 damage to Psychic types, you’ll likely be one-shot by this attack.

The best way to deal with Florges is to either bring out a tankier Pokémon and whittle it down bit-by-bit and keep using healing potions. Or, alternatively, you could bring out a Pokémon that has a high attack speed and will also one shot before the Florges before it can one shot your Pokémon. We found that Meowscrada (Sprigatito) was able to one shot very easily with it’s Flower Trick move because it is a fast move and also always critically hits.

After defeating Florges, you’ll earn the Psychic Gym Badge. You’ll also get TM Psychic as a reward from Tulip. You’ll now be able to catch and command Pokémon up to level 55!