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The Snowpoint City Gym is the seventh that players will visit inPokemon Brilliant Diamond&Shining Pearland is home to theice-typespecialist, Candice. Due to its devilishly difficult puzzle, Snowpoint is by far the most complicated gym in the gen 4 games, with players likely to spend far more time actually getting to Candice than they will battling with her. It is worth noting though that this is as much down to it being a very easy fight as it is the puzzle being all that hard.
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Due to Candice’s over-reliance on ice-types, players with a half-decent fire-type Pokemon should have very little trouble bringing the gym leader down. Doing so will see them rewarded with the Icicle Badge, which will allow players touse the Rock Climb HM outside of battle. Players will also finally be able to head over to Lake Acuity after beating Candice, meaning there are plenty more battles with Team Galactic just on the horizon.
Updated August 03, 2025 by Tom Bowen:Due to the inherent weaknesses of ice-type Pokemon, Candice is arguably one of the easiest gym leaders to beat the first time around. When players return to Snowpoint City for a rematch after they’veunlocked the National Dex, however, the same cannot be said. Granted, all of her new team are once again ice-type Pokemon, but this time she has a few tricks hidden up her sleeves. This guide has therefore been updated to provide information about her revised team, as well as a strategy for how to beat Candice in the rematch.
How to Prepare for the Snowpoint City Gym
Players who chose Chimchar as theirstarter Pokemonshouldn’t need to do too much prep work for the Snowpoint City Gym, as a level 48 Infernape should be more than capable of defeating all of Candice’s Pokemon without the need for any healing items. Some of the other trainers in the gym do have Pokemon against which fire and fighting-type moves are ineffective though, while others have access towater-type attacks. With this in mind, players should bring a few other heavy hitters along with them just to be safe.
Thankfully, Infernape isn’t the only viable option for beating Candice, with Ponyta (which by now should really have evolved into a Rapidash) once againa solid pick. For those who don’t already have one, Ponyta can be encountered on Routes 206, 211, and 215 and will evolve into a Rapidash at level 40. Machoke and Graveler can do the job too, both of which can be found on Route 216. The only other thing that players really need to worry about is stocking up on healing items, asleaving the gym before defeating Candice is not advised.
How to Get to Candice
Of all of the gym puzzles inBrilliant Diamond&Shining Pearl, the one found in Snowpoint City is arguably the most challenging. It requires players to slide along sheets of ice to break some of the many giant snowballs that are littering the gym, which is required to clear a path to its leader, Candice. This task is made all the more challenging by the fact that players can only slide into the snowballs from certain directions and will also need to defeat a number of Ace Trainers as they go.
Anyone hoping to solve the puzzle by themselves should be able to do so with enough trial and error, but those who’d rather just follow a guide can find oneright here. It’s definitely worth noting that, unlike some of the games' other gyms, the one found in Snowpoint City will completely reset the moment that players step outside. With this in mind, players should stock up on healing items at the nearby Pokemart before heading inside, as they won’t be able to visit aPokemon Centerbefore taking on the gym leader.
How to Beat Candice
Those heading into the Snowpoint City gym with Infernape as their main attacker may well find that Candice is actually a lot easier to beat than some of the gym’s other trainers. This is because three of her four Pokemon are weak tofire-type moves, with the other having fairly low defenses and thus quite easy to take out with a powerful move like Close Combat. Granted, the other three Pokemon do all have Earthquake, but as Infernape is faster, it should be able to take them all out with a single hit from Flame Wheel before Candice’s Pokemon even get a chance to act.
Players using Groveller or Machoke should also have very little trouble with Snover, Sneasel, and Abomasnow, but may come unstuck against Medicham due totheir poor type effectiveness. With this in mind, players may want to bring a Haunter along with them just for the Medicham portion of the fight in order to speed things up a little. At high enough levels though (mid-to-high forties), both Groveller and Machoke should be more than capable of outlasting Medicham and winning the battle on their own.
How to Beat Candice’s Rematch Team
The good news is that all six of Candice’s rematch team are weak to fire-type attacks in some capacity. Unfortunately, however, Candice seems to have taken this into account when deciding on their move sets, as several of her Pokemon have attacks that would be deadly to most fire-types. Players can get around this somewhat by usingCharizard(evolveCharmander) to avoid Earthquake, though Mamoswine’s Stone Edge could still cause problems if it ever gets the chance to use it.
With this in mind, players may want to bring a water or fighting-type Pokemon just for Mamoswine, withMilotic(evolveFeebas) andMachamp(evolve through trading) providing solid options. The latter should also come in handy against Weavile, which takes four times as much damage from fighting-type attacks than it does neutral ones. Players may also want to consider bringing along a decent dark-type Pokemon likeAbsol(catch in the Grand Underground)to deal with Jynx and Froslass, but a fast fire-type could just as easily do the job.
