Pokémon Sword and Shield Hulbury Gym mission: how to beat Water Gym Leader Nessa

Hulbury is up next, featuring the Hulbury Gym mission and a task to beat Nessa, and follows on from Route 5 in your quest through Pokémon Sword and Shield's main story.

On each page of our walkthrough like this, we'll cover any and all of the obtainable Pokémon, item locations, trainers and their teams that you might come across here, as well as walking you through any key steps of the story, puzzles or challenges along the way.

Where applicable, note that our walkthrough pages will be down into separate sections referring to each of your visits to a given location, seeing as you often backtrack or revisit various places in your quest to become Galar League Champion. And of course if there are any, we'll clearly mark any spoilers, too!

For more explainers, meanwhile, or walkthrough pages on more locations in Sword and Shield, head back to our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough and guide hub.

On this page:

Pokémon Sword and Shield: Hulbury items, trainers and Pokémon

Enetering Hulbury you'll notice Chairman Rose and his assistant Oleana in relaxation mode. Rose says if you get the Water Badge from Nessa, he'll hold a celebration for you - after you've beaten her, meet him at the seafood restaurant in town,

In town, there's a nice little outdoor market, where a woman called Grazia is sitting at the bench and will trade you a Cottonee for your Minccino, if you have one spare.

Nessa herself is doing that classic Pokémon Gym Leader thing where she's gone off wandering from the Gym. Thankfully she's not gone far at all - you'll find her by the Lighthouse over by the sea. Talk to her and she'll give you her League Card, and then go back to the Gym and wait for you to take her on.

Other than that, there's not a huge amount more to do here. After you've beaten the Gym and Chairman Rose has left, you can revisit the Seafood Restaurant and talk to the Chef to pick up a food delivery - take it to the brown house next to the station in the north of town for some great rewards, both from the person you delivery it to and the chef back in the restuarant! You can do this daily, too.

Otherwise, explore the town and shop at the market if you fancy it, maybe do a spot of fishing on the jetties by the lighthouse, then prep your team for a Water-type battle at the Hulbury Gym!

Available Pokémon

Available Items

With it finally in the wild, here's how to start the Crown Tundra DLC and our full Pokémon Crown Tundra walkthrough. Plus, here's how to catch Calyrex, Glastrier and Spectrier, the Regieleki and Regidrago puzzle solution and Regirock, Regice, Registeel locations, details on how to catch Legendary Birds Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres in the Crown Tundra, the Ultra Beasts and Necrozma adventure, Dynamax Adventures, including the legendries you can catch on these adventures, and the new Crown Tundra Pokédex and returning Pokémon explained. For Isle of Armor players, here's how to find the Slowpoke, where to find Max Mushroom locations, and how to get Kubfu, become best friends and evolve it, plus all Diglett locations too! For the base game, here's info on the ability to transfer Pokémon to Pokémon Home, the Wild Area, lists of all TM locations and TRs, all Galarian forms and finally our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough for the whole game.

Pokémon Sword and Shield Hulbury Gym Mission and how to beat Water Gym Leader Nessa

Nessa's Water-type Gym in Hulbury has a fairly involved challenge to it. Your mission here is to turn the valves on or off to change the flowing columns of water that block your path. Turn the right valves in the right order and you'll clear a path to battling her. Here's the solution!

Trainers and Battles

Hulbury Gym Mission solution:

1. Start by going the only way you can: right, to Gym Trainer Julia. Press the Red button next to her.

2. Then press the Yellow button that's now been revealed, and press the Red button again.

3. Continue on that right-hand path that's opened up, and go battle Gym Trainer Heather up ahead. Press the Yellow button next to her.

4. Then go back towards the way you came and press the nearby Red button. Now you can progress past Heather up to the higher level.

5. Go all the way along the back level to the far left, where you'll battle Gym Trainer Lynn.

6. Go all the way past Lynn, "south" towards the entrance, and press the Yellow button there.

7. Then go back to Lynn and press the Red button to the left of her. That clears a path to a blue button, go press that.

8. And that clears a path to the exit! Go down the nearby stairs to the central path and all the way up to the door at the back of the room. Time to battle Nessa!

How to beat Hulbury's Water Gym Leader Nessa

Things are still pretty simple in terms of Gym Leaders' and their teams - Nessa shouldn't be too much trouble! Use Grass or Electric-type attacks, while Water, Grass and Dragon-type Pokémon are resistant to hers.

She'll Dynamax her Drednaw, so you should Dynamax your own Pokémon as soon as she brings it out. If you chose Grookey as a starter, it's perfect for this occasion!

Available Items

Oleana will be wating outside, so go straight to the Seafood Restaurant to meet the Chairman - she'll give you his League Card, too.

That's everything here for now, so continue on to Galar Mine No.2 for the next steps in your quest, or cycle back to our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough and guide hub for all the other pages we have like this.