Pokémon Sword and Shield: how to beat Leon in the Championship Match

How to beat Leon in the Championship Match is the final challenge you'll face in Sword and Shield's main story, following on from the epic battle at the Energy Plant with Chairman Rose and Eternatus.

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.

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Pokémon Sword and Shield: how to beat Leon in the Championship Match

At last, it's time for your final match against Leon, the reigning Champion of Galar in what's known as the Championship Match.

Leon has a varied team, but you'll know two of his Pokémon in advance - that Gigantamax Charizard he's famous for, and the third starter Pokémon that neither you nor Hop chose at the start of your adventure.

How to beat Leon in the Championship Match

Trainers and Battles

Aegislash is Leon's first Pokémon and arguably the toughest, thanks to its unique ability and solid stats. You have the advantage though, as you can queue up your first Pokémon to be strong against it. Fire, Ground, Ghost and Dark are all super effective.

Dragapult is next - a super-fast, high Special Attack Dragon-type that can do serious damage. Thankfully it has loads of weaknesses, including Ghost and Dark like Aegislash plus Fairy, Ice and Dragon too. Haxorus is another pure Dragon-type and so suffers from Dragon, Ice and Fairy again, and then things get more situational.

Seismitoad is bulky but 4x weak to Grass - perfect if you chose Grookey as a starter - so any Grass-type attacks will do massive damage. Then it's his starter Pokémon, which unlike Hop's choice will be strong agaisnt your own. If you chose Grookey he'll use Cinderace, if you chose Sobble he'll have Rillaboom, and if you chose Scorbunny he'll have Inteleon.

Finally, he'll bring out Gigantamax Charizard. Thankfully it's 4x weak to Rock-type attacks, so you could take it out in a single hit with the right Pokémon. We found Coalossal was perfect, given it also resists Fire-type attacks!

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.

With the battle done, that's it - you're the Champion of Galar!

Drink it in, enjoy the credits, and relax, as that's the main story done. Congratulations!

That's everything here for now, cycle back to our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough and guide hub for all the other pages we have like this, and enjoy your time in the postgame!