Pokémon Sword and Shield Hammerlocke and how to beat Dragon Gym Leader Raihan - available Pokémon, items and trainers

Hammerlocke is the next stop on your journey to becoming Galar Champion - as is learning how to beat Dragon Gym Leader Raihan on your return later on, too. Your first visit will follow on from a return to the Wild Area and battle with Motostoke Gym Leader Kabu, which is where we'll pick up first on this page.

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: Hammerlocke items, trainers and Pokémon

Hammerlocke is a large city at the heart of Galar, and in your journey it'll work largely the same as Motostoke did: you can explore the town on your first visit, but you won't be able to take on the Gym until you get a couple more badges, so for now it's just a few story beats plus a range of items to collect and things to explore.

On your arrival, you'll see Bede chatting to the Chairman and Oleana. Chairman Rose seems happy enough, but there's something suspicious about Bede and Oleana...

Anyway, the Chairman will ask you to meet him at the stadium just up ahead, where he explains more about Galar and Wishing Stars. He also tells you to head to the vault (there's a lift, here in the stadium, down to the Power Plant, but you can't access that now).

Over at the Vault, Leon is waiting for you - as is Hop, who's a bit down after losing to Bede after you left Motostoke a little earlier. Raihan's also waiting inside the vault, and gives you his League Card when you stop for a chat. Head up the stairs and, after collecting a handy TM to the right (outside, up the stairs on the far right), you'll meet Sonia in the Vault itself.

She'll give you a major lore dump, so pay attention here if you want to follow along with Sword and Shield's story. After that, you're effectively free to go, towards your next Gym challenge to the west.

Before you do though, here's a quick rundown of everything in the city:

• A kid in the house to the right of the Pokémon Center will check your Pokémon's Happiness and Friendship
• A woman in the same house will check your Pokémon's EVs - the hidden points you can give your Pokémon through EV training, to boost their stats.
• A girl at the back of that same house will also give you a Soothe Bell, too.
• Talk to the man in the strip of houses to the east about weather and he'll give you items, with a different item and weather explanation each day.
• The east exit is blocked for now (as is the west, until you talk to Rose then visit the Vault).
• A little girl in pink, by the cathedral-like building to the east, wants you to deliver a love letter to Frank, in Ballonlea.
• Mr. Focus will battle you in the house left of the Pokémon Center, giving you a good lesson in strategy and a Focus Sash for beating him.
• You can shop in the Boutique, get a haircut at the Salon or battle at the Battle Café.
• There's a woman who'll give you a Togepi for your Toxel, if you have one spare, over on the battling pitch to the west of the city.
• A man in a pink sweater-vest, down the stairs towards the waterfront on the far west of town, will teach you starter a special move
• Give a man in a red hoodie an Applin for a reward, too.
• There's a Battle Points (BP) Shop in the Pokémon Center.

Available Pokémon

Available Items

Trainers and Battles

Next up, it's time to head to Route 6, to the west, as you progress towards your fourth Gym Badge!

There's more on Hammerlocke further down this page, but beware of SPOILERS for your final Gym battle if you do venture further below...

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 Hammerlocke revisited: how to beat Dragon-type Gym Leader Raihan

Your return to Hammerlocke will be after you've obtained seven Gym Badges, with just the Dragon-type Gym Leader Raihan left to tackle.

When you arrive in town, Hop, Sonia and Leon will be waiting, and Professor Magnolia turns up too. There's still nothing you can do to help with all the trouble that's been going on, so it's time for you to just go and takle another Gym! This time, it's actually located over in the Vault.

Hammerlocke Gym Mission:

This one's hardly a mission: you just need to beat three trainers, all of whom use Double Battles, and weather-altering moves like Drought, as well as some decent, more varied moves like Shell Trap and Disable, too.

Trainers and Battles

Available Items

How to beat Hammerlocke's Dragon-type Gym Leader Raihan

Raihan is barely a Dragon user instead having a varied, weather-based team that he also uses in Doubles format. If anything, his speciality is in mixing it up in general!

He Gigantamaxes his Duraludon, which has decent Type coverage, but Fighting, Fire and Ground all work well against it, while Ice and Grass are good options for Flygon, Gigalith and Sandaconda. Just be sure to line up two good opening Pokémon rather than just the one!

Trainers and Battles

That's everything here for now, and the end of our in-progress walkthrough for now too, so head back to our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough and guide hub for all the other pages we have like this.