Pokémon Sword and Shield Circhester Gym mission solution and how to beat Rock or Ice Leader Gordie or Melony

Circhester and Rock Gym Leader Gordie or Ice Gym Leader Melony are your next objectives, and follow on from Route 8 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: Circhester - available Pokémon, items and trainers

Circhester is a charming winter town, home to your sixth Gym battle with either the Rock-type user Gordie in Pokémon Sword or Ice-type user Melony in Pokémon Shield.

There's more to do here than just that though. The town also has a two-part hotel, with one or two things to do inside, as well as an historic hot spring and a quirky restaurant.

To dive into things to do, first up there's a man selling food by the smaller fountain that will trade you a Throh for your Vanillish in Sword, or a Sawk for your Vanillish in Pokémon Shield - you can catch a Vanillish just back on Steamdrift Way if you need one.

In the house nearest to the Pokémon Center, you can speak to a man to get TM27 Icy Wind in Pokémon Sword or TM48 Rock Tomb in Pokémon Shield.

There's a Move Tutor, who teaches the powerful but hard-to-master move Draco Meteor, at the Hero's Bath (the old hot spring).

The western wing of the hotel has a couple of things to do: upstairs, in the far left room, is a man in a doctor's outfit who's actually the Game Director (this is a classic feature in Pokémon games, where some of the development team are depicted as in-game characters). He'll give you a Catching Charm for now, and reward you with a Shiny Charm later on if you return having completed the Pokédex!

There's also a Police Officer in one of these rooms that's actually Morimoto, the man behind Pokémon's complex battle systems. You can battle him here once you return as Champion of Galar!

Over in the other half of the hotel, a separate building to the east, there's slightly more to do. Talk to the man in the second room from the left and you'll see he's, weirdly, accusing some fellow guests of being thieves. Solve the "mystery" here (it's the Pokémon's fault) and you'll get a Wide Lens for your trouble.

Talk to a hiker for another item, TM16 Screech, which isn't particularly useful this late in the game, in another room, and the dancer in the next room for another, TM47 Fake Tears.

When you're done exploring, head up to the north of town to the Gym!

Available Pokémon

Available Items

Trainers and Battles

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: Circhester Gym Mission puzzle solution - how to beat Gordie or Melony's Rock or Ice-type Gym

Like the Gym at Stow-on-Side, the Gym Leader and theme of the Gym here in Circhester is different depending on your version of the game. If you're in Sword it's Gordie, with a Rock-type focus, and Shield it's Melony, with a squad of Ice-types.

Again like before, the challenge itself remains unchanged - the appearance is different, but the solution is identical - so the below advice applies to whatever version you're playing!

Trainers and Battles (Sword)

Trainers and Battles (Shield)

Circhester Gym mission puzzle solution

The Gym Mission here in Circhester asks you to navigate three areas that have "trapdoor" holes in the floor, that will break and send you back to the start if you stand on them. All you have to help you is the Trap Detector, which vibrates when you're near a hole. Here's how to get through:

1. Go right, up, left, up, to the first battle.
2. Go to the far left wall, then almost to the top, then right and up.
3. At the second stage, go up the middle, then far left, then up to the left platform.
4. From there, go up then right, to the next trainer.
5. Now go all teh way to the far right, then up to the next set of stairs.
6. Time for a sandstorm / blizzard, depending on your gym - visibility is now impaired!
7. Go right, up, all the way to the left and up on the steel platforms to the fourth trainer.
8. From that trainer go right, adn you need to snake your way upwards to the next platform and the very top.

How to beat Circhester Gym leader Gordie or Melony

For Sword players, you want to bring Grass, Water, and Ground-types. Grass is 4x effective against Gordie's Barbaracle, while Water and Ground are 4x effective against his Coalossal, which he Gigantamaxes - save your Dynamaxing for when he uses that!

For Shield players, aim to bring Fire, Rock, and Fighting-types. Fire and Rock are both 4x effective against Frostmoth and Rock is super effective against all three of Melony's other Pokémon. Steel is also useful! Be wary of her Lapras, which she Gigantamaxes, and save your Dynamaxing for when she does!

Trainers and Battles

Available Items

When you beat the Gym Leader here in Circhester you'll bump into Sonia back outside. Go meet her in the restaurant, Bob's Your Uncle, and she'll notice the tapestry at the back - it's a secret fifth one in the series, adding to the story told by those four back in the vault at Hammerlocke!

Hop mentions the Pokémon you saw in the Slumbering Weald, too. You go to take a look at the Hero's Bath nearby, where Hop challenges you to another battle, and then it's time to press on!

That's all for Circhester! Continue on to Route 9 and Circhester Bay next to carry on your journey, or cycle back to our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough and guide hub for all the other pages we have like this.