Master the Chilling Puzzle of Snowpoint City Gym in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl

The Snowpoint City gym in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl presents the most challenging puzzle of all the gyms in the game. Players must navigate through a maze of large snowballs, strategically crashing into them at high speeds to clear a path to gym leader Candice. However, approaching the snowballs from specific directions and building enough momentum is crucial in successfully destroying them upon impact. It's important to note that if players leave the gym without defeating Candice, the snowballs will respawn, requiring them to begin the puzzle from scratch.

Updated July 28, 2023, by Tom Bowen: Solving the Snowpoint City gym puzzle in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl can be more effectively demonstrated than explained. In this case, reaching gym leader Candice in around ninety seconds requires a visual guide rather than following step-by-step instructions. To address this, we have updated this guide to include a concise video clip illustrating the quick and easy solution to the Snowpoint Gym puzzle. With the assistance of this video, what used to be a frustrating experience is now nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

How to Solve the Snowpoint City Gym Puzzle in Pokemon BDSP (Video Guide)

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How to Solve the Snowpoint City Gym Puzzle

Players should enter the gym and immediately slide to the left from the fourth row of tiles, colliding with a massive snowball fixed against the gym's left wall. From there, they need to proceed north to the third of three white tiles. Once they reach this tile, they should slide to the right, which will lead them to two interconnected white tiles on the opposite side of the gym. By moving downward to the tile below the initial landing spot and then sliding left, they can successfully demolish the colossal snowball obstructing the first ladder.

Players should proceed by going up the staircase on their left and then making their way down towards the gym's entrance on the right. Upon landing on the nearest white tile, they need to head north and engage in a battle with the Ace Trainer positioned to their right. After victorious, players should slide back down in the direction of the gym's entrance.

As a result, they will find themselves landing on another white tile, which happens to be beside another Ace Trainer. From there, they will have the opportunity to slide to the right and demolish three of the snowballs located in the central area.

After defeating the trainer adjacent to the white tile, players should proceed towards the right and then head north, ultimately reaching the stairs on their right. Once they reach the top, they should again slide towards the right and continue north to reach the next set of stairs leading to the highest level. From there, players can slide north to reach the back wall of the gym and then turn left towards the two white tiles. It is recommended to slide south from the left tile and then make a left turn from the white tile where they land, in order to eliminate three more snowballs. After moving one step north and sliding to the right from their final position, the last two snowballs in the central area can be taken out.

From here, players are advised to retrace their steps towards the entrance by sliding to the left and then downwards until they reach the stairs near the unbreakable snowball located in the gym's southwest corner. After ascending the stairs, the next objective is to proceed towards the north direction by stepping on a second white tile, leading to the presence of another unbreakable snowball. Finally, players need to slide towards the right in order to eliminate the obstacle created by a snowball, which is blocking access to the penultimate ladder.

To dismantle the last snowball, players must once again return to the area adjacent to the indestructible snowball located in the southwest corner of the gym. From there, they should proceed northward one tile and then turn right towards the white tile situated near the gym's entrance from earlier. Once positioned on this specific tile, they should carefully slide in a northerly direction, followed by a leftward movement, and finally descending downwards. This sequence of moves will lead them to another impervious snowball, which can be accessed by sliding towards the right, granting them the opportunity to successfully remove the remaining obstruction in their path.

Having shattered all the snowballs, players can make their way back to the entrance and proceed directly through the gym's central area. By utilizing the newly accessible staircases, they will be able to confront Candice. Selecting Chimchar as their starting Pokemon proves advantageous, making it easier to defeat her due to three out of her four Pokemon being vulnerable to fire-type attacks. It is crucial for players to exercise caution, as leaving the gym prematurely will result in the puzzle resetting entirely.

Snowpoint City Gym Trainers

As well as Candice, there are six other trainers located throughout Snowpoint City Gym. Just like the gym leader herself, they have a tendency to prefer Ice-type Pokémon, so players should bring a powerful Fire-type Pokémon to counter them. While it is possible to strategically bypass a few of these trainers, players might opt to face them all immediately in order to freely navigate the gym. In fact, considering how easily they can be defeated, it would be unwise for players to miss out on the opportunity to earn easy money and XP.

Previous Methods for Reaching Candice at the Snowpoint City Gym

Originally released for the Nintendo DS, Pokemon Diamond & Pearl were designed with the handheld console's D-Pad in mind, limiting players to travel in four directions. However, for Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl, the developers revamped the control scheme to better align with the Nintendo Switch and its drift-prone Joy-Cons.

While this updated control scheme undoubtedly improved the games, it did have unintended consequences. One notable consequence was that players could effortlessly bypass the entire Snowpoint City Gym and directly challenge Candice by taking advantage of the newfound ability to move in eight directions.

The Snowpoint City Gym skip has been patched, requiring most players to solve the puzzle as intended in order to earn their Icicle Badge. However, players using an unpatched version of the game and not connecting to the internet can still utilize the skip.

To perform the Snowpoint City Gym skip, players should slide forward from the Gym's entrance until they reach the tile to the left of the ladder leading to Candice. From there, they need to angle the analog stick diagonally up and to the right, and then quickly move straight up. If done correctly, they will find themselves next to Candice and can initiate a battle by speaking with her.