How To Get Jynx in FRLG (Moveset + Build Ideas)

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, you can only get Jynx by trading a Poliwhirl to the old man in the house next to the Pokémon Center in Cerulean City.

Getting a Poliwhirl should be no problem if you already have the Super Rod. If not, a Good Rod will allow you to catch and evolve a Poliwag, which you can then evolve into a Poliwhirl.

The old man isn’t too picky, so there’s no level requirement for your Poliwhirl. Simply say Yes to his trade request, and enjoy your new level 20 Jynx!

How To Catch Poliwhirl (Super Rod) & Poliwag (Good Rod)

The only way to catch Poliwhirl in FireRed and LeafGreen is to go fishing with a Super Rod. Luckily, Poliwhirl and Poliwag both show up in many different spots throughout Kanto.

Let’s say you don’t have your Super Rod yet and are too excited for your Jynx to go get it from the Fishing Guru’s Brother. In that case, you can still use the Good Rod to fish up a Poliwag and get your Poliwhirl the old-fashioned way, evolution.

If you do want the Super Rod, you can grab it below Lavender Town on Route 12 from the Fisherman in the house with the Blue Roof.

If you’d rather grab the Good Rod for any reason, then you can head to Fuchsia City. The Fisherman in the house next to the Warden’s will give it to you, no questions asked.

All Poliwhirl Spots

Poliwhirl appears in a total of 11 fishing spots in FireRed and LeafGreen and has about a 40% chance of showing up. So you won’t have to rely on luck to catch one.

If you only have the Good Rod, that’s okay because Poliwag appears at every single one of these spots as well!

So just head to the closest one, catch the Poli of your choice, and get ready to head to Cerulean.

Poliwhirl & Poliwag Fishing Spots:

• Viridian City
• Route 22
• Route 25
• Route 6
• Cape Brink
• Route 23
• The Sevii Islands – Four Island
• Icefall Cave Entrance
• Ruin Valley
• Cerulean Cave

Trading For Jynx

Once you’ve gotten yourself a Poliwhirl, the heavy lifting is over and you can finally head to Cerulean to get your Jynx.

Once you’re in Cerulean City, find the Pokémon Center. To the left of the Center will be a building with a blue roof and a blue door.

Head inside, and you’ll see an elderly couple.

To trade for Jynx, simply:

1. Talk to the old man in the back corner
2. Say “Yes” to his trade offer and select a Poliwhirl to trade
3. Say hi to your new Jynx, Zynx!

The Best Jynx Build (FRLG)

Now that you have your Jynx, I know you want to put her to the test.

She plays the role of a glass cannon or a sweeper on most teams. This means Jynx will pair extremely well with tanky and utility-oriented Pokémon that can help set her up for success and swap her out of bad spots.

Best Jynx Moveset

This build centers around using Lovely Kiss to put your opponents to sleep. This gives you time to power up Jynx with Calm Mind, before sweeping the entire enemy team with Ice Beam.

We add Substitute in the moveset to protect Jynx against the enemy Pokémon waking up. This is necessary because Jynx can easily be taken out with a single hit.

Alternative Moves

Lovely kiss is Jynx’s bread and butter. You’re going to want to keep it in just about every build you create. However, the rest of the moves can be swapped out at will to suit your playstyle. Here are a few fun suggestions:

• Psychic: If you want some Psychic damage on your team, then Psychic is the way to go (obviously!) You can swap this in for Ice Beam or even Substitute if you want to have both Ice and Psychic choices in battle.
• Fake Tears: Greatly lowers the enemy’s Sp. Defense. I’d recommend swapping this for Calm Mind if you don’t mind a little more risk in your battles. Jynx will have less defense but will deal a lot more damage.
• Perish Song: Perish Song KO’s both active Pokémon after three turns. Combine this with Mean Look, Substitute, and Lovely Kiss and your Jynx becomes a terrifying time bomb. This is an extremely fun and unique build, but not the easiest to pull off.

Jynx EVs

There shouldn’t be anything too surprising about this allocation. Jynx’s game plan is to one-shot or be one-shotted. Therefore, we go all-in with Speed and Special Attack.

Jynx Counters & Weaknesses

I’ve already gone over Jynx’s main defensive weakness – she has no defense. But there are a couple of less obvious weaknesses to worry about when using Jynx as your main sweeper or damage dealer.

Metagross

Metagross is, without a doubt, Jynx’s single greatest counter in Pokémon. Metagross is a Steel and Psychic-type Pokémon, which means it takes 1/4 damage from Psychic-type moves.

If that’s not bad enough, Steel-type Pokémon also take 1/2 damage from Ice-type moves. This means that no matter how you build Jynx, you’re just not going to do any damage to a Metagross.

To add insult to injury, Jynx takes double damage from Steel-type moves, which most Metagross will have in abundance.

This is why it’s extremely important to pair Jynx with a Pokémon that can handle Metagross; strong Fire-types, for example.

Sleep Talk

I’m sure you noticed, but Sleep Talk isn’t a Pokémon at all. It’s a move.

Sleep Talk can only be used by a sleeping Pokémon. It allows the sleeping Pokémon to use one of its own moves at random.

This puts a huge damper on our Lovely Kiss strategy because now our Jynx can get KO’d by a sleeping Pokémon.

Just be very wary of Pokémon, such as Snorlax, that are prone to knowing Sleep Talk. It may be a good idea to just swap out against them instead of taking the risk of losing your main damage dealer.