Grant: Cyllage City's Climbing Gym Leader and His Cliff Badge

His hairstyle mimics a climbing wall, holds included. Grant guards the second Gym of the Kalos League, in Cyllage City, and the Trainer who walks out victorious takes home the Cliff Badge. A climber and cyclist before he became a Gym Leader, he fields only Rock-type Pokémon — and he is the first specialist of that type not to open his region's Gym circuit.

Contents

• Cyllage City, Kalos's Second Gym
• A Mountain on His Head, Beads in His Hair
• Grand Duke, and a Battle with No Team Limit
• In the Manga: A Gym Leader Who Turns Up Everywhere
• The mobile game and the first card
• Grant at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Cyllage City, Kalos's Second Gym

The Kalos journey passes through Cyllage City very early on. Grant is the second Gym Leader a Trainer faces on that journey, and beating him earns you the Cliff Badge, which counts as the second official badge of the region's League.

His specialty never shifts from one battle to the next: the Rock type, from the first Pokémon sent out to the last. The badge's very name picks up the idea of a rock face, the kind he climbs outside his Gym.

That position earns the character a line in the series' history. He is the first Rock-type Gym Leader not to hold the first Gym of his League — a phrasing that implies the specialty had, until then, always served as the entry point.

A Mountain on His Head, Beads in His Hair

The character is described by someone else rather than by himself. April, who hosts the TV show devoted to Gyms, explains that his great height and thin frame come from self-imposed deprivation: he forbids himself the foods he loves. The rest of his look is understated, with a tight black sweater and gray pants.

Everything happens above the eyebrows. His haircut forms a mountain, bristling with colorful stones that stand in for climbing holds: the Gym Leader's sport is written on his head before he has even sent out a Pokémon.

The same host adds a detail that says a lot about his standing: the way he braids beads into his hair is apparently catching on with young people. A customer at Restaurant Le Yeah also says he is occasionally invited to the dinners hosted by Siebold.

Grand Duke, and a Battle with No Team Limit

The anime brings him in during the Kalos series and gives him a title the games never do: that of Grand Duke. It takes a few more episodes for Ash to show up at his Gym and win the Cliff Badge from him.

That battle follows a house rule. Grant lets his challenger use as many Pokémon as they like, without capping the size of the opposing team — a generosity he shares with Roxie, and one that is far from a given among Gym Leaders.

As for Pokémon, the series gives him an Onix and a Tyrunt: the latter is seen using Draco Meteor, Dragon Tail, Crunch and Rock Tomb. Grant returns much later in the series, this time facing Lysandre.

🧗 Tyrunt, Amaura and their stony cousins stand tall on a shelf: check out the Pokémon figures.

In the Manga: A Gym Leader Who Turns Up Everywhere

The manga adaptation uses him as a connecting figure. He first appears alongside Clemont, recognizes Grace — Y's mother and a Rhyhorn racing champion — and notices the men in red who are with her.

His second appearance is all about temper. He lashes out at Cassius, whose helicopter crashed onto the Cycling Road and the climbing wall: the athlete takes the destruction of his training grounds very personally.

From there, the story puts him in the collective camp. He turns up in Laverre City with Valerie and Olympia, then in Geosenge Town, where he joins the other Gym Leaders and Y in pushing against the ultimate weapon.

The mobile game and the first card

The mobile game recruited him from launch, in the outfit he wears in the X and Y games. There, he teams up with an Amaura that can turn into Aurorus mid-battle.

His character profile there fits in a single sentence, and it ties together everything the main games had planted: it presents him as being as skilled at climbing as at giving fashion advice, with an admitted weakness for desserts — which casts the diet April attributes to him in a different light.

The trading card game, for its part, kept him waiting. His first card arrived with the Sword & Shield—Astral Radiance expansion, released in France on May 27, 2022, several generations after his debut.

Grant at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Where is Grant's Gym, and which badge does he give out?
  In Cyllage City, in the Kalos region. It's the second Gym on the circuit, and Trainers who get past it leave with the Cliff Badge.
• Which Pokémon does Grant use?
  In X and Y, he fields Amaura and Tyrunt at his Gym, then Aurorus and Tyrantrum at the Battle Chateau. The anime gives him an Onix and a Tyrunt, the latter seen using Draco Meteor, Dragon Tail, Crunch and Rock Tomb. In the mobile game, he teams up with an Amaura that evolves into Aurorus.
• Why does Grant stand out among Rock-type Gym Leaders?
  Because he is the first specialist of that type not to hold his region's first Gym. With him, the specialty comes second on the circuit.
• Does Grant appear in the anime?
  Yes, during the Kalos series. He holds the title of Grand Duke, hands his Cliff Badge to Ash after a battle in which the challenger may use all of his Pokémon, and later returns to face Lysandre.
• Does Grant have a trading card?
  His first card came out with the Sword & Shield—Astral Radiance expansion, released in France on May 27, 2022.

In short

Grant brings together two things the series usually keeps apart: the Rock-type specialty, long reserved for the opening Gym, and an athlete you recognize by his hairstyle before his Pokémon. The rest comes down to details reported by others — the diet a TV host attributes to him, the beads people copy, the dinners he gets invited to. A Gym Leader who is described more often than he describes himself.