Roxie: The Bassist Gym Leader Whose Gym Is a Concert Hall

She battles with a bass in hand, and the setting follows suit. Roxie runs the Virbank City Gym in the Unova region, where she has championed the Poison type since Black 2 and White 2. Gym Leader on one side, bassist on the other: the game doesn't choose between the two jobs, and the anime takes the logic all the way by turning her battle hall into a concert venue.

Contents

• Virbank City, a Poison Gym That Arrived with the Sequel
• Several Tournaments at the Pokémon World Tournament
• In the Anime: An Underground Concert and a Self-Imposed Handicap
• The Mobile Game and the First Card
• Roxie at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Virbank City, a Poison Gym That Arrived with the Sequel

Roxie isn't part of the first visit to Unova: she arrives with Black 2 and White 2, the direct sequel that reshuffles the region's Gyms. Her specialty doesn't budge an inch across all her appearances — the Poison type, and nothing else.

Her roster contains an oddity that attentive players spot quickly: her Whirlipede battles at a lower level than the one at which the species normally evolves. The detail holds true for the standard battle as well as for Easy Mode and Challenge Mode, where the Gym Leader keeps this anomaly.

Her look is tuned to the same key as her type. Messy white hair swept up into a spike and held by two beads, one blue and one purple; a long blue T-shirt with purple stripes, beige tights, and black shoes with turquoise heels. Even her bass is black streaked with purple: the instrument is part of the costume.

Several Tournaments at the Pokémon World Tournament

After the Gym, Roxie lands on the bill at the Pokémon World Tournament, the battle facility that brings together Gym Leaders from every region. She is part of the lineup in several different tournaments — including the Driftveil Tournament, the Mix Tournament, the Unova Leaders Tournament and the Poison Type Expert Tournament.

The rule is the same in these four cases, and it's more interesting than it looks. Roxie has a pool of six Pokémon from which the game draws depending on the format: three in Single Battles, four in Double Battles and Rotation Battles alike, and all six in Triple Battles.

In other words, challengers never face exactly the same Gym Leader twice. The Poison-type Expert Tournament also puts her on familiar ground, up against other specialists of the same type: that's where she feels most at home.

In the Anime: An Underground Concert and a Self-Imposed Handicap

The series devotes a two-parter to her, two back-to-back episodes in the Black & White series. Her Gym there is underground and looks like a concert hall — not a metaphor: the stage, the sound system and the audience are all there, and the battles take place right in the middle of it.

Roxie plays there with her band, "Koffing and the Toxics", a punk-rock outfit that keeps playing during matches. Her Koffing chains together Gyro Ball, Will-O-Wisp, Sludge Bomb and Clear Smog, her Scolipede pulls out a Rock Tomb, and her Garbodor answers with Gunk Shot and Venoshock.

She's strong enough to give herself a handicap on principle: she only uses three Pokémon while letting her opponents use all of theirs. Ash still manages to beat her and leaves with the Toxic Badge, the eighth and final badge of his journey through the region.

🎸 The Poison type's headliners have their own section: check out the Pokémon figures.

The Mobile Game and the First Card

Roxie is one of the Trainers available since the mobile game's launch, and the game sums her up in two lines: a Poison-type Gym Leader who's hugely popular in Unova, and the bassist of a rock band. Both labels fit on the same character card.

She has two outfits there. In her standard version, she teams up with a Whirlipede that can evolve into Scolipede, along with a variant paired with a Garbodor that you get with dedicated scout tickets. In her Sygna Suit, she battles alongside an Amped Form Toxtricity that can Gigantamax.

As for the trading cards, her first appearance dates back to a Japanese expansion from the TAG TEAM GX series released in Japan on October 4, 2019, before reaching France on November 1 of the same year with Sun & Moon—Cosmic Eclipse. Other cards followed, but that one remains her entry card into the game.

Roxie at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Where is Roxie's Gym?
  In Virbank City, in the Unova region. Roxie champions the Poison type there and only appears from Black 2 and White 2 onward, the sequel that reworks the region's Gyms.
• Why does her Gym look like a concert hall?
  Because Roxie is also a bassist. In the anime, her underground Gym is set up as a concert hall, and her punk-rock band, "Koffing and the Toxics", plays during battles.
• Which Pokémon does Roxie use?
  The anime gives her Koffing, Scolipede and Garbodor. The games notably give her a Whirlipede, and the mobile game pairs her with a Whirlipede, a Garbodor and then an Amped Form Toxtricity.
• Which badge does Roxie give out?
  The Toxic Badge. In the anime, it's the eighth and final badge Ash earns in the region, after beating the Gym Leader despite the handicap she imposes on herself.
• Does Roxie appear in the Pokémon World Tournament?
  Yes, in several tournaments, including the Driftveil Tournament, the Mix Tournament, the Unova Leaders Tournament and the Poison Type Expert Tournament. She fields three to six Pokémon there depending on the battle format.

In short

Roxie is one of the few Gym Leaders whose second job truly spills over into her Gym duties: you can't battle her without listening to her band play. A Whirlipede that refuses to evolve at the expected level, a pool of six Pokémon that the Pokémon World Tournament reshuffles with every format, a three-Pokémon handicap granted out of sheer confidence. The Poison type has found its loudest Gym Leader.