Cress

Cress (Japanese: コーン Koon) is one of the famous Striaton City Gym Leader trio, along with his brothers, Cilan and Chili. Out of, , and -types, Cress prefers Water. If the player picks Tepig as his/her Starter Pokémon, Cress will battle the player at the Striaton City Gym with his Panpour. He will award the player the Trio Badge if the player defeats him.

In Game
Cress is the first gym leader in Unova, but only if Tepig is chosen as the starter Pokémon. When the Gym Leaders are recruited by Bianca to battle Team Plasma, she could not reach the trio due to being late.

In Black 2 and White 2, he's no longer a Gym Leader. If Memory Link is used, it is shown in a flashback that the trio begin to question their strength after being unable to battle Team Plasma, as general opinion is that it needs the three of them to make a good trainer, and discuss what needs to be done to correct that. Suddenly the Shadow Triad assaults them on a "whim", and both sides engage in a Battle. However the Shadow Triad easily defeats the Gym Leaders, which makes them leave so as to check on the other Gym Leaders that can be a true threat. The humiliating defeat, makes them admit they can only succeed as a trio. They then decide to resign as Gym Leaders and restart their training from scratch, so that eventually one of them can become a recognized trainer, then when their strengths match each other again, they can be a trio of Gym Leaders once more. They then think on who will be the new Gym Leader.

Strategy
''All of this is true in the anime but not in the game. ''

Cress prefers to be cool like a glass of water and his Panpour feels the same. He will try to confuse you with Double Team at the start, following it up with Water Gun and Mud Sport. He is one of the hardest to beat so be careful. Cress seems to enjoy bragging about his Panpour.

In the anime
He battled against Ash as well in the anime because Ash wanted to battle all three of the Trio. However, Cress defeated Ash's Pikachu using his powerful and strategetic Panpour. His English Voice Actor is Tom Wayland.

Cress reappeared in BW060, where he informed Cilan over the phone of the reason why Chili was not at the Gym. Contrary to what Chili had said, he had not left in order to study but ran away. Chili had asked him the night why he kept losing. Cress had told him he focused too much on offense with little consideration to defense. As he feared, Chili took it as an insult and ran away. Cress was pleased when Cilan told him he would help Chili with his battle style and help get his confidence back and thanked him for it.

Pokémon Black and White Versions 2

 * Gym Battle


 * Water-type Tournament


 * Unova Gym Leader Tournament

Episode Appearances

 * BW005: Triple Leaders, Team Threats
 * BW006: Dreams by the Yard Full!
 * BW019: A Connoisseur's Revenge! (Cameo, Flashback)
 * BW060: A Call for Brotherly Love!

Voice Actors

 * English: Tom Wayland
 * Japanese: Makoto Ishii
 * Spanish: Manuel Diaz
 * Iberian Spanish: Sergio Garcia-Marin

Trivia

 * At a first glance Cress can be considered Falkner's relative due to appearance similarity.
 * His name comes from the aquatic plant Watercress.
 * Notably, the hair of Cilan, Chili, and Cress all resembles the hairstyle of the Elemental Monkeys' evolutions.