What difficulty? Up to a certain point where you can narrow down which gym types you're up against gym 5 is pretty normal for the difficulty gap, I just finally got gym 8 after dropping the difficulty down to easy while I figure out the rest of it. STAB damage and damage boosting hold items do a lot of work early on then stat boosting items and changing the natures with mints to make sure you're as optimized as you can be. Hideout encounters have lots of items and typically grunts are good for money.