Arena: Treadmills of Doom
Field Type: Neutral
Complexity: Intense
Format: Singles
Restrictions Water Source only for Surf, No Weather, No SolarBeam, No Natural Elements, No Digging, No suspending Fly, No Entry Hazards
Arena basics:
- No weather or SolarBeam
- External water source can only be used for Surf
- No natural elements (rocks, grass, etc.)
- No digging
- No suspending Fly
- Seismic moves allowed
The pokemon are inside what looks like an evil mastermind's lair, complete with death traps for any superheroes or secret agents that think they can bring said mastermind to justice. The actual arena is just one of these death traps: a bunch of treadmills set out in several rows with shark tanks at the ends of the rows. The walls on the sides of the arena have been marked at 10ft intervals and it is clear that the length of the treadmill arena is 100ft, not counting the shark tanks at each end. The treadmills' constant movement disrupts all entry hazard placement.
The key aspect of this arena is position, or more specifically, how far along the treadmills the pokemon are. The treadmills span positions from 1ft to 100ft, and the shark tanks are at locations 0ft and 101ft. The treadmills go in the direction of the shark tank that they are closer to, so from 1ft to 50ft, they go towards 0ft, and from 51ft to 100ft, they go towards 101ft. If a pokemon should fall into a shark tank, that pokemon is KO'd immediately. Flying and levitating pokemon are not exempt from this as the gravity in this room is slightly intensified - not enough for Gravity's effect to happen or for flying and levitating pokemon to lose their immunities to Ground-type and seismic moves respectively, but enough to force them to come to the ground briefly at the end of each action.
Detailed arena mechanics:
At the start of the battle, whoever sends out their pokemon first sends them out at the 50ft mark and whoever sends their pokemon out second sends theirs out at the 51ft mark. Any time a new pokemon is sent out, it is sent out at whichever position the trainer's first pokemon was sent out at.
At the end of every action, every pokemon will be pulled 1ft by the treadmills. For pokemon whose position is between 1ft and 50ft, subtract 1ft. For pokemon whose position is between 51ft and 100ft, add 1ft. In addition, all pokemon lose 1 energy as they try to stay away from the shark tanks. Pokemon with Hustle enabled lose 2 energy but do not get pulled by the treadmills. However, there are certain situations in which a pokemon will not run to stay out of the shark tanks. If a pokemon finds itself in one of those situations, it loses no energy but the treadmills pull it 5ft towards the nearest shark tank. These situations are as follows:
- The pokemon chilled in that action.
- The pokemon cooled down in that action after using a combo.
- The pokemon is immobile, meaning that it is either under the effect of Ingrain, Wrap, Bind or Clamp, or it is grappling an opponent (dealing damage to it per action) with Wrap, Bind or Clamp.
- The pokemon is anchored (see the Anchor command for details).
- The pokemon failed to act at all in the action for any reason (including but not limited to flinch, sleep and full paralysis; however, not including a move missing or having no effect due to immunity).
All direct damaging moves except partial trapping ones like Wrap and Fire Spin have a knockback component. Unless the target is immobile, it will be pushed away from the user of a direct damaging move that hits it. If the user and target are in the same position, or if the move involves picking up or throwing the target (such as Circle Throw, Psychic or Sky Drop), the move sends the target towards the nearest shark tank. The knockback component is equal to the BAP of the move (before all adjustments except Technician, the *0.75 for multi-target moves and multi-hit calculation) plus the user's attack or special attack rank (depending on whether the move is physical or special) minus double the target's weight class. For moves that deal fixed damage, treat their BAP as half of the damage dealt. If the move is a contact move, its BAP is multiplied by 1.5. The end result is rounded off to the nearest whole number using normal rounding rules, but the knockback component is always at least 0ft.
For example, a Modest Tomohawk's Hurricane against a Quiet Machamp has a knockback component of (12+5-2*5)=7ft, while that same Machamp's DynamicPunch against the same Tomohawk has a knockback component of (10*1.5+5-2*3)=14ft.
In this arena, a pokemon that isn't immobile may use the
Dash command to run to a particular integer position. The range of valid positions the pokemon can run to is its current position plus or minus 10% of its current speed (rounded to the nearest whole number) and the energy cost for using the command is (5 * distance travelled / maximum possible distance), rounded to the nearest whole number with a minimum energy cost of 1. If a pokemon tries to run to an invalid position, it will simply run as far as it can in that direction and the command will cost 5 energy. It doesn't matter whether there's another pokemon at the same position or not - the rows of treadmills are wide enough to allow multiple pokemon to share the same spot along the length of the arena.
For example, an Adamant Raticate with no speed boosts or drops can run up to (97/10)=9.7ft (which gets rounded to 10ft) in either direction. If said Raticate is at the 20ft mark, this means it can run to the 10ft mark, the 30ft mark or anywhere in between. Running to the 13ft mark or the 27ft mark would cost it (5*7/10)=3.5 energy, which would be rounded to 4. If it tries to run to the 35ft mark, it will run as far in that direction as it can, which will take it to the 30ft mark.
The
Dash command cannot be encored or disallowed by moves that typically prevent certain moves from being used such as Taunt, and it is not subject to the consecutive move penalty.
Contact moves have a limited range based on the pokemon's size class. If the distance between the pokemon using the contact move and the intended target is less than or equal to the user's size class, the move will work as normal. Otherwise, as long as the pokemon is not immobile, it will try to run up to its target and use its intended move as if using the
Dash command as part of the move, with the maximum distance being doubled if the move is Pursuit. The pokemon will only run until the distance between it and its target is equal to its size class before attempting to use the move; however, if the move misses, there is a 50% chance that the pokemon will then continue to run until it runs as far as it possibly could. If the move being used is U-turn, the pokemon will then return to its previous position immediately. Otherwise, it will remain in its new position until it is moved by the treadmills. In the event that the pokemon cannot reach its target, it will fail to use its intended move, but the fact that it managed to
Dash means it doesn't count as failing to act and, if the intended move was a combo, the pokemon is not forced to cool down on the following action. An immobile pokemon that attempts to hit an out-of-range opponent with a contact move will simply fail to act.
For example, an Adamant Gliscor at the 30ft mark can use Acrobatics on an opponent whose position is between 27ft and 33ft as usual. Said Gliscor can run up to (95/10)=9.5ft (which gets rounded to 10ft), so would also be able to hit opponents whose position is between 17ft and 43ft, but this would require Gliscor to spend some energy travelling towards the opponent. Attempts to hit opponents any further away will result in Gliscor running to either the 20ft mark or the 40ft mark, whichever is closer to the intended target of Acrobatics, but Gliscor won't execute its intended move.
There are other commands that may be used in this arena. The
Sprint command allows a pokemon to run up to three times as far as it could with the
Dash command for an energy cost of (20 * distance travelled / maximum possible distance). However, the pokemon will have to cool down on the next action as though it had just used a combo. This command, like the
Dash command, cannot be encored or prevented by moves that usually prevent moves. Unlike the
Dash command, this command cannot be used while enduring.
The
Anchor command costs 5 energy and gives the pokemon a "permanent" anchored effect. This effect prevents the pokemon from being removed from play by opponents' moves and reduces the knockback of all damaging moves except those that involve picking up or throwing the pokemon (such as Circle Throw, Psychic or Sky Drop). If the pokemon has Suction Cups, the knockback is eliminated completely; otherwise, the knockback is halved and rounded to the nearest whole number. However, being anchored also removes any immunity to Ground-type moves and, any time the pokemon is hit by a direct damaging move that doesn't involve picking it up or throwing it, it loses energy equal to 50% of the knockback the move has. If the pokemon is successfully picked up or thrown, or if it attempts to use the
Dash command, the
Sprint command, a contact move on an out-of-range target or any move that involves jumping or flying, or if the pokemon is ordered to end its anchored effect as part of another action, its anchored effect ends. Finally, this command cannot be encored and, with the exception of Taunt, cannot be prevented by moves that usually prevent moves.