Emerald Battle Pyramid RMT

[Nix_Hex]

Hi guys. I've recently started playing through Emerald's Battle Frontier and man, it is tough. So far I have received the Battle Factory's silver symbol as well as the Battle Pyramid, after painstakingly RNGing legendary Pokemon and parents for breeding. I have a team of 4 so far, one of them being interchangeable since you can only take 3 with you. I am using this guide on wild Pokemon in the Battle Pyramid, written by Expert Evan, and it is very helpful. Thank you, Expert Evan for your hard work! Also, as I understand it, Round 10 is host to the frontier brain for the Pyramid and features a team of the original legendary trio; Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. It's been interesting and I have some very powerful Pokemon, but I need some help patching up any potential weak spots for future rounds... and I kinda just want to show off ;).

First, we'll start with the battle bag. I remember most of the items I have off the top of my head so I'll rattle them off.

(2) Ether
(1) Sacred Ash
(1) Choice Band
(1) Leftovers
(7) Lum Berry
(4) Leppa Berry
(3) Chesto Berry
(5) Revive
(1) Full
(4) Hyper Potion

There is one more item that I can't remember right now, but those are the most important ones. edit: okay, there's the full list.

Now, let's get to the Pokemon. All of these mons have PP Max on each move.

Salamence @ Lum Berry / Chesto Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Naughty
EVs: 52 HP / 100 Atk / 100 SpA / 252 Spe
~Dragon Dance
~Aerial Ace
~Earthquake
~Fire Blast

I used this monster for the first five rounds, then swapped him out for R5, the Ground immunity round. Earthquake is his strongest move; I went with Aerial Ace instead of Hidden Power Flying because the Battle Frontier in general has a lot of Double Team users and I don't want to mess around missing and wasting PP... especially in the Pyramid where PP is limited. I put him back in for R6, the Shadow Tag / Arena Trap round. In theory, I used it because it was a Flying-type and hence immune to Dugtrio's Ground attacks, and I could switch out on wild Trapinch and hopefully use Softboiled on Blissey (more on that later). I used Dragon Dance to get around Wobbuffet's Counter. Basically, I'd use Dragon Dance a few times, then when it doesn't use Destiny Bond, kill it with Earthquake. Wynaut was a OHKO with Earthquake, so there was no need to ever boost. Fire Blast is for Skarmory and Forretress, although I haven't run into the latter yet. Overall, Salamence has served me well, but sometimes I wished it hit a little harder right off the bat.

Heracross @ Choice Band
Ability: Guts
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
~Megahorn
~Brick Break
~Rock Slide
~Earthquake

This guy is my MVP late-round. I got by in earlier rounds using crappy in-game Pokemon but when I was finally able to catch one of these guys and breed for optimal IVs, I knew I was in for a treat. When I obtained a Choice Band, my team's firepower went way up. I have been able to get him burned in two different rounds, making his attacks impossible for the CPU to withstand. Brick Break alone won me the Brave Symbol. I usually put him at the front of my party in later rounds when Salamence or Latios are worn down. This helped in R6, where Megahorn managed not to miss, instead mauling the Wobbuffets on the 7th floor (I didn't quite trust Earthquake and didn't want to use a Revive so late into the round). Rock Slide hits Levitators and Flyers quite hard, while Earthquake is a great spread move in double battles. Both Salamence and Latios are immune to it, which is a nice bonus!

Latios @ Lum Berry / Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
~Psychic
~Dragon Claw
~Ice Beam
~Thunderbolt

I was able to shark up an Eon ticket and activate the battle on Southern Island so I could catch this guy without having to resort to the 31/8/0/0/0/0 roamer. It hits harder than Salamence on the special side and has fantastic coverage all around. Psychic is the primary STAB, hitting wild Gengar super effectively and having good neutral coverage overall. Dragon Claw is great neutral secondary STAB when I know I can KO something without Dragon Claw. Ice Beam covers Dragons when I don't want to waste Dragon Claw's PP; Flygon is a common recipient for this. Thunderbolt is the last move, mainly to hit Water-types and Skarmory. Timid seems like overkill but it was way easier to RNG. Strangely, I ended up ditching Latios in R6 despite him being a Levitator, but I knew that Salamence and Heracross could handle pretty much everything and I am now using Blissey as a 3rd member for walling and clerical purposes.

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
~Seismic Toss
~Ice Beam
~Softboiled
~Aromatherapy

I got the idea of using Blissey in the Battle Pyramid from Psypokes, having forgotten the obscure out-of-battle effect of Softboiled. Basically, you can use Softboiled to cut Blissey's health by a fraction and give that health to another member of the team, keeping my attackers healthy. When I have a chance, I'll switch Blissey in on a special attacker, recover with Softboiled as much as possible so I can have more health to give to my teammates later on. Aromatherapy is helpful sometimes, though I don't use it if Heracross is burned because I want as much ridiculous physical power that I can get. It does help if one of my members gets poisoned, no thanks to poison's out-of-battle effect, so I don't have to use up my Lum Berries as frequently. Sleeping and paralyzed Pokemon appreciate the support too. Seismic Toss and Ice Beam let Blissey chip away at my opponent.

The next round is R7, and the fortune teller tells me this:

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Aah! I see ICE-type POKéMON... ...And, I see your POKéMON fighting the freezing effects of ice... Whether you believe my fortunes or not, the choice is yours... The future can be changed anytime... I wish you safe passage...

I'll likely leave Salamence out of this round and let Heracross do the dirty work against the wild Pokemon, with Latios for back up with trainers as well as partnership in double battles.
I am open to critiques or suggestions regarding any additional members. RNGing is a pain in the butt so I'd like serious suggestions so I don't waste my time. Thanks for reading!

Also, special thanks to Hozu for his endless support, research, and resources, and Kaphotics for his helpful lua scripts that made RNGing easier.

 

[Perfect Cell]

Hello! Welcome to the Battle Pyramid, I've gotta say, good job on getting this far. Round 7 IMO is the most difficult round there is, and I think the only reason I pulled through was because of Gengar being a smug bastard with crits. However, since you don't have Gengar, we'll look at what you have instead.

As you said, it would be a bad idea to bring out Salamence for this round. Fire Blast can be inaccurate and when it does miss(there really is no if it misses in BF), Salamence is going to catch a very bad cold. Thus, leading off with Heracross is the best move. However, keep in mind that a few of the Pokemon for R7 have nothing but special moves (Glalie, Jynx, Cloyster), so you can usually switch out to Blissey for these mons if you need to do something like heal and what not. Be really careful with this round and don't be afraid to use a revive or two, this is the worst round to be in!

Round 8 has nothing but Pokemon using Explosion and Self-Destruct. Since the Battle Pyramid sometimes makes your Pokemon unable to escape despite being clearly faster, it's best to just kill them and move on with it. Salamence can take care of most of the wild Pokemon in this round, bar Solrock and possibly Golem. Again, you may want to take it a little slow on this one. On one hand, bringing Blissey seems like a good idea to prevent any accidents, on the other hand it basically makes you fucked in certain situations. I'm really really slightly leaning towards no Blissey and lead with Salamence, but it's really up to you for that one.

Round 9 has nothing but Psychic Pokemon. The only wild Pokemon here that have physical moves are Exeggutor, Metang, Xatu and Espeon, all which aren't threatening perhaps save for Espeon. Blissey really won't care about 80% of these guys, and the 4 I mentioned are eaten alive by Salamence. I'm mixed on bringing Heracross here, he shouldn't have a problem killing these guys, but a miss is going to leave him a dead bug. Up to you, though.

Round 10 has ROCK Pokemon!!!!1!
.......
Yeah. You should have no problem for any of these guys save for possibly Aerodactyl. If you really want, clone Latios and give his clone Surf and blast the fuck through these guys. I'd say bringing Salamence/Heracross/Latios will do here. Congra-

Oh yeah, Round 10 also has Brandon, almost forgot. Well, let's quickly look at each bird's stats and moves.

Hide

Articuno
Mild @ Scope Lens
Reflect/Blizzard/Water Pulse/Aerial Ace
322/206/269/248/286/269

Zapdos
Mild @ Lum Berry
Thunder/Detect/Drill Peck/Light Screen
322/216/242/314/216/299

Moltres
Mild @ Brightpowder
Fire Blast/Hyper Beam/Aerial Ace/Safeguard
322/236/251/314/206/279

And judging from your guys EV's, their stats should be around(I find it helps to have a visual example for me)

Hide

*In order of HP/ATK/DEF/SPA/SPDEF/SPE
Latios:302, x, 196. 359, 256, 350
Salamence:344, 364, 196, 281, 176, 299
Heracross:301, 383, 186, 104, 227, 269

You don't have to fight him the second you walk up there, so take this time to heal up and switch your Pokemon accordingly. Brandon will always lead off with Articuno. Unfortunately, you have a speed-tie with Articuno and Heracross. If Heracross can Rock Slide first, Articuno's dead and that's it. After that, Heracross is also basically dead! If it's Zapdos, send out Latios and keep firing Ice Beams/STAB Psychics at him. One IB already takes him down to less than half HP, so even with a LS boost, another will send his ass home. And Moltres is, Moltres.

Also, keep in mind of one very important thing against Brandon. You CAN use items against him. And since it's the last battle before your medal, you really have nothing to lose, go postal with those items if need be.

I hope my advice helped. Good luck, and have fun!

 

[Nix_Hex]

Well I made it through Ice and Suicide rounds -- I used Heracross, Latios, and Blissey and was impressed. Psychic is next up. Tyranitar (special or mixed) seems like a pretty boss Pokemon to me thanks to its immunity to Psychic. Here's how it matches up against the wild Pokemon:

1. Wobbuffet - Roar
2. Metang - Fire Blast / Flamethrower
   
3. Exeggutor - Crunch
4. Slowking - Crunch or go to Blissey
5. Xatu - Crunch, will have to watch out for repeated Steel Wings though which Blissey helps with.
   
6. Alakazam - Crunch or go to Blissey to use Softboiled. Toxic sucks but I have like 14 Lum Berries so whatever.
7. Starmie - Go to Blissey to use Softboiled and SToss. May replace Ice Beam with Thunderbolt on Blissey.
8. Espeon - Dig is pathetic. Crunch all the way.

Any ideas for a fourth move for Tyranitar? Ice Beam and Thunderbolt are good filler special moves while Rock Slide lets it go mixed and provides a spread move for double battles. Flamethrower > Fire Blast was mentioned and relieves Tyranitar from using a low PP move, but the lack of power could be bad. It's really only for Steel-types so I don't expect Fire Blast to be used all that often.

 

[Fireburn]

Hey! I've gotten the gold symbol in Pyramid. I mostly did it through brute force (CB Slaking ftw), but maybe I can still help.

Wobby can't Mirror Coat special moves on Tar so Crunch would definitely be welcome. You'll want at least one non attacking move in case Wobb tries to Destiny Bond you though. Maybe a weird DD MixTar with Rock Slide, Crunch, Earthquake as attacks? DD + Rock Slide = gg Brandon if you make it that far, which is a bonus. Tar and Latios also work well together. You have Aromatherapy Blissey so Rest could be used over DD on Tar if you want a more survivable one.

TTar, Latios, Blissey should get you through Round 9 at least. For Round 10 I would keep Tyranitar just because he has a solid matchup against Brandon, or you could consider swapping out Blissey for a bulky water to help tank Rock-types. I used RestTalk Milotic and it worked very well, but I would recommend Swampert if you can get one since he can take on Brandon's Moltres and walls Zapdos. If you do that, considering Heart Scaling Recover onto Latios temporarily so he can help tank better. It has 32 PP in Gen 3 so make the most of it!

I think you'll be fine barring bad luck though. Here's to a good run!

 

[Nix_Hex]

Ah yeah! I forgot about Mirror Coat being a Psychic move. I RNG'd a female Larvitar in FR (luckily the seed stays still when playing it on an emulator, thanks again to lua scripts!) with 31 in both Atk and SpA. Now it's time for some chain breeding ... just gotta get my hands on a female Charmander! Looks like I'm going to have to restart my Leaf Green game, though I don't think I'm particularly attached to any of my savs. Thanks for the help Fireburn, can't wait to test this out.

 

[Perfect Cell]

If you need to RNG-breed Tyranitar later, Frame 1385 with No Splits has the IV set of 27/31/30/B/B/30, which is very good considering how early that is(Literally about 23 seconds?), which can make the process a little easier to deal with.

Also please, let us know how your fight against Brandon goes.

Good luck!