Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

[javisoto99]

Hello, I a post a new streak in Battle Pyramid with 167 floors, on Open Level (Level 100), play on a original Spanish Emerald. I decided upload because not only obtain a gold symbol, also completed 23 round in total, and 6 floors (lose in last floor because a trainer with Gardevoir-5). This is my longest streak in any battle facility in any game.

Note: english is not my first language, i help with translate to post this.

First, the picture with record:

Picture Proof

Next, my team: IVs are mostly 31 if no says another case, and moves are max pp up.

Main Team

Salamence @ Choice Band
Level 100
Jolly Nature
Ability Intimidate
Evs 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 HP
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake

Latias @ Shell Bell
Level 100
Timid Nature
Ability Levitate
Evs 252 spatk, 252 speed, 4 HP
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Claw
- Ice Beam

Swampert @ Shell Bell
Level 100
Rash Nature
Ability Torrent
Evs 172 atk, 252 spatk, 84 speed
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide


My main team in the most rounds. Choice Band Salamence destroy most wild pokemon and intimidate reduce wild encounter chances. Shell Bell helps a recover HP and save potions.

Brandon battles: Easy, put Swampert in first slot and spam Rock Slide. If it's KO, Salamence can spam more Rock Slide, or Latias used Thunderbolt or Ice Beam in theirs legendary birds.

Others members

Heracross @ Choice Band
Level 100
Jolly Nature
Ability Guts
Evs 252 atk, 252 speed, 4 HP
- Brick Break
- Megahorn
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Used in some rounds, like round 7 with ice types or round 20 with normal types. Can OHKO most wild pokemon in these rounds. Also, in round 20, defeat Brandon's Articuno with 2 Rock Slide.

Regice @ Shell Bell
Level 100
Modest Nature
Ability Clear Body
IVs: 3 atk, 26 def, 25 spdef. Other stats are 31.
Evs 198 HP, 148 spatk, 164 speed
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Psych up
- Explosion

Used only in round with dragon/fly wilds pokemon, but his low speed make not very useful anyway.

Linoone @ (No item)
Level 100
Jolly Nature
Ability Pickup
IVs: Terrible in general, 0 in HP and atk.
Evs 100 in all stats except spatk. Its suboptimal stats in general.
- Cover
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam
- (no move)

Used in round 1 and 2 because Pickup and Covet to farm items. Covet theft one shell Bell from a random trainer, one of my most used items.

The loss:

Loss

In last floor, found the exit, but some trainers are necesary defeat to enter. Talk a one and send a Gardevoir, when I send Latias (yellow HP). Enemy Gardevoir traced Latias's levitate. My Latias used dragon claw and Gardevoir used shadow ball. With HP Latias in red, changed to Salamence, and by mistake, used earthquake, forgetting enemy Gardevoir copied levitate. Because this and my choice band, used and hyperpotion in Latias when Salamence dies. Latias used dragon claw, not defeat and Gardevoir used critical hit shadow ball, and boost speed with Salac Berry. In next turn, Gardevoir defeat Latias, and I send Swampert. Im trusted and used surf, but Gardevoir move first with Destiny Bond. Game over, opponent Gardevoir dies and my Swampert die. Of course, a draw encounter = you lose, incluse if opponent use a move like explosion, destiny bond or similar.

 

[Missing#]

Finally got my gold on the Battle Tower!

Evidence

Main Team

Metagross @ Choice Band
Level 50
Admant Nature
Ability Clear Body
Evs 252 atk, 204 speed, 50 HP
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion




Latios @ Lum Berry
Level 50
Timid Nature
Ability Levitate
Evs 252 spatk, 252 speed, 4 HP
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Dragon Claw
- Calm Mind




Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Level 50
Modest Nature
Ability Pressure
Evs 216 HP, 200 Def, 92 speed
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Toxic

My team is not exactly groundbreaking, but there were tons of tiny tweaks regarding Suicune's moveset (Ice Beam -> Substitute -> Toxic), and regarding leads which I think makes a big difference. At first I lead with Latios, but that leads to a lot of luck based risks against certain sets. I faced losses against Gardevoir 4 (Calm Mind -> Dragon Claw -> Dragon Claw is a safe strategy UNLESS a bright powder is activated), Dewgong 2 hitting 3 Sheer Colds in 4 turns, and from Pinsir of all things sweeping me (I tried to play it safe by doing Psychic twice, but it outspeeds Latios after it's Salac berry. Endure will let it live and Flail WILL kill Latios afterwards spiraling things out of control from there.)

My thought process with Toxic on Suicune is that I needed something that could reign in the Double Team users, and walls. I also wanted an ace in the hole last ditch effort if the set went to shit so I could just stall and kill slowly. Lastly, Toxic is sometimes a good scouting tool to test for Lum Berry in the set or not. I was not getting a lot of mileage out of substitute, as Rest was already good for healing statuses. Ice Beam was a decent option when facing a water absorb pokemon (which got REAL annoying after I finished setting up my Calm Minds), but toxic already hits them as well.

My thoughts regarding leads, is that a Metagross lead reduced a lot of randomness from these randomly dangerous sets. Against normal sets, he can be a bit overreliant on Meteor Mash with its 90 accuracy, but usually he can tank a hit and try again without issue. For sets where failure is NOT an option, I will go with the safer accuracy moves like Earthquake or Shadow Ball, even if I risk being locked into an inflexible move, or if Metagross will have to tank a lot of damage to secure a 2HKO vs a potential Meteor Mash OHKO.

For risky sets with a Latios lead, leading with Metagross and using Shadow Ball WILL kill Gardevoir 4 in one hit so you only need to worry about a single proc from Bright Powder and only a single critical hit from Gardevoir. Dewgong can be one shot by Explosion if you're extremely risk-averse or you can use meteor mash to OHKO. Pinsir 2 is still a threat hilariously enough if it does an ill-timed endure no matter what pokemon I throw at it, but a Suicune switch in to Toxic and then switch out to Latios to Calm Mind and then Psychic would be a safe way around Endure now that I think about it.

Anyways, for the 10th round against Anabel, I lead with Latios for once, as it was the safest option, but it lead to some hairy sets on the way to Anabel (Ex. When scouting for Aggron, I decided to switch to Metagross on Turn 1 so it could OHKO with Earthquake, but it ended up being Aggron 2 who thunder waved Metagross. And then Focus Punched him with a crit as he did nothing the next turn due to Paralysis, putting me on the backfoot for the rest of the set.)

I theorycrafted a way to still win against Anabel if I lead with Metagross (switch out turn 1 to Latios, he can survive a thunderbolt from Raikou. Calm Mind until you have +1 Sp atk boosts against Raikou's Sp def boosts (hopefully you don't both spam Calm Mind which is the main potential issue with this strat. Against Metagross on Turn 1 though, I highly expect a Reflect or Thunderbolt). Then 2HKO Raikou with Psychic, OHKO Latios (UNLESS Brightpowder makes you miss, and Latios dies. Then you have to bring out Metagross to Shadow Ball 2HKO Latios), and then wait for our Latios to die, then bring out Metagross to OHKO with explosion. I was too nervous about my streak to try it, but I do believe that Metagross is a better lead against every other trainer in the tower.

 

[Joplin]

What's going on gang? Happy Pokemon Day! I thought today would be a good one to do the write up and submit my streak I've been livestreaming this past month. This streak was done on my retail cart; I just recently got a DS Original with a capture card for streaming.

Facility: Lvl 50 Battle Tower
Streak: 189W

The whole streak was livestreamed, it's compiled under the live section of my youtube channel. Below is a picture from my phone I took of the streak at 189W; it can also be seen at 42:20 on my livestream titled "It's Time For Some Legendaries."

I think this was an awesome run, and I had a blast livestreaming it! The streak ended just two days ago, and while I want to say it was all unfortunate RNG (which there was, no doubt), upon reflecting, I think there were some plays I could have made toward the mid-late game to attempt a possible save. I guess I couldn't have known what would happen, but these are experiencies I'll take with me to the next one.

Loss at Battle 190 (starting at 04:57)

Of course they had to start off strong with Gentleman Reese, who has only legendaries. Up to this point, I was mostly only fearing Zapdos because the 3rd set is insanely annoying, but they led Articuno against my Metagross.

There can only be sets 1-4 of the birds in the lvl 50 bracket, so after checking the speed on Eisencalc, only Art1 could outspeed on my 112 speed 'Gross. Okay, a case is starting to build to use Mash, I thought, as it's a 3 in 4 chance we're moving first anyway. As it always turns out on losses, it had to be Art1.

However, from this point is where the truly insane RNG happened. I clicked Mash on Gross and of course, in RNG fashion, it missed. Art wasn't doing much to 'Gross with Ice Beam, so I stayed in and chanced another Mash. After Art hit with another Ice Beam, 'Gross was around 50% HP and happened to miss AGAIN.

At this point, I'm thinking there's really not much use of Gross switching in at his current HP, so I use Mash again, and after another Ice Beam, 'Gross misses AGAIN.

Gang, there is a 0.33% chance of Mash missing 3 times in a row. I tried to keep a level head as much as I could, but things were not looking in my favour.

On his fourth turn, Metagross lands the Meteor Mash with 5 HP remaining, OHKO'ing Art1. Next is the real problem, Raikou.

Of all the Raikou's it could have been, it had to be Raikou1, which is by FAR the worst one, at least for my team. What I realized after this battle is Raikou essentially acts as "Metagross HP Check" on my team, if it comes out as the 2nd mon. It is quite possibly one of, if not, the WORST pokemon to be seeing in the opponent's 2nd slot, if Gross didn't stay in and EQ, which he usually doesn't.

Below is the opponent set:
Raikou @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
Modest Nature
EVs: 255 SpA / 255 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Calm Mind
- Rest

Not only does it have the Calm Mind Chesto Resto shenanigans, it ALSO happens to be at 167 speed, which is faster than my 159 speed Gengar. The only other Calm Mind Chesto Resto set is 6, which is sitting at 135 speed, a free Gengar sac with DBond. I would have have a much better time against all other Raikous, seeing as Blissey just needed to land Toxic, and on Raikou6, Gengar is faster. But again, it unfortunately had to be the most annoying set.

I immediately switched into Blissey, hoping to land Toxic on it twice before it could set up too much. Unfortunately, this was too much to ask for. Blissey got Thunderbolted on switch in, and missed the Toxic (of course) after getting Twaved. The turn after, she gets para'd. I should have realized the threat of Raikou1 and let 'Gross go down and switch Gengar in for free, hoping Blissey could clutch vs whatever's in the back, but I didn't realize I was going down this path when I simply switched in Blissey after Art went down. I was hoping maybe Gross could Boom on the last mon, which is why I saved him.

Raikou proceeded to set up Calm Mind and wipe, which was a little heartbreaking. However, after getting so far on a first livestreamed streak, I don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon. I've since climbed up to 63W, and I'm usually livestreaming every weekday around 5 PM EST, and on weekends around 2 PM EST. Please pop in whenever you have a chance, I'd really appreciate it!

Cheers :)

 

[catacrumbs]

Hi all! I’m a first-time poster here! I never achieved my dream to get all the gold symbols as a kid, so I’m revisiting every facility years later to make it a reality. So far I’ve gotten gold symbols at the Battle Tower, Battle Dome, Battle Palace, and Battle Arena. But I wanted to share the Battle Dome record in particular, as I really focused on that facility and I’m proud of what I was able to achieve. I’m reporting a streak of 94 consecutive tournament victories (Singles, Open Level, Lvl 60) at the Dome.

This run was done on retail, on the original save file from my childhood. All my Pokemon were bred rather than obtained via RNG manipulation, since I’m the stubborn type of person who would rather lean on my extensive experience with breeding than try to learn a new, better method. It was time consuming, but ultimately rewarding to see the fruits of my labor.

The Team

Slaking (Yuri Yaoi) @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature / F
IVs: 20 HP / 31 Atk / 19 Def / 27 SpA / 24 SpD / 31 Spe
-Double-Edge
-Earthquake
-Shadow Ball
-Hyper Beam

Milotic (The Donut) @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature / M
IVs: 25 HP / 20 Atk / 28 Def / 31 SpA / 31 SpD / 17 Spe
-Surf
-Ice Beam
-Recover
-Toxic

Metagross (Burryful) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 160 HP / 252 Atk / 96 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 27 HP / 19 Atk / 28 Def / 17 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake
-Explosion
-Shadow Ball

Team Explanation

This was actually the team I initially used in the Battle Tower, but I thought it would work well in the Battle Dome too, with some tweaks. Though these Pokemon are fairly commonly used, I believe this is the first time on the Battle Dome leaderboard that all 3 have been used together.

Banded Slaking, as I’m sure we all know, is an absolute monster who can rip through even the bulkiest of threats. I did a couple of run throughs of the Dome before this one, during which I had Slaking run Aerial Ace. However, I decided I wanted an emergency nuke option and replaced it with Hyper Beam. It’s a tough choice, because both moves have niche uses. There were definitely a few times when I used Hyper Beam to brute force my way out of some situations that had gone awry. On the other hand, Aerial Ace gave me a reliable option against Brightpowder mons, most notably Heracross 3, who can punch a huge hole in my team if I miss even once against it. Ultimately, though, Aerial Ace’s damage was fairly underwhelming, and I didn’t find myself missing it too much during this streak.

There’s nothing creative or innovative about this Milotic, but why change what works? Milotic acted as the glue to the team, and was useful for Toxic or PP stalling problem mons. It was also my best choice against Skarmory, who hard walls my other two team members, and Regirock, who is too bulky for Slaking to one-shot. Funnily enough, I think the opponents I struggled the most against were the ones who had a hard counter to Milotic.

This Metagross is a funny guy. The 19 Attack IV is not ideal, but I’m stuck with it. Why? Because I bred it many years ago, and gave it the Explosion tutor move. At the time of this run I didn’t have access to trades, and I didn’t want to restart my save file, so Burryful the Metagross was going to have to work. Originally my past self had Agility in the last slot, and that’s what I ran with in the Battle Tower. However, I swapped it out for Shadow Ball for the Dome to have a reliable option against ghosts, the Latis, and other psychic types. Explosion was already one of the best moves in the Frontier, but it becomes even better with the Dome’s unique rule for ties. Though I only utilized two Explosion ties during my run, it made planning a bit easier knowing that it was an option in my back pocket. The speed EVs are to outspeed all variations of Dome Jynx. Lum Berry is my preferred item, as being able to tank a status condition is always useful.

While Slaking was the most common team member to get brought to battles, the Milotic-Metagross pairing had its uses when mons that give Slaking trouble appeared on the opposing team preview.

The Effect of the 3 IV Glitch

All opponent Pokemon in the Dome having 3 IVs is truly a blessing for Slaking in particular, as the glitch allows Adamant Slaking to pick up some absolutely key OHKOs. Here are some examples of Slaking matchups helped by the lower IVs:

Lapras: Double-Edge has a 68.8% chance to OHKO Lapras 1, guaranteed OHKO against Lapras 2-8

Snorlax: Double-Edge is a guaranteed OHKO against Snorlax 1-8

Registeel: Earthquake is a guaranteed OHKO against Registeel 2, 87.5% chance to OHKO Registeel 1, 50% chance to OHKO Registeel 3, 5, & 6, guaranteed 2HKO against Registeel 4

Gyarados (after Intimidate): Double-Edge is a guaranteed OHKO against Gyarados 2 & 3, 87.5% chance to OHKO Gyarados 1, guaranteed 2HKO against Gyarados 4

Tyranitar: Earthquake is a guaranteed OHKO against Tyranitar 1-10

The IVs also place Slaking into a bit of an admittedly awkward speed tier. Slaking is able to outspeed the fastest Gengar set (Gengar 1) by one point. However, it gets outsped by some variations of Starmie by 1 point (Starmie 3-5, 7 & 8), and gets outpaced by half of the Aerodactyl sets (Aerodactyl 1 & 2). Still, an improved speed tier allowed me to comfortably leave Slaking in against more matchups than in the Battle Tower.

Threats

A lot of the threats are about what you’d expect. I had no answer to Quick Claw OHKO move users, and thus had a few close calls involving them. Without Aerial Ace, I didn’t have a reliable way to break through Brightpowder, and Focus Bands were always obnoxious to try to play around. Protect and Fake Out users, like Jynx and Tucker’s Metagross, would often make me hesitant to bring Slaking. Double Team is a scourge upon the Pokemon world, and I found myself having to PP stall users of the move a few times.

Besides obvious problems like the Regis, surprising Pokemon I tended to struggle with were Sceptile, Starmie, and strong Thunderbolt users like Jolteon. The common theme among them is that they outspeed Slaking (at least, most variations), and give Milotic issues. All Sceptiles threaten to 2HKO Milotic with Leaf Blade, while Sceptile 1 & 2 have moves that limit Slaking’s effectiveness (Detect, Attract, Double Team). Several of the Starmie variations have Thunderbolt to handle Milotic, and some are speedy enough to take a sizable chunk out of Slaking. The threat of Thunderbolt paralyzing Slaking was enough for me to prefer to use Metagross and its Lum Berry against opposing Jolteons.

Close Calls

I’ll be honest, after I hit 85 consecutive tournament wins, I took a break spanning several months before picking the streak back up again, so my memory of the specific details of certain close battles is a bit lacking. However, I did write down some notes as I went along about ones that particularly stood out to me, so I’d like to share those:

Tournament 16
The opponent leads with Lapras 6, while I lead with Slaking. I immediately miss Double-Edge due to Brightpowder, and a Blizzard connects to bring me below half. I swap into Metagross, who takes a Blizzard and gets frozen, expending its Lum Berry. I use Explosion just to try to clear it out, but I miss yet again. Slaking comes back in and I use Hyper Beam to try to avoid recoil, which connects and KOs Lapras. Glalie is sent out and just barely misses a KO on me with Ice Beam. I retaliate with another Hyper Beam the next turn for the win.

Tournament 43
In the Tournament Finals, I decide to bring Slaking and Metagross. The opponent leads with Tyranitar, who immediately gets knocked out by a Slaking EQ. Metagross 3 comes in 2nd, and I swap to my own Metagross as it Double Teams. We trade EQs, and then on the next turn I miss an EQ and faint. Slaking comes in and misses an EQ as Meta 3 uses Rest and wakes up with its Chesto Berry. As I loaf, Meta 3 sets up a 2nd DT. I miss EQ again as Meta 3 sets up a 3rd DT. All of this is happening as I’m being whittled away by Sandstorm. Meta 3 then tries a Meteor Mash but misses as I loaf. I finally connect with an EQ to seal the win.

Tournament 53
I’ll just post the note for this one verbatim:
“Almost lost to Quick Claw Horn Drill Seaking. What.”

Tournament 57
All I wrote here was “Struggle Registeel 4”, but I think I remember what happened. I got stuck in a PP Stall with Registeel 4 with my Milotic, with Slaking around half health in the back. Registeel was at +6 evasion and Milotic was paralyzed. I got to the point where both mons were using Struggle, but to my horror, I realized that neither was doing enough damage/receiving enough recoil to outpace both mons’ Leftovers healing, meaning I could potentially get stuck in an infinite battle (essentially a loss). I brought Slaking back in and was able to hit enough EQs to scrape by before Registeel’s Struggle damage killed me.

Tournament 63
The opposing trainer leads with Heracross 3, and I miss a Slaking Double-Edge due to Brightpowder as Brick Break brings me to low yellow health. I then bring in Milotic to try to recover stall Megahorn, hoping for a miss. Heracross ends up missing 3 consecutive MHs as Milotic cleans up the remaining Pokemon for the win.

Tournament 73
The opponent leads with Granbull, which dies to a Slaking Double-Edge. Starmie 3 comes in as I swap to Metagross. Starmie proceeds to get 2 max damage Surf rolls (a 0.4% chance) to barely take Meta out. Slaking is able to clean up, but a crit Psychic from Starmie would have ended my run.

Tournament 83
(Why do so many bad things happen in tournaments ending in 3?)
The opponent preview was Steelix-Venusaur-Starmie. I was afraid of Starmie so I left Milotic behind. I lead with Slaking, who takes care of Venusaur. As Steelix comes in, I swap to Metagross. I get EQ’d on the swap and then Quick Claw pops to take me out with a 2nd EQ. I bring in Slaking, who has a 70% chance to OHKO with EQ, but I miss the kill. On my loafing turn, the Steelix inexplicably explodes to hand me the win.

The Loss

I hate to admit this, but… my loss came to none other than Tucker himself, in the Finals of Tournament 95. I had spent every 5th tournament thinking about how nice it was to have a free win in the Finals, only for Tucker to finally get his revenge.

My strategy for the Gold Tucker fights was to stall. He would always bring Swampert first and then Metagross, so my counter was to bring Milotic and my own Metagross. I would Toxic the Swampert, and then Recover stall as it swapped randomly between Earthquakes and Mirror Coats. Importantly, I wouldn’t ever attack in order to avoid Mirror Coat double damage. Once the Swampert would die, I’d also Recover stall the Metagross, interspersed with Surfs on the turns after it used Protect in order to chip it down until I could KO it. The only flaw in my plan was if Swampert got 2 crit EQs in a row… well, you can probably guess what happened.

In the matchup against Tucker in Tournament 95, I utilized my usual strategy of Toxic + Recover stalling (or in this case, spamming Toxic until it used EQ). After a couple of Mirror Coats, Swampert hit two crit Earthquakes in a row, taking out Milotic. Unfortunately, Swampert was still above half health, so it was not within Metagross’s range for a KO with EQ. After trading EQs, Metagross managed to take out Swampert while barely surviving in the red. An EQ on Tucker’s Meta failed to KO it, and a retaliatory EQ ended my streak. If I had gotten a crit against either Swampert or Metagross, I could have pulled this one out, but it wasn’t in the cards.

While having a 1/256 event happen to me is certainly unlucky, in retrospect, I probably should have tried to find a safer strategy without as much risk. And besides, I feel like I had pretty good luck overall throughout this run, so I can’t be too mad that a spot of bad luck ended things for me. So it goes in the Battle Dome. It just stings that, after surviving so many difficult matchups, the loss came to Tucker, of all people… Oh well! I had a lot of fun.

“NO ONE beats Tucker 19 times in a row!” -Tucker

The Proof

An extra question at the very end here about a completely different facility, the Battle Palace. Is there any verification that when a Pokemon falls below 50% health, and then heals itself back up above 50%, it maintains its below 50% attack/defense/support ratios? I found this to be the case, though I admittedly haven’t done any kind of extensive testing. I haven’t seen any kind of discussion about this.

Also, small side note, a few things on the Battle Dome Open Level Singles leaderboard look like they might need to be fixed. Purssthecat and greentyphlosion should be swapped, and Texas Cloverleaf appears twice on the leaderboard.

I'm hoping to continue pursuing gold symbols in the Factory, Pyramid, and Pike, but I'm sure I'll feel tempted to return to the Dome very soon. I really want to try to get some unique Pokemon up on the leaderboard!

Thanks all!

 

[BeVreeze]

Hi all! I’m a first-time poster here! I never achieved my dream to get all the gold symbols as a kid, so I’m revisiting every facility years later to make it a reality. So far I’ve gotten gold symbols at the Battle Tower, Battle Dome, Battle Palace, and Battle Arena. But I wanted to share the Battle Dome record in particular, as I really focused on that facility and I’m proud of what I was able to achieve. I’m reporting a streak of 94 consecutive tournament victories (Singles, Open Level, Lvl 60) at the Dome.

Congrats on your impressive streak!

I really like the dome. I'm looking forward to building a strong team for it myself eventually.

An extra question at the very end here about a completely different facility, the Battle Palace. Is there any verification that when a Pokemon falls below 50% health, and then heals itself back up above 50%, it maintains its below 50% attack/defense/support ratios? I found this to be the case, though I admittedly haven’t done any kind of extensive testing. I haven’t seen any kind of discussion about this.

From my limited experience with the palace it appears you need to switch out to reset your pokemon's tendencies, but it's been a while since I went there.

 

[catacrumbs]

Congrats on your impressive streak!

I really like the dome. I'm looking forward to building a strong team for it myself eventually.



From my limited experience with the palace it appears you need to switch out to reset your pokemon's tendencies, but it's been a while since I went there.

Thank you! I really like the Dome too, it's my favorite facility. Getting to see the team previews is a fun gimmick, and I think the 3 IV glitch expands the pool of viable team members. I'm excited to try out some different Pokemon there in the future!

I see, thank you for your insight. Definitely matches up with my experience as well. I'm honestly a bit disappointed that it works like that. My main strategy in the Palace up to this point has been inflicting status (Toxic and Leech Seed) with Milotic and Ludicolo and then stalling with recovery moves once they fall under 50% health. But having to switch out to reset that cycle makes that strategy a bit less desirable imo. I guess I'll just have to play around with my sets some more.

 

[N0ir@2130LG]

Hello everyone! This is my first time posting here! After finally getting the Gold Symbol in the Battle Tower Gen III, i decided to continue my streak to see how much far it would go, and also accepting lose in order to avoid the Battle Factory IVs glitch. In the process, ended up achieving 95 consecutive wins (singles lv.50) at the Gen III Battle Tower.

Since the main objective of my newest Pokemon Emerald save file is to beat the entire Battle Frontier, the focus was in use a team efficient on defeat most facilities and being easy to make. The final product ended being the classic Werster team in his "All Gold Symbols" speedrun, since he's my main inspiration. There are some modifications in the composition to be more optimal in the EVs department and move sets, but ended up less optimal in the IVs department, this is because i wanted to do without RNG manipulation or breeding, only soft resets.

This is my team:

Latios / LATIORIEL @ Lum Berry
Modest Nature
EVs: 4HP / 252 SP.ATK / 252 SPE
IVs: 27-28 / 4-5 / 26-27 / 21-22 / 4-5 / 5-6
Stats: 154 / 84 / 98 / 194 / 117 / 149
-Psychic
-Thunderbolt
-Ice Beam
-Calm Mind

Metagross / MECHADEARU @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
EVs: 160 HP / 252 ATK / 96 SPE
IVs: 26-27 / 29-30 / 2-3 / 26-27 / 0-1 /18-19
Stats: 173 / 204 / 136 / 105 / 95 / 96
-Meteor Mash
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-Explosion

Swampert / MUSHUSHU @ Leftovers
Relaxed Nature
EVs: 248 HP / 216 DEF / 44 SP.DEF
IVs: 8-9 / 30-31 / 30-31 / 8-9 / 15-16 / 26-27
Stats: 195 / 130 / 150 / 94 / 108 / 70
-Earthquake
-Protect
-Surf
-Ice Beam

Latios lead as a special sweeper and status control, with the classic high coverage moveset, i prefer ice beam over dragon claw even with Kingdra around because kills threats to this team like Salamence and Flygon more safely, deals better with annoying potentially dangerous switch-in ground types like Quick Claw Rhydon, Explosion Golem and Claydol, attacks Steelix for neutral damage, eliminates Endure+Fail Donphan alongside covering better the grass weakness of Swampert while often one-hit KO Faint Attack STAB users, like Cacturne and Shiftry. Metagross is the physical wall breaker and emergency killer, can be a little frustrating to use with his two main attacking moves having imperfect accuracy with all the bright powder holder's around, but it's manageable, despite needing attention. Since Explosion can miss because of enemy evasion, i only used when was absolutely necessary, like against Snorlax, Blissey or Dragon's Dance Latios. Swampert is the staller physical wall, i choose being mainly DEF because of the abundance of physical attackers. Despite this water starter being kinda "there" on the teams role, the electric immunity it's too valuable, especially with Manetric, Zapdos and Raikou around. Leftovers+Protect brings crucial survivability. About the IVs, i wish have caught a higher speed Latios, the low values made me loose at battle 69 one time because of Manetric with Crunch while all my team was already dead, and another time on battle 49 because of an specific special attacker Salamence set. More IVs in Metagross defenses and Swampert Hp and Sp.Atk will not be bad too.

Everything was played on android emulator, i used Speeding Up to accelerate the attempts, used glitches to duplicate some TMs and absolutely no save states. It took 70 hous to beat the tower in the game internal time counter. The loss at battle 96 occurred against Triathlete M Biker NICO, i unfortunately do not save the battle video but i remember exactly the battle.The opponent opened with a Dewgong, which made me switch to Metagross in fear of ice beam, he uses a Sheer Could which connects and OHKO my Metagross. I sent Latios again, and after using a Calm Mind, he uses Ice Beam which do big damage against Latios, ending with a Thunderbolt, the second pokemon was a Crobat in which i erroneously let kill my Latios with Shadow Ball, Swampert was the only last, and after some misses and confuse rays, Crobat falls. The last enemy monster is Donphan, this part of the battle i do not remember quite well, the last memory is he with 40% HP using Earthquake on my Swampert and killing him.

Here's follow the proof:

The main point of this post is to know if this score is a valid classification on the world record table (supposedly #25. Player place). I have other possible proofs such as the video of Anabel's defeat and the last battle of the thirteenth round, if needed. I would appreciate any kind of response, thanks everyone.

 

[patrickgurczak]

SUPER MEGA GIANT BATTLE FRONTIER GOLD SYMBOL POST!!!

Below you will be able to find my experiences and thoughts for each facility. If you have seen my prior posts than you can skip the Dome, Pyramid, Pike, Palace, and Arena sections. I expanded on my thoughts on the Factory after calming down, and obviously the point of this post is to signal that I have gotten my final, and most shiny, gold symbol :)

To make it easier to add me to the leaderboard, I've added all of my past posts to this one. My streaks are:
1) Battle Dome, Win Streak = 10, Blastoise/Gengar/Metagross
2) Battle Pyramid, Win Steak = 70, Blastoise/Gengar/Metagross
3) Battle Pike, Win Steak = 140, Blastoise/Gengar/Metagross
4) Battle Palace, Win Steak = 42, Blastoise/Gengar/Metagross
5) Battle Arena, Win Steak = 56, Blastoise/Gengar/Metagross
6) Battle Factory, Win Steak = 42
7) Battle Tower, Win Steak = 71, Blastoise/Gengar/Metagross
I also deleted all of my past posts to avoid cluttering the forum.

Preamble/Silver Symbols Team

At the time of this post, I had accomplished getting all silver symbols around 6 months prior. It was very exciting to be able to get even a single symbol as I never got any as a child. I gave up though once I got gold in the dome as I was struggling with every other facility. However, after recently watching a few content creators talking about gen 3 and 4 battle frontier, I felt motivated to take another stab at this challenge.

I am playing on emulator as I sold my original hardware and cart a few years ago. The only "cheating" I have conducted was using a gameshark code to force any wild encounter to have perfect IVs, and another code to force the wild encounter to be a specific mon IF I couldn't already find it in the game, like Gengar for example. I then removed the gameshark codes and proceeded to breed for an acceptable IVs. My requirements were 1) correct ability, 2) at least 3 stats were to have 31 IVs, and 3) no IVs were to be below 25.

With the above requirements and the right mons in the daycare, I then rode the bike between Verdanturf Town and Mauville City to hatch eggs; I also sped up the emulator while doing this. During this endeavour, I managed to get a shiny Beldum along the way! After hatching the mons, I then trained them in Verdanturf Tunnel, Route 104, or the Altering Cave courtesy of people remaking the non-distributed wonder cards for that area.

During my silver symbol journey I used a team of 6 that I swapped around depending on the facility, the mons were: Blastoise, Gengar, Donphan, Stantler, Cradily, and Metagross. I selected this mons based on 1) if they were competitively viable in ADV OU, 2) I've never used them before and I had the chance to now (Blastoise/Gengar/Metagross), and 3) I thought they were neat (Cradily).

You can see my initial builds for Blastoise, Gengar, and Metagross in the Battle Dome section below. However, I have no real builds for Donphan, Stantler, or Cradily to show as after coming back to the game, I've realised that these 3 sort of suck in the frontier, as a result, I cut them :(

Donphan was more or less a worse Metagross as the rolly elephant's movepool sucks hard in gen 3 to me with very little options, I made Stantler special orientated as I wanted another special attacker on the team but GAWD DAMN this thing sucked. I do regret cutting Cradily though as it was very decent as a super heavy stall mon; it's moveset was Ancient Power/Recover/Amnesia/Toxic.

That leaves Blastoise, Metagross, and Gengar to take on the gold battle frontier!

Battle Dome

Pokémon Team

CHESHIRE
Gengar @ Scope Lens
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 28 SpD
- Destiny Bond
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch

OIKOS
Metagross @ Lum Berry
Adamant Nature
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 15 SpA / 28 SpD / 25 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

DOMI
Blastoise @ Chesto Berry
Bold Nature
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 128 SpA / 92 SpD
IVs: 30 HP / 12 Atk / 27 Def
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Rest

Gold Fight

As I got the gold symbol around 6 months prior to this post, this will be based off of memory rather than fact.

I lead with Gengar, and Tucker lead with Metagross. I Destiny Bond, and Metagross lands Psychic: we both go down. I'm thankful Quick Claw didn't go off. I then send out Metagross against Tucker's Latias. I land 3 Shadow Balls to take down Latias. The Gold Symbol is mine :)

Facility Experience

Gengar and Metagross were the main mons I used throughout the rounds; it took me a total of 48 championships to finally beat Tucker. Leading with Gengar or Metagross was dependent on what the opponent had on their team, and Blastoise only swapped in for Metagross if I saw 2 or more fire types on the enemy team. Along the way I learned that I could still win the battle with Destiny Bond or Explosion as my last move... I'm sure you can imagine by joy of discovering this little trick. Now picture my astonishment when I tried the same move on Tucker the first time I got to him.

Spoiler, that trick does not work on Tucker due to him being a higher seed than the player... Other than my Tucker debacle, there isn't much to discuss with the Dome as having Destiny Bond and Explosion in my back pockets made the facility rather easy.

After getting to Tucker another 2 more times and getting rattled, I finally started using a damage calculator to figure out a way to beat Tucker. However, this is when I realized that my team probably wasn't as good as I thought it was. Blastoise could not knockout any of Tucker's mons before it got knocked out, and Gengar appeared to be in a similar boat. This leaves Metagross being my only shot at success against Tucker.

I came to the conclusion that my strategy will have to be based on luck: a win is a win. My plan was to lead with Gengar and immediately Destiny Bond Tucker's lead, then Metagross would come in and finish the job. Against my Metagross, my preferences were to see Latias (3HKO with Shadow Ball), then Metagross (2HKO with Earthquake, but I need a crit), then all the way at the back Swampert (Swampert would WRECK Metagross).

Battle Pyramid

Preamble

I reworked Gengar and Metagross a bit after coming back to the game. Gengar now has a Lum Berry, and I swapped Substitute for Fire Punch. I also changed Gengar's EVs with the help of PKHeX and they are now 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe; this allows Gengar to have 1 HP after 4 Substitutes, and I am truly surprised at how much not having fire coverage is causing a problem. Metagross now has a Choice Band, and it's EVs are 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe; this is enough speed for me to out speed all other opposing Metagross in the battle frontier.

Pokémon Team

OIKOS
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
IVs: 15 SpA / 28 SpD / 25 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

CHESHIRE
Gengar @ Leftovers
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 28 SpD
- Destiny Bond
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Substitute

DOMI
Blastoise @ Leftovers
Bold Nature
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 136 SpA / 80 SpD
IVs: 30 HP / 12 Atk / 27 Def
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Sleep Talk
- Rest

Set Explanations

-Metagross has max attack EVs, and enough EVs in speed to out speed every other Metagross. The rest of the EVs are put into HP.
-Gengar has max special attack EVs, and enough HP EVs to be left with 1 HP after Substituting 4 times. The rest of the EVs are put into speed. I gave Gengar leftovers for the final fight as my plan A was to substitute until either Zapdos missed with Thunder, or Moltres missed with Fire Blast. The 4x Substitutes after leftovers I thought would give me the chance for a 5th Substitute if I needed it.
-Blastoise has max HP EVs, and I gave it enough special defense EVs to not get OHKO'd by Brandon's Zapdos's Thunder. I then gave enough defense EVs for defense and special defense to be equal. The rest of the EVs are put into special attack. The set uses Rest and Sleep Talk to heal and still do something during wild mon fights.

Gold Fight

I planned out the Brandon fight, but things got a little dicey. I lead with Metagross, Articuno gets a critical Blizzard, and I miss Meteor Mash. Then Articuno misses Blizzard, and I get a non-needed critical Meteor Mash. Moltres comes out and I switch to Blastoise to take a critical Fire Blast. I use Ice Beam anticipating a Zapdos switch, but instead get another critical Fire Blast. I Rest as I am little concerned about my health, but Moltres goes for Safeguard. Another 2 Fire Blasts go by and I nail a Surf. Zapdos comes out and Blastoise dies to Thunder. I didn't want to use items for this fight, so I got a little scared as I knew Metagross wouldn't out speed Zapdos and would die to a Thunder. Gengar couldn't OHKO Zapdos before also dying to Thunder either. Then I remembered I had Destiny Bond :) Gengar goes out and I Substitute hoping for a miss on Thunder but instead get a Detect. Gengar Ice Punches twice for the win.

Facility Experience

At the end of Round 10, in my bag I had:
2x Sacred Ash, 1x Max Revive, 5x Revive
7x Hyper Potion, 21x Ether, 19x Lum Berry
1x Quick Claw, 2x Bright Powder, 1x Scope Lens

I didn't really hunker down when going through the Pyramid until Round 4. Each round took me about an hour to complete as I had on my monitors: An Excel file detailing the mon a trainer could have, the gen 3 battle frontier damage calculator, quick notes on what I can and cannot OHKO for wild mon, and then the real time sink, a PowerPoint where I created maps for each floor I did.

For floors 1-5, 7, 8 and 10, I ran around exploring the full floors looking for items. On rounds 6, and 9 I ran straight to the exit. The trapping and psychic floors were scary for me.

I made a few changes to movesets as I progressed through the Pyramid. Round 6 saw me take Toxic over Explosion, Substitute, and Sleep Talk for Wynaut and Wobbuffet. I then took Rock Slide over Explosion for Round 7. I took Fire Punch for Destiny Bond, and Psychic for Substitute on Round 8. Round 9 I used Roar instead of Sleep Talk for Wobbuffet this time. If I didn't mention I swapped X move for Y move in any of the rounds, then the sets above are what I used!

My initial runs of the Pyramid during Lv50s was to constantly run from the wild mon which is probably why I had such a tough time with it. This time I did damage calcs so I could OHKO or 2HKO as much mon as I could to see more; this made the Pyramid way easier to beat.

Data Analysis

Starting in Round 3, I tracked what map sections I saw. I used Churly-Puik's post under the additional information battle frontier mega post about the Battle Pyramid map sections to make a map of each floor I completed in PowerPoint. This unfortunately resulted in me taking about an hour to complete a single floor; but I felt waaaay more confident going through the Pyramid by doing this.

Long story short, I did some basic data analysis in Excel from what I tracked. The lettering of the map sections is again following Churly-Puik's post. Attached to this post is 3 charts:
-Chart 1 shows the frequency of map sections I saw during my run. Map sections F, G, and H were most common.
-Chart 2 shows the distance between the starting map section and how the exit map section is from it. The average distance is 2.64. So I guess my recommendation would be to look for the exit around 2-3 sections away from the entry map section.
-Chart 3 shows the amount of unique map sections used on a floor. The most common was 4 unique map sections per floor.

I do not know how useful this information will be :)

Battle Pike

Pokémon Team

CHESHIRE
Gengar @ Lum Berry
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 28 SpD
- Destiny Bond
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Substitute

OIKOS
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
IVs: 15 SpA / 28 SpD / 25 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

DOMI
Blastoise @ Leftovers
Bold Nature
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 148 SpD / 4 Spe
IVs: 30 HP / 12 Atk / 27 Def
- Surf
- Haze
- Yawn
- Protect

Set Explanations

-Metagross has max attack EVs, and enough EVs in speed to out speed every other Metagross. The rest of the EVs are put into HP.
-Gengar has max special attack EVs, and enough HP EVs to be left with 1 HP after Substituting 4 times. The rest of the EVs are put into speed.
-Blastoise has max HP EVs, then for no particular reason, I invested the rest of the EVs into Defense and Special Defense for them to be as high as possible while also equal. I then put the final 4 EVs into Speed. A detailed explanation on the moveset can be found in the Blastoise Rant section below.

Gold Fight

The fight shouldn't have been a problem for this team, and surprise, it wasn't... I sent out Metagross first and I used Earthquake proc'ing Focus Band; Seviper used Swagger. I switched to Blastoise to take the Crunch. Blastoise beats Seviper with Surf and out comes Steelix. Blastoise uses Yawn, Steelix uses Screech. I then Surf and miss (gotta love bright powder) for Steelix to hit another Screech, then it falls asleep. I hit 2 Surfs to knock out Steelix. Gyarados comes in, and I send out Gengar. Gengar checks Gyarados, so the symbol was mine after a couple of Thunderbolts.

Facility Experience

Up until Round 9 when I got nervous of losing my streak, I followed this to a T:
1.Avoid the Trainer hint room
2.Take the Nostalgia hint room on room 13 OR if the whole team has a status
3.Take the Whispering hint room if 2 of 3 team members are fainted
4.Take the Nostalgia hint room

I'd say I would stick to the above but add in the extra criteria to avoid the Nostalgia hint room on room 11, and consider your other options for rooms 5, 7, and 9. Overall, I don't think I like the Pike too much. While you can learn how the hint system works and play around it, probability not going your way can be a real pain. For example, I'm not sure if it was because I had Metagross AND Gengar are both immune to poison, but it felt like 60% of the time that I went into the status room, I got frozen even though it should only have been 10% chance.

The only other thing to note was that I only lead with Metagross in Round 10 as I wanted it out first against Lucy's Seviper. All past rounds I did had Gengar out first so I could run away from the wild mon.

Blastoise Rant

Holy hell am I up and down on my decision on using this turtle. Since starting to take the Battle Frontier more seriously to get the gold symbols, I've constantly felt that Blastoise is just a worse Milotic/Vaporeon/Swampert. It's not as bulky, it doesn't hit as hard, and it doesn't get an immunity to electric :( My other set for Blastoise is a Surf/Ice Beam/Sleep Talk/Rest set which is a very unique and original moveset, that only a handful of water types can have...

I eventually decided to use the moves Surf/Haze/Yawn/Protect because of two things:
1.I got really tilted after I lost to Miltank-4 on Round 5. The stupid cow double teamed and cursed to +6 each, and proceeded to yeet itself into my Metagross and Blastoise till they died. I knew that I was gonna have trouble with double teamers, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to think of a solution for them until I took on the Palace or Tower.
2.I wanted a more unique moveset that could somehow play to Blastoise's pros, which there aren't many IMO. I compared it's moveset to Swampert's and noted that Blastoise could learn Bite, Yawn, Flail, and Haze, while Swampert couldn't. Blastoise is slow and Bite only has a BP of 60, so no use there. I also don't have a large enough brain to run a Salac Berry-Flail-Blastoise set effectively so that was also out.

That left Yawn and Haze. I liked Haze as that is a direct counter to stat raiser mon, but I didn't love Yawn; the 2-turn wait sounded painful. Along with the insanely defensive EV spread I gave to Blastoise, it's initial moveset included Seismic Toss and Rest. I proceeded to lose 3 more streaks in the Battle Pike after this change...

While not solely Blastoise's fault, I didn't love the set I came up with. On top of having to wait for Yawn to do it's thing, I am a sitting duck (turtle) when I use Rest for 2-turns. I also didn't love Seismic Toss as I thought I was wasting Blastoise's OKish Special Attack. I decided to switch Protect for Rest, and Surf for Seismic Toss. I'd get less healing from losing Rest BUT now technically Yawn is a 1-turn sleep move if I use Protect right after :) For the Surf decision, I calculated the highest special defense a mon would need to have so that Seismic Toss would do more damage than Surf IF it was neutral type matchup: that number came out to 254. After looking over the mon that had more than 254 Special Defense, I decided that Surf would be good enough.

In my final 10 rounds of the Pike, Haze came in handy, and I even 1v3'd a hard round 7 team using only Blastoise. I flip-flop on swapping Toxic for Surf though to make the set more stally, but that then brings me back to wasting Blastoise's special attack.

Battle Palace

Pokémon Team

DOMI
Blastoise @ Leftovers
Bold Nature
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 104 Def / 148 SpD / 4 Spe
IVs: 30 HP / 12 Atk / 27 Def
- Water Pulse
- Double Team
- Toxic
- Rest

CHESHIRE
Gengar @ Bright Powder
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 28 SpD
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Substitute

OIKOS
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
IVs: 15 SpA / 28 SpD / 25 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

Set Explanations

-Metagross has max attack EVs, and enough EVs in speed to out speed every other Metagross. The rest of the EVs are put into HP.
-Gengar has max special attack EVs, and enough HP EVs to be left with 1 HP after Substituting 4 times. The rest of the EVs are put into speed.
-Blastoise has max HP EVs, then for no particular reason, I invested the rest of the EVs into Defense and Special Defense for them to be as high as possible while also equal. I then put the final 4 EVs into Speed. Blastoise being as bulky and stally as possible was the goal with the above moveset.

Gold Fight

Not going to do a turn-by-turn breakdown of the fight as Palace fights suck IMO... I lead with Blastoise against his Arcanine. I landed Toxic, and Arcanine used loads of Protects to extend the fight. After many turns I finally connected with a Water Pulse taking down Arcanine. Blastoise had 50% HP when Slaking came in. Blastoise dies to a Hyper Beam and in comes Gengar. Against Slaking, Bright Powder helped dodge 1 Shadow Ball, other than that I don't recall it helping me much if at all. Slaking eventually went down to 3 Thunderbolts. Suicune comes in and Gengar is at 50% HP with a Substitute up. After many, many, many turns, Gengar gets Suicune into the red and dies; it has used Calm Mind only once so far. Metagross comes in to tank a 50% Surf and finishes off Suicune with Aerial Ace.

Facility Experience

The Palace SUCKS! Thanks to emulator I ran the game at 8x speed and just kept tapping A. I paid attention for problematic moves or if Chansey/Blissey showed up, but otherwise I just did other IRL things while going through the Palace. I like that each facility was different, but if someone is able to beat the facility by just more or less tapping A and barely paying attention, there is a serious flaw. I lost 3 streaks until I got to Spenser. Streak 3 Battle 24 was a skill issue, I rotated poorly and paid the cost of Typhlosion ripping through the team. Streak 1 Battle 37 and Streak 2 Battle 38 were lost because Gengar just couldn't get enough of using Substitute; the man would use the move like 5 turns in a row. The super annoying thing about Gengar though was that it had 2 sides: either Substitute City, or 1V3ing insane teams IMO like Salamence/Altaria/Charizard.

Aside from Gengar being annoying and Metagross being Metagross, Blastoise was an insane wall with this setup; it was such a delight! On multiple occasions it was the final line of defense against a 2V1 situation, or taking down 1V1s it had no right doing like Victreebel/Venusaur. My take aways are wondering how much better Milotic/Swampert/Vaporeon would have been AND whether Water Pulse was the best attacking move. I don't know how useful the confusion proc was, and in terms of stalling, I feel Dive might have been a better option. Overall, Blastoise and Metagross probably took down maybe 85% of fights together.

Battle Arena

Pokémon Team

DOMI
Blastoise @ Lum Berry
Bold Nature
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 136 SpA / 80 SpD
IVs: 30 HP / 12 Atk / 27 Def
- Surf
- Icy Wind
- Yawn
- Rest

OIKOS
Metagross @ Scope Lens
Adamant Nature
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
IVs: 15 SpA / 28 SpD / 25 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

CHESHIRE
Gengar @ King's Rock
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 28 SpD
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Psychic

Set Explanations

-Metagross has max attack EVs, and enough EVs in speed to out speed every other Metagross. The rest of the EVs are put into HP.
-Gengar has max special attack EVs, and enough HP EVs to be left with 1 HP after Substituting 4 times. The rest of the EVs are put into speed. I didn't want to change my EVs even though I wasn't running Substitute! The moveset just gave Gengar the most coverage possible.
-Blastoise's EV spread was based on my run in the Pyramid. Jist was that it needed to survive a Thunder from Brandon's Zapdos. For the moves, Icy Wind helped Metagross out speed faster mons if I knew Blastoise was going to die, and Yawn also helped Metagross/Blastoise in general.

Gold Fight

I lead with Blastoise using Yawn, while Umbreon uses Confuse Ray but the Lum Berry heals Blastoise. Blastoise takes a Psychic while Umbreon takes a Surf, and Yawn kicks in but Umbreon's Chesto Berry heals it. Blastoise does one final Surf, and Umbreon uses Confuse Ray again. I win Mind, tie Skill, and win Body; Umbreon goes down. Out comes Gengar using Psychic, and Blastoise uses Icy Wind. Blastoise thens Surfs and Gengar misses Hypnosis. Blastoise hits itself and Gengar then lands a Hypnosis. I win Mind, Skill, and Body; Gengar goes down. With Blastoise sleeping, and in coming Breloom, it takes a Focus Punch and is knocked out. In comes Metagross for the explosion OHKO-ing Breloom for the win!

Facility Experience

From rounds 1-4, the order was Gengar, Metagross, then Blastoise; this way I could get through these rounds ASAP. Starting round 5, I switched to Blastoise, Metagross, then Gengar. This team struggles against Sailors and Fishermen which I came across a lot unfortunately. Thankfully it took me 2 serious tries to get to Greta, but my first and only loss came at the hands of a Feraligatr-3/Quagsire-3/Swampert-3 team.

For the team, Scope Lens and King's Rock were useless. I'd maybe shift to a Leftovers for Metagross, but with how little rounds there are of fighting, I don't know how great it would be. You could maybe use a Magnet on Gengar instead? For Blastoise, I was originally running a Yawn/Protect/Rest/Water Pulse moveset. I saw the Yawn Snorlax strategy and wanted to see if Blastoise could do it, but I couldn't make it passed round 2 :( After switching to this new set Blastoise was a monster, the turtle was constantly 1V2-ing or 1V3-ing the opposing team, in my final run I think Gengar came out maybe 3-4 times only. Also to paint a picture, Blastoise was able to take down both an Entei, Articuno, and set up Metagross for an easy win against a Latios. Yawn + Icy Wind goes harrrrrrrd.

A tip I'd give is to understand how the judging works, which is what caused my initial Yawn Blastoise set to keep losing. By understanding the judging more, Blastoise was destroying the competition.
Mind:
-If a move is selected and it does damage, then +1 point BUT -1 point if it is Counter, Mirror Coat, Fake Out, Protect, Detect, or Endure
-Even just selecting the move will count, ie if you are asleep it still counts
Skill:
-If the selected move was used successfully, then +1 point
-If the selected move was used unsuccessfully, then -2 points. Think infatuation, confusion, paralysis, etc.
-If the move was unsuccessful due to Protect, Detect, or Fake Out, no point change
-If the move used is super effective, then +2 points
-If the move used is not very effective, then -1 point
Body:
-A comparison of ratios of your health at the start of the round versus the end, with respect to the opponent

With the above understanding, there were times where while Surf would have done more damage and would have guaranteed a kill for Metagross once it came out, Surf was not very effective, so I chose Icy Wind to get the points for Skill. This allowed Blastoise to stay in for the next mon, and gave it the chance to win way more fights than it had any right to.

Battle Factory

Gold Fight

I was given the opportunity to fight Noland twice, I'm just that lucky I guess:
1st Fight:
-Team: Zapdos-2 (Random IVs), Lapras-7 (31 IVs), Marowak-1 (21 IVs)
-Noland: Charizard-1, Flygon-2, ???
I lead with Zapdos against Noland's Charizard; I miss Thunder into a Sunny Day. I pivot around to Lapras and Marowak, with both eventually getting knocked out from Fire Blasts. I then send Zapdos in again just barely surviving another Fire Blast and KO-ing Charizard. In came Flygon-2 Crunching Zapdos to death :(
2nd Fight:
-Team: Jolteon-1 (21 IVs), Slowbro-1 (31 IVs), Blissey-2 (3 IVs)
-Noland: Gengar-3/4/5/6/7/8, Metagross-3/8, Clefable-1
It's Jolteon V Gengar, I scout with Protect to see the set. I use Thunderbolt twice for the KO, and Jolteon takes a 50% Psychic. Metagross comes out and I scout again for the set with Protect. I again use Thunderbolt twice for the KO, and Metagross misses Meteor Mash. Out comes Clefable. I Thunderbolt, and Clefable Double Teams: ALL HANDS ON DECK, I AM NOT LOSING TO ANOTHER ANNOYING STALL SET! I run damage calcs, see if I should swap, my best case is to stay in with Jolteon. After many brute forces with Thunderbolt to hit, I take down Clefable AND FINALLY beat the Factory! :)

Facility Experience

My main strategy was to:
-Swap every time until Round 5 draft as I wanted 3 31 IV mons for Round 6 Noland
-I used a damage calculator, the Battle Factory Buddy, the Battle Factory Buddy Team Builder (more for guidance than law starting Round 5), and the Trainer Move Selection AI tool

I am truly trash at the Factory. I loath rounds 1-4 with a passion. I truly don't understand the strategy of playing around relatively speaking, truly random AI move selection. For example, I cannot comprehend how someone is supposed to play around Ludicolo-2. The thing has coverage for days: gg no re. On top of it, round 2 IMO has the most extreme differences in moveset ability in Open Level compared to any other round. The two sides of the extreme are Ludicolo-2 and Meganium-2, it's asinine. There is very little in the middle...

Beginning rant aside, I am ashamed to say it took 115 in-game hours for me to beat Noland. I believe that I could get the gold in every facility TWICE in the time it took me to beat the Factory once. I was tracking my losses between luck and misplay, and I believe I was losing 85% of matches to luck. I stopped around attempt 70ish as my morale was at an all time low. The kicker was I got to Noland on attempt 12, and didn't get back to him until attempt 90. The additional annoyance is that I was running a 31 IV Houndoom-4 Flash Fire up until battle 6 round 6, but swapped it for Zapdos-2 as the next trainer was a water specialist. HOUNDOOM-4 WOULD HAVE CHECKED CHARIZARD-1, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

On the flip side, I LOVED rounds 5+. The draft is so much fun, and having to find lines is so different and unique compared to any other experience in Pokémon! I think this just compounds with my hate for rounds 1-4 and makes them so much worse, and rounds 5+ so much better. Rounds 1-4 are easily, without a doubt, the worst gaming experiences I've ever had. The last thing I'd like to say about the facility to some up my experience is that I only reached rounds 5+ 10 times in a total of 90 attempts, and got to Noland twice in those 10.

To whomever stumbles upon this, good luck in rounds 1-4, you'll need it...

Battle Tower

Pokémon Team

OIKOS
Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant Nature
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
IVs: 15 SpA / 28 SpD / 25 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

CHESHIRE
Gengar @ Lum Berry
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 28 SpD
- Destiny Bond
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Substitute

DOMI
Blastoise @ Leftovers
Bold Nature
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 136 SpA / 80 SpD
IVs: 30 HP / 12 Atk / 27 Def
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Sleep Talk
- Rest

Set Explanations

-Metagross has max attack EVs, and enough EVs in speed to out speed every other Metagross. The rest of the EVs are put into HP.
-Gengar has max special attack EVs, and enough HP EVs to be left with 1 HP after Substituting 4 times. The rest of the EVs are put into speed. I didn't want to change my EVs even though I wasn't running Substitute! The moveset just gave Gengar the most coverage possible.
-Blastoise's EV spread was based on my run in the Pyramid. Jist was that it needed to survive a Thunder from Brandon's Zapdos. For the moves, it's a standard Water mon set.

Gold Fight

Metagross V Raikou: I Earthquake into a Reflect. I Earthquake again, and Raikou Calm Minds. Raikou then Rests, and I Earthquake again. Raikou then Calm Minds, and shocker, I Earthquake. Raikou then Rests, and it's a sealed deal, I Earthquake for the 3HKO. Out comes Snorlax, and I swap to Blastoise to take a Shadow Ball. I swap Metagross back in, and Snorlax Curses. I use Explosion, leaving Latios against Gengar/Blastoise. I Destiny Bond, and we both go down as Latios uses Psychic. Final gold symbol achieved :)

Streak Loss

Just 2 fights after getting my gold symbol... at the hands of Cooltrainer Gillian... 3 things resulted in me losing this streak, 1) I was running off the high of getting my final gold symbol so I didn't care too much as to how far I could get, 2) the expected difficulty I would have with electric types, and 3) the prior 2 reasons compounding and me making huge misplays.

Dragonite-10 V Metagross: So I hand 10 Dragonites to choose from, and I kind of gave up on going through damage calculations to see my best option. Dragonite sets from I can tell wouldn't go down from a Gengar Ice Punch OHKO or Blastoise Ice Beam OHKO, and I was very concerned about Thunderbolt. Thus this made me click explosion. MISPLAY 1! On my streak up to 71, I did the exact same thing twice, where I came up to a mon I was concerned of and said fudge it we ball, and explode, leading me directly into a difficult 2V2 situation. Both prior times I got lucky enough to win, but not this time.

Raikou-2 V Gengar: Explained in the Facility Experience section, this team struggles with Electric types, so obviously I would need to face the king of electrics; Raikou. All 3 of my mons don't really have a super good solution to Raikou, yes I could Earthquake with Metagross but 1) he died, 2) I can always get paralysed, critical hit, or not OHKO. Back to the situation at hand, I have no good way of dealing with Raikou. MISPLAY 2! A call back to misplay 1, I was just pulling trigger on Destiny Bond rather than Substituting. Luck was still on my side though but I threw it away as Raikou missed 3 Thunders, meaning with Ice Punch, I could have 3-4HKO'd Raikou.

Zapdos-5 V Blastoise: I'm guessing it's set 5 as it used Thunderbolt and had Leftovers. And when it rains, it pours, another Electric type! The second the bird showed up I knew I was SOL. I got an Ice Beam off, hoping for the 10% freeze, but obviously Zapdos also gets the Paralyse on Blastoise. Another Thunderbolt from Zapdos on Blastoise ends my run at 71 wins.

Facility Experience

I was most concerned about this facility. There are no gimmicks at the Tower. It is just you, your mons, and the enemy. My main experience playing Pokémon is collecting; I love spending hours filling out the regional and national dexes. So I had no crutch to carry me in this facility and I anticipated getting bodied almost as much as I did in the Factory.

Somehow however, luck was on my side, I got to and beat Anabel on my first try! The game must have felt bad for me for the Factory gold symbol...

Before going into the flaws of the team, I think to give me benefit of my abilities, holy hell doing the Factory for 115 in-game hours helped. I knew how to play around some of the more annoying sets, along with using a damage calculator, the Trainer AI Selection tool, and a spreadsheet I have telling me which trainer has what mon. I knew Ludicolo-3/4 are stally, I knew Salamence-2 is ca-ca-poo-poo-pee-pee, I knew Sceptile-4 is fast af and hits like a truck, etc.. I'm not saying I think sitting in the Factory for over a hundred hours was a blessing, but damn did it help me in the Tower.

NOW, for the team analysis. I was convinced that this team would get bodied by legendries constantly but luckily those didn't come up too often, and when they did, it wasn't too much of a problem. Regis, Articuno, Moltres, some Lati@s, and Entei, were manageable. The teams weakness though did lie in stall mons, Electric types, and surprisingly, Fire types (this one is complicated).

I have no solutions to Shuckles, Meganium-2, Ludicolo-3/4, Double Team Snorlax, Blissey, etc.. I got lucky every time except once with 1 of the 3 getting lucky enough even with Double Team set ups getting enough moves through to take down the mon. I was going to give the Tower maybe 4-5 tries, and then I would have pivoted my Blastoise to a more stall set, see my Battle Palace Blastoise as an example. I was going to use Haze as that also deals with set up mons, and Yawn to help Metagross and Gengar. Since I beat the Tower in one go, I didn't have to deal with this.

For Electric types, see Blastoise Rant in my Battle Pike section. I have no resistances to them, Swampert would solve this problem, and little bit of the Fire one too. The problem is that Electric attacks will take a fat chunk out of Metagross, and if the mon is not weak to Meteor Mash, Shadow Ball, or Earthquake, I'm in for a bad time. The other problem is Gengar: Thunderbolt and Ice Punch does not help against Electric types, and especially Static mons. This is why my streak ended at 71 when Cooltrainer Gillian brought in a Raikou-2, and Zapdos-5.

Finally, the teams weakness to Fire types. This may have been a fluke but something I'd like to bring up. After losing my streak, I used save states to get to 105 wins in the Tower to get the gold shield from Scott. Again, the team did rather well and only lost 4-5 times to expected teams, except once. A kindler brought a Charizard, Typhlosion, and Blaziken if I remember correctly. I switched to Blastoise to bank on taking a Fire Blast from Charizard, but damn that hurts as it takes around 33% of Blastoise. It Sunny Days while I surf. Charizard misses Fire Blast and it goes down to another Surf. The beginning of the end... Typhlosion comes in and Thunder Punches Blastoise twice for the KO, Metagross comes in and dies to Overheat, and I revenge kill with Gengar Thunderbolt. Finally Blaziken comes in and OHKOs Gengar with Overheat. I was flabbergasted, how the hell did I lose to 3 Fire starters I'm not sure what to take away from the Fire weakness other than wanting to have Swampert over Blastoise again to add to the Fire resistance, which clearly I did not have enough of.

Proof

Closing Statements

Now that the Battle Frontier is done, I have completed everything I've wanted to do in Emerald. I'm also almost complete with generation 3: I just need to breed/train the team I'm going to use in the Orre Colosseum in XD. I'll start up generation 4 maybe around Fall...

The order above is the order I completed the Battle Frontier in. My favourite facilities in order are the Pyramid, Arena, and Round 5+ Factory. I'd recommended completing the Frontier in the above order, as I think it's also the order of difficulty; easiest to hardest.

I've thought about going for a longer streak in the Pyramid, and using the same 3 mons the entire time as a restriction. I have narrowed down going at it in 2 ways. 1) Have a team built around Brandon currently giving me Linoone/Salamence, and Swampert or Metagross. I don't love how basic this is though, and 2) have a team that can work for every floor, currently only have a Slaking as an idea for this...

 

[sbeven]

ATTEMPT 1

First submission. 57 wins at Palace.

First time back to Palace since Gold Symbol, which I did at lvl 100 with my main team at the time without really configuring natures and movesets and just spammed games until I got it, which took forever. This was my first run with this team and got to 57, I misplayed quite a few times as this was originally just a trial run and the run ended to an unlucky explosion. I've also been running blind, ie not checking encounters movesets, just as I was feeling out how the team performed and I've ended up quite happy, maybe some minor tweaks but the idea is there I think.

Not a lot of theory going in behind this team, I mainly just wanted to experiment with Palace because I've always found the RNG element rather interesting.

The Team

The Team:
Salamence @ Choice Band
Nature: Sassy
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 12 SpA
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide


Milotic @ Lum Berry
Nature: Brave
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpD
IVs: 4 Atk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Toxic


Latias @ Leftovers
Nature: Brave
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 70 SpD / 188 Spe
IVs: 1 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Recover
- Substitute

Set Explanation

Set explanation:

Sassy nature for Salamence at first seems poor due to the -Spe nature. But when doing a little bit of theory crafting for the run I thought that the 88% chance of an attack while leading was going to be my best bet, as if Salamence took hits it was likely going down anyway so I didn't really think that having an alternative strategy for <50% was worth it, especially with Choice Band as it would then be locked into a move and not be able to select Rest for example anyway. All in on Atk and Spe seemed fine.

Brave on Latias and Milotic is due to the 70% chance of attacking >50% and 60% chance of healing <50%. Allowing me to heal out of bad situations, then as they're both quite tanky I could pivot between the two and swap back out into a >50% health and start attacking again. 188 Spe was to get Latias to 138 Spe stat though I could probably push this up higher I just wanted a little bit more SpD to occassionally survive a hit.

I'm unsure about keeping Substitute on Latias as I normally would just switch out once heals have started coming back in from Recover, might be worth swapping to a support move like Attract or Flash, or a different Defensive move like Calm Mind. Or maybe even another attacking move, to give a little extra coverage, after the loss I'm thinking Ice Beam.

Milotic seems pretty standard, Surf and Ice Beam to do some damage, Recover to stay in the fight, and Toxic just incase it chooses a support move even though unlikely at any health level.

Any suggestions welcome.

The Loss

The Loss

Lost to an Explosion from a Shiftry, the round started with a (shiny) Salamence which I should have switched immediately into Milotic but didn't, which outsped mine, 2 shot mine with Double Edge, while I didn't move. Finished that off with Ice Beam from Milotic after taking a Double Edge. Came into a Shiftry that finished off Milotic with a Giga Drain, and then Latias was just unprepared to take it the rest of the way, Thunderbolt wasn't doing enough damage, Psychic doesn't effect, and it didn't get a Substitute off to survive the Explosion.

PROOF

The run.

Thought I'd just edit the post and submit again. Using the same team, same movesets, I just got a run of 71, which ended poorly. Gengar6 is brutal for this team. I lead in the same composition as above, and seeing the Gengar I didn't want to risk an Ice Punch or Thunder Punch to Salamence, so I switched to Latias and ate the oncoming Ice Punch, however it froze me, preventing me from getting off a Psychic and continuing the run. It would have outsped anyway but still annoying as I could have gotten a Recover or Substitute off, but no point getting hung up on the details. Only minor edits to the run made are keeping in Latios and Milotic longer after they've been reduced to <50% HP as they Recover so much HP that I can stall out quite a few opponents.

PROOF PART 2