Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

[MDG4]

RNG manip is, in my opinion, totally the way to go. Yes it takes more time initially, but once you get the hang of it, it doesn't end up taking very long and you get stronger mons, which sometimes makes a big difference. Plus it's kinda fun. For Latios, I would compare your Latios' stats against what a Starmie would be. Due to a glitch, Pokemon caught while roaming in this generation have IVs of zero in everything except attack, which is 5 or less, and HP which is the normal 0-31. Mild is not a bad nature when considering you could've ended up with something way worse. Plug in some numbers here against opponents you might face and see the difference yourself: https://turskain.github.io/ (switch it to ADV). Also, consider the synergy. Slaking is weak to fighting, which both of the psychics resist, and metagross is weak to fire and ground, which both resist fire, but Latios is immune to ground while Starmie is neutral. That being said, if the attacker is ground type, then Starmie's stronger surf might come in handy. There's always tradeoffs.

For breeding/RNG abuse, I have a video here that goes over this whole process of start to finish of how I get a mon I want:

it's very long, so feel free to skim or not watch, but this is like an info dump of like 80% of what I know about breeding/EV training/RNG manip optimizations specifically in Emerald.

I think your team will be plenty strong and I think it's worth obtaining the team and testing at this point. There's only so much you can do with theory alone- go play with it, pay attention to your losses (or maybe you only win and get all Golds! yay!) and come back and people can help you workshop it more. Also, even if you have a great team, if you don't know why it's good and can't wield it effectively, you probably won't make it to Gold, so consider after you train your Pokemon, train yourself a bit too by playing some runs and getting used to the Frontier. Good luck!

So far my team is Do you have any advice on a 4th move for Slaking and my third pokemon?

SLAKOTH Adamant IVs 31/31/31/28/31/31 - Choice Band - EVs 4/252/0/0/0/0/252

Return
Earthquake
Shadow Ball
?? (What should I put here? Rock Slide? Brick break?)

METAGROSS Adamant IVs 27/25/29/11/28/31 - Choice Band - EVs 12/252/0/0/0/244

Meteor Mash (the accuracy on this move really pisses me off)
Earthquake
Shadow Ball
Explosion

Latios Mild IVs 18/22/8/26/19/24 ??? (Will take suggestions on a different 3rd pokemon here if anyone has please).

 

[RosieVGC]

I worked out a few possible BF Doubles teams I'd love some C&C on:

Team 1: Rain

https://pokepast.es/6037795beca58438

The first three picks for this team were easily made. Latios almost feels like an auto include for any team trying to get a high scoring run in. Given that I want to build around rain, Kingdra for its Swift Swim-Surf combo and Zapdos for its Thunder also seemed like obvious picks. That left me with one slot to fill. The first selection of three lacks a physical attacker, as well as being double ice weak with no resists. That's where Metagross comes in, bringing all of these as well as benefiting from rain through negating its fire weakness.

The idea is to lead with ZapGross, deciding on whether to set Screens, Rain or Protect to have Metagross take out a threat to Zapdos first, while Metagross either gets the offenses rolling or goes for Endure. Once Metagross has done its job, a booming farewell should get Kingdra in. Latios is there to round out the team, picking Thunderbolt over Thunder so in case things do go wrong and I cannot get or keep Rain up I have the reliable option to fall back on. Swapping out one of the offensive moves with Helping Hand to further boost Kingdra's Surfs is a possible consideration.

This team lacks one important tool though: setup removal. No Haze, no Ace, no Toxic, no Perish. I just can't find the space to justify it though as lots of team members suffer from moveslot syndrome. One idea that did cross my mind is swapping out Metagross with Scizor. He benefits from rain in similar fashion, can SD up next to Kingdra, keeping a physical attacker for the late game that way, while running HP Fighting to deal with non Water Ice types, and Aerial Ace to deal with evasion spammers. I'm not sure how viable he really would be without either Technician or priority though.

Another option to solve this problem would be Lapras. Good defenses, Shell Armor for crit protection, and access to Perish Song. Question is though, who do you sacrifice to get her in?

Team 2 (WIP): Gyarawak

https://pokepast.es/cccf96c3e49f9838

This team borrows QuentinQuonce 's GyaraWak spreads, built to outspeed the entire metagame with Gyarados after one DD, all the Regii with Wak, while adding bulk on both. Leads with Gyarados-Latios, looking to get a DD and/or Substitute (ran over Protect to keep Lum free for Latios and over Resto-Chesto to have a better Explosion answer) up whenever the opportunity arises while Latios runs coverage plus STAB. In case electric leads prove an issue, Latios switches out for Marowak. Still unsettled on who should be the final team member here though. Obviously it could do with another Fly/Levitate Pokemon. I've looked at the Dragons but fear that 4x Ice weakness is too much on doubles, even more so since both Latios and Wak are ice weak already.

Team 3 (ideas phase): Sun

Another team I'd love to try out is Sun. Building starts with sun abusers of course. There are three I am potentially looking at. First of all, Charizard. Outspeeds almost anything with Timid, has access to Dragon Claw to deal with Dragon types that resist all general sun team coverage, and has Heat Wave for a strong, fire type spread move. The second one is Houndoom. Outside of Entei, he's the only considerable fire type that also gets Solar Beam in this generation. STAB Crunch for further coverage to round things out. Could maybe even run a Salac-Endure set to go Modest for yet more output and get his speed up. My only issues with him are his pitiful defense stat and lack of Fly/Levitate to combine with an Earthquake user. Finally, there's Shiftry. Incredibly frail, but really fast in the Sun, access to a Boom and Fake Out. I'm wondering if he could be viable as a 'here for a good time, not a long time' partner next to a sun setter.

Edit: for sun there are two more Pokemon that came to mind. One is Blaziken. Could go Salac-Endure with the stats to perform in a mixed attacker role, Earthquake access and Aerial Ace/Brick Break as options for different purposes. The other one is Swampert. Brings STAB Earthquake to the team, deals with opposing fire types with a defensive water profile that doesn't suffer from sun as it doesn't really use it offensively anyways, and doesn't mind about the Solar Beam boost since it dies as soon as it touches grass regardless.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Team 2 (WIP): Gyarawak

https://pokepast.es/cccf96c3e49f9838

This team borrows QuentinQuonce 's GyaraWak spreads, built to outspeed the entire metagame with Gyarados after one DD, all the Regii with Wak, while adding bulk on both. Leads with Gyarados-Latios, looking to get a DD and/or Substitute (ran over Protect to keep Lum free for Latios and over Resto-Chesto to have a better Explosion answer) up whenever the opportunity arises while Latios runs coverage plus STAB. In case electric leads prove an issue, Latios switches out for Marowak. Still unsettled on who should be the final team member here though. Obviously it could do with another Fly/Levitate Pokemon. I've looked at the Dragons but fear that 4x Ice weakness is too much on doubles, even more so since both Latios and Wak are ice weak already.

Appreciate the shoutout. I've been playing around with my Lightningrod team in Gen IV lately and have been considering Mr Mime as a potential addition: after Gen III, Manectric became unviable and so I pivoted to having a fourth team member who could run out the clock on the Perish Song timer and block attacks from foes with Protect. Hitmontop has been good at that in Gen V but it's less adept at it in earlier gens. Mr Mime comes the closest to recreating that; not only does it get Fake Out, it also has Soundproof which obviously pairs well with Perish Song. It has poor bulk so is a bit less capable of clinging on after a hit and baiting attacks in the same way Marowak/Hitmontop can, but it might be more optimal to just run two attacks alongside Fake Out/Substitute anyway. Alternatively it's got the speed to make use of the various disruptive/supportive moves it learns. Overall for Gen III I would say Manectric is a better option though.

Team 3 (ideas phase): Sun

Another team I'd love to try out is Sun. Building starts with sun abusers of course. There are three I am potentially looking at. First of all, Charizard. Outspeeds almost anything with Timid, has access to Dragon Claw to deal with Dragon types that resist all general sun team coverage, and has Heat Wave for a strong, fire type spread move. The second one is Houndoom. Outside of Entei, he's the only considerable fire type that also gets Solar Beam in this generation. STAB Crunch for further coverage to round things out. Could maybe even run a Salac-Endure set to go Modest for yet more output and get his speed up. My only issues with him are his pitiful defense stat and lack of Fly/Levitate to combine with an Earthquake user. Finally, there's Shiftry. Incredibly frail, but really fast in the Sun, access to a Boom and Fake Out. I'm wondering if he could be viable as a 'here for a good time, not a long time' partner next to a sun setter.

Edit: for sun there are two more Pokemon that came to mind. One is Blaziken. Could go Salac-Endure with the stats to perform in a mixed attacker role, Earthquake access and Aerial Ace/Brick Break as options for different purposes. The other one is Swampert. Brings STAB Earthquake to the team, deals with opposing fire types with a defensive water profile that doesn't suffer from sun as it doesn't really use it offensively anyways, and doesn't mind about the Solar Beam boost since it dies as soon as it touches grass regardless.

I've long wanted to make a viable Sun team but it's so tricky. Jumpluff is a Pokemon which looks so good on paper: it's incredibly fast so will get sun up most of the time, and then has a bunch of useful support options to play with: Leech Seed, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Helping Hand, Encore. But I feel like it'd be a poor option in general, Ice is an incredibly common weakness to have. Maybe something like Latias would be a better general lead since it's fast enough to set up sun for a slower teammate to benefit from but doesn't much care about weather itself.

Exeggutor is a potentially fantastic backup mon for a sun team, it can also boom and does better against Water-types than Shiftry in general. Houndoom is good in the sun but I find it lacking in doubles, it's very frail and doesn't hit hard enough with non-STAB moves to be reliable - I also wouldn't run Salac-Endure in doubles because there's just so much more opportunity for stuff to chip you when you're low. Double the Quick Claw bullshit and at 1 HP a miss can be disastrous.

Charizard isn't the worst option but you won't be KOing any dragons with Dragon Claw, while they're very much capable of OHKOing you with Rock Slide or Thunderbolt. Heat Wave is a potential option but I would think Overheat would be preferable; sure you only target one foe but in sunny weather you will get a lot of clean OHKOs - potentially taking out two foes (with White Herb) is huge, whereas even in sun the spread-damage penalty for Heat Wave would discourage me. Paired with a good Earthquake user though I think Timid White Herb Charizard with Overheat could be extremely good. I'd be inclined to run max Speed/SpA with Overheat, Hidden Power Grass or Ice or Bite, Protect and maybe something like Fly or Dig - unconventional maybe but Charizard's typing will draw a lot of attacks so it's a potentially very good way to avoid them while your teammate attacks. Note that thanks to being a Flying-type Charizard can use Dig and still not be hit by Earthquake. I don't know though, I'd need to test that out.

Anyway, hopefully this has given you some ideas.

 

[BeVreeze]

I worked out a few possible BF Doubles teams I'd love some C&C on:

Team 1: Rain

https://pokepast.es/6037795beca58438

The first three picks for this team were easily made. Latios almost feels like an auto include for any team trying to get a high scoring run in. Given that I want to build around rain, Kingdra for its Swift Swim-Surf combo and Zapdos for its Thunder also seemed like obvious picks. That left me with one slot to fill. The first selection of three lacks a physical attacker, as well as being double ice weak with no resists. That's where Metagross comes in, bringing all of these as well as benefiting from rain through negating its fire weakness.

The idea is to lead with ZapGross, deciding on whether to set Screens, Rain or Protect to have Metagross take out a threat to Zapdos first, while Metagross either gets the offenses rolling or goes for Endure. Once Metagross has done its job, a booming farewell should get Kingdra in. Latios is there to round out the team, picking Thunderbolt over Thunder so in case things do go wrong and I cannot get or keep Rain up I have the reliable option to fall back on. Swapping out one of the offensive moves with Helping Hand to further boost Kingdra's Surfs is a possible consideration.

This team lacks one important tool though: setup removal. No Haze, no Ace, no Toxic, no Perish. I just can't find the space to justify it though as lots of team members suffer from moveslot syndrome. One idea that did cross my mind is swapping out Metagross with Scizor. He benefits from rain in similar fashion, can SD up next to Kingdra, keeping a physical attacker for the late game that way, while running HP Fighting to deal with non Water Ice types, and Aerial Ace to deal with evasion spammers. I'm not sure how viable he really would be without either Technician or priority though.

Another option to solve this problem would be Lapras. Good defenses, Shell Armor for crit protection, and access to Perish Song. Question is though, who do you sacrifice to get her in?

I'd probably give zapdos the lum berry. With it being the lead it's probably going to get statused the most. It's also going to invite a lot of ice beams and getting frozen turn 1 by something like a starmie or quick claw lapras would be horrible. Leftovers probably isn't going to do much meaningful healing on zapdos so I don't think it will miss it that much.

I've used a little bit of rain and I was very unimpressed by the damage rain boosted surf did. I had a double surf lead, though. It might have something going for it as a cleaner in the back to finish things off that are low or to soften things up so they can be killed with thunder. Depending on how the team performs it might be worth looking into waterfall instead.

I really like having perish song to deal with annoying last pokemon. Have you considered using gengar over latios? I've seen some success with thunderbolt, ice punch, perish song, protect on one of my teams. You won't be as tanky as latios, but the damage is very similar. You could also try out thunder over thunderbolt if you find that you can reliably get gengar/latios in with rain up. There are a lot of ohkos that they just barely miss with thunderbolt.

I've not used scizor yet, but I think that setting up with such a slow pokemon isn't the best.

Team 2 (WIP): Gyarawak

https://pokepast.es/cccf96c3e49f9838

This team borrows QuentinQuonce 's GyaraWak spreads, built to outspeed the entire metagame with Gyarados after one DD, all the Regii with Wak, while adding bulk on both. Leads with Gyarados-Latios, looking to get a DD and/or Substitute (ran over Protect to keep Lum free for Latios and over Resto-Chesto to have a better Explosion answer) up whenever the opportunity arises while Latios runs coverage plus STAB. In case electric leads prove an issue, Latios switches out for Marowak. Still unsettled on who should be the final team member here though. Obviously it could do with another Fly/Levitate Pokemon. I've looked at the Dragons but fear that 4x Ice weakness is too much on doubles, even more so since both Latios and Wak are ice weak already.

I'm a bit of a leftovers hater when it comes to doubles. I think it would work better on a bulky last mon, so I'm going to suggest something like a cheri berry on the gyarados. I think lightningrod works on thunder wave, but that won't help you when marowak isn't on the field and there are a lot of random pokemon that have thunder wave. You have substitute to block it, but you won't always be able to.

I'm not sure about a 4th and don't have too much time to think about it at the moment but another ground immune sounds good when you have to powerful pokemon that want to spam EQ. Articuno is nice as a pokemon that isn't weak to ice and also can't be frozen. Not sure how well it fits on this team.

Team 3 (ideas phase): Sun

Another team I'd love to try out is Sun. Building starts with sun abusers of course. There are three I am potentially looking at. First of all, Charizard. Outspeeds almost anything with Timid, has access to Dragon Claw to deal with Dragon types that resist all general sun team coverage, and has Heat Wave for a strong, fire type spread move. The second one is Houndoom. Outside of Entei, he's the only considerable fire type that also gets Solar Beam in this generation. STAB Crunch for further coverage to round things out. Could maybe even run a Salac-Endure set to go Modest for yet more output and get his speed up. My only issues with him are his pitiful defense stat and lack of Fly/Levitate to combine with an Earthquake user. Finally, there's Shiftry. Incredibly frail, but really fast in the Sun, access to a Boom and Fake Out. I'm wondering if he could be viable as a 'here for a good time, not a long time' partner next to a sun setter.

Edit: for sun there are two more Pokemon that came to mind. One is Blaziken. Could go Salac-Endure with the stats to perform in a mixed attacker role, Earthquake access and Aerial Ace/Brick Break as options for different purposes. The other one is Swampert. Brings STAB Earthquake to the team, deals with opposing fire types with a defensive water profile that doesn't suffer from sun as it doesn't really use it offensively anyways, and doesn't mind about the Solar Beam boost since it dies as soon as it touches grass regardless.

For Charizard I would probably suggest hidden power ice over dragon claw. You're not going to one shot anything with dragon claw, but you can with hp ice. It won't hit kingdra as hard, but it's probably worth it for all the other dragons. Moltres may also be worth considering. It's not quite as fast as charizard, but it's quite a bit stronger and its bulk is a bit better. Hidden power ice will have a lot more rolls to kill bulky dragons when used by moltres. Maybe you could even run both if you really want that ground immunity.

I used lead shiftry on my sun team to help to get the sun up on turn 1. It's definitely not the best pokemon, but fake out, solar beam, explosion seems like a good combination for a sun team. It's quite easy to lose the shiftry turn 1, though. My own sun team wasn't very successful

I like the idea of swampert in the back. A lightning rod user to support charizard/moltres might be good too.

 

[RosieVGC]

I've long wanted to make a viable Sun team but it's so tricky. Jumpluff is a Pokemon which looks so good on paper: it's incredibly fast so will get sun up most of the time, and then has a bunch of useful support options to play with: Leech Seed, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Helping Hand, Encore. But I feel like it'd be a poor option in general, Ice is an incredibly common weakness to have. Maybe something like Latias would be a better general lead since it's fast enough to set up sun for a slower teammate to benefit from but doesn't much care about weather itself.

Oh yes, I love Jumpluff! probably too frail for Gen 3 though. What I am looking at is Jumpluff in Gen IV, as Focus Sash should keep her alive for at least one turn. First turn Sunny Day paired with a Fake Out user. Then look to get in Scarf Typhlosion and start swinging out Helping Hand Eruptions. Maybe that's also where Shiftry could shine? Has Fake Out. If he dies turn one that's a safe entry for Typhlosion. If he doesn't you go Explosion-Protect on Jumpluff next turn, also a safe entry for Typhlosion?

Charizard isn't the worst option but you won't be KOing any dragons with Dragon Claw, while they're very much capable of OHKOing you with Rock Slide or Thunderbolt. Heat Wave is a potential option but I would think Overheat would be preferable; sure you only target one foe but in sunny weather you will get a lot of clean OHKOs - potentially taking out two foes (with White Herb) is huge, whereas even in sun the spread-damage penalty for Heat Wave would discourage me. Paired with a good Earthquake user though I think Timid White Herb Charizard with Overheat could be extremely good. I'd be inclined to run max Speed/SpA with Overheat, Hidden Power Grass or Ice or Bite, Protect and maybe something like Fly or Dig - unconventional maybe but Charizard's typing will draw a lot of attacks so it's a potentially very good way to avoid them while your teammate attacks. Note that thanks to being a Flying-type Charizard can use Dig and still not be hit by Earthquake. I don't know though, I'd need to test that out.

Anyway, hopefully this has given you some ideas.

White Herb-Overheat Charizard sounds quite interesting. You don't even need max Speed on Timid to outrun what's important so that's some EVs left for bulk as well. Gyarawak sun is an idea I was actually looking at before as well. Perhaps that's just the way to go? Sun would further secure Wak's bulk, get Zards Overheats going. 2 Earthquake users in, Lightningrod, Perish as an end game option. I'm Thinking Latias-Gyarados lead with a classic setup just one move slot on Latias switched for Sunny Day? I'd have to check the damage calcs on Heat Wave. Sun and STAB does get you back to 100%, if that would be enough for some KOs it could be worth running both Overheat and Heat Wave. And those Fly/Dig suggestions sound really interesting as well!

https://pokepast.es/cab16f9b92263f7a

I'd probably give zapdos the lum berry. With it being the lead it's probably going to get statused the most. It's also going to invite a lot of ice beams and getting frozen turn 1 by something like a starmie or quick claw lapras would be horrible. Leftovers probably isn't going to do much meaningful healing on zapdos so I don't think it will miss it that much.

I've used a little bit of rain and I was very unimpressed by the damage rain boosted surf did. I had a double surf lead, though. It might have something going for it as a cleaner in the back to finish things off that are low or to soften things up so they can be killed with thunder. Depending on how the team performs it might be worth looking into waterfall instead.

I really like having perish song to deal with annoying last pokemon. Have you considered using gengar over latios? I've seen some success with thunderbolt, ice punch, perish song, protect on one of my teams. You won't be as tanky as latios, but the damage is very similar. You could also try out thunder over thunderbolt if you find that you can reliably get gengar/latios in with rain up. There are a lot of ohkos that they just barely miss with thunderbolt.

I've not used scizor yet, but I think that setting up with such a slow pokemon isn't the best.

Fair call on the Lum allocation. I had originally intended Latios-Metagross to be the lead, then switched Zapdos there, should have brought the Lum along. I can see the downside on the Surf damage. Maybe I could get away with dropping one Rain Dance (or moving the other over to Latios) to run both Surf and Waterfall on Kingdra? The way I'm looking at it though is that Kingdra (who should be damaging both at 1.1 with Surf after -50%, then applying all bonuses) gets in the consistent spread damage with a partner that secures urgent KOs. I have definitely considered Gengar, but heard many people complain about the lack of bulk and vulnerability to QC Psychic users, which had me worried he would be too risky as a backline option while also just not staying around long enough from the frontline to get in Perish though. Two options I am looking at to make that short presence count are Metagross-Gengar pairing with either double Boom from Endure-Salac Metagross, or Skill Swap on Gengar to make Metagross levitate?

Or perhaps you could even look to combine the strategies of double Boom and Perish Gengar? Salac Metagross, Shadow Ball-Explosion-Perish Song-Protect Jolly Gengar. If not facing evasion or problematic resists, double boom. If facing ghost leads you have double Shadow Ball. If double boom isn't viable you can Boom on Metagross and Protect on Gengar, then next turn Perish?

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Got my gold symbol in Battle Factory AND Battle Tower today.

Biggest difference for both....looking up sets. Honestly, scouting ahead of time with the spreadsheets vs. just playing blind makes it so much easier. My 69th battle was against a Lapras and knowing that it didn't have Ice Beam made me feel safe about switching in Latios and Tbolting it vs. playing around it. Did Battle Factory on 3rd try and Battle Tower on 1st try after I started doing that.

This is after resetting my game after being stuck at all silvers for several weeks and RNG'ing the Metagross, Swampert, and Latios. That also made a huge difference.

Now...time to go for the gold shield, and then I can go for gold everywhere else!

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Wanted to provide proof and get my name on the leaderboard.

I do use a homebrewed 2ds, so I do have access to save states, but I only use them to back up, not to use them for the purposes of cheating the streak in the battle frontier (why would you cheat this way to undermine an accomplishment on a 20+ year old game is beyond me).

I used Werster's classic team for the Tower, all the way down to the IV/Nature Spreads and suggested EVs for Latios/Swampert. Like I previously said, I tried the Frontier with a random Swampert/Latios/Metagross that I EV trained, but I was stuck at Silvers until I reset the game and RNG'd everything. I RNG'd the Metagross on my dead battery retail Sapphire version. I had a shiny Adamant spread good for a physical attacker (I also RNG'd my SID) so I used that and transferred over. I RNG'd Latios and Swampert on the new Emerald save file.

I used PKSM to inject the Southern Island Event to catch Latios. I also used PKSM to EV train, as I previously EV Trained that original Swampert/Latios/Metagross manually and I just didn't want to do that again in a Gen 3 game...otherwise I really only use PKSM for rare candies in my nuzlockes.

Like I said, with the spreadsheets, it was much easier to get the gold symbol for me in the factory and the tower. Don't have too much more to say beyond that. Got a little lucky in a few matchups, including two seperate Swords Dance Scizors that were setting up on me that I just didn't have an answer for, but both of them got a little too greedy with their set up moves. Otherwise not too too many close calls (although I was sweating a lot during Anabel in battle 70). I've gotten long streaks in Sapphire tower before so it's not too unfamiliar to me (though obviously Emerald is more difficult). My streaks are active and I will go for broke in Factory just to get my name on the leaderboard as high as possible, but no plans to return to it beyond that. I'll shoot for 100 on Tower for the Gold Shield but may look to keep it active for future ribbon masters. If I don't get it this round though, no plans to return to it for now.

"Bear" the Latios @ Lum Berry
Modest
IVs: 16/18/27/31/31/26
EVs: 18 HP/252 SpA/240 Spe
Moves: Calm Mind, Psychic, Dragon Claw, Thunderbolt

"Bagel" the Swampert @ Leftovers
Brave
IVs: 17/31/31/25/22/23
EVs: 100/132/28/140/2/108
Moves: Earthquake, Ice Beam, Surf, Protect

"Metallica" the Metagross @ Choice Band
Adamant
IVs" 24/31/31/28/6/31
EVs: 46 HP/252 Atk/212 Spe
Moves: Meteor Mash, Shadow Ball, Earthquake, Explosion

 

[RosieVGC]

I continued working on my ideas for doubles teams. I think I settled on the following two:

Team 1: BoomBox

https://pokepast.es/f7df3eba77677a09

Leads with Metagross and Gengar. First turn Gengar Booms, getting Metagross below 1/3rd by doing so, while Metagross Endures. Turn 2 Metagross either Booms or EQs depending on the opposition. With CB and max attack investment, Gengar's Boom basically takes out anything that doesn't resist it, while both of my leads are 'Explosion immune' turn 1. From those resists, Rock and Steel get dealt with through Meta's EQ, while double Shadow Ball is taken to counter Ghosts. BP/DT could provide some issues, but with double Boom should get taken out (while Latias runs Toxic in the back for further backup options). With all special walls supposedly removed through the Booms, Latios and Latias should have free reign cleaning up in the back.

Team 2: Gyarawak

https://pokepast.es/40c9670393146fe6

Lead 'Double Dos'. Zapdos looks to get up Light Screen turn one to combine with Intimidate for effectively halved damage on all attacks, which should get Gyarados the freedom to set up Substitute. Gyarados then looks to get off a Dragon Dance and sweep, while Zapdos softens up potential resists and deals with flyers. If threatened by Electric moves from the opposing leads, Marowak comes in to draw them away with Lightningrod. I changed the EV spread compared to my previous build, limiting SpDef investments to bringing it on par with Defense since Light Screen support should do the rest, allowing for more Attack investment. Latios is there to finish off the team as the 'insta include' levitating special sweeper.

 

[V17]

I continued working on my ideas for doubles teams. I think I settled on the following two:

Team 1: BoomBox

https://pokepast.es/f7df3eba77677a09

Leads with Metagross and Gengar. First turn Gengar Booms, getting Metagross below 1/3rd by doing so, while Metagross Endures. Turn 2 Metagross either Booms or EQs depending on the opposition. With CB and max attack investment, Gengar's Boom basically takes out anything that doesn't resist it, while both of my leads are 'Explosion immune' turn 1. From those resists, Rock and Steel get dealt with through Meta's EQ, while double Shadow Ball is taken to counter Ghosts. BP/DT could provide some issues, but with double Boom should get taken out (while Latias runs Toxic in the back for further backup options). With all special walls supposedly removed through the Booms, Latios and Latias should have free reign cleaning up in the back.

Love this idea! I think it could maybe use a way to deal with Damp ability mons, especially Quagsire

 

[RosieVGC]

Love this idea! I think it could maybe use a way to deal with Damp ability mons, especially Quagsire

Thanks! Fair point. Maybe run Giga Drain instead of Fire Punch? Should secure the KO into Damp mons combined with Meta's EQ.

 

[Led Zeppelin]

Since I posted last week, I've earned gold in the pyramid, the dome, the pike, and the arena. Just the palace to go!

Overall a great challenge. Though once you get the hang of familiarity with the sets, it gets easier. I highly recommend doing the Dome and Factory early to grow familiarity.

I'll post proof with everything once I beat the palace.

EDIT: Beat the Palace. All golds obtained!

I used the classic Swampert, Latios, Metagross team for all of them except the pyramid, where I used Slaking, Latios, Blissey, and the palace, where I used Metagross, Latios, Milotic.

I also tried a Starmie at one point but couldn't match Latios. Also tried a Gengar at one point and just found it underwhelming. I'll post everything later for proof.

 

[patrickgurczak]

First time poster !

I'm currently working towards getting all 7 gold symbols in the battle frontier, I accomplished getting all silver symbols around 6 months ago. It was very exciting to be able to get even a single symbol as I never got any as a child. I gave up on the battle frontier once I got gold in the dome as I was struggling getting anywhere else with the other facilities. However, after recently watching a few content creators talking about gen 3 and 4 battle frontier, I felt motivated to take another stab at the battle frontier in gen 3.

I am playing on emulator as I sold my original hardware and cart a few years ago. The only "cheating" I've done was breeding a gamesharked perfect IV ditto with a perfect IV parent of the pokemon I'm looking for, then obviously speeding up riding the bike between Verdanturf Town and Mauville City to hatch eggs. Each pokemon took around 1-3 hours until I was happy enough with the IVs and got the natures I wanted. I even hatched a shiny Beldum along the way! I then EV trained them either in Verdanturf Tunnel, Route 104, or the Altering Cave courtesy of people remaking the non-distributed wonder cards for that area.

During my first time trying to get all of the symbols I also had a Donphan, Stantler, and Cradily in rotation to have a team of six. BUUUUUT after coming back to the game and playing with those 3 a bit more, I realized that they kinda suck for what I am trying to do :( Donphan is more or less a worse Metagross, I made my Stantler special orientated and it was awful, but Cradily actually was kind of decent; it's moveset was Ancient Power/Recover/Amnesia/Toxic.

Anyway, moving past the old team members that I cut, the team I used to get gold in the dome was...

Gengar/CHESHIRE @ Scope Lens
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 28 SpD
- Destiny Bond
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch


Metagross/OIKOS @ 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

Blastoise/DOMI @ 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

Going off of memory, Gengar and Metagross were the main pokemon I used throughout the rounds; 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 when 2 or more fire types could be in the fight. Along the journey I learned that I could still win the battle with Destiny Bond or Explosion as my last move... I'm sure you can imagine my astonishment when I tried the same trick on Tucker the first time around and seeing I lost :)

After getting to Tucker another 2 times and getting rattled, I finally started using a damage calculator to figure out how to beat Tucker. However, that is when I realized that my team probably wasn't as good as I thought it was. Blastoise could not knockout Tucker's Swampert/Metagross/Latias before they knocked it out... and Gengar appeared to be in a similar boat. Metagross though looks like it might have a chance.

So rather than wanting to swap team members around, my strategy ended being based on luck; a win is a win. I would lead with Gengar and use Destiny Bond until I took down the first poke, then Metagross would come in. My preferences were Latias, then Metagross, then all the way in the back was Swampert. I had a guaranteed 3HKO with Shadow Ball on Latias, I had a 2HKO on Metagross with Earthquake but I needed a crit to make it happen, and Swampert was just going to destory Metagross. Thankfully I got the Latias I wanted the the gold symbol was mine :)

I've reworked my Gengar and Metagross a bit and I'm currently working on the Pyramid. Gengar now has a Lum Berry, I swapped Subtitute for Fire Punch, and the EVs 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 a fire move on my team 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 outspeed all opposing Metagross in the battle frontier. For the Pyramid, I'm noting where the trainers and items are, also I'm currently thinking that a floor in the Pyramid does not have more than 5 unique sections on a floor but I'm not 100% sure about that yet.

Is it possible for the above team to be added to the OPEN LEVEL Dome leaderboard? I ended my streak at 10 championships. Team pokepaste is here: https://pokepast.es/b82b0a53e6c347d5

 

[RosieVGC]

I've been working on the issue of Damp Pokemon facing my BoomBox team. In this gen there are four with the ability: Golduck, Quagsire, Politoed and Poliwrath. Ideally you'd want to be able to run Thunderbolt for three of them, but with Quagsire we need Giga Drain instead. While I was running damage calcs, I realized just how strong Gengar's typing is on the physical side defensively. Normal, Ground and Fighting immune, Bug and Poison resistant, so we're only looking at Rock (not a serious type in Gen 3 doubles), Flying (outside of Drill Peck not a serious type either), Steel and Ghost (gonna be an issue regardless). With that in mind, as well as the fact that Gengar will be Booming turn 1 99% of the times anyways, I feel like I could get away with Hasty.

First problem to solve: the Damp Mons. 128SpA EV Giga Drain + EQ from Metagross OHKOs all Quagsire, Golduck and Poliwrath sets 100% of the times, while Politoed goes down to 2 Giga Drains and an EQ. Outside of resists, Lapras is about the toughest thing to take out with it. Playing around with the numbers a bit, I figured out that 128Atk is just enough to OHKO all Lapras sets but the Bold one (which doesn't run Sheer Cold & Horn Drill). Going with the logic of 'we only need to secure the non resist OHKOs, that would result in this spread:

Gengar @ Choice Band
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 36 HP / 128 Atk / 128 SpA / 216 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Explosion
- Brick Break
- Shadow Ball
- Giga Drain

What are your thoughts on the 36 HP EVs? Keep them there for added bulk, or move to Atk for higher damage on the resists?

 

[Ghost14196]

Hello everyone, it has been more than a year since I’ve returned to play my old pkmn games on my GBA SP / DS. Among them, I dedicated a lot of time to pkmn Emerald. At first, I wanted to complete the Battle Frontier on my very old save file on the cartridge, where I was missing some golden symbols. Once I’ve achieved it, I wanted to continue playing my favorite facility, the battle pyramid, to see how far I could go. In the past I’ve already played Battle Pyramid on emulators countless times with different pkmns, because this is probably what made me love this facility, not only the dungeon idea behind it (as a Mystery Dungeon fan), but also how each round, having pre-set wild encounters, allows me to run mons that in other facilities I would never use. So far I got to 2100 streak level 100. After clearing 1792 floors, something weird has happened: I faced a trainer with a level 100 Machop, then a Remoraid then a Rhyhorn… then other Ungrouped or Group 1 pkmns. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I felt like I’ve reached the end of the facility and it was time to move on to something else, but the curiosity got over me, so I kept progressing, just to find out if the difficulty from that moment would have been stuck into the easiest one, or if it was reset and it was going to grow up again. Well, it grows up again. Now I wonder if this happens every 1792 floors or just one time.

Teambuilding & Teams

While building, I had to take into consideration different things. I wanted to be safe to go as far as I could, as well as being fast and efficient since I was playing on a GBA SP, so without a turbo mode.
This led me to create a rotation of different teams, following this mindset:
1) Choosing a leader for clearing wild mons fast and reliably.
2) When possible, run a leader with intimidate, since not only does the ability reduce wild encounters, but it also helps Blissey a lot. At the same time, not using abilities that increase wild encounters, like arena trap.
3) Blissey is going to be in all the teams since she is the best supporter for this facility, while, for the 3rd member, a pkmn that works well with the leader in case of doubles battles and that covers the weaknesses of the team.

The first leader choice was Salamence, one of my favorite mon to use in gen 3. She can easily deal with most of the rounds and works very well with Blissey. For the last spot, I could go with Swampert, but despite being safer, I preferred going for Latios. This because he is a better partner for the double battles; he also quickly cleans most of what Salamence and Blissey don’t. This leaves the team a bit exposed to rock types, but in the end the only mons that can give problems are Aerodactyl(2) and Armaldo(4), since they hold choice band, so they hit hard even after intimidate, Latios can’t ohko them, and Aerodactyl can trigger omniboost with ancient power. Blissey can still save the day using counter, in case Latios and Salamence should fail, but if the situation turns grim, just use revives and make them run out of pps.
For the 6th round I run a different set on Salamence, with roar, to get rid of wild Wobbuffets easily.
Salamence struggles a bit with wild Crobat, Weezing, Dusclops and Armaldos, but I still prefer to use her anyway; the rest of the team can eventually back her up. For example, for round 13 I could have used a choice band Aerodactyl (mixed with flamethrower for wild Scizor and Forretress), but Salamence just gives me more safety vs trainers.

Salamence is good, but for some rounds there are better candidates, like Slaking. The master of 1v1s, she would be the best choice for all the rounds if wild mons didn’t have protect, which limited my use of her for 5,8,9,16 and 19. There wild mons with protect are very low, and she can sweep without many problems. Slaking is amazing, but she comes with a price: her ability. Hyper beam misses, or other cases of hax can be source of troubles, giving 2 free turns to the opponent, and that’s why the best partner for her is probably Gengar. Perish song wins the battle even if the opponent got 2 free turns to set up moves like double team, curse or other boosts, but also he holds fire punch and ice punch, covering the blind spots of Slaking coverage. He can also easily switch into wild Weezing, Golem, Forretress and Shiftry, all of which are protect users that can barely scratch Gengar, and usually just explode, giving us free wins.

There is another intimidate user that I prefer over Salamence for rounds 7 and 20, Hitmontop. He deals more damage with brick break, allowing him to ohko wild mons more reliably. Rarely can few of them outspeed him, like Sweelow, but nothing to worry about. Overall the team works the same way as Salamence one; Hitmontop has good synergy with Latios and Blissey.

For rounds 10 and 18, I went with Latios leader and Metagross. For the first one, I actually lead with Latios, but on the 3rd floor, I switch with Metagross, as it clears wild mons very well, except for Steelix, which can be found just on the first 2 floors. Metagross and Latios are another great combo, as they cover each other very well.

Round 15 could have been dealt by Slaking, but there are 2 mons runnin protect, one of them being Ludicolo, which is active on 6 floors, I went with Tauros. Despite the lower atk, Tauros works better here; he can still take care of wild mons and has intimidate as ability.

To conclude, round 12, I decided to run Jolteon leader with Salamence, as he defeats all the water/rock/ground types with thunderbolt + hidden power grass, while Salamence switches into Tropius and Cacturne basically for free (vs Cacturne, I prefer using brick break to save up aerial ace pps, but if during the switch in turn it uses sandstorm, it’s better to use aerial ace to avoid sand veil). Flareon is the only small issue, but Blissey or Salamence take care of it.

So, those are the teams:
Rounds 1,2,3,4,6*,11,13,14,15,17: Salamence, Latios, Blissey.
Rounds 5,8,9,16,19: Slaking, Gengar, Blissey.
Rounds 7,20: Hitmontop, Latios, Blissey.
Rounds 10**,18: Latios, Metagross, Blissey.
Round 15: Tauros, Gengar, Blissey.
Round 12: Jolteon, Salamence, Blissey.
* For this round I run a different Salamence.
** Latios leads for the first 2 floors, then I switch him with Metagross.

Members

Blissey

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Soft-Boiled
- Seismic Toss
- Counter
- Toxic

As mentioned before, Blissey is in all the teams. She switches into almost all special attackers and has soft-boiled, making her the best choice for a long run. She can easily recover hp with wild mons, except for rounds 8, and 11, while keeping the team at full hp without relying too much on items. I’m not using aromatherapy because lum berries are very easy to stack up. I like counter as 4th move, as it can easily deal tons of dmg while also saving me from trouble. With 32 pps it’s also very good to pp stall sets like Regice(6), since I want to get rid of ice beam pps so sleep talk can’t use it while I switch in Salamence to 2hko it with brick break. This set can’t touch Gengars, but that’s not a problem, as Latios, Slaking, Tauros or Jolteon take care of it, and at the same time, Gengars can’t do basically anything to Blissey. 4 evs in speed to outspeed other Blisseys, since brick break doesn’t ohko, I don’t keep Salamence in vs them.

Salamence

Salamence (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Flamethrower

Salamence has intimidate, good coverage and stab aerial ace (perfect for pesky bright powder or double team users), one of the best picks for Pyramid in my book. I chose brick break over hidden power rock as the second one doesn’t really solve any of the previously mentioned problems, as it can’t ohko any Armaldo set, and it gets 2hko even with earthquake, while brick break has many pros, like hitting bulky normal types harder or securing ohko on Tyrannitars. Eventually, hidden power could help with wild Armaldos and Shuckles, but it doesn’t look like a great deal to me.
+Atk nature instead of +Speed is way better, the only real drawback is that Electrabuzz(3) outspeeds Salamence, and it also has ice punch, forcing me to switch into Blissey everytime I see one. If after the switch ice punch is not revealed, switch back Salamence, as some sets run cross chop and a crit can deal huge dmg to Blissey. Otherwise, if it is revealed set 3, I stay in with her, and I use counter.
Salamence can also takes care of 2 ice types that annoy Blissey, Jynx and Dewgong.
The first one has 2 sets, 2 and 3, that are very annoying, so I don’t wanna switch Blissey in, but luckily those sets don’t run an ice move (so it doesn’t matter if Salamence can’t ohko, also she is female, so immune to attract), while sets 1 and 4 do, but Salamence can ohko them with aerial ace. I prefer using aerial ace over earthquake since set 2 runs bright powder. The other one, Dewgong, has some sets with ohko moves; Salamence always ohko with brick break sets 2 and 4 and 18,8% set 1. Set 3 instead is the infamous one that runs sheer cold and horn drill, and switching Blissey in is just pointless. In case sheer cold lands or set 1 survives, Latios completes the job, and 1 revive goes to Salamence.
For the other ice types with ohko moves, like Walrein and Lapras, for the first one I still prefer to stay in with Salamence and then clean with Latios, since 2 of the 4 sets run sheer cold, and Walrein(3) lacks ice beam, so switching Blissey into a sheer cold is a risk. I prefer to keep Salamence, hit hard with brick break, and close with Latios, keeping blissey as final wall to revive members if something goes wrong. Lapras instead has many sets without ohko moves, so I switch Blissey in.
Other mons worth of mentioning are Wailord, Whiscash and Golduck. The first 2 have a lot in common; both are bulky, run fissure and few sets have an ice move. For both I switch Blissey in, scout the set from the move used, and then I keep Blissey in, if Wailord(1) (icy wind), otherwise for the other ones, Wailord(4) and Whiscash(4), can be easily detected as they are the only sets with ice beam, PP stall fissure switching between Salamence and Blissey (both will usually use fissure when they see Blissey, allowing Salamence to switch back safely), for the other ones switch back to Latios, if Whiscash(2) (easily recognizable from future sight) or if Wailord(2) used curse, otherwise Salamence. Golduck, instead, is mentioned because most of the sets run cross chop, and 2 sets have ice moves; in particular set 4 is the dangerous one since it also runs scope lens. Just switch Blissey in, and then Latios takes care of all the sets.
Last mons worth of mentioning are Alakazam and Gardevoir. Salamence outspeeds all Alakazam sets but has a 50% chance to ohko with earthquake. Adding to that, 2 sets also involve more rng with focus band or bright powder; usually it’s not worth it to risk Salamence vs a potential ice punch; it’s better to switch on Blissey. The problem is, if it is set 3, Alakazam is going to trick Blissey, losing 1 leftovers but gaining 1 choice band, even after the battle, due to the tricked item being permanent in gen 3. The choice is circumstantial and depends on the player. If he wants to trade 1 leftovers for 1 choice band it’s fine; otherwise, just risk to use one revive.
Gardevoir is mentioned just because it’s usually the best option to switch Blissey in, but in case of double team or calm mind being used, it’s better to switch back to Salamence, as it can only be set 2 and keeping in Blissey it’s a waste of time.
In the case of Rhydon, Salamence stays in as set 3 lacks rock slide, and this can lead to switch in Latios to a potential horn drill.
The -sdef instead of -satk nature is to make flamethrower defeat more reliably wild Skarmorys and others like Breloom or Roselia, to prevent the contact effect of their abilities. Female gender, since some attract users are 100% female (like Jynx mentioned before).

Salamence (round 6)

Salamence (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 30 SpA
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Roar

The only difference is roar over flamethrower for wild Wobbuffets, and, of course, Adamant nature.

Latios

Latios (M) @ Lum Berry / Shell Bell
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 7 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Surf / Dragon Claw

The best special sweeper allowed in the Battle Frontier, has a great synergy with Salamence in double battles, levitate to prevent dmg from earthquake and an amazing coverage. I prefer timid nature over modest as, with 216 evs in speed, Latios gets to 341, which means he outspeeds anything but Jolteon(1,4) and Crobat(3,4). Also, even with modest nature, Latios would still 2hko mons I’m interested in, like Aerodactyl sets, and it’s better being faster than sets 1,2 that hit 338 speed. I run surf over dragon claws as 4th move everywhere but round 18, since I use the last one basically just for Kingdras, while surf gives way better coverage (for example it helps me with Armaldo since it can be problematic as explained previously, or it ohko all Rhydon sets, differently from ice beam, a mon that always carry quick claw and 3 sets have horn drill so it’s better to defeat it quickly). I use Shell bell when Latios leads or in round 3 from floor 3, as I keep him burned, and I switch him on wild Weezings to help Salamence, while lum berry when he is the 2nd member of the party. Latios also helps Salamence switching into Hariyama(1) (the only set Salamence can’t ohko with aerial ace, easy to scout since it uses fake out at turn 1) counter user that can badly hurt her.

Slaking

Slaking (F) @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 21 SpA
- Hyper Beam
- Return
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball

There is not much more to add about Slaking; hyper beam ohko anything that can’t resist it with few exceptions. Fake out/protect sets that NPCs can run are quite annoying to her, so I have a list with countermeasures to switch in the proper mon. I’m not going to list them all here, just the ones I consider tricky. Fake out users: Shiftry(1,4), Medicham(2). The issue with Shiftry is that set 4 has explosion, and I don’t want to keep Blissey in, so if it uses mega kick, it means it is set 4 so Gengar switches in safely. I can’t immediately switch Gengar in, as set 1 has feint attack. Medicham it’s there as, at first, being a fighting type with pure power can make me think to switch Gengar in; instead Medicham(2) runs psychic and reversal, which means Blissey switches in easily. For the other ones I switch in Blissey except for normal and fighting types or anything physical, where it’s up to Gengar (keep in mind I’m just considering sets from group 3 as the other ones basically never happear).
Same with protect sets, I follow the previous rule (Golduck(3) as mentioned before, is annoying for Blissey, but I don’t have Latios here, and Gengar takes huge dmg from hydro pump, so she has to deal with it; cross chop can’t ohko even with a crit) with few exceptions: Jynx(2), Dusclops(2), Suicune(2). For Jynx I’ve already explained why I don’t like to switch Blissey in, while for the other 2 mons, Gengar’s perish song makes it way faster.

Gengar

Gengar (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 172 HP / 120 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Protect
- Perish Song

Gengar is just amazing in the pyramid, he outspeeds anything but 4 mons like Latios, has 3 immunities, and perish song. As mentioned before, he helps very well Slaking, switching into almost all wild mons that annoy her, but also trainer mons like all sets of Shuckle, Cradily, Skarmory, Forretress and Scizor. I prefer running ice punce and fire punch over destiny bond and substitute, as perish song + protect get the job done already, while giving Gengar some offensive moves, without relying just on perish song, even from a PP prospective. For the evs, speed one has been explained already, 172 HP evs allow Gengar to survive a Salamence(4) aerial ace after 1 dragon dance, (the full explanation is given in the following threats section), while also getting 304 HP optimizing the leftovers recovery, the rest of the evs into satk to let Gengar ohko all Flygon sets and some of Salamence ones (1,2,3,7,8) with icepunch and to hit harder with fire punch.

Hitmontop

Hitmontop (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brick Break
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Ghost]

Hitmontop works basically like Salamence, he deals way easier with the ice types mentioned before, including Jynx, since he outspeeds and takes care of all sets (set 3 has 6.3% to ohko; if he should fail and Jynx lands lovely kiss, switch him out as she has dream eater) and doesn’t even need to be switched out in case of Wailord or Whiscash.

Metagross

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 52 HP / 252 Atk / 204 Spe
IVs: 30 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Brick Break

Those moves offer Metagross a wide coverage. Explosion could be used too but I don’t like to use it in the Pyramid. 204 speed evs to outspeed all the Metagross and Jynx sets.

Tauros

Tauros (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Hyper Beam
- Return
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Ghost]

The team works very similarly to Slaking’s one, Tauros earthquake can’t ohko Metagross as Slaking does, but he survives a meteor mash, and in case of quick claw or a critical, Gengar completes the job. And speaking of Gengar, Tauros speed ties with most of its sets, but in any case, it’s his job to deal with it. Hyper beam can ohko some of the annoying mons mentioned before, under the Salamence section, like Whiscash, Dewgong (except set 3) and Golduck, but lacks the power to do so with Lapras, Wailord and Walrein, so for those 3 it’s better to just go with return.

Jolteon

Jolteon (M) @ Shell Bell
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpA
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thunder Wave
- Protect

For round 12 I had many candidates: Aerodactyl or electric mons. The first one suffers Gyarados too much, as it always resists hidden power rock after intimidate and 2 of its available moves can deal lot of dmg, while among the electric candidates, I went for Jolteon instead of Raikou or Zapdos, because modest Raikou might have a bit more satk, but Jolteon outspeeds more mons, most importantly Aerodactyl, while if I had used Zapdos, I should have probably used Swampert as 2nd member, and I’ve already explained why I don’t like it.
Jolteon works well even against trainers, despite having less coverage than Latios, he always baits AI into using earthquake, making Salamence switching in very easily when needed, locking eventual choice band sets on it. Hidden power grass allows Jolteon to ohko all Rhydon and Golem sets, but it’s not guaranteed to ohko Quagsire or Whiscash, while it has no way to ohko Swampert, so I switch in Salamence instead and then Blissey. Actually, it can ohko 2 Whiscash sets (2 and 4), but I prefer switch in Salamence and then do what I’ve already explained before. As 3rd and 4th moves I had some options, but I went for thunder wave and protect. Thunder wave comes in handy to paralyze annoying sets, while protect is good to scout some sets, counter Slaking, or in double battles if i have to use earthquake with Salamence or to earn free turns when I’m sure Jolteon baits some attacks. Other options were shock waves to save up PP with thunderbolt with wild Peliper or Gyarados, but there really is no need for it as I always have 99 ethers available, or baton pass to run away from Dugtrio but it’s so rare (also, Dugtrio doesn’t always have arena trap) that it’s not worth running it.

Bag

Choice band
Leftovers
Shell bell
Lum berry
Hyper potion
Full restore
Ether
Revive
Max revive
Sacred ash

Sacred ashes can be replaced with something else, but I like to collect them; the other items already give me everything I need.

Exploration strategy

I usually try to get to one of the 4 walls that limit the maze and explore it in a spiral clockwise movement towards the center (exceptions can be made with a few peculiar maze layouts or if I have already spotted all the NPCs). This because I want to avoid as many double battles as possible. Patterns tend to repeat themselves, and after playing for a while, it’s easy to remember some of them. I can’t possibly describe them all; the easiest one to recognize is the no walls room, where the blue tile is top left or a bit down to the right (from the spawning point). Also when there are 4 or 5 trainers close to each others, the blue tile is usually close there (this is not true if the player spawns in the middle of them, because, in that case, the player spawns where the blue tile used to be, while it is somewhere else).

Threats

I consider double battles the main threat of the facility, as they reduce the advantage the player has in singles; a combination of bad luck caused by quick claw/bright powder/focus band can hurt a lot, potentially leading to a 1v2 scenario, where not even items can save the battle.
Even if I try to avoid them as much as possible, they can still happen. Leader and 2nd member are designed to have good synergy and to deal with many mons, but when clear ohkos are not viable, I prefer to focus on the most dangerous mon or on the easiest one to defeat, depending on the situation. The important thing is to turn the battle into a 2v1 as soon as possible.

Other threats can be quick claw/bright powder/focus band users and/or ohko moves, but in a facility where items are available, they are more manageable.

There are 3 sets that can become a problem for some of my teams: Dragonite(1,2) and Salamence(4). What do they have in common? Bright powder + dragon dance. The team led by Slaking is probably the one that can suffer from it the most, but even for Hitmontop, Metagross and Jolteon they are not to be taken lightly.

Slaking’s team doesn’t have intimidate to keep them at bay, and a miss with her can give them the opportunity to set up 2 times. For Dragonite it’s not a big deal, as it needs a +2 to outspeed Gengar, this means every time I see one, I just have to switch him in and click perish song. Same for Salamence, but there can be a problem because, after a dragon dance, it outspeeds Gengar, who has enough bulk to resist a +1 aerial ace, but if it lands a crit, it becomes painful. Slaking, without the -1 atk, could now ohko Salamence with return, but it’s not guaranteed, and bright power is still there… and don’t even think about clicking hyper beam. So in that scenario the best option is to go with Blissey and use counter. Eventually Salamence can also die by double-edge recoil.

For Hitmontop team, Latios switches in safely and can defeat both with ice beam (Dragonite has 12,5% to survive). Like Gengar (they have the same speed), he can outspeed Dragonite after 1 dragon dance, while Salamence +1 speed is faster, but usually it just dragon dances again due to turn 1 intimidate. The problem lies in ice beam miss due to bright powder, but for both, it needs 2 misses in a row, since with +1 atk Dragonite can’t defeat Latios with any move, while Salamence has 6,3% chance to ohko with double-edge. If those bad scenarios should happen, I rely on Blissey with counter.

Similarly, Metagross’ team relies on Latios as those 3 sets usually go for earthquake, he switches in safely, and then it needs 2 ice beam misses to turn the situation grim. Metagross team also suffers Heracross, switching in Latios and ohko with psychic is a must, because in the case of Heracross(4) any other option can lead to disaster. Damaging it with hidden power steel or other moves can make the AI use endure, and a Heracross with 1 Hp and +1 speed post salac berry means a lot of trouble. Metagross has high chances to resist a 200 bp reversal, but it’s very risky.

For Jolteon, the team lacks the ice coverage, and not all the Dragonite and Salamence sets run earthquake, and just switching in Salamence is not the best option as some sets are special and run dragon claws. So Jolteon scouts with protect, and then I choose to switch in Salamence or Blissey depending on the set. If earthquake it’s used it means it’s Dragonite(1,2,9,10) or Salamence(3,4,5) so I always switch into Salamence, as she can 3hko Dragonite and 2hko Salamence, except for Dragonite(10), that has Blizzard, but I don’t have a way to scout it earlier, so in that case, Salamence is getting sacrificed and then Blissey clears. This leaves out Salamence(6), which instead has dragon dance but not earthquake and holds lum berry. For this one I stay in with Jolteon and I try to use thunder wave 2 times (jolteon can outspeed even after 1 dragon dance), depending on if the AI uses headbutt after the 1st dragon dance, done in the protect turn, or if it dragon dances again. Eventually not even +2 atk can ohko Jolteon with headbutt, so in both cases he should be able to use thunder wave 2 times, unless crits or flinches. If nothing wrong happens, Salamence then switches in, otherwise Blissey. For all the other sets not mentioned before it’s still Blissey to switch in.

Calcs

Here there are all the calcs mentione before:

252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Jynx-1: 369-435 (110.5 - 130.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Jynx-4: 369-435 (110.5 - 130.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Brick Break vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Dewgong-1: 334-394 (87 - 102.6%) -- 18.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dewgong-2: 334-394 (104 - 122.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Brick Break vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dewgong-4: 334-394 (104 - 122.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hariyama-2: 504-594 (117.5 - 138.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Hariyama-3: 504-594 (102.4 - 120.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Hariyama-4: 504-594 (102.4 - 120.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Salamence-1: 360-424 (108.8 - 128.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Salamence-2: 360-424 (108.8 - 128.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Salamence-3: 360-424 (108.8 - 128.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Salamence-7: 360-424 (108.8 - 128.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Salamence-8: 360-424 (108.8 - 128.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Flygon-1: 360-424 (119.6 - 140.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Flygon-2: 360-424 (119.6 - 140.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Flygon-3: 360-424 (119.6 - 140.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
120 SpA Gengar Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Flygon-4: 360-424 (119.6 - 140.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+1 255+ Atk Salamence-4 Aerial Ace vs. 172 HP / 0 Def Gengar: 252-297 (82.9 - 97.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Hitmontop Hidden Power Ghost vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Jynx-1: 450-530 (134.7 - 158.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hitmontop Hidden Power Ghost vs. 255 HP / 255 Def Jynx-3: 283-334 (84.7 - 100%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Hitmontop Hidden Power Ghost vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Jynx-4: 450-530 (134.7 - 158.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Whiscash-1: 436-513 (102.8 - 121%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Whiscash-2: 436-513 (120.8 - 142.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 255 Def Whiscash-3: 324-382 (89.8 - 105.8%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO (33.8% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Whiscash-4: 436-513 (120.8 - 142.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Dewgong-1: 405-477 (105.5 - 124.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dewgong-2: 405-477 (126.2 - 148.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Dewgong-4: 405-477 (126.2 - 148.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Golduck-1: 413-486 (137.2 - 161.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Golduck-2: 413-486 (137.2 - 161.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Golduck-3: 413-486 (137.2 - 161.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)
252+ Atk Choice Band Tauros Hyper Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Golduck-4: 413-486 (137.2 - 161.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (90.0% chance after accuracy)

252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 170 HP / 170 SpD Rhydon-1: 421-496 (107.1 - 126.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 0 HP / 255 SpD Rhydon-2: 374-440 (106.6 - 125.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Rhydon-3: 557-656 (134.5 - 158.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Rhydon-4: 557-656 (134.5 - 158.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 0 HP / 255 SpD Golem-1: 309-364 (102.7 - 120.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Golem-2: 425-500 (116.8 - 137.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 0 HP / 255 SpD Golem-3: 309-364 (102.7 - 120.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 0 HP / 255 SpD Golem-4: 309-364 (102.7 - 120.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Whiscash-2: 397-468 (110 - 129.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ SpA Jolteon Hidden Power Grass vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Whiscash-4: 397-468 (110 - 129.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 0 Atk Salamence-6 Headbutt vs. 6 HP / 0 Def Jolteon: 197-232 (72.4 - 85.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Videos

Sadly I don’t have a way to record from my GBA SP (I bought it with the IPS screen mod already installed), and I don’t know how to customize it to screen record. This is probably the last time I’m going for a long run on the SP as it takes way more time than emulator. Instead I recorded a showcase of a full cycle (splitted in 3 videos) from another save file on a us rom, using the same pkmns with same sets.

Proof

Pokemon

 

[potatobagel]

Hello, reporting a 152 win streak in Battle Palace Open Level. This beats my previous record by 6 wins. The uncut replay is below:

It was also streamed on twitch.

The teams are almost exactly the same as from my last Battle Palace post. My only different strategy this time was to use the Metagross/Latios/Swampert team on all non-Spenser rounds and the Salamence-Suicune-Snorlax team only on the Spenser round. Naturally this made sense to me because the first team is very weak to Spenser's Suicune (literally the only reason why my Latios ran Calm Mind over Substitute), while the second team is extremely strong against his whole team as well as his Silver symbol battle team.

The other change I made was to switch out Roar on Suicune for Toxic. I think its a better choice for the Support category move because it doesn't lower Suicune's priority and makes it a decent counter against the other bulky waters so it relieves so pressure off Snorlax. It can also beat Blissey 1v1 now.

Loss: Losing to Blissey 4 on a Lati-Meta-Swampert round as it reads the Counter turns perfectly and Metagross going for the 3% chance to use Aerial Ace (rather than 88% chance to use Meteor Mash which would've KO'ed) is really incredibly unfortunate. I really don't think I could've played it any differently.

Some other thoughts I wanted to share while I'm here...

1. Recover/Softboiled/Morning Sun/etc.. are not good in Battle Palace unless it is the only move in the DEF category or if your Pokemon is slower than the opponent. If you have another move in the DEF category, your Pokemon will almost certainly choose it no matter what because the AI logic for these moves are bugged to give a selection score of -8 if you outspeed the opponent. Unfortunately this should make CM/Recover Latis, Cosmic Power Starmie etc.. and the like unviable for this facility. Noticed this when I was testing Cosmic Power Starmie and it almost never used Recover. Rest on the other hand, has no issues and behaves as expected.

2. I've updated FrontierAssistant to account for the AI switching behavior. Basically when you KO the first Pokemon, what the AI sends out is always something that tries to optimize against your current Pokemon by assigning scores based upon typing and move effectiveness. If their second Pokemon has no advantage against your current Pokemon, we can deduce that the final remaining Pokemon cannot have a 'score' above the one that was second. The whole scoring process is detailed here and I tried my best to implement that into the programs attached. Be sure to redownload the newer version of BFpokemon.txt (convert to .csv as for all files) because I added two new columns for Type1/Type2 for each Pokemon. Screenshot below of an example against CoolTrainer Gillian where the cases greatly reduced for the third Pokemon.

**BEFORE**

**AFTER**

3. I also wrote a Lua script for mGBA to track turns while playing on the facilities as if it was PokemonShowdown. The only difference is that it doesn't display the opponent's percentage of health so that it's still fair, but the script can track Trainer name, turns, Pokemon seen, opponent PP used, percentage damage taken by your Pokemon each turn. These are all output to a .txt file until the ROM/Script is stopped. It's very useful for long stall battles and learning from mistakes but not sure if it will be accepted for streaks. I don't intend to use it for a streak (I didn't use it today, for example). Demo of both 2 and 3 below:

All programs and files attached below. You'll need to convert the .txt for the turn_tracking_final to be a .lua for it to work.

Thank you all for reading!

 

[Valentino23]

The leaderboard has been updated! Thank you for your patience and I'm glad to see a lot of participation. Congratulations to potatobagel, Dave Glorbus, and Ghost14196 for their respective record breaks. Excellent work from all of you.

patrickgurczak Can you upload a picture of your streak record from your emulator? Just a screenshot of the record will do from the computer next to the facility. When you do that, I'll add you to the first post.

As always, please reach out if you have any questions or if I missed you by accident.

 

[patrickgurczak]

The pyramid gold symbol has been achieved! Pokemon used are (https://pokepast.es/f7f7389281a8eaa8):

Metagross/OIKOS @ 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

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

Blastoise/DOMI @ 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

Brandon 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 outspeed Zapdos and would die to a Thunder. Gengar couldn't OHKO Zapdos before also dieing 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.

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 BrightPowder, 1x Scope Lens

Set Explanations:
-Metagross has max attack EVs, and enough EVs in speed to outspeed 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 pokemon fights.

Pyramid Strategy:
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 Pokemon a trainer could have, the gen 3 battle frontier damage calculator, quick notes on what I can and cannot OHKO for wild pokemon, 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 pokemon 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 pokemon as I could to see more; this made the Pyramid way easier to beat.

Pyramid 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 unfornutealy 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 sectiosn per floor.

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



Valentino23 Attached is my record for the Battle Dome and Pyramid! Onto the Pike!

 

[Joplin]

Hey everyone, it's been a while so I thought I would give an update on the Battle Tower streak of 154W!

I didn't touch the ongoing streak after I had reached it around 6 months ago, as things had unfortunately gotten busy with my life shortly after that time. However, when I recently came back to the Battle Tower, I found that the streak said "previous" where it used to say "current." I'm unsure why, but it seems that my streak expired, and not only for the Battle Tower, but for all my facility streaks. I did back the streak up at the time as I own a GB Operator, but will not be reverting the save file for 2 reasons.
1) The save file is on a laptop which I am no longer using. I do have it, but it would be a hassle to set it up for quite an old save file
2) I've been hatching and doing various other things on the save file that I don't want to have erased, or have to juggle between save files

As such, I'm happy to submit the Battle Tower Singles attempt at 154W. While this is an unfortunate outcome and I am a little disappointed to never know how the streak would have ended that time, there is also some good news. I have quite a different set up now, with an upgraded PC as well as a DS original with a capture card, so I've had the amazing opportunity to stream my most recent Battle Tower attempts using the same team! I have faith in my team to get back up to those high rounds, and I like to show my thought process for different opponents starting from 0W.

My YouTube streams (Battle Tower replays): https://www.youtube.com/@Ace_Trainer_Joplin/streams

I just started streaming to YouTube around a week ago and I am currently on a streak of 84W :) I will attach links of all my Battle Tower rounds when I am officially submitting a streak again, but in the meantime, I am usually streaming around 5 or 6 PM EST on weekdays for now. Please hop in to the livestreams whenever you like or if you have time to watch later, I appreciate it!

Cheers gang!

 

[An Urban Skier]

Hey everyone! This is my first post here and wanted to talk a little about my 104 streak in Tower singles Level 50! I’m really proud of coming up with this team after much trial and error with similar mons of the same archetypes, but ultimately I settled on:

Gengar (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Timid Nature
EVs: 132 HP / 4 Def / 180 SpA / 4 SpD / 188 Spe
IVs: 24 HP / 2 Atk / 27 Def / 29 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Ice Punch
- Destiny Bond

Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
Level: 50
Bold Nature
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 SpD
IVs: 22 Atk / 27 Def / 21 SpA / 27 SpD / 2 Spe
- Surf
- Wish
- Toxic
- Protect

Steelix (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
Adamant Nature
EVs: 148 HP / 236 Atk / 124 SpD
IVs: 22 HP / 28 Def / 22 SpA / 30 SpD
- Earthquake
- Iron Tail
- Rock Slide
- Explosion

I'm only a few months in to the battle frontier journey and I was originally running just three mons I thought were solid in Starmie, Salamence, Tyranitar but was getting really knocked around by literally any thunderbolt possible, Especially on water types like Lapras, Starmie, Lanturn, etc. And freaking CurseLax was impossible to break through. I decided to commit my new team to completely blanking those obstacles and further expanded it to having as many immunities as possible while still comprising a strong core of frontier-viable mons.

The general idea of the team is to position the first matchup properly and get ahead 3v2 and at the very worst, you can use DB and Explosion to leave Vaporeon as the last man standing. This strat alone goes a very long way but Vaporeon just feels unkillable when played correctly and limiting risks to him taking a lot of damage or being statused. Wish Protect pair really well with Toxic prolonging the healing process and dioubling the turns. It can also help Steelix or Gengar get back to full health if they need to take another hit to beat a certain matchup; with all their immunities, there's a lot of opportunity for them to switch in as such. With all three of my mons alive, I have immunities to 6 types (Poison, Fighting, Normal, Water, Electric, Ground), OHKO moves (Sturdy, Gengar can be only hit by Sheer Cold), Thunder Wave & Toxic. As you can see, this team revolves around a lot of switching and in turn, there are a lot of PP stalls if that's your thing (It's not really mine but a win con is a win con).

Steelix and Vaporeon sets were prety much ripped from their standard OU sets, but Gengar I had in mind a little bit of bulk, a little bit of strength and enough speed to outrun Starmie so I can clean them up if damaged already or DB if at full health; which should be Timid 180 EV's if 31 speed IV's, but since I only have 30, I had to do 188.

In the first 5 rounds I lead Gengar just to quickly dispose of lower tier mons as well as taking on Anabel's Alakazam 1v1 and then using DB to trade with Entei and then I blow up on Snorlax, but especially starting with battle #50, Lead Vaporeon is essential as Protect lets me scout out the random movesets.

Some calcs I like and can think of at the moment (I can add more as I go):
- 236+ Atk Choice Band Steelix Explosion vs. +2 252 HP / 0 Def Snorlax: 248-292 (92.9 - 109.4%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO (literally any attack will clean up if it doesn't kill)
- 236+ Atk Choice Band Steelix Iron Tail vs. 0 HP / 255 Def Shuckle-4: 91-108 (95.8 - 113.7%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO (60.9% chance to OHKO after accuracy)
- 255+ Atk Hariyama-3 Cross Chop vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Vaporeon on a critical hit: 186-219 (78.5 - 92.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (64.0% chance to 2HKO after accuracy)
- 255+ Atk Machamp-1 Cross Chop vs. 252 HP / 228+ Def Vaporeon on a critical hit: 196-231 (82.7 - 97.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (64.0% chance to 2HKO after accuracy)
- 255+ SpA Lapras-4 Psychic vs. 132 HP / 4 SpD Gengar: 108-128 (73 - 86.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

You're probably noticing that my streak ended on the 105th battle which happens to be an Anabel rematch and that is correct I did lose to Anabel on this run LOL. I crit Raikou through Reflect which is BAD because I can't have SNorlax come out with Reflect up I can't blow up on it then. Raikou can't touch Steelix so I should have been more patient and waited to kill Raikou on the turn Reflect goes away but I guess I was sort of autopiloting at the time and resulted in things spiraling out of control like Snorlax getting boosted way up and then Vaporeon got OHKO'd and I had to DB with Gengar leaving Steelix (roughly 60% health left) vs Latios I got the first Iron tail to land which is a guaranteed 2HKO when he Calm Minded but then he decided to Dragon Claw crit me so I guess we'll never know if that 2nd Iron Tail was gonna land.

Weaknesses:
- Hard hitting grass types with Solarbeam
- Psychic types with good coverage like the elemental punches (Gardevoir, Alakazam, Hypno, etc.)
- Dragon Dance if you don't take it out quick enough
- Double Team + Rest

I've gotten really close to a new PB a few times like getting up to 98, so if I beat it I'll let y'all know. I'm still fairly new so if you have any advice for me on how I could better construct the idea I wouldn't mind and if you have questions on more intricate details about the team I can try and answer that as well!

Played on retail :)