Hi
Not long ago I managed to obtain all of the gold symbols in Emerald. I was considering making a thread about my experiences but since this thread exists, I figured I might as well post the teams I used here.
I did all of my runs at level 50 but all of them should be transferable to Open level (although maybe don't use Sitrus Berry in Open level: 30 HP is far more impressive at level 50). I prefer level 50 because it’s what I’m used to from later gens, and level 50 is more convenient anyway since it requires less grinding to get the Pokemon you’re using ready for the challenge. Playing level 50 does impose some other restrictions on what I can use however. For example, I am unable to use Dragonite or Tyranitar.
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Battle Tower
I decided to try out a crippler team for the Battle Tower. While options for these kinds of teams are more limited than in later generations, the strategy still works very well and is often safer than a basic goodstuffs team, although you also sacrifice speed.
Team:
View attachment 101100
Jolteon @
View attachment 101151
Timid
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 132/0/60/252/4/60
Thunderbolt
Thunder Wave
Charm
Sand-Attack
Initially, I thought about using a Trick lead with Choice Band (probably Alakazam since it’s the fastest Trick user in 3rd gen), but I then changed track and focused on stat lowering. Jolteon seems like an odd choice for this role but I found it to work pretty well because of its Speed and access to useful options like Thunder Wave and Charm. Volt Absorb is also nice to protect against Electric moves since my team is otherwise a bit vulnerable to those.
Timid with 60 Speed EVs puts me at 173 Speed, enough to outspeed all base 120 Pokemon that appear as opponents in the Frontier, with Arena Trap Dugtrio being the most important one of this group (none of them run Speed-boosting natures). The Frontier is notoriously slow compared to later gen facilities: the only sets that outspeed this Jolteon under regular conditions are Ninjask (both sets), Crobat (sets 3 and 4) and opposing Jolteon (sets 1 and 4). I also maxed out Sp. Atk to pump up Thunderbolt and then invested the remaining EVs into bulk. If preferred, a Modest Jolteon can achieve the same Speed with 180 Speed EVs and benefits from more power, but this sacrifices some bulk.
View attachment 101101
Registeel @
View attachment 101152
Sassy
Clear Body
IVs: 23/23/31/3/30/31
EVs: 252/0/176/0/80/0
Hidden Power [Steel]
Curse
Amnesia
Substitute
This Registeel was RNGed in Sapphire rather than Emerald. It’s not completely flawless. The ideal spread for a set like this would be Careful with 31/31/31/x/30/31, but such a spread doesn’t exist on a frame that could reasonably be reached and so I had to settle for something else. Specifically, I wanted something with a usable nature (I’d be fine with Impish/Relaxed/Careful/Sassy, Adamant/Brave would also be acceptable), Hidden Power [Steel] with high power (preferably 60 as an absolute minimum) and just highish values in the IVs themselves. I managed to find the Sassy, 23/23/31/3/30/31 spread on frame 122232 (requires about 34 minutes of wait time, kind of long but not out of reach) which grants a max power Hidden Power [Steel] and meets my nature requirements too.
This set functions similarly to the equivalent Iron Head-using set seen in gen 4. High bulk combined with its resistances and support from Jolteon allow it to set up easily on lots of stuff, and once it has set up Amnesia and Curse it is very difficult to lose. Substitute is nice to have to protect against hax; obviously OHKO moves and badly timed crits can ruin this set. It’s important to note that getting Substitute on Pokemon is a bit of a pain because it’s a one-time move tutor move. I use it on a lot of my Pokemon and am able to because the move tutor also exists in FRLG, but this required having to play through FRLG multiple times which requires a lot of spare time (the fact that FRLG adamantly refuse to let you trade in non-Kanto dex mons until you unlock the National dex just adds to the pain). If Substitute is too much of an inconvenience to obtain, Rest is probably an acceptable replacement.
View attachment 101102
Salamence @
View attachment 101157
Jolly
Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Dragon Dance
Substitute
Salamence is not quite as good in 3rd gen facilities because its offensive move pool is not as luxurious as it is in later gens, and so it tends to require more boosts to reliably sweep. Regardless, I find it to be a good choice for this team because of its good type synergy with Registeel and its ability to passively cripple opponents with Intimidate. Not much else to say about it really.
Overall this team was effective in getting me to 70 wins (Anabel’s Gold battle was fairly easy too since Volt Absorb Jolteon completely walls her lead Raikou). However, it does have a significant flaw in that it is highly vulnerable to Rhydon:
RHYDON (1), adamant, QC, 393,371,276,113,168,116, earthquake, rock tomb, scary face, brick break
RHYDON (2), adamant, QC, 351,394,276,113,189,116, earthquake, horn drill, rock slide, brick break
RHYDON (3), adamant, QC, 414,394,276,113,126,116, earthquake, megahorn, crush claw, horn drill
RHYDON (4), adamant, QC, 414,394,276,113,126,116, earthquake, megahorn, rock slide, horn drill
All Quick Claw, and all threatening. The worst of all are sets 2 and 4: on top of QuakeSlide coverage, they also have Horn Drill which make attempts to PP stall it through switches very unsafe. Unfortunately, there’s not much this team can do to stop this other than pray. Set 3 also threatens with Quick Claw Horn Drill but lacks Rock-type coverage and becomes a bit more managable if Salamence manages to get a sub up against it.
I stopped playing after getting the gold symbol, but I’m interested in continuing this streak some time to see how far I can go. I’d probably need to replace Jolteon with something else though – I’ve thought about Misdreavus just because it would resolve the Rhydon problem and it has a few crippler friendly moves, although its move pool and stats aren’t as good.
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Battle Palace
This place is annoying but I was actually very fortunate and managed to get this symbol on my first try with this team.
My team utilises the “Hasty with 3 attacks + Protect” strategy. To understand how it works, consider Hasty’s properties:
Behaviour (HP > 50%): 58% Attack, 37% Defence, 5% Support
Behaviour (HP < 50%): 88% Attack, 6% Defence, 6% Support
Hasty Pokemon generally prefer to attack directly which is what you want in the Palace (note: Pokemon tend to be reasonably sensible when selecting their attacking move most of the time, so a standard SPIT Starmie will know to use Thunderbolt against a Gyarados, for example). The key thing though is that when Hasty Pokemon choose not to attack, they’ll almost always be using a defensive move. By running 3 attacks with Protect as the defensive move, Hasty Pokemon will generally stick to using one of the 3 attacks, and when they don’t, they’ll almost always use Protect to block the opponents attack and avoid damage. This is especially effective when the Pokemon falls below 50% HP, since Hasty Pokemon heavily favour offensive moves at that point. Spenser uses a variation of this strategy on his Arcanine and Suicune - both run Hasty and Arcanine even has Protect (and Roar), although his Suicune uses Calm Mind instead.
This strategy isn’t perfect (not that there’s such a thing in the Palace). There will be times where you get unlucky and have the Pokemon attempt a Support move, which results in a missed turn with 3 attacks + Protect as a move set. There will also be times where Pokemon will attempt to use Protect multiple times in a row – this nearly cost me the battle for the gold symbol against Spenser when my Starmie tried 3 Protects in a row against his Bite-spamming Suicune, but luckily all of them worked!
Team:
View attachment 101103
Metagross @
View attachment 101153
Hasty
Clear Body
IVs: 31/31/31/27/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Hidden Power [Steel]
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Protect
View attachment 101104
Starmie @
View attachment 101158
Hasty
Natural Cure
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Surf
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Protect
View attachment 101105
Salamence @
View attachment 101162
Hasty
Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 0/4/0/252/0/252
Dragon Claw
Aerial Ace
Flamethrower
Protect
This is a fairly basic Steel/Water/Dragon set up that offers good power and type synergy. I chose Hidden Power over Meteor Mash for the accuracy, but that I found that Metagross almost never used Hidden Power even in situations where it would be the most effective move. This is probably because it recognises it as a Normal-type move rather than a Steel-type one, and so I would not recommend using Hidden Power in the Palace. It didn't end up mattering too much since QuakeSlide was good enough even without STAB (if anything, not using Meteor Mash avoided unfortunate misses). Also, having Metagross in the lead seemed like a decent idea due to its excellent defensive typing, but keep in mind that Spenser uses a lead Arcanine for his second battle and this puts the team on the back foot at the start of the battle (obviously I switched to Salamence immediately). If I did this again I'd probably use Salamence in the lead position instead.
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Battle Factory
Not much to say here since there’s no team building involved. It's not as difficult as the 4th gen one but still annoying. I will say that swapping doesn’t seem to be as rewarding as it is in 4th gen, at least not in level 50 (it wasn’t until the 4th round, after swapping after every battle, that one of my opening selection appeared to have better IVs and a higher ranked set compared to the other 5 choices). The guy that gives the hints is also not as helpful beyond telling you about type specialties (interestingly, I came across a trainer with Vileplume/Exeggutor/Alakazam and was told that the trainer did not specialise in any type – I guess the Grass- and Psychic-types cancelled each other out).
The final battle for the gold symbol was pretty close: I had Ampharos/Dusclops/Vaporeon against Noland’s Miltank/Xatu/Magmar. I opened with Thunder Wave on Miltank and then pivoted to Vaporeon via a switch to Dusclops. Vaporeon was assisted by full paralysis and managed to take down Miltank and Xatu on its own, but then Magmar nearly made a come back by finishing off Vaporeon (Vaporeon at least managed to take it down to the red but couldn’t KO it due to a lack of Sp. Atk EVs) and then taking out Dusclops with a crit (it had Scope Lens btw). Ampharos had already taken damage from Miltank and I thought I was about to lose because Magmar had the Speed advantage, but somehow Ampharos went first and finished it off. I later found out that the Magmar set I faced has Counter in its move set and so it must have tried to use it…even though it was already in the red and wouldn’t have been able to survive a hit to reflect back at me anyway. I owe my win to AI stupidity, but I’ll take wins where I can!
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Battle Pyramid
I decided to have a bit of fun with the Pyramid. While the Pyramid can be beaten with a small group of 3-5 Pokemon, I actually went out of my way to “counter” the various rounds of wild Pokemon with different teams for each round. It was quite time consuming having to breed everything for each round, but using obscure Pokemon made things a lot more fun and I ended up beating the Pyramid on my first attempt.
Note that I’m not listing items here specifically – the pyramid does not allow for Pokemon to enter while holding an item. However, I was finding stuff like Choice Band, Leftovers and the like during my challenge so these were being used where appropriate.
Team 1 (Round 1: paralysis)
View attachment 101106
Hitmonlee
Jolly
Limber
IVs: 30/30/30/20/30/31
EVs: 0/248/8/0/0/252
Brick Break
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hidden Power [Flying]
View attachment 101107
Flygon
Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack
View attachment 101108
Linoone
Jolly
Pickup
IVs: 31/31/31/14/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Return
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power [Ground]
Surf
Limber protects Hitmonlee from paralysis and it has no issue KOing wild Pokemon with its high power and coverage. Flygon was just thrown on here but is at least immune to Electric (i.e. also guards against some paralysis) and is a good Pokemon in general. Linoone exists solely for Pickup. I managed to get a Sacred Ash and some other healing items during the first round with Pickup so it was worth it, and in any case the general weakness of the opponents during the early rounds makes Linoone tolerable to use in battle anyway.
Team 2 (Round 2: poison)
View attachment 101109
Alakazam
Timid
Synchronize
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/36/252/4/212
Psychic
Fire Punch
Thunderpunch
Ice Punch
View attachment 101110
Vileplume
Sassy
Chlorophyll
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/180/0/76/0
Sludge Bomb
Giga Drain
Aromatherapy
Moonlight
View attachment 101111
Linoone
Jolly
Pickup
IVs: 31/31/31/14/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Return
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power [Ground]
Surf
I already had an Alakazam ready from another facility and decided to use it here since it makes short work of almost all of the wild Pokemon of this round. Ludicolo is the only one which could survive against it, and so I decided to use Vileplume to deal with it (immune to Poison and resists Dive). I also considered Venusaur since it has better stats but Vileplume has Aromatherapy and Venusaur doesn’t. Ultimately, I never used Aromatherapy though so Venusaur probably would have been better, but never mind. Linoone makes its second and final appearance for its Pickup shenanigans. Linoone managed to grab a Choice Band which was put to good use in later rounds.
Team 3 (Round 3: burn)
View attachment 101112
Houndoom
Timid
Flash Fire
IVs: 31/10/30/30/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/248/4/252
Flamethrower
Crunch
Hidden Power [Water]
Taunt
View attachment 101115
Slowbro
Modest
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 204/0/0/252/52/0
Surf
Psychic
Ice Beam
Rest
View attachment 101116
Snorlax
Adamant
Thick Fat
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 4/252/252/0/0/0
Body Slam
Earthquake
Curse
Rest
Houndoom is an excellent lead for this round and it would go on to make appearances in other rounds too. Its combination of Flash Fire and its unique STAB combination allow it to beat most of the wild Pokemon easily. In fact, against Vulpix and Weezing, you can just spam the run option because they only have Fire moves and there is no consequence of failing to escape against those two. I chose Slowbro as a back-up because I was wary of the wild Fire Punch/Hi Jump Kick Medicham surviving Flamethrower and KOing Houndoom, and in any case Slowbro happens to synergise well with Houndoom. I wasn’t sure what to use as the third so I just went with Snorlax. The double fighting weakness seemed risky but it ended up working fine.
Against Brandon’s Regis team, I swapped Houndoom out of the lead position for Slowbro. I ended up trading Slowbro with Regirock when it Exploded at the last moment. Houndoom died to Registeel because Earthquake KOed it faster than Flamethrower could manage, but from there Snorlax was able to Curse up and sweep the remains of his team.
Team 4 (Round 4: PP draining moves + Pressure)
View attachment 101113
Houndoom
Timid
Flash Fire
IVs: 31/10/30/30/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/248/4/252
Flamethrower
Crunch
Hidden Power [Water]
Taunt
View attachment 101114
Slowbro
Modest
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 204/0/0/252/52/0
Surf
Psychic
Ice Beam
Rest
View attachment 101117
Flygon
Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack
This team is 2/3 identical to the last one. It turns out Houndoom works well in this round too. The wild Pokemon are predominantly Ghost-types, with Absol, Dunsparce and Nintales thrown in for good measure, and Houndoom matches up well against many of them. Taunt is pretty good here since many of the Pokemon here rely on passive moves to lower your PP. I also made sure to max out Houndoom’s PP which made this round much less stressful. Slowbro is still here for its type synergy. I decided to remove Snorlax since I didn’t feel the need to hold on to it with Brandon’s first battle behind me. I don’t exactly remember why I chose Flygon. I suppose it was just out of convenience, but it does offer some synergy with the other two and at this point I had the Choice Band that Linoone got for me earlier so it ended up working out.
Team 5 (Round 5: Levitate)
View attachment 101119
Gengar
Timid
Levitate
IVs: 31/19/31/21/31/31
EVs: 28/0/4/252/4/220
Hidden Power [Dark]
Psychic
Ice Punch
Thunderbolt
View attachment 101120
Snorlax
Adamant
Thick Fat
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 4/252/252/0/0/0
Body Slam
Earthquake
Curse
Rest
View attachment 101118
Flygon
Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack
Using Gengar was my attempt to counter the wild Pokemon as best as I could. Its power is a bit subpar at times but its coverage is very good and its immunity to things like Weezing’s Selfdestruct and Flygon’s Earthquake is very handy. Hidden Power Dark is an odd choice but it covers the Ghosts. I could have used Shadow Ball but that would mean having to run Hasty/Naïve and moving EVs from bulk to Attack, and even then it’s still rather weak. I just threw Snorlax and Flygon in as back-ups again.
Team 6 (Round 6: trapping abilities)
View attachment 101121
Sceptile
Timid
Overgrow
IVs: 31/10/30/31/31/31
EVs: 44/0/0/252/0/212
Leaf Blade
Crunch
Hidden Power [Ice]
Roar
View attachment 101122
Lanturn
Modest
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/196/252/52/4
Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Rest
View attachment 101123
Charizard
Hasty
Blaze
IVs: 31/31/30/30/31/31
EVs: 0/4/0/252/0/252
Flamethrower
Hidden Power [Ice]
Earthquake
Toxic
Sceptile can easily out-speed and OHKO the various Ground-type trappers. Roar is used here to cover Wynaut and Wobbuffet. Back-ups were selected based on type synergy. Starmie is often the go-to choice for the role of a team’s Water-type, but I had Lanturn from another facility and I prefer it here since it synergises with Sceptile much better. The addition of Charizard turns this into a Grass/Water/Fire core. I considered Blaziken for the Fire role since its much stronger and more offensively versatile, but I prefer Charizard’s Speed and superior defensive typing (I didn’t like the idea of doubling up on Ground weaknesses).
Charizard is running Toxic. It seems like an odd choice, but after building this team I realised that I was at risk of being screwed over by Blissey, and Toxic is helpful for this reason alone. The decision paid off, because it just so happens that I did encounter a trainer with Blissey during this round!
Team 7 (Round 7: Ice-types)
View attachment 101174
Medicham
Hasty
Pure Power
IVs: 31/31/30/31/30/30
EVs: 4/252/0/4/0/248
Brick Break
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power [Rock]
Psychic
View attachment 101126
Lapras
Modest
Water Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 156/0/100/252/0/0
Surf
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Rest
View attachment 101127
Metagross
Adamant
Clear Body
IVs: 31/31/31/31/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Hidden Power [Steel]
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Rest
Probably the silliest team I used through-out my Pyramid campaign, and definitely the least optimal. The round is probably the most difficult of the 10 rounds required to get the gold symbol. Medicham, with a Choice Band, works well as an Ice-type slayer, although as a general purpose Pokemon for trainer battles its middling Speed and defences hurt it a bit. Lapras might seem odd as a back-up since it doesn’t synergise with Medicham particularly well defensively (although Medicham covers its Rock and Fighting weaknesses), but I do like its immunity to freeze, Water Absorb, and its resistance to Ice moves. There are a couple of wild Pokemon in this round that Lapras can easily switch-in on and safely deal with, especially Cloyster, and at the very least this allowed me to preserve Medicham’s PP. I didn’t find Lapras to be too bad against trainers either. It has good coverage and can tank things well too. Metagross takes the last spot and covers Flying and Rock for the team, while also being adequate against Ice-types. The move set is identical to the one I used in the palace but this is a different Metagross with Adamant over Hasty, which was no longer needed.
Team 8 (Round 8: Selfdestruct/Explosion/Destiny Bond)
View attachment 101128
Gengar
Timid
Levitate
IVs: 31/19/31/21/31/31
EVs: 28/0/4/252/4/220
Psychic
Fire Punch
Thunderbolt
Rest
View attachment 101129
Steelix
Adamant
Sturdy
IVs: 31/31/31/27/30/31
EVs: 76/252/4/0/176/0
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hidden Power [Steel]
Rest
View attachment 101130
Milotic
Modest
Marval Scale
IVs: 31/10/31/30/31/31
EVs: 180/0/76/248/4/0
Surf
Ice Beam
Hidden Power [Grass]
Rest
Gengar makes another appearance here, albeit with a tweaked move set. Its immunity to Selfdestruct and Explosion is what makes it so useful as a lead in this round. The move set is designed to beat as many of the wild Pokemon as possible. Psychic covers Weezing and opposing Gengar, and Fire Punch is great for Pineco, Forretress and Shiftry. Levitate combined with Ghost-typing completely walls Golem, which leaves Solrock and Electrode. Electrode is completely screwed by Steelix, hence its inclusion here. Funnily enough, Solrock is the most annoying Pokemon because of potential high-damage Psywaves and ability to survive hits from Gengar (HP Dark doesn't always KO against higher-leveled ones which is why I dumped it from this move set), and usually I just had to wail away at it until it died. I figured that at this point in the streak I could afford to go in without a particular plan for Solrock since I had plenty of healing items anyway. Steelix, in addition to blocking Electrode, happens to synergise with Gengar nicely in general, and Milotic completes a solid defensive core.
Team 9 (Round 9: Psychic-types)
View attachment 101131
Houndoom
Timid
Flash Fire
IVs: 31/10/30/30/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/248/4/252
Flamethrower
Crunch
Hidden Power [Water]
Taunt
View attachment 101132
Lanturn
Modest
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/196/252/52/4
Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Rest
View attachment 101133
Flygon
Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack
Houndoom makes a comeback here in the lead position. It should be pretty obvious why it works well for this round – I particularly like the combination of Psychic immunity and Taunt since it nullifies Wobbuffet. Lanturn is a pretty helpful back-up for this round since it’s slightly safer against Slowking (who can tank Crunch and can respond with STAB Surf) and also Starmie. Otherwise Fire/Dark covers things well. Flygon comes in as the third to complete a solid core.
Team 10 (Round 10: Rock-types)
Heracross
View attachment 101135
Jolly
Guts
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 0/252/4/0/0/252
Brick Break
Megahorn
Earthquake
Rock Slide
View attachment 101136
Swampert
Brave
Torrent
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/252/0/0/4/0
Earthquake
Surf
Ice Beam
Rest
View attachment 101137
Aerodactyl
Jolly
Rock Head
IVs: 31/31/30/15/30/30
EVs: 100/252/16/0/0/136
Hidden Power [Rock]
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Double-Edge
Pretty straight forward. The only complication with building a team for this round is trying to make sure your team is able to handle Brandon’s birds whilst also ensuring it can deal with the Rock-types that appear in this round. This is not particularly difficult though. Between Brick Break, Earthquake and Surf, this team worked just fine. The team also synergises reasonably well too so it can handle random trainers.
Once I reached Brandon, I swapped Choice Band Aerodactyl into the lead position and attempted a sweep. Articuno went down, but unfortunately Hidden Power fell just short of a KO on Zapdos and Aerodactyl ended up KOed itself. I suspect Rock Slide might have ensured a KO, but no matter. Swampert was able to clean up from there anyway.
And with that, the Pyramid was finally conquered.
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Battle Dome
This was the first facility I completed. I consider the Battle Dome to be one of the easiest facilities to get the gold symbol in. Doing so requires a paltry 40 wins, and the facility even gives you a pseudo-team preview before each battle so you can better plan ahead. The only complication with team building for this facility is ensuring that your Pokemon synergise well in pairs and not just as a team of 3, since the battles are 2-on-2. Otherwise, most standard goodstuff teams should be fine here.
Team:
View attachment 101138
Skarmory @
View attachment 101154
Impish
Sturdy
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 252/0/0/0/252/4
Drill Peck
Toxic
Protect
Rest
Toxic-stalling Skarmory. It’s pretty effective in the Frontier since the AI isn’t particularly good at dealing with it and Skarmory can easily stall stuff out with its resistances and bulk. Just poison stuff and Protect/Rest as needed.
View attachment 101139
Lanturn @
View attachment 101166
Modest
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/196/252/52/4
Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Thunder Wave
This is the same Lanturn that I used in the Pyramid, but since Rest isn’t really as important in the Dome, I used Thunder Wave instead to help cover its low Speed. Surf/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam grant excellent coverage.
Lanturn’s stats may not be as impressive as other Waters but its defensive typing and Volt Absorb make it a good choice for this team. A lot of the other Waters would share an Electric weakness with Skarmory and that’s not ideal. Lanturn doesn’t really have this issue, and the Ice resistance is also a nice advantage over Swampert. Skarmory also covers Lanturn’s Ground and Grass weaknesses, so together they form a good duo. The only issue is that neither Pokemon has a huge amount of immediate power and they are somewhat vulnerable to set-up Pokemon with Rest so careful consideration needs to be made when deciding if using these Pokemon together in battle.
View attachment 101141
Flygon @
View attachment 101168
Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack
Choice Band Flygon rounds out the team and provides more immediate power. It pairs well with both Skarmory and Lanturn; Flygon covers Electric, Fire and Ground, and Dragon (Skarmory) and Ice (Lanturn) are both covered too. It’ll mostly be spamming Earthquake, with Rock Slide coverage on Flying-types. Fly is solely for Breloom. Quick Attack is filler that was accidently inherited from the Gligar I used as a parent during breeding. I decided to keep it since I couldn’t think of anything else to run, but it’s mostly useless.
I was reasonably happy with this team, but it has a significant flaw in that it has problems dealing with Tucker’s Latias. For this reason, I would suggest running Hidden Power [Bug] on Flygon, probably over Quick Attack since that didn’t get used at all (it would probably be better to run Aerial Ace over Fly too). Luckily for me, he didn’t pull Latias out for the gold symbol battle and I was able to beat him with few problems.
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Battle Arena
I’m not too fond of this facility. The inability to switch is one thing, but the fact that the game forces you to send your Pokemon in the order in which they are entered feels a bit cheap. I suppose it does add another element to team building though, since you have to ensure that the Pokemon that goes in is able to take out opponents that are likely to KO the previous Pokemon.
Mostly this facility favours hyper-offense: while defensive moves still have their place, the short battles and the unique scoring system reward Pokemon that focus on attacking rather than stalling.
Team:
View attachment 101143
Swampert @
View attachment 101155
Brave
Torrent
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 124/252/4/0/4/124
Earthquake
Surf
Ice Beam
Substitute
Swampert worked ok as a lead here. Great coverage and defensive typing allow it to beat lots of things one-on-one and gain an advantage. I generally found it could take down at least 1.5 Pokemon on its own reliably, and sometimes it would sweep entire teams.
Probably the thing that might need explaining here is the EV/nature combination. I wanted to boost attack, but I didn’t want to cut into special attack or defences, which made Brave the nature of choice. But at the same time, I still wanted to invest in some speed to ensure I could get the jump on Greta’s Umbreon in the gold symbol battle, lest I end up confused before throwing a sub up. With a Brave nature, 124 Speed EVs puts me at 86 Speed, enough to beat Umbreon. The remaining EVs are used to max out Attack and buff defences. I’m uncertain if this is the absolute best nature/EV combination to achieve what I want, but in the end it worked so I’m not losing sleep over it.
View attachment 101145
Alakazam @
View attachment 101159
Timid
Synchronize
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/36/252/4/212
Psychic
Fire Punch
Thunderpunch
Ice Punch
This worked decently as a back-up to Swampert because it generally ends up coming in against a Pokemon that has already been weakened slightly, which Alakazam can then finish off with its excellent Speed and power. The set is straight-forward: Psychic for STAB and elemental punches to maximise coverage.
Timid with 212 Speed EVs gets Alakazam to 183 Speed, enough to out-speed every single Pokemon in the Frontier except Jolteon4 (200 Speed). The rest go into power and bulk. The 36 Def EVs may seem meaningless for such a frail Pokemon, but there were a number of occasions where Alakazam managed to survive a hit where it wouldn’t have otherwise, including one battle where Exploud’s Shadow Ball left Alakazam with just 1 HP.
View attachment 101146
Salamence @
View attachment 101163
Hasty
Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 0/252/0/4/0/252
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Brick Break
Fire Blast
Salamence is here again just because I can, although this one is an all-out attacker rather than a set up sweeper. Usually it’s good enough on its own to finish the battle off assuming I have the lead already.
The battle for the gold symbol was easy. Swampert used its faster Substitute to shut down Umbreon and from there I was in an unloseable position.
One Pokemon that gave this team problems was Sceptile. It KOes Swampert, and while Alakazam has the speed advantage and can take a Leaf Blade, Alakazam isn’t quite strong enough to OHKO Sceptile and that leaves it vulnerable to a crit KO. From there, Sceptile can get a hit in on Salamence (which could be a super-effective Dragon Claw) before I can finish it off. Even if Salamence survives, I’m in a bad position if Sceptile has dangerous back-ups. Strangely enough, I also has a bad experience with Pinsir2 of all things: it endured a hit from Alakazam and then swept the rest of my team with Flail (I think it got a Swords Dance at some point too).
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Battle Pike
Finally, we have the Pike. In regards to team building for this place, the things to consider are the lack of guaranteed healing after every battle, and the possibility of double battles.
Team:
View attachment 101147
Flygon @
View attachment 101169
Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack
Flygon appears again. Banded Earthquakes are just so good, and the addition of double battles makes Earthquake all the more valuable.
View attachment 101148
Gyarados @
View attachment 101164
Adamant
Intimidate
IVs: 30/30/30/22/30/31
EVs: 0/248/8/0/0/252
Hidden Power [Flying]
Earthquake
Protect
Dragon Dance
For this slot, I wanted something strong that would also pair up well with Flygon in doubles. Gyarados works well here because it’s immune to Ground, and so Flygon can spam Earthquake safely. Intimidate is another asset in doubles. Gyarados itself is otherwise a competent Pokemon than can perform well in singles too as a Dragon Dancer where needed. I like Protect on this set mostly for doubles – Gyarados is highly vulnerable to Electric moves and it works well as a lure option.
View attachment 101149
Blissey @
View attachment 101156
Bold
Natural Cure
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/252/0/0/4
Seismic Toss
Flamethrower
Aromatherapy
Softboiled
Clerics are invaluable in any facility without guaranteed healing, and this is especially true for the Pike (the Pyramid at least gives you healing items).
Blissey is hands down the best cleric. Nothing comes close to pulling off what Blissey can do. With Softboiled and its enormous HP, Blissey easily recovers the HP of its team mates without having to sacrifice too much of its own total HP (one Softboiled is often enough to heal something else completely), and with Aromatherapy/Heal Bell removing status, Blissey is essentially a Pokemon Centre in your pocket, bar the PP recovery.
I think the key thing to Blissey’s success as a cleric in the Frontier is Natural Cure; without it, I don’t think it would be as effective. Natural Cure basically allows Blissey to not care about the status inflicted by the various wild Pokemon in the Pike, and that allows Blissey to use these encounters as an opportunity to remove status from its team with little consequence. Even if Blissey gets statused after using Aromatherapy, simply fleeing eliminates the status and so it doesn’t have to worry about wasting more Aromatherapy PP and/or hoping the wild Pokemon uses something else before it escapes. This is one of the main things that distinguishes Blissey from Miltank, the only other Pokemon (excluding Smeargle) with access to both Softboiled/Milk Drink and Heal Beal/Aromatherapy (I mention Miltank because, unlike Blissey, it is readily available in Emerald and is the main alternative for those who can’t trade for Chansey/Blissey).
Blissey is not as great for actual battles. I think its use as a Cleric more than makes up for this though. At the very least, it still has its insane special bulk to wall lots of things. The other moves outside of Softboiled/Aromatherapy can be changed as desired: BoltBeam is reasonable, or perhaps Toxic/Protect could work.
As far as strategy in the Pike is concerned, I always ask the attendant for a hint when selecting rooms. There’s no reason not to unless you’re trying a speed run it or something. Generally, I aim to avoid battles if possible. My strategy for dealing with each statement is as follows:
“It seems to have the distinct aroma of Pokemon wafting around it…”
I usually go for these rooms. In most cases this will be a wild Pokemon room which is pretty much a free room if you have a remotely fast lead to flee the battles (Wobbuffet prevents this but doesn’t start to appear until well after you have done enough battles to receive the gold symbol; if you get far enough in just shove Roar/Whirlwind or some other passive move on the lead). It’s also a great opportunity to remove status from the team if required.
Occasionally you’ll end up in a single battle with a “tough” trainer when entering these rooms. I usually don’t mind this as long as I’m reasonably healthy though. “Tough” is mostly meaningless since battle outcomes depend more on match-ups – a team of 3 slow Ground-weak Pokemon is hardly a “tough” opponent for this team, for example. You also get healed after the battle anyway, so the battle is of little consequence in the long run, as long as you win.
“I seem to have heard something… It may have been whispering…”
I also find these rooms safe to go into most of the time. The outcomes are either an idle NPC room with no battle, or a double battle. Double battles are usually fine with a healthy team since it’s a 3-on-2 situation.
“Is it… A Trainer? I sense the presence of people…”
I usually avoid these rooms. Most of the time you’ll end up in a single 3-on-3 battle with no healing after it, and the more you avoid these, the better off you’ll be.
These rooms have a small chance of containing a nurse that heals all of your Pokemon, which sounds great in theory. The problem with this, though, is that the only time where you’d likely need this is if you team is already badly weakened and attempting to enter this room with a weakened team when you are more likely to encounter a trainer sounds like a bad idea to me.
“For some reason, I felt a wave of nostalgia coming from it…”
This room will either result in status being inflicted on your team, or 1-2 team members being healed (usually the former). The interesting thing about this room is that it’s the only one which is guaranteed not to contain a trainer, which in turn guarantees the extension of your streak by at least 2 rooms.
As good as this sounds, I avoid this room in most cases. Status is a killer in the Pike, and while having a cleric can negate this to an extent, you still need to enter a battle to use Aromatherapy/Heal Bell, and the last thing you’d want is to have your entire team frozen and then be challenged to a trainer battle immediately afterwards.
There are a couple of situations where I would enter these rooms. Firstly, if this is the last room of a particular run through the Pike, there is little reason not to enter it. Since there is no battle in this room, you are guaranteed to make it through, and any status inflicted on your team is basically irrelevant since the challenge is finished immediately after.
The other situation where I might enter this room would be if my team is already statused. I’m fairly certain that you can’t encounter a status room if your entire team is already statused, which means that entering this room guarantees a heal and safe passage to the next room. There may also be merit to this strategy if 1-2 Pokemon are statused: at that point, you’re in a bad situation anyway so might as well try for a heal. If it doesn’t pay-off and the remains of your team get status too…well that sucks, but at least you avoided a battle.
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Thanks for reading :)