Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

[Actaeon]

In III generation flygon can't learn aerial ace. I remember using fly in the Cband set in the battle frontier for this reason.

Oh wow, you're right. Why on earth doesn't it learn that? Thanks for that -- then Quick Attack is definitely the best option for the "balanced" team, to counter Heracross, possibly after a switch. Fortunately Aerial Ace wasn't present on the final team then!

 

[greentyphlosion]

Been away for a few days so been recapping everything I missed. I think your Ground team is my favourite by far, Actaeon - interesting that Ground doesn't have a reliable crippler. And very cool to see original Sandslash given some love. Been playing Pokemon since 2001 and yet somehow I've never used one until last year when I replayed XD. It really pulled its weight even without Earthquake or Rock Slide (and mine had Hidden Power Water, of all things).

Made a few attempts at a Factory Doubles run (level 50, though I'm thinking I should probably go with Open Level - it's just so hard to get consistent runs with the early crapmon). Finding it pretty interesting so far! Had a pretty good run of 7 battles with Screech Sneasel + interchangeable lead (I used Zangoose, then swapped it out for Vibrava, then Croconaw) - Sneasel Screeched the target and the partner KOed it. Worked pretty well and got me to 14 wins but sadly I broke my streak at 17. Going to keep going and aim for 35 as a benchmark.

 

[Golden Blissey]

Hey all,
Sorry for my absence and lack of updating the leaderboards, you know how life can be sometimes.
I have updated the leaderboards, but do check them incase I missed any. Please do not hesitate to let me know of any missing records or mistakes so I can keep it up to date. Also, feel free to let me know if any posts deserve to be linked to in the useful resources.

As for the 1600+ streak by KXB, I have omitted it as I believe there is too much doubt concerning it. I want the leaderboards to be something we can all be proud of, even if we personally don't have a streak on there.

wtset, I haven't added your records yet as it wasn't clear what level you completed them at and whether they're retail or emulator. Either a quick message saying what level they were or a picture of the record in game would be sufficient.

As always Actaeon, the amount of effort you put into your teams and posts makes them a pleasure to read. What surprises me though, is that you don't have any streaks on the leaderboards. There's nothing wrong with that, just your wealth of knowledge may go unnoticed from casual observers. I would love to show off your monotype teams if you're able to achieve a decent streak with them someday :)

Apologies for my inactivity, I should be more active from now. I'll also be reading over all the posts I've missed over the next few days, so please don't feel like I've ignored them. Hope everyone is doing well, and best of luck on all your streaks!

 

[Actaeon]

Good to read you're back, Golden Blissey, we missed you :)

I haven't reported any streaks since I play on emulator, and I enjoy tweaking teams / theorizing more than the fame of getting high on the leaderboards. Of my better teams, I've tried to approximate the expectation of how far they can get, but for this to be more exact I'd need to Monte Carlo the whole thing out in Python, for example, and that's too much work IMO. But I really enjoy reading about other streaks, and like to use everyone's ideas together with my fantasies to make better teams.

To "order" the Monotype teams in terms of dependability, I guess a nice first idea is to see what teams get over 100 wins. But my first goal is to record a 17 * 7 = 119 win streak (starting from trainer 71).

Today, you can expect the mono Flying-team!

 

[Actaeon]

Number seventeen, the final monotype team, was a tough nut to crack; there's a reason I left the Flying-type for last. After constructing the other teams, I knew I "cherry picked" the most useful Flying-types already: Aerodactyl, legendary Birds (so no Pressure abuse), Salamence, Jumpluff, Butterfree, Xatu and Skarmory are no longer available. Even though I knew beforehand I was going to get in trouble with mono Flying because of this, I thought "what the hell, I'll think of something anyway and I prioritize the other teams for now".
Also I DID deliberately leave Gyarados and Gligar available and there's also Altaria and Dragonite left (the latter would force me to play Open Level though), so at least I had kept the option to build a defensive setup core of sorts, considering the special bulkiness of Gyarados / Dragonite / Altaria, Intimidate, and the physical walling/sweeping capabilities of Gligar.

So what's the first eye-catching weakness of the whole Flying-type pool? Literally everything is weak to at least one part of the BoltBeam combo, and no available Flying-type has got enough bulk to tank more than one of them in succession from Latios, for example (Noctowl/Ledian actually tank two Tbolts/Ice Beams from Starmie, but can't really do anything useful in return). The first attempt tried to solve this by using Torment Crobat, which outspeeds all threats save Timid Jolteon, together with two sweepers that defensively synergize well:

Attempt #1: Crobat + Gligar + Gyarados

Crobat @ Leftovers
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 132 HP / 112 Def / 132 SpD / 132 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Torment
- Protect
- Substitute
- Toxic

This Crobat outspeeds the 182 tier and survives both Timid Jolteon's Thunderbolt and max Attack Rhydon's Rock Slide (note that Inner Focus is handy against QC Rock Sliders). Against passive opponents it can choose to Toxic / Protect / Sub instead of setting up Gyarados or Gligar, therefore it has 177 HP (which is 1 mod 16). It also survives offensive Starmie's Psychic after using Torment, setting up Gyarados (sort of).

Gyarados @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 236 HP / 20 Atk / 60 Def / 192 SpD
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
IVs: 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Dragon Dance
- Protect
- Substitute
- Hidden Power [Flying]

With Protect and Sub, it makes maximum use of Torment. Lum Berry heals it from status as it sets up a Dragon Dance (if it outspeeds the opponent after) or a Substitute. With Mono HP [Flying], stuff like Curse Regirock remains very dangerous, but Gligar can overcome those kind of Pokémon most of the time.

Gligar @ Salac Berry
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Def / 4 SpD / 232 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Substitute
- Swords Dance
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Rock]

An Electric resister, and decent sweeper in general. Not much to say here; HP[Rock] can be replaced by HP[Flying] if you want to OHKO Lati@s at +6. It gets 3HKOed by Jolteon's Bite, so watch out for that. After Salac Berry, it outspeeds that too. Not being weak to Rock is useful as well; Gyarados and Gligar have no common weaknesses, although BoltBeam is still terrible without Torment.

​

​

Team #1 was okay, but Gyarados still can't setup enough against Starmie/Latios (because Psychic deals a lot of damage too, especially if it causes a SpD drop). Also, the sweepers are not good enough at sweeping, Gligar is still too weak defensively even though it has important resistances, and there's no "hax prevention" in the form of Quick Claw removal. The team barely got through most streaks.

I did realize that this Crobat is really good on its own, so the next attempt was to put more emphasis on Toxicstalling and give Crobat better support. I also gave it a fitting nickname for these days (if you think this is in bad taste, you're probably right, but I couldn't resist it because its moveset is so "cancerous" and it's actually a BAT too):

Attempt #2: CORONABAT

Crobat @ Leftovers ** CORONABAT
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 132 HP / 112 Def / 132 SpD / 132 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Torment
- Protect
- Substitute
- Toxic

Still the same Crobat, but now it can stall anything it wants to, without having to worry about setting up a sweeper.

Gyarados was converted to a physical wall, which it does pretty well with Intimidate. Metagross doesn't get through it, because Torment prevents it from using Thunderpunch. It ran Toxic / Protect / Earthquake / Surf with Lum Berry, and takes quite good care of Pokémon that are immune to Toxic.

Gligar was replaced with a specially defensive Altaria that ran Flamethrower / Perish Song / Protect / Rest to further bring down Steel-types, phaze problems/setuppers out, kill last Pokémon and because it's Altaria, my favorite Pokémon (ties with Articuno). Natural Resting is really fun as well.

The team had problems with second Pokémon if Crobat is NOT out, because then the opponent is not Tormented. Still, the team consistently had about 2/3 streaks, although I didn't really like the strategy. It's just not "special" in any way, Toxicstalling can be done with far greater Pokémon. I wanted a niche, and wasn't satisfied (and even though I REALLY like Altaria, it's just not good).

While playing billiards, another hobby of mine, I was brainstorming about other Flying-types and decided to try and make use of Togetic, which boasts an amazing movepool for a Flying-type, and has relatively impressive bulk. Considering the success of Yawn Quagsire on the mono Ground team, I figured a Yawn + Baton Pass set, combined with Togetic's abysmal Speed stat, would be an amazing setup for BellyZard:

Attempt #3: Crobat lead + YawnPass Togetic + BellyZard

Crobat @ [No Item] ** CORONABAT
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 244 HP / 4 Atk / 52 Def / 76 SpD / 132 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Torment
- Haze
- Thief
- Screech

CORONABAT was changed to an item-stealing lead to remove Lum/Chesto berries and Quick Claws, still capable of providing Torment support, and preventing stat boosts with Haze. As a filler move, I used Screech to make Charizard able to kill Skarmory and some other Pokémon.​

Togetic @ Lum Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 44 SpD
Sassy Nature (+SpD, -Atk)
IVs: 0 Spe
- Yawn
- Baton Pass
- Protect
- Double Team / Encore

The slowest possible Togetic; it survives all non-crit moves, uses Yawn, and then it Baton Passes out to Charizard, who has a guaranteed setup with Sub + Belly Drum. If Togetic is killed before it can pass, it's still fine. Lum Berry prevents getting slept / FP before Yawn, Protect is to minimize damage if I have the opportunity to pass Double Teams as well, increasing Charizard's chance of sweeping. Encore is a nice alternative, because that causes the opponent to Struggle every other turn while active.

Charizard @ Salac Berry
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 20 HP / 252 Atk / 124 Def / 112 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SpA)
IVs: 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Substitute
- Belly Drum
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Earthquake

We know what this does. Maximum possible defense to survive Quick Attacks with 1/4 health.

While seemingly a perfect strategy, the team above is dependent on the opponent not waking up on turn 2; in that case I still kill them, but I might not have a Substitute up anymore. And that's terrible, because Charizard fails to KO a bunch of Pokémon (even Slowking can survive a +6 HP Flying, for example). Using Double-Edge is a possibility too, but I eventually realized there's no way no make this strategy dependable enough.

[will be continued today; time's up! Stay tuned...]

 

[greentyphlosion]

Congrats on finishing, Actaeon! Though I look forward to seeing the retool. Gyarados is a must, I think, if only for Intimidate; you could switch back and forth in conjunction with Torment to cripple physical foes, but it's still dicey... it's such an underrated physical wall though.

Self-isolation is definitely going to be a wonderful thing for Frontier devotees like me (though I'm considering doing some other challenges like the Orre Colosseum and the Battle Subway as well). Slowly edging my number up on Battle Factory Doubles - yesterday I got to 19, and today I made it to 24! Third round was the best - a combination of Masquerain (Hydro Pump, Giga Drain, Ice Beam, Stun Spore) and Sharpedo (Earthquake, Crunch, Surf, Double-Edge) with an interchangeable third to get my trade numbers up - the two leads worked splendidly with a combination of Intimidate to soften physical threats and a powerful Earthquake I could use with impunity.

I'm finding it very tiresome, though, so perhaps I should switch to Open Level (or just give up entirely?). Too much can dick you over in the early rounds: I shudder every time I see Delcatty (of all things!) because it killed me twice. There's such a limited pool that you really have to get lucky with your choices. Ironically, this is what did for me in the fourth round. Ended up with Screech Crobat, Snorlax, and Raichu - the best of a very bad bunch - which did not work well together, so I swapped Snorlax for Aggron and then again for Scizor and was swiftly done in. As I alluded to before, you really need four Pokemon in Doubles; three is just too punitive.

 

[Nix_Hex]

I got my last gold symbol: Battle Factory! I played like crap in this last battle, you'll see what I mean. Don't ask me why I didn't Destiny Bond on Whiscash. I don't know why I didn't do that, and I didn't realize it until I watched the replay. I relied mostly on hax for this battle. But I don't care. This is seven years in the making. For everyone who complains about the Battle Palace, at least you can use your own Pokemon and can kinda-sorta dictate the decisions based on your nature (imagine playing through a new game just to obtain a shiny Gentle Latias like I did). Factory is far worse because for the first three or four rounds, the Pokemon just suck and it's very discouraging. If you haven't done this facility yet, I highly recommend you do open level so the Pokemon aren't as awful as the early stages of Level 50. Take advantage of Double Team, Parafusion, Attract, Substitute, and phasing and you might just do okay. Heck, I've even found OHKO moves to be successful, especially against +6 evasion mons where it's actually more likely to hit than a regular move due to ignoring evasion. Anyway, here it is.

 

[greentyphlosion]

I got my last gold symbol: Battle Factory! I played like crap in this last battle, you'll see what I mean. Don't ask me why I didn't Destiny Bond on Whiscash. I don't know why I didn't do that, and I didn't realize it until I watched the replay. I relied mostly on hax for this battle. But I don't care. This is seven years in the making. For everyone who complains about the Battle Palace, at least you can use your own Pokemon and can kinda-sorta dictate the decisions based on your nature (imagine playing through a new game just to obtain a shiny Gentle Latias like I did). Factory is far worse because for the first three or four rounds, the Pokemon just suck and it's very discouraging. If you haven't done this facility yet, I highly recommend you do open level so the Pokemon aren't as awful as the early stages of Level 50. Take advantage of Double Team, Parafusion, Attract, Substitute, and phasing and you might just do okay. Heck, I've even found OHKO moves to be successful, especially against +6 evasion mons where it's actually more likely to hit than a regular move due to ignoring evasion. Anyway, here it is.

Congrats! Took me a similar amount of years to eventually get the Gold here too. I haven't braved the Gen 4 Factory yet. Fair point on the Palace haha.

 

[Actaeon]

Congrats on finally conquering the Factory, NixHex!

Today I'm going to show what I ended up with for Mono Flying. This was definitely the hardest one because there are simply no good Pokémon left, and even though the final team is pretty gimmicky and risky, I'm going to finish in style.

In my last post, I shared the three first attempts, thinking "the fourth" was going to be the final team. This continued with the Crobat + YawnPass Togetic concept, finally passing to bulky Gyarados instead of Charizard, which gets 1/2 free DD's due to Yawn, is definitely more dependable than BellyZard and also makes better use of Tormented foes. Still this team performed too shaky against BoltBeam opponents, especially if they either critically hit Togetic or cause a SpD fall against Gyarados. Even when things go right, I might only get to +3 which is not enough to sweep. When I was recording the sample streak, I lost three times in a row so I realized I definitely wasn't there yet.

So I entirely changed course and went from full offense Flail Dodrio + PetayaZard + CB Crobat/Fearow/Pidgeot to Ancientpower / Baton Pass Togetic, to Swellow using Starf Berry Baton Pass with physical and special recipients, Scyther, Perish Song Murkrow/Altaria + Mean Look Crobat and more obscure stuff. Nothing met my standards and nothing "felt right". I think I tried nearly everything there is to try.

Without further ado, here's the team I eventually settled for, and I'm a little proud of the weird way in which in sweeps. It's a unique team!

Mono Flying
The rough team structure is as follows: Pidgeot does something, which depends on the their lead, which enables Ninjask to stall out a move while setting up Double Teams and Speed Boosts with Protect/Sub + Leftovers, and Togetic… "Sweeps" due to Serene Grace.

Pidgeot @ [No Item]
Ability: Keen Eye
EVs: 252 HP /
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Sand-Attack
- Thief
- Featherdance
- Whirlwind

Pidgeot was chosen as a Sand-Attacker because it lacks Gligar's 4x Ice-type weakness (and therefore doesn't need Salac Berry, which allows Thief to work). It's very hard to OHKO; the only contenders are STAB Thunders and Thunderbolts (without a crit), and Ninjask is surprisingly good at outstalling those; they don't have Quick Claws nor coverage moves they'll use to break Ninjask's Sub before it's at like 25%.
It outspeeds Lati@s, although against Starmie I have to pray it doesn't crit on turn 1. Whirlwind is the move of choice against Metagross and some setuppers where FeatherDance is useless. Regirock is fine; I can easily stall it out of Rock Slides with Ninjask. Boltbeamers are hit by at least one Sand-Attack provided they don't crit, which is enough for Ninjask to setup in general.

Ninjask @ Leftovers
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs:
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Protect
- Substitute
- Double Team
- Baton Pass

I'm glad I found a place to use this in the end, after ditching it initially on the Bug team. Its sole purpose is to pass +6/+6 Evasion and Speed to Togetic/Tropius and if this works, I practically win. It stalls out 15 moves BEFORE it can get killed, which is just enough for Thunderbolt if needed. But most importantly, it can make 7 Substitutes; this means a Sand-Attacked opponent has around 6% chance to hit all of them. If they miss somewhere earlier, I have really good chances of setting up all 6 Double Teams and pass a Substitute to Togetic. It's EV'-ed on the Special side because that makes Jolteon, Manectric and such choose Bite / Crunch way later (as soon as they would KO), and I get little benefit from investing in Defense, because Ninjasks Substitutes don't take an Aerial Ace anyway.
Ninjask outspeeds Timid Jolteon and even the non-Speed-invested Jolteon if it uses Agility (after Protect), i.e. everything without Quick Claw. It's really cheesy, but I'm out of other options for this team.

Now for the sweeper...

Togetic @ Leppa Berry
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature (+SpA, -Spe)
- Ancientpower
- Flamethrower
- Substitute
- Rest / Softboiled

The oddball and star of the team. Its attacking stats are poor, especially its Attack, but Ancientpower has 20% to raise all stats and Flamethrower has 20% to inflict a burn. Since Leppa Berry gives me 16 Ancientpowers if needed (otherwise I leave Ancientpower at 1PP in order to increase another PP), that's an average of 3.2 boosts per battle, and even one "allround" boost is enough for Flamethrower to keep every non-Snorlax, non-resisting opponent from Restlooping. The burn destroys Recover users eventually, and Ancientpower itself, which gets a little more dangerous at +2 already, takes care of Flash Fire opponents.

Softboiled is ideal, but Rest makes me have a much easier time against Resting or Recovering opponents. After one or two boosts, Togetic can already take quite the hit even when not behind a Substitute, so I think it's the best in general. Also, it makes sure Leppa Berry can be used for attacking PP. I usually play 7 Ancientpowers and when I've got two boosts, I only use Ancientpower if needed. If I have only one or I know there's a Curselax coming in, for example, I decide to get more Ancientpowers from Leppa.

This might seem a really nooby set, but you'll see in the sample streak how dangerous it is with the Ninjask pass; virtually nothing can beat it straight, and nothing can outstall it either.

Other options
I've tried Shadow Ball + Flamethrower, Psychic + Flamethrower (note Psychic has only 20% chance to lower SpD compared to Shadow Ball's 40%, but hits Normal-types like Snorlax), Defense Curl + Rollout, passing Ancientpower BACK to an attacking Pidgeot (this sucks since it's dead most of the time), and some other options on Togetic.

As an alternative to Togetic, my first choice was Gyarados, although not being able to heal can bite you while setting up DD's. +6 Evasion is not enough, and using Rest keeps me from using Earthquake, which is dangerous. Gligar has the same problem.

A better option (the only one IMO) is Tropius with Leech Seed, Substitute, Aerial Ace and Swords Dance. This Tropius takes maximal advantage of Evasion and Speed, and operates as an improved version of the Jumpluff on the Grass team. The downside of using it is its weakness to Aerial Ace, which the team has trouble with already. At least speedy Togetic can fight it somewhat, and Ancientpower gives it acceptable chances against Aerial Ace users, even when it only has Speed from Ninjask.

Thank you so much for reading and showing interest in my project. I will plan a live stream, but I don't know when yet, because works starts again IRL.

EDIT: A Sample Streak is now added!

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

I got my last gold symbol: Battle Factory! I played like crap in this last battle, you'll see what I mean. Don't ask me why I didn't Destiny Bond on Whiscash. I don't know why I didn't do that, and I didn't realize it until I watched the replay. I relied mostly on hax for this battle. But I don't care. This is seven years in the making. For everyone who complains about the Battle Palace, at least you can use your own Pokemon and can kinda-sorta dictate the decisions based on your nature (imagine playing through a new game just to obtain a shiny Gentle Latias like I did). Factory is far worse because for the first three or four rounds, the Pokemon just suck and it's very discouraging. If you haven't done this facility yet, I highly recommend you do open level so the Pokemon aren't as awful as the early stages of Level 50. Take advantage of Double Team, Parafusion, Attract, Substitute, and phasing and you might just do okay. Heck, I've even found OHKO moves to be successful, especially against +6 evasion mons where it's actually more likely to hit than a regular move due to ignoring evasion. Anyway, here it is.

I actually find level 50 early levels to be much easier, the pool of mons is so much lesser so it's easy to optimize for the good ones. The only issue is the battles take forever and ever cause all the good ones are fat and stally. But at least you aren't getting luck sacked out in round 3 by bad team rolls. Usually happens in r5 or so, but the variance curve is more in your favor imo

 

[Kommo-o]

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I had been actively participating in here. Due to the recent CO-VID19 outbreak, it's fair to say that I'd have plenty of spare time to do plenty of stuff and one of those have been getting back on track to my current streak Deutsche Wissenschaft. Playing through it again reminded me of how plenty of fun the team is and I've had a wild run on the +180 battles I did during the whole afternoon, including a sweep where Latias ended up sweeping the opponent with Choice Banded Mud Slap (I was tricked previously a Choice Band). Tomorrow will be a good day to hopefully take the #1 spot.

I made a PokePaste with the updated EV spreads. The only change has been done to Registeel which is pretty minimal but lowers most damage calcs I've run through while the other two members have pretty much being the same.

Without further ado, I'd like to update that my streak is now currently sitting on 700 wins on Lv.50 Singles. You can see the picture attached below:

Also, I finally made a playlist with all of the videos where you can appreciate Germany's Finest Technology on its full splendour. You can check the link below which will show you pretty much how the team works.

Pokemon Emerald: Deutsche Wissenschaft playlist

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc9ZBCxbYkfLrdaN0AEmrhL-CkxkBifAG

This is also the famous battle with the CB Mud Slap sweep

I will update later the main post with some new information, the playlist and an updated PokePaste. Also huge shout-out to JustinTR for being able to help me build the Registeel EVs. Also another special thanks to all of my friends who supported me on this run! Hopefully, we will get to those 1000 wins soon enough! With that being said, remember to stay safe at your houses, don't get out, take good care of yourselves and auf wiedersehen!!

 

[wtset]

Hi everyone, I'm really enjoying reading about all your ideas and progress, especially Actaeon's Monotype Teams were really inspiring. I've used the quarantine of the last week to optimize my BellyPass Battle Tower Team, and I've just reached a streak of 208 wins (Level 50 on emulator).

Team-Building

Starting with my original team, I soon realized that there are just too many threatening opposing leads for Smeargle that Grumpig can't quite neutralize enough, so I started to look for a lead with Roar or Whirlwind to have an all-purpose out to different threats, which is more efficient than having to dedicate a moveslot to each case as in Grumpig's case. I ended up going with Kangashkhan, because it is reasonably bulky and fast and learns Icy Wind and Thief (which in combination work as a pseudo Macho Brace Trick) and Roar. In the last moveslot i gave it Foresight to not have to deal with Evasion-boosting stuff.

This worked better, but now the situation I've lost the most battles to was Smeargle having to pass the boosts to Medicham without a sub (which contrary to my previous post needs only 2 early wake-ups, since you have to allow Smeargle to get to Salac range first) and then getting knocked out immediately, or losing to some hax items one the last 2 mons like QC, BP or Focus Band. Since Medicham's Atk stat was a bit of an overkill anyways for its purpose, I started looking for a finisher that gets knocked out by the least amount of moves found in the tower while still being able to one-hit (almost) everything at +6. After some calcing, this surprisingly turned out to be Banette with Shadow Ball, HP Fighting, Screech and Substitute. It KO's everything except Skarmory at +6, which you can still beat pretty reliably by using Screech first, it has a nice type synergy with Smeargle (almost all the moves in the Tower that could KO's it are not really an issure since they are either Ghost moves which the CPU won't use on the pass since Smeargle is still in at that point or STAB Dark-Moves, but I have to Roar out Houndoom anyway because of Early Bird).

Adding Banette helped, but I essentially still lost to the same stuff as before, only with a slightly lower probability. I needed to change something more fundamental, since I was struggling to consistently get to 100 wins at this point. While looking for an alternative Sweeper I realized that Aerodactyl does not need the Salac Boost to outspeed everything while still KOing (almost) everything at +6. This allowed me to run Leftovers on Smeargle, making Smeargles set-up considerably safer, since it can set up 3 subs in addition to the Belly Drum now and it also does not need to get to Salac range, which makes it less riskier too. Aerodactyl then gets in with +6 Atk and a sub up almost guaranteed.

At some point I replaced Foresight on Kangashkhan with Mud Slap, as I felt like Accuracy lowering solves more problems more consistently. This worked so well, that I didn't really need Roar anymore, since in most cases, lowering the Accuracy is the safer option than forcing out the opponent. This kind of defeated the original purpose of using Kangashkhan in the first place, I switched back to Grumpig. It has the additional benefit of learning Flash instead of Mud Slap, which while being less accurate makes Accuracy Lowering less awkward since you really don't want to knock out the opposing lead "accidentally" (same goes for Tricking Macho Brace instead of Icy Wind + Thief).

Final Team

Grumpig @ Macho Brace
Bold
Own Tempo
252HP/236Def/16SpD
- Trick
- Flash
- Taunt
- Odor Sleuth

Essentially the same set as before, with Flash over Skill Swap. It suffers a bit from 4MSS as it would be really nice to be able to run Skill Swap too (which would probably have prevented my loss as well), but in the end I had to make the choice of dropping either Taunt, Odor Sleuth or Skill Swap, and since Flash can handle most things that Skill Swap handles pretty consistently I decided to drop Skill Swap.

Smeargle @ Leftovers
Timid
Own Tempo
88HP/120Def/48 SpD/252Spe
- Spore
- Substitute
- Belly Drum
- Baton Pass

Same set as before with Leftovers instead of Salac Berry, which as discussed in the Team-Building process really helps with consistently passing a sub. While it might not seem like much, this was probably the change with the biggest impact I did. Running Leftovers over Salac Berry also has the additional benefit of making the team much more feasible to put together on cartridge (while I'm playing on emulator I still try to do the assembling of the team as "legal" as possible in-game).

Aerodactyl @ Lum Berry
Jolly
Rock Head
252 Atk / 252 Spe
- Double-Edge
- Ancient Power
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake

The new sweeper of the team: Aerial Ace is the go-to move against everything that is not insanely bulky or resists it, since it ignores Brightpowder. I have to run Ancient Power over HP Rock, since otherwise Jolteon-1 outspeeds me every time. Earthquake and Double-Edge cover all Pokemon that do not get KO'd by the first two moves (it's also a nice coincidence that Rock Head prevents recoil).

The loss

The opponent led off with Altaria. Against Natural Cure Pokemon, the strategy is to Trick them and then Flash them repeatedly until Grumpig dies (this normally gets in at least 3 Flashes, since none of the Natural Cure Pokemon deals too much damage to Grumpig). Smeargle then sets up a Substitute and Belly Drum on the lowered Accuracy without using Spore, since otherwise the opponent will switch out because of Natural Cure. I was running the streak all evening and got very tired, so I forgot to not use Spore with Smeargle after lowering Altarias accuracy 4 times with Flash. The opponent switched out into Gengar. No problem, i can just put it to sleep again and probably still get off the pass. But it was carrying a Lum Berry and KO'd Smeargle. Aerodactyl was then able to Revenge Kill Gengar but it wasn't enough to handle the rest of the team alone.

Picture proof

I can also provide the replay of my loss or a sample streak if needed for proof.

Battle factory

I agree with Texas Cloverleaf that while Open Level might be more fun, Level 50 is much more consistent for streaks, as the weaker Pokemon are a much bigger handicap for the CPU than for a human player. One of the best examples for this is Furret-1: In the hand of a human player it is one of the strongest attackers in the early round with STAB Slam, while the CPU is just gonna use Helping Hand, Follow Me and Protect repeatedly (in Singles) and not achieve anything. The same is true for many others of the weak Pokemon in the early rounds.

Also, Golden Blissey here is also a picture of my Battle Factory score (Level 50 on Emulator):

 

[Kommo-o]

Running Leftovers over Salac Berry also has the additional benefit of making the team much more feasible to put together on cartridge (while I'm playing on emulator I still try to do the assembling of the team as "legal" as possible in-game).

Wonderful team. It takes a slightly different approach from the Trick teams I've seen in here and using Aerodactyl as the main sweeper is pretty awesome. Just so you know, while the Salac Berry is not available in-game, if you have the US Colosseum Bonus Disc, you can get one from one of the Jirachis sent from the disc. I think it's also available on Colosseum as a reward exchangable for Poke Coupons.

 

[wtset]

Wonderful team. It takes a slightly different approach from the Trick teams I've seen in here and using Aerodactyl as the main sweeper is pretty awesome. Just so you know, while the Salac Berry is not available in-game, if you have the US Colosseum Bonus Disc, you can get one from one of the Jirachis sent from the disc. I think it's also available on Colosseum as a reward exchangable for Poke Coupons.

Thanks for the tip! Do you know how hard Poke Coupons are to get? (I've never played Colosseum)

 

[greentyphlosion]

Thanks for the tip! Do you know how hard Poke Coupons are to get? (I've never played Colosseum)

Takes a while to get 15,000 of them (which is what a Salac Berry costs) but it's not that difficult. They're given as prizes from in-game challenges.

 

[Purple Kecleon]

Wow this is so cool! I haven't played the Emerald Battle Frontier in a long time, but back when I did I was always looking for a thread like this. Probably won't get back into Emerald at this current moment, but I'll share the strategy I used to get through all 20 rounds of the Battle Pyramid or 140 floors which was my goal at that time.

EDIT: For anyone looking to tackle the Pyramid, I believe Level 60 is actually the optimal level. I explain why in this post
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...sion-and-records.3648697/page-13#post-8402323

I used 3 different teams (5 if you count different movesets) to get through the 20 rounds (Level 100, team for each round listed below). The IVs are not the best since I never bothered to learn how to breed properly or manipulate the RNG.

If I were forced to choose a single team to use for every round, I think it would be Alakazam (w/Thunder+Ice Punch), Slaking, and Blissey.


Alakazam @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
IVs: 21/1/15/24/11/29
Psychic
Thunder/Ice/Fire Punch
Thunder/Ice/Fire Punch
Teleport

Teleport is amazing in the Battle Pyramid as it allows you to escape any wild encounter. However, it is still preferable to kill the wild pokemon when it's easy to do so as Teleporting does not increase your light. Before using Alakazam I struggled a lot with the wild pokemon in certain rounds which heavily drained my resources.
I chose the 2 elemental punches based on the wild Pokemon in that round. I don't exactly remember, but I think I chose Modest over Timid since I figured the speed was already enough for most things including Gengar, but now looking at Crobat in the database, maybe that wasn't such a good idea lol.

On a side note, does anyone know how exactly the running mechanic works in the Pyramid? I have always wondered this but could never find any information on it.


Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 6 HP/ 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 28/24/30/8/17/28
Return
Earthquake
Shadow Ball
Hyper Beam

Slaking really shines in the Pyramid's 1v1 battle format where it's not hindered by the locking effect of Choice Band, and the wasted turn from Hyper Beam or Truant doesn't matter if you OHKO. It easily OHKOs a large number of wild Pokemon and trainers alike. On floors where it can KO all the wild Pokemon, I make sure to lead with it.


Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 Spe
Nature: Calm
IVs: 19/23/31/15/30/30
Aromatherapy
Softboiled
Seismic Toss
Flamethrower

As everyone knows, Blissey is amazing in the Pyramid thanks to Aromatherapy, Softboiled, and its high HP stat. Bold is better but I used a Calm one since it had good IVs by my standards.

I learned about how good Blissey was from Bozo and his YouTube channel BozoTheBear. If you're looking to get gold symbols I recommend checking out his channel as he has videos for each of the 7 facilities.
In his Pyramid video, he shows how to explore each floor systematically to find the warp tile. This eliminates the need to fight trainers to figure out which direction the warp tile is in. It is never a good idea to fight a trainer when you can avoid them, as trainers are the only way you can lose in this place.

The other 2 pokemon I used were Salamence and Starmie.


Salamence @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
IVs: 14/27/31/19/13/28
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Brick Break
Rock Slide

Intimidate is really nice as it halves the random encounter rate if your lead pokemon has it and is 5 levels higher than the wild pokemon, which makes getting through the round much less annoying. I personally prefer Adamant over Jolly and I have an Adamant Salamence with much better IVs but sadly I messed up its EVs which can't be undone at Level 100.


Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Hasty
IVs: 13/21/27/26/23/23
Surf
Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam

Natural Cure is nice in the Pyramid for status conditions and Starmie is a better special attacker than Alakazam overall, so I use it whenever I don't need Teleport. Timid is obviously better than Hasty but I am just that lazy with breeding lol.

Here are the teams I used during each of the 20 rounds, copied from an old notepad file that I fortunately never deleted. Lead pokemon varies by floor and elemental punches vary by round, but I didn't get that specific in my notes. I used Expert Evan's Wild Pokemon Guide to decide all of this.

Round 1: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 2: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 3: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 4: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 5: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 6: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 7: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 8: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 9: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 10: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 11: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 12: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 13: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 14: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 15: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 16: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 17: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 18: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 19: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 20: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey

I know this is a long post but hopefully this is helpful for anyone looking to either get the gold symbol or complete all 20 rounds. I've attached a picture of my record below. (retail)

 

[Nix_Hex]

awesome stuff

Pyramid is probably my favorite facility in the Frontier. I have fond memories of crafting strategies specifically to topple certain stages. From the top of my head, some of the Pokemon I used throughout my run. It's been a couple years so I don't remember on which rounds I used which mons but I dug up the spreads from pkhex. Apologize for this looking like a day 1 user posting a RMT of my 1200 ranked team, I'm kinda scraping the cobwebs from the back of my mind.

Linoone (M)

IVs: 13 SpA
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Ability: Pickup
Level: 60
Shiny: Yes
Adamant Nature
- Headbutt
- Iron Tail
- Tail Whip
- Protect

How to get items. AFAIK the moves were all filler.

Blissey (F)

IVs: 29 HP / 3 Atk / 30 Spe
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 60
Calm Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Thunderbolt
- Soft-Boiled
- Aromatherapy

The cleric. This is how you stay alive forever.

Heracross (M)

IVs: 21 SpA
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Ability: Guts
Level: 60
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake

Get this bad boy a Choice Band as soon as humanly possible.

Salamence (M)

IVs: 26 HP / 29 SpD
EVs: 56 HP / 100 Atk / 100 SpA / 254 Spe
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 60
Shiny: Yes
Naughty Nature
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Dragon Dance
- Fire Blast

Not sure if I ever used DD in Pyramid, I believe this is a set I used in Pike and Palace.

Tyranitar (F)

EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 86 SpA / 168 Spe
Ability: Sand Stream
Level: 60
Shiny: Yes
Lonely Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Crunch

This was to cope with the Wobbuffet area. The Speed EVs were meant to outspeed Brandon's birds after a DD (an idea I got from the old frontier thread), but I actually forgot to bring Tar to that round because I didn't know I was at that round yet. Blissey ended up killing the birds in the end.

Rhydon (M)

IVs: 13 SpA
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 60
Shiny: Yes
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Roar
- Rock Slide
- Protect

I guess this was for the electrical round? I remember I used Roar to get away from stuff I didn't want to fight.

 

[Purple Kecleon]

Pyramid is probably my favorite facility in the Frontier. I have fond memories of crafting strategies specifically to topple certain stages.

I really like the Pyramid as well given its uniqueness and cool factor as you are exploring through the darkness. In general, I like how creative and diverse the facilities are in Emerald.

I guess this was for the electrical round? I remember I used Roar to get away from stuff I didn't want to fight.

Roar is useful against something like Wobbuffet but the problem is that you always go last so you'll take a hit against most other pokemon. That's why I prefer a fast Teleport user like Alakazam.

 

[Luke Warm]

Intimidate is really nice as it halves the random encounter rate if your lead pokemon has it, which makes getting through the round much less annoying. I personally prefer Adamant over Jolly and I have an Adamant Salamence with much better IVs but sadly I messed up its EVs which can't be undone at Level 100.

I did not know this! I guess there's always something new to learn, even in a generation as old as this one :)

 

[Purple Kecleon]

I did not know this! I guess there's always something new to learn, even in a generation as old as this one :)

Yeah, although according to Bulbapedia apparently the wild pokemon must be at least 5 levels below your lead pokemon (which I didn't know until now). So this will work much better in Open Level than Level 50.
In fact, it seems like Level 60 is the optimal level to tackle the Battle Pyramid. According to Expert Evan's guide, the wild Pokemon are a fixed number of levels lower than your pokemon in Open Level, and a Level 55 pokemon is relatively weaker compared to a Level 60 pokemon than a Level 95 pokemon is compared to a Level 100 pokemon. I can't believe I never thought of this back then. That might be why BozoTheBear used Level 60 pokemon in his Pyramind video.
I don't like Level 50 mode since the wild pokemon can eventually become up to 5 levels higher than your pokemon.

 

[dgice]

Wow this is so cool! I haven't played the Emerald Battle Frontier in a long time, but back when I did I was always looking for a thread like this. Probably won't get back into Emerald at this current moment, but I'll share the strategy I used to get through all 20 rounds of the Battle Pyramid or 140 floors which was my goal at that time.

EDIT: For anyone looking to tackle the Pyramid, I believe Level 60 is actually the optimal level. I explain why in this post
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...sion-and-records.3648697/page-13#post-8402323

I used 3 different teams (5 if you count different movesets) to get through the 20 rounds (Level 100, team for each round listed below). The IVs are not the best since I never bothered to learn how to breed properly or manipulate the RNG.

If I were forced to choose a single team to use for every round, I think it would be Alakazam (w/Thunder+Ice Punch), Slaking, and Blissey.


Alakazam @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Modest
IVs: 21/1/15/24/11/29
Psychic
Thunder/Ice/Fire Punch
Thunder/Ice/Fire Punch
Teleport

Teleport is amazing in the Battle Pyramid as it allows you to escape any wild encounter. However, it is still preferable to kill the wild pokemon when it's easy to do so as Teleporting does not increase your light. Before using Alakazam I struggled a lot with the wild pokemon in certain rounds which heavily drained my resources.
I chose the 2 elemental punches based on the wild Pokemon in that round. I don't exactly remember, but I think I chose Modest over Timid since I figured the speed was already enough for most things including Gengar, but now looking at Crobat in the database, maybe that wasn't such a good idea lol.

On a side note, does anyone know how exactly the running mechanic works in the Pyramid? I have always wondered this but could never find any information on it.


Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 6 HP/ 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 28/24/30/8/17/28
Return
Earthquake
Shadow Ball
Hyper Beam

Slaking really shines in the Pyramid's 1v1 battle format where it's not hindered by the locking effect of Choice Band, and the wasted turn from Hyper Beam or Truant doesn't matter if you OHKO. It easily OHKOs a large number of wild Pokemon and trainers alike. On floors where it can KO all the wild Pokemon, I make sure to lead with it.


Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 Spe
Nature: Calm
IVs: 19/23/31/15/30/30
Aromatherapy
Softboiled
Seismic Toss
Flamethrower

As everyone knows, Blissey is amazing in the Pyramid thanks to Aromatherapy, Softboiled, and its high HP stat. Bold is better but I used a Calm one since it had good IVs by my standards.

I learned about how good Blissey was from Bozo and his YouTube channel BozoTheBear. If you're looking to get gold symbols I recommend checking out his channel as he has videos for each of the 7 facilities.
In his Pyramid video, he shows how to explore each floor systematically to find the warp tile. This eliminates the need to fight trainers to figure out which direction the warp tile is in. It is never a good idea to fight a trainer when you can avoid them, as trainers are the only way you can lose in this place.

The other 2 pokemon I used were Salamence and Starmie.


Salamence @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
IVs: 14/27/31/19/13/28
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Brick Break
Rock Slide

Intimidate is really nice as it halves the random encounter rate if your lead pokemon has it and is 5 levels higher than the wild pokemon, which makes getting through the round much less annoying. I personally prefer Adamant over Jolly and I have an Adamant Salamence with much better IVs but sadly I messed up its EVs which can't be undone at Level 100.


Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Hasty
IVs: 13/21/27/26/23/23
Surf
Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam

Natural Cure is nice in the Pyramid for status conditions and Starmie is a better special attacker than Alakazam overall, so I use it whenever I don't need Teleport. Timid is obviously better than Hasty but I am just that lazy with breeding lol.

Here are the teams I used during each of the 20 rounds, copied from an old notepad file that I fortunately never deleted. Lead pokemon varies by floor and elemental punches vary by round, but I didn't get that specific in my notes. I used Expert Evan's Wild Pokemon Guide to decide all of this.

Round 1: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 2: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 3: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 4: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 5: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 6: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 7: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 8: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 9: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 10: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 11: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 12: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 13: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 14: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 15: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 16: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 17: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 18: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 19: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 20: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey

I know this is a long post but hopefully this is helpful for anyone looking to either get the gold symbol or complete all 20 rounds. I've attached a picture of my record below. (retail)

I love to see that you use different sets for each round and take advantage of the mechanics of the pyramid, great job!
My first couple of rounds I start out as a pickup item grind bringing linoone and phanpy and slaking. Just grind until all pokemon are out of pp. Kind of unnecessary but I figure a large supply of items gives you the best shot at going infinite. It's a shame that the pyramid doesn't get more difficult after clearing 20 rounds. Like it would be awesome if the floor on the the wild pokemon levels was raised each time and then eventually all pokemon were available as wild encounters. And then eventually the encounter rate would start to increase. So that there would be a theoretical limit on how far you should be able to go. Right now it seems like you would have to encounter quick claw users at a rate higher than the rate you encounter revives to ever lose with such optimized teams and strategies.

 

[Voltolos]

Congrats! Took me a similar amount of years to eventually get the Gold here too. I haven't braved the Gen 4 Factory yet. Fair point on the Palace haha.

I had the good fortune of making the Factory gold my first badge. The first time I got to Noland he used 3 Regis, and they all used explosion on the first turn (except on the last one, which didn’t do it on the turn I used protect and would have had the silliest victory ever, go figure.) Second time I got there he just had garbage mons. Good work!

 

[Nix_Hex]

Yeah, although according to Bulbapedia apparently the wild pokemon must be at least 5 levels below your lead pokemon (which I didn't know until now). So this will work much better in Open Level than Level 50.
In fact, it seems like Level 60 is the optimal level to tackle the Battle Pyramid. According to Expert Evan's guide, the wild Pokemon are a fixed number of levels lower than your pokemon in Open Level, and a Level 55 pokemon is relatively weaker compared to a Level 60 pokemon than a Level 95 pokemon is compared to a Level 100 pokemon. I can't believe I never thought of this back then. That might be why BozoTheBear used Level 60 pokemon in his Pyramind video.
I don't like Level 50 mode since the wild pokemon can eventually become up to 5 levels higher than your pokemon.

Oh lordy mystery solved; I was wondering why I had a box full of level 60s to use in other open level mode in other facilities.

 

[Purple Kecleon]

I love to see that you use different sets for each round and take advantage of the mechanics of the pyramid, great job!
My first couple of rounds I start out as a pickup item grind bringing linoone and phanpy and slaking. Just grind until all pokemon are out of pp. Kind of unnecessary but I figure a large supply of items gives you the best shot at going infinite. It's a shame that the pyramid doesn't get more difficult after clearing 20 rounds. Like it would be awesome if the floor on the the wild pokemon levels was raised each time and then eventually all pokemon were available as wild encounters. And then eventually the encounter rate would start to increase. So that there would be a theoretical limit on how far you should be able to go. Right now it seems like you would have to encounter quick claw users at a rate higher than the rate you encounter revives to ever lose with such optimized teams and strategies.

Oh wow, I never knew the items you can find changes for each round. In that case, I believe a good starting plan is to bring a Pickup user in round 2 and hope for a Choice Band, and Leftovers to a lesser extent. And just start over if you can't find a Choice Band.
And yeah, I rarely found myself using healing items thanks to Blissey so my item pool just kept growing after each round.
I don't recall all of the potential threats to my team, but certain boosting setup sweepers, especially Cursing ChestoResters like Snorlax or Tyranitar could definitely threaten to sweep you if you don't lead with the right pokemon or repeatedly miss Hyper Beam or something like that. Luckily, this never ended up happening to me and this is why I think it's not worth it to fight trainers even if they tell you the direction of the warp tile.

 

[greentyphlosion]

I love to see that you use different sets for each round and take advantage of the mechanics of the pyramid, great job!
My first couple of rounds I start out as a pickup item grind bringing linoone and phanpy and slaking. Just grind until all pokemon are out of pp. Kind of unnecessary but I figure a large supply of items gives you the best shot at going infinite. It's a shame that the pyramid doesn't get more difficult after clearing 20 rounds. Like it would be awesome if the floor on the the wild pokemon levels was raised each time and then eventually all pokemon were available as wild encounters. And then eventually the encounter rate would start to increase. So that there would be a theoretical limit on how far you should be able to go. Right now it seems like you would have to encounter quick claw users at a rate higher than the rate you encounter revives to ever lose with such optimized teams and strategies.

This is the strategy I tried in my go at the Pyramid quoted on this thread. Grind for the first couple of rounds and then let the large stock of items carry you through the later ones. It very very nearly took me to 140 wins, which was my goal. Infinite would of course have been nice...

I'm impressed they bothered to think up 20 different themes tbh rather than recycling 5 continuously, but maybe I'm just too used to the laziness of newer games.