Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

Incoming a sad update.

This will be my final post about my Battle Pyramid Lvl. 50 streak on my retail copy of emerald. Yeah, that's right, no longer ongoing, it ended at 1442 rooms cleared (Unofficially at 1446 but since that didn't get registered by the game, i will just submit the former number).

You might have an idea of what happened by now and it is probably the worse way to have one of these streaks ended. The GBA battery died in the middle of the challenge and the battle assistant decided to kick me out next time i was able to turn the system on. No, i was not reckless with the battery usage nor i was neglectful of the red warning light, in fact i was charging it when it all happened.

The fact is that this GBA is very old and i have been using it a lot since i first got it near emerald's release back in the early 2000s. I've tried to have the most care with it but after years of numerous playthroughs, shiny hunts and now the battle frontier, the battery started to show signs of giving up. It started lasting less and less each time, turning off at the slightest touch of the power button (not even pressing it) and even having the warning light change colors when i switched postures from hand to hand or if i let it rest at the table it to go do something else.

So you can see this was bound to happened eventually and i knew it before starting this particular streak. I was even planning on changing the battery or trying to outright buy another GBA but in the meantime i guessed i should still play if i felt like it (maybe don't do the same if you face the same problem, just wait if a streak it's so important to you) for i could not afford neither at the moment and really wanted to know if i could pass certain thresholds. Mainly those amazing streaks already in the rankings here (which i respect the most).

I also saw some other records at other places like the youtube video by Cody "The Machine" (which i also respect as i think is very important to have fun doing what you like the way you like it while respecting others and i feel thats what i saw there, but lets be honest, using cheats like speed up on an emulator eliminates a lot of the stress of these challenges). So i kind of wanted to surpass that number too on my cartridge. And luckily i could.

So with those goals finally achieved i kept climbing the pyramid, and on my way to the 207th attemp to reach the peak and bask in that glorious red sun once more, fate was the one that finally reached me. It was in the ice types round where i managed to get to the 6th floor, and suddenly, while trying to find the exit, all the light i amassed by beating wild and trainer pokémon, suddenly dissapeared in favor of a complete black screen. Silence flooded me.

I guess i should be sad and even dissapointed in my console for giving up or even myself for not waiting and risking it.
But if something has this experience taught me is that i instead should be grateful for all the marvelous moments this GBA has created since it was first gifted to me years ago. And if i felt blessed when i first realized what kind of streak was in my hands i cannot let that bliss diminish for the way it ended, just thank all the elements involved to create such a great memory.
I should in fact feel very lucky that it happened now that the most important goals were completed.

And to be honest i even feel a little relieved as i had some responsability to keep it growing, and the repetitiveness of it all was starting to kick in (i decided to put it on hold at 1500 but someone decided for me first). And i think what happened and this feeling of burn out give even more merit to to the fact of doing it in this manner (in the original hardware instead of having the temptation of backing up the saves or activating cheats).

So with all that said i will thank one final time to all of the amazing members of this community, my friends, my team and even my mostly dead GBA.

Oh! and since i was not able to keep it alive, i will gladly wait for any of you to challenge this run and claim this top spot of the category. I assure you it will be quite a journey. But remember to always keep having fun!
Congrats on the streak! The way it ended was indeed sad and it reminded me of a similar story that happened to me many years ago. We are talking about 2006-2007 and I was grinding really hard at Battle Factory in Emerald trying to get the Gold Symbol (which I never got back then) and my SP had a loose power switch... Even if you barely touched it, it would turn the console off. I'm sure I accidentally turn it off at like 35+ wins TWICE. I was beyond sad.
 
Congrats on the streak! The way it ended was indeed sad and it reminded me of a similar story that happened to me many years ago. We are talking about 2006-2007 and I was grinding really hard at Battle Factory in Emerald trying to get the Gold Symbol (which I never got back then) and my SP had a loose power switch... Even if you barely touched it, it would turn the console off. I'm sure I accidentally turn it off at like 35+ wins TWICE. I was beyond sad.
Thank you! Wow, interesting to hear these hardware malfunctions were present even back then.

And for them to happen at the Factory is just soul crushing man. For me that's undoubtedly the most difficult facility where i spent more time than in the others combined at my first attempt to the Golds (and i was unable to beat it until the constant defeats at +35 pushed me to learn how to rng manip). So for that to happen on top of the randomness inherent to the factory feels crazy to deal with. And it makes me even more grateful that this thing happened to me now instead of back then as i was already not having much fun and it could have killed all my enjoyment and halted future attemps.

Anyways is very lifting to see someone that has experienced that adversity and then go to attain such crazy records as yours.
 
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Time for an update. My battle facility project has continued, and I finally have something new to report.

Last year, I went back to Emerald to continue on all of my unfinished streaks. I completed all of them except for my Level 50 streak at the Pyramid, which is still ongoing. I also made another attempt at the Pike to get a better streak there, and I tried all formats that I could in six of the facilities. After all of that, I had just one challenge left, which was to beat the Battle Factory.

During January-February, I battled in the Platinum Battle Castle, then I had a three-month break from Pokémon during March-May, which I really needed as I have been feeling quite burnt out on Pokémon lately. When ScaVio finally got Home support at the end of May, it felt like a good opportunity to end my break and get back to Pokémon. I completed my Pokédex in Violet (which went fast), and after that, I decided to go back to Emerald to make some more attempts at the Factory.

Last year, I didn’t make that many attempts at the Factory, only 14 in total. I don’t really like the Factory, and my motivation for trying to beat it was pretty low. However, one of these attempts went very well. I got past round 5 for the first time in my life and made it to round 6, where I ended up with a streak of 40 wins, a new personal record. That shortly raised my motivation a bit, but it didn’t last very long. I quickly lost interest again and didn’t battle at the Factory for a long while. When I went back to it now, I made two tries to start with. And I made it to round 5 on both of them! Which was cool. During the next try, I had a feeling things would somehow go incredibly well. That turned out to be right.

Let’s make this formal.

Battle Factory

Format:
Level 50, Single, retail cart

Streak: 48

Picture proof:
KID24y5.jpg


I got the Gold Symbol on June 10th, and I completed the streak on June 11th.

This is probably nothing special to most players, I think most other Frontier veterans have beaten the Factory long ago. But to me, this means a lot. I first started battling at the Emerald Frontier in 2006. Back then, my dream was to get all seven Gold Symbols. Now, 17 years later, the dream has finally become reality. It took a while. It’s not like I have battled at the Factory non-stop since 2006. In fact, it is quite the opposite as I never tried it very much in the past. The Factory always felt like the hardest facility in Emerald. It was a huge mountain standing in the way of my dream and I mostly never even bothered with trying to beat it. But now, I have finally conquered it.

Let’s get down to the details.
The theme of the Battle Factory is Knowledge. You need to know how it works and how various mechanics affect your path to victory. Some are completely obvious, others are hidden. Using the resources that exist nowadays, you can gain full knowledge about your opponent by looking up opposing Pokémon, you can also run damage calculations to check how much damage you are going to deal or take. You can even RNG abuse the Factory to get a good starting draft for every round, but I didn’t do that. I wanted to win the normal way.

Before I started, I had gone back to the Tower to reset my streaks there to zero. Because of weird glitch/mechanic, the IVs of opposing Pokémon in the Factory are tied to your current streak at the Tower, not the Factory itself. I guess this is well-known to most players, but if anyone doesn’t know about it, a full description of it can be found in this post by atsync. It also contains some very useful tips and a lot of other notable mechanics in the Factory. Either way, your IVs will increase with each round, while the opponent’s Pokémon will be stuck with low IVs. This gives you a notable advantage in the later rounds, at least as long as you stick with the Pokémon from your draft.

I also used several resources when battling at the Factory. To look up opposing Pokémon sets, I used Bulbapedia’s list of Frontier Pokémon. To check my defensive type synergy, I used Marilland’s team builder. I also used turskain’s damage calculator to run damage calcs when necessary. Unfortunately, the damage calculator is missing some details for various early Pokémon sets, and it seems like some moves can’t be added at all, like Petal Dance and Karate Chop. Fortunately, most/all details for the late-round sets are included.

I decided to go for Level 50 instead of Open Level. The reason being that in Level 50, you will always know which set you are facing all the way up to round 7. Since my goal was to get the Gold Symbol at the end of round 6, it was all I needed. I don’t know whether Level 50 is easier than Open Level, and I have seen some different opinions from other Frontier veterans in this thread, but Level 50 worked for me at least.

Regarding swapping, I swapped only to improve my team. Swapping after every battle didn’t feel necessary, since you need 15 swaps just to get one single elevation. Compare this to in Gen 4, where you get an elevation for every 7 swaps you make, which makes swapping much more rewarding there. I used to think that you needed 21 swaps for one elevation in Emerald, but it turns out I had misremembered or misunderstood things since you only need 15 (so much for knowledge). Either way, it still means you can’t see an elevation until the round 4 draft, which is a little too late for my tastes. And as always, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a good elevation, it might be some garbage set. Swapping in the later rounds also means that you lose the IV advantage since the Pokémon you swap for will have low IVs, just like your opponents, while the ones from your draft will be better and have higher IVs. So I didn’t swap very often. I don’t know if this is the best strategy, but it worked.

When building my teams, I usually tried to make teams with good defensive synergy, especially for the later rounds. I also tried to have good offensive synergy if possible. I didn’t always look at which Ability a Pokémon had (for those that can have two), which I wish I had done, but sometimes a good Pokémon with the worse Ability can be better than a bad Pokémon with the better Ability.

One thing I have noticed in the Factory is that opponents will sometimes switch out their Pokémon. It seems this might happen if their current Pokémon is hit by a move and the opponent has a backup which resists or is immune to the move in question. For instance, I once had a Lairon out against a Sneasel. I used Metal Claw, Sneasel survived. On the next turn, my opponent switched to a Kingler in order to tank the next Metal Claw. There have been other instances of this as well, but it isn’t super common. But it is something to keep in mind. It seems like those switches happen somewhat randomly, I’m not sure if there are any specific triggers for them.

When I battled, I had put together some info and notes that were originally written by wtset and JoebertIII. I used them as reference for which Pokémon to use and to check useful strategies in the different rounds, and I added some own notes as well. I put together all of this in a separate document which can be found here, with credits included. Not sure if I needed to include this, but I decided to do so in case it should be of help to someone else who is having trouble beating the Factory.

I think those are all my important notes. As always, you need both luck and skill to win in the Factory. When I played, there were many instances where I got lucky and won, as well as many times where I got unlucky and lost. My opponents haxed me a lot, but I also haxed them from time to time, so I guess it is sort of fair in the end. For instance, I once beat a Skarmory with a Sceptile. And on my winning attempt, my Snorlax got defeated by opposing Ninetales three times in the same round! It’s the Factory, anything can happen.
As said earlier, I never tried the battle Factory that much in the past. Since it is one of my least favorite facilities, and since I find it so annoyingly difficult, I mostly spent my time at the other facilities instead. Or I just did other things in the game, like breeding and EV-training.

Regarding the 17 attempts I made during the past year, I have written logs with various levels of detail. They can be found here. In this post, I’ll only talk about my winning attempt. Though I won’t go over every single detail for those battles either, so if you want that, check out the logs.

I don’t remember a lot about the early rounds, didn’t write anything down. Wish I had done that. I think I had a lead Charmeleon1 for Round 1, which was amazing and swept through a lot. Might have had Swellow1 and Graveler1 in round 2. I almost lost against a Scyther2 in round 3, but it focused on setting up instead of attacking, so I beat it (and swapped for it after the battle). For round 4, I’m pretty sure my team consisted Flygon1, Scizor1 and Alakazam1.

I made it to round 5 for the third time in a row! Now if I could just make it through round 5 once more as well. And then through round 6 too. But we’ll get there eventually, one thing at a time.

Round 5:

Time to turn the tides! Have some great and suitable music from one of my favorite games:


Not sure how many swaps I had here, didn’t write it down. At least none of the three Pokémon I picked was an elevation.

The draft consisted of the following:
shuckle.png
houndoom.png
blaziken.png
starmie.png
golem.png
donphan.png


I picked Starmie/Donphan/Blaziken, all set 2. Starmie is pretty good, while the backups give me decent offensive and defensive synergy. Starmie also has Natural Cure, which is great.

The first opponent has no type specialty.

:Umbreon: :Hariyama: :Alakazam:
Umbreon with Double Team is annoying. I eventually beat it with Starmie, but the Hariyama gets a QC activation and KO’s with Cross Chop. Blaziken 2HKO’s Hariyama with Brick Break, Alakazam then comes out and KO’s Blaziken with Psychic. Donphan survives a Psychic with 2 HP left and OHKO’s with Earthquake. That was a close start.

The second opponent specializes in Normal-types.
I considered swapping for Alakazam, but decided not to.

:Tauros: :Altaria: :Clefable:
Tauros is another annoying Double Teamer, but it can also hit hard with Double-Edge. Thankfully, Thunder in the Rain has perfect accuracy. I use Rain Dance and start attacking, Starmie eventually lands a Crit with Thunder and beats the bull. Altaria comes out next. Starmie 3HKO’s with Thunder, featuring another Crit. Last out is Clefable. Since the Altaria had used Perish Song, I switch to Blaziken. The Clefable uses Cosmic Power, I hit with Brick Break which does over half. Blaziken gets infatuated due to Cute Charm. I switch back to Starmie and use Recover followed by Rain Dance as the Clefable uses Follow Me for some dumb reason. Starmie then 2HKO’s with Thunder.

The third opponent has no type specialty.
I swap Donphan for Tauros, hoping it will turn out to be the correct decision.

:Milotic: :Gardevoir: :Porygon2:
Milotic has Mirror Coat, so I switch to Tauros. I set up 4 Double Teams as the Milotic first uses Mirror Coat several times to no success, it then uses Surf and hits. I let Tauros use ChestoRest, Milotic misses with Ice Beam. I use Double-Edge, get a Crit and an OHKO! Gardevoir comes out, Double-Edge 2HKOs. Porygon2 is last out, I 2HKO with Earthquake.

Fourth opponent has no type specialty.
I considered swapping for Gardevoir, but a Psychic mono-attacker will be walled by any Dark-type and that’s not good.

:Fearow: :Feraligatr: :Metagross:
Starmie beat everything on its own, though not without issues. Rain Dance and then Thunder on Fearow, Thunder Crit on Feraligatr, Hydro Pump + Thunder on Metagross.

Fifth opponent has no type specialty.
I swap Blaziken for Metagross, which actually gives me worse defensive synergy but I think I should be all right.

:Umbreon: :Typhlosion: :Wailord:
Another Umbreon. But Metagross has Psych Up, which is great. I switch to it, the Umbreon sets up a lot with Curse and Double Team, but I copy all of its boosts! Metagross eventually KO’s with Meteor Mash. Typhlosion comes out. It might be bad if it hits me with Flamethrower, but it uses Aerial Ace, which deals 2 HP of damage! I KO it with Earthquake. Metagross then beats Wailord with a few Earthquakes.

Sixth opponent has no type specialty.
No swap.

:Glalie: :Ursaring: :Victreebel:
I switch to Metagross against Glalie. It uses Explosion on the next turn, Metagross lives with 65 HP. Ursaring comes out, I switch to Tauros. I start with setting up two Double Teams, then I go for a Double-Edge, but the Ursaring uses Counter for a clean KO. I send out Starmie. Rain Dance, Starmie tanks a Double-Edge, then uses Thunder for a KO. Victreebel comes out. A Rain-boosted Hydro Pump deals a ton of damage, Starmie is then KO’d by Giga Drain. Metagross seals the battle with Meteor Mash. That was close.

Seventh opponent specializes in Fire-types.
No swap, I hope Metagross won’t be a burden.

:Typhlosion: :Rapidash: :Mr-Mime:
Typhlosion uses Thunderpunch which does over half to Starmie. I KO with Hydro Pump. Rapidash uses Bounce which hits and Paralyzes Starmie. I eventually get a hit and KO with Hydro Pump. Last out is Mr. Mime. I switch to Tauros. Mime tanks a Double-Edge and lives with 1 HP left, it 2HKO’s with Psychic. Metagross comes out and KO’s with Earthquake.

I made it through round 5 and to round 6 for the second time in my life! This feels great.

Round 6:

It’s comeback time! Have some more suitable music from another of my favorite games:


Once again, I’m not sure how many swaps I have but none of my choices were an elevation at least.

Draft consisted of:
typhlosion.png
skarmory.png
lapras.png
snorlax.png
golduck.png
venusaur.png


Honestly, this doesn’t look too bad. Skarmory and Snorlax are obvious choices, it isn’t SkarmBliss but SkarmLax, which should be great as well! Skarmory does sadly not have Sturdy, but Snorlax has Thick Fat. I go with Venusaur as the third member, no Grass STAB but it seems all right. I lead with it as I might swap it for something else later on, SkarmLax also feel better as backups. My team is Venusaur/Skarmory/Snorlax, all set 3. I have two weaknesses to Fire, which Snorlax sort of covers with Thick Fat. Otherwise solid defensive synergy.

First opponent has no type speciality.

:Vaporeon: :Manectric: :Ninetales:
Vaporeon has Ice Beam, so I switch to Snorlax. Vaporeon sets up two Acid Armors before Baton Passing to Manectric. I switch to Venusaur which gets Paralyzed by Thunder Wave. I get a Crit with EQ, which is enough for an OHKO. Vaporeon comes out again, I switch back to Snorlax. Vaporeon uses Acid Armor twice again, I copy the boosts with Psych Up. Vaporeon Baton Passes to Ninetales. The fox annoys me to no end with Confuse Ray, Attract and finally a Fire Blast Burn, Mega Kick is only a 3HKO due to the Defense Boosts. Snorlax eventually faints, but the Ninetales is out of PP for Fire Blast, so I beat it with Skarmory. Finally, just Vaporeon left… again. I misplay and let Skarmory take an unnecessary Surf, then I switch to Venusaur and put Vaporeon to Sleep, back to Skarmory and ChestoRest. Toxic once Vaporeon has awoken (and once before because I was dumb), it eventually falls from Poison damage and Fly. Just like for round 5, that was a very tough start.

Second opponent has no type specialty.
No swap.

:Tauros: :Nidoking: :Xatu:
Tauros is a mixed set with Double-Edge and Flamethrower, which is annoying. I run a damage calc and Double-Edge will do the most damage to Venusaur, so I hope it goes for that and switch to Skarmory. The Tauros uses Double-Edge as expected. It then uses Flamethrower which leaves Skarmory at 80/167 HP, I use Toxic. Flamethrower again, I survive and ChestoRest. Then switch to Snorlax to tank a Flamethrower, then back to Skarmory to tank a Double-Edge. Another Flamethrower leaves Skarmory at 84/167 HP. I use Fly and hit, the Tauros faints. Nidoking comes out. Another mixed set, this one has Horn Drill which isn’t fun. I switch to Snorlax and tank a Fire Blast. The first Horn Drill misses and I land a Mega Kick, the second Horn Drill hits. Out with Venusaur, which is faster and KO’s with Earthquake. Last opponent is Xatu. Venusaur is 2HKO’d by Psychic but manages to use Sludge Bomb for a ton of damage. Just Skarmory left. Psychic only does around 20 HP, I use Fly and KO. Another close battle!

Third opponent specializes in Psychic-types.
I swap Venusaur for Tauros. This gives me worse defensive synergy as I now have two Pokémon weak to Fighting, but I hope it should work anyway. I have Intimidate and good bulk.

:Shiftry: :Gardevoir: :Slowbro:
Tauros takes down Shiftry with Flamethrower, but Shiftry’s Focus Band activates, allowing it to land a hit with Solarbeam before going down. Tauros has 4 HP left afterwards. Gardevoir comes out. I switch to Snorlax which tanks an Ice Punch and a Psychic before OHKOing with Shadow Ball. Last out is Slowbro, I 3HKO with Shadow Ball. Compared to the first two battles, this was quite easy.

Fourth opponent specializes in Grass-types.
I swap Tauros for Gardevoir, giving me near-perfect defensive synergy. I only have an unresisted weakness to Electric, which Snorlax “resists” thanks to having high Sp.def. Having a special attacker can also be great. But it is an odd choice since Gardevoir is my least favorite Pokémon. Still, it feels like the better option here. This Gardevoir also has Trace, which ended up mattering later on.

:Meganium: :Gyarados: :Exeggutor:
Meganium is a weird EndFlail set which can’t touch Skarmory, so I switch to it and auto-win, the Meganium hilariously tries to hit me with Earthquake! Next up is Gyarados. It is a special set, so I switch to Snorlax. I score a 2HKO with Mega Kick + Shadow Ball. Last out is Exeggutor. Shadow Ball does around 50%, but it uses Leech Seed. I switch to Gardevoir which tanks a Giga Drain and KO’s with a Crit Ice Punch.

Fifth opponent specializes in Fire-types.
I consider swapping Gardevoir for Gyarados, but I decide not to.

:Cradily: :Ninetales: :Blaziken:
Gardevoir beats Cradily, but it sets up Sunny Day before falling. Ninetales comes out. Not again! This thing annoyed me so much last time. It uses Fire Blast which leaves Gardevoir at 17 HP, I use Psychic and miss due to Brightpowder! I switch to Snorlax and another annoying stall battle follows, Ninetales manages to beat Snorlax this time as well, but manage to hit it with one Mega Kick. Unfortunately, it still has PP left for Fire Blast. I send out Skarmory which tanks a Fire Blast and lives with 38 HP left, then KOs with Fly. Last opponent is Blaziken. It KO’s Skarmory with Overheat, Gardevoir then takes it down with Psychic. A close and scary battle.

Sixth opponent specializes in Water-types. Somehow, I just got to face FWG in a disadvantageous order.
No swap.

:Gyarados: :Golduck: :Forretress:
Gyarados again… I switch to Snorlax and 2HKO with Mega Kick + Shadow Ball, Snorlax lives with exactly 50% HP left. Golduck is next, it KO’s with a Crit Cross Chop. I send out Gardevoir which 2HKO’s with Psychic. Forretress is the last one, but a Fire Punch takes it down.

I made it to Noland! The Factory attendant does not tell me if he has any type specialty.

I once again consider swapping Gardevoir for Gyarados, but once again, I decide not to.

Now, for the Noland battle. First, here’s the battle video:


Here’s a full battle summary:

:Slowbro: :Ninetales: :Salamence:
Noland leads with Slowbro. I expect it to use Shadow Ball, so I switch to Snorlax which shrugs off the Shadow Ball, just as planned. Worth noting is that both Snorlax and Slowbro are holding a Quick Claw. On top of that, a 21IV Adamant Snorlax and a 31IV Quiet Slowbro both have a Speed stat of 45! How ironic. Anyway, Slowbro is faster on the next turn and uses Surf, Snorlax is at 164/230 HP. I use Shadow Ball which does a little less than half, I also get a useless Sp.def drop. I am faster on the next turn and Shadow Ball leaves the Slowbro at low HP, it uses Surf to take Snorlax down to 104 HP. I am faster on the next turn as well, Shadow Ball is a KO.

Ninetales comes out! Argh, why did it have to be you again! Oh well. It uses Iron Tail which brings Snorlax to 67 HP, I use Mega Kick for a Megamiss. Ninetales uses Attract, Snorlax is infatuated and immobilized. Ninetales uses Iron Tail again, Snorlax is at 33 HP and immobilized again. Another Iron Tail, but it misses this time, while I use Mega Kick and hit for a ton of damage. I then get a QC activation, only for Shadow Ball to miss. Ninetales KO’s with Iron Tail. Ninetales3 has really been my unlucky opponent this round. But I have beaten it twice before, I can do it again!

I send out Gardevoir, which Traces Flash Fire. Yes! The fox can’t use Fire Blast now. Instead, it uses Confuse Ray. Oh no. But Gardevoir uses its Lum Berry to cure itself. Oh yes! Psychic hits and I KO the annoying fox. Yes! Noland’s last Pokémon is Salamence. It is an EndSalac set with Double-Edge/Earthquake/Crunch, it is pretty hard-walled by Skarmory, which is great. But there’s no need to switch. Salamence is faster than Gardevoir, it uses Double-Edge, Gardevoir lives with 10 HP! The Salamence takes recoil. Gardevoir uses Ice Punch and wins the Gold Symbol.

This was a quite simple victory. The Ninetales caused some trouble just like the previous two times I faced it, but apart from that, it was easy. Snorlax walled Slowbro, and Skarmory would have walled Salamence, but it didn’t even come down to that. Instead, Gardevoir was the MVP of this battle.

It is ironic how I got my last Gold symbol with my least favorite Pokémon. But I suppose it was also suitable in a way. Jumpman taught me that you must get rid of any favoritism if you want to beat the Factory. I’m glad I listened to him, because he was right.

I had obtained the Gold Symbol, but I still wanted to continue on my streak just to see how far I could get…

Round 7:

Since I’ve won the Gold Symbol, we can take it easy from here on. Let’s go with some chill la chill but still amazing battle music:


Here, I had 19 swaps before entering.

Draft was:
xatu.png
arcanine.png
ludicolo.png
metagross.png
kangaskhan.png
xatu.png


Before this, I thought I needed 21 swaps to get an elevation, but it turns out I only needed 15. This was the first time when it became really notable. I got two Xatu sets, which were set 3 and 4. Everything else was set 4.

I skipped the birds, went with Kangaskhan/Metagross/Ludicolo instead. All set 4. They have good enough defensive synergy. Kangaskhan and Metagross are quite powerful, while Ludicolo can potentially stall with Toxic/Leech Seed/Double Team, it also has Rain Dance and Rain Dish.

First opponent has no type specialty.

:Golduck: :Gengar: :Golem:
I gamble with Kangaskhan against Golduck which was a bad idea as I miss twice with Mega Kick, while the duck 2HKO’s with Cross Chop. I continue with Metagross and use Earthquake, but my opponent switches to Gengar. I try to beat it with Ludicolo and Metagross, but it beats Ludicolo and manages to damage Metagross quite a bit. I then get a lucky QC activation with Metagross and KO with Shadow Ball. Next is Golem, Metagross OHKO’s with Meteor Mash. Finally Golduck again. Metagross tanks a Surf and KO’s with Earthquake. A very close and scary battle, just like the first battle in the previous two rounds.

Second opponent has no type specialty.
I swap Ludicolo for Gengar, hoping it will be better.

:Jynx: :Tauros: :Steelix:
Kangaskhan OHKO’s Jynx with Shadow Ball. I switch to Gengar against Tauros, it uses Rock Tomb followed by Thunderbolt, I do not KO with Psychic. I switch to Metagross, but miss with the first Meteor Mash, the second hits and KO’s. Against Steelix, I switch to Gengar to dodge an Earthquake. Fire Punch does not KO and Steelix takes Gengar down with Iron Tail. I send out Kangaskhan which KO’s with Earthquake.

Third opponent has no type specialty.
No swap.

:Ninetales: :Vaporeon: :Espeon:
Ninetales again! At least it isn’t the annoying set 3 this time around. Even better, I OHKO with a Crit Earthquake. Vaporeon takes around 95% from Mega Kick and uses Acid Armor. Earthquake KO on the next turn. Espeon uses Attract but misses (Kangaskhan was holding a Brightpowder), Shadow Ball for an OHKO. Nice with a quick and easy battle.

Fourth opponent has no type specialty.
No swap.

:Blastoise: :Muk: :Armaldo:
Blastoise throws the fight by using Mirror Coat as I 3HKO with Earthquake, don’t want to risk more misses with Mega Kick. Muk is OHKO’d by a Crit Earthquake. Armaldo is a CB set, it takes around 40% from Earthquake and locks itself into Rock Slide, guess it was the best move it could pick. The first one misses. It tanks another Earthquake before hitting with Rock Slide on the next turn. I send out Metagross which uses Earthquake to grab the victory.

Fifth opponent has no type specialty.
No swap.

:Donphan: :Houndoom: :Gyarados:
I switch to Gengar against Donphan, it fails to hit me with Fissure. Ice Punch doesn’t quite KO and the Donphan misses with Iron Tail. It then uses a QC Rock Slide, Gengar flinches but KO’s with Ice Punch on the next turn. Houndoom comes out. I decide to sacrifice Gengar, so I use Destiny Bond for a double KO. I send out Kangaskhan, last opposing Pokémon is Gyarados. It is a DD set, not good at all. I should have gone for Metagross instead because of Clear Body. The Gyarados beats Kangaskhan, but I manage to beat it with Metagross, I get a lucky QC activation on the last turn and KO with Psychic.

Sixth opponent has no type specialty.
I considered swapping for Gyarados, but I decided not to.

:Rapidash: :Marowak: :Aggron:
Rapidash is OHKO’d by Earthquake. I switch to Gengar against Marowak, dodge an Earthquake and OHKO with Ice Punch. Aggron is 2HKO’d by Fire Punch. Quick and simple.

I then lost in the 7th battle.

Before the battle, I am told that my opponent specializes in Fire-types.
I swap Metagross for Marowak.

Here’s a video of the battle:


And a summary:

:Sceptile:
Lead Sceptile (nice Fire-type!). It is faster and uses Leaf Blade which does less than half to Kangaskhan. I use Aerial Ace since I don’t want to risk a miss with Mega Kick. On the next turn, the Sceptile gets a Crit with Leaf Blade, Kangaskhan faints. Out with Gengar. Sceptile is faster and OHKO’s with Crunch. It is then faster than Marowak as well and OHKO’s with Leaf Blade.

That was a very simple and straightforward loss. I might have been able to win if it hadn’t gotten a Crit on Kangaskhan, or maybe if I hadn’t swapped out Metagross. The Sceptile had no move that is super effective against Metagross. I could also have used Mega Kick instead, it would have been a sure KO if it had hit. No idea about the backups, I think Kangaskhan and Marowak should have been able to beat most Fire-types, Gengar might have been able to contribute as well.

But I got the Gold Symbol so I’m still happy about the streak.
The Gold Symbol is mine, so I should be done with the Factory, right? Nope. Still got the other formats left. I had no ongoing streak for Open Level Single and I didn’t feel like starting a new one since I had nothing to gain from it, so nothing more for Single. However, I had ongoing streaks for Double and I decided to complete them before leaving. I have some faint memories from when I tried Factory Double in the past, but I don’t really remember much about it. Double battles with just 3 Pokémon are also really weird.

For Level 50, I had an ongoing streak of 7, and a record streak of 18. I started with it.

In one battle in round 2, I met a Chansey1 who used Metronome, which selected Self-Destruct! It was hilarious and it did very little damage to the Pokémon on the field.

My streak ended at 19 wins, beating my previous record with exactly 1. In the loss battle, I had a team of Vigoroth/Charmeleon/Illumise (all from the draft), and I lost against Porygon/Omastar/Chansey. I managed to beat Porygon and Omastar, but I only had Illumise left against the Chansey. There was no chance of winning that matchup since Illumise was a mixed attacker geared towards Special, its only Physical move was Silver Wind which didn’t do enough damage (and I run out of PP).

I continued with Open Level, I had an ongoing and record streak of 14. But I lost in the first battle here, so my streak ended at 14 wins as well. From the draft, I picked Ampharos/Raichu/Milotic. There weren’t any better options, and my first opponent specialized in Water-types. The opposing team was Medicham/Swampert/Wailord. Medicham and Swampert beat Ampharos and Raichu, I beat them with Milotic but lost against the Wailord.

And that’s it for Factory Double.

Since I have finally obtained all seven Gold Symbols, have a photo of them:

4xxy2Zz.jpg


It has been a long journey. It’s been fun. Hard at times, easy at times. These seven Symbols contain a lot of feelings.

I want to take a look back at my journey. Here’s the order I got the Gold Symbols in, with dates as well (some are approximate).

1. Bravery – Battle Pyramid (early August 2006)
2. Luck – Battle Pike (early August 2006)
3. Guts – Battle Arena (September 6th, 2006)
4. Tactics – Battle Dome (early September 2006)
5. Spirits – Battle Palace (September 16th, 2007)
6. Ability – Battle Tower (November 2nd, 2014)
7. Knowledge – Battle Factory (June 10th, 2023)

I have written down the exact dates for the three missing ones in an old calendar, but I currently don’t have access to it. I’ll look them up later if I can find it.

Let’s take a look at how many tries it took me to reach the Gold boss in each facility, and how my battles for the Gold Symbols went.

:Slaking: :Starmie: :Blissey:
Pyramid
The Pyramid is easy, but I still needed two tries here as I lost in the fourth round on my first try. I then made it to Brandon on my second try. I don’t remember the exact details from my first battle against him, but I remember that I had a very hard time beating him. I think I really underestimated him and misplayed hard. I remember that I even had to use a Revive in order to win. However, he has always been easy to beat in rematches since I have a great strategy against him nowadays. And since my streak is still ongoing, I haven’t beaten him for the last time.

:Slaking: :Starmie: :Blissey:
Pike
The only facility where I made it on the first try, through a combination of luck and skill. When I tried again, I also made it on the first try. Lucy was easy to beat as well. In my initial battle, my Slaking took down her Seviper and Steelix, while Starmie beat her Gyarados. I had no trouble against her in any of the rematches either.

:Heracross: :Starmie: :Salamence:
Arena
It took me six tries to reach Greta, the Arena was quite a lot tougher than the Pyramid or the Pike. Though all of my losses were with a different team, featuring Gardevoir over Starmie. This team made it to Greta on the first try. The battle against her was quite easy, my Heracross beat her Umbreon, while Starmie beat her Gengar and Breloom.

:Slaking: :Starmie: :Shedinja:
Dome
The Dome is another easy facility, but reaching Tucker was surprisingly hard as it took me a total of eight attempts. But that’s okay since the battle against him was the easiest, Shedinja just auto-won. I made it quite far afterwards, and Shedinja won against him in all rematches as well.

:Salamence: :Starmie: :Regice:
Palace
This took me two attempts, I lost in the 6th round on my first try. I made it to Spenser on my second try, though I think I was quite lucky. Spenser was quite easy, I beat his Arcanine with Salamence, Suicune with Starmie, and Slaking with my Regice. I got to use all of my team members, and the battle went incredibly well by Palace standards since my team didn’t “waste” any turns, they always used a move and they mostly picked useful moves as well.

:Salamence: :Starmie: :Snorlax:
Tower
This was difficult. I don’t know how many tries it took me to get up to Anabel, but more than in any of the previous facilities. I tried with some different teams, but it turned out that my “standard” team worked the best. Anabel herself was also difficult. I lost against her the first time I faced her, then I won in the rematch, Snorlax set up fully and destroyed her entire team.

:Gardevoir: :Skarmory: :Snorlax:
Factory
Already explained it in full detail in this post so have a TL;DR: This was the facility where it took me the most tries to reach the boss, Noland wasn’t super hard but his Ninetales was quite annoying.

In all but one of my battles against the Gold bosses, I had at least one Pokémon faint (Tucker being the sole exception because of Shedinja). The easiest Gold battle was Tucker without any doubt, while the hardest were Brandon and Anabel. The latter mainly because I lost to her on my first try, which also makes her the only Gold boss I have lost against.

The Factory was the facility where it took me the most tries to reach the Gold boss, followed by the Tower. The Pike took the least number of tries as I made it on the first try both times, followed by the Pyramid and Palace which took two tries each.

My most used Pokémon for the Gold Symbols were the following:
1. :Starmie: - used on 6 teams
2. :Slaking: :Salamence: - used on 3 teams each
3. :Blissey: :Snorlax: - used on 2 teams each
4. :Heracross: :Shedinja: :Regice: :Gardevoir: :Skarmory: - used on one team each

If anyone wants more info about any of my initial tries at the Frontier, I have written about it in more detail here.

I got all the Gold Symbols on Level 50, while I got all the Silver Symbols except for the Factory on Open Level. This makes the Factory the only facility where I got both the Silver and Gold Symbol on Level 50.

After beating the Factory, I also have a Gold Trainer Card.

wp6KfrV.jpg


The Knowledge Symbol was the last thing I needed. I completed the Pokédex and the Contests many years ago (and the main game, obviously).
In my previous posts, I have usually posted my opinion on the facilities after I have gone back to them. Normally, I would only share my thoughts on the Factory here. But now that I have beaten all 7 facilities, I want to do a full review of the whole Battle Frontier.

The facilities are listed in the same order as in the first posts here in the thread.

Tower: It’s okay. The standard facility, no special rules or regulations that affect anything, just regular battles. So why is it not more than okay? The reason is that I find it a bit primitive compared to the Subway/Maison/Tree. Those facilities did some massive improvements to the standard facility in terms of raw gameplay and QoL. When I battle at the Emerald Tower, I can’t help but compare it to the newer facilities. Since it lacks a lot of the things that make the modern facilities great, it feels a bit aged. I also think it feels a bit boring compared to many of the other facilities in Emerald since it isn’t really “special” in any way. Having to go through 70 battles just to reach Gold Anabel is also a lot. Even so, I don’t think it is downright bad, it just isn’t super great either.

Dome: Excellent. One of my two favorites. I love how it has a high focus on strategy. The way the tourney works, getting to see the opposing team before the battle and picking two of your own Pokémon to battle against two of theirs. I also love how fast it goes to complete a round here since every round only features four battles, and all of them are 2vs2. Destroying Gold Tucker with Shedinja is just some extra icing on the cake. I guess you could criticize the Dome for being too easy, but I personally don’t think that is something negative. Not every facility needs to be super difficult. Overall, I love it.

Factory: I have a love-hate relation to this place. I love how it is so challenging and difficult to beat. But I also hate how it is so challenging and difficult to beat. Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed the Frontier a lot more if the Factory hadn’t existed since it was always such a big challenge which stood in my way of getting all Gold Symbols. At the same time, I think I would have enjoyed the Frontier less if the Factory hadn’t existed since that would have made the whole place a lot less challenging. I like the concept of having to battle with rental Pokémon, but I think the execution made it very luck-based and unnecessarily difficult. I think the Battle Agency in US/UM did it better, but still far from perfect. In the end, I think the negatives outweigh the positives for the Factory, so it is one of my least favorites.

Palace: Another of my least favorites. It just isn’t that fun to play. I appreciate the concept with how your Pokémon are supposed to battle for you based on their Natures, but I think the execution is a bit lacking. I will admit that I have never tried using an optimized team for the Palace (such as the common “Hasty” strategy), but playing it with “standard” sets isn’t all that enjoyable. In many battles, there were several turns where nothing really happened, making the battles very slow-paced and sluggish. I just don’t enjoy it very much.

Arena: Another facility that’s okay. I like how it puts some restrictions on your team and playstyle since you can’t switch and you only have three turns to move before it gets down to judging. However, this makes it very matchup-dependent, which means that you are at the risk of auto-losing if you get into a bad matchup. The judging categories are also a bit odd since they make you very susceptible to hax. Not a bad facility, but not one of my favorites either.

Pike: Really great. This is a very fun facility, featuring exploration as well battles against both trainers and wild Pokémon. The limited healing also means you need to play carefully and manage your resources. I think the Pike combines luck and strategy in a great way. Going through a round here usually goes very fast, which is neat. The atmosphere is also quite creepy, the music just contributes even further. Overall, a very good facility.

Pyramid: Fantastic. The second of my two favorites. I love the exploration aspect of it. Battling wild Pokémon, avoiding trainers (or sometimes battling them), picking up items and looking for the exit. I love how there are 20 different themes for the wild Pokémon, which means you need a different strategy for each round. I really enjoyed adapting my team for every different round, which allowed me to use more Pokémon, making it more fun! I also love the feeling when you finally reach the top and get to watch the world below from the summit, with the sun in the background. The only real negatives are that going through a round usually takes a long time (but I don’t really mind) and that like the Dome, it is quite easy. But I don’t have a problem with this either, this is one of the situations where I’d definitely take having fun over a challenge. I love the Pyramid.

Here's how I rank the seven Facilities:
1. Pyramid
2. Dome
3. Pike
4. Tower
5. Arena
6. Factory
7. Palace

As for the Frontier on the whole… I like it. Battling at it is really fun. I also like a lot of the extra things that you can do around the Frontier: betting, catching the wild Sudowoodo, exploring Artisan Cave and finding Smeargle, as well as using the IV checker, which was the first in the series. I don’t think the Frontier is the best thing in the world or even in Pokémon, but it is definitely the best thing about Emerald and Gen 3. It is also special to me because it is what got me into semi-competitive battling and Battle Facilities in the first place. If I hadn’t been so determined to win at the Frontier back in 2006, I would never have learned about EVs, IVs, Natures and more complex battle strategies, which allowed me to enjoy Pokémon even more. Or perhaps I would have learned about those things at a later point, but the Frontier is now the reason and that makes it special to me.
I am now done with the Emerald Battle Factory. Never going back to this place, that is for sure. I have added it to the list of facilities I am completely done with, which is now five in total on Emerald.

I want to give my thanks to everyone who has helped, supported and encouraged me over the years! I’m grateful. I’m not going to drop any names, and maybe people don’t even know if they have helped me, but that’s okay. If you think you have helped me, you probably have. And if not, you are making me happy by just reading this post.

After beating the Emerald Factory, my Pokémon journey feels a bit more complete. If I could just beat the Platinum Factory as well, it would feel even more complete. Maybe I will in the future. Time will tell… but one thing at a time!

Have some more music. This credits song is great and it will be my credits theme for the Battle Factory as well:


After completing the Pokédex in Violet and beating the Factory in Emerald, I feel that I have regained a bit of interest in Pokémon. We’ll have to see how long it lasts though. I feel that it has improved my self-confidence a bit too. Overcoming a goal that previously seemed insurmountable, even if it is just in a video game, really helped to make me feel better.

However, I still have unfinished business in two of the Emerald Facilities. In the past, I decided that if I ever managed to beat the Factory, I would go back to the Pyramid and continue on my streak there. I previously wanted to try to get the highest streak in this thread, but after Carloss97 got an amazing streak which ended at 1442 floors conquered, I changed my mind. I really don’t have the patience or interest to go that far. Instead, my goal will be to continue a bit further and get the second best streak in this thread. So that’s what I’ll be doing next.

Thanks for reading! I’ll see you again soon.
 
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I'm testing a couple of new teams atm but, following on from my previous post some time ago, I've also devoted some more time to the new Link Multi team I was working on and ended up hitting 70 wins. The streak is currently active on both files.

1688398086350.png
1688398096474.png

I was satisfied enough with the general strategy, but it wasn't working quite as smoothly as I needed it to. As mentioned in my last post, I mulled over replacing Gardevoir with Alakazam, and ultimately ended up doing so - the change has definitely been for the better, as Alakazam is faster, has superior coverage, and most importantly OHKOs troublesome foes like Scizor that were proving a headache last time.


1688397663060.png
1688397669597.png

Joziah (L) Zircon (R)

Left side 1:

:rs/metagross:
150917 @ Salac Berry (Clear Body)
Hidden Power Steel
Shadow Ball
Brick Break
Explosion
252 Attack/Speed, 6 Sp.Def (Adamant)

Right side 1:

:rs/sableye:
Yamil @ Leftovers (Keen Eye)
Fake Out
Toxic
Protect
Recover
248 HP, 20 Defence, 240 SpDef (Bold)

Left side 2:

:rs/alakazam:
Casey @ Lum Berry (Synchronise)
Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Punch
Fire Punch
252 SA/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)

Right side 2:

:rs/poliwrath:
Macron @ Shell Bell (Water Absorb)
Hydro Pump
Brick Break
Ice Beam
Haze
252 Attack, 236 Sp.Atk, 16 Defence, 6 Speed (Brave)

General strategy is unchanged: Fake Out the most dangerous opponent turn 1, either KO them directly or blow up with Metagross straight away - generally I prefer to kill one opponent before exploding if possible, as this means exploding can potentially leave the match 3v1. If exploding on turn 2, using Toxic with Sableye is often a relatively safe bet as anything not immune to Poison that comes out will either get poisoned or immediately lose their held item. The former is such a delightfully cheap way to guarantee a win.

Otherwise, clean up remaining opponents with Alakazam, poison anything bulky and/or passive with Sableye, cancel stat boosters with Poliwrath.

:rs/Arcanine: :rs/Charizard: :rs/Typhlosion: :rs/Blaziken: :rs/Houndoom: :rs/Rhydon: :rs/Ninetales: :rs/Tyranitar: :rs/Golem: :rs/Registeel:

Any of these coming out first is not appreciated. If it's just one, you can Fake Out+explode but a couple of battles have seen two lead Fire-types, which isn't pleasant. Metagross can survive one out of four Houndoom variants and outspeeds all but one Blaziken in the Frontier, but all the others are awful to face. Otherwise, opposing Steel- and Rock-types are largely manageable - after one hit from Brick Break, a lot of them are weakened enough for Explosion to take them down.

:rs/Snorlax: :rs/Regirock: :rs/Shuckle: :rs/Steelix: :rs/Regice: :rs/Registeel: :rs/Swampert: :rs/Walrein: :rs/Quagsire: :rs/Tyranitar: :rs/Umbreon: :rs/Vaporeon: :rs/Suicune: :rs/Raikou:

Any of these coming out second is also not appreciated if they're minded to start boosting. If they can be poisoned (and not Rest it off), all to the good: Sableye can stall them out with Protect, and generally waste their PP efficiently enough that their attacking moves are drained. It's crucial that the PP of all Sableye's moves are maxed to their fullest, as it means I can win Struggle wars with unpleasant foes. The best to face are ones Poliwrath can safely switch in on and use Haze - even if they have Rest, it's not the end of the world as this gives it a safe switch-in.

I know this thread is a bit dead atm, but all feedback welcomed!
 
It has been almost a month, time for a new update. I have gone back to the Battle Pyramid one more time. Which will also be the last time… for now.

I cleared 31 more rounds, which means that my streak is now at 567 floors in a row, still ongoing.

Picture proof:
gKu6zM6.jpg


This means I have gone through all 20 different floors 4 times each, and one extra round afterwards.

I have previously explained my strategy and talked about the Pokémon and resources I use in this post. I used the same resources this time around, I also used my previous notes as reference when I played, they were very useful. Most of the Pokémon I use work well, the only real exception is Houndoom. It is excellent for dealing with the wild Pokémon in the rounds where I use it, but it isn’t all that great against trainers. I have thought about changing it for something else, or maybe having a different backup than Salamence to go along with it, but I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll give it some more serious thought if I were to return to the Pyramid again in the future.

There’s also one thing about the Pyramid which I don’t think I have mentioned before, and I’m not sure if it is common knowledge, but I thought I’d share it anyway. From what I have observed, that the trainers inside of the Pyramid can only look in one or two directions. Some trainers are standing completely still, only looking in one direction. Others can look in two directions, I have at least never seen a trainer look in more than two different directions. Either way, what this means that if you observe the trainers and take note of directions they look in, you might be able to sneak past them! It can be a useful technique for exploration.

Below is a short summary for every round I played through this time around. Which Pokémon I used, and notable things that happened (if any).
Round 51:

Fighting-types. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

Absolutely no problems whatsoever. I beat all wild Pokémon and trainers, also found some nice items. I had to use one Lum Berry since Salamence once got Poisoned from a wild Breloom’s Effect Spore. But that’s about it.

Round 52:

Weather. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

Three notable things happened here. Starmie once got defeated by a Metagross belonging to an opposing trainer, it used Shadow Ball for a KO. I sent in Slaking to revenge kill. Another trainer had an Electabuzz which put me in a scary situation. I switched to Slaking to tank a Thunderbolt, the Buzz was faster on the next turn and KO’d with Cross Chop. It has 105 base speed, while Slaking has 100, both with Neutral Natures and max EVs/IVs. I sent in Starmie, used Surf and got a Crit which was enough for a KO. That was really scary. The third thing was that a wild Flareon successfully used Protect 3 times in a row!

I made it through in the end, but it took a bit longer than the previous round.

Round 53:

Bug-types. Salamence/Gengar/Blissey.

No real problems, this went fast and was easier than the previous round. I encountered one wild Armaldo, which Salamence OHKO’d with Rock Slide. I met no wild Shedinja, sadly.

Round 54:

Dark-types. Heracross/Starmie/Blissey.

Heracross fainted twice here. First against a Trainer’s Gengar, it got a OHKO with Psychic, I should have realized that Heracross was slower. Second against a wild Umbreon which was at level 55. Megahorn missed twice in a row, letting it 3HKO with Shadow Ball + Psychic + Quick Attack.

I also had to use several Ethers during this round, Heracross kept running out of PP for Brick Break.

Round 55:

Water-types plus non-Water-type Brandon. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

On both floor 3 and 4, I found the exit almost immediately. It was normal on the other floors though. But no problems here, I took care of all the wild Pokémon and trainers. I used my usual strategy against Brandon, he was easy to beat as always.

Round 56:

Ghost-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

On the third floor, I was surrounded by trainers upon entry. There was no chance of avoiding any of them, and it led to my first Multi battle at the Pyramid this time around! The opponents were Gardevoir and Gengar, which were easy to beat, Blissey walled them and Houndoom could hit them hard with Crunch.

During this round, Salamence once got defeated by an Aerodactyl which belonged to an opposing trainer. It was fast, and CB Aerial Ace hurt a lot. I defeated it with Blissey afterwards.

Otherwise nothing special.

Round 57:

Steel-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

Many notable things happened here.

The first trainer I met had a CB Granbull which locked itself into Earthquake! Salamence auto-beat it afterwards.

On the 5th floor, I was surrounded by trainers again and got into another Multi battle. This time, it was against Typhlosion and Clefable, they were easy to beat.

On one floor, Houndoom got defeated a Walrein belonging to an opposing trainer, I sent out Salamence and KO’d with Brick Break.

I got into a really dumb situation on the 6th floor. There were trainers near the exit, I battled one of them and beat him easily. But he moved directly once the battle was over, which forced me to battle another of the trainers. She had a Dodrio which beat Houndoom, I let Salamence use Rock Slide but missed twice, Salamence also got Frozen by Tri Attack. I thought about using Blissey, but it was risky. Instead, I used a Full Restore and a Hyper Potion to heal Salamence and win. Then I had to fight a third trainer as well before I could advance to the final floor.

Speaking of which, the whole 7th floor was annoying. It had a completely open layout, which I have encountered before. It is really tricky since it makes it hard to see where you have previously explored. It also makes it very difficult to avoid trainers. Which is just what happened this time, I got into many trainer battles since I couldn’t spot the trainers, and there was no way to avoid them. One of them had another Dodrio, which OHKO’d Houndoom with Drill Peck. Salamence defeated it with Rock Slide afterwards, the first one hit this time around.

This round was quite tough, I had to use more items than I found. But I have 79 Hyper Potions, 23 Revives, 89 Lum Berries, and a lot of other good stuff in my bag, so I’m still holding on!

Round 58:

Dragon-types and dragon-like Pokémon. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

This round was completely free of problems, which was a nice change of pace from the previous round. Nothing notable really happened, and I found several items while I didn’t have to use a single one.

406 floors cleared! But I am not done yet…

Round 59:

Elemental Evolutions. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey

I found a lot of useful items during this round. I found several Hyper Potions, probably 5-6 on the first floor alone, then at least 2 more later on. I also found some Lum Berries. But I didn’t have to use a single item during the round.

The latter half of the round also went very quickly. I found the exit almost immediately on the four last floors!

Overall, this was an amazing round. It went fast, it was easy, and I increased my item stock by a fair bit.

Round 60:

Great and powerful Normal-types with Hyper Beams that seriously hurt. Plus a great and powerful Brandon battle featuring a Moltres with a Hyper Beam that will not hurt quite as much. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Starmie once got defeated by an opposing Salamence which used Dragon Dance and KO’d with Earthquake, but Slaking beat it with Return afterwards.

During this round, I had to use several Hyper Potions, some Ethers, and one Lum Berry, while I didn’t find as many items. It’s a good thing I found so many items during the last round.

Against Brandon, I tried a somewhat different strategy just for fun. I lead with Starmie, which 2HKO’d his Articuno with Thunderbolt as usual. I decided to let Starmie stay in against Zapdos just to see how much Ice Beam would do, but I got a Crit and an OHKO! I then missed with Surf against Moltres, Starmie tanked a Fire Blast and OHKO’d with Surf on the next turn. That was a way faster victory than usual.

Not the easiest round, but everything worked out in the end.

420 floors conquered! Which means I have beaten all 20 floors three times. How about climbing even higher from here? Onward!

Round 61:

Back to the beginning again, with the theme being various weak wild Pokémon that Salamence destroys with ease Paralysis. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

From here on, I decided to only write down the most notable things that happen, not every single time one of my party members faints.

Got into an idiotic situation against a Regice on floor 6. I switched to Blissey and got Frozen. Switched to Starmie to heal, then back to Blissey, only to get Paralyzed by Thunder! Then the Regice got a Crit with Blizzard, Blissey fainted. I sacrificed Starmie while using a Max Revive on Blissey, then beat the Regice with Blissey.

This round wasn’t the easiest and it cost me some items, but I made it through.

Round 62:

Poison. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

Easy round on the whole, no real problematic battles and I found a bunch of good items.

Round 63:

Burn. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

On both floor 3 and 6, the exit was in the very northeast part of the map, right at the edge. Never seen that before. It was this section both times:

SlMMI1y.png


No major issues during this round, I made it through safe and sound.

Round 64:

PP Stalling. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

Simple round on the whole. No notable battles, and I found several useful items, including a bunch of Leppa Berries. Though I also had to use a few, which isn’t surprising due to the theme of this round. During this round, I also reached 99 Lum Berries at the end. Really cool.

Round 65:

Pokémon with Levitate plus Brandon without Levitate. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

On floor 5, there were four trainers around the exit. But it was in the southwest corner, and due to the layout of the area, only two of the trainers were actually guarding the exit, while the other two were completely useless. Never seen that before.

On floor 7, I found the exit almost immediately, it was just a few steps away.

Otherwise easy. Didn’t find as many items as last round and had to use a few due to Slaking getting hurt in several battles (but it never fainted). No major problems against the wild Pokémon, trainers or Brandon.

And I had 100 Lum Berries at the end. Last round, I had 98 in the bag, plus one that Houndoom was holding. But now I had 99 in the bag and Starmie was holding the last one. So I had to throw away one at the end of the round, guess that is what I will have to do from now on unless I get down to less than 100 during the round. Not that it matters, I have more than I will ever use anyway.
Round 66:

Trapping Abilities. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

Here, I had a scary battle against a Steelix. It got a QC activation on turn 1 and OHKO’d Houndoom with Earthquake. In with Salamence, the Steelix lived an EQ and used Iron Tail, it then got another QC activation and KO’d Salamence with Double-Edge. Out with Blissey. I use a Max Revive on Salamence, the Steelix used Explosion but Blissey lived with 51 HP left!

There was another trainer battle against a Gyarados. I didn’t want to risk it setting up with Dragon Dance (there was a 50% chance of it being a DD set), so I sacrificed Houndoom on turn 1 and sent in Salamence to KO.

Otherwise no issues. I had to use several items here, but I also found many good ones, so it all worked out. In addition to that, it felt like I had to battle a lot of wild Pokémon on floor 7, my light radius felt very big once I found the exit.

Round 67:

Ice-types. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey. Sorry Jojo! :Lapras: I hope you’re not too angry at me for missing out on all the fun.

On floor 3, the entrance was in the very northeast corner. Similar to what happened in round 63, with the same section, but with the entrance instead of the exit this time around.

Otherwise nothing worth noting from this round.

Round 68:

Self-destructing moves. Slaking/Gengar/Blissey.

Here, I found the exit very quickly on floors 2, 3 and 4.

Easy round on the whole, no problems against trainers or wild mons. I accidentally got into some multi battles, but they were easy. I also found many good items, and best of all, this round went fast!

Round 69:

Psychic-types. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Another round where nothing notable happened. It wasn’t quite as easy or fast as the previous one, but it still went very well.

Round 70:

Rock-types feat. Steelix and a Brandon battle. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

One trainer battle here was against a Snorlax, and it was a bit scary. I switched to Slaking, the Snorlax used Shadow Ball for zero damage. I used Hyper Beam but missed, the Snorlax used Belly Drum! Not good at all. Switch back to Starmie, Lax used ChestoRest. Surf, Shadow Ball MegaOHKO. Out with Slaking, Return for a KO.

During this round, I also had 99 Hyper Potions for the first time, but not at the end since I had to use one to heal along the way.

Otherwise nothing worth mentioning. All the wild Pokémon were easy, Starmie took care of all of them except for one Cradily which I used as healing fodder for Blissey. Brandon was easy as always.

Round 71:

Fighting-types. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

I made it to the fourth floor very quickly, and without having to face a single trainer! Then there were trainers around the entrance on the fourth floor. Had to face two of them in a Multi battle, in which Starmie fainted.

I got into several more trainer battles on the upper floors. One was against a Dewgong with Sheer Cold. It tried to hit Blissey three times, but missed with all of them.

Apart from that, this was a simple round. It was quick too, which is always appreciated. After this round, I had 99 Hyper Potions at the end.

Round 72:

Weather. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

One of those rounds where nothing notable happened.

I have cleared 504 floors in a row! On we go!

Round 73:

Bug-types. Salamence/Gengar/Blissey.

I found the exit very quickly on both floor 2 and 3. Then on floor 4, I started in the northwestern corner, and the exit was in the southwestern section, which meant I had to explore the entire floor in order to find it. But then I found the exit very quickly on both floor 6 and 7.

This was a very quick round where nothing notable really happened.

I also devised a new strategy for Hyper Potions. I try to keep 99 in my bag if possible, but if I find one more on the ground, I use one in my bag to heal the most damaged party member, then pick up the new one. If all of my party members are at full health, I just leave the new one on the ground.

Round 74:

Dark-types. Heracross/Starmie/Blissey.

Another quick and easy round, no notable happenings to speak of. I found the exit quickly on several floors.

Round 75:

Water-types and yet another Brandon fight. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Nothing notable here either. I beat all wild Pokémon, trainers and Brandon with ease. This round was also fairly quick, though not quite as quick as the previous two.

Round 76:

Ghost-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

On floor 4, there were trainers around the exit. I was forced to fight two of them in Single battles, one had a Quick Claw Wailord which was annoying. I couldn’t use Houndoom or Salamence since it had Surf, Earthquake and Ice Beam. I sent in Blissey, but it got defeated by a Fissure. Houndoom used Crunch and tanked a Surf, I sacrificed it and revived Blissey which managed to KO with Toxic and Seismic Toss, the Wailord didn’t hit with any more Fissures.

On floor 5, there were trainers around the entrance. I got into a Multi battle with two of them, they had Quagsire and Starmie. This battle was tough as they managed to defeat both Houndoom and Salamence, forcing me to use 2 Revives. I won the battle, but it was scary.

On floor 6, I found the exit but accidentally ran past it and got into a battle with a trainer. She had an Umbreon with Double Team, Toxic and Confuse Ray, which was annoying to beat. I sent in Blissey and hit it with Toxic after a few tries, then switched to Salamence which beat it with Aerial Ace alongside the Poison damage.

Overall, this round was both tough and slow. It took a while to complete, and I had to use several items, notably Revives. But I still had 27 left in my bag at the end of the round, so I should be fine.

Round 77:

Steel-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

This was another very slow-paced round. I got to face many trainers, and most of the trainer battles were either tricky or slow, I had to use Blissey to beat the opposing Pokémon in many of them. One was also a bit scary, it was against a Regirock. I decided to sacrifice Houndoom and use Crunch, only for it to miss due to Brightpowder. Salamence didn’t KO with Earthquake, but I beat the Regi with Blissey.

At least all of the wild Pokémon were easy to beat.

I had to use a lot of items during this round, but I found some really useful ones as well.

Round 78:

Dragon-types and dragon-like Pokémon. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

Unlike all the difficulties of the two previous rounds, this one was no problems at all. It was easy and quite quick too.

Round 79:

Elemental Evolutions. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Had one really annoying battle against a Ludicolo, set 4. But I managed to hit it with Blissey’s Toxic and it was an auto-win from there.

Otherwise an easy and mostly fast round too.

Round 80:

Great and powerful Normal-types with great and powerful Hyper Beams that hurt almost as hard as when one of your three girlfriends slaps you right into battle. And a final Brandon battle at the end. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

I found the exit almost immediately on both floor 3 and 4.

This was a quick round on the whole, reaching the top took me less than 15 minutes, which is very fast. The round took around 17 minutes in total, since the Brandon battle was quite slow as usual. But on the whole, this was a very fast and simple round, no problems against any of the wild Pokémon, trainers or Brandon.

I have cleared 560 floors, which means I have gone through all 20 rounds a total of four times! I should be done now… but I am not. Just one more round.

Round 81:

Back to the beginning one last time! Paralysis feat. level 30 Plusle/Minun and friends. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

Another easy round, not as fast though. I got into many trainer battles, but all of them were easy. I reached the top and stood on top of the Pyramid for the 81st time!

567 floors in a row! Also Archeops :Archeops: because why not? (It has a BST of 567 and is #567 in the National Dex).



I quit.

Items in my bag:
Hyper Potion x98
Ether x39
Sacred Ash x8
Leppa Berry x35
Max Revive x12
Lum Berry x99
Revive x30
Full Restore x14
Leftovers x3
Choice Band x8

I don’t have 99 Hyper Potions anymore as I had to use several after originally reaching 99. But 98 is good enough.
As long as the streak is ongoing, I can’t consider myself done with the Pyramid. But right now, I don’t have any motivation or reason to continue on it any longer. Maybe in the future, but I don’t know. I really don’t see how I could ever lose this streak. The only things that could make me lose would be extreme misplay, or the game system/cartridge failing. I don’t think I can lose to hax since I have enough potions and revives to outstall most opponents. If I were to continue, this streak might just go on forever. And as much as I love the Pyramid, playing through the last few rounds here felt a bit sluggish since I had basically already beaten my goal.

I have 2824 BP on Emerald right now, which I will probably never use for anything. And I have won a total of 4089 according to my Trainer Card.

I have obtained all seven Gold Symbols, I have tried every possible format that I can try at the seven Frontier facilities, so I should be done with the Frontier now. Right? The answer is still no, and it might always stay that way. Last time, I mentioned that I have unfinished business in two facilities. The Pyramid is one of them, the other is the Tower. While I have the Gold Symbol from the Tower, there’s still one challenge remaining, which is to win 100 battles in a row and get the Gold Shield. I have always thought of it as a secondary challenge in Emerald, with the main one being to get the Gold Symbols. I would also like to win 100 battles in a row at the Tower in R/S as well. So that’s a future project. Maybe I’ll get it done one day, we’ll have to see. But not right now.

Instead, I’m done with Emerald for the time being, but my Battle Facility project will continue. Next up, I will return to Platinum. I will try to beat the Battle Factory there as well, and then I have planned a thing for the Tower there too. So my next update will be in that thread. See you there!
 
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It has been almost a month, time for a new update. I have gone back to the Battle Pyramid one more time. Which will also be the last time… for now.

I cleared 31 more rounds, which means that my streak is now at 567 floors in a row, still ongoing.

Picture proof:
gKu6zM6.jpg


This means I have gone through all 20 different floors 4 times each, and one extra round afterwards.

I have previously explained my strategy and talked about the Pokémon and resources I use in this post. I used the same resources this time around, I also used my previous notes as reference when I played, they were very useful. Most of the Pokémon I use work well, the only real exception is Houndoom. It is excellent for dealing with the wild Pokémon in the rounds where I use it, but it isn’t all that great against trainers. I have thought about changing it for something else, or maybe having a different backup than Salamence to go along with it, but I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll give it some more serious thought if I were to return to the Pyramid again in the future.

There’s also one thing about the Pyramid which I don’t think I have mentioned before, and I’m not sure if it is common knowledge, but I thought I’d share it anyway. From what I have observed, that the trainers inside of the Pyramid can only look in one or two directions. Some trainers are standing completely still, only looking in one direction. Others can look in two directions, I have at least never seen a trainer look in more than two different directions. Either way, what this means that if you observe the trainers and take note of directions they look in, you might be able to sneak past them! It can be a useful technique for exploration.

Below is a short summary for every round I played through this time around. Which Pokémon I used, and notable things that happened (if any).
Round 51:

Fighting-types. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

Absolutely no problems whatsoever. I beat all wild Pokémon and trainers, also found some nice items. I had to use one Lum Berry since Salamence once got Poisoned from a wild Breloom’s Effect Spore. But that’s about it.

Round 52:

Weather. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

Three notable things happened here. Starmie once got defeated by a Metagross belonging to an opposing trainer, it used Shadow Ball for a KO. I sent in Slaking to revenge kill. Another trainer had an Electabuzz which put me in a scary situation. I switched to Slaking to tank a Thunderbolt, the Buzz was faster on the next turn and KO’d with Cross Chop. It has 105 base speed, while Slaking has 100, both with Neutral Natures and max EVs/IVs. I sent in Starmie, used Surf and got a Crit which was enough for a KO. That was really scary. The third thing was that a wild Flareon successfully used Protect 3 times in a row!

I made it through in the end, but it took a bit longer than the previous round.

Round 53:

Bug-types. Salamence/Gengar/Blissey.

No real problems, this went fast and was easier than the previous round. I encountered one wild Armaldo, which Salamence OHKO’d with Rock Slide. I met no wild Shedinja, sadly.

Round 54:

Dark-types. Heracross/Starmie/Blissey.

Heracross fainted twice here. First against a Trainer’s Gengar, it got a OHKO with Psychic, I should have realized that Heracross was slower. Second against a wild Umbreon which was at level 55. Megahorn missed twice in a row, letting it 3HKO with Shadow Ball + Psychic + Quick Attack.

I also had to use several Ethers during this round, Heracross kept running out of PP for Brick Break.

Round 55:

Water-types plus non-Water-type Brandon. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

On both floor 3 and 4, I found the exit almost immediately. It was normal on the other floors though. But no problems here, I took care of all the wild Pokémon and trainers. I used my usual strategy against Brandon, he was easy to beat as always.

Round 56:

Ghost-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

On the third floor, I was surrounded by trainers upon entry. There was no chance of avoiding any of them, and it led to my first Multi battle at the Pyramid this time around! The opponents were Gardevoir and Gengar, which were easy to beat, Blissey walled them and Houndoom could hit them hard with Crunch.

During this round, Salamence once got defeated by an Aerodactyl which belonged to an opposing trainer. It was fast, and CB Aerial Ace hurt a lot. I defeated it with Blissey afterwards.

Otherwise nothing special.

Round 57:

Steel-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

Many notable things happened here.

The first trainer I met had a CB Granbull which locked itself into Earthquake! Salamence auto-beat it afterwards.

On the 5th floor, I was surrounded by trainers again and got into another Multi battle. This time, it was against Typhlosion and Clefable, they were easy to beat.

On one floor, Houndoom got defeated a Walrein belonging to an opposing trainer, I sent out Salamence and KO’d with Brick Break.

I got into a really dumb situation on the 6th floor. There were trainers near the exit, I battled one of them and beat him easily. But he moved directly once the battle was over, which forced me to battle another of the trainers. She had a Dodrio which beat Houndoom, I let Salamence use Rock Slide but missed twice, Salamence also got Frozen by Tri Attack. I thought about using Blissey, but it was risky. Instead, I used a Full Restore and a Hyper Potion to heal Salamence and win. Then I had to fight a third trainer as well before I could advance to the final floor.

Speaking of which, the whole 7th floor was annoying. It had a completely open layout, which I have encountered before. It is really tricky since it makes it hard to see where you have previously explored. It also makes it very difficult to avoid trainers. Which is just what happened this time, I got into many trainer battles since I couldn’t spot the trainers, and there was no way to avoid them. One of them had another Dodrio, which OHKO’d Houndoom with Drill Peck. Salamence defeated it with Rock Slide afterwards, the first one hit this time around.

This round was quite tough, I had to use more items than I found. But I have 79 Hyper Potions, 23 Revives, 89 Lum Berries, and a lot of other good stuff in my bag, so I’m still holding on!

Round 58:

Dragon-types and dragon-like Pokémon. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

This round was completely free of problems, which was a nice change of pace from the previous round. Nothing notable really happened, and I found several items while I didn’t have to use a single one.

406 floors cleared! But I am not done yet…

Round 59:

Elemental Evolutions. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey

I found a lot of useful items during this round. I found several Hyper Potions, probably 5-6 on the first floor alone, then at least 2 more later on. I also found some Lum Berries. But I didn’t have to use a single item during the round.

The latter half of the round also went very quickly. I found the exit almost immediately on the four last floors!

Overall, this was an amazing round. It went fast, it was easy, and I increased my item stock by a fair bit.

Round 60:

Great and powerful Normal-types with Hyper Beams that seriously hurt. Plus a great and powerful Brandon battle featuring a Moltres with a Hyper Beam that will not hurt quite as much. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Starmie once got defeated by an opposing Salamence which used Dragon Dance and KO’d with Earthquake, but Slaking beat it with Return afterwards.

During this round, I had to use several Hyper Potions, some Ethers, and one Lum Berry, while I didn’t find as many items. It’s a good thing I found so many items during the last round.

Against Brandon, I tried a somewhat different strategy just for fun. I lead with Starmie, which 2HKO’d his Articuno with Thunderbolt as usual. I decided to let Starmie stay in against Zapdos just to see how much Ice Beam would do, but I got a Crit and an OHKO! I then missed with Surf against Moltres, Starmie tanked a Fire Blast and OHKO’d with Surf on the next turn. That was a way faster victory than usual.

Not the easiest round, but everything worked out in the end.

420 floors conquered! Which means I have beaten all 20 floors three times. How about climbing even higher from here? Onward!

Round 61:

Back to the beginning again, with the theme being various weak wild Pokémon that Salamence destroys with ease Paralysis. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

From here on, I decided to only write down the most notable things that happen, not every single time one of my party members faints.

Got into an idiotic situation against a Regice on floor 6. I switched to Blissey and got Frozen. Switched to Starmie to heal, then back to Blissey, only to get Paralyzed by Thunder! Then the Regice got a Crit with Blizzard, Blissey fainted. I sacrificed Starmie while using a Max Revive on Blissey, then beat the Regice with Blissey.

This round wasn’t the easiest and it cost me some items, but I made it through.

Round 62:

Poison. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

Easy round on the whole, no real problematic battles and I found a bunch of good items.

Round 63:

Burn. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

On both floor 3 and 6, the exit was in the very northeast part of the map, right at the edge. Never seen that before. It was this section both times:

SlMMI1y.png


No major issues during this round, I made it through safe and sound.

Round 64:

PP Stalling. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

Simple round on the whole. No notable battles, and I found several useful items, including a bunch of Leppa Berries. Though I also had to use a few, which isn’t surprising due to the theme of this round. During this round, I also reached 99 Lum Berries at the end. Really cool.

Round 65:

Pokémon with Levitate plus Brandon without Levitate. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

On floor 5, there were four trainers around the exit. But it was in the southwest corner, and due to the layout of the area, only two of the trainers were actually guarding the exit, while the other two were completely useless. Never seen that before.

On floor 7, I found the exit almost immediately, it was just a few steps away.

Otherwise easy. Didn’t find as many items as last round and had to use a few due to Slaking getting hurt in several battles (but it never fainted). No major problems against the wild Pokémon, trainers or Brandon.

And I had 100 Lum Berries at the end. Last round, I had 98 in the bag, plus one that Houndoom was holding. But now I had 99 in the bag and Starmie was holding the last one. So I had to throw away one at the end of the round, guess that is what I will have to do from now on unless I get down to less than 100 during the round. Not that it matters, I have more than I will ever use anyway.
Round 66:

Trapping Abilities. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

Here, I had a scary battle against a Steelix. It got a QC activation on turn 1 and OHKO’d Houndoom with Earthquake. In with Salamence, the Steelix lived an EQ and used Iron Tail, it then got another QC activation and KO’d Salamence with Double-Edge. Out with Blissey. I use a Max Revive on Salamence, the Steelix used Explosion but Blissey lived with 51 HP left!

There was another trainer battle against a Gyarados. I didn’t want to risk it setting up with Dragon Dance (there was a 50% chance of it being a DD set), so I sacrificed Houndoom on turn 1 and sent in Salamence to KO.

Otherwise no issues. I had to use several items here, but I also found many good ones, so it all worked out. In addition to that, it felt like I had to battle a lot of wild Pokémon on floor 7, my light radius felt very big once I found the exit.

Round 67:

Ice-types. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey. Sorry Jojo! :Lapras: I hope you’re not too angry at me for missing out on all the fun.

On floor 3, the entrance was in the very northeast corner. Similar to what happened in round 63, with the same section, but with the entrance instead of the exit this time around.

Otherwise nothing worth noting from this round.

Round 68:

Self-destructing moves. Slaking/Gengar/Blissey.

Here, I found the exit very quickly on floors 2, 3 and 4.

Easy round on the whole, no problems against trainers or wild mons. I accidentally got into some multi battles, but they were easy. I also found many good items, and best of all, this round went fast!

Round 69:

Psychic-types. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Another round where nothing notable happened. It wasn’t quite as easy or fast as the previous one, but it still went very well.

Round 70:

Rock-types feat. Steelix and a Brandon battle. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

One trainer battle here was against a Snorlax, and it was a bit scary. I switched to Slaking, the Snorlax used Shadow Ball for zero damage. I used Hyper Beam but missed, the Snorlax used Belly Drum! Not good at all. Switch back to Starmie, Lax used ChestoRest. Surf, Shadow Ball MegaOHKO. Out with Slaking, Return for a KO.

During this round, I also had 99 Hyper Potions for the first time, but not at the end since I had to use one to heal along the way.

Otherwise nothing worth mentioning. All the wild Pokémon were easy, Starmie took care of all of them except for one Cradily which I used as healing fodder for Blissey. Brandon was easy as always.

Round 71:

Fighting-types. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

I made it to the fourth floor very quickly, and without having to face a single trainer! Then there were trainers around the entrance on the fourth floor. Had to face two of them in a Multi battle, in which Starmie fainted.

I got into several more trainer battles on the upper floors. One was against a Dewgong with Sheer Cold. It tried to hit Blissey three times, but missed with all of them.

Apart from that, this was a simple round. It was quick too, which is always appreciated. After this round, I had 99 Hyper Potions at the end.

Round 72:

Weather. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

One of those rounds where nothing notable happened.

I have cleared 504 floors in a row! On we go!

Round 73:

Bug-types. Salamence/Gengar/Blissey.

I found the exit very quickly on both floor 2 and 3. Then on floor 4, I started in the northwestern corner, and the exit was in the southwestern section, which meant I had to explore the entire floor in order to find it. But then I found the exit very quickly on both floor 6 and 7.

This was a very quick round where nothing notable really happened.

I also devised a new strategy for Hyper Potions. I try to keep 99 in my bag if possible, but if I find one more on the ground, I use one in my bag to heal the most damaged party member, then pick up the new one. If all of my party members are at full health, I just leave the new one on the ground.

Round 74:

Dark-types. Heracross/Starmie/Blissey.

Another quick and easy round, no notable happenings to speak of. I found the exit quickly on several floors.

Round 75:

Water-types and yet another Brandon fight. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Nothing notable here either. I beat all wild Pokémon, trainers and Brandon with ease. This round was also fairly quick, though not quite as quick as the previous two.

Round 76:

Ghost-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

On floor 4, there were trainers around the exit. I was forced to fight two of them in Single battles, one had a Quick Claw Wailord which was annoying. I couldn’t use Houndoom or Salamence since it had Surf, Earthquake and Ice Beam. I sent in Blissey, but it got defeated by a Fissure. Houndoom used Crunch and tanked a Surf, I sacrificed it and revived Blissey which managed to KO with Toxic and Seismic Toss, the Wailord didn’t hit with any more Fissures.

On floor 5, there were trainers around the entrance. I got into a Multi battle with two of them, they had Quagsire and Starmie. This battle was tough as they managed to defeat both Houndoom and Salamence, forcing me to use 2 Revives. I won the battle, but it was scary.

On floor 6, I found the exit but accidentally ran past it and got into a battle with a trainer. She had an Umbreon with Double Team, Toxic and Confuse Ray, which was annoying to beat. I sent in Blissey and hit it with Toxic after a few tries, then switched to Salamence which beat it with Aerial Ace alongside the Poison damage.

Overall, this round was both tough and slow. It took a while to complete, and I had to use several items, notably Revives. But I still had 27 left in my bag at the end of the round, so I should be fine.

Round 77:

Steel-types. Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey.

This was another very slow-paced round. I got to face many trainers, and most of the trainer battles were either tricky or slow, I had to use Blissey to beat the opposing Pokémon in many of them. One was also a bit scary, it was against a Regirock. I decided to sacrifice Houndoom and use Crunch, only for it to miss due to Brightpowder. Salamence didn’t KO with Earthquake, but I beat the Regi with Blissey.

At least all of the wild Pokémon were easy to beat.

I had to use a lot of items during this round, but I found some really useful ones as well.

Round 78:

Dragon-types and dragon-like Pokémon. Starmie/Slaking/Blissey.

Unlike all the difficulties of the two previous rounds, this one was no problems at all. It was easy and quite quick too.

Round 79:

Elemental Evolutions. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

Had one really annoying battle against a Ludicolo, set 4. But I managed to hit it with Blissey’s Toxic and it was an auto-win from there.

Otherwise an easy and mostly fast round too.

Round 80:

Great and powerful Normal-types with great and powerful Hyper Beams that hurt almost as hard as when one of your three girlfriends slap you right into battle. And a final Brandon battle at the end. Slaking/Starmie/Blissey.

I found the exit almost immediately on both floor 3 and 4.

This was a quick round on the whole, reaching the top took me less than 15 minutes, which is very fast. The round took around 17 minutes in total, since the Brandon battle was quite slow as usual. But on the whole, this was a very fast and simple round, no problems against any of the wild Pokémon, trainers or Brandon.

I have cleared 560 floors, which means I have gone through all 20 rounds a total of four times! I should be done now… but I am not. Just one more round.

Round 81:

Back to the beginning one last time! Paralysis feat. level 30 Plusle/Minun and friends. Salamence/Starmie/Blissey.

Another easy round, not as fast though. I got into many trainer battles, but all of them were easy. I reached the top and stood on top of the Pyramid for the 81st time!

567 floors in a row! Also Archeops :Archeops: because why not? (It has a BST of 567 and is #567 in the National Dex).



I quit.

Items in my bag:
Hyper Potion x98
Ether x39
Sacred Ash x8
Leppa Berry x35
Max Revive x12
Lum Berry x99
Revive x30
Full Restore x14
Leftovers x3
Choice Band x8

I don’t have 99 Hyper Potions anymore as I had to use several after originally reaching 99. But 98 is good enough.
As long as the streak is ongoing, I can’t consider myself done with the Pyramid. But right now, I don’t have any motivation or reason to continue on it any longer. Maybe in the future, but I don’t know. I really don’t see how I could ever lose this streak. The only things that could make me lose would be extreme misplay, or the game system/cartridge failing. I don’t think I can lose to hax since I have enough potions and revives to outstall most opponents. If I were to continue, this streak might just go on forever. And as much as I love the Pyramid, playing through the last few rounds here felt a bit sluggish since I had basically already beaten my goal.

I have 2824 BP on Emerald right now, which I will probably never use for anything. And I have won a total of 4089 according to my Trainer Card.

I have obtained all seven Gold Symbols, I have tried every possible format that I can try at the seven Frontier facilities, so I should be done with the Frontier now. Right? The answer is still no, and it might always stay that way. Last time, I mentioned that I have unfinished business in two facilities. The Pyramid is one of them, the other is the Tower. While I have the Gold Symbol from the Tower, there’s still one challenge remaining, which is to win 100 battles in a row and get the Gold Shield. I have always thought of it as a secondary challenge in Emerald, with the main one being to get the Gold Symbols. I would also like to win 100 battles in a row at the Tower in R/S as well. So that’s a future project. Maybe I’ll get it done one day, we’ll have to see. But not right now.

Instead, I’m done with Emerald for the time being, but my Battle Facility project will continue. Next up, I will return to Platinum. I will try to beat the Battle Factory there as well, and then I have planned a thing for the Tower there too. So my next update will be in that thread. See you there!
Congratulations on such a streak!

Regarding your observations about the directions in which the NPCs tend to look, i totally agree. I've only seen those who stand still and those who shift, only do so in 2 different directions as you said.

I will use this opportunity to share another piece of information i observed myself about these trainers and forgot to mention in my own posts. I think it qualifies more as a little trivia than useful information that would aid in exploration if only for its rarity of occurrence (as i only stumbled upon it once in my over 1400 floors explored).

This one time i was walking towards the exit and upon standing on the blue tile, one trainer came to fight me so i had to beat her first before the game took me to the next floor. So its fair to assume trainer battles have priority over the exit when they intersect on the same tile.

My guess is that the game usually accounts for this and avoids placing the tile somewhere within its sub-section of the map where you could be seen by a trainer (also spawning in that section and therefore loading at the same time as the exit) upon stepping on it. But maybe this one time these 2 where from different sub-sections so the formula couldn’t avoid it as they were calculated separately.

If anyone had more information i'd like to know.
 

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I will use this opportunity to share another piece of information i observed myself about these trainers and forgot to mention in my own posts. I think it qualifies more as a little trivia than useful information that would aid in exploration if only for its rarity of occurrence (as i only stumbled upon it once in my over 1400 floors explored).

This one time i was walking towards the exit and upon standing on the blue tile, one trainer came to fight me so i had to beat her first before the game took me to the next floor. So its fair to assume trainer battles have priority over the exit when they intersect on the same tile.

My guess is that the game usually accounts for this and avoids placing the tile somewhere within its sub-section of the map where you could be seen by a trainer (also spawning in that section and therefore loading at the same time as the exit) upon stepping on it. But maybe this one time these 2 where from different sub-sections so the formula couldn’t avoid it as they were calculated separately.

If anyone had more information i'd like to know.

I've seen trainers step on the exit tile after being beaten and have also had the "battle priority" effect you describe happen. However trainers never seem to be generated on the same spot as the exit tile, and I can't recall ever seeing a trainer pass through the exit tile on their way to approach me (though based on the first part of this response I don't see why they couldn't).

I'd say the trainers and the exit tiles all have fixed positions and they're set up in a way that generally avoids this, but I think your theory is accurate.
 
I've seen trainers step on the exit tile after being beaten and have also had the "battle priority" effect you describe happen. However trainers never seem to be generated on the same spot as the exit tile, and I can't recall ever seeing a trainer pass through the exit tile on their way to approach me (though based on the first part of this response I don't see why they couldn't).

I'd say the trainers and the exit tiles all have fixed positions and they're set up in a way that generally avoids this, but I think your theory is accurate.
Oh yeah! I've also encountered some petty trainers that don't care about roaming over the tile once you beat them and force you to wait until they decide to move and stop blocking the exit xD.

I also haven't seen any of them spawn directly on the exit (and according to my theory that might be impossible) nor that instance of them crossing over it on their way to battle (and i agree with you there, i wouldn't be surprised if they could).

Very good points you made here, thank you.
 
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Congratulations on such a streak!

Regarding your observations about the directions in which the NPCs tend to look, i totally agree. I've only seen those who stand still and those who shift, only do so in 2 different directions as you said.

I will use this opportunity to share another piece of information i observed myself about these trainers and forgot to mention in my own posts. I think it qualifies more as a little trivia than useful information that would aid in exploration if only for its rarity of occurrence (as i only stumbled upon it once in my over 1400 floors explored).

This one time i was walking towards the exit and upon standing on the blue tile, one trainer came to fight me so i had to beat her first before the game took me to the next floor. So its fair to assume trainer battles have priority over the exit when they intersect on the same tile.

My guess is that the game usually accounts for this and avoids placing the tile somewhere within its sub-section of the map where you could be seen by a trainer (also spawning in that section and therefore loading at the same time as the exit) upon stepping on it. But maybe this one time these 2 where from different sub-sections so the formula couldn’t avoid it as they were calculated separately.

If anyone had more information i'd like to know.
Thank you so much!

I have also had a trainer battle happen as I stepped on the exit tile. It happened once when I was completing my Open Level streak last year, I posted a little about it back then, here's the photo again for reference:

qEixWxr.jpeg


I think you are right in that the game prioritizes the battle over exiting the floor in cases like this (since that is what happened to me as well).

As for trainers standing directly on the exit tile, I have never seen that happen, and I don't think it is possible either.
 
I recently reached a streak of 89 on level 50 in the battle palace! I built this team around Skarmory since it's able to handle just about any physical threat, and it has access to curse which is a great setup support move. I paired Skarmory with Latios since it's an amazing pokemon that complements Skarmory really well with it typing and special bulk, allowing it to switch in on fire or electric moves. I originally was using Latios as a lead, which worked pretty well, but eventually I realized that Latios was ideal to have in the back with Skarmory. After trying many other different leads, I eventually settled with sassy Slaking as a lead since it can fairly consistently kill whatever's in front of it.

Here's the team:

Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Sassy Nature
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam

Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 236 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Hardy Nature
- Drill Peck
- Steel Wing
- Substitute
- Curse

Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Substitute

The loss: I ended up losing to Registeel (5) that thunder waved my Slaking turn 1 after it was incapable of using its power. I switched into Skarmory in hopes of setting up and breaking through, but the Registeel set up double team and my entire team eventually got struggled to death. I was originally messing around with hidden power fighting on Skarmory, but the AI seems to have issues with correctly identifying the hidden power type in the palace, as Skarmory would randomly use hidden power when it made no sense and would not use it sometimes against things like Aggron. If Skarmory had aerial ace it would have eventually beaten Registeel, but then Skarmory is missing out on power it might need in other situations. It would also mean that Skarmory would opt for steel wing more often which is riskier since it can miss. Overall, I'm happy with this streak and I'll likely try to go further. Let me know if you have any suggestions to optimize any of these sets!

Proof:
 

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Today I topped my battle palace streak and reached 130 wins on emulator at level 50. This team was themed similar to the last one, using Latios and a steel type capable of taking on physical attackers. This time I was testing out Scizor since he also resists or takes neutral damage from most physical types. I looked into Forretress but he doesn't have any setup options like Skarmory or Scizor. By maxing out Scizor's phsical defense, he has similar bulk to Skarmory, although he no longer benefits from ground immunity or the sturdy ability. I ran a naughty nature on Scizor to allow him to setup with swords dance and substitute above 50% hp, while prioritizing attacking below 50%. The other major changes were that I decided to lead Latios and switch out Slaking for Suicune.

Here's the team:

Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Substitute

Scizor @ Leftovers
Ability: Swarm
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Naughty Nature
- Steel Wing
- Aerial Ace
- Swords Dance
- Substitute

Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 4 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest

The loss: Of all things I ended up losing to Salamence (4), who came out last against my Suicune. The Salamence set up dragon dance and eventually knocked out my Suicune who refused to ice beam. I sent in Latios who decided to spam substitute rather than ice beam and died to an aerial ace at 50%. Lastly, Scizor came in and fell to +2 earthquakes from mence. Here's where Skarmory would have been clutch because of the ground immunity which would allow it to completely wall mence. Adding Skarmory in this particular team, however, makes the back of my team weak to electric. It might be worth trying still since Skarmory is much more consistent into physical attackers.

Proof:
Battle Palace Streak 130.PNG
 
A video for my first ever Battle Factory Gold run! I actually got a streak of 49 and ill upload that entire VOD to Youtube at some point for proof! You can look at my twitch for VOD proof currently!


This was immensely enjoyable to watch (also you're far too cute). Nice work!!
 
Calling for feedback to all the lurkers out there who like my posts without uttering a word.

Playing around with the Multi team I've posted about a couple of times and am in the middle of a new streak atm. Passed 77 then broke my streak; slowly worked back up, so the goal is to hit 90. We'll see if that happens.

It's one of the most intricate teams I've used in a while, and every battle is a learning experience. Exploding right away is rarely the optimal move, since the three remaining members of the team aren't always perfectly suited to taking on the remaining two foes. That's the problem with this team in general, tbh - it has very little in the way of momentum. Sableye is too passive to take on two full-health foes alone, and Alakazam cannot be relied upon to sweep since it's so weak it struggles to weather even unresisted moves. And Poliwrath's niche is great but it, too, struggles to reliably finish a foe if it comes down to 1v1.

So I'm mulling over the possibility of something else in slot 2. Gardevoir was a bit underwhelming and Alakazam is strong, but I've actually been considering the merits of Slowbro. While one of the reasons I replaced Gardevoir was that it's too slow, Slowbro has a great niche in that it learns Flamethrower, which at full investment has a shot at OHKOing even Scizor4 (Careful with full HP/SDef) and of course has STAB on Surf so can deal with the many Rocks, Fires, and Steels that threaten Metagross.

:rs/slowbro: @ Lum Berry (Own Tempo)
Surf
Flamethrower
Ice Beam/Psychic
Counter
248 HP, 10 Defence, 252 Sp.Atk (Modest)

Psychic is tempting but Ice Beam is probably overall better to take out Dragons. I considered putting the extra EV in Speed since 96 is a speed tier shared by Steelix, Snorlax, and of course fellow Slowbro, but since Slowbro comfortably tanks Shadow Ball Counter is a great option to get the drop on Snorlax which it otherwise can't hope to KO.

Effective though Sableye definitely do be (Fake Out is a godsend) I'm wondering if there might not be a better Ghost option for the first slot. Sableye's merits are many and varied and I've detailed them in previous writeups, but its shortcomings are pretty hard to get past.
  1. It's dead weight against Steels and Gengar. Literally cannot do anything against Steelix, Scizor, Registeel, any of those guys - Toxic is obviously useless, and while it can theoretically draw them into a Struggle war many of them have ways to boost meaning they'll overwhelm it quickly if left unchecked.

  2. Even with no weaknesses it's still too frail, and will quickly be overwhelmed by foes if it's 2v1 (frustratingly common given Alakazam's frailty).
So... maybe Sableye has to go. If we need a Ghost to partner with Metagross, what could serve as a replacement lead?

:rs/dusclops:

Dusclops came to mind instantly as the best possible alternative to Sableye. It's bulky as hell, has a useful ability in Pressure, and learns a ton of great disruptive moves. With an Impish nature and an EV spread of 120 HP, 130 Defence, and 252 SDef Dusclops hits an impressive 253/360/359 which enables it to survive any move thrown at it. And here's one major advantage over Sableye - Dusclops gets Will-o-Wisp, which takes care of all the Steels and Poisons Sableye can't hit and cripples those annoying physical attackers.

Looking at Dusclops now, I'm like - why didn't I use this before? Its low HP isn't too much of a factor given that it gets Pain Split - why not do what I did with Sableye and factor in Protect and Leftovers for some extra recovery and PP drainage? And since I wanted a Destiny Bond user, Dusclops usefully learns that too!

Oh. The only problem is that Destiny Bond is illegal with Pain Split. Ah, early-gen breeding mechanics, aren't they great?

It's not the end of the world, though. We can work around this, surely. I feel like Destiny Bond is too useful to pass up... what are some useful alternatives to Pain Split? Rest? Curse? Disable? Torment? Substitute? Mud-Slap? All have their merits. There's even Helping Hand to nudge the power of Metagross' Explosion even further, should I fancy torturing myself by hunting down a decent Duskull from XD. Ultimately I feel like Substitute might be the best-placed move overall.

:rs/dusclops: @ Leftovers (Pressure)
Destiny Bond
Will-o-Wisp
Protect
Substitute
120 HP, 130 Defence, 252 SDef (Impish)

Not bad. But it's also not very forceful. Hmmm. Any other Ghosts that might work?

:rs/misdreavus:

Ah. Yes. Good old Misdreavus. Three immunities ain't to be sniffed at. And as the original Gen II Ghost, it gets all the funky moves I'm wanting - Destiny Bond and Pain Split without any breeding clash, and even Perish Song! Now THAT could be very handy. Imagine the sheer cheap brilliance of fainting both leads with Explosion and then setting off a Perish Song right away. How wickedly dirty.

It's incredibly glassy, though. Even with an Impish nature and full HP and Defence investment you wind up with a rather unimpressive 324/240/206 overall, giving Slaking3 a healthy chance to still OHKO with Shadow Ball. So Protect is mandatory, then. But even with that, you're slow and easily exploited.

Misdreavus also doesn't get Will-o-Wisp, leaving you stuck with Toxic as your sole way of bringing down bulky foes. Well, you're back to the Sableye problem there. Might as well stick with Sableye as overall I think it outclasses it.

Hmmm. With a Timid nature and full HP/Speed investment, you reach 295 Speed - enough to outrun a healthy percentage of the Frontier. The question is what you do if you're that fast - there's no point using Perish Song if Metagross blows up right after anyway. So you're probably better off investing in bulk. Misdreavus gets Screech, which could potentially tip some Steel and Rock foes into OHKO range from Explosion. And it gets Grudge, too... potentially quite useful. The problem there is that with Grudge, Destiny Bond, and Perish Song Misdreavus' whole strategy is to die. And that's not the most optimal way to go; Sableye can (and does) often live for a long while (and presumably so would Dusclops).

:rs/misdreavus: @ Leftovers (Levitate)
Destiny Bond
Pain Split
Protect
Perish Song
252 HP, 252 Defence, 6 SD (Impish)

It looks very nice on paper, but... I think it's probably out. Sorry, Misdreavus. You're still my favourite Ghost outside of this.

Mmmokay. Dusclops is looking like it might be the way to go. I'm not even going to seriously consider Banette (it gets WoW and Destiny Bond too, but has no other real advantage) and Gengar is totally unsuited to being a lead. Even glassier than Misdreavus overall and while it's fast and strong and gets all the mainstays (Destiny Bond, Will-o-Wisp, Perish Song, even Haze and Explosion) the thing is that it gets picked off so easily.

Even given its immunity to Metagross' Explosion, it's inevitably going to have to spend that first turn turn hiding behind Protect and then spamming Destiny Bond if it isn't attacking directly. Will-o-Wisp's accuracy is poor; Dusclops is bulky enough to get away with a missed turn, but you miss with Gengar and you die. Leftovers is just wasted on it. Brightpowder? Meh.

Yeah, I don't think Gengar is viable here. It looks so good on paper as well. Unboosted it's almost as fast as max Speed Misdreavus. But I think it has too many drawbacks. It might have served as a backup (honestly it has a lot to recommend it over Zam...) but as a lead I'm not sure what it'd be able to accomplish.

So am I right in thinking Dusclops is the way to go? Or should I play Sableye differently? Thoughts on Slowbro? Thoughts in general?!
 
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Hey all, been a while since I posted. But lately I've spent a bunch of time on improving one of my Frontier programs: Factory Assistant.

1692521242642.png


For those who don't know: the purpose of this program is to convert all opponent info, the draft, possible swaps you made, and the hints from the lab guy into a list of probabilities that you'll face any opponent during your next battle. For convenience, it also lists item and moves of the opponents to reduce the number of look-ups you have to do yourself (depending on your experience with the Frontier sets).

In this post I'll explain how Factory Assistant 6.0 works; first here's a short list of the most important updates from previous versions:

  • (v3) The program now received a huge speedup in "No Man's Land", i.e. from battle number 50 onwards. Previously it could take almost 8 minutes if you got a vague hint, such as "no type preference and free-spirited/unrestrained", which made it very annoying to actually use the program. Lookup table files were added for the largest classes and the search function works in a more clever way now. For most non-Noland battles, the maximum wait for info is around 10 seconds.
  • (v4) Instead of only having the options "don't know the set" and "I know exactly which set" in No Man's Land, you can now select the sets that are still possible if you defeat an opponent and can't completely know the set for sure yet (e.g. you only saw that your opponent Latios had Psychic). Sometimes you can deduce even more by looking closely at damage rolls. The more precise you are with giving the program info, the more you will get from it, obviously.
  • (v4) There is now a start message depending on which round you are going to play and how many swaps you made. It contains information about the IVs your draft will have, the number of elevations you get, and what their IVs are just in case you forget. It also tells you something about the AI, which changes rounds 3 and again from round 5 onwards.
  • (v5) The actual Speed of whatever opponents you might get is now listed after their 4th move. It takes into account the exact IV the next opponent has (3 for all opponents before the 7th in a round, 6 for 7th opponents that aren't Noland, 15 for Silver Noland and 31 for Gold Noland). Note that this assumes your Tower level 50 streak is 0, which is agreed to be the optimal way to play Factory.
  • (v5) Information about Noland battles is now implemented, but since there's basically nothing he couldn't have except your own team members (he can even have the same species or a Pokemon you just swapped out!), this info rarely helps; it's basically a large list of low probabilities especially in No Man's Land. Still, it can remind you of item clause sometimes by ruling out certain combinations after the lead, and seeing the sets + possible Speed stats in one screen can never hurt.
  • (v6) The option to list Species Odds was added, which is only relevant in No Man's Land. When only looking at the set odds, a player might overlook that a certain Species is almost certain of appearing for example. It's also enlightening to see the results for vague hints, e.g. on "no type + free-spirited" in No Man's Land, the Lati twins come out as the most common Species (Latios being slightly more common than Latias), but when it's "no type + hrhr" we see Regirock and Ursaring floating on top (if the player or the previous opponent don't use these species, obviously). Other Pokemon that are very common in almost any not-super-specific scenario are Gardevoir, Salamence and Snorlax since their sets are so versatile regarding the various hints. You can also skip the Species Odds anytime you like.


As you can see below, the (Python3) program is written for use in command-line, simply because I'm a worthless programmer and utterly incapable of making anything more beautiful. On a more serious note: when you get used to it, nothing works as fast or conveniently as this as long as you can type Pokemon names fast and correctly. I'll show 2 examples (with actual game info in the given round!), one before No Man's Land and one after:


Code:
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WELCOME TO FACTORY ASSISTANT!                                         v6.0, written by Actaeon
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What round are you currently in?

The round is simply 1 if you begin, 6 on the gold print attempt, etc. The next question is how many swaps, after which the program spits out some info for the entire round and asks for the info given on the first trainer (this is before you get to see your draft):

Code:
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WELCOME TO FACTORY ASSISTANT!                                         v6.0, written by Actaeon
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What round are you currently in?
5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How many times did you swap?
23
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Your draft has 2 elevations with 21 IVs. The rest of the draft has 15 IVs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The opponent AI is now at the highest level.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is opponent 1 skilled in any type? Otherwise, type 'no'.

It's important to type exactly what the program wants (I haven't implemented user-friendly stuff yet, such as error handling or crashes whenever you forget a Caps or a space or whatever). In the example, there was no type preference and the slow-and-steady hint. The draft mons have to be formatted as [Species][space][set No.]:

Code:
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Is opponent 1 skilled in any type? Otherwise, type 'no'.
no
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
100%|██████████████████████████████████████████████| 101206/101206 [00:00<00:00, 243288.60it/s]
Select the favorite battle style in the table below:
(1) Free-spirited and unrestrained
(2) One based on total preparation
(3) Slow and steady
(4) One of endurance
(5) High risk, high return
(6) Weakening the foe to start
(7) Impossible to predict
(8) Depend on the battle's flow
(9) Flexibly adaptable to the situation
3
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100%|█████████████████████████████████████████████████| 65265/65265 [00:00<00:00, 74644.93it/s]
Please input your draft, separated by enters and a space between names and set numbers.
Slowbro 3
Scizor 3
Tauros 2
Blissey 2
Dodrio 2
Aerodactyl 2

Based on this info, the program thinks a bit and puts together the first list of whatever you're going to see in the upcoming battle, which might already help in choosing the optimal first team:

Code:
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   Umbreon 2    0.2     Leftovers         Curse       Screech   Double Team   Double-Edge   71
   Claydol 2    0.3     Leftovers       Psychic    Earthquake   Double Team  Cosmic Power   81
   Shuckle 2    0.4     Leftovers     Sandstorm           Dig         Flash   Double Team   11
 Salamence 2    0.8     Leftovers   Double-Edge        Crunch       Swagger       Protect  127
   Altaria 2    1.0     Leftovers   Perish Song  DragonBreath       Pursuit       Attract   86
 Nidoqueen 2    1.1    Shell Bell   Double-Edge    Earthquake    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide   82
   Wailord 2    1.1  Chesto Berry   Double-Edge          Rest         Curse       Amnesia   66
 Ninetales 2    1.1     Lum Berry     Heat Wave     Body Slam        Grudge     Sunny Day  138
  Medicham 2    1.2   Salac Berry      Reversal        Endure       Psychic      Fake Out  118
Electabuzz 2    1.2     Leftovers       Thunder    Rain Dance       Attract   Focus Punch  132
    Raichu 2    1.3     Lum Berry   Thunderbolt      Reversal        Endure       Agility  148
   Starmie 2    1.3    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump       Thunder    Rain Dance       Recover  121
   Lanturn 2    1.3   Salac Berry         Flail        Endure   Thunderbolt          Surf   73
     Golem 2    1.3  Chesto Berry   Focus Punch    Substitute   Double Team          Rest   51
   Milotic 2    1.4    Focus Band          Surf      Ice Beam     Safeguard   Mirror Coat   87
 Blastoise 2    1.4    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump     Mega Kick   Brick Break   Mirror Coat   75
   Exploud 2    1.6    Focus Band     SolarBeam     Sunny Day    Earthquake       Counter   74
  Ludicolo 2    1.6    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   76
   Donphan 2    1.7    Quick Claw         Flail        Endure    Earthquake     Rock Tomb   96
    Rhydon 2    1.7    Quick Claw    Earthquake    Horn Drill    Rock Slide   Brick Break   46
 Charizard 2    1.7  BrightPowder    Earthquake    Aerial Ace  Dragon Dance   SmokeScreen  138
  Gyarados 2    1.7    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump   Thunderbolt    Fire Blast      Blizzard  119
  Nidoking 2    1.8    Shell Bell     Mega Kick    Earthquake   Shadow Ball   Brick Break   91
       Muk 2    1.8  Chesto Berry         Curse          Rest   Sludge Bomb  DynamicPunch   56
 Gardevoir 2    1.9  Chesto Berry       Psychic     Calm Mind   Double Team          Rest   86
    Espeon 2    1.9  Chesto Berry       Psychic   Shadow Ball     Calm Mind          Rest  148
   Steelix 2    1.9     Leftovers    Earthquake  DragonBreath     Sandstorm         Block   36
    Flygon 2    2.0  BrightPowder     SolarBeam    Fire Blast        Crunch     Sunny Day  138
  Arcanine 2    2.0     Lum Berry    Fire Blast     Sunny Day        Crunch          Roar  133
    Glalie 2    2.0   Salac Berry     Explosion        Endure     Body Slam      Icy Wind  118
   Kingdra 2    2.0  Chesto Berry          Surf      Ice Beam  DragonBreath          Rest   91
   Walrein 2    2.1    Focus Band    Earthquake      Ice Beam         Curse   Double Team   71
Feraligatr 2    2.1    Quick Claw          Surf   Dragon Claw   Brick Break    Scary Face   75
  Houndoom 2    2.1     Lum Berry    Fire Blast        Crunch          Roar          Rest  133
   Snorlax 2    2.2  Chesto Berry    Earthquake    Rock Slide         Curse          Rest   36
  Vaporeon 2    2.2    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam     Body Slam   Shadow Ball   71
    Lapras 2    2.3    Quick Claw          Surf      Ice Beam     Body Slam          Roar  107
  Whiscash 2    2.3    Shell Bell          Surf    Earthquake         Spark  Future Sight   66
  Clefable 2    2.3    Focus Band   Meteor Mash  Cosmic Power   Double Team     Follow Me   66
   Slaking 2    2.5     Leftovers     Mega Kick   Shadow Ball          Yawn       Amnesia  106
  Rapidash 2    2.5     Leftovers    Fire Blast        Bounce   Double Team       Attract  132
  Blaziken 2    2.8    Scope Lens    Blaze Kick     Mega Kick  ThunderPunch   Brick Break   86
   Machamp 2    2.8  Chesto Berry    Cross Chop    Earthquake       Bulk Up          Rest   61
   Armaldo 2    2.8    Quick Claw     Iron Tail  AncientPower   Brick Break     Knock Off   51
  Hariyama 2    2.9    Quick Claw    Cross Chop    Fire Punch     Ice Punch  ThunderPunch   50
 Manectric 2    3.0  Petaya Berry       Thunder    Rain Dance        Crunch          Roar  143
Typhlosion 2    3.0    Scope Lens  Flamethrower  ThunderPunch    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide  127
   Jolteon 2    3.1    Scope Lens   Thunderbolt           Dig   Double Kick          Roar  136
   Dugtrio 2    3.2   King's Rock    Earthquake  AncientPower    Aerial Ace    Tri Attack  158
   Marowak 2    3.2    Thick Club    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Swords Dance      Icy Wind   83
   Flareon 2    3.2    Quick Claw         Curse       Attract   Double-Edge   Shadow Ball   63
 Exeggutor 2    3.7  Chesto Berry        Return         Curse  Sleep Powder          Rest   61
   Miltank 2    3.9     Leftovers   Focus Punch   Shadow Ball       Attract  Thunder Wave  106
  Ampharos 2    3.9  BrightPowder  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   Focus Punch  Thunder Wave   61
 Vileplume 2    4.1  BrightPowder       Ingrain   Double Team         Toxic    Giga Drain   56
  Venusaur 2    4.1  BrightPowder    Leech Seed    Giga Drain   Double Team  Light Screen   86
  Quagsire 2    4.1     Leftovers         Curse       Attract          Yawn  AncientPower   36
    Aggron 2    4.2    Scope Lens   Focus Punch    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Thunder Wave   56
 Metagross 2    4.4     Lum Berry    Earthquake   Meteor Mash      Psych Up       Swagger   97
      Jynx 2    4.5  BrightPowder   Perish Song     Mean Look   Lovely Kiss       Protect  101
  Alakazam 2    4.7     Lum Berry       Psychic     Calm Mind  Thunder Wave       Recover  126
   Golduck 2    4.8     Lum Berry    Cross Chop          Surf       Swagger      Psych Up  112
   Breloom 2    4.9  BrightPowder    Giga Drain    Leech Seed   Focus Punch         Spore  108
  Porygon2 2    4.9     Lum Berry     SolarBeam     Sunny Day  Thunder Wave       Recover   66
  Sceptile 2    4.9     Lum Berry    Leaf Blade  ThunderPunch       Attract   Double Team  158
  Meganium 2    5.0     Leftovers    Leech Seed    Substitute   Double Team  GrassWhistle   86
Tentacruel 2    5.3     Leftovers         Toxic    Giga Drain   Confuse Ray          Surf  106
 Electrode 2    5.5  BrightPowder       Thunder    Rain Dance   Double Team       Swagger  146
   Shiftry 2    5.6  Chesto Berry    Leech Seed           Dig   Double Team          Rest   86
Kangaskhan 2    5.7     Lum Berry    Crush Claw   Shadow Ball       Attract          Rest   96
    Fearow 2    6.0    Focus Band    Drill Peck    Tri Attack       Attract       Pursuit  138
 Heracross 2    6.1     Lum Berry      Megahorn    Earthquake       Attract       Bulk Up  135
  Mr. Mime 2    6.3  Liechi Berry    Baton Pass       Swagger      Psych Up       Psychic   96
   Cradily 2    6.3  Sitrus Berry    Earthquake  AncientPower       Swagger      Psych Up   49
     Hypno 2    6.6  TwistedSpoon      Hypnosis     Nightmare   Dream Eater       Psychic   73
    Crobat 2    6.6     Leftovers         Toxic    Giga Drain   Confuse Ray   Double Team  136
Victreebel 2    6.7     Leftovers    Giga Drain   Sludge Bomb  Sleep Powder       Attract   76
   Dewgong 2    6.9    Shell Bell      Blizzard   Double-Edge        Encore       Disable   76
    Magmar 2    7.2    Quick Claw    Fire Blast   SmokeScreen  ThunderPunch   Confuse Ray  131
    Gengar 2    7.7     Leftovers   Sludge Bomb   Shadow Ball   Confuse Ray   Will-O-Wisp  148
  Dusclops 2    8.0     Leftovers         Toxic   Confuse Ray   Double Team       Protect   31
  Slowking 2    8.1    Shell Bell          Yawn  Thunder Wave          Surf       Psychic   36
      Xatu 2    9.0     Leftovers           Fly         Toxic   Confuse Ray       Attract  101
  Skarmory 2   10.0  BrightPowder        Spikes          Roar    Drill Peck         Toxic   76
Misdreavus 2   14.3     Leftovers       Psychic       Attract  Thunder Wave   Confuse Ray   91

Note that it puts the most probable opponents last, because these are important and will be visible without scrolling up in your terminal again. The numbers in the second row are percentages of appearance somewhere on the (remainder of the) opponent's team, e.g. Skarmory2 has 10% chance of appearing and Misdreavus2 has 14.3% chance of appearing. I've chosen to display only one decimal for readability, while still maintaining enough distinction. I took Tauros, Aerodactyl and Blissey and immediately faced the Misdreavus (a cool coincidence while making this write-up):

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please input your team selection from the draft.
Tauros 2
Aerodactyl 2
Blissey 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What species does your opponent lead with?
Misdreavus
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The program then immediately goes on printing the probabilities of 2nd and 3rd opponents (since Misdreavus 2 is guaranteed to be the set in round 5):

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Wailord 2    1.9  Chesto Berry   Double-Edge          Rest         Curse       Amnesia   66
      Jynx 2    2.1  BrightPowder   Perish Song     Mean Look   Lovely Kiss       Protect  101
     Golem 2    2.1  Chesto Berry   Focus Punch    Substitute   Double Team          Rest   51
 Ninetales 2    2.1     Lum Berry     Heat Wave     Body Slam        Grudge     Sunny Day  138
   Breloom 2    2.2  BrightPowder    Giga Drain    Leech Seed   Focus Punch         Spore  108
   Starmie 2    2.2    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump       Thunder    Rain Dance       Recover  121
   Flareon 2    2.2    Quick Claw         Curse       Attract   Double-Edge   Shadow Ball   63
   Lanturn 2    2.3   Salac Berry         Flail        Endure   Thunderbolt          Surf   73
  Medicham 2    2.3   Salac Berry      Reversal        Endure       Psychic      Fake Out  118
 Nidoqueen 2    2.3    Shell Bell   Double-Edge    Earthquake    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide   82
   Milotic 2    2.3    Focus Band          Surf      Ice Beam     Safeguard   Mirror Coat   87
    Raichu 2    2.4     Lum Berry   Thunderbolt      Reversal        Endure       Agility  148
 Blastoise 2    2.4    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump     Mega Kick   Brick Break   Mirror Coat   75
   Exploud 2    2.5    Focus Band     SolarBeam     Sunny Day    Earthquake       Counter   74
    Rhydon 2    2.5    Quick Claw    Earthquake    Horn Drill    Rock Slide   Brick Break   46
   Dewgong 2    2.5    Shell Bell      Blizzard   Double-Edge        Encore       Disable   76
   Donphan 2    2.5    Quick Claw         Flail        Endure    Earthquake     Rock Tomb   96
  Slowking 2    2.7    Shell Bell          Yawn  Thunder Wave          Surf       Psychic   36
  Ampharos 2    2.7  BrightPowder  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   Focus Punch  Thunder Wave   61
 Exeggutor 2    2.7  Chesto Berry        Return         Curse  Sleep Powder          Rest   61
   Golduck 2    2.7     Lum Berry    Cross Chop          Surf       Swagger      Psych Up  112
    Aggron 2    2.7    Scope Lens   Focus Punch    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Thunder Wave   56
  Ludicolo 2    2.8    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   76
   Kingdra 2    2.8  Chesto Berry          Surf      Ice Beam  DragonBreath          Rest   91
  Whiscash 2    2.9    Shell Bell          Surf    Earthquake         Spark  Future Sight   66
    Flygon 2    2.9  BrightPowder     SolarBeam    Fire Blast        Crunch     Sunny Day  138
   Walrein 2    2.9    Focus Band    Earthquake      Ice Beam         Curse   Double Team   71
Feraligatr 2    2.9    Quick Claw          Surf   Dragon Claw   Brick Break    Scary Face   75
    Lapras 2    3.0    Quick Claw          Surf      Ice Beam     Body Slam          Roar  107
 Metagross 2    3.0     Lum Berry    Earthquake   Meteor Mash      Psych Up       Swagger   97
    Glalie 2    3.1   Salac Berry     Explosion        Endure     Body Slam      Icy Wind  118
  Gyarados 2    3.1    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump   Thunderbolt    Fire Blast      Blizzard  119
  Arcanine 2    3.1     Lum Berry    Fire Blast     Sunny Day        Crunch          Roar  133
  Alakazam 2    3.1     Lum Berry       Psychic     Calm Mind  Thunder Wave       Recover  126
 Charizard 2    3.1  BrightPowder    Earthquake    Aerial Ace  Dragon Dance   SmokeScreen  138
  Nidoking 2    3.2    Shell Bell     Mega Kick    Earthquake   Shadow Ball   Brick Break   91
  Porygon2 2    3.2     Lum Berry     SolarBeam     Sunny Day  Thunder Wave       Recover   66
 Electrode 2    3.3  BrightPowder       Thunder    Rain Dance   Double Team       Swagger  146
 Gardevoir 2    3.3  Chesto Berry       Psychic     Calm Mind   Double Team          Rest   86
  Vaporeon 2    3.3    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam     Body Slam   Shadow Ball   71
    Espeon 2    3.3  Chesto Berry       Psychic   Shadow Ball     Calm Mind          Rest  148
  Sceptile 2    3.3     Lum Berry    Leaf Blade  ThunderPunch       Attract   Double Team  158
 Vileplume 2    3.4  BrightPowder       Ingrain   Double Team         Toxic    Giga Drain   56
   Shiftry 2    3.4  Chesto Berry    Leech Seed           Dig   Double Team          Rest   86
       Muk 2    3.4  Chesto Berry         Curse          Rest   Sludge Bomb  DynamicPunch   56
 Heracross 2    3.4     Lum Berry      Megahorn    Earthquake       Attract       Bulk Up  135
  Houndoom 2    3.4     Lum Berry    Fire Blast        Crunch          Roar          Rest  133
  Venusaur 2    3.4  BrightPowder    Leech Seed    Giga Drain   Double Team  Light Screen   86
   Snorlax 2    3.4  Chesto Berry    Earthquake    Rock Slide         Curse          Rest   36
Kangaskhan 2    3.5     Lum Berry    Crush Claw   Shadow Ball       Attract          Rest   96
   Machamp 2    3.5  Chesto Berry    Cross Chop    Earthquake       Bulk Up          Rest   61
  Blaziken 2    3.5    Scope Lens    Blaze Kick     Mega Kick  ThunderPunch   Brick Break   86
    Magmar 2    3.6    Quick Claw    Fire Blast   SmokeScreen  ThunderPunch   Confuse Ray  131
  Skarmory 2    3.6  BrightPowder        Spikes          Roar    Drill Peck         Toxic   76
  Clefable 2    3.6    Focus Band   Meteor Mash  Cosmic Power   Double Team     Follow Me   66
  Hariyama 2    3.6    Quick Claw    Cross Chop    Fire Punch     Ice Punch  ThunderPunch   50
   Armaldo 2    3.6    Quick Claw     Iron Tail  AncientPower   Brick Break     Knock Off   51
 Manectric 2    3.7  Petaya Berry       Thunder    Rain Dance        Crunch          Roar  143
   Cradily 2    3.7  Sitrus Berry    Earthquake  AncientPower       Swagger      Psych Up   49
    Fearow 2    3.8    Focus Band    Drill Peck    Tri Attack       Attract       Pursuit  138
  Mr. Mime 2    3.8  Liechi Berry    Baton Pass       Swagger      Psych Up       Psychic   96
     Hypno 2    3.8  TwistedSpoon      Hypnosis     Nightmare   Dream Eater       Psychic   73
Typhlosion 2    3.8    Scope Lens  Flamethrower  ThunderPunch    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide  127
   Dugtrio 2    3.9   King's Rock    Earthquake  AncientPower    Aerial Ace    Tri Attack  158
   Marowak 2    3.9    Thick Club    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Swords Dance      Icy Wind   83
   Jolteon 2    3.9    Scope Lens   Thunderbolt           Dig   Double Kick          Roar  136
Misdreavus 2  100.0     Leftovers       Psychic       Attract  Thunder Wave   Confuse Ray   91
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note that there are no Pokemon left with super high probabilities, because Misdreavus 2 alone already activates the hint. After sleeping the Misdreavus with Blissey and defeating it with Aerodactyl, the opponent sends out Hariyama:

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is your opponent's second Pokemon species?
Hariyama
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Dugtrio 2    1.9   King's Rock    Earthquake  AncientPower    Aerial Ace    Tri Attack  158
   Marowak 2    1.9    Thick Club    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Swords Dance      Icy Wind   83
    Fearow 2    1.9    Focus Band    Drill Peck    Tri Attack       Attract       Pursuit  138
      Jynx 2    1.9  BrightPowder   Perish Song     Mean Look   Lovely Kiss       Protect  101
  Mr. Mime 2    1.9  Liechi Berry    Baton Pass       Swagger      Psych Up       Psychic   96
   Lanturn 2    1.9   Salac Berry         Flail        Endure   Thunderbolt          Surf   73
  Skarmory 2    1.9  BrightPowder        Spikes          Roar    Drill Peck         Toxic   76
  Whiscash 2    1.9    Shell Bell          Surf    Earthquake         Spark  Future Sight   66
  Clefable 2    1.9    Focus Band   Meteor Mash  Cosmic Power   Double Team     Follow Me   66
    Raichu 2    1.9     Lum Berry   Thunderbolt      Reversal        Endure       Agility  148
   Dewgong 2    1.9    Shell Bell      Blizzard   Double-Edge        Encore       Disable   76
 Manectric 2    1.9  Petaya Berry       Thunder    Rain Dance        Crunch          Roar  143
 Vileplume 2    1.9  BrightPowder       Ingrain   Double Team         Toxic    Giga Drain   56
 Electrode 2    1.9  BrightPowder       Thunder    Rain Dance   Double Team       Swagger  146
   Exploud 2    1.9    Focus Band     SolarBeam     Sunny Day    Earthquake       Counter   74
   Shiftry 2    1.9  Chesto Berry    Leech Seed           Dig   Double Team          Rest   86
    Glalie 2    1.9   Salac Berry     Explosion        Endure     Body Slam      Icy Wind  118
  Ludicolo 2    1.9    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   76
     Hypno 2    1.9  TwistedSpoon      Hypnosis     Nightmare   Dream Eater       Psychic   73
     Golem 2    1.9  Chesto Berry   Focus Punch    Substitute   Double Team          Rest   51
  Alakazam 2    1.9     Lum Berry       Psychic     Calm Mind  Thunder Wave       Recover  126
Kangaskhan 2    1.9     Lum Berry    Crush Claw   Shadow Ball       Attract          Rest   96
  Slowking 2    1.9    Shell Bell          Yawn  Thunder Wave          Surf       Psychic   36
 Nidoqueen 2    1.9    Shell Bell   Double-Edge    Earthquake    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide   82
  Nidoking 2    1.9    Shell Bell     Mega Kick    Earthquake   Shadow Ball   Brick Break   91
   Cradily 2    1.9  Sitrus Berry    Earthquake  AncientPower       Swagger      Psych Up   49
   Golduck 2    1.9     Lum Berry    Cross Chop          Surf       Swagger      Psych Up  112
       Muk 2    1.9  Chesto Berry         Curse          Rest   Sludge Bomb  DynamicPunch   56
  Ampharos 2    1.9  BrightPowder  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   Focus Punch  Thunder Wave   61
  Houndoom 2    1.9     Lum Berry    Fire Blast        Crunch          Roar          Rest  133
   Wailord 2    1.9  Chesto Berry   Double-Edge          Rest         Curse       Amnesia   66
 Ninetales 2    1.9     Lum Berry     Heat Wave     Body Slam        Grudge     Sunny Day  138
  Porygon2 2    1.9     Lum Berry     SolarBeam     Sunny Day  Thunder Wave       Recover   66
 Gardevoir 2    1.9  Chesto Berry       Psychic     Calm Mind   Double Team          Rest   86
 Exeggutor 2    1.9  Chesto Berry        Return         Curse  Sleep Powder          Rest   61
   Starmie 2    1.9    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump       Thunder    Rain Dance       Recover  121
    Flygon 2    1.9  BrightPowder     SolarBeam    Fire Blast        Crunch     Sunny Day  138
  Venusaur 2    1.9  BrightPowder    Leech Seed    Giga Drain   Double Team  Light Screen   86
  Vaporeon 2    1.9    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam     Body Slam   Shadow Ball   71
   Jolteon 2    1.9    Scope Lens   Thunderbolt           Dig   Double Kick          Roar  136
    Espeon 2    1.9  Chesto Berry       Psychic   Shadow Ball     Calm Mind          Rest  148
 Blastoise 2    1.9    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump     Mega Kick   Brick Break   Mirror Coat   75
    Aggron 2    1.9    Scope Lens   Focus Punch    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Thunder Wave   56
   Walrein 2    1.9    Focus Band    Earthquake      Ice Beam         Curse   Double Team   71
  Sceptile 2    1.9     Lum Berry    Leaf Blade  ThunderPunch       Attract   Double Team  158
 Charizard 2    1.9  BrightPowder    Earthquake    Aerial Ace  Dragon Dance   SmokeScreen  138
Typhlosion 2    1.9    Scope Lens  Flamethrower  ThunderPunch    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide  127
  Gyarados 2    1.9    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump   Thunderbolt    Fire Blast      Blizzard  119
   Snorlax 2    1.9  Chesto Berry    Earthquake    Rock Slide         Curse          Rest   36
   Kingdra 2    1.9  Chesto Berry          Surf      Ice Beam  DragonBreath          Rest   91
   Milotic 2    1.9    Focus Band          Surf      Ice Beam     Safeguard   Mirror Coat   87
  Arcanine 2    1.9     Lum Berry    Fire Blast     Sunny Day        Crunch          Roar  133
 Metagross 2    1.9     Lum Berry    Earthquake   Meteor Mash      Psych Up       Swagger   97
Misdreavus 2  100.0     Leftovers       Psychic       Attract  Thunder Wave   Confuse Ray   91
  Hariyama 2  100.0    Quick Claw    Cross Chop    Fire Punch     Ice Punch  ThunderPunch   50
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aerodactyl beats the Hariyama with Choice-locked Aerial Ace, after which the final opponent Arcanine gets sent out; "gg".

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is your opponent's final Pokemon species?
Arcanine
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final opponent team info:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misdreavus 2  100.0     Leftovers       Psychic       Attract  Thunder Wave   Confuse Ray   91
  Hariyama 2  100.0    Quick Claw    Cross Chop    Fire Punch     Ice Punch  ThunderPunch   50
  Arcanine 2  100.0     Lum Berry    Fire Blast     Sunny Day        Crunch          Roar  133
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is opponent 2 skilled in any type? Otherwise, type 'no'.

We now get the second opponent, a Fire-type specialists with the "high risk, high return" style:

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is opponent 2 skilled in any type? Otherwise, type 'no'.
Fire
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
100%|██████████████████████████████████████████████| 101206/101206 [00:00<00:00, 253574.92it/s]
Select the favorite battle style in the table below:
(1) Free-spirited and unrestrained
(2) One based on total preparation
(3) Slow and steady
(4) One of endurance
(5) High risk, high return
(6) Weakening the foe to start
(7) Impossible to predict
(8) Depend on the battle's flow
(9) Flexibly adaptable to the situation
5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
100%|███████████████████████████████████████████████████| 2108/2108 [00:00<00:00, 47342.00it/s]
   Dugtrio 2    0.3   King's Rock    Earthquake  AncientPower    Aerial Ace    Tri Attack  158
   Marowak 2    0.3    Thick Club    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Swords Dance      Icy Wind   83
    Fearow 2    0.3    Focus Band    Drill Peck    Tri Attack       Attract       Pursuit  138
  Dusclops 2    0.3     Leftovers         Toxic   Confuse Ray   Double Team       Protect   31
  Mr. Mime 2    0.3  Liechi Berry    Baton Pass       Swagger      Psych Up       Psychic   96
  Skarmory 2    0.3  BrightPowder        Spikes          Roar    Drill Peck         Toxic   76
  Whiscash 2    0.3    Shell Bell          Surf    Earthquake         Spark  Future Sight   66
      Xatu 2    0.3     Leftovers           Fly         Toxic   Confuse Ray       Attract  101
 Vileplume 2    0.3  BrightPowder       Ingrain   Double Team         Toxic    Giga Drain   56
Victreebel 2    0.3     Leftovers    Giga Drain   Sludge Bomb  Sleep Powder       Attract   76
   Shiftry 2    0.3  Chesto Berry    Leech Seed           Dig   Double Team          Rest   86
  Ludicolo 2    0.3    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   76
     Hypno 2    0.3  TwistedSpoon      Hypnosis     Nightmare   Dream Eater       Psychic   73
   Slowbro 2    0.3     Leftovers          Surf      Ice Beam     Calm Mind          Yawn   36
  Slowking 2    0.3    Shell Bell          Yawn  Thunder Wave          Surf       Psychic   36
  Nidoking 2    0.3    Shell Bell     Mega Kick    Earthquake   Shadow Ball   Brick Break   91
   Cradily 2    0.3  Sitrus Berry    Earthquake  AncientPower       Swagger      Psych Up   49
    Gengar 2    0.3     Leftovers   Sludge Bomb   Shadow Ball   Confuse Ray   Will-O-Wisp  148
   Claydol 2    0.3     Leftovers       Psychic    Earthquake   Double Team  Cosmic Power   81
   Machamp 2    0.3  Chesto Berry    Cross Chop    Earthquake       Bulk Up          Rest   61
Tentacruel 2    0.3     Leftovers         Toxic    Giga Drain   Confuse Ray          Surf  106
 Gardevoir 2    0.3  Chesto Berry       Psychic     Calm Mind   Double Team          Rest   86
  Venusaur 2    0.3  BrightPowder    Leech Seed    Giga Drain   Double Team  Light Screen   86
  Vaporeon 2    0.3    Shell Bell          Surf      Ice Beam     Body Slam   Shadow Ball   71
   Jolteon 2    0.3    Scope Lens   Thunderbolt           Dig   Double Kick          Roar  136
    Espeon 2    0.3  Chesto Berry       Psychic   Shadow Ball     Calm Mind          Rest  148
    Crobat 2    0.3     Leftovers         Toxic    Giga Drain   Confuse Ray   Double Team  136
  Gyarados 2    0.3    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump   Thunderbolt    Fire Blast      Blizzard  119
   Kingdra 2    0.3  Chesto Berry          Surf      Ice Beam  DragonBreath          Rest   91
   Slaking 2    0.3     Leftovers     Mega Kick   Shadow Ball          Yawn       Amnesia  106
   Umbreon 2    0.7     Leftovers         Curse       Screech   Double Team   Double-Edge   71
    Raichu 2    1.4     Lum Berry   Thunderbolt      Reversal        Endure       Agility  148
    Rhydon 2    1.4    Quick Claw    Earthquake    Horn Drill    Rock Slide   Brick Break   46
Electabuzz 2    1.4     Leftovers       Thunder    Rain Dance       Attract   Focus Punch  132
   Donphan 2    1.4    Quick Claw         Flail        Endure    Earthquake     Rock Tomb   96
   Exploud 2    1.7    Focus Band     SolarBeam     Sunny Day    Earthquake       Counter   74
     Golem 2    1.7  Chesto Berry   Focus Punch    Substitute   Double Team          Rest   51
   Wailord 2    1.7  Chesto Berry   Double-Edge          Rest         Curse       Amnesia   66
   Breloom 2    2.4  BrightPowder    Giga Drain    Leech Seed   Focus Punch         Spore  108
   Altaria 2    2.4     Leftovers   Perish Song  DragonBreath       Pursuit       Attract   86
    Aggron 2    2.4    Scope Lens   Focus Punch    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Thunder Wave   56
 Salamence 2    2.4     Leftovers   Double-Edge        Crunch       Swagger       Protect  127
  Medicham 2    3.1   Salac Berry      Reversal        Endure       Psychic      Fake Out  118
      Jynx 2    3.1  BrightPowder   Perish Song     Mean Look   Lovely Kiss       Protect  101
    Dodrio 2    3.1   King's Rock    Drill Peck   Double-Edge  Faint Attack       Protect  138
   Miltank 2    3.1     Leftovers   Focus Punch   Shadow Ball       Attract  Thunder Wave  106
  Ampharos 2    3.1  BrightPowder  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   Focus Punch  Thunder Wave   61
   Lanturn 2    3.8   Salac Berry         Flail        Endure   Thunderbolt          Surf   73
   Dewgong 2    3.8    Shell Bell      Blizzard   Double-Edge        Encore       Disable   76
    Glalie 2    3.8   Salac Berry     Explosion        Endure     Body Slam      Icy Wind  118
 Nidoqueen 2    3.8    Shell Bell   Double-Edge    Earthquake    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide   82
 Blastoise 2    3.8    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump     Mega Kick   Brick Break   Mirror Coat   75
   Milotic 2    3.8    Focus Band          Surf      Ice Beam     Safeguard   Mirror Coat   87
Forretress 2    4.1     Lum Berry    Earthquake   Double-Edge       Counter       Protect   46
  Ursaring 2    4.5    Quick Claw   Double-Edge    Earthquake   Brick Break       Counter   61
  Swampert 2    4.5    Quick Claw          Surf    Earthquake       Counter   Mirror Coat   66
  Granbull 2    8.2    White Herb      Overheat   Thunderbolt     Ice Punch        Facade   45
   Weezing 2    8.2  Sitrus Berry       Memento   Sludge Bomb        Facade  Destiny Bond   66
    Magmar 2   10.3    Quick Claw    Fire Blast   SmokeScreen  ThunderPunch   Confuse Ray  131
  Houndoom 2   12.7     Lum Berry    Fire Blast        Crunch          Roar          Rest  133
 Charizard 2   17.8  BrightPowder    Earthquake    Aerial Ace  Dragon Dance   SmokeScreen  138
  Blaziken 2   19.5    Scope Lens    Blaze Kick     Mega Kick  ThunderPunch   Brick Break   86
  Rapidash 2   20.5     Leftovers    Fire Blast        Bounce   Double Team       Attract  132
Typhlosion 2   20.9    Scope Lens  Flamethrower  ThunderPunch    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide  127
   Flareon 2   47.9    Quick Claw         Curse       Attract   Double-Edge   Shadow Ball   63
 Ninetales 2   51.7     Lum Berry     Heat Wave     Body Slam        Grudge     Sunny Day  138
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before the battle, Factory Assistant wants to know whether we swapped or not. Even though I don't really need or want to swap here, let's take the Hariyama just to show how it works. Note that the team after swapping is shown just to confirm that your input was right.

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you swap? Then type [PlSpecies][Enter][OpPoke setNo]. Otherwise type [No][Enter][Enter].
Blissey
Hariyama 2
The current team is Tauros 2 Aerodactyl 2 Hariyama 2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First we see a Rapidash, which was indeed high on the list:

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What species does your opponent lead with?
Rapidash
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Raichu 2    1.7     Lum Berry   Thunderbolt      Reversal        Endure       Agility  148
   Exploud 2    1.7    Focus Band     SolarBeam     Sunny Day    Earthquake       Counter   74
     Golem 2    1.7  Chesto Berry   Focus Punch    Substitute   Double Team          Rest   51
    Rhydon 2    1.7    Quick Claw    Earthquake    Horn Drill    Rock Slide   Brick Break   46
   Donphan 2    1.7    Quick Claw         Flail        Endure    Earthquake     Rock Tomb   96
   Wailord 2    1.7  Chesto Berry   Double-Edge          Rest         Curse       Amnesia   66
  Medicham 2    3.3   Salac Berry      Reversal        Endure       Psychic      Fake Out  118
      Jynx 2    3.3  BrightPowder   Perish Song     Mean Look   Lovely Kiss       Protect  101
    Dodrio 2    3.3   King's Rock    Drill Peck   Double-Edge  Faint Attack       Protect  138
   Lanturn 2    3.3   Salac Berry         Flail        Endure   Thunderbolt          Surf   73
   Breloom 2    3.3  BrightPowder    Giga Drain    Leech Seed   Focus Punch         Spore  108
   Dewgong 2    3.3    Shell Bell      Blizzard   Double-Edge        Encore       Disable   76
    Glalie 2    3.3   Salac Berry     Explosion        Endure     Body Slam      Icy Wind  118
 Nidoqueen 2    3.3    Shell Bell   Double-Edge    Earthquake    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide   82
  Ampharos 2    3.3  BrightPowder  ThunderPunch    Fire Punch   Focus Punch  Thunder Wave   61
 Blastoise 2    3.3    Shell Bell    Hydro Pump     Mega Kick   Brick Break   Mirror Coat   75
    Aggron 2    3.3    Scope Lens   Focus Punch    Earthquake    Rock Slide  Thunder Wave   56
   Milotic 2    3.3    Focus Band          Surf      Ice Beam     Safeguard   Mirror Coat   87
    Magmar 2    5.0    Quick Claw    Fire Blast   SmokeScreen  ThunderPunch   Confuse Ray  131
  Houndoom 2    6.7     Lum Berry    Fire Blast        Crunch          Roar          Rest  133
Forretress 2    8.3     Lum Berry    Earthquake   Double-Edge       Counter       Protect   46
  Ursaring 2    8.3    Quick Claw   Double-Edge    Earthquake   Brick Break       Counter   61
  Blaziken 2    8.3    Scope Lens    Blaze Kick     Mega Kick  ThunderPunch   Brick Break   86
 Charizard 2    8.3  BrightPowder    Earthquake    Aerial Ace  Dragon Dance   SmokeScreen  138
Typhlosion 2    8.3    Scope Lens  Flamethrower  ThunderPunch    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide  127
  Swampert 2    8.3    Quick Claw          Surf    Earthquake       Counter   Mirror Coat   66
  Granbull 2   11.7    White Herb      Overheat   Thunderbolt     Ice Punch        Facade   45
   Weezing 2   11.7  Sitrus Berry       Memento   Sludge Bomb        Facade  Destiny Bond   66
   Flareon 2   30.0    Quick Claw         Curse       Attract   Double-Edge   Shadow Ball   63
 Ninetales 2   35.0     Lum Berry     Heat Wave     Body Slam        Grudge     Sunny Day  138
  Rapidash 2  100.0     Leftovers    Fire Blast        Bounce   Double Team       Attract  132
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After beating Rapidash with Tauros, Forretress is sent out, and we see that Magmar, Flareon, Blaziken, Charizard and Typhlosion are equally likely to be the last Pokemon:

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is your opponent's second Pokemon species?
Forretress
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Magmar 2   20.0    Quick Claw    Fire Blast   SmokeScreen  ThunderPunch   Confuse Ray  131
   Flareon 2   20.0    Quick Claw         Curse       Attract   Double-Edge   Shadow Ball   63
  Blaziken 2   20.0    Scope Lens    Blaze Kick     Mega Kick  ThunderPunch   Brick Break   86
 Charizard 2   20.0  BrightPowder    Earthquake    Aerial Ace  Dragon Dance   SmokeScreen  138
Typhlosion 2   20.0    Scope Lens  Flamethrower  ThunderPunch    Aerial Ace    Rock Slide  127
Forretress 2  100.0     Lum Berry    Earthquake   Double-Edge       Counter       Protect   46
  Rapidash 2  100.0     Leftovers    Fire Blast        Bounce   Double Team       Attract  132
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And it turns out to be Charizard:

Code:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is your opponent's final Pokemon species?
Charizard
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final opponent team info:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forretress 2  100.0     Lum Berry    Earthquake   Double-Edge       Counter       Protect   46
  Rapidash 2  100.0     Leftovers    Fire Blast        Bounce   Double Team       Attract  132
 Charizard 2  100.0  BrightPowder    Earthquake    Aerial Ace  Dragon Dance   SmokeScreen  138
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is opponent 3 skilled in any type? Otherwise, type 'no'.

Will continue this guide (and show the No Man's Land stuff + share everything you need to use this) in the next post, thanks for reading!
 
Continuing on the Battle Factory Train, I'd like to submit my 2nd all time run of 104 Wins in Level 50 Singles Battle Factory!!!



I did not keep track of what happened from Rounds 1-5 as I find them rather unimportant, but did keep an EXTENSIVE battle log from Rounds 6-15, getting more extensive as it goes, because the intensity kept rising! The arrows above each Spoiler signifiy a swap! So for example Round 6 I swapped Feraligatr for Heracross! If you don't know what Heracross3 means for example, use this resource and look at the set under the calc! http://turskain.github.io/

Before you even begin to sift through the logs, I want to let everyone know this is truly the most fun I've had purely PLAYING Pokemon, ever. Other Gen 3 things I've dived into or things I've done on stream, I've loved because of the hype of the community and interacting with other people and everything, but I've never felt such a 1 on 1 challenge as I have getting this streak in the battle factory. It's an amazing experience with the right resources, and I'm very thankful. I'd also like to shoutout Wildcat Formation for the tips and tricks in factory, they were very valuable when discussing draft ideas or play ideas, as well as Actaeon for giving me some live factory assistant usage for the first 4 battles of Round 15. An unfortunate ending, but I wont stop here! What a grind this was.
:rs/Gengar: / :rs/Nidoqueen: / :rs/Feraligatr: -> :rs/Heracross:
Round 6 Draft Nidoqueen4, Gengar4, Stoise3, MrMime3, Feraligatr3, Glalie3

Reasoning: I really wanted to take Stoise3 with nido+gengar, but I wanted Crunch on gatr for Slowking, Slowbro, Xatu, psychics in general. Awkward draft!

Battle 1, Gengar came in to Heracross3, KO'd, switch stalled Jynx3, then Nidoqueen finished off Ludi3!

Battle 2 Feraligatr3->Heracross3(the goat) Takes care of the Psychics I wanted Gatr to, even with its Psychic weakness it outpaces most and kills!

Nidoqueen4 1v1's Dusclops3 at the start, Quick Claw Slowbro3 takes out Nido, but thankfully we have Hera! We take it out, and then a Fearow3 revenges us. Gengar4 vs Fearow3! Gengar outpaces and wins!

Battle 3 Of course MrMime3 of all things pops up, its a perfect speedtie here between lead Nidoqueen4. We get the speedtie and the 68.8% roll! I go to Gengar4 on Kang3(totally wall it), kill it and then Fire Punch the Forre in the back!

Battle 4 Info is Grass Type and Depends on Battles Flow, Shiftry3, Ludi3, or Cradily3 extremely likely. Lead Granbul vs Nidoqueen, even though Superpower has a chance to kill thanks to White Herb on Intimidate, I go Gengar due to Nidoqueens better matchup vs the Grass types in the back as well as likely earthquake. I Ice Punch to go for freeze because Psychic always kills after, Gran clicks sludge bomb then gets quick claw rock slide flinch, I finish it off with Psychic. Ludi comes in, I chip it with Psychic, then go out into Nidoqueen and after some misses, land a Sludge Bomb and kill it!(with a crit that barely mattered) and Shiftry in the back DROPS

Battle5 Nidoqueen leads into Electrode, not sure if it is likely to boom but im not risking it and click eq t1 as it endures, I then pivot out to Gengar turn 2 knowing it will explode on nidoqueen after the low health and leichi boost! a Gardevoir then comes in and I destiny bond it! 2v1! Nidoqueen finishes off a wailord with sludge bomb into eq, phew!

Battle 6 Normal Type, High Risk High Return.

Nidoqueen beats Fearow t1 with a Sludge Bomb Poison! Blaziken then comes out, activating the high risk by itself with Reversal+Overheat. Thinking about the Normals in the back, I decide my best bet is to go Gengar which immune to EQ, lives Overheat, etc. They click eq, so I ice punch to not allow it to Endure Salac, then I destiny bond and we both die to overheat. Nidoqueen then comes in to 1v1 a Porygon2 in the back!

Battle7 Noland Time!

Lead Nidoqueen into Glalie, I decide to Switch in hera as it outpaces and eats anything, Hera eats a Blizzard then gets the 93.8%OHKO chance with Brick break. Walrein comes in and gets a quick claw Surf, super unfortunate (I feel like I'm playing Glacia) Now I need to decide if I am going to try and Destiny Bond it with Gengar, or go Nidoqueen and Superpower it twice hoping for no sheer cold hit OR quick claw Surf. Because 2 mons is always better than one, I go for Nidoqueen double superpower. Stupid walrein goes for Fissure and misses, and its 2v1! Venusaur is in the back, I eq with Nidoqueen, finish off with Psychic Gar, the gold is mine!
:rs/Granbull: / :rs/Latias: / :rs/Electabuzz: -> :rs/Gyarados:
Round 7 Draft: Meganium4, Latias2, Fearow4, Shuckle4, Electabuzz4, Granbull4

Draft Reasoning: Latias and Granbull are my highest octane mons obviously, thought about taking Shuckle over Buzz for a while because I think the Toxic+Double Team+Rest set is SUPER nasty, but when I have max IV's and my opponets dont, I figured that electabuzz's coverage will reign supreme

Battle 1: Forgot what the aide said, but Lead Granbul 1v1's Aero4, but took 2 fire blasts. Locked into Shadowball, I chip a Quagsire that Latias finishes off, its 2v1 Lati and Buzz! Lati 1v1's Slowbro in the back

Battle 2 Flying Type+High Risk High Return. Lead Granbul vs Lead Flareon, thankfully they click sunny day and I kill with band EQ. Flareon activates the High risk by itself, Altaria comes in. I know there is a Flying Type in the back that isn't Charizard or Mence or Dragonite. Latias comes in on flamethrower and I kill with Ice Beam. Tbolt the Gyara in the back GG

Battle 3 Electabuzz4->Gyarados4 really tough swap whether to go Granbull or Buzz, but I like Granbulls intimidate at lead and ability to 1v1 a lot. Lead Granbul into Doom, overheat can kill so I go Gyara to resist. Thankfully Granbull took away Doom's White Herb with Intim at lead anyway! Gyarados set up two DD's then swept Doom, Quag, Victrebel

Battle 4 Water Trainer, high risk high return. Granbul kills lead Lanturn, takes a chunk from Surf. Thinking about what can activate high risk high return in the back, but thankful lanturn in the back isn't surprising Lati and Gyara! Wailord comes in, and I use it as an oppourtunity to set up Gyarados to +2 +2, dont want to risk Ice Beam freezes and I take out Wailord then 1v1 DD mence in the back with Frust, Frust, scary!

Battle 5 Ground Type, high risk high return.

Lead Granbul into Claydol4. Unlucky focus band activation means Granbul trades with Claydol. Figuring the sort of mons that might be in the back, I decide to go Gyarados to hopefully set up on something. They go Dugtrio, so I switch to Latias to eat Rock Slide+Double Edge, I figure my Gyarados can 1v1 stuff better and get off an extra intim if needed for the 2v1. Its fucking Snorlax in the back. Latias clicks Psychic, lax finishes off Lati with double edge, and then its gyara vs Lax. I figure my best chance is to spam Frustration. I use frust as they curse, i frust again and barely dont kill as they curse again, only way I lose is a 25% roll on a quick claw double edge, they get the quick claw but click curse again and I win with Frustration the 3rd time! PHEW

Battle 6 Considered trading Granbul for Snorlax to give me that nice special bulk, but with no leftovers I decided I liked Granbulls immediate power+intimidate in the lead position, as well as access to earthquake

Granbul leads into Walrein. Thank god I hit Mega Kick but take a huge chunk from Ice Beam, a common theme for granbull here. Metagross comes in, i sac Granbull and bring out Gyarados to 1v1. Here I am deciding if I want to set up two Dragon Dances and then Rest into Earthquake, or just Earthquake twice. Metagross has 47% chance to kill me with 3 psychics, I am somewhat scared of SpDef drops and Quick Claw Activations. I go for the DD twice into rest sequence and succeed! Blaziken dies to EQ in the back and we are off to Battle 7!

Battle7 No Type, Depends on the Battles Flow. A rare one for Round 7, clues me in to a couple of mons. Vileplume, Ludi, Houndoom, Venusaur, Flareon, are the weather mons in Round 7, and notable because there is no common type there is unlikely Doom+Flareon or Vileplume+Ludi/Venusaur. Likely a grass and fire weather mon, annoyingly all benefiting from sun except Ludicolo. Mainly deciding here if I want to get rid of Granbul for Metagross/Walrein/Blaziken. Walrein and Blaziken both match up generally well vs these mons. First leaned Blaziken, but its slower than Venu, gets chunked by Doom, etc. I think Walrein, with Thick Fat, is the play here!.

Lead Walrein into Venusaur, the one weather mon I didn't want to face as Ice Beam only has an 18% chance to kill, and Venusaur can Sunny Day into Solar Beam me! I decide to go Latias on the Sunny Day or Solar Beam charge as Walrein has such a great matchup vs one of the mons in the back. Venusaur start storing sunlight, I decide to Tbolt so as to not have Psychic put into Overgrow range, and then Psychic afterwards Psychic is hilariously only a 43% chance to kill. I kill Venusaur, then kill a terrible Xatu in the back, out comes Houndoom, which I live its Crunch and kill with Earthquake, amazing!
:rs/Raikou: / :rs/Regirock: -> :rs/Metagross: / :rs/Blissey: -> :rs/Salamence: -> :rs/Aerodactyl: -> :rs/Heracross:
Round 8 Draft Regirock2, Raikou1, Ninetales4, Magmar3, Tentacruel1, Blissey3

Draft Reasoning. Regirock2 and Raikou1 are the clear best mons, although my ground weakness is crippling here. Both also have randomized IV's and while they aren't 31's across the board, they are pretty good! Blissey is my best out vs Grounds and Grasses, considered Ninetales for grasses and wisping physical threats but, yeah, blissey please.

Battle 1 Psychic Type, no specific.

Lead Raikou into Lead Porygon-2. In Round 8, all opposing Pokemon can be one of 4 sets, so super scary! Because I 2hko all porygon2s, I'm going to tbolt first to see if I can set up on a non Tri Attack set. I tbolt t1 and they Ice Beam, reveal themselves to be Porygon4 with the 252+ damage. Thinking if I should CM with Raik, or go Blissey and set up +6 +6. I switch to blissey. I get to +6, and kill Porygon, but not before it unfortunately leaves me Paralyzed and Crit Ice beam before it died. I miss Fire Blast as Metagross Meteor mashes into earthquake. Still have very little clue what this meta is at this point, but my play remains the same, go to regirock and click counter. Out comes Mr Mime thank god LOL. Regirock lives Fake Out into Psychic and kills with boom. Way too close

Battle 2 Poison Type, free spirited

Swaps Regirock2-> Metagross8
I thought about this for a while, but ultimately decided that whether I got Metagross3 or Metagross 8, steel type was better than rock, and double team rest could be deadly. I got lucky and it is Metagross 8 with Explosion!

Raikou Leads into Tentacruel, the Mirror Coat variants dont live thunderbolt, easy click. Turns out to be the one Tentacruel, Tentacruel2, that has a chance to live, a 31% chance to live, and they got it and fired off surf. Tempted to Calm Mind here. I play it safe and just Thunderbolt. Right decision as Nidoking is in the back. Tough choice here whether I just sac Raikou, or keep it in the back and go Blissey and try to 1v1 it. I elect for Blissey so if I beat it 1v1 I can boom with metagross and win. Nidoking clicks eq, revealing itself to be 2 or 4. Probably not 2 now as it would have clicked brick break as it does a littttle bit more damage I believe. Softboiled once, now I will fire blast just in case I need to hit and meta needs the roll on Nidoking2. I was right it was Nidoking 4. I live anything now so I will Blizzard. Miss Blizzard but Metagross revenges. Now its 2v1 although Raikou is low. It's Salamence in the back! I've gotta boom. No salamence set kills me without a crit.

Battle 3 Water Type, High Risk, High Return

Blissey3->Salamence1

Heavily considering bringing on Salamence here, even though its the terrible Salamence1, it does give my team a Ground switchin and Intimidate. after a VERY LONG CONSIDERATION! I go Blissey3->Salamence1 in the back. Lets go. Nightmare scenario, Lead Raikou into Lead Quagsire UGH. I do know that after this it cant be another Water Ground in the back unless its Swampert/Whiscash plus ANOTHER water type. Extremely unlikely. This is likely to be Quagsire1 because it has Counter, which matches high risk high return. So I am pivoting into my Salamence here, Reveals earthquake which takes away the possibility of Quagsire 2, the yawn ancient power one. 33% chance to have Ice Beam here, not sure if its worth scouting it. Quagsire 1 and 3 do jackshit to me, but I'm still going to go Metagross to scout Ice Beam, and if it has Ice Beam, I can go back into Mence, dclaw it, then eq twice with metagross, click boom on 2nd mon, and hopefully clean with Raikou. Anyway, it reveals Curse as I switch to Metagross, I switch back to Salamence knowing its Quagsire3, as it curses again. Now I spam DClaw. Clicks Double edge twice as I dclaw twice, we both die at the same time. I'm going to go Metagross here just in case its another Water Ground in the back, and for the non water type. It's aerodacty! Very likely to have activated one part of the high risk high return mantra, 3 out of 4 sets have a high risk high return move. Because this could be band earthquake, I can't risk missing Meteor Mash, and have to boom here. Turns out it was band aero, no crits, Raikou vs last mon!!! Its the evil DEWGONG. No set lives my thunderbolt, no brightpowder no quick claw, raikou finishes the deal

Batte 4 No Type, No info
Salamence1->Aerodactyl2

Still gives me a Ground Immunity, although now we do actual damage with band aerodactyl! Still handles Heracross unless Heracross4. Also still a fire resist

Lead Raikou vs lead hera LOL what are the odds. I am going to switch to Aero as I brought aero for this reason. If its endure salac reversal I lose the game so I lose this streak 25% of the time, am mega considering just staying in with Raikou and tbolting. However, 50% of the heras kill me, and the one im scared of would get Salac activated anyway. I could thunderwave, but decide to go to Aero as hera clicks eq. I click aerial ace and Heracross didn't endure! WOOHOO! Rapidash comes in, I'm only afraid of like Rapidash 3 with Hypnosis, imma stay in and click aerial ace. Reveals rapidash 1 so I am extra safe to Aerial ace. Gardevoir in the back, cant let any double team sets gain traction, im clicking aerial ace. Gardevoir takes out Aero with Psychic, and I kill it with Metagross! NICE

Battle 5: No Type, High Risk, High Return

Really thinking about if I want to switch my Aerodactyl for Heracross. Heracross is a ground resist, and threatens a lot of them, however I am not sure what Heracross I would be recieiving, could be 2,3,4. and Heracross2 with Bulk Up Attract is pretty bad. I swapped

Aerodactyl2->Heracross2...fuck

Lead Raikou into Lead Miltank. Bummed it was the unlucky Heracross2. Anyway, because High Risk high Return, this miltank is most likely to be Miltank 1 with Facade and Counter, which meets the requirement for high risk high return. I tbolt t1, and it Twaves! Wow its Miltank2, and now I'm in a predicament. I could go Heracross here and Attract it and Set up some Bulk Up's, or I could stay in with Raikou and attempt to hit through paralysis and kill it. I decide to stay in as Miltank shadowballs, gets a SpDef drop, but I drop it with Thunderbolt. In comes Wailord. Most likely to be Wailord2, 3, or 4. I should probably go for Thunderbolt, but maybe I rest up and then Thunderbolt? This could be Amnesia Wailord. I clicked Rest as they Surfed, means either Wailord1 or Wailord4, more likely to be 4. Which is scary as this gives quick claw Fissure potential. I click Thunderbolt and BARELY dont kill WOW. It was Wailord1 !!!!! And I had a 81% chance to kill, argh! I could Calm Mind on this Wailord as its very bad. But decide to play it safe and tbolt in case a crit. It got an Icy Wind off. Now its Raikou vs Gengar. I kill most of the gars with tbolt, its tbolt time! IT BARELY LIVES. Now, I almost make a misplay and stay in with Raikou and sack it. BUT NO! I outpace Gengar when I'm not at -1 speed, so I will sack metagross instead! Meta comes in on tbolt, and I get a quick claw mash to finish off the gar!

Battle 6: Psychic Type, High Risk High Return.

GOD I really wanted to go Gengar here, as its guarnateed to be a cool fast one with Psychic/Thunderolt/Coverage moves

Lead Raikou into Hypno, safest play is always CM, turns out to be the evil physical hypno, I CM, into Thunderbolt, into rest, into Thunderbolt. Hypno hits all 3 mega kicks in this sequence and I am left with a +1 +1 Raikou at half health! Next is Typhlosion. Pretty much has to be 3 or 4 since they both have Overheat. Most likely 3 as it has reversal as well, which is really scary! I could totally lose to this Typhlosion clicking endure, but I dont have time to outplay it TBH. Maybe I do. I could theoretically Thunderwave with Raikou, and then I can clean up with Metagross clicking eq, then Boom into whatever the last mon is! (psychic type) and because it cant be metagross nor solrock/lunatone, boom kills them all. So actually I am going to thunderwave. I thunderwave, metagross revenges Typhlosion, and then I explode on Latias in the back! wow!

Battle 7 No Type, NO Phrase

Heavily considering swapping Hera for Latias here, I like about 4 out of 8 sets it can have. The problem is, I have no clue what Lati this is as my metagross didn't just explode on it, it QUICK CLAW exploded, so I have zero information on this Latias. So I'm not going to fix what isn't broken, IM KEEPING HERACROSS

Raikou lead into Gardevoir, I click CM t1 to see whats up. Gardevoir clicks Hypnosis AND lands, activating my chesto berry. This is guaranteed Gardevoir1. I can either CM again and fish for a miss, into clicking thunderbolt, or go Heracross here on a likely hypnosis, which can miss or activate my Lum Berry, and then kill with Megahorn. Decisions decisions... Dream Eater does such pitiful damage when I'm at +2, im clicking CM again. LOL they went for Magical Leaf turn 2. I click thunderbolt and kill!. Clefable comes in, I kill Clefable. Last but not least a fearsome Blaziken. This cannot be the Endure Reversal set, or else it would have activated the high risk high return phrase, so I tbolt and kill it!
:rs/Alakazam: / :rs/Metagross: / :rs/Slowbro: -> :rs/Latias:
ROUND 9 DRAFT: Wailord3, Alakazam3, Metagross2, Arcanine1, Slowbro3, Exeggutor4

Draft reasoning: Terrible draft wow, but metagross will carry us

Battle 1 Dragon Type, Free Spirited

Lead Zam into Lead Shiftry, pretty nightmarish at first glance. I decide to trick my band given I can shut down 2 of the shiftry sets, turns out to be the SHiftry 4, fake out t1 lol but i have inner focus, kills me with mega kick, I then go metagross and finish it off. Metagross clicks mash on altaria, altaria clicks falmethrower reveals itself to be Altaria4. Considering staying in and going for the mash kill on Altaria, or switching to slowbro just in case mash misses because I want to preserve Metagross health, but i mash anyway. Last mon Kingdra thank god. I eq with meta as they surf, I eq again as they kill me with ice beam. Slowbro finishes Kingdra off attempting to rest stall me!

Battle 2 Poison Type, High Risk, High Return

Lead Zam vs Lead Nidoking.. why is Alakazam working here. Kills with Psychic no quick claw horn drill. Crobat next, turns out to be Crobat3 as it outpaces and screeches instead of Shadowballing? Alakazam then Psychics Meganium, turns out to be salac and eq's me twice, metagross finishes it off!

Battle 3 No Type, High Risk High Return

Lead Zam into Lead Breloom, zero clue how this Zam is putting in this much work LOL. Click Psychic kill Breloom. Next comes Armaldo, I'm predicting Armaldo4 because with Double edge it activates the high risk high return phrase with Breloom. Alakazam clicks Psychic, Armaldo revenges with Rock Slide, band damage and high roll. Slowbro isn't faster so I have to go metagross. I consider Swagger Psych uping, but earthquake is better. Here comes Latias oh my god I wish I had boom. Turns out to be the CM set, and I 2hko it with Meteor Mash!

Battle 4 No Type, High Risk, High Return

Slowbro3->Latias5

REasoning is Latias is great here with CM, and Zam was surprisingly putting in work, maybe that much SpA and good bulk at 31 IV's is worth it! Lets see!

Alakazam vs lead Cradily, I TRICK and it Ingrains, amazing, now I can go my Latias5 and CM 6 times on it! It can't even switch! Lati goes to +6 +6, sweeps Cradily, Granbull, Starmie!

Battle 5 No Type, high risk, high return

Lead Zam into Lead Nidoking. HOW DOES ZAM KEEP DOING THIS LOOOOL. I kill it with Psychic, then Hypno Comes in, I click Psychic get a crit, and they miss Hypnosis, revealing them to be Hypno2 because of Psychic crit damage. I Psychic twice more, they psychic once, and I kill! Machamp in the back. IS THIS REAL???? IS ZAM THIS GOOD? WHAT THE HELL???

Battle 6 No Type, No Phrase

LOOOOOL LEAD ZAM INTO LEAD HARIYAMA AND I HAVE INNER FOCUS WHAT IS THIS GAME LOOOOOL. I kill Hariyama, then Buzz comes in. I click Psychic as it Twaves, Revealing its Electabuzz1. Alakazam finishes it off, then Gyarados comes in. After a lot of thinking about what coule happen vs DD gyarados,s I decided to Psychic. Turns out they were special and missed pump, then hit pump, then I went latias and twaves into dclaw and won lets gooo

Battle 7 NOLAND TIME WITH MONO PSYCHIC LOOOL

Lead Zam into Lead Feraligatr. My play is either to Psychic or Trick. I decide to Trick, reveals itself to be Feraligatr1 and it clicked Surf. Going into Lati to go +6 +6. +6 +6 Latias kills Feraligatr. Cradily comes in, 25% chance to be the Mirror Coat set, I'm going to scout with twave. Reveals itself to be Cradily1 by using Barrier. Lati takes out Hariyama in the back! LETS GOOOOO
:rs/Regice: / :rs/Starmie: / :rs/Steelix:
Round10 Draft Regice4, Starmie5, Granbull4, Venusaur3, Houndoom1, Steelix4

Heavily considered going lead Granbull4 again over Regice, but I always hated how Granbull seemed to take a huge chunk on turn 1, and having to hit Mega Kick is always scary. I like powerful Ice Beam anyway, and Double Team is cute.

Battle1 No Type, No Phrase

Regice4 into Ampharos, its not as likely to be the Focus Punch variant, as there are so many high risk high return moves that the phrase likely would have activated, and because Ampharos doesn't threaten me with anything, I will Ice Beam and then decide if I want to go lix. I click Ice Beam and get the Freeze! I Decide to set up one Double Team because I am very safe to do so, and you get a ton of value out of one double team, your opponet moves are now .75% accurate! I Ice Beam twice after this and I have a full health Regice with 1 double team up. Dodrio comes in and misses a double team, I kill it with Ice Beam, then Claydol is in the back. It tries to Double Team and then Earthquake, but I hit both ice Beams and regice sweeeeeeps!

Battle 2 No Type, No Phrase

Regice leads into ZAPDOS! Regice+Steelix is obviously godly against Zapdos, my decision now is whether I want to stay in and just click Ice Beam, or go out into Steelix which walls every set. I would realistically only be a little nervous about Zapdos2 with Double Team, or Zapdos3 with Substitute stalling out some Double Edges, but I decide to go into Steelix anyway as I stonewall Zap. So I go into Steelix, and the nightmarish Double Team Zapdos begins! I get a quick claw double edge hit, and then as they set up Rain Dance, I hit my 2nd Double Edge and secure the KO! In comes Hariyama. I decide to swap to Starmie and Psychic it, I kill 3 out of 4 Hariyamas and would only fear something crazy like fake out crit into quick claw rock slide crit/eq crit. Thanks to the rain that Zapdos kindly set up, Starmie kills Granbul in the back with Surf!

Battle 3 Rock Type, No Phrase

Lead Regice into Lead Shuckle. This mon is a run killer. I am feeling good about this matchup into rock types as I have a Starmie+Steelix, but this Shuckle could be deadly. I can't let it set up Double Teams, so I need to go Starmie, which thankfully is genderless and has Lum Berry in case Toxic on Turn 1. Clicks Defense curl guaranteeing Shuckle1 which is easily best case scenario, I can surf twice. Aggron comes in next. I kill it with Surf. Clefable here is guaranteed not to be Clefable 1 or 2, or else Total preparation or impossible to predict would have activated, so we are looking at Clefable 3 or 4 which are AoA sets. I can surf it and finish it off with regice/lix. I surf twice as they tbolt and win!

Battle4 Psychic Type, High Risk, High Return.

This could be really scary. And turns out it is. Lead Regice into a Nightmarish Medicham lead. This could easily have Shadow Ball to hard threaten Starmie. However, because its High Risk High Return+Psychic type, this is more likely to be Medicham2, with endure reversal psychic and fake out. Considering whether I want to switch to Starmie or stay in and Thunderwave is tough. Considering the likely psychic types that are in the back, Starmie matches up well vs many of them with Light Screen+Recover. However Regice also destroys the Lati's, Exeggutor, Claydol. Starmie is much better into Metagross of course, but I also have Steelix for Metagross. Lots to consider. I'm going to elect to go Starmie just because I really want Regice for some of the potential Psychics in the back, and I have Steelix for Metagross. Metagross and Latis are objectively the most likely due to how many sets they have. Fake Out on the starmie switch reveals itself to be Medicham2, which is awesome. I could go back to Regice and twave it into Ice Beaming twice, maybe set up Double teams, but I need to be as prepared as possible for Lati/Lix in the back. Sadly, Starmie can't guaranteed kill medicham without activating a low hp reversal+salac berry combo, so to circumvent this I am going to go back to Regice click Hail! And I miscount the Hail turns like a dumbass. This is terrible I am mega coping right now, as Arcanine is in the back which can just 3-0 my team now with espeed and a Starmie on low health because of Medicham reversal. I cant believe this is happening I really fucking cant. Oh my fucking god. I shouldn't have tried to Light Screen and shit. So stupid of me fucking hell LOL. Okay after I calmed down, I came to the conclusion that I can still win. Regice eats a hit from Arcanine, I can thunderwave it, and then Double Team and try to 1v1 it. If I can't, that is okay as Steelix comes in to revenge, and hopefully can 1v1 the Psychic type in the back. FOR SOME REASON ARCANINE CLICKS DOUBLE EDGE INSTEAD OF OVERHEAT INTO MY REGICE??????. I 1v1'd the Arcanine by clicking one double team, they proceeded to get paralyzed, then miss overheat, then use double edge again, and in that span I 4hko'd with ice Beam. WOW. GOAT FUCKING REGICE. I also learned the AI is less likely to use OVerheat, it doesn't like using it. Gardevoir is in the back. Pretty Obvious Thunderwave turn here, hopefully it isn't double team and I can pivot into Steelix and click explosion! It clicks Double team unfortunately, revealing Gardevoir2 or Gardevoir8. I will click Ice Beam to see whats up, and then pivot out to Steelix and start EQing it. I go Lix and fire off an eq, miss, then hit an EQ, gardevoir lives and clicks Psychic, and with the Calc I can sus out that it doesn't have rest, and is Gardevoir8. Here I can safely go Regice, click Hail, and win the game!

Battle 5 Poison Type, No Phrase

Lead Regice into Lead Muk. Somewhat scary lead as Regice could get set up on with Minimize, even though Starmie is undeniably useful for the Poison type in the back, I decide to go Starmie. Reveals Muk3 with Flamethrower, I have a 87% chance to kill with Psychic. I get the roll, and out comes Crobat! Crobat3 and 4 outpace me, but I live and can kill them back with Psychic. I also outpace and kill Crobat1, Crobat 2 would be the most troublesome as it can live a Psychic, however I do have Lum for Toxic/Confuse. I could also switch to Steelix which is amazing vs everything but that Crobat2 because of Confuse Ray+Double Team. I figure its not worth saving Starmie health for the Crobat to potentially be Crobat2 anyway. I can boom with lix on whatever is in the back. Turns out to be Crobat4 and amazingly it confuse rays, I activate Lum Berry, and kill with Psychic. Cradily shows up in the back. It can be any Cradily here. Steelix and Regice matchup well vs Cradily, I will Surf it down to not risk anything fancy vs Regice. Turns out to be Cradily1 which I am fine with, I will go Steelix here click explosoin, then go back out to Starmime/Regice

Battle 6 No Type, High Risk, High Return

Lead Regice into Lead Lapras. Nightmarish mon. AoA Lapras is stupid good vs my team as it has Thunderbolt, and its bulky enough where the OHKO sets, Lapras7 and 8, can get very lucky vs my team. The double OHKO move set is more likely, due to high risk high return. I need to boom this with Steelix, so I am considering do I hard switch into Steelix, or do I stay in and twave. I decide the play is twave so that I can pivot in Steelix with the paralysis chance and outpace it and explode. THANK THE LORD IT TURNS OUT TO BE IRON TAIL LAPRAS (Lapras5). While it does get a good iron tail hit off on my Regice, I can safely pivot into Steelix now and chip it down. Lapras clicks psychic and gets a spdef drop, and Rhydon comes out. My play is clearly to just eq it twice as I am faster and they dont kill me with anything! Quick claw activations could be annoying tho. I beat the Rhydon, and Mr Mime in the back revenges steelix with Psychic. In hindsight, my safest play was switching out Steelix to Paralyze with Regice, then finishing it off with earthquake from steelix as its paralyzed. Silly on my end. Either way, Starmie 2hko's with Surf, was likely band mime as they clicked Psychic again!

Battle 7, No Type, One of Endurance

Lead Regice into Lead Hariyama. Unfortunately lead but it tells us a lot about the mons in the back, as because Hariyama has no endurance moves, one mon in the back is guaranteed to have 2 endurance moves. A short list of mons will guaranteed be one of the pokemon in the back. I did some insane maths. To figure out that Articuno is unlikely because Hariyama has a 50% chance to have a high risk high return move, and if articuno was a mon in the back, it has a high risk high return move here, which would override the endurance quote. I go Starmie and reveals fake out roll its Hariyama4, I kill with Psychic guaranteed. Kangashkan comes in, which is guaranteed to be Kang 2 or 3, given they have the moves Endure or Rest. At this point, given the list of mons that are guaranteed to be in the back, I realize that Starmie loses to all of them Except Vileplume. The only Kang that could give me a run for my money is Endure Reversal Kang. And Regice can 1v1 every possible last mon in the back, except a quite unlikely Articuno4. I have to play optimal around crits here. I Surf, and Kang clicks earthquake, revealing itself to be Kang3. Which in hindsight I actually like a lot more as attract rest stuff maybe could have done me in. I recover in case they endure, and Kang clicks Reversal???? Interesting. I surf as kang endures, and then they switch out to Vileplume??? Wow! I can kill this with Psychic and then Surf the Kang!
:rs/Typhlosion: -> :rs/Metagross: / :rs/Latias: / :rs/Blastoise: -> :rs/Starmie:
Round 11 Draft Entei3, Latias8, Blastoise3, Typhlosion4, Manectric1, Donphan3

Battle 1: Steel Type, No Phrase

THought about this one for a LONG ass while, deciding between Entei and Typhlosoin. Entei's fire moves always hit, but Typhlosoin actually KO's stuff, and can chip random threats better. Entei I guess is better as last ditch cheese efforts vs mons like Suicune and Blissey, but because I know there is going to be two Steel Types, I am fine taking these odds.

Lead Typhlosoin vs Lead Steelix, 1/3rd chance to be quick claw as Steelix4 would have activated the high risk high return phrase. I consider switching to Stoise, but Typhlosion is here for a reason, to beat the steel types, so please hit Overheat. I hit overheat, and then killed a Metagross that came in! Porygon2 in the back, somewhat scary. I go to Blastoise as Typhlosion can do the most damage in 1 turn. Porygon2 clicks tbolt on the switch, and then dodges the SUrf with bright powder. Uh Oh. Time to go Latias. I click Psychic and get a crit, as they Ice Beam me. I then should have Aerial Aced because of psychic miss into recover, but thankfully I hit Psychic anyway!

Battle 2 No Type, high risk high return

Typhlosion4->Metagross2

I thought about this for a long long LONG time. I was going back on forth on whether i swap lati or not, maybe even stoise, maybe p2 for lati or stoise since Porygon2(4) is really good. But I only brought Typhlosion for the Steel matchup, and 31 IV latias is 31IV latias, and I should respect it. Lets see what meta I get!!!

Lead Metagross2 into Golem. Im excited that I got Metagross2, that set isn't bad at all. The switch is obvious here, pivot into Blastoise and click Surf. I eat an earthquake, and kill with Surf! The golem was guarnateed not to be Golem2 once it clicked Earthquake, which means that it 100% had a quick claw, which now means that the Forretress who came in is guaranteed NOT Forretress4, as it holds a quick claw, and there is Item Clause on opponets teams! My best play is easily to just click Surf and try to 2hko. I Surf as they Double Edge, guaranteeing Forre1 or 2!. I surf again and kill it, and in comes the nightmare that is Walrein. Guaranteed to not be Walrein3 because it holds quick claw, and is slightly less likely to be Walrein2 because Forretress had a 50% to be holding Focus Band. Because I am now in Torrent, my best play is to just chip with Surf, and then go metagross and mash it. I surf, and walrein uses Blizzards, and hits but blastoise activates Focus Band!!! I need to decide whether I am going to go to metagross or stay in and click Surf. I get a nice crit, and die to Blizzard, now I can go out to metagross and earthquake twice because I have lum!

Battle 3 No Type, High Risk High Return

Lead Metagross into Fearow, obviously stay in here, high likelihood its Fearow4 with Sky Attack, lets hope it charges! Fearow clicks Drill Peck and I kill with Meteor Mash. And WOW here comes Gengar. Slightly more likely to be a Gengar with a high risk move, which is only the Destiny Bond sets. Fearow however also had a high chance to be lum berry, and all of the dbond gar sets have lum berry! So it could also definitely not be a dbond gengar set. I like the idea of saving my metagross health here, and going to Latias, as I outspeed all Gengars, and can hit a 100% accurate Psychic instead of trying to hit Meteor Mash. Clicks Fire Punch on the switch, amazing, now I can Psychic and kill it. Do I swap for gengar?? Our friend Rhydon shows up in the back. Here I'll just psychic it and finish it off with meta or stoise. I hit Psychic, rhydon kills me with megahorn, and I revenge with metagross!

Battle 4 No Type, High Risk, high Return

Meta lead vs Jynx, more than likely Jynx2, I've just gotta hit mash as I have lum for lovely kiss! Clicks Ice Beam, I hit mash and kill! Guaranteed Jynx1 or 2 and no high risk high return. This means the Machamp that just came in is very very likely to have a high risk high return move. My play here either wayis to Preserve Metagross health and go into Latias. Machamp clicks Focus Punch on the switch and gets huge damage. WOW. Machamp7 is the only machamp with Focus Punch, which is the worst Machamp set as its only attacking move is Focus Punch. NICE. I make a huge misplay, and try to Psychic it twice on its double teams. Dumb because it has brightpowder, and because it literally cannot attack me without focusing, I can use Aerial Ace and hit everytime! I'm also a girl which is awesome so it cant attract. Thank god I did not get punished this could have been game over! I aerial ace it down, and in the back comes Altaria. Guaranteed to be Altaria2, the shit altaria, because it needs to have a high risk high return move! I can just Psychic this easy! it attracts me, and I realize I just need to go to metagross and clean this up.

Battle 5 No Type, No Phrase

Metagross leads off vs Granbull. insanely scary lead. Guaranteed cannot be Granbull2 beause it activates high risk high return. Which means 1/3 chance for band Granbul, which has a chance to kill me. I am considering switching to Latias on a banded eq or Granbull3 earthquake. However I could also get Thunderwaved by Granbull 1 which would be quite bad. I decide to Earthquake then plan to meteor mash if I need to, but eq can 2hko some of the granbulls, and I am favored to live earthquake, and I have lum for twave Granbull1. Super unfortunate. Turns out to be Band Granbull and it gets the KO with earthquake. Wow. Now Lati+Stoise have to 1v1 the back mons. at least they cant be normal types. I revenge Granbull with Lati, and then Shit, its Glalie. Could be worse, but now I have to go to Stoise. Glalie clicks Blizzard so guaranteed Glalie3. My best play is simply to Surf Twice. Starmie comes out in the back. Fuck. It cant be Starmie1 or 2 either, so high likelihood for Ice Beam. It tbolts my blastoise, I hope to focus band and surf it, but dont. Moment of truth as Ice Beam starmie is more than likely going to 2hko latias with ice beam. AND IT COSMIC POWERS. WOOOOOO. STARMIE7 or STARMIE8 BABY LETS GOOO

Battle 6 Flying Type, High Risk High Return.

Blastoise3->Starmie 8

Thought a while about this switch, even though Blastoise has much more bulk, I think the fact that Starmie has bright power, cosmic power, and recover, makes up for that. The speed and power of Starmie is unmatched, perhaps I will regret this but I think this is the right decision especially considering flying types will be here!

Lead Meta into Lead Altaria, spooky matchup as my starmie doesn't have ice beam for it. Still not regretting getting rid of Stoise! I could switch to Starmie and try to set up on it, but it seems risky as it could be a Sing DD variant. I'm going to stay in and mash instead. Reveals Altaria2 by clicking Dragonbreath t1, and getting a paralysis unfortuntaely. Thankfully I have lum! Altaria eats the second meteor mash, and clicks Perish Song. Scary! I do get an attack raise. Questioning whether I stay in or swap out, I think im going to stay in! I hit again and get ANOTHER attack boost. Regirock comes in, can be a variety of Regirocks, but not Regirock4 as it carries leftovers. Hilariously, at +2 I perfectly KO all regirocks, and dont want to switch to starmie and get its health down. Even if I miss, I dont die to Perish song here. Regirock goes DOWN! Dodrio comes in in the back, and though I can kill it with Meteor mash, I'm going to switch out to lati so that I dont miss mash and then die! I outpace and have a good chance to kill it with Psychic. I am thinking about switching to Starmie in case it endures on the latias, as then it has a high chance to fail if it tries to click it again. I go to starmie, it drill pecks, and I kill it with thunderbolt!

Battle 7 No Type, No Phrase

Lead Metagross into Lead Porygon2, beatiful as the back mons hate facing this thing. My play is simple to Meteor Mash twice. Porygon2 attempted to twave turn 1, and with my lum I soaked it up. I hit both of my mashes (havent missed a single one yet wow) and Walrein comes out. Can pretty much be any of the Walreins, my play is simple and its to Meteor Mash. If its walrein1 and it yawns, I switch to Starmie! And its natural cure so that is great! (why did i only check this now). I click mash and hit, but now its Walrein2 with Double Team. Uh Oh. I Decide to swap to starmie simply because Meteor mash is now likely to miss, and thunderbolt is more accurate. As I switch it sets up a curse, I hit thunderbolt, and it sets up another curse. +2 earthquake does 60-73% to my starmie, which is scary! I am considering switching to Latias on the earthquake and then taking it down with Aerial Ace! I did just that, and it worked! lati in on last mon Cradily. Maybe I am just scared of everything but last mon Cradily is lowkey scary because it could set up Barrier. I'm going to stay in and Psychic. Turns out to be the ultra bad Cradily4, and I spam Psychic on it, mirror coats me twice to kill lati, and I revenge with Starmie! WOOO
 
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Continued..


:rs/Salamence: / :rs/Whiscash: / :rs/Tentacruel:

Round 12 Draft Salamence8, Vileplume4, Whiscash1, Crobat4, Kingdra3, Tentacruel4
Draft reasoning. Pretty okay draft mence8 is the standout. Considered using Crobat, but I think Whiscash and Tentacruel just to do much defensively and offensively with their coverage. I like intim mence supporting amnesia whiscash. Kingdra is also somewhat cool, but with me having to face a 31IV Noland on battle 7, I gotta go solid. Hopefully I don't have to swap!
Battle 1Bug Type, Total Preparation
Lead mence into Scizor NICE. This was super likely to be Scizor as Scizo4 almost activates total preparation by itself. I kill it with flamethrower easily, in comes heracross. Most likely Heracross2, but because it could be Salac, I will Dclaw into flamethrower. I click dclaw and it does good damage, the roll reveals heracross to be Heracross2. Good for me rn but I wish it was a different set so I was incentivized to swap for it. Now I can flamethrower and kill it. Umbreon in the back is scary. It cannot be Umbreon3 or 4 or else they would have activated Slow and Steady, meaning its Umbreon1 or 2, two huge threats. I am hoping its Umbreon1 as I can switch stall that and beat it 1v1 with Whiscash I believe. Umbreon2 could win the game here. Its time to Attract Umbreon with my Salamence and Dragon Claw it down. This is getting out of hand. I attract it, then I dclaw it, but it has set up a double team and a curse now. This umbreon could win the game. Thinking about this for a while, this Umbreon is omega annoying. I then miss 3 dclaws in a row and Umbreon has 2 curses up and is almost back up to full health. I am changing my plan, I have to Switch stall between. Fuck I think staying in was a total misplay. I have to keep intimidating umbreon.
Alright I dont even know where to start writing this. I switch stalled between Whiscash and Salamence, then once it ran out of Double Edges, i went to mence to fish for crunch spdef drops, I got 2 of them. Went to tenta to try and sludge bomb poison it, no dice, went back to mence to fish for flamethrower burns, didn't get burns, but I hit 3 times and beat the Umbreon. What a fucking battle I totally thought I was done for LOL holy fucking hell fuck.
Battle 2 Fire Type, No Phrase
Lead Mence into Lead Armaldo. Knowing there are two Fire Types in the back, I am not sure if I should switch in my Whiscash and make it go down to low Health. I could stay in and Dragon Claw twice. Unlikely to be Armaldo4(band) because it has double edge, a high risk high return move, and a lot of fire types have overheat which is high risk high return, so that phrase would have activated. I decide to Dclaw because I am likely to 1v1 the Armaldo, and I like low health mence+whiscash and tentacruel vs two fires in the back. Armaldo clicks protect revealing Scope Lens Armaldo, somewhat scary, but i can still 2hko with dclaw. Hits me with ancient power, and i 2hko with dclaw. Blaziken comes out next. Can't be BLaziken3 because it would have activates high risk high return, nor can it be Blaziken2 because Scope Lens was on Armaldo. So we are looking at Blaziken1 or Blaziken4, imo more likely to be Blaziken1. Here I can just Dragon Claw and if Blaizken4 kills me(if its 4) I can just revenge with sludge bomb tentacruel! Reveals itself to be Blaziken4, and kills with rock slide! Ninetales in the back, cannot be Ninetales4 or Ninetales2. Has to be 1 or 3. Either way I just Hydro Pump. Close scare but we win!
Battle 3 No Type, No Phrase
Lead Mence on lead Cradily. Ugh. This mon can be super annoying. It matches up oddly well vs my team which I do not like to see at all. I'm going to Attract it and see what happens. Well thats fucking terrible. Hits through attract and gets a CRIT Ancient Power. Maybe this was a misplay on my end, i dont fucking know. Whiscash 3hkos with earthquake, cradily gets two earthquakes off, thankfully no swaggers. AND THANK THE LORD RAICHU IS THE 2nd MON LOOOOOOL. I am going to rest here as I am at 65% health and theoretically if its Raichu4, they can mega kick me twice with high rolls and get a kill, also just makes whiscash healthier. It protects LOL but that means its Raichu4 still, with only 5 mega kicks, and a 1.8% chance to 3HKO if it hits them, I am electing to set up at least one Amnesia. It protected again on my amnesia lets gooo. I am going to earthquake as I dont think setting up to +6 will be totally worth it and risking whiscash health. It missed mega kick on my EQ lets gooo! Crobat in the back. I know this Crobat cannot be Crobat2 or 4, or else a phrase would have activates. Which is great at Crobat2 could have been deadly with Double Team. I now feel good about Rock Sliding. Crobat screeches as I rock slide and kill it with a crit! PHEW.
battle 4 Fire Type, No Phrase
Mence lead into Rapidash, guaranteed to not be Rapidash4, scariest thing would be Rapidash3 Hypnosis hit. Rapidash setting up the Sun is scary here. I will dclaw it twice. Protects on Dclaw, revealing Rapidash1. Good to know! The worst set. I can freely dclaw twice here. Flamethrowers me, and now its shitmon Magmar in the back LOL. The worst it can do is Confuse ray me, I'll dclaw here gladly. Reveals Psychic meaning its Magmar4. Got hit by Flamebody, which is unfortunate but was likely with dragon claw making contact twice. ursaring shows up in the back. Scary mon, can be any Ursa except Ursaring2. Could switch out to Whiscash, but dont want to let it set up Double Teams if its Double Team ursaring. I switch to whiscash as it facades, I eq then it bulks up, gets a quick claw facade but I eat and kill it back with earthquake. Phew!
Battle 5 No Type, No phrase
Lead Mence vs Lead Zap GOOD MON. I dont want to get twaved or thunderbolted, and zapdos being at -1 attack will help Whiscash stomach the Drill Pecks! Zapdos tries to Thunder me thank god. It is Double Team Brightpowder here but thats okay I am likely to win this with rock slide spam. Uh oh. I missed both Rock Slides. I think I have to switch stall this now with Salamence and Whiscash. Was switch stalling, and then Zapdos landed a CRIT drill peck on my Salamence. Super unlucky, but salamence isn't dead.
Insert one eternity of a stall later, with me geniusly switching whiscash in to eat drill pecks, and then when the rain went away, I went to mence, then back to whiscash, and once I stalled everything optimally, I had to let a struggling zapdos do its damage, sometimes critting what I was switching in, too much to explain, but fucking hell here I am and my Tentacruel is staring down a Typhlosion. I know it isn't Typhlosion1, or else the weather phrase would have activated, so its 2,3 or 4. Unfortunately, all Typhlosions outspeed me here. Ugh. The question is do I bring in Whiscash here, preserving the health of Tentacruel to maybe finish something off with mence? Or do I sack tentacruel to preserve some Whiscash health? AAAAAa idk Atually, it also cannot be Typhlosion3, as that would have activated high risk high return. So its Typhlosion 2 or 4, i would really hope for typhlosion2. Typhlosion 2 is also slightly more likely because Typhlosoin4 could have been one half of a high risk high return activaion. fuck. i go whiscash and eat two earthquakes, and kill typhlosion with earthquake. And wont you know, Dusclops is in the back. This Dusclops cant be 1 or 4, so its either 2 or 3, both nasty sets. I decide to stay in and earthquake, and dusclops crits me with shadowball back, ouch. Revealing itself to be Dusclops3. I can now go mence and crunch! if it swaggers me, I can go into tentacruel. this my friend is why we keep 3 mons alive : ) I kill it with Crunch!
Battle 6 Ground Type, No Phrase
Lead mence into lead aero. Unexpected, but I can safely go Whiscash here, especially because of Intimidate! Phew! Whiscash eats an Ancient power, with my calc this is guaranteed Aerodactyl1! After I take out Aero with 2 rock slides, the nightmarish Claydol reveals its ugly head. Runkiller mon. It's time to go Salamence and Crunch it down! Hoping for no boom. Claydol clicks Earthquake ruling out Claydol3, which is awesome as Claydol3 has Ice Beam. Amazing I crunch it, and it misses rock slide, and finish it off with Crunch. Steelix is in the back. Here I will go whiscash to earthquake it, and then finish it off with mence/tenta! It was sitrus steelix and I 1v1'd it with Whiscash! The goat!!!
Battle7 Noland 4
Lead mence into lead blaziken, no white herb activation means its Blaziken 1,2 or 3. Here I can dclaw turn 1 and instantly figure out its set, the only scary set here is Endure Salac. if they click Overheat and reveal Blaziken3, I will attract on turn 2 to outplay Endure, as BLaziken here is male and my mence is female. Blaziken mega kicks turn1, revealing Blaziken2. I can dragon claw here and finish it off! This also means no Scope Lens mon in the back, yay! Amazing, mon 2 is Meganium! HOwever, after further thought. This meganium could be very scary. Endure Salac Meganium can hilariously sweep me with eq, flail, giga drain. Perfect into whiscash+tentacruel. Heavily considering Attract here. But would attract be a mega choke? Flail meganium objectively cant 1v1 salamence here actually, as flail cant kill me. unless a crit ofc. With this knowledge, I shall flamethrower! Beautifully, meganium sets up sunny day for me, and I finish off the Meganium. Now its Dodrio in the back. Somewhat scared of Dodrio, this mon is definitely a threat! Dodrio is also scarily enough a speedtie with salamence. I can't let this thing get endure salac and sweep me! My strategy has to be swapping out mence into something to get intimidate drops on it. Annoyingly, Tentacruel nor whiscash can OHKO Dodrio. argh! I think my play is to go Whiscash and scout. Actually. Whiscash can live a -1 Flail from Dodrio. So I have decided my play is to swap into Tentacruel. let it die. Then go back to Mence for intimidate, try to 1v1 Dodrio, and then finish it off with the MVP Whiscash! It clicks Facade, which is my worst nightmare. Confirms Dodrio4! AFter further consideratoin, I can consider whether I want to go mence or whiscash next into Dodrio. Mence seems to be optimal as I can flamethrower here, still in the sun, and fish for a burn. I click FLamethrower, and it crits and I win! yay!
:rs/Slaking: / :rs/Latias: / :rs/Kingdra:
Round 13 Draft Slaking3, Jynx1, Latias5, Sceptile1, Articuno1, Kingdra2.
Draft reasoning: Amazing draft, band Slaking should be an amazing lead, KOing a lot of pokemon, and CM Latias can obviously just sweep and destroy teams. Kingdra2 is the best Kingdra set and with only a dragon weakness, this should be awesome. Furthermore, dragon types are pretty rare, especially dragon attacks, so I am feeling good about my teams defensive synergy. I am scared of ice types here, specifically Walrein, Dewgong, and Lapras. OHKO mons scary here, I will heavily considering switching Kingdra for a different mon if I need to matchup wise! I could draft Articuno over Kingdra here
Battle 1. No Type, Slow and Steady
Lead Slaking into lead Quagsire. Because its Slow and Steady, Quagsire2 is much more likely than the others, as it has 2 slow and steady moves. Thankfully, it cannot attract me here as we are both males, and lacks Counter. This mon could get out of hand if it Yawns t1 and then Curses up. Still quite the tough mon for my team to face, I will earthquake it and get chip on it and see what it wants to do. It does Curse turn 1, which is a bit tough, I consider staying in and attacking again on Turn 3, but earthquake wont kill if Quagsire sets up another Curse, so my play here is to go Latias, as they wont Attract this turn, and 2hko it with Dragon Claw, hopefully it doesn't Yawn! Thankfully because the AI loves using Curse, Quagsire clicked curse on the switch, and curse again on Turn 4 as I killed it with Dragon Claw! In comes Crobat. Guaranteed to not be Crobat2 here which is awesome to see as it has leftovers. I hate that Toxic confuse ray double team set, definitely a run killer for a team like mine without steel/poison!. Likely to be Crobat4 here as it has a slow and steady move, completing the phrase. Because I am expecting Crobat4 here, I can 2hko Crobat with Dragon Claw, and they cannot 2hko me with Shadowball! If I lived 3 shadow balls I would twave here. God I hate confuse ray, annoying confuse ray turn where crobat confuses me and I hurt myself in confusion. Shadowball is still a 3hko. I think my plan is to thunderwave here, and then go out into Slaking on Shadowball, and hit it hard, then I can go out to Kingdra and ice beam it. So it worked! Slaking ate shadowball, clicked shadowball itself, then slaking got confused so I switched to Kingdra, ate a sludge bomb, and killed Crobat with Kingdra. That crobat did some work! Here comes Medicham. This could be super scary as this could be any Medicham set, especially the nightmarish Medicham2 with endure salac!. I'm going to Dragonbreath here to scout and not put it into a potential salac range! Turns out to be the terribad dynamicpunch medicham, and I dragonbreath paralysis into Surf kill! Nice!
Battle 2: No Type, High risk high return.
Lead Slaking into Lead Regice. Going into this battle I am a bit nervous as if I win this I will be no2 on the smogon leaderboards! How exciting! Regice is a scary as hell mon for my team to face, as it totally owns Latias+Kingdra. Because this is high risk high return, Regice is a bit more likely to be Regice3 or 5 as they have Counter and Explosion. I am super scared of Regice5, as I dont kill with brick break and they can counter to finish me off. And I dont like Latias+Kingdra vs potential OHKO mons in the back. However, because its lead Regice, I objectively cant see Walrein,Dewgong,Lapras in the back, unless the 3rd mon is a water type cancelling out the type speciality, which isn't terribly unlikely. Even though regice is slightly more likely to be counter regice, I think my play is still to brick break and chip it down. Given that I am likely to kill regice5 with latias dclaw after brick break, and that this could be so many other regice, I am still going to brick break! I cant switch out on counter that would be a total choke in ice beam. Phew, it reveals twave regice, which still isn't very good for me, but at least it isn't counter. With leftovers recovery, this means it has to be Regice4, our old friend! But uh oh, it can definitely set up double teams now!! And it can get two up! This could. I kill it with the next brick break, but I could also switch out and then back in to fire off two aerial aces and take it down. I think I have to make the pivot into Kingdra play. and then back to slaking. I switch to kingdra as they set up hail, and then switch back to slaking as they try to twave, amazing. Unfortunately, they ice beam and ice beam again, and my two aerial aces BARELY does not kill. Killer. I have to sac slaking here, and revenge with Lati or Kingdra. Kingdra does barely more damage with Surf, and doesn't take huge damage from an ice beam, so I have to go Kingdra and hope I hit. This is so scary! I dont hit surf, and they twave, and then I get fully paralyzed twice. I think this is over. And on the battle that I needed to get 2nd place? I cant fucking believe this. I should have been counting pp on this regice, fucking stupid of me. My kingdra has to rest stall this Regice out, and then Latias can come in hopefully and CM up and sweep. This is so nervewracking!!! I cant believe this, I get paralyzed for a 3rd time in a row. This is game over i think. Fucking hell man. Hopefully Latias can CM up on this bitch mon and win. Or they dont click ice beam and kingdra gets a rest off. I have 3 calm minds up now, regice twaved me (terrible) then set up hail and a double team? Why isn't it ice beaming? I know it has 2 left. Holy shit, Latias sets up to +6, and I somehow hit 2 dclaws through paralysis and max evasion in only 5 dclaw attempts. PLEASE TO GOD LATIAS LETS FINISH THIS THE FUCK OFF CMON LATIAS CMON LATIAS CMON LATIAS.. HOAJDNA<MCZM<XZC. NEXT MON IS TENTACRUEL. More than likely Tentacruel3 or 4, because they have high risk high return moves. Objectively cannot be Tentacruel2 either because it has leftovers. Latias is at 75% health, and my play is simply to recover. I recover as it tries to Mirror Coat. Holy shit lets go. I dont want to get Sludge Bombed here, so I am going to Dclaw and get the kill! Tentacruel does hit me with a sludge bomb, and hail is still up so I am at 65% health. Thankfully I hit dclaw, and now I face off against a BLAZIKEN LOOOOL. I forgot to calc the tentacruel damage, but I am going to figure it out. Objectively cannot be Blaziken1 as it has sunny day which would have activated the weather phrase combined with Regice. Furthermore, and most importantly holy shit, it cannot be the Scope Lens Blaziken, as it has no moves that activate high risk high return, the only options are BLaziken3 or 4, both technically scary with one being able to endure reversal me, and the other being able to rock slide flinch me down! because endure reversal crit could kill me, I am going to recover here and then dclaw to win! It clicks overheat and does 4 damage LOL. revealing it to be endure reversal blaziken, I can safely dclaw here and win! How in the fuck did I win this. What the flying fuck. I am in shock, but am so excited to be able to continue this streak. Its almost like they knew this was to overtake the 2nd leaderboard spot and made me work for it! Im here for it!
Battle 3. No Type, High Risk High Return.
Cannot believe i won that last battle. Lead Slaking into Lead Metagross here. I 100% kill any metagross with Earthquake. I wish there was a way to find out what this metagross set, as I would definitely replace slaking with it if I knew its set. Too bad! I kill it with earthquake, and here comes Shuckle. Lord help us all shuckle is a runkiller. My play here I believe is clearly to go to Kingdra, I can stall out sandstorm dig flash double team if its Shuckle2. I am immune to Attract on set 3 and also stall that out. and stall out Shuckle4. I surf twice and kill it. Shuckle reveals Toxic, meaning its 100% either Shuckle3 or 4. I could theoretically stall this out with Kingdra, swapping between Slaking and Kingdra to stall out some Toxics, and then go Latias and set up to +6. With Double team, it reveals itself to be Shuckle3. Substitute, Attract, Double Team, Toxic. Long thinking session., considering if I want to stall this with Kingdra, and then go +6+6 on latias. Do I need to do this? What could 1v3 my entire team in the back??? It cant be Regice! Suicune objectively cant come out. Snorlax could come out, but it objectively cant be a curse set because it would have activated the impossible to predict phrase with Shuckle3. Fuck it im stalling the shuckle out. I think its the safest and best thing to do. I computed the odds of never hitting a single dragon claw vs a max evasion shuckle with Latias. and the odds 15 dragon claws miss is 5%. I highkey dont like those odds! I'm scared of lax still. I know im overthinking at this point but doesn't hurt to be sure. This cannot be Snorlax2 Snorlax3 or Snorlax8, as they do not have a high risk high return move. Nor can it be curselax. so no Snorlax7 or Snorlax4, and no leftovers lax, so no Snorlax6, which leaves the only possible Snorlax in the back to be Snorlax5. Wow im a god for figuring this out. Mega kick shadowball brick break and counter! I think id be fine vs this. I am going to try and surf this shuckle. btw yeah kingdra is still in LOL. All of that just to hit the surf and show Ninetales in the back LOL. Has to be Ninetales 2 or 4 as it has to have a High risk high return move. The 4th one having Confuse ray is annoying, but im fine to rest here. Turns out to be Ninetales2 with Grudge! Grudge ninetales could actually be lowkey fire, because you could totally manipulate the AI by getting rid of the PP of a move, and then using a setup sweeper in the back. Especially since it draws Earthquake! And hey its a fast mon with a somewhat powerful Heatwave, and sets up sun. Maybe its cool! Either way i won yay .
Battle 4 No Type, No Phrase
Lead Medicham vs Lead Slaking, this is super fucking scary loooool. I think its unlikely to be Medicham2, as if another mon in the back had a high risk high return move, the phrase would have activaed, and its definitely the most common phrase. I kill every other Medicham with Shadowball. And barely outpace medicham! Nice!. Do I need to risk the potential for endure? If they are the endure set, they surely always fake out t1 anyway, which would reveal the set and I can then set up +6 +6 with latias. Because of this, I am considering whether to lock myself in to earthquake, shadowball, or aerial ace. Im going to click earthquake as its strongest move. I kill medicham, and here comes Raikou. UH OH. God tier mon. And I have no way to suspect what raikou set it could be. I think my play is to stay in, loaf around, and then earthquake on turn 3. Raikou cannot 2hko me. ONly raikou2 with Thuner has a 4.7% chance to 2hko me, assuming it hits both. And I can stall that set out with Latias, but pressure is scary. I am going to stay in and see what happens, this is surely my play. Raikou clicks thunderwave, revealing it cannot be Raikou2, which I love to see as that was the only one with Double Team. I am going to stay in and fire off an earthquake. It clicks thunderbolt which reveals nothing about which raikou it is, and I kill it with earthquake. phew! In comes Tauros. Tauros is mega scary, as I have no normal resists! However only Tauros 1 outpaces Latias. I figure out that the only Tauros that really threatens me is the double team variant. And I consider saving Slaking to aerial ace it down, but I think Kingdra+Latias can clearly win this battle in the back. Tauros clicks earthquake as I loaf around. Gets a 32% roll, which would be a high roll for Tauros3 and Tauros4, making them unlikely. This also eliminates Tauros1 as it doesn't have double edge. so I will stay in and earthquake, hopefully it doesn't try and double team. I wonder tho if switching to Kingdra predicting the potential double team is a play. Tauros has a 22.3% chance to 2HKO me with double edge if its Tauros2. And it could likely then eat a Dragon Claw and double team could get out of hand vs Latias. AAAA what to do. I really dont want it to set up Double Team here. I can't let it set up Double Team. I'm going to go Kingdra. Thank god. It used double edge on the switch, then double edged kingdra again. I lived, and killed with surf! PHEW.
Battle 5 No Type, High Risk, High Return.
I am considering trading for Tauros here. exchanging lead slaking for lead Tauros. Slaking has felt just a littttttle shaky. And Tauros is a beast. I am annoyed at myself as I didn't check the Kingdra calcs, like seeing how much double edge did to Kingdra. I could have confirmed whether it was Tauros2 or not. Either way, I'm going to keep Slaking. Might have taken Tauros2 if I could be 100% sure it was Tauros2, even tho it was HEAVILY likely.
Lead Slaking into lead Metagross. We love to see this I can just earthquake this again like Battle 3! I kill it with earthquake. Uh oh its WAILORD. I am somewhat scared of fissure wailord, but thankfully I have a levitating Latias! Wailord2 is also deadly however with curse amnesia rest double edge. Uh oh. My play here is simply to loaf around and see what Wailord does. Hopefully it does not Curse! Lord help me it is Amnesia wailord. Wailord2. I have to stay in and earthquake and heavily damage this! It clicks curse. Uh Oh. I have to stay in and loaf around and hope it Curses up again or doesn't rest! This is trouble! Wailord rested up, and cllicked amnesia on another earthquake. This is so bad. I am considering now if its time to go Latias and start clicking Calm Mind. I think it might be! But perhaps I actually try and force it to rest?? And I switch Latias in on a rest turn? AAAAAAAAAAA idk what to do but i do NOT want to lose to this Wailord. I loaf around and wailord clicks rest. beautiful! I can stay in and earthquake twice guaranteed bringing it to VERY low health, which I believe makes it guaranteed want to rest. I could also switch to latias right now and get up 2 guaranteed calm minds, however, if I switch to latias as it rests, I can get 3 guaranteed calm minds, which could be HUGE. Very awkward I earthquake, then loaf, and as I click earthquake. Wailord rests. UGH. Now I am loafing on first turn of sleep! I think my play is to continue earthquaking. And it rested AGAIN and here I am on the same sequence where I am not loafing on the first turn of sleep. I think my plan here is to earthquake, and then pivot out to Latias and start Calm Minding! Or wait, because I am loafing around, can I just switch to latias now? theoretically I think I can switch to latias right now, as last time wailord was at this health, it clicked Rest! So I can get 4 calm minds up! huge! Its shown that it likes to rest at this percent, I think I'm going to go latias. NNICE MY PLAN WORKED IT RESTED! I CAN SET UP TO +6. However, this is a predicament. I could set up 3 more calm minds here, but then wailord will use a set up move or attack. I could go for two dragon claws here which does 17.8 - 21.4% each, howeever the odds of bringing it to 60% (and therefore giving it better odds to rest) are quite low. Another idea is I could Calm mind again, and then fire off two +2 dragon claws, while they would get to use one set up move, they are very likely to rest the following turn. I think this is my geinus plan, so imma go for it. Calm Mind, Wailord is sleeping, dragon claw, wailord is sleeping, dragon claw AGAIN, wailord clicks a whatever move, then I CM on the predicted rest. My plan worked and they have cursed, beautiful! They are surely very likely to rest here. However, I think my safe play is still to Dragon Claw? As if they rest on the claw, I can CM thrice and be at +5 vs full health +4 wailord, which I think is fine. hmmmmmmmmm. The other thing to is right now if they curse, I win the game with another dragon claw, if I click dragon claw here. I think I like this sequence. Alright they rested which is okay! I calm minded to +4, I think this was maybe a misplay, I should have dragon clawed twice at +3, oopsie. As I dragon claw, they curse, and then they Double edge! BIG damage. I am considering just recovering here, as if they double edge again they would kill themselves. I dont like Latias being at 75% health, even if I am at +4, +4. Whats the worst that could happen if Wailord Rests? Wailord is at under5% health, it is surely very likely to rest here. And if double edge crits, that okay I have Slaking+Kingdra to 2v1 something in the back! They double edge as I recover and kill themselves. I lost 5 hp in the process lol! marowak is in the back. Goodbye Marowak.
Battle6 Water Type, No Phrase.
Considering swapping Kingdra2 for Wailord2 here. I really enjoy that Wailord set, and maybe it performs better vs the water types because of ice resistance. However, Kingdra could probably still hold its own with Dragon breath, along with its 31IV's. Perhaps Wailord is asking to get crit. But in the end I decided to keep the Kingdra as its probably better for Battle7, and is a great mon in of itself!
Lead Slaking into lead slowking, I pretty much always kill 3/4ths of the Slowkings with shadowball, only not killing Slowking1. I like these odds and I click shadowball. I kill it which means guaranteed it wasn't Slowking1. In Comes Whicash. The goat of one of my rounds, if its Whiscash1 of course. Id say Whiscash3 and 4 are slightly less likely, given they have a high risk move that could easily have activated the phrase, and especially not Whiscash4 as 2/3rds of the slowkings It could have been had Quick Claw, and whiscash4 has quick claw!. I am pretty comfortable just loafing around here, and then earthquaking. Its the ultra terrible Whiscash with future sight. Nice! This is Latias set up food, nothing can threaten me, except maybe an unlucky Spark paralysis. I always thought it was cool that Whiscash learned Spark. I proceed to set up +6 +6, kill the whiscash, and then kill the granbull in the back!
Battle 7 Flying Type, Impossible to Predict
very unique phrase on this one, and they lead with Alakazam! Almost guaranteed to be Trick band zam, as it activates the phrase by itself! I dont have a good switchin or option vs any other zam anyway. They trick as I shadowball the zam. Uh oh, in comes GYARADOS. Dragon Dance could spell total doom for me team. Wishing I had that whiscash with spark now! LOL. Really hoping this is Gyarados 2 or 4. I definitely just switch to Latias here. I cannot let a DD gyarados get out of hand, and I can CM once and then Dclaw! Welp time to panic its fucking Dragon Dance. Im considering if its worth it to CM here? Do I thunderwave it? I really dont know. Thankfully Slaking does 2hko with shadowball. I think my play is to twave it, if its lum twave again, dclaw, and then sack lati, go slaking, and hope Slaking+Kingdra can 1v1 the flying type in the back. Super scary! Really thinking about what I need to do here. This gyarados could totally fuck me up, and there is still a flying type in the back. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa. I am hyper considering what my plays are vs Gyarados 1 and 4, I dont know which is which yet. My origianl play was to dclaw and see what set it was because no rolls overlap, however I think the real play is to thunderwave, as I either reveal Lum berry or chesto berry. If its Gyarados 1(my god I hope it is) I can twave it AGAIN and then choose to either recover or dclaw it. It its Gyarados4, my plan changes drastically I think. I'm going to twave and just see what happens. Reveals itself to be Gyarados4 because it has Chesto. Fucking hell this is worst case scenario. And close to max roll frustration as well. I think my play here is to actually recover until it fails to attack, and then CM, and try to 2hko it at +2??? :O YEAH THATS GENIUS OF ME. This also prevents it from wanting to rest. I get two full paralysis and then it dragon dances. NICE. As I recover CM CM. Now I guarantee 2hko with dragon claw. Hopefully paralysis or my brightpowder kicks in! Beautifully, they fully paralyze, andout comes MOLTRES. Sick. I just dragon claw this thing.
:rs/Jynx: -> :rs/Snorlax: / :rs/Tauros: -> :rs/Metagross: / :rs/Gyarados:
Round 14 Draft Machamp6, Gyarados4, Raichu2, Tauros3, Rapidash1, Jynx2
Draft Reasoning: Gyarados4 saves this draft. Thank god. A pretty shitty draft outside of it. I really dont know what I want to draft alongside Gyarados. I feel like I have to go Raichu2 here for electric attacks, and hitting the flying types with thunderbolt that gyarados cant, such as Skarmory. I wish it was salac berry, lum berry is omega ass. God I think I have to take Raichu2 AHHH what a shit mon. At least its one of the better sets because of endure reversal shenanigans and agility. My team is incredibly weak to anything with thunderbolt coverage. Boltbeam Latias would absolutely own me. I feel like Jynx might actually be a play???
Battle 1 No Type, Slow and Steady
Lead Jynx vs Lead Aggron. Wow turn 1 feels so much less stressful once I know I can just Protect turn 1 and find out information about my important. Super important as Gyarados is going to have to win every single game! Rock Slide turn 1 means its Aggron2 or Aggron4. I assume it was likely to click thunderwave t1 if it was Aggron2, so even though Aggron2 has a slow and steady move, I feel like it could be likely Aggron4??? I think the safe play is still to switch to Tauros and intimidate it, and earthquake it twice. I thought it wouldn't twave, but it twaved on the switch? WTF this is terrible as hell. I need to earthquake here! Or, do I flamethrower into earthquake, as thats also a 2hko, and I can fish for the burn! Because I can crit eq I will eq. This is so bad, as its Scope Lens!!! They Focus and i hit through paralysis! PHEW. Time to flamethrower here. I also consider going to Gyarados on a potential Focus Punch, but I really dont wanna get scope lens rock slide crit and lose my wincon. Unneccesary risk. I flames as tey rock slide, and down goes Aggron! Hypno comes in, more than likely Hypno1,2,3 because they have a slow an steady move. I am heavily considering how to approach this Hypno. I can eq into double edge, or double edge up front and if tauros dies, I can go gyarados to revenge it. However, I think my best plan is eitherway to go Jynx and perishtrap it. I earthquake the hypno, and it clicks Thunderpunch, meaning Hypno1 or Hypno4, but way more likely to be Hypno1 as Hypno4 surely clicks Psychic as it does more damage. Amazing! I double edge and kill it, and my tauros is still alive at 17HP! Porygon2 comes in the back, guaranteed to be porygon2(2) or Porygon2(3). Tauros dies, and I end the porygon2 with Perish song jynx. That felt good!
Battle 2 No Type, High Risk High Return
COnsidering taking this Porygon over Tauros right now. Instant recovery is super good. but psychic tri attack coverage is poopy pants. Asking to get set up on, I like Tauros power.
Lead Jynx vs Lead Nidoqueen. Somewhat scary. I always forget I have protect, I almost just instantly switched to tauros but I gotta take my time! They clicked SLudgebomb, so I know its Nidoqueen1 or 4. This is gyarados setup food. But just in case it is White Herb Nidoqueen4, I think I need to pivot into Tauros, and then pivot into Gyarados and start setting up, and if its Nido1, Ill get 2 intimidates off! I dont think its Nidoqueen4 because surely it would have clicked Shadowball, which does more damage to Jynx. Im going tauros then gyarados. Thought about this a while, but I dont want it to be white herb nidoqueen out of nowhere. BEAUTIFUL it countered on the tauros switchin. I am at +2 +2 now with Gyarados, and at 83%, can only die to the craziest sludge bomb crit into poison high roll. NVM i barely live the worst possible outcome here, so I can DD one more time. They get a sludge bomb poison, but now I just resto chesto, and hopefully sweep! They are focus band counter tho. Hopefully this does not fuck me over. I kill with +3 eq, no focus band counter! YAY. In comes Kingdra. Likely to be Kingdra 3 or 4 here, I am happy to DD again and secure a kill with Frustration! Guaranteed Kingdra2 here because of the damage rolls of dragonbreath. Very likely to kill now with +4 eq. Tentacruel in the back this game is OVER
Battle 3 Psychic Type, High Risk High Return
Heavily considering a swap for Kingdra here. Either Tauros or Jynx. Jynx is probably a little bit gimmicky. but do I lose to anything notable without Jynx? I think i do, especially if Latias can come out right now. I cant lose to a lati. Or a random Gardevoir or Alakazam doing funky shit. I think this team is high octane and cant drop Jynx or Tauros for a squishy water type like Kingdra that isn't winning games on its own.
Lead Jynx into lead Claydol. i KEEP forgetting about protect, but thankfully I click it here LOL. ITS SO USEFUL. I protect turn1, and Claydol uses shadowball, revealing Claydol4. This was most likely anyway, as it partially activates high risk high return with Explosion! Explosion is so scary. I think my play is to finally use Lovely Kiss here, and then perish song, then mean look, then spam protect. LOOOOOL I MISS LOVELY KISS AND THEY SHADOWBALL ME. BUT I CLICK PROTECT THE NEXT TURN AND THEY CLICKED EXPLOSION. LOOOOOOL. Now its gardevoir, COULD kill me with fire punch, but I think my play here is clearly to perish song. They try to shadowball me as I click perish song, and they miss because of brightpowder! Now I can protect, mean look, and switch to tauros! motherfucker clicked Psychic as I switched to Tauros HOW. i guess psychic also killed Jynx after it took a shadowball. And now its Hypno in the back. Hypno is kind of scary, as this could be any Hypno in the back, but my play here is simply Double Edge and then revenge with Gyarados! I wonder if I should pivot out to Jynx though so that Tauros gets more leftovers recovery. MY JYNX LIVED ON ONE HP BECAUSE JYNX IS THE FUCKING QUEEN. I set up perish song. Not like it matters too much but just a flex. Baha. I know its Hypno4 because it clicked Psychic and Fire Punch. So I can double edge with tauros and revenge with gyarados!
Battle4 No Type, One of Endurance!
Really considering taking Hypno here, Wildcat is suggesting gardevoir, but im not a fan. Feels too risky to try and predict when an opponet will attack. If it was the psybolt gard with wisp and dbond, maybe id take it. Fuck that im not taking Hypno. Even tho its coverage is awesome, it doesn't have 31 IV's and I really dislike its speed. Im keeping Jynx AND tauros!
Lead Jynx vs lead Altaria. Everytime i forget that I can just click protect LOL. lets see what it wants to do, its likely the shit Altaria1 set. Reveals aerial ace which is AWESOME. This means it can be Altaria1 or Altaria3. Because of the one of endurance tag, and the unlikelihood of a mon in the back having TWO endurance moves, I'm going to use this oppourtnity to set up Gyarados! I set up 4 dragon dances vs altaria, then rest because i was in crit dragon claw range. As I click rest they hit me with a crit dclaw, ouch, but im okay! I am going to DD two more times and then rest again! I kill with +6 frustration and am at 58% health. In comes Metagross. NICE! Likely to be Metagross1 or Metagross2 because of having an endurance move! Miltank is in the back, I guaranteed kill it with frustration!
Battle5 Poison Type, No Phrase.
Because they are a poison type specialist. I am heavily considering swapping for Metagros here. Through some calculatoins, I know it will 100% be Metagross3. It needs to have an endurance move, and only metagross1 and 3 have them, and because all miltanks have a high risk high return move, the metagross also CANNOT have a high risk high return move, or else that phrase would have overtaken the endurance phrase! SO because it cant be metagross1 now, it HAS to be metagross3. The ultra deadly double team rest meteor mash earthquake metagross! With chesto berry ooooo. I am definitely taking Metagross now. I am considering whether I get rid of Jynx or Tauros. I feel like Tauros and Metagross would fill similar rolls, and I have been loving Jynx. Why try to fix what hasnt been broken? jk Jynx IS broken 8). GOODBYE TAUROS HELLO METAGROSS.
Tauros3->Metagross3 first swap in a WHILE
Lead Jynx vs Lead Victreebel. Easy Protect here to scout. Stun Spores turn 1 revealing Victreebel3. The worst set imaginable LOL. I can either set up with Metagross or Gyarados here. I decide Metagross is the play here as Sludge Bomb into Gyarados is scary. I set up to +6 evasion on Victreebel and kill it meteor mash no problem. Lord have mercy its a fucking Snorlax LOL WHAT. All sets are insanely scary here holy shit. AAAAAA. Lots to consider with Snorlax here. I am unafraid of Double team snorlax, as I can stall it out with metagross and then perish song with Jynx. Curse Rest snorlax would be nightmarish here. I am going to meteor mash and see whats up. BEAUTIFUL ITS THE DOUBLE TEAM SNORLAX YAY. I think my genius play is actually to switch into gyarados, and then back to metagross so that I have less evasion so snorlax can hit me and I can rest to pp stall it better! Okay, so minor choke I should have gone to Gyara on the Snorlax to set up two Dragon Dances as it perished. But I perfectly stalled out the Snorlax otherwise with my metagross, intelligently spamming earthquake, and resting, but then later on, making sure I double teamed so that facade didn't have a chance to keep hitting and crit me! Im also actually dumb as fuck and switched out jynx LOLOOLOL WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME FUCKING HELL LOOOOOOL. Lets focus on the present. Stupid idiotic misplay by me holy shit. This muk cannot be Muk4, it has to be Muk1,2,3 im mega coping rn GOtta protect and see what happens fuck me. I switched back out to Jynx. Beautiful its the screech muk set, I am not scared of this. I secure the victory vs Snorlax with Jynx in the back, but only if Gyarados AND metagross dont die together LOL. Fuck. This should have been an easy Jynx victory fuck me man loool. I think my play hilariously is to perish song, then I protect, then switch to metagross, and then on Snorlax I go back to Jynx to beat Snorlax. this is so funny. Only way I lose is a SLudge Bomb hit and crit right now! Ended up just killing muk with the gyarados I wanted to sack. Baha. That could have been scary I gotta think clearly with Jynx! I cant do my queen like that.
Battle 6 Dragon Type, High Risk High Return
Oh god. Because of how powerful the Dragon types are, and how high octane the opponets team is probably going to be. I think its sadly, finally time to say goodbye to our beloved Jynx. Jynx put in SO much work what a slept on Set holy fuck. I shall trade it for Snorlax1 as even tho its a shitty Snorlax set, it has leftovers and trades well with the dragon types! Some much needed special bulk as well for a potential latias/latios in the back! Even tho metagross handles them just fine. A part of me wants to keep Jynx fearing what could become of Battle 7.
Jynx2->Snorlax1
Lead Snorlax vs Lead Salamence. Terrible lead position for me. If only I had the crutch that was Protect Jynx on turn1. Sad!. Really awkward position again. I am deciding to Facade to get the information I need about what mence set this is, and play from there. I could also double team turn 1, but it seems uneccesary. Salamence clicks Double Edge turn 1 and does big damage. Because they did not recieve leftovers and didn't do any damage that a Salamence4 could have done, this is 100% Salamence3. Now I am considering switching in Gyarados to Intimidate and eat a Double Edge, and start trying to set up on Salamence. Crit chance is scary, but after 2 double Edges, Salamence goes into a range where it is likely to start trying to Endure! I feel like I want to keep Snorlax healthy. Ack!. I decide to stay in, given that Gyarados matches up well vs any of the other Dragons in the back, minus thunderbolt latias/latios, and Metagross destroys that set!. Nidoqueen reveals to be Nidoqueen 1 as it Counters on Snorlax Facade! Do I set up with Metagross or Gyarados now? I also know it cant be Flygon in the back because of Ground typing would have cancelled out the dragon type specialty. This means it objectively HAS to be Kingdra or a Lati in the back. technically more likely to be Lati. So. Setting up metagross is a lot safer vs this Nidoqueen then setting up Gyarados because of the sludge bomb critical hit chance. Latias2 could be hella scary tho as I dont KO it with meteor mash, and they could eq me and crit me and eq me again. But with max evasion I should be rather safe. I think I set up metagross. lets go. Actually. No. I think its gyarados time. I can go gyarados, then metagross, then back to gyarados. Sludge Bomb will never be clicked. So I put in gyara, then meta, then gyara again. I set up 3 dragon dances, then I rested and set up another dragon dance. AS I clicked earthquake, focus band activated and my heart stopped. Thankfully it just sludge bombed and didn't crit! I finished nido off with return, and then killed the latias in the back with return. NICE!
Battle 7: No Type, No Phrase
I could swap Snorlax for a Latias, one that would be totally random. But I think Snorlax special bulk+leftovers is so huge. And helps gyarados a ton. Legit running ADV OU phys offense at this point. LETS DO THIS.
Lead Snorlax into Lead Aggron. Pretty terrible start. I think its likely not Aggron2 or Aggron4 as they are one half to activating a high risk high return phrase. I could stay in and Shadowball. Would make it so Metagross earthquake has a very high chance to kill, and accounts for a Potential Focus Punch Aggron set. I also dont take too much from anything besides an Aggron4 Double Edge or Aggron1 Iron Tail. However a sequence of Iron Tail into earthquake on Aggron1 would be really bad. Reveals itself to be Iron Tail aggron which is pretty bad for me, Aggron1. It having quick claw and earthquake is super scary, and it took a massive chunk out of Snorlax. However, I can use this as a Gyarados setup oppourtunity now! Aggron has a low low chance to Roar on Gyarados until it sets up to +3, so my plan is to go +3 +3, earthquake it, and then do massive damage! ACtually, Ican set up to +2 +2, rest, DD again, and then earthquake! I killed Aggron and swept a Rapidash and VIctrebel in the back. Amazing! Road to 100!
:rs/Lapras: -> :rs/Regice: / :rs/Arcanine: / :rs/Machamp:
Round 15 Draft Lapras1, Meganium4, Arcanine1, Houndoom2, Machamp2, Altaria4.s
Draft explanation: Thought about this for a while, Houndoom2 is enticing, but too frial for my taste, isn't getting the kills. Altaria4 coverage is amazing, but its a fucking altaria. This draft is terrible on a super important round. Wow. I'm going Lapras just for the Water+Fire type defensive synergy, STAB surf is STAB surf, confuse ray gonna do wonders. Machamp going to have to carry me, lets do this.
Battle 1 No Type, High Risk High Return.
Arcanine lead into Nidoqueen. NO white herb activation means no superpower nido thank god. Pivot into Lapras reveals Counter, confirms Nidoqueen1 welcome back bestie. Considering pivoting into Machamp to set up bulk ups and try to sweep. Considered pivoting into arcanine then machamp. Considred stayin in with Lapras, but my team is so ass imo im going machamp. Bulk up once on sludge bomb, nidoquene clicked counter on the switchin. I'm going to rest dont want to risk a crit poison or anything crazy in 2 turns. As I rest they click counter, and as I earthquake they get focus band activation as they click sludge bomb, super annoying. I'm going to bulk up again, and rest to go semi risky. I bulk up, they bomb, i rest, they bomb, i sleep, they bomb, i sleep, they crit, they bomb i wake up and rest. Because they got that crit sludge, I have to rest again, and end up stalling out sludge bombs, and set up to +6 +6 on nidoqueen. Dodrio comes in and I'm at 179/186 health. Cross chop time. I kill dodrio with chop, sceptile in the back, eq time.
Battle2. No type, No Phrase
Please no latis pleast no latis pease no latis.
Lead Arcanine into Salamence. Scary as hell lead. Heavily considered body slamming t1, but I think the risk of getting huge chip with earthquake or rock slide, while fishing for a body slam paralysis. Isn't it. Lapras time, i take little from any attack. FUCKING HELL ITS DRAGON DANCE MENCE. Im attracting. fall in love with me. It DD'd again. Time to confuse ray. it DD"s AGAIN, actiates lum convirming Salamence6. Aerial Ace could chunk me right now, i have to confuse ray again. Please lapras. LETS FUCKING GO MENCE WAS TOO IN LOVE WITH ME AND CONFUSED. Clicked DD once, hit itself twice in confusion+3 surfs claimed the kill. Amazing. Regirock comes in, i consider going to machamp to try and set up, dont like the thought of a random explosion, or regirock setting up a curse and getting ahead. I can scout out this set, if its leftovers regirock(regirock4) I can go machamp and PP stall it out and go +6 +6. Confirmed regirock3 with the surf rolls. I eat a rock slide, ill surf again. Regice comes in. COnfirmed to be Hail regice or rain regice. Hail regice a lot scarier. Machamp has very high chance to hit one of +6 earthquake or cross chop and secure the kill on a struggling regice. My play here to try and win a little bit earlier WITHOUT risking my Machamp is Sing with lapras go into arcanine and spam flamethrower. WELL IT THUNDERBOLTED OOPSIE we miscalculated the regirock set I guess???? Thankfully this is guaranteed Regice 1 or Regice 6.
Battle 3 Electric Type, Slow and Steady
Lapras1->Regice6
Thought a while about this swap. Lapras im swapping for regice. All of the pokemon had arguements which is crazy. Salamence has intimidate, but the damage output from the set is too little with no ATK ev's and 3 IV's, Regice patches up my special offense weakness too much, and how could I pass up on a boltbeam mon with longevity. Good into upcoming electric specialist.
Lead Arc into Lead Raik. Calm Mind is super threatening to my team, I can't go to Regice and risk it setting up CM and steamrolling through me as I have low odds to force the second rest after the first resto chesto rest. I am going to stay in and Body Slam with ARcanine, hopfully get paralysis and sus out the set. I body slam aas they CM, they tbolt and i live and body slam and kill! Manectric comes in, I pivot to regice, click rest and then ice beam, and kill a vileplume in the back with regice!
battle4 no and no.
Ultra considering swapping Arcanine for Raikou here. the IV difference is obviously huge, but Raikou could totally set up on special leads and just win the whole game. However, a physical attacker lead would put me in a bad positoin. AFter LONG thouht, I have decided to keep ARcanine because of the IV advantage, and the fact that if I draft Raikou, I dont have a single earthquake switchin, and because earthquake is so common of a move on mons that 1v1 3IV Raikou, I think its too cripping without a levitater in the back. This would be different if I had say Salamence in the back. Hate to, but im keeping arcanine LOL.
Lead Arcanine into lead Ninetales, really great lead for me, and means no fire types in the back which is great for Regice! Obviously safe play is to just Body SLam and see what happens. Can't switch anything in. Clicked Body Slam and got a paralysis, however I also got confused in the process. Confirmed Ninetales 1 or Ninetales2, which means no pokemon in the back can have a Slow and steady move! AS both ninetales have 2 of them! Going to stay in and slam again, I think its the easy play. Hit myself in confusion Turn 2, as they flamethrowered, but snapped out turn 3 and hit slam! Nice. Arcanine is now at half health vs a Fearow! Guaranteed not to be Fearow 2 or Fearow 4, as both would have activated phrases. More likely to be Fearow 3 just because Fearow1 could half activate a high risk high return phrase. Fearow3 is easily the scariest. I cant drop to anything Fearow uses here unless they score a crit! Body Slam time! Glalie in the back, very easy flamethrower woot woot.
Battle 5 No Phrase, No Type.
Lead Arcanine into Lead Marowak, the worst matchup I think, besides fighters. Thankfully it is intimidated now, but because it is most likely a speedy marowak, I now have to flamethrower it, let arcanine die, and then go regice and eat a rock slide, hope it doesn't flinch me, and kill with ice beam. SUPER fucking scary. Hopefully the mons in the back are asscheeks. UGH. It also faster than machamp which is terrible. Fuck. I flamethrowered, in hindsight I needed to body slam. idiotic play by me, ice beam finished it off anyway and I could have gotten a paralysis. UGH. Hate making minor misplays like that, I can't be doing that this late! Either way Marowak chunks Regice HARD with earthquake, i kill with Regice. Registeel comes in. Uh oh. Thankfully it cannot Explode as that set activates high risk high return. Worst case scenario is oddly a terrible set. Swagpsychup superpoewr aerial ace, Registeel6. However, if they Swagger or Superpower on the switch, I can perhaps bulk up with machamp, and then go back out into regice on another potential swagger, and rest, and see what happens. It COULD also have focus punch, which would be bad. I really wanna stay in and rest with Regice, because its at 46% health and is a slow mon, meaning I probably wont be able to switch it back in without dying. But I can't risk the speedtie. I think I rest actually? It would only be Registeel6 that can kill me, AND it would have to speedtie. I find those odds to be quite low. I am going to rest. It might be overpreparing for whats in the back, but it allows me to scout Registeel and I am likely to outpace and for it to be worth it. I rest and registeel curses, revealing REgisteel1, I go out to machamp as it curses agian. I bulk up, they curse, I bulk Up they metal claw, I bulk up again, they metal claw. I cross chop to go for the kill as I'm at 60% health, and do big damage, and they curse again so they are +4 I am +3. Now, I can go for a guaranteed earthquake kill. Or, I could bulk up/rest here, and try to go +6 +6 on registeel, and be a more powerful machamp for whatever is in the back. A part of me hates being a 60% machamp who might have to hit a crosschop on a mon in the back! AAAAAAAA. Then again. I have a fucking Regice at full health. I'm killing this while I can. I don't want to get crit on a metal claw as it rests. I cannot have that happen. and anything physical, I am at +3 defense, I eat everything. I kill with earthquake. Sceptile in the back. Beautiful. Thankfully cannot be Sceptile2 here as it would have activated preparation! But other than that its generally even between Sceptile1,3,4. How could this go wrong vs Regice? I think it cannot. I just cross chop here, go for the kill.
Battle 6 No Type, Slow and Steady
Do I ever take this godlike registeel? I am heavily considering it over Machamp actually. Physical set up attacker but with WAY more resistances, as well as Amnesia! But it is arguably more crit bait.. Really dont know what to do here. I decided on Machamp, mostly because even if registeel sets up on some special attackers, it still has to set up multiple curses and then rest again for metal claw to do any damage. Sounds like I am just asking to get crit. MACHAMP GETS KEPT.
Lead Arc into Lead Aggron. Scary lead even with Machamp in the back. Most likely Aggron2 as it has a slow and steady move. Hopefully it rock slides on arcanine! Thunderwave turn 1 confirms aggron2, annoying thunderwave but thats okay I can earthquake now instead of crosschop because of the guts boost, and because aggron was intimidated, I take only some damage from a focus punch that hopefully doesn't hit. Likely to focus punch here as its my first turn for machamp in battle and the AI works that way. Really annoying as they earthquake and I dont hit through paralysis. I think I'm going to Bulk Up into Rest into earthquake now, so I have a +1 +1 machamp. I kill it with that strategy and am left with 78% health and +1, +1. In comes Electabuzz! Could do some good damage with a Psychic, potential chance to crit is annoying as hell with a scope lens set on Electabuzz4, but because of slow and steady, this is almost guaranteed to be Electabuzz1 with light screen LOL. I wish I could bulk up and rest here and go to +6, +6, but it still has thunderbolt, which does 28-33%, crit would be devastating, im just going to earthquake here and take the thunderbolt damage in stride. Didn't confirm the buzz set with the calc, I definitely should have. But eitherway, UMBREON comes in the back. Nightmarish mon if I didn't have a +1 machamp in front of it :). Most likely to be Umbreon2 here, the EVIL SET THAT I HATE WITH A PASSION. die. UGHHHHHHHHH IT WAS A DIFFERENT ELECTABUZZ BECAUSE THE UMBREON CLICKED ATTRACT AS I MISSED CROSS CHOP FUCK ME. I think I stay in and just try to kill it with Cross Chop as they can't kill me right now? If they swagger I will just switch out of course, and I am faster. Shitty ass umbreon dodges a cross chop and then I get immobilized by love as it shadowballs twice. REEEEEE. I need or want to hit crosschops vs this fucker, so I am going to switch stall with regice and arcanine whenever I get swaggered. okay i went regice and it died.
Battle7. NOLAND.
Lead Arcanine into lead RAIKOU. Of course he has a fucking Raikou oh my fucking god. This is terrible. 25% its CM Raikou, which would probably end my run. I need to do the same play as last time. Body slam it, hope to paralyze it. Cmon Arcanine. YESSSSSSS THEY TWAVE TURN 1 AND I GET A BODY SLAM PARALYSIS ON RAIKOU. Okay okay. This can be Raikou1 or Raikou3 now. I decide machamp is my best play. My sequence idea is switchin Machamp, click bulk up, then rest, then earthquake. Raikou does 42-50% with thunderbolt vs my Machamp, and if they end up being raikou1 and rest at some point, thats okay because at the end of the sequence of them tbolting into rest into tbolt, I am still a +1 +1 machamp at more than half health, I like it! Nervous about my paralyzed Arcanine though. RAIKOU GOT FULLY PARALYZED RAIKOU GOT FULLY PARALYZED. Do I eq here or do I bulk up?
Marowak comes in. This is looking over. Paralyzed Arcanine is the worst thing possible here. And this thing kills regice. Its looking over. I have decided that my play is to cross chop with machamp. if Marowak gets an SD, the game is over bar an espeed crit from arcanine, or an espeed flinch into espeed flinch, or the perfect high roll from non crit chop and non crit espeed. Mega coping right now, how the fuck does he have a marowak LOL fuck. my luck is running out.
ITS FUCKING SLOWER. 25% TO BE MAROWAK1 AND ITS MAROWAK1 ITS MAROWAK 1 ITS MAROSAKJENRKJANCKXZ HOLY FUCKING HELL. Now I can eq with Machamp, and finish off the marowak with espeed from Arcanine, assuming I hit through paralysis! PLEASE ARCANINE PLEASE. Maybe bonemerang misses on machamp!. The plan works, Hariyama in the back.
Come the fuck on. Hariyama of all mons. This is horrendous. I have to make a play of going to regice on a hopeful fake out, then back to arcanine for intimidate support. So that regice when arcanine dies can live a hit and go for an ice beam freeze. That is my chance. And I need it to not be thickfat. This is going to take a miracle, but sadly, I think the end will run here. It earthquaked on the switch, basically confirming hariyama3 or else it would have faked out or crosschoped if it was hariyama2. I gotta go back to arc and hope for a cross chop miss. Unfortuntaely hariyama hits the cross chop on the Arcanine switchin, and does a massive chunk. I have to espeed here and hope for a miracle espeed kings rock flinch. I espeed, do some damage, but arcanine dies to earthquake. Its regice vs Hariyama. I need a miracle. 58% Regice staring down a pretty healthy and faster hariyama.
Cross chop hits
Game over.
What a run, I am pretty damn bummed right now. Felt like Noland cteamed my ass man two super threats to my team Marowak and Hariyama just had to come out. This was the most fun ive ever had in Pokemon. I don't really feel like writing the sappy ending right now, im somewhat devastated by this ending.
 
Today, I learned why there is no discussion of the Ruby / Sapphire Tower: I went 301-0 with the first half-baked team that came to mind, got bored, and quit with the streak ongoing.

Skarmory: Sturdy ability, Relaxed nature, Chesto Berry
Spikes, Toxic, Roar, Rest

IVs + EVs = Stat Value (preferred)
28 + 248 = 170 HP (171)
18 + 000 = 094 Atk (76)
21 + 124 = 188 Def
31 + 116 = 105 SpD
03 + 020 = 071 Spe (91)

Latios: Levitate ability, Modest nature, Never-melt Ice (Magnet)
Psychic, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Recover

IVs + EVs = Stat Value (preferred)
19 + 044 = 155 HP (157)
08 + 016 = 091 Def
24 + 188 = 187 SpA
30 + 008 = 131 SpD
31 + 252 = 162 Spe

Snorlax: Thick Fat ability, Impish nature, Leftovers
Curse, Rest, Return, Earthquake

IVs + EVs = Stat Value (preferred)
29 + 252 = 266 HP
02 + 000 = 116 Atk (higher)
28 + 192 = 118 Def
29 + 060 = 137 SpD

(I led Skarm til 98 wins, and Lati thereafter, but I might as well have led Lati from the start. Last mon Lefties Registeel doesn't die to Struggle, but Roar doesn't reveal the final Pokemon until only two remain.)
(Sayonara to the pre-build post asking advice.)

Idk if you saw my post about the RS Tower a couple of pages back but I had a similar experience (though didn't make it quite that far). It's much, much less of a challenge than in Emerald.
 
Hi! I've been lurking here since deciding a couple of months ago to finally take on the Battle Frontier challenge that fascinated me as a kid. I only ever managed the Silvers. I figured it would be much easier now (it was not) but this forum and a ton of other resources were super helpful in building my strategy. A couple of days ago I made it to all 7 and got that shiny gold sheen for my trainer card. Submitting the following streaks, with full teams and details down below!
  • Dome: Lvl. 72, Latios / Metagross / Shedinja (10 Tourneys) - Active
  • Arena: Lvl. 72, Starmie / Metagross / Latios (60 Battles) - Closed
  • Pyramid: Lvl. 72, Mixed Team but finished with Starmie/Salamence/Blissey (70 Floors) - Active
  • Palace: Lvl. 50, Gengar/Salamence/Milotic (42 Battles) - Active
  • Pike: Lvl. 72, Latios/Metagross/Blissey (163 Rooms) - Closed
  • Tower: Lvl. 73, Slaking/Metagross/Latios (100 Battles) - Closed
  • Factory: Lvl. 50 (42 Battles) - Active
These streaks were done on retail. I was lucky enough to have two copies of Emerald, a copy of Sapphire and FireRed, plus a trading cable, so nearly everything was available to me except for the Legendary Birds and Dogs (long ago transferred up to Gen IV). I used the cloning glitch to bypass single-use TMs. I also used it to keep Lv50 copies of my mons for the facilities where I didn’t use Latios (since he had to play open level). I used Glitzer popping on my second copy of Emerald to access Southern Island Latios for a better nature.

Completed: July 21, 2023

Streak: 10 tournaments (Active)
Dome is the easiest of the bunch by a large margin. I made it to the Brain on my first run-through despite running a pretty suboptimal team (which I then paid for once I moved on to the other facilities). I relied purely on the Latios / Metagross duo; Shedinja really only came out for the final battle. It turns out Tucker’s Pokémon can’t touch him.
Latios.png

Latios @ Soul Dew (I didn't know it was useless at the time) ("Soul")
Ability: Levitate
Level: 72
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Brave Nature (lol)
Psychic / Surf / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt

Meta.png

Metagross @ Leftovers ("Meteora")
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 72
EVs: 252 Atk / 128 Spe / 128 HP
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash / Earthquake / Shadow Ball / Brick Break

Shed.png

Shedinja @ Spell Tag ("Visage")
Ability: Magic Guard
Level: 72
Lonely Nature
Toxic / Shadow Ball / Confuse Ray / Protect
20230828_215536.jpg
Completed: July 31, 2023

Streak: 60 Battles (Closed)
This was my real introduction to the Frontier and god was it painful. I think this facility took me more attempts (but not more time, though) than any other. Not being able to switch can really mess with even the best of teams – especially when you go up against a trainer that perfectly counters you. I had to go back to the drawing board a few times. Had to fail a bunch of times to learn how Gen III competitive works. I hated this place by the time I was done – now, I miss the time when I didn’t know what a Double Team staller was…

Ultimately went with the following mons, because they gave the most consistent results. Two big changes made my last run-through successful: learning Soul Dew doesn’t work in the Frontier, and putting Explosion on Gross. Starmie swept Greta in the end; Umbreon only attacked once before losing the judgement, and Psychic easily took down Gengar and Breloom.
Starm.png

Starmie @ Lum Berry ("Amethyst")
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 72
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid Nature (Modest probably would've been better - I got lazy with breeding)
Psychic / Surf / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt

Meta.png

Metagross @ Leftovers ("Meteora")
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 72
EVs: 252 Atk / 128 Spe / 128 HP
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash / Earthquake / Explosion / Aerial Ace

Latios.png

Latios @ Brightpowder ("Soul")
Ability: Levitate
Level: 72
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Brave Nature (lol)
Psychic / Surf / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt
20230910_120339.jpg
Returned again after conquering the rest of the facilities. Lost on Battle 61 to a Zapdos lead, who took down Starmie and nearly Metagross. Entei came next, quickly disposing of Metagross and taking out Latios as well.
Completed: August 9, 2023

Streak: 70 Floors (Active)
This might be controversial but I love this one and found it pretty straightforward. You can stack the deck hard in your favor here, but the downside is it takes a LOT of time to do so. Getting to and beating Brandon only took one run-through, but there was a lot of investment involved.

I had to breed and train up a ton of new team members, and my strategy required spending nearly an hour on each floor. Basically, for the first three rounds, I’d bring Pickup Linoone and run around one-shotting wild Pokémon until I had a good stock of items for the rest of the challenge. Getting Choice Band on Floor #2 is essential. Then, I used Blissey’s Softboiled to heal on higher rounds. After some close calls with trainers on Round 6, I started just slogging through wild Pokémon battles in a small area until my circle of sight was wide enough that I could avoid any and all trainers. I averaged only one trainer battle per level for runs 7 – 10. I definitely recommend bringing teams tailored to the wild mons if you can.

Brandon was pretty easy to get through. It helps when you’ve got plenty of healing items.
Starm.png

Starmie ("Amethyst")
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 72
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Timid Nature
Psychic / Surf / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt

Meta.png

Metagross ("Meteora")
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 72
EVs: 252 Atk / 128 Spe / 128 HP
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash / Earthquake / Explosion / Aerial Ace

Latios.png

Latios ("Soul")
Ability: Levitate
Level: 72
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Brave Nature (lol)
Psychic / Surf / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt

Geng.png

Gengar ("Grudge")
Ability: Levitate
Level: 72
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Sassy Nature
Psychic / Thunderbolt / Ice Punch / Fire Punch

Mence.png

Salamence ("Hyperion")
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 72
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
Aerial Ace / Earthquake / Brick Break / Roar

Bliss.png

Blissey ("Malady")
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 72
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
Softboiled / Counter / Toxic / Seismic Toss

Linoone.png

Linoone ("Scrappy")
Ability: Pickup
Level: 72
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Jolly Nature
Slash / Belly Drum / Rest / Dig
Floor 1 (Electric):
flygonic.png
Swampic.png
Linooneic.png

Floor 2 (Poison):
starmic.png
metaic.png
Linooneic.png

Floor 3 (Fire):
starmic.png
blazic.png
Linooneic.png

Floor 4 (PP-Waste):
salaic.png
starmic.png
blissic.png

Floor 5 (Levitate):
latiosic.png
starmic.png
blissic.png

Floor 6 (Can't Escape):
salaic.png
starmic.png
blissic.png

Floor 7 (Ice):
starmic.png
metaic.png
blissic.png

Floor 8 (Explosion):
Gengic.png
metaic.png
blissic.png

Floor 9 (Psychic):
latiosic.png
metaic.png
blissic.png

Floor 10 (Rock):
starmic.png
salaic.png
blissic.png


* Flygon, Swampert, and Blaziken were from my regular play-through and were not EV trained or bred
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Completed: August 13, 2023

Streak: 42 Battles (Active)
Thought this one wouldn’t be bad and was thoroughly mistaken. Hated it, and unlike the others, did not grow to respect it once the challenge was done. So, you don’t think the Battle Frontier leaves enough up to random chance and AI shenanigans – well I’ve got the place for you! Breeding for the right nature will go a long way to improve your chances – still, nothing is guaranteed here. I definitely recommend Aerial Ace; Double Team stallers are even more infuriating here than the other buildings.

Strategy was pretty simple: Sassy on Sala and Gengar to ensure attacking as much as possible. Milotic really won me over here…her Bold nature leaves her spamming Toxic and Recover, which can take care of almost the entire metagame provided she doesn’t get too careless.

This team had to go up against Spenser three times. Lost the first time because Salamence (with a 94% chance of attacking) Dragon Danced against his nearly-dead Slaking, who then proceeded to one-shot me. I decided to leave him with three moves after that, for consistency. Second time, Suicune froze Milotic for an ungodly amount of turns (I think it was 8), Calm Minded a few times then swept.
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Gengar @ Lum Berry ("Grudge")
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 SpD
Sassy Nature
Psychic / Thunderbolt / Ice Punch / Fire Punch

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Salamence @ Brightpowder ("Draco")
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Sassy Nature
Aerial Ace / Earthquake / Brick Break / No fourth move

Milo.png

Milotic @ Leftovers ("Calypso")
Ability: Marvel Scale
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 226 Def / 30 SpA
Bold Nature
Surf / Ice Beam / Toxic / Recover
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Completed: August 18, 2023

Streak: 163 Rooms (Closed)
This was my favorite facility as a kid, and the first Silver I’d earned. Getting the gold was a bit more frustrating than I thought it would be; it really does all come down to luck. You can prep as much as possible and have a foolproof team…and still get all three of your guys frozen in the second to last room and lose to a “particularly tough” trainer. Strategy is to talk to the Maid every time (at least once you’re on your 3rd or 4th pass-through) – avoid “is it a Trainer” and “Nostalgia” (unless it’s literally the last room, then you want to go for this one). Before taking this on, I used Glitzer on my second Emerald cartridge to catch a Latios with a better nature – and of course it had terrible IVs, so it wasn’t much better than the OG. I also relented and bred another Blissey for Aromatherapy, which was helpful, but would’ve been nice if you could use it out of battle like Softboiled.

Definitely got lucky on my last streak. Didn’t battle a single trainer on Round 8 (first time this happened) and on Round 10, only faced one double battle in which I took no damage. Lucy herself is a pushover. Latios one-shotted Seviper and Gyarados, and 2-shotted Steelix, which tried to use Earthquake. Didn’t take 1HP of damage.
Latios.png

Latios @ Lum Berry ("Soul")
Ability: Levitate
Level: 72
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Modest Nature
Psychic / Surf / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt

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Metagross @ Brightpowder ("Meteora")
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 72
EVs: 252 Atk / 128 Spe / 128 HP
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash / Earthquake / Explosion / Aerial Ace

Bliss.png

Blissey @ Leftovers ("Malady")
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 72
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
Softboiled / Seismic Toss / Toxic / Aromatherapy
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Returned after conquering the rest of the facilities. Made it through the 11th run without much of a problem. On Run 12, had my team frozen / paralyzed in the first two rooms. Then, faced two double battles, after which my team was all in the red and suffering from various ailments. Easily lost to a “particularly tough” trainer, who led with a Raichu.
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Completed: August 28, 2023

Streak: 100 Battles (Closed)
Tower made me forgive the Palace (almost). With the streak requirement as high as it is (70), it’s highly unlikely you won’t run into some sort of streak-ending hax before you get to Anabel. I easily spent the most time in this facility – even more than the Pyramid or Arena. I was consistently losing between battles 50 - 63 about a dozen times before I scrapped and re-tooled my strategy. Lost to a Lapras hitting Sheer Cold three times in a row, Double Team + Rest Registeel, two instances of legends (Raikou + Zapdos) being left on 1-5HP, unlucky crits, Metagross getting frozen for eight turns until it died, an opposing Gross exploding in a 1v1 on me (why do I lose if I do that and if someone does it to me?). Even in my successful run, it came down to a really lucky break on battle 54 that should’ve ended my streak.

For the first 35 battles, I used Latios / Metagross / Milotic. I love Milo; her Toxic Stall + Recover strategy can take down almost anything outside of Poison and Steel types. With her bulk and Mirror Coat, she doesn’t flinch at Electric types either, and she’s a great check for Double Team Shuckle, Tyranitar, bulky Waters like Suicune, Blissey, and Wobbuffet. Unfortunately, she went from star to liability once those higher rounds started rolling in, so I had to swap her out. I even Tomato’d the hell out of Metagross and switched up its EV spread.

Battles 36 – 70, the team was Slaking / Metagross / Latios. Strategy was simple and came from reading this forum (credit to Churly-Puik!); Slaking is there to ideally KO the first mon, switch to whoever is best equipped to take on the next, switch back to Slaking for another KO. Don’t be afraid to explode Metagross. There also may be an opportunity to set up Calm Mind with Latios.

I was incredibly meticulous on my last run-through, keeping up the Bulbapedia list of trainers and the damage calculator from Eisencalc which has the BF sets built in. I had two close calls which almost ended in my cartridge against the wall; on Battle 54, Latios failed to hit a single ice beam as Zapdos managed 4 Double Teams, but somehow, Slaking hit Double-Edge for the kill on literally the last turn before he would’ve been taken out. Then, Anabel’s Raikou opened with a crit on Slaking that left her with only 7HP.

All I can say is thank Arceus I’m done with this place.
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Slaking @ Choice Band ("Slayqueen")
Ability: Traunt
Level: 73
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant Nature
Double-Edge / Earthquake / Shadow Ball / Brick Break (OHKOs TTar)

Meta.png

Metagross @ Leftovers ("Meteora")
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 73
EVs: 252 Atk / 200 HP / 56 Def
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash / Earthquake / Explosion / Aerial Ace

Latios.png

Latios @ Lum Berry ("Soul")
Ability: Levitate
Level: 73
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Modest Nature
Psychic / Calm Mind / Ice Beam / Thunderbolt
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Came back to reset my streak before taking the Factory and never thought I'd make it this far. Once I hit the magic 100 number I got lazy. Was up against Salamence – Moltes – Crobat. Made some very unadvisable switches which resulted in Latios and Metagross both being killed before they could get off a hit. Slaking took down Sala and Moltres but was limping by the time Crobat came out. Very winnable battle, I think I just ran out of gas once the Gold Shield was secured.
Completed: September 8, 2023

Streak: 42 Battles (Active)
I took a break before coming for the Factory. I tried to read up on it a bit more than the others, since Factory has its own learning curve that benefits knowing what mons and sets you’ll face. I made sure to reset my Tower steak before coming here. Strategy-wise, I’d try to get a good sweeper lead in the draft and build my team around them. I also made sure to swap a Pokémon every round for the first two run-throughs to secure better draft picks later on. I played on Level 50 as I read it was easier, and really didn’t want to have to deal with legendaries in the later rounds. The downside is, those first few rounds of weak mons can be a huge slog. It took me nine tries to get through this one, and of those, I lost five of them in the first 5 (!) battles.

My successful streak really owed to getting some amazing draft picks in Round 6. Round 5 was much touchier; I had a terrible lead and barely scraped by the first two battles as I traded up to something better.
Round 1: Don’t remember much about this one, since I had to play it so many times.

Round 2: Built around a Pigeot lead, periodically swapping out the other two teammates.

Round 3: Built around a Graveler lead; he was surprisingly good here.

Round 4: Built around Claydol-1 as the lead. Initially had Wailord-1 and Lanturn-2 as support; swapped Lanturn for Scizor-1 after the first battle.

Round 5: Had a decent draft but lacked a good sweeper lead. Went with Fearow-2 with Vaporeon-2 and Donphan-3 in the back. Swapped Fearow for Dodrio on Battle 1, then exchanged Dodrio for Salamence-2 after the second match. This team then carried me fairly easily through the rest.

Round 6: Ended up with Slaking-3 (Choice Band), Vaporeon-4, and Heracross-3 after the draft. This team easily carried me through the round. Slaking would generally KO whatever came first, then would switch to Vaporeon to absorb the next hit or Heracross to go down as the sacrifice. I nearly swapped Heracross for Gengar before facing Noland but decided against it.

Noland didn’t give me much trouble. Amphoros was out first and fell immediately to Slaking’s EQ. Kangaskhan came next; swapped to Heracross, who Brick Break’d him to death. Sceptile OHKO’d Hera with Aerial Ace, then Slaking came back out to power through one Leaf Blade before taking care of business.
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I really underestimated just how tough the Battle Frontier really was. I do wish that this was more of an organic challenge, not just, let’s throw OHKO moves and Brightpowder + Double Team until they lose a high streak. At the end of the day, so much of this place (not just the Pike), comes down to luck, which can get incredibly frustrating. It didn’t dampen my love for it though. I know we’ll never see one again, but I’d love to take my Hydrei up against the Brains someday.

In order of what I thought was easiest to hardest:

Dome: The tutorial (Seriously this is child’s play)
Pike: O no did my emotional support Dusclops freeze your team? (Second easiest – it’s quick)
Pyramid: Don’t you people have jobs? It’s dark in here (Honestly is easier than Pike, it just takes FOREVER)
Factory: Who puts Earthquake on a Latias? (It can be tedious but the streak count is mercifully low)
Arena: Take your double teams elsewhere (Slightly easier than Tower, because of lower streak)
Palace: The AI singularity is here and it is incapable of using its power (Annoying but the low streak means you won’t have to deal with legends and 31IV mons before Spenser)
Tower: 70 BATTLES? REALLY?! (No comment)

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Not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but I was wondering if there's an explanation for the order of events for pinch berry activation.

My latest Battle Palace match: Starmie (mine) vs AI (Ludicolo 4).

Starmie is badly poisoned, behind a sub, in yellow approx. 35-40%. Ludicolo at 30-33ish.
The attack turn has just ended. I'm expecting after Toxic damage to activate my Petaya Berry and with the boost be able to finish the Ludicolo with an Ice Beam. However, what happens is:
- Toxic damage pushes Starmie into red as expected (<=20). No Petaya activation (?)
- Ludicolo recovers some HP with Leftovers.

Next turn:
- Starmie uses Ice Beam, fails to kill Ludicolo.
- Ludicolo uses Toxic (fails, Starmie behind sub)
- Starmie's Petaya Berry activates (now??)
- Starmie dies to Toxic damage.

Streak ends at 156.

So I've never read anywhere about the sequence that the game uses to account for residual damage on pinch berry activation. I don't think I've ever had this issue with Sandstorm damage pushing a Pokemon into pinch berry range. I'm also wondering if it has ever changed across gens.
 
Finally beat my PB and reached an ongoing streak of 70 on Battle Tower Lv50 Doubles (cart).

Photo is coming. When I try upload a photo from my phone it says 'file too large'. I'll figure something out.

https://pokepast.es/1e13e28601fab96c

Why the bad natures, IVs and EVs?
This is the best I got lol. I RNG'd a few Pokemon but found it tedious so used other means of getting high IV Pokemon: the ruby battle tower glitch. I've done the glitch successfully 6 times, although the natures and EV investment are random, hence my rash Gardevoir and serious Milotic. Substitute was breed onto my Kangaskhan so that I don't need to replay leaf green to have a pokemon with substitute.

Team Explanation
I lead with Kangaskhan and Gardevoir and always use fake out on turn 1.
This allows Gardevoir to either set up, wall break, score KO's, or pivot. I try to keep the least threatening of the opponent's Pokemon in while hitting the other with STAB psychic and STAB double edge.

Kangaskhan can set up substitute easily since Gardevoir usually protects when targeted because of its low HP and defence. Sitrus berry heals double edge recoil and helps set up more substitutes. Double edge can KO Starmie and with rock slide Kangaskhan can hit ghost types. Even against steel types, Kangaskhan has come in handy stalling with substitute and scoring flinches and chip damage with rock slide.

This is the first time I've used a max speed, max HP Milotic and it worked very well. I run protect instead of recover to avoid damage from my Salamence's EQ, but it also works great for stalling, pivoting and recovering with leftovers. Milotic hasn't had a problem tanking hits thanks to Salamence's intimidate, while it's high speed stat allows it to do damage before taking damage.

I ran DD on Salamence but changed it for flamethrower for a reliable answer for Scizor, counter users, and physically defensive Metogross.


Team building
I refered to a type chart to find which moves hit the most Pokemon super effectively. So, I wanted my special attacking Pokemon to run boltbeam + psychic, while my physical attackers run EQ + rock slide. I chose Pokemon with high HP and speed. Only 1 is weak to Ice, 1 weak to electric, (2 neutral). Only 1 is weak to rock while 1 immunity to EQ (3 neutral).

Improvements
I'm going to leave this streak at 70 and only continue after some calculations and optimisation.
I could run Destiny Bond or replace Gardevoir with Latios. Although, being neutral against ice is important for Starmie match ups, while Alakazam is quite frail.
Hariyama could replace Kangaskhan, but Kangaskhan is faster and hits like a truck with STAB double edge.
I chose Milotic over Swampert for the ice resist and better ability.
I chose Salamence because it's a dragon and dragons are cool.

Please comment with any ideas for improvements

My streak finished at 72. I just started playing emerald again after gen 3 nuzlockes and gen 4 battle tower so I can't quite remember what ended it. It must have been something simple like losing to a team of bulky waters.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ca7NY1mDGEwXVmyD7
 
:rs/dusclops: @ Leftovers (Pressure)
Destiny Bond
Will-o-Wisp
Protect
Substitute
120 HP, 130 Defence, 252 SDef (Impish)
Not sure if you're still using this Dusclops set, but an EV spread of 252/64/192 with an Impish nature gives you about 8% more bulk on both sides, if my calculations are correct.

I agree with your reasoning that this is probably the best Ghost option, but I wonder if other Pokemon might be able to offer additional utility that compensates for not being able to status an incoming Pokemon after Explosion KOs one or both opponents.

Slowbro seems very solid, but I feel like you might miss Sableye's Fake Out and Dusclops' utility.

A weird suggestion I have is Thick Fat Dewgong. It can use Protect/Water move/Icy Wind/Fake Out, threatening (at least some of) the Fire mons that Metagross doesn't like and replicating some of the post-Explosion utility that the Ghosts have. Stats definitely leave something to be desired though, as do the weaknesses of the Ice type. Also, egg move incompatibility strikes yet again: Perish Song and Encore could be fun options, but neither is compatible with the other, nor with Fake Out.
 
I got somewhat inspired to do the factory after watching lrxc's video. Gotta say this is a lot of fun. Would love to do more in the other areas too but I'm dreading getting good IVs and natures. For now (hopefully) I'll keep climbing the factory tomorrow.
I should have kept a better log of this, but I didn't really think I'd make it this far
I drafted Jolteon 4/Starmie 4/Armaldo 3. This is round 9 so Ivs are random, except the Jolteon is elevated so it's a round 10 jolteon with 31IVs

Over the course of the battles I swap Armaldo for swagger/psy up regirock, starmie for boltbeam psychic earthquake latias, and finally regirock for EQ dragonbreath rock tomb roar steelix.

The facility leader I remember because I was caught off guard by him, I thought he only appeared at 21 and 42 battles.
My jolteon meets his Aerodactyle---- Thunderbolt OHKO
Victrebell comes out
Jolteon uses bite to chip him for latias to guarrentee the kill no matter the set, Victrebell uses stun spore and paralyzes jolteon
Swap to latias, sludge bomb hits for more than half and a poison status
Psychic knocks out victrebell
Dodrio comes out
Dodrio outspeeds and KOs latias (I just assumed I would outspeed and knock out so my heart sank for a second)
Steelix comes out and spams rock tombs to close out the game
 

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