Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

[MorganMyr]

Hello everyone, I chased the gold symbols a few years ago and found myself continuing to play the frontier after getting them so I thought I might as well share my records.
All of them are on emulator on a french version. They are also all on open level, at level 67 (don't ask) outside of the factory.
I teambuilt myself across emerald and fire red with the cloning but without rng manip or that much patience so the IV are kinda all over the place.

Pokemon used in multiple facilities

Latios

Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 67
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 18 HP / 30 Atk / 30 Def / 11 SpA / 27 SpD / 21 Spe
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind

Blissey

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 67
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 7 HP / 23 Atk / 29 Def / 24 SpA / 21 SpD / 28 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled

Salamence

Salamence @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 67
EVs: 248 Atk / 248 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 22 HP / 27 Def / 21 SpA / 3 SpD
- Aerial Ace
- Brick Break
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Metagross

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 67
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
IVs: 28 HP / 22 Atk / 16 SpA / 27 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Slide

Tower: 110

Team: Latios/Metagross/Blissey (sets in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities")

Latios and Metagross are just really strong with good coverage and Blissey has so many opportunity to switch in and calm mind.
Weaknesses: strong ground types once Latios is ko, bulky waters with okho moves (that damn Walrein on battle 69 before I got the gold), meteor mash accuracy, Metagross locking in the wrong move in a 1v2, getting crit in a calm mind war.

Can't remember how I lost, it is the oldest of those records.
I think Salamence/Latios/Blissey might be better but I didn't grind it out.

Dome: 19

Team: Latios/Salamence/Blissey (sets in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities")

Intimidate lead + Blissey is really really good although you sometime need to dodge a crit. I really appreciate CB aerial ace to deal with double team.

How I lost: a counter + explosion Regirock beat Salamence+Blissey. Salamence+Latios would have ko it but they also had a Suicune so I don't think my team had any reliable counter-measure.

Arena: 68

Team: Persian/Latios/Metagross

Persian

Dojo cat (Persian) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Limber
Level: 67
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 2 HP / 25 Atk / 26 Def / 25 SpD / 29 Spe
- Fake Out
- Protect
- Dig
- Shadow Ball

I'm definitely not the first to come up with the FakeOut/Protect/Dig Persian but I really love it. It mainly looses to Earthquake and Inner Focus but Latios can often set up on those kind of pokemons. After beating the lead it has a good chance of trading with the 2nd mon by just spamming dig and surviving 1 hit. You could go full HP for this reason (or just try to not have 2 HP IVs like mine) but I went full attack to beat ghost easier and cheap things it cannot beat more. I wish I knew the AI and its sets better to know when to go for the cheese and when to go for the cheap.

Unlike Blissey, Latios only need 1 or 2 calm mind to sweep and it's coverage is really appreciated in the arena. CB Metagross is monstrous but unreliable as usual, here it can't even switch to remove the choice effect.
I think I lost to a Houndoom beating both Latios and Meta (or put Meta in the red?). They usually complements each other well but that dog is annoying.

Pike: 171

Team: Latios/Metagross/Blissey (sets in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities")
I didn't really prepare for the pike. I really should have least given Heal bell or Aroma to Blissey.
I tried to dodge the status room and used softboiled outside of battle and against wild mons. I think I lost to facing multiple battles without healing.

Palace: 61

Team: Salamence/Metagross/Blissey (Blissey in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities", the other are different)
Team for 3rd round: Jolteon/Salamence/Blissey

Salamence

Salamence (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 67
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Quirky Nature
IVs: 11 HP / 25 Def / 11 SpA
- Aerial Ace

Metagross

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 67
EVs: 242 Atk / 248 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 25 Atk / 8 Def / 17 SpA / 24 SpD / 29 Spe
- Meteor Mash

Jolteon

Jolteon (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Volt Absorb
Level: 67
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 10 HP / 25 Atk / 22 Def / 22 SpA / 20 SpD / 29 Spe
- Thunderbolt

The Salamence should be hardy or hasty, I messed up. I gave them only 1 move (except Blissey) because I thought the move in the chosen category was taken at random but it seems it uses smart AI ? Meta should probably have Earthquake then.

Silver Spenser is hell so I use Jolteon just for him. That Jolt could be better with more HP EV and a hidden power, maybe also sub+petaya or a quiet nature.

Intimidate and Blissey's leftovers feels even stronger in the palace where everyone is wasting turns. Blissey can still switch in and calm mind but it takes forever and sometime it will just refuse to heal 14 turns in a row (if think that's kinda how I lost).

Since then I built a hasty Tauros, hasty Starmie and brave Snorlax that might be worth trying, probably over Meta (I used them in monotype challenges).

Pyramid: 175

Team: Slaking/Latios/Blissey
Other members: Salamence, Metagross, Starmie, Linoone, lv5 Zigzagoon

Slaking

Slaking (M)
Ability: Truant
Level: 67
EVs: 252 Atk / 248 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 27 HP / 25 Atk / 21 Def / 24 SpA / 12 SpD / 22 Spe
- Return
- Shadow Ball
- Earthquake
- Hyper Beam

Starmie

Starmie
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 67
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 22 HP / 0 Atk / 22 Spe
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Ice Beam

Linoone

Linoone (M)
Ability: Pickup
Level: 67
EVs: 248 Atk / 248 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 10 HP / 29 SpA / 30 Spe
- Return
- Facade
- Shadow Ball
- Dig

I think it's common knowledge how excellent Slaking and Blissey are in the pyramid once you get a Choice Band and Leftovers. I used them for most rounds, and I often replaced Latios or Slaking with something with a type advantage against the wild mons. For the explosion round I used Salamence's intimidate alongside Metagross to take minimal damage.

I used both Linoone and Zigzagoon for Pick Up in round 1, and kept Linoone in round 2. For those 2 round only I didn't left any item on any floor but I didn't stayed after that to farm Pick Up (you might want to during round 2 if you want a Choice Band).

Factory (lv100): 59

I went for lv100 instead of 50 since the pokemon have more coverage (so less extreme matchup) and you run into less attract, but since the world record is at lv50 I'm probably missing something.

I heard about how the IVs are glitched so I made sure my streak in the tower was 0, then as I advanced in the factory I tried to avoid trading start-of-round pokemons with mons from opponents.

As a lead I tried to have something with Intimidate, Choice Band or Explosion, or just something with few very bad matchups. For the 2 in the back I wanted a lot of type synergy (more than with the lead), and at least one mon fast enough to revenge kill.

I think I got pretty mediocre choices at the start of round 9 and couldn't handle a bad matchup in battle 60.

Recently I went for monotype challenges for the gold symbols (minus the factory obviously). I did Normal (mainly Tauros/Dodrio/Blissey), Psychic (Latios/Metagross/Starmie) and Dragon (Salamence/Latios/Kingdra). Water is the only one remaining that I'm confident I can do, the others seems rough (Flying, Steel and Ground might be okay).

If I get the motivation I may try to improve my Palace, Pike and Arena records.

 

[meleeisbetter]

Hello everyone, I chased the gold symbols a few years ago and found myself continuing to play the frontier after getting them so I thought I might as well share my records.
All of them are on emulator on a french version. They are also all on open level, at level 67 (don't ask) outside of the factory.
I teambuilt myself across emerald and fire red with the cloning but without rng manip or that much patience so the IV are kinda all over the place.

Pokemon used in multiple facilities

Latios

Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 67
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 18 HP / 30 Atk / 30 Def / 11 SpA / 27 SpD / 21 Spe
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind

Blissey

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 67
EVs: 252 Def / 252 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 7 HP / 23 Atk / 29 Def / 24 SpA / 21 SpD / 28 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Soft-Boiled

Salamence

Salamence @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 67
EVs: 248 Atk / 248 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 22 HP / 27 Def / 21 SpA / 3 SpD
- Aerial Ace
- Brick Break
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide

Metagross

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 67
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
IVs: 28 HP / 22 Atk / 16 SpA / 27 Spe
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Slide

Tower: 110

Team: Latios/Metagross/Blissey (sets in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities")

Latios and Metagross are just really strong with good coverage and Blissey has so many opportunity to switch in and calm mind.
Weaknesses: strong ground types once Latios is ko, bulky waters with okho moves (that damn Walrein on battle 69 before I got the gold), meteor mash accuracy, Metagross locking in the wrong move in a 1v2, getting crit in a calm mind war.

Can't remember how I lost, it is the oldest of those records.
I think Salamence/Latios/Blissey might be better but I didn't grind it out.

Dome: 19

Team: Latios/Salamence/Blissey (sets in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities")

Intimidate lead + Blissey is really really good although you sometime need to dodge a crit. I really appreciate CB aerial ace to deal with double team.

How I lost: a counter + explosion Regirock beat Salamence+Blissey. Salamence+Latios would have ko it but they also had a Suicune so I don't think my team had any reliable counter-measure.

Arena: 68

Team: Persian/Latios/Metagross

Persian

Dojo cat (Persian) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Limber
Level: 67
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 2 HP / 25 Atk / 26 Def / 25 SpD / 29 Spe
- Fake Out
- Protect
- Dig
- Shadow Ball

I'm definitely not the first to come up with the FakeOut/Protect/Dig Persian but I really love it. It mainly looses to Earthquake and Inner Focus but Latios can often set up on those kind of pokemons. After beating the lead it has a good chance of trading with the 2nd mon by just spamming dig and surviving 1 hit. You could go full HP for this reason (or just try to not have 2 HP IVs like mine) but I went full attack to beat ghost easier and cheap things it cannot beat more. I wish I knew the AI and its sets better to know when to go for the cheese and when to go for the cheap.

Unlike Blissey, Latios only need 1 or 2 calm mind to sweep and it's coverage is really appreciated in the arena. CB Metagross is monstrous but unreliable as usual, here it can't even switch to remove the choice effect.
I think I lost to a Houndoom beating both Latios and Meta (or put Meta in the red?). They usually complements each other well but that dog is annoying.

Pike: 171

Team: Latios/Metagross/Blissey (sets in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities")
I didn't really prepare for the pike. I really should have least given Heal bell or Aroma to Blissey.
I tried to dodge the status room and used softboiled outside of battle and against wild mons. I think I lost to facing multiple battles without healing.

Palace: 61

Team: Salamence/Metagross/Blissey (Blissey in "Pokemon used in multiple facilities", the other are different)
Team for 3rd round: Jolteon/Salamence/Blissey

Salamence

Salamence (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 67
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Quirky Nature
IVs: 11 HP / 25 Def / 11 SpA
- Aerial Ace

Metagross

Metagross @ Lum Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 67
EVs: 242 Atk / 248 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 25 Atk / 8 Def / 17 SpA / 24 SpD / 29 Spe
- Meteor Mash

Jolteon

Jolteon (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Volt Absorb
Level: 67
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
IVs: 10 HP / 25 Atk / 22 Def / 22 SpA / 20 SpD / 29 Spe
- Thunderbolt

The Salamence should be hardy or hasty, I messed up. I gave them only 1 move (except Blissey) because I thought the move in the chosen category was taken at random but it seems it uses smart AI ? Meta should probably have Earthquake then.

Silver Spenser is hell so I use Jolteon just for him. That Jolt could be better with more HP EV and a hidden power, maybe also sub+petaya or a quiet nature.

Intimidate and Blissey's leftovers feels even stronger in the palace where everyone is wasting turns. Blissey can still switch in and calm mind but it takes forever and sometime it will just refuse to heal 14 turns in a row (if think that's kinda how I lost).

Since then I built a hasty Tauros, hasty Starmie and brave Snorlax that might be worth trying, probably over Meta (I used them in monotype challenges).

Pyramid: 175

Team: Slaking/Latios/Blissey
Other members: Salamence, Metagross, Starmie, Linoone, lv5 Zigzagoon

Slaking

Slaking (M)
Ability: Truant
Level: 67
EVs: 252 Atk / 248 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 27 HP / 25 Atk / 21 Def / 24 SpA / 12 SpD / 22 Spe
- Return
- Shadow Ball
- Earthquake
- Hyper Beam

Starmie

Starmie
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 67
EVs: 252 HP / 248 SpA
Modest Nature
IVs: 22 HP / 0 Atk / 22 Spe
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
- Ice Beam

Linoone

Linoone (M)
Ability: Pickup
Level: 67
EVs: 248 Atk / 248 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 10 HP / 29 SpA / 30 Spe
- Return
- Facade
- Shadow Ball
- Dig

I think it's common knowledge how excellent Slaking and Blissey are in the pyramid once you get a Choice Band and Leftovers. I used them for most rounds, and I often replaced Latios or Slaking with something with a type advantage against the wild mons. For the explosion round I used Salamence's intimidate alongside Metagross to take minimal damage.

I used both Linoone and Zigzagoon for Pick Up in round 1, and kept Linoone in round 2. For those 2 round only I didn't left any item on any floor but I didn't stayed after that to farm Pick Up (you might want to during round 2 if you want a Choice Band).

Factory (lv100): 59

I went for lv100 instead of 50 since the pokemon have more coverage (so less extreme matchup) and you run into less attract, but since the world record is at lv50 I'm probably missing something.

I heard about how the IVs are glitched so I made sure my streak in the tower was 0, then as I advanced in the factory I tried to avoid trading start-of-round pokemons with mons from opponents.

As a lead I tried to have something with Intimidate, Choice Band or Explosion, or just something with few very bad matchups. For the 2 in the back I wanted a lot of type synergy (more than with the lead), and at least one mon fast enough to revenge kill.

I think I got pretty mediocre choices at the start of round 9 and couldn't handle a bad matchup in battle 60.

Recently I went for monotype challenges for the gold symbols (minus the factory obviously). I did Normal (mainly Tauros/Dodrio/Blissey), Psychic (Latios/Metagross/Starmie) and Dragon (Salamence/Latios/Kingdra). Water is the only one remaining that I'm confident I can do, the others seems rough (Flying, Steel and Ground might be okay).

If I get the motivation I may try to improve my Palace, Pike and Arena records.

does someone have evidence about the IV glitch working for the factory? I thought it was just the dome, but I also remember hearing about the factory too.

and how the hell does that palace team work? you auto lose to steelix. curious to hear how you got that so far.

 

[BeVreeze]

does someone have evidence about the IV glitch working for the factory? I thought it was just the dome, but I also remember hearing about the factory too.

and how the hell does that palace team work? you auto lose to steelix. curious to hear how you got that so far.

You can swap a pokemon with your opponent and check their stats. That should confirm what their IVs are. There are a ton of high streaks recorded so you can check some of those videos.

 

[MorganMyr]

does someone have evidence about the IV glitch working for the factory? I thought it was just the dome, but I also remember hearing about the factory too.

and how the hell does that palace team work? you auto lose to steelix. curious to hear how you got that so far.

I admit I just read about the IV glitch on bulbapedia and haven't checked myself, sorry if that's misinformation.

About the palace, the bulky ground type (Swampert, Steelix, Donphan) are definitely a threat since they can 1v2 my Blissey and Meta but switching between Salamence and Meta (or Salamence and Blissey if need) to intimidate before setting up with blissey is pretty reliable. For that reason I only stay in with Salamence in really good matchup, I prefer keeping intimidate and aerial ace for when I need them. Crits will still destroy blissey though so it probably doesn't have the potential for a much longer run.

 

[Q8altaria]

Dojo cat (Persian) (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Limber
Level: 67
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
IVs: 2 HP / 25 Atk / 26 Def / 25 SpD / 29 Spe
- Fake Out
- Protect
- Dig
- Shadow Ball

I'm currently playing PokéMMO which basically is an emulator that puts all gen 1-5 games into an online MMO and there happens to be some of the battle frontier facilities from Hoenn. I happened to come up with the idea of Fake Out/Protect/Dig and I thought that I was the first person to do so. So I thought of sharing this idea here for someone to test it but I guess someone thought of the same thing haha. I did try it for a bit but it's a super fragile strategy (atleast in PokéMMO).

And also, big congrats on your amazing streaks ♥

 

[BeVreeze]

Edit: It has been brought to my attention that the zapdos I used had illegal IVs. I believe that using a zapdos with 26 Def IVs should work without having any major impact on the team's performance.

Reporting a completed lvl 50 battle tower doubles streak of 289 wins. This was my first time doing a serious attempt at the doubles tower. My goal was 100 wins and this was the first streak that hit that, so the final result was far beyond expectations. I would've liked to hit 300 as that was the final stretch goal I set for myself, but I'm still extremely happy with what the team achieved. The streak was played on my modded 3ds. Pokemon were created using PKSM. The streak is being uploaded to this playlist.

Initial teambuilding

I started with choice band tauros. I have been using it in singles recently and intimidate in doubles is really good. One of tauros' moves was earthquake. Spamming earthquake with choice band seems really strong so I decided to build a team around that. Tauros' damage with earthquake isn't high enough to one shot a lot of pokemon so I decided to look into a ground type for stab. Tauros never made it onto the team despite being the pokemon I originally wanted to build around.

Swampert was the highest attack ground type that I deemed usable. Rhydon and donphan's attack stats are higher, but they are slow and die easily to something like quick claw ice beam. Swampert isn't the fastest, but can still outspeed a decent amount. Another option was Flygon who has some nice speed and is almost as strong as swampert, but quick claw ice beam is too common.

The strongest ground immune pokemon I could think of was latios, so that became my second lead. With thunderbolt and ice beam to deal good damage to flying types, levitate pokemon and grass types.

For the pokemon in the back I wanted something that could switch into ice types and something for grass types. I went with articuno. While articuno doesn't resist ice it has very high base spdef and can't be frozen. It also resists grass, has ice stab and is immune to ground. It also has haze which is great for dealing with most set up mons and is mostly used to help clean up double team users.

While articuno can easily switch into grass type moves I can't have it switch into ice for latios and grass for swampert at the same time. That's why I went looking for another grass resist and I ended up with gengar. It's fast and strong, but it also has access to perish song which can be very nice especially for dealing with high spdef pokemon if I lose swampert or to get rid of set up regis who I can't haze due to clear body.

First team

The idea of the team is simple. Swampert tries to kill everything with earthquake. The rest of the team is there to deal with swampert's bad matchups.

Swampert @ Choice Band
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
Adamant Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Rock
- Double-Edge
- Brick Break

Hidden power rock to have good damage against fliers. Outspeeds horn drill mons. Being bulky isn't as good in doubles and a lot of pokemon have no speed so you can outspeed quite a few pokemon at max speed.

Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Timid Nature
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam
- Protect

1 speed higher than gengar for a kill+perish song combo

Articuno @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
Modest Nature
EVs: 52 HP / 252 SpA / 204 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
- Haze
- Protect

Outspeeds Lati@s. I didn't know which item would be good so I started off with leftovers since it's fairly tanky and has protect.

Gengar @ BrightPowder
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Timid Nature
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Punch
- Perish Song
- Protect

Fire punch to kill shedinja, cover grass and some good damage against steels which I was worried about in case swampert died. I didn't know which item would be good so I started off with bright powder.

Early results

I did about 5 attempts with this team. Got to 77 wins on my first attempt then struggled a bit before losing at 96 wins. I started making some changes as I went like switching to jolly HP ghost swampert to outspeed metagross, replacing brick break with protect for perish song stall, and changing some items.

I lost battle 97 to trace levitate gardevoir lead. I had run into trace levitate a bunch of times, but while it was annoying it hadn't been that bad. This battle made me realise how dangerous it could be especially with gardevoir being able to use magical leaf and the rest of my team not doing much against it. After losing I decided I no longer wanted a levitate lead pokemon to avoid this in the future.

There were also other problems for the team. Heracross was an issue. While Latios easily one shots with psychic there's brightpowder and focus band to worry about. Megahorn easily OHKOs latios and does 80% to swampert, and swampert's EQ doesn't do that much damage to it. Latios also missed out on kills against annoying pokemon like charizard, aerodactyl, moltres, gyarados (some sets), starmie (roll/no kill).

Final team

Zapdos was the first pokemon that came to mind to replace latios, but I wasn't sure how well it would perform. I was worried about the lower speed and having weaker coverage, but it turned out that zapdos was exactly what I needed on this team. The STAB thunderbolt helped a lot against fliers and also got more OHKOs against water types.

Swampert @ Choice Band
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
Jolly Nature
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Def / 30 SpD
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power Ghost
- Double-Edge
- Protect

Hidden power ghost so I can run max speed to outspeed metagross and deals good damage to Lati@s. Jolly does decrease the damage by a lot and some important kills become rolls or the chance to kill becomes worse like rhydon, starmie, registeel, but I think it was a worthwhile trade off. Protect for stalling perish song turns, but later on I sometimes used it to scout turn 1 against certain pokemon or get a free turn against double grass leads.

Zapdos @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Hasty Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Drill peck
- Hidden Power Ice
- Protect

Drill peck deals more damage to grass types than HP Ice, even without investment, and deals with shedinja. It OHKOs heracross (requires neutral nature) and breloom which extrasensory wouldn't get (breloom lives minimum roll). I went with -def because lapras can OHKO zapdos with quick claw ice beam if I'm -spdef.

Articuno @ NeverMeltIce
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
Modest Nature
EVs: 4 HP / 248 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Ice Beam
- Hidden Power Grass
- Haze
- Protect

Now also outspeeds bulky starmies to potentially finish them off. NeverMeltIce helps with damage rolls against bulky grass types.

Gengar @ Cheri Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Timid Nature
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Perish Song
- Protect

A lot of pokemon spam thunder wave and having cheri berry buys a free switch or a free turn. Finally switched to ice punch which helps with levitators and dragons while still hitting grass.

I did consider having latios in the back instead of gengar. It would have improved some matchups, but I liked having perish song and being immune to fighting and normal so I kept gengar.

Final team threatlist

With zapdos in the lead the team felt incredibly powerful. A lot of teams were destroyed in just a few turns, but there were difficult matchups. There are the standard threats like quick claw OHKO moves and fake out users combined with another strong pokemon, and bulky grass types. Here are some of the most dangerous pokemon that come to mind.

Regis:
All three regis were dangerous. It was mostly regice that I feared because the offensive sets OHKO zapdos and only swampert really deals damage to it. Usually I protected zapdos when it appeared. Regirock and registeel both survive earthquake and the potential for counter or quick claw explosion was scary. I usually double targeted them. On their own the regis weren't that big of a problem, but they often show up together or with other strong pokemon.

Gengar:
The only gengar I was truly afraid of is the set with giga drain. It OHKOs swampert. Because I had to play around this set all the other gengars also became a lot more dangerous. Against gengar I switched articuno into the swampert slot and tried to kill it as fast as possible, but I couldn't OHKO with anything besides swampert's hidden power ghost. I even looked into running psychic on my own gengar but that was at best a roll and I couldn't switch gengar in reliably anyway because a psychic from modest gengar would OHKO me.

Gardevoir:
It can no longer trace levitate, but it can still have magical leaf and there are multiple sets that outspeed and OHKO swampert. The rest of the team doesn't do that much damage to gardevoir either which makes them quite hard to deal with. Psychic OHKOs gengar so this is another switch into articuno if possible.

Aerodactyl:
The choice band set outspeeds and OHKOs zapdos. The strategy I came up with against lead aero was to protect turn 1. If it ancient powers zapdos I switch. Then the next time zapdos comes in I protect again and aero will be out of pp.

Articuno:
Articuno is a lot like regice and in the lead it's actually worse to deal with. Thunderbolt doesn't OHKO and offensive articuno OHKOs zapdos. I can't hit it with earthquake so I had to lock into a different move to weaken it while protecting zapdos or I had to switch out if I needed swampert to earthquake the other pokemon.

Lesser threats

Houndoom:
Houndoom isn't scary on its own and is often a free kill, but it's a major problem when paired with another threat. It can deal super effective damage against both of the pokemon I have in the back.

Misdreavus:
Misdreavus spreads parafusion. On its own it's not a problem but when half your team is paralyzed and another threat comes out then you can be in some real trouble.

Sceptile:
Sceptile outspeeds zapdos and survives drill peck and ice punch. There's also the potential for bright powder misses. With thunder punch it also deals decent damage to articuno and I had articuno die after 1 leaf blade + 2 thunder punches so I can't always just ignore it.

Rhydon:
It sometimes survives jolly earthquake from swampert and quick claw combined with either rock slide flinches or horn drills this can be a scary pokemon.

Hex maniac was one of the trainers I began fearing the most towards the end of my streak. Due to the small pool of potential pokemon they often had multiple threats that depending on the set could give me a lot of trouble. The battles usually weren't that bad, but they had the potential to be really scary.

The loss

Turn 1: The opponent leads with medicham and kingdra. I go for the double target into kingdra but medicham dynamic punches swampert and I hit myself in confusion leaving swampert at around 25% while kingdra sets up a dragon dance.
Turn 2: I switch swampert out for gengar on the expected dynamic punch and tank a hydro pump. Kingdra survives the second thunderbolt and gets a salac boost so I no longer outspeed it.
Turn 3: I protect gengar and block hydro pump then kill kingdra with thunderbolt while medicham ice punches zapdos.
Turn 4: Vaporeon came in and I decide to double target medicham because I'm afraid of hax and vaporeon usually doesn't do much. Medicham goes down and vaporeon ice beams zapdos leaving it at low hp. Turn 5: Vaporeon activates quick claw and kills zapdos with surf while leaving gengar at very low hp. I decided to send out articuno because I don't want swampert to die on the switch in. Machamp went for rock tomb so now articuno is also low while I went for thunderbolt into vaporeon.
Turn 6: I was afraid that thunderbolt + hidden power grass wouldn't be enough to kill vaporeon so I decided to split the damage and hopefully kill both of them with earthquake on the next turn. Surf crits articuno, but it may have been able to kill without it, and both of my pokemon go down. Swampert comes in and is hit by rock tomb which makes it just a few points slower than vaporeon.
Turn 7: Ice beam kills swampert

I got a bit unlucky, but I easily could have played that better. I was playing quite fast and only had 1 hour of sleep so that's definitely on me. My goal was only 100 wins so everything after that was a bonus, and I was having a lot of fun playing fast after all the stall I've used in singles. As a result I didn't play as carefully as I might have if I was aiming for a certain goal.

 

[BPark16]

Have a new PB of 98 for Factory Open Level Singles. Man, it hurts being so close to 100, yet so far.

Random AI rounds were streamed in the Bergg discord, rounds 5+ were on Twitch. This was done on retail, using the GC Gameboy Player.

Rounds 5-7

Rounds 8-9

Rounds 10-12

Rounds 13-15 (losing batttle)

 

[QuentinQuonce]

This was really interesting. So cool that this kind of investigation is still being done years down the line (mostly by people in these sorts of threads)

 

[meleeisbetter]

Hey guys! I've been working on something for a while and I think it's finally time to show it off, introducing...

FRONTIER ASSISTANT 2!
Inspired by Actaeon's landmark tool, I've redone the tool from the bottom up with all kinds of new features and fixes. While a full list of changes is on the GitHub, I wanted to go over some of the more important changes.
-First, it no longer requires you to pick a set for the opposing Pokemon before moving on. This is huge, since in the past you'd be forced to pick what moveset your opponent is even if you OHKO'd and have no data about what specific set they are. In the past, the tool would try to make predictions about what items or sets based off that assumed data, which could be wrong. If you don't know what item a set has, and you picked one with Lum Berry, the tool would rule future Lum Berry sets impossible even though that wasn't true. Sets are only eliminated when you can be certain they are not possible.
-You're also shown what possible sets you could be up against, with sets that are no longer possible already removed. If there's only one possible set, it doesn't bother asking you which set it is, rather it just shows you the set's info.
-Alarms are reworked, and now are item/move/species specific. You don't have to go into the code anymore (for anything) and it's instead done through a settings menu. These are saved between runs and can be turned on or off, which is useful if you are playing a team with different weaknesses.
-Better input handling: no longer will typos like "metagorss" cause the program to crash, instead it handles it gracefully and will even suggest what you may have meant to type if you do a typo.
-There is a menu for seeing breakdowns of your opponent's possible remaining team, including info of what percent of each remaining member is of each type, what sets remain, what alarming sets remain, what your opponent's team is so far, and more

There's all kinds of other bells, whistles, optimizations, and easter eggs so check it out!

In the repository, you can download the Python code and run it yourself, or download the .exe (if you're on windows) which has everything packed into it (which works as a regular program like Eon Timer if you're totally unfamiliar with programming). I'm excited to hear what people think! Hopefully y'all find this useful, let me know if there's any pain points or bugs you encounter. Full instructions are also on the GitHub.

LINK: https://github.com/tylersverak/FrontierAssistant2/blob/main/README.md

 

[Valentino23]

The leaderboard has been updated! As usual, if you find your streak not added here, please feel free to let me know via PM or ping.

A few things to note.

1) I am going to be tidying up the leaderboard over the next few weeks into a table format. It has become increasingly annoying to update the leaderboard in the BBcode format: which also leads to an increase in errors from the amount of manual adjustments I've had to make. I've left some of the placement #s as is now so I can sort them later in a spreadsheet, but they will be corrected.

2) Sergiof77 - Can you tell me the exact IVs of your Pokemon, if possible? I cannot seem to find a Suicune that exists in Colosseum with that IV spread in conjunction with your stats + EVs.

3) pokemon2341 - Some of your records mix in Pokemon that are level 50 and level 65. Can you edit your post or clarify in a reply accordingly as to which are which? Unless you did actually use a level 50 Pokemon in Open Level, in which case that's fine.

4) BeVreeze - I am sorry but I cannot accept your streaks. The spread you have given for your Zapdos do not exist in any gen 3 game and is thus an illegal Pokemon. Neither FRLG or XD can generate a Zapdos with those IVs & nature (31/30/30/31/31/31 Timid)

I have also noticed in your playlist - you've uploaded your loss but then I believe additional videos that show playing after that streak with it intact. Did you only intend to upload those for playtest purposes after the fact?

 

[Dave Glorbus]

Hi Everyone!

I'm reporting a streak of 186 in Open Level Factory Singles on emulator. I streamed round 5 and onwards on Twitch and Youtube, here's the full playlist.

I believe this is 3rd place, behind LRXC and Wildcat.

The loss
I had a very good team of Ursaring-5, Milotic-4 and Tyranitar-10 vs No type / No phrase.

Metagross on lead, which Milo switched in and dealt with ending at approximately full health. In came Lapras, which was very likely to be carrying an electric move to switch in here. I Mirror Coated and it attracted, revealing Lapras-8, very unlikely on a no-phrase trainer. With my Milo doing basically negative damage and being my best mon into whatever was in the back I decided to hard swap into Ttar to get the sand up. Ttar got OHKO'd on the switch. I sent in Ursa which got hit by Quick-claw sing. It failed to wake up on the next turn and got QC OHKO'd the turn after. From there I think my out was to hope they weren't water absorb and surf it down. It was Water absorb and I didn't manage to stall out the remaining 7 OHKO moves.

I think the choice to switch or not after Lapras-8 was revealed is extremely complicated to model. With QC, potential flinches and a host of inaccurate moves there's an awful lot that can happen on any given turn. On the one hand, I got unlucky to lose both ttar and ursa. On the other, I'm still not sure what the right play was given how dominant milo was into the majority of the possible ~50 sets in the back. I do think it's interesting that if Lapras had been first mon I think you have to switch to something on Lapras-8. If it was last mon you definitely stay in. Middle is the most complex!

Other notable moments
A small selection of things that have stuck in my brain

1. In one of the very early rounds I forgot megahorn had 10 pp so "stalled it out" only for my Latios to get bopped on switch-in.
2. Regirock very nearly scamming me out of house and home with double teams.
3. Two very tense battles with a team of Ttar-5, Salamence-2, Lapras-4. One where TTar got high-roll crit surfed T1 by Tenta and I had to do some sand stall shenanagains to get it in range of double edge, then getting some favourable luck in against a late-game Machamp-2 which I just managed to break through.
4. Quag-4 firing an unexpected Ice Beam into my salamence on a switch from Lapras (it had guessed water absorb and intim had lowered its atk so EQ wasn't highest damage). Meaning my ttar had to dodge 3 crits and bring it home from there.
5. I also remember goofing pretty hard somewhere in the low hundreds by not sending in a vaporeon against manectric when the rain was up to one-shot it.
6. The draft luck was crazy, leading me to...

Drafts
I definitely got very strong draft luck this round.

Drafts

R5 - Take Latios-1, Wailord-4, Granbull-2 leave Flygon-4, Slowbro-2, Kingdra-3. Swap for Snorlax-6 and Zapdos-4
R6 - Take Miltank-4, Snorlax-6, Regirock-1 leave Zard-2, Nidoking-3, Magmar-2. Swap for Latios-8
R7 - Take Suicune-2, Latios-3, leave Umbreon-3, Ttar-8, Weezing-2. Swap for Machamp-6 then Hera-2
R8 - Take Suicune-3, Jynx-1, Milotic-4, leave crobat-1, raichu-3, Lapras-2. Swap for Swampert-2
R9 - Take Latios-1, Ludi-4, Regirock-5, leave flygon-3, dodrio-2, granbull-2.
R10 - Take Aero-2, Meganium-1, Swampert-3 leave Venusaur-3, Steelix-4, Registeel-4
R11 - Take Latios-1, Kang-1, Rhydon-2 leave Registeel-6, Missy-3, Xatu-1
R12 - Take Wak-4, Zap-1, Kang-4, leave Rhydon-2, Moltres-5, Nidoqueen-1. Double lati battle, but don't take either. Down to the wire on Noland.
R13 - Take Raikou-1, Latios-4, Ursa-4 leave Dodrio-4, Typhlosion-2, Tentacruel-4
R14 - Take Zam-3, Miltank-1, Yama-3, leave Slaking-1, Dusclops-4, Buzz-2. Swap Zam-3 for Suicune-6.
R15 - Take Ursa-5, Blastoise-3, Ttar-4, leave hypno-3, magmar-4, ampharos-1 . Swap Blastoise-3 for Suicune-2.
R16 - Take Latios-8, Regice-1, Flygon-3, leave jynx-2, golem-3, dnite-5.
R17 - Take Zap-4, Skarm-3, Vaporeon-3, leave raichu-2, crobat-2, umbreon-1. Swap Vape for Milo-4, swap zapdos for meta-2.
R18 - Take Meta-5, Claydol-4, Whiscash-1, leave Breloom-2, Xatu-2, Altaria-3.
R19 - Take Hera-3, Ttar-3, Yama-3, leave Entei-6, Claydol-1, Nidoqueen-4
R20 - Take Vape-1, Lanturn-4 (VA), Machamp-3, leave Glalie-3, Miltank-2, Skarm-2. Swap Machamp for Regice-6
R21 - Take Gard-4, Donphan-3, Machamp-6, leave Golduck-1, Mime-1, Marowak-1. Swap Machamp for Snorlax-2
R22 - Take Ttar-5, Mence-3, Lapras-4 (SA), leave Buzz-1, Walrein-3, Electrode-2.
R23 - Take Meta-5, Milo-4, Blissey-1 (SG), leave moltres-4, Suicune-1, Miltank-4.
R24 - Take Ursa-5, Latios-7, Zap-6, leave Quag-3 (Damp), Starmie-2, Granbull-1.
R25 - Take Yama-4, Mence-7, Lax-8, leave Donphan-3, ninetales-4, dewgong-1.
R26 - Take Ampharos-4, Metagross-4, Kangaskhan-4, leave Glalie-1, Buzz-1, Clef-1. Swap Ampharos for Zapdos-3, swap Zapdos for Latias-1.
R27 - Take Ursa-5, TTar-10, Milo-4, leave Claydol-4, Exeggutor-4, Moltres-6

I'm currently on a PB run in L50 singles, we'll see where that takes me!

 

[BeVreeze]

4) BeVreeze - I am sorry but I cannot accept your streaks. The spread you have given for your Zapdos do not exist in any gen 3 game and is thus an illegal Pokemon. Neither FRLG or XD can generate a Zapdos with those IVs & nature (31/30/30/31/31/31 Timid)

I have also noticed in your playlist - you've uploaded your loss but then I believe additional videos that show playing after that streak with it intact. Did you only intend to upload those for playtest purposes after the fact?

My apologies. It wasn't my intention to run an illegal pokemon. Sorry for wasting your time. I also just realised I messed up the report as it was a hasty zapdos not timid, but I believe that's still an illegal pokemon so it doesn't really matter.

I intend to change Zapdos to Hasty 30 Atk / 26 Def and Articuno to Modest 10 Atk / 30 SpA. I believe those are both legal, but I could be mistaken.

I've been testing out a slightly changed version of the team with hasty swampert with ice beam over double-edge. I've only clicked it 3 times in over 200 battles, but I like the change so far. I pretty much never used double-edge anyway and ice beam improves some lead matchups like aerodactyl. I was already planning to do another lvl 50 run with this because I enjoy using the team. I just need to wait for my current lvl 50 streak with yanma to end.

I'm not sure what you mean by my streak being intact after losing?

 

[BPark16]

I'm not sure what you mean by my streak being intact after losing?

I didn’t notice anything suspicious. 14 videos, and the order and upload looked fine. Unless Valentino saw something different, or you removed some videos from the playlist. Live streams looked okay as well.

 

[Amarilas]

Hello everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to share my tower team. Got gold with it recently and can hopefully push it to 100. The team is heavily inspired by Adedede and salamenceisop, as you will see. This team was played on a combination of emulator and retail. Rounds 1-5 on emulator, 6-10 on retail.

Team Paramore

Latios (O Star) - Timid - Dragon fang

IVs - 31, 6, 31, 30, 31, 30 [EMU Painting RNG Sapphire]

EVs - HP 172, Def 100, SpA 16, SpD 4, Speed 216

Moves - Substitute, Recover, Calm Mind, Dragon Claw

This is by far the most time I have spent on a single pokemon. I started with the base Latios from Adedede obviously. However, I was finding in open level the damage rolls were slightly different (obvious to many veterans here I’m sure lol). So I took some time trying to refine my evs with the damage calculator and found this was the most consistent against many threats. It reaches the speed of 339, which ties with sceptile and duggy. I’m not super happy with this, but I found it was not the biggest deal having that speed tie. At 31 IV and 216 EV it reaches 341, but taking 4 points out of my other stats did not seem worth the trade. Most of the time a substitute should be up, so kings rock dug should never be an issue in theory. Having dragon fang as the item made a huge difference compared to running lum or leftovers, as with this spread and 6+, I am able to reliably OHKO milotic with mirror coat (Milo 1 105.9-124.7, Milo 2 100.3-118, Milo 4 103.9-122.4). Milotic 3 is a damage roll from 92.2 - 108.6, however this is the one set without mirror coat so I am content with that. Milotic has always been a struggle for me so I was personally concerned with this pokemon. The biggest issue that this latios faces is usually the regi trio, as they are always a 2 shot. Overall, I'm very happy with this set.

Dusclops (Pressure) - Calm - Leftovers

IVs - 31, 0, 30, 30, 30, 31 [EMU Painting RNG Emerald]

EVs - HP 208, Def 252, SpD 48

Moves - Protect, Rain Dance, Torment, Substitute

Truthfully, this dusclops is far from optimized lol. If I had found a duskull with a bold nature, I can achieve this same spread with 8 EVs leftover. With those I would probably throw them more into the special defense. I may rng one in the future but it got the job done. As for the move set, the biggest difference between level 50 and open level is tyranitar. With this, I wanted a pokemon that can solidly 1v1 tyranitar, clear the weather, and pp stall quickly. Duslops thankfully does 2 of those things very well. In theory this sounded like a brilliant idea in my head. In practice I was making sure tyranitar was removed from the field. So dusclops was good at clearing weather if a tyranitar was brought out too early (spoiler skarm has whirlwind) and can pp stall very easily. With this being said, I would argue this is the best pressure stall pokemon available. I have used the legendary birds and suicune and the only pokemon I found to be of the same level is moltres. Torment, protect, and substitute allowed for extremely easy pp stalling. Usually on a pokemon like this, I would like to run some sort of recovery move. However, with its natural bulk and leftovers, many times I found myself at full HP before I needed to use a substitute again. The biggest challenge for dusclops is pokemon with 4 attacking moves. Some other niche things this allows for is baiting metagross into explosion with latios and switching in dusclops (this happened once and I cackled). Some things I would like to improve on this guy but got the job done.

Skarmory (Emergency) - Bold - No Item

IVs - 31, 0, 30, 24, 31, 31 [EMU Egg RNG Emerald]

EVs - HP 252, Def 72, SpD 180, Speed 4

Moves - Thief, Whirlwind, Protect, Sand Attack

This skarmory is heavily inspired by salamenceisop’s skarmory for open level. His set was set for 97 so I made some minor adjustments for level 100. If I calculated correctly, this skarmory should survive critical hit thunderpunch from metagross, something that he had calculated for originally. I liked his idea of adding the 4 speed EVs to outspeed pokemon in its speed tier. Sturdy is also one of the greatest abilities for the frontier so I know I needed it on the team somewhere. Sometimes skarmory would be the one to stall out a majority of moves with protect and sand attack, allowing for dusclops an easier time or for sometimes latios to come in early. Using thief on quick claw and brightpowder users was great. There was also a time skarm stole a focus band and then had it proc (again I cackled like a maniac). This was my first time using a pokemon with thief to steal items and I was a bit skeptical of its consistency. Since using it I think it is amazing. Using protect over a weather move was nice as well to scout certain move sets. The main goal of skarm is to steal quick claws and whirlwind set up mons, mainly dragon dance users, curse users, metagross and tyranitar. This spread also allows for skarmory to survive a single thunderbolt from Annabelle’s raikou, allowing for a single sand attack. It may not seem like much but if it is not 100% accurate then it is 50% accurate. Really not too much more to say about this guy.


Threats

The biggest threats to this team include dragon dance users, curse users, 4 Attack mons, tyranitar, metagross, and clear body users. On paper this seems like a very intensive list of pokemon (this is honestly my first time writing down). However, although these are threats, with smart play and understanding AI, this team can handle all of these threats easily. Mainly, whirlwinding away set up mons is the easiest way. Having a pokemon at plus 6 using struggle on your substitute is just going to give you a bad time. Clear body users can be annoying having to deal with their struggles. Many times there was a regi paired with a tyranitar. From my experience, I would rather set up latios on the regi rather than the tyranitar. Playing smart against metagross is important. Every metagross I encountered had explosion quick claw. Stealing the quick claw paired with baiting explosion was usually the game plan. The 4 attack pokemon were generally the most annoying part as they would usually still have a move or 2 and latios would have to set up and dodge crits (probably the most stressful part of the runs). This however is probably due to less experience compared to others here.

Again, this team was heavily inspired by Adedede and salamenceisop. I enjoyed the theory crafting of both latios and skarmory for their teams and transferred that to one of my favorite pokemon dusclops. If there are any questions or something I missed please let me know and I can provide what I can.

Stream (Blocked in some countries because I played paramore lol) -

EDIT - I have played since posting and have lost the streak at 74. I lost to sceptile 4. This does kinda shows the flaw with part of my team comp, EV spread (tieing sceptile speed), and 4 move pokemon being a struggle. Nevertheless still happy.

 

[meleeisbetter]

Hello everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to share my tower team. Got gold with it recently and can hopefully push it to 100. The team is heavily inspired by Adedede and salamenceisop, as you will see. This team was played on a combination of emulator and retail. Rounds 1-5 on emulator, 6-10 on retail.

Team Paramore

View attachment 787929View attachment 787927View attachment 787928



View attachment 787933
Latios (O Star) - Timid - Dragon fang

IVs - 31, 6, 31, 30, 31, 30 [EMU Painting RNG Sapphire]

EVs - HP 172, Def 100, SpA 16, SpD 4, Speed 216

Moves - Substitute, Recover, Calm Mind, Dragon Claw

This is by far the most time I have spent on a single pokemon. I started with the base Latios from Adedede obviously. However, I was finding in open level the damage rolls were slightly different (obvious to many veterans here I’m sure lol). So I took some time trying to refine my evs with the damage calculator and found this was the most consistent against many threats. It reaches the speed of 339, which ties with sceptile and duggy. I’m not super happy with this, but I found it was not the biggest deal having that speed tie. At 31 IV and 216 EV it reaches 341, but taking 4 points out of my other stats did not seem worth the trade. Most of the time a substitute should be up, so kings rock dug should never be an issue in theory. Having dragon fang as the item made a huge difference compared to running lum or leftovers, as with this spread and 6+, I am able to reliably OHKO milotic with mirror coat (Milo 1 105.9-124.7, Milo 2 100.3-118, Milo 4 103.9-122.4). Milotic 3 is a damage roll from 92.2 - 108.6, however this is the one set without mirror coat so I am content with that. Milotic has always been a struggle for me so I was personally concerned with this pokemon. The biggest issue that this latios faces is usually the regi trio, as they are always a 2 shot. Overall, I'm very happy with this set.

View attachment 787932
Dusclops (Pressure) - Calm - Leftovers

IVs - 31, 0, 30, 30, 30, 31 [EMU Painting RNG Emerald]

EVs - HP 208, Def 252, SpD 48

Moves - Protect, Rain Dance, Torment, Substitute

Truthfully, this dusclops is far from optimized lol. If I had found a duskull with a bold nature, I can achieve this same spread with 8 EVs leftover. With those I would probably throw them more into the special defense. I may rng one in the future but it got the job done. As for the move set, the biggest difference between level 50 and open level is tyranitar. With this, I wanted a pokemon that can solidly 1v1 tyranitar, clear the weather, and pp stall quickly. Duslops thankfully does 2 of those things very well. In theory this sounded like a brilliant idea in my head. In practice I was making sure tyranitar was removed from the field. So dusclops was good at clearing weather if a tyranitar was brought out too early (spoiler skarm has whirlwind) and can pp stall very easily. With this being said, I would argue this is the best pressure stall pokemon available. I have used the legendary birds and suicune and the only pokemon I found to be of the same level is moltres. Torment, protect, and substitute allowed for extremely easy pp stalling. Usually on a pokemon like this, I would like to run some sort of recovery move. However, with its natural bulk and leftovers, many times I found myself at full HP before I needed to use a substitute again. The biggest challenge for dusclops is pokemon with 4 attacking moves. Some other niche things this allows for is baiting metagross into explosion with latios and switching in dusclops (this happened once and I cackled). Some things I would like to improve on this guy but got the job done.

View attachment 787930
Skarmory (Emergency) - Bold - No Item

IVs - 31, 0, 30, 24, 31, 31 [EMU Egg RNG Emerald]

EVs - HP 252, Def 72, SpD 180, Speed 4

Moves - Thief, Whirlwind, Protect, Sand Attack

This skarmory is heavily inspired by salamenceisop’s skarmory for open level. His set was set for 97 so I made some minor adjustments for level 100. If I calculated correctly, this skarmory should survive critical hit thunderpunch from metagross, something that he had calculated for originally. I liked his idea of adding the 4 speed EVs to outspeed pokemon in its speed tier. Sturdy is also one of the greatest abilities for the frontier so I know I needed it on the team somewhere. Sometimes skarmory would be the one to stall out a majority of moves with protect and sand attack, allowing for dusclops an easier time or for sometimes latios to come in early. Using thief on quick claw and brightpowder users was great. There was also a time skarm stole a focus band and then had it proc (again I cackled like a maniac). This was my first time using a pokemon with thief to steal items and I was a bit skeptical of its consistency. Since using it I think it is amazing. Using protect over a weather move was nice as well to scout certain move sets. The main goal of skarm is to steal quick claws and whirlwind set up mons, mainly dragon dance users, curse users, metagross and tyranitar. This spread also allows for skarmory to survive a single thunderbolt from Annabelle’s raikou, allowing for a single sand attack. It may not seem like much but if it is not 100% accurate then it is 50% accurate. Really not too much more to say about this guy.


Threats

The biggest threats to this team include dragon dance users, curse users, 4 Attack mons, tyranitar, metagross, and clear body users. On paper this seems like a very intensive list of pokemon (this is honestly my first time writing down). However, although these are threats, with smart play and understanding AI, this team can handle all of these threats easily. Mainly, whirlwinding away set up mons is the easiest way. Having a pokemon at plus 6 using struggle on your substitute is just going to give you a bad time. Clear body users can be annoying having to deal with their struggles. Many times there was a regi paired with a tyranitar. From my experience, I would rather set up latios on the regi rather than the tyranitar. Playing smart against metagross is important. Every metagross I encountered had explosion quick claw. Stealing the quick claw paired with baiting explosion was usually the game plan. The 4 attack pokemon were generally the most annoying part as they would usually still have a move or 2 and latios would have to set up and dodge crits (probably the most stressful part of the runs). This however is probably due to less experience compared to others here.

Again, this team was heavily inspired by Adedede and salamenceisop. I enjoyed the theory crafting of both latios and skarmory for their teams and transferred that to one of my favorite pokemon dusclops. If there are any questions or something I missed please let me know and I can provide what I can.

View attachment 787931

Stream (Blocked in some countries because I played paramore lol) -

EDIT - I have played since posting and have lost the streak at 74. I lost to sceptile 4. This does kinda shows the flaw with part of my team comp, EV spread (tieing sceptile speed), and 4 move pokemon being a struggle. Nevertheless still happy.

Great team, lot of time and effort put in. I feel like the dugtrio sceptile speed tier is somewhat important, why was it you didn't want to move EVs? Anyway I think the style of stallers plus one setup sweeper is the defacto way to go in the tower, and Latios is unquestionably the best Pokemon for the job with a strong fast STAB that is only resisted by one type. Your team seems super safe against OHKO move users which is rare. I think this team could definitely go far, there's some optimizations with piloting that I imagine will come into play at some point- some small stuff like you did 45% to Steelix with Dragon Claw, and rather than go for a CM + Dragon Claw, you used Dragon Claw twice rather than face the last mon with a biggest boost. Overall though mega cudos for this team. Appreciate the Paramore reference. Also I'd love to plug Frontier Assistant 2 for finding some of the sets you were up against- watching the video it looked like you were searching through trainer data and figured it would be nice to have a tool to do that for you.

 

[Amarilas]

Great team, lot of time and effort put in. I feel like the dugtrio sceptile speed tier is somewhat important, why was it you didn't want to move EVs? Anyway I think the style of stallers plus one setup sweeper is the defacto way to go in the tower, and Latios is unquestionably the best Pokemon for the job with a strong fast STAB that is only resisted by one type. Your team seems super safe against OHKO move users which is rare. I think this team could definitely go far, there's some optimizations with piloting that I imagine will come into play at some point- some small stuff like you did 45% to Steelix with Dragon Claw, and rather than go for a CM + Dragon Claw, you used Dragon Claw twice rather than face the last mon with a biggest boost. Overall though mega cudos for this team. Appreciate the Paramore reference. Also I'd love to plug Frontier Assistant 2 for finding some of the sets you were up against- watching the video it looked like you were searching through trainer data and figured it would be nice to have a tool to do that for you.

Appreciate the kind words. In regards sceptile and dug tier, I had worked on the Latios with a couple of people and we came to the consensus that it wasn't a top priority compared to the other things we were trying to accomplish. our main concern was focused on metagross and setup ttar since they are probably the biggest run killers. In hind sight it may be worth either finding a Latios with 31 speed IV or transferring 4 EVs. As for that steelix set, from my understanding at plus 3 the AI will roar/whirlwind you away. In the moment I had deduced the steelix down to 2 different sets. One with block and one with roar. With this, I believed setting up 2 calm minds and taking on the steelix was the best case for this. Again, this may be due to some inexperience. I will definitely look into the Frontier Assistant tool as well.

 

[meleeisbetter]

Appreciate the kind words. In regards sceptile and dug tier, I had worked on the Latios with a couple of people and we came to the consensus that it wasn't a top priority compared to the other things we were trying to accomplish. our main concern was focused on metagross and setup ttar since they are probably the biggest run killers. In hind sight it may be worth either finding a Latios with 31 speed IV or transferring 4 EVs. As for that steelix set, from my understanding at plus 3 the AI will roar/whirlwind you away. In the moment I had deduced the steelix down to 2 different sets. One with block and one with roar. With this, I believed setting up 2 calm minds and taking on the steelix was the best case for this. Again, this may be due to some inexperience. I will definitely look into the Frontier Assistant tool as well.

I actually didn't know that about roar/whirlwind sets so that makes a lot more sense. This team style is one I haven't really used since it relies on having Substitute on pretty much all 3 mons and I play on emulator so it's kind of a pain. Glad I learned this so I don't end up having a boosted mon get forced out in one of my runs.

 

[Valentino23]

My apologies. It wasn't my intention to run an illegal pokemon. Sorry for wasting your time. I also just realised I messed up the report as it was a hasty zapdos not timid, but I believe that's still an illegal pokemon so it doesn't really matter.

I intend to change Zapdos to Hasty 30 Atk / 26 Def and Articuno to Modest 2 Atk / 30 SpA. I believe those are both legal, but I could be mistaken.

I've been testing out a slightly changed version of the team with hasty swampert with ice beam over double-edge. I've only clicked it 3 times in over 200 battles, but I like the change so far. I pretty much never used double-edge anyway and ice beam improves some lead matchups like aerodactyl. I was already planning to do another lvl 50 run with this because I enjoy using the team. I just need to wait for my current lvl 50 streak with yanma to end.

I'm not sure what you mean by my streak being intact after losing?

Below you have mentioned that you got the streak to at least 133 and were in a struggle war against a Chansey.

Reporting an ongoing lvl 50 battle tower singles streak of 119.
Update: I got the streak to at least 133. I am currently stuck in round 20. Skarmory got killed by quick claw which left me without phazing. I'm now struggling against +6 evasion leftovers chansey with my leftovers moltres. In theory I should win eventually so I'm too stubborn to give up for now. Since I'm not playing on emulator I have no speed up. I'm trying to find some kind of motor that can automatically press the a button for me but I don't know where to look.

You have the video of that fight uploaded here. At 1:20:00, you said you had enough and did a soft reset to give up the streak.

You have since uploaded videos where the streak is on round 20 onward (which you can see in this playlist).

To be clear - were these subsequent videos from a different attempt, or was a save state used after your loss to continue testing the team?

 

[BeVreeze]

To be clear - were these subsequent videos from a different attempt, or was a save state used after your loss to continue testing the team?

The later videos are from a new streak. Here's a screenshot from earlier in the streak. I used different teams while grinding back up so they're not in this playlist. Currently at 182. Not sure yet what I'll do with the streak. I want to beat it on cartridge in the future so the further I go with it now the longer it will take me to beat it when I have a team on cartridge. I will hopefully receive a cable next week that will allow me to record my gameboy player with decent video quality, but it will take a while to get some teams ready.

 

[Valentino23]

The later videos are from a new streak. Here's a screenshot from earlier in the streak. I used different teams while grinding back up so they're not in this playlist. Currently at 182. Not sure yet what I'll do with the streak. I want to beat it on cartridge in the future so the further I go with it now the longer it will take me to beat it when I have a team on cartridge. I will hopefully receive a cable next week that will allow me to record my gameboy player with decent video quality, but it will take a while to get some teams ready.

Ah I see, that makes sense. I apologize as I wanted to make sure I did my due dilligence when checking. Your explanation makes sense and I have otherwise no issue with your streak being added (which I will add yours + some others above).

Thank you for clarifying and I hope I did not offend you in any way.

 

[meleeisbetter]

I made a video explaining some uses of Frontier Assistant 2, why it's more helpful than the spreadsheets and some new decision support that it can provide that its predecessors cannot. Let me know if you have any questions, link here:

Also I did notice there's technically a bug based on a Battle Frontier oddity- there are two different trainers named Gillian, so I will need to add some code to account for that and will update it on GitHub. Lastly to answer a mystery about the Factory using your Tower streak for its IVs, I have found the answer in Emerald's code:

Looks like for level 50, it uses your level 50 Tower streak to determine IVs, but for Open Level it works normally. Maybe this is why Level 50 is sometimes said to be easier.

 

[Dave Glorbus]

All 4 factory categories have the tower IV glitch and look at the level 50 tower streak.

The only thing I'm unsure of is whether doubles factory looks at level 50 doubles tower or singles tower. That code snippet looks like it looks at doubles to me.

 

[meleeisbetter]

All 4 factory categories have the tower IV glitch and look at the level 50 tower streak.

The only thing I'm unsure of is whether doubles factory looks at level 50 doubles tower or singles tower. That code snippet looks like it looks at doubles to me.

ok after further code inspection this is true, the line using the factory win streak is never used, thanks

 

[BeVreeze]

Ah I see, that makes sense. I apologize as I wanted to make sure I did my due dilligence when checking. Your explanation makes sense and I have otherwise no issue with your streak being added (which I will add yours + some others above).

Thank you for clarifying and I hope I did not offend you in any way.

No worries.

I've changed up the team a few times past round 20. I believe all IVs are legal, but I'm planning to beat the streak on cartridge in the future so I wouldn't mind if you leave it off the leaderboard for now. It just feels right to do it on cartridge. It will probably be a different team that beats my current streak first just because getting XD pokemon is going to take me a while. I'll probably also get the doubles streak first. I already have a good articuno. I just need to figure out which move I want instead of haze because this one isn't from XD. I'm currently hunting a good zapdos but it doesn't want to show up for me so far. These are my first RNG manip hunts and my consistency is terrible, but I'll get it eventually.