Hello folks. In something of a break from my activities in the Battle Tree, and in 7th gen in general for that matter, I have gone back in time to play around in the 4th gen Battle Frontier. I have completed the Frontier in the past, but I have a save file that lacks the coloured prints and I felt I needed to resolve that. After clearing the level 50 Factory for the 3rd time ever out of the millions of times I've attempted it over the years, I decided to tackle the Hall. In the past, I used Garchomp to get the symbol and never went back. But after learning more about the mechanics behind it and the unique challenge it offers, I really wanted to give the Hall a proper try with other Pokemon.
The gimmick with the Hall, of course, is that you have to use one species of Pokemon (multiple specimens of the same Pokemon are allowed) to wins as many consecutive one-on-one battles as possible. You are required to pick a type before each battle, and then you battle a Pokemon of that type. Each type starts at rank 1, at which point the Pokemon you face is a weaker/unevolved species at a low level, and as you win the rank increases and the Pokemon you face get stronger, up to a max of rank 10. Winning 170 battles (equivalent to clearing all 10 ranks of all 17 types) gets you the coloured symbol. Strategy gets introduced to the challenge through the control you have over type selection, where you are able to pick "dangerous" types early to remove the risk of losing to them later on.
I was able to get the symbol pretty quickly using:
Dragonite 1 @ Focus Sash
Adamant
Inner Focus
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Punch
ExtremeSpeed
Dragonite 2 @ Focus Sash
Mild
Inner Focus
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 0/4/0/252/0/252
Outrage
Earthquake
Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt
Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt
Just a SashDragon strategy. Garchomp and Salamence can do this and have certain advantages over Dragonite but Nite has the occasionally useful Inner Focus and a swanky move pool - Fire Punch access in particular means it can never lose to Abomasnow whereas the other two have a 5% chance to lose with Fire Fang. Of course, all of these Dragons autolose to:
H454 | Weavile | Adamant | Focus Sash | Night Slash | Ice Punch | Ice Shard | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
So I did the Ice and Dark types first and then went from there. I actually lost my first attempt early to a Sneasel that froze me on turn 1, but the second attempt was more successful. I tried to take it beyond 170 but was stopped not long after at 174 wins by:
H357 | Vespiquen | Brave | BrightPowder | Power Gem | Attack Order | Ominous Wind | Air Cutter | Atk/SpA
...because BrightPowder is horseshit and activated twice in a row, which ensured that it had the time to land enough Power Gems to beat me. But no matter, I was only going for the print and I got it. I might try Dragonite again at some point anyway.
I was about ready to move onto another facility (and I have in fact done the Arcade as well now). But then I saw this on Bulbapedia:
Pokemon I have tried so far
Sandslash @ Focus Sash
Adamant
Sand Veil
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 76/252/24/0/132/0
Earthquake
Rock Slide
X-Scissor
Counter
Win streak: 90
Sandslash is relatively good compared to other stuff I've used, and may even be capable of 170 if you wanted to use it specifically. Lost to a turn 1 freeze from:
H287 | Dewgong | Modest | Chesto Berry | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | Brine | Rest | Def/SpA
Mime Jr. @ Focus Sash
Modest
Filter
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/252/0/252
Psychic
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Signal Beam
Win streak: 88
This is relatively OK for an unevolved Pokemon, but it's still an unevolved Pokemon. Ultimately lost to a Plusle that outsped and 2HKOed me before I could take it out:
H235 | Plusle | Timid | Magnet | Nasty Plot | Swift | Thunderbolt | Thunder Wave | Spd/SpA
Paras @ Focus Sash
Adamant
Dry Skin
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 152/252/32/0/20/0
Spore
X-Scissor
Brick Break
Aerial Ace
Win streak: 43
This, on the other hand, is NOT OK. But at least it has Spore, which can let it win otherwise unwinnable match-ups sometimes. Still sucks though. I don't remember how I lost, but I abandoned Paras fairly early because I wanted to try something better, and surely it couldn't get much worse than this right?
Combee @ Focus Sash
Naughty
Honey Gather
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 0/252/0/4/0/252
Bug Bite
Air Cutter
Ominous Wind
Mud-Slap
Win Streak: 24
Of course it can. This thing, aside from having a worthless ability and being aggressively weak beyond its decent Speed, learns about 10 or so moves total, which made building an "effective" set a nightmare. Unsurprisingly didn't last very long before I boxed it. I lost to a Gulpin that hit me with Gunk Shot and didn't care about the 2 accuracy drops I throw at it:
H109 | Gulpin | Brave | Poison Barb | Gunk Shot | Amnesia | Frustration | Acid Armor | HP/Atk
Claydol @ Focus Sash
Quiet
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/4/252/0/0
Earth Power
Psychic
Ice Beam
Signal Beam
Alt moves: Shadow Ball, Grass Knot, Ancientpower
Win Streak: 88
Finally back to something "competent". Claydol isn't exactly cut out for Hall though - it has far too many weaknesses and isn't exceptionally powerful. It does have a good move pool at least. I originally planned to use this as a Trick Room Pokemon, hence the Quiet nature, but I found myself not really using Trick Room at all, although using Quiet did at least leave the possibility open of using physical moves. I attempted Claydol a few times and had a few false starts in Dark and Ice especially. For the longest streak I got I managed to break through and got to 88 wins before being shot down by Tangrowth that dodged Ice Beam and got a crit Wring Out on turn 1, and then Ice Beam failed to OHKO next turn which allowed Tangrowth for finish Claydol off.
H458 | Tangrowth | Lonely | Lax Incense | Wring Out | Grass Knot | Sunny Day | SolarBeam | HP/SpA
Porygon @ Focus Sash
Modest
Download
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/4/252/0/0
Tri Attack
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Shadow Ball
Win streak: 91
Porygon2 1 @ Choice Specs
Modest
Download
IVs: 31/11/31/30/30/31
EVs: 252/0/4/252/0/0
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power [Ground]
Trick
Alt items: Focus Sash, Wise Glasses
Alt moves: Signal Beam, Tri Attack, Hyper Beam, Ice Beam, Thunder Wave, Recover, Psychic, Substitute, Return
Porygon2 2 @ Focus Sash
Rash
Download
IVs: 31/31/31/30/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/252/0/0
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Hyper Beam
Return
Alt moves: Hidden Power [Ground], Giga Impact, Ice Beam, Signal Beam, Tri Attack, Thunder Wave, Psychic
Win streak: 97
I went back to the unevolved mons with Porygon. This one isn't as incompetent as some of the others I've used, and it's actually pretty similar to Claydol in many ways. Download is great fun when the boost is right. I lost to Medicham dodging 2 Shadow Balls with a single Double Team.
H234 | Medicham | Adamant | Black Belt | Psycho Cut | Force Palm | Recover | Double Team | Atk/Def
After that I decided to skip the RNG to decide my Pokemon and went straight for Porygon2, using 2 sets with which I changes the moves around liberally. I experimented with a mixed attacking Rash set to abuse Download fully. The power is solid but it doesn't work too well overall. Porygon2 is not exceptionally bulky without investment and it's slow as well, so it ends up being way too vulnerable to faster things that can hax it. Ultimately it died to Sharpedo, which got a defence drop with Crunch with which it was able to KO me with Waterfall next turn.
H331 | Sharpedo | Adamant | Focus Sash | Crunch | Waterfall | Ice Fang | Zen Headbutt | Atk/Spd
I also tried out Gengar but have chosen not to report the sets for now. I'm not done with it yet and would like to go back to it eventually.
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There is one other Pokemon that I rolled using the RNG, and of all the Pokemon selected and used using this method, it was the Pokemon I invested the most time and effort into, the one that got me the best results by far, and the one that gives me reason to make this post.
To provide some context for this Coloured Print-winning streak, I should explain that I wasn't the first person to try Smeargle in Hall during this session. average fella was also doing some Hall stuff and had done some decent runs with Smeargle as well, so to give credit where it's due, I was ultimately picking up where they left off before going on to optimise it. I was initially skeptical about the odds of getting far with Smeargle due to its stats but as I played more and more with it and had a few good runs cut short by a misplay on my part or hax on the games part, I felt more and more compelled to reach the 170 win benchmark.
For reasons that should become obvious, I did this at level 30, the minimum level for Hall.
Smeargle 1/2/3 @ Focus Sash
Jolly
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/31/31/7/31/31
EVs: 104/0/116/0/36/252
Spore
Substitute
Dragon Rage
Leech Seed (1)/Counter (2)/Mirror Coat (3)
Smeargle's strength obviously lies in its move pool, with Spore at the top of the list of Smeargle's most useful attacks. Given how weak Smeargle is stat-wise, the ability of Smeargle to incapacitate Pokemon that can otherwise slaughter it on sight is a no brainer. Substitute is often used after Spore because sometimes you only get a 1-turn sleep. Putting a Substitute up basically blocks any potential problems from opposing status and other nasties should the Pokemon wake immediately. There are a few occasions where Substitute isn't necessarily the best play, but Spore into Substitute is what I consider to be the "default" play.
Dragon Rage is basically Smeargle's best source of consistent damage, and the reason why this was done at level 30. It doesn't OHKO very often but it 2HKOes most things in the lead up to 170 (I can only assume that Dragon Rage is the reason why level 30 was selected as the minimum level, and not level 10 or something). As a Dragon move, it hits everything except Shedinja, so outside of that match-up there's no worry about being "walled".
The above set is actually a conglomeration of 3 separate Smeargle that are identical except for the fourth move - I got sick of grinding Heart Scales to change it constantly so having them ready to go saved a lot of time. I consider Leech Seed to be the default option, and it was the very first set I tried in early attempts (I used Super Fang for Grass and Leech Seed for everything else). Leech Seed can sometimes be used as a win condition in some match-ups, especially alongside Spore and Substitute, and the damage it inflicts can turn 3HKOes into 2HKOes while also keeping Smeargle healthy. That set actually managed to reach 168 wins during one attempt, ultimately losing the penultimate battle to:
H401 | Dragonite | Adamant | Lum Berry | Roost | Outrage | Aerial Ace | Dragon Dance | Atk/Spd
The sad thing is that I lost partly due to awful play. I KNEW about Lum Berry but for some reason I decided that Spore was still the same play to remove the berry. But then I needed a long sleep to set up SubSeed which I didn't get. The play SHOULD have been to Substitute at the beginning to block Outrages until self-confusion activated and removed the berry, and THEN Spore. I have been sure not to make that mistake again in subsequent encounters with Nite.
While Leech Seed is very good, the set has serious problems dealing with Pokemon that have protection of sleep. In particular, Pokemon with Insomnia, Vital Spirit and Early Bird are a pain to deal with for that set. The use of Counter and Mirror Coat is aimed at dealing with those as best as possible. I ultimately decided against running both together since I didn't think Smeargle could pull off a set like that without leaving itself too vulnerable to other things (that's what Swampert's for), so I basically had 1 set with each and used the set I deemed appropriate for whichever type I was facing. Unfortunately this meant it wasn't possible to cover all of these Pokemon at once in any given type but at least I had some of them covered, and that still reduced the number of bad match-ups and increased the chances of getting through.
Finally, Own Tempo is really nice. It's the only option in this context anyway, but it helps a ton against Umbreon and allows me to take Signal Beams and the like without risk of confusion hax.
Smeargle 4 @ Focus Sash
Jolly
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/31/31/7/31/31
EVs: 252/0/92/0/8/156
Spore
Substitute
Dragon Rage
Metal Burst
This is my fourth and final Smeargle. The set is similar to the above, but it runs Metal Burst over Leech Seed/Counter/Mirror Coat. Metal Burst is a sparsely distributed move that has its uses due to it working on all attacks, and the lower damage multiplier doesn't tend to matter in the match-ups where I use this move. Houndoom is its main target. The main problem with the move is that it lacks negative priority and fails if it is used before the target. I didn't like the idea of running a min-Speed Smeargle and so decided to use it sparingly. I dropped the speed down to 78, enough to underspeed a max-Speed Shiftry (a special attacker with Mirror Coat immunity) while still leaving a good deal of Speed to work with.
Type Order:
Ice (1-10) > Dark (1-10) > Flying (1-10) > Normal (1-10), Ghost (1-9) + Argenta1 > Fire (1-10) > Fighting (1-10) > Electric (1-10) > Psychic (1-10) > Poison (1-10) > Bug (1-5) + Water (1-5) > Bug (6-10) + Water (6-10) > Rock (1-10) > Ground (1-10) > Dragon (1-10) > Grass (1-10) > Steel (1-9) + Argenta2
Set usage:
Despite considering Leech Seed to be the default option, it wasn't actually used as much as the Counter set.
Set 1 (Leech Seed) - Ghost, Poison, Bug/Water part 1, Steel
Set 2 (Counter) - Ice, Dark, Flying, Normal, Fighting, Rock, Ground, Dragon
Set 3 (Mirror Coat) - Electric, Psychic
Set 4 (Metal Burst) - Fire, Bug/Water part 2, Grass
Types in-depth:
Round 1 (Ice)
I do Ice first since there are a lot of threats here, and in any case freezes are a potential danger even in match-ups that are normally "free". I use Counter here primarily for Abomasnow because it is a huge threat to the Leech Seed set (auto-hail + Leech Seed immunity + high HP + Sitrus Berry = D:). A few berry holders, a few evaders, and of course the ultimate streak killer in Weavile. Dewgong and Glalie at 2HKOed at this level, and Jynx and Froslass are slower due to level advantage (they out-speed at higher levels) so doing Ice early makes these match-ups easier.
Main threats:
H287 | Dewgong | Modest | Chesto Berry | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | Brine | Rest | Def/SpA
H300 | Jynx | Timid | BrightPowder | Lovely Kiss | Blizzard | Dream Eater | Energy Ball | Spd/SpA
H350 | Glalie | Modest | Lum Berry | Ice Beam | Dark Pulse | Water Pulse | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA
H372 | Froslass | Calm | BrightPowder | Hail | Blizzard | Ominous Wind | Psychic | Spd/SpA
H454 | Weavile | Adamant | Focus Sash | Night Slash | Ice Punch | Ice Shard | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
Round 2 (Dark)
The other round with Weavile, this is a small pool with several danger mons that I like to get out of the way early also. Counter helps with Honchkrow (Insomnia mon). Metal Burst would be useful for Houndoom but it doesn't work on Honchkrow and I'm too fast for Shiftry at this point so I had to choose. I figured that Early Bird Houndoom can still be beaten "in theory" whereas Insomnia Honchkrow can't so Counter was my choice. Counter covers Quick Claw Tyranitar to an extent too, as long as Stone Edge doesn't miss.
Main threats:
H415 | Houndoom | Mild | Choice Scarf | Dark Pulse | Flamethrower | Crunch | Fire Fang | Atk/SpA
H423 | Tyranitar | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Crunch | Dark Pulse | AncientPower | Atk/SpA
H454 | Weavile | Adamant | Focus Sash | Night Slash | Ice Punch | Ice Shard | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
Round 3 (Flying)
Flying is FULL of Insomnia and Early Bird things. I used to leave this for later but moved it up in the sequence due to some close calls and loses. Counter helps with Dodrio, Honchkrow, Ninjask and Aerodactyl; lack of Mirror Coat sucks against Noctowl and Xatu. Also I lost once to Pidgeot because of Uproar after 2 consecutive turn 1 sleeps. Drifblim is uncommon in Flying due to the large pool but Petaya Berry + Unburden makes is potentially dangerous.
Main threats:
H306 | Noctowl | Modest | Leftovers | Extrasensory | Air Slash | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | HP/SpA
H308 | Xatu | Modest | Leftovers | Psychic | Air Cutter | Ominous Wind | Silver Wind | Spd/SpA
H362 | Drifblim | Modest | Petaya Berry | Shadow Ball | Psychic | Thunderbolt | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA
H374 | Pidgeot | Modest | Wise Glasses | Ominous Wind | Heat Wave | Air Slash | Uproar | Spd/SpA
H389 | Scyther | Jolly | Focus Sash | X-Scissor | Aerial Ace | Swords Dance | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
H405 | Crobat | Jolly | BrightPowder | Brave Bird | Cross Poison | Double Team | Toxic | Atk/Spd
H461 | Togekiss | Modest | BrightPowder | Air Slash | Aura Sphere | Thunder Wave | Roost | SpA/SpD
H462 | Yanmega | Rash | Petaya Berry | Bug Buzz | Air Slash | Endure | Reversal | Def/SpA
Round 4 (Normal)
This is similar to Normal, but not quite as bad. Some issue with Counter vs. Mirror Coat applies here. Not having Leech Sucks against Blissey - I'm not even sure if that is beatable without it. Sleep Talk Pokemon like Ursaring suck too if they stay asleep for a long time (EDIT: but Counter works OK for that one).
Main threats:
H295 | Chansey | Quiet | Zoom Lens | Blizzard | Thunder | Fire Blast | Return | HP/SpA
H306 | Noctowl | Modest | Leftovers | Extrasensory | Air Slash | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | HP/SpA
H414 | Ursaring | Adamant | Focus Band | Frustration | Rest | Sleep Talk | ThunderPunch | Atk/Def
H418 | Porygon2 | Rash | Quick Claw | Tri Attack | Return | Psychic | Zen Headbutt | Atk/SpA
H419 | Blissey | Sassy | Lum Berry | Return | Softboiled | Fire Blast | Minimize | Def/SpD
H477 | Regigigas | Impish | Lum Berry | Zen Headbutt | Confuse Ray | Drain Punch | Dizzy Punch | Atk/Def
Round 5 (Ghost)
Doing Ghost now removes the possibility of encountering a faster Froslass which is very important. It's still a threat though. Gengar, Drifblim, Dusclops and Dusknoir are here too. Leech Seed is used here for Shedinja, which is virtually guaranteed to appear due to the small pool of options in Ghost.
Main threats:
H346 | Banette | Lonely | Wise Glasses | Shadow Claw | Sucker Punch | Thunderbolt | Icy Wind | Atk/SpA
H347 | Dusclops | Adamant | Quick Claw | Shadow Punch | Ice Punch | ThunderPunch | Fire Punch | HP/Atk
H362 | Drifblim | Modest | Petaya Berry | Shadow Ball | Psychic | Thunderbolt | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA
H372 | Froslass | Calm | BrightPowder | Hail | Blizzard | Ominous Wind | Psychic | Spd/SpA
H386 | Gengar | Timid | Razor Fang | Shadow Ball | Sludge Bomb | Hypnosis | Nightmare | Spd/SpA
H470 | Dusknoir | Careful | Quick Claw | Rest | Curse | Shadow Punch | Brick Break | Def/SpD
Argenta1
H104 | Azurill | Mild | Silk Scarf | Waterfall | Charm | Return | Tail Whip | Spd/SpA
You'll notice that she's using Azurill and not something fully evolved/high tier. It seems that for the first battle, the Pokemon she picks is scaled based on the relative "strength" of the Pokemon you use. In my case, Smeargle has a very low BST and is lower ranked in the Hall, hence the unevolved/weak Pokemon. This battle was obviously trivial.
Note that this battle isn't necessarily free. I once lost to:
H125 | Luvdisc | Lonely | Mystic Water | Aqua Ring | Dive | Return | Brine | Atk/Spd
And I had a close call with:
H35 | Doduo | Jolly | Sharp Beak | Drill Peck | Fury Attack | Aerial Ace | Acupressure | Atk/Spd
Otherwise I haven't had any issues with her with previous runs.
Round 6 (Fire)
I use Metal Burst here because of Houndoom. It also works for Infernape, who has never used Fake Out on me despite it allowing for an unwinnable match-up (assuming it out-speeds). There aren't too many threats here but some of them are highly important.
Main threats:
H252 | Monferno | Adamant | Charcoal | Flare Blitz | Close Combat | Mach Punch | Will-O-Wisp | Atk/Spd
H377 | Ninetales | Mild | White Herb | Will-O-Wisp | Confuse Ray | Quick Attack | Overheat | Spd/SpA
H379 | Arcanine | Adamant | Razor Claw | ExtremeSpeed | Flare Blitz | Facade | Will-O-Wisp | Atk/Spd
H415 | Houndoom | Mild | Choice Scarf | Dark Pulse | Flamethrower | Crunch | Fire Fang | Atk/SpA
H444 | Infernape | Adamant | Life Orb | Close Combat | Flare Blitz | Mach Punch | Fake Out | Atk/Spd
Round 7 (Fighting)
Because I have Counter, Fighting is actually not as bad as it first appears. I still like doing Fighting somewhat early though because a lot of the Pokemon here have priority. Infernape appears again, and I've lost twice to Hitmontop of all things in the past, once because of forgetting about Salac Berry, and another time because it used Triple Kick to break a sub and KO me in a single turn.
Main threats:
H252 | Monferno | Adamant | Charcoal | Flare Blitz | Close Combat | Mach Punch | Will-O-Wisp | Atk/Spd
H320 | Hitmontop | Adamant | Salac Berry | Triple Kick | Aerial Ace | Thief | Twister | Atk/Spd
H328 | Hariyama | Brave | Focus Band | Vital Throw | Payback | Fake Out | ThunderPunch | HP/Atk
H444 | Infernape | Adamant | Life Orb | Close Combat | Flare Blitz | Mach Punch | Fake Out | Atk/Spd
H451 | Lucario | Brave | Liechi Berry | Aura Sphere | Focus Punch | ExtremeSpeed | Substitute | Atk/SpA
Round 8 (Electric)
I used to do Electric earlier due to the high speed and paralysis potential of the Pokemon here. The fact that I do it later now is less about Electric being less threatening than I thought and more about Flying and Normal being worse. I still hate this type - Mirror Coat helps a bit against the faster stuff. In this run, I had a close call here against Jolteon that Thunder Waved turn 1, but I didn't fully paralyse.
Main threats:
H290 | Electrode | Naive | King's Rock | Swift | Thunderbolt | Rollout | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA
H329 | Manectric | Modest | Focus Sash | Thunder | Flamethrower | Swift | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA
H394 | Jolteon | Rash | Expert Belt | Discharge | Quick Attack | Double Team | Thunder Wave | Spd/SpA
H420 | Raikou | Naive | Scope Lens | Thunder | Quick Attack | Reflect | Thunder Fang | Spd/SpA
Round 9 (Psychic)
Mirror Coat is great here for Hypno, Xatu and a few fast things like Alakazam. Girafarig is more dangerous here than in Normal due to not running Counter. Jynx also appears here, as does Metagross.
Main threats:
H300 | Jynx | Timid | BrightPowder | Lovely Kiss | Blizzard | Dream Eater | Energy Ball | Spd/SpA
H312 | Girafarig | Adamant | Lum Berry | Crunch | Zen Headbutt | Return | Mirror Coat | Atk/Spd
H387 | Exeggutor | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Wood Hammer | Zen Headbutt | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/Atk
H388 | Starmie | Timid | BrightPowder | Hydro Pump | Psychic | Recover | Double Team | Spd/SpA
H437 | Metagross | Adamant | Quick Claw | Meteor Mash | Zen Headbutt | Bullet Punch | Light Screen | Atk/Def
Round 10 (Poison)
Gengar and Crobat are the most dangerous things here but I didn't see either. I don't know why I picked Leech Seed but move choice isn't crucial here I don't think. Just don't use it against Swalot or Tentacruel, lest you be weakened by Liquid Ooze.
Main threats:
H382 | Tentacruel | Adamant | BrightPowder | Waterfall | Poison Jab | Toxic | Dive | Atk/SpD
H386 | Gengar | Timid | Razor Fang | Shadow Ball | Sludge Bomb | Hypnosis | Nightmare | Spd/SpA
H405 | Crobat | Jolly | BrightPowder | Brave Bird | Cross Poison | Double Team | Toxic | Atk/Spd
Round 11 (Bug/Water, part 1)
Coming into this round, I faced a tough choice for fourth move. I really wanted Metal Burst for the opportunity to cover Ninjask and Speed Boost Yanmega at the same time, but I also had to be wary of lacking Leech Seed for Shedinja. Since Shedinja seems to only appear during ranks 1-5 (it might appear later but I've never seen it personally, Shedy is rare in Bug as is anyway), I decided to use the Leech Seed set for the first 5 battles, and then do another 5 battles of a different type. That allowed by the use the Metal Burst set with the Shedy risk minimised. Water was an arbitrary choice but I figured Metal Burst could be used there against things like Floatzel. Because I only faced low rank mons in the round, there aren't really many threats, but I did have a cute battle against a Speed Boost Yanma that flinched with Air Slash after a 1 turn sleep. It was too low a level to be a huge danger though.
Main threats:
H202 | Yanma | Modest | SilverPowder | Bug Buzz | Air Slash | Double Team | Supersonic | Spd/SpA
Round 12 (Bug/Water, part 2)
Metal Burst helps with some key threats but it doesn't cover everything, especially in Water where the pool is huge. I had a bit of bad match-up luck in this round - while I did get to Metal Burst a Ninjask, Focus Sash Scyther appeared at rank 10 and I only won because of a max turn sleep. I later had to deal with Chesto Berry Dewgong (which now has enough HP to take 2 Dragon Rages, unlike in Round 1) followed immediately by Lumineon, a fast BrightPowder holder that got a dodge but also slept for a while. I can't actually believe I survived it.
Main threats:
H313 | Forretress | Brave | Lum Berry | Gyro Ball | Payback | Bug Bite | Counter | HP/Atk
H389 | Scyther | Jolly | Focus Sash | X-Scissor | Aerial Ace | Swords Dance | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
H307 | Lanturn | Modest | Sitrus Berry | Discharge | Brine | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | HP/SpA
H287 | Dewgong | Modest | Chesto Berry | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | Brine | Rest | Def/SpA
H331 | Sharpedo | Adamant | Focus Sash | Crunch | Waterfall | Ice Fang | Zen Headbutt | Atk/Spd
H341 | Whiscash | Quiet | Lax Incense | Earth Power | Water Pulse | Future Sight | Blizzard | SpA/SpD
H342 | Crawdaunt | Adamant | Quick Claw | Crunch | Crabhammer | Body Slam | Aerial Ace | Atk/Def
H358 | Floatzel | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Waterfall | Crunch | Ice Punch | Brick Break | Atk/Spd
H360 | Gastrodon | Modest | Lax Incense | Muddy Water | Earth Power | Blizzard | Sludge Bomb | HP/SpA
H370 | Lumineon | Timid | BrightPowder | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | Water Pulse | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA
H382 | Tentacruel | Adamant | BrightPowder | Waterfall | Poison Jab | Toxic | Dive | Atk/SpD
H388 | Starmie | Timid | BrightPowder | Hydro Pump | Psychic | Recover | Double Team | Spd/SpA
H392 | Lapras | Modest | Lum Berry | Blizzard | Surf | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/SpA
H426 | Swampert | Quiet | BrightPowder | Muddy Water | Mud Bomb | Substitute | Rest | SpA/SpD
H430 | Wailord | Quiet | BrightPowder | Water Spout | Sleep Talk | Body Slam | Rest | HP/SpA
Round 13 (Rock)
This type isn't too bad, especially with Counter. The main concern is Quick Claw, and of course I managed to get Golem and Rhyperior in the same run. Golem in particular went on a Quick Claw rampage but was snoozing through the whole thing so it didn't matter!
Main threats:
H283 | Golem | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Earth Power | Hammer Arm | Sucker Punch | Atk/SpA
H396 | Aerodactyl | Adamant | Leftovers | Stone Edge | Aerial Ace | Sandstorm | Fly | Atk/Spd
H423 | Tyranitar | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Crunch | Dark Pulse | AncientPower | Atk/SpA
H457 | Rhyperior | Brave | Quick Claw | Rock Wrecker | Earth Power | Giga Impact | Reversal | Atk/Def
Round 14 (Ground)
Rather similar to Rock, maybe a little worse but not noticably so. Counter helps here too. I encountered Garchomp at rank 9 I think and Counter deleted it.
Main threats:
H283 | Golem | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Earth Power | Hammer Arm | Sucker Punch | Atk/SpA
H341 | Whiscash | Quiet | Lax Incense | Earth Power | Water Pulse | Future Sight | Blizzard | SpA/SpD
H360 | Gastrodon | Modest | Lax Incense | Muddy Water | Earth Power | Blizzard | Sludge Bomb | HP/SpA
H426 | Swampert | Quiet | BrightPowder | Muddy Water | Mud Bomb | Substitute | Rest | SpA/SpD
H432 | Claydol | Rash | Choice Scarf | Earth Power | Psychic | Earthquake | Zen Headbutt | Atk/SpA
H457 | Rhyperior | Brave | Quick Claw | Rock Wrecker | Earth Power | Giga Impact | Reversal | Atk/Def
Round 15 (Dragon)
When I was only using the Leech Seed set, I would do Dragon much earlier - Round 8 at the latest. This was to ensure that Smeargle out-sped everything with its level advantage, which trivialised Dragon. Now that I use Counter, I decided I could afford to leave it for later since there are other types that are more dangerous. Counter works well against the physical Dragons and Smeargle out-speeds the special one. Lati@s is probably the biggest problem wihtout Leech Seed just because of Recover and possibly Salac Berry, but I've never encountered either with Smeargle I don't think. Garchomp and Gabite have Sandstorm but if they can OHKO with Outrage/STAB they'll typically go for that instead.
Main threats:
H441 | Latias | Modest | Salac Berry | Mist Ball | Dragon Pulse | Recover | Captivate | SpA/SpD
H442 | Latios | Modest | Salac Berry | Luster Purge | Dragon Pulse | Recover | Captivate | SpA/SpD
Round 16 (Grass)
I didn't feel comfortable leaving Grass so late since there are quite a number of potential threats here. The main reason why I did it was because the rank 9 and 10 battles are at level 30 at this point. If I encountered Shiftry at either rank, I would be able to Metal Burst it. A little risky, but this was the best chance to remove it as a threat. Metal Burst helps against Sceptile also, and that was my rank 10. No Counter makes Abomasnow especially dangerous.
Main threats:
H310 | Jumpluff | Adamant | BrightPowder | Seed Bomb | Leech Seed | U-turn | Bounce | Atk/Spd
H323 | Shiftry | Modest | White Herb | Leaf Storm | Extrasensory | Dark Pulse | Focus Blast | Spd/SpA
H371 | Abomasnow | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Wood Hammer | Avalanche | Brick Break | Iron Tail | HP/Atk
H387 | Exeggutor | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Wood Hammer | Zen Headbutt | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/Atk
H458 | Tangrowth | Lonely | Lax Incense | Wring Out | Grass Knot | Sunny Day | SolarBeam | HP/SpA
Round 17 (Steel)
Outside of Metagross and a few other things, Steel is relatively tame. It is the only type where Smeargle out-speeds everything that can appear at rank 10, giving it an advantage even in "dangerous" match-ups. Leech Seed is useful for Scizor and a few others, but I also wanted it because I was under the impression that Argenta would follow the same rule as the first battle and use a low-tier mon - what if she pulled Shedinja and I didn't have anything to deal with it? As you'll see this was unfounded, but Leech Seed is still good here.
Main threats:
H356 | Bastiodon | Quiet | Quick Claw | Metal Burst | Blizzard | Thunder | Fire Blast | HP/SpA
H411 | Scizor | Brave | Focus Sash | Swords Dance | X-Scissor | Counter | Bullet Punch | HP/Atk
H437 | Metagross | Adamant | Quick Claw | Meteor Mash | Zen Headbutt | Bullet Punch | Light Screen | Atk/Def
H451 | Lucario | Brave | Liechi Berry | Aura Sphere | Focus Punch | ExtremeSpeed | Substitute | Atk/SpA
Argenta2
H472 | Mesprit | Timid | Light Clay | Extrasensory | Light Screen | Reflect | Swift | Spd/SpA
So it turns out she DOESN'T scale her Pokemon to yours like in the first battle, and is seemingly hardcoded to use a "top-tier" Pokemon no matter what you're using. This one made me a little nervous because it out-speeds Smeargle by 4 points, can survive 2 Dragon Rages, and 2HKOes with Extrasensory, which also has a flinch chance. To win, I would need a long sleep or for Mesprit to waste turns setting up screens.
Turn 1: Light Screen, Spore
Turn 2: sleeping, Substitute
Turn 3: wake up Extrasensory, sub broken, Leech Seed (I have enough HP to survive Extrasensory after Leech Seed at this point - 80 HP)
Turn 4: Reflect, Spore (I can't lose from this point)
Turn 5: sleeping, Substitute
Turn 6: wake up Extrasensory, sub broken, Spore, etc.
Once Leech Seed was set and I managed to sleep it again, I was guaranteed to win since I could simply stall it to death due to its lack of recovery. And with that, Smeargle cleared the Battle Hall!
With my main goal achieved, I decided to continue on to see how far I could get with it. For those unaware, the Hall gets trickier here since you are forced to do 10 rank 10s of different types with a single move set. Inevitably, this can result in using non-optimal sets for certain types. In any case, I lost pretty quickly due to a combination of stupidity and hax.
I used the Counter set from here on.
Battle 171: Altaria
H336 | Altaria | Modest | Leftovers | Dragon Pulse | Air Cutter | Flamethrower | Ominous Wind | Spd/SpA
This is slower so it's just a simple Spore > Sub >Dragon Rage. It didn't wake up too early so I won.
Battle 172: Rhydon
H294 | Rhydon | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Dig | Stone Edge | Rock Slide | Megahorn | HP/Atk
I Countered its Megahorn. Too easy.
Battle 173 (loss): Rhyperior
H457 | Rhyperior | Brave | Quick Claw | Rock Wrecker | Earth Power | Giga Impact | Reversal | Atk/Def
So the tricky thing about this set, aside from the Quick Claw you can't do anything about, is its behaviour. In general, I've found that the AI is often hesitant to use recharge moves like Rock Wrecker even if they are stronger than everything else AND can KO. Therefore, the possibility of this using Earth Power was very real.
So why did I use Counter on turn 1? Well, as mentioned previously, I encountered this in the Rock round, and it actually used Rock Wrecker in that battle to break my sub. Because of this, I decided that maybe this Pokemon might be OK with using Rock Wrecker on Smeargle and figured that Counter would give me an easy win. Well, unfortunately it used Earth Power and I lost Focus Sash for nothing.
Earth Power only did about 40% damage though, so the battle wasn't over, and I proceeded to use Spore. You can probably guess what happened next: Quick Claw activated, Earth Power landed a critical hit, and Smeargle died. So that's that. Not sure why I saw the inconsistent behaviour here - perhaps having the sub changed how it felt about Rock Wrecker, or maybe it's just random. But I'm actually not too mad and am just thankful that this didn't happen during the Rock round as it easily could have done.
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My journey to 10000 total wins is ongoing. I have been documenting my runs in the Battle Tree discord (a huge shout-out to my fellow facility players there, they make doing stuff like this way more fun :D) and I might start documenting things here if people are interested. After rolling the RNG once again to select my next project, my next project will probably be Chansey and its relatives. Given that Peterko used Blissey to get to 220 in the past, I'll at least have a good starting point for those attempts. I'm also interested in other people's Hall experiences should they wish to share!
Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask any questions about Hall and this particular Smeargle run!
The gimmick with the Hall, of course, is that you have to use one species of Pokemon (multiple specimens of the same Pokemon are allowed) to wins as many consecutive one-on-one battles as possible. You are required to pick a type before each battle, and then you battle a Pokemon of that type. Each type starts at rank 1, at which point the Pokemon you face is a weaker/unevolved species at a low level, and as you win the rank increases and the Pokemon you face get stronger, up to a max of rank 10. Winning 170 battles (equivalent to clearing all 10 ranks of all 17 types) gets you the coloured symbol. Strategy gets introduced to the challenge through the control you have over type selection, where you are able to pick "dangerous" types early to remove the risk of losing to them later on.
I was able to get the symbol pretty quickly using:
Dragonite 1 @ Focus Sash
Adamant
Inner Focus
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252
Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Punch
ExtremeSpeed
Dragonite 2 @ Focus Sash
Mild
Inner Focus
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 0/4/0/252/0/252
Outrage
Earthquake
Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt
Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt
Just a SashDragon strategy. Garchomp and Salamence can do this and have certain advantages over Dragonite but Nite has the occasionally useful Inner Focus and a swanky move pool - Fire Punch access in particular means it can never lose to Abomasnow whereas the other two have a 5% chance to lose with Fire Fang. Of course, all of these Dragons autolose to:
H454 | Weavile | Adamant | Focus Sash | Night Slash | Ice Punch | Ice Shard | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
So I did the Ice and Dark types first and then went from there. I actually lost my first attempt early to a Sneasel that froze me on turn 1, but the second attempt was more successful. I tried to take it beyond 170 but was stopped not long after at 174 wins by:
H357 | Vespiquen | Brave | BrightPowder | Power Gem | Attack Order | Ominous Wind | Air Cutter | Atk/SpA
...because BrightPowder is horseshit and activated twice in a row, which ensured that it had the time to land enough Power Gems to beat me. But no matter, I was only going for the print and I got it. I might try Dragonite again at some point anyway.
I was about ready to move onto another facility (and I have in fact done the Arcade as well now). But then I saw this on Bulbapedia:
That ultimately lead to what I'm currently doing, which is going for the super important, not incredibly pointless 10,000 win total to "unlock" all of these characters (as an aside I'm not entirely sure those numbers are accurate because I'm seeing Lyra and have not reached 1000 yet). Basically I've been using assorted Pokemon and have tried to get as far as possible with them, with the caveat that I'm not going to invest too much effort into a lot of these regarding theorymon/optimisation. I wasn't entirely sure which Pokemon I wanted to use in the beginning, so I have been using a random number generator to "pick" them for me. When I get a number, I check which Pokemon that matches with in the Gen 4 National Dex, and I use that Pokemon. That has lead to me using some rather awful Pokemon, as you can see below.
Pokemon I have tried so far
Sandslash @ Focus Sash
Adamant
Sand Veil
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 76/252/24/0/132/0
Earthquake
Rock Slide
X-Scissor
Counter
Win streak: 90
Sandslash is relatively good compared to other stuff I've used, and may even be capable of 170 if you wanted to use it specifically. Lost to a turn 1 freeze from:
H287 | Dewgong | Modest | Chesto Berry | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | Brine | Rest | Def/SpA
Mime Jr. @ Focus Sash
Modest
Filter
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/252/0/252
Psychic
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Signal Beam
Win streak: 88
This is relatively OK for an unevolved Pokemon, but it's still an unevolved Pokemon. Ultimately lost to a Plusle that outsped and 2HKOed me before I could take it out:
H235 | Plusle | Timid | Magnet | Nasty Plot | Swift | Thunderbolt | Thunder Wave | Spd/SpA
Paras @ Focus Sash
Adamant
Dry Skin
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31
EVs: 152/252/32/0/20/0
Spore
X-Scissor
Brick Break
Aerial Ace
Win streak: 43
This, on the other hand, is NOT OK. But at least it has Spore, which can let it win otherwise unwinnable match-ups sometimes. Still sucks though. I don't remember how I lost, but I abandoned Paras fairly early because I wanted to try something better, and surely it couldn't get much worse than this right?
Combee @ Focus Sash
Naughty
Honey Gather
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 0/252/0/4/0/252
Bug Bite
Air Cutter
Ominous Wind
Mud-Slap
Win Streak: 24
Of course it can. This thing, aside from having a worthless ability and being aggressively weak beyond its decent Speed, learns about 10 or so moves total, which made building an "effective" set a nightmare. Unsurprisingly didn't last very long before I boxed it. I lost to a Gulpin that hit me with Gunk Shot and didn't care about the 2 accuracy drops I throw at it:
H109 | Gulpin | Brave | Poison Barb | Gunk Shot | Amnesia | Frustration | Acid Armor | HP/Atk
Claydol @ Focus Sash
Quiet
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/4/252/0/0
Earth Power
Psychic
Ice Beam
Signal Beam
Alt moves: Shadow Ball, Grass Knot, Ancientpower
Win Streak: 88
Finally back to something "competent". Claydol isn't exactly cut out for Hall though - it has far too many weaknesses and isn't exceptionally powerful. It does have a good move pool at least. I originally planned to use this as a Trick Room Pokemon, hence the Quiet nature, but I found myself not really using Trick Room at all, although using Quiet did at least leave the possibility open of using physical moves. I attempted Claydol a few times and had a few false starts in Dark and Ice especially. For the longest streak I got I managed to break through and got to 88 wins before being shot down by Tangrowth that dodged Ice Beam and got a crit Wring Out on turn 1, and then Ice Beam failed to OHKO next turn which allowed Tangrowth for finish Claydol off.
H458 | Tangrowth | Lonely | Lax Incense | Wring Out | Grass Knot | Sunny Day | SolarBeam | HP/SpA
Porygon @ Focus Sash
Modest
Download
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/4/252/0/0
Tri Attack
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Shadow Ball
Win streak: 91
Porygon2 1 @ Choice Specs
Modest
Download
IVs: 31/11/31/30/30/31
EVs: 252/0/4/252/0/0
Shadow Ball
Thunderbolt
Hidden Power [Ground]
Trick
Alt items: Focus Sash, Wise Glasses
Alt moves: Signal Beam, Tri Attack, Hyper Beam, Ice Beam, Thunder Wave, Recover, Psychic, Substitute, Return
Porygon2 2 @ Focus Sash
Rash
Download
IVs: 31/31/31/30/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/252/0/0
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
Hyper Beam
Return
Alt moves: Hidden Power [Ground], Giga Impact, Ice Beam, Signal Beam, Tri Attack, Thunder Wave, Psychic
Win streak: 97
I went back to the unevolved mons with Porygon. This one isn't as incompetent as some of the others I've used, and it's actually pretty similar to Claydol in many ways. Download is great fun when the boost is right. I lost to Medicham dodging 2 Shadow Balls with a single Double Team.
H234 | Medicham | Adamant | Black Belt | Psycho Cut | Force Palm | Recover | Double Team | Atk/Def
After that I decided to skip the RNG to decide my Pokemon and went straight for Porygon2, using 2 sets with which I changes the moves around liberally. I experimented with a mixed attacking Rash set to abuse Download fully. The power is solid but it doesn't work too well overall. Porygon2 is not exceptionally bulky without investment and it's slow as well, so it ends up being way too vulnerable to faster things that can hax it. Ultimately it died to Sharpedo, which got a defence drop with Crunch with which it was able to KO me with Waterfall next turn.
H331 | Sharpedo | Adamant | Focus Sash | Crunch | Waterfall | Ice Fang | Zen Headbutt | Atk/Spd
I also tried out Gengar but have chosen not to report the sets for now. I'm not done with it yet and would like to go back to it eventually.
---------------------
There is one other Pokemon that I rolled using the RNG, and of all the Pokemon selected and used using this method, it was the Pokemon I invested the most time and effort into, the one that got me the best results by far, and the one that gives me reason to make this post.
To provide some context for this Coloured Print-winning streak, I should explain that I wasn't the first person to try Smeargle in Hall during this session. average fella was also doing some Hall stuff and had done some decent runs with Smeargle as well, so to give credit where it's due, I was ultimately picking up where they left off before going on to optimise it. I was initially skeptical about the odds of getting far with Smeargle due to its stats but as I played more and more with it and had a few good runs cut short by a misplay on my part or hax on the games part, I felt more and more compelled to reach the 170 win benchmark.
For reasons that should become obvious, I did this at level 30, the minimum level for Hall.
Smeargle 1/2/3 @ Focus Sash
Jolly
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/31/31/7/31/31
EVs: 104/0/116/0/36/252
Spore
Substitute
Dragon Rage
Leech Seed (1)/Counter (2)/Mirror Coat (3)
Smeargle's strength obviously lies in its move pool, with Spore at the top of the list of Smeargle's most useful attacks. Given how weak Smeargle is stat-wise, the ability of Smeargle to incapacitate Pokemon that can otherwise slaughter it on sight is a no brainer. Substitute is often used after Spore because sometimes you only get a 1-turn sleep. Putting a Substitute up basically blocks any potential problems from opposing status and other nasties should the Pokemon wake immediately. There are a few occasions where Substitute isn't necessarily the best play, but Spore into Substitute is what I consider to be the "default" play.
Dragon Rage is basically Smeargle's best source of consistent damage, and the reason why this was done at level 30. It doesn't OHKO very often but it 2HKOes most things in the lead up to 170 (I can only assume that Dragon Rage is the reason why level 30 was selected as the minimum level, and not level 10 or something). As a Dragon move, it hits everything except Shedinja, so outside of that match-up there's no worry about being "walled".
The above set is actually a conglomeration of 3 separate Smeargle that are identical except for the fourth move - I got sick of grinding Heart Scales to change it constantly so having them ready to go saved a lot of time. I consider Leech Seed to be the default option, and it was the very first set I tried in early attempts (I used Super Fang for Grass and Leech Seed for everything else). Leech Seed can sometimes be used as a win condition in some match-ups, especially alongside Spore and Substitute, and the damage it inflicts can turn 3HKOes into 2HKOes while also keeping Smeargle healthy. That set actually managed to reach 168 wins during one attempt, ultimately losing the penultimate battle to:
H401 | Dragonite | Adamant | Lum Berry | Roost | Outrage | Aerial Ace | Dragon Dance | Atk/Spd
The sad thing is that I lost partly due to awful play. I KNEW about Lum Berry but for some reason I decided that Spore was still the same play to remove the berry. But then I needed a long sleep to set up SubSeed which I didn't get. The play SHOULD have been to Substitute at the beginning to block Outrages until self-confusion activated and removed the berry, and THEN Spore. I have been sure not to make that mistake again in subsequent encounters with Nite.
While Leech Seed is very good, the set has serious problems dealing with Pokemon that have protection of sleep. In particular, Pokemon with Insomnia, Vital Spirit and Early Bird are a pain to deal with for that set. The use of Counter and Mirror Coat is aimed at dealing with those as best as possible. I ultimately decided against running both together since I didn't think Smeargle could pull off a set like that without leaving itself too vulnerable to other things (that's what Swampert's for), so I basically had 1 set with each and used the set I deemed appropriate for whichever type I was facing. Unfortunately this meant it wasn't possible to cover all of these Pokemon at once in any given type but at least I had some of them covered, and that still reduced the number of bad match-ups and increased the chances of getting through.
Finally, Own Tempo is really nice. It's the only option in this context anyway, but it helps a ton against Umbreon and allows me to take Signal Beams and the like without risk of confusion hax.
Smeargle 4 @ Focus Sash
Jolly
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/31/31/7/31/31
EVs: 252/0/92/0/8/156
Spore
Substitute
Dragon Rage
Metal Burst
This is my fourth and final Smeargle. The set is similar to the above, but it runs Metal Burst over Leech Seed/Counter/Mirror Coat. Metal Burst is a sparsely distributed move that has its uses due to it working on all attacks, and the lower damage multiplier doesn't tend to matter in the match-ups where I use this move. Houndoom is its main target. The main problem with the move is that it lacks negative priority and fails if it is used before the target. I didn't like the idea of running a min-Speed Smeargle and so decided to use it sparingly. I dropped the speed down to 78, enough to underspeed a max-Speed Shiftry (a special attacker with Mirror Coat immunity) while still leaving a good deal of Speed to work with.
Type Order:
Ice (1-10) > Dark (1-10) > Flying (1-10) > Normal (1-10), Ghost (1-9) + Argenta1 > Fire (1-10) > Fighting (1-10) > Electric (1-10) > Psychic (1-10) > Poison (1-10) > Bug (1-5) + Water (1-5) > Bug (6-10) + Water (6-10) > Rock (1-10) > Ground (1-10) > Dragon (1-10) > Grass (1-10) > Steel (1-9) + Argenta2
Set usage:
Despite considering Leech Seed to be the default option, it wasn't actually used as much as the Counter set.
Set 1 (Leech Seed) - Ghost, Poison, Bug/Water part 1, Steel
Set 2 (Counter) - Ice, Dark, Flying, Normal, Fighting, Rock, Ground, Dragon
Set 3 (Mirror Coat) - Electric, Psychic
Set 4 (Metal Burst) - Fire, Bug/Water part 2, Grass
Types in-depth:
Round 1 (Ice)
I do Ice first since there are a lot of threats here, and in any case freezes are a potential danger even in match-ups that are normally "free". I use Counter here primarily for Abomasnow because it is a huge threat to the Leech Seed set (auto-hail + Leech Seed immunity + high HP + Sitrus Berry = D:). A few berry holders, a few evaders, and of course the ultimate streak killer in Weavile. Dewgong and Glalie at 2HKOed at this level, and Jynx and Froslass are slower due to level advantage (they out-speed at higher levels) so doing Ice early makes these match-ups easier.
Main threats:
H287 | Dewgong | Modest | Chesto Berry | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | Brine | Rest | Def/SpA
H300 | Jynx | Timid | BrightPowder | Lovely Kiss | Blizzard | Dream Eater | Energy Ball | Spd/SpA
H350 | Glalie | Modest | Lum Berry | Ice Beam | Dark Pulse | Water Pulse | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA
H372 | Froslass | Calm | BrightPowder | Hail | Blizzard | Ominous Wind | Psychic | Spd/SpA
H454 | Weavile | Adamant | Focus Sash | Night Slash | Ice Punch | Ice Shard | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
Round 2 (Dark)
The other round with Weavile, this is a small pool with several danger mons that I like to get out of the way early also. Counter helps with Honchkrow (Insomnia mon). Metal Burst would be useful for Houndoom but it doesn't work on Honchkrow and I'm too fast for Shiftry at this point so I had to choose. I figured that Early Bird Houndoom can still be beaten "in theory" whereas Insomnia Honchkrow can't so Counter was my choice. Counter covers Quick Claw Tyranitar to an extent too, as long as Stone Edge doesn't miss.
Main threats:
H415 | Houndoom | Mild | Choice Scarf | Dark Pulse | Flamethrower | Crunch | Fire Fang | Atk/SpA
H423 | Tyranitar | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Crunch | Dark Pulse | AncientPower | Atk/SpA
H454 | Weavile | Adamant | Focus Sash | Night Slash | Ice Punch | Ice Shard | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
Round 3 (Flying)
Flying is FULL of Insomnia and Early Bird things. I used to leave this for later but moved it up in the sequence due to some close calls and loses. Counter helps with Dodrio, Honchkrow, Ninjask and Aerodactyl; lack of Mirror Coat sucks against Noctowl and Xatu. Also I lost once to Pidgeot because of Uproar after 2 consecutive turn 1 sleeps. Drifblim is uncommon in Flying due to the large pool but Petaya Berry + Unburden makes is potentially dangerous.
Main threats:
H306 | Noctowl | Modest | Leftovers | Extrasensory | Air Slash | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | HP/SpA
H308 | Xatu | Modest | Leftovers | Psychic | Air Cutter | Ominous Wind | Silver Wind | Spd/SpA
H362 | Drifblim | Modest | Petaya Berry | Shadow Ball | Psychic | Thunderbolt | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA
H374 | Pidgeot | Modest | Wise Glasses | Ominous Wind | Heat Wave | Air Slash | Uproar | Spd/SpA
H389 | Scyther | Jolly | Focus Sash | X-Scissor | Aerial Ace | Swords Dance | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
H405 | Crobat | Jolly | BrightPowder | Brave Bird | Cross Poison | Double Team | Toxic | Atk/Spd
H461 | Togekiss | Modest | BrightPowder | Air Slash | Aura Sphere | Thunder Wave | Roost | SpA/SpD
H462 | Yanmega | Rash | Petaya Berry | Bug Buzz | Air Slash | Endure | Reversal | Def/SpA
Round 4 (Normal)
This is similar to Normal, but not quite as bad. Some issue with Counter vs. Mirror Coat applies here. Not having Leech Sucks against Blissey - I'm not even sure if that is beatable without it. Sleep Talk Pokemon like Ursaring suck too if they stay asleep for a long time (EDIT: but Counter works OK for that one).
Main threats:
H295 | Chansey | Quiet | Zoom Lens | Blizzard | Thunder | Fire Blast | Return | HP/SpA
H306 | Noctowl | Modest | Leftovers | Extrasensory | Air Slash | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | HP/SpA
H414 | Ursaring | Adamant | Focus Band | Frustration | Rest | Sleep Talk | ThunderPunch | Atk/Def
H418 | Porygon2 | Rash | Quick Claw | Tri Attack | Return | Psychic | Zen Headbutt | Atk/SpA
H419 | Blissey | Sassy | Lum Berry | Return | Softboiled | Fire Blast | Minimize | Def/SpD
H477 | Regigigas | Impish | Lum Berry | Zen Headbutt | Confuse Ray | Drain Punch | Dizzy Punch | Atk/Def
Round 5 (Ghost)
Doing Ghost now removes the possibility of encountering a faster Froslass which is very important. It's still a threat though. Gengar, Drifblim, Dusclops and Dusknoir are here too. Leech Seed is used here for Shedinja, which is virtually guaranteed to appear due to the small pool of options in Ghost.
Main threats:
H346 | Banette | Lonely | Wise Glasses | Shadow Claw | Sucker Punch | Thunderbolt | Icy Wind | Atk/SpA
H347 | Dusclops | Adamant | Quick Claw | Shadow Punch | Ice Punch | ThunderPunch | Fire Punch | HP/Atk
H362 | Drifblim | Modest | Petaya Berry | Shadow Ball | Psychic | Thunderbolt | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA
H372 | Froslass | Calm | BrightPowder | Hail | Blizzard | Ominous Wind | Psychic | Spd/SpA
H386 | Gengar | Timid | Razor Fang | Shadow Ball | Sludge Bomb | Hypnosis | Nightmare | Spd/SpA
H470 | Dusknoir | Careful | Quick Claw | Rest | Curse | Shadow Punch | Brick Break | Def/SpD
Argenta1
H104 | Azurill | Mild | Silk Scarf | Waterfall | Charm | Return | Tail Whip | Spd/SpA
You'll notice that she's using Azurill and not something fully evolved/high tier. It seems that for the first battle, the Pokemon she picks is scaled based on the relative "strength" of the Pokemon you use. In my case, Smeargle has a very low BST and is lower ranked in the Hall, hence the unevolved/weak Pokemon. This battle was obviously trivial.
Note that this battle isn't necessarily free. I once lost to:
H125 | Luvdisc | Lonely | Mystic Water | Aqua Ring | Dive | Return | Brine | Atk/Spd
And I had a close call with:
H35 | Doduo | Jolly | Sharp Beak | Drill Peck | Fury Attack | Aerial Ace | Acupressure | Atk/Spd
Otherwise I haven't had any issues with her with previous runs.
Round 6 (Fire)
I use Metal Burst here because of Houndoom. It also works for Infernape, who has never used Fake Out on me despite it allowing for an unwinnable match-up (assuming it out-speeds). There aren't too many threats here but some of them are highly important.
Main threats:
H252 | Monferno | Adamant | Charcoal | Flare Blitz | Close Combat | Mach Punch | Will-O-Wisp | Atk/Spd
H377 | Ninetales | Mild | White Herb | Will-O-Wisp | Confuse Ray | Quick Attack | Overheat | Spd/SpA
H379 | Arcanine | Adamant | Razor Claw | ExtremeSpeed | Flare Blitz | Facade | Will-O-Wisp | Atk/Spd
H415 | Houndoom | Mild | Choice Scarf | Dark Pulse | Flamethrower | Crunch | Fire Fang | Atk/SpA
H444 | Infernape | Adamant | Life Orb | Close Combat | Flare Blitz | Mach Punch | Fake Out | Atk/Spd
Round 7 (Fighting)
Because I have Counter, Fighting is actually not as bad as it first appears. I still like doing Fighting somewhat early though because a lot of the Pokemon here have priority. Infernape appears again, and I've lost twice to Hitmontop of all things in the past, once because of forgetting about Salac Berry, and another time because it used Triple Kick to break a sub and KO me in a single turn.
Main threats:
H252 | Monferno | Adamant | Charcoal | Flare Blitz | Close Combat | Mach Punch | Will-O-Wisp | Atk/Spd
H320 | Hitmontop | Adamant | Salac Berry | Triple Kick | Aerial Ace | Thief | Twister | Atk/Spd
H328 | Hariyama | Brave | Focus Band | Vital Throw | Payback | Fake Out | ThunderPunch | HP/Atk
H444 | Infernape | Adamant | Life Orb | Close Combat | Flare Blitz | Mach Punch | Fake Out | Atk/Spd
H451 | Lucario | Brave | Liechi Berry | Aura Sphere | Focus Punch | ExtremeSpeed | Substitute | Atk/SpA
Round 8 (Electric)
I used to do Electric earlier due to the high speed and paralysis potential of the Pokemon here. The fact that I do it later now is less about Electric being less threatening than I thought and more about Flying and Normal being worse. I still hate this type - Mirror Coat helps a bit against the faster stuff. In this run, I had a close call here against Jolteon that Thunder Waved turn 1, but I didn't fully paralyse.
Main threats:
H290 | Electrode | Naive | King's Rock | Swift | Thunderbolt | Rollout | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA
H329 | Manectric | Modest | Focus Sash | Thunder | Flamethrower | Swift | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA
H394 | Jolteon | Rash | Expert Belt | Discharge | Quick Attack | Double Team | Thunder Wave | Spd/SpA
H420 | Raikou | Naive | Scope Lens | Thunder | Quick Attack | Reflect | Thunder Fang | Spd/SpA
Round 9 (Psychic)
Mirror Coat is great here for Hypno, Xatu and a few fast things like Alakazam. Girafarig is more dangerous here than in Normal due to not running Counter. Jynx also appears here, as does Metagross.
Main threats:
H300 | Jynx | Timid | BrightPowder | Lovely Kiss | Blizzard | Dream Eater | Energy Ball | Spd/SpA
H312 | Girafarig | Adamant | Lum Berry | Crunch | Zen Headbutt | Return | Mirror Coat | Atk/Spd
H387 | Exeggutor | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Wood Hammer | Zen Headbutt | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/Atk
H388 | Starmie | Timid | BrightPowder | Hydro Pump | Psychic | Recover | Double Team | Spd/SpA
H437 | Metagross | Adamant | Quick Claw | Meteor Mash | Zen Headbutt | Bullet Punch | Light Screen | Atk/Def
Round 10 (Poison)
Gengar and Crobat are the most dangerous things here but I didn't see either. I don't know why I picked Leech Seed but move choice isn't crucial here I don't think. Just don't use it against Swalot or Tentacruel, lest you be weakened by Liquid Ooze.
Main threats:
H382 | Tentacruel | Adamant | BrightPowder | Waterfall | Poison Jab | Toxic | Dive | Atk/SpD
H386 | Gengar | Timid | Razor Fang | Shadow Ball | Sludge Bomb | Hypnosis | Nightmare | Spd/SpA
H405 | Crobat | Jolly | BrightPowder | Brave Bird | Cross Poison | Double Team | Toxic | Atk/Spd
Round 11 (Bug/Water, part 1)
Coming into this round, I faced a tough choice for fourth move. I really wanted Metal Burst for the opportunity to cover Ninjask and Speed Boost Yanmega at the same time, but I also had to be wary of lacking Leech Seed for Shedinja. Since Shedinja seems to only appear during ranks 1-5 (it might appear later but I've never seen it personally, Shedy is rare in Bug as is anyway), I decided to use the Leech Seed set for the first 5 battles, and then do another 5 battles of a different type. That allowed by the use the Metal Burst set with the Shedy risk minimised. Water was an arbitrary choice but I figured Metal Burst could be used there against things like Floatzel. Because I only faced low rank mons in the round, there aren't really many threats, but I did have a cute battle against a Speed Boost Yanma that flinched with Air Slash after a 1 turn sleep. It was too low a level to be a huge danger though.
Main threats:
H202 | Yanma | Modest | SilverPowder | Bug Buzz | Air Slash | Double Team | Supersonic | Spd/SpA
Round 12 (Bug/Water, part 2)
Metal Burst helps with some key threats but it doesn't cover everything, especially in Water where the pool is huge. I had a bit of bad match-up luck in this round - while I did get to Metal Burst a Ninjask, Focus Sash Scyther appeared at rank 10 and I only won because of a max turn sleep. I later had to deal with Chesto Berry Dewgong (which now has enough HP to take 2 Dragon Rages, unlike in Round 1) followed immediately by Lumineon, a fast BrightPowder holder that got a dodge but also slept for a while. I can't actually believe I survived it.
Main threats:
H313 | Forretress | Brave | Lum Berry | Gyro Ball | Payback | Bug Bite | Counter | HP/Atk
H389 | Scyther | Jolly | Focus Sash | X-Scissor | Aerial Ace | Swords Dance | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd
H307 | Lanturn | Modest | Sitrus Berry | Discharge | Brine | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | HP/SpA
H287 | Dewgong | Modest | Chesto Berry | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | Brine | Rest | Def/SpA
H331 | Sharpedo | Adamant | Focus Sash | Crunch | Waterfall | Ice Fang | Zen Headbutt | Atk/Spd
H341 | Whiscash | Quiet | Lax Incense | Earth Power | Water Pulse | Future Sight | Blizzard | SpA/SpD
H342 | Crawdaunt | Adamant | Quick Claw | Crunch | Crabhammer | Body Slam | Aerial Ace | Atk/Def
H358 | Floatzel | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Waterfall | Crunch | Ice Punch | Brick Break | Atk/Spd
H360 | Gastrodon | Modest | Lax Incense | Muddy Water | Earth Power | Blizzard | Sludge Bomb | HP/SpA
H370 | Lumineon | Timid | BrightPowder | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | Water Pulse | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA
H382 | Tentacruel | Adamant | BrightPowder | Waterfall | Poison Jab | Toxic | Dive | Atk/SpD
H388 | Starmie | Timid | BrightPowder | Hydro Pump | Psychic | Recover | Double Team | Spd/SpA
H392 | Lapras | Modest | Lum Berry | Blizzard | Surf | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/SpA
H426 | Swampert | Quiet | BrightPowder | Muddy Water | Mud Bomb | Substitute | Rest | SpA/SpD
H430 | Wailord | Quiet | BrightPowder | Water Spout | Sleep Talk | Body Slam | Rest | HP/SpA
Round 13 (Rock)
This type isn't too bad, especially with Counter. The main concern is Quick Claw, and of course I managed to get Golem and Rhyperior in the same run. Golem in particular went on a Quick Claw rampage but was snoozing through the whole thing so it didn't matter!
Main threats:
H283 | Golem | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Earth Power | Hammer Arm | Sucker Punch | Atk/SpA
H396 | Aerodactyl | Adamant | Leftovers | Stone Edge | Aerial Ace | Sandstorm | Fly | Atk/Spd
H423 | Tyranitar | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Crunch | Dark Pulse | AncientPower | Atk/SpA
H457 | Rhyperior | Brave | Quick Claw | Rock Wrecker | Earth Power | Giga Impact | Reversal | Atk/Def
Round 14 (Ground)
Rather similar to Rock, maybe a little worse but not noticably so. Counter helps here too. I encountered Garchomp at rank 9 I think and Counter deleted it.
Main threats:
H283 | Golem | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Earth Power | Hammer Arm | Sucker Punch | Atk/SpA
H341 | Whiscash | Quiet | Lax Incense | Earth Power | Water Pulse | Future Sight | Blizzard | SpA/SpD
H360 | Gastrodon | Modest | Lax Incense | Muddy Water | Earth Power | Blizzard | Sludge Bomb | HP/SpA
H426 | Swampert | Quiet | BrightPowder | Muddy Water | Mud Bomb | Substitute | Rest | SpA/SpD
H432 | Claydol | Rash | Choice Scarf | Earth Power | Psychic | Earthquake | Zen Headbutt | Atk/SpA
H457 | Rhyperior | Brave | Quick Claw | Rock Wrecker | Earth Power | Giga Impact | Reversal | Atk/Def
Round 15 (Dragon)
When I was only using the Leech Seed set, I would do Dragon much earlier - Round 8 at the latest. This was to ensure that Smeargle out-sped everything with its level advantage, which trivialised Dragon. Now that I use Counter, I decided I could afford to leave it for later since there are other types that are more dangerous. Counter works well against the physical Dragons and Smeargle out-speeds the special one. Lati@s is probably the biggest problem wihtout Leech Seed just because of Recover and possibly Salac Berry, but I've never encountered either with Smeargle I don't think. Garchomp and Gabite have Sandstorm but if they can OHKO with Outrage/STAB they'll typically go for that instead.
Main threats:
H441 | Latias | Modest | Salac Berry | Mist Ball | Dragon Pulse | Recover | Captivate | SpA/SpD
H442 | Latios | Modest | Salac Berry | Luster Purge | Dragon Pulse | Recover | Captivate | SpA/SpD
Round 16 (Grass)
I didn't feel comfortable leaving Grass so late since there are quite a number of potential threats here. The main reason why I did it was because the rank 9 and 10 battles are at level 30 at this point. If I encountered Shiftry at either rank, I would be able to Metal Burst it. A little risky, but this was the best chance to remove it as a threat. Metal Burst helps against Sceptile also, and that was my rank 10. No Counter makes Abomasnow especially dangerous.
Main threats:
H310 | Jumpluff | Adamant | BrightPowder | Seed Bomb | Leech Seed | U-turn | Bounce | Atk/Spd
H323 | Shiftry | Modest | White Herb | Leaf Storm | Extrasensory | Dark Pulse | Focus Blast | Spd/SpA
H371 | Abomasnow | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Wood Hammer | Avalanche | Brick Break | Iron Tail | HP/Atk
H387 | Exeggutor | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Wood Hammer | Zen Headbutt | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/Atk
H458 | Tangrowth | Lonely | Lax Incense | Wring Out | Grass Knot | Sunny Day | SolarBeam | HP/SpA
Round 17 (Steel)
Outside of Metagross and a few other things, Steel is relatively tame. It is the only type where Smeargle out-speeds everything that can appear at rank 10, giving it an advantage even in "dangerous" match-ups. Leech Seed is useful for Scizor and a few others, but I also wanted it because I was under the impression that Argenta would follow the same rule as the first battle and use a low-tier mon - what if she pulled Shedinja and I didn't have anything to deal with it? As you'll see this was unfounded, but Leech Seed is still good here.
Main threats:
H356 | Bastiodon | Quiet | Quick Claw | Metal Burst | Blizzard | Thunder | Fire Blast | HP/SpA
H411 | Scizor | Brave | Focus Sash | Swords Dance | X-Scissor | Counter | Bullet Punch | HP/Atk
H437 | Metagross | Adamant | Quick Claw | Meteor Mash | Zen Headbutt | Bullet Punch | Light Screen | Atk/Def
H451 | Lucario | Brave | Liechi Berry | Aura Sphere | Focus Punch | ExtremeSpeed | Substitute | Atk/SpA
Argenta2
H472 | Mesprit | Timid | Light Clay | Extrasensory | Light Screen | Reflect | Swift | Spd/SpA
So it turns out she DOESN'T scale her Pokemon to yours like in the first battle, and is seemingly hardcoded to use a "top-tier" Pokemon no matter what you're using. This one made me a little nervous because it out-speeds Smeargle by 4 points, can survive 2 Dragon Rages, and 2HKOes with Extrasensory, which also has a flinch chance. To win, I would need a long sleep or for Mesprit to waste turns setting up screens.
Turn 1: Light Screen, Spore
Turn 2: sleeping, Substitute
Turn 3: wake up Extrasensory, sub broken, Leech Seed (I have enough HP to survive Extrasensory after Leech Seed at this point - 80 HP)
Turn 4: Reflect, Spore (I can't lose from this point)
Turn 5: sleeping, Substitute
Turn 6: wake up Extrasensory, sub broken, Spore, etc.
Once Leech Seed was set and I managed to sleep it again, I was guaranteed to win since I could simply stall it to death due to its lack of recovery. And with that, Smeargle cleared the Battle Hall!
With my main goal achieved, I decided to continue on to see how far I could get with it. For those unaware, the Hall gets trickier here since you are forced to do 10 rank 10s of different types with a single move set. Inevitably, this can result in using non-optimal sets for certain types. In any case, I lost pretty quickly due to a combination of stupidity and hax.
I used the Counter set from here on.
Battle 171: Altaria
H336 | Altaria | Modest | Leftovers | Dragon Pulse | Air Cutter | Flamethrower | Ominous Wind | Spd/SpA
This is slower so it's just a simple Spore > Sub >Dragon Rage. It didn't wake up too early so I won.
Battle 172: Rhydon
H294 | Rhydon | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Dig | Stone Edge | Rock Slide | Megahorn | HP/Atk
I Countered its Megahorn. Too easy.
Battle 173 (loss): Rhyperior
H457 | Rhyperior | Brave | Quick Claw | Rock Wrecker | Earth Power | Giga Impact | Reversal | Atk/Def
So the tricky thing about this set, aside from the Quick Claw you can't do anything about, is its behaviour. In general, I've found that the AI is often hesitant to use recharge moves like Rock Wrecker even if they are stronger than everything else AND can KO. Therefore, the possibility of this using Earth Power was very real.
So why did I use Counter on turn 1? Well, as mentioned previously, I encountered this in the Rock round, and it actually used Rock Wrecker in that battle to break my sub. Because of this, I decided that maybe this Pokemon might be OK with using Rock Wrecker on Smeargle and figured that Counter would give me an easy win. Well, unfortunately it used Earth Power and I lost Focus Sash for nothing.
Earth Power only did about 40% damage though, so the battle wasn't over, and I proceeded to use Spore. You can probably guess what happened next: Quick Claw activated, Earth Power landed a critical hit, and Smeargle died. So that's that. Not sure why I saw the inconsistent behaviour here - perhaps having the sub changed how it felt about Rock Wrecker, or maybe it's just random. But I'm actually not too mad and am just thankful that this didn't happen during the Rock round as it easily could have done.
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My journey to 10000 total wins is ongoing. I have been documenting my runs in the Battle Tree discord (a huge shout-out to my fellow facility players there, they make doing stuff like this way more fun :D) and I might start documenting things here if people are interested. After rolling the RNG once again to select my next project, my next project will probably be Chansey and its relatives. Given that Peterko used Blissey to get to 220 in the past, I'll at least have a good starting point for those attempts. I'm also interested in other people's Hall experiences should they wish to share!
Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask any questions about Hall and this particular Smeargle run!
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