Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

[wtset]

If I can count right, Metagross/Gengar/Latios has a BST in aggregate of 1700. How do you deal with battles in which you don't win the tie? Is it just 'luck' that you don't need to tie them?

I'm pretty sure the formula on Bulbapedia on how the seeds get determined is wrong. You can see for example in the following screenshots that Nelson should have clearly outperformed my team BST wise (even factoring in the typing bonus explained on Bulbapedia) but I still have the first seed. In fact, in >300 tournaments I played with Metagross/Gengar/Latios, I always got the first seed. The BST total certainly plays some role, since this wasn't true with other team compositions I tried, like Metagross/Gengar/Smeargle for example, but there is definitely something missing in the Bulbapedia formula. I've come up with some possible explanations, but since I have no idea on how to read Emeralds source code I don't which one is true (or if it's something completely different):

1. You might get some bonus for having won the previous tournament (it definitely has some effect on the announcer at least).
2. The typing bonus is higher than what is listed on Bulbapedia (still seems highly unlikely that my team never got outperformed in 300+ tournaments).
3. The Top 2 competitors in the tournament actually get the same seed for tiebreakers, but the player (if he's in the top 2) gets placed on the top left and the CPU on the bottom right of the tournament tree. If it then comes to a tie between these two competitors, the order of winning is Tucker > Player > CPU. This would also explain Tucker being on the bottom right (which according to Bulbapedia is the second seed) but still winning all ties. It would also explain why I never got the bottom right spot (even with weaker teams). This would still imply that my team was never outside the Top 2 BST wise in 300+ tournaments, which I doubt (but I haven't always checked the tournament trees). It might also be that the same logic applies not only to the Top 2, but even the Top 4, but I think I remember having the bottom left spot once, which would contradict this (not 100% sure though).
4. There is some other hidden factor in the calculation of the seeds that I'm not thinking about.

 

[Runeblade14]

Reporting an ongoing streak of 560 in the battle pike, here is the team:
(Update, at 840 rooms atm)
(Last update of the streak, lost at 923 rooms to lucy, I had Metagross as a lead instead of Latios for dealing with Wobbuffet and so I didn't have any experience with the fight, Steelix critted me and I either min rolled or got brightpowered and got exploded upon. Blissey can't deal with her Gyarados and I lost) Honestly it amazes me I got so far, I had multiple attemps dying before lucy gold. I did want the 1k, but I'm pretty happy with this. Metagross was the lead from 840 on with Shadow Ball over Rock Slide.

Fei and friends

Fei (Latios) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 28 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 7 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Thunderbolt
- Psychic
Fei here is named after one of the characters in one of my favorite anime.

I'm using the team azure set ev spread, can't really add anything about that.

I decided to go for Ice Beam over Dragon Claw for ground types, it has been better for me than Dragon Claw during the short testing I did with it.

Fei certainly carried through some of the runs, most notably beating things like Dewgong 4 multiple times after Blissey got taken out.


Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 164 HP / 252 Atk / 92 Spe
Adamant Nature
IVs: 23 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Aerial Ace
At first I had Steelix as my second member, but from my experience Metagross is just way better, Steelix is just way to slow for the double battles.

With Metagross it has the problem that I want a 5th move in brick break for Snorlax-6, but I do want Rock Slide for doubles and flying types.

Ev spread is just max attack, the speed Jellal/Kommo-o recommended to me, with the rest in hp.


Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Def / 84 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aromatherapy
- Soft-Boiled
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
Just the standard Blissey, I edited the ev spread from earlier runs after jellal's post.

I don't have much more to say about Blissey really.

Overall I'm really happy that I finally got the record, I have 265 runs through the pike, with multiple long runs such as one that got to 501 which ended because of a mistake, it could have gone further. Other runs included a total of 391 rooms and 321, if multiple runs were counted then I would have 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th.
That's all, thanks for reading

 

[bobdat]

I'm pretty sure the formula on Bulbapedia on how the seeds get determined is wrong. You can see for example in the following screenshots that Nelson should have clearly outperformed my team BST wise (even factoring in the typing bonus explained on Bulbapedia) but I still have the first seed. In fact, in >300 tournaments I played with Metagross/Gengar/Latios, I always got the first seed. The BST total certainly plays some role, since this wasn't true with other team compositions I tried, like Metagross/Gengar/Smeargle for example, but there is definitely something missing in the Bulbapedia formula. I've come up with some possible explanations, but since I have no idea on how to read Emeralds source code I don't which one is true (or if it's something completely different):

1. You might get some bonus for having won the previous tournament (it definitely has some effect on the announcer at least).
2. The typing bonus is higher than what is listed on Bulbapedia (still seems highly unlikely that my team never got outperformed in 300+ tournaments).
3. The Top 2 competitors in the tournament actually get the same seed for tiebreakers, but the player (if he's in the top 2) gets placed on the top left and the CPU on the bottom right of the tournament tree. If it then comes to a tie between these two competitors, the order of winning is Tucker > Player > CPU. This would also explain Tucker being on the bottom right (which according to Bulbapedia is the second seed) but still winning all ties. It would also explain why I never got the bottom right spot (even with weaker teams). This would still imply that my team was never outside the Top 2 BST wise in 300+ tournaments, which I doubt (but I haven't always checked the tournament trees). It might also be that the same logic applies not only to the Top 2, but even the Top 4, but I think I remember having the bottom left spot once, which would contradict this (not 100% sure though).
4. There is some other hidden factor in the calculation of the seeds that I'm not thinking about.

View attachment 249929
View attachment 249913

Thanks so much for this, really great work.

The top 2-tiebreaker theory isn't right because I've been in the bottom right quite a bit in Dome Doubles, but I was definitely using a team with a lower BST, which is what made me think that the Bulbapedia theory was right. If you're always #1, then there's definitely a missing link.

 

[wtset]

Thanks so much for this, really great work.

The top 2-tiebreaker theory isn't right because I've been in the bottom right quite a bit in Dome Doubles, but I was definitely using a team with a lower BST, which is what made me think that the Bulbapedia theory was right. If you're always #1, then there's definitely a missing link.

So I found this Emerald disassembly project. Don't know how legit it is, but it even has the 3IV glitch in Dome in the code, so I assume these guys know what they're doing. If I understand the code correctly, the Bulbapedia formula is right, except for the fact that the Pokemons actual stats (and not their base stats) are used to calculate the ranking, which of course gives the player a huge advantage since all CPU trainers are locked to 3IVs. This would also explain why the typing bonus scales with the level, which in my opinion didn't make much sense before since the base stats are fixed.

EDIT: Finally lost my Dome Doubles Streak at 162 tournaments. The opponent had Crobat/Snorlax/Blastoise. I chose to bring Latios and Gengar (Latios to outspeed Crobat and Gengar for general Destiny Bond safety). I forgot about Snorlax possibly carrying Quick Claw (forgettin QC is the main mistake I make with this team). Snorlax killed Gengar turn 1 with Shadow Ball and then beat Latios with Curse + Double Edge, while barely surviving Psychic + Recoil. I would have probably won if I brought Metagross/Latios.

Picture Proof

 

[N1c69]

*EDIT* Streak ended at 57 due to the most unbelievable hax. Battle Palace has the same hax as tower but sometimes your pokemon do nothing while your opponent scores the right move every turn.


How I lost

My Salamance v.s Starmie
I switch to Snorlax, Starmie uses ice beam and freezes Snorlax on the switch. Snorlax is then FROZEN FOR THIRTEEN TURNS while Starmie chips away doing 30 damage out 248 hp before lefties. Eventually Starmie gets the SpDef drop (where I switch out to Suicune and receive like 40% from psychic (I really need to RNG one with a better nature, IV's and EV's).
I switch back to Snorlax and the same frozen BS continues. After 13 turns of not being frozen I defrost. 1st turn I defrosted I didn't attack. Starmie has now got me on low hp with maybe 3 or 4 psychic from winning. Snorlax then begins to make a come back. For the next 5 turns it lands shadow balls, EQs, and returns which each did about 50% on the dot. Starmie decides to laugh in my face and spams recover. I then tried to land some chip damage with Suicune or Salamence first but Starmie recovers from their attacks, waits until my mon doesn't do anything and KOs. Salamence got close to saving the day when it used EQ twice then Aerial Ace, both of which would have 2HKO'd if Starmie didn't read minds and use recover. Salamence tries to read Starmie's recovers but gets OHKO'd by ice beam.


Improvements

Salamence / Suicune / Snorlax are a popular team in this or another order in multiple fronteir facilities and I'm sure I would have reached a higher streak if I wasn't frozen for so long. There is really very little I could have done to combat that besides maybe lum berry- which every mon in the team needs. Since Salamence has DD I give it the lum berry and Snorlax lefties so it can tank and recover hits. Any team weak to the bolt beam combo also has a tough time against Starmie. In the future I'm going to build teams that resist boltbeam and EQ/slide.

One mon I'm considering using is Sassy Lapras. I think Ice types cannot be frozen in gen 4 although I'm not sure that's the case in gen 3. Either way, water absorbs would help a lot since the opponent theoretically chooses its moves randomly, allowing Lapras to heal.

I personally like leading with Salamence since I get intimidate on turn 1 and have a good chance of setting up and sweeping a team that would otherwise beat me (how I beat spencer). This requires a some luck, especially when you can't choose your moves. Adamant worked well here as Salamence would usually choose the move I want when I want (equal chance to set up at first then more likely to attack at lower hp). Another nature such as hasty could work, although this set relies on its high Defense stat to set up and take hits during idle turns.
Salamence could be replaced by something like Tauros or Latios. I have tried my bold Latios in a past run but found that it used support/defense moves too frequently and would get KO'd at +6 since it didn't attack. I have another bashful Latios with pitifall IV's that I may train for Palace. It's a shame it is one of the hardest pokemon to RNG.


*EDIT* Just reached streak 56

***

Just got gold in Palace. On going streak of 42 on retail cart.

Team:
Salamence @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 76 Atk / 188 Def
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Brick Break

Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP /
Hasty Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Rest/Toxic

Snorlax @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 100 Atk / 124 Def / 124 SpD
Sassy Nature
- Return
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Brick Break

The EVs reflect their lv 50 stats. Salamence and Snorlax have good IVs (20-31 in each stat), while Suicune has terrible IVs (0-15 in each stat). I caught this Suicune in Leaf Green and because of its hasty nature I thought I'd never use it. Luckily, Hasty is great in palace and an intimidate switch strat makes up for its poor defense stat.

My original palace team was Snorlax/Moltres/Latios. Sassy Snorlax is incredible in palace. I can spam A until streak 21 without looking at the screen, allowing me read while grinding through the lower streaks. Hardy Moltres either 2KOs a lot of mons with flamethrower, or beats stallers 1 on 1 with will-o-wisp, aerial ace, morning sun. Will-o-wisp aids Snorlax and helps Latios set up. My bold Latios ran calm mind, light screen, recover, dragon claw. If the opponent was burned it could usually set up or act as support with light screen. The first Spencer fight was close, Lapras OHKOd Latios then quick claw activated and it KOd Moltres but as always, Snorlax saved the day. I lost 3 times around streak 35-40 to dumb things: a lead Wobbafet that beat Snorlax, leaving a Sharpedo to sweep my team, scoring 2 crits in a row; Latios doing nothing while a Manetric used crunch leaving a reversal Raichu to sweep my team. After having trouble countering Armaldo I started again. I'm still theory moning this team and hope to adapt it for battle tower.

Then came Salamence/Suicune/Snorlax. Intimidate was the new will-o-wisp, Salamence and Suicune set up reliably and usually took out 1-3 mons. Salamence beat Spencer on its own, setting up on Arcanine and sweeping the rest. I came close to losing when Salamence used dragon dance twice on Suicune, but with my Snorlax and toxic Suicune, it was covered. I originally came up with the defensive Salamence spread for tower, maximising its physical bulk so it could set up on a CB tricked mon. Aerodactyl stopped that strat, but I like the EVs nonetheless and the extra defense helped for idle turns, especially after intimidate switching.

 

[submenceisop]

After getting annoyed by losing to double team users and losing to mixed fire types, I made three key adjustments. First, Gengar's moves was changed to Bolt/punch, Destiny Bond and Perish Song. It seems redundant to have both, but this came in handy more times than not. Versus offense, destiny bond allows you to trade, the same way I used explosion. Vs double team users, you use perish song, ensuring their demise. Cheri berry was very useful for all the t-wave users. There's a lot of pokemon spreading that around, even non electrics. The added hp investment and timid nature actually does make a difference. Here's a defensive calc for Timid Gengar which lives a shadow ball from Adamant Crobat.

252+ Atk Crobat Shadow Ball vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Gengar: 226-266 (83.7 - 98.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Snorlax was the other main change. It checks the mixed fire types and ice types thanks to thick fat and high special defense and I liked the bulk/physical breaking power. This spread is kind of funky, but there's a lot of thought that went into it. Since Snorlax's hp is already quite high, I went for a leftovers number in 144 Hp evs. I added 4 speed to out speed Steelix and Snorlax. Max out attack and rest in defense. That physical defense investment is actually super crucial. Here's some important defensive calcs.

252 Atk Machamp Cross Chop vs. 144 HP / 108 Def Snorlax: 402-474 (80.8 - 95.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Ursaring Mega Kick vs. 144 HP / 108 Def Snorlax: 394-465 (79.2 - 93.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
170+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 144 HP / 108 Def Snorlax: 192-226 (38.6 - 45.4%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

I experimented with body slam, but you absolutely need return to 2ko Bold Blissey and fat waters. Unfortunately, the power comes just short for body slam to be viable. Self-destruct is the key move on this set, allowing you to nuke anything that doesn't resist it. Only mons that live are hard resists like Skarm which take 90%. Snorlax is a good second member because it basically lives anything following Gengar and you can always destiny bond the lead fighting types. I liked Chesto berry for Jynx, which gives this team problems, but I found it to be useless otherwise. Getting a 20% chance to move first was worth it.

Latios rounds off the set. Easily handles all the fighting types (except for Heracross which have focus band, bright powder and some variants actually live Timid psychic) and can save me from some tight spots if necessary. Going after Snorlax is actually ideal, since Snorlax can beat the bulky waters/ fat stuff that Latios struggles with. Set is pretty self explanatory. Max special attack, 220 speed, rest in bulk to help take hits slightly better. [/SPOILER]
https://pokepast.es/1c78a9bd13d5035b

Threats
Jynx/ Sleep users
Rock and Steel Types, special mention for Metagross, Regirock
Fast Crobat
Team is vulnerable to crits with no sub.
Cheap ways to lose: double team, quick claw, ohko users, focus band procs, bright powder (even trolly Blissey) which you can't prepare for
Sometimes the order you get the mons in make a ton of difference in a win vs loss - ex getting Regice in the last slot when Latios is the only mon left.

Other mons I have tried in the Arena that I was disappointed with: Raikou (lacks power even with max special attack), Regirock & Regice (too many weaknesses and Gyarados (needs a boost, not ideal speed tier). Obviously I tried Regice and Gyarados because wtset had so much success with it, but I was underwhelmed. Honestly, I think Gengar is S-tier for the Arena. It's a special attacker that can handle a wide variety of threats and is not completely useless vs special walls. This facility is too fast paced to the point that it's very difficult to get a long streak. There's just too many things that can go wrong that you need a ton of luck. Easily a bottom three facility after Factory and Palace.

[/SPOILER]

Replays

Arena 56- 63
https://kapwi.ng/c/DG5NW2U7
https://kapwi.ng/c/oQpQrzGZ

Arena 64-70
https://kapwi.ng/c/viddgtsW
https://kapwi.ng/c/n4mBw3ky

Arena 71-77
https://kapwi.ng/c/0P77CD4n
https://kapwi.ng/c/nZMGUnF0

Arena 78-84
https://kapwi.ng/c/ekzZnEEw
https://kapwi.ng/c/I1e7wEUv

Arena 85-91
https://kapwi.ng/c/dmzM8mP2
https://kapwi.ng/c/6PGsK2eh

Arena 92-98
https://kapwi.ng/c/76tMUy7W
https://kapwi.ng/c/X9ZCEs2q

Arena 99-105
https://kapwi.ng/c/aH08x6VD
https://kapwi.ng/c/arZ2Yei5

Arena 106- loss
https://kapwi.ng/c/7KinXlbB

 

[Ab2658]

Posting a conspicuous 799 win streak in Battle Tower Doubles, lvl 100. The streak was done on an emulator over the last week, on my first attempt with the final team below. I found this thread only recently though I’ve been using the original 2006 Peterko frontier sets thread for awhile

Teambuilding Process

I initially used my gen 4 rain dance team but got discouraged when I realized that through programmer oversight, in gen 3 rain doesn’t actually give surf the 1.5 power boost when it’s hitting multiple targets in doubles. I.E. should be doing 1.125 (.75*1.5) damage to each target when spreading, but actually does .75 to each, then back to 1.5 damage against a solo target.

Going in a different direction I tried out the classic ZapGross combo, pairing it with sweeper latios and defensive swampert. The team had great type synergy but consistently got taken out by 150-200 wins. I learned two things: First, although CB earthquake is insanely strong in gen 3 compared to what else is available, metagross wasn't actually that good. Meteor mash is too inaccurate, not a good long-term option for all the airborne threats out there, and explosion while fun is basically a "win harder" option that's unnecessary most of the time, plus relying on it is a bad idea when nearly every mon in the gen 3 frontier has multiple bp/fb/dt sets. Second, zapdos didn’t feel too useful either. Not actually strong enough to OHKO most threatening water types with tbolt, yet surprisingly squishy with all the ice beams thrown her way. And with how much damage EQ did to teams, zapdos' damage was superfluous a lot of the time

So I subbed metagross for Max Attack Swampert - not the set most people consider, but his EQ is actually the 5th strongest in the game behind groudon, marowak, rhydon, and donphan, and is a whopping 30% stronger than metagross' . Swampert needed an airborne partner who could actually take hits and help him survive in some way. Zapdos' neglected sister Articuno fit the bill, who's remarkably tanky and whose ice beam does solid damage even with no investment. To replace swampert in the reserves I went with claydol, a tanky levitater with great offensive moves, though I really wished bronzong were around.

It quickly became clear that claydol had terrible type synergy with the team and wasn't particularly tanky or powerful. So I swapped him out for Snorlax, at the risk of eating some swampert eq's.

This team played cleanly, felt strong, and surprised me with how tanky articuno was, especially in doubles where rock slide does pitiful damage. However, one nagging issue remained - while Articuno could learn Reflect, an amazing support move in doubles, she didn't have access to Light Screen, and it's when you only have access to Reflect that you soon realize how much greater a threat special moves are in gen 3. The team kept running into issues with legend trainers and psychic trainers, and lost a few times around 200 wins. So I searched all airborne light screen users, and despite my inherent skepticism, tried what seemed to be the best option and never looked back.

Lineup

Latias | Celestia @ Cheri Berry
Levitate
252 HP / 64 Def / 16 Sp. Def / 176 Speed
Calm
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Toxic

Absurdly tanky. Only Heracross’ Megahorn cleanly ohko’s as far as I’m aware, and with light screen up many Dragon Claws do as little as 30%. Psychic is the first mono attack I tried and it worked so I didn’t question it much. Dragon Claw was the other option I considered for a bit, but there are a lot of annoying poison threats like Gengar, Crobat, or exploding Weezing who are taken care of (plus Heracross). 176 Speed EV’s gets to 300 total, outspeeding all neutral max base 100’s. Things above that I didn’t consider very threatening. Cheri Berry since Latios needs Lum more, and there aren’t really any other good options, maybe Twistedspoon.

To be honest if the team began initially with Latias I probably would’ve tried Thunder Wave over Toxic, but since I started with Articuno who doesn’t learn T-wave I discovered how valuable Toxic is. There are a number of double team sets that don’t jump out on paper as being obvious threats (Miltank 4, Umbreon 2/4, Ludicolo 3/4, etc) that if you ignore can turn into surprise losses. A lot of the time normally you’re faced with the tough decision to either aim attacks at the Pokemon starting to DT, knowing that you might be wasting your turns while the teammate beats you up, or ignore the DTer in favor of taking care of teammates first and coming back to 2v1 it later, but giving it more time to setup. With Toxic the issue becomes almost non-existent: tag them once and you can safely ignore them for the rest of the fight, except for the few rest+dt sets that eq tends to take care of.

Swampert | Slaps @ Choice Band
Torrent
168 HP / 252 Att / 88 Speed
IVs: 30 Def / 30 Sp. Def / 30 Speed
Adamant
- Earthquake
- HP Rock
- Brick Break
- Ice Beam

Scored around 60% of the teams KO’s. 525 Attack Earthquake takes care of so many threats it’s absurd, 2HK0’ing almost every single neutral opponent in the game, even at 75%. HP Rock is better than Rock Slide, and was the next most used move. Ice Beam is mostly filler but has some uses against the 4x weak dragons. I’d generally only switch out Swampert first turn against certain Grass types. Care has to be taken when Swampert’s locked into EQ and Latias faints, as you really don’t want to get into a scenario where he’s stuck on EQ and unable to switch out before knowing all the opponent’s pokemon and/or only Snorlax is left. The set hits 177 speed to beat a crucial speed tier of all base 70’s with no speed investment, including the terrible trio of sheer cold users. His immunity to all the Thunder Waves in the tower is another incredibly useful advantage over Metagross.

Snorlax | Plush @ Leftovers
Thick Fat
144 HP / 96 Att / 136 Def / 128 Sp. Def / 4 Speed
Adamant
- Return
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Protect

My favorite ice resist in this generation. Set is fairly standard, although it can’t be understated how difficult Snorlax is to take out with screens. Definitely the team member that fainted the least. Protect is essential for the set, especially since my team has no explosion resist/immunity. The streak would’ve ended prematurely a number of times from an explosion tie if I didn’t use a timely protect with Lax or Latios. I felt comfortable throwing out lax in most situations except when they had a fighting type or potential fissure user. Great end game pokemon too, won a number of games where it ended up 2v1 against the lax.

Latios | Celestio @ Lum Berry
Levitate
4 Hp / 252 Sp. Att / 252 Speed
Modest
- Psychic
- Dragon Claw
- Thunderbolt
- Protect

Best pokemon overall in emerald frontier. Protect is mandatory, Psychic and Thunderbolt also don’t need explanation, Surf is too weak to consider in doubles, and Dragon Claw over Ice Beam as I prefer to hit opposing Lati@s harder and it ohko’s Salamence and Flygon w/o defense investment anyway. Not much else to say here, we've all used Latios

Strategy/Threats

Doubles is the most fun mode for me as there are generally too many variables to have a very fixed approach, and it requires organic playing by ear which keeps it fresh after hundreds of games. I tried singles for a bit but most of the best strategies can become extremely tedious. First turn Latias would Psychic/Screen/Toxic roughly a third the time each depending on opposing leads, and many situations had no objective best move (or pair of moves). Primary threat to the team is exploders, who all ohko my team if reflect isn’t up. In many cases against a late game Steelix/Forretress/Shiftry/Weezing I'd alternate protect/attack with lax/latios so that each turn one of them is insured. Opposing Lati@s aren’t usually taken down “cleanly” per se, could be a mix of toxic + hp rock + dragon claw + shadow ball, but they also aren’t getting through Latias Swampert or Snorlax quickly if screens are up. Heracross is theoretically an issue if focus bands/brightpowders twice in a row but... it's not very likely. Didn't have much trouble with OHKO users either. I'd always use Toxic against Walrein, sometimes against Lapras, and never against Dewgong, based on their respective number of sets that could heal status. Against Donphan and Rhydon the best option for Latias first turn is to hit them with psychic, as in the worst case event that they get a QC OHKO against Swampert, they'll at least be in KO range for Latios. Like most teams you have to try it out to really learn what to do in each situation.

Picture proof:

Lost Battle #800 to Collector Gideon of all dudes, who led with Sceptile and Blaziken 3. I was watching tv and not paying much attention, and probably because I don’t play any singles I disrespected the Endure/Salac combo. That combined with toxic missing, Blaziken refusing to use reversal on protecting Snorlax twice, and landing a critical hit reversal on Latios, led to the loss.

Let me know if you have any questions/comments on the team

 

[DrDimentio]

Just reporting in with a discovery of an amazingly stupid way to lose, based on a mechanic I never expected: Slaking’s Truant can activate on its first turn in battle. How it happened: my Starmie was KOed by Sandstorm damage, then I switched in Slaking. Of course it was just 2 wins away from a Gold Print battle…

 

[Kommo-o]

So decided to continue with the Dome and I got nothing else to say other than:

SLAKING IS CHEAP

 

[Kommo-o]

THE GUCCI GANG​

I decided to go for the Battle Dome as my next target and see how far I can go. While I can't really say I will be aiming for the #1 spot, I want to see how far I can go. It's pretty obvious from my previous comment that you can see what I have been using and just like the rest, I joined the Slaking bandwagon. I have to say, the stupid gorilla is broken on this facility since it always gets a kill and the other two partners are basically nothing more but bystanders since CB Slaking always claims a kill. Neverless I'd like to introduce a "new" team since I planned to use it previously for a Tower run but I took inspiration from it and Captain Santana's Dome team.

Team Building

• 
  The original GUCCI GANG was initially a team I posted here as more of an experiment since back on the day I wanted to get a serious streak with Gyarados. I achieved that objective with a different team but the idea was to use Curselax for a "quick set-up and sweep", CM Latias and DD Sub Gyarados to take advantage of the weak AI. I never tested this team on Dome, mind you and it never really cut it on Tower.
• 
  The next team started featuring an HP Grass Extrasensory Zapdos alongside CM + Icy Wind Suicune and CB Metagross. This was more of a hipster experiment since I wanted a team that could feature Zapdos however this team was incredibly vulnerable to hax. While Icy Wind helped a lot vs Salamence 4, Suicune was easily taken down by crits and random status from classic Ice Beam / Flamethrower switch-ins. HP Steel is actually powerful on this facility since it can claim the kills that otherwise on Tower it can't
• 
  The final version of the team. I used the Modest Latias I planned to use from the original GUCCI GANG and shifted its spare Def / SpD EVs to Speed since this allows her to reach 159 Speed which makes her faster than all Dugtrio/Sceptile sets in Dome due to their lower IVs. The main reason why I decided to stick with Latias comes from the fact that she isn't even close to get 3HKO'd by Jolteon's Bite or Shadow Ball and it overall has better chances of surviving Starmie's crit Ice Beam thanks to the extra defenses. The Slaking I am using is exactly the same set Adedede posted for his Dome team with the 60 SpD guaranteeing it is not 2HKO'd by Jolteon 4's Thunderbolt and Suicune is the same set from Team Azure which makes it one of the most incredibly broken Pokemon to use on a faster format like Dome's.

GUCCI GANG

Dior (Latias) @ Lum Berry
Modest Nature
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 92 HP / 188 SpA / 230 Spe
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind

They kicked me out the plane off a Percocet

I chose Latias over Latios for a few reasons: greater bulk and since my Slaking is Male, I needed a female Pokemon in order to handle Attract shenanigans on a much better fashion in case Suicune is not in the front-lines. While I didn't consider myself a big fan due to how inferior Latias is on this role, she has not disappointed and she has been able to keep her ground firm. The lower IVs in Dome benefits her a lot since she is able to get a great amount of OHKOs at +1 while being able to survive Ice Beams and stuff from Water types. As a matter of fact, at +1 Thunderbolt/Ice Beam are strong enough to get rid of Gardevoir 4 which is huge considering the lack of STAB Dragon Claw.

Offensive Calculations vs Dome (3 IV) sets

• 188+ SpA Latias Psychic vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Heracross: 173-204 (100 - 117.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 188+ SpA Latias Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Starmie: 134-158 (110.7 - 130.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 188+ SpA Latias Psychic vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Machamp: 190-224 (103.8 - 122.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• 188+ SpA Latias Ice Beam vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Rhydon: 238-280 (120.2 - 141.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• +1 188+ SpA Latias Ice Beam vs. 170 HP / 0 SpD Aerodactyl: 224-264 (138.2 - 162.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• +1 188+ SpA Latias Thunderbolt vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Dewgong: 180-212 (98.3 - 115.8%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO
• +1 188+ SpA Latias Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Latios: 158-186 (112 - 131.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
• +1 188+ SpA Latias Ice Beam vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Gardevoir: 75-89 (58.1 - 68.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 188+ SpA Latias Thunderbolt vs. 255 HP / 0 SpD Lapras: 120-142 (53.8 - 63.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Defensive Calculations vs Dome (3 IV) sets

• 255+ SpA Alakazam Ice Punch vs. 92 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 73-86 (43.7 - 51.4%) -- 8.2% chance to 2HKO
• 255+ SpA Lapras Ice Beam vs. +1 92 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 68-80 (40.7 - 47.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
• 255+ SpA Gardevoir Ice Punch vs. +1 92 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 47-56 (28.1 - 33.5%) -- 0.1% chance to 3HKO
• 255+ SpA Gardevoir Ice Punch vs. 92 HP / 0 SpD Latias on a critical hit: 139-164 (83.2 - 98.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
• 255+ SpA Milotic Ice Beam vs. +1 92 HP / 0 SpD Latias: 51-60 (30.5 - 35.9%) -- 41% chance to 3HKO

The EVs are pretty simple. While they were originally based on Tower usage, 228 Spe are Dome exclusive since this allows Latias to outspeed 252 Spe Dugtrio/Sceptile by one point and dispatch them quickly. 188 SpA EVs guarantees the OHKO on Dome Heracross 2 with Psychic while the rest goes into HP for some extra bulk allowing Latias to tank non-STAB Ice Beams and set up on Water types.

D.K. (Slaking) (M) @ Choice Band
IVs: 9 SpA
EVs: 252 Atk / 60 SpD / 198 Spe
Ability: Truant
Jolly Nature
- Hyper Beam
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Double-Edge

My lean cost more than your rent

1. Equip Choice Band
2. Choose a move
3. Profit $$$$$$

60 SpD EVs are invested to avoid Jolteon 4 from ever 2HKOing with Thunderbolt which improved my chances of beating that monster. Just like Latias, 198 Spe EVs allows it to hit 159 which outspeeds all Sceptile/Dugtrio sets in Dome while max Attack is used allowing Slaking to hit as a truck.

Suigetsu (Suicune) @ Leftovers
IVs: 24 Atk
EVs: 236 HP / 142 Def / 132 Spe
Ability: Pressure
Level: 50
Bold Nature
- Surf
- Rest
- Calm Mind
- Substitute

None of this shit be new to me

This is the same Suicune featured in Team Azure and I used this Pokemon not only to balance Latias' and Slaking's shortcomings but to also glue the team. On a short format like Dome, Suicune is guaranteed to win once you fully set up behind a Substitute and it pretty much guarantees a win against anything that does not have a Water immunity (and even if the AI does, he will easily stall it out). Thanks to the lower IVs, Pokemon like Walrein and Lapras have a harder time breaking its Subs and it also guarantees set-up opportunities for Latias once Water Absorb threats are stalled out.

The EV spread is the same one as Team Azure and it is Tower specific. I didn't bothered on shifting EVs for Dome since this set works just as well as it does on almost any facility giving Suicune the perfect balance between bulk and speed.

Threatlist

• Quick Claw can become a huge issue since a priority Curse can guarantee that it will survive any attack from Slaking. Snorlax on the Team Preview always forces Slaking to be picked first.
• Extremely annoying on the wrong pick up since Thunder Wave will pretty much cripple Slaking and crits against Suicune hurt a lot.
• While the whole team has a way to OHKO it with the appropriate coverage move, a QC activation is extremely dangerous.
• The sight of this Pokemon forces Suicune to be picked as otherwise without Substitute's protection and Pressure stalling, Sheer Cold will easily go rampant.
• Quick Claw Explosion will kill something upon activation and going on a 1-v-1 against the wrong Pokemon will put me on a bad position.
• Evasion is bad for Slaking's health and these two are troublesome for Latias / Suicune to set up against. Garde 2 / Ludicolo 4 are complete AIDS
• While Latias has enough SpA to even OHKO Set 2, a Bright Powder miss or a Focus Band activation will easily mean doom for the team.
• Fake Out messes up Slaking very badly, access to Grass STAB to damage Suicune, and Explosion potentially OHKOing anything on my team is a huge red flag. Shiftry 2 and Shiftry 4 are the most dangerous since Set 2 is an evasion Leech Seed spammer while the latter has Fake Out / Giga Drain / Explosion.

Pretty sure they are out there more threats but will update this section as I find them

Exportable

http://spo.ink/guccigang

Special thanks to Adedede for his awesome Dome exclusive speed tier list, Level 51 for spoinking the link and Captain Santana for the inspiration!

 

[iSoNkei]

Hello everyone! My name is iSoNkei and for the last couple months i have been trying to complete my long dream of acquiring all the gold medals in the Emerald Battle Frontier. It is a project I started about a year ago but only now I had the time to actually put into it. My main goal, as already mentioned, is to get the gold symbols so I doubt I will push further than this. I am still trying to get the Factory and the Tower gold symbols so I will post here as soon as I manage to get them.
Onto the teams.

Battle Dome

TEAM:
Latias @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA /252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyhic
- Dragon Claw
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk /212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

Swampert @ Leftovers
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 132 Atk / 28 Def / 140 SpA / 108 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Earthquake
- Protect

ANALYSIS:

This is the first gold symbol I got and by far the easiest. I did used the original team Werster did in his speedrun and it worked perfectly! Even without flawless IV's the team is strong enough to win pretty much everything.

Battle Pike

TEAM:

Starmie @ Bright Powder
Ability: Natureal Care
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyhic
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

Heracross @ Persim Berry
Ability: Guts
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 6 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Brick Break

Blissey@ Leftovers
Ability:
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Def / 20 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Flamethrower
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy

ANALYSIS: After toying around with my original Battle Dome team I realised that Pike was far more frustrating to beat so I decided to breed a Pike specific team to combat that annoying status that the NPC is throwing at you. This team works wonders in Pike and I think is pretty self explanatory. Starmie is fast and with amazing coverage, Heracross take care those threats Starmie is too afraid to stay and fight namely Electric/Dark/Grass and Normals and Blissey,the cleric, keeps the team healthy. As for my room strategy I always spoke to the maiden and entered the room she suggested unless of the ''Is it..A Trainer?'' quote which I always avoided. Battling a single trainer and no heal afterwards is by far the worst possible thing that could happen to you. The battle with Lucy is something to worry about, I even lost once due to some HAX senaningans (crit/BP misses) so I was extra cautious the second time and tried to save Starmie at all costs vs her Gyarados. On a side note Modest Starmie (without flawless IV!) was able to outspeed her Gyarados after a Dragon Dance which is something to keep in mind!

Battle Arena

TEAM:

Metagross @ Persim Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 44 HP / 252 Atk /212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Explosion

Latias @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA /252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyhic
- Dragon Claw
- Thunderbolt
- Calm Mind

Starmie @ Bright Powder
Ability: Natural Care
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyhic
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

ANALYSIS: Battle Arena was my third gold symbol and a pretty rough one. I used a couple of Pokemons here before achieving some solid results with this team and finally wining Greta. The format is a pain but I strongly believe Metagross is maybe the best possible lead. Typewise it has only two weaknesses which both Latias and Starmie can handle easily, but the real kicker here is explosion! There are muchups you cant win! Tauros always outspeed me and 2-hit KOed me with EQ, same thing with Arcanince with Fire Blast and Rapidash. (I would like to point out here that even though I did breed and soft-reset mons for good IVs I was too lazy to go for Flawless and this might is the reason I had those experiences like something outspeeds me while it shouldnt). Even so Explosion really is a game winning move in Arena, able to turn what would be a 2vs3 situation into 2vs2. Good coverage is also extremely important in order to soften up even unfavourable muchups. One thing I would like to report is that I did used to run Shadow Ball with my Metagross and the NPCs flooded me with Double Team users and escpecially Bugs! This is when I switched to Aerial Ace and since then they used none. Metagross also swept the entarity of Greta's Mons (KO on Umbreon/Judge stall Gengar/KO Breloom).

Battle Palace

TEAM:

Salamence @ Lum Berry
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Dragon Dance

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 6 SpA
Bold Nature
- Ice Beam
- Surf
- Recover
- Toxic

Scizor @ Lansat Berry
Ability: Swarm
Level: 50
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Atk / 20 Def / 132 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Silver Wind
- Swords Dance
- Steel Wing

ANALYSIS: Since the palace seemed to me a rather intimidating format I got the silver symbol and then used this team to reach gold. To be honest this was a one go to gold medal from the silver streak. If anyone take the time and effort to breed a Palace specific team I think the whole facility is rather easy to win. Hasty is the best nature, hands down setting up and attacking from high health and then always attack when low. Milotic is a monster able to stall out dangerous threats that Salamence cant handle. Jeez she was able to even win what must have been a 200 (no joke!) struggle war turn vs an opposing Tentacruel. Scizor didnt see much of a battle, he was there as an alternative way to set up and sweep when Salamence was down or low in health. He was also decently bulky to take hits and the Steel typing is great along Salamence. Generally speaking I think set up and stall is the name of the game in Palace along with some bulky mons to take hits.

Battle Pyramid

TEAM:

Slaking
Ability: Truant
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Double Edge
- Shadow Ball
- Earthquake
- Hyper Beam

Alakazam
Ability: Syncronise
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Teleport
- Ice/Fire/Thunder Punch
- Ice/Fire/Thunder Punch
- Psyhic

Blissey
Ability:
Level: 50
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Def / 20 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Bold Nature
- Seismic Toss
- Flamethrower
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy

Salamence
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide

Starmie
Ability: Natural Care
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Psyhic
- Surf
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

ANALYSIS: I did use the above pokemon as mention below. Both the Pokemon and their combinations belong to chickenofdoom. I did copy paste his team so big thanks to him for taking the time to post here and help other like me! Nothing special to report here slaking KOed pretty much everything while Blissey kept the team healthy. My plan for pivoting the pyramid was to find an edge and then make a circle around it. If I havent found the exit I made a smaller circle and so on. It isn't the fastest but this way you can't get lost and burn extra resources.

Round 1: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 2: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 3: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 4: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey
Round 5: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 6: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 7: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 8: Alakazam, Slaking, Blissey
Round 9: Slaking, Starmie, Blissey
Round 10: Salamence, Starmie, Blissey

Battle Factory

ANALYSIS: Update! Got the gold symbol check the long post for more info.

That's all for now. I will be reposting here as soon as I finish Tower and Factory. I want thank everyone who took their time and posted here their advices have been extremely helpfull throught this journey! After getting the gold symbols I dont think will try to go for any record or something but there is one though of mine that really keeps annoying me. In order to get those symbols I essentially used two copies of Emerald one Fire Red and one Leaf Green as well as two Gameboys and a link cable. Those are thing that I was mindfull enough to have save them over a decade and not every one has access to. So assuming someone decides to take the challenge and beat the Battle Frontier on his own can he do only by using pokemon native only to Emerald? I mean sure speedrunners did it with only 3 Pokemon, but those runs were on an emulator, they did soft rest for good IVs for their Pokemons and even so those teams are far from optimal (Pike I am looking at you :P ). Are there any teams that can help someone, with access to only one cartridge (no trades allowed) and without using one of Pokemons like Latis/Metagross (as if they have them but with bad Natured/IVs/EVs) , beat the GenIII Battle Frontier? This is a challenge I might revist some time in the feature and I would be more than glad to see yours ideas on that topic!

Thank you all!

 

[pokemon4eva]

I see Latias starting to get more attention on teams, nice.

After getting the gold symbols I dont think will try to go for any record or something but there is one though of mine that really keeps annoying me. In order to get those symbols I essentially used two copies of Emerald one Fire Red and one Leaf Green as well as two Gameboys and a link cable. Those are thing that I was mindfull enough to have save them over a decade and not every one has access to. So assuming someone decides to take the challenge and beat the Battle Frontier on his own can he do only by using pokemon native only to Emerald? I mean sure speedrunners did it with only 3 Pokemon, but those runs were on an emulator, they did soft rest for good IVs for their Pokemons and even so those teams are far from optimal (Pike I am looking at you :P ). Are there any teams that can help someone, with access to only one cartridge (no trades allowed) and without using one of Pokemons like Latis/Metagross (as if they have them but with bad Natured/IVs/EVs) , beat the GenIII Battle Frontier? This is a challenge I might revist some time in the feature and I would be more than glad to see yours ideas on that topic!

I managed to do it with only Emerald mons since I only have one GBA console. I missed out on plenty of S-tier mons (most notably Blissey, who seems mandatory for Pike and Pyramid) and trade evolutions like Alakazam and Gengar. I even picked Torchic when I SHOULD have picked Mudkip (the thought of getting the Gold Symbols didn't come right away) and picked Latias while Latios more offensive capabilities are usually preferred.

I was sooo lucky the Latias I got was Modest and it worked well in my run, it counted with decent ivs all around except HP, which was 0. I didn't use her too much, only in early Tower runs, the Pike (bc access to Recover) and the Arena (bc very good power and coverage).

Regarding Metagross, yup, this guy is crucial for Frontier imo. After a lot of resets I settled with an Impish (although Adamant is the ideal set) with VERY HIGH ivs in all stats but Sp atk. However, Beldum/Metagross can be bred with Ditto so you can get a better nature and ivs.

 

[iSoNkei]

I see Latias starting to get more attention on teams, nice.

Yeah, I honestly had a feeling that despite the power drop from Latios, Latias is more versatile and less punishing. I remembered people using her in GenIV Battle Towers so maybe that was the reason I settled for her. Couldnt be more happy with the way she has performed!

I managed to do it with only Emerald mons since I only have one GBA console. I missed out on plenty of S-tier mons (most notably Blissey, who seems mandatory for Pike and Pyramid) and trade evolutions like Alakazam and Gengar. I even picked Torchic when I SHOULD have picked Mudkip (the thought of getting the Gold Symbols didn't come right away) and picked Latias while Latios more offensive capabilities are usually preferred.

I was sooo lucky the Latias I got was Modest and it worked well in my run, it counted with decent ivs all around except HP, which was 0. I didn't use her too much, only in early Tower runs, the Pike (bc access to Recover) and the Arena (bc very good power and coverage).

Regarding Metagross, yup, this guy is crucial for Frontier imo. After a lot of resets I settled with an Impish (although Adamant is the ideal set) with VERY HIGH ivs in all stats but Sp atk. However, Beldum/Metagross can be bred with Ditto so you can get a better nature and ivs.

Wow! That's a hell of an achievement if you ask me! As you stated Blissey/Gengar (planning to use one)/Alakazam have been very important members of my teams so without them Battle Frontier seems a much more hostile place! Might try some unorthodox Emerald exclusive teams once I am done with the gold symbols.

 

[pokemon4eva]

Thanks, I'd say some of my most unorthodox choices were Ampharos for the Palace, Houndoom for some Battle Pyramid floors, and Ludicolo (this mon utterly DESTROYS Tucker).

 

[submenceisop]

Reporting an ongoing streak of 756 at the Battle Pike.
Gonna update this when I lose. Loving the synergy of this team. Gengar is the lead, has nice coverage in Electric, ice, fire. Perish song is a niche move, but it allows me to ko or force out double team spammers. You totally wall DT Registeel, Miltank and you can force the ko on double team + Rest Entei/ Suicune, Raikou, Moltres and Articuno when they eventually fall asleep. While Gengar lacks the bulk that Latios has, it also boasts 3 incredibly useful immunities in normal, fighting, along with ground, which helps a lot against banded normals and helps a lot vs reversal and flail users.

The spread is the same from my Arena run, with a defensive calc down below.
252+ Atk Crobat Shadow Ball vs. 36 HP / 0 Def Gengar: 226-266 (83.7 - 98.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Metagross is the next member, providing a physical presence, checks psychic types lacking fire or ground moves and makes for a solid doubles partner. This spread reaches 113 speed, which outspeeds the majority Metagross sets and Jolly Donphan. It also provides me a way to break through Snorlax.

Blissey is the special wall and cleric on the team, with just enough speed to outspeed Haxrein ( Kommo-O's spread).

Strategy: TAKE THE NOSTALGIA ROOM. 2/3 of the team is immune to toxic and Blissey isn't too fazed by it, allowing you not to fear this room. If you time it right, you can basically get through 7 rooms without having to face a single trainer. AVOID "IS it a trainer room", because a battle with no heal is the worst case scenario. Avoid the "Whispering Room" if Gengar and Metagross have status conditions. You don't want to risk going into a double battle with 2 important mons crippled. The risk/reward of no battle isn't worth it if your team is alive but statused, as a double battle with a freeze/para= likely loss.
Goal: Face as few trainer battles as possible.

Battle vs Lucy: Basically a free win if you have two of the three pokemon. Gengar completely walls Gyarados, 2koes both Seviper and Steelix. Only way you would lose is haxy focus band procs and bright powder misses on Steelix.

Threats
Ohko Users (Gengar actually walls 3/4 of moves- Horn drill, Guillotine, Fissure) but the rest of my team is vulnerable to it
Houndoom- beats 2 of my team members- Facing this in a double battle is not good.
Blaziken, mixed attackers with fighting coverage
Haxdon can beat my team with a bit of rock slide crit/ flinch
Psychic/ Fire Punch Gengar- I usually stall it out with Blissey and then switch in Metagross for safe ko
Heracross can be a threat if it beats Gengar.
Wobuffet- I started seeing these as wild encounters around 800 rooms, which ended the run.
Team isn't particularly bulky, so team is vulnerable to losing via crit.

Edit: Just lost at 865 rooms. Went into the Wild pokemon room with freaking Wobbuffet, which mirror coated Gengar. Next room, faced Electrode and Dugtrio. Took down Electrode with Metagross EQ, while taking a T-bolt. Duggy EQ's me, then fissures Blissey. Honestly, I wanted to hit 1000 rooms, but I super satisfied with this. I came close to losing in a double battle with Metagross and Haxdon around 600 and there were a couple of close calls against Heracross. I somehow managed to avoid/ dodge the ohko users which is also wild.
https://pokepast.es/4f020aee396de36d

 

[iSoNkei]

I feel this is the best way for the game to troll me after giving me a bunch of useless Pokemons in my 4th consecutive win streak (so bad I had actually decided to go for Misdreavus of all things and endure/reversal Scizor along with Altaria )

Hope I am over with Factory before I see another freakin shiny!

 

[Kommo-o]

Finally reporting a streak update on GUCCI GANG. After a grueling battle vs Thriathlete Piper who lead with Umbreon 1 and Baton Passed evasion boosts to Vaporeon 1, fortunately, it didn't took many attempts for Slaking to hit it since Suicune stalled out its Surf and Bite PP leaving it with Quick Attack and Roar only. After that, it was pretty much GG.

GUCCI GANG has claimed 20 tournament wins on Dome and since I was able to find my old original GBA which was kept in good condition and still works like a charm, I can continue building up streaks without fearing the crash problems my Game Boy Adapter has been suffering a few days ago which ended some of my previous attempts.

GUCCI GANG Dome Preview

Streak Proof

 

[iSoNkei]

Finally got my Battle Factory gold symbol. This facility is by far the hardest one in the whole Battle Frontier. It seems a rather easy to pick up and the fact that you don't have to breed/EV train a team for can lead a lot of people that it's easy but in reality is a tough nut to crack. It was effectively the first of the facilities I played as soon as I finish with the E4, I did also played it here and there between my other gold symbols and I must have something like 100h of battling in it still only until now I managed to beat it!
Since I see a lot of people struggling with it here are my advises:

1) First things first I was an Lvl50 believer for a very long time. I thought that the overall low level of the Pokemon around the early rounds would work in my favour but turns out this isn't the case. I have been playing months in Lvl50 and within 3 days of playing in Open Level i manage to win. Not only this but also countless times had I been knocked out from streak 1-2 in the Lvl50 something that rarely happened during my runs in the Open Level (I would say that on average I would at least reach around 25-28 wins before losing). Overall the experience (in the Open Level) felt much more enjoyable and consistent.

Specifically:

2) As already mentioned in other posts your best shoot at winning is to create a team with good type synergy.
3) There are Pokemon I considered higher tier than others but I will elaborate in a few sentences.
4) I would not break my teams synergy in order to add a S-Tier Pokemon in my lineup! In fact I would only do so if that Pokemon complements my team better than the one I am swapping out. (and yes this sometimes means not adding a legendary!)
5) Even if a Pokemon is beneficial for my team synergy I would not add it unless I knew it had at least one useable move. There are instances for example that I did snag a Salamence for myself only to find out that it had Headbutt as it's only attacking move! In sort if you one shot something consider twice before adding it!
6) Try having a fast sweeper in front (preferably with good coverage) with two bulkier Pokemon to switch when facing a bad matchup.
7) Stalling is doable but risky! It only takes one crit and your whole plan is gone.
8) When the RNG isn't in your favour, and your initial 6 choices more or less suck... Look out for Counter/Destiny Bond/Explosion users. Chances are you will lose the streak but maybe, just maybe you might be able to win the attrition war vs the AI and build a team from scratch!
9) If you can't find those look for some status inflicting Pokemon.

Now let's break down what I consider high value and what not:

S-Tier Pokemon: Latios/Latias/Suicune/Blissey/Salamence/Metagross/Milotic/Heracross/Snorlax/Tyranitar/Raikou
A-Tier Pokemon: Flygon/Sceptile/Scizor/Espeon/Alakazam/Swampert/Registeel/Vaporeon/Aerodactyl/Starmie/Gengar/Lapras/Slowdudes
B-Tier Pokemon: Ferraligatr/Blastoise/Hypno/Ursaring(Counter)/Walrein/Dugtrio/Aggron(1-hit-KO proof)/Umbreon/Foretress(Counter)/Shiftry(leech seed)/Ninetales/Crobat
D(esperate)-Tier: Anything with Explosion/Counter/Mirror Coat/Destiny Bond/Toxic/Will-O-Wisp/Leech Seed/Confuse Ray

I might have forgot some but will update! So the way this works is that S-Tier Pokemon are what you should have your eyes on. They are game winners able to win most 1vs1 and even sweep whole teams given the right opportunity. Ideally you want a team stacked with 3 of those. Chances are this wont happen (not from the initial draft at least) so there come A-Tier Pokemon. They can complement tier S-Pokemon really well and can help you create a really strong team. There are times that an A-Tier is better than a S-Tier due to the rest of your team compositions and also due to their availiable movesets. Likewise a Tier B can be better than a Tier A. B-Tier Pokemon are okish in their own right during your first streaks (1-3) but tend to fall short during later rounds where the AI spams legendaries!

Some personal notes (Open for discussion)

-Dragon/Water/Steel core is probably the best type synergy you can wish for.
-Waters are you best friends! I ALWAYS had one in my team as a safe switch for a plethora of things. It's just the nature of the type that can be a great defensive-offensive Pokemon! If you find a Water in the starting 6 GET IT. If you don't.. build a team that can actually make use of one and snag the first you can find (not named Wailord lol)!
-Electric leads are risky! The type is amazing and generally speaking it consist of blazing fast and hard hitting Pokemons but the AI floods you with Ground types that can be risky to switch into. Not only this but also a lot of Electric Pokemons in the Battle Factory only have Electric type movesets effectively forcing you to switch out or sacrifice your lead. Having coverage is really important. When I have assembled a strong team and my opponent leads with a winning matchup I usually prefered hitting the enemy with a super effective move, die afterwards and retaliate with my second Pokemon than risk a switch (crits HAXS). Last but not least Rhydon with Fissure/Drill Run exists! And those electrics draw him like crazy. This a thing you don't wanna mess with!

And finally after playing a lot of Battle Factory I am pretty sure the AI randomly select moves! Or at least half randomly I don't know but certainly it doesn't always go for the super effective. In my winning streak (round 5/6) I lead Aerodactyl it had Flygon and he insisted using EQ on me!
That's a thing to keep in mind and as I stated earlier be mindfull of your switches and keep trying!
That's all for now! Thank you!

 

[DrDimentio]

Finally got my Battle Factory gold symbol. This facility is by far the hardest one in the whole Battle Frontier.

Congrats on the Gold, although I think it's only the hardest if you don't use RNG manipulation for specific starting Pokemon sets. I found it much easier once I had the same teams every time, especially some of the best possible teams such as Starmie/Flygon/Forretress. I think the Palace is harder overall, and the Arena is also very unforgiving for most teams.

Update on my Frontier progress: Now have 6/7 Gold Symbols, final one is the Pyramid which I haven't tried yet. I haven't posted about my ended post-Gold streaks in the Tower (78 wins), Dome (21 tournaments) or my ongoing Pike streak, as my teams have been quite standard and the streaks didn't seem notable enough. The Dome was where I lost due to my first-turn Truant Slaking. Also, my loss in the Tower was caused by a lapse of focus - I stupidly used Metagross' Explosion when it was my last Pokemon. Never play when you're tired...

Hope I am over with Factory before I see another freakin shiny!

I'm a bit jealous as I've never seen a Frontier shiny in any game, despite my thousands(!) of Frontier/Tower/etc battles over the years (mostly in Platinum).

 

[iSoNkei]

Congrats on the Gold, although I think it's only the hardest if you don't use RNG manipulation for specific starting Pokemon sets. I found it much easier once I had the same teams every time, especially some of the best possible teams such as Starmie/Flygon/Forretress.

Is it possible to RNG manipulate in a cartridge? If this is the case then yeah Factory should be rather easy to win. Most of the losses were because of a bad initial draft rather than HAX.

I think the Palace is harder overall, and the Arena is also very unforgiving for most teams.

My opinion is biased here since I did it in one go from silver to gold. I had to create a new team from scratch with the right natures but as long as you take the time to breed a strong team with Palace Natures I think you are good to go. Still I might have been just lucky

Update on my Frontier progress: Now have 6/7 Gold Symbols, final one is the Pyramid which I haven't tried yet. I haven't posted about my ended post-Gold streaks in the Tower (78 wins), Dome (21 tournaments) or my ongoing Pike streak, as my teams have been quite standard and the streaks didn't seem notable enough. The Dome was where I lost due to my first-turn Truant Slaking. Also, my loss in the Tower was caused by a lapse of focus - I stupidly used Metagross' Explosion when it was my last Pokemon. Never play when you're tired...

Congrats on your wins as well! Pyramid is a rather fun facility I would say and rather easy!

I'm a bit jealous as I've never seen a Frontier shiny in any game, despite my thousands(!) of Frontier/Tower/etc battles over the years (mostly in Platinum).

Honestly I wasn't even that mad about the the shiny. It sucks you cant catch it but make up for a good story telling!

 

[DrDimentio]

Yep, I did all my Factory RNG manipulation on cartridge, along with all the RNG needed to get near-flawless IVs on my Pokemon for the other facilities. It was surprisingly easy to get consistent timing.

Thanks, I hope the Pyramid will be easy as you say, since it's the only thing standing between me and 7 Gold Symbols!

Also, something I forgot to mention about the Battle Pike: I found Chesto Rest + Dragon Dance to be a very useful set on my Salamence, to remove status ailments. DD also justifies having Rest for other situations, and Rest made it easier/safer to do Intimidate shuffling with Metagross, e.g. against Rock Slide + Earthquake users. I almost considered an Aspear Berry on Salamence since Rest is useless against freeze, but then I realised the Pike has interesting strategic potential where you can sometimes face enemy mons that can't do much to your frozen Pokemon: these give you a chance to try and thaw out while facing them. With Salamence's Intimidate shuffling, bulky Pokemon such as Metagross get more turns against physical attackers to potentially thaw out.

 

[Kommo-o]

Update on my Frontier progress: Now have 6/7 Gold Symbols, final one is the Pyramid which I haven't tried yet. I haven't posted about my ended post-Gold streaks in the Tower (78 wins), Dome (21 tournaments) or my ongoing Pike streak, as my teams have been quite standard and the streaks didn't seem notable enough. The Dome was where I lost due to my first-turn Truant Slaking. Also, my loss in the Tower was caused by a lapse of focus - I stupidly used Metagross' Explosion when it was my last Pokemon. Never play when you're tired...

Congratulations on the Gold Symbols! I would definitely would love to hear more about your Tower, Dome and Pike teams! Even if you feel they are too standard, it's always great to hear more from other players' perspective, specially if it comes from a legendary player like you. I've lost streaks due to tiredness and lack of focus as well, so it happens a lot of times. Even on the middle of streaking, I've had my occasional brainfart where it sometimes influences a game or not.

 

[submenceisop]

Reporting an ongoing streak of 105 at the Battle Tower with Mence, Skarmory, Umbreon. I'm going to update it when I lose.
Team building process
Salamence is usually my lead (change it to Skarmory on the Anabel round) which provides intimidate support against mixed attackers and allows me to immediately set up on passive threats(ex double team venu, shuckle). My Salamence is rather bulky, as it has 180 hp evs, which allows Salamence to hit 193 hp, a really nice 16+1 leftovers number. It has 140 speed evs for outspeeding Adamant Heracross and Modest Suicune and outspeeds the entire tower at +1. The rest is dumped into attack, which is the bare minimum for getting 2koes against Skarmory.

Here's the damage calc
+6 188+ Atk Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 170 HP / 0 Def Skarmory: 158-186 (50.4 - 59.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 188+ Atk Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Skarmory: 158-186 (47.3 - 55.6%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO

The Skarmory spread is AdeAde's, with Skarm being the phaser, defensive pivot against physical attackers and provides torment support. There's enough bulk to tank non stab electric and fire moves if you don't get crit.

Umbreon is the special wall on the team, with only 2 weaknesses, which are checked by Skarmory and Salamence. You can go Blissey here, but the main reason why I use Umbreon is because of Wish support and the reliable accuracy reducing move in sand attack. Wish support is really nice because it isn't too difficult to pass a wish to Skarm and Mence. I again invested 180 hp for 193 hp (16+1 leftovers number), 166 speed to out pace the 105's (Nidoking+ friends), with the remainder in special bulk). It's been pretty reliable for me, although the drop in bulk from Blissey is rather noticeable. It also doesn't have natural cure, so you need Lum berry not to get crippled by status.

Charizard calc- 252+ SpA Charizard Fire Blast vs. 180 HP / 164+ SpD Umbreon in Sun: 168-198 (44.6 - 52.6%)
Edit: Going to be switching out Umbreon for Blissey from 105 onwards. Umbreon isn't bulky enough. Also will be running 196 attack as per Kommo-O.

Strategy: Cripple/PP stall to allow Mence to set up.

Potential threats
Avoid Status/Don't lose Mence.
Charizard 3
Ampharos(2 and 3 with fighting coverage)
Electabuzz 3 and Golduck (Mixed Cross Chop users)
Roar users, esp Articuno 1
Armaldo/Marowak/ Aggron
Mixed Fighting Types (Machamp, Hariyama can muscle past Skarmory with crits)
Lives a +6 hit= Suicune, Aero, Skarmory, Zapdos/ Regice
Clear Body- Mixed Metagross, Regice, Quick Claw Regirock/ Registeel
Dangerous water types: Lapras, Whiscash 4, Haxrein, Dewgong

https://pokepast.es/492b95fb24ae24dd

86 bright powder sets/ 86 quick claw/ 49 Fully Evolved Focus Band users
+6 200+ Atk Salamence Hidden Power Flying vs. 255 HP / 255+ Def Regice: 188-222 (100.5 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO- Can consider over aerial ace

 

[Kommo-o]

Reporting an ongoing streak of 105 at the Battle Tower with Mence, Skarmory, Umbreon. I'm going to update it when I lose.
Team building process
Salamence is usually my lead (change it to Skarmory on the Anabel round) which provides intimidate support against mixed attackers and allows me to immediately set up on passive threats(ex double team venu, shuckle). My Salamence is rather bulky, as it has 180 hp evs, which allows Salamence to hit 193 hp, a really nice 16+1 leftovers number. It has 140 speed evs for outspeeding Adamant Heracross and Modest Suicune and outspeeds the entire tower at +1. The rest is dumped into attack, which is the bare minimum for getting 2koes against Skarmory.

Here's the damage calc
+6 188+ Atk Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 170 HP / 0 Def Skarmory: 158-186 (50.4 - 59.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
+6 188+ Atk Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Skarmory: 158-186 (47.3 - 55.6%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO

The Skarmory spread is AdeAde's, with Skarm being the phaser, defensive pivot against physical attackers and provides torment support. There's enough bulk to tank non stab electric and fire moves if you don't get crit.

Umbreon is the special wall on the team, with only 2 weaknesses, which are checked by Skarmory and Salamence. You can go Blissey here, but the main reason why I use Umbreon is because of Wish support and the reliable accuracy reducing move in sand attack. Wish support is really nice because it isn't too difficult to pass a wish to Skarm and Mence. I again invested 180 hp for 193 hp (16+1 leftovers number), 166 speed to out pace the 105's (Nidoking+ friends), with the remainder in special bulk). It's been pretty reliable for me, although the drop in bulk from Blissey is rather noticeable. It also doesn't have natural cure, so you need Lum berry not to get crippled by status.

Potential threats
Avoid Status/Don't lose Mence.
Mixed fire and electric attackers
Fake Tears Jynx
Articuno 1 ( has 2 ice moves and roar)
Skarmory/Zapdos- walls your stabs, but you can muscle through it if you set up
Clear Body- Mixed Metagross, Regice, Quick Claw Regirock
Umbreon doesn't have a lot of pp compared to something like growl blissey- be careful with pressure users

https://pokepast.es/492b95fb24ae24dd

Considering that I also used Aerial Ace Salamence, my recommendation would be to drop the HP investment to 172 HP and put the remainder on Attack. 78.5% chance is not a good enough chance because otherwise you're giving Skarmory 3 a 22% chance of surviving, setting up Curse and reverse sweep you where you are going to be forced to do some Intimidate shuffling and if it is the remaining Pokemon on the list, you'll end up throwing away your chances.

The difference:
+6 196+ Atk Salamence Aerial Ace vs. 255 HP / 0 Def Skarmory: 84-99 (48.8 - 57.5%) -- 96.1% chance to 2HKO

While you miss out on the Leftovers number +1, 192 HP still gets the advantage of having the HP lost by a Substitute restored in 4 turns and 196 Atk EVs hit a jump point which grants you an additional extra Attack point and buffs it up to 198 Attack. Unfortunately, I have to say that Aerial Ace constrains EV spreads a lot since it needs a considerable amount to guarantee OHKOs and 2HKOs even at +6.

 

[DrDimentio]

Congratulations on the Gold Symbols! I would definitely would love to hear more about your Tower, Dome and Pike teams!

Alright, these were my teams:

Battle Pike 151 rooms (Open Level, retail, ended streak)

Team

Starmie @ Lum Berry
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 SpD
IVs: 30/16/27/31/31/31
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 148 HP / 244 Atk / 16 Def / 6 SpD / 96 Spe
IVs: 31/31/30/15/29/30
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Facade
- Aerial Ace

Salamence @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Atk / 10 Def
IVs: 31/30/30/15/29/30
Adamant Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Rest

For the Pike, Starmie once again held a Lum Berry for extra status protection along with Natural Cure, which makes it one of the safest sweepers to use here. Also convenient how it one-shots wild Sevipers with Psychic. Metagross was given Facade, as another way to mitigate status issues. Aerial Ace was mainly for BrightPowder / Double Team users. Salamence made good use of Chesto Rest + Dragon Dance to set up, and also to remove status.

My Pike strategy was to enter rooms that were more likely to be wild Pokemon areas, avoid any rooms that were likely to inflict status ailments (even if there was a chance of healing when I needed it), and always take a chance by entering rooms that are most likely to have an idle NPC.

Lucy’s Gold Symbol team was a pushover; it was quite amusing when her Steelix use -2 Explosion on my Metagross switch-in (I was shuffling Salamence’s Intimidate). Thanks to that, I didn’t have to risk any potential BrightPowder hax.

My loss was in a Double Battle (not much of a surprise), as I expected Starmie’s Surf to only be reduced by 25% like in later generations - another case where I lost due to my lack of focus. I guess it’s better than losing to hax.

Battle Dome 21 tournaments (Open Level, retail, ended streak)

Team

Starmie @ Lum Berry
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 SpD
IVs: 30/16/27/31/31/31
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 6 SpD
Nature: Adamant
IVs: 30/31/29/19/31/31
- Return
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam

Salamence @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Atk / 10 Def
IVs: 31/30/30/15/29/30
Adamant Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Rest

Against most teams, I led Slaking with Starmie in the back. Starmie had Lum Berry due to the limited switching potential in 2v2. Slaking was a fairly obvious choice based on the success of other players on the leaderboard here, so there’s not much to say about it - it was always fun to one-shot Tucker’s Swampert with Double-Edge, which he led with every time. Speaking of Tucker, he always seemed to spam Protect with his Metagross in the back, which allowed my Salamence to easily beat it with 2 Earthquakes due to failed Protects. Salamence used the Rest + DD set because I figured certain hax-based sets would be harder to deal with in 2v2, e.g. Double Team + recovery, or status inflicters. Since you get a team preview in this facility, having only 2 attacks is less of an issue.

My loss was also caused by a lack of focus, as I made a decision that caused me to end up with Slaking locked into Double-Edge against Curse Regirock as the second enemy - a hopeless matchup. Clearly, the key with CB Slaking in the Dome is to make sure it never gets locked into a move that would be ineffective against the second enemy Pokemon.

Battle Tower 78 wins (Open Level, retail, ended streak)

Team

Starmie @ Lum Berry
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 252 Spe / 6 SpD
IVs: 30/16/27/31/31/31
Modest Nature
- Surf
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

Metagross @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 148 HP / 244 Atk / 16 Def / 6 SpD / 96 Spe
IVs: 31/31/30/15/29/30
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Agility
- Explosion

Salamence @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 248 Atk / 10 Def
IVs: 31/30/30/15/29/30
Adamant Nature
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
- Rest

With Starmie again, Lum Berry is very good for a lead, even when you have Natural Cure as well - after all, switching can lose a lot of momentum and it gives the opponent more chances to set up or inflict some kind of hax. Metagross had Leftovers to help with Intimidate shuffling between Salamence; most commonly done against Earthquake users. Agility + Explosion is a combo I’ve found very useful ever since I used it in the Arena. Deciding whether to use Agility sometimes depends on the possible sets used by the trainer you’re facing, e.g. it’s worth using it if there could be Fire-types or strong Earthquake users waiting to be sent out. That way you can safely Explode on them after finishing off the first Pokemon that was facing Metagross. Salamence used the DD + Rest set because I’ve found it very useful against status ailments, and the DD boosts are important when using a weak move like Aerial Ace.

As mentioned earlier, I lost because I wasn’t focused - used Explosion when Metagross was my last Pokemon.