Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

[QuentinQuonce]

It always bugged me more than a little bit that my original Battle Pyramid streak was imperfect: though there are 20 discreet rounds, I only ever made it to 130, just ten floors shy of that nice round 140. I've been pretty sick this week so, from the comfort of my bed, decided to finally correct that. To my great surprise, I made it all the way to 140 floors in one consecutive run. Guess I really have improved.

One thing I've always been firm on was that I wanted to mix things up and bring different Pokemon for different rounds. I know some people feel differently about this and maintain that Slaking is the best lead in all circumstances, with Blissey also mandatory. I disagree: there are at least a couple of rounds in which Slaking struggles to handle the wild Pokemon. It's pretty much always a great choice for a trainer battle, but not always the best lead.

Also, bringing different Pokemon makes the challenge more fun.

Call it tactics, not strategy

Gonna briefly write up my approach to this so far as I know people found my Pike gameplay summary useful in the past.

So I decided I wanted to vary up my Pokemon pool and design the optimal team for each set of floors. Some Pokemon would, naturally, be brought for multiple rounds, but my thinking was based on the utility of each one. The Battle Pyramid is unique in that all opponents only have one Pokemon each, and this presents a massive advantage to the player. Since you are allowed to bring three, my thinking was that

• Pokemon 1 should be the "wild Pokemon" slot, capable of OHKOing as many of the wild spawns as possible
• Pokemon 2 should be the "trainer battles" slot, which you switch to the front if you see a trainer nearby. It should be versatile and powerful enough to be a good choice against most trainers
• Pokemon 3 should be the "utility" Pokemon: it either excels in healing, finding items, or some other support role

My playstyle has changed a lot over the years since I started. Back in the day, I thought it best to avoid the wild Pokemon and to focus on fighting the trainers. With the benefit of hindsight, I'm more or less completely the opposite on this now. The hints you get from trainers aren't worth the effort it takes to defeat them, and even if they were it's not like there's enough of them to help. It might be a false memory but I could have sworn sometimes trainers point in different directions when referring to the exit; if trainer A says the exit is "^ that way" and trainer B says the exit is "> that way", that's a lot more helpful than two identical answers. Whatever the case, it never happened during this run.

And the wild Pokemon are weaker; why take on an EV trained Walrein when you could fight one with no EVs and a level disadvantage (and which doesn't know Sheer Cold)?

I've also gotten much more familiar with the pyramid floor layouts (in small part to some of the mechanics that have been shared in this thread) so find myself finding the exit tile much more quickly and efficiently than in the past.

Despite this, however, you can't avoid trainers entirely - you must accept that surprise trainer approaches will happen. Unless you stand still and turn on the spot to grind wild encounters at the start of every floor to widen the camera immensely, you will be seen by NPCs beyond the reach of your view eventually.

The only point I will maintain is that, where possible, double battles should be avoided at all costs. There is literally nothing to be gained in having opponents gang up on you and removing the massive advantage you get being 3v1; you don't get a 2x visibility increase after the battle to account for the second trainer. Fairly often, the exit tile will be in a position in which it is only reachable by passing between two trainers; if this is the case, you should either wait for one to look the other way or circle around and approach one of them from a different side. I played well during this run; from memory, I only fought four double battles during the whole run, of which two happened on the same floor one right after the other simply because there was no alternative; I was stuck in between two unmoving NPCs in their line of sight.

Floors #1-140

What follows is an accounting of the Pokemon I brought for each round, and a brief writeup.

Floors #1-7: Paralysis


Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Flamethrower
252 Attack/Speed, 6 Special Attack (Naive)


Slash
Thunderbolt
Surf
Thief
156 Attack, 100 Special Attack, 252 Speed (Naive)


Earthquake
Ancientpower
Secret Power
Hidden Power (Flying)
252 HP/Atk, 6 SpDef (Adamant)

Round 1 is the easiest by far, so naturally it's where I choose to take the opportunity to farm as many items as I could for the later rounds. Because of the abundance of Electric-types here, Flygon was a natural choice: it destroys all the wild Pokemon with ease, and once I reach the seventh floor I can just grind out battles over and over for maximum item-grabbage. Flamethrower and Fly took care of Vileplume and Breloom once they start showing up (ideally I would have run Hidden Power Flying for Breloom, but it's specially frail enough that Flamethrower does the job).

In the early floors, Phanpy is a good switch-in to most Electrics; Linoone was placed in second in case of trainer battles. But Flygon really just does everything. The trainers here are so weak that Flygon can KO everything with ease, but so many of the Electrics can't touch Phanpy at all so I used it wherever I could to conserve Flygon's PP. It's actually the very same one I used in my Adventures: Emerald challenge: as I wrote there, all of its moves were specifically chosen because they do not make contact in order to avoid triggering abilities like Static and Effect Spore. Linoone was given Thief on the very slim chance I'd run into a trainer with a great item I wanted to take for myself. Never happened, but it's worth running just in case. I've had opponent Pokemon Trick my precious Choice Bands and Leftovers away in the past.

Floors #8-14: Poison


Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Flamethrower
252 Attack/Speed, 6 Special Attack (Naive)


Slash
Thunderbolt
Surf
Thief
156 Attack, 100 Special Attack, 252 Speed (Naive)


Earthquake
Ancientpower
Secret Power
Hidden Power (Flying)
252 HP/Atk, 6 SpDef (Adamant)

The same team setup and general strategy applies here. As before, once I reached the final floor I'd run around and grind Pickup chances until I was out of PP and ready to leave. This floor was where I found the item no Pyramid run is complete without: the Choice Band. Sadly it was the only one I found which made some later rounds a little tricky. But it's great to have even one.

Floors #15-21: Burn


Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Flamethrower
252 Attack/Speed, 6 Special Attack (Naive)


Brick Break
Megahorn
Earthquake
Rock Slide
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Earthquake
Ancientpower
Secret Power
Hidden Power (Flying)
252 HP/Atk, 6 SpDef (Adamant)

This time around, it's Heracross in second place instead of Linoone. Hariyama or Machamp would have worked too, but Heracross's speed and access to Megahorn appeal more to me. The big trick is getting it inflicted with a burn. You can either do the risky thing of switching it into a wild Pokemon in hopes that they'll use Will-o-Wisp on you (dangerous against anything except Dusclops, which doesn't have a damaging Fire move) or pummel a load of wild Magcargo with Brick Break and hope that Flame Body triggers for one of them. This was the route I took. With a Choice Band equipped and Guts activated, Heracross tears through Brandon's Silver team so hard it's not even funny.

Floors #22-28: PP Reduction


Aerial Ace
Sludge Bomb
Shadow Ball
Thief
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Jolly)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)

We leave the Pickup squad behind for round 4 onwards. If you've played correctly, you'll have picked up a war chest of items by this point. Happily, this was the case for me: by this point, I had over 20 Hyper Potions and over 10 Revives. No Blissey to do my healing... yet.

Crobat was an unconventional choice but a surprisingly effective one. With the Choice Band I picked up equipped, its Shadow Ball was more than enough to deal with all the Ghosts that show up here; Sludge Bomb takes out Dunsparce and Ninetales, too. Even despite the held item and the Jolly nature, Thief was included solely for Shedinja; no point wasting Shadow Ball or Aerial Ace PP on it.

And finally Slaking appears - well, as I said, it's the perfect Pokemon for taking on trainers. Latios was included for some offensive insurance; I wasn't 100% convinced that Crobat would cope, but as it turns out I needn't have worried because it performed splendidly.

Floors #29-35: Levitate


Surf
Psychic
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)

This is always an annoyingly inconsistent round, but overall Starmie is best-placed to take down almost all of the wild Pokemon here. The only one it doesn't have a super-effective option against is Chimecho, but that's hardly worth worrying about. Latios was, again, a handy backup while Slaking was reserved for trainer fights.

Floors #36-42: Trapping


Aerial Ace
Sludge Bomb
Shadow Ball
Thief
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Jolly)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

Crobat comes back again as the useful lead to avoid the trappers in this round. It laughs at Diglett, Dugtrio, and Trapinch and slaughters Wynaut and Wobbuffet. But Slaking is definitely needed for the trainers in this round; this is where Crobat really starts to fall behind. Still, this round wasn't difficult. It's the first one where I decidedly chose to grind a few times upon arriving on each new floor to widen my visual range, but I happened to make it to the top very quickly in any case.

This was the first round I brought a Blissey along. I'd wanted to use an Aromatherapy Blissey for ages, but never did on previous runs - I decided here though that, instead of carrying Flamethrower as is my usual choice for her, Blissey should be much more support-oriented.

Ironically I may as well not have bothered given the sheer amount of Lum Berries I eventually ended up collecting, but it came in useful in certain fights and, crucially, often baits NPC Pokemon into wasting turns inflicting status on you over and over instead of doing something more threatening like boosting.

Floors #43-49: Ice


Flamethrower
Thunderpunch
Sky Uppercut
Earthquake
252 Attack, 80 Special Attack, 188 Speed (Naughty)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

When thinking about how to face down Ice-types, one Pokemon came to mind as an obvious counter: Blaziken. That said, I did have initial concerns: would Thunderpunch fail to KO Cloyster? Would Sky Uppercut fail to KO Walrein? Would Sneasel outspeed? All of those things are possible - however, in practice extremely unlikely when the wild Pokemon are several levels below your own, with random IVs and no EV investment. And so Blaziken performed excellently, the equipped Choice Band allowing it to cleave through all the increasingly bulky Ice spawns. It even did pretty well against the few trainers I failed to spot in time to switch Slaking to the front; ultimately, though, Slaking is the preferred option. On the fifth floor Blaziken missed a Sky Uppercut and predictably got frozen - not a problem, Blissey laughs in the face of every foe here and sees them off

Floors #50-56: Selfdestruct


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Fire Punch
Giga Drain
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Hidden Power (Steel)
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Sludge Bomb
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

Let's bring a Ghost-type to the Explosion round! Whyever not. Gengar is a good answer to just about everything you'll meet here barring Electrode, who can be slightly annoying. But never mind that - with the Shell Bell equipped, Giga Drain on wild Golem ensures you'll stay healthy. On the occasions where Gengar proved a little too weak, though, Metagross made a useful backup; the two pair well in case of any accidental double battles. Thankfully that never happened.

This is a fun round, actually. It's hilarious to see wild Pokemon blow up in front of Gengar; every so often I wouldn't even bother to attack and just spend a couple of turns healing my team before I got a cheap and easy win. Worst comes to worst, even Blissey can survive most of the Explosions here, though that's obviously not something you want to be happening with any regularity.

Floors #57-63: Psychic


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)


Flamethrower
Shadow Ball
Sludge Bomb
Faint Attack
12 Attack, 246 Special Attack, 252 Speed (Hasty)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)

This time, our wild Pokemon fighter is... Blissey?! Well, yeah. Literally none of the wild Pokemon here can touch her. You poison them, heal yourself if Synchronise bounces it back at you, and then either heal or hasten their demise with Seismic Toss. It's a refreshing change of pace to go from OHKOing everything to making them faint at a leisurely pace.

Just in case it got too much, however, I figured Houndoom would be a fun alternative. It's great fun to use, and Shadow Ball becomes intensely powerful when boosted by Choice Band. Blissey's PP does tend to run down quicker than you might think, and while I had Ethers and Leppa Berries aplenty, why waste them if I didn't have to?

This did mean, however, exceptionally greater care when it came to trainers. A physical Pokemon used by a trainer is a threat, and switching can be costly. Houndoom found itself unceremoniously sacrificed once or twice to allow Slaking to get in safely and secure the KO - not exactly the most optimal play, but luckily most of the time I was able to spot any trainers nearby and switch Slaking to the front of the party before they sighted me. As the penultimate round before Brandon's Gold team, I'm always a bit cautious with this one, so it felt right to play it as safely as I could.

Floors #64-70: Rock


Surf
Psychic
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Brick Break
Megahorn
Earthquake
Rock Slide
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Ancientpower
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Double-Edge
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)

This is a weirdly easy round for the one where you take on Brandon again. Between them, Starmie and Heracross utterly destroy all the Rock-types here so it felt right to have them both.

Aerodactyl, of course, is reserved to take on the birds. Starmie also makes good backup against Articuno and Moltres. Any sufficiently powerful Rock-type would do for this; even Aggron, for all its many faults, can wipe out Brandon's Gold Team with a Choice-boosted Ancientpower. But Aerodactyl is simply more efficient, and it needed no support to get three clean KOs.

Floors #71-77: Fighting


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Ancientpower
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Double-Edge
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)

We're in the big leagues now! Well, not really. Predictably, Latios makes a great choice to obliterate wild Fighting-types; Aerodactyl also does, and both it and Slaking are ideally placed for taking on trainers. Had an unfortunate double battle here on the first floor; Latios and Aerodactyl make for an excellent combination and the Donphan/Electabuzz they faced had no chance.

Floors #78-84: Weather


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

I don't like this round. There's very little consistency between the wild Pokemon you encounter; Starmie can hit (nearly) all of them for super-effective damage, but by this point their levels are creeping high enough that OHKOs aren't always assured. For that reason, I decided Slaking was the safer bet, though I regretted this slightly when I started encountering Gyarados at higher levels.

This was the first round where I really struggled. After losing Slaking to a trainer with a pesky Horn Drill Rhydon, Latios served as my lead for a while; it did fine, but got worn down by trainer battles too quickly. I eventually opted to revive Slaking and fought my way out.

Floors #85-91: Bug


Ancientpower
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Double-Edge
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

After the last one, this round was almost a breather. That said, Aerodactyl was pretty quickly knocked out by that most annoying of opponents, Forretress; I opted not to bother reviving it and let Slaking do double-duty for the rest of the round.

Floors #92-98: Dark


Flamethrower
Thunderpunch
Sky Uppercut
Earthquake
252 Attack, 80 Special Attack, 188 Speed (Naughty)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

Back to Blaziken for my lead once again.

This round was the round which nearly saw the end of my run. I lost Slaking to a trainer's Miltank which unpleasantly got a Focus Band activation and used Counter, then stumbled into a double battle against a Psychic and a Hex Maniac who sent out Alakazam and Xatu. Alakazam promptly OHKO'd Blaziken; Blissey got off a Toxic on Xatu, which set up Future Sight. Alakazam used Calm Mind then started using Psychic repeatedly, eventually getting a Special Defence drop; Xatu kept using Drill Peck.

The damage was too overwhelming for Softboiled to be safe so I used up multiple Hyper Potions as Blissey heroically tanked the damage.

Thankfully, Synchronise poison doesn't increase like Toxic poison does or I'd have been sunk. The other saving grace was that Xatu stopped attacking every other turns to set up Future Sight again, allowing me some extra room. But with the Special Defence drop, it was dicey, and I came within spitting distance of fainting multiple times. Eventually Xatu succumbed to poison and this allowed me an additional turn to revive Slaking, finally let Blissey die, then revive Blissey again so I could defeat Alakazam properly. Absolute nightmare of a battle, and then I stumbled into another double battle moments later! Thankfully, this one was far easier - Slaking took care of Mr Mime, while Blissey poisoned Dusclops and stalled it out until it fell.

Floors #99-105: Water


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

Latios is the better choice for the wild Pokemon here - too often Slaking has to resort to Double-Edge, you just end up whittling your own HP down. Brandon is fought again here; Blissey laughs at all three birds.

Floors #106-112: Ghost


Flamethrower
Shadow Ball
Sludge Bomb
Faint Attack
12 Attack, 246 Special Attack, 252 Speed (Hasty)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

After the PP reduction round (which mostly features Ghosts) this one feels a bit redundant. But in any case, Houndoom is the best one for the job when it comes to slaughtering the undead. Or re-slaughtering them, I suppose. If it falls, Slaking can step in and capably take over.

This round was actually probably the easiest overall because, somehow, I managed to only fight one single trainer. If only they were all so quiet...

Floors #113-119: Steel


Flamethrower
Thunderpunch
Sky Uppercut
Earthquake
252 Attack, 80 Special Attack, 188 Speed (Naughty)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

Blaziken again takes over against all the Steel-types. Metagross is still a scary foe regardless, but since it's only common on the later floors I trusted that we wouldn't see it until late. This worked out, and Blaziken comfortably took on all the other wild spawns multiple times before failing to KO Metagross and falling to its Earthquake. Not that it mattered. Slaking, again, stepped in and took over. But that was on floor seven so it didn't have much time to shine. There's hardly any point taking on Skarmory - luckily (or I guess unlikely) I'd used up the two Max Revives I collected earlier on so had a space free for a couple of Fluffy Tails, which were deployed against the two Skarmory that popped up in a vain attempt to spoil my day.

Floors #120-126: Flying


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

This might more accurately be called the Dragon round, since Kingdra and Dragonair crash the party and none of the species here are anything Lance would balk at using. For that reason, Latios is the clear choice for lead sweeper. It's quite possibly the only round where everything is OHKO'd by a super-effective move - nice and easy does it. However, Latios seems to run out of PP much more quickly than other mons, so it guzzled up a couple of Ethers before the round was over; not that it mattered, I had more than 10 at this point (and some Leppa Berries too).

Floors #127-133: Stones


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

Like the weather round, this one's annoying. Arcanine, Jolteon, and Starmie all can be troublesome to face - Slaking just about does the job for everything here, but you know you'll be using some healing items before you're done.

Consequently, I found myself relying on Blissey a lot. If Starmie or Jolteon showed up, often I just switched straight to Blissey and let her handle things. Why needlessly get paralysed or frozen, after all?

Floors #134-140: Normal


Double-Edge
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Shadow Ball
252 Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Adamant)


Psychic
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Dragon Claw
252 Special Attack/Speed, 6 HP (Modest)


Softboiled
Aromatherapy
Toxic
Seismic Toss
252 HP/Defence, 6 Special Defence (Bold)

And now for the final round. And... it's just the same as the last. Yep, Slaking, Latios, and Blissey are definitely the "top" Pokemon for here, in that they cover the biggest pool of foes together. While I could have brought, say, Metagross or Blaziken or Gengar along, it's hard to deny these three were the ones you wanted.

As before, Brandon is fought at the end of this round, and Blissey humbles his team. I even picked up two X Defends shortly before exiting the final floor to humiliate him even more. Moltres' Hyper Beam hardly left a mark.

My stock of items by the final Brandon battle had me feeling pretty confident.​

For the majority of the run my ten item slots were Hyper Potion, Ether, Sacred Ash, Revive, Shell Bell, Leftovers, Leppa Berry, Lum Berry, Max Revive, and Choice Band. As I only had the one Choice Band, this meant I was often able to pick up an eleventh item during each round - usually a specific berry (Chesto, Pecha, Cheri etc), a Max Elixer, or a Full Restore - and then junk it by the end. I eventually used up the two Max Revives I found, leaving me an additional slot open. Nothing really warranted keeping though; I found a few Quick Claws but didn't feel them worth the slot.

And that's it! A solid 140.

When I started this run I only wanted to get here; then I looked at the current record for level 50 Pyramid and thought, why not come for Suspicious Derivative's crown... and then in the time it took me to write this up Doctor_Rob came in with his meteoric Pyramid record. Congrats dude! There's something to aim for indeed. Not quite sure I'll push through to 560 but I'll keep chipping away and see how far I end up getting, I guess.

 

[Yagyu27]

Hello everyone! It's my first time commenting. I've wanted to participate and share a streak I achieved today in Pokémon Emerald for a while. I'm from Latin America, and I'm doing my best with the English I more or less understand to translate this text for you.
In my quest to master Battle Dome Singles, I've experimented with many teams, but none have given me as many results as this one. However, the leader of Dome Tactio was a bit challenging since they always defeated me. Only once did my Milotic manage to freeze Swampert on the first turn, and that was the only time I could defeat them. Overall, the team has served me well against other competitors.

The streak I achieved was 10 consecutive wins in the Level 50 Battle Dome on a GBA emulator.

Team

Team:
Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 100 Def / 100 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Attract
- Softboiled
- Thunder Wave
- Seismic Toss

Metagross @ Shell Bell
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 196 Atk / 100 Def / 100 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brick Break
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Sludge Bomb

Milotic @ Focus Band
Ability: Marvel Scale
Level: 50
EVs: 50 HP / 222 Def / 140 SpA / 96 SpD
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover

Evidence

Strategy

The strategy is simple: Blissey is the special wall against Pokémon that attack specially, Metagross is the Pokémon that destroys those weak to physical attacks he shares, and Milotic acts as a wear-down Pokémon with its Toxic to gradually reduce the life of those who can withstand a lot of damage.

Unfortunately, I lost , which could have been win number 11. This was all due to a Houndoom that used Double-Edge against Blissey and Overheat against Metagross, defeating them in a single blow.
Possible threats to the team include Pokémon that cause instant K.O.s, like Walrein. I also need to be careful with moves like COUNTER and Mirror Coat. For these situations, I use the Toxic move.
PS: I wasn't familiar with EV training in depth, but I'll breed Pokémon with better stats. My English is not very good, but I hope the idea could be understood. Now I'm open to any suggestions from you. :)

 

[DRS1988]

Gen III Battle Frontier Discussion and Records

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• Due to the hardware limitations of Gen 3, I will be allowing the use of these glitches only applicable for the following scenarios. For more information on the glitches that are allowed and not allowed, you can check this post. I also reserve myself the right to disallow the use of any glitch not listed in here that I feel it gives an unfair advantage to any player.
  
  
  Allowed glitches for leaderboard purposes:

  • Allowed examples of Pomeg Glitching:
    • Glitching breedable parents (The parent itself will not be allowed due to illegal met data).
    • Reaching Southern Island and other event places.
    • PID corruption to obtain trade evolution Pokemon (you must be sure that the PID will be corrupted back into its previous data after evolving)
  • Allowed examples of Pike glitching:
    • Sketching legal egg move combinations (No Drill Peck + Whirlwind Skarmory)
    • Recover a deleted purify move. Your Pokemon must be a legal Pokemon obtained from Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness.
    • Level-up moves that can be passed down as egg-moves (Such as Megahorn on Heracross).
    • Repeated use of tutor moves locked behind single use per save (Such as Substitute or Double Edge)
    • Recover or teach forgotten pre-evolution or level-up moves (Sketching moves that are locked after Level 50, are disallowed for Level 50 Mode streaks).
  • Allowed exampled of Roamer Glitching in RS:
    • Obtaining a roamer Latios with higher IVs on Ruby/Sapphire. Any other Pokemon will not be allowed.

  [*][*]

Leaderboard Requirements:

• All records require a screenshot or picture of your in-game Battle Results and all users are required to obligatory disclaim the facility that was challenged, the level it was challenged for (Lv. 50 or Open Level) and whether the streak was done on retail or emulator.
  
  
• Records on emulators are eligible as well as any Pokemon obtained from an emulator. Records on retail and emulator will be marked differently so that other interested parties wanting to replicate a leaderboard team can recognize the differences at which each team can be played. Due to how easy it is to cheat streaks on emulator, having concrete proof such as recorded videos or detailed write-ups is heavily encouraged. I reserve myself the right to ask for any additional recorded footage if I do not trust your streak enough in order to add it as leaderboard material.
  
  
• Streaks must be done on legitimate copies of the game. Emulator streaks must be done on unedited ROMs without any patches. Bootlegs, ROM-hacks or fan-translations will not be allowed.
  
  
• The following minimum win streak requirements have been set to qualify for inclusion of any NEW streak submitted:
  • Battle Tower: 70 wins
  • Battle Arena: 56 wins
  • Battle Factory: 42 wins
  • Battle Palace: 42 wins
  • Battle Dome: 10 tournaments (40 rounds)
  • Battle Pike: 10 passes through (70 rounds)
  • Battle Pyramid: 10 rounds (70 floors)

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Best of luck to everyone!

Potentially Useful Resources:

• Battle Frontier Max Stats Pokemon Database (Hozu’s post)
• Hozu’s spreadsheet
• Battle Frontier Speed Tiers (Level 100)
• Battle Pyramid Wild Pokemon Guide by Expert Evan
• Battle Frontier Damage Calculator by turskain
• All Gold Symbols FAQ by Werster

Forum Resources:

• Battle Tower Guide by Kommo-o
• Battle Frontier mechanics guide by atsync
• Gen 3 Tierlist usage for Battle Frontier
• Golden Blissey's Pyramid Floor Layout
• Dome Speedtiers by Adedede
• Bank of Hoenn server
• Frontier Assistant by Actaeon
• Dome Assistant by Actaeon
• Gen 3 Threatlist Summary by dgice
• RNG Resources Thread
• JoebertIII's Battle Factory Guide

Previous Gen III Battle Frontier Threads:
Emerald Battle Frontier Guide PLEASE HELP DEVELOPING
Gen 3 Battle Frontier Record thread
The Battle Frontier discussion thread!

Bulbapedia pages

• Gen III Battle Frontier
• Battle Arena
• Battle Dome
• Battle Factory
• Battle Palace
• Battle Pike
• Battle Pyramid
• Battle Tower
• List of Trainers

Team Threads

A RMT for a Battle Frontier team (The legendary team by Jumpman16)
Dans Macabre (Battle Tower Singles by Adedede)
Team Azure (Battle Tower Singles by Kommo-o)
Monotype runs (with all 17 types by Actaeon)
Cancerstall fibbonacci (by Actaeon)
State of Art teams (by Actaeon)
Emerald Frontier Challenge! (based on the Pokemon Adventures manga) by green_typhlosion
The Not So Normal Accurpressure by wtset

Credits

Special thanks to the following. No contribution is too small!
Golden Blissey
Actaeon
Adedede
atsync
Expert Evan
FriendOfMrGolem120
McMeghan
Miss Cottonee
Nelson Tangela
oiponabys
SoulWind
Texas Cloverleaf
Thomaz
wtset
submenceisop
green_typhlosion

And of course, the Orange Island mods:
Codraroll
DHR-107
NoCheese
Eisenherz

I would like to report a Battle Arena top 10 record. I had 69 wins at level 50 with Latios, Metagross, and Suicune. I was on cartridge on my GBA SP.

 

[Doctor_Rob]

When I started this run I only wanted to get here; then I looked at the current record for level 50 Pyramid and thought, why not come for Suspicious Derivative's crown... and then in the time it took me to write this up Doctor_Rob came in with his meteoric Pyramid record. Congrats dude! There's something to aim for indeed. Not quite sure I'll push through to 560 but I'll keep chipping away and see how far I end up getting, I guess.

Glad that I've inspired you. I'm currently sitting at 568 floors cleared, about to challenge the Water round. I'll post the end results when/if I complete the final round. Also Brandon challenges you every 5 rounds with his bird team.

 

[potatobagel]

Hello I'd like to report a 163 win streak for Battle Tower Singles and a ongoing 112 win streak for Battle Arena, both level 50, on console.


Battle Tower Team:

Gengar-Metagross-Blissey

Gengar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Punch
- Destiny Bond

Metagross @ Choice Band
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 140 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Aerial Ace
- Explosion

Blissey @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 50
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Def / 84 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Toxic
- Thunder Wave

Set Details

Standard Destiny Bond Gengar. Generally good to preserve it to use Destiny Bond when up 2-1. Metagross EV'ed to survive Iron Tail + Earthquake From Steelix 3 and 4, but generally the sequence should be -switch to Metagross on Iron Tail, EQ the Steelix (Steelix EQ back), switch back to Gengar (Steelix EQ miss), finish off with Ice punch. 212 Speed to hit 117 which outspeeds all Jynx. Blissey EV'ed to outspeed all Walrein. Double status Blissey is my personal favorite Blissey set because it allows for so much maneuverability. Toxic by itself has issues with Speed boosters, but Thunder Wave by itself puts too much pressure for Blissey to attack herself. You will almost never need Aromatherapy if you switch to Blissey often, and giving her a coverage move is a waste in my opinion. Also switching to Gengar on the last Toxic turn can gain momentum, especially if its the on the last Pokemon. It might even be good for Gengar to take some more damage in that case just to guarantee the AI will attack into a Destiny Bond.

I lost to a Bug Maniac. Team was Heracross, Scizor, Armaldo. Gengar kills Heracross with around 55% remaining but with a Speed drop (Rock Tomb Crit). Idk the Scizor set initially so I Thunderbolt, it uses Swords Dance. I'm worried that it's Scizor 2 (with Steel Wing), so I switch to Metagross on the Agility. Now it's clear that its Scizor 4. I EQ twice (it does Swords Dance again) but it leaves it at around 15%, now it has a Swarm boost so it OHKOs my Metagross after a crit. Gengar back, it outspeeds and finishes it off. Armaldo activates Quick Claw and kills Gengar with Ancientpower. Blissey T-wave on Armaldo, Armaldo Brick Break. I need 3 paralyses to win, and it doesn't happen. I think the correct play was to repeatedly use Destiny Bond with Gengar on the Scizor initially because even if I moved second after a Scizor boost, the DB effect still lasts.

Battle Arena Team:

Metagross-Swampert-Latios

Metagross @ Cheri Berry
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 50
EVs: 156 HP / 140 Atk / 212 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Hidden Power [Steel]
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Explosion

Swampert @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Torrent
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 164 SpD / 92 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Surf
- Earthquake
- Counter
- Mirror Coat

Latios @ Lum Berry
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 36 HP / 248 SpA / 224 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Psychic
- Dragon Claw
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Set Details

Same Metagross set as before but with HP Steel to avoid misses and Shadow Ball for Psychic/Ghosts. Cheri Berry is nice because Regis/Latis/Electric types often do not Thunderbolt as first move interestingly. Swampert speed EV's to outspeed 81 (Base 60 and lower). Having both Mirror Coat and Counter is nice because using the Frontier Assistant, you can easily figure out which one to select given the opponent's set. Swampert can get a lot of chip damage on Pokemon 3 usually for Latios to finish it off. Dive is there just in case you want to force an opponent to miss on turn 3 for the skill points (if you outspeed). Chesto Berry just because Swampert rarely gets paralyzed. Latios with Dragon Claw because my previous runs with Ice Beam had issues with Kingdra 4, it can live two Psychics and Rest, if it gets one Ice Beam off you lose because it will have more health at the end of 3 turns. Hidden Power Fire for Steel types is absolutely necessary because Thunderbolt will not do nowhere enough damage to 4HKO/3HKO Registeel/Metagross/Scizor/Steelix

I'm really proud that I now have 100+ records in Battle Tower/Arena/Hall. I may try for 100+ wins in Dome next (25+ rounds), but I think I've already done the hardest 3.

 

[Doctor_Rob]

Welp, I’m back with a new Battle Pyramid record post. 20 new rounds ended and 700 floors cleared now. This was my team at the end of round 20...


(“King Louie”)
Nature: Adamant
252 Attk / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Item: Choice Band
Return, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


(“Maxine”)
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Bold
252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Sp. Def
Item: Leftovers
Seismic Toss, Counter, Thunder Wave, Soft-Boiled


(“Don Gero”)
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
252 HP / 202 Def / 54 Sp. Def
Item: Leftovers
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Hypnosis

I very seldom go through the Pyramid without either Slaking or Blissey. The former is such a powerful O-KOer and the latter is such an important special shield.

Politoed was kind of a personal novelty but, has anyone actually considered bringing a Perish Singer into this facility? It’s actually a clever strategy to deal with Double Teamers, bulky walls like Cradily, and to some extent Cursers. I know it’s a bit specific and generally it’s better to just hit the opposition as hard as possible, which is what Slaking is for, but an unlucky miss from Hyper Beam (or even a failed KO, rare as that is) can be costly against such foes. All the better the trainers here only have one 'Mon each which means they can't switch out to avoid the otherwise inevitable KO. This singing little frog actually saved me against a trainer’s DT Suicune and later a Cradily. Previously I once almost had a streak ruined by a Curse/Double Team Miltank.

I chose Politoed in particular for this as it had a combination of decent bulk and offensive power, even though all of its EVs went into its defensive stats lol. Looking around several other ‘Mons CSM learn PS as well. Lapras might’ve been a better choice but I didn’t want 3 weaknesses to one type. I considered Altaria too but I didn’t want a wall with a glaring 4x weakness. Misdreavus and Gengar are a bit squishy even with defensive EV investment. Jynx is fast but too defensively inept. Dewgong and Azumarill are just worse varieties of Lapras and Politoed respectively. Murkrow, Absol and Marowak lol. I suppose Wigglytuff could work if EV’d in its defenses.

EDIT
I decided to give the fluffy draconian bird a try after all with this set...


(“Bluebell”)
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
252 HP / 212 Sp. Def / 44 Def
Perish Song, Rest, Haze, Flamethrower

This actually saved me on Round Two of my latest ongoing streak against a trainer’s DT spamming Registeel and a Calm Mind Raikou, and was paired with Slaking, Swampert and later Alakazam. It could also humiliate the many other DT spamming hard-to-break walls you'll likely encounter - Umbreon, Meganium, Venusaur, Ludicolo, Clefable, Dusclops to name just a few I can think of off the bat lol. I realized Altaria makes a good Perish Singer here as it’s the only one who can heal itself with Rest then switch out for basically a free full restore thanks to Natural Cure, perhaps on the last turn of PS lol. It’s also the only Perish user with such a recovery strategy, if you don’t count Politoed and Lapras’s Water Absorbs and Misdreavus’s Pain Spilt. Sing or Protect can also be used to stall for Perish turns but I put Haze on this specifically to help neutralize Curse boosters given this set is mostly specially defensive.

 

[DrPumpkinz]

In my recent efforts to finally conquer the Battle Frontier, I've learned that Hariyama (or at least my Hariyama, uncreatively named Punchy, I was like six when I caught him) is incredible. Not only does Vital Throw bypass the many evasion-spamming Normal-types in the Frontier, but Punchy is way better at the Battle Palace than I ever expected him to be. He Vital Throws almost everything, Rock Slides the things that don't make sense to Vital Throw, Protects for Leftovers recovery when at low HP, and almost never skips a turn. So many battles there are won by Punchy alone.

Sassy, actually. Which also makes him GOATed outside the Palace since it compliments Bulk Up so well (which six-year-old me taught him, not fully grasping that maybe these TMs might actually be valuable; thank god the Whismur I gave Shock Wave to was male, otherwise I couldn't have bred it onto the Ampharos that's also been accompanying me on my recent conquest)

 

[Doctor_Rob]

I'm back with another Battle Quest record. 840 floors cleared. This time I noted my teams throughout each round to give you a closer look at my process, plus some new ways of thinking I've come to recently adopt.

ROUND ONE, ELECTRIC/PARALYSIS

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Wipeout")
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Relaxed
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 204 Defense / 56 Sp. Defense
Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Protect


("Bluebell")
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 212 Sp. Defense / 44 Defense
Perish Song, Rest, Haze, Flamethrower

ROUND TWO, POISON


("Albus")
Ability: Synchronize
Nature: Modest
Item: Scope Lens/Lum Berry
Psychic, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch


("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Bluebell")
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 212 Sp. Defense / 44 Defense

ROUND THREE, FIRE/BURNS

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Astrid")
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Brick Break


("Don Gero")
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 202 Defense / 54 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Hypnosis

ROUND FOUR, PP WASTE

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Wipeout")
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Relaxed
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 204 Defense / 56 Sp. Defense
Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Protect


("Bluebell")
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 212 Sp. Defense / 44 Defense
Perish Song, Rest, Haze, Flamethrower

ROUND FIVE, LEVITATE and Brandon

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Wipeout")
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Relaxed
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 204 Defense / 56 Sp. Defense
Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Protect


("Bluebell")
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 212 Sp. Defense / 44 Defense
Perish Song, Rest, Haze, Flamethrower

ROUND SIX, TRAPPING

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Astrid")
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Brick Break


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Destiny Bond, Protect, Night Shade

ROUND SEVEN, ICE

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Toadstool")
Ability: Effect Spore
Nature: Jolly
Item: Leftovers
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Spore, Focus Punch, Mach Punch, Leech Seed


("Don Gero")
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 202 Defense / 54 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Hypnosis

ROUND EIGHT, BOOM!

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Snowhead")
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Modest
252 Sp. Attack / 252 HP / 4 Sp. Defense
Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Rest, Counter


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Destiny Bond, Protect, Night Shade

ROUND NINE, PSYCHIC

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Soldier")
Ability: Clear Body
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 184 HP / 72 Speed
Meteor Mash, Earthquake, Aerial Ace, Explosion


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Destiny Bond, Protect, Night Shade

ROUND TEN, ROCKS

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Don Gero")
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 202 Defense / 54 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Hypnosis


("Maxine")
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 252 Defense / 4 Sp. Defense
Seismic Toss, Soft-Boiled, Thunder Wave, Counter

ROUND ELEVEN, FIGHTING

("King Louie")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Return, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Destiny Bond, Protect, Night Shade


("Maxine")
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 252 Defense / 4 Sp. Defense
Seismic Toss, Soft-Boiled, Thunder Wave, Counter

ROUND TWELVE, WEATHER

("King Louie")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Return, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Astrid")
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Brick Break


"Loch Ness"
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 164 Defense / 92 Sp. Attack
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt

ROUND THIRTEEN, BUGS

("King Louie")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Return, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Klarion")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
Item: Scope Lens
252 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed / 4. Sp Defense
Thunderbolt, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Destiny Bond


("Bluebell")
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Calm
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 212 Sp. Defense / 44 Defense
Perish Song, Rest, Haze, Flamethrower

ROUND FOURTEEN, DARK

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Astrid")
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Brick Break


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Modest
Item: Scope Lens
252 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed / 4. Sp Defense
Thunderbolt, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Destiny Bond

ROUND FIFTEEN, WATER and Brandon

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Lumos")
Ability: Volt Absorb
Nature: Modest
Item: Leftovers
Thunderbolt, Surf, Ice Beam, Thunder Wave


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense

ROUND SIXTEEN, GHOSTS

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense


"Loch Ness"
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 164 Defense / 92 Sp. Attack
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt

ROUND SEVENTEEN, STEEL

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Granmamare")
Ability: Marvel Scale
Nature: Modest
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 252 Defense / 4 Sp. Attack
Surf, Ice Beam, Recover, Mirror Coar


("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
Item: Leftovers
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense
Perish Song, Destiny Bond, Protect, Night Shade

ROUND EIGHTEEN, DRAGONS

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Astrid")
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Brick Break


"Loch Ness"
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 164 Defense / 92 Sp. Attack
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt

ROUND NINETEEN, STONE EVOS

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Astrid")
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Brick Break


"Loch Ness"
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 164 Defense / 92 Sp. Attack
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt

ROUND TWENTY, NORMALS and Brandon

("Titano")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Double-Edge, Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Shadow Ball


("Astrid")
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Adamant
Item: Choice Band
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Aerial Ace, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Brick Break


"Loch Ness"
Ability: Water Absorb
Nature: Bold
Item: Leftovers
252 HP / 164 Defense / 92 Sp. Attack
Perish Song, Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt

And there you have it. I didn't use Blissey nearly as much this time as I did in the past, though I wish I did since I had a harder tiome than expected against Brandon on the final round without her; Zapdos nearly destroyed my record lol. Slaking is by far my favorite 'Mon to use here; it's such a fast and bulky powerhouse that KO nearly anything, which helps against both wilds and unexpected trainer battles alike. You may notice I rotate between two Slakings; one with Return as its main STAB and another with Double-Edge. I used to go with the Return variant more often as the recoil from Double-Edge adds up fast but the later is more useful against trainer battle on the Ghost, Rock, and Steel rounds where I can't hit the wild 'Mons with Normal STAB anyway.

As mentioned I also found Perish Singers to be useful here against Double Teamers and hard to break walls like Cradily and Umbreon. I woudl encourage you all to try it yourselves if walls, defensive stat boosters, and/or DT spam is giving you trouble. And there you have it, fellow trainers. A new record for me. Pic for proof.

 

[Yagyu27]

Hello, how are you?, here I am making a second post about my record in the Battle Dome Singles, currently I have managed to reach a streak of 28 consecutive tournaments! That's right, I have played on an emulator because I have no other way to play this game that I have had since childhood and now it catches my attention to play. Pd: My English is a little bad, I hope you understand each other, I wanted to know if the top ranked is still updating too :)

Team

TEAM:
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
- Protect
- Torment
- Toxic
- Sand Attack

Slaking @ Choice Band
Ability: Truant
Level: 50
EVs: 4 Hp / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball

Milotic @ Focus Band
Ability: Marvel Scale
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Hp / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Toxic
- Recover

strategy

The strategy is very simple, Slaking is the pokemon that always starts the fight, trying to damage the opponent or delibit him with a single blow, whatever the case may be, skarmory is a pokemon that wears down using Toxic and Torment, so that the opponent does not use a move effective and can protect itself in the turn it uses it, Milotic is also attrition, but since it is a water type it can deal with dragon type pokemon thanks to the fact that it learns Ice Beam and has good defenses.

Evidence

My defeat was against an Espeon that had two Calm minds, the play was this, I started with Slaking who was slower than a Starmie, which took away a lot of Hp with a Hydro Pump, but since it was Slaking I used Shadow Ball and ended up weakening it , then I took out Espeon that when I made the change from Slaking to Milotic, Espeon used a Calm Mind, Milotic tried to use Hydro Pump, but failed, Espeon used his second Calm Mind before that, it was faster than my two pokemon, then with Psychic, he weakened my Milotic with a single hit with a critical, and since Slaking was slower than Espeon and had half health, he couldn't hold it. And this led me to defeat.

 

[Karmaloop3]

Someone help me with the Speed EVs on Swampert, Latios, and Metagross

Sampert @ Leftovers
31/31/31/31/31/5
Relaxed Nature
Ice Beam
Surf
Earthquake
Protect

Latios @ Lum Berry
31/x/31/31/31/31
Timid Nature
Calm Mind
Dragon Claw
Thunderbolt
Psychic

Metagross @ Choice Band
31/31/31/x/31/31
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash
Explosion
Shadow Ball
Earthquake

 

[Doctor_Rob]

Someone help me with the Speed EVs on Swampert, Latios, and Metagross

Sampert @ Leftovers
31/31/31/31/31/5
Relaxed Nature
Ice Beam
Surf
Earthquake
Protect

Latios @ Lum Berry
31/x/31/31/31/31
Timid Nature
Calm Mind
Dragon Claw
Thunderbolt
Psychic

Metagross @ Choice Band
31/31/31/x/31/31
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash
Explosion
Shadow Ball
Earthquake

Are you asking for EV spread suggestions? Swampert can be custom tailored but it’s most effective at being a physical wall that can also hit back with decent power. I use that exact move set and nature with a spread of 248 HP / 206 Def / 54 Sp. Def

For Metagross I run Adamant with
252 Attack / 184 HP / 72 Speed. This makes it decently bulky while being a little fast.

Latios 252 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP. I suppose you could take a little out of speed and put some into HP for a little bit of bulk.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Someone help me with the Speed EVs on Swampert, Latios, and Metagross

Sampert @ Leftovers
31/31/31/31/31/5
Relaxed Nature
Ice Beam
Surf
Earthquake
Protect

Latios @ Lum Berry
31/x/31/31/31/31
Timid Nature
Calm Mind
Dragon Claw
Thunderbolt
Psychic

Metagross @ Choice Band
31/31/31/x/31/31
Adamant Nature
Meteor Mash
Explosion
Shadow Ball
Earthquake

Are you asking for EV spread suggestions? Swampert can be custom tailored but it’s most effective at being a physical wall that can also hit back with decent power. I use that exact move set and nature with a spread of 248 HP / 206 Def / 54 Sp. Def

For Metagross I run Adamant with
252 Attack / 184 HP / 72 Speed. This makes it decently bulky while being a little fast.

Latios 252 Sp. Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP. I suppose you could take a little out of speed and put some into HP for a little bit of bulk.

To add to this, the spreadsheet linked in the first post is extremely useful for speed tiers - you can arrange everything in the Frontier by speed and check the relevant numbers you want to hit. For instance, if the max possible Speed one of your Pokemon can hit is 300 but only 3 opponents in the Frontier are at 300 Speed, with a much larger number instead sitting at 298 Speed, you might want to shift EVs around as it might only be worth you hitting 299 to outrun the latter group. It's useful for fast and slow Pokemon - for instance, I ran a team with a Marowak a while ago and while Marowak is quite slow, a minimal speed investment allows it to outrun all of the Regi trio even with a neutral nature.

 

[Karmaloop3]

To add to this, the spreadsheet linked in the first post is extremely useful for speed tiers - you can arrange everything in the Frontier by speed and check the relevant numbers you want to hit. For instance, if the max possible Speed one of your Pokemon can hit is 300 but only 3 opponents in the Frontier are at 300 Speed, with a much larger number instead sitting at 298 Speed, you might want to shift EVs around as it might only be worth you hitting 299 to outrun the latter group. It's useful for fast and slow Pokemon - for instance, I ran a team with a Marowak a while ago and while Marowak is quite slow, a minimal speed investment allows it to outrun all of the Regi trio even with a neutral nature.

Yeah, I saw the Level 100 speed tier. Didn't see a level 50 speed tier though.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Yeah, I saw the Level 100 speed tier. Didn't see a level 50 speed tier though.

They're both there, you just have to scroll across.

 

[Xavion]

So I just found out this thread exists, and figured I'd wander in as I can do something mentioned in the OP, or at least ask if you already have it.

You guys know about my AI docs? I don't think you have them from a quick search? I'm linking them here anyway, started work at an updated move one which is slightly less tailored to Emerald Kaizo which is what these were originally made for. These however essentially document the AI in full. The switching logic is less relevant when you don't know what they have in the back, but like, if you know their moveset you can calculate by hand the exact chances for which move will be used with these. If you know what they have in the back you could know what they'd switch to, or if they'll switch on you.

AI move choice
AI midfight switching
AI post KO switching

If you already know about these no worries, but figured I'd double check as these have the answers to essentially every question about how the AI works in emerald.

 

[Doctor_Rob]

It's me, the Doc again. Posting a new record for the Battle Pyramid after another 20 rounds, bringing me to 980 floors. I won't bore you all with what I used for every floor this time but here are my troopers who got me to the top, and through Brandon, on the final round. I tend to challenge the Pyramid when I have bad luck everywhere else, like trying to a win the 100 Golden Shield in the Battle Tower or going for the gold in the Battle Factory, the one gold badge I still lack, and that's a lot considering how many floors I've thus far cleared lol. I may just beat Cody "The Machine's" record. I plan to keep going til I lose. Proof attached. Also this was done on an authentic cartridge.

("King Louie")
Nature: Adamant
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Item: Choice Band
Return, Hyper Beam, Shadow Ball, Earthquake

("Wipeout")
Nature: Relaxed
248 HP / 206 Defense / 54 Sp. Def.
Item: Leftovers
Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Protect

("Dirge")
Nature: Timid
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Def.
Item: Leftovers
Perish Song, Protect, Destiny Bond, Night Shade

 

[Tinto]

Hi, I’m Tinto and I’ve played Pokémon casually, mostly just single player up to gen3, even though I’ve been playing a bit on Pokémon Showdown in the last years. I’ve always been intrigued by the Emerald Battle Frontier – I think of it as a perfect post-game concept, which can keep single players engaged almost indefinitely. The Battle Factory stands out for me, as it doesn’t require any RNG tricks for good IV’s and natures or minitious EV training and moveset planning - just plug and play. Also, since the whole teambuilding aspect (which adds endless degrees of freedom) is left out, it’s possible – or at least easier - to play optimally. it’s like have a premium experience (playing with 31 IV mons, including legendaries) with a free package. Yes, I only play on my original cartridge, which I got as a child.

I’d like to submit a level 50 Battle Factory streak of 139. I presume this is not the real world record, since LRXC got to 155 a few weeks before (but is not listed here).

First I’ll write a bit about strategy in general and why I consider to have more or less ‘solved’ the Battle Factory. Then I’ll talk about the run and finally I’ll write up a personal conclusion. I hope you will enjoy reading!

Credits

Credits

Before I start, I’d like to credit some people and websites for their work without which this run never would have been possible:

• LRXC: watching your stream inspired me and helped me to get ready for my run – congrats on your World Record of 155!
• Adedede: the videos of your Battle Tower run (like this one) inspired me to get back in to Pokémon a few years ago!
• turskain (and Honko) for the Battle Tree Damage Calculator
• Hozu for their spreadsheet
• The person who made the ‘AI Move Choice Analysis’ doc.
• Bulbapedia’s Battle Factory page
• Wildcat_Formation and other writers for their tips and tricks

About the Battle Factory

About the Battle Factory

In this part I’ll mainly discuss aspects specific to the Battle Factory, together with necessary knowledge of the Battle Frontier and gen3 battle mechanics. First: I’ll boldly state: Battle Factory is solvable and 139 is by far not the maximum viable streak. As a child, I always had troubles with the Battle Factory and could not even obtain the gold symbol. However, once I became aware of all internet sources, it became doable. After all, in the Battle Factory ‘your knowledge is put to the test’ – and you should use all the knowledge you can get!

I presume readers are aware of Battle Frontier mechanics – it’s advisable to keep Bulbapedia’s Battle Factory, Hozu’s spreadsheet and turskain’s Battle Tree Damage Calculator close at hand while reading.

Battle Factory specifics

Of course, being limited to the pokémon offered at the draft and swaps is a big drawback. However, the Battle Factory also has some advantages:

• The ‘type’ and ‘style’ phrases that the assistants gives you before the battle. Together with item clause, the move style charts available often allows you to plan a battle multiple steps ahead, even after your opponent only sent out their first pokémon.
• The ‘3 IV bug’ – the fact that (after round 6, apart from round 9) you will have 31 IV mons in your draft, while your opponents have 3 IV mons (apart from the last trainer each round, they have 6 IV mons – Silver Noland 15 IV and Gold Noland 31 IV) is HUGE. The fact that all six stats are typically 10-20 points higher makes a huge difference in the damage calculator. It’s as if your lvl 100 mons are battling lvl 94-95-96 mons (if they’d have 31 IV’s). The speed stat also deserves special mention, since 31 IVs will allow you to surpass many 3 IV mons on the speed tier you otherwise wouldn’t.

Combine these with the Battle Frontier damage calculator and the exploitability of the AI and you’ve got all tools in hand to go far.

For more information, watch the excellent Battle Factory Guide by LRXC (with all sources in the video description).

Battle Factory strategy

Throughout battling in the Factory, I’ve developed a conceptual way of thinking which greatly helped me. Since your opponent is highly unlikely to switch, a battle is not an ordinary 3v3: rather it starts with a 3v1, then 3-x versus 1 and then 3-x-y versus 1, where x and y are the losses you suffer versus your opponent’s first and second mon, respectively. The challenge is to choose x and y (of course, here you are subject to RNG) such to have maximum chances to beat the last of your opponents mon. This is basically what is meant by ‘win condition’. Examples of a win condition are:

• Having a fully set-up mon who can sweep;
• Having a 2v1 in which you can explode or d-bond;
• Having a 2v1 or 3v1 in which you can land a few big hits since your mons are bulky or outspeed;
• Having a winning 1v1 match-up based on your knowledge of the last mon your opponent will send out, based on the type and style phrases and item clause.

In my view, the search for the win condition makes competitive Pokémon so intruiging, together with the uncertainty of RNG. It’s the choice between sacking two weakest mons to keep your strongest mons on healthy vs sacking your strongest mon to have a shot with two weaker mons. And the answer is? It depends! (unless of course, you know exactly what other mons your opponent has, which is actually possible in the Factory!)

With this in mind, it’s time to look at the defining aspect of the Battle Factory: drafting.

Drafting

It was Adedede who inspired me with his seemingly endless Battle Tower run. His mantra is that a defensive backbone is the key to consistency – when he has stalled out his opponent, he always mentions that his team is at full health. Therefore, longevity of your team is in important trait to search for in the initial draft. With healing moves or leftovers it’s easier to recover from hax and also: the longer a battle takes, the more you can exploit the AI. It’s Adedede’s basic recipe: stall out your opponent’s moves with one mon, then switch to a set-up sweeper and wipe your opponent.

Next, I’d like to discuss what I call quality. Because of course, type synergy between Ampharos, Altaria, Glalie might be good, but this team still doesn’t sound strong. Most players will understand that Metagross and Salamence are generally strong mons, that Ursaring can be strong (looking at you, Ursaring3) and that Shiftry is generally bad. Since the Battle Frontier has a limited set of mons, it’s a bit of a different ball game than in competitve ADV (most notably no Ttar in lvl. 50) and one has to challenge one’s preconceptions and therefore rate mons again. It’s hard to quantify ‘quality’ (duh), but I will nevertheless list characteristics and try to order them with most important on top:

MOVES: more important than anything are a mon’s moves. A good mon with bad moves is a bad mon, but a (generally) bad mon with good moves can provide utility.

• Leech Seed: since the opponent doesn’t switch out, this move is quite OP in the Battle Frontier. Ludicolo, Meganium and Venusaur are great users, since they combine it with Double Team – they are able to set up against a lot of pokémon and can often solo the rest of the battle.
• Double team(+healing): if a mon can set up dt and has a way of healing, it is often possible to start a cycle until +6 evasion with full health. Can be used to either solo with the dt mon or to stall moves and let another mon come in and sweep. Notable users: above-mentioned seeders, Articuno2, Blissey1, Claydol2, Crobat2, Dusclops2, Entei1, Gardevoir2, Machamp7, Metagross3, Regice4, Regirock4(?), Registeel56, Shuckle234, Snorlax1, Suicune12, Tauros2, Umbreon4
• Toxic and Will-O-Wisp: can kill a lot of mons, among which stallers (dt users) which depend on leftovers. Makes even Xatu2 viable in some teams.
• Explosion/Destiny Bond: speaks for itself – Explosion preferably on a fast mon, so you always have a chance to use it, such as Electrode34. Destiny Bond practically guarantees a win in any 2v1 situation.
• Strong, accurate STAB move (+90 base power) from EV and nature-boosted stat (150-200 range). Earthquake, Double-Edge, Frustratrion, Thunderbolt, Surf, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Psychic, Sludge Bomb, Focus Punch. If these moves come from 31IV mons, they will most likely 1HKO or 2HKO any neutral target – simple and strong. Special mention for Overheat, Megahorn and Meteor Mash – these moves still have sufficient accuracy to render usage. Rock Slide is already a borderline case for me – less base power and users are generally slow.
• Confuse Ray, Attract, Thunder Wave, Sleep moves: some mons have a good combination, eg Starmie15 and Gengar1. Does not win battles for you, but may help to stall or set up.
• Dragon Dance, Calm Mind, Bulk Up, Curse, Swords Dance: also speaks for itself – however, in practice a set-up mon needs some support. Exception is Gyarados4, which can rest – still, is it walled by Gengar, Misdreavus and Skarmory.
• Substitute: can have great utility in combination with dt or another set-up move. May also induce some buggy AI.
• Also: inaccurate moves are a minus: I hate Mega Kick and Iron Tail – also Hydro Pump, Fire Blast, Thunder and Cross Chop are unreliable. These should only be used for contingencies.

ABILITY: important aspect of gen3 battling, may be used in various ways. Since some mons may have two abilities, this can split the difference between a good mon and a great mon. To list a few important ones:

• Intimidate: use ideally on first mon sent into battle create immediate advantage or make it easier to switch. Can be used repeatedly throughout a battle to stall.
• Levitate: speaks for itself, EQ immunity is huge, mostly for switching.
• Natural Cure: great ability for Starmie and Blissey – their other ability doesn’t add much.
• Pressure: ideal for stalling.
• Blaze, Torrent, Overgrow: tricky to use reliably, but can play a big role. Charizard and Typhlosion can pull off some magic at low HP because of their great speed tier.

ITEM: can add great value. Some items are reliable (lefties, choice band, chesto, lum), other might be helpful in a pinch (QC, BP, FB, KR, Scope). To highlight two of them:

• Leftovers: by far the most important, helps to keep your team healthy and provides more flexilibity with switching. If you have two leftovers mons, is it possible to lose?
• CB: great item for your first mon – basically all of them are good because they will generate KOs. And the tricksters will trick.
• Salac berry: added value depends on the mon. Notable users: Blaziken, Typhlosion in combination with Blaze and Gardevoir for Dbond. STAB Flail or Reversal can also work.

STATS: stats are still an important indicator. Any stat of about 200 is amazing, 150 is great, 100 is good, below that is doesn’t add much.

• Speed may be most important one: it simply allows you to use more moves, to move before getting statused, before your opponent gets a boost, etc. A mon with a good speed stat provides reliability because you know it will be able to use a move.
• Sweepers are more dependent on good stats than stallers – their damage purely depends on the numbers, while for status moves it makes no difference.

TYPING: nothing much to say here: immunities and also normal resists are great.

So how to take all of these characteristics into account when drafting? I suggest to simply count how much of good traits a mon has and give bonus for any good combination of the above-mentioned characteristics. For example:

• Ludicolo4 with Rain Dish: three great moves with Leech Seed, Toxic and Double Team, while Rain Dance in conjunction with Rain Dish is also great. Best item with Leftovers and good defensive stats (176HP, 122DEF, 141SP.DEF). 90 speed, which lets it outspeed 270 3IV mons (and is outsped by 240). Excellent typing with no weaknesses in the special spectrum and only two rare weaknesses (flying, bug), for which can be easily switched out to a rock or steel type. So these are at least six strong points, which also nicely combine to be a great staller.

You can do this for each mon in your draft and this way decide which is or are the best. Then, you try to cover their weaknesses and/or find the best way to support them. Ludicolo4 needs to be able to switch out of Megahorns and Drill Pecks and it needs a partner who can beat grass/poison types, since Ludicolo4 cannot hurt them. If you can fulfill these conditions, you already have a pretty great team.

Of course, life doesn’t always give you lemons and that means sometimes you have to adapt. If there are no great mons in your draft, then look for type synergy: a basic concept, but it cannot be mentioned enough. A base rule that I use is: if any move threatens to OHKO a mon, make sure it is resisted by another mon. Example: if you have a mono electric (who practically all die to EQ), make sure to have a flying type of levitator. Since the AI is programmed to always use a move that kills, this even guarantees a safe switch. If you use Flygon or Salamence, make sure to have a mon who resists ice. Or, if you use a mono water, be sure to have grass and electric resistances.

I should specially mention type immunities here, because a good type combination by itself sometimes already allowes you to stall out an opponent. For example, with a combination of normal and a ghost mon, you can stall out any opponent which has only normal, fighting & ghost moves by switching! There are quite a few, eg Slaking2, Snorlax13458. Just by virtue of it’s immunities (let alone its other qualities), Gengar is a great mon.

Also, try to cover some general threats that you may face. Ask yourself the question: can I deal with STAB Tbolts, DE and EQ? Can I put enough pressure on OHKO users to quickly get rid of them? Can I beat dt users? Sometimes high-power, low-accuracy moves may be the only way to answer these last two questions.

Choosing your lead is important and may depend on several factors: which item does a mon hold? What ability does it have? What is its role in the team? Is it easy to switch out? This usually requires some thorough thinking and it’s good to simulate some battle scenarios before choosing a lead. CB holders are typically most effective in the lead slot because this ensures they can get a first hit of without taking initial damage by switching in. In general, sweepers do well as a lead for this reason. Along the same line, defensive or stall mons are good switch-ins. They are able to take a hit, heal back up and in this way leave your sweeper unharmed. Intimidate users are also great as a lead, this gives an immediate advantage and also gives them a better chance to re-enter the battle at a later stage. For set-up mons it depends: if they set up to sweep, they do well in the lead slot, but if they set up to stall, it could be better to try and battle your opponent with your other mons until you’ve found the perfect set-up opportunity.

Swapping

After each battle, you get a chance to swap one of mons in your team with one of your previous opponent. In principle, swapping a mon from the initial draft is a bad thing because of the worse IVs. Therefore, there should always be a convincing reason to swap. To list a few possible reasons:

• The substitute is simply stronger than your initial draft pick, even at 3IVs.
• The substitute provides better synergy with your team - this is usually the most valid reason, as it may happen that not all team weaknesses can be covered in the initial draft.
• The substitute excels against the type preference of the upcoming trainer. It's tempting to go for a water type swap if your next opponent prefers fire types. However, you should think twice whether this swap also benefits your team in the long run - it's all about consistency, after all. Only if your team really runs a big risk against the opcoming opponent, a swap is warranted.

Remember that during round 1 and 2 you should swap every round in order to gain at least one elevation from round 4 onwards. In the first rounds, it's a bit more forgiving to swap, since the IV difference with the draft is smaller (in the draft mons have 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 21 IVs in rounds 1 to 6, and 31 after that). You'll see in The Run that there were at least 7 rounds in which I didn't swap at all - this is the ideal scenario to optimise your chances against the last trainer, who will have 6IVs, or 15 or 31 in case of Silver/Gold Noland.

Note: the same mon can be either weak or strong depending on whether you or the AI uses it. For your own team, I'd define pokes as either '(un)useful' and '(un)reliable', while the AI's mons can be '(un)predictable' and '(not) dangerous)'. One of the most paradoxal mons is Gengar1: in hands of the AI it's super weak, since it can be swap-stalled ('predictable' and 'not dangerous'), while in your hands, it's very useful and quite reliable (given that you get enough turns for Hypnosis to hit). Quick Claw en Scope Lens are not very reliable and useful for the player, but can be dangerous in the hand of the AI. They only need one or two activations to end your run - the same holds for OHKO users. Who hasn't had a Battle Frontier run killed by QC Horn Drill?

Takeaway: always think carefully after a battle whether that mon that almost killed you is in fact useful and try to consider whether an easy to beat mon could still be helpful in your hands. But most of all: be mindful of your strong IV pokes!

The Run

The Run

I haven’t kept minitious records of each round, just the teams I used. I will briefly go through them.

Rounds 1-2-3: no records. Rounds 1 and 2 can basically be auto-piloted, since the AI is random, Round 3 is more fun, preparing you for the real deal. It’s important to swap after each battle in rounds 1 and 2, so you will get at least one elevation for the upcoming rounds.

Round 4: Ludicolo2 etc.

My elevation was Ludicolo2, which can overpower most mons with its 15IVs and great coverage. Didn’t remember the rest of the team, probably they didn’t have to do too much.

Round 5: Tauros2, Hypno2--> Alakazam2, Milotic2 - 35 wins, 21 swaps.

One absolute elite mon with Tauros2 (great ability, powerful, set-up and healing), whose fighting weakness is covered by Hypno2 (whose ghost weakness in turn is covered by Tauros). Milotic2 is not defensive but is modest with 255 SpATK EVs (and 15IVs), which makes it hit hard with Surf and Ice Beam. Swapped Hypno2 for Alakazam2 to hit fighting types back harder and not be reliant on Hypnosis accuracy.

round 6: Milotic4, Electabuzz3, Victreebel3 42 wins, 22 swaps.

Yes, I used Victreebel. And Electabuzz. On one team. And it beat Noland Gold! How on earth, you might think. Of course, the IVs (31 on Milotic, 21 on Electa and Vic) help a lot. But mostly it’s because Milotic4 is so strong: with DEF&Sp.DEF investmest, Recover AND Leftovers it’s almost unkillable. It has a modest nature with ALSO Sp.ATK investment, so it still hits pretty hard. All that was needed was good support to cover weaknesses and things it couldn’t kill. Victreebel could effortlessly switch into Thunderbolts and Grass moves and either kill with dual coverage or double to Electabuzz (or paralyze with Stun Spore if nothing works). Electabuzz in itself has pretty good utility with a strong and fast STAB Thunderbolt, and coverage with Ice and Fire Punch. This let it deal with the water mons Milotic couldn’t kill and Cross Chop in the last slot would help against Blissey3 and Snorlax3 (even though those last two can perfectly well be handled by Milotic4).

I don’t remember the Gold battle very well, but I remember Milotic dropped at some point, so I was left with Vic and Electabuzz only. A funny moment occurred when Vic had to use Ingrain against the 2nd mon, but then I wanted to switch on the 3rd mon, but of course I couldn’t. Luckily Electabuzz was able to win.

round 7: Ursaring4, Arcanine4, Shuckle4 49 wins, 23 swaps

This was a really fun team to play with. The damage outputs of Ursaring’s STAB DE of its 200 ATK stat and Arcanine’s STAB Overheat are just insane. Both mons have also plenty of other coverage. And if something dangerous turned up, Arcanine could lower its attack with Intimidate and I always had Shuckle in the back who can 1v1 most mons (note that also in these match-ups the difference between 3 and 31IV helps a lot) or at least stall them out, if they would be toxic immune.

round 8: Metagross4, Regice1, Ludicolo2 --> Latias1 56 wins, 25 swaps

Metagross4 and Regice1 in the 31IV draft is amazing. Together they provide great coverage and Regice even heals. However, fire attacks are a shared weakness which cannot be underestimated with a lot of STAB Overheats and Fire Blasts around. That’s why Ludicolo2 could make a return from round 3 to simply Surf these mons away. But then, when Latias1 turns up, why not just take it? It has better stats even at 3IVs and a fire resistance.

round 9: Hariyama4, Feraligatr2--> Dusclops2, Marowak2--> Regice4 63 wins, 28 swaps

This was rather a problematic draft. Marowak2 isn’t great here because it generally doesn’t get the chance to use SD and sweep, because it’s slow and also Icy Wind doesn’t do much - still it can one-shot a lot with EQ. Therefore it was clear that Hariyama4 had to be the pivotal mon and boy did it deliver. Cross Chop is risky, but it didn’t have to rely on that alone: with a 189 ATK stat even Fake Out does significant damage to a lot of mons. Therefore it can Fake Out, kill, switch out, switch in later, Fake Out again and perhaps hit another time. I chose Feraligatr2 probably as best among the worst – it has coverage and a Torrent Surf still hits quite hard, I guess.

Luckily I could quickly switch Feraligatr for Dusclops2, also one of the best mons in the Factory to have as a switch-in. Its moves don’t depend on stats and even with 3IV it’s bulk and typing is great. With Protect, Confuse Ray, Double Team, Leftovers AND the Pressure ability it’s an ultimate staller. Toxic is just bonus, but a great bonus.

Later I came across Regice4, who ALSO has Double Team and Leftovers. It’s not Sp.ATK invested, so it should rather kill with Hail than with Ice Beam. It’s a super slow team (both considering speed stats and tactics), but still fun to play, each time figuring out whether Dusclops or Regice would be the mon to use and how to keep both healthy for the next mon.

One battle in particular, I think it was round 6, was interesting – this trainer had no type preference. If I remember correctly, the first mon was Water/Ice, probably Lapras or Dewgong, which beat Hariyama (probably with an OHKO) – I managed to revenge it with Dusclops, but then Tentacruel showed up. Since there had now been two Water mons out while having no type preference, this meant that the last mon HAD TO BE either Poison or Ice. Quite tricky, since my only moves to kill were Toxic on Dusclops and Hail on Regice! Therefore, I had to keep BOTH alive. It was quite a challenge, but I managed to do it with some manoevering. When this succeeds, seeing that the last mon is indeed poison or ice (tbh I don’t remember which it was anymore – vaguely I thought that Walrein played a role, but it would have forced preference for water type), is very satisfying.

round 10: Latios1, Regirock1, Registeel1 70 wins, 29 swaps.

Nothing much to say, 31IV Latios1 is already a gift from heaven and Regirock1 and Registeel1 are great switch-ins. Regirock even provides extra utility with Explosion and Registeel1 is humbly one of the most reliable mons in the Factory: if it gets two or three turns to set up, it will set up all the way and Metal Claws do hurt at +6.

round 11: Starmie6, Entei3--> Machamp2, Swampert4 77 wins, 31 swaps.

Don’t remember much from this round, but I can imagine that Starmie6 just will not die with Recover and Leftovers. It will precook its opponents with Twave and Confuse Ray, after which Entei3 (later Machamp2, which also has healing) and Swampert4 can clean up. Example of using your strongest mon to repeatedly support sweepers.

round 12: Granbull4, Gengar7, Swampert3 84 wins, 32 swaps.

Three excellent sweepers: Granbull4 gets extra punch from CB and has extra utility with Intimidate – Gengar 7 doesn’t need any extra punch whatsoever with its 200 Sp.ATK stat and has great extra utility with Dbond, being virtually always able to beat at least 2 mons. Swampert is just Swampert.

round 13: Raikou3--> Medicham2, Snorlax4, Kingdra4 91 wins, 34 swaps.

Not a great team at first glance. Raikou3 has a hard-hitting Tbolt, Twave and some extra utility with Roar. Snorlax4 has good match-ups vs special attackers, but Kingdra4 is the star of the team: it has great defensive qualities and healing, which gives it time to set up DDs. Its only weakness (dragon) is nicely covered by shooting Ice Beams to OHKO most Dragon Claw users. I don’t remember at which point Medicham2 came in, perhaps to adjust for a trainer a preference for Ground types. It’s plan is simple: Endure, Salac and STAB Reversal.

round 14: Entei2, Meganium2, Lapras7 98 wins, 35 swaps

Classic Fire-Grass-Water/Ice synergy to cover each others weaknesses. As mentioned above, Meganium2 can often solo its way through enemies with Leech Seed and set-up. Entei2 can support this with Reflect. Lapras7 is a bit of an oddball with it’s OHKO-only moveset, but is very hard to kill with its defensive investment and free Rest.

I wrote down that I was in danger vs a team of Gyarados1, Latios23 and Salamence8. These mons have to be treated most carefully because of their many dangerous sets. Probably I switched to Meganium turn 1 and then Gyarados could Twave and started setting up DDs – I vaguely remember to survive only because it stopped attacking at some point. Probably it was also the only battle in which Lapras really had to do work. Interestingly enough, I didn’t take any of these mons, because it wouldn’t support the team strategy centering Meganium.

round 15: Tauros2, Starmie4, Moltres2--> Regirock2--> Typhlosion4 105 wins, 38 swaps

Tauros2 and Starmie4 are simple enough to understand (Starmie’s Psychic covers Tauros’s weakness), Moltres2 is a bit more remarkable. It has some utility as a Pressure staller with DT and Protect, but lacks defensive investment and healing. At the same time its STAB Overheat from its 177 Sp.ATK stat just hits hard. I don’t recall why exactly I made the swaps – perhaps based on type preference of the next trainer. Regirock2 has utility with Explosion and Typhlosion4 has a huge Overheat in a pinch.

round 16: Slaking3, Slowking2, Sceptile3--> Gengar8 112 wins, 40 swaps.

CB Slaking3 can KO a lot on turn one and usually come back in later to do the same. Slowking2 supports it by crippling its opponent with Yawn or Twave and at the same time can hit hard with STAB Surf and Psychic. Sceptile3 is a bit odd, but helps against opponents raining Tbolts all over. Gengar8 is great even with 3IVs, still hitting hard and being fast with Dbonds – also, it has great type synergy with Slaking.

round 17: Machamp7, Aggron1-->Regice4, Meganium3-->Gyarados3-->Umbreon4 119 wins, 44 swaps

I recall this being a really problematic draft. I figured that Machamp7 was my ace, and had to build my team around it – that’s where the odd choice of Aggron1 comes from, a mon that doesn’t have many qualities in isolation. Here, it performs the role of switching into psychic and flying moves Machamp would have trouble setting up against. Meganium3 as a physical attacker is also quite strange, but apparently the best available. In such a case you have to be a bit lucky in the first battles and slowly try to improve your team with swaps.

Here, all swaps support Machamp: Regice4 is great at stalling special attackers, Gyarados3 softens physical attackers with Intimidate and with Umbreon4 suddenly my team had become quite OP: triple DT, double leftovers, good type synergy. The satisfaction is great when you stall out the opposing mon, fully set-up 6dt’s and a sub with Machamp and start unleashing STAB Focus Punches from its 200 ATK stat!

round 18: Espeon4, Snorlax6, Meta2 126 wins, 45 swaps.

After a problematic round 17, it was nice to take a bit of a breather in this round. Espeon4 ranks among the strongest, easiest to use mons in the Factory: its STAB Psychic from its 200Sp.ATK stat kills a lot – if it doesn’t, it will after a CM. Anything Espeon cannot handle, Snorlax6 or Metagross2 can probably deal with. Note that Metagross is good here as a normal resist to deal with STAB DE’s.

round 19: Metagross6, Crobat2, Flygon3 133 wins, 46 swaps.

I think Crobat is really cool and I like to use a staller because of their reliability, but Crobat2’s bulk isn’t as great as other stallers. However, its speed partly makes up for that. Luckily, it worked well enough since it was flanked by two great mons. Together Metagross6 and Flygon3 have great coverage together (this Meta lacks EQ). With Metagross as a starter on threatening EQ’s you can switch to Crobat, while in case of fire moves you switch to Flygon.

Once I got in danger vs Salamence5, Fearow1 and Gyarados3. Salamence beat Metagross, but was revenged (probably by Flygon). Fearow damaged my team some more and then came Gyarados. It’s always hard to play around the four possible sets since it doesn’t have to many specific style moves. I remember that I confused it, but never hit itself 3 or 4 times in a row. I came close to defeat, but was able to just outdamage it.

round 20: Armaldo4, Electrode4, Snorlax3 --> Flygon4 139 wins, 1 loss 48 swaps.

There we are, the round which turned out to be the last one. The draft wasn’t easy with 4 electric mons (no Raikou or Zapdos). Luckily there was Armaldo4, about which I used to be skeptical since it’s so slow. But then again, it’s hit-taking abililty (it’s a joy to do calcs with Battle Armor, since for once you don’t have to worry about crits!) and raw power is great. Then Electrode4 is actually also a great mon. It may only be able to take one hit, but in return it can Tbolt twice to try to KO and then explode for a second KO. Snorlax3 was more of a sponge than anything else – Mega Kick is just bad and it has no healing. Drawback of this team is that it necessitates two mons alive for the endgame – only then Armaldo can use DE and Electrode can explode without drawbacks.

The first battle was quite problematic – even though ‘impossible to predict’ is usually good news (it’s often Alakazam3, or much better Clefable1). First mon was Flygon, who dealt some damage after being OHKO’ed by DE. The second mon was Scizor4, which pretty much walled Armaldo (who was locked into DE, to make things worse). It also was able to boost, so it was a very scary situation. In the end I had to sacrifice Electrode (pray that Explosion would bypass Brightpowder) and then Clefable1 came out. Usually a laughable mon, but Snorlax could only hit it with Mega Kick (if it would hit after some dt’s…). Armaldo was low on health but luckily still alive and I could survive.

I was glad to get rid of Snorlax for Flygon, which proved to be Flygon4. I had a few bad match-ups (like a Claydol lead) but actually made it to battle 7 quite swiftly. Perhaps a bit too swiftly, as I let my guard down…

Against the last trainer, you should always be a bit more on your toes, since they have 6IV pokes. The assistant gave no type or style preference. I’ll go through the battle in detail.

Trainer sent out Weezing!
Go! Armaldo!

Quite a bad match-up, Weezing has good defense and Armaldo has no super-effective move, nor have my other mons – Flygon cannot really hurt it. No style preference excludes Weezing2. I’m slower and list the move that will come:

Weezing1@BP will probably Will-O-Wisp and otherwise Shadow Ball or Smokescreen.
Weezing3@FB will either Flamethrower/Tbolt or (unlikely) Explode
Weezing4@FB will either Shadow Ball or (unlikely) Explode

I consider my options: 1. click DE; 2. click Rock Slide; 3. switch to Electrode. Electrode 2HKO’s with Tbolt, but S-ball and Sludge Bomb do 93.3-110% damage – I don’t want to risk Electrode so early, since this limits my options vs mon2 and mon3. Staying in is also risky, because wisp might cripple my Armaldo for the rest of the battle. Since Electrode holds Lum, it would very much welcome the wisp and basically have a free switch-in. I decide to click Rock Slide.

Foe Weezing used Will-O-Wisp!

It’s Weezing1…

Armaldo was burned!
Armaldo used Rock Slide!
Armaldo’s attack missed!
Armaldo is hurt by burn!

A horror scenario – Armaldo is crippled on turn 1 without having done any damage myself.

Foe Weezing used Shadow Ball! (hits, 19.7-23.6%)
Armaldo used Rock Slide! (hits, 30.6-36.4%)
Armaldo is hurt by burn!

One more hit and at least Electrode will be able to revenge with a single Tbolt.

Foe Weezing used Shadow Ball! (hits, 19.7-23.6%)
Armaldo used Rock Slide!
Armaldo’s attack missed!
Armaldo is hurt by burn!

Very bad, two misses with Rock Slide, but actually not inconceivable – brightpowder drops its accuracy to only 81%. I curse myself for not switching to Electrode on turn 1 and start a long thinking process to maximise my chances. Armaldo is now in range of S-ball, so this move is guaranteed. I can either sack Armaldo to maximise my chances to revenge with Electrode, or switch immediately to Electrode in order to hopefully survive a S-ball+Sludge Bomb with Electrode – with Armaldo alive Electrode could still explode on the last mon, if Flygon also perishes. Lastly, Flygon would 2HKO with D-Claw at this point, but would be severly hurt by two S-balls – and I don’t want to risk having a second mon burned… I think I make the optimal play.

Foe Weezing uses Shadow Ball! (hits)
Armaldo fainted!
Do it! Electrode!

Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hits, 57.2-67.9%)
Foe Weezing used Will-O-Wisp!
Weezing’s attack missed!

Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hits)
Foe Weezing fainted!

Uff, that part went well, now it’s 2v2 – I’m lost my strongest mon, but the battle is still open.

Trainer sent out Victreebel!

Interesting. Actually, I can figure out which Victreebel it is, since 3 and 4 hold BP and 1 has a style ‘5’ move, leaving only Victreebel2@lefties. Electrode and Flygon are both faster, so I have some control over the next moves. However, Sleep Powder is very scary. Victreebel can do big damage with Sludge Bomb or use Sleep Powder.

One option is to just explode and hope Flygon can 1v1 the last mon – perhaps I would’ve if my Flygon had 31 IVs. But Flygon can do huge damage to Victreebel with EQ (and maybe Scope Lens will do work for once?

I can also use Tbolt to soak up a Sleep Powder with Lum and then switch and use EQ – however, that will not kill after two leftovers recoveries. Twave seems too risky, Victreebel can do too much damage with its attacks or still use Sleep Powder.

I decide to switch to Flygon – it can tank Sludge Bomb really well and Sleep Powder – it can miss.

Come back, Electrode!
Go, Flygon!
Victreebel used Sleep Powder!
Victreebel’s attack missed!

Perfect! Maybe now it will use Giga Drain, or even Attract (I’m opposite gender)?

Flygon uses Earthquake! (hit, 69.2-81.8%)
Victreebel used Sleep Power!
Flygon fell asleep!
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Oh no. Now it will use Giga Drain for sure. It’s too late for switching to Electrode, because Giga Drain+Sludge Bomb kills and then I only have sleeping Flygon left. I have to burn sleep turns and hope it goes for Attract. If I wake up after 2 turns, I will still kill with EQ, after 3 turns it will have healed to much to kill with EQ, but then at least Electrode will return. If I wake up after 4 or 5 turns, it’s probably over…

Flygon is fast asleep.
Foe Victreebel used Giga Drain! (hit, 39.7-46.8%, 19.8-23.4% heal)
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Flygon is fast asleep.
Foe Victreebel used Giga Drain! (hit, 39.7-46.8%, 19.8-23.4% heal)
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Bugger. Now I have to pray. After all that healing Victreebel is out of EQ range.

Flygon woke up!
Flygon used Earthquake! (hit, 69.2-81.8%)
Foe Victreebel used Giga Drain! (hit, 20hp damage, 10 hp heal)
Flygon fainted!
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Go for it! Electrode!
Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hit, 36.3-43.3%)
Foe Victreebel fainted!

At least that worked out. 3v3 turned into 2v2 into 1v1. Now let’s pray there won’t be a ground type last.

Trainer sent out Dusclops!

Dusclops? Could be worse! Actually, there is only one without Leftovers, Dusclops4: Double-Edge, Shadow Ball, Curse, Rest. Not too scary! Checking the calcs: Tbolt will 3HKO, but S-ball has a 32.8% chance to 2HKO – still in my favor. Plus, it may use Curse, then I’ll win for sure!

Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hit, 38-45.5%)
Foe Dusclops used Shadow Ball! (hit, 100%)
A critical hit!
Electrode fainted!

AAAAAAH! Killed by a crit in the end (which also just killed 43.8% of the time)… But okay, that’s how I expected the run to end anyway – there have been situations before when I would lose to a crit, hax or a miss.

Analysis

What bugs me a bit are my decisions in this last battle. Thinking back, on turn 1 I probably should’ve switched to Electrode – I didn’t do that, because if Weezing would use Shadow Ball, I wouldn’t know if it was Weezing1 or Weezing4. Then I would be in a rough spot, because I’d be in Sludge Bomb kill range of Weezing1 and Weezing4. I could proceed to Flygon turn 2, tank the Sludge Bomb and D-claw in return turn 3. Then Weezing1 would use wisp/S-ball/smokescreen and Weezing4 would use Frustration (or maybe Explosion). Again D-claw turn 4 –

• vs Weezing1 Flygon would live and kill the next turn (I would have Electrode with S-ball damage and Flygon with at least Sludge Bomb damage and possibly a burn).
• vs Weezing4 Flygon would be killed by Frustration, but then Electrode would revenge kill, leaving me Electrode (with S-ball damage) and a healthy Armaldo. Then, blowing up vs Victreebel would make sense, because it would leave a 1v1 with Armaldo – indeed Armaldo beats Dusclops (and will not get crit!).

And if after the switch to Electrode turn one Weezing3 would use Flamethrower or Thunderbolt? I would always live a following Sludge Bomb (barring crits) and 2HKO with Tbolt, leaving me a 3v2, soon to be a 2v1.

Given the two Rock Slide misses, also turn 1 Double-Edge may have been a better option – but I didn’t want to lose HP for nothing.

As for the 2v2 situation, maybe I should have used Tbolt with Electrode (99.5% 3HKO) – on a Sleep Powder, Lum would activate and then only a consecutive Sleep Powder hit would prevent me from killing. Next I would switch to Flygon, taking a Sludge Bomb and revenge with EQ, leaving me a ~67% Flygon and a sleeping Electrode. If Victreebel would use Sludge Bomb turn 1, it would guaranteed see the kill next, providing a ‘safe’ switch-in (not risking Sleep Powder) for Flygon, which would ensure a free EQ. But as we saw in the battle, that doesn’t guarantee anything – I got to the same game state with a healthy Electrode instead. Under the assumption that the opponent would hit its moves, it’s not better than in the real battle, but if the opponent were to miss (as happened in the battle) it increases my chances.

Epilogue

Epilogue

I’ve enjoyed every bit of the run and it’s a bit like a childhood dream come true to set such a result. It’s so cool to encounter a new situation every round right from the draft and having to make your game plan, finetuning it across 7 battles. I realise that I was also quite lucky not to get fatally haxed at any earlier point in the run, but this also gave me some assurance that I knew what I was doing. After all, if you want to be consisent, you have to diminish your dependency on RNG as much as possible.

It’s a pity I lost after not playing optimally in the last battle, but I understand that this also proves another ‘human’ side such a challenge bears: to keep your patience, to carefully think through each move at each moment takes a lot of patience and perseverance. Therefore I do no only respect other challengers for their knowledge and skill, but also for these characteristics which will help you at any stage in life.

As for me, in a way I am happy that the run came to an end, since it’s also quite a commitment to keep finding time to play, stay patient and try your best. At the latest stages, I wouldn’t do more than one round per day and sometimes one round would take a few hours. I am quite busy otherwise and can’t reliably find this time without sacrificing something else.

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in February which will bring another (first) priority in life. That’s why I consider this run to be my first and last commitment to Pokémon and in a way a wonderful goodbye to what has been a great childhood! May our child have the same experience with any Pokémon game (or any other of life’s joys)

If you have read so far, thank you, I hope you enjoyed it – at least for myself this write-up has been worthwhile, closing a period in my life. I hope to have inspired your on doing an run of your own and will try to beat this (and LRXC’s) record!

edit 1-10-2024: some textual corrections

 

[LRXC]

Hi, I’m Tinto and I’ve played Pokémon casually, mostly just single player up to gen3, even though I’ve been playing a bit on Pokémon Showdown in the last years. I’ve always been intrigued by the Emerald Battle Frontier – I think of it as a perfect post-game concept, which can keep single players engaged almost indefinitely. The Battle Factory stands out for me, as it doesn’t require any RNG tricks for good IV’s and natures or minitious EV training and moveset planning - just plug and play. Also, since the whole teambuilding aspect (which adds endless degrees of freedom) is left out, it’s possible – or at least easier - to play optimally. it’s like have a premium experience (playing with 31 IV mons, including legendaries) with a free package. Yes, I only play on my original cartridge, which I got as a child.

I’d like to submit a level 50 Battle Factory streak of 139. I presume this is not the real world record, since LRXC got to 155 a few weeks before (but is not listed here).

View attachment 578375

First I’ll write a bit about strategy in general and why I consider to have more or less ‘solved’ the Battle Factory. Then I’ll talk about the run and finally I’ll write up a personal conclusion. I hope you will enjoy reading!

Credits

Credits

Before I start, I’d like to credit some people and sites for their work without which this run was never possible:

• LRXC: watching your stream inspired me and helped me to get ready for my run – congrats on your World Record of 155!
• Adedede: the videos of your Battle Tower run (like this one) inspired me to get back in to Pokémon a few years ago!
• turskain (and Honko) for the Battle Tree Damage Calculator
• Hozu for their spreadsheet
• The person who made the ‘AI Move Choice Analysis’ doc.
• Bulbapedia’s Battle Factory page
• Wildcat_Formation and other writers for their tips and tricks

About the Battle Factory

About the Battle Factory

In this part I’ll mainly discuss aspects specific to the Battle Factory, together with necessary knowledge of the Battle Frontier and gen3 battle mechanics. First: I’ll boldly state: Battle Factory is solvable and 139 is by far not the maximum viable streak. As a child, I always had troubles with the Battle Factory and could not even obtain the gold symbol. However, once I became aware of all internet sources, it became doable. After all, in the Battle Factory ‘your knowledge is put to the test’ – and you should use all the knowledge you can get!

I presume readers are aware of Battle Frontier mechanics – it’s advisable to keep Bulbapedia’s Battle Factory, Hozu’s spreadsheet and turskain’s Battle Tree Damage Calculator close at hand while reading.

Battle Factory specifics

Of course, being limited to the pokémon offered at the draft and swaps, is a big drawback. However, the Battle Factory also has some advantages:

• The ‘type’ and ‘style’ phrases that the assistants gives you before the battle. Together with item clause, the move style charts available often allows you to plan a battle multiple steps ahead, even after your opponent only sent out their first pokémon.
• The ‘3 IV bug’ – the fact that (after round 6, apart from round 9) you will have 31 IV mons in your draft, while your opponents have 3 IV mon (apart from the last trainer each round, they have 6 IV mons – Silver Noland 15 IV and Gold Noland 31 IV) is HUGE. The fact that all six stats are typically 10-20 points higher make a huge difference in the damage calculator. It’s as if your lvl 100 mons are battling lvl 94-95-96 mons (if they’d have 31 IV’s). The speed stat also deserves special mention, since 31 IVs will allow you to surpass many 3 IV mons on the speed tier you otherwise wouldn’t.

Combine these with the Battle Frontier damage calculator and the exploitability of the AI and you’ve got all tools in hand to go far.

For more information, watch the excellent Battle Factory Guide by LRXC (with all sources in the video description).

Battle Factory strategy

Throughout battling in the Factory, I’ve developed a conceptual way of thinking which greatly helped me. Since your opponent is highly unlikely to switch, a battle is not an ordinary 3v3: rather it starts with a 3v1, then 3-x versus 1 and then 3-x-y versus 1, where x and y are the losses you suffer versus your opponent’s first and second mon, respectively. The challenge is to choose x and y (of course, here you are subject to RNG) such to have maximum chances to beat the last of your opponents mon. This is basically what is meant by ‘win condition’. Examples of a win condition are:

• Having a fully set-up mon who can sweep;
• Having a 2v1 in which you can explode or d-bond;
• Having a 2v1 or 3v1 in which you can land a few big hits since your mons are bulky or outspeed;
• Having a winning 1v1 match-up based on your knowledge of the last mon your opponent will send out, based on the type and style phrases and item clause.

In my view, the search for the win condition makes competitive Pokémon so intruiging, together with the uncertainty of RNG. It’s the choice between sacking two weakest mons to keep your strongest mons on healthy vs sacking your strongest mon to have a shot with two weaker mons. And the answer is? It depends! (unless of course, you know exactly what other mons your opponent has, which is actually possible in the Factory!)

With this in mind, it’s time to look at the defining aspect of the Battle Factory: drafting.

Drafting

It was Adedede who inspired me with his seemingly endless Battle Tower run. His mantra is that a defensive backbone is the key to consistency – when he has stalls out his opponent, he always mentions that his team is at full health. Therefore, longevity of your team is in important trait to search for in the initial draft. With healing moves or leftovers it’s easier to recover from hax and also: the longer a battle takes, the more you can exploit the AI. It’s Adedede’s basic recipe: stall out your opponent’s moves with one mon, then switch to a set-up sweeper and wipe your opponent.

Next, I’d like to discuss what I call quality. Because of course, type synergy between Ampharos, Altaria, Glalie might be good, but this team still doesn’t sound strong. Most players will understand that Metagross and Salamence are generally strong mons, that Ursaring can be strong (looking at you, Ursaring3) and that Shiftry is generally bad. Since the Battle Frontier has a limited set of mons, it’s a bit of a different ball game than in competitve ADV (most notably not Ttar in lvl. 50) and one has to challenge one’s preconceptions and therefore rate mons again. However, it’s hard to quantify ‘quality’ (duh), but I will nevertheless list characteristics and try to order them with most important on top:

MOVES: more important than anything are a mon’s moves. A good mon with bad moves is a bad mon, but a (generally) bad mon with good moves can provide utility.

• Leech Seed: since the opponent doesn’t switch out, this move is quite OP in the Battle Frontier. Ludicolo, Meganium and Venusaur are great users, since they combine it with Double Team – they are able to set up against a lot of pokémon and can often solo the rest of the battle.
• Double team(+healing): if a mon can set up dt and has a way of healing, it is often possible to start a cycle until +6 evasion with full health. Can be used to either solo with the dt mon or to stall moves and let another mon come in and sweep. Notable users: above-mentioned seeders, Articuno2, Blissey1, Claydol2, Crobat2, Dusclops2, Entei1, Gardevoir2, Machamp7, Metagross3, Regice4, Regirock4(?), Registeel56, Shuckle234, Snorlax1, Suicune12, Tauros2, Umbreon4
• Toxic and Will-O-Wisp: can kill a lot of mons, among which stallers (dt users) which depend on leftovers. Makes even Xatu2 viable in some teams.
• Explosion/Destiny Bond: speaks for itself – Explosion preferably on a fast mon, so you always have a chance to use it, such as Electrode34. Destiny Bond practically guarantees a win in any 2v1 situation.
• Strong, accurate STAB move (+95 base power) from EV and nature-boosted stat (150-200 range). Earthquake, Double-Edge, Frustratrion, Thunderbolt, Surf, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Psychic, Sludge Bomb, Focus Punch. If these moves come from 31IV mons, they will most likely to 1HKO or 2HKO any neutral target – simple and strong. Special mention for Overheat, Megahorn and Meteor Mash – these moves still have sufficient accuracy to render usage. Rock Slide is already a borderline case for me – less base power and users are generally slow.
• Confuse Ray, Attract, Thunder Wave, Sleep moves: some mons have a good combination, eg Starmie15 and Gengar1. Does not win battles for you, but may help to stall or set up.
• Dragon Dance, Calm Mind, Bulk Up, Curse, Swords Dance: also speaks for itself – however, in practice a set-up mon needs some support. Exception is Gyarados4, which can rest – still, is it walled by Gengar, Misdreavus and Skarmory.
• Substitute: can have great utility in combination with dt or another set-up move. May also induce some buggy AI.
• Also: inaccurate moves are a minus: I hate Mega Kick and Iron Tail – also Hydro Pump, Fire Blast, Thunder and Cross Chop are unreliable. These should only be used for contingencies.

ABILITY: important aspect of gen3 battling, may be used in various ways. Since some mons may have two abilities, this can split the difference between a good mon and a great mon. To list a few important ones:

• Intimidate: use ideally on first mon sent into battle create immediate advantage or make it easier to switch. Can be used repeatedly throughout a battle to stall.
• Levitate: speaks for itself, EQ immunity is huge, mostly for switching.
• Natural Cure: great ability for Starmie and Blissey – their other ability doesn’t add much.
• Pressure: ideal for stalling.
• Blaze, Torrent, Overgrow: tricky to use reliably, but can play a big role. Charizard and Typhlosion can pull off some magic at low HP because of their great speed tier.

ITEM: can add great value. Some items are reliable (lefties, choice band, chesto, lum), other might be helpful in a pinch (QC, BP, FB, KR, Scope). To highlight two of them:

• Leftovers: by far the most important, helps to keep your team healthy and provides more flexilibity with switching. If you have two leftovers mons, is it possible to lose?
• CB: great item for your first mon – basically all of them are good because they will generate KOs. And the tricksters will trick.
• Salac berry: added value depends on the mon. Notable users: Blaziken, Typhlosion in combination with Blaze and Gardevoir for Dbond. STAB Flail or Reversal can also work.

STATS: stats are still an important indicator. Any stat of about 200 is amazing, 150 is great, 100 is good, below that is doesn’t add much.

• Speed may be most important one: it simply allows you to use more moves, to move before getting statused, before your opponent gets a boost, etc. A mon with a good speed stat provides reliability because you know it will be able to use a move.
• Sweepers are more dependent on good stats than stallers – their damage purely depends on the number, while for status moves it makes no difference.

TYPING: nothing much to say here: immunities and also normal resists are great.

So how to take all of these characteristics into account when drafting? I suggest to simply count how much of good traits a mon has and give bonus for any good combination of the above-mentioned characteristics. For example:

• Ludicolo4 with Rain Dish: three great moves with Leech Seed, Toxic and Double Team, while Rain Dance in conjunction with Rain Dish is also great. Best item with Leftovers and good defensive stats (176HP, 122DEF, 141SP.DEF). 90 speed, which lets it outspeed 270 3IV mons (and is outsped by 240). Excellent typing with no weaknesses in the special spectrum and only two rare weaknesses (flying, bug), for which can be easily switched out to a rock or steel type. So these are at least six strong points, which also nice combine to be a great staller.

You can do this for each mon in your draft and this way decide which is or are the best. Then, you try to cover their weaknesses and/or find the best way to support them. Ludicolo4 needs to be able to switch out of Megahorns and Drill Pecks and it needs a partner who can beat grass/poison types, since Ludicolo4 cannot hurt them. If you can fulfill these conditions, you already have a pretty great team.

Of course, life doesn’t always give you lemons and that means sometimes you have to adapt. If there are no great mons in your draft, then look for type synergy: a basic concept, but it cannot be mentioned enough. A base rule that I use is: if any move threatens to OHKO a mon, make sure it is resisted by another mon. Example: if you have a mono electric (who practically all die to EQ), make sure to have a flying type of levitator. Since the AI is programmed to always use a move that kills, this even guarantees a safe switch. If you use Flygon or Salamence, make sure to have a mon who resists ice. Or, if you use a mono water, be sure to have grass and electric resistances.

I should specially mention type immunities here, because a good type combination by itself sometimes already allowes you to stall out an opponent. For example, with a combination of normal and a ghost mon, you can stall out any opponent which has only normal, fighting & ghost moves by switching! There are quite a few, eg Slaking2, Snorlax13458. Just by virtue of it’s immunities (let alone its other qualities), Gengar is a great mon.

Also, try to cover some general threats that you may face. Ask yourself the question: can I deal with STAB Tbolts, DE and EQ? Can I put enough pressure on OHKO users to quickly get rid of them? Can I beat dt users? Sometimes high-power, low-accuracy moves may be the only way to answer these last two questions.

Choosing your lead is important and may depend on several factors: which item does a mon hold? What ability does it have? What is its role in the team? Is it easy to switch out? This usually requires some thorough thinking and it’s good to simulate some battle scenarios before choosing a lead. CB holders are typically most effective in the lead slot because this ensures they can get a first hit of without taking initial damage by switching in. In general, sweepers do well as a lead for this reason. Along the same line, defensive or stall mons are good switch-ins. They are able to take a hit, heal back and in this way leave your sweeper unharmed. Intimidate users are also great as a lead, this gives an immediate advantage and also gives them a better chance to re-enter the battle at a later stage. For set-up mons it depends: if they set up to sweep, they do well in the lead slot, but if they set up to stall, it could be better to try and battle your opponent with your other mons until you’ve found the perfect set-up opportunity.

Swapping

After each battle, you get a chance to swap one of mons in your team with one of your previous opponent. In principle, swapping a mon from the initial draft is a bad thing because of the worse IVs. Therefore, there should always be a convincing reason to swap. To list a few possible reasons:

• The substitute is simply stronger than your initial draft pick, even at 3IVs.
• The substitute provides better synergy with your team - this is usually the most valid reason, as it may occur that not all team weaknesses can be covered from the initial draft.
• The substitute excels against the type preference of the upcoming trainer. It's tempting to go for a water type swap if your next opponent prefers fire types. However, you should think twice whether this swap also benefits your team in the long run - it's all about consistency, after all. Only if your team really runs a big risk against the opcoming opponent, a swap is warranted.

Remember that during round 1 and 2 you should swap every round to gain at least one elevation from round 4 onwards. In the first rounds, it's a bit more forgiving to swap, since the IV difference with the draft is smaller (in the draft mons have 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 21 IVs in rounds 1 to 6, and 31 after that). You'll see in The Run that there were at least 7 rounds in which I didn't swap at all - this is the ideal scenario to optimise your chances against the last trainer, who will have 6IVs, or 15 or 31 in case of Silver/Gold Noland.

Note: the same mon can be either weak or strong depending on whether you or the AI uses it. For your own team, I'd define pokes as either '(un)useful' and '(un)reliable', while the AI's mons can be '(un)predictable' and '(not) dangerous)'. One of the most paradoxal mons is Gengar1: in hands of the AI it's super weak, since it can be swap-stalled ('predictable' and 'not dangerous'), while in your hands, it's very useful and quite reliable (given that you get enough turns for Hypnosis to hit). Quick Claw en Scope are not very reliable and useful for the player, but can be dangerous in the hand of the AI. They only need one or two activations to end your run - the same holds for OHKO users. Who hasn't had any Battle Frontier run killed by QC Horn Drill?

Takeaway: always think carefully after a battle whether that mon that almost killed you is in fact useful and try to consider whether an easy to beat mon could still be helpful in your hands. But most of all: be mindful of your strong IV pokes!

The Run

The Run

I haven’t kept minitious records of each round, just the teams I used. I will briefly go through them.

Rounds 1-2-3: no records. Rounds 1 and 2 can basically be auto-piloted, since the AI is random, Round 3 is more fun, preparing you for the real deal. It’s important to swap after each battle in rounds 1 and 2, so you will get at least one elevation for the upcoming rounds.

Round 4: Ludicolo2 etc.

My elevation was Ludicolo2, which can overpower most mons with its 15IVs and great coverage. Didn’t remember the rest of the team, probably they didn’t have to do too much.

Round 5: Tauros2, Hypno2--> Alakazam2, Milotic2 - 35 wins, 21 swaps.

One absolute elite mon with Tauros2 (great ability, powerful, set-up and healing), whose fighting weakness is covered by Hypno2 (whose ghost weakness in turn is covered by Tauros). Milotic2 is not defensive but is modest with 255 SpATK EVs (and 15IVs), which makes it hit hard with Surf and Ice Beam. Changed Hypno2 for Alakazam2 to hit fighting types back harder and not be reliant on Hypnosis accuracy.

round 6: Milotic4, Electabuzz3, Victreebel3 42 wins, 22 swaps.

Yes, I used Victreebel. And Electabuzz. On one team. And it beat Noland Gold! How on earth, you might think. Of course, the IVs (31 on Milotic, 21 on Electa and Vic) help a lot. But mostly it’s because Milotic4 is so strong: with DEF&Sp.DEF investmest, Recover AND Leftovers it’s almost unkillable. It still has a modest nature with ASLO Sp.ATK investment, so it still hits pretty hard. All that was needed was good support to cover weaknesses and things it couldn’t kill. Victreebel could effortlessly switch into Thunderbolts and Grass moves and either kill with dual coverage or double to Electabuzz (or paralyze with Stun Spore if nothing works). Electabuzz in itself has pretty good utility with a strong and fast STAB Thunderbolt, and coverage with Ice and Fire Punch. This let it deal with the water mons Milotic couldn’t kill and Cross Chop in the last slot would help against Blissey3 and Snorlax3 (even though those last two can perfectly well be handled by Milotic4).

I don’t remember the Gold battle very well, but I remember Milotic dropped at some point, so I was left with Vic and Electabuzz only. A funny moment occurred when Vic had to use Ingrain against the 2nd mon, but then I wanted to switch on the 3rd mon, but of course I couldn’t. Luckily Electabuzz was able to win.

round 7: Ursaring4, Arcanine4, Shuckle4 49 wins, 23 swaps

This was a really fun team to play with. The damage outputs of Ursaring’s STAB DE of its 200 ATK stat and Arcanine’s STAB Overheat are just insane. Both mons have also plenty of other coverage. And if something dangerous turned up, Arcanine could lower it’s attack with Intimidate and there was always Shuckle in the back who can 1v1 most mons (note that also in these match-ups the difference between 3 and 31IV helps a lot) or at least stall them out, if they would be toxic immune.

round 8: Metagross4, Regice1, Ludicolo2 --> Latias1 56 wins, 25 swaps

Metagross4 and Regice1 in the 31IV draft is amazing. Together they provide great coverage and Regice even heals. However, fire attacks are a shared weakness which cannot be underestimated with a lot of STAB Overheats and Fire Blasts around. That’s why Ludicolo2 could make a return from round 3 to simply Surf these mons away. But then, when Latias1 turns up, why not just take it? It has better stats even at 3IVs and a fire resistance.

round 9: Hariyama4, Feraligatr2--> Dusclops2, Marowak2--> Regice4 63 wins, 28 swaps

This was rather a problematic draft. Marowak2 isn’t great here because it generally doesn’t get the chance to use SD and sweep, because it’s slow – also Icy Wind doesn’t do much (still it can one-shot a lot with EQ). Therefore it was clear that Hariyama4 had to be the pivotal mon and boy did it deliver. Cross Chop is risky, but it didn’t have to rely on that alone: with a 189 ATK stat even Fake Out does significant damage to a lot of mons. Therefore it can Fake Out, kill, switch out, switch in later, Fake Out again and perhaps hit another time. I chose Feraligatr2 probably as best among the worst – it has coverage and a Torrent Surf still hits quite hard, I guess.

Luckily I could quickly switch Feraligatr for Dusclops2, also one of the best mons in the Factory to have as a switch-in. Its moves don’t depend on stats and even with 3IV it’s bulk and typing is great. With Protect, Confuse Ray, Double Team, Leftovers AND the Pressure ability it’s an ultimate staller. Toxic is just bonus, but a great bonus.

Later I came across Regice4, who ALSO has Double Team and Leftovers. It’s not Sp.ATK invested, so it should rather kill with Hail than with Ice Beam. It’s a super slow team (both considering speed stats and tactics), but still fun to play, each time figuring out whether Dusclops or Regice would be the mon to use and how to keep both healthy for the next mon.

One battle in particular, I think it was round 6, was interesting – this trainer had no type preference. If I remember correctly, the first mon was Water/Ice, probably Lapras or Dewgong, which beat Hariyama (probably with an OHKO) – I managed to revenge it with Dusclops, but then Tentacruel showed up. Since there had now been two Water mons out while having no type preference, this meant that the last mon HAD TO BE either Poison or Ice. Quite tricky, since my only moves to kill were Toxic on Dusclops and Hail on Regice! Therefore, I had to keep BOTH alive. It was quite a challenge, but I managed to do it with some manoevering. When this succeeds, seeing that the last mon is indeed poison or ice (tbh I don’t remember which it was anymore – vaguely I thought that Walrein played a role, but it would have forced preference for water type) is very satisfying

round 10: Latios1, Regirock1, Registeel1 70 wins, 29 swaps.

Nothing much to say, 31IV Latios1 is already a gift from heaven and Regirock1 and Registeel1 are great switch-ins. Regirock even provides extra utility with Explosion and Registeel1 is humbly one of the most reliable mons in the Factory: if it gets two or three turns to set up, it will set up all the way and Metal Claws do hurt at +6.

round 11: Starmie6, Entei3--> Machamp2, Swampert4 77 wins, 29 swaps.

Don’t remember much from this round, but I can imagine that Starmie6 just will not die with Recover and Leftovers. It will precook its opponents with Twave and Confuse Ray, after which Entei3 (later Machamp2, which also has healing) and Swampert4 can clean up. Example of using your strongest mon to repeatly support sweepers.

round 12: Granbull4, Gengar7, Swampert3 84 wins, 32 swaps.

Three excellent sweepers: Granbull4 gets extra punch from CB and has extra utility with Intimidate – Gengar 7 doesn’t need any extra punch whatsoever with its 200 Sp.ATK stat and has great extra utility with Dbond, being virtually always able to beat at least 2 mons. Swampert is just Swampert.

round 13: Raikou3--> Medicham2, Snorlax4, Kingdra4 91 wins, 34 swaps.

Not a great team at first glance. Raikou3 has a hard-hitting Tblot, Twave and some extra utility with Roar. Snorlax4 has good match-ups vs special attackers, but Kingdra4 is the star of the team: it has great defensive qualities and healing, which gives it time to set up DDs. Its only weakness (dragon) is nicely covered by shooting Ice Beams to OHKO most Dragon Claw users. I don’t remember at which point Medicham2 came in, perhaps to adjust for a trainer a preference for Ground types. It’s plan is simple: Endure, Salac and STAB Reversal.

round 14: Entei2, Meganium2, Lapras7 98 wins, 35 swaps

Classic Fire-Grass-Water/Ice synergy to cover each others weaknesses. As mentioned above, Meganium2 can often solo its way through enemies with Leech Seed and set-up. Entei2 can support this with Reflect. Lapras7 is a bit of an oddball with it’s OHKO-only moveset, but is very hard to kill with its defensive investment and free Rest.

I wrote down that I was in danger vs a team of Gyarados1, Latios23 and Salamence8. These mons have to be treated most carefully because of their many dangerous sets. Probably I switch to Meganium turn 1 and then Gyarados could Twave and started setting up DDs – I vaguely remember to survive only because it stopped attacking at some point. Probably it was also the only battle in which Lapras really had to do work. Interestingly enough, I didn’t take any of these mons, because it wouldn’t support the team strategy centering Meganium.

round 15: Tauros2, Starmie4, Moltres2--> Regirock2--> Typhlosion4 105 wins 38 swaps

Tauros2 and Starmie4 are simple enough to understand (Starmie’s Psychic covers Tauros’s weakness), Moltres2 is a bit more remarkable. It has some utility as a Pressure staller with DT and Protect, but lacks defensive investment and healing. At the same time its STAB Overheat from its 177 Sp.ATK stat just hits hard. I don’t recall why exactly I made the swaps – perhaps based on type preference of the next trainer. Regirock2 has utility with Explosion and Typhlosion4 has a huge Overheat in a pinch.

round 16: Slaking3, Slowking2, Sceptile3--> Gengar8 112 wins, 40 swaps.

CB Slaking3 can KO a lot on turn one and usually come back in later to do the same. Slowking2 supports it by crippling its opponet with Yawn or Twave and at the same time can hit hard with STAB Surf and Psychic. Sceptile3 is a bit odd, but helps against opponents raining Tbolts all over. Gengar8 is great even with 3IVs, still hitting hard and being fast with Dbonds – also, it has great type synergy with Slaking.

round 17: Machamp7, Aggron1-->Regice4, Meganium3-->Gyarados3-->Umbreon4 119 wins, swaps

I recall this being a really problematic draft. I figured that Machamp7 was my ace, and had to build my team around it – that’s where the odd choice of Aggron1 come from, a mon that doesn’t have many qualities in isolation. Here, it performs the role of switching into psychic and flying moves Machamp would have trouble setting up against. Meganium3 as a physical attacker is also quite strange, but apparently the best available. In such a case you have to be a bit lucky in the first battles and slowly try to improve your team with swaps.

Here, all swaps support Machamp: Regice4 is great at stalling special attackers, Gyarados3 softens physical attackers with Intimidate and with Umbreon4 suddenly my team had become quite OP: triple DT, double leftovers, good type synergy. The satisfaction is great when you stall out the opposing mon, fully set-up 6dt’s and a sub with Machamp and start unleashing STAB Focus Punches from its 200 ATK stat!

round 18: Espeon4, Snorlax6, Meta2 126 wins, 45 swaps.

After a problematic round 17, it was nice to take a bit of a breather in this round. Espeon4 ranks among the strongest, easiest to use mons in the Factory: its STAB Psychic from its 200Sp.ATK stat kills a lot – if it doesn’t, it will after a CM. Anything Espeon cannot handle, Snorlax6 or Metagross2 can probably deal with. Note that Metagross is good here as a normal resist, to deal with STAB DE’s.

round 19: Metagross6, Crobat2, Flygon3 133 wins, 46 swaps.

I think Crobat is really cool and I like to use a staller because of their reliability, but Crobat2’s bulk isn’t as great as other stallers. However, it’s speed partly makes up for that. Luckily, it worked well enough since it was flanked by two great mons. Together Metagross6 and Flygon3 have great coverage together (this Meta lacks EQ). With Metagross as a starter on threatening EQ’s you can switch to Crobat, while in case of fire moves you switch to Flygon.

Once I got in danger vs Salamence5, Fearow1 and Gyarados3. Salamence beat Metagross, but was revenged (probably by Flygon). Fearow damaged my team some more and then came Gyarados. It’s always hard to play around the four possible sets since it doesn’t have to many specific style moves. I remember that I confused it, but never hit itself 3 or 4 times in a row. I came close to defeat, but was able to just outdamage it.

round 20: Armaldo4, Electrode4, Snorlax3 --> Flygon4 139 wins, 1 loss 48 swaps.

There we are, the round which turned out to be the last one. The draft wasn’t easy with 4 electric mons (no Raikou or Zapdos). Luckily there was Armaldo4, about which I used to be skeptical since it’s so slow. But then again, it’s hit-taking abililty (it’s a joy to do calcs with Battle Armor, since for once you don’t have to worry about crits!) and raw power is great. Then Electrode4 is actually also a great mon. It may only be able to take one hit, but in return it can Tbolt twice to try to KO and then explode for a second KO. Snorlax3 was more of a sponge than anything else – Mega Kick is just bad and it has no healing. Drawback of this team is that it necessitates two mons alive for the endgame – only then Armaldo can use DE and Electrode can explode without drawbacks.

The first battle was quite problematic – even though ‘impossible to predict’ is usually good news (it’s often Alakazam3, or much better Clefable1). First mon was Flygon, who dealt some damage after being OHKO’ed by DE. The second mon was Scizor4, which pretty much walled Armaldo (who was locked into DE, to make things worse). It also was able to boost, so it was a very scary situation. In the end I had to sacrifice Electrode (pray that Explosion would bypass Brightpowder) and then Clefable1 came out. Usually a laughable mon, but Snorlax could only hit it with Mega Kick (if it would hit after some dt’s…). Armaldo was low on health but luckily still alive and I could survive.

I was glad to get rid of Snorlax for Flygon, which proved to be Flygon4. I had a few bad match-ups (like a Claydol lead) but actually made it to battle 7 quite swiftly. Perhaps a bit too swiftly, as I let my guard down…

Against the last trainer, you should always be a bit more on your toes, since they have 6IV pokes. The assistant gave no type or style preference. I’ll go through the battle in detail.

Trainer sent out Weezing!
Go! Armaldo!

Quite a bad match-up, Weezing has good defense and Armaldo has no super-effective move, nor have my other mons – Flygon cannot really hurt it. No style preference excludes Weezing2. I’m slower and list the move that will come:

Weezing1@BP will probably Will-O-Wisp and otherwise Shadow Ball or Smokescreen.
Weezing3@FB will either Flamethrower/Tbolt or (unlikely) Explode
Weezing4@FB will either Shadow Ball or (unlikely) Explode

I consider my options: 1. click DE; 2. click Rock Slide; 3. switch to Electrode. Electrode 2HKO’s with Tbolt, but S-ball and Sludge Bomb do 93.3-110% damage – I don’t want to risk Electrode so early, since this limits my options vs mon2 and mon3. Staying in is also risky, because wisp might cripple my Armaldo for the rest of the battle. Since Electrode holds Lum, it would very much welcome the wisp and basically have a free switch-in. I decide to click Rock Slide.

Foe Weezing used Will-O-Wisp!

It’s Weezing1…

Armaldo was burned!
Armaldo used Rock Slide!
Armaldo’s attack missed!
Armaldo is hurt by burn!

A horror scenario – Armaldo crippled on turn 1 without having done any damage myself.

Foe Weezing used Shadow Ball! (hits, 19.7-23.6%)
Armaldo used Rock Slide! (hits, 30.6-36.4%)
Armaldo is hurt by burn!

One more hit and at least Electrode will be able to revenge with a single Tbolt.

Foe Weezing used Shadow Ball! (hits, 19.7-23.6%)
Armaldo used Rock Slide!
Armaldo’s attack missed!
Armaldo is hurt by burn!

Very bad, two misses with Rock Slide, but actually not inconceivable – brightpowder drops its accuracy to only 81%. I curse myself for not switching to Electrode on turn 1 and start a long thinking process to maximise my chances. Armaldo is now in range of S-ball, so this move is guaranteed. I can either sack Armaldo to maximise my chances to revenge with Electrode, or switch immediately to Electrode in order to hopefully survive a S-ball+Sludge Bomb with Electrode – with Armaldo alive Electrode could still explode on the last mon, if Flygon also perishes. Lastly, Flygon would 2HKO with D-Claw at this point, but would be severly hurt by two S-balls – and I don’t want to risk having a second mon burned… I think I make the optimal play.

Foe Weezing uses Shadow Ball! (hits)
Armaldo fainted!
Do it! Electrode!

Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hits, 57.2-67.9%)
Foe Weezing used Will-O-Wisp!
Weezing’s attack missed!

Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hits)
Foe Weezing fainted!

Uff, that part went well, now it’s 2v2 – I’m lost my strongest mon, but the battle is still open.

Trainer sent out Victreebel!

Interesting. Actually, I can figure out which Victreebel it is, since 3 and 4 hold BP and 1 has a style ‘5’ move, leaving only Victreebel2@lefties. Electrode and Flygon are both faster, so I have some control over the next moves. However, Sleep Powder is very scary. Victreebel can do big damage with Sludge Bomb or use Sleep Powder.

One option is to just explode and hope Flygon can 1v1 the last mon – perhaps I would’ve if my Flygon had 31 IVs. But Flygon can do huge damage to Victreebel with EQ (and maybe Scope Lens will do work for once?

I can also use Tbolt to soak up a Sleep Powder with Lum and then switch and use EQ – however, that will not kill after two leftovers recoveries. Twave seems too risky, Victreebel can do too much damage with its attacks or still use Sleep Powder.

I decide to switch to Flygon – it can tank Sludge Bomb really well and Sleep Powder – it can miss.

Come back, Electrode!
Go, Flygon!
Victreebel used Sleep Powder!
Victreebel’s attack missed!

Perfect! Maybe now it will use Giga Drain, or even Attract (I’m opposite gender)?

Flygon uses Earthquake! (hit, 69.2-81.8%)
Victreebel used Sleep Power!
Flygon fell asleep!
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Oh no. Now it will use Giga Drain for sure. It’s too late for switching to Electrode, because Giga Drain+Sludge Bomb kills and then I only have sleeping Flygon left. I have to burn sleep turns and hope it goes for Attract. If I wake up after 2 turns, I will still kill with EQ, after 3 turns it will have healed to much to kill with EQ, but then at least Electrode will return. If I wake up after 4 or 5 turns, it’s probably over…

Flygon is fast asleep.
Foe Victreebel used Giga Drain! (hit, 39.7-46.8%, 19.8-23.4% heal)
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Flygon is fast asleep.
Foe Victreebel used Giga Drain! (hit, 39.7-46.8%, 19.8-23.4% heal)
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Bugger. Now I have to pray. After all that healing Victreebel is out of EQ range.

Flygon woke up!
Flygon used Earthquake! (hit, 69.2-81.8%)
Foe Victreebel used Giga Drain! (hit, 20hp damage, 10 hp heal)
Flygon fainted!
Victreebel’s leftovers restored its HP a little.

Go for it! Electrode!
Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hit, 36.3-43.3%)
Foe Victreebel fainted!

At least that worked out. 3v3 turned into 2v2 into 1v1. Now let’s pray there won’t be a ground type last.

Trainer sent out Dusclops!

Dusclops? Could be worse! Actually, there is only one without Leftovers, Dusclops4: Double-Edge, Shadow Ball, Curse, Rest. Not too scary! Checking the calcs: Tbolt will 3HKO, but S-ball has a 32.8% chance to 2HKO – still in my favor. Plus, it may use Curse, then I’ll win for sure!

Electrode used Thunderbolt! (hit, 38-45.5%)
Foe Dusclops used Shadow Ball! (hit, 100%)
A critical hit!
Electrode fainted!

AAAAAAH! Killed by a crit in the end (which also just killed 43.8% of the time)… But okay, that’s how I expected the run to end anyway – there have been situations before when I would lose to a crit, hax or a miss.

Analysis

But what bugs me a bit are my decisions in this last battle. Thinking back, on turn 1 I probably should’ve switched to Electrode – I didn’t do that, because if Weezing would use Shadow Ball, I wouldn’t know if it was Weezing1 or Weezing4. Then I would be in a rough spot, because I’d be in Sludge Bomb kill range of Weezing1 and Weezing4. I could proceed to Flygon turn 2, tank the Sludge Bomb and D-claw in return turn 3. Then Weezing1 would use wisp/S-ball/smokescreen and Weezing4 would use Frustration (or maybe Explosion). Again D-claw turn 4 –

• vs Weezing1 Flygon would live and kill the next turn (I would have Electrode with S-ball damage and Flygon with at least Sludge Bomb damage and possibly a burn).
• vs Weezing4 Flygon would be killed by Frustration, but then Electrode would revenge kill, leaving me Electrode (with S-ball damage) and a healthy Armaldo. Then, blowing up vs Victreebel would make sense, because it would leave a 1v1 with Armaldo – indeed Armaldo beats Dusclops (and will not get crit!).

And if after the switch to Electrode turn one Weezing3 would use Flamethrower or Thunderbolt? I would always live a following Sludge Bomb (barring crits) and 2HKO with Tbolt, leaving me a 3v2, soon to be a 2v1.

Given the two Rock Slide misses, also turn 1 Double-Edge may have been a better option – but I didn’t want to lose HP for nothing.

As for the 2v2 situation, maybe I should have used Tbolt with Electrode (99.5% 3HKO) – on a Sleep Powder, Lum would activate and then only a consecutive Sleep Powder hit would prevent me from killing. Next I would switch to Flygon, taking a Sludge Bomb and revenge with EQ, leaving me a ~67% Flygon and a sleeping Electrode. If Victreebel would use Sludge Bomb turn 1, it would guaranteed see the kill next, providing a ‘safe’ switch-in (not risking Sleep Powder) for Flygon, which would ensure a free EQ. But as we saw in the battle, that doesn’t guarantee anything – I got to the same game state with a healthy Electrode instead. Under the assumption that the opponent would hit its moves, it’s not better than in the real battle, but if the opponent were to miss (as happened in the battle) it increases my chances.

Epilogue

Epilogue

I’ve enjoyed every bit of the run and it’s a bit like a childhood dream come true to set such a result. It’s so cool to encounter a new situation every round right from the draft and having to make your game plan, finetuning it across 7 battles. I realise that I was also quite lucky not to get fatally haxed at any earlier point in the run, but this also gave me some assurance that I knew what I was doing. After all, if you want to be consisent, you have to diminish your dependency on RNG as much as possible.

It’s a pity I lost after not playing optimally in the last battle, but I understand that this also proves another ‘human’ side such a challenge bears: to keep your patience, to carefully think through each move at each moment takes a lot of patience and perseverance. Therefore I do no only respect other challengers for their knowledge and skill, but also for these characteristics which will help you at any stage in life.

As for me, in a way I am happy that the run came to an end, since it’s also quite a commitment to keep finding time to play, stay patient and try your best. At the latest stages, I wouldn’t do more than one round per day and sometimes one round would take a few hours. I am quite busy otherwise and can’t reliably find this time without sacrificing something else.

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in February which will bring another (first) priority in life. That’s why I consider this run to be my first and last commitment to Pokémon and in a way a wonderful goodbye to what has been a great childhood! May our child have the same experience with any Pokémon game (or any other of life’s joys)

If you have read so far, thank you, I hope you enjoyed it – at least for myself this write-up has been worthwhile, closing a period in my life. I hope to have inspired your on doing an run of your own and will try to beat this (and LRXC’s) record!

This is a beautiful post Tinto , im honored that you found inspiration through watching my streams and my content, and I love people seeing, understanding, and living one of the best things in Pokemon, Emerald's Battle Factory. I love how you see the factory, especially the 3v1 thing, I never really considered it like that, but it totally makes sense. I loved reading your battles and what you encountered.

The human element you mention is so so important, I have a run I have yet to upload because its 9 hours of footage on my old laptop that would take 30+ hours to upload and im lazy. But either way, I lost on Battle 114 due to me simply forgetting that Charizard1 is faster than my Starmie1. It was a crucial and deadly slip up that lost my streak, nothing haxy, just the sheer difficulty of playing perfect all the time. Its tough to lose that way, but also gave me a new persepctive on Pokemon.

Your epilogue was really beautiful by the way. So genuine and heartfelt; there is something unmatched about goodbye posts like these on Smogon, especially when combined with the fact that it was a Battle Factory post! Congratulations on your upcoming first baby, that must be SO exciting, yet simulataneously scary given its somewhat of a goodbye to something else you obviously love, Pokemon.

Congratulations again on your amazing amazing streak, 139 wins on REAL hardware, WOW!

I'll join you soon on the leaderboard as I upload my world record history video this Saturday!

Enjoy life Tinto : )

 

[Twisted olm]

What do u guys think about this 6 poke team to run over the whole battle frontier? I'm not going to use hidden powers because its a huge pain in the ass on a retail copy to get the right HP. I want to have some tips/tricks for this team. I also know that maybe bringing Kingdra and milotic is maybe to much especially if i also want to bring Arcanine. Any typs are helpfull. I also dont want to bring the standard frontier pokes like Metagross, swampert.
PS. I can get every poke in game due to a running battery on emerald (espeon/umbreon). excess to Firered/leafgreen and i have a copy of ruby. So tm's/getting other legendary's like (Bird trio + latios/latias) wont be an issue. Also trade evo's are easy to obtain for me.

Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Focus punch/Ice beam

Scizor @ Leftovers
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP / 48 Def / 208 SpD
Impish Nature
- Baton Pass
- Silver Wind
- Swords Dance
- Arial Ace/Steel Wing

Kingdra @ Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 104 HP / 252 SpA / 152 Spe
Modest Nature
- Rain Dance
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Dragon Breath (for the para)

Milotic @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature
- Surf
- Recover
- Toxic/Dragon breath/Ice beam
- Refresh/safeguard/Dragon Breath

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 228 Def / 32 Spe
Bold Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Roar
- Drill peck

Arcanine @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 184 HP / 252 Atk / 72 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Iron Tail
- Sunny Day
- Overheat/ Fire blast or even flamethrower

 

[Doctor_Rob]

The Doc again, with a new record already lol. What can I say. I love the Battle Quest. It gives you freedoms the other facilities don't/can't; access to recovery items so that every battle is kind of like a high stakes trainer fight and the freedom to use duplicate items on your 'Mons. With my latest victory over Brandon after 20 rounds I'm now at a whopping 1120 floors cleared. Look out, Cody "The Machine." Pic attached for proof. And here are my new tried a true troopers, namely my A-team for bashing Brandon.

("King Louie")
Ability: Truant
Nature: Adamant
252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP
Item: Choice Band
Return, Hyper Beam, Shadow Ball, Earthquake

("Wipeout")
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Relaxed
248 HP / 206 Defense / 54 Sp. Defense
Item: Leftovers
Earthquake, Surf, Ice Beam, Protect

("Dirge")
Ability: Levitate
Nature: Timid
248 HP / 200 Speed / 60 Sp. Defense
Item: Leftovers
Perish Song, Protect, Destiny Bond, Night Shade

Slaking in most cases makes a great lead for both "wilds" and unexpected trainer battles as it can KO almost anything. Swampert makes a great physical tank that can also hit back decently hard. Gengar acts an emergency check; it can swiftly take out nearly anything with D-Bond if need be and can get rid of hard to break walls/Double Team cheese with Perish Song + Protect + switch. As for matching up against Brandon, Slaking leads and KOs Articuno with Hyper Beam (if it doesn't miss) while Swampert can handle Zapdos and Moltres. Gengar can also take one of them out in a pinch if necessary.

 

[aziz.nasri95]

Hello guys,

Kind of new here. Huge huge fan of Battle Factory, especially on Emerald. Been watching LRXC's record breaking streak on Singles, and now he's streaming one on Doubles with a WR at 91.

Unfortunately, since I am not and was never a streamer, I have no documentation, no videos, of my record a part from this photo taken of my GBA SP after reaching a 104 streak on Factory Doubles last April, 30th. Which is, I assume a WR and I would please love to know what are the procedures to have acknowledged here (at least before LRXC breaks it eventually).

It was just a fun, unserious streak that I completed with no data whatsover, just my knowledge, instincts and some luck got me there.

I would really appreciate it if I can get some replies from you guys, Battle Factory is just the best thing ever and this would truly mean the world to me, having my name written as a legitimate Battle Factory world record holder, even for a few days, would bring immense joy to me, who never thought this would even be possible given that I never thought about a WR before seeing LRXC's stream.

Thank you guys.

 

[Nnico Iosi]

Hello guys,

Kind of new here. Huge huge fan of Battle Factory, especially on Emerald. Been watching LRXC's record breaking streak on Singles, and now he's streaming one on Doubles with a WR at 91.

Unfortunately, since I am not and was never a streamer, I have no documentation, no videos, of my record a part from this photo taken of my GBA SP after reaching a 104 streak on Factory Doubles last April, 30th. Which is, I assume a WR and I would please love to know what are the procedures to have acknowledged here (at least before LRXC breaks it eventually).

It was just a fun, unserious streak that I completed with no data whatsover, just my knowledge, instincts and some luck got me there.

I would really appreciate it if I can get some replies from you guys, Battle Factory is just the best thing ever and this would truly mean the world to me, having my name written as a legitimate Battle Factory world record holder, even for a few days, would bring immense joy to me, who never thought this would even be possible given that I never thought about a WR before seeing LRXC's stream.

Thank you guys.

Hey fellow Battle Factory enjoyer!

I'm currently attempting to break the Level 50 Doubles World Record and right now my personal best is 81. I haven't tried to break the Open Level World Record yet, but of course the same numbers there are even harder to reach because the first rounds are harder.

I read your post and was quite stunned to see you having won 104 battles in Open Level without using any of the resources, just having fun with it as you said.
I'd love nothing more than to have a high number like that as the world record, because that would motivate me even more than the current Open Level world record which is almost a whole 30 wins lower.

However a simple screenshot is unfortunately not enough to be recognized as a world record. Without any information provided about the run, it's hard to comprehend how you could achieve such an amazing feat without using the spreadsheet and calc.

In my personal opinion, it would have to involve incredible luck, especially at every draft. So if you could tell us more about the run, which mons you used (at least during the last few rounds) and importantly how the run ended, only then could it be possible to recognize 104 as the new world record.

Thanks for understanding!

 

[aziz.nasri95]

Hey fellow Battle Factory enjoyer!

I'm currently attempting to break the Level 50 Doubles World Record and right now my personal best is 81. I haven't tried to break the Open Level World Record yet, but of course the same numbers there are even harder to reach because the first rounds are harder.

I read your post and was quite stunned to see you having won 104 battles in Open Level without using any of the resources, just having fun with it as you said.
I'd love nothing more than to have a high number like that as the world record, because that would motivate me even more than the current Open Level world record which is almost a whole 30 wins lower.

However a simple screenshot is unfortunately not enough to be recognized as a world record. Without any information provided about the run, it's hard to comprehend how you could achieve such an amazing feat without using the spreadsheet and calc.

In my personal opinion, it would have to involve incredible luck, especially at every draft. So if you could tell us more about the run, which mons you used (at least during the last few rounds) and importantly how the run ended, only then could it be possible to recognize 104 as the new world record.

Thanks for understanding!

REPORTING A 104 Streak on Battle Factory Doubles (Open Level)

Hello again to you all,

Nnico Iosi My most sincere thanks for the reply, as you can see this is a big thing for me and it is really much appreciated. (And props to the Persian profile photo, absolutely love it!).

So this situation of mine is pretty particular. Never in my life have I thought about chasing a Pokémon World Record, or any WR for that matter, so never thought about documenting a run with photos, videos, or with writing down my different teams for each round. I didn’t find it useful at the time and boy was I wrong; (discovered “Smogon” for the first time in my life the other day when I first posted my streak, that alone should give you an idea..); and this despite having hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay in Emerald Frontier, especially the Battle Factory. As I already said for me it was just a fun way to decompress and have fun outside of the work hours.

For me Emerald’s Factory is where the Pokémon Franchise peaked, I am just nuts about everything in that game, from the sprites, the soundtracks, the story line, to that memorable Hoenn journey, everything just screams GOAT status. I remember that getting those 7 absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous Gold Symbols in the Frontier was one of the hardest challenges I’ve ever had to overcome, gaming-wise, and it left such a mark on me back in the days that I’d always come back and have a go at it, if only to listen to its memorable soundtrack.

About the Emerald Battle Factory

I am actually more than delighted to have finally had the occasion to write thoroughly about one of the few things that I’ve truly loved and cherished in life, Emerald’s Battle Factory. (also relating to that heartfelt, awe-inspiring post by Tinto last week, reaching such an amazing streak on real Hardware is nothing short of legendary).

For me the Battle Factory was all about unpredictability, that is its essence and its whole purpose, and that’s what makes it still truly exciting for me after all these years. The never-ending, always renovated scenarios and surprises, the combination of strategies, movesets, mons that you’d never think you’d actually use.

And since I’ve never had such high aims for it except my personal enjoyment and excitement, involving calcs and spreadsheets would quite ruin that sense of unpredictability and randomness. From my perspective, nothing beats inserting my Emerald cartridge, turning on my beloved GBA SP 101 and having random Pokémon matchs with random drafts facing random scenarios, counting only on my knowledge of the game and my instincts (it is after all called the Knowledge symbol).
In singles, my best streak was at 63 (always in Open Level), and last April I thought it would be fun to try for the first time the Doubles Challenge, just to experience what it’s like and boy was I amazed at just how fun that place is.

About the run

Before getting into the run, it goes without saying that the biggest part of the Credits goes naturally to LRXC and his inspirational runs. He inspired so many of us to get back there and experience that truly unique Emerald Factory Feeling with that charisma and that renowned meticulous cooking of his that are truly out of this world. Emerald Factory is truly the best stage that he could have chosen for his big break as a streamer and I’ve been there patiently watching him cook since the very beginning, and now it’s just a matter of time before he ends up breaking all Factory records (including my -yet to be recognized- record).

There’s unfortunately not much to be said about my streak, after all it’s been almost 8 months since that streak came to an end. And all that Pokémon-related part of my memory has been savagely ambushed and occupied by two of the craziest with the most stupidly-horrifying RNG games that have ever existed (talking about both Pokémon Stadium 1 & 2 with Rental Mons only, with the second one totally completed and the first one nearing its completion and what a memorable journey that one has been).

Now all I have left is some photos that I’ve shared with a dear friend of mine, also a fellow Factory enthusiast, of some of the stupidly good Mons that I had during that run. I’ll share them with you guys just so you can have an idea of how insanely lucky I got, especially with drafts, during the last rounds.

1st one: Salamence and Gengar easily sweeping the entire round with the infamous combination: Earthquake-Levitate, a classic that proved to be absolutely fundamental in more than one occasion during this run.

2nd and 3rd : Latias & Latios with Suicune in the back: I don’t think there’s really much to say about such a team, except from “on to the next round”

4th and 5th: Getting so high up that an actual Pokémon match would end up looking like this (with Raikou in the back)

6th and 7th: I remember this team being the one leading me to victory during one of the last rounds

8th: Getting both Latis in the draft was so crazy that I had to take a picture here

I actually am aware that this isn’t helping at all. Giving absolutely no accurate information whatsoever about the drafts, the movesets, the different scenarios. However, luckily I found that I did record and save my last battle, the 7th and last one in Round 15.

As you can see, also not much to say about this battle, only managing to hit one Hyper Beam during the entire match, due to a stupid Fire Blast Crit on Blaze. Also surviving my Dragonite 3’s Hyper Beam there was probably a range there by Zard. And it all went downhill from there.Not sure if I could’ve played this better since I have no idea of what there other movesets were (8 months Is a long time)

Link for 105th and final Battle

Epilogue

Lastly you can all see how much this actually means to me. It would literally be a dream come true seeing my 104 Wins on the Top Left Corner of LRXC 's streams and being the WR Holder that he will aspire to beat in his eventual next attempts on Open Level Doubles, and watching him doing so as I’ve always did during these months.

I am actually closing in on a chapter in my life, and opening a new one in a new continent and a new country, where the absolute priority would be my work and my career, one that wouldn’t include Pokémon anymore, after being the absolute protagonist in almost all of my previous chapters, and that is why I left my beloved Emerald back home, harshly imprisoned in a firmly and tightly closed box, along with all of my other cartridges and consoles, since I’ve always only played on real Hardware.

An unthought of, unintended WR, having only some photos and a video taken from my Emerald French Cartridge as evidence. Who knows, perhaps if I had intended it, studied it and worked on it, maybe I would never have reached such a feat if it were all calculated and premeditated. So all and all, I’d say that this is much more poetic and singular; no one has ever broken a WR just having fun, without even aiming for it, thinking about it and only knowing about it 8 months after.

 

[Ritza]

Hi guys, I'm RItza and I'm here to report a level 50 battle factory doubles streak of 78 that I got on emulator. I fell in love with the format after watching LRXC, so huge shout out to him, his guide taught me everything I needed to know about it. Apparently the record is 91 wins but it doesn't have it updated on the front page, so I can't tell who got it.

I streamed my attempt so I have video evidence too :) The run starts at about 3:16:00. I'll go a little bit into the teams I used and how I was able to make it so far. Round 1 and 2 are autopilot so I'll start at round 3.

Round 3
Masquerain, Graveler lead, Roselia in the back. Pretty simple earthquake strat with Roselia in the back to tank water and grass moves. Match 3 I swapped Roselia for Pelliper as it does the same job but better, while also having eq immunity. Match 7 swapped out Graveler for Ponyta, since the trainer had grass types.

Round 4
Hypno 1, Sceptile 1 lead, Starmie 2 (Elevation) in the back. Fast sceptile and starmie to hit hard, with hypno great coverage. No physical attackers so slightly risky. Luckily I didn't run into Blissey and we cleared this round pretty easily, even if Starmie tried to throw by missing every single Hydro Pump in match 1.

Round 5
Granbull 2, Dusclops 3 (Elevation) lead, Walrein 2 in the back. Wasn't the greatest draft this round so I settled on Granbull for coverage, and Dusclops and Walrein for tanky options to be able to switch around if needed. In my opinion, this is where any run truly starts, as smart ai is in play now. Match 1 was a tough one, but I managed to win, then swapped out Granbull for the GOAT of round 5, Glalie 2. The legendary explosion Glalie, Dusclops combo. Match 2 had me stressed going up against an Arcanine lead, but I was able to endure the fire blast, avoid the burn and click boom after salac berry to outspeed the Arcanine. Every other match was a formality except match 7, where a scary Golem, Misdreavus lead had me using icy wind for the first time.

Round 6
Starmie 3, Rapidash 4 (Elevation) lead, Blastoise 3 in the back. Although match 1 was a water trainer, the other pokemon in the draft were bad. I had to take Rapidash. Fast Starmie and Rapidash lead with good coverage and Blastoise in the back with physical and special moves to use. A tough Milotic, Manectric lead was scary in match 4 but Starmie outsped Manectric and killed with Psychic. Match 6 I risked keeping Rapidash against another water trainer and got through relatively easily.

Round 7
Suicune 2 (Elevation), Muk 4 lead, Aerodactyl 4 in the back. Explosion Muk with protect, dive Suicune seemed like a no brainer. I passed up Kingdra 4 for Aerodactyl 4 for earthquake immunity to swap in case Muk got threatened. Don't worry, Kingdra makes a big return later on ;). For match 3 I passed up boom Electrode, although faster than Muk, a lot of mons would live his explosion, and I felt I had the tools to keep Muk alive long enough to boom, or swap Aero in. Match 4, Muk dodged a Dewgong Sheer Cold that surely would have ended the run. Unfortunately I missed Explosion on Tauros thanks to brightpowder. Tauros went down to toxic, not before putting Suicune low from crit double edge. Aero went down to Vileplume Solarbeam. Luckily I was able to stall out Vileplume thanks to Pressure, securing the most clutch win of the run so far.
Match 6 started with disaster, as Muk got confused and taken down before I could do any damage to either Xatu or Ursaring. I risked a kings rock, bite flinch on Ursaring and it paid off, as Aero took down Ursaring with Double Edge next turn while staying at full health. Aero then cleaned up Aggron and Xatu to win the match.
Match 7 had me sweating with Sheer cold Walrein. Suicune vs Walrein 1v1 at the end had me using Protect and Dive to stall 2 sheer colds (4 with Pressure). Then a clutch dodge on the last one secured the victory for me. Honestly, such a hype round.

Round 8
Gengar 6, Rhydon 4 lead, Regice 6 in the back. What can you say about this draft? Insanely strong. EQ strats with tanky regice in the back for swapping Rhydon if needed. Straightforward games although match 5 I hit a clutch quick claw EQ on Houndoom to make it an easy match and secure a new PB of 54 wins. Another quick claw EQ on another Houndoom in match 7 secured another easy win, although I don't think it was necessary.

Round 9
Magmar 2, Arcanine 3 lead, Kingdra 4 in the back. This was an awful draft and I came up with a double fire lead, and hoped to god we could kill any EQ users. This Arcanine had 0ivs in special attack and defense too. We got a clutch Regice 6 pickup in match 1 that I swapped out for the arcanine right? No, I swapped it for the Kingdra, sorry Kingdra, I promise he has his moment later! Match 2 we picked up a clutch Latios 3 and swapped that for the arcanine. I lost intimidate but Magmar had 31 ivs in every stat so he had to stay. After I picked up these 2 mons, nothing stood in my way and it was a relatively easy round after some good battle calcing.

Round 10
Metagross 7, Aerodactyl 4 lead, Snorlax 7 in the back. Great draft this time, I had EQ strats as well as good coverage and amazing Pokemon. Match 2 was super scary, Golem quick claw EQ killed Metagross, leaving Snorlax and Aero against Golem, Milotic. I went for quick claw proc on my Lax but didn't get it, luckily Aero crit the golem with EQ and took it out. Snorlax won the 1v1 against Milotic, closing out a tough match. Not much to say about the rest of the games, Golem tried ruining my life again in match 7 but failed.

Round 11
Latias 7, Registeel 2 lead, Kingdra 3 in the back. These were my only usable mons in the draft. EQ Latias had a terrible synergy with Registeel but I had no other options. It was finally Kingdra's time to shine. Unlike Starmie earlier, Kingdra came up big with Hydro Pump hits. Very comfortable wins up until the hype match 6. I accidentally clicked EQ on Latias, thinking I was on Registeel. This brought Registeel low with Latias also low, against low hp Granbull and full hp Articuno. I ended up with full hp Kingdra, super low hp Registeel, against full hp Electabuzz and full hp Articuno. I had almost resigned myself to losing the run, but GOAT Kingdra had other plans. Buzz gave me an out by clicking Focus Punch?! Which let Registeel almost kill with EQ. Kingdra finished it off with Hydro Pump and Registeel went down to Articuno. Then after a bunch of dragon dances and a well timed endure, Flail took the Articuno out, with Kingdra on 1 hp. Honestly the most hype game of the run. MVP Kingdra cleaned up match 7 for a go at round 12.

Round 12
Dusclops 2, Venusaur 2 lead, Kingdra 2 in the back. Where it all came crashing down. The draft was awful so I settled on some cheesy tank doubles team, toxic leach seed leads. Kingdra just got me through the last round so I had to take it, well one of them. I got 2 Kingdras in this draft. I opted for this set over the Hydro pump set, since it had Ice beam coverage. Match 1 Registeel and Kanga couldn't touch either of my mons, so I set up and was left with Gardevoir in the back to deal with. Since I had evasion up it couldn't hit Venusaur and match 1 was a win. Match 2 was where I lost. A dreaded Alakazam, Umbreon lead proved too difficult to deal with. I ended up taking down Alakazam, in which Kingdra played a pivotal role but was unable to double team my Venusaur up and lost my Kingdra in the process. Magmar was in the back and without Kingdra there was no hope left.

Pretty close to the world record, pretty devastating to stay up to 5am and have the run end there, but an insane PB and I'll be back again to see if I can get to 100 wins.

Link to stream vod -

 

[Icebeam1st]

Hello everyone, I'm here to report my Open Level Battle Pyramid streak of 70. (Done on Emulator)

​

I had all the other Gold Symbols except the one from Battle Pyramid, and after watching LRXC play some Battle Factory, I kinda felt motivated to finally get my final Gold Symbol.

This was a pretty straightforward run from me, nothing too crazy or original, but I did plan my Rounds out.
First, I'll introduce all the Pokémon I used so far on my run.

I must first clarify that all of my Pokémon are level 60, there's no real reason for this other than I like to raise them to that level so I can use them on Pokémon XD's Orre Colosseum, as that is the minimum level there. If anyone knows what is the most optimal Level to be on Open Level, I would love to know.
And lastly, all of my Pokémon were obtained via RNG manipulation, I have used both ACE codes to change my PRNG state to catch flawless shinies on another save file, and I've catched a 6IV Ditto on my main save file for Egg RNG.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIXIE KONG (Slaking)
Ability: Truant
Level: 60
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Hyper Beam
​

The star of the show, Slaking is one of my favorite Pokémon, and I'm really happy that it can perform so well on the Battle Pyramid.
It's fairly obvious as to why Slaking is one of the best Pokémon for this facility, most battles are 1 v 1's against either wild Pokémon or Trainer battles, and because battles are so short, Truant almost never ends up hindering Slaking in here.
Of course, there is always a Pokémon that carries out Protect/Detect to stall out a turn, but ultimately, this doesn't really matter, at worst, a Trainer might spam it so you waste your moves PP, nothing that a good old switch can fix.

In short: Slaking is VERY strong, is fast enough to out-speed almost every Wild Pokémon, even with an Adamant nature, and is also bulky enough to take a hit even if it gets out-sped.

Return is a strong STAB attack with 32 PP, Hyper Beam is there to KO certain Pokémon that would otherwise survive a Return (For example, Brandon's Articuno might survive a Return, but it doesn't take a Hyper Beam), Shadow Ball is excellent coverage for Ghosts and Psychic types, and Earthquake takes care of the Rock and Steel types that would resist its STAB.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linoone
Ability: Pickup
Level: 60
- Slash
- Belly Drum
- Odor Sleuth
- Mud Sport
​

Next up we have... Linoone?

It might seem weird at first, but if you know how the Battle Pyramid works, you know where this is going.
Pickup actually works on the Battle Pyramid, and it has a different Pickup Table for every round (You can check them here).
It so happens that on Round 2, you can Pickup Choice Band, a MUST HAVE for Slaking, as well as other very useful Items such as Hyper Potions, Revives, PP Restoring items, and even Leftovers.

So my plan for this run was to hunt for a Choice Band right away, and so I did after almost wasting all of my moves on Floor 6, this still relies on luck after all.
Everything goes smoothly after getting Choice Band, Slaking can pretty much just OHKO almost anything now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blissey
Ability: Natural Cure
Level: 60
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 172 HP / 252 Def / 84 Spe
Bold Nature
- Toxic
- Seismic Toss
- Soft-Boiled
- Heal Bell
​

Next up we have Blissey, with admittedly a weird EV Spread, I don't remember why i have this spread, i was probably building for Battle Tower and i heard somewhere that a Blissey with some Speed EV's was good to out-speed...something, i really don't remember, but that's what I'm rolling with, I might change this as I keep going with the streak, let me know whats a good optimal Blissey spread.

Anyway, Blissey is here for two things: Heal up allies, and the occasional switching into a Special Attacker.
For those who don't know, you can actually use Soft-Boiled outside of battle! You basically sacrifice some of Blissey's HP to heal up an ally, it's not a big deal since you could heal your HP back in battle against a Wild Pokémon that cant really hurt Blissey, It's the same for Heal Bell, use it against a weak Wild Pokémon to heal up your allies status, all of this is done to not waste healing items so I can actually stock them up as I go on and use them when I truly need them.

Shes also very good against Brandon's Gold Team, but hes not that difficult to begin with anyway.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TITAN (Metagross)
Ability: Clear Body
Level: 60
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Explosion
​

Here's Metagross, my main backup.

Now the moveset is not optimized for this facility, it was made for Battle Tower runs, but honestly, I don't know what else i could add to it, Meteor Mash/Earthquake/Rock Slide is good enough to deal with pretty much everything it needs to.

It's Steel typing is very valuable against some of the Wild Pokémon in some rounds, which lets it switch and run away from some Pokémon while taking minimal damage, which is very good to save PP's.

There's not a lot to say about this guy, good typing, hits hard, and it resists things.

Probably could use something else but I don't really know what else I could use with Slaking + Blissey, preferably something that doesn't get completely walled by Skarmory (Thank god I have not yet faced a trainer with one on my run).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GOOFBALL (Gengar)
Ability: Levitate
Level: 60
EVs: 252 SpA / 6 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Confuse Ray​

Lastly, but certainly not the least, we have Gengar.

I bred this Gengar specifically for Round 8, where every Wild Pokémon there is armed with Self-Destruct/Explosion.
This is actually very good for us because you can just switch into Gengar, and the AI might explode on you, if they do, you get a free win, increasing your visibility of the floor, without wasting any PP on your moves.
Gengar also completely walls Wild Golem, which shows up up to Floor 4, and takes minimal damage from Pineco, Shiftry and Forretress.

Electrode, Gengar and Solrock unfortunately exist, but honestly, Electrode only shows up on the first two floors, and Solrock barely does any significant damage, and Wild Gengar just gets walled by Slaking and It never out-speeds it so it can't mess you up with Destiny Bond.

Gengar makes Round 8 fairly safe and saves you a a lot of move PP.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's the whole squad that I've used so far! I technically also used Houndoom on Round 3, but It just didn't really work, my idea was that Houndoom could wall almost every Wild Encounter on that round except for Medicham and Magcargo, but it was just not worth it in the end.

Now here's an overview of all of my Rounds:

• Round 1, 2:

  

  

  

  : The start of the run, there's not much to talk about here other than Wild Skarmory on Round 2 is annoying, I just stocked on items with Pickup and hunted for a Choice Band on Round 2.​
• Round 3:

  

  

  

  : Like I stated earlier, I tried to use Houndoom on this Round because it could theoretically wall many of the Wild Pokémon there, but ultimately it didn't really matter as Slaking would just OHKO anything on it's path.​
• Round 4:
  
  
  
  : This is pretty much the main team that I used for the majority of the run.
  Round 4 was made to be extremely annoying, there's 2 Pressure Wild Pokémon, and both of them carry around Protect, and they unfortunately show up for most of the floors. I just tried to run from Absol and Dusclops whenever I faced them since it was never worth it to waste moves on them.
  
  
• Round 5:
  
  
  
  : This round went smoothly, nothing really threatening me, some Pokémon have Self-Destruct but Slaking can just OHKO them before they can use it, at worst, Weezing clicks Protect and goes for Self-Destruct right after, forcing me to go Metagross and take some damage.
  
  
• Round 6:
  
  
  
  : This round might look scary at first, but really the only annoying thing here is Trapinch(2) and Dugtrio since they both carry out Protect, and are trapping you with Arena Trap, this can lead to scenarios where you end up losing a lot of HP or even dying if they spam Protect on your Truant turns, luckily this didn't happen to me.
  
  
• Round 7:
  
  
  
  : This was a very uninteresting round, it features Wild Ice Types but none of them end up causing any problems to me, there's the occasional Protect on Glalie and Cloyster, but Blissey just walls them all day long.
  
  
• Round 8:

  

  

  

  : This is where I made good use of Gengar, giving me free wins against Wild Pokémon without wasting any moves on them, since they are most likely going to explode. I also managed to find a BrightPowder here.​
• Round 9:

  

  

  

  : Another uninteresting round, this one features Wild Psychic Types, and they all drop to Slaking's attacks, not much to say here other than I got stuck on one of the floors because I couldn't find the exit, ending up wasting some PP, but at this point I have several Leppa Berries/Ethers.​
• Round 10:

  

  

  

  : The last Round for the Gold Symbol, and this one caused me a bit of trouble, this time the gimmick is Wild Rock Types, and some of them are annoying for my Slaking, for starters, a high leveled Steelix can survive an Earthquake from my Choice Band Slaking, Golem is also back and this time on not carrying Gengar with me, so if it ever decides to Protect, i'm forced to go to Metagross and take damage from either Self-Destruct or Earthquake, Cradily is another Pokémon that my Slaking can't OHKO if it's high leveled, forcing me to switch to Metagross, luckily, it can't really touch it, best it can do is using Confuse Ray, and lastly, Wild Aerodactyl is annoying because it can have Pressure, I just tried to switch to Metagross whenever one showed up and try to run away, but because it's so fast compared to Metagross, my odds of running away from battle are not very good, so I ended up taking alot of damage in some cases.
  On floor 6 I actually managed to find a second Choice Band on the ground, which will go to my Metagross.
  
  I wish i could say I had an epic final battle against Brandon at the end but...I just ended up clicking Hyper Beam with Slaking three times and win, since Zapdos just spammed Detect on me, and Moltres went for Safeguard...a bit anti-climatic but I'll take it.
  Regardless, like i stated earlier, I have a Blissey that pretty much walls his entire team so I wasn't really worried.​

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And that was my journey to obtain my last Gold Symbol! I wish i could talk about my journey on the other facilities but, I have gotten their Gold Symbols back in 2018 and I didn't really take notes of the whole thing, but I pretty much used a Swampert, Metagross and a Salamence, all of them with just kind of okay IV's since I didn't know how to RNG manip yet.

For my next goal, I'm aiming towards 100 wins on the Battle Tower, so I can get the Gold Shield for my secret base.
I might continue this streak one day, maybe with more optimal sets for my Pokémon.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this, and I hope you all have a great day!