Emerald Battle Frontier Guide PLEASE HELP DEVELOPING

[StoneDos95]

Well, i know no one likes 3rd gen yet, and/or does not want to do such a hard job like a detailed walkthrough guide for the Emerald Battle frontier. So if someone could just comment my strategy i'll be very very happy. This is the first post of my life! :D It want to be something like a self-guide to the emerald battle frontier, because i searched a lot but i've never found nothing really detailed. Well, Let's Start:

Battle Pike:

This is the easiest facility of the battle frontier. Anyway, in case of bad luck, you will suffer from wild pokemon or sinthetic experiments on your pokemon before a battle so that they will be inflicted by a status condition... However this won't be too hard, and with a little good luck, everything will go right.

• Silver run:
- Metagross (Adamant) Choice Band
160 hp/252 atk/96 spe
1) Meteor Mash
2) Earthquake
3) Sludge Bomb
4) Rock Slide

- Gyarados (Adamant) Lum Berry
68 hp/252 atk/188 spe
1) Taunt
2) Dragon dance
3) Earthquake
4) Double edge

- Blissey (Modest) Leftovers
252 hp/252 spatk/4 spdef
1) Calm Mind
2) SoftBoiled
3) Thunderbolt
4) Ice beam

This is the team for the first run. CB Metagross as leader to take out easily trainers' leader and almost immune to every move of Seviper, which will be throw up out of the rooftop thanks to s.e. Earthquake. Than as cover for problems a TauntRados that block COMPLETELY Shuckle and can set up infinite DD. In the end Blissey for 3 reasons: fisrt of all gains the team the "Special component", with Bolt-Beam combo. Secondary, can stall on Milotic putting multiple CM and recovering by SBoiled, and when +6 CM Milotic will be OHKOed by Thunderbolt. In the end, SoftBoiled will be used also in case of necessesity if the other pokemon are hurt during the run (so Max Investiment in Ps and Spatk).

• Gold run:
- Metagross (Adamant) Choice Band
160 hp/252 atk/96 spe
1) Meteor Mash
2) Earthquake
3) Sludge Bomb
4) Rock Slide

- Milotic (Bold) Leftovers
252 hp/252 def/4 spatk
1) Surf
2) Ice beam
3) Recover
4) Hypnosis

- Gengar (Timid) Lum Berry
4 hp/252 spatk/252 spe
1) Thunderbolt
2) Psychic
3) Giga drain
4) Fire punch

Again, Metagross works well. Milotic for having a strong Bulky Water and to counter easily Steelix, and in the end an All-Out Attacker Gengar to take out almost everything (especially that stupid DDos with just body slam as damage move).

Battle Dome:

Battle dome is my favourite one. Battle dome will let you use just 2 on 3 pokemon, so for the third slot choice whatever you want, based on the team you wish to use. A baton pass idea shoud be great in this case.

• Silver run:
- Gengar (Timid) Leftovers
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Giga drain
2) Ice punch
3) Thunderbolt
4) Psychic

- Aerodactyl (Jolly) Choice Band (Rock Head)
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Rock slide
2) Earthquake
3) Aeral ace
4) Double edge

The strategy is simple. Lead with Gengar. If it's Swampert, Giga drain. If it's Salamence, Ice punch. If it's Charizard, try to kill it with Thunderbolt or switch to Aerodactyl (of course supposing he's not so stupid/clever to use Rock slide) and then kill it with Rock slide. This could be used also in the case of Salamence.

• Gold run:
- Shedinja (Lonely/Naughty) Lum Berry
252 atk/252 spe
1) Swords dance
2) Silver wind
3) Aeral ace
4) Shadow ball
- //

That's pretty incredible. No pokemon of Tucker can damage or inflict status to Shedinja. For the gold run, choose 2 strong pokemon and use them, then against Tucker send out Sheddy and automatically win.

Battle Tower:
Traditional, competitive, usual. The team is studied to be synergic and to counter the ace.

• Silver run:
- Heracross (Adamant) @Salac Berry (Guts)
1) Endure
2) Swords Dance
3) Megahorn
4) Reversal

- Gyarados (Adamant) Lum Berry
68 hp/252 atk/188 spe
1) Taunt
2) Dragon dance
3) Earthquake
4) Double Edge

- Tyranitar (Adamant) Leftovers
252 hp/240 atk/16 spe
1) Substitute
2) Focus Punch
3) Earthquake
4) Rock slide

Leading with Heracross, with a Reversal Set, that can take the fire punch even if against a 405 spatk Alakazam, and can OHKO with Megahorn and, if Salacked+SD, can reversal Snorlax and possibly Entei; note that i preferred Guts to Swarm because that Alakazam will use all the punches and has chance to inflict status. The second pass is to Taunt Entei with TauntRados and Earthquake to finish with a Jack on Snorlax with SubPunchTar. I think this could be work, and i really trust in Heracross. If you calculate the damage also considering a 405 spatk Alakazam with super eff. Fire punch, there will be no possibility to OHKO it (unless with a critical hit!). Even if it gets a critical, send out Tyranitar and kill him anyway. This will cause sandstorm to come, and Gyarados won't like it, but it's only in case of emergency.

• Gold run:
- Dugtrio (Jolly) Choice Band (Arena Trap)
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Earthquake
2) Rock slide
3) Aeral Ace
4) Slash

- Metagross (Adamant) King's Rock
160 hp/252 atk/96 spe
1) Meteor Mash
2) Earthquake
3) Sludge bomb
4) Shadow Ball

- Tyranitar (Adamant) Leftovers
252 hp/240 atk/16 spe
1) Substitute
2) Focus Punch
3) Earthquake
4) Rock slide

This team can also consider switch ins, with sandstorm all the way, jack on Raikow with CB Dugtrio which is a fast-strong leader, thah Shadow Ball Metagross for Latios as strong attacker and then same strategy for Snorlax, with the desert king Tyranitar. I love this sand team:) i guess this will works. It might seem a little Physical, but well, it hurts a lot.

Battle Pyramid:

Battle pyramid is very interesting. You can use instruments, there are wild pokemon, a labyrinth, and so much more! It's obvious that is recommended a fast leader to run away from wild pokemon not to use PP.

• Silver run:
- Flygon (Naughty)
188 hp/180 atk/140 spe
1) Earthquake
2) Rock slide
3) Fire blast
4) Toxic

- Heracross (Adamant) (Guts)
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Swords dance
2) Megahorn
3) Brick break
4) Rock slide

- Metagross (Adamant)
160 hp/252 atk/96 spe
1) Meteor Mash
2) Earthquake
3) Sludge bomb
4) Rock slide

Flygon leads the team through the pyramid beacuse it's fast and hits strong and anyway it's bulky. In particular it scares completely Regirock, and after killing it, can hit hard every of the Regis. Heracross with Guts this time makes an excellent choice for me because is not so uncommon to income in status conditions through the pyramid, and in particular can get the toxic by registeel without being scared by Earthquake. In the end Metagross to counter Regice with STAB Meteor Mash just if it is necessary. In particular the fact is that all these 3 pokemon can sweep all the Regis alone with the good tactics.

• Gold run:
- Starmie (Timid) (Natural cure)
4 hp/252 spatk/252 spe
1) Surf
2) Thunderbolt
3) Ice beam
4) Psychic

- Rhydon (Adamant) (Rock Head)
252 hp/252 atk/4 spe
1) Megahorn
2) Earthquake
3) Rock slide
4) Brick break
- //

Even easier. Starmie is the right leader as he as got Natural Cure and it's very fast, and can easily kill Arricuno with Thunderbolt. Then Rhydon cannot be damaged significantly by neither of the other Birds because of their movesets. 2HKO for Zapdos and OHKO for Moltres with Rock slide/blast. The third slot should be occupied by a very bulky pokemon, especially Blissey with Softboiled should help the team; anyway, you won't need any other member on the team to sweep the birds (and even, Blissey is not a bad choice i think).

Battle Arena:

Battle arena is incredibly funny. You will have 3 turns per fight, and if you don't ko, pokemon will be judged. So my strategy is based to OHKO quickly as much pokemon as you can.

• Silver run:
- Salamence (Adamant) Lum Berry
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Dragon dance
2) Earthquake
3) Rock slide
4) Aeral ace

- Tyranitar (Adamant) Leftovers
252 hp/240 atk/16 spe
1) Substitute
2) Focus Punch
3) Earthquake
4) Rock slide
- //

Salamence as Intimidate Leader can cripple most of the weak pokemon and in 1-2 dd sweep more than 1 pokemon and also jack on heracross that can damage him only by rock TOMB (which is weak enough not to guarantee an OHKO), and a 4xSTAB Aeral ace to kill it. The Umbreon will be jacked by SubPunchTar, whose sandstorm will kiss Shedinja immediately. For the third slot i recommand something that can take advantage from the sandstorm, and can give synergy to the team. Something like a Swampert o a CB Dugtrio, or even a Metagross. Don't know.

• Gold run:
- Tyranitar (Adamant) Leftovers
252 hp/240 atk/16 spe
1) Substitute
2) Focus Punch
3) Earthquake
4) Rock slide

- //

- Aerodactyl (Jolly) Choice Band (Rock Head)
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Rock slide
2) Earthquake
3) Double edge
4) Aeral Ace

This starts with Tyranitar as Sandstorm Leader with Substitute to scout dangers and heavy strong attacks. Then again it will scary Umbreon and totally Gengar because that Gengar only has PsyMoves. I recommend again something that likes playing in the sandstorm (but NOT a rock type). For the third slot i choose Aerodactyl because always Outrun Breloom and can CB-STAB 4x Aeral Ace to OHKO it. Also, is a rock type, and gets spdef boost in the sand. That's right, i like the sand :D

Battle Palace:

The battle palace really rappresent a great bet. This because your pokemon will choice moves by themselves, depending on their nature; this means that this challenge will be also a question of luck.

• Silver run:
- Gengar (Timid) Lum Berry
4 hp/252 spatk/252 spe
1) Psychic
2) Ice punch
3) Fire punch
4) Thunder

- Salamence (Adamant) Leftovers
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Dragon dance
2) Earthquake
3) Rock slide
4) Brick break

- Magneton (Modest) @Chesto Berry (Sturdy)
96 hp/252 spatk/188 spe
1) Thunderbolt
2) Metal sound
3) Toxic
4) Rest

The strategy consists into putting Gengar as fast leader with massive spatk set that cannot be toxicked and can kill crobat with both thunder (if it used fly), psychic and ice punch. Then Salamence was the only way i thought i could counter Slaking because of intimidate and the only real threat rappresented by shadow ball and a Sitrus Berry to recover great part of the Hps after a huge hit. In the end Magneton with Sturdy to avoid horn drill and to take out Lapras quickly.

• Gold run:
- Salamence (Adamant) @Liechi Berry
4 hp/252 atk/252 spe
1) Dragon dance
2) Earthquake
3) Rock slide
4) Brick break

- Starmie (Timid) Leftovers (Natural cure)
4 hp/252 spatk/252 spe
1) Surf
2) Thunderbolt
3) Ice beam
4) Psychic

- Regice (Calm) @Chesto berry
252 hp/112 def/64 spatk/60 spdef/20 spe
1) Seismic toss
2) Thunder
3) Rest
4) Psich up

Allright, that's the hardest challenge. Leader: Starmie, fast killer, all out attacker. Arcnine will be down if that star is not stupid enough to use only ice beam. Again salamence against Slaking, because it does not OHKO Sally with Hyper Beam (considering Intimidate), as in front of damage calculation we can see a max damage of 304, and then, the Liechi Berry will shut that gorilla down. Psych-up Regice to counter totally CM Suicune, with Thunder and Seismic toss. Well, is not such a bad idea leading this team with Salamence, and facing Spencer, change quickly to Starmie with a less powerful extrarapid.

This is my strategy. I really hope someone could comment this, and make that stronger than i can. I love 3rd gen, i think past gen must never be forgotten, this is AMAZING... Allright, please tell me what do you think about this work:) i really invested a mountain of time for this.

Thank you all,
- StoneDos95 (From ITALY)

 

[StoneDos95]

I edited Blissey on the Silver Run of Battle Pike. I changed it to Modest to invest massively on spatk. It is a blissey properly made as a "nurse" for emergency, not a real competitive set.
Anyway, i really would like to recieve some opinions about this, especially if something must be changed! I hope in some answer. Bye bye
:)

- StoneDos95

 

[StoneDos95]

Is someone thinking that something shoud be changed? I hope in some Opinions..

 

[gepesek]

hey man ! cool guide ! I get all the silver symbols long time ago, and recently i go back to emerald and decided to get all Gold Symbols. I started for my favorite facility, the Battle Dome. I managed to go to tucker with a team (all lvl 50) formed by:

Blaziken, Salac Berry
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast
-Endevor
-Reversal

Milotic, Leftovers
-Surf
-Ice beam
-Toxic
-Recover

Latios, Scope Lens
-Thunderbolt
-Psychic
-Dragon Claw
-Recover

The team works really well and really have no real problem to get to Tucker, but then... My main plan was to use Endevor on Swampert's Eartquake (because tukcer used to lead with Swampert) and the defeat it with Reversal. Then Use Fire Blast if Metagross was his last pokemon to OHKO it or Reversal on Latias to revenge kill it with Latios. I know Latias have Thunderbolt so Milotic loses 1vs1 against him and Latias resist Blaziken Stab moves, that's why i bring Latios.
The main failure was, for my surprise, that Swampert tank Blaziken's Reversal, and Tucker brings Metagross as his second pokemon so...

Now i want to build 3 or 4 pokemon more to win all the Gold Symbols since i'm raged as fuck xD Latios and Blaziken are still usable since they're EV trained and have ideal natures (Timid and Hasty). Also I have a Modest 31 IV on Sp Atck Alakazam with Psychic and the elemental Punches and a Adamant Tyranitar with good IV's overall with Dragon Dance, Rock Slide, Hidden Power Bug and Earthquake . I was thinking on the next pokemon:

Metagross, Adamant, Choice Band
-Meteor Mash
-Shadow ball
-Earthquake
-Explosion

Curselax, Sassy, Leftovers
-Body Slam
-Shadow Ball
-Curse
-Rest

Lapras, Bold, Leftovers
-Surf
-Ice beam
-Thunderbolt
-Rest

Slaking, Adamant or Jolly, i don't know, Choice Band
-Hyper Beam
-Earthquake
-Shadow Ball
-Aerial Ace

Wich you would choose ?? Feel free to suggest any other poke, but keep in mind the only legendary i can use is latios, the other have bad narute's and IV's. Also i only want to breed 6 because my plan is raise this same pokemon to lvl 100 to use it on Pokemon Colosseum.

Once again, awsome work !! good to see someone who loves Battle Frontier !

 

[StoneDos95]

hey man ! cool guide ! I get all the silver symbols long time ago, and recently i go back to emerald and decided to get all Gold Symbols. I started for my favorite facility, the Battle Dome. I managed to go to tucker with a team (all lvl 50) formed by:

Blaziken, Salac Berry
-Earthquake
-Fire Blast
-Endevor
-Reversal

Milotic, Leftovers
-Surf
-Ice beam
-Toxic
-Recover

Latios, Scope Lens
-Thunderbolt
-Psychic
-Dragon Claw
-Recover

The team works really well and really have no real problem to get to Tucker, but then... My main plan was to use Endevor on Swampert's Eartquake (because tukcer used to lead with Swampert) and the defeat it with Reversal. Then Use Fire Blast if Metagross was his last pokemon to OHKO it or Reversal on Latias to revenge kill it with Latios. I know Latias have Thunderbolt so Milotic loses 1vs1 against him and Latias resist Blaziken Stab moves, that's why i bring Latios.
The main failure was, for my surprise, that Swampert tank Blaziken's Reversal, and Tucker brings Metagross as his second pokemon so...

Now i want to build 3 or 4 pokemon more to win all the Gold Symbols since i'm raged as fuck xD Latios and Blaziken are still usable since they're EV trained and have ideal natures (Timid and Hasty). Also I have a Modest 31 IV on Sp Atck Alakazam with Psychic and the elemental Punches and a Adamant Tyranitar with good IV's overall with Dragon Dance, Rock Slide, Hidden Power Bug and Earthquake . I was thinking on the next pokemon:

Metagross, Adamant, Choice Band
-Meteor Mash
-Shadow ball
-Earthquake
-Explosion

Curselax, Sassy, Leftovers
-Body Slam
-Shadow Ball
-Curse
-Rest

Lapras, Bold, Leftovers
-Surf
-Ice beam
-Thunderbolt
-Rest

Slaking, Adamant or Jolly, i don't know, Choice Band
-Hyper Beam
-Earthquake
-Shadow Ball
-Aerial Ace

Wich you would choose ?? Feel free to suggest any other poke, but keep in mind the only legendary i can use is latios, the other have bad narute's and IV's. Also i only want to breed 6 because my plan is raise this same pokemon to lvl 100 to use it on Pokemon Colosseum.

Once again, awsome work !! good to see someone who loves Battle Frontier !

First of all, compliments for 31 iv Alakazam.

Well i think Slaking is absolutely a BEAST trough the battle frontier, it's just a case if i didn't put it in any of my team. So i really recommand it. Same for Metagross because is an excellent pokemon and i think i don't have to explain you why.. Lapras mmh, it's a great wall and fit well with Latios and Blaziken but it is a little too slow, so if you choose it make sure to lead well. Curselax is a MONSTER but i think it would deserve Chesto berry. If i had to choose one of them, anyway, i would choice Slaking, possibly Adamant. CB Slaking means OHKO on mostly everything, and those who resists probably will suffer SpAtks, and you have a lot of them (Blaziken, Latios, Alakazam). You can even try to change them facility-per-facility, considering that everyone has its iussues. NOTE Slaking is the King of Pyramid (so it won't be such a bad idea change it to Jolly). Hope this can help you!!!

Ps: do you think my guide needs some changes? Because no one answered me :'(

 

[gepesek]

My intention is to rise 6 or 7 pokemon to lvl 100, and then choosing what 3 fits best to beat every facility on the Battle Frontier. I'm starting to build a Adamant Metagross. Slaking will be the next one since pyramid is a pain and Slaking as you said will be a great aset. So probably the pokemons i will have wil be; Alakazam, Tyranitar, Latios, Metagross, Lapras, Slaking and Blaziken. Do you thing with this seven it is possible to get all the gold symbols ?? i'ts because requires a lot of time to make lvl 100 competitive pokes on Emerald XDD. Thanks for all your suggestions !

Speaking of your guide; It's overall really a great work. I honestly will focus more on give tips for every facility because sometimes reaching to face the Brain Frontier is much more difficult than the battle itself. An example: for the Battle Dome Gold Symbol is recomended to have 2 pokemon that have great coverage to hit super efective the most posible pokemon, for example Gengar and Metagros, and then a Bulky Water mostly for dragons and sturdy pokemon difficult OHKO, for example Milotic or Suicune. I can only speak about the battle Dome because is the only one i battle for the gold symbol to this day.

Another minor tip; sandstorm doesn't boost the Sp.Def of Rock types in Gen 3 ;)

As i said, it's a great guide and i apreciatte a lot your work, keep on !

 

[StoneDos95]

Thank You!!! Well i think with those seven you CAN beat the frontier, but not surely! The fact is as you said even if you are ready for the Brain maybe somthing can stop you, especially speaking about Pyramid and Palace. Pyramid should fall to Slaking even in the Gold run, but the most difficoult one will always be the Palace in my opinion.
Obviously with those 7 you will beat Pike, Dome, Tower, as you can make a balanced team and assuming a precise EV training (which is NOT that difficoult, believe me!) you will be able to face everything.
By the Pyramid things get troubled, and the key role goes to Slaking and Metagross. Make sure Slaking got Facade before facing pyramid.
Battle Arena will rappresent another problem, not for the Brain because she's done just with Tyranitar, but for the trainers because you cannot change and you have to be judjed; so use pokemon with High ammount of HPs.
By the way, the Palace will put you in serios trouble. I don't know any advice for you for that, it's mostly about luck. Be sure not to use the most freakier ones, and balance your team very well because you cannot choose moves.
The only thing i think will beat you is the Palace's Brain, Spencer, because i don't think you can counter WITHOUT MOVING any of his pokemon: he starts with Arcanine and don't think that a Bulky water will be enough bevause it knows Roar. Anyway it is the easiest one, because Slaking kills mostly everything. I chose Salamence with Intimidate to counter it, and i even wrote that it could not be enough. Using Metagross, Latios o Alakazam is totally a bad Idea, and even Tyranitar because it will fall to earthquake. Then you will face Suicune and this is the main trouble, but i realized that a Psich Up Regice can totally Scary it. Using Lapras will be a question of Luck, as if it starts to use Calm Mind you probably won't be able to kill it after the 2nd/3rd usage.

So in the end i think with that team you will have no problems on getting Pike, Dome, Tower, Pyramid and using your abilities even Arena, but the Palace still needs attenction.
Maybe you can use the same pokemon but be sure to study movesets for the gold run; the fact is that a moveset studied for the brain maybe is not recommanded for trainers, so be careful on your choices or consider one last pokemon just for the Palace to give your team more chanches! Nevermind face the Palace for last, you're ready with them 7 to get the other symbols!

PS: i know that a baton pass team breaks the facilities in both silver and gold runs, especially considering the Dome! So consider a baton pass pokemon even not at lv 100!

 

[Zukrad]

Great guide!! I wish I have seen this a few years before...

but I destroyed the battle frontier with Banded Metagross + Soul Dew Latios (Yep, this guy was legal in the battle frontier... idk why) + filler mon anyways once I started getting into competitive

 

[Wrulfy]

Not technically from vanilla emerald, but for a hack that also touched battle frontier, is that a fast attacker with teleport works wonders as leader in the battle pyramid.

what I was using had 90/80/80 bulk with 130 base speed with teleport, revover and 2 stabs, but I guess an alakazam with teleport and recover and defensive investment should help too.

Mostly because wild encounters there can't be fleed or the chances to fleed are pretty low even when outspeeding the enemy, so you can just outspeed with teleport. Not really sure if run away works, but the best users for it would be rapidash and dodrio

Also, play on LV50 if possilbe. or whatever lowest level you can in open level. Why? because hyper potions. the lower the level of your pokemon, the the fewer HP they have. So Hyper potions will heal more.

 

[Smuckem]

Way late on reading this, but doing so has sprouted some ideas in my head to try in the distant future. While these sets are, for the most part, seen as outdated and not applicable to most facilities that have emerged since Gen III, I would still be gung-ho enough to try them unchanged in Subway/Maison/Tree, see how far I could get them. Since I am playing all three to varying degrees these days, it would be possible to test out mutilple teams at once (although the variety present in Maison means I could realistically cram them all in my Gen VI games and go from there). Your Pyramid gold print run team immediately springs to mind as something that could work to an extent in later facilities (from Subway onward, Eviolite on Rhydon gives it a huge advantage, plus there are several excellent options available to fill the bulky third slot). Thanks for the creativity!

 

[Memorizee]

Great guide!! I wish I have seen this a few years before...

but I destroyed the battle frontier with Banded Metagross + Soul Dew Latios (Yep, this guy was legal in the battle frontier... idk why) + filler mon anyways once I started getting into competitive

Sadly Soul Dew does not work in the Battle Frontier or any battle facilities until it was nerfed in Gen 7, but it works everywhere else in the game

Also to the guide creator excellent job! It's so nice to see interest in Gen III, and considering not a lot of guides out there for the best frontier ever

 

[Zukrad]

Sadly Soul Dew does not work in the Battle Frontier or any battle facilities until it was nerfed in Gen 7, but it works everywhere else in the game

Also to the guide creator excellent job! It's so nice to see interest in Gen III, and considering not a lot of guides out there for the best frontier ever

It was legal in Emerald Battle Frontier

Nvm, I was wrong lol

 

[StoneDos95]

So... how does my strategy seem in the end?? Is it valid or needs changes??

 

[Vladimir Nesic]

Hope this is not a dead thread, your teams are fantastic. I'm not the greatest player right now (3 silver symbols, didn't dare to try battle palace, it was giving me nightmares when I was younger) but I'll add some pokemon that really helped me out:
Ninjask @ Leftovers
Careful
252 HP 212 Def 44 SpD
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass
- Substitute
- Aerial Ace
Ah, yes. A classic indeed. Nothing better than boosting Attack against pesky evaders and then hitting them with AA. Baton Pass lets you sweep with something actually powerful. Speed EVs are useless, but you may consider Attack.
Suicune @ Chesto Berry (or Leftovers, but only one member can hold them)
Bold
252 HP 252 Def 4 SpD/Spe
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Whoa I won it all with this. Make sure your Suicune doesn't have literally ZERO IVs in Defence, like mine. Really pissed me off when I calculated them. Nothing really beats this set except physical wallbreakers since both water weaknesses are special. Cross chop crit ruined my shot for gold tower symbol...
Meganium @ Brightpowder (made two Overheats miss in a row LOL)
Careful
252 HP rest EVs made defences even
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Body Slam
- Synthesis
My favourite lead. Spam screens, spam paralysis. Really helps other Swords Dance / Dragon Dance team members. My Salamence lost about 20HP from Aerial Ace Absol after Reflect and Intimidate. DD spam destroyed the enemy team. Meggy may however work with Giga Drain too, but I don't prefer it.

Anyway, your strategy sounds flawless, but you may try my pokémon as well. Suicune is especially powerful and I took down Kingdras with Surf couple of times. Happy stalling!

 

[StoneDos95]

Hope this is not a dead thread, your teams are fantastic. I'm not the greatest player right now (3 silver symbols, didn't dare to try battle palace, it was giving me nightmares when I was younger) but I'll add some pokemon that really helped me out:
Ninjask @ Leftovers
Careful
252 HP 212 Def 44 SpD
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass
- Substitute
- Aerial Ace
Ah, yes. A classic indeed. Nothing better than boosting Attack against pesky evaders and then hitting them with AA. Baton Pass lets you sweep with something actually powerful. Speed EVs are useless, but you may consider Attack.
Suicune @ Chesto Berry (or Leftovers, but only one member can hold them)
Bold
252 HP 252 Def 4 SpD/Spe
- Surf
- Calm Mind
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Whoa I won it all with this. Make sure your Suicune doesn't have literally ZERO IVs in Defence, like mine. Really pissed me off when I calculated them. Nothing really beats this set except physical wallbreakers since both water weaknesses are special. Cross chop crit ruined my shot for gold tower symbol...
Meganium @ Brightpowder (made two Overheats miss in a row LOL)
Careful
252 HP rest EVs made defences even
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Body Slam
- Synthesis
My favourite lead. Spam screens, spam paralysis. Really helps other Swords Dance / Dragon Dance team members. My Salamence lost about 20HP from Aerial Ace Absol after Reflect and Intimidate. DD spam destroyed the enemy team. Meggy may however work with Giga Drain too, but I don't prefer it.

Anyway, your strategy sounds flawless, but you may try my pokémon as well. Suicune is especially powerful and I took down Kingdras with Surf couple of times. Happy stalling!

OMG Bro!!! Yes this was a dead rhread but you made it revive!!! I,ve been waiting for answer for years... and then you came!!! Thank you so much for your opinion, it will be absolutely used!!! Please, if you have ANY other advice/change/opinion DON’T wait to answer!!!! Thank you so much bro!!!

 

[Smuckem]

StoneDos95 You may be interested in contacting ReptoAbysmal sometime, he tells me he played with Suicune for Battle Palace years ago and basically owned the place with it. Since you don't have Suicune anywhere on your team, you may want to check it out sometime and try Repto's set.

EDIT: Happy to see you're still on the forums at all, btw.

 

[Vladimir Nesic]

OMG Bro!!! Yes this was a dead rhread but you made it revive!!! I,ve been waiting for answer for years... and then you came!!! Thank you so much for your opinion, it will be absolutely used!!! Please, if you have ANY other advice/change/opinion DON’T wait to answer!!!! Thank you so much bro!!!

Glad you liked it! By the way yeah, Slaking, Suicune and Salamence pretty much owned the game for me. If its name starts with S, it's broken. Shoutout to Starmie, Snorlax, Slowbro and rest of the company.

 

[StoneDos95]

StoneDos95 You may be interested in contacting ReptoAbysmal sometime, he tells me he played with Suicune for Battle Palace years ago and basically owned the place with it. Since you don't have Suicune anywhere on your team, you may want to check it out sometime and try Repto's set.

EDIT: Happy to see you're still on the forums at all, btw.

Hey man thank you too for your reply!! Well i did not add Suicune because i tried not to use legendaries (as you can see i didn’t even use Soul Dew Latias/os) but all will be considered. I’d rather you to tell me in which facility would you put Suicune and the others. Thank you again!!!

 

[StoneDos95]

Glad you liked it! By the way yeah, Slaking, Suicune and Salamence pretty much owned the game for me. If its name starts with S, it's broken. Shoutout to Starmie, Snorlax, Slowbro and rest of the company.

The S means probably “Super”; can you tell me in which facility would you put them? And if you can a possibile set...

 

[Vladimir Nesic]

Battle Tower team. I made the Metagross "universal" so it has Agility. Rock Slide or Aerial Ace would be much better, but I don have two of them.
Might breed another one, bulky set would work with passed Speed and Attack.

 

[Vladimir Nesic]

Battle Dome team. All battles begin with screen setup and then I switch to what I picked and start setting up DD/CM. Espeon's Hidden power is fire, which is probably not the best one, but it wrecks bugs and stuff like Cacturne. I trolled a Wobbuffet once: it expected a Special Attack so Mirror Coat didn't work. Really made me laugh!
So I usually play these two facilities (sometimes factory, but I easily lose there). I have a will o wisp Calm Mind Gardevoir, Double Team RestTalk Milotic and the hardest hitting Hyper Beam Slaking (with Choice Band too LOL)

Edit: Fire Blast on Salamence is Ohko against Skarmory and Foretress even with no EVs and Adamant nature.

 

[WalkAway]

I just beat Emerald for the first time and want to get into the Frontier but I don't want to breed 6-10 Pokemon, EV train with only Macho Brace, and have no IV checker. That sounds like weeks of work.

 

[Vladimir Nesic]

I did all of that and I still can't get all silver symbols. Sometimes I feel like the game wants you to lose...

 

[atsync]

Hi

Not long ago I managed to obtain all of the gold symbols in Emerald. I was considering making a thread about my experiences but since this thread exists, I figured I might as well post the teams I used here.

I did all of my runs at level 50 but all of them should be transferable to Open level (although maybe don't use Sitrus Berry in Open level: 30 HP is far more impressive at level 50). I prefer level 50 because it’s what I’m used to from later gens, and level 50 is more convenient anyway since it requires less grinding to get the Pokemon you’re using ready for the challenge. Playing level 50 does impose some other restrictions on what I can use however. For example, I am unable to use Dragonite or Tyranitar.

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

Battle Tower

I decided to try out a crippler team for the Battle Tower. While options for these kinds of teams are more limited than in later generations, the strategy still works very well and is often safer than a basic goodstuffs team, although you also sacrifice speed.

Team:

Jolteon @

Timid
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 132/0/60/252/4/60

Thunderbolt
Thunder Wave
Charm
Sand-Attack

Initially, I thought about using a Trick lead with Choice Band (probably Alakazam since it’s the fastest Trick user in 3rd gen), but I then changed track and focused on stat lowering. Jolteon seems like an odd choice for this role but I found it to work pretty well because of its Speed and access to useful options like Thunder Wave and Charm. Volt Absorb is also nice to protect against Electric moves since my team is otherwise a bit vulnerable to those.

Timid with 60 Speed EVs puts me at 173 Speed, enough to outspeed all base 120 Pokemon that appear as opponents in the Frontier, with Arena Trap Dugtrio being the most important one of this group (none of them run Speed-boosting natures). The Frontier is notoriously slow compared to later gen facilities: the only sets that outspeed this Jolteon under regular conditions are Ninjask (both sets), Crobat (sets 3 and 4) and opposing Jolteon (sets 1 and 4). I also maxed out Sp. Atk to pump up Thunderbolt and then invested the remaining EVs into bulk. If preferred, a Modest Jolteon can achieve the same Speed with 180 Speed EVs and benefits from more power, but this sacrifices some bulk.

Registeel @

Sassy
Clear Body
IVs: 23/23/31/3/30/31
EVs: 252/0/176/0/80/0

Hidden Power [Steel]
Curse
Amnesia
Substitute

This Registeel was RNGed in Sapphire rather than Emerald. It’s not completely flawless. The ideal spread for a set like this would be Careful with 31/31/31/x/30/31, but such a spread doesn’t exist on a frame that could reasonably be reached and so I had to settle for something else. Specifically, I wanted something with a usable nature (I’d be fine with Impish/Relaxed/Careful/Sassy, Adamant/Brave would also be acceptable), Hidden Power [Steel] with high power (preferably 60 as an absolute minimum) and just highish values in the IVs themselves. I managed to find the Sassy, 23/23/31/3/30/31 spread on frame 122232 (requires about 34 minutes of wait time, kind of long but not out of reach) which grants a max power Hidden Power [Steel] and meets my nature requirements too.

This set functions similarly to the equivalent Iron Head-using set seen in gen 4. High bulk combined with its resistances and support from Jolteon allow it to set up easily on lots of stuff, and once it has set up Amnesia and Curse it is very difficult to lose. Substitute is nice to have to protect against hax; obviously OHKO moves and badly timed crits can ruin this set. It’s important to note that getting Substitute on Pokemon is a bit of a pain because it’s a one-time move tutor move. I use it on a lot of my Pokemon and am able to because the move tutor also exists in FRLG, but this required having to play through FRLG multiple times which requires a lot of spare time (the fact that FRLG adamantly refuse to let you trade in non-Kanto dex mons until you unlock the National dex just adds to the pain). If Substitute is too much of an inconvenience to obtain, Rest is probably an acceptable replacement.

Salamence @

Jolly
Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252

Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Dragon Dance
Substitute

Salamence is not quite as good in 3rd gen facilities because its offensive move pool is not as luxurious as it is in later gens, and so it tends to require more boosts to reliably sweep. Regardless, I find it to be a good choice for this team because of its good type synergy with Registeel and its ability to passively cripple opponents with Intimidate. Not much else to say about it really.

Overall this team was effective in getting me to 70 wins (Anabel’s Gold battle was fairly easy too since Volt Absorb Jolteon completely walls her lead Raikou). However, it does have a significant flaw in that it is highly vulnerable to Rhydon:

RHYDON (1), adamant, QC, 393,371,276,113,168,116, earthquake, rock tomb, scary face, brick break
RHYDON (2), adamant, QC, 351,394,276,113,189,116, earthquake, horn drill, rock slide, brick break
RHYDON (3), adamant, QC, 414,394,276,113,126,116, earthquake, megahorn, crush claw, horn drill
RHYDON (4), adamant, QC, 414,394,276,113,126,116, earthquake, megahorn, rock slide, horn drill

All Quick Claw, and all threatening. The worst of all are sets 2 and 4: on top of QuakeSlide coverage, they also have Horn Drill which make attempts to PP stall it through switches very unsafe. Unfortunately, there’s not much this team can do to stop this other than pray. Set 3 also threatens with Quick Claw Horn Drill but lacks Rock-type coverage and becomes a bit more managable if Salamence manages to get a sub up against it.

I stopped playing after getting the gold symbol, but I’m interested in continuing this streak some time to see how far I can go. I’d probably need to replace Jolteon with something else though – I’ve thought about Misdreavus just because it would resolve the Rhydon problem and it has a few crippler friendly moves, although its move pool and stats aren’t as good.

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

Battle Palace

This place is annoying but I was actually very fortunate and managed to get this symbol on my first try with this team.

My team utilises the “Hasty with 3 attacks + Protect” strategy. To understand how it works, consider Hasty’s properties:

Behaviour (HP > 50%): 58% Attack, 37% Defence, 5% Support
Behaviour (HP < 50%): 88% Attack, 6% Defence, 6% Support

Hasty Pokemon generally prefer to attack directly which is what you want in the Palace (note: Pokemon tend to be reasonably sensible when selecting their attacking move most of the time, so a standard SPIT Starmie will know to use Thunderbolt against a Gyarados, for example). The key thing though is that when Hasty Pokemon choose not to attack, they’ll almost always be using a defensive move. By running 3 attacks with Protect as the defensive move, Hasty Pokemon will generally stick to using one of the 3 attacks, and when they don’t, they’ll almost always use Protect to block the opponents attack and avoid damage. This is especially effective when the Pokemon falls below 50% HP, since Hasty Pokemon heavily favour offensive moves at that point. Spenser uses a variation of this strategy on his Arcanine and Suicune - both run Hasty and Arcanine even has Protect (and Roar), although his Suicune uses Calm Mind instead.

This strategy isn’t perfect (not that there’s such a thing in the Palace). There will be times where you get unlucky and have the Pokemon attempt a Support move, which results in a missed turn with 3 attacks + Protect as a move set. There will also be times where Pokemon will attempt to use Protect multiple times in a row – this nearly cost me the battle for the gold symbol against Spenser when my Starmie tried 3 Protects in a row against his Bite-spamming Suicune, but luckily all of them worked!

Team:

Metagross @

Hasty
Clear Body
IVs: 31/31/31/27/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252

Hidden Power [Steel]
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Protect

Starmie @

Hasty
Natural Cure
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252

Surf
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Protect

Salamence @

Hasty
Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 0/4/0/252/0/252

Dragon Claw
Aerial Ace
Flamethrower
Protect

This is a fairly basic Steel/Water/Dragon set up that offers good power and type synergy. I chose Hidden Power over Meteor Mash for the accuracy, but I found that Metagross almost never used Hidden Power even in situations where it would be the most effective move. This is probably because it recognises it as a Normal-type move rather than a Steel-type one, and so I would not recommend using Hidden Power in the Palace in most cases. It didn't end up mattering too much since QuakeSlide was good enough even without STAB (if anything, not using Meteor Mash avoided unfortunate misses). Also, having Metagross in the lead seemed like a decent idea due to its excellent defensive typing, but keep in mind that Spenser uses a lead Arcanine for his second battle and this puts the team on the back foot at the start of the battle (obviously I switched to Salamence immediately). If I did this again I'd probably use Salamence in the lead position instead.

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

Battle Factory

Not much to say here since there’s no team building involved. It's not as difficult as the 4th gen one but still annoying. I will say that swapping doesn’t seem to be as rewarding as it is in 4th gen, at least not in level 50 (it wasn’t until the 4th round, after swapping after every battle, that one of my opening selection appeared to have better IVs and a higher ranked set compared to the other 5 choices). The guy that gives the hints is also not as helpful beyond telling you about type specialties (interestingly, I came across a trainer with Vileplume/Exeggutor/Alakazam and was told that the trainer did not specialise in any type – I guess the Grass- and Psychic-types cancelled each other out).

The final battle for the gold symbol was pretty close: I had Ampharos/Dusclops/Vaporeon against Noland’s Miltank/Xatu/Magmar. I opened with Thunder Wave on Miltank and then pivoted to Vaporeon via a switch to Dusclops. Vaporeon was assisted by full paralysis and managed to take down Miltank and Xatu on its own, but then Magmar nearly made a come back by finishing off Vaporeon (Vaporeon at least managed to take it down to the red but couldn’t KO it due to a lack of Sp. Atk EVs) and then taking out Dusclops with a crit (it had Scope Lens btw). Ampharos had already taken damage from Miltank and I thought I was about to lose because Magmar had the Speed advantage, but somehow Ampharos went first and finished it off. I later found out that the Magmar set I faced has Counter in its move set and so it must have tried to use it…even though it was already in the red and wouldn’t have been able to survive a hit to reflect back at me anyway. I owe my win to AI stupidity, but I’ll take wins where I can!

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

Battle Pyramid

I decided to have a bit of fun with the Pyramid. While the Pyramid can be beaten with a small group of 3-5 Pokemon, I actually went out of my way to “counter” the various rounds of wild Pokemon with different teams for each round. It was quite time consuming having to breed everything for each round, but using obscure Pokemon made things a lot more fun and I ended up beating the Pyramid on my first attempt.

Note that I’m not listing items here specifically – the pyramid does not allow for Pokemon to enter while holding an item. However, I was finding stuff like Choice Band, Leftovers and the like during my challenge so these were being used where appropriate.

Team 1 (Round 1: paralysis)

Hitmonlee

Jolly
Limber
IVs: 30/30/30/20/30/31
EVs: 0/248/8/0/0/252

Brick Break
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hidden Power [Flying]

Flygon

Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack

Linoone

Jolly
Pickup
IVs: 31/31/31/14/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252

Return
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power [Ground]
Surf

Limber protects Hitmonlee from paralysis and it has no issue KOing wild Pokemon with its high power and coverage. Flygon was just thrown on here but is at least immune to Electric (i.e. also guards against some paralysis) and is a good Pokemon in general. Linoone exists solely for Pickup. I managed to get a Sacred Ash and some other healing items during the first round with Pickup so it was worth it, and in any case the general weakness of the opponents during the early rounds makes Linoone tolerable to use in battle anyway.

Team 2 (Round 2: poison)

Alakazam

Timid
Synchronize
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/36/252/4/212

Psychic
Fire Punch
Thunderpunch
Ice Punch

Vileplume

Sassy
Chlorophyll
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/180/0/76/0

Sludge Bomb
Giga Drain
Aromatherapy
Moonlight

Linoone

Jolly
Pickup
IVs: 31/31/31/14/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252

Return
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power [Ground]
Surf

I already had an Alakazam ready from another facility and decided to use it here since it makes short work of almost all of the wild Pokemon of this round. Ludicolo is the only one which could survive against it, and so I decided to use Vileplume to deal with it (immune to Poison and resists Dive). I also considered Venusaur since it has better stats but Vileplume has Aromatherapy and Venusaur doesn’t. Ultimately, I never used Aromatherapy though so Venusaur probably would have been better, but never mind. Linoone makes its second and final appearance for its Pickup shenanigans. Linoone managed to grab a Choice Band which was put to good use in later rounds.

Team 3 (Round 3: burn)

Houndoom

Timid
Flash Fire
IVs: 31/10/30/30/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/248/4/252

Flamethrower
Crunch
Hidden Power [Water]
Taunt

Slowbro

Modest
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 204/0/0/252/52/0

Surf
Psychic
Ice Beam
Rest

Snorlax

Adamant
Thick Fat
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 4/252/252/0/0/0

Body Slam
Earthquake
Curse
Rest

Houndoom is an excellent lead for this round and it would go on to make appearances in other rounds too. Its combination of Flash Fire and its unique STAB combination allow it to beat most of the wild Pokemon easily. In fact, against Vulpix and Weezing, you can just spam the run option because they only have Fire moves and there is no consequence of failing to escape against those two. I chose Slowbro as a back-up because I was wary of the wild Fire Punch/Hi Jump Kick Medicham surviving Flamethrower and KOing Houndoom, and in any case Slowbro happens to synergise well with Houndoom. I wasn’t sure what to use as the third so I just went with Snorlax. The double fighting weakness seemed risky but it ended up working fine.

Against Brandon’s Regis team, I swapped Houndoom out of the lead position for Slowbro. I ended up trading Slowbro with Regirock when it Exploded at the last moment. Houndoom died to Registeel because Earthquake KOed it faster than Flamethrower could manage, but from there Snorlax was able to Curse up and sweep the remains of his team.

Team 4 (Round 4: PP draining moves + Pressure)

Houndoom

Timid
Flash Fire
IVs: 31/10/30/30/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/248/4/252

Flamethrower
Crunch
Hidden Power [Water]
Taunt

Slowbro

Modest
Own Tempo
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 204/0/0/252/52/0

Surf
Psychic
Ice Beam
Rest

Flygon

Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack

This team is 2/3 identical to the last one. It turns out Houndoom works well in this round too. The wild Pokemon are predominantly Ghost-types, with Absol, Dunsparce and Ninetales thrown in for good measure, and Houndoom matches up well against many of them. Taunt is pretty good here since many of the Pokemon here rely on passive moves to lower your PP. I also made sure to max out Houndoom’s PP which made this round much less stressful. Slowbro is still here for its type synergy. I decided to remove Snorlax since I didn’t feel the need to hold on to it with Brandon’s first battle behind me. I don’t exactly remember why I chose Flygon. I suppose it was just out of convenience, but it does offer some synergy with the other two and at this point I had the Choice Band that Linoone got for me earlier so it ended up working out.

Team 5 (Round 5: Levitate)

Gengar

Timid
Levitate
IVs: 31/19/31/21/31/31
EVs: 28/0/4/252/4/220

Hidden Power [Dark]
Psychic
Ice Punch
Thunderbolt

Snorlax

Adamant
Thick Fat
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 4/252/252/0/0/0

Body Slam
Earthquake
Curse
Rest

Flygon

Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack

Using Gengar was my attempt to counter the wild Pokemon as best as I could. Its power is a bit subpar at times but its coverage is very good and its immunity to things like Weezing’s Selfdestruct and Flygon’s Earthquake is very handy. Hidden Power Dark is an odd choice but it covers the Ghosts. I could have used Shadow Ball but that would mean having to run Hasty/Naïve and moving EVs from bulk to Attack, and even then it’s still rather weak. I just threw Snorlax and Flygon in as back-ups again.

Team 6 (Round 6: trapping abilities)

Sceptile

Timid
Overgrow
IVs: 31/10/30/31/31/31
EVs: 44/0/0/252/0/212

Leaf Blade
Crunch
Hidden Power [Ice]
Roar

Lanturn

Modest
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/196/252/52/4

Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Rest

Charizard

Hasty
Blaze
IVs: 31/31/30/30/31/31
EVs: 0/4/0/252/0/252

Flamethrower
Hidden Power [Ice]
Earthquake
Toxic

Sceptile can easily out-speed and OHKO the various Ground-type trappers. Roar is used here to cover Wynaut and Wobbuffet. Back-ups were selected based on type synergy. Starmie is often the go-to choice for the role of a team’s Water-type, but I had Lanturn from another facility and I prefer it here since it synergises with Sceptile much better. The addition of Charizard turns this into a Grass/Water/Fire core. I considered Blaziken for the Fire role since its much stronger and more offensively versatile, but I prefer Charizard’s Speed and superior defensive typing (I didn’t like the idea of doubling up on Ground weaknesses).

Charizard is running Toxic. It seems like an odd choice, but after building this team I realised that I was at risk of being screwed over by Blissey, and Toxic is helpful for this reason alone. The decision paid off, because it just so happens that I did encounter a trainer with Blissey during this round!

Team 7 (Round 7: Ice-types)

Medicham

Hasty
Pure Power
IVs: 31/31/30/31/30/30
EVs: 4/252/0/4/0/248

Brick Break
Shadow Ball
Hidden Power [Rock]
Psychic

Lapras

Modest
Water Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 156/0/100/252/0/0

Surf
Ice Beam
Thunderbolt
Rest

Metagross

Adamant
Clear Body
IVs: 31/31/31/31/30/31
EVs: 4/252/0/0/0/252

Hidden Power [Steel]
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Rest

Probably the silliest team I used through-out my Pyramid campaign, and definitely the least optimal. The round is probably the most difficult of the 10 rounds required to get the gold symbol. Medicham, with a Choice Band, works well as an Ice-type slayer, although as a general purpose Pokemon for trainer battles its middling Speed and defences hurt it a bit. Lapras might seem odd as a back-up since it doesn’t synergise with Medicham particularly well defensively (although Medicham covers its Rock and Fighting weaknesses), but I do like its immunity to freeze, Water Absorb, and its resistance to Ice moves. There are a couple of wild Pokemon in this round that Lapras can easily switch-in on and safely deal with, especially Cloyster, and at the very least this allowed me to preserve Medicham’s PP. I didn’t find Lapras to be too bad against trainers either. It has good coverage and can tank things well too. Metagross takes the last spot and covers Flying and Rock for the team, while also being adequate against Ice-types. The move set is identical to the one I used in the palace but this is a different Metagross with Adamant over Hasty, which was no longer needed.

Team 8 (Round 8: Selfdestruct/Explosion/Destiny Bond)

Gengar

Timid
Levitate
IVs: 31/19/31/21/31/31
EVs: 28/0/4/252/4/220

Psychic
Fire Punch
Thunderbolt
Rest

Steelix

Adamant
Sturdy
IVs: 31/31/31/27/30/31
EVs: 76/252/4/0/176/0

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Hidden Power [Steel]
Rest

Milotic

Modest
Marval Scale
IVs: 31/10/31/30/31/31
EVs: 180/0/76/248/4/0

Surf
Ice Beam
Hidden Power [Grass]
Rest

Gengar makes another appearance here, albeit with a tweaked move set. Its immunity to Selfdestruct and Explosion is what makes it so useful as a lead in this round. The move set is designed to beat as many of the wild Pokemon as possible. Psychic covers Weezing and opposing Gengar, and Fire Punch is great for Pineco, Forretress and Shiftry. Levitate combined with Ghost-typing completely walls Golem, which leaves Solrock and Electrode. Electrode is completely screwed by Steelix, hence its inclusion here. Funnily enough, Solrock is the most annoying Pokemon because of potential high-damage Psywaves and ability to survive hits from Gengar (HP Dark doesn't always KO against higher-leveled ones which is why I dumped it from this move set), and usually I just had to wail away at it until it died. I figured that at this point in the streak I could afford to go in without a particular plan for Solrock since I had plenty of healing items anyway. Steelix, in addition to blocking Electrode, happens to synergise with Gengar nicely in general, and Milotic completes a solid defensive core.

Team 9 (Round 9: Psychic-types)

Houndoom

Timid
Flash Fire
IVs: 31/10/30/30/31/31
EVs: 4/0/0/248/4/252

Flamethrower
Crunch
Hidden Power [Water]
Taunt

Lanturn

Modest
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/196/252/52/4

Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Rest

Flygon

Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack

Houndoom makes a comeback here in the lead position. It should be pretty obvious why it works well for this round – I particularly like the combination of Psychic immunity and Taunt since it nullifies Wobbuffet. Lanturn is a pretty helpful back-up for this round since it’s slightly safer against Slowking (who can tank Crunch and can respond with STAB Surf) and also Starmie. Otherwise Fire/Dark covers things well. Flygon comes in as the third to complete a solid core.

Team 10 (Round 10: Rock-types)

Heracross

Jolly
Guts
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 0/252/4/0/0/252

Brick Break
Megahorn
Earthquake
Rock Slide

Swampert

Brave
Torrent
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/252/0/0/4/0

Earthquake
Surf
Ice Beam
Rest

Aerodactyl

Jolly
Rock Head
IVs: 31/31/30/15/30/30
EVs: 100/252/16/0/0/136

Hidden Power [Rock]
Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Double-Edge

Pretty straight forward. The only complication with building a team for this round is trying to make sure your team is able to handle Brandon’s birds whilst also ensuring it can deal with the Rock-types that appear in this round. This is not particularly difficult though. Between Brick Break, Earthquake and Surf, this team worked just fine. The team also synergises reasonably well too so it can handle random trainers.

Once I reached Brandon, I swapped Choice Band Aerodactyl into the lead position and attempted a sweep. Articuno went down, but unfortunately Hidden Power fell just short of a KO on Zapdos and Aerodactyl ended up KOed itself. I suspect Rock Slide might have ensured a KO, but no matter. Swampert was able to clean up from there anyway.

And with that, the Pyramid was finally conquered.

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

Battle Dome

This was the first facility I completed. I consider the Battle Dome to be one of the easiest facilities to get the gold symbol in. Doing so requires a paltry 40 wins, and the facility even gives you a pseudo-team preview before each battle so you can better plan ahead. The only complication with team building for this facility is ensuring that your Pokemon synergise well in pairs and not just as a team of 3, since the battles are 2-on-2. Otherwise, most standard goodstuff teams should be fine here.

Team:

Skarmory @

Impish
Sturdy
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 252/0/0/0/252/4

Drill Peck
Toxic
Protect
Rest

Toxic-stalling Skarmory. It’s pretty effective in the Frontier since the AI isn’t particularly good at dealing with it and Skarmory can easily stall stuff out with its resistances and bulk. Just poison stuff and Protect/Rest as needed.

Lanturn @

Modest
Volt Absorb
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/196/252/52/4

Surf
Thunderbolt
Ice Beam
Thunder Wave

This is the same Lanturn that I used in the Pyramid, but since Rest isn’t really as important in the Dome, I used Thunder Wave instead to help cover its low Speed. Surf/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam grant excellent coverage.

Lanturn’s stats may not be as impressive as other Waters but its defensive typing and Volt Absorb make it a good choice for this team. A lot of the other Waters would share an Electric weakness with Skarmory and that’s not ideal. Lanturn doesn’t really have this issue, and the Ice resistance is also a nice advantage over Swampert. Skarmory also covers Lanturn’s Ground and Grass weaknesses, so together they form a good duo. The only issue is that neither Pokemon has a huge amount of immediate power and they are somewhat vulnerable to set-up Pokemon with Rest so careful consideration needs to be made when deciding if using these Pokemon together in battle.

Flygon @

Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack

Choice Band Flygon rounds out the team and provides more immediate power. It pairs well with both Skarmory and Lanturn; Flygon covers Electric, Fire and Ground, and Dragon (Skarmory) and Ice (Lanturn) are both covered too. It’ll mostly be spamming Earthquake, with Rock Slide coverage on Flying-types. Fly is solely for Breloom. Quick Attack is filler that was accidently inherited from the Gligar I used as a parent during breeding. I decided to keep it since I couldn’t think of anything else to run, but it’s mostly useless.

I was reasonably happy with this team, but it has a significant flaw in that it has problems dealing with Tucker’s Latias. For this reason, I would suggest running Hidden Power [Bug] on Flygon, probably over Quick Attack since that didn’t get used at all (it would probably be better to run Aerial Ace over Fly too). Luckily for me, he didn’t pull Latias out for the gold symbol battle and I was able to beat him with few problems.

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Battle Arena

I’m not too fond of this facility. The inability to switch is one thing, but the fact that the game forces you to send your Pokemon in the order in which they are entered feels a bit cheap. I suppose it does add another element to team building though, since you have to ensure that the Pokemon that goes in is able to take out opponents that are likely to KO the previous Pokemon.

Mostly this facility favours hyper-offense: while defensive moves still have their place, the short battles and the unique scoring system reward Pokemon that focus on attacking rather than stalling.

Team:

Swampert @

Brave
Torrent
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/31
EVs: 124/252/4/0/4/124

Earthquake
Surf
Ice Beam
Substitute

Swampert worked ok as a lead here. Great coverage and defensive typing allow it to beat lots of things one-on-one and gain an advantage. I generally found it could take down at least 1.5 Pokemon on its own reliably, and sometimes it would sweep entire teams.

Probably the thing that might need explaining here is the EV/nature combination. I wanted to boost attack, but I didn’t want to cut into special attack or defences, which made Brave the nature of choice. But at the same time, I still wanted to invest in some speed to ensure I could get the jump on Greta’s Umbreon in the gold symbol battle, lest I end up confused before throwing a sub up. With a Brave nature, 124 Speed EVs puts me at 86 Speed, enough to beat Umbreon. The remaining EVs are used to max out Attack and buff defences. I’m uncertain if this is the absolute best nature/EV combination to achieve what I want, but in the end it worked so I’m not losing sleep over it.

Alakazam @

Timid
Synchronize
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 4/0/36/252/4/212

Psychic
Fire Punch
Thunderpunch
Ice Punch

This worked decently as a back-up to Swampert because it generally ends up coming in against a Pokemon that has already been weakened slightly, which Alakazam can then finish off with its excellent Speed and power. The set is straight-forward: Psychic for STAB and elemental punches to maximise coverage.

Timid with 212 Speed EVs gets Alakazam to 183 Speed, enough to out-speed every single Pokemon in the Frontier except Jolteon4 (200 Speed). The rest go into power and bulk. The 36 Def EVs may seem meaningless for such a frail Pokemon, but there were a number of occasions where Alakazam managed to survive a hit where it wouldn’t have otherwise, including one battle where Exploud’s Shadow Ball left Alakazam with just 1 HP.

Salamence @

Hasty
Intimidate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 0/252/0/4/0/252

Earthquake
Aerial Ace
Brick Break
Fire Blast

Salamence is here again just because I can, although this one is an all-out attacker rather than a set up sweeper. Usually it’s good enough on its own to finish the battle off assuming I have the lead already.

EDIT: Note that this team isn't particularly optimal for the silver symbol battle and may require tweaking if it is used for that purpose.

For the Battle Arena team you suggested, it worked great but for the Silver Run I would suggest to anyone trying to run this team to switch the order and maybe an item too. In my Silver battle, Greta sends out Heracross first. Two Megahorns destroyed Swampert and it resists Earthquake and Surf did pretty much no damage. Alakazam outsped and OHKOed Heracross but is walled pretty hard by Umbreon. I got in two Thunderpunches for little damage especially with Leftovers. Salamence was able to take town Umbreon with Brick Break but was confused in the process. It hit itself in confusion twice in a row and died to two Shadow Balls from Shedninja before I could get off an Aerial Ace.

My suggestion is to lead with Zam and OHKO Heracross. Zam will die to Umbreon. Swampert can Substitute and Earthquake spam and potentially win by referee decision. Maybe a different Pokemon would be better here for the Silver Battle though. Salemence can clean up Umbreon with Brick Break if it is left. Then, use Aerial Ace on Shedninja to win. I would also suggest a Persim Berry for Salamence in this battle to heal a potential Umbreon Confuse Ray. Umbreon has Body Slam though too so maybe for the Silver run use a Lum on Mence to heal a potential confusion or Body Slam paralyze and give Zam something else since it will be leading for that run.

The battle for the gold symbol was easy. Swampert used its faster Substitute to shut down Umbreon and from there I was in an unloseable position.

One Pokemon that gave this team problems was Sceptile. It KOes Swampert, and while Alakazam has the speed advantage and can take a Leaf Blade, Alakazam isn’t quite strong enough to OHKO Sceptile and that leaves it vulnerable to a crit KO. From there, Sceptile can get a hit in on Salamence (which could be a super-effective Dragon Claw) before I can finish it off. Even if Salamence survives, I’m in a bad position if Sceptile has dangerous back-ups. Strangely enough, I also has a bad experience with Pinsir2 of all things: it endured a hit from Alakazam and then swept the rest of my team with Flail (I think it got a Swords Dance at some point too).

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Battle Pike

Finally, we have the Pike. In regards to team building for this place, the things to consider are the lack of guaranteed healing after every battle, and the possibility of double battles.

Team:

Flygon @

Jolly
Levitate
IVs: 31/31/31/21/31/31
EVs: 20/252/4/0/4/228

Earthquake
Rock Slide
Fly
Quick Attack

Flygon appears again. Banded Earthquakes are just so good, and the addition of double battles makes Earthquake all the more valuable.

Gyarados @

Adamant
Intimidate
IVs: 30/30/30/22/30/31
EVs: 0/248/8/0/0/252

Hidden Power [Flying]
Earthquake
Protect
Dragon Dance

For this slot, I wanted something strong that would also pair up well with Flygon in doubles. Gyarados works well here because it’s immune to Ground, and so Flygon can spam Earthquake safely. Intimidate is another asset in doubles. Gyarados itself is otherwise a competent Pokemon than can perform well in singles too as a Dragon Dancer where needed. I like Protect on this set mostly for doubles – Gyarados is highly vulnerable to Electric moves and it works well as a lure option.

Blissey @

Bold
Natural Cure
IVs: 31/4/31/31/31/31
EVs: 252/0/252/0/0/4

Seismic Toss
Flamethrower
Aromatherapy
Softboiled

Clerics are invaluable in any facility without guaranteed healing, and this is especially true for the Pike (the Pyramid at least gives you healing items).

Blissey is hands down the best cleric. Nothing comes close to pulling off what Blissey can do. With Softboiled and its enormous HP, Blissey easily recovers the HP of its team mates without having to sacrifice too much of its own total HP (one Softboiled is often enough to heal something else completely), and with Aromatherapy/Heal Bell removing status, Blissey is essentially a Pokemon Centre in your pocket, bar the PP recovery.

I think the key thing to Blissey’s success as a cleric in the Frontier is Natural Cure; without it, I don’t think it would be as effective. Natural Cure basically allows Blissey to not care about the status inflicted by the various wild Pokemon in the Pike, and that allows Blissey to use these encounters as an opportunity to remove status from its team with little consequence. Even if Blissey gets statused after using Aromatherapy, simply fleeing eliminates the status and so it doesn’t have to worry about wasting more Aromatherapy PP and/or hoping the wild Pokemon uses something else before it escapes. This is one of the main things that distinguishes Blissey from Miltank, the only other Pokemon (excluding Smeargle) with access to both Softboiled/Milk Drink and Heal Beal/Aromatherapy (I mention Miltank because, unlike Blissey, it is readily available in Emerald and is the main alternative for those who can’t trade for Chansey/Blissey).

Blissey is not as great for actual battles. I think its use as a Cleric more than makes up for this though. At the very least, it still has its insane special bulk to wall lots of things. The other moves outside of Softboiled/Aromatherapy can be changed as desired: BoltBeam is reasonable, or perhaps Toxic/Protect could work.

As far as strategy in the Pike is concerned, I always ask the attendant for a hint when selecting rooms. There’s no reason not to unless you’re trying a speed run it or something. Generally, I aim to avoid battles if possible. My strategy for dealing with each statement is as follows:

“It seems to have the distinct aroma of Pokemon wafting around it…”

I usually go for these rooms. In most cases this will be a wild Pokemon room which is pretty much a free room if you have a remotely fast lead to flee the battles (Wobbuffet prevents this but doesn’t start to appear until well after you have done enough battles to receive the gold symbol; if you get far enough in just shove Roar/Whirlwind or some other passive move on the lead). It’s also a great opportunity to remove status from the team if required.

Occasionally you’ll end up in a single battle with a “tough” trainer when entering these rooms. I usually don’t mind this as long as I’m reasonably healthy though. “Tough” is mostly meaningless since battle outcomes depend more on match-ups – a team of 3 slow Ground-weak Pokemon is hardly a “tough” opponent for this team, for example. You also get healed after the battle anyway, so the battle is of little consequence in the long run, as long as you win.

“I seem to have heard something… It may have been whispering…”

I also find these rooms safe to go into most of the time. The outcomes are either an idle NPC room with no battle, or a double battle. Double battles are usually fine with a healthy team since it’s a 3-on-2 situation.

“Is it… A Trainer? I sense the presence of people…”

I usually avoid these rooms. Most of the time you’ll end up in a single 3-on-3 battle with no healing after it, and the more you avoid these, the better off you’ll be.

These rooms have a small chance of containing a nurse that heals all of your Pokemon, which sounds great in theory. The problem with this, though, is that the only time where you’d likely need this is if you team is already badly weakened and attempting to enter this room with a weakened team when you are more likely to encounter a trainer sounds like a bad idea to me.

“For some reason, I felt a wave of nostalgia coming from it…”

This room will either result in status being inflicted on your team, or 1-2 team members being healed (usually the former). The interesting thing about this room is that it’s the only one which is guaranteed not to contain a trainer, which in turn guarantees the extension of your streak by at least 2 rooms.

As good as this sounds, I avoid this room in most cases. Status is a killer in the Pike, and while having a cleric can negate this to an extent, you still need to enter a battle to use Aromatherapy/Heal Bell, and the last thing you’d want is to have your entire team frozen and then be challenged to a trainer battle immediately afterwards.

There are a couple of situations where I would enter these rooms. Firstly, if this is the last room of a particular run through the Pike, there is little reason not to enter it. Since there is no battle in this room, you are guaranteed to make it through, and any status inflicted on your team is basically irrelevant since the challenge is finished immediately after.

The other situation where I might enter this room would be if my team is already statused. I’m fairly certain that you can’t encounter a status room if your entire team is already statused, which means that entering this room guarantees a heal and safe passage to the next room. There may also be merit to this strategy if 1-2 Pokemon are statused: at that point, you’re in a bad situation anyway so might as well try for a heal. If it doesn’t pay-off and the remains of your team get status too…well that sucks, but at least you avoided a battle.

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Thanks for reading :)

 

[PsychicAcademic]

For Battle Palace, was it? You'll have to be careful with your own mon screwing up with natures. Particularly, Adamant nature was good enough that they mostly attack straightforwardly, so Physical attacker it should be. Modest was a little dicey, with it being able to set up with Calm Mind, yet unable to control when to actually attack. I recall me and my team of Adamant Flygon, Modest Latias, and Vaporeon (I forgot her nature) managed to get through Gold Symbol.