Emerald Battle Frontier Update April 27, 2024

I posted a video on April 20, 2024 updating other trainers on my journey through the Battle Frontier in Pokemon Emerald regarding the Battle Dome and Tower. In these facilities, trainers bring 3 Pokemon with them and take on challenging opponents. I will quickly recap that video and discuss things that have happened since that was recorded.

I won the Silver Medal in the Dome and have not won any medals for the Battle Tower. I have been facing one consistent and overwhelming difficulty that I need to resolve. My current team (Aggron, Salamence, and Dusclops) has one MASSIVE weakness that I currently cannot handle. This team cannot handle water Pokemon defensively or offensively. Salamence is incredibly weak to ice moves and they are common in both these battle facilities. Aggron was not trained to deal with special attacking moves and moves like surf are also common. Aggron dies to any water moves since his special defense is low. Most water Pokemon have both ice and water moves which makes 2 of my Pokemon vulnerable. The team also has no effective moves again water Pokemon.

I have decided to train up another one of my favorite Pokemon to add to my team to replace Aggron. I still love Aggron, however I need one trained in Special Defense to survive at least 1 water move. The new Pokemon will be a Tyranitar. I am spicing things up and making it a special attacker that is trained to handled a few hits. I am still strategizing how I want Tyranitar to fit into my team.

I have also been dabbling in the Battle Factory for fun. I recently won the Silver Medal which was exciting! This facility puts your Pokemon knowledge to the test since you need to make decisions on a team to build and play around. It really does put your intelligence to the limits in my opinion! I started the Battle Factory journey at around 146 in game hours and received the Silver Medal at 152 hours. 

The first time I battle Noland, the leader of the Battle Factory, he beat me. I made too many bad choices and choked under pressure. The second time I faced him, I won. I had a really solid team with Starmie, Slaking, and Heracross. Starmie had a diverse move pool, Slaking hit really hard, and Heracross was really powerful! I saved then recorded this match so I will do a voice over in a new video.

After the Silver Medal match, I lost the next round after that. I picked a team that was too weak against psychic moves and paid the price for it.

Playing though the Battle Factory made me realize a bunch of Pokemon moves and sets I never considered before.  Several of these Pokemon I want to eventually train and use as part of a team for the Battle Dome or Tower. I do still want to focus on my favorite Pokemon because that is FUN. However having some really strong and unique movesets will also be enjoyable. One example I really loved was a Breloom with spore, focus punch, and sludge bomb. Breloom is FAST so hitting the opponent with a 100% change with spore puts them right to sleep. Then using focus punch uninterrupted almost always destroyed the other Pokemon. Sludge bomb was another good physical attacking move.

In the near term, I am going to work on this Tyranitar and get back into the Battle Tower and Dome. If I am feeling tired of that grind, I will shift over to the factory and try to get this Gold Medal.