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I realize this is probably a goofy question given that the real nonsense of the tower doesn't start until after beating the tycoon at this number, but I'm in a bit of a spot where one of the Pokemon I'm using isn't exactly suited for battles and I only really want the ribbon from getting this far in. One guide I looked at suggests Metagross and Starmie might be able to carry me to this point (in the very least they'd be able to deal with the tycoon's team at that level, luck provided) but I wanted to see if there were any other opinions on the matter. Is it doable with just two Pokemon, basically? And what two are the most reliable?
I'm playing on Pearl, if that helps in anyway. I know future releases in a gen tend to account for added advantages in their battle facilities, so this is HOPEFULLY the least frustrating of the bunch, though that won't stop frustration from happening, I'm aware.
Getting to battle 21 shouldn't be too hard but you should have fully EV trained Pokemon to do it with the least amount of problems. You didn't mention if you used EV trained Pokemon or your playthrough Pokemon so if you used regular playthrough Pokemon I can see how you can struggle to do it with them. As long as you pick 3 strong (high BST) Pokemon and EV train them you should be able to get to 21 easily.
Metagross and Starmie are great picks but you don't have to use them if they are hard to obtain in Pearl. For example I got to battle 50 on Heart Gold with Gyarados, Garchomp and Alakazam so any 3 strong Pokemon will do, especially for streak of 21, but you have to EV train them imo.
Yeah, that's the thing, I can only use two here. The third poke is basically there to get a ribbon and is purposefully unevolved with random EV investment from going through XD normally. (they can have quick attack, which MIGHT be useful, otherwise they'd only be good as a decoy) I'd love to just have two battle-ready 'mons to start taking swings, but I played Pearl mostly back when it first came out, well before I caught on to the value of EVs and natures, so most everything in my box isn't... battle tower savvy, let's say.
That does sound like a solid team. I think the full team on the guide I read was... Metagross, Starmie, and Blissey? It mostly came down to the former two since Metagross can blow up in Milotic's face and Starmie can sweep Rhyperior and Dragonite with ease, but that's under the best circumstances and doesn't account for what can happen in the 20 battles prior. It sounds good, but I'd really like to just... get it done, you know? I'm not exactly a battle enthusiast, but I DO like ribbons, and it'd be cool to have just ONE of the gen III-IV tower ribbons before moving on to later games in this endeavor.
Probably not something to say around folks that do enjoy the battle tower, but I don't want to be too insincere here, if that's the word.
So its' been a minute but earlier this month, I completed my Battle Tower streak of 100+ and finally got my Black Card on my original Diamond file. What a relief it is to be done with it. At some point I'll continue the streak just to see how high I can get it, but at the moment, it stands at 105 straight wins in the single battle room. Since some people may be curious, or may be trying this, I'll provide some notes below. I should also note up front that this is a Platinum team (i.e. move tutors) sent back to Diamond, and only possible because of the recently discovered GenIV and GenV server authentication thing that put past events back online (I say this because while at one time I did have these events, my Platinum file was reset at some point). Anyways, let's go on.
I started my battle tower streak with little to no research on how to actually 'beat' battle tower. I knew enough through my decade of play that key things like boosting moves and substitute were important. My first team, which was Garchomp, Starmie, Blissey went with the mentality that I could just muscle my way through. After I beat Palmer the second time (battle 49) it became apparent to me that this team would not cut it. All the time I had spent breeding this team was only going to get me so far and I was probably playing on borrowed time. Keeping my streak alive by just not playing BT, I started planning how I could go about this. My efforts lead me to an old Smogon thread made for the sole purpose of tackling these in game challenges like Battle Tower and the Battle Frontier. After reading through some people's reports of how they got to 300+, a strategy and team outline became apparent. Abuse the lead, set up, sweep. Most of these teams relied on move tutors from Platinum, specifically the move Trick. Additionally, they almost all followed the build of double dragon and a steel type; most commonly, Latias, Salamance, Registeel (which was often subbed for Scizor if one valued more power for less bulk).
I went to work grinding BP in my Soul Silver game, as paying for tutors with BP was easier than shard. My original team worked well for this, as it never struggled in battles 1-21, netting a good amount of BP at a reasonable rate. I got lucky and discovered that I never actually caught my Latias in Soul Silver from the original Enigma Stone event. I spent a few days SRing to get one that had IV's I was going to be comfortable with, since I only had 1 of these to work with. Having a box of synchronize'd natures and excess Master Balls from other play-through's really came in clutch as I could easily catch and had my nature coming up at a high rate. I then use the now posted Wifi mystery gift events to get the Regi tombs open in Platinum. I could have done this in Emerald and Pal Parked up but I was looking for ease and convince. To beat Emerald, save the Master Ball, get the Regi's active, and then SR wasn't overly appealing. Traded over a spare Master Ball, a Synchro and then went to work on Registeel as well, which took less than an hour. I got lucky with Salamence. On my original Diamond, I had a bunch of breeding rejects of Bagon from back in the day. I was even more lucky to find one that was perfectly usable, and the only reason it was a reject was because at that time, I was breeding for a special Salamence, so an Adamant one with Hydro Pump didn't do to much for me.
Once I got the team prepared, I wanted to get comfortable with it, so I traded it over to Platinum and did a test run. This run ended at 38, and to some of the most absurd hax I've ever experienced in battle tower. However, by this point I was comfortable in how the team handled and new that it took a lot, and I mean A LOT of hax to actively stop this team. I was set. I traded the team over to Diamond, waited for a day where I had nothing going on and said I would just go till I got to 100 or I lost. The big thing for me was never looking at my current record. I didn't want the nerves of knowing I was close, since I already knew that every battle meant so much to begin with. It took a few hours but I got from battle 50 to 105 without really breaking a sweat. There were some scary moments here and there, but for the most part, I cruised.
What Team 2 is designed to do is take advantage of the opponents Lead. Latias' only job is to get off a trick, anything else is icing on the cake. Due to the AI almost never switching, you can lock the opponent into a move that's favorable to you setting up. It is much easier to get Registeel set up and going than it is Salamence, however, a Salamence sweep is much more fun.
You ALWAYS want to max unless you absolutely cant. This is an endurance test, not a sprint. Hax pops up whenever it wants, do not take unnecessarily risks. If you think you don't need to max, you're wrong. If you don't think you need a substitute up, you're wrong. Low PP moves on the opponents lead are the hardest to maneuver around. The goal again, is to set up and have a sub and if you do it right, they'll either start to struggle to death while you finish your set up, or they wont be able to touch you at all. Low PP moves like Stone Edge cause them to struggle much faster, giving you less of a set up and really having to prioritize how you set up while also keeping a Substitute up.
HP is important so like I said, Registeel is always the safer bet to get going than Salamence, even if it's longer and more boring to do. Remember, Battle Tower doesn't care about style points. Trick room is something you'll run into occasionally, and if done correctly, they'll be locked into the move. This is a false safe move for Salamence to come in on since Trick room has odd PP, thus leaving you set up with Speed under trick room. I also learned that Psych Up goes through Substitute, so watch out for that. I came a crossed it on both Magnezone and Golduck, which is scary when something suddenly has +6 +6 +6 (and if Magnezone, trapping in Registeel). Camper Leland posed the biggest threat to my streak on two occasions, leading off with Choice Scarf Guillotine Pinsir. This ruins the Trick Strategy and because you lead with a Psychic type, they'll go for Guillotine. You'll have to risk the switch and hope that turn the attack misses. Once a Substitute is up, you'll be fine, just that first turn or two is scary.
Proof:
If anyone has any questions on how to tackle Battle Tower, I'd be happy to answer them!
Above is a detailed look at Battle Tower from the Recent Happening's thread on my journey to 100 wins and the trainer star.
The big take away is that you need to try and control as much as you can. Substitute is key, set up is key. The trek to 21 itself shouldn't be challenging as you're mainly fighting NFE pokemon. Have an EV trained team of wall breakers should get you to where you need to go. Rhyperior has special moves which should make it a lot easier as well. Garchomp, Salamence, Starmie, Alakazam, Scizor, Tyranitar, Gyarados, Staraptor, Lati@s, Raikou, and others should all let you just muscle your way through
Dang, this is the sort of strategy I had been wondering about for this gen. I know nowadays, or at least during the sixth and seventh gens, a truant Durant with Entrainment along with a Cloyster (or I suppose any solid sweeping poke, really) was one of the go-tos for cheesing the battle facilities, but it seemed like there were no strategies along those lines for the earlier games, which I kind of needed for what I wanted to do.
Funny thing is, the Starmie you list here is practically point-for-point the same as the one I saw in a guide. I basically have mine ready.... save that they'll have illuminate because I didn't want to spend several more hours in Emerald trying to get another timid Staryu with the right ability. (because of course the first timid one I finally get is going to have the ability that does nothing in battles, woooooo) That'll probably come back to bite me even in the relatively small scope of 21 wins, but hey, patience exercises and such.
I did decide on using Garchomp over Metagross. I recently caught a Dratini for the purposes of getting one with Outrage, like in the guide, but yours forgoes that for buffed Earthquakes and Dragon Claws. (also a yache berry in place of a choice band) That'd be less time to invest, but I still need to get an adamant Gible since all the ones I bred years ago were jolly instead. So... I'm still gonna have to invest time here. (I sure hope there are no bugs for pushing play time into the thousands)
Thanks for the input, both y'all, and congrats on getting that slick black card. Hopefully I won't be distracted too much more by the remake so I can finally take care of things I still wanted to do in the original.
You could easily use Outrage in the early rounds, but because it locks you in, it's a bit harder to get your hits off later in the streak. Salamence can use it a little better because of the flying type and Intimidate, which can help with your sub longevity. Additionally, Salamence can boost both attack and speed, where as with Garchomp you're mainly only running Swords Dance to boost attack. It's definitely an option, just be aware of the drawbacks.
Additionally, if you have any other Battle Tower related questions, please feel free to DM me, I'm happy to help!
Gooooood lord I did it, I even got lucky enough to do it on the first shot. It was uncomfortably close, the tycoon leading with Dragonite and Garchomp's Dragon Claw not cutting it (I probably could have Substituted until Dragon Rush missed to buff, but let's face it, Dragon Rush wasn't going to miss) but Starmie was able to handle things and Milotic didn't crit or spite me with Hypnosis or whatever status they're packing. Shout outs to the two instances of Azumarill on the way that baited Earthquakes with Dig, a Lunatone that survived a +6 Dragon Claw thanks to a few Cosmic Powers, and a Misdreavus that nearly ended things early because I forgot / didn't know Attract ignores Substitute and it had Thunder Wave to be extra annoying to Starmie, who failed to KO it with Surf.
Big thanks to you two for your insight on this. I'm glad I went with Garchomp and I'm glad I took the Sub-Sword route instead of pure attacking because dang were most of the trainers leading with annoying tactics. I was also lucky enough to have only put up with one instance of Double Team (that ultimately failed, so nuts to that CPU) and two instances of Bright Powder and boy am I glad I was able to get through it in just one morning hour because these battles are soooooo sloooooowwww, agh! The dread was heavy of having to do it all again when it felt like things were immediately going downhill during the tycoon fight but I did it, I did it, I got super lucky but that's a big part of it and I'll probably never try it again because of the knots it gave me but at least I did it here!
Exploits or otherwise, props to anyone willing to put up with this past this point.
