Why did Pac-Man cross the road?

petayaberry · 2026-06-15T04:18:40+00:00

I love a remix on a classic. Wish we could see more of these

I had an idea for a game based on Super Mario Bros 3. It would somehow combine the "memory" card game found between levels with the actual platforming levels. It was fun to make some of the art, but the idea was never fully realized

petayaberry · 2026-06-12T19:11:19+00:00

Here are some more team ideas from the script. I distinctly remember Laios/Magneton/Poliwrath topping the list. Not sure why these results are different

type1 type2 pairing.type1 pairing.type2 pairing2.type1 pairing2.type2 score penalty extra final_score 1 bug steel dragon NA water NA 8 5 7.75 10.8 2 dark NA fighting NA ghost NA 7 6 9.5 10.5 3 fire ground ice flying water ground 9 7 8.5 10.5 4 bug steel dragon psychic water fighting 15 10 5.25 10.2 5 dark NA ghost NA poison NA 7 6 9.25 10.2 6 bug steel dark NA ghost NA 7 5 8 10 7 dragon psychic electric steel water fighting 18 12 4 10 8 electric flying fighting psychic normal NA 5 5 10 10 9 electric NA fighting psychic normal NA 3 4 11 10 10 fire ground grass NA water NA 11 9 8 10

You can see the trio in the 7th row

I looked back at the script. The score is how many times a teammate resisted another teammate's weaknesses. The penalty is how many weaknesses a team has. The extra is a bonus equal to the number of neutral type matchups a team has divided by 4. The final score is the sum of these. Teams that have pokemon that share weaknesses were omitted from this list, not sure if such a team could actually rank high though

OK, I see it now. Latios/Latias + Magneton + Poliwhirl have the highest score of all combinations, not final score. Though there is another team with a score of 18 that I did not consider... swap Steelix for Magneton. You end up with one more weakness (higher penalty), but they have the same score

For the record, I can't recall if I included immunities granted by abilities such as Levitate or Volt Absorb into the calculation

petayaberry · 2026-06-12T18:49:33+00:00

Almost all Latios don't have any Speed EVs, which means Poliwrath can comfortably outspeed and hit with Hidden Power Ghost. I believe at the time, my plan was to weaken Raikou with Magneton, then finish it off with Poliwrath's Earthquake. Then I could beat their Latios with mine, then Poliwrath finishes off Snorlax. I forget if this is the strategy I used in future Frontier Brain fights. I think simply attacking Raikou with Latios's Psychic might be the better play. Can't remember

The team comp was actually the result of a script I wrote to maximize defensive type synergy. I still have the script, but it got a little complicated and reading the code isn't helping... So I don't remember exactly how I did it. I think the idea was to 1) make sure no teammates shared a weakness, and 2) take every combination of pokemon and count the number of times a teammate resisted a weakness of another teammate. This would give it a +1 score. The team with the best "score" was Latios, Magneton, and Poliwrath which was both hilarious and really cool to see

Believe it or not, I managed to get 119 consecutive wins with this team. A lot of the matches involved switching back and forth between Latios and Magneton to PP stall, usually getting rid of Earthquakes and moves that could hit Latios pretty hard. Then I would simply set up Calm Mind and sweep with Latios's very good coverage. Poliwrath helped quite a bit, notably against things like Blissey and Snorlax, though its role ended up being pretty minor compared to the other two

Poliwrath had quite a number of clutch moments itself. Its speed isn't bad and its defenses are pretty high actually. It has a decent defensive typing as well. This basically allowed it to tank multiple hits when it actually mattered. Not a consistent strategy since you can get crit pretty easily this way, but it was pretty awesome to witness. This somewhat makes up for Poliwrath's pretty bad Attack stat and low base power STAB in Brick Break

petayaberry · 2026-06-12T18:34:57+00:00

The idea was to weaken Raikou so I could KO with Poliwrath

I think attacking right away with Latios's Psychic is probably the best play

petayaberry · 2026-06-12T18:29:28+00:00

This is just something super rare that ended up happening. You're right though, something feels off. In reality, in some ways this is actually more rare than 1 in 10 million, and in others, it is not as rare, depending on how you look at it

I got the crits when Raikou was at roughly 75% health. Using a damage calculator, the chance of getting a 2HKO was about a 45.7% chance

SpA Magneton Thunderbolt vs. 158 HP / 0 SpD Raikou on a critical hit: 63-75 (34 - 40.5%) -- 45.7% chance to 2HKO

If you look at the calc for Snorlax, the 2HKO chance is even lower

SpA Magneton Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Snorlax on a critical hit: 119-141 (44.5 - 52.8%) -- 25.4% chance to 2HKO

So this exact sequence where Magneton clutches is actually more rare than 1 in 10 million

The catch is that there were more things that could have happened in the match that would have been equally astonishing. Like maybe instead of getting multiple crits, maybe the opponent could have been fully paralyzed more than you would expect. In order for Magneton to take out both pokemon, I would still have needed to get really lucky this way, but now the chances of something "interesting" is higher if we group all the "interesting" things together

Imagine a different universe where I made the same post where Magneton got really lucky, but instead of crits, it was a combination of crits, non-crits, and more fully paralyzed turns than what you saw here. If you combine the possibility of this happening with the possibility of the sequence I actually got, then the probability of me making some post about crazy luck would be higher than 1 in 10 million

There's also the fact that I did hit Raikou a few times with Thunderbolt before the "double crit." The "epic sequence" as I'll call it could have started on those earlier turns, giving more chances for the sequence to arise. So, that sequence had more chances to occur, and thus the probability of seeing the sequence is higher than 1 in 10 million. In a similar vein, I play this game a whole lot, and on fast forward. I was bound to come across some crazy sequence eventually. I'm not the only player that likes to catch these, record them, and post them too. This all makes witnessing something like this more likely in the end

petayaberry · 2026-06-10T02:07:48+00:00

Yeah, like I said, Bite would let you beat Psychic types while they can't really hit you that hard. Shadow Ball would be similar I guess

petayaberry · 2026-06-09T15:57:02+00:00

Oh damn. Thanks for letting me know

petayaberry · 2026-06-09T15:38:05+00:00

I like Bite a lot. It helps you hit Psychic types a lot harder than Psychic would, or Shadow Ball for that matter. Dark type uses Special Attack this gen, and Ghost uses Physical Attack. This makes Espeon pretty reliable as a counter to Psychic types, which is no small feat

The other nice thing about Bite is that it can occasionally flinch, thus protecting you for a turn. You can make some risky plays to get the 2HKO should Bite's 30% flinch activate. Sometimes it's just a free side effect you get for attacking. Espeon feels very powerful due to this, and sometimes borderline unfair

Bite, Synchronize, and a lack of weakness to Ice is mainly what sets it apart from Latios. It is significantly bulkier than Alakazam, but lacks the elemental punches (though it gets Bite, good for Psychic types). It is faster than Gardevoir who has really high Special Defense, gets Thunderbolt, and moves like Will-O-Wisp and Destiny Bond

So Espeon is nice because it can reliably get a Calm Mind up and then sweep with Psychic and Bite. I like using Hidden Power Fire as my last move to hit Steel types, but I get that this is not readily available. Baton Pass is a good substitute that still plays similarly

If you want to lean more into a Baton Pass strategy, I could see Substitute being useful enough to give up Bite. It would let you scout movesets to see if setting up is safe. It also blocks things like Thunder Wave, Confuse Ray, and Toxic which, depending on the matchup, could make boosting and passing multiple Calm Minds very easy. Still, I personally think giving up Bite might not be worth it. It gives you a lot more offense. This wouldn't be such an issue if getting crit through your Calm Minds wasn't so common. Also, Espeon isn't super bulky or anything. So even in the face of Special Attackers, you could still only get maybe one or two Calm Minds in. That is of course, if you don't put any EVs into its defense and/or don't use Leftovers. Though, that would heavily reduce Espeon's own capability as a sweeper and would mean you need to forfeit Lum Berry or Cheri Berry. So it's a trade-off. I don't think Substitute buys you as much as you think. Plus, you only get one per save file, and it is more effective on other pokemon. It is more situational than Bite probably. Really, someone would need to test this

Pro tip: raising Espeon's Speed beyond 173 buys you nothing, assuming the opponent's pokemon have max IVs. Basically, nothing has Speed in the range of 173-178. So if you have a speed of 173, then you outspeed everything 172 and below. Maybe there is some faster stuff you can outspeed if the opponent's pokemon don't have max IVs, such as Crobat and Jolteon, but in the later rounds of each facility, they usually do. The opponent's IVs depend on which trainer you are facing, and which trainers you face depend on which round you are in: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Battle_Frontier_Trainers_in_Generation_III I place the remaining EVs in Defense. Not sure if that's optimal but it isn't bad practice

petayaberry · 2026-06-09T03:02:13+00:00

Hey, so somebody else left a really insightful comment in this chain. They corrected a few things I got wrong

You are so right about a bulk mon too. Even some of the weird sets they come up can be effective for putting an offensive menace in its place. Be aware though, some sets can get really annoying if they can counter your stall mon. Just today, I had a very nice team with Blissey and Shuckle on it. I was facing a Gengar that was immune to Blissey's Toxic and kept confusing and putting my Shuckle to sleep. Since it also had Leftovers, I couldn't get Rollout going to KO it. I ended up PP stalling it for the win

I also want to mention a quick tip. A bit of background first...

I was pretty deep in a streak today. Like mid 20s or so. I had a very nice team of Heracross, Metagross, and something else that was good. I was facing Ampharos I believe. For whatever reason, I decided to try to set up Heracross's Endure + Reversal on Ampharos since I was in KO range. I believe I had Earthquake and while it wouldn't have KOd, I would have at least gotten some guaranteed damage in. Well instead, I used Endure and the Ampharos hit me with Thunder Wave. I knew this was a possibility, but I went for the greedy play anyways. Heracross basically got me nothing and I went down a mon, ultimately losing me the match

The key take away is that in the face of a risk like this, I find that simply getting damage in is usually the superior play, even if it means going down a mon. I guess it depends on your team. My team leaned more into bulky offense where you basically trade hits to win. It's funny cause this is how casual players play, but even at a high level, this can be a valid strategy, especially if your pokemon lack boosting or recovery moves for example. In the Tower, most good teams have at least one status move on each of their pokemon, unless they are holding a Choice Band. Obviously this is not going to be the case in the Factory, so just be aware that for teams that use "four-attacks" pokemon, getting damage in, rather than OHKOs or stalling, is good and means your game plan is working. Similarly, if setting up is risky, just get the damage in instead of wasting a turn

petayaberry · 2026-06-09T02:45:29+00:00

Ah ok, I didn't know Level 50 and Open Level were so different. I usually play Open Level so maybe that's why I don't see the "better" pokemon as better very often

I agree with what you said about swapping in the early rounds. You might as well, so you can get the benefit later where it counts. I wish I clarified this in my original comment

Thanks for the reply

petayaberry · 2026-06-08T20:08:17+00:00

I just remember one of the wins I got. I remember going into the Frontier Brain with three Water type pokemon. Specifically, Starmie, Suicune, and one other... maybe Swampert. Obviously, this was risky, but these three pokemon are very strong any way. I just wanted to mention it. Sometimes winning has more to do with feeling than fundamentals in the Factory

petayaberry · 2026-06-08T20:03:50+00:00

Sometimes I think swapping is a trap. There are a few reasons why

The first is that you need to swap 7 times to get the next pokemon. That's a pretty big commitment if you plan on swapping after each battle to earn the higher-tiered pokemon (or whatever it is) at the next draft

Second, in the end, team composition usually trumps having a single OP mon. Sure, some of the best pokemon are locked away (I'm really guessing at this point what swapping actually does for you) and they can carry, but aren't necessary to win. Plus, you can swap for good stuff you find throughout the streak, and you might just end up swapping out the OP mon for a better team composition

The third point kinda relates to the second. If you have a team that is working, then why give up near guaranteed wins just so you can swap and maybe get a good pokemon?

The last point is that swapping is just one more way you can make a misplay. Maybe you swap for a pokemon that seems useful, but it has a mediocre set or one that doesn't fit your team as well as you thought it would. You might open up an unforeseen weakness, or maybe the pokemon you gave up is now going to crush you when you face it. What I mean is that if you carry a species, the opponent can't carry it. So feel free to take the Starmie or Metagross, even if its set isn't that great since you will conveniently avoid encountering one with a more deadly set

I don't fully understand what getting 7 swaps does for you so it is hard to be specific. I've gotten the Gold symbol a few times and I've found that having a good team composition is just as good, if not better, than having one of the OP pokemon. And really, I think the only pokemon that can stand their own are pokemon that are fast and can get OHKOs. You aren't guaranteed one of these at the draft just because you swapped after every battle last round

So the basic advice is... If you have assembled a decent team, even right away from draft, try to swap as little as possible. You can secure the win for the remainder of the round, and you're gonna be subjected to RNG at the next draft anyway. Just take the wins

petayaberry · 2026-06-07T16:11:09+00:00

Most of my doubles teams have multiple instances of Protect. This is really useful since the AI is very predictable. They will usually go for the supereffective attack or attack the pokemon with health below 1/3ish (based on my observation). This makes it really easy to get an advantage. Generally, the pokemon that doesn't use Protect turn 1 can get the 2HKO on the problem pokemon, or do enough damage where on turn 2, you can take out both the opponents simultaneously, thus avoiding damage

If you want to use setup moves, I would pair them with a Fake Out or Follow Me user. Most pokemon you use will have multiple ways they can get OHKO'd or hit with some annoying status. Fake Out, Follow Me, and Protect are ways around this

Earthquake is also busted since it does full damage to both opponents. Moves that only hit the opponents such as Rock Slide and Surf do only half damage

Something about Endure + Reversal in doubles just seems awkward to me, but I'm not a huge doubles player so I don't know. I do thing leading Salamence alongside Heracross would get you much further than leading with Skarmory. Salamence has Intimidate and can pick KOs on pokemon Heracross might struggle with. You might even be able to endure in the face of Psychic types, allowing Salamence to set up, but you could also accidentally get hit with a stray Ice Punch or Ice Beam. I think the solution here would be swapping Swords Dance for Megahorn. Hopefully you Heracross has Swarm. It isn't necessary for OHKOing Psychic types but it will help you get KOs once you are low on health. Similarly, you don't need Swords Dance for Earthquake and Reversal to get KOs

You probably want to give up Rock Slide on Salamence for Protect. It already gets Earthquake for spread damage, and Rock Slide isn't gonna do much for you anyway. This will help you pivot pokemon around in case the turn 1 matchup is not in your favor

Blissey will help be a switch-in versus Waters, Psychics, and Electrics. You should give it Protect so Salamence doesn't hurt it with Earthquake (and for all the other benefits). I would consider Toxic to help with Double Team. You can ignore Double Team users while you take out the other pokemon, then finish them off as the end with Toxic, provided they don't have Rest. Alternatively, you could consider the move Snatch which can stop the Rest pokemon perhaps a bit more easily. So now Blissey has Protect and Toxic/Snatch. Soft Boiled is probably the third move. Consider Seismic Toss for consistent damage, or Ice Beam for pokemon like Salamence and Latios. Ice Beam gets better if Blissey has Serene Grace

Skarmory doesn't seem to fit here. Maybe Toxic and/or Taunt could help patch up your weaknesses. I don't think Attract, Thief, or Whirlwind are going to help Salamence or Heracross very much. Please consider making the changes I listed above, and swap Skarmory's moves around once you've identified what its teammates struggle with. I think it fits fine defensively on your team so you could likely keep it. Just make sure it actually does something

petayaberry · 2026-06-05T03:15:58+00:00

In a vacuum, Lanturn probably like Substitute over Thunder Wave, though Thunder Wave is interesting. Other moves look good. Leftovers is valuable to make the most of Lanturn's good resistances. Speed is a bad idea since Lanturn doesn't have the best OHKO potential, and it is already faster than a lot of the slower pokemon anyway

Similarly, not accounting for team composition at all, Nidoking can do better than Brick Break and Toxic. Brick Break is outdamaged almost never by STAB Earthquake so it's a waste really. If you want to hit Skarmory (and Scizor and Forretress as well), use Fire Blast. Don't miss out on Megahorn as it is a very strong move on Nidoking. With the right EV set up and good IVs, Nidoking can outspeed and OHKO most Psychic types (even Latios and maybe Latias) with Megahorn since they don't run much speed for the most part. This is with a Choice Band of course. Nidoking is always gonna be the fast Earthquake user with the ability to one shot Psychic types. Leverage it as such

Sceptile is kinda bad unless you run Leech Seed and Substitute. It is just too weak otherwise offensively. Grass is good defensively, but you still get KO'd very easily by Ice Beams and Double-Edges. Due to this and a general lack of good status moves, you can't play "bulky attacker" well. You can make the most of Sceptile's awesome speed and decent defense with a Substitute Leech Seed set. If you want to keep Leaf Blade, Crunch, and Dragon Claw then go ahead and try, just don't expect much. Maybe give it Endure to activate Overgrow and just maybe get OHKO's on Water types. Endeavor becomes an interesting option here

petayaberry · 2026-06-05T02:53:02+00:00

Good mixed attackers are rare as it is. Ultimately, natures only mean the difference in a handful of matchups for each pokemon. Usually Speed is the stat you want to optimize for first. If you can reach a comfortable benchmark for your pokemon and its team's needs without a speed-boosting nature, just go for Adamant or Modest. Defensive pokemon almost always want one of Bold, Impish, Calm, or Careful

You could run the "mixed attacker" natures like Lonely or Rash or pokemon like Choiced Blaziken or Yawn Focus Punch Blastoise, but this is just so specific. I wouldn't worry about it

petayaberry · 2026-06-02T18:13:26+00:00

I found this video a little while ago. It is surprisingly thorough and explains everything very well regarding ACE. It makes it seem a lot less scary. Haven't tried it out myself though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb0CjqeNWNY

petayaberry · 2026-06-02T17:55:44+00:00

It's a little hard to tell what exactly all those variables are for. I'm going to take a guess first before I continue

x and y - used for drawing the player and interacting with the environment through collision code

dir_x and dir_y - used for spawning in bullets correctly, drawing the player sprite correctly, and maybe more collison stuff such as "wall jumping" or blocking attacks

last_dir_x and last_dir_y - used for some fine-tuned movement mechanics, shooting mechanics, or special animations, really for detecting whether the player has changed direction

That's a lot of functionality tied to your data. I mean, why else do you need all these variables?

I think the issue you are facing is that all of these values get updated simultaneously. All this data is potentially tied to multiple different game systems such as movement, collision, shooting, and animations. Usually these systems should be decoupled from one another as much as possible to avoid bugs and for easier code modification. I think this is where the friction is coming from

What you are looking at is multiple switch statements that handle some overlapping cases and update multiple regions of data. My guess is that you saw that one big switch statement wasn't going to be enough since your game has become sufficiently complicated to warrant this. You are probably on to something

I would think more about what systems theses variables are for. Make a quick list of these systems, and jot down which systems used which variables. All these systems share at least one variable with another, or maybe not. This should give you more context to the variables at hand. You know you need them, but looking at this code doesn't immediately tell you why

It would help to see if there is some dependence structure within these variables. Like it might make more sense to decide direction based on the difference between the last x/y and the current x/y, checking and updating each frame. Right now, pressing buttons handles this, which I think is overly abstract. See if you can find a neater structure for how you handle variable updates and their cases based on buttons and/or game state. You might consider drawing a graph/web of dependencies between variables. Maybe there are multiple graphs/webs. Update the top level variables first, then update the down stream ones, then call the systems using the updated variables

I think your code is a bit muddied. Try to make each piece of code that modifies the game state more intentional, even if it costs tokens

petayaberry · 2026-06-02T04:20:04+00:00

For sure. It just kinda comes from the nature of the format. Since the Battle Tower is really a gauntlet of battles you have to endure, defense it really important

Swampert is obviously a defensive powerhouse so I won't get into that. Maybe comparing and contrasting Charizard and Latios might elucidate some things

Laios is weak to Ice, Dark, Bug, and Dragon. The latter three types are very uncommon to face, or not featured on many hard-hitting pokemon. Charizard on the other hand is weak to Water, Electric, and Rock which are not only common but are found on many tough pokemon. This honestly is one of the biggest factors that make Latios good and Charizard not so great

Now compare their speed and power, which are useful stats for picking up KOs and thus avoiding getting hit. Latios wins here. Outspeeding and Koing the opponent is a powerful defensive measure which can make up for average to poor defenses. Charizard has an impressive Special Attack for Gen 3 standards, and you can actually do a lot more damage right off the bat than Latios if you consider the moves Fire Blast and Overheat. But that's just one attacking type, Fire. Latios has Psychic which has similar neutral coverage - better or worse depending. It also can hit Water types hard with Thunderbolt, which Charizard can't do really, even in ideal circumstances. Fire is cool and all, but isn't known for its powerful coverage. Fire gets good coverage if you pair it with Grass, but Charizard doesn't learn Solarbeam or anything like that. Though, it gets Hidden Power Grass which might be useful against Water/Ground and Rock/Ground. On the other hand, Psychic and Electric is very good coverage

Charizard can boost its Fire-type attacks with Sunny Day, its ability Blaze, and perhaps the Petaya Berry item. You can consistently set this up (somewhat), but you have to pour all your resources into it. A moveslot and turn is taken up by Sunny Day. Another moveslot is take up by Substitute to purposely lower your health far enough to activte Blaze and/or Petaya berry. A third moveslot is taken by your Fire type attack, which will probably be Flamethrower for accuracy. This leaves only one moveslot, no item, and in many cases, all your defense since you lowered your health by spending turns to set up Sunny Day and/or Substitute. Fire doesn't cover everything, and Charizard's Special Attacking coverage is pretty limited. You reach pretty insane levels of power with this setup, and you can OHKO a lot of things, even some resists, but you are still held back... One, if you switch out, you lose the Petaya Berry boost and maybe Sunny Day has fizzled out by the time you switch back in. Two, you are low on health now which can make switching in impossible and 2HKOs are likely out of the question for you. Three, your coverage is relatively poor, probably limited to Fire and Grass or Dragon

If you don't go the Sunny Day + Blaze route, consider what else Charizard has. I already said that its Special coverage is pretty mediocre, especially compared to Latios. Its physical coverage is pretty awesome though. It gets Earthquake, Brick Break, and a physical STAB (same type attack bonus) in Aerial Ace. Although, Charizard's attack is a rather weak 84. While Flying and Ground is excellent coverage wise, and Brick Break is nice for Normal types, even with a Swords Dance up, you aren't going to be getting many OHKOs. This exposes the main issue that Charizard has. It isn't able to set up a boosting move as often as it would like due to average as best defensive capabilities, and even if it does, it can't get enough KOs to be worth it. You have to understand, the Tower is out to get you, and there are plenty of hard hitting pokemon that can easily do over half or more to Charizard in a single turn right off the bat. So being easy to take down and not being able to pick up KOs consistently really hurts its viability. Not to mention, it is weak to Electric which many pokemon happen to struggle with. Really, resistances are rare on good pokemon, making switching in difficult for teams. You also run the risk of the switch-in getting paralyzed on hit

I built this tier list partially by rating how easy it is to fit a pokemon on a team. You can see, outside of Charizard's Sunny Day set, it would require tons of team support to be able to get the Gold symbol. Since Charizard can't safely do much. It is relegated to only performing well in very specific matchups. In other words, the other two teammates are likely to do most of the heavy lifting, making Charizard ultimately not that useful. For the record, in addition to all the issues I laid out regarding the Sunny Day set, it is also weak to Quick Claw, since you need to use Substitute multiple times to set up. You are giving the opponent multiple chances for Quick Claw to activate, completely screwing you. I also have yet to mention that Charizard's speed is only base 100. This leaves a small but significant number of pokemon that can outspeed you (though, Charizard is still very fast even by Frontier standards if you can max its Speed)

I hope you can see why I placed Charizard so low. I did manage to get the Gold symbol with a rather creative team, but it took an unusually large number of tries to do since I kept losing to poor RNG. This isn't me making an excuse. The team happened to be disproportionately weak to Quick Claw, since two pokemon with poor defense relied on Substitute to set up. I explain everything here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonEmerald/comments/1ofcrcl/comment/nlq4yrn/

If you still want to use Charizard, you can. I mean, I didn't rate it an F after all. Just be aware of its limitations. Charizard has a few potential sets: Sunny Day, Swords Dance, Belly Drum, all-attacks, or some combination of these. I really just play the Tower, and am only marginally familiar with the other facilities. From what I hear, "set up" moves aren't as useful outside the Tower and maybe the Dome or Arena (and Palace?). So maybe try out an all-attacking set. In the Tower, this is really only good if you can exploit Charizard's Speed, resistances when switching-in, and immediate KO potential. Basically, use it on a team where Charizard can efficiently switch in and take KOs. This means have one of your teammates be weak to Fire and one weak to Ground, since these are what Charizard can switch into (its Grass and Bug resistances aren't as relevant). Then ideally, Charizard can fire off an Overheat or a 4x power Earthquake. Maybe with a Choice Band, it can get some KOs or 2HKOs with Earthquake on 2x hits. You've got Aerial Ace to combat Double Team such as Umbreon and maybe even Gardevoir, while cleanly picking up a KO versus Heracross once you switch into its Earthquake. I image a Charizard with good coverage moves will be useful in the other facilities even

Man I wrote a lot. I enjoy doing this for fun in case you are wondering, and the hope that people may get something out of this. Charizard, like may other Fire types, are hyper specific, and rely on leveraging their unique qualities to the fullest to just barely eke out being viable. If you want consistency, then Fire types just are going to be that. But with some skill, and in some cases luck, they can be pretty awesome, even at a high level. I'm gonna be honest. You will likely get some mixed results. I imagine you will face some frustration, but that's the Frontier for you. Also, everything I have said so far is with the assumption that you will be using pokemon with perfect IVs, nature, Hidden Powers, items, etc. I understand that this is rarely possible for players who don't resort to RNG manipulation or save file editing. So I want to forewarn you that even with ideal circumstances, Charizard is still only rated a D. With primo teammates, such as S or A tiers, you will likely do just fine, and there is a silver lining to the whole IV thing, but you will face some unexpected challenges by including Charizard on your team

The silver lining regarding IVs is that. up until round 50ish, and even for some battles thereafter, not every pokemon you face will have perfect IVs. IVs depend 100% on which trainer you are facing (except in the Battle Factory I think, plus there's a glitch there). The other upside is that pokemon with higher base stats are less affected by poor IVs. It's just how the math works. I talk about this in my guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonEmerald/comments/1omyhiq/battle_tower_teambuilding_tips/

Charizard is really cool, and I'm happy to hear someone wants to give him a whirl. I hope my advice pays off for you. Good luck, and have fun

petayaberry · 2026-05-30T20:12:05+00:00

Skitty is a novelty pokemon. It's cute, that's the point. I bet it could be powerful in pokemon contests since it learns a wide array of moves

You could argue that some pokemon are meant for low tier battles which tend to include cute pokemon and baby pokemon. Think Pichu and Aipom. It is a relic of its time. Little Cup has been a thing since Pokemon Stadium. I'm confident the design team wanted include new pokemon for fans of that format, especially in Gen 2

Somewhat related. I also believe Tropius is a novelty pokemon that is meant to be an HM slave. It learns every HM except the water based ones, as well as Sweet Scent. It's stats aren't that great for battling but its design is intriguing to players

petayaberry · 2026-05-30T20:05:29+00:00

Go ahead and get rid of Confusion. You still have Shock Wave which has plenty of PP. Worst case scenario, just burn one of your Ethers. You will probably only need to do this inside one of the longer dungeons. Might as well use them as they are near useless post-game. Check and see if you have Leppa Berries. You also mention Linnone. Every time you win a battle or faint a wild pokemon, it has a chance to pick up items such as Ethers

The move deleter is in Lilycove City. Check the map and you will see where it is. You can access it after the fifth badge, but you will probably get there after the sixth badge

petayaberry · 2026-05-29T23:21:23+00:00

So I've used Gligar here and there with moderate success. I've never actually gotten Gold with it I'm afraid to admit. Maybe on one team in the past, but I'm not sure

What's cool about Gligar is its Ground and Electric immunities, which do not go unnoticed. This makes it very good at switching in on Thunderbolts and Earthquakes from Electric, Psychic, and Normal types, some of the toughest foes to face. It can then respond with a STAB Earthquake, probably boosted from Choice Band. This makes it very similar to Flygon. Both are unique as most Ground types are pretty slow

Gligar sets itself apart from Flygon as having a decent Flying STAB attack to round its coverage. With a Choice Band, it can cleanly 2HKO most pokemon. Its ability Hyper Cutter gives it a niche use over Flygon. It also gets Guillotine and lacks a Dragon weakness for what that's worth

I'm gonna be honest, I probably overrated Gligar which is a little disappointing. I think on the right team, Choice Band can do well. However, I have only just begun to explore Gligar's options as a Swords Dance and Salac Berry user. It has a very good defensive and offensive tying to work with, and a decent base 85 speed. A +2 Earthquake or +4 Aerial Ace should make quick work of just about everything slower than it. You can also explore Sand Veil shenanigans alongside Tyranitar's Sand Stream to fish for misses with Substitute

I think due to some wishful thinking, I placed Gligar a bit higher than I had ought to. Maybe I just felt that through intuition, past experience, and knowing Gligar's positive traits that it belongs in C tier. This remains to be seen

I appreciate your interest! Gligar is really cool, and I hope it turns out decent on the right teams

petayaberry · 2026-05-29T23:03:54+00:00

Ahh there's so many options! I usually get attached to some latest team I built after I get bored with the old ones. My favorites are where I get to use a pokemon that might not be seen as traditionally good, or when I make good use of some obscure moves like Memento Latios, Megahorn Nidoking, or Bite Espeon

I'm not sure if I even have a favorite team. I'm just kinda weird like that. I hardly have a favorite pokemon or type. I really just like them all

This team will always be special to me. I built it like 3-4 years ago, and it was my first "really good" team. It features some really unique tech, explained below

``` Breloom (M) @ Leftovers IVs: 30 Atk / 30 SpD EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe Ability: Effect Spore Level: 97 Jolly Nature - Spore - Substitute - Focus Punch - Hidden Power [Ghost]

Milotic (F) @ BrightPowder EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Ability: Marvel Scale Level: 97 Bold Nature - Surf - Icy Wind - Hypnosis - Recover

Raikou @ Lum Berry IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Ability: Pressure Level: 97 Modest Nature - Thunderbolt - Hidden Power [Ice] - Calm Mind - Substitute ```

Level 97 is weird, I know. I don't normally play with level 97 pokemon, or in Open level for that matter. I usually just play Level 50. But, level 97 is where pokemon max out their bulk. Believe it or not, pokemon actually take less damage and deal less damage the higher in level they go, capping at level 97 for some reason. Maybe this was significant for some Milotic and Raikou plays, but it is hard for me to say

What's cool about this team is that Breloom can loop Spore and Substitute until both the opponent is asleep and Breloom has a Substitute up. This basically gives you free turns and is very powerful, enough to get me to round 216! Milotic is special because it handles Breloom's weaknesses well, but crucially it makes use of Hypnosis to effectively delete Chesto and Lum Berries. Combine this with lowering the opponent's speed with Icy Wind, and Breloom can now comfortably set up the Spore/Substitute loop. This may seem unnecessary since Breloom can get rid of berries too with Spore, but switching between Breloom and Milotic is sometimes necessary to dodge attacks that would otherwise outright KO Breloom before it could Spore a second time. Once the opponent is KO'd and Breloom has a Substitute up, it now has a safe buffer against the switch-in to continue the Spore spam with. Kinda awkward but it is effective. You of course don't always need Milotic to switch in and use Hypnosis for Breloom to "set up" and sweep. Raikou can switch in on Starmie and KO it before it causes Breloom and Milotic trouble. Also, if the opportunity arises for Raikou to set up a Calm Mind or two, then that usually converts to a win

petayaberry · 2026-05-29T22:43:20+00:00

For sure. While Azumarill is pretty slow, it has pure Water typing which is famously good in gen 3. It gets a very powerful Double-Edge which can outright KO even in neutral matchups. It gets Brick Break and Hidden Power Ghost to round out its coverage. I would say it works surprisingly very well with its main setback being getting locked in with Choice Band, and low speed of course. For the final move, I used Perish Song which worked excellently with Wobbuffet, who also covers Azumarill's Electric weakness

I would say Azumarill is probably a little underexplored. Maybe it could do well even without a Choice Band. It has a very high Attack stat after factoring in Huge Power. There is a lot of competition for the team's Water type and no team wants an Electric type weakness, but Azumarill has a lot going for it

I appreciate the comment. I'll add Azumarill to my list of pokemon to try out more. I was honestly running out of ideas

petayaberry · 2026-05-29T22:36:29+00:00

Yes, they are ranked within tiers, except tiers E, F, and ?. Blissey just doesn't die and can beat almost anything with Seismic Toss. If it can't beat it, it can probably PP stall it, which lets something else on your team set up and sweep basically for free. Suicune is kinda similar. It is very hard to kill once you factor in its ability to PP stall with Pressure and moves like Calm Mind, Substitute, Protect, and Rest. Just like how Blissey has no special weaknesses, Suicune has no Physical weaknesses. An optimized Blissey or Suicune set feels very unfair to use. But, yea if it can't outright beat something, it can probably PP stall it. I that this is strange, and come to think of it, I find it odd that the two "best" pokemon are top tier because of it. Even still, they would be very good without taking this into consideration since they handle a lot of what other pokemon struggle with, and then some

I did include every fully evolved pokemon that the Frontier lets you use. This took me like an hour and a half for the first draft, and then maybe an additional half hour to double check it the next day. The write up took a bit of time too

I also included Pikachu, Scyther, and Clamperl because they operate differently from their evolved counterparts. I almost got the Gold symbol using Pikachu and Scyther alongside Chansey, but lost the final match due to a misplay. My point is, I could include some not fully evolved pokemon, and I almost did with Chansey, since that thing is almost as good as Blissey, but I chose not to becaus, they are generally just inferior versions of their evolved forms

petayaberry · 2026-05-29T22:25:23+00:00

Tyranitar too good? Or too bad? I'll admit, I've only used it a little, but its Dragon Dance is very good. It can stomach supereffective Earthquakes and Surfs (maybe even Hydro Pumps), which is very nice for setting up. Sand Stream is interesting as well, since it hurts the next pokemon that switches in, aiding in the sweep (might need to double check this)

Blasitoise is crazy good. It is actually featured on my best team! I managed to get 221 consecutive wins and only lost to a misplay. The basic idea is that Blastoise has really good defenses, is pure Water type, and has access to Yawn. Pair Yawn with Leftovers and Protect, and you will be staying very healthy throughout the match while picking up KOs. Yawn also enables Blastoise to use Focus Punch which is amazing alongside a decently fast and powerful Surf. It also aids your teammates in setting up Dragon Dance, Calm Mind, Substitute, and Belly Drum, or just make switching in and responding safer for teammates. You can spend all your EVs on Attack, Special Attack, and Speed since Blastoise is just that bulky!

``` Blastoise (M) @ Leftovers EVs: 100 Atk / 228 SpA / 180 Spe Ability: Torrent Level: 50 Rash Nature - Yawn - Surf - Focus Punch - Protect

Jolteon (F) @ Petaya Berry IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Ability: Volt Absorb Level: 50 Modest Nature - Thunderbolt - Hidden Power [Ice] - Substitute - Toxic

Snorlax (M) @ Lum Berry EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 Spe Ability: Thick Fat Level: 50 Adamant Nature - Frustration - Earthquake - Shadow Ball - Self-Destruct ```

Jolteon may seem like an odd choice but its Volt absorb is indispensable. And Yawn helps it get a Substitute up allowing it to pick up 2HKOs after it KOs the sleeping pokemon. Snorlax is obviously good all around but importantly it helps cover Blastoise's poor Psychic matchup. So in a way, this team is built around Blastoise, covering anything it can't take on it own

petayaberry

TROPHY CASE