Pokémon Emerald/Battle Frontier

The Battle Frontier is a fictional place located in the Hoenn region in the video game Pokémon Emerald that specializes in variations of Pokémon battling. To enter, you need to sign up at one of the desks to obtain the Frontier Pass, which enables you to roam freely around the Battle Frontier.

After winning at each of the Battle Frontier locations a certain amount of times, you can fight that location's Leader (collectively known as "The Frontier Brains") for a chance to win silver and gold Battle Frontier badges. When you defeat all of the leaders, you get special Berries and an extra star added to your Trainer's Card.



Battle Pike
The Battle Pike is a giant building shaped like a Seviper. You need to sign up for "The Battle Choice Challenge" and choose three Pokémon. You then enter a room with three curtains, and must choose one. What may happen in the rooms is:


 * Someone could heal one, two or all of your Pokémon.
 * Someone could inflict a status condition on one, two or all of your Pokémon.
 * You could enter a room that is a giant maze with wild Pokémon that you can battle. The pokemon possibilites are Milotic, Seviper, Breloom, Wobbuffet, Electrode, and Dusclops.
 * You could battle a somewhat-tough trainer and have all your Pokémon healed if you win.
 * You could enter a room where you will have a normal 3-on-3 battle or have a double battle.
 * You could enter a room where someone will not battle you (nothing happens).

After you overcome a room, you must once again pick one of three curtains. A challenge is completed after 14 rooms (7 choices).

In every other room (in each room with three curtains,) an assistant will give you an enigmatic hint to what is behind one of the curtains.

After 28 and 140 room completions, you can fight the Pike Queen Lucy. If you defeat her, she awards the Silver Luck Symbol if this is your first 28-room completion, and the Gold Luck Symbol if this is your 140-room completion. Lucy's pokemon are the same level as your highest level pokemon.

Lucy's name resembles the word, "luck." Similarly, the Battle Pike is the structure that tests one's luck.

Battle Dome
In the Battle Dome, you get put in a tournament with 15 other people. You have to progress through the first leg, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals of the tournament to become the Champion of that challenge. You can choose between single or double battles, and then pick a team of three Pokémon to battle with. Before each battle, you select two of your Pokémon to fight. In addition, you can see your opponent's pokemon choices and 1 move from the three of them. You can even see their record throughout the tournament. Once you are done, you get taken to an actual arena (complete with a cheering crowd) where you start your fights. After each fight, your Pokémon are fully healed, and the process begins again until you win the Finals.

After 5 and 10 tournament wins (single battle only), you can fight the Dome Ace Tucker. He surrenders the Silver or Gold Tactics symbol, depending whether this is your first or second time to come across him respectively. He wields a ferocious team of Pokemon that counterbalance each other's weaknesses, to take advantage of his own 2-pokemon only rule. Thus, weilding pokemon that effetively use 4 different types of moves are excellent for continuously pinpointing a hole in his party.

Battle Factory
In the Battle Factory, your kind hosts and attendees are people dressed up in lab cloaks and goggles. There is a choice of double or single battling, and the exciting thing is that if you choose level 50 your pokemon are level 50... but if you choose Open Level your pokemon are level 100! They also are all final evolution pokemon, as opposed to the Lv. 50 challenge (where your pokemon are all middle-class.) That's right, you don't use your own pokemon for this challenge. The attendee takes you to a room where you choose 3 out of 6 rental pokemon on offer.They will each have a random item and you can look at there summary while choosing. It's best to choose those whose items, stats, nature and moves all correlate effectively. When you are ready to test out your rental pokemon, you can go into the battle room and battle. If you win, you can swap one of your current rental pokemon for your opponent's rental pokemon, but you can not look at the summary. Thus, you must select pokemon due to their effectiveness. Once you have won 7 battles against trainers sporting random pokemon, you will be escourted to the entrance room. You start off at 3 battle points and multiply from there.

On your 21st battle in a row without losing, you will come face-to-face with Factory Head Noland.If you beat him, you will earn a Silver Knowledge Symbol (Knowledge because you must know something about all those pokemon you used!).On your 42nd battle in a row, he battles you again and you can win a Gold Knowledge Symbol. Like everyone else, Noland will have a team of random pokémon, but he knows how to use them more effectively, if at all. He also is smart enough to swap around his pokemon, so just hope for a party of his that will buckle easily to yours.

Battle Arena
In the Battle Arena, you play a standard three-versus-three battle. However, you have to knock out your opponent's Pokémon within three turns. If you don't, you get judged on mind (use of offensive moves), skill (effectiveness of moves), and body (ratio of HP at the beginning and end of battle) to decide the outcome. A circle is worth two points, a triangle is worth one point, and a letter X is worth zero points. The Pokémon with less points faints immediately. In the event of a tie, both Pokémon faint. During the battle, you cannot switch between pokemon. This makes it VITAL that you put pokemon in a very good order, one which can counter whatever came before it (the first pokemon needs to be able to kill just about anything in 3 turns or less.) Try the Arena out for practice; if you don't like it, bring in pokemon that cover a bunch of types and can make them faint within a short proximity to avoid judging. (This is probably the best strategy either way.) This continues until you win a battle. Then it keeps going until you win the challenge.

After 27 and 56 consecutive wins in the Arena, you can fight the Arena Tycoon Greta. The first time you beat her, you are given the prize of the Silver Guts Symbol. Later on, you get the Gold Guts Symbol. Greta loves rubbing the no-switching rule in your face. After she shoves Heracross, which fights many other pokemon well, in front of you, she proceeds to use Umbreon and Shedinja to make the battle long, hard, and overall frustrating. Greta actually forces you into the judging! Wipe out her beginning pokemon immediately, then detect a weakness in her pokemon, and finally jump on it to wipe her out!

Battle Palace
In the Battle Palace, you play a standard, single three-versus-three battle. However, you can't decide what your Pokémon uses. You can only switch out the Pokémon! Depending on their nature, they will like certain kinds of moves (offensive, defensive, or supporting). Their attitude will change if their health is low. So, a pokemon who loves to mop up opponents might be seen shielding itself later on. Keep this is mind. Select pokemon whose nature positively effects the way they battle, and don't rely on long comb-drawn moves, as it's possible the only move a pokemon could use, or want to use, clashes with its nature (so it is incapable of attacking!) Pokemon trained with high IVs and good EVs, as well as a good nature, should clean house in the Palace- all (insert how many floors in Palace here) floors.

After 21 and 42 consecutive wins, you can fight the Palace Maven Spenser. Respecively, Spenser will award you the Silver Spirits Symbol or Gold Spirits Symbol, depending on how many times you have seen him previously. He basically cheats; he's drilled his own choices into his pokemon's nature so they can continuously attack and combo to match the situation. He even brings in large (stat-wise) pokemon with different "functions" so he gains the full field. Bring in a strong pokemon that counters 2 or more weakness around his motley gang, and knowing due to prior knowledge that the pokemon uses moves you want it to use, and you should have a better chance of crashing the party.

Battle Pyramid
In the Battle Pyramid, you choose three Pokémon to accompany you on a long and harrowing journey through maze after dark maze. Your goal is to make it to the top of the pyramid, floor by excrutiang floor, by finding the blue warp-tiles and teleporting to the next level. The catch? Do it without your Pokémon getting Knocked Out from the high-level wild Pokémon or trainers on each floor. Initially, the visible space around the player's sprite is very small, making navigation harder. This space increases with each battle won, except for the wild pokemon battles. (These pokemon love to confuddle you with status conditions and take away move PP or items.) To limit the player's bagged items, the item bag is taken away and replaced with the battle bag, which stores items found inside the pyramid. Also, the participating Pokémon cannot hold any items from the item bag when signing up. At the end of the challenge, which spans seven floors, any new items held by the Pokémon are placed in the battle bag, which is once again exchanged with the item bag until another challenge. Each floor's wild pokemon follow a specific theme (Ghost-type, paralysis pokemon, etc.)

After going up 21 and 70 floors, you can fight the Pyramid King Brandon. Brandon doesn't care that he's using Legendary Pokemon, it seems. The first time you fight with him (for the Silver Bravery Symbol) he weilds all 3 Regi pokemon. The second time you fight him, he shows you the Gold Bravery Symbol in the balance. During the second fight, he bombards you with the abilities of the three Legendary Bird Pokemon. All 3 of his pokemon (either party) have one glaring weakness (Fighting and Rock, respectively,) so take advantage of that and their other, unsupported, weaknesses. He's also the only Frontier Brain you are allowed to use items on, so take advantage of that. He shouldn't be too hard to beat, but he will if you come out to him carrying three weak, paralyzed, and itemless companions. It's best to heal up before the battle.

Battle Tower
The Battle Tower consists of battling with other people. You can choose from single battle, double battle, or true double battle (multi) modes. You battle with seven trainers or sets of trainers before you get let out (unless you lose).

After 35 and 70 consecutive wins (1-on-1 only), you can fight the Salon Maiden Anabel.

Artisan Cave
The Artisan Cave is a long cave connecting one end of the Battle Frontier to the other. It starts near the Battle Palace and the exit is right next to the Battle Tower.

The cave is two levels high, contains a Rare Candy, and the only wild Pokémon found inside is Smeargle.

House
There is a house next to the Battle Tower. Inside, there is a trainer who wants to trade a Skitty for a Meowth.

Record Hall
The record hall contains all of the records that you set at the Battle Frontier. There are three rooms. The one on the left contains records for the Battle Pike, Dome, and Factory, the one in the center has records for the Battle Tower, and the one on the right contains records for the Battle Palace, Pyramid, and Arena.

If you mix records with another Emerald game, you can also get the Battle Frontier records from the other game.

Sudowoodo
A level 40 Sudowoodo is located in the south east section of the Battle Frontier. Its appearance will look like a tree, but if you use wailmer pail on it it will attack. This is the only location of Sudowoodo throughout the third generation.

Move Tutors
In a house next to the Battle Dome, there are two move tutors. They will teach your Pokémon a selection of attacks for a price in Battle Points.

Battle Frontier Shop
The Battle Frontier Shop sells various goods in exchange for Battle Points earned at other parts of the Battle Frontier. You can purchase goods for your secret base, items for raising the statistics of your Pokémon, and items that you can equip to your Pokémon.

The Battle Frontier in the Animé
In the animé, the Battle Frontier is set in Kanto, rather than Hoenn, with the individual parts scattered all over the region. After the Hoenn league, Ash Ketchum meets Scott in Viridian City, who invites Ash to visit, after seeing his skill against Agatha. The rules in each of the facilities also seem to be different than those in the game - for one, Ash challenges the head of the facility immediately, without having to win a series of battles first.

Battle Factory
The Battle Factory is located near Cerulean City. Instead of random Pokémon, Noland just has a lot, and the challenger may choose the Pokémon they will face in battle. The Pokémon he used for battle was an Articuno that he befriended. And in his possession, he has Venusaur, Machamp, Rhyhorn, Breloom, Rhydon, Lairon, Camerupt, Pinsir, Sandslash, Golduck, Manectric, and Trapinch.

Battle Arena
The Battle Arena is located near Saffron City Before the match began, there is a special machine that used to determine if its a 1-on-1 battle, 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 battle. Ash ended up with a double battle. Greta's Pokémon is Medicham & Hariyama V.S. Ash's Grovyle and Snorlax.

Battle Dome
The Battle Dome is located near Lavender Town. Tucker's Pokémon are Arcanine & Swampert V.S. Ash's Corphish & Swellow.

Battle Pike
The Battle Pike is located near Fuchsia City. Ash faced Lucy's Seviper and Milotic while Ash used Pikachu and Donphan. Other Pokémon Lucy has in her possesion are Snorlax, Makuhita, Abra, Swinub, Skitty and Cyndaquil.

Battle Palace
The Battle Palace is located between Cinnabar Island and Seafome Island. Spencer used Venusaur, Shiftry, and Claydol in Ash's Battle. Ash used Sceptile, Heracross, and Swellow. Spencer also has Chansey but was not used in the battle.

Battle Tower
The location of the Battle Tower is currently unknown, but Ash challenges the Salon Maiden of the Battle Tower in "Salon Maiden Anabel Appears!" and "Battle Tower! Telepathy Battle!" coming in March.