3rd Gen The Battle Facilities

Pokemon Emerald introduces a new feature from the Ruby & Sapphire games: the battle frontier, and the frontier brains! The Battle Frontier replaces the Battle Tower in its location south of Route 130, and likewise is only accessible by taking the S.S. Tidal from Lilycove City or Slateport City. There are about 7 battle facilities in all, all with different rules, and different frontier brains:


Battle Tower



The Battle Tower is a returning place from Ruby and Sapphire that features a standard 3-vs-3 single or 4-vs-4 Double Battle format, with straight runs of 7 Trainers that get progressively more powerful as the player goes on. If you manage to beat 34 trainers in a row, then you can fight against Anabel, the Salon Maiden to try and win a Ability Symbol.


Battle Palace



In the Battle Palace, the pokemon battle and select their moves on their own when you select the 'Fight' command. The style of the Pokémon's battle depends on its Nature, and this style may change when the Pokémon's HP falls low. If you manage to beat 20 trainers in a row, you can fight against Palace Maven Spenser in the 21st battle to try and win the Spirit Symbol.


Battle Factory



Basically in the Battle Factory, you choose 3 pokemon as rental pokemon during battle. After you defeat a trainer, you can choose to swap one of your pokemon for one of theirs for your own team too. You'll be able to battle against Factory Head Noland in the 21st battle, and if you win, you can obtain the Knowledge symbol.


Battle Pyramid



The Battle Pyramid is a little tricky: you choose three pokemon to go with you in the facility, in which you'll be able to travel around the place as if you're in a cave, or a dungeon. You can't bring your items, but you have a bag with pre-selected items to help you out. The cave is dark in which the only way to light it up is to defeat the trainers along the way. There are also wild pokemon who can cripple your pokemon, like they can paralyze your pokemon, burn them, poison them, and so on. If you pass through 21 floors, you can fight against Pyramid King Brandon to battle him for the Brave Symbol.


Battle Dome



The Battle Dome takes on a tournament round-robin function that consists of 16 trainers, in which before hand you'll be able to learn what kinds of pokemon they use, as well as their overall battle style. If you win 5 championships, you can fight against Battle Dome Ace Tucker for the Tactics Symbol!


Battle Arena



So the Battle Arena pits two Pokémon against one another for three rounds. If both Pokémon last all three rounds, they are rated on how they battled in three aspects, and the Pokémon with the higher score wins, and the losing Pokémon leaves battle. If they somehow tie, both Pokémon leave battle. A knockout results in an automatic win for the Pokémon that is still standing. In the 28th battle, you can fight against Arena Tycoon Greta for the Guts Symbol.

They judge each round within three categories:

Mind: Basically points are awarded for each offensive move you choose.

Skill: Points are awarded for accuracy (if moves don't miss).

Body: Compares the amount of HP at the end; the one with the most HP will get the point.


Battle Pike



Oh boy, the battle Pike... when you first go inside, you have a choice between 3 random rooms. In which, one of the following can happen:

A Single battle
A Double battle
A Single battle and healing
A room with Wild Pokémon
No event
Status effect (A surprise attack will inflict a status on one or more of a player's Pokémon. The status includes Kirlia's burn, paralysis, poison, or sleep and Dusclops's burn or freeze.)

There's also a lady who will provide hints about one of the room. Except in the 27th room you'll go through, which she'll say, "From every path I sense a dreadful presence..." That means you'll encounter Pike Queen Lucy, in which if you win, you'll get the Luck Symbol.


Topics for discussion

• What do you think of the battle facilities?
• What is your favourite / least favourite battle facility?
• Which one was the toughest for you?
• Which one was the easiest?
• Any other thoughts? Share em' here!

I never owned Emerald for myself, so I never got to experience the Battle Frontier, but that's not say I wasn't interested in it. It definitely took a big step up from the Battle Tower in R/S, and it brings a lot of creative twists to the regular battling formula, so it's definitely something I would have tried out, had I had the opportunity to do so. But alas, I never owned Emerald, and ORAS did not include it (even though it's speculated to be added in either in an update or DLC).

While I haven't experienced it though, I can still comment on which ones I think would be most fun. Obviously I can't say which ones would be the toughest, though considering my skill at Pokemon, I'd probably find all of them super tough :D But yeah, my favourite one would definitely have to be the Pokemon Mansion. While I can imagine just leaving it up to luck could become really frustrating, if you always ended up getting the wrong moves, but it also brings in a bit of tactic to it. Since you can't really rely on meta movesets, that revolve around full control of the Pokemon, so you would instead have to rely on Pokemon whose moves would either be certain to deal damage, or do something to help your Pokemon. It seems like that would be the main challenge with this facility, whereas the rest would just be left to luck.

The Battle Arena also sounds really interesting, though I feel like the battle system for the Pokemon games might not be quite elaborate enough to fully utilize the idea, since it seems like in most cases it would just come down to being able to 1HKO the enemy, or surviving through a battle with bulky Pokemon.

My only complaint about the entire thing, is that it seems to really lack reward other than just giving you the medals to show that, hey, you beat them. When I first saw that some of the Frontier Brains used legendaries, I was always hoping that you'd be able to obtain some through beating the facilities. And while getting legendaries might a bit ambitious, I feel like it should have at least opened up for something new.

I never owned Emerald for myself, so I never got to experience the Battle Frontier, but that's not say I wasn't interested in it. It definitely took a big step up from the Battle Tower in R/S, and it brings a lot of creative twists to the regular battling formula, so it's definitely something I would have tried out, had I had the opportunity to do so. But alas, I never owned Emerald, and ORAS did not include it (even though it's speculated to be added in either in an update or DLC).

While I haven't experienced it though, I can still comment on which ones I think would be most fun. Obviously I can't say which ones would be the toughest, though considering my skill at Pokemon, I'd probably find all of them super tough :D But yeah, my favourite one would definitely have to be the Pokemon Mansion. While I can imagine just leaving it up to luck could become really frustrating, if you always ended up getting the wrong moves, but it also brings in a bit of tactic to it. Since you can't really rely on meta movesets, that revolve around full control of the Pokemon, so you would instead have to rely on Pokemon whose moves would either be certain to deal damage, or do something to help your Pokemon. It seems like that would be the main challenge with this facility, whereas the rest would just be left to luck.

The Battle Arena also sounds really interesting, though I feel like the battle system for the Pokemon games might not be quite elaborate enough to fully utilize the idea, since it seems like in most cases it would just come down to being able to 1HKO the enemy, or surviving through a battle with bulky Pokemon.

My only complaint about the entire thing, is that it seems to really lack reward other than just giving you the medals to show that, hey, you beat them. When I first saw that some of the Frontier Brains used legendaries, I was always hoping that you'd be able to obtain some through beating the facilities. And while getting legendaries might a bit ambitious, I feel like it should have at least opened up for something new.

Ohh the Battle Facilities! This was my most favourite place in the whole of Emerald! Yay ^-^
I liked all of the domey place things or whatever they are. They all had different mechanics and stuff and it was really fun! I remember having the most amount of fun in the Battle Pike because I could go through the rooms and most of the time I knew where I was going, so I could easily reach Lucy and sweep her using my awesomesauce Latios that I caught.

But oh boy that Battle Pyramid. That thing is pretty tough, alright! I don't think I ever actually recall reaching the top of the pyramid, although I'm pretty sure that I reached near the top. I've heard the music up there and wowowowow I need to get there. But Brandon's team + those mechanics DDD:

I never even went into the Battle Palace much! I honestly can't remember much about that place, aside from there being like wild Pokémon on the side when you first enter and that there's like water inside! I can imagine the battle type was cool! I only really liked Greta's mechanics though. They were just really original and fun. Gotta go fast and hard! That's how I did it!

And I actually didn't like the Platinum Battle Frontier as much for some reason. Probably because I didn't spend hours and hours and HOURS trying to get the badges hahahaha. I really like the place with Dahlia though! Giving special effects, negative or positive before battle makes the battle much more intriguing and stuff hehe!

What do you think of the battle facilities?
Cool feature, but I was kinda annoyed by the high prices of the rewards.

What is your favourite / least favourite battle facility?
The Seviper one. It was pretty easy.

Which one was the toughest for you?
I dont even remember, I should go visit it I guess.

Which one was the easiest?
Seviper one if I recall correctly. It was the most fun as well.

Sadly, I never had the interest to do postgame activities back when I was a kid. I guess this carried on over when I grew up, but that didn't stop me from trying anyway :p I like the Battle Arena and the Battle Pike the most. I tried the Battle Pyramid but somehow I always end up losing one floor before Brandon ;_____;

Of all the battle facilities in the game, I think the one that I spent the most time with was the Battle Pyramid, as that was kinda cool shifting through hordes of enemies in the dark and having to put up with certain types of status ailments. I also liked the Battle Arena and the Pike, those were two that I got good usage out of. But my least favorite was probably the Battle Palace, that one was never fun or understandable.

Emerald is the first game to introduce a complete Battle Facility. At first I think the whole thing was weird and unfamiliar. I welcome the addition of it though, it makes the post game fun! It would have been great if the 'hax' are toned down a bit...

I liked the Battle Frontier. It was a really creative addition to the games. It added something to do in post game, which is what R/S lacked. I enjoyed the Battle Pike the most, and got to battle Lucy once. She was the only Frontier Brain I ever battled haha.

I liked how each facility had a different twist to it, but sadly I never got to experience the Battle Frontier much given my brother was playing the game most of the time and would never let me even touch it. My fave of the bunch has to be the Factory (with its random Pokemon that you have to learn how to use Pokemon you're not well accustomed to) and the Palace (battling based entirely on natures is purely a challenge within itself).