Challenge 4th Generation Battle Facilities Discussion and Records

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
I'm currently doing some Hall runs on an emulator with the standard Sash Garchomp set, and I've decided to compile a Pastebin with all the major threats I can think of so I don't have to look through the Bulbapedia page every time I need to figure out if something is a threat. Hopefully this is useful to people doing runs with this or a similar Sash Dragon set, let me know if I missed anything.

https://pastebin.com/avkASC2q
I'd say this list is a good start, although not all of those Focus Sash users are really dangerous to Focus Sash Garchomp - I don't think stuff like Meganium and Absol have any reasonable chance of beating Garchomp, and Venusaur shouldn't be a threat as long as you use Earthquake instead of Outrage (although Garchomp is the kind of Pokemon where it becomes easy to autopilot so I could see someone not aware of the danger of Focus Sash + Protect Venusaur screwing themselves over by Outraging into a self-inflicted confusion/loss).

Weavile and Glaceon are definitely the biggest threats to Garchomp. You can potentially cover Weavile by using Swagger, which gives you a roughly 60% chance of winning in 2 turns as long as you out-speed it (which a maxed level 100 JollyChomp always does unless Argenta is the trainer). Not great odds, but better than just losing. Sandstorm to abuse Sand Veil is another option for Weavile which has a lower chance of working but has other applications, such as helping against Umbreon and Sharpedo, and also opening up the possibility of using a mixed attacking Garchomp with Flamethrower so you can beat Abomasnow reliably (Flamethrower is also flat-out superior to Fire Fang against Scizor and Skarmory so being able to use it is really nice). Glaceon is harder to cover than Weavile because of its higher bulk so you just have to get lucky against it. Fortunately the possibility of a Blizzard miss or a turn 1 Outrage crit gives you further pathways to win against it. Glaceon is also relatively rare based on my experiences with the Hall.

I might try to come up with a comprehensive threat list for Garchomp over the weekend since I think it would be a good resource for people who just want to grab that symbol on their save files.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
I'd say this list is a good start, although not all of those Focus Sash users are really dangerous to Focus Sash Garchomp - I don't think stuff like Meganium and Absol have any reasonable chance of beating Garchomp, and Venusaur shouldn't be a threat as long as you use Earthquake instead of Outrage (although Garchomp is the kind of Pokemon where it becomes easy to autopilot so I could see someone not aware of the danger of Focus Sash + Protect Venusaur screwing themselves over by Outraging into a self-inflicted confusion/loss).

Weavile and Glaceon are definitely the biggest threats to Garchomp. You can potentially cover Weavile by using Swagger, which gives you a roughly 60% chance of winning in 2 turns as long as you out-speed it (which a maxed level 100 JollyChomp always does unless Argenta is the trainer). Not great odds, but better than just losing. Sandstorm to abuse Sand Veil is another option for Weavile which has a lower chance of working but has other applications, such as helping against Umbreon and Sharpedo, and also opening up the possibility of using a mixed attacking Garchomp with Flamethrower so you can beat Abomasnow reliably (Flamethrower is also flat-out superior to Fire Fang against Scizor and Skarmory so being able to use it is really nice). Glaceon is harder to cover than Weavile because of its higher bulk so you just have to get lucky against it. Fortunately the possibility of a Blizzard miss or a turn 1 Outrage crit gives you further pathways to win against it. Glaceon is also relatively rare based on my experiences with the Hall.

I might try to come up with a comprehensive threat list for Garchomp over the weekend since I think it would be a good resource for people who just want to grab that symbol on their save files.
I've gotten past Gold Argenta multiple times just using this set but I don't think I'm going to get as far as he did without using multiple sets. Swagger on Weavile seems like a good idea, which of the four moves in the set I linked would you recommend swapping out for it? I don't like the idea of losing access to any of those four moves, but I'd like to see how far I can get when I have a chance against Weavile.
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
Well, tbh if I was only using that one set in the post-170 phase I probably wouldn't change anything since I'm not sure if it would really improve my odds of extending my streak. You'd just be exchanging one bad match-up for another one. A Jolly set with STABs + Fire coverage + Swords Dance is probably a decent archetype to stick with if you were only looking to use a single set and this can be brute forced to 170 wins more easily than pretty much any other Pokemon if you only care about the symbol. But as you say, running multiple sets would be more optimal and you have the ability to run up to 2 during the post-170 phase.

My best with Garchomp is 220 wins with the following two sets:

Garchomp @ Focus Sash

Level: 100
Jolly: 252Atk/248Spe/8HP

Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Fang
Swagger

Types: Dragon, Poison, Fire, Grass, Ice, Dark, Ghost, Flying, Bug, Steel

Garchomp @ Focus Sash

Level: 100
Adamant: 252Atk/248Spe/8Def

Outrage
Earthquake
Swords Dance
Crunch

Types: Fighting, Rock, Normal, Psychic, Water, Ground, Electric

First set is my anti-Ice set with Fire Fang for Abomasnow (plus certain Steels) and Swagger for Weavile and I guess Glaceon as well. 248+ Speed investment lets Garchomp out-speed rank 10 Gengar which is the absolute fastest thing Garchomp can out-speed. This is definitely worth it since being able to OHKO Gengar before it can try anything with Hypnosis is excellent.

Second set is an Adamant set with Swords Dance. Adamant is used because it lets Garchomp beat Intimidate Tauros reliably. Jolly Garchomp can lose to it sometimes because of Intimidate, its 252 Def investment, and its own Outrage. Running Adamant also helps with Porygon-Z and Hippowdon (note: the 8 Def EVs let Garchomp avoid a 2HKO from Hippowdon's Earthquake). Jolly may still be an option though to avoid being out-sped by Ice Punch Floatzel and Trick-Orb Azelf (in which case probably run 212 Speed to out-speed rank 10 Lopunny in Normal and adjust the remaining EVs accordingly). Crunch is mostly filler but I figured it would help a bit with Azelf since it can Trick Focus Sash away to survive the first Outrage and then follow up with Zen Headbutt flinches. There are probably other moves that can be run in that slot though, and if you ran Jolly instead you don't need Crunch for Azelf anyway. A Fire move would be useful for Bronzong in Psychic maybe, or perhaps even Substitute could be used since that might help with certain Water-types (think Yawn Blastoise, Hypnosis Poliwrath and Bounce Gyarados) and Yawn Hippowdon.

I also experimented a bit with this set replacing the first set:

Garchomp @ Focus Sash (Female, for Nidoqueen)

Level: 100
Naive: 44Atk/248Spe/216SpA

Outrage
Earthquake
Flamethrower
Sandstorm

This mixed-attacking set is designed to beat Abomasnow reliably with Sandstorm + Flamethrower. With the given investment, Flamethrower reliably KOes rank 10 Abomasnow after 1 turn of Sandstorm damage (technically this only requires 184 SpA but 216 lets Garchomp KO Yanmega with the same strategy), and using Sandstorm removes Hail so Garchomp can't possibly lose to it should it decide to use Avalanche. Sandstorm, as mentioned above, can act as your anti-Weavile option if you experience the misfortune of running into it. Sandstorm also helps with Umbreon since it cuts Umbreon's recovery options to shreds and gives Garchomp a chance to avoid Confuse Ray. Being able to run Flamethrower lets you avoid Scizor's Counter (if Scizor successfully uses Counter against Fire Fang on turn 1...bye-bye streak) and it also 2HKOes Skarmory reliably, whereas Fire Fang needs high rolls (note that I lost a streak to Skarmory once after it survived 2 Fire Fangs and then got 2 consecutive critical hits - Scope Lens increases the odds of this happening).

Not really sure if this is better since the massive cut to Garchomp's attack investment does matter sometimes, and at the very least you'd probably needs to move some types arounds since the Adamant set is probably a bit better for those. Sadly it's hard to customise Garchomp for the Hall beyond the "obvious" sets since its move pool isn't very wide compared to other Dragons (even Flygon has more interesting options), and its mediocre SpA makes it hard to utilize potentially useful special moves.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Well, tbh if I was only using that one set in the post-170 phase I probably wouldn't change anything since I'm not sure if it would really improve my odds of extending my streak. You'd just be exchanging one bad match-up for another one. A Jolly set with STABs + Fire coverage + Swords Dance is probably a decent archetype to stick with if you were only looking to use a single set and this can be brute forced to 170 wins more easily than pretty much any other Pokemon if you only care about the symbol. But as you say, running multiple sets would be more optimal and you have the ability to run up to 2 during the post-170 phase.

My best with Garchomp is 220 wins with the following two sets:

Garchomp @ Focus Sash

Level: 100
Jolly: 252Atk/248Spe/8HP

Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Fang
Swagger

Types: Dragon, Poison, Fire, Grass, Ice, Dark, Ghost, Flying, Bug, Steel

Garchomp @ Focus Sash

Level: 100
Adamant: 252Atk/248Spe/8Def

Outrage
Earthquake
Swords Dance
Crunch

Types: Fighting, Rock, Normal, Psychic, Water, Ground, Electric

First set is my anti-Ice set with Fire Fang for Abomasnow (plus certain Steels) and Swagger for Weavile and I guess Glaceon as well. 248+ Speed investment lets Garchomp out-speed rank 10 Gengar which is the absolute fastest thing Garchomp can out-speed. This is definitely worth it since being able to OHKO Gengar before it can try anything with Hypnosis is excellent.

Second set is an Adamant set with Swords Dance. Adamant is used because it lets Garchomp beat Intimidate Tauros reliably. Jolly Garchomp can lose to it sometimes because of Intimidate, its 252 Def investment, and its own Outrage. Running Adamant also helps with Porygon-Z and Hippowdon (note: the 8 Def EVs let Garchomp avoid a 2HKO from Hippowdon's Earthquake). Jolly may still be an option though to avoid being out-sped by Ice Punch Floatzel and Trick-Orb Azelf (in which case probably run 212 Speed to out-speed rank 10 Lopunny in Normal and adjust the remaining EVs accordingly). Crunch is mostly filler but I figured it would help a bit with Azelf since it can Trick Focus Sash away to survive the first Outrage and then follow up with Zen Headbutt flinches. There are probably other moves that can be run in that slot though, and if you ran Jolly instead you don't need Crunch for Azelf anyway. A Fire move would be useful for Bronzong in Psychic maybe, or perhaps even Substitute could be used since that might help with certain Water-types (think Yawn Blastoise, Hypnosis Poliwrath and Bounce Gyarados) and Yawn Hippowdon.

I also experimented a bit with this set replacing the first set:

Garchomp @ Focus Sash (Female, for Nidoqueen)

Level: 100
Naive: 44Atk/248Spe/216SpA

Outrage
Earthquake
Flamethrower
Sandstorm

This mixed-attacking set is designed to beat Abomasnow reliably with Sandstorm + Flamethrower. With the given investment, Flamethrower reliably KOes rank 10 Abomasnow after 1 turn of Sandstorm damage (technically this only requires 184 SpA but 216 lets Garchomp KO Yanmega with the same strategy), and using Sandstorm removes Hail so Garchomp can't possibly lose to it should it decide to use Avalanche. Sandstorm, as mentioned above, can act as your anti-Weavile option if you experience the misfortune of running into it. Sandstorm also helps with Umbreon since it cuts Umbreon's recovery options to shreds and gives Garchomp a chance to avoid Confuse Ray. Being able to run Flamethrower lets you avoid Scizor's Counter (if Scizor successfully uses Counter against Fire Fang on turn 1...bye-bye streak) and it also 2HKOes Skarmory reliably, whereas Fire Fang needs high rolls (note that I lost a streak to Skarmory once after it survived 2 Fire Fangs and then got 2 consecutive critical hits - Scope Lens increases the odds of this happening).

Not really sure if this is better since the massive cut to Garchomp's attack investment does matter sometimes, and at the very least you'd probably needs to move some types arounds since the Adamant set is probably a bit better for those. Sadly it's hard to customise Garchomp for the Hall beyond the "obvious" sets since its move pool isn't very wide compared to other Dragons (even Flygon has more interesting options), and its mediocre SpA makes it hard to utilize potentially useful special moves.
Just had a streak ended by Speed Boost Yanmega while trying to reach Gold Argenta, what's the strategy for that and Scizor? I don't see how I'm going to beat them with Garchomp looking at their sets, unless the AI decides to not play optimally. As an example, here's how I lost to the Yanmega:

Turn 1: I use Outrage and take it to a little below half health, it hits me with an Air Slash for roughly a third of my health. Speed Boost kicks in.
Turn 2: It uses Endure and lives my second Outrage with 1 HP. The Petaya Berry activates.
Turn 3: It outspeeds me and kills me with Air Slash due to the special attack boost.

This was with me at a decent level advantage too. I'm not sure that I can stop this from happening with any of the Garchomp sets I'm looking to try. Same with Scizor, which looks like it always wins with Counter and Bullet Punch due to Sash, though I have yet to meet one in-game. How do I handle these two?
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
Just had a streak ended by Speed Boost Yanmega while trying to reach Gold Argenta, what's the strategy for that and Scizor? I don't see how I'm going to beat them with Garchomp looking at their sets, unless the AI decides to not play optimally. As an example, here's how I lost to the Yanmega:

Turn 1: I use Outrage and take it to a little below half health, it hits me with an Air Slash for roughly a third of my health. Speed Boost kicks in.
Turn 2: It uses Endure and lives my second Outrage with 1 HP. The Petaya Berry activates.
Turn 3: It outspeeds me and kills me with Air Slash due to the special attack boost.

This was with me at a decent level advantage too. I'm not sure that I can stop this from happening with any of the Garchomp sets I'm looking to try. Same with Scizor, which looks like it always wins with Counter and Bullet Punch due to Sash, though I have yet to meet one in-game. How do I handle these two?
Well I don't know the specific circumstances of the loss you had but assuming you were using the same STABs/Fire Fang/Swords Dance set...you probably could have used Swords Dance followed by Outrage to KO Yanmega outright. In my experience, Frontier Pokemon tend NOT to use Endure if they are at full health. Also, Hall Yanmega is too slow to out-speed Jolly Garchomp with only one Speed Boost so you wouldn't have to worry about it hitting you after you boost, and even if it did, it would need a crit to be able to 2HKO Garchomp without its Petaya Boost (a maxed-out Rank 10 Yanmega (level 96/26 IVs) only has a 5.5% chance to 2HKO uninvested level 100 Garchomp and I assume that you had enough of a level advantage where this chance would be 0%.

For Scizor you kind of just have to hope that it doesn't use Counter. It is generally random whether a Frontier Pokemon uses Counter/Mirror Coat/Metal Burst or not, and anecdotally Hall Scizor seems to prefer Swords Dance on turn 1.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
I've been doing some runs with three Garchomp sets. I use the set I've been using to force my way past Gold Argenta, then I teach that set Swagger in place of Swords Dance and go in with that + a second set that uses Outrage/Earthquake/SD/Substitute. I have yet to use it against some major threats, but the addition of the Substitute set saved me against some Hypnosis users, so it seems like it could go pretty far. I got up to my previous best and then promptly threw like a dumbass by accidentally locking myself into fighting an Ice type with the Substitute set (and of course it was Abomasnow), but I probably could have kept going for a fair few more battles had that not happened. I'll keep throwing myself at the Hall for a bit and report anything interesting here.

Update: I am rapidly discovering that Substitute is probably going to be needed to consistently get far, so I'm glad I have a set with it.

On a related note, I hate Polywrath.
 
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The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Update: I've been trying to test out some Garchomp strategies in Hall, and this happened in the middle of a run that I thought would get far:

I'm fighting a Magmortar.

Turn 1: I use Earthquake, and miss because of Lax Incense. He hits Fire Blast and burns me.
Turn 2: I use Earthquake, he uses Protect.
Turn 3: I use Swords Dance, he hits me with another Fire Blast and takes me out.

I'm getting real tired of losing to shit like this before I even have a chance to test out my strategies in the post-170 phase, it wastes hours of my time and I'm playing on an emulator with speed-up. I'm probably going to just cheat my way past Gold Argenta, then see how far I can get in the post-170 phase. Streak's not going on the leaderboard either way, and I'm more concerned with developing a strategy for retail people to use than getting a legit streak of my own, so there's not much of a reason for me not to. Will try tomorrow and post my strategy if it works with any kind of consistency.
 

atsync

Where the "intelligence" of TRAINERS is put to the test!
is a Pokemon Researcheris a Contributor to Smogon
Ok so this was my attempt at a "threat list" for Garchomp in the Hall. It's turned out more like a how-to guide rather than a basic threat list, but I think it should give people an idea of the things that tend to cause Garchomp issues. Obviously Ice moves from Pokemon that Garchomp can't OHKO are the main thing since they are common enough to make freezing an inevitability should you play for long enough.

The list assumes:
  • Garchomp is at level 100 and has flawless stats, etc.
  • The opponents are the maxed rank 10s you see after you beat Argenta2 (i.e. level 96, 26 IVs, only Pokemon from groups 3 and 4*)
  • Garchomp is using the Jolly STABs/Fire Fang/Swagger and the Adamant STABs/Crunch/Swords Dance listed here
*Note that Bulbapedia lists these as a single group, technically this group can be further split into 2 groups since some Pokemon can appear at ranks 6-10 and others can only appear at ranks 9-10 (this is determined by their BSTs), but for our purposes Bulbapedia is "correct enough".

H371 | Abomasnow | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Wood Hammer | Avalanche | Brick Break | Iron Tail | HP/Atk

Fire Fang. Abomasnow is the only Pokemon that could potentially KO Garchomp in 1 turn because of Snow Warning and Avalanche. Jolly Fire Fang can OHKO it to avoid this scenario but it has that annoying miss chance. It's worth noting that Garchomp has a very small chance of surviving Avalanche + Hail if it misses Fire Fang due to Avalanche's unboosted 60BP. Abomasnow may also use Wood Hammer instead since the AI is sometimes fickle with its usage of moves with negative priority regardless of base power. Abomasnow is still the best Ice-type to face for Garchomp given the high chance of OHKOing it immediately along with the fact that it is the only one that can't possibly freeze Garchomp.

H349 | Absol | Jolly | Focus Sash | Psycho Cut | Night Slash | Shadow Claw | Slash | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H396 | Aerodactyl | Adamant | Leftovers | Stone Edge | Aerial Ace | Sandstorm | Fly | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H429 | Aggron | Adamant | Zoom Lens | Stone Edge | Iron Tail | Metal Burst | Sandstorm | Atk/Def

Earthquake.

H281 | Alakazam | Timid | Expert Belt | Psychic | Focus Blast | Energy Ball | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H336 | Altaria | Modest | Leftovers | Dragon Pulse | Air Cutter | Flamethrower | Ominous Wind | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H361 | Ambipom | Naughty | Expert Belt | Double Hit | Shock Wave | Aerial Ace | Water Pulse | Atk/SpA

Outrage.

H406 | Ampharos | Quiet | Light Clay | Light Screen | Rest | Thunder | Snore | Def/SpA

Earthquake.

H379 | Arcanine | Adamant | Razor Claw | ExtremeSpeed | Flare Blitz | Facade | Will-O-Wisp | Atk/Spd

Earthquake it. Intimidate can let it survive if Earthquake rolls low but there shouldn't be anything Arcanine can do to cause a loss.

H344 | Armaldo | Adamant | Razor Claw | X-Scissor | Stone Edge | Aqua Tail | Aerial Ace | Atk/Def

Outrage.

H398 | Articuno | Modest | Apicot Berry | Blizzard | Air Cutter | Reflect | Roost | Def/SpA

Jolly Garchomp 2HKOes with Outrage, but like most Ice-types Articuno can just freeze on turn 1 and end your streak. Technically it could survive a second Outrage with Reflect but Articuno is never using this when it has Blizzard as an option. Just attack it and hope you survive.

H473 | Azelf | Adamant | Flame Orb | Zen Headbutt | Return | Trick | Facade | Atk/Spd

Azelf will steal Focus Sash from Garchomp to survive Outrage/Crunch. The resulting burn from Flame Orb won't matter too much but Zen Headbutt flinches might. Otherwise just attack it and hope it works out.

H346 | Banette | Lonely | Wise Glasses | Shadow Claw | Sucker Punch | Thunderbolt | Icy Wind | Atk/SpA

Outrage.

H356 | Bastiodon | Quiet | Quick Claw | Metal Burst | Blizzard | Thunder | Fire Blast | HP/SpA

Earthquake. This is one of the few Rock-types with a remote chance of causing a loss, curtesy of Quick Claw and Blizzard, but this would require a ton of unfavourable hax to occur.

H309 | Bellossom | Brave | Big Root | Leaf Blade | Drain Punch | Stun Spore | Leaf Storm | Atk/Def

This is just evil. I've lost to this with Garchomp and numerous other physical attackers. Bellossom can survive a hit and paralyze with Stun Spore, and from there it just wins while Garchomp is fully paralyzed forever. Outrage is still the optimal play. It would be nice to be able to run Substitute for potentially block Stun Spore but that would probably mean forgoing Fire coverage for Abomasnow.

H376 | Blastoise | Quiet | Focus Sash | Yawn | Hydro Cannon | Return | Protect | SpA/SpD

Weird match-up. The self-confusion danger presented by the Protect/Focus Sash combo can be avoided by using Earthquake, but little can be done about Yawn/Protect with Garchomp's move set. Thankfully, Blastoise isn't very good at attacking since Return does little damage and Hydro Cannon forces a recharge, so you have multiple chances of waking up and finishing it off. Note that running Substitute would trivialise this match-up.

H425 | Blaziken | Lonely | Liechi Berry | Blaze Kick | Sky Uppercut | Focus Blast | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd

Earthquake.

H419 | Blissey | Sassy | Lum Berry | Return | Softboiled | Fire Blast | Minimize | Def/SpD

Earthquake. Both Outrage and Earthquake 2HKO but the risk of Minimize makes Outrage too risky.

H324 | Breloom | Adamant | Expert Belt | Sky Uppercut | Seed Bomb | Stone Edge | ThunderPunch | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H449 | Bronzong | Quiet | Leftovers | Extrasensory | Flash Cannon | Trick Room | Protect | Def/SpA

The Jolly set has Fire Fang and Earthquake, so use Fire Fang first to scout its ability as it Trick Rooms and check how much it does. If it does less than 1/4 (non-crit) then it's Heatproof, so go for the KO with Earthquake; otherwise it's Levitate so stick with Fire Fang. A bit of luck is involved in this match-up against Levitate variants because Bronzong can flinch or drop SpD with its STABs, although Fire Fang will out-damage both by default. It can also Protect to get free Leftovers recovery but this also wastes a Trick Room turn. The Adamant set is slightly worse off in Psychic since it lacks Fire Fang. Adamant Earthquake will OHKO if you're feeling daring on turn 1 but otherwise you can use Swords Dance to give Garchomp a 2HKO with Crunch (might not be guaranteed if it recovers a lot with Protect spam, however).

H335 | Cacturne | Adamant | Metronome | Sucker Punch | Needle Arm | Drain Punch | ThunderPunch | Atk/SpD

Outrage.

H332 | Camerupt | Modest | Power Herb | Eruption | Earth Power | AncientPower | SolarBeam | SpA/SpD

Earthquake.

H369 | Carnivine | Adamant | Leftovers | Power Whip | Crunch | Ingrain | Leech Seed | HP/Atk

Outrage.

H295 | Chansey | Quiet | Zoom Lens | Blizzard | Thunder | Fire Blast | Return | HP/SpA

Outrage.

H476 | Charizard | Quiet | Focus Sash | Will-O-Wisp | Air Slash | Protect | Blast Burn | Atk/SpA

The most dangerous Fire-type by far. Charizard's Protect/Focus Sash combination can punish Outrage use with premature self-inflicted confusion, but unlike the other Kanto starters, there isn't a way for my set to avoid this reliably due to its inconvenient defensive typing. Using Fire Fang to break Focus Sash is not recommended because it might use Will-O-Wisp which leaves Garchomp even worse off than before. I have yet to face it, but I think I would just Outrage and hope for the best.

H359 | Cherrim | Naive | Heat Rock | Sunny Day | SolarBeam | Synthesis | Return | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H432 | Claydol | Rash | Choice Scarf | Earth Power | Psychic | Earthquake | Zen Headbutt | Atk/SpA

Outrage.

H275 | Clefable | Adamant | Lum Berry | Return | Ice Punch | Fire Punch | ThunderPunch | Atk/Def

Outrage 2HKOes, but it has Ice Punch. One of the more threatening Normal-types.

H385 | Cloyster | Rash | Scope Lens | Ice Beam | Iron Defense | Spike Cannon | Brine | Atk/SpA

Outrage is a 2HKO, but of course you can lose to a freeze. Because Ice Beam can't miss, Cloyster is more dangerous than other Ice-types that use Blizzard instead. Still favourable overall but you have an 8% chance of losing and this WILL happen eventually if you play for long enough.

H343 | Cradily | Modest | Big Root | AncientPower | Giga Drain | Sludge Bomb | Earth Power | Def/SpA

Adamant Garchomp can just Outrage this safely in Rock. Jolly Garchomp is in a slightly more precarious position in Grass. Jolly Outrage still has a 2HKO roll but Giga Drain's recovery can actually let Cradily survive sometimes which opens up the possibility of Garchomp confusing itself. It may therefore be preferable to simply use Earthquake, at least on the first turn. Cradily isn't very strong (Giga Drain has a sub-20% chance to 4HKO) and it might use Earth Power instead since they do the same damage, but it could become a problem if it starts critting.

H342 | Crawdaunt | Adamant | Quick Claw | Crunch | Crabhammer | Body Slam | Aerial Ace | Atk/Def

Outrage is a 2HKO. Quick Claw is a concern, but Crawdaunt can't 2HKO without a crit. Crabhammer has an increased crit ratio but it also has less than stellar accuracy so...I guess it balances out.

H435 | Cresselia | Lonely | Leftovers | Psychic | Psycho Cut | Slash | Psycho Shift | Atk/SpA

Outrage.

H405 | Crobat | Jolly | BrightPowder | Brave Bird | Cross Poison | Double Team | Toxic | Atk/Spd

Garchomp's worst match-up in Poison because of Crobat's higher Speed and evasion. Jolly Outrage can OHKO with a high roll and Brave Bird recoil should finish it off if it survives. This match-up becomes better if you get that initial hit in but you could lose if you just miss everything, or from something like Toxic into Brave Bird crit.

H287 | Dewgong | Modest | Chesto Berry | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | Brine | Rest | Def/SpA

Same as Cloyster. Outrage and pray.

H286 | Dodrio | Jolly | Liechi Berry | Drill Peck | Rest | Steel Wing | Tri Attack | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H417 | Donphan | Adamant | Leftovers | Earthquake | Giga Impact | Protect | Sandstorm | Atk/Def

Swords Dance on turn 1 and then OHKO with Outrage. Unboosted Outrage 2HKOes but Protect makes this a risky thing to go for.

H453 | Drapion | Adamant | Razor Claw | Cross Poison | Night Slash | Slash | Acupressure | Atk/Def

Technically losable because Jolly Earthquake can miss the OHKO with a low roll, and creates an opportunity for Drapion to get an evasion boost with Acupressure. Still favourable though.

H401 | Dragonite | Adamant | Lum Berry | Roost | Outrage | Aerial Ace | Dragon Dance | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H362 | Drifblim | Modest | Petaya Berry | Shadow Ball | Psychic | Thunderbolt | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA

Might be safer to use Fire Fang first. Jolly Outrage has a high OHKO chance, but if you miss the roll then Petaya Berry activates and if it has Unburden then Garchomp has a high chance of losing to 1+ Shadow Ball. Fire Fang deals enough damage to ensure that Outrage KOes without activating the berry (unless it crits). Unboosted Drifblim isn't too strong so you can afford to miss Fire Fang at least once most of the time.

H347 | Dusclops | Adamant | Quick Claw | Shadow Punch | Ice Punch | ThunderPunch | Fire Punch | HP/Atk

Outrage 2HKOes. One of the most dangerous Pokemon since it only needs a turn 2 Quick Claw activation to cause a loss and it can also freeze. I don't tend to see it very often during the post-170 phase (Banette and Dusknoir seems to be more common in Ghost) but it pops up a lot in the pre-170 phase.

H470 | Dusknoir | Careful | Quick Claw | Rest | Curse | Shadow Punch | Brick Break | Def/SpD

Usually pretty easy. I recommend Earthquake since it 2HKOes without the risk of self-confusion. Dusknoir often likes to use Curse on turn 1 which instantly KOes it, but if it uses Shadow Punch instead and then pulls off a Quick Claw Rest, you risk confusing Garchomp with Outrage. Earthquake removes that possibility.

H301 | Electabuzz | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | ThunderPunch | Iron Tail | Brick Break | Thief | Atk/Spd

Earthquake.

H459 | Electivire | Naughty | Life Orb | ThunderPunch | Giga Impact | Discharge | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd

Earthquake.

H290 | Electrode | Naive | King's Rock | Swift | Thunderbolt | Rollout | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA

Earthquake. Electrode is one of the few Electric-types with a chance of beating Garchomp because of its higher Speed and the flinch/confusion danger. It may be worth running Choice Scarf for Electric during the pre-170 phase to avoid this possibility.

H445 | Empoleon | Mild | Petaya Berry | Flash Cannon | Hydro Pump | Aqua Jet | Yawn | SpA/SpD

Earthquake.

H421 | Entei | Rash | Quick Claw | Eruption | Rock Climb | Flamethrower | Fire Fang | Spd/SpA

Earthquake. This set is odd because it's Quick Claw but also runs Speed EVs. This could maybe cause a loss with Quick Claw Rock Climb confusion but it'll probably just use Eruption on turn 1.

H408 | Espeon | Modest | BrightPowder | Psychic | Swift | Double Team | Morning Sun | Spd/SpA

Outrage OHKOes. Evasion sucks.

H387 | Exeggutor | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Wood Hammer | Zen Headbutt | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/Atk

Outrage.

H327 | Exploud | Modest | Metronome | Hyper Voice | Water Pulse | Flamethrower | Ice Beam | Def/SpA

Similar to Clefable. Outrage 2HKOes but it can beat Garchomp by freezing.

H375 | Fearow | Jolly | Muscle Band | Drill Peck | U-turn | Steel Wing | Faint Attack | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H404 | Feraligatr | Naive | Salac Berry | Aqua Tail | Slash | Endure | Rain Dance | Atk/Spd

Swords Dance into Outrage is the safest way to beat it to avoid having to deal with a Rain/Torrent-boosted Aqua Tail.

H395 | Flareon | Mild | Expert Belt | Lava Plume | Quick Attack | Protect | Will-O-Wisp | SpA

Earthquake. Game Freak hates Flareon so much that they decided to give it only SpA EVs!

H358 | Floatzel | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Waterfall | Crunch | Ice Punch | Brick Break | Atk/Spd

Outrage. Running Adamant in Water means that Floatzel out-speeds Garchomp which means it can freeze and cause a loss.

H431 | Flygon | Modest | Wise Glasses | Earth Power | Dragon Pulse | Sandstorm | Roost | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H313 | Forretress | Brave | Lum Berry | Gyro Ball | Payback | Bug Bite | Counter | HP/Atk

Fire Fang + Earthquake is the safest way to 2HKO while minimizing the usage of inaccurate moves. Forretress isn't very strong although Gyro Ball followed by Counter on Fire Fang would be a loss if the first Fire Fang attempt missed.

H372 | Froslass | Calm | BrightPowder | Hail | Blizzard | Ominous Wind | Psychic | Spd/SpA

Garchomp OHKOes Froslass but BrightPowder can cause a miss. Froslass is one of the better Ice-types to match-up against because you'd need double misses or a miss/freeze combo to lose to it, and that's assuming Froslass doesn't miss itself.

H468 | Gallade | Adamant | Salac Berry | Psycho Cut | Close Combat | Swords Dance | Vacuum Wave | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H427 | Gardevoir | Timid | Sticky Barb | Psychic | Trick | Swift | Protect | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H360 | Gastrodon | Modest | Lax Incense | Muddy Water | Earth Power | Blizzard | Sludge Bomb | HP/SpA

Really annoying. Garchomp needs 2 hits to KO Gastrodon but that isn't assured because of Lax Incense and Blizzard. Just attack it and hope for the best. It's probably better to use Earthquake to remove the possibility of self-inflicted confusion from Outrage missing on turn 2.

H386 | Gengar | Timid | Razor Fang | Shadow Ball | Sludge Bomb | Hypnosis | Nightmare | Spd/SpA

Outrage. Jolly Garchomp barely out-speeds Gengar so this is unlosable.

H312 | Girafarig | Adamant | Lum Berry | Crunch | Zen Headbutt | Return | Mirror Coat | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H464 | Glaceon | Rash | Icy Rock | Hail | Blizzard | Ice Shard | Swift | Spd/SpA

Try Swagger. Glaceon is very similar to Weavile in that it isn't OHKOed by Outrage and has Ice Shard to checkmate Garchomp. Under normal circumstances it isn't quite as bad as Weavile since Blizzard can miss and Glaceon lacks the protection from critical hits that Weavile has. However, I consider Glaceon to be the most dangerous Pokemon in a vacuum simply because the anti-Weavile strategy doesn't work as well on Glaceon. Glaceon's lower Attack and higher bulk means that Outrage isn't guaranteed to KO after 1 round of 2+ confusion damage (it can with a high roll though), so you'll need 2 self-hits or some other favourable hax to win. There's a lot of variables going on but this match-up is overall in Glaceon's favour, so you don't want to face this at all.

H350 | Glalie | Modest | Lum Berry | Ice Beam | Dark Pulse | Water Pulse | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA

Similar to Dewgong and Cloyster except that Garchomp has a 31.3% chance to OHKO with Outrage (this would be near guaranteed with Adamant, but that would leave Garchomp even worse off against Weavile). If you miss the range, hope for no freeze.

H465 | Gliscor | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Earthquake | Sandstorm | Aerial Ace | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd

Outrage. Highly favourable but it might be possible to lose if it activates Sand Veil on turn 1 with Sandstorm (although this also activates for Garchomp too).

H276 | Golbat | Modest | Razor Fang | Sludge Bomb | Ominous Wind | Giga Drain | Air Slash | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H378 | Golduck | Mild | Petaya Berry | Brine | Aqua Jet | Hydro Pump | Return | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H283 | Golem | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Earth Power | Hammer Arm | Sucker Punch | Atk/SpA

Earthquake.

H352 | Gorebyss | Modest | Wise Glasses | Psychic | Brine | Signal Beam | Shadow Ball | SpA/SpD

Outrage.

H314 | Granbull | Adamant | Focus Band | Return | Crunch | Close Combat | Stone Edge | Atk/Def

Focus Band and Intimidate makes this a bit scary, although Outrage will otherwise OHKO at 1+ (Intimidate + Swords Dance), and non-Intimidate variants are 2HKOed by unboosted Outrage. Granbull itself only has a 32% chance to 2HKO with Return, so the match-up is overall favourable.

H334 | Grumpig | Modest | Wise Glasses | Psychic | Power Gem | Energy Ball | Focus Blast | SpA/SpD

Outrage.

H391 | Gyarados | Lonely | Life Orb | Bounce | Waterfall | Dragon Dance | Brine | Atk/Spd

Very dangerous. Outrage 2HKOes through Intimidate, but Gyarados will gain the speed advantage after Dragon Dance and then potentially evade the follow-up with Bounce. Garchomp can still win but it depends on not getting paralyzed or confused, or preferably Bounce just missing (or Gyarados using Dragon Dance twice). The Adamant set has a slightly better match-up against it since it can Swords Dance on turn 1 to gain the OHKO which removes the confusion problem, but it still sucks.

H328 | Hariyama | Brave | Focus Band | Vital Throw | Payback | Fake Out | ThunderPunch | HP/Atk

Earthquake is safer since it'll still 2HKO but eliminates the danger of confusion if Focus Band activates. Hariyama has an extremely low chance of 2HKOing with crit Fake Out + crit Vital Throw, but otherwise Focus Band would need to come into play to cause a loss.

H474 | Heatran | Modest | Focus Band | Magma Storm | Flash Cannon | Lava Plume | Metal Sound | SpA/SpD

Earthquake. An absurd amount of hax would need to happen for this to beat Garchomp.

H413 | Heracross | Jolly | Salac Berry | Megahorn | Close Combat | Facade | Reversal | Atk/Spd

Adamant Garchomp always OHKOes with Outrage, but Jolly Garchomp should use Earthquake first. Using Outrage on turn 1 has the risk of it surviving a low roll and activating Salac Berry, which lets Heracross 2HKO with Close Combat before Garchomp can finish it off. Earthquake will knock it into KO range of Outrage and avoid activating Salac. Unless Earthquake crits and activates Salac anyway, in which case lol.

H452 | Hippowdon | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Double-Edge | Earthquake | Yawn | Slack Off | Atk/Def

Awkward match-up. Outrage has an 82.8% chance to 2HKO, but if it misses the range then Garchomp likely ends up asleep AND giving Hippowdon an Liechi Berry boost which would be a difficult position to win from.

H292 | Hitmonchan | Adamant | Choice Band | Sky Uppercut | ThunderPunch | Fire Punch | Ice Punch | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H291 | Hitmonlee | Jolly | Salac Berry | Endure | Reversal | Hi Jump Kick | Bounce | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H320 | Hitmontop | Adamant | Salac Berry | Triple Kick | Aerial Ace | Thief | Twister | Atk/Spd

Outrage. This will OHKO Technician variants. Intimidate ones are too weak to matter even with the Salac Berry boost (although you can use Earthquake on these ones to avoid activating Salac if you wish). Note that "smart AI" Hitmontop usually never uses Triple Kick because the game reads it as a 10BP move, disregarding the multi-hit damage.

H448 | Honchkrow | Lonely | Quick Claw | Dark Pulse | Night Slash | Drill Peck | Air Cutter | Atk/SpA

Outrage OHKOes. Shouldn't be losable since Drill Peck is its strongest (and therefore likely preferred) move against Garchomp and that lacks any additional effects that could cause problems if it gets a Quick Claw proc.

H415 | Houndoom | Mild | Choice Scarf | Dark Pulse | Flamethrower | Crunch | Fire Fang | Atk/SpA

Earthquake. Houndoom holds Choice Scarf but it can't out-speed Jolly Garchomp. Houndoom is the reason I prefer to use the Jolly set in Fire rather than the Adamant set, since Adamant is slower than Houndoom and can potentially get flinched. But even then, Houndoom would need consecutive flinches or a flinch/crit combo to beat Garchomp, so this match-up is still highly favourable.

H351 | Huntail | Adamant | Muscle Band | Aqua Tail | Crunch | Body Slam | Bounce | Atk/SpD

Outrage.

H288 | Hypno | Quiet | Zoom Lens | Hypnosis | Focus Blast | Psychic | Nightmare | HP/SpA

Outrage sometimes OHKOes. Hypnosis can lead to a loss if it doesn't, but Psychic is a 3HKO at best assuming not stat drops/crits so you'll have some time to awaken.

H444 | Infernape | Adamant | Life Orb | Close Combat | Flare Blitz | Mach Punch | Fake Out | Atk/Spd

Earthquake it after it flinches you with Fake Out.

H394 | Jolteon | Rash | Expert Belt | Discharge | Quick Attack | Double Team | Thunder Wave | Spd/SpA

Earthquake. Mildly annoying with evasion but only has Quick Attack to harm Garchomp otherwise.

H310 | Jumpluff | Adamant | BrightPowder | Seed Bomb | Leech Seed | U-turn | Bounce | Atk/Spd

Outrage OHKOes. It needs multiple BrightPowder dodges to cause problems.

H300 | Jynx | Timid | BrightPowder | Lovely Kiss | Blizzard | Dream Eater | Energy Ball | Spd/SpA

Identical to Froslass. Easy OHKO but of course they had to give it BrightPowder. Still one of the easier Ice-types, so just attack it and hope for the best.

H305 | Kabutops | Adamant | Muscle Band | Night Slash | Waterfall | Stone Edge | X-Scissor | HP/Atk

Earthquake.

H296 | Kangaskhan | Adamant | Persim Berry | Dizzy Punch | Outrage | Sucker Punch | Rest | HP/Atk

Outrage.

H345 | Kecleon | Jolly | Expert Belt | Dizzy Punch | Drain Punch | Shadow Claw | Aerial Ace | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H416 | Kingdra | Modest | Scope Lens | Dragon Pulse | Hydro Pump | Yawn | Brine | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H289 | Kingler | Adamant | Focus Sash | Crabhammer | X-Scissor | Superpower | Dig | HP/Atk

Outrage.

H307 | Lanturn | Modest | Sitrus Berry | Discharge | Brine | Signal Beam | Ice Beam | HP/SpA

Earthquake.

H392 | Lapras | Modest | Lum Berry | Blizzard | Surf | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/SpA

Outrage 2HKOes, it can freeze, yada yada yada...You'd rather face this than something like Cloyster because using Blizzard instead of Ice Beam means it might miss, giving Garchomp another avenue to win that doesn't exist against Ice Beam users.

H441 | Latias | Modest | Salac Berry | Mist Ball | Dragon Pulse | Recover | Captivate | SpA/SpD

Outrage.

H442 | Latios | Modest | Salac Berry | Luster Purge | Dragon Pulse | Recover | Captivate | SpA/SpD

Outrage.

H463 | Leafeon | Naughty | Scope Lens | Quick Attack | Leaf Blade | Grass Knot | Razor Leaf | Atk/Spd

Outrage 2HKOes. Leafeon can actually beat Garchomp if it gets a turn 1 Leaf Blade crit since it can pick Garchomp off with Quick Attack after, although it is roll dependent.

H456 | Lickilicky | Adamant | Expert Belt | ThunderPunch | Ice Punch | Fire Punch | Body Slam | Atk/Def

Outrage. Functionally identical to Clefable.

H363 | Lopunny | Jolly | Sticky Barb | Switcheroo | Dizzy Punch | Bounce | Protect | Atk/Spd

A bit of a pain. Lopunny out-speeds Adamant Garchomp and steals Focus Sash to avoid being KOed by Outrage. From there it can confuse with Dizzy Punch or just Protect. I would use Earthquake instead to avoid self-inflicted confusion. Fortunately, Lopunny is disgustingly weak so you have a bit of time to get that second hit in to KO it.

H451 | Lucario | Brave | Liechi Berry | Aura Sphere | Focus Punch | ExtremeSpeed | Substitute | Atk/SpA

Earthquake.

H322 | Ludicolo | Modest | Leftovers | Giga Drain | Water Pulse | Rain Dance | Ice Beam | Def/SpA

Outrage is a 2HKO and it has Ice Beam. Just hope for no freeze.

H370 | Lumineon | Timid | BrightPowder | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | Water Pulse | Air Cutter | Spd/SpA

Outrage OHKOes. Garchomp can actually lose to this if it misses on turn 1 and then gets confused by Water Pulse, but Lumineon is pitifully weak: Water Pulse does about 22% max.

H339 | Lunatone | Modest | Wise Glasses | Psychic | AncientPower | Signal Beam | Earth Power | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H446 | Luxray | Naive | King's Rock | Spark | Thunderbolt | Quick Attack | Thunder Wave | Atk/Spd

Earthquake.

H381 | Machamp | Brave | Focus Band | DynamicPunch | Vacuum Wave | Foresight | Revenge | Atk/Def

Outrage 2HKOes but you're fighting against Focus Band and possibly No Guard DynamicPunch. Vacuum Wave effectively makes DynamicPunch a guaranteed 2HKO as well. Garchomp will usually win but you don't want to test your luck here too often.

H302 | Magmar | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Fire Punch | Iron Tail | Brick Break | Thief | Atk/Spd

Earthquake.

H460 | Magmortar | Mild | Lax Incense | Fire Blast | Hyper Beam | SmokeScreen | Protect | Spd/SpA

Earthquake. Can potentially beat Garchomp if Lax Incense wills it.

H285 | Magneton | Modest | Scope Lens | Tri Attack | Flash Cannon | Thunderbolt | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA

Earthquake.

H455 | Magnezone | Bold | Ganlon Berry | Flash Cannon | Tri Attack | Thunder | Mirror Coat | Def/SpA

Earthquake.

H466 | Mamoswine | Modest | Leftovers | Blizzard | Hail | Earth Power | Amnesia | HP/SpA

See Lapras, etc.

H329 | Manectric | Modest | Focus Sash | Thunder | Flamethrower | Swift | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA

Earthquake. The only Electric-type aside from Electrode that can reasonably beat Garchomp, simply because Focus Sash gives it an opportunity to confuse Garchomp with Signal Beam.

H317 | Mantine | Mild | Expert Belt | Signal Beam | Earthquake | Surf | Aerial Ace | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H402 | Meganium | Quiet | Focus Sash | Energy Ball | Magical Leaf | Body Slam | Counter | HP/SpA

Outrage.

H472 | Mesprit | Timid | Light Clay | Extrasensory | Light Screen | Reflect | Swift | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H437 | Metagross | Adamant | Quick Claw | Meteor Mash | Zen Headbutt | Bullet Punch | Light Screen | Atk/Def

Adamant Garchomp OHKOes 31.3% of the time with Earthquake whereas Jolly Garchomp always 2HKOes, and Metagross has a very high chance of 2HKOing with Meteor Mash which is a problem with that Quick Claw sitting there. Fortunately, it often uses Light Screen on turn 1 against things it can't OHKO outright, which limits Metagross' win condition to a Quick Claw/crit Meteor Mash.

H433 | Milotic | Quiet | Life Orb | Rest | Sleep Talk | Hydro Pump | Facade | Atk/SpA

Outrage.

H321 | Miltank | Adamant | Leftovers | Body Slam | Zen Headbutt | Hammer Arm | Iron Tail | Atk/Def

Outrage 2HKOes even after Leftovers. The main issue is Body Slam can paralyze, although it's not very strong (Body Slam has <1% chance to 3HKO). It may be safer to Swords Dance to reduce the number of successful Outrages needed since 2+ Outrage OHKOes.

H364 | Mismagius | Modest | Petaya Berry | Shadow Ball | Energy Ball | Thunderbolt | Psychic | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H400 | Moltres | Modest | Razor Claw | Fire Blast | Air Cutter | Sky Attack | Roost | Def/SpA

Outrage is a 2HKO so I think this is mostly unlosable unless Moltres decides to use Fire Blast on turn 1 for some reason and gets a burn, but I think it'll prefer Sky Attack.

H299 | Mr. Mime | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Power Swap | Fire Punch | Ice Punch | ThunderPunch | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H384 | Muk | Careful | Black Sludge | Gunk Shot | Frustration | Toxic | Acid Armor | Def/SpD

Earthquake.

H274 | Nidoking | Adamant | Muscle Band | Dig | Poison Jab | Attract | Megahorn | Atk/Def

Earthquake.

H273 | Nidoqueen | Modest | Wise Glasses | Earth Power | Sludge Bomb | Attract | Shadow Ball | Def/SpA

Earthquake. Nidoqueen can survive a minimum damage roll from Jolly Garchomp and it has Attract, so I recommend running a female Garchomp for it since that ensures a win. Adamant Garchomp always OHKOes.

H377 | Ninetales | Mild | White Herb | Will-O-Wisp | Confuse Ray | Quick Attack | Overheat | Spd/SpA

Earthquake.

H326 | Ninjask | Adamant | Liechi Berry | X-Scissor | Aerial Ace | Dig | Slash | Atk/Def

Outrage.

H306 | Noctowl | Modest | Leftovers | Extrasensory | Air Slash | Silver Wind | Ominous Wind | HP/SpA

Outrage.

H316 | Octillery | Brave | Scope Lens | Octazooka | Gunk Shot | Rock Blast | Seed Bomb | Atk/SpA

Outrage.

H304 | Omastar | Modest | Wise Glasses | AncientPower | Hydro Pump | Ice Beam | Earth Power | HP/SpA

Earthquake. Omastar has a low chance of surviving Earthquake and can freeze with Ice Beam in response to cause a loss.

H279 | Persian | Modest | King's Rock | Power Gem | Water Pulse | Swift | Icy Wind | Spd/SpA

Outrage. This is faster than Adamant Garchomp but King's Rock might not be an issue. Apparently, King's Rock only activates on specific moves in all gens prior to gen 5, and Icy Wind (Persian's likely preferred move) isn't on this list, although its other moves are.

H374 | Pidgeot | Modest | Wise Glasses | Ominous Wind | Heat Wave | Air Slash | Uproar | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H315 | Piloswine | Adamant | BrightPowder | Ice Fang | Dig | Body Slam | Hail | Atk/Def

Outrage and hope for the best. Possibly the most dangerous Ice-type outside of Weavile and Glaceon. It's similar to Gastrodon in that it is slower and 2HKOed but has BrightPowder, and you only have an 81% chance of not missing at least once, but it's even worse since Ice Fang is more accurate than Blizzard. Weird how a NFE Pokemon is one of Garchomp's biggest nemeses, but there you are.

H390 | Pinsir | Jolly | Salac Berry | X-Scissor | Giga Impact | Swords Dance | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd

It shouldn't be possible to lose to this with optimal play. I recommend Earthquake first, and then Outrage. This avoids activating Salac Berry while still 2HKOing.

H407 | Politoed | Modest | Lax Incense | Hyper Voice | Surf | Rest | Snore | Spd/SpA

Outrage has a high OHKO chance but missing the range could lead to a turn 2 Lax Incense dodge into Rest, so either Earthquake or Outrage are acceptable here. Note that Politoed can't 2HKO without a crit.

H380 | Poliwrath | Quiet | Zoom Lens | Focus Blast | Surf | Hypnosis | Vacuum Wave | Def/SpA

I've lost to this a few times with various Pokemon, including Garchomp. Earthquake is a 2HKO but Hypnosis just always seems to hit. Focus Blast is a 3HKO in return but Vacuum Wave's priority effectively makes this a 2HKO, so Garchomp generally doesn't have much time to wake up before it loses. Focus Blast can miss too, but Zoom Lens makes this far less likely. Poliwrath is one of the primary reasons why you might prefer to use Salamence or Dragonite, or why you might want Substitute on Garchomp.

H467 | Porygon-z | Modest | Expert Belt | Tri Attack | Dark Pulse | Psychic | Signal Beam | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H418 | Porygon2 | Rash | Quick Claw | Tri Attack | Return | Psychic | Zen Headbutt | Atk/SpA

Outrage. Porygon2 is OHKOed with a high roll but otherwise you are contending with Quick Claw and Tri Attack. Download lets Tri Attack 2HKO; otherwise it's a 3HKO.

H280 | Primeape | Adamant | Expert Belt | Cross Chop | Gunk Shot | Seed Bomb | Stone Edge | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H469 | Probopass | Calm | Focus Band | Flash Cannon | Power Gem | Substitute | Sandstorm | SpA/SpD

Earthquake. It can survive with Focus Band but is too weak to capitalize on it.

H365 | Purugly | Adamant | King's Rock | Body Slam | Shadow Claw | U-turn | Iron Tail | Atk/Def

Outrage OHKOes 37.5% of the time, but if it misses then Body Slam paralysis awaits. Purugly is barely stronger than Miltank though. You could also Swords Dance here just like against Miltank but I don't think it's worth it in this case. I would just Outrage as hope for the best.

H271 | Raichu | Adamant | Muscle Band | ThunderPunch | Brick Break | Iron Tail | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd

Earthquake.

H420 | Raikou | Naive | Scope Lens | Thunder | Quick Attack | Reflect | Thunder Fang | Spd/SpA

Earthquake. Will likely use Reflect to survive a turn but can't capitalize on it.

H355 | Rampardos | Adamant | Shell Bell | Head Smash | Zen Headbutt | Avalanche | Fire Punch | HP/Atk

Earthquake.

H383 | Rapidash | Lonely | Razor Fang | Flare Blitz | Quick Attack | Stomp | Overheat | Atk/SpA

Earthquake.

H439 | Regice | Quiet | Sitrus Berry | Blizzard | Avalanche | Hyper Beam | Thunder Wave | Atk/SpA

Garchomp 2HKOes with Outrage through Sitrus Berry and Thunder Wave is a non-factor, so this match-up is pretty much like Articuno and Lapras. You attack and hope the game likes you enough to not end the streak to a freeze. It may use Avalanche instead which can't freeze.

H477 | Regigigas | Impish | Lum Berry | Zen Headbutt | Confuse Ray | Drain Punch | Dizzy Punch | Atk/Def

Can't do much about Confuse Ray unless you run Substitute. I'd use Earthquake to start and then shift to Outrage once Confuse Ray is used.

H438 | Regirock | Brave | Sitrus Berry | Stone Edge | AncientPower | Giga Impact | Thunder Wave | Atk/SpA

Earthquake.

H440 | Registeel | Brave | Sitrus Berry | Iron Head | Flash Cannon | Giga Impact | Thunder Wave | Atk/SpA

Earthquake.

H353 | Relicanth | Brave | Shell Bell | Head Smash | Aqua Tail | Earth Power | Double-Edge | HP/Atk

Earthquake.

H294 | Rhydon | Adamant | Sitrus Berry | Dig | Stone Edge | Rock Slide | Megahorn | HP/Atk

Earthquake.

H457 | Rhyperior | Brave | Quick Claw | Rock Wrecker | Earth Power | Giga Impact | Reversal | Atk/Def

Earthquake 2HKOes regardless of its ability. I believe this can cause a loss but it would require a Quick Claw activation, a crit, and very specific move choices.

H447 | Roserade | Modest | White Herb | Weather Ball | Leaf Storm | Protect | Toxic | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H373 | Rotom | Timid | Petaya Berry | Shadow Ball | Thunderbolt | Signal Beam | Swift | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H436 | Salamence | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Dragon Claw | Aerial Ace | Frustration | Roost | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H272 | Sandslash | Adamant | BrightPowder | Sandstorm | Slash | Night Slash | Dig | Atk/Spd

I would Earthquake rather than Outrage here. Outrage doesn't OHKO and Sandslash has multiple ways of dodging. Earthquake can hit Sandslash while it's underground too.

H424 | Sceptile | Naughty | Scope Lens | Leaf Blade | Quick Attack | Leaf Storm | Grass Knot | Atk/Spd

Outrage

H411 | Scizor | Brave | Focus Sash | Swords Dance | X-Scissor | Counter | Bullet Punch | HP/Atk

Fire Fang and then Earthquake to finish it off. If it Counters on turn 1? You lose. It might use Swords Dance instead though.

H389 | Scyther | Jolly | Focus Sash | X-Scissor | Aerial Ace | Swords Dance | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd

Outrage. Technician Scyther can't 2HKO from turn 1 even with an Aerial Ace crit, but Swarm Scyther CAN cause a loss by critting with a Swarm-boosted X-Scissor followed by Quick Attack. There's nothing Garchomp can do to mitigate this but it's pretty unlikely, especially when Swords Dance on turn 1 is also an option.

H297 | Seadra | Modest | Scope Lens | Dragon Pulse | Hydro Pump | Flash Cannon | Ice Beam | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H298 | Seaking | Adamant | BrightPowder | Megahorn | Waterfall | Poison Jab | Bounce | Atk/Spd

Outrage OHKOes. You'd probably have to miss 3 times in a row to lose.

H338 | Seviper | Adamant | Leftovers | Poison Fang | Night Slash | Aqua Tail | Iron Tail | Atk/Def

Earthquake.

H331 | Sharpedo | Adamant | Focus Sash | Crunch | Waterfall | Ice Fang | Zen Headbutt | Atk/Spd

Use Earthquake to break the Focus Sash and KO it next turn. You might lose to a freeze. Do NOT use Outrage. If you do, Rough Skin activates and Garchomp is probably dead.

H323 | Shiftry | Modest | White Herb | Leaf Storm | Extrasensory | Dark Pulse | Focus Blast | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H412 | Shuckle | Careful | Smooth Rock | Bug Bite | Rollout | Sandstorm | Protect | HP/SpD

Just spam Earthquake until it dies.

H318 | Skarmory | Adamant | Razor Claw | Rock Slide | Night Slash | Steel Wing | Drill Peck | Atk/Spd

Fire Fang. Skarmory's bulk means Fire Fang 2HKOes only 16% of the time, but Skarmory usually has a mere 4HKO to threaten Garchomp with. I say "usually" because Scope Lens crits are a thing. I lost to this once because of them.

H366 | Skuntank | Naughty | Expert Belt | Flamethrower | Poison Jab | Dark Pulse | Iron Tail | Atk/SpA

Earthquake.

H428 | Slaking | Adamant | Leftovers | Encore | Counter | Frustration | Faint Attack | Atk/Def

Slaking can mess with Garchomp depending on its move selections. Garchomp can't 2HKO unboosted and attacking is slightly dangerous because of Counter. Boosting is also slightly risky because of Encore however. Garchomp can try Swords Dance on turn 1 and then again of the first loaf turn - Outrage OHKOes at 4+. Another strategy is to spam Earthquake since it usually 3HKOes, but there's a 5.5% chance that you'll miss the range and get 2HKOed instead.

H284 | Slowbro | Modest | Sitrus Berry | Water Pulse | Psychic | Ice Beam | Flamethrower | HP/SpA

You have to Swords Dance first because of Sitrus Berry potentially stopping unboosted Outrage 2HKOing. You win with 2+ Outrage unless you're frozen.

H311 | Slowking | Modest | Leftovers | Psychic | Water Pulse | Power Gem | Shadow Ball | SpA/SpD

Outrage.

H397 | Snorlax | Brave | Choice Band | Crunch | Giga Impact | Zen Headbutt | Brick Break | Atk/Def

Outrage.

H340 | Solrock | Adamant | Muscle Band | Stone Edge | Zen Headbutt | Earthquake | Iron Head | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H367 | Spiritomb | Modest | Petaya Berry | Dark Pulse | Ominous Wind | Silver Wind | Icy Wind | HP/SpA

Outrage. This can trigger Petaya Berry but Focus Sash makes this irrelevant, and Spiritomb is too slow to out-speed -1 Garchomp so it can't lose.

H319 | Stantler | Rash | King's Rock | Extrasensory | Thunder | Facade | Shadow Ball | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H354 | Staraptor | Adamant | Liechi Berry | Brave Bird | Close Combat | Quick Attack | U-turn | Atk/Spd

Outrage is a 2HKO after Intimidate but this should be free regardless. Brave Bird needs a crit/Leichi boost to do enough damage to put Garchomp into Quick Attack KO range, but in those situations the recoil will KO Staraptor anyway.

H388 | Starmie | Timid | BrightPowder | Hydro Pump | Psychic | Recover | Double Team | Spd/SpA

Outrage OHKOes. Very annoying because of evasion, its Speed, and its decent 2HKO chance with Hydro Pump, but it often likes to boost evasion first so you have a bit of time to land that hit.

H410 | Steelix | Brave | Iron Ball | Gyro Ball | Dig | Sandstorm | Curse | Atk/Def

Earthquake.

H422 | Suicune | Bold | Sitrus Berry | Mirror Coat | Facade | Hydro Pump | Reflect | Def/SpD

Slightly luck-dependent because Suicune is very hard to KO although Garchomp should win most of the time. Unboosted Outrage is extremely unlikely to 2HKO because of Sitrus Berry and Reflect so I recommend boosting twice and then attacking. 4+ Outrage 2HKOes through Reflect and Sitrus Berry; 6+ Outrage doesn't OHKO reliably in the same situation so I'd avoid going for that. Suicune can 3HKO with Hydro Pump but it likes to Reflect first to give a free turn so the above strategy should beat it unless it crits. Also, Suicune will sometimes throw out Mirror Coat randomly which only needs to happen once to ensure victory.

H330 | Swalot | Adamant | Expert Belt | Toxic | Ice Punch | Fire Punch | ThunderPunch | HP/Atk

Earthquake.

H426 | Swampert | Quiet | BrightPowder | Muddy Water | Mud Bomb | Substitute | Rest | SpA/SpD

BrightPowder and accuracy drops aren't fun. I think Earthquake is better than Outrage here since an Outrage miss might give it a free Rest and then leave you confused.

H458 | Tangrowth | Lonely | Lax Incense | Wring Out | Grass Knot | Sunny Day | SolarBeam | HP/SpA

Outrage is a 2HKO. Lax Incense is a problem as usual. Fortunately, Tangrowth needs to set up Sunny Day first to have any power to threaten you with so you have a bit of time on your side, but confusion is still an issue.

H303 | Tauros | Adamant | Persim Berry | Frustration | Iron Tail | Outrage | Zen Headbutt | Atk/Def

Swords Dance once then Outrage on Intimidate variants, otherwise just Outrage. Intimidate Tauros is the main reason why I use Adamant on my second set.

H382 | Tentacruel | Adamant | BrightPowder | Waterfall | Poison Jab | Toxic | Dive | Atk/SpD

Earthquake it. BrightPowder is a nuisance but Tentacruel is pretty weak and you only need one hit to KO it.

H461 | Togekiss | Modest | BrightPowder | Air Slash | Aura Sphere | Thunder Wave | Roost | SpA/SpD

Outrage 2HKOes and it can't paralyze Garchomp or 2HKO it without a crit, so this is favourable. BrightPowder is a pain as usual. There's a chance that it will try Roost on turn 2 if the second Outrage misses which would grant an extra turn.

H333 | Torkoal | Quiet | White Herb | Overheat | Body Slam | Earth Power | Stone Edge | Atk/SpA

Earthquake it. Torkoal can survive a low roll but won't change the outcome.

H443 | Torterra | Brave | Lax Incense | Wood Hammer | Mud-Slap | Rest | Sleep Talk | HP/Atk

Try Outrage. Not the greatest match-up because of Lax Incense and its high chance of 2HKOing with Wood Hammer, not to mention the possibility of it using Mud-Slap instead and then getting a free Rest on turn 2 as Garchomp misses and confuses itself. Fire Fang into Outrage is a guaranteed 2HKO so you could try that instead of turn 1 Outrage to potentially avoid the self-confusion scenario, but the possibility of a Fire Fang miss makes this not entirely safe either.

H368 | Toxicroak | Brave | Liechi Berry | Poison Jab | Revenge | Bullet Punch | X-Scissor | Atk/Def

Earthquake.

H348 | Tropius | Modest | White Herb | Leaf Storm | Air Slash | Twister | Ominous Wind | HP/SpA

Outrage.

H403 | Typhlosion | Timid | White Herb | Eruption | Quick Attack | Overheat | Swift | Spd/SpA

Earthquake.

H423 | Tyranitar | Brave | Quick Claw | Stone Edge | Crunch | Dark Pulse | AncientPower | Atk/SpA

Earthquake. Very low chance to lose to it, but it's possible since Tyranitar can survive a minimum roll Earthquake. This would require a Quick Claw activation alongside either a crit or defence-dropping Crunch though, since it otherwise can't 2HKO Garchomp.

H409 | Umbreon | Relaxed | Leftovers | Facade | Sucker Punch | Confuse Ray | Moonlight | Def/SpD

Very annoying, and very easy to lose to if the game hates you. Umbreon can't do much damage directly but it's very resilient and has Confuse Ray. Umbreon is really unpredictable on turn 1: sometimes it uses Confuse Ray but other times it'll use Facade with the occasional Sucker Punch thrown in. Garchomp basically never 2HKOes Umbreon so I prefer to use Earthquake initially and then go into Outrage if/when it uses Confuse Ray. Otherwise you basically have to keep throwing attacks at it and hope you break through its recovery before it slowly chips you to death.

H414 | Ursaring | Adamant | Focus Band | Frustration | Rest | Sleep Talk | ThunderPunch | Atk/Def

Focus Band sucks, especially since Garchomp can't OHKO anyway while Ursaring almost always 2HKOes with Frustration. Earthquake is probably a bit safer here just in case Ursaring does roll low twice, since you'll avoid the self-confusion in that case while still 2HKOing.

H471 | Uxie | Bold | Focus Band | Extrasensory | Yawn | Dream Eater | Swift | Def/SpD

Outrage 2HKOes unless it rolls minimum damage twice or activates Focus Band. Given the risk of the latter and the existence of Yawn, Crunch is an alternative to 2HKO about 20% of the time. Garchomp will usually win either way wince Uxie can't do much damage, even with Dream Eater.

H393 | Vaporeon | Mild | Expert Belt | Surf | Quick Attack | Aqua Ring | Yawn | HP/SpA

Outrage. There's a small chance of losing to Vaporeon because crit Surf into Quick Attack can 2HKO with bad rolls, but Vaporeon often just uses Yawn or Aqua Ring instead.

H278 | Venomoth | Modest | Choice Specs | Bug Buzz | Psychic | Sludge Bomb | Energy Ball | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H475 | Venusaur | Quiet | Focus Sash | Toxic | Frenzy Plant | Sludge | Protect | Atk/SpA

Use Earthquake. Do NOT use Outrage. Venusaur's Protect/Focus Sash combo can punish Outrage use but using Earthquake makes this match-up a guaranteed win for Garchomp.

H357 | Vespiquen | Brave | BrightPowder | Power Gem | Attack Order | Ominous Wind | Air Cutter | Atk/SpA

Such a troll. Not too strong and Outrage 2HKOes, but BrightPowder is obnoxious. Fire Fang on turn 1 might be a safer option to avoid confusion in case of a turn 2 BrightPowder dodge.

H282 | Victreebel | Modest | White Herb | Leaf Storm | Grass Knot | Toxic | Worry Seed | HP/SpA

Outrage.

H325 | Vigoroth | Adamant | Razor Claw | Slash | Night Slash | Shadow Claw | ThunderPunch | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H277 | Vileplume | Modest | Heat Rock | Sludge Bomb | SolarBeam | Sunny Day | Synthesis | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H430 | Wailord | Quiet | BrightPowder | Water Spout | Sleep Talk | Body Slam | Rest | HP/SpA

Similar to Politoed except Outrage can't OHKO ever so may as well use Earthquake to avoid the Rest danger if it misses. Water Spout hits hard at full HP but if you manage to hit it on turn 1 then Wailord can't do much damage.

H434 | Walrein | Quiet | Icy Rock | Blizzard | Dive | Hail | Brine | HP/SpA

Same as Lapras and co.

H454 | Weavile | Adamant | Focus Sash | Night Slash | Ice Punch | Ice Shard | Quick Attack | Atk/Spd

Swagger and hope it works. Garchomp simply can't beat this with conventional methods because of the Focus Sash/Ice Punch/Ice Shard combo. Swagger give Garchomp the best chance of lucking through it and is the primary reason for its inclusion on the set. Jolly Garchomp out-speeds rank 10 Weavile which swings the match-up in Garchomp's favour very slightly, but even then the odds aren't great

H293 | Weezing | Calm | Black Sludge | Toxic | Dark Pulse | Flamethrower | Thunderbolt | HP/SpD

Outrage.

H341 | Whiscash | Quiet | Lax Incense | Earth Power | Water Pulse | Future Sight | Blizzard | SpA/SpD

Functionally identical to Gastrodon, except that Outrage has a small chance to OHKO, so Outrage might be slightly better here.

H308 | Xatu | Modest | Leftovers | Psychic | Air Cutter | Ominous Wind | Silver Wind | Spd/SpA

Outrage.

H462 | Yanmega | Rash | Petaya Berry | Bug Buzz | Air Slash | Endure | Reversal | Def/SpA

Jolly Garchomp's only option seems to be Fire Fang or Outrage on turn 1 and hope for the best. My sets aren't very well equipped to deal with Yanmega, which sucks because it seems to be one of the most common rank 10 Bugs. Tinted Lens variants aren't so bad, although the possibility of self-inflicted confusion after it uses Endure exists. It's the Speed Boost ones that are horrible. Yanmega needs 2 boosts to out-speed Jolly Garchomp but Endure makes these pretty easy to get alongside the Petaya Boost, and it's game over once that happens. Using Fire Fang first is risky because of the miss chance but that at least avoids the confusion risk against Tinted Lens Yanmega.

H337 | Zangoose | Adamant | Razor Claw | Crush Claw | Shadow Claw | Close Combat | Fire Punch | Atk/Spd

Outrage.

H399 | Zapdos | Modest | Ganlon Berry | Thunder | Air Cutter | Light Screen | Roost | SpA/SpD

Outrage.
 
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The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Well, it's not by too much, but I beat atsync's post-170 Garchomp record.
Capture 155.PNG

Everything up to Gold Argenta was cheated, but from battle 171 onwards it was legitimate. As it turns out, I was right to think that I could test my strategies easily without having to deal with pre-170 Hall's bullshit. Detailed strategy writeup is coming eventually, but I need to prepare some materials first. For now I'll just say that I think Substitute is definitely the way to go for Garchomp runs.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Okay, I'm late, but it's time for the first part of my Hall strategy: pre-170. This post will cover everything I would do to get past Gold Argenta were I doing this on retail.

Set 1:
Garchomp @ Focus Sash

Jolly: 252Atk/252Spe/4HP

Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Fang
Swords Dance

This is basically my default set for any type where there are no threats I need to take care of with one of the other two sets.

Set 2:
Garchomp @ Focus Sash

Jolly: 252Atk/248Spe/8HP

Outrage
Earthquake
Fire Fang
Swagger

Mostly just used so I have a chance against Weavile, can also be used for any type where you don't need Swords Dance or Substitute for anything.

Set 3:
Garchomp @ Focus Sash

Adamant: 252Atk/248Spe/8Def

Outrage
Earthquake
Swords Dance
Substitute

This set is great for lots of potential threats. It stops anything that tries to status you on the first turn (fucking Poliwrath), and also carries Swords Dance to deal with things like Slowbro. I would have lost at multiple points in my best run were it not for Substitute, and I haven't felt the absence of any other move so far.

Once I get past Gold Argenta, I alternate between the second and third sets.
Here's my personal type order, with the set I use for each type in parenthesis:

Ice (2) - Dark (2) - Water (3) - Ghost (1) - Grass (1) - Ground (3) - Bug (1) - Fighting (3) - Normal (1) - Psychic (1) - Flying (1) - Steel (1) - Rock (1) - Poison (1) - Fire (1) - Electric (1) - Dragon (1)

I have strategies for specific Pokémon in each type, but most of those have been covered already. Will post post-170 strategy eventually.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Part 2.

My post-170 strategy for Hall isn't actually all that terribly specific. It's basically just alternating between the second and third Garchomp sets and trying to play as optimally as possible. The strategies for specific Pokémon have already mostly been covered by atsync, but I do have a few specific things:

1. If you want to avoid risking a near-guaranteed loss, the set with Swagger and Fire Fang absolutely must fight the Ice, Dark, and Grass categories. This is because it's the only set that can deal with Weavile and Abomasnow. If you lock yourself into fighting one of these types with the Substitute set, you might be screwed.

2. The Substitute set should also be the only one to ever fight the Water and Psychic categories, because it's the only set with Swords Dance to avoid a guaranteed loss against Slowbro. I would also strongly recommend that you take on the Fighting category with it, because Substitute will save you against Poliwrath.

3. Because you only have 17 types to work with, you will inevitably have overlap between the types that the Swagger set is taking on, and the types that the Substitute set is taking on. Do everything you can to make sure that the overlap types aren't any of the ones listed above. I can publish a list of the order I used when testing post-170 if people want it.

That should be everything, let me know if I missed stuff. I'm going to go back to flinging myself at this facility. Also, all my Garchomp are level 50, a completely arbitrary decision that I'm not sure affects anything.
 
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Part 2.

My post-170 strategy for Hall isn't actually all that terribly specific. It's basically just alternating between the second and third Garchomp sets and trying to play as optimally as possible. The strategies for specific Pokémon have already mostly been covered by atsync, but I do have a few specific things:

1. If you want to avoid risking a near-guaranteed loss, the set with Swagger and Fire Fang absolutely must fight the Ice, Dark, Grass, Bug, and Ghost categories. This is because it's the only set that can deal with Weavile, Abomasnow, and Shedinja. If you lock yourself into fighting one of these types with the Substitute set, you might be screwed.
Shedinja does not appear in either Bug or Ghost starting in rank 6 of that type. Since post-170 you're continuously fighting rank 10s, it's irrelevant.
Also, all my Garchomp are level 50, a completely arbitrary decision that I'm not sure affects anything.
This actually DOES affect a lot - the formula used to determine which level the foe should be means that, depending on what level your mon is, the enemy mons may max out at a level lower than yours. For instance, if your level is between level 85 and 99, then enemies will max out at 3 levels below you. If you're at level 100, then enemies will max out at level 96. Additionally, the fact that rank 10 enemies have 26 IVs in every stat allows for Jolly Garchomp to outspeed Weavile outright at level 100.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Shedinja does not appear in either Bug or Ghost starting in rank 6 of that type. Since post-170 you're continuously fighting rank 10s, it's irrelevant.
Fixed.
This actually DOES affect a lot - the formula used to determine which level the foe should be means that, depending on what level your mon is, the enemy mons may max out at a level lower than yours. For instance, if your level is between level 85 and 99, then enemies will max out at 3 levels below you. If you're at level 100, then enemies will max out at level 96. Additionally, the fact that rank 10 enemies have 26 IVs in every stat allows for Jolly Garchomp to outspeed Weavile outright at level 100.
Oh. Huh. Neat.
 
Specifically, the level formula was something I recently added to Bulbapedia:

Opposing Pokémon's levels are determined by the formula

L = min(P, ceiling(B + T / 2 + (K - 1) * R))

where

P = the level of the player's Pokémon
B = the base level for opponents to start at = P - (3 * sqrt(P))
T = the number of types, not counting the currently selected type, which have progressed to Rank 2 or higher
K = the rank of the currently selected type
R = the level increase per rank = P / (5 * sqrt(P))


(With the obvious exception of Argenta, who always matches your level even if the post-170 levels are lower than yours.)

Your Level (P)Base Level (B)Increment (R)Post-170 Level
3013.56831.095430
3114.29671.113631
3215.02941.131432
3315.76631.148933
3416.50711.166234
3517.25181.183235
3618.00001.200036
3718.75171.216637
3819.50681.232938
3920.26501.249039
4021.02631.264940
4121.79061.280641
4222.55781.296142
4323.32771.311543
4424.10031.326644
4524.87541.341645
4625.65301.356546
4726.43301.371147
4827.21541.385648
4928.00001.400049
5028.78681.414250
5129.57571.428351
5230.36671.442252
5331.15971.456053
5431.95461.469754
5532.75141.483255
5633.55011.496756
5734.35051.510056
5835.15271.523257
5935.95661.536258
6036.76211.549259
6137.56931.562060
6238.37801.574861
6339.18821.587562
6440.00001.600063
6540.81321.612564
6641.62791.624865
6742.44391.637166
6843.26141.649267
6944.08011.661368
7044.90021.673368
7145.72161.685269
7246.54421.697170
7347.36801.708871
7448.19301.720572
7549.01921.732173
7649.84661.743674
7750.67511.755075
7851.50471.766476
7952.33541.777677
8053.16721.788978
8154.00001.800079
8254.83381.811180
8355.66871.822181
8456.50451.833082
8557.34141.843982
8658.17911.854783
8759.01791.865584
8859.85751.876285
8960.69811.886886
9061.53951.897487
9162.38181.907988
9263.22501.918389
9364.06901.928790
9464.91391.939191
9565.75961.949492
9666.60611.959693
9767.45341.969894
9868.30151.979995
9969.15041.990096
10070.00002.000096
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
It's not a record, but I have a pretty damn funny story that I hope belongs here. It's the fourth round of the Battle Factory, and my team is:
-Overheat Entei.
-Destiny Bond/Focus Sash Mismagius.
-Life Orb Honchkrow.
I'm told that my opponent is going to lead with a Pokémon that knows Rock Wrecker. Oh shit. That means it could be either Choice Band or Focus Band Rhyperior. Both of those eat two of my team members for breakfast, and the Focus Band set actually counters my entire team thanks to Crunch. The only trade that could potentially help here is a Quagsire, but even that's not going to be super great and I don't want to sacrifice any of my current team members for it. The best plan I can think of is to switch in my Mismagius turn 1, live whatever it throws at me with Focus Sash, then Destiny Bond it and go from there.

The battle begins. I switch to Mismagius and pray to God that my opponent isn't keeping another Rock Type in their back pocket.

It's the Choice Band variant, and it uses Hammer Arm.
 
Hello
I just noticed it has me on 45 wins for open level factory but I have 49? Can this be updated please, im sure I already gave proof but can take another pic if you need
 
Here is the team I’m going to use to try to beat the battle tower in platinum.

Physical Tank/Support
Pink Lady the Cresselia
Quirky Nature. 252HP, 252Def, 4Spa w/Leftovers
Moonlight
I’ve Beam
Toxic
Reflect

Special Attacker
Spoonsy the Alakazam
Quiet Nature(not perfect). 252Spa, 4Spd, 252 Spe w/ life orb
Substitute
Physchic
Focus Blast
Signal Beam

Physical Sweeper
Neubauer the Garchomp
Jolly Nature. 4HP 252Atk 252Spe w/ Haban Berry
Dragon Claw
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Stone Edge

I’m going to lead with Sub Alakazam because he is too flimsy to switch in and also has pretty good coverage for most types. I do struggle a bit against dark and ghost types.

In my first run with this team, I got swept by a razor fang Crobat who kept flinching my whole team in battle 30.

Any advice for improving my team? I didn’t breed but I just caught them in the wild with decent natures and ev trained them. I’m not super comfortable with breeding and IVs but I feel like I might need to in order to beat the entire tower. This is my first time really getting into competitive battling, any advice for a beginner in this area would be appreciated. :)
 
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The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Here is the team I’m going to use to try to beat the battle tower in platinum.

Physical Tank/Support
Pink Lady the Cresselia
Quirky Nature. 252HP, 252Def, 4Spa w/Leftovers
Moonlight
I’ve Beam
Toxic
Reflect

Special Attacker
Spoonsy the Alakazam
Quiet Nature(not perfect). 252Spa, 4Spd, 252 Spe w/ life orb
Substitute
Physchic
Focus Blast
Signal Beam

Physical Sweeper
Neubauer the Garchomp
Jolly Nature. 4HP 252Atk 252Spe w/ Haban Berry
Dragon Claw
Swords Dance
Earthquake
Stone Edge

I’m going to lead with Sub Alakazam because he is too flimsy to switch in and also has pretty good coverage for most types. I do struggle a bit against dark and ghost types.

In my first run with this team, I got swept by a razor fang Crobat who kept flinching my whole team in battle 30.

Any advice for improving my team? I didn’t breed but I just caught them in the wild with decent natures and ev trained them. I’m not super comfortable with breeding and IVs but I feel like I might need to in order to beat the entire tower. This is my first time really getting into competitive battling, any advice for a beginner in this area would be appreciated. :)
I don't think using Focus Blast and Stone Edge is a great idea. You will absolutely lose to RNG if you rely on moves with less than 100 accuracy, but I get that you don't have many great options for Fighting coverage on Alakazam/Rock coverage on Garchomp. If you absolutely must have Rock coverage on Garchomp, I would probably go for Rock Slide over Stone Edge, but if you're only running a Rock move to cover for Ice then I would probably run Fire Fang or Brick Break instead (BB also helps with your weakness to Dark which can potentially free up a move on Alakazam for a move that sucks slightly less than Focus Miss). As for your weakness to Ghost, you could lessen it by running Shadow Ball on Alakazam/Crunch on Garchomp (probably the former since Garchomp only has one free move after Swords Dance and STAB that you'll probably want for coverage).

I also don't think running Substitute on special sweeper Alakazam is worth it. Anything that Alakazam needs Substitute to face without dying immediately and can't blow through with a single attack is probably just going to break the Sub the same turn anyway. I would probably just do a 4 attacks setup. As for specific attacks, Garchomp would appreciate Energy Ball to deal with Water types that carry Ice Beam, but beyond that I don't have many specific suggestions. Just use whatever your team needs.

Finally, while Cresselia is obviously a good wall, I don't think it fits well on this team since you already have a Psychic type. As it is right now, Weavile eats this entire team for breakfast (believe me, I know a thing or two about losing to Weavile), and any Dark/Ghost/Bug type can potentially knock out two-thirds of it. My first thought is that a Steel wall would be better, and you've got some options there (Registeel is probably the best one but getting it legitimately in Platinum blows so you can use whatever substitute you like).

I think this team could use some work, but it's a pretty good start IMO.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Can't stand getting owned by rng on the battle hall...

Never thought I would see my garchomp die to uxie.


Yes, I'm salty.
Yeah, that'll happen. Sometimes the game just decides that you don't get to play anymore, and I've found that the Hall is particularly cruel in that regard. When you only have one Pokémon, there's not too much you can do to protect yourself against hax except run multiple sets. Losing to Argenta like that is rough though. Was it Silver or Gold?
 
Couple of posts about hall. Been sitting on the ditto playthrough for a year now, and just recently did wormadam this last weekend.

170 with Wormadam



PLANT (Wormadam) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Anticipation
Level: 48
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Modest Nature
- Leaf Storm
- Signal Beam
- Psychic
- Sucker Punch

LOWSANDY (Wormadam-Sandy) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Anticipation
Level: 30
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Sucker Punch
- Protect

LOWTRASH (Wormadam-Trash) @ Focus Sash / Pomeg Berry(for dragon) / Watmel Berry (for bug)
Ability: Anticipation
Level: 31
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Bug Bite
- Sucker Punch
- Natural Gift

TRASH (Wormadam-Trash) (F) @ Focus Sash / Black Glasses(for ghost) / Metal Coat(for ice)
Ability: Anticipation
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Bug Bite / Thief
- Sucker Punch
- Endeavor

SANDY (Wormadam-Sandy) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Anticipation
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Rock Blast
- Sucker Punch
- Protect



normal - Sandy. Staraptor is threatening but winnable, if i were to use trash, Lickilicky would be a brutal matchup.
water - plant, self-explanatory
fire - sandy, self-explanatory. not actually that hard, even when i get burned I often win if i can land an eq. Rock Blast's possibility of whiffing means this has to be done somewhat early, though.
electric - Sandy.
grass - Trash. I use sash here, item is for the most part meaningless, sash is better against argenta.
ice - Trash. I use metal coat here so I have a better water/ice matchup.
fighting - Sandy. I have to use protect in order to beat nape, and none of the others have good coverage against any other threats. Funny thing is, I beat Breloom with sandy, so the threats are mostly just poliwrath and heracross.
flying - Trash. This is the first type I do, zard is an autoloss with trash, but I don't want to have to hit 5 consecutive rock blasts. Skarmory is a tough out whatever I pick.
poison - Sandy. Trash dominates most of them more, but Sandy beats tentacruel, and only really needs rock blast vs golbat/crobat.
psychic - Plant. I fear Metagross, but anecdotally, it's rarer than Slowbro, which sandy fears.
ghost - Trash. Dusclops is brutal, since fire punch can crit or burn, Shedinja is brutal and mandates that I use a shedinja move other than Sucker Punch. I use Black Glasses and Thief instead of Bug Bite.
ground - Plant. I have to do this around the middle, missing a leaf storm can be the end of me.
dragon - Trash. Altaria is a bad matchup, so is Kingdra. I use Pomeg Natural Gift to deal with Altaria, and will often skip rank 10 dragon to avoid rank 10 kingdra. It's possible to beat kingdra, but relies on good sleep turns, bad ai decisions, good hydro pump misses, or some combination of the three.
dark - Trash. Houndoom would destroy me, which is mostly why Endeavor's there.
bug - Trash. I use Watmel Natural Gift to deal with scizor/forry, bear in mind forry needs a bit of chip and scizor needs its sash broken for the natural gift to kill. You don't want to use an 80 bp fully invested fire move on forry, and proceed to get it countered since you forgot that you're doing this from 69 base attack.
steel - Sandy, I do this second. Skarmory is an autoloss, Levitate Bronzong is difficult but a probable win.
rock - Sandy. Good AI will likely go for fly on Sandy, so I can simply spam sucker+protect to beat it. I can't use Trash since it loses to Omastar.

My final order:
flying, steel, normal, fighting, fire, dragon, bug, ground, water, ghost, psychic, dark, electric, poison, ice, rock, grass was my final order. This means that sandy faced argenta1, and trash faced argenta2. Argenta wasn't really a huge barrier in this run. If I got past normal, I likely made it to Dragon. If I got past dragon, I likely made it to ghost.
Last huge threat not in my control is rock blast vs crobat, or hypnosis gengar, in late poison

I had to start platooning levels once I realized that level 31 sandy couldn't beat poison 10 victreebel thanks to them having the same level. Few hours of emerald cloning and pal parks, but it's worth it. I started using the high level one on ghost, thief is my shedinja move, rotated over bug bite for ghost only.

On my first time making it to Argenta2, she brought out Moltres. Fire Blast brought me to 1 hp, no burn, endeavor hit, and it went for a kill move, which meant Sucker Punch killed, 170 acquired.

I immediately proceeded to choke by forgetting about Meganium counter, and lost because I low rolled t1 as it didn't counter, and high rolled it t2 to within an inch of its life, as counter ohko'd. Who cares, got 170.


66 wins with Ditto



Ditto @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Limber
Level: 30
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk
- Transform

God (Ditto) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Limber
Level: 30
Happiness: 0
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spe
IVs: 30 Atk
- Transform


I remember starting on this in 2018, concluding that ditto had no potential to get to 50 without rage glitch abuse, and let it be. Once I was done with wobb, I decided to revisit it.

Hall Ditto is a unique experience, what you'd immediately imagine is that the greatest threat are mons using a move against you and outdamaging you, but when I did it this time, the greatest threat was do-nothing sets. There's a lot of them, and when you're using a real pokemon with moves, it's funny, but it's less funny when you struggle against Toxic/Sludge Bomb/Bug Buzz/Roost Dustox.

Your primary advantage lies in that you're a human, who knows what moves are good, and the AI at ranks 1-3 click moves at random, and the 4-7 AI won't bother using good moves as long as they have any effect. Even if you drew the same mons every time, bad AI would throw randomness into the equation. You can't do this consistently.

The obvious weakness is that when you use transform, you have to take a hit. This can be a critical hit, bear in mind, you have to win 50 battles. It can also be swagger, or a setup move used after your transform, or evasion. Scarf mitigates this turn disadvantage somewhat, you move before them, but it can't make you live a hit. I specifically noted Farfetch'd swagger, Tropius air slash, and Machoke cross chop as common cases for this to go awry. Not only that, but there are mons that are built to do nothing, and since you have 5 pp of everything and are locked into a move, you will likely lose.

A list I made of do-nothing mons:

normal: happiny [unbeatable with min happiness, with max i believe i can beat it in 5 turns], clefairy [incredibly fickle, if you don't use max happiness you have to rely on meteor mash and even then it might give you a big ol' middle finger as it doesn't attack you and cosmic powers], cleffa [requires max happiness to beat consistently, as it could just amnesia t1 and screw you over], chansey[you need a fire blast burn on the first 2 tries to get a shot at beating it] RANKS 1-2 OH-SO UNSAFE
water: mantyke [possesses not one, but two multi-turn moves, as well as double team and recover], qwilfish[dive, double team, stockpile, pjab] RANKS 1-2 SAFE
fighting: NONE.
steel: lots. includes aron[easily beatable if it doesn't spam iron defense], lairon[beatable if you hit enough iron tails... ugh], bronzor[unbeatable] RANKS 1-2 UNSAFE
poison: gulpin [requires min happiness to beat], dustox [beatable only before like rank 6, as it's too dumb to roost once it's taken damage], the aforementioned qwilfish RANKS 1-2 RELATIVELY SAFE
rock: onix [only has dig to harm itself, has protect, 3hkos itself with dig], the aforementioned aron and lairon RANKS 1-2 RELATIVELY SAFE
ground: the aforementioned onix RANKS 1-2 SAFE
electric: NONE, chinchou with volt absorb is still a likely win as it'll gladly discharge you up to full health
ice: sealeo [only moves are an inaccessible snore, possible 8x resist blizzard, and a weak waterfall] RANKS 1-2 SAFE
flying: maybe the double teamers, still can 5hko themselves
ghost: you fear instantly dying, not do-nothing. UNSAFE UNSAFE UNSAFE
dragon: same as ghost, everything has dragon fang and destroys you UNSAFE UNSAFE UNSAFE
psychic: wynaut, wobbuffett, both unbeatable UNSAFE
bug: all of the coccoon mons can fuck you if they id instantly NOT TOO SAFE
fire: flash fire growlithe[requires max happiness to beat], numel can hurt you
grass: bayleef [if it reflects, youre fucked], skiploom [not truly do-nothing as it ohkos itself, but it's a problem mon as its one move is... bounce] RANKS 1-2 SAFE
dark: afaik none

I momentarily entertained the idea of playing a set where I used Leppa Berry and faced water and poison, but Scarf was just too good, I need the ability to get one more hit off against faster mons. Quick Powder was slso something that would also allow me to switch moves, but I scrapped the idea after making it to 30 a couple of times and losing on the Leppa round.

My type selection strategy:

max happiness 7 normal 7 fighting 7 fire 7 electric 2 water, switch to min happiness, 7 flying 2 ground 2 ice 2 rock 2 grass 2 poison 2 dark

I lost 2 Argenta1s prior to the final victory, Ice Body Spheal (hit all of its ice balls, which put me in the range where struggle killed me), and Finneon (this was with min happiness ditto at the time, so I actually had nothing for it).

My argenta1 battle, which over a year later is still saved as my battle video:

vs Rivalry Shinx
I transform as it thunder fangs me to 67/97 health. It uses quick attack to bring me down to 41/97, a subsequent thunder fang would not kill. My thunder fang does under half. I crit my next thunder fang, game over, finally won. If I faced Intimidate, I would have had a sizable advantage over the AI, and the match would have been easy, but it wasn't.

I finally lost while playing Rock, Lileep got 2 ancientpower procs and I couldn't touch it. Weird way to lose to rock, I completely forgot what I did post-50, really a lot of these matchups are relatively easy, but just about every type has a possible encounter relatively early where you either absolutely will lose, or are incredibly likely to lose. Do not attempt this challenge.
 
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Yeah, that'll happen. Sometimes the game just decides that you don't get to play anymore, and I've found that the Hall is particularly cruel in that regard. When you only have one Pokémon, there's not too much you can do to protect yourself against hax except run multiple sets. Losing to Argenta like that is rough though. Was it Silver or Gold?
It was silver, “fortunately”. This crazy rng happened 4 times now. Battle hall is the only one I don’t have gold. I dont have another ds or people to trade me a gible, so I had to wait 100 days to catch one on the safari zone. Felt like less work than training multiple pokemon of the same type.

I’ll take a break from this game for a while, even though it’s probably my favorite in the series. Maybe one day I’ll try to surpass the battle tower record cause I think my team is very solid.
Btw just read the useful guide posted by atsync above, will definitely use it next time I attempt it! Gotta admit that I had a good laugh when he said that some stuff that can happen has a very low chance, cause some of them literally happened to me, eg the leafeon one (which tilted me even more than the one I posted in the video, cause I literally called the crit and the quick attack before it actually happened and I didn’t even have any clue that it had those moves on its set).
 
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This is my turn to share about bad RNG. I’m new to competitive teams and I’m not that great at the battle frontier, but Darach is making me very mad. I probably should have just used dragon claw on Staraptor with a SD because if it’s not 100% accurate it’s 50% accurate. :( Even on the silver print he still makes me unable to play the game. I’ve lost to Palmer twice and Darach once today and this game is making me very upset right now.
 
It was silver, “fortunately”. This crazy rng happened 4 times now. Battle hall is the only one I don’t have gold. I dont have another ds or people to trade me a gible, so I had to wait 100 days to catch one on the safari zone. Felt like less work than training multiple pokemon of the same type.

I’ll take a break from this game for a while, even though it’s probably my favorite in the series. Maybe one day I’ll try to surpass the battle tower record cause I think my team is very solid.
Btw just read the useful guide posted by atsync above, will definitely use it next time I attempt it! Gotta admit that I had a good laugh when he said that some stuff that can happen has a very low chance, cause some of them literally happened to me, eg the leafeon one (which tilted me even more than the one I posted in the video, cause I literally called the crit and the quick attack before it actually happened and I didn’t even have any clue that it had those moves on its set).
You have done factory but not hall?? Thats seriously odd lol
 

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