Round 16:
The theme of this round is Ghost-types. Slaking’s Shadow Ball should be able to take care of most of them, but the wild Duskull and Shedinja have Protect, and I wanted to try something different. Houndoom feels like a good choice. I ran some calcs with it, and it showed that the wild Sableye and Dusclops have a chance to survive a Flamethrower/Crunch if they are at high enough level and roll high enough stats. Gengar can also outrun Houndoom if it rolls high enough Speed at level 52+, and it has Destiny Bond which isn’t very fun. But it felt like the odds of that happening are pretty low. Houndoom can safely OHKO everything else.
I went with Houndoom. Blissey to accompany it of course, and then Salamence as the Physical attacker since it has better defensive synergy with Houndoom compared to Slaking. Houndoom and Salamence are both weak to Rock, but Intimidate and Earthquake should be able to help a little. And it is way better than to have all three team members weak to Fighting!
I haven’t talked about Houndoom before, so time to say some things about it. Houndoom was one of the first 12 Pokémon I trained for Level 50 at the Frontier back in 2006, and on my list of Pokémon I have trained to Level 50 for the Frontier, it is number 1! This Houndoom was specifically trained for the Pyramid. Notably for round 6, which has Pokémon with trapping Abilities. Houndoom is a Dark-type, thus making it immune to Mirror Coat from the wild Wobbuffet/Wynaut, allowing it to murder them with Crunch. Or you can just use Roar to end the battle, if you are smarter than me when I was 15. It can also outrun and OHKO the others with Flamethrower… though now that I look at the stats in-depth, the wild Dugtrio can outrun Houndoom of they are at level 48+ and roll high enough Speed. But from what I remember, that never happened in Round 6.
Flamethrower and Crunch are the obvious STAB moves. After that, Houndoom doesn’t have a lot of other offensive options. Solarbeam perhaps, but that requires the sun to be active, or you need to wait a turn while the move charges, which allows the opponent to KO you in the meantime. There’s also Hidden Power of course, but as I have said at earlier points, I never learned RNG in Gen 3 and I can’t imagine the pain of using traditional breeding to get a specific Hidden Power. Instead, I went with Roar and Protect since I couldn’t think of anything else. As said earlier, Roar could have been used to great success in round 6 if I had been smart enough to use it. Regarding Protect, it was rarely used, but I realized now that it has three great uses. First, it allows Houndoom to scout opposing sets. Second, it can allow its partner to use Earthquake freely once time during multi battles. Third, it allows Houndoom to auto-win against opposing Slaking!
Houndoom has a few other options like Will-O-Wisp/Toxic for support, and I guess it can go mixed as well, but this is the set I went with since it has decent Attack. It has a Modest Nature with maxed Sp.att and Speed to hit hard and fast. Flash Fire felt like the better of its two Abilities, giving it an immunity to Fire.
So that’s the team for this round. Before entering, I gave PP Ups to Houndoom and Salamence.
This round went very well on the whole. Only two really notable things happened. In one of the trainer battles, the trainer had a Slaking. Houndoom auto-won that battle thanks to Protect, though it didn’t really make much of a difference since it was the special Slaking set which Blissey would have beaten, and it just used Yawn on the turns where it could move. The second thing was that similar to an earlier situation, I found myself surrounded by trainers as I entered floor 6. But I managed to walk past all of them without getting into any battles.
The wild Pokémon on this round were no problems. Most of them were OHKO’d, there were some Sableye and Dusclops which survived but they couldn’t do much in return so they got 2HKO’d instead.
Round 17:
The theme here is Steel-types. A Ground-, Fire- or Fighting- would be a good answer here. Or at least something that has a move from one of those types. I ran some calcs for Slaking, Salamence, Heracross, Houndoom and Gengar. Not going to post the full details, but the results showed that Houndoom had the best matchups on the whole. Special attacks felt like a better alternative than physical attacks here, which isn’t too surprising since Steel-types tend to have high Defense. The only issues for Houndoom are Aggron and Metagross. They can both potentially survive a Flamethrower and hit back hard with Earthquake. Aggron also has Ice Beam, which means I can’t safely switch Salamence into it. Still, I decided to go with Houndoom/Salamence/Blissey, just like last round. I also remembered to use my Fluffy Tails this time around.
This round was quite tough. Several notable things happened. On the first floor, I ran into a trainer with a Gengar. It used TBolt to hurt Houndoom pretty badly, I used Crunch but missed! One of the Brightpowder sets confirmed. It can potentially have Ice Punch, so switching to Salamence is not safe. Instead, I decide to take the safe but long option, so I switched to Blissey to stall it out of PP for TBolt. I didn’t keep count super clearly, but once it started using Fire Punch, I healed Houndoom, switched back to it and OHKO’d with Crunch.
On floor 3, I had another trainer battle against a mixed Latias set. It got 1-2 Crits and 2 Sp.def drops on Blissey. Quite haxy.
On floor 4, I saw many trainers in one place which made me think I had found the exit. This turned out to be true as I saw the exit right after the battle I am just about to describe. I had to get into a Multi battle with two trainers. They had Slowking and Lanturn, not fun at all. On the first turn, I let Houndoom use Protect while Slowking got a QC activation and OHKO’d Salamence with Ice Beam. I sent in Blissey. Thankfully, Blissey walls both of them as they are special attackers. On the next turn, Houndoom used Crunch on Slowking for around 95%, Blissey used Softboiled since it was damaged after a previous battle, Slowking used Surf but Houndoom thankfully survived, Lanturn used Confuse Ray on Houndoom which was cured thanks to Lum. Next turn, I let Houndoom use Protect again, Blissey defeats Slowking with Seismic Toss while Lanturn uses Surf. I then target Lanturn with Crunch + Seismic Toss, Houndoom is a star and gets a Crit, scoring an OHKO! That battle was scary and it costed me some resources, but I did at least win.
On floor 5, I was surrounded by trainers as I entered. I thought I would have to fight 2 but I only had to fight one. I picked one of them, said trainer had a Gardevoir which Houndoom ate for lunch.
On floor 6, I got ambushed into a Multi battle. The opponents were Gengar and Swampert. Gengar used Confuse Ray on Salamence, Houndoom OHKO’d Gengar with Crunch, Salamence did fortunately not hit itself, it used Aerial Ace on Swampert for around 50%. Swampert used EQ to KO Houndoom. Out with Blissey. Swampert survives another AA and uses Rest, then wakes up thanks to Lum, confirming the Curse set. I use AA and SToss, Swampert uses Curse. Another AA and it is down. Another somewhat scary battle which cost me yet one more Revive.
As for the wild Pokémon, I met 4 Aggron along the way. Two were at level 50+, so I used Fluffy Tails to escape from them. The third was at level 49. I decided to go for FT, got a Crit and an OHKO! The final one was at level 45, it was OHKO’d by a regular FT. Every other wild Pokémon was OHKO’d by FT.
This was one of the toughest rounds so far when it comes to trainers. At least the wild Pokémon were easy.
Round 18:
I’m not sure what the official name of the theme for this round is, but I’m going to call it Dragon-types and dragon-like Pokémon. Starmie felt like a good choice here. The damage calcs further confirmed that. Aerodactyl can outrun Starmie if it rolls high enough Speed, but it can only 3HKO with EQ at best, and it is OHKO’d by Surf. Gyarados can survive a TBolt at the very highest roll, but it only has a minimal chance to 2HKO back with EQ. Charizard might survive a Surf if it rolls high enough level/stats, but it can’t do much back since Starmie resists all of its moves. Kingdra is a bit of a problem though, Starmie does not always have a guaranteed 2HKO on it. But it is walled hard by Blissey. Starmie has a guaranteed OHKO on everything else. I went with Starmie/Slaking/Blissey. Same team as I used in round 12 & 15. Starmie in the lead.
On floor 1, the exit was guarded by a trainer… which I managed to avoid! On floor 5, the exit was surrounded by several trainers. But I got past without having to fight any of them here as well. The same thing almost happened on floor 6, I accidentally got into battle against one of the trainers here, but I managed to avoid the others.
Floor 7 had one of the most unexpected layouts I have seen in the Pyramid. It felt like every single part of the maze consisted of the completely empty piece:
I didn’t explore the entire floor so I can’t say how it looked for certain, but I didn’t see a single wall anywhere. Because of the lack of walls, I got into battle with several trainers, there was nothing stopping them from seeing me. All of them were easy though.
I saw this layout a few more times in later rounds as well (always on floor 7). It is simple yet very annoying. It is easy to lose track of where you are compared to where the exit should be, and you are at high risk of getting ambushed by trainers.
Along the way, don’t remember the floor, I met a trainer with a Scizor which KO’d Starmie, forcing me to use a Revive. And during this round, I finally found a Leftovers! I instantly gave it to Blissey, that will be its hold item from now on. The only negative is that this means I will have space for one item less in my bag. But that’s okay. I got rid of my last two Fluffy Tails along the way to have space for the Leftovers instead.
On the whole, this round was easy. Starmie could OHKO all wild Pokémon but Kingdra, which Blissey took care of… except for the two I fluffily tailed away.
Round 19:
The theme here is Pokémon that evolve from Fire/Water/Thunder stones. Slaking felt like a good choice here, so I ran some damage calcs which showed that it can easily OHKO everything, even Arcanine with Intimidate. The wild Ninetales have Protect but they are walled by Blissey or can be beaten by Starmie. The wild Jolteon and Starmie have a chance to outrun Slaking if they roll high enough Speed, but they can’t do much to threaten it. The wild Starmie are walled by Blissey as well. I entered with Slaking/Starmie/Blissey, same as last round but with Slaking in the lead. From this round and on, Blissey will always have Leftovers as its hold item instead of Lum Berry.
Some notable things from this round. On floor 3, I found myself surrounded by trainers upon arriving. I had to fight 2 of them… and it was a tough battle. They had Slaking and Gyarados, it was an insane battle. I misplayed a bit and got outperformed, but I still won in the end. Didn’t write down any more details from the battle, unfortunately. I had to use some Revives and Hyper Potions afterwards.
On floor 4, the exit was surrounded by trainers. This time, I could fight them in single battles, so I picked the two that seemed the easiest and they were thankfully easy to beat. On floor 5, the exit was surrounded by trainers again. But I managed to avoid all of them this time.
On floor 6, I found the exit quite quickly, didn’t have to fight any trainers along the way. On floor 7, I was surrounded by trainers upon entry once more! But here, I could choose to fight them in Single battles again, thankfully. I was only planning to battle 2, but I accidentally got to fight a third as well. They were all easy.
This was an okay round on the whole. I had one tough battle which cost me some resources, otherwise no problems. All wild Pokémon were easy, some Jolteon were faster than Slaking but they caused no real issues. Some Ninetales used Protect but I beat them with Blissey and Starmie.
Round 20:
The theme here is Normal-types. More like great and powerful Normal-types with Hyper Beams that will seriously hurt. And another Gold Brandon fight at the end. I ran damage calcs with Slaking, Heracross and Salamence. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, but in the end, it felt like Slaking was the best choice for this round as well.
It can always OHKO Kangaskhan, Swellow, Ursaring, Porygon2 and Fearow with Return. Fearow has Protect though, something I missed at first as I didn’t look super carefully at the sets for the wild Pokémon. Along the way, I faced several Fearow, one of them used Return but I beat it anyway. The wild Ursaring also have not only Protect, but also Focus Punch! I didn’t learn that until round 40 though. I really should have looked closer at their sets. The bears were no problems this round at least.
Tauros is annoying with Intimidate, but Hyper Beam always OHKO’s at level 51 or lower and had a chance for level 52-53. Tauros can only 2HKO back at best with its own Hyper Beam. Snorlax is always OHKO’d by Hyper Beam, Return also has a big chance to OHKO for level 52 and below. When I faced wild Snorlax, I used Return if they were below level 50, otherwise Hyper Beam.
Then there’s the opposing Slaking. I never have a guaranteed OHKO with Hyper Beam, just a chance. Return will always 2HKO though. But they can’t OHKO back, and since they also have Truant, it isn’t that bad. Against the wild Slaking, I went for Hyper Beam for those at level 51 and below, Return for those at level 52+.
I went with Slaking/Starmie/Blissey, same team as last round. I realize now that this team doesn’t have a Normal resist, but it worked fine anyway.
As for the round, I got through floor 1-2 without a single trainer battle. On floor 3, the exit was surrounded by trainers. I could pick 2 and fight them in single battles though, so I did that. I picked the two that seemed the easiest and they caused no problems. On floor 5, I got into an instant Multi battle ambush, but it was easy. On floor 6, there were trainers around the exit, but I could avoid all of them.
Guess what happened on floor 7? There were trainers around the exit again! I could face them in single battles, so I picked two of them. Unfortunately, they were tough. The first one had an EndRev Medicham which used Fake Out on Slaking, I switched to Starmie but did not KO with Surf. Instead, I activated the Medicham’s Salac Berry! Thankfully Starmie survived a Psychic with exactly 1 HP left, giving me the win. But it was scary. The second one had a Gyarados which tanked a Thunderbolt and KO’d Starmie. But I could KO it with Slaking afterwards. And since I was at the final exit, there were no more regular trainer battles.
Arriving at the top, I had to face Brandon again. I healed the team and put Starmie in the lead. Not going to describe the battle in full detail this time, the short summary is that Starmie 2HKO’d Articuno, Blissey then beat Zapdos and Moltres. An easy battle, just like last time.
And so, I have cleared all 20 rounds of the Pyramid! How much further will I be able to go? I guess we’ll see.
who was used in round 7, and the family's extra mother Cabey the Blissey 
