Battle Factory FAQ

Battle Factory FAQ:

Basic Definition: The Battle Factory is the rental facility. You get given the choice of 6 Rental Pokemon, and choose 3 of them. You then proceed to fight trainers in 3v3 battles. At the end of each battle, you have the option of swapping one of your Pokemon for one of the 3 you just defeated. After 7 wins, you complete the set.

Difficulty: 3rd of 7 on easiness scale (Easy)

Weird thing about the Battle Factory, is that the IVs do go up as the sets increase like they should, but only for YOUR rental Pokemon. The IVs on trainer Pokemon do *not* increase as you go up in sets. Instead, they are linked to your set streak in the Battle *Tower*. So because you do the Factory before doing the Tower, the IVs of opponent Pokemon are always all 3, except trainer 7 where they are 6. This means if you did Tower before Factory, opponent Pokemon would have all 31s, even from Set 1.

But yours go up as you progress, so that by Set 6 you have all 21s. However you get the IVs of the opposing Pokemon if you trade, meaning if you have to trade you end up with a 3 IV Pokemon, which is much worse. So you want to avoid trading as much as you can.

I choose to battle in the Level 50 Division instead of the Level 100 division, because the later sets get more offensively based, meaning you have a higher chance to get rolled. So even though the earlier sets of Level 50 take a few more turns, I consider it a safer option to die less. Also, because they are lower level, they have less HP, so the HP bar drains quicker.

Manipulation: You can manipulate the starting 6 Pokemon you are offered. This is extremely important, and makes this facility way way easier than it would be otherwise. As a almost side effect of this manipulation, you also manipulate the first trainer's Pokemon that you fight.
How it works: RNG starts at 0 as usual, so you save and reset right before entering, and then time your last input before entering. Any given frame will always give the same result. The game simply cycles through a list of Pokemon, and the first 6 available once you enter are given as the rental options. 1 Pokemon is then skipped, and the 3 afterwards, are the first trainer's 3 Pokemon.

There is an exception to this rule, however. There is an item clause, that prevents 2 Pokemon with the same item appearing in the first set of 6. However, they can still exist in that order, the second Pokemon with the same item is just skipped, or hidden, and the next one is chosen.

The frame number here by the way, 1805, is how many frames have passed from Soft Reset to last input before entering the Factory.

E.g. on Set 1, if I clear last input on 1805, I get:
Rental options: Elekid, Charmeleon, Togetic, Kabuto, Grovyle, Graveler | Trainer: Bayleef, Raticate, Magby
on 1806, I get: Charmeleon, Togetic, Kabuto, Groyvle, Graveler, Houndour | Trainer: Raticate, Magby, Furret
on 1807, I get: Togetic, Kabuto, Groyvle, Graveler, Houndour, Raticate | Trainer: Furret, Eevee, Beedrill

So you can see how it cycles across by 1. You can also see that Houndour was the "Skipped" Pokemon between on 1805, as it appeared at the end of 1806, where Bayleef was the hidden Pokemon. But Bayleef didn't show up on 1807, and the reason for that is it's held item is Brightpowder, which is also Grovyle's held item, so it is skipped and it cycles 1 more to find the next Pokemon (and hence Magby get's hidden)

As a result of this behaviour, I aim for clusters in which I can get several good Pokemon that I like. The general plan is that I've isolates the very best Pokemon in a set, and then tried to find 2 Pokemon that complement it very well. These Pokemon are:
Set 1: Graveler | Set 2: Hitmonlee | Set 3: Exception, is mixed | Set 4: Espeon | Set 5: Espeon | Set 6: Starmie.

The thing that makes them the best, is really just their movesets. The complimenting Pokemon are for type disadvantages. For example Graveler is weak as Water/Grass/Ice, so having a Grass types for Waters and a Fire type for Grass/Ice is ideal. Hitmonlee can't hit Ghosts, so Sharpedo is a great partner. Espeon is weak to dark, so Heracross is a great partner. Starmie is weak to Electric mainly, so Flygon is a great partner.

So the clusters that I aim for, get the following Pokemon:
Set 1: 1805-1810:
1805: Graveler, Elekid, Charmeleon (Swap for Magby)
1806-1809: Graveler, Houndour, Groyvle
1810: Graveler, Houndour, Bayleef

Set 2: 1828-1840
1828-1830: Hitmonlee, Sharpedo, Arbok
1831: Hitmonlee, Sharpedo, Venomoth
1832-1834: Hitmonlee, Croconaw, Venomoth
1835-1837: Hitmonlee, Croconaw, Plusle
1838-1839: Hitmonlee, Dunsparce, Plusle
1840: Hitmonlee, Swellow, Plusle

Set 3: 1850-1855
1850-1854: Zangoose, Grumpig, Seviper
1855: Zangoose, Grumpig, Vigoroth

Set 4: 1994-2001
1994-1995: Espeon, Heracross, Altaria (Can swap for Salamence after fight on 1995)
1996-1997: Espeon, Heracross, Flareon
1998: Espeon, Heracross, Salamence
1999-2001: Espeon, Salamence, Flareon
1992: Umbreon, Heracross, Ludicolo (Swap Umbreon for Espeon after fight)

Set 5: 1640-1647
1640: Espeon, Milotic, Granbull
1641-1646: Espeon, Heracross, Milotic
1647: Espeon, Heracross, Vaporeon

Set 6: 1627-1632 (Can extend to 1647)
1627-1629: Starmie, Flygon, Forretress
1630: Starmie, Flygon, Miltank
1631: Starmie, Flygon, Scizor (Swap for Electrode after fight)
1632: Starmie, Flygon, Electrode
1633-1634: Hypno, Flygon, Electrode (Swap Hypno for Heracross)
1635: Hypno, Sceptile, Electrode (Swap Hypno for Heracross)
1636: Hypno, Fearow, Electrode (Swap Hypno for Heracross)
1637: Electrode, Fearow, Dusclops (Swap Dusclops for Heracross)
1638-1640: Starmie, Electrode, Fearow (Swap Fearow for Heracross)
1641: Espeon, Electrode, Fearow
1642-1643: Heracross, Espeon, Electrode
1644-1647: Heracross, Espeon, Rhydon