Battle Pyramid Guide

The Battle Pyramid is a dungeon: you take three Pokémon up seven dark floors per challenge, fighting Trainers and wild Pokémon, and you can only use items you find inside. Pyramid King Brandon waits at the top after floor 21 for the silver Brave Symbol and floor 70 for the gold. Planning your Battle Bag across challenges is what separates a silver run from a gold one.

How the Battle Pyramid works

You enter with three Pokémon, choose Level 50 or Open Level, and climb. Each floor is a maze shrouded in darkness, and you reach the next floor by finding and stepping on a blue tile.

On each floor you’ll find:

• Trainers. Walk into their line of sight and you battle them. Every opponent you beat lights up more of the floor, and a beaten Trainer may give you a hint: where the exit is, how many Trainers are left, or how many items are still on the floor.
• Wild Pokémon. Random encounters as you walk. You can’t catch them, and many are fast enough that running is unreliable; even the Run Away ability doesn’t guarantee an escape here.
• Items. Item balls lie around the floor, and anything you pick up goes into the Battle Bag. The items on offer change every challenge.

Your HP, PP and status carry over from floor to floor. Nothing heals you except the items you’ve collected.

The Battle Bag

You can’t take any items into the Pyramid, and no Pokémon may enter holding an item. Instead you get a separate Battle Bag:

• A new streak starts with one Hyper Potion and one Ether, and nothing else.
• It carries over between challenges. Clear all seven floors and the Battle Bag keeps its contents for the next challenge. Items your Pokémon are holding at the end go back into the bag.
• It’s wiped when your streak ends. Your next streak starts again with just the Hyper Potion and Ether.
• It has 10 slots, each holding up to 99 of one item. If you have more than 10 kinds of item between the bag and your Pokémon at the end of a challenge, you must throw some away.
• You can give items to Pokémon from the Battle Bag during the challenge, so held items can move between Pokémon between battles.

Wild Pokémon themes

The wild Pokémon change every challenge and follow a fixed cycle of 20 themes, then start again. The first few:

Challenge	Theme	Examples
1	Paralysis	Plusle, Minun, Pikachu, Electabuzz, Jolteon
2	Poison	Gulpin, Roselia, Seviper, Crobat, Gengar
3	Burns	Growlithe, Vulpix, Magcargo, Dusclops, Houndoom
4	PP drain (Pressure, Grudge, Spite)	Dunsparce, Banette, Absol, Shedinja
5	Levitate	Haunter, Chimecho, Claydol, Flygon
6	Trapping abilities	Diglett, Trapinch, Wobbuffet, Dugtrio
7	Ice types	Glalie, Sneasel, Jynx, Lapras
8	Selfdestruct and Explosion	Weezing, Electrode, Golem, Forretress

Later themes are Psychic, Rock, Fighting, weather, Bug, Dark, Water, Ghost, Steel, Flying and Dragon, stone evolutions and Normal types with Hyper Beam. You don’t have to memorise them: a Hex Maniac standing next to the PC tells you what the next challenge’s wild Pokémon will be like. Talk to her before every challenge.

Rules and bans

Three Pokémon, no held items, and none of these: Mew, Mewtwo, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys or Eggs.

Pyramid King Brandon

Brandon waits at the top of your 3rd challenge (after floor 21) and your 10th challenge (after floor 70).

• Silver team: Regirock, Registeel and Regice. Three slow, very bulky Pokémon. Regirock carries Explosion and Superpower, Registeel has Iron Defense and Toxic, and Regice uses Amnesia and Rest. Fighting, Fire and Ground moves do the heavy lifting.
• Gold team: Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. Faster and harder-hitting, with Reflect, Light Screen and Safeguard to slow you down, and none of them can be touched by Ground moves. Rock and Electric moves are your best friends here.

The two teams want completely different answers, which is part of why the gold is hard. Full movesets and counters will be on the Pyramid King Brandon page.

Strategy: planning a 70-floor gold run

Team building

Build a team that can win without held items. Every new streak starts with an empty-handed party, so a Pokémon that only works with Choice Band or Leftovers will struggle until you find one.

• Reliable recovery moves (Rest, Recover, Softboiled, Wish) are worth even more here than elsewhere, since you can’t count on finding healing items.
• Status protection. The early wild themes are paralysis, poison and burns, one after another. Abilities such as Natural Cure or Shed Skin, and moves like Rest, keep you going.
• Cover both Brandon teams. You need answers to three bulky Regis at floor 21 and three fast birds at floor 70. A strong Rock- or Electric-type attacker plus a Fighting- or Fire-type attacker covers a lot.
• A fast, strong attacker for wild battles. Since running is unreliable, a Pokémon that knocks out most wild Pokémon in one hit saves HP for the Trainers.

Item and Battle Bag management

This is the skill the Pyramid really tests.

1. Pick up everything early. In your first challenges, explore floors fully. The items you bank now carry the run later.
2. Save healing items for Trainers and Brandon. Don’t spend your only Hyper Potion on a Pokémon that’s a bit scratched by a wild battle.
3. Plan your 10 slots. Healing, PP restores and status cures first, then the best held items. Duplicates of something you already carry don’t cost a slot.
4. Find the held items that matter. Leftovers and a Lum Berry change runs. Give them to your most important Pokémon the moment you find them.
5. Bank items for the gold. From around floor 50 on, think about what you want in hand at floor 70: healing for three Pokémon, PP restores and something for status.
6. Use the Trainer hints. Once a beaten Trainer tells you a floor has no items left, head for the exit. Fewer battles means less risk.

Playing each floor

• Beat the Trainers near your path first, since each win lights up more of the map.
• Check the Hex Maniac’s warning before each challenge and lead with the Pokémon best suited to that theme.
• Keep your healthiest Pokémon in the lead so wild battles don’t chip down your best attacker.

Common mistakes

1. Using healing items on wild battle damage. Wild Pokémon are the cheapest fights in the Pyramid. Save items for Trainers.
2. Rushing early floors. Skipping items in your first challenges leaves you with an empty bag when the floors get harder.
3. Ignoring the Hex Maniac. She tells you the next wild theme for free. Walking into a burn or Explosion challenge unprepared is avoidable.
4. Building only for silver. Teams built to crush the Regis often have nothing for the legendary birds at floor 70.
5. Forgetting PP. Seven floors of battles drain your best moves fast. Grab Ethers and other PP restores whenever you see them.

BP rewards

BP is paid per challenge (seven floors), the same at Level 50 and Open Level. Brandon’s challenges pay 10 BP extra.

Challenge	1	2	3 (Brandon)	4	5–6	7–8	9	10 (Brandon)
BP	5	5	16	6	7	8	9	19

The amount keeps rising slowly after that, reaching 15 per challenge (25 with Brandon) by the 21st challenge. See the Battle Points guide for what to buy.

FAQ

How many floors are in a Battle Pyramid challenge?

Seven. The tracker counts floors, so Brandon’s silver is at floor 21 (end of your 3rd challenge) and his gold at floor 70 (end of your 10th).

Can I use my own items in the Battle Pyramid?

No. You can’t bring items in and your Pokémon can’t hold anything when they enter. You only have the Battle Bag, which fills with items you find on the floors.

Does the Battle Bag reset after each challenge?

Not while your streak continues: clear all seven floors and you keep everything. It resets when your streak ends, which is why a long streak gets easier to sustain once your bag is well stocked.