Preparing Your Pokémon for the Battle Frontier

A team you’ve caught and levelled normally can win the early rounds, but the Frontier’s later opponents have perfect stats. To keep up, your Pokémon need good natures, trained EVs and decent IVs. This guide covers all three in plain terms, with the best training spots in Emerald.

Level 50 or Open Level?

Every facility lets you choose:

• Level 50: no Pokémon above level 50 can enter. Pokémon below 50 aren’t raised, so you want your team at exactly level 50.
• Open Level: any level can enter, and opponents scale to your team’s level.

Start with Level 50. You only need to train to 50, which is much quicker, and a level advantage at Open Level doesn’t help anyway. Both modes give the same BP and symbols.

Natures

A nature raises one stat by 10% and lowers another by 10% (five neutral natures change nothing). Choose one that raises the stat your Pokémon uses most and lowers one it doesn’t use:

Pokémon type	Good natures
Fast physical attacker	Jolly (+Spe −SpA), Adamant (+Atk −SpA)
Fast special attacker	Timid (+Spe −Atk), Modest (+SpA −Atk)
Mixed attacker	Naive (+Spe −SpD), Hasty (+Spe −Def), Lonely or Mild
Physically bulky	Impish (+Def −SpA), Bold (+Def −Atk)
Specially bulky	Careful (+SpD −SpA), Calm (+SpD −Atk)

The Battle Palace is the exception: there, natures decide which moves get used, so a nature that’s good elsewhere can be poor there. See the Battle Palace natures explainer before building a Palace team.

EV training

What EVs are

Every Pokémon you defeat gives your Pokémon effort values (EVs) in one or more stats. They’re invisible, but they raise stats:

• A Pokémon can have up to 255 EVs in one stat and 510 in total.
• At level 50, every 8 EVs in a stat adds about 1 point to it, so a fully trained stat is around 31 points higher than an untrained one.
• 510 EVs is enough to max out two stats with a little left over. The usual plan is 252 in each of the two stats that matter most and 6 in a third.

Every Pokémon you battle on the way to level 50 adds EVs, so if you level up by battling random Pokémon, your EVs end up spread across stats you don’t need. Train EVs on purpose, from a low level.

The best EV training spots in Emerald

These spots are worked out from Emerald’s wild encounter data. “Per battle” is the average number of EVs you get each time you knock out one of the wild Pokémon there.

Stat	Where	What you’ll find	Per battle
HP	Surfing on Routes 102, 111, 114, 117 or 120, or in Petalburg City	Marill (almost every encounter)	2 HP
Attack	Mt. Pyre, inside, 1F–3F	Shuppet (every encounter)	1 Attack
Defense	Magma Hideout (Jagged Pass)	Geodude, Graveler, Torkoal	about 1.5 Defense
Speed	Surfing in Victory Road B2F	Golbat (every encounter)	2 Speed
Speed	Route 118, grass	Zigzagoon, Electrike, Wingull, Linoone, Manectric	about 1.2 Speed
Sp. Attack	Route 113, grass	Spinda, Slugma (and rare Skarmory)	about 1 Sp. Attack
Sp. Defense	Surfing in the flooded rooms inside the Abandoned Ship (B1F)	Tentacool (almost every encounter)	1 Sp. Defense

Safari Zone encounters don’t count, since you can’t battle there.

Speed it up: Macho Brace, Pokérus and vitamins

• Macho Brace: doubles the EVs from every battle (and halves Speed while held, which doesn’t matter for training). The Winstrate family on Route 111 gives it to you after you beat all four of them.
• Pokérus: a rare virus a Pokémon can catch from wild battles. It also doubles EVs, and it stacks with the Macho Brace for four times the EVs. Once a Pokémon has had Pokérus, the bonus stays for good.
• Vitamins: Protein, Iron, Calcium, Zinc, Carbos and HP Up each add 10 EVs to one stat, up to 100 EVs from vitamins. They cost only 1 BP each at the Battle Frontier’s Exchange Service Corner, so ten vitamins does 100 EVs of training for 10 BP. Use them first, then battle the rest. The Battle Points guide lists everything else BP buys.

Fixing mistakes

If a stat got EVs it shouldn’t have, the Pomeg (HP), Kelpsy (Attack), Qualot (Defense), Hondew (Sp. Attack), Grepa (Sp. Defense) and Tamato (Speed) Berries each remove 10 EVs from that stat.

Keeping count

Emerald doesn’t show EVs. Keep a tally of what you’ve defeated, or use the Effort Ribbon: a woman in Slateport City gives it to a Pokémon with the full 510 EVs, which confirms it’s finished.

Getting the stats to update at level 50

Stats normally update when a Pokémon levels up. If your Pokémon is already level 50 and you finish its EVs afterwards, the new EVs won’t show yet. Deposit it in a PC box and take it out again, and its stats are recalculated. Vitamins and EV-lowering Berries update stats straight away.

IVs and breeding

What IVs are

Every Pokémon has an individual value (IV) from 0 to 31 in each stat, fixed when it’s caught or hatched. At level 50, a perfect 31 is worth about 15 more points in a stat than a 0. Opponents in the later Frontier rounds have perfect IVs, so it’s worth breeding for good ones in your key stats.

Checking IVs

The Breeder in Battle Frontier Lounge 1 rates any Pokémon you show him. He judges its total IVs in four bands, and then names its best stat and how good that stat is:

Total IVs	His verdict
Up to 90 (average about 15)	Average
91–120 (average about 20)	Better than average
121–150 (average about 25)	Impressive
151–186 (average over 25)	Outstanding

For the best stat, he says whether it’s 15 or lower, 16–25, 26–30, or a perfect 31.

Breeding basics

1. Leave two compatible Pokémon at the Day Care on Route 117. Ditto breeds with almost anything.
2. The baby copies three of its six IVs from its parents, chosen at random. Because of a bug in Emerald, HP and Defense are copied less often than the other stats, and sometimes the same stat is chosen twice, so fewer than three get copied.
3. Pass on a nature with an Everstone. If the mother (or a Ditto parent) holds an Everstone, the baby has a 50% chance to get her nature.
4. Egg moves come from the father. For example, a Bagon bred from a father that knows Dragon Dance hatches with Dragon Dance.

A practical method: breed until you get a baby with the right nature and good IVs in its two main stats, then use it, or a sibling, as the next parent. Each generation keeps the best IVs in the family.

Moves

• TMs are single-use in Emerald. Plan which Pokémon gets your only Earthquake or Ice Beam.
• The Move Relearner in Fallarbor Town reteaches level-up moves for a Heart Scale.
• The Battle Frontier move tutors teach Rock Slide, Thunder Wave, Swords Dance, Body Slam, the elemental punches and more, for BP, as many times as you like. The Battle Points guide has the full list and prices.
• Watch the level-up moves at level 50. Some key moves are learned after level 50, or only by the unevolved form. For example, Metang learns Meteor Mash at level 50, but Metagross not until 55. Cancel Metang’s evolution (press B) until it reaches 50 and learns Meteor Mash, then let it evolve.

Checklist for a Frontier-ready Pokémon

• A nature that boosts its main stat
• EVs trained into its two most important stats
• Good IVs in those stats (check with the Breeder in Lounge 1)
• Exactly level 50, for Level 50 mode
• Four useful moves, including any tutor moves it needs
• A held item that no other team member is holding

For complete teams built this way, see the best Battle Frontier teams.

FAQ

How many EVs can a Pokémon have?

255 in a single stat and 510 in total. In practice, 252 in two stats and 6 in a third.

Is EV training worth it for the Battle Frontier?

Yes, from the middle rounds on. Later opponents have perfect IVs and trained stats, and a Pokémon without EVs is around 30 points short in each key stat.

Can I EV train a Pokémon that’s already level 50?

Yes. It still gains EVs from battles. Deposit it in a PC box and take it out again to update its stats.