34: The Champion Battle

34: The Champion Battle

First -- good on ya mate!  You did it, you beat the Elite Four.   Now you have another tough battle ahead of you -- with the Pokemon League Champion. 

There were a lot  of hints and clues in the game that should have made you realise that the Champion is Wallace, though to be honest, was any of that really necessary?  Think about it for a moment...

In the world of Pokemon -- where every kid wants to grow up to be a Pokemon Trainer -- where Pokemon City Gym Leaders are the Rock Stars of their Regions, and are studied religiously from their tactics to their teams to what their favorite foods are you would already KNOW that he was the League Champion!  I mean, it is not like that particular position is a secret!  There are magazines and TV shows all about it for jimminy sake!

OK so it was a secret in this game because it was supposed to add to your surprise level.  Right, but doesn't that make us one of the most ignorant and unaware Trainers... Well... Ever?  I mean we do not even know who the League Champion is?!

If we really did not know then, we certainly know now.  And more than that, we also know what his team preferences are, and how to beat him!  There are some differences between this battle and the previous ones -- for one thing he has a full team of six Pokemon whereas the Elite Four only had five each.  Another difference is Wallace actually knows how to use his Pokemon to devastating effect.  They are also much closer to your team levels with some maybe above your levels.

That being the case, if you followed this guide you will have started the Elite Four series with your entire team at Level 55 or above.  At this point you will have leveled some of them in the battles, which is good.  Before you head into this battle, read the team information below.

You know the strengths and weaknesses of your team, so now is the time to use the Rare Candy you have in your bag to boost the levels of whichever Pokemon you consider to be the weak links in your team.  You *could* use them on the strongest Pokemon I suppose, but why?  You are better off making your weaker members stronger than your strongest members err... Well, you see what I mean.

-- Other Tips for battling Wallace --

By this time you will have used a significant part of your kit healing, restoring, and otherwise keeping your team in fit condition to battle.  In addition you will have faced a number of stat-altering events that required you to use kit to correct them, which may well mean that you are running low on things like Antidote and the like.

In the heat of battle it is very easy to forget that you have options available other than that which is in the Items Pocket of your Kit Bag.  Specifically I am talking about your Berry collection.  If you a typical Trainer, as you played the game you spent a fair bit of time and effort harvesting, planting, and tending to berry trees.  As a result of this you should have a nice collection of berry types in your kit bag, in some quantity.

If you are new to the series and games you may not be aware that many of the berries function as natural versions of a lot of the stat correcting kit items, and even as potions and the like.  As you are now painfully aware, there was a reason that this guide set high minimums for kit items -- and you may now be in the position of not having items you need to have.  This fifth major battle set in the final series does not include the option to pop on out to the store to restock, and that being the case, consider using berries where appropriate mate.

Using Berries to Replace Kit Items is a Good Idea

To help you on that front, here is a short list of berries and their effects you can refer to as needed:

Berry Number -- Berry Name -- Primary Effect (Kit Item Replaced)
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 01 -- Cheri -- Heals paralysis (Paralyze Heal)
02 -- Chesto -- Awakens a sleeping Pokemon (Awaken / Blue Flute)
03 --  Pecha -- Heals poisoning (Antidote)
04 --  Rawst -- Heals burns (Burn Heal)
05 -- Aspear -- Defrosts a Pokemon (Ice Heal)
06 -- Leppa -- Restores 10 PP for a move (Ether)
07 -- Oran -- Restores 10 HP for a Pokemon (Potion)
08 -- Persim -- Heals Confusion (Yellow Flute)
09 -- Lum -- Heals any Status Issue (Full Heal)
10 -- Sitrus -- Restores 30 HP (Potion)
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Keep the above list in mind if you are low on or run out of items that they apply to, since nothing sucks worse than needing to fix something and not knowing you had the ability to fix it so you end up at a disadvantage you really did not have to suffer under...  I am just saying.

Now on we go to the battle proper!

The order that Wallace brings out his team members can be different depending upon the version letter of the game cartridge, so I have listed them alphabetically below -- look up the one you need but it is a good idea to read all of the listings prior to battle so you are familiar with what you will be facing anyway :)

-- Wallace's Pokemon Team --

Gyrados (Level 56)
Ludicolo (Level 56)
Milotic (Level 58)
Tentacruel (Level 55)
Wailord (Level 57)
Whiscash (Level 56)

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Level 56 Gyrados (Flying/Water)
Moves: Dragon Dance, Earthquake, Hyper Beam, Surf

Strategy: I like Gyrados.  In the other games -- and in Emerald -- he is one of the Water-type Pokemon that I commonly use to good effect, but as with most he has certain weaknesses that you can exploit to good effect, and particularly his Achilles heel to Thunder/Thunderbolt.  He usually bats clean-up for Wallace and should not be taken lightly -- this may be the member of the team who ruins your day.

Even with Wallace being the NPC you are battling here, the moves you will face are both predictable and fairly easy to counter.  Dragon Dance has the effect of improving both Speed and Attack so he will use that in the set-up phase of the fight.

It is not a documented trait, but once a Trainer begins using moves like Dragon Dance and Earthquake to work a Gyrados into a frenzy they do a little more damage and lose a little bit of accuracy with each  successive attack.  This happens because Gyrados is a Berserker - and while it can be good for you, the damage that it does when it actually connects is pretty bad.  For that reason it is generally a good idea to blitz this bad boy, giving it as little face time as you can. 

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Level 56 Ludicolo (Grass/Water)
Moves: Double Team, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Surf

Strategy: Well, first I should point out that this is an annoying move set and Wallace knows how to use it very well, thank you.  Giga Drain almost always comes within a few moves of Leech Seed, or vice-versa, and while alone they are not that big a deal, when they are used properly together they can easily number among the top ten most annoying move combinations in the game.

Surf is only really a threat if you are simple enough to use the wrong Pokemon from your team -- while Double Team is, as you should know by now, only a threat to you if you allow the fight to drag on, so if he starts to use this you may need to use your guaranteed hit moves to finish him off...  As obvious as this is, remember that blitzing this guy is really your best strategy.  Get him out of the fight as quick as you can, you will be happy you did.

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And then there was Wallace

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Level 58 Milotic (Water)
Moves:  Ice Beam, Recover, Surf, Toxic

Strategy: Milotic is unique both because you rarely encounter them on NPC Trainers, and because the moves that this one has are particularly nasty.  It is just not a popular or common Pokemon in the game, and because of that you may not have much experience with them in battle.  Ignore that if you happen to own one and you have used it, then you know all about them :)

Bearing in mind that his Milotic is the anchor member of his team -- the point to his spear if you will -- and that Wallace is intimately familiar with the best way to deploy and use it, and you should understand that this one is a legitimate and serious threat to you.   I have seen cocky Trainers get to this point, with all but two of Wallace's team dead, and have their entire team wiped by his Milotic.  The reason?  His moves and ability to use them effecitvely.

Toxin can poison you, Recover will probably annoy and frustrate you to no end, but it is really Surf and Ice Beam that he will use (in combination with the others) to make your day less nice.  As we once again swim in the obvious pool, a general blitz approach works best here -- the less face time this guy is allowed to have the better, but to be honest because of Recover your chances of actually succeeding with a blitz attack are pretty slim to none.

Electric-Type attacks are never wrong for him, clearly, but if you should run into trouble try to remember that you can use your sandbag team member to slow down the battle while you heal and (as much as I hate to admit this) revive your KO'd team members. 

But hey, that is why we have the Revive items and healing pots in our kit, right?

If you do end up pushed into a battle of attrition you should take care to properly triage your team in the best order, but remember that you may need to sandbag several times throughout the Wallace battle, so healing or reviving and healing your primary and secondary sandbaggers should be part of that strategy.

Often this comes down to running him out of PP for his moves Recover and Surf -- it sucks but there you have it.

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Level 55 Tentacruel (Poison/Water)
Moves: Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Sludge Bomb, Toxic

Strategy:  Considering the massive familiarity you should have with this particular Pokemon -- whether you own one or not -- taking him down should be easy enough.  Physical attacks work nicely here, in fact this is one of the rare Pokemon that your HM Cut has some serious impact on, so you should not need much in the way of strategy assistance with him.

Unless you make mistakes -- like using a Pokemon type that is very weak to Water, this battle should not even be as much as a speedbump in your dance with Wallace -- unless it is raining.  If the previous opponent left you with the field under a rain effect you could be in serious trouble here, because Wallace is inclined to use Hydro Pump under those circumstances, and even the strongest Pokemon can take some serious hurt under those conditions.

If you end up using a Grass-type against him, you should expect to get hit with Ice Beam.  A lot.  And you should expect that to hurt.  Both Toxic and Sludge Bomb will poison your Pokemon, and the poison gets more effective the longer it is applied so you will want to cure that right away -- which is why you should have obtained as many combination stat-fixing HP-restoring kit as you could.

Other than that, this is a straight-forward battle and not the one you should worry the most about of Wallace's team.

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Level 57 Wailord (Water)
Moves: Blizzard, Double-Edge, Rain Dance, Water Spout

Strategy: Thunderbolt is your friend.  I cannot make this any more clear than that.  Obviously you do not want to use types weak to Water, so if for watever reason you do not have Thunderbolt... Even though it is recommended, you will have to battle this hedge-style using your Grass or Electric type -- but if you have an Electric-Type how come you don't have Thunderbolt?  Check your bag now to see if you have TM24, Thunderbolt, now.  If you do, train it in BEFORE the battling starts, right?

In addition to TM24, you may find that TM34, Shock Wave, is also pretty useful here.  Moves with crippling status effects can also help, as will massive damage moves, though as those tend to be lower accuracy maybe not.

If you have a hard time with him and he leaves you with more than a few members badly damaged, start the next fight with your toughest high-Water-resistant team member and let him soak up the damage while you repair the rest of your team, right?

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Level 56 Whiscash (Ground/Water)
Moves: Amnesia, Earthquake, Hyper Beam, Surf

Strategy:  There is not much to say here -- save for Pokemon who are Flying-type or can hover, this fish uses its Earthquake attack to great effect.  Wallace does some effective combination moves if you allow the battle to drag on too long, but initially he uses this one as a hammer pretty much exclusively.  That is a good thing, because you know what to expect from it, but once he changes his strategy you should focus upon rapidly KO'ing it.

Of all of its moves I think I found Hyper Beam to be the most effective both in the short-term and for drawn-out battles.  Note though that if you find yourself in a long battle with it, he will use Amnesia to boost its defense, and that is rarely ever a good thing for you.  As most trainers (and myself) tend to kill this one rather quickly, that should not be a problem for you!

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There you go mate, you have almost reached the end of the story.  After the battle is over, read Part 35 to get the rest of the story here, and then you can move on to the adventures in the game that await you after becoming the Hoenn Champion -- because you are far from done with Pokemon Emerald!