Pokémon Masters EX’s anniversary introduced a new game mode, the Champion Stadium. Here you can get champion spirits and 5 star power-up tickets to exchange for custom 5 star power-ups. To access this mode, the player needs to have collected all badges in the PML.

The Kanto Challenge

In the Champion Stadium, you’ll fight against the Kanto region’s Elite Four and Champion in five separate battles. There are two difficulty levels: normal, and hard. Normal mode is rather easy to complete, but hard mode is a bit more challenging. In hard mode, you can’t use the same sync pair in more than one battle, so you’ll need about 15 different sync pairs in total if you want to complete the challenge.

Kanto Challenge Hard Lv. 1 Parameters

Hard mode introduces special parameters that change with each win, and each week they will change at random. You’ll have to plan your battles to take advantage of each of these parameters. Here are this week’s parameters for each round:

Round 1: Status conditions and other conditions deal more damage, last longer, and are more likely to take effect.

Round 2: At the start of battle, sync move countdowns are reduced by half.

Round 3: The allied and opponents’ fields of play start the battle with special damage reduction.

Round 4: Stats that are raised after a sync move is used are raised even more.

Champion Round: Physical attacks are powered up for allies and opponents (you can also choose a parameter from the other four rounds).

The Elite Four and Champion Battles

How you challenge and battle the Elite Four and Champion with each applied parameter is entirely up to you. It all depends on what sync pairs you raised, and what strategy is most comfortable for you with each parameter. The Elite Four and Champion each have different weaknesses which can change each week, so you will need to train different types of sync pairs. That said, here are some tips and strategies you can use for this week’s challenge:

Lorelei’s Elite Four Battle

Opposing Pokémon: Sealeo, Lapras, Aurorus

Current Week’s Weakness: Grass

Recommended sync pairs: Erika and Vileplume, Gardenia and Roserade, Brendan and Sceptile, Sygna Suit Leaf and Venusaur, Lyra and Meganium

A fairly straightforward battle, Lorelei and her team like to use special attacks, and with her Brace Yourself! move, she can gradually heal herself too. Because of her use of special attacks, you can battle her in the third round to take advantage of the special damage reduction in the start of the battle, but because of the simplicity of her battle, you can easily challenge her in the first round. Sync pairs with high special defense like Erika and Vileplume, can tank special hits from her, and Grass-type strikers like Gardenia and Roserade or Brendan and Sceptile can unleash strong, super-effective attacks. You can even try Lyra and Meganium to set up Light Screen for your team, and if you managed to acquire her, Sygna Suit Leaf can poison the opposing sync pairs, utilize Potions, and reduce countdowns for your sync moves.

Bruno’s Elite Four Battle

Opposing Pokémon: Tyranitar, Onix, Graveler

Current Week’s Weakness: Water

Recommended sync pairs: Misty and Starmie, Barry and Empoleon, Crasher Wake and Floatzel, Sygna Suit Blue and Blastoise, Sygna Suit Grimsley and Sharpedo, Wallace and Milotic

Bruno will come at you with physical attacks, and will buff his team with proper nouns X Defense, X Accuracy, Sure Crit All. Misty and Barry with good grids are very good Water-type strikers for free to play players, or you can use Crasher Wake to try and take advantage of flinches. Sygna Suit Blue can tank hits for you while providing your team defensive buffs in the process, and if you’re taking advantage of the first round parameter, you can use Wallace and Milotic to trap each opposing sync pair with increased damage from Whirlpool.

Agatha’s Elite Four Battle

Opposing Pokémon: Mismagius, Gengar, Dusknoir

Current Week’s Weakness: Ghost

Recommended sync pairs: Phoebe and Dusknoir, Shauntal and Chandelure, Fantina and Mismagius, Agatha and Gengar, Morty and Drifblim, Roxanne and Probopass

After using her sync move, Agatha will use Dire Hit All to raise her team’s critical hit chance. Phoebe and Dusknoir has the vigilance ability to negate critical hits upon them, so you can try tanking attacks with them post sync move. Agatha also likes to use AoE moves like Dazzling Gleam, so you can try to block one AoE attack with Roxanne and Probopass. Otherwise, strong Ghost-type special attackers like Shauntal and Chandelure are effective strikers in this battle. Since Agatha likes using special attacks, you can battle her in round three to take advantage of the special damage reduction.

Lance’s Elite Four Battle

Opposing Pokémon: Flygon, Dragonite, Altaria

Current Week’s Weakness: Dragon

Recommended sync pairs: Iris and Haxorus, Clair and Kingdra, Lance and Dragonite, Sygna Suit Cynthia and Kommo-o, Cyrus and Palkia, Drake and Salamence, Skyla and Swanna, Main Character and Torchic

After using his sync move, Lance will use Special Shield to reduce damage from special attacks. Iris and Haxorus are free to play friendly, and is a very powerful Dragon-type physical striker with her developed sync grid. Or, you can try and take advantage of critical hits; the Main Character with Torchic can provide critical hit buffs to your team, especially for powerful strikers like Clair, Cyrus, and Sygna Suit Cynthia. Drake with Salamence can provide defensive buffs, and Skyla with Swanna can use Potion for your party while providing buffs too.

Champion Blue’s Battle

Opposing Pokémon: Pinsir, Exeggutor, Victreebel

Current Week’s Weakness: Fire

Recommended sync pairs: Red and Charizard, Flannery and Torkoal, Hilda and Emboar, Flint and Infernape, Blaine and Rapidash

Blue’s weakness is Fire, but you should try and use your best team with your best sync pairs, with the parameter you feel most comfortable to work with. Blue’s Exeggutor mostly uses physical attacks, so you can use Flannery with Torkoal to burn it. The parameter for this battle powers up physical attack moves, so you can try Hilda and Emboar, or any strong physical striker for damage if you don’t have Red.

Example Hall of Fame Team

These were all the teams I’ve used for this week’s challenge that entered the hall of fame, so you can use this as an example for your challenge battles:

Round 1 vs. Bruno: Wallace and Milotic, Barry and Empoleon, Misty and Starmie

Here, I’ve used the first parameter to increase the trap damage from Milotic’s Whirlpool, and had Starmie and Empoleon to provide damage. Starmie was quite effective to tank hits, and provide regeneration buffs.

Round 2 vs. Agatha: Phoebe and Dusknoir, Shauntal and Chandelure, Leaf and Eevee

Dusknoir was used here to tank hits, supported by Leaf with Eevee’s Potion and sync move buffs. Chandelure is the main striker.

Round 3 vs. Lorelei: Brendan and Sceptile, Erika and Vileplume, Sygna Suit Leaf and Venusaur

Erika with Vileplume was used for tanking special hits, even more so with the special damage reduction during the start of the battle. Sygna Suit Leaf with Venusaur provided debuffs and poison damage to weaken the opponents, with Sceptile dealing out good damage after buffs.

Round 4 vs. Lance: Sygna Suit Elesa and Rotom, Drake and Salamence, Sygna Suit Cynthia and Kommo-o

Taking advantage of round four’s parameter, I had Sygna Suit Elesa reduce our sync move countdown for Cynthia to use her sync move as much as possible. Drake provided defense and special defense buffs while Kommo-o simply kept using Clanging Scales.

Round 5 vs. Blue: Flannery and Torkoal, Skyla and Swanna, Red and Charizard

For the final battle, Torkoal was the main tank for the team, while Charizard blasted everything with Blast Burn, and his sync move. Skyla and Swanna was backup for Torkoal, providing defense buffs and Potions.

Edited by: Ranko, Rivvon and Zach.