Just a growing list of arenas, ranging from the bog-standard to the simple but scenic to the quirky and challenging to the brain-hurtingly complex. These aren't only here for my own reference; if you see one you like, you are more than welcome to use it as is or adapt it to your needs.

Quirky Arenas

The arenas' locations may or may not be complex, but they come with some interesting sets of default rulings and conditions that could spice up any battle. (You can, of course, take the rulings/conditions listed here and attach them to any other arena if you think you can swing it.)

 

Doctor Kaminko's Experimental Stadium, Arena #44

I suppose I was in an... Orre-ish mood one day, and I felt like drumming up an arena that involved some sort of crazy contraptions that would make the good doctor proud. This is the result; it's best played with no damage caps, in my opinion, because when you've got all the energy you could ever want, holding back is no fun at all! I'll probably make a few more in a similar vein. Dr. Kaminko is too entertaining not to milk for as many ideas as possible.

Any claims that Doctor Kaminko does not test his Pokémon-related inventions before revealing them to the public (a public that is obviously too simple to appreciate their sheer genius) are, of course, entirely false. In fact, the Doctor has a dedicated space beneath his secret laboratory for just this purpose—his experimental stadium. At first glance it appears to be a fairly plain arena, with the standard clay floor, small pool for water-types and a weather generator that will respond to any weather-inducing commands. A few button presses and switch flips, however, and the Doctor can produce anything from a plethora of his newest battle-based creations to make things more... interesting. Kaminko regularly invites trainers down to his facility to help him test his new experiments, assuring them that of course their Pokémon will be perfectly safe and that of course there will be ample compensation for their time. Most of the Orrean trainers know better than to take his claims at face value, but there's no reason for a few gullible eager outsiders not to trust him, right? Besides! Shiny new toys! Who could possibly resist!

The arena that Kaminko has chosen for today's battle, number forty-four out of sixty-three, is fairly simple as his bizarre challenges go. The battlefield itself does not change much when he activates it, forgoing #3's Poké-Poles™ falling from the ceiling and #61's small herd of Tauros sporting his Pokémon Mood-Altering Keclenses™ (currently stuck on angry red) for wide, open space. The battlers are going to need plenty of room and minimal distractions, after all—with all the energy they'll have to burn, they'd probably tear something down if they were in a smaller space. For today, all Pokémon involved will be wearing Kaminko's new Ever-Energy Adrenapacks™.

The Adrenapacks provide each Pokémon with literally unlimited energy, allowing them to attack with abandon and without fear of exhausting themselves. The experiment is intended to see what Pokémon are capable of doing when allowed to battle on and on without interruption, but perhaps the Adrenapacks give the Pokémon a little too much juice. They are prone to releasing extra surges of energy that can actually harm the Pokémon wearing them, causing 3% typeless damage to each Pokémon at the end of each round and escalating to 5%/round if their health is below 33%. Additionally, the constant influx of energy makes the battlers incredibly nervous and restless, preventing them from focusing on moves that rely on calming down or relaxing (i.e. Calm Mind, Amnesia), being lulled into complacency (e.g. Attract, Flatter, Charm) or falling asleep.

 

Doctor Kaminko's Experimental Stadium, Arena #17

The good doctor is back with another silly experiment. And explosions. I'm not really sure anything else needs to be said here.

Any claims that Doctor Kaminko does not test his Pokémon-related inventions before revealing them to the public (a public that is obviously too simple to appreciate their sheer genius) are, of course, entirely false. In fact, the Doctor has a dedicated space beneath his secret laboratory for just this purpose—his experimental stadium. At first glance it appears to be a fairly plain arena, with the standard clay floor, small pool for water-types and a weather generator that will respond to any weather-inducing commands. A few button presses and switch flips, however, and the Doctor can produce anything from a plethora of his newest battle-based creations to make things more... interesting. Kaminko regularly invites trainers down to his facility to help him test his new experiments, assuring them that of course their Pokémon will be perfectly safe and that of course there will be ample compensation for their time. Most of the Orrean trainers know better than to take his claims at face value, but there's no reason for a few gullible eager outsiders not to trust him, right? Besides! Shiny new toys! Who could possibly resist!

Today the trainers will be battling in arena configuration seventeen of sixty-three, intended to test Kaminko's new Bewildering Ballistic Baldorfish™. The client who requested the Baldorfish wanted some traps for his Water-type gym in Germany, something mine-like that would detonate at regular intervals and provide an extra hazard that his challengers would have to work around. But that, Dr. Kaminko decided, was silly. What's the point of mines that explode at regular intervals? Regular intervals are predictable and a great deal less likely to be hazardous to anyone. He made sure to fix that part, yes sir.

Twenty-five Bewildering Ballistic Baldorfish™, ominous, spiked spheres that resemble tailless Qwilfish in size and coloration, are scattered around the otherwise unremarkable arena. Ten are half-buried in the clay floor, ten are hovering about 5 ft/1.5 m off of the ground and five float in the small central pool. Most, aside from those in the pool, are spaced about 8-10 ft/2.4-3 meters apart, and theoretically are easy enough to step around if moving at a reasonable pace. At the beginning of every action there is a 50% chance that a random Baldorfish anywhere on the field will explode (the ref can decide on the Baldorfish locations beforehand and randomize from there, or just wing it and decide whether it's near a battler or not). Exploding Baldorfish immediately cause 5% typeless damage to any battler in the blast radius, which is usually 5 ft/1.5 m in diameter (but see below) and then disintegrate, leaving no notable shrapnel or other remains behind. The client asked that the Baldorfish simply explode, but Kaminko has taken it upon himself to doll them up with even more interesting and unpredictable effects as noted in the list below. All effects are in addition to the 5% typeless damage, and the effect that happens should be randomized according to the numbers below.

• 5 Baldorfish cause the 5% typeless damage and nothing else.
• 5 Baldorfish spray a poisonous mist, causing light poisoning to any Pokémon in the blast radius. Being caught in multiple poison explosions will increase the severity of the poisoning by one stage, culminating in toxic poisoning if a Pokémon is hit by all five.
• 5 Baldorfish release a wave of water energy when they explode, causing 5% Water-type damage.
• 5 Baldorfish have an especially loud explosion that will temporarily deafen all Pokémon in the arena; they will remember whatever commands they were given for the remainder of the round and carry them out, but they will be unable to hear the first command given to them for the next round and will perform a random attack from their legal movepools instead (akin to Sleep Talk). They will also be unable to hear sound-based moves until after that randomized move (and so effectively have Soundproof in addition to all other abilities until that time). Multiple deafening blasts in one round do not stack. Pokémon that naturally have Soundproof are immune to the deafening effect but will still take the 5% damage if they're within the blast radius.
• 3 Baldorfish will cause any Pokémon caught in the blast radius to flinch and lose their next action.
• 1 Baldorfish detonates with impressive force and does damage equal in power and type to one use of the move Selfdestruct as used by a Qwilfish. It has a 15 ft/4.6 m blast radius.
• 1 Baldorfish detonates with extreme force and does damage equal in power and type to one use of the move Explosion as used by a Qwilfish. It has a 20 ft/6 m blast radius.

Additionally, the Baldorfish are very sensitive to any external stimuli. A Baldorfish hit by an attack with a base power of 50 or more, or by any impact/stimulus the ref considers equally damaging, will explode on the spot and cause its effect immediately on whatever is in the blast radius. Exploding Baldorfish will set off any intact Baldorfish in their range.

Exploded Baldorfish are not replaced, so the battle continues as normal (a.k.a. boring) when all twenty-five have detonated.

 

Outside the Battle Arena

This is a good one for faster battles, as it has a limit on the maximum number of rounds each Pokémon can participate in before it forces an end; it's also very open and fast-paced. The challenge details, such as DQ time and number of Pokémon, don't really matter (the arena as listed assumes single battle, 3-on-3), but it might be more fun with no damage cap and few to no banned moves. You only have a few rounds to influence your score, after all, so why not give yourself as many opportunities to boost your score and lower your opponent's as possible?

The battle takes place right outside the Battle Frontier's Battle Arena facility, out in the open air. The immediate area is covered in nicely manicured grass and a few flowers. The Arena building itself is surrounded on three sides by water and a small pond sits on the other side of the battlers, so water moves can be used and Water-types that need to swim can do so. The battlers cannot move away from the immediate area, so heading towards the plaza or another facility is forbidden. Maps of the general area can be found on this page.

Since this match is happening so close to the Arena, it seems such a shame not to follow Greta's rules... or, at least, a variation on them. As such, both battlers will send out their Pokémon and attack for three battle rounds (a total of 9 attacks per Pokémon) before the ref calls a halt. After the three rounds both Pokémon are recalled and unable to continue in the current battle, and their current health, energy and status are noted for later. Both trainers will then send out their next Pokémon and continue for the next three rounds. At the end (which should be nine total rounds), the health and energy of all Pokémon is totaled and whichever trainer has the highest score wins.

The following rules also apply:

-If a Pokémon has fainted, either due to HP loss OR energy loss, the battle stops right where it is (even if it has not yet been three rounds) and both Pokémon are recalled. Fainted Pokémon DO still count toward the final score, but as either their health or their energy is at 0% they won't add anywhere near as much.

-If, at the end of the three rounds, a battler is afflicted with a status condition, that condition detracts from their final score as follows:

• Paralyzed, Burned, Confused: -10 points
• Poisoned, Attracted: -15 points
• Asleep, Frozen: -20 points

If the Pokémon has more than one status condition, only the first one they were afflicted with detracts full points; all others afterwards only detract five, no matter what they are.

As an example of how scoring works: Trainer A sends out a Treecko and Trainer B sends out a Turtwig. Treecko and Turtwig battle for three rounds; Treecko finishes with 64% HP and 72% energy and Turtwig finishes with 71% HP and 59% energy. Treecko has also been poisoned by Toxic. Both Pokémon stop battling and so their scores would look like this: Turtwig (71H + 59E = 130), Treecko (64H + 72E – 15 [poison] = 121). Therefore, Trainer B (Turtwig's trainer) would have the lead with 130 points over 121.

As far as TCoDASB battles are concerned, experience is determined like this: all Pokémon get the usual 1 experience point for being sent into battle, and if one Pokémon actually knocks another out it will get the 1 experience point as normal. If neither Pokémon faints at the end of three rounds, the one with the lower score (Treecko in the above example) is considered knocked out for the purposes of experience, so Turtwig would get the extra 1 exp.

 

The Cave of Dragonflies Animé-Style Battling League

I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I designed this one, but let me tell you those freaky warp-walls sure can come in handy. I might not have won this really close battle against Chiropter if they hadn't been so useful. Of course, my Pokémon might not have gotten so badly screwed over themselves, either... eh, any good arena is a double-edged sword. Anyway, I modeled it after the structure of the subforums the main ASB forum had at the time; after the database wipe the ASB School forum was never brought back, but the battle was already underway, so. The DQ, damage caps, number of Pokémon, banned moves and things like that shouldn't have any effect on the arena, so set them to whatever you like.

The Pokémon battle in a large and mysterious triangular room. The ceiling is infinitely high, so flying is allowed, and there's enough room to accommodate Pokémon like Wailord. The floor is made of a thick and sturdy but somewhat malleable material that can be used for moves like Rock Tomb, although any rocks, etc. formed are made of weirdfloor, not stone or whatever, and so will be changed to Normal-type. Other than this, there is nothing particularly special about the room itself... other than the fact that its three walls are not solid but actually portals to different parts of the ASB universe. Passing through each wall by any means (intentionally, thrown through, etc.) will cause the Pokémon to enter that universe just long enough for something to happen before it is warped back:

The ASB Central wall (colored red)- the Pokémon suddenly appears in a busy, bustling metropolis full of people and Pokémon dashing around to the bank, various businesses, etc. Pokémon with a base speed of 80 or higher are fast enough to dodge through the swarming crowd but must expend 5% energy to do so. Pokémon with a base speed of 79 or lower aren't quick enough to escape the rush and so take 5% damage from being knocked around. (Ref, check an online Pokédex like Veekun if you don't know the base stats.)

The Tournaments and Gym Battles wall (colored blue)- the Pokémon suddenly appears right in the center of the stage just as a well-loved coordinator and their Pokémon are making a spectacular appeal for the Grand Festival. The Pokémon's surprise arrival startles the performing Pokémon so badly that it can't perform its appeal; this disappoints the audience so much that they boo and hiss vehemently and throw things at the offender. While this does no damage, it makes the offender feel so incredibly guilty and unloved that it cannot perform its next action.

The ASB School wall (colored yellow; this is a garishly ugly room, isn't it?)- the Pokémon suddenly appears in the midst of a small group of decrepit buildings. It looks like an abandoned school campus of some sort. It seems there is nothing here... but there is also an air of extreme displeasure at your arrival. There is a 50% chance of nothing happening and the Pokémon is simply returned to the battle; if the other 50% comes up, an angry Sneasel leaps out from behind a building, a voice shouts "BEGONE!" and the Sneasel attacks the offender with Poison Jab. This does no damage, but the offender is now moderately poisoned. (Steel-types, Poison-types and Pokémon with the ability Immunity cannot be poisoned, as normal.)

I mention the colors of the walls so you can orient yourselves and more effectively use the walls in your strategies. If it actually helps. I don't know.

 

Alphabetronome Battledome

"Metronome battles" are a popular choice in TCoDASB, and I felt like messing with a variation on them that allowed for a touch more strategy while still being very, very silly and prone to hamstringing one side or the other on a whim. Also I noticed that you could make a portmanteau out of "alphabet" and "metronome" and thought it was funny.

The stadium itself is deceptively simple—a grassy expanse surrounded on all sides by the ususal stadium bleachers, a few large rocks scattered about, a pool of decent depth and breadth and so able to accomodate most non-Wailord Pokémon with relative comfort. What is not so simple is the series of small devices installed in the wall that encircles the field and separates battlers from spectators. These devices give off a bizarre energy that gives the battling Pokémon the ability to use literally any move at random (with some ad-libbing where they don't have the required anatomy, e.g. walloping someone with a tail "punch" if the Pokémon has no hands), not unlike a use of the move Metronome. On their current setting, however, only the first move the battlers use will be completely random. The devices are connected to a computer with an alphabetical database of all known Pokémon attacks, and after selecting the first move at random the devices will have that Pokémon use the moves that come after that one alphabetically, in ascending order and wrapping back around to Absorb after Zen Headbutt. The devices will re-randomize a new first move at the beginning of every fourth round. (Chill is included in this database.)

Because trainers know which moves to expect on most rounds after the first, they are allowed to specify how those moves are to be performed with additional instructions or conditionals so long as the actual attacks used are not altered in any way. For example, you can order your Pokémon to aim its second attack at the opponent if the first one was successful, or at one of the rocks if it wasn't. If Substitute is in your list of commands you can choose how much health to put toward it, if Double Team is in your list you can specify the number of clones, etc.. You cannot, however, change the attack you'll have for that action or choose to do nothing.

An example of how the battle progresses:

Round 1: The trainers send out, the ref randomizes the first move for each battler and gets Quick Attack for Dragonair and Fire Spin for Eelektrik. Dragonair uses Quick Attack, Quick Guard and Quiver Dance, and Eelektrik uses Fire Spin, Fissure and Flail.

Round 2: Eelektrik's trainer sees that the next three moves after Flail are Flame Burst, Flame Charge and Flamethrower. He can't change the attacks given to him or the order they're used in, but he can tell Eelektrik to use those attacks in just about whatever manner he likes. Dragonair's trainer does the same with Rage, Rage Powder and Rain Dance and the round is reffed.

Round 3: Dragonair does whatever with Rapid Spin, Razor Leaf and Razor Shell and Eelektrik does whatever with Flame Wheel, Flare Blitz and Flash.

Round 4: The trainers do not give actual orders and the ref randomizes a new starting move: Eelektrik gets Ice Beam and Dragonair gets Zap Cannon. Eelektrik uses Ice Beam, Ice Burn and Ice Fang and Dragonair uses Zap Cannon, Zen Headbutt and Absorb.

And so on.

 

Complicated and Tricky Arenas

Super-detailed, super-complex and super-dangerous arenas with ridiculous rules to match. Not for the faint of heart, weak of stomach or short of memory, as there's a lot to keep track of when you're battling in one of these sick puppies.

 

The Castle Oubliette

Why the word "oubliette" popped into my head all of a sudden while creating this page I do not know, but I'm glad it did. I like this idea. :) It doesn't have any super-fancy rules per se, but the incredibly tiny space available should make it hellish enough without any complicated restrictions other than those imposed by the nature of the arena itself. Hooray for claustrophobia?

The oubliette is a tiny, cramped room sunk into the floor, buried far beneath even the castle's foundations. It's about six feet wide, eight feet long and eight feet high, so only small- to medium-sized Pokémon can fit inside. The entire room is made of heavy, indestructible stone—none of it can be dislodged or moved for things like Rock Slide or Dig, and there's nothing to shake if Earthquake is used. There is also no water or sand or anything like that available for use in moves like Surf or Sand Tomb, and all weather moves will fail because the sky is completely inaccessible. There are no doors or windows, the only way in and out being the long, slick and narrow tunnel leading up about 30 feet up to the dungeon above. (And the steel trap door is locked from the outside.) The only light comes from a single torch, flickering weakly in the room's north wall; the arena is quite dim already, so I would advise against putting it out unless you want to risk bumping into stone walls in total darkness.

And good luck dodging attacks, flying around or building up speed—the tight, uncomfortable space makes anything more than hopping around and swinging some moderate punches understandably difficult. Anything larger than a Pichu is going to need to rethink the range and execution of many of its attacks. Only one way in, no way out and no room to run away... can you survive a battle in the oubliette with your sanity intact?

 

Acid Rain

This one is based on the glitch that can occur when battling another player in the fourth-generation games (see more here). This works best if you ban weather-inducing moves (don't want to override the awesome Acid Rain effect, do you?) and possibly also some weather-related abilities like sand veil and snow cloak to prevent too much dodging around the arena effects or evasion abuse. The exact effects of some of the moves and abilities listed may vary from league to league; this arena was originally written with TCoD's ASB in mind, so if your league has effects like sandstorm or harvest or what have you function differently then you may need to tweak the way they behave in this arena.

Everyone knows you're supposed to be careful about using Pursuit in link battles around here. You just don't do that in the Communication Club Colosseum, man, not when it's frickin' hailing inside. But nooo, the last trainers to battle in here just had to mess around, the arena's weather generators are broken like whoa and now the next trainers and ref have to deal with the meteorologist's nightmare they've left behind.

The Communication Club Colosseum itself is a standard enclosed arena, empty and large enough to accomodate any pokémon comfortably on its sturdy metal floor. For reasons known only to the mysterious techie wizards who designed the room, it is still possible to use just about any attack in here—rocks and surges of water appear out of nowhere when an attack calls for them, and the floor can be tunneled through and will repair itself after the match. No sense letting physics or lack of resources get in the way of a good ‘n wild battle, after all.

This freedom of attack use would normally also apply to weather moves, the room's artificial weather generators providing bright light, stiff breezes and precipitation of all stripes whenever needed. The techie wizards have no explanation for the way the generators react when the move Pursuit is used while they're active, however, and thanks to the previous occupants' shenanigans they're now on the fritz something serious. Bright lights shine, rain and hail drive down and a sandstorm tears across the room, effectively causing the effects of Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Hail and Sandstorm to remain active all at once*. There'll be no turning them off for a while, either, and they refuse to respond to any new weather commands, so the barrage of anomalous weather remains in place indefinitely and can't be canceled or replaced by using a weather move (or additional use of Pursuit, for that matter, which will function normally). The intense weather assailing the battlers from all directions causes them a great deal of pain, shearing 10% health/round off of any Pokémon that is not completely immune to any and all weather damage and 7% off of Pokémon with a partial immunity. It is also quite difficult to see what's going on through all the roiling rainhailsandsun, and all moves, save for never-miss moves and self- or field-targeting moves, suffer a 10% accuracy drop.

*To clarify and resolve any potential conflicting effects:

• Water- and Fire-type moves do not have their damage modified by the weather (no boosts or penalties)
• Blizzard, Hurricane and Thunder all have 100% accuracy (but are affected by the blanket 10% accuracy drop)
• Solarbeam can be used instantly without any additional energy cost and does not have reduced base power
• Moonlight, Morning Sun and Synthesis restore 50% health
• Rock-types have their special defense increased by the sandstorm
• Pokémon with immunity to Sandstorm and/or Hail take only 7% weather damage/round
• Pokémon with Chlorophyll, Harvest, Hydration, Leaf Guard, Sand Force, Sand Rush and Swift Swim have their abilities activated
• Pokémon with Solar Power have boosted special attack and take sun damage each round as normal
• Pokémon with Dry Skin do not get healed by or take extra damage from their ability (they still take the blanket damage per round)
• Pokémon with Ice Body or Rain Dish get healed by their ability, then take the usual 10% or 7% weather damage/round
• Cherrim alternates between its sunshine and overcast forms at the beginning of each round (ref determines starting form at random)
• Castform randomly changes between its rain, sun and hail forms at the beginning of each round
• Weather Ball is always at 100 base power and its type is randomly (re)determined to be Fire, Water, Ice or Rock each time it is used
• Growth raises attack and special attack by 2 with each use