The Battle Arcade is one of five facilities located in the Battle Frontier, accessible in Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver. The Frontier Brain here is Thorton.
As with all Facilities, the Battle Factory has options for Single Battles, Double Battles, and Multi Battles. Multi Battles are conducted with a second player with their own copy of Platinum, HeartGold, or SoulSilver.
The player can enter three Pokémon in Singles, three in Doubles, and two in Multi (with the other player providing another two).
Before every round of seven Trainers, the player will be provided a draft of six Pokémon, taken from the list used by all facilities other than the Battle Hall. Genders and abilities for these Pokémon are random. The player must select their Pokémon from the list of six. After every battle, the player will be given the option to trade one of their Pokémon for one Pokémon they just faced in the previous battle. In Multis, both players will be given their own draft of six and will be asked to select two. After a battle, one of the two players can trade for any of the four opposing Pokémon.
Swapping with the opponent frequently will allow the player to access Pokémon from higher tiers and with better IVs than normal in the draft they are given at the start of the round.
The player is also given some advance information about the team of the upcoming Trainer before they choose whether to swap a Pokémon, allowing the player to build their team according to what the next Trainer will have.
All Trainers faced also have their Pokémon generated randomly from a specific tier.
Mechanics that apply to every Facility are on the Battle Frontier page. Here are mechanics specific to the Battle Factory:
The Frontier Brain, Thorton, uses a random team that will be selected from a specific tier of Pokémon. His Pokémon have 12 IVs in his Silver Print battle and 31 in his Gold Print battle.
The tier of Pokémon that Thorton can choose from depends on whether it is the first or second battle, the mode chosen (Level 50 or Open Level), and the game being played. It seems to be the case that early versions of Platinum (potentially the Japanese and American releases?) accidentally had some incorrect data for him, which were fixed in later versions of Platinum, as well as all versions of HeartGold and SoulSilver.
The list of Trainers that can be encountered is located here. The list of Pokémon that can be encountered is located here.
The player's draft of six Pokémon at the beginning of a round will have their IVs determined by the round, as shown in the following table. The player can get Pokémon with higher IVs by swapping frequently, as discussed below.
| Battles | IVs |
|---|---|
| 1-7 | 0 |
| 8-14 | 4 |
| 15-21 | 8 |
| 22-28 | 12 |
| 29-35 | 16 |
| 36-42 | 20 |
| 43-49 | 24 |
| 50+ | 31 |
The IVs of enemy Trainers correspond with which group the Trainer belongs to on the Trainers list, in the following pattern:
| Group | IVs |
|---|---|
| 1-100 | 0 |
| 101-120 | 4 |
| 121-140 | 8 |
| 141-160 | 12 |
| 161-180 | 16 |
| 181-200 | 20 |
| 201-220 | 24 |
| 221-300 | 31 |
The following table contains the amount of Battle Points the player will receive for finishing each round of seven battles. Defeating the Frontier Brain will always give the player 20 Points for that round.
| Battle(s) | Singles, Doubles |
Multis |
|---|---|---|
| 1-7 | 5 | 10 |
| 8-14 | 5 | 11 |
| 15-21 | 5 | 12 |
| 22-28 | 5 | 13 |
| 29-35 | 7 | 16 |
| 36-42 | 7 | 17 |
| 43-49 | 8 | 19 |
| 50+ | 9 | 21 |
The amount of times the player swaps Pokémon with the opponent can affect the quality of the Pokémon they receive in the draft at the start of a round. This only applies to battles before 50; after that point, the player's Pokémon always have 31 IVs and any High or Legendary Tier set can be chosen.
The number of Pokémon in a draft that will be 'upgraded' is dependent on the total number of swaps the player has made across their whole streak. An upgraded Pokémon will have IVs 4 higher than a non-upgraded Pokémon, and their moveset will be taken from the next tier than the one associated with the current round (see the Pokémon page for details about tiers and the Battle Factory modes). The following table shows the number of swaps needed. Note that choosing Pokémon from the opening draft counts as a 'swap'. A maximum of 7 swaps (including the draft) can be made per round.
| Swaps | Upgraded Pokémon |
|---|---|
| 0-6 | 0 |
| 7-13 | 1 |
| 14-20 | 2 |
| 21-27 | 3 |
| 28-34 | 4 |
| 35+ | 5 |
When the player's current tier of Pokémon is Set-4 High Tier (which will be battles 43-49 for Level 50 or 22-28 for Open Level), an upgraded Pokémon can come from any set in the High and Legendary Tiers.
The information the player receives about the opponent at the beginning of each battle depends on which round the player is on. Some of this info comes from Magpie's post about Battle Facilities mechanics.
| Battles | Preview | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1-7 | All Pokémon's species | |
| 8-14 | The first two Pokémon's species | |
| 15-21 | The first Pokémon's species and its first move | In Doubles, the shown Pokémon will be on the right during the battle. In Multis, this preview will instead be the first moves belonging to the first two Pokémon. The first move always corresponds to the first move in the tables on my Pokémon page. |
| 22-28 | The first Pokémon's first move | In Doubles and Multis, the Pokémon whose move is shown will be on the right during the battle. The first move always corresponds to the first move in the tables on my Pokémon page. |
| 29+ | The most common type of the Pokémon | If multiple types tie, the type that appears earliest in the below list is shown. If each type possessed by the enemy Pokémon is used only once, the player is told the opponent has no preference. |
The order of types used to break ties is as follows: