How to build a team in SoulGold: innates, doubles, and the postgame

Build two teams, because SoulGold is two games. The story runs under level caps with innates switched off. The postgame lifts the caps, and at 75, 85 and 95 every Pokémon picks up three extra abilities. I rebuilt my whole box after the credits and it felt like a new game.

SoulGold is two games: the story and the postgame

The story: level caps, no innates

The caps are 12, 19, 26, 34, 42, 45, 48, 55, 58, 62 and 70. Innates unlock at 75, 85 and 95. So from Falkner to Lance, no innate is active on your side or theirs.

Build the story team for type coverage and doubles. My eight are in the Hard mode team guide. Start there.

The postgame: 75, 85 and 95

Once you’re Champion, the caps are gone. Each Pokémon keeps its normal ability and gains innate 1 at 75, innate 2 at 85 and innate 3 at 95.

That changes what a Pokémon is. A few I built around:

• Mawile gets Huge Power at 75, on top of Intimidate if that’s its ability.
• Breloom gets Triage at 95, so Drain Punch goes at +3 priority.
• Reuniclus gets Showtime at 85 and sets Trick Room the moment it enters.

The Elite Four rematches and every Title Defense challenger are level 85. Their first two innates are on, so yours need to be too. Treat 85 as the real target and 95 as a bonus you pay for in Exp Candy.

You can’t switch off one innate at a time. If an innate hurts a build, pick a different Pokémon. The full list by species is in the innate list.

The facilities exception: all innates on at any level

In the Battle Tower, Battle Factory, Battle Pyramid and Battle Café, every innate is on at every level. Each lobby asks if you want to disable them, and the Café has the same switch under Café Options.

The level modes:

• Classic: your party is scaled to level 50 and restricted legends are out. Jirachi is banned. Tornadus and Thundurus are allowed.
• Chaos: your party is scaled to level 100 and anything goes.

The Factory opens after Whitney, but it uses rentals, so your own builds only matter in the Tower, Pyramid and Café. Those open after you’re Champion. I used Classic as a free test bench: a level 50 build shows you exactly what its innates do before you spend the candy to get it to 85.

Hard mode doubles: build for two at a time

On Hard, every gym, the first Elite Four run, the Elite Four rematches and Title Defense are double battles. On Normal they’re singles. Build for doubles if you play Hard, because a singles team gets taken apart.

Four things decide doubles fights:

1. Spread moves. Eruption, Heat Wave, Rock Slide (TM80, Route 49), Bleakwind Storm and Hyper Voice hit both foes. Earthquake (TM26, Victory Road 1F) does too, but it also hits your partner, so pair it with a Flying type or something immune.
2. Intimidate. It cuts both foes’ Attack on entry. Staraptor and Mawile have it as a normal ability. The other side uses it too. Bruno’s rematch Hitmontop and Staraptor and Karen’s Scrafty all carry it.
3. Fake Out. A free flinch on turn one. Hariyama and Iron Hands both learn it. So do the opponents’ Hitmontop, Scrafty and Sableye at 85.
4. Redirection. Milotic’s Guardian at 75 pulls single-target attacks onto itself and takes 15% less from them. The AI uses Follow Me on Clefable in Elder Li’s Hard Title Defense and Rage Powder on Volcarona in Koga’s rematch. Spread moves ignore redirection, which is one more reason to carry them.

Speed control matters more in doubles than singles because one turn of moving first decides two KOs. That’s why it’s the first thing you pick.

The six roles I build around

Every postgame team I liked had these six jobs covered. One Pokémon can do two, but don’t leave one empty.

Role	My pick	The innate that does the job	Online at
Speed control	Reuniclus	Showtime: Trick Room on entry	85
Breaker	Machamp	No Guard ability plus Sheer Force	75
Wall	Aggron	Stamina, then Siegebreaker	85, 95
Pivot	Jirachi	Wishmaker: Wish on every entry	75
Sweeper	Salamence	Mega Aerilate plus Windcaller	75
Support	Gengar	Prankster	75

Speed control: Reuniclus. Showtime sets a 5-turn Trick Room for free when it switches in. Solosis is 30% on Route 43. The full build is in the Trick Room team guide.

Breaker: Machamp. No Guard makes Dynamic Punch always hit. Sheer Force at 75 adds 30% because Dynamic Punch has a confusion effect, and Sheer Force drops it. That’s a sure-hit STAB nuke. Machop is 30% on Route 33, and Machoke evolves with the Linking Cord from the Route 38 item ball.

Wall: Aggron. Stamina at 85 raises its Defense every time it’s hit. Siegebreaker at 95 makes its attacks run off two thirds of its Defense. So every hit it takes makes its next one bigger. Battle Armor at 75 stops crits from skipping the boosts.

Pivot: Jirachi. Wishmaker casts Wish on itself every time it enters, so every U-turn (TM89, Azalea Gym) back in is a free heal. Serene Grace makes Iron Head and Zen Headbutt flinch more. You get it as a gift egg at the Mt. Silver Summit. It’s banned in Classic facility mode.

Sweeper: Mega Salamence. Aerilate turns Double-Edge, Return and Hyper Voice into Flying moves with 20% more power. Windcaller at 75 adds another 30% to Flying moves. Throw in STAB and Dragon Dance and it runs through anything that doesn’t resist Flying.

Support: Gengar. Prankster at 75 gives status moves +1 priority. Will-O-Wisp, Taunt, Encore and Thunder Wave all go first. Don’t Mega it, because Mega Gengar loses Prankster.

Pick speed control first: Trick Room or Tailwind

Pick your speed mode before anything else, because it decides who the other five are. A Trick Room team wants slow, bulky hitters. A Tailwind team wants fast, frail ones. A team built for both is good at neither.

	Trick Room	Tailwind
Setter	Reuniclus (Showtime, 85)	Tornadus, either form (Windburst, 85)
Turns	5	4
Cancels an active one?	No, Showtime only sets it when none is up	No, Windburst only sets it when none is up
Reset trick	Regenerator, switch out and back in after it ends	Therian form has Regenerator, same trick
Where	Solosis, Route 43	Battle Café point exchange, Route 50
Partners	Mega Camerupt, Hariyama, Ursaluna, Iron Hands	Mega Salamence, Mega Pidgeot, Machamp, Electivire
Beaten by	Taunt on the backup move, priority, enemy Trick Room	Trick Room, priority, bulky walls

I ran Trick Room for most of my Title Defense streaks because Reuniclus is easy to catch early and bulky enough to set it twice. Tailwind is faster to win with once you have Tornadus. Both guides have a full six: Trick Room and Tailwind.

Where the competitive items come from

Most of these are one-off item balls in the story. The postgame shops restock the rest.

Item	Where
Focus Sash	Kitakami Temple Training Room (gift, once); Battle Pyramid lobby mart
Life Orb	Tin Tower 5F and Whirl Islands B1F (item balls); Battle Pyramid lobby mart
Choice Band	Route 27 (gift); Battle Tower BP shop
Choice Specs	South Shore (item ball); Battle Tower BP shop
Choice Scarf	Route 26 (item ball); Battle Tower BP shop
Assault Vest	Rocket Hideout B3F (item ball); Battle Pyramid lobby mart
Eviolite	Buena’s Password prize at Radio Tower 2F; rare item in the Lake of Rage grotto
Leftovers	Goldenrod Underground Storage (item ball); common held item on wild Snorlax and Munchlax
Weakness Policy	Victory Road B2F (item ball); Battle Tower BP shop
Room Service	Route 42 (item ball); Battle Tower BP shop
Mental Herb	Only as a rare held item on wild Sewaddle, Swadloon and Leavanny
Flame Orb, Toxic Orb	Route 47 (gift); Battle Pyramid lobby mart

Mental Herb is the annoying one. I spent an evening chaining Sewaddle for a single one, and it was worth it on my Reuniclus.

EVs, IVs, natures and abilities

You can fix every stat on a Pokémon you already love. Don’t release a good catch over a bad nature.

What	Tool	Where
IVs, +5 at a time	Health, Muscle, Resist, Genius, Clever and Swift Feathers	Battle Factory BP shop; fishing with any rod
IVs, maxed	Bottle Cap (one stat) and Gold Bottle Cap (all stats), used for Hyper Training in Rinto Village	Bottle Cap: Battle Tower BP, rare Super Rod find. Gold Bottle Cap: Cianwood City item ball, Battle Café, Battle Tower BP, Super Rod
IVs, lowered	Withered, Grimy, Brittle, Dull, Soggy and Goopy herbs, -1 IV each	Goldenrod Underground herb shop
EVs	Vitamins (no longer capped at 100) and EX vitamins, which max the stat at once	EX vitamins: Battle Tower BP shop, Goldenrod Battle Arcade shop
Nature	Mints	Beach café on Route 40, outside Olivine
Ability	Ability Capsule (swaps regular abilities)	Goldenrod Shore and Victory Road B2F item balls; Battle Factory BP shop
Hidden ability	Ability Patch	Route 27, Snowtop Mountain B1F, Tin Tower 4F and Whirl Islands Descent item balls; hidden in Union Cave B2F; Battle Factory BP shop; Buena’s Password prize

Speed IVs matter for Trick Room. The lowering herbs let you take a slow mon’s Speed down so it moves first in the room.

Build order checklist

This is the order I build every postgame team in. Each step depends on the one before it.

1. Pick Trick Room or Tailwind.
2. Catch the setter and get it to 85. That’s Reuniclus or Tornadus.
3. Pick two attackers that win under that mode. Slow and strong for Trick Room, fast and strong for Tailwind.
4. Add a Fake Out or Intimidate user, so turn one goes your way.
5. Add one answer to the opposite speed control. Taunt for Trick Room setters, a strong hit for Tailwind setters.
6. Fill the wall and pivot slots so you can switch the setter back in when its turns run out.
7. Fix natures with Mints and abilities with an Ability Capsule or Patch.
8. Fix IVs with Feathers or Bottle Caps, and lower Speed IVs on Trick Room mons.
9. Max EVs with EX vitamins.
10. Hand out items from the table above.
11. Test the team in Classic mode in the Battle Tower, where every innate is on at 50.
12. Grind the keepers to 85 with Exp Candy XL from the Tower BP shop, then take on Title Defense.

Three cores to copy

Start from one of these and fill the other slots with the roles above.

Core 1: Reuniclus plus Mega Camerupt plus Hariyama (Trick Room)

Reuniclus sets the room on entry. Mega Camerupt has 20 base Speed and 145 Sp. Atk, so it fires off a full-HP Eruption into both foes first. Hariyama has Fake Out and 144 base HP, and its Fighting moves cover the Rock and Steel types that resist Fire. Uncanny at 75 also cuts both foes’ Sp. Atk the moment Reuniclus lands.

Grab the Firetite in Mt Mortar Depths 1, where Numel and Camerupt also live.

Core 2: Tornadus-Therian plus Mega Salamence (Tailwind)

Tornadus sets a 4-turn Tailwind on entry, and Disquiet drops both foes’ Sp. Def. Mega Salamence follows up with Flying Hyper Voice into both slots, boosted by Aerilate, Windcaller and STAB. Therian Tornadus has Regenerator, so pivot it out and back in to reset the wind when it ends.

Add Machamp as the third. Its 55 base Speed doubles under Tailwind, and No Guard Dynamic Punch handles the Steel types that wall Flying.

Core 3: Claydol plus Mega Golurk (Gravity)

Claydol’s Gravity Well at 75 sets 5 turns of Gravity on entry. Its Allseeing Idol ability keeps it immune to Ground moves even under Gravity, and gives it 30% more Defense there. So Mega Golurk can spam Earthquake into both foes while Claydol takes nothing.

Gravity grounds the Flying types and Levitate users that would dodge it. Mega Golurk’s Spectral Drain at 85 heals 25% of every Earthquake, and No Guard at 75 makes Dynamic Punch sure-hit through Protect thanks to Unseen Fist. Claydol is 15% in Kitakami Well B1F, and the Groundite is in Union Cave B2F.

Pick a core, then open the best innate combos to fill the last three slots. Once the team is at 85, the postgame guide has every fight worth taking it to.