From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Revision as of 23:40, 21 July 2024 by ButSmeargleCan'tUseTheMove(talk | contribs)(→Trainers: Copied this from the Black City page as Black Tower is also visible. Notice how you can very clearly see the top of the tower here, so much for it going into space.)
Black Tower (Japanese: 黒の摩天楼Black Skyscraper) is a training facility initially exclusive to Pokémon Black 2. Located within Black City, it is the counterpart to the White Treehollow of Pokémon White 2. The two facilities are collectively known as Unova's Challenge.
It can be accessed after Black Tower is unlocked with the Unova Link's Key System. If a player of Black 2 clears Area 5 of the Black Tower, that player can send the Tower Key to White 2 players, granting them access to Black City, and consequently, the Black Tower.
It comprises ten procedurally generated, progressively more complex areas, each with a number of Trainers. In each area, a randomly selected Trainer is the gate Trainer, who will unlock the door to the Boss Trainer's room when defeated. Defeating an area's Boss Trainer allows the player to challenge the next area. Exactly one of the Trainers on each floor is a Doctor, who will never be the gate Trainer, and upon being defeated in battle, will offer to heal the player's Pokémon but can only do so once. Areas 6 and beyond, which span multiple floors, will therefore have multiple Doctors. Some rooms will provide opportunities for players to use Surf or Flash for easier navigation. Each room can contain up to two (Areas 1-6) or three (Areas 7-10) Trainers, but no Trainers will appear in the room with the elevator; and Surf or Flash rooms, as well as the boss room, will always have exactly one Trainer.
Unlike true battle facilities, a battle style setting of "Shift" will be respected here, and the player will earn experience and money for winning battles, though they will forfeit the money earned during the challenge if they lose or retire out instead of completing the area. However, like in those facilities, encountering a Pokémon here does not cause it to register as being seen in the Pokédex. The use of Bag items is also disabled, both in-battle and out (except that the Bag can still be accessed from the Pokémon menu, for the limited purpose of giving a held item to a Pokémon). Items and menus registered to the Y button will not respond during a challenge, but all options that are normally on the X button menu still exist (other than Bag, which is replaced by a Retire option instead) and can be accessed during the challenge, as can the C-Gear.
Summary of floors
Area
Floors
Color scheme
Floor size
Trainers per floor
1
1
Blue
3×3
8
2
1
Blue
3×3
10
3
1
Green
3×3
12
4
1
Green
4×4
16
5
1
Green
4×4
16
6
2 (6F-7F)
Yellow
3×3
12
7
3 (8F-10F)
Yellow
3×3
14
8
2 (11F-12F)
Yellow
4×4
24
9
3 (13F-15F)
Yellow
4×4
24
10
4 (16F-19F)
Red
4×4
24
During the player's first playthrough in Black 2, the beginning floors will feature scripted cutscenes with the gate Trainer going over the mechanics of Black Tower, and those floors will contain fewer trainers than usual. The trainer count on each floor is established prior to the placement of the Boss Trainer's room, and may vary slightly from the listed figure depending on how many Trainers were originally in the room before being displaced by the Boss.
Items
Upon defeating the Boss Trainer of an area, the player is rewarded with one or two items within a rotation, as presented below.
In addition, players of Black 2 will also receive the Tower key to send to White 2 players upon completing Area 5 for the first time.
Trainers
Non-Boss Trainers that can be battled will all be from the following Trainer classes. Each class uses only Pokémon that award effort values in a single predetermined stat, and gives a specific type of hint after being defeated:
If a male Backpacker or Psychic is in the same room as the gate Trainer, or on a different floor, their hint will be replaced by the generic message "Those are some skills! Don't you go losing to anyone, now!" If a Gentleman or Rich Boy is in the same room as the Doctor, their hint will become "Oww! Come on. Take it easy on me!" No matter what Trainer class the gate Trainer is, their hint either describes the direction to the Boss Trainer's room (which is always one room north of the room that contains the gate) in areas 1-5, or identifies the numbered floor that the Boss Trainer is on (possibly the current floor) in areas 6-10.
After the gate Trainer has been defeated, all hints that relate to the whereabouts of that Trainer will be replaced by generic messages.
Normal Trainers use two randomly selected Pokémon from their personal pool. Each of these Pokémon has a randomly generated level (within the level range for its area, which is reduced by 5 levels in Easy Mode and increased by 5 levels in Challenge Mode), gender (if the Pokémon's species has genders), and Ability (from among its possible non-Hidden Abilities). Both Pokémon will match in level, but not necessarily in gender. Trainers give out $40 times the level of their Pokémon after being defeated, except Rich Boys, Ladies, Gentlemen, and Socialites, who give $200 times the level of their Pokémon. Opposing Pokémon will not hold any items except Berries, and only for Trainers that are sufficiently far: most Trainer classes begin using sets that include Berries starting with Area 5, Doctors begin doing so in Area 7, and Rich Boys, Ladies, Gentlemen, and Socialites will never use Pokémon that hold items.
The Boss Trainers always use a fixed set of three Pokémon. Benga is the Boss Trainer of Area 10 in Black 2, and upon first visit in White 2 (but only if the player hasn't yet completed Area 10 of White Treehollow first). Players of White 2 will face Janna instead of Benga on subsequent visits. Each Boss Trainer has their Pokémon with three levels more and gives the player $600 more than the previous area's Boss Trainer.
Area 1
Normal Trainers in Area 1 have Pokémon whose levels range from 47 to 50 in Normal Mode.
Related cards Cards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format. Cards listed with a green background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats.
Aside from Benga, the Boss Trainers follow an alphabetical naming pattern, having initials A through J in the English versions, and ア a through ワ wa in Japanese versions.
With 20 floors, Black Tower is tied with White Treehollow for having the most accessible floors out of any known location in the Pokémon world.
Scientist Jacorey, who can be battled on higher floors, claims to be the designer of Black Tower.
Youngster
Lass
School Kid ♂
School Kid ♀
Scientist ♂*
Scientist ♀
Psychic ♂
Psychic ♀
Backpacker ♂
Backpacker ♀
Waiter*
Waitress
Rich Boy*
Lady*
Gentleman*
Socialite*
Doctor
