Triple Battle

Triple battles are one of the many forms of Pokémon battling, being popular with trainers in the region of Unova. As the name suggests, triple battles are a type of battle where each Trainer sends out three Pokémon at once. Due to this, they can be considered the successor to a double battles, with the only difference seemingly being the number of Pokémon. However, there are some restrictions that differentiate it from its predecessor other than the amount of Pokémon, such as placement.

A triple battle about to start

Placement

Placement is a major attribute of a triple battle, as a Pokémon on the left of the field cannot attack one on the right side, and vice-versa. A Pokémon in the center, however, is free to hit any Pokémon on the field, be it on the left side, the right side, or in the center. However, this comes at a cost of being vulnerable to every other Pokémon.

Abilities and moves

Certain abilities and moves can affect moves in triple or double battles. One example is Telepathy, which protects a Pokémon from receiving damage from its own teammates in triple or double battles, such as when a teammate uses Earthquake. Some moves can hit any opponent regardless of placement. These moves include:

Move	Type	Cat.
Acrobat	Flying	Physical
Aerial Ace	Flying	Physical
Aeroblast	Flying	Special
Air Slash	Flying	Special
Aura Sphere	Fighting	Special
Dark Pulse	Dark	Special
Dragon Pulse	Dragon	Special
Drill Peck	Flying	Physical
Bounce	Flying	Physical
Brave Bird	Flying	Physical
Chatter	Flying	Special
Fly	Flying	Physical
Freefall	Flying	Physical
Gust	Flying	Special
Healing Wave	Psychic	Status
Peck	Flying	Physical
Perish Song	Normal	Status
Pluck	Flying	Physical
Sky Attack	Flying	Physical
Water Pulse	Water	Special
Windstorm	Flying	Special
Wing Attack	Flying	Physical

Moving

The Pokémon on the left and right have the option to 'move', this option allows the user to switch with the Pokémon currently in the middle, moving has no priority and none of the effects of switching apply to moving. A Pokémon can move even if it is the last Pokémon on its team. When there are only two Pokémon left on the field and they are non-adjacent to each other, then both Pokémon will automatically be moved to the center of the field.

In the manga

Pokémon Master Black and White

In the second chapter, Monta was shown in a triple battle with Cheren, using Snivy, Hiyappu, and Dangoro. Cheren used Basslao, Tepig, and Yanappu.

Trivia

Triple battling as a mechanic was introduced in Pokémon Battrio, an arcade games using three Pokémon pucks on each side.
Interestingly, the introduction of this form of battling keeps the pattern of every odd generation since the first adding one more Pokémon to the maximum amount to be sent out at one time in a battle.