HM Slaves

When we capture Pokémon and put them on our team specifically to teach them HMs, there is this term that many of us like to refer as "HM slave." Oftentimes, these Pokémon tend to carry HMs in three-fourth of their move slots, and sometimes all four.

Anyway, overall, what are your thoughts on slaving Pokémon for HM-related purposes and whatnot? Do you do such things yourself, and if so, which Pokémon do you usually go with? Why do you?

I usually have HM slaves in my saves, but I decided not to have one in my play through of Pokemon X for some reason. Can't help but feel a little bit bad every time I catch a fairly below average Pokemon, chuck it in my team and make it my HM slave. It must feel so used.

I usually try to balance out my HM usage among my Pokémon early game, but as I develop my team I end up with at least one HM slave. :(

The necessity of HM Slaves bothers me. I don't see why we can't overwrite HMs the same way we do TMs yet, if they're not going to make all HMs as useful in battle as Surf/Waterfall. I usually have one Pokemon that can learn Cut and Strength I store away in boxes, and teach whatever is on my team Fly, Surf and Waterfall.

Ideally, I wouldn't want to use a HM slave. Even if pokemon themselves technically have no feeling towards it, it makes me feel bad to use a pokemon for the purpose of a slave. However since I don't really want my main team to learn Cut and the other assortment of useless HMs, I always carry one around either in my team or PC. Usually it's a pokemon from the first route so Rattata, Bunnelby etc. And yeah, that's it. I teach my main pokemon surf/strength/waterfall/fly however. The other ones I'd honestly rather use a HM slave for. ;__;

I usually use Paras since it can use Cut and Flash. Otherwise I use whatever Water-type I feel like for Waterfall/Dive/Whirlpool.

What I dislike most about using HM slaves is that, since they're not very useful in terms of battling, in most cases, it feels as if I'm wasting party slots, which gives some sort of a sour-y feeling. If it weren't for that, it likely wouldn't have been an issue. Though, to get through games and whatnot, I'm still required to have at least one or two on my team; I suppose I'm able to spread these things among each and every of my members equally instead of having slaves and whatnot, but oftentimes, HMs ruin their overall move-set, which I don't wish to see happen.

Of all Pokémon that I've ever caught for HM-related purposes, I'd say my most favorite would have to be Biberal. Although it's quite average in terms of design (with its stats also being somewhat low), it's still able to learn a ton of HM moves, such as Surf, Rock Smash, Strength, and so forth. I feel that it was designed for them. Plus, Biberal is also quite easy to find, especially in fourth generation of games.

With all this said and done, I often wish that they would implement some feature to help us avoid need of slaving Pokémon for HMs. One idea I have is including two extra slots to each member of your party; moves that are put into these slots could only be used outside of battle, and not in. In our four default slots, however, things would be all normal.

I think the only time I have fully used a HM Slave in the Pokemon games is in the 4th gen games. I recall the the Pokemon I used as one was Bibarel.

I usually have a Fly slave, but the rest of the moves I tend to teach my Pokémon on the go and delete them afterwards, then replace them with the move relearner.

P.S.: If people didn't call them "slaves", they wouldn't even care about using a Pokémon just for HMs. Bibarel looks derpy, but is awesome as an HM slave, and has a cool HA to troll people with.

I used Tropius + Wailmer in Ruby/Emerald and Bibarel + Tropius in Platinum. Together they learn all the 8 HMs in those respective games.
I don't like wasting moveslots on my battling Pokemon with HMs. Only Surf and Waterfall are actually useful in battle. Dive, Fly, Rock Climb and Strength can be used but there are much better options. Cut, Whirlpool and Rock Smash are way too weak and Flash and Defog (in-game) are absolutely useless.

I use them for when the HM moves aren't good, like Cut and Rock Smash. I didn't have an HM slave in Y so it was kind of a pain to go through the game, I kept having to switch back and forth.

At least when I'm done with the game I can basically fly everywhere/went everywhere already, so I just delete the bad HMs.

Cerberus87 said:

I usually have a Fly slave, but the rest of the moves I tend to teach my Pokémon on the go and delete them afterwards, then replace them with the move relearner.

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That sounds like a nice plan, and I would've done the same. Though, I could imagine it to be a bit of hassle to be constantly visiting move-deleter and re-learner to remove HMs and teach forgotten moves, haha. Personally, I lean more towards ease and simplicity.

Peitharchia said:

That sounds like a nice plan, and I would've done the same. Though, I could imagine it to be a bit of hassle to be constantly visiting move-deleter and re-learner to remove HMs and teach forgotten moves, haha. Personally, I lean more towards ease and simplicity.

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I remember I kept the moves until a major battle. Also, there are plenty of Pokémon that can function well with only three or even two effective moves, so the loss of a moveslot due to HM doesn't hurt them much.

Before the E4, I'd pull out my slave Murkrow, Fly around and relearn all the necessary moves. It helped that they gave us a beach full of Luvdisc with Heart Scales. :P

As sad as it seems to have to make Pokémon do something like this, there are unfortunately times I find myself catching something to use them for, especially in RSE and DPPt, where I would often use Marill or Bibarel respectively. In later games like Gen V and XY they weren't as necessary, which was good, though.

I almost always use an HM slave, for horrible HMs such as Cut and Rock Smash. The only game I didn't use one for was X/Y, since these two moves weren't required to beat the game.

When choosing an HM slave, I don't put much thought into it. I usually just go with the first Pokemon I find (assuming it can learn Cut and Rock Smash). Pokemon like Zigzagoon and Rattata.

I believe it would be pretty cool if Pokémon games were generally similar to X and Y as far as HMs go. For example, paths would be blocked by rocks, boulders, trees, seas, and so forth, and to get through, we would need Rock Smash, Strength, Cut, and Surf, respectively. However, if they choose, they could also incorporate some additional path of sorts which we would take to get around. These alternative routes, however, could be more long and filled with more trainers, so that they wouldn't be an easy-way-out, so to speak.