HM Slaves

Do you use HM Slaves in the games? Pokémon that are only on your team to carry 4 HM, and not to fight?
Is it the classic generic brown normal-typed critter in the early routes, like Bidoof?
Or do you spread your HM evenly amongst your other team members?

I always use HM Slaves. While having 6 Pokémon is great. I don't usually end up using them all, and normally I only have like 3-4 Pokémon I actively use. I always try to pick the HM slave on the HM it can learn, so most of the time the early routes Normal Types do the job just fine.

Slavery is so 1800's.

I used to spread my HMs across my entire team and I was super cool with it until you FORCED me to get an HM slave. I still feel sorry for the poor Zigzagoon...

Graine said:

Slavery is so 1800's.

I used to spread my HMs across my entire team and I was super cool with it until you FORCED me to get an HM slave. I still feel sorry for the poor Zigzagoon...

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You wouldn't have used Zigzagoon otherwise and it would be left in a box anyway.
But what's the use in wasting a move slot with Rock Smash? And what if none of the Pokémon in the team you want can learn Surf?
Also I'm not forcing you, I'm only bestowing my superior knowledge of Pokémon onto you.

I usually give Surf to a main team member, then I'll have other hms on other Pokemon.
Surf is a really good water move in battle.

In oras I gave Marill, Dive, Waterfall and Surf since Dive and Waterfall are terrible moves in battle. I think I just grabbed a Marill out of the pc.

In Y I used a Chatot for flying during the game but now I use Talonflame since it has flame body for breeding.

Maserati777 said:

I usually give Surf to a main team member, then I'll have other hms on other Pokemon.
Surf is a really good water move in battle.

In oras I gave Marill, Dive, Waterfall and Surf since Dive and Waterfall are terrible moves in battle. I think I just grabbed a Marill out of the pc.

In Y I used a Chatot for flying during the game but now I use Talonflame since it has flame body for breeding.

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Surf and Strength are usually the only HMs my team members will have, because they're pretty good. I had a Floatzel with Waterfall instead of Surf once, because it was a Physical Attacker, and I used a slave for Surf. In ORAS, there's way too many Water-Typed HMs :(

That's pretty funny, I have a Talonflame for this exact same reason lol, pretty useful for when you want to go to the IV Judge without having to switch Pokémon all the time!

Sinnoh seems to be the only region where I actually want to use an HM Slave, and that's likely due to the easy availability of Bibarel who could learn nearly every HM in the game. That's definitely the best Pokemon to waste your weak HMs on, though Linoone comes close.

Rather than train 3-4 Pokémon like most people, I tend to train 30-40 so I can keep them severely underleveled. As a result I'm constantly switching out party-members, so I never considered it a big deal to run to the PC to take out something with Cut or Rock Smash. So no, I don't usually use a traditional HM slave. ^^

Hikamaru said:

Sinnoh seems to be the only region where I actually want to use an HM Slave, and that's likely due to the easy availability of Bibarel who could learn nearly every HM in the game. That's definitely the best Pokemon to waste your weak HMs on, though Linoone comes close.

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Indeed, and Sinnoh had a lot of weird new HM moves, like Rock Climb and Defog. You also severly needed Flash in some areas...I kept 2 HM slaves in my Sinnoh games :|

Alakazam17 said:

Rather than train 3-4 Pokémon like most people, I tend to train 30-40 so I can keep them severely underleveled. As a result I'm constantly switching out party-members, so I never considered it a big deal to run to the PC to take out something with Cut or Rock Smash. So no, I don't usually use a traditional HM slave. ^^

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That's a pretty interesting way to go! I've never seen that before, does it work well? Do you have a hard time against gyms?

Soapyyy said:

That's a pretty interesting way to go! I've never seen that before, does it work well? Do you have a hard time against gyms?

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It depends how underleveled they are, but it can often get fairly challenging. I lost like a dozen times to Guzma before finally deciding to train them a bit more. xD

Soapyyy said:

Indeed, and Sinnoh had a lot of weird new HM moves, like Rock Climb and Defog. You also severly needed Flash in some areas...I kept 2 HM slaves in my Sinnoh games :|

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I admit it was annoying. It was either use five Pokemon and have a Bibarel take your HMs, or spread them across your whole team but coming at the cost of useful moves.

also congrats on winning that supporter tier

I never HM slave. My teams are generally designed so every slot is essential, there's no room to waste a slot on something useless in battle. If I have to eliminate non-offensive moves and replace them with HMs in order to have room for 6 useful Pokémon on my team, that's what I'll do.