Do you use HM slaves?

One of the biggest annoyances of several older gens is being forced to distribute HMs across your team. So as the title says, do you use HM slaves?

I haven't really used one per se, but when I was going through with a relatively recent playthrough of Emerald, I realised that I had chosen to use a Pelipper, and I was gobsmacked to realise that he didn't learn Dive or Waterfall. This resulted in me having to get a Tentacool and teach him those HMs, and swap out my team for him when I needed to use those HMs. This especially came to a head when I was about to start doing the Seafloor Cavern.

I don't really use HM slaves anymore tbh, I might teach a couple of HMs to the same Pokemon, like Strength and Surf, moves that are actually useful in battle. It is so annoying some of the HM implementations in Pokemon tho, like putting in waterfall literally just to block off the E4 is ridiculous and I can see why people might need to use one!

Nope, not anymore. When I replayed White2 recently, I didn't even have any Pokemon with HMs on my team until the 8th gym. Whenever I wanted to fly somewhere, I'd just take my flier Pokemon out of my pc then deposit it again. However, I used to since HMs were basically required in generations 3, 4 and 6.

HMs are still annoying and outdated, so I'm glad they're gone.

HM Slaves? Me? Yeah, Totally .

I usually had a varied-enough team to cover the major ones, but might have swapped in a pokémon for a significant-yet-limited one, like Dive in Emerald (if you go to Sootopolis City before triggering the end-game madness you can discard it and just Fly).
In my last couple of saves though, as a way of helping me decide on my team I decided to make sure they could cover every HM in the game. Given this was in Gen IV, that's a lot! I can quite easily forgo Fly in Kanto or Unova though.

I'm using a few in my current Pokemon Platinum playthrough due to the ridiculous amount of HMs required in Gen 4. I usually have one in my party at a time and swap them around when necessary.

I've usually made my parties so that one is not completely necessary long term. Sometimes though a 'mon will be in the party temporarily who serves no purpose other than to use one particular HM, and I know that more than once I have made use of the almighty HM slave Bidoof long-term in the Sinnoh games.

I use them shamelessly

It's a painful feeling when I can't learn a good move because "Cut" is taking up a slot.

For useless HMs like Cut, Rock Smash, Whirpool, Rock Climb, and Dive, yes. For others, no. Strength is hit-and-miss but I can usually fit it onto one of my team members without offending my sensibilities, Fly I just put on the early-route bird because their movepools are generally limited so it doesn't make a difference, and Surf/Waterfall are both great. I just do without Flash and Defog.

I'm pretty sure back in the day I did just to get through the story and then tossed them in my box when I was done with them.

Yes. Especially in the old games when you enter the dark cave. You mast have an all-in-one pokemon haha

No, I prefer a team that walks with me as I clear the path from start to finish. Except HM Fly, because that can be done without crossing routes.

I usually get HM slave for moves like Flash, Cut, Strength, Whirlpool and Rock Climb. Those are moves that I don't really use in-game and I don't like the idea that they should block my move slots.

Never really used HM slaves usually build my squad around which poekmon can learn the need HM granted I Did use a Bibarel with the intention of giving it most of the HMs but ended up only teaching it a few as it was a beast on my platinum run and when I moved it to Pokemon Y it walked the league with ice beam and superpower

Duh, my male Incineroar became my HM slave when i first got him as an Litten https://pokemonfanon.fandom.com/wiki/Filemon_(Incineroar), now that i love this tiger i think i should train him. I also have more of them

Yes and it's a bother. I love certain romhacks or fangames that remove the need for this altogether.

[ Aegagrus ]

Yes when we were younger, but no for when we play through now. When we play through now, we distribute the HMs among our team for continence and also for a bit of a challenge when it comes to planning movesets.

No, it's really rare the cases when I actually use an HM Slave. I usually keep one for fly and Surf, but that's about it, the other ones I delete them as soon as I find the Move Deleter or stop needing them.