Let's discuss HM slaves!

[Sheep]

HM slaves, luckily now a thing of the past, were Pokémon used primarily for the purpose of helping remove or traverse past roadblocks, such as immovable trees, rocks, water that needed to be crossed, etc.

What were some of your most-used HM slaves? I think Wailmer was my major one throughout RSE, since it can learn Surf, Waterfall, Dive, Strength, and even Rock Smash. Linoone and Tropius were also good fillers.

 

[Irn-Mew]

Zigzagoon/Linoone was a good choice because it also had the Pickup ability, so could get a bunch of useful items while it was in your party as the HM slave.

 

[Corveone]

Golduck. Could learn all HMs except Cut and Fly, and was obtainable in nearly every game that had HMs.

Pelipper. Surf + Fly combo. Granted Mantine and Dragonite could do it first, but Wingull was very easy to find since its addition in Gen 3.

 

[Rock_Salazar]

Gen 3 I would specifically use Linoone, Pelipper, or Tropius. Fr/Lg I would use Meowth for cut and flash, plus pick up was very useful. Gen 4 I would use Bibarel because it could learn all HMs except Defog and Fly. Gen 5 I got creative and used Swanna for Fly, Surf, and Dive.

 

[Devalue]

Generation 2: Likely Furret for Cut, Surf, and Strength.
Generation 3: Zigzagoon. Learned a lot of HMs.
Generation 4: Bidoof (or Bibarel).
Generation 5: ...Maybe Panpour? Picks up Cut, Surf, Waterfall, and Dive.
Generation 6: Mainly remembers Talonflame, as a Flame Body Pokemon with Fly. Made sense for breeding. Probably used Zigzagoon again here. Appears early.

Usually kept a separate Pokemon for Fly. Rarely knew much else. Recalls using Farfetch'd in some game for that. Added Cut to that list, if nothing else. Potentially False Swipe too.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Note: I rarely if ever use Fly since I like to walk to places, so I often skip it entirely when picking Pokemon to use HMs.

Kanto: Paras learns Cut and Flash which are really the only HMs you need until you reach Fuschia City. At that point I switch over to Krabby, since Flash is only necessary for Rock Tunnel and I can use Cut/Surf/Strength to get through everything. It also learns Rock Smash in FRLG. For FRLG's postgame, I really only need to use anything else for Icefall Cave, since there's only one Waterfall that actually blocks off an obstacle.

Johto: If I didn't pick Cyndaquil or Chikorita, I use Crocanaw (hatched if I use Feraligatr on my team) to run Cut/Surf/Strength/Waterfall, and Golduck for Rock Smash/Whirlpool/Rock Climb. Otherwise I use Furret for Cut/Surf/Strength/Rock Smash and Golduck for Whirlpool/Waterfall/Rock Climb.

Hoenn: If I'm not using a starter, Treecko has everything I need up until I get Surf. After that point, Corphish has Cut/Surf/Rock Smash/Waterfall to get me to most places around the map, and a Tropius/Wailmer duo for anything that requires Flash, Dive, or Strength. (i.e. Victory Road or anything underwater.)

Sinnoh: Bibarel can learn all the necessary HMs, leaving only the unnecessary Fly and Defog. I don't usually care about the former, but if I didn't pick Turtwig or Chimchar, I use a Prinplup (hatched if I actually use Empoleon on my team), for the remaining two HMs and Defog, or just another Bibarel otherwise, and maybe a Starly for the one place where Defog is actually mandatory.

BW1: I'd go Patrat for Cut, then switch to Dwebble for Cut/Strength, then Cubchoo for Cut/Surf/Strength, and finally a Bibarel with Cut/Surf/Strength/Waterfall for the postgame.

B2W2: Corphish since it can learn all the non-Fly HMs you need until the Abyssal Ruins.

XY: I usually go with Froakie as an HM slave if I'm not using a starter in my team, otherwise I use Bunnelby up until I need Waterfall and Corphish afterwards.

TL;DR: Corphish is an HM MVP that's perfect for the job in any game where it's available.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

My absolute go-to HM slave in the later portions of Gen 3 Hoenn, such as the Seafloor Cavern, used to be Spheal because of Lueroi's Sapphire walkthrough. In hindsight, I actually feel like this does a disservice to Spheal since it's super cute and friend-shaped. Now I use Tropius for that role. I recall in my Ground-type monotype run of Sapphire back in 2022 (gosh, that feels so recent and yet so distant), I taught Swampert Dive and then swapped it out with Dive via Move Deleter and then used the move deleter again upon reaching the other end of Ever Grande City. (Maybe I kept Waterfall despite it being a weaker Surf, just so I could get through Victory Road. I don't remember so well.)

In FRLG, there's only five HMs until the Sevii Islands (two of them being Strength and Surf which are good moves in battle and of them being Fly which lets me go back to Pallet Town without buying repels for Diglett Cave again), so I usually teach Diglett or Meowth HM01 "Cut" and Clefairy Flash. Bellsprout, exclusive to LG, gets the MVP award for learning both Cut and Flash. I did use Bellsprout in my "baby's first nuzlocke (with some caveats)" and it was pretty helpful since I didn't get the Viridian Forest Pikachu. (If I am using the Viridian Forest Pikachu in casual play, I usually don't get a grass-type mon, unless it's a Bulbasaur run rather than the usual Squirtle run, or even a Charmander run.) Once I get to the Sevii Islands, I usually make sure to bring something that can learn Rock Smash until the in-game PC storage system starts working in the Sevii Islands.

I actually can't remember the HM slaves I use in Crystal right now. That's about the extent of it though.

 

[Lysander]

Zigzagoon was my preferred HM slave in my recent Ruby playthrough for both its Pickup ability and for the wide range of HMs it could learn. For most of the game I had two battling Pokémon on my team and four Zigzagoons collecting items and providing HM usage.

 

[ReKoil]

I don't really remember what I used in every single game, as I didn't really have dedicated HM mons until much more recently; like the last year or 2. Before that I would always just catch a team of Pokemon I hadn't used yet that could learn the HM's I'd need.

Having replayed ORAS multiple times in the last several years I got to say that the Mudkip line is a HM powerhouse in Hoenn. It can learn all 3 of the water HM's as well as Strength.