HM slave: Difference between revisions

An HM slave, sometimes referred to as an HM mule (known in the Japanese fandom as 秘伝要員 Secret Agent), is a Pokémon which is in the party not to be used in battle, but to provide the use of HM moves or other moves usable outside of battle that typically are not suitable for a powerful team. An HM slave itself is usually considered to be a Pokémon that can have all four of its moves taken up by HMs, and occasionally by any move usable outside of battle.

Most HM slaves are common Pokémon, typically those which can be captured on the first routes of a given game. A majority of them are Template:Type2, which is fitting, considering that this type is shared with several HMs, and Rock Smash, though it is Fighting, is also usually available to them as well. Template:Type2 Pokémon are also common, as they also have three HM moves which share their type, and many are also able to use at least one or two of the other five. Because of these two tendencies, as well as its typing, Bibarel is often regarded as the ideal HM slave.

Due to both Fly and Defog sharing the Template:Type2, Pokémon of this type are also considered to be good HM slaves in Generation IV, especially considering Defog's effect does nothing to harm the opponent directly at all (while Flash lowered the opponent's accuracy, causing moves to sometimes miss, Defog merely lowers their evasiveness). HM slaves like Tropius and Pelipper are ideal for these roles since they are capable of using other HM moves along with Fly and Defog.

Because of the fact that many HM slaves are not well-versed in both normal and water HM moves as well as the four-move limit, most choose to have a pair of HM slaves, typically one for the more common tasks such as Rock Smash, Cut, etc. and another for less commonly-needed HMs such as Waterfall or Flash. The latter are often set in anticipation of a cave or other obstacle that requires several uncommon HMs. Some moves, however (typically Fly and Surf) are needed so frequently and are powerful enough that some trainers choose to simply add them to their team's moveset rather than have a slave for them.

Typically, legendary Pokémon like Lugia, Mewtwo, and especially Mew and Arceus can learn many HM moves. Smeargle, Mew and Arceus are the only Pokémon that can learn all HM moves, and Dragonite can learn all HM moves in Generation V.

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