H – HMs

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge my nostalgia.

HM stands for Hidden Machine, and is almost exactly the same as a TM, a Technical Machine, in that they are both items which can be used to teach Pokemon moves. This is useful, because it means that Pokemon have a chance to learn moves that they normally wouldn’t be able to learn by just levelling up.

The difference between the two is that while TMs are typical moves that are known by some Pokemon (such as Thunderbolt, Solar Beam, Earthquake) HMs are not only Pokemon moves, they are abilties that can be used outside of battle. That, and typically TMs are one use only, whereas HMs can be used as many time as you like.

The HMs, as of the last generation/game, are:

• HM01 – Cut (cut down trees)
• HM02 – Fly (between towns)
• HM03 – Surf (across water)
• HM04 – Strength (move blocks)
• HM05 – Waterfall (travel up waterfalls)
• HM06 – Rock Smash (smash!)
• HM07 – Dive (go underwater)

Often you need these abilties to get through certain parts of the game. Hidden items require you to cut down a tree to get into the area, waterfall, surf and dive are used to navigate water routes, and rock smash/strength can move or smash the boulders in your way in caves. Quite often this means that they can place lots of things in a cave you go through right at the start, but because there’s a rock in the way, you can’t explore all of it until later in the game when you’ve defeated the appropriate gym leader and got the HM & badge that allows you to use it.

TMs also have numbers to identify them, and of course the move that they teach, prior to generation 5 they were single use only, so you had to be really sure about who you were teaching it to, but in generations 5 and 6, they too made those multiple use items. It’s just nice to be able to have a little more choice in what moves your Pokemon can learn, especially since there are so many of them and so many variables with types and stab damage, and all of the rest of the background numbers you don’t have to notice unless you are really into all those numbers (hint, I sometimes am).

 

Pokemon of the Day

H is for Honedge

Resembling a sword from medieval times, this Pokemon has a silver blade, and an engraved scabbard that it will hold in it’s blue sash when it attacks. The blue sash has been known to suck the life force from anyone it wraps around.

It’s a sword! What more can I say! It’s really cool and it looks like a sword. And it evolved into two swords! And then a sword with a shield! As a larper, I love this, probably more than I should for it simply being a sword Pokemon, but there we go, I never said I was sensible. And, you know, I like the colour blue.