Shall We Take a Trip?
williamgu December 24, 2012Shall We Take a Trip?,
Yay! Dudes, it’s holiday! Celebrate with your family, friends, or alone! However you see fit, just make the most of it.
Honestly, though, I kind of hate holiday. It’s like, nothing can be done without extraordinary effort. I had to drive seven hours to get to South Carolina and, let me tell you, South Carolina is not a fun place to be around holiday (particularly the Myrtle Beach area). Everyone else has left to go someplace else.
It’s kind of funny, with all of the driving I have done this year (ten hours to Nationals in Indianapolis, ten hours to regionals in Fort Wayne) and flying to Milwaukee, the worst trip is still the holiday trip. There is something about that strip of Interstate 95 between DC and Richmond that is clogged all the time for absolutely no reason. This is why, when I was in college, I wouldn’t head home until 11:00 PM on December 23 (well, that and I generally dislike my family!)
If you are going to get anywhere in Pokémon, you’re going to need a buddy to travel with you. I don’t mean a “take one of these because the dudes in the tall grass are going to jump out at you” I mean a “you’re not going to cross that river because you don’t know Surf” kind of bud.
So here’s the problem with HMs. They are great for getting around, “keys” for opening up areas in your game. They stink as battle moves, though. No one is going to base their strategy around Waterfall. It is also difficult to switch around HMs on the fly – they can only be unlearned with the Move Deleter. So the modern Pokémon trainer is faced with the problem – how do I get all of my HMs to be useable without taking up slots on my super awesome team?
Well, I wish I could tell you that your holiday gift Pokémon was the best Pokémon of them all – Bidoof (you can follow it at @bidoof_bot on Twitter) but, instead, your HM buddy is its evolution, Bibarel.
Bibarel is your traveling companion (in Unova, at least). Out of the six HMs available in Unova – Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength, Waterfall, and Dive – Bibarel can learn all of them except Fly. I would argue, though, that Fly is only for lazy people who are unwilling to run/swim to all the locations they need to get to. Honestly, Fly is as unnecessary as repel. Seriously, if you’re a Fly user I bet you turn off battle animations too.
Bibarel is that little beaver dude. He is Normal/Water-type, the only Pokémon with that typing. You are not going to use Bibarel for battling, no. I know that it can have the Moody ability. I don’t care. This is what you do – load up Bibarel with the four HMs you really need to travel, Cut, Surf, Strength, and Waterfall. Add Bibarel to your party when you have someplace to go. When you get there, swap it out for the real team member that you need to use. Do not try to set up a Baton Pass Bibarel. Bibarel does not learn Baton Pass.
Hopefully, by now, you have arrived safely at your holiday destination and don’t have to worry about traveling anymore. If so, pop in a copy of Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (see what I did there? I’m old) and relax to the comedic stylings of the great Steve Martin and incredible John Candy. Bibarel has got you covered to get you anywhere else you need to go.
Written by William
@washinthesink
Proofed by Jared
@jaredtheunseen
Comments (6)
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It’s a shame he can’t learn Flash, though.
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WHERE IS YOUR HAND?!?! between two Bibarels… THOSE ARNT BIBARELS!!!!!
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I love Bibarel and I love this article. I especially love how no matter what Pokemon Will types about, whether or not it is directly related to his real life is irrelevant; when he’s done, it will be.
Great article, Will!
(Note: Waterfall is the only good HM.)
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Forgot about Bibarel. I’ve since traded one over from HeartGold as my travel buddy in Black 2. Thanks Will!
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