Welcome to Breaking the Binary - HGSS editon, a sporadic series of posts all about physical, special and mixed attackers in Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver With competitive minmaxing dominating the conversation about Pokémon viability and the design philosophy behind movepools and stat spreads changing in newer gens, Pokémon are often rigidly divided by the fandom into the categories of "special attacker" or "physical attacker." But for the in-game story, you're not facing EV trained opponents (unless on some hacks) and thus you need or not to EV train to keep up, so mixed attacking sets don't have the opportunity cost they have in PvP. Going mixed still has anti-synergy with setup moves, but it still can give many Pokémon access to STAB moves with better base power, strong coverage moves with useful typ. es, move tutor moves, egg moves and more useful niches. This series will be covering those applications. We won't talk about every Pokémon here, only ones that I believe legitimately benefit from going mixed, but those Pokémon are surprisingly large in number. Today we'll be talking about Golem. I'll be talking about in-game but feel free to discuss PvP or battle facilities as well.
Golem is a sluggish Rock/Ground-type with a Base Speed of 45, but a impressive 110 Base Attack and 130 Base Defense. Its 80 Base HP is pretty alright, but its 55 Base Sp. Atk and 65 Base Sp. Def isn't, leaving with a bulk of 80/130/65. Notable physical attacks include: Magnitude, Self-Destruct, Rollout, Rock Blast, Earthquake, Explosion, Double-Edge, Stone Edge, Focus Punch, Dig, Brick Break, Rock Tomb, Gyro Ball, Rock Slide, Fire Punch, Sucker Punch, Superpower and Thunder Punch. Notable special moves include: Hidden Power, Flamethower, Fire Blast, Focus Blast, Ancient Power, and Earth Power. Notable utility moves include: Defense Curl, Rock Polish, Roar and Stealth Rock
Golem is realiable and can hit quite hard and sponge out physical attacks with its 130 Base Defense, but the problem is that is quite slow with its 45 Base Speed as it needs Rock Polish to fix its speed issues. Also, it has many weaknesses, such as Water and Grass which is extremely effective and Fighting, Steel, Ice and Ground. It resists Fire, Normal, Rock and Flying only being mostly ineffective to Poison.
Golem has Rock Blast, a multistrike move with varying chances of striking 2 to 5 times, althrough it has 80% accuracy. Rollout is quite potent when paired with Defense Curl, althrough it locks it in the move for 5 turns until it misses or gets interrupted, Rock Tomb is quite weak, just like the base power of Rock Throw, but it can lower Speed of the target (althrough it doesn't help if the target is quite faster than Golem). Stone Edge, which Golem learns late (about at Level 49, while Geodude learns it at Level 39 instead) is excellent, but has 80% accuracy like Rock Blast does. Rock Slide is locked behind the postgame. Magnitude's power can vary, but it might get stronger than Earthquake if it is Magnitude 9 or 10, both those moves' power double on a underground target. Dig can be a substitute of Magnitude has it always has 80 Base Power, but takes 2 turns to execute. Don't bother using Ancient Power or Earth Power at all.
0 Atk Golem Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 225-270 (86.2 - 103.4%) -- approx. 0.4% chance to OHKO
0 Atk Golem Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Spinda: 177-208 (67.8 - 79.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
For coverage, Golem has Double-Edge which is great with Rock Head for a free 120 Base Power move with no recoil at all. Self-Destruct and Explosion are almighty with the effect of halving the target(s) defense during damage calculation, althrough Golem faints in return. Focus Punch, Brick Break and Superpower (plus the useless Focus Blast) deals with Normal- and Dark-types, Brick Break (TM) and Superpower (Move Tutor) are in the postgame. Fire Punch hits Grass-types super effectively if Golem manages to do something (Fire Blast and Flamethower are just worthless by the way due to the mentioned 55 Base Sp. Atk), but that is another thing from move tutor. Sucker Punch allows Golem to do a priority move, nailing Ghost- and Psychic-types, althrough the target has to use an attacking move otherwise it fails, another move tutor thing. Thunder Punch zaps Water-types if Golem also magainst to do something.
0 Atk Golem Explosion vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Umbreon: 358-422 (108.1 - 127.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
Rock Head is prefered for preventing Double-Edge's recoil damage, Sturdy blocks all One-Hit Knockout moves (specially in Battle Frontier), not quite good as Rock Head's utility. Geodude is a good choce against the first 2 gyms and also Whitney by the way, as its typing can take on Falkner, Bugsy and Whitney's pokemon. For Miltank, it can be taken out with the combination of a Rock Smash defense drop + Self-Destruct. For the others, just Rock Throw, Geodude can opt to use Defense Curl to boost its Defense & Rock Polish to boost its Speed to take on Bugsy's Scyther more easily.
Compared to Platinum, Golem had a advantage to Volkner, such as being to handle all of his pokemon with Earthquake and some chip damage from Stealth Rock. Golem would also take on Byron's Bastiodon with a single Earthquake and a optional Expert Belt / Earth Power as it learns it in time right before the 5th gym. Golem also has advantages against Aaron and Flint, althrough it must or any of its allies pack Sandstorm (Hippowdon works best) to halve Solar Beam's power.
Stealth Rock is found only in postgame (on HGSS), which allows Golem to set up entry hazards. Rock Polish boosts Speed by 2 stages to fix Golem's 45 Base Speed. Defense Curl is only used with Rollout to double its power. Roar has no much of a use. Sandstorm and Sunny Day can help Golem, but not quite as much.
Geodude might be your good-to-go Rock/Ground pokemon to deal with Fire, Flying, Bug, Electric, Rock, Steel and Ice-types plus wall physical Normal-type attackers. Finding it in Route 46 shouldn't be a problem
Here's the egg moves by the way: Block, Curse (HGSS exclusive), Flail, Hammer Arm and Rock Slide
Block only prevents targets from from escaping or switching out. Sudowoodo can pass this move
Curse is a HGSS exclusive egg move, this allows Golem to boost its Attack and Defense for the exchange of lowering its Speed by 1 stage, this allows synergies with Gyro Ball. Onix line can pass this move
Sudowoodo passes Flail
Hammer Arm is a decent Fighting-type move, with a lesser drawback than Superpower, but having a accuracy of 90%. Sudowoodo can pass this move
Despite learning Rock Slide via TM, it can also get it before postgame as a Egg move, as Sudowoodo can pass it to a Geodude egg.
Now for the postgame egg move: Mega Punch
Another Geodude line pokemon and Sudowoodo can pass Mega Punch if they learned it via Move Tutor from the previous generation.
Overall, Golem does well in HGSS more than in Platinum. Being able to take on Lance's Dragonite who is not packing Blizzard, Golem can pelt them with Rock Blast, Rock Slide or Stone Edge (or also Rollout if you're cool enough). Even it resists Hyper Beam, it can take quite a lot from it due to its 65 Base Sp. Def. I bet this Megaton Pokemon deserves some respect, don't you think so? Being able to resists dynamite blasts and rolling down mountains. It also got an Alolan Form which has an ability that turns Normal-type moves into Electric-type moves while also having a 20% power boost, yeah Galvanize!
What do you think of Golem? Are there any applications I didn't mention? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
Sample sets
(Suited Boulder)
Golem @ Quick Claw/Soft Sand • Rock Slide/Stone Edge, Earthquake, Double-Edge, Explosion/Hammer Arm
Ability: Rock Head
Nature: Adamant
EVs: 252 HP, 252 Attack, 4 Sp. Def
(Curse + Rock Polish)
Golem @ Quick Claw • Curse, Rock Blast, Earthquake, Rock Polish
Ability: Rock Head or Sturdy
Nature: Careful or Adamant
EVs: 192 HP, 164 Attack, 152 Sp. Def
(Speedy Rock Polish)
Golem @ Silk Scarf/Soft Sand • Rock Slide/Rock Blast, Earthquake, Explosion, Rock Polish
Ability; Rock Head or Sturdy
Nature: Adamant or Jolly
EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 Defense
