The WEIRD History of Non-HM Field Moves 

Most of them i Didn't even know they were even a thing like even cut being used to cut grass down I didn't know you could do that

Can you make a video on Apricorn juice and the PokéAthlon Dome?

My favorite was Secret Power to get bases - I was young enough to be *enthralled* with that one, so I had to see every base and pick the 'best' one lol

I'm annoyed these moves stopped working outside of battle in generation VII. They cut out both the HM move functions as well as the regular move functions.

True, but Cut was an HM. This by the way touch the topic of abilities with effects outside battle, quite similar to the concept of Field Moves.

@@croma3375 i still think it's worth an honorable mention aside from its intended function

@@smolbrendan5978 It would be mentioned for sure in a video about HMs. Azure Flute said that it could be a next video, so just wait for it, simple as that.

@@croma3375 shrimple as 🦐👍

​​@@croma3375this is why the comment was saying "fun fact" instead of "you missed something"- (Not trying to be rude)

It was 10 years since XY released iirc, you need to let go

Those are the games that look old asf and feel clunky to play, it makes sense to refer to them that way

In my mind, Diamond and Pearl are still "the new Pokemon games" since I explicitly bought an SP back then to instead play gen 1-3 more...

​@@darkimpulse2829If you think 10 years is a lot you're probably 15 😂

@@jebalitabb8228 Sprite-based games age far better visually than those using 3D models. Sword/Shield on the other hand looked dated even when they first released. And clunky? Gens 1-5 actually gave players options instead of holding their hands throughout the whole game.

It was a neat idea in theory, but the fact that you had to waste precious move slots on moves that are, with few exceptions, extremely weak is was pretty bad design and HM's were honestly obnoxious. Field moves that aren't HMs are fine enough though.

@@Robbie_Haruna Yeah, a lot of people felt the same way. And instead of trying to find an actual solution-- like, say, buffing the moves so they'd be worth using up a move slot-- Game Freak just got rid of them. They swept the problem under the rug instead of fixing it. Besides, I've NEVER needed all four of my Pokemon's move slots to make it through the game. In my opinion, anyone who thinks you do either sucks at the game or is WAY too obsessed with efficiency.

@TheEmeraldWeirdo It's not a matter of difficulty. It's a matter of an already limiting system (four move slots,) being limited even farther because HM's are bad, and unless you're playing Gen 5, they're constantly needed to progress in dungeons. They can't just "buff," the moves simply because shit like Cut and Rock Smash would become early game nukes if they were made to be actually good. Dive and Fly are fundamentally flawed (though Fly is at least servicable in the main game,) Strength is only kind of decent (and rendered obsolete by many other Normal Type moves, and Surf and Waterfall are just all around good. In general, even if the moves were all made "good," there's a fundamental problem with the type overlap on these that actively would get in the way of smart team building. Most games have two or three water type HMs, 2 or 3 normal type ones is normal, one fighting and one flying. The variety just isn't there enough to make these work well by eating up a sizable chunk of move slots(still not sure how Rock Climb was a normal type move). If GameFreak was smart, they would just allow the usage of the moves on the field once you have the HM and the necessary Gym badge so long as something on your team can learn it, without actually needing to teach the move, the HM system was badly designed, but there were other alternatives than just dropping it entirely.

@@Robbie_Haruna Buffing them COULD work without making them overpowered, you just need to change the usual order of obtaining them. For instance, making Flash--a non-damaging move--the first HM instead of Cut or Rock Smash would allow you to make them stronger without handing the player a broken move. My personal ideas are to boost Rock Smash's power to 60 and reduce the chance of a Defense drop, and turning Cut into a 70 power Steel-type move with a high crit rate. So if the order of the first three HMs is Flash->Rock Smash->Cut, that would be a more or less balanced progression. And I agree that Rock Climb being a Normal-type move is weird. It should really be a Rock-type move. And the current movepool system would lend itself very well to bringing back field moves. They could make it so that a Pokemon can use a learned field move outside of battle even if it's not in their current moveset.

I think a "Field Move slot" would have fixed MOST of the problems with field moves. Like a move slot designated solely for learning field moves, a slot you don't get access to during battles. You could still put Field moves in your Regular, battle moves slots if you wanted too, but if you also had the option of a field move only slot, that would be great.

It's always so funny to me how so many HMs suck but then Surf exists and is one of the best water STABs possible

They just needed all of them to have 70-95 power. I think we’d be fine with them. But rock smash at only 40 power sucked

@@Vaughngn Especially back when the fighting type was dying to get good moves. Remember in Gen 2 when Heracross needed HP fighting to run a decent fighting stab? I think it's a symptom of gamefreak overestimating certain effects. 'Oh, it has a chance to lower defense, so the base power HAS to be below 60 to compensate, otherwise, it'd be broken!"

I guess it was to prevent you from just using them on every pokemon for battle. Keep some variety. Why bother with regular moves when you have an infinite supply of good teachable attacks.

@@LeviathanRX Your right. That makes a lot of sense. Though, they could have made hm's kinda sort decent, but make the real good shit expandable. Who knows.

Thank you! And yeah honestly I only remember vaguely learning about the camera zoom once before, years ago, and I'm sure most players simply got the TM for Flash and left it unused in their bag and finished the cave up normally, what a weird feature to have in one game and never bring back!

Wait what?! I didn't know that, jeez.

Never knew that either

I only found out a week ago replaying X, and I was shocked out of my mind. It’s so much more comfortable to play with the extended vision 😭 the rest of the game feels so cramped now!

Yeah, but you don't get Chansey till like the end of the game

I did this with Smeargle and Recycle in terms of Leppa Berry. Edit: You can also just use any Pokémon with Recover and Recycle up to the Elite 4. I personally used Porygon.

Actual dungeoneering skills? In my Pokémon game??

@@E4439Qv5 It's more likely than you think.

Oh yeah, the TM list is actually just kinda garbage in Gen 1!

Compatibility was also a bit weird. But lemme have my Solar Beam Lapras.

It makes more sense when you consider that the Move Relearner wasn't introduced until Gen 3. If you accidentally erased a move, those TMs would be the only way to relearn those signature moves.

@@Kamidio Worse. Chansey can’t learn softboiled in Gen 1 without the TM. That’s right, it’s a move that 2 Pokemon can learn, and only via TM. …Why?!

There were only 151 Pokémon at the time so widespread coverage didn’t really mean anything.

That is a fun fact about Milk Drink I didn't even catch!

Male Gogoat Milk Drink sounds cursed

Wait. There are 3 forms of Tauros but no Miltank?wow

theres absolutely rock smash in gen 5 i distinctly remember you could at least in b2w2

@@Rose-ez7yn Like I said, the only place is the one interaction in Clay Tunnel

I really dont mind HMs being gone, like at all. Yeah, it's imersive and in concept is neat, but fill your pokemon moveset with (normaly) underwhelming moves or caring one or even two pokemon JUST for passing certain areas, some of them being obligatory, was kind of an unecessary feature to have (no, move deleters does'nt make it better.) I like TM efects way more bc, it's a neat feature to be in the game, they serve their purpose well, and more important, they'r completaly optional. I would like if they expand in these with the emd of HMs insted of erase them too.

Field moves okay. Hms beside surf, no.

If you quickly tap a direction other than the one you are facing, you will stay on the same tile (so you will not roll the step counter), however you can encounter a pokemon as if you had walked a tile. So you dont need sweet scent. The easiest way to do this is find a grass tile in a corner and rapidly mash the direction of the two walls.

So basically, Field Moves from Pokemon Ranger? Because I have always said that that would be the best way to bring HMs back.

Funnily enough, I feel like HMs could almost come back wholesale and people wouldn't be anywhere near as bothered by them as in the older games. Purely because we can access our PC boxes while out and about, plus the more free moveset adjusting in the modern games. Like, the big problem was either having to teach your Pokemon (typically) bad moves or have an HM user or 2 handy, leaving out your party Pokemon for potentially long stretches so they can get you through. Free access to PC boxes and more freely adjustable movesets would make the biggest problem a bit of menuing every now and then.

That would be a really cool idea to implement, kind of like a purely recovery-based Pollen Puff!

No joke, was pouring a glass of milk as I scrolled and read this. Thanks for leaving the coolest comment ever 🥛 👍

That's great, at least they're not useless in doubles.

Absolutely! The early access in some games makes it a very nice move to have

Yeah me too! I was blown away by that, surprised I never heard of it after all this time and it seems so useful and in-character for Chansey

is this true??

@@dellnquent No, it isn't the same thing as using Flash, but if you talk to Pikachu when it knows Thunderbolt while traversing a dark cave the zone will be illuminated for a brief moment during the animation, every time. Also true if it knows Thunder.

​@@croma3375that's insane i loved when video games just did stuff like that. Like Lorelei's pokedolls if you beat the E4 25 times

Not just thunderbolt but thunder as well would also temporarily light up the screen

atp I stay replaying gens 3 4 5 it's better that way

Fair point with those, I should probably have clarified in the BDSP section that all the HMs being usable in BDSP as TMs means they're technically all non-HM field moves in those games!

Thanks so much! Hope you learned something!

Why even use potions on the Chansey? Just get into a wild battle and use Soft-boiled, then run away.

@@nunyabiznes33 buddy you are a fucking genius and thats why we pay you the big bucks. TBF the place where i used this the most was in the E4 to save potions BUT anywhere else you can scum that, i hope i remember this next time i have a softboiled/milk drink user

I like that idea! I'll put it on my file of videos I'd like to make!

Thank you! And I will add it to a list I have of ideas and plans!

It's an HM, but as someone else pointed out all the former HMs in BDSP are technically non-HM field moves so they kind of all count

@@AzureFlute ah got it thanks

I will take that into account for the next videos, thank you. I don't want to just do what I see a lot of other accounts do which is reuse the same looping backgrounds and it was what I thought of doing to be different, but I know it's something I will need to work on coming up with a solution for

It's why BD is my last pokemon game. I couldn't finish it. It was too easy, I could train my whole team at once, I can catch fully evolved pokemon immediately, etc. So much is spoon fed. I still vaguely remember coming across articuno by chance in seafoam Islands and had to restart the entire cave because I didn't save and I wasn't prepared to catch a legendary Or when my friend told me where to finally find zapdos since I didn't know you had to surf around rock tunnel to the power plant. Or spending hours trying to find a way to push the cart near ss Anne to get mew. Or being forced to either buy two copies of the game or trading with friends to get the trade evolutions and version exclusive Pokémon. When we found out Pokémon could be version exclusive, when Gen 2 came out we had a Pokémon battle to figure out who was gonna get gold and who was gonna get silver (we both wanted gold obviously). I lost but I got crystal instead since my cousin bought the game as a surprise It was all these moments that made us fall in love with the game and even 20 years later Gen 1 and 2 still have surprises!

I forgot all about that! It is a neat added feature X and Y had, even if it's not on the field it's definitely different from almost anything else we have seen

I wasn't sure if I should, as Cut being able to cut grass has been in the same games as Cut being an HM, but I see a good argument why it should have been in here since that feature is a small side thing that falls closer to this topic. Good catch!

I mean the title says non-hm field moves lol

Another fun fact is that if a Pokémon with the hyper cutter ability uses cut, the range of grass that you can cut is increased

@@joshisgarageyea but it has an effect outside its HM use so that’s why is probably also worth a mention

​@@speedinturtle00I believe that you can't use Cut to pass the lawn mower before obtaining the required badge to use the HM, so it's also an HM use. Why should we make distinctions?

While they were HMs, no, except for in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald where a few were used very specifically to help with unlocking the Regi trio

examples ?

@@Jeffeffery9. I said “suction cups” do you not know how examples work. Another good example would be how flame body hatched eggs faster in the field. Not a move but an ability but I find this to be the successor to field attacks.

@remyoconnor3141 Hi - thanks for your response. Your tone seems a little pointed, which I don't understand since I didnt know what you were talking about and was asking for examples. See: the burden of proof. I do actually know how examples work; the problem is you have still failed to provide an adequate example. Your comment refers to field moves, whereas Suction Cups is an ability. Maybe you could work on your own semantics before you want to get snippy with a stranger. Take care of yourself and take it easy

That's a nice idea. Reminds me of Defog's field effect. Kinda miss Fog, made no-miss moves useful for once.

This video is covering just the moves that at some point were not HMs, Rock Climb was an HM in the games it's a field move, though I probably should have shown it off more or made a mention of it in the section for BDSP