Heracross in SoulGold: Skill Link turns every multi-hit move into five hits

Heracross is the simplest strong build in SoulGold. Skill Link makes every multi-hit move hit five times, and Heracross learns four good ones. Go Mega and you have it at any level.

Why it’s broken

Multi-hit moves normally roll between two and five hits. Skill Link makes them hit five every time. Pin Missile, Rock Blast and Bullet Seed are 25 power a hit, so five hits is 125 power each, and Pin Missile gets Bug STAB on top. Arm Thrust is 15 a hit, 75 total, with Fighting STAB. Five separate hits also break a Focus Sash, a Sturdy and a Substitute before the last one lands.

Tough Claws makes contact moves 30% stronger, and every hit of Arm Thrust counts. Close Combat and Megahorn get it too.

Base Heracross:

• Ability: Swarm or Guts, with Moxie as the hidden ability.
• Lv 75: Skill Link. Multi-hit moves always hit five times.
• Lv 85: Tough Claws. Contact moves do 30% more.
• Lv 95: Defiant. A stat drop from the other side gives you +2 Attack.

Mega Heracross (80/185/115/40/105/75):

• Ability: Skill Link, on at any level.
• Lv 75: Guts. 1.5x Attack while it has a status condition.
• Lv 85: Moxie. +1 Attack every time it knocks something out.
• Lv 95: Tough Claws.

The Mega is the one I’d build. It has 185 Attack and Skill Link from the start. Moxie at 85 means each five-hit KO makes the next one easier.

The set

Move	Why
Pin Missile	Lv 35. Bug STAB, 125 power over five hits.
Rock Blast	Tutor or egg move. Hits Flying and Fire types, the two that wreck you.
Close Combat	Lv 60, or the tutor. Your big single Fighting hit.
Swords Dance	Lv 50, or the tutor. One boost and five hits finish most things.

Use Arm Thrust (Lv 1) over Close Combat if you keep running into Focus Sash and Substitute users. It’s also the better pick on base Heracross at 85, where Tough Claws boosts all five hits. Bullet Seed (Lv 1, or the tutor) covers Water and Ground types if Rock Blast isn’t pulling its weight. Knock Off (tutor) is for Ghost types, which take nothing from Close Combat and resist Pin Missile.

Tutor moves come from the top-right house in Olivine City, 44,444 once, then from the summary screen. Rock Blast as an egg move goes through the Blackthorn City egg-move master instead.

Item: Mega Heracross holds the Bugtite, so that’s its slot gone. For base Heracross, run Guts with a Flame Orb (Route 47 gift, or the Battle Pyramid lobby mart) and Facade (TM42, Rinto Village Mart). Before 75, the Loaded Dice gift on Goldenrod Shore does a smaller version of Skill Link’s job. Drop it the day Skill Link turns on.

Nature and EVs: Adamant, 252 HP and 252 Attack, 4 in Sp. Def. Mega Heracross has 75 Speed, so I stopped trying to outrun things and built it to survive the first hit instead. Mints are at the Olivine beach café.

Where to get Heracross

1. Go to Goldenrod Shore and find the suspicious path behind the trees. That’s the Hidden Grotto.
2. The grotto holds a Lv 20 Pokémon 60% of the time, split evenly between Minccino, Shroomish, Own Tempo Rockruff and Heracross. That’s a 15% shot at Heracross per refresh.
3. Grottos refresh once a day. A Beckoning Bell refreshes one on the spot. You get one free from an NPC in Ilex Forest, and the Battle Factory lobby sells more for BP after Gym 3.
4. Catch it. Grotto Heracross always has two perfect IVs and Moxie, its hidden ability.

Moxie is fine for the Mega, which replaces its ability with Skill Link anyway. For a base Guts set, catch one on Route 48 instead, at Lv 30 to 33 and a 5% encounter rate. I burned three Beckoning Bells before mine showed up, so if Route 48 is closer, start there.

For the Mega, grab the Bugtite from its item ball in the National Park. You also need the Mega Ring, which Prof. Oak hands you after the Team Rocket takeover of Goldenrod. See the Mega Evolution guide for the rest of the stones, and the grotto guide for the other nine grottos.

When it comes online

Mega Heracross works the moment it Mega Evolves. Skill Link is its ability, so you get five-hit Pin Missile in the main story at any level, cap or no cap. Its innates still wait for 75, 85 and 95.

Base Heracross needs 75 for Skill Link. The story cap is 70 until you’re Champion, so base Heracross plays as a normal Guts attacker until the postgame. On Normal, Bruno’s first-run Heracross is exactly that, a Flame Orb Guts set at Lv 68.

At 85, the level of the Elite Four rematches and Title Defense, Mega Heracross has Skill Link, Guts and Moxie. Base Heracross has Skill Link and Tough Claws. On Hard, those fights are doubles.

In the facilities, levels don’t matter. Every innate is on at any level in the Battle Tower, Pyramid and Café challenges, and on Factory rentals, so a level 50 base Heracross in Classic has Skill Link, Tough Claws and Defiant on turn one.

What beats Heracross

• Flying types. Bug/Fighting takes four times damage from Flying. Talonflame’s Gale Wings priority Brave Bird and Mega Pidgeot’s sure-hit Hurricane are the scary ones.
• Fire, Psychic and Fairy types. All three hit it super effectively, and against the Mega’s 75 Speed they’ll often move first.
• Bulletproof. It blocks Rock Blast and Bullet Seed. Rhyperior has it at 85 and Reuniclus at 95.
• Contact punishers. Rough Skin, Iron Barbs and Rocky Helmet hurt you once per hit, so five-hit Arm Thrust costs five chunks. Use Pin Missile or Rock Blast into them, which don’t make contact.

Once Heracross is built, check my other innate combos for teammates that cover its Flying weakness.