Should I teach/keep Dark Pulse for Helioptile/Heliolisk?

Question

I want teach Dark Pulse to my Helioptile to defeat the Psychic Gym (that's in the faar future, I have 4 badges), but if I finished the game, should I keep it?

The other 3 moves I planned are:

• Parabolic Charge (Already have)
• Bulldoze
• Electrify

Answer 1

Yes

In fact, you should keep Dark Pulse over Bulldoze.

A good in-game set is:

• Parabolic Charge / Thunderbolt
• Surf
• Dark Pulse
• (Filler)

Bulldoze is bad idea due to Helioptile's low attack stat, and high speed in general. Surf or Dark Pulse are much better. As for Electrify, it's your personal choice, seeing as it may or may not be useful in battle.

Comments

The fourth best move would probably be hyper beam, as it gets STAB and is useful when the opponent is grass or dragon type or thunderbolt has low PP.

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I thought the Electrify & Bulldoze combo can take out any non-airborne enemies, Electrify changes type to Electric, making Bulldoze super effective, except it's have Levitate (like Hydreigon, Cryogonal or Flygon)

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Heliolisk has weak physical attack, so a super effective bulldoze will usually deal less damage than a thunderbolt.