In-battle formes
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| Abilities | |
| Tier |
| HP: | 62 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Attack: | 55 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense: | 52 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sp. Atk: | 109 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sp. Def: | 94 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Speed: | 109 |
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Evolutions
- Helioptile
- Heliolisk
Strategies
- en
- NU
Overview
Heliolisk is one of NU's most potent wallbreakers as a result of its stellar offensive typing, high Special Attack, and great Speed tier that allows it to outpace some of the most common Pokemon in the tier in Delphox, Decidueye, and Sigilyph. Heliolisk is also one of the tier's best offensive pivots because of its access to a strong Volt Switch, which is hard to stop due to Heliolisk's impressive coverage in moves such as Hyper Voice, Surf, and Focus Blast. Because of the aforementioned factors, Heliolisk can easily avoid most forms of direct damage and pivot out of unfavorable matchups. Due to Dry Skin, Heliolisk is able to switch into Water-type moves and regain HP, making it the tier's premier bulky Water-type exploiter. However, Heliolisk's bulk is rather poor, especially physically, which makes it harder to switch in on weaker, resisted attacks and on defensive Water-types such as Slowking due to its access to Psyshock. While Heliolisk's Speed tier is solid, it is still outsped and forced out by Pokemon such as Sneasel and Whimsicott. Heliolisk is reliant on its item for its damage output, with Choice Specs variants being locked into one move, which can lead to them being taken advantage of by Pokemon like Dhelmise and Steelix depending on which move it locks into.
All-out Attacker
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Moves
Volt Switch allows Heliolisk to pivot out of unfavorable matchups while threatening Flying- and Water-types such as Xatu and Slowking and hitting neutral targets fairly hard. Hyper Voice provides good coverage alongside Volt Switch, hitting Dragon-, Grass-, and opposing Electric-types such as Druddigon, Sceptile, and Vikavolt neutrally. Thunderbolt can be used instead to give Heliolisk a stronger Electric-type attack against Pokemon like Vaporeon that doesn't force it to switch out. Surf deals with Rhydon and Steelix, and it also threatens Fire-types like Incineroar and Delphox. Dark Pulse provides Heliolisk with coverage for Decidueye and Dhelmise, which resist its STAB combination and could otherwise switch in with ease. Focus Blast can be used to hit Pokemon that otherwise wall Heliolisk such as Ferroseed and Togedemaru and as well as let it hit targets such as Guzzlord and Silvally-Steel harder than any of Heliolisk's other coverage moves. Grass Knot is an option that still retains coverage against the likes of Piloswine and the aforementioned Rhydon as well as Seismitoad; however, this causes Heliolisk to lose out on coverage for Pokemon such as Delphox and Magmortar.
Set Details
The investment in Speed and Special Attack maximizes Heliolisk's offensive presence and Speed, with a Timid nature allowing it outspeed Pokemon such as Delphox and Sigilyph. Dry Skin gives Heliolisk the ability to freely pivot into Water-type moves such as Scald from Slowking, Aqua Jet from Samurott, and Soak from Pyukumuku and replenish a bit of its HP. However, Heliolisk must be wary of other attacks from the previously mentioned Water-types such as Psyshock, Megahorn, and Toxic, respectively. Choice Specs is significantly increases its damage output, letting break through bulkier Pokemon with ease at the cost of locking Heliolisk into one move at a time. Alternatively, Life Orb increases Heliolisk's damage output as well; it does, however, cause Heliolisk to take damage with every attack.
Usage Tips
Heliolisk is mainly a wallbreaker, although it can also clean late-game due to its high Speed and Special Attack. Due to Heliolisk's average bulk, it should never take hits when it doesn't need to, as this wears it down even faster and will prevent it from effectively breaking. The ideal ways to get Heliolisk in are after a teammate is KOed or through the use of Parting Shot, U-turn, or Volt Switch. However, Heliolisk can switch into a predicted Water-type moves from Pokemon like Vaporeon and Slowking because of Dry Skin and generate momentum with Volt Switch. Predicting Electric-immune foes to switch in and using the appropriate coverage against them is ideal, as this will allow Heliolisk to more reliably use Volt Switch mid- or late-game.
Team Options
Entry hazard setters such as Garbodor, Steelix, and Rhydon are good partners, since the entry hazards are good for pressuring Heliolisk's switch-ins, allowing it to break them more easily. In return, Heliolisk pressures Xatu, an absolute roadblock for them. Garbodor and Qwilfish are also capable of acting as Fighting-type checks for Heliolisk. Entry hazard control from the likes of Silvally-Steel and Xatu is also important, since it prevents Heliolisk from taking additional damage from entry hazards on top of recoil from Life Orb. Fire-types such as Delphox, Incineroar, and Magmortar appreciate Heliolisk switching into Water-type attacks for them and can break through defensive Grass-types in return. Fighting-types such as Medicham and Passimian are capable of pushing through a lot of the specially defensive Pokemon that Heliolisk finds itself struggling with and appreciate Heliolisk getting them in against these Pokemon for free with Volt Switch. Checks to Fighting-types such as Slowking, Weezing, and Xatu are also rather useful, since most Fighting-types can take one hit and KO Heliolisk in response. Other pivots such as Braviary, Passimian, and Silvally-Steel pair well with Heliolisk, as they complete a VoltTurn core and keep both pressure and momentum going.
Other Options
Heliolisk can make for a decent user of different Z-Moves such as Fightinium Z, Normalium Z, and Electrium Z, as each give it the ability to bypass some of its harder checks without the drawback of recoil damage. However, Heliolisk is much weaker without the boost in power from Choice Specs, becoming unable to 2HKO foes such as Druddigon. Dark Pulse can be used to deal with Dhelmise without forcing Heliolisk to switch out as well as to take on Rotom, Dhelmise, and Decidueye; however, Heliolisk's other coverage moves tend to be more useful. Hidden Power Ice can be used to hit certain checks such as Torterra and Alolan Exeggutor for 4x effective damage, but Heliolisk doesn't appreciate dropping a move for it. Choice Scarf allows Heliolisk to outspeed some of its offensive checks like Sceptile, Choice Scarf Passimian, and +2 Klinklang, but Heliolisk will be much weaker than when using a Life Orb and lose out on its ability to alternate between moves. Thunder is an option if Heliolisk is on a rain team, although its shaky accuracy hurts its reliability when rain is not active.
Checks and Counters
Specially Defensive Pokemon: While Heliolisk is powerful, it has problems with breaking through certain specially bulky Pokemon such as Assault Vest Hariyama, Dhelmise, and Decidueye.
Faster Pokemon: Pokemon that can naturally outspeed Heliolisk such as Sneasel and Whimsicott are capable of dealing heavy amounts of damage to it with their respective STAB attacks, with Sneasel being able to Pursuit trap Heliolisk. Heliolisk is also threatened by faster Choice Scarf users such as Braviary, Delphox, and Passimian.
Priority: Priority moves from the likes of Piloswine, Medicham, and Sneasel threaten Heliolisk immensely due to its poor bulk.
Residual Damage: Due to Heliolisk's vulnerability to all forms of entry hazards, status, and weather coupled with the recoil damage it takes from Life Orb, it is worn down rather quickly.
