Beedrill2001 Presents : Let's Talk Pokémon

#076 - Golem

Starting this book off, I'll be talking about a Pokémon that's totally rock solid....pun fully intended.

Golem is an amazing rock and ground type that pretty much set the standard for what players can expect from most rock pokémon...that being really high defense and subpar special defense.

Having base 130 defense is insane and allows Golem to survive almost any physical attack...as long as said attack isn't water or grass.

One of Golem's biggest drawbacks is as previously mentioned, it's severe weakness to water and grass moves, which are 4x super effective and would completely obliterate poor Golem...if not for a certain ability.

Both of Golem's natural abilities are great, but Sturdy is definitely the best of the two.

Sturdy prior to Black and White was awful, only allowing the pokémon to survive one hit k-o moves like Sheer Cold and Horn Drill, but got a massive improvement in Gen 5.

From Black and White onward, Sturdy ensures no move can knock Golem out in a single hit, including those devastating grass and water attacks that would otherwise annihilate it.

Golem's other ability is Rock Head, which prevents recoil damage.

This ability is good, but the only moves Golem can learn that benefit from it are Double-Edge and Submission (which it learns in Gen 1), so it really doesn't compare to the greatness of Sturdy.

Golem's hidden ability is Sand Veil, which boosts evasion during a sandstorm.

Once again, a perfectly fine ability that definitely has its uses, but unless you're using a team comprising only of rock, ground, and steel types, Sandstorm can be detrimental to the other members of your team due to damaging all pokémon not of the three types I just mentioned every single turn.

Being able to learn powerful moves like Stone Edge and Earthquake through level up instead of having to use TMs is incredible.

In any game Geodude is available, it tends to be found pretty early on in the game (except for the Hoenn games because the only way to find Geodude is to break boulders via Rock Smash, which I find really odd.).

Using HeartGold and SoulSilver as an example, Geodude can be encountered at the very beginning on Route 46, and pretty much takes care of several early game battles with ease.

Falkner's Pidgeotto is helpless against Geodude's resistance to normal and flying moves along with its super effective rock attacks, Bugsy's formidable Scyther is equally as screwed, and Whitney's evil Miltank can do little damage as well (if Geodude is female, that's even better because Attract is completely useless).

If your rival has Cyndaquil as his starter, that's another W for the almighty rock monster.

In Golem's home region, Lt. Surge's electric types weep in the face of the mighty ground type, as does Blaine's fire pokémon later on in the game.

I will say that Golem's whole evolutionary line is a bit...weird when you really stop to think about it.

Geodude, a rock with two arms, evolves into Graveler, a bigger rock with four arms.

So far, it makes sense and Graveler is a natural step up from its previous form, but then we get to Golem who is a two armed lizard thing trapped in what looks like a cooled down Scaldera from Skyward Sword.

Now I'm not saying Golem is a bad design, far from it actually, I'm just saying it's kinda out of place looking compared to its prior forms.

I mentioned earlier that one of the drawbacks to Golem is its weakness to grass and water, but the other major drawback is that it's a trade evolution....meaning you'd have to have either a friend or a sibling to trade and evolve it before trading back.

Or you could just be like the lonely child I was and trade with yourself once you had two game systems.

You could make it through the entire game just using Graveler I suppose, but it doesn't have the late game usefulness it's trade evolution brethren Kadabra and Haunter have, but it's doable.

Golem is a pokémon with a regional variant, so I'll take a moment to talk about it.

I honestly don't have much to say about Alolan Golem.

Losing its ground typing in exchange for electric is interesting, and Rock Head getting replaced by Magnet Pull isn't...amazing by any means, but it's not like Rock Head was that useful to begin with sooo....trade off?

Alolan Golem's design is cool.

It has a really nice beard and an absolutely awesome rail cannon sticking out of its back that the pokédex entry for Moon says it uses to launch Geodude out of, how cool is that?!

Galvanize as a hidden ability is really good, turning any normal type attack into a STAB boosted electric move, meaning Alolan Golem can do massive damage with moves like Double-Edge, Giga Impact, and even Explosion!

I personally don't like using self k-o'ing moves because making your pokémon whom your supposed to form a bond with kamakaze itself to win a battle just feels wrong to me, but you do you.

Overall, Golem is a really good pokémon that I just love using to steamroll through the beginning of HeartGold and SoulSilver, thus earning the old rock monster a spot in my heart...which I hope it doesn't chose to explode in.