Heracross

[WilhelmTheOkay]

Type:

Base Stats: 80 HP / 125 ATK / 75 DEF / 40 SPA / 95 SPD / 85 SPE
Abilities: Swarm, Guts, Moxie
Notable Moves:

• Close Combat
• Earthquake
• Facade
• Megahorn
• Spikes
• Stone Edge
• Swords Dance

Moves Gained and Lost

Gained:

• Bug Buzz
• Pounce
• Tera Blast
• Trailblaze

Lost:

• Assurance
• Attract
• Brutal Swing
• Bug Bite
• Coaching
• Confide
• Curse
• Detect
• Double Team
• Focus Punch
• Fury Cutter
• Headbutt
• High Horsepower
• Knock Off
• Mimic
• Retaliate
• Revenge
• Rock Smash
• Round
• Smack Down
• Snore
• Strength
• Swagger
• Toxic
• Vacuum Wave
• Venoshock
• Work Up

Full Gen IX Movepool

View attachment 469212 Physical:

• Aerial Ace
• Arm Thrust
• Body Slam
• Brick Break
• Bulldoze
• Bullet Seed
• Close Combat
• Counter
• Dig
• Double-Edge
• Earthquake
• Facade
• False Swipe
• Feint
• Flail
• Fling
• Fury Attack
• Giga Impact
• Horn Attack
• Low Kick
• Megahorn
• Night Slash
• Pin Missile
• Pounce
• Reversal
• Rock Blast
• Rock Slide
• Rock Tomb
• Seismic Toss
• Shadow Claw
• Smart Strike
• Tackle
• Take Down
• Tera Blast
• Thief
• Thrash
• Throat Chop
• Trailblaze

View attachment 469213 Special:

• Bug Buzz
• Focus Blast
• Hyper Beam
• Struggle Bug
• Tera Blast

View attachment 469214 Status:

• Bulk Up
• Endure
• Harden
• Helping Hand
• Iron Defense
• Leer
• Protect
• Rain Dance
• Rest
• Sleep Talk
• Spikes
• Substitute
• Sunny Day
• Swords Dance

Pros:

• Strong Attack stat of 125
• Two great abilities in Guts and Moxie enhance its abilities as a wallbreaker and sweeper

Cons:

• Typing leaves it with a 4x weakness to Flying
• STAB combination is resisted by Poison, Flying, Ghost, and Fairy
• Leisurely Speed of 85 continues to be powercrept

Terastallization Potential:

Heracross is best suited to tera into

to boost its Close Combat into an even more terrifying attack, but can also try using one of its coverage move types like

to gain a STAB Earthquake and lose its debilitating flying weakness. You could even something a bit more out there like

for Shadow Claw or

to boost Facade when using Guts.

Potential Sets:

Guts Wallbreaker
Heracross @ Flame Orb
Ability: Guts
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Facade
- Stone Edge / Earthquake

This set is very simple - get burned and break things. For the choice of the final move you can choose between Stone Edge or Earthquake (or something entirely if you feel like it). Stone Edge allows you to punish slower flying types like Gyarados and Bombirdier while Earthquake allows to hit Electrics and Poisons (and has 100 accuracy).

Moxie Sweeper
Heracross @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Moxie
Tera Type: Fighting
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Megahorn
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake / Spikes

Choice Scarf brings Jolly Heracross up to a much more competitive 442 speed while Moxie allows for the opportunity for Heracross to snowball out of control provided there are no faster attackers to shut this bug down.

Overall:
Unfortunately, this will be a rough generation for Heracross. While it can still serve as a potent wallbreaker or sweeper, it finds itself overshadowed and outcompeted in UU with the presence of Slither Wing, Hawlucha, and so on. Perhaps it can carve itself out a niche that I have not foreseen but it seems likely that Heracross will end up in either RU or NU in Gen 9.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Even though Heracross is overshadowed by Slither Wing for the most part, it is still a top tier pokemon. Swords Dance+Guts+Trailblaze is a legal combination that takes advantage of walls like Gastrodon and Quagsire. Once it's set up often it's game over due to insane power. Intimidate users can slow it down though and can be revenge killed by Scarf Staraptor, it is still a scary prospect.