Heliolisk Guide: The Sun-Kissed Lizard Pokemon

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Jesus Cruz, Lifelong Pokémon Fan

It all started in 2010 when Jesus was 10 years old. His dad gifted him a Nintendo DS and let him choose a game for it. A weird, enormous, and grey serpent caught my attention on the box art for Pokémon Platinum, and since that moment he's been hooked! He can only thank his 10 years old self for choosing the game that he loves the most in the series

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Heliolisk, the generator Pokémon, is a Dual Electric/Normal-type Pokémon introduced in Gen 6. It is the evolution of Helioptile. Heliolisk is based on several lizards, but its design took inspiration mainly from three different lizards:

• It takes inspiration from the Spiny-tail Lizards, which can change their color when getting sunlight. From here, it takes its Electric/Normal-type.
• Its neck extension is based on the Frill-necked Lizard, which can expand a portion of its neck when it feels menaced. From here comes Heliolisk’s animation when it is attacking
• Its multicolored tail and body shape are based on the phymaturus Verdugo, a Lizard with a green body and yellowtail.

Heliolisk is a bipedal, primarily yellow, Pokémon. It has a black head and a sun-shaped frill with orange spikes, which expands every time it attacks. Heliolisk uses this energy to stimulate its body enough to run 100 meters in less than 5 seconds. It can also use this frill to recharge energy from the sun. With this energy, Heliolisk is capable of giving power to an entire building.

Wild Heliolisks like to habitat in the deserts, where they are near the sun. They can use the sandstorms of the deserts as a battle advantage. Heliolisk’s name comes from the combination of the Greek word Helios which means sun, and basilisk, a mythological creature considered the king of snakes.

Heliolisk Summary of Appearances in Pokémon Versions and Media (Games, Anime, Movies)

In the games, you can find Heliolisk in the following places:

• Gen 6: In X & Y, you can only have Heliolisk by evolving Helioptile. You can find Helioptile in Route 9 and an Electric-type Friend Safari.
• Gen 7: Heliolisk only appears in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, in the Ultra Space Wilds, Exactly in the Rocky World.
• Gen 8: In Sword and Shield, you can find it in the Rolling Fields, East Lake Axwell, and Lake of Outrage.

Heliolisk is well-known in the anime for being one of the Pokémon in Clemont’s team when he battled against Ash for his badge. It debuted in Clemont’s Got a Secret! After that, Heliolisk only did minor appearances and cameos, mostly under the ownership of a trainer.

In the manga, Heliolisk has only appeared under Clemont’s ownership in a single chapter. It appeared in PS573 when Clemont was caught by Xerosic, and he held Heliolisk hostage to force Clemont to make a machine for the Team Flare.

In the TCG, Heliolisk has 8 different cards. Its debut was in the Flashfire expansion as a Rare card. Then, it has two Rares in Guardians Rising and Cosmic Eclipse, three uncommon in Forbidden Light, Team Up and Rebel Clash, and a Rare Holo in Phantom Forces. It also has an XY Black Star Promo Card, given in the Roaring Skies Single Pack Blisters.

Heliolisk Evolution Line: When Does Heliolisk Evolve?

Heliolisk can’t evolve, but Helioptile can evolve into Heliolisk when it gets exposed to a Sun Stone.

Heliolisk Stats

Heliolisk doesn’t have some great stats, but they are enough to make it able to compete in NU (Never Used). Here, it is a wonderful wall breaker because its Speed and Special Attack are notable, while its defenses and HP are almost null. Heliolisk’s abilities can make it even better, so let’s check them out:

Abilities

Heliolisk can have the following abilities:

• Dry Skin: A Heliolisk with Dry Skin will recover a quarter of its maximum HP every time they get hit by a Water-type move, and also, that move will not apply any effect. Also, they will recover ⅛ of its HP after every turn Heliolisk passes under the rain. The problem is that every time a Heliolisk with this ability gets exposed to harsh sunlight, it will lose ⅛ of its HP at the end of the turn.
• Sand Veil: A Heliolisk with Sand Veil can avoid attacks easily if it is under the Sandstorm. Precisely, the attacks under the Sandstorm aimed at a Heliolisk will have its accuracy modified by a factor of 4/5. Also, a Heliolisk with Sand Veil will not receive damage from a Sandstorm.
• Solar Power (as a hidden ability): This ability works the same as a Life Orb but only if the user is under harsh sunlight. In fact, under harsh sunlight, a Heliolisk with this ability will get an x1.5 Special Attack buff, but it will lose ⅛ to its HP.

Solar Power could work in a Heliolisk with good HP, but we are not aiming at the build we will recommend in this guide. Also, using Sand Veil implies that we have to use a Sandstorm, which can be problematic if we are not using a full Sandstorm team or most of our Pokémon haven’t good HP. It is useful but mostly in a team built for playing in a Sandstorm.

Finally, we are gonna use Dry Skin in our build since it is a perfect counter to the Water-types, we can also use rain to combine this ability and Thunder, and harsh sunlights aren’t commonly used, so it will not be a problem.

Natures

We will buff Heliolisk’s Speed, mostly because we are gonna use an object which will buff our Special Attack. These are the natures that Heliolisk can use the better:

• Timid (Increases Speed, reduces Attack)
• Hasty (Increases Speed, reduces Defense)
• Jolly (Increases Speed, reduces Special Attack)
• Naive (Increases Speed, reduces Special Defense)

We will use Timid, since we want Heliolisk to handle enough in the field, so reducing its Defense and Special Defense is basically useless. Obviously, using Jolly as Heliolisk’s nature is useless too since it will be our only argument to use it as a wall breaker as we want it to use.

Stats

Heliolisk has the following stats:

As you can see, its HP, Attack, and Defense are horrible. If Heliolisk gets hit by a Ground-type physical attack, then it is probable that Heliolisk will faint. That’s why we want this Pokémon to attack first than its foe and wait for that hit to be enough to get it down.

Now, if we look at its Special Defense, we can see that it isn’t the best ever, but it can help Heliolisk handle at least one or two not-so-powerful Special attacks. Heliolisk’s prime is when it is using its Special Attack and Speed. With the correct nature and good EVs, Heliolisk can be one of the fastest and strongest Pokémon in NU.

Every time you win a battle against a Heliolisk, you’ll get 1 EV in Speed and 1 EV in Special Attack.

Moves List per Level (Gen 8)

Every single move can be learned at Level 1 because Helioptile can evolve into Heliolisk through a Sun Stone, so it can evolve at any level, which means that, technically, Heliolisk can’t learn moves per level. So, every single move here can only be known through a Move Reminder.

Anyway, from here, we have some interesting options, like Thunder, Thunderbolt, or Volt Switch. The problem with Thunder is that it tends to fail since it only has a 70% accuracy. Thanks to its Dry Skin, you can make a double battle team with a Pokémon that can use a move like Rain Dance, and it will benefit Heliolisk in using Thunder without failing and healing it with the rain.

But for now, since we are designing it only to be helpful in single battles, we are going for the Thunderbolt, which has a power of 90, has STAB power, and has a 100% accuracy.

Moves list per TM or TR (Gen 8)

Thanks to its desertic origin, Heliolisk is unique since it can learn various Ground-type moves while being an Electric-type Pokémon. This feature can help get Heliolisk out of some bad situations, like Dig. But, we are using Volt Switch for that. Volt Switch lets us switch Pokémon after attacking, we recommend using it when you are in a hurry, like if someone switched to a Ground-type and you haven’t activated your Choice Specs yet.

Hyper Voice is such a great attack too since it is really strong and also has STAB, and a Special attack so it will be useful.

Heliolisk Strengths

Heliolisk, thanks to its interesting Electric/Normal-type, can’t resist many types but it is immune to a dangerous one:

• It gets only ½ of the damage against Steel-type.
• It gets only ½ of the damage against Electric-type.
• It gets only ½ of the damage against Flying-type.
• It is immune to the Ghost-type.
• Also, thanks to its Dry Skin Ability, it is Immune to the Water-type.

These types are common in NU; Braviary, Aerodactyl, Clawitzer, Blastoise, Mismagius, Palossand, and Vaporeon, only to name a few of them.

Heliolisk is hard to get rid of since its types, its Special Defenses, and its Speed are more than excellent in this tier. Heliolisk will be a big menace in tiers like OU if it has better stats (sadly, this doesn’t happen) and a better moves list.

Anyway, you can adventure yourself using the build we will recommend in higher tiers since Heliolisk is pretty adaptable. It doesn’t cover most types, but the ones it covers are harmful in most low tiers. You can even make it work with moves like Aural Sphere or Dark pulse, and it will do a great job.

Sadly, its stats don’t let it use moves like Hyper Beam or Solar Beam because it is weak and incapable of handling a turn without attacking. You can use a Focus Sash to make it able to be in the field for at least two turns, but it’s not worth it.

Heliolisk Weaknesses

• It takes x2 damage against Fighting-type.
• It takes x2 damage against Ground-type.

Heliolisk only has two weaknesses, and Fighting-types aren’t common in NU. The problem is that those two types have mostly Physical attacks, and that’s a Heliolisk flaw. Exposing it to those two types is really problematic because Heliolisk has no defensive arguments to make it capable of winning. The good thing is that Heliolisk is really fast and can do Volt Switch to get out of sketchy situations (Unless Heliolisk is facing a Ground-type, in that case, just do a standard switch).

Torterra, Steelix, Rhydon, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, or even Seismitoad are natural enemies of our electric lizard. Don’t think about letting it in the field against these bad guys.

Heliolisk Best Moveset

Heliolisk can work with the following build:

• Volt Switch
• Thunderbolt
• Any other Special move you like: Surf, Focus Blast, Grass Knot, we are letting this to your election. Anything can work with the great Special Attack Heliolisk has.
• Hyper Voice

With Choice Specs as its item, Dry Skin as its ability, and Timid as its Nature.

EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe.

As we said before, Volt Switch works to run away from those particular situations while you are doing an attack with great damage. It works the best against those Pokémon with neutral types against you since Volt Switch is pretty harmful. Thunderbolt is our option if you want your Heliolisk to be in the field for a long time; it’s better than Thunder. This move can’t miss, and it’s obviously better than Volt Switch since we don’t want Heliolisk to get out of the field.

Hyper Voice is the strongest (without considering Hyper Beam, for the reasons we explained earlier) Normal-type Special attack, and it gets better because Heliolisk has STAB power with this move. It works to do a good chunk of damage against those types that can resist Electric-type attacks, like the Grass-type.

The Choice Specs are a great option since it buffs the Special Attack of Heliolisk by an x1.5, but it only lets us use one move. If we want to use another, then we have to switch Heliolisk.

If you don’t want this to happen, we recommend using the Wise Glasses, which buffs by an x1.1 Heliolisk’s Special attack and lets us use all the moves. We give Volt Switch an actual utility with this item since there will be moments where we want to switch Pokémon while getting down a foe; a good example could be when there’s a weather change like harsh sunlight or a sandstorm, and we can’t use it properly.

Timid will be our nature since we can’t spare on buffing Heliolisk’s Speed. It has to hit first; otherwise, it will fall. This is also why we are gonna use all the available EVs in Speed and Special Attack and the rest in Defense. Use the rest of your team to make Heliolisk even faster, like a Pokémon that can set some Sticky Webs, or even helping Heliolisk by dealing some damage with Stealth Rocks; like that, you can have a great advantage!

Heliolisk In a Video

In this video, we can see what we explained before: Heliolisk is way better in double battles when combined with a Rain setter and with Thunder at its attack. The Rain will constantly heal Heliolisk thanks to its Dry Skin, while Thunder will continuously be hitting with its power of 110.

This video is a complete guide about Heliolisk and a team that can help it win many battles; this team has some Stealth Rocks, Rapid Spins to clean the field before using Heliolisk, and more. And, of course, there’s footage of the team in action!

FAQs

Heliolisk Guide: Conclusion

Heliolisk can be a great Pokémon to use and win many battles, mostly because of its outstanding type combination and Special Defense, Special Attack, and Speed. We highly recommend using it, not only in tiers like NU, because this tier is small for this Pokémon; you can even use it properly in higher tiers into Pokémon Showdown. If you are using it in tournaments, you can surprise one or two contestants there. Good luck!