What Should We Use Elite TMs on?

Elite TMs are rare and valuable. They give Pokemon access to special and unique moves when they’d otherwise be unavailable. While you can spend €15 once a month to get an Elite TM, most cases of obtaining Elite TMs are rare, or require a lot of patience. You can get a free Elite TM by playing in the GO Battle League, but you need to wait for a season to finish to get your hands on another.

On the other hand, there are generally a LOT of Pokemon that need an Elite TM. For example, back in February, Groudon and Kyogre got their exclusive moves, Precipice Blades and Origin Pulse. These new moves meant that any Groudons or Kyogres caught previously were now considerably weaker than the new Pokemon with their new moves. In particular, for me, this meant that my team of 6 Groudons were now falling behind the new Groudons. I had an option. Either power up some of the Groudons I had with Precipice Blades and replace them on my team, or use Elite TMs. However, Elite TMs are rare. I only have 7 total, and there are quite a few Pokemon I need to use them on. So I used an Elite TM on my 100% Groudon, Wonderblades, then called it a day.

The same applies to a lot of Pokemon. Mewtwo is the most common one. It has two exclusive moves, Psy Strike and Shadow Ball. Neither of them can be obtained without the use of an Elite TM. A real collector could potentially need 2 Elite TMs, because Mewtwo pops up a lot but it often only comes with one special move, or no exclusive moves at all. If you want both, you need an Elite TM. But at the same time, with the sudden influx of Shadow Mewtwo, you’ve also got to wait for a Team Rocket event so you can get rid of Frustration. So, to get an exclusive move on a Shadow Mewtwo, you may need a TM to get rid of Frustration, then an Elite TM to give it the move you want. Or, if you have the stardust. pay 120k stardust to give it a second move.

And then there’s starter Pokemon. Starter Pokemon all have the same exclusive moves. Grass types have Frenzy Plant, Fire types have Blast Burn and Water types have Hydro Cannon. These are all very powerful moves and they’re also the best moves these Pokemon have. However, they are exclusive, and some Pokemon use these moves better than others. For example, Serperior learns Frenzy Plant since it’s a grass starter, but its attack isn’t as high as, for example, Venusaur. Which means it’s not quite as good in raids as Venusaur is. However, unless you have one with Frenzy Plant already, the only way to get a Frenzy Plant Venusaur is to wait for a Kanto-based event.  On the plus side, at least starter Pokemon are somewhat common. Every year, there’s generally a starter Pokemon or two among those chosen for Community Days.

The only other option really is to wait. Community weekends in December allow you to evolve Pokemon and get their moves. However, if you’ve already evolved a Pokemon, tough luck, you have to use an Elite TM. Using an Elite TM is a hard choice. I personally only use it on perfect Legendary Pokemon, because those are insanely rare, just like Elite TMs are. If only there was a better way to give Pokemon their exclusive moves without having to waste a precious resource…