Is Heracross Good in Gold & Silver Playthrough?
Headbutt trees in Johto. Bug/Fighting is a strong offensive combination. Heracross hits incredibly hard physically and handles Whitney, Pryce, Karen, and most of Kanto. One of the best Pokemon in Gold and Silver if you find one in the trees.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Falkner's team.
Heracross trades roughly evenly with Bugsy's team.
Heracross trades roughly evenly with Whitney's team.
Morty's team hits Heracross's weaknesses hard.
Heracross trades roughly evenly with Chuck's team.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Jasmine's team.
Heracross resists most of Pryce's coverage and hits back hard.
Heracross trades roughly evenly with Clair's team.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Lt. Surge's team.
Heracross trades roughly evenly with Sabrina's team.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Erika's team.
Janine's team hits Heracross's weaknesses hard.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Misty's team.
Heracross resists most of Brock's coverage and hits back hard.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Blaine's team.
Heracross trades roughly evenly with Blue's team.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Will's team.
Koga's team hits Heracross's weaknesses hard.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Bruno's team.
Heracross has the type edge here and should clean up Karen's team.
Lance's team hits Heracross's weaknesses hard.
Catchable
Catch Heracross on Route 29 (Headbutt (rare), Lv 10, common).
Recommended Moves
- STARTING (Lv 10)
- LV 10NormalHorn AttackPower 65Accuracy 100%PP 25
- After Bugsy
- TM02NormalHeadbuttPower 70Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a man in Ilex Forest
- After Morty
- HM04NormalStrengthPower 80Accuracy 100%PP 15Olivine City
- LV 35NormalTake DownPower 90Accuracy 85%PP 20
- After Jasmine
- TM10NormalHidden PowerPower 60Accuracy 100%PP 15Gift from a fisherman in a house at Lake of Rage
- After Clair
- TM26GroundEarthquakePower 100Accuracy 100%PP 10Victory Road
- After Lt. Surge
- TM03GhostCursePower —Accuracy 100%PP 10Gift in the Celadon Mansion roof house, at night only
- LV 54BugMegahornPower 180Accuracy 85%PP 10
Gold & Silver Heracross Locations
Trees are the only place Heracross lives. Headbutt the right trunks across ten spots and it turns up common at level 10, but the grass and water hold none, so you are out of luck without a solid headbutt.
8 locations to catch Heracross
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Badge 7Best Locations to Catch Heracross in Gold & Silver
8 headbutt spots from Lv. 10 for Heracross. Sorted by game progression with rates on each row, so you can compare without scrolling through everything.
How to Get Shiny Heracross in Gold & Silver
Heracross only fills the rarer headbutt slot, so even spotting one along Route 29, Route 30, or Route 31 is uncommon, and turning a sighting into a shiny demands real persistence at the trees. Compare Shiny Heracross odds across every game
Shiny Heracross Evolution
Does Not EvolveGold & Silver Shiny Heracross Calculator
2 MethodsThe best route is Breed w/ Shiny Parent, about 1 in 64 on each try.
Full Odds: Walk through grass, surf, or fish. Every encounter is its own independent shiny roll.
Breed w/ Shiny Parent: Eggs inherit stats from a shiny parent, so about 1 in 64 hatch shiny. A shiny Ditto helps every egg, and any other shiny parent (the red Gyarados works) helps only eggs of the opposite gender.
How many you have done, or plan to do.
| Chance | Encounters | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10%lucky few | 7-- | -- |
| 25%one in four | 19-- | -- |
| 50%coin flip | 45-- | -- |
| 90%very likely | 147-- | -- |
Time assumes -- at your pace and does not change your shiny odds.
How is this calculated?
Every encounter has the same shiny chance, the Shiny Odds Per Try shown above. Each one is a separate roll that does not care how many you have already done, so the more you hunt, the higher your overall chance of at least one shiny. The formula below turns your odds and your number of tries into that combined chance.
chance after N tries = 1 − (1 − p)^N, where p = 1 / odds per try
Example at 1 in 8,192 (classic full odds): about 864 encounters for a 10 percent chance, 5,678 for 50 percent, and 18,862 for 90 percent.
The table above flips that around: it shows how many encounters it takes to reach a 10, 25, 50, and 90 percent chance at your current odds. Turning on boosts like the Shiny Charm, sandwiches, or chains improves your odds, so the encounter numbers drop.
These are estimates, not promises. Most games have no pity counter, meaning no guaranteed shiny no matter how many you hunt, so even Very Likely is not guaranteed: some hunters find one early, others go well past that point.
Planning a longer hunt? Set up Heracross in the Gold & Silver Shiny Odds Calculator to compare every method side by side.
Heracross Weakness
Type-wise, Heracross takes extra damage from Flying, Fire, and Psychic. Watch out for Flying attacks, those deal 4x damage. 5 resistances help offset the weaknesses. With 80 HP and balanced defenses, Heracross can afford to eat a neutral hit or two.
| Damage | Types |
|---|---|
| 4x (Critical) | Flying |
| 2x (Weak) | Fire, Psychic |
| 0.5x (Resist) | Grass, Fighting, Ground, Bug, Dark |
- Dark and Steel types added — Fairy does not exist yet
- Moves are Physical or Special based on type, not per move
- Special stat split into Sp.Atk and Sp.Def
What is Heracross Weak Against
Avg
Heracross Evolutions
What you see is what you get. Heracross sits outside any evolution chain, so focus on the egg moves and a decent partner pool from one egg group. Eggs take an average time to hatch. View every chain in the Evolution Chart.
How to Evolve
Breeding
Breed Heracross easily with 23 breeding partners from the Bug egg group. Pass egg moves like Bide, Flail, Harden to offspring.
GS Heracross Best Moveset
125 Attack behind MoveMegahorn for Bug TermStab (one of the few useful Bug moves) and Fighting coverage that hits Snorlax and Tyranitar super-effectively. MoveEarthquake adds Ground coverage and MoveRest plus MoveSleep Talk sustains. Held ItemLeftovers recovers. Physical attacker with the typing to hit the format's two dominant threats.
Best Build
Utility Moveset
- Megahorn
- Curse
- Rest
- Sleep Talk
Recommended Teammates
Moves List
Breeding's the move. Bide and Flail give Heracross options it can't learn any other way, and Normal and Ground coverage already covers a decent range on top of Megahorn and Fury Cutter. The egg moves push it further.
How to Read the Moves Table
Tabs
- Level-Up
- Learned by leveling up.
- TM
- Taught by a Technical Machine.
- Egg
- Inherited via breeding.
- Tutor
- NPC tutor (cost: items, BP, money).
- Reminder
- An NPC reteaches any move this Pokemon could have learned by leveling up.
- Transfer
- Carried over from an older game using Pokemon HOME.
- Event
- Given out through Mystery Gift events.
Visual Signals
CAT (Category)
How the move deals damage and which stats it uses.
A small dot on the icon's corner marks the move as contact.
Tier (S to D)
Each move's competitive rank in RankedBoost's system. TM, Egg, and Tutor sort by tier by default (best first). On Level-Up, click the Tier header to do the same.
PWR (Power)
Base damage. Numbers shown in a type color include STAB (base × 1.5). Hover any colored number to see the math.
— means no power (status moves) or variable power.
Sorting & Filter
Click any column header to sort. Level-Up opens with Lv 1 at the top. TM, Egg, and Tutor open with the highest-tier moves at the top.
Search filters by move name or type. The Filter button limits the list to STAB, Physical, Special, or Status moves.
Level-Up Moves
TM Moves
18 of 22 TMs are obtainable before the Elite Four
Egg Moves
Tutor Moves
Base Stats
This powerful POKéMON thrusts its prized horn under its enemies’ bellies then lifts and throws them.
Usually docile, but if disturbed while sipping honey, it chases off the intruder with its horn.
Heracross Gold & Silver Guide
Mega Evolution isn't available in Gold & Silver, but Heracross does have a Mega form in Gen 6-7 games (X/Y, ORAS, Sun/Moon). Mega Heracross hits 600 BST.
In Gold & Silver, Heracross plays as a wallbreaker. Speed is middling, so pick your spots carefully. Megahorn is the primary attack. Set up with Curse when you get a free turn.
Game Availability
Since debuting in Gold & Silver, Heracross has appeared in 19 titles over 8 generations. Along the way, it received a Mega form in Generation 6, keeping it relevant across different competitive metas.
Click a game to view version-specific details
- Gen 1RB
Red & Blue - Gen 1Y
Yellow - Gen 2GSDebut
Gold & Silver - Gen 2C
Crystal - Gen 3RS
Ruby & Sapphire - Gen 3E
Emerald - Gen 3FRLG
FireRed & LeafGreen - Gen 4DP
Diamond & Pearl - Gen 4Pt
Platinum - Gen 4HGSS
HeartGold & SoulSilver - Gen 5BW
Black & White - Gen 5B2W2
Black 2 & White 2 - Gen 6XY
X & Y - Gen 6ORASMega
Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire - Gen 7SM
Sun & Moon - Gen 7USUM
Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon - Gen 7Let's Go
Let's Go Pikachu & Eevee - Gen 8SwSh
Sword & Shield - Gen 8BDSP
Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl - Gen 8PLA
Legends: Arceus - Gen 9SV
Scarlet & Violet - Gen 9LZA
Legends: Z-A - Gen 10WW
Winds & Waves
Explore
Where to go next after Heracross.
Keep playing · Gold & SilverGold & Silver Tier ListThe best Pokemon ranked tier by tierSee Gold & Silver Tier List