GamePress

Should You Pull? Hilda & (Mega) Diancie

Submit Feedback or Error

TL;DR: Should You Pull?

What Does It Do?

Mythical Pokemon are always a bit of a big deal in Pokemon Masters. What started with Professor Oak & Mew has now reached the Unova Region and beyond, as Hilda steps up with her own Mythic: Diancie of the Kalos Region. Sporting a dress that matches this sparkling Pokemon, these two are ready to put on a shining show and bury the world in a crystal avalanche. 

Let’s start with a quick review of Hilda & Diancie’s stats and moves. Their Attack is pretty high post-Mega, and their Speed is genuinely nice. Their bulk is nothing worth writing home about, and their Special Attack is entirely worthless in this case due to a total lack of Special Moves. Attack-wise they have Stone Edge, which is nothing new, and Diamond Storm, which is a fairly strong, four-bar AoE move that has a 50% chance to raise Diancie’s Defense by 2 stages with each use at its base, but only 95% accuracy. Their Trainer Moves are X-Attack, which is a basic +2 Attack at 2 uses, and Shine On!, Which gives +2 Speed, +2 Accuracy, and +3 Critical Rate at one use per battle. Their Sync Move is nothing special as is normally the case with a Mega Evolution Sync move, but we’ll cover how they make up for that a little later.

Finally, passive skills are the last major facet to look into with this gem-encrusted Sync Pair. It’s here that we have Tough Cookie to provide buffs to damage as Diancie’s Defense rises, Swag Bag 1 to boost the odds of Defense buffs with every use of Diamond Storm to a full 100% per use, and Head Start 1 to lower the Sync Move counter by 1 at the start of the battle. This last skill is then replaced with Fuel Economy 1 on Mega Evolution, and… oh boy, this is a nice skill. What it does is drop the Move Gauge requirement of all attacks by one bar without reducing damage, so Diamond Storm now takes three bars instead of four, while Stone Edge takes a mere 2. This makes Mega Diancie very gauge-friendly given its high power!

We have a fair number of really good Rock Type attackers in the game right now, but Hilda & Diancie set themselves apart with a few unique tricks. To begin with; they’re offensively a bit of a cross between Blue & Aerodactyl and Emmet & Archeops, as they’re versatile while not weather-bound, but also very capable of huge AoE Rock Type damage. They’re also the bulkiest of the three major Rock Type attackers by a fair margin, adding to their ease of use. And speaking of ease of use, they’re arguably the easiest of the three to use post-Mega thanks to Fuel Economy 1. But, as is always the case, it’s not all sunshine and gemstones for Hilda & Diancie. The fact that they play into the Rock Type Striker role means that they may not offer a huge return on investment for players who already have Emmet and/or Blue. They also have the annoying need for some outside help or MP Refresh luck with Attack buffs if they want to hit the coveted +6. Overall, the down-sides aren’t terrible, and Hilda & Diancie are genuinely great for the most part.

Champion Stadium: Master Mode

Diamond Storm’s AoE power combined with AoE Sync Moves when Hilda & Diancie are EXed can devastate the opposing team and make the sides downright trivial to deal with. And since their damage is in the top echelon of Rock Type attackers, the center won’t be far behind once the sides fall.

The Legendary Arena

While reliable for Rock Type damage, Hilda & Diancie aren’t outstanding here as they lack a primary offensive gimmick aside from AoE Rock Type damage. They’re probably best relegated to the position of second attacker on the majority of stages.

Extreme Battles

The ability to leverage high AoE damage can be very useful here, as the sides tend to have nasty effects that they like to spread around via Go Viral or Ripple Effect.

The Battle Villa 

Reliance on Physical attack and an inability to passively buff anything aside from Defense is a hindrance here, as it leaves Hilda & Diancie unable to take full advantage of the kindness of Professor Sycamore & Xerneas. On top of that, the need to Mega will slow things down considerably, as Sync Moves are generally used for resources early-stage. They can work here, but they’re going to be slow getting to solid numbers.

How To Use It?

These are generally the most important tiles on Hilda & Diancie’s grid:

  • Diamond Storm: Move Gauge Refresh 3 (⅖) is a staple, and it makes Diancie very light on the move gauge post-Mega.
  • Diamond Storm: Ramming Speed (⅗) provides a solid boost to Diamond Storm’s damage, though it can be a bit tricky to fully activate without some team support.
  • Towering Force (⅗) and Double Down 5 (⅗) are both extremely helpful for allowing Hilda & Diancie break through the limits of their low-BP Sync Move, though the latter is only useful on Super Effective stages.
  • The four Sync Move Power +25 (⅖ & ⅗) tiles can also be fairly helpful, though some are easier to reach than others.

Next are the tiles that are nice to have, but are either niche or not generally worth going out of the way for:

  • Fast Track 9 (⅗) is the best way to score some extra Speed, though going for it is going to cost a bit of power/utility, as we don’t really have a super-useful route to it.
  • Adrenaline 1 (⅗) is awkward to get to, but when combined with teammates that have a similar effect, it can be used to cut one full cycle off of the first Sync Move.
  • X-Attack: MP Refresh 3 (⅖) is a staple node for maxing out Diancie’s attack without team support.
  • Stone Edge: Move Gauge Refresh 3 (⅖) and Stone Edge: Critical Strike 1 (⅖) are staples for a Stone Edge build.
  • Sand Shelter (⅕) can be useful for pairing Hilda & Diancie with Emmet & Archeops in a Sand-oriented team comp, though it might be better to just accept the chip-damage and go for more useful tiles.
  • Super Syncer (⅗) can allow for a second powerful burst of damage post-Sync, which can make for two strong AoE moves in rapid succession if Hilda & Diancie are EXed. However, it’s fairly expensive and will likely cost another key node to activate. Still, this can also be useful for quickly clearing select Rock-weak stages.

Finally, these are the tiles that are probably best to ignore unless they somehow play into a bigger strategy in some way:

  • Impervious (⅖) can be useful on select stages, but the requirement to reach it makes it a very niche pick.
  • Sync Regen (⅗) is nice as it gives a bit of added value to Sync Move usage, but it generally won’t be worth the cost.
  • Shine On! MP Refresh 2 (⅕) grants little when successful, and low odds of working as well. It’s best to skip this tile.

Lucky Skills

It’s Critical Strike 2. It’s always Critical Strike 2.

Team Comps

So what exactly do Diancie & Hilda need in order to thrive? Well, a bit of Attack support is nice so that they don’t need to waste time fishing for MP refreshes, Speed support is helpful for Diamond Storm’s Ramming Speed tile, and a bit of Defense can be helpful for reaching maximum damage a bit earlier, though this is less important as Diamond Storm will eventually do the job. Hilbert & Samurott, Caitlin & Sableye, Bugsy & Scyther, Hop & Zamazenta, Kiawe & Alolan Marowak, and many other Support units can fill the main roles here perfectly. Seriously: we went from having a serious lack of Physical support units to having a glut of them; it’s not hard to fill in the gaps here.

Meanwhile, Hilda & Diancie’s low move gauge cost and high speed allow for ease of use on dual-Striker teams. They pair very well with Emmet & Archeops or Blue & Aerodactyl to add some non-prehistoric Rock Type damage to the team. Sync pairs that can break down team Defense like Kukui & Lycanroc are also great, as they can quickly soften up the enemy’s defenses in order to make way for potentially devastating AoE Diamond Storms.

Is It Worth Pulling?

Hilda & Diancie come into an existing role in the game as a Rock Type Striker unit, but they also manage to carve that role just a bit deeper than it was before. If you missed Emmet or Classic Blue, then our dear princess is indeed a very worthy investment. But if you already have one or both competing Sync Pairs, then it might be wise to consider if a second high-powered Rock Type striker is really worth a gem investment right now.

Enjoyed the article?
Consider supporting GamePress and the author of this article by joining GamePress Boost!
Join!

About the Author(s)

Long-time Gamepress fan and writer for Pokemon Go and Pokemon Masters sub-site

Comments