Ash's Heracross

**Ash's Heracross** (Japanese: **サトシのヘラクロス** *Satoshi's Heracros*) was the first Pokémon that Ash caught in the Johto region, and his fifteenth overall.

## History

### Original series

Heracross first appeared in *A Sappy Ending*. One of the Heracross followed Ash and his friends as they tried to figure out a solution to stop a territorial dispute between the Heracross and Pinsir, which, unsurprisingly, came in the form of Team Rocket. Team Rocket was stopped thanks to the Heracross and the Pinsir were able to return to their forest, leaving the Butterfree and Heracross. However, the same Heracross was still intrigued by Ash and followed him out of the forest. Eventually, Ash saw him following and the Heracross happily allowed himself to be caught.

Heracross' battle debut came in *Roll On, Pokémon!*, where he battled one of Rochelle's Donphan, easily outclassing it before the battle was interrupted. Although he lost a subsequent battle to her most experienced Donphan, Ash was satisfied that he had gained significant battle experience.

He scored a significant victory over Blade, Shingo's Scizor, in *Wired for Battle!*. He initially had trouble with his Leer attack being ineffective when Blade used Quick Attack. However, Heracross' reaction time of 0.18 gave him the advantage over Scizor's claws, and he soon learned to anticipate Blade's movements. Shingo abandoned his laptop analytics and began to order Blade's battle, where the two proved to be very powerful. However, Heracross managed to dodge Blade's Quick Attack, knocked it off balance when it attempted a False Swipe and finished Blade off with Horn Attack.

Heracross was sent to Professor Oak's lab in *Tricks of the Trade* in exchange for one of Ash's Tauros. Ash later sent Tauros back in *The Fire-ing Squad*, and left Heracross in the Professor's care so he could study Heracross' behavior further.

Heracross made an appearance in *Bulbasaur...the Ambassador!* when Bulbasaur was sent to the lab. He was happy to see Bulbasaur's bulb, drinking the nectar it contained before being smacked away. He soon after helped Bulbasaur break up a fight between the Water and Grass Pokémon.

Ash had Heracross return to his team for his Silver Conference match against rival Gary. In *The Ties That Bind*, Ash sent him out to fight Gary's Nidoqueen, but Gary quickly pulled Nidoqueen for his Magmar. Heracross fought Magmar regardless of the type disadvantage, sending Magmar flying with Fury Attack. Magmar launched a three-pronged attack - Fire Blast, a point-blank Flamethrower, and its own body weight from the fall. However, Heracross overcame the flames by beating them away with his wings. He then broke through Magmar's defense with Megahorn, taking out the Spitfire Pokémon. However, Blastoise proved to be a harder challenge, firing a Hydro Pump powerful enough to blow away Heracross' rock cover and take him out of the battle.

### Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire and Pokémon Chronicles

In *Showdown at the Oak Corral*, Heracross warned the other Pokémon about Cassidy and Butch.

In *The Right Place and the Right Mime*, Heracross met and shook hands with Grovyle during Ash's brief return to Pallet Town.

In *Ka Boom with a View!*, Ash used Heracross in the battle against Spenser. Upon being sent out, Heracross immediately went to eat the sap from Spenser's Venusaur. Heracross managed to knock aside the Razor Leaf with Horn Attack before he was knocked back by a Vine Whip. The two Pokémon rammed into each other with Tackle, both proving to be extremely powerful physically. Heracross struck hard with a Megahorn, then took advantage of the Solar Beam charge-up time to hit again. However, Solar Beam then struck Heracross, knocking him out.

### Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

In *An Old Family Blend!*, Heracross was intended to be sent to Ash. However, Cyndaquil was sent instead. He did join Ash for the Lily of the Valley Conference, where he was used for Ash's battle with Nando in *League Unleashed!*. Heracross was Ash's third and final Pokémon in the match and he was put up against Kricketune, and sent flying by Silver Wind. Kricketune then used Sing to put Heracross to sleep. However, while asleep, he was able to dodge Kricketune's Fury Cutter attack because of his newly learned Sleep Talk attack, and combined his other new technique, Focus Punch. After Heracross woke up, he defeated Kricketune with a powerful Megahorn-Horn Attack combo, just before Kricketune attempted another Sing. After the battle, Heracross showed his affection towards Ash by suckling on his head.

In *The Semi-Final Frontier!*, Heracross was the first Pokémon to battle Tobias in the semifinals of the Lily of the Valley Conference. He seemed to be an excellent choice, with a double type advantage over the Dark-type and a recently learned Hyper Beam, which collided with Darkrai's Ice Beam. He tried to attack Darkrai with Horn Attack, but was put to sleep by Dark Void. Due to Sleep Talk, he was able to hit the Mythical Pokémon with a Megahorn, only to be defeated when Darkrai used Dream Eater, which allowed Darkrai to recover some damage dealt by Heracross.

### Pokémon the Series: Black & White

Heracross was reunited with Ash in *The Dream Continues!*, where he and the rest of Ash's Pokémon posed in a group photo with him.

### Pokémon Journeys: The Series

In *Advice to Goh!*, Heracross reunited with Ash during his visit to Professor Oak's Laboratory with Goh.

Heracross, along with the rest of Ash's Pokémon at the lab, reunited with Ash in *Friends, Rivals, Lend Me Your Spirit!*. During the visit, he helped train Ash's Lucario and later watched the battle between Ash and Paul. Before Ash left, he posed with the rest of Ash's Pokémon in a group photo with him.

From *Battling as Hard as Stone!* onwards, Heracross watched Ash's Masters Eight Tournament matches against Steven, Cynthia, and Leon. In *Partners in Time!*, Heracross appeared as a vision to Pikachu during his battle against Leon's Charizard. After Ash won the battle, Heracross joined the rest of Ash's Pokémon at the lab in celebrating their Trainer's victory.

In *Heroes Unite!*, Heracross, along with the rest of the Pokémon at the lab, welcomed Ash back to Pallet Town after his victory over Leon.

In *Ride, Lapras, Ride!*, Heracross was shown to have rejoined Ash's team. During the episode, it helped in freeing a trapped Wailmer. Despite Wailmer evolving into a Wailord and getting stuck again, they were able to free the Float Whale Pokémon.

In *The Rainbow and the Pokémon Master!*, Heracross assisted Ash in looking for a missing Charmander around Oak's lab, but to no avail.

## Personality and characteristics

Heracross is an eager but easily distracted Pokémon, especially regarding sap. For example, in *Fighting Flyer with Fire*, Meowth dropped a jar of sap to allow Team Rocket to escape with Pikachu. He also likes to suck sap from plants or trees, as well as Bulbasaur's bulb whenever the two are together, annoying Bulbasaur enough to use Vine Whip to push him away. Again, this is distracting for him, as in *Chikorita's Big Upset* when he went for Bulbasaur's bulb before helping to rescue Chikorita. Heracross doesn't appear to care how much this annoys Bulbasaur.

Despite these minor flaws, he is a powerful battler, and also physically strong, capable of throwing Team Rocket's tank into the air in *A Shadow of a Drought*. Hercross's strong wings bolster his powerful horn.

## Moves used

* Ash told Heracross to use Fury Swipes in *The Ties That Bind*. This was a dubbing error. In the original, he was commanded to use Fury Attack.

## Trivia

* Out of the non-temporary Pokémon that Ash caught in Johto, Heracross is the only on to not be part of an evolutionary line.
* Heracross is the first of Ash's Pokémon to use a multi-strike move.
* Heracross is Ash's first Pokémon to have had a unique type combination.
* Heracross' only Bug- and Fighting-type moves, Megahorn and Focus Punch, respectively, are the moves with the highest base power of their types.
* Heracross is the only Pokémon in the anime to have used the moves Endure or Sleep Talk.

1. ↑ Confirmed via gender differences.